Anchorage news

• Salmon are disappearing on the Yukon and Kuskokwim. Here’s what to know about the crisis this summer.

  09-06-2023 03:20 via ktoo.org
  
  A fisherman pulls a chum out of the Yukon with a Kenai-style dip net. Sometimes nontraditional gear types are permitted to allow for the exclusion of chinook. (Kyle Clayton/KYUK)
  People on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers are expecting another dismal year for harvesting salmon, the food that used to fill their smokehouses and freezers. It’s a disaster that repeats annually, felt acutely in the region and accepted elsewhere as the new, bad normal.
  Here’s a primer on the Y-K Delta salmon
  
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• Some Republican states depart, but Alaska will stay with multistate voter fraud prevention network

  09-06-2023 02:02 via ktoo.org
  
  Carol Beecher, the new director of the Alaska Division of Elections, answers questions from reporters on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  The state of Alaska will keep its membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit network that helps states keep track of registered voters and reduce fraud, an official at the Alaska Division of Elections confirmed Wednesday.
  Eight Republican-led states have withdrawn from the multistate partnership, kno
  
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• Newscast – Thursday, June 8, 2023

  09-06-2023 01:33 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/20230608-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:Juneau voters will likely see just one bond proposal on the October ballot
  After a year of tracking birds across the state, biologists announce this year’s first casualty of a wild bird to avian influenza
  Frustration in communities affected by this month’s closure of the Yukon River to salmon fishing
  
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• New City Hall bond proposal likely only one headed for Juneau’s October ballot

  09-06-2023 01:31 via ktoo.org
  
  City Hall doesn’t have enough room to fit all city workers, so the city rents office space next door on South Seward Street. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
  City leaders won’t ask Juneau voters to help pay for upgrades to the Dimond Park Field House – a public indoor track without wheelchair access – through a bond this year. Instead, the Juneau Assembly plans to only ask for city hall funding.
  The Assembly is set to vote on whether to put a $27 million bond for the city hall projec
  
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• Ketchikan’s tribe holds awakening and launch for X’oots kuye’ik canoe

  08-06-2023 23:06 via ktoo.org
  
  
  People work together to carry the canoe from Ketchikan Indian Community’s Tongass Ave. building to the Bar Harbor boat launch on Friday. (Raegan Miller/KRBD)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/07CANOE.mp3
  Pouring rain didn’t stop a special ceremony honoring a one-of-a-kind canoe last week. Tribal members and Ketchikan residents gathered to awaken and launch a canoe designed by a late master carver and artist who called Ketchikan one of his homes.
  Dozens of people shoute
  
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• Juneau water and sewer utility rates will rise in July

  08-06-2023 19:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Juneau’s Mendenhall Wastewater Treatment Facility, photographed on June 7, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
  Juneau’s utility rates are going up next month.
  Water and sewer utility rates will go up 2% on July 1. They’ll go up another 2% in July 2024.
  Water and sewer rates have gone up 2% each year since 2020. The Juneau Assembly approved the increases in 2019 to keep up with inflation. Revenue goes toward operating and maintaining the city’s water and wastewater systems.
  Bill-Pa
  
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• Alaska to launch $5 million state-run reading academy amid skepticism

  08-06-2023 18:55 via ktoo.org
  
  The library at Klatt Elementary on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes/ADN)
  The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is set to launch a new reading instruction center for students and teachers amid concern from some lawmakers that the program appears ill-equipped to meet the needs of the students least likely to achieve reading proficiency.
  The budget recently approved by the Legislature includes $5 million for the launch of a reading academy requested by Gov. Mik
  
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• Avian influenza has returned to Alaska, and so have health advisories

  08-06-2023 18:22 via ktoo.org
  
  A bald eagle is seen on Feb. 6, 2018, perched in a tree in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Bald eagles are near the top of the list of bird species in Alaska that have been killed by the currently circulating strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
  Migrating birds have returned to Alaska, and so has the highly pathogenic avian influenza that began to sweep through global bird populations in 2020.
  That means Alaskans should continue t
  
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• June 7, 2023: Chef’s Halo Halo Talk; Juneau Pride Events; Moananuiākea

  08-06-2023 04:35 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The Hōkūle‘a docked in Hoonah on June 1, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Carter Johnson)June 7, 2023 — Full EpisodeOn today’s program:Chef’s Halo Halo Talk with Tasha ElizardeCo-owners of Zerelda’s Bistro Abby LaForce Barnett and Jeremy BarnettSEAGLA and Juneau’s upcoming Pride Week events as part of Pride MonthSEAGLA’s Pride Week is June 9-18Pride Month is the entire month of June, and there are events all over Juneau all month long, includ
  
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• Newcast – Wednesday, June 7, 2023

  08-06-2023 02:59 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1648-vt-3.mp3
  In this newscast:MIT teamed up with Coastal Helicopter and Juneau Ice Research Program to pull off a high-stakes drop for future seismometer research,
  Those who own short-term rentals may soon have to register them with the city,
  Weaver Anna Ehlers, a Juneau elder, received Doctorate of Fine Arts from UAS
  
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• A high-stakes egg drop onto the Juneau Icefield could lead to better monitoring of Antarctic ice

  08-06-2023 01:51 via ktoo.org
  
  The “ice penetrator,” developed by researchers at MIT”s Haystack Observatory, was dropped from 5,000 feet above the Juneau Ice Field (Photo courtesy of Chester Ruszczyk, Jeff Hoffman, and Parker Steen of MIT)
  Earlier this month, engineers from MIT teamed up with Coastal Helicopter and the Juneau Ice Research Program to pull off a high-stakes egg drop. It’s just like the ones you did in school, except the egg is a very fragile, very expensive seismometer. And the drop poin
  
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• Juneau Assembly to consider registration program for short-term rentals

  07-06-2023 22:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Homes in downtown Juneau, photographed on June 6, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
  Juneau residents who run short-term rentals may soon have to register their businesses with the city.
  It would be a first step toward regulating short-term rentals, like those listed on AirBnB or VRBO.Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said a registration program would help the city collect sales tax and track how many units an owner or property manager is operating.
  “That enables us to have a more comprehensive unde
  
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• Alaska Zoo nears capacity for orphaned animals

  07-06-2023 20:36 via ktoo.org
  
  Gator, a very talkative bear cub from Hood Bay, asks for snacks. Monday, June 5, 2023. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  The Alaska Zoo is nearly at capacity for housing orphaned animals. In late May, the zoo welcomed a very talkative brown bear cub nicknamed Gator from Hood Bay, near Angoon. Six moose calves followed soon after, each nicknamed after Australian wildlife: Kangaroo, Mouse, Wombat, Echidna, Emu and Wallaby.
  “From this time on up through July is when we’re usually busie
  
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• A study to monitor the potentially imperiled Aleutian tern kicks off in Alaska

  07-06-2023 20:25 via ktoo.org
  
  Blacksand Spit in Yakutat on June 3, 2023. It’s home to the largest nesting colony of Aleutian terns in Alaska. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
  On Saturday, a group of ten kayakers set out from Strawberry Point in Yakutat for a grassy, log strewn spit of sand known as Blacksand Spit. Most of them were birders, and most were visiting from other parts of the state or the country to see the uncommon Aleutian tern, a seabird species known for its long migration and potential decline in the las
  
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• Sky-high egg prices are finally coming back down to earth

  07-06-2023 19:59 via ktoo.org
  
  Eggs are on display at a Sprouts grocery store on April 12 in San Rafael, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
  Egg prices soared in recent months, driving up grocery bills for many Americans, but buyers can see the sunny side now that the cost of a dozen eggs is dropping in stores across the country.
  The spike in egg prices was caused by a number of factors, including an avian flu outbreak that affected tens of millions of birds across the country.
  But the bird flu outbreak has eased, inflation
  
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• Saudi Arabia’s oil production cut could affect Alaska’s state finances

  07-06-2023 19:40 via ktoo.org
  
  An above-ground section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System near the Toolik Field Station in the North Slope Borough. (Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  Alaska’s state budget for the next fiscal year hasn’t even been signed into law yet, but its expectations for oil revenue may already be out of date.
  On Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised its estimates for oil prices in the second half of this year and in 2024. The revised estimate came t
  
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• Bethel residents hunt for fiddleheads, before fronds unfurl

  07-06-2023 19:28 via ktoo.org
  
  Participants in the Finding Fiddleheads Ethnobotany Walk hosted by the Kuskokwim Consortium Library show off their harvest on Thursday, June 1, 2023. (Evan Erickson/KYUK)
  Among the many harvestable wild foods on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, fiddlehead ferns are revered for their nutritional value and taste. Before fern fronds have unfurled, they peek out from the previous fall’s decay in tight coils to greet the coming of spring. This short period is when the harvest takes place, and 20 or s
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, June 6, 2023

  07-06-2023 02:04 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1648-vt-2.mp3
  In this newscast:Almost 50 red dresses that were symbols of missing and murdered Indigenous women have disappeared in Ketchikan,
  The federal government announced Thursday that it plans to help identify areas of Alaska state waters best suited for mariculture,
  Two people remain missing after a charter vessel capsized near Sitka over Memorial Day weekend,
  A plan to map the seafloor of the entire planet will see researchers operating
  
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• Homer biologists grab 3 more of Grubby’s offspring as search for opossum posse continues

  06-06-2023 23:31 via ktoo.org
  
  A young male opossum among the offspring of Grubby the opossum, captured in Homer on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Jason Herreman/ADFG)
  State biologists are continuing their efforts in Homer to catch offspring of Grubby the opossum, with three more members of her litter captured as of Tuesday.
  The now-infamous Grubby, an opossum from Washington that made its way to Homer in a shipping container, was caught late last month and sent to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage.
  But to th
  
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• Juneau voters may have another chance to vote on funding a new city hall

  06-06-2023 22:45 via ktoo.org
  
  Paint cracks and window frames rot outside Juneau’s City Hall on May 22, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
  The Juneau Assembly is one step closer to putting a new city hall bond on the October ballot.
  At a meeting Monday night, Assembly members expressed support for a $27 million bond proposal. Voters narrowly rejected last year’s proposal for a $35 million bond.
  “We did not, I think, put our best foot forward last year when we did not appropriate funds to advocate for the project,&rd
  
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• Alaska’s spring was colder than average, while other places baked

  06-06-2023 18:46 via ktoo.org
  
  
  A dog named Theo, who is oblivious to the existential threat posed by climate warming, chews a stick near Eagle River, where snow lingered at the end of April. (Casey Grove/Alaska Public Media)
  Well, if you’ve been grumbling about it feeling cooler than usual in Alaska this spring, you’re right.
  Lingering snow and cloudy days resulted in temperatures about 3.5 degrees below average, statewide, from March through May.
  National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider &m
  
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• Garments taken from Ketchikan memorial for missing and murdered Indigenous people

  06-06-2023 18:38 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Red clothes hang after being recovered and cleaned from around the Ward Lake trail. (Photo courtesy of Mark Flora)
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/05RedDresses.mp3
  During most of May, dozens of red garments — some trailing adult-sized gowns, some child-sized frilly frocks — swayed from trees all around Ward Lake last month. They were a tangible reminder of real lives lost — each one representing Indigenous people who were murdered or are still missing.
  It
  
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• Complaint against Juneau Fred Meyer will be heard this fall by state human rights commission

  06-06-2023 03:24 via ktoo.org
  
  A sign saying tribal IDs aren’t accepted for tobacco purchases at Fred Meyers in Juneau in 2020. (Photo courtesy of Jamiann S’eitlin Hasselquist)
  The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has scheduled a public hearing for a complaint regarding the use of tribal IDs at a Juneau grocery store. 
  The issue relates to a 2020 incident when a sign posted at Juneau’s Fred Meyer stated that tribal IDs would not be accepted for tobacco sales. Another sign allegedly posted around
  
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• Newscast – Monday, June 5, 2023

  06-06-2023 03:02 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1648-vt-1.mp3
  In this newscast:Nearly 70 passengers were evacuated from a small cruise ship in Glacier Bay National  Park this morning,
  The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has scheduled a public hearing for a human rights complaint regarding the use of tribal IDs at Fred Meyer in Juneau,
  A four-year voyage across the world starts in Juneau this month, and KTOO spoke with Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society
  
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• Passengers evacuated after fire breaks out on cruise ship in Glacier Bay

  06-06-2023 01:59 via ktoo.org
  
  The Wilderness Discoverer sailing in November 2022 (Photo Courtesy of UnCruise Adventures)
  Nearly 70 passengers were evacuated from a small cruise ship on Monday morning after an engine room fire disabled UnCruise’s Wilderness Discoverer in Glacier Bay.The fire was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard around 7:30 a.m.
  “By the time we got there, they had put the fire out,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Ian Gray said. “All of the passengers were taken off and were in good health.&r
  
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• Dunleavy says Alaska can boost fossil fuels and renewables. Clean energy advocates disagree.

  06-06-2023 00:02 via ktoo.org
  
  Wind turbines in Wales, Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Center for Energy and Power)
  Standing in front of a crowd of energy experts and industry leaders in Anchorage last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy outlined his vision for Alaska’s energy policy.
  “When we talk about energy, for Alaska, it is going to be all-in,” Dunleavy told the audience at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, which his administration helped organize.
  Alaska is an oil and gas state, Dunleavy said, but it c
  
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• As 3 seasons of bridge work loom, Denali managers and tourist industry adjust

  05-06-2023 20:04 via ktoo.org
  
  The landslide at Pretty Rocks, at about the halfway point of the Denali National Park road, is seen on May 5. The project to install a new bridge that will allow the road to reopen is challenging because of geologic and logistical complexities, which include ice-rich permafrost, a band of difficult clay and overall remoteness, The expected completion is now midsummer of 2026, pushed back from an earlier esimate of 2025. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
  By midsummer in 2026, visitors will li
  
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• NOAA offers reward for info on shooting of 7 sea lions near Cordova

  05-06-2023 18:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Group of eastern Steller sea lions, taken during research conducted by Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 2007. (Photo by Jamie King/ADFG)
  Seven Steller sea lions were shot near Cordova last month, and investigators are offering a reward for information that could lead to the shooter.
  A statement from NOAA fisheries said the sea lions were discovered in the Copper River Delta near Cordova on May 16, by members of the agency’s protected resources division. The Copper River comm
  
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• Anchorage now has the third busiest cargo airport in the world, with plans for growth

  05-06-2023 18:46 via ktoo.org
  
  Cargolux Airlines International S.A., a Luxembourg cargo carrier, deplanes at Ted Stevens International Airport on May 16, 2023. (Mizelle Mayo/Alaska Public Media)
  To explain why Anchorage International Airport gets so much cargo traffic, Airport Director Craig Campbell picked up a decorative globe he keeps on his desk.
  He pointed to the major exporters in Asia, then dragged his finger across the Pacific Ocean to the big U.S. hub cities where the imported goods are distributed. The virtual halfw
  
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• Here’s what passed and what didn’t in Alaska’s legislative session

  05-06-2023 18:33 via ktoo.org
  
  Flowers bloom in front of the Alaska Capitol on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  Alaska’s legislative session ended last month, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has yet to consider most of the 31 bills passed by both House and Senate this spring.
  The Legislature’s 31 bills are the third-fewest of any first-year session since statehood. Only 2017 (26 bills) and 2019 (29 bills) had fewer.
  It isn’t clear which, if any, bills Dunleavy will veto. He alr
  
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• Hilcorp fined again for deviating from permit at Milne Point

  05-06-2023 18:25 via ktoo.org
  
  (Hannah Lies/Alaska Public Media)
  A state regulatory agency has fined Hilcorp $267,000 for making unauthorized equipment changes at Milne Point, one of its North Slope oil fields.
  The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission order says that Hilcorp’s drilling permit for a well called I-27 allowed for the use of an electrical submersible pump. An investigation later revealed the company had substituted a jet pump without notifying the agency of the change.
  The order says Hilcorp
  
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• 3 found dead on boat anchored off Sandy Beach in Juneau

  04-06-2023 00:50 via ktoo.org
  
  The Dusky Rock (left, front) at Aurora Harbor, where it was towed Friday evening. Juneau police say Curtis Anderson, 51, was found dead on the boat Wednesday, then two unidentified women were found dead on the boat Friday. (Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
  Juneau police say three people were found dead on the Dusky Rock, a boat that had been anchored off Sandy Beach this past week. The first body was found on Wednesday afternoon; the other two were found on Friday evening.
  In a news release, police said the
  
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• Hawaiian voyaging canoe’s latest journey starts in Alaska: ‘The ocean is what connects us’

  03-06-2023 01:08 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The Hōkūle‘a docked in Hoonah on June 1, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Carter Johnson)
  A four-year voyage across the world starts in Juneau this month. The Polynesian Voyaging Society will take the Hōkūle‘a — a double-hulled, wind-powered canoe that was carved 50 years ago and has embarked on 14 voyages since  — over 40,000 miles around the globe.
  The journey is called Moananuiākea, and the crew’s goal is to learn about land stewardship and
  
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• Newscast – Friday, June 2, 2023

  03-06-2023 00:37 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/20230602-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:Alaska State Troopers recover the bodies of two of the five victims of a charter boat sinking in Sitka
  New details about the 2017 killing of Ketchikan surgeon Eric Garcia
  Vera Starbard supports the nationwide writers’ strike by hanging banners from her Douglas home
  
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• Grubby’s son captured as Homer faces growing opossum oproblem

  02-06-2023 22:59 via ktoo.org
  
  A male opossum captured near Homer City Hall on Thursday. Biologists say it’s a descendant of Grubby, a female opossum captured the month before by Homer police. (Jason Herreman/ADFG)
  It turns out that Grubby the opossum — who hitched a ride to Alaska in a shipping container in March — had babies.
  State biologists say they captured a male opossum Thursday near Homer City Hall. The opossum, one of Grubby’s offspring, appears to be two to three months old. They’re now
  
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• Anchorage charity under investigation after city gave it a big pandemic recovery grant

  02-06-2023 21:58 via ktoo.org
  
  A small group of Anchorage Assembly members and the news media gather for a press conference outside Anchorage City Hall on April 19, 2023. (Jeremy Hsieh/Alaska Public Media)
  Federal investigators are looking into the business dealings of an Anchorage woman whose charity the city gave $1.6 million during the coronavirus pandemic to help people experiencing homelessness or addiction.
  That’s according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica, who found the city gave one o
  
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• Washington man found guilty of Ketchikan surgeon’s 2017 murder

  02-06-2023 19:07 via ktoo.org
  
  Jordan Joplin leaves a Ketchikan courtroom Wednesday following a hearing. (KRBD photo by Leila Kheiry)
  An Anchorage jury has found a Washington man guilty in the 2017 killing of his friend and romantic partner, a prominent Ketchikan surgeon.
  Jordan Joplin, 38, was found guilty of first- and second-degree murder and first-degree theft. Ketchikan police found Dr. Eric Garcia, 58, dead at his home in March of 2017, after Joplin called asking for a welfare check.
  Patty Sullivan, a spokesperson
  
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• Sullivan votes against lifting debt ceiling, saying the bill didn’t have enough money for military

  02-06-2023 18:52 via ktoo.org
  
  Sen. Dan Sullivan in Anchorage in July 2021. (Photo by Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
  The U.S. Senate passed a bill to avoid defaulting on the federal debt Thursday night, on a 63-36 vote. But it stalled for a few hours when a group of senators, including Alaska’s Dan Sullivan, argued the bipartisan agreement doesn’t spend enough on the military.
  Sullivan said these are dangerous times.
  “Authoritarian dictators with immense appetite for conquests are on the march. And
  
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• Juneau writer Vera Starbard weighs in on Writers Guild strike

  02-06-2023 18:47 via ktoo.org
  
  Juneau-based writer Vera Starbard poses on her deck overlooking the Gastineau Channel with the banners she printed to show support for the Writers Guild of America strike. (Photo courtesy of Vera Starbard)
  Alaska writer Vera Starbard recently hung banners from the deck of her Douglas home in support of the nationwide writers’ strike.
  Starbard, a member of the Writers Guild of America union, has written for the PBS Kids show “Molly of Denali” and the recently canceled ABC drama
  
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• State roughly halves the number of Alaskans waiting on food aid, but more than 8,000 remain

  02-06-2023 18:34 via ktoo.org
  
  Bulk food in Food Bank of Alaska’s Anchorage warehouse on April 21, 2023. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
  Mary Wood has been waiting for food stamps since she filed a renewal application in August. She takes care of three of her grandsons intermittently, and qualified for more than $800 a month in benefits.
  “Around Christmas it was really hell,” she said. “I told my landlord, ‘I don’t have any money to give you. I can’t even buy the kids present
  
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• Troopers identify victims, recover 2 more bodies from Sitka charter boat sinking

  02-06-2023 18:25 via ktoo.org
  
  Morgan Robidou poses with his boat in October, 2022. Robidou and one of his passengers, 61-year old Robert Solis, still remain missing following the accident on May 28, 2023. (Facebook image)
  Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday recovered the bodies of two of the five victims of last Sunday’s charter boat sinking in Sitka.
  One passenger and the boat’s captain have yet to be found.
  The victims identified by troopers on Wednesday evening are 53-year old Danielle Agcaoili and her sis
  
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• Newscast – Thursday, June 1, 2023

  02-06-2023 02:41 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1648-vt.mp3
  In this newscast:For retiring teachers, principles, and other school staff in Juneau, the end of this school year is especially bittersweet,
  A team of researchers have introduced a new environmental sensor that translates weather data from across Southeast Alaska into music, and it will be used to help students and community members in Sitka and Hoonah hear their changing environment,
  The 750-mile Race to Alaska starts Monday. It goe
  
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• Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy appoints figure behind illegal loyalty-pledge scheme to university board

  01-06-2023 23:06 via ktoo.org
  
  A statue of Charles Bunnell, the first president of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, as the University of Alaska Fairbanks was once known, is seen on Sept. 18 on the UAF campus. An administrative order issued by Gov. Mike Dunleavy removes college-degree requirements for most state jobs. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
  Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed Tuckerman Babcock, a longtime Republican and former aide, to the University of Alaska Board of Regents. Babcock, together
  
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• Across Canada, tens of thousands have evacuated due to wildfires in recent weeks

  01-06-2023 18:11 via ktoo.org
  
  A burnt landscape caused by wildfires is pictured near Entrance, Wild Hay area, Alberta, Canada on May 10, 2023. Canada struggled on May 8, 2023, to control wildfires that have forced thousands to flee, halted oil production and razed towns, with the western province of Alberta calling for federal help. (MEGAN ALBU/AFP via Getty Images)
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230531_atc_across_canada_tens_of_thousands_have_evacuated_due_to_wildfires_in_recent_weeks.mp3
  Copyright 202
  
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• A large fish that fills freezers in Northwest Alaska could be in danger

  01-06-2023 18:01 via ktoo.org
  
  Siikauraq Martha Whiting ice fishing for sheefish. (Katrina Liebich/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
  Lance Kramer describes himself as an avid outdoorsman. The 52-year old loves traditional methods of hunting, fishing and trapping. His home is right next to the ice where many Kotzebue residents fish for sheefish. It gives him a bird’s-eye view to gauge when the fish are coming in.
  “I get to watch every day, you know, out my window,” Kramer said. “My barometer is binoculars
  
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• Passenger plane escapes damage from bird strike at Skagway airport

  01-06-2023 17:51 via ktoo.org
  
  An Alaska Seaplanes Cessna 208. (Courtesy of Alaska Seaplanes)
  A passenger plane collided with birds at the Skagway airport on Friday. The plane landed safely and no human was hurt.
  Everything was normal until the end of the flight. The Cessna Caravan from Alaska Seaplanes was approaching the runway, when the pilot noticed a bird near the wing.
  “When they went down to the end of the runway, they found five birds that were killed,” said Andy Kline, the marketing director at Alaska Sea
  
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• Can tribes win alone?

  01-06-2023 17:28 via ktoo.org
  
  Audience watches a dance group perform at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention at the Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Oct. 2018 (Photo from video by Joaqlin Estus, ICT)
  “The foundation of the Alaska Federation of Natives is our people,” said the statewide organization’s President and CEO Julie Kitka, Chugach Eskimo, after a quarterly meeting of the organization’s board held on May 15. Her comment focused on the theme of this fall’s annu
  
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• Alaska Airlines asks federal judge to dismiss mask lawsuit brought by former senator

  01-06-2023 03:52 via ktoo.org
  
  Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, speaks Tuesday, May 10, 2022 on the floor of the Alaska Senate at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska. (James Brooks / Alaska Beacon)
  Alaska’s leading airline has responded to a lawsuit from a former state senator, saying the legal claim “contains multiple deficiencies,” and asked a federal judge in Anchorage to dismiss it.
  Former state Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, sued Alaska Airlines in April, saying the airline violated her con
  
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• Turning weather data into music could help Southeast Alaska students hear their changing environment

  01-06-2023 03:33 via ktoo.org
  
  Rainbow near the Wrangell Narrows. (Photo by Angela Denning/CoastAlaska)
  Imagine the sound of wind chimes. It’s pretty — but it’s more than that.
  “The wind chime is a really interesting translation, and musicification or a sonification of an unseen environmental phenomenon,” said University of Oregon researcher Chet Udell. “It’s giving me information that could be useful if I’m curious about how windy it is outside. And it also is aesthetically ple
  
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• Newscast – Wednesday, May 31, 2023

  01-06-2023 02:42 via ktoo.org
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-13.mp3
  In this newscast:The rate of deaths due to drinking alcohol nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 in Alaska,
  Governor Mike Dunleavy’s new pro-family policy adviser resigned yesterday as reporters prepared to publish an investigation exposing his extreme and disturbing views
  
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