Heather Bryant

Update, 9:00 p.m.

Wreckage of the missing plane was spotted about 3:00 p.m. by a Coastal Helicopters crew. A Juneau Mountain Rescue team later made it to the crash site and found the body of the pilot. Read the full story here.

Update, 2:06 p.m.

More searchers have now joined the effort to find a small plane that went missing between Juneau and Gustavus this morning (Thursday).

Alaska State Troopers and Juneau Mountain Rescue are coordinating a ground search, while the Civil Air Patrol has joined a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 and a commercial helicopter from Coastal Helicopters in the aerial search.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Ryan Erickson with Sector Juneau Search and Rescue says the pilot was the only person on board the plane owned by Air Excursions. He says it was due into Gustavus at 8:55 a.m., and last made contact at 8:47 near Point Howard.

“We haven’t heard anything since,” Erickson says. “So, flight service station gave the Coast Guard a call, saying we might have a situation, and we’ve been searching since.”

Erickson says low clouds, fog and rain are complicating the search.

The plane is described as a teal and white Piper Cherokee.

A woman who answered the phone at Air Excursions said the company would have no comment and would not be releasing any information at this point.

This is an ongoing story, check back here for updates.

Original story, 12:06 p.m.

The Coast Guard and a commercial helicopter company are looking for a small plane that went missing between Juneau and Gustavus this morning.

Lieutenant Ryan Erickson with Sector Juneau Search and Rescue says the pilot was the only person on board the plane owned by Air Excursions. He says it was due into Gustavus at 8:55 a.m., and last made contact at 8:47 near Point Howard.

“We haven’t heard anything since,” Erickson says. “So, flight service station gave the Coast Guard a call, saying we might have a situation, and we’ve been searching since.”

Erickson says a Coast Guard MH-60 from Air Station Sitka and a chopper from Coastal Helicopters are involved in the search. Low clouds and fog are complicating aerial efforts, and a ground search is not yet underway.

The plane is described as a teal and white Piper Cherokee.

A woman who answered the phone at Air Excursions said the company would have no comment and would not be releasing any information at this point.

This is an ongoing story, check back here for updates.

Nearly two years after the death of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, a Senate panel has recommended that a Navy warship be named in his honor.

Stevens’ legacy has already been memorialized through having a mountain named after him in his home state of Alaska, as well as the now-annual Ted Stevens Day. But several senators on Thursday said it would be particularly fitting for a warship to be named for Stevens, given his strong support for the military and service men and women during his 40 years in the Senate.

Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, a longtime friend of Stevens’, said it would be a “small but well-deserved honor” for someone who did so much to support the Navy.

The recommendation was included in a defense spending bill.

A U.S. House Committee passed an amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act this morning that would force the government to recognize Alexander Creek as an Alaska Native village under ANCSA.

Alexander Creek, northwest of Anchorage in the Mat-Su Borough, is part of Cook Inlet Region Inc. If it passes, Alexander Creek would incorporate itself, and residents would receive smaller CIRI dividends, with the rest of the money going to the village corporation, which could decide how it would be distributed.

The bill would require the U.S. government to settle land claim issues with Alexander Creek leaders by the end of this year. But that depends on passage. Congress is slated to begin a five-week recess this weekend. When it returns in September, they’ll have to work on more pressing legislation to avoid across-the-board spending cuts and a plan to keep funding the government for six months.

All of that within two months of the election.

CIRI officials did not make themselves available for comment but in written testimony they were against the current proposal, citing concerns over land rights issues and other problems they felt would infringe on CIRI’s holdings.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation reported a return of .02 percent for the fiscal year. The total value of the fund is sitting at $40.3 billion.

“It was a volatile year for the global stock markets, particularly overseas markets,” said Michael Burns, CEO, in a press release.  “Stocks make up about half of the Fund’s investments, so they had the largest impact on our performance. “

The Fund’s U.S. stock portfolio returned 2.3 percent.  The non-U.S. portfolio returned -14.6 percent while the global portfolio returned -4.7 percent according to the press release.

The Permanent Fund earned $1.6 billion in statutory net income. This income comes from real estate properties, dividends from stocks, interest on bonds and the sale of assets.

The Permanent Fund Dividend is calculated by averaging five years of the statutory net income.

This year, $605 million will be transferred for the fall dividend payment.  Last year, the APFC transferred $801 million to the Permanent Fund Dividend Division for the fall payment.

More ships than ever are operating in the Bering Strait and off the north coast of Alaska, but many of the nautical charts for the region haven’t been updated in more than a century. Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is trying to fix that. The research vessel Fairweather set off Wednesday for a surveying trip in the Arctic.

The crew of the Fairweather will be tracing a path from Kotzebue to the Canadian border over the next month. It’s the first mapping expedition of the north coast using modern equipment.

Click here for the full story and details on some of the technology the crew will be using.

A Juneau utility says a hydro project will be off line for two days this month but no service disruptions are expected.

Debbie Ferreira, with Alaska Electric Light and Power Company, says diesel generators will be used to supplement power production.

The project is going off-line to allow helicopter clearance for materials for a new avalanche diversion structure. The structure, intended to direct the force of an avalanche from the tower base, will be similar to one installed in 2009 that was credited with preventing tower damage from an avalanche earlier this year.

The company included the estimated cost of diesel in the cost of power adjustment on customers’ bills. It says any savings or additional costs related to the diesel usage will be factored into the next quarter’s adjustment.