News

You may use Facebook to share photos from your summer vacation or goof off at work. But Sitka resident Rick Armstrong has found a different use for the social network – he’s using Facebook to try to catch a thief.

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

Frontline investigates the battle between those who depend on the Bristol Bay for salmon and those who want to dig an open-pit mine at its headwaters in Pebble Mine. Alaska Public Television. Tuesday, July 24. 9:00 pm

Environmentalists are urging the E.P.A. to block Shell’s request for a waiver from the Clean Air Act for its Discoverer vessel. Groups have collected hundreds of thousands of signatures opposing the so-called compliance order.

Watch Market Warriors - First Look on PBS. See more from pbs.

In each episode, four pickers travel to different markets across the country to purchase items with a set amount of money, and use their knowledge and skills to see who can make the most profit at auction. Fred Willard (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) is Market Warriors’ off-screen host, offering wry commentary throughout the show. Alaska Public Television. Monday, July 23. 8:00 pm

Watch Preview Trailer on PBS. See more from Games of the North.

For thousands of years, traditional Inuit sports have been vital for surviving the unforgiving Arctic. Acrobatic and explosive, these ancestral games evolved to strengthen mind, body and spirit within the community. Following four modern Inuit athletes reveals their unique relationship to the games as they compete across the North. As unprecedented change sweeps across their traditional lands, their stories illuminate the importance of the games today. Alaska Public Television. Sunday, July 22. 9:30 pm

The Seward Highway has been reopened, though the suspect in an alleged armed kidnapping Friday morning remains at large. Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Dave Parker says APD and State Troopers have suspended the search for the suspect in the Turnagain Pass area of the Seward Highway, but are continuing to pursue leads in the ongoing investigation.

The goal is to get as many Alaskans as possible involved in a conversation about the budget.

Investigators are taking a closer look at the airplane crash on Beluga Lake in Homer that killed former state representative Cheryll Heinze last week. On Monday, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on the accident.

Regional Advisory Councils, or RACs, have criticized the Federal Subsistence Board for not giving their recommendations enough weight. At their meeting Wednesday, board members worked to give due deference to the input of one RAC.

Fairbanks police say the death of a 12-year-old boy by gunshot was an apparent accident. Malik Boykins on Wednesday was visiting a home near Fort Wainwright when he was hit in the head by a bullet from a .40-caliber handgun fired by another 12-year-old boy, who lives at the home.

In the tiny and remote communities of southern Baranof Island in southeast, there aren’t enough kids for a school. So parents have to home school. And both the parents and the kids try to strike a balance between a more traditional education of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a more creative approach.

Anchorage law enforcement officers say they've shut down the Seward Highway near Mile 70 as they search for an armed man suspected of kidnapping.

Watch Summer Arts Festival Preview: KSO presents Joyce DiDonato on PBS. See more from PBS Arts.

A concert wrapped by documentary narratives, this special tracks DiDonato’s nostalgic return to her hometown — and her thrilling Kauffman Center debut — after a triumphant appearance with Plácido Domingo at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Alaska Public Television. Friday, July 20. 9:30 pm

Federal prosecutors in Anchorage today announced 77 indictments in a massive tax fraud case involving identity theft and cocaine smuggling. Last December in Philadelphia, a man flying from Anchorage was arrested while trying to take $50,000 cash out of the country. Joel Jose Santana-Pierna was among five people charged the next month with cocaine smuggling. He was in the country illegally, as were most of his co-conspirators. Today the government announced superseding indictments of those five, and six others, including one U.S. citizen, for identity theft and numerous other tax fraud charges.

As in many parts of the state, so far, 2012 has been a rough year for fishing on the Kenai Peninsula. Despite a healthy run of sockeye salmon to the Kenai River, king salmon fishing was shut down completely this week. The slow season is beginning to take its toll, and not just on the sport fishermen.

A resolution may be near for a dispute between the tribe in Sand Point and Pen Air. Last month, the company issued a letter restricting several tribal members from flying, shipping cargo or even entering the terminal. Pen Air is the only commercial carrier that services the remote Aleutian Island Community. PenAir offers the quickest and most reasonable way off and on the island and residents have felt stuck.

The 52nd Annual World Eskimo Indian Olympics, known as WEIO is underway in Fairbanks this weekend.