Category Archives: Alaska

Wells Fargo workers at two US branches of bank launch efforts to unionize

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Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, make rare move to organize staff in financial industry

Workers at two Wells Fargo bank branches are planning to launch unionization efforts on Monday in a rare move to organize staff at a financial services company.

Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bethel, Alaska, said they would notify the National Labor Relations Board that they plan to hold elections to decide whether to unionize, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Approval of divisive Alaska oil project upheld in blow to US climate goals

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Advocates warned of ‘tragic consequences’ should the project in a remote part of northern Alaska go ahead

A federal judge has upheld the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow oil-drilling project in a remote part of northern Alaska in a move that environmental groups warned will have “tragic consequences” for the Arctic.

On Thursday, the US district court judge Sharon Gleason rejected requests by a grassroots Iñupiat group and environmentalists to undo the approval for the project in the federally designated National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

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Rescuers free humpback whale ‘hog-tied’ to 300lb crab pot in Alaska

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Local residents discovered trapped whale ‘trailing two buoys, making unusual sounds and having trouble moving freely’

A young humpback whale was freed by rescuers in Alaska after it was discovered hog-tied to a 300-lb crab pot.

The rescue, which occurred on 11 October, came after two local residents discovered the trapped whale a day earlier in the coastal waters near Gustavus, a city close to Glacier Bay national park in the southernmost part of Alaska. Researchers estimate the whale to be about three to four years old.

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Bear raid on Krispy Kreme! Ursine invaders sack Alaska doughnut truck

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An unattended pastry truck was irresistible to a bear mom and her cub, who gorged on doughnuts before being chased away

Two bears on an Alaska military base raided a Krispy Kreme doughnut van that was stopped outside a convenience store during its delivery route.

The driver usually left his doors open when he stopped at the store but this time a sow and one of her cubs that loitered nearby sauntered inside, where they stayed for probably 20 minutes on Tuesday morning, said Shelly Deano, the store manager for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson JMM Express. The bears chomped on doughnut holes and other pastries, ignoring the banging on the side of the van that was intended to shoo them away, Deano said.

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Updated Covid vaccines approved by US medical regulator – live

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FDA approval makes way for vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 sub-variant to be rolled out

Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country.

“I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said.

I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.

On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a continuing resolution. We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.

There is not a strong connection at this point between the evidence on Hunter Biden and any evidence connecting the president.

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‘Help me’: fans watching bear camera help save Alaska hiker’s life

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Wildlife enthusiasts watching live feed from remote national park spot hiker in distress and alert authorities to rescue him

They logged on hoping to see brown bears gorging on salmon, fattening themselves up for their winter hibernation. Instead, what the wildlife enthusiasts viewing one of Alaska’s most remote national park webcams saw was a disheveled and weather-beaten hiker shuffling into view, mouthing the words “help me” into the lens.

The episode captured by a camera at the Katmai national park sparked a chain of events that ended with the safe recovery of the unknown hiker by search and rescue teams, according to rangers.

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Biden to cancel oil and gas leases in Alaska issued by Trump administration

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Seven oil and gas leases canceled by interior department, which said sale during final days of Trump administration were flawed

The US interior department has canceled seven oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge that were part of a sale held in the waning days of the Trump administration, arguing the sale was legally flawed.

The interior secretary, Deb Haaland, said with her decision to cancel the remaining leases “no one will have rights to drill for oil in one of the most sensitive landscapes on earth”. However, a 2017 law mandates another lease sale by late 2024. Administration officials said they intend to comply with the law.

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US dispatches warships after China and Russia send naval patrol near Alaska

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Combined naval patrol appeared to be largest such flotilla to approach US territory and ‘highly provocative’, expert says

The US dispatched four navy warships as well as a reconnaissance airplane after multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska last week.

The combined naval patrol, which the Wall Street Journal first reported, appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach US territory, according to experts that spoke to the outlet.

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Flying Wild Alaska star pilot Jim Tweto dies in plane crash

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Bush pilot’s Cessna 180 crashed on Friday near Shaktoolik, Alaska, killing Tweto and his passenger

The bush pilot Jim Tweto, well known as the star of the early 2010s documentary series Flying Wild Alaska on Discovery, died in a plane crash on Friday.

The crash which killed Tweto, 68, and passenger occurred about 35 miles north-east of Shaktoolik, Alaska.

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US army grounds all aviation units for training after fatal helicopter crashes

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Suspension comes after 12 soldiers die within a month in two crashes in Alaska and Kentucky

The US army has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky in the last month.

The suspension was effective immediately, with units being grounded until they complete the training, the army spokesperson Lt Col Terence Kelley said.

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Rough life: lost dog returned home after epic 150-mile Alaskan sea-ice journey

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Nanuq, a one-year-old Australian shepherd, disappeared from a family trip and went on an adventure across the Bering Sea

A one-year-old Australian shepherd took an epic trek across 150 miles (241km) of frozen Bering Sea ice that included being bitten by a seal or polar bear before he was safely returned to his home in Alaska.

Mandy Iworrigan, Nanuq’s owner who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoonga, another St Lawrence Island community in the Bering strait, last month when Nanuq disappeared with their other family dog, Starlight, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

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Biden denies reports that Alaska oil drilling project has been approved

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Signing off on the Willow plan would place the president’s political career in conflict with climate-minded Democrats

The Biden administration has denied reports that it has authorized a key oil drilling project on Alaska’s north slope, a highly contentious project that environmentalists argue would damage a pristine wilderness and gut White House commitments to combat climate crisis.

Late Friday, Bloomberg was first to report citing anonymous sources that senior Biden advisers had signed off on the project and formal approval would be made public by the Interior Department next week.

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Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down

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‘Chinese were caught lying',’ says Senate majority leader as US and Canadian military scramble to recover pieces

US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week.

The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he had been briefed by the White House and that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China.

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Mystery surrounds what exactly was object US jet shot down over Alaska

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High-altitude object the size of a small car was downed on Friday but its owner and purpose have yet to be identified

Questions remain after the US government shot down two high-altitude objects, one near Deadhorse, Alaska along the north-eastern Alaskan coast and a second near Yukon, Canada, that have yet to be identified.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Saturday afternoon that he ordered the takedown of an unidentified object in Canadian airspace out

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Unidentified object shot down over Alaska by US military, White House says

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Spokesman John Kirby says object, the size of a small car, was ordered by President Biden to be downed

• Chinese ‘spy balloon’ wakes up world to new era of war on edge of space

A US fighter jet has shot down an unidentified high-altitude object over Alaska that was the size of a small car but the nature, purpose or origin of the object remains unclear.

US officials said the targeted aircraft brought down on Friday was considerably smaller than the Chinese balloon downed last Saturday over the Atlantic, and carefully avoided characterising it as a balloon, drone or plane, giving nothing away about the description of the object other than its rough size, its altitude and its direction of travel.

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Outrage as US government advances $8bn Alaska oil drilling plan

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Interior department report recommends scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project despite Biden campaign pledge

The Biden administration has advanced a $8bn drilling project on Alaska’s north slope. The ConocoPhillips Willow project, which would be one of the largest oil and gas developments on federal territory, has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say its approval runs counter to the president’s ambitious climate goals.

An environmental assessment released by the interior department on Wednesday recommends a scaled-back version of the project ConocoPhillips originally proposed, and would produce about 600m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

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Mary Peltola, first Alaska Native in Congress, wins bid to retain seat

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Peltola made history to become the first woman to represent the state when she won a special election in August

Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, has won her bid to retain the state’s sole seat in the House of Representatives.

Peltola made history when she won a special election this summer to replace the Republican Don Young after his death. She is also the first woman to represent Alaska in Congress since it became a state in 1959.

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Alaska firefighters rescue baby moose trapped in home

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The 500lb one-year-old moose fell through a basement window and became trapped, requiring six people to help get him out

Firefighters in Alaska got an unusual request for assistance last Sunday, from Alaska wildlife troopers.

“They were looking for some help getting a moose out of a basement,” said Capt Josh Thompson of Central Emergency Services on the Kenai Peninsula.

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Alaska cancels snow crab season over population decline

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Causes being researched but likely included increased predation and stresses from warmer water

Alaska officials have cancelled the upcoming snow crab season, due to population decline across the Bering Sea.

The fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest will not happen. The winter harvest of smaller snow crab has also been cancelled for the first time.

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Weather tracker: storms batter Alaska, Caribbean and Japan

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Hurricane causes blackout across Puerto Rico while typhoon forces 8m to flee homes in Japan

It has been very active across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in recent days with more than five storms officially named.

Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean was the first storm of the tropical Atlantic season to strengthen into a major hurricane. Fiona made landfall on Sunday across south-western Puerto Rico, where it dumped 762mm (30in) of rain with sustained gusts of 115mph.

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