Anchorage news

• Coalition of labor and Alaska Native leaders throws its weight behind Peltola

  18-06-2024 18:37 via ktoo.org
  
  U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola speaking to the Alaska Federation of Natives in 2023. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  A new organization called Alaska Jobs Coalition has launched a $500,000 ad campaign to support Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola.
  The online and TV spots laud Peltola’s support for Willow, the Conoco Phillips project to develop oilfields in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.
  The Alaska Jobs Coalition formed earlier this year as a non-profit and announced that its ini
  
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• More than 100 wildfires are burning in Alaska, many of them in the Interior

  26-06-2024 17:24 via ktoo.org
  
  An aerial view of the McDonald Fire burning through black spruce near Salcha on Thursday, June 20, 2024. The fire has since grown to more than 54,000 acres. (From Tasha Shields/BLM AFS)
  As Alaska’s wildfire season ramps up, fire officials say the Interior is facing high heat and dry conditions that already have the state requesting Outside crews and aircraft.
  Beth Ipsen, a spokeswoman with the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska Fire Service, said Tuesday that about 100 smokej
  
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• What you need to know about Alaska’s contested homeschool allotments

  26-06-2024 17:14 via ktoo.org
  
  Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills explains the administration’s understanding of a ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program, in the Alaska State Capitol on May 1, 2024. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
  On Thursday, the Alaska Supreme Court will hear a case centering on how families in the state spend what are known as student allotments.
  While both sides of the case say the outcome will be important for Alaska students, to truly understand w
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, June 25, 2024

  26-06-2024 02:21 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240625-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:Recent Juneau high school graduate and soon-to-be collegiate swimmer PJ Foy competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Friday,
  Last week, a group of Juneau middle schoolers got a crash course in renewable electricity through a summer camp called the “Nature of Energy,”
  The state has released its draft winter ferry schedule, which residents might find familiar,
  After two failed att
  
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• Renewable energy summer camp teaches Juneau’s next generation about generation

  26-06-2024 02:18 via ktoo.org
  
  Akira Schaefer and his mom, Lyndsey Schaefer, show off his shoebox home with a working wind turbine and a lego “green roof.” (Photo by Anna Canny/KTOO)
  In the Alaska Electric Light and Power office last Friday, a half dozen middle schoolers constructed a village of model homes. Felix Dean and his cousin Sterling Stark stood beside a small ranch-style house with cardboard walls and small plastic windows. 
  “This house is supposed to be as energy efficient as possible,”
  
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• Why Permanent Fund managers are again sounding the alarm about a key account running low

  25-06-2024 23:45 via ktoo.org
  
  The Michael J. Burns Building, which houses the Permanent Fund offices on 10th Street, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  The state agency that manages the Alaska Permanent Fund is again warning that it’s running low on spendable money.
  At a meeting in Anchorage on Monday, the managers called on the Legislature to amend the state Constitution to head off what they say is a real risk of a fiscal crisis in the years to come. Already, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. expects to s
  
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• Effort to repeal Juneau’s by-mail election ordinance fails to get enough signatures

  25-06-2024 22:39 via ktoo.org
  
  Petitioners gathering signatures to repeal Juneau’s local by-mail voting method collect signatures near Costco on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  An effort to repeal an ordinance that made by-mail voting the default in Juneau has failed to gather enough signatures to get on the local ballot. 
  The group of residents behind the repeal needed to get nearly 2,400 signatures to put the question to voters this October. During the initial 30-day signature gathering period, th
  
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• Possible rat sighting on remote St. Paul Island raises alarm

  25-06-2024 19:25 via ktoo.org
  
  For more than two decades, the Pribilof Islands have implemented a rat prevention program to keep the island rat-free. (John Ryan/KUCB)
  It may sound silly to outsiders, but for the remote Pribilof Island of St. Paul, a possible rat sighting could be a big deal.
  The community of about 300 residents has worked for decades to be rodent-free. Officials with the island’s tribal government have said the invasive species would devastate local seabirds and permanently change the wildlife populatio
  
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• The surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis. What does that do?

  25-06-2024 18:05 via ktoo.org
  Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during an event on the White House in April. The nation’s top doctor has issued an advisory about the public health risks of widespread gun violence. (Susan Walsh/AP)
  America’s top doctor issued a first-of-its-kind advisory on Tuesday declaring gun violence a national public health crisis and recommending it be treated as such.
  The 40-page publication from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy outlines the scope of firearm violence, its impact on v
  
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• After email leak, some Alaska legislators say they’re skeptical of Permanent Fund’s direction

  25-06-2024 17:58 via ktoo.org
  
  A cartoon sketch is seen on a cubicle in the offices of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. during an open house on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  Members of the Alaska Legislature questioned the direction of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. on Monday in a hearing of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, the committee’s first since leaked internal emails indicated that board member Gabrielle Rubenstein may have engaged in conflicts of interest.
  The corporatio
  
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• Service gaps persist in proposed winter ferry schedule

  25-06-2024 17:53 via ktoo.org
  The M/V Kennicott travels south in the Wrangell Narrows near Petersburg on April 15, 2024. (Photo by Angela Denning/CoastAlaska)
  The state has released its draft winter ferry schedule, which covers Oct. 1 through April 30. Residents might find the schedule familiar.
  “It’s pretty similar to last year’s winter schedule,” said Sam Dapcevich, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation. “We’re dealing with the same fleet and the same crewing situation.
  
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• Witnesses say petitions to repeal Alaska’s election system were mishandled

  25-06-2024 17:40 via ktoo.org
  
  Attorney Maeve Kendall, at podium, represents supporters of ranked choice voting. Her co-counsel are on left: Samuel Gottstein and Scott Kendall (no relation). At the other table are Assistant Attorney General Thomas Flynn and attorney Kevin Clarkson, right. (Screen shot of court live stream/ published with court’s permission)
  Supporters of Alaska’s ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries were in court Monday trying to block a ballot measure that would repeal the election refo
  
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• Juneau’s PJ Foy takes a shot at Team USA at Olympic Trials

  25-06-2024 03:18 via ktoo.org
  
  PJ Foy competes at the Alaska Swimming State Championships in April, 2023. (Photo/Kevin Tuning)
  Recent Juneau high school graduate and soon-to-be collegiate swimmer PJ Foy competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Friday.
  The Thunder Mountain High School alumni competed in the men’s 100-meter butterfly alongside some of the best swimmers in the country. He finished 49 out of more than 60 swimmers. That means he won’t compete for Team USA in the Paris games. But, he
  
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• Newscast – Monday, June 24, 2024

  25-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240624-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:A Wisconsin museum has sent a Chilkat robe it’s had for the last 80 years to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau in the hopes of identifying it,
  The Kodiak Filipino American Association celebrated Philippine Independence Day wiht a basketball tournament,
  Tongass Voices: Juneau Bike Doctor’s Ken Hill wants to get everybody on a bike
  
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• Tongass Voices: Juneau Bike Doctor’s Ken Hill wants to get everybody on a bike

  25-06-2024 01:29 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Juneau Bike Doctor owner Ken Hill with a bike that will be donated to a student in need of a bike at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School. Artist Chloey Cavanaugh and school librarian Luke Fortier painted herrings on the sides in support of the Herring Protectors movement. June 21, 2024. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
  This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
  Ken Hill opened Juneau Bike Doctor
  
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• A Chilkat robe returns to Southeast Alaska, but SHI needs help identifying it

  24-06-2024 22:21 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Sealaska Heritage Institute Director of Archives and Collections Emily Galgano shows the back of a Chilkat robe on loan from the Rahr-West Museum in Wisconsin. June 20, 2024. (Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/21robe.mp3
  In the basement of the Walter Soboleff building on a recent afternoon, Emily Galgano opened a huge white cabinet. She pulled out a long drawer with a Chilkat robe laying inside. The robe’s colors are faded. 
  “So it could be ve
  
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• Lightning sparks wildfires across Interior Alaska

  24-06-2024 22:13 via ktoo.org
  
  A map generated by AirNow.gov shows recent wildfires around the state and the smoke that they generate. (From Airnow.gov)
  Wildfire activity ramped over the weekend due to hot, dry conditions and numerous lightning strikes, including over 6,500 Sunday.
  “Sunday is definitely our largest amount of lightning for one day this season,” said Sam Harrel, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Forestry.
  Harrel said even prior to Sunday’s lighting, earlier strikes resulted in numerous st
  
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• Alaska ‘data bike’ proposal aims to reform how DOT assesses its sidewalks and trails

  24-06-2024 17:30 via ktoo.org
  
  In Idaho, Boise’s metropolitan transportation planning organization uses this “data bike” to help assess the condition of its active transportation network. The Alaska Department of Transportation is seeking grant funding to start a similar program. (Courtesy of Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho)
  Right now, condition reports about Alaska’s state-owned sidewalks, bike paths and boardwalks are entirely anecdotal.
  And that makes Julius Adolfsson’s job d
  
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• U.S. is ‘flying blind’ with bird flu, repeating mistakes of COVID, health experts say

  24-06-2024 17:21 via ktoo.org
  
  During COVID, shortages of tests led to backlogs in getting tested. Experts worry that the U.S. hasn’t learned from those mistakes and wouldn’t be prepared for a major bird flu outbreak. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP/AP)
  It’s been nearly three months since the U.S. government announced an outbreak of the bird flu virus on dairy farms. The World Health Organization considers the virus a public health concern because of its potential to cause a pandemic, yet the U.S. has tested only abou
  
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• Alaska foster families get another year of fully funded child care

  24-06-2024 17:12 via ktoo.org
  
  Children’s coats hang in a hallway at Hillcrest Childcare Center in Anchorage on April 18, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
  State officials have alerted foster parents that Alaska health and community services agencies will take over the costs of a federal program that fully funds their child care after the pandemic-era money ends in July.
  The news is a boon to the foster system, which foster families and child care providers say has struggled to find families that can afford
  
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• Sullivan amendment to defense bill would revive Ambler Road

  24-06-2024 17:07 via ktoo.org
  
  Aerial view of Ambler and the Kobuk River in the summer. (National Park Service)
  U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he’s added an amendment to an annual defense bill that would override the Biden administration’s rejection of the Ambler Road.
  In a press release, Sullivan said the amendment requires the Interior Department to “select a viable path for the project across public land.”
  The proposed Ambler Road would run more than 200 miles. It would start west of the Dalton Highway
  
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• Newscast – Friday, June 21, 2024

  22-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240621-Newsupdate.mp3
  In this newscast:The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced an emergency closure for most near-shore fishing areas around Juneau,
  Researchers found dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish toxins in Ketchikan, and they are helping researchers learn more about the toxins,
  And, if you felt that this May was especially rainy, you were right
  
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• Juneau Afternoon: Buddy Tabor Project updates, a life in tourism with Bob Janes, and Perseverance Theatre’s STAR program

  22-06-2024 02:30 via ktoo.org
  
  Friday, June 21, 2024 — Full EpisodeOn today’s program:New album releases from the Buddy Tabor ProjectA life in guiding and tourism with Bob Janes and Amy BalagnaPerseverance Theatre STAR Program
  Volunteer Andy Kline hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast at ktoo.org/juneauafternoon.Subscribe to the podcast:Apple PodcastsNPR OneSpotifyStitcherRSSJuneau Afternoon is a pr
  
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• Much of Juneau’s king salmon fishery will close this summer, because of a 2020 landslide

  22-06-2024 01:06 via ktoo.org
  
  Salmon fills a tote in Juneau in August 2022. (Clarise Larson/for the Juneau Empire)
  Sport fishermen in Juneau may be disappointed come Monday, because king salmon will largely be off limits this summer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced an emergency closure for most near-shore fishing areas around Juneau.
  The boundaries of the hatchery king salmon closure near Juneau. (Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish)
  Douglas Island Pink and Chum, or DIPAC’s e
  
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• Garden Talk: The solstice marks an important milestone in the growing season

  21-06-2024 23:44 via ktoo.org
  
  Fresh weeds (left to right: horsetail, buttercup and chickweed) that have been soaked for two weeks. Buyarski says this makes a smelly, brown soup that can be diluted and used to feed plants. (Ed Buyarski)
  Yesterday was Summer Solstice. In Alaska, it can feel like a relief to begin losing daylight again — especially for this Morning Edition host, who’s been struggling to get enough sleep. But the solstice also marks an important milestone in the growing season.This week, I spoke with
  
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• The director of Juneau’s Glory Hall homeless shelter is stepping down after 15 years

  21-06-2024 23:13 via ktoo.org
  
  Mariya Lovishchuk and her dog inside 247 Franklin Street, December 2021. (Claire Stremple/KTOO)
  The executive director of the Glory Hall homeless shelter in Juneau, Mariya Lovishchuk, is stepping down from her role after more than a decade of leadership.
  In an interview on Thursday, she said that although she won’t be in charge anymore, she’s not going anywhere. 
  “Well, I think this is why it’s not newsworthy — I think I’m gonna try to do the kind of stuf
  
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• Combat veterans find solace in weeklong canoe journey to Juneau for Celebration

  21-06-2024 19:36 via ktoo.org
  
  Paddlers in the veterans’ canoe (forefront) wait to land in downtown Juneau on June 4, 2024. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
  About 70 people in six canoes paddled north from Wrangell to Juneau last month for Celebration, a biennial cultural gathering that celebrates Southeast Alaska tribes.
  The canoe journey to the event took a week, and veterans of war paddled one of the canoes. Many of the vets found solace during the expedition, where they were able to be together.
  By Tracy Arm, a fjord about
  
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• Red Dog’s dwindling ore is forcing the entire region to consider its future

  21-06-2024 18:32 via ktoo.org
  
  The Red Dog mine near Kotzebue is one of the largest zinc-lead mines in the world. (Google Earth)
  The Red Dog mine has been a huge economic engine for the Kotzebue region for decades. But the zinc and lead deposits the mine relies on are running low and Red Dog may shut down operations as soon as 2031. KOTZ’s Desiree Hagen has been following this story.
  Listen:https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240620085810-062024Econ.mp3
  The following transcript has been lightly edited fo
  
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• 4 men have died in Alaska’s North Slope oil fields in just over a year

  21-06-2024 18:25 via ktoo.org
  
  A water truck and blade add layers of ice chips and water to an ice road near a flow line on the Western North Slope in 2017. (Photo by Elizabeth Harball/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  In the last 14 months, four men have died while working in the oil fields on the North Slope.
  Before that, the area hadn’t seen a death in about five years, according to Anchorage Daily News reporter Alex DeMarban.
  DeMarban has covered the oil and gas industry for years, and said it’s unclear what to attr
  
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• Newscast – Thursday, June 20, 2024

  21-06-2024 03:16 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240620-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:Local trail crews are trying to figure out how to keep up with muddier and harder-to-maintain trails in Southeast Alaska caused by climate change.
  New rules for wastewater are on the horizon here in Alaska.
  Seward’s Lydia Jacoby won’t compete in this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
  Two men died after their small plane crashed on Tuesday into Crescent Lake on the Kenia Peninsula.
  
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