Sorted by date Results 1344 - 1368 of 1731
Imagine performing in a band or choir but not being able to practice with the other performers on the stage. That's how students from Southeast high schools have to approach Honors Fest. Each year, high schoolers from across the region audition for the event, and this year two students from Wrangell were scheduled to perform on Tuesday with 73 other musicians in Ketchikan. The event was supposed to be held at Wrangell High School last year. Normally, about 120 students perform during Honors...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Seeking a 26th term in the U.S. House, Alaska Rep. Don Young will face a Republican challenger in 2022 with strong name recognition in the state. Nicholas Begich III has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to challenge Young’s hold on the state’s sole seat in the U.S. House. Young is only the fourth person to hold the seat since statehood and won it in a special election a year after Begich’s grandfather, Rep. Nick Begich, was declared dead after his plane went missing while flying to Juneau in 1972. But unl...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alabama man living in Alaska whom a judge alleged was “leading the charge” during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was denied release Oct. 21 in an Alaska courtroom while his case proceeds. Christian Matthew Manley waived his right to preliminary hearing and asked that he be immediately transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the jurisdiction prosecuting those charged in the riot. Manley faces several charges, including assaulting or resisting officers using a dangerous weapon; civil...
The Alaska Legislature is in special session but it’s quiet at the Capitol, where many legislative offices have been dark, floor sessions in some cases have lasted seconds and little progress has been made toward resolving the state’s fiscal issues. Since the session started Oct. 4 in Juneau, House committees have had five meetings on fiscal-related topics, all in Anchorage; the Senate has had no such hearings. “I don’t think it’s making a lot of sense to be here doing what we’re doing right now. If we’re not going to do anything, gav...
Skagway’s borough assembly has voted unanimously to work with the Skagway Traditional Council to authorize ground-penetrating radar — and some shovel work — at the former Pious X Mission School site, which operated from 1932 to 1959 and served about 60 Indigenous children. The property is now owned by the municipality, which uses it as a seasonal RV park. The borough in recent years has considered redeveloping the property as a housing subdivision or making utility improvements and continuing RV services for independent travelers. The Skagw...
JUNEAU (AP) — The longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House is appearing in a new round of ads urging Alaskans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Ads featuring Rep. Don Young are being paid for by the Conquer COVID Coalition, Young spokesperson Zack Brown said by email Monday. The coalition, which includes businesses and health care and Alaska Native organizations, seeks to educate people on steps to guard against COVID-19. Young, 88, “believes the vaccines are safe, effective and can help save lives,” Brown said in response to quest...
Fishermen are calling for state and federal fisheries managers to make changes to salmon bycatch limits for trawlers as chinook salmon numbers plummet across Alaska. Chinook returns were dismal virtually everywhere in Alaska this year, from Southeast to the Bering Sea, with few exceptions. That follows a trend, as abundance has declined over roughly the past decade. Commercial fishermen have lost most of their opportunity to harvest kings, and sport fisheries have been restricted. Now subsistence fisheries are being reined in to help preserve...
The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month — including entry into Alaska from Canada — ending a 20-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new rules will apply to all border crossing points, including the highways leading to Haines and Skagway in Southeast Alaska. “Everybody’s chomping at the bit to get to Alaska,” Yukon Territory Premier Sandy Silver told the Yukon News. “We expect there to be a large convoy of visitors coming from the Yukon the minute that border opens,” said Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata. ...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention, the largest gathering of Indigenous people in the state, will be all virtual again this year, organizers announced last Friday. The decision was made after federation leaders consulted with state federal and tribal health officials and reviewed current COVID-19 data trends, according to a statement. The federation decided to go all virtual out of concern for the safety of the thousands of people from across the state who normally attend in person, the statement said. The conve...
Sealaska Corp. is still accepting applications from shareholders for a one-time $500 relief payment, funded with federal pandemic aid. As of last week, payments had gone out to 70 shareholders in Wrangell, said Matt Carle, spokesman for the Southeast regional Native corporation. “That number will likely grow as we’re starting to contact shareholders with incomplete applications,” Carle said. “The program is still open and we are encouraging people to apply.” The application period started Oct. 4 and will remain open until the $6 million i...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Anchorage assembly has overridden the mayor’s veto of an emergency order instituting a mask mandate for 60 days. The assembly on Oct. 14 overturned Mayor Dave Bronson’s veto of the measure requiring masks for most everyone in indoor public spaces on a 9-2 vote. Alaska averaged about 900 new infections a day last week, down from the September surge but still high enough to lead the 50 states in per-capita COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost half of last week’s new cases w...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Alaska State Troopers on Monday said a Kake man who reported missing on Saturday was found dead by a canine team searching for him. Troopers said the body of 55-year-old David Dalton was found Monday about 2.5 miles from where his pickup truck was parked near Sitkum Creek, south of Kake, on Kupreanof Island “It appears that Dalton succumbed to the elements,” troopers wrote in an update posted to their webpage. The body has been sent to the medical examiner’s office in Anchorage for an autopsy. Dalton was last seen Friday...
JUNEAU (AP) — A federal report aimed at improving aviation safety in Alaska recommends improvements in providing weather information to pilots and continued work to update maps with information on mountain passes, among other steps. The Federal Aviation Administration, which released the report Oct. 14, said it will establish a team to outline plans for implementing the proposals. Several of the recommendations are already underway, the agency said. The report comes after the National Transportation Safety Board in early 2020 called for a c...
BOSTON (AP) - The wreck of a storied military ship that served in two World Wars, performed patrols in waters off Alaska for decades, and at one point was captained by the first Black man to command a U.S. government vessel has been found, the Coast Guard said Oct. 14. A wreck thought to be the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, which sank in 1963 about 260 miles east of Boston as it was being towed to Philadelphia, where it was going to be converted into a floating restaurant, was located in 2019. But i...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alabama man accused of using pepper spray and throwing a metal rod at law enforcement officers protecting the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection has been arrested in Alaska, according to court documents filed in federal court. The FBI took Christian Manley into custody last Friday in Anchorage. During an arraignment Tuesday, a judge set a detention hearing for Thursday afternoon. Authorities did not disclose why Manley was in Alaska. He faces several charges, including assaulting or resisting officers using a d...
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A customs dispute at the U.S.-Canada border in Maine is threatening America’s supply of Alaska pollock used for popular products such as fish sticks and fast-food sandwiches. The pollock has a complicated supply chain. After being caught offshore Alaska, the fish are transported by ship to New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine. Then they’re loaded onto rail cars for a brief trip down 100 feet of track in Canada, before being put on trucks and crossing the border into the U.S. for processing. U.S. Custo...
A Delta Junction resident upset over the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, illegal immigration and the direction he thinks the country is headed is accused of threatening the lives of Alaska’s two U.S. senators in a series of profanity-laced voicemails that included saying he would hire an assassin to kill one. “Your life is worth $5,000, that’s all it’s worth,” the message left at the office of Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “And as you let in these terrorists, assassins, guess what? I’m going to use them. I’m going to hire them.” Som...
JUNEAU (AP) — Two Alaska state senators have tested positive for COVID-19 and a third was not feeling well, Senate President Peter Micciche said Tuesday. The senators who tested positive are Republicans David Wilson, of Wasilla, and Lora Reinbold, of Eagle River, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Reinbold has been the Legislature’s loudest critic of masking, testing and vaccinations during the pandemic. Sen. Click Bishop, of Fairbanks, said he is feeling ill but has tested negative for COVID-19 and believes he has a cold or the flu, the ne...
FAIRBANKS (AP) — A bus that people sometimes embarked on deadly pilgrimages to Alaska’s backcountry to visit can now safely be viewed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks while it undergoes preservation work. The bus was moved to the university’s engineering facility last week while it’s being prepared for outdoor display at the Museum of the North, Fairbanks television station KTVF reported. The abandoned Fairbanks city bus became a shelter for hunters and others using the backcountry near Denali National Park and Preserve, but it became...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Several Republican state lawmakers are urging easier access for Alaskans to ivermectin amid the pandemic, though ivermectin is not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for preventing or treating COVID-19. Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes, of Palmer, said she urged Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state health commissioner to consider supplying Alaskans with vitamins and drugs, including ivermectin, “that some Alaskan physicians are prescribing but pharmacies aren’t filling.” Three Republican House members testifi...
JUNEAU (AP) — A federal judge last Friday sided with two psychiatrists who said they were wrongfully fired for political reasons when Gov. Mike Dunleavy took office in 2018. Anthony Blanford and John Bellville, who worked at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage, declined to submit resignation letters requested by the chair of Dunleavy’s transition team and later by his chief of staff, Tuckerman Babcock. Blanford and Bellville subsequently were fired. Attorneys for the men in court records argued that Babcock — in demanding resig...
By Jamie Hale The Oregonian/OregonLive After a private blessing and a prayer, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde invited gathered media to watch as an excavator tore into a wall of the old, abandoned paper mill at Willamette Falls, Oregon, that the tribe says has stood on its ancestral grounds for too long. The tribe held a symbolic demolition event at the old Blue Heron Paper Mill on Sept. 21, representing a small step toward removing the industrial site and returning it to Indigenous hands. Chris Mercier, vice chair of the Grand Ronde Tri...
There’s been an increase in rude, violent behavior in Anchorage schools, and the superintendent wants parents to help address it with their children. The bad behavior has included a fight at a high school that prompted a large police response, along with a TikTok challenge where students caused thousands of dollars in damage to school bathrooms, KTUU-TV reported. “Wrangell schools got off lightly” in September’s bout of TikTok-inspired vandalism, Bob Davis, assistant principal at the middle and high schools, said in a letter to parents last we...
As one of the rainiest cities in America, Ketchikan has learned to live with constant wet. A young couple is turning some of that water into a growing business. Literally. Ketchikan Ever Greens, run by Jess and Geoff Jans, focuses on growing, harvesting and delivering a cornucopia of vegetables - all grown through hydroponics methods in a custom-built vertical farm, housed in a metal shipping container. The Janses met in Ketchikan - Jess Jans' hometown - and left town to pursue other jobs...
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Firefighters and numerous studies credit intensive forest thinning projects with helping save communities like those recently threatened near Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada, but dissent from some environmental advocacy groups is roiling the scientific community. States in the U.S. West and the federal government each year thin thousands of acres of dense timber and carve broad swaths through the forest near remote communities, all designed to slow the spread of...