Newscasts

In this newscast: Earlier this week, the Alaska Department of Health confirmed a measles case in an adult on the southern Kenai Peninsula; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to be the country’s new Health and Human Services secretary, and he has pledged to advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Juneau did that nearly two decades ago, and data shows kids in Juneau are getting more cavities; The U.S. Forest Service plans to raise five new totem poles at the Mendenhall Glacier. The project is meant to honor the original people of the land, but those original people say they should be included in creating the plan

In this newscast: Election officials rejected more than 1,300 absentee ballots in the November 2024 general elections; The 2025 Kuskokwim 300 has been pushed back two weeks because of poor snowfall and above-freezing temperatures; The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center raised over $30,000 in just two days to rebuild an animal shelter after it was destroyed by high winds last Monday; Fifty people experiencing homelessness died on the streets of Anchorage last year; Bethel’s tribal government recently had the rare opportunity to repatriate the remains of four Yup’ik ancestors taken from the area more than a century ago

In this newscast: The Juneau School District says its students’ personal data may have been compromised in a national data breach. The software company – PowerSchool – gave the district an initial all-clear last week. But further examination by the district’s IT department revealed suspicious activity. PowerSchool then confirmed Juneau’s data had been compromised; Alaskans who have experienced stalking and domestic violence — or who work as police or correctional officers — aren’t able to hide their addresses from the public. That can put them and their families at risk. An Alaska lawmaker is proposing a bill that would protect their personal information; The KSM Mine Project in British Columbia could be the largest undeveloped gold and copper mine on the planet, according to the BC government. The company that’s developing the mine cleared a major regulatory milestone in November — but now the mine is facing legal challenges from tribes on both sides of the border. Tribes in Alaska fear the impacts the mine could have downstream —  and they don’t think the province acted in good faith.

In this newscast: The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has received $3 million in federal funding for coastal habitat restoration; One Southeast Alaska lawmaker has a proposal to offer a state flood insurance alternative to federal insurance that may include coverage for both floods and some landslides; A project to build Alaska’s first state-run veterans cemetery received a $7 million grant; Tongass Voices: Librarian Melinda Sandkam on engaging all ages with Douglas Library’s I Spy display

In this newscast: A Juneau lawmaker is once again pushing to revive a pension system for state and local government workers, Several borough-owned lots in Petersburg will get utilities in the next year or so, and Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority will do the work. A new bipartisan caucus made up largely of Democrats and…

In this newscast: Juneau’s Áak’w Rock Indigenous Music Festival postponed until 2027; The new district attorney in Juneau sat down with KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey to talk about the job; Scientists say the common murre experienced the largest single-species wildlife die-off ever documented