News

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell traveled to Japan today after leaving South Korea yesterday. He’s pitching foreign governments and companies on the state’s potential to export liquefied natural gas.

Watch Dropout Nation Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

What does it take to save a student? Every year, hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the United States quit high school without diplomas — an epidemic so out of control that nobody knows the exact number. What is clear is that massive dropout rates cripple individual career prospects and cloud the country’s future. TV: Tuesday, 9/25 at 8:00pm

Federal judge John Bryan sentenced former Fairbanks Peacemaker’s militia member Coleman Barney in Anchorage today to five-year sentences for each of the two counts he was convicted of. The judge said the sentences will run concurrent and there will be credit given for time served. Barney has already been in jail for about a year and a half. Following his release from prison, he will be on probation for three additional years.

Flood waters have begun to recede in Seward and points north, but the National Weather Service has extended its flood warning for the Kenai River until Thursday. Flooding along the Kenai has been reported in several areas and forced road closures and evacuations.

In Seward, the city emergency operations center is closing its doors Monday, although the center will reopen Tuesday morning. Brenda Ballou, deputy city clerk for the city of Seward, says some residents are relying on local water taxis to get around.

The Alaska Railroad is continuing flood repair work on damaged tracks north of Talkeetna. The recent floods have washed out a section of track south of Gold Creek at milepost 261 on the main line. Crews are working around the clock to repair the track and restore service north of Wasilla.

A legislative meeting in Anchorage today focused attention on how the city’s most vulnerable residents fared in this month’s series of wind and rain storms. Anchorage Democratic Senator Bill Wielechowski called the meeting as chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee to assess the lessons learned from the response to the damaging storms. But he came away with few answers on how to better serve disabled and elderly Alaskans.

Congress has recessed until after the November election. When it returns, it will have a full slate of legislation to pass: From a defense authorization to a farm bill to cyber security measures. Most of the attention, though, will be placed on looming tax increases.

The city of Tanana is looking forward to lower fuel bills. The city is adding new biomass systems enabling it to swap high priced oil for locally available wood.

The Donlin Gold mining company, which wants to start an open pit gold mine near Crooked Creek in the middle Kuskokwim River area, sponsored a tour of the Fort Knox Gold Mine in Fairbanks. The day trip allowed 30 stakeholders from the Y-K Delta a first-hand look at an open pit gold mine in operation.

The cleanup is underway in Talkeetna and in other areas of the Matanuska Susitna Borough, but south of Anchorage, more rain is falling. River waters continue to rise on the Kenai Peninsula, and a flood warning has been extended until later this (Monday) afternoon a for Seward and for Tuesday night for the entire Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Watch The Day Carl Sandburg Died on PBS. See more from American Masters.

For much of the 20th century, Carl Sandburg was synonymous with the American experience, a spokesman on behalf of “the people.” Using his unique life — from impoverished beginnings on the Illinois prairie to the halls of Congress to “The Ed Sullivan Show” — as the basis for free-verse poetry, Sandburg became one of the most successful writers in the English language: a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, biographer (most notably of Abraham Lincoln), children’s storyteller, novelist and captivating performer. TV: Monday, 9/24 at 9:00pm

The information below is from an interview with David Streubel, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. The Little Susitna River crested overnight. Water levels are still above flood stage but are going down today and tomorrow, although it will take time for those waters to recede.

Talkeetna Fire Captain and Operations Chief Tim Morgan stopped by the command center this morning on his way home to a well-deserved sleep break to report that flood waters continued to recede in both East Talkeetna and downtown Talkeetna. Hydrology levels have dropped significantly on the Talkeetna River and Montana Creek; the Susitna River water levels are slowly dropping

As September’s severe storms continue, the Senate State Affairs Committee will meet Monday to discuss emergency response systems and disaster preparedness plans.

A federal appeals court has ruled against the northwest Alaska village of Kivalina, which sued energy companies over claims that greenhouse emissions contributed to global warming that is threatening the community’s existence.