Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 252
PHOENIX (AP) - The Indian Health Service announced last Thursday that all tribal members covered by the federal agency will be offered a vaccine at every appointment when appropriate, under a new vaccine strategy. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, American Indians and Alaska Natives have had some of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates across the country. But Indigenous people are especially vulnerable to vaccine-preventable illness, and IHS officials recently noticed fewer patients have be...
The U.S. Department of Justice dispatched officials to 64 election jurisdictions in 24 states to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws in last week’s midterm elections — including Sitka, Bethel, Dillingham and the Kusilvak Census Area in Western Alaska. The election monitors included lawyers from the Justice Department civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices across the nation. Federal authorities said such monitoring is a regular occurrence around election day, but this year especially civil rights groups and others have...
SEATTLE (AP) — Big ships entering and leaving Puget Sound will be asked to slow down to reduce underwater noise this fall in an effort to help the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered orca whales. Washington state is importing the voluntary slowdown from British Columbia for container ships, tankers, freighters, cruise ships and car carriers coming from the Canadian province, Northwest News Network reported. The optional slowdown started Oct. 24 and is scheduled to run to Dec. 22 and covers the shipping lanes from Admiralty Inlet by P...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican candidate for governor, Charlie Pierce, faces a lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed a former assistant while he was mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The lawsuit filed in state Superior Court on Friday accuses Pierce of “constant unwanted physical touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Daily News reported. The borough already has paid two other former employees a combined $267,000 in settlements for separate complaints against Pierce. “When an elected official abuses their power a...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has indicated that he will vote in favor of calling a convention to consider amending the state constitution. Candidates for governor at an Alaska Resource Development Council forum on Oct. 11 were asked during if they would be voting for a constitutional convention in next month's general election. Candidates responded by raising “yes” or “no” signs. Dunleavy and Republican Charlie Pierce raised “yes” signs. Former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, and Les Gara, a Democrat, raised “no” signs. A...
SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and for the first time have also scrapped the winter harvest of smaller snow crab. The move is a double whammy to a fleet from Alaska, Washington and Oregon chasing Bering Sea crab in harvests that in 2016 grossed $280 million, The Seattle Times reported. The closures reflect conservation concerns about both crab species following bleak summer populations surveys. The decisions to shut down the snow crab and fall king crab harvests came after days of d...
JUNEAU (AP) — Ben Stevens, a former Alaska Senate president and son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, has died. He was 63. The state troopers said they responded to a report last Thursday evening of a hiker — later identified as Stevens — having a medical emergency on the Lost Lake Trail near Seward. The troopers’ statement said a medical service team reached the scene around 6:40 p.m. and that lifesaving measures were unsuccessful. A Republican women’s group posted on Facebook that Stevens died of a heart attack after collapsing on the trail...
JUNEAU (AP) — Acting state Revenue Commissioner Deven Mitchell has been chosen as the new chief executive of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. The announcement was made Oct. 3. The corporation said in a statement that the selection “is contingent on the successful negotiation of a salary and benefits package” and that a start date has not yet been set. Mitchell has called Alaska’s nest-egg oil wealth fund the state’s “trump card” as a renewable source of revenue, the Anchorage Daily News reported. His message to the board was that he would not...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is extending until Dec. 2 the timeline to decide whether to proceed with proposed restrictions that would block plans for the controversial Pebble copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region. The agency, in a recent notice, said this would “help ensure full consideration of the extensive administrative record, including all public comments.” The public comment period ended Sept. 6. The EPA earlier this year released a proposal that it said would bar discharges of dred...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A former Alaska attorney general has been indicted by a state grand jury on three felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, a special prosecutor announced Sept. 21. The allegations against Clyde “Ed” Sniffen involve an Anchorage West High School student while Sniffen was in a position of authority in 1991, according to a statement released by the attorney general’s office on behalf of Gregg Olson, the special prosecutor. Sniffen was arraigned Monday. Olson in May filed the charges against Sniffen, 58, and the grand jury returne...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska state corporation is the only remaining oil-and-gas leaseholder in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after a second private company gave up its lease in the controversial area. Other than the state putting down millions of dollars in hopes that drillers might someday want to look for oil in ANWR, only two private companies submitted winnings bids in the 2021 lease, and now both have given up on the prospects and returned their leases. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Knik Arm Services, a small real estate a...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Two oil and gas companies have announced plans to invest $2.6 billion into developing a major oil field on Alaska’s North Slope. Australia-based Santos and Spain-based Repsol made the announcement, which was lauded by Alaska political leaders as positive news for state revenues and jobs. Santos, which has a 51% stake in the Pikka project, said Aug. 16 that its investment will be $1.3 billion. Santos last year acquired Oil Search of Papua New Guinea, which had been working for several years to advance the project. Santos, in...
JUNEAU (AP) — The state plans to begin distributing this year’s oil-wealth dividend and a special energy relief payment to residents on Sept. 20. The timeline was announced last Friday by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state Department of Revenue. The combined payout for the Permanent Fund dividend and energy relief payment is estimated at around $3,200 per person; a final figure is pending. Residents will receive the money as one payment, the department said. The energy relief payment was approved by lawmakers as a one-time benefit this year to...
SITKA (AP) - The family had given up hope of finding their blind, elderly golden retriever who wandered away from their Sitka home three weeks ago, but a construction crew found Lulu in salmonberry bushes after initially confusing her for a bear. Lulu was barely alive after being found July 5, but she is being nursed back to health and is back home with her family, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. "She means everything," owner Ted Kubacki said. "I have five daughters and they're 4 to 13 years...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Southern Resident killer whales of the U.S. and Canadian West Coast have not had enough food for several years, which could affect their already small numbers, according to a study by the University of British Columbia. Researchers looked at requirements and availability of prey for Northeastern Pacific Southern Resident killer whales. The study found a fluctuating level of salmon from spawning areas on rivers had a detrimental effect on killer whale health, threatening a small and fragile group of whales, the B...
Former President Donald Trump plans to attend a campaign rally in Anchorage this week for candidates he has endorsed in the state, including former governor Sarah Palin who is running for U.S. House. The five-hour event is scheduled for Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. According to preliminary details released by the former president’s office, the event will begin at 11 a.m. with entertainment. A series of speakers will begin at 1 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m., when Trump is scheduled to d...
SEATTLE (AP) — A union has reached a deal with Alaska Airlines for a two-year contract extension that provides substantial raises for 5,300 gate agents, stores personnel and office staff, as well as for ramp workers who load cargo. The Seattle Times reports the deal announced June 22 does not cover a separate group of about 2,000 ramp workers, also represented by the International Association of Machinists, who work for the McGee Air Services subsidiary and handle baggage on passenger flights. Richard Johnsen, the machinists union general v...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Division of Elections has determined that Wasilla Republican state Rep. David Eastman is eligible to run for reelection. Eastman’s candidacy faced challenges over his affiliation with the far-right Oath Keepers group. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai in a written response to the complaints said a “preponderance of evidence supports his eligibility.” The division on June 22 in response to a records request from The Associated Press provided copies of complaints that were filed challenging the eligibi...
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state jury on June 22 awarded the Lummi Indian tribe $595,000 over the 2017 collapse of a net pen where Atlantic salmon were being raised — an event that elicited fears of damage to wild salmon runs and prompted the Legislature to ban the farming of the nonnative fish. About 250,000 Atlantic salmon escaped into the Salish Sea when the net pen owned by Cooke Aquaculture — an anchored, floating enclosure off Cypress Island, about 15 miles southeast of Bellingham — collapsed. The northwest Washington tribe quickly...
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski last Thursday described as responsible and “targeted” a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing the nation’s increasing gun violence. She said the measure represents compromise. “No, I don’t think that you just say, ‘Alright, we pass this and everything is solved,’” she said in a video conference with reporters. The bill represents what a group of lawmakers could “come together with and say, ‘This is a step in the right direction.’” She said she believes more can be done to provide mental health services in this country....
A dozen children and two adults were served floor sealant instead of milk at a day care summer program at a Juneau elementary school last week after workers poured from the wrong container. Several students complained of burning sensations in their mouth and throats, and at least one child was treated at a hospital after the incident on the morning of June 14, Juneau Schools Superintendent Bridget Weiss said. Juneau police are leading the investigation of how the mix-up occurred, “not really because we believe there’s anything criminal or mal...
One of Alaska’s largest private COVID-19 testing providers plans to close its public testing sites in the state by the end of June. The decision by the private company will not affect SEARHC’s continuation of testing services in Wrangell. The decision by Capstone Clinic is mainly driven by financial considerations, said Matt Jones, Capstone’s director of non-clinical operations. Jones said it began with an abrupt move by the federal government earlier this year to no longer cover the costs of COVID-19 tests or treatments for those without healt...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Challenges have been filed to keep Wasilla Republican state Rep. David Eastman’s name off the ballot in his reelection bid, arguing that his affiliation with the far-right Oath Keepers disqualifies him under the state constitution. Several people said they filed complaints related to a section of the constitution that prevents from holding public office anyone who “advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the Unite...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska House Majority Leader Chris Tuck said he will not seek reelection this year, citing a redistricting map that put him in House and Senate districts where he would have had to run against friends and fellow Democratic lawmakers. Tuck joins Senate President Peter Micciche, a Soldotna Republican, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, an Anchorage Democrat, in deciding not to seek reelection. Tuck had filed to run for an Anchorage House seat for which Rep. Andy Josephson also filed. Tuck withdrew on June 8. If Tuck had run f...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly has overwhelmingly reversed the mayor’s veto of grant funding to a group that provides support to the LGBTQ+ community. The assembly voted 6-1 on June 6 to override Mayor Rodney Dial’s veto of $1,638 in grant funding to the Ketchikan Pride Alliance, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. Dial defended his veto during a presentation in attempts to persuade the assembly to let the veto stand. He said the group was an advocacy organization promoting activism. Assembly Member Judith McQue...
