Sorted by date Results 3533 - 3557 of 7980
The first cruise ship to cancel runs through Southeast Alaska this summer due to COVID-19 cases on board is tied up in Juneau, waiting for the 10-day quarantine for the crew to end. The 267-foot American Constellation, which was carrying 162 passengers and a crew of 52, docked in Juneau last Saturday after a day earlier letting off several people in Petersburg for medical care and quarantine. Uninfected passengers flew home from Juneau, while the crew remains on board. “The three individuals who tested positive for COVID-19, along with their cl...
With over $450,000 in promised federal funding, the city will spend the next few months scoping out a possible extension of the Mt. Dewey trail. “There are so many conditions or issues at play that affect our timeline,” Amber Al-Haddad, Wrangell capital facilities director, said. “Assuming we got that money in short order we would move forward and pursue the full engineering design of the project. … Our best case would be to see this project constructed in the summer of 2022.” The proposed extension would connect to the trail somewhere...
The Baha’is of Wrangell are offering a summer “virtues camp” for children ages 5 to 10, covering moderation, unity, beauty, speech, love and wonder. The six sessions will be held 11 a.m. to noon Mondays and Tuesdays, July 19 through Aug. 3, at the community center, with music, art and games planned for noon to 1:30 p.m. after each session. Participants may select one or some or all of the sessions. The summer camp is free, with a light lunch provided, and is open to everyone. Campers are advised to bring a water bottle. To register, or for m...
Randy Easterly took the top spot in the unlimited-horsepower competition in the Fourth of July boat races over the 1,800-foot-long course in front of the City Dock, with Wayne Easterly winning first place in the limited competition for 115-horsepower and under. The limited and unlimited races were double-elimination, head-to-head competition. Brandon Kenfield won the jet slalom race, a timed event. This year's winners were: Jet slalom 1st, Bandon Kenfield, 20.94 seconds; $500 2nd, Britni...
The third annual Tongass ToughMan triathlon drew 22 competitors to swim, bike and run through Wrangell, with Rob Cross logging the best solo time of 7 hours, 54 minutes and 40 seconds. After sparse turnout last year, the July 3 event this year attracted almost as many competitors as 2019. The triathlon results: Solo Rob Cross, 7:54:50 Patrick Howell, 9:11:00 Robbie Rooney, 12:45:00 Senoe Harris (completed swim and bike but not the run) Team Jackie McMahon, Ceona Koch and Jason Rooney, 8:39:30 Jimmy Nelson and Chadd Yoder, 8:42:35 Sage Smiley,...
The Fourth of July target competition, held July 3 at the gun range, saw a big turnout. According to organizer Allen Rooney, 69 people came out to shoot and test their skills. The results of the competition are: Boys Gavin Dabrowski, 34 points Jace Felix, 32 points Gavin Hunt, 30 points Girls Braidyn Young, 23 points Kiara Harrison, 17 points Peyton Paulo-Sambito, 15 points Men John Buness, 45 points Jean-Luc Lewis, 44 points John Felix, 42 points Women Jeanie Littlejohn, 27 points Leslie...
Though the library is not completely closing the book on pandemic protocols, the numbers are up and “the kids are coming in,” with 153 registered for the summer reading program, said Margaret Villarma, director at the Irene Ingle Public Library. That’s just a small drop from the roughly 170 summer readers of 2019, pre-pandemic. “It feels like we’re pretty much back,” she said. The summer reading program will end July 31, with an in-person pool party planned for Aug. 7. “We’ve always had this pool pizza party,” Villarma said. Always, that is, ex...
Alaska lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene in another special session in just over two weeks to consider a long-term fiscal plan for the state — and to set the amount of this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend. The Aug. 2 start date for the special session could be delayed by legislative agreement with the governor, or the session could drag on all month. The dominating deadline will come sometime in September, when the Department of Revenue will need to know the amount of the PFD payment, which usually is issued the first week of October. Gov...
A group seeking Gov. Mike Dunleavy's ouster has yet to gather enough signatures to force a recall election, nearly two years after getting started and with just over a year before the 2022 primary election. Recall Dunleavy Chair Meda DeWitt said the organization was slowed by the pandemic last year but still continues to gather signatures. She said its leaders are expected to meet soon, though she declined to say when. The last update on the recall group's website is dated April 26 and showed 57,897 signatures collected. DeWitt said the group...
NEW TOWN, N.D. - On oil well pads carved from the wheat fields around Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota, hundreds of pump jacks slowly bob to extract 100 million barrels of crude annually from a reservation shared by three Native American tribes. About half their 16,000 members live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation atop one of the biggest U.S. oil discoveries in decades: The Bakken shale formation. The drilling rush has brought the tribes unimagined wealth - more than $1.5 billion and...
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington state’s death toll from last month’s record-breaking Pacific Northwest heat wave has risen to 78. A year earlier, Washington had just seven heat-related deaths from mid-June to the end of August, the state Department of Health said last week. From 2015 to 2020, there were a total of 39 deaths. Oregon on July 7 reported 116 deaths following temperatures that shattered previous all-time records during the three-day heat wave. Of the 116 deaths recorded in Oregon, the youngest victim was 37 and the oldest was 97. I...
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) - Sockeye salmon at risk from high water temperatures are being captured at an eastern Washington dam to save as many of the endangered fish headed for Idaho as possible, wildlife managers said. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said workers started trapping the salmon July 5 at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River and trucking them to hatcheries to be artificially spawned or to Redfish Lake in central Idaho for release. Lance Hebdon of Fish and Game said water temperatures in the Snake and Salmon rivers have been as...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The leaders of Alaska’s Republican Party on Saturday endorsed a Trump-backed conservative challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been one of the GOP’s most outspoken critics of the former president. The Alaska Republican State Central Committee endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the 2022 race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Murkowski. The committee approved Tshibaka’s endorsement in a 58-17 vote during a meeting in Fairbanks. Tshibaka, who ran the Alaska Department of Administration for Gov. Mike Dunleavy, annou...
Sealaska Heritage Institute has released the first children's book in the Haida language Xaad Kil through its Baby Raven Reads program. "Nang Jaadaa Sgaana 'Laanaa aa Isdaayaan," or "The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales," is a story carried down through generations orally and published through the work of a team of artists and linguists. "It's the first book I ever illustrated, and now it's the first children's book in the Haida language," said Haida illustrator Janine Gibbons. "I had to...
CRANBROOK, British Columbia (AP) - A Canadian Indigenous group said June 30 a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site near a former Catholic Church-run residential school that housed Indigenous children taken from their families. The latest discovery of graves near Cranbrook, British Columbia, follows reports of similar findings at two other such church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves and another of 215 bodies. Cranbrook is 520 miles east of Vancouver. The Lower Kootenay B...
Borough officials late Friday afternoon reported Wrangell's second COVID-19 case since the Fourth of July celebration. The individual is a Wrangell resident who had not recently traveled out of town, but is linked to the other case reported earlier this week. "The individual is symptomatic and is isolating. No additional information is known at this time," the borough said in its prepared statement. This week's two cases are the first confirmed COVID-19 infections reported in Wrangell since June 17. The Parks and Recreation Department on...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy used his veto power to thwart a legislative effort to boost the state ferry system budget. The governor cut almost $8.5 million from an overall appropriation of $190.7 million intended to cover the next 18 months of Alaska Marine Highway System operations. The veto scales back the budget closer to last year’s level on a 12-month basis and frustrates legislative attempts to restore some of the service cuts under the governor’s administration. This is the third budget Dunleavy has signed since he took office in December 201...
Legislators are scheduled to return to Juneau next month and will try again to settle on an amount for this fall's Permanent Fund dividend after the governor vetoed the $525 PFD appropriated by lawmakers. The Legislature's budget writers had negotiated an $1,100 dividend, but the amount was tied to other items in the budget, and proponents of a bigger PFD objected to the amount and to the linking maneuver, denying their votes for sections of the spending bill that would have pulled additional...
After a long year of empty boat stalls and a diminished tourism industry, 2021 is motoring in the direction of normalcy for many Southeast communities, with several towns - Wrangell included - reporting an increase in yacht traffic. Wrangell saw only a dozen yachts in 2020, estimated Harbormaster Steve Miller, but already this year 18 or 19 have called on town as of July 2. Looking ahead, the months of July and August are the busiest for bear viewing at Anan Creek, the community's prime summer attraction. It is also a busy time of year for trip...
As of last week, employees, contractors and volunteers with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which operates in Wrangell and 18 other communities, must show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs or access to the facilities. Exceptions will be allowed for staff who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of anaphylaxis or allergy to the vaccine, or “persons whose sincere religious observances and practices related to life, purpose or death oppose vaccines,” according to the policy. “Do...
“Last year, we went Bearfest Lite,” said Sylvia Ettefagh, organizer of Wrangell’s annual summer festival. “It is back to Bearfest Full,” she said of this year’s event, which is less three weeks away. Bearfest 2021 opens July 28 and runs through Aug. 1, with almost two dozen activities already listed on the website last week. “We’ll be adding more,” Ettefagh said. With the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, organizers hope to return to the 300 or so participants who joined in, signed up, listened, watched, learned, danced, ate and golfed in...
Legislative efforts to restore an Office of Children’s Services caseworker in Wrangell and fund a commercial fisheries staffer in town survived the governor’s budget vetoes. Wrangell lost its Department of Fish and Game position last year due to the governor’s budget cuts, and has been without a children’s services caseworker for several years. The borough and school district both had spoken in support of restoring the caseworker job in town, with the borough offering to provide free rent and help with the salary to entice state funding. Though...
"How long it's been going? Since I was a 3 year old, I think," said Jamie Stough, 38, one of the volunteers running the Art Clark Scrap Fish Derby. "My parents started it. They did it as a tribute to Art Clark, the old carver in town, and since then we've been doing it. My family was finally going to give it away to somebody else this year and I was like, 'Nope! I'm taking it.'" The derby was held off of the City Dock on July 2. Kids ages 6 to 13 were invited to come out, throw a line off the...
The Fourth of July is a fun time for all ages in Wrangell, even for those still learning how to walk. Sunday's festivities included toddler games on the City Hall lawn. Candy was thrown around the lawn for the kids to race to pick up, seeing who could get the most. The results were: Babies not yet crawling: Saydee Bartlett Babies not yet walking: Tylon Grant Girls not yet 2: 1st place, Ember Rae 2nd place, Emilee Stewart 3rd place, Leah Comstock Honorable mentions: Kinsley Garvey and Aeralynn...
Just like so many other events returned to Wrangell’s Fourth of July this year, the Chuck Oliver Logging Show was back after taking a COVID-19 year off. Oliver started the show in 1975, and he and his family members ran the event off and on for many years, featuring logging skills and tools common in the timber industry, a callback to the days when Wrangell was a logging town. Randy Oliver, Chuck’s son, retired in 2019 after the 45th logging show, and Tom Roland and his crew of volunteers too...
