Published Jun 14, 2023

Bethel’s Kuskokwim Consortium Library is the recipient of the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Science, the highest accolade given to libraries and museums in the United States.

The library was nominated — for the second year in a row — by Sen. Lisa Murkowski in recognition of the personalized services the library provides to the Bethel community.

The Kuskokwim Consortium Library has an affiliation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which has a satellite campus in Bethel.

As one of the few places in the community with free access to the internet, the library is a vital resource for many, whether they’re applying for the PFD, filing their taxes, or looking up a recipe. It also provides programming for adults like birdwatching, reading programs, and the ever-popular Dutch oven cooking lessons. In addition to books in English, the library also houses a significant collection of materials in the Yup’ik language for adults and children.

Published Jun 14, 2023

Darren Snyder of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Juneau District was awarded the Community Educator Award by the Sea Alaska Heritage Institute (SHI).

The award celebrates achievements in teaching that honor SHI’s values of cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through community outreach or as public service.

Published Jun 15, 2023 by Linsey Dower

Rain and cold temperatures forecast for Juneau, Alaska, have postponed Hokule‘a’s departure for its Moananuiakea Voyage until Saturday.

However, the Global Launch ceremony is still scheduled for today, and will now take place at the University of Alaska Southeast Recreation Center rather than the formerly scheduled location at Auke Bay.

The four-year expedition will take the canoes Hokulea and Hikianalia along with 400 crew members over an estimated 43,000 nautical miles around the Pacific, visiting 36 countries and archipelagoes, nearly 100 indigenous territories and over 300 ports.

Published Jun 15, 2023 by June 14th 10:02 pm

Since a fiber outage left multiple Northwest Alaska and North Slope communities without internet and cell service last weekend, telecommunications service providers have been working to restore connection.

Outages continued to disrupt operations for some communities and businesses across the region Wednesday.

Some residents and local organizations, including the University of Alaska Fairbanks Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue were directly purchasing satellite services to stay online.

Published Jun 15, 2023

The Alaska National Guard is hosting exercise ORCA 2023, an interagency, comprehensive disaster drill, in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Nome, and Kotzebue, June 12-15, 2023. Today is the final day.

The UAA Seawolf Sports Complex was closed Tuesday, June 13 as part of the exercise activities. Students, faculty, staff, and the public were asked to avoid the area.

These exercises are part of routine emergency preparedness training and should not cause alarm.

The Seawolf Sports Complex resumed regular operations after the completion of that portion of the exercise.