Anchorage news

• Troopers investigate fatal shooting in Yukon River village

  13-04-2017 23:55
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska State Troopers are investigating a fatal shooting in the village of Pilot Station.
  A village public safety officer told troopers that 27-year-old Dennis Alick died.
  Troopers say a suspect has been identified.
  Troopers took the call on the death early Thursday morning. Troopers traveled to the Yukon River community 425 miles west of Anchorage to investigate.
  An autopsy is planned by the state medical examiner.
  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights
  
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• Be a part of steampunk culture with this year’s Steamposium convention

  13-04-2017 23:14
  
  The Alaska Steamposium is hosting this year’s steampunk convention — The Polar Emporium of Supernatural Oddities.
  Steampunk is a genre of low-tech science fiction that covers multiple forms of media with the most common being literature. Tess Purvis, an organizer and co-founder of the convention, says it’s where the height of invention was steam power. Purvis said what makes the steampunk convention unique is people dress up as their own original character, instead of one alrea
  
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• Avoiding scams in Alaska for April

  13-04-2017 23:10
  
  Michelle Tabler with the Better Business Bureau says there are two scams going around to con Alaskans out of their cash, as well as a data breach.
  The Internal Revenue Service reported hackers could have stolen data from 100,000 people from the Federal Student Aid program, commonly known as FAFSA. Tabler said those hackers stole financial and personal information, as well social security numbers. She added that people need to monitor the three main credit reports over the next few years, as it c
  
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• Catch UAA’s New Dances 2017 this weekend

  13-04-2017 23:05
  
  Every year, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Theatre Department hosts the New Dances program. This year there are 10 diverse dances that will be performed.
  The director, Brian Jeffery, says he started it 15 years ago to showcase the talent within the department. According to Jeffery, the performances are mostly contemporary dance pieces. The styles, however, are completely different. One of those dances, called “PRE-,” features a live marimba being played during the pe
  
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• Newscast- April 13, 2017

  13-04-2017 22:45 via ktoo.org
  
  
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/04/KXLL-NEWS-41317.mp3In this newscast:
  Cost-cutting at the City and Borough of Juneau could mean closing the Juneau-Douglas City Museum,
  U.S. Rep. Don Young is sponsoring a bill that could give Alaska thousands of square miles of a national forest for uses such as logging, and
  Senator Gary Stevens is the new chair of the Senate Education Committee.
  
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• Facebook users can now report fake news stories

  13-04-2017 22:14
  
  Think you’re reading a fake news article on your Facebook feed? Now you can report it.
  Facebook recently added the ability to report fake news articles in much the same way as offensive content or people are reported. The change followed in the wake of a large public push against false or unchecked “news” circulating online and on social media. Even President Donald Trump has made reference to fake news, although critics say his comments were directed at real news agencies who
  
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• Juneau city manager proposes shuttering history museum

  13-04-2017 21:47 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Fresh snow covers the ground surrounding the Juneau-Douglas City Museum in Juneau on November 25, 2016. The museum could be one public facility on the chopping block for City and Borough of Juneau. (Photo courtesy Tripp J Crouse)
  Cost-cutting by the City and Borough of Juneau could mean closing several public facilities.http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/04/170413MUSEUM-PKG.mp3On the chopping block are the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, Mt. Jumbo Gym in Douglas and Eagle Valley Center. The
  
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• Lawyer says United apology was ‘staged’

  13-04-2017 21:20
  
  CHICAGO (AP) – The Latest on the removal of a passenger who was dragged off a United Express flight in Chicago (all times local):
  11 a.m.
  A lawyer for the passenger who was dragged from a United Express flight says he and his client accept the airline CEO’s public apology but think it was insincere.
  Attorney Thomas Demetrio said at a news conference Thursday that he thinks the apology that United CEO Oscar Munoz’s issued two days after first blaming the passenger, Dr. David Dao
  
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• Doctor charged with genital mutilation on girls

  13-04-2017 21:17
  
  DETROIT (AP) – A Detroit-area doctor has been charged with performing genital mutilation on two young girls from Minnesota.
  Prosecutors say Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was arrested Thursday, days after two 7-year-old girls identified her as the person who performed medical procedures on them at a Livonia clinic in February.
  The FBI says the girls were accompanied to the clinic by their mothers. Female genital mutilation of minors is illegal in the U.S. unless there’s a legitimate health rea
  
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• Father convicted of murdering son for insurance

  13-04-2017 21:14
  
  MANASSAS, Va. (AP) – The Latest on the trial of a Virginia father charged with killing his 1-year-old son in an effort to collect on more than $500,000 in life insurance (all times local):
  1:05 p.m.
  A judge has convicted a Virginia father of murdering his 1- year-old son in an effort to collect on more than $500,000 in life insurance he had taken out on the boy.
  The ruling means that Joaquin Shadow Rams will be sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty i
  
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• Ocean world near Saturn hotter-than-ever contender for life

  13-04-2017 21:10
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A tiny, ice-encrusted ocean world orbiting Saturn is now a hotter-than-ever candidate for potential life.
  NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected hydrogen molecules in the geysers shooting off the moon Enceladus, possibly the result of deep-sea chemical reactions between water and rock that could spark microbial life.
  The findings were announced Thursday in the journal Science.
  NASA and others are quick to point out this latest discovery does not mean there
  
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• Health inspectors ding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago eateries

  13-04-2017 21:04
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – Unsafe seafood. Insufficiently refrigerated meats. Rusty shelving. Cooks without hairnets.
  Reports show Florida health inspectors cited President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with 15 violations in late January, days before the U.S. leader hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh AH’-bay) for a visit.
  Still, the state inspectors allowed the luxury resort’s main restaurant and beach club grill to remain open as staff scrambled to make s
  
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• Repentant purse snatcher sentenced to time served

  13-04-2017 21:01
  
  EASTON, Pa. (AP) – A down-and-out Pennsylvania purse snatcher told a judge he changed his mind halfway through the crime, and was sentenced to the time he has served in jail since the aborted January robbery.
  Sixty-year-old Steven Dowling told a Northampton County judge on Tuesday that the woman fell because she pulled on her purse and he let her keep it, saying, “It kind of hit me right then: ‘I’m not doing this.'”
  The Upper Black Eddy man says he was too broke to
  
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• U.S. drops biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat

  13-04-2017 20:52 via ktoo.org
  
  The U.S. has dropped the largest conventional weapon ever used in combat to hit an underground ISIS complex in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials say.
  The nearly 22,000-pound “MOAB” — standing for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or as it’s also known, the “Mother of All Bombs” — was designed during the Iraq War but had never before been used on the battlefield.
  The U.S. has used the bomb’s predecessor, a smaller but still massive weapon known as the &ldqu
  
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• State TB rate dips but remains among the highest

  13-04-2017 19:32 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The state Department of Health and Social Services said 57 cases of tuberculosis were reported in Alaska in 2016.
  That’s a moderate decrease from the prior year, but Alaska continues to have among the highest rates of tuberculosis in the U.S., more than double the national average.
  http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170412-05.mp3(Medial illustration of tuberculosis by CDC)
  Anchorage Medical Officer Bruce Chandler said the high rate is to be expected, given Alaska’s history of the disea
  
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• Rep. Young wants feds to lay off medical marijuana prosecution

  13-04-2017 19:13 via ktoo.org
  
  
  U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is among 43 U.S. House members asking that Congress prevent the Justice Department from pursuing federal drug cases against people who are complying with their state’s medical marijuana laws.http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170412-06.mp3
  U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska (Photo by Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media)
  Young and his colleagues have written the leaders of the subcommittee that writes the Justice Department’s budget. They want the appropriations
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 4-13-17

  13-04-2017 19:12 via ktoo.org
  
  Thursday at 3 on a Juneau Afternoon, Joan Pardes will be your host;
  We’ll talk with Emily Wall about this year’s Tidal Echoes;
  Sally Schlicting will be here with a preview this weekend’s Con Brio performances;
  We’ll learn about Food Webs.
  And Nancy DeCherney will be here for Arts Up.
  That, Writer’s Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, live at 3 on KTOO, repeated at 4 on KRNN, and available on demand via ktoo.org
  And at 7 tonight on KTOO-News, Humankind.
  
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• Pentagon: US dropped largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan

  13-04-2017 19:02
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon says U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped the military’s largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan.
  Adam Stump is a Pentagon spokesman. Stump says it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he said contains 11 tons of explosives. The Air Force calls it the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb. Based on the acronym, it has been nicknamed the “Mother Of All Bombs.”
  Stump says the bomb was dropped
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 4-14-17

  13-04-2017 19:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Thursday at 3 on a Juneau Afternoon, Andy Kline will be your host.
  We’ll talk with the lead vocalist of the Dusty 45s, playing at the Alaskan this weekend;
  Nancy Courtney will talk about safe graduations;
  Champion ice skater Keegan Messing will be here to highlight weekend performances;
  And we’ll learn about this weekend’s dance performance, GIT HOAN.
  That, Writer’s Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, live at 3 on KTOO, repeated at 4 on KRNN, and available on demand via k
  
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• ‘Misdirected’ airstrike by U.S.-led coalition kills 18 allied fighters in Syria

  13-04-2017 18:59 via ktoo.org
  
  An airstrike that was meant to target ISIS in Syria instead killed 18 Syrian Democratic Forces personnel because it was “misdirected,” U.S. Central Command said Thursday.
  The strike Tuesday by an aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition was called in by American allies, the U.S. military says. It adds that the coalition is now studying what went wrong to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
  “The strike was requested by the partnered forces, who had identified the target location
  
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• Canada introduces legislation to legalize marijuana

  13-04-2017 18:52
  
  TORONTO (AP) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has introduced legislation to let adults to possess 30 grams of marijuana in public.
  Trudeau has long promised to legalize recreational pot use and sales. Canada would be the largest developed country to end a nationwide prohibition of recreational marijuana. U.S voters in California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada voted last year to approve the use of recreational marijuana, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon and
  
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• Jury selection underway for Sockeye Fire trial

  13-04-2017 18:09
  
  Behind closed doors in the Palmer Courthouse, jury selection is underway this week for the Sockeye Fire trial. The 2015 wildfire destroyed 55 homes and scorched more than 7,000 acres.
  Greg Imig and Amy Dewitt are facing charges for the blaze, which investigators believe started on their Willow property. Authorities say Imig and Dewitt both face “a variety of charges” — three counts of reckless endangerment, criminally negligent burning, failure to obtain a burn permit, bur
  
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• Appointment of transgender man irks conservative lawmakers

  13-04-2017 17:05
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s appointment of a transgender man to the state human rights commission has evoked displeasure from conservative lawmakers.
  KTOO-FM reports the state senate voted Wednesday to delay a joint session on whether to confirm Walker’s appointments.
  Those opposing the nomination say the state’s sex discrimination ban is in jeopardy of changing to include gender identity and sexual orientation if Drew Phoenix is selected.
  Phoenix says
  
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• Average 30-year mortgage rate falls to 2017 low of 4.08 pct

  13-04-2017 16:58
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell for a fourth straight week, with the benchmark 30-year rate marking a new low for the year.
  Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the rate on 30-year fixed-rate home loans declined to 4.08 percent this week from 4.10 percent last week. That brought the rate under its previous 2017 low of 4.09 percent reached on Jan. 19. The 30-year rate stood at 3.58 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 19
  
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• Anchorage soccer teams are close to getting their season back

  13-04-2017 08:43
  
  Name a spot in Anchorage that still needs shoveling. It’s a tricky riddle high school soccer teams can easily answer.Last week, prep players and volunteers got together to shovel the fields at East Anchorage, Chugiak and Service High Schools. On Sunday, nearly 100 people worked on the field at Kincaid Park.Wednesday, it moved to three more, all which have artificial turf. 
  “It feels good. We’ll be able to practice outside, and get in some real game situation
  
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• Alaska Coast Guard commissions first fast response cutter in Pacific region

  13-04-2017 07:47
  
  The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick stands proud facing the crowd of the commissioning ceremony at Coast Guard Base KetchikanU.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jon-Paul Rios The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick stands proud facing the crowd of the commissioning ceremony while they “bring the cutter to life” at Coast Guard Base KetchikanU.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jon-Paul Rios Adm. Charles D. Michel, vice commandant of
  
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• Ancestry.com helps family of dead boy find man posing as him

  13-04-2017 06:59
  
  The attorney for a Pennsylvania man charged with stealing the identity of a Texas baby who died in 1972 says her client regrets the poor judgment he used.
  Forty-four-year-old Jon Vincent was arrested Monday in Lansdale. Prosecutors say he stole little Nathan Laskocki’s identity so he could start a new life after escaping from a Texas halfway house in 1996.
  Federal prosecutors say he’s also lived in Mississippi and Tennessee under his assumed name, holding jobs, getting drivers’
  
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• UAA restructures ESL services

  13-04-2017 06:39
  
  The University of Alaska Anchorage is making major changes to its English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. Beginning in fall 2017 the school will no longer offer classes like Oral Fluency or Vocabulary Enhancement.
  Denise Runge, the dean of the UAA Community and Technical College, explained the ESL services will be incorporated into beginning English composition courses instead.
  Right now students are able to pay tuition and receive credits for the ESL courses, but the credits don’
  
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• Spring is wake-up call for bears in Anchorage area

  13-04-2017 06:27
  
  Call it a sure sign of spring: bears are starting to wake up in the Anchorage area. Ken Marsh, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the agency has received reports of bears in Anchorage, Eagle River, Chugiak and along Turnagain Arm.
  “So far it’s just black bears, but there’s no reason to think brown bears aren’t waking up too,” Marsh said.
  In the Anchorage area, there have been reports of bears on the Hillside but also in West Anchorage. A s
  
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• Road ruts and studded tires: Change-over season is here

  13-04-2017 06:26
  
  Anyone who has driven along the Glenn Highway recently has seen, and felt, the deep ruts in the road. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) says the problem is largely caused by studded tires and it’s an expensive problem to fix.
  DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said crews repave the Glenn every seven years, repairing the damage done by the studs.
  “Studded tires have a pin in them and so when they strike the pavement, they just take a little chip out of
  
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• Woman delivers own baby in car en route to hospital

  13-04-2017 03:40
  
  A Michigan woman delivered her own baby in her car on the way to the hospital!
  Imagine being nine months pregnant, on the way to the hospital and not sure if your baby will wait until you get there; it’s something Sara Suchodolski says she thought would never happen to her.
  “I don’t know, it all happened so fast,” said Suchodolski. “You never think you are going to be that person.”
  But, on March 28, Suchodolski says it was her. She was at home with her bo
  
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• Retired trooper K-9 Kilo dies

  13-04-2017 03:27
  
  Alaska State Trooper K-9 KiloCourtesy AST Alaska State Trooper K-9 KiloCourtesy AST Alaska State Trooper K-9 RicoCourtesy AST K-9 MarshalWasilla Police Department/Facebook K-9 MarshalWasilla Police Department/Facebook
  Alaska State Troopers announced the death of a retired K-9 this week, the third law enforcement dog to die in recent weeks.
  Troopers said K-9 Kilo died on April 8. Kilo retired in October 2015 after serving with the agency for 10 years as a single-purpose dog.
  “During his ti
  
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• Lindemuth asks lawmakers to consider her entire record

  13-04-2017 03:23
  
  Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth has asked legislators to consider her entire record in weighing her confirmation.
  Lindemuth appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, where she explained her decision to pursue settlement in a dispute over access along a road leading from Copper Center to Klutina Lake.
  Ahtna Inc. sued the state and argues the road traverses undeveloped Ahtna land. The Alaska Native regional corporation in 2016 scored a partial victory in superior court, when a
  
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• Human Rights Commission appointment draws conservative ire

  13-04-2017 02:49 via ktoo.org
  
  Drew Phoenix is in this 2012 photograph. Gov. Bill Walker appointed him to the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights. Photo by Daysha Eaton, KSKA
  The Senate voted Wednesday to delay a joint session on whether to confirm Gov. Bill Walker’s appointments.
  When the hearing does happen, one of Walker’s appointments to the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights potentially faces a close vote.
  Conservative lawmakers are raising questions about the appointment of Fairbanks resident
  
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• Professional wrestler making bid for mayor in TN

  13-04-2017 02:37
  
  KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The professional wrestler known as Kane is making a bid to become mayor of Knox County in Tennessee.
  The towering WWE villain, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, had previously filed papers to be able to raise money for a bid to succeed term-limited Mayor Tim Burchett. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Jacobs formally kicked off his campaign Tuesday.
  Glenn Jacobs.
  Tea party groups urged Jacobs to challenge U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander in the Republican primary in 2014,
  
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• Juneau man arrested on child porn production charges

  13-04-2017 02:23
  
  A Juneau man is facing federal charges of child pornography production after a mother in the Lower 48 discovered sexually explicit messages between him and her child.
  On Wednesday, acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska Bryan Schroder announced 24-year-old Scott Andrew Funk was arrested the day before. Officials charged Funk with a single count each of production of child pornography, enticement of a minor using the internet and receipt and possession of child pornography.
  The criminal complaint agains
  
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• Ask a Climatologist: River breakup is all about spring temps

  13-04-2017 01:48 via ktoo.org
  
  The Nenana Ice Classic Tripod in 2009. (Photo by James Brooks/Flickr Creative Commons)
  The National Weather Service issued its annual river breakup forecast this week. The forecast calls for a relatively mild breakup arriving about on schedule across Alaska. But what factors determine the timing and severity how it plays out? We put that question to climatologist Brian Brettschneider.
  He says snow pack in Feb. and March generally has almost no bearing on river breakup. Instead, it’s closel
  
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• Tlingit and Haida students in Arkansas help archive Jeanie Greene videos

  13-04-2017 01:24 via ktoo.org
  
  Heidi Davis, an undergraduate at University of Arkansas Little Rock, works Feb. 27, 2017, on digitizing photos of the Jeanie Greene collection on Alaska Natives at the Sequoyah National Research Center. Davis is Tlingit and Haida, and grew up in Southeast Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Erin Fehr)
  It’s probably not the first place you’d imagine preserving Alaska Native history, but the Sequoyah National Research Center is doing just that.
  A team of archivists with ties to the state are ca
  
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• AK Air Guardsmen rescue pilot after plane crash

  13-04-2017 01:12
  
  An HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter from the 210th Rescue Squadron, Alaska Air National Guard
  Airmen on a training mission rescued a pilot who crashed his plane northwest of Anchorage on Tuesday.
  Airmen with the Alaska Air National Guard’s 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons were on a training mission in a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter when they heard an audible emergency locator transmitter about 40 nautical miles, roughly 46 miles, northwest of Anchorage. The squadrons were tasked by the Alaska Resc
  
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• APD takes armed man into custody; schools taken out of stay put mode

  13-04-2017 00:29
  
  Police response in the Dimond areaJohn Thain/KTVA
  Last updated at 3:28 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12
  Anchorage police have asked the public to avoid the area of 80th Avenue and Northwood Street in the Dimond area because of an armed male. Shortly after 3 p.m., they reported they had taken him into custody.
  Police dispatchers said someone called them regarding the man, who was initially described as a black male with dreadlocks, a red coat and camouflage pants. In an update, police said the descri
  
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• APD: Reported shooting near Dimond High led to manhunt

  13-04-2017 00:29
  
  The juvenile passenger who fled from police was taken into custodyJohn Thain/KTVA Police response in the Dimond areaJohn Thain/KTVA The suspect vehicle Daniella Rivera/KTVA The suspect vehicleDaniella Rivera/KTVA The passenger who fled the vehicleLauren Maxwell/KTVA The passenger who fled the vehicleLauren Maxwell/KTVA
  Last updated at 3:28 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12
  Anchorage police asked the public to avoid the area of 80th Avenue and Northwood Street in the Dimond area because of an armed ma
  
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• Sculptor of Wall Street bull says ‘Fearless Girl’ horns in on his work

  13-04-2017 00:04 via ktoo.org
  
  So far in her young life, New York City’s Fearless Girl has drawn countless tourists, a metric ton of media coverage and its fair share of praise as a symbol of the fight for gender equity — so much, in fact, that the statue staring down the financial district’s famous Charging Bull recently got a new lease on life, at least through 2018.
  For at least one person, though, the Girl has offered less than welcome company.
  “The girl is standing there like this in front the bul
  
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