Associated Press

A citizens group has submitted a petition for a ballot initiative that would ban all commercial marijuana operations outside cities in the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

The Peninsula Clarion reports that the borough clerk is working to verify signatures on the petition to be sure the group garnered support from at least 15 percent of the number of voters in the last regular election.

The petition comes after a similar ordinance failed to pass through the borough assembly in April. That ordinance would have posed a ballot question about banning commercial marijuana operations in the borough outside city limits. The assembly considered a similar measure in 2015.

Tribal leaders in Kodiak are working to determine why crawfish, an invasive species, are spreading into the Buskin watershed.

The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that the small crustaceans have been spotted in the Kodiak waters occasionally since the early 2000s, but now the Sun’aq Tribe says the problem is more widespread than previously believed.

Sun’aq officials have been working to catch the crawfish with funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. So far, 228 crustaceans have been sampled. Signal crawfish have been found to be breeding in Buskin Lake.

The invasive species can be damaging to the native habitat. Burrowing can affect vegetation in lakes. Sun’aq officials will spend one weekend in August electrofishing in the lake in hopes of catching and removing crawfish from the ecosystem.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Flood damage has forced the temporary closure of a state public assistance office in Anchorage.

The department of health says its public assistance office on Muldoon Road will be closed until Aug. 8. Department spokesman Clay Butcher said the closure could last longer if carpeting needs to be replaced or something else unforeseen happens.

He says the flooding followed a rainy period and involved a malfunctioning drain.

The department says staff from the Muldoon office has been temporarily assigned to other area offices.

Offices at two other Anchorage sites and in Eagle River are open for people needing to deliver paperwork.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Anchorage man was charged Thursday on two murder counts after police found a dead body inside his midtown apartment.

Kelly Frederick, 33, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder.

An arraignment was scheduled Thursday afternoon.

Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Frederick, who is being held without bail.

Police say there were called to an apartment late Wednesday night, where they found two people holding Frederick on the ground.

Officials say in a release that officers went inside Frederick’s apartment and found a body with multiple stab wounds.

Police said the identity of the person killed was not known. The body has been sent to the medical examiner’s office for fingerprint identification. Police didn’t say whether the person killed was male or female.

Witnesses told officers they heard an altercation in the apartment and called authorities when they confronted Frederick, who they said had blood on his hands.

Alaska health officials are investigating a number of salmonella infections in Bethel. KYUK-AM reports that a team from the Alaska Division of Public Health is now in Bethel to find the source of six confirmed cases in the area this year.

Though the wildfire near Alaska’s largest city was only 15 percent contained as of Saturday, fire officials have given a positive prognosis to the blaze. KTVA-TV reports that incident commander Tom Kurth on Saturday said favorable weather this week should not promote growth of the fire near Anchorage and parts of the fire could be considered confined, or unable to progress.