Alaska Dispatch News
Store owner tells story of disarming that would-be robber
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- Store owner tells story of disarming that would-be robber
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Young Jung, the owner of Smokes 4 Less in midtown, tells the story of how she disarmed a woman who entered her store intent on robbing Jung with first a gun, and then a knife. The same woman apparently robbed Kodiak Kup and Aftershock Espresso recently. Frank Bailey, owner of Kodiak Kup, brought Jung flowers this afternoon to say thank you for her actions that led to the woman's capture.
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- Lucky Wishbone is almost 60
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
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- There's always plenty happening at the Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage. Veterans Day is no different. The restaurant's 93-year-old founder and owner, George Brown, served as an Army Air Corps pilot shuttling fuel and supplies in China during World War II. He celebrates Veterans Day by doing what he does every day -- honoring fellow veterans and his employees. It's a recipe for longevity. The iconic Fairview eatery is about to turn 60.
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- Veterans and Remembrance Day
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
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- The Canadian Forces conducted a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery shortly after a Veterans Day ceremony held at the Alaska National Guard armory on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015.
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- East High School Honors Veteran
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Students observe Veterans Day with a ceremony held Wednesday morning, November 11, 2015, at East High School. The event included a reading of the 28 names of service members who died since last year's observance, speakers, and participation by the East choir and Army JROTC honor guard. The ceremony concluded with a release of red, white and blue balloons honoring America and gold balloons honoring the dead.
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- Juneau residents describe heroin's toll
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Police say six people in Juneau, Alaska, have died from heroin overdoses in the first ten months of 2015. Resident's speak out about how this problem began began, who was affected and the impact it continues to have on their community.
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- Gov. Bill Walker talks about the Kilbuck school building fire
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
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- Alaska Northern Lights timelapse (in 4K)
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The northern hemisphere was treated to an especially active Aurora earlier this week. Nearly 3,000 still images from two Canon 5D Mark III cameras were combined to create this timelapse.
Recorded in Turnagain Pass and Portage Lake, Alaska on Nov 4, 2015.
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- Real time aurora borealis over Turnagain Pass in Alaska
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Night skies lit up early Wednesday morning during the second night of what is looking to be an especially active week for the aurora borealis.
Skies over Anchorage cleared after midnight, treating Alaska's largest city to an aurora display that was especially active, if not especially colorful.
Scattered low-hanging clouds marred otherwise clear views along Turnagain Arm, but Turnagain Pass, at 1,000 feet above sea level, offered mostly clear skies. This video was shot in real time using a Sony A7s camera, which can capture imagery in incredibly low light with a capacity of ISO 400,000.
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- Kilbuck school building burns in Bethel
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- BETHEL -- A fire was raging Tuesday morning through the Ayaprun Elitnaurviat Yup’ik immersion school and the Kuskokwim Learning Academy in Bethel, with every piece of firefighting equipment the Western Alaska hub city has at the scene as crews tried to save parts of the structure.
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- Raw video: Kilbuck school building burns in Bethel
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
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- Keeping it fun at the tire shop during Alaska changeover season
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
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- Anchorage's annual studded-tire procrastinators made for a busy Monday at local tire shops. But the folks at American Tire downtown know how to keep it light despite the workload. Phyllis Robertson, manager for 25 years, leads the fun.
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- Truck spins tires on Huffman Road
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- It’s generally expected that big pickups are ready for freezing temperatures, snow, rain and slick roads. That wasn’t the case for a this truck hauling a trailer and snowmachine on Huffman Road on Monday morning. The truck got stuck in the middle of the eastbound lane on ice and packed snow near Elmore Road. The driver decided to “gun it,” which didn’t really help. The rig was stuck for at least 30 minutes.
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- Inside Linda La's Pho Vietnam Kitchen
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Behind any steaming bowl of pho soup or fried rice at Pho Vietnams 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 is Linda La, the mastermind behind the Anchorage restaurant chain. Get a look inside her kitchen.
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- Drug-sniffing K9 trooper retires
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Kilo, a long haired German Shepard, retired after 10 years of service with the Alaska State Troopers. He participated in over 400 drug searches which resulted in the seizure of $1.8 million in cash and property involved in the illicit drug industry.
During his ten years of service, Kilo worked across Alaska with three handlers, including his current handler, investigator Vance Peronto. Kilo will retire at home with Peronto.
The troopers are planning a small retirement party for Kilo, complete with his favorite treat, ice cream.
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- 2013 Mt Marathon descent helmet-cam
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Helmet-cam video of the descent of Mt. Marathon in Seward, Alaska by Clint Farr. Mt. Marathon is the country's second-oldest continuously run footrace (1st is Boston). 3,022ft up and down a steep, slippery mountain.
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- Kaltag Northern Lights
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Clear and cold -- that's been the theme of the weather so far during the 2015 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. After a warmer-than-usual winter around the state that forced the race's traditional Willow start to be pushed north to the cooler Interior locale of Fairbanks, mushers have been met with biting cold that's left fingers frostbitten and faces frigid.But, there's an upside. All the clear weather has meant that there are some great views of the northern lights, which offers something to watch while standing outside in the middle of the night waiting for mushers to arrive.Sunday morning saw just such a happy coincidence, as the aurora emerged in the skies over Kaltag, the last stop along the Yukon River for the Iditarod mushers.
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- Mothers react after sentencing in daughters' killing by DUI driver
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Stacey Allen Graham, 33, was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison for killing two young teenage girls in a drunken-driving crash in the summer of 2013.
After an emotional sentencing hearing, in which the victims’ families testified, Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby said he believed the sentence he pronounced was the longest in Alaska’s history for “conduct of this type.” He imposed two consecutive 20-year sentences, each with four years suspended, for the two counts of second-degree murder to which Graham had earlier pleaded guilty.
The crimes date back to a Friday evening in August 2013 when Graham sped in his Toyota Tacoma pickup after bouts of heavy drinking at a company golf tournament and afterward at a friend’s house. His blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit, according to court documents.
Read more: www.adn.com/article/20150206/stacey-graham-sentenced-32-years-dui-deaths-2-teen-girls
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- Zero S Electric Motorcycle
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Those who love macho motorcycle growls and liberating highway rides may look with derision at the latest two-wheeled creature in Alaska, one that comes with its own extension cord and isn't much louder than the wind.
That would be the Zero S motorcycle, a new (to Alaska) electric bike that costs about a penny a mile to operate, much cheaper than a standard motorcycle -- never mind an automobile. The drawback for long-distance riders? The Zero S will take you about 50 miles on a three-hour charge, meaning you won't be on the highway for long unless you're hauling your own generator.
The bike, made by Zero Motorcycles of California, seems perfect for summertime urban commutes, said Thomas Davidson, service director forThe Motorcyle Shop in Anchorage.
Read more: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/move-over-harley-electric-motorbike-comes-alaska
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- Interview with former U.S. senator and Alaska governor Frank Murkowski
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- You don't spend decades in the U.S. Senate and four years as Alaska governor and not form strong opinions.
Frank Murkowski was a U.S. senator representing Alaska for more than 20 years, and the state's governor from 2002 to 2006. He lost the Republican primary to Sarah Palin in August 2006. After his term ended, he left public life.
But Murkowski says he's still connected to Alaska's policymakers and business leaders. He wants to continue contributing ideas. He thinks he can help.
Murkowski and his wife, Nancy Murkowski, visited Alaska Dispatch News Oct. 1, 2015, to chat with reporters and others. Murkowski told the group he met with Gov. Bill Walker that morning to discuss, among other things, the state budget crisis, what to do with the Permanent Fund, and Shell's decision to stop exploring for oil in the Chukchi Sea.
The conversation has been edited for brevity.
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- Debate on religious freedom vs. discrimination at Bear Tooth
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Twenty-one states have enacted legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of one’s sexuality, and Alaska has been grappling with the same question since 2008 when similar legislation failed.
On Tuesday night, the Anchorage Assembly expanded antidiscrimination protections in the city.
A broad social question exists about how to balance equality with religious freedom. Should we allow individuals or businesses the right to refuse services to members of the LGBT community on the grounds of religious freedom?
A public debate on just that issue took place at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub in Anchorage Wednesday evening, co-sponsored by the UAA Seawolf Debate Team and Alaska Dispatch News.
The issue: “Individuals and organizations ought to be free to refuse service to patrons on the basis of religious objection.”
Pro: Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Council, and Bernadette Wilson, host of KFQD’s ...
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- Capitol Christmas tree cut down in felling ceremony near Seward
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- SEWARD -- The 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas tree was felled Tuesday afternoon on the outskirts of this Southcentral Alaska harbor community, the first step of a 6,000-mile journey that will eventually take it to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
The 74-foot Lutz spruce cut Tuesday, a hybrid between a Sitka and white spruce, hails from the Chugach National Forest, the country’s most northern and western national forest. On Tuesday morning the 90-year-old tree stood about 300 feet off the Seward Highway. The surrounding area was cleared and filled in with dirt in order to support two cranes that secured the spruce estimated to weigh about 7,500 pounds.
The spruce was found by Amanda Villwock, Natural Resources Specialist with the Chugach National Forest, who said she began searching for the “perfect" tree last October.
“The tree symbolizes more than just the tree itself, you know, especially coming from Alaska,” V...
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- Capitol Christmas tree cut in the Chugach National Forest
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Chugach National Forest Engine Captain Dan Osborn was the lucky U.S. Forest Service employee to make the long cut that freed the 2015 US Capitol Christmas tree from its roots on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015.
After this video was recorded around 12:45 p.m., 15 miles north of the Southcentral Alaska community of Seward, the 90-year-old, 74-foot-tall Lutz Spruce was loaded on a flatbed truck and will spend a few days touring the state before being shipped to Seattle and then onto Washington D.C.
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- Roberts of the 'Fairbanks Four' speaks at AFN
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Hundreds of AFN delegates urged Gov. Bill Walker on Friday to free the Fairbanks Four -- Eugene Vent, Marvin Roberts, Kevin Pease and George Frese -- Alaska Natives who many believe were improperly convicted of murdering John Hartman in Fairbanks in 1997.
Roberts, the only member so far of the Fairbanks Four to leave prison on parole, spoke to AFN on Oct. 17, 2015.
“This nightmare began in October of 1997," he said. "Then, like now, we four men maintain our innocence. I know for a fact that I am innocent. And I believe in all of my heart that they are innocent."
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- Gov. Bill Walker addresses AFN convention
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- For the first time as Alaska's governor, Bill Walker on Thursday spoke at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. Topics he covered included background on his life, current state fiscal uncertainty and the "Fairbanks Four," as well as his gubernatorial election campaign that was happening this time last year.
Walker had to pause and collect his emotions when talking about the AFN campaign endorsement the pair received during the 2014 convention.
“We didn’t do this in the traditional way. We did it in the Alaskan way," Walker said to the crowd of more than 3,000. "When you win by 2 percent, you do a whole lot of thank-yous. And I thank you for that 2 percent, because that’s what made the difference and put us into office. You did that. Thank you very much -- very much.”
Also during his speech, Walker presented the 2015 Shirley Demientieff Award to Poldine Carlo of Fairbanks.
“For decades, Poldine has spent countless hou...
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- Cute Kids of the Kluti-Kaah
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- On the last morning of AFN, Oct. 17, 2015, about 25 kids and adults from Copper Center, Alaska performed in their Native Ahtna Athabascan tradition. Here is a short video of their dance.
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- AFN fashion tour
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- From beadwork and moosehide to kuspuks and face paint, the Alaska Federation of Natives convention is a chance for Alaska Natives to show off their cultural style.
Sometimes, what they wear is significant to each of them and their families, clans and tribes? This video explores some of the symbolism, materials and beauty behind the clothing and accessories from Alaska Natives around the state.
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- Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott's speech at AFN Convention
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- On the first morning of the 2015 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, a longtime Tlingit leader, addressed the crowd. In his speech Thursday, the former mayor of Yakutat and Juneau discussed the broad struggles of Alaska Natives over generations, the more specific challenges they face today, and his own Tlingit identity.
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- After apparent suicide at AFN, a song of comfort
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- In the moments following an apparent suicide just steps away at the end of the AFN Convention, a group of Alaska Natives from the North Slope came together to sing a song to comfort those left in the Dena'ina Center.
Dozens gathered on a nearby stage and sang two songs -- one in Inupiaq called “Aariga” and another called “Praying for You” -- as the convention officially ended. None seemed to know where the man was from, but they wanted to sing. No one stopped them.
Marie Greene of Kotzebue, one of the singers, said it was a spontaneous sign of solidarity and support. “Our tradition when we hear sudden news is to pull together and extend our love and prayers to the family of the one who passed,” Greene said. “We feel it touches all of us.”
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- Athabascan dance group Ida'ina K'eljeshna at AFN convention
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Many regions of the Alaska Native nation are represented in downtown Anchorage this week -- Alutiiq, Yup'ik, Inupiaq, Tlingit and Haida, just to name a few.
Here is a short video on an Athabascan dance group, Ida'ina K'eljeshna, that performed for the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention on Thursday, October 15.
“We dance because it’s a part of our lives, it’s our identity and there’s a need for us as a younger generation to keep our culture alive," said dance group member Demaris Hudson.
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- Yup'ik drumming and dancing at AFN
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- At first glance, a novice might not be able to tell the difference between some of Alaska's regional styles of Native dancing and drumming. Yes, there is an obvious distinction when comparing the Alutiiq style to Yup'ik. The Russian-influenced decorations on robes and thick drums are striking, versus a simple Yup'ik kuspuk and thin drum made from walrus belly and a round spruce frame.
But compare Inupiaq and Yup'ik and it's more difficult to distinguish; the methods, equipment and dance are similar.
It is the storytelling style that differs.
"Theirs is more straight to the point and shorter," said Ossie Kairaiuak, the leader of the Yup'ik group Acilquq Drummers and Dancers, describing a typical Inupiaq song, drum and dance. "In Yup'ik style, there is a main idea in each song. And then there's additions to it, like the third line may change to something specific to the song, inspired by his or her composition or inspiration."
Yup'ik...
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- Alaska Federation of Natives protests Fairbanks Four detention
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The Alaska Federation of Natives participated in a surprise protest Thursday as hundreds of delegates raised hands with four fingers displayed, urging the governor to free the Fairbanks Four while an AFN co-chair sang a traditional grieving song usually reserved for those who die.
“There’s no death, but a forceful taking away of freedom from four young men,” said Jerry Isaac, co-chair of the state’s largest Native organization. "We are shocked and saddened and grieving because the facts prove them innocent."
The demonstration marked the start of the 49th annual AFN convention at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. AFN calls the three-day event the largest gathering of indigenous people in the U.S., as thousands pour in from across the state to help set the year’s political course for Alaska Natives.
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- Gov. Walker talks fiscal plan, politics and his recent trip to DC
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Alaska Gov. Bill Walker sat down for a one-on-one interview with Alaska Dispatch News reporter Nat Herz on Oct. 8, 2015. Among other topics, they discussed the governor's upcoming plan to deal with Alaska's fiscal crisis. About 60% of next year's $5.1 billion state budget will be paid for with savings. Many revenue options are available for state lawmakers to consider in the future. Among the ideas on the table -- increasing oil taxes, implementing state sales or income taxes and cutting spending -- this conversation focused on Walker's overall plan and his efforts to lobby the White House to open up federal land for increased oil production.
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- Indigenous language preservation at the Elders and Youth Conference
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Many sessions at the Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage this week have been devoted to cultural preservation. More than a dozen classes and gatherings focused on languages.
"Language and culture -- they go hand in hand," said Athabascan language teacher Marilyn Balluta.
Originally from Nondalton, Balluta has taught Alaska Native topics in high school and at the University of Alaska Anchorage over the last 15 years. On Monday, October 12, 2015 she held an introductory survey, Dena'ina Athabascan Circle, for a small group of mostly teenagers at the Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center.
Balluta says her passion is preserving her culture through teaching the next generation.
"It's important for our young people to know who they are, where they come from. It gives them a lot of pride knowing who they are," she said.
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- Watch Gov. Bill Walker's entire natural gas press conference
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- In a Friday morning press conference, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker explained why he called for an Oct. 24 special session of the Alaska Legislature to discuss new bills on taxing natural gas still in the ground and buying out TransCanada's interests in the proposed natural gas pipeline.
"It is our resource. There's no question about it," said Gov. Walker. "(The producers) have the opportunity and obligation to develop that resource. That's the model that we have. So to keep the gas off the market and out of a project, that's unacceptable to me."
Walker said details of the bill would be worked on over the weekend.
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- Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers perform at Elders and Youth Conference
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- A group of fifteen Alutiiq dancers from Kodiak Island performed this morning for about 1,000 attendees at the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference in downtown Anchorage at the Dena'ina Center. The Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers started officially in 1987 but has roots back in the 1970s, when elders first tried to reconstruct many of the traditional Alutiiq dances from centuries past, before Russians colonized Kodiak Island in the 1700s.
“We were told we weren’t allowed to be Alutiiq when the Russians came," said Alutiiq dancer Samantha-Lynn Shults. "They formed us into what they believed was right. We were called ‘savages.’"
For almost three decades, the dance group has been trying to rediscover its culture in order to preserve it. That includes making overseas trips for a better understanding. “When we travel to Russia or Europe and we’ll go to the museums, they’ll have paintings from when the Russian explorers would come to Kodiak. The...
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- US Fish & Wildlife Service names Katie John a Conservation Hero
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service posthumously named Ahtna elder and Alaska Native advocate Katie John a Conservation Hero on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 during the Elders and Youth Conference at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. John passed away on May 31, 2013.
"Katie John belongs to you now -- all of us," her son Fred John Jr. said, motioning to the crowd of approximately 1,000. "She belongs to Alaska."
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife website, this honor commemorates pioneers who helped save the environment. Plaques honoring them are placed around the National Conservation Training Center Campus near Washington, D.C.
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- Gov. Bill Walker on Shell's decision to cease Arctic oil exploration
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Alaska Governor Bill Walker discusses Royal Dutch Shell's announcement that it will abandon its Arctic oil exploration efforts in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea after finding reserves were “insufficient” to merit continued exploration.
The company cited the high costs of drilling, disappointing test drilling results and an “unpredictable” regulatory environment leading up to the decision to kill its Arctic drilling program, which followed billions in spending in recent years.
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- Elders and youth sing "Happy Birthday" to Katie John
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service posthumously named Ahtna elder and Alaska Native advocate Katie John a Conservation Hero on Tuesday, October 13, 2015, during the Elders and Youth Conference at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. John passed away on May 31, 2013.
At the end of the presentation at the Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage, Katie John's family onstage noted that she would have turned 100 on Oct. 15, 2015. Then those attending the conference session sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
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- Elders and Youth 2-foot high kick demonstration
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Tlingit and Athabascan youth Kyle Demientieff-Worl performs the two-foot high kick for a crowd gathered at the Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage on Oct. 12, 2015.
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- Alaska Native dance depicting a seal hunt
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- This dance conveys the emotions of a hunter who believes he has captured a bearded seal but instead, much to his delight, hauls in a walrus. It was performed Monday at the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage by Walter Gregg and the Qikiktagruk Northern Lights Dancers from Kotzebue. The conference continues through Wednesday.
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- Native Youth Olympics demonstration at Elders and Youth
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- In this video, Tlingit and Athabascan Kyle Demientieff-Worl demonstrates three different events in the Native Youth Olympics.
The first is the kneel jump, which is important in Alaska Native culture because it measures a hunter’s ability to get up quickly if danger approaches when he is butchering a kill in the field.
Second is the seal hop or knuckle hop, in which the contestant mimics the movements of a seal on the ice increasing the likelihood that a hunter can sneak up on seals for the kill.
The third demonstration is the two-foot high kick. The traditional significance of this event is long-distance communication. Following a whale kill, one of the crew would run back in sight of the village and perform the kick to signal that the hunt was a success.
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- Shell's Polar Pioneer drill rig in Chukchi Sea
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Watch video of Shell's drilling rig, Polar Pioneer, in action in the Chukchi Sea. Video courtesy of Royal Dutch Shell.
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- 2015 Permanent Fund dividend press conference
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The vast majority of Alaskans will be $2,072 richer when they receive their Permanent Fund dividend checks from the state next month, an amount unveiled Monday morning at an event hosted by Gov. Bill Walker.
Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spoke before the amount was revealed. Walker alluded to this year’s dividend being the fund’s largest-ever, unadjusted for inflation -- but deferred the final announcement to Mat-Su seventh-grade student Shania Sommer.
Walker said he didn’t want to continue the politicization of the annual PFD announcement, an occasion that has seen previous governors or revenue commissioners announce the check amount to much fanfare.
It’s (the dividend check) not anything that Byron or I did,” Walker said.
Sommer, 12, a student in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, said she has saved every PFD check since fourth grade and plans to use the money for college, where she will study to be an ...
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- Mayor Berkowitz proclaims "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in Anchorage
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz proclaims today, October 12, 2015, "Indigenous Peoples Day" for the municipality of Anchorage at the 2015 Elders and Youth Conference in downtown.
Berkowitz made the surprise announcement Monday morning during opening remarks at the three-day conference in downtown Anchorage.
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- Looking for a solution to Alaska's road rut problem
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Outside of the Consortium Library on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus is a concrete slab 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.
It looks like your average sidewalk, but it could potentially hold the key to solving a perennial Alaska transportation problem: road ruts.
For the past 15 years -- and the past eight in Alaska -- UAA professor of civil engineering Osama Abaza has been developing a road surface that can stand up to Alaska’s road-rut problem. The concrete slab at UAA is the first practical test of the solution. Abaza plans to work with the Alaska Department of Transportation to install a 180-foot lane of the concrete on Abbott Road next summer.
“I’m not going to say we have the magic solution, but we’re trying,” Abaza said in a September interview.
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- Air Force flyovers at Yukla 27 memorial service
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Twenty years is a long time. Enough time to obscure memories, but not enough to fully erase the scars left by sudden and ruinous loss. On Tuesday, more than 500 people gathered outside the 3rd Wing Headquarters on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to both remember and heal.
Twenty years ago, on Sept. 22, 1995, an E-3B Sentry AWACS jet -- callsign Yukla 27-- was knocked from the Anchorage sky, not by an enemy, but by a flock of Canada Geese. All 24 aboard that day, 22 American and 2 Canadian airmen, died.
Kyle Leary, a 26-year-old who lives with his fiancee Amanda Deese in Palmer, was just 6 when his father, and Yukla 27's navigator, Lt. Col. Richard G. Leary, was killed.
As he peered into the early morning sun, Leary noted that he is getting ready to be a father himself: He and Deese are expecting their first child.
"I remember him kicking a football once," Leary said of his own father. "I remember when we were in Germany, in Ramstein A...
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- 2015 Permanent Fund dividend announced
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The vast majority of Alaskans will be $2,072 richer when they receive their Permanent Fund dividend checks from the state next month, an amount unveiled Monday morning at an event hosted by Gov. Bill Walker.
Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spoke before the amount was revealed, with Walker alluding to this year’s dividend being the fund’s largest-ever, unadjusted for inflation -- but deferring the final announcement to Mat-Su seventh-grade student Shania Sommer.
Walker said he didn’t want to continue the politicization of the annual PFD announcement, an occasion that has seen previous governors or revenue commissioners announce the check amount to much fanfare.
It’s (the dividend check) not anything that Byron or I did,” Walker said.
Sommer, 12, a student in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, said she has saved every PFD check since fourth grade and plans to use the money for college, where she will study to...
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- Tour of Seward Highway project
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- The Windy Corner project along Turnagain Arm brought together multiple state agencies including the Alaska Railroad, Chugach State Park and the Department of Transportation. The final result will mean a safer highway and better opportunity to enjoy the wildlife and scenery. Project Manager Tom Schmid explains the highlights in this video.
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- Public testimony at Anchorage Assembly
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Several versions of a proposed gay rights ordinance were scheduled for public hearing Tuesday evening at the Anchorage Assembly, a revisiting of proposals that have drawn heated support and opposition in the past.
All the versions of the ordinance would make it illegal in Anchorage to discriminate against any person based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, public accommodations and housing. But the versions differ over whether people, businesses or organizations could claim religion as a legal grounds to discriminate against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Here’s a summary of the versions of the ordinance that have been proposed:
AO-96: Introduced by Assembly member Bill Evans. Includes a “religious conscience” clause that would allow individuals or businesses to refuse to provide services at same-sex weddings or other ceremonies based on religious belief. Would legally allow the operato...
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- Looking back on Alaska AWACS crash, 20 years later
- Date posted
- 11 years ago
- Description
- Harry Kieling spent hundreds of hours inside an AWACS aircraft. As a former fighter pilot, Kieling, a retired Air Force colonel, flew aboard the radar-and-control aircraft as a battle commander -- deciding if and when military aircraft would intercept and handle Russian incursions into U.S. airspace. Kieling, soon to retire, had scheduled one of his final flights for the Yukla 27 mission, an AWACS training flight set to take off from Anchorage's Elmendorf Air Force Base on Sept. 22, 1995.
But at the last minute, Kieling changed his mind and traveled to Arizona for a flight certification. It was a decision that saved his life, as Yukla 27 hit a flock of geese on takeoff and plummeted to the ground, killing all 24 people aboard. Hear Kieling -- now the Alaska director of the Office of Aviation Services under the U.S. Department of the Interior -- tell the story in his own words, and reflect on the upcoming 20th anniversary of the crash.
