Anchorage news

• Fairbanks driver jumps out of moving car during traffic stop

  16-07-2017 23:38
  
  A Fairbanks man attempts getting out of a traffic stop by jumping out of his moving vehicle early Sunday morning.
  Alaska State Troopers say at 2:09 a.m. they tried to stop 43-year-old Clayton Nelson of Fairbanks after he ran through a red light traveling down University Avenue. He failed to stop, turned into the Chena River Recreation site, jumped out of the moving vehicle and then ran on foot. The vehicle ended up sinking to the bottom of Chena River.
  Troopers say they were able to catch and ar
  
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• Alaska lawmakers vote to cut oil, gas drilling subsidies

  16-07-2017 22:13
  
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska legislators have voted to cut oil and gas drilling subsidies from the budget.
  The Juneau Empire reports the compromised proposal was approved late Saturday in an 18-0 vote in the Senate and a 33-6 vote in the House. Officials say the move will save the state nearly $200 million per year within three years.
  Gov. Bill Walker said in a statement that the approval is a “meaningful step to shore up our financial situation.”
  The state has a deficit of ove
  
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• Sitka brothers bake cookies to help Syrian refugee family

  16-07-2017 22:06
  
  SITKA, Alaska (AP) – Three Sitka brothers baked cookies to help a Syrian refugee family arrive safely to Canada.
  The Sitka Sentinel reports Blake, Dane and Nate LaPerriere were excited to learn this week that the family made it to Canada with the help of a $20,000 fundraiser that they contributed to. The LaPerriere brothers heard about the needy family from their mother. Their aunt Allison Lawlor was part of the group that organized the fundraising efforts in Canada.
  The brothers say they
  
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• Local company moves to help youth hockey program that had funds stolen

  16-07-2017 21:48
  
  A youth hockey group rocked by an embezzlement case against its former treasurer may be getting an assist soon, from a local equipment manufacturer for the game.
  Prosecutors claim 33-year-old Chugiak resident Jennifer Suchan stole $180,000 from the Mustang Hockey Association to pay her bills. Anchorage police arrested Suchan in June after they determined she took the money from Aug. 12, 2015, to June 19, 2017.
  That’s left the program with a big financial hole, but Eagle River-based Alaska
  
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• Special session ends with compromise on oil and gas tax credits

  16-07-2017 11:46 via ktoo.org
  
  Senate President Pete Kelly and Sen. Anna MacKinnon meet with House Majority Leader Chris Tuck and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon in Juneau just before midnight Saturday. Shortly after, the House and Senate adjourned the special session. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
  State government would no longer provide tax credits that can be traded for cash to oil and gas companies under a bill the Legislature passed Saturday.
  Instead, companies would be able to reduce the taxes they pay in the future, based on
  
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• Legislature ends cashable oil tax credit program

  16-07-2017 11:23
  
  In an eleventh-hour compromise, the Alaska legislature voted Saturday night to end the state’s cash credit program designed to incentivize exploration for oil by smaller companies.
  The Senate approved a conference committee’s version of House Bill 111 just before 11 p.m. on day 180 of session. The House followed suit, just before the clock ran out on the legislature’s second special session at midnight.
  The measure builds upon the previous legislature’s work through HB 24
  
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• Eagle River man dead in Levelock stabbing

  16-07-2017 10:30
  
  A two-person altercation in the Western Alaska village of Levelock left an Eagle River man dead Friday evening, in what was reported to Alaska State Troopers as a stabbing.
  An online dispatch posted Saturday night said troopers investigating the death of 37-year-old Ellis Lee Kaloke arrived in Levelock, roughly 40 miles north of Naknek, at about 9 p.m. Friday.
  “Upon arrival at the scene troopers found a victim deceased,” troopers wrote. “Investigation at the scene revealed a di
  
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• Police arrest carjacking crash suspect as he leaves hospital

  16-07-2017 08:16 via ktoo.org
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man suspected of crashing a stolen Anchorage vehicle was arrested after leaving a hospital.
  Anchorage police say 26-year-old Tyler Wolff was charged Thursday with eight felonies, including robbery and assault.
  Police early July 7 investigated a man with a gun outside an east-side fast-food restaurant.
  Police say the man ignored officers’ commands and alternately put the gun to his head or in his mouth. The man ran, carjacked a vehicle a block away and drove
  
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• Conoco Phillips closes Kenai plant, continues buyer search

  16-07-2017 08:15 via ktoo.org
  
  KENAI, Alaska (AP) — ConocoPhillips is preparing to fully shut down its Kenai liquefied natural gas plant while it continues to find a buyer for it.
  The Alaska Journal of Commerce reports ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Amy Burnett said Wednesday that the company is preparing to put the plant into long-term shutdown mode this fall. Burnett says the closure will focus on preserving the plant for future exports.
  The Kenai facility has been idle for nearly two years, with its last export having be
  
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• At Least 3 Killed, 12 Injured In High-Rise Fire In Honolulu

  16-07-2017 08:03 via ktoo.org
  
  At least three people are dead and 12 injured after a large fire broke out in a high-rise condominium in Hawaii on Friday.
  More than 100 firefighters responded to the five-alarm fire in the 36-story Marco Polo apartment complex in Honolulu.
  A dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation and at least two were hospitalized, Hawaii Public Radio’s Bill Dorman reports.
  The fire started around 2:15 p.m. on the building’s 26th floor, according to Hawaii’s KHON2, and spread to at lea
  
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• Healthy housing market shows Ketchikan’s resilience

  16-07-2017 07:54 via ktoo.org
  
  The Ketchikan skyline. (Creative Commons photo by Dave Bezaire)
  Like many industries in the city, the story of Ketchikan’s housing market is closely tied to the shutdown of Ketchikan Pulp Company in 1997.
  Gateway City Realty broker Bill Bolling said the local market is quite healthy now. He said the robust local economy is in part due to the closing of the mill.
  “If there was any silver lining in the loss of our mill, it was the diversification of our economy,” he said.
  Ketchik
  
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• “Red Horde” swims through Nome escapement goals; managers predict strong silver run

  16-07-2017 07:53 via ktoo.org
  
  (Photo by Katrina Mueller/USFWS)
  Following a record number of sockeye salmon swimming through Pilgrim River this past weekend — over 5,000 in two days — the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Nome waived all catch limits for the red fish.
  As of Thursday morning, an additional 3,700 sockeyes were reported through the Pilgrim River.
  Area manager for the Norton Sound and Kotzebue, Jim Menard, says he and his staff are encouraging subsistence fishers to get out there and stop the &ldq
  
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• Cutter Maple’s Alaskan farewell a possible journey to remember

  16-07-2017 07:53 via ktoo.org
  
  Built in Wisconsin in 2000, and commissioned in Sitka in 2001, the USCGC Maple is a fixture on the Sitka waterfront. The voyage to her reassignment in Charleston may take the Maple through the famed Northwest Passage. (Photo courtesy KCAW)
  The 225-foot buoy tender, Coast Guard Cutter Maple, is bound for Baltimore for a refit, and then for her new homeport of Charleston, South Carolina.
  The Maple’s 50-member crew will return to Sitka and spend six months preparing for their replacement ship
  
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• Small plane crashes near Yentna River; no word on pilot

  16-07-2017 04:35
  
  Investigators were en route to a small-plane crash about 30 miles north of Anchorage Saturday night, with no details initially available on the status of the aircraft’s pilot and sole occupant.
  Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief, said reports of the crash near the mouth of the Yentna River first came in at about 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
  “We’re thinking that the accident took place at about 3 o’clock, but that’s very, very prelimi
  
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• Pilot dead in small plane crash near Yentna River

  16-07-2017 04:35
  
  A plane crashed near Yentna River after the pilot got done shuttling people to a remote cabin north of Anchorage
  According to Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief, sometime between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. the pilot was ferrying people in his Aeronca Sedan plane, to his remote cabin, north of Anchorage. After that, he was due back at his home base in Sand Lake but didn’t show up at the time he was supposed to. The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center wa
  
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• The pipe dream lives on at Prudhoe Bay

  16-07-2017 04:19
  
  The Trans-Alaska Pipeline turned 40 years old last month. It turned a giant oil reservoir at Prudhoe Bay into cash for both the oil industry and a state hungry for money to pay its bills.
  This week, Frontiers takes a look at what this anniversary means to those who played a role in bringing the largest oil field in the nation to life.
  KTVA’s Rhonda McBride asked Prudhoe Bay workers about how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.
  “Trans-Alaska Pipeline: 40 Years Later&rd
  
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• Local marijuana retail shop weighs in on Marijuana Control Board’s proposal for on-site consumption

  16-07-2017 02:55
  
  Using marijuana in a separate room within the same store you bought it from could become a possibility in Alaska, after the Marijuana Control Board’s proposal to allow that option passed Friday.
  The proposed rules would allow retail marijuana shops to have a separate room for using pot, in a different building or separated from the shop by a wall or door. It would also give power to local governments, allowing municipalities and cities to choose not to participate.
  “Still a lot of un
  
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• Sutton man killed in Matanuska River boating accident

  16-07-2017 01:00
  
  A boat overturned Saturday afternoon along the Matanuska River, Alaska State Troopers said, during an accident in the Glacier View area that killed a Sutton man.
  Alaska State Troopers identified the deceased in an online dispatch Saturday afternoon as 63-year-old Martin Rinke. Word came in at about 1:15 p.m. of the capsize, near a formation known as the Lion’s Head.
  “Investigation revealed a raft had overturned in the river, discharging its occupants,” troopers wrote. “(R
  
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• 1 reported dead in Matanuska River boating accident

  16-07-2017 01:00
  
  A boat overturned Saturday afternoon along the Matanuska River east of Sutton, where authorities said one person had been reported dead.
  Otto Feather, the Mat-Su Borough’s director of emergency services, said word of the near Mile 105 of the Glenn Highway first arrived at about 1 p.m. Good Samaritans who initially responded told borough staff that one of the people involved had died, with others trapped on the river’s far shore.
  Feather said Sutton responders, as well as the borough&
  
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