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Missy Simms stands in front of one of the counters at her new store front Sweet Creations Lollipop Boutique in the Mountain View neighborhood in Anchorage on December 4th, 2020. Customers can pre-packaged and fresh candy by the piece, the scoop, and the pound. (Mayowa Aina/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. You…

Selena and Gary Bath (left) meet Lynn Marchessault in Pink Mountain, British Columbia in November, before Gary Bath helped drive Marchessault and her two children the final 1,000 miles of their journey from Georgia to Alaska. (Gary Bath) A Canadian man has gotten international attention after helping drive an American family the final 1,000 miles…

A sign at Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School in Wasilla, requiring face masks on September 21, 2020. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. You can subscribe to Alaska Public Media’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @AKPublicNews Wednesday on Alaska News Nightly: Some local leaders are unhappy with Governor’s…

This photo from August 2020 appears to show a Russian submarine surfaced not far from the U.S. island of St. Matthew Island, in the Bering Sea. (Mike Fitzgerald) The second-in-command of the U.S. Coast Guard shouldered some of the blame on Tuesday for incidents in August in which the Russian military intimidated Bering Sea fisherman…

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Bruce Schultz speaks during the annual Faculty and Staff Welcome event in Cuddy Hall. Schultz was appointed as interim chancellor for the University on December 9, 2020. (UAA photo) University of Alaska Interim President Pat Pitney announced Wednesday that Bruce Schultz has been appointed as the interim chancellor for the…

The ground outside of the AWARE offices on Glacier Avenue in Juneau is covered in debris after a mudslide on December 2. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) Pretty much all of Southeast Alaska received record rain last week when a veritable fire hose of moisture hit the region. The rain wrecked havoc in some places, causing sinkholes and…

Volunteers carry heavy, wet carpet out of a home damaged by flooding as another dumps gravel on the ice in front of them to help with traction on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020, in Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. You can subscribe to Alaska Public Media’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook…

Image from GlobalChange.gov The 2020 Arctic Report Card is out, and the results show the Arctic continues to warm at an accelerated rate. This year was the second warmest on record in the Arctic, with impacts to sea ice, erosion and marine ecosystems. In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its first Arctic Report Card,…

Kris Knudsen is a contact tracer with the University of Alaska Anchorage. She’s one of hundreds of tracers across the state tasked with calling Alaskans infected with the coronavirus. She says as case numbers skyrocket, the job is getting harder. (Tegan Hanlon/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. You can subscribe to Alaska Public…

On Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020, volunteers gather at the Emergency Operations Center in Haines for a third day of searching two people missing after a landslide. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) The Alaska State Troopers are suspending the search for two Haines residents who went missing after a massive landslide destroyed their home on Beach Road. Local business leader David Simmons and…

Image from U.S. Food and Drug Administration Alaska will receive a special first shipment of the new COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by drug company Pfizer that will be enough to protect some 5% of the state’s population, health officials said Monday. The shipment of 35,100 doses could arrive next week and be administered starting soon after,…

Anchorage Assembly Chair Austin Quinn-Davidson in her Turnagain neighborhood on October 22. Quinn-Davidson will become the interim mayor of Anchorage, following Mayor Berkowitz’s resignation on October 23. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Anchorage’s acting mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson has tested positive for COVID-19.  Quinn-Davidson, who took over as Anchorage’s mayor in October, is only experiencing mild symptoms,…

USGS engineer Brian Collins examines part of the Oso, Wash. landslide deposit in 2014.(Mark Reid/USGS) The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday to create a landslide hazard reduction program. The impetus was not the destructive slide in Haines this week, but the Oso, Wa., landslide in 2014 that killed 43 people. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.,…

Cannabis plant (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Alaska Congressman Don Young was one of only five Republicans to vote for a bill that would decriminalize marijuana. The bill passed 228-164 but is unlikely to go further before Congress adjourns. Today, I helped the House pass the most significant #cannabis reform legislation in decades…

Heavy rains led to a landslide in Haines on Wednesday, December 2. (Jacob Cheeseman photo) Joe Aultman-Moore was sitting in his cabin in Haines last Wednesday when a large landslide swept through several neighboring houses. Aultman-Moore spoke with KHNS about what he saw during his rescue from the slide area. Read the full transcript here,…

Pilot Station in 2004 (Alaska Department of Commerce Photo) The post offices in Kwethluk and Pilot Station have been closed for weeks because employees were infected with COVID-19. The closures have threatened people’s health. As of Dec. 3, the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation has announced 323 cases of COVID-19 in Kwethluk, a village with between…

A there will be a recount in an Anchorage House race in which Democrat Liz Snyder, left, defeat Republican Rep. Lance Pruitt. A group of 11 Anchorage residents requested the recount. (Photos by KTOO and courtesy Liz Snyder’s campaign) The recount in an Anchorage House race didn’t change the winner: Democrat Liz Snyder defeated Republican…

An ambulance is waiting as evacuees from Haines’ Beach Road get off rescue boats at the city’s harbor on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. A major landslide in the neighborhood displaced residents. (Henry Leasia/KHNS) Dozens more homes in Haines were evacuated Thursday night as rain continued to saturate the mountainsides near residential neighborhoods. An emergency alert…

This scanning electron image shows a cell (tan) heavily infected with particles of the virus that causes COVID-19 (orange), isolated from a patient sample. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Alaska marked another grim day of COVID-19 statistics with the state reporting 756 new cases and 12 deaths on Friday.  Three of the deaths…

FDA image The very first COVID-19 vaccine doses may arrive in Alaska before the month is out. But there will be very little of it, and logistics to distribute it are not easy. Five hundred people were on a call Thursday afternoon to talk about distributing COVID-19 vaccines in Alaska. Dr. Tessa Walker Linderman the…

A neighborhood near downtown Haines flooded Wednesday morning, Dec. 2, 2020. (Henry Leasia/KHNS) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. You can subscribe to Alaska Public Media’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @AKPublicNews Friday on Alaska News Nightly: As record rains threaten to set off more landslides, more Haines residents are forced from…

Back in late August, UAA’s chancellor Cathy Sandeen announced a difficult financial decision: university funding for women’s gymnastics, men’s hockey and men’s and women’s skiing would be eliminated. A campus town hall to discuss, and UA regents’ action at their Sept.10 meeting gave the athletic teams the opportunity to try and support themselves. The ski…