Juneau’s PJ Foy takes a shot at Team USA at Olympic Trials - Anchorage news - NewsLocker (2024)

PJ Foy competes at the Alaska Swimming State Championships in April, 2023. (Photo/Kevin Tuning)
Recent Juneau high school graduate and soon-to-be collegiate swimmer PJ Foy competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Friday.
The Thunder Mountain High School alumni competed in the men’s 100-meter butterfly alongside some of the best swimmers in the country. He finished 49 out of more than 60 swimmers. That meanshe won’t compete for Team USA in the Paris games. But, he

Newscast – Thursday, June 27, 2024

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In this newscast:A high-stakes battle over a popular form of homeschooling reached the Alaska Supreme Court today,
Curious Juneau: Juneau is a windy city. So why don’t we have more wind turbines?

Juneau is a windy city. So why don’t we have more wind turbines?

This wind turbine on Gastineau Channel generates just under 10% of the electricity needed to run Juneau’s Coast Guard station. (Photo by KTOO/Clarise Larson)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/27CJwind.wav
On a windy day in Juneau, you can see state flags fluttering along Egan Drive or a bald eagle coasting over Gastineau Channel. On the pier behind U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau, you might catch the blur of a wind turbine’s blades.
Do you have a Curious Juneau q

Fire destroys Stebbins school and surrounding buildings

Smoke rises from a Wednesday, June 26, 2024 fire in Stebbins. (Courtesy Pamela Pete via Facebook)
A fire that started Wednesday evening in Stebbins has destroyed the local school and several other nearby buildings.
Stebbins is located on St. Michael Island about 120 miles southeast of Nome.
According to eyewitnesses in Stebbins, the fire started in a shop next to the Tukurngailnguq School at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. The school, shop, two new portable buildings and nearby housing are expected to b

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Federal judge says Alaska tribes may put land into trust, a step toward ‘Indian country’ here

Tlingit tribal members march down Front Street in downtown Juneau on June 8, 2024, during Celebration 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
A federal judge in Anchorage has ruled that the Department of the Interior may take land into trust on behalf of Alaska Native tribes, a decision that could allow tribes to create “Indian country,” which had been mostly eliminated here by the 53-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
In a 39-page summary judgment order, Judge Sharon

Residents along the Elliott Highway are told to evacuate as a fast-moving wildfire grows

An aerial view of the Globe Fire on the night of Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (From Ryan McPherson/BLM AFS)
A fast-moving wildfire near the Elliott Highway prompted officials to ask residents to evacuate Wednesday night between Mile 41 and Mile 43 of the highway.
Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said a state Department of Transportation work camp and a few homes are in the path of the Globe Fire, which was initially reported to be about one acre Tuesday.
“And then on Wednesday after

Newscast – Wednesday, June 26, 2024

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In this newscast:Supports of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting were in court Monday in an attempt to disqualify a ballot measure that would repeal the election reforms voters adopted in 2020,
A Juneau artist’s family is donating hundreds of photos of King Island taken in the early 1950s before the residents were removed from the remote Bering Sea island,
An audio postcard from Dillingham’s boatyard as fishi

Juneau man’s 70-year-old photos could help preserve cultural knowledge for King Island Inupiat community

Paul Tiulana, a King Island man, in the early 1950s. (Photo by Juan Muñoz Sr.)
Yaayuk Bernadette Alvanna-Stimpfle was born to a King Island family in 1955. She wasn’t raised on the Bering Sea island, but her family kept it as close as they could in her upbringing.
“My generation were the first ones to be raised away from the island, but we were still raised on the east end of Nome,” she said. “They still spoke to us in the language.”
In 1959, the Bureau of In

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Juneau Afternoon: Spruce Root business development competition, Chamber award nominations open, and a preview of the 3rd Annual Master’s Faire

3rd Annual Master’s Faire to take place in Juneau, June 29, 2024Wednesday, June 26, 2024 — Full EpisodeOn today’s program:Chamber of Commerce monthly updateSpruce Root Path to Prosperity business competitionDeadline to apply: June 30Master’s Faire is happening Saturday, June 29
Bostin Christopher hosts the conversation. Juneau Afternoon airs at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO and KAUK with a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast atktoo.org/juneauafter

Juneau’s hospital plans to seek subsidies to avoid cutting services

Bartlett Regional Hospital on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
The board for Juneau’s city-owned hospital plans to seek subsidies for services it says are contributing to a financial crisis that could close the hospital within three years.
Bartlett Regional Hospital’s board is giving itself just a handful of months to convince the city or other entities to subsidize some services that are draining money. If it can’t secure that money by the end of October, or

After concussions and candy-cane streetlight costs, North Pole City Council removes mayor

A large Santa statute near the Santa Claus House business in North Pole on Nov. 14, 2021. (Tegan Hanlon/Alaska Public Media)
The city council of North Polevoted unanimously on June 18to remove Mayor Michael Welch, a Republican candidate for state House from office “until the next city election or until … the council determines the mayor is able to perform the duties of Mayor.”
Welch himself joined the council in the unanimous vote. North Pole’s city charter a

More than 100 wildfires are burning in Alaska, many of them in the Interior

An aerial view of the McDonald Fire burning through black spruce near Salcha on Thursday, June 20, 2024. The fire has since grown to more than 54,000 acres. (From Tasha Shields/BLM AFS)
As Alaska’s wildfire season ramps up, fire officials say the Interior is facing high heat and dry conditions that already have the state requesting Outside crews and aircraft.
Beth Ipsen, a spokeswoman with the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska Fire Service, said Tuesday that about 100 smokej

What you need to know about Alaska’s contested homeschool allotments

Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills explains the administration’s understanding of a ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program, in the Alaska State Capitol on May 1, 2024. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
On Thursday, the Alaska Supreme Court will hear a case centering on how families in the state spend what are known as student allotments.
While both sides of the case say the outcome will be important for Alaska students, to truly understand w

Newscast – Tuesday, June 25, 2024

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In this newscast:Recent Juneau high school graduate and soon-to-be collegiate swimmer PJ Foy competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Friday,
Last week, a group of Juneau middle schoolers got a crash course in renewable electricity through a summer camp called the “Nature of Energy,”
The state has released its draft winter ferry schedule, which residents might find familiar,
After two failed att

Renewable energy summer camp teaches Juneau’s next generation about generation

Akira Schaefer and his mom, Lyndsey Schaefer, show off his shoebox home with a working wind turbine and a lego “green roof.” (Photo by Anna Canny/KTOO)
In the Alaska Electric Light and Power office last Friday, a half dozen middle schoolers constructed a village of model homes. Felix Dean and his cousin Sterling Stark stood beside a small ranch-style house with cardboard walls and small plastic windows.
“This house is supposed to be as energy efficient as possible,”

Why Permanent Fund managers are again sounding the alarm about a key account running low

The Michael J. Burns Building, which houses the Permanent Fund offices on 10th Street, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
The state agency that manages the Alaska Permanent Fund is again warning that it’s running low on spendable money.
At a meeting in Anchorage on Monday, the managers called on the Legislature to amend the state Constitution to head off what they say is a real risk of a fiscal crisis in the years to come. Already, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. expects to s

Effort to repeal Juneau’s by-mail election ordinance fails to get enough signatures

Petitioners gathering signatures to repeal Juneau’s local by-mail voting method collect signatures near Costco on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
An effort to repeal an ordinance that made by-mail voting the default in Juneau has failed to gather enough signatures to get on the local ballot.
The group of residents behind the repeal needed to get nearly 2,400 signatures to put the question to voters this October. During the initial 30-day signature gathering period, th

Possible rat sighting on remote St. Paul Island raises alarm

For more than two decades, the Pribilof Islands have implemented a rat prevention program to keep the island rat-free. (John Ryan/KUCB)
It may sound silly to outsiders, but for the remote Pribilof Island of St. Paul, a possible rat sighting could be a big deal.
The community of about 300 residents has worked for decades to be rodent-free. Officials with the island’s tribal government have said the invasive species would devastate local seabirds and permanently change the wildlife populatio

The surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis. What does that do?

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during an event on the White House in April. The nation’s top doctor has issued an advisory about the public health risks of widespread gun violence. (Susan Walsh/AP)
America’s top doctor issued a first-of-its-kind advisory on Tuesday declaring gun violence a national public health crisis and recommending it be treated as such.
The 40-page publication from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy outlines the scope of firearm violence, its impact on v

After email leak, some Alaska legislators say they’re skeptical of Permanent Fund’s direction

A cartoon sketch is seen on a cubicle in the offices of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. during an open house on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Members of the Alaska Legislature questioned the direction of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. on Monday in a hearing of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, the committee’s first since leaked internal emails indicated that board member Gabrielle Rubenstein may have engaged in conflicts of interest.
The corporatio

Service gaps persist in proposed winter ferry schedule

The M/V Kennicott travels south in the Wrangell Narrows near Petersburg on April 15, 2024. (Photo by Angela Denning/CoastAlaska)
The state has released its draft winter ferry schedule, which covers Oct. 1 through April 30. Residents might find the schedule familiar.
“It’s pretty similar to last year’s winter schedule,” said Sam Dapcevich, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation. “We’re dealing with the same fleet and the same crewing situation.

Witnesses say petitions to repeal Alaska’s election system were mishandled

Attorney Maeve Kendall, at podium, represents supporters of ranked choice voting. Her co-counsel are on left: Samuel Gottstein and Scott Kendall (no relation). At the other table are Assistant Attorney General Thomas Flynn and attorney Kevin Clarkson, right. (Screen shot of court live stream/ published with court’s permission)
Supporters of Alaska’s ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries were in court Monday trying to block a ballot measure that would repeal the election refo

Newscast – Monday, June 24, 2024

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In this newscast:A Wisconsin museum has sent a Chilkat robe it’s had for the last 80 years to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau in the hopes of identifying it,
The Kodiak Filipino American Association celebrated Philippine Independence Day wiht a basketball tournament,
Tongass Voices: Juneau Bike Doctor’s Ken Hill wants to get everybody on a bike

Tongass Voices: Juneau Bike Doctor’s Ken Hill wants to get everybody on a bike

Juneau Bike Doctor owner Ken Hill with a bike that will be donated to a student in need of a bike at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School. Artist Chloey Cavanaugh and school librarian Luke Fortier painted herrings on the sides in support of the Herring Protectors movement. June 21, 2024. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
This isTongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
Ken Hill opened Juneau Bike Doctor

A Chilkat robe returns to Southeast Alaska, but SHI needs help identifying it

Sealaska Heritage Institute Director of Archives and Collections Emily Galgano shows the back of a Chilkat robe on loan from the Rahr-West Museum in Wisconsin. June 20, 2024. (Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/21robe.mp3
In the basem*nt of the Walter Soboleff building on a recent afternoon, Emily Galgano opened a huge white cabinet. She pulled out a long drawer with a Chilkat robe laying inside. The robe’s colors are faded.
“So it could be ve

Lightning sparks wildfires across Interior Alaska

A map generated by AirNow.gov shows recent wildfires around the state and the smoke that they generate. (From Airnow.gov)
Wildfire activity ramped over the weekend due to hot, dry conditions and numerous lightning strikes, including over 6,500 Sunday.
“Sunday is definitely our largest amount of lightning for one day this season,” said Sam Harrel, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Forestry.
Harrel said even prior to Sunday’s lighting, earlier strikes resulted in numerous st

Alaska ‘data bike’ proposal aims to reform how DOT assesses its sidewalks and trails

In Idaho, Boise’s metropolitan transportation planning organization uses this “data bike” to help assess the condition of its active transportation network. The Alaska Department of Transportation is seeking grant funding to start a similar program. (Courtesy of Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho)
Right now, condition reports about Alaska’s state-owned sidewalks, bike paths and boardwalks are entirely anecdotal.
And that makes Julius Adolfsson’s job d

U.S. is ‘flying blind’ with bird flu, repeating mistakes of COVID, health experts say

During COVID, shortages of tests led to backlogs in getting tested. Experts worry that the U.S. hasn’t learned from those mistakes and wouldn’t be prepared for a major bird flu outbreak. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP/AP)
It’s been nearly three months since the U.S. government announced an outbreak of the bird flu virus on dairy farms. The World Health Organization considers the virus a public health concern because of its potential to cause a pandemic, yet the U.S. has tested only abou

Alaska foster families get another year of fully funded child care

Children’s coats hang in a hallway at Hillcrest Childcare Center in Anchorage on April 18, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
State officials have alerted foster parents that Alaska health and community services agencies will take over the costs of a federal program that fully funds their child care after the pandemic-era money ends in July.
The news is a boon to the foster system, which foster families and child care providers say has struggled to find families that can afford

Sullivan amendment to defense bill would revive Ambler Road

Aerial view of Ambler and the Kobuk River in the summer. (National Park Service)
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he’s added an amendment to an annual defense bill that would override the Biden administration’s rejection of the Ambler Road.
In a press release, Sullivan said the amendment requires the Interior Department to “select a viable path for the project across public land.”
The proposed Ambler Road would run more than 200 miles. It would start west of the Dalton Highway