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Incident Commander Casey Boespflug gives a public briefing in Delta Junction on the status of several fires burning around the area, especially the 47,000-acre Pogo Mine Road Fire. (From AKFireInfo.com) More than 1,000 firefighters are suppressing wildfires across Interior Alaska, and about a third of them are working out of a temporary incident command post…

Fresh-caught silver salmon is kept cold at FAR West Fish & Farm in Bethel on Aug. 16, 2023. (Courtesy Julie McWilliams) Coming just days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service returned management of the Kuskokwim River to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the state has announced eight separate commercial openers in August. These opportunities…

State Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, listens during a floor session in the capitol in March 2023. (Skip Gray/Gavel to Gavel) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly podcast. Friday on Alaska News Nightly: For…

Seating area in the new Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association harm reduction center in Wasilla. The center offers safer drug use and sexual health supplies along with HIV testing and will soon offer Hepatitis testing and case management. (Photo courtesy of the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association) A new harm reduction center recently opened in Wasilla. The…

Sam Beesley’s original “Hamilton” rap won him free tickets to the hit musical. (Photo courtesy of Sam Beesley) This week on State of Art we meet an Anchorage winner of the “Hamilton” creative competition organized by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts and BroadwayBoundAK. Students going into grades 7 through 12 from across Alaska…

Alaska Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Michael Rogers, 212th Rescue Squadron pararescueman, hoists from an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter during an Aug. 11, 2023 rescue near Tonsina. (From Alaska Air National Guard) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe…

An Anchorage Police Department employee monitors calls into the police dispatch. (Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media) Two years ago, Anchorage voters approved a tax levy to purchase new technology upgrades for the police department. Most of the advocacy around the tax increase was focused on using the money to buy body cameras for officers. But, so…

KNOM flew a staff member out to Shaktoolik on Aug. 15 to record auditions for the upcoming season of “American Idol.” (Tate Coler/KNOM) The hit TV show “American Idol” is recruiting talent from part of rural Alaska this year in a unique way. Producers of the singing competition have partnered with KNOM in Nome to…

Suicide Basin, the birthplace of Juneau’s annual glacial outburst floods, sits about two miles above the terminus of Mendenhall Glacier. (Anna Canny/KTOO) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly podcast. Wednesday on Alaska News…

Anchorage School District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt stands in front of a school bus at the ASD Transportation Center on Aug. 2, 2023. (Tim Rockey/Alaska Public Media) Anchorage Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt is starting his second year leading the state’s largest school district, which has over 43,000 students. Thursday is students’ first day of school. “The rubber…

Pete Buttigieg at the Port of Alaska on Tuesday. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) It sounds like an Alaska transportation riddle, but how does a salmon cross a road? The answer will soon be “with financial help from the federal Transportation Department.” The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending Alaska more than $44 million to install…

Pete Buttigieg, the US Secretary of Transportation, spoke at the Port of Alaska on Tuesday, August 15, 2023. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly podcast. Tuesday on Alaska News…

It was scorching hot across much of the planet this summer. Asia, Africa, and South America had their hottest July’s ever. Temperatures in Beijing and other parts of northern China hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks, with some cities topping 120 F on the worst days. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Human-driven climate change pushed global…

The Thayer Creek Hydro project would use a 40-foot high dam to impound water over an area of 7 acres. (Kootznoowoo, Inc. image) A new hydroelectric project on Admiralty Island has the green light – four decades after it was approved by Congress. In late June, the U.S. Forest Service granted a special use permit…

Tasha Kahele organized a donation event on Friday at the Tikahtnu Commons to provide supplies for families in Maui that have been affected by the wildfires. (Mizelle Mayo/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the…

Anchorage police on March 28, 2023. (Elyssa Loughlin/Alaska Public Media) Anchorage police are investigating a third shooting in East Anchorage in less than 24 hours.  The most recent shooting happened Monday in the Mountain View neighborhood. As of 4 p.m., police had deployed a SWAT team as they continued to search for a suspect in…

An Anchorage Police patrol vehicle. (Hannah Lies/Alaska Public Media) Anchorage police have arrested a woman accused of shooting another woman to death and severely wounding a man Friday afternoon during a Mountain View street fight. Police said in a weekend statement that Juliana Khatthamane, 31, is charged with first-degree and second-degree murder in the death…

Heather Kelly holds up a pack of dehydrated salmon chowder in the Heather’s Choice warehouse. The meal is made with Alaska sockeye salmon, the only ingredient they’re able to source locally. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media) An Anchorage entrepreneur is facing a tough decision as she grows her company. Heather’s Choice makes and packages dehydrated meals,…

Petra at the Sheldon House. (Nicole Chamberlain) On the next Outdoor Explorer our guest is Nicole Chamberlain and the Meowtaineer, Petra the Adventure Cat. Petra is a Siberian Forest Cat, well-adapted to the cold, and Nicole has taken her on many adventures on the snow and the water. They recently spent time at the Sheldon…

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland arrives at a press conference on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who has been investigating criminal allegations against President Biden’s surviving son, Hunter Biden, has been named a special counsel, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. Weiss made the…

Rousmery Negrón stands with her son at home in Springfield, Mass. on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — When in-person school resumed after pandemic closures, Rousmery Negrón and her 11-year-old son both noticed a change: School seemed less welcoming. Parents were no longer allowed in the building without appointments, she said,…

The Dusty Rock in the Aurora Harbor. June 3, 2023. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO) Juneau police say carbon monoxide caused two of the three deaths that happened over a three-day period on a boat anchored off Sandy Beach earlier this year.  Curtis Edwin Anderson, 51, was found dead on the Dusky Rock on May 31 by Erika…