Anchorage news

• 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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• Gov. Dunleavy trims $225 million with budget vetoes but leaves school funding boost intact

  29-06-2024 03:40 via ktoo.org
  
  The facade of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on May 22, 2024. (Eric Stone/Alaska Public Media)
  Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the state’s $12.2 billion operating budget Friday. He trimmed some $225 million in planned spending from the state’s operating and capital budgets with line-item vetoes.
  “The framers of Alaska’s Constitution codified a strong chief executive to ensure responsible budgeting. This budget reflects their intentions. By maintaining focus and fiscal disci
  
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• Alaska Supreme Court sides with state, allows correspondence school laws to stand

  29-06-2024 03:31 via ktoo.org
  
  The Boney Courthouse in Anchorage on June 27, 2024. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  The Alaska Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling that threw the future of homeschooling in Alaska into question.
  In an eight-page summary opinion, Alaska’s highest court unanimously sided with the state Friday in a case that challenged laws around cash payments to homeschool families, known as allotments. A superior court judge ruled in April that because some families were allowed to spend the
  
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• USDA fines Alaska $11.9 million for failing to ensure SNAP recipients are eligible

  29-06-2024 03:27 via ktoo.org
  
  IGA Foodland grocery store in Juneau on Dec. 20, 2022 (Paige Sparks/KTOO)
  The federal agency behind the food stamp program is assessing an $11.9 million fine on the state of Alaska for failing to accurately gauge who is eligible for benefits, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service.
  For the second year in a row, Alaska’s so-called “payment error rate” for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program topped 50%. Also for
  
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• Newscast – Friday, June 28, 2024

  29-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240628-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The Biden Administration finalized a decision blocking the controversial Ambler Road project,
  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
  
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• Elliott Highway closed as the number of wildfires burning in Alaska grows

  29-06-2024 00:03 via ktoo.org
  
  An aerial view of the Globe Fire on the afternoon of Thursday, June 27, 2024. (From Alaska Fire Service)
  About 140 active wildfires, many in the Eastern Interior, are burning up acreage and sending smoke across the region — with one burning across and closing the Elliott Highway north of Fairbanks.
  Among about 10 wildfires being fought statewide, the highest priority is the Globe Fire along the highway north of Fairbanks. The fire, which has grown to more than 5,000 acres, prompted an evac
  
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• Anchorage Mayor Bronson’s final resignee warns about ‘time bombs’ in city’s bookkeeping

  28-06-2024 23:43 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Sharon Lechner served as Anchorage’s chief financial officer under mayors Mark Begich and Matt Claman, and director of the Office of Management and Budget for the last eight months of Mayor Dave Bronson’s tenure. (Courtesy of Municipality of Anchorage)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240628103408-27LECHNERforweb.mp3
  In the lengthy procession of more than 30 executive firings and resignations that cast a shadow on City Hall during Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’
  
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• Stebbins residents banded together to fight fast-moving fire that destroyed their school

  28-06-2024 23:24 via ktoo.org
  
  The remnants of Stebbins’ school, seen from a Bering Air flight. (Ben Townsend/KNOM)
  STEBBINS — Gov. Mike Dunleavy has declared a state disaster in the Norton Sound community of Stebbins, where the local school and several outlying buildings were destroyed in a fire Wednesday.
  Alaska State Troopers said no injuries or deaths have been reported from the fire.
  On Thursday in Stebbins, the smell of burning rubber filled the air as residents pored over what was left of their only school.
  
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• Garden Talk: What exactly is a master gardener? And how do I become one?

  28-06-2024 22:54 via ktoo.org
  
  Master gardener Ed Buyarski teaching students about pruning. (Darren Snyder/UAF Cooperative Extension Service)
  If you’ve listened to Garden Talk before, you’ve heard the term “master gardener.” It’s the title we stick in front of Garden Talk regular Ed Buyarski’s name. This week, KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac decided to finally ask Buyarski just what a master gardener is — and if listeners and readers can become one, too.  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-con
  
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• Anchorage cemetery tour celebrates the contributions of past Black leaders

  28-06-2024 19:33 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Cal Williams leads the Soul in the Cemetery tour through Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery on June 22, 2022. (Leigh Walden/Alaska Public Media)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240627180820-24CemeteryTour.mp3
  On one of the nicest Saturdays so far this summer, about 200 people competed for space surrounding a tombstone at the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.
  Their host for the afternoon: Cal Williams.
  For over two hours, Williams led the lively group on a journey through the cem
  
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• Supreme Court just made it harder for federal agencies to regulate in sweeping ruling

  28-06-2024 19:03 via ktoo.org
  
  The U.S. Supreme Court made it far more difficult for federal agencies to issue rules and regulations that carry out broad mandates enacted by Congress. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
  The U.S. Supreme court on Friday undid decades of regulatory law, making it far more difficult for federal agencies to issue rules and regulations that carry out broad mandates enacted by Congress. Along ideological lines, the court reversed a 40-year-old precedent that has governed what agencies can and cannot do
  
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• Justices grill attorneys as correspondence school case reaches Alaska Supreme Court

  28-06-2024 18:42 via ktoo.org
  
  The Alaska Supreme Court chamber in 2022. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  A high-stakes battle over a popular form of homeschooling reached the Alaska Supreme Court Thursday, as the justices grilled attorneys representing the state, public school families and a group of parents who use state funding to send their children to private schools.
  The justices are considering an appeal of a lower court decision that invalidated two 2014 laws key to the correspondence school system as it exists toda
  
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• Juneau Afternoon: TV production summer camp, Community Foundation individual artists grant program, and 2004 JDHS reunion

  28-06-2024 05:15 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Juneau Live! Studio TV Production Camp taking place in July 2024Thursday, June 27, 2024 — Full EpisodeOn today’s program:Juneau Live! TV Production Camp intensive happening in JulyJuneau Community Foundation updates and upcoming grant deadlinesJDHS High School 2004 20th reunion happening July 5 & 6
  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.
  
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• Newscast – Thursday, June 27, 2024

  28-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240627-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast: A high-stakes battle over a popular form of homeschooling reached the Alaska Supreme Court today,
  Curious Juneau: Juneau is a windy city. So why don’t we have more wind turbines?
  
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• Juneau is a windy city. So why don’t we have more wind turbines?

  28-06-2024 01:41 via ktoo.org
  
  This wind turbine on Gastineau Channel generates just under 10% of the electricity needed to run Juneau’s Coast Guard station. (Photo by KTOO/Clarise Larson)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/27CJwind.wav
  On a windy day in Juneau, you can see state flags fluttering along Egan Drive or a bald eagle coasting over Gastineau Channel. On the pier behind U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau, you might catch the blur of a wind turbine’s blades. 
  Do you have a Curious Juneau q
  
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• Fire destroys Stebbins school and surrounding buildings

  27-06-2024 20:52 via ktoo.org
  
  Smoke rises from a Wednesday, June 26, 2024 fire in Stebbins. (Courtesy Pamela Pete via Facebook)
  A fire that started Wednesday evening in Stebbins has destroyed the local school and several other nearby buildings.
  Stebbins is located on St. Michael Island about 120 miles southeast of Nome.
  According to eyewitnesses in Stebbins, the fire started in a shop next to the Tukurngailnguq School at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. The school, shop, two new portable buildings and nearby housing are expected to b
  
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• Federal judge says Alaska tribes may put land into trust, a step toward ‘Indian country’ here

  27-06-2024 20:39 via ktoo.org
  
  Tlingit tribal members march down Front Street in downtown Juneau on June 8, 2024, during Celebration 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  A federal judge in Anchorage has ruled that the Department of the Interior may take land into trust on behalf of Alaska Native tribes, a decision that could allow tribes to create “Indian country,” which had been mostly eliminated here by the 53-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
  In a 39-page summary judgment order, Judge Sharon
  
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• Residents along the Elliott Highway are told to evacuate as a fast-moving wildfire grows

  27-06-2024 19:54 via ktoo.org
  
  An aerial view of the Globe Fire on the night of Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (From Ryan McPherson/BLM AFS)
  A fast-moving wildfire near the Elliott Highway prompted officials to ask residents to evacuate Wednesday night between Mile 41 and Mile 43 of the highway.
  Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said a state Department of Transportation work camp and a few homes are in the path of the Globe Fire, which was initially reported to be about one acre Tuesday.
  “And then on Wednesday after
  
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• Newscast – Wednesday, June 26, 2024

  27-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240626-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:Supports of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting were in court Monday in an attempt to disqualify a ballot measure that would repeal the election reforms voters adopted in 2020,
  A Juneau artist’s family is donating hundreds of photos of King Island taken in the early 1950s before the residents were removed from the remote Bering Sea island,
  An audio postcard from Dillingham’s boatyard as fishi
  
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• Juneau man’s 70-year-old photos could help preserve cultural knowledge for King Island Inupiat community

  27-06-2024 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Paul Tiulana, a King Island man, in the early 1950s. (Photo by Juan Muñoz Sr.)
  Yaayuk Bernadette Alvanna-Stimpfle was born to a King Island family in 1955. She wasn’t raised on the Bering Sea island, but her family kept it as close as they could in her upbringing.
  “My generation were the first ones to be raised away from the island, but we were still raised on the east end of Nome,” she said. “They still spoke to us in the language.”
  In 1959, the Bureau of In
  
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• Juneau Afternoon: Spruce Root business development competition, Chamber award nominations open, and a preview of the 3rd Annual Master’s Faire

  27-06-2024 02:42 via ktoo.org
  
  
  3rd Annual Master’s Faire to take place in Juneau, June 29, 2024Wednesday, June 26, 2024 — Full EpisodeOn today’s program:Chamber of Commerce monthly updateSpruce Root Path to Prosperity business competitionDeadline to apply: June 30Master’s Faire is happening Saturday, June 29
  Bostin Christopher 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/juneauafter
  
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• Juneau’s hospital plans to seek subsidies to avoid cutting services

  26-06-2024 23:28 via ktoo.org
  
  Bartlett Regional Hospital on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  The board for Juneau’s city-owned hospital plans to seek subsidies for services it says are contributing to a financial crisis that could close the hospital within three years. 
  Bartlett Regional Hospital’s board is giving itself just a handful of months to convince the city or other entities to subsidize some services that are draining money. If it can’t secure that money by the end of October, or
  
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• After concussions and candy-cane streetlight costs, North Pole City Council removes mayor

  26-06-2024 22:12 via ktoo.org
  
  A large Santa statute near the Santa Claus House business in North Pole on Nov. 14, 2021. (Tegan Hanlon/Alaska Public Media)
  The city council of North Pole voted unanimously on June 18 to remove Mayor Michael Welch, a Republican candidate for state House from office “until the next city election or until … the council determines the mayor is able to perform the duties of Mayor.”
  Welch himself joined the council in the unanimous vote. North Pole’s city charter a
  
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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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