KTOO News Update

Alaskans can expect to start seeing $1,100 PFD payments hit their bank accounts in mid-October, 

A Canadian mining company is exploring claims near the small town of Pelican on Chichagof Island,

Every 10 years, states redraw their political district maps to keep them up-to-date with shifts in populations. In Alaska, a five-member Redistricting Board draws the map and where the board draws the lines will have big implications on who gets elected, 

State officials say 46 more Juneau residents and visitors have tested positive for COVID-19,

 An outbreak of COVID-19 at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau shows no sign of improvement.

Another Juneau man has died and 95 Juneau residents tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, 

A Juneau house was damaged in a recent flood caused by road improvements, but current owners don't hold a grudge against construction crews and they hope to move back in after the house is repaired

After just six months on the job, Bartlett Regional Hospital Chief Executive Officer Rose Lawhorne has resigned, 

A second-high level Bartlett Regional Hospital employee resigned last week, 

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will use new funding from NASA to track snowfall across the state, 

Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson's commander declared a public health emergency Friday due to high rates of COVID-19 infection in Anchorage

When the state's health department website was breached earlier this year, cyberattackers had access to the private health information of Alaskans,

There's no title for the screenplay yet, but now X̱’unei Lance Twitchell has a fellowship from the Rasmuson Foundation to realize a longtime dream, to bring a true story to life about how Native boarding schools systematically tried to kill indigenous languages, 

A Belgian woman is trying to set a record for being the youngest ever to fly solo around the world. The airport in Juneau will be her first stopover in the state, 

A coalition of Southeast tribes and the region's largest Native corporation are creating an endowment designed to support indigenous-led conservation and economic development, 

As the spread of the delta variant continues unabated in much of the U.S., public health leaders have approved healthcare rationing in Idaho and parts of Alaska and Montana,

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is moving the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management back to the nation's capital after two years in Colorado.

In this newscast: The Juneau Board of Education decided to pay a newly retired coach and teacher for his unused leave; The City and Borough of Juneau is asking its assembly to adopt updated hazard maps. A new scientific report puts about half of the structures downtown at moderate to severe risk of landslide or avalanche; But some residents say they aren’t ready for the “upgrade"; Starting next month, all Juneau School District staff members will be required to get weekly COVID-19 tests.

State health officials reported a record 1,091 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, and while that's the most cases they've ever reported in a single day -- that doesn't necessarily mean that 1,091 people tested positive on the same day,

Juneau school district superintendent Bridget Weiss has been named Alaska's 2022 Superintendent of the Year, 

Alaska's ferry link with Canada is on pace to resume next spring following a tentative agreement between custom officials in both countries, 

After nearly 30 years in relative dormancy the black-headed budworm population is exploding in Southeast Alaska leaving swaths of browning hemlock in their paths.

Lawmakers decided on an $1,100 permanent fund dividend for Alaskans on the last day of a special session,

The Juneau Assembly has committed $700,000 to converting a local warehouse into a ballot processing center to hold elections by-mail,

The U.S. Coast Guard reported encountering Chinese warships within 50 miles of the Aleutians in August, 

Scientists are seeing a massive phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Alaska,

Alaska's redistricting board recently drew new political boundaries that place four sitting House members in two districts, that's because the the new maps put two lawmakers homes in different districts than they currently are -- in one case by just a few hundred yards. 

Alaska health officials say the mu variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 does not appear to be spreading in the state.

The legislative special session is scheduled to end on Tuesday and several things are still unresolved, 

A new survey from the state labor department says rents across Alaska have risen during the pandemic,

Southeast Conference's annual summit bringing together civic and business leaders from across the region is scheduled to open on Tuesday in Haines,

After a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alaska Symphony of Seafood is back.

Under the first draft of a state redistricting plan Southeast Alaska keeps all four of its current House seats despite losing population in most of those constituencies since 2010, 

Wrangell's newspaper is having a changing of the guard, 

Eagle River Republican Senator Lora Reinbold has been excused from attending Senate floor sessions starting this weekend through next January because she has been banned from Alaska Airlines for refusing to wear a mask and says she doesn't have another way to get to Juneau,

The number of Alaskans hospitalized with COVID-19 reach a new high in a string of record totals this week

Juneau's 9/11 memorial got an upgrade,

Bartlett Regional Hospital opened a clinic to treat COVID-19 patients using monoclonal antibody therapy, 

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to resume its efforts to veto large-scale mining upstream from Bristol Bay, 

Alaska's state government may have trouble paying its bills over the next year

In this newscast: 

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are at an all-time high in Alaska, 

the state's largest school systems aren't doing any kind of COVID-19 surveillance testing, 

the U.S. Department of Education has approved a state plan for spending $358 million in relief funds, 

the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is expected to reevaluate a Trump-era environmental review that may affect plans to reopen the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing, 

one of nine remaining clan houses in Sitka is on the verge of collapse, and 

residents of Wrangell and Petersburg can now text 911 when calling isn't an option.