News

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT Last week KMXT told you about the Food Bank’s busy plans for Thanksgiving, but really the entire holiday season is a busy time for them. Kelli Foreman works with community education for the Kodiak Baptist mission, which owns and operates the Food Bank. Foreman said in years past the bank’s food supplies have often dwindled down this time …

Liz Ruskin/APRN Two bills aimed at helping coastal communities deal with marine debris have advanced in Congress. Alaska Congressman Don Young, a co-sponsor, says they would make it easier for local, state and tribal governments to get money to remove rubbish that floats to their shores. One bill would broaden the ability the federal government to reimburse communities for cleaning …

Jay Barrett/KMXT There’re a lot of reports this week of a bear sighting in the Selief Lane area of Kodiak. At least one, and perhaps two, brown bears were reported on Tuesday in the area between the 1200-block and the 1600-block, roughly from Maple Avenue to Lynden Way. Another sighting reported earlier to the Kodiak Police Department included a bear …

Jay Barrett/KMXT This week we’ve been bringing you new developments in the story of the former U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis, which is currently in Mexico, awaiting its fate. The one-time longest serving cutter in the Coast Guard will be cut apart and its parts melted down as scrap metal, unless there is a way to stop the process and …

Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB Seward Ship’s Drydock was only supposed to spend a few months fixing up the Tustumena ferry. Instead, it took them a year to finish extensive repairs on the 50-year-old vessel. Now, the shipyard is now seeking extra payment from the state of Alaska.

Casey Kelly/KTOO The Alaska State Museum in Juneau is getting a lot of help from other Alaska museums ahead of its move to a new facility in 2016. As the staff works to pack up the more than 32,000 artifacts in its collection, museum professionals from around the state – including Kodiak – are lending a hand, and learning what …

Jay Barrett/KMXT With Mexican authorities now showing interest in the environmental safety of dismantling the 71-year-old former Coast Guard Cutter Storis in their country, U.S. Senator Mark Begich says his office will look further into whether U.S. agencies acted appropriately in allowing the ship to be auctioned off and exported for scrap. “Did EPA and the Coast Guard knowingly ship …

Jay Barrett/KMXT Organizers of one of the local efforts to raise funds to help victims of typhoon Haiyan are preparing to bring the aid to the Philippines. Alvin Arboleda says total donations so far have reached $8,800, the majority of that coming from the sale of eggrolls. Almost $700 has been donated through deposit into an account at Wells Fargo, …

Kodiak alum and current University of Jamestown Jimmy basketball player Puni Timu, left, spots her mother Sina, who made a surprise visit for Thanksgiving. Brianna Gibbs/KMXT Anyone who’s ever travelled on and off the island knows how expensive it is to do so. For Puni Timu, that price tag has kept her from seeing her parents for more than a …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The retired Coast Guard Cutter Storis is back in the news, though it helps if you know Spanish to read about it. The once-longest serving cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard was written up in an Ensenada, Mexico, newspaper, first for a raid by government officials over a potential radiation threat, and then for PCB contamination. The ship …