- Biden administration withdraws approval for road through Alaskan refuge after previously defending it in court The Hill
- U.S. withdraws Trump-era land deal in Alaska wildlife refuge Yahoo News
- Biden moves to protect Alaska’s Izembek wildlife refuge The Washington Post
- Interior secretary withdraws land exchange but signals support for road through Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Anchorage Daily News
- Interior secretary rejects Izembek Refuge land exchange but commits to new process to get a road for King Cove Alaska Public Media News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Alaskan
Storm lashes Alaskan shore, bringing severe coastal flooding and prompting evacuations
CNN
—
The remnants of Typhoon Merbok have been battering Alaska’s western coast since late Friday, bringing flooding powerful enough to uproot buildings and forcing residents to seek shelter.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Saturday declared a disaster for impacted communities as heavy rains lashed the coast, filling roadways with water and debris.
By Saturday night, the governor was reporting impacts to roads, oil storage and possibly sea walls. Authorities were still assessing whether the storm affected water supplies and sewage systems in the state’s western towns, Dunleavy said in a Saturday night briefing.
About 450 residents in coastal communities have sought shelter in schools, according to Bryan Fisher, director of the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
There were no reports of injuries or fatalities related to the storm as of Saturday night, said Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe of the Alaska National Guard, adding that “there likely will be a military response” with aircraft ready to help with evacuations if necessary.
Water continues to surge early Sunday, with levels expected to peak above the high tide line of 3-5 feet at Deering, 4-6 feet at Kotzebue, and 5-7 feet at Shishmaref and Kivalina, according to the National Weather Service.
“These are concerning numbers,” NWS tweeted.
Coastal flood warnings continue across the western and northern coasts of Alaska through Sunday as several locations see extremely high water levels, according to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
The water will remain at or near peak levels for up to 24 hours in some locations. Winds are expected to weaken as the storm pushes inland but water levels along the coast are expected to remain elevated through Sunday.
The storm is shaping up to be the state’s strongest in over a decade, according to forecasters.
Creating a “very angry sea” in the city of Nome, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, the storm has brought “waves and storm surge pushing into the community.”
The water level is still going up and is expected to peak Sunday afternoon before slowly receding, affecting the city’s population of over 9,800 people.
The water level in Nome stood at 8.47 feet Saturday night, down from a high of 10.52 feet earlier in the day. The levels exceeded those seen during significant storms in 2011 and 2004, according to the National Weather Service.
A floating building hit a 300-gallon tank in Nome around 6 p.m. local time, resulting in a spill, according to Jason Brune, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The scale of the spill was still unknown Saturday night.
Nome resident Simon Kinneen said he was driving past Snake River in the Belmont Point area when he saw a home float away.
“The wind came up high enough to float the house and the wind and surge blew the house to the northwest,” he told CNN.
In a video taken by Kinneen, an entire house is seen floating on the river before it gets lodged between the river and a nearby bridge.
In Golovin, where a few homes floated off of their foundation, residents were evacuated to a local school on higher ground Saturday, authorities said.
“Water is surrounding the school, homes and structures are flooded, at least a couple homes floating off the foundation, some older fuel tanks are tilted over,” the National Weather Service in Fairbanks tweeted.
Golovin has a population of about 175, according to the US Census Bureau and is located south of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
Mary Peltola defeats Sarah Palin to become first Native Alaskan woman to win congressional race
Former state legislator Mary Peltola beat former governor Republican governor Sarah Palin to become the first Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress in almost fifty years.
Ms Peltola, a former state representative whose mother was Yup’ik, will also be the first Native Alaskan to represent the state since it formally joined the union as a state in 1959.
She responded to the result by tweeting: “It is a GOOD DAY.”
NBC News reported that Ms Peltola had secured 51.5 per cent of the vote (91,206 votes), while Ms Palin managed 48.5 per cent 85,987 votes).
Alaska’s sole congressional seat opened earlier this year when Representative Don Young, the longest-serving Republican congressman, died. Mr Young won a special election himself in 1973.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi congratulated Ms Peltola on being the first Alaska Native ever elected to Congress.
“Her valuable and unifying perspective, deep experience in public service and commitment to working families will strengthen the work of our Caucus and the Congress,” Ms Pelosi said in a statement.
The race serves as a boon to Democrats after they held a seat in a special election in New York’s 19th district last week. It also shows the salience of protecting abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson decision overturned Roe v Wade earlier this year. Ms Peltola ran heavily on protecting abortion rights along with focusing heavily on worker’s rights and fishing in the state.
Ms Peltola win marks Alaska’s first test of its new ranked-choice voting system, wherein the top four voter recipients head to the general election. In the general election, voters rank their choices in order of preferences.
Sarah Palin’s bid to return to frontline politics fell short
(Getty Images)
After the first round of votes are counted, the candidate who earned the fewest number of votes is eliminated and voters’ second choice earns their votes. This continues until one candidate receives more than half the vote.
The Democrat’s victory comes despite the fact Republicans’ aggressive “Rank the Red” campaign to ensure that Republican voters ranked Mr Begich and Ms Palin as their top-two choices.
Ms Peltola will serve the duration of Mr Young’s term until January and then will also have to run for a full term against Ms Palin and Nick Begich, along with Libertarian candidate Chris Bye after fellow Republican Tara Sweeney ended her campaign.
Ms Palin hit the national stage in 2008 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain made her his surprise pick as vice-presidential candidate – the first Republican woman chosen for the role.
She had served as mayor of Wasilla before being elected governor in 2006.
Her vice presidential run made her a hero of right-wing media, even as she accused Barack Obama of “palling around” with terrorists and made a series of gaffes that were highly scrutinised.
Nevertheless, Ms Palin earned the affection of many movement conservatives and she resigned the governorship less than a year after she became a right-wing celebrity.
She frequently appeared on Fox News and campaigned for conservative primary challengers – including against her fellow Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, when she endorsed Tea Party challenger Joe Miller in the 2010 Republican primary.
Her persona also served as a precursor for President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party and Ms Palin was the only former Republican presidential or vice presidential former nominee to endorse Mr Trump in the 2016 GOP primary. Mr Trump would later return the favour when he endorsed Ms Palin’s congressional run fairly early and campaigned with her this year.
‘Alaskan Bush People’ star Bear Brown marries Raiven Adams: ‘My heart belongs to her and her alone’
The “Alaskan Bush People” stars have a special reason to celebrate.
Bear Brown and Raiven Adams married on Sunday surrounded by friends and family. The couple share 1 ½-year-old son River.
“It feels really good to be a married man, I’ve loved Raiven a long time and it’s an honor and a privilege to finally call her my wife,” Bear told People magazine on Monday. “She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and still takes my breath away! I only wish Da had been there, but I know he was watching from the best seat! I look forward to building a life, a family and a home with Raiven, she’s the love of my life and my heart belongs to her and her alone.”
According to the outlet, the couple first got engaged in August 2019. Two weeks later, they “made the difficult decision to part ways as a couple,” Bear revealed. But one day later, the couple announced that Adams was expecting. By October, they decided to give their relationship another chance. The outlet noted that they would eventually split again, but then in September 2020 the pair reconciled once more after Bear, 34, said he held River, then six months, for the first time.
‘ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE’ STAR BILLY BROWN MET HIS YOUNGEST GRANDSON BEFORE PASSING AWAY, SON BEAR REVEALS
Bear Brown and Raiven Adams married on Sunday.
(A&E)
“I have some awesome news I’d like to share with everyone,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “After meeting River in person and seeing Raiven again we found out that we both still have feelings for each other, so we’ve decided that instead of being co-parents we are going to be just parents!”
After the nuptials, Raiven told the outlet that she’s eager for their future as a family.
“[I] was so very happy to have our friends and family that were able to make it,” she said about their wedding day. “Bear looked very handsome and I’m very grateful for the family we’ve made.”
It’s joyous news for the family who lost their beloved patriarch, Billy Brown, nearly a year ago in Feb. 2021. He appeared in the reality show’s first eight seasons as the father of the self-sufficient live-off-the-land family alongside his wife, Ami, per IMDb.
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‘Alaskan Bush People’ has been airing since 2014.
(A&E)
At the time, Bear confirmed that Billy passed away after suffering a seizure at age 68.
Previously, the Brown family relocated to Washington in 2017 after the matriarch was diagnosed with lung cancer so that she could receive treatment. In 2018, the now-58-year-old was told that she was cancer-free.
On River’s first birthday in March, Bear took to Instagram and honored his late father.
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Billy Brown, patriarch of ‘Alaskan Bush People’ passed away on Feb. 7, 2021.
(Discovery)
“Today is my boy’s first Birthday!!!” wrote Bear. “River is officially one year old! I’ve also taken to calling him Little Billy, in honor of Da, I know without a doubt, my Dad would be proud of me! I will try my hardest to be as good as a dad as he was!”
“Alaskan Bush People” is currently available for streaming on discovery+.
Fox News’ Nate Day contributed to this report.
Historic Miss America: Emma Broyles is first Korean American, first Alaskan to win pageant title
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The newly crowned Miss America has made history, becoming both the first Korean American and the first Alaskan to hold the title in the competition’s 100-year history.
“I never could have imagined in a million years that I would be Miss America, let alone that I would be Miss Alaska,” a beaming Emma Broyles told The Associated Press on Friday in a Zoom call from Connecticut, where she won the competition about 12 hours earlier.
In fact, she was sure they had it wrong. The final two contestants were Broyles and Lauren Bradford, Miss Alabama, and Broyles said she was thinking Bradford was going to make an amazing Miss America.
“And then they said Alaska, and I said, ‘No way. Are you sure? Do you want to check that card again?” she said before the emotion overtook her and she began crying tears of joy.
“I could not believe it,” Broyles said. “I am so, so grateful to everybody back at home who’s been supporting me for so long, and I’m so glad that I’m able to bring home the title of Miss America to the state of Alaska for the first time in history.”
The very first Miss America program began in 1921 as a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
However, Broyles is only the 94th Miss America.
The pageant, which has evolved away from the emphasis on looks to focusing on leadership, talent and communication skills, was not held last year because of the pandemic and it wasn’t held for several years in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Broyles, 20, said her grandparents immigrated from Korea to Anchorage about 50 years ago, before her mother was born.
“Although my mom is full Korean, she was born and raised right in Anchorage, Alaska,” Broyles said.
The Miss America Organization “believes Emma is the first Korean-American to win the crown,” spokesperson Matt Ciesluk said in a text message to the AP.
Her mother is a special education teacher at Service High School in Anchorage, the same school Broyles attended.
Broyles has chosen the Special Olympics for her social impact initiative. Besides her mother’s position, her older brother, Brendan, has Down syndrome and competes in athletic events with Special Olympics Alaska.
“I’ve seen firsthand the impact that Special Olympics has on the families of people with intellectual disabilities. And I know how important Special Olympics is to our community here in Anchorage and here in Alaska, as well as the communities all over the country and all over the world,” she said.
Broyles said she looks forward to working with Special Olympics to promote inclusion, compassion and open-mindedness through sports.
“Getting to have this platform to speak about why inclusion is important during a time like this when our country is so divided, and to speak about why it’s important to be compassionate, why it’s important to be empathetic, why it’s important to keep an open mind and to be willing to listen to those who aren’t like you or maybe have different opinions than you, I think that this is a time where we need that more than ever,” she said.
Broyles winning the Miss America title wasn’t the first barrier broken by an Alaska woman this year. Last summer, teenager Lydia Jacoby of Seward, Alaska, came from out of nowhere to win the women’s 100-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She became the first Alaskan to ever qualify for the Olympics in swimming, let alone win gold.
“I think it’s incredibly cool that Alaskan women are representing Alaska, representing our home state so well and getting the recognition I think we deserve,” Broyles said.
Along with her title, Broyles earned just over $100,000 in college scholarships, which she calls a “life-changing amount of money.”
She’s currently a junior at Arizona State University studying biomedical sciences and voice performance and said the scholarship money will allow her to attend medical school.
But for the next year, she will travel about 20,000 miles every month serving as a role model and advocate for young women, the Miss America Organization said in a statement.
Broyles’ future plans include becoming a dermatologist and returning to Alaska to practice her profession.
“There’s just something special about Anchorage, which is why I know that I want to spend the rest of my life in Anchorage, even despite this little hiatus I’m taking,” she said.
Copyright © 2021 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Alaska quake: Tsunami warning in effect for parts of the Alaskan coast after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake
The very strong quake was located about 56 miles (91 kilometers) east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, and occurred around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday night local time, USGS said.
At 29 miles deep (46.7 km), the earthquake is considered shallow. Shallow earthquakes are between 0 and 70 km in depth.
There have been at least two strong aftershocks, including a preliminary magnitude 6.2 and magnitude 5.6, the USGS reports.
A tsunami warning has been issued for portions the the state, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center.
They include South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula, from Hinchinbrook Entrance, (90 miles east of Seward) to Unimak Pass, and for the Aleutian Islands, from Unimak Pass (80 miles northeast of Unalaska), to Samalga Pass, Alaska, which is 30 miles southwest of Nikolski.
A tsunami watch has been issued for Hawaii, according to the National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The level of tsunami danger is being evaluated for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, according to the NWS.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Billy Brown, ‘Alaskan Bush People’ star, dead at 68
Billy Brown, patriarch of “Alaskan Bush People,” has died at the age of 68.
Reps for the show confirmed his passing to Fox News on Monday.
“We are devastated to hear of Billy Brown’s sudden passing. He has been part of the Discovery family for years – a trailblazer, a lovely man and most definitely one of a kind,” the statement read. “Our heart is with his family and those that knew him and loved him as they deal with this devastating loss.”
Brown appeared in the show’s first eight seasons as the father of the self-sufficient live-off-the-land family alongside his wife, Ami, per IMDb.
‘ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE’ SIBLINGS UPDATE FANS ON THEIR SAFETY AMID ‘RAGING’ WILDFIRES BY THEIR PROPERTY
According to People Magazine, Billy’s son Bear also addressed the death on his private Instagram, confirming that he died on Sunday after suffering a seizure.
Billy Brown of ‘Alaska Bush People’ has died at the age of 68.
(Discovery)
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved patriarch Billy Brown passed away last night after suffering from a seizure,” read the caption, per the outlet. “He was our best friend — a wonderful and loving dad, granddad and husband and he will be dearly missed.”
Bear, 33, added: “He lived his life on his terms, off the grid and off the land and taught us to live like that as well. We plan to honor his legacy going forward, and to continue with his dream. We ask for privacy and prayers during this painful time. God Bless Everyone!”
‘ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE’ STAR BEAR BROWN AND RAIVEN ADAMS CALL IT QUITS 2 WEEKS AFTER REVEALING ENGAGEMENT
In 2017, the Brown family relocated to Washington after Ami, 57, was diagnosed with lung cancer so that she could receive treatment.
According to the outlet, they moved to a 435-acre property in the North Cascade Mountains. In 2018, she was told that she was cancer-free.
The Brown family, stars of ‘Alaskan Bush People.’
(Discovery)
The diagnosis came after a handful of strange symptoms, as Ami told People at the time.
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“I had some pain in my back,” she said. “Walking from the house to the garden, I would get winded. There were days I was just bedridden, but I just thought it was my arthritis. We were filming the show and at times it was all I could do to just stand there — I was in so much pain.”
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She continued: “When we were shooting promo shots I told them, ‘There’s something wrong.’ In December [2016] I went to the dentist to get impressions made for new teeth and when they did a scan they noticed a little capsule. That’s how this all started.”
The 12th season of “Alaskan Bush People” aired its final episode last October on Discovery.
‘Alaskan Bush People’ Star Billy Brown Dead at 68
Breaking News
Billy Brown — the Brown family patriarch featured in 12 seasons of the hit series “Alaskan Bush People” — has died.
Billy died Sunday following a seizure. His son, Bear, wrote on Instagram the family is “heartbroken to announce that our beloved patriarch Billy Brown passed away last night after suffering from a seizure.”
Bear added, “He was our best friend – a wonderful and loving dad, granddad and husband and he will be dearly missed. He lived his life on his terms, off the grid and off the land and taught us to live like that as well.”
A spokesperson for Discovery tells TMZ … everyone at the network is devastated and said Billy’s been “part of the Discovery family for years – a trailblazer, a lovely man and most definitely one of a kind. Our heart is with his family and those that knew him and loved him as they deal with this devastating loss.”
Billy was an avid hunter and a pretty brilliant commercial fisherman in the North Pacific. He grew up in Texas and when he was 16 he suffered a tragedy — his mother, father and sister died in a plane crash.
After meeting his wife, Ami, in Texas, they decided to move to Alaska where they raised their family of 5 sons and 2 daughters.
Billy was 68.
RIP