News

Alaska is among the best run states in the U.S. A survey by 24/7 Wall Street, which is an online financial news and opinion journal, ranks Alaska as 6th place runner up after North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah and Iowa.

The Mat-Su Borough's ice-breaking ferry may be headed to the tropics. The Anchorage Daily News reports that the borough wants to give the ferry to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, a red flag warning has been issued as of 5 a.m. this morning for the Matanuska Valley. The National Weather Service says the strong winds, with gusts up to 80 miles an hour, coupled with extremely low humidity means critical fire weather conditions are imminent for the area. The warning continues through Saturday, although the winds are expected to diminish by tonight.

Firefighters are battling a fire to save homes in Palmer on Thursday as high winds in the area pushed the blaze toward subdivisions off Palmer Fishhook Road. About 15 homes in the Cedar Hills subdivision were threatened, and Matanuska Susitna Borough officials ordered the residents to evacuate.

The fiscal cliff – that much-reported-on combination of tax increases and government spending cuts – is less than five weeks away. But, most lawmakers are talking about sweeping tax reforms, something unlikely to happen before the end of the year.

The National Park Service this week released the results of this year’s fall wolf count. The final numbers indicate that the wolf population in Denali National Park and Preserve has fallen by 61 percent since an all-time high of 147 wolves were counted in 2007.

Conservation Biologist Rick Steiner sent a request this week to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell asking for an emergency order that would close state lands east of Denali National Park to hunting and trapping wolves. The season opened Nov. 1. Steiner made a similar request last May after Park Service biologists reported the dispersal of the Grant Creek Wolf Pack. The pack did not produce pups this year.

An Anchorage Democratic senator has retained his seat in the state Senate. The Division of Elections says a recount of votes in Senate District J today shows incumbent Hollis French as the winner, defeating Republican Bob Bell. Division Director Gail Fenumiai certified the election last week with French holding a 51-vote lead. Bell on Monday asked for the recount. The recount widened the gap to 59 votes.

Scientists say they have resolved one of the biggest arguments in the climate change debate. In a report published in “Science” magazine today, they present a new, comprehensive analysis of how much the giant ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica have been melting and how much that adds to the rise of the world’s oceans.

Alaska’s chronic shortage of substance abuse detoxification services recently improved when one of four residential detox centers in the state reopened.

From a young age, kids learn how to stay safe. They memorize their phone numbers, learn about stranger danger, wear helmets when they ride their bikes. But some of the things they learn are more subtle, like to trust their intuition.

Savoonga celebrated a successful whale strike earlier this week, as the 2012 whale season is coming to a close. And the bowhead could be one for the record books.

In March, council set aside $42,000 for a study of alternative energy resources in Unalaska. Mike Hubbard, a consultant with the Financial Engineering Company of Maine, presented that report to city council at their meeting Tuesday night.

Unalaska’s smallest processing plant is now a major player in the Aleutian Islands golden king crab fishery. A recent purchase by one of Bering Fisheries’ parent companies will bring an extra 1.2 million of pounds of king crab through the plant every year.

The former director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has been sentenced to more than three years in jail and ordered to pay back more than $393,000.

Just weeks after BP accepted blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; the federal government is announcing more punishment for the company. The Environmental Protection Agency is suspending BP from future government contracts.

The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday reversed its decision to halt construction on the Port MacKenzie rail project.

State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, said Tuesday that he was “99.9 percent sure” he’d ask for a recount in the race to keep his seat in the Legislature. On Wednesday, he chipped in the 0.1 percent.