Published Jan 16, 2024 by Microsoft Edge

High School Senior Eliza Riordan and North Star College (NSC) Director Stacey Kennedy join Superintendent Dr. Meinert to cover all things NSC. They discuss the benefits of enrolling in North Star College, how the school operates, and what it's like to spend your senior year of high school on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

Published Jan 16, 2024 by Gavin Struve

Alongside the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the ice hockey team, the University of Alaska Fairbanks had a couple of their Olympic sports programs in action over the weekend. The Nanooks swim team hosted Westmont, a California-based NAIA program, on Friday and Saturday, while the UAF ski team competed at the University of Utah over the same days.

In the water, Nanooks grabbed their first two dual wins of the season, improving to 2-8 with narrow victories over Westmont on both days. UAF’s Friday wins came in the 400 yard medley relay, 200 yard individual medley (Dorka Dancsok), 500 yard freestyle (Tori Shoemaker), 100 yard breaststroke (Dancsok), 400 yard freestyle relay and the 100 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke (Charlotte Fletcher-Stables). After producing winners in seven of 11 events on the first day of competition, UAF bested Westmont with a score of 103.5 to 101.5.

Their margin grew minimally to 105-100 on Saturday by virtue of winning eight of the 11 events. On the second day of competition, UAF athletes won the 200 yard medley relay, 1000 yard freestyle (Shoemaker), 200 yard freestyle and 100 yard freestyle (Dancsok), 400 yard individual medley (Naomi Burgan), 500 yard freestyle (Shoemaker again), 200 yard backstroke (Fletcher-Stables) and 200 yard freestyle relay.

The UAF swim team will compete next at home on Friday and Saturday against Western Colorado.

While the Nanooks recorded their first team win of the season in the pool, they also received their first individual win on the snow.

Through the first day of skiing competition in Salt Lake City, which featured the 7.5-kilometer freestyle race, UAF recorded the best women’s score. Kendall Kramer gained the outright win in 21:56, while Rosie Fordham finished 3rd and Mariel Pulles and Tabitha Williams placed 7th and 11th, respectively. The Nanooks’ three-person score gave them a 10-point edge over the host Utes. The UAF men finished sixth of seven teams with Christopher Kalev leading the way in 16th place in 19:53.

Kramer produced another win in the women’s 10k classic on Saturday, breaking the 30-minute barrier in 29:28. Pulles, Fordham and Williams followed in 7th, 14th and 18th, respectively. That allowed the UAF women to finish second on the day behind the Utes and ahead of Colorado and UAA.

Published Jan 16, 2024 by Pandora Dewan

Wildlife experts have been left scratching their heads after a totally new species of insect was discovered in Alaska. The species, called Sciara serpens, is a tiny gnat with a bizarre lifecycle. During its larval stage, the gnat exists as a slimy translucent worm. But that's not the strangest thing about it—when these worms get together they wriggle into a snake-like procession, made up of hundreds of individuals crawling over each other in a directional frenzy.

"I first learned of them during the summer of 2007 when Maggie Billington, a docent at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, where I'm the insect curator, brought me specimens and photos and described the bizarre phenomenon," Alaska insect expert Derek Sikes told Newsweek. "It's a rare day when someone brings me an insect in Alaska that leaves me totally dumbfounded! I knew they were fly larvae of some kind but I had never heard of this 'snakeworm' behavior. I was baffled—a total X-Files case!"



Published Jan 16, 2024 by Patrick Gilchrist

On their record, the Nanooks hockey team left the ice Saturday night with a 2-2 tie against their in-state Anchorage rivals, but mentally, the squad went home with a little more.

They secured the morale-boosting shootout victory after two scoreless overtime periods, and the end of the game only marked the beginning of the celebrations, as the Nanooks entered the Carlson Center knowing a date on the ice parading the Governor’s Cup awaited them at the end of the night.

The Nanooks clinched their 13th-straight Governor’s Cup victory back in December after a 3-1 win down in Anchorage, but the team got to carry the trophy onto their home ice Saturday night in front of the Fairbanks crowd.

Published Jan 16, 2024 by Alena Naiden

Overall, it is thought that loosening alcohol restrictions can help reduce issues related to bootleg alcohol and home-brewing.

In 2017, University of Alaska anthropology professor Kristen Ogilvie looked into the consequences of alcohol restrictions in several Northwest Alaska communities. The federally funded study showed that while the local restrictions in alcohol were meant to empower communities, they in fact led residents to “seek intoxication from both legal and illegal sources of alcohol.”

“Despite various restrictions on the sale, importation, and possession of alcohol through ‘local option’ ordinances in their region, alcohol is still an active substance of misuse in all the communities,” the study said.

Published Jan 15, 2024 by Aleks Phillips

This past Friday, Laura Loomer, a conservative political activist and MAGA Republican, alleged that the "deep state" was "using HAARP to rig the Iowa Caucus," adding that the snowstorm "looks like weather manipulation to me." Her post on X (formerly Twitter) has since been viewed 2.4 million times.

Since her post, several other X users have made similar claims, and their posts have racked up thousands of views.

The HAARP system has long been a subject of interest among conspiracy theorists, who have claimed it can be used to manipulate the weather. But scientists say that neither HAARP nor any other human-made system is capable of changing the weather at that scale.

"HAARP is not able to influence weather and certainly not the [caucuses]," Keith Groves, associate director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, told Newsweek.

"It is a totally absurd notion," Charles Konrad, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southeast Regional Climate Center in North Carolina, told Newsweek. "This snowstorm, like any other weather event, was caused by an array of natural atmospheric factors coming together over a large area. There is no human technology, as far as I know, that could influence these factors in an appreciable way."

Published Jan 15, 2024 by Philip Butterworth-Hayes

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports successful shared airspace operations during a simulated wildfire environment in California in Spring 2023.

Test exercises took place over three weeks in the in Spring of 2023 in a simulated wildfire environment near Hollister, California. It comprised more than 100 flight runs using SeaHunter drones operated by the Alaska Center for UAS Integration (ACUASI) and Xwing’s remotely piloted Caravan aircraft.

This effort was supported remotely by the FAA NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability laboratory in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The lab created a simulated environment in which different scenarios could be presented to pilots, and in which pilots could speak with simulated air traffic controllers. ACUASI — an FAA-funded UAS integration program — partnered with industry members at Advanced Technology Applications, Airspace Integration, and Xwing, who collectively conducted live flights, managed activities at Hollister, integrated systems, and collected and analyzed data.

The test involved multiple scenarios with manned and unmanned operators and simulation air traffic controllers. In addition to providing participants with information regarding air traffic services, the test also shared information about Extensible Traffic Management (xTM), such as drone operations.

Post-flight analysis of the data and assessments from pilots and simulation controllers indicate that xTM information sharing across various lines of communication is feasible and of value to the test participants. It also showed that test pilots preferred more information delivered as soon as possible. Results will help the continued integration of drones into the National Airspace System.

Published Jan 15, 2024 by Joan Skilbred

Legendary miner and oilman Clarence J. Berry left a mining legacy that is hard to match in the realm of the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes. Forty years after his passing, his family bestowed some of his wealth to the Alaska Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to create a display that would be devoted to Alaska gold and gold mining. Here is how it all came about....

Published Jan 14, 2024 by Rebecca Self

Bears are not only a symbol of Alaska’s wilderness but also a valuable asset for the local communities.

According to a study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, bear tourism in Southcentral Alaska generated $34.5 million in 2017 and contributed $10 million in direct wages and benefits to the region, supporting 680 jobs. The study focused on four areas: Katmai National Park & Preserve, McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, and the Cook Inlet Region. These areas attract thousands of visitors to witness the bears fishing for salmon, playing with their cubs and interacting with each other. The study estimated that each bear in Southcentral Alaska is worth $1.3 million over its lifetime, based on the tourism revenue it generates.

The economic benefits of bear tourism are not only important for the human population but also for the bear population and the ecosystem they depend on. By creating a demand for bear viewing, tourism provides an incentive for protecting the bears and their habitat from threats such as poaching, mining, logging and climate change.



Published Jan 14, 2024 by Bethany Doudna

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK) is Monday, January 15 and for the fifteenth year in a row, the Alaska Bar Association, Alaska Court System and Alaska Legal Service Corporation will be hosting a day of free legal counsel for any low-income Alaskan.

The legal community will provide counsel on issues such as family law, landlord-tenant obligations, public benefits, employment law, probate or estate planning issues.

In Fairbanks, the event will be held at the UAF Community and Technical College at 604 Barnette St from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.In addition this year, the Alaska Bar Association is hosting an ongoing free and confidential virtual legal clinic.

Published Jan 13, 2024 by Josh Reed

The University of Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball team accomplished a feat it hadn’t done since February of last year with a 75-61 win over Central Washington on Thursday night at the Alaska Airlines Center.

While it was the Seawolves’ third win in a row, it marked their first time winning consecutive games over Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents this season coming off an overtime thriller over UAF last weekend. The Seawolves dropped their first two GNAC games in back-to-back road trips in late November and early December.

“We put ourselves in a hole with those two early losses, so we have to climb the ladder back up the same way,” UAA head men’s basketball coach Rusty Osborne said.

Senior Tyson Gilbert, whose 16 points were tied for the game-high, also crossed a major career milestone as he eclipsed 1,000 career points by the end of the night.

“As a freshman, I’d always see people I know and my peers reach 1,000 points, and it’s definitely something I aspired to do, but it’s not what really motivates me,” he said. “It’s still a cool accomplishment for sure.”

Published Jan 12, 2024 by Alex Bengel

With the Fairbanks North Star Borough celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Sullivan was asked what role the borough plays in the culture and economy of Alaska, to which he responded, “It’s central. It’s critical, right? I mean, think about the resources. Of course, we’re been talking about resource development, and whether it’s minerals or oil and gas that comes through Fairbanks, but it’s also intellectual resources, right? When you think about UAF.”

“The intellectual resources and capacity of Interior Alaska, because of the university system, which I’m a huge supporter of, is critical, and then, there’s our military. I like to say that Alaska’s military has three critical pillars,” he continued.

Published Jan 12, 2024 by Alaska Native News

U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska), and Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), welcomed the announcement that the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) was selected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to lead a consortium of U.S. academic institutions and other partners for a new Center of Excellence focused on Arctic research. The Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC-ARCTIC) will be awarded $46 million over a 10-year period to provide research and educational resources for DHS and other homeland security stakeholders to advance infrastructure and operational missions in the Arctic. 

“The great state of Alaska is the reason the United States is an Arctic nation,” the Alaska delegation said. “We applaud the selection of UAA as the location for the new Arctic Center of Excellence having strongly advocated for an Alaska institution to house the Arctic Domain Awareness Center with DHS. Because of the area’s rich natural resource potential, expanded transportation routes, strategic location and unique environment, the Arctic is growing in global importance. The University of Alaska Anchorage has a deep knowledge of the Arctic’s interests and concerns and is extremely qualified to research, innovate, strategize, and lead in the Arctic region. It clearly makes sense for the Center to be led by an Alaska institution.”

According to DHS, the ADAC-ARCTIC will foster collaboration between government agencies, industry partners, local and indigenous communities, and academic institutions, bringing together experts from several fields, including cybersecurity, emergency management and maritime security. The Center will further develophomeland security in the Arctic by engaging in necessary research and providing education about the following: 

• Advancing all-domain situational awareness.
• Improving understanding of risks and potential impacts.
• Enabling adaptation for resilience.
• Expanding collaboration and cooperation across the Homeland Security Enterprise.