An Alaska-based Army platoon leader died Sunday of gunshot injuries he sustained the day before while a bystander to a shooting in downtown Fairbanks, the Army said in a news release Monday. First Lt. Brandon Keyon Moultrie, 28, of Columbia, S.C., died at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, according to the release. Moultrie was shot in the back of the head during an altercation outside the International Hotel and Bar, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. Moultrie was not involved in the dispute and was hit by a random shot, Fairbanks police...

A top financial manager with the $80 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. in emails raised concerns about efforts by the fund’s vice chair to set up meetings between Permanent Fund staff and business associates or companies with ties to a company she owns. The emails were first obtained and published on the website Alaska Landmine. Landmine owner Jeff Landfield declined to say who provided the emails to him. Marcus Frampton, the fund’s chief executive officer, asserts in the emails that Ellie Rubenstein, vice chair of the fund’s board of trustees,...

The commercial season for Dungeness crab in the North Peninsula District opens May 1, and officials say this year’s harvest trajectory looks good. The individual pot limit for the area this year is 500 per vessel. Ethan Nichols is the groundfish and shellfish area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Dutch Harbor. He said with harvests increasing since 2020, participation in the fishery has followed. “In 2022, 16 vessels harvested 2.8 million pounds of Dungeness out of the North Peninsula District, which that year made...

Alaska officials on Monday unveiled a new statewide education campaign on the dangers of fentanyl in the wake of a record increase in overdose deaths. The campaign, called “One Pill Can Kill,” will aim to educate Alaskans about the dangers posed by even a single dose of fentanyl, which the Drug Enforcement Administration says has infiltrated supplies of almost all illicit drugs. At a press conference held at the state crime lab in Anchorage on Monday, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan called the campaign an “all-hands-on-deck effort to save Alaskan lives.”...

JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate advanced the $3.9 billion capital budget, which has an emphasis on school maintenance and housing, to the House on Friday. The capital budget is used to fund infrastructure and maintenance projects across the state. The vast majority of capital budget funding comes from the federal government. The capital budget passed the Senate 15-3 along caucus lines. Fifteen members of the bipartisan Senate majority voted to advance the capital budget. Three Republican senators, who don’t sit with the majority, voted not to approve it. Democratic Sens....

The old turkey call is lined with notches. Dan Wittenberg adds one for each legal turkey the call draws within shooting range. He’s careful to say he’s not the best turkey hunter in the world, but he knows how to talk to birds. While helping young hunters during youth seasons earlier this month, he called in 19 male turkeys. That’s 19 more notches for the old call. The call is a long box, made of Eastern red cedar and butternut. For 15 years, he’s been rubbing the lid against the...

Biden Punishes Drillers With 15-Fold Increase In Permitting Costs, Plans To Block Arctic Oil Extraction One week after the Biden administration slapped new regulations on key power grid components, the Washington Post reports that US oil and gas companies will face a 15-fold increase in costs to drill on federal land, under a new rule released on Friday. Workers operate a drilling rig while plugging an abandoned oil well north of Shelby, Mont. (Adrián Sanchez-Gonzalez for The Washington Post) (Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez/For The Washington Post) Under it, the Interior Department's Bureau...

Although the summertime cruise season officially started last week in Southeast Alaska, it’s a little early here on the Railbelt between Seward and Fairbanks. There’s still plenty of snow, and the tripod on the Nenana River is still standing tall. Even so, spring specials are popping up all over for Alaskans who cannot wait to go exploring. Just be sure to bring your hat, some gloves and an extra jacket. Or two. The sightseeing cruises in Seward started up last month. It’s always fun to sail in Resurrection Bay when...

The man who raped and murdered Kamarie Holland, the 5-year-old Georgia girl whose body was found in an abandoned east Alabama home, was convicted Friday of four capital charges in connection with her killing. A Russell County jury found Jeremy Williams guilty of killing a child under 14, killing a person during a kidnapping, killing a person during a rape and killing a person during sodomy, WRBL reported. Williams, 39, earlier pleaded guilty to rape and murder charges in Kamarie’s death. He faces the death penalty when he is sentenced...