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JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that the board tasked with redrawing the state’s legislative district boundaries “again engaged in unconstitutional political gerrymandering” and ordered the use of a new map for this year’s elections. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews in his ruling last week said it appeared that the majority of the Alaska Redistricting Board’s members had adopted a map splitting the Eagle River area into two state Senate districts for “political reasons.” Opponents of the board map sa...
JUNEAU (AP) — A special prosecutor has filed charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree against former Alaska Attorney General Clyde “Ed” Sniffen. Third-degree sexual abuse of a minor is a felony punishable by two to 12 years in prison. The charges are related to Sniffen’s alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 1991, when she was a high school student and he was the coach of her school’s mock trial team. Sniffen was 27 at the time. Sniffen was a longtime attorney with the department who was appointed attorney...
Ketchikan saw an upswing in reported COVID-19 cases in May, with 341 infections recorded during the past 30 days as of May 25. In addition, the number of active cases involving the Ketchikan Pioneer Home stood at 21 on May 25. The cases involved 18 residents and three staff members at the facility, according to state Health Department spokesperson Clinton Bennett. The home is at “red-alert” status, indicating that at least one resident has tested positive in a ”neighborhood” or a floor. All of its floors had been affected by COVID, accordi...
Juneau has a new housing rental crisis. The community invited 5,000 people to come for an Ironman race. With only around 1,000 hotel rooms, the city proposed a creative solution: Encouraging Juneau residents to go on vacation and rent their homes to athletes for a week. The race is Aug. 7. One athlete, Michael Bissell, of Alabama, said he was late to the game when looking for a place to stay, but he got something arranged fairly painlessly. “I was looking at hotels for about two weeks,” Bissell said. “And after no luck there like, serio...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 25 proposed restrictions that would block plans for a multibillion-dollar copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region, the latest in a long-running dispute over efforts by developers to advance the mine. Critics of the Pebble Mine project called the move an important step in a years-long fight to stop the mine. But John Shively, the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is pursuing the mine, called the EPA’s proposal a “political maneuver” and a preemptiv...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter has taken the unusual step of weighing in on a federal court case involving his landmark 1980 lands conservation act and a remote refuge in Alaska, arguing against a road through the area. Carter filed a brief on May 9 in the longstanding legal dispute over efforts to build a road through the refuge at the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, worried that a recent ruling in favor of a proposed land exchange for the road across the Izembek National...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following extracurricular positions for the 2022-2023 school year. All positions are open until filled. Cross Country Running Assistant Coach High School Girls Assistant Basketball Coach High School Assistant Volleyball Coach Middle School Boys Assistant Basketball Coach Freshmen Class Adviser Sophomore Class Adviser Junior Class Co-Adviser Elementary Student Council Adviser Activities Director: This is a contracted position earning a minimum of $10,000 to fulfill the duties...
SEWARD (AP) — In the cold, choppy waters of Alaska’s Resurrection Bay, all eyes were on the gray water, looking for one thing only. It wasn’t a spout from humpback whales that power through this scenic fjord in front of Seward, or a sea otter lazing on its back, munching a king crab. Instead, everyone aboard the Nanuq, a University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel, was looking where a 5-foot long, bright pink underwater sea glider surfaced. The glider — believed to be the first configured with a large sensor to measure carbon dioxide...
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Scientists will set about 1,000 traps this year in their quest to wipe out the Asian giant hornet in Washington, the state Department of Agriculture said May 24. Scientists believe the hornets, first detected in the state in 2019, are confined in Whatcom County, which is located on the Canadian border north of Seattle. “We are doing pretty good right now,” said Sven-Erik Spichiger, who is leading the fight to eradicate the hornets for the state Department of Agriculture. “We know about where the nests are located in What...
