News

The Juneau School District is facing a sixth year of budget cuts, and it’s handling the budget process a little differently than in recent years. Superintendent Mark Miller laid out the challenge at a public forum on the school budget last week. “If we rolled our current budget over into next year with nothing different, just rolled this year’s budget into next year and did exactly what we’re doing now, we’d be about $1.2 million short,” Miller said. In the past, the question was, what should we cut?

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced last week that it is implementing a new tracking program for seafood imports to help combat illegal fishing and seafood fraud. Importers will have to track where fish were caught, the type of gear used and where it was landed. Director of the Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspections John Henderschedt said the federal government wants a better record of who is catching seafood and where it’s landed before it shows up in U.S. stores.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is America’s oldest military aviation award and none too easy to earn – it’s only awarded for remarkable acts of heroism. Like what happened south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts one February morning in 2015. A little after 8:30am, the same time many of us are getting to work, a helicopter team from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod hovered above a fishing vessel stranded in nine-foot seas and 40 mph winds with conditions worsening. One of the pilots – now based in Kodiak - won a Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts that day.

The renovated and enlarged Sitka Public Library is now open for business, with thousands of books having been moved back from temporary quarters on the Sheldon Jackson campus. Residents showed up in force to check out the new digs Thursday night. Before the new Sitka Public Library opened its doors it was just a big building full of books. A beautiful building, but still just a building. It didn’t actually become a *library* until after the ceremonial ribbon cutting, when eager Sitkans streamed into the facility to get their first peek.

The Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is considering two liquor license applications for Bethel next week: one for a package liquor store for Bethel Native Corporation’s subsidiary Bethel Spirits LLC and another for Fili’s Pizza restaurant.

Longtime Skagway Assembly member and business owner Dan Henry signed a plea agreement Wednesday admitting guilt to federal tax charges and agreeing to pay $600,000 in restitution to the IRS.

The developer says the sale would save the state $2,052,000 over the next nine years of the existing lease, and eliminates the potential for lawsuits if legislators walk away from the agreement. Download Audio

All prison programs in Alaska's correctional institutions will be reviewed, according to newly appointed Corrections Commissioner Dean Williams. Williams is also the co-author of an administrative report released last year that detailed deficiencies in the current system. Download Audio

Two local musicians in Anchorage are diving beards-first into the business of male grooming products. They're going for a style reminiscent of Don Draper mixed with well-groomed mountain man. I spent an afternoon at company – or apartment kitchen – headquarters to find out a little bit more. Download Audio

After Alaska Airlines unveiled a new look for their airplanes and website many Alaska Natives took offense to a phrase they with their new marketing campaign. The phrase that sparked a controversy and a new round of conversations about what the word “Eskimo” means to Alaska Natives. Download Audio

Alaskans don’t want to see large cuts to their annual Permanent Fund dividends. At least, that was the message most people delivered Thursday night about Gov. Bill Walker’s plan for the fund. Download Audio

Anchorage resident Teresa Gray just returned from volunteering in a refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. Gray is a retired paramedic who was moved to volunteer for three weeks in January with a relief organization based in Ireland, after she saw the tragic and widely circulated photograph of a small refugee boy who died and washed up on a beach. Gray had never assisted with an international relief effort before. She says the refugees who are fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq pay Turkish Smugglers 1500 dollars a person to get to Lesvos.