KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska

Jay Barrett/KMXT With less than two weeks left in the 2012 legislative session, the pace in the state capital has picked up. The full Senate will likely vote on the $9.5-billion state operating budget this week, which will then go to a House-Senate conference committee where legislators will try to hammer our their differences. The state capital budget, which funds …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The Alaska Redistricting Board met all last week to craft a new voting district map after the Alaska Supreme Court shot down the original plan as unconstitutional. The courts, in response to a lawsuit brought in Fairbanks, agreed that some districts were too spread out to meet state requirements. Kodiak’s Bob Brodie, who serves on the board, said …

Ice and hard pack snow at the edge of the track at Baranof Park. Jennifer Canfield photo Jennifer Canfield/KMXT The Kodiak High School track and field team- along with their coach and members of the community- has put in numerous hours clearing the Baranof Park quarter-mile track. Near record snowfall combined with rain and freezing temperatures covered the track with …

Photo courtesy of Island Trails Network Jennifer Canfield/KMXT Island Trails Network has been presented with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska Region Partner of the Year Award. Shelly Lawson is an education specialist at the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge Center. She says the refuge nominated Island Trails because of their tireless efforts to clean marine debris from Kodiak’s beaches while …

KMXT Staff Report A Fairbanks woman hired as a petitioner by the Alaska Sea Party has been charged with submitting fraudulent signatures and four other misdemeanor and felony charges. When Deborah A. Carroll submitted the fraudulent petition booklet, the Alaska Coastal Management Program initiative committee was suspicious did not pass it on to the Division of Elections. Instead, they sent …

The quarter-mile track at Baranof Park before the effort to clear it in time for Friday’s pentathlon. Marcus Dunbar photo Jay Barrett/KMXT It took a huge team effort to make the track at Baranof Park suitable for Kodiak High School’s intra-squad blue and gold pentathlon on Friday. Track and Field Coach Marcus Dunbar said team members, coaches, school and city …

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT President and CEO Will Anderson of Koniag Incorporated was the guest on last week’s Talk of the Rock on KMXT. Anderson discussed many issues including land use issues on Kodiak and the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) contracting program.

Mouth of the Buskin River. Photo courtesy of the Department of Natural Resources Jennifer Canfield/KMXT The Sun’aq Tribe has been awarded a $200,000 grant to conduct an 18-month study of declining salmon returns in the Buskin River. The grant is one of two awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Alaska tribes.