Alaska Beat

AK Beat: Restraining order filed against former reporter turned marijuana activist

Restraining order filed against former reporter turned internet star: A neighbor of former KTVA Channel 11 reporter Charlo Greene -- who abruptly turned marijuana activist/viral internet star when she quit live on-air Sunday -- told the gossip website TMZ Tuesday that he filed a restraining order against her earlier in September after a conflict stemming from marijuana smoke. Greene's former neighbor Tyler Gilbrech told TMZ that Greene moved into the same apartment complex as him in June. Soon after, "she immediately started stinking up the place with so much reefer...his 4-yr-old daughter became violently sick from the fumes seeping through the walls," he told TMZ. Records show Gilbrech filed for and was granted a protective order against Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, on Sept. 10. The restraining order Gilbrech filed against Greene does not mention marijuana but accuses her of blocking his driveway, yelling and making threats.

Wasilla to create ORV task force instead of ban: The Wasilla City Council on Monday night approved the formation of a seven-member task force to update the city's existing regulations governing off-road vehicles like ATVs and snowmachines. The decision marks a major shift for the council expected this summer to decide an outright ban on ATVs and snowmachines recommended by the city's planning commissioners in July. Instead, the task force will advise the council as members re-examine ORV laws, how to enforce them, and how to educate the public. The council put no limits on who can serve on the task force but did require the group finish its work by the end of January. Saying it could make it too hard to fill the positions, the council didn't vote on a proposal to require task force members represent different sectors-- ORV user, resident, large and small retailers -- proposed by city council candidate Stu Graham.

Mining ship heads unescorted through Northwest Passage, from Quebec to China: The Northwest Passage sea route has been clogged by ice this year, as reported by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, but that is not stopping one company from sending a cargo-laden ship through it. An icebreaker carrying departed Nunavik in northern Quebec on Friday to deliver 23,000 tons of nickel concentrate from a mine owned by Canadian Royalties Inc. to China, to the CBC reported on Monday. The ship, the MV Nunavik, will be the first Canadian commercial vessel to transit the full Northwest Passage unescorted and with an Arctic cargo, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission reported. Fednav has set up an online log book to chronicle its historic journey through the route.

Anchorage one of the best-situated U.S. cities for coming warmer temperatures: Alaska could be the hottest new real estate market by century's end. Or should that be coolest? A report from the New York Times on the variety of climate models notes that virtually all of them have a few things in common, and one of those is that Anchorage is among the large U.S. cities best suited to weather changing temperatures. "The best place really is Alaska," Camilo Mora, a geographer from the University of Hawaii told the Times. "Alaska is going to be the next Florida by the end of the century." The rest of the Pacific Northwest will fare well too, mainly because of the Pacific Ocean, which, although it's warming, may be doing so from natural, rather than man-made, causes. Alaska will also be among the last places where higher average temperatures become the new norm. By 2047, for example, weather that's now unusual in New York City will be considered typical. "Washington, D.C., will reach its tipping point the same year, under his model; Los Angeles has until 2048; San Francisco, 2049 and Chicago, 2052. Detroit has until 2051, and Anchorage, 2071," the Times writes.

In New Jersey, the first fatal bear attack since the 1850s: Local police said a hiker was killed by a black bear over the weekend in a wooded area of New Jersey just 40 miles from New York City, according to a report from Reuters. A group of five hikers were walking in the Apshawa Preserve when the bear began following them, according to the report, and the group split up. When they regrouped, they discovered 22-year-old Darsh Patel was missing. Patel's remains were later found, with evidence he'd been attacked by a bear, officials said. New Jersey has a high density of black bears, but attacks on humans are rare, and this is the first fatal one recorded since 1852. The news comes as authorities in Canada identified the hunter killed by a grizzly bear last week in Northwest Territories near the Yukon border. Kenton Novotny, 53, was a businessman from Germantown, Tennessee, who'd been on a guided hunt in the Mackenzie Mountains.

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