Anchorage news

• Divisions deepen as lawmakers tinker with Alaska’s oil tax credits

  03-05-2017 23:58 via ktoo.org
  
  The sun rises on the North Slope between drill rigs, Nov. 6, 2012. (Creative Commons photo by Kevan Dee)
  Lawmakers in Juneau are still tinkering with the state’s oil tax credit system.Ranking members of both the Senate and the House seem to agree that the state needs to break free of a system that will leave it owing nearly $700 million in cash payments to oil companies by the end of the year. But Senate Republicans have completely rewritten the House’s version of a reform bill.
  So f
  
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• Alyssa London to showcase Tlingit design at Miss USA pageant

  03-05-2017 23:53 via ktoo.org
  
  Miss Alaska USA Alyssa London with Tlingit artist Preston Singletary, who designed killer whale formline art for her pageant evening gown. (Photo courtesy Alyssa London)
  On May 14, Miss USA will be crowned and one of the hopeful contestants is 27-year-old Alyssa London from Southeast Alaska. She’s the first Tlingit woman to be crowned Miss Alaska USA.
  The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is hosting a watch party for the Miss USA pageant.
  She touched down in Las
  
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• telling Tales 2-21-17

  03-05-2017 23:52 via ktoo.org
  
  
  –Look closely at the present you are constructing; it should look like the future you are dreaming. — Alice Walker
   
   POEMS by Alice Walker
  I Will Keep Broken Things
  A Picture Story for the Curious (You supply the pictures)
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/022117.mp3
  
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• Twin Lakes playground receives corporate matching grant

  03-05-2017 23:49 via ktoo.org
  
  The remains of the Twin Lakes playground on April 25, the day after a fire burned it down. (Photo by Kelli Burkinshaw/KTOO)
  Fundraising efforts continue to rebuild the Twin Lakes playground destroyed by arson last week.
  The city-owned playground was insured but has a $100,000 deductible that needs to be met to fund reconstruction of the popular playground.
  A community meeting on Tuesday was well attended and the city continues to receive suggestions on how the reconstruction should proceed.Proje
  
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• Ask a Climatologist: April flips the warm switch in Alaska

  03-05-2017 23:42 via ktoo.org
  
  Potter Marsh and Turnagain Arm on April 29th, 2017. (Photo by Brian Brettschneider)
  After a cold winter, the month of April turned warmer than normal across the state.
  Alaska’s Energy Desk is checking in with climatologist Brian Brettschneider each week as part of the segment, Ask a Climatologist.
  Brettschneider says April broke the string of below normal temperatures that dominated the winter months.
  Interview Transcript:
  Brian: Certainly March was exceptionally cold in Alaska. In April w
  
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• Facebook plans to add 3,000 workers to monitor, remove violent content

  03-05-2017 23:28 via ktoo.org
  
  This sign marks the entrance to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. (Public domain photo)
  Faced with a recent spate of violent videos and hate speech posted by users on its network, Facebook has announced plans for a heap of hires: 3,000 new employees worldwide to review and react to reports of harm and harassment.
  “Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook — either live or in video posted later. It’s heartbr
  
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• Workforce Wendesday: Software development

  03-05-2017 23:24
  
  Software developers can solve all sorts of real world problems — from timing the Iron Dog race, to how the Alaska Department of Fish and Game collects data.
  Geoff Wright, president of Pango Technology in Anchorage, says developers help build software that impacts how oil moves through our pipeline, or to the maintenance of cell towers. He said Pango is currently working with the Division of Motor Vehicles to improve its testing.
  Wright said, for instance, Pango helped to make software that
  
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• Ballistic missile test-fired from California coastal base

  03-05-2017 23:09
  
  The U.S. has test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from California for the second time in seven days.
  The Air Force says an unarmed Minuteman 3 blasted off from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base Wednesday morning and delivered a mock warhead to a target at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean after a 4,000-mile flight.
  The test of the nuclear missile took 10 months to plan. Another Minuteman 3 was launched from the same base exactly a week earlier.
  The U.S. has about 450 of the miss
  
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• Newscast – Wednesday, May 3, 2017

  03-05-2017 22:45 via ktoo.org
  
  
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/050317newscast.mp3Stories include:
  Groups sue to keep drilling ban in Arctic waters, and
  Alaska items in the budget bill currently being debated by U.S. House, and
  Cruise ship pollution monitoring in Southeast Alaska.
  
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• KTVA Weather Lab: College Gate Elementary School

  03-05-2017 22:16
  
  In this week’s KTVA Weather Lab, I visited College Gate Elementary School in Anchorage, where the kindergartners are learning what it means to be scientists.
  I also answered the question of the week about what makes the wind blow.
  Every Tuesday, Melissa Frey will take the KTVA Weather Lab to a classroom in our community. If you have a weather question for Melissa or would like her to visit your classroom, she can be reached via email or on Facebook a
  
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• Focus on Community – Mind Over Matter – 5-1-17

  03-05-2017 20:46 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Tonight, Dr. Elaine Schroeder talks with JPD’s Lt. Kris Sell about suicide.
  http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/MAY-1-20171.mp3
  
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• Groups sue to keep drilling ban in Arctic, Atlantic waters

  03-05-2017 18:42
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Environmental and Alaska Native groups sued Wednesday to overturn an executive order by President Donald Trump that could lead to expanded petroleum drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
  Trump last week ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review an Obama-era plan to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in the regions.
  In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, the groups say Trump exceeded his constitutional authority an
  
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• You are welcome here, US colleges assure overseas students

  03-05-2017 18:23
  
  Colleges in the United States are ramping up efforts to welcome students from overseas to address worries the country is becoming less friendly to outsiders.
  Dozens of schools have produced new online videos as part of a national campaign called “You Are Welcome Here.” Purdue University sent its international applicants an email from two mayors touting Indiana’s hospitality. The president of Portland State University in Oregon visited students in India to ease concerns.
  Some c
  
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• Facebook to hire 3,000 to review videos of crime and suicide

  03-05-2017 16:57
  
  NEW YORK (AP) – Facebook says it will hire another 3,000 people to review videos and posts of crime and other questionable content following murders shown live on its site.
  That’s on top of the 4,500 people Facebook already has for such reviews.
  The announcement comes from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post Wednesday.
  Facebook has been criticized recently for not doing enough to prevent videos – such as a murder in Cleveland and a killing of a baby in Thailand – from
  
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• Alaska pollution regulators gear up for cruise ship season

  03-05-2017 16:49
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The state’s cruise ship pollution monitors say they’re prepared to keep Alaska waters clean as some of the world’s biggest cruise ships are expected to land in Juneau this year carrying a record number of passengers.
  The Juneau Empire reports (http://bit.ly/2qxUszd) the state cruise ship monitoring program will watch for both air and water pollution. One of the monitors, Ed White, says the team is fully staffed and ready to deal with the increase in
  
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• Local adult ed center outperforms national GED graduation rate

  03-05-2017 08:14 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Joyanne Bloom teaches the What’s Up? class at The Learning Connection on on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. (Photo by Quinton Chandler/KTOO)http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/05/26TLC.mp3It’s time for What’s Up? a social studies class that focuses on current events. When teacher Joyanne Bloom asks what’s up around Juneau, Kristina Arnold brings up a playground that burned down.
  “It was saying last night on the Empire page that it was over $250,000 worth
  
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• Assembly to consider ordinance extending cold weather homeless shelters

  03-05-2017 07:55
  
  Spring is back– and so is Anchorage’s problem with homeless camps; tents and trash piles are popping up again in wooded areas near greenbelts and trails.
  In an effort to keep homeless people from camping in the woods, Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s administration is proposing an ordinance that would allow the cold weather overflow shelters to operate year round for the next two years.
  For the first time this winter, Bean’s Cafe operated an overnight shelter with 75 bed
  
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• House of snakes: Dream home turns out to be a nightmare

  03-05-2017 07:03
  
  OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minn. — It sounds like a scene out of a horror movie: A Minnesota mom and her kids unsuspectingly move into a house full of snakes.
  While it may sound hard to believe, it’s the frightening reality for a family left with few options after buying what they once considered the perfect home.
  Angie Whitley — a nurse and single mom — spent years renting a townhouse in order to save enough money to place a down payment for a new start. She found the perfect spl
  
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• Clinton says she would’ve won election if it were held sooner

  03-05-2017 07:00
  
  Hillary Clinton on Tuesday blamed FBI Director James Comey and Russian intervention in the election for her shocking loss to President Trump in last November’s presidential election.
  “I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off,” the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said at the Women for Women International Luncheon
  
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• Scientists solve mystery of Antarctica’s Blood Falls

  03-05-2017 06:54
  
  University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist Erin Pettit, left, and graduate student Christina Carr collect radar data on Taylor Glacier. (Credit: Jessica Badgeley via CBS News)
  Scientists have long been puzzled by the origins of the mysterious, blood-red waterfall that streams down Taylor Glacier in Antarctica. First discovered by geoscientist Griffith Taylor in 1911, the source of the Blood Falls’ eerie red ooze finally has an explanation, thanks to new research out of the University of
  
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• 10 Things to Know for Wednesday

  03-05-2017 06:46
  
  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:
  1. GOVERNMENT ‘NEEDS A GOOD SHUTDOWN,’ TRUMP TWEETS
  The president rails against a bill to keep operations running which he praised earlier as a sign of his masterful negotiating with Democrats.
  2. TRUMP, PUTIN SIGNAL NEW EFFORT TO COOPERATE ON SYRIA
  The White House says the leaders also agreed during a “very good” phone discussion to try to set up their first in-per
  
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• Alaska wrestling is making weight– and noise

  03-05-2017 06:26
  
  Alaskan wrestling has a good problem: it’s grappling with growth.
  This weekend at their annual Alaska USA tournament at the Menard Center in Wasilla, more than 1500 wrestlers traveled from across the state to compete.
  “It brings them all to one central location where they can enjoy camaraderie of seeing their teams or other teams participate in wrestling,” said Mark Wolff of Alaska USA Wrestling.
  He says the benefits last a lifetime.
  “[It’s] a great sport that build
  
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• A 17-foot, 100-pound python is on the loose in the Mat-Su

  03-05-2017 04:55 via ktoo.org
  
  Matanuska-Susitna Borough animal control says a 100-pound python is on the loose in Meadow Lakes.Borough officials say the snake has been missing for two days and could be a threat to small children or pets. They say residents in the West Mallard Lane area should keep an eye on their yards and beware of any warm hiding spots on their property.
  Animal control officer Darla Erskine said the yellow-and-white snake’s owner lost track of it and started going door to door to warn his neighbors.
  
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• Alaska Sea Grant’s funding secure for now

  03-05-2017 04:48 via ktoo.org
  
  The bearded seal was released back into the wild at Nome’s west beach. (Photo by Gay Sheffield/University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Sea Grant)
  The White House wanted to cut Sea Grant’s funding for the remainder of this fiscal year. If the request had been approved, several projects in Alaska would have ended as early as this summer.
  Sea Grant helps coastal communities with fisheries and climate change research.Despite President Donald Trump’s request, Congress released a bipar
  
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• Scientists see the future in the bellies of fish

  03-05-2017 04:45 via ktoo.org
  
  University of Alaska Fairbanks students and volunteers pull in a seine net. (Photo courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks)
  Southeast Alaska is home to hundreds of glaciers and a lucrative fishing industry. As those glaciers retreat, the freshwater they send into the ocean could begin to dry up. Scientists are trying to figure out how that will impact the marine environment.The gut lab at the University of Alaska Fisheries Department in Juneau has all the traces of its namesake: fish parts pr
  
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• ‘It was like driving through Hell.’ Sockeye jury hears testimony

  03-05-2017 04:10
  
  State prosecutors are working to make their case against Greg Imig and Amy DeWitt, the couple accused of starting the 2015 Sockeye Fire.
  The prosecution wants the 10-person jury to hear from people they call victims of reckless endangerment and began calling people who lost their property or homes to testify.
  Imig and DeWitt sat quietly as the jury listened to the victim’s stories of evacuation, loss and close calls.
  Willow musher Jan Steves also watched and was brought to tears when her h
  
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• Military aircraft take off for Northern Edge 2017

  03-05-2017 03:58
  
  Northern Edge 2017 is underway around Alaska. More than 150 military planes are taking part, flying from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks.
  Commanders say this exercise is the closest thing to real that combat pilots can experience while still training, in part due to the size of the arena at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (J-PARC).
  “We have a great opportunity because of the size of the range space– the size of Florida– to train an
  
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• Airline brawl caught on camera

  03-05-2017 03:44
  
  An airline brawl was caught on camera.
  Passenger Corey Hour recorded two other passengers fighting before takeoff on an All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles.
  He said the man in the red Hawaiian shirt began punching the man in the black shirt.
  Hour said he walked away but came back and starting hitting the other man again. He said airline workers escorted the man in the red shirt off the plane.
  A Narita International Airport Police official says a “drunk” passenger was
  
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• Major construction project widens O’Malley to five lanes

  03-05-2017 03:27
  
  Major changes are coming to O’Malley Road.
  The Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) began construction on Phase I. The federally funded, $22 million project will reconstruct the two-lane road into five lanes with wider shoulders and bike/pedestrian paths on both sides.
  DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said the project is about two decades in the making. O’Malley was originally constructed in 1962 and hasn’t had any major upgrades since.
  McCarthy said the road isn’t
  
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• Public input sought over Twin Lakes playground rebuild

  03-05-2017 03:08 via ktoo.org
  
  Twin Lakes Playground fire scene the day after the fire on April 24th, 2017. A wide fire line is in place around the entire Twin Lakes Playground area. (Photo by Kelli Burkinshaw/KTOO)
  The Twin Lakes playground destroyed by arson will be covered by insurance — to a point.
  The City and Borough of Juneau says the policy carries a $100,000 deductible that will have to be met.
  The city would like to hear from the public on how to proceed, City Manager Rorie Watt said.
  “I think the fundam
  
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• BIA extends comment period for Central Council trust application

  03-05-2017 03:04 via ktoo.org
  
  The Bureau of Indian Affairs has extended the public comment period over Southeast Alaska’s largest tribal organization’s effort to put its downtown offices and surrounding parking lots into trust.
  The Juneau-based Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska recently learned that a long-running effort to put seven parcels into a federal trust was nearly complete.
  The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is the largest tribal organization in So
  
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• Alaska Native representatives offer support for income tax

  03-05-2017 03:01 via ktoo.org
  
  Natasha Singh, seated at right, said Tanana Chiefs Conference supports an income tax. She spoke to the House Finance Committee, with her sister Grace Singh, left. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media)
  Representatives of two regional Alaska Native tribal organizations offered support for an income or another progressive tax Tuesday.
  Tanana Chiefs Conference General Counsel Natasha Singh said Alaska Natives would contribute to a tax.
  “We often hea
  
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• Adorable toddler locks himself inside car, laughs as crews try to save him

  03-05-2017 02:33
  
  Brandon Emery Green laughs as firefighters attempt to open the car. (Credit: Kirsty Green via Facebook)
  What could have been a nightmare for one frustrated mother turned into a hilarious tale which she plans on sharing with her 14-month-old son when he’s old enough to appreciate it.
  Kirsty Green was shopping with her toddler, Brandon Emery, at the grocery store Lidl in Bude, England, last weekend when the mischievous incident occurred.
  Brandon kept trying to stand in the shopping cart as G
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 5-3-17

  03-05-2017 02:00 via ktoo.org
  
  Wednesday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon,
   
  We’ll get an overview of this year’s Jazz & Classics Festival, with guests William Ransom and Reggie Schapp;
   
  We’ll find out about the City Museum’s new exhibit, Stuff, Stories, and Sticky-Notes;
   
  We’ll talk with Joel Salatin, Alaskan farmer, in between workshops;
   
  We’ll talk with GiGi Monroe, organizer of several upcoming PRIDE events;
   
  And Andy Kline from the Alaskan Brewing Company, wi
  
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• Walker expected to join Council of Governors; would be first Alaskan on council

  03-05-2017 01:59 via ktoo.org
  
  Alaska Gov. Bill Walker speaks at a Juneau Chamber Business Roundtable Luncheon in February. Walker invited legislative leaders to his house on Wednesday to discuss a long-term budget plan. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
  Gov. Bill Walker is set to serve a two-year term on the Council of Governors after an announcement Monday from President Donald Trump.
  Trump intends to appoint Walker to the 10-member group, and if successful, Walker would be the first Alaska governor on the Council.
  According t
  
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• N. Korea says region closer to ‘brink of nuclear war’

  03-05-2017 01:59
  
  SEOUL, South Korea — A controversial U.S. anti-missile system in southeastern South Korea is now operating and can defend against North Korean missiles, the U.S. military confirmed Tuesday.
  “U.S. Forces Korea confirms the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is operational and has the ability to intercept North Korean missiles and defend the Republic of the Korea,” U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Rob Manning said in a statement to CBS News.
  The isolated North
  
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• Officer pleads guilty to civil rights charge in man’s shooting

  03-05-2017 01:56
  
  CHARLESTON, S.C. — A white police officer whose killing of a black motorist running from a traffic stop was recorded on a cellphone video pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating his civil rights, a conviction that could send him to prison for decades.
  As part of the plea deal, South Carolina prosecutors are expected to drop the state’s murder case against Michael Slager, who was fired from the North Charleston police force when the bystander’s video became public.
  Slager, 35, could
  
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• Sitka hospital’s proposed budget eliminates births, reduces surgery

  03-05-2017 01:33 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Sitka Community Hospital CFO Cynthia Brandt, left, and physician Charles Rozelle discuss the decision to scale back surgery — and eliminate childbirths — with CEO Rob Allen and board member Dr. David Lam. Brandt described some unexpected pressure on the hospital’s razor-thin budget: Medicare may want up to $1.2 million in a payback next year. (Photo by Robert Woolsey/KCAW)
  The Sitka Hospital Board has prepared a budget for next year that cuts back surgical coverage to half-time
  
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• Nutrient in meat, eggs may up blood clot, heart attack risk

  03-05-2017 01:09
  
  A nutrient in meat and eggs may conspire with gut bacteria to make the blood more prone to clotting, a small study suggests.
  The nutrient is called choline. Researchers found that when they gave 18 healthy volunteers choline supplements, it boosted their production of a chemical called TMAO.
  That, in turn, increased their blood cells’ tendency to clot. But the researchers also found that aspirin might reduce that risk.
  TMAO is short for trimethylamine N-oxide. It’s produced when gut
  
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• How to talk with your teen about ’13 Reasons Why’

  03-05-2017 01:05
  
  Moms, dads and schools are grappling with how to talk with their kids about the popular new Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” the story of a suburban teen who dies by suicide and leaves behind 13 recordings for the people she says were the reasons she killed herself. The tapes encapsulate everything from betrayal to romantic relationships gone bad to bullying to sexual assault.
  The show is graphic, culminating in fictional teen Hannah Baker’s suicide scene in the last episode. I
  
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• Alaska lawmakers mull measure calling abortion ‘child abuse’

  03-05-2017 01:00
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A conservative lawmaker has successfully tacked an anti-abortion message onto an otherwise innocuous resolution in the Alaska House aimed at raising awareness about sexual assault and child abuse.
  The amendment from Republican Rep. David Eastman of Wasilla refers to abortion as “the ultimate form of child abuse.” He says it would be wrong to discuss child abuse without mentioning abortion.
  The amendment was approved Monday by a divided House Rules Committe
  
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