Alaska News Nightly: Monday, Oct. 19, 2015

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On Attu Island, WWII battlefield awaits clean-up as seabirds recolonize the isle

Lauren Rosenthal, APRN Contributor

It’s been more than 70 years since Attu Island was taken captive, setting off one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Once they got it back, American forces transformed the last island in the Aleutian Chain into a strategic hub that’s slowly become a source of pollution.

State Dept. official to talk on nuclear treaty in Fairbanks

Robert Hannon, KUAC – Fairbanks

A high ranking State Department official will speak Monday night at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the prospects of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Confronting suicide in Alaska: Talk about it

Lori Townsend, APRN – Anchorage

A discussion after a suicide can help support vulnerable people who are at risk, or it can help push them in that direction, a lot depends on the words used to describe the event. Usually, those who take their life are alone and most people won’t hear about it. But four recent suicides in Hooper Bay and the very public death of a man who killed himself inside the Dena’ina Convention Center at the end of the annual AFN convention on Saturday has Alaskans and Alaska news media grappling with the right way to report without sensationalizing, deaths that result from suicide.

Expert disputes boot print evidence at Fairbanks 4 hearing

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

Boot print evidence used to link one of the Fairbanks Four to the 1997 murder of John Hartman, are disputed by a forensic expert. Independent consultant Lesly Hammer testified on Friday at an ongoing evidentiary hearing into whether George Frese, Kevin Pease, Marvin Roberts and Eugene Vent, men known as the Fairbanks Four, convicted of the Hartman attack, are in fact innocent.

Fairbanks 4 parolee speaks out at AFN to standing ovation

Daysha Eaton, KBBI – Homer

Marvin Roberts, one of the Fairbanks Four, received a standing ovation when he walked onto the stage at AFN, Saturday. It was the first time Roberts had spoken out in such a public venue about the case.

In tight race, Halter wins Mat-Su mayor’s seat

Ellen Lockyer,  KSKA – Anchorage

The final vote tally in the Matanuska Susitana Borough mayor’s race indicates that  Vern  Halter is the Borough’s new mayor. Halter drew 5,422 votes compared with incumbent DeVilbiss’ 4,971.

NAACP asks Sitka to rename Alaska Day event

Emily Kwong, KCAW – Sitka

The Anchorage chapter of the NAACP wrote to the Sitka committee of the Alaska Day festival yesterday, criticizing the name of one of the events on the program: the slave auction. Organized by a local bar, the annual fundraiser took place last night.

Online map plots coastal erosion in eight Western Alaska locations

Hannah Colton, KDLG – Dillingham

Each year, coastal communities in Western Alaska watch feet of shoreline disappear into the waves. Now a new online mapping tool will let them look at past erosion and see where the coastline might be in future years.

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