Associated Press

Pet owners in southcentral Alaska are being warned of an apparent uptick in dog thefts in the area.

KTVA-TV reports that Anchorage Animal Care and Control is investigating after one woman reported on Facebook that three dogs had turned up beaten and at least one was found dead in the area. The woman said all the dogs were pit bull or boxer breeds.

Alaska Bully Rescue Vice President Lisa Switzer says she’s noticed a rise in people reporting dog thefts, particularly in the Matanuska Valley.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters says troopers are not aware of any dog fighting in the area, which pet owners had worried was the cause of all the thefts.

National Park Service officials say a lodge in northern Alaska is threatened by a growing wildfire that has crossed a river.

Officials said Friday the fire near the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve had grown to more than 2 square miles in size.

Spokeswoman Kris Fister says the owner of the private lodge at Narvak Lake reported Thursday evening that the fire was 5 1/2 miles away. Fister says she doesn’t know if the fire has moved in closer.

The preserve is in the Brooks Range section of the state.

Federal officials who oversee offshore petroleum drilling have released a draft environmental review for a proposed June 2017 sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

The sale could cover 1,700 square miles from south of Kalgin Island to an area west of Seldovia.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says the area is near existing leases in state waters.

The draft is in two volumes covering more than 1,100 pages. It discusses alternatives to reduce leasing effects on endangered beluga whales, sea otters and commercial fishing.

BOEM on July 22 will put out the review for a 45-day public comment period. BOEM officials also will conduct public meetings on the measure in Anchorage, Homer and Kenai.

BOEM officials say they will use findings to determine whether a sale will be held.

An Anchorage church is among the organizers of a unity march taking place on city streets Saturday.

Organizers say the goal of the 10 a.m. event is to pray for unity in the community and to demonstrate togetherness.

The march will have two starting locations, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and the Fairview Recreation Center. Organizers say the participants from both groups will meet and march along Ninth Avenue to a Martin Luther King Memorial at a downtown park strip.

The march is among events that have been held across the nation since recent fatal shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota and the killing of five Dallas police officers.

Alaska State Troopers say a 44-year-old Wasilla man died in an apparent rafting accident in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Officials have still been unable to pinpoint who or what left a man bloody and unconscious last month in Anchorage.