Alaska
Alaska National Guardsmen jump twice to rescue 3 people in a day
![Alaska National Guardsmen jump twice to rescue 3 people in a day Alaska National Guardsmen jump twice to rescue 3 people in a day](https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/23/PJ-Alaska.jpg?quality=85)
Members of the Alaska Air National Guard’s 212 Rescue Squadron carried out complicated pararescue jumps in remote parts of the state over Labor Day Weekend to rescue stranded. At one point, the same team jumped twice in less than a day to rescue two separate survivors of plane crashes.
The Alaska Air National Guard’s busy week started on Aug. 30 with reports of two plane crashes at roughly the same time. The first was in Skwentna, northwest of Anchorage, the other more than 200 miles northeast at Tok, Alaska. The 176th Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard sent a HC-130 plane from the 211 Rescue Squadron as well as two 210th Rescue Squadron HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and members of the 212th, known as the Guardian Angels, with them. One of the HH-160Gs, on its way back from Eielson Air Force Base, went to the Swetna crash site. The pilot was luckily uninjured and retrieved by the helicopter crew.
The rest of the dispatched Guardsmen went to Tok. Another plane crash, this one involving a Cessna 150, crash left two people critically injured and trapped inside the aircraft. The HC-130 passed overhead and members of the 212th jumped out, parachuting to the ground and freeing the survivors from the plane. They provided emergency medical care and then the HH-160G flew in, hoisting the survivors up from the crash site before flying them to medical centers.
“The patient’s extent of injuries versus the time and distance required to reach them, drives our tactics to respond,” combat rescue officer Maj. Dan Warren, who led the team that jumped to the plane crash, said in an Air National Guard release. “Parachuting is simply another means to expedite our access to patient care, which is why we train on it weekly.”
According to Warren, the rescue teams were jumping and providing medical care in less than an hour after taking off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Warren and that same team were back in an HC-130 and jumping out of it less than 24 hours later. Another plane had crashed, this time near McGrath, roughly 150 miles northwest of Anchorage. Warren’s team, carried on the same HC-130 and HH-60G as the Aug. 30th mission, jumped to the top of a 2,500-foot-tall ridge. The pilot was found dead. The Air National Guard helicopter picked up the Guardian Angels team and the body of the deceased man. According to Alaska public media station KYUK, the pilot is an Anchorage resident and the crash is under investigation. The HH-60G then was sent to pick up a lost hiker while on its way back to base.
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The missions were some of several rescue operations that the 176th Wing carried out over a five-day period including Labor Day Weekend. On Sept. 1-2, members of the Guardian Angels and the 210th Rescue Squadron rescued more hikers who were stranded in Denali National Park.
The remote nature of many of Alaska’s settlements, and the rough conditions that far north, means that planes are often used to travel between places. And when there are crashes, or people are stranded or lost, the Air National Guard is often called in to do rescue and recovery missions.
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Alaska
Alaska Stroke Coalition introduces advanced clinical AI tool for hospitals across the state
![Alaska Stroke Coalition introduces advanced clinical AI tool for hospitals across the state Alaska Stroke Coalition introduces advanced clinical AI tool for hospitals across the state](https://gray-ktuu-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/https%3A%2F%2Fdo0bihdskp9dy.cloudfront.net%2F09-07-2024%2Ft_91eb0483167f4dfbadf039fa962c4fb8_name_file_1280x720_2000_v3_1_.jpg?auth=ac3a974f0182a1878dbcdf44f06fc5205672a8be47ba3e3110221a6e6f00ddbb&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
The U.S. Forest Service is asking Alaskans to share the Great Land’s culture with all of America in the form of Christmas tree decorations.
After a tree from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest was chosen as the 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree earlier this year, residents in Alaska will also have the chance to spruce up the tree before it goes up in D.C.
Alaska
Alaska's U.S. House race shifts to 'toss up'
![Alaska's U.S. House race shifts to 'toss up' Alaska's U.S. House race shifts to 'toss up'](https://mustreadalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/begich-peltola.jpg)
Cook Political Report, which analyzes races across the country, has shifted the Alaska U.S. House race from the “Lean Democrat” category to “Toss Up,” in the latest ranking.
The change explains why Democrats, who have their own polling, are now suing the state Division of Elections to save the Rep. Mary Peltola, who is facing Republican Nick Begich in the general election, in her reelection bid.
Along with Peltola now being at risk in the general election, Cook Political Report says that Peltola’s “rural Antifa” colleagues in the House Blue Dog Democrats — Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and Rep. Marie Glusenkamp-Perez of Washington — are also facing tough elections. The new toss-up list for Democrats, per Cook Political Report, is here:
- AK-AL Peltola
- CO-08 Caraveo
- ME-02 Golden
- MI-07 OPEN (Slotkin)
- MI-08 OPEN (Kildee)
- NC-01 Davis
- NM-02 Vasquez
- OH-13 Sykes
- PA-07 Wild
- PA-08 Cartwright
- WA-03 Perez
Cook Political Report has seemed reluctant to move Alaska into the toss-up category due to Alaska’s weird open primary and ranked-choice general election scheme. But a recent poll by Cygnal shows that Begich is now even with Peltola. Alaska’s is the most Republican seat in the House that has a Democrat in it and is seen as a strong likelihood to flip back to Republican in November.
Working against Peltola is her own party, which has decided to sue to keep another Democrat, Eric Hafner, off of the November ballot. The Alaska Democrats have hired the nation’s top Democrat election lawyer, Marc Elias, known for sowing chaos in elections.
The lawsuit drains enthusiasm from the party and embarrasses its Alaska voting membership, since it makes Peltola look desperate and conniving. Peltola would have most certainly approved the party going forward with the lawsuit that is intended to be her life ring.
Also working against Peltola is that the National Republican Congressional Committee is now showing Alaskans Peltola’s actual record in Congress, which has her in the same radical category as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, voting against the interests of Alaskans time and again. Peltola has never had to run against her own immediate voting record and political judgment in the past, but has been able to rely on her personality, personal story, and looks.
Alaska
Sacred Acre Festival Gears Up In Alaska – Pollstar News
![Sacred Acre Festival Gears Up In Alaska – Pollstar News Sacred Acre Festival Gears Up In Alaska – Pollstar News](https://static.pollstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-06-at-11.46.40%E2%80%AFAM.png)
Sacred Acre is kicking off its 2024 festival with three days of music and exploration from Sept. 6 to 8. This year’s lineup features Peekaboo, The Glitch Mob, Wreckno, Zingara and more in the midst of the Alaskan landscape. While the event itself is quite isolated, the festival’s directors Chris Miller and Hannah Stearns managed to find a way to make it all happen. The two built off of their sister event, SalmonFestl, and its previous infrastructure.
“The challenge of marketing an event, especially in such a rural location, is a hurdle in itself,” Miller tells Pollstar. “Many people have this wanderlust they want to fulfill, but it’s really hard to make people take a leap of faith. This year, over 40% of ticket sales are from out of state, so I think we’re doing a good job at capturing that out of state market. It reminds me of when Jim [Stearns, festival director for SalmonFest] and Hannah were sitting around Jim’s table talking one year about, let’s book CloZee and LSDream, and we did it. But we got a lot of Fyre Festival comments right out the gate, it was really rough because we were in the middle of nowhere. There’s so many events that are popping up everywhere, and we have seen a lot of events that have taken a hard nose dive or had weather hit them really hard. People look at Alaska and they’re like, it’s going to be freezing cold or it’s going to be hard to get to. That hurdle has been a big one for us. Thankfully we had SalmonFest to help us with getting our foot in the door in a lot of regards on the lineup and artists and people to come work at the event. We already have a plug-and-play facility. It’s been really amazing to walk above some of those first-year struggles because of the SalmonFest team.”
The festival’s mission is to combat factory trawling, which damages the Arctic ecosystems. Factory trawling scrapes the ocean floor, which in turn harms ecosystems and leads to the capture and discard of unwanted marine life. Throughout the festival, Sacred Acre hosts workshops, including ones that focus on the harmful fishing practice.
The festival also features the biggest laser show in Alaska, performance art and fire dancers. Fans can also embark on excursions to see all the nature Alaska has to offer.
“We have helicopter flights leaving right from the festival site,” Stearns says. “You can go for 30-minute tours or half-day tours to a glacier. We have our Bumping on the Bay tour, which is a three-hour tour in Homer with a national DJ. There’s 24-hour programming in that space where you can go and do workshops and simply do self-improvement. Really getting in touch with yourself, that is something you can do without experiencing any of the bass music.”
In order to build the festival, SalmonFest will utilize steamships and semis. Sacred Acre uses much of the same setup as SalmonFest, making the build a bit easier. Load in takes 10-12 days, and they’ll use up to 53 semis. This year’s laser production is coming straight from Burning Man, making for a quick turnaround with the shipping process.
“SalmonFest has been able to parlay the challenges of getting here and the remoteness of it into a bit of a mystique,” Stearns says. “Last year, we sold tickets in 48 states and 17 countries. Sacred Acre has the same goal in mind, to make this a destination festival.”
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