It is my opinion that Senator Begich voted correctly when he voted against increased background checks for firearms. More regulations would have done nothing to stop the recent “nut jobs” and their killing sprees. They obtained their weapons illegally and then went on to commit more crimes by killing people. More laws wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I believe both of our senators voted against the firearm background legislation because they were listening to the wrong constituency — the very vocal fringe element of our society. I also believe, that like the rest of America, the vast majority of Alaskans are in favor of not only background checks for everyone buying a weapon, but also a ban on weapons of war (assault weapons) and a limit on the size of ammunition clips. Unfortunately, they don’t make their opinions known to our elected officials.

The Kasilof Public Library would like to acknowledge the many years of service by Audrey Louise Hann of Kasilof, who recently passed away. Over the years Louise filled many positions at the library, including librarian, board member and treasurer. On behalf of the Kasilof Public Library board we would like to extend our condolences to her family. The library would be a far different place without her contributions and involvement. She will be dearly missed.

On behalf of the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, I would like to personally thank all our volunteers for their contributions throughout the year. In the last year, the Food Bank was blessed to have over 500 individual volunteers give more than 9,000 hours of their time to help feed the hungry in our community!