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AP NewsMoved: 5/24/2013 05:00Latest Alaska news, sports, business and entertainment
YUKON RIVER FLOODING
Fort Yukon flooding danger mostly over
(Information in the following story is from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com)
FORT YUKON, Alaska (AP) — The community of Fort Yukon is able to relax after days of worry because it appears the danger from flooding is mostly over.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that late Wednesday night dozens of residents watched as slabs of river ice suspected to be from a once-menacing ice jam 12 miles up the Yukon River passed safely below the town's levee. The ice jam had accumulated a lake of water estimated to be 7 miles wide and 30 miles long, which could have created a serious flash flood if it broke all of a sudden.
Early Wednesday, the ice jam developed a large hole that likely grew, sending more ice downriver.
City flood coordinator Velma Carroll says she was told Wednesday night that the worst appears to be over.
US-PLANES-COLLIDE-REPORT
Pilots in fatal Alaska crash on different signals
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board says the pilots involved in a midair collision in Alaska that killed a family of four apparently were communicating on different radio frequencies before the crash.
The NTSB says in a factual report that surviving pilot Kevin Earp, of Eagle River, told investigators he did not hear the other pilot on the frequency commonly used in that area.
Earp told the NTSB he didn't see the other plane carrying Corey Carlson, his wife and their two children until moments before the collision on July 30, 2011, near Talkeetna.
The NTSB says Earp told investigators he steered his plane up and to the left, but it was too late.
He wasn't injured and was able to fly to an Anchorage airport.
SHELL-ARCTIC DRILL SHIP
Tow vessel fuel problems preceded Shell grounding
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The chief engineer for the ship that attempted to tow a Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling barge across the Gulf of Alaska in December says he doesn't know why all four of his vessel's main engines failed but that a fuel additive is the chief suspect.
Carl Broekhuis (BROOK'-hise), who was on board the 360-foot Aiviq (EYE-vik), testified Thursday before a Coast Guard panel investigating the grounding of the Kulluk (KUL'-uk), a drilling vessel that operated last year in the Beaufort Sea.
Broekhuis says engine fuel injectors began to fail Dec. 27, six days into the voyage from Dutch Harbor to Seattle, and that all four engines shut down within hours.
Testing detected a yellowish gel in the fuel but Broekhuis says he's not seen reports of what it was.
BEARDED SEALS
Oil and gas group sues over bearded seal listing
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Oil and Gas Association is suing over a federal decision to list certain populations of Arctic bearded seals as threatened.
The trade association says there is no scientific evidence linking climate change to adverse effects on the seals. It also says that scientific data indicates the populations currently appear to be healthy.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, seeks to have the listing rule set aside.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in December announced that ringed seals and bearded seals in the Arctic Ocean would join polar bears as species listed as threatened by loss of sea ice.
VOTERS-TWO STATES REGISTRATION
AP NewsBreak: Voter case under review
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A state election official says it appears someone registered to vote in Alaska and another state cast ballots in both states during the November election.
Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai (feh-NEW'-me-eye) says the matter has been sent to the criminal division of the Department of Law for review.
Alaska joined other states in doing a cross-check of voter registration rolls. In April, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell's office announced more than 25,000 Alaska voters might also be registered in other states and that 14 individuals may have voted in two states during the election. Treadwell cautioned those 14 might involve something like a father and son with the same name.
Fenumiai said Thursday she's waiting for information on one other person.
Other than that, she says the review is finished.
JUDGE RESIGNS-CHARGES
Defense: Ex-Pa. judge cooperating in coke case
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The attorney for a former western Pennsylvania judge charged with stealing cocaine out of evidence in cases he handled says the judge is cooperating with investigators.
Attorney Robert Del Greco Jr. wouldn't comment on the accusations themselves, but says former Washington County Judge Paul Pozonsky resigned last year to avoid disrespecting citizens or disrupting the county's bench.
The judge will next be in court June 13, but Del Greco says that preliminary hearing may be delayed after he asks the court to appoint an out-of-county judge to the case.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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