Sorted by date Results 1007 - 1031 of 1739
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. House hopeful Nick Begich III are poised for dominant victories during this year’s special and general elections, according to an online Alaska Survey Research poll of 1,201 likely voters conducted between July 2-5. The survey also shows Sen. Lisa Murkowski eking out a narrow win due to the state’s new ranked-choice voting system. Ranked-choice voting also could shake up the U.S. House race, since Democratic candidate Mary Peltola appears to have a slight advantage in a head-to-head match against former Gov. Sar...
The executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party was arrested for driving under the influence early July 2 near Soldotna, according to law enforcement. Lindsay Kavanaugh, 42, faces three misdemeanor charges for driving under the influence of a controlled substance, refusing to undergo a breath test, and unplugging trooper equipment following her arrest. Kavanaugh has served as the executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party since 2019. Prior to that, she worked as a senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. “I am disappointed that m...
A 19-year-old from Wyoming died in Gustavus when he was struck by fireworks he had lit, according to Alaska State Troopers. Benjamin Jorgensen of Green River, Wyoming, was reported dead late July 4 to the Gustavus Fire Department, troopers said. Jorgensen lit a commercially produced mortar-style projectile that struck him, killing him instantly, trooper spokesman Austin McDaniel said. Troopers were notified of the death at 11:36 p.m., and National Park Service rangers from Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve responded around 1 a.m. July 5....
SITKA (AP) - The family had given up hope of finding their blind, elderly golden retriever who wandered away from their Sitka home three weeks ago, but a construction crew found Lulu in salmonberry bushes after initially confusing her for a bear. Lulu was barely alive after being found July 5, but she is being nursed back to health and is back home with her family, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. "She means everything," owner Ted Kubacki said. "I have five daughters and they're 4 to 13 years...
Princess Cruises will not add any additional Southeast businesses to its MedallionPay program this summer, taking time after the season ends to better explain to merchants the digital payment system that can be used by passengers to buy goods and services while in port — with a substantial commission retained by the cruise line. The program takes as much as an 18% commission on local purchases. Objections from merchants and the mayor in Skagway were part of the company’s decision to pause adding new Southeast businesses to the payment system, w...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Southern Resident killer whales of the U.S. and Canadian West Coast have not had enough food for several years, which could affect their already small numbers, according to a study by the University of British Columbia. Researchers looked at requirements and availability of prey for Northeastern Pacific Southern Resident killer whales. The study found a fluctuating level of salmon from spawning areas on rivers had a detrimental effect on killer whale health, threatening a small and fragile group of whales, the B...
It's called Between Worlds. And it features a diving whale. "Peering through the bones of this diving whale pattern is this ancestor with her face and hands pressed against the veil between worlds," Alaska Chilkat and Ravenstail Weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope said. "Because we talk about the Chilkat dancing blanket as the veil that separates our physical realm to the spirit realm on the other side." Hope and weaving assistant Nadezdha Hughes are working on a full-size ceremonial Chilkat da...
TORONTO (AP) — Indigenous leaders met with Canadian bishops and were told Pope Francis will not add any more stops – despite their request – during his trip to Canada this month, when he will apologize in person for the abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church. Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair because of a bad knee, will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the far north that is closer to Greenland than it is to any major Canadian city. The pope will depart...
Howard Starbard knew he had a problem when the pumps couldn’t keep up with the water pouring into his 37-foot commercial fishing boat, Miss Amy. The 63-year-old retired Alaska State Troopers commander couldn’t know he was about to spend 45 minutes in the sea, fighting to stay afloat before a relative, two Good Samaritan vessels and the U.S. Coast Guard intervened to help him survive his boat’s sinking off the Southeast community of Pelican. Starbard was power trolling for king salmon during a commercial opener July 4 with his 13-year-old grand...
With last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights advocates in Alaska are encouraging voters to vote no on a constitutional convention during the general election this November, while abortion opponents are encouraging voters to vote yes. The right to have an abortion in Alaska is protected through the state constitution’s provision on privacy, as recognized by the Alaska Supreme Court in 1997. This November, voters will be asked whether or not to call a constitutional convention, which would pave the...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding state authority to prosecute some crimes on Native American land is fracturing decades of law built around the hard-fought principle that tribes have the right to govern themselves on their own territory, legal experts say. The June 29 ruling is a marked departure from federal Indian law and veers away from the push to increase tribes’ ability to prosecute all crimes on reservations — regardless of who is involved. It also casts tribes as part of states, rather than the sover...
With smiles and hugs, the 2022 Race to Alaska concluded last Thursday evening when the last two teams still in the race — Fix Oder Nix and Sockeye Voyages — arrived at the finish in Ketchikan’s Thomas Basin. It had taken both teams more than 21 days to complete the approximately 710-mile distance between Victoria, British Columbia, where the R2AK’s second leg to Ketchikan had begun at noon Pacific time on June 16. Sails, ores or paddles — no motors allowed. “We made it,” Joachim Roesler of Team Fix Oder Nix said after their arrival at th...
Alaska’s state alcohol regulator is declining to stop distilleries from selling kegs of premixed cocktails despite a warning by federal regulators, who have concluded that the process is illegal. The Alaska Alcohol Control Board has rescinded an advisory notice that had cautioned distilleries against selling kegs to bars and other places with alcohol licenses. The board also voted unanimously to create a working group to consider the topic further. “In the meantime, I’m not going to go after a guy who has been doing something, allegedly lawfu...
Former President Donald Trump plans to attend a campaign rally in Anchorage this week for candidates he has endorsed in the state, including former governor Sarah Palin who is running for U.S. House. The five-hour event is scheduled for Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. According to preliminary details released by the former president’s office, the event will begin at 11 a.m. with entertainment. A series of speakers will begin at 1 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m., when Trump is scheduled to d...
Alaska was the only U.S. coastal region to have an increase in the confirmed cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear in 2020, a contrast to a national trend of declining cases over the past six to eight years, according to a report issued June 28 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 53 cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear nationally in 2020, 11 occurred in Alaska, according to the report, from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. The previous year, there were 75 confirmed cases of whale e...
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The benefits provided by four giant hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state can be replaced if the dams are breached to save endangered salmon runs, according to a report released this month. But it would be expensive. Finding other ways to provide electricity, irrigation and enabling commerce would cost between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion, said the report commissioned by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. The draft report does not make any r...
Scientists are on the water this summer, gathering information about a once-mysterious habitat - the large and varied gardens of colorful corals that cover parts of the Alaska seafloor. What they learn could prompt new restrictions for commercial seafood harvests. Though often associated with tropical locations, corals and associated sponges are also important features of the Alaska marine ecosystem. Some Alaska marine sites are believed to hold the world's most diverse and abundant deep-sea cor...
Former Southeast state senator and Juneau KINY radio host Dennis Egan died June 28. He was 75. Egan passed away at an assisted-living home in Salem, Oregon, his family reported. Egan’s daughter, Leslie, and her family, live in Oregon. Egan’s family said his wife, Linda, was with him this week. Born March 3, 1947, he was the son of Alaska’s first governor, William “Bill” Egan. During high school, and after broadcast engineer training, he worked at KINY in the 1960s. In 1967, Egan graduated from radio operation engineering school. He served in th...
If all goes as Lisa Simpson expects, she will win the August primary for an Anchorage state House seat and be cleared of several felonies about the same time. Simpson, a former aide to Anchorage Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, is facing trial in August alongside her former boss. Both have been accused, as has Simpson’s son, of encouraging illegal votes in state legislative races in 2014 and 2018. The trial is tentatively scheduled to take place at the same time as the state’s Aug. 16 primary election. Simpson has registered as a Republican can...
There is “nothing obvious” to recommend criminal charges in the milk mix-up earlier this month in Juneau when 12 children and two adults drank floor sealant served to them at breakfast during a summer program at Sitʼ Eeti Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary School, a Juneau Police Department official said June 22. Findings from the investigation that are “not necessarily recommending charges” have been turned over to the state district attorney’s office in Juneau, Lt. Krag Campbell said. “There was nothing obvious to us as far as criminal char...
SEATTLE (AP) — A union has reached a deal with Alaska Airlines for a two-year contract extension that provides substantial raises for 5,300 gate agents, stores personnel and office staff, as well as for ramp workers who load cargo. The Seattle Times reports the deal announced June 22 does not cover a separate group of about 2,000 ramp workers, also represented by the International Association of Machinists, who work for the McGee Air Services subsidiary and handle baggage on passenger flights. Richard Johnsen, the machinists union general v...
The Alaska Supreme Court on Saturday upheld a lower court ruling that will keep Republican Tara Sweeney off the ballot for the August special election in Alaska’s U.S. House race. In a brief written order, the high court on an appeal affirmed the decision of Superior Court Judge William Morse, who agreed on Friday with a decision by Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai to not advance Sweeney, the fifth-place finisher in the June 11 primary, to the special election ballot after the third-place finisher suddenly dropped out. The o...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Division of Elections has determined that Wasilla Republican state Rep. David Eastman is eligible to run for reelection. Eastman’s candidacy faced challenges over his affiliation with the far-right Oath Keepers group. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai in a written response to the complaints said a “preponderance of evidence supports his eligibility.” The division on June 22 in response to a records request from The Associated Press provided copies of complaints that were filed challenging the eligibi...
The 848-foot-long Norwegian Sun cruise ship bumped into a chunk of ice last Saturday while traveling to Hubbard Glacier, which drains into Yakutat Bay. Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed on Monday that the ship canceled its port call in Skagway on Sunday and headed to Juneau to assess the damage, according to Juneau radio station KINY. Coast Guard divers in Juneau were assessing the damage on Monday. According to the website Cruise Hive, the ship, with capacity for 2,400 passengers, was on a nine-evening itinerary from Seattle to Southeast. “On J...
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state jury on June 22 awarded the Lummi Indian tribe $595,000 over the 2017 collapse of a net pen where Atlantic salmon were being raised — an event that elicited fears of damage to wild salmon runs and prompted the Legislature to ban the farming of the nonnative fish. About 250,000 Atlantic salmon escaped into the Salish Sea when the net pen owned by Cooke Aquaculture — an anchored, floating enclosure off Cypress Island, about 15 miles southeast of Bellingham — collapsed. The northwest Washington tribe quickly...