Sorted by date Results 3906 - 3930 of 7954
After their first application was too early, a group of 10 Wrangell residents on Monday refiled an application to recall Mayor Steve Prysunka after waiting the legally required 120 days into his term. The recall is in response to a meeting the borough assembly held Nov. 12, where members imposed a mask mandate and fines for violators. According to the recall application, the meeting and actions taken during it were in violation of state and municipal laws. It was called without a locally...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking lawmakers to put before voters this summer a $356 million bond issue for projects across the state. The governor wants a special election - rather than waiting until the next statewide vote in 2022 - to get the work out sooner to help the pandemic-tattered economy. "This statewide bond package is essential to stabilizing our economy and putting Alaskans back to work following the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic," Dunleavy said in a statement. "Not only will...
JUNEAU - A state corporation is seeking almost $4.5 billion in federal funding to help build a $5.9 billion pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to Fairbanks. The project is being promoted as the first phase of the state-sponsored $38 billion project to move North Slope gas more than 800 miles to Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, where the gas would be supercooled into a liquid and loaded aboard 1,000-foot-long tankers to buyers in Asia. The larger project to transport and sell North Slope natural gas overseas has been around for decades,...
KETCHIKAN (AP) - The owners of a Ketchikan supermarket that was severely damaged by a rockslide plan to permanently close the business. Tatsuda’s Supermarket CEO Katherine Tatsuda announced the closure of the store on Feb. 1. “It is with sadness in my heart that I tell you Tatsuda’s IGA will not be returning, but this is not the end of the Tatsuda family serving our community,” she wrote in a social media post reported by the Ketchikan Daily News. Tatsuda said she made the decision with her father and co-owner, Bill Tatsuda Jr. An early m...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A former attorney at the Native American Rights Fund in Alaska and member of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma will become a top official in the U.S. Department of the Interior, the agency said in a statement Feb. 3. Natalie Landreth will become deputy solicitor for land with the Interior Department after spending 17 years with the Native American Rights Fund, which represents tribes in treaty rights, public lands, aboriginal rights and environmental laws, the federal agency said. Rep. Debra Haaland, a member of the Laguna...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Alaska Wildlife Troopers have killed a moose after a woman posted a video on social media showing herself feeding and petting the animal. Troopers said the juvenile male moose had become comfortable around people and subsequently posed a public safety risk, Anchorage Daily News reported Feb. 1. The video posted on Facebook by Angel Bunch of Palmer was forwarded to authorities, Alaska State Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said. The live video showed Bunch feeding carrots to the moose and petting the animal from the doorway of...
ANCHORAGE (AP) – The state-operated Anchorage Pioneer Home for older Alaskans has reopened its doors to family members and others eager to see residents after a lockdown of 11 months. The building welcomed back visitors beginning Feb. 3. The largest state-run assisted living facility closed to outsiders in March 2020 to protect its vulnerable residents from the coronavirus. The state operates six homes serving nearly 500 Alaska residents ages 60 and older in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Palmer, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. While some of the f...
JUNEAU (AP) – Proposed state legislation would protect the graves of Native Alaskans forcibly displaced from the Aleutian Islands by adding land to a state park on Admiralty Island in Southeast. The bill would increase the land within Funter Bay State Marine Park near Juneau to include a cemetery holding the graves of 30 to 40 Aleut people who died there during World War II. The measure, if approved by the state Legislature, would prevent the land from being sold or developed, public radio station KTOO in Juneau reported Feb. 3. The U.S. g...
Two new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Wrangell on Wednesday afternoon. According to the city, these latest cases are Wrangell residents who recently traveled together out of state. They both tested positive in travel-related testing, according to the city statement, and have been in quarantine since arriving in town. Both individuals are asymptomatic, the city said. The two are the only active COVID-19 cases in Wrangell, the city reported. The previous 29 individuals with the virus have recovered, according to the city... Full story
More than 600 Wrangell residents had received their first COVID-19 vaccination shot, and more than half of those had received their second dose, too, as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, the community's health care provider, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, will open the vaccination list even further as more doses become available in the community and is encouraging people to register for the shot so they are ready when their group is called. "Depending on the people registered and vaccine...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking legislators for $2 million in state funds to hold a special election this summer, to ask voters their opinion of a Permanent Fund dividend that would average $2,400 a year for the rest of the decade and beyond. The governor's proposal is to split the annual withdrawal of Permanent Fund earnings between dividends and public services 50-50. He introduced legislation to call for the special election as an advisory vote, and a few days later promoted the issue in his...
After a seven-week absence, Wrangell's community markets will return this Saturday at the Nolan Center. "We're really excited to have it back," Nolan Center Director Cyni Crary said of the event, planned for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The community markets are an opportunity for enterprising locals to show off their homemade goods for sale. Past markets have seen items ranging from baked goods to artwork to jewelry, and more. The last market was held Dec. 19, Crary said. The event was put on hiatus...
Being creative with food, and providing meals for people, is a passion for Nic Martin. It came from his mother, he said, and further developed during this time on fishing boats. As a kid, his mother would have the family pull together all the leftovers and whatever was left in the pantry once a week and make a meal out of it. As a fisherman, he learned to be creative turning limited ingredients into meals. He is now bringing this passion and creativity to Wrangell's newest pizzeria: Nic's...
Fiscal stability, infrastructure and land development are among Wrangell's priorities for the near future. But it will not be easy. "I'm certain that this involves us purchasing a printing press and having a secret room where we come up with the funds we need to do what's necessary," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said jokingly. "As the state continues to face fiscal hardship, as we continue to get downward pressure in a number of different ways, and at the same time the cost of operations is...
The Wrangell community group BRAVE (Building Respect and Valuing Everyone) has embarked on a "revival mode" after slowing down last year for the pandemic. BRAVE, which was founded in 2017, has as its mission statement: "To provide advocacy for healthy relationships in our community through prevention programs, resource referral and community engagement." It has been an unofficial sister organization to WISH (Women in Safe Homes), the Ketchikan shelter for victims of domestic violence which also...
Anti-tobacco advocates thought a little friendly competition between Wrangell and Petersburg might draw attention to their message. "It's been a challenge to reach people because we're not having face-to-face meetings," said Tammi Meissner, Wrangell SEARHC health educator. Organizers put up posters in each town, showing the connection between tobacco use, e-cigarettes and health, and asked people to find and take pictures of the hidden posters, and then put them on the event's Facebook page....
A local tax on tobacco products would be a "win-win-win" for Wrangell, a health educator said. Promoting public health is a win, as is reducing smoking among teens - plus the borough could gain a new source of revenue, SEARHC Health Educator Tammi Meissner told the borough assembly Jan. 26. "Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the U.S.," Meissner said. "One in five adults in Southeast Alaska smoke, and one in three American Indian and Alaska Native adults smoke in...
The city announced a new case of COVID-19 in Wrangell on Saturday morning. It was not related to any travel. This latest case, the 29th for the community, was reported as a local resident infected with the virus. According to the city's press release, the resident had not traveled recently. The person has been notified and is in isolation, the city said. The weekend report was the only active case of COVID-19 in Wrangell. The previous 28 are all reported as recovered. Residents who experience...
VANCOUVER, BC (AP) - Public condemnation has grown over a wealthy Vancouver couple who allegedly flew to a remote Indigenous community in Canada’s Yukon Territory to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. Marc Miller, Canada’s federal Indigenous services minister, said he was “disgusted” by the purported actions of Rodney Baker and his wife, Ekaterina, who have been issued tickets under Yukon’s Emergency Measures Act and face fines of up to $1,000 Canadian (US$783) plus fees. Baker resigned on Jan. 24 as Great Canadian Gaming Corp.’s president a...
JUNEAU (AP) - More people are leaving the city of Juneau than arriving because of state budget cuts and declining state jobs, labor officials said. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates more than 1,300 people have moved out of Juneau since the city’s population peaked at 33,162 in 2015, public radio KTOO-FM reported. Juneau lost 172 residents from July 2018 to July 2019, and 286 residents from July 2019 to July 2020, officials said. The state population has also declined during that time. Agency economist Sara Teel...
After missing 2020 due to the pandemic, the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines plans to return this year. The board voted unanimously last month to put together some version of the annual event, according to the Chilkat Valley News in Haines. But it will not be a normal year. Southeast Alaska State Fair Executive Director Kari Johnson said events are likely to be smaller and will certainly be outdoors. “We are hopeful,” Johnson told KHNS public radio. “Yes, there’s going to be one. It might be big, it might be small. … I think we’re kin...
JUNEAU (AP) - Officials in Alaska’s capital city are working on measures to prevent disruptions of online public meetings that have included verbal abuse of at least one assembly member. The use of videoconferences allows the public to continue observing and participating city government meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, but there have been problems, Juneau public radio station KTOO reported Jan. 26. City officials estimated there have been about a dozen instances of what has become known as “Zoom bombing,” or planned disruptions of me...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Fewer Alaska residents had routine cancer screenings in 2020 than in the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors said. There were 330 fewer mammograms and 28 fewer lung cancer screenings last year than there were in 2019 at Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital, said Paul Hawkins, director of the hospital’s diagnostic imaging center. Some medical providers said the screening decrease was likely linked to anxiety related to the virus that has lasted through the pandemic, the Anchorage Daily News reported Jan...
JUNEAU (AP) - Alaska has detected the state’s first known case of the coronavirus variant identified last year in the United Kingdom, officials said Jan. 26. The infected person is an Anchorage resident who had traveled to a state where the variant had already been detected, the Alaska health department said. The person first experienced symptoms on Dec. 17, was tested three days later and received a positive result Dec. 22. The resident lived with another person in Anchorage, who also became ill. Both isolated and have since recovered, o...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Severe child abuse cases in Alaska have increased significantly at times during the coronavirus pandemic, experts said. As students return to classrooms, child welfare advocates are assessing the impact of the pandemic on child abuse, Alaska Public Media reported Jan. 27. Visits by one clinic to children in need of hospitalization for severe injuries because of suspected abuse skyrocketed by 173% in the past year, said Mike Canfield, a spokesperson for Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. “This absolutely reflects a...
