Alaska news

• Attorneys grow impatient in Sockeye Fire trial

  25-05-2016 22:44
  
  It is almost one year since the Sockeye fire in Willow devastated over 7,000 acres of Southcentral Alaska and torched 55 homes.
  The Sockeye Fire which devastated Willow in 2015 (Photo courtesy of the Mat-Su Borough)Fire investigators pinned the cause of the fire on two Anchorage residents, Greg Imig and Amy DeWitt, charging they had left a burning debris pile unattended on Imig’s Willow property. The state is prosecuting the two, charging them with several counts, all misdemeanors.
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• Former ASD Superintendent to lead Minneapolis Public Schools

  25-05-2016 19:06
  
  Anchorage’s out-going superintendent Ed Graff was chosen to lead the Minneapolis Public Schools. That district has about 12,600 fewer students than Anchorage because the Twin Cities metropolitan area is broken into more districts. Two-thirds of the 35,717 students are people of color.
  The Anchorage School Board decided not to renew Graff’s contract in October but would not provide specific reasons as to why. He is being replaced by current Mat-Su superintendent Deena Paramo. Graff wi
  
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• Pay boost passed for Anchorage fire and police employees

  25-05-2016 10:07
  
   
  Anchorage Police Department file photo. Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media.The Anchorage Assembly approved a pay increase for a small group of public safety employees during its Tuesday meeting. City officials say the change is necessary to fix a major staffing problem that’s grown worse in recent years.
  The measure raises pay for some Fire and Police Department personnel who are switching from union jobs to non-represented management positions.
  It’s a change tha
  
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• Alaska adventurers on TV; Noah sings a love song on 'Alaskan Bush People' - Alaska Dispatch News

  25-05-2016 05:27
  Alaska adventurers on TV; Noah sings a love song on 'Alaskan Bush People'
  Alaska Dispatch News
  I know I sound like a broken record, but there are a stupid number of Alaska TV shows airing: "Bering Sea Gold," "The Last Alaskans," "Alaskan Bush People," "Deadliest Catch," "Life Below Zero" and the list goes on. Maybe Discovery Channel will buy the ...and more »
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, May 24, 2016

  25-05-2016 03:42
  
  
  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
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  At special session legislators come up short for new sources of state revenue
  Rachel Waldholz, Alaska Public Media – Juneau
  In the debate over how to close Alaska’s nearly $4 billion dollar budget hole, one issue hasn’t gotten much att
  
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• Special Session Day 2: Lawmakers pan governor’s tax proposals

  25-05-2016 03:37
  
  
  In the debate over how to close Alaska’s $3.8 billion budget hole, one potential solution hasn’t gotten much traction: finding new sources of revenue.
  Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, discusses the state operating budget on the floor the House of Representatives, March 11, 2016. (Photo by Skip Gray, 360 North)That was supposed to be a major focus of the special session happening now.
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  But in the first committee hearing this week, lawmakers panned Gov. Bill Walker&r
  
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• As new companies enter Alaska oilfields, violations spike

  25-05-2016 03:23
  
  
  2015 was a record year for fines in Alaska’s oil and gas fields.
  State regulators proposed some $1.7 million dollars in penalties against five companies — and the University of Alaska Fairbanks — for violating safety and environmental regulations at oil and gas wells.
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  One reason for the increase? More — and smaller — operators entering a state long dominated by a handful of major players.
  The largest violator in recent years has been the company
  
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• As new companies enter Alaska oil fields, violations spike

  25-05-2016 03:23
  
  
  2015 was a record year for fines in Alaska’s oil and gas fields.
  State regulators proposed some $1.7 million dollars in penalties against five companies — and the University of Alaska Fairbanks — for violating safety and environmental regulations.
  Download Audio
  One reason for the increase? More — and smaller — operators entering a state long dominated by a handful of major players.
  The largest violator in recent years has been the company Hilcorp, which has re
  
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• Generational differences among Japanese-American families

  25-05-2016 03:20
  
  
  Susan Churchill is a Japanese-American who grew up in a small town near Seattle not long after World War II. But her experiences growing up were nothing like her father’s.
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  Susan Churchill (Photo –  Alaska Public Media)CHURCHILL: “After the war, when he got together with his brothers and bought this property to farm, my father commuted from Falls City, where the farm was, to Seattle the first, I’d say, 5 years that they owned the property. Because he fe
  
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• Haines and Hydaburg receive grant to jumpstart biomass renewable energy projects

  25-05-2016 02:00
  
  Two Alaska communities are receiving a federal grant to jumpstart renewable energy projects. Haines and the village of Hydaburg were selected from 77 applicants nationwide.
  Haines, Alaska (Wiki commons photo by Andrei)Over the past 10 years, about 36 biomass systems have been installed in Alaska. The term sounds pretty technical, but it’s used to describe a prehistoric way to stay warm: a wood burning fire.
  Dan Parrent is a program manager at the U.S. Forest Service. He said the Wood Innov
  
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• Two federal laws amended to remove racial epithets such as ‘Eskimo’

  25-05-2016 01:19
  
  President Obama has signed a bill that removes the words “Oriental,” “Eskimo” and “Aleut” from two federal laws. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York, says she wanted to erase from U.S. code the last two instances of the term “Oriental” because, she says, many Asian-Americans find the word offensive. Her bill revises the names of ethnic groups in two programs, both in the Energy Departme
  
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• ‘Eskimo’ and ‘Aleut’ scrubbed from 2 U.S. laws yet live on

  25-05-2016 01:19
  
  
  President Obama has signed a bill that removes the words “Oriental,” “Eskimo” and “Aleut” from two federal programs. The Alaskan terms, though, live on in other U.S. laws.
  Contrary to some accounts in social media, the new law doesn’t make the terms illegal and no one is barred from using them.
  The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., says she wanted to erase from U.S. code the last two instances of the term “Oriental&rdqu
  
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