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Students and mariners will soon be able to get formal marine transportation education without leaving the state. The University of Alaska Board of Regents last week approved a new marine transportation degree program at the University of Alaska Southeast.

As college freshmen dig into their studies at the state’s universities this fall, more native faces are appearing in science and engineering classrooms. That’s thanks to the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, or ANSEP. Yup’ik students from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta are among them. Cody McIntyre is one of them. He’s from the village of Tuntutuliak, or as he calls it, Tunt, and he really likes Math.

A record-breaking Permanent Fund Dividend of $2,072 was announced Monday morning, not from the Governor, but instead from 12-year-old student, because, according to Governor Bill Walker, the fund is really about the next generation.

The Juneau Empire and Capital City Weekly recently told five of its employees they were being laid off. Three people in the business office and two graphic designers are losing their jobs by the end of the year. Those duties will be done either in Anchorage or outsourced to another country.

Twenty-five walrus—including up to a dozen calves—have been found dead on a beach about 40 miles north of Point Hope. Now federal wildlife officials are investigating a possible criminal slaughter of the protected marine mammals. Download Audio

Fairbanks annual Equinox Marathon is Saturday. A hilly, mostly off road course and wet, cool weather make the race a challenge, but a few participants in this year’s event are battling a much tougher foe. Download Audio

The University of Alaska Board of Regents this week is meeting in Juneau. Among the topics up for discussion is figuring how the university should move forward in a progressively bleaker fiscal climate, and developing a plan of attack for their legislative budget requests. Download Audio

Well over a century ago, United Methodist church members started the Jesse Lee Home in Unalaska for children who had been orphaned by disease or needed care while their parents recovered from illness. When the Spanish influenza pandemic wiped out villages along coastal Alaska, the home moved to Seward, and after the 1964 earthquake, it moved again to Anchorage. A hundred and twenty-five years later, Alaska Child and Family, the contemporary to the Jesse Lee facility is celebrating their anniversary this week. Download Audio

The Juneau RollerGirls are training a coed junior league this fall. Roller derby is characterized by fast-paced bouts, slick moves and cheeky alter egos. Helmets are essential. But the raucous sport can be adapted for kids. Download Audio

Last weekend, nearly 1,600 people ran a 10-part race from Skagway over the Coast Mountains and into Whitehorse, Yukon. It’s part endurance trial, part road trip and part party. For many on both sides of the border, running the 110-mile Klondike Road Relay is an annual tradition. Download Audio:

This week, we hear from Sean Neilson who lives in Gustavus. He works part-time as a park ranger in Glacier Bay National Park, boarding cruise ships a few times a week to talk with tourists. Download Audio:

Scientists flock to the Aleutians every summer to study the islands’ rich wildlife, long history and active volcanoes. For the past two summers, an interdisciplinary team has visited the Islands of the Four Mountains, in the central Aleutians, to study how resilient the earliest settlers had to be to live there thousands of years ago.

Alaska's maritime industry is the largest private employer in the state, but fleet workers are aging. I'm Lori Townsend. On the next Talk of Alaska, we'll discuss plans to attract more young people to the fishing industry, and also look at some of the parallels to farming, too. APRN: Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 10:00 a.m. Download Audio