Brits get peek at 'The Frozen Ground': "The Frozen Ground," a major motion picture filmed in Alaska during the fall of 2011, premiered Wednesday at Vue Cinemas in London, England to mixed reviews. Tom Huddleston of Time Out wrote, "This is an unambitious, old-school thriller, nothing more and nothing less." At the same time, Josh Winning of Total Films said the film is "handsomely lensed, and when Cage and Cusack finally go nose-to- nose, the fur does fly." The film, staring Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens and John Cusack is expected to hit theaters in the U.S. on Aug. 23.
Record run: To say there are a lot of sockeye salmon in the Kenai River would be an understatement. On Tuesday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game sonar station, 19 miles upstream of the river mouth, counted 246,396 fish going by -- the most ever recorded for the Kenai River in a single day. The previous record of 230,643 was set July 17, 2011. In contrast, only 544 king salmon were counted making this year's run totals among the lowest ever for the biggest salmon.
Driver injured in Seward Highway poo spill: Traffic flowed freely once again Tuesday night, about four hours or so after a septic truck accident near Moose Pass on the Seward Highway stopped up cars, many heading to or from the epic sockey salmon run you just read about. Just after 4 o'clock, Tuesday, the sewage truck rolled over, forcing a temporary highway closure, according to a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers. The driver, Soldotna 49-year-old Kurtis Nill, was transported to a hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.
Evacuation watch for Two Rivers lifted: With the help of cooler temperatures and higher humidity, the Stuart Creek 2 wildfire near the Interior community of Two Rivers is now 57 percent contained. Six-hundred seventy-three personnel are battling the blaze, which has burned through 85,475 acres of boreal forest as of Wednesday. The fire continues to move east, away from populated areas; while an evacuation watch is in effect at the Chena River State Recreation Area, milepost 27-39, there are no homes in the area, an Alaska Fire Service spokesperson said Wednesday. State parks in the area remain closed.
Soldotna crash burial: Funeral services were held Wednesday for one of the two families killed in the Soldotna, Alaska, plane crash on July 7. All five members of the Antonakos family were buried in Greenville, South Carolina, 10 days after a Rediske Air flight killed 10 people on the Kenai Peninsula, in one of the worst aviation disasters in recent Alaskan history.
