Sorted by date Results 451 - 475 of 797
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state will appeal the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' rejection of a key permit for a proposed copper and gold mine in a region that supports the world's largest sockeye salmon runs. Dunleavy, in a statement Friday, called the corps' decision flawed and said the state has to keep a federal agency "from using the regulatory process to effectively prevent the State from fulfilling a constitutional mandate to develop its natural resources."...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Navy released details of a new strategy for operations in the Arctic as competition for resources among nations increases in the region. Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation have expressed support for the increased focus on the Arctic, the Juneau Empire reported Saturday. The Navy statement titled “A Blue Arctic” provides an outline of planned operational changes for the military’s sea services in and around Alaska, including the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps. The services will oper...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Small businesses in Alaska say new federal coronavirus relief funds will provide needed aid, especially for those in the service industry facing their slowest time of the year. The aid package grants almost $300 billion nationwide in new forgivable loans. The first round of federal aid in March provided about $1.3 billion to roughly 12,000 Alaska businesses, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. The new package provides extra money for restaurants, breweries, bars, hotels, live venues, movie theaters and c...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the shooting of a bald eagle near Alaska’s capital city, which led to the protected bird being euthanized. The injured eagle was rescued Dec. 22 in Juneau, but it was not clear the bird had been shot until the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka did an X-ray, The Juneau Empire reported Friday. The bird’s pelvis was shattered and there was mounting lead poisoning from a type of shotgun ammunition that is illegal in Alaska, and it had to be euthanized, Juneau Raptor Center Manag...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A bill to establish the nation’s first ever federal program to train prospective commercial fishermen has passed Congress and awaits approval by the White House. The Young Fishermen’s Development Act was passed unanimously by both the U.S. House and Senate, the Sitka Sentinel reported Monday. The law would provide grants to foster the growth of budding fishermen across the country. The bill introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2019 had bipartisan support, with co-sponsors that included Democratic U.S. Sen....
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A bald eagle that had been shot has survived with a broken leg and is being treated at a bird hospital in Alaska. The eagle was rescued on Tuesday after Kathy Benner, the manager of the Juneau Raptor Center, received a report about an injured bird in a person’s yard in Juneau. It is illegal to harm bald eagles under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 unless a permit from the Secretary of the Interior is provided. Violating the law can result in up to $100,000 in fines for individuals and $200,000 in fin...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The federal Bureau of Land Management said it will remove nearly 750 square miles (1,942 square kilometers) from its Jan. 6 oil and gas lease sale for a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The agency said Friday it would begin taking bids the following Monday for the rest of the land. The land available for purchase is in the refuge’s northernmost region. The land management agency had initially proposed to offer the vast majority of the plain to bidders, which would have encompassed about 2,500 square mil...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A package of coronavirus vaccines meant for the southeast Alaska city of Ketchikan were unusable because the shipment was too warm, officials said. The 20 doses meant for fire department and public health workers had originally been sent to a bigger Alaska city by Pfizer, then transferred to be shipped to the smaller city of Ketchikan, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The transfer left the doses outside of the company’s mandated low temperature range for too long of a period. The vaccines that were sent on Wed...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Congress has passed a bill authorizing the addition of Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters for use as icebreakers, and an Alaska senator said the Trump administration is considering leasing an icebreaker owned by a Republican donor. The Coast Guard has two icebreakers, but only one is operating following an August fire that damaged the cutter Healy. Ongoing construction work on a new icebreaker is not expected to be finished until 2024. The Coast Guard Reauthorization Act is part of the National Defense Authorization Act...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has begun receiving its initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, state officials announced Monday. Some hospitals had received vaccine Monday, and it was expected some Alaskans would be vaccinated as early as Monday, said Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead of Alaska’s Vaccine Task Force. She said hospitals could decide whether to publicize the doses they are receiving. A vaccine shipment arrived Sunday night on a UPS plane, the state health department said in a statement. The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Coronavirus vaccinations reached the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage as the rollout spread across the state. Front-line medical workers at the center waited Tuesday to receive their first shot and get instructions on when to return for a second injection as part of the two-step process. “I’ve been looking forward to this,” Dr. David Zielke, a pulmonary critical care physician at the medical center, said before Emily Schubert, the employee health nurse, administered his shot. Zielke said he’s read the safet...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An analysis of federal data shows Alaska’s high school seniors applied for college financial aid at a lower rate than students in all other U.S. states. Only 11.5% of Alaska’s 2021 senior class applied for higher education financial assistance as of Dec. 4, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, widely known as FAFSA, started accepting submissions in October. The application, which students usually complete ahead of submitting college applications, provides access to fe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed an “extraordinary response” to revive Alaska’s pandemic-stunted economy Friday, including about $5,000 in direct payments to residents from the state’s oil-wealth fund and an infrastructure plan he said is intended to create jobs. “Alaskans are suffering now. Businesses are suffering now. This is the time for us to act. This is the time for us to act quickly,” he said in rolling out his budget plan for next year. The state’s economy has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with tourism and h...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Congress has passed a bill authorizing the addition of Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters for use as icebreakers, and an Alaska senator said the Trump administration is considering leasing an icebreaker owned by a Republican donor. The Coast Guard has two icebreakers, but only one is operating following an August fire that damaged the USS Healy. Ongoing construction work on a new icebreaker is not expected to be finished until 2024. The Coast Guard Reauthorization Act is part of the National Defense Authorization Act p...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Indigenous and conservation groups asked a federal judge Tuesday to block the Trump administration from issuing oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The groups in separate filings requested a decision by Jan. 6, the date of a scheduled lease sale. They say the issuance of leases and proposed seismic exploration should be halted pending resolution of their claims challenging the adequacy of environmental reviews on which the sale and exploration plans are based. Karlin Itchoak, Alaska state director...
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. David Ige on Wednesday announced plans to furlough more than 40,000 state workers to balance the budget as tax revenue takes a hit during the coronavirus pandemic. The furloughs will take effect Jan. 1 and cut worker pay by 9.2%, Ige said. The governor said he and members of his Cabinet would take the same percentage salary cut. The economic effects of the pandemic have been particularly hard on Hawaii, its workers and tax revenue, Ige said. The state has had the nation’s highest unemployment rate for months as tra...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard’s second-highest ranking officer assumed some of the blame for Russian military intimidation of Bering Sea commercial fishermen this summer. Adm. Charles Ray told a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday that the Coast Guard knew Russia was conducting military exercises in August and failed to inform members of the U.S. Bering Sea fishing sector, Alaska Public Media reported. “This was not our best day with regards to doing our role to look after American fishermen,” Ray said. “I’ll just be quite frank: We o...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Alaska regulators conditionally approved the transfer of BP’s interest in the trans-Alaska pipeline system to an affiliate of Hilcorp as part of a proposed $5.6 billion sale that also includes other BP interests and assets in the state. In an order dated Monday, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska also conditionally signed off on the transfer of interests in Point Thomson and Milne Point pipelines. The order requires updated filings by Harvest Alaska LLC, to reflect it is now considered a Hilcorp affiliate. It also r...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An audit of a statewide ballot measure sought by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer affirmed the measure’s passage, the Division of Elections said Monday. Meyer, who oversees elections, last month said he would seek an audit of Ballot Measure 2 to help put to rest questions some had raised about the “validity” of election results tied to vote tabulation equipment the state uses. The ballot measure would end party primaries and institute ranked choice voting for general elections. The audit, conducted last week, followed certifi...
HAINES, Alaska (AP) - Officials in southeast Alaska have repeated warnings about possible landslide danger in the community of Haines, where two people remain missing after a large slide last week. Torrential rain across much of the region caused havoc in many communities, including Ketchikan, where emergency officials announced there was no longer a danger of dam failure. Searchers were still trying to find two people reported missing after a massive landslide crashed into Haines last...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. House has passed a bill to reduce the deadliness of landslides a day after one in Alaska, though the motivation for the proposed law came from a 2014 Washington state landslide. The bill, which passed on Thursday, was initially introduced in 2016, two years after the Oso landslide killed 43 people. Washington Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene, who introduced the bill, said its provisions would help broaden scientific knowledge about landslides and develop better protocols on how best to respond to them. “As the...
JUNEAU, AK – This year’s Together Tree, a 16-foot Lodgepole Pine harvested from Petersburg on Mitkof Island, was delivered to the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau late last week. The Together Tree’s arrival continues a multi-year tradition of highlighting the special relationships between the USDA Forest Service, Alaska Native Peoples, the State of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard and rural communities in southeast Alaska. “We are honored to continue the tradition of the Together Tree, and all it symbolizes. We come together each year with local com...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska state proposal to limit commercial salmon fishing in Alaska’s Cook Inlet has been approved despite opposition by many anglers. The proposal was approved Monday by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees fishing in most federal waters off Alaska, The Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. Opposition came from commercial fishermen and community and state leaders who said the move threatens seafood processors on the Kenai Peninsula and hundreds of fishing operations. Gov. Mike Dun...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal court blocked an Alaska offshore drilling prospect, while the Trump administration announced plans to auction drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain. An appeals court on Monday overturned approval for the Liberty Project, a Hilcorp Alaska LLC offshore drilling prospect located in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska Public Media reported. The government granted the Liberty Project approval in Oct. 2018 to become the first oil and gas production well in federal Arctic waters. But the 9th...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A third inmate within the Alaska Department of Corrections has died from complications related to COVID-19, the department said Tuesday. The 78-year-old with underlying conditions died Tuesday, four days after being taken from a correctional facility in Anchorage to a hospital, the department said. The person had been in custody since 2017 on a sexual abuse charge but was not sentenced, the department said. The two prior COVID-19-related deaths announced by the department involved individuals who had been held at the G...
