Juneau Independent

Lack of response by vessel belonging to Facebook owner gets boos from cruise passengers, criticism online; skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau

The State of Alaska is pausing a carbon credit initiative that had been projected to potentially generate over a hundred million dollars of revenue from the Haines State Forest.

Forty people representing at least a dozen nationalities came together to play soccer in Haines on Saturday.

Work could start this fall on rock fill.

The borough spent just over $1 million responding to the deadly November 2023 landslide that killed six people and is still owed about $346,000 after last month’s federal approval of reimbursement for debris removal costs.

The City and Borough of Sitka and the cruise line trade association have reached agreement on some questions of collecting sales tax on on-board sales of goods and services that occur in Sitka, including Sitka Sound.

Responding law enforcement agencies do not agree on what was found and who should investigate it.

‘I believe that the people who live here are ultimately the best stewards and will determine the future of the region.’

Lukaax̱.ádi ceremony follows years of renovation on Front Street house.

The Chilkoot River sockeye run arrived in a large surge last weekend, bringing the fish count at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Chilkoot Weir to nearly six times what it had been just 48 hours before.

On the Saturday before the opening of the Southeast Alaska State Fair, McPherson Barn was brimming with activity.

A 258-foot-high assembly hall would dominate the footprint of a possible shipyard at the former 6-Mile Mill site in Wrangell, as envisioned in this conceptual drawing prepared for borough officials to use in their sales pitch for state and federal funding. (Artwork courtesy Pearlson and Pearlson and the City and Borough of Wrangell) By Larry Persily Wrangell Sentinel The consultant that put together a feasibility study for a major shipbuilding and repair operation at the form

The Valley of the Eagles Golf Course, near 1 Mile Haines Highway, is, and always has been, an operation that demands constant labor and produces no revenue. For 20 years, it has been owned by people with no interest in playing golf.

An agreement between the Canadian and British Columbia governments to boost resource development in the province includes a $500 million federal pledge (about US$350 million) to expand the capacity of a power line to the Red Chris Mine in the Stikine River watershed.

On Friday morning, the 10th day of the summer king salmon troll opening, the catch was less than half of the harvest target of 83,700, fishery officials said. The opening, which was initially projected to last seven to ten days, will continue until further notice.

These two stories were written by students taking Reporting 101 at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp for high school teens.

Thursday is Alaska's 99th annual Flag Day, which celebrates the first raising of the Alaska territorial flag — later adopted as Alaska's state flag — on July 9, 1927.

The owners of the Palmer Project, the advanced mineral exploration project in the Chilkat Valley, say they’re partnering with the State of Alaska on a new industrial port in Haines.

Southeast Alaska’s summer commercial Dungeness crab season will close three weeks early, after Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s harvest estimate came in the lowest in at least 25 years.

The Princess Cruises ship Ruby Princess reports a second outbreak of an illness causing “acute gastroenteritis” among crew and passengers, according to an email sent to Haines borough employees. The ship is scheduled to dock at 11 a.m. Monday in Haines.

Carcasses of two rare Ziphius cavirostris, or goose-beaked whales, were discovered June 5 on two Southeast Alaska beaches, one near Yakutat and the other near Sitka at Fred's Creek cabin on Kruzof Island.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game last week increased the king salmon take allowed for non-resident anglers this summer, in response, department officials say, to lower-than-expected harvest.

In the first week of June, three men flew into Haines to meet with borough manager Alekka Fullerton. They were executives she hadn’t met from a company she hadn’t heard of. As she learned at the meeting, they manage much of the operations at the borough’s cruise ship dock.

A lunch break on a gravel bar on the Klehini River wound to a close as Russ Lyman and Joe Ordóñez studied a massive log jam. The duo have guided raft trips in the Chilkat Valley for nearly 40 years.

The Anan Wildlife Observatory bear cameras are online for a third summer, bringing the lives of Tongass bears like Scuba Sue and Tatonka to viewers around the world. It’s thanks to the hard work of students participating in the Teaching Through Technology program.

A second company has expressed interest in operating Haines’ cruise ship dock but says it has not yet received a response from the borough.

Officials are searching for a large boulder and will need to fundraise to create a patriotic monument for Wrangell, a move that would bring the nation’s “Freedom Rock” tour to Alaska as a way of commemorating the 250th birthday of the United States.

Two high school exchange students, from Moldova and Germany, are confirmed to arrive in Sitka for the 2026-27 school year through the organization AFS Intercultural Programs, despite rollbacks of federal funding for some AFS programs.

Two of three Ketchikan-based U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters were recently deployed to the U.S./Mexico border, a USCG official stated in an email on Thursday.

The state’s utility regulators struck down a 69.92% electricity rate increase proposed by the Upper Lynn Canal’s electric utility.

Last week’s assembly meeting delivered a certain poetic justice for those who want plastic shopping bags in town.

The Wrangell Museum is launching a new website that will feature access to an online catalog listing thousands of items in the collection. The new feature at nolancenter.com is under construction and will be rolled out in the next month or so, Nolan Center Director Jeanie Arnold said.

1,009 patrons – attended Saturday’s Beerfest. Of these, 180 were Haines residents. According to Jeremy Reed, president of the Southeast Alaska State Fair, 172 guests attended Friday’s Gourmet Brewers’ Dinner.

One of the most widely used campgrounds in the Chilkat Valley is closed.

The U.S. Forest Service has stepped up to help look for invasive European green crabs at Anan Creek and elsewhere in the Wrangell area.

Passengers weigh in on tourist attractions, possible change in port management.

Author of new essay collection to visit The Bookstore this week.

Growing up in the Chilkat Valley, there was always talk about energy challenges, Chandler Kemp said. Talk of fuel prices going up, debate about Haines and Skagway’s joint hydropower system, disagreement over a proposed hydropower plant at Connelly Lake.

Sitka Medical Center at 700 Katlian Street closed its doors Thursday afternoon after receiving a patient who exhibited symptoms associated with measles, a SEARHC official said today.

Brian Kurtzman, 53, abused child he met as a raptor handler at Haines’ American Bald Eagle Foundation Raptor Center in 2013 and 2014.

Agreement outlines plan for learning that reflects Indigenous knowledge, values and approaches to wellness through the Integrative Behavioral Health program.

Author of new essay collection to visit The Bookstore in Haines this week.

A little over a year and a half after it burned down, the Quick Shop is back: bigger, and better — many at the grand opening said on Friday.

The Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Cabo Verde, Casablanca, and now, maybe, Haines? The world’s largest cruise port operator wants to lease Haines’ Port Chilkoot dock and add it to a portfolio of global holdings.

The state ferry Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, has been delayed a second time coming back to work on the busy summer route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska.

Just before 9 p.m. Tuesday the Hames family and many of their friends gathered around a Sea Mart checkout aisle as store owners Roger and Mary Hames filled their cart to the brim with groceries, and paid with a charge slip, one last time.

Shortly before takeoff, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers put a man on the wrong plane.

Sunlight bounced off the new Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center’s tinted glass exterior Thursday as hundreds of onlookers gathered outside the main entrance for the 1 p.m. ribbon cutting that opened the roughly $300 million hospital building.

An injured snowmachiner caught in an avalanche near the border was picked up by a Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventure helicopter Wednesday evening and brought into Haines for medical treatment.

Per-passenger fee once used for Ocean Ranger program designated for electrical hookups in Juneau and Ketchikan in proposals by governor, Legislature