Alaska news

• Rock Creek Mine equipment to be sold, shipped south

  17-11-2015 22:02
  Muskox grazing on the reclaimed land of Rock Creek Mine. (Photo via Bering Straits Native Corporation)
  It’s been a long and unproductive road for the Rock Creek Mine, but now that its being stripped and sold for profit, money will finally flow into the pockets of its current owner, Bering Straits Native Corporation.
  The mine was originally owned by Canadian mining company NovaGold and operated by its subsidiary, Alaska Gold. It opened briefly in 2008 before shutting its doors just months l
  
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• Gas line leak fixed in Shishmaref; cleanup will continue in the spring

  17-11-2015 22:00
  A gasoline sheen along the Shishmaref shoreline. (Photo: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)
  A leaking gas line in Shishmaref has finally been fixed about a year and half after a village public safety officer first discovered an oily sheen along the northern coast of Sarichef Island. Officials with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said the leak came from a tank farm fuel line owned by the Shishmaref Native Store.
  While responders from the DEC and U.S. C
  
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• DNR announces three-month closure of Haines forestry office

  17-11-2015 21:45
  Local timber operator The Stump Company at work in October. (Photo by Emily Files/KHNS)
  The State Department of Natural Resources has announced the dates for the short-term closure of the Haines State Forestry office.
  The office will close to the public from November 21 to January 10. Then, it will open for two weeks from January 11 to January 22. A press release from DNR says the two-week reopening will allow staff to deal with ‘any issues that require a local presence.’ The office
  
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• Search underway for overdue Wrangell boater

  17-11-2015 21:43
  Kenneth Trammel left on the Thalassa Nov. 5.
  Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard and Wrangell Search and Rescue are searching for an overdue boater in the Wrangell area.
  Kenneth Trammel of Wrangell, age 53, left Wrangell Nov. 5 and was scheduled to return Nov. 10. He has not been seen or heard from since Nov. 5, according to a trooper dispatch.
  Trammel was heading for the back channel, between Wrangell Island and the mainland, in his white 38-foot Bayliner, the Thalassa.
  Troopers reporte
  
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• Walker not among governors raising concerns about refugees

  17-11-2015 21:42
  While some governors around the country have raised concerns about accepting Syrian refugees following last week’s attacks in Paris, Gov. Bill Walker is focused on Alaska’s budget woes.
  Walker spokeswoman Katie Marquette says Walker has been focused on solving the state’s fiscal challenges and has not given consideration to trying to stop Syrian refugees from settling in Alaska.
  Governors in many states are responding to heightened concerns that terrorists might use the refugee
  
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• Moccasins take over social media for ‘Rock Your Mocs’ 2015

  17-11-2015 18:02
  November is Native American Heritage Month, and people across the world are celebrating on social media with an online event called Rock Your Mocs.
  Crystal Nelson holds up a pair of moccasins passed down to her from her grandmother. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)
  Now in its fifth year, the event encourages indigenous people everywhere to post pictures of themselves wearing moccasins. Social networks are full of people sporting an array of moccasins of all shapes, sizes and colors under the has
  
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• Alaskan Bonnie Carroll among Medal of Freedom recipients

  17-11-2015 17:19
  The White House has announced that President Obama will award the Medal of Freedom to Alaskan Bonnie Carroll.
  Presidential Medal of Freedom. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
  Carroll founded an organization called TAPS to help family members grieving the death of a military service member.
  She is the widow of Gen. Tom Carroll who was commander of Alaska’s Army National Guard when he died in a plane crash near Juneau in 1992.
  The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s top honor for c
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Monday, Nov. 16, 2015

  17-11-2015 03:45
  
  
  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
   
  Walker sacks DOC commissioner after scathing report
  Zachariah Hughes, KSKA – Anchorage
  A new report about the state’s Department of Corrections finds multiple problems that have contributed to dozens of recent deaths within Alaska&rs
  
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• Walker sacks DOC commissioner after scathing report

  17-11-2015 03:38
  
  
  Governor Bill Walker during a press conference announcing a the publication of a report finding fault with the Department of Corrections over in-mate deaths. (Photo: Zachariah Hughes, KSKA)
  A new report about the state’s Department of Corrections finds numerous problems that have contributed to dozens of recent deaths within Alaska’s prisons and jails. On Monday, Governor Bill Walker released the 20-page Administrative Review to the public, and announced a new head for DOC.
  Down
  
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• House lawmakers view prison stats

  17-11-2015 03:36
  
  
  Data gathered by the Pew Charitable Trusts is aimed at guiding Alaska’s legislators in making policy changes that could lead to reducing state prison populations. The state House committee heard the numbers Monday morning.
  Goose Creek Prison. Photo by Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage.
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  At about the same time that  Governor Walker released the state corrections report at his Anchorage office, the House Finance Committee listened to Pew senior associate Terry Schuster
  
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• FBI to investigate controversial Sitka arrest, tasing event

  17-11-2015 03:35
  The Anchorage FBI office will be taking a leadership role in the investigation of the 2014 tasing of a teenager in a Sitka jail cell. Franklin Hoogendorn, age 18, was a student at Mt. Edgecumbe High School when he was arrested and tased by three officers, while in custody of the Sitka Police Department.
  The FBI has 56 field offices throughout the country, and one of them is in Anchorage, Alaska. Part of the bureau’s mandate is to investigate color of law issues, or instances where the
  
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• Railroad hopes Congress fixes expensive math gaffe

  17-11-2015 03:34
  
  
  Photo: Frank Kovalchek
  The Alaska Railroad has a lot riding on a highway bill pending in Congress. The railroad CEO says he hopes it will fix a technical mistake in a 2012 law that has shortchanged the Railroad $3 million a year.
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  When you’re up against a deadline and all bleary-eyed from working way too long, you’re prone to make mistakes. It’s the same with Congress, only on a larger scale. Three years ago, when Congress passed a highway bill, the House and Sena
  
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• BC tells Tulsequah mine to control leakage

  17-11-2015 03:32
  
  
  British Columbia is telling owners of a leaky mine that it’s time to stop polluting a river that flows into Alaska.
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  Provincial officials recently notified the Tulsequah Chief Mine that it’s out of compliance with its permits.
  Water treatment plant at Tulsequah. It operated for a few months to treat acid rock drainage, but Chieftain shut it down due to the high costs. Photo courtesy Chieftain Metals.
  The long-closed project is on a tributary of the salmon-rich
  
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• Alaska holding out against emission-cutting policies

  17-11-2015 03:31
  
  
  The Arctic is on the front lines of climate change. Alaska is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. The most visible impacts are to Native communities located on barrier islands in Northwest Alaska, who now face a future without the ice that used to protect them from storms that now threaten tow wipe them away. A group called Alaska Common Ground hosted an all-day forum in Anchorage over the weekend to answer the question, “What are we doing about it?&rdq
  
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• Dillingham youth center to close as funding runs dry

  17-11-2015 03:30
  
  
  At the end of November, the Myspace youth center at SAFE shelter in Dillingham will likely close its doors, as its grant funding runs out.
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  Myspace employee Darren Petla organizes supplies in the art room in preparation for the center’s close in a few weeks.
  CREDIT HANNAH COLTON/KDLG
  Myspace is a series of rooms geared toward teens – an art room, a kitchen stocked with snacks, a living room with a TV and video games.
  On a recent afternoon, the rooms were
  
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• Family remembers man who died at AFN

  17-11-2015 02:03
  
  Anthony Choquette’s brother-in-law said the family did everything they could to help him before he died by suicide last month at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage.
  Anthony Choquette. (Courtesy of Roger Holmberg)
  Roger Holmberg said he and his wife first learned about last month’s suicide at the Dena’ina Center while watching TV. He said no one called him or the family to tell them it was Anthony Choquette.
  “When we heard the news that someone h
  
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• Search underway for missing Wrangell boater

  17-11-2015 01:37
  Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard and Wrangell Search and Rescue are searching for an overdue boater in the Wrangell area.
  Kenneth Trammel of Wrangell, age 53, left Wrangell Nov. 5 and was scheduled to return Nov. 10. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since Nov. 5, according to a Trooper dispatch.
  Kenneth Trammel left on the Thalassa Nov. 5.
  Trammel was heading for the back channel, between Wrangell Island and the mainland, in his white 38-foot Bayliner, the Thalassa.Troopers rep
  
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• Trans-Pacific Partnership nixes sockeye tariffs

  17-11-2015 01:23
  A new Pacific trade deal could make Alaska sockeye a little more affordable in other countries.
  Sockeye on ice. (Credit Mike Mason/KDLG)
  The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an agreement between twelve countries, including the United States, Japan, and Vietnam — among others, though notably not China — that will eliminate some trade barriers over the next several years.
  Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich says if the agreement is
  
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• Gold dreams scrapped at Nome’s defunct mine

  17-11-2015 00:57
  It’s been a long and unproductive road for the Rock Creek Mine — but now that its being liquidated, money will finally flow into the pockets of its current owner, Bering Straits Native Corporation.
  Map taken from a NovaGold annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  The mine was originally owned by Canadian mining company NovaGold and operated by its subsidiary, Alaska Gold. It opened briefly in 2008 before shutting its doors just months
  
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• Haines distillery finds its niche with tasting room, bang-up cocktails

  17-11-2015 00:45
  The tasting room at the Port Chilkoot Distillery celebrated its one-year anniversary on Halloween. Co-owner Heather Shade helped lead the effort to allow distilleries in the state to operate tasting rooms. The distillery’s specialty cocktails use a wide array of regional ingredients to complement the locally-blended and distilled spirits. The tasting room has added to the distillery’s popularity and helped double their business.
  Tasting room manager Macky Cassidy. (Jillian Rogers)
  On
  
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