Public Safety

One Alaska legislator is hoping to change the way police serve in the state.

The Seward Highway incident was one of several high-profile Southcentral avalanches this week.

On average, all of Alaska’s governors over the past decade have issued a disaster declaration within 29 days of a crisis occurring. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, with an average of 45 days for disaster response, is pulling that overall average up.

A helicopter that crashed Saturday evening near the Knik Glacier, killing five of six people aboard, just missed clearing the top of a mile-high mountain ridge, according to federal investigators.

The Dunleavy administration has proposed making it legal to drive all-terrain vehicles and snow machines on roads with speed limits of 45 mph or less.

Teams will collect data during plane and helicopter flyovers using lidar, a type of scanner that bounces light off of the terrain below to provide a detailed topography of the landscape. 

Prosecuting crimes in Western Alaska can be tough, with just a few lawyers assigned to thousands of cases annually.

An Anchorage man was sentenced to five years of probation and to pay $2,500 in restitution and surrender more than $125,000 in retail product.

The team of firefighters and volunteers responded after a man fell into the water at night during a storm.

Taylor said it may be appropriate for the Legislature to amend the Alaska Disaster Act based on the state’s experiences over the past year.