Sorted by date Results 1161 - 1185 of 7954
Ketchikan’s police chief returned to the job last month after a felony assault charge against him stemming from an off-duty altercation at a restaurant was dismissed by a Ketchikan Superior Court judge in mid-August. Jeffrey Walls, 47, was indicted in December on six criminal charges including assault. He spent more than eight months on paid administrative leave as the case proceeded, and as city officials conducted an internal review. Walls remains charged with five misdemeanors for assault and reckless endangerment. The altercation took p...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke publicly Thursday, Aug. 31, for the first time about his decision to endorse Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. In a Fox Business interview, Dunleavy said Trump has been “the best president for this state in its short history,” citing Trump’s actions in issuing oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and removing roadbuilding restrictions for logging in the Tongass National Forest. Dunleavy’s endorsement of Trump was first reported by Politico on Aug. 22, but he di...
Staffing problems at the payroll division are causing many of Alaska’s 14,000 state employees to be paid late or for the wrong amounts and have caused the state to temporarily stop using one of its main tools for hiring and retaining workers. In an August letter to the commissioners in charge of state departments, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s chief of staff told them that the problems “are primarily due to excessively high vacancy rates at payroll (over 40%).” Thirty-one of 67 budgeted positions are vacant, said officials at the Department of Adminis...
President Joe Biden will visit Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Sept. 11. Biden will participate in a ceremony at the base with members of the military, first responders and families, commemorating those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks. He is scheduled to travel to India from Sept. 7-10 to attend a summit with other world leaders, followed by a stop in Vietnam, and will stop in Anchorage on his way back to Washington, D.C. Biden landed in Anchorage in May for a brief refueling stop en route to the G-7 Summit in Japan but...
Advocates of the longstanding effort to create five new Southeast Alaska Native corporations say it's about ancestry, economic value and correcting a five-decade-old wrong. This year, legislation before Congress would grant each of the five corporations, including Wrangell, about 23,000 acres of land from the Tongass National Forest. The proposed land selections for a Wrangell corporation are spread over about a dozen blocks around the area, as far south as Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales...
Margaret "Missy" Wright is an elegantly dressed woman with a bright white coiffure and a loud, infectious laugh. The long-term care resident has been a fixture of the Wrangell community since she moved to town in the late 1980s and now, as she prepares to turn 100, is likely the island's oldest inhabitant. She has invited the entire town to celebrate her birthday on Friday, Sept. 1, with a massive party at the Nolan Center at 4 p.m. The party theme is purple - Wright's favorite color - and...
The Wrangell School District has received the green light to buy an electric school bus through a federal clean energy grant. In his report to the school board on Aug. 21, Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said the Environmental Protection Agency approved the district for a grant that will go toward a newly built electric bus and charging station. The grant was almost a no-go just a few months ago. Working with the district’s contracted bus company, Taylor Transportation, Burr submitted the grant to the EPA about a year ago. The program r...
A new generation of runners is preparing to follow in the footsteps of Wrangell High School’s state championship-winning cross country team. For the first time this fall, a middle school team will lace up their sneakers and get ready to race. Laura Davies, a teacher at Stikine Middle School, is organizing and coaching the program. She hopes that it will support the existing high school team by improving young runners’ endurance and preparing them to race at the regional level once they become freshmen. “If you look long-term, we have a high...
Evergreen Elementary School principal Ann Hilburn, left, and Leighetta Debord stop to commemorate the first day of school on Thursday, Aug. 24. Staff greeted students at the door with smiles as parents dropped off their children, many smiling and waving goodbye while others were visibly not thrilled to be back at school after their summer break....
A newly formed group of automotive afficionados called the "Differentials" are volunteering to help the community rid itself of junked vehicles. So far, the Differentials boast two sets of two-person teams that to remove tires and drain fluids from cars and trucks so that they can be shipped off the island by scrap metal recycler Channel Construction. As of Thursday, Aug. 24, the group had prepared two cars and a bus for transport. Two more car-draining duos are slated to join the group soon,...
The deadline to file for a seat on the borough assembly, school board or port commission in the Oct. 3 municipal election is 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31. And for residents not registered to vote in Alaska, the deadline to register to vote is Sunday, Sept. 3. Two seats on the assembly and one each on the school board and port commission will be on the ballot. As of Monday, Aug. 28, incumbent Anne Morrison had filed for reelection to the assembly, as had challenger Michael J. Ottesen; assembly incumbent Ryan Howe had not yet filed or announced his...
No one was reported injured beyond minor smoke inhalation in an early morning small fire aboard the state ferry Columbia on its southbound voyage into Wrangell on Aug. 23. All 11 passengers and crew taken off the ship for medical evaluation in Wrangell returned to the ferry as it continued its voyage to Ketchikan later that same day, according to a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation. The fire started in cardboard near an ice machine in the bar area, the spokeswoman said. Ten cases of beer were lost to the fire....
Residents have another opportunity to get their junked vehicles and scrap metal off the island, and the borough is encouraging people to take advantage of the free service. Channel Construction, which operates a scrap metal recycling service and barge in Southeast, is expected to pick up a load in Wrangell sometime in September. “We will be sending out letters to owners of properties (vehicles) that have been abandoned and/or are a danger to the community,” Borough Manager Jeff Good reported to the assembly for its Aug. 22 meeting. “We conti...
WASHINGTON — More than 50 years after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed Congress, proposed legislation again seeks to resolve claims with so-called “landless” Alaska Natives from five Southeast Alaska communities that were left out of the landmark law, including Wrangell. Supporters of the effort say concerns about the environmental damages of logging and public access restricted by private ownership of the lands have stalled progress on the land-transfer legislation in past years. But they are hopeful the political atmos...
Parks and Recreation Department staffers Erik Scheib, left, and Lane Fitzjarrald work on painting, sealing and providing fixes to the outside of the community gym building on Aug. 22. In a separate project, replacement of the exterior siding at the swimming pool, along with repairs to rot-damaged wood at the building, continues under a contract with Johnson Construction. That work has been delayed while the contractor waits for materials to arrive....
The sixth annual Family Resilience Fair will bring games, prizes and educational resources to the community on Oct. 14 at the Nolan Center. BRAVE Wrangell, a domestic violence prevention organization whose name stands for Building Respect and Valuing Everyone, is organizing the event. Since the fair is a little over a month away, BRAVE is seeking community organizations to get involved, specifically those that support families, explained member Kay Larsen. “School groups, faith communities, health-related agencies … anything with a special foc...
Housing is a big concern for communities across Southeast Alaska, from Ketchikan to Skagway and every town in between. In Petersburg, the results of a community survey indicate that more than 300 housing units may need to be built or renovated over the next decade. The borough assembly set up the housing task force to research and address the problem. The survey results were reviewed at a task force meeting on Aug. 17, where Assembly Member Dave Kensinger said: “I think we need to figure out a way to start building more housing. It’s pre...
The Alaska Marine Highway System Operations Board — an advisory panel created last year — wants the Dunleavy administration and the state Legislature to grant emergency powers for hiring personnel to the ferry system’s marine director. The system has suffered chronic shortages of workers for more than two years, forcing cuts in service to coastal communities. Despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants’ reports, hiring bonuses and paying a private firm to recruit new employees, the system remains far short of its hiring...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed a Republican advertising consultant and talk show host to a highly paid state government job overseeing commercial fishing permits. Dunleavy this month appointed Mike Porcaro of Anchorage as one of two commissioners overseeing the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, or CFEC — a Juneau-based agency with some 20 employees. The commission issues annual commercial fishing permits, grants and denies permit transfers in the event of illnesses and deaths and publishes fisheries reports and statistics. Porcaro is a D...
Federal money for arts, culture and educational programs will fund the creation of two dugout canoes in Southeast Alaska. Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Goldbelt, the Native corporation for Juneau, will teach Alaska Native youth how to carve canoes with nearly a quarter-million dollars in grant funding from the National Park Service. The goal is to teach Tlingit culture while applying the principles of science, technology, engineering and math education to canoe making. The National Park Service awarded the grant of...
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom has rejected a proposed legislative term-limits ballot measure, citing a Department of Law legal analysis that found the measure was likely unconstitutional. “The precedent set by the Alaska Supreme Court establishes that legislative term limits violate the Alaska Constitution,” she wrote in an Aug. 23 letter directed to the sponsors of the measure. As written, the proposed ballot measure would have limited state legislators to no more than 12 consecutive years in office and no more than 20 years in total. “I’m unhappy...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again rejected a request to list Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago wolves as endangered or threatened. The wolves, found in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, range among the region’s large, old trees and are a subspecies of gray wolves. Putting the wolves on the endangered species list, either as endangered or threatened, likely would have resulted in new restrictions on development, logging and construction in the region. The state of Alaska opposed the idea, which was put forward by thr...
The number of Alaskans covered by Medicaid has dropped by more than 14,000 since April, after federal protections for the health care benefits ended with expiration of the COVID-19 emergency declaration. The number losing their benefits may increase as the state continues the process of determining who still meets eligibility requirements — the reviews were halted during the national emergency declaration. And while many Alaskans are losing their coverage or waiting to hear if they will, the state’s Health Department continues working to cle...
According to a new state report, nearly 200 Alaska Native or American Indian people went missing between the beginning of April and the end of June in Alaska. Two dozen of them have not been found. Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native people far exceeds the national average and Alaska has one of the highest rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the United States. The problem especially affects women and girls. In Alaska, calls for justice preceded Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s formation of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous P...
Four elected positions will be on the municipal ballot on Oct. 3, and as of Monday it was uncertain if all of the incumbents will seek re-election. Two seats on the borough assembly, one on the school board and one on the port commission will be on the ballot. All four are three-year terms. Esther Aaltséen Reese, the only incumbent on the five-member school board whose term expires this year, said last week she is undecided as to whether to run for the position again or not. Anne Morrison, who holds one of the assembly seats that will be on...
