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Matanuska Susitna Borough officials are saddened by Gatto’s passing. Patty Sullivan, now a spokesperson for the Borough and a former radio reporter who followed Gatto’s initial election campaigns, says he had a homespun sense of humor.

Rep. Carl Gatto died this morning. The Palmer Republican was battling prostate cancer and last week suffered kidney failure. His death was announced about 12:30 p.m. on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. He was 74.

A Ft. Wainwright based soldier has died of injuries suffered in an IED. attack in Afghanistan. An Army statement says Specialist Christopher J. Marquis of Tampa Florida was guarding an entry when a vehicle carrying an improvised explosive device blew up.

Alaska State Troopers are reporting the pilot as 23-year-old Gerald Richardson Minock. They say he was the only one on board when the boat turned upside down sometime Tuesday night or, more likely, early Wednesday morning.

Three people have died in two fatal accidents that occurred in Nome and Elim in the early morning hours Sunday.

Wednesday, a child died in a fire in Anchorage's Mountainview neighborhood. The girl, age five or six, was not identified.

There has been yet another fatal crash on the Sterling Highway. Marcie Toth, 56, of Kenai died when her car hit a pickup truck stopped for a turn at a Ninilchik store.

A Fairbanks man crashed his single engine plane right after takeoff from a private runway near Delta Sunday and died after the crash.

Bill Noll, an Alaska entrepreneur and former Mayor of Seward, passed away suddenly on Monday in Anchorage. Noll was 72.