News

The former principal of Blatchley Middle School in Sitka has been indicted on charges of sexual assault. A Sitka grand jury on Friday charged 54-year-old Joseph Robidou on six counts of felony sexual assault. He also faces an additional five misdemeanor charges for incidents that allegedly happened beginning last May and as recently as January. All of them involve other adults, and prosecutors say students at the school were not involved.

Across-the-board federal budget cuts are coming, half from the Department of Defense budget; the other half to other federal agency budgets.

Two speakers at an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce forum on Monday made the case for accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid in the state. They also asked chamber members to speak out on the issue.

There are currently four women running among the top-20 in this year’s Iditarod. This year’s race could be both extremely fast and extremely competitive. The women in the race aren’t holding back.

Icicle Seafoods’ Adak plant won’t be processing fish this summer. Icicle didn’t respond to multiple interview requests, but the company’s plant manager told the Adak city council last month that the plant wouldn’t be operating because generating power is too expensive during the slower fishing months.

Moving from urban anywhere to rural Alaska can be a tough transition – some newcomers don’t last long, worn down by the long winters or a feeling of isolation. Others stay, sometimes for years. Len Anderson talked to some Northwest Alaska residents to find out what makes the difference.

A group of North Slope villagers filed suit Thursday in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. According to Brian Litmans, with the environmental law firm, Trustees for Alaska, seven residents of Nuiqsut claim that the Corps violated the Clean Water Act in issuing a permit to Conoco Phillips to fill almost 60 acres of wetlands for the oil company’s Colville Delta 5 project.

The Alaska Federation of Natives has changed its bylaws to give tribes more votes during conventions. The move separates tribal votes from tribal corporation votes.

A state Superior Court decision could sidetrack state administration plans to change water protection statutes. Earlier this week, the court decided in favor of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition in a case involving what is termed “instream flow” rights to Middle Creek, on the West side of Cook Inlet. The Coalition filed for instream flow rights in 2009, saying that wild salmon populations in the creek need to be protected. But the state Department of Natural Resources failed to process the application. Later, DNR approved a temporary water use permit for PacRim Coal to remove water from the same creek, with the Coalition application pending, so the Coaltion appealed to the courts. The court has decided that DNR failed to follow its own rules.

This week we’re heading to a northern part of Alaska’s Pandhandle, Haines. The community of over 1800 people is a gateway between the U.S. and Canada. Daniel Lee Henry is a long time community member in Haines.

Last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded eleven billion-dollar weather events. That brought the total for the last two years to 25. The average up until then had been less than four. Climate change is already here and it’s not changing back any time soon. Communities are going to have to become more resilient, and for some that means a closer look at local food. One of the top experts on sustainable and climate-resilient “food-sheds” will be the guest on the next Talk of Alaska. KSKA: Tuesday, 3/5 at 10:00am

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. As KSKA's Ellen Lockyer reports, the Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them.

Gov. Sean Parnell's oil tax proposal advanced out of the Senate resources committee on Wednesday, with a few changes. Instead of setting the base tax rate at 25 percent, it bumps it to 35 percent.

So far, eight Republican governors have decided to split with their party and accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion in their state. Today, Sean Parnell announced that he won’t be joining them -- at least for now.

Residents from King Cove met with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Thursday morning in Washington, D.C. They’re cautiously optimistic the outgoing secretary will allow a land transfer to permit a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. The Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them.