Sorted by date Results 676 - 700 of 763
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — Russian adventurer Anatoly Kazakevich sailed into town on a double-hulled inflatable sailboat Monday morning, completing the last leg of an 8,000-mile journey to Sitka from the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Kazakevich and his crew, which ranged between two and six members along the route, sailed the inflatable catamaran Iskatel across the North Pacific Ocean to Homer, Alaska, last year. After wintering in southcentral waters, the Iskatel (which means “searcher’’) brought Kazakevich to Sitka this week to mark the complet...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — Alaska wildlife troopers have confiscated catch from a fishing industry lobbyist suspected of fishing in closed waters, officials said. Bob Thorstenson Jr., 55, was commercial fishing Sunday when wildlife troopers cited him for fishing within 200 yards (183 meters) of a protected salmon stream near Sitka, CoastAlaska reported Thursday. The stream acts as a buffer to protect native pink salmon that have become vulnerable near freshwater streams because of drought conditions, said Eric Coonradt, a state Department of Fish a...
PALMER, Alaska (AP) — Dale Marshall of Anchorage broke his previous state record by nearly 600 pounds when the pumpkin he entered this year tipped the scale at 2,051 pounds during the Alaska State Fair weigh-off Tuesday. “It was mind blowing,” Marshall said. “I wasn’t even thinking 2,000 pounds. I thought it would weigh between 1,700 and 1,900 pounds using the tape measure method. In pumpkin growing land around the world that is an elite club to grow 2,000. Nobody has grown a pumpkin this size this far north in the world.” Marshall said he tho...
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is ending service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, effective Oct. 1, 2019. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is requiring AMHS to secure a Canadian law enforcement presence to protect CBP’s personnel in Prince Rupert while inspection tasks are performed. All avenues for local law enforcement were pursued, but AMHS was not able to secure the staff necessary to fulfill this requirement. The new requirement specifies a Canadian law enforcement p...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Coast Guardsman is charged with murder in the January death of a 19-year-old seaman who was found unresponsive along the shore of an Alaska island, Coast Guard officials said Thursday. Ethan Tucker was charged Wednesday with seven violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Charges include murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Ethan Kelch of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The charging document says Tucker showed a wanton disregard for human life when he caused blunt force trauma to Kelch’s head and pl...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — In a story Aug. 15 about Alaska salmon hatcheries, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Alaska salmon hatcheries release 1.8 billion pink salmon fry annually. Total Alaska hatchery releases of all salmon and rainbow trout in 2018 was 1.8 billion fish, with pink salmon accounting for more than 1.05 billion....
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska authorities say two middle school students have been arrested after another student overheard their plans to carry out a school shooting, officials said. The Juneau Police Department arrested two 13-year-old students Thursday at Floyd Dryden Middle School after receiving a phone call from a parent of the classmate who overheard plans, the Juneau Empire reported Thursday. Police officers located the implicated students and held them in custody before school Thursday, authorities said. Following an investigation, t...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s governor has vetoed additional funding for the state’s ferry service that was placed in the budget by the Legislature, a report said. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed $5 million Monday that was added to the Alaska Marine Highway System budget by the Legislature, CoastAlaska reported Monday. The Legislature previously cut $43 million from the ferry system’s budget. A fiscal note attached by the governor’s office called the budget item “premature” ahead of a $250,000 study commissioned to reshape the ferry sys...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska health insurance officials have announced the state’s plan to weaken air ambulance membership plan regulations, officials said. The Alaska Division of Insurance will no longer review and pre-approve consumer membership plans, CoastAlaska reported Thursday. Health insurance does not cover the full cost of a flight, so there are three air ambulance companies that offer membership agreements, department officials said. Households pay a flat rate fee between $49 and $125, depending on the carrier, to ensure they are...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state says a second company will offer health insurance plans on Alaska’s individual marketplace next year. Division of Insurance Director Lori Wing-Heier says Moda Assurance Co. will join Premera in offering plans through the federally-facilitated marketplace. Moda was suspended briefly in 2016 from offering health insurance policies in Alaska over concerns with its financial condition. Moda left the Alaska individual marketplace beginning in 2017. Wing-Heier says an agreement between Moda and Delta Dental of Cal...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Add salmon to the list of species affected by Alaska’s blistering summer temperatures, including the hottest July on record. Dead salmon have shown up in river systems throughout Alaska, and the mortalities are probably connected to warm water or low river water levels, said Sam Rabung, director of commercial fisheries for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The department has not quantified past heat-related fish deaths because they tended to be sporadic and inconsistent, Rabung said. But department scientists thi...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska wildfire officials are reviewing their initial assessment of the cause of a weekend fire that burned at least 50 structures along the main highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The fire began Saturday in high wind and was initially attributed to a tree toppling onto a power line. The cause of the fire is now under investigation, Tim Mowry, spokesman for the Alaska Division of Forestry, said Tuesday. The fire covers 4.7 square miles (12.2 sq. kilometers). The number of people displaced by the fire and the n...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has been America’s canary in the coal mine for climate warming, and the yellow bird is swooning. July was Alaska’s warmest month ever, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sea ice melted. Bering Sea fish swam in above-normal temperatures. So did children in the coastal town of Nome. Wildfire season started early and stayed late. Thousands of walruses thronged to shore. Unusual weather events like this could become more common with climate warming, said Brian Brettschneider, an assoc...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man discovered a 50-year-old letter in a bottle from the Russian Navy on the shores of western Alaska. Tyler Ivanoff found the handwritten Russian letter early this month while gathering firewood near Shishmaref about 600 miles (966 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, television station KTUU reported. “I was just looking for firewood when I found the bottle,” Tyler Ivanoff said. “When I found the bottle, I had to use a screwdriver to get the message out.” Ivanoff shared his discovery on Facebook where Russian s...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A teenage deckhand, roused awake by water flooding his sleeping area aboard a fishing tender last summer in southwest Alaska, recalled taking a gulp of air as he cast about the vessel for an escape route as it was capsizing. The teen was rescued, as was the boat captain, but another crew member, the captain’s father, died when the Pacific Knight capsized near Dillingham on July 25, 2018. Details of the teen’s harrowing escape were recounted in a National Transportation Safety Board report on the incident released Thurs...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska group has filed an application with the state for a ballot initiative asking voters to increase taxes on the oil industry, a report said. The proposed Fair Share Act would alter the state’s 2014 oil-production tax, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. The measure could bring in about $1 billion in additional production taxes, the group said. “Alaskans should receive their fair share from the sale of our oil,” said initiative committee member Robin Brena. The application submitted Friday comes as Republi...
The Diocese of Juneau released the results of an Independent Commission’s review of sexual misconduct allegations made since the diocese was established in 1951. The commission’s report identifies seven clergymen alleged to have engaged with sexual misconduct involving minors and vulnerable adults. Named in the report: Francis A. Cowgill (died in 2000), Javier Gutierrez (dismissed from the clerical state in 2018), Patrick Hurley, Michael Nash (died in 2019), Edmund Penisten, Frederick Raehsler and Henry Leo Sweeney (died in 1959). In a letter t...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Biological oceanographer Sonia Batten experienced her lightbulb moment on the perils of too many salmon three years ago as she prepared a talk on the most important North Pacific seafood you'll never see on a plate - zooplankton. Zooplanktons nourish everything from juvenile salmon to seabirds to giant whales. But as Batten examined 15 years of data collected by instruments on container ships near the Aleutian Islands, she noticed a trend: zooplankton was abundant in...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Leaders of two Alaska groups fighting for a full Permanent Fund Dividend are arguing Gov. Mike Dunleavy should not veto the Legislature’s dividend payment, a report said. The Permanent Fund Defenders are asking the Republican governor to view a PFD — or oil wealth check — of roughly $1,600 as a “down payment,” The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. Mark Fish, director of a newer group called Save the PFD, said Monday he believes it is time for the governor to go with the current dividend and resume the fight for a...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s governor is seeking to tighten the rules for food stamp recipients. The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration wants to implement federal work requirements for low-income adults who receive food assistance. The change would affect recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in a state that has long had a waiver from work or employment program requirements. The Republican governor’s spokesman says the administration wants the change in order “to com...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he will not veto funding for Head Start and other early childhood learning programs from the budget recently sent to him by lawmakers. Dunleavy in June vetoed about $8.8 million for early childhood programs, including about $6.8 million for Head Start. Lawmakers, unable to override those and other vetoes, instead passed legislation restoring much of the vetoed funds. Dunleavy’s office has said he considers much of the budget settled but is willing to look at allowing funding to go forward for cer...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — The newly appointed director of Kodiak College has resigned due to budget cuts to Alaska’s public universities, officials said. Jessica Paugh informed the college pn July 31 that she would not fill the post because of the state funding reduction, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. Paugh was selected in May after a months-long search and was scheduled to begin her appointment Aug. 12 at the college, which is an extension of the University of Alaska Anchorage. “I have spent days agonizing over this decision and,...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has reached a settlement with the operator of a gold mine near Juneau over alleged discharge and reporting violations. Coeur Mining, which controls the Kensington Mine through Coeur Alaska, in a statement Tuesday said it had been cooperative in working with the EPA to resolve citations it characterized as related to “mostly old and technical compliance matters” and contended the EPA had painted the mine in an “inaccurate light.” Terms of the agreements call for Coeur Ala...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A tentative agreement has been reached between ferry workers and the state of Alaska that could end a week-old strike that left some passengers and vehicles stranded. Robb Arnold, a spokesman for the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, tells the Anchorage Daily News that an agreement was reached Thursday night in its employment contract negotiations with the state. Arnold would not disclose terms of the agreement which still needs to be approved by union members. Neither Arnold nor state officials immediately ret... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The special Alaska legislative session that began cloaked in drama is ending quietly. Tuesday marks the 30-day session limit. No floor sessions were planned to mark the official end, which comes more than a week after lawmakers finished their work on issues Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked them to consider. The Legislature approved restoring much of the operating budget money Dunleavy vetoed. The level of support needed for that was far less than what was needed to override the vetoes, which lawmakers failed to do amid a d... Full story
