Musician Zac Brown loses bid to limit access to Alaska home

KENAI, ALASKA >> Country musician Zac Brown has lost a bid to limit public access to his property in Alaska.

Brown had asked the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission to remove easements allowing the access along his property in hills above Homer, a small city on Kachemak Bay on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, KSRM-AM reported Tuesday.

“I’m not interested in the public coming up to my home, people snooping, walking up to my windows,” Brown told the commission. “I’ve had to sell property for this reason.”

Brown’s property is at the end of a secluded road. In addition to the lot where he built his house, Brown purchased other lots to “protect the privacy of his family,” according to the petition.

“We are outside the city limits and there is a really steep grade there, over 53% grade, and we’re asking to vacate that section of the section line just within my property there,” Brown said.

Homer resident John Fowler owns property near Brown and is heading an effort to build a trail along the easement. He and others involved in the project have sought to maintain the easements to retain public access.

The commission voted 5-4 against Brown’s request Monday following more than two hours of public testimony.

Jury selected in NC defamation lawsuit against author Sparks

RALEIGH, N.C. >> A jury is ready to start hearing evidence in a federal lawsuit accusing novelist Nicholas Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school.

The author of “Message in a Bottle” and “The Notebook” is expected to be the first witness.

Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of telling Epiphany School parents, a job recruiter and others that Benjamin suffered from mental