Sorted by date Results 1645 - 1669 of 8043
The state should change its tax code to increase corporate income tax collections from out-of-state businesses that sell goods or services to Alaskans, particularly digitized services, according to a legislator promoting the revisions. “The world has changed,” said Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski. “We’re no longer bricks and mortar.” His legislation would amend Alaska’s income tax code to ensure that online and digital sales are included in calculating how much of a company’s U.S. profit was made in Alaska and should be subject to corporate...
After waiting six months for a license to operate, an Anchorage psychologist asked Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel for help. But when the Anchorage Republican called the licensing office, she was greeted by voicemail. The person in charge of answering the phones had quit and wasn’t replaced. “Professional licenses are required to get people to work. That division doesn’t have enough people to even answer the phone,” Giessel said last month. That person wasn’t alone — last year, the state reported that 39 occupational license-exa...
HONOLULU — Repairing coral reefs after boats run aground. Shielding native forest trees from a killer fungus outbreak. Patrolling waters for swimmers harassing dolphins and turtles. Taking care of Hawaii’s unique natural environment takes time, people and money. Now Hawaii wants tourists to help pay for it, especially because growing numbers are traveling to the islands to enjoy the beauty of its outdoors — including some lured by dramatic vistas they’ve seen on social media. “All I want to do, honestly, is to make travelers accountab...
In a landmark decision, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled last Friday that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional under the Alaska Constitution’s equal protection doctrine. The decision follows a contentious reapportionment cycle after the 2020 census: The Alaska Redistricting Board was twice found by the state’s highest court of having unconstitutionally gerrymandered the state’s political maps by attempting to give solidly Republican Eagle River more political representation with two Senate seats in the 20-member body. Following a court...
Alaska Airlines is pushing passengers to load boarding passes on their smartphones by removing airport kiosks that can be used to print the passes. The airline has removed kiosks at nine airports so far, and is telling customers to use Alaska’s app to download boarding passes or print them at home. Alaska executives said Thursday that their goal is to reduce crowding at check-in areas and get passengers to security checkpoints faster. They discussed the issue Thursday during a call with Wall Street analysts to go over first-quarter financial r...
Hundreds celebrated at a dedication ceremony Saturday the first dozen of 30 new totem poles along the Juneau waterfront that will comprise Kootéeyaa Deiyí, Totem Pole Trail. Over the past week, the poles carved by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian artists were raised along the downtown waterfront, each depicting the crests of their respective clans and tribes. Most of the artists spent more than six months creating the poles after being commissioned by Sealaska Heritage Institute, which launched t...
SEATTLE (AP) — People have taken many steps in recent decades to help the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer whales, which have long suffered from starvation, pollution and the legacy of having many of their number captured for display in marine parks. They’ve breached dikes and removed dams to create wetland habitat for chinook salmon, the orcas’ most important food. They’ve limited commercial fishing to try to ensure prey for the whales. They’ve made boats slow down and keep farther away from the animals to reduce their stress and to quiet...
The Southeast Conference is conducting its annual survey of business owners and managers, looking to gauge the economic outlook and priorities for the region. Last year’s business climate survey collected 440 responses, including 26 from Wrangell. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents had a positive view of the Southeast business climate, and half expected that business would be better than the past year as tourists returned to Alaska and travelers put COVID-19 behind them. Business leaders last year reported that the lack of available h...
The U.S. Forest Service has approved the Organized Village of Kake’s request to operate a cultural healing center at a seldom-used building at Portage Bay, according to an announcement from the agency last month. The village plans to establish a program centered on cultural healing that would provide counseling to people struggling with alcohol, substance abuse and other issues, and reconnect them with their cultural identity. “We know that immersing our people in the culture helps them and we’re also ... teaching them who they are, where they...
To optimists, the plants that grow in the sea promise to diversify Alaska’s economy, revitalize small coastal towns struggling with undependable fisheries and help communities adapt to climate change — and even mitigate it by absorbing atmospheric carbon. Cultivation of seaweed, largely varieties of kelp, promises to buffer against ocean acidification and coastal pollution, promoters say. Seaweed farms can produce ultra-nutritious crops to boost food security in Alaska and combat hunger everywhere, and not just for human beings. “Kelp is good...
Former Republican governor candidate and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce will not have to pay out of his pocket to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former aide. The borough assembly, meeting on April 18, said the borough will pay more than $206,000 to the aide, Pam Wastell, and a borough-owned insurance policy will pay an additional $31,250 owed by Pierce himself under the terms of an as-yet-unpublished settlement agreement. This is the third settlement paid by the borough over Pierce’s workplace conduct. The m...
Wrangell’s annual community cleanup is planned for April 29, with free lunch, free trash bags, free disposable gloves, and cash prizes for volunteer picker-uppers. And while organizers hope the incentives will get people to turn out, the real prize is a cleaner community. “Trash is expensive,” said one of the organizers, Kim Wickman, of WCA. It’s expensive to buy the goods, which are shipped into Wrangell, it’s costly to send the trash out to a landfill in Washington state, and it’s unsightly when the garbage litters the town. She hopes peopl...
With four weeks left before the May 17 adjournment deadline, legislators are focusing on the state budget and how to resolve big differences between the House and Senate over school funding and the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend. The House approved its version of the budget on Monday, sending it to the Senate for certain changes. And while the major disputes are over how much to spend on education and dividends, and how to pay for the spending this year, many lawmakers also are kicking around ideas to generate new revenues in t...
Every spring when the eulachon spawn, the Stikine River flats are flooded with thousands of migratory shorebirds. And each year, the town responds in-kind with the Stikine River Birding Festival, filling the radio airwaves with bird songs and holding an array of avian-themed events. This season, the festival will run for three weekends between April 21 and May 6. It will feature movies, crafts, workshops and more. “Birding is such a nice welcome to spring,” said Corree Delabrue of the U.S. Forest Service, who helped plan the festival. She lov...
For nearly 40 years, the Sourdough Lodge has served the needs of Wrangell whether through tourist visits, assisted living or pandemic housing. During that time, it was owned by the Harding family, who built the lodge in 1984. Now, Zach Taylor and his father John Taylor have purchased the property from Bruce and Darlene Harding and will continue to operate the business as a bed and breakfast. "We're going to call it the Sourdough Lodge," Zach Taylor said. "Bruce and Dar had it as the Old...
As the Alder Top Village development moves through its design process, borough officials, the planning and zoning commission and members of the public will have the opportunity to shape what these new neighborhoods will look like. At its April 11 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved the first reading of a rezoning for the subdivision, which will be built on the site of the former Wrangell Institute, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. The assembly will hold a public hearing April 25 and could vote to amend or approve the...
The Planning and Zoning Commission has approved the next step in making a physical location for the St. Frances Animal Rescue facility a reality. Last Thursday, the commission voted to grant a conditional-use permit for the nonprofit organization to put a building on Lot 4, Block 66 in the north portion of an industrial lot on Fifth Avenue, just off Bennett Street. The approval is the latest development in the shelter's ongoing process to have a fixed location since it was created in 2006 and...
The siding on the exterior of the swimming pool building is deteriorating and borough officials are working to ensure that the facility stays safe and looks its best for years to come. At its April 11 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved spending an additional $261,000 to purchase and install new siding on the building, bringing the total appropriation to $436,000. “The … project involves removing the existing cedar siding and replacing it with a tongue and groove PVC-like siding,” wrote Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Ha...
Do you know who the first Christian martyr was? Or who replaces Judas Iscariot as the 12th apostle? Or how to escape imprisonment by Herod Agrippa? Wrangell’s youth Bible Bowl team knows. For the first time in 15 years, the town has a competitive Bible quiz crew in The Salvation Army competition. Since December, the five team members have met regularly, sometimes as often as twice a week, to study and memorize the biblical Book of Acts. The competition involves two rounds of 50 questions. Each team member answers questions on a tablet that calc...
Like waiting for yeast to rise, customers of Sweet Tides Bakery will have to wait a little longer for the business to reopen. The bakery had planned to open this Wednesday, however a permitting backlog at the state's food safety and sanitation office has delayed the reopening by a week or possibly more. It's proving to be a blessing and a curse, said owner Shawna Buness. The delay has given Buness and her husband Jordan more time to finish the cabinetry and décor, but it's hard to run a...
Twentieth-century U.K. novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch once wrote that “the bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.” Grief can have intense physical and emotional effects on people, from nausea and increased blood pressure to changes in memory and behavior. Knowing how to help a grieving person can be difficult, but Rev. Julie Platson of Sitka believes that communicating with the bereaved is not only possible, but essential for healing. Platson will visit Wrangell’s St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on April 29 from 1 to 2:30 p....
For the seventh year in a row, federal managers have closed the Stikine River chinook subsistence fishery to help preserve weak runs of the returning salmon. The U.S. Forest Service, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, last week announced the closure to run May 15 through June 20. “The preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 11,700 large chinook salmon (greater than 28 inches in length), which is below the escapement goal range of 14,000 to 28,000 large chinook,” the Forest Service statement said. Though this yea...
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking suggestions for sustainably managing the Tongass National Forest, with a series of public meetings across Southeast Alaska through May 19. The Wrangell public meeting is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. May 5 at the Nolan Center. “Instead of commenting on a plan we present, we’re asking folks to help develop it,” according to a Forest Service announcement of the meetings. That means looking for input from individuals, groups, government agencies and Alaska Native tribes about ideas such as “wood products, clean w...
Drifting ash from a volcanic eruption in the Russian Far East forced Alaska Airlines to cancel more than 100 flights last week, including its northbound and southbound jets through Wrangell and Petersburg last Thursday and Friday. Flights throughout Alaska had largely returned to normal by Saturday, other than a couple of missed flights to Sitka that day as a portion of the ash cloud hung around the community. Although a “very large area” of gas left over from the ash cloud still hovered over the eastern Gulf of Alaska near Sitka by Sat...
Klawock’s debut as a cruise destination has been pushed back to 2024, according to an announcement from Klawock Heenya Corp. and its partner Na-Dena, the joint-venture tourism development company formed between Native corporations Hoonah-based Huna Totem Corp. and Fairbanks-based Doyon Ltd. Klawock Heenya was previously scheduled to welcome Oceania Cruises’ 650-plus-passenger vessel Regatta for four port calls this summer. The first phase plans for the Port of Klawock consist of a temporary welcome center featuring local artists, retail wit...