KTOO News Department

In this newscast:

• Earlier this week, the Juneau Assembly approved spending more than $320,000 — made up of mostly grant funding from the FAA — to purchase an amphibious wetland rescue vehicle for the Juneau International Airport,
• Starting today, Juneau residents won’t have to pay local sales tax on essential food and residential utilities. Voters in Juneau approved exempting them during this fall’s recent municipal election,
• Researchers and community members gathered in Yakutat late last month, in northern Southeast Alaska, to discuss local geohazards, like landslide-induced tsunamis, and how they can be addressed
• Congress has nullified the Biden administration’s resource plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska

In this newscast:

• Last night, the Juneau Assembly officially killed a proposal to locally implement ranked choice voting. The body unanimously voted to table the ordinance to adopt a ranked-choice voting system for municipal elections beginning next year,
• The man who was slammed to the ground by a former Juneau police officer this summer is suing the City and Borough of Juneau and the officer in civil superior court,
• A controversial mineral exploration project near Haines is changing hands again – just one year after the last shakeup. Vizsla Copper Corporation is the new owner. The company says one of its key priorities is earning local support. But at least for one local tribe, that’s not in the cards,
• Researchers say vessel strikes are a major threat for whales — including in the waters off Alaska. But a new technology is aiming to change that, by using AI, thermal imagining and marine observers

In this newscast:

• The Juneau School District Board of Education is considering giving more than $1 million dollars earmarked for child care back to the city at its regular meeting tomorrow,
• The longest government shutdown in U.S. history came to an end last week. That paved the way for federal employees to return to their posts, including many in Alaska’s capital city. But as KTOO’s Alix Soliman reports, reopening isn’t necessarily a smooth process and some agency workers are frustrated,
• Two landslides took out Juneau’s popular Auke Lake Trail in September, causing the city to close it to the public. Now, as trail workers repair it with chainsaws and gravel, they say it’s an example of climate impacts on trails they’ve been seeing more frequently in recent years,
• Earlier this year, a killer whale totem pole was raised in Angoon. It’s a part of a long legacy of kootéeyaa that have stood next to a clan house. The clan house leader shared the history of those poles and the people who helped raise and lower them over the years at a lecture in Juneau on Wednesday. It was part of a Sealaska Heritage Institute series celebrating Native American Heritage Month.

In this newscast:

• The Juneau Assembly is slated to decide on Monday night whether Juneau should adopt a ranked choice voting system for municipal elections beginning next year.
• The City and Borough of Juneau demolished an encampment of unhoused people in the Mendenhall Valley again this morning.
• Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes resigned from the Alaska Senate today to pursue her gubernatorial candidacy.
• Juneau high school students are getting real-world building experience while creating much-needed affordable homes in the community.

In this newscast:

• University of Alaska President Pat Pitney will retire this spring,
• After a decade of serving Juneau a range of fresh food and diverse flavors, a beloved local restaurant is closing its doors later this month. Zerelda’s Bistro was started by a couple who love food almost as much as they love each other,
• Powerful solar storms brought a dazzling light show to the skies above the Northern Hemisphere this week. As the Alaska Desk’s Shelby Herbert reports, even scientists who have observed the aurora for decades say this storm is something special,
• A derelict vessel is no longer drifting unmanned in the waters of the Wrangell Narrows, near Petersburg,
• Nine puppies found seemingly abandoned in a crate at the Fox transfer site in Fairbanks last week were all adopted by new families in a single day

In this newscast:

• The number of Democrats running for governor of Alaska grew to two on Monday as Anchorage state Sen. Matt Claman entered the race,
• More than a dozen people without permanent housing have been camping out on Teal Street in the Mendenhall Valley. It’s Juneau’s largest unhoused encampment and the city plans to force people and their belongings out of the area on Friday, ahead of the season’s first expected snowfall,
• One Fairbanks woman is especially grateful to be home with her family for the holidays. That’s after she spent a month in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Washington State. The Alaska Desk’s Shelby Herbert caught up with Atcharee Buntow about her ordeal, and her hopes for maintaining her residency in the United States