Alaska news

• Ask a Climatologist: River breakup is all about spring temps

  13-04-2017 21:23
  
  The Nenana Ice Classic Tripod in 2009. (Photo by James Brooks/Flickr Creative Commons)The National Weather Service issued its annual river breakup forecast this week. The forecast calls for a relatively mild breakup arriving about on schedule across Alaska. But what factors determine the timing and severity how it plays out? We put that question to climatologist Brian Brettschneider.
  Brettschneider said snow pack in Feb. and March generally has almost no bearing on river breakup. Instead, it&rsq
  
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• Appointment of transgender man irks conservative Alaska lawmakers - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  13-04-2017 18:07
  
  Appointment of transgender man irks conservative Alaska lawmakers
  Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
  Welcome! We hope you enjoy our content and decide to subscribe for full access. Visit newsminer.com/subscribe or call 907-456-6661. JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker's appointment of a transgender man to the state human rights ...and more »
  
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• Governor says Alaska LNG is on world leaders' radars as he pursues partners - Alaska Dispatch News

  13-04-2017 04:20
  
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Governor says Alaska LNG is on world leaders' radars as he pursues partners
  Alaska Dispatch News
  Gov. Bill Walker continues to court world leaders to win their support for Alaska's giant gas-export project, saying Tuesday he personally put in a plug with President Donald Trump and is now trying to meet with Japan's prime minister, following recent ...
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, April 12, 2017

  13-04-2017 04:18
  
  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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  Concern for seniors as pioneer homes caught in budget battle
  Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
  Residents and staff at the Palmer and Juneau pioneer homes, the state-run senior-care facilities, have been put on notice that a budget battle in the Alaska legislature is threatening to displace them
  
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• AEDC pushes Anchorage utilities to merge

  13-04-2017 04:05
  
  A policy group in Anchorage is pushing for the city’s two main electrical utility companies to merge.
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  In a letter sent Wednesday to city leaders, the director of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, Bill Popp, wrote that a recently convened working group concluded that stakeholders should seriously consider merging Municipal Light and Power with the Chugach Electric Association.
  The working group is made up of ten local businesses and organizations, many of
  
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• Human Rights Commission appointment draws conservative ire

  13-04-2017 03:35
  
  Drew Phoenix in 2012. Gov. Bill Walker appointed him to the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights. (Photo by Daysha Eaton, KSKA)The Senate voted Wednesday to delay a joint session on whether to confirm Gov. Bill Walker’s appointments.
  Listen now
  When the hearing does happen, one of Walker’s appointments to the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights potentially faces a close vote.
  Conservative lawmakers are raising questions about the appointment of Fairbanks resident Drew P
  
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• Tlingit and Haida students in Arkansas help archive Jeanie Greene videos

  13-04-2017 03:32
  
  Student Heidi Davis works on digitizing photos of the Jeanie Greene collection on Alaska Natives at the Sequoyah National Research Center.(Courtesy of Erin Fehr)Little Rock, Arkansas– it’s probably not the first place you’d imagine preserving Alaska Native history, but the Sequoyah National Research Center is doing just that. A team of archivists with ties to the state are cataloging over a thousand video tapes that showcase Alaska Native life.
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  On the corner of Arche
  
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• Ice road from Kotzebue to Noorvik and Kiana closes

  13-04-2017 03:28
  After being open for a record high amount of consecutive days -around three weeks- the ice road that spans from Kotzebue to Noorvik and Kiana is closed. After a snow storm Sunday night (April 9th), several Kotzebue residents found their vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
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  On a trip to Noorvik, Kotzebue resident Robin Gage’s wife, Frances, was stopped right outside of Noorvik after trying to get home.
  Gage, who had snowmachined out to the road, describes the terrain as curren
  
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• Resolution could save Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center

  13-04-2017 03:23
  
  Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center. (Photo Courtesy of University of Alaska)Programs around the state have been under threat of closure due to budget issues, and in the City of Kodiak, the future of one seafood research and training center has also been uncertain. But that may change if a resolution to save the center passes.
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  The Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, which opened in 1981 as the Fishery Industrial Technology Center, boasts laboratories, classroom areas, and a
  
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• Long line for first legal cannabis sales in Ketchikan

  13-04-2017 03:20
  
  A jar of marijuana buds is seen at the Stoney Moose. (KRBD photo by Leila Kheiry)Ketchikan’s first marijuana retail store opened its doors to customers at about 4:30 p.m. Monday, which was a few days later than originally planned. But, the 50-plus people in line were happy to buy legal cannabis for the first time in Alaska’s First City.
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  The stated opening time for the Stoney Moose on Stedman Street was 4 p.m., and the first couple of people in line were there by 3:00. Nich
  
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• Rep. Young wants feds to lay off medical marijuana prosecution

  13-04-2017 03:12
  
  U.S. Rep. Don Young. (Photo by Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage)Alaska Congressman Don Young is among 43 U.S. House members asking that Congress prevent the Justice Department from pursuing federal drug cases against people who are complying with their state’s medical marijuana laws.
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  Young and his colleagues have written the leaders of the subcommittee that writes the Justice Department’s budget. They want the appropriations bill to say that none of the
  
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• State TB rate dips but remains among the highest

  13-04-2017 02:59
  
  Medial illustration of tuberculosis by CDC.The state Department of Health said 57 cases of tuberculosis were reported in Alaska in 2016. That’s a moderate decrease from the prior year, but Alaska continues to have among the highest rates of tuberculosis in the United States, more than double the national average.
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  Anchorage Medical Officer Bruce Chandler said the high rate is to be expected, given Alaska’s history of the disease.
  “We continue to see cases crop up both
  
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• Search continues into its third week for missing Newtok seal hunter

  13-04-2017 02:57
  
  Newtok, Alaska (Google Maps Screenshot)Searchers continue to look for a seal hunter who went missing off the coast of Newtok last month.
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  18 miles west of Newtok, an Arctic Cat snowmachine sits by the shore. Two tents sit beside it: one for storing equipment and the other for searchers to sleep in.
  The snowmachine belongs to 59-year-old Tom John, who was last seen leaving Newtok for a seal hunt on March 26. He was towing his new red and yellow, fiberglass, single-person kayak.
  Nei
  
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• Concern for seniors as pioneer homes caught in budget battle

  13-04-2017 02:53
  
  Residents and staff at the Palmer and Juneau pioneer homes, the state-run senior-care facilities, have been put on notice that a budget battle in the Alaska legislature is threatening to displace them.
  Listen now
  The budget is far from complete, and some legislators say the governor and state officials are passing blame for the cuts and resorting to scaring the elderly to get their way.
  The state said that blame lies squarely with legislators.
  Meantime, the fight over Alaska’s budget is li
  
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• On the water: One harvester’s hope for herring eggs

  13-04-2017 00:35
  
  Leonty Williams grew up harvesting herring eggs. He says subsistence is in his blood. (Emily Russell/KCAW)Every spring millions of herring return to spawn in Sitka Sound. The small, silvery fish are prized by commercial fishermen. They sell them for their eggs, known as herring roe. Those eggs are also coveted by the Tlingit people, who harvest them by anchoring hemlock branches in shallow waters where herring spawn.
  But now many are saying the herring is being threatened, some say by environmen
  
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