Alaska Dispatch News
Anchorage in traffic
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- Anchorage in traffic
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- A time-lapse video takes a tour of the roads of midtown and downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on a slushy Monday, February 22, 2016. Road included are Tudor Road, Lake Otis Boulevard, Northern Lights Boulevard, C Street, Seward Highway and Minnesota Drive. (Video by Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)
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- Our Voices Will Be Heard rehearsal at Perseverance Theater
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- “Our Voices Will Be Heard" is the first play written, directed and performed by Natives to be performed on the main stage in Perseverance Theatre history.
Read the full story on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/1WHeoIT
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- Spenard Road reconstruction visualized
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Anchorage voters will decide in April whether to approve money for a long-delayed effort to rebuild Spenard Road, a project that has been churning back to life in recent weeks.
At West Anchorage High School this month, project managers held an open house to showcase the latest version of the plans. The project, which stretches through a vibrant commercial area surrounded by apartment buildings and condos, would convert the north end of Spenard Road between Northern Lights and Hillcrest Drive from four lanes to three lanes — at least as currently envisioned. Project managers hope to have most of the plan complete by the end of July, and they want to construction be complete by the end of the summer 2017.
Watch this video to get an understanding of the city's current plan.
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- 2000 hard miles begin in Anchorage
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- The Iron Dog snowmobile race is more than going fast for 2000 miles through the arctic Alaskan wilderness. Top teams trim out their machines to withstand the pounding doled out by the rugged terrain. It is billed as the world’s longest and toughest snowmobile race, got started Saturday in downtown Anchorage. This is the second year that the race held their ceremonial start in Anchorage.
The race officially gets under way Sunday in Big Lake. From there teams of two racers each will head to Nome, where they have a mandatory layover, before heading to the finish line in Fairbanks.
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- Flips and tricks for Flying Iron freestyle
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Three snowmachine acrobats dazzled a crowd of several hundred spectators on the north side of the Sunshine Plaza tonight during the “Flying Iron” freestyle show. The city shut down 3rd Avenue between C and E Streets and piled a giant mounds of snow for the snowmachiners to drive, jump and land on. Safety was top of mind. The show started 30 minutes late as the drivers and mechanics worked on a sled that wasn’t quite right.
The show kicked off festivities for Iron Dog weekend. The 2000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome and then onto Fairbanks begins on Sunday after the pro class racers drive through the streets of Anchorage Saturday.
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- Sunken car towed from Palmer Hay Flats salmon rearing waters
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Wade Behm and his son Eric of Happy Hooker Towing were called in by Alaska Department of Fish and Game to winch out a sunken Ford pickup truck from the waters of Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge Wednesday.
Read the full article on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/1RaQV18
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- Pickup truck towed out of salmon rearing waters in Palmer Hay Flats
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Supply bags gathered for 2016 Iditarod
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Competitors in the upcoming Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race brought their drop bags to the Air Land Transport facility in South Anchorage on Wednesday, February 18, 2016. The bags contain their personal food, dog food and other supplies for their trip to Nome. Race marshall Mark Nordman said there’s about 1,400 to 1,500 pounds of drop bags dropped off for each of the 86 participating mushers. Those will be delivered to the various checkpoints along the trail. (Video by Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)
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- Valdez Ice Climbing Festival
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Over the Presidents Day weekend, 300 people gathered in Valdez' Keystone Canyon for the Valdez Ice Climbing Festival. Climbing 200 foot frozen waterfalls, participants are helping make the dream of Levitation 49, a non-profit sports commission, a reality. Organizers hope that by hosting outdoor events year round, Valdez will attract new businesses and year-round residents.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/article/20160216/v...
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- Complicated Alaska budget crisis explained in simple terms
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- With the state facing a $3.5 billion budget deficit, Alaskans have been debating a complicated series of plans on how to fix the problem. How much state spending needs to be cut? Should we increase taxes or initiate new ones? How does the Alaska Permanent Fund fit into the situation? It's by far the biggest issue the governor and state legislators are dealing with in Juneau this year.
In recent months, Gunnar Knapp, professor of economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage and director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, has been on a mission to educate Alaskans about the problem and potential solutions. He's given versions of a presentation about the budget crisis and Alaska's looming fiscal cliff to anyone who will listen, and has spoken to groups large and small.
We asked Knapp to make a shorter, somewhat simplified version of his presentation for a video audience.
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- Stan Hooley announces the 2016 Iditarod start
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Younger and more aggressive homeless people raise concern downtown
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Editor's note: Video includes explicit language
The Anchorage Downtown Partnership reports that its “ambassadors,” who patrol downtown on foot, have recently seen an increase of aggression, and in some cases violence, from Anchorage’s homeless, especially young adults and teens. The nonprofit estimates there are at least 200 people who live on the streets in the downtown area. A portion of this group sleeps in alleys and doorways, and under heat exhaust vents.
Each morning the Partnership's security team rouses the regulars before the majority of business owners, employees and customers show up. The rest of day they help keep order on downtown streets and inside businesses, like coffee shops, where some of homeless are not welcome because they loiter, steal and harass the general public.
On Friday morning, Feb. 5, Alaska Dispatch News spent about three hours with the interim director of security for the Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Micha...
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- One more try to reconstruct Spenard Road
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- After nearly two decades of debate and planning, the Spenard Road reconstruction project -- from 30th Avenue to Hillcrest Drive -- is positioned to receive $13.8 million if a city bond proposal passes during the April 5 Anchorage municipal election.
The municipality's promotional machine is in overdrive. From 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at West High School, project planners and engineers will host an open house to get their message out. They are still taking public comment on the project and entertaining ideas for improvements.
The team will attend various community forums over the next several weeks, including with area community councils and at the Spenard Chamber of Commerce.
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has made construction projects a priority as the city copes with declining state revenue from oil.
“One of the ways that Anchorage is going to get through the state’s fiscal situation is we’re going to build our way through it,...
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- Alaska Ski for Women
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Morning sunshine brightened the trails as 500 skiers participated in the 20th annual Alaska Ski For Women at Kincaid Park on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. Donations from the women-only cross country ski event has contributed over $1 million to groups that actively work to improve women's lives and help stop the cycle of domestic abuse against women and children.
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- Anchorage chefs toss aside rivalries for South Restaurant's 'back room' series
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- It’s not every day that the executive chef of South Restaurant + Coffeehouse finds himself under the instruction of another chef in his own kitchen.
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- 2016 Denali Doubles sled dog race begins
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Seventeen teams began the Denali Doubles sled dog race on February 5, 2016. The race, founded and organized by veteran dog musher Jeff King, uses a unique format. Teams must consist of two mushers and can use up to 20 dogs. The race follows the Denali Highway near Cantwell, Alaska, for 226 miles. (Video by Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)
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- How to make sablefish bone broth
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Alaska Black Cod owner Rich Clarke makes use of the fish waste from his small processing plant, as well as hopping on the latest food trend Jan. 25, 2016, by making a French-style clear “fumet” broth he sells as “sablefish stock.”
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- Anchorage Jail surveillance video of Larry Kobuk death
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Warning: This video contains extremely graphic scenes and language.
Surveillance video from the Anchorage Jail, depicting the death of 33-year-old Larry Kobuk, who was arrested January 27, 2015 on charges of vehicle theft. Kobuk died at the jail during an incident where four officers restrained him in an attempt to remove his clothing, which was needed as evidence.
The State of Alaska released this same video, without audio, earlier this month but the Alaska Correctional Officers Association, the union representing officers at the Anchorage Jail, felt that the video without audio was unfairly portraying their members as using excessive force. The union released the same video, with audio, to members of the media today.
Full story: http://www.adn.com/article/20160129/alaska-correctional-officers-union-releases-video-inmate-death-allege-bias
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- Police speak after Point Woronzof body discovery
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- The person found critically injured at Point Woronzof after the discovery of a body there Thursday morning has died, police say.
Police announced the second death at about 1 p.m. Thursday, following a morning call to Point Woronzof near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
"Detectives have identified the two found this morning (a male and a female) and are in the process of notifying their next of kin," police wrote. "The bodies of both persons were found on the beach just below the parking lot at Point Woronzof. Homicide detectives continue to investigate the circumstances leading to their deaths."
A statement from the Anchorage Police Department announced the injured person's discovery at about 10 a.m. That person was taken from the scene by ambulance.
APD said in an initial statement that calls reporting a citizen’s discovery of a body at the point, just north of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, came in shortl...
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- Gov. Bill Walker's 2016 State of the State speech
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Gov. Bill Walker delivers the annual State of the State address before the Legislature at the Alaska Capitol in Juneau on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016.
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- KTVA reporter quits on-air, reveals herself as owner of Alaska Cannabis Club
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- KTVA Charlo Greene just quit on live TV after revealing she was the founder of the AK Cannabis Club.
Read the full article on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/adnakcannabisclub
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- Alaska Forest School
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- 'Happy Birthday, Asi,' Ma'o Tosi on violence in our community
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Ma'o Tosi, Anchorage community leader active in programs that help youth, posted this video commentary to Facebook on Aug. 5, 2015, with the following tag.
"With the violence in our streets picking up I visited a friend this morning to vent but thought I'd share. I don't want to see others make the same choices...I don't want to see others end up like us or worse. Happy birthday Asi...love you always bro! #Peace#AnchorageReppin #AsiSaafi #RIP #TokoUso PLEASE SHARE and TAG someone, if you think it can help."
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- Earthquake home explosion in Kenai
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Vinnie Calderon talks about the loss of his home on Lilac Lane in Kenai, AK on Sunday, January 24, 2016. His home was completely destroyed when a natural gas leak caused two explosions and a fire. Calderon suffered burns when he went back into the house after getting his family out to get a housemate out.
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- Earthquake clean up at Anchorage True Value Hardware
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Security video of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake knocking over bins full of nuts and bolts at the Anchorage True Value Hardware store on Jewel Lake on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016.
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- With lack of snow in Anchorage, mushers head north
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- The Montana Creek Dog Mushers Association, located just south of the Talkeetna Spur Road cutoff, is one of the only places in southcentral Alaska where sprint mushers can race this year.
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- Alaska Native students learn how to reduce heating costs
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- A group of middle school students from Western Alaska visited Anchorage this week to get a glimpse of college existence and learn the fundamentals of science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM.
STEM is a worldwide movement that encourages students at an early age to excel in the four core subjects. The 12-day Middle School Academy is put on by the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program at University of Alaska Anchorage.
Friday's lessons included a section on energy conservation through home insulation.
"The reason why we’re doing this experiment is because the heating bill is almost a thousand bucks per month,” said Cooper Moen, a student in the Lower Yukon School District.
Throughout the academy, the students have built computers and bridges, learned about earthquake engineering and experimented with renewable energy.
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- Tango opera 'Maria de Buenos Aires' prepares for Anchorage debut
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- "She was born on the day God was drunk.” That description is one of the first things we learn about the title character of the opera “Maria de Buenos Aires,” which has its Alaska premiere this week.
Soprano Catalina Cuervo and baritone Luis Alejandro Orozco star.
Read the full article on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/1TdYF51
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- Raw video TIRE VIEW: Fat biking through Far North Bicentennial Park
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Raw video FRONT VIEW: Fat biking through Far North Bicentennial Park
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Raw video REAR VIEW: Fat biking through Far North Bicentennial Park
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Anchorage is fat bike heaven
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- You've seen them all around town. It's clear that fat biking is here to stay. This growing trend in Anchorage's bicycling community is now a mainstream way for even the casual rider to take advantage of Anchorage's easily accessible trail system, and Alaska's outdoor lifestyle, all year long.
On the morning of Jan. 15, a small group of avid fat-tire bikers met Alaska Dispatch News in Anchorage's Far North Bicentennial Park for a explanation and demonstration of fat-tire bike basics. Clinton Hodges, Laura Fox, Ryan Greeff and Nick Blades have all been riding fat-tire bikes for several years. Watch this video to learn more about fat-tire biking and see this group of friends in action.
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- Volunteer spirit in full swing at Food Bank of Alaska
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- About 50 volunteers pitched in for the Food Bank of Alaska’s monthly “box build,” held this month on January 18, 2016. The food will be given low income seniors around Alaska. Twenty tons of food are packed into 1,500 thirty-pound boxes by the volunteers. David Cornwall, Food Bank’s logistics manager, said the boxes are distributed by trucks, planes and barges around the state. He said he sees many of the same people pitch in month after month, looking for an opportunity to make a difference. “I like to see all the people coming in to volunteer, and there’s nothing better than handing this box or any food out to somebody that really needs it,” he said.
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- Tina and Austin: Life after the crash
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- In March 2013, while Tina Ervin was away for the night, her five-year-old son Austin was involved in a car accident with family friends in Wasilla, Alaska. The accident left Austin, now 8, unable to move his body from the neck down and requiring ventilator to breathe. With full-time help, Tina cares for her son. Tina describes the experience and her motivation in helping him live the fullest life he can.
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- Akiak Dash 2016
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- The 2016 Akiak Dash sled dog race began on the Kuskokwim River in Bethel on Saturday, January 16, 2016.
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- Beach Front Silent Disco dance party at the Anchorage Museum
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Anchorage local artist Buck Walsky re-created his Burning Man art installation on the front lawn of the Anchorage Museum. Beach Front Silent Disco is a dance party like no other. Alex the Lion djed music that was wirelessly transmitted to two hundred headphones that people could rent for the evening to dance. To a casual passerby the event looks like an odd miming performance with people shuffling around in frigid temperatures under sea creature-like blue lights. It was a surreal and joyful event to celebrate winter, sponsored by Polar Nights at the Anchorage Museum.
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- Blues Central, Anchorage's new speakeasy
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Longtime Anchorage residents are well acquainted with Blue Central, the midtown bar and restaurant that closed in 2013. It’s been resurrected at Williwaw (both in name and in a liquor license transfer) but with a far different look. Forget the well-worn booths and neon lighting. Blue Central has gone back to the Prohibition era, with a modern twist. Pictures of rock 'n' roll icons line the bar, lit by vintage-style Edison light bulbs. The cocktails include pop culture-inspired mixes alongside Prohibition-era favorites. Even getting in to the bar is an event -- requiring a phone booth, password and an unmarked door.
Read the full article on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/1PtK0wr
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- Chief Chris Tolley addresses media on January 15, 2015
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Beer lovers! "Barley Wine Blastoff" is Friday
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Midnight Sun Brewing Co. will release a very limited supply of vintage barley wine during their "Barley Wine Blastoff" tomorrow morning in the tasting room loft on Dimond Hook Drive. They'll have only a few cases starting at 11 a.m. Friday. This event is a kick off Alaska Beer Week. Watch the video to find out more details.
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- Seal bombs thrown into Sitka hatchery net fine against skipper
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- A crew member of the fishing vessel Sara Dawn throws a seal bomb over the boundary line of the Hidden Falls Hatchery near Sitka on July 21, 2013, in this video recorded by a hatchery worker and given to Alaska Wildlife Troopers. The Sara Dawn's skipper, 43-year-old Andrew Kittams, agreed in October 2015 to pay more than $15,000 in fines and restitution over fish illegally scared into his nets in the case.
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- Unseen – Seen, a group portrait show at Beans Café in Anchorage
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Painter James Temte puts the finishing touches on his mural for Unseen – Seen, a group portrait show at Beans Café.
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- Anchorage Police Chief discusses officer involved shooting
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Mortar live-fire training on JBER
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- Paratroopers with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division fired 120mm mortars towards the Eagle River impact area during live-fire training at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. Residents in and around Anchorage, JBER, Eagle River and the Mat-Su Valley should expect to hear loud noises through Thursday as the Spartan Brigade conducts biennial certification of the mortar units prior to executing a brigade live-fire at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La., in February. Bill Roth / adn.com
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- Debate on end of life rights and decision-making
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Alaska Dispatch News and the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolf Debate team presented a debate Monday, Jan. 11 at the Bear Tooth Theatre on right-to-die legislation and whether eligible patients with a terminal illness should be allowed to obtain a lethal prescription from their doctor.
The motion: “Alaska should allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of a physician," was debated by two participants from each side of the argument.
On the pro side: Alaska Rep. Harriet Drummond, D-Anchorage, and Dr. John Mouracade, a UAA philosophy professor. On the con side: Dr. George L. Stewart, Alaska director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics, and Dr. Mary Lanza, an anesthesiologist at Providence Alaska Medical Center.
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- Sebastian Schnuelle on the comeback trail
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Despite being one of the sport’s more accomplished dog drivers during his best years, Schnuelle decided after the 2011 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race— in which he recorded his fourth-straight top-10 finish — that he was done. The racing grind had become too much. Despite about $178,000 in Iditarod earnings, his money was dwindling, his kennel talent was aging and his puppy prospects were dim.
He knew he would have had to start from scratch with breeding. So he cut the number of his “monsters,” as he lovingly calls them, in half and returned to his roots as a sled dog tour guide and mushing coach working in Juneau and Two Rivers. He needed to rebuild his retirement account and reclaim his sanity.
Watch this video to learn what Schnuelle has been doing in his life after Iditarod.
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- Motherlode Lodge in Hatcher Pass burns
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
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- The historic Motherlode Lodge in Hatcher Pass was engulfed in flames Friday evening, and firefighters were letting the building burn because it was outside any fire service area.
Read the full article on Alaska Dispatch News: http://j.mp/1SBsLyV
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- Search for the Lost Whaling Fleets of the Western Arctic
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- NOAA archaeologists have discovered the battered hulls of two 1800s whaling ships nearly 144 years after they and 31 others sank off the Arctic coast of Alaska in one of the planet's most unexplored ocean regions. The shipwrecks, and parts of other ships, that were found are most likely the remains of 33 ships trapped by pack ice close to the Alaskan Arctic shore in September 1871.
Video via NOAA.
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- Iditarod dogs rest under the northern lights
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- The northern lights put on a show for Iditarod mushers and their dogs as they rested in Huslia on Saturday morning, March 14, 2015.
Just 300 people live in the Koyukon Athabascan village, but for those lined up along the street leading to the Huslia dog yard and cheering in race leader Aaron Burmeister -- the first Iditarod racer ever to arrive in the mushing mecca of Huslia -- it felt a whole lot bigger.
“This is like winning the Iditarod,” Burmeister said of the enthusiastic crowd as he bedded down his dogs, surrounded by the hundreds of villagers that came out to watch him be first into the checkpoint.
Burmeister didn't just collect the official GCI Dorothy Page halfway award and the $3,000 worth of gold nuggets that come with it. He collected an unexpected surprise when the community offered up its own award for the first musher-- a pair of beaded beaver mitts, a beaded cross and a marten hat.
Burmeister, who collected th...
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- 'Fairbanks Four' raise money for Anchorage plane crash widow and family
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- The men known as the Fairbanks Four — Kevin Pease, Marvin Roberts, George Frese and Eugene Vent (not pictured) — hosted a family fundraiser Monday for the Anchorage attorney whose husband was killed in a fiery plane crash last week in downtown Anchorage. The attorney, Kate Demarest, had represented the men for free during recent court hearings and negotiations that led to the release from prison of three of the four men (one had already served his term). Supporters of the men say they were wrongly convicted for the 1997 murder of John Hartman., in part over racism — all four were Native Americans. But in the formal settlement of the case, the four agreed their convictions were properly obtained, but that new evidence could result in a new trial. The original convictions were set aside.
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- Watch this if you get manicures or pedicures!
- Date posted
- 8 years ago
- Description
- Nail technician and state-licensed manicuring instructor Tammy Dupree uses four types of disinfectants to sanitize manicure and pedicure utensils.
The most common is barbicide. It is widely used in nail salons for disinfecting. But Dupree says barbicide by itself is not enough. She insists that people who get their nails done should ask if hospital-grade sanitizers and sterilization machines are used in the facility. She says such practices are necessary to prevent the spread of fungal infections, hepatitis C and tuberculosis -- just to name a few possible health issues. Before and after each use, Dupree disinfects the tub, jets and hoses of her pedicure spa with bleach.
“I’m afraid of ‘if’: If this person has a problem and they’re not saying anything because they want pretty feet,” she said, referring to fungal infections. “I’m going to make sure that (problem) doesn’t pass to another person.”
Dupree says she has worked as a n...