Anchorage news

• Getting the zydeco experience with Terrance Simien

  22-03-2017 22:04
  
  Grammy Award winner Terrance Simien will be in Anchorage all week giving Alaskans a taste of zydeco music. Simien will be joined by his band, The Zydeco Experience, on Friday, March 24 for a concert at the Performing Arts Center downtown.
  According to Simien, Zydeco is a style of music of the first-speaking Creole people of Southern Louisiana. It covers a wide variety of genres, but is generally upbeat and has influences of rhythm and blues. The defining features are the two lead instr
  
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• New leadership at Juneau’s electric utility

  22-03-2017 21:37 via ktoo.org
  
  AEL&P headquarters in Lemon Creek. (Photo by Casey Kelly/KTOO)
  The president of Juneau’s electric utility announced on Wednesday that he’s retiring after 34 years. Tim McLeod started his career at Alaska Electric Light & Power in 1983 as an engineer. In 2002, he was promoted to president.
  He says one of his biggest achievements during his decades-long career was the construction of the Lake Dorothy hydro project. That project included selling surplus energy to Princess Cruise
  
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• After 30 years, Raven Shark pole back in Sitka

  22-03-2017 21:04 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The top of the Raven Shark totem pole lies in Totem Hall at Sitka National Historical Park. (Photo by Emily Russell/KCAW)
  The totem pole is an icon of the Pacific Northwest. The carved art form showcases clan stories and family crests in museums around the world.
  After more than 30 years in the Anchorage Museum, a century-old pole from Southeast has made it back to Sitka, where curators are prepping a permanent home.http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170321-08.mp3It’s a little echoey inside
  
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• Anchorage police looking for missing 14-year-old

  22-03-2017 20:52
  
  An Anchorage 14-year-old girl has been missing since Tuesday, according to the Anchorage Police Department. Now, the agency is asking for the public’s help locating her.
  Anchorage Police Department
  Sally Ann Oktollik left her home, on the 3200 block of Penland Parkway, at 5 p.m. Tuesday to head to the Northway Mall. APD said she was expected home by 9 p.m., but never returned. Her family has not seen or heard from her.
  According to police, her friends were contacted and said Oktollik was a
  
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• Anchorage police locate missing 14-year-old

  22-03-2017 20:52
  
  Last updated at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22
  Anchorage police said Sally Oktollik has been located and is safe.
  The announcement came Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after her disappearance.
  Original story
  An Anchorage 14-year-old girl has been missing since Tuesday, according to the Anchorage Police Department. Now, the agency is asking for the public’s help locating her.
  Anchorage Police Department
  Sally Ann Oktollik left her home, on the 3200 block of Penland Parkway, a
  
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• Longtime leader Rosita Worl to leave Sealaska board

  22-03-2017 20:38 via ktoo.org
  
  Longtime Sealaska regional Native corporation board member Rosita Worl will step down as a director in June. She will continue to head up the Sealaska Heritage Institute. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
  One of the Sealaska regional Native corporation’s longest-serving leaders is stepping down.
  Rosita Worl has spent 30 years on the Juneau-based corporation’s board of directors. She said she’s been thinking about leaving for a while.
  “I probably would have resigned three ye
  
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• Murkowski at odds with Trump’s call to end NEA funding

  22-03-2017 20:22 via ktoo.org
  
  
  U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks to reporters in one of the Senate’s more ornate rooms. (Photo by Liz Ruskin/Alaska Public Media)
  President Donald Trump’s budget outline calls for eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
  The NEA has been a frequent target of Republicans, but U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski supports the endowment, and Tuesday she won the 2017 Congressional Arts Leadership Award.
  http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170321-03.mp3Americans for the Art
  
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• Thanksgiving hoops: 2017 GCI Great Alaska Shootout men’s field set

  22-03-2017 20:13
  
  The coming year will mark a major anniversary for the GCI Great Alaska Shootout basketball tournament — 40 years. And the host has already set the table.
  Even though it’s only March, the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) has announced the eight team men’s field for the Thanksgiving tradition.
  Three teams will travel north from California: California State University Bakersfield, Cal Poly and Santa Clara. Idaho, Sam Houston State, the College of Charleston and Centr
  
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• Juneau Afternoon–3-22-2017

  22-03-2017 20:07 via ktoo.org
  
  Wednesday on A Juneau Afternoon, Scott Burton hosts:
  The Git Hayetsk Dancers will preview their dance workshop and performance at UAS this weekend.
  
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• Former Trump campaign head Manafort was paid millions by a Putin ally, AP says

  22-03-2017 19:58 via ktoo.org
  
  A Russian billionaire paid former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort millions of dollars to boost the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press reports. The new allegations arise months after Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign amid concerns over his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
  “According to documents that we’ve reviewed, Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian oligarch who wanted him to promote Russian interests,” t
  
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• 4 Dead, More Than 20 Injured After Attack Near U.K. Parliament

  22-03-2017 19:47 via ktoo.org
  
  Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET.
  An attack mid-day Wednesday in the heart of London has caused at least four deaths and 20 injuries, according to police.
  Police say the dead include the suspected assailant, two civilians and an armed police officer who was defending Parliament.
  Authorities have declared the attack a “terrorist incident.” They say they believe there was a single attacker.
  Witnesses report that a small SUV barreled into pedestrians along the sidewalk of Westminster Bridge, cau
  
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• Video: Generating power from pollock

  22-03-2017 18:26 via ktoo.org
  
  Hoisted up from the Bering Sea, Alaska pollock finds its way into products that are distributed around the world. Sometimes, part of the fish doesn’t make it that far. Mark Hoffman, supervisor at the UniSea power plant, explains how the company uses some of its leftover fish oil.
  
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• UK lawmaker hailed as hero for helping policeman

  22-03-2017 16:51
  
  LONDON (AP) – The Latest on the incident outside Britain’s parliament (all times local):
  6:50 p.m.
  One British lawmaker was hailed by some as a hero in Wednesday’s attack on the British Parliament.
  Conservative parliamentarian and Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in the Bali terror attack in 2002, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the police officer who was stabbed and later died. About 10 yards away was the attacker who was shot dead by
  
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• Police treating UK parliament attack as terror

  22-03-2017 16:51
  
  LONDON (AP) – The Latest on reports of an incident outside Britain’s parliament (all times local):
  3:50 p.m.
  Witness Rick Longley told the Press Association that he saw a man stab a policeman outside Britain’s Parliament.
  “We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out,” he said.
  “They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just
  
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• 4 dead, including attacker, in car rampage, knife attack in London

  22-03-2017 16:51
  
  Last Updated Mar 22, 2017 11:38 AM EDT
  LONDON — A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage at the heart of Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, mowing down pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before stabbing an armed police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament.
  Four people were killed, including the attacker, and at least 20 people were injured, police said.
  Lawmakers, lords, staff and visitors were locked down as the man was shot by police within the perimet
  
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• Google Maps already tracks you; now other people can, too

  22-03-2017 16:10
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Google Maps users will soon be able to broadcast their movements to friends and family via the app – the latest test of how much privacy people are willing to sacrifice in an era of rampant sharing.
  The location-monitoring feature will begin rolling out Wednesday in an update to the Google Maps mobile app, which is already installed on most of the world’s smartphones.
  Google believes the new tool will be a more convenient way for people to let someone know
  
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• Official: Ban on electronics in carry-ons tracks back to 2016 bombing

  22-03-2017 08:23
  
  A new ban on most electronics in carry-ons on flights from eight mostly Middle Eastern and North African countries tracks back to a laptop bombing last year, a U.S. official says.
  Since the laptop bombing of an airliner out of Mogadishu in February 2016, there has been an accumulation of intelligence that convinced analysts that al Qaeda has developed the capability to hide explosives in batteries of the size used in laptops and tablets, a U.S. official told CBS News national security corre
  
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• Australia couple are 1st foreigners to own US radio stations

  22-03-2017 08:18
  
  An Australian couple with roots in Alaska has broken a longstanding barrier to full foreign ownership of U.S. radio stations.
  The Federal Communications Commission recently approved a request by Richard and Sharon Burns to increase their interest in 29 radio stations in Alaska, Texas and Arkansas from a combined 20 percent to 100 percent.
  It’s the first time the agency has permitted this and comes after the agency clarified rules that some broadcasters viewed as too severely restricting ou
  
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• Anchorage police investigate body found in homeless camp

  22-03-2017 08:10
  
  The homeless camp where the body was foundDaniella Rivera/KTVA The homeless camp where the body was foundDaniella Rivera/KTVA
  Tuesday night, the Anchorage Police Department responded to a parking lot off in the area of 26th Avenue and Barrow Street to investigate a body found in a homeless camp.
  Police said in a statement that a female’s body had been found in the camp, but did not elaborate on the manner of her death.
  Police said there were no suspects at large.APD looking at/d
  
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• When ice time is quality time, it can bring healing for some

  22-03-2017 07:34
  
  Most people wouldn’t consider the hockey rink a place to relax. But for some members of the military, it’s the perfect place.As part of the Alaska Warriors Hockey program, veterans who struggle with a variety of issues — many emotional — use time on the ice to get away from the daily pressures of life and whatever may trouble them.
  “Recreational therapy is an hour or two where you’re not thinking about you
  
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• How auto dealers can use GPS and ‘starter interrupter’ tech to disable your car

  22-03-2017 06:01
  
  The auto industry could be reshaped by a repossession device for cars. “Starter interrupter” technology makes a vehicle impossible to start after the owner misses a payment, but federal regulators are asking questions about how at least one auto finance company uses the equipment, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.
  Willie Conner needs a kidney transplant and gets dialysis five times a week. She needed a car, but she and her husband didn’t have a lot of money, so Car Cr
  
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• Troopers: Man’s body recovered from fire-destroyed Seward home

  22-03-2017 05:56
  
  A man’s body was found after an early morning fire in Seward on Tuesday, according to Alaska State Troopers.
  The fire was reported just after 4 a.m. at 12232 Merlin Dr., troopers wrote in an online dispatch. Crews from the Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department and the Seward Fire Department responded.
  Someone reported the home was occupied at the time of the fire, Around 5 a.m., “human remains were discovered inside the completely destroyed residence,” troopers wrote.
  While
  
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• Japanese company withdraws plans for $1 billion LNG plant at Port MacKenzie

  22-03-2017 05:36
  
  After four years of working with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Japanese-based firm Resources Energy Inc (REI), is withdrawing its plans to build a nearly $1 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Port MacKenzie.
  Borough manager John Moosey delivered the bad news to the port commission on Monday.
  “It’s something that we worked real hard hoping to obtain,” Moosey said. “It was like we had a goal and the goal got erased.”
  Moosey says he was shocked to receive an
  
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• Anchorage nonprofit needs diapers, clothing to help families in need

  22-03-2017 05:08
  
  When Pam Johnson, her partner, Josh Yates, and their two kids moved from Juneau to Anchorage so she could go to school, she didn’t count on another mouth to feed.
  “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I moved here, so I didn’t budget it into my budget to have a baby,” Johnson said.
  Her pregnancy left the family strapped for cash, so they turned to the PATHway Family Center for help.
  The Christian nonprofit, located at 639 W. International Airport Rd., provides clothin
  
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• Assembly proposal would ban RVs from camping in store parking lots

  22-03-2017 05:01
  
  The Anchorage Assembly is taking a look at a proposal to ban RVs from spending the night in store parking lots.
  Assemblyman Eric Croft planned to introduce the ordinance to ban overnight camping in commercial lots at Tuesday night’s Assembly meeting.
  It’s not the first time the issue has come up. Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson proposed and then dropped a similar ordinance last year after she received an unusually negative reaction from the public.
  Croft’s ordinance would cha
  
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• Lawmakers, municipalities in tug-of-war over ride-sharing control

  22-03-2017 04:47
  
  Last updated at 8:53 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21
  After public testimony and debate, the Anchorage Assembly passed an ordinance Tuesday night that would set up regulations for ride-sharing companies like Uber or Lyft. But the vote won’t mean much if the Alaska Legislature passes Senate Bill 14 this session.
  It all boils down to whether the state or municipalities should have the authority to make the rules for drivers with the companies.
  Sen. Mia Costello, sponsor of SB 14, calls Tuesday
  
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• Alaska city passes moratorium on gravesite reservations

  22-03-2017 04:44
  
  Kenai CemeteryCity of Kenai
  The city of Kenai in south-central Alaska is holding off on allowing residents to reserve gravesites in the city’s 10-acre cemetery.
  The Peninsula Clarion reports the City Council approved a moratorium on gravesite reservations last week. Reservations for living immediately family members of those buried in the cemetery will be the only ones allowed until additional space becomes available.
  The decision comes after Kenai officials started considering raising th
  
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• State report: Number of violent deaths on the rise

  22-03-2017 04:10
  
  A new report published by the Alaska Division of Public Health shows a rise in the number of violent deaths between 2012 and 2015.
  During that four-year period, 998 Alaskans died violently. The leading cause of violent death was suicide, making up 71 percent of the deaths. Homicide was the second-largest cause at 19 percent. Homicide deaths include instances when a law enforcement officer kills someone, otherwise known as legal intervention.
  Eighteen percent of violent deaths were current m
  
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• Park crew finds historic Anchorage landmark covered in graffiti

  22-03-2017 03:56
  
  Police are investigating graffiti discovered on the train located on the Delaney Park Strip in downtown Anchorage.
  Known by the municipality as the Delaney Park 556 Engine, it was given to the city by the U.S. Army in 1959 and has been a mainstay in the park since. On Tuesday morning, a park maintenance crew discovered that someone had tagged the south-facing side of the train with graffiti.
  The Delaney Park 556 Train
  City park planner Maeve Lavtar says what’s even more disa
  
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• APD: iPhone prank tying up 911 operators

  22-03-2017 03:48
  
  A prank circulating social media is encouraging iPhone users to “call 108” using Siri, according to the Anchorage Police Department, which is now asking the public to stop trying it.
  “108 appears to be an emergency number for people in India, but in the United States smartphones are translating that number to emergency services,” APD spokeswoman Renee Oistad explained in an email.
  She said a few people have called the Anchorage dispatch center as a result of the pran
  
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• Senate kills Alaska predator protection order

  22-03-2017 02:49 via ktoo.org
  
  A Denali wolf carries part of its prey. Congress is overturning a predator protection measure put in place by the Obama Administration. (Photo by Ken Conger/National Park Service)
  The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to overturn an Obama Administration rule that banned certain methods of killing predators on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.
  The vote was 52 to 47.
  The Obama administration wanted to ban killing bear cubs and wolves in their dens, killing bears over bait and other practices that
  
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• Differences over future divide Alaska Legislature

  22-03-2017 02:18 via ktoo.org
  
  Rep. Neal Foster, D- Nome, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, discusses budget issues at a House Majority press availability on March 21. Foster is concerned about the potential effect of further budget cuts. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
  Philosophical differences between members of the House and Senate are raising the risk that the Legislature ends the session without resolving the state’s ongoing budget crisis.
  But fiscal experts maintain some optimism that lawmakers wil
  
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• Haines waterfront trail and park estimated to cost about $6 million

  22-03-2017 01:42 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The latest draft of the preferred park layout (Corvus Design)
  A waterfront trail and park in Haines is estimated to cost close to $6 million, that’s based on plans developed during two rounds of meetings between designers and the community.
  The preferred plan includes a path on top of the breakwater in the harbor, and a Chilkat blanket design as a unifying theme.http://khns.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/21TrailswINTRO.mp3The idea for a waterfront trail that connects picture point to
  
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• Congress backs bill to lift Obama limits on Alaska hunting

  22-03-2017 01:28
  
  Congress has approved a bill that would allow aerial hunting of grizzly bears and killing of bears and wolves near dens on federal lands in Alaska.
  The Senate gave a final legislative approval Tuesday to Jouse Joint Resolution 69, which repeals an Obama-era rule on hunting in Alaska. The Fish and Wildlife Service said last year the rule would promote ethical hunting practices while maintaining sustainable populations of bears, wolves and coyotes.
  Alaska’s three Republican lawmakers said th
  
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• Ivanka Trump’s move to the White House raises questions about ethics

  22-03-2017 01:00 via ktoo.org
  
  When Donald Trump was elected president, his daughter Ivanka Trump said she would move to Washington, D.C., but not into a White House office.
  Since then, she has often been photographed in key White House meetings with foreign leaders and Cabinet members. Now she will have her own office in the West Wing, along with a security clearance and government-issued communications devices.
  In her unpaid role, Ivanka will “continue to be the eyes and ears of her father and provide candid advice as
  
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• Ketchikan museum plans on track, despite director’s resignation

  22-03-2017 00:57 via ktoo.org
  
  Ketchikan Museums is again without a department director. Lee Gray resigned last week, effective immediately, after about three months on the job.
  Anita Maxwell, the department’s senior curator of programs, is back as the interim director.
  She said that, despite the personnel setback, the Museum Department’s renovation project at the Centennial Building is progressing and remains on track for an official opening reception April 28.
  Plans are on track to renovate the Centenn
  
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• 5 insights into Judge Neil Gorsuch after 2nd day of confirmation hearings

  22-03-2017 00:34 via ktoo.org
  
  After a day of statements, Tuesday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing was all about answers. Judge Neil Gorsuch was careful in his responses to Senate Judiciary Committee members, but there were still a number of insights that marked the day. Read our full Day 2 coverage here. These are five highlights:
  1. Judicial independence
  Gorsuch says he will be an independent voice on the court. Senators have repeatedly questioned Gorsuch about his willingness to possibly rule against the man who
  
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• Man under investigation for apartment arson, homicide turns himself in

  22-03-2017 00:20
  
  Jimmy Cates (left) as seen on a gas station video. On the right is footage from the fire. Anchorage Police DepartmentAnchorage police say a man wanted for a murder and arson that occurred on Jan. 24 turned himself in to police on Tuesday.
  In a statement announcing the arrest, police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said 51-year-old Jimmy Cates was taken into custody for the charges of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, tampering with evidence and two counts of second-degree murder. The charges st
  
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