chinook salmon

That would be up from $45 Tuesday

As the price of oil continues its downward slide, the Energy Department is predicting oil prices of $58 per barrel in 2015, and $75 per barrel in 2016. It’s also predicting U.S. shale production will begin to tail off in the second half of 2015. The forecast was part of a monthly outlook released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Anchorage judge sets Sept. 26 as the date for arguments

An Anchorage judge has set Sept. 26 for arguments in the lawsuit against Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and Elections Director Gail Fenumiai over an emergency order that allowed two candidates for governor to merge their campaigns. Democratic nominee Byron Mallott is running for Lt. Gov. with independent candidate for Governor Bill Walker.

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Testifying in court on a case alleging the state has failed to provide full language assistance to Alaska Natives in elections, an expert witness cited the requirement in Territorial days when Alaska Natives were not allowed citizenship unless they renounced their own culture.

Donlin Gold and The Kuskokwim Corporation have signed an agreement for Donlin's proposed gold mine 120 miles upriver from Bethel.

The state seeks to join a lawsuit over a road through the Izembeck National Wildlife Refuge linking King Cove to an all-weather airport at Cold Bay.

Testifying in court on a case alleging the state has failed to provide full language assistance to Alaska Natives in elections, an expert witness cited the requirement in Territorial days when Alaska Natives were not allowed citizenship unless they renounced their own culture.

Donlin Gold and The Kuskokwim Corporation have signed an agreement for Donlin's proposed gold mine 120 miles upriver from Bethel.

The state seeks to join a lawsuit over a road through the Izembeck National Wildlife Refuge linking King Cove to an all-weather airport at Cold Bay.

Kuskokwim River villagers warn fisheries managers of talk about armed conflict and civil disobedience over closures that are leaving fish racks and freezers empty during the normally busy fishing season. Managers say biology, not protests, will decide when fisheries will be opened, and their count shows promising numbers of salmon are returning to spawn. An opening may come as early as this weekend.

A tribal administrator in Eastern Interior Alaska admits to $23,000 embezzlement.

It's less smoky than yesterday but smoke from two Southcentral Alaska wildfires is expected to return when the wind shifts over the weekend.  Water-scooping aircraft is being deployed today to protect Kasilof from the Funny River fire on the Kenai Peninsula, which has grown to 63,000 acres, and is 3.5 miles from a Kasilof subdivision. On the west side of Cook Inlet, the Tyonek fire has grown to 1,800 acres. Firefighters have completed dozer lines removing potential fuel sources around the Beluga power plant, which supplies electricity to half of Anchorage.