Anchorage news

• Driver shot by Juneau police released from Seattle hospital, arrested on separate warrant

  05-12-2016 23:26
  
  A man shot Saturday by a Juneau police officer has been released from a Seattle hospital.
  Juneau police say 38-year-old Jeremie Tinney was treated at Harborview Medical Center, released Sunday and arrested on a Washington state warrant.
  The charges include assault on a child, harassment and a probation violation.
  Juneau police say Tinney just before 1 a.m. Saturday was driving a sport utility vehicle that fled from an officer.
  More than three hours later, police found the SUV crashed.
  Responding
  
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• Charting new courses: student mariners prepare to navigate a warmer Arctic

  05-12-2016 23:19 via ktoo.org
  
  Glenn Burleigh practices piloting a tanker with a damaged rudder. (Photo by Zoë Sobel/KUCB)
  In a windowless room at Maine Maritime Academy, Glenn Burleigh is standing calmly at the controls of a massive tanker. He is stuck, encased in a sea of ice, waiting for an icebreaker to break him free.
  When help arrives, the rescue doesn’t go as planned.
  “I think this is one of the situations where things do go wrong,” Burleigh said. “I seem to have lost my rudder.”
  Burl
  
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• Two people found dead in Bethel’s trailer court fire

  05-12-2016 23:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Two people died in a house fire Saturday in Bethel.
  Charity Alexie, 41, and Hans Alexie, 37, were found inside a structure that had caught fire in the Trailer Court area. Both were from Bethel.
  Bethel Fire Department extinguished the flames during Saturday’s early morning hours and found the bodies in the structure’s remains.
  Foul play is not suspected, and police have notified the deceased’s next of kin.
  The bodies are being sent to the State Medical Examiners’ Office fo
  
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• Juneau police releases names of officers, victim in shooting

  05-12-2016 22:46 via ktoo.org
  
  One shot was fired in an officer-involved shooting early Saturday, according to a news release from Juneau Police Department.
  Juneau Police say Sgt. Chris Gifford fired the shot that injured Jeremie Shaun Tinney, 38, of Juneau during an incident in which officers were investigating a single-vehicle crash in the 16500 block of Ocean View Drive.
  Darin Schultz was the other officer involved in the incident.
  Police Chief Bryce Johnson said at a news conference Saturday that the man who was shot
  
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• APD: Popular Anchorage hot dog vendor dead in apparent suicide

  05-12-2016 22:18
  
  A well-known Anchorage hot dog vendor was found dead in an apparent suicide, Anchorage police confirmed Monday morning. Michael Roy Anderson was scheduled to begin trial for sexual assault, and related crimes, against a female employee on Monday.
  Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Anita Shell said a neighbor of Anderson’s called police at 4:52 p.m. Sunday.
  Anderson was the owner and face of M.A’s Gourmet Dogs, a mobile food card selling hot dogs and brats, in front of the old F
  
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• Judge declares mistrial in murder case against former S.C. police officer

  05-12-2016 22:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET
  The judge in the murder trial of former North Charleston, S.C., police Officer Michael Slager declared a mistrial on Monday after the jury said it could not come to a unanimous decision.
  “We as the jury regret to inform the court that, despite the best efforts of all members, we are unable to come to an unanimous decision in the case of the State vs. Michael Slager,” a letter from the foreman of the jury read.
  Judge Clifton Newman said the case would be retrie
  
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• Southcentral Alaska residents awake to subzero temps Monday

  05-12-2016 21:41
  
  Temperatures reached minus 10 in parts of East Anchorage overnight Sunday. Jason Sear / KTVA
  Residents in Southcentral woke up to the coldest temperatures of the year for many parts of the region Monday morning.
  For the first time in more than a year, the temperature at Ted Stevens Airport dropped below zero. Temperatures reached an official low of 8 below zero around 8 a.m. Monday.
  Other areas in the Anchorage bowl and Southcentral Alaska were even colder.These are the coldest temper
  
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• QUIZ: How well do you know hit holiday tunes?

  05-12-2016 21:16
  
   
  ‘Tis the season to be inundated with holiday tunes! As your ears may be aware, many places around Alaska have been getting in the spirit since Halloween wrapped-up.
  Be it at the mall, the hair salon or your favorite restaurant, getting sucked into seasonal music is a traditional yet thoughtless pastime. And therefore, the lyrics to the tunes sometimes get lost in translation.
  We cozied up to Billboard’s list of the top-selling holiday songs ever and picked a line or
  
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• Juneau police increase school presence after shooting threat

  05-12-2016 21:12 via ktoo.org
  
  Juneau Police Department officers are in area schools to reassure parents, students and staff after a recent school-shooting threat.
  According to a news release, on Saturday three Thunder Mountain High School students reported that another student was threatening to attack the school on Monday.
  The Thunder Mountain High School administration was notified of the threat. Police also contacted the district attorney’s office and the Johnson Youth Center.
  Officers contacted
  
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• Teacher of the Week: Lindsay Wackowski

  05-12-2016 20:47
  
  When she was just 7 years old, Lindsay Wackowski decided she wanted to be an educator. At the time, it had nothing to do with teaching.
  “I think it first started because school is really challenging for me and the teacher had the answer book in the front of the room and I was like, I need to be the teacher so I have the answer book in front of me,” explained Wackowski.
  Now, she teaches kids about that same age at Bowman Elementary School. Her kindergarten class is full of little char
  
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• Standing Rock leader asks those who are not Sioux to leave pipeline protest area

  05-12-2016 20:00 via ktoo.org
  
  The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota told Reuters on Monday that he would like people who are not Sioux to leave the protest area near the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
  “I’m asking them to go,” Dave Archambault III told the wire service, saying that the Obama administration “did the right thing,” and that he hoped to “educate the incoming administration” of President-elect Donald Trump.
  “Nothing will happen this wint
  
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• Byron Birdsall, watercolor painter of Alaska scenes, dies

  05-12-2016 20:00 via ktoo.org
  
  FAIRBANKS — A prolific watercolor painter of Alaska scenes has died.
  Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Byron Birdsall died Sunday. Birdsall’s stepdaughter, Pamela Bell, confirmed the death Monday from Whidbey Island, Washington, but did not have additional comment.
  Byron Birdsall was born in Arizona on Dec. 18, 1937.
  He was raised in California.
  He moved to Alaska in 1975 and became a self-taught painter. He painted landscapes, still-life scenes and historic works, including pi
  
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• Governor’s Mansion holiday open house is Tuesday

  05-12-2016 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Alaska’s Governor Mansion will host its annual holiday open house on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The open house has been a holiday tradition since 1913. (Photo by Tripp J Crouse/KTOO)
  The annual holiday open house at the Governor’s Mansion is scheduled for 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
  The house at 716 Calhoun Avenue was built in 1912. The open house has been an annual tradition since 1913, when then-territorial Gov. Walter Eli Clark began the tradition. The open house was not held f
  
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• Friends, teachers gather to honor memory of Palmer teenager

  05-12-2016 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  ANCHORAGE — Nearly 200 people turned out for a vigil honoring a Palmer teenager missing since Nov. 13.
  Alaska State Troopers announced Saturday they had recovered remains believed to be those of David Grunwald, 16, southeast of Palmer.
  The teen’s burned sport utility vehicle previously had been found near Wasilla.
  Anchorage television station KTVA reports the vigil was organized Saturday night at the Palmer Train Depot.
  Grunwald’s classmates and teachers at Mat-S
  
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• Fairbanks mayor wants deputy chief to head police department

  05-12-2016 18:31
  
  The Fairbanks City Council is set to vote on whether the mayor’s new recommendation for police chief should be able to have the job.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that Mayor Jim Matherly decided Friday to nominate Deputy Chief Eric Jewkes to lead the city’s police department. The council will vote to confirm or reject the recommendation Monday.
  The city is looking to fill the vacancy left by Chief Randall Aragon, who resigned at the end of October. Aragon’s decisi
  
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• Woman sentenced for stealing $100K from North Slope police

  05-12-2016 18:19
  
  A Fairbanks woman charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the North Slope Borough Police Department while she worked there as an evidence custodian has been sentenced to less than a year in prison.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that Margaret Ann Solomon was given an eight-month prison sentence Friday and ordered to pay the money back in restitution.
  The State Attorney’s Office says in a news release that the 48-year-old woman worked for the department in Barrow from 2006 t
  
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• Trump taps Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

  05-12-2016 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in his incoming administration.
  “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities,” Trump said in a statement released Monday. “We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities.”
  The famed retired neurosurgeon is a
  
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• Innovative Tlingit weaver was internationally renowned for baskets, textiles

  05-12-2016 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Sitka resident and Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar takes staff from the National Museum of the American Indian up Blue Lake Road last year. The group was in town for field study, learning about the origins of many of the objects they keep track of in Washington, D.C. Rofkar passed away Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. (Photo by Ed Ronco/KCAW )
  Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar died Dec. 2, 2016. She was 60.
  The Sitka resident was internationally renowned for her baskets and textiles, made from cedar, spruce tree
  
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• Mysterious beak deformities may be caused by virus, researchers say

  05-12-2016 17:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  It’s been almost 20 years since large numbers of birds with unusually long beaks first appeared in Alaska.
  The birds, whose beaks grow at twice the normal rate, often die from starvation because they can’t feed themselves. Researchers now believe a virus may be causing the beak deformities.http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kbbi/audio/2016/12/161205_twistedbeak_pkg_0.mp3Homer resident Michael Craig first noticed the bird at his feeder about six years ago. It was a black-capped chickadee, and he k
  
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• Why doesn’t Anchorage have a pot shop yet? Dumpsters and parking lots

  05-12-2016 16:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  In the last few weeks, as commercial marijuana inches closer to a reality across Alaska, a lot of people are asking: why doesn’t Anchorage have a pot shop yet?
  After store openings in Fairbanks, Juneau and Valdez, Anchorage is still weeks away from having an open retailer.
  http://media.aprn.org/2016/ann-20161202-02.mp3Jane Stinson is one of the owners of Enlighten Alaska, a business trying to open on a busy corner in the Spenard neighborhood. She showed off a brightly painted space with sh
  
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• Man medivaced after ammonia leak, current health status unknown

  05-12-2016 16:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Updated | 1:46 p.m.
  A man was medevaced from Unalaska on Saturday after suffering serious injuries from an ammonia leak at the Kloosterboer cold storage facility.
  Police Deputy Chief Jennifer Shockley said the man was inside an industrial freezer when its ammonia line began leaking.
  After he was “extricated and decontaminated,” the man was flown to Anchorage for emergency treatment. His current medical status is unknown, but Shockley said ammonia poses significant health ha
  
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• Juneau’s newest judge starts work, presides over first case

  05-12-2016 15:10 via ktoo.org
  
  District Court Judge Kirsten Swanson presides over her first case on Friday. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
  A long-time Juneau attorney entered a familiar courtroom at the Dimond Courthouse on Friday morning. But this time, it was through the front instead of the rear — and it was while wearing a judge’s black robe.
  District Court Judge Kirsten Swanson heard a dispute between a worker and his supervisor, and she had to decide whether a protective order in the case should be continued or
  
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• Public invited to speak at People Mover meetings

  05-12-2016 07:53
  
  Anchorage municipal transit officials plan to overhaul the People Mover bus system. A series of meetings were held in November to allow the public to voice their thoughts on the proposed changes, and anyone who wasn’t able to to attend will be able to do so at additional meetings scheduled throughout December.
  The proposals include cutting some routes and bus stops. The municipality has already announced additional holidays without service as part of the 2017 budget.
  The Public Transi
  
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• Troopers find body believed to be that of missing teen

  05-12-2016 05:55 via ktoo.org
  
  A 16-year-old is facing a first-degree murder charge after authorities found a body they suspect is a teenager who had been missing since Nov. 13.
  KTUU-TV reports remains found Friday near Palmer were sent to the medical examiner for identification and to determine the cause of death.
  The body is believed to be that of 16-year-old David Grunwald.
  Troopers say the suspect is being charged as an adult.
  Alaska State Troopers are asking residents and business owners in the Palmer and Wasilla area to
  
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• Coast Guard to begin hearings on Alaska Juris sinking

  05-12-2016 05:08
  
  The Alaska Juris
  The U.S. Coast Guard is holding a series of hearings in Seattle to determine what caused the flooding that sank a fishing vessel off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands last year.
  The Seattle Times reports the 230-foot Alaska Juris sank in July 2015 after a problem in the engine room led to flooding on board. All 46 crew members were rescued by good Samaritan ships.
  The two weeks of hearings will begin Monday. More than three dozen people are expected to testify, including crew mem
  
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• Death Toll In Oakland Fire Rises To 33 As Searchers Comb Through Wreckage

  05-12-2016 04:49 via ktoo.org
  
  A collapsed roof and debris slowed down the recovery efforts of firefighters on Dec. 3 following a fire that killed at least 30 people at a warehouse in Oakland, Calif.
  Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
  Updated at 7 p.m. ET Sunday.
  Officials say they have so far recovered 33 victims killed in a warehouse fire in Oakland, Calif., and say there may be more.
  The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. Friday during an electronic music show at the “Ghost Ship,” an artists’ collective in Oakla
  
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• State commission approves Dillingham, Manokotak annexations with ammendments

  05-12-2016 04:44 via ktoo.org
  
  Commissioners Darroll Hargraves, Lynn Chrystal, and Lavell Wilson were present for three days of public hearings in the Bristol Bay region. Pictured here in Dillingham Tuesday.
  (Photo by the KDLG News Department)
  In a rare move, the five members of Alaska’s Local Boundary Commission voted directly against staff recommendations and approved two competing annexation petitions. Both Dillingham and Manokotak cleared a big hurdle Thursday and were granted the LBC’s blessing to take l
  
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• Kodiak residents convince borough to halt development of Termination Point and Long Island

  05-12-2016 04:44 via ktoo.org
  
  Members of the public at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting. (Photo by Kayla Desroches/KMXT)
  Kids played outside the assembly chambers last night during the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting. They’d abandoned bags, coats, and papers on the hallway carpet. Their parents were likely among those who filled the assembly chambers for their chance to give comment on the conservation easements to Termination Point and Long Island.
  During public comment, most audience
  
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• After heartbreaking loss, family restaurant carries on co-founder’s legacy

  05-12-2016 04:40
  
  One would be hard pressed to find an Anchorage restaurant smaller than Falafel King. Avi Avraham and his wife, Simha Avraham Lalki, founded the cozy spot on Gambell Street in early 2007.
  The Israeli immigrants opened the restaurant with the help of their four children, two of whom live in Anchorage.
  “Everyone just loves it. It’s so unique,” said Smadi Warden, one of the couple’s grown children who help operate the restaurant.
  Indeed, there are very few options for anyone
  
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• One month after running away, Anchorage family continues search for missing teen

  05-12-2016 04:00
  
  Mary Rotzler’s family is desperate for answers more than one month after the 14-year-old went missing. The East High School freshman ran away from home on Nov. 1.
  Her mom, Brenda Parduhn, said she last saw her daughter near Bragaw Street and Richmond Avenue in Mountain View.
  “I think she’s here in Anchorage and somebody’s not saying anything,” Parduhn said. “Somebody’s helping her hide.”
  Rotzler has a drug and alcohol addiction and was about to beg
  
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• Fidel Castro’s ashes interred in private ceremony, ending nine days of mourning

  05-12-2016 03:43
  
  Fidel Castro’s ashes were interred in a private ceremony Sunday morning, ending nine days of mourning for the man who ruled Cuba for nearly half a century.
  The military caravan bearing his remains in a flag-draped cedar coffin left the Plaza of the Revolution in the eastern city of Santiago at 6:39 a.m., returning empty two hours later. Thousands of people lined the two-mile route to Santa Ifigenia cemetery, waving Cuban flags and shouting “Long live Fidel!”
  The ceremony appear
  
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• Fidel Castro’s ashes interred in private ceremony, ending 9 days of mourning

  05-12-2016 03:43
  
  Fidel Castro’s ashes were interred in a private ceremony Sunday morning, ending nine days of mourning for the man who ruled Cuba for nearly half a century.
  The military caravan bearing his remains in a flag-draped cedar coffin left the Plaza of the Revolution in the eastern city of Santiago at 6:39 a.m., returning empty two hours later. Thousands of people lined the two-mile route to Santa Ifigenia cemetery, waving Cuban flags and shouting “Long live Fidel!”
  The ceremony appear
  
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• Operation Santa Claus brings Christmas cheer to Akiachak

  05-12-2016 03:29
  
  Santa Claus just couldn’t wait until Christmas Eve to deliver presents to the village of Akiachak. On Saturday, he gave his reindeer the day off and enlisted the help of the Alaska National Guard’s C-130 to get him to the small Kuskokwim community at sun up.
  It’s all part of the Operation Santa Claus program which has been spreading Christmas cheer to rural Alaska for six decades.
  “It’s amazing to be able to share,” said Brig. Gen. Laurie Hummel, the adjutant
  
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• Memorial run honors Alaskan killed in 2014 avalanche

  05-12-2016 02:54
  
  The Erik Peterson Memorial 5K Run took place Sunday, honoring a beloved member of the Alaska community who tragically passed away in an avalanche two years ago.Peterson was a West Anchorage High School football coach and Dimond High School track and field and cross-country coach. An avid outdoorsman, Peterson was in the backcountry of the Delta Range on Dec. 6, 2014, when he was killed in an avalanche. 
  Tonya Parish, one of Peterson’s former student athletes, wanted to honor him with
  
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• Army Corps of Engineers denies easement for Dakota Access Pipeline

  05-12-2016 00:56
  
  The campsite for protesters against the Dakota Access PipelineCourtesy Daysha Eaton The campsite for protesters against the Dakota Access PipelineCourtesy Daysha Eaton
  Last updated at 3:33 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it won’t grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota.
  Corps spokeswoman Moria Kelley said in a news release Sunday that the administration will not allow the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline to be built under
  
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• Army Corps Denies Easement For Dakota Access Pipeline

  05-12-2016 00:04 via ktoo.org
  
  Protestors celebrate at Oceti Sakowin Camp earlier today. The Army Corps of Engineers notified the Standing Rock Sioux that the current route for the Dakota Access pipeline will be denied.
  Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
  The Army Corps of Engineers has decided to deny a permit for the construction of a key section of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
  The decision essentially halts the construction on the 1,172-mile oil pipeline about half a mile south of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The decision i
  
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