Rural Alaska

Alaska Guard's homecoming has its own problems

Alaska Army National Guard troops returning home to rural communities after yearlong deployments to war zones face huge obstacles trying to receive standard veterans health care, according to a report by Veterans for America.

Bush costs prompt exodus to cities

With growing evidence of a Native exodus from villages to cities, Mayor Begich and schools Superintendent Comeau on Monday asked Gov. Palin to organize a task force to find ways to stem the migration.

PDF: Begich-Comeau letter regarding Bush emigration

Disaster relief available for summer storm damage

Federal disaster relief will be available to areas of Alaska hard hit by storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in late July and early August, the government announced Friday.

With a fresh infusion of $60 million into the state's Home Energy Rebate Program, thousands of homeowners are clamoring to receive rebate checks worth as much as $10,000.

Video: Home energy rebate program

Procedure hinders progress in Point Hope caribou case

If anyone is charged in connection with the mass caribou killing on the tundra near Point Hope this summer, they will have a home-court advantage in a village where elders dispute the crimes ever took place.

Point Hope seeks to handle punishment for caribou waste

US court upholds Chistochina subsistence priority

In the latest case to refine where federal subsistence hunting can take place in Alaska, an appeals court has upheld a federal decision granting a subsistence priority for moose in the Tok region to residents of the village of Chistochina.

Galena Air Force station handed over to educational center

The military held a ceremony on Tuesday to hand over the U.S. Air Force station at Galena so that it can be turned into an educational center.

Unalakleet man kills himself in police car

A Unalakleet man whose four-wheeler struck a 10-year-old girl while he was driving drunk shot and killed himself minutes later while handcuffed in the back of a city police car, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Iditarod musher asks judge to consider evidence about park boundary

Jeff King wants new evidence considered in his trial on charges he poached a moose inside Denali National Park and Preserve.

Whalers campaign for mayor, future of Arctic

House by weather-beaten house, it's almost possible to count votes by driving the gravel streets and tallying up the political signs in this town on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic Alaska may host first playoff game

Alaska's first Arctic football team is undefeated, and nothing short of a late-season meltdown will stop the Barrow Whalers from hosting a top-of-the-world playoff game -- not finger-numbing cold, not hungry polar bears, not high gas prices.

Barrow's Pigskin Passion (08/27/06)

Bush postal workers charged in thefts

Seven postal officials from Bush communities across the state have been charged in federal court with pilfering tens of thousands of dollars in cash and checks from their employer.

Senate hearing in Bethel paints bleak economic picture

When U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski heard that the price of milk hit $11 a gallon in some areas of rural Alaska, and that energy costs in the Bush are forcing families deeper into poverty, she pleaded with villagers not to move into the cities.

6-year-old boy dies in accidental shooting

A 6-year-old boy was shot and killed by a 7-year-old in the Western Alaska village of Akiak on Sunday evening, Alaska State Troopers reported.

School burns down after game goes awry

Adolescents playing hide and seek in an old elementary school burned the place down after failing to put out a makeshift torch Sunday night, according to Alaska State Troopers.

In rural Alaska, lifestyles change as prices soar

In Barrow: A gallon of unleaded gasoline: $10. Heating fuel: $9.10 a gallon. Electricity: $1.17 per kilowatt hour -- 11 times the national average. Soaring oil prices that swelled Alaska's treasury have come back to slam the state, particularly its 170 rural villages.

House funds $1,200 'resource rebate'

The state House late Tuesday passed a nearly $1 billion spending bill that includes funding for a potential $1,200 "resource rebate" for Alaskans plus preparations toward a natural gas pipeline.

Natives urge state to ease energy crisis

Point Hope seeks to handle punishment for caribou waste

Point Hope village leaders are asking the governor if they can take into their own hands any punishment doled out in the aftermath of dozens of caribou being killed and apparently wasted near the community.

Case of caribou killings approaches standstill

Natives urge state to ease energy crisis

Prominent Alaska Natives met with state political leaders Tuesday in Anchorage to discuss what should be done to fix rural Alaska's energy crisis.

Energy devours incomes in Bush

Former Noorvik VPO charged with bootlegging

A former Noorvik village police officer tried to sell his 19-year-old nephew homemade liquor Wednesday, then punched and bit the man when he was short on cash to pay for the brew, troopers say.

Bethel's Yup'ik voters to get more assistance

A federal judge has ordered state election officials to provide more Yup'ik-language assistance to voters in Bethel.