Anchorage news

• Premera to bump up premium to cover Trump cut

  14-10-2017 23:31 via ktoo.org
  Just last month Premera announced it would drop its health insurance rates on Alaska’s individual market by more than 26 percent. But the drop may not be quite that steep after all, at least for one type of plan. The new factor is President Trump’s decision Thursday night to stop paying Cost Sharing Reductions.
  CSR is a type of subsidy under the Affordable Care Act. For certain low-income households, CSR lowers what they have to pay out-of-pocket when they see a doctor.
  Premera, the
  
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• Juneau Assembly eyes expanding senior sales tax exemption

  14-10-2017 20:48 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Seniors in September 2015 pack Juneau Assembly Chambers to oppose a scaling back of a senior sales tax break. The bright yellow pins say “We vote.” (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/KTOO)
  An initiative to expand the senior sales tax goes before the Juneau Assembly on Monday. Assembly members who campaigned to broaden the exemption for seniors, now make up a five-person majority.https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ktoo/2017/10/171016SALESTAX.mp3Seniors over 65 currently pay no sales tax on u
  
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• Murkowski-Warren letter slams White House’s response to opioid epidemic

  14-10-2017 02:58 via ktoo.org
  Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski sent a letter Thursday with her Democratic colleague Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to the president regarding the nation-wide opioid epidemic.
  The four-page document frames the health crisis as a bipartisan issue, and lays blame for a lackluster policy response squarely in one place.
  http://media.aprn.org/2017/ann-20171012-05.mp3Murkowski and Warren are critical of President Donald Trump’s response to the opioid crisis, specifically what they belie
  
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• Youth Employment in Parks program offers students real world job experience

  14-10-2017 02:47 via ktoo.org
  Some kids need extra help learning what’s expected of them in a work place.
  Juneau Parks and Recreation and Southeast Alaska Independent Living have a summer program that gets them outside and teaches them interpersonal skills they’ll need.C. Allen Truitt, who coordinates the Youth Employment in Parks program, drives a bus packed with six teenagers from Zach Gordon Youth Center.
  The back is filled with shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows.
  “We do things like work on our city tr
  
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• Juneau Afternoon – 10-16-17

  14-10-2017 02:17 via ktoo.org
  Monday on A Juneau Afternoon, Sheli DeLaney hosts;
   
  We’ll talk about the Glory Hole and Thanksgiving;
   
  Alan Akijama will be here to highlight the Alaska Day Pancake Breakfast fundraiser for the Juneau Senior Center;
   
  We’ll talk with Stephanie Valdez about COASST Training;
   
  And Steve Kocsis (KO-SISS) will be here with a preview of Wednesday’s Planetarium Presentation, 100 Years of General Relativity;
   
  That, Writers Almanac, Bird Note, music and more
  
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• Emergency radio kit from Southeast Alaska sent to help Puerto Rico broadcaster

  14-10-2017 01:55 via ktoo.org
  On Monday, a radio engineer in Juneau loaded four nondescript black cases into a truck and drove it to air cargo.
  It was one of three emergency radio broadcasting kits of its kind, designed in Southeast Alaska. On Thursday, it arrived in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria wrecked communications infrastructure.Rich Parker helps keep Southeast Alaska public radio stations on the air (including KTOO).
  Part of his job as an engineer working on broadcasting infrastructure means maintaining the emerge
  
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• In Iliamna, EPA hears mixed reactions to its new course on Pebble Mine

  14-10-2017 01:53 via ktoo.org
  EPA officials traveled from Washington, D.C. to Iliamna to hear local input on EPA’s recent settlement with Pebble (Photo by Elizabeth Harball/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
  The Environmental Protection Agency was in the remote community of Iliamna on Thursday for the second of two public hearings on whether the agency should roll back its Obama-era proposal to impose restrictions on the Pebble Mine.
  Despite pouring rain, over 50 Alaskans from across the region filled seats in the Old Crowley
  
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• Chief Johnson totem pole restoration underway

  14-10-2017 01:26 via ktoo.org
  
  
   
  The Chief Johnson totem pole, which stood at the south end of the Centennial Building parking lot adjacent to the city museum, was taken down for cleaning and repairs in late September.
  https://krbd-org.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/12TotemRest_web.mp3The 55-foot pole is a replica carved by Israel Shotridge and raised in 1989. It is now at the old fire hall on Main Street where Tommy Joseph is undertaking the restoration process.
  “I’m a Tlingit wood carver,
  
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• Biologists spend years mapping Chilkat Valley goat and bear habitat to inform heliski decisions

  14-10-2017 01:06 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Biologists now have research-based models to predict critical mountain goat habitat in the Chilkat Valley. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
  Every few years, Haines officials decide whether to allow helicopter skiing in new areas of the Chilkat Valley.
  It’s usually a contentious process where residents debate the economic benefits of heliskiing versus impacts on residents and wildlife.
  http://khns.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/13HabitatStudieswINTRO.mp3Now, local decisio
  
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