News

Conservation Biologist Rick Steiner sent a request this week to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell asking for an emergency order that would close state lands east of Denali National Park to hunting and trapping wolves. The season opened Nov. 1. Steiner made a similar request last May after Park Service biologists reported the dispersal of the Grant Creek Wolf Pack. The pack did not produce pups this year.

In March, council set aside $42,000 for a study of alternative energy resources in Unalaska. Mike Hubbard, a consultant with the Financial Engineering Company of Maine, presented that report to city council at their meeting Tuesday night.

Unalaska’s smallest processing plant is now a major player in the Aleutian Islands golden king crab fishery. A recent purchase by one of Bering Fisheries’ parent companies will bring an extra 1.2 million of pounds of king crab through the plant every year.

Just weeks after BP accepted blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; the federal government is announcing more punishment for the company. The Environmental Protection Agency is suspending BP from future government contracts.

Governor Sean Parnell visited Kenai Wednesday to meet with local officials, mingle with residents and make a $30 million announcement. That’s the amount the Governor is proposing to spend on a five-year Chinook Salmon Research Initiative.

Bartlett Regional Hospital must repay the state and federal governments close to a million dollars for six years of Medicare and Medicaid billing errors. The hospital also may have to pay penalties for the errors, which violated federal law.

The Environmental Protection Agency has fined four Alaska seafood processing vessels for alleged Clean Water Act violations. The processors agreed to pay a combined total of more than $300,000 to settle the allegations, which revolve around seafood waste discharge. All four vessels process groundfish in the federal waters off Alaska’s coast, and dump unusable fish waste back into the ocean.

A coalition of health care providers and advocates in the state is urging Governor Sean Parnell to expand Alaska’s Medicaid rolls under the Affordable Care Act. Tens of thousands of Alaskans could qualify for Medicaid if Governor Parnell chooses to open the rolls, and many medical providers could stand to make millions of dollars.

Shell’s Kulluk drill rig is back in Unalaska after spending the fall in the Beaufort Sea, but it may not be around for long. Shell previously said the Kulluk would overwinter in Unalaska at its custom dock in Captain’s Bay, but spokesperson Kelly op de Weegh now says that it may go south for maintenance.

State officials say a magazine article about shellfish incorrectly states when they can be gathered safely.

Supporters of four men imprisoned for the 1997 murder of a Fairbanks teen are looking beyond a recent favorable court ruling. Eugene Vent, George Frese, Kevin Pease and Marvin Roberts are serving multi-decade prison sentences for killing John Hartman. There was no physical evidence tying the men to the beating attack, and the case has long drawn questions about whether justice was served. The latest ruling involves an appeal by one of the convicted men.

Derek Michael Stephens, 30, was arrested Friday afternoon in King Salmon on an outstanding warrant involving four counts of sexual exploitation of a child from the state of Idaho. Bristol Bay Borough Chief of Police Rodney Enevoldsen says authorities in Idaho made his department aware of the Warrant and the interest in Stephens in August, but until last week there had been no plans to extradite.

The official search for a man missing in the Brooks Range has been called off. Thirty one year old Thomas Seibold had been staying at a cabin on the Ambler River since September. He’d planned to hike 25 miles to the village of Kobuk for a flight out on Nov. 11, but never arrived. A two-week aerial search followed, but Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters says there’s been no sign of Seibold.

Two brothers from Juneau died in a boating accident Friday near Tenakee Springs. Alaska State Troopers Spokeswoman Megan Peters says 26-year-old Casey Newman and 23-year-old Kelly Newman went missing when their 18-foot Lund skiff capsized late Friday. Peters says Jim Brown, Jr., in his mid-20s, was also on the boat and was able to swim to shore.

It's been over a week since the tug Polar Wind and the barge it was towing grounded off the Alaska Peninsula, and response crews are still struggling to remove fuel and other cargo.

Governor Sean Parnell wants the State Board of Education to make student performance an important part of teacher evaluations. The board has been working for months on drafting a new rule that bases 20 percent of a teacher's evaluation on student achievement. The Governor wrote a letter to the board this week, asking to boost that figure to 50 percent.

Scientists have known for years that greenhouse gasses are altering the chemical makeup of our oceans. More and more carbon dioxide is dissolving into salt water, creating carbonic acid. That changes the ocean’s pH, or acid-alkaline balance. And it’s hitting harder in Alaska.

It’s been a slow week on Capitol Hill with lawmakers out for Thanksgiving. But talks are ongoing between Congressional leaders and the White House about working to stave off the fiscal cliff and establishing the frame work for a deficit reduction package. Tax reform could play a significant part of the debt package, and the oil and gas industry is making sure it keeps its tax breaks.

A Canadian company is pushing a rail link from Alberta to Delta Junction. Vancouver based Generating for 7 Generations or “G-7-G” wants to build the 1,600 mile railroad to export oil sands through the Trans Alaska Pipeline.

Two people are dead and two taken to the hospital after a single-car accident on South Tongass Highway. Deputy Police Chief Josh Dossett says the Ketchikan Police Department received a call at 9:05 Monday night reporting an accident just south of the Coast Guard Base.