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While Wrangell did not report a single COVID-19 infection between Sept. 10 and 21, the state tracking website reported almost 8,000 new cases over that period. Alaska’s numbers are so bad lately that the state’s average rate of daily new infections over the past week is more almost triple the national average — and higher than any other state — as reported on The New York Times COVID-19 tracking page. Alaska is facing “one of the sharpest surges” in the country, the state epidemiologist said Sept. 16, adding that it’s not clear when the situ...
A 24-year-old Illinois woman submitted a fake COVID-19 vaccination card to visit Hawaii with a glaring spelling error that led to her arrest: Moderna was spelled “Maderna,” according to court documents. In order to bypass Hawaii’s 10-day traveler quarantine, she uploaded a vaccination card to the state’s Safe Travels program and arrived in Honolulu on Aug. 23 on a Southwest Airlines flight, the documents said. “Airport screeners found suspicious errors ... such as Moderna was spelled wrong and that her home was in Illinois but her shot was...
Alaska Airlines, and its subsidiary Horizon Air, have joined the list of U.S. airlines taking steps to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate among employees. Alaska announced last week that all new employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 before being hired. The new rule took effect immediately. Unvaccinated employees already on the payroll will need to participate in a “vaccine education program,” the airline said. And unvaccinated employees will no longer be eligible for special COVID-19 pay if they test positive or need to take time off...
Canada on Monday is lifting its prohibition on Americans crossing the border to shop, vacation or visit, but the United States is keeping similar restrictions in place for Canadians, part of a bumpy return to normalcy from COVID-19 travel bans. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents must be both fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 within three days to get across one of the world’s longest and busiest land borders. Travelers also must fill out a detailed on application on the arriveCAN app before crossing. The Canada Border S...
TORONTO (AP) - Canada announced Monday it will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into the country on Aug. 9 — without a 14-day quarantine requirement and with no restrictions on the reason for traveling — and will allow travelers from the rest of the world on Sept. 7. The open border will apply only to U.S. citizens at least 14 days past their vaccination shot, according to the Canadian government announcement. Travelers will be required to upload proof of vaccination to Canada’s web portal, and will be required to show proof of a...
The Petersburg borough is offering $10,000 in prizes during June to encourage residents who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to get the shot. The Sleeves Up Petersburg drawing is sponsored by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, with money distributed through the Alaska Chamber of Commerce. It’s part of a campaign to increase the state’s vaccination rate by 25%. “That’s the drive from the start, to increase our vaccination rate and get out of this pandemic,” said Petersburg Incident Commander Karl Hagerman. “Let’s ge...
The state has paid a cash settlement to a second former employee who alleged her firing early in the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy was political, not based on merit or job performance. A former assistant public advocate for the state will receive $75,000 as part of a settlement in a case she brought against Dunleavy, a former chief of staff and the state that alleged wrongful firing. Kelly Parker agreed to drop her lawsuit as part of the agreement, signed last month, the Anchorage Daily News reported last Thursday. The agreement says...
Norwegian Cruise Line was the first operator to resume ticket sales for voyages to Alaska after Congress passed a bill that could help save the state’s annual summer pilgrimage of cruise ship visitors. Norwegian’s sailings will start the first week of August. A few hours after the House approved the measure last Thursday, following earlier passage by the Senate, Carnival Corp. joined Norwegian on the calendar. Carnival’s three largest cruise lines said they would run one ship each between Seattle and the bigger ports in Southeast Alaska start...
uld begin this week, the day after the current regular session of the Legislature is scheduled to end, if lawmakers are unable to finish work on the state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. He also called legislators back to work to consider his proposals for a much larger Permanent Fund dividend. In addition, he announced a second special session, scheduled to begin Aug. 2, that would address his proposed constitutional spending limit, a constitutional ban on any new taxes without a public referendum, and spending of federal...
The Anchorage Assembly voted last Friday to immediately revoke the city’s mask mandate. On the same day, legislative leaders voted to make mask-wearing optional at the state Capitol — and then shed their own face coverings after the vote. The decision by the Legislative Council followed new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The new legislative policy recommends weekly testing for those who are not fully vaccinated and for those with COVID-19 symptoms or who...
The Alaska House passed a version of the state operating budget Monday that would bring back the Department Fish and Game and Office of Children's Services to Wrangell, but the spending plan still needs Senate approval and the governor's signature before the two jobs could be restored. Wrangell lost its children's service caseworker several years ago to budget cuts. The commercial fisheries office closed last year. The Legislature tried last year to fund both positions, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy...
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has given cruise operators a choice for returning to work: Show that at least 98% of crew and 95% of passengers are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, or run tests voyages with volunteer passengers to assess whether it is safe to get back to business. The agency issued its final technical guidelines May 5 for the trial runs. The CDC action is a step toward resuming cruises in U.S. waters, possibly by July, for the first time since March 2020. Each practice cruise — they’ll run two to seven days — must have...
Legislators will focus the next few weeks on how to spend $1.02 billion in federal pandemic relief destined for the state treasury, with last week's opening acts of the fiscal play showing somewhat different budgetary scripts from the House majority coalition and the governor. Both proposals would direct money to construction projects, the tourism industry and repairing Alaska's damaged economy, though at differing funding levels. The House plan also would direct funds to communities worst hit by the pandemic. And while House leadership has...
The Alaska House of Representatives has passed a bill intended to prevent teacher layoffs the next two years with early appropriation of state funding to local school operating budgets. Though helpful in its intent to provide funding certainty to school districts, it does not solve the budget problems of districts, such as Wrangell, that have seen steep enrollment drops during the pandemic. State funding for local schools is based on their annual student count. In previous years, late budget action by the Legislature has forced some school...
Alaska Airlines has banned an anti-mask state senator for refusing to follow federal law and airline policy requiring face masks. "We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy," spokesman Tim Thompson said in a prepared statement Saturday, adding that the suspension was effective immediately. Reinbold, an Eagle River Republican in her ninth year as a state...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he wants to use federal pandemic relief dollars for a national advertising campaign to support Alaska's tourism industry, though he provided no details or budget for the marketing campaign in the April 9 announcement. The governor's office also said tourism businesses will soon receive relief grants from the state, with details to come this week. Legislative approval is required to appropriate state funds. Dunleavy said he has put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new operating guidance for cruise lines, with at least one company just three days later submitting its plan to possibly resume sailings in July. An industry group, however, strongly criticized the instructions. The new federal guidance does not change the reality for Alaska that Canada has not lifted or amended its ban on cruise ships. Without a change in Canada, or a temporary waiver from U.S. law requiring a stop in a Canadian port for...
Alaska state transportation officials are contemplating sinking a ferry to save money. The Department of Transportation has considered turning the Malaspina into an artificial reef. The ship is one of the two large sister ships, along with the Matanuska, that helped start the Alaska Marine Highway System almost 60 years ago. The Malaspina has been tied up in Ketchikan since December 2019, when it was taken out of service to cut the budget. The department has said it could cost $18 million for...
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,...
