Sorted by date Results 1027 - 1051 of 8072
A major source of funding for Alaska’s domestic violence response has decreased significantly the past five years, leaving a multimillion-dollar hole in the budget for services. That reduction, paired with the end of federal pandemic relief money and high rates of inflation, has domestic violence advocates scrambling to adequately fund the groups that keep one of the state’s most vulnerable populations safe. Alaska’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the group that manages state and federal funding for domestic violence progr...
When Kara Carlson experienced sexual assault as a teenager, she said it was traumatic but not shocking: “I was the last of my friends to experience sexual violence,” she said. “We live in this world where you have to prepare women for surviving trauma.” She now runs the women’s emergency shelter in Fairbanks, the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living, where she has worked for nearly two decades. She has seen domestic and sexual violence affect generations of Alaskans. “I’ve been here long enough that I’ve seen moms come in, I’ve seen th...
In the coming days, weeks and months, the borough and state will continue the multi-agency effort to repair Zimovia Highway, gather data about landslide risks and connect eligible community members with financial assistance. Highway repairs are underway, though the remainder of the project could last an additional three weeks. On Saturday, local and state Department of Transportation crews completed installation of a 36-inch-diameter culvert under the road, allowing water and debris from the...
From remote weather stations to laser imaging to autonomous drones, the state and borough are working together to deploy cutting-edge monitoring technology at the 11-Mile landslide site. LiDAR maps that were created before and after the slide will help geologists study potential landslide risks on the island. LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a laser-based imaging method that creates detailed, three-dimensional maps of the Earth’s surface. LiDAR instruments consist of a laser, a scanner and a specialized GPS receiver to e...
After the 11-Mile landslide missed their home by about 600 feet on Nov. 20, Mandy Simpson and her family have been faced with a barrage of decisions — none of which are easy to make. On top of the pressures of evacuation, and of attempting to prove to the state that her household merits financial assistance, Simpson has to figure out what to do with her home. Living under a potentially landslide-prone slope — especially with a child and another one on the way — is too stressful, she explained. “I don’t want to run out of the house every tim...
The borough on Dec. 6 announced the suspension of the search for Derek Heller, 12, missing since a Nov. 20 landslide took out his family’s home at 11-Mile Zimovia Highway. “The decision to end the active search comes after 15 days of tireless and exhaustive efforts by the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department Search and Rescue teams,” the borough’s announcement said. “The untiring efforts to locate 12-year-old Derek Heller extended to all accessible areas above and into the intertidal zone,” the borough’s statement said. Wrangell Volunteer Fir...
Therapy dogs Cupid and Tia calmly waited with their handlers Margaret Griffo and Terry Yeomans, greeting arrivals before class in the high school courtyard on Friday, Dec. 8, after starting their morning with the coffee crowd at the Stikine Inn and Restaurant. The dogs had arrived in Wrangell the day before, coming to town from their Anchorage-area homes for a few days to help people coping with the tragedy of the deadly landslide and the stress of the search and uncertainty, the loss and the...
A dozen Wrangell households had applied as of Dec. 7 for state financial aid to help them recover from the Nov. 20 landslide. The deadline to apply is not until Jan. 27, and an official with the state emergency management agency is encouraging anyone who believes they were directed affected by the slide to fill out an application. “We want people to apply,” said Jeremy Zidek, with the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The division will review the applications and give priority to people who have the greatest needs...
More than 140 miles away in Juneau, Sylvia Heinz picked up her phone and read the news of the fatal landslide in Wrangell. "I put my phone down. I couldn't read it. I couldn't think about it. I felt sick to my stomach," Heinz said. "My second thought was, 'I wish I was there because now I have all of this experience and resources and I hate for that to go to waste.'" She's not alone. Several people in Haines said hearing about Wrangell's Nov. 20 landslide triggered memories and emotions they're...
With the rusty Matanuska out of service pending repairs, the Kennicott scheduled for tie-up due to lack of crew and the Tazlina in the shipyard to add crew quarters, the state ferry system’s draft summer 2024 schedule is limited by the number of vessels in service and looks about the same as this past summer. The Columbia would make a weekly northbound stop in Wrangell on Sundays and a weekly southbound visit on Wednesdays on its run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. The marine highway system released its draft schedule D...
As two students on the far left of the stage narrated, fourth grade students silently enacted the scenes in front of a bright light and behind a white screen, allowing their shadows to tell the story of a young hero who takes his revenge on a fearsome cannibal for the murder of his older brothers. After the cannibal is killed and his body is burned, his scattered ashes become mosquitoes, inflicting painful bites in revenge. The fourth graders, with help from students in the high school Tlingit...
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor sent letters to libraries and school districts throughout the state in mid-November, warning that minors should not have access “indecent materials” at libraries and that parents must be given two weeks notice about any instruction related to “human reproduction and sexual matters.” The topic of gender identity, Taylor said, falls under this category. The letters align with a parental rights bill proposed this year by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which would require parental approval for classes, textbooks, lessons an...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has sent a letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, urging him to include $23 million in his coming budget for the replacement of a state ferry. Dunleavy spokesperson Jessica Bowers declined to say whether the governor’s draft budget — due by Friday, Dec. 15 — would include the matching funds needed to secure a $92 million federal funding award that Murkowski announced last month. The Alaska Marine Highway system has already been promised $416 million in federal funds through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act....
The Biden administration could jump into a high-profile lawsuit in which Metlakatla is fighting with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration about tribal citizens’ fishing rights. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a filing Dec. 5 that it’s considering submitting a friend-of-the-court brief in the dispute between the state and the Metlakatla Indian Community, a tribal government. The three-year-old Metlakatla lawsuit, filed by the tribal government against the state, centers on the extent of fishing rights granted to the community’s members...
Alaska Trollers Association Board President Matt Donohoe said he’s disappointed by the state Board of Fisheries’ decision that he believes will cause continued harm to commercial trollers in Southeast. “I think residents of Alaska, sport and commercial fishermen, suffered a terrible blow by the Board of Fisheries who favored out-of-state residents over residents,” Donohoe said of the board’s Dec. 1 decision not to more tightly enforce the catch allocation for sport anglers. The growing charter boat industry was the focus of the proposed...
Response to the deadly landslide continues, with extensive clearing work to remove debris from along the highway to increase safety and with fundraising for families affected by the disaster, particularly the Heller and Florschutz families that lost loved ones. More than $43,000 from 342 donations had been raised in a GoFundMe campaign for the two families as of Monday, Dec. 4. Almost $20,000 had been raised in another account to help families who were displaced or whose lives were disrupted by...
As Wrangell continues to deal with the landslide that killed six people, Alaskans face a long-term challenge: How to prevent tragedies in the future as mountainous regions of the state become more unstable. “These landslides affecting Alaskans are going to keep happening, and we need to get out in front of them,” said Gabriel Wolken, manager of the climate and cryosphere hazards program at the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. The Nov. 20 landslide in Wrangell was the third deadly and rain-triggered landslide in Sou...
For the past three years, the Evergreen Elementary School art walk has created a platform for students to share their artwork with the community. This season's walk, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 5:30 p.m., will feature elaborate interactive displays and a series of holiday-centric projects. "We've been cranking stuff out," said art teacher Tawney Crowley. Each of the projects she assigns has an educational component. For Veterans Day, the students discussed the origins of the...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries voted 4-2 against requiring in-season management to more effectively hold the sport fishery chinook catch within its harvest limit. The board voted on Friday, Dec. 1, at its meeting in Homer, which was primarily devoted to Southcentral fisheries issues. The controversial proposal would have tightened in-season management of the Southeast chinook catch to better guard against resident and nonresident sport fishermen exceeding their share of the overall sport and commercial harvest. The proposal’s intent was to b...
Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma and other local officials were in Washington, D.C., last week to ask for federal help for the community after its deadly landslide. “In terms of impact, the community is scared, I think, and rightfully so,” Villarma said in an interview with Anchorage TV station KTUU. “We’ve lost six of our community members of a town of 2,096. … That’s proportionate in Juneau of over 80 people. In Anchorage, that’s 800. ... It’s very personal.” The borough team met Nov. 28 with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who attended midd...
The Wilderness Society conservation group has changed its position and now supports a bill that would create five new Alaska Native corporations in Southeast Alaska. It historically has opposed the creation of the new corporations. Federal legislation would create for-profit Native corporations for five communities left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. The settlement act transferred almost a billion dollars and title to 44 million acres to Native corporations to make profits and issue dividends to Native shareholders....
During the upcoming bird count on Dec. 16, community members can acquaint themselves with Wrangell’s fine feathered friends and make meaningful contributions to a nationwide citizen science project. The island’s birding community participates in Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count, which takes place from mid-December to early January. During the window of the project, people identify, count and report the birds they see. “These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations,” accor...
Jeanie Arnold, who started work as the new director at the Nolan Center on Nov. 27, said she wants to "provide an overall sense of joy to the community of Wrangell through artistic exposure and historical storytelling." She replaces Cyni Crary, who is moving out of state. Crary had been in the job since July 2018. Arnold said some of her goals include broadening the scope of the center with new exhibits and events targeted at a wide variety of interests. She also hopes to collaborate with the...
The chamber of commerce board has chosen veteran media entrepreneur Tommy Wells as the organization's new executive director. "I'm excited about it. I think it's a great opportunity," Wells said in an interview before leaving Texas for Wrangell. He arrived in town on Saturday, Dec. 2. "He is a publisher and understands media and person-to-person communications," chamber president Bill Burr said in an email on Nov. 21. "He has experience in Alaska and really has a positive attitude to move...
A few $100 and $20 bills have turned up in Wrangell, prompting police to caution businesses and everyone else to look for phonies. The fakes look real enough in design and color - except for the words "COPY MONEY" on the front and back in the same typestyle as "THE UNITED STATES." The counterfeits were reported in the last week of November. "Currently, there are reports of $20 bills and $100 bills ... possibly being circulated around the community, but there could be other denominations," the...