Four Missing After Landslides in Alaska

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150818-sitka-alaska-landslide-kramer-drive-0940p_efd868428799e371b286aa87b09a38c4.nbcnews-ux-320-320Four people in the Alaska community of Sitka are missing after rains apparently triggered a series of landslides Tuesday, authorities said . . .

“We have had about two-and-a-half inches of rain in the last 24 hours and that caused three landslides and a sinkhole,” spokesperson Sara Peterson told the station.

A state of emergency has been declared in Sitka, a town and borough of about 9,000 people located in the far southeast portion of the state, in a mountainous area. Gov. Bill Walker said he will travel to Sitka Wednesday to survey the damage.

“It’s a very grim situation. Our prayers are going to go out to all those in Sitka,” Walker said. “I think the weather has changed a bit, but still concerned about potential additional slides,” he said. (Read more from “Four Missing After Landslides in Alaska” HERE)

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Feds Give Shell Permission to Drill for Oil in Alaska for First Time in 20 Years

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<> on July 9, 2015 in Shishmaref, Alaska.The federal government on Monday gave Royal Dutch Shell the final permit it needs to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s northwest coast for the first time in more than two decades.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced that it approved the permit to drill below the ocean floor after the oil giant brought in a required piece of equipment to stop a possible well blowout.

The agency previously allowed Shell to begin drilling only the top sections of two wells in the Chukchi Sea because the key equipment, called a capping stack, was stuck on a vessel that needed repair in Portland, Oregon.

Since the vessel arrived last week, Shell is free to drill into oil-bearing rock, estimated at 8,000 feet below the ocean floor, for the first time since its last exploratory well was drilled in 1991.

“Activities conducted offshore Alaska are being held to the highest safety, environmental protection, and emergency response standards,” agency Director Brian Salerno said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to monitor their work around the clock to ensure the utmost safety and environmental stewardship.” (Read more from “Feds Give Shell Permission to Drill for Oil in Alaska for First Time in 20 Years” HERE)

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Measure Introduced to Compel Anchorage Christians to Violate Conscience, Serve, Hire, Work for Cross-Dressers, Homosexuals

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anchorage_rainbowAnchorage Assemblyman Bill Evans has introduced a measure to force Christian landlords, business owners and others with religious objections to homosexuality and/or other sexual disorders, to violate conscience in their business practices.

Evans, who somehow won the endorsement of the Alaska Family Council’s political arm (Alaska Family Action) in his last election, issued the following press release:

On Thursday, Anchorage Assemblyman Bill Evans filed with the Anchorage Municipal Clerk’s Office a new ordinance that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories under the Municipality’s equal rights law.

The goal of the ordinance, according to Evans, is to provide a balanced approach that respects the rights of everyone affected by this
issue.

“The ability of every person in society to be judged based upon their skill, accomplishments, and talents, and not because of some immutable characteristics, is a result we should encourage. At a time when we need more citizens to be productive income generators, we cannot tolerate impediments to employment that are not based on actual performance,” stated Evans, a longtime employment attorney and former two-time Chairman of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.

Evans claims that religious liberty is protected by an exemption he drafted but his proposed language is exceptionally narrow and would fail to protect that vast majority of traditional Christians who have strong religious convictions about homosexuality and gender identity issues.

Upon hearing about Evans’ proposal, one Anchorage conservative activist bluntly emailed, “War has begun.”

Activists are rightly concerned, given Mayor Berkowitz’s unequivocal support for “anything goes” sexuality. That support, along with the liberal votes on the Anchorage Assembly, almost ensure passage of Evan’s measure.

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Alaska Republican Party Announces that Rand Paul is Visiting Alaska

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rand-paul-profile-apThe Alaska Republican Party Communications Director Susan Downing announced in an email circulated among activists that 2016 Presidential Candidate Senator Rand Paul is coming to Alaska on August 25. He has apparently scheduled trips to both Anchorage and Fairbanks.

From the August 13, 2015 email:

We’ve gotten confirmation that presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul will be in Alaska on Aug. 25 for events in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Our understanding is that he will be in Anchorage during the morning and two events will be announced soon. He’ll spend the afternoon in Fairbanks. There will be rallies in both locations, and possibly other events.

This is very exciting — one of the top candidates coming to Alaska. We’ll send more news as we learn the details, but this is for your calendar.

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Man in Bear Costume Harasses Bears in Alaska

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downloadAuthorities want to talk to a man who donned a fairly realistic bear costume — head and all — and wore it when harassing a bear and two sows trying to feed on pink salmon in an Alaska river.

The incident happened Monday on the Chilkoot River near Haines, said Alaska Fish and Game Assistant Area Management Biologist Mark Sogge . . .

A crowd had gathered at a weir, used to count fish, because the sow and two cubs have frequently been showing up there to feed during the salmon run. (Read more from “Man in Bear Costume Harasses Bears in Alaska” HERE)

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Alaska’s Deadliest Catch Captain Dies

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11060289_10152970148091759_2210454059234723663_nTony Lara, who appeared on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” in 2011, has died, according to law enforcement in South Dakota and the show’s Facebook page. He was 50.

Lara died while in Sturgis, South Dakota, for the famed motorcycle rally that takes over the city each August, according to Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin.

No cause of death was immediately available. An autopsy was to be performed Tuesday, Merwin said.

Lara captained the F/V Cornelia Marie following the death of Captain Phil Harris, who also appeared on the show. He appeared in six episodes of the reality series, which follows fishing crews working the inhospitable Bering Sea southwest of Alaska.

“May you RIP Captain Tony Lara,” the show’s Facebook page posted Sunday. “We know that you are up in heaven watching over the Cornelia Marie and rest of the Bering Sea fleet.” (Read more from “Alaska’s Deadliest Catch Captain Dies” HERE)

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Here Are the Safest and Most Peaceful Places to Live in Alaska

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6556633647_97c353e82f_o-700x555Safety is always a priority, even in a state where the largest city has a population of less than 300,000 people. Living in an unsafe town can be a deal breaker for many families and since Alaska is made up of so many different towns, it’s always nice to know what some of the safest places to live really are.

According to the FBI crime rates from 2013, a little outdated but still mostly accurate, these are the 5 safest cities to live in in the state of Alaska.

1) Sitka

With a population of 9,093 there were only 7 violent crimes, 21 burglaries, and 1 report of arson in 2013! Not too bad at all.

2) Palmer

Palmer has a population of 6,453, the same as Bethel, with only half the amount of violent crimes, 20 to be exact, and 13 reports of burglary. (Read more from “Here Are the Safest and Most Peaceful Places to Live in Alaska” HERE)

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Ancient Reptile With ‘Ridiculously Long Neck’ Unearthed in Alaska

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elasmosaur-paintingThe fossilized remains of an ancient marine reptile with an extremely long neck and paddlelike appendages were recently uncovered in an unlikely place: the side of a cliff in Alaska.

The bones belong to an elasmosaur, an animal that swam the seas about 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, said Patrick Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. It’s the first time that the skeleton of one of these creatures has been found in the state, he added.

“This is a very unusual group of marine reptiles that belongs to a larger group known as plesiosaurs, Druckenmiller told Live Science. “Elasmosaurs are famous because they have these ridiculously long necks and relatively small skulls.” [Image Gallery: Ancient Monsters of the Sea]

Most of the newly uncovered elasmosaur’s bones are still lodged in a rocky cliff in the Talkeetna Mountains of southern Alaska, so no one has measured the full skeleton yet. But Druckenmiller, who visited the fossil site in June, estimates that the animal was about 25 feet long, with a neck that made up half its body length.

The incredible length of the ancient carnivore’s neck gave rise to an interesting theory in the 1930s, when someone suggested that the mythical Loch Ness monster was really just a plesiosaur (possibly an elasmosaur) that didn’t go extinct with the rest of its species. But Druckenmiller said that theory is a “bunch of bunk,” because there’s no way a plesiosaur could have held its head up out of the water like a swan (which is how “Nessie” commonly appears in popular culture and hoax photographs). (Read more from “Ancient Reptile With ‘Ridiculously Long Neck’ Unearthed in Alaska” HERE)

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Massive Toxic Algae Bloom Reaches From California to Alaska

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downloadOceanographers are studying whether ‘climate change’ is contributing to an unprecedented bloom of toxic algae that spans the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada, raising health concerns and leading to multimillion-dollar income losses from closed fisheries.

The bloom, which emerged in May, stretches thousands of miles from the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and has surprised researchers by its size and composition.

“It’s just lurking there,” Vera Trainer, research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Washington state, told Reuters on Thursday. “It’s the longest lasting, highest toxicity and densest bloom that we’ve ever seen” . . .

The runaway bloom of pseudo-nitzschia algae is believed to have been spawned in part by unusually warm ocean water along the West Coast that scientists have dubbed “the blob” . . .

The algae bloom has produced a profusion of a chemical compound called domoic acid, which accumulates in shellfish, anchovies and sardines exposed to it, and acts as a neurotoxin on higher orders of marine life, such as sea lions and birds, that feed on them. (Read more from “Massive Toxic Algae Bloom Reaches From California to Alaska” HERE)

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CHEATING DEATH: Young Alaskan Jogger Barley Escapes Bear Attack After Fighting Back

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Screen-Shot-2015-08-06-at-8.41.28-AM-630x519The bear spray didn’t work to begin with and her ‘rescuers’ come back only armed with bear spray?! Get a gun. Seriously.

A terrified jogger was mauled by a grizzly bear after surprising it while out running with a co-worker near a popular beauty spot in Alaska.

Gabrielle Markel was pinned down by the adult brown bear which had stepped out of thick brush along a trail near Skilak Lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.

The 20-year-old, an employee of a nearby backcountry lodge, tried to use pepper spray to ward the animal off – but suffered bites and scratches to her head, back and arm as the animal held her down.

Her friend, Kaitlyn Haley, 26, of California, escaped injury and ran for help.

(Read more from “CHEATING DEATH: Young Alaskan Jogger Barley Escapes Bear Attack After Fighting Back” HERE)

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