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Elders and adults with disabilities will have more opportunities to get care at home or in a home-like setting under a bill that became state law when Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed it on July 29. The measure, Senate Bill 57, serves two broad categories of Alaskans who might otherwise have to move into assisted-care facilities: disabled adults, including youth who have aged out of the foster system, and elders. For disabled adults, the bill authorizes a system of adult host homes serving one or two people, a category into which foster parents’ h... Full story
Newly cleaned flooring, new paint and new faces will be among the changes students see as they return to school on Aug. 24. However, there will be plenty going on that students don’t really notice. School district staff are working hard to prepare for the coming educational year, whether it be in updating their certifications, preparing the classrooms or focusing on all the little details to ensure a successful year for kids. Online registration will begin Aug. 11 on the school district website, while in-person registration will be held Aug. 1...
In the coming months, the borough plans to get stricter about enforcing parts of its municipal code — particularly rules prohibiting trash and derelict cars or boats from accumulating on people’s property. At a work session June 25, the assembly met with Borough Manager Jeff Good, Police Chief Tom Radke, Economic Development Director Kate Thomas and Public Works Director Tom Wetor to discuss what this new push for enforcement might look like in practice. “We’re not here to have a revenue stream,” said Radke. “We’re here to improve the t...
When most people think of vacation, they don't necessarily think about work. But for visiting Britons Kate Dziubinska and Charlie Winchester, their work is the reason for their vacation. Winchester, 35, and Dziubinska (pronounced Juh-bin-skuh), 29, arrived in Wrangell on July 11 as part of a multi-country tour to learn how other countries are doing conservation work in wilderness areas. It's taken a lot of planning and saving (as most of their travel is self-financed), but it's yielding a world...
It wasn’t a downpour but it was enough to raise the water level at both reservoirs and ease fears of shortages, Public Works Director Tom Wetor said of the rainfall Sunday and Monday. “Overall, I’m feeling pretty good,” he said Monday morning. With just a few weeks left of the heaviest water demand for salmon processing, and with the traditionally rainy weather of early fall approaching, Wetor thinks Wrangell will make it through the summer. “We’re in pretty good shape right now.” The borough last week urged residents to conserve water after a...
At its July 25 meeting, the borough assembly decided not to contribute $25,000 to keep a state Office of Children’s Services caseworker in town. The current in-town caseworker is moving off the island, explained Borough Manager Jeff Good, so the position would be left vacant regardless of whether the borough contributed funds. “It doesn’t sound like (OCS) is really excited about trying to bring somebody back here to fill the position,” he said. “I’m not sure what we get out of spending this money and then trying to go after OCS to bring the p...
Since its 2020 opening, Sirene Spa has been freshening faces, lengthening lashes, clearing pores and applying perfect tans. But now, the spa is giving itself a makeover. Esthetician Robyn Byrd has changed the name of her business from "Sirene Spa" to "Salt and Cedar" - a name that honors her Tlingit heritage and better reflects her updated establishment, which has expanded to include Alaska gifts, jewelry and more. The spa has also moved from the Churchill Building to a larger, more accessible...
It’s more than just a sweet tooth that directs bears to honey. Beekeeper Christi Henthorn of North Carolina explained the relationship between bears and beehives — and how to protect your pollinators from a possibly disastrous bear attack — in a presentation at BearFest on July 29. The Winnie the Pooh story popularized the idea that bears raid beehives to steal their honey, but this is only partially true. “Bears really want to eat, not just the honey, but the honeycomb and the bees themselves as well,” explained Henthorn. Bee pollen is one of...
Each season, a few thousand visitors flock to Anan Wildlife Observatory to watch bears pluck salmon out of Anan Creek. But this popular viewing spot is more than just a fun afternoon getaway - it's also an important site for research on bear populations, habitat and resource needs. In fact, observation sites like these could point the way to less invasive methods for bear research in the future. On July 27, at one of three BearFest symposiums, Shawn Crimmins of the U.S. Geological Survey and...
They gathered around a long table in the front hall of the Nolan Center, cutting construction paper, drawing and coloring images and gluing pieces together. There was focus. There was vision. There was quiet. There was not a kid in sight at the BearFest adult art workshop on July 27. About 12 women showed up to put their creative touch on Native formline art, with templates for bears, salmon, ravens and other things like totems. Various colors and designs could be utilized and the only limit...
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary How does your garden grow?” While gardeners in Wrangell may not plant silver bells and cockleshells, they still grow a myriad of things that some folks might find difficult to cultivate in the Southeast climate. To that end, a tour being offered by the community garden group at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6, will give gardening enthusiasts a chance to see how others successfully grow things like potatoes, strawberries and a variety of flowers. The group is still enlisting gardens to participate in the tour, but so far...
Actress Jennifer Aniston knows something about Haines that even some longtime residents don't: The town is home to some of the finest wooden bathtubs that money can buy. Aniston is one of the celebrity customers of the small operation that's been slowly growing and carving a name for itself in the luxury wood bathtub world for the past two decades. Buyers include Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of the software giant Oracle, as well as hundreds of less affluent customers enticed by the...
There were eight perfect scores in the Sentinel’s news quiz, producing an eight-way split of the prize money. In total, 21 readers entered the contest, answering 18 questions about the news from the first three weeks of July. Trailing the eight perfect entries, nine people missed just one of the questions. It was the first time the Sentinel had run such a contest, which owner Larry Persily called a “current events quiz.” The Sentinel published six questions each of three weeks — July 5, 12 and 19 — based on news stories in the paper. “There we...
Telecommunications company GCI will end its longtime email service next year, a move that will force customers to transition to new email providers. Spokespeople with GCI, Alaska’s largest telecommunications company, said the service will end sometime in mid-2024. At that point, customers will no longer be able to access or use their gci.net account, according to a draft fact page posted online. “We will provide our customers formal notice at least six months in advance of email deactivation deadline,” GCI spokeswoman Heather Handyside said...
A state judge has ordered a tourist shop outside Denali National Park to stop selling products labeled as “Made in Alaska” after the state accused the shop of repeatedly selling fake souvenirs and art. According to a complaint filed by the Alaska Department of Law on July 20 in Fairbanks, the owners of a shop known variously as The Himalayan and Mt. McKinley Clothing Company repeatedly attempted to mislabel foreign products as Alaska-made. At one point, the owners of the store told an undercover investigator “that an alpaca poncho depic... Full story
A major highway project improving the connection between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula has more than doubled in cost over the past five years — from $350 million in 2018 to the latest estimate of $840 million — and the new pavement is still four years away from opening to the public. The bypass — officially the Sterling Highway Milepost 45-60 Project — is a decades-old plan to divert traffic around the small Kenai River community of Cooper Landing by creating a 10-mile bypass cut through the forested and sloped terrain north of the town. C...
While Alaska’s state government has made progress in getting more people the food stamps they are entitled to receive, advocates say the process to appeal denials or delays is breaking down. Food stamps are a federal benefit managed by the states, and there are rules for how quickly a state has to get the benefit to qualified applicants. Alaska has been taking an unlawfully long time to process most applications since last fall. Citizens have a right to a legal hearing when the state takes too long to get them food stamps or denies their a... Full story
Tracking changes in permafrost can take years and sometimes decades, lags that cannot keep up with the transformations in the rapidly warming Arctic. Now scientists will be developing new technology to track those changes in real time, thanks to a project funded by Google. The company has awarded a $5 million grant to the Massachusetts-based Woodwell Climate Research Center to create a system combining satellite data with artificial intelligence to spot the changes as they occur. The project is led by Anna Liljedahl, an Alaska-based Woodwell... Full story
Tracking changes in permafrost can take years and sometimes decades, lags that cannot keep up with the transformations in the rapidly warming Arctic. Now scientists will be developing new technology to track those changes in real time, thanks to a project funded by Google. The company has awarded a $5 million grant to the Massachusetts-based Woodwell Climate Research Center to create a system combining satellite data with artificial intelligence to spot the changes as they occur. The project is led by Anna Liljedahl, an Alaska-based Woodwell... Full story
Alaska’s state school board has unexpectedly delayed a vote on a proposed regulation that would prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls high school sports teams. Board chairman James Fields said the delay was warranted by “hard questions” about whether the regulation could violate students’ right to privacy, among other legal issues. “I’d be in favor of a special meeting and allowing us to show the public and show our constituents that we’re not just doing this to quickly rush through it. We want to take a good long look at all of the... Full story
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed a bill defining electric-assisted bicycles the same as regular bicycles — which passed the Legislature by a combined vote of 57-2 — because “it creates unnecessary bureaucracy by regulating recreational activity,” according to a spokesperson. House Bill 8, sponsored by Rep. Ashley Carrick, a first-term Fairbanks Democrat, sought to revise state code to allow most e-bikes to ride anywhere a regular bike is allowed such as roads, bike lanes and multi-use trails. The bill also said owners of e-bikes generat...
With colder months approaching, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson said July 24 that the city likely will not use a municipally owned sports arena as a large-scale homeless shelter again this winter, and to prevent people from freezing to death on the street, his administration wants to purchase plane tickets for people who want to travel to communities within Alaska or warmer climates out of state. “I am not going to be responsible for people freezing to death on the street. … I’m doing everything I can to keep that from happening,” Bronson said du...
Which came first, the magister squid fishery or the magister squid market? A Juneau charter fishing operator was recently awarded a $230,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find out, and fishermen might soon have a chance to diversify in the face of declining fish stocks and high barriers to entry in other markets. "It's the chicken and the egg. Do you start researching how to catch them or if there's a market?" said Richard Yamada, who has dedicated the past...
The Washington State Ferries system still has not returned to its full pre-pandemic schedule, coming up short due to fewer riders, an inability to recruit, hire and train onboard crew, high rates of retirements and resignations, and a “lack of vessels due to unanticipated breakdowns and an aging fleet.” Some sailings have been canceled for lack of crew, and a few routes are running at reduced service. It sounds a lot like the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Washington state system, which has been around since 1951, 12 years older than Alaska...
Scientists and staff with the U.S. Forest Service are hopeful that the blackheaded budworm outbreak that began three years ago throughout the Tongass National Forest is beginning to decline. Data collected earlier this year revealed not only the extent of the damage done by the half-inch insect but evidence showed the worms are dying off. Elizabeth Graham, an entomologist with the Forest Service, said in a news conference on July 20 she has seen firsthand that there is lower activity of the bug...
