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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials are extending the requirement for masks on planes and public transportation for one more month — through mid-April — while taking steps that could lead to lifting the rule. The mask mandate was scheduled to expire March 18, but the Transportation Security Administration said last Thursday that it will extend the requirement through April 18. TSA said the extra month will give the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention time to develop new, more targeted policies that will consider the number of cases...
JUNEAU (AP) — The state has issued a corrected birth certificate for the teenage designer of the Alaska flag, after researchers who were looking into his heritage found records indicating he was born more than a year earlier than previously believed. The change means John Ben Benson Jr. — believed to be the only Indigenous person to design a state flag — did so when he was 14, not 13. Alaska Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman last week ordered the state to issue a birth certificate for Benson with the birth date of Sept. 12, 1912, and for his m...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Don Young, a blunt-speaking Republican and longest-serving member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, has died. He was 88. His office announced Young's death in a statement Friday night. “It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young, the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. His beloved wife Anne was by his side," said the statement from his spokesperson, Zach Brown. Young lost co...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska man walking on a shoreline wound up clinging to a chunk of ice for more than 30 minutes in frigid water when the shoreline ice broke loose and carried him out into Cook Inlet. Jamie Snedden, 45, of Homer, was rescued Feb. 26 near the community of Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia. He was expected to fully recover, state troopers said. Snedden “was reported to have been walking along the shoreline on the ice when it broke free and drifted into Coo...
JUNEAU (AP) — Individuals will be allowed to make unlimited contributions to candidates for governor and the Legislature this year under a decision by the state commission that oversees Alaska campaign finance rules. The Alaska Public Offices Commission on March 3, failed to support a staff proposal to set revised limits in place of tighter caps that were struck down by a federal appeals court panel last year. The court invalidated Alaska’s $500-a-year individual donation limit to candidates, saying it was too low. The court, however, did not...
JUNEAU (AP) — A proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to split in half the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services — the state’s largest department — appears likely to take effect later this year. House and Senate leaders said it does not appear there are enough votes to block the move. Reorganization of the department, with more than 3,200 positions, has been billed as a way to improve operations and delivery of services. The proposal came through an executive order from the governor, and rejection of the order would req...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Interior Department has asked a federal court to let the agency suspend its right-of-way decision for a controversial, state-promoted mining road in Northwest Alaska. The department is conducting a further review of its original decision issued under the Trump administration. The agency signed the right-of-way permit in the final days before President Joe Biden took office. Federal officials filed the request Feb. 22 with the U.S. District Court for Alaska, seeking to fix what it called “significant deficiencies” in the o...
TOK (AP) — A new border station estimated to cost $187 million will be built on Alaska’s eastern boundary with Canada, the U.S. government announced last Friday. The Alaska Highway border crossing is about 50 miles east of Northway Junction, the closest community in Alaska. The funding for design and construction of the ALCAN Border Station will come from the federal infrastructure law, the U.S. General Services Administration said in a statement. The agency said the current border station, built in 1971, is the most isolated port of entry bet...
JUNEAU (AP) — A Sitka lawmaker broke two bones in his right leg after crashing his paraglider in Anchorage on Feb. 19. Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins returned to Juneau on Feb. 23. He had been recuperating in Anchorage following surgery and attending committee meetings remotely. He will be on crutches for about six weeks. Anchorage Rep. Laddie Shaw was out paragliding with Kreiss-Tomkins when the accident occurred at Flattop Mountain. “We just got together and went for a little hike on Flattop Mountain,” said Shaw, a former Navy SEAL who regul...
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Three states, including Alaska, that would be affected by a proposed 6-cent-per-gallon tax on fuel exported from Washington state are pushing back on the plan, and threatening to retaliate if it is signed into law. Most of Alaska’s North Slope crude oil production is tankered to West Coast refineries, including several in Washington state, which ship refined products back to Alaska. The tax — part of a $16.8 billion transportation revenue package that has cleared the state Senate and is working its way through the House...
JUNEAU (AP) — Legislative leaders are pursuing the idea of converting a building across the street from the Capitol into 33 apartments that could be used for lawmakers and staff during sessions in Juneau. The Juneau Community Foundation last year donated the building to the Legislature. The three-story building currently is used for private offices and for COVID-19 testing for lawmakers and staff. Tenants have been told their leases will not be renewed. Estimates prepared for the Legislative Council, a panel of House and Senate leaders, s...
WASHINGTON (AP) - America's national bird is more beleaguered than previously believed, with nearly half of bald eagles tested across the Lower 48 states showing signs of chronic lead exposure, according to a study published Feb. 17. While the bald eagle population has rebounded from the brink of extinction since the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT in 1972, harmful levels of toxic lead were found in the bones of 46% of bald eagles sampled in 38 states from California to Florida, researchers...
NEW YORK (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lost her libel lawsuit against The New York Times on Feb. 15 when a jury rejected her claim that the newspaper maliciously damaged her reputation by erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting. A judge had already declared that if the jury sided with Palin, he would set aside its verdict on the grounds that she hadn't proven the paper acted maliciously, something required in libel suits involving public figures. "Of course we're...
ORONO, Maine (AP)- Salmon counters found fewer of the endangered fish in Maine’s Penobscot River last year than in any year since 2016. Atlantic salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., as the country’s only remaining wild populations of the fish are found in a few Maine rivers. The Penobscot is vitally important to the future of the fish, and salmon returns there are watched closely. Only 561 salmon were counted in the Penobscot last year. That was the lowest number since 2016, when 503 fish were found, the Bangor Dai...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A provision of a U.S. Senate bill would expand tribal court jurisdiction for up to 30 Alaska tribes as part of a pilot program aimed at addressing high rates of domestic or sexual violence. Tribes that choose to participate in the pilot program — and are selected — would be able to try and sentence anyone who commits domestic violence, rape or related crimes in their villages, even if the offender is non-Native. The provision added by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is part of a bipartisan measure that would renew the 1994 Violence...
JUNEAU (AP) — An Anchorage Assembly member on Feb. 17 announced plans to run as a Democrat for the U.S. House seat for Alaska that has been held by Republican Don Young since 1973. Christopher Constant made the announcement on social media. Under a voter-approved elections system that will be used for the first time in Alaska this year, the top four vote-getters in the August primary, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November general election, where ranked-choice voting will be used to count ballots until a candidate a...
JUNEAU (AP) — A gemstone, billed as one of the largest gem-quality opals in existence, was sold for $143,750 at auction in Alaska on Sunday. The opal, dubbed the “Americus Australis,” weighs more than five pounds, according to the Anchorage auction house Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals. It also has a long history. Most recently, it was kept in a linen closet in a home in Big Lake, north of Anchorage, by Fred von Brandt, who mines for gold in Alaska and whose family has deep roots in the gem and rock business. The opal is larger than a bri...
JUNEAU (AP) — Democrat Les Gara announced Feb. 14 that a teacher will be his running mate in his bid for Alaska governor this year. Gara said Jessica Cook, of Palmer, will run for lieutenant governor as part of a ticket with him. Cook teaches at an Eagle River middle school. Cook, speaking alongside Gara at an event in Anchorage, said she and Gara “care about Alaska’s kids and we believe that everyone deserves a chance to be successful regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of wealth or poverty.” Cook, born in Anchorage, is a pare...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The hotel that has served for nearly three decades as the Anchorage-based headquarters for the world’s most famous sled dog race will end its association with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race next year. The Lakefront Anchorage Hotel will still be race headquarters for this year’s race and then step away, hotel manager John Bruce and Iditarod Trail Committee Chief Operations Officer Chas St. George told the Anchorage Daily News. The hotel’s owners, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, announced the change in a statement Feb. 9, a da...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District said it is investigating allegations of racist behavior during a high school basketball game, where some students dressed in Western attire, such as cowboy hats, as their boys basketball team played at home against Metlakatla. Latonya Galles, whose son plays for the Metlakatla Chiefs, told Anchorage television station KTUU the way fans of the Ketchikan High School Kings were dressed was inappropriate. “It was just really, really bad, and racism was definitely present,” said Galle...
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge said Monday he will dismiss a libel lawsuit that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed against The New York Times, claiming the newspaper damaged her reputation with a 2017 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff made the ruling with the jury still deliberating in the New York City trial where the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate testified last week. The judge said Palin had failed to show that The Times had acted out of malice, something r...
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the Safe Travels Hawai’i program will remain unchanged at this time and booster shots will not be needed to satisfy the up-to-date vaccination status required for individuals traveling to the state. The Safe Travels Program will still require travelers to show proof of their vaccination status so they may avoid testing or bypass quarantine requirements when they arrive in Hawaii. “In making this decision, we considered declining COVID-19 case counts in Hawaii, the continental U.S. and Europe,“ Ige sai...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski ended the year with almost seven times the cash on hand as her chief Republican rival, Kelly Tshibaka, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Murkowski, who made official in November plans to seek reelection, reported bringing in nearly $1.4 million during the last quarter of the year and ending 2021 with about $4.3 million available. Tshibaka, who announced her plans to run last March, reported bringing in nearly $602,000 in the past quarter and ending the year with about $634,000 on h...
JUNEAU (AP) — A Democratic state legislator has announced her bid for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Lisa Murkowski. State Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, a former Anchorage assembly member in her first term in the state Legislature, filed candidacy papers with the Alaska Division of Elections in Juneau on Feb. 10. Gray-Jackson is the first Democrat to join a field of contenders that also includes Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who is supported by former President Donald Trump. Murkowski is seeking reelection. She has held the office sin...
WILLIAMS LAKE, British Columbia (AP) — A First Nation in Canada says a preliminary geophysical investigation has identified 93 possible burial sites around the site of a church-run boarding school. Chief Willie Sellars of the Williams Lake First Nation said Jan. 25 that excavation would be needed to confirm the presence of human remains and much more work is needed to make final determinations. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools as an e...