Sorted by date Results 2502 - 2526 of 7954
The U.S. Coast Guard will conduct operations with a couple of smaller boats for a few months between Wrangell and Petersburg, with an emphasis on safety checks. From June until August, two 29-foot Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security boats will patrol the region for search-and-rescue missions, vessel inspections and protecting marine life. The two smaller vessels will be handling operations since Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa, which usually patrols the area, is being relocated to Washington state. There will be a gap in coverage until...
Months before Alaska’s state elections, the Legislature is set for major turnover. At least 17 of the Legislature’s 60 members will be in a new position or out of office entirely by next January — and that doesn’t count anyone who loses their seat in this fall’s elections. The deadline to file for this year’s legislative elections is June 1, but many candidates have already made up their minds. Because a steep learning curve awaits new legislators, several departing incumbents said the turnover will slow the progress of complicated legislation,...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that the board tasked with redrawing the state’s legislative district boundaries “again engaged in unconstitutional political gerrymandering” and ordered the use of a new map for this year’s elections. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews in his ruling last week said it appeared that the majority of the Alaska Redistricting Board’s members had adopted a map splitting the Eagle River area into two state Senate districts for “political reasons.” Opponents of the board map sa...
JUNEAU (AP) — A special prosecutor has filed charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree against former Alaska Attorney General Clyde “Ed” Sniffen. Third-degree sexual abuse of a minor is a felony punishable by two to 12 years in prison. The charges are related to Sniffen’s alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 1991, when she was a high school student and he was the coach of her school’s mock trial team. Sniffen was 27 at the time. Sniffen was a longtime attorney with the department who was appointed attorney...
Ketchikan saw an upswing in reported COVID-19 cases in May, with 341 infections recorded during the past 30 days as of May 25. In addition, the number of active cases involving the Ketchikan Pioneer Home stood at 21 on May 25. The cases involved 18 residents and three staff members at the facility, according to state Health Department spokesperson Clinton Bennett. The home is at “red-alert” status, indicating that at least one resident has tested positive in a ”neighborhood” or a floor. All of its floors had been affected by COVID, accordi...
Juneau has a new housing rental crisis. The community invited 5,000 people to come for an Ironman race. With only around 1,000 hotel rooms, the city proposed a creative solution: Encouraging Juneau residents to go on vacation and rent their homes to athletes for a week. The race is Aug. 7. One athlete, Michael Bissell, of Alabama, said he was late to the game when looking for a place to stay, but he got something arranged fairly painlessly. “I was looking at hotels for about two weeks,” Bissell said. “And after no luck there like, serio...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 25 proposed restrictions that would block plans for a multibillion-dollar copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region, the latest in a long-running dispute over efforts by developers to advance the mine. Critics of the Pebble Mine project called the move an important step in a years-long fight to stop the mine. But John Shively, the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is pursuing the mine, called the EPA’s proposal a “political maneuver” and a preemptiv...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter has taken the unusual step of weighing in on a federal court case involving his landmark 1980 lands conservation act and a remote refuge in Alaska, arguing against a road through the area. Carter filed a brief on May 9 in the longstanding legal dispute over efforts to build a road through the refuge at the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, worried that a recent ruling in favor of a proposed land exchange for the road across the Izembek National...
SEWARD (AP) — In the cold, choppy waters of Alaska’s Resurrection Bay, all eyes were on the gray water, looking for one thing only. It wasn’t a spout from humpback whales that power through this scenic fjord in front of Seward, or a sea otter lazing on its back, munching a king crab. Instead, everyone aboard the Nanuq, a University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel, was looking where a 5-foot long, bright pink underwater sea glider surfaced. The glider — believed to be the first configured with a large sensor to measure carbon dioxide...
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Scientists will set about 1,000 traps this year in their quest to wipe out the Asian giant hornet in Washington, the state Department of Agriculture said May 24. Scientists believe the hornets, first detected in the state in 2019, are confined in Whatcom County, which is located on the Canadian border north of Seattle. “We are doing pretty good right now,” said Sven-Erik Spichiger, who is leading the fight to eradicate the hornets for the state Department of Agriculture. “We know about where the nests are located in What...
High oil prices paid the way for legislators to spend more money on public services and construction, a little more on schools and a payout to Alaskans this fall almost triple the amount of last year’s dividend. Legislators and their constituents now wait to see if Gov. Mike Dunleavy decides to veto any of the spending for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Lawmakers went home last week after a late-night session on the final day May 18, when they approved about $2.1 billion — one-quarter of all state general fund spending in the budget yea...
By 8 p.m. last Friday, the Wrangell High School class of 2022 had graduated and each member was embarking on the next chapter of their life. The evening honored the 15 graduates in front of a full auditorium of friends, family and educators with heartfelt speeches and videos showing how far they've come. "This is the first open and normal graduation we've had in ... (three) years," said Kendra Meissner in her salutatorian speech. "(Instead) of watching us take the next steps into our future...
Two of Wrangell's lead educators are closing the books on their lesson plans and graduating to retirement. In June, Bob Davis, assistant principal of Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School, and Jenn Miller-Yancey, assistant principal of Evergreen Elementary School, will say farewell after more than 30 years each in education. Davis, 64, who was raised in Alaska and came up through the public school system, swore as a young man that he would never set foot into a school again after...
The borough assembly and SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have come to an agreement of voluntary payments by SEARHC of $45,000 per year for 10 years on property owned by the nonprofit health care provider in town. In negotiations that began in November, the borough had been asking for $225,000 a year, and SEARHC had asked for a refund on a $331,287 property tax bill it paid in full on the new Wrangell Medical Center in 2021. As a nonprofit, SEARHC is exempt under state law from property taxes. In the agreement approved by the...
For more than 50 years, members of the Wrangell Art Gallery have come together once a week to work on projects, give each other feedback, and to spend time with artistic-minded friends. Along with creating one-of-a-kind artwork, they've also created a lot of memories. One of the members who has been with the group since the beginning, Olga Norris, still strives to learn new artistic mediums to work in, even at 93 years old. "There was a group of us that painted together for years, and the main...
The grand prize winner has been announced in the Vans Custom Culture nationwide art contest and, unfortunately, it was not Wrangell High School. Vans announced last Thursday that Moanalua High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, was selected as the grand prize winner, with a $50,000 award. Wrangell was one of four runners-up, winning $15,000 for the high school art program. Wrangell submitted two pairs of decorated Vans shoes back in March under the guidance of teacher Tasha Morse. She didn’t expect what happened next. “I went into this a bit une...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium plans to break ground in June on a four-room expansion to the 14-bed long-term care facility at Wrangell Medical Center. The 1,800-square-foot expansion was prompted by the community’s need for long-term care rooms “that are typically hard to come by,” SEARHC spokesperson Lyndsey Y. Schaefer said via email on Friday. SEARHC is adding to the building for the extension, she said Monday, but declined to provide a cost of the construction. “As it’s a pure estimate at this point, I’d rather not...
The borough assembly is looking at updated cost estimates and options to repair or replace the ailing Public Safety Building. If the assembly settles on a plan, it could go to voters this fall to seek approval to issue bonds to pay for the work. Assembly members were scheduled Tuesday evening to review three options presented by the Capital Facilities Department on what to do with the beleaguered, 34-year-old structure that houses the borough’s police department, jail, fire department, indoor shooting range and motor vehicle department, the fed...
The turnout was so nice, they did it twice. Due to the popularity of the Evergreen Elementary art walk held on Dec. 1, the school's social-emotional learning teacher Tawney Crowley worked with staff and students to hold another May 17. Along with art exhibits covering tables, lining walls and hanging from the ceiling, Tracey Martin, the Evergreen Agricultural Testing Site (EATS) garden instructor, was selling plants from the garden to raise funds to keep the project going. "We have tomatoes,...
An award and scholarship ceremony held May 13 at Wrangell High School lauded the achievement of many students and presented seniors with scholarships to further their educations. Teachers Lisa Brooks, Jack Carney, Winston Davies, Ann Hilburn, Donna Massin and Tasha Morse all presented various students with certificates and plaques to commemorate their accomplishments for the year. Community members presented a bevy of different scholarships to the seniors, such as Virginia Oliver, who presented...
A cleanup of abandoned pieces of old harbor floats the tribe was trying to get done this spring may be delayed until October. Project lead Kim Wickman said the high tides they need during daytime hours won't occur until then. Though the full effort will have to wait, Wickman, the Indian General Assistance Program technician at Wrangell Cooperative Association, and Valerie Massie, IGAP coordinator, tied off three large chunks of the old floats at Shoemaker Bay beach on May 18. The pieces are 40-...
By the narrowest of margins, 21-19, the House on the last night of the legislative session passed a bill implementing a statewide approach to how school districts intervene when students have difficulty reading. The session’s original reading legislation had been blocked in the House, opposed by several rural lawmakers and Democrats, but the Senate merged it into another education bill on the next-to-the-last day of session, forcing the House to accept or reject the entire package. The reading intervention bill was a priority of Gov. Mike D...
Port Director Steve Miller pulls newly repaired float tanks from the Marine Service Center to the barge ramp near the City Dock on the morning of May 10. Workers at Dave's Welding and Repair patched and rebuilt the tanks after port staff found a hole in one of the tanks last fall. After the repaired tanks were fully installed, the borough put the ramp back into service last Sunday, allowing the weekly Alaska Marine Lines barge to return to its usual berth instead of temporary unloading quarters...
The borough will be required to pay an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 to fulfill a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mitigation stipulation in order to obtain authorization to fill wetlands for the Mount Dewey trail extension project. The nearly $1 million trail project will hinge on what is called compensatory mitigation, after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March found the project will affect 0.55 acres, 0.05 more acres of wetlands than the borough anticipated, Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad said last Thursday. Compensation is not...
Lawmakers on the final day of the legislative session May 18 passed a bill to impose a tax on electronic smoking products, such as e-cigarettes, vaping sticks and refills. The tax, at 35% of the wholesale price, was in part a compromise between the original version of the bill, at 75%, and opponents who argued against taxing vaping products that could be a healthier alternative for smokers than traditional cigarettes, which are heavily taxed by the state and many municipalities. The new tax will take effect Jan. 1, 2023, unless Gov. Mike...
