Associated Press

Juneau officials have approved plans for a business shuttered years ago to become the new site of a Native cultural immersion park.

The Juneau Empire reports that the city’s Planning Commission voted in favor of a conditional use permit on Tuesday for the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The tribe is looking to renovate the Thane Ore House, which was closed in 2012.

The tribe’s plans for the site include a restaurant, space for Native dance performances and a gift shop. The cultural center would also provide transportation to shuttle cruise passengers and tourists to the facility.

The tribe’s economic development manager, Myrna Gardner, says visitors would also have an opportunity to learn from Native canoe and totem pole carvers.

The Alaska House of Representatives stood for a moment of silence Monday to honor the shooting victims of the deadly attack at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Rep. Matt Claman asked his colleagues to stand in unity for those injured and killed and their families.

The Anchorage Democrat says, “It’s a tremendous loss.”

Lawmakers are meeting in special session to address budget shortfalls because of the low price of oil.

The House referred to committee a Senate bill allowing the state to draw from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings based on a percentage of the fund’s market value. It also moved several bills raising taxes on items such as highway fuels and mining to Tuesday.

The Senate doesn’t have a floor session scheduled until Thursday.

Anchorage police have arrested a man suspected of breaking into a business, stealing a truck and crashing it on the Glenn Highway.

Police say 38-year-old Shane Wade continued driving on damaged wheels, sending up sparks that set the truck on fire just before 4 a.m. Sunday.

Police say Wade abandoned the truck on the highway near Wasilla, hitched a ride back toward Anchorage and was arrested.

He’s being held on suspicion of burglary, theft, vehicle theft, criminal mischief and leaving an accident scene.

Police say security surveillance video shows Wade using rock to break into the front glass doors of a business, Batteries Plus, in south Anchorage and stealing keys to the truck.

He was booked into the Anchorage jail.

Online court records did not list an attorney for Wade.

Airlines are doing a better job of sticking to their schedules, and consumer complaints are falling.

The Department of Transportation said Monday that 84.5 percent of flights on the largest 12 U.S. airlines arrived on time during April, better than the previous month and up from 81.8 percent in April 2015.

Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines were the best at staying on schedule, while Spirit Airlines was last, arriving late more than one-fourth of the time.

Consumer complaints about U.S. airlines fell to 870 from 1,083 in April 2015.

Gov. Bill Walker says realistically he won’t get the comprehensive fiscal plan he’d hoped for this year.

In an interview Thursday, Walker says he’s concerned but cannot force legislators to vote on issues they’re not ready to vote on.

For months, Walker has called for passage of a fiscal package to help pull the state out of a multibillion-dollar deficit over the next couple years. He proposed a plan that included tax increases, oil and gas tax credit changes, a personal income tax and structured annual draws from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to help pay for state government.

The Legislature passed a tax credit bill that Walker says needs further work but has an impact. The Senate passed the permanent fund bill, which still must overcome concerns in the House.

There’s been little interest in Walker’s tax bills.