Anchorage news

• Report: California soldiers must repay enlistment bonuses

  23-10-2016 21:58
  
  Nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers have been ordered to repay huge enlistment bonuses a decade after signing up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  The Los Angeles Times reports the Pentagon demanded the money back after audits revealed overpayments by the California Guard eager to fill ranks and hit enlistment targets.
  Faced with a shortage of troops at the height of the two wars, California Guard officials offered bonuses of $15,000 or more.
  The National Guard Bureau (NGB), th
  
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• New bumble bee, flower fly species discovered in Denali National Park

  23-10-2016 20:48
  
  Two new species of pollinating bugs have been discovered in Denali National Park and Preserve, according to park officials.
  The new species were discovered during a 2012 pollinator survey in the park, a statement from park officials explained.
  “I think these two new discoveries really highlight the fact that there is still so much to learn about invertebrate biodiversity in Alaska,” Jessica Rykken, an entomologist at Denali National Park and Preserve, said in the statement.
  Rykk
  
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• Facing Deficits, NJUS Increases City Water, Sewer Rates

  23-10-2016 06:22 via ktoo.org
  
  Cover page for NJUS board meeting agenda (Photo by Karen Trop/KNOM)
  A resolution to increase water and sewer tariff rates was passed by the Nome Joint Utility System (NJUS) board at Tuesday night’s meeting.
  The 10% increase in tariff rates for 2016 follows previous rate increases over the past two years (2015 & 2014), in order to lessen at least a 24 percent deficit in water-sewer revenue. Prior to 2014, the tariff rates for water and sewer were the same as established in 1996.
  No
  
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• New faucets combat high lead levels in Port Alexander

  23-10-2016 06:18 via ktoo.org
  
  (Photo courtesy of KCAW)
  Homes in Port Alexander are getting new water faucets this month. It’s part of an effort to minimize lead contamination in the community’s residential drinking water.
  Cindy Christian manages the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Drinking Water program. She said samples from both 2011 and 2012 showed lead levels in a few Port Alexander homes exceeded the “action level” set by the state.
  “And that means if you exceed the
  
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• Anchorage’s first pot shop gives free samples

  23-10-2016 06:13 via ktoo.org
  
  Anchorage’s first recreational marijuana shop is giving away free samples before starting operations under an official license.
  KTUU-TV reports marijuana retailers will be stocking shelves in the next weeks with the first batches of marijuana that have been inspected for consumer safety.
  Arctic Herbery owner Bryant Thorp says customers get kind of excited when they’re handed free pot.
  He said the city’s inaugural marijuana store has been under construction inside and outside si
  
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• The Latest: Independent Stock announces support for Clinton

  23-10-2016 06:12 via ktoo.org
  
   
  Independent U.S. Senate candidate Margaret Stock says she’ll support Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.
  Stock announced her pick during a candidate forum at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Fairbanks.
  Also participating in the forum were Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Libertarian Joe Miller and Democrat Ray Metcalfe.
  Murkowski has said she does not know how she’ll vote but says she cannot support either Clinton or her party’s nominee, Donald Trump. Mi
  
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• Grand jury formally indicts man accused of shooting officer

  23-10-2016 06:11 via ktoo.org
  
  The man accused of shooting a Fairbanks police officer has been formally indicted by a grand jury.
  Fairbanks District Attorney Gregg Olson says the grand jury indicted Anthony G. Jenkins-Alexie Thursday with attempted murder and seven other counts. Seven charges are identical to the counts originally charged in a complaint against Jenkins-Alexie, plus one additional evidence tampering charge.
  Police Sgt. Allen Brandt pulled over to talk to a man walking on the street early Sunday. Authorities sa
  
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• Anchorage’s first snow brings multiple accidents

  23-10-2016 06:09 via ktoo.org
  
  Anchorage has had its first measurable snowfall of the season and a rash of accidents along with it.
  National Weather Service meteorologist David Kramer says snowfall totals vary across the city Friday morning. Higher elevations on the eastern side of Anchorage had between 5 to 6 inches of snow, but only about 1 to 3 inches accumulated in West Anchorage.
  Anchorage police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro says in an email that there were 16 accidents Friday morning and another accident with minor injur
  
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• STD Infections Rise To New Highs After States Close Health Clinics

  23-10-2016 05:56 via ktoo.org
  
  The bacteria that causes gonorrhea can cause infertility in women and men.
  BSIP/UIG via Getty Images
  The number of people infected with three major sexually transmitted diseases is at an all-time high, according to a CDC report released Wednesday. And the increase in reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis is hitting teenagers and young adults hardest.
  Over half of gonorrhea and chlamydia cases are in people under the age of 25, says Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Cent
  
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• New Head For Jesus Statue That Prompted Double Takes Is Gone

  23-10-2016 05:56 via ktoo.org
  
  This statue, in Sudbury, Ontario, was apparently vandalized about a year ago. A local artist volunteered to help replace Jesus’ missing head, but not everyone appreciates her efforts.
  Marina von Stackelberg/CBC
  Updated 7 p.m. ET with the replacement head being removed
  The CBC reports that an odd-looking substitute for a stolen head of Jesus has itself now been removed from a statue. The church’s priest said the replacement had to go because it was damaging the original statue.
  But wh
  
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• Fall Enrollment Efforts Could Be Pivotal For Federal Health Law

  23-10-2016 05:54 via ktoo.org
  
  Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell at a Senate hearing in 2014. “We expect this to be a transition period for the marketplace,” she told reporters Wednesday. “Issuers are adjusting their prices, bringing them in line with actual data on costs.”
  Alex Wong/Getty Images
  Rate hikes are likely on the way for insurance plans issued under the Affordable Care Act, health policy analysts say. Consumers’ out-of-pocket costs are expected to climb in 2017 and
  
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• Presbyterian church first to present statewide apology at AFN

  23-10-2016 05:50
  
  It was an historic moment for the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Saturday. For the first time, a religious organization came before an AFN convention to apologize to Alaska Native people from across the state for its hand in cultural oppression. Another milestone for AFN, 50 years after its creation.
  “You did nothing wrong. You were and are the victims of evil acts that cannot under any circumstances be justified,” Ron Illingworth, of the Presbyterian church, told thousands&
  
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• Skagway marijuana shop is first to get state license to open

  23-10-2016 05:36 via ktoo.org
  
  Tara Bass in The Remedy Shoppe with her license to open. (Photo by Tara Bass)
  A retail marijuana store is ready to open its doors in Skagway, but it’s waiting on one major detail: the pot.
  Tara Bass is the owner of The Remedy Shoppe, a red and white building on Skagway’s Third St.
  Earlier this month it became the first business of its kind in the state to pass its final inspection and receive a license to open.
  Several other businesses around Alaska have been given state and cit
  
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• Sen. Sullivan addresses rural water access at AFN

  23-10-2016 05:19 via ktoo.org
  
  Sen. Dan Sullivan addresses the 2016 AFN on Oct. 21, 2016. (Courtesy of the Alaska Federation of Natives)
  U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan spoke at AFN Friday afternoon about improving water and sewer access in rural Alaska and about helping Alaska Native veterans.
  Sullivan said that he is working to raise awareness in Congress about the more than 30 villages that still don’t have running water or sewers.
  The federal government will give $1.4 Billion dollars nationwide to build new systems, but Sull
  
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• No El Niño, but sparse sea ice, warm ocean water could mean near-normal 2016-17 winter

  23-10-2016 05:19 via ktoo.org
  
  A year ago, National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Thoman and many other forecasters and climate researchers knew the winter of 2015-16 was going to be a warm one.
  “We had warm sea-surface temperatures all around Alaska in the late fall,” Thoman said. “We had below-normal sea ice. And we had a strong El Niño.”
  So, prognostications of the warm Arctic winter to come last year may be in hindsight as close to a no-brainer as it gets for the complex scien
  
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• Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announces inclusion of Native communities in land management

  23-10-2016 05:19 via ktoo.org
  
  The White House Tribal Nations Conference convenes leaders from the 567 federally recognized tribes to interact directly with high-level federal government officials and members of the White House Council on Native American Affairs (Public Domain photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior)
  Interior Secretary Sally Jewell addressed AFN Friday. Jewell announced a new secretarial order that requires the Department to include Native communities and traditional ecological knowledge in land
  
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• Alaska veterans receive warm welcome home after Honor Flight

  23-10-2016 05:05
  
  A group of Alaska veterans returned Saturday from Washington D.C., where they visited our nation’s war memorials thanks to Last Frontier Honor Flight.
  The crowd waiting for their arrival at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport applauded as the veterans disembarked to the sounds of bagpipes from the Alaska Celtic Pipes and Drums (ACPD). The 23 veterans — who served in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars — left Tuesday.
  WWII veteran Claude File, of Palmer, was amo
  
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• SAVEarth project aims to provide homeless Alaskans with boots

  23-10-2016 04:28
  
  While many Alaskans are celebrating the first snow of the season, it marks the beginning of a tough time of year for people living outdoors. A group from the Lower 48 is working to help Anchorage’s homeless in a big way.
  SAVEarth is assembling 1,100 pairs of boots with the help of volunteers. Each pair has a warm inner layer and a waterproof outer shell. Now in its third year, the project will donate the boots to Bean’s cafe, Covenant House and other organizations working with the ho
  
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• Whittier police begin patrolling Girdwood on short-term contract

  23-10-2016 04:12
  
  After roughly three weeks without any law enforcement stationed in Girdwood, there are now Whittier Police Department (WPD) officers patrolling the town. It is the result of a short-term contract between the Girdwood Board of Supervisors, the Municipality of Anchorage and WPD that lasts through the end of the year.
  After the contract expires, there is an option to extend the contract until January 22, 2017. A long-term contract lasting for a few years is still in the works.
  “I think the go
  
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• Troopers: Selawik man dead after early morning fight

  23-10-2016 02:47
  
  One man is dead and another is in custody after a fight broke out in the village of Selawik early Friday morning, Alaska State Troopers say.
  Troopers were notified of the fight at about 1:30 a.m., a dispatch explained, when someone from the village contacted them, saying 38-year-old Roscoe Cleveland had died after a fight. Within an hour, troopers from Kotzebue were on the ground in Selawik to investigate, according to the dispatch. At that point, a Selawik village police officer had already tak
  
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• Law enforcement raids Bethel house used by suspected drug dealers

  23-10-2016 02:28
  
  AST, BPD, and SDEU began investigating the case earlier this yearCredit Adrian Wagner / KYUK
  This story originated from KYUK Public Media and was republished with permission.
  BETHEL — State troopers, investigators and local police raided a house in Bethel this week and recovered heroin, crack cocaine, money and drug paraphernalia. They arrested seven people.
  According to the Alaska State Trooper dispatch, the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit with local State and Wildlife Tro
  
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• Night-drop kennels: A warm, safe place for stray animals

  23-10-2016 01:58
  
  With the season’s first blanket of snow on the ground and temperatures dropping, a night outside is tough for lost pets. Anchorage Animal Care and Control (AACC) provides a warm, safe place if you find an animal and can’t take it home for the night.
  On the backside of the facility, the night-drop kennels are an after-hours refuge for lost animals. There are four doors for small animals and three large doors for big animals. Once one of the doors is opened, it locks so the animal can&
  
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• A sign of respect: A kuspuk history lesson

  23-10-2016 01:01
  
  From attendees to politicians to members of the media, men and women dress their best at the annual Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention in Fairbanks. But dressing in your Sunday best is different in Alaska, especially at AFN. Here, people trade in their high-heeled shoes, suit jackets and ties for traditional Alaska Native garb, which represents their tribes and culture.One of the most common fashions is kuspuks.
  The original hooded sweatshirt, kuspuk is the English spelling for what Y
  
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