Anchorage news

• US official mulling greatly expanding airplane laptop ban

  28-05-2017 21:30
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says he’s considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.
  That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.
  The ban prevents travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board
  
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• Feds: Man jumps from plane after trying to bite attendant

  28-05-2017 21:27
  
  CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – A 22-year-old man jumped out of an airplane waiting to take off in North Carolina and had to be stopped from running onto the runway.
  A federal air marshal said in a sworn statement that 22-year-old Tun Sein was flying from Charlotte to New Bern on Thursday when he stood after the American Airlines flight had pulled away from the gate and was waiting to take off.
  Authorities say Sein ignored a flight attendant, then tried to bite her and fought off two passengers. He
  
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• ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ tops box office, ‘Baywatch’ sinks

  28-05-2017 20:54
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) – It was smooth sailing to the top spot at the box office for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” but the waters were choppier for the Dwayne Johnson comedy “Baywatch.”
  Studio estimates on Sunday say the fifth installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise commandeered $62.2 million in its first three days in theaters.
  The Johnny Depp-starrer is projected to take in $76.6 million over the four-day holiday weekend
  
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• High school seniors take spotlight in Juneau elementary schools

  28-05-2017 16:02 via ktoo.org
  
  Juneau-Douglas seniors walk through Harborview Elementary School on Friday. (Photo courtesy Juneau School District)
  The Juneau-Douglas High School seniors are eating a barbecue lunch after visiting Gastineau and Harborview Elementary schools this morning. The seniors donned their caps and gowns and took a victory lap through the schools. The walkthroughs are supposed to inspire the school district’s younger kids to graduate.
  Rena Nauer and Sierra Ezrre were eating lunch together but t
  
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• Local organizations to host three Memorial Day ceremonies in Juneau

  28-05-2017 16:00 via ktoo.org
  
  A musician plays taps to conclude the Memorial Day observance at Evergreen Cemetery in 2016. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
  Flags will fly at half-staff Monday morning in recognition of Memorial Day. The holiday recognizes people who have died in military service.
  In a White House proclamation, President Donald Trump designated 11 a.m. local time to unite in prayer for permanent peace and asked all Americans to observe a national moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. local time.
  The proclamation begins:&
  
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• Crash temporarily shuts down Seward Hwy overnight

  28-05-2017 09:37
  
  (Rick Rysso / KTVA) (Rick Rysso / KTVA)
  Last updated at 6:15 a.m. on Sunday, May 28
  The Seward Highway was completely closed in both directions for about five hours overnight following a crash at mile 76 near Portage Glacier Road.
  The crash occurred sometime just before 11 p.m. and the road finally reopened to traffic around 4 a.m.
  Whittier police were first to respond, according to Walter Hebb, the first motorist to arrive at the scene. Girdwood first responders, Anchorage police and the Ancho
  
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• Crash shuts down Seward Hwy near Portage Glacier Road

  28-05-2017 09:37
  
  (Rick Rysso / KTVA)
  (Bing Maps)
  The Seward Highway is completely closed in both directions at mile 76, according to an alert sent out by the Anchorage Police Department at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
  The location is just south Portage Glacier Road, near the Placer River.
  An Anchorage police officer at the scene said the road will likely be closed until about 5 a.m. as they investigate the crash.SEWARD HIGHWAY: APDAK: Seward Highway at mile 76 is shut down in both directions due to a traffic acc
  
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• Update: Troopers identify 2 Juneau men in plane crash near Haines

  28-05-2017 06:13 via ktoo.org
  
  (Creative Commons photo by Matt’ Johnson)
  Update | 11:50 a.m. Sunday
  Alaska State Troopers released the names for two of the three people on board a plane that crashed southwest of Haines Saturday morning.
  David Kunat, a 29-year-old Juneau pilot, and an adult male passenger from California both died at the crash site. Troopers said the other passenger, 31-year-old Chan Valentine from Juneau, survived the crash and was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital.
  Authorities notified Kunat&rs
  
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• 2 dead, 1 critical in plane crash near Haines

  28-05-2017 06:13 via ktoo.org
  
  (Creative Commons photo by Matt’ Johnson)
  Two people died in a plane crash about 9 miles southwest of Haines near Glacier Point late Saturday morning. One person is critically injured, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office in Anchorage.
  “Witnesses reported a twin engine airplane taking off from a site. …  It crashed in an area of tidal flats or tidal beach in shallow water and unfortunately, two people (were)
  
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• Feds to gain control over Alaska river

  28-05-2017 05:49 via ktoo.org
  
  BETHEL, Alaska (AP) — Starting next month, the management of king salmon on a southwestern Alaska river will transfer from state control to federal.
  KYUK-AM reports that as of June 12, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will begin to oversee the salmon living on lower and middle Kuskokwim River. Under federal law, the switch is necessary when there is poor return of king salmon. By taking over the fishery, the service is responsible for ensuring that local people receive subsistence priori
  
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• Arkansas veteran’s remains returns home after 65 years

  28-05-2017 05:47 via ktoo.org
  
  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The remains of an Arkansas National Guardsman killed 65 years ago in a plane crash in Alaska have been returned to his home state.
  Staff Sgt. Robert Dale Van Fossen was 21 when his plane went missing on Nov. 22, 1952, after he and other troops flew through harsh weather.
  Wreckage was found eight days later, but the remains of many of those killed weren’t found until 2012, when the site was rediscovered by a Black Hawk helicopter on a routine training mission.
  
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• Interior Secretary Zinke to visit Alaska

  28-05-2017 05:46 via ktoo.org
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (ZINK’-ee) will visit Alaska.
  The state’s congressional delegation announced Zinke will arrive Saturday for a multi-day trip that will include a visit to Prudhoe Bay.
  His itinerary also includes visiting Denali National Park and Preserve, which is celebrating its centennial, and meetings with Interior Department employees and the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage.
  On Wednesday, also in Anchorage, Zinke is schedule
  
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• Fairbanks police kill man who rammed police vehicles

  28-05-2017 05:45 via ktoo.org
  
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — Fairbanks police officers shot and killed a car chase suspect after the man rammed law enforcement vehicles that had blocked his pickup at a Mitchell Expressway onramp.
  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the suspect’s name has not been released.
  Alaska State Troopers first spotted the man with outstanding felony warrants driving a white pickup Thursday.
  Troopers chased him down the Richardson Highway, and Troopers Lt. Brian Wassmann says witnesses reporte
  
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• With tug still underwater, Samson develops salvage plan

  28-05-2017 05:43 via ktoo.org
  
  The tugboat Powhatan remains underwater, surrounded by booms to contain the oil spill in April 2017. (Photo courtesy of SEAPRO)
  A Sitka tugboat that sank at the Samson Tug & Barge dock four weeks ago remains underwater at Starrigavan Bay.
  According to a situation report, issued by the state Thursday, initial estimates that the vessel contained 340 gallons of oil on board were incorrect.
  Divers have found multiple spots where oil could have been released and have since sealed off th
  
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• G7 Summit ends without U.S. joining consensus on climate change

  28-05-2017 05:27 via ktoo.org
  
  From left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and British Prime Minister Theresa May pose during the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, on Friday.
  Andrew Medichini/AP
  At the end of a G7 summit, it’s customary for the nations to release a communiqué that conveys areas of consensus among the nations. Last year,
  
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• Republican Gianforte wins Montana House race despite assault charge

  28-05-2017 05:26 via ktoo.org
  
  Updated at 4:55 a.m. ET
  Republican Greg Gianforte won the special election for Montana’s lone congressional seat on Thursday despite an election eve misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly body-slamming a reporter.
  Gianforte had been silent following the allegations, with his campaign only releasing a statement claiming that The Guardian‘s Ben Jacobs had been the aggressor. But speaking at his victory party in Bozeman shortly after the race was called, Gianforte admitted he was in t
  
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• Life-without-parole sentences for D.C. Sniper thrown out by judge

  28-05-2017 05:26 via ktoo.org
  
  Lee Boyd Malvo attends court proceedings for fellow sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad in 2003. A federal judge has thrown out two sentences of life without parole that Malvo has been serving in Virginia.
  MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/AP
  A federal judge has thrown out two life sentences being served by Lee Boyd Malvo, one of two people convicted in the Washington, D.C., sniper killings of 2002.
  Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk, Va., ruled Friday that because the Supreme Court has found it unconstitutional
  
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• Jet owned by Elvis sold for $430,000 at auction

  28-05-2017 05:09
  
  (Photo courtesy of liveautcioneers.com) (Photo courtesy of liveautcioneers.com) (Photo courtesy of liveautcioneers.com)
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A private jet once owned by Elvis Presley has been auctioned after sitting on a runway in New Mexico for 35 years.
  GWS Auctions Inc. says the plane sold for $430,000 on Saturday at a California event featuring celebrity memorabilia.
  The auction house says Elvis designed the interior that has gold-tone woodwork, red velvet seats and red shag carpe
  
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• Judge dismisses lawsuit against Clinton by Benghazi families

  28-05-2017 05:02
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton filed by the parents of two Americans killed in the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
  U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington says the former secretary of state didn’t defame the parents when disputing allegations that she had lied.
  The lawsuit also alleged Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods were killed because Clinton’s use of a private email server ultimately exposed terrorists
  
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• Remains of Arkansas soldier killed in Colony Glacier plane crash returned home

  28-05-2017 04:52
  
  An Arkansas National Guardsman who was killed in plane crash in Alaska 65 years ago has finally made it home.
  Staff Sgt. Robert Dale Van Fossen was laid to rest Saturday in Little Rock. Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson ordered flags lowered to half mast in Van Fossen’s honor.
  His remains were found among the wreckage of a C-124 Globemaster that crashed on Colony Glacier during poor weather conditions in November, 1952.
  The crash site was discovered in 2012. Every year since, a re
  
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• Historic planes head to Dutch Harbor to mark 75th anniversary of Aleutians battle

  28-05-2017 04:43
  
  John Pletcher’s invitation is too good to ignore — a chance for myself to get back in the sky for the first time in a while.
  It takes his JRF-5 Grumman Goose just seconds to take flight at Anchorage’s Merrill Field, then it’s off to Dutch Harbor, to take part in the 75th anniversary of the start of the Aleutians Islands Campaign.
  Pletcher’s plane has flown since the U.S. Marines commissioned it in August 1944. The Goose served Annapolis Naval Air Station, before it
  
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• NTSB investigating separate fatal crashes near Fairbanks, Haines

  28-05-2017 00:46
  
  Last updated at 9:10 p.m. on Saturday, May 27
  Two people are confirmed dead and one is in critical condition following a fatal plane crash near the small Southeast Alaska community of Haines.
  A twin engine Piper PA-30 crashed “under unknown circumstances” on a beach around 11 a.m. Saturday, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Ian McGregor.
  Witnesses reported the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, NTSB Alaska chief Clint Johnson said in a phone c
  
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• 2 confirmed dead in Southeast Alaska plane crash

  28-05-2017 00:46
  
  Last updated at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 27
  Two people are confirmed dead and one is in critical condition following a fatal plane crash near the small Southeast Alaska community of Haines.
  The crash happened around 11 a.m. Saturday, according to NTSB Alaska chief Clint Johnson.
  Witnesses reported the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
  Two of the occupants were confirmed dead at the scene, while a third person in critical condition was flown to Juneau, said Johnson.
  The plane was a
  
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