Heather Bryant

5:00 p.m. update:

One man is dead and another missing after the Kodiak-based fishing vessel Advantage sank early this morning 14 miles southeast of Kodiak Island.

Three crew members were rescued from their liferaft by a Coast Guard helicopter around 1 a.m.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Sara Francis says none were wearing survival suits.

Leif Bolan, the skipper of the 58-foot Advantage, died after he and two crewmen were transported to Kodiak, suffering from hypothermia. The other two are reported to be recovering. Their names have not been released.

The missing crewman’s name is Jaime Gallega. The search for him was ongoing as of news time.

A signal from an emergency locator beacon was received by the Coast Guard just after midnight, and after the ship could not be raised via radio, a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Kodiak was sent to the scene.

There were clear skies, two- to three-foot seas and a water temperature of about 52 degrees Fahrenheit reported by the helicopter crew. The Coast Guard is investigating the sinking.

Original post:

The Coast Guard has been searching all night for one crew member still missing after a fishing boat sank south of Kodiak. An automated distress signal from the 58-foot Advantage was picked up just after midnight 50 miles southeast of Kodiak city. Three crewmen were rescued and are being treated for hypothermia.

Coast Guard civilian search and rescue controller Adam DeRocher in Juneau says when the helicopter launched from Air Station Kodiak around 1 a.m., the EPIRB satellite signal was not precise:

“While they were en route we got an ambiguity resolution, which is a positive position for the EPIRB, passed that to them. When they got on scene they located a debris field and shortly after that they located a life raft with three persons on board. So they successfully and safely hoisted the three men into the helo and transported them to awaiting EMS in kodiak, and then went back out to look for the remaining one individual that is un-located,” DeRocher said.

No names have been released yet. DeRocher says none of the rescued crewmen were wearing survival suits. He said the cause of the sinking is as yet unknown.

Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox is being held in Washington state while he awaits sentencing for conspiring to murder federal officials and owning illegal weapons.

Cox is being held at the Federal Detention Center near Seattle.

Fairbanks attorney Nelson Traverso represented Cox at trial. But Traverso has since withdrawn because Cox was dissatisfied with his representation. Seattle attorney Peter Camiel now represents Cox.

Sentencing hearings for Cox and co-defendants Lonnie Vernon, Karen Vernon and Coleman Barney are scheduled for this fall in Anchorage. Cox’s co-defendants remain jailed in Alaska.

The commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation is resigning.

Marc Luiken submitted his resignation in a letter dated Wednesday to Gov. Sean Parnell.

Luiken did not specify a reason for his resignation, which is effective Oct. 1. He was traveling Thursday and didn’t immediately return a message.

He noted in the letter that his personal commitment “has been to loyally serve and support” Parnell as a friend and governor.

But Luiken notes that they always didn’t agree on the methods.

Parnell’s spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, did not respond when asked in an email if the governor sought Luiken’s resignation. However, she said Luiken is a “hard-working man of integrity and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Parnell nominated Luiken to the commissioner’s post in November 2010.

Seismologists say a cluster of earthquakes has been detected at a remote volcano in Alaska’s western Aleutian Islands.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory says the quakes began Wednesday evening at Little Sitkin Volcano and are continuing as of Thursday morning.

No eruption has been detected.

Scientist in charge John Power says there is no direct link to the swarm of earthquakes at Little Sitkin and a cluster of quakes that shook California’s Imperial County earlier this week.

Powers says Little Sitkin is located on an uninhabited island and is far from any populated areas.

He says the seismic activity is unusual for Little Sitkin, whose last eruption possibly in the early 1900s is questionable.

Powers says the concern about an eruption would be the possible threat posed to aircraft.

Early data indicate at least 2,170 students from the high school graduating class of 2012 qualified for a state-funded merit scholarship.

Gov. Sean Parnell’s office says that’s 30 percent of this year’s total graduating class. It’s not clear yet how many students will accept a scholarship, which must be used for post-secondary education in Alaska.

Parnell has been a champion of the Alaska Performance Scholarship, seeing it as a way to help transform the state’s education system.

A report to lawmakers on the program’s inaugural year showed that as of Jan. 1, the program had awarded about $3 million in aid to more than 900 graduates from the class of 2011. About 1,400 additional students qualified and remained eligible to receive scholarship aid later, provided they meet eligibility requirements.

Despite the failure of Ballot Measure Two, Alaska could still reestablish its Coastal Management Program. Lawmakers on both sides of the vote expect to work on the issue again next legislative session.

Ketchikan Representative Kyle Johansen, who is facing a re-election challenge this fall, was glad voters turned-down the initiative. Johansen and other opponents have said they are in favor of having some sort of coastal management program…but not the one proposed in the initiative.

The measures opponents said, among other things, that it was too far reaching. With support from oil producers and other pro-development interests, the vote-no-on-two campaign was able to vastly outspend initiative backers who received most of their support from coastal towns and residents.

Juneau representative Beth Kertula was an outspoken advocate for the initiative, so she was disappointed by the result. But she’s hopeful that next session, lawmakers can agree on a bill that could still bring back the program, which sets up state standards to review development projects in coastal areas.

Nearly 62 percent of Alaska Voters said no to the Coastal Management initiative and just under 40 percent supported it.