Anchorage news

• Mic Check in the Morning: The Midnight Sons

  10-02-2017 23:24
  
  Looking for a unique gift this Valentine’s Day? The a cappella chorus, “The Midnight Sons” have some packages ranging from just a song, a rose and card, all the way up to a dozen roses, a box of chocolate and a gift card to a local restaurant. Nothing says “I love you” like four dashing men in tuxedos showing up and serenading someone’s sweetheart.
  According to their website, the $45 dollar package will get that special someone a singing Valentine at a non-spe
  
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• Sole eyewitness in Strawn homicide case begins her testimony

  10-02-2017 22:26 via ktoo.org
  
  Tiffany Johnson née Albertson testifies Wednesday during the Christopher Strawn homicide trial. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
  The prosecution’s main witness took the stand Thursday in the Christopher Strawn homicide trial that’s underway in Juneau Superior Court.
  Tiffany Johnson, formerly known as Tiffany Albertson, testified about how she first met and befriended Brandon Cook, and how they helped each other in the weeks and months leading up to his death.
  Strawn is accused of k
  
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• Daybreak Adopt-A-Pet: Feb. 10, 2017

  10-02-2017 22:00
  
  From Anchorage Animal Care and Control:
  Chilla:
  Chilla the Chinchilla is inquisitive and playful. But be sure to provide them a multi-tiered habitat so you can watch them jump and climb. If they are well-socialized they like to cuddle with you but be careful handling them as they have fragile rib cages.Llia and Mir:
  Guinea pigs are gentle and communicative animals. They like to have time out of their cage every day – sitting in your lap and nibbling lettuce is lots of fun. They are social
  
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• One refugee’s story of fleeing war and finding love

  10-02-2017 21:41 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Marie Claire Mukambuguje and her husband, Faustin Murengezi, pose with three of their children. (Photo by Anne Hillman/Alaska Public Media)
  Refugee stories are often about fear: people fleeing their homes because they fear for their safety. But they can also be stories of joy.
  One Anchorage woman and her family took a path from war to love, and finally, to Alaska.http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170209-06.mp3Marie Claire Mukambuguje fled Rwanda during the genocide in 1994 only to find herself ca
  
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• Citing poor trail conditions, Iditarod moves restart to Fairbanks

  10-02-2017 21:35
  
  Behind closed doors the Iditarod’s board of directors made what race marshall Mark Nordman described as a “hard decision” in a “somber” room. Iditarod 2017’s restart is moving to Fairbanks for the third time in the race’s history.
  The Iditarod Trail Committee’s board of directors spent more than an hour in executive session deliberating the decision.
  Citing poor snow conditions in the Rainy Pass and Dalzell Gorge area, the Iditarod Trail Committee
  
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• Fire completely destroys two-story building in Fairview neighborhood

  10-02-2017 21:27
  
  John Thain / KTVA
  Last updated at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10
  Smoke was visible throughout much of downtown Anchorage late Friday morning as the Anchorage Fire Department responded to a structure fire in the Fairview neighborhood.
  The fire was located in a residential area near 14th Avenue and Karluk Street.
  No injuries have been reported at the scene and the single-family home was a “total loss,” according to AFD Chief Dennis LeBlanc.
  “The roof caved in and we’re
  
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• Fairview structure completely destroyed in blaze

  10-02-2017 21:27
  
  John Thain / KTVA
  Last updated at 5:40 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10
  Smoke was visible throughout much of downtown Anchorage late Friday morning as the Anchorage Fire Department responded to a structure fire in the Fairview neighborhood.
  Crews responded to the fire, located in a residential area near 14th Avenue and Karluk Street, at around 10 a.m. Surrounding buildings were evacuated as firefighters fought the blaze throughout the afternoon.
  “I just smelled smoke and heard sirens, and then I o
  
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• Crews respond to house fire in Fairview neighborhood

  10-02-2017 21:27
  
  John Thain / KTVA
  Last updated at 11:40 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 10
  Smoke is visible throughout much of downtown Anchorage as the Anchorage Fire Department works to put out a structure fire in the Anchorage’s Fairview neighborhood.
  The fire is located in a residential area near 14th Avenue and Karluk Street.
  No injuries have been reported at the scene and the single-family home is a “total loss,” according to AFD Chief Dennis LeBlanc.
  “The roof caved in and we&rsqu
  
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• Alaska House bill pitches income tax, using oil-wealth fund

  10-02-2017 21:13
  
  A fiscal plan proposed by Alaska House leaders would reinstitute a personal state income tax for the first time in decades and use earnings from Alaska’s oil-wealth fund to help pay for government.
  The measure would annually draw from fund earnings 4.75 percent of an average of the fund’s market value. One-third of the draw would pay for the annual dividends Alaskans receive from the fund. The rest would go to the state treasury.
  The bill also establishes an income tax under which pe
  
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• Trump transition limits EPA participation in Alaska environmental conference

  10-02-2017 21:11 via ktoo.org
  
  Participants at the Alaska Forum on the Environment in downtown Anchorage on Feb. 9, 2017. (Photo by Rachel Waldholz/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  Trump transition officials ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to limit its participation in an Alaska environmental conference this week.
  The Alaska Forum on the Environment gathers more than a thousand people in downtown Anchorage each year to discuss topics ranging from rural drinking water and sanitation to climate change. Thirty-four E
  
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• In joint conference, Trump and Abe laud alliance as ‘cornerstone of peace’

  10-02-2017 21:09 via ktoo.org
  
  At a joint news conference Friday, President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to shed any perceptions of mistrust between two countries that have been longtime allies. In no uncertain terms, both leaders upheld their friendly relations — both diplomatic and personal — as an alliance with a bright future.
  The U.S.-Japan friendship is the “cornerstone of peace and stability in the Pacific region,” President Trump told reporters gathered in the East Room a
  
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• Tribe works on new regulations for Kenai River fishing net

  10-02-2017 20:20
  
  An Alaska Native tribe is working to implement new regulations for its fishing net in the Kenai River that address conservation concerns.
  The Peninsula Clarion reported Wednesday that Ninilchik Traditional Council Executive Director Ivan Encelewski says the organization has been in discussions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a settlement that details new guidelines for the gillnet. He says the rules will provide for more subsistence opportunities and conservation.
  The settlement comes
  
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• Bill requiring police training on disabilities advances

  10-02-2017 19:44
  
  Alaska lawmakers have passed a bill aimed at improving interactions between law enforcement and people with disabilities.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the House passed the legislation in a unanimous vote on Wednesday. It now goes to the Senate.
  Fairbanks Republican Rep. Steve Thompson drafted the bill with help from disability advocacy groups.
  Under the legislation, law enforcement officers would be required to receive training to help them better identify people with disabilities
  
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• Snow continues Friday in Southcentral with cold snap expected this weekend

  10-02-2017 19:11
  
  Drivers in Southcentral Alaska are in a for a snowy commute on Friday, with scattered snow showers expected to continue through the day and into the evening.
  Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley are forecast to see 1 to 3 inches of accumulation on Friday, with higher amounts on the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound.
  A winter weather advisory is in effect until 6 a.m. Saturday for eastern Turnagain Arm to Whittier, where 5 to 9 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 50 mph are possible. Sn
  
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• North Star Elementary families celebrate diversity

  10-02-2017 18:23
  
  Hours after the news broke that President Donald Trump’s immigration ban would not be reinstated, dozens packed the North Star Elementary School gym for the annual North Star multicultural family night, a chance to showcase and celebrate the many cultures that make up one of the most diverse schools in the country.
  “Especially now, appreciating our differences and cultures and teaching kids that it doesn’t matter what language you speak, we are all the same, we have the same he
  
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• Happiness is orange at Hoonah City Schools

  10-02-2017 18:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Hoonah City Schools Superintendent PJ Ford Slack, right, sits in on the Orange Frog training, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. (Photo by Quinton Chandler/KTOO)
  This story starts with Superintendent of Hoonah City Schools, PJ Ford Slack. Hoonah is a small village on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska.
  Slack came here as an “emergency replacement” for the district’s last superintendent and when she got to work, she noticed something.
  “The adults were really not happy. That didn&rs
  
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• Straw owns the day as Iditarod start approaches

  10-02-2017 17:21
  
  It’s not a question of what, but where — I’m referring to straw.
  It was yet another sign that the Iditarod is fast approaching. At Air Land Transport in Anchorage on Thursday, volunteers prepared 1,635 bales of straw bound for checkpoints across this year’s race.
  But where will that straw be headed?
  With questions still lingering on whether the re-start will be in Willow or Fairbanks due to questionable conditions at the Dalzell Gorge and Rainy Pass, only the shipmen
  
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• State consultants recommend consolidating state corporations

  10-02-2017 12:41 via ktoo.org
  
  This is one of many slides the Boston Consulting Group presented to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017.
  Last August the state of Alaska hired consultants under an $800,000 contract to study opportunities for savings and consolidation in three state corporations: Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the Alaska Energy Authority and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.
  The corporations collectively manage over $3 billion in assets, according to the A
  
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• Southeast Conference recommends making Alaska Marine Highway a public corporation

  10-02-2017 07:15
  
  In the last five years, the price of a ferry ticket in Southeast Alaska has gone up 30 percent, and schedules have become increasingly unpredictable. That’s why the economic development organization, Southeast Conference, is recommending the Alaska Marine Highway become a public corporation.
  Much like the Alaska Railroad, the Marine Highway would have a board of directors under the new model. Those directors would have a more long-term focus on ferry operations and how to reduce rates by s
  
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• Anchorage Opera offers free performance of ‘Glory Denied’ for veterans

  10-02-2017 06:41
  
  “Glory Denied” is the story of Jim Thompson, the United States’ longest held prisoner of war. He was held captive for nine years during the Vietnam War.
  The book by Tom Philpott was transformed into an opera that’s been performed around the country. On Friday, it opens here in Anchorage.
  Four actors play a younger and older version of Army officer Thompson and his wife, Alyce, and portray their struggles during and after the war.
  “It’s a focus like I’ve
  
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• Wasilla husky prepares to compete at Westminster Kennel Club dog show

  10-02-2017 06:13
  
  Every February, nearly 3,000 canines and their owners pack Madison Square Garden for two days of ferocious competition.
  This year, the 141st annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will feature a face familiar to Alaska.
  Riot is a 3-year-old Siberian husky from Wasilla who is ready to perform, unfazed, under the critical eye of the world’s top dog show judges.
  His owner, Stevie Collins, has been a dog handler for decades but says this is the first time she’ll take her very own p
  
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• Alaska expected to see increase in cruise ship passengers this year

  10-02-2017 05:57
  
  At 1 million passengers, 2016 was considered a great year for the cruise ship industry in Alaska. But, 2017 could be even better.
  Sarah Leonard, president of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, says demand is up for Alaska cruises with some lines adding more ships and sailings.
  Holland America has plans to bring back the Oosterdam from Europe to sail in Alaska this summer.
  Crystal Cruises, which offered a historic journey on a luxury liner through the Northwest Passage last fall, plans to do
  
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• Reluctant to comply with REAL ID, Alaska faces possible barrier to flying

  10-02-2017 04:34 via ktoo.org
  
  Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, after a floor session in July. He sponsored the 2008 law barring the state from spending money to comply with the federal REAL ID Act. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
  Alaska law bars the state government from spending money to comply with the federal REAL ID Act. Starting next January, the federal government will require Alaska residents boarding commercial flights to have ID cards that meet REAL ID standards.
  Under House Bill 74 and Senate Bill 34, Ala
  
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• Reality Check w/ John Tracy: Let’s talk about climate change

  10-02-2017 04:19
  
  Imagine what it must have been like to have been a dinosaur.
  Lords of their universe. Top of the food chain.
  They were going to live forever, only to be taken out by a glitch in the system called global climate change.
  It’s little more than hubris to think that we humans will be around forever. The science doesn’t support it — 99 percent of the species that have ever lived on this planet are now extinct.
  Today, science tells us sea ice is declining, glaciers are retreating and
  
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• State coffers won’t cover cost of cleanup if oil companies walk away

  10-02-2017 03:16 via ktoo.org
  
  Cook Inlet oil platforms are visible from shore near Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  The agency that oversees oil and gas drilling in the state says it doesn’t collect nearly enough money to clean up wells in case companies walk away. Regulators say the recent influx of small, private companies means Alaska risks shouldering the cost of abandoned wells. State lawmakers are receptive to addressing the issue.
  Cleaning up after an oil or gas well in Alask
  
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• Alaska regulators raid pot stores over oil sales

  10-02-2017 03:06
  
  Last updated at 6:07 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9
  Alaska marijuana regulators raided several retail pot shops that appeared to be selling oil made from marijuana plants in violation of state law.
  The Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, in a Thursday release, said enforcement officers seized items from several stores in the state that contained cannabidiol oil and appeared to be offered for sale.
  Cannabidiol is non-psychoactive. But the office says such oils fall outside the scope of current
  
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• Alaska regulators raid pot stores over cannabidiol oil sales

  10-02-2017 03:06
  
  Shelves sit empty at Green Jar after state officials seized cannabidiol oil products Thursday. (Caleb Saunders)
  Last updated at 6:07 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9
  Alaska marijuana regulators raided several retail pot shops that appeared to be selling oil made from marijuana plants in violation of state law.
  The Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, in a Thursday release, said enforcement officers seized items from several stores in the state that contained cannabidiol oil and appeared to be o
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 2-10-17

  10-02-2017 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Friday, February 10, 20178 am Crosscurrents with Ricky D
  10 am Soundings – Jazz with John Gaguine
  Noon Cool Jazz Countdown
  1 pm Performance Today – Classical Music
  3 pm Millennium of Music – Classical Music
  4:00 A Juneau Afternoon
  5 pm Tidelines with Brian Nichols
  7 pmSouthern Exposure with Red Stuart
  9 pm Far True – New Soul with NautFriday on A Juneau Afternoon, Andy Kline will be your host.
  Juneau residents and newly minted filmmakers, Sydney Akagi & Kayla Roys wil
  
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• Appeals court rejects bid to reinstate Trump’s travel ban

  10-02-2017 00:36 via ktoo.org
  
  A federal appeals court has unanimously rejected a Trump administration request to allow its travel ban to take effect.
  The three-judge appeals panel declined to overturn a lower court’s order suspending the president’s ban against entry into the United States from seven majority-Muslim nations.
  The travel ban was put on hold by federal district Judge James L. Robart of Seattle, who issued a nationwide restraining order on Feb. 3. Robart said that the two states challenging the ban,
  
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• US court refuses to reinstate Trump’s travel ban

  10-02-2017 00:18
  
  Last updated at 3:25 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal appeals court in San Francisco has refused to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
  The panel of three judges noted that Washington state and Minnesota had raised serious allegations about religious discrimination. Their decision was unanimous.
  The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday wouldn’t block a lower-court ruling that suspended the
  
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• Man arrested after vehicle theft, police chase and standoff with Anchorage police

  10-02-2017 00:13
  
  Anchorage police arrested a 29-year-old man early Thursday morning, following a vehicle theft, police chase and standoff with law enforcement.
  According to a release from the Anchorage Police Department, an employee with Susitna Services called to report a stolen work truck, after it was discovered missing at 11 a.m. Wednesday. It had been parked, locked, in a vacant lot, near Raspberry Road, and was last scene at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
  At 10:21 p.m. Wednesday, a Susitna Services employee called police
  
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