Sorted by date Results 848 - 872 of 1731
The top official in the U.S. Census Bureau, Robert Santos, was in Sitka last month to talk with city and Sitka Tribe of Alaska officials about ways to improve the accuracy of Alaska’s population numbers in the national census held every 10 years. The official figures are used to determine congressional districts and some forms of federal funding, and there was a significant undercount of Alaska Natives in the 2020 census, Santos said. Ever since the census count was released, Wrangell borough officials have complained that the tally u...
The wolf hunting and trapping season for Prince of Wales Island will be the same as last year — Nov. 15 to Dec. 15 — though a number of individuals who trap wolves in the area criticized the Alaska Department of Fish and Game last week for its wolf management decisions. The department announced the limited season last Friday, just two days after a teleconference to review with the public wolf population estimates and harvest levels. Several people described seeing more wolves than deer in the area, arguing that a longer season and higher harves...
Seven months after an earthquake swarm beneath Mt. Edgecumbe led volcanologists to determine that the Sitka-area volcano is active, data collection and research are continuing. Since August 2018, magma has risen beneath the formerly dormant volcano and caused almost 3 inches of deformation annually, University of Alaska Fairbanks associate professor of geodesy Ronni Grapenthin said. An eruption is not imminent, he added. Since April’s quakes, seismic activity on the mountain has subsided, he noted, but the mountain is deforming more quickly t...
The state sued the federal government one week before Election Day, seeking ownership of part of Alaska’s most-visited tourist destination. Filed Nov. 1 at U.S. District Court in Anchorage, the case asks a federal judge to award ownership of the land beneath Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River to the state. Located in Juneau’s residential Mendenhall Valley, the lake rests at the base of the Mendenhall Glacier, within the Tongass National Forest, and is seen by more than 700,000 tourists annually, more than Denali National Park and Pre...
TRES RIOS, Brazil (AP) - Sometimes you start something and have no idea where it will lead. So it was with Eduardo Filgueiras, a struggling guitarist whose family worked in an unusual business in Rio de Janeiro: They farmed toads. Filgueiras figured out a way to take the small toad skins and fuse them together, creating something large enough to sell. Meanwhile miles away in the Amazon, a fisherman and a scientist were coming up with an innovation that would help save a key, giant fish that...
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this Wednesday on the most significant challenge to a law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children. The outcome could undercut the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted in response to the alarming rate at which Native American and Alaska Native children were taken from their homes by public and private agencies. Tribes also fear more widespread impacts in the ability to govern themselves if the justices rule against...
SEATTLE (AP) — Big ships entering and leaving Puget Sound will be asked to slow down to reduce underwater noise this fall in an effort to help the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered orca whales. Washington state is importing the voluntary slowdown from British Columbia for container ships, tankers, freighters, cruise ships and car carriers coming from the Canadian province, Northwest News Network reported. The optional slowdown started Oct. 24 and is scheduled to run to Dec. 22 and covers the shipping lanes from Admiralty Inlet by P...
Dozens of hands small and large held a firm grip on the 30-foot-long dugout canoe they pushed down Angoon's Front Street despite their shoes slipping on the rain-soaked road. Neither the potholes on the road nor the rain on Oct. 26 seemed to discourage the more than 50 Chatham School District students and Angoon residents from pushing what was the first dugout canoe made in Angoon since the U.S. Navy bombardment 140 years ago. The 1882 bombardment destroyed all but one of its fleet of dugout...
Backers of a proposed copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska “tried to trick regulators by pretending to pursue a smaller project with the intention of expanding” after the project was approved, a report released Oct. 28 by a U.S. House panel said. The report makes several recommendations, including environmental review process changes to ensure a more inclusive review “of cumulative impacts of projects.” Mike Heatwole, a spokesperson for the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is seeking to develop the Pebble Mine, said the company has not...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has requested a federal disaster declaration and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola has requested $250 million in relief funding after the failure of this year’s Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries. Last week, Peltola asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the chair of the House Appropriations Committee to include relief funding for crab fishermen and the crabbing industry in Congress’ year-end appropriation bill. Disaster relief funding could be available if Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo declares a f...
Alaska’s minimum wage will rise 51 cents, to $10.85 per hour, starting next year. The adjustment, announced last month by the Alaska Department of Labor, is intended to compensate for a 5% rise in the cost of living in Anchorage. Alaska law requires the minimum wage to be adjusted each year for inflation. Despite the increase, the minimum wage remains well below a widely used measure of a living wage in Alaska. In Anchorage, the median apartment rental cost is $1,339 per month, according to a survey conducted this year by the Alaska Housing F...
With Election Day less than a week away, the leading group encouraging Alaskans to vote no on a constitutional convention has raised much more money than its opponents after attracting a broad bipartisan group of supporters and a growing list of influential organizations backing its cause. Dwarfed in spending, the leading yes group is fighting on two fronts: In secular public forums, supporters are staying focused on a convention as a way to resolve Permanent Fund dividend debates. Meanwhile, some of the same conservative supporters are also...
Republican governor candidate Charlie Pierce confirmed on Oct. 26 that he will continue his campaign despite a lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing a Kenai Peninsula Borough employee while he served as borough mayor. “We’re in this race to the very end,” he said during a broadcast of KSRM-AM radio’s “Sound Off” program. Pierce, at 6.6% of the vote in the August primary, is far behind the other three candidates in the Nov. 8 general election for governor. “I think the honorable thing to do is finish what you start, and that’s what I...
In the final debate of Alaska's U.S. Senate election, incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her principal challenger, Republican Kelly Tshibaka, argued about contentious issues including abortion and gun control, but their biggest difference was one of strategy and bipartisanship. During a fast-moving hour Oct. 27, Tshibaka criticized Murkowski for working with Democrats and the administration of President Joe Biden during her latest term in Congress, while Murkowski defended her choices...
Republican lieutenant governor candidate Edie Grunwald is withdrawing from the Nov. 8 election after her running mate, former Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, was sued over allegations he sexually harassed a former borough employee. Grunwald encouraged Alaskans to vote for fellow Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. She said "recent circumstances" surrounding Pierce had led her to make the decision to step aside. "I support and advocate for the respectful treatment of women in politics, t...
Alaska's four candidates for governor sparred over crime, education, abortion access and the state budget on Oct. 19 in the only live televised debate ahead of the November election. Independent former Gov. Bill Walker and Democratic former state legislator Les Gara devoted much of their responses to attacking Republican incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his record. Meanwhile, Dunleavy and fellow Republican candidate Charlie Pierce, former mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, appeared to agree...
The cost of preschool child care is a growing problem in Alaska, one of 33 states where the annual cost of day care exceeds the cost of college tuition. The University of Alaska Fairbanks charges $9,870 per year; the latest available estimates of child care costs predate the COVID-19 pandemic and range between $10,000 and $14,000 per year. In forums, debates and questionnaires, Alaska’s four candidates for governor have been asked what they would do to address the problem: In the past two years of incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s ter...
In unprecedented move tailor-made for Alaska’s new voting system, two different campaigns for governor on Oct. 28 released a joint ad urging voters to rank them either first or second — regardless of the order. It’s not a new message for independent candidate former Gov. Bill Walker and Democratic candidate former state Rep. Les Gara. Both Walker and Gara for months have indicated that they would vote for the other candidate second. But it’s the first time their campaigns have indicated as much in an ad jointly produced by the two campaig...
Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in a televised debate Oct. 26 called partisanship a threat to the country as the Democrat sought to make the case for reelection to the seat she’s held since September against challengers including Republican Sarah Palin. Peltola beat Palin and Republican Nick Begich in a ranked-choice August special election to fill the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Don Young’s term. Those three, along with Libertarian Chris Bye, are running in the Nov. 8 election for a full two-year term that starts in January. This ele...
The Alaska Supreme Court issued a full opinion on Oct. 21, explaining why it upheld the state’s new ranked-choice voting and open-primary system as constitutional in January. The five justices issued a brief order at the time in favor of the new system that was narrowly approved by voters in a 2020 ballot measure. It was issued quickly to confirm to the Alaska Division of Elections that the new voting system would be used this year. Alaska is the second state after Maine to implement ranked-choice voting, in which voters are asked to rank f...
At East Ohmer Creek, 22 miles south of Petersburg, is a tree believed to be the largest left on Mitkof Island. U.S. Forest Service Fish Biologist Eric Castro said foresters estimate the tree, which grew on a once-rich floodplain, is around 600 years old. "Those giant pumpkins are what used to grow in this type of environment," Castro said. That tree stands in contrast to those that have grown around it over the past 60 years, which have reached four to eight inches in diameter - about a tenth...
Years of flat state funding create budget stress for schools across Alaska By James Brooks and Lisa Phu Alaska Beacon The Anchorage School District, which is considering the closure of six elementary schools amid a projected $68 million budget shortfall, isn’t the only district facing a major fiscal problem. At the end of the last school year, Fairbanks closed three schools. In Juneau, the school board is considering whether to fire specialists intended to help students recover reading skills lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. In rural A...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican candidate for governor, Charlie Pierce, faces a lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed a former assistant while he was mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The lawsuit filed in state Superior Court on Friday accuses Pierce of “constant unwanted physical touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Daily News reported. The borough already has paid two other former employees a combined $267,000 in settlements for separate complaints against Pierce. “When an elected official abuses their power a...
Alaska’s Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she plans on ranking Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola first in the U.S. House race on the Nov. 8 ballot, where Murkowski’s own name will also appear as she runs for a fourth term. Murkowski broke the news after delivering remarks to a packed room of Alaska Federation of Natives convention delegates at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Center, where she was greeted with a standing ovation and frequently interrupted with rounds of applause. Her remarks focused on what she sees as reasons for optimism for the...
Alaskans voting by mail will need to put 84 cents worth of postage on their ballot envelopes to send them back by post to the state Division of Elections. One Forever stamp is currently worth 60 cents, meaning a second stamp would be needed to mail absentee ballots. Voters are required to use the correct amount of postage when mailing a ballot, but the U.S. Postal Service has a policy to still deliver ballots even if postage is unpaid or if there is insufficient postage. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said the postage costs were...