Anchorage news

• Borough faces rising cost of dock repairs at Port Mackenzie

  31-12-2016 23:37
  
  Repairs at Port MacKenzie are adding up to millions in costs for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
  Port director Marc Van Dongen told Alaska Public Media that a planned permanent repair in 2017 may cost another $1.5 million on top of money already spent.
  He said an insurance payment and previously appropriate emergency funds will help the port budget shoulder next year’s cost.
  The barge dock at Port MacKenzie has undergone several repairs since fall 2015 when damage was discovered.
  Mat-Su Bor
  
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• Bethel hires new city manager

  31-12-2016 23:20
  
  Bethel’s acting city manager will officially take over the job Jan. 2.
  KYUK-AM reports Pete Williams accepted the position during a recent meeting.
  He will permanently replace Ann Capela, who cut her contract a year short.
  Williams started filling in for Capela in September.
  Mayor Rick Robb said Williams has been asking the right questions, holding department heads accountable, and finding solutions.
  Williams has spent the last six years as the city’s port director and filled in as c
  
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• Why New Year’s resolutions fail… and how to make them stick

  31-12-2016 22:15
  
  Every year, millions of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but research suggests only a fraction actually keep them.
  Things like weight loss and getting more exercise are typically among the most popular resolutions, but this year a new Marist poll found that “being a better person” tops the list.
  “For many people, this is generally a time of year when there is reflection about how their year has gone, and what they’re looking forward to in the coming year,&rdqu
  
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• Top 10 things that we talked about at the water cooler in 2016

  31-12-2016 22:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Index
  Public safety
  What’s in a name?
  An actor, musician and portraitist
  Staying abreast of Twitter
  Pot on Black Friday
  Housing and economy
  Animals in the news
  Celebrating diversity
  How’s the weather?
  Traffic issuesIt’s the end of the year and that means we’re looking back at KTOO’s most popular stories. For 2016, we’re keeping the list to stories KTOO produced with specific ties to Juneau. Some serial stories are lumped into one entry.
  In no particu
  
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• Watch and listen to KTOO’s 2016 concerts

  31-12-2016 21:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  In the spirit of year-end retrospectives, we put together a one-hour special highlighting the concerts we produced in 2016. Listen here:http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2016/12/2016_hour_special_mixdown.mp3Performers include (click on name to watch video where available): Sophia Street, Collette Costa and friends, Playboy Spaceman, HARM, Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder, Harrison B, The Carper Family, Improbabilies, Forhorn, Whisky Class, The Hannah Yoter Band, Stephen Blanchet, Nicole Churc
  
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• DHSS wants consumers to be informed about marijuana edibles

  31-12-2016 20:00
  
  By the time its doors open at noon on Monday, Anchorage’s Arctic Herbery will be stocked with roughly 1,000 packages of marijuana edibles.
  If you haven’t tried an edible before, there are a few things the state’s chief medical officer says you should know.
  “It’s absorbed through the gut, so it’s a much slower process than inhaling or using marijuana products in another way,” said Dr. Jay Butler. “You can think that maybe there’s no effect, an
  
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• UPDATE: Standoff suspect freed after prosecution declines to pursue charge

  31-12-2016 14:44
  
  Last updated at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31
  Two people surrendered to police following an hours-long standoff at an east Anchorage mobile home park early Saturday morning.
  APD sent out a Nixle alert around 12:18 a.m. Saturday warning residents of a SWAT presence in the area of the Glencaren Court mobile home park. Multiple police units were called to the area and remained on scene for hours.
  “Jedidiah, we know you’re inside we saw you looking out the window,” police s
  
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• SWAT takes suspect wanted on felony warrants into custody after hours-long standoff

  31-12-2016 14:44
  
  Last updated at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31
  Two people surrendered to police following an hours-long standoff at an east Anchorage mobile home park early Saturday morning.
  APD sent out a Nixle alert around 12:18 a.m. Saturday warning residents of a SWAT presence in the area of the Glencaren Court mobile home park. Multiple police units were called to the area and remained on scene for hours.
  “Jedidiah, we know you’re inside we saw you looking out the window,” poli
  
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• Suspect in hours-long standoff not charged after no warrants found, DA says

  31-12-2016 14:44
  
  Last updated at 5:01 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31
  Two people surrendered to police following an hours-long standoff at an east Anchorage mobile home park early Saturday morning.
  The Anchorage Police Department sent out a Nixle alert around 12:18 a.m. Saturday warning residents of a SWAT presence in the area of the Glencaren Court mobile home park. Multiple police units were called to the area and remained on scene for hours.
  “Jedidiah, we know you’re inside we saw you loo
  
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• 2 surrender to police following overnight standoff in east Anchorage

  31-12-2016 14:44
  
  Two people surrendered to police following an hours-long standoff at an east Anchorage mobile home park early Saturday morning.
  APD sent out a nixle alert around 12:18 a.m. Saturday warning residents of a SWAT presence in the area of Glencaren Court mobile home park. Multiple units were called to the area and remained on scene for hours. Police used loud sirens and repeatedly asked a man named Jedediah to come out of the home.
  Shortly before 4 a.m., officers blasted the door off t
  
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• Inside the Gates: How military families cope with deployment

  31-12-2016 07:42
  
  Deployment is one of the biggest hardships military families face. At Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, spouses missing their service members have support to help them through the separation.
  The Baker family has been away their airman for the last five months.
  Senior Airman Brian Baker is currently deployed in Afghanistan. It’s the first time he’s been away from his wife Megan and two children, Annabelle, age 4, and Brayden, age 14 months.
  Megan is left to handle th
  
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• Alaska hunting, fishing license fees will increase in 2017

  31-12-2016 05:51
  
  Hunting and fishing in Alaska will cost everyone a bit more beginning January 1, 2017.
  Earlier this year the Alaska Legislature passed House Bill 137 to boost the prices for both residents and non-residents. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten said hunting fees haven’t gone up in 24 years and it’s been a decade since the fees for fishing licenses were raised.
  The biggest price increase will be seen by non-resident big game tags, which essentially double. P
  
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• Alaska made $81k in marijuana taxes from first full month of sales

  31-12-2016 05:42
  
  Taxes from Alaska’s first full month of marijuana sales are in, and the tax director for the Alaska Department of Revenue, Ken Alper, says the state collected just over $81,000 in November.
  The state saw only $10,400 in pot taxes in October.
  At the moment, marijuana in Alaska is only taxed at the cultivation level. Buds bring in $50 per ounce and $15 for all other parts of the plant.
  Alper says November’s numbers are a good sign of what’s to come.
  “It’s a start
  
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• Fireworks in Alaska: Know the rules before New Year’s Eve

  31-12-2016 04:00
  
  Alaskans are getting ready to ring in the New Year, and the Valley is one of the few places in the state where people can set off their own fireworks without breaking the law.
  A steady stream of customers stopped by the Houston firework stands on Friday.
  Gorilla Fireworks manager Sam Parsons says this is their busiest time of year and people are spending big bucks on their own personal firework shows.
  “You can feel it building, more and more customers start coming, and everyone starts gett
  
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• Indian Valley Meats recalls smoked salmon over listeria concerns

  31-12-2016 02:49
  
  Indian Valley Meats is recalling a product over concerns it could be contaminated with Listeria.
  The company said its Hickory Smoked King Salmon, sold exclusively out of the Indian Gift Shop, has the potential to contain Listeria Monocytogenes, an organism that can cause serious illnesses in children, the elderly or people with weakened immune systems.
  The salmon has a blue label and white price sticker that says ‘Smoked King Salmon.’ It’s also dated July 21, 2016. The lot numb
  
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• Only in the Last Frontier: The biggest, oddest and most uniquely Alaska stories of 2016

  31-12-2016 01:51
  
  It’s easy to understand why the romance and mystic of Alaska burns just as fiercely as ever. It’s a place where a walk along frozen Fourth Avenue, in subzero temperatures, is a normal of a part of someone’s weekday office commute, where bears share trails with runners, and where vibrant lights dance above cities, open tundra and tiny villages unheard of by much of the world. And every year, we marvel at the stories told by the hearty Alaskans, who are as much a part o
  
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• Juneau’s biggest stories of 2016

  31-12-2016 01:32 via ktoo.org
  
  
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2016/12/30JNU2016XL.mp3Here’s a run down of Juneau’s biggest stories of 2016.
  A snarky bumper sticker pokes fun at the “Build the Road” controversy. It was spotted in Juneau on March 11, 2014. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
  A divisive, decades-old community bumper sticker issue was put to rest for foreseeable future. To save money, Gov. Bill Walker announced he was effectively killing the mega-project to extend Juneau’s main roa
  
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• Fairbanks police arrest 2 suspects in Dec. 13 shooting

  31-12-2016 01:23
  
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Fairbanks police have arrested two people suspected of involvement in a shooting two weeks ago that left a man seriously wounded.
  Police say 19-year-old Curtis Frary and 21-year-old Niikia Brown are charged with felony assault in the shooting of 28-year-old Lawrence Perdue.
  A witness called police just before 10:30 p.m. Dec. 13 to report four to five shots fired on Stewart Street east of Growden Park. The witness also reported a silver sedan leaving the area at hig
  
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• UAA’s Alaska Airlines Center receives national praise

  31-12-2016 01:21
  
  Photo from Facebook
  Most of the time it’s about the athletes or the coaches. But every now and then, the constant is recognized. On Thursday, the Alaska Airlines Center received its due.
  A building just a couple of years old was named the best place to watch a Division II college basketball games by herosports.com.
  “To see the recognition for the Alaska Airlines Center, all the work that went into building the place, to see the fans reaction, it’s just fantastic,” said C
  
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• Monitoring Bogoslof: How life responds to volcanic destruction

  31-12-2016 00:47 via ktoo.org
  
  Even with the formation of new land, Bogoslof Island has shrunk. (Courtesy Chris Waythomas, AVO/USGS)
  Bogoslof Island is an important breeding ground for marine mammals and seabirds making it the perfect place to monitor how life responds to volcanic destruction.
  The island is tiny. But it’s hard to say how tiny because the shape and size of the island are changing almost constantly since the eruptions started December 16. While recent eruptions have added new land, Chris Waythomas of the
  
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• Juneau homicide case coming to a close after two years

  31-12-2016 00:07 via ktoo.org
  
  Christopher Kenney’s ashes sit next to one of his wood carvings on a table stand in his brother Rob Kenney’s house. (Photo by Lisa Phu/KTOO)
  A former Juneau resident arrested in the death of her boyfriend will likely serve 16 years in prison.
  Nora Edith Thomas will be sentenced for the stabbing death of Christopher Kenney.
  He was 50 years old in November 2014 when he was injured with a knife in his Gruening Park apartment.
  Thomas, then 26 and his live-in girlfriend, called 911.
  
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• As U.S. confronts Russia, Trump’s admiration of Putin is consistent

  31-12-2016 00:00 via ktoo.org
  
  President-elect Donald Trump is unabashedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, a day after outgoing President Obama issued tough sanctions against the country in response to alleged cyberattacks intended to influence the U.S. elections.
  In a tweet Friday afternoon, Trump responded to Putin’s decision not to expel U.S. diplomats from Russia in kind after Obama ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the country — admiring the Russian leader’s strategic approach over Presid
  
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