Alaska Newsreader

Moose bashes woman's memory and car, but she gets to work on time

A resident of the Canadian province of Newfoundland arrived at work one day last week dazed and sitting inside her nearly demolished car with her neck fractured and her face bruised. And was that a moose hoofprint on her forehead? CBC reports Michelle Higgins didn't know what exactly had happened to her, but her co-workers convinced her to get medical care. It was later determined that Higgins had driven 25 miles to work after a collision with a moose.

State plan for Parks Highway upgrade angers some in Wasilla

Four lanes with a median, or four lanes with an additional open center turn lane? That's the question being hotly debated in Wasilla as the state plans an upgrade to the Parks Highway in the fast-growing Mat-Su city. The Alaska Department of Transportation wants a median with access turn lanes every half-mile, while Mayor Verne Rupright and the owners of many businesses along the Parks want the open center turn lane, commonly known as a "suicide" lane. The arguments are getting personal, reports the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

Kikkan Randall shares workout secrets with the Wall St. Journal

The Wall Street Journal's "What's Your Workout" column goes hardcore this week with a look at World Cup-winning Anchorage nordic skier Kikkan Randall's off-season routines -- including gear choices, music playlist and naptimes. Warning: This isn't weekend warrior stuff.

Unalaska police blotter: $12,000 gone, hangover lingers

"Welfare Check: A woman asked officers to check on her sister, who was allegedly suicidal after having misplaced approximately $12,000 in cash. Officers found the sister asleep in her bed. The intoxicated sister assured officers she would not harm herself unless she failed to find her money, in which event she might change her mind."

ESPN: UAA runner whose frozen feet were amputated intended suicide

Marko Cheseto, the star UAA runner from rural Kenya who went missing in Anchorage for more than two days in November and eventually walked to safety on frozen feet, intentionally overdosed on painkillers and prescribed anti-anxiety medication before passing out along a trail, says ESPN. A lengthy ESPN magazine report on Cheseto tells of his journey to Alaska in 2008 on a running scholarship and the pressure he and his Kenyan teammates felt to do well academically and athletically, as well as hold down part-time jobs so they could send cash home to their families.

Alaska may have prime seat for Venus transit of sun

It will be 105 years before Venus again passes directly between Earth and the sun, and some scientists are choosing Alaska as the place to witness the last-in-a-lifetime astronomical event on June 6. Alaska and Hawaii are the only two U.S. states that will have a view of the entire seven-hour transit, reports Space.com. Coincidentally, there's a meeting of solar physicists in Anchorage the week after the Venus transit, so some of them are coming early.

End of the trail for a pair of old-timers in Eagle

Two stubborn, hardy and colorful old-time residents of Eagle died over the winter, a significant loss in the remote Yukon River village of just over a hundred residents near the Canadian border. Anchorage writer Louise Freeman, a former full-time Eagle resident, pays loving and respectful tribute to Dave and Vicki this week in a lengthy remembrance for the Anchorage Press.

Spring whale hunt safe, successful so far

The Arctic Sounder rounds up statistics from the spring whale hunt on Alaska's Arctic coast: 10 bowheads landed in Barrow, two in Point Hope and one in Wainwright. The season isn't over yet.

New iPhone/iPad apps highlight Alaska Native languages

First there were Alutiiq and Dena'ina apps. Now come Inupiat and Gwich'in apps, reports the UAF Talking Alaska blog. The new Inupiat app, reviewed on the blog this week, encourages sharing via Facebook, Twitter and email.

University of Montana students line up for Alaska teaching posts

The College of Education at the University of Montana is proving to be a reliable source of young teachers for rural Alaska, reports KPAX-TV in Missoula, which is following a young local couple's attempt to land an Alaska job after finding Montana jobs tough to get.

Irreconcilable musical differences on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta?

Bethel-based public radio station KYUK may wish it had never asked its listeners about their favorite musical genres. The favorite of village residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region -- gospel -- didn't even make the top 10 for residents of Bethel, the biggest city. Bethel favors oldies and classic rock. Now what? How about two stations.

Unalaska police blotter: No respect for would-be shoplifter

"Owner of a local business reported that an individual had asked to see a $70 necklace from display case. The patron grabbed the necklace and attempted to flee the store. The Darwin Award nominee was unable to operate the front door, which he pushed when it required that he pull. The clodpoll returned the necklace and apologized. The business owner declined to pursue charges."

Good week for bore tide viewing on Turnagain Arm

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources forecasts a good bore tide on Turnagain Arm tonight, followed by a tapering off in likelihood until the next series of superlow tides in early June.

Who can resist saving an orphaned newborn seal?

Not even Haines' dogcatcher, who has a degree in wildlife biology and admits she knows better, reports the Chilkat Valley News (subscription required). The seal, with umbilical still attached, was lying in beach grass surrounded by dogs, crows and eagles, all apparently waiting for the chance to pounce.

Bering Sea islands see record spring ice cover

Bering Sea ice was still surrounding St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs as late as Thursday last week, the record 103rd day of such conditions there for the season, says the weather service. But the Arctic in general had well-below-average ice last winter, reports Our Amazing Planet.

Fairbanks hunter, son describe Kodiak bear attack

Rodd Moretz, the hunter from Fairbanks who amazingly suffered only a minor head injury in a tussle with a Kodiak brown bear last week, and his 13-year-old son have told their story in detail to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. As Moretz and the bear tumbled down a hill together, he says, "I thought, 'I'm going to land right on top of her.' "

New book is guide to Native-language place names in Southeast

A 20-year project to compile Alaska Native place names in Southeast Alaska has led to a new book with about 3,000 such names, published by the University of Washington Press and the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The book also includes scholarly discussion of Southeast languages, reports CoastAlaska News.

Tsunami debris onslaught called worse than Exxon Valdez oil spill

A "staggering mess" is building on the beaches of Gulf of Alaska islands bordering Prince William Sound. That's how Chris Pallister of the Gulf of Alaska Keepers organization describes the arrival of what is believed to be debris cast adrift last year by the Japan tsunami. In interviews with KTUU and the Homer Tribune, Pallister said he anticipates a massive cleanup facing his group, federal agencies and any volunteers they can muster.

GPS reveals polar bears' long-distance swimming skills

Scientists are not drawing any conclusions about a relationship between global warming and their newly released findings that female polar bears and their cubs are routinely completing 100-mile swims through Arctic waters. U.S. Geological Survey biologists attached collars with GPS technology to 52 bears over a five-year span in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska, reports Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin in The New York Times. They recorded 50 swims averaging 96 miles. One bear swam over 200 miles.

Polar bear's epic swim seen as harbinger of Arctic future (2/7/11)

UAA about to award its first-ever doctorate degrees

The University of Alaska Anchorage next week will present its first-ever doctorate degrees, reports the Alaska Public Radio Network.

Unalaska police blotter: Shoe thief ends up barefoot

"Theft: A thief who left his old shoes in an apparent trade for a new pair was found waiting for a flight at the airport. Carlos A. Valenzuela, 37 yoa, was cited for Theft III and his new, and only, pair of shoes was seized."

Rookie Iditarod musher loses another dog during transport

Silvia Furtwangler, the Iditarod rookie from Germany who lost her lead dog in Anchorage before this year's race, lost another one in the Cascade foothills east of Seattle weeks ago. Residents of several communities had reported sighting the dog, named Smilla, her escape from a crate after a flight from Alaska, according to the Snoqualmie Valley Record. They even set up a website dedicated to Smilla's capture. She was finally caught in a net Sunday on a golf course after being slightly sedated with spiked food.

Speak Native languages now, or let them go forever

The number of people in Southeast Alaska who can speak one of the three Native languages there -- Tlingit, Haida and Coastal Tsimshian -- has dropped to perhaps 250, reports Lance A. Twitchell (Xh'unei), an assistant professor of Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast. In a Juneau Empire column, he calls for a new individual and institutional commitment to revitalizing the languages.

Boston Marathon wheelchair champ's journey started in Barrow

Shirley Reilly hasn't been back to Barrow since early childhood, but she's been busy conquering the world of wheelchair racing. The 26-year-old Inupiaq now living in Tucson, Ariz., recently won the Boston Marathon and placed fourth in the London Marathon. As Alaska Dispatch reports, Reilly was born six weeks prematurely in Barrow, and her parents eventually moved her to California, where her medical problems could be better dealt with.

Anchorage, Fairbanks among 'most dangerous cities for women'

Alaska's high rate of sexual assault is well-known in the state, and Forbes.com is the latest of the national media to take note. The site puts Anchorage at No. 2 and Fairbanks at No. 3 in its list of "Most Dangerous U.S. Cities for Women."