KUCB Newscast

There will be a new weir on Illuliuk Creek this summer; Kodiak Police and Alaska State Troopers seized hundreds of fentanyl pills as part of a larger drug bust last week; and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola recently introduced two bills aimed at addressing bycatch in federal trawl fisheries.

We remember a friend, KUCB board member and beloved Unalaskan who died over the weekend; and tribal members in Kodiak helped rescue an entangled sea lion.

Sockeye salmon are showing up in Iliuliuk Creek, and will be counted at a new weir there; and Larsen Bay on Kodiak Island is slated for a fiber-optic internet connection.

The Fox Islands region experienced a bunch of earthquakes last month, but scientists don’t really know why they keep happening; a new scientific paper released by NOAA in May highlights a crucial disconnect between the needs of rural communities in the north Bering Sea and the resources available to them; and young Alaskans are suing the state over a pipeline project again.

A pair of mayors in the Aleutians are calling on state and federal officials to address the fishing industry crisis; and it’s a little chilly in Southwest Alaska this spring, in case you haven’t noticed.

Aleutian Airways passengers can now earn Alaska Airlines miles; and Juneau will limit the number of cruise ship passengers allowed in.

The death of a King Cove couple has been deemed homicide; the perils of life at sea make fishermen particularly prone to mental health challenges; and federal policymakers blame Alaska's seafood problems on foreign fish.

There’s a new fishery resource disaster declaration for snow crab; fishing community members gathered in Homer last week to participate in the Blessing of the Fleet; and an organization working to reduce the cost of trash disposal in Southeast Alaska has won a half-million dollar grant from the Denali Commission.

Blue mussels could once again become a safe food source in Unalaska; and an expansion of an opioid grant settlement program is in the works on the Kenai Peninsula.

Unalaska students released hatchery-raised salmon into a local river today; and the Unalaska City School District held its largest wrestling tournament in decades.

The Ounalashka Corporation won $2 million for environmental cleanup; and Alaska law enforcement agencies offer advice on avoiding scam calls.

The Unalaska Fire Department put out a grass fire in Unalaska Valley over the weekend; and if you own a commercial vessel in Alaska, you may be off the hook for paying some registration fees.

Unalaska’s Class of 20-24 graduated Saturday; an MMIP state bill was passed last week, advocates call it a major milestone for Alaska; and after 121 days in Juneau, state lawmakers have concluded their work, passing dozens of bills and finalizing the state’s operating budget for the fiscal year that begins this July.

Traditional boat builders in Unalaska are on their way to finishing a new project; and injured commercial fishermen in Alaska can access higher insurance reimbursements.

The M/V Tustumena won’t be stopping in False Pass, Akutan or Unalaska this month; the Alaska House of Representatives voted late Sunday to ban transgender girls from girls’ school sports teams by limiting access to athletes whose original birth certificates identify them as girls; and in Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, a volunteer teacher is offering women a space that gives them a bit of what they describe as “normalcy.”

A special legislative panel is slated to make recommendations to support Alaska’s seafood industry; and a retrospective on a pair of executions that took place in Alaska about 75 years ago.

We’ll hear from a climatologist about what’s going on with all the wintery weather conditions this spring in western Alaska; Spruce Island Farms with the City of Ouzinkie is planning to test the feasibility of growing kelp offshore from the eastern part of Kodiak Island; and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s CEO has left the organization.

Akutan residents now have access to GCI's high-speed internet; and summer commercial salmon season is right around the corner — but harvest forecasts are mixed.

UCSD students have completed building a steam bath; hundreds of people from Kodiak came together last week to celebrate one of the most prominent holidays in the Philippines; and the Coast Guard’s plan to build three heavy icebreakers is years behind schedule and the price has ballooned.

Unalaska is still slated for its first cannabis dispensary, but the opening date has been pushed back to the fall; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, will now include more low-mercury fish; and Unalaska’s police chief discusses local ordinances for dog owners.

The Alaska Wildlife Troopers christened a patrol vessel in honor of a trooper who died last year.

An MMIP expert discusses how Unalaskans can help tackle the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous people; and a new report highlights strains on the Alaska seafood market.

Chignik Bay is the latest community to join GCI’s Aleutians fiber optic cable project; and there’s a new restaurant in downtown Unalaska.

The Unalaska City Council will give the school district its full funding request this year; the sounds throughout the Statewide Native Youth Games in Anchorage are a tradition that is as old as the games themselves; and the Unalaska Raiders brought home several awards from the Native Youth Olympics tournament this year, including several first place titles.

King Cove braces for salmon season with no seafood processor; the M/V Tustumena's summer sailing schedule gets delayed; and Air Station Kodiak retires its MH-65 Dolphin helicopter fleet.

Unalaska’s City Council approved all funding requests from local nonprofits last night; Alaska’s Senate passed a bill Monday to tighten residency requirements on hunting and fishing licenses; Alaska has one of the highest rates of binge-drinking deaths in the United States, but there are more options than ever for treating alcohol use disorder in the state.

A pioneering Alaska aviator has died at the age of 87; and the Alaska Senate has proposed a new aid package for the state’s fish processing companies.

NOAA will not implement new Chinook salmon bycatch limits in Bering Sea fisheries; and the Qawalangin Tribe is bringing fresh produce and meats to Aleutian communities for free.

The Unalaska City School District is asking the city for nearly $6 million to fund their budget this year; a new report says plastics from the ocean are contaminating essential resources to Indigenous communities; and the Museum of the Aleutians has a new Collections Manager, they will be presenting to the community this weekend about smelting iron.

Pressure is mounting for fisheries managers to limit the amount of salmon bycatch in the pollock fishery; the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s commissioner spoke about economic sustainability at ComFish, Kodiak’s annual commercial fisheries trade show; and Alaska public health officials are launching new lead testing programs to learn more about lead poisoning in the state.

The Unalaska Marine Center, also known as the UMC, is one step closer to getting a new crane; Unalaska’s U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan is heading to Europe next month to convince trade officials there to ban Russian seafood; and  the Alaska State Legislature is hoping to spur the federal government to address persistent outages of weather observation stations across Alaska that have caused problems for rural communities, aviators and climatologists for years.

Peter Pan Seafood will cease operations; and a pair of Alaska legislators weigh in on how closing a loophole can bolster seafood sales.

A former Alaska Village Public Safety Officer was arrested after fleeing charges of sexually assaulting a minor in Florida; the Alaska Governor released a new state poll that shows a majority of Alaskans are in favor of education reforms in public schools; and a partisan brawl is about to erupt in Congress over the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Alaska’s U.S. senators are seemingly split over it.

Unalaska held its first Star Trek convention last week; and revenue from marine highway system passengers will be used to fund ferry and marine highway projects in Alaska.

Silver Bay Seafoods is slated to take over Peter Pan Seafoods’ processing operations this year; and an entangled whale in Iliuliuk Bay is free.

Dungie season is reopening soon and the harvest outlook is good; and a tsunami readiness program for Alaskans is slated for elimination.

Akutan is slated to receive a fiber-optic internet connection this summer; Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association will be getting more than half a million dollars to help them deal with the challenges of climate change; and the Qawalangin Tribe’s Wellness Program is holding a couple of boat builds this month in Unalaska with Marc Daniels and Mike Firgeson.

NOAA is responding to an entangled whale in Iliuliuk Bay; and the PCR is asking community members what types of services they’d like to see offered.

The Nikolski School is still set to open this fall; and NOAA is responding to an entangled whale in Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Bay.

An agreement to dredge the entry channel to Dutch Harbor was signed Friday; there’s a new group in Kodiak monitoring beaches for harmful algal blooms; and Democrats in the U.S. House almost always vote in line with party leaders, but Congresswoman Mary Peltola’s voting record suggests she’s one of the chamber’s least loyal Democrats.

A number of capital projects are in the works in Unalaska; and there was a small volcanic eruption on Atka Island last night.

An Alaska historian is proposing Nazi Creek on Little Kiska Island be renamed; the Alaska Legislature is working to provide support for children from birth to adulthood; and if you have an email account with Alaska telecom firm GCI, the company says you can keep it – if you’re willing to pay a fee.

The captain of an Alaska Wildlife Trooper patrol vessel made his last departure from Dutch Harbor this weekend before retirement; Alaska has submitted to the federal government a first-of-its-kind plan to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming: and the Alaska Senate passed a fast-tracked bill Tuesday that aims to boost internet speeds at rural schools.

The City of Unalaska plans to keep pursuing geothermal power without its main partner; and the Coast Guard is slated to receive a new icebreaker.

A brief recap of Unalaska City officials’ lobby trip to Juneau; and an Unalaska education official weighs in on Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of SB 140.

A special interview with the author of Death in Dutch Harbor, a new whodunnit mystery set right here in Unalaska.

A major dredging project in Iliuliuk Bay is expected to kick off this summer; and Silver Bay Seafoods is acquiring Trident’s Ketchikan processing plant

A creek on Little Kiska Island may be getting a new name; Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bipartisan bill last week that would have significantly boosted state funding for public schools; and Friday was the final day of the Arctic Winter Games, which were held across a wide swath of Southcentral Alaska. 

The Unalaska City Council approved last night to update certain city wages; The nation’s first Arctic ambassador was nominated by President Biden a year ago but the nominee still remains unconfirmed; and the Unalaska Raider boys basketball team will play their first game in the state tournament Thursday.

Trident Seafoods, one of the largest seafood processing companies in the country, will finalize sales for three of the four plants it listed for sale late last year; meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded nearly $150 million in contracts to purchase Alaska salmon and pollock products from a handful of major seafood processors; and Unalaska author Randy Batten discusses his new book “Knight on Time.”