Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage
Alaska News Nightly: Friday, December 30, 2022
Ketchikan's police chief faces assault charges after a September incident. Also, Juneau wrestles with the potential for landslides or avalanches to impact downtown buildings. And managers of so-far healthy bison populations look forward to years of harvests.
Iditarod veteran Hugh Neff denied entry for 2023 race
Hugh Neff has finished the Iditarod 13 times, placing as high as 5th in 2011. But over the past few years, he has had trouble in both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest.
Alaska wildfire researchers grapple with changing climate’s effects on predictability
In March, Uma Bhatt and her team will try to predict how bad the upcoming fire season will be.
Anchorage’s back to back (to back?) snowstorm totals pushing city toward December record
Back for our Ask a Climatologist segment, Brian Brettschneider with the National Weather Service says there are a couple ways to think about the snow, including one measurement that gets at how it feels to, say, shovel it out of driveways.
Iconic Fairbanks satellite dish helps map floods thousands of miles away, under trees, clouds and at night
Franz Meyer, chief scientist at the Alaska Satellite facility, and his colleagues use satellites to map what's happening on the ground, even if it's covered by trees or clouds.
Wasilla explosion that injured man and demolished building likely due to gas leak, troopers say
A woman who identified herself on Facebook as the wife of the owner of Connoisseur Lounge, a cannabis retail shop, wrote that the injured man was a contractor checking on a newly built part of her husband’s shop.
Iditarod’s smallest field in race history begs the question: Why so few?
As the Iditarod has become more competitive, the middle- to back-of-the pack mushers who made it more of a cultural event have struggled with rising costs.
Iditarod’s last-minute entrants include Australian making unexpected return
Christian Turner is an unlikely entrant in the 1,000-mile sled dog race, but not for lack of experience: He’s a two-time finisher, placing his highest at 15th in 2015, his last Iditarod.
Alaska Native corporations embroiled in legal dispute over millions of dollars in carbon credit revenue
Three Native corporations are suing three others, who've made at least $100 million and likely more selling carbon credits.
Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Congresswoman Mary Peltola is skeptical of a proposed deal to avert a rail strike. Also, a Dillingham creek gets a new name, after years of advocacy by local students. And the Bureau of Land Management considers allowing helicopter tours to a popular hot springs near Fairbanks.
Alaska’s gas-powered utilities look at importing LNG despite state’s vast, yet remote, supply
It's not something that'll happen in the near term, and there's no worry that gas utility Enstar or power utility Chugach Electric will run out of gas for people to heat and electrify their homes. Not yet anyway.
Alaska’s constitutional right to an abortion at heart of new podcast, ‘Private Right’
The Alaska Beacon's new podcast is produced and hosted by journalist Lisa Phu.
Alaska lawmakers look at election results and ponder policies, politics and personalities in coalition discussions
Alaska Beacon reporter James Brooks says some state senators have been talking about the very real possibility of forming a coalition. But the future of a coalition-controlled House is much murkier.
Alaska ski legend Dean Cummings acquitted in New Mexico murder trial
Cummings, the former World Extreme Skiing Champion behind the now-defunct Valdez-based H2O Guides, walked out of jail a short time after the verdict Tuesday, a free man for the first time in more than two years.
Alaska could see effects of Indian Child Welfare Act challenge heard by Supreme Court
Community reporting fellow Chen Chen with KTOO has been following the case — called Haaland v. Brackeen — and reporting on what ICWA means to Alaska.
This Alaska-born bird flew 8,500 miles to Tasmania, and we’re still not totally sure how it did it
Before it was internationally famous, B6 was just another godwit chick in Alaska, where wildlife biologist Dan Ruthrauff with the U.S. Geological Survey found it.
Alaska sees third La Niña winter forecast in a row
What would an ancient human think of all this?
Alaska Senate could see flip to coalition control if Republicans remain divided after election
With Republicans showing divisions in the state Senate, there's speculation that a coalition majority like in the House could form there as well.
Will the Alaska House have another coalition majority checking the governor? For now, it’s hard to say.
With Alaska's Election Day less than a week away, one of the biggest questions is whether there will again be a coalition majority in control of the state House.
The Alaska commission that investigates discrimination has been sued for alleged discrimination
Marilyn Stewart’s lawsuit alleges that – because she is Black, a woman and a military veteran – two former commissioners convinced others to vote to terminate her employment in 2019.