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The Juneau Community Charter School is getting a 56 percent increase to its budget through an upcoming change in state law. New mandates in House Bill 278 give charter schools more parity with other public schools. Download Audio

The popular video game Minecraft has made its way into Juneau high school classrooms. A graduate education course at the University of Alaska Southeast showed teachers how to implement the game in their classes. KTOO’s Lisa Phu went to a high school algebra class to hear what students have to say about Minecraft – not as a game but – as a learning tool. Download Audio

The first Red Flag warnings have already been issued for parts of Southcentral and the Interior and wildland firefighters are gearing up for the season. Some of them will approach wildfires from the ground, but there’s one elite group that’s been training for more than two months to fight fire from the air. Download Audio

Governor Sean Parnell is defending his decision to wait four years to request a federal investigation into reports of a sexual assault problem in the Alaska National Guard. Anchorage Daily News columnist Shannyn Moore wrote Sunday that Parnell first learned about misconduct in the Guard in 2010, when he was approached by three guard chaplains. Parnell says he took those charges seriously, but lacked the details to prompt an investigation until February. He says after the initial concerns were raised, he went to Major General Thomas Katkus to make sure the systems were in place to protect guard members. Then in February, Parnell says he was able to talk with a guard member who provided specifics. Download Audio

Alaskan Brewing Co. is entering the growing canned microbrew market. Starting Monday, the Juneau-based beer maker will sell its flagship Amber Ale and its Freeride American Pale Ale in 12-ounce cans. In recent years, consumers have become more accepting of craft beer in cans. But is it as good as bottles? Download Audio

Three rarely seen whales beached on Alaska’s coast last year, and NOAA Fisheries is investigating whether human activity contributed to the strandings. Download Audio

The National Research Council released a report on what needs to be done in order to be able to respond to oil spills in Arctic waters. Environmental groups were quick to respond that so much needs to be done that it would be better to not drill at all. Download Audio

Tlingit elder Cyril George Sr. has died at the age of 92. A fisherman, boat builder, master story teller, and man of great faith, George passed away last week at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Download Audio

Supporters of a bill to make 20 Alaska Native languages official state languages organized a 15 hour sit-in protest at the Capitol on Sunday. Their dedication paid off early this morning, when the measure passed the Alaska Senate on an 18-2 vote. Download Audio

At most major airports someone is paid to chase birds off the runway, but at Sitka’s airport that job is especially challenging. That’s because three-fourths of Sitka’s runway is surrounded by water. Fish spawn along its banks, attracting hungry birds. That problem was highlighted four years ago when two Alaska Airlines jets collided with eagles on takeoff. KCAW’s Emily Forman spoke with the expert who came in afterward to make sure the runway is safe. Download Audio

The new law puts a set of recently adopted regulations into statute, and takes them a step further It specifies that the state will not pay for elective abortions. It limits the term “medically necessary” to cases where a woman’s life or physical health is at risk. Download Audio

Middle East exchange student Haytham Mohanna and Juneau’s Thunder Mountain High School Art Club presented an origami peacock of peace to the Alaska State Legislature on Monday. The peacock is made of more than 2,000 pieces of folded paper. Download Audio

A small group of people gathered Saturday in Anchorage to use art to make change. The National Water Dance was an effort to use the art of human movement to generate compassion for the nation’s streams, lakes and oceans. Download Audio

The National Transportation Safety Board has finished its on-scene investigation into the crash that killed two Hageland Aviation pilots Tuesday. Derrick Cedars of Bethel and Greggory McGee from Anchorage died in Tuesday’s crash.

Haines seems like a quintessential Southeast Alaska town. There are eagles, bears, salmon, big mountains and rough water. It’s a picture-book no stoplight, no movie theater, low crime type of community. But there’s a seedier and eclectic side of Haines that emerged late this winter: the underground puppet scene. Download Audio

President Obama signed executive orders on Tuesday that aim to tighten the pay gap between men and women. The President’s actions take place on national Equal Pay Day, a day symbolizing how long women have to work into 2014 to catch up with what men earned in 2013. Equal Pay Day originated in 1996 to raise public awareness of the wage gap. While discrimination may contribute to Alaska’s pay gap, a state economist says other factors are just as important. Download Audio

The Islands of the Four Mountains are at the center of the Aleutians -- geographically, and in folklore passed down from prehistoric times. But we don’t know much about the people who lived there. An upcoming expedition to the site may change that. KUCB’s Annie Ropeik caught up with the researchers in Unalaska as they prepared for their trip -- and for what it could reveal about the earliest Unangan people. Download Audio

Several people at Juneau’s downtown shelter and soup kitchen The Glory Hole are part of a new club. Every Tuesday, they come together on the second floor of the facility to discuss a different topic. The club is helping to build a different kind of community within the homeless shelter, a community not based on need, but on the exchange of ideas. Download Audio

Yesterday, we reported that Akutan residents are pleased with their new airport taxi — a helicopter that came online in February. The Aleutians East Borough is already running out of money to pay for it. Today, in the second part of our series on the struggle to connect Akutan to its airport, the borough settles on a permanent solution. It’s one they rejected a decade ago. Download Audio

For the past year and a half, people on Akutan have been taking a hovercraft to get to their airport on a different island. Now, the Aleutians East Borough has made the switch to a helicopter as their new airport taxi. The change has been a relief for residents. Download Audio