Cessna crashes at Fairbanks airport: A Cessna 150 crashed on takeoff early Thursday evening at Fairbanks International Airport, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, leaving one person dead. Three people were aboard, and the two other injured occupants were taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, according to KTVF-TV. An eyewitness reported the plane ended up in a ditch some 300 yards off the runway and incurred significant damage to its nose. An array of vehicles from the Fairbanks police and fire departments responded, according to the News-Miner. The airport's main runway was briefly shut down.
King crab fishery permits completed by Friday? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it aims to issue all outstanding king crab fishing permits by the close of business Friday. "Now that the shutdown is over, issuing those permits is our top priority," NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said Thursday. Six people are working to process the roughly 100 king crab fisheries permits that sat in limbo during the 16-day government shutdown. "We've put an emergency plan into process," Speegle said. "We're working solely on this issue."
Man stabbed with a steak knife: A 38-year-old Mountain Village man was stabbed in the stomach with a steak knife by his brother, Alaska State Troopers report. Luther Aguchak, 37, allegedly stabbed his brother on Wednesday evening. Aguchak was arrested for domestic violence assault and taken to the correctional center in Bethel. His brother was flown to Bethel for non-life threatening injuries.
Meeting fail: The Thursday afternoon meeting of the Anchorage Assembly Rules Committee was cancelled after only one member showed up. The Rules Committee was supposed to consider recently proposed changes to the way the Assembly handles public testimony -- collateral damage to the Assembly's fast-tracked labor law rewrite -- but only one of three members on the committee showed up. A Dispatch gold star is awarded to Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston; Dick Traini and Elvi Gray-Jackson were otherwise indisposed. Tsk, tsk.
Documentary on Schaeffer Cox in running for reality TV prize: "Plan 241" – a proposed documentary film that's been in the works for three years – is a semi-finalist for a reality television show prize. "Plan 241" is a project of filmmaker Joshua Ligairi, and it offers Ligairi's take on the imprisonment of Alaska militia figure Schaeffer Cox and several others because of a plan the FBI said was hatched to kill federal judges, Alaska State Troopers, and FBI agents. Ligairi is among seven filmmakers vying for the chance to win $200,000 to produce a full- length treatment of his documentary on TheBlaze TV's reality show, "Pursuit of the Truth" which airs Wednesday nights. "Pursuit of the Truth" is co-produced by former Fox News personality and TheBlaze TV owner, Glenn Beck, and actor Vince Vaughn. To watch a short preview of "Plan 241" go here.
Police seek truck for fatal hit and run: The Anchorage Police Department released the description of the vehicle they believe is responsible for killing an Anchorage man, Corbin Grassman, in a hit-and-run collision early Wednesday morning. Police described the vehicle as a light-colored, full-size, pick-up truck, without an apparent canopy. Police are also asking businesses that are South of the Old Seward Highway and Dowling Road to look through surveillance footage from between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Anyone with information is urged to call Anchorage police at 907-786-8900.
Brace for bad weather, Aleutian Islands: The storm known as Typhoon Wipha in Japan is now heading toward the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, the National Weather Service wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday. Hurricane force winds of 65 knots, 40-to-50-foot seas and heavy rain will hit the communities of Attu and Adak by mid-day and persist through the evening. The storm will then spread eastward to coastal waters between Kiska and Adak late Thursday, continuing to the Southern Bering Sea and central Aleutians Thursday night. Gale force winds will stick around through Friday night. At this point, the storm looks like it will spare Southcentral and Juneau, weakening by the time it hits Alaska's largest city. But a wet weekend is in store, nonetheless.
Cheer up, all ye Anchoragites: Love Anchorage or flee it; winter's coming. The days might be getting short fast and the snows of winter creeping down the mountains, but Livability.com has just named Alaska's largest city "One of the Top 100 Best Places to Live." Along with being a world leader in the number of SAD lights per person, Anchorage scores high, according to Livability, for its amenities -- think ski trails -- and education. "Los Anchorage," or "Anchoragua," as some other Alaskans refer to the city, slots in at 91 on the Livability scorecard, nine places below Whittier. But that would be Whittier as in California, not Whittier as in the community in a concrete high-rise overlooking a railroad yard at the head of Passage Canal at the end of a tunnel near the end of a dead-end road south of Anchorage. Whittier, AK, did not make the Livability list, though it's a great place if you love snow. Snowfall in Whittier, Alaska, averages near 12 feet per year. Anchorage only gets about half as much, but the white stuff did help the city lead the list of "the coolest of our cool cities" on Livability's ranking of "Winter Cities" in 2011. On that list, Anchorage rockets from 91 to No. 1 and sounds positively idyllic with its "numerous outdoor ice skating venues ... on small frozen lakes in the city," it road crews using "a 'friendly snowplow' that prevents the pushing of snow into residents driveways during snow clearing operations," and its forward-thinking "design for winter in zoning and building regulations."
The New Yorker gives nod to AQR: An excerpt from literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review was featured in The New Yorker magazine last week. The excerpt from Andrea Bruce's "Afghan Americans": A Study in Duality examines "how Afghan-Americans define themselves, and at how they bridge the two very different cultures that they love but often find to be at odds."