Anchorage news

• High winds send cruise ship toward Haines, away from Skagway

  13-09-2016 23:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Crown Princess cruise ship parked in Haines after high winds prevented it from docking in Skagway. (Photo by Abbey Collins/KHNS)
  Thousands of unexpected visitors made a stop in Haines today, when an unscheduled cruise ship docked in town this Tuesday morning.
  The boat was headed for Skagway, but high winds caused a change of plans.
  The ferry dock is crowded and the wind is strong.
  It’s a reminder of why the Crown Princess is stopped in Haines and not Skagway. Some passengers walk back
  
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• Fairbanks borough calls for another vote on pot cafe ban

  13-09-2016 23:00 via ktoo.org
  
  FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly is set to vote on whether to reconsider a proposed moratorium on pot cafes in the city of Fairbanks.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the assembly in August placed a moratorium on cannabis cafes until mid-November, but it only applied outside of Fairbanks city limits. In a vote last week, the assembly rejected a measure that would have extended the moratorium to include Fairbanks.
  Assemblyman Matt Cooper, who voted against th
  
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• Doctors test drones to speed up delivery of lab tests

  13-09-2016 23:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Timothy Amukele, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and systems engineer Jeff Street are trying to figure out how to use drones to deliver blood samples. (Photo by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)
  Three years ago, Geoff Baird bought a drone. A Seattle dad and hobby plane enthusiast, Baird used the 2.5-pound quadcopter to photograph the Hawaiian coastline and film his son’s soccer and baseball games.
  But his big hope is that drones will soon f
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 9-14-16

  13-09-2016 22:39 via ktoo.org
  
  Wednesday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon, Scott Burton hosts.
  We’ll get an update on Girl Scout activities with guest, Anne Curland;
  Patrick Murphy will be here to give us a preview of Hank Williams Birthday Tribute;
  We’ll learn about AWARE’s upcoming Advocacy Training,
  And we’ll get a preview of Saturday’s Discover Eaglecrest Day.
  That, Writer’s Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, today on A Juneau Afternoon, live at 3 on KTOO-News, repeated at 4 on KRNN, and ava
  
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• U.S.-Canada trade deal creating uncertainty in Southeast timber market

  13-09-2016 22:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Part of the Tongass National Forest in April 2008. (Creative Commons photo by Xa’at)
  The U.S. is in the midst of negotiations with Canada over an agreement on Canadian lumber imports.
  Many U.S. sawmill owners argue that the Canadian mills receive government subsidies on government-owned lands, making it difficult for the U.S. market to compete.
  The 2006 softwood lumber trade agreement, meant to level the playing field, expired last year and a one-year freeze on tariffs, a tax on imported g
  
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• German injured falling nearly 300 feet down Alaska glacier

  13-09-2016 22:00 via ktoo.org
  
  VALDEZ — A 42-year-man from Germany is being treated at an Anchorage hospital after falling nearly 300 feet down a glacier.
  The accident happened Saturday at Worthington Glacier near Valdez.
  City officials say in a statement the man was hiking the left ridge trail above the glacier when he slid and fell between 250 and 300 feet.
  Officials say he suffered multiple injuries, including leg and skull fractures.
  He appeared to have been traveling alone when the accident happened. Other hikers h
  
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• Search continues for missing 18-year-old from Shageluk

  13-09-2016 21:30 via ktoo.org
  
  Search efforts are still underway to find a man who went missing last week in the community of Shageluk.
  Alfred Hamilton, 18, of Shageluk has been reported missing since midnight Sept. 7, after consuming alcohol with friends and refusing to return home.
  Aniak State Troopers were notified of the disappearance on Sept. 8 after family members could not locate him.
  An active search for Hamilton by Bethel Search and Rescue and well as by volunteers from the communities of Grayling, Holy Cross an
  
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• Poverty rate down, median incomes up, Census Bureau says

  13-09-2016 21:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Census Bureau released new numbers on Tuesday showing that real median household incomes rose from $53,718 in 2014 to $56,516 last year.
  (Illustration by Skopein/Getty Images/Ikon Images)
  More Americans are making more money.
  The U.S. Census Bureau released new numbers on Tuesday showing that, after a brutal economic recession and years of stagnation, real median household incomes rose from $53,718 in 2014 to $56,516 last year. That’s a 5.2 percent rise — the first statistically
  
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• Man in custody after deadly Anchorage shooting

  13-09-2016 21:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Police in Anchorage say they’ve taken a man into custody after an early morning shooting in a residential area near downtown left one person dead.
  According to the department, Tommy Rumph surrendered peacefully to police about 2 hours after the incident was first reported.
  Rumph posted a distraught video on his Facebook page around the time of the shooting that appears to show him walking through the dark, alluding to violence and being “done for life” after someone disturbed h
  
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• Homer tourism reaches all-time high, visitor center coordinator says

  13-09-2016 21:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Homer Spit on Kachemak Bay. (Photo courtesy of KBBI)
  Homer, the little town at the “End of The Road,” is becoming an increasingly popular travel destination.
  2016 has been a record-breaking year for the Homer tourism industry, said Jan Knutson, the Visitor Center coordinator with the Homer Chamber of Commerce.
  “It has been a banner year for Homer and the surrounding area in terms of the number of the visitors. This year we had over 12,600 visitors,” Knutson
  
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• Overdue hiker visiting ‘Into the Wild’ bus found safe

  13-09-2016 20:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The search for an overdue hiker headed to the abandoned bus where Christopher McCandless died, ended Monday morning with the hiker being found.
  Carlos Castrejon, 45, of Mexico was located walking along the Park Road, Denali National Park spokeswoman Katherine Belcher said.
  Belcher says 20 people were involved in the search for Castrejon, whose girlfriend reported him overdue returning from a solo 30 mile round trip hike from the park road to the Stampede Trail area bus and back.
  C
  
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• Plane crash kills pilot in Anchorage

  13-09-2016 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  One man is dead after his float plane crashed Saturday into a residential neighborhood on Anchorage’s Hillside.
  Anchorage police have identified the deceased as James Hefty, 75. He was the only person onboard.
  Emergency crews responded to the crash site about 4:30 Saturday afternoon on Crooked Tree Drive.
  The cause of the crash is currently unknown, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
  
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• NCAA pulls 7 championship events from North Carolina, citing transgender law

  13-09-2016 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The NCAA announced Monday evening that it would relocate seven championship sporting events out of North Carolina during this school year, citing the state’s HB2 law limiting civil rights protections for LGBT individuals, WUNC’s Dave DeWitt reports.
  The events moving out of state include first and second rounds of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship — part of the Road to the Final Four — originally slated to be in Greensboro, DeWitt reports.
  In a press rele
  
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• Village police officer in Chevak shooting was unarmed, report says

  13-09-2016 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The village police chief who was wounded last week in Chevak apparently was unarmed.
  The man who shot the officer subsequently killed himself.
  Village Police Chief Derek McDonald responded to reports of an intoxicated man, later identified as Harold Paniyak, 24, wielding a firearm, according to Alaska State Troopers.
  McDonald responded to the call with no firearm of his own, and was shot in the chest by Paniyak with a .35-caliber pistol, the report said.
  After McDonald fell to the grou
  
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• Skagway residents weigh in on ferry dock closure

  13-09-2016 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Skagway ferry dock. (Emily Files)
  Skagway residents are facing a two-and-a-half month disruption in Alaska Marine Highway ferry service sometime in the next year and a half.
  The municipality held a meeting last week to hear from residents about what they think the best timing would be for the looming closure of the ferry dock.
  The Alaska Department of Transportation is planning to refurbish the dock.
  The question now is when?
  DOT gave Skagway residents three timing options to consider: summe
  
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• Grant funds expansion of 3-year language revitalization program — and ‘a whole different worldview’

  13-09-2016 05:11 via ktoo.org
  
  Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl sits in her office. (Photo by Lakeidra/KTOO)
  The Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a roughly $930,000 federal grant from the Administration for Native Americans to establish a three-year language revitalization program.
  Rosita Worl, the nonprofit’s president, said the new program will be an extension of an existing one.
  “We just completed three years of a master-apprentice program, which we viewed as very successful,&
  
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• No concesssion from Nageak as recount boosts Westlake’s lead

  13-09-2016 05:10 via ktoo.org
  
  An election official feeds ballots into an optical scanner while observers watch on Monday. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
  Barrow Rep. Benjamin Nageak says he isn’t conceding the Democratic primary to Dean Westlake of Kotzebue.
  “I haven’t conceded anything,” he said.
  That’s despite the fact that Westlake’s lead doubled Monday from four to eight votes over Nageak in final results in the closely watched recount. District 40 covers the North Slope and Northwes
  
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• Why Gov. Walker won’t challenge veto reversal

  13-09-2016 05:01 via ktoo.org
  
  Office of Management and Budget Director Pat Pitney addresses the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, July 16, 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
  Gov. Bill Walker won’t challenge a decision to reverse his veto of education spending.
  In late June, Walker vetoed $6.35 million previously allocated to a formula that funds schools based on their enrollment numbers.
  The Legislative Finance Division reviewed the veto and decided it was ineffective for technical reasons. Basically, the governor’s ve
  
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• Friday mudslide blocked Glacier Highway near mile 21

  13-09-2016 04:39 via ktoo.org
  
  A small landslide blocked Glacier Highway for about an hour Friday afternoon near mile 21. Jeremy Woodrow with the Alaska Department of Transportation said it took about 20 minutes to clear the debris.
  “I don’t believe there was any significant damage,” Woodrow said. “There definitely was material put into the ditch and drainage area so we had to do some more work to remove that. But, that’s to be expected when you have some movement of dirt into our ditches. That&
  
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• Five Petersburg residents involved in boat accident on Stikine

  13-09-2016 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Wrangell Fire Department transported five Petersburg residents to the Wrangell Medical Center on Sunday night after a boating accident on the Stikine River.
  Wrangell Fire Chief Tim Buness said the call came in about 5:23 p.m.
  “So we were notified that we had a boating accident on the Stikine River just below the cabins at Farm Island. We launched one airplane and one boat from Alaska Vistas,” Buness said.
  The accident was caused by the boat hitting a log in the water, he&nb
  
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• With 3 attacks in a month, Sitka bears showing ‘stress,’ district ranger says

  13-09-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Forest Service is not sure why Sitka’s bears seem to be on edge. An excess of cubs, too few pink salmon — both might part of the explanation. (KCAW image)
  A pair of Forest Service workers killed a charging brown bear near Sitka at the end of August.
  It was the third dangerous bear encounter in the Sitka Ranger District in less than a month.
  Sitka District Ranger Perry Edwards said the pair of workers — whose names will not be released — was doing a fisheries
  
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• Petersburg Childrens Center opens with expanded space

  13-09-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The Petersburg Children’s Center started up the new school year September 1 with expanded space and room for more kids.
  The pre-school and daycare is filled with the sound of singing and activities again, thanks to donated money, labor and materials from individuals, organizations and businesses in town.
  Center director Brandi Heppe said it was iffy whether they’d be able to open the new classrooms for kids by that date.
  “It was a crunch to get our license by September 1st
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 9-13-16

  13-09-2016 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Tuesday on A Juneau Afternoon,
  We’ll talk with author Clive Thomas about his new collection of essays on Alaskan politics;
  We’ll get a preview of Wednesday’s Mudrooms event;
  Jane Lindsay will highlight upcoming events at the City Museum;
  And we’ll talk with Human Resources Staff about Substitute teachers in the Juneau School District.
  That, Writer’s Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, today on A Juneau Afternoon, live at 3 on KTOO-News, repeated at 4 on KRNN, and av
  
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• Foul play not suspected in apparent gun death off University Drive

  13-09-2016 00:34 via ktoo.org
  
  Foul play does not appear to be a factor in the death of a 39-year-old Juneau resident found near the University of Alaska Southeast campus, according to Juneau police Lt. David Campbell.
  Benjamin Parson was found Sunday morning with a facial injury in a parking lot near a trailhead off University Drive, according to a news release from Juneau Police Department.
  Parson appeared to have died from a gunshot. A firearm was recovered from close proximity to Parson’s body, the release
  
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• 3 people injured in Island floatplane crash

  13-09-2016 00:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Three people were seriously injured when a float plane crash Friday afternoon in Uganik Lake
  No fatalities were reported.
  Linda Suydam, 58, of Kodiak suffered severe leg and spine injuries in the crash of the Island Air DeHavilland Beaver.
  According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a Dolphin helicopter crew hoisted her and transported her to emergency medical personnel waiting at Kodiak Municipal Airport in Midtown.
  Her husband, Steven Suydam, 61, and pilot, David Schl
  
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