Alaska
Shooting stuns indigenous whaling village on Alaska's desolate North Slope
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — (AP) â A shooting that killed two adults and severely wounded two others has stunned a tiny Alaska Native whaling village above the Arctic Circle, where parents were told they could keep their children home from school Tuesday to hug them.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the late Sunday shooting in Point Hope, a remote Inupiat whaling community on Alaskaâs northwest coast, bordering the Chukchi Sea.
Guy Nashookpuk was scheduled to make an initial court appearance by telephone Tuesday, said Nome District Attorney John Earthman.
State law allows minors 16 and older to be tried in adult court on murder charges. The teen did not have a lawyer listed in online court records. The public defender for northwest Alaska did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
North Slope Borough police found a man and woman dead and two other men wounded when officers responded to a shooting at a Point Hope home at 11:35 p.m. Sunday, charging documents said. One witness told officers she saw the teen enter the home with a handgun and begin shooting. Others said they saw him flee on a four-wheeler.
Nine minutes later, the teen’s father escorted him to the police station and reported âthat his son had told him that he did it,â court documents said.
The teen was interviewed with his parents present and admitted the shooting, the documents said. No motive was detailed.
Point Hope, with a population of about 675, sits on a triangular spit of land that juts into the Chukchi Sea. It is about 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage and 200 miles (322 kilometers) from Russia.
The community, known as Tikigaq in Inupiaq, is laid out in a treeless grid around the Tikigaq School â âHome of the Harpooners.â The local cemetery is surrounded by a fence made of whale bones stuck upright in the tundra, and remnants of prehistoric sod-house villages sit nearby.
A state-owned air strip provides the only year-round access. Barges arrive in the summer with food, fuel and other items for year-round use. Locals travel by skiffs, boats made of animal skins, snowmobiles and four-wheelers.
The peninsula is one of the longest continually inhabited Inupiat areas of North America, with some of its earliest residents crossing the Siberian land bridge about 2,000 years ago for bowhead whaling, the borough website said.
Residents still participate in subsistence hunts for bowhead whales, according to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. And as in most of Alaska, firearms are commonly used to hunt caribou, moose, seals, walrus and polar bears.
And shootings aren’t unheard of: Last May, a police officer shot and killed a man in Point Hope after the man opened fire on residents and buildings and refused to drop the weapon.
This weekend’s shooting prompted the closure of the Tikigaq School on Monday. Attendance Tuesday was not required.
âIt is totally optional if youâd rather keep your kids home to hold, hug, and explain the circumstance to them,â North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak said in a Facebook post.
He also said the borough fire department would fly in emergency medical services staff from the other seven communities in North Slope Borough â an area roughly the size of Wyoming â to provide on-call EMS services to cover for Point Hope staff. He said they might be traumatized by the shooting, since they’re often closely related to those they serve.
âOur small communities are intertwined in immeasurable ways dating back generations,â Patkotak said.
Maniilaq Association, a nonprofit corporation that provides health, tribal and social services to residents in northwest Alaska, sent behavioral health counselors to meet with Point Hope residents for the rest of the week. The Assembly of God church in Point Hope also offered two services Monday.
âIn the days ahead, we will come together as a community to heal and support one another,â the North Slope Borough said in a statement posted to social media.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he and his wife, Rose, are devastated.
âOur hearts ache for the families and residents affected by this senseless act,â he wrote on Facebook, âWe will continue to pray for healing and justice.â
____
Associated Press contributors include Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu, Lisa Bauman in Seattle, Stephanie Dazio in Los Angeles and Rhonda Shafner in New York.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Alaska
Dozens of vehicle accidents reported, Anchorage after-school activities canceled, as snowfall buries Southcentral Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Up to a foot of snow has fallen in areas across Southcentral as of Tuesday, with more expected into Wednesday morning.
All sports and after-school activities — except high school basketball and hockey activities — were canceled Tuesday for the Anchorage School District. The decision was made to allow crews to clear school parking lots and manage traffic for snow removal, district officials said.
“These efforts are critical to ensuring schools can safely remain open [Wednesday],” ASD said in a statement.
The Anchorage Police Department’s accident count for the past two days shows there have been 55 car accidents since Monday, as of 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. In addition, there have been 86 vehicles in distress reported by the department.
The snowfall — which has brought up to 13 inches along areas of Turnagain Arm and 12 inches in Wasilla — is expected to continue Tuesday, according to latest forecast models. Numerous winter weather alerts are in effect, and inland areas of Southcentral could see winds up to 25 mph, with coastal areas potentially seeing winds over 45 mph.
Some areas of Southcentral could see more than 20 inches of snowfall by Wednesday, with the Anchorage and Eagle River Hillsides, as well as the foothills of the Talkeetna Mountain, among the areas seeing the most snowfall.
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Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Yundt Served: Formal Charges Submitted to Alaska Republican Party, Asks for Party Sanction and Censure of Senator Rob Yundt
On January 3, 2026, Districts 27 and 28 of the Alaska Republican Party received formal charges against Senator Rob Yundt pursuant to Article VII of the Alaska Republican Party Rules.
According to the Alaska Republican Party Rules: “Any candidate or elected official may be sanctioned or censured for any of the following
reasons:
(a) Failure to follow the Party Platform.
(b) Engagement in any activities prohibited by or contrary to these rules or RNC Rules.
(c) Failure to carry out or perform the duties of their office.
(d) Engaging in prohibited discrimination.
(e) Forming a majority caucus in which non-Republicans are at least 1/3 or more of the
coalition.
(f) Engaging in other activities that may be reasonably assessed as bringing dishonor to
the ARP, such as commission of a serious crime.”
Party Rules require the signatures of at least 3 registered Republican constituents for official charges to be filed. The formal charges were signed by registered Republican voters and District N constitutions Jerad McClure, Thomas W. Oels, Janice M. Norman, and Manda Gershon.
Yundt is charged with “failure to adhere and uphold the Alaska Republican Party Platform” and “engaging in conduct contrary to the principles and priorities of the Alaska Republican Party Rules.” The constituents request: “Senator Rob Yundt be provided proper notice of the charges and a full and fair opportunity to respond; and that, upon a finding by the required two-thirds (2/3) vote of the District Committees that the charges are valid, the Committees impose the maximum sanctions authorized under Article VII.”
If the Party finds Yundt guilty of the charges, Yundt may be disciplined with formal censure by the Alaska Republican Party, declaration of ineligibility for Party endorsement, withdrawal of political support, prohibition from participating in certain Party activities, and official and public declaration that Yundt’s conduct and voting record contradict the Party’s values and priorities.
Reasons for the charges are based on Yundt’s active support of House Bill 57, Senate Bill 113, and Senate Bill 92. Constituents who filed the charges argue that HB 57 opposes the Alaska Republican Party Platform by “expanding government surveillance and dramatically increasing education spending;” that SB 113 opposes the Party’s Platform by “impos[ing] new tax burdens on Alaskan consumers and small businesses;” and that SB 92 opposes the Party by “proposing a targeted 9.2% tax on major private-sector energy producer supplying natural gas to Southcentral Alaska.” Although the filed charges state that SB 92 proposes a 9.2% tax, the bill actually proposes a 9.4% tax on income from oil and gas production and transportation.
Many Alaskan conservatives have expressed frustration with Senator Yundt’s legislative decisions. Some, like Marcy Sowers, consider Yundt more like “a tax-loving social justice warrior” than a conservative.
Related
Alaska
Pilot of Alaska flight that lost door plug over Portland sues Boeing, claims company blamed him
The Alaska Airlines captain who piloted the Boeing 737 Max that lost a door plug over Portland two years ago is suing the plane’s manufacturer, alleging that the company has tried to shift blame to him to shield its own negligence.
The $10 million suit — filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday on behalf of captain Brandon Fisher — stems from the dramatic Jan. 5, 2024 mid-air depressurization of Flight 1282, when a door plug in the 26th row flew off six minutes after take off, creating a 2-by-4-foot hole in the plane that forced Fisher and co-pilot Emily Wiprud to perform an emergency landing back at PDX.
None of the 171 passengers or six crew members on board was seriously injured, but some aviation medical experts said that the consequences could have been “catastrophic” had the incident happened at a higher altitude.
Fisher’s lawsuit is the latest in a series filed against Boeing, including dozens from Flight 1282 passengers. It also names Spirit AeroSystems, a subcontractor that worked on the plane.
The lawsuit blames the incident on quality control issues with the door plug. It argues that Boeing caught five misinstalled rivets in the panel, and that Spirit employees painted over the rivets instead of reinstalling them correctly. Boeing inspectors caught the discrepancy again, the complaint alleges, but when employees finally reopened the panel to fix the rivets, they didn’t reattach four bolts that secured the door panel.
The complaint’s allegations that Boeing employees failed to secure the bolts is in line with a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that came to the conclusion that the bolts hadn’t been replaced.
Despite these internal issues, Fisher claims Boeing deliberately shifted blame towards him and his first officer.
Lawyers for Boeing in an earlier lawsuit wrote that the company wasn’t responsible for the incident because the plane had been “improperly maintained or misused by persons and/or entities other than Boeing.”
Fisher’s complaint alleges that the company’s statement was intended to “paint him as the scapegoat for Boeing’s numerous failures.”
“Instead of praising Captain Fisher’s bravery, Boeing inexplicably impugned the reputations of the pilots,” the lawsuit says.
As a result, Fisher has been scrutinized for his role in the incident, the lawsuit alleges, and named in two lawsuits by passengers.
Spokespeople for Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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