Maine seafood is no joke, and some of the best comes from small towns along the coast. Reviews say this small shack in Boothbay makes a great fish sandwich.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
Author: alaskaadmin
The Dimond Courthouse building, home to the Juneau offices of the Alaska Department of Law, is seen across the street from the Alaska State Capitol on Friday, May 27, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)
Reporter James Brooks regularly requests public information under the Freedom of Information Act and uses public documents, including those available through Alaska’s Court system, to do his job. As we observe Sunshine Week, an annual event that highlights the importance of open records and transparency in government, he shares a few thoughts.
This month, the state of Alaska filed lawsuits against six national crowdfunding websites, accusing them of illegally using the identities of Alaska charities and illegally raising money on their behalf.
These are big cases with major national implications.
They’re also going to be difficult to follow.
The Alaska Court System does an excellent job of listing new cases — it publishes lists of new civil and criminal cases daily — but when it comes to automatically notifying people about ongoing civil proceedings, there’s room for improvement.
There’s no way to be automatically notified when there are updates to civil cases, such as when someone files a motion, makes a written argument or schedules oral arguments.
That might seem like a niche problem, but it’s one that has implications across the state.
An individual Alaskan might be able to keep track of a case they care about by checking Courtview on a daily or weekly basis, but that process is physically impossible for a reporter who might want to follow dozens or hundreds at a time.
If a reporter doesn’t know about something, they can’t report on it. While court rules set specific timelines for some filings, it’s impossible to predict the unexpected, and a reporter can’t ask for a file if they don’t know it exists.
While PACER, the federal court system’s online portal, is an unaffordable mess that charges 10 cents per page, it at least is capable of automatic notices that instantly alert reporters of newsworthy developments.
In a perfect world, there would be enough reporters to make regular checks on all cases of interest. We don’t live in that perfect world.
Alaskans filed 2,569 civil cases in Alaska superior courts during the last fiscal year. There were more than 7,500 civil cases in district courts during the same period.
The Alaska court system has a useful system, TrueFile, for following criminal cases. There isn’t a similar system for civil cases, and there’s a reason for that: Civil courts deal with things like divorces and similar actions that are normally kept confidential.
Alaska has a constitutional right to privacy, after all.
But what about issues of public concern? Without a notification system, it’s impossible to stay abreast of what’s happening.
We know the court system is working on this problem — at the Beacon, we’ve certainly pestered them enough — but because it’s Sunshine Week, we thought we should shed a little light on a problem we’ve been dealing with for a long time.
The court system has been doing a good job of improving access. When we asked for a list of newly filed cases, they added it to their website.
At courthouses, there are now public terminals where reporters and members of the public can examine documents immediately, in any case, without cost. That lets us easily keep an eye on things across the state.
But for all those improvements, there’s still room for things to be better.
The lack of automatic notification is a problem for accused and accuser alike. If a business is accused of violating Alaska’s law requiring good faith and fair dealing, it’s easy for a reporter to know about and report on the accusation.
But under the current system, it’s much harder to know if that accusation is dismissed or withdrawn, which makes it less likely to be reported upon.
Reporters can ask the court to add a case to a list of most requested case files, but it’s a manual process that requires a lot of work by court staff.
The court system’s goal is to provide equal access to justice, but we note that equal access isn’t possible without information.
If the court system is reluctant to create an automatic notification system because of privacy concerns, an alternative would be to allow reporters and members of the public to ask to be added to existing email distribution lists for individual cases.
Judges might be reluctant to do this, so instead of asking for voluntary compliance, it would be better to enact a court rule change and require them to comply.
Attorneys involved in cases are already notified automatically by email about filings in cases that they are involved in.
If members of the public and reporters can be added to those distribution lists, it would fix the issue and lead to better reporting.
That’s in the interest of all Alaskans, not just those of us here at the Beacon.
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The ACM Awards are coming! Here’s what you need to know. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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For several days now, we’ve been reporting on the domestic violence allegations against Taylor Frankie Paul.
Now, we have video that seems to corroborate Dakota Mortensen’s version of events.
In case you missed it, Paul was arrested in February of 2023 after Mortensen alleged that she kicked and punched him while heavily intoxicated.
He also claimed that Taylor threw several chairs at him, one of which struck her daughter from a previous relationship (Paul and Mortensen have a 2-year-old son together).
And indeed, the footage obtained by TMZ shows Taylor physically assaulting Dakota — at one point putting him in a headlock and pulling his hair — and hurling multiple metal stools in his direction.
It doesn’t appear as though he was hit by the chairs, but at one point, he shouts, “Your daughter is sitting right there.”
Said daughter begins crying as Taylor’s assault continues. It’s not entirely clear from the footage, but TMZ reports that the 5-year-old was struck by one of the flying stools.
According to a police report obtained by the outlet, the girl was hit and later had a “goose egg on her head” as a result.
After a neighbor called police, Dakota reportedly showed the footage to the officers who responded, leading to Taylor’s arrest.
The video was then used by prosecutors while they were making a case against her.
While some of the more serious charges were dropped as part of a plea deal, Taylor pled guilty to an aggravated assault charge, and she was sentenced to probation.
She’s still on probation, which is just one factor that makes ABC’s decision to cast her as the new Bachelorette so baffling.
Already, The Bachelorette is losing sponsors, and this latest development might finally force ABC to cancel the entire season.
The video is damning, to say the least, but Paul’s PR team is sticking to their guns.
“It’s sad to see the latest installment of his never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard for the consequences for their child,” a rep for Taylor said in a statement issued today (via TMZ).
“Releasing an old and selectively edited video on their son’s birthday is a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behavior.”
It’s worth noting that we don’t know what happened before Dakota began filming, and Taylor shouts “you threw me” several times in the video.
She later accused him of throwing her to the ground.
Still, it might be hard to convince audiences that they should root for Taylor to find the man of her dreams after she threw a chair that struck a 5-year-old in the head.
Paul’s Hulu reality show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, has already suspended production as a result of this scandal. We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Taylor Frankie Paul Assaults Boyfriend, Hits Child With Chair In Shocking Video was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
At least one Canadian brewery, Yukon Brewing, is skipping this year’s Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival.
Yukon Brewing marketing coordinator Kateryna Osypova said the reason was simple: “We are not sure if we can guarantee the safety of our employees,” Osypova said, pointing out the ongoing tension between the U.S. and Canada.
Brewer Paul Wheeler and local Chilkat Valley residents say it’s a sign of declining Canadian tourism numbers at local events that they expect to see continue for a second year.
Wheeler, who owns Haines Brewing, said in previous years three Whitehorse breweries – Yukon Brewing, Woodcutter’s Blanket and Winterlong Brewing – would typically come to Brew Fest.
Woodcutter’s Blanket co-founder Scott Shailer said that the brewery was still planning to attend the festival. Winterlong Brewing staff were traveling and could not be reached by press time.
Wheeler said he has noticed a decline in visitors to the Haines brewery last year.
“We were 30 percent down here at the brewery,” he said. “Our friendly neighbor won’t come to visit us.”
In previous years, registration and ticket sales for local events has been a metric for measuring local tourism numbers.
However, this year Southeast Alaska State Fair director Jessie Sanders refused to share how many tickets have been sold for Brewfest events so far and would not provide details about how many breweries had registered. He said he did not want to share numbers for fear that they would be “interpreted by some audiences as a direct response to the current political climate.”
According to Haines tourism director Rebecca Hylton, Brew Fest typically sells around 1,700 general admission tickets. She said that attendance at both Brew Fest and the Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay were down approximately 20 percent in 2025 compared to previous years.
However, registration has also opened for the fifth annual Chilkat Challenge Triathlon, which is scheduled for the morning of May 23, before Brewfest festivities are set to begin. Steering committee member Gershon Cohen said that, so far, 35 people have registered. Last year’s triathlon had 60-65 participants.
“We would have had more, but we had more than 20 people cancel registrations who were from Canada, because of all the political craziness,” Cohen said.
There are currently seven Canadians signed up for the event, which is fewer than in previous years when Cohen said a third or even half of race participants were from Whitehorse or Haines Junction.
Most of the people who have registered thus far are from around Alaska, including Fairbanks and Sitka.
“There are still, obviously some tensions between our country and theirs, which it’s unfortunate that it spills over into something like this,” Cohen said.
Wheeler echoed Cohen, saying “It’s just going to be less people coming to town, supporting… any of the events Haines puts on.”
He said he hopes the Canadian breweries return; it might just take a little while.
The post For second year, Canadian participation dips in Haines events appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
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Until a few months ago, Stefanie Pieper was a consummate professional makeup artist and influencer.
When she didn’t show up for a shoot, colleagues knew that something was wrong.
A burned-out car and an interrogation of her ex-boyfriend led police to her body.
She was buried in a suitcase in the woods. The medical examiner isn’t sure if she died before or after.
When someone is dependable, them not showing up sets off alarms
On November 23 — though some early reporting suggested that it may have been the 24th — Pieper did not show up to a scheduled photoshoot.
Colleagues reported the 31-year-old influencer as missing, prompting the Styrian Police Department to check on her welfare.
In her home, they found her dog — alone — and her boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend) who said that he had her key to take care of her dog.
When police went to find him to search his car, they found that his vehicle had been burned. Additionally, it appeared that he had tried to flee from Austria to his native Slovenia.
Slovenian authorities extradited him, and police questioned him — leading to an alleged confession.
According to police, Pieper’s 31-year-old ex-boyfriend told police where they could find her.
Investigators searched a wooded area, where they found a suitcase buried in the forest.
Within the suitcase was Pieper’s body.
Two of the ex-boyfriend’s relatives were apparently arrested in connection to Pieper’s disappearance, but released following his confession.
It is unclear if the confession merely shed light upon their involvement or lack thereof, or if their arrests were leverage.
It appears that she was strangled
A spokesperson for the Graz Public Prosecutor’s Office spoke to People about Pieper’s autopsy.
The medical examiner determined that she “had been subjected to violence” prior to her death.
Among other things, she was “strangled” before her death. But some aspects of the examination were inconclusive.
“The autopsy could not definitively determine when the young woman died,” a spokesperson has since admitted.
“It is entirely possible that she was still alive when she was placed in the suitcase,” the office acknowledged. “However, it is equally possible that she was killed by strangulation beforehand.”
That uncertainty at least seems to indicate that there were not tell-tale signs of her having been buried alive.
Scratches on the interior of the suitcase, for example, with appropriate damage to the nails would be one indicator.
It seems more likely that the medical examiner believes that she was unconscious — if she was alive at all — when she was buried.
Many people naturally recoil in horror at the story of a woman potentially buried alive.
But there is no good way to be allegedly murdered by someone you once loved. And yet, so many women’s lives end in this same way.
What is next?
At present, Pieper’s ex-boyfriend is in pretrial detention. Later this year, an Austrian court will try him.
If convicted, he is facing life behind bars.
(Plea bargaining does not really exist in most countries, including Austria, so the trial seems pretty unavoidable.)
Pieper’s final update to her Instagram page came a couple of weeks before her death.
Many of the most recent comments on her photos are expressing heartbreak at her loss — and acknowledging how familiar this tragic story is.
Stefanie Pieper: Was Makeup Influencer Buried Alive? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
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As we previously reported, Joseph Duggar has been arrested for molesting a 9-year-old girl.
Police in Tontitown, Arkansas made the arrest after Joseph’s alleged victim, now 14, “participated in a forensic interview” in which she described his abuse in detail.
Joseph has been charged with lewd and lascivious behavior involving a victim younger than the age of 12 and lewd and lascivious behavior toward a victim aged 18, and he is currently being held without bail.
This, of course, is not the first time that the Duggars have been embroiled in a scandal involving the sexual abuse of children.
In 2021, Josh Duggar was arrested on charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse materials.
The eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar — who gained fame on their reality show 19 Kids and Counting before working as a Washington lobbyist — is now serving time in prison.
He’s not scheduled for release until 2032.
Prior to the crimes that landed him behind bars, Josh was exposed as a child molester in 2015, when In Touch Weekly published a police report detailing allegations that he had abused his sisters.
TLC canceled 19 Kids in the wake of the scandal, but they soon brought the Duggars back for a spinoff titled Counting On. In one episode, Joseph shared his thoughts about his brother’s crimes.
“Whenever somebody you respect the most is willing to get up and proclaim what we believe as Christians, about being true to your wife, you’d never think that that’s the person who’s involved in it,” Joseph said in 2015.
He went on to say he was shocked to learn that Josh “was living such a secret life.”
“It broke my heart,” Joseph added.
Many have noted that Joseph did not speak out against his brother during the 2022 trial that led to his conviction.
Now, Joseph is behind bars following allegations that are distressingly similar to those that led to Josh’s downfall.
According to a police report, he allegedly “repeatedly asked [the victim] to sit on his lap” during a family vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida.
On another occasion, he asked the accuser to sit next to him on a couch. He then allegedly placed a blanket over both of their laps and proceeded to molest her.
Joseph reportedly remains behind bars, and authorities have not yet determined if he will be granted bail.
Joseph married Kendra Caldwell in 2017, and the couple has welcomed three children: Garrett, 7, Addison, 6, and Broolyn Praise, 5.
No one from the Duggar family has spoken publicly about the arrest. Page Six reports that a family spokesperson stated that the Duggars have no comment at this time.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Joseph Duggar’s Comments About Josh Duggar Sex Crimes Resurface After He’s … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip