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Search continues for respected North Slope scientist who was swept under logjam

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Search continues for respected North Slope scientist who was swept under logjam


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Dr. Craig George, 70, Utqiagvik, a respected scientist who’s work listening and watching people and animals in their natural environment touched lives across Alaska, has been missing since Wednesday when the raft he was on overturned in the Chulitna River near Cantwell, Alaska State Troopers said.

“George’s body has not been recovered,” said AST Communications Director Austin McDaniel. “High water on Friday prevented the dive team from deploying specialized tools in the search for George.”

Five people had been on two rafts during the incidence when the one with George had overturned, AST said. The others were not injured. They were all wearing life jackets.

Dr. George is known for his work with whales,” North Slope Borough spokesperson D.J. Fauske said in a Facebook post Saturday.

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“I first met Craig as a 1st grader at the original Ipalook Elementary,” wrote Fauske in a Facebook page. “He played his original version of the now classic, “Keep on Whaling.” He sang some other songs he wrote too. He gave us copies of his late mothers amazing children’s books. Those interactions with him over the years stuck with me for all my life. He was kind, gentle, humble, funny, and could teach you something without you even knowing you were in the middle of an academic lesson.”

Dr. George helped preserve and protect an Inupiat culture that was “judged and stereotyped for years by outsiders,” Fauske wrote.

“He helped combine thousands of years of traditional local Inupiat knowledge with world class technology and data. He was the first to publish how long whales could live and worked with men like the late Harry Brower Sr. to learn where they had their calves.”



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Alaska environmental commissioner picked for Trump administration EPA post • Alaska Beacon

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Alaska environmental commissioner picked for Trump administration EPA post • Alaska Beacon


Alaska’s top environmental regulator was chosen to be the new Pacific Northwestern regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on Wednesday.

Emma Pokon, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, was chosen by President Donald Trump to lead EPA’s Seattle-based Region 10 office, Dunleavy said.

“I can’t think of any Alaskan better suited to oversee federal environmental regulations and laws for Alaska than Emma Pokon,” Dunleavy said in a statement.

Pokon has led the Department of Environmental Conservation since August 2023, when she became acting commissioner upon the resignation of Jason Brune. Dunleavy named her as commissioner the following December.

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Pokon joined the department in 2020, moving there from the state Department of Law, where she served as a senior assistant attorney general. At the Department of Law, she handled environmental and natural resource matters.

Poken, in the governor’s statement, said it had been “an incredible privilege” to be part of DEC’s leadership for the past five years.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue public service in this new role and look forward to working with EPA leadership and Region 10 to ensure balanced implementation of the nation’s environmental laws,” she said.

Deputy Commissioner Christina Carpenter will serve as acting commissioner of the department until a permanent successor to Pokon is chosen, Dunleavy’s statement said.

The Region 10 office serves Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and 271 tribal governments.

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Pokon replaces Casey Sixkiller, who led the regional office in President Joe Biden’s administration. Sixkiller, a former Seattle deputy mayor and chief operating officer of King County, Washington, now serves as director of the Washington Department of Ecology.

The Region 10 EPA office has been led in the interim by Acting Administrator Dan Opalski.

 



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3-member panel recommends automatic salary adjustments for Alaska governor, cabinet, lawmakers

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3-member panel recommends automatic salary adjustments for Alaska governor, cabinet, lawmakers


JUNEAU — A three-member panel recommended Wednesday that Alaska’s governor, cabinet members and lawmakers receive automatic pay adjustments every odd-number year moving forward.

The recommendation sets in motion pay changes for the state’s top political officials based on the Anchorage consumer price index. That means that salaries would likely rise every other year, though they could also go down if the cost of living declines. The change — unless rejected by lawmakers — would go into effect in 2027.

The proposal comes two years after the same panel recommended steep compensation boosts, including a 20% increase for the governor and his cabinet, and a 67% increase for lawmakers, following several years with no changes in pay.

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The pay guidance was issued by the State Officers Compensation Commission, which is required under law to issue recommendations every other year. The recommendations then go into effect automatically unless lawmakers pass legislation disapproving of them.

Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said Wednesday that he was not in favor of automatic salary adjustments, and lawmakers might vote to reject the commission’s proposal.

“I don’t like the idea of having an automatic increase because our budget is so tenuous,” said Stevens. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Rep. Andy Josephson, an Anchorage Democrat, said he thought he was already “well compensated.”

“I’m hearing no interest from legislators in further adjustments to their salary,” said Josephson.

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The commission — whose members are appointed by the governor and legislative leaders — was created to avoid direct conversations by lawmakers and the governor about how much they should get paid and when they should receive raises.

But the commission’s intended impartiality was largely sidestepped in 2023, when Gov. Mike Dunleavy fired all commission members after lawmakers rejected their proposal, which would have raised pay for the governor but not for lawmakers. The governor then appointed an all-new five-member commission, which approved a new proposal, paving the way for both lawmakers and the governor to receive pay raises with virtually no public input.

Three commissioners have since resigned from the commission, and Dunleavy replaced only one of them, leaving the panel with just three members, the minimum needed to issue recommendations.

Commissioners include former Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux, Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. President Jomo Stewart and Republican former Rep. Lynn Gattis.

The commission’s recommendations this year could largely render the panel’s future meetings and intended purpose moot, by ensuring that lawmakers and the governor’s pay are updated every other year, even without public comment or review.

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But commissioners signaled they would support future legislation to require the commission to continue to meet and prepare recommendations every other year. Such legislation has not been introduced this year.

Lawmakers are currently compensated $84,000. All but Juneau lawmakers can also receive $307 per-day tax-free during legislative sessions, adding roughly $37,000 to their annual income.

The governor is paid $176,000. The lieutenant governor is paid $140,000. Cabinet members earn $168,000.

The average salary for state employees was just over $82,000 in 2024, according to data from the state.

The potential approval of pay increases for the state’s top officials comes as lawmakers say pay raises may be needed also for the state’s rank-and-file workforce. Some legislators have raised alarm over a move from the Dunleavy administration to block the release of results of a salary study commissioned last year to investigate whether pay increases were needed to address an ongoing recruitment and retention challenge in state agencies.

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Video Shows Air Force F-35 Fighter Exploding in Fireball at Eielson Base in Alaska

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Video Shows Air Force F-35 Fighter Exploding in Fireball at Eielson Base in Alaska


An F-35 Lightning II crashed Tuesday afternoon during a scheduled training event at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, causing a massive fireball and spreading debris not far from the fence line, a video verified as authentic by officials showed.

Video footage of the crash began circulating online Tuesday and showed the F-35 plummeting to the ground as the pilot slowly floated in the air in a parachute. The incident happened around 12:49 p.m. local time.

The pilot safely landed and was transported to Bassett Army Community Hospital in Fairbanks for more attention, the 354th Fighter Wing said in a news release.

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An F-35A costs upward of $100 million, and the incident comes amid an Air Force-wide push on safety standards aimed at curbing expensive accidents. The crash also comes as President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is tasked with eliminating waste in government, have both openly criticized the production and use of the F-35, Military.com has previously reported.

Col. Paul Townsend, commander of Eielson’s 354th Fighter Wing, said in a news release that officials are probing the cause of the crash and are committed to making sure it won’t happen again.

“Our people are our most important resource, and we are committed [to] ensuring their safety and security,” Townsend said. “I can assure you the United States Air Force will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident to minimize the chances of such occurrences … happening again.”

He did tell local reporters during a press conference that the pilot “experienced an in-flight malfunction” and that the crash “occurred during the landing phase,” according to video shared by the 345th Fighter Wing.

Local traffic was advised not to stop on Richardson Highway next to the base, as doing so “poses a safety risk and impedes recovery efforts,” the wing said in the news release.

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Russell Goemaere, a spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office, said the office will assist in the investigation of the incident.

“The JPO will support the Air Force in the investigation of the mishap,” Goemaere said. “We are committed to ensuring the safety of our warfighters.”

The incident marks the first F-35 crash in 2025. Last year, an F-35B test pilot was in serious condition after ejecting from the aircraft while refueling at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The aircraft was on a trip to Edwards Air Force Base in California from Fort Worth, Texas.

In September 2023, a Marine Corps pilot ejected from an F-35B over South Carolina after experiencing an electrical issue and becoming disoriented. Military and law enforcement officials couldn’t locate the jet for nearly a day.

In 2022, there were four F-35 incidents and crashes.

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Marine Corps Blames Pilot Error for Crash of Malfunctioning F-35 in South Carolina Forest

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