KTOO News Update: Recent Episodes
KTOO Public Media
The latest local, state, and regional news is compiled from reports from the KTOO newsroom in Juneau.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251010-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A grand jury indicted a Juneau man on two counts of felony assault for allegedly injuring two Juneau Police officers earlier this month
- Floodwaters have receded in Kotzebue and other western Alaska communities after a storm, but another is coming
- The Department of Education and Early Development backtracked on its initial recommendation that would have limited how much money local governments can give schools
- Some Alaskan’s are pushing for cruise ships to burn cleaner fuels that don’t pollute the ocean
- An Anchorage man detained by ICE has been released after a ruling in a class action lawsuit
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251009-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Out-of-state undergraduate students at the University of Alaska Southeast will see lower tuition rates beginning next fall,
- Nearly 100 large whales were reported entangled around the U.S. in 2024, almost a 50% increase from 2023,
- Funding for a program subsidizing rural air travel is set to continue through early November despite the ongoing government shutdown,
- Tongass Voices: Ldaan.aat Laurie Cropley and Yuxgitsiy George Holly on making space for tribal values
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251008-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Preliminary results are in for Juneau’s 2025 municipal election.
- No developers have bitten on 200 acres of city land upzoned for denser housing on Douglas Island and in Auke Bay.
- The interim superintendent for Ketchikan’s school district submitted her letter of resignation months into the job.
- Some Alaskans feel they don’t have a meaningful say in the process as a proposed gold mine in Canada goes through its environmental assessment.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251007-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Today is municipal Election Day and the KTOO newsroom was around town to chat with voters about their thoughts on the election,
- The state of Alaska is in the throes of studying what it would take to build a road that would better connect Juneau, Haines and Skagway, and the Dept. of Transportation held open house-style meetings last week to inform the public, and get community feedback,
- Top state lawmakers say they are investigating why $50 million from the state’s primary savings account was invested in an outside private equity fund,
- A Fairbanks man has a unique antidote to his winter blues: balloon art
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251006-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s municipal Election Day is almost here. Voters have until tomorrow night at 8 p.m. sharp to cast their ballots,
- And Juneau’s high school students also cast votes in mock elections to learn more about how they work,
- The Petersburg Borough assembly passed a resolution last month calling on state and federal authorities for help dealing with rising sea otter populations,
- President Trump approved the 211-mile Ambler Road in Northwest Alaska today
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251003-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Among the most vulnerable Alaskans to the ongoing federal shutdown could be thousands of parents who depend on WIC to help them buy food,
- Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson is joining the race for governor,
- Juneau voters will decide in this fall’s municipal election whether to exempt essential food and residential utilities from local sales tax,
- Earlier this month, the judge in a case against a former Juneau chiropractor dismissed a charge, which revealed a gap in state sexual assault laws,
- A Pennsylvania man allegedly used the stolen identities of seven Alaskans in an attempt to steal their Permanent Fund Dividends in 2022
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251002-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A former Juneau chiropractor accused of sexual assault now has a public defender,
- Juneau is mulling over how to prepare for next year’s glacial outburst flood,
- It’s been over three years since one of Juneau’s elementary schools had a functioning library, but it was able to build and open one this year,
- Funding has lapsed for the federal government, so a shutdown began Wednesday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251001-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A high-profile lawsuit challenging a key part of Alaska’s homeschool system moved ahead this week after an Anchorage judge denied a motion to dismiss the case,
- The Juneau Assembly is considering offering a portion of the future Telephone Hill redevelopment to house U.S. Coast Guard families moving to Juneau,
- Tuesday was Orange Shirt Day, a day of remembrance for Indigenous children who were separated from their language, families and culture and sent to residential schools across North America from the late 1800s well into the 20th Century,
- At Southeast Alaska’s annual economic conference in mid-September, fishing industry leaders talked about the importance of modernizing the industry to ensure economic resilience and sustainability
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/20250930-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Chief of Police Derek Bos says the Juneau Police Department is taking action to reform its policies after an officer was filmed slamming a man to the ground during an arrest in July.
- The City and Borough of Juneau has pushed back the eviction deadline for renters living in the historic Telephone Hill neighborhood in downtown Juneau.
- Goldbelt Incorporated leadership says the Alaska Native corporation has big plans for its proposed $500 million cruise ship port on Juneau’s Douglas Island.
- Most of the staff running three Alaska newspapers on the Kenai Peninsula and Juneau resigned in protest Monday.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/20250929-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Another glacial outburst flood is underway on the Taku River south of Juneau today,
- Tomorrow is Orange Shirt Day, a day of remembrance for Indigenous children who were separated from their families and sent to residential schools across North America,
- The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s plan to open a casino-like gambling hall on Douglas Island may be in jeopardy,
- When Juneau’s homeless shelter limited day services this summer, a group of churches mobilized to fill the gap by distributing hot means in a food truck downtown,
- President Donald Trump announced plans to increase the cost of some types of work visas earlier this month, and it could have consequences for Alaska’s schools and businesses
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250618-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- A man was arrested twice in Juneau last month for fraud, theft and attempted escape.
- The City and Borough of Juneau and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska released a draft risk assessment for the capital city on Tuesday.
- Petersburg’s Borough Assembly on Monday approved limiting the town’s senior sales tax exemption to just low-income seniors. But before any change can be made official, the townspeople will have the final say.
- For a few weeks in February, Safety Roadhouse hosts Iditarod mushers making their way to Nome. The roadhouse is closed until May, when it takes on a new life as a summer hangout spot – steeped in Iditarod history.
- The field of candidates for Alaska governor grew to four last week. That’s after Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries filed a letter of intent saying she’s considering a run for governor.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250617-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The editor of Juneau Empire is leaving the paper. Mark Sabbatini has edited the paper since 2023 and announced his departure in a Facebook post,
- The Juneau Police Department cleared a homeless encampment on the side of a Mendenhall Valley road this morning,
- The National Weather Service issued Juneau’s first recorded severe thunderstorm warning yesterday afternoon after conditions escalated and a cruise ship partially broke free from its moorings,
- The special election to determine whether or not to form the Xunaa Borough will be paused until further notice, after a superior court judge granted a stay of a state commission’s approval of the proposed borough in Southeast Alaska,
- Smoke poured over the Canadian border into eastern Alaska this weekend, impacting communities from Southeast to the Interior
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250616-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau chapter of St. Vincent de Paul will have a new executive director in July,
- One of Eaglecrest Ski Area’s four chairlifts is permanently closed,
- Nearly 2,000 Juneauites joined hundreds of thousands of people across the country to protest President Trump and his polices,
- Juneau will officially have a second electric utility that is poised to expand the capital city’s renewable energy capacity, but only if the company can finance and build its proposed hydroelectric project before its federal license expires,
- A Petersburg senior was targeted in a phone scam and defrauded of over $100,000, but when two men came to town for another money pick-up, they were arrested
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250613-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska’s public schools likely won’t get all the money lawmakers approved in a bipartisan vote last month after Gov. Mike Dunleavy unilaterally reduced education funding with a line-item veto,
- Juneau’s fire department is piloting a paid internship program this year that equips locals with certifications and skills needed to work in the field,
- A shipping container full of empty industrial-sized fish food bags fell off a barge heading from Baranof Island to the landfill in Petersburg and dozens of the plastic bags have washed up near Juneau over the past week,
- Residents are advised against harvesting clams, mussels and other shellfish near beaches across Southeast Alaska due to concerns about paralytic shellfish poisoning,
- Curious Juneau: Why is the state capital Juneau and not Anchorage
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250612-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The massive budget reconciliation bill the U.S. House delivered to the Senate would block Medicaid patients from receiving care at Planned Parenthood health centers, and health care providers and advocates in Alaska are afraid that would prevent many Alaskans from getting critical health care,
- The Juneau School District is cracking down on cell phone use in schools,
- A group of state lawmakers is set to meet this summer and fall to continue working on ways to improve Alaska’s public schools,
- Researchers say it’s clear that wolves in parts of Southeast Alaska are increasingly turning to the sea, instead of the land, for food, but now there’s evidence that the behavior can have toxic results,
- Ketchikan’s tribal government will soon be under new leadership
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250611-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneteenth will now be an observed holiday for most City and Borough of Juneau employees starting next week,
- Juneau’s three Democratic state lawmakers met with constituents downtown to share what happened and what didn’t happen during this year’s legislative session,
- In Juneau, a traditional subsistence site owned by the federal government is now one step closer to returning to its original tribal owners,
- A contractor died while doing maintenance work at a popular cruise tourism facility near Ketchikan last month, and the company that hired him has a history of safety problems
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250610-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly voted to increase both the city’s property tax and utility rates for the fiscal year that begins in July,
- The City and Borough of Juneau plans to evict all residents of the historic downtown Telephone Hill neighborhood by October 1st,
- After upheaval in the federal funding that supports trail maintenance, KTOO checked up on the state of trail work in Juneau on National Trails Day,
- A team of about 10 people returned last month from visiting the old shipwreck site of the Star of Bengal near Wrangell
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250609-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Dozens of Juneau residents in the glacial outburst flood zone learned how to prepare for flooding expected later this summer,
- Sealaska Heritage Institute is hoping people can help them identify the subjects of thousands of photos taken by a late Lingit leader,
- The Skagway Borough Assembly accepted Mayor Sam Bass’ resignation on Thursday,
- The Alaska Department of Corrections has taken in 40 people who were detained outside of the state by U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250606.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau is getting a new public-use cabin, this time built by a local trail maintenance Th nonprofit,
- The largest timber companies operating in Southeast Alaska want the Tongass National Forest to sell them more old-growth timber, and they’re suing the federal government to get it. The Department of Justice asked the court to throw the case out in May,
- An appeals court has ruled that the board that regulates subsistence hunting on federal lands within Alaska acted legally when it created an emergency hunt for a Southeast Alaska village during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency,
- Tongass Voices: Conservator Ellen Carlee on preserving the Alaska State Museum’s collection
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/20250605-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The National Guard will conduct emergency preparation drills throughout Juneau beginning this Sunday.
- A polar icebreaker is on its way to Juneau, where it will eventually be homeported.
- The Alaska Board of Education unanimously approved new reading standards for Alaska Native languages Wednesday.
- An eagle nest paused a wastewater pump station replacement near downtown Petersburg.
- KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey speaks with a retiring emergency responder who led a mobile response units in Juneau
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250214-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill that would keep the name Denali for North America’s highest peak;
- Lawmakers are looking at Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposal to create a state Department of Agriculture;
- Preschool students presented lawmakers with Valentines — and plea for policy-level support for childcare — at the state Capitol;
- A Lingít language learning couple shares their love story and love language for Valentine’s Day;
- Alaska’s Emergency Operations center cancels its annual test for the tsunami warning system.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250213-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s city-owned hospital is in a much better financial position than it has been in years. For the last eight months, the hospital has been making steady positive income.
- A deadly strain of bird flu is sweeping the nation. It has killed more than 20 million chickens since October, and that has scrambled the egg market. Alaska Public Media’s Ava White has more on how Anchorage businesses are coping with rapidly increasing egg prices along with supply problems.
- Juneau’s city-owned hospital is in a much better financial position than it has been in years. For the last eight months, the hospital has been making steady positive income.
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as President Trump’s director of national intelligence. She also announced that she intended to vote to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2020212-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Carney defended the court system’s work and laid out plans for the future in a speech to state lawmakers,
- Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director Alix Pierce shared data from an annual tourism survey that shows the conversation about the future of tourism’s growth is far from over,
- An education compact is an agreement between tribal and state governments that allows tribes to run their own public schools, and Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development is working with tribes to kick start a compacting program and give tribes sovereignty over education,
- Alaska State Troopers arrested a Metlakatla man last week on six felony charges of sexual abuse of a minor, and they believe he may have had other victims
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250211-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A team of researchers in Alaska have banded together to investigate a famous Alaska shipwreck. The Star of Bengal sank off the coast of Prince of Wales Island in 1908, taking more than 100 lives with it. The shipwreck highlighted a stark racial inequality in Alaska at the time– most of those who died were Asian cannery workers. Members of a 2022 expedition to the site of the wreck are going back in May. In this episode of Tongass Voices, team members Gig Decker and Jenya Anichtchenko share what they hope to uncover.
- As lawmakers continue to work through an education funding package, members of the House are turning to another priority for the session: reforming the retirement system for state and local government employees. Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone has this look at a bill that would return public-sector workers to a defined benefit pension system.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250210-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- The 2025 Native Youth Olympics Junior Celebration took place over the weekend in Juneau. Elementary school students from across the borough competed in events like the seal hop, two-foot high kick, Inuit stick pull and more.
- The Alaska Senate passed a bill today that would allow teenagers to serve alcohol at restaurants. The bill would lower the minimum age to serve alcohol from 21 to 18.
- The second annual Juneau Jazz Festival packed nearly thirty performances, workshops and events related to jazz in four days.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250207-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Senate unanimously joined the state House this morning in urging President Donald Trump to reverse his decision to rename North America’s tallest peak as Mount McKinley,
- Searchers found the missing Bering Air plane on the sea ice southeast of Nome, but they did not find any survivors,
- A lawsuit that clouded the future of homeschooling in Alaska for months last spring took on new life yesterday after the plaintiffs asked a judge to join four school districts as defendants in the long-running case,
- Ketchikan is now officially classified as rural in the eyes of federal subsistence regulations, after a historic, landmark decision by the Federal Subsistence Board overruled a recent vote by the Regional Advisory Council to keep Ketchikan’s status as nonrural,
- One of Alaska’s most famous contemporary bands Portugal. The Man, along with Samantha Crain and Ya Tseen sold out two shows this weekend to raise money for an effort to rebuild a Kiks.adi clan house in Sitka
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250206-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau city officials have proposed a multi-million dollar wastewater bond package to offset utility rate hikes,
- Ketchikan’s local governments are pursuing a new sales tax on cruise ship passengers,
- The U.S. Forest Service has completed assessment reports on over 20 topics that will inform how the Tongass National Forest will be managed in decades to come. The last time the Forest Service studied the Tongass this deeply, the movie Titanic was hitting the screens,
- Delta Junction residents will soon have to make a decision about whether, and how, they’ll restore emergency medical services to their community, after the city’s only ambulance service, Delta Medical Transport, announced that it will stop providing services to the city
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250205-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Lawmakers are working to hammer out a compromise on an education bill that could avoid the governor’s veto,
- FBI agents in Anchorage participated in a nationwide immigration crackdown under President Trump last weekend, but local groups, including the Anchorage School District, are pushing back,
- More than 100 Juneau residents took to the sidewalk across the street from the Alaska State Capitol this afternoon to join a nationwide protest against President Donald Trump’s administration and its recent executive orders,
- Tongass Voices: Tamara Wilson on her museum installation and the slinkies that live there
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250204-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- Alaska nonprofit face immense uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants and loans,
- The City and Borough of Juneau will move forward with a controversial plan to mitigate glacial outburst floods in the Mendenhall Valley,
- Members of Juneau’s chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters union spoke out again about the lack of competitive wages leading to staffing shortages in Juneau, and as contract negotiations begin, first responders are asking the city for relief,
- Lawmakers are pushing Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to release drafts of a statewide salary study submitted by a human resources consultant
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250203-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A teenager was fatally shot at a roundabout in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley early this morning,
- The Alaska Board of Fisheries is entering its second week of deliberations on Southeast Alaska fishing regulations in Ketchikan, and this week is about salmon and herring,
- The state regulatory group will take up herring proposals this week and it could adopt changes to how the Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery is managed,
- Alaskans testified overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would boost per-student funding at a meeting of the House Education Committee last week, and KCAW stopped by Sitka’s legislative office to speak to those there who testified,
- NOAA has released a new catalogue that chronicles more than 100 species of seaweed commonly found in Alaska, which will serve as an important resource as Alaska works to get in on kelp products
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241115-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A federal court sided with halibut conservationists in a case over new rules limiting halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands,
- The power went out across Juneau for about an hour on Friday afternoon,
- Juneau high schoolers can swap pencils for wrenches in the districts new Diesel 101 class,
- Starting next year, Ketchikan students will have a full week off for Thanksgiving
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241114-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- High school and middle school students in Juneau are reportedly fighting more this semester than in years prior,
- Rumors abound that Gov. Mike Dunleavy may leave the governor’s mansion for a post in the Trump administration,
- The City of Sitka has its first agreement with the local, privately owned cruise dock,
- The former mayor of the Yukon River community of Pilot Station has pled guilty to felony election interference
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241113-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Division of Elections posted an updated results tally late last night,
- A state commission has finally approved the City of Hoonah’s request to form a borough, and now residents of the proposed borough will decided whether to accept it,
- Someone made a $10 million mistake by buying steel for a critical dock project in Haines,
- A nonprofit hydropower agency in Southeast Alaska is set to receive $5 million dollars in federal funds to increase its energy generation capacity
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241112-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Beacon reports that state legislators believe Governor Mike Dunleavy might be offered a job in the new administration of President Donald Trump,
- Homer Police arrested a man Monday night as the suspect in three shootings at two local health nonprofits over the last month,
- Veterans in Petersburg came together yesterday for a parade, and some received handmade quilts,
- Tongass Voices: Wayne Price on the past — and future — of yaakw carving
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241108-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska is well into the start of respiratory disease season. And with it, Alaskans are getting coughs, colds, COVID-19 and cases of flu. And physicians are seeing a few things that make this year stand out.
- The Hecla Greens Creek mine near Juneau plans to break ground on an expansion sometime next year. That’s because on Thursday the U.S. Forest officially permitted its project on Admiralty Island. The move will extend mine operations for up to 18 years, but it will be subjected to some new environmental mitigation and oversight along the way.
- Unofficial results from the Division of Elections showed one Southeast Alaska precinct seemed to overwhelmingly choose a peculiar candidate for the U.S. House earlier this week — a man currently imprisoned in New York. But, those results confused voters who said that didn’t line up with how they voted. And it turns out — they were right. The Division of Elections has since updated its error.
- There are still tens of thousands of votes across the state left to be counted, and some key races remain undetermined. But in the Alaska Legislature members of bipartisan coalitions in the House and Senate are wasting no time in announcing their leadership and organizing their caucuses.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241107-News-Updates.mp3In this newscast:
- Some key races across Alaska remain too close to call with tens of thousands of votes yet to be counted. Ballot Measure 2, repealing ranked choice voting and open primaries, leads by less than two percentage points. A Fairbanks state Senate race and an Anchorage House race are each on a knife’s edge.
- Next week marks the beginning of wolf-trapping season on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. But on the island – and the smaller islands surrounding it – getting an accurate count of the local wolf population has been a huge challenge. Now, managers are trying some interesting new counting techniques. Last summer, they hired a dog named Barley to sniff out an important source of data for tracking and understanding wolves – their poop.
- Bipartisan majorities will control both the Alaska House and Senate following the election, lawmakers said Wednesday evening.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241106-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Final election results are trickling in today [WED] for the national and state races. In Alaska, unofficial results show the Republican presidential and U.S. House candidates lead in their races statewide, but there’s evidence of a lot of split-ticket voters in Juneau,
- A group home in Juneau for women experiencing addiction or leaving incarceration has just reopened after a three-year hiatus due to flooding. T’áa Shuyee Hit Haven House is now accepting applicants,
- Republican challenger Nick Begich had a solid lead in the race for Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House after Tuesday’s election night vote tallies,
- The effort to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primaries was ahead slightly late Tuesday, with about three-quarters of the state’s precincts counted,
- A bipartisan majority caucus is likely to hold on to control of the Alaska Senate, and some key pickups in the state House mean that the current Republican-led majority could lose control of the chamber. That’s according to early election results in state legislative races,
- Initial results in Alaska’s House District 1 race have Republican Jeremy Bynum with a commanding lead at more than 50% of the vote,
- The Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska has received over 20 boxes filled with archaeological artifacts from the Islands of Four Mountains in the central Aleutian Islands. While some artifacts may never be displayed, they remain crucial to understanding Unangax̂ history.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241104-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The federal Department of Justice will monitor Alaska’s compliance with federal voting rights laws in rural areas of the state for Tuesday’s election, according to a statement from the agency,
- Long lines for early voting and uncontested local races in Juneau haven’t stopped voters here,
- Alaska isn’t a swing state in the Presidential election, but the U.S. House race here could help decide who controls Congress, and it’s now near the top of the list of the most expensive House races in the country,
- The path to more affordable homes in Ketchikan cleared an early hurdle last week, as a local resident signed over an undeveloped acre of land to the area’s new community land trust.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20240111.wavIn this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau wants to fight glacial outburst floods with a temporary riverside levee. But some riverfront property owners don’t want it.
- Alaska’s election results will likely not be ready on Election Day.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241031-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A conservative campaign group is facing questions over whether it properly disclosed the donors who funded ads in Alaska races,
- Lingít veterans hold space for dual identities during US Navy apology in Angoon,
- Searchers from Sitka on Wednesday (10-30-24) recovered the body of a hunter who died in a brown bear attack,
- As the first major batch of snow falls in Anchorage, the city is opening more hotel rooms to serve as shelter for homeless residents
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241030Newscast.mp3In this newscast,
- Change is coming to Juneau’s local convenience store chain following new ownership,
- Juneau Compost and Juneau RecycleWorks are partnering to open pumpkin drop-off bins starting Friday,
- Two Juneau residents were honored last night at the Alaska Governor’s Arts and Humanities Awards in Anchorage,
- The US Navy formally apologized to the community of Angoon for the 1882 bombardment of their village,
- The state’s department of corrections is struggling to keep up with all the ways fentanyl is getting into jails and prisons
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241029-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska voters will decide the future of the state’s ranked choice voting system in this November’s election,
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is opening a disaster recovery center at Mendenhall Valley Public Library starting Wednesday,
- The Alaska Marine Highway System’s plan for the next 20 years was discussed at a day-long meeting in Anchorage,
- On Friday, President Joe Biden apologized for the harm done to generations of Native American children who were taken from their homes and forced to attend boarding schools
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241004-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A community-led flood recovery group has convened to address gaps in clean-up and emergency planning for future floods.
- Two Juneau residents hunting on Admiralty Island at the end of September ended up face-to-face with a brown bear.
- The Alaska Marine Highway System expects to roll out its long-range plan early next year, setting the course for the next 20 years.
- Sunday is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241003-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- In a special Assembly meeting Thursday afternoon, the City and Borough of Juneau introduced phase one of its flood fighting plan.
- Katmai National Park and Preserve’s annual celebration of brown bears gearing up for hibernation kicked off Wednesday morning.
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska says it uncovered a “massive” violation of medical privacy laws by a software company used by the state Department of Corrections.
- And Alaska had a record number of opioid overdose deaths last year.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/10022024-update.wavIn this newscast:
- The Ketchikan School District honors Alaska Native mother Nettie Jones, who fought to end segregation in Alaska schools more than a century ago.
- Alaska ends the summer with a below average wildfire season.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241001-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- KTOO’s Clarise Larson was out and about around town on Election Day to chat with voters about their thoughts on the election.
- Ketchikan’s Third Avenue Bypass reopened Tuesday, more than a month after a fatal landslide came down over the road.
- The Tustumena has canceled all of its sailings through Sunday. It’s the latest snafu during the ferry’s diamond sailing season.
- In a shocking live broadcast, one of Katmai National Park’s celebrity bears killed another — just before the start of Fat Bear Week.
- The Haines Assembly has passed its first cruise passenger fee.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240930-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A totem pole was raised at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau over the weekend.
- After a close encounter with a Russian jet last week in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone , U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan is calling for the U.S. military to continue building its presence in Alaska to “meet force with force”.
- Thirteen pedestrians have been killed by cars so far in Anchorage this year, tying a grim record and renewing calls from the community to make city roads safer.
- An apartment fire in Ketchikan Sunday morning left one person dead and another critically injured.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240927-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s municipal Election Day is right around the corner — voters have until Tuesday night to cast their ballots in this year’s local election.
- Nearly $14 million of those dollars were awarded to Alaska tribes and tribal organizations to support survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex trafficking.
- Public health experts worry Alaska will see more outbreaks of preventable disease due to low vaccination rates, like the current epidemic of whooping cough.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240926-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A new roundabout in the Mendenhall Valley got approval to move forward from the Juneau Planning Commission earlier this week.
- Alaska’s winter ferry schedule starts October 1st and looks a lot like last year.
- U.S. Navy leaders visited Kake last weekend to formally apologize for the 1869 bombardment of the community.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240925-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Advocates for Juneau’s Ship Free Saturdays ballot proposition say the reins need to be pulled on the growth of tourism, but opponents say the financial and legal implications could hurt the local economy.
- An annual report on Southeast Alaska’s economy shows a region firmly dependent on tourism and a struggling fishing sector.
- A crew from Sitka Search and Rescue remained in the field Tuesday searching for a 16-year old boy missing since a car he was in left Blue Lake Road Saturday evening, and tumbled into a deep ravine.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240924-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly unanimously agreed to commit $3 million in city dollars to a possible U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that would examine engineering solutions for long-term glacial outburst flood prevention.
- Why a recall of two Juneau School Board members is on the local election ballot and what happens if it’s successful
- and local actor Enrique Bravo shares his perspective on being an everyman in Juneau’s theater scene.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240923-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Hear from mayoral candidates in this year’s Oct. 1 Juneau Municipal Election as they share their thoughts on the public safety and infrastructure bond debt questions on the ballot
In this newscast:
- A coalition of Juneau scientists, conservationists, and wildlife enthusiasts will hold a forum about the proposed Juneau-Douglas Second Crossing next week
- Quakers return cultural artifacts to Kake at the annual Dog Salmon Festival
- Peltola bill would lift the ban on bringing puppies through Canada
In this newscast:
- Juneau voters will decide whether to OK $10M bond for wastewater infrastructure improvements.
- The Alaska Marine Highway System has been awarded $177.4 million in federal grants.
- Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend for 2024 is $1,702.
- Fall is peak fishing for certain species on Prince of Wales Island.
In this newscast:
- Postal inspectors stopped a suspicious envelope intended for Alaska elections officials.
- Miscommunication leads to hundreds of extra ballots sent to Juneau voters.
- Alaska is in the middle of an epidemic of whooping cough cases.
- This week’s Tongass Voices features Mitch Erie, a U.S. Forest Service firefighter.
In this newscast:
- Bethel Regional High School classes were temporarily suspended on Monday morning in response to a threat that spread on social media.
- Juneau Assembly discusses funding for flood preparation as residents ask for more guidance.
- Bartlett Regional Hospital’s Rainforest Recovery Center will permanently close next week.
- Seagriculture USA occurred in Ketchikan last week, and participants discussed Alaska’s potential growth as a seaweed producer.
In this newscast:
- Four people have died after a plane they were traveling in from Bethel crashed short of the runway in St. Mary’s late Sunday (9/15) night.
- The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has received $15 million in funding via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program.
- Researchers have documented a hundred more cases of bird flu in Alaska, but some species are showing signs of immunity to the disease.
- 2024 is shaping up to be the 12th year in a row in which Alaska will see a net population migration loss. Some surprising factors are leading the trend.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240913-News-Update.mp3
In this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau is asking voters whether or not to take out 12.7 million in bond debt to help replace the radio system that police and firefighters use to communicate.
- Juneau residents took to the Capitol this week to protest Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that would have expanded access to birth control.
- The Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed the U.S. House candidacy of Eric Hafner, a Democrat imprisoned in New York state.
- Repairs have been made to the broken subsea fiber optic cable that took Sitka offline over two weeks ago, but it could be several days until cellular service and internet access are totally restored.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240903-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- A state agency that’s been awarding annual grants to Alaska libraries cut some of its stipend this year, and smaller rural libraries may suffer.
- For Tongass Voices, Nutaaq Doreen Simmonds is an Inupiaq actor starring in “Cold Case” a play opening this weekend at Perserverance Theater.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240903.wavIn this newscast:
- A widespread internet outage in Sitka continued into the weekend.
- Underwater anthropologist Kelly Monteleone kicks off Sealaska Heritage Institute’s fall lecture series this week.
- A new project helps provides communities with data in
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240830-News-Update.mp3In the newscast:
- Heavy rainfall is coming to Southeast Alaska this weekend, beginning Friday afternoon,
- An advocacy group is telling Juneau residents to vote no on a proposition set to appear on the local ballot this fall. It’s about whether large cruise ships should be banned on Saturdays starting next year,
- Sitka continued to experience a wide internet and cell service outage Friday,
- Despite the outage, a Sitka search and rescue ended successfully,
- Dr. Gabriel Wolken on how landslides are often the result of a complicated series of events
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240829-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A new partnership between a cruise ship company and a local Alaska Native corporation aims to improve internet in the downtown area during the cruise season,
- Juneau’s Echo Ranch Bible Camp is among the places where a California man allegedly abused boys over the span of decades, according to a recent lawsuit. Now, the people who say they were victims of Bradley Earl Reger are trying to hold the institutions where the abuse took place accountable,
- More than three dozen entities have called on the Biden Administration and the EPA to ban the use of technology that uses water to flush out harmful chemicals from a ship’s exhaust at the national level,
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola and challenger Nick Begich vied for the support of the oil industry at a candidates’ forum in Anchorage
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240828-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Teams of scientists, engineers and meteorologists continue their work assessing the steep hillside in Ketchikan following Sunday’s fatal landslide,
- The annual State of the Climate report is out,
- Officials say the Covenant House youth homeless shelter in Anchorage helps young people with skills to live on their own,
- Climate change is altering where wild berries grow in Alaska, and when, so researchers are gathering data
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240827-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has finalized a decision to maintain protections for 28 million acres of wilderness lands across Alaska, known as “D-1” lands,
- Ketchikan residents describe a chaotic scene in the minutes and hours after a landslide ripped through a residential neighborhood,
- A new study released by NOAA deepens the connection between human-caused climate change and the die-off of Bering Sea snow crabs,
- Tongass Voices: Sh Dei Wooteen Jeni Brown on speaking up — “Everybody has a warrior inside them”
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240826-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Southeast Alaska health officials say cases of pertussis, commonly called whooping cough, are up in Juneau,
- Emergency crews responded to a large landslide that killed one person and destroyed several houses in Ketchikan on Sunday,
- A bellweather trial is began today in a fight over whether the parent companies of two Alaska grocery chains can merge,
- Petersburg residents are ramping up their efforts to track and combat the invasive European green crabs,
- Southeast Alaska’s king salmon sport fishery is closed, effective Monday through the end of September
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240823-NewsUpdate.mp3In this newscast:
- A new program in Gustavus will provide residents with money for heat pumps,
- The family of a man who was shot and killed by law enforcement in Juneau in July say they’re still waiting for answers,
- Alaskans have limited access to medicinal and recreational psychedelics, but an upcoming conference, called Arctic Visions, will address ethical, cultural and logistical approaches to psychedelic practices,
- A ballot measure that could repeal Alaska’s ranked choice election system is headed to a vote in November, the Alaska Supreme Court confirmed Thursday.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240822-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Illegal student parking is on the rise near Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé,
- Bartlett Regional Hospital’s nationwide search for a new CEO has narrowed down to three candidates,
- The three members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation are calling for action from President Biden on transboundary mining in British Columbia,
- Some lawmakers have tried, but all failed to pass a law to delegate the responsibility of making new specialty license plates to the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles – that is, until this year.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/08212024-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- KTOO speaks with the new executive director of the Glory Hall, who’s looking forward to adding more units to its supportive housing program,
- A coalition of Southeast Alaska tribes is asking for a pause on reopening a large gold and silver mine near the Canadian border
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240820-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly unanimously passed an emergency resolution last night freeing up more than a million dollars of city funding for more flood response and recovery,
- The purpose of Tuesday’s primary election is to narrow each field to four candidates, but few races have more than four to start with,
- Tongass Voices: James Houck on the joy of pedaling people through Juneau
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240819-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Dunleavy signed a bipartisan bill into law last week that puts more guardrails on how local governments assess the value of real estate,
- A controversial 2023 court ruling ordering the closure of commercial trolling for king salmon in Southeast Alaska has been lifted,
- The Metlakatla Indian Community is receiving $2 million of federal funding for its tribally owned salmon hatchery
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240816-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Dog sledding is an iconic piece of Alaska’s history — from its roots in Alaska Native culture to the Klondike Gold Rush to the Iditarod — it’s stood the test of time. And today, it’s taken on a new form to help it survive: excursions for the ever-booming cruise ship tourism industry.
- Two Alaska State Troopers are being charged with assault for using unreasonable force while arresting a person in Kenai who they thought was someone else. That’s according to criminal charges filed Wednesday.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20230815-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- It was the first day of school for students in the Juneau School District today. And, it’s also the first time students headed to the newly consolidated high school and middle school campuses.
- An emergency day care center opens up in the former Floyd Dryden Middle School as residents continue to recover from the glacier outburst flood last week.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240814-News-update.wavIn this newscast:
- A newly permitted affordable housing project hopes to help fill gaps in Juneau’s housing,
- Archivists with Sealaska Heritage Institute is cataloging lost and found from nearly two decades of Celebrations,
- A renowned culture-bearer in Sitka passed away last month
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240813-News-Updated.mp3In this newscast:
- Ten disabled Alaskans are suing the state, and the guardian the state appointed to take care of them, in a class-action lawsuit, alleging financial abuse and neglect,
- Tongass Voices: Diosdado Valdez on finding family away from home
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240812-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The first day of school for the Juneau School District is just around the corner — classes kick off on Thursday. KTOO’s Clarise Larson sat down with Superintendent Frank Hauser to chat about the start of the new year with the consolidation plan in place, the stability of the district moving forward and what students can expect,
- A Juneau stage was packed with artists on Saturday night. They were there to pay tribute to Steven Kissack, a local man who was shot and killed by law enforcement last month. Many on stage and in the crowd knew Kissack. He’d lived on the streets downtown for years
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240809-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola joined D.C. lawmakers from 16 states in a legal brief backing a lawsuit to stop a massive, national grocery store merger,
- In House District 40, covering the North Slope and the Northwest Arctic, the big issue is the incumbent’s vote this spring to sustain the governor’s veto of education funding,
- Alaska used to have some of the strictest campaign spending laws in the country, but since 2021 the state has had no limits on individual donations, but a group is trying to restore some limits with a ballot initiative
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240808-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau residents affected by record-breaking glacial outburst flooding are in the process of cleaning up flood damage. Scores of volunteers are pitching in, and the state and the City and Borough of Juneau are offering resources for clean up.
- Plans to redevelop a historic neighborhood in the heart of downtown Juneau are moving forward. The city says the project could add more than 100 new units of badly needed housing.
- Alaska musician Quinn Christopherson speaks to KTOO for the latest Tongass Voices episode.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240807-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Governor Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski toured the Juneau neighborhoods that experienced record-breaking flooding earlier this week. Now, residents are beginning to recover and assess the damage, and city and state officials are working together to figure out next steps.
- The U.S. Interior Department says it reviewed over a million pages of federal records to produce a two-volume report on Native boarding schools. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the second volume last month. The report also makes recommendations –that include apologies to communities for forcibly taking children from their homes to assimilate them — as well as programs that offer healing through language and culture.
- Southeast Alaska has almost a full week of sunshine ahead, but those blue skies will be slightly dingy with smoke from wildfires in Canada.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240806-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly has selected Emily Wright to serve as the City and Borough of Juneau’s new city attorney.
- Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau broke records for the second year in a row. The Mendenhall River crested at nearly 16 feet in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
- A homer man is making alcohol from locally grown ingredients.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240805-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed five bills last week that lawmakers passed after midnight on the last day of the legislative session. Dunleavy says the bills, which passed on what was technically the 122nd day of the session, violated the Alaska Constitution’s limit on the length of the legislative session.
- There are currently 11 candidates running to unseat Alaska Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola this November. One candidate though has some… let’s say, extra hurdles.
- Glacial outburst flooding in Mendenhall Lake and River is underway. The latest forecast predicts a crest of more than 15 feet sometime after midnight Monday. That would surpass last year’s record-breaking flood.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20230802-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A pair of state House lawmakers are calling on their colleagues to reconvene to restore millions in education funding erased by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s line-item vetoes.
- A geologist who has studied Southeast Alaska’s rocks and minerals for decades is creating a new geologic map of the region.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Water levels in Suicide Basin have started to drop, as water overtops the ice dam. Flooding has not started yet, but riverside residents should be prepared.
- Juneau’s city-owned hospital and its employee union are heading to arbitration after failing to come to an agreement over a new contract.
- Alaska has a high rate of whooping cough this year.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240731-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Nearly a dozen residents testified in front of the Juneau Assembly Monday night calling for more accountability from local law enforcement in the wake of a deadly shooting.
- Tickets for parking violations in Juneau’s city-owned downtown facilities are about to get a bit more spendy. That’s because the Juneau Assembly voted to bump up the price of parking fines in an attempt to deter repeat offenders.
- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Thursday announced a surprise fishing closure in one of Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon districts. As KDLG’s Meg Duff reports, this closure may have been the first time that a Bristol Bay fishery was shut down explicitly because of illegal fishing.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/news-update-1.wavIn this newscast:
- Plans to construct a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau crossed at major hurdle at this week’s meeting of the Juneau Assembly.
- Tongass Voices: Juneau artist Chloey Cavanaugh on organizing the final Kake Dog Salmon Festival.
- $15 million in funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has helped Alaska communities to clear passages for migratory fish to spawn.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/news-update.wavIn this newscast:
- $38 million in new federal funding will be help homeowners in southeast and southcentral Alaska get heat pumps.
- Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area is interviewing two candidates to take over as general manager.
- A Canadian conservation group known for labeling sustainable seafood removed its recommendation of Southeast salmon.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240726-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Suicide Basin, a glacial lake tucked behind the Mendenhall Glacier, is a looming flood threat for Juneau residents this time of year. Glacial outburst floods or jökulhlaups have happened in the Mendenhall River every year for the last decade when the basin fills up with rain and meltwater throughout the summer until it drains downstream. Last year’s flooding was catastrophic. As the basin fills again, scientists at the University of Alaska Southeast are keeping a close eye on it.
- A number of bears have been spotted in Dillingham in the last few weeks. KDLG’s Meg Duff shares tips for keeping bears away.
- Three Anchorage police officers will not face criminal charges for shooting and killing a man they say drew a gun on them last month after their accounts were backed up by body cameras.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240725.mp3In this newscast:
- Congresswoman Mary Peltola says she’s isn’t endorsing either presidential candidate this fall,
- A recent Supreme Court decision could have important implications for fisheries in Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240724-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau residents will have a chance to learn more about the three finalists for Juneau’s next city attorney this week,
- Tommy, the mythical sole survivor of the Princess Sophia wreck, is cast in bronze atop a boulder at Tee Harbor,
- The Alaska Travel Industry Association confirmed that the state broke a cruise ship passenger record last year
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240723-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Police Department has released the names of the officers involved in last week’s deadly shooting downtown,
- Protesters took to the streets downtown to express their anger over the death of Steven Kissack,
- Anchorage police officials say they’ll enact a new body camera policy this week that mandates the release of footage of police shootings within 45 days,
- Tongass Voices: Xixtc’ i see Ruby Hughes fuses pop culture and tradition in her sewing
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240722-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A Haines man and a couple flying from Juneau to Yakutat are missing after their plane never arrived at its destination over the weekend,
- Former Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation CEO Angela Rodell is running for Juneau Mayor,
- People who witnessed Monday’s deadly police shooting in downtown Juneau are carrying a lot of emotions, and a local mental health care provider has compiled resources to help residents deal with the trauma,
- The 9th District Court of Appeals heard cases for and against a lower court ruling that threated to halt Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery for king salmon
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240719-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- The name of one of the police officers involved in the shooting death of a man in downtown Juneau earlier this week has been released. Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sergeant Branden Forst has been places on administrative leave.
- Monday (7/22) is the deadline to get on the ballot for Juneau’s October 1st municipal election.
- Insect infestations began tearing through Southeast Alaska in 2018, leaving behind scores of balding trees and annoyed hikers. But those outbreaks are part of a natural cycle, and the latest appear to be slowing down.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240718-NewsUpdated.mp3In this newscast:
- State officials say they’re working to improve the speed of their investigations into police shootings as public pressure mounts for the release of body camera footage of the incidents,
- A federal judge is sending Interior Department officials back to the drawing board after concluding that a Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sale didn’t adequately consider the possible impacts on endangered beluga whales in the area,
- The judge sentencing convicted killer Brian Smith in Anchorage last week gave prosecutors the 226 year sentence they asked for, for the murders of two Alaska Native women
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240717-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Resurrection Lutheran Church held a vigil for Steven Kissack, and many community members are still reeling after he was shot and killed by law enforcement,
- Archeologists excavating an ancient pit house near Delta Junction say the artifacts they’ve found have helped them understand more about the people who’ve lived there for 14,000 years
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20230715-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A landslide in downtown Juneau displaced at least seven people in the Strasbaugh Apartments building late Sunday morning amid heavy rain.
- A federal judge in Juneau sentenced two members of a Washington state family who sold over 1 million dollars of fake Alaska Native art in Ketchikan.
- In the wake of five police shootings in Anchorage in less than two months, the Party for Socialism and Liberation-Anchorage is pushing for the city to establish an independent police review board to increase transparency and accountability.
- The wet weather that drenched much of Southeast Alaska over the weekend is expected to persist through tomorrow morning.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240712-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The start of the 10-day period to file to run for a seat on Juneau’s Assembly or Board of Education opened today,
- Communities across the state like Ketchikan are developing tough-on-crime policies to try to reduce the crime rates, and KRBD stopped by a community organization that’s using a different method to reduce recidivism,
- The U.S. Coast Guard encountered four Chinese military ships in the Bering Sea over the weekend
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240710-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- An Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development study shows that Juneau has the highest average cost of a single-family home in Alaska,
- New rules for bringing dogs into the United States are set to take effect next month, and will have some unique impacts in Alaska,
- A fisherman has died in Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon gillnet fishery
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240709-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A citizen’s committee charged with reviewing books for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District has completed its work,
- The Alaska chapter of the ACLU is stepping up its pressure on the Alaska Department of Corrections over what it says are improper restrictions on inmates’ access to private conversations with their attorneys,
- Tongass Voices: Lovely Colours on playing for their hometown
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240708-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Dozens of jobs previously cut from the Juneau School District due to a lack of funding are now being added back for the coming school year,
- Cool, rainy weather over the long holiday weekend aided firefighters working to contain wildfires around the state,
- The Alaska Marine Highway System’s proposed winter ferry schedule has just one ferry serving Southeast Alaska’s main route, and it leaves some communities out,
- North Pacific sablefish are a single genetic population, according to a new study published last month through NOAA fisheries
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240705-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Supreme Court handed the state a victory last week when it reversed a lower court ruling that had thrown out two key homeschool laws as unconstitutional, but there’s a key question the court didn’t address: whether Alaska correspondence schools can allow parents to spend public money at private schools,
- An electrical fire damaged one of three spiral freezers aboard the Northline Seafood floating processing barge over the weekend, leaving the barge at a reduced capacity just ahead of the peak of the region’s massive sockeye run
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240703-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Ice is melting faster in the Juneau Icefield than expected,
- Juneau’s former downtown homeless shelter has been converted into seven affordable housing units,
- A Canadian company is getting close to the permitting stage to reopen a gold mine at the headwaters of a river that flows into Southeast Alaska, and the British Columbia government is downplaying their responsibility to consult with Alaska tribes
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240702-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Little Mermaid Beauty Salon in Douglas closed for good last weekend after 60 years,
- A researcher with the Pacific Northwest Research Station is recording connections between people and subsistence foods for a new project with the National Forest Service
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240701-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the state’s $12.2 billion operating budget Friday,
- Last week, a federal judge in Anchorage ruled that tribes in Alaska can put land into trust,
- Tongass Voices: Sakoon Donedin Jackson on re-indigenizing her life
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240628-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Biden Administration finalized a decision blocking the controversial Ambler Road project,
- In the last 14 months, four men have died while working in the oil fields on the North Slope. Before that, the area hadn’t seen a death in about five years
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240627-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A high-stakes battle over a popular form of homeschooling reached the Alaska Supreme Court today,
- Curious Juneau: Juneau is a windy city. So why don’t we have more wind turbines?
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240626-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Supports of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting were in court Monday in an attempt to disqualify a ballot measure that would repeal the election reforms voters adopted in 2020,
- A Juneau artist’s family is donating hundreds of photos of King Island taken in the early 1950s before the residents were removed from the remote Bering Sea island,
- An audio postcard from Dillingham’s boatyard as fishing crews get ready for the Bristol Bay salmon season
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240625-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Recent Juneau high school graduate and soon-to-be collegiate swimmer PJ Foy competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Friday,
- Last week, a group of Juneau middle schoolers got a crash course in renewable electricity through a summer camp called the “Nature of Energy,”
- The state has released its draft winter ferry schedule, which residents might find familiar,
- After two failed attempts last year, a local group advocating to limit cruise tourism in Sitka fileda third petition to put the question out to voters
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240624-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A Wisconsin museum has sent a Chilkat robe it’s had for the last 80 years to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau in the hopes of identifying it,
- The Kodiak Filipino American Association celebrated Philippine Independence Day wiht a basketball tournament,
- Tongass Voices: Juneau Bike Doctor’s Ken Hill wants to get everybody on a bike
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240621-Newsupdate.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced an emergency closure for most near-shore fishing areas around Juneau,
- Researchers found dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish toxins in Ketchikan, and they are helping researchers learn more about the toxins,
- And, if you felt that this May was especially rainy, you were right
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240620-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Local trail crews are trying to figure out how to keep up with muddier and harder-to-maintain trails in Southeast Alaska caused by climate change.
- New rules for wastewater are on the horizon here in Alaska.
- Seward’s Lydia Jacoby won’t compete in this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
- Two men died after their small plane crashed on Tuesday into Crescent Lake on the Kenia Peninsula.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240618-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon announced that she plans to run for a third term in October’s local election,
- The Juneau Assembly is increasing funding in a city loan program for purchasing mobile homes,
- European green crabs are expanding their territory in Southeast Alaska,
- A team of experts on sexual assault is training healthcare professionals to fill gaps in response and care
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240617-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- It’s taken 44 years, but a hydroelectric project in Angoon finally has all the funding and most of the permits to launch,
- A rare mountain lion was shot and killed on Wrangell Island earlier this month,
- Tongass Voices: The Evening Star on creating spaces for queer Indigenous people
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240614-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Cultural ambassadors are now at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center to teach Lingit culture and history to tourists,
- Representative Mary Peltola recently introduced two bills aimed at addressing bycatch in federal trawl fisheries
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/newscast.mp3In this newscast:
- A drag story time in Seward faced a bomb threat on Saturday, but the event persisted,
- Curious Juneau: What will happen to Juneau’s City Hall mural if the city moves out?
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240612-News-Update.mp3In 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 kittens from a Juneau residence
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240611-News-Update.mp3In 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
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610-News-Update.mp3In 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
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240607-News-UPdate.mp3In 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,
- Researchers are monitoring a bloom of phytoplankton near one of Kodiak Island’s beaches that is known to cause paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240606-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Earlier this week, a swath of gray storm clouds interrupted an afternoon of clear blue skies in Juneau. A few people caught the sound of thunder and saw flashes of lightning. Juneau is no stranger to rainy days, but thunderstorms only happen once every two years or so here. KTOO’s Anna Canny explains why they’re so rare;
- A mother-daughter duo — a weaver and an engraver — won Best of Show at this Celebration’s Juried Arts show. Their winning entry was a spruce root hat called Dancing in the Summer Rain,
- A new scientific paper released by NOAA last month highlights a crucial disconnect between the needs of rural communities in the north Bering Sea and the resources available to them
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240605-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Traditional canoes — or yaakw — landed in Juneau Tuesday to mark the start of the bi-annual Celebration festival,
- A team of local scientists and emergency managers are trying to improve flood forecasts,
- Tongass Voices: Dave Hanson on the cosmos of Marie Drake Planetarium
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20230604-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Last week, an Alaska Coach Tours bus backed into a totem pole at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, and drove off. Witnesses called the museum to report the accident. There’s minimal damage to the pole and city engineers made sure it was stable. But for the son of the man who carved the 57-year-old totem pole, the accident was a reminder of what this piece means to him and his father’s legacy.
- Naomi Michelson shares her reflections on the practice of respectful harvesting for this week’s Garden Talk.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240603-news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Civil liberties advocates are accusing the Alaska Department of Corrections of unconstitutionally limiting prisoners’ access to attorneys at the state’s only all-female prison.
- For Curious Juneau, Yvonne Krumrey delves into the history of Auke Rec, where canoes land for Celebration each year.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240531-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau has negotiated an official agreement with cruise lines that will put a limit on the number of daily passengers that come into Juneau in 2026,
- The US Coast Guard shared their conclusions from a year long investigation into what caused the loss of a charter vessel in Sitka Sound and its five passengers
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240530-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Bartlett Regional Hospital is facing a multi-million dollar deficit and now hospital leaders are considering cutting some services to stop the bleeding,
- A partnership between scientists and local hunters to monitor sea ice is helping Utqiagvik adapt to the lost of ice due to climate change
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240529-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Students studying environmental science at UAS will settle into a brand new building this fall,
- An organization working to reduce the cost of trash disposal in Southeast Alaska has won a $500,000 grant to study where there are cheaper, more efficient ways to get rid of garbage,
- Sixteen people from Wrangell and Petersburg are about to paddle north to Juneau for the bi-annual Celebration festival
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240528-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Dozens of people had to scramble to find a way home from Haines this weekend when two sailings of the LeConte were canceled due to mechanical issues,
- On Sunday, more than 300 seniors graduated from Juneau’s three high schools, and the last graduating class from Thunder Mountain High School,
- Tongass Voices: Seth Williams on what it takes to be a karaoke host in Juneau
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240524-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- A group of paddlers from Kasaan prepare for a 10-day, over 250-mile journey to Juneau for Celebration in canoes they carved themselves, making stops in communities like Wrangell and Petersburg along the way.
- Alaskans looking to invest in solar panels or other renewable energy infrastructure for their homes will likely have some new options in the next few years. The state is setting up a new so-called “green bank” that aims to help Alaskans keep their power costs down and speed the transition to renewable energy.
- A Kotzebue police sergeant has resigned after making racist comments on social media.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240523-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Members of Juneau’s Assembly decided to lower the city’s property tax rate next year,
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola introduced two bills that aim to reduce the number of salmon that the pollock fleet catches by accident,
- Leaders from Ketchikan’s Indigenous communities spoke passionately against inauthentic totem poles at a city council meeting
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240522-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- One Juneau inventor hopes to tap into the power of the ocean with a small tidal generator that’s poised to hit the market next year,
- Alaska’s governor could soon sign a bill into law that would establish a task force to look into the economic crisis facing the state’s seafood industry, but one legislator said leaders missed an opportunity to give tribes a greater voice,
- Suzanne LaFrance declared victory in Anchorage’s mayoral race, a week after voting ended in the runoff election
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240521-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Security footage posted online shows Anchorage police killing an armed man last week, but a witness who owns the camera says her footage contradicts what officers say happened in the lead up to the shooting,
- The first Alaska woman has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences,
- The remote village of Golovin is the subject of a new documentary that shines a light on the unique hardships experienced living on the Western Alaska coast,
- A Homer man died Sunday morning after being attacked by a moose
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240520-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- An electric pole in Ketchikan caught fire late last month and sent Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell into a blackout. The three grids – which are interconnected – went dark for a few hours. That smoldering electric pole was symptomatic of a much larger, decades-long issue facing Ketchikan Public Utilities,
- Tongass Voices: Kanik Corinne James on being uplifted by Indigenous women in the art world
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20230517-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- AKPM’s Eric Stone reports on the dozens of bills passed as lawmakers concluded their work this legislative session.
- Injured commercial fishermen and boat owners in Alaska will now be able to access higher insurance reimbursements, thanks to a senate bill passed by lawmakers.
- A bill passed by the legislature addresses the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous People in the state.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20230516-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- An affordable housing project built specifically for people in recovery from substance misuse received funding support from the Juneau Assembly this week.
- KTOO reporter Anna Canny sought out where ravens roost in Juneau in this week’s Curious Juneau episode.
- A 91-year-old cruise tourist is suing the Ketchikan Borough for negligence after his mobility scooter tipped over on a public bus.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240515-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Ketchikan community members are pushing back against the planned construction of a market downtown which would feature two totem poles made by a non-Native Minnesota artist with a checkered past,
- A look at what’s planned for this years Little Norway Festival in Petersburg
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240514-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly approved the school district’s more than $85 million budget for next school year last night,
- Budget negotiators in the Alaska Legislature have settled on the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend and energy relief check,
- Since statehood, Alaska has not had the death penalty, but the men who were last executed here shouldn’t be forgotten
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240513-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska lawmakers passed a bill last week that adds several Indigenous languages to Alaska’s official list of languages,
- One People Canoe Society visited Wrangell in early spring to teach residents how to make traditional Lingít paddles. This class was the kickoff for the Journey to Celebration, where a group of paddlers will canoe from Wrangell to Juneau at the end of May and early June,
- Tongass Voices: Rebecca Hsieh on intertwining community and art with Head in the Clouds Collective
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240510-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A new study reveals that snow slides are a leading cause of death for mountain goats,
- Should Southeast Alaska have a hatchery-only king salmon sports fishery? Researchers recently tried to answer that question as a possible solution to a declining number of wild kings,
- Active aurora is forecast this weekend due to intense solar flares in recent days
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240509-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaskans who sued the state last year over long wait times for food assistance are asking a federal judge to order the state to speed up processing, but the state says the situation has improved dramatically,
- Transboundary gold mines are controversial because of their environmental impact, but a nonprofit group released a report that found that these mines operate somewhat like a Ponzi scheme
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240508-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly wants the city to ask community organizations if they’d be interested in continuing to care for graveyards on Douglas — with potential funding,
- An audio postcard from this years MMIP Awareness Day in Bethel
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240507-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s annual workshop on How to Run for Local Office is this Saturday, and October’s municipal election is already shaping up to be an interesting one,
- A proposal headed to the Alaska Board of Fisheries next year would change how a popular run of king salmon is managed near Petersburg,
- Tongass Voices: Haa Tooch Lichéesh Coalition members find inner strength through ocean dipping
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240506.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau residents had some close encounters with a curious killer whale.
- Sitka’s “Indian Village” was recognized as one of 11 endangered historic places in the U.S. Organizers are hoping that attention will inspire efforts to conserve and rebuild a cultural hub.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20230503-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- Gov. Mike Dunleavy is calling on lawmakers to pause their efforts to address a court ruling that threatens the state’s homeschool system. But, the Superior Court judge ruled Thursday evening that the ruling would remain on hold only through this June. The court also rejected Dunleavy’s broad interpretation of his ruling.
- Sitka’s Tourism Task Force adopted cruise tourism recommendations including reducing “peak days” engaging with the visitor industry and establishing a permanent commission to take it’s place.
- Anchorage mayoral candidates Dave Bronson and Suzanne LaFrance faced off in a debate hosted by Alaska Public Media and in the Anchorage Daily news. The two sparred over competing ideologies and priorities.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/01292024-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Dozens of child-sized Ravenstail robes were danced for the first time at an event in Juneau on Tuesday. It’s the largest collection of new Ravenstail weaving in decades.
- KTOO’s Katie Anastas investigated Juneau’s varying gas prices for this week’s Curious Juneau Episode.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20230501-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- Thunder Mountain High School parents want to remove the Juneau school board’s president and vice president.
- The Iditarod’s Burled Arch that marks the finish line of the race fell on Saturday.
- The University of Alaska and a union representing graduate student workers have reached a tentative contract agreement.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240430-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska gets an infusion of $125 million to build and expand solar energy.
- The Juneau Assembly rejected a symbolic resolution for bilateral peace between Israel and Palestine.
- Malin Babcock, treasurer of the Gastineau Historical Society and a descendent of victims of Juneau’s 1936 landslide, shares her story for Tongass Voices.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240429-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- Weaver Lily Hope and her collaborators will debut a collection of child-sized Ravenstail robes.
- Adelyn Baxter visits Juneau’s recycling center for the latest installment of Curious Juneau.
- The Anchorage School District looks to close schools in response to declining student populations.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240426NewsUpdate.wavIn this newscast:
- A ban on social media accounts for children under 14 passed the Alaska House
- The Alaska House passed a bill that would put more guardrails on the property assessment process in the state
- More Alaskans died of opioid overdose last year than ever before
- An Oregon man convicted of murdering an Anchorage teenager more than four decades ago has been sentenced to 50 years in prison
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/newscast.wavIn this newscast:
- Trident Seafood’s Ketchikan processing plant was officially transferred to Silver Bay Seafoods.
- A new Alaska Senate bill tightens residency requirements on hunting and fishing licenses.
- A rare bowhead whale was spotted in Sitka.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240424-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A new campus slated for Juneau will be dedicated to immersing children in Alaska Native culture and languages,
- An Indigenous-led group, the Herring Protectors, received an unexpected contribution — two parcels of land on an island outside of Sitka,
- House lawmakers removed an amendment from a bill that would have raised the age of consent from 16 to 18 in some situations
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240423-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska’s Division of Forestry released its plan for selling timber in Southeast Alaska for the next five years and an environmental group in the region is frustrated with the public process,
- A recent paper in Nature attempts to set a new timeframe of when humans first appeared in Southeast Alaska, but for Southeast Alaska Natives, it’s just one piece of a much bigger puzzle
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240422NewsUpdate.mp3In this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau is creating a task force to tackle if — and how — they should be regulated,
- Juneau’s emergency warming shelter closed last week and the city doesn’t have a campground for people to move to this year,
- Tongass Voices: Holly Huber on what it takes to be Miss Alaska Volunteer
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240419-News-Update.mp3In this newscast –
- The Tongass National Forest has grown, with the addition of 5 acres of important fish and wildlife habitat
- Earlier this month, the Denver Post reported that Lingit tribal members have been requesting cultural items back from the Denver Art Museum in Colorado for years – to no avail
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240418.mp3In this newscast:
- Scientists and Alaska Native leaders released a report this week claiming plastic waste in the Arctic is contaminating essential resources of Indigenous communities
- Khalil English shares his research on silverweed, a seemingly inconspicuous plant with deep roots in Pacific Northwest history
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20230417-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Wrangell’s Nolan Center hosted a screening of Blue Ticket on Monday. It’s a film of a play that KTOO documented back in 2019. The play’s author, Maureen Longworth, documented how gay men in Juneau were exiled from the city in the 1960s.
- The Alaska Native Birthworkers Community is a collective of Indigenous midwives and doulas who work with Indigenous mothers during pregnancy, birth and pregnancy loss. They aim to make the birth experience easier for mothers, including those living in rural Alaska.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240416-NewsUpdate.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau planning commission agreed to let an outdoor food court expand into the empty lot that once housed the demolished Elks Hall building,
- The National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition will conduct interviews to document abuse at boarding schools,
- Alaska Public Media reporter Eric Stone on the Superior Court ruling that found a key benefit to families who choose certain types of homeschooling unconstitutional, and what it means
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240415-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Peter Pan Seafood announced Friday that it was ceasing operations,
- A partisan brawl is about to erupt in Congress over the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Alaska’s US senators are seemingly split over it,
- Tongass Voices: Jeremy Kane on the philosophy of bowl-making
In this newscast: The pilot of a small plane was seriously injured yesterday after crashing near Excursion Inlet. Pinball tournaments are a new thing in Alaska, and Juneau already has a few rising stars. Garbage experts in Petersburg are seeking solutions to deal with the rising cost of waste disposal. A new e-waste initiative is…
In this newscast: The congregation of a church that ran Juneau’s emergency cold weather shelter last year has declined to host it again this winter; Catholic Social Services in Anchorage teaches refugees how to navigate the U.S. healthcare system; The City of Hoonah is distributing bear-resistant trash bins to residents
In this newscast: Candidates for the Juneau Assembly and school board shared their views on education funding, staff retention, and whether to build a new city hall; A new study suggests that booming hatchery populations could increase risk of salmon suffocation in rivers and streams across Southeast Alaska; Celebrated climbers Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell submitted Devil's Thump in August, with the help of a local climber in Petersburg
In this newscast: The Juneau Assembly is asking the state Department of Transportation to do something -- quickly -- to fix one of the city's most dangerous intersections; Dillingham is currently without corrections officers for its jail; Increased traffic in the Bering Sea from Russian exporting oil to China and India has made Alaska communities wary of oil spills; The knowledge, work, and art of Indigenous healers and medicine people in Alaska is being featured at the Anchorage Museum
In this newscast: A former Alaska state coroner and magistrate judge died last month in Juneau; Those displaced by last month's glacial outburst flood in Juneau are still dealing with the mental health fallout
In this newscast: A cat that has been missing since a house collapsed into the Mendenhall River is now home safe; A village on the Kuskokwim River is eroding into the water, and water plant is at risk. Officials visited to set up a temporary plant; The EPA has announced $2.5 million in grants to three Alaska Native Corporations
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- Thousands of Alaskans are at risk of losing their Medicaid benefits this year, many due to paperwork issues,
- An Alaska organization called Choosing Our Roots is helping LGBTQ+ youth find safe homes
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-17.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau church that has run the city’s emergency cold weather shelter for two years isn’t planning to do it again this year, and city leaders are trying to figure out what to do instead,
- The Skagway Borough Assembly postponed decisions on what to do with land that was the site of a boarding school for Indigenous children
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Dunleavy vetoes bill to ban harmful ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting foams.
- Sitka records higher rates of cigarette butt litter linked to record numbers of cruise visitors.
- Elevated drug prices for fentanyl attract drug traffickers to the state.
- After a cold, poor growing season for pumpkins, one farmer still managed to show out for the Great Pumpkin Weigh-off at the Alaska State Fair.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-16.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska remains near the top of the list of expensive places to live in the country,
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied a petition to put Southeast Alaska wolves on the endangered species list
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-15.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s largest event space is reopening next month, after nine months of renovations,
- At last week’s meeting, Petersburg’s Assembly set a new precedent for the sale of Borough-owned tidelands,
- The people who live along the Yukon river have known about dinosaur tracks there for years
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-14.mp3In this newscast:
- A 2017 tugboat sinking in Sitka produced a $1 million settlement, because it came at a critical time in the herring lifecycle,
- Two hikers who survived more than a week in the woods near Chena Hot Springs are back home,
- The Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Anchorage Police Department announced that they are publishing new quarterly reports about missing Indigenous people
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-13.mp3In this newscast:
- A standard homeowners insurance policy excludes many of Alaska’s most common disasters,
- There’s a new marker along Anchorage’s Coastal Trail that’s part of the Indigenous Place Names Project,
- A crew member on an American Seafoods factory trawler died at sea last week, likely from an ammonia leak
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-12.mp3In this newscast:
- A fire broke out early Wednesday morning aboard an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry traveling through the Wrangell Narrows,
- Alaska’s foster care system has been struggling for years and a lack of child care in the state is making matters worse
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/20230822-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Visitors to Alaska’s national parks and preserves spent more than a billion dollars in the state last year
- U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine traveled throughout Alaska this month to learn about public health challenges
- Southeast Alaska nonprofit Spruce Root is accepting applications for its small business competition
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1648-vt-11.mp3In this newscast:
- The Harvest Fest in Juneau celebrated another growing season Saturday,
- Both recreational berry pickers and subsistence harvesters across Southeast Alaska are worried that wild berries are dwindling,
- Researchers have identified a new, lesser-known predator that may help keep Alaska’s kelp forests healthy
In this newscast: At least two children needed medical attention this week after someone sprayed bear spray on a slide in Twin Lakes Park; Leaders in one interior Alaska village are using grant funding and other creative solutions to address housing issues; Sen. Bert Stedman says the earnings reserve of the Alaska Permanent Fund is at risk
In this newscast:: U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg focused on the ferry system during a stop at the Juneau Airport; Two California men have come forward to say that a youth group leader abused them on trips to Juneau's Echo Ranch Bible Camp when they were children; A tour bus in Ketchikan ended up in Ketchikan Creek after losing power and going over a guardrail
In this newscast: A few days after the glacial dam release flooded the Mendenhall River, a small group of scientists took a helicopter to the source, to find out why this year's flood was so devastating, and what that might mean for future floods in Juneau; The U. S. Department of Transportation is sending Alaska more than $44 million to install fish-friendly culverts and other means to get migrating salmon to the other side of roads; A team of scientists wanted to answer some questions about a trove of footprints left along the middle section of the Yukon River earlier this month, and they came back with those answers
In this newscast: Middle and high schools in Anchorage now have access to new opioid curriculum; One Alaskan with roots in Hawaii jumped into action to help relief efforts for the devastating fires on Maui
In this newscast: The state education department recently told the Juneau School District that it could no longer accept city funding outside the "cap" -- a limit on city funding set by the state, and this may be because of a law that saves the state millions in education spending; Hibernation scientists at University of Alaska Fairbanks are hosting a workshop in Fairbanks; A recent study found that warming water and the loss of Arctic seas ice are allowing humpback whales to migrate into the Chukchi Sea
In this newscast: The Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued a permit to the proposed mine site, the Palmer Project; This summer, three different communities worked to revitalize a kind of boat the Aleutians haven't seen since the 1800s
In this newscast: The city's planning commission has approved Huna Totem Corporation's application to build a culture and science center, retail space and underground parking; Black cod could be a growing problem for salmon hatcheries across the state; Southeast is expected to have its first big storm of the season this weekend
In this newscast: The US Forest Service is proposing a fee increase for the Anan Creek Wildlife Observatory, from $10 to $50; This weekend, Trident Seafoods dropped the price for Alaska chum salmon by two-thirds and announced a plan to drop pink salmon prices; Alaska could be at risk of being one of the places that experiences extreme heat as record temperatures continue to be set globally.
In this newscast: After this weekend's record flooding of the Mendenhall River, Juneau city leaders issued a local emergency declaration Monday night; Juneau residents displaced by the flooding are being reunited with personal belongings they likely believed lost forever; A small team of researchers is on the Yukon River this month to learn more about an area where dinosaur footprints were discovered ten years ago
In this newscast: This years glacier outburst flood in Juneau was the worst by far, flooding Mendenhall River and eroding large sections of the riverbank; In recent years, traditional harvesters in Southeast Alaska say black seaweed is harder to find and doesn't taste right, and a new study by Sealaska Heritage Institute hopes to save the harvest
In this newscast: Last month may have been Earth's hottest July on record, and Alaska wasn't spared; A California man who was indicted last month on federal sexual abuse charges had a decades-long association with Juneau's Echo Ranch Bible Camp; A walrus calf was rescued from the North Slope this week and flown to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward
In this newscast: Juneau’s director of engineering and public works has been named the new city manager Hundreds gathered to watch Juneau Drag’s first-ever appearance at the Southeast Alaska State Fair Alaska’s Congressional delegation has reintroduced legislation to add five Southeast communities to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Audubon Alaska, the U.S. Forest Service…
In this newscast: Alaska Native elder Frank Hughes in Kake shares his healing journey of making cedar bark roses. Bartlett Regional Hospital’s CEO and CFO have both resigned. J&J Deli and Asian Mart closed for good this week after 45 years in business.
In this newscast: Activist Deenaalee Chase Hodgdon is on a mission to connect Yukon families with the salmon that are disappearing from their water. A seafood donation program in Sitka is supplying sockeye to families on the Yukon and Chignik rivers.
In this newscast: Survivors can now track evidence kits used in their sexual assault cases through a new Alaska Department of Public Safety system The first opening in the summer king salmon troll fishery saw more chinook land than expected The state ferry board’s 20-year plan includes three new ferries in the next four years…
In this newscast: White Pass Yukon Route railway workers settle labor dispute; Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer is retiring
In this newscast: Juneau officials hosted an open house Wednesday to gather public opinion on what to do with Telephone Hill; A large mine is quietly preparing to start production in the Interior, while critics say federal and state agencies failed to properly review the overall impact of the mine
In this newscast: The Biden Administration has carved out 120 million dollars for tribal communities across the nation to adapt to climate change, but that money won’t go far in Alaska; Five days after fishermen in Bristol Bay protested the record low price for sockeye salmon, processors still haven’t budged. Many fishermen are considering selling their permits and boats. But for young members of the fleet the decision on whether to return next year is especially difficult
In this newscast: Eighteen candidates are running for local office in Juneau this year; KTOO answers why the Alaska Capitol building has a ground floor AND a first floor; How Juneau local Aidan Key's new book, "Trans Children in Today's Schools" came to fruition
In this newscast: The Mendenhall Glacier has already reached its capacity for commercial tours, and now tourists are taking the city bus instead; More than one hundred Bristol Bay fishing crews anchored their boats at the Naknek River entrance in protest on Thursday
In this newscast: The number of volunteer firefighters in Alaska has nearly halved since 2014, according to State Fire Marshal data; Almost half of Alaska's Head Start early learning programs are in danger of losing millions of dollars in federal funding due to underenrollment
In this newscast: Dozens of friends and family gathered last night at the shore of Mendenhall Lake to hold a candlelight vigil for Paul Jose Rodriguez Jr.; Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor signed a letter last month supporting states' rights to access medical information about abortion and gender affirming care; A federal judge has dismissed the state of Alaska's lawsuit against the federal government over contamination on Alaska Native Corporation lands; A conversation with Southeast Alaska's House District 2 Representative Rebecca Himschoot on budget vetoes at the end of the legislative session
In this newscast: One of Southeast Alaska's largest tour companies has a unique carbon offset program; A giant potato has been traveling around the country and is coming to Skagway this weekend; Fishermen from Dillingham and Naknek are planning a protest Thursday after Trident Seafoods posted a base price of just 50 cents per pound of Bristol Bay sockeye
In this newscast: Alaska State Troopers say evidence shows that a Juneau man missing since last week drowned in Mendenhall Lake; This year's Kodiak Tanner crab harvest levels were the highest they've ben in nearly 40 years; And the sockeye run at Redoubt Lake near Sitka could be record-breaking
In this newscast: A Juneau man has been missing for nearly a week after going kayaking on Mendenhall Lake; A long-awaited senior living facility is now open in Juneau; A mysterious flaming object crossed the sky of the northern Lynn Canal earlier this month, and it could have been an old satellite reentering the atmosphere; A magnitude 7.2 earthquake triggered a tsunami warning for the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island late Saturday night
In this newscast: Juneau residents wandering the Behrends neighborhood last week may have stumbled upon something magic -- a fairy forest; On Tuesday night, the Haines Borough Assembly discussed what restrictions to put on the Campbell heliport
In this newscast: Juneau elementary school students will end the day a half hour early on Mondays next year, The Juneau School District's budget for next year may be down over $2 million, after the State sent a letter saying the city could no longer provide outside-the-cap funding, A federal appeals court recently reaffirmed a landmark decision that outlined when local governments cannot enforce anti-camping laws against the homeless
In this newscast: The Ketchikan City Council last week voted to move a controversial book about sex and relationships from the teen section to the adult section of the library, reversing a previous vote to keep it in place; Large swaths of western Canada are ablaze in a record-shattering wildfire season for the country and now people in Southeast Alaska are starting to see the smoke; Alaska's labor shortage and declining population may have more to do with the smaller number of people coming into the state than the number of people leaving
In this newscast: Juneau residents and business owners say they've been having phone problems for the last few days -- and it's not clear what's causing them; After years of planning, Juneau's Thane Community Garden is in its first growing season; Nearly 700 sites -- like logging roads and culverts -- along Tongass National Forest streams could obstruct fish from migrating, but the US Forest Service has a plan to deal with them; The Fritz Creek General Store outside of Homer could be a total loss after a fire last week
In this newscast: Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier is reaching its capacity for commercial tours; The US Forest Service awarded grants to businesses in Southeast Alaska to revitalize the logging industry in the Tongass National Forest; Backers of ranked choice voting have filed a complaint with the Alaska Public Offices Commission that alleges a group working to repeal the system violated campaign finance laws
In this newscast: Petersburg’s Catholic Church caught fire yesterday afternoon in a blaze that lasted 10 hours. The Karluk Tribal Council is offering to pay families to move to their village in order to reestablish their school. The offer went viral online, drawing inquires from around the world. A new study from the University of…
In this newscast: Temperatures in Juneau are expected to climb to highs near 80 this Friday with a heat wave that will extend into the weekend. Alaska’s early wildfire season is much lower than last year’s record-setting burn. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is testing out a new drone to help survey fish populations…
In this newscast: A new report explores options to prepare for Cook Inlet’s looming natural gas shortage, which could bring higher prices for rate payers. A representative from the FBI shares strategies for Alaskans to prevent cybercrime. New data shows that Alaska is making progress on the state’s massive food stamps backlog.
In this newscast: Juneau Public Libraries hosted its first youth Pride poetry contest this month; A phone sat at the bottom of the Kenai River for four days last week, until it was reeled in by an unsuspecting angler; The use of the opioid reversal drug Narcan is increasing in Alaska, but public health officials worry that people often aren't calling 911 after; Sen. Lisa Murkowski was in Lithuania and Norway last week, and says her visit has strengthened her resolve to continue US aid for Ukraine
In this newscast: Two new citizen science programs will shed light on how salmon are handling climate change; Petersburg's Ministerial Association gave a blessing of the fishing fleet; Alaska State Troopers say the body of an Alaska Native woman was found on the Yukon River; State regulators are proposing a $900,000 fine to punish ConocoPhillips for a gas leak last year at its Alpine drill site on the North Slope
In this newscast: Skagway's railroad workers are voting on whether to authorize a strike; Tens of thousands of walruses gather along Alaska's beaches in the summer, and one area is a traditional Yup'ik hunting site
In this newscast: The Juneau Assembly has authorized city staff to advocate for a new city hall; Cases of Department of Corrections staff members facing charges for bringing opioid addiction recovery medication into correctional facilities may be related to gaps in treatment programs in Alaska prisons; NOAA released an update on the population estimates for Beluga whales in Cook Inlet, and it looks optimistic; The union representing Alaska's longshore workers reached a tentative agreement Friday after 18 months of negotiations
In this newscast: In 2021, a powerful windstorm swept across Juneau, leaving some fallen trees that a Curious Juneau listener wanted to know about; Southeast Alaska trollers will now have a summer season for king salmon after all; Some Alaska lawmakers are holding out hope for a groundswell of support to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy's line-item budget veto on public school funding
In this newscast: Two members of Juneau’s legislative delegation discuss the school funding veto and budget wins at a town hall meeting Staff and shelter users share their experience at Ketchikan’s only 24/7 emergency shelter Petersburg prepares for the arrival of the Hōkūle‘a
In this newscast: The 50-year-old state ferry Columbia is out of service for at least a week due to maintenance issues A quarter of Petersburg’s Dungeness crabbing fleet is skipping the season because they expect low prices Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed funding for research on the chinook and chum salmon crisis in Western Alaska…
In this newscast: Last week, two Ukrainian refugees arrived in Juneau -- the third family to be sponsored by a group of local residents who have raised money and opened their homes to refugees; A podcast on Wrangell history has won a national award for its series on one of Alaska's deadliest shipwrecks; Miscommunication and an out-of-date navigational chart were both found to be factors when a Royal Caribbean cruise ship slammed into the dock at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal last summer
In this newscast: Ketchikan summer campers are spending time each week learning about Filipino culture; After a couple of setbacks, Youth Advocates of Sitka can now move forward with plans to create a residential treatment program for teens and young adults experiencing homelessness; Alaska could be getting more ticks as the climate warms
In this newscast: Short-term rental owners in Juneau voiced opposition to a proposed registration program this week; Sitka's Mt. Edgecumbe volcano is under closer scrutiny this summer, as research teams follow up on the earthquake "swarm" which occurred under the mountain in the spring of last year; The first place finishers in the Race to Alaska sailed into Ketchikan early Wednesday
In this newscast: The Juneau Assembly has approved a city budget based on the lowest property tax rate in decades; Tribes across the nation and all across Alaska are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act; Staff from Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic in Homer came back from Soldotna Pride to vandalized pride flags at their facility
In this newscast: The Juneau Planning commission has voted to change the name of South Seward Street in downtown Juneau to Heritage Way. Heat pumps installers in Southeast Alaska struggle to keep up as demand grows. A team of researchers around Price of Wales Island are using an underwater robot powered by AI to look…
In this newscast: The Knik Tribe Chief Scientist has found very high levels of biotoxins in samples from muscles and clams in Southern Alaska,; The Port of Seattle shut down its cargo operations Saturday due to labor conflicts and the Port of Alaska says it could affect the state; A Sterling man survived a brown bear attack north of the Skilak Lake Road area this weekend
In this newscast: A thousand people gathered at Auke Bay in Juneau on Saturday to welcome the Hokule'a and her crew to Juneau. Now the crew is preparing to embark on a four-year journey around the world; Overdose deaths have been consistently rising in Alaska for the past several years, mostly due to illegal fentanyl; The Federal Subsistence Board unanimously opposed two special action requests that would dramatically limit the harvest for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd for communities in the herd's range
In this newscast: Rear Admiral Megan Dean now commands the US Coast Guard in Alaska, and she may be the first woman to do so; The National Marine Fisheries Service hasn't ruled out the possibility of opening the summer troll season for king salmon in Southeast Alaska; Tribal members and Ketchikan residents gathered to awaken and launch a canoe designed by a late master carver and artist
In this newscast: Juneau voters will likely see just one bond proposal on the October ballot After a year of tracking birds across the state, biologists announce this year’s first casualty of a wild bird to avian influenza Frustration in communities affected by this month’s closure of the Yukon River to salmon fishing
In this newscast: MIT teamed up with Coastal Helicopter and Juneau Ice Research Program to pull off a high-stakes drop for future seismometer research; Those who own short-term rentals may soon have to register them with the city; Weaver Anna Ehlers, a Juneau elder, received Doctorate of Fine Arts from UAS
In this newscast: Almost 50 red dresses that were symbols of missing and murdered Indigenous women have disappeared in Ketchikan; The federal government announced Thursday that it plans to help identify areas of Alaska state waters best suited for mariculture; Two people remain missing after a charter vessel capsized near Sitka over Memorial Day weekend; A plan to map the seafloor of the entire planet will see researchers operating out of Nome this summer and fall
In this newscast: Nearly 70 passengers were evacuated from a small cruise ship in Glacier Bay National Park this morning; The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has scheduled a public hearing for a human rights complaint regarding the use of tribal IDs at Fred Meyer in Juneau; A four-year voyage across the world starts in Juneau this month, and KTOO spoke with Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society about its connection to Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/20230602-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska State Troopers recover the bodies of two of the five victims of a charter boat sinking in Sitka
- New details about the 2017 killing of Ketchikan surgeon Eric Garcia
- Vera Starbard supports the nationwide writers’ strike by hanging banners from her Douglas home
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- For retiring teachers, principles, and other school staff in Juneau, the end of this school year is especially bittersweet,
- A team of researchers have introduced a new environmental sensor that translates weather data from across Southeast Alaska into music, and it will be used to help students and community members in Sitka and Hoonah hear their changing environment,
- The 750-mile Race to Alaska starts Monday. It goes from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-13.mp3In this newscast:
- The rate of deaths due to drinking alcohol nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 in Alaska,
- Governor Mike Dunleavy’s new pro-family policy adviser resigned yesterday as reporters prepared to publish an investigation exposing his extreme and disturbing views
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-12.mp3In this newscast:
- For an episode of Curious Juneau, a deep dive into the Coast Guard’s presence in Juneau,
- The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision last week limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over wetlands,
- Invasive green crabs are in Alaska, and they threaten native species, but at a workshop last month, citizen scientists in Metlakatla learned from experts how to look out for the invasive crabs in their own communities
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-11.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Legislature’s budget includes a one-time school funding boost of $175 million, but district leaders and many legislators were hoping for something a little more permanent,
- Ketchikan’s City Council opted to uphold the city manager’s decision to not hold a drag queen story time at the public library this year,
- Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island, now has a chief of police after five months without a police department
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-10.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by nearly 30% in the last decade, but now may be time to set a new goal,
- A timber company owned by Yakutat’s village corporation has filed for bankruptcy after a bank sued the corporation over $13 million in outstanding debts,
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested authorization for non-lethal harassment or disturbance of marine mammals as part of a deep-water port modification in Nome,
- After almost two months on the lam in Homer, Grubby the opossum is going to a new home at Anchorage’s zoo.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-9.mp3In this newscast:
- The new Alaska ferry, Hubbard, carried its first passengers on Tuesday,
- It’s shaping up to be another devastating year for communities on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, and Congresswoman Mary Peltola is hoping to reshape the Magnuson-Stevens Act to mitigate the risk to salmon,
- Teachers in the second-largest school district in Alaska have voted to authorize a strike
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-8.mp3In this newscast:
- City officials say Juneau needs a new City Hall,
- And they’re asking Juneau residents to consider alternatives to parking at the airport this summer as renovations make the lots harder to use,
- The Alaska Legislature passed a bill that would allow Alaska to sell carbon offsets
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- Residents at the Glory Hall, Juneau’s shelter, are working hard to plant vegetables in their community garden,
- Two Indigenous stories came to life on stage at Ketchikan Charter School,
- Anchorage’s legal department is working on an update of the city’s policies for clearing unauthorized encampments
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/newsupdate.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Legislature struck a deal to finalize the state’s budget Thursday evening, on the first day of the special session.
- At their quarterly meeting leaders with the Alaska Federation of Natives said little to address the departure of two major Tribal entities that pulled out of the organization earlier this month.
- Alaska’s death rate from traumatic brain injuries is the highest in the nation, according to a new report from the state health department.
- Two Alaska Native organizations have recently established “Green Banks,” lending institutions dedicated to funding clean energy and environmental infrastructure.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230518-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly Finance Committee has voted to set this year’s mill rate, which determines how much property tax the city collects.
- First Lady Jill Biden visited Bethel yesterday, mainly to tout a telecommunications project funded with federal infrastructure money.
- For Representative Josiah Patkotak from Utqiagvik taking time during the legislative session for subsistence is about more than just food.
- A warm spell across Southeast Alaska this week is coming to an end, but high temperatures broke daily records in several communities across the panhandle.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/newscast.mp3In this newscast:
- A report published last month detailed a wide range of safety concerns at the Valdez Marine Terminal.
- With the school in Newtok shuttered, a community ravaged by climate change is now without an emergency evacuation center.
- Juneau has it’s first 70 degree day with a high of 73 at the Juneau International Airport.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230516-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Senate failed to pass a budget Tuesday, leaving a narrow window of time for a last-minute deal
- The public television program Alaska Weather, which reached viewers in remote parts of the state, is going off air
- New genetic analysis from an ancient human bone fragment upholds Lingít oral history
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230515-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Breakup of the Yukon River causes serious flooding in the Interior
- Sitka trollers share what the shutdown of the king salmon troll fishery will mean for them
- ABC cancels the TV drama Alaska Daily, which highlighted missing and murdered Indigenous people
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230508-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- Fishermen and researchers work to figure out why the Bering Sea snow crab population crashed
- A federal judge’s ruling threatens to shut down the king salmon troll fishery this summer
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230505-News-Update_01.wavIn this newscast:
- For Curious Juneau, the story behind the 19 ½ mph speed limit sign at the Juneau International Airport.
- Cool April temperatures have delayed planting for Alaska farmers, which could mean below-average harvest for the third year in a row.
- A citizen science program with University of Alaska Fairbanks will help to monitor spring river ice to inform break-up and flooding forecasts.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230504-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A Metlakatla woman allegedly killed her 3-year-old son and her adult brother by driving into them
- Experts testify in a trial to determine if it is constitutional to display traditional tribal values in Ketchikan schools
- A bill that would repeal ranked choice voting draws public opposition
- The Legislature appears to be heading toward another special session
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will soon offer bingo at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau,
- Annie Bartholomew’s new album “Sisters of White Chapel” will be released this spring,
- The Arctic Resilient Communities Youth Fellowship launched last year to bring together young people interested in climate advocacy, economic development and Indigenous rights
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt-1.mp3In this newscast:
- The Greens Creek silver mine on Admiralty Island is looking to expand,
- The Sullivan Arena in Anchorage is no longer Alaska’s biggest homeless shelter, after capacity was slashed Monday,
- The Alaska Supreme Court confirmed that the Division of Elections made the right call to not replace Al Gross in the election to replace the late Representative Don Young
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- A trial is set to start tomorrow in Ketchikan to determine if the posting of a traditional Southeast Native value in public schools violates the First Amendment,
- Alaska State Troopers and other state public safety officials will soon begin wearing body cameras,
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will reconsider the Pebble company’s permit proposal to build a mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay,
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola is losing her chief of staff
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-16.mp3In this newscast:
- Mark Cook Jr., 27, was the third person to die in Alaska Department of Corrections custody this year,
- The City and Borough of Juneau owns Telephone Hill and may develop it for housing, but it’s unclear what the future holds for its current residents
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-15.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska Native language experts shared their personal stories at the State Capitol Friday,
- An Alaska Senate bill aims to temporarily close Area M, a fishery off the Alaska Peninsula and Eastern Aleutian islands,
- The spring election in Anchorage was the lowest voter turnout since the city moved to by-mail voting, but it’s still higher than in the years before the change
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/20230426-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- An updated gondola agreement between Juneau and Goldbelt
- The Not Invisible Commission meets in Anchorage
- Alaska seriously considers broad-based taxes
- Alaska Senate proposes a boost to per student funding
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-14.mp3In this newscast:
- Sitka celebrated its fourth annual Yaaw Koo.eex’ or Herring Ceremony last Saturday,
- The Sitka School Board has gone out on a limb in passing a budget for next year,
- Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and the Assembly want to start moving dozens of people who are homeless into the former Golden Lion Hotel starting in a few weeks
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-13.mp3In this newscast:
- The Chilkat has been nominated by an environmental nonprofit as one of ten most endangered rivers in the country,
- The Bristol Bay Native Corporation wants to bolster its cultural heritage program with a focus on language revitalization,
- Denali National Park will be radio collaring grizzly bears this spring as part of a project to assess impacts of Park Road traffic
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-12.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly voted Monday to give the school district $2.3 million,
- On Monday, the first cruise ship of the year docked in Juneau, and starting next year, there will be a 5-ship daily limit in Juneau,
- A Curious Juneau look at a couple of collapsing buildings and Juneau’s dairy history,
- Master Carver Wayne Price’s students will show their work at UAS on Friday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/20230418-News-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau teachers union comes to tentative agreement
- Assembly votes down e-bike operation on Pioneer Road
- Alaska House passes a budget
- 3 unruly Alaska plane passengers in 10 days
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-11.mp3In this newscast:
- Rorie Watt is resigning as Juneau’s city manager at the end of September,
- Sealaska Heritage Institute’s winter STEAM internship is bringing one Juneau student who loves to ski out into avalanche terrain,
- An advisory board endorsed librarians placement of a book on relationships and sexuality within the Ketchikan Public Library’s teen section
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-10.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s housing crunch usually worsens in the spring, but this year, St. Vincent De Paul’s Dave Ringle says the situation is just plain scary,
- Alaska Folk Festival organizers scrambled to rearrange the mainstage lineup today as it became clear that headliners Lone Pinon and other performers would not make their scheduled sets,
- An ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Russia is impacting airline operations across Alaska,
- City officials in the Prince of Wales Island community of Craig are responding to scattered reports from residents complaining about issues with their tap water
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-8.mp3In this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau has a new finance director,
- Young athletes from across the state flocked to Juneau earlier this month to compete in the 2023 Traditional Games,
- Shellfish growers in Willapa Bay in southwest Washington are alarmed by an invasion of non-native European green crabs
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s cruise season will kick of next Monday with a vengeance,
- The US Forest Service is asking the public to get involved in creating a 10-year forest management plan for the Tongass National Forest,
- Two regional tribal organizations have sued the federal government over failed Western Alaska salmon runs
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-6.mp3In this newscast:
- Despite outcry from residents in Whale Pass, a nearly 300-acre timber sale in and around the city is poised to go forward, and residents are worried,
- A Ketchikan resident’s request to have a book removed from the local library’s shelves will face a public hearing on Wednesday,
- Last week, three Alaska Native tribes filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Donlin Gold Mine,
- More people moved out of Alaska than into the state last year but other population factors nearly offset the loss
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-5.mp3In this newscast:
- The island mountains and valleys of Alaska’s panhandle may look unchanging, but the area is moving rapidly in a geologic sense,
- Drag queen storytime is set to return to the Ketchikan Public Library this June as part of the library’s Pride Month festivities, but Ketchikan’s city manager, who oversees the library director, says no final decision has been made
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-4.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s black bears are starting to wake up for the spring, and biologists advise that residents pay attention to trash rules,
- City leaders outlined a proposed budget to the Juneau Assembly’s finance committee and now members will decide how much property tax to collect through the mill rate,
- Apayauq Reitan screened her documentary about the experience as the first openly-trans musher in Juneau last week,
- Pacific Northwest ports and major cruise lines are teaming up to examine how to reduce the carbon footprint of the Alaska cruise circuit,
- Governor Mike Dunleavy announced a new task force to look at the availability and affordability of child care in Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- Tuesday was the first day back for 3 to 5 year olds at Juneau’s Gold Creek Child Development Center,
- KCAW accompanied subsistence harvesters in search of one of Sitka Sound’s most valued food source – herring eggs on hemlock branches
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt-1.mp3In this newscast:
- August Brown Pool has closed for major renovations, but one part of the 50 year old building will live on in an art installation: locker room tiles,
- A visitor to Cama-i in Bethel came to share the history of reindeer herding in the region, and to track down family connections,
- A group of University of Alaska graduate student workers trying to forma a union marched on campus in Fairbanks Friday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- On Sunday, police arrested Mitchell Watley in connection with anti-trans and threatening notes posted around town,
- Alaska students, teachers, and sexual assault survivors spoke against a bill Gov. Mike Dunleavy says would support parents’ rights and increase transparency in schools,
- In a recent feature for Hakai Magazine, journalist Andrew Engelson took a look at the impact the cruise industry has on the environment and quality of life in Southeast Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230331-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau School Board announces their pick for the next superintendent of the Juneau School District.
- Advocates and insiders say the state’s fixes to its months-long food stamp backlog aren’t enough.
- Juneau Drag is scheduled to perform at the Southeast Alaska State Fair, drawing pushback from some Haines residents.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Newscast-Thursday-Mar.-30-2023.mp3In this newscast:
- Wednesday’s test of the state tsunami warning system revealed human error and technical glitches that kept some communities from hearing the warning.
- The Gold Medal Basketball Tournament returned to Juneau for the first time in four years.
- A new study shows that organisms at the bottom of the food chain in the Bering Sea aren’t as fatty as they used to be. The research could predict how the the rest of the world’s seas might change with global warming.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230329-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola speaks in support of the Second Amendment.
- The Alaska Marine Highway System doesn’t have enough crew to man all of its ferries this summer.
- In Homer, a virtual tour helps family and caregivers understand the experience of dementia.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/News-Update3.mp3In this news update:
- The state will test its tsunami alert system on Wednesday;
- Three candidates vie for the superintendent position with Juneau School District;
- Beluga whales are in precipitous decline at Cook Inlet;
- There were 20 pregnancy-associated deaths in Alaska in 2021—more than any other year in the previous decade.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230327-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- The St. Mary’s dance group returned to this years Cama-i festival in Bethel after more than a decade away. They honored the group’s founder Moses Paukan Sr.
- Rep. Genevieve Mina talks about her journey to the state Capitol as Alaska’s second Filapino legislator in history.
- Shawn Spruce, host of the public radio show “Native American Calling,” was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden last week.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230324-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Former Juneau-area chiropractor Jeffrey Fultz is arraigned after two more women accused him of assault.
- A dance group in Bethel prepares for the first full Cama-i festival in three years.
- Basketball goes from the courts to the stage in the Perseverance Theatre play “The Great Leap.”
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- In Juneau, a Tuesday protest called the “Great Alaska Credit Card Chainsaw Massacre” protested banks that have funneled money to fossil fuel projects,
- Two Klawock men are facing second-degree murder charges after allegedly beating an 80-year-old man to death early Tuesday morning,
- Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton called for a vote to reject salary increases for the legislature, governor and state commissioners,
- The dissection event returned to ComFish this year, but instead of a salmon shark, it was a squid
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-6.mp3In this newscast:
- A resolution to protect the Southeast Alaska troll fishery passed in the State Legislature Monday,
- There is a slight upward trend in king salmon in Southeast Alaska,
- Growing otter populations have increased calls to loosen federal restrictions protecting them
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-5.mp3In this newscast:
- Yearly homicides more than doubled from 2011 to 2019 in Alaska;
- Alaska’s State Board of Education passed a resolution in favor of banning transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams,
- The Southeast Alaska business competition Path to Prosperity is changing
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-4.mp3In this newscast:
- Wildlife biologist Janet Neilson says things are looking up for Southeast’s humpback whales,
- KTOO talked to middle schoolers at the Alliance, an LGBTQ club that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s bill would require parental permission to attend,
- People who recreate in public outdoor spaces are disproportionately white and the UAF Dept. of Natural Resources and Environment want to know why,
- Alaska’s state education department has selected five tribes for a pilot program that will allow tribes to open new independent schools
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-3.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s three high school National Ocean Sciences Bowl teams swept the Alaska region’s competition in Seward,
- The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska issued a statement in support of a bill in the Alaska Legislature that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation,
- Students spoke out against Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s parental rights bill at a joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees on Wednesday,
- Alaska’s congressional delegation says species collapse in Alaska’s fisheries is nearing crisis levels
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt.wavIn this newscast:
- Southeast Alaska lawmakers are joining tribal and municipal governments, calling on the federal governments to stop British Columbia’s mining activities in transboundary watersheds,
- According to the ACLU, state corrections officials have been forcing a man serving prison time in Seward to take psychotropic medications against his will for years,
- Heavy rain Thursday is melting the snowpack across Juneau which will increase the risk of flooding and avalanches
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau School Board adopted a $96 million budget last night based on an assumed increase in state and city funding,
- Juneau resumed discussion of landslide and avalanche hazard zones this week with the introduction of a new draft ordinance,
- Yesterday, the EPA proposed the first ever national limit on PFAS compounds in drinking water. The news comes as one Alaska senator continues his fight to regulate PFAS at the state level
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt-1.mp3In this newscast:
- The City and Borough of Juneau sent property assessment notices to homeowners and some got a shock,
- Some Alaskans saw a familiar face on stage at the 95th annual Academy Awards, an actor born and raised in Ketchikan who starred in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,”
- The No. 2 administrator at Ketchikan’s school district is calling for a school board member to resign and accusing her of improperly interfering with the renewal of her contract
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- How the National Weather Service in Juneau predicts the weather — or tries to,
- A new ferry terminal north of Juneau is one step closer to becoming a reality,
- Alaska’s Congressional Delegation has filed an amicus brief in a federal lawsuit that threatens to shut down salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska this summer
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230310-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A Sitka-based residential treatment program for Alaska teenagers is moving to Juneau.
- Democratic lawmakers in Alaska are trying to restore anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender Alaskans.
- The Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory is working to expand their efforts with a new house bill from Juneau Rep. Andi Story.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/News-Update-03092023_mixdown.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s wastewater is awash with COVID-19, which provides a source of public health data beyond submitted test results.
- The City and Borough of Juneau is inviting kids to submit artwork for display at the Augustus Brown swimming pool downtown.
- Juneau city cleanup crews are responding to a wastewater spill on Douglas Island.
- The Yukon River’s chum and king runs have returned to record lows, as the Alaska Board of fisheries passes restrictions on the lucrative fishery known as “Area M”
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230308-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A former Sitka doctor accused of sexual assault four years ago is now behind bars.
- Assessed values of Wrangell houses and businesses could be quite different this year.
- Alaska legislators are urging Walgreens leadership to reconsider the decision not to sell the abortion drug mifepristone.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/News-Update2.mp3In this newscast:
- Twenty Alaska legislators urged Walgreens leadership to reconsider its decision not to sell the abortion drug mifepristone after pressure from the state’s Attorney General;
- Juneau’s School district asked the Assembly for $2.5 million to pay off debts and expenses ahead of the next fiscal year;
- Emergency provisions were flown into Kodiak last weekend after rough weather delayed food deliveries to the island;
- The Alaska Marine Highway System announced significant changes to the summer ferry schedule;
- A lost sled dog was returned to its owner in Clam Gulch.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/NewsUpdate.mp3In this newscast:
- A sunken tugboat in Juneau reveals a costly problem as the state’s fleet ages;
- The Iditarod trail sled dog race started this weekend with fanfare — and fewer mushers than ever;
- Longtime Interior musher Jacques Philip was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident last week.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230303-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs gather for the Southeast Alaska Farmers Summit.
- The smallest group of teams in the Iditarod’s history are signed up to compete this year.
- Striking school bus drivers in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District could return to work as soon as Monday if a tentative agreement is approved.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230302-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau School District lost nearly $270,000 to a scammer posing as a vendor last year.
- The state of Alaska attempts to send aid to Ukraine in the form of Alaskan seafood.
- The state of Alaska is proposing to sell more old growth trees on its land in southern Southeast Alaska despite pushback from community members.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Newscast-Wednesday-Mar.-1-2023.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau blizzard on Wednesday brought heavy snow and high winds causing hazardous road conditions and early closures today.
- The Army Corps of Engineers has cleared another milestone in the Unalaska Bay dredging project.
- Researchers and members of the Sivuqaq communities in Savoonga and Gambell investigate the connection between failing health and environmental contaminants.
- Alaska Native leaders and congressional delegates rally in support of the Willow oil drilling project.
- Wrangell’s government opposes efforts to put Southeast Alaska wolves on the endangered species list.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230228-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Alaska Native Sisterhood has elected a new grand president emeritus.
- A popular recreation cabin in Anan Bay has been flattened by a spruce tree.
- An island-hopping art show by the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council stops in Petersburg.
- More snow is expected in Juneau tonight.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230227-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau School District will plan its budget around a moderate increase in state funding this year.
- The Alaska Board of Fisheries votes to keep escapement goals for Chignik’s early and late sockeye runs separate.
- How shrinking glaciers could impact Alaska tourism.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230224-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- A new Sealaska program beginning in March hopes to help train more Indigenous actors and performance artists in the Tlingit language.
- Juneau city finance director Jeff Rogers is resigning after four years on the job.
- The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska sued the Department of Corrections over rights affecting people in state custody.
- The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning through Saturday morning.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230223-News-Update.wavIn this newscast:
- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski gave her annual address to the Alaska Legislature this week
- Alaska has joined an abortion lawsuit that could limit rural Alaskans’ access to reproductive healthcare.
- The Yupiit School District is hoping for state support to restore running water to the school in the village of Tuluksak.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-13.mp3In this newscast:
- Alannah Johnson, recipient of Spruce Root’s “Path to Prosperity” prize, shares what she loves about mushrooms,
- Southeast Alaska’s sea otter population has been growing quickly, and concerns are bubbling up about the impact they have on fisheries
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-12.mp3In this newscast:
- Twenty pounds of methamphetamine were seized last week in what law enforcement is calling one of the biggest drug busts in Southeast Alaska in recent years,
- Thousands of Matanuska-Susitna Borough students have now gone without bus service for three weeks as bus drivers continue to strike over their contract
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230220-News-Update-1.mp3* Senator Mary Peltola makes her first address to state lawmakers. * New study says maternal deaths in Alaska were twice as high in 2021 as compared to recent years. * The U.S. Air Force has released an investigation report on the death of Eagle River ROTC cadet Mackenzie Wilson. * The Wrangell speaks out against an environmental lawsuit that could threaten the king salmon troll fishery.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230217-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska is slated to get $285 million from the federal government to modernize its ferry fleet
- Juneau city leaders propose spending marine passenger fees on a range of city services and projects
- A longtime state employee has been chosen to lead the Alaska Division of Elections
- The Alaska Native Sisterhood in Juneau celebrates Elizabeth Peratrovich Day
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-11.mp3In this newscast:
- This year’s Arctic Winter Games were the first to be held since 2018 & Team Alaska placed second overall in terms of wins and gold medals, or ulus. Four of this year’s athletes are from Juneau and sat down with KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-10.mp3In this newscast:
- Preschoolers, parents and advocates delivered Valentine’s Day cards to Alaska state legislators on Monday,
- The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is concerned that a proposed extension of the Sitka Seawalk will destroy one of the few remaining cultural sites on the town’s waterfront,
- A crewmember aboard the Oscar Dyson NOAA research vessel was medevacked on Wednesday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-9.mp3In this newscast:
- Last week, Juneau joined a program that commits to making the city more livable for seniors,
- Metlakatla residents hope that by filling the new Annette Island Reserve Historical Archive, future generations will know where they came from and the current generation will remember the past,
- Alaska has joined nearly two dozen states in a lawsuit hat would eliminate Americans’ access to a pill used for abortions — even in states where abortion is legal
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- State workers rallied in Juneau Friday for better benefits, but they were mostly there to support the staff who are working through a months-long backlog for food stamps,
- Thousands of Alaskans have gotten their food stamps after waiting months, but thousands more are still waiting,
- Juneau’s Deputy Director of Public Works Denise Koch will represent the city as a new member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-6.mp3In this newscast:
- Stove technicians say Toyo’s midsized stoves – popular in rural Alaska – are failing in cold weather, and they aren’t sure why,
- The tanner crab fishery begins this weekend in Southeast Alaska, to low prices and bitter crab disease,
- At a senate committee hearing Thursday, Senator Lisa Murkowski asked the Biden Administration why they waited to respond to the surveillance balloon
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230208-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola say the Willow Arctic drilling proposal would help the state and country
- Providers and lawmakers look for a way out of Alaska’s childcare shortage
- As families take more extended vacations, Petersburg teachers worry students are falling behind
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-4.mp3In this newscast:
- U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan urged the Alaska Legislature to use its collective power to support the Willow project Tuesday
This newscast ended early for coverage of President Biden’s State of the Union Address.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-3.mp3In this newscast:
- It took dozens of rescuers several hours to retrieve a skier who broke his leg outside of Eaglecrest Ski Area this weekend,
- Southeast Alaska has seen an uptick in fentanyl-laced pills,
- Why Alaska’s homelessness experts are ambivalent about the point-in-time count
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- A UAS student is using his love of cooking soul food to bring people together for Black History Month,
- Ella Piatt was recently named “Firefighter of the Year,” and she sat down with KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac,
- The new corrections commissioner, Jen Winkleman, gave her first presentation to state lawmakers yesterday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt-1.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska’s Senate Education Committee has introduced a bill to increase per-student state funding by $1000,
- Some environmentalists are worried that the proposal of a second crossing between Juneau and Douglas Island could threaten wetlands,
- Students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka are learning how to fly a plane in an aviation ground course,
- The Alaska Department of Public Safety has released a draft of its policy for state troopers to wear body-worn cameras
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- A federal appeals court has affirmed Metlakatla tribal members’ right to fish in their traditional waters without state permits, but a new opinion asks where those waters are,
- Alaska’s governor says he’ll appeal a pending federal court ruling that treatens to shut down the Southeast king salmon season,
- Genetic genealogy allowed Alaska State Troopers to identify a human skull discovered 25 years ago
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-10.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Dunleavy announced the winners of the fourth annual education raffle on Wed.,
- Juneau artist Crystal Worl will have her art on a USPS postage stamp,
- The U.S. Transportation Department announced this week that it’s approved grants totaling $285 million to upgrade and modernize Alaska’s ferry system,
- A nationwide outbreak of avian influenza threatens more than Alaska’s egg supply
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-9.mp3In this newscast:
- The bag limit for the sport harvest of deer in Unit 4 in Southeast Alaska will remain at six,
- The Alaska Wildlife Alliance submitted nine proposals aimed at protecting wolves, and all failed
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-8.mp3In this newscast:
- A rockslide damaged the Basin Road Trestle early this morning,
- Master Carver Wayne Price is returning to UAS to teach carving and formline design,
- A new report examines the impacts of a drought that hit Southeast Alaska from 2016-2019,
- Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola announced she won a seat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee,
- The Alaska Lieutenant Governor has certified an application for a petition that would get rid of the state’s ranked choice voting system
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230124-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Gov. Dunleavy uses his annual address to the legislature to ask for more funding for “statehood defense”
- Alaskans rally for education funding
- The Forest Service is updating the Mendenhall Glacier visitor plan
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac speaks with Miss Alaska pageant contestant & Miss Congeniality winner Honor Miller-Austin,
- The state’s Board of Game unanimously struck down a proposal that would have required young hunters in Southeast to complete a course to be able to hunt on their own,
- The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Lituya will be out of service until Feb. 1
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230120-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- A small, vacant lot in downtown Juneau is at the center of a dispute between the state of Alaska and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
- Families are stuck in Canada after the Marine Highway System pulled the Matanuska from service.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-6.mp3In this newscast:
- A year after racial slurs were yelled at a Metlakatla and Ketchikan basketball game, the school boards of the two schools met to address the rift the event left between the two communities,
- Polar Bears International’s Geoff York on what is next in the investigation into the fatal polar bear mauling in Wales this week
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-5.mp3In this newscast:
- Two of Juneau’s childcare centers are closing, making the town’s shortage of childcare options even worse.
- Homer resident Kelsey Haas rescued herself using a dead snowshoe hare after falling through a patch of icy water.
- Wrangell’s school district is working to modify it’s COVID-mitigation to keep illnesses out of schools.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230117-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Bartlett Regional Hospital has lost to a million and a half dollars per month for the last six months.
- The state legislative session began today, but the Alaska House is still not organized.
- An Alaskan housing grant is giving people who are homeless a year of housing. But a year may not be enough time for them to find longer-term solutions.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230112-News-Update-1.mp3In this newscast:
- Rising trash disposal costs are putting the future of Juneau’s community cleanup project at risk
- Beavers are moving into the Arctic, changing streams and accelerating climate change
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230112-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- An apartment building for legislators and staff could help address challenges they face when finding housing in Juneau
- A lawsuit could shut down commercial salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-4.mp3In this newscast:
- JAMHI will soon move to a new facility funded by federal spending bill,
- The state DoT is changing the leadership running the Alaska Marine Highway System,
- Alaska’s flagship ferry Columbia will sail in Southeast communities this spring,
- A black plume of smoke from an ABL rocket was visible in Kodiak yesterday
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230110-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The head of Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance is no longer in her post
- Juneau’s legislators outline their priorities for the session
- Finalists announced for UAS’ next chancellor
- Pro skier inspires Indigenous kids to hit the slopes
- Filipino folk dance is returning to Ketchikan
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-3.mp3In this newscast:
- Wolf trappers are pushing state authorities to move the season to spring, but enviromental advocates say too many wolves would be killed,
- After Typhoon Merbok, FEMA released information about disaster recovery in Indigenous languages, but they weren’t usable,
- Fishermen fighting a court case that threatens to shut down commercial salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska are asking the Sitka Assembly for $25,000
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- The federal omnibus spending bill provides more than $16 million in funding for Juneau-based projects,
- A woodworking couple makes boat-shaped cradles for newborns in Juneau,
- Staff are in short-supply at the Sitka Police Department,
- Skagway is home to an internet sensation, a wife and husband dog walking team,
- Alaska’s population increased just slightly into last year
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-v.mp3In this newscast:
- The National Climate Assessment is a chance for researchers to share local impacts of climate change, and the authors of the Alaska chapter are asking citizens to share,
- Cod fisherman went on strike in the new year due to pay disparities,
- Two house fires in Anchorage over the weekend left one person dead and another badly hurt
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt-1.mp3In this newscast:
- An egg shortage has hit the nation and Alaska is feeling acutely,
- Yesterday was the day Mary Peltola was to be sworn in for a full term in Congress, but that didn’t happen,
- Alaska’s job market will continue on a path of recovery this year, though it’s still a long way from where it was before the pandemic
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1648-vt.mp3In this newscast:
- Thousands of Alaskans have been without food stamps for months due to a backlog at the state level,
- Hilcorp Alaska was the sole bidder in last week’s federal sale of an oil and gas lease in Cook Inlet,
- The US National Cross Country Skiing Championships started in Michigan yesterday, and Alaska skiers had strong results
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-11.mp3In this newscast:
- A Juneau woman returned home from a holiday trip to find her home ransacked and her grandmother’s regalia stolen,
- State prosecutors say Ketchikan’s police chief shoved a man and held him in a chokehold. He was indicted for alleged felony assault this week
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-10.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau plans to adopt hazard maps show half of downtown in a moderate to severe threat of landslides and avalanches,
- An eight-bridge project over the Good River near Gustavus has been completed, giving juvenile fish a chance to maneuver the waterway,
- It’s been three years since the deadly sinking of the F/V Scandies Rose and now pieces of the ship have started washing ashore
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221228-news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Healthcare closures and consolidations are effect of nursing shortage
- Electoral reforms tucked into the omnibus spending bill
- Power’s back on in Metlakatla
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221227-news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- A volcano is named after Don Young
- Hectic holiday weekend for travel
- Juneau icebreaker funding pulled from spending bill
- Enviro groups sue over rushed Cook Inlet lease sale
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221223-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Winter travel woes
- Murkowski happy about omnibus spending bill
- Urban avalanche forecasting starts in Juneau
- Prudhoe Bay polar bear cub at home at the zoo
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Newscast-202211222.mp3In this newscast:
- The state says it has a backlog of thousands that are waiting for food stamps and it’s not expected to improve any time soon;
- Lawyers gave closing arguments Wednesday in a case aimed at disqualifying Rep. David Eastman from office due to his membership in the Oath Keepers.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-9.mp3In this newscast:
- Wrangell’s assembly has set aside $2.2 million for a new housing subdivision, at the site of a former boarding school for Alaska Native children,
- Kodiak High School students came together to start an open pantry to alleviate food insecurity for their peers,
- The Alaska Department of Corrections says an 18th inmate has died in custody this year
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-8.mp3In this newscast:
- Tomorrow is the winter solstice, and for some, an opportunity to work toward healing from colonialism,
- Controversy over a logging project near Yakutat intensified,
- A Southeast Alaska weather update: snow is on the way,
- The Anchorage School Board narrowly approved several budget cut recommendations
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-7.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaskans who depend on the state’s public assistance program for food say they’ve been waiting for their benefits for months,
- A bartender in Juneau was assaulted this month, and it may be part of a broader trend in violence towards service workers,
- The U.S. Coast Guard is expanding its fleet of icebreakers and could be homeporting one in Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221216-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Extremely cold weather coming to Southeast Alaska
- Juneau Assembly funds four affordable and mixed-income housing projects
- This year’s Arctic Report Card highlights Indigenous perspectives, but is it enough?
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221215-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- The Juneau teachers’ union has declared an impasse in negotiations over its new contract with the school district;
- After 32 years, Alaska’s director of the Division of Elections has stepped down;
- Kenai Peninsula School District will hold its first Indigenous language film festival in February.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221214-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Alaska’s new lieutenant governor Nancy Dahlstrom steps into the spotlight;
- Student employees in the University of Alaska system seek to unionize;
- A musk ox attacked and killed a man in Nome;
- The Spring herring forecast for Sitka Sound is historically high, but slightly lower than last years’ forecast;
- The state is auctioning 3 million oil and gas leases this month as investor interest wanes.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-6.mp3In this newscast:
- Some kindergartners in Juneau have been learning violin – on paper violins – and an Alaska Native language at the same time,
- The Alaska Marine Highway advisory board voted to spend more in 2024,
- A trial is underway in Palmer that could oust David Eastman from his legislative seat
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-5.mp3In this newscast:
- Juneau’s only provider for in-home and end-of-life care closed down this fall, and Bartlett Regional Hospital plans to take over the services,
- Petersburg’s Early Childhood Education Task Force is seeking funding for continuing education for childcare workers,
- A Metlakatla middle schooler recently learned she was accepted into a prestigious program, and she may be the first at her school
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-4.mp3In this newscast:
- Ironman Alaska has canceled plans to hold events in Juneau over the next two years,
- Sitka’s planning department will investigate whether several sections city- and state-owned land can be developed for housing,
- An interview with researcher Peter Muller on Alaska’s historic wildfire season,
- A former contractor has been sentenced for conspiracy and bribery related to military contracts at two air force bases
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-3.mp3In this newscast:
- For the first time in two years, FilComm is having its annual Christmas Party,
- Brown bears in Southeast Alaska are going into hibernation,
- A snowstorm dumped more than a foot of snow on Anchorage yesterday causing over a hundred wrecks,
- Alaska officials discuss challenges in funding emergency shelters on Talk of Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1648-vt-2.mp3In this newscast:
- The suspect arrested for Faith Rogers’ killing was called to court Tuesday,
- Huna Totem Corporation displayed its conceptual plans for a new dock and visitor center in Juneau this weekend,
- Mendenhall Lake froze over for the first time last week and concerns were raised about ice safety,
- A Sitka-based author has won a ecological literature award
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221206-news-update.mp3In this newscast:
- Mary Peltola and the POWER Act in Congress
- Temperatures broke 40 degrees in Utqiagvik on Monday
- Alaska journalist Lisa Phu on her new family history podcast
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221205-News-Update.mp3In this newscast:
- Ketchikan’s school district to talk face-to-face with Metlakatla school officials about racist incident
- Unusual winter brown bear sighting north of Fairbanks
- Halibut fishers near Sitka find a mud volcano
In this newscast: On Saturday, Juneau's largest convention space, Centennial Hall, will close until late summer; The US Dept. of the Interior is putting $75 million towards community relocation efforts for three tribes, two of which are in Alaska; Alaska tribal leaders are headed home from the White House Tribal Nations Summit, with ICWA on the mind; The hourly wage rate in Alaska has historically been higher than those of other states, but that's changing
In this newscast: Juneau public health officials warn that this flu and respiratory virus season is likely to be more severe than usual; Federal safety investigators are calling for new, more restrictive regulations on flightseeing tours in the Ketchikan area after a series of crashes; Students were evacuated from Kodiak's North Star Elementary after a suspicious package was reported Wednesday; A member of a national committee researching PFAS health effects shared information about the project
In this newscast: There were no fatalities within the Alaska's commercial fishing fleets this year, for only the second time on record; A former Alaska couple has been ordered to pay nearly one and a half million dollars for taking money from a Yakutat elder; The US Senate passed a bill to protect same sex marriage, with the support of both Alaska Senators; Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola voted against a bill to avert a railroad strike
In this newscast: A young climate activist from Ketchikan was named to Forbes "30 Under 30" list; An elementary school in Petersburg has temporarily canceled its after-school recess due to staffing shortages; Bethel Winter House is the area's only low-barrier emergency shelter, and it may have to close early
In this newscast: The suspect arrested in the killing of Faith Rogers was already in custody for a harassment case; Elementary students in Dillingham have been pushing for the renaming of a creek; A panel in Sitka examined the history of its former residential school Sheldon Jackson
In this newscast: Only 2 people charged with voter fraud related to Alaska's 2020 election; a look back at Dunleavy's first term as governor; Republicans hold 21 out of 40 seats in Alaska's House of Representatives
In this newscast: Unofficial election results after ranked choice tabulation; what's at stake with judge retention; what 3 Alaska Native languages say about gratitude
In this newscast: A bear cub in Glacier Bay with bird flu is country's first; Prince Rupert grows its cruise port; Homer's library board deciding what to do with 50 LGBTQ children's books
In this newscast: Alaska elects its first LGBTQ lawmakers; remembering Ethel Lund; the latest news on Skagway's Ore Dock
In this news update: Local naturalists reveal the life of the spruce tree that destroyed houses on Gastineau Avenue this September; Alaska writers of the animated children’s show “Molly of Denali” react to its two Emmy nominations; The number of patrons at Juneau’s main food pantry doubled over the pandemic and hasn’t gone down; Alaska’s…
In this newscast: Lt. Krag Campbell with the Juneau Police Department explains how to avoid rental scams; Molly of Denali" has been nominated for two Children’s & Family Emmy Awards; Three cruise ships that visited Southeast Alaska this summer received awards for reporting whale sightings
In this newscast: Juneau Empire reporter Mark Sabatini breaks down Juneau’s election results; A salmon hatchery operator in Prince William Sound is on the hook for $1 million in hazardous waste violations; Language immersion programs are no longer on the chopping block to balance the Anchorage School District’s budget; High winds in Juneau knock out…
In this newscast: Dozens of people gathered in Juneau to remember Sol Neely; A totem pole that spent more than 100 years far from home has returned to Kasaan; On Walter Soboleff Day, a panel discussed the Presbyterian Church's decision to close his church in 1963
In this newscast: Juneau nonprofits are feeling the impact of a slowdown of volunteers; The race for House District 1 is separated by fewer than 200 votes; Biologists say wolves on Prince of Wales Island have a high level of inbreeding; The biggest town on Prince of Wales Island needs a bigger cemetery; The families of the victims of a 2020 midair crash over Soldotna have reached a settlement
In this newscast: A weather watch from the National Weather Service; Juneau's local election results; KTOO Community Reporting Fellow Chen Chen talks about what ICWA means to Alaska; How the elections for Alaska Governor, US Senate, and US House are shaping up as votes are counted
In this newscast: Jennifer Pemberton explains KTOO's efforts to inform voters this election year; A new transit center opened in Juneau Monday morning; Trappers will have 30 days to harvest wolves on Prince of Wales Island; The Western Artic Caribou herd is continuing a long term population slide
In this newscast: Alaska Beacon's James Brooks tells Alaska Public Media's Casey Grove about Alaska Legislature seats that are up for election this year; Some want to change the way the state appoints judges through a Constitutional Convention, Kavitha George explains why
In this newscast: Alaska Public Media's Jeremy Hsieh speaks with Casey Grove about common election security questions; Alaska statewide candidates on climate change; An update on the false report of a shooter at a high school in Fairbanks
In this newscast: Federal scientists are looking at stress levels in whales this summer compared to when tourism wasn't in Juneau; A group tracking US political extremism has labeled Sarah Palin and Kelly Tshibaka as election deniers; Klawock now has more than 20 legal slot machines; Election officials are worried they may not have staff to work Election Day in two rural Alaska communities
In this newscast: This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Marine Mammal Protection Act – and now, the federal government works with Tribes to manage animals for subsistence use; Ernestine Hayes' Blonde Indian is becoming an audiobook; The Sitka assembly issued a resolution to acknowledge Filipino American History Month; A Fairbanks woman is recycling glass bottles and jars by pulverizing them into sand
In this news update: Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss will resign at the end of the school year; Ketchikan residents may now participate in federal subsistence hunts; Alaska’s three candidates for U.S. senate made their differences on abortion rights clear at a debate; A glacial dam outburst caused levels to rise at Mendenhall Lake…
In this newscast: Bethel youth are going to the polls this week; A special canoe was dedicated in Angoon; Southeast's summer season for Dungeness crab was worth $10 million less than last year; Candidates for Alaska' US House seat sparred in Debate for the State
In this newscast: Federal relief is on its way for crab fisheries; Charlie Pierce's running mate has dropped out of the governor's race; Juneau's Glory Hall gets a permit for affordable housing project; AFN arts market returns in-person
In this newscast: Monday night’s Juneau Assembly meeting was the first following the re-election of Carole Triem, Greg Smith, and Wade Bryson: a recap; Ketchikan’s borough took an early step towards addressing the increasing number of short-term rental properties; The town of Thorne Bay has rallied to bring their new library to life
In this newscast: An event this weekend celebrated Filipino food with Juneau's Filipino chefs; A Ketchikan band brought its own fan base to Juneau this weekend; Ketchikan's Fil-Am Festival brought political candidates
In this newscast: On Saturday, Bartlett Regional Hospital is hosting a walk/run to raise awareness for trauma related to pregnancy and motherhood; Bingo night is back at the Filipino Community Hall; All Juneau candidates for city goverment ran for re-election unopposed, Will Muldoon weighs in; A rally of more than a hundred gathered at AFN to push for environmental and climate action
In this newscast: Juneau’s 2022 municipal election was certified yesterday; Shéiyi X̱aat Hít Youth Shelter been open for a little over a year now and has served dozens of Juneau’s youth; Two Eielson-based F-16 fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers in international airspace off Alaska earlier this week; For only the second time this election season, all four candidates running to be the governor of Alaska participated in a debate Wednesday night
In this newscast: The Mill Campground for people experiencing homelessness closed for the winter, and those staying there need to find a place to live; Curious Juneau: How fast did the Mendenhall Glacier retreat this year? A pair of peaks in Chugach State Park are getting new names; Anchorage School District leaders are recommending the closure of six elementary schools
In this newscast: Former University of Alaska Southeast professor and community advocate Sol Neely died this past weekend; Around 50 people have been transferred out of Lemon Creek Correctional Center due to damage to the building; The US Forest Service may add cabins to Juneau's public cabin system with federal funding; A new statewide pilot program is meant to encourage more tribal control of local schools
In this newscast: There’s been a development in the investigation of one of 4 cases of Alaska Native people who went missing in the Fairbanks area 2 years ago; The Tongass School of Arts and Sciences’ assembly is part of the school district’s efforts to promote what’s known as place-based learning; Southeast Alaska’s first big fall storm is forecast to wash ashore this week
In this newscast: A recent destructive slide in downtown Juneau left homeowners and the community grappling with how to respond; An Iranian in Alaska speaks on recent protests in Iran; Hundreds of hotel rooms and emergency shelter beds in Anchorage will continue to be available to people without homes through at least the end of the year
In this newscast: Canneries are a big part of Alaska’s history and a former Alaskero spoke at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau about his time at one; Community members in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are fundraising for an all-gender restroom at one of the district's high schools; Governor Mike Dunleavy has indicated that he will vote in favor of a constitutional convention
In this newscast: Juneau writer Christy NaMee Eriksen covered Fat Bear Week this year; Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined a prestigious roster of people to receive the William Paul, Sr. Award; The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is holding two days of virtual workshops for early Dena’ina language learners
In this newscast: A minor earthquake rattled parts of the southern panhandle Sunday night; So far this year, 15 people have died in Alaska jails and prisons, the most since 2015
In this newscast: Representatives from the Alaska Friends Conference - or Quakers - read a formal apology on Friday for a school and orphanage that the church opened in the late 1800s; There is a growing amount of opposition on Prince of Wales Island for a proposed timber sale of 300 acres near the town of Whale Pass; Kodiak’s fisheries debates kicked off last night with two challengers in the governor’s race, Les Gara and Bill Walker, but current Governor Mike Dunleavy did not attend Monday’s debates; Students in the Anchorage School District will have bus service on a rotating basis until further notice, due to a driver shortage
In this newscast: Dozens of Ketchikan area residents were students at a Pennsylvania boarding school before it closed in 1918; More than 40 remote communities in Western Alaska saw impacts from a storm in mid-September; Over 30 people marched in Anchorage Thursday night to protest Anchorage police not having body-worn cameras
In this newscast: This summer, the national branch of the Presbyterian Church issued a formal apology and made a commitment to pay $1 million in reparations for closing a church in Juneau in the 1960s; Community members of Whale Pass on Prince of Wales Island are fighting against the state’s plan to clear-cut nearly 300 acres of old-growth timber
In this newscast: Gastineau Avenue has reopened to traffic after crews removed debris from the landslide; Friday is Orange Shirt Day, a day of remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools in the US and Canada, and there are events in Juneau to honor it; Learners of Kodiak Alutiiq are passing along a distinct culture and worldview to the next generations; This morning, President Biden made more disaster aid available to Alaska in response to the Western Alaska storm damage
In this newscast: A look at Propositions 2 and 3 on the Juneau ballot; A conversation with a New York Times reporter who investigated the loss of COVID data in Alaska; The state health department sent out its last COVID-19 data summary today; Peltola will be the keynote speaker at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference next month
In this newscast: A landslide in downtown Juneau took out homes, trees, and powerlines; About a dozen people were evacuated to a shelter on Monday after the landslide; A former Alaska State Trooper has been named as the state's new lead on solving missing and murdered Indigenous cases; In the Bering Strait region, children in households without running water are much more likely to get ear infections, says a new study; Today is Jeremy Hsieh's last day at KTOO: a look back
In this newscast: Archeologists found a 10,000 year old fish weir on the coast of Prince of Wales Island; An explainer on Proposition 1 on Juneau's ballot this election; A Coast Guard crew encountered Chinese and Russian naval vessels in the Bering Sea; President Joe Biden approved Gov. Dunleavy's request for a federal disaster declaration; Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has announced his fourth pick for director of the city's libraries
In this newscast: Police are investigating the killing of a 55-year-old Juneau woman found on a popular trail; Voters weigh competing expectations of the effects of Juneau's mandatory real estate sales price disclosure rule; The Bureau of Land Management begins the scoping period for a supplemental environmental review of the proposed Ambler Road; A state judge says Rep. David Eastman may be ineligible to hold public office because of his association with the Oath Keepers; Another atmospheric river event is going to drench Southeast Alaska
In this newscast: The latest assessments from the aftermath of the storm that battered western Alaska; Congresswoman Mary Peltola picks up the her predecessor's push to renew the nation's primary federal fishing law; State health officials encourage Alaskans to get updated COVID boosters and flu shots; The National Weather Service forecasts another atmospheric river event coming to Southeast Alaska
In this newscast: Alaska continues to lead the nation in its homicide rate for women killed by men; Former attorney general Ed Sniffen is indicted for sexual abuse of a minor; State forestry officials consider a new timber sale on Prince of Wales Island; Officials says residents of more than a dozen coastal communities recovering from the weekend's storm should boil their drinking water; Residents of Shaktoolik say life is gradually returning to normal after the storm; The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Columbia won't be back in service this winter; Ketchikan High School gets chosen as the only high school in Alaska with rights to perform the Broadway version of the Disney musical "Frozen"
In this newscast: Gov. Mike Dunleavy requests a federal disaster declaration for the storm that hit western Alaska; Nome works on cleaning up its infrastructure after the storm; The Alaska Constitutional Convention's last living delegate explains why he opposes a new constitutional convention; Juneau planning officials plan to host a informational meeting about the city's affordable housing fund; State health official relax expand eligibility for the monkeypox vaccine to anyone who believes they are at increased risk for infection
In this newscast: State transportation officials have taken a small step toward building a new ferry terminal at the end of Juneau's road; Golovin residents are in cleanup mode after the flood waters have receded; A look to what reputable organizations to donate to for relief efforts; Juneau Hydropower is working with Japan's J-Power on the Sweetheart Lake project
In this newscast: Mary Peltola will be the first Alaska Native in Congress; a wet weekend ahead for Juneau; Alaska's first Black colonel to lead Troopers; meet some of the carvers of SHI's totem pole trail
In this newscast: The cruise industry signs a first-of-its-kind agreement with Juneau; Juneau police began collecting DNA from some people with criminal records; A University of Alaska faculty union files an unfair labor practices complaint against the university administration; the village of Nunapitchuk water treatment building is at risk of collapse; A candidate for Ketchikan City Council ends his campaign after KRBD exposes his criminal record
In this newscast: A little-known candidate named Buzz Kelley will advance to the general election for an Alaska seat in the U.S. Senate; An Anchorage man shot by police on Friday now faces 19 charges including kidnapping and attempted murder; Active duty airmen will soon be driving school buses for students at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to help with a driver shortage; 29 students from Ukraine begin classes in the Delta-Greely School District; A new business in Sitka offers snorkeling to tourists as an eco-friendly attraction; Tlingit formline artist's T-shirt design makes an appearance on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law; The National Weather Service says more atmospheric rivers are headed to the region
In this newscast: A former Bartlett Regional Hospital executive is in jail facing felony charges for stealing from the hospital; School districts across the state are facing teacher shortages; Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce resigns to focus on his gubernatorial campaign; Environmental groups sue the Biden administration over its approval of an oil exploration program on the North Slope; U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski holds a hearing in Unalaska to try to spur the federal government to clean up contaminated lands conveyed to Alaska Natives; And the Coast Guard wraps up an investigation into an accidental stowaway aboard an Inter-Island Ferry Authority vessel
In this newscast: A two-year process that slowed cleanup at the Tulsequah Chief mine upriver from Southeast Alaska came to an end; NASA scientists have completed another summer documenting climate change in the far north; Neither fall chum nor coho salmon runs of the Yukon River are robust enough to open subsistence fisheries; Sen. Dan…
In this newscast: A private plane made an emergency landing on a Bethel road last weekend; The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its first ever strategic plan for mariculture in Alaska; A Fairbanks group is fighting against goldmine development in the area; Governor Mike Dunleavy championed Alaska mineral development at a University of Alaska…
In this newscast: Rockslides are battering a Skagway cruise ship dock and crushing the town’s economy; Norwegian Cruise Line gave waterfront property it spent millions on to Huna Totem Corporation; A humpback whale calf appears to be okay after an encounter with a tour boat in Favorite Channel
In this newscast: Lack of affordable childcare in Sitka; Ketchikan welcomed a new U.S. Coast Guard cutter; MonkeyPox vaccine eligibility expanded in Alaska; Former state Rep. Dean Westlake’s son is charged with beating Westlake to death
In this newscast: Students and teachers are transferred to other school on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after Ursa Major Elementary School closed over earthquake safety concerns; A Soldotna family was named the 2022 Alaska Farm Family of the Year; Homer’s Sandhill Crane Count starts up again this weekend; The Federal Aviation Administration cleared Aleutian Airways to…
In this newscast: All of Southeast Alaska’s primary candidates will advance to ranked choice general election; Juneau voters seemed to catch on to ranked choice voting with help from volunteers; A family dog was killed while defending its owners from wolves on a Metlakatla beach; Juneau Police urge attentiveness and caution as school resumes; The…
In this newscast: Juneau organizations support transgender youth with new written guides for navigating school challenges; Alaskans headed to the polls today for their first chance to rank candidates in the special U.S. House general election and primaries; Final results for the statewide primary won’t be available until at least August 31st; A new undersea…
In this newscast: The federal government will take over silver salmon management in the lower Kuskowim River if the run stays low; Governor Mike Dunleavy ran as the conservative candidate last term, but this year he faces two challengers to his right on the political spectrum; The U.S. Department of Interior must hold an oil…
In this newscast: The state's latest labor data shows that about one out of every nine jobs in Alaska is unfilled; Ironman Alaska participants and an economic analyst tally up the event's economic impact on Juneau; The two Republican candidates in Alaska's first ranked choice vote election are attacking each other; Tara Sweeney files to run as a write-in candidate in the special U.S. House election; And a correction for a story about a Pebble Mine investor from Wednesday
In this newscast: The families of four cruise passengers killed in a floatplane crash sue Holland America Line; A federal court rules that the National Marine Fisheries Services improperly approved a troll fisher for king salmon in Southeast Alaska; OBI Seafoods in Petersburg hits pink salmon processing milestone for the summer; A brown bear and three cubs have taken up residence in Kodiak; A tribe in Washington state builds a tsunami refuge tower; Organizations are getting creative in their education around the upcoming ranked-choice voting election
In this newscast: Juneau police identify the crew member that went missing off a cruise ship on Monday night; The Juneau school board leaves masking optional for the upcoming school year; Health authorities say a Juneau woman in her 30s has died from COVID-19; The Pebble Mine project gets a mysterious new investor; Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson launches an investigation into how his administration failed to catch his health director's fake credentials
In this newscast: A cruise ship crew member is presumed dead after going overboard in Juneau waters; Federal officials say potentially billions of dollars are headed to Alaska for broadband internet access; the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. posts negative investment returns for the last fiscal year for the first time in a decade; small businesses in Southeast Alaska compete for Pathway to Prosperity grants; Anchorage's health director resigns after being confronted with evidence showing he vastly overstated his educational credentials and military background
In this newscast: Alaska's first Ironman triathlon was in Juneau on Sunday; A Wyoming couple discovers a time capsule from 2006 at Mendenhall Lake; The Alaska Federation of Natives plans to hold its first in-person convention this October since 2019; Ketchikan parents sue their school district over a reference to "our creator" in tribal values posted in school; For the seventh time this year, an inmate in the custody of the Alaska Department of Corrections has died; Two Anchorage police officers violated department policy during a traffic stop when a woman handed them a novelty "white privilege" card; Demolition has begun on the iconic 4th Avenue Theatre in Anchorage
In this newscast: U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan; Two refugees from Ukraine resettle in Juneau; UAF and UAS offer a new graduate degree in marine policy; Oath Keepers member and Wasilla Rep. David Eastman gets sued for disloyalty; Outdoor deaths in Anchorage spike; The National Weather Service says a break in the rain is coming after irregular dumps
In this newscast: Early voting begins for the Aug. 16 elections; Candidates for Alaska's U.S. House seat appear at a candidate forum; Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve starts its own cruise ship monitoring program; Some refugees from Ukraine are living aboard a former state ferry in Ketchikan; Wildlife monitors in Metlakatla collect the live invasive European green crabs for the first time
In this newscast: Alaska records its first case of monkeypox; Gov. Mike Dunleavy signs a bill that lets tribes apply to create their own public schools; A preview of local election ballot questions coming up in Monday's Juneau Assembly meeting; Conditions in global energy markets are making liquefied natural gas projects more attractive; A labor union negotiates a tentative contract to make some of Alaska Airlines workers the highest paid employees in the industry
In this newscast: Congress passes a $280 billion bill to subsidize domestic production of computer chips; The public comment period closes soon on NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center draft research plans on climate change; Federal officials announce plans to spend $401 million in grants and loans to expand internet for rural parts of 11 states including Alaska; Four children are dead after an apparent murder-suicide in Fairbanks; Ironman Alaska athletes scramble to get their bikes to Juneau in time for the race; The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is expanding surveys to see where the local herring egg harvest ends up; Researchers try to refine how they count a declining Aleutian tern population when its range is almost 10,000 miles; The Tanana Valley State Fair bans poultry because of the threat of avian influenza
In this newscast: Bartlett Regional Hospital names its next CEO; The state reports 123 new COVID cases in Juneau over the last week; Republican Tara Sweeney sets her eyes on the regular election cycle in her campaign for Congress; An invasive species of crab is discovered in Alaska for the first time; Gas prices are falling much slower in Alaska than elsewhere in the country; The National Weather Service says a glacial dam release is underway on the Taku River
In this newscast: Only incumbents file to run in Juneau's local elections; The state Department of Law lays out the limits of using state funds for homeschool on private classes; Village public safety officers train on how to respond to opioid overdoses; Seafood processors in Petersburg are working 17-hour shifts because chum salmon is coming in volumes they've never seen before; Wrangell's annual Bearfest comes out of pandemic hibernation this week
In this newscast: Alaska public health officials are preparing as monkeypox spreads across the country; U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski tests positive for COVID-19; Experts in Skagway warn of significant risk of rockslides at the town's busiest cruise ship dock; The state's June labor report shows job numbers growing but not to pre-pandemic levels; A new veterans cemetery opens in Metlakatla; State health officials expand a program to combat opioid overdoses
In this newscast: Alaska land burned by wildfires this season crosses the 3 million acre mark; Alaskans are coping with one of the highest inflation jumps in the nation; The Alaska Court System prepares to open a new program to resolve eviction cases without going to court; Gov. Mike Dunleavy plans to sign a bill into law for the state to recognize Alaska's 229 federally recognized Native tribes; Juneau's animal shelter has too many cats; Local agencies are conducting an emergency exercise at Juneau International Airport on Saturday; The National Park Service names Denali National Park and Preserve's first female superintendent
In this newscast: Quarterly fundraising totals show which candidates for governor are standing out; An interview with independent candidate for governor Bill Walker; A woman who told detectives she wanted to become a serial killer faces two murder charges in Anchorage; A graduate student researches totem poles in Ketchikan as part of their thesis on museum decolonization
In this newscast: State health officials say there's a lot of COVID-19 circulating in Alaska; Cool and rainy weather settling in over much of Alaska has dampened what the wildfire season; A new study shows that birders are a boon for Southeast Alaska's tourism economy; Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson vetoes an ordinance that creates a process for the Assembly to remove mayors from office; Unalaska's gets its first cruise ship visit since before the pandemic; A new totem pole honoring missing and murdered indigenous women will be raised in Klawock
In this newscast: The CDC says its COVID-19 program for cruise ships is no longer in effect; Businesses in Southeast Alaska say workforce housing is their number one concern; Sarah Palin is leading in campaign fundraising among candidates for Alaska's congressional seat; Alaska Permanent Fund dividends will start hitting bank accounts on Sept. 20; A statute to honor the first climber to summit Denali will be unveiled in Fairbanks
In this newscast: The Juneau school board decides to hire a third party to investigate why some students were served floor sealant instead of milk; Eaglecrest Ski Area's aerial gondola system is on its way to Juneau from Austria; Capital Transit temporarily suspends more routes due to a driver shortage; The state Board of Education names an acting education commissioner; Authorities locate a small plane wreck that killed its pilot near Valdez; AT&T workers in Alaska vote to authorize a strike; A Petersburg teen gets surprised with a trip to meet an NBA champ instead of another cancer treatment; NOAA begins surveying and sharing real-time data from an annual bottom trawl survey in the Bering Sea
In this newscast: Ballots in Juneau's local election this fall won't have questions about a proposed sales tax break on groceries; A new academic paper says there is a consistent pattern of harm to salmon habitat from mines throughout the Northwest; State health officials report the latest COVID-19 numbers; Kodiak sees its first cruise ship since before the pandemic; Anchorage police investigate a claim that a woman got out of a traffic ticket by flashing a novelty "white privilege" card; Alaskans can dial 988 to reach a suicide prevention hotline starting Saturday
In this newscast: A Juneau man who was reported missing turned himself into police; The U.S. Forest Service is proposing restoring 23,000 acres of Admiralty Island that had been logged; Researchers say the Aleutian Islands are a logical refueling point for trans-Pacific shipping with zero-emission fuels; A geothermal energy company is a step closer to prospecting on Augustine Island in lower Cook Inlet; The Anchorage Assembly approves money to house homeless people at a downtown hotel; The World Eskimo Indian Olympics begin
In this newscast: A federal agency releases a draft environmental impact statement for a major oil development on the North Slope; Wildfire activity slows in the Interior as the weather shifts cooler and wetter; The window to run for local office in Juneau opens Friday; A UAF graduate student studies marine garbage from a remote Southeast island; Alaskans march to advocate for reproductive rights; The Episcopal Church establishes a commission to research its role in Native boarding schools
In this newscast: Researchers with the University of Alaska Southeast release a new climate change report about Juneau; An Alaska Marine Highway System oversight board recommends adding crew quarters to the Tazlina; The marine highway system reopens bars about the Matanuska and Kennicott; Lightning strikes and gusty winds leave red flag danger warnings in effect for large areas of the Interior; Former President Donald Trump packs the house during a political rally in Anchorage
In this newscast: A Juneau man is missing; abortion rallies planned across the state; Juneau bat tested positive for rabies; a caterpillar is feasting on the Tongass
In this newscast: A fire at the Pebble Mine site; 4 bears killed at an Anchorage campground where unhoused people are staying; yes, there are bats in Southeast Alaska
In this newscast: Man killed in a crash on Egan Drive in Juneau; Ketchikan city council wants to ban conversion therapy for youth; updated plan for lease sales in Cook Inlet; most recent COVID-19 numbers for Juneau
In this newscast: Alaska’s health department splits into two parts; Chinook and chum salmon runs are under average in the lower Kuskowim river, but reds are running above average; The commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Southeast Alaska will close early because the start of the season has been so slow; Alaskans are wrestling with the…
In this newscast: Juneau’s 4th of July fireworks will go off despite supply chain issues; Filipino dance groups are making a comeback in Juneau; Juneau School District’s Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss a third-party investigation into what’s being called the “floor-sealant incident.”
In this newscast: Fire management agencies raise Alaska's wildfire-fighting preparedness level to its highest tier; Anchorage authorities shut down the makeshift homeless shelter in the Sullivan Arena after two years; Opponents of mandatory real estate sales price disclosures in Juneau turn in more than 500 more signatures for their repeal effort; State authorities report 172 cases of COVID-19 in Juneau last week; The cruise ship that hit an iceberg in Alaska arrives in Seattle for repairs; Friends and colleagues remember Juneau's Dennis Egan; The National Weather Service issues a flood warning for the Taku River area; City officials ask Mendenhall Valley residents to conserve water because of sustained dry weather affecting water storage
In this newscast: Health authorities share what the science says about the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines for young children; The State Division of Elections addresses why so many ballots were rejected in the recent special primary election; Former President Donald Trump plans to come to Alaska and hold a rally for Republican candidates on July 9; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will host a new Arctic security studies center run by the Department of Defense
In this newscast: Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoes out $780 million from the state budget bill and signs it; A 13-year-old girl is hospitalized after a being hit by a car in downtown Juneau; Former Juneau mayor and state senator Dennis Egan dies at age 75; Juneau residents rally against the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade; The cruise ship that hit an iceberg in Alaska is skipping port calls and returning to Seattle; The state Supreme Court says Republican Tara Sweeney won't be on the August special election ballot for U.S. House; Ketchikan's local Republican Party chapter censures Congressional candidate Sarah Palin over her reversal as governor on the so-called "bridge to nowhere"; A float plane with seven people crashes in Lake Iliamna
In this newscast: A Norwegian Cruise Line ship stopped in Juneau after it hit an iceberg on Saturday; Access to safe and legal abortions in Alaska is likely to remain, but the Supreme Court ruling last week could open the door to restrict that access; July is National Minority Mental Health Month and Alaskans weigh…
In this newscast: Juneau residents react to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the right to abortion; Sen. Lisa Murkowski was among 15 Republicans who voted to pass a bipartisan gun safety bill; Four more teams crossed the Race to Alaska finish line in Ketchikan; Politics reporter James Brooks weighs in on…
In this newscast: Nation Weather Service forecaster Rick Fritsch says next week’s high temperatures could challenge a century-old record in Juneau; A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor has been named to a NASA science team for a mission to Venus; Margined white butterflies are out sipping mud at the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau; The Anchorage…
In this newscast: University of Alaska Southeast will offer a free option for Alaska Native language courses this fall; Southeast Alaska’s ferry link to northern British Columbia resumed on Monday after nearly three years out of service; One of the first Alaska grants from the historic $1.2 trillion dollar federal infrastructure bill is going to…
In this newscast: Young kids in Juneau could get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this week; The Zach Gordon Youth Center hosted its third Youth Pride Party to celebrate queer kids; The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended further study after hours of testimony urging action to curb chinook and chum salmon bycatch…
In this newscast: The Juneau School District shares more about how floor sealant was served to students instead of milk; Candidates who did poorly in the congressional special primary election are weighing if they'll still run in the regular election; Voters in Southeast Alaska favored independent Al Gross and Democrat Mary Peltola; Capstone Clinic is closing its public testing sites at the end of the month; Firefighting crews are standing by to respond to more Interior wildfires with lightning in the forecast; Higher fuel prices are driving up barge prices and retail prices across Southeast Alaska; The Juneau Black Awareness Association celebrates Juneteenth on Sunday.
In this newscast: Concern over the number of ballots rejected in the special primary election; half of Juneau's schools now have Lingit names; group seeking to repeal mandatory real estate disclosure laws coming up short on signatures; Pride events planned for Juneau
In this newscast: An update on the students who ingested floor sealant at a Juneau summer school; what's behind the haze in Southeast Alaska; new ballot count from Saturday's special primary election; drag queen storytime illegally canceled in Ketchikan
In this newscast: Juneau children given floor sealant instead of milk at Rally summer program; opioid overdose kits go out to seafood processors; a Norwegian cruise ship visits Alaska's Little Norway; update on the Aghaluk Mountain Fire
In this newscast: Massive wildfire threatens Yukon River villages; Sitka Salmon Shares closes flagship plant; Sen. Lora Reinbold sued for blocking a constituent on Facebook
In this newscast: Juneau volunteers reboot trail work efforts after the pandemic put a hold on maintenance; State economist Rob Kreiger spoke with Alaska public Media about what’s driving the state’s tightened housing market; Alaska is the most scammed state in the country—this year there have been nearly a thousand reports of fraud.
In this newscast: Two Tlingit dance groups from Wrangell are leads at Celebration, the biannual festival honoring Tlingit, Hainda, and Tsimshian people; A large tundra fire is threatening the village of St. Mary’s; A rare lightening storm knocked out power to thousands of Homer Electric Association members Thursday morning.
In this newscast: State health officials report 144 new cases of COVID-19 in Juneau over the last week; Experienced travelers say staff shortages and COVID-19 outbreaks are spoiling their Alaska cruises; The governor and some legislators celebrated the passage of the Alaska Reads Act while others are skeptical about the bill’s requirements for school districts;…
In this newscast: It’s Walter Harper Day and a monument to the Koyukon Athabaskan who was the first person to summit Denali will be installed in Fairbanks; Kind salmon fishing is no longer allowed for the early run in the Kenai River due to low salmon counts; Data from the Gulf of Alaska’s sea floor…
In this newscast: Juneau’s three incumbent Democratic state legislators are all running for reelection, and only one has an opponent; Gas prices have been increasing for months and some Alaskans are rethinking their driving plans this summer; Anchorage Assembly members voted to postpone a decision on whether to allow for the removal of the mayor…
In this news update: The recent swell in COVID-19 numbers is unlike other surges, say state epidemiologists; Alaska has crowded state election this year, so the primary will trim the list of candidates; A new whale identification program uses artificial intelligence to identify Alaska whales by their flukes; The Matanuska-Susitna Borough school board considers amending…
In this newscast: Anglers on the Kenai River won’t be allowed to keep king salmon this year; Private George Fox, the only Unungax soldier killed fighting in World War II, was honored this Memorial Day in Unalaska; Governor Mike Dunleavy’s office entered a $50,000 contract with a former aide.
In this newscast: Find out which House candidate has raised more than $1M; a third of Alaska lawmakers aren't running for re-election; bird flu in foxes; remembering Juneau's "DMV guy"
In this newscast: former Alaska AG charged with sexual abuse of a minor; early and absentee in-person voting starts today; Alaska currently has no campaign contribution limits; a Juneau-raised author on the history and legends of Asian and Indigenous people
In this newscast: Bartlett Regional Hospital's board of directors has selected three possible candidates for CEO; Students at Thunder Mountain High School celebrated their favorite books through cake; The nationwide shortage of baby formula has left parents scrambling, and it was already hard to find in rural Alaska
In this newscast: The Glory Hall's affordable housing project got a boost Tuesday when it successfully appealed a city permit denial; There's a renewed push for the city to redevelop Telephone Hill, which is owned by the state and home to historic Juneau houses; Three people were critically injured in a small plane crash near Yakutat on Tuesday, and a fourth was treated for minor injuries; Flights to the Lower 48 are increasing in demand and cost again
In this newscast: A Petersburg nurse was recognized nationally with the Daisy Award; Haines formline artist James Hart will apprentice with several master Lingit and Haida artists; Two years after becoming on of the most sealed off locations in the U.S., St. Paul Island is reopening to visitors; ConocoPhillips Alaska has started oil production at a satellite reservoir of its Alpine field
In this newscast: A Miami man drowned in Skagway Friday afternoon; Juneau's Meals on Wheels program is struggling to find enough volunteers; Young tribal citizens in Sitka took part in an afternoon regalia workshop in preparation for Celebration; The status of the Mt. Edgecumbe volcano has changed from "dormant" to "historically active"; Governor Mike Dunleavy has announced his choice of running mate, Corrections Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom
In this newscast: Hundreds of hours of audio from the retired Southeast Native Radio are now archived online; Dolena Fox is one of the world's first female Yup'ik commercial pilots
In this newscast: The Juneau Assembly's annual budget debate is winding down, but it still hasn't decided what to do about exempting food from sales tax; Around 5,000 people are expected to come to Juneau in August for an Ironman race, and the city is encouraging residents to rent their homes and go on vacation for the week; Juneau's two public high schools saw an increase in new COVID-19 cases following their proms
In this newscast: The U.S. Forest Service will begin a restoration project on Zarembo Island, but first, they need to clear some cars out of the way; A bill that rewrites alcohol restrictions cleared the Alaska Legislature this week; Denali National Park received the most snow in 99 years this winter
In this newscast: A Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Former Chief Justice has been appointed to the Not Invisible Act Commission; Last fall, a company left two barges to freeze in Y-K Delta rivers, and one has dislodged and become a floating ghost barge; Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium held a carnival to celebrate their nursing staff
In this newscast: Sen. Jesse Kiehl was the only member of the judiciary committee to move to vote against an anti-trans youth athlete bill; Two pairs of Vans sneakers designed by Wrangell High School students have made it to the top 5 in a competition; The Iditarod Trail Committee has partially reversed its penalty for two mushers who sheltered their dog team during the race
In this newscast: Naloxone doses have doubled to combat the surge in fentanyl overdoses; A group of Unalaskans marched in support of women's abortion rights on Sunday; Law professors are critical of the Ninth Circuit for a split ruling on the road between King Cove and Cold Bay
In this newscast: Hundreds of voters in Alaska are waiting for results in the Philippine national election; A crew of scientist, artists, and divers are trying to find the wreck of the Star of Bengal; Alaska's state Senate has voted to pay Alaskans $1,300 on top of their permanent fund dividends
In this newscast: Delta Airlines is bringing back year-round service to Juneau, which is driving airfares down; Advocates for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People gathered in Juneau on Thursday; The National Park Service is searching for a solo climber on Denali; Anchorage police say a man whose went missing nearly six years ago was the victim of homicide
In this newscast: A morning rally for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day was held at the Mendenhall Wetlands; Advocates are hosting a drive next week to connect an Anchorage 6-year old with a matching bone marrow donor; The used gondola system Juneau is buying is costing more to move than estimated; Haines high schoolers enjoyed their prom Saturday night
In this newscast: As tourist season ramps up in Southeast Alaska, so may human-whale encounters; A bill recognizing Alaska's 229 Tribes faces one last committee before being voted on the Senate floor; Senator Lisa Murkowski says her confidence in the Supreme Court will be shaken if Roe v. Wade is overturned
In this newscast: Overdose deaths increased 70% in Alaska last year, due to more fentanyl in the state; An exemption of food from sales tax and an increase in summer sales may be up for a vote in the fall; What happened to Juneau's Taco Bell? Curious Juneau answers this question; Juneau's Engineering and Public Works department is proposing to buy a biosolids crusher
In this newscast: Resurrection Lutheran Church renews permit to house Juneau's cold weather shelter; Kodiak has had the most paralytic shellfish poisoning in the state in recent decades; An attack ad against Santa Claus; A military training exercise wants to expand
In this newscast: A Juneau mental health organization is helping people formerly involved in the justice system get housing; Juneau’s COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center is closing down at the end of April—here’s how you can access services; Alaska authorities have seized thousands of fentalnyl-laced pills and other drugs this week in a series of busts…
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/KTOO-UPDATE-2022-04-28.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly considers exempting food from the city’s sales tax
- Alaska public health experts discuss the latest COVID trends
- Some Juneau Assembly members are questioning the police department’s plan to buy an armored vehicle
- Bartlett Regional Hospital has named a permanent chief behavioral health officer
- Gov. Dunleavy reiterates his push for Alaska Permanent Fund dividends of at least $3,700
- A state judge sets a May 3 deadline for challenges to a revised redistricting plan
- A heli-skiing guide dies in an avalanche near Valdez
- Tonight’s weather and aurora forecasts line up for a good show
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ktoo-update-2022-04-27.mp3 In this newscast:
- Masks are optional again in Juneau schools
- Local vendors who cater to Filipino cruise ship workers gear up for the season
- Gov. Mike Dunleavy announces court fights to assert state ownership of certain lands against the federal government
- The Alaskan Republican Party shares its strategy for ranked choice voting
- Defense Department inspectors flag five U.S. military bases in Alaska for failing to prepare for climate change
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/KTOO-update-2022-04-26.mp3 In this newscast:
- Juneau welcomes the first big cruise ship of the year
- The Bureau of Land Management announces it is closing millions of acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil drilling
- Alaska lawmakers are considering a request by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to fund a takeover of a federal environmental permitting program
- Golden Valley Electric Association is reviewing a proposal to generate up to 36 megawatts of wind and solar electricity
- Alaska’s first investigator focused on missing and murdered indigenous people shares her experience three weeks into her job
- Anchorage officials and various private organizations are partnering on four new projects to reduce homelessness
- Alaska Airlines suspends nonstop flights between Anchorage and Honolulu
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1648-vt-8.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Alaska Department of Transportation is beginning to host open houses on a possible new bridge to connect Juneau and Douglas,
- The annual Tribal Assembly meeting of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida discussed the five Southeast communities left out of ANCSA,
- The first large cruise ship of the season arrives in Juneau on Monday, and early season cruise ships are predicted to have lower occupancy,
- The Interior Department will open 27 million acres of federal land for Alaska Native Vietnam veterans,
- Governor Mike Dunleavy’s proposal to overhaul environmental regulation of cruise ships has passed the Senate Resources Committee
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1648-vt-7.mp3 In this newscast:
- A marine geology expert says signs suggest upward movement of magma below Mt. Edgecumbe,
- Alaskans for Better Elections taught Juneau residents about voting changes with M&Ms,
- State health data shows Alaska has a high seven-day case rate
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1648-vt-6.mp3 In this newscast:
- Masks are no longer required for Juneau buses,
- Youth Encouraging Alaskans’ Health is hosing an anti-tobacco summit this week,
- Wrangell Island’s two cemeteries are nearly at capacity,
- Denali National Park may have more climbers this season than since before the pandemic
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1648-vt-5.mp3 In this newscast:
- Juneau pet owners are scrambling for care as one of the city’s three veterinary offices closes,
- Researchers are studying Alaska salmon gillnetters to gain further understanding of sleep deprivation in fishermen
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-vt-3.mp3 In this newscast:
- Jane Hale, Juneau’s trans columnist, talks about coming out on Transgender Day of Visibility,
- Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink discusses lowering pandemic restrictions,
- Alaska Housing Finance Corporation plans to distribute $50 million to homeowners
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-7.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Alaska House of Representatives will debate what name to call the money that will be sent to Alaskans later this year,
- A subsistence fishing method some sockeye harvesters use in Sitka is now banned
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-6.mp3 In this newscast:
- A recent diesel spill north of Sitka has lead authorities to advise against herring egg harvests in certain areas,
- Ethel Makinen, a prominent Lingít, culture bearer, died in February at age 90,
- Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic hired a new interim CEO
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-5.mp3 In this newscast:
- Juneau’s missing persons Facebook group is run by those who’ve lost someone,
- Dillingham tribal members and elementary school students have worked to rename a creek and road,
- Last week’s major Eagle River avalanche could take weeks to clean up
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-25.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Alaska Supreme Court says a new Senate district’s boundaries are an “unconstitutional political gerrymander”
- Juneau officials are making a Lemon Creek multi-use path a priority
- Goldbelt Inc. wants to help Eaglecrest Ski Area pay for its gondola project and expand summer operations
- Officials in Haines and Skagway are raising questions about how a proposed mine will get its ore out of the Chilkat Valley
- Kodiak’s Coast Guard base is getting a huge influx of federal infrastructure money
- Democrat Elvi Gray-Jackson decides to end her run for U.S. Senate
- Plans for a Alaska service for the late Rep. Don Young are set
- Clear skies are lining up with a moderate aurora forecast this weekend
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-24.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Juneau Police Department creates a missing persons web page
- Researchers present findings and recommendations on managing landslide risk in Haines
- Federal investigators release documents in their investigation of fatal sightseeing plane crash near Ketchikan in 2021
- Alaska’s congressional delegation calls for a permanent ban on Russian seafood imports
- The Anchorage Assembly will get a 12th member after redrawing district maps
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/KTOO-UPDATE-2022-03-23.mp3 In this newscast:
- The main system Juneau officials have used to manage the COVID-19 pandemic is set to end next month
- State officials lay out the timeline for special elections to fill Congressman Don Young’s vacant seat
- The Ayaprun Elitnaurvik Yup’ik Immersion School in Bethel is expanding
- Anchorage officials are negotiating a contract to build a large homeless shelter
- Microgrants for tools to grow, hunt and store food are available for to address food insecurity
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-22.mp3 In this newscast:
- Nome settles a lawsuit with a woman says police officers mishandled her sexual assault report
- The Alaska Supreme Court considers arguments in legislative redistricting cases
- State biologists are monitoring an oil spill for affects on the sac roe herring fishery in Sitka
- Climate change is getting top billing at Kodiak’s annual commercial fishing trade show
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-21.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services will be split into separate departments in July
- Alaska Congressman Don Young will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on March 29
- Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson will propose naming the Port of Alaska after Don Young
- The U.S. Forest Service releases an environmental impact statement for options to expand facilities at the Mendenhall Glacier
- Brian Buchman discusses his newspaper “The Homeless Changed”
- The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is expanding its high school component to Juneau
- The latest COVID numbers
- A strong storm is approaching Southeast Alaska
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-4.mp3 In this newscast:
- AKPM’s Liz Ruskin investigates the claim that the US cutting off Russian oil means that Alaska should produce more oil,
- A proposed bill seeks to address high school dropout rates by putting the education plans in the hands of Tribes
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648.wav In this newscast:
- There multiple avalanches above the Flume trail this week,
- Congress’s omnibus package will fund a water pipe on Wrangell Island,
- A bill to improve the Village Public Safety Officer program is in the Alaska House,
- The omnibus package will also reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-2.mp3 In this newscast:
- The Juneau Assembly made a change to the city’s Long Range Waterfront Plan, allowing for another cruise ship dock,
- Storytime at Mendenhall Valley Public Library is back,
- The Malaspina ferry ship could be turned into a museum,
- Alaska’s state government expects to raise more than $3.5 billion more this and next year than projected in December,
- A Fairbanks jury has indicted the man who is accused of a fatal shooting at a Safeway
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-1.mp3 In this newscast:
- Cruise ship passenger taxes could help fund an integrated convention center and performing arts venue,
- There’s still a vacancy on the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which complicates its currently meeting,
- The omnibus bill Congress passed last week renews the Violence Against Women Act,
- Officials are still trying to determine the source of a natural gas leak on the North Slope
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-11.mp3 In this newscast:
- Two members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation vote for the latest federal spending bill
- The number of mental health patients in Juneau continues to skyrocket
- Alaska’s visitor industry is bullish about the coming cruise season
- A totem pole is rededicated in the State Office Building
- Local COVID numbers remain low
- KTOO’s managing editor gives a send off for the newsroom’s Rashah McChesney
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022-03-10-KTOO-update.mp3 In this newscast:
- Masks will become optional in Juneau schools beginning April 4
- Retired public employees and the state settle two lawsuits over medical and dental plan changes
- An Alaska lawmaker calls efforts to remove a war criminal’s name from a major state highway a case of cancel culture
- Faculty at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School discover vandalism that includes a swastika
- Juneau School Board members hope for higher school funding from state lawmakers
- The International Longshore and Warehouse Union says they won’t touch Russian ships or cargo
- The Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park and Preserve says it will operate at 100% capacity this season
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ktoo-update-2022-03-09.mp3 In this newscast:
- The value of Alaska’s investments in Russia nosedive
- State transportation officials hear from four interested buyers of an iconic state ferry
- The latest COVID-19 numbers
- Haines shuts down its emergency operations center
- The USDA says it will help pay for relocating six Alaska communities threatened by erosion and flooding
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-VT-2.mp3 In this newscast:
- A Juneau artist submitted a piece for this year’s Wearable Arts show that was entirely in Lingít, but it was later disqualified from the judging process,
- President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports this morning, here’s what that means for Alaska
- Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Pierce has named Edie Grunwald as his running mate.
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648-vt-1.mp3 In this newscast:
- The U.S. Forest Service is updating its management plan for fighting invasive plants in Southeast Alaska,
- The Alaska Marine Highway System is resuming ferry links to Prince Rupert, British Columbia,
- The decision to turn Skagway’s medical clinic over to a SEARHC may go before voters,
- KTOO reports today’s COVID numbers
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20220304-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast:
- Research on Southeast Alaska’s pre-pandemic multi-year drought
- A draft of the state budget is out from the House Finance Committee
- Trying to eradicate rats in the Aleutian Islands
- 27 racist and sexist place names in Alaska are slated to be replaced
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1648.mp3 In this newscast:
- Juneau Assembly agreed to purchase a used gondola for Eaglecrest,
- The Juneau School District has chosen Shawn Arnold as the next principle of Thunder Mountain High School,
- A Hydaburg man died in custody in Craig in February
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/20220208NewsUpdate.mp3 In this newscast:
- With little guidance, families of missing people in Juneau search on their own,
- Second graders meet Beth Weldon at City Hall,
- Monday’s Juneau Assembly meeting reached some decisions
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/20220207-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast:
- Alaska’s congressional delegation addressed state lawmakers to say that the federal infrastructure law benefited Alaska,
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Alaska Congressman Don Young asserted that the attack on the Capitol was wrong,
- Online fantasy league allows for Fantasy Mushing,
- NOAA is sending four vessels into the Gulf of Alaska to study the impacts of climate change on salmon
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/20220204-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast:
- Electric utilities want to change how they charge for electric vehicle charging
- Statewide effort to raise funds for Tonga is underway
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1648-VT-2.mp3 In this newscast:
- The state is expecting a better year for king salmon in Southeast Alaska
- Barge rates have gone up across Southeast Alaska
- Juneau’s City Manager released recommendations on how to use marine passenger fees
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1648-VT-1.mp3 In this newscast:
- The State of Alaska is on the hook for nearly half a million dollars to settle with two doctors Gov. Mike Dunleavy fired,
- Rep. Ron Gillham, R-Soldotna, is back in Juneau after he was hospitalized for a heart attack last week,
- A man tracks down the history of a Tlingit totem pole in Washington D.C.,
- State Rep. Christopher Kurka, R-Wasilla, has tapped a running mate who recently had a run-in with the FBI
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1648-VT.mp3 In newscast:
- For the first time since it formed last year, Juneau’s Systemic Racism Review Committee has flagged a piece of legislation as problematic,
- A judge says Gov. Mike Dunleavy violated the First Amendment rights of a Juneau attorney when he fired her in 2018
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ktoo-update-2022-01-31.mp3 In this newscast:
- State lawmakers raise concerns about the sustainability of Gov. Dunleavy’s budget plan
- A group of young Alaskans lose their climate change lawsuit against the state
- The EPA is revisiting a decision that could permanently block development of the Pebble mine
- House lawmakers table an action to remove a state representative who is a member of the Oath Keepers from his committee assignments
- The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will hold its annual Tribal Assembly virtually for a third year
- Local COVID-19 cases are slowly trending down
- The National Weather Service issues a winter storm warning
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/20220128-NEWS-UPDATE.mp3 In this newscast:
- Lawmakers hire a law firm to investigate Angela Rodell’s firing
- 2 Juneau orgs are getting $4 million to make homes safer
- The Tazlina is coming to Southeast Alaska
- Lawmakers reject a proposal that would have reduced their living expenses
- Alaska joins Texas in suing federal government over National Guard vaccine mandate
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/1648-VT-12.mp3 In this newscast:
- Harvest numbers for a controversial wolf hunt on Prince of Wales Island are in
- Family of a St. Paul island toddler who died wants him to be buried on the Pribilof Island
- Juneau composers team up with Fairbanks climate scientists to turn climate change data into music
https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/1648-VT-11.mp3 In this newscast:
- Both of Juneau’s Perseverance acces trails and portions of Basin Road have been blocked by snow and debris,
- Alaska’s Polynesian comunity is collecting clothes, blanketss, food, water filters and money to send to Tonga,
- The U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved disaster designations for more than a dozen fishers in Alaska,
- The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents nearly 30,000 workers across the United States and they’re about to lose many of them
- In his fourth State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy called on the Legislature to pass bills and resolve permanent fund dividends,