Alaska News

AK Beat: Southeast Alaska braces for record-breaking heat

Heat wave returns: The National Weather Service is forecasting a likely return of record-breaking temperatures to Alaska, this time to the usually cloudy and rainy Southeast Alaska Panhandle. In a Facebook post Sunday, the NWS estimated that as many as 12 Southeast communities could break daily heat records Monday, with temperatures ranging into the mid-80s.

Standoff ends peacefully: Anchorage police report that a 5-hour standoff in the early morning hours Sunday came to a peaceful resolution, with 32-year-old Amy Paniptchuk in custody and charged with numerous misdemeanor and felony assaults. According to police, Paniptchuk allegedly assaulted her girlfriend's aunt and threatened her girlfriend with a knife before the standoff began, during which Paniptchuk repeatedly threatened to kill herself or make others kill her. Police reported that Paniptchuk eventually told officers that she was "locked and loaded and ready to come out" with a shotgun, at which time non-lethal gas was deployed. Paniptchuk was forced out of the building and pointed a weapon that appeared to be a handgun at officers outside. The weapon turned out to be an airsoft gun, and Paniptchuk reportedly "went to the ground" and was taken into custody.

Flattop Mountain strikes again: Alaska State Troopers rescued another hiker on Saturday from a popular Anchorage hiking route on Flattop Mountain. Troopers report that Brian Patrick O'Quinn, 41, of Anchorage fell during the hike, sustaining several injuries, including a head injury. He was transported to an Anchorage hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. That makes three hikers in three weeks that have had to be medivaced off the trail.

Prisoner Exchange: Two men in trouble with the law swapped states -- Wyoming for Alaska and vice versa -- but both are now in custody. An Anchorage School District employee, 25-year-old Samuel Douglas Brost, is accused of being a fugitive from justice in connection with two counts of sex abuse involving children in Wyoming. He came to Alaska in 2010 with his mother and was employed in the school district's information technology department, where he did not have contact with students, KTUU reported. Back in Wyoming, 38-year-old radio host David Koch, who was convicted of first-degree burglary and second-degree theft in Alaska in 1993, was arrested Friday for voting in Park County elections -- Wyoming law forbids most felons from voting -- according to the Fort Mill Times.

Mayor's Marathon results: Former UAA runner David Kiplagat of Anchorage stormed to a convincing win in Saturday's Mayor's Marathon, topping runner-up Solomon Kandie by more than 10 minutes while clocking 2:23:23 in the Anchorage race from Bartlett High School to the downtown Delaney Park Strip. The race was a huge improvement from a year ago when Kiplagat ran more than 22 minutes slower to finish third, one spot behind Kandie. And the time was just 53 seconds off the race record of 2:22:29 set in 2009 by Michael Wisniewski.

Anna Dalton (3:09:01) captured the women's marathon nearly as easily over Kirsten Kolb (3:19:36). But the half marathon races were much tighter, with Anchorage's Monica Ross (1:26:20) edging Emma Garrard (1:27:39) and Aaron Fletcher (1:12:43) nipping UAA's Alfred Kangogo by just 13 seconds. Matthew Komats (24:16) took the 4-miler -- with former UAA star runner Marco Cheseto, who is using artificial limbs after a nasty frostbite incident cost him both of his feet, finishing a remarkable fifth in 26:33. Presli Hutchison (26:47) was the women's 4-mile winner. Nearly 4,000 people competed in one of the races contested Saturday under the Mayor's Marathon umbrella.

Mosquito Menace: The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the mosquitos in Interior Alaska are so bad this year that there's been a shortage of repellant to stop the blood-sucking insects. One sporting-goods store is even getting an unanticipated shipment to resupply everything from mosquito netting to high-potency bug dope. Alaska Dispatch reported earlier this week on the mosquito epidemic that seems to be plaguing Alaska this summer.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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