Sorted by date Results 2797 - 2821 of 7954
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska man walking on a shoreline wound up clinging to a chunk of ice for more than 30 minutes in frigid water when the shoreline ice broke loose and carried him out into Cook Inlet. Jamie Snedden, 45, of Homer, was rescued Feb. 26 near the community of Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia. He was expected to fully recover, state troopers said. Snedden “was reported to have been walking along the shoreline on the ice when it broke free and drifted into Coo...
It's raining cold, large drops that pool on the treacherous ice in Skagway, making it the kind of day that discourages dog walking. Regardless, Mo Mountain Mutts pulls up to Seven Pastures in their shiny white minibus and nine dogs of varying sizes disembark. They shed their leashes and head to Skagway River under the direction of Mo and Lee Thompson, forging their own path through the foliage. Once the pets reach the sand, they sprint, sniff, wrestle and socialize. Mo Thompson offers advice...
JUNEAU (AP) — Individuals will be allowed to make unlimited contributions to candidates for governor and the Legislature this year under a decision by the state commission that oversees Alaska campaign finance rules. The Alaska Public Offices Commission on March 3, failed to support a staff proposal to set revised limits in place of tighter caps that were struck down by a federal appeals court panel last year. The court invalidated Alaska’s $500-a-year individual donation limit to candidates, saying it was too low. The court, however, did not...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A federal agency tasked with investigating plane crashes is recommending that all pilots be required to communicate their positions on a designated radio frequency when entering and exiting areas not managed by air traffic control towers throughout Alaska. The recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration are included in a report from the National Transportation Safety Board following a mid-air collision that killed seven people, including an Alaska state lawmaker, near Soldotna on July 31, 2020. The report was p...
JUNEAU (AP) — A proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to split in half the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services — the state’s largest department — appears likely to take effect later this year. House and Senate leaders said it does not appear there are enough votes to block the move. Reorganization of the department, with more than 3,200 positions, has been billed as a way to improve operations and delivery of services. The proposal came through an executive order from the governor, and rejection of the order would req...
Alaska’s share of a $26 billion nationwide settlement with opioid distributors and a manufacturer is $58 million, the state Department of Law announced March 1. According to the Department of Law, 15% of the $58 million — roughly $8.7 million — will go to the nine cities and boroughs in Alaska that participated in the lawsuit. The remaining funds will be used by the state to help Alaskans recover from opioid addiction, the release said. The payments will stretch over the next two decades, under terms of the settlement. “All of us know someone w...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Interior Department has asked a federal court to let the agency suspend its right-of-way decision for a controversial, state-promoted mining road in Northwest Alaska. The department is conducting a further review of its original decision issued under the Trump administration. The agency signed the right-of-way permit in the final days before President Joe Biden took office. Federal officials filed the request Feb. 22 with the U.S. District Court for Alaska, seeking to fix what it called “significant deficiencies” in the o...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Climate scientists in the U.S. Pacific Northwest warned March 3 that much of Oregon and parts of Idaho can expect even tougher drought conditions this summer than in the previous two years, which already featured dwindling reservoirs, explosive wildfires and deep cuts to agricultural irrigation. At a news conference hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, water and climate experts from Oregon, Washington and Idaho said parts of the region should...
TOK (AP) — A new border station estimated to cost $187 million will be built on Alaska’s eastern boundary with Canada, the U.S. government announced last Friday. The Alaska Highway border crossing is about 50 miles east of Northway Junction, the closest community in Alaska. The funding for design and construction of the ALCAN Border Station will come from the federal infrastructure law, the U.S. General Services Administration said in a statement. The agency said the current border station, built in 1971, is the most isolated port of entry bet...
The owner of the former sawmill property at 6-Mile Zimovia Highway has accepted the borough’s offer of about $2.5 million to buy the 38.59 acres, which the borough sees as an economic development opportunity for the community. Borough Manager Jeff Good declined to name the exact amount but said Friday, “we did make an offer, they accepted.” Bennett McGrath, of Anchor Properties, in Petersburg, the representative for property owner Betty Buhler, said the borough initially offered $2.3 million and they “met in the middle” between $2.3 million a...
The school board voted unanimously Monday to make face masks optional for students, staff and visitors in school buildings beginning Wednesday. The board adopted changes to the district’s COVID-19 mitigation plan, including removing quarantine requirements for close contacts of infected individuals and for students and staff returning to town after traveling. After hearing from students and members of the public, the board voted unanimously to approve the changes. The face mask requirement has been in effect since the start of the school y...
The high-pitched grinding of metal on metal, the whirr of saw blades ripping through cedar, the crackle of a welding arc on aluminum are all sounds of building in progress and a brighter future for Wrangell's students. Fabrication classes, whether woodworking, metalworking or welding, give kids an alternative avenue when it comes to life beyond high school, bucking the traditional pathway of enrolling in college. According to Alaska Department of Labor, construction managers earn an average of...
Sitka will be the next Southeast airport to make the switch from free to paid parking. Petersburg made the move in December, when a private operator leased state airport property that had been used for free parking and converted it to a paid long-term lot. The Alaska Department of Transportation said parking management at the Sitka airport “has become an increasing challenge” for its crew. The department plans this month to advertise “to find a professional parking management company” to manage the lot in front of the terminal. The effort...
Public officials, community leaders and businesspeople from Wrangell and Juneau met online Feb. 11 to discuss possible solutions to Wrangell’s lack of child care options. Representatives of the Wrangell Cooperative Association, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Wrangell borough, SEARHC, Sealaska Corp. and Little Eagles and Ravens Nest (LEARN) talked through the problems. WCA IGAP Coordinator Valerie Massie, one of the meeting attendees, said she and others “saw child care and housing as the two main hur...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association was told last month it will receive $620,000 in federal funding from the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, a $25 million U.S. Forest Service investment to diversify the economy of Southeast communities. The tribe plans to spend $500,000 on a project to carve new totem poles, $60,000 on a cultural symposium and $60,000 toward cultural preservation, such as promoting traditional, healthy foods and adding the Tlingit names to signs around town. WCA plans to hire a master carver and obtain the logs to...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association has announced the candidates for its March 8 tribal council election. There are 11 candidates for four seats on the eight-member council: Heidi Armstrong, Lavina Brock, Robyn Byrd, Samuel Campus, Frank Churchill Jr., Caroline Demmert, Timothy Gillen Sr., Olivia Main, Edward Rilatos Jr., Amber Lynn Wade and Asia White are on the ballot, according to a list provided by tribal administrator Esther Reese last Friday. Rilatos, Churchill and Brock currently serve on the council. Voters are instructed to vote for n...
An annual 200-acre treatment limit on the U.S. Forest Service's invasive plant management program in the 3.7-million-acre Wrangell-Petersburg district has the agency revamping and possibly expanding its efforts to eradicate foreign weeds that could damage the ecosystem and economy. Since 2015, the Forest Service has been pulling, digging and spot-spraying plants like knotweed and canarygrass that are not naturally occurring in Southeast. But project managers say it's not enough and they need to...
Sweet Tides Bakery co-owners Shawna Buness and Devyn Johnson, who have been working together almost a year, will open their new shop Thursday, offering cakes, sourdough loaves and pastries, along with deli sandwiches featuring cheeses and meats smoked on-site and served on freshly baked bread. The store also will carry its own sauces and aiolis. A ribbon-cutting at 11:45 a.m. will precede the opening at noon Thursday. They plan to open for breakfast at 7 a.m. the next day. The bakery is in the...
The cost to cap a hole and rebuild the flotation tanks at the barge ramp has escalated since the problem was discovered last fall. The borough assembly on Feb. 22 approved a $211,220 contract with the only bidder for the job — Dave Miller, of Dave’s Welding & Repair. “The repair work includes sandblasting and recoating the inside and outside of both tank sections and their uprights and welding 3/8-inch-thick double plates to the bottom of the larger tank,” staff reported to the assembly. The assembly at its Nov. 9 meeting authorized $115,00...
Looking to possibly boost returns with minimal risk, the assembly has voted unanimously to amend municipal code to allow investment of the borough’s enterprise funds in stocks and bonds. The collective balance of the five generally self-supported enterprises funds was more than $9 million last month — Municipal Light & Power, the water system, sewer system, sanitation services and port and harbors funds. Those five accounts are maintained separately from general fund government expenses. Finance Director Mason Villarma told the assembly on Feb...
What dog doesn’t love finding scraps of dead salmon. Usually it’s a smelly cleanup for the dog’s owner, but this time it was a real treasure. In Haines, Lilly Ford’s Siberian Laika puppy Sacha sniffs everything, which is how Rebecca Brewer’s lost wallet was retrieved from a snow berm along Chilkat Inlet. Brewer had noticed her salmon-skin wallet missing in early February. She posted notices around town at places where she may have left it behind. She notified the police. After a few days, she canceled the credit cards inside. “I thought I’d nev...
One of the goals of high school senior projects is seeing a need in the community and filling it. That's just what Ryan Rooney and Emma Martinsen are doing. The two teamed up when their shop teacher Winston Davies told them that boat carts had fallen into disrepair. They saw it as an opportunity to put their welding skills to use by building new carts for people hauling supplies to and from their boats. "It seemed pretty straightforward, and it didn't seem like there were very many carts...
Nick Allen, a 16-year-old high school junior, likes to draw boats. "I live in a fishing community," Allen said. "Been around boats my entire life. Drawing them was even cooler." Allen said he started drawing around the age of 12. First it was speedboats. About a year and a half ago he "moved into the commercial fishing side of art." "I drew a seiner first and it was terrible," he said. "To see the progress over a year and a half, it's insane." He's now making stickers of his artwork, and...
JUNEAU (AP) — A Sitka lawmaker broke two bones in his right leg after crashing his paraglider in Anchorage on Feb. 19. Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins returned to Juneau on Feb. 23. He had been recuperating in Anchorage following surgery and attending committee meetings remotely. He will be on crutches for about six weeks. Anchorage Rep. Laddie Shaw was out paragliding with Kreiss-Tomkins when the accident occurred at Flattop Mountain. “We just got together and went for a little hike on Flattop Mountain,” said Shaw, a former Navy SEAL who regul...
A mixed martial artist who was the inaugural flyweight champion on a 2017 television show - and made history as the first American Native woman Ultimate Fighting Championship title holder - punched in a short visit to Wrangell in February. The purple-belt jiu jitsu holder, who was in town to visit a friend, made a surprise drop-in on a Wrangell class Feb. 16 without telling the participants who she was, at first. "Normally, it's been Victoria Carney and I," Wrangell jiu jitsu instructor Matt...
