Pablo Arauz Peña, KTOO

In this newscast: Alaska recorded 40 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the lowest daily case count since September; Winter cold snaps aren’t just causing frozen pipes and power outages in the lower 48; Gov. Mike Dunleavy has quietly appointed an unknown real estate executive to an agency tasked with regulating commercial fishing permits; Alaska’s Emergency Disaster Declaration for COVID-19 lapsed on Sunday — but that hardly means the end of the statewide effort to combat the ongoing pandemic.

In this newscast:  Today is Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska, marking the anniversary of the signing of an anti-discrimination bill passed by Alaska’s territorial legislature in 1945; Faced with the prospect of another canceled cruise season, Ketchikan’s borough is projecting a multimillion-dollar deficit; Seal oil has been a staple in the diet of Alaska’s Inupiat for generations; A federal appeals court has sided with conservation and Indigenous groups by ordering work to stop at a major oil project on Alaska’s North Slope.

In this newscast: Help is on the way for Juneau residents who need financial relief; Six people have been chosen to lead a new Systemic Racism Review Committee in Juneau; Sitka has become a hot spot for landslide research since a deadly landslide hit the town in 2015; The state of Alaska’s investment authority board has agreed to put $35 million towards the controversial Ambler Road project.