Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks

Wild fire scientists are anticipating a normal season over much of Alaska this summer. That would mean about 1 million acres burned. Recent years have seen an early start to fire season, but Alaska Interagency Coordination Center Fire Weather program manager Heidi Strader says that’s less likely over much of Alaska this year.

Eagle is facing a bleak tourism future. Holland America has decided to eliminate the historic Yukon River community at the end of the Taylor Highway from its summer tour route.

A reward for new information about an old Fairbanks murder has increased. The Tanana Chiefs Conference is offering $35,000 for information leading to exoneration of four interior men, three of whom are Alaska Native, imprisoned for the 1997 beating death of Fairbanks teenager John Hartman.

There are still few details about a North Slope oil field accident that killed a Fairbanks man. Doyon Drilling worker David James, originally from Ft. Yukon, died in the accident at a offshore drilling rig site Monday.

New housing for University of Alaska Fairbanks students will test high efficiency design and construction. The Sustainable Village will include four-bedroom homes designed to be heated with the equivalent of 200 gallons of oil per year, but the houses will use a mix of solar and biomass energy.

The interior is transitioning into spring after a colder than normal March. The average temperature in Fairbanks was 4 point 5 degrees Fahrenheit last month. National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Thomam says that’s almost 7 degrees below normal.

Parties on both sides of the Fairbanks teacher contract dispute will likely employ a private mediator to jump start stalled negotiations, and expedite a resolution. Negotiating teams for teachers and the district reached an...

The state Re-districting Board voted to approve a new map of legislative districts over the week-end. This is a revision of last week's plan crafted to conform to the requirements of the state...

A California man, who lived in the wilderness around Healy, has been arrested for burning down a cabin. State Troopers say Andrew Costales told them he left a fire going in a woodstove of the private cabin near Dora Creek, and the structure burned while he was out. Costales was arrested in Healy March 23rd, and charged with burglary, criminal trespass, and criminally negligent burning.

An Air Force team headed to Alaska next month will assess projected savings from moving Eielson Air Forces Base’s F-16 squadron to Joint base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage. The site activation task force team is scheduled to be at Eielson April 11-14 and at J-BER the 16-18. Pacific Air Force Public Affairs Director Colonel Maria Carl in Hawaii says the team will look at all aspects of moving the F-16 squadron.

A weekend rescue in the White Mountains National Recreation Area could have been avoided with some basic preparation and planning. Local musher Peg Billingsly and an out of state client were picked up by Alaska Wildlife Troopers Sunday after miscommunications and dog trouble left them stranded at two separate locations. Both women are OK, but BLM spokesman Craig McCaa says the incident points out how easy it is for things to go wrong in the wilderness, even along marked and groomed trails in the White Mountains.

University of Alaska health insurance premiums are going up. Employee health care paycheck deductions will roughly double as of July 1. The change amounts to $175 a month for a worker on the mid range coverage plan. Add a spouse and kids, and the premium will be over $490 a month. It’s the latest erosion of what used to be considered a Cadillac plan. UA spokeswoman Kate Ripley says the university is playing catch up after two years of flat employee rates.

A once endangered population of peregrine falcons that nests along the upper Yukon River appears to have stabilized. North American peregrines were decimated by the pesticide DDT, and listed as an endangered species, in the early 1970s. A long running study in the Yukon Charley National Preserve has documented 53 nesting pairs for the last 3 years and a 60 to 70 percent breeding success rate. Biologist Skip Ambrose, who’s studied Upper Yukon peregrines for decades, says the birds have come a long way.

Increased wild fire frequency threatens the survival of northern black spruce forests. That’s the finding of recently published research from the Yukon Territory. That’s the finding of recently published research from the Yukon Territory.

The Alaska Supreme Court issued a ruling late yesterday requiring the Alaska Redistricting Board to draw up a new voting district map for the state. An earlier generated map is the subject of a legal challenge by two Fairbanks area voters, who claim it disenfranchises them, and the Supreme Court review is the latest step in the case.

The first major group of Ft. Wainwright Stryker Brigade soldiers returned to Fairbanks yesterday following a year-long deployment to Afghanistan.

The state game board voted down a bear snaring proposal before adjourning from a week-long meeting in Fairbanks Friday. The state proposal, which would have allowed black bear trapping in areas of the interior, to reduce predation of moose, was unanimously rejected by the board.

The Board of Game has made changes to expand bear baiting in the interior. Bear baiting programs have primarily focused on black bears, but Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms says the board approved proposals that would allow hunters to kill grizzly bears at bait stations in game management units 20C, southwest of Fairbanks and 21 D near Galena.

More than 600 jobs would be lost at Eielson if the Air Force moves the base’s F-16 Fighter Squadron to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage. An Air Force document released Tuesday identifies the job cuts that would effectively reduce Eielson’s current workforce 22 percent. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek at the Pentagon says the cuts would affect military and civilian jobs.

A new service in Fairbanks will help prison inmates, their family and friends, stay batter connected. “Video Visiting” provides audio and video interface between a designated site in Fairbanks and a Colorado prison, where many Alaska inmates are serving time.