KTOO News Update
The day’s local and state news in about 10 minutes.
Newscast – Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019
In this newscast: A desirable piece of waterfront property in downtown Juneau may have a new private owner -- Norwegian Cruise Lines -- despite the City and Borough of Juneau's efforts. Holland America Line will pay the state a $17,000 fine a year after one of its cruise ship's holding tanks leaked greywater into Glacier Bay National Park. A public comment period is ending soon on proposed logging, recreation and stream work in the Tongass National Forest near Petersburg, Wrangell and Kake, but the U.S. Forest Service continues to face questions about a lack of specifics. It could end up being the best commercial Dungeness crab season for a decade in Southeast Alaska.
Read More »Newscast – Monday, Sept. 9, 2019
In this newscast: Despite a large transfer to the state treasury, the Alaska Permanent Fund has grown by $1.4 billion. The federal Bureau of Land Management is holding public meetings around the state to allow public input on two projects: a proposal to develop a section of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Ambler Road mining project. Moose season begins this month in Southeast Alaska; in Wrangell, sportsmen and charities are teaming up to improve the process of distributing illegally obtained moose to people in need. The newly-opened Cannery Park in Petersburg is a place for visitors to learn about the town's history of seafood production. The Alaska Department of Commerce has said it does not support a regulation draft that would prohibit alcohol manufacturing businesses from hosting onsite activities including festivals, classes and performances.
Read More »Newscast – Friday, Sept. 6, 2019
In this newscast: The state announced it's shutting down ferry service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia; the news has been met with shock and disappointment in Ketchikan. NOAA scientists are tracking marine heatwave across millions of square miles of water in the Pacific Ocean. Southeast's landless tribal communities want to form five new village corporations out of 115,000 acres of Tongass national Forest. A national Muslim civil liberties group has resolved its federal lawsuit against the State of Alaska for providing what it says were insufficient meals to Muslim inmates fasting as part of their faith. The Alaska Supreme Court has ordered the state to pay about $100,000 in attorneys' fees and other costs after losing a legal fight earlier this year over abortion. A Southwest Alaska museum has received dozens of ancestral remains to hold until they can be returned to the Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor.
Read More »Newscast – Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019
In this newscast:The group pursuing a recall of Gov. Mike Dunleavy has submitted signatures to state elections officials as part of an initial phase of its push. The Alaska Marine Highway System opened booking for its winter schedule with fewer sailings and a new pricing system that could take travelers by surprise. The cruise industry's public face in Alaska is stepping out of the limelight.The Alaska Board of Fisheries violated the state's open meetings law, according to Alaska's ombudsman. Last month, Alaska's US Senators accompanied Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on a trip to communities around the state.
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019
In this newscast: Trial has begun in Juneau Superior Court for a man accused of killing two people in Juneau over three years ago. The Alaska Marine Highway System is ending service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, at the end of the month over an impasse with U.S. customs agents demanding armed protection in Canada. A high-level Alaskan appointee in the Trump administration who pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing is taking a job with an oil company seeking to develop a major project in Alaska. Negotiations between the University of Alaska land office and a potential buyer ground to a halt as the result of an escalating trade war between the US and China. Another stock in the Bering Sea blue king crab fisheries was just added to the nation's overfished list.
Read More »Newscast – Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019
In this newscast: A state Superior Court judge says a lawsuit alleging the state unlawfully declared an emergency to cut Medicaid payments raises "serious and substantial questions," owners of a Ketchikan pulp mill pitch converting their mill into additional cruise ship berths and tourism attraction, the city of Fairbanks reaches out to local businesses to keep funding going for a service that transports intoxicated people on the streets to safety, Alaska State Troopers announce an arrest in a 41-year-old cold case murder, a bus driver who struck and killed Skagway's mayor and mother in Washington D.C. pleads guilty to negligent homicide, two artists from St. Lawrence Island finish a Juneau residency with a blanket toss, and Galena residents pay for an alleged drug dealer's plane ticket out of town.
Read More »Newscast – Monday, Sept. 2, 2019
In this newscast: Federal officials visit Nome to discuss violent crime, missing and murdered Native Americans, and illegal narcotics; Gov. Mike Dunleavy picks Rep. Laddie Shaw to fill Anchorage Sen. Chris Birch's vacant seat, Orthodox pilgrims make their way to Spruce Island near Kodiak, and the Interior Department OKs motorized electric bicycles in national parks and public lands usually off limits to motorized vehicles.
Read More »Newscast – Friday, Aug. 30, 2019
In this newscast: Alaska officials hear U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos discusses her national scholarship proposal designed to encourage private investment, the Missile Defense Agency details what a recent Pentagon missile defense contract cancellation means for Fort Greely, a Coast Guard seaman charged with a murder in Unalaska awaits court martial proceedings, and the mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough signs a temporary disaster declaration for Seldovia and Nanwalek because they're running out of water.
Read More »Newscast – Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019
In this newscast: Stakeholders react to news that President Donald Trump wants to open up the Tongass National Forest to roadbuilding, Alaska public employee unions call the state attorney general's legal opinion on union dues ideologically "extreme," Haines brewers and distillers react to the latest regulatory proposal from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, and state wildlife troopers allege they caught a longtime fishing lobbyist fishing illegally near Sitka.
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019
In this newscast: The federal government releases preliminary studies that are a prerequisite to build a 200-mile Ambler road for mining access, the Glory Hall homeless shelter's relocation plans upset neighbors of the potential new location, state regulators propose rules to limit activities at breweries and distilleries, Washington state officials propose an overhaul of the legal marijuana industry's rules, Alaska issues a public health alert about cases of lung illnesses associated with vaping, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan discusses Arctic security during a short visit to Unalaska, and a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist finishes two-week, trans-Atlantic zero-emission sailing trip to the New York.
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