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Murkowski, Begich Pushing for Icebreakers
Zachariah Hughes, Nome-KNOM
Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich of Alaska are co-sponsoring an amendment to move forward building four heavy icebreakers. The amendment is attached to the Defense Reauthorization Bill in the senate. It would allow the Navy to begin shopping contracts for bids on all the components necessary to build the costly boats.
ANWR Campaigns March On, No End in Sight
Liz Ruskin, APRN- Washington
Congress is so stuck in partisan mire it hardly passes any bills these days. So it would seem unlikely it could pass anything as controversial as opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Still, two campaigns, Arctic Power and Alaska Wilderness League, remain on the job in Washington, D.C. One has been fighting for 20 years to allow oil development on the coastal plain of the refuge, the other working just as long to ensure that day never comes.
APU’s Randall Second in World Cup Race
Emily Schwing, KUAC-Fairbanks
Alaska Pacific University’s Kikkan Randall claimed a silver medal in the women’s classic-style sprint race in this season’s opening World Cup event in Kuusamo, Finland. It was the first day of cross-country ski racing.
Georgetown Tops UAA in Alaska Shootout
Josh Edge, APRN-Anchorage
This year’s Great Alaska Shootout Basketball tournament kicked in Anchorage on Tuesday. Georgetown University women’s basketball team took home the women’s Shootout title, beating the University of Alaska Anchorage 92 to 78 in the championship game.
Delta Junction Seeking Funds for Pharmacy
Tim Ellis, KUAC-Fairbanks
A two-year effort to improve medical care in Delta Junction got a big boost earlier this month in the form of a $400,000 grant that will enable the Interior Alaska Hospital Foundation to open a clinic by March. Now, foundation members have launched a drive to raise at least $150,000 for a pharmacy they’d like to open along with the clinic.
Doyon Still Exploring Nenana Basin
Dan Bross, KUAC-Fairbanks
An oil and gas exploration well drilled in the Nenana Basin has not yielded a commercially viable deposit. Doyon Corporation vice president of lands and resources Jim Mery says the nearly nine thousand-foot well, about 16 miles west of Nenana, has inspired the corporation to keep looking.
AK: Banding Birds in Sitka
Alaska has its share of big science projects. But to get results, science doesn’t always have to be huge.
In Sitka, a project in its second year is studying the seasonal movement of juncoes (junk-ohs) and some other sparrows. It started as a way to involve kids in science, and to answer some basic questions about a species so common that we haven’t taken the trouble to study it.
300 Villages: Kwigillingok
Monica Gokey, APRN – Anchorage
This week we’re heading 80 miles southwest of Bethel to a village the locals call “Kwig.” Andrew Beaver is the tribal administrator in Kwigillingok.
