Alaska news

• FiveThirtyEight podcaster rescued off Mount Roberts trail

  18-08-2016 23:48
  
  The view from the Mount Roberts trail in September 2015. (Photo by Lisa Phu, KTOO – Juneau)Jody Avirgan, a podcast host for the political analysis website FiveThirtyEight, is vacationing in Juneau this week – but it went awry Wednesday night.@schweigefox sure! We have an Airbnb for five days and that’s about it. Doing a kayak trip one day, otherwise free.
  — Jody Avirgan (@jodyavirgan) August 9, 2016Avirgan, 35, was hiking the Mount Roberts trail with Kathlyn Clark, 33,&nb
  
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• Photos: Foreign workers with J-1 Summer Work Travel visas experience Alaska - Alaska Dispatch News

  18-08-2016 22:58
  
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Photos: Foreign workers with J-1 Summer Work Travel visas experience Alaska
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Igor Zvernic, from Belgrade, Serbia, works at Humpy's Alehouse on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. Zvernic, who worked two jobs and shared a crowded Midtown apartment, said he wanted to come to Alaska to make as much money as possible, which is ...
  
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• Alaska Aerospace Corporation launches into new period on island

  18-08-2016 22:18
  
  Kodiak’s rocket launch facility has entered a new period on the island and will soon be active again.
  Craig Campbell speaks to public at rededication event. (Photo by Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak)This comes about two years after a launch failure damaged buildings on the complex, and Alaska Aerospace Corporation representatives say insurance is covering the funds needed for repairs.  Saturday, AAC invited the community to a Launch Complex Rededication Ceremony.
  AAC representati
  
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• Seiners turn in early after weak pink harvest

  18-08-2016 21:44
  
  The pink salmon season in Southeast is supposed to be peaking right now. Instead, the run is actually slowing, harvests have been poor, and many fishermen are wrapping up the season early.
  Despite a one-day seining opening in the region, many seiners docked in Petersburg and removed their nets. (Photo, Abbey Collins – KFSK – Petersburg)The F/V Marathon is docked in Petersburg’s South Harbor. Jesse Agner is a crewmember on the boat.
  “We’re done,” Agner sai
  
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• Leaving Their Ancestral Home: Alaska Village Votes to Move Due to Climate Change - ABC News

  18-08-2016 21:20
  CBS News
  Leaving Their Ancestral Home: Alaska Village Votes to Move Due to Climate Change
  ABC News
  For four generations, the family of Esau Sinnok has been born, lived, worked and died in Shishmaref, a small Inuit Eskimo village off the western Alaskan coast. But there likely won't be a fifth generation in the village. On Thursday, unofficial ...
  Climate change prompts Shishmaref, Alaska, to vote for mainland moveCBS News
  Shishmaref votes to relocate from eroding barrier island to mainlandAlask
  
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• Scientists use seismic waves to map Okmok volcano

  18-08-2016 19:25
  
  In the rich volcanic landscape of the Aleutians, Okmok volcano on Umnak Island has drawn special attention this summer.
  A team of scientists are using a process like a geological CAT scan to map the the inside of Okmok Volcano. (Photo by Alaska Volcano observatory, USGS/Wikimedia Commons)Matt Haney, a research geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory, is part of a team trying to create an image of the inside of Okmok. The process is like a geological CAT scan, mapping the earth rather th
  
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• Eagle River couple plans vast adventure in wooden plane

  18-08-2016 19:18
  
  
  A lot of people wouldn’t be all that excited about hopping in a WOODEN plane and flying thousands of miles, but in November, an Eagle River couple will do just that. They’ll be part of a vintage air rally, flying an antique plane from Crete to Capetown on a journey that will take more than a month. Alaska Public Media’s Graelyn Brashear met them to learn more about the adventure.
  Listen now
  Nick and Lita Oppegard (Photo by Graelyn Brashear, Alaska Public Media – Anchroage
  
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• Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor visits Anchorage during ... - KTVA.com - Anchorage, Alaska

  18-08-2016 09:12
  
  KTVA.com - Anchorage, Alaska
  Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor visits Anchorage during ...
  KTVA.com - Anchorage, Alaska
  A member of the highest court in America visited Anchorage Wednesday while on vacation in Alaska. U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Justice Sonia Sotomayor ...and more »
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016

  18-08-2016 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
  Listen now
  Several incumbents ejected from Legislature in what was Alaska’s lowest Primary turnout ever
  Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
  Alaskans ejected as many as five incumbents from the House in the primary yesterday. And they also rejected two House m
  
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• Quinhagak responds to a series of apparent heroin overdoses

  18-08-2016 03:08
  
  One of the men from Quinhagak’s four apparent heroin overdoses earlier this week has returned to the village. The other man has not yet returned. The third person, a woman, is dead. The fourth person was treated on site.
  A cloudy day in Quinhagak
  (Photo by Adrian Wagner, KYUK – Bethel)Earlier reports stated three overdoses, but as of Wednesday afternoon, Trooper spokesman Tim DeSpain says four overdoses happened within the same timeframe.
  Patrick Cleveland, Quinhagak Tribal Administr
  
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• Several incumbents ejected from Legislature in what was Alaska’s lowest Primary turnout ever

  18-08-2016 03:06
  
  Alaskans ejected as many as five incumbents from the House in the primary yesterday. And they also rejected two House members who tried to move up to the Senate. But not many people showed up to vote. It was the lowest turnout for a primary in state history.
  Three Republican incumbents and two Democrats who caucused with the Republicans trailed their opponents in a primary that drew only 15 percent of voters, not counting outstanding absentee ballots.
  Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, speaks i
  
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• Low-turnout primary could lead to five House incumbents losing

  18-08-2016 03:06
  
  
  Alaskans ejected as many as five incumbents from the House in the primary yesterday. And they also rejected two House members who tried to move up to the Senate. But not many people showed up to vote. It was the lowest turnout for a primary in state history.
  Listen now
  Three Republican incumbents and two Democrats who caucused with the Republicans trailed their opponents in a primary that drew only 15 percent of voters, not counting outstanding absentee ballots.
  Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorag
  
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• Beverage distributor plans $40 million facility in Anchorage

  18-08-2016 02:53
  
  A major Alaska beverage distributor is planning a $40 million investment in Anchorage.
  Washington-based Odom Corp. announced Tuesday it will build a 240,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center.
  Anchorage television station KTUU reports Odom Corp. executive Bill Odom and Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced the project.
  The city will reimburse Odom up to $500,000 for road work associated with the project.
  The facility is planned south of International Airport Road and west of Minne
  
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• Cleaner electricity for Peninsula village to arrive by way of Anchorage

  18-08-2016 02:49
  
  The Native Village of Perryville on the Alaska Peninsula has a new power generator. It will help the village use more renewable power and save on costs. Contractors have almost finished putting it together –- but at the moment, it’s almost 500 miles away from its destination.
  Wires, tubes, John Deere engines and other equipment fill the inside of Perryville’s new powerhouse. (Photo by Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage)Today the powerhouse can be fou
  
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• In race for North Slope House seat, difference in votes is a handful

  18-08-2016 02:42
  
  A hotly contested race in the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Borough has two bush Democrats within five votes of each other.
  Incumbent Rep. Ben Nageak is slightly behind in his race against newcomer Dean Westlake. All precincts in that district have been counted, but the state Division of Elections still has absentee and questioned ballots to count.
  Westlake ran against Nageak two years ago and lost by 131 votes.
  Nageak declined to comment and Westlake is out of reach at his fish camp.
  Nageak
  
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• District 6’s Talerico-Smith primary proves to be civil, if not friendly

  18-08-2016 02:38
  
  State House incumbent Dave Talerico bested political new-comer Ryan Smith in the interior House District 6 Republican primary. Few differences divided the two candidates, who say they’ve become friends.
  Voting polling place (Photo by Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.)House District 6 sprawls across the state, encompassing Healy, Yukon Flat villages, Tok and the Richardson Highway, among other communities. Both Republican candidates call the western sector of the distr
  
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• No Southeast candidates eliminated in Primary election

  18-08-2016 02:15
  
  Tuesday’s primary election didn’t eliminate any Southeast candidates for state House or Senate.
  But the results show incumbents polling stronger than their challengers in two of the region’s three competitive races.
  One is Juneau’s House District 34, which includes the Mendenhall Valley and neighborhoods to the north.
  Incumbent Republican Cathy Muñoz got 832 votes on the GOP ballot. Her Democratic challenger, Justin Parish, won 722 on his party’s ballot.
  The
  
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• A weather forecaster returns to Sitka’s slide: ‘We were snakebit’

  18-08-2016 02:13
  
  One year ago, on August 18, 2015, massive rainfall generated over 40 landslides on Baranof and Chichagof Islands. And in Sitka, one of those landslides swept through a subdivision under construction. The slide occurred at 9:41 in the morning, demolishing one home and taking the lives of two painters, Elmer and Ulises Diaz, working inside. A third individual, William Stortz, was Sitka’s building official. He was inspecting drainage outside nearby when the slide caught him too.
  National
  
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• Alaskan long jumper misses qualifying in Rio Olympics

  18-08-2016 01:50
  
  Former Eielson High School long jumper Janay DeLoach just missed qualifying at the Rio Olympics. The 2012 long jump bronze medalist barely missed making the final cut during qualifying Tuesday, falling a little over an inch short of the top 12 who advanced.
  DeLoach was the last of 4 Rio Olympians with Alaska connections to compete.
  Earlier in the games, Corey Cogdell, formerly of Eagle River, who won bronze in women’s trap shooting in the 2008 Beijing Games, took bronze in the event again.
  
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• Watershed Coalition tracks salmon stream temp trends

  18-08-2016 01:44
  
  The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition plans to record the temperature of salmon streams across Southeast Alaska over the next two years. The project aims to collect the data to measure climate change’s affect on Alaska’s most prominent fish, leaving behind eggs, which turn into fry the next spring and eventually smolt before going out to sea. Each species has a timed lifecycle with many factors affecting future populations, stream temperatures being among them.
  The Stikine Ri
  
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• Haines Chamber of Commerce grapples with role of nonprofts

  18-08-2016 01:41
  
  Whether nonprofit and for-profit businesses should have an equal voice in the Haines Chamber of Commerce has been debated for a while.
  Haines Chamber of Commerce members will vote this week on amended bylaws that would clarify the role of nonprofits. (Bruce Barrett, Flickr Creative Commons)Members will vote this week on amended bylaws that would clarify the role of nonprofits — allowing them to be members and vote, but not to serve on the board.
  Chamber rules currently are unclear about wh
  
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• Decade-old efforts to modify West Glacier Trail enters final phase

  18-08-2016 01:27
  
  The U.S. Forest Service plans to expand parking, extend a trail and improve an outhouse near the West Glacier trailhead.
  Part of the West Glacier Trail. (Photo by Heather Bryant, KTOO – Juneau)The Alaska Department of Transportation recently awarded the Forest Service the $294,000 grant to pay for the improvements.
  The Forest Service’s Ed Grossman, who manages recreation programs in Juneau, said the potential cost for the project could change, depending on contrac
  
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• As wildfires blaze, Southeast glaciers could be feeling the melt

  18-08-2016 00:57
  
  Out on the glimmering white expanse of the Juneau ice field, a group of students and scientists work an assembly line of sorts.
  Shad O’Neel releases an ice core onto a make-shift “work station,” during scientific research on the Juneau ice field. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins, KTOO – Juneau)It begins with Shad O’Neel, a glaciologist with the United States Geological Survey, who twists a metal tube into the snow and ice to take a core sample.
  So you
  
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