Homicide victim identified; police still seeking suspect: Police have identified the victim of a Thursday-afternoon shooting in an East Anchorage apartment as 22-year-old Christopher Fulton Jr. Anchorage police say Fulton's next of kin have been notified. They're still searching for a suspect, 29-year-old Derrick Hall, who was last seen Thursday afternoon hitchhiking on the Glenn Highway near Eklutna with an Alaska Native woman. Police said Hall "may possibly be headed to Fairbanks or located in the Mat-Su Valley." Hall pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and criminal trespass in a Fairbanks-based Superior Court case in 2011. He has other dismissed charges and convictions for controlled substances crimes, according to online court records. Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, police received reports of a fatal shooting at the 4000 block of Reka Drive. Medics declared Fulton deceased at the scene. Police said they were told another man had been inside the apartment but fled after the shots were fired. Police described Hall as 6 feet tall and 160 pounds and are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to call Anchorage police dispatch at 786-8900.
Attempted murder reported in Kaltag: Alaska State Troopers say a 43-year-old Kaltag man has been charged with first-degree attempted murder after shooting another villager with a shotgun. Around 3:30 in the morning on Thursday, troopers got a report that Todd Nickoli shot 35-year-old Rusty Arkell, according to an online dispatch posted Friday morning. "Arkell was treated locally in Kaltag and then medevaced to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital," the dispatch says. Kaltag is a Western Alaska community on the west bank of the Yukon River, 335 miles from Fairbanks. According to the Department of Public Safety's most recent list of active village public safety officers statewide, the village does not have a VPSO. Troopers say the shooting victim's injuries are believed to be serious but non-life threatening. Nickoli was reportedly arrested without incident and taken from the village to Fairbanks Correctional Center. A member of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation Fairbanks unit assisted in the case. Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters could not immediately reach the trooper in charge of the D Detachment, which includes Kaltag, because troopers are responding to a fatal Princess Tours bus rollover near Milepost 173 of the Parks Highway.
Exploring a pipeline that sends oil north to the Arctic: Should Canada start shipping oil from its Alberta tar sands north to an Arctic port? The idea might not be as far-fetched as it sounds, according to a report in the Financial Post. The report cites delays over the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as well as alternative pipeline routes through mountainous British Columbia as among the reasons why such a plan could work. "The plan, until recently dismissed as dubious by some skeptics, may have finally found the right combination of winning conditions: a hunger for resource development in Yellowknife, a desperate need to find new markets for oil-sands bitumen, an aggressive push from the federal government to reduce environmental oversight in the territory, and the changing northern climate," the Post writes. The proposed line would connect Fort McMurray with Tuktoyatuk, in the Northwest Territories, and ship as much as 35 million barrels of bitumen to both Atlantic and Pacific destinations.
Alaska ferry ramp in Bellingham could be repaired soon: A ramp used by Alaska State Marine Highway that broke nearly two years ago may soon be freed for repairs, after the Port of Bellingham moved a step closer to making a settlement in the incident, the Bellingham Herald reports. In November 2012 a metal cable on a foot passenger ramp snapped, injuring a worker and rendering the ramp unusable. The Port of Bellingham's commission voted 2-0 to allow it's director to negotiate a settlement, with the state of Alaska and the port's insurer, Lexington, which will split the bill, the Herald reports. Bellingham is the state ferry system's southernmost terminus.