Steve Heimel, APRN Contributor

A helicopter pilot died in a crash near the Pogo gold mine outside Delta Junction late Tuesday. Sumitomo Metals confirms that the helicopter was working for the mine. There is no identity released yet. State Troopers responded and the National Transportation Safety Board is on its way to investigate.

The driver who died in a three-vehicle pileup on the Glenn Highway near Sutton Wednesday has been identified as Sutton resident Michael Jenkins, a longtime local resident. His dog, a golden retriever, jumped out of the vehicle and is still missing. Jenkins is survived by a young son and daughter.

The Coast Guard and the Navy has been doing an oil spill recovery drill for the last few days north of Barrow. The Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore deployed a skimmer system and tested it. Then it deployed a containment boom system developed for the Navy.

A fire in Nome earlier this week has claimed the life of one of two people who were trapped in the burning home. Dead in a Seattle hospital is Conrad Klemzak, 54. Also pulled from the fire was Walter Rose, 50. He is under treatment at the Nome hospital. The cause of the blaze is not yet determined.

A pile-up of three vehicles took the life of one person and shut down the Glenn Highway near Sutton Wednesday afternoon. Alaska State Troopers say a southbound car crossed the center line and hit another vehicle head-on. Then that car collided with another vehicle. The driver of the car that crossed the center line is dead, One of the other drivers received minor injuries. No names released yet.

The Air Force has lifted the flight restrictions on the F-22 fighter, saying it has resolved the problems that were depriving pilots of sufficient oxygen during maneuvers and at altitude. A large part of the F-22 fleet is based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Federal prosecutors in Anchorage today announced 77 indictments in a massive tax fraud case involving identity theft and cocaine smuggling. Last December in Philadelphia, a man flying from Anchorage was arrested while trying to take $50,000 cash out of the country. Joel Jose Santana-Pierna was among five people charged the next month with cocaine smuggling. He was in the country illegally, as were most of his co-conspirators. Today the government announced superseding indictments of those five, and six others, including one U.S. citizen, for identity theft and numerous other tax fraud charges.

The big Baptist church in Anchorage is going to have to pay some property taxes. The Municipal Tax Assessor says the homes of church employees are taxable because the employees have an ownership interest in them. Assessor Marty McGee says there is no indication that the Anchorage Baptist Temple intended to deceive city officials when it declared that it was the owner of the homes of Reverend Allen Prevo and Reverend Tom Cobaugh.

Last Wednesday the new Anchorage Municipal Clerk opened a room and discovered a bunch of election ballots that may not have been counted. Assembly Chairman Ernie Hall waited until after Friday's news deadlines to announce that the Assembly is going to have to put the election back on its agenda and take another certification vote. He said first the Election Commission will meet to review the 141 ballots.

The annual Creative Writing talks at the University of Alaska-Anchorage this week kicked off with a celebrity guest – California poet Gary Snyder. His reading at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium drew a large crowd last night.

Opera Fairbanks is getting ready for its only opera of the year. It will be the Puccini classic “La Boheme.” If you are wondering what about an opera written almost 200 years ago could motivate people to produce it in a small city in Alaska, you’ll hear the answer on the next Talk of Alaska. KSKA: Tuesday, 7/10 at 10:00am

Scientists are looking for answers about why this year’s Chinook Salmon returns are so low on so many rivers across the state. The answer is going to be hard to find, because the fish spend longer than any other Salmon species at sea. And the sea, especially the Bering Sea, is changing.

As expected, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today signed off on a five-year plan for federal offshore oil and gas leasing that includes more sales off the shores of Alaska, despite heavy pressure by environmental groups, who have been campaigning against any more sales in the Arctic Ocean.

Monday, Shell conducted a test of its underwater well blowout containment technology. The Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has not said yet whether it is satisfied enough with the test to give the company the final nod for its exploratory drilling efforts this summer in the Chukchi Sea.