Alaska Power Company Customers Will See 11 Percent Rate Hike
Thousands of rural Alaskans will see their power bills go up after the first of the year. That’s because the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, or RCA, approved an 11 percent rate increase last week for Alaska Power Company customers. That’s lower than the hike the company asked for. But it’s still more than many residents in Southeast and the Interior say they can afford.
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Are Agencies Prepared for Effects of Climate Change?
As Alaskans grapple with the effects of a warming planet, they look to federal and state agencies to help with problems that are too big for an individual or even a community to tackle. But it’s not clear if statutes and regulations, and agency fundingare up to the task.
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Alaska News Nightly: December 16, 2014
President Obama Makes Bristol Bay Off-Limits For Oil, Gas Development; State Hires Project Lead for Medicaid Expansion; North Slope-Bound Tanker Wrecks, Spills 1,200 Gallons of Diesel, Catches Fire; Anchorage School Board Puts Money into Savings, Rilke Schule Facility; Juneau School Board to Decide if Montessori Borealis Should be its Own School; Troopers Release Names of Missing Kuskokwim Travelers; Alaska Power Company Customers Will See 11 Percent Rate Hike; Are Agencies Prepared for Effects of Climate Change?
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Indie Alaska: I Am The Gingerbread Village Builder
850 pounds of icing, 40 houses of gingerbread and chocolate - Joe Hickel has been creating Marina's Village in the lobby of The Hotel Captain Cook for 35 years. Last year's creation took six days to build and features a new country scene.
Walker Submits Skeletal Capital Budget
With oil prices now crashing, Gov. Bill Walker has halved Parnell’s proposal to $106 million in unrestricted general fund spending -- the money that legislators can appropriate with no strings attached.
Alaska News Nightly: December 15, 2014
Gov. Walker Submits Capital Budget; Sullivan Delighted with U.S. Senate Committee Assignments; Ballot Measure to Combat Corruption Has A Year To Gather 30,000 Signatures; UA President Announces Retirement Date; EPA To Use North Pole Air Data; Bethel Winter House Reopens with New Rules; Akeela House Celebrates 40 Years of Successful Sobriety Treatments; Friends, Family Mourn Avalanche Victim; Expert Advises Recovery Operation Delay; Climate Change And Alaska Natives: Health
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Sullivan Delighted with U.S. Senate Committee Assignments
Senator-Elect Dan Sullivan will come in with the lowest seniority of the 100 senators, primarily because he’s never held elected office before. But it doesn’t seem to have hurt him on the committee score. He'll serve on Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, Commerce, and Environment & Public Works,
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Ballot Measure to Combat Corruption Has A Year To Gather 30,000 Signatures
A small group of supporters behind an effort to criminalize what they see as corruption in Alaska politics gathered at the Division of Elections Friday, for a training on how to collect all the signatures they will need from across the state to put the issue to voters in 2016.
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UA President Announces Retirement Date
University of Alaska President Pat Gamble will step down at the end school year. Vice President of University relations, Carla Beam says Gamble announced his plan to retire June 1st 2015, to UA Regents, during an executive session Friday.
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EPA To Use North Pole Air Data
The Fairbanks area continues to struggle with fine particulate pollution from wood smoke and other sources. Wintertime air inversions trap emissions at ground level, dropping air quality below federal Clean Air Act standards. Much of the North Star Borough is classified a federal non-attainment area by the Environmental Protection Agency, based on air quality monitoring in Fairbanks, but the EPA plans to begin using monitoring data from North Pole, where pollution is typically much worse.
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Bethel Winter House Reopens with New Rules
After a bumpy start, Bethel Winter House has opened its doors once again, with new rules. The all-volunteer shelter’s board, organized under a Lion’s Club, met Thursday to sort out problems that closed it last week.
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Friends, Family Mourn Avalanche Victim; Expert Advises Recovery Operation Delay
Memorial services were held over the weekend for the Delta Junction man killed in a avalanche in the Alaska Range. Friends and family gathered to remember 35-year-old Erik Petersen, who was skiing with friend Michael Hopper when the slide came down Dec. 6th.
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Climate Change And Alaska Natives: Health
Alaskans have heard a lot about the effects climate change has had on land in the state, but new studies suggest it’s also having a big impact on the health of residents.
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One Kuskokwim Traveler’s Body Recovered, Search for Others Continues
Bethel Search and Rescue searchers Sunday found the body of Ralph ‘Jimmy’ Demantle, one of three people who disappeared while traveling by four-wheeler from Bethel to Akiak. Searchers continue to search for another man and a woman
Congress Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill
It’s been a big week for Alaska in Congress. Lawmakers removed the Alaska exemption in the Violence Against Women Act, a significant gain for advocates of tribal authority.
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Sealaska Lands Bill Passes Congress
A bill transferring about 70,000 acres of the Tongass National Forest to Sealaska has passed Congress.
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SAGA to Cease AmeriCorps Program, Hopes Another Org Will Save It
Nineteen AmeriCorps volunteers throughout the state were told this week their positions, including stipends and benefits, could end on Monday.
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University of Alaska Regents Approve Tobacco Ban
The University of Alaska Board of Regents has approved a policy banning smoking and other tobacco use on its campuses statewide.
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Butler to Return as Alaska’s Top Doctor
Jay Butler is returning to his job as the state's top doctor. Health and Social Services Commissioner Valerie Davidson says in a release that Butler will be both the state's chief medical officer and director of the Division of Health.
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