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Alaska lawmakers weight two major bills
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau & Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Alaska lawmakers are weighing two major bills as the second special session drags on. The Legislature has yet to decide on the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund Dividend, legislation to restore funding cut in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s line-item vetoes and the state capital budget.
2 British Columbia teenagers suspects in 3 deaths along Alaska and Cassiar highways
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Two British Columbia teenagers are now considered suspects in 3 deaths along Alaska and Cassiar highways.
Mother and daughter found shot to death at Kenai home
Associated Press
Two women found shot to death at a Kenai home were a mother and daughter. The Peninsula Clarion reports Kenai police identified the women killed as 60-year-old Rachelle Armstrong and 39-year-old Lisa Rutzebeck.
Operation “Summer Heat” leads to 42 arrests in Anchorage
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Law enforcement officials flooded Anchorage earlier this month in a crime sweep called Operation Summer Heat that led to dozens of arrests. The broad effort focused on drugs, guns, and violent crime
Lights out for rural Alaska as the PCE endowment faces endangerment
Tyler Thompson, KDLG – Dillingham
The Power Cost Equalization Endowment was one of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s 182 line-item vetoes. The endowment helps to alleviate the high cost of energy in rural Alaska. In 2018, $746,000 dollars were subsidized from residents’ bills between Aleknagik and Dillingham alone. KDLG’s Tyler Thompson spoke with legislators and Nushagak Cooperative about the impact of losing this fund.
Juneau’s Glory Hall will cut breakfast, lunch service in response to budget vetoes
Adelyn Baxter, KTOO – Juneau
Across the state, social service providers are already feeling the impact of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget vetoes. In Juneau, the local homeless shelter and soup kitchen is reckoning with an almost 25 percent reduction to its already shoestring budget.
USGS scientists say there’s not yet enough information to tie seabird die-offs to toxins
Davis Hovey, KNOM – Nome
Over the course of several seasons, dead seabirds have been found on coastlines all over the Bering Strait region, most of them emaciated. Scientists don’t know why the birds are starving. And though there are some suspicions, some say they don’t have enough information yet to determine a definitive link between these specific bird die-offs and toxins created by algal blooms.
What a drought index of 500 means for Anchorage
Lori Townsend, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
The local drought index in Anchorage reached 500 today, a figure that may be a first according to a long time forester in the city. John See has worked on fire awareness for nearly 50 years, first with the state division of forestry and now as an Anchorage Fire Department Forester. He says he can’t remember ever seeing a drought index of 500 in Anchorage.
Government Hill residents seek to reconnect neighborhood through new trail
Amy Mostafa – Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
The Alaska Railroad yard separates the Government Hill neighborhood from downtown Anchorage. But a century ago, trails connected the homes of federal workers to Ship Creek and the buildings below. Now neighborhood residents are teaming up with a local nonprofit to construct the West Bluff Trail.
