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Shell Oil has replaced one of its top executives in charge of exploration off the coast of Alaska. Download Audio

At a legislative committee Thursday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says it could absorb part of the responsibilities of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission if it was eliminated.

The Big Thorne Timber Sale lawsuit has been dismissed by a federal judge in Anchorage. Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline granted summary judgment on Friday in favor of the defendants, and rejected every argument brought forward by the plaintiffs.

Alaska Congressman Don Young has introduced a bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation’s primary law governing fishing in federal waters. It leaves fisheries managers some controversial wiggle room.

More than 100 soldiers will train in the Bethel area over the next week and a half to build arctic operational expertise and cultivate the next generation of National Guard soldiers. Members of the Alaska Army National Guard’s 297th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade are descending on the YK Delta to polish their arctic skills.

Army investigators have confirmed they've launched a formal investigation into a Stryker Brigade soldier’s allegations of racist behavior by some members of his unit. The action follows an earlier informal inquiry into allegations- first outlined in a story published Wednesday by the Army Times.

At least 20 distinct Native languages are spoken in Alaska, and every year, the population of speakers gets a little smaller. A Golovin senator now wants to reverse that trend by encouraging immersion language charter schools in the state.

A Washington state judge says a lawsuit challenging the Port of Seattle's decision to lease one of its terminals as a homeport for an Arctic oil-drilling fleet can go forward. Environmental groups say the port broke state law in February when it signed a two-year lease with Foss Maritime Co. to rent 50 acres near downtown Seattle.

After sailing through the Senate, a bill to exempt Alaska from daylight saving time has lost momentum in the House.

Bethel could see its first liquor store in four decades if the Bethel Native Corporation goes ahead with plans to open a package store and it clears regulatory hurdles.

Army investigators are looking into a Stryker Brigade soldier’s allegations of racist behavior by some members of his unit. A U.S. The allegations were outlined in a story posted today to the Army Times’ website. The story cites an NCO with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Wainwright. According to the Times’ story, the staff sergeant says soldiers with the platoon created a weekly opportunity to racially slur fellow soldiers during a weekly event the sergeant says was known as "Racial Thursdays."

A member of the Tanana Chiefs Conference Native Justice Task Force says the federal Department of Justice is tracking the case of the Fairbanks Four. That’s the four Alaska Native men who the task force and others say were wrongfully convicted of killing a teenager in Fairbanks in 1997.

Alaska’s Congressional delegation and a dozen other lawmakers are asking the Defense secretary to study how contracting reform has hurt Alaska Native corporations and tribally owned businesses. The lawmakers sent letters this week to Secretary Ash Carter about the 2010 rule change, known as “Section 811.”

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she doesn’t see any good news for the families in Southeast Alaska that still depend on the harvest of Tongass timber. She says nothing Congress does seems to increase the national timber harvest, and Murkowski she’s not confident the transition to second-growth in the Tongass will work.

Tuesday night, the Upper Valley experienced an impressive display of the Aurora Borealis. The lights are caused by particles from the sun being thrown into space and interacting with the charged particles in Earth's ionosphere, which begins about sixty miles above the surface. This is referred to by scientists as a geomagnetic storm. Donald Hampton researches those storms for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He says the geomagnetic storm on Tuesday was very rare.