Gov. Mike Dunleavy at a news conference on June 17, 2021. (Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO) Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday added proposed permanent fund dividends of $2,350 to the agenda for the legislative special session. Without the move, it was possible Alaskans wouldn’t receive PFDs this fall for the first time in 40 years. The change to…
Alaska News Nightly: Thursday, August 19, 2021
Dimond High School’s student body president Makaila Amundson (left) snaps a selfie with Portugal. The Man band members John Gourley, Zach Carothers, and Eric Howk. The school’s student government won a district-wide video contest sharing what students were most excited about for being back at school. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide…
Anchorage inspectors intercept more than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency says inspectors in Anchorage seized more than 3,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards like those pictured. (Customs and Border Protection) Inspectors in Anchorage recently discovered more than 3,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards in a shipment from China to the Port of Alaska, according to a written statement from the…
Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Bruno Rathke, Georgie Heaverley, Taylor Evenson and Riley Randleas all have roots in Cook Inlet. This summer, they fished Bristol Bay on the Nedra E during what was a record-setting harvest for the fishery. (Sabine Poux / KDLL) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public…
Alaska reports 9 coronavirus deaths and over 1,100 new cases in 2 days
Jose Urrutia gets a nostril swab on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, afternoon at the Loussac Library, one of Anchorage’s free COVID-19 testing sites. The Municipality has seen a significant increase in the amount of individuals getting tested. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Alaska health officials on Wednesday announced 647 new coronavirus infections and four deaths from…
Head of Alaska’s nursing home association says Biden’s vaccine requirement could cause workers to quit
Wildflower Court, a long-term care facility, in Juneau. (Courtesy Wildflower Court) The head of Alaska’s nursing home association says that a federal requirement that nursing homes have fully-vaccinated staff could worsen the state’s already stretched hospital capacity. President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he’s directing nursing homes to require their staff to be fully…
Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, August 17, 2021
5th grade students at Nunaka Valley Elementary in Anchorage work on a morning activity on August 17, 2021. (Matthew Faubion/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…
Bronson appoints new head of Anchorage trash services
Solid Waste Services’ driver Garret Fairclough empties a row of pink garbage cans full of food scraps and yard waste into the back of a massive red garbage truck. (Erin McKinstry / Alaska Public Media) Dan Zipay, a longtime player in Anchorage’s trash-hauling industry and the father of Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s former campaign manager,…
The modern treaty: protecting Alaska Native land, values
In 1969, a young Koyukon Athabascan woman stood before the U.S. House of Representatives, and described the life her community had been living on the banks of the Yukon River since time immemorial. “For centuries [my mother, grandmother] and their forebears had lived in this country happily gaining their livelihood from the land,” Georgiana Lincoln…
Alaska News Nightly: Monday, August 16, 2021
A polar bear takes a dip in the Kotzebue Sound. (Photo courtesy of Lt. Scott Kellerman, U.S. Coast 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 to the Alaska News Nightly podcast. Monday on Alaska News Nightly: Hospitals…
‘Devastating’: Murkowski saddened by Afghanistan withdrawn
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in August, 2020. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the United States military shouldn’t stay in Afghanistan forever, but she called the result of the withdrawal “just devastating.” As the Taliban takes control again, Murkowski said she’s thinking about the gains lost and the many American soldiers killed…
Foo Fighters require vaccine proof, test for Alaska shows
The Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. (Staff photo) The Foo Fighters rock band is requiring that people who attend their upcoming shows in Alaska be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive a negative test result 48 hours before attending, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The 12-time Grammy-winning-band plans to perform in Anchorage…
California company parachutes packages into rural Alaska communities
A Dash package is dropped over an Alaska community in July, 2021. (Courtesy of Dash systems) A California-based technology company successfully dropped supplies from airplanes into remote towns and government facilities in rural Alaska this summer. It was the first time a private company delivered supplies that way. In a promotional video for Dash Systems,…
Rare polar bear sighting causes a stir in Kotzebue
A polar bear takes a dip in the Kotzebue Sound. (Photo courtesy of Lt. Scott Kellerman, U.S. Coast Guard) Locals in Kotzebue showed a healthy mix of excitement and concern over the weekend in response to reports that a rare polar bear was spotted in the area. Polar bear sightings in Kotzebue aren’t without precedent.…
As children’s COVID cases surge, there’s another virus on the rise
At the moment there is little data available on the impact of contracting COVID-19 and the respiratory syncytial virus (pictured), and whether together they can make a person sicker. But health officials worry it could put young patients — who are not eligible for the coronavirus vaccine — at greater risk. (Photo By BSIP/UIG Via…
Amid shelter debate, these campers say they’re staying outside
Cesar Carberry shows off his skateboards at his tent at the city snow dump in Anchorage’s Mountain View neighborhood in August, 2021. Carberry sands the decks and paints designs on the bottoms — sometimes with the help of fellow campers — and resells them for $40 for skateboards, or $50 for longboards. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public…
Majority of Alaska students will start the school year under universal mask policies
Avery Barnaby dances on the playground during her first day back to school as a first-grader at Sayéik Gastineau Community School on Jan. 14, 2021, in Juneau. Juneau’s Board of Education has decided that when school starts in August, everyone inside of school district buildings will be required to wear masks. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) Students across…
Here’s what’s on the agenda for the Alaska Legislature’s third special session
The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. (Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media) The Alaska Legislature meets in Juneau on Monday for the third special session of the year. Governor Mike Dunleavy’s proposals to amend the state constitution are on the agenda. One amendment would lower the limit on how much the state government can spend each year. The…
U.S. Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan help Senate pass trillion-dollar infrastructure bill
Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski in Anchorage last year. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) The U.S. Senate passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday, with both Alaska senators voting yes. “We really did something historic in the United States Senate,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said shortly after the 69-30 vote. “We moved out an infrastructure package,…
Bethel records wettest July in more than 90 years
Children walk through puddles in Napakiak on Aug. 4, 2019 as rain drenched Western Alaska. (Andrew West) Some people in Bethel have called this the dreariest, wettest summer of their lives. And they’re probably right. Last month was the wettest July in Bethel in more than 90 years, with 4.22 inches of rainfall. When it…
State of Art: Anchorage Museum program aims to empower teens to address climate change
“Warming Stripes of Anchorage” is a public mural showing the rate of climate change over 100 years. (Photo courtesy of the Anchorage Museum) This week on State of Art we’re learning about the Anchorage Museum’s new Teen Climate Communicators program. Teens in grades 9-12 will work with museum educators and use museum resources to discuss…
Alaska seeks to collect more than 20,000 missing DNA samples from people charged with crimes
Gov. Mike Dunleavy announces an effort to gather DNA samples from those charged with crimes against others and felons whose samples weren’t collected in the past. He made the announced on Tuesday at the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Anchorage. Colonel Bryan Barlow, director of the Alaska State Troopers; Blaze Bell, an advocate…
