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SEWARD, Alaska (AP) — Center is in jeopardy of closing after concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic have drastically reduced visitation rates. A decision will be made on Oct. 1 regarding the future of the aquarium, KTUU-TV reported Monday. As revenue from visits has whittled, the center has seen the costs of caring for its more than 4,000 animals stay stagnant. The CEO of the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Tara Reimer, said over half of the aquarium’s revenue comes from visitors. The SeaLife Center, Seward’s second-largest emplo...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Colorado company agreed to a $7 million cleanup plan for Alaska’s only uranium mine, which has left radioactive waste in the Tongass National Forest. Newmont Corporation is expected to fill the former Ross-Adams Mine in the Prince of Wales Island area, CoastAlaska reported Monday. A plan has been in the works for decades to close and clean the open pit mine area on the slopes of Bokan Mountain at the head of Kendrick Bay. The remote area is used by residents for fishing halibut and other activities, said Eric Rhodes of...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska city council approved a draft ordinance to protect equal rights for residents covering a range of personal, cultural and social circumstances. The first reading of an equal rights ordinance that passed last Thursday would prohibit discrimination based on factors including ethnicity, national origin, religion and marital status, The Ketchikan Daily News reported Tuesday. The ordinance would also protect citizens from discrimination stemming from disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, pr...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The University of Alaska Board of Regents on Tuesday named Pat Pitney interim president, a position she is expected to hold at least a year while a search for a permanent president is underway. Pitney is expected to take over Aug. 1, according to a system release. Michelle Rizk has been acting president. Rizk was named to that position last month, after Jim Johnsen resigned. Pitney is director of the Legislative Finance Division, which provides budget and revenue analyses for the Legislature. She was budget director u...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska is on track to repeat last year’s mark of the nation’s highest rate of tuberculosis infections, health officials said. There have been 38 reported cases of tuberculosis in the state so far this year, The Anchorage Daily News reported. A federal report released in March said Alaska had 58 documented cases of the disease in 2019. COVID-19 has complicated the mission of eradicating tuberculosis in Alaska by reducing the public health resources that can be dedicated to fighting the illness caused by bacteria that...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A neglected site where the Alaska territorial flag was designed, sewn and first flown will be demolished despite last-minute efforts by Alaskans and a preservation group to save it. The Seward City Council voted Monday to raze the Jesse Lee Home, once a Methodist-run facility where orphans and other displaced children from Alaska Native villages were sent, many after the Spanish Flu epidemic of a century ago. The home’s most famous resident was Benny Benson, a 13-...
Governor Dunleavy’s controversial selections to the state Board of Fisheries (BOF) will get a legislative hearing in early fall and the call is out for public comments. The board oversees management of the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. Appointments were made on April 1 and would normally go through a vigorous vetting process by the Alaska legislature with public input. But COVID-19 sent lawmakers home early from the last session, leaving the confirmation process in limbo. Now, Representative Louise Stutes (R...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Three people on a recreational boat were injured, one seriously, after it collided with a humpback whale, authorities said Monday. The collision happened Saturday just outside Auke Bay, north of Juneau, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries said in a statement. The Coast Guard relayed information to NOAA that the boat immediately returned to shore, where some family members were transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau. Hospital spokeswoman Katie Bausler said three people were taken to the h...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A person who didn’t follow quarantine procedures after arriving in Alaska has created the possibility of broad community spread of the coronavirus after going to social gatherings and public places in Ketchikan while awaiting results of a COVID-19 test that turned out positive, officials said. The person arrived in Ketchikan Saturday and underwent testing for COVID-19. The state says anyone tested on arrival is to quarantine until they receive a negative test result. Under the state rules, one is not to leave a quaranti...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Permanent Fund dividend was finalized at $992 and distribution is expected to begin early this year because of economic impacts caused by the coronavirus pandemic, state department officials said. The state Department of Revenue made the announcement Friday, saying payments are expected to begin July 1 instead of in October. “We are in extraordinary times. We need to make sure that the people of Alaska have cash in their hands to help in this economy,” Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in May. “I can’t t...
On May 20, 2020, the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) met in a special session to recommend changes to the charter-caught halibut size and annual limits in IPHC Regulatory Areas 2C and 3A. These regulatory changes were recently approved on June 15, 2020, and are effective immediately: • In Area 2C the charter angler daily bag limit remains at one halibut per day, but the halibut must be less than or equal to 45 inches OR greater than or equal to 80 inches in length. • In Area 3A the charter angler daily bag limit remains at two...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A subsidiary of an Alaska Native corporation has agreed to pay $1.3 million in a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice over a fraud scheme allegedly involving a former employee. Manufacturing company Alutiiq International Solutions told the agency in a non-prosecution deal that former manager Elmer Baker received cash and other kickbacks over several years in connection with a project to modernize the Harry S. Truman Federal Building in Washington, D.C., the Anchorage Daily News reported. Alutiiq International S...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Forty-one crew members and passengers of an Alaska state ferry will undergo testing for COVID-19 before disembarking the Tustumena in Homer later Monday after another crew member tested positive over the weekend. The crew member on the 198-foot ferry began exhibiting symptom and tested positive Saturday in Dutch Harbor. The ferry set sail for Homer that night after 21 passengers who boarded in Dutch Harbor were put back ashore. No other tests on crew members or passengers were conducted on Saturday. In all, 35 crew m...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska Department of Administration audit has found that the state’s National Guard units improved the handling of sexual assault and sexual harassment since 2014, but some problems remain. The administration department’s oversight unit said the National Guard increased sexual assault and prevention training, set up new procedures for addressing complaints and created a new military judicial system under laws passed by the Alaska Legislature, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday. Citing the results of anony...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A judge has vacated a proposed land exchange aimed at building a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, finding procedural violations. U.S. District Court Senior Judge John Sedwick in a ruling Monday said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt failed to provide adequate reasoning to support a change in policy in entering into a land exchange agreement with King Cove Corp. The Interior Department, under the Obama administration, declined a proposed land swap to build a road through Izembek National Wildlife R...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state plans to use one of its ferries to provide service between two southeast Alaska communities while repairs are done on an Inter-Island Ferry Authority vessel. The authority halted service between Ketchikan and Hollis on Prince of Wales Island on Friday after what it described as a “catastrophic propulsion system failure” affecting its vessel, the Prince of Wales, CoastAlaska reported. The ferry will be repaired when parts and technicians are available, authority General Manager Ronald Curtis said in the state...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An annual extreme mountain race in Alaska has been postponed until next year over coronavirus concerns, organizers said. The committee that oversees the Mount Marathon Race in Seward announced Sunday that the 93rd running of the Fourth of July event would be postponed until July 2021 after failing to find another appropriate date this year. The race of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) up and back down Mount Marathon to the finish line in Seward began in 1915 and was last canceled in 1942 because of World War II. No races w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has announced that checks from the state’s oil-wealth fund will begin going out to residents three months early because of “extraordinary times” brought on by the economic hardships caused by the coronavirus. “We need to make sure that people of Alaska have cash in their hands to help with this economy,” Dunleavy, a Republican, said Wednesday evening. This year’s check is expected to be about $1,000 and Dunleavy’s office said the Permanent Fund Dividend Division, which determines annual eligibil...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska had 42,200 fewer jobs in April than a year earlier as coronavirus fears shut down or disrupted businesses at a time when many traditionally would start adding jobs for the summer, the state labor department reported Friday. As restrictions ease, some of the jobs will return, but many seasonal jobs won’t happen this year, such as those serving cruise passengers, the report stated. Nearly 540 Alaska voyages have been canceled, according to Cruise Lines International Association Alaska. Streets that normally would be b...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature reconvened Monday for the first time since recessing in late March over coronavirus concerns, with new screening protocols aimed guarding against the virus. Under the protocols, details of which were released Monday, legislative staff and reporters were required to undergo screening, consisting of a temperature check and questions about travel, contacts and symptoms. Screenings were done by Capital City Fire/Rescue, and badges with a colored sticker were issued to be worn in the Capitol noting that a...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska airline has made a purchase offer for another regional carrier whose parent company declared bankruptcy because of the economic impact of the coronavirus. Alaska Seaplane Services LLC says it wants to buy Peninsula Airways Inc. and save the Southwest Alaska airline’s operating certificate, Alaska Public Media reported Sunday. Juneau-based Alaska Seaplane Services, doing business as Alaska Seaplanes, declined comment on the amount of its offer to buy the air carrier certification of Peninsula Airways, known as...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska House abruptly adjourned Tuesday after ratifying plans for using more than $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief aid, one day after reconvening to take up the issue. The Senate passed its own ratification bill but stayed in session to consider the House version, which aides said is identical. A vote is expected Wednesday, as Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration moves ahead with plans for distributing funds, including community and small business aid. Payments to communities could begin as early as Friday onc...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has no income or statewide sales taxes, and it cuts residents a check every year from its oil wealth. But the future of that unique payout is in question amid low oil prices and an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic. The size of the check — expected to be about $1,000 this year — has become a political battle in a state that already struggled to pay its bills. Many of Alaska’s 730,000 people see the money as a right. For some, the checks go toward vacations, vehicles or college savings. For others,...
PALMER, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska school board postponed a vote over rescinding a ban on selected English course books after taking public testimony on the issue that attracted national attention when a Grammy-winning rock group pledged to purchase the banned books for students. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District board heard three hours of testimony Wednesday on a proposal to rescind last month’s vote to remove five American literature classics from high school English elective courses. The board is scheduled to vote on the pro...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A legislative committee set aside lingering legal questions and agreed to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s plans for $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief aid. Many Legislative Budget and Audit Committee members Monday said getting the money out was more important than haggling over legal authority for the spending, KTOO Public Media reported. The committee, made up of House and Senate members, previously agreed to Dunleavy’s plans for about $125 million, a fraction of his total request, while working through remaining items...
