Anchorage news

• Newscast – Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025

  25-12-2025 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20251224-News-Update-1.mp3
  In this newscast:Heavy snow is forecast to hit Juneau and other parts of Alaska’s panhandle this weekend, following days of record-breaking frigid temperatures.
  When it snows, crews fan out with plows, graders, blowers and more to clear the streets in Juneau. Morning Edition host Mike Lane recently sat down with CBJ Streets & Fleet Superintendent Scott Gray to learn more about local snow removal operations.
  As
  
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• Newscast – Friday, Jan. 2, 2026

  03-01-2026 03:00 via ktoo.org
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260102-News-Update-1.mp3
  In this newscast:It’s a new year, but Juneau residents are still digging out from four feet of snow that fell earlier this week,
  Thane Road is now open after being closed for two days due to avalanche risk,
  Two Juneau artists spent this snowy Friday framing and mounting 18 block prints that correlate with myths — ones they wrote themselves,
  In 2025 Alaskans experienced record-breaking heat on the North Slope
  
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• M/V Lituya back sailing on a limited basis after brief grounding

  03-01-2026 02:55 via ktoo.org
  The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Lituya provides regular service between Metlakatla Indian Community and Ketchikan. (KRBD file photo by Leila Kheiry)
  The state ferry Lituya went aground on Tuesday at about 2:50 p.m. near Annette Bay in Southeast Alaska. The small ferry runs a daily shuttle service between Ketchikan and Metlakatla.
  The brief grounding happened when the ferry left Annette Bay dock. It lasted less than a minute, according to Shannon McCarthy, a spokesperson with the Alaska De
  
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• First Friday show features new myths written and illustrated by Juneau artists

  03-01-2026 01:51 via ktoo.org
  Alex Bookless holds a print she made on Jan. 2, 2025. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
  Two Juneau artists spent this snowy Friday framing and mounting 18 block prints that correlate with myths — ones they wrote themselves. 
  The prints are a part of a show titled “My Mother’s Bones,” opening Friday at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.
  Rachel Levy said thinking about folktales and their morals inspired the series. 
  “Things you wouldn’t even consider my
  
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• Western Alaska evacuees in Anchorage slowly moving to temporary housing

  03-01-2026 01:45 via ktoo.org
  Evacuees of ex-typhoon Halong in Anchorage are moving out of hotels where they have been sheltering for months, and into temporary housing around the city. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  Western Alaska residents who evacuated to Anchorage after the remnants of Typhoon Halong battered their villages are now moving out of city hotels and into temporary housing.
  They’re looking forward to having more privacy, being able to cook for themselves and having more space, said Jeremy Zidek, publ
  
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• Negotiations underway to keep Aleutian seismic stations online

  02-01-2026 23:01 via ktoo.org
  A tsunami evacuation sign in Unalaska. (Kanesia McGlashan-Price/KUCB)
  The Alaska Earthquake Center is in negotiations with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to restore funding for nine seismic stations.
  In late September, NOAA advised the center it would no longer fund its real-time seismic data flow to the National Tsunami Warning Center, a service the federal organization had been funding for decades.
  In a statement in mid-December, a NOAA spokesperson said the federal govern
  
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• Fred Meyer closed for snow removal as Juneau continues to dig out

  02-01-2026 21:48 via ktoo.org
  Heavy equipment sits in the parking lot of Fred Meyer grocery store in Juneau on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (Photo by Mike Lane/KTOO)
  It’s a new year, but Juneau residents are still digging out from four feet of snow that fell this week.
  The heavy snow collapsed the roof of at least one Juneau business, and others have closed for snow removal. 
  Fred Meyer closed early on Thursday and did not reopen on Friday morning. 
  “Our Juneau Fred Meyer is temporarily closed to allow for sno
  
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• Hey Alaskans, it’s time to file for your PFD

  02-01-2026 19:05 via ktoo.org
  The State of Alaska’s PFD and Child Affairs Office is located in downtown Anchorage and pictured here on August 31, 2022. (Valerie Lake/AKPM)
  For many, the New Year signals a fresh start. But for Alaskans, it also means it’s time to apply for the Permanent Fund dividend.
  Applications for the 2026 PFD opened Thursday, with online filing starting at 9 a.m. Over 600,000 Alaskans receive the PFD each year, which is usually paid out in October.
  It’s not yet clear how much the 2026 d
  
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• Juneau updates its avalanche messaging as snowstorm smashes local records

  01-01-2026 03:05 via ktoo.org
  A Twin Lakes resident shovels snow off of a roof on Dec. 31, 2025. (Photo by Alix Soliman/KTOO)
  The City and Borough of Juneau is warning residents about urban avalanches a bit differently this year in an effort to help residents in the downtown avalanche zone understand how they should respond to the danger. 
  The city posted its new avalanche information webpage on Monday, the day before it issued an avalanche advisory for the Behrends neighborhood and Thane Road that remains in effect.&nb
  
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• Newscast – Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025

  01-01-2026 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20251231-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The City and Borough of Juneau is warning residents about urban avalanches a bit differently this year,
  After Juneau residents helped raise more than $1 million this fall, a local boy with a rare genetic disease will be able to receive a potentially life-changing gene therapy in the New Year,
  Alaska will get $272 million from the federal government next year to upgrade its rural health system,
  For Alaskan
  
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• Winter weather leaves Pelican without seaplane, ferry access for weeks

  01-01-2026 02:13 via ktoo.org
  Pelican Harbor (2020 Heather Bauscher)
  Like many people during the holiday season, Sitkan Gaylen Needham was planning on spending Christmas with her adult children, who planned to fly in from Pelican.
  However, due to record snowfall, low visibility and cold temperatures, Pelican has been without seaplane access since Nov. 28, cutting the Southeast community of 91 people off from the rest of the region.
  “We lived out there full time in the 70s, and we had hard winters out there th
  
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• Juneau child’s clinical trial set to proceed in new year after community raises more than $1 million

  01-01-2026 00:47 via ktoo.org
  Cade Jobsis and his mom, Emma, at the (Photo courtesy of Emma Jobsis)
  After Juneau residents helped raise more than $1 million this fall, a local boy with a rare genetic disease will be able to receive a potentially life-changing gene therapy in the new year.
  For the past two years, 4-year-old Cade Jobsisʼs mother Emma Jobsis has been raising money to allow scientists to restart clinical trials that previously showed promising results treating AP4 Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, or SPG50.&nb
  
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• 2025 KTOO News Round-up Review

  31-12-2025 18:26 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Juneau Afternoon Host Bostin Christopher talks with new Managing Editor Lisa Phu and Digital Content Director Adelyn Baxter about the top five most-read news stories, plus the KTOO reporters feature their favorite stories from their colleagues.
  Audio PodcastThe KTOO News team, from left to right: Yvonne Krumrey, Adelyn Baxter, Lisa Phu, Clarise Larson, Mike Lane, Jamie Diep, and Alix Soliman.The 2025 top five most-read stories on KTOO.org:Mendenhall Glacier has officially receded from Mendenhal
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025

  31-12-2025 02:59 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20251230-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The city issued an alert this afternoon to residents living in downtown Juneau that avalanche conditions are elevated in the areas above Behrends Avenue and Thane Road,
  City and state facilities remain closed again today after record-breaking snowfall in Juneau,
  Chief Rich Etheridge is retiring from Capital City Fire/Rescue and his last day is tomorrow,
  In a special feature highlighting some of KTOO&rsquo
  
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• Avalanche alert issued for downtown, Thane residents

  31-12-2025 02:30 via ktoo.org
  The Behrends Path above Glacier Highway, where a small snow slide came down on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024 (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  The city issued an alert Tuesday afternoon to residents living in downtown Juneau that avalanche conditions are elevated in the areas above Behrends Avenue and Thane Road. 
  The alert is not an evacuation advisory. But the city advises residents in the affected areas to prepare for an evacuation if conditions continue to worsen.
  The alert comes after more than 30 inches
  
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• City, state and businesses continue closures in Juneau amid record-breaking snowfall

  30-12-2025 22:52 via ktoo.org
  Snow covers the roads in downtown Juneau on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  City and state facilities remain closed again on Tuesday after record-breaking snowfall in Juneau. 
  Official snow totals from the National Weather Service confirm that Juneau has broken its all-time snow record for the month of December with 63.7 inches as of Tuesday morning.
  The previous record from December 1964 was 54.7 inches. 
  The city originally planned a delayed opening of facilitie
  
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• Halong-impacted individuals may be eligible for unemployment assistance

  30-12-2025 21:58 via ktoo.org
  Boats washed up into the trees by the remnants of Typhoon Halong are seen across the Kanektok River from the community of Quinhagak on Oct. 16, 2025. (Bryan Jones Jr. on behalf of Qanirtuuq Incorporated and Nalaquq, LLC)
  Individuals who have been impacted by Typhoon Halong may be eligible for unemployment benefits.
  On Dec. 26, the Alaska Department of Labor announced that anyone who lived or was employed at the time of the disaster in the Lower Kuskokwim Regional Education Attendance Area (REAA)
  
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• Alaska could see up to $1.36 billion for rural health over the next 5 years

  30-12-2025 20:40 via ktoo.org
  The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
  Alaska was awarded more federal money than any state besides Texas for a federal rural health initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Monday.
  The money will come from the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion program set up as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and intended to counteract the effects of its sweeping Medicaid cu
  
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• Juneau’s fire chief reflects on 33-year career ahead of retirement

  30-12-2025 20:21 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Capital City Fire/Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge during a training on Douglas. (Courtesy of Rich Etheridge)
  Chief Rich Etheridge is retiring from Capital City Fire/Rescue at the end of this year. After serving as a first responder for decades, he’s now turning his focus to woodworking.
  KTOO’s Mike Lane spoke with Etheridge about his retirement and his future plans.
  Listen:
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/CHIEF_ETHERIDGE_RETIRE122325-2way.mp3
  The following transcript ha
  
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• Newscast – Monday, Dec. 29, 2025

  30-12-2025 02:58 via ktoo.org
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20251229-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:A winter storm dumped more than two feet of snow and freezing rain on the capital city this holiday weekend. As of Monday, residents were still trying to dig out as more snow fell.
  For decades, Alaska officials have dreamed of a pipeline that would ferry natural gas hundreds of miles from the North Slope to an export terminal in Cook Inlet. Over the years, the state has pumped hundreds of millions of doll
  
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• Pipeline deal and disasters were highlight and low point of 2025, Alaska governor says

  29-12-2025 23:21 via ktoo.org
  Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy greets a child during the governor’s annual holiday open house on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2022 at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  Framed by the fireplace in Alaska’s governor’s mansion earlier this month, Gov. Mike Dunleavy shook hands and posed for pictures in the final holiday open house of his two terms as Alaska’s top elected official.
  Dunleavy is prohibited from running for another term, and 14 candidates have
  
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• Heavy snow and freezing rain buries Juneau ahead of the new year

  29-12-2025 21:42 via ktoo.org
  Skiers head down a snowy Basin Road in downtown Juneau on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  A winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow and freezing rain on the capital city this holiday weekend. As of Monday, residents were still trying to dig out. 
  The National Weather Service in Juneau extended the winter storm warning in Juneau to 6 a.m. Tuesday and says an additional 5 to 10 inches of snowfall could arrive by then. “Snow totals have so far been around
  
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• Indigenous nation to get $7,250-per-person payments as a mine advances upstream of Alaska

  29-12-2025 19:23 via ktoo.org
  The Stikine River Flats area in the Tongass National Forest is viewed from a helicopter on July 19, 2021. The Stikine River flows from British Columbia to Southeast Alaska. It is one of the major transboundary rivers impacted by mines in British Columbia. Alaska tribes and communities are seeking some new protection to avoid downstream impacts. (Photo by Alicia Stearns/U.S. Forest Service)
  This story is co-published by the Wrangell Sentinel and Northern Journal.
  An Indigenous community
  
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• State begins permitting process to build Izembek road

  29-12-2025 19:17 via ktoo.org
  The end of the road leading out of King Cove. June 2024 (Theo Greenly/KUCB)
  A controversial stretch of road connecting two Eastern Aleutian communities is heading toward construction.
  The Alaska Department of Transportation has applied for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to build the road and is taking public comments on the proposed work until Jan. 12.
  The 19-mile road would pass through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, connecting King Cove residents to nearby Cold Bay. King Cove com
  
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• Dunleavy fills 2 Mat-Su Republican vacancies in state House

  29-12-2025 19:05 via ktoo.org
  The Alaska State Capitol doors on June 16, 2021. (Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO & Alaska Public Media)
  Gov. Mike Dunleavy has chosen two Mat-Su Republicans to fill vacant state House seats.
  In a statement Wednesday, Dunleavy announced the appointment of Wasilla resident Steve St. Clair and Sutton resident Garret Nelson to the state House of Representatives.
  Both seats were vacated when George Rauscher of Sutton and Cathy Tilton of Wasilla were chosen by the governor to fill two vacancies in the Sen
  
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• Child dies in Christmas Eve car accident by Auke Lake

  25-12-2025 07:44 via ktoo.org
  A Juneau Police Department vehicle park in downtown Juneau on Thursday, June 13, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  A 7-year-old child died from injuries suffered in a car accident near Auke Lake on Christmas Eve. 
  Police received a call around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday reporting that two vehicles had collided along Glacier Highway near Auke Lake, according to a press release from the Juneau Police Department. 
  Emergency responders extracted multiple people who were trapped inside the vehicles at t
  
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• Another winter storm could dump more than a foot of snow in Juneau this weekend

  25-12-2025 00:57 via ktoo.org
  Snow covers boats in downtown Juneau on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  Heavy snow is forecast to hit Juneau and other parts of Alaska’s panhandle this weekend, following days of record-breaking frigid temperatures. 
  According to the National Weather Service, Juneau is forecast to see more than a foot of snowfall in 24 hours beginning late Friday evening through Saturday evening. That storm is an atmospheric river and will bring warmer temperatures, which could
  
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• Sitka’s top nutcracker collector hopes to crack open people’s childlike wonder

  24-12-2025 21:10 via ktoo.org
  Jack Petersen poses with a portion of his nutcracker collection displayed at Wildflour Cafe and Bakery. (Ryan Cotter/KCAW)
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/11Nutcracker.mp3
  As a well-known prop designer for community theater productions in Sitka, Jack Petersen is no stranger to construction. He holds up one of his proudest works, a wooden nutcracker adorned in a blue marching band uniform.
  “As an artist, I do get very particular about…not just like the visual aesthe
  
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• After more than 50 years, a family-run shop in downtown Juneau is closing its doors

  24-12-2025 20:40 via ktoo.org
  Mike Wylie has worked at his family’s Ben Franklin store since the 70s. He said the decision to close is bittersweet. Dec. 11, 2025. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
  With its Ferris Wheel made of K’nex and model airplanes hanging from the ceiling, the Ben Franklin store was a landmark in downtown Juneau, drawing attention from passersby, young and old. But in mid-December, it was almost empty as people came and went to see what’s left. 
  After more than 50 years, the family-r
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025

  24-12-2025 03:04 via ktoo.org
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/20251223-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:This week marks six months since 42-year-old Juneau resident Benjamin Stepetin was last seen in downtown Juneau.
  The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development found that the Juneau School District did not provide occupational therapy services to some students that were supposed to receive them last school year.
  The next legislative session is less than a month away, and lawmakers are preparing
  
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