KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska

Jay Barrett/KMXT The longest-serving City of Kodiak employee, and the only parks and recreation director the city has ever known will be retiring in September. At that time, Ian Fulp will have been on the job for the better part of four decades. Fulp came to Kodiak as a Navy dependent when he was 15, and save for just a …

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT After generations of overharvesting, whale populations are generally recovering. Kate Wynne is a marine mammal specialist at the University of Alaska’s Marine Advisory Program. She says that an increasing number of whales is a great thing but it also means that fishermen must be more conscientious of them. The whales can get caught up in nets and suffocate.

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT It’s that time of year when locals and tourists alike peer out to the water searching for the sometimes barely there signs of visiting whales.

Jay Barrett/KMXT At the beginning of last (Tuesday) night’s joint work session between the Kodiak City Council and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, two members of the Kodiak Board of Realtors made another pitch for the government to free up more developable land in Kodiak for residential construction. Paula Laird, the board’s president, said she’s got a file full of …

Jay Barrett/KMXT Monday night more than 200 people showed up at the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium for a town hall meeting organized by the U.S. Coast Guard as a response to last week’s double homicide at the Communications Station. In addition to Coast Guard officers, there were police, city, school district and mental health professionals on stage. Base Support Unit …

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT The J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa Program was established 50 years ago and initially was used to bring academics to the United States to conduct research or to teach. The program was intended to foster cultural exchange and eventually expanded to include au pairs, educators, medical professionals and participants in the Work and Travel USA program. After hundreds of …

Jay Barrett/KMXT Both chambers of the Alaska State Legislature gaveled their sessions closed early Monday morning, but even before the sunrise, Governor Sean Parnell had called them into a special session which will start tomorrow.

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT Ninety-seven libraries across the state are being equipped with video teleconferencing equipment. For some rural libraries the grant-funded equipment comes with super fast broadband internet. The Chiniak library held an open house on Saturday to celebrate the new technology which is paid for with an Online With Libraries grant funded by the state, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Bill …