Associated Press

KENAI, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska city of Kenai is donating five lots to Habitat for Humanity, allowing the organization to build a house in Kenai every two years until 2026.

The Peninsula Clarion reports that Kenai obtained the five wooded lots through tax and assessment foreclosures in 1987. After failed attempts to sell the property, the Kenai City Council decided Wednesday to donate the lots one at a time to Habitat for Humanity.

The organization will settle the unpaid balance of the city and Kenai Peninsula borough taxes and begin work on a house that must be finished within two years.

Kenai made a similar donation of five foreclosed properties in 2009 and gave Habitat for Humanity the same building schedule. The nonprofit finished the work in November 2015.

BETHEL, Alaska (AP) — A high school in Alaska is helping students with disabilities find summer jobs.

KYUK-AM reports that Bethel Regional High School is participating in a state-funded program that will match students with disabilities with local businesses. The program is designed for students with different types of disabilities, including those with learning disabilities and those on the autism spectrum.

Bethel teacher Jane Belanger says the students will be able to work for about four to six weeks up to full time, depending on their interest. She says they will also participate in a classroom component that meets for a couple hours once a week.

Ashley Crace, the director of special education for Lower Kuskokwim School D

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A petroleum company suspected of crude oil and natural gas leaks in Alaska’s Cook Inlet has a problem at a third petroleum platform.

Hilcorp Alaska LLC says it shut down an underwater natural gas pipeline after observing that the volume of gas shipped from a production platform didn’t match what was received at a processing facility on shore.

The gas pipeline runs out of the Steelhead Platform on Cook Inlet’s west side.

Hilcorp says it flew over the line last weekend but spotted no signs of subsea gas release. The company emptied the line April 1 as a precaution.

A Hilcorp pipeline carrying processed natural gas to provide power at four production platforms has been spewing gas into the inlet since mid-December.

Hilcorp also is investigating oil spilled April 1 near a company platform.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The Fairbanks North Star Borough is preparing to enforce more burn bans as part of stricter rules aimed at cleaning up the city’s heavily polluted air.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the Borough Assembly voted to adopt the new regulations Thursday.

The goal is to address problems with fine particulate, which is a mix of solid particles and liquid droplets that can be inhaled deep in the lungs. It causes premature death in people suffering heart and lung diseases and causes nonfatal heart attacks.

The new rules reduce the concentration of particulate that prompts an air quality alert and triggers burn bans. They also limit exemptions for burning wood or coal.

The regulations come after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed upgrading the borough from “moderate” non-attainment for fine particulate to “serious” non-attainment.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Tribal leaders in a tiny Native village in western Alaska are expanding their commercial reindeer subsidiary to soon include sales of the lean meat to larger urban markets.

The venture by Mekoryuk’s (ma-KOR’-ee-yuck) tribal government includes plans to build a new slaughterhouse and offer the meat for sale in places like Anchorage’s urban market again and ultimately in the lower 48 as it once did.

Tribal operations director Dale Smith says construction of the slaughterhouse is expected to begin by summer in the venture funded by $1.8 million in federal grants.

The new facility will replace a dilapidated building that was recently demolished. Having no slaughterhouse left locals with no choice but to slaughter the animals out on the tundra, which limits where the meat can be sold.

BETHEL, Alaska (AP) — Tribal members who live near Bethel are asking the City Council to require Bethel liquor stores to only sell alcohol to customers with Bethel IDs.

KYUK-AM reports that representatives from more than a dozen tribes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta met in Bethel this week to discuss the impact Bethel’s alcohol sales are having on their villages.

Many tribal members say they have seen an uptick in domestic violence, drunken driving and other alcohol-related offenses since Bethel began selling alcohol for the first time in more than 40 years last year.

The tribal group plans to ask Bethel officials to limit alcohol sales to city residents. They also encouraged each Yukon Kuskokwim Delta to create a safety plan to deal with alcohol impacts in their communities.