Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 1727
As Alaskans from different organizations convened at the University of Alaska Anchorage to brainstorm ways to reverse the state’s continuing population outmigration, a leading state economist delivered some bad news. Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor, revealed that the latest data shows that Alaska has now had 12 consecutive years with more residents leaving than arriving. That is unprecedented, he said. “This is not normal for us. It hasn’t happened before,” Robinson said on Sept. 5 at the start of the two-day...
The Alaska Supreme Court on Sept. 12 affirmed the U.S. House candidacy of Eric Hafner, a Democrat imprisoned in New York state on a 20-year felony sentence. The court, in a split 4-1 decision, upheld Anchorage Superior Court Judge Ian Wheeles’ decision to dismiss a lawsuit by the Alaska Democratic Party that had challenged Hafner’s eligibility. The decision means Hafner will appear on the November U.S. House ballot alongside incumbent Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, Republican challenger Nick Begich, and Alaskan Independence Party challenger Joh...
Alaska’s governor has vetoed a bill intended to clarify the rental car tax collection process for Alaskans who put up their vehicles for rent on Turo and similar car-sharing applications. The Alaska Department of Revenue has said that Turo is subject to the state’s 10% sales tax on rental cars, the same as Avis, Hertz and other companies that own and rent cars. But Turo has argued that users, not the company itself, are liable for collecting the tax. The state unsuccessfully sued Turo six years ago in an attempt to find out how much tax rev...
In Sitka, some hospital surgeries are on hold. Many shops and restaurants are operating on a cash-only basis. Contact with the outside world comes mostly through satellites. A break in the sole cable that provides Sitka's internet and phone service has wreaked havoc on residents and businesses - and, at the same time, effectively launched a massive social and economic experiment: What happens for 8,000 people who have deeply integrated the internet into their lives, when the switch gets flipped...
Efforts were underway to find family belongings among the debris of damaged homes last week in the area hit by the landslide that flowed through a Ketchikan neighborhood on Aug. 25. "Each home scheduled for demolition had a list of family items that they requested contractors locate (if possible) during the process," according to the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center announcement issued on Sept. 6. One of the homes involved belongs to Doug Trudeau, who requested that contractors look for...
With repair of the damaged GCI fiber optic cable expected sometime in the next week, a lot of Sitkans are relying on Starlink thanks to help from the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Sitka lost internet service Aug. 29 when an undersea cable broke. “Our teams have successfully restored basic mobile voice and text services using alternative technology,” GCI reported Sept. 3. “However, customers are unable to use mobile data, internet and UConn TV services.” The telecommunications provider said a fiber repair...
Ketchikan’s police chief has resigned under an agreement that dismisses criminal charges against him stemming from a 2022 off-duty altercation in a restaurant that injured another man. Jeffrey Walls, 48, signed the agreement with state prosecutors on Aug. 27. He stepped down as chief effective Sept. 10. Walls was hired as Ketchikan police chief in 2021. Before that, he worked at the New Orleans Police Department for 24 years. He was accused of injuring a man during an encounter at the Salmon Falls resort restaurant in September 2022. Walls a...
Private contractors, state and municipal crews worked long days last week to restore power, remove downed trees and clear truckloads of mud and debris that flowed down the hillside above Ketchikan. Crews focused on reopening streets and drains in case more heavy rain falls on the community. "We want to approach it methodically and make sure we do it safely ... there is a phasing-in of people moving back to their homes," City of Ketchikan Public Works Director Seth Brakke said Aug. 30. "There's...
GCI said Saturday that a ship is coming from Seattle to make repairs to a damaged section of undersea fiber optic cable that has caused the loss of GCI cell phone and internet service in Sitka. Service, which was cut Thursday, Aug. 29, is not expected to be back up until next week. GCI said the repair ship is expected to be at the site of the undersea cable break, about 30 miles from Sitka, by Friday, Sept. 6, and that repairs could take three to seven days. In the meantime, the public is getting help from Starlink satellite communication...
A state geologist walking the landslide area on Sunday morning heard whimpering noises from a collapsed home. He called Ketchikan firefighters, who responded and pulled out two dogs from the debris, reuniting them with their owners. "After an emotional week of recovering from the aftermath of the Third Avenue landslide, Ketchikan - and most specifically, James and Bill Montiver - got some very good news," the city's emergency operations center announced on Sunday. "During the landslide the Monti...
Disposing of large, derelict vessels abandoned in Petersburg’s harbors comes at a cost. The borough assembly has authorized the transfer of $240,000 from the harbor department reserves to the derelict boat disposal budget category to pay for disposal of two large derelict boats. The assembly also amended the code to make clear that boat owners are responsible for disposal costs. “It’s incredibly expensive,” Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said at the Aug. 19 assembly meeting. “Literally, to take two boats apart and scrap them and handle an...
Turnout in this year’s state primary election is on pace to be the third lowest in the past 50 years, according to preliminary figures published Aug. 27 by the Alaska Division of Elections. Through that evening, 106,208 votes had been counted from just over 17.5% of all registered voters. The turnout rate in Wrangell was similar. Four years ago, Alaskans approved a new elections system that includes an open primary election in which candidates from all parties compete in the same race for each statewide office. The top four vote-getters a...
A decade after sea star wasting disease arrived in Sitka Sound, researchers are investigating the relationship between sea urchins, kelp forests and sunflower stars. Scientists still don’t know much about the disease, which causes several species of sea stars, such as sunflower stars, to lose their limbs before dissolving. “Sea star” is the name marine scientists now use with reference to the five-limbed marine invertebrate instead of the common term “starfish,” because it is not actually a fish. Around Sitka, sea star wasting disease i...
Workers breached the final dams on a key section of the Klamath River on Aug. 28, clearing the way for salmon to swim freely through a major watershed near the California-Oregon border for the first time in more than a century as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history nears completion. Crews used excavators to remove rock dams that have been diverting water upstream of two dams, Iron Gate and Copco No. 1, both of which were already almost completely removed. With each scoop, more and more river water was able to flow through the...
BOONE, N.C. — Excavators claw at the remains of Shulls Mill Dam on the Watauga River, pulling concrete apart piece by piece and gradually opening a waterway kept in check for nearly two centuries. Removal of this privately owned hydropower dam in western North Carolina will be a boon for rafters, kayakers and tubers by allowing the river to flow freely for nearly 80 miles. But maybe the biggest beneficiary will be a strange, ancient creature known as the eastern hellbender salamander. Sometimes called a snot otter or Allegheny alligator, i...
A landslide tore down a slope about a mile north of downtown Ketchikan, killing one person and injuring three on Sunday. The landslide hit around 4 p.m., and a mandatory evacuation order remained in place Monday for homes on several streets in the slide area near the waterfront. A dozen people stayed at an emergency shelter established at Ketchikan High School on Sunday night, emergency officials said. Others stayed with family or friends. Schools were closed Monday, which would have been the...
Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom is withdrawing from the race for the state’s lone U.S. House seat, she announced via social media on Friday, just three days after the primary election. With most of the votes counted, Dahlstrom is expected to finish third in the state’s top-four primary election, behind Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola and fellow Republican challenger Nick Begich. In a prepared statement published, Dahlstrom said she wanted to see Peltola voted out of office but “at this time, the best thing I can do to see that goal reali...
A ballot measure that could repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice election system is headed to a vote in November, the Alaska Supreme Court confirmed Thursday, Aug. 22. In a brief order, the court’s five members upheld a lower court decision that certified Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal the laws that created the state’s ranked-choice general election and open primary election system. The order came shortly after justices heard oral arguments in an appeal claiming that the Alaska Division of Elections improperly certified the measure. “Toda...
Saxman, a community of about 400 people just south of the city of Ketchikan, will build 14 affordable housing units over the next year. In partnership with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Saxman will use $4.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds distributed through the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to develop four apartment buildings — three fourplexes and one duplex — containing a total of 14 two-bedroom dwellings for low-income tenants. The units could be open for occupancy by the end of 2025. AHFC, a public corporation and independent sta...
Alaska Airlines is one step closer to acquiring Hawaiian Airlines after the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to challenge the $1 billion deal that the carriers say will create a company better able to serve travelers. The brands of both airlines would be preserved after the merger, which is rare in an industry where decades of acquisitions have left only four big carriers dominating the U.S. market. Alaska and Hawaiian say they have few overlapping routes and the intent of a tie-up is to allow the new airline to better compete with the...
The Petersburg Indian Association is now in the hospitality business with its purchase of the 45-room Tides Inn hotel and Highliner Car Rental from a longtime Petersburg family. “My sisters and I are very pleased with the conclusion of the sale of the Tides Inn and Highliner Car Rental to the Petersburg Indian Association,” Dave Ohmer said in a written statement. “The Ohmer family started doing business in Petersburg in 1916, and it is wonderful to now be selling the Tides Inn and Highliner to an organization whose families were here long...
Alaska communications and aviation entities, together with federal and state officials, convened in a summit in Yakutat led by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to collaborate on solutions to reduce weather-related travel delays and boost aviation safety in the state. “We have 130 weather recording stations in Alaska and at any given time 50% are partially or entirely out of service,” Murkowski said on Aug. 15. The senator, a third-generation Alaskan born and raised in Ketchikan, and later Wrangell, is out to resolve this issue, which has resulted in...
At the height of the food stamp backlog last November, pro bono attorneys and other volunteers at Alaska Legal Services got more than 600 requests in one month from Alaskans seeking a fair hearing to get their overdue food benefits. So the 97 requests that came in this July didn’t feel like anything the group couldn’t handle, said Leigh Dickey, the nonprofit’s advocacy director. But the number is still alarming, she said, and it’s double the past month’s requests. Dickey said the state’s Division of Public Assistance is still dogged by t...
Alaska teens are more likely to be depressed and have suicidal thoughts than were teens a decade ago, and some mental health problems have increased notably among girls, according to results from the state’s most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Administered in 2023 to nearly 1,200 high school students around the state, the survey found numerous negative trends. Of the respondents, 19% reported attempting suicide at least once over the past year, compared to 8.7% in the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The number who reported they had c...
Alaska’s congressional delegation is making a renewed pitch to the Biden administration for binding protections against potential environmental damage from British Columbia mines near Canadian headwaters of Southeast Alaska rivers. Their concerns were heightened after the June 24 heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine near the village of Mayo in the Yukon, the delegation said in a prepared statement Aug. 16. “Without unified action from the executive branch, Canadian mining activity in this region will increasingly endanger U.S. com...