Sorted by date Results 1717 - 1741 of 7954
No invasive green crabs have been found outside the area on Annette Island where they were discovered last summer, though experts are working against a potential population explosion in Southeast Alaska. Barb Lake, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau, gave a presentation in Ketchikan last Friday about the invasive crab species that a team of scientists with the Metlakatla Indian Community first identified on Annette Island in July. It’s the only place that the crab has been captured in Alaska waters. Lake said t...
JUNEAU (AP) - An Alaska lawmaker with a history of incendiary remarks was censured by the state House on Feb. 22 after he said it has been argued that cases of fatal child abuse can be a "cost savings" because the child would not need related government services. The House voted 35-1 to censure Republican Rep. David Eastman of Wasilla, with only Eastman voting against the censure. The House action has no formal consequences other than putting a statement on the record. Eastman was censured in...
On May 1, the Alaska Court System will remove the marijuana possession convictions of about 750 Alaskans from Courtview, the state’s online database of court cases. The Alaska Supreme Court announced the move in an order signed Jan. 31 by the court’s five justices. The action, first reported Feb. 19 by the Alaska Landmine website, follows years of similar, unsuccessful, legislative efforts to join a nationwide trend. “I’m glad that the Supreme Court has ordered this,” said Fairbanks Sen. Scott Kawasaki. The records will still be available for i...
A multimillion-dollar share of the Alaska grocery store chain Three Bears is one of the latest additions to the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.’s $200 million in-state investment program — a small slice of the $76 billion state savings account. The program, ordered by the board in 2018, has almost finished making its investments. The corporation’s board of trustees received an update on the program at a quarterly meeting this month. In addition to Three Bears, the new in-state investments include millions spent on a company that operates aviat...
It was a week of change for a 100-year-old Petersburg institution: The Trading Union was officially renamed Petersburg IGA on Feb. 20, as new owners Mike Ward, his daughter Caroline Bangs and her husband Travis Bangs took over the grocery store. “I got crew over from Wrangell, crew over from Haines, and we’re power-stocking this place,” Ward said last week. The family also owns Wrangell IGA and Ward is the majority owner of Howsers IGA in Haines. Ward, who is in his 44th year actively managing grocery stores, was born in Haines and as a young...
Alaska oil production and prices are below last year’s estimates, and the state could run out of money before the end of the fiscal year in June, members of the Senate Finance Committee were told Feb. 21. “It’s a bit of a nail-biter,” said Neil Steininger, director of the Office of Management and Budget. While the prospect may sound alarming, it’s not as bad as it sounds, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Finance Committee. “There’s nothing to worry about,” Stedman said. The state’s fiscal year doesn’t end until June 30, and legisl...
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Weeks after powerful storms dumped 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow on California, state officials and environmental groups in the drought-ravaged state are grappling with what to do with all of that water. State rules say when it rains and snows a lot in California, much of that water must go into the rivers to act as a conveyor belt to carry tens of thousands of endangered baby salmon into the Pacific Ocean. But last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked state regulators to temporarily change those rules. H...
The Organized Village of Kake is looking into using a U.S. Forest Service facility at Portage Bay, on the north end of Kupreanof Island, as a cultural healing and rehabilitation center. The goal of the program would be to reconnect people with their cultural identity, improve their mental health, and counsel those recovering from alcohol and substance abuse and other issues. The cultural healing center has been a dream of Joel Jackson, the village president, for years. “What I had in mind was getting people to teach them who they are, b...
At its special meeting last Friday, the borough assembly unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Alaska Trollers Association in its fight against a lawsuit that could shut down the Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishery of chinook, or king salmon, this year. Though the association also requested a $7,500 donation to the fishery’s legal defense, the assembly did not approve funding for the cause. The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2020. The Washington-based nonprofit alleges t...
"Alaskans are such go-getters. If we don't have access to a service here, we either live without it, or make it happen," said Shawna Buness, co-owner of Sweet Tides Bakery. Buness and her partner Devyn Johnson are among the self-employed people who comprise about 9% of Alaska's workforce. The percentage is higher in Wrangell, where one in eight workers is his or her own boss, according to a report in Trends, a monthly magazine of the Alaska Department of Labor. Wrangell was in the top third of...
Bella Garcia-Rangel had a goal to teach kids everything they would need to know about making a book, and she went through the topic cover to cover. Last Saturday's class on creating a literary masterpiece - or at least its packaging - was part of a youth art series being taught once a month at The Salvation Army by Garcia-Rangel. The class went over the parts of a book, such as its pages, cover and spine, and the various ways a book can be bound by gluing or stitching and other methods. For Satu...
For Lucy Robinson, the Parks and Recreation Department provides residents with far more than workouts, programs and professional development opportunities - it is the "lifeblood of a healthy community," a space where Wrangellites of all ages and from all walks of life can come together to chat, sweat and enjoy their shared love for recreation. After attending open swim as a child, lifeguarding as a teen and working as recreation coordinator as an adult, Robinson is ready to take charge of the...
Communities throughout Southeast have signed a petition to oppose listing the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species, due largely to the additional restrictions a listing could impose on wolf hunters and the potential risk to the deer population. Though members of the Wrangell borough assembly expressed widespread support for the petition, they took issue with details in its wording at the Feb. 14 assembly meeting and preferred to draft a statement of their own. The assembly instructed Borough Manager Jeff Good to prepare a resolut...
Alaskans will no longer need college degrees for most state jobs, under an administrative order issued Feb. 14 by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The action is needed because of the labor shortage that affects Alaska and the nation, Dunleavy said in a statement. “Today people can gain knowledge, skills and abilities through on-the-job experience. If we’re going to address our labor shortage, we have to recognize the value that apprenticeships, on-the-job training, military training, trade schools and other experience provides applicants. If a person can...
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom on Feb. 15 appointed a longtime state employee and Republican Party supporter to lead the Alaska Division of Elections. Carol Beecher, who led the state's child support enforcement division for the past nine years, will now administer Alaska's elections. Her first day was Feb. 15. Beecher grew up at a logging camp on Zarembo Island and graduated from Wrangell High School in 1980, according to the lieutenant governor's office. She succeeds Gail Fenumiai, the division's...
When longtime Public Works Department employee Brian Christian was asked to attend the Feb. 14 borough assembly meeting by his supervisor, Tom Wetor, he thought that he would be asked to share his expertise on a pump station collection process with the assembly. Instead, Wetor surprised him with an award for his 25 years of service, courtesy of the Alaska Rural Water Association. Wetor, the assembly and borough officials thanked Christian for his contributions to the borough and wished him well...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s amended budget unveiled Feb. 15 attempts to address crisis areas in state public services, with the additional spending driving the anticipated budget deficit past $400 million. The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is updated from his initial proposed budget announced in December. At that time, Dunleavy’s largely flat spending proposal for services had a $322 million deficit. The largest single expense in the governor’s proposed budget is $2.5 billion for a Permanent Fund dividend at roughly $3,900 per person this...
Alaska state lawmakers have begun examining a plan to set regulations and fees for companies that collect carbon dioxide and inject it deep underground. The governor has touted the potential for the state to make hundreds of millions of dollars over the years by leasing state lands to hold carbon deep underground and out of the atmosphere where it is blamed for worsening climate change. Members of the House Resources Committee held their first hearing on the proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Feb. 10. A leading member of the House’s m...
Wrangell is home to a passionate community of outdoor leaders and Parks and Recreation professionals, who are committed to uniting the town by developing public programs and maintaining public spaces. This fall, the Parks and Recreation Department will pool its knowledge with other departments statewide to improve services across Alaska. In September, representatives from municipalities around the state will visit Wrangell for the annual Alaska Recreation and Park Association conference — an opportunity for the state’s recreation departments to...
A group seeking to reverse Alaska’s 2020 election reform has begun gathering signatures to put the question before voters on the 2024 ballot. The ballot initiative is seeking to do away with open primaries and ranked-choice voting in general elections, returning to Alaska’s previous elections rules, which included closed partisan primaries and traditional pick-one general elections. Ranked-choice voting and open primaries were adopted in Alaska in 2020 through a ballot measure that passed narrowly, with just over 50% of voters in favor of the...
Kiara Harrison is closing the chapter on her high school life by promoting literacy in the community. For her senior project, Harrison helped organize and run the book fair at Evergreen Elementary School gym from Oct. 25 to 27, a natural fit for the student who began reading even before starting kindergarten. At the beginning of the school year when Harrison was immersed in volleyball practice and trying to figure out what her senior project was going to be, her mother, Kaelene Harrison, was...
For the first time in 31 years, Alaska’s sitting U.S. representative addressed a joint session of the Alaska Legislature. Speaking in the state Capitol last Friday, Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola praised the bipartisan coalitions that control the state House and Senate, saying she’s frequently asked about “the Alaska model” of bipartisanship. “It’s strange,” she said, “to hear something we take for granted here at home is so foreign in the rest of the country. But it’s also inspiring because it gives me faith that for all the challenges Alaska...
Alaska’s U.S. senators and several Alaska Native leaders on Feb. 14 urged the federal government to approve a major oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope, casting the project as economically critical for Indigenous communities in the region and important for the nation’s energy security. The Biden administration “damn well better not kill the project, period,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters on a video conference. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier this month released an environmental review for ConocoPhillips Alaska...
Oil-dependent Alaska has long sought ways to fatten its coffers and move away from the fiscal whiplash of oil’s boom-and-bust cycles. The newest idea, promoted by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, would have the state capitalize on its oil and gas expertise to tap into a developing industry — carbon storage — as a way to generate new revenues without curtailing the industries that underpin Alaska’s economy. It’s also being pitched as a potential way for petroleum and mining companies to head off legal challenges over greenhouse gas impacts....
More than 90,000 pounds of canned Alaska pink salmon purchased and donated by the state of Alaska is being distributed as wartime relief in Ukraine. The cans were donated to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen and arrived in Ukraine this month after months of shipping and customs delays. The food is the state’s biggest contribution to Ukraine’s defense against a Russian invasion that started a year ago. Other than appropriating money last year to buy the canned salmon, the war has remained a back-burner issue in the state Capitol. No Ukr...
