Anchorage news

• Video: Why is gas so expensive in Alaska?

  04-08-2016 23:06 via ktoo.org
  
  Alaska has the lowest fuel tax yet some of the highest gas prices. We asked Larry Persily, former federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas projects: Why is it so expensive to fill up the tank in Alaska?
  
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• Library celebrates new Harry Potter book with improvised Quidditch game

  04-08-2016 23:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Harry Potter books are having a second wave.
  Author J.K. Rowling released Sunday a new play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which inspired literary events all over the country.
  Sitka Public Library held a tournament in honor of the books’ No. 1 sport – Quidditch, a game played by witches and wizards on flying broomsticks.
  So, to adapt the game to our gravity-bound world, the library had to get creative. The sounds of ping-pong balls could be hear
  
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• One year after toxic Gold King river spill, no clear plan to clean up western mines

  04-08-2016 21:05 via ktoo.org
  
  One year ago — on Aug. 5, 2015 — an EPA crew at the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of orange water filled with mercury and arsenic.
  The toxic spill flowed into the Animas River, eventually running into New Mexico’s San Juan River and into Lake Powell. So far, disaster response and water quality monitoring have cost the EPA about $29 million — and the problem isn’t over yet.
  Water laced with heavy metals continues to gu
  
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• Creativity encouraged as Anchorage community teams with artist co-op

  04-08-2016 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The abundant cultural diversity of Alaska’s largest city has inspired a new collaboration between Anchorage and an artist co-op with the goal to improve the community through creativity and collaboration.
  The Anchorage Artists Co-op has been working with the Youth Advisory Commission and the Anchorage Downtown Partnership for various art projects and workshops. Recently the co-op participated in painting a mural downtown on 5th and D.
  Other art displays on public spaces are in t
  
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• Swiss family sails around the world for climate change

  04-08-2016 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Schwoerer family is sailing around the world educating people about climate change for ToptoTop Organization. Photo (Photo courtesy of TopToTop)
  The Pachamama Band, also known to a few as the Schwoerer family singers, are all members of one Swiss family that has been living at sea for the past sixteen years. They’ve been sailing around the world in a boat called Pachamama, educating people about climate change and re-strengthening humanity’s relationship with nature.
  “It&rs
  
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• Denali East Fork wolf pack status currently unknown

  04-08-2016 17:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The status of a Denali wolf pack is unknown after several members of the group have been killed on state land. (Tim Rains, National Park Service)
  Denali National Park’s long studied and once popularly viewed East Fork wolf pack is likely no longer. Several members of the park entrance area wolf group have been killed on state land, and the famed pack’s status is unknown.
  Denali’s East Fork wolf pack declined to just one known female and two pups earlier this summer.
  T
  
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• Lifelong dancer, 76, teaches encourages movement, healthy activities

  04-08-2016 16:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Teacher, choreographer and performer Bill Evans is in Ketchikan for a two-week dance intensive at Ketchikan Theatre Ballet. Classes in modern dance and tap began Aug. 15, and Evans also choreographed a piece for the Gigglefeet Dance Festival.
  Evans, 76, has been dancing since the age of 3 and continues to dance, perform and teach.
  Evans began as a tap dancer, then became a professional ballet and modern dancer, and founded his own company in 1975.
  In 1988, he became a university professor.
  
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• Zarembo Island geological exploration continues another year

  04-08-2016 08:00 via ktoo.org
  
  A geological-exploration company based in Wrangell will be taking surface samples on Zarembo Island for the next year. Zarembo Minerals has been exploring the northwest portion of the island for the past 10 years.
  Owner, Mark Robinson, said the samples taken from several claims near St. John and Frenchie creeks have shown the area to be geologically similar to the Greens Creek mine near Juneau.
  “We’ve been finding zinc, led and gold with minor silver,” said Robinson.
  So far, Ro
  
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• After overnight search, hikers located on AB Mountain in Skagway

  04-08-2016 07:00 via ktoo.org
  Two hikers from Whitehorse who got turned around on the Arctic Brotherhood Trail outside of Skagway on Tuesday evening, were located mid-morning Wednesday uninjured.
  Members of the Skagway Volunteer Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard searched through the night.
  The search and rescue call went out just before 9 p.m. Tuesday announcing that the two hikers were overdue. Volunteers from Skagway’s fire department and, later, members of the Coast Guard looked for Wei Yang, 30, and Yun
  
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• Skagway representatives spreading ‘false information,’ AIDEA alledges

  04-08-2016 06:00 via ktoo.org
  The owner of the Skagway’s ore terminal is speaking out against what it sees as ‘false information’ the municipality has put out about the facility.
  The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s James Hemsath wrote an letter to the Skagway Borough Assembly recently. In it, he disputes claims made by the borough’s attorney, Bob Blasco, and Mayor Mark Schaefer.
  Hemsath says the incentive for the letter came from a memo Blasco wrote earlier this summer to th
  
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• Pot shop, tidelands lease discussion on Skagway Assembly agenda

  04-08-2016 05:00 via ktoo.org
  Skagway Borough Assembly will consider Thursday an application for the town’s first retail marijuana store, called the Remedy Shoppe.
  Owner Tara Bass applied for a conditional use permit to set up shop in the Business General zone at 371 Third Avenue. Her permit was approved by the planning commission in April.
  The local government has the right to lodge a protest against the application if it sees fit.
  The question of how to go about restarting tidelands lease discussions with W
  
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• Museum building renovation on Ketchikan City Council agenda

  04-08-2016 04:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Ketchikan City Council will vote on hiring Dawson Construction as the contractor for renovating Centennial Building, which houses the Tongass Historical Museum. (KRBD file photo)
  During its regular meeting Thursday, the Ketchikan City Council will consider a couple items related to the Centennial Building renovation.
  Renovation designs are complete for the city-owned building, which houses the Tongass Historical Museum and city Museum Department offices, and the council will vote on hiring Dawso
  
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• Partying on a Tuesday night, first responders hang out with the community

  04-08-2016 03:48 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Sgt. Chris Gifford of the Juneau Police Department speaks with two Coast Guard members and a community member during National Night Out event in Juneau on Tuesday. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
  Tuesday evening, first responders showed up to 18 block parties in the capital city. Although they wore their badges, they were there to take part in the fun. The event was part of National Night Out, a national program focused on raising awareness about public safety.http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/k
  
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• Petersburg pursues dredging project for south harbor

  04-08-2016 03:00 via ktoo.org
  PETERSBURG — The southeast Alaska town of Petersburg is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a project to address a growing problem at one of its main harbors for commercial fishing operations.
  Petersburg Borough Assembly has asked the federal agency to help it conduct a feasibility study to dredge the south harbor, where many of the larger boats have been going aground due to the rising basin. Assembly members have approved $325,000 for the dredging study.
  The Corp, which inst
  
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• PETA recognizes whale-watching company for saving deer

  04-08-2016 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  PETA is recognizing Gastineau Guiding Co. with a framed version of this award. (Image courtesy PETA)
  A national animal rights organization is recognizing Juneau’s Gastineau Guiding Co. for rescuing a drowning deer last week. PETA, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, is sending the tour company a framed Compassionate Business Award.
  Marissa Price works with PETA’s college outreach team in California, and she says the organization’s corporate affairs department hand
  
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• Obama commutes sentences of 214 federal inmates

  04-08-2016 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  President Obama smiles during a joint news conference with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
  President Barack Obama has commuted the sentences of 214 federal inmates — “almost all” of whom were serving sentences for nonviolent crimes. According to the White House, it’s the “most grants in a single day since at least 1900.”
  That brings the total number of sentences th
  
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• State responds two oil spills at Drift River in Cook Inlet

  04-08-2016 02:51 via ktoo.org
  
  (Photo courtesy Peninsula Clarion)
  State regulators are monitoring two small spills at the Drift River Terminal Facility show here on March 24, 2009, where it sits about 22 miles from the summit of the Mount Redoubt volcano on the west side of Cook Inlet. The facility is operated by Hilcorp Alaska’s Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company.
  State regulators are monitoring the cleanup of two small oil spills at a storage site  on the west side of Cook Inlet.The spills were discovered at the Drift
  
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• State responds to two oil spills at Drift River in Cook Inlet

  04-08-2016 02:51 via ktoo.org
  
  State regulators are monitoring two small spills at the Drift River Terminal Facility shown here on March 24, 2009, where it sits about 22 miles from the summit of the Mount Redoubt volcano on the west side of Cook Inlet. The facility is operated by Hilcorp Alaska’s Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company. (Photo courtesy Peninsula Clarion)
  State regulators are monitoring the cleanup of two small oil spills at a storage site  on the west side of Cook Inlet.The spills were discovered at the Drift
  
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• Murkowski discusses Trump, Tongass during Sitka stop

  04-08-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski speaks to Sitkans at a campaign event in Sitka. (Emily Kwong, KCAW)
  Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski spoke to a group of constituents over pizza and beer at Baranof Island Brewing Co.
  Murkowski kept her remarks brief and circulated through the crowd, talking one-on-one with attendees. Many were wondering which presidential nominee she preferred, Trump or Clinton?
  Murkowski hasn’t made up her mind. She has great concerns about some of Clinton’s policies
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 8-4-16

  04-08-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  Thursday on A Juneau Afternoon,
  We’ll talk with Matt Robus and Ron Sommerville about the Golden North Salmon Derby;
  And we’ll talk with Ray Videc about this week’s Building Healthy Families Workshop;
  Ben Chastain, the featured artist for August at the Juneau Artists’ Gallery, will be here to spotlight his art;
  And Nancy DeCherney will be here with Arts Up!
  That, Writers Almanac, Bird Note, music and more,  Thursday afternoon on A Juneau Afternoon.
  
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• Groups announce intent to sue over polluted Fairbanks air

  04-08-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  ANCHORAGE — Three environmental groups are turning up legal pressure on a federal agency to require a cleanup of polluted Fairbanks air.
  The groups in June sued the Environmental Protection Agency to force an agency decision on whether to accept a state plan to reduce unhealthy fine particulate produced by wood stoves and other sources.
  The groups Wednesday sent a letter to the EPA announcing their intent to sue again because the agency has missed a deadline to require the Fairbanks North
  
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• Bill would speed Tongass-Mental Health Trust land trade

  04-08-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  A mountain peak rises above the Tongass National Forest northeast of Sitka Aug. 3, 2016. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)
  A bill before Congress would speed a timberland trade between the federal government and the Alaska Mental Health Trust. It’s part of a larger legislative effort to increase logging in the Tongass National Forest.http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2016/08/02Timber-L.mp3The Alaska Mental Health Trust uses its land to make money to fund programs around the st
  
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• Hillary Clinton slams Trump over outsourcing

  04-08-2016 01:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton visits the Knotty Tie Company on Wednesday in Denver, Colo. (Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post via Getty Images)
  Donald Trump boasts about the businesses he’s built and that he would be the “greatest jobs president that God ever created.” But Hillary Clinton is hitting him for making many of his products overseas and not in the U.S.
  On Wednesday the Democratic nominee toured the Knotty Tie Co. in Denver, Colo., and invited her
  
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• Dam on slough helps Big Delta man protect home along Tanana River

  04-08-2016 01:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Big Delta resident Tom Gorman said a small dam he built earlier this year to protect his home from the meandering Tanana River held steady over the past couple of weeks as the river rose to near-flood level, due to recent rains.
  Gorman now hopes the river falls quickly enough to allow him to finish work on the dam before snow flies.Gorman stands at the edge of a 20-foot-wide slough off the Tanana River that runs along the foot of a ridge on which he built his house about seven years ago and sai
  
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• Sitka resident indicted on forgery charges; checks totaled $6,656

  04-08-2016 00:00 via ktoo.org
  A grand jury has indicted a 27-year-old Sitka resident for forging almost 30 checks from a local tour business.
  Court documents filed by prosecutors say Jeffrey Baxter stole checks from the business account of Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures. He allegedly forged the signatures of owners Alison and John Dunlap, misspelling their last name as “Dunlop” and signing a few of them as “John Brown.”
  Baxter was not an employee of Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures and was not authoriz
  
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• Man electrocuted when truck boom touches overhead wires

  04-08-2016 00:00 via ktoo.org
  ANCHORAGE — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the death of a man by electrocution Tuesday in Eagle River.
  Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell said that Donald Emmert, 57, died as he worked on a well.
  Anchorage Police Sgt. Todd Kearns says Emmert was associated with Chugiak-based Sullivan Water Wells.
  Kearns says Emmert was working alone and raising a truck boom when it apparently touched overhead electrical wires.
  Police and medics reached t
  
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• Mallott discusses transboundary mine negotiations, budget gap

  04-08-2016 00:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott visited the Unuk River to brainstorm ideas to better protect Alaska waters from upriver Canadian mines. (KRBD file photo)
  Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott visited the Unuk River south of Ketchikan on Friday, part of his ongoing work with British Columbia officials to come up with a way to better protect Alaska’s waters from upriver Canadian mines.
  Following his trip to the Unuk, and to the small boundary community of Hyder, Mallott came by KRBD to talk about how transboundary
  
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