ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s 477th Fighter Group can trace its roots directly to the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. This heritage was honored when Lucasfilm gave select Reserve servicemen an early screening of the company’s new film “Red Tails.”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — In the dead of winter, the air outside swings past zero on the Fahrenheit scale around the Anchorage area. Further north around Fairbanks, it gets even colder. But none of this dissuades tourists who see this as a time to take in some of the attractions that have built Alaska’s tourism reputation.
ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s home construction continues to follow national patterns: first up, then down, now maybe up again.
Alaska’s residential construction rose dramatically between 2000 and 2005, when about 3,000 new single-family homes were built annually in the state. Also during this time period, more than 8.5 million homes went up across the country. Alaska’s numbers dropped along with the rest of the nation’s as early as 2006 and reached a low-point in 2009. Now the decline has stopped and even reversed a small bit.
Wild Oven Bakehouse has operated out of Rainbow Foods in downtown for two years, but today it opens as its own store at 299 B N. Franklin St., next to The Observatory bookstore.
Proprietor Daniel Martin, 29, said he’s opening the doors on the two-year anniversary of making his first bread loaves at Rainbow Foods. Martin deals in old world breads using organic ingredients.
Martin has pursued his own store for more than three years. He said his breads have always been successful at Rainbow Foods with his weekend production runs of 120 to 140 loaves always selling out.
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) has selected former Regulatory Commission of Alaska Chairman Dave Harbour as its new director of external affairs.
AGDC is a subsidiary of Alaska Housing Finance Corp. It sprung from House Bill 369 last year to study feasibility options for a pipeline plan to move North Slope natural gas from the Interior to Southcentral Alaska.
Harbour said his job will be interacting with stakeholders, legislators and the media concerning these developments.
The Canvas Community Art Studio & Gallery just received a helping hand. The nonprofit organization Friends of Recycling has donated $2,000 to help with supplies for art that employs reusable materials.
Canvas program assistant Sarah Newsham said the gift will go a long way in getting the students going on more recycled art projects like mosaics, glassware and gift bags.
Voters will have a choice Tuesday whether or not to impose a 15-cent plastic bag tax for stores with revenues greater than $15 million annually. Different people have different views on what the tax will mean.
Large retailers would charge the 15-cent tax to shoppers using store-supplied disposable plastic shopping bags. The alternatives to paying would be to use paper bags or bring one’s own reusable bags.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is re-examining its proposed halibut catch sharing program following policy and technical concerns raised during the public input period that ended Sept. 21.
NOAA reports it conducted a preliminary review of more than 4,000 public comments.
Representatives from a broad spectrum of Alaska’s small communities turned out at Centennial Hall Thursday for the seventh Alaska Rural Energy Conference. The conference is a collaborative effort by the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) and the Alaska Energy Authority. This is the first time it’s been in Southeast.
The concluding remarks came from Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell on Thursday. He summed up some of the state’s perspectives on how to address some of the challenges getting energy to areas off the grid, of which he said there are 200.
