Announcement of a major change in the access route to the proposed Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska is met with resistance from Tribal groups and other opponents. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday the “least environmentally damaging” access to the mine site is a road along the northern end of Iliamna Lake.

Previous plans called for a route that included crossing the lake via ferry.

The new preferred route means the mine backers will need to secure land rights from groups that oppose the project.

Almost a year ago on June 5, 2019, a lightning strike ignited the Swan Lake fire on the Kenai Peninsula. The fire burned more than 167,000 acres.

The remnants of that fire likely created prime habitat for morel mushrooms. And one ecologist hopes to crowdsource where hunters are finding them to understand more about the fungi.

But how do you get people who are inherently secretive about where they find morels --  to tell you where they find their morels?

In Anchorage, emergency room visits were down 30-50 percent in Alaska’s largest hospitals in March and April, according to hospital managers.

That might sound like a good thing, but emergency room doctors say that the statistic is evidence of a dangerous problem: patients not seeking medical care they need because they are afraid of catching the coronavirus.