Anchorage news

• Spinning for a cause with Revolutions on Super Bowl weekend

  23-01-2017 23:46
  
  Spinning and burning calories for a cause the day before Super Bowl 51. Revolutions is a fundraiser for Anchorage Project Access. Spinning is a term used for indoor cycling exercises with other people in a group.
  The nonprofit has been in Anchorage for the past decade and coordinates donated health care for those that need it. According to Kristi Holta, there are still thousands of Alaskans that don’t have insurance. Anchorage Project Access works with 600 healthcare providers that volunte
  
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• Teacher of the Week: Kaity Williamson

  23-01-2017 23:42
  
  For Kaity Williamson, teaching is her dream job.
  “Everyday is different, the kids are awesome,” she explained.
  Williamson is a biology teacher at Service High School and is helping her students explore careers in biomedical sciences. “Health care is definitely an up and coming need in this nation and our kids are hopefully going to fill a void,” Williamson said.
  Williamson helped co-found the Biomedical Career Academy (BCA) at Service.
  “I want to say almost all
  
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• Soldotna hockey captain suspended from weekend play over racist tweets

  23-01-2017 23:18 via ktoo.org
  
  A senior on the Soldotna High School hockey team was suspended from play over the weekend after posting racist comments on social media.
  The player was a team captain but did not participate in games in Anchorage over the weekend.
  Posts on his personal Twitter account, one dated Thursday and one dated Friday, quickly went viral around the state, in which the posts made denigrating remarks about Alaska Natives, homosexuals and the former first family.
  The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District a
  
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• Seward declares state of emergency after heavy snowfall

  23-01-2017 23:16
  
  Courtesy of Norm Regis
  Heavy snowfall caused the City of Seward to declare a state of emergency Saturday, according to a letter written by Seward city manager Jim Hunt.
  In the document, dated Jan. 21, Hunt said city crews were managing roads “as well as it can” and noted that emergency service areas had been cleared. The letter also stated snow dump sites were nearly full, the Public Works crew was stretched thin and the next storm was expected Monday.
  The letter went on to say that
  
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• Alaska man caught with meth on ferry sentenced to prison

  23-01-2017 22:54 via ktoo.org
  
  JUNEAU — A 21-year-old man caught transporting methamphetamine on a ferry running between Washington state and Ketchikan, Alaska, has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison.
  The Juneau Empire reported Sunday that Jason Corey Vincent Alto was sentenced last week to 20 months in prison.
  Court documents say Alto was stopped by Alaska troopers in May after a K-9 alerted troopers to the more than 3 pounds of meth in his luggage.
  Federal prosecutors called it the single largest seizure of
  
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• Coast Guard rescues downed pilot near Shelikof Strait

  23-01-2017 22:37 via ktoo.org
  
  The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a pilot who crashed near Shelikof Strait on Sunday afternoon.
  The pilot reportedly crashed his single-engine Super Cub airplane while attempting to land in deep snow on Hallo Glacier Lake, about 75 miles northwest of Kodiak, according to a Jan. 23 news release.
  A Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew received a mayday call from the pilot.
  The Jayhawk crew lowered an aviation survival technician to help right the aircraft and transported the uninjured pilot t
  
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• 13 inches of weekend snow boosts Anchorage into record books

  23-01-2017 22:36
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Winter conditions more closely associated with Alaska have returned to the state’s largest city after two years of low snowfall totals.
  National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Duell says Anchorage has received 23.8 inches of snow so far in January.
  That’s the second highest total for the start of a calendar year since records began being taken at the airport in 1953. The highest snowfall 23 days into a new year was 26.6 inches of snow in 2007. Co
  
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• Meet The Republican Governors Who Don’t Want To Repeal All Of Obamacare

  23-01-2017 22:14 via ktoo.org
  
  As congressional Republicans begin work on repealing the Affordable Care Act, many of the nation’s governors want to make sure that their state budgets don’t take a hit during the dismantling process.
  They’re most concerned about Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor that’s run jointly by the states and federal government. As a result of a Supreme Court decision, states were allowed to decide whether they would expand Medicaid under the ACA; 14 million peopl
  
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• Officer smashes window to save woman trapped in burning car

  23-01-2017 21:57
  
  SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – A woman who was trapped in a burning car is hailing a Washington state officer as a hero after he bashed in her window and pulled her to safety, a rescue caught on the officer’s body camera.
  Video shows Officer Tim Schwering of the city of Spokane repeatedly smashing the window with a baton as flames shoot from the hood of the car on a snowy street.
  He eventually cracked a hole for Kim Novak to fit through and pulled her out.
  Novak told Spokane news station KREM
  
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• Destructive storms soak, batter and bury communities around the country

  23-01-2017 21:21 via ktoo.org
  
  Multiple destructive storm systems damaged property and killed at least 19 people over the weekend, and continued to batter much of the U.S. with rain, snow and wind today.
  All 19 reported deaths were in the South, where apparent tornadoes ripped through towns over the weekend, damaging and destroying buildings in multiple states.
  “Trailers are just flat, just laid on top of people,” Debbie Van Brackel, a volunteer EMT in Adel, Ga., told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. &l
  
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• Trump signs 3 executive orders, including withdrawal from Pacific trade deal

  23-01-2017 19:19 via ktoo.org
  
  President Trump acted on Monday to keep a signature campaign promise: withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
  Trump’s action, an executive order, is mostly symbolic.
  As he signed the order in the Oval Office, Trump said, “We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” adding it’s “a great thing for the American worker.”
  Trump also signed two other executive orders, though NPR has not seen the official language on the orders yet. One is exp
  
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• Fairbanks finds police chief conducted other business on job

  23-01-2017 18:41
  
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – The Fairbanks mayor’s office says a former city police chief did have a conflict of interest that barred him from the job.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Friday Mayor Jim Matherly’s office said in a news release that the investigation into former Fairbanks Police Chief Randall Aragon’s personal security-survey business is complete and substantiated allegations of conflict-of-interest violations.
  Aragon was accused of using his positi
  
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• Arctic Valley gets enough snow to open for skiing

  23-01-2017 08:43
  
  With more than a foot of fresh snow, the Arctic Valley Ski Area opened Sunday for the first time this season.
  “Me and my buddies came out thinking we’re just going to get a couple turns, a couple laps in,” said snowboarder Reynaldo Perez-Figueredo. “It ended up being an all-day affair and some deep, awesome powder.”
  They kicked off the season with a membership free ski day and $10 lift tickets.
  “We had all three parking lots full, everybody walking out wi
  
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• Alaska protesters join women’s marches amid subzero temps

  23-01-2017 04:22 via ktoo.org
  
  Protesters dusted in snow and bundled against subzero temperatures were among those who marched in Alaska to show solidarity with the women’s march on Washington.
  Pink hats dotted the Anchorage crowd Saturday as marchers pushed through a winter storm and held signs with slogans including “Women’s rights are human rights.”
  Fairbanks protesters faced temperatures that hovered around 20 below zero. It was minus 16 degrees for marchers in Barrow.
  As protesters gathered at the
  
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• Heavy snow collapses sports facility dome

  23-01-2017 04:20 via ktoo.org
  
  Heavy snow has collapsed the roof of an Anchorage sports complex.
  The Dome is closed and all events have been postponed until repairs can be made.
  Pressurized air along with cables and pipes support the dome.
  Officials had evacuated the building when the roof started to sag.
  It collapsed Saturday night.
  A statement from facility management says no one was injured.
  It’s unclear when The Dome will reopen.
  
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• Blizzard warning issued for Unalaska area

  23-01-2017 04:20 via ktoo.org
  
  The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the Unalaska area for Sunday.
  The Unalaska Department of Public Safety released a statement Saturday saying winds up to 80 mph and heavy snow will produce white-out conditions in the city on the Aleutian Islands.
  Officials urge residents to secure loose objects that could be blown around and damage property.
  The blizzard warning is in effect from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  Motorists are warned to exercise caution.
  
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• Strong harvests, more oversight marked 2016 groundfish fisheries

  23-01-2017 04:18 via ktoo.org
  
  Alaska Pollock. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)
  Last year was a good year overall for groundfish fisheries in the region.
  With a few standout harvests and favorable proposals with the Board of Fisheries, managers are feeling optimistic heading into the new year.
  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game oversees several groundfish fisheries within the Cook Inlet Management Area, which extends outside of Kachemak Bay to the north Gulf coast.
  “These fisheries include Paci
  
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• Craig Tribal Association’s land-into-trust application approved

  23-01-2017 04:17 via ktoo.org
  
  The Department of the Interior announced approval of Craig Tribal Association’s land-into-trust application on January 13.  This is the first application from Alaska to be approved since the Interior Department issued a revised rule in 2014 expelling the “Alaska exception.”
  Craig Tribal Association’s application places a 1.08-acre parcel into federal Indian trust status. Tribal president Clinton Cook Sr. says the association applied for the status change to protect C
  
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• Trump Aide Says He Won’t Release Tax Returns, Claiming Most People Don’t Care

  23-01-2017 01:06 via ktoo.org
  
  President Donald Trump speaks during a White House senior staff swearing-in ceremony at the White House on Sunday. Andrew Harnik/AP
  A top aide to President Donald Trump says he won’t release his tax returns, insisting that voters aren’t concerned about the issue.
  “The White House response is he’s not going to release his tax returns,” said Trump’s senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, on ABC’s “This Week.”
  “We litigated this all through the
  
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• Republican Plan To Replace Obamacare Would Turn Medicaid Over To States

  23-01-2017 01:05 via ktoo.org
  
  Within hours of taking the oath of office, new President Donald Trump signed his first executive order in the Oval Office while the press looked on. Evan Vucci/AP
  Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, told NBC News’s Sunday Today with Willie Geist, that the health care law that will replace Obamacare will turn Medicaid — a joint state-federal health insurance program for the poor — into a block grant program. The change would mean the federal government would give money to th
  
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• President of Gambia Leaves For Exile, Allowing For First Peaceful Transfer Of Power

  23-01-2017 01:05 via ktoo.org
  
  Adama Barrow was sworn in as President of Gambia at Gambia’s embassy in Dakar, Senegal on Thursday in the nation’s first peaceful and democratic transfer of power. AP
  After weeks of uncertainty and political tension, the longtime ruler of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, has boarded a plane to fly into exile.
  On Dec. 1, Jammeh lost an election to Adama Barrow in a shocking upset. Initially, Jammeh accepted the result — then, a week later, he changed his mind. He issued a state of emergenc
  
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