World Cup Season Kicks Off In Finland
The first World Cup event of the season in cross country skiing is scheduled to start this Friday in northern Finland. Four Alaska Pacific University skiers will race, Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen and Rosie Brennan. This will be an eventful season for the team, building up to the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in February.
Seawolves Will Face Georgetown For Shootout Championship
Forty minutes wasn’t enough time to decide Tuesday’s game between the University of Alaska Anchorage and UC Riverside. With the score remaining locked at the end of regulation and after the first 5 minutes of overtime, the UAA Seawolves pulled ahead and held on to win 83-75.
Legislators Draft Drone Policy
With the Federal Aviation Administration considering Alaska as a drone test site, lawmakers are drafting a policy for their use in the state.
Download Audio
4 Charged With Illegally Shooting 2 Moose In Denali National Park
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage announced last week that four men from Southcentral Alaska had been charged with illegally shooting two bull moose inside Denali National Park in 2012.
Download Audio
Ahtna Plans LNG Wells Near Glennallen
Ahtna Incorporated is planning to develop natural gas wells near Glennallen in order to supply local communities. They recently licensed 44,000 acres of state land about 15 miles west of Glenallen. They would be the first organization to go beyond exploration all the way to production.
Download Audio
Newtok’s Relocation Effort Slowed By An Ongoing Tribal Dispute
The latest round of Bering Sea storms beat up the Southwest Alaska coastline, including Newtok. The community’s move to the Mertarvik site on Nelson Island may be more pressing than ever, but the long relocation process is in a holding pattern due to a tribal council dispute.
Download Audio
Canadian Company Explores Possibility Of Graphite Mine
A small Canadian mining company is in the exploratory phases of setting up a graphite mine on the Seward Peninsula. Though years away from being operational, the Graphite Creek deposit could be the nation’s first and only graphite mine.
Download Audio
Sikuliaq Departure Delayed
The National Science Foundation’s new arctic research vessel Sikuliaq will spend the winter undergoing trials in the Great Lakes. The 261 foot ship to be operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was launched in Lake Michigan a year ago, but the Sikuliaq’s original target date for arrival at homeport in Seward has been delayed a year due to technical problems.
Download Audio
Group Investigating Biomass Energy Potential
A state and federally funded task group has investigated biomass energy potential in 75 communities around the state. Alaska Energy Authority Biomass manager Devany Plentovich is tracking projects that have resulted from a base line analysis that looked at availability of wood and opportunity for turning it into energy.
Download Audio
Premera Alaska Allows 5,200 Customers To Keep Insurance Plans
Health Insurer Premera Alaska will allow 5,200 customers in the state to keep their insurance plans. The company canceled the plans for 2014 because they didn't meet requirements of the Affordable Care Act. But earlier this month, after public outcry, President Obama said insurers could offer those canceled plans for another year, as long as states allowed it.
Download Audio
Breaking Up With Healthcare.gov
Enrolling in healthcare.gov is not easy. But Anchorage hair stylist Lara Imler is one of the few Alaskans who managed to get through the process late last month. Now though, after she discovered problems with her application, Imler wants to cancel her enrollment. And she's finding that may not be so simple either.
Download Audio
Governor Appoints A New Judge To Bethel District Court
Governor Sean Parnell today appointed Nathaniel Peters to the Bethel District Court. Peters has experience in the local court system as he served in Bethel with the Alaska Public Defender Agency from 2003 to 2006.
State Proposes Changes to Oil Spill Response Plan
State officials were in Unalaska on Friday to talk about a proposal pre-authorizing the use of chemical dispersants on oil spills in Alaska waters.
Fishermen Propose Broader Testing of Electronic Monitoring
Alaska fishermen want to broaden the experimental use of cameras and other monitoring devices in the federal government’s fishery observer program.
State Completes New Magnetic Surveys of Historic Mining Area
Southwest Alaska has a special place in the state’s mining history with the gold rushes in the Iditarod and Aniak areas. It’s also where the future of gold is happening, at the nearby Donlin Creek project. The area now is getting a fresh look with the most recent survey technology.
Sealaska Dividends Total Close to $12 million
Most Sealaska shareholders will get a $713 check or direct deposit in about two weeks.This year’s winter distribution to stockholders totals $11.7 million.
Team Rubicon To Help Kotlik Clean Up After Storm
Team Rubicon, the disaster-relief NGO made up of retired military personnel, is heading to Kotlik on Monday. The same group has sent volunteers to Haiti, Pakistan, Chile, and, most recently, the Philippines. It’s part of the multi-agency effort to help communities in Western Alaska clean-up after powerful storms two weeks ago.
Download Audio
Alaska SeaLife Center Using Resurrection Bay For Heat
As energy bills are rising for most people across the state, the Alaska SeaLife Center’s are actually dropping. That’s because they’re using the cold waters of Resurrection Bay to heat their building.
Download Audio
Department of Defense Releases Arctic Strategy Document
The Department of Defense released a 16 page Arctic Strategy document on Friday. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel talked about it at an event in Nova Scotia. The report states the arctic is at a "strategic inflection point," transforming from a region of relative isolation to one of increasing access to resource extraction, fishing and tourism as sea ice recedes faster than projected.
Download Audio
New Map Shows Likely Tsunami Flood Zones
In the back of most Sitkans’ mind is this question: When the big wave comes, will my house be under water? Researchers at the Alaska Earthquake Information Center have an answer, of sorts. This month, they released a new map outlining which parts of Sitka would be affected by a major tsunami.