Anchorage news

• Once Trump’s Loudest GOP Critic, Mitt Romney Meets With The President-Elect

  19-11-2016 23:54 via ktoo.org
  
  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney argues against Donald Trump’s nomination as the GOP presidential candidate on March 3 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  George Frey/Getty Images
  Donald Trump may be taking the old adage of keeping friends close and enemies closer to heart.
  The president-elect met 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Bedminster, N.J. on Saturday, and after the meeting the two emerged with signals it had gone well.
  “We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to
  
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• ‘Hamilton’ To Pence: ‘We Are The Diverse America Who Are Alarmed’

  19-11-2016 23:54 via ktoo.org
  
  Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo and Ariana DeBose with Lin-Manuel Miranda with the cast during their final performance curtain call of “Hamilton” in July. Walter McBride/WireImage
  Vice President-elect Mike Pence was presumably seeking a quiet night out at the theater, enjoying one of Broadway’s hottest tickets with a Friday night performance of Hamilton: An American Musical.
  What he got instead was a welcome of boos and cheers from the crowd and a pointed plea from the diverse ca
  
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• Documents: ‘Deadliest Catch’ star suffered broken skull

  19-11-2016 23:45
  
  Court documents say a man who stars in the hit reality TV series “Deadliest Catch” was strangled and suffered a fractured skull during a robbery.
  The Daily Herald reports that 33-year-old Jake Harris also had brain swelling, broken blood vessels in his eyes and bruising from something his assailant apparently wrapped around his throat.
  Harris reportedly told police that he and others were in a car coming back from a casino last Saturday when a man sitting behind him began to choke an
  
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• Unpopular timber proposals postponed to January

  19-11-2016 22:48
  
  Proposed timber sales on Deer Mountain and in Petersburg are on hold as officials consider public comments against the issue.
  The Ketchikan Daily News reports the Alaska Mental Health Trust board will take up the topic in January.
  Every comment on the plan was negative as of Wednesday.
  Officials say the delay will give the trust time to consider the public’s input.
  The board decided in August to move forward with the sales if a federal land exchange bill failed in Congress by Jan. 15.
  Offi
  
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• Community fights state changes to sex offender treatment program, says traditions protect villages

  19-11-2016 22:41
  
  The YK Delta Sex Offender Treatment Program community advisory board meets with DOC officials on November 16, 2016 at the Bethel Moravian ChurchDean Swope / KYUK
  Community members are concerned that sexual assault in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region may be about to increase, and that nearly a decade of work treating sex offenders and working with communities will be lost.
  The worry comes as state budget cuts reduced within a month the region’s sex offender treatment program from two clini
  
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• McCain to Trump: Waterboarding won’t be reinstated

  19-11-2016 22:24
  
  A leading Republican voice on national security matters says he doesn’t care what President-elect Donald Trump says, the United States will not reinstate waterboarding.
  Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum that any attempt to bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, would quickly be challenged in court.
  McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war d
  
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• Police investigate after-party shooting in downtown Anchorage

  19-11-2016 21:41
  
  Eric Ruble/KTVA
  Multiple shots fired at a downtown party led to an arrest and the recovery of a stolen gun, police say.
  An Anchorage police sergeant patrolling downtown just before 4 a.m. heard multiple shots fired nearby. Around the same, time, a number of 911 calls reported hearing the same thing, one call in particular claiming the shots had been fired at an after-party on the 300 block of East Ship Creek Avenue, a statement from police said.
  When officers arrived at the scene, they found mo
  
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• A desperate endeavor: Vietnam veteran seeks community’s help getting benefits

  19-11-2016 21:04
  
  I first met Rob and Diane Stevens at a Department of Veterans Affairs listening session in September. Diane fought back tears as she told the Alaska VA’s new director, Timothy Ballard, of her and her husband’s now three-year battle to obtain some sort of compensation for Robert’s exposure to Agent Orange.
  The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the heroism of those who served lives on today. The soldiers wear hats now instead of helmets. Robert does so proudly. At the tender age of
  
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• Coast Guard rescues boaters stranded on Alaska island

  19-11-2016 06:02
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A Coast Guard helicopter crew has rescued four people stranded on an Alaska island after their boat capsized.
  Petty Officer Jon Paul Rios says no one was injured in the Friday morning capsizing in Marsha Bay near Knight Island in the Prince William Sound area.
  The Coast Guard was notified by a good Samaritan who heard a distress call stating the 28-foot boat was taking on water. Alaska State Troopers received an emergency beacon alert later.
  The Coast Guard launche
  
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• Obama arrives in Peru in last stop on final world tour

  19-11-2016 05:53
  
  LIMA, Peru (AP) – President Barack Obama has landed in Peru for the last stop on his final foreign tour as president.
  Air Force One touched down late Friday in Lima after departing earlier from Berlin and refueling in Portugal.
  Obama planned to start his schedule in Peru on Saturday morning by meeting with Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. He’ll also hold a town hall with young people and have what is expected to be his final meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  Obama w
  
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• Airport officials: Unattended cars result in fines, increased enforcement starts soon

  19-11-2016 05:11
  
  At around 11 a.m. Friday, the arrivals area of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport was quiet. A few drivers waited in their cars near the curb. An hour later it looked more like LAX.
  Flights from Seattle and Portland arrived within minutes of each other, and two of the three arrival lanes were jammed. A few cars were turned off, with the drivers waiting on the curb or helping people inside with luggage. John Parrott, the manager of the airport, said leaving a car unattended has been
  
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• Blood Bank of Alaska says complaint to FDA has no merit

  19-11-2016 05:00
  
  It’s been three months since a former employee of the Blood Bank of Alaska filed a complaint against the nonprofit with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The former development director at the Blood Bank filed the complaint at the end of August. On Friday, the Blood Bank and its board of directors issued a reply.
  The complaint alleges the Blood Bank fell into financial trouble after it took out an unanticipated loan to finish a $45,000,000 new building. The complaint accuses the Bloo
  
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• Juneau’s Housing First project takes shape

  19-11-2016 04:51 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The Housing First facility under construction. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)
  Juneau is getting a new kind of apartment building. The Housing First Project in Lemon Creek is built to provide safe, affordable housing to the city’s most vulnerable homeless individuals.
  The outside of the building looks mostly finished, but inside the apartments are still bare plywood and studs. Each of the 32 efficiency apartments is small – about as big as a row of three parking spaces. Each one will hav
  
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• New legislative leaders prepare to start work ahead of challenging session

  19-11-2016 02:56 via ktoo.org
  
  Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, has been tapped as Speaker of the House following the formation of a new bipartisan majority caucus. (Photo by 360 NORTH)
  Both houses of the legislature will have new leaders in January.
  Incoming Senate President Pete Kelly and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon both say they have positive feelings toward the other. But they lead very different caucuses that will likely have different priorities in the coming legislative session.
  Edgmon is becoming the speaker of the Hou
  
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• Offshore leasing plan excludes Arctic

  19-11-2016 02:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Shell’s Noble Discoverer rig in Unalaska in 2012. (KUCB photo)
  The Obama administration has removed the Arctic Ocean from any new oil and gas leasing for the next five years.
  The Interior Department announced its new plan for offshore leasing Friday morning.
  The plan does not include any new lease sales in the Beaufort or Chukchi Seas off Alaska — which had been included in an earlier draft.
  It does include one lease sale in northern Cook Inlet, in 2021.
  In a written statement, Inter
  
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• Offshore lease plan excludes Arctic

  19-11-2016 02:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Shell’s Noble Discoverer rig in Unalaska in 2012. (KUCB photo)
  The Obama administration has removed the Arctic Ocean from any new oil and gas leasing for the next five years.
  The Interior Department announced its new plan for offshore leasing Friday morning.
  The plan does not include any new lease sales in the Beaufort or Chukchi Seas off Alaska — which had been included in an earlier draft.
  It does include one lease sale in northern Cook Inlet.
  In a written statement, Interior Secre
  
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• New faces in Alaska House of Reps could tackle familiar gas and oil issues

  19-11-2016 02:53 via ktoo.org
  
  The sun rises on the North Slope between drill rigs, Nov. 6, 2012. (Creative Commons photo by Kevan Dee)
  A radical reshuffling in the state House has shifted control and the ruling philosophy for the upcoming session, but key questions on state energy policy remain the same.As the dust settles from the election lawmakers find themselves in a new world, with plenty of new faces, but they’re staring down some of the same issues that kept them locked in Juneau last session:
  Can the state affo
  
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• McGuire served as Nome Nugget’s editor and publisher for 34 years

  19-11-2016 02:50 via ktoo.org
  
  The editor and publisher of Alaska’s oldest newspaper passed away Thursday morning after fighting a battle with cancer, just shy of her 73rd birthday.
  Nancy McGuire purchased The Nome Nugget in 1982 and served as its editor and publisher for 34 years, the paper reported Thursday.
  McGuire was born in 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1965 with a master’s in education as a biology major; she then taught in high school and univers
  
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• Tribes revive indigenous crops, and the food traditions that go with them

  19-11-2016 02:43 via ktoo.org
  
  Long before European settlers plowed the Plains, corn was an important part of the diet of Native American tribes like the Omaha, Ponca and Cherokee. Today, members of some tribes are hoping to revive their food and farming traditions by planting the kinds of indigenous crops their ancestors once grew.
  Taylor Keen is hoping to lead that comeback in Nebraska. On a warm, bright September afternoon, Keen is singing to the corn. Walking through a maze of corn rows and a carpet of pumpkin vines behi
  
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• How bagged salads can increase salmonella risk

  19-11-2016 02:40
  
  The juices from bagged chopped salad leaves can increase the risk of salmonella, a pathogen that’s one of the most common causes of food poisoning, say the authors of a new study.
  Researchers from the University of Leicester, in England, wanted to understand why bagged leafy greens are sometimes at the root of food poisoning outbreaks, so they analyzed the juices from various greens, including lettuce, spinach and arugula (known as rocket in the UK). They smashed the leaves with a mortar a
  
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• New York attorney general says Trump agrees to Trump University settlement

  19-11-2016 02:31 via ktoo.org
  
  A $25 million settlement agreement has been reached in the civil fraud lawsuits against President-elect Donald Trump and Trump University, according to New York’s state attorney general.
  Eric Schneiderman called the settlement “a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university” in a written statement. The allegations have been a major point of controversy for the President-elect for years.
  “Donald Trump fought
  
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• Zika no longer global ‘health emergency,’ WHO declares

  19-11-2016 02:27 via ktoo.org
  
  The World Health Organization announced Friday that it no longer considers the Zika epidemic a public health emergency of international concern.
  But Zika’s threat to pregnant women and babies is not going away anytime soon, the agency says. Instead, the virus is now a chronic problem, says the WHO’s Dr. Pete Salama.
  “It is really important that we communicate this very clearly: We are not downgrading the importance of Zika,” Salama says. “In fact, by placing this as
  
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• Sewer service restored to Emmonak

  19-11-2016 02:23 via ktoo.org
  
  Emmonak’s damaged sewer system, which left hundreds without service this week, has been jump-started.
  On Thursday night, a team from the Yukon Kuskokwim Heath Corporation and the State of Alaska’s Remote Maintenance Worker Program managed to begin restoring the utility service.
  Brian Lefferts, director of Environmental Health and Engineering for the health corporation, directed the effort, and said RMW saved the day.
  “We often joke that it stands for ‘real mirac
  
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• Kotzebue brothers make first app for all 20 Alaska Native languages

  19-11-2016 02:16 via ktoo.org
  
  When Barrow officially changes its name back to Utqiaġvik on Dec. 1, people all over are going to encounter the same typographical issue: writing out the “ġ” character.
  Alaska Native languages have faced a growing technological challenge of meshing alphabets with all the new tools for communicating, like texting or Facebook.
  As of Wednesday night, there’s now an app for that.
  For the first time ever, you can find all the characters for the 20 recognized Alas
  
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• Juneau Afternoon-11-21-2016

  19-11-2016 01:56 via ktoo.org
  
  Monday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon, Scott Burton hosts.
  We’ll speak with filmmaker Brian Wescott about his documentary “Ishi’s Return.”
  Sharon Gaiptman will highlight the “King Island Christmas” production;
  The Canvas will tell us about what they’ll be offering at Public Market;
  And Kaylyn Haslund will preview the next edition of Tidal Echoes and remind us of its submission deadline.
  That, Writers Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, live at 3 on KTOO-NEWS
  
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• Oregon cities setting rules after opting in to legal pot

  19-11-2016 01:51
  
  SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Some 30 counties and cities in Oregon approved some type of marijuana businesses in last week’s election.
  When voters legalized recreational marijuana two years ago, the communities opted out. But many switched it up this month, voting to allow at least some form of the pot industry, including medical marijuana.
  Now municipalities ranging from the cowboy town of Pendleton to Sweet Home in the Willamette Valley must establish rules for every step in the production a
  
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• QUIZ: How Alaskan are you?

  19-11-2016 01:00
  
  So you want to call yourself a true Alaskan, eh?
  Well, here’s the thing. The Last Frontier — in all its flora, fauna and abundance of fish — is still a mystery to those who hail from the Outside and even those who have gotten a PFD or two. There’s even a special name for Alaska newcomers, and a special place reserved in a sourdough’s humor mill should they make a cheechako comment or mistake.
  Whether you know it’s absolutely not OK to use the words s
  
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