Heartbeat Alaska
The award-winning program Heartbeat Alaska travels the state of Alaska, deep into rural towns and small villages. Creator Jeanie Greene has dedicated her life to spotlighting the Native people and communities of Alaska, sharing their heritage, their joys and struggles.
Western Arctic Caribou Herd Continues To Decline
The state’s largest caribou herd continues to decline. The latest population survey estimates the western Arctic herd at 325,000 animals. State Fish and Game biologist Jim Dau in Kotzebue says the latest number shows continuation of a decline which began in 2003, when the herd numbered 500,000. Dau says given the size and massive range of western Arctic caribou, it’s hard to know what’s driving the reduction, but he has some ideas, including winter rain.
Soldotna Hold First Public Hearing On Coastal Zone Management Initiative
The first of 10 public hearings on the proposed Alaska Coastal Zone Management ballot Initiative took place Monday evening in Soldotna. After expiring in 2011, the state legislature failed to come to an agreement on terms to extend the previous management plan. The initiative will come before voters in August as Proposition Two.
Joint Venture Aims To Create Jobs in Kake
A two-year old venture between a Native Corporation and the community of Kake is making a play in the processing business. But it’s also focused on creating jobs.
Mask Carver Puts an Urban Twist on Alaska Native Tradition
Anchorage is sometimes called Alaska's largest Native village because it's home to so many Alaska Natives. Drew Michael is one of them. And he's exploring his urban Native identity through his art. The mask carver is part of a generation of Alaska Native artists who are blurring the lines between traditional and contemporary art.
Woman Using Changing Time To Reinvigorate Seward Journal
Big city newspapers are struggling to compete with Internet news these days. But one Alaska woman is using the changing times to re-invigorate a small-town publication. Vanta Shafer moved from Tennessee to Alaska two decades ago, and now runs a bookstore in Seward. Shafer says she started the Seward Journal a year or so ago because she felt there was a lack of coverage of community events.
Unalaska Kids Reinvent The Lemonade Stand
With many kids spending as much of their summer days online as outside, there’s something a little quaint about the lemonade stand that just popped up in Unalaska. But, the operation can’t be described as old fashioned.
Whaling Commission Upholds Subsistence Catch Limits
The International Whaling Commission voted 48-10 to uphold the catch limits for the Alaska subsistence whaling communities which were set to expire this year. Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission members were worried political debate over commercial and research whaling would interfere with their catch limit.
Sen. Begich, Fishermen Discusses Low King Runs
Senator Mark Begich was in Bethel Monday for a roundtable discussion with subsistence fishermen about the record low king runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. Representatives of state and federal fisheries managers were also in attendance. Begich says the state needs to do more for managing kings.
Financial Pressure Mounts For Military Downsizing
The Air Force’s decision to delay relocation of Eielson’s F-16’s does not end Alaska’s concerns about military downsizing. The head of a consulting team hired by the state to develop a strategy for protecting Alaska installations, says financial pressure remains on the military.
Baby Found In Sitka Sink Returns As Adult
On a winter night in 1994, a newborn baby was found lying in a sink at Sitka’s Thomsen Harbor. Eighteen years later, that girl is now a young woman named Karissa Amrhein. She graduated from high school this spring and last week, she returned to Sitka.
Slavic Population Influx Slowing In Delta
The refugee settlement office that serves members of Delta’s Slavic community is closing. The influx of immigrants from Russia and other Eastern European nations that’s boosted the area’s population by nearly 40 percent over the past 20 years, is slowing.
Park Service Releases New Denali Road Management Plan
There’s a new plan for managing bus and other traffic on the road into Denali National Park. The Park Service has released the plan and an environmental impact statement following 4 years of studies and meetings. The process looked at numbers and schedules for the buses that move visitors along the 92 mile Denali road. Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister says the preferred alternative allows for some increase in traffic.
Oyster Farms Flourishing in Southeast
More oyster farms are opening up in Southeast Alaska. It’s part of an effort to create jobs through tribal businesses in small communities.
Dismal Runs Close Ship Creek Fishery
Anglers are usually packed shoulder to shoulder this time of year on the banks of Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage. But state managers closed the popular fishery over the weekend. Like many rivers and streams around the state, the king run has been weak in Ship Creek in recent years. Even though the fishery is stocked, managers are worried about collecting enough broodstock for the hatchery upstream. APRN’s Annie Feidt caught up with some anglers before the fishery closed and has this story.
Vietnam Vets’ Wall Stirs Emotions
With the nation's birthday coming up this week, thoughts are turning to those who helped to keep this country free. A replica of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall has toured the state the last few weeks, and made a stop in Anchorage over the weekend.
Capitol Fourth 2012
Celebrate America’s birthday with A CAPITOL FOURTH, the country’s favorite Independence Day tradition. Tom Bergeron takes the helm as the new host of the star-spangled affair, which features an inspiring Olympic tribute to Team USA with Olympic medalist Apolo Anton Ohno and John Williams conducting his “Olympic Fanfare,” and performances by Phillip Phillips, Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, Megan Hilty, Javier Colon, Josh Turner, Kool & the Gang, Russell Watson, Ameber Riley and the National Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jack Everly, topped off by the greatest display of fireworks anywhere in the nation. A CAPITOL FOURTH airs live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, on National Public Radio and to our troops around the world on the American Forces Network.
TV: Wednesday, 7/4 at 7:00pm
Man In Officer Involved Shooting Was Holding BB Gun
Anchorage police had another shooting incident Sunday evening and a man is hospitalized. The incident occurred in South Anchorage at a household on Noble Circle that police say they had been to before. The initial report was of a despondent man.
Alaska Sending Fire Crews To Help Fight Lower 48 Blazes
A slightly slower start to the fire season in Alaska has allowed the state to loan some of its fire crews to the Lower 48 for the time being. The Alaska Fire Service says five crews of Fire Fighters have gone to Wyoming.
Report on Muni Election Debacle Blames Complacency, Inexperience
The long-awaited report by an independent investigator on the troubled April 3 Municipal Election in Anchorage is out. It blames the election debacle, including widespread ballot shortages that kept an estimated hundreds of voters from casting ballots, on bad management at the Clerk's Office.