Alaska news

• Man out on bail in death of Alaska reality show personality - Arizona Daily Star

  19-12-2015 23:04
  Man out on bail in death of Alaska reality show personality
  Arizona Daily Star
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A man accused of killing a man who had appeared on an Alaska wilderness reality TV show has been released on bail. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/1Nvkglv) 44-year-old Major Workman was released ...and more »
  

• Paul Brown

  19-12-2015 22:26 via nytimes.com
  At Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska, tracking the economy and toy trends in a soundproof office.
  
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• Video: Alaskana Pop Art | INDIE ALASKA - Alaska Dispatch News

  19-12-2015 22:00
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Video: Alaskana Pop Art | INDIE ALASKA
  Alaska Dispatch News
  INDIE ALASKA is an original video series produced by Alaska Public Media in partnership with PBS Digital Studios. The weekly series captures the diverse and colorful lifestyles of everyday Alaskans at work and play. Together, these videos present a ...and more »
  

• Alaska family lets you control their Christmas lights - WNCN

  19-12-2015 15:15
  WNCN
  Alaska family lets you control their Christmas lights
  WNCN
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KXAN) – Ken Woods is an IT guy. He rigged his family's Christmas lights so anyone on the internet, anywhere in the world, can control them. It only takes up to five seconds for them to respond. There are 12 strings of lights on the ...and more »
  

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• Officials toss lip balm containing THC from Alaska air base - Fox News

  19-12-2015 12:27
  The Cannabist
  Officials toss lip balm containing THC from Alaska air base
  Fox News
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Officials say they had to discard hundreds of tubes of lip balm that were distributed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richards after they were found to contain trace amounts of THC, an active ingredient in marijuana. The base's Sexual ...
  Hemp lip balm causes furor at Alaska military base — 400 tubes tossedThe Cannabistall 75 news articles »
  

• Turning Alaska crab shells into a business fortune - Alaska Dispatch News

  19-12-2015 07:06
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Turning Alaska crab shells into a business fortune
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Commercial crab fisherman Frank MacFarland, left, holds up a rare blue king crab he found in his crab pots on July 4, 2014 aboard his boat Mithril. Scott Kent / Alaska Dept.of Fish and Game. Alaska crab shells are fueling an eco-revolution that will ...and more »
  

• Alaska News Nightly: Friday, Dec. 18, 2015

  19-12-2015 02:41
  
  
  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 frees 2 Alaska inmates
  Liz Ruskin, APRN – Anchorage
  Two Alaskans are among dozens of federal inmates who will be freed decades early, the White House announced today.
  Alaska Innocence Project nets first big victory in Fairbanks
  
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• Katiya Simonsson of Unalakleet

  19-12-2015 02:06
  
  
  This week, we’re hearing from Katiya Simonsson — who is 23, and has lived in Soldotna, Kotzebue, and more recently Chicago. Her roots are in Unalakleet where she married her husband Thomas on July 10th.
  Download Audio:
  49 voices is AK’s attempt to put every Alaskan on the radio. If you want to tell your story, send an email to [email protected].
  
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• Obama frees 2 Alaskan inmates

  19-12-2015 01:37
  
  
  Two Alaskans are among dozens of federal inmates who will be freed decades early, the White House announced.  President Obama today commuted the sentences of Alex Contreras of Anchorage and Raymond Allen Thomas of Fairbanks.
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  Contreras was sentenced to 40 years in 2002 for multiple drug and gun-possession charges. He was 19 at the time. News accounts of his sentencing say his convictions relate to his role in an Anchorage drug ring that sold crack and powdered cocaine.
  Thomas
  
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• Alaska Innocence Project nets first big victory in FBX 4

  19-12-2015 01:35
  
  
  George Frese, Eugene Vent and Kevin Pease are spending their first day out of prison today in 18 years. They were released yesterday in Fairbanks after the court approved a settlement in the case of the murder of 15-year-old John Hartman. The other member of the Fairbanks Four was Marvin Roberts, who was paroled earlier this year.
  The outcome is a big win for the Alaska Innocence Project. Executive director Bill Oberly spent the last six years trying to free the men.
  He describes the scene in th
  
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• Law Dept. insists Fairbanks Four not ‘exonerated’

  19-12-2015 01:34
  
  
  The state’s Department of Law maintains the Fairbanks Four were not exonerated in the settlement, or completely cleared of blame.
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  John Skidmore is the director of criminal division of the state’s Department of Law.
  “The agreement or settlement that the state reached yesterday with the men in the Fairbanks Four case was that they were admitting that they were properly and validly convicted when the convictions were entered back in 1996. And it was only new evidenc
  
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• Alaska delegation splits on US budget bill

  19-12-2015 01:33
  
  
  Congress has finished its work for the year with a $1.8 trillion spending bill, which president Obama quickly signed. The package drew a mixed response from Alaska’s delegation.
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  Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted for it. She lauded its support for programs important to Alaska, in Veterans Affairs, Defense, and social services. The bill also contributes $7 million toward the billion-dollar effort to build a new icebreaker. Murkowski said in a recorded press announcement the bill isn&r
  
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• 2 men with Alaska ties will have prison terms cut short by President Obama - KTUU.com

  19-12-2015 01:33
  KTUU.com
  2 men with Alaska ties will have prison terms cut short by President Obama
  KTUU.com
  President Obama during a visit this year to Alaska. Photo by White House photographer Pete Souza. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday commuted the sentences of 95 non-violent drug offenders nationwide, including two men ...and more »
  

• Models show permafrost melting faster than thought

  19-12-2015 01:32
  
  
  For years researchers studying permafrost in the Arctic have seen a warming trend. Now scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks say it is happening even faster than expected.
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  Vladimir Romanovsky in front of huge ice wedges in permafrost on an arctic riverbank. Photo: Sergey Davydov
  Vladimir Romanovsky heads up the Permafrost Laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute. Based on three decades of study he says the trend is more dramatic than
  
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• Al Jazeera documentary highlights erosion in Kivalina, Newtok

  19-12-2015 01:31
  
  
  On Sunday evening, the issue of Alaska coastal erosion will be featured on the Al Jazeera America program “Fault Lines.” The correspondent for the story is former APRN reporter Libby Casey. She says they highlighted Newtok and Kivilina on the northwest Arctic coast.
  Newtok is farther along in the very slow process of relocation, but Kivilina is having trouble getting disaster funds in part because of their strong efforts at protecting the community from storm damage.
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• Home heating assistance on chopping block with budget cuts

  19-12-2015 01:30
  
  
  Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed budget, released Dec. 9, would cut just over $9 million dollars in home heating subsidies for low-income Alaskans by eliminating the Alaska Heating Assistance Program.
  Download Audio
  For some, with winter snow comes financial stress over heating bills.
  CREDIT CLARK FAIR via KDLG.org.
  About 800 households throughout the Bristol Bay region receive government assistance with heating their homes each year.
  While the majority of those are funded by the fede
  
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• AK: Finding a home, building a family

  19-12-2015 00:30
  
  
  The family hangs out in the room shared by Angel and Jmari. Clockwise from top left: Sam, Angel, Jmari, and Ivory. (Hillman/KSKA)
  More than 2,000 kids in Anchorage are considered homeless by the school district. They move about or stay in shelters, cars, or with family and friends. Research shows that kids who lack stability don’t do as well in school, but the support of even just one adult can change that. In the case of teenager Jmari House, an entire family stepped in to make sure she d
  
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• NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts open for beats! Jan. 12-Feb. 2

  19-12-2015 00:00
  That’s right… it’s back again. NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert is looking for the best undiscovered music talent from across the U.S.A. Here’s how it works — you film you and your beats at — drumroll — a desk (any desk will do, really!) and submit the video to NPR.
  Last year, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts received thousands of entries from every state in the U.S. In NPR’s words: “You put desks in places we never imagined;
  
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