Southcentral

Kenai Assembly asks state to ban cloud seeding, on consent agenda

A company seeded clouds over the Kenai Peninsula and the borough learned about it from a press release. Nobody has the authority to require otherwise.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read

Alaska counts 900 fewer jobs in August as federal payrolls shed 1,300

Alaska lost 900 jobs in the year to August, with 800 private-sector gains offset by 1,700 public-sector losses, 1,300 of them federal. The federal shortfall has narrowed from 1,900 in April and has held at 1,300 since June. Unemployment was 4.3 percent.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A hydro plant sat on state land five years after its easement expired

A hydro plant east of Palmer has sat on state land for five years with no authorization to be there. The state now proposes to lease it the ground.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 14

Fairbanks weighs union labor agreements on its big construction projects

Fairbanks would require union-negotiated labor agreements on borough construction over $3.5 million, copying an Anchorage rule that warned it could raise costs.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Juneau staff recommend banning electric dirt bikes on all public property

Juneau staff recommend banning electric dirt bikes from all public property, citing safety concerns and comparing high-powered models to unlicensed motorcycles.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A woman was killed at East 3rd and Orca, where the state mapped a cluster

A woman was killed by a driver who left the scene at East 3rd and Orca, on the edge of an area the state mapped as a pedestrian death cluster.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Troopers find missing hunter near Tanana after weather grounded search a day

Alaska Wildlife Troopers found a missing hunter near Tanana on Wednesday after weather grounded the search a day earlier. He declined medical treatment and returned to camp.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

A jet fuel truck at JBER is out until at least the end of December

A truck that pumps 600 gallons of jet fuel a minute is sitting dead on the JBER flightline. The replacement engine is not due until late December.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Wasilla's road plan expired on a population forecast 38 percent too high

Wasilla's road plan expired, its parent comprehensive plan was repealed in 2011, and it assumed 3,700 more residents than the city actually has.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

The state held Kenai coho at two a day through November

Kenai coho limits stay at two a day through November instead of rising to three, on abundance numbers the state admits it can't monitor well.

by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Seward Highway and Tudor Road interchange design study goes to Anchorage hearing Nov. 2

The state wants to rebuild the Seward Highway interchange at Tudor Road. It goes to a public hearing Nov. 2, with most of the funding still unbuilt.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Port of Alaska must ship contaminated soil out of state after storm drain dig

Crews at the Port of Alaska hit soil dirtier than testing predicted. It's now headed out of state, on a project with a grant deadline attached.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Visitors keep walking into Seward's industrial port

Cruise passengers in Seward keep wandering into the industrial port instead of onto the sidewalk. The city is paying $79,920 to sort out the signs.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Alaska's population holds steady to 2055. Kodiak loses a quarter of its people.

Alaska's population barely changes by 2055. Kodiak's drops 26 percent. A flat statewide average hides what happens to individual communities.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A free crisis intervention course in Wasilla has 30 seats next month

Thirty free seats in a crisis intervention course in Wasilla next month, and Mat-Su officers and first responders get first crack at all of them.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Eshamy District salmon season closes Friday night

Eshamy closes Friday night on a season in which nobody reported catching anything for two weeks, under a fishing cap set by an allocation formula.

by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Copper River coho periods stretch to 36 hours next week

Copper River gillnetters get 36-hour openings Monday and Thursday, up from 24-hour periods, after a delta survey counted 40,780 coho above the expected range, following a difficult summer.

by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Three of 20 Alaska aviation accidents since July 19 were fatal

Twenty aircraft have crashed in Alaska in eight weeks. Three were fatal. The state's accident rate runs more than twice the national average.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Anchorage Assembly shelves mayor's homebuyer tax break 11-1

Anchorage Assembly indefinitely postponed a 10-year property-tax exemption for first-time buyers of newly built homes on an 11-1 vote, with members questioning the proposal's target and who would benefit.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage's new-home tax break would reach pricier houses under a revision

Anchorage housing overlay hearing carries to Oct. 6 after divided testimony

Anchorage heard nearly 90 minutes of divided housing testimony, then ran out of time. The 30,000-parcel overlay returns Oct. 6

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage wants 10,000 homes. Its zoning fight is over where they can fit.

Anchorage delays surveillance rules as sponsors and mayor remain divided

Anchorage delayed its surveillance ordinance to Oct. 20. The crime center keeps operating under police policy while lawmakers reconcile rival rules.

by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Mayor's substitute puts Anchorage's surveillance network before the Assembly Tuesday

Anchorage confirms drone deployment was omitted and checks for others

APD's manual drone log lost at least one deployment. Anchorage is checking for more omissions and owes the Assembly a revised report Oct. 6.

by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read

Follows: APD's new drone notice leaves annual-report questions unanswered

An Anchorage firm will run Job Corps in the South Bronx and Brooklyn

The Labor Department tried to shut down Job Corps last year and lost in court. Now it's signing new contracts, and an Anchorage firm got two in New York City.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read

A jury convicted a former employee in a Trapper Creek killing

A Palmer jury convicted a former restaurant employee of first-degree murder in the 2023 killing of a 21-year-old server at a Trapper Creek lodge.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Cordova council votes 4-0 to negotiate hillside lot sale instead of taking bids

Cordova City Council voted 4-0 to negotiate directly with one interested buyer for a hillside lot instead of seeking sealed bids, overriding the Planning Commission's recommendation

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Cordova commission backs sealed proposals for Davis Avenue hillside lot

Cordova's code says give the dog back if the owner is standing there

Cordova's code tells an officer to hand the dog back if the owner is standing right there. The council thinks that may be a liability problem.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Chugiak fire chief to ask voters this spring for first mill rate increase since 2005

Chugiak's fire calls are up 27 percent, and the chief says it is not fires driving it. It is people without a doctor calling an ambulance instead.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A fishing advocate warns Kenai over an undersea Cook Inlet data center

A fishing advocate told the Kenai council the federal application for an undersea data center off Nikiski has no thermal modeling, in endangered beluga habitat.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Massachusetts firm seeks study permit for a 66-pod undersea data center in Cook Inlet

State will bring free heavy equipment training to Cordova crews

Cordova's public works crews will train on heavy equipment at no cost through state-run courses held in town, filling a gap left by last year's travel budget cuts.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Cordova's winter ferry hope hinges on a Whittier dock question

Cordova Mayor Kristin Smith plans to meet with Alaska's transportation commissioner Tuesday to discuss winter ferry service and road safety issues.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Mat-Su picks a pricier road route over its advisors and landowners

Mat-Su picked a $21–31 million road route over a $9–10 million one, against every advisory body and landowners who won't sell, on a vote that first failed.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

After the tow trucks left, one family could reach their own land

Fifty vehicles came off a half-mile of road in Big Lake. One family could finally drive to their own property. It took $42,000 and eleven dumpsters.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Sullivan diesel-derate bill advances Senate committee 10-9

A Senate panel advanced Sullivan's diesel-derate bill 10-9. It mandates cold-weather relief while EPA separately considers broader changes.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Alaska towns can build housing with this grant now, up to a point

Alaska communities can finally use block grant money to build housing. The most any one of them could put toward construction is about $170,000.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Two men die in a plane crash near Aniak, Troopers say

Two men were killed when a small plane crashed after taking off from a moose camp near Aniak, Alaska State Troopers said.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

A Dena'ina artist's work is headed for downtown Anchorage's signs

Dena'ina artist Sebastian Garber's MOA50 designs reach downtown Anchorage's wayfinding signs next year, drawing on Indigenous quillwork patterns.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Three students share the Anchorage Assembly's youth representative seat

Anchorage Assembly Chair Anna Brawley appointed three high school students to share the youth representative seat through April 2027, a nonbinding advisory role open to residents ages 16 to 19.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Childcare center at downtown Anchorage church set to open Oct. 1 with municipal funding

Alaska's first worker-run childcare center opens in downtown Anchorage next month, with room for 82 kids and $200,000 in marijuana tax money behind it.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Anchorage police launch phased pre-arrest deflection pilot Sept. 23

Anchorage's deflection pilot begins Sept. 23. Police make the referral, True North handles navigation and community providers deliver treatment.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Low water slows Seward's youth coho fishery, open through Oct. 5

Kids have four more weeks to catch a silver at Seward Lagoon, where low water has been holding the fish outside waiting on enough rain to get in.

by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read