Anchorage news

• Troopers rescue man who wanted to build wilderness cabin

  01-07-2016 23:38 via ktoo.org
  
  An Alaska State Trooper in a floatplane rescued a 29-year-old New York City man who set out to build a cabin and live in the wilderness.Vladimir Yakushin was picked up Wednesday on the north fork of the Kuskokwim River about 120 river miles northeast of McGrath.
  Troopers described him as low on food and distraught.
  Yakushin had been dropped off nine days earlier at a lake.
  He told troopers he concluded he was not equipped to build a cabin or remain in the area.
  A friend he expected to meet did n
  
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• Bicyclist struck, killed on Sterling Highway near Soldotna

  01-07-2016 23:01 via ktoo.org
  
  A Soldotna woman riding a bicycle died Thursday afternoon when she was struck by a truck on the Sterling Highway.Alaska State Troopers said 50-year-old Vanessa Wilkes was struck by a one-ton commercial pickup driven by 40-year-old Charles Kuntz of Nikiski.
  Wilkes was riding along Mile 91.5 about 3 miles east of Soldotna.
  Troopers said she swerved into a lane of traffic and was struck by the truck.
  Troopers took a call on the crash just after 4 p.m.
  Medics pronounced Wilkes dead at the
  
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• Old boat now on display at Kenai Visitors Center

  01-07-2016 22:57 via ktoo.org
  
  A fishing boat that’s been on the water for nearly 90 years has found a permanent home on display in front of the Kenai Visitors Center.The Peninsula Clarion reports that the owners of the wooden boat, Dave and Linda Hutchings, have donated it to the Kenai Historical Society. It was brought to the center from their home on Sport Lake last week.
  The boat, built in 1929, has had several owners of the years. Brian Johanson said his father purchased it in 1955 and used it to fish Coo
  
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• Woman found dead in crashed car had been shot, beaten

  01-07-2016 22:51 via ktoo.org
  
  The body of a woman found in a car that crashed Monday night on a busy Anchorage street showed signs of mutilation.The body of 30-year-old Jacqueline Goodwin was covered with a plastic bag and zip ties had been placed around her wrists.
  Anchorage television station KTUU reports the information was revealed in murder charges filed against the driver of the car, 34-year-old Benjamin Wilkins.
  He was arrested after his car crashed into a light pole on Debarr Road near Alaska Regional Hospital.
  The s
  
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• Focus on Community – Juneau Re-Entry Coalition

  01-07-2016 21:12 via ktoo.org
  
  The 6/27 Focus on Community featured the co-chairs and community coordinator for the Juneau Reentry Coalition (JREC), a coalition of community members, organizations, agencies, and formerly incarcerated individuals. We’ll be talking about what the coalition is up to, progress being made since its inception three years ago, what is reentry, the criminal justice reform efforts passed by the legislature this year, the community assessment JREC is working on, short term and long term goals.
  Mo
  
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• Biden: Bernie Sanders Is ‘Going To Endorse’ Hillary Clinton

  01-07-2016 03:50 via ktoo.org
  
  “You’re putting your rep on the line you’re saying I think this person has character and that’s what I’m prepared to do for Hillary,” Vice President Joe Biden told NPR.
  Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
  Updated at 8:40 p.m. ET
  Vice President Joe Biden is confident that Bernie Sanders is going to endorse Hillary Clinton and that the Democratic party will unify.
  “Oh, I’ve talked to Bernie, Bernie’s going to endorse her, this is going to work out,” B
  
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• Bipartisan Disapproval Follows Bill Clinton’s Meeting With Loretta Lynch

  01-07-2016 03:49 via ktoo.org
  
  Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she discussed family, golf and travel with Bill Clinton — not ongoing Justice Department investigations.
  Drew Angerer/Getty Images
  A strange thing is uniting Democrats and Republicans in Washington: the widespread disapproval of a meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in Arizona.
  Lynch told reporters that the impromptu conversation on her government aircraft in Phoenix on Monday centered on
  
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• How Therapy Became A Hobby Of The Wealthy, Out Of Reach For Those In Need

  01-07-2016 03:47 via ktoo.org
  
  When mental health professionals don’t take insurance, only the wealthy can afford their help.
  Joe Houghton/Getty Images
  There’s something that really bothers Stanford psychiatry professor Keith Humphreys. When he thinks of all the years he has spent training the next generation of psychiatrists, the enormous investment in medical school and residency, he wants those doctors to devote that education to taking care of people with serious mental illness.
  But, he says, many of them inst
  
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• JPD and RCMP officers to march in sister cities’ parades

  01-07-2016 03:38 via ktoo.org
  
  Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers lead the Canada Day Parade in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, July 1, 2006. (Creative Commons photo by G MacRae)
  A cadre of Juneau police officers were northbound Thursday to march in a Canada Day celebration in Whitehorse on Friday.
  “To my knowledge, that’s the first time that’s happened,” said Susan Baxter, co-chair of Juneau’s Sister Cities Committee.
  And for the second year in a row, our city sister in the Yukon is sendi
  
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• Missile Defense Agency contracts Kodiak launch facility

  01-07-2016 03:37 via ktoo.org
  
  A rocket takes off from the from the Kodiak launch facility. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Aerospace Corporation)
  The Missile Defense Agency is bringing some business to Kodiak’s space launch facility. The MDA announced Thursday it is awarding a sole-source contract to the Alaska Aerospace Corporation that could be worth as much as $80 million over the next six years.
  U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the contract will require new construction at the
  
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• Unalaska considers dredging entrance channel for larger ships

  01-07-2016 03:36 via ktoo.org
  
  From the top of Mt. Newhall in Unalaska. (Creative Commons photo by Tom Doyle)
  The City of Unalaska is looking to welcome larger vessels and ensure smoother passage for ships already cruising through. At a meeting Tuesday night, the City Council approved an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to dredge the entrance channel of Unalaska Bay.
  Mayor Shirley Marquardt said that’ll stop the recurring problem of ships scraping against a sandbar or being blocked entirely. In th
  
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• Observing the fast of Ramadan in the land of the midnight sun

  01-07-2016 03:36 via ktoo.org
  
  Women pray at the masjid in Anchorage. (Photo by Anne Hillman/KSKA)
  The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sun up until sun down, is drawing to a close. Since Islam follows the lunar calendar, the dates of the fast change every year. This time around, it falls on the longest days of summer in Alaska, when the sun hardly sets. But for some local Muslims, that’s not the obstacle they worry about.
  As soon as the call to prayer begins at the masjid, or mosque, in Anchorage, F
  
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• Kenai assemblyman drops proposed ordinance to remove prayer from meetings

  01-07-2016 03:36 via ktoo.org
  
  An ordinance that would have removed the invocation, or prayer, from the start of Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meetings proved to be such a hot topic that it was dropped before even being officially taken up.
  Assembly President Blaine Gilman said he proposed the ordinance in response to recent complaints from members of the public that prayer as part of a public meeting was inappropriate. And also that the invocation, as practiced, seemed exclusionary to non-Judeo-Christian faiths, since tha
  
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• Forest Service moves forward with Tongass second-growth transition

  01-07-2016 03:36 via ktoo.org
  
  A Tongass National Forest clearcut is shown in this 2014 aerial view. A new court decision limits logging on roadless areas of the forest. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)
  The U.S. Forest Service moved forward Thursday with plans to transition to second-growth harvest on the Tongass National Forest within 16 years. The draft record of decision represents a compromise that won’t leave anyone completely happy.
  Tongass Forest Supervisor Earl Stewart has chosen Alternative 5 for the p
  
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• Driver dies, passenger injured in Ketchikan traffic crash

  01-07-2016 02:32 via ktoo.org
  
  A Ketchikan woman died Wednesday night in a one-car crash on the south Tongass Highway.
  Alaska State Troopers say 43-year-old Verna Edenshaw was behind the wheel of a vehicle that rolled at Mile 5.
  Troopers took a call on the crash at 10:40 p.m.
  Five others were in the vehicle.
  Troopers say 26-year-old Melissa Williams of Saxon was seriously injured. She was flown to an Anchorage hospital for treatment.
  The remaining four passengers were evaluated at PeaceHealth Medical Center in Ketchikan.
  
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• Helicopter, ground search continues for missing Nome man

  01-07-2016 02:31 via ktoo.org
  
  A search will continue Thursday for a man missing out of Nome.
  Ground and air teams are looking for 36-year-old Joseph Balderas, who on Monday failed to show up for his job as a law clerk in the Nome court.
  Balderas’ vehicle was found along the Nome-Council Highway and Alaska State Troopers say he may have been running or hiking off the roadway.
  A chartered helicopter and a National Park Service airplane searched Wednesday.
  They were joined by three search dog teams from Fairbanks and two
  
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• Ketchikan dock repairs complete after cruise ship crash

  01-07-2016 02:30 via ktoo.org
  
  Repairs to a Ketchikan dock that was damaged in early June by a cruise ship have been completed ahead of schedule.
  The Ketchikan Daily News reports that Anchorage-based Turnagain Marine Construction was awarded the $928,000 contract for repairs at Berth 3, which was left unusable after the June 3 accident. Work was completed Tuesday and the berth was able to receive cruise ships starting Wednesday.
  The cruise ship Celebrity Infinity scraped along part of the berth when it attempted to dock on Ju
  
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• Anchorage’s aims to be more innovative with new hire

  01-07-2016 02:30 via ktoo.org
  
  The city of Anchorage is investing in a new approach to technology in an effort to better serve its citizens.
  The Alaska Public Radio Network reports that the city has hired its first chief innovation officer. Brendan Babb, who filled the newly created position last month, is charged with creating innovative ways to use technology and government data to improve how the city delivers service.
  As part of the effort, Anchorage has launched an online tool that allows residents to report infrastructu
  
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