Pablo Arauz Peña, KTOO

In this newscast: Petersburg is among the top hotspots for COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the New York Times; The National Transportation Safety Board has opened up an investigation into the disappearance of the helicopter piloted by former tribal health executive Andy Teuber; Sealaska Heritage Institute and the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus have settled a lawsuit over a coat the company sold; Alaska is preparing for its first elections under a new system green-lit by voters last year; Officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory have raised the alert level after a small explosion was recorded at a remote volcano. 

In this newscast: The avalanche danger has gone down, from extreme to considerable, in downtown Juneau this week; An important part of tackling climate change is understanding how carbon moves through different ecosystems; Indigenous people across the country continue to confront the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons epidemic.

In this newscast: For the first time in over a week Petersburg’s active COVID-19 case count dropped Monday; An unfolding outbreak in Cordova, the Prince William Sound fishing town of 2,000, is a cautionary tale about what happens when residents don’t follow mitigation guidelines; A new musical project led by Nicholas Galanin has signed with legendary SubPop records; Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has declined to reappoint Loren Jones of Juneau to the board the regulates the state’s legal marijuana industry; Alaska and Canadian officials in British Columbia have announced they have completed and will not continue data collection on three transboundary watersheds.

In this newscast: Over the weekend, Juneau city officials warned of the potential for historic avalanches, prompting a voluntary evacuation of one downtown neighborhood; A dime-sized fragment of dog bone — more than ten-thousand years old — has given researchers new clues about how domesticated dogs first made their way to the Americas; Two close contacts of state Representative Mike Cronk and two other legislative staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 since Cronk tested positive on Wednesday.