News

The Anchorage Daily News reports that a federal Department of Defense inspector general is questioning an Air Force report on the cause of an F-22 Raptor crash in Alaska. The Air Force's Accident Investigation Board report indicated that the pilot of the plane, which crashed in November of 2010, " failed the recognize and initiate a timely dive recovery, due to unrecognized spatial disorientation. " But in a report released this week, the inspector general says the AIB's opinion is not supported by the facts.

The state of Indian Country is strong, according to the president of the National Congress of American Indians. Today Jefferson Keel presented the State of Indian Nations Address in Washington D.C. Despite advancements in tribal governing, leaders are worried about the coming sequester, and what it means for Indian Health Services.

Yesterday, the Alaska State Senate was expected to vote on a bill that would change the way that waste from cruise ships is regulated. But instead, they opened the bill up to amendments and put off a real vote on the measure until next week. The bill is a priority of the governor, and the administration had hoped for passage by this week. APRN’s Alexandra Gutierrez is here with us to explain why that didn’t happen.

The Anchorage Assembly has given the go-ahead for a large jet to land at the city airfield. The 100,000-pound Boeing 727 has been donated by FedEx to the University of Alaska Anchorage, which wants it for its aviation technology program based at Merrill Field. The busy airfield for small planes is just a mile from downtown.

Making extinction personal was the goal of whale biologist Eva Saulitis when she wrote her new book “Into Great Silence.” Saulitis has studied Prince William Sound Orcas for more than two decades. Her memoir is an intimate look at the sentient creatures and the threats to their existence. Saulitis says she worked in a remote hatchery in her early 20s and was drawn to the secret life of whales.

Grab your paddles and tennis shoes. Pickle ball has made its way to Homer. KBBI’s Ariel Van Cleave recently attended one of the game nights at the Homer Educational and Recreational Complex – or HERC – and brought back this report.

Confessed serial killer Israel Keyes was mistakenly issued a razor before he committed suicide, according to a report released today by the Alaska Department of Corrections. The report also says “it appears that razor was not retrieved.”

Bringing justice to all Alaskans. That was the major theme of state Supreme court Chief Justice Dana Fabe’s speech at the Capitol today. Fabe stressed the importance of preventative approaches – like an early resolution process to help settle divorce cases quickly – to improve outcomes for both the participants involved and taxpayers.

A vote on a controversial bill involving cruise ship waste has been put off until next week. The legislation would strike provisions of a citizen’s initiative requiring cruise ships to meet clean water standards at the point of discharge by the 2016 season, instead of allowing them to release their waste into mixing zones. The bill was introduced by the governor’s office, and it easily passed in the House last week.

There’s increasing pressure on the U.S. House to pass a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Congressman Don Young says it will happen, but probably not soon.

A petition for the federal government to list several dozen species of Alaska cold water corals as endangered has stalled after an initial review.

Exxon Mobil and Russian national oil company Rosneft have signed an agreement to extract oil and gas from the Russian Arctic. According to information posted on Exxon’s website, the deal covers 600,000 square kilometers in the Chukchi, Laptev and Kara Seas.

Governor Sean Parnell says funding for a Fairbanks natural gas trucking project is must pass legislation this session. Speaking to the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Parnell said bills to fund the interior energy project have to be dealt with before legislators go home this spring.

The FDA is considering approving genetically engineered, or GE, salmon to be sold in the U.S. Senator Mark Begich last week introduced two bills in the Senate that would ban these new salmon. And a group of Sitka residents held a demonstration against GMO salmon last weekend.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska is joining the Yup’ik fishermen trials. The group has filed a “friend of the court brief” in support of the fishermen’s right to fish as part of their religious practice.

Officials with the federal agency that oversees the White Mountain National Recreation Area will hold the first of three meetings today in Fairbanks to explain a proposal today that could lead to mining in the area.