Anchorage news

• Older Americans Month highlights needs for improved services

  02-05-2017 23:42
  
  May is Older Americans Month, a month that originally started as “Senior Citizens Month” in 1963.
  When it started there were about 17 million Americans that had reached their 65th birthday, according to Administration for Community Living. Also at that time, a third of older Americans were living in poverty with few programs to help them. Since then, there are 46 million senior Americans, according to a recent census. The month is designed to pay tribute to seniors, and is a chance t
  
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• University of Alaska students complete finals with 2018 funding still in limbo

  02-05-2017 23:24
  
  The last day of the semester in Dr. Sheila Selkregg’s management in leadership class at University of Alaska Anchorage, on Monday, was also day 105 of this legislative session.
  The Senate’s proposed five percent cut to education translates to a $22 million cut to the University of Alaska system in fiscal year 2018. While Gov. Bill Walker and the House support flat funding for the University of Alaska, the decision has not been made yet, leaving students uncertain about the university
  
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• Travel Tuesday: Keeping mom in mind for the month of May

  02-05-2017 22:48
  
  May is a good month for Alaskans to start breaking out the camping gear and enjoying the summer. It’s also the month for mothers.
  Erin Kirkland with AKontheGo.com shared mom-centric picks for Mother’s Day, the surrounding weekend and beyond. For most of the events, mothers get in free.
  First up is the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage on May 14th. Mothers get in free, and there are food and fun springtime activities for the kids.
  Also on Mother’s Day at the
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, May 2, 2017

  02-05-2017 22:48 via ktoo.org
  
  
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/2017-05-02-newscast.mp3In this newscast:
  The NTSB investigates a fatal Grant Aviation plane crash on the Alaska Peninsula,
  the Juneau Assembly considers relaxing local mining regulations and resurfaces AJ Mine debate, and
  Monday’s early morning earthquakes knocked out power in parts of the Yukon Territory, but didn’t cause damage in Whitehorse.
  
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• Mat-Su: Look out for 17 foot python

  02-05-2017 22:29
  
  Courtesy of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
  Have you seen a 17 foot python in the Meadow Lakes area? Matanuska-Susitna Borough Animal Care says its owners reported it missing “recently” and the agency is warning small pet owners to keep a careful eye on their animals and their yards.
  “Alaska’s cold temperatures may weaken the snake or compel it to seek a warm place,” Animal care director Kristen Vesel explained.
  The owner has gone door-to-door to warn resid
  
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• Police searching for suspect, witnesses involved in Jewel Lake shooting

  02-05-2017 21:45
  
  Dewey E. Eager (Courtesy of APD)
  Police are looking for a 39-year-old man they say was involved in a shooting at a Jewel Lake gas station Monday evening.
  According to the Anchorage Police Department, law enforcement responded to the Holiday Gas Station, at 8803 Jewel Lake Road, shortly after 9 p.m. in response to a report of a shot being fired.
  When they arrived, APD said there were two unoccupied vehicles that had collided, but none of the occupants were still at the scene.
  Witnesses told
  
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• Supreme Court leaves polar bear habitat intact

  02-05-2017 21:32 via ktoo.org
  
  
  A polar bear keeps close to her young along the Beaufort Sea coast in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Public domain photo by Susanne Miller/USFWS)
  A California-sized chunk of the Arctic will remain designated as critical polar bear habitat. That’s the effect of a U.S. Supreme Court order Monday declining to hear an appeal from the state of Alaska, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and an oil industry trade group.http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170501-02.mp3The area stretches from the Ca
  
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• Under Trump budget, nearly 2 million kids may lose after-school care

  02-05-2017 21:13 via ktoo.org
  
  Anna Marie McClanahan (center) helps children write stories by using Legos to create scenes. (Photo by Pam Fessler, NPR)
  Mary Beth Burkes lives in Buchanan County, Va., a depressed coal-mining region where 1 in 4 families lives in poverty and where her autistic son gets extra help in the after-school program at his school.
  Burkes says the program has been a godsend for her and other parents, because they know their children are in a safe place after school. “Their parents work,” she
  
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• Alaska tribe seeks to put Juneau property into trust

  02-05-2017 20:56
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Southeast Alaska’s largest tribal organization has submitted an application to put land in downtown Juneau into a federal trust.
  KTOO-FM reported Monday that the land includes the Andrew Hope Building and was once a summer village inhabited by the Aakw ?waan. The president of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska says putting that property into trust will be a huge milestone for the tribe.
  A court decision last year made it easier
  
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• Trump order baffles Bering Sea Elders

  02-05-2017 20:54 via ktoo.org
  
  
  When President Donald Trump signed an order last week lifting his predecessor’s restrictions on offshore leasing in the Arctic, he also revoked a decree that created the “Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.”
  http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170501-03.mp3President Barack Obama imposed protections on the Bering Straits. President Trump revoked them. (Map courtesy Bering Sea Elders Group)
  “People on the coast that we work with are a mixture of outraged and disappointed,&rdqu
  
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• Angoon poet Frank Sharp to publish collection of poetry

  02-05-2017 20:32 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Frank Sharp, 85, a poet from Angoon, has a new book of poetry published in “Rhymes and Rhythms,” by the Island Institute. (Photo by Emily Russell/KCAW)
  Angoon elder Frank Sharp has written a new book of poems, “Rhymes and Rhythms.” The book is scheduled for release this summer.
  http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20170501-10.mp3The first time I meet Frank Sharp he’s shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow.
  Frank is 85 years old. He’s a small guy, but he’s no
  
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• EPA asks what rules to cut, gets earful about dirty water

  02-05-2017 19:17
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – Seeking suggestions about what environmental regulations it should gut, the Trump administration instead is getting an earful from people who say federal rules limiting pollution aren’t strict enough.
  The Environmental Protection Agency held a three-hour “virtual listening session” on Tuesday to collect public comments by phone about what clean water regulations should be targeted for “repeal, replacement or modification.” The call was part o
  
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• NTSB: Pilot killed in Hillside crash had high amounts of carbon monoxide in his body

  02-05-2017 18:45
  
  Locals examine wreckage right after deadly plane crash. Courtesy Roger Heiligenthal
  A 75-year-old pilot who died when his plane crashed on the Anchorage hillside last fall had extremely high amounts of carbon monoxide in his system, according to a factual report released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week.
  A toxicology report showed that James Hefty had 48 percent carbon monoxide in his blood when his plane crashed in a residential neighborhood.
  Nonsmokers have 3
  
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• Uruguay opens registry to buy marijuana

  02-05-2017 17:01
  
  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Uruguay is beginning to register people who want to legally buy marijuana at pharmacies as part of the world’s first government-regulated national marketplace for pot.
  Authorities announced the registry’s launch Tuesday.
  Uruguay legalized the cultivation and sale of marijuana in 2013.
  The law allows the growing of pot by licensed individuals, the formation of growers and users clubs and the sale by pharmacies. Registered users will be able to buy
  
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• EPA classifies Fairbanks smoke pollution as ‘serious’

  02-05-2017 16:54
  
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reclassified Fairbanks as a “serious” non-attainment area for its failure to meet clean air standards.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/2qtDmm0) the new designation announced Monday means the Fairbanks North Star Borough will have to dramatically reduce its levels of fine particulate pollution by the end of 2019. The borough and the state are expected to come up with a plan for how to bes
  
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• AJ Mine debate resurfaces in Juneau

  02-05-2017 09:16 via ktoo.org
  
  
  A group of business leaders has recommended that the City and Borough of Juneau streamline its mining regulations — and in doing so, it’s rekindled debate over reopening Juneau’s long shuttered gold mine.http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/170502MINE-PKG.mp3Mining critics handed out stickers like these at a City and Borough Juneau Assembly committee meeting on Monday. (Photo by Jacob Resneck/KTOO)
  The prospect of reopening a gold mine that’s been shuttered for
  
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• Arrests made as thousands rally in US for and against Trump

  02-05-2017 08:24
  
  SEATTLE (AP) – Tens of thousands across the country peacefully chanted, picketed and protested Monday against President Donald Trump’s immigration and labor policies on May Day, despite a small pocket of violent unrest in the Pacific Northwest.
  Peaceful protesters flocked to the streets in Chicago. At the White House gates, they demanded “Donald Trump has got to go!”
  But police shut down a protest in Portland, Oregon, that they said had become a riot, after marchers began
  
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• Researchers reveal results of study which placed pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms

  02-05-2017 08:14
  
  It was a controversial study when Fairbanks senator Tim Kelly proposed it two years ago. Now the results of putting state funded pregnancy tests in bar restrooms is out.
  Researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies conducted the $400,000 study, which aimed to see whether easy access to pregnancy tests in bars would encourage women to stop drinking if they found out they out were pregnant. Researchers wanted to show whether the approach would
  
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• Juneau welcomes first cruise ships, readies for expected record-breaking tourist season

  02-05-2017 07:45
  
  The first two cruise ships of the season arrived in Juneau Monday, marking the start of what’s expected to be a record-breaking season.
  About 1,055,000 passengers are expected to reach the capital city’s shores over the next 150 days, according to the Juneau Economic Development Council.
  “We haven’t seen this many cruise ship passengers since 2008,” said Brian Holst, Executive Director of the Council. “That helps our businesses, that helps our local commu
  
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• State’s star witness in Sockeye Fire trial returns to the stand

  02-05-2017 05:20
  
  In most TV court dramas expert witnesses are on the stand for a matter of minutes, but that has not been the case in one Palmer Courtroom.
  The state’s star witness in the Sockeye Fire trial, wildfire investigator Ethan Eley, has now spent more than 12 hours on the stand.
  The questions continued first thing Monday morning, starting with the defense. They argue Eley did not follow proper procedure laid out in the wildfire investigation guidebook.
  “It’s kind of like the Bible
  
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• Regular trooper patrols end on busy stretch of Seward Highway, community seeks solution

  02-05-2017 05:05
  
  One of Alaska’s busiest sections of road is no longer regularly patrolled by law enforcement.
  Starting Monday, Alaska State Troopers will stop their regular patrols of the portion of highway between McHugh Creek and mile 75, not far from Portage. Troopers had previously said it is the Anchorage Police Department’s (APD) responsibility to patrol that area.
  However, while that part of the road is within municipality boundaries, it is outside of APD’s service area, so of
  
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• Update: Pilot killed in Southwest Alaska plane crash

  02-05-2017 04:33
  
  Last updated at 9:06 p.m. on Monday, May 1
  The pilot of a Cessna 208B operated by Grant Aviation was found dead south of Chignik Monday evening, according to Petty Officer John Paul Rios with the U.S. Coast Guard.
  The wreckage was discovered at a 3,000-foot elevation about “228 miles southwest of Kodiak,” Rios told KTVA.
  The plane was headed from the small community of Port Heiden to Perryville when the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) went off south of Chignik around 2 p.m., acco
  
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• Coast Guard searching for missing commuter plane in Southwest Alaska

  02-05-2017 04:33
  
  Last updated at 6:45 p.m. on Monday, May 1
  The U.S. Coast Guard is actively searching for a commuter plane operated by Grant Aviation which has apparently gone missing in remote Southwest Alaska.
  The plane was headed from the small community of Port Heiden to Perryville when an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) went off, according to Clint Johnson, Alaska region chief for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
  He said the Coast Guard received the ELT alert sometime aro
  
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• Plan would boost Alaska’s Northwest Coast art

  02-05-2017 03:16 via ktoo.org
  
  
  The Sealaska Heritage Institute plans to turn this downtown Juneau parking lot into a Native artists’ park and market. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)
  A major Southeast cultural organization plans to create a Native arts market and park in Juneau. That, and an advanced education initiative, are part of an effort to boost the region’s traditional arts economy.http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/01NWCArt-L.mp3A downtown Juneau parking lot is slated to be turned int
  
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• Computer finds income tax could help budget if oil price is low

  02-05-2017 03:10 via ktoo.org
  
  David Teal, Division of Legislative Finance director, speaking in February. His office developed a computer model that found an income tax could provide a cushion if oil prices are lower than forecast. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
  The extra money from a state income tax would help Alaska’s state government withstand low oil prices or poor investment returns, according to a computer model developed by nonpartisan budget experts.
  But House members say there’s only so much they can le
  
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• Walker signs bill recognizing black Americans who helped build Alaska Highway

  02-05-2017 03:06 via ktoo.org
  
  Gov. Bill Walker signs the first half of his name on SB 46 on Sunday at Shiloh Baptist Church in Anchorage. He signed his last name at the veterans memorial in the Delaney Park Strip of Downtown Anchorage. (Photo by Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media)
  On Sunday, Gov. Bill Walker signed Senate Bill 46 into law, establishing October 25 as “African American Soldiers’ Contribution to Building the Alaska Highway Day.”
  The signing of the bill began at the Shilo
  
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• Juneau Afternoon, 5-2-17

  02-05-2017 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Tuesday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon, Scott Burton will host;
  Carl Broderson will give us the details about the upcoming Blessing of the Fleet;
  Carl Ukatel and Janice Holst will discuss the upcoming Adopt-A-Sailor Day;
  Joe Karson will talk about his new book “19 Unicorns” and First Friday book signing at Rainy Retreat Books;
  We’ll talk about the Douglas Island Neighborhood Association meeting, with guest Robert Sewell;
  And the Friends of the Juneau-Douglas Museum are sponsoring a
  
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• Unalaska school district braces for staff changes, state budget cuts

  02-05-2017 00:36 via ktoo.org
  
  Eagle’s View Elementary Achigaalux Principal Eric Andersen is leaving Unalaska in June after more than 15 years at the school. (Photo by Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
  When school lets out next month, Unalaska students will say goodbye to a handful of longtime teachers and administrators.
  Superintendent John Conwell announced Thursday that Eric and Mandy Andersen are the latest staff members to resign from the Unalaska City School District.
  He thanked the Andersens for their work at Eagle’s View
  
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• Seismologists count over 100 aftershocks since morning earthquakes

  02-05-2017 00:03 via ktoo.org
  
  Seismologists with the Alaska Earthquake Center said they’ve recorded over 100 aftershocks since two major earthquakes shook Canada and Southeast Alaska early this morning.Today’s earthquake occurred in a region of complex tectonics – where plates collide (also transcurrent motion):https://t.co/rs9bbVWN7s pic.twitter.com/3w99mmO7oT
  — John Cassidy (@earthquakeguy) May 1, 2017Seismologist Natalia Ruppert warned that more aftershocks are expected over the next few days.
  
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