News

Five people were rescued early this morning after their fishing vessel hit a rock and began taking on water near Kodiak. The five male crew members of the 58-foot vessel 'Kodiak Isle' donned their survival suits just after midnight and evacuated into a life raft.

Two Homer men accused of sexual assault at a large house party last month have had their bail set. Michael Armstrong of the Homer News reports that, in a crowded courtroom Tuesday afternoon, Judge Margaret Murphy set bail at $5,000 for 20-year-old Anthony Resetarits and his 18-year-old brother, Joseph Resetarits. Both men will have to be under a 24-hour third-party custodian.

The Alaska Board of Game will not honor a request to reconsider an emergency regulation to protect wolves along the eastern border of Denali National Park and Preserve. A handful of Wildlife advocacy groups and individuals have fielded a second petition asking to close state lands to hunting and trapping wolves near the park.

The Arctic Village of Kivalina may run out of fresh water this winter. Governor Sean Parnell declared a disaster in the village last month after heavy rainfall flooded the Wulik River and washed away some of the city’s surface water piping.

The state doesn’t have any major action planned following approval of a Fairbanks ballot proposition that bans the North Star Borough from regulating heating devices. The yes vote has shifted the responsibility for reducing winter air pollution from wood and coal burning.

For two decades commercial fishermen and charter operators in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska have been embroiled in a battle over how much halibut each sector should be allowed to catch. In an effort to end the ongoing fish fight, a new plan was approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council at its meeting in Anchorage last week.

The U.S. Forest Service has awarded the contract for a major logging project on Kupreanof Island near Petersburg. The agency made the announcement last week during its latest “collaborative stewardship” workshop. That series of public meetings is aimed at bringing forest stakeholders together to come up with local uses for revenue from the sale. The discussions have been tense at times.

In 2010, voters passed an initiative requiring minors to inform a parent 48 hours before getting an abortion. This week, the Anchorage Superior Court upheld most of that law, and even okayed portions that were initially viewed as too burdensome. But while the court determined the law was constitutional, it didn’t endorse it as good public policy.

A civilian contractor was injured Wednesday at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka when a biomass boiler exploded in the station’s main hangar. This incident happened at about 12:30 Wednesday afternoon. The injured man was transported by local EMS to the hospital.

A Petersburg man is in custody and facing multiple felony assault charges after an armed standoff with local police late last week. Police received a call on Thursday evening about a possibly suicidal person with a gun. After contacting 30-year old Jace Cunningham by phone, the Petersburg police eventually set up a road block to try to stop him from returning with his weapon to residential areas of town.

Two men died in separate boating accidents in Southcentral Alaska on Monday. According to State Trooper reports, at around 5 p.m. on Monday three men were boating up Twenty Mile River when the prop hit a log and the aluminum boat was pushed into a log jam.

The Anchorage Superior Court released a decision upholding Alaska’s parental notification law on Monday. In the process, it also reversed itself on a controversial provision allowing doctors to be prosecuted for knowingly providing abortions to minors without the notification of at least one parent.

The Fairbanks City Council has granted utility power to the North Star Borough for creation of a natural gas distribution utility. The power transfer follows similar action by the city of North Pole last week. It’s part of plan being pushed by borough Mayor Luke Hopkins and a group of assembly members to finance infrastructure needed to truck North Slope gas to Fairbanks. Gas is a cheaper, cleaner fuel alternative for Fairbanks, but the project requires major investment.

U.S. Senator Mark Begich says he and other members of the Senate will try to move a fishery disaster relief bill after the election. Time and money will be hard to find.

A human skull was found near Wrangell over the weekend. As KSTK’s Ariel Van Cleave explains, it appears to be very old.

The International Federation of Sled Dog Sports, or IFSS, has cancelled the long distance World Championship race scheduled to take place in March.

This week we’re bringing you the first in a new reporting series from the producers of Kids These Days! In twelve reports from across the state, they’re asking the question: “What’s it like to be young in rural Alaska?” Today, Sarah Gonzales in Kake and Anne Hillman in Barrow find out why teaching indigenous language to children is so important.

An anonymous complaint over what were called ‘mildly racy’ photos in a calendar put out by a Delta Junction-area nonprofit prompted an obscenity complaint that reached the highest level of the U.S. Army.

More cruise ship tourists visited Alaska this year than last. But some ports did better than others.