News

Hugh Neff is leading the Yukon Quest. He left the Stepping Stone hospitality checkpoint at 9:47 this morning. Two Rivers musher Allen Moore followed at 11:25. Brent Sass, Jake Berkowitz and Scott Smith round out the top five.

Arguments will be heard this week in federal District Court in Anchorage regarding wetlands permits for the Port MacKenzie rail spur. The environmental group Cook Inletkeeper has filed suit in an attempt to block the link between the port and Houston. The Matanuska Susitna Borough is behind the rail spur project, although the Federal Surface Transportation Board must approve it.

The Northern fur seals that breed on the Pribilof Islands have been on the decline for decades, a smaller colony just 200 miles away is thriving. A new study of these colonies is challenging scientists’ assumptions about what marine animals need from their environment — and how they get it.

An environmental research program with a long history of working in Alaska is breaking new ground by partnering with state universities to find out why an area in the Chukchi Sea is so biologically productive.

There have been at least two suicides in Anchorage schools over the past three weeks and an attempted suicide by a student who had dropped out. Death from suicide is a loss that school counselors work hard to prevent. Heather Coulehan is a social and emotional learning specialist and Eric Viste is a coordinator within the special education department of ASD. I sat down with them to ask how suicide prevention is being addressed within Anchorage schools. Viste says, when a suicide happens, everyone who will be affected needs to be identified.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is introducing her blueprint energy bill today. Senator Murkowski is the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee. She says she’s been working on a new energy bill for months. In fact, last summer she said a draft would be ready by the end of the year.

For the past couple of weeks, the legislature has been moving forward on the governor’s proposal to cut taxes on oil companies. Now, it’s scheduled to take up the issue of an in-state gas line. APRN’s Alexandra Gutierrez has this legislative outlook for the week.

About a million people visit Alaska by cruise ship every year, creating floating cities along the state’s coastline. A bill that would change just how the waste they produce is regulated is moving rapidly through the legislature, and is scheduled to appear on the House floor Monday.

When it finally arrives in Unalaska next week, the Shin Onoe will be one of the biggest vessels to ever stay in port here. It’s 150 feet wide, with a 60 foot draft when it’s full of coal, soybeans, or iron. Right now, it’s empty. It was traveling along the Great Circle shipping route to Prince William Sound early this week to pick up cargo when its turbocharger failed, just west of Attu island.

Shell’s chief executives responded to questions about the January grounding of the Kulluk drill rig during the company’s annual results conference in London Thursday. In a prepared presentation, Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Voser, played down the company’s many mishaps in Alaska last year.

The Alaska Republican Party's Executive Committee has blocked incoming party chair. Russ Millette from taking his position. In a meeting last night, the committee voted to oust Millette, who was elected to the chairman's position at the party's annual state convention in April of last year. Millette says he's weighing his options to fight the decision.

Kikkan Randall won the world cup skate sprint near Sochi, Russia today, on the same course that will serve as the Olympic venue next year. The Alaska Pacific University skier won all three heats.

Oral arguments are being heard Friday in US District Court in Anchorage for a lawsuit that challenges the decision made by the National Marine Fisheries Service to authorize the first of at least three years of seismic exploration in Cook Inlet.

This week, we're visiting the Prince William Sound Community of Chenega. Sandra Angaiak is a tribal administrator assistant in Chenega.

The changing Arctic has become a resource frontier, and a military and economic one. But for much longer it has been a scientific one. We’ll take an international perspective on the Arctic with a leading polar scientist from Japan KSKA: Tuesday, 2/5 at 10:00am

Watch Richard II with Derek Jacobi on PBS. See more from Shakespeare Uncovered.

Derek Jacobi returns to a role he played 30 years ago, coaches actors at the Globe in aspects of the play, reveals why it could have cost Shakespeare his life — and shares some of the extraordinary modern political parallels within the play that still resonate as dictators are deposed. Friday 2/1 @ 9:30 p.m.

Watch Henry IV & V with Jeremy Irons on PBS. See more from Shakespeare Uncovered.

Jeremy Irons (who stars as Henry IV in the upcoming new GREAT PERFORMANCES film adaptation) uncovers the enduring appeal of Shakespeare’s “history plays,” from the facts of English history to the father-son drama that Shakespeare created. He discloses what Shakespeare’s sources were — and how he distorted them. Friday 2/1 @ 10:30 p.m.