A new advisory board intended to improve community and public transportation, especially for those with special needs, was created Thursday after Gov. Sean Parnell signed into law a bill sponsored by Rep. Cathy Muñoz, R-Juneau.

The bill was one of five bills inspired by local residents that Parnell signed Thursday.

“These bills are based on ideas that constituents brought me,” Muñoz said of her three bills.

The new board will have 13 members and was supported by the Governor’s Council on Disabilities, the Alaska Commission on Aging and other groups.

The University of Alaska Southeast has been on a roll lately, adding new programs, and setting records in enrollment and degrees granted.

Now, it is even looking more like a traditional university, and a bit less like, in the words of a former university president, a strip mall.

A new traffic turnaround will block the Auke Lake Way route into campus from Glacier Highway, completing the switch to a more walkable campus, said Keith Gerken, the school’s facilities manager.

“We’re going to evolve over time, but the front door is now to the north, from Loop Road,” he said.

A divided Alaska Supreme Court has reversed course and approved the Alaska Redistricting Board’s attempt to create an election district in Southeast that with have a strong Native presence.

The practical effect of that is to group several heavily Native communities together, and put Republican incumbents Rep. Cathy Muñoz, R-Juneau, and Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, in different districts.

If new Labor Commissioner Dianne Blumer appears before Sen. Dennis Egan’s Labor and Commerce committee this year, she will be appearing before a Senate that earlier found her in contempt for ignoring legislative subpoenas.

Blumer, known as Dianne Kiesel before a marriage last year, was a figure in the Troopergate scandal of 2008. Then-Gov. Sarah Palin was found to have abused her power by targeting her estranged former brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten.