Associated Press

Copper River School District Superintendent Michael Johnson has been named Alaska’s new education commissioner.

The Juneau Empire reports that the state school board confirmed Tuesday the Johnson will start in the new position on July 1. The position became open earlier this year when Commissioner Mike Hanley stepped down.

Johnson, who oversees a rural school district with fewer than 500 students, was selected over the only other finalist for the job Steward McDonald of the Kodiak Island Borough School District.

Former commissioner Hanley left the position after the failure of the Alaska Measures of Progress standardized test, which he created. Johnson will now be tasked with creating a replacement test by spring and pursuing a federal waiver for tests canceled this year

A former North Slope Borough Police Department employee has pleaded guilty to stealing from a police evidence room and destroying case files.

KTUU-TV reports that according to a plea agreement filed Friday in federal court, former evidence custodian Margaret Ann Solomon has admitted to taking at least $109,600 from an evidence room and destroying the related paperwork.

According to court documents, Solomon took cash from evidence envelopes. She admitted to having a gambling problem at the time of the thefts and to using some of the money to pay for pull tabs and gambling online through Facebook.

The precise amount of cash Solomon stole is unknown.

Case files that had missing evidence have been turned over to the state Law Department pending any requests for appeal.

Alaska Alpine Adventures says the two women who died in a rafting accident on the Kongakut River had been paddling rapids when their raft flipped Wednesday.

The North Slope Borough identified the women as 69-year-old Cheryl Minnehan of Elk Grove, California, and 67-year-old Karen Todd of Sparks, Nevada.

“Words cannot adequately convey the grief and sense of loss that we feel today for the families and loved ones of Karen and Cheryl,” Dan Oberlatz, CEO of Alaska Alpine Adventures, said in a statement.

Officials say there were five rafts on the trip and the victims were in a raft carrying at least 10 people.

The borough’s Department of Search and Rescue received a report Wednesday of two people missing after a boat capsized on the Kongakut River, about 75 miles south of Kaktovik.

Kaktovik is a small community on the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s northern coast, about 625 miles north of Anchorage.

The borough and the Alaska Air National Guard safely recovered eight other people and took them to the community of Deadhorse. The guard found the bodies of the missing rafters Thursday.

The North Slope Police Department is investigating the deaths.

A Kenai resident suspected of selling drugs to a man who died is being held on suspicion of manslaughter.

Alaska State Troopers say 37-year-old Richard Paul Morrison is being held without bail pending arraignment at Wildwood Pretrial Facility.

Troopers began an investigation Dec. 30 after the unexpected death of 37-year-old Jeremy Vandever of Soldotna. Investigators say Vandever died because he ingested drugs.

Morrison on Jan. 20 was charged with multiple counts of drug misconduct.

He was out on bail but was arrested again Thursday on new charges of manslaughter and distributing the controlled substance that killed Vandever.

An attorney listed for Morrison could not immediately be reached Friday.

A compromise bill to use Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to help stem the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit has failed to make it out of the House Finance Committee.

The Juneau Empire reports the committee’s co-chairman, Rep. Steve Thompson, says legislators were one vote short of the six votes needed Thursday to advance the bill to the House floor. The committee is expected to try again Friday.

The committee voted on a new version of the bill submitted earlier that day that calls for limiting dividend payouts to $1,500 for residents this year and next.

The previous version, which passed the Senate, limits distributions to $1,000 the next three years.

The measure is the centerpiece of Gov. Bill Walker’s fiscal plan and would roughly halve Alaska’s more than $3 billion deficit.

Former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan says he is withdrawing from the Republican field challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the August primary. Alaska’s junior U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, the state’s former attorney general, was elected in 2014.

During that election cycle, there was ample opportunities for confusion as both Sullivans were on the ballot with the former mayor as a candidate for lieutenant governor.

The former mayor said he was asked by conservative leaders one day before the filing deadline to challenge Murkowski, but tells KTUU that he can best serve Alaskans by working on local and statewide issues.

A message left by The Associated Press at a phone number listed in his filing documents wasn’t immediately returned