Alaska news

• BP to lay off more workers in Anchorage

  15-03-2016 23:26
  
  BP says it is planning to further reduce its workforce in Alaska as the state continues to struggle with low oil prices.
  BP spokeswoman Dawn Patience told KTUU-TV on Monday that about 4 percent of the company’s workforce will be cut. Most of the affected positions are based in Anchorage.
  Patience did not specify the exact number of positions. A 4 percent cut would be about 84 positions.
  The announcement comes after BP revealed plans last week to reduce the active rig count a
  
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• Return of the Blob

  15-03-2016 23:15
  
  Sea surface temperature anomalies (standard deviations from the mean) in NE Pacific Ocean for February 2014 based on the record from 1981–2010. (Graphic courtesy of American Geophysical Union)
  Climate researchers say a giant mass of warm water in the Pacific Ocean may be responsible for unusual sightings of marine life in the North Pacific while also influencing North American weather patterns.
  Nicholas Bond, a climatologist for Washington state and a research scientist at the University o
  
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• Drones becoming more popular in the Arctic

  15-03-2016 23:10
  
  U.S. State Department official Julie Gourley told a crowd at the Carlson Center Monday that the use of unmanned aircraft systems has grown widespread in the circumpolar north in recent years because they serve as the perfect platform for surveying the vast expanse of the Arctic for such purposes as research and environmental monitoring.
  “They allow for the ability to measure environmental conditions that currently pose a challenge for manned aircraft,” she said. “&hel
  
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• 2016 Iditarod’s top-5 finishers check into Nome

  15-03-2016 20:48
  
  Pete Kaiser mushing into the White Mountain checkpoint. (Photo by Zachariah Hughes/KSKA)
  The Iditarod’s top-5 finishers are rounded out, and more are on their way to Nome today.
  Dallas Seavey won his third-straight Iditarod, checking into Nome at 2:20 this morning [Tuesday], followed about 45 minutes later by his father, Mitch Seavey.
  Aliy Zirkle and her team ran under the burled arch in third place, coming in at 9:42 a.m.
  Wade Marrs and Peter Kaiser round out the top-5, coming in 4th and
  
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• Lawmakers hear pushback on bill to bar Planned Parenthood from schools

  15-03-2016 18:14
  
  After clearing the Alaska Senate last month, a bill that would bar “abortion providers” like Planned Parenthood from teaching in public schools has been taken up in the House.
  Senate Bill 89 would require parents to opt their kids in to sexual education lessons.
  The public took the opportunity to push back against the bill Monday morning.
  There was still some confusion among House Education committee members Monday morning about exactly how Senate Bill 89 would affect parents’
  
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• BLM director visiting Alaska’s North Slope

  15-03-2016 18:06
  
  Arctic waters seen from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy. Photo: NASA Goddard Center.
  The Director of the Bureau of Land Management is visiting the North Slope this week.
  Over the next two days, Director Neil Kornze will meet with native corporations, local government officials, and community leaders in the region.
  Tuesday, Director Kornze is helping cap two cores south of Barrow. The Simpson Core and Iko Bay were both drilled by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. They’re among 18 legacy wells t
  
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• Obama administration weighing whether to cancel next round of Arctic lease sales

  15-03-2016 17:28
  
  Obama administration weighing whether to cancel next round of Arctic lease sales The Obama administration is considering barring offshore drilling in more areas of the Arctic Ocean off Alaska as part of a long effort to establish a plan for the oil industry through 2022.   March 15, 2016
  
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• New Obama offshore plan eyes possible new Arctic protections

  15-03-2016 17:28
  
  New Obama offshore plan eyes possible new Arctic protections The Obama administration released its proposed 5-year offshore drilling plan for federal waters Tuesday, leaning towards allowing three lease sales in Alaska, but leaving the option to newly closing off some Arctic waters to oil and gas activity.March 15, 2016
  
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• New Obama offshore plan eyes further Arctic protections

  15-03-2016 17:28
  
  New Obama offshore plan eyes further Arctic protections The Obama administration released its proposed 5-year offshore drilling plan for federal waters Tuesday, leaning towards allowing three lease sales in Alaska, but leaving the option to newly closing off some Arctic waters to oil and gas activity.March 15, 2016
  
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• Photos: Brent Sass suddenly disappeared from the front

  15-03-2016 12:45
  
  
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  One of the biggest upsets in the final dash to finish this year’s Iditarod is the sudden disappearance of Brent Sass from the top standings.
  The Eureka musher and Yukon Quest winner spent most of the race near the front of the pack. But as he was preparing to leave White Mountain Monday evening, Sass’s dogs refused to run. After about a half-hour of trying to coax them onto the trail, Sass turned them back to the checkpoint, and let them rest overnight.
  Shortly after
  
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• Photos: Brent Sass remains in White Mountain

  15-03-2016 12:45
  
  
  As Dallas Seavey was jogging into Nome, his main rival for much of the race, Eureka musher Brent Sass, hadn’t left White Mountain. After barreling down the trail at the front of the pack, Sass’s dogs had had enough.
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  “It’s in their head. They don’t want to run any more,” Sass said. “It was my responsibility to control that. And I obviously didn’t. Sorry guys.”
  Sass had his dogs ready to go right as his 8-hour rest ended in
  
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• Photos: Brent Sass in White Mountain

  15-03-2016 12:45
  
  Brent Sass is still in the White Mountain checkpoint at 3:50 Tuesday morning. He was eligible to leave at 7:40 p.m. Monday, but he returned to the checkpoint after his dogs did not want to run to Nome. The Eureka musher told APRN’s Zachariah Hughes that his team is tired and while he was ready to go, he said had pushed them too hard.
  Sass told Hughes that long runs earlier on the trail put the team in the situation and called it tremendously disappointing. Hughes says Sass was verbally apo
  
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• Dallas Seavey wins 2016 Iditarod in record time

  15-03-2016 12:22
  
  Dallas Seavey, pictured here in Galena, is the race’s newest four-time champion.(Photo by Zachariah Hughes/KSKA)Dallas Seavey is the Iditarod’s newest four-time champion. He crossed beneath the Burled Arch in Nome at 2:20 a.m. Tuesday with six dogs and hugged his family and championship dogs.His family now owns six titles, including two from his father, Mitch. His grandfather, Dan Seavey, ran the first Iditarod in 1973.
  Seavey’s 2016 race set a new speed mark at 8 days, 11 hour
  
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• IDITAROD LIVEBLOG: Dallas Seavey claims fourth title in record time

  15-03-2016 06:50
  
  Top mushers are racing the final 77 miles tonight from White Mountain to Nome. Dallas Seavey is winning his fourth title and his third straight.
  
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• Repeat champ leads pack as Alaska's Iditarod dog sled race enters home stretch - Reuters

  15-03-2016 04:50
  Reuters
  Repeat champ leads pack as Alaska's Iditarod dog sled race enters home stretch
  Reuters
  JUNEAU, Alaska One musher in Alaska's grueling sled-dog race appears to stand between Dallas Seavey's third consecutive Iditarod title and a painful second place finish – his father, Mitch. As competitors in the nearly 1,000-mile race through the U.S ...
  Iditarod repeat champ leads pack as Alaska race enters home stretchYahoo News
  Once again, it's Seavey vs. Seavey for an Iditarod championshipAl
  

• Alaska must cut spending by $800 million for sustainable budget and kids' future - Alaska Dispatch News

  15-03-2016 03:20
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Alaska must cut spending by $800 million for sustainable budget and kids' future
  Alaska Dispatch News
  OPINION: Alaska needs to cut first, tax later, and use earnings of Permanent Fund to fill budget gap. Pictured: State Sen. Mike Dunleavy. Richard Mauer / Alaska Dispatch News. In President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation he said: “As ...
  Q&A: A look at budget proposals in the Alaska LegislatureFairbanks Daily News-Miner
  $63 million more in cuts
  

• Alaska should leave eye surgery to the surgeons; optometrists don't qualify - Alaska Dispatch News

  15-03-2016 03:05
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Alaska should leave eye surgery to the surgeons; optometrists don't qualify
  Alaska Dispatch News
  OPINION: Senate Bill 55 widens and "modernizes" the scope of practice allowed to optometrists in Alaska - but only by lowering standards of medical and surgical care. The Alaska Legislature is considering legislation (Senate Bill 55) that places eye ...
  

• Father and son face off in Iditarod sprint finish

  15-03-2016 02:45
  
  
  Dallas Seavey, pictured here in Galena, is racing his father Mitch for the Iditarod title. (Photo by Zach Hughes/KSKA)
  The top three teams in this year’s Iditarod have pulled into White Mountain, the final big stop along the trail. But as KNOM’s Emily Schwing reports, it’s not entirely clear who will finish first.
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  The first team to pull into the second to last checkpoint on the 1000 mile trail was Dallas Seavey’s. Seavey said there was a point on the Yukon
  
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• Alaska’s Schools Face Cuts at Every Level Over Oil Collapse

  15-03-2016 02:03 via nytimes.com
  Educators and state officials said a reckoning over policies and promises made in a different era, under different circumstances, has arrived.
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Monday, Mar. 14, 2016

  15-03-2016 01:58
  
  
  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
  Father and son face off in Iditarod sprint finish
  Defending Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey can leave White Mountain this evening in chase of his fourth victory. He checked in at 9.48 a.m. for the mandatory 8-hour layover at the checkpoint. He can
  
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• $63 million more in cuts voted by Alaska Senate

  15-03-2016 01:50
  
  
  The Alaska Senate voted today on a state budget with 63 million dollars more in cuts than the House budget passed last week.
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  That’s mainly because the Senate added about 100 million dollars in executive branch cuts — though lawmakers didn’t specify what, exactly, those cuts will be.
  Fairbanks Republican Pete Kelly says the legislature can work out the specifics before the end of the session.
  “This 100 million dollars was mostly a recognition of those kinds
  
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• Trump’s take on public land bucks Western trend

  15-03-2016 01:33
  
  
  Donald Trump in Trump Tower, 2015. Photo: Michael Vadon
  Alaska issues don’t come up much in presidential debates, but Donald Trump did face a public lands question, and his answer struck a nerve among Western conservatives.
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  A reporter for the magazine Field & Stream did an interview with Trump in late January in Las Vegas.
  “Seventy percent of hunters in the West hunt on public lands managed by the federal government. Right now there’s a lot dis
  
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• Sarah Palin shows at Trump rally despite husband’s accident in Alaska

  15-03-2016 01:20
  
  
  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 11, 2012. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia
  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made a surprise appearance at a rally for Donald Trump in Tampa, Florida on Monday — despite canceling a solo event after her husband, Todd, was injured in a snowmachine accident north of Wasilla Sunday night.
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  Todd Palin’s father told the Associated Press that his son suffered eight fractured ribs and injuries
  
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• INTERVIEW: Martin Buser deals with blackout pain after fall on Iditarod Trail

  15-03-2016 01:16
  
  
  Martin Buser suffered a deep bruise after a fall on the Iditarod Trail. (Photo by Zach Hughes/KSKA.)Many of the Iditarod’s most accomplished mushers are struggling with this year’s trail. Jeff King lost a sled-dog during an incident outside Nulato with a snowmachine. Just before 10am this morning, Lance Mackey scratched in Galena, citing personal health concerns.And Martin Buser took a spill on the way into Unalakleet that had him blacking out from pain. Alaska Public Media’s Z
  
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• Covenant House seeks to help prevent sexual crimes

  15-03-2016 01:16
  
  
  Homeless youth are often targets for human trafficking. That means they’ve been forced to trade sex to meet their basic needs, like food, clothing, and shelter. Covenant House, a youth shelter in Anchorage, aims to protect young people from the predators, but the facility used to inadvertently contribute to the problem. KSKA’s Urban Affairs reporter Anne Hillman learned now, they’re solving it. And it all starts with a door.
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  According to Covenant House Internatio
  
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• Sitka High workshop teaches kids to make guitars, among other projects

  15-03-2016 01:02
  
  
  Last week, 14 educators from around the state met at Sitka High School to learn how to make shop and engineering classes more engaging. Supported by a grant from the Alaska Department of Education, the group had a few days to build and wire their very own electric guitars.
  Download Audio
  Casey Evens is a sophomore at Petersburg High School.
  Right now I’m just cutting out the head of my guitar into the shape that I want, or the basic shape that I want then I’m going to go in and sand
  
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• In the Land of Missing Persons - The Atlantic

  15-03-2016 00:56
  The Atlantic
  In the Land of Missing Persons
  The Atlantic
  They found what was left of him in the spring of 2014. Firefighters battling a huge blaze on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula first spotted a boot in the dirt. Then they noticed some bones scattered across a wide grassy area. Fire crews in Alaska are used to ...
  

• Project Prom collecting tuxedos, gowns for Alaska teens - KTVA.com - Alaska News and Weather

  15-03-2016 00:53
  KTVA.com - Alaska News and Weather
  Project Prom collecting tuxedos, gowns for Alaska teens
  KTVA.com - Alaska News and Weather
  Don't stress over the price of that dress — a program that helps high school kids get to prom is expanding in Alaska. Now in its fourth year, “Project Prom” offers free dresses and tuxedos to students in need. Whether new or slightly used, the formal ...
  

• 'Blob' of warm water threatens marine mammals in the Pacific - Alaska Public Radio Network

  15-03-2016 00:37
  'Blob' of warm water threatens marine mammals in the Pacific
  Alaska Public Radio Network
  Scientists are increasingly worried about the possibility of more die-offs and other adverse effects on marine mammals and seabirds if the suspected cause, a huge anomaly of warm water in the northeast Pacific Ocean, persists into this summer. KTOO's ...
  

• ‘Blob’ of warm water threatens marine mammals in the Pacific

  15-03-2016 00:35
  
  
  Scientists are increasingly worried about the possibility of more die-offs and other adverse effects on marine mammals and seabirds if the suspected cause, a huge anomaly of warm water in the northeast Pacific Ocean, persists into this summer.
  KTOO’s Matt Miller has more in the first of a two-part series.
  Download Audio
  Biologists and ecologists reported on their latest observations at a two-day workshop held in January on the University of Washington campus. The conference was a follow-up
  
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• Senate passes budget with more for University and a big ‘unallocated’ cut

  15-03-2016 00:28
  
  Senate passes budget with more for University and a big ‘unallocated’ cut The Alaska Senate on Monday afternoon passed its $4.3 billion version of the state operating budget, which slices $63 million, or 1.5 percent, in agency spending from the budget passed by House members last week.March 14, 2016
  
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