KTOO News Update

In this newscast: Juneau restaurant Black Moon Koven, known for its bone broth soup and witchy decor, closed last week after two and a half years. Its owner is training to become a death doula, someone who provides emotional and spiritual support at the end of life; Each year, many places in Alaska are seeing their first frost come later and later. The longer growing season could allow Alaska farmers to grow crops that were once rare in Alaska. But other changes brought on by climate change will cause new farming challenges; The Native Village of Karluk on Kodiak Island went viral this summer for an ad offering cost-free living in an effort to reopen its school. But just a month after classes started, that school is closing again. The school’s student enrollment is back down to just two kids after both families chosen to move there left the village

In this newscast: Vic Fischer, the last living signer of Alaska’s constitution, died last night [SUN] at his Anchorage home. He was 99. Alaska Public Media’s Liz Ruskin reports on Fischer’s extraordinary life; Sunday, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, the U.S. Interior Secretary spent the day listening to Native boarding school survivors. She also helped to raise a healing totem pole in honor of the survivors and their families

In this newscast: Capital Transit is resuming weekday service to the airport, University of Alaska Southeast, and social service providers on Teal Street; The annual AFN arts market took place at the Dena'ina Center in Anchorage last week; The large number of unfilled jobs in Alaska is not just about the pandemic, the “Great Resignation,” or the disenchantment of Gen Z with traditional work roles. New data from the Alaska Department of Labor suggest that it’s also about demographics, and that it’s not going to turn around anytime soon; Alaska’s chief medical officer, Anne Zink, is urging people to get the flu vaccine this month to protect themselves against an early season

In this newscast: Bartlett Regional Hospital has named a new chief financial officer, The Southeast island community of Whale Pass is asking the state to pursue carbon credits instead of a nearby timber sale, but the state says it’s going ahead with the logging project; When Alaska’s dogs go missing, they usually find their way home – but not always.  Earlier this summer, an elderly Sitka dog became a local legend after she was found more than two months after disappearing from the woods behind her home

In this newscast: One Juneau homeowner's association is taking on more than $1 million in repairs without state disaster aid; The Alaska Federation of Natives has sided with the federal government in a dispute with state managers over rural subsistence fishing; Gov. Mike Dunleavy has signed a proclamation recognizing the importance of employing people with disabilities

In this newscast:  Juneau’s municipal election season has officially wrapped up. Voters elected two new Assembly members and re-elected two incumbents. While all of the winning candidates supported the city hall bond proposal, voters rejected it; An international human rights commission has found that mining practices in British Columbia *could* violate the fundamental human rights of communities and tribes in Southeast Alaska

In this newscast:  Juneau’s Mill Campground closed Monday. It’s a space where unhoused people can camp in the warmer months for free. Once it closes for the season, the city typically opens a cold weather emergency shelter; A year after Typhoon Merbok’s flood waters have receded, people living in some of the hardest hit communities still haven’t been able to fully return to the subsistence lifestyle they rely on; The Anchorage Assembly on Thursday approved the opening of a new, temporary homeless shelter for the winter

In this newscast:

This summer, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed a direct hire agreement with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering program, or ANSELast year, the remnants of Typhoon Merbok slammed into Western Alaska. In Hooper Bay, the storm claimed one of the community’s last defenses: a long row of sand  dunes that protect the village from the frigid, fierce waves of the Bering Sea;

In this newscast: Designers unveiled four possible development options for Juneau’s Telephone Hill neighborhood, but at a community meeting on Wednesday night, many called for the city to consider a “no build” option instead. Typhoon Merbok ravaged sand dunes along Hooper Bay last year. Community members say those dunes hold their history.

In this newscast: Juneau's emergency cold weather shelter will likely be at a city-owned warehouse in Thane; Gov. Mike Dunleavy is a replacement for the legislative seat vacated by Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak; The cast and crew of a reality television show will start filming this weekend in a popular hunting spot near Petersburg