Sorted by date Results 251 - 266 of 266
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Some Alaska Costco shoppers said they've had their groceries stolen by ravens in the store parking lot. Matt Lewallen said he was packing his groceries into his car in the parking lot of an Anchorage Costco when ravens swooped in to steal a short rib from his cart, the Anchorage Daily News reported March 26. "I literally took 10 steps away and turned around, two ravens came down and instantly grabbed one out of the package, ripped it off and flew off with it," Lewallen said....
Though Eagle River Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold made peace with legislative leadership and wore a face mask for the Senate floor session on Monday, Wasilla Republican Rep. Christopher Kurka removed his mask during the House floor session and was asked to leave the room. "Let's end this charade," Kurka said. "COVID-19 is here to stay. No measures we take are going to stop it, no matter how repressive a course, or unconstitutional." The freshman legislator expressed doubt that the federal Centers...
Alaska officials and authorities in British Columbia announced they have completed and will not continue data collection on three transboundary watersheds, including the Stikine River, despite concerns from fishing and tribal interests that the effort does not go far enough. The work stemmed from concerns about possible damage that mining activity in Canada could inflict on waters that cross into Alaska. A 22-page final report released Feb. 25 culminated two years of data collected from water, sediment and fish tissue from the three waterways:...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Anchorage will lift its coronavirus-related capacity restrictions on many businesses and will ease limits on other places where people gather under a new emergency order set to take effect March 8. City officials announced the changes March 4, saying retailers, bars, restaurants and other businesses will have their capacity restrictions eliminated. Requirements for wearing masks and maintaining distance will remain in effect. Businesses must operate in ways that allow consumers to stay six feet apart from people outside of...
The federal government has approved Alaska’s plan to distribute almost $50 million in pandemic relief payments to the state’s fishing industry. The decision came after two major revisions to the plan and more than 200 public comments from every industry sector. Applications will be accepted from March until May and payments could begin as early as June, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 26. They money is coming from the federal CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion package of pandemic relief aid, which Congress passed almost a year ago. The s...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said his administration will no longer respond to or participate in hearings led by Sen. Lora Reinbold, telling the fellow Republican in a withering letter Feb. 18 that she has used her position to “misrepresent” the state’s COVID-19 response and that her demands for information are “not based in fact.” Reinbold has criticized the governor’s pandemic disaster declarations and taken aim at health restrictions imposed by local governments, airlines and the Legislature, including mask requirements. She has used social medi...
JUNEAU - A state corporation is seeking almost $4.5 billion in federal funding to help build a $5.9 billion pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to Fairbanks. The project is being promoted as the first phase of the state-sponsored $38 billion project to move North Slope gas more than 800 miles to Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, where the gas would be supercooled into a liquid and loaded aboard 1,000-foot-long tankers to buyers in Asia. The larger project to transport and sell North Slope natural gas overseas has been around for decades,...
VANCOUVER, BC (AP) - Public condemnation has grown over a wealthy Vancouver couple who allegedly flew to a remote Indigenous community in Canada’s Yukon Territory to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. Marc Miller, Canada’s federal Indigenous services minister, said he was “disgusted” by the purported actions of Rodney Baker and his wife, Ekaterina, who have been issued tickets under Yukon’s Emergency Measures Act and face fines of up to $1,000 Canadian (US$783) plus fees. Baker resigned on Jan. 24 as Great Canadian Gaming Corp.’s president a...
The coronavirus pandemic has taken away about a third of the nation’s commercial fishing industry’s revenue, according to a federal report released Jan. 15. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said revenues from catch brought to the docks by commercial fishermen fell 29% over the course of the first seven months of 2020. Revenues declined every month from March to July, including a 45% decrease in July, the report said. The NOAA report said the seafood industry at large has been hit hard by restaurant closures, soc...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Senate has approved a spending proposal that would cut education funding, reject pay raises for public employees and otherwise make deeper agency cuts than the House. The vote Friday evening was 16-4 and followed hours of debate. Notice of reconsideration was given, meaning the bill can be voted on again before heading back to the House. If the House does not agree with the Senate version an expected outcome the budget will go to a conference committee, where House and Senate negotiators will work to hash out d...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ U.S. Sen. Mark Begich has come out against the proposed Pebble Mine, calling the massive gold-and-copper project “the wrong mine in the wrong place for Alaska.’’ In a statement released by his office Monday, Begich said he has long supported Alaska’s mining industry and believes continued efforts must be made to support resource-development industries that help keep Alaska’s economy strong. But he said “years of scientific study (have) proven the proposed Pebble Mine cannot be developed safely in the Bristol Bay watersh...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska’s largest telecommunications company plans to provide Internet speeds in Anchorage that are so fast residential customers will be able to download a high-definition movie in 18 seconds, instead of the 30-minute U.S. average, the company’s top official said Thursday. “It doesn’t even leave you time to make popcorn,” General Communication Inc. President and CEO Ron Duncan said at a news conference where he announced the venture. Duncan said the investment is expected to total well over $100 million. The upcoming...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — School officials in Petersburg want clarification on a decades-old law their attorney reads as leaving districts responsible for the cost of school entrance physicals, an interpretation that could have financial implications for school districts statewide. The issue was raised by parents, prompting Petersburg school officials to seek an attorney’s opinion. “He said, Yep, they’re right,’’ superintendent Robert Thomason said. School officials believe they must follow the law but they also contend the law needs to be updat...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ A broker established to help sign Alaskans up for health insurance under the federal health care law is suspending enrollments until problems with the online marketplace are fixed. Enroll Alaska’s chief operating officer, Tyann Boling, said Monday that the subsidy calculations for Alaskans are not correct and the concerns have been sent to the regional U.S. Health and Human Services director. Boling did not know when the issue would be resolved. “But as a company that provides a service to Alaskans, I’m not going to have...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service plans to take a portion of the timber payments it has promised or paid out to 22 states, citing federal budget cuts. Collection letters from Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell went out to governors around the country Monday, saying money would be taken from funds used for habitat improvement and other national forest-related projects that put people to work under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Oregon stands to lose the most in the move, with nearly $4 million in...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Like so many visitors to Alaska, Phyllis McNamara was eager for a seven-day cruise along a majestic stretch of coast that is teeming with whales, bears and glaciers. But the Indianapolis woman and her friends were among hundreds of tourists who had their vacation plans scuttled when a mechanical problem aboard the 965-foot Millennium forced the cruise operator to cancel six Alaska sailings. “This is becoming just a nightmare,” said McNamara, 68, who went ahead with a planned land excursion in place of the cruise. Cyn...