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University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Officer Jill Copeland and her partner, bomb-sniffing K-9 Yogi. (Dan Bross/KUAC) 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. Thursday on Alaska News Nightly: Alaskans leading diversity initiatives gauge…

Nick Begich at his campaign headquarters in 2022. (Liz Ruskin/Alaska Public Media) Nicholas Begich III is taking another run at becoming Alaska’s next member of Congress. Begich, a 45-year-old Republican from a famous family of Democrats, announced his 2024 campaign Thursday morning and filed a statement of candidacy with federal elections regulators. Begich also ran…

A city sign posted at a large, unofficial campground on a vacant lot along Anchorage’s Third Avenue, pictured here on Monday, lists prohibited activities. Someone rubbed “camping” off the top of the list. (Jeremy Hsieh/Alaska Public Media) Punishing people for camping outside when they have nowhere else to go remains unconstitutional in the federal court…

Nicholas Lowry (left) and Kevin Zavian (right) pose with an “Antiques Roadshow” crew member on Tuesday. Lowry is the president of Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, specializing in vintage posters. Zavian is an appraiser specializing in jewelry. (May Lee/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments…

Martha Lojewski stands in between rows of peony bulbs at her farm near Willow (Tim Rockey / Alaska Public Media) Martha Lojewski looks out over nearly an acre of peonies at her farm just north of Willow, Mt. McKinley Peonies. Thousands of round, green buds stand between three and four feet tall, and that’s a…

Childcare provider Ariél Pino sings “Five Little Monkeys” with a group of toddlers at Little Bears Early Learning Center in Girdwood on June 1, 2023. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) Operators of Alaska child care centers say they are having trouble finding staff to meet high demand. That includes operators on Joint-Base Elmendorf Richardson, where staffing…

An old culvert built for past logging projects obstructed Logjam Creek on Prince of Wales Island. (Photo courtesy of USFS) Nearly 700 sites along Tongass National Forest streams could obstruct fish from migrating, according to a new report from the U.S. Forest Service. But there is a plan to deal with the old roads and…

U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists in kayaks keep birds away from the oil spill by bird hazing on University Lake on June 29, 2023. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) A popular Anchorage dog park reopened Tuesday, nearly two weeks after it was closed by an oil spill. There is still a small area of University Lake…

The Best Western Golden Lion Hotel in Midtown Anchorage in July of 2020. The hotel closed at the end of 2020 after the city bought it, intending at the time to turn it into a drug and alcohol treatment center. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media) A former hotel in Midtown Anchorage that the city bought more…

People of all ages attended the Critical Mass bike ride on Saturday. (Dev Hardikar/Alaska Public Media) More than 100 cyclists took to the streets on Saturday for the second annual Critical Mass: Ride for Anchorage event, where the crowd pedaled as a pack through Midtown. Marie Francis, one of the event’s organizers, said the large…

An empty hallway at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé in Juneau, Alaska, on July 20, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon) Alaska school districts that are remote and serve mainly students from low-income households need to pay substantially more than they currently do to attract and retain teachers, a study from University of Alaska researchers found.…

Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, talks to a page on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 in Juneau, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) Juneau’s Rep. Sara Hannan has filed to run for reelection in 2024, nearly a year ahead of the deadline.  “It is by far the earliest I’ve filed compared to my other terms,” Hannan said.  Hannan is a…

Climate Specialist Rick Thoman’s graph depicting the lowest acreage burned in wildfires. Alaska wildfire managers have seen the least-ever acreage burned at this point in the summer, as damp and cool conditions have persisted across much of the state. Just over 1,300 acres have burned, compared to the over 3.1 million acres that burned last…

Kimberly Fitka O’Domin was last seen alive on June 15. Her mother, Elizabeth Fitka, and father, David Fitka, hold a portrait of their daughter. (Courtesy Tracy Fitka) Alaska State Troopers say that a missing woman from the Yukon River village of Marshall has been found dead. Kimberly Fitka O’Domin’s body was found about 30 miles…

Manunauna, nicknamed Manu, trailing yellow crab pot buoys and a green satellite tag buoy. (Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries/Suzie Teerlink) National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Adminstration biologists are asking people to watch for two humpback whales that were seen entangled in fishing gear in the Juneau area on Monday.  One of the whales, named Manunauna or Manu…

Bottles of wine line shelves at a grocery store in Anchorage on June 29. Efforts to expand outdoor seating at Alaska’s bars, restaurants and taprooms are unlikely to reach fruition this summer. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Alaska’s alcohol board voted unanimously Thursday to approve a regulation that allows bar, distillery and winery taprooms to open temporary…

Anton McParland works two phones at once in Congresswoman Mary Peltola’s Washington, D.C. office, where he is chief of staff. He’s also her campaign manager. (Liz Ruskin/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…

Boat traffic continues as normal while fire crews extinguish a fire at the Whittier Fuel Dock on July 4, 2023. (Valerie Kern/ Alaska Public Media). After a fire closed a fuel dock in the Whittier Harbor this week, city officials say it’s operational again.  The fire started on Tuesday, sinking a boat and forcing two…

Homes are being built in a neighborhood near Sand Lake in Anchorage, pictured here on July 5. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media) There’s a truism that comes up a lot when Alaska experts talk about ending homelessness.  “Housing is the pure solution to homelessness, hard stop,” said Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness Executive Director Brian…