Western

Dial-up Internet access is a distant memory for most of us. But slow connections to the web are still a fact of life in much of the far north.

Gov. Bill Walker wrote Wednesday to the Census Bureau to begin the process of changing the name from the Wade Hampton Census District to Kusilvak Census District.

More than 230,000 acres have burned in Southwest Alaska. There are 78 active fires in the region and 317 statewide.

Earlier this month the Nome City Council passed an $11.3 million budget for operations, and saw fit to also drop the property tax rate from 12 to 11 mills. But what wasn’t in that budget was any mention of funding for various nonprofits and other charities in Nome.

While subsistence has been slow, commercial chum fishing was open in the lower river with dipnets and beach seine gear.

The U.S. Arctic Research Commission is looking for feedback on any type of research being done in the Arctic—from behavioral health or indigenous languages, to climate change and marine mammals—so they can make funding recommendations to the federal government.