Pains of Trooper Cuts Felt At Small Community Jails
Budget cuts to state troopers are taking place all over Alaska. But in small Southeast communities, like Petersburg, it’s a double whammy. That’s because community jails are also taking a hit. And the two are inextricably linked.
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Haines climbers likely first women to summit Cathedral Peaks
Haines residents Jenn Walsh and Jessica Kayser Forster are likely the first women to summit the 6,400-foot Mount Emmerich in the Chilkat Valley, also known as Cathedral Peaks.
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Quidditch in the Last Frontier | INDIE ALASKA
Quidditch, the official sport of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has found a new home in Anchorage, Alaska. The magical game played in the Harry Potter books involves wearing capes and flying on enchanted brooms while trying to score a ball into the hoops.
Trial Begins For Wrangell Doc Accused of Distributing Porn
A Wrangell doctor is standing trial this week on child pornography charges.
Two Alaska Lodges Make National Geographic’s ‘Most Unique in the World’ List
Two remote Alaska lodges have been given an international nod with a listing from National Geographic as some of the most unique in the world.
Naknek Museum Opens: Fishing Nostalgia & Traditional Culture On Display
The collection, housed in a refurbished 77-year-old building in downtown Naknek, features relics of the Bristol Bay fishery and traditional culture.
Senators seek hearing on Walker’s Medicaid expansion plans
The chairman of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee says he'll take under advisement requests to hold a hearing on Gov. Bill Walker's proposal to accept federal funds for Medicaid expansion.
Bankrupt oil company wants payments back
The city of Homer is filing a response to a request from an oil company seeking the return of thousands of dollars in previous payments to businesses.
Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Interior Dept. OKs Arctic Drilling—With Limits; Murkowski Unveils Her National Energy Policy Bill; Southeast Village Brings Its Subsistence Designation Battle To Capitol Hill; Murkowski Balks At Proposed Funding Source for Highway Plan; Dozens Testify Against Megaprojects In Anchorage; AMHS Looks To Dwindling Coffers As Southeast Leaders Plea for Restored Ferry Service; Chum Salmon Flood Western Alaska Waters As Buyers Struggle to Keep Up; As Chinook Cross Into Canada, Fall Chum Begin Running on the Yukon; BC Withholds Key Permit from Transboundary Mine
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Interior Dept. OKs Arctic Drilling—With Limits
The Obama administration approved Shell’s Oil’s plan for drilling in the Arctic Ocean on Wednesday. But for now, Shell is restricted on how deep it can drill.
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Murkowski Energy Bill Avoids Hot Buttons
Sen. Lisa Murkowski today released a national energy policy bill. It’s been one of her highest priorities as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, and she produced the bill jointly with the top Democrat on the committee, Maria Cantwell of Washington. Murkowski says it required compromise; the bill doesn’t include some of the big items on Murkowski’s energy agenda.
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Saxman: Call us ‘Rural’
The Southeast village of Saxman took its fight to be designated a “rural” community to Congress today. Saxman Village President Lee Wallace told a House subcommittee he was devastated in 2007, when he watched the Federal Subsistence Board decide Saxman was “non-rural.”
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Murkowski balks at funding source in highway bill
The deadline for renewing the nation’s highway programs is nine days away. Leaders in the Senate this week negotiated a bill that would fund highways for the next six years. But it would require selling off $9 billion of crude oil that’s stashed in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
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Record Numbers Turn Out to Testify Against Anchorage Mega-Projects
AMATS takesk hours of public testimony from dozens of Anchorage residents opposed to the proposed Bragaw Extension and the Knik Arm Bridge.
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Southeast Pleas For Restored Ferry Service; AHMS Skeptical, Citing Dwindling Coffers
Southeast Alaska community leaders hope to restore or adjust some parts of the proposed ferry schedule for this fall, winter and spring. That’s the word from most of those testifying Wednesday morning during a teleconferenced Alaska Marine Highway System public hearing.
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Chum Salmon Flood Western Alaska Waters as Buyers Struggle to Keep Up
Western Alaska is in midst of one of the best salmon runs in decades, and that means both subsistence and commercial fishermen in waters around Norton Sound and Kotzebue are catching record numbers of chum.
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As Chinook Cross into Canada, Fall Chum Begin Running on the Yukon
The chinook have reached Canada, and Alaska Fish and Game biologists say they’ve now met nearly all escapement goals along the Yukon and are confident they’ll see enough of the prized king salmon cross the border.
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B.C. Withholds Key Permit from Transboundary Mine
British Columbia officials are delaying permits for an open-pit mine near a river that flows into the ocean south of Ketchikan. They say Pacific Booker Minerals has not proved it can keep toxic water out of nearby waterways. The developer says it has.
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Port Heiden Rekindles A Culture of Reindeer Herding
Twenty-nine reindeer have arrived in Port Heiden, where the village of 100 people is re-establishing a long-dormant tradition of reindeer herding. In a few years they hope to begin harvesting the deer as a sustainable food source for the community. Now, an expert herder and his two teenage apprentices are taking on the challenges of starting a herd from scratch.
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Legislature Reconsiders How to Distribute Public School Funding
The state’s Legislative Budget and Audit Committee is examining how education funding is distributed. A new study doesn’t look at how much money districts should get. Instead, it asks if all the districts are being treated fairly.