KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) A judge Monday refused to allow five defense witnesses to testify in the trial of the man charged with killing two co-workers at a Kodiak Coast Guard communication station. One rejected Kodiak witness was detained for trying to carry a gun through security at the Anchorage federal building. The five were called in the trial of 62-year-old …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The Kodiak Police Department announced Monday morning a sizable drug bust at one of Kodiak’s hotels over the weekend. It reportedly involved more than a pound-and-a-half of methamphetamine and nearly two-ounces of heroin. Seized, according to court documents, were approximately 25.27 ounces of the highly addictive stimulant methamphetamine and 1.77-ounces of what is described as high-grade heroin. The …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough Board of Education will be holding a regular meeting tonight (Monday). It will be the first chance the public will have to comment since Kodiak schools Superintendant Stewart McDonald received a contract extension and raise last week. Last Monday the school board held an executive session at a special meeting to give McDonald his …

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT This week kicks off the Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium, also known as KAMSS. The free event starts on Tuesday night and will run through Saturday, with dozens of scientific presentations and workshops designed to engage the general public in research being done around the archipelago. Kate Wynne is a marine mammal specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant …

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT It was a relatively quick meeting for the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly on Thursday. Half of the meeting was spent honoring borough employees, presenting awards and recognitions and proclaiming April as Month of the Military Child. When it came down to business items, the assembly breezed through a handful of ordinances and postponed the vote on a change …

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge says defense attorneys in the Kodiak Coast Guard CommSta murder trial can’t call a witness currently in custody on another case, though he may allow it in the future. Judge Ralph Beistline ruled today (Friday) that 38-year-old Jason Barnum didn’t have a sufficient connection to the case to testify in the trial of …

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) The wife of a Coast Guardsman shot to death two years ago at a Kodiak communications station says she didn’t shoot her husband and his co-worker. Deborah Hopkins was called as a defense witness Thursday in the trial of James Wells, who’s charged with first-degree murder in the death of Petty Officer First Class James Hopkins and …

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) A defense witness in the trial of the man charged with killing two co-workers at a Kodiak Coast Guard station says there are plenty of other cars on the island that fit the dimensions of a vehicle recorded near the murder scene. Federal defender investigator Deatrich Sheffield says 263 blue vehicles registered on the island fit the …