News

An Alaska-based federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama’s qualifications to appear as a candidate on the November general election ballot.

Adak will keep its jet service for another year. The federal Department of Transportation awarded Alaska Airlines a $1.6 million contract on Tuesday to continue flying to the community as part of the Essential Air Service program.

If the trends in fuel prices continue, Fairbanks residents could pay well over $15,000 a year to heat their homes by 2015. That’s what experts told Senator Joe Thomas of Fairbanks and members of the Democratic Senate Energy Working Group during a hearing Monday. The group met to discuss fuel prices in the Golden Heart City and surrounding interior villages.

There are at least 135 invasive species already thriving in Southeast Alaska. Biologists are worried about several more that could have the potential to dramatically affect the region, especially in the ocean environment.

The advance of darkness means the return of prime aurora viewing season in interior Alaska, but a project being considered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks could make watching the northern lights a year round experience.

For five years, a group of Alaskans has been struggling to help people a world away in Old Fangak, a thousand-year-old village in the new country of South Sudan. Last week, theatergoers in Homer had a chance to see the premier of “The Village,” a film that documents life in Old Fangak and the remarkable efforts of the Alaska Sudan Medical Project.

Congress is preparing a six-month stop gap funding bill. It should keep the government afloat until the end of March, and avoid any potential for a government shutdown before the election.

A study was conducted on Kodiak Island this summer that could result in a seabird being placed on the endangered species list. The bird is the Kittlitz's Murrelet, a rare black-and-white seabird.

Angoon’s village Native corporation sent the federal government an unusual request in May of 2010. Kootznoowoo Inc. filed a petition asking for extraterritorial jurisdiction. That would allow the feds to stop or limit salmon fishing in state-managed waters near Angoon on western Admiralty Island.

There is a warrant out for Teddy Smith in the Kiana area. Friday night Smith reportedly discharged a gun toward a crowd approaching the home of Dolly Smith and then fled. Teddy Smith, 45, is said to have been drinking at the time.

Watch Alaska Gold Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

The Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska is home to the last great wild sockeye salmon fishery in the world. It’s also home to enormous mineral deposits — copper, gold, molybdenum — estimated to be worth more than $300 billion. Now, two foreign mining companies are proposing to extract this mineral wealth by digging one of North America’s largest open-pit mines, the “Pebble Mine,” at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. TV: Friday, 9/14 at 9:00pm

An Unalaska man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Albert Fredericks, 46, was charged with sexual assault in the second degree on Saturday, after a woman reported that he attacked her in her own home Thursday morning. Fredericks maintains the act was consensual. According to court documents, a medical examination found injuries consistent with the woman’s statement.

After months of delays and mishaps, Shell Oil began drilling in the Arctic Sunday, but the operation isn’t off to a smooth start.

Anchorage is about to have a simulated terrorist attack, and the army, the fire department and hundreds of specialists will be in the city to deal with it. It’s the annual national training exercise of the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals, who are having their convention in Anchorage.

The power companies in Anchorage say only a small number of customers are still without electricity in the wake of the severe windstorm that hit the city last week.

A new research ship to be based in Alaska, hits the water next month. The 261 foot Sikuliaq is being built at a shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin for the National Science Foundation. The $200 million ice going ship will be operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and home ported at its Seward Marine Center to serve scientists from around the world.