Sorted by date Results 3890 - 3914 of 7954
Wrangell's newest police officer started work last week. Yuriy Bezzubenko, formerly of Hoonah, North Carolina and Ukraine, said he joined the Wrangell Police Department in pursuit of new opportunities. "Wrangell offered more opportunities for training, thus I came to Wrangell and I've decided to stay here," he said. "It was a bigger town, had a lot more people, also the police department was a lot bigger." Wrangell has almost three times the population of Hoonah, about 160 miles to the...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, Wrangell's tribal organization, and the Salvation Army collaborated last Friday to hand out 50 food boxes to people in need, with a second distribution planned for this Friday. Esther Reese, WCA tribal administrator, said her organization signed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to participate in their Farmers to Families Food Box program. It's a nationwide effort to support farmers and families, with the federal government buying the food from...
JUNEAU (AP) - A man in a pickup truck was arrested after the Alaska Transportation Department said he drove past boarding lines to get onto a state-run ferry at the dock in Juneau on Feb. 10 and was heard by crew “muttering about a bomb and firearms.” The Juneau Police Department said the man did not have a ticket to board the LeConte’s morning voyage and “made a comment about a bomb” when confronted by ferry employees. The police department, in a release, said the comment was not a direct threat and the man did not say he had a bomb. But it sa...
SITKA - With protocols for coronavirus mitigation and testing, as well as hope for a more expansive vaccine rollout, Sitka-based maritime tourism company Allen Marine plans to return to form this spring and summer, the company said last week. Bookings on Allen Marine’s subsidiary company, Alaska Dream Cruises, have seen significant demand, Allen Marine’s Zak Kirkpatrick reported in an online press and industry meeting. The Dream Cruises operate solely in Alaska waters, unaffected by Canada’s decision earlier this month to keep its waters close...
HONOLULU (AP) - Senators from Hawaii and Alaska on Feb. 11 were elected the chairperson and vice chairperson of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, will serve as chairperson. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, will be vice chairperson. Both senators emphasized the panel’s bipartisan traditions in their first committee hearing in Washington. Schatz said the federal trust responsibility to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians should be the guiding light f...
HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii’s governor has said he is cautious about loosening air travel restrictions for people who have received a coronavirus vaccine, while stressing that new virus variants are not widespread in the state. Democratic Gov. David Ige said researchers are still unclear about whether the vaccine hampers virus transmission. “Until the science (tells) us that those who are vaccinated cannot carry the virus and, I think most important, do not transmit it to other people, I think it would be irresponsible to say that those vac...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - School officials in Alaska’s second-largest municipality implemented a new policy requiring masks at sporting events last week in response to coronavirus outbreaks at a half-dozen Matanuska-Susitna Borough district schools. Three large high schools in the district — Colony, Palmer, Wasilla — are among five facilities closed as of Feb. 12 because of the outbreaks, the Anchorage Daily News reported. It was unclear when they would reopen. Public health officials said some of the confirmed COVID-19 cases started with students mixin...
Without diplomatic intervention, large cruise ships aren’t coming to Alaska this year. Canada closed its waters to foreign ships with more than 250 passengers. That means Alaska’s big-ship cruise season for 2021 is effectively cancelled. Skagway officials unveiled their backup plan Feb. 10. “We can’t cry in our pillow that we’re not a cruise ship destination this year. We need to be excited about what we are,” said Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata. He told the virtual town hall that 2021 will be about survival. He acknowledged the summer seas...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Three rural Alaska communities have launched a pilot program intended to create more culturally sensitive protocols on how government and law enforcement should respond to cases with missing or slain Alaska Natives. The Curyung Native Council in Dillingham, the Native Village of Unalakleet and the Koyukuk Native Village have launched the program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska said in a statement. The three will work with state agencies to create a Tribal Community Response Plan that will determine law e...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - An Alaska skier who was injured by a bear when his group accidently disturbed the animal’s den was released from a Juneau hospital. The Chilkat Valley News reported 40-year-old Bart Pieciul was released Feb. 9 after sustaining injuries in the attack during a backcountry ski trip near Haines last Saturday. Pieciul had surgery on a broken arm and will need a second surgery to remove metal pins implanted by doctors. Pieciul and his ski partners, Graham Kraft and Jeff Moskowitz, were going up a mountainside above Chilkoot Lake w...
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - U.S. Interior Department officials on Feb. 11 canceled a Trump administration directive that gave local and state officials power to block purchases of land and water for conservation. Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega rescinded a November order from former Secretary David Bernhardt that had been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats, who said the Trump administration ignored their wishes when it changed a program that is paid for billions of dollars in conservation work over more than five decades. In...
A month ago, the draft cruise ship schedule for Wrangell showed 50 stops in town, with the two largest vessels able to accommodate 1,100 and 1,300 passengers and crew. But now, there's not much the community can do but wait to see whether or not smaller ships still come to town, said Stephanie Cook, executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce. A Feb. 4 decision by the government of Canada to keep its waters closed to cruise ship traffic through February 2022 blocks the larger vessels...
It helps, but it doesn't solve the problem. The latest round of federal relief aid is equal to about half of this year's school budget deficit. The $900 billion relief bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the president at the end of December included $54 billion to be distributed nationwide to help K-12 schools reopen and assist with additional expenses and lost revenues due to the pandemic. Of that $54 billion, the Alaska Department of Education received almost $144 million that it ha...
As part of ongoing efforts to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the chief medical officer of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium stood in front of a Wrangell audience - live and on Zoom - to take questions. The Wrangell Cooperative Association had invited Dr. Elliot Bruhl to town, where he explained how the vaccine works, how it was developed, and answered questions from the public Feb. 4 at the Nolan Center. As of Feb. 4, 680 people in Wrangell had received their...
Maybe Alaskans just needed more time to get used to the idea of paying taxes, or maybe the risk of losing their Permanent Fund dividend woke them up to the state's dire fiscal situation. Whatever the reason, several legislators say their colleagues and constituents are now more willing to talk about, consider and maybe even accept taxes. "I think that when you're bent over the cliff, hanging by your ankles, it brings reality into sharper focus," said Fairbanks Sen. Click Bishop, co-chair of the...
Wrangell Finance Director Joyce Mason will leave the job near the end of the month, according to the city. Mason has served as finance director since August 2019. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said in an email that Mason wants to spend more time with her family in Craig. Mason will work through Feb. 25, Von Bargen said, though she may "assist with some limited duties remotely following that." The city is searching for a new finance director. The position will "appeal to a candidate who...
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...
