Fairbanks
RSSNews from Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks would keep its 11.2 million gallon Tanana discharge cap
Fairbanks' wastewater plant would keep its 11.2 million gallon daily discharge cap on the Tanana, unchanged since 2022. It currently uses less than half.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Fairbanks preservation panel weighs federal rule limiting its role
A federal rewrite would end requirements that agencies notify the Fairbanks borough about projects affecting historic sites. Comment opens after review.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Army moves to end state review of ground work at two Alaska posts
The Army wants to end the state's sign-off on ground-disturbing work at Fort Wainwright and Fort Greely. The consultation window closed Aug. 21.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Drones are dropping chaff over Nenana to try to stop lightning
A Vancouver startup is dropping metallic chaff from drones over Nenana to try to stop lightning before it starts wildfires. The flights run through Sept. 30.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago3 min read
Troopers say ATV fled Fairbanks traffic stop, crashed near airport
An ATV fled a Fairbanks traffic stop before dawn Saturday and crashed behind the airport. Both riders were jailed; the driver faces a DUI charge.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A Fairbanks Head Start for Alaska Native families gets five more years of federal money
A Fairbanks Head Start for Alaska Native families won about $6.18 million in federal money through 2031 for classrooms and home visits from birth to age 5.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
UAF is buying an instrument its accredited chemistry program has gone without
Alaska's only accredited chemistry program has been operating without a standard mass spectrometry system. A $250,000 federal grant will finally buy one.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
A UAF mathematician builds software to untangle interbreeding species' family trees
A UAF mathematician won a grant to build software untangling interbreeding species' family trees — the same math used to trace viruses like COVID-19.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
UAF's satellite water-depth mapping wins NSF money to test whether it can become a product
UAF won a $50,000 NSF award to test whether its satellite water-depth mapping can become a product, a cheaper way to chart the many U.S. waters still unmapped.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Fairbanks draft river plan backs changing wastewater discharge so the Chena can freeze
A Fairbanks plan backs letting the Chena freeze through town again, undoing decades of warm power-plant water, though some residents worry about snowmachines.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Troopers recover stolen Durango sold for parts at Fairbanks home
A stolen Dodge Durango turned up in pieces at a Fairbanks home after its parts were listed for sale online, and troopers matched the VIN and made an arrest.
by Alaska News1mo ago1 min read
Golden Valley Electric has rules for community solar and no community solar
Golden Valley Electric now has approved rules for community solar and no community solar. Someone outside the utility has to build it first.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Fairbanks correctional officer charged with sexually assaulting inmate in transport van
A correctional officer is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in his custody inside a state transport van in 2024, a case that surfaced only this year.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Troopers investigate suspected drugs found at Fairbanks Correctional Center
Alaska State Troopers are investigating suspected drugs found at Fairbanks Correctional Center on August 18, with the substance sent to the crime lab for testing.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A Fairbanks company owned by four Interior villages won a federal contract to replace a heat pump — in Boston
A Fairbanks firm owned by four remote Koyukuk River villages won a $30,780 federal contract to replace a heat pump, and the heat pump is in Boston.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Old Chena Ridge Road closed for duration of roundabout construction
Road is closed, but only temporarily. One day.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A dollar-a-year lease would help stand up an American Legion post near Alaska's first state veterans cemetery
A dollar-a-year lease would help build an American Legion post in Salcha, beside Alaska's first state veterans cemetery — a 257-acre site for 12,000+ vets.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Fairbanks voters will weigh banning voting machines for hand counts
Fairbanks voters decide Oct. 6 whether to ban voting machines and hand-count all ballots — an initiative its backers call cost-saving and its critics contest.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A commission wants tougher riverbank protection than the developers asked for on a proposed Chena RV park
A Fairbanks commission wants tougher riverbank rules than a proposed Chena RV park's developers, and staff, sought — over how much to guard the water.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Smokejumpers contained the McCloud Fire at one acre, and found a lost person during the initial attack
Eight smokejumpers and two helicopters responded Wednesday to a half-acre fire burning 12.5 miles west of Fox, with no structures threatened.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Burn permits suspended in Fairbanks, Delta and Tok areas
Alaska banned burning across the Fairbanks, Tok and Delta areas as the Interior dries out and high winds approach, with the Tatlanika Fire smoking the region.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Interior faces warmest stretch of summer as Tanana Valley smoke lingers
Interior Alaska is in its warmest stretch of summer, upper 70s to low 80s, with smoke from the Tatlanika Fire — though the advisory has expired and air eased.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Anchorage and Fairbanks airports finish swapping PFAS foam out of crash trucks
Anchorage and Fairbanks airports replaced PFAS firefighting foam in their crash trucks with fluorine-free alternatives, cutting PFAS levels up to 99.999% in the tanks.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A UAF fix for the battery-and-generator clash in village grids
When villages add batteries to diesel plants, the two can 'fight' and destabilize the grid — a UAF researcher is testing a fix to cut rural diesel use.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
Fairbanks borough moves to study rural emergency coverage it flagged in 2018
A 2018 borough plan flagged spotty rural emergency coverage around Fairbanks. Seven years on, the borough is finally moving to study a fix — one that could redraw who covers whom.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Interior Native Vote pushes turnout for the Aug. 18 primary
Interior Native Vote is working to boost Native turnout for Alaska's Aug. 18 primary — a Fairbanks mixer drew 200-plus — as early voting opens.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A Fairbanks blood-draw arrest raises a question about the evidence-tampering charge
A Fairbanks driver fought a court-ordered blood draw and was charged with evidence tampering — but a 2000 Alaska Supreme Court ruling raises a real question about whether that charge holds.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Fairbanks inventors patent an ultra-light meal for the backcountry
Fairbanks scientists and a hunting expert patented a powdered meal for people who burn more calories than they can carry: hunters, racers, special ops.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago3 min read
Six graduate a Tanana Chiefs apprenticeship built to staff Interior clinics
Six apprentices finished Tanana Chiefs Conference's yearlong clinical training in Fairbanks — the first cohort where everyone who started made it through.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Troopers: Fairbanks man, 79, injured in Old Nenana Highway motorcycle crash
A 79-year-old Fairbanks man was injured Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Old Nenana Highway and taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A UAF mathematician is building better tools for understanding networks
A UAF mathematician won a $150,000 NSF grant to build better tools for understanding complex networks, from how they're structured to faster ways to solve problems on them.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Eielson Air Force Base hiring fair set for Thursday
Eielson Air Force Base holds a hiring fair Thursday, Aug. 6, but the Alaska Department of Labor announcement omits time, venue, employers, and base-access details.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Two men barricade themselves in a car after fleeing Fairbanks police
Two men barricaded themselves in a car after fleeing Fairbanks police early Sunday, and face charges including DUI, weapons and drug misconduct after the standoff ended.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
A Fairbanks street a sinkhole swallowed could vanish from the map
A Fairbanks street platted in 1975 but never built — and since partly eaten by a permafrost sinkhole — could be erased from the map at an Aug. 19 borough hearing.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Troopers arrest three Fairbanks-area drivers on DUI charges
Fairbanks troopers arrested three impaired drivers over the weekend, all well over the limit — including one who blew 0.248 with cocaine allegedly in his truck.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Flames at Fairbanks airport this week are a drill, not an emergency
Those flames and smoke at Fairbanks airport this week are a scheduled firefighting drill, Aug. 3-7 — timed with notice so no one mistakes them for wildfire.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Students get to fire the HAARP transmitter at UAF's summer school
An NSF grant funds UAF's HAARP summer school, where students actually get to run experiments on the Gakona array most people only know from conspiracy theories.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Carved salmon fill a Fairbanks health center as the real Yukon run collapses
Artist Ramy Brooks has installed two Yukon fish-camp salmon sculptures at a Fairbanks health center — arriving as the real Yukon runs collapse and closures shut off fishing across the drainage.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
The smoke over Fairbanks is from a fire the state is choosing to let burn
The smoke over Fairbanks is from the Tatlanika Fire, which the state is monitoring rather than suppressing because no structures are threatened. It's grown to about 2,000 acres.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A Fairbanks medical campus wants room to grow. Its neighbors want the buffer.
A Fairbanks medical campus wants to rezone for a bigger surgery center; neighbors and planning staff want to keep the buffer. The commission split 3-3 and punted to Aug. 11.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read