Associated Press

A ground and aerial search is underway for a missing 36-year-old Nome man.

Alaska State Troopers say they were notified Monday morning after Joseph Balderas failed to show up for work. State officials say Balderas works as a law clerk for the Alaska court system in Nome.

Troopers say Balderas’ vehicle was found around the Nome-Council Highway. That’s where he was believed to have been hiking and mountain running, but he wasn’t found in the immediate area.

The Coast Guard also has joined in the search with a helicopter crew. Troopers say multiple searchers also are using all-terrain vehicles. Other aircraft include a trooper plane.

A shooting Sunday afternoon at a midtown Anchorage park left a man with a bullet wound to his back.

Anchorage police say a 39-year-old man just before 2:30 p.m. was sitting on a bench with a woman in Arctic Benson Park on west 31st Avenue.

A man walked up and the men exchanged words.

Police say the second man fired two shots and fled. The man who had been on the bench was hit once in the back.

The wounded man was taken to a hospital. Police say he was targeted and the shooting was not random.

The suspect was a thin, white male wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and black pants.

Alaska State Troopers have released the name of a Florida man killed last week in a traffic crash on a southeast Alaska island.

Trooper say 23-year-old Jeffery Turner of Tampa Bay died in the crash in Hoonah.

A Juneau man, 24-year-old Dylan Wiard, was injured in the crash.

Hoonah police just before 5:30 a.m. Friday called in troopers after finding an overturned vehicle on Long Island Road.

Hoonah is a village of 785 about 40 miles west of Juneau on Chichagof Island.

Firefighters in Alaska have been busy at work after thousands of recorded lightning strikes sparked about 20 fires across the state.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that more than 8,000 lightning strikes were reported in the state on Saturday, and at least 8,300 through Sunday evening.

Alaska Division of Forestry spokesman Tim Mowry says the lightning-sparked blazes are reminiscent of last year, when wildfires burned thousands of square miles of Alaska wilderness.

Mowry says the multiple fires in the area have stretched firefighting resources thin, but that things are still manageable.

The Department of Natural Resources launched a burn suspension in the Fairbanks area with very high fire danger in Fairbanks and the Railbelt with high fire danger in Salcha.

Sitka schools are ending this academic year with a $200,000 surplus.

KCAW-FM reports district administrators decided to save half the surplus while the other half helps pay for arts curriculum.

District business manager Cassee Olin told Sitka School board members in June that savings on utilities and heating fuel were the most significant.

Some areas that went over budget were the homeschool program and student activities.

School starts Aug. 24.

An investigation into a floatplane crash that killed 8 sightseers and the pilot about a year ago is nearly finished.

National Transportation Safety Board Alaska Chief Clint Johnson told the Ketchikan Daily News that officials are compiling information before releasing a final report.

The federal agency sent investigators to the site near Ketchikan where visibility was reduced at the time of the June 2015 crash.

A preliminary report said pieces of terrain-avoidance technology were recovered.

Johnson said factors like the high number of deaths in the crash probably warrant a hearing, when a possible cause would be released.

The safety board can hold hearings for major accidents to gather sworn testimony and make the investigation process public.

A Washington, D.C. hearing is likely to be set early in 2017.