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Teens with YEP chip away at a waist-high pile of gravel at Abbott Loop Community Park on Wednesday, July 26, 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. Friday…

Teens with YEP chip away at a waist-high pile of gravel at Abbott Loop Community Park on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) On a recent afternoon, a group of teenagers in hardhats shoveled a mountain of gravel into wheelbarrows at Anchorage’s Abbott Loop Community Park. The teens, including Jassity Kentaro, dumped the…

Over the weekend, 15 cycles including this one were stolen from Challenge Alaska’s Anchorage office. (Challenge Alaska) Anchorage police have arrested a man accused of stealing bicycles from a nonprofit that provides recreational gear to people with disabilities. Challenge Alaska said more than a dozen cycles were stolen, worth nearly $100,000. According to a Thursday…

The Barratt Inn is currently being renovated, and is expected to open in September. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) Another Anchorage hotel converted into low-income housing is set to come online this fall. The renovation of the former Barratt Inn in Spenard is the latest move in a public-private partnership between the city government and community…

A ‘No Trespassing’ sign stands outside of the Fort Knox mine along a public ski and snow machine trail. (Sean McDermott/Grist) 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 Nightly:…

The Alaska Board of Education and Early Development postponed action on a regulation that would bar trans girls from competing on high school sports teams that align with their gender identity. (Screenshot) The Alaska Board of Education and Early Development heard nearly three hours of public testimony today over a regulation to limit high school…

Harm reduction specialist Venus Woods holds Kloxxado, an opioid overdose treatment. Last year, her organization 4As gave out 2,500 kits in Anchorage, Juneau and the Mat-Su Borough. (Rachel Cassandra/Alaska Public Media) The Mat-su Borough assembly unanimously passed a resolution to begin allocating 2.3 million dollars of opioid distribution settlement funds on July 18.  The Borough…

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson speaks at a press conference on Tuesday, July 25, 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 Nightly: Mayor Dave Bronson…

This screenshot from a court filing by the Alaska Department of Law shows two identical pairs of wool booties taken from a tourist shop near Denali National Park. One pair bears the label “made in Nepal,” while the other says that it was made in Alaska. (Screenshot) A state judge has ordered a tourist shop…

Trees can survive blackheaded budworm infestations, but the thinning of the canopy affects the ecosystem in many ways that are not fully understood. (Courtesy Gordy Williams) An insect infestation responsible for defoliating thousands of acres of the Tongass National Forest is abating. Scientists with the U.S. Forest Service believe that the blackheaded budworm, whose numbers…

Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin at the 2022 Arctic Encounters symposium in Anchorage. (Lex Treinen/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. Monday on Alaska News Nightly: Sen. Lisa Murkowski eyes…

Competitors play Street Fighter 6 in the closed Thai restaurant on July 17, 2023. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) People flocked to Anchorage’s Thai Kitchen on a recent Monday evening — but it wasn’t for the food. Chairs were stacked up against the back wall. Computer monitors occupied the restaurant’s tables. Spectators gathered around the screens,…

A staff member tries out one of the cycles for the adaptive cycling program at Challenge Alaska. Over the weekend, 15 cycles including this one were stolen from their Anchorage office. (Photo courtesy of Challenge Alaska) Challenge Alaska lost adaptive cycling and other equipment worth nearly $100,000 in a robbery at its Anchorage location over…

Kevin Williams braces himself while on a stand-up paddleboard as an adult humpback whale approaches him in the waters near Whittier on Thursday, July 13, 2023. (Photo by Sonja Tobiessen) Kevin Williams of Anchorage was paddle boarding earlier this month on the glassy waters of Passage Canal near Whittier when a large, silvery fin appeared…

Aaron Hankins, Petersburg’s director of fire, EMS and search and rescue, outside a local fire station. (Thomas Copeland/KFSK) The number of volunteer firefighters in Alaska has nearly halved since 2014, according to data from the state fire marshal’s office — a decline which could be putting communities at risk. You can find the Petersburg Volunteer…

A visitor crosses the bridge above New Years Chute, a double black diamond ski trail on Mount Alyeska’s north face. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) Alyeska Resort in Girdwood has a new attraction: the Veilbreaker Skybridges. People can pay to walk 600 feet across two narrow bridges suspended 2,500 feet above the valley floor. Mountain General…

A hook on the boom arm of an Alaska Department of Transportation truck pulls rockfall mesh away from a steep wall near a Dall sheep that was stuck along the Seward Highway near Beluga Point on July 20, 2023. (Courtesy Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities) The newly installed mesh on steep rock faces…

City Hall is an in-person voting site for the Anchorage Municipal Election. (Elyssa Loughlin/Alaska Public Media) Anchorage Assembly members say they’re concerned about a challenge lodged by one of the mayor’s former chiefs of staff over this spring’s municipal election. Sami Graham cited an internal IT policy in her April 11 complaint. That policy was…

A wolf assesses the odds of stealing scavenged food from a brown bear, while two ravens feast on bits of food at the edges. (Gordon Haber) State game managers are pushing back on research that says Alaska’s predator control programs don’t work. A paper by two retired state biologists and a University of Alaska Fairbanks…

A wolf assesses the odds of stealing scavenged food from a brown bear, while two ravens feast on bits of food at the edges. Photo by Gordon Haber. 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…