Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 255
JUNEAU (AP) — An Alaska Native nonprofit cultural organization has received a $2.9 million grant to start building a totem pole trail along Juneau’s downtown waterfront. The Sealaska Heritage Institute said the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will cover 10 poles, though the longer-term goal is to have 30 poles in place. “Our traditional poles historically dominated the shorelines of our ancestral homelands and told the world who we were,” said Rosita Worl, president of the institute. “It’s fitting that our totems will be one of the...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed investing $187 million in salmon recovery as part of his 2022 budget and policy proposals. The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, also would set new standards for salmon habitat protection and conservation efforts. Inslee said the legislation is the result of two years of discussions with tribes in the state. He announced his salmon proposals Dec. 14 at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community reservation’s Swadabs Park. “Our fight is simple: to be able to practice our cultu...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week outlined what he called a responsible budget proposal that doesn’t dip into savings, bolsters law enforcement and calls for direct payments of about $3,700 to residents amid an unsettled dispute with lawmakers over the future of the state’s dividend program. But the budget relies on high oil prices to help pay the bills and is heavily dependent on one-time federal pandemic aid dollars to help cover the cost of public services usually paid out of state funds, such as the Alaska Marine Highway System. The budget pla...
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Emma Broyles, of Anchorage, was crowned Miss America at an event Dec. 16, marking the competition’s 100th anniversary and the first time an Alaskan has won the award. Broyles, 20, won the centennial crown and a $100,000 college scholarship. She emerged as the winner out of 51 contestants representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia at the competition at a Connecticut casino. She is a junior honors student at Arizona State University, where she is majoring in biomedical sciences, according to a report in the...
TAUNTON RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Far away from its home in Asia, a rare Steller’s sea eagle was spotted by 200 bird watchers around Taunton River, Massachusetts on Dec. 20. The eagle is reportedly the same one that went off course a year ago and has been spotted in Alaska and Canada. Flocks of bird watchers in the Northeast said they traveled hours to the river to catch a glimpse of the eagle in what they said was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Steller’s sea eagles, native to Russia, China, Korea and Japan, have wingspans of up to 8 feet and weigh...
The board that oversees Alaska’s multibillion-dollar investment portfolio has fired Angela Rodell as chief executive officer of the Permanent Fund Corp. Legislative leaders and Finance Committee members are upset at the surprise decision and plan to hold hearings to ask questions. The fund this past fiscal year grew more than 25%, with record returns on its investments. The board on Dec. 9 voted 5-1 to remove Rodell. The five votes came from members last appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The board did not disclose a reason for the decision, whic...
JUNEAU (AP) — A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a challenge by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to a special subsistence hunt authorized for a Southeast Alaska tribe by a federal board last year. The Organized Village of Kake in spring 2020 requested an emergency hunt, citing food security concerns amid the pandemic. The Federal Subsistence Board granted a limited season of up to 60 days, and the harvest was distributed to 135 households in the village, according to filings with the court. The normal hunting season doesn’t begin...
SEATTLE (AP) - Two Washington state artists are facing federal charges that they faked Native American heritage to sell works at downtown Seattle galleries. Lewis Anthony Rath, 52, of Maple Falls, and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, 67, also known as Jerry Witten, of Seattle, have been charged separately with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Rath falsely claimed to be...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Monday he plans to propose as part of his upcoming budget that the state spend $5 million in federal dollars to support tourism marketing efforts amid the ongoing pandemic, and additional funds to prepare state parks for visitors next year. He said the hope is for a return to “robust” tourism activity after a difficult two years. Speaking in Anchorage, Dunleavy said people are “starting to learn to live with (the coronavirus) … understanding that it’s not going to go away, but there’s ways to protect onese...
TORONTO (AP) — A meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and Canadian Indigenous people who were abused at church-run boarding schools has been postponed because of the new coronavirus variant. National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations said Dec. 7 that the delegation had planned to travel to Rome and meet with the pope on Dec. 20, but the trip is being put off because of the Omicron variant. Many of the First Nation delegates are elderly. “Particularly for many elderly delegates as well as those who live in rem...
JUNEAU (AP) — State health officials are urging Alaskans to get vaccinated and to get their booster shot as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the nation. Alaska had no confirmed cases of the variant as of Tuesday, but officials want residents to be prepared. “We know a lot about COVID, we were expecting this,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer. “We continue to learn from around the world.” Zink said Alaskans should get vaccinated for COVID-19 even though data on Omicron’s ability to possibly evade vaccine immun...
JUNEAU (AP) — Most of the people whose deaths were caused by or associated with COVID-19 in Alaska between January 2020 through September 2021 had at least one underlying medical condition, the state health department reported Dec. 1. The department, in an epidemiology bulletin, said 658 deaths between Jan. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, were determined to be caused by or associated with COVID-19. Of the 551 individuals for which their past medical history was known, 529 “had at least one underlying medical condition associated with inc...
HAINES (AP) — Residents gathered in Haines to remember the two people killed by a landslide last year. The ceremony, held Saturday, honored kindergarten teacher Jenae Larson and David Simmons, who worked for the community’s economic development organization. Larson’s family is raising funds to build a school playground that will be named in her honor. Haines students are building benches in memory of both victims, whose bodies have not been recovered. Torrential rains last December prompted landslides in the community. The largest was estim...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is suing the Alaska Redistricting Board over recently drawn legislative boundaries that it says dilutes the votes of borough residents. The lawsuit was filed Dec. 2, said Stacey Stone, borough attorney. It is the first lawsuit filed against the new boundaries for state House and Senate seats. The redistricting board adopted its maps Nov. 10, triggering a 30-day period in which challenges could be filed. The board was charged with rewriting Alaska’s political boundaries following the 2020 census. Unles...
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The warming of the planet is taking a deadly toll on seabirds that are suffering population declines from starvation, inability to reproduce, heat waves and extreme weather. Climate-related losses have hit albatrosses off the Hawaiian islands, northern gannets near the British Isles and puffins off the Maine coast. Some birds are less able to build nests and raise young as sea levels rise, while others are unable to find fish to eat as the ocean heats up, researchers have...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles "Chuck" Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency. The National Park Service oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks, monuments, battlefields and other landmarks. It employs about 20,000 people in permanent, temporary and seasonal jobs, according to its website. In Alaska, the agency oversees 15 national parks, preserves, monuments and...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Dozens of West Point graduates have demanded that Rep. David Eastman, who represents Wasilla in the Alaska Legislature, resign from office over his ties to a right-wing extremist group, saying his affiliation has betrayed the values of the U.S. Military Academy that he attended. A letter signed by 69 fellow West Point graduates was published in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and called on Eastman to resign after his membership in the Oath Keepers became public, with another name added after publication. Eastman had p...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A cruise ship that carried at least 17 passengers and crew members with breakthrough COVID-19 infections when it docked in New Orleans has set sail again with new passengers. Nine crew members and eight passengers were infected when the Norwegian Breakaway arrived last Sunday, a Louisiana Department of Health spokeswoman said Monday. None of the individuals had any symptoms, and only fully vaccinated people are allowed on board, Norwegian Cruise Line said. The cruise line said all passengers who boarded the Norwegian B...
JUNEAU (AP) — A conservative Republican freshman state legislator announced plans Monday to run for governor, joining a field that includes Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, former independent Gov. Bill Walker and former Anchorage Democratic state lawmaker Les Gara. Rep. Christopher Kurka, of Wasilla, announced his plans in a video on social media in which he levied criticisms at Dunleavy. “The dirty little secret of Juneau and Washington, D.C., is that while most conservative officials talk tough about Republican ideals, very few have the int...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A man charged with threatening the lives of Alaska’s two U.S. senators has pleaded not guilty, and the judge decided that he will remain in custody. Jason Weiner, an attorney for Jay Allen Johnson, entered the plea on his client’s behalf during Johnson’s arraignment in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks on Nov. 22. Johnson at the hearing greeted U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Oravec by saying: “Good morning, Happy Thanksgiving, and I’m sorry I’m here today.” Johnson, from the small Interior community of Delta Junction, was i...
The state says it will stop paying extended unemployment benefits because the jobless rate has declined, ending a third program of enhanced or extended financial aid for Alaskans jobless during the pandemic. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced the state’s extended benefits period will end Dec. 11, Anchorage television station KTUU reported. The extension — which has been in place since May 2020 — provided Alaskans the opportunity for additional weeks of unemployment benefits, which range from $56 to $370 a week...
A federal judge on Monday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states, including Alaska, that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement. The court order said the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor. The injunction does not apply to several hospitals across A...
JUNEAU (AP) — The federal government said Nov. 18 that it’s beginning the process of repealing a Trump-era rule that permitted road building and logging in the Tongass National Forest, home to about 60,000 people and habitat for wolves, bears and salmon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that a proposed measure to repeal last year’s Forest Service rule will be published for public comment this week, beginning a 60-day process. The previous rule exempted more than 9 million acres in the Tongass from a 2001 nationwide rule that banne...
Tribes nationwide will receive an infusion of federal money from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to expand broadband coverage, fix roads and address water and sanitation needs. The measure does not allocate funds to individual tribes on a per-capita basis as did the 2020 CARES Act or 2021 American Rescue Plan. Much of the overall infrastructure funding will be distributed as competitive grants through federal agencies. Funds also will be directed to the states, with lawmakers making the decisions on which projects to undertake. The...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A coalition of 10 states, including Alaska, sued the federal government on Nov. 10 to block a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers, adding to resistance by Republican-led states against the pandemic policies of President Joe Biden’s administration. It’s the third such lawsuit Alaska has joined against vaccination rules. The latest lawsuit filed in a federal court in Missouri contends that the vaccine requirement threatens the jobs of millions of health care workers and could “exacerbate an alarming sho...
