Sorted by date Results 3541 - 3565 of 7954
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A Montana man was reunited with his 14-week-old border collie two days after the dog disappeared following a bear attack on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Jason Umbriaco was hospitalized after the brown bear with two cubs bit him twice June 27. “It was just a shock. I couldn’t believe it,” Umbriaco said after being reunited with Buckley. “I had kind of given up hope, and I was sort of making preparations inside to just move forward without him, and now it’s like I’m gonna have those times back of just joy, and peace.” The a...
SEATTLE (AP) - Each day, more deaths are being linked to the heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest last week, with medical staff who treated people overwhelmed by temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit saying the toll from the extreme weather will keep creeping up. Hundreds of deaths were being investigated as heat related in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia. The dangerous heat began June 25 and only began to subside in some areas on June 29. The death toll in Oregon alone has reached at least 95, the state medical...
After a rough pandemic-closed year for the tourism industry nationwide, especially in visitor-dependent Alaska, businesses are starting to show signs of recovery. And that means guests filling up overnight accommodations in Wrangell after a dismal 2020 visitor season. “In my estimation, this is my best year ever!” said Leslie Cummings. “My B&B muscles, my breakfast-cooking muscles are way out of shape. I feel like I had a year off, almost. It’s been kind of a challenge,” she said Monday. Leslie and her husband Alan run Grand View Bed & Breakfa...
Wrangell businesses did better than those in Skagway but worse than their counterparts in the larger and more diversified economies of Juneau and Sitka during the economic shutdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online survey of business owners and managers throughout the region. “On average, reporting businesses in the region lost 42% of their revenue due to COVID-19, while Wrangell businesses were down 48% overall,” the third highest for any community in the area, said the report issued by the Southeast Conference, com...
"Fly-fishing in general, I think, it's really hard to explain but everybody that I talk to about fly-fishing, that has fly-fished, they get it," Jason Rivers said. "It's really hard to explain to people until they've caught their first fish on a fly rod." Rivers, 47, has enjoyed fly-fishing from a young age, only recently pursuing it as a business. His interest dawned in Washington, when he saw somebody catch a steelhead trout while fly-fishing on the Kalama River. He really learned the "how...
The Alaska House avoided a government shutdown when it voted Monday for the state budget to take effect with the start of the new fiscal year today, though the political battles over state spending and the Permanent Fund dividend are far from over. Gov. Mike Dunleavy was expected to announce any budget vetoes on Wednesday, with Wrangell waiting to learn if he will reduce or eliminate two spending items specific to the community: Restoring the state’s commercial fisheries staffer in town, which Dunleavy eliminated a year ago, and restoring an Of...
The borough is selling the unused National Guard armory at 101 Second Ave. The armory was built in 1982 on land leased from the city, and the building was turned over to the borough when the Guard shut down its Wrangell operations in 2017. The 30-by-40-foot, wood-frame metal-sided building on a 0.21-acre lot has been appraised at $110,000. The borough has set a minimum price for the sale at $99,000. The borough had planned to sell the property by outcry auction, but the decision was postponed at...
Try telling the competitors who swim 1.2 miles in open water, bike for 56 miles and run for 15 miles that they are “unofficial.” Nicholas Howell organized the inaugural Tongass ToughMan Triathlon in 2019 as an official event, but the COVID-19 pandemic and health protocols knocked down attendance from more than 30 participants that first year to just three last year: Nicholas, his brother, and one other person. “Last year, with COVID happening, it just kind of became unofficial,” Howell said Monday. Unofficial meaning no permits or insuran...
With the arrival of the biggest cruise ship to call on Wrangell this summer a month away, the borough and the cruise company have settled on operating plans to help lessen any risk of spreading COVID-19 among passengers, crew and residents. Silversea Cruises is planning to dock the Silver Muse in town Aug. 1, 22 and Sept. 12. The ship has capacity to carry 600 passengers and a crew of 400. Basically, the cruise line and borough have agreed to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Wrangell Economic Development Director...
Friday, July 2 3-on-3 Basketball: Start at 10 a.m. At the covered play area behind Evergreen Elementary School. Chairperson: Christie Good Art Clark Scrap Fish Derby: 11 a.m. City Dock Summer Float Two age categories: 6-9 and 10-13 Rules: No parents allowed on floats unless they are one of the volunteers. All children must wear a life jacket at all times. Hand lines only; no rods or reels. One hook per line; one line per person. Contestants must bait their own hook. Any kind of bait can be... 
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It’s been about 25 years since Wrangell had a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary detachment — and Liz Buness wants to bring it back. She thought about the need while she was working aboard the state ferries for 16 years, vowing “when I retire, maybe that’ll happen.” Buness, who retired from the Alaska Marine Highway System as a chief purser in 2019, talked with Coast Guard auxiliary officials, took the classes required for auxiliary membership, and now serves as part of the Ketchikan flotilla in Wrangell. She decided this summer is a good time to s...
Wrangell is a dog-friendly town. With easy access to the outdoors and places to explore, exercise and play, the island is a dog’s paradise. However, the Wrangell Police Department wants people to remember there are rules when it comes to their pets. With the warmer weather, Chief Tom Radke said they are seeing more people just letting their dogs wander free, and they have seen an uptick in phone calls complaining about loose dogs. “You just can’t let your dog outside without being with your dog, and the dog’s on a leash,” he said. Municipal...
JUNEAU (AP) - The state of Alaska is trying to dispose of a 58-year-old, unused ferry, and even has offered to give it free to the government of the Philippines. Gov. Mike Dunleavy offered to give away the Malaspina in a letter last month to the Philippines consul general in San Francisco, public radio network CoastAlaska reported. “This vessel is surplus to our fleet, is in need of some repairs, but does have some service life left,” according to Dunleavy’s letter dated May 20 and obtained by the Alaska Public Media network in a routine publi...
The federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of policies that over the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced June 22. The unprecedented work will include compiling and reviewing records to identify past boarding schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tri...
SEASIDE, Calif. (AP) — Mike Gravel, who served as a U.S. senator from Alaska 1969-1981 and who read the anti-Vietnam War Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, has died. He was 91. Gravel died last Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. Gravel had been living in Seaside, California, and was in failing health, said Theodore W. Johnson, a former aide. Gravel’s two terms came during tumultuous years for Alaska when construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was authorized and when Congress was deciding how to settle Ala...
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled June 25 that Alaska Native corporations should benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in disputed coronavirus relief funds, rather than be denied access and the money instead spread among Native American tribes around the U.S. The justices ruled 6-3 in the case, which involved the massive pandemic relief package passed last year and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. The $2.2 trillion legislation earmarked $8 billion for “Tribal governments” to cover expenses related to the pandemic. The f...
SEATTLE (AP) - The hottest day of an unprecedented and dangerous heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest on Monday, with temperatures obliterating records that had been set just the day before. Seattle hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit by evening. Portland reached 116 on Monday after hitting records of 108 on Saturday and 112 on Sunday. The temperatures were unheard of in a region better known for rain, and where June has historically been referred to as “Juneuary” for its cool drizzle. Seattle’s average high temperature in June is around 70, and few...
A budget debate has brought the state to within a week of the start of the new fiscal year and the risk that state agencies could close on July 1 if the governor and legislators cannot settle the dispute. The battle between the governor and lawmakers is whether the budget adopted by the House and Senate last week is valid and can go into effect on July 1. Several legislative leaders generally say yes, it probably is OK, but the governor says no, he cannot sign the budget bill as approved. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has taken a two-option approach to...
Most of a half-mile of slippery boardwalk trail at the Anan Wildlife Observatory is being replaced with gravel this summer, but that's just one of several U.S. Forest Service projects planned and proposed for the Wrangell area over the next several years. The agency is accepting public comments on another project proposed at Anan - a new deck at the viewing platform. "The existing viewing platform has reached the end of its usable life and needs to be replaced,"according to the Forest Service...
Actually, the hot dogs will be cold dogs. A new event at this year’s Wrangell Fourth of July celebration will be a wiener toss, planned for 8:30 p.m. July 3 on Front Street. Sponsored by radio station KSTK, the toss will offer prizes for unusual tosses, not necessarily the longest toss or last to drop the dog, said Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber of commerce. “It’s throwing raw hot dogs at each other,”she said. While the long holiday weekend is just a week away and plans are set for most events, the chamber, which organizes...
Coastal lawmakers say they made progress this year toward at least halting the deterioration of the state ferry system, with the intent of maintaining reliable service in the years ahead. Their hopes, however, will have to wait on the governor’s decisions on the budget and also on legislation that would restructure the public advisory board for Alaska Marine Highway System operations. “It’s all got to get across the finish line,”past the possibility of any gubernatorial vetoes, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the budget-...
Kevin Stutz works the grill at the Elks Father's Day Picnic at Muskeg Meadows last Sunday, assisted by Kathy St. Clair (left) and Frank Roppel (background). The Elks sponsor a 9-hole best-ball golf tournament on Father's Day and hold a picnic after the tournament for members and guests. First place in the tournament went to the team of Brett Woodbury, Frank Roppel, Jeff Good and Jerry Bakeburg; second place went to Joe Delebrue, Ron Sowle, Ed Rilatos and Emily Mason. Delebrue also won the...
It’s been more than 15 months since Wrangell’s seniors sat down and enjoyed lunch together at the senior center, but that’s about to end. The building will reopen for in-person lunches on Monday, though only for fully vaccinated individuals. The pandemic-induced switch to exclusively delivered meals started last March. With the high rate of seniors who are fully vaccinated, and low COVID-19 case counts in town, the center is reopening for lunches, while still offering the option of delivered meals. Either way, the staff asks that people call...
"Since I was a kid, a 12-year-old kid, I just started hunting myself,"Trooper Chadd Yoder said. "My parents didn't hunt, so to start legally hunting I took my mom with me. I educated myself about hunting and got out there and did it. That started my love for the outdoors." Yoder, 33, said he is enjoying his dream job as Wrangell's new state wildlife trooper. He and his wife and three kids moved to Wrangell mid-April from Wasilla. He has been a trooper since 2019. Before that, he worked as a...
Wrangell’s municipal government will operate in the black for another fiscal year, under the budget adopted by the borough assembly Tuesday evening. However, the assembly is prepared to make amendments during the fiscal year, which starts July 1, as new information arises. The budget anticipates general fund revenues of about $6.4 million, which includes taxes, service fees, state and federal funding, and the annual conservative withdrawal of investment earnings from Wrangell’s own permanent fund. Of that total, about 60% is anticipated from sa...
