Sorted by date Results 1271 - 1295 of 1731
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has accepted Donald Trump’s endorsement for his 2022 reelection campaign, telling the former president he will not support Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid for the U.S. Senate — a condition of winning Trump’s endorsement. The former president has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported impeachment for Trump’s role in instigating last January’s insurrection at the Capitol during certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. Trump has endorsed Murkowski’s primary challenger, K...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer will not run for reelection in 2022, leaving Gov. Mike Dunleavy free to choose a new Republican running mate this year. In an interview Dec. 28, Meyer did not rule out an eventual return to politics, but said he wants to take a break. “It’d be nice to get to sleep in and spend more time with the family,” he said. Dunleavy, who is running for reelection to a second term, said he expects Meyer will use his last year in office to focus on an election-reform bill the governor announced in late December. Under the new elect...
Klukwan resident and Diné (Navajo) artist Clara Natonabah wrote and sang a Navajo song that was featured in a Disney Junior Shake Your Tale with Chip 'N Dale music video. The song, titled "Hózhóogoo Dahwiit'áál" (We Will Sing in Beauty), was released on YouTube and appears in the cartoon where the popular Disney cartoon characters dance to Natonabah's song. Natonabah was chosen by Disney to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. "I was asked to participate for this mini...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has decided not to request home mail delivery. Assembly members on Dec. 20 defeated a resolution that would have asked the U.S. Postal Service to send carriers around town delivering mail, giving residents and businesses an option instead of requiring everyone to pick up letters and parcels at the post office. The resolution had been presented as a possible solution to ongoing issues at the short-staffed post office, which has seen long wait times for package pickup and reduced hours at the customer service...
The nine-member Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board, a new advisory panel created by the Legislature last year, has moved closer to full membership. State Senate President Peter Micciche last month appointed Paul Johnsen, of Petersburg, and David Arzt, of Homer, to the panel. Johnsen is the only board member so far from southern Southeast Alaska. He began his career in the Coast Guard, later going to work with the Alaska Marine Highway System. He retired from the state ferries in 2007 as a senior port and chief engineer. Arzt is an active...
MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned people on Dec. 30 not to go on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, because of onboard outbreaks fueled by the Omicron variant. The CDC said it has more than 90 cruise ships under investigation or observation as a result of COVID-19 cases. The agency did not disclose the number of infections. “The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships, and the chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is very high,” even...
Susan Doherty, who worked at the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association from 1980 to 2017, will return to the hatchery operator as general manager starting Jan. 22. Ketchikan-based SSRAA operates seven salmon hatcheries in Southern Southeast, including the Burnett Inlet hatchery on Etolin Island, about 25 miles south of Wrangell. The facility incubates mostly chum salmon, along with a small number of coho, according to SSRAA’s website. Doherty will be the fifth general manager to run the association since it was created in 1976. S...
JUNEAU (AP) — An Alaska Native nonprofit cultural organization has received a $2.9 million grant to start building a totem pole trail along Juneau’s downtown waterfront. The Sealaska Heritage Institute said the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will cover 10 poles, though the longer-term goal is to have 30 poles in place. “Our traditional poles historically dominated the shorelines of our ancestral homelands and told the world who we were,” said Rosita Worl, president of the institute. “It’s fitting that our totems will be one of the...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed investing $187 million in salmon recovery as part of his 2022 budget and policy proposals. The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, also would set new standards for salmon habitat protection and conservation efforts. Inslee said the legislation is the result of two years of discussions with tribes in the state. He announced his salmon proposals Dec. 14 at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community reservation’s Swadabs Park. “Our fight is simple: to be able to practice our cultu...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week outlined what he called a responsible budget proposal that doesn’t dip into savings, bolsters law enforcement and calls for direct payments of about $3,700 to residents amid an unsettled dispute with lawmakers over the future of the state’s dividend program. But the budget relies on high oil prices to help pay the bills and is heavily dependent on one-time federal pandemic aid dollars to help cover the cost of public services usually paid out of state funds, such as the Alaska Marine Highway System. The budget pla...
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Emma Broyles, of Anchorage, was crowned Miss America at an event Dec. 16, marking the competition’s 100th anniversary and the first time an Alaskan has won the award. Broyles, 20, won the centennial crown and a $100,000 college scholarship. She emerged as the winner out of 51 contestants representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia at the competition at a Connecticut casino. She is a junior honors student at Arizona State University, where she is majoring in biomedical sciences, according to a report in the...
Greater access to COVID-19 home testing kits, changes to the state statistics dashboard, and the arrival of the Omicron variant in Alaska were among the topics covered by Dr. Anne Zink in a report to the Sitka Assembly on Dec. 14. “I know the last thing we want is COVID,” said Zink, the state’s chief medical officer. “Man, we are all done with it. Unfortunately, it’s just not done with us.” She said the state’s role is “to provide tools for Alaskans to keep themselves, their families and their communities healthy.” Zink attended the meet...
TAUNTON RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Far away from its home in Asia, a rare Steller’s sea eagle was spotted by 200 bird watchers around Taunton River, Massachusetts on Dec. 20. The eagle is reportedly the same one that went off course a year ago and has been spotted in Alaska and Canada. Flocks of bird watchers in the Northeast said they traveled hours to the river to catch a glimpse of the eagle in what they said was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Steller’s sea eagles, native to Russia, China, Korea and Japan, have wingspans of up to 8 feet and weigh...
Halibut bycatch by the Bering Sea trawl fleet could be reduced by up to one-third following a vote by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. After days of deliberation and public testimony at the online council meeting, the members voted 8-3 on Monday to link the prohibited-species catch limit of Bering Sea halibut to the abundance of the fish, thereby lowering trawl fleet bycatch when there are fewer halibut. Fishermen and stakeholders from across coastal Alaska testified in support of a steep reduction in the allowed halibut...
The board that oversees Alaska’s multibillion-dollar investment portfolio has fired Angela Rodell as chief executive officer of the Permanent Fund Corp. Legislative leaders and Finance Committee members are upset at the surprise decision and plan to hold hearings to ask questions. The fund this past fiscal year grew more than 25%, with record returns on its investments. The board on Dec. 9 voted 5-1 to remove Rodell. The five votes came from members last appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The board did not disclose a reason for the decision, whic...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. House has passed legislation to extend a year-end deadline for Alaska Native corporations to use federal coronavirus relief funds. The U.S. Supreme Court in late June ruled the corporations were entitled to receive the CARES Act funds, but delays in disbursing the money have been many corporations in a bind to spend the funds by Dec. 31. The House bill, however, isn't the same measure that earlier passed the Senate. For the bill to become law, the same version has to pass both chambers before going to the president for s...
The first known case of the Omicron variant in Alaska was reported on Monday, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. The variant case was identified in an Anchorage resident. “The case was identified today through genomic sequencing performed at the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory from a person who recently tested positive in Anchorage following international travel in November,” the statement read. “Alaska now joins at least 30 other states and more than 60 countries that have already identified the varia...
JUNEAU (AP) — A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a challenge by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to a special subsistence hunt authorized for a Southeast Alaska tribe by a federal board last year. The Organized Village of Kake in spring 2020 requested an emergency hunt, citing food security concerns amid the pandemic. The Federal Subsistence Board granted a limited season of up to 60 days, and the harvest was distributed to 135 households in the village, according to filings with the court. The normal hunting season doesn’t begin...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has voted to extend an emergency ordinance requiring masking in indoor public buildings. The Petersburg hospital reported 230 COVID-19 cases in November — infecting more than 7% of the community’s population. An emergency face mask ordinance adopted Nov. 5 was set to expire Dec. 6. The assembly voted 6-1 on Dec. 6 to extend the masking requirement to Jan. 3. The ordinance requires masking in public and communal spaces, other than private residences. Phil Hofstetter, chief executive officer of the Petersburg Med...
While Petersburg continues to endure limited hours at the post office service window, long lines and a lack of masking enforcement in the building, the borough assembly is considering asking the U.S. Postal Service to offer home delivery. A draft resolution was presented to the assembly at its Dec. 6 meeting, with further consideration planned when the assembly meets Dec. 20. The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter in support of home delivery. The post office has been a common frustration among businesses, said Jim Floyd, chamber of...
SEATTLE (AP) - Two Washington state artists are facing federal charges that they faked Native American heritage to sell works at downtown Seattle galleries. Lewis Anthony Rath, 52, of Maple Falls, and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, 67, also known as Jerry Witten, of Seattle, have been charged separately with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Rath falsely claimed to be...
Sitka will see minimal state ferry service this winter. Scheduled sailings of the Matanuska have been canceled until late January while the vessel undergoes more steel plate repairs in a Ketchikan shipyard, leaving Sitka cut off from the ferry network for more than a month. As a stopgap measure, the Alaska Marine Highway System ran the Kennicott into Sitka on Dec. 8, but the vessel is not scheduled to return until Jan. 11. The 58-year-old Matanuska is not expected to resume service until the fourth week in January, With the ferry system...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer last year said the issue his office seemed to be getting the most email on after the 2020 election was the narrow victory of a ballot measure to overhaul Alaska’s election process. His chief of staff said they were getting up to 20 emails a day. But a records request by The Associated Press yielded fewer than 20 total unique emails that were received by the office with complaints or concerns about the election, and only three mentioned the ballot measure that would end political party primaries and institute r...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Monday he plans to propose as part of his upcoming budget that the state spend $5 million in federal dollars to support tourism marketing efforts amid the ongoing pandemic, and additional funds to prepare state parks for visitors next year. He said the hope is for a return to “robust” tourism activity after a difficult two years. Speaking in Anchorage, Dunleavy said people are “starting to learn to live with (the coronavirus) … understanding that it’s not going to go away, but there’s ways to protect onese...
JUNEAU (AP) — State health officials are urging Alaskans to get vaccinated and to get their booster shot as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the nation. Alaska had no confirmed cases of the variant as of Tuesday, but officials want residents to be prepared. “We know a lot about COVID, we were expecting this,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer. “We continue to learn from around the world.” Zink said Alaskans should get vaccinated for COVID-19 even though data on Omicron’s ability to possibly evade vaccine immun...