Anchorage news

• Kipnuk man arrested for making threats against school, teacher

  08-04-2017 21:59
  
  A Kipnuk man allegedly made threats against a school, leading to a full lockdown and his arrest, according to Alaska State Troopers.
  The incident occurred on April 4, according to an online dispatch. Troopers wrote that 20-year-old Anthony Kashatok “had made threats in the school in Kipnuk that led to the lockdown of the school,” including statements “that he wanted to kill everyone in the school.”
  Kashatok allegedly “came at a teacher in a manner that led her
  
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• 2 Friends Gallery owner cautiously optimistic about the economy

  08-04-2017 21:39
  
  Last summer, Jacqui Ertischek wrestled with whether or not she should close her art gallery in midtown. But when the FlyPaper! gift shop next door folded, she decided to take a leap of faith and expand into the empty storefront.
  “We all have our craziness,” Ertischek said with a laugh. “Talking to the mannequins is one of mine.”
  Ertischek acknowledged that it’s not an especially good time to expand a business in Alaska, especially for art galleries like 2 Friends, w
  
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• Public radio tops Pick.Click.Give.’s top 10 recipients list

  08-04-2017 21:14
  
  Pick.Click.Give. has announced its top 10 recipients for 2017 after more than 26,000 Alaskans elected to give part of their Permanent Fund Dividends to local nonprofits.
  Alaskans donated a total of more than $2.7 million to 668 different Alaska nonprofits, according to PCG spokeswoman Sofia Fouquet. Topping the list was public radio — KSKA, KAKM, APRN and Alaska Public Media — with $125,950, beating out usual favorites like Bean’s Cafe and the Food Bank of Alaska.
  “We are
  
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• Troopers say Akiak man strangled daughter, chased her and wife with an axe

  08-04-2017 20:59
  
  Alaska State Troopers arrested an Akiak man after he allegedly strangled his daughter and then chased her and his wife with an axe.
  The incident was detailed in an online trooper dispatch, and occurred on April 4. According to troopers, 58-year-old Samuel Lake assaulted his daughter at their home, and “had strangled her by placing her in a headlock and squeezing,” troopers wrote.
  Lake’s wife intervened and he let her go, but a short time later “chased his daughter and wi
  
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• APD: 1 man injured in Bush Company shooting

  08-04-2017 20:28
  
  The Anchorage Police Department says a shooting was reported at the Great Alaskan Bush Company early Saturday morning, resulting in at least one injured person.
  There were few details immediately available about the shooting. Police said it was reported at 1:44 a.m.
  A short time later, a man walked into a local hospital with gunshot wounds that police didn’t consider life-threatening, according to a statement.
  In that statement, police called the man a person of interest, but when asked fo
  
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• Alaska House majority ponders alternatives for a broad-based tax

  08-04-2017 05:47
  
  With just nine days to go until the end of the 90-day session, the Alaska House majority is considering alternatives for a statewide income tax – one of its four pillars for solving the state’s $3 billion budget gap.
  Until now, most of the caucus’s focus has been on an income tax that is part of House Bill 115. On Tuesday, House leadership said it was still working on getting 21 votes needed to pass it. Later that day, an expected vote on the measure in the House Finance C
  
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• Homeless shelter opens medical respite wing

  08-04-2017 05:18
  
  Imagine being discharged from the hospital with nowhere to go. It’s been a reality for some homeless people in Anchorage that could soon be changing.
  On Friday, the Brother Francis Shelter held a dedication ceremony for their new medical respite wing. Shelter manager Lisa Caldeira said five rooms, each with two beds, have been set aside for people who are healing from surgeries or other major illnesses.
  “A patient stays for the duration of their acute medical need,” Caldeira ex
  
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• Gov. Walker welcomes China’s president, first lady to Anchorage

  08-04-2017 04:52
  
  Alaska Gov. Bill Walker welcomes China President Xi Jinping and his wife to AlaskaCourtesy Gov. Bill Walker President Xi Jinping and his wife deplane in AnchorageCourtesy Gov. Bill WalkerGov. Bill Walker welcomed Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China and first lady Madame Peng Liyan at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Friday evening. Walker was joined by his wife, first lady Donna Walker, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Mallott’s wife, second lady Toni
  
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• What strikes on Syria mean for Alaska’s relationship with Russia

  08-04-2017 04:42
  
  Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the United States’ strike on Syria a “significant blow” to the relationship between the two countries. Many in Alaska wonder what that means for our relationship with a fellow Arctic nation.
  At Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, members of the 11th Air Force are constantly monitoring airspace around Alaska and Canada.
  “If Russia sends one of its military aircraft on a mission into international airspace—they’re no
  
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• Trump administration: Travel ban is religiously neutral

  08-04-2017 03:54
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The Trump administration is blasting a Hawaii judge’s ruling blocking its revised travel ban in court documents asking a federal appeals court to overturn the decision.
  In a filing with 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday, the Department of Justice says U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson second-guessed President Donald Trump’s national security judgment and wrongly relied on statements Trump made on the campaign trail to conclude the travel ban wa
  
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• Police: Officer paid teen for sex, took cash at gunpoint

  08-04-2017 03:52
  
  GLEN BURNIE, Md. (AP) – A Washington police officer is facing a string of charges in Maryland after authorities say he paid a 15-year-old girl for sex and then took back the money at gunpoint.
  Anne Arundel County police said 27-year-old Chukwuemeka Ekwonna of Glenn Dale was arrested Thursday and charged with armed robbery, assault, third-degree sex offense, reckless endangerment, prostitution and a weapon offense.
  Court documents show the teen recently told officials that she was robbed by
  
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• Trailer fire shuts down part of Old Glenn Highway

  08-04-2017 03:50
  
  The entrance to Forest Park on the Old Glenn HighwayCourtesy Google Earth
  The Old Glenn Highway was partially blocked Friday evening as fire crews battled a mobile home fire in Chugiak.
  The Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department responded to the report of a fire, according to Anchorage Fire Department District Chief Erich Scheunemann.
  He said the fire was reported at the Forrest Park trailer park on the 16000 block of Old Glenn Highway.
  An alert from AFD said the northbound lane of the Old Glen
  
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• Wife of real estate heir Durst declared dead after 35 years

  08-04-2017 03:49
  
  Robert Durst. (Credit: HBO/MGN)
  NEW YORK (AP) – The first wife of real estate heir Robert Durst has been officially declared dead 35 years after she was last seen.
  A New York judge set the date of death for Kathleen Durst at Jan. 31, 1987, exactly five years after her 1982 disappearance.
  The ruling from Surrogate’s Court in Manhattan was dated March 24. It was first reported in the New York Post.
  Durst has long been suspected in the death of his wife but he was never criminally charg
  
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• US regulators accuse Google of underpaying female workers

  08-04-2017 03:47
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Government investigators looking into how Google pays its employees accused the tech giant of shortchanging women doing similar work to men.
  A U.S. Department of Labor official disclosed the agency’s allegations during a Friday court hearing in San Francisco. The Guardian reported on the testimony of Janette Wipper, a regional director for the Labor Department.
  Google says it vehemently disagreed with the charges of sex discrimination, which the Mountain View, Ca
  
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• Man who said marijuana made him kill his wife gets 30 years

  08-04-2017 03:45
  
  DENVER (AP) – A Denver man who claimed that eating marijuana-infused candy led him to kill his wife was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison in a case that helped raise concerns about the potency of pot edibles.
  Richard Kirk initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the April 2014 shooting of Kristine Kirk at their home. The 50-year-old pleaded guilty in February to second-degree murder but his lawyers still sought lenience on the grounds that he had been intoxicated with THC
  
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• Juneau Assembly weighs $5.2 million passenger fee plan

  08-04-2017 03:29 via ktoo.org
  
  The Holland America Cruise Ship Westerdam prepares to dock in Juneau July 16, 2012. (Photo by Heather Bryant/KTOO)
  The Juneau Assembly is poised to decide how it will spend $5.2 million in fees collected from cruise ship passengers visiting Juneau.
  City Manager Rorie Watt wrote a memo outlining his recommendations for what to fund in anticipation of nearly 1 million passengers this season.
  “We have a bunch of good services that we provide that I think everybody that comes to Juneau ap
  
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• Hilcorp shuts down third pipeline in Cook Inlet

  08-04-2017 02:26 via ktoo.org
  
  Cook Inlet oil platforms are visible from shore near Kenai, Alaska. The dominant oil and gas producer in Cook Inlet has struggled with aging infrastructure and reported three pipeline failures this year. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  The federal agency charged with regulating pipelines and hazardous materials is looking into another natural gas leak on a Hilcorp platform in Cook Inlet. 
  Patricia Klinger, a spokesperson for the the Pipeline and Hazardous Materia
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 4-10-17

  08-04-2017 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Monday at 3 on a Juneau Afternoon, Scott Burton will be your host.
  Find out about the upcoming Travel Fair;
  Ben Huff will be here to highlight the Friends of the Alaska State Museum;
  We’ll learn about bats;
  And Alida Bus will be here with a preview of Tuesday night’s Mudrooms.
  At 4, tune in to KTOO for All Things Considered, followed at 6 by Alaska News Nightly. At 6:30, it’s Marketplace. Tonight at 7, Elaine Schroeder will be here with Mind Over Matter;
  
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• House passes bill aimed at improving sexual assault kit processing

  08-04-2017 01:31
  
  In an effort to tackle the state’s domestic and sexual violence problem, the Alaska House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would make sexual assault kit processing more efficient and hold law enforcement agencies accountable for backlogs. The bill also offers victims options for submitting the kits.
  In 2016, Alaskans learned that more than 3,400 submitted sexual assault kits were untested, some dating back to 1993. It’s believed more kits were untested at that time,
  
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• Senate passes bill to kill Gabby’s Tuesday PAC

  08-04-2017 00:46
  
  The Alaska Senate unanimously approved a measure Friday that prohibits lobbyists from making campaign contributions to groups headed by a lawmaker who lives outside their election district.
  The legislation — Senate Bill 5, introduced by Sen. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage — would also apply to legislative candidates who run political action committees (PACs).The move restrains the fundraising power of someone like Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, the powerful chair o
  
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• Troopers, APD to close Seward Highway

  08-04-2017 00:19
  
  Alaska State Troopers and the Anchorage Police Department announced a planned closure of the Seward Highway at Beluga Point Friday evening for an “event.”
  The closure is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to a joint statement. Neither agency provided further details about the event itself.
  In a phone interview, AST spokesman Tim DeSpain said the closure was unrelated to the recent incident in the same location: an armed man, identified as 36-year-old Kevin Thibodeau, alleg
  
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• Daybreak Adopt-A-Pet: April 7, 2017

  08-04-2017 00:00
  
  From Anchorage Animal Care and Control:
  AACC has several special felines who came from a home that had quite a few cats. Actually, a lot of cats. Animal Control officers have spent the last week transporting these cats to the shelter where staff have been making them comfortable as they await their debut to the public. Not all of the cats are available for adoption, but should be soon.
  Some of these cats are timid because although they’re used to interacting with other cats, they haven&rsq
  
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