Even small increases in air pollution can increase the risk of serious respiratory illnesses for preterm infants and their risk of having asthma as they get older.
Category: Alaska News
(The Center Square) – More than half a million people attended Atlanta’s World Cup matches and fan events, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
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(Photo by Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels)
Four in 10 parents have missed out on meaningful moments with their children because their PTO bank ran dry (39%), according to new research. A survey of 2,000 employed parents of children aged 0-10 found that unexpected sick days can…
(The Center Square) — A man arrested by federal agents Monday for starting a large blaze outside a New York City immigration court was an “anti-government extremist” who told law enforcement officials he was willing to injure or kill people,…
A brown bear injured at the Alaska Zoo last month in a fight with a larger bear has been transferred to a new location, state officials say.
The attack was captured by a visitor in a lengthy and widely viewed video that showed the larger bear clamping down violently on the smaller bear’s back.
The smaller bear became a zoo resident following a June 2025 raid on a wildlife center near Haines by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The bear was known as Kitty at the facility, operated by Steve Kroschel. The larger animal is known as Izzy, a brown bear that came to the zoo years ago as an orphaned cub from King Cove.
Kitty, who was renamed Taiga, has been relocated to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at Portage, according to a Facebook post from the Alaska Zoo on Thursday.
The relocation was made “while decisions regarding her permanent placement are considered,” zoo officials wrote. “She will remain separated from other bears during this time.”
The encounter that injured the bear occurred June 14. The bears had shared an enclosure since September 2025 without any prior incidents, Fish and Game officials said in a statement Thursday. The smaller bear has made a full recovery, zoo officials say.
A brown bear injured at the Alaska Zoo last month in a fight with a larger bear has been transferred to a new location, state officials say.
The attack was captured by a visitor in a lengthy and widely viewed video that showed the larger bear clamping down violently on the smaller bear’s back.
The smaller bear became a zoo resident following a June 2025 raid on a wildlife center near Haines by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The bear was known as Kitty at the facility, operated by Steve Kroschel. The larger animal is known as Izzy, a brown bear that came to the zoo years ago as an orphaned cub from King Cove.
Kitty, who was renamed Taiga, has been relocated to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at Portage, according to a Facebook post from the Alaska Zoo on Thursday.
The relocation was made “while decisions regarding her permanent placement are considered,” zoo officials wrote. “She will remain separated from other bears during this time.”
The encounter that injured the bear occurred June 14. The bears had shared an enclosure since September 2025 without any prior incidents, Fish and Game officials said in a statement Thursday. The smaller bear has made a full recovery, zoo officials say.
A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions Thursday.
The brown bear habitat at the zoo has been closed since last month’s incident “after threats were made against the bears, and to provide all three bears with a quiet environment,” the zoo said in a statement Thursday. “The bears remained separated until the decision was made to relocate Kitty.”
The post referred to online threats to the bears, as well as staff, “which is why our social media has been on comment restrictions for the past month and will remain so for the time being,” zoo spokesperson Katie Larson said in an email. “I can’t elaborate more than that.”
The visitor who filmed last month’s fight said the incident was deeply disturbing and occurred with numerous people watching, including children.
It’s not unusual for wild brown bears to fight each other, occasionally to the death. A state biologist has said the bear from the Haines center had not been around other bears before coming to the zoo last year.
In Thursday’s statement, Fish and Game said officials there were “confident the situation was managed promptly and appropriately by Alaska Zoo staff. Upon observing the altercation, zoo personnel acted quickly to prevent further escalation and by quickly and safely separating the animals.”
Zoo officials said the smaller bear’s injuries healed well and the animal experienced no complications. They also said the bear needed “significant care” after leaving the Haines facility “in poor physical condition,” according to the statement.
Kroschel is facing criminal charges including felony animal cruelty associated with last year’s seizure of dozens of animals at his facility. He is currently living in Russia, he said in an interview last month. He calls the Alaska Zoo incident the “Kitty mauling” and questioned the decision to put his female bear in with two males.
Two bears currently at the zoo are Izzy and Oreo, a female.
Kroschel, who is wanted on an arrest warrant, said he plans to return to Alaska for his court case.
He is representing himself, but attorney Benjamin S. Dresner of Dresner Zelinsky LLC is providing legal assistance for now, according to a filing this week in the case.
“Given that Mr. Kroschel is a pro se litigant presently located in the Russian Federation, and without reliable access to internet and phone, undersigned counsel has been retained for the limited purpose of assisting Mr. Kroschel with attempting to come back into compliance with the Court,” the filing states.
Kroschel plans to represent himself once back in Alaska, according to the filing.
The post Former Kroschel bear injured in fight last month at Alaska Zoo relocated to new facility appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
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The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether or not to overrule the state of Alaska’s decision to seize the airplane of a bush pilot who flew a bootlegger and beer to a dry village in 2012.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up an appeal brought by the libertarian-leaning nonprofit public interest law firm Institute for Justice on behalf of the pilot, Ken Jouppi.
The Institute is arguing for an interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Excessive Fines Clause, saying that judges should be able to weigh what a specific criminal defendant did instead of just relying on the language of a law.
The state of Alaska, opposing the appeal, is defending the existing interpretation of the clause, which states in part that “judgments about the appropriate punishment for an offense belong in the first instance to the legislature.”
A ruling for Jouppi could give judges nationwide more flexibility when sentencing criminal cases.
Alaska’s decision to seize a bootlegger’s plane could end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court
“It would require that judges evaluate what the person before them did, rather than just have a one-size-fits-all understanding of what a specific crime is, based on a worst-case scenario of what that defendant might have done,” said IJ Attorney Mike Greenberg.
Thousands of cases are appealed to the Supreme Court each year; Jouppi’s will become one of about 30 that the court is expected to hear between October and December.
Jouppi’s particular case involves a flight he planned when he was an air taxi operator in Fairbanks.
In 2012, Jouppi was planning to fly to Beaver, a dry town in the Interior, with the spouse of the postmaster as a passenger.
Before takeoff, an Alaska State Trooper noticed a six-pack of beer visible in the baggage. Troopers searched the plane and found three cases of beer — two Budweiser, one Bud Light — intended for the postmaster.
Jouppi was indicted for bootlegging, convicted and sentenced. His sentence included three days in jail and a fine. State prosecutors asked that he be required to forfeit his plane, but the trial judge declined.
The state appealed that decision and after several rounds of appeals, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that the state’s seizure of Jouppi’s plane was not an excessive fine. Justices wrote that the harm caused by alcohol in rural Alaska is so great that severe punishment is not disproportionate.
Jouppi and his attorneys had argued — and continue to argue — that because Jouppi was aware of only one six-pack of beer, any fines should be based on that amount, rather than all the cases aboard the plane.
The Institute for Justice appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2025, but justices declined for almost a year to decide whether or not to hear the case fully.
A supplementary brief filed in June indicates the justices were waiting for a decision on another case.
Monday’s order granting Jouppi’s “petition for a writ of certiorari” — a formal document asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue — was issued without comment explaining why the justices want to consider it.
Under court rules, four justices must vote to take up an appeal in order for it to appear before the court.
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JPD- A 36-year-old Juneau man suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by a vehicle late Sunday night near the Douglas Bridge, below is Juneau Police Department’s press release on the situation.
At approximately 11:05 p.m. on Sunday, July 19, 2026, the Juneau Police Department responded to the intersection of 10th Street and Egan Drive following a report of a vehicle-versus-pedestrian collision.
The preliminary investigation indicates that a 36-year-old Juneau man was riding a skateboard over the Juneau-Douglas Bridge toward 10th Street when he entered the intersection at 10th Street and Egan Drive against a red traffic signal and was struck by a black 2025 Toyota RAV4 traveling inbound on Egan Drive.
The skateboarder sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported by Capital City Fire/Rescue to Bartlett Regional Hospital for treatment.
The driver of the Toyota RAV4 remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation.
The Juneau Police Department’s Major Accident Response Team (MART) responded to assist with the investigation.
This investigation remains ongoing. The preliminary findings are based on the evidence currently available and may change as additional information is obtained. No charges have been filed at this time.
Anyone who witnessed the collision or has additional information and has not yet spoken with investigators is encouraged to contact the Juneau Police Department at 907-586-0600 and reference this incident. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through JuneauCrimeLine.com.
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Rep. Garret Nelson, R-Sutton, chased a black bear away from Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, in front of the Alaska State Capitol during a late-night encounter this week.
“It was a real safari night,” Nelson said on social media.
According to Coulombe, she was walking toward the Assembly Building, home to apartments used by legislators, when she saw the bear approaching her on Wednesday night.
“I am not good with bears. They freak me out,” she said by phone on Friday.
Nelson, who had just climbed in a ride-sharing car, asked the driver to stop, got out of the car and bluff-charged the bear, holding his cellphone in front of him to film the encounter.
Nelson posted the video on social media afterward, jokingly writing, “Just attack the bear first! You can get your free life advice with me whenever you want. It might end up with a serious injury (maybe death)….yes. But as my brother Geremy says, if you come out with a good story, it’s worth it.”
His ride-sharing driver posted a separate, similar video that corroborated the event.
Asked about the incident by phone, Nelson confirmed that he isn’t encouraging people to run at bears.
“I’m not advising people to randomly charge bears. I just weighed the risk and figured that one I outweighed that bear by probably 150 pounds, and he was already on his way out,” Nelson said.
Bear sightings are common in downtown Juneau during the spring, summer and fall, including near the state Capitol. Earlier this month, a downtown Juneau resident shot a bear out of a tree, injuring it. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game later killed the animal.
The department recommends that people who encounter a bear in the wild should “avoid it and give the bear every opportunity to avoid you.”
Coulombe said the bear was trotting toward her before Nelson got out of the car, started filming and chased the animal away.
“All I could think of was I was just going to run back into the Capitol because, I mean, I had really nowhere else to go,” she said.
Afterward, Coulombe said, “I was like, ‘My hero.’ He was so proud of himself. ‘You know, I saved you, Julie. I say I saved you,’ and he did.”
Nelson said that while the situation worked out for him, his tactics shouldn’t be repeated.
“Don’t charge bears. This is a do as I say, not as I do situation,” he said.