20 years ago

The Homer City Council on Monday sent a message to Fred Meyer and other large retailers and wholesalers, saying if Homer allows them to come to town it will be on the town’s own terms. Council members passed three relevant items at the nearly six-hour meeting. One temporarily limits the allowable size of new stores. Another directs the planning commission to make recommendations regarding their size. A third creates a task force to develop standards for their development.

— From the issue of Feb. 13, 2003

30 years ago

Two Homer biologists say that sea otters taken to rehabilitation centers in Kachemak Bay after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill were treated and released, only to carry with them a disease that caused a massive and lethal epidemic among other otters in Prince William Sound. Other biologists say that’s just not the case. Nonetheless, the controversy was among several aired at the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium last week in Anchorage in what is regarded as the most comprehensive airing of scientific studies of the spill’s effects since it occurred.

— From the issue of Feb. 11, 1993

50 years ago

The January 1973 issues are missing from the Homer News archives.