Alaska news

• U.S. Blocks Alaskan Arctic Drilling for 2 Years

  17-10-2015 03:59 via nytimes.com
  The Interior Department also rejected appeals by Shell and Statoil, the Norwegian oil giant, to extend existing Arctic leases.
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Friday, Oct. 16, 2015

  17-10-2015 03:37
  
  
  Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn.Download Audio
   
  Obama administration cancels offshore lease sales, citing lack of interest
  Rachel Waldholz, APRN – Anchorage
  The Obama Administration announced Friday that it is canceling plans to open up more of the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas drilling &
  
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• Obama Administration cancels offshore lease sales, citing lack of interest

  17-10-2015 03:36
  
  
  Shell’s Pioneer rig leaves Dutch Harbor in Oct. 2015. Photo: John Ryan/KUCB.
  The Obama Administration announced Friday, Oct. 16 that it is canceling plans to open up more of the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas drilling — citing not enough industry interest in the region.
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  The Interior Department won’t auction off drilling rights in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the next two years. The auctions would have been the first in the Arctic Ocean since 2008, and the f
  
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• Murkowski spotlights civic heroes at AFN

  17-10-2015 03:35
  
  
  As Sen. Dan Sullivan did in his address yesterday, Murkowski kept her speech focused on Alaska Native heroes. But while Sullivan mostly discussed military veterans, Murkowski put more emphasis on the civic and cultural leaders.
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  She reeled off scores of names — Sidney Huntington, John Baker, Poldine Carlo, Georgianna Lincoln, Rosita Worl, amonth others. Murkowski recognized leaders in community health, suicide prevention, education, engineering and busines
  
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• At AFN, protesters slam Murkowski’s support for Arctic drilling

  17-10-2015 03:34
  
  
  During Senator Lisa Murkowski’s speech at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage Friday, protesters marched dressed as a salmon, a caribou and a walrus. It was part of an effort to call out Murkowski for her support of Arctic oil drilling. It was the second protest at AFN in two days.
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  Protesters took aim at Sen. Lisa Murkowski over her crusade to open more of Alaska to resource development. Photo: Daysha Eaton/KBBI.
  Among the protesters in costume was Georg
  
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• New joint tribal-state court established

  17-10-2015 03:33
  
  
  A disproportionately high number of Alaska Natives are incarcerated in the state of Alaska. In 2014, nearly 32 percent of the prosecuted criminal offenders in Alaska were Alaska Natives; they only constitute less than 20 percent of the population. Recidivism rates are higher for that group as well. Now, the state is working on new ways to partner with tribes to help solve both problems.
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  For the first time in Alaska, there will be a joint tribal-state court. A Kenaitze tribal judge
  
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• Pease testifies, says confession was coerced

  17-10-2015 03:32
  
  
  The first of four Fairbanks men seeking exoneration from convictions for a 1997 murder took the stand at an ongoing evidentiary hearing yesterday.
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  As an evidentiary hearing for the Fairbanks Four is underway, protesters make sure the men aren’t forgotten at the AFN convention in Anchorage. Photo: Daysha Eaton/KBBI.
  George Frese testified that he drank excessively the night 15-year-old John Hartman was found fatally beaten on a downtown street. Frese said alcohol-induced blac
  
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• Bethel puzzles over how to unclog a seriously frozen well

  17-10-2015 03:31
  
  
  An ice chunk is blocking an essential well for Bethel schools. For almost a week, maintenance crews have been melting the ice, while the city delivers water to the campus. So far, there’s no end in sight to how deep the impasse runs.
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  Every school in Bethel relies on the frozen well. When it’s working, the well provides water for the Yup’ik Immersion School, the Kuskokwim Learning Academy, or KLA, and student dorms. The three other schools in Bethel receive its fo
  
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• Juneau judge sides with trapper, but no damages awarded

  17-10-2015 03:30
  
  
  In a small claims case between a trapper and a trap springer, a judge finds the trap springer liable but doesn’t award any damages to the trapper.
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  Trapper John Forrest sued hiker Kathleen Turley for springing his lawfully set traps on Davies Creek Trail in Juneau. Turley had made headlines in January for also freeing a bald eagle from two traps.
  Kathleen Turley encountered this eagle stuck in two traps Dec. 24, 2014. She freed the eagle and tampered with other legally set tr
  
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• Alaska officials fighting mad over Arctic lease cancellation

  17-10-2015 02:43
  When the Obama Administration announced the cancelation of future drilling opportunities in the Arctic Ocean, the reaction of Alaska’s congressional delegation and governor was swift and terrible. Gov. Bill Walker told reporters it’s a violation of the promises made at statehood.
  “That’s the part that’s so frustrating for me: when people step over Alaskans to support a cause,” Walker said at a last-minute press conference outside
  
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• Cultural journeys

  17-10-2015 01:00
  
  Photo by Caleb Billmeier
  Outdoor Alaska is a place to learn — learning skills like skiing or paddling; learning to hunt and survive; or learning about the environment for science. On this edition of Outdoor Explorer, we’ll talk to people who are sharing these kinds of knowledge in new ways — scientists learning from from Alaska Natives, and elders eager to tell about radical changes they see in the environment where they live.
  HOST: Charles Wohlforth
  GUESTS: 
  Caleb Bi
  
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• MEA power line plan provides options

  17-10-2015 00:58
  Matanuska Electric Association has announced it’s preferred alternative route for a transmission line through Wasilla, and the power company is offering the city’s planning commission a wide range of choices.A year ago, MEA’s preferred Parks Highway transmission route through downtown Wasilla met with fiery opposition from the city planning commission. Now, the power company has come up with a new plan that outlines four major route corridors, and within those, hundreds of modi
  
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• AFN: Alaskans share intimate ‘heroes’ stories online

  17-10-2015 00:55
  AFN 2015 is officially underway. This year’s theme is ‘Heroes in our Homeland.’
  In a more literal take on the theme, Alaska Native veterans opened the convention by presenting the Color Guard. There were two World War II veterans on hand. Sen. Dan Sullivan also used his time on the podium to laud Alaska’s servicemen and women.
  But some of the more touching hero stories are quietly making their way through social media.
  In a Facebook post, one mom says
  
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