FILE - In this Wednesday, June 20, 2018, file photo, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis steps away after speaking with the media at the Pentagon, in Washington. Speaking to reporters on his plane en route to a stop in Alaska, Sunday, June 24, Mattis laid out plans for a less contentious, more open dialogue with Chinese leaders as he travels to Asia, less than a month after he slammed Beijing at an international conference for its militarization of islands in the South China Sea. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Mattis stops in Alaska on his way to Asia, seeks ‘conversation’ with Chinese

During his stop in Alaska, Mattis will visit a key element of the America's missile defense system at Fort Greely, the strategic missile interceptors.

Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

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Leighanna Kolp makes her way to the finish line in the 5k course Saturday, June 23, 2018 during the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon. Kolp was born without one leg, and has cerebral palsy. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

Born without a leg, nothing slows down this Chugiak teenager

What Leighanna Kolp said Saturday after she nearly stole the show at the Mayor's Marathon might just steal your heart.

Beth Bragg
| Sports
Zaandam, a 780-foot Holland America cruise ship, arrived in Anchorage early Monday, May 14, 2018. Passengers aboard it are on a two-week cruise that originated in Seattle and traveled to several ports in Southeast Alaska before coming here. The ship has 716 staterooms and can carry more than 1,800 total passengers. In Anchorage, tour buses carried travelers into the city. Their journey continues on to Homer and Kodiak before making the return trip to Seattle. Port of Anchorage external affairs director Jim Jager said the Zaandam will visit Anchorage ten times in 2018. No other cruise ships are scheduled to come here in 2018, he said. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Holland America cruise in Alaska hit by norovirus

Some 73 people reported falling ill on the Zaandam, which is carrying more than 2,000 passengers and crew.

Jacob Resneck, KTOO
Goat yoga class hosted by the Yoga Yurt at the Liberty Alaskan Goat Farms in Soldotna on Saturday, June 23, 2018. (Photo by Steve Meyer)

Goat yoga comes to Alaska: part workout, part petting zoo, all fun

Being in the presence of goats, which may pee on your mat or chomp on your hair, is a way to rejoice in the way things are, students at a Soldotna goat yoga class learned.

Christine Cunningham
The Alaska Psychiatric Institute, photographed Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 has been facing a shortage of psychiatrists and is only able to fill roughly half of their beds. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

The Alaska mental health trust broke the law, but that matters less than the crisis at hand

Alaska's weak mental health system contributes to many social problems . The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority should be a ferocious advocate for a change.

Charles Wohlforth
| Opinion
Unaccompanied minors are seen at the Bristow facility, in this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Bristow, Virgina, U.S., June 21, 2018. The shelter is one of numerous facilities housing children and youths which are funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. HHS/Handout via REUTERS

Separated migrant children are all over the country

More than 2,000 live far from parents who have no idea where they are.

Maria Sacchetti, Kevin Sieff, Marc Fisher, The Washington Post
iStock / Getty Imagfes

Bristol Bay fishermen sell halibut directly to restaurant-distributers

“We’re the fishermen harvesting the fish, selling the fish at an integrated level."

Isabelle Ross, KDLG News
Associated Press

Army Corps releases final EIS for in-state Alaska gasline

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the final supplemental environmental impact statement for the roughly $10 billion Alaska Standalone Pipeline project, or ASAP, on Friday morning with a short list of options for smaller, in-state gas delivery proposal.

Elwood Brehmer, Alaska Journal of Commerce

What made the hollowed out ‘fire trees’ of the Tongass? An artist turns investigator to find an answer

Book review: Sprinkled throughout the Tongass are giant cedar trees with hollowed out cores at their bases - big enough to walk into. Artist Mary Ida Henrikson set out to learn what made them and why they are there.

David A. James
This photo provided by Kenneth Ayers Jr. and taken in 1960 shows his father, Kenneth Ayers Sr., after a successful moose hunt in Alaska. The elder Ayers and three other Alaska Air National Guard members died in a plane crash following the 1964 earthquake. A memorial will be unveiled Saturday, June 23, 1964, honoring the four men killed in the crash when conducting a humanitarian mission following the devastating magnitude 9.2 earthquake which destroyed Valdez in March 1964. (Photo courtesy Kenneth Ayers Jr. via AP)

Valdez honors Alaska Guardsmen killed in plane crash after 1964 earthquake

A memorial unveiled Saturday honors the four men killed in the crash while conducting a humanitarian mission after the devastating quake.

Mark Thiessen, Associated Press
The M/V Tustumena, a 296-foot ferry of the Alaska Marine Highway System, departs Homer on Thursday evening, September 1, 2016. The Tusty route also includes towns on Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. (Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

Whale crashes like ‘torpedo’ into Alaska ferry, may have suffered fatal injuries

A whale struck the side of the ferry Tustumena traveling a scheduled route between Homer and Kodiak. The ferry sustained minor damage.

Becky Bohrer, Associated Press
A damaged plane is loaded onto a trailer at the Lake Hood airstrip on June 13, 2018. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was involved in a midair collision near the mouth of the Susitna River. (Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

NTSB report describes moments before fatal midair plane collision over Susitna River

A preliminary report describes the moments leading up to the collision, including the surviving pilot’s first glimpse of danger: The shadow of an airplane converging with the shadow of his own aircraft just before the crash.

Laurel Andrews
Alaska Life