ANCHORAGE

The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that will keep Republican Tara Sweeney off the ballot for the August special election in Alaska’s U.S. House race.

The Alaska Supreme Court on Saturday upheld a lower court’s ruling that will keep Republican Tara Sweeney off the ballot for the August special election in Alaska’s U.S. House race. In a brief written order, the high court said it affirmed the decision of Superior Court Judge William Morse, who agreed with a decision by Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai to not advance Sweeney, the fifth place finisher in the June 11 special primary, to the special election after the third place finisher suddenly dropped out.

The Alaska Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision that barred state elections officials from certifying the results of Saturday’s special U.S. House primary amid concerns about ballot accessibility for voters with visual impairments.

The largest documented wildfire burning through tundra in southwest Alaska was within miles of two Alaska Native villages, prompting officials Friday to urge residents to prepare for possible evacuation. Officials on Friday put the communities of St. Mary’s and Pitkas Point into “ready” status, meaning residents should gather important items they would want to have with them if they have to evacuate, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service spokesperson Beth Ipsen by text. The fire is consuming dry grass, alder and willow bushes on the largely treeless tundra as gusts of up to 30 mph (48.28 kph) are pushing the fire in the general direction of St. Mary’s and Pitkas Point, Yup’ik subsistence communities with a combined population of about 700 people and about 10 miles (16 kilometers) apart.

A climber has died after collapsing while attempting to summit Alaska's Denali mountain, the National Park Service said Saturday. The climber, 48-year-old Fernando Birman of Stockton, New Jersey, collapsed Friday evening at an elevation of 19,700 feet (6,004 meters) while on an attempt to reach the top of the 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) peak, the park service said. The park service statement said Birman's guides initiated CPR but he never regained his pulse.

The body of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Seth Plant arrived at JAX Monday afternoon from Alaska -- where he died two weeks ago.

The family of a local soldier killed by a bear in Alaska invites people across Northeast Florida to come out Monday and pay their respects.

From respecting Alaska Native land to touching animals, here's what travelers should always do and avoid in the state, according to a longtime local.

He was identified by his family as U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Seth Plant. He was 30 years old.

The Long Trail is a rare bipartisan initiative beloved by both environmentalists searching for sustainable recreation and conservatives hoping for tourist money. Yet it still faces the major foes of all modern ideas: red tape and funding. And whether it can even survive the process of creation is the first test of resolve for those who hope to hike it someday.

A pack of sled dogs belonging to an Iditarod veteran and reality TV star killed a family pet in Alaska, officials said. Authorities in Wasilla are investigating the March 30 incident involving dogs owned by musher Jessie Holmes, who finished third in year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and stars in “Life Below Zero: Alaska” on the National Geographic channel. Holmes, who lives in rural Alaska, was staying with his dog team at a Wasilla hotel that backs up to the adjacent homeowner’s yard.

Hundreds of small earthquakes have been reported near a volcano in southeast Alaska believed to have been dormant for at least 800 years. The cause of the quakes under Mount Edgecumbe, a volcano near Sitka that resembles Mount Fuji in Japan, are not known.

I visited Alaska's largest city in winter to be at the start of the Iditarod. I saw things I didn't expect, like local breweries and clear roads.

Workers at the end point of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline are using saws to cut up large blocks of hard-packed snow on top of oil storage tanks so they can shove the chunks off the tanks. More than four feet (1.2 meters) of snow fell in the community of Valdez between mid-February and mid-March, causing the snow buildup that has damaged infrastructure and vented petroleum vapors into the environment, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The group monitors the activities of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the pipeline.

The last musher has arrived in Nome, ending the 50th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race across Alaska. Musher Apayauq Reitan of Kaktovik, Alaska, crossed the finish late Saturday night, winning the Red Lantern award and $1,000 for being the final sled dog team to reach the Bering Sea coastal community on Alaska's western coast. Reitan also extinguished the widow’s lamp on the burled arch that towers over the finish line, a tradition that means there are no other mushers on the trail.

Three additional mushers running at the back of the pack have scratched from this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race after accepting assistance during a massive ground storm. The vicious Friday storm forced six mushers in total to scratch after they sought help in the storm that packed high winds. Two of those mushers needed a rescue off the trial just miles from the end of the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska.

Musher Brent Sass is maintaining his lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and was the first to arrive at the checkpoint in Kaltag early Saturday. Kaltag is 629 miles (1,012 kilometers) into the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) trek across the Alaska wilderness. Sass and his team of 12 dogs arrived at 2:36 a.m. He dropped one dog from his team at the previous checkpoint in Nulato.

When you’re leading the Iditarod but a five-time champion is breathing down your neck, you just don’t have time for the finer things in life. Brent Sass, who is seeking his first title in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska, turned down a five-course meal Friday morning for being the first musher to reach the Yukon River. Instead, he only stayed at the checkpoint for five minutes, and got back on the trail without even grabbing a to-go bag.

The top five mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race appear to be taking an extended break in the ghost town of Cripple, Alaska. All mushers in the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska must take three mandatory rest periods: a 24-hour layover at any checkpoint, an eight-hour layover somewhere along the Yukon River and another eight-hour layover at White Mountain, which is 77 miles (124 kilometers) from the finish line.

A musher originally from Minnesota is the first to reach the halfway point of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Brent Sass, who now calls Eureka, Alaska, home, pulled into the checkpoint in the ghost town of Cripple Wednesday afternoon. Sass was the Iditarod’s 2012 Rookie of the Year but has never won the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska.

And they're off to Nome.

Fans, dogs and mushers have returned in droves to downtown Anchorage in the midst of a snowstorm for Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race's ceremonial start.

This year, fans attending the 50th running of the race were limited in their interactions with participants but still were able to watch from behind fences as mushers left the starting line two minutes apart. Mushers took a leisurely jaunt through Alaska’s largest city, waving at fans that lined downtown streets. Mushers had to show proof of vaccination to race this year, and they will isolate at checkpoints so they don’t bring COVID-19 to the rural, largely Alaska Native villages along the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) route to Nome.

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A large bull moose spent more than an hour stomping on the sled dog team of a rookie Iditarod musher in the wilds of Alaska last week — and the attack didn't end even after Bridgett Watkins emptied her gun into the animal. “This has been the most horrific past 24 hours of my life,” she posted after the moose attack Thursday on the Salcha River trail system near Fairbanks. Watkins wrote that the attack first reported by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner happened while she was on a 52-mile (83.7-kilometer) training run for the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

He disinterred the bodies of 1918 pandemic victims in Alaska, allowing scientists to decode the genetic sequence of the flu virus.

Authorities have located the mother of a baby found abandoned in a cardboard box in frigid conditions in Fairbanks last week, Alaska State Troopers reported Wednesday. Troopers on Tuesday reported the child, known as Teshawn from a note left in the box, was in good health and in the care of the Office of Children’s Services. Troopers previously said they were notified about the abandoned baby Friday afternoon, when the wind chill factor in the area was reported at minus 12.

The newly crowned Miss America has made history.

I took 700 photos at the Instagram photo studio in Tysons Corner Center. I have regrets.

Alaska State Troopers say DNA and genome sequencing have identified a body found decades ago on Fire Island just west of Anchorage.

The remains of a man found on Fire Island just west of Anchorage in 1989 have been identified through DNA and genome sequencing, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday. Troopers said the victim was Michael Allison Beavers, who owned an excavation business in Chugiak. The decadeslong investigation started when human remains were discovered July 24, 1989.

There are more than 570 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages in the United States. Still, too many people assume all American Indians are dead; they have an image in their heads of old black-and-white photos of western Plains Indians who performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows. For many Native Americans, the message to the rest of society is simple: “We’re still here.”

Volcano scientists issued an alert Wednesday, warning that a cloud of ash — from an eruption more than century ago — was headed toward Alaska’s Kodiak Island. The ash is from the powerful 1912 eruption of Novarupta, a volcano on the Alaska Peninsula that dropped volcanic ash that is still visible today. Strong northwesterly winds in the vicinity of Katmai National Park and Preserve and Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes on Wednesday kicked up the loose volcano ash.

Robert Hansen, who owned a bakery, gained the nickname "Butcher Baker" for hunting down women in the early 1980s in Alaska.

Doctors at Providence Alaska Medical Center have been forced to choose who might live or likely die as Covid patients stretch the hospital's resources thin.

The compact capital city is a better base for some of Alaska’s best adventures.

Alaska is experiencing one of the nation's sharpest upticks in COVID-19 infections, and it's worsened by a limited health care system that largely relies on hospitals in its biggest city.

Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. The revelations could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease. (Oct. 4)

Alaska has reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases, a day after the state’s largest hospital announced it had entered crisis protocol and started rationing care.

Alaska's largest hospital is implementing crisis standards of care, or prioritizing resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most.

Alaska’s largest hospital has begun rationing care, saying it has been overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.

With more places requiring proof that you’ve had a COVID-19 vaccine or a recent negative test, scammers see this as an opportunity to profit by selling fake verification tools or products, like fake vaccination cards.

A 55-year-old Indiana man is recuperating in stable condition Tuesday at a Fairbanks hospital after being mauled by a bear in Denali National Park and Preserve. The man was able to use his bear spray, but only after he was knocked to the ground. The bear left quickly after the attack, the park said, and the man was able to walk 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) to the Eielson Visitor Center, which is 66 miles (106 kilometers) from the park entrance.

Aug. 13—An Anchorage man was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in federal prison for charges of kidnapping and drug trafficking related to a 2017 crime when he beat and tortured a man before shoving him into a dog kennel, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska. Macauther Christmas Vaifanua, 32, is one of five people charged in the federal case. Macauther Vaifanua was ...

Three remote Alaska volcanoes are in various states of eruption, one producing lava and the other two blowing steam and ash. Webcams on Thursday clearly showed episodic low-level ash emissions from Pavlof Volcano, prompting the observatory to raise the volcano’s threat level from yellow, or exhibiting signs of unrest, to orange, indicating an eruption is underway with minor volcanic ash emissions. Pavlov is a snow- and ice-covered stratovolcano on the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula, nearly 600 miles (965.6 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

The shallow shaker hit off the Alaskan peninsula. There was also a tsunami watch in effect for Hawaii.

A strip club that once beckoned customers off a busy highway leading into Alaska's largest city is now a church offering salvation instead of temptation.

In a place as huge and wild as Alaska, it’s pretty great to have a single place that distills virtually all of the state’s most compelling elements.

The leaders of Alaska's Republican Party on Saturday endorsed a challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been one of the GOP's most outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The Alaska Republican State Central Committee endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the 2022 race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Murkowski.

A Montana man was reunited with his 14-week-old border collie two days after the dog disappeared following a bear attack on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Jason Umbriaco was hospitalized after the brown bear with two cubs bit him twice Sunday, Alaska’s News Source reported. The attack happened in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Anchorage, while he and Buckley were hiking.

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — The solemn task of sifting through rocks, twigs and ice to find human remains as small as a fingernail continued this month on a glacier north of Anchorage, nearly 69 years after all 52 members of a military transport flight were killed when the plane slammed into a mountain. Wreckage from the plane was spotted by the Alaska National Guard in 2012 during a training mission, setting up annual trips by military officials to recover remains of the crew and passengers of the C-124 Globemaster, which was en route from Fort McChord in Washington state to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage when it crashed in bad weather on Nov. 22, 1952. Crews on Saturday finished the two-week search at Colony Glacier with the intent of providing closure to more families.

Federal officials say a lawsuit in Florida could block cruise ships from visiting Alaska this summer.

An Alaska defendant pleaded guilty today to making threats to a synagogue and attempting to obstruct the free exercise of religious beliefs in Los Angeles, California. According to information presented at the guilty plea hearing, on Nov. 1, 2019, while in Anchorage, Alexander used their cellular phone to call a Los Angeles area synagogue. Alexander left a voice message stating that they were going to kill the synagogue’s congregants, while repeatedly using slurs referring to people of Jewish faith. At the plea hearing, Alexander admitted committing this act with the intent to obstruct the synagogue’s congregants from enjoying the free exercise of their religious beliefs. “We are committed to protecting this freedom and individuals or groups who threaten it will be held accountable for their actions.

The Begich Towers, in Whittier, Alaska, built by the military during the Cold War as a no-frills barracks, is now home to the majority of the isolated town's 300 or so residents.

The Begich Towers, in Whittier, Alaska, built by the military during the Cold War as a no-frills barracks, is now home to the majority of the isolated town's 300 or so residents.

"I was like, 'Holy s---, this is a big bear. It's still very vivid in my mind," Allen Minish said from an Anchorage hospital bed.

An Alaska man survived 10 seconds of terror after a chance meeting with a large brown bear in a remote part of Alaska.

Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet (9 meters) away. “I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” Minish said by phone Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in a chance encounter. The mauling left Minish with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp so deep that the doctor said he could see bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4½-hour surgery.

Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet away. “I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” he said by phone Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in a chance encounter. The mauling left Minish with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp so deep the doctor told him he could see bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4½-hour surgery.

Federal prosecutors say the owner of a Massachusetts pizza parlor lied about the number of employees he had to fraudulently obtain more than $660,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds, then used some of the money to buy an alpaca farm in Vermont.

Anchorage, Alaska — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says she tested positive for COVID-19 and is urging people to take steps to guard against the coronavirus, such as wearing masks in public. September 2017 file photo shows Sarah Palin speaking at a rally in Montgomery, Alabama. Brynn Anderson / APIt wasn't clear when Palin, 57, tested positive. She told the magazine other members of her family also tested positive. "I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there," Palin said, in urging vigilance but not fear.

Anchorage, Alaska — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says she tested positive for COVID-19 and is urging people to take steps to guard against the coronavirus, such as wearing masks in public. September 2017 file photo shows Sarah Palin speaking at a rally in Montgomery, Alabama. Brynn Anderson / APIt wasn't clear when Palin, 57, tested positive. She told the magazine other members of her family also tested positive. "I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there," Palin said, in urging vigilance but not fear.

A contracted helicopter carrying guides and guests from a lodge on a heli-skiing trip in Alaska's backcountry crashed, killing the pilot and four others, authorities said. Alaska State Troopers identified the victims as 52-year-old Colorado resident Gregory Harms; 56-year-old Petr Kellner and 50-year-old Benjamin Larochaix (both from the Czech Republic); 38-year-old Sean McManamy from Girdwood; and 33-year-old pilot Zachary Russell from Anchorage. Authorities said the crash site was near Knik Glacier. Alaska State Troopers said in a statement Sunday that they received a report of an overdue helicopter and the location of possible crash debris Saturday night. A rescue team from Alaska Rescue Coordination Center was dispatched to the crash site in the area of Knik Glacier just after 10 p.m., troopers wrote.

A contracted helicopter carrying guides and guests from a lodge on a heli-skiing trip in Alaska's backcountry crashed, killing the pilot and four others, authorities said. Alaska State Troopers identified the victims as 52-year-old Colorado resident Gregory Harms; 56-year-old Petr Kellner and 50-year-old Benjamin Larochaix (both from the Czech Republic); 38-year-old Sean McManamy from Girdwood; and 33-year-old pilot Zachary Russell from Anchorage. Authorities said the crash site was near Knik Glacier. Alaska State Troopers said in a statement Sunday that they received a report of an overdue helicopter and the location of possible crash debris Saturday night. A rescue team from Alaska Rescue Coordination Center was dispatched to the crash site in the area of Knik Glacier just after 10 p.m., troopers wrote.

This photo provided by the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group shows the scene of a helicopter crash near the Knik Glacier in Alaska on Sunday, March 28, 2021. The pilot and four of the five passengers on board died in the crash, including billionaire Petr Kellner, the richest man in the Czech Republic. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash just north of Anchorage on Saturday night. Among the dead in the Saturday evening crash was billionaire Petr Kellner, the richest man in the Czech Republic. The five passengers included three guests and two guides from the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, said company spokesperson Mary Ann Pruitt.

The outlook for U.S.-China trade relations is likely to remain challenged after this week's high-level diplomatic talks showed that President Joe Biden's team does not plan to wholly abandon the Trump administration's tough tone in discussions with Beijing. That competition was on full display on Thursday, when the countries began two days of meetings in Anchorage, Alaska. Though the talks were seen more as a diplomatic exercise than an economic one, the prickly exchange is likely an early snapshot of the bitter battles ahead for the Biden trade team. China is also the third-largest export market for American farmers and annual trade in agricultural commodities totaled $14 billion two years ago. "I think [the Chinese government] misread the situation with the Biden team, and they thought these guys would come in and roll back all the Trump measures," he added.

Blinken said the Biden administration is united with its allies in pushing back against China's increasing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad. Yang responded angrily by demanding the U.S. stop pushing its own version of democracy at a time when the United States itself has been roiled by domestic discontent. "Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States." "I'm hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we're reengaged," Blinken retorted. "Is this a decision made by the United States to try to gain some advantage in dealing with China?"

Brown | AFP | Getty ImagesBEIJING — The first high-level gathering of U.S. and Chinese officials under President Joe Biden kicked off with an exchange of insults at a pre-meeting press event in Alaska on Thursday. "I said that the United States relationship with China will be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be, adversarial where it must be." The United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength. I'm hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we're reengaged with our allies and partners. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately have a comment.

Blinken said the Biden administration is united with its allies in pushing back against China’s increasing authoritarianism and assertiveness at home and abroad. Yang responded angrily by demanding the U.S. stop pushing its own version of democracy at a time when the United States itself has been roiled by domestic discontent. “I’m hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we're reengaged,” Blinken retorted. Just a day before the meeting, Blinken had announced new sanctions over Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. “Is this a decision made by the United States to try to gain some advantage in dealing with China?"

That makes consultations with the reclusive country's neighbors, Japan, South Korea and China, all the more critical. Meanwhile, U.S. and South Korean negotiators have overcome years of contentious discussions under Trump to reach a tentative deal on paying for the American troop presence in South Korea. He served in the Philippines and Indonesia during the Trump administration and was also previously the special envoy for North Korea. For all of Biden's suggestions that he will reverse Trump's overt hostility to China, Biden has yet to countermand a single one of his predecessor's policies. “After the work of the past 50 days, Secretary Blinken and I will enter the meeting with senior Chinese representatives from a position of strength,” Sulllivan said Friday.

These skulls, drawn by serial killer Israel Keyes in his own blood, were found under his bed in his jail cell. Israel Keyes FBI A mug shot of 34-year-old Israel Keyes. Samantha Koenig Facebook/Please Help Find Samantha Koenig Samantha Koenig, 18, was abducted on February 1, 2012. Keyes' Rental Car FBI Israel Keyes would often rent cars when he traveled and then drive thousands of miles to locations where he wanted to kill. Keyes Questioned FBI Israel Keyes was questioned at the FBI's Field Office in Anchorage, Alaska.

Roberts and three other men were convicted of killing a Fairbanks teenager in 1997. Four men who say they were illegally imprisoned for nearly two decades for the murder of a teenager in Alaska will have their lawsuit go forward after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in the case. In January of last year it overturned a lower court ruling that had dismissed a lawsuit by the Fairbanks Four against the city of Fairbanks. In January of last year the appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by the Fairbanks Four against the city of Fairbanks. The four men — George Frese, Kevin Pease, Marvin Roberts and Eugene Vent — were convicted of murder in the 1997 death of Fairbanks teenager John Hartman.

FILE -bIn this Oct. 15, 2019, file photo, Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach poses for a photo in Anchorage, Alaska. Urbach is encouraging fans to watch the race start and finish live on TV or on the Internet. AdHe said he told Redington before the first Iditarod in 1973: “There’s nobody in Iditarod. AdUrbach has had challenges at every turn as he tries to pull off the second Iditarod during the coronavirus pandemic. The next year, the Iditarod reversed its decision and cleared Seavey, but he took his dogs to Norway to race instead.

Plastic surgeon Daniel Suver receives the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine from Andrea Castelblanco during a vaccine clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage is averaging about 60 new COVID-19 cases a day, said Dr. Janet Johnston, the epidemiologist for the Anchorage Health Department. More than 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be produced in Japan. Ad___SACRAMENTO -- California reported its second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths — while the rates of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations continue to drop. ___ALBANY, N.Y. — New York may have undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by thousands.

FILE - Pharmacist Ron Simono fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccine clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP, Pool)After getting the COVID-19 vaccine, some people are asking whether they have to wear a mask. Dr. Mohammed Reza, an infectious diseases specialist in Jacksonville, said you should be wearing a mask with or without the vaccine. As far as the studies Pfizer and Moderna are conducting when it comes to patients who are symptomatic, Reza said there’s no data on that yet. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was approved by Food and Drug Administration for emergency use last week.

A syringe contains a dose of a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine sits in a container, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, during a vaccine clinic at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. ( (Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP, Pool)JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said late Wednesday night that extra doses from vials of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can be used after reports of vaccine doses were being thrown away by pharmacists due to a labeling error. The Pfizer vials were labeled as holding five doses, but pharmacists said there was enough for a sixth or even a seventh dose. The Moderna vaccine only needs to be stored at -13°F to -5°F, compared to Pfizer’s -112°F to -76°F. Memorial Hospital Jacksonville began vaccinations at 10 a.m. Thursday after the Pfizer vaccine arrived earlier in the morning.

While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others could see vaccination begin in the middle or late 2021, said Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies. “It’s important to emphasize that most, if not all, the countries in the Western Pacific region are a part of the COVAX Facility,” said Escalante. WHO representatives also urged that high-risk groups should be prioritized for vaccination as vaccines will only be available in limited quantities. The WHO Western Pacific Region is home to almost 1.9 billion people across 37 countries and territories. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

ANCHROAGE, Alaska – A stunning tale of inappropriate behavior between a politician and a television anchor, death threats and nude photos culminated in a joint police and FBI investigation, the arrest of the journalist and the resignation of the mayor of Anchorage. The caller threatened to kill Berkowitz, who is Jewish, and his wife, in a diatribe laced with racist insults. “When he slided into my texts, he was so smooth with his little witty slogans and pictures,” Athens told the newspaper. Athens, a graduate of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said she was feeling isolated in Alaska. He served as a Democrat in the Alaska House of Representative from 1997 to 2006, serving the last two years as minority leader.

It's not the mushers that worry Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach; they're used to social distancing along the 1,000 mile trail. It’s not the mushers who worry Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach; they’re used to social distancing along the 1,000-mile trail. “Our course may be adapted to navigate around any civilization, and that will be a heck of a race,“ Urbach said. She is an infectious disease epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta and has been an Iditarod race volunteer for years, often spending time in small villages. Urbach said race officials continue to anticipate what the race could look like six months from now.

The fund topped $6,000 and he's been able to give out $500 tips. It was all starting to come together, Backus recalled about Little fanning out the $100 bills to give to her. Little started by giving $500 tips to five separate waiters or waitresses across the city. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri partnered with the non-profit National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to start the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. The fund provided $500 cash grants to more than 43,000 workers during the pandemic, Sink said.

She attended the opening of a Lady Justice Task Force cold case office in Anchorage, which will investigate missing and murdered Indigenous women. These women are among the hundreds of Alaska Native or American Indian women who have gone missing over the years, and in many instances, their cases have gone cold. Now the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services is opening seven Operation Lady Justice Task Force cold case offices across the country to concentrate on the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women. In late July, when the first cold case office opened in Bloomington, Minnesota, the database indicated there were more than 1,500 unsolved cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women. Arizona has the second highest count of cold cases, at about 240.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Just days after the announcement that famed trial attorney Alan Dershowitz would be the keynote speaker sparked a controversy among its members, the Alaska Bar Association has canceled this years annual conference. Bill Walker, Dershowitz seems a complicated selection for the keynote in Alaska, where rates of violence against women are among the highest in the nation. Im sure he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to represent Jeffrey Epstein, Kendall said. I have no sympathy for that.Stone said the bar associations governing board will meet in September to discuss the selection process for keynote speaker going forward. Dershowitz said he would love to come to Alaska and give the keynote in 2021.

There were no immediate reports of damage in the Alaska Peninsula and the tsunami warning was canceled after the magnitude 7.8 quake offshore created a wave of a less than a foot (30 centimeters). Residents in some small towns within a hundred miles (160 kilometers) of the quake reported very strong shaking and some shaking was felt more than more than 500 miles (805 kilometers) away in the Anchorage area, said Michael West, Alaska state seismologist. The tsunami warning prompted coastal residents to evacuate to higher ground, with social media posts showing long lines of people fleeing towns like Homer and Kodiak as tsunami sirens wailed. Tuesdays quake was more powerful than the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that caused damage in the Anchorage area in November 2018. More than a dozen aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or higher were reported immediately after the earthquake, he said from the Alaska Earthquake Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Elizabeth Peratrovich, a civil rights activist and member of the Tlingit Nation, will become the first Alaskan Native to appear on US currency. She also served as the Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. The coin's design was unveiled during the Alaska Native Brothers and Alaska Native Sisters Convention at Alaska Pacific University on Saturday by Patrick Hernandez, United States Mint Chief Administrative Officer. Saturday also marked the official declaration of November as Alaska Native Heritage Month. The legislation was signed into law during the Alaska Native Brothers and Alaska Native Sisters Convention.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) - Alaska's summer of fire and no ice is smashing records. When lightning struck the Kenai Peninsula, it was just the beginning of a wilderness inferno unlike any other in memory. Today, the closest sea ice to any part of Alaska is over 125 miles offshore. They are tick hunters from the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska. As Lyme Disease spreads across a warming US, she's worried that Alaska might be next.