UPDATE: Alaska State Troopers identify boater killed in collision near Petersburg - Anchorage news - NewsLocker (2024)

Search boats dot the waters of the Wrangell Narrows near Petersburg on Wednesday, June 5, 2024 after a vessel struck a skiff, leaving one boater missing and a second injured. (Courtesy Bill Flor)
Alaska State Troopers have identified the person who died in a boating accident near Petersburg last week as Susan Paul, age 73 of California. She was in a 20-foot Hewescraft skiff that sank after a collision with a larger seine boat.
A spokesperson with the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the invest

What will happen to Juneau’s City Hall mural if the city moves out?

Gary Waid points to the man depicted on the “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell” mural at City Hall on Monday, June 11, 2024. The man is modeled off of Waid in the ’80s. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CJmuralMP3.mp3
Spanning an outside wall of City Hall in downtown Juneau, there’s a 10-and-a-half by 61-foot mural called “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell.”
It shows Raven opening a clam and releasing a

Royalty-free terms draw only three oil and gas lease bids in Alaska’s Cook Inlet

A view from Skilak Lake Road across Cook Inlet to Mount Redoubt, an active stratovolcano in the Aleutian Range. (Credit: Lisa Hupp/USFWS)
A state oil and gas auction that offered royalty-free leases in the Cook Inlet basin as an incentive for new exploration drew only three bids, according to results released Wednesday by the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.
The annual areawide Cook Inlet sale featured special terms for the 725 tracts covering 3 million offshore and onshore acres in the basin: A

As Alaska’s boreal forest warms, land managers face tough questions about how, or whether, to respond

A glimpse of the boreal forest between Cantwell and Fairbanks, Alaska. (Lois Parshley)
Northern ecosystems are seeing some of the planet’s most sweeping changes from climate warming. For some animals and plants, that has posed a threat to their very existence and, for humans, a couple complicated questions: Can we — and should we — do anything to save them?
In Alaska, one area where land managers and ecologists are wrestling with those questions is the boreal forest, home to sp

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Environmental groups ask feds to reconsider the trans-Alaska pipeline and plan for its removal

A stretch of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System near the Toolik Field Station in the North Slope Borough. (Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
A coalition of environmental groups has filed a legal petition with the federal government to reconsider how the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System contributes to climate change and to begin phasing the 800-mile line out of existence.
The government first authorized the pipeline right-of-way across federal land in the 1970s, sparking an economic boom tha

Juneau Animal Rescue seeks foster homes after removing 50 cats from single residence

Kittens cuddle together at Juneau Animal Rescue on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/12catoverload.mp3
Animal Control Officer Karen Wood opens the door to a small room swimming with tiny kittens.
“So this is probably our biggest room,” Wood said. “We’ve got 16 kittens and 13 moms, so it’s going to stink in here.”
That’s just one room that is housing an influx of cats.

Newscast – Wednesday, June 12, 2024

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240612-News-Update.mp3
In this newscast:A Superior Court judge in Anchorage has dismissed a significant portion of a lawsuit filed by supporters of Alaska’s ranked choice voting,
A search is underway for a missing Ketchikan woman,
Museum curators, chemists and Alaska Native weavers have worked to solve the mystery of what dye techniques were used to produce the colors in Chilkat weaving,
Juneau Animal Rescue removed over 50 cats and

Chemists, curators and Chilkat weavers present findings on historic dye techniques

A detail of Lily Hope’s first full size Chilkat Robe. (Photo by Annie Bartholomew/KTOO)
The Chilkat robes in the Alaska State Museum collections feature formline faces woven with yarn. The historic ceremonial garments combines once-vibrant yellows that have softened with age with warm black-browns and striking blues and greens.
Museum curator Ellen Carrlee and her collaborators wanted to figure out where those classic pigments came from. The color curiosity evolved into Chilkat Dye Workin

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Alaska Gov. Dunleavy will be asked to pick fourth state Supreme Court justice

Alaska Supreme Court Justice Peter Maassen receives applause from his fellow justices and members of the Alaska Legislature during the annual State of the Judiciary address on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, at the Alaska State Capitol. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
A wave of retirements on the Alaska Supreme Court is nearing its end.
On Friday, the Alaska Judicial Council announced that it is accepting applications from attorneys and judges interested in replacing Justice Peter Maassen, who wi

A petition to put king salmon on the endangered species list is raising alarm across Alaska

Petersburg troller Mark Roberts working on his fishing vessel, the Cape Cross, on May 24, 2024. (Photo by Shelby Herbert/KFSK)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/10KINGLIST-L.mp3
The federal government is consideringa requestthat would grant Gulf of Alaska king salmon Endangered Species Act protections. The National Marine Fisheries Service recently found thatthe petitionby the Washington-based conservation group Wild Fish Conservancy, which said that the sp

Alaska’s Little Norway keeps old culinary traditions alive

Sharon Wikan and her daughter, Katrina Miller, make waffler for Petersburg’s Little Norway Festival on May 13, 2024.
(Shelby Herbert/KFSK)
Alaska’s Little Norway celebrated Norwegian Constitution Day in mid-May with a week-long festival. For some families in the community, that meant many hours spent cooking heaps of treats from the Old Country, often using recipes that have been passed down for generations.
The air inside Petersburg’s Sons of Norway Hall was thick with the sme

How a 12-year-old got an Anchorage street named after a Harry Potter location

Twelve-year-old Janna Wilcox stands at the Anchorage Assembly chambers with a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Wilcox was behind the effort to name an Anchorage street Grimmauld Place. (Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media)
A street in Anchorage now shares the same name as one from the magical, fictional world of Harry Potter.
The previously unnamed West Anchorage street sits between West 29th and 31st avenues and Doris Street and Lois Drive. The street serves 10 lots, and the city d

Creating a throw-away culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life

A trash can overflows as people sit outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Just for a minute, think about how much of the plastic you use today will end up as trash. Drink bottles? Grocery bags? Food wrappers? If you live in the United States, it’ll probably add up to about a pound of stuff — just today.
Most plastic is dumped in landfills or becomes pollution in places like rivers and oceans, according to the Organisation for Economi

Alaska ranked choice repeal measure wins first round of legal challenge, but trial awaits

Pins supporting the repeal of ranked choice voting are seen on April 20, 2024, at the Republican state convention in Anchorage. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
An Anchorage Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of a proposed ballot measure that seeks to roll back the state’s elections system to what it was before 2020.
In an order published Friday, Judge Christina Rankin sided generally with the state and rollback supporters, saying elections officials acted appropriately by allowi

Newscast – Tuesday, June 11, 2024

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240611-News-Update.mp3
In this newscast:Last week, SHI presented a film screening of Tlingit Macbeth. The production reimagines Shakespeare’s 400-year-old play by infusing elements of Lingit language and culture,
The federal government is considering a request that would grant the Gulf of Alaska king salmon Endangered Species Act protections

New film documents local play reimagining MacBeth through Lingít lens

Jake Waid as Macbeth and Richard Atoruk as Soldier in Perseverance Theatre’s “Macbeth.” (Photo by Katherine Fogden/Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian)
Last Thursday’s show at Juneau’s Goldtown Nickelodeon began with a blood-splattered formline title card on the screen. It read: “Macbeth through Alaskan eyes.”
Beating drums marked the entrance of the three witches. They danced and slinked across the screen wearing masks that showed t

Ketchikan’s main homeless shelter is shutting its doors for good

After two years operating out of the city-owned Park Avenue building, First City Homeless Services announced on June 10 that the organization was shuttering. (Michael Fanelli/KRBD)
Ketchikan’s main homeless shelter, which had recently been serving more than 200 participants, will close for good this week. The surprise announcement came from First City Homeless Services, the organization that runs the shelter. The organization shared a letter Monday from its board of directors, saying that

Yukon River communities balance conservation, survival amid near-total salmon fishing closures

Skiffs line the bank near the lower Yukon River community of Emmonak in the summer of 2019. (Anna Rose MacArthur/KYUK)
As the 2024 Yukon River salmon season kicks off, there will once again be little to no opportunity for communities along the Western Alaska river to harvest any actual salmon.
One small exception is summer chum. If the run hits half a million fish, residents of the lower reaches of the Yukon may have the chance to take to the river with dipnets and other non-traditional gear for

Suit asserting Metlakatla tribal members’ right to fish off-reservation heads for trial

Metlakatla is seen in the distance in 2020 from a turnout on Walden Point Road on Annette Island. (Eric Stone/KRBD)
A federal lawsuit over fishing rights for the people of Alaska’s only Native reservation is likely heading for trial.The case could have broad implications for fishermen throughout Southeast Alaska.
Metlakatla is a community of about 1,500 people at the southern tip of Southeast Alaska. Its federally recognized tribe, Metlakatla Indian Community, sued the state in

Newscast – Monday, June 10, 2024

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610-News-Update.mp3
In this newscast:A federal lawsuit over fishing rights for the people of Alaska’s only Native reservation is likely heading for trial,
Every year, one dance group is chosen to lead the procession of dancers that begins and ends Celebration,
Tongass Voices: Nick Alan Foote on coming home for Celebration

Tongass Voices: Nick Alan Foote on coming home for Celebration

G̱at X̱wéech Nick Alan Foote, whose art was chosen to represent Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Celebration 2024, wears a sweater with his piece “Sacred Embrace” at Village Street in Juneau on June 6, 2024. (Tasha Elizarde/KTOO)
This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
Last week was Nick Alan Foote’s first time at Celebration in almost two decades. In t

Eaglecrest is hiring a new general manager. Some skiers aren’t happy about it.

Former Eaglecrest board member Dave Hanna speaks to the current board during a meeting on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
Eaglecrest Ski Area’s board is hiring a new general manager. The job posting went live on Friday.
But, at a meeting the night before, local skiers and residents asked the board to reinstate the previous general manager, Dave Scanlan, whom the board asked to resign last month.
Barney Bogart said he was disappointed in the board.
“Dav

For Celebration’s lead dance group, the gathering was a chance to reconnect with coastal relatives

The Dakhká Khwáan dance group performs at Centennial Hall. June 6, 2024. (Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/10leaddancers.mp3
Every year, one dance group is chosen to lead the procession of dancers that begins and ends Celebration — the biennial gathering of Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian people in Juneau.
About 1,600 people in regalia paraded up Willoughby Avenue to the entrance of Centennial Hall last week. Some of the 36 groups

18-year-old Mat-Su grad seeks seat on school board that silenced him

Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board candidate Ben Kolendo, stands outside the front doors of the Mat-Su Borough School District office building on Thursday, May 30, 2024. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
Over the last school year, Ben Kolendo’s opportunities to speak during Matanuska-Susitna School Board meetings were severely reduced. But at the first meeting after relinquishing his duties, he stepped up to the podium and said he wants back in. Following six years as a student repres

Eielson looking into cause of F-16’s in-flight emergency

A May 28 problem with an F-16 Fighting Falcon like this alerted the pilot of the jet fighter from Eielson Air Force Base’s 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron to declare in in-flight emergency and return to base. (Eielson Air Force Base)
Eielson Air Force Base investigators are looking into the cause of an in-flight emergency that required an F-16 fighter pilot to jettison the plane’s fuel tanks shortly after taking off from the base last month. Meanwhile Eielson officials also are als

New Sitka Sound Science Center director: ‘The first thing I want to do is listen’

Arleigh Reynolds stepped into the role of Executive Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center after former director Lisa Busch retired in April. He says he looks forward to expanding partnerships, especially with Indigenous-run organizations in Sitka. (Meredith Redick/KCAW)
When Lisa Busch announced she was retiring this April after 14 years as Executive Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center, Fairbanks-based veterinarian Arleigh Reynolds says he was ready to hop on a southbound flight. Rey

Sen. Bert Stedman says he’s confident education funding will survive the governor’s desk

Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, listens to testimony from Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner Ryan Anderson on Feb. 28, 2024. (Eric Stone/Alaska Public Media)
Alaska legislators concluded their session last month and passed a budget that included a one-time increase in education funding of about $680 per student. That budget has yet to be signed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who could decrease the amount like he did last year.
That uncert

8 young Alaskans reignite a court fight over climate change and fossil fuel development

Linnea Lentfer is one of eight plaintiffs represented by Our Children’s Trust in a lawsuit against the state over climate change and fossil fuel development. (Photo courtesy Our Children’s Trust)
Linnea Lentfer grew up in Gustavus, a town of 600 people tucked into the vast, scenic wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska.
Her father first set eyes on Gustavus on a high school biology trip, visiting from nearby Juneau.
“[He] fell in love with the place and the

A new lawsuit over Alaska’s Medicaid backlog asks a judge to order faster processing

A hospital hallway is seen on April 7, 2020, in Juneau, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
Just days into his life, Sierra Ott’s infant son Liam took a turn for the worse. His doctors thought he might need surgery. He took an emergency flight from Fairbanks.
“While he was there, they determined that he had hemophilia based on a heel prick that never stopped bleeding,” Ott said in a phone interview Friday. “He was diagnosed with severe hemophilia A, and from there, the hospit

Newscast – Friday, June 7, 2024

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In this newscast:Southeast Alaska’s cutest models hit the stage at Centennial Hall on Thursday for Celebration’s Toddler Regalia Review,
The state of Alaska is facing a new class action lawsuit over its failure to process Medicaid applications on time. That’s after state officials told Alaska Public Media last month that more than 15,000 Alaskans are waiting for their applications to be approved,
Resear