Alaska

What we know about the unidentified object shot down over Alaska | CNN Politics

Published

2 years ago

February 11, 2023

What we know about the unidentified object shot down over Alaska | CNN Politics

CNN
—

An unidentified object was shot down 10 miles off the frozen coast of Alaska on Friday afternoon, US officers introduced, however particulars concerning the object are scarce.

It marked the second time US jets had taken down an object in lower than per week, following the taking pictures down of a suspected Chinese language spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina final Saturday.

The thing, which officers haven’t characterised as a balloon, was shot down at 1:45 p.m. EST, based on Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder.

“[I]t got here inside our territorial waters – and people waters proper now are frozen – however inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters,” Nationwide Safety Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby instructed reporters on Friday. “Fighter plane assigned to US Northern Command took down the article inside final hour.”

Requested concerning the operation on Friday afternoon, President Joe Biden instructed CNN, “It was a hit.”

Right here’s a take a look at what we all know up to now.

In line with Kirby, Biden was first briefed on the article on Thursday night, as “quickly because the Pentagon had sufficient info.” It “didn’t look like self-maneuvering,” Kirby stated.

It’s unclear what the article seems like, or the place it got here from. On Friday, Ryder stated it was touring north east throughout Alaska. He declined to offer a bodily characterization, solely saying that it was “concerning the dimension of a small automobile” and “not related in dimension or form” to the Chinese language surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4.

“We’re calling this an object as a result of that’s the very best description we now have proper now,” Kirby stated. “We don’t know who owns it – whether or not it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we simply don’t know.”

F-35 fighter jets have been despatched as much as examine after the article was first detected on Thursday, based on a US official.

There was not a major concern about harm to folks or property if the article was shot down, which was the first cause the Chinese language surveillance balloon was allowed to traverse the continental US final week.

Ryder additionally emphasised that officers have no idea the origin of the article, which didn’t look like manned, and that it was shot down as a result of it posed a “affordable menace to civilian air visitors” because it was flying at 40,000 toes.

Kirby instructed reporters that the primary fly-by of US fighter plane occurred Thursday evening, and the second occurred Friday morning. Each introduced again “restricted” details about the article.

In the end, the article was downed close to the Canadian border and northeastern Alaska by a F-22 fighter jet out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, geared up with an AIM-9X – the identical plane and missile used to take down the surveillance balloon. A US official stated the army waited to shoot the article down throughout sunlight hours to make it simpler for the pilots to identify it. Ryder stated the mission was “supported with aerial property from the Alaska Air Nationwide Guard.”

The Alaska Nationwide Guard and models beneath US Northern Command, together with HC-130 Hercules, HH-60 Pave Hawk, and CH-47 Chinook are all taking part within the effort to get better the article, Ryder stated.

Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 5, 2023.

Officers have given no indication up to now that the article is in any respect associated to the Chinese language surveillance balloon downed final weekend, particles of which continues to be being recovered on the Atlantic Ocean flooring.

Ryder stated on Friday that restoration groups have “mapped the particles discipline” and are “within the technique of looking for and figuring out particles on the ocean flooring.”

“Whereas I received’t go into specifics resulting from classification causes,” Ryder stated, “I can say that we now have positioned a major quantity of particles up to now that may show useful to our additional understanding of this balloon and its surveillance capabilities.”

When requested Friday if classes discovered about China’s balloon assisted in detecting the article shot down over Alaska, Ryder stated it was “a bit little bit of apples and oranges.”

The thing didn’t seem to have any surveillance gear, based on a US official, which might make it each smaller and sure much less subtle than the Chinese language balloon shot.

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Alaska

Sponsor restarts process to repeal Alaska ranked-choice voting on 2026 ballot

Published

8 hours ago

December 17, 2024

Press Room

Sponsor restarts process to repeal Alaska ranked-choice voting on 2026 ballot

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Ballot Measure 2, an initiative to repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system, narrowly failed in the recent election cycle, but the sponsor of the measure is not ready to give up just yet.

After a recount revealed the ballot measure failed by 743 votes, instead of the 737 originally counted, sponsor Phil Izon submitted the paperwork on Monday to get back on the ballot for 2026.

At the Absentee and Petition Office in Anchorage, Izon started the process again by submitting an initiative petition with the signatures of 214 qualified registered voters to serve as sponsors; only 100 are required.

“We have a pretty good amount of people that are really motivated … and they ultimately didn’t like the fact that we lost by small percentages,” Izon said.

Within 60 calendar days after receipt, the office of Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom will notify the sponsor if the application is denied or certified.

After that, the signature-gathering process begins to get on the ballot officially.

Izon said the spirit of the ballot measure is the same, but some fundamental differences need to be made to the ballot language.

He said some voters found the ballot language confusing and thought a “no” vote was for repeal.

Instead, they should have been voting “yes,” Izon said.

The ballot initiative to implement ranked-choice voting and open primaries was approved by Alaskan voters in 2020 and used for the first time in the 2022 election cycle.

He said as the sponsor, he doesn’t get the privilege to write the ballot measure language; state officials write it based on what the sponsor summarized in the written petition.

Izon said this time around, he hopes the language is written clearer; if it’s not, he is prepared to go to court over it.

“I believe language played a role in 2020, and I believe it played a role in 2024, so I do not want a repeat of that in 2026,” Izon said.

Ironically, the ballot measure’s sponsors say they want a repeal of the state’s current election system because they believe voters find it confusing.

In the current system, the top four primary finishers advance to the general election, and then voters rank the candidates by preferred choice. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the candidate’s votes are redistributed according to each voter’s second preferred choice.

Democrat Lee Hammermeister, who joined Izon on Monday as a co-sponsor and lost a recent Eagle River Senate race this November, said it’s time for Alaska to return to a traditional system.

Like many opponents of ranked-choice voting, Hammermeister points to the number of voters who don’t rank the candidates and only vote for one.

“[There are] people either not understanding it or entirely rejecting using the ranked-choice voting system,” Hammermeister said. “It just turns into something that’s very confusing, and then it just gets very convoluted, both on the voter side and then on the candidate side as well. So I like a simple system.”

Proponents of open primaries and ranked-choice voting argue that most Alaskan voters are nonpartisan and do not identify with a political party. They believe that the current system provides voters with more choices and a greater voice beyond the limitations of the political parties.

Izon said if the ballot measure fails in 2026, he might give one more try in 2028, but in the end, he thinks it might be something that the legislature will have to take up.

“I’ve been in a lot of communication with a bunch of legislators that have actually moved bills through the Senate and the House,” he said. “[I’ve] got a lot of support from those people, and I would love to see it go through that direction.”

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Alaska

Sister, boyfriend of missing Alaska woman mourn loss after search suspended in Hawaii

Published

15 hours ago

December 16, 2024

Press Room

Sister, boyfriend of missing Alaska woman mourn loss after search suspended in Hawaii

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Cheyenne Taylor turned 24 years old, and on Sunday, the only gift she wanted was for her sister’s body to be found.

“We need that closure so bad,” she said in an interview from her home in Tennessee.

Hawaiian authorities suspended the multi-day search for 32-year-old Lauren Cameron of Anchorage over the weekend, three days after she went missing in the waters off the north shore of Kaua’i.

Cameron was vacationing on the island of Kaua’i with her boyfriend, Anchorage resident Torin Blaker. The pair were hiking the Na Pali coast on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and had stopped at Hanakāpī‘ai Beach.

According to a release from the Kaua’i Fire Department, rescuers responded to the area shortly after 3 p.m. on reports that Cameron had entered the water and was swept into the ocean by strong currents.

Taylor said authorities in Kaua’i — including the fire department and the Coast Guard — have been very communicative about the search, making sure friends and family members had the latest information.

She also heard from a man who said he and his wife were hiking in the area when they saw Cameron that day. Taylor said her sister was a good swimmer but knew better than to swim in dangerous waters and was only rinsing off after the hike. The man told her Cameron was in water no deeper than her ankles when he saw her.

“He said that she was just washing off, and he said he and his wife went on to walk a little bit more and they started hearing screaming for help because that’s when the wave came in and took Lauren,” Taylor said.

Taylor is also grateful for another man she hasn’t spoken to who swam out in the choppy water to try and save Cameron by delivering some sort of floatation device.

What happened next is unclear, but Taylor said her sister wasn’t able to hang on.

“I just want to thank him, I do, he risked his own life for my sister’s life and it means a lot to us,” she said.

Taylor described her sister as adventurous, loving, and kind to all, a sentiment echoed by her long-time boyfriend, Torin Blaker.

Blaker wrote that he is devastated by the loss, and said in a tribute written to Cameron that “she loved life.”

“She loved its challenges, for a challenge equals a solution to which she could find,” the statement read. “She loved adventure, for around every bend was something new. She loved love, for it is the binding that makes us human.“

Lauren Cameron with boyfriend Torin Blaker(Torin Blaker)

Blaker thanked first responders in Hawaii as well as the support from the Alaska Division of Forestry where he works and the Anchorage Health Department where Cameron was employed.

Blaker’s full tribute to Lauren:

Lauren is the light in my life. A shining beacon of hope in a cruel, uncertain world. A confident warrior for those less fortunate. An Angel, a Goddess, a Saint.
She dedicated her life to helping others. From working as a shelter meals coordinator for housed elderly peoples coming off the streets in Seattle, to preparing meals for children in schools, to rising through the ranks and becoming a supervisor at WIC, to volunteering countless hours of her time for all causes from soup kitchens to salmon habitat restoration, to constantly sending thoughtful gifts and care packages to her friends and family. She’s the most selfless, caring, compassionate, resilient, generous, hard-working, driven, positive, and loving person I’ve ever met.
Her first week at WIC she came home in tears as she had helped her first client who wasn’t able to get food on the table for their new family. Her heart ached for others less fortunate. She yearned to ease other peoples suffering.
She loved life. She loved its challenges, for a challenge equals a solution, to which she could find. She loved adventure, for around every bend was something new. She loved love, for it is the binding that makes us human.
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She loved being in nature as much as she loved helping people. Our first summer together we spent nearly every weekend backpacking on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. On our first date I knew I wanted to show this wonderful woman the wonders of Alaska. Less than 6 months later, we hiked 13 miles into the Alaskan wilderness to stay at a remote cabin for a week. A year later, we did it again. Less than three months after that: we had moved to my hometown of Anchorage, which became our home. She perservered through uncertainty, never wavering in her confidence in us and our future. Loving every second of the journey. Loving the overwhelming love that we shared with each other.
She is my everything. She is my soul mate. From the first moment we spoke I knew I had found someone special, and that someone special had found me. Someone that cared about me, valued me, respected me, wanted to support me in work and life, wanted to build a beautiful, lifelong future together. We were in plans for buying a house where we could start to create a family together, where we could grow old together. We pushed each other every day to be the best versions of ourselves, to work toward those goals.
I don’t have words for how crushed and broken I am. The light has simply gone out in my life. My sweetheart, my honey, my darling, my babygirl, my angel.
I want to thank all of our family, friends, Lifes Bridges in Kauai, all agencies and personnel involved in her search, Alaska Div. of Forestry, Anchorage Health Dept, and all others who have reached out and offered support in this horrific, surreal, awful, terrible nightmare. I’m not able to respond to everyone directly right now, but please know I deeply appreciate the kind words and even if I’m not able to respond immediately, I will in time.

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Alaska

Alaska trawl fisheries are vital and under attack by those using myths

Published

23 hours ago

December 16, 2024

Press Room

Alaska trawl fisheries are vital and under attack by those using myths

Alaskans are all too familiar with radical groups funded by out-of-state interests seeking to shut down sustainable resource development. A predictable cast of characters — including billionaire activists and extreme environmental groups — are now working to destroy a large segment of the Alaska seafood industry. This campaign to ban trawling — a sustainable fishing method responsible for a substantial majority of fishery landings in the Alaska Region and nationally —poses a direct threat to Alaska’s coastal economy, seafood sector and way of life.

If you enjoy wild seafood — fish sandwiches or shrimp; fish sticks or scallops; fish tacos or rockfish — you are enjoying seafood caught by “trawl” or “dredge” fishing gears that touch the seafloor. It’s true that these fishing methods, like every farm, aquaculture facility and fishing operation on the planet, impact the environment. But, what’s also true is that the impacts of trawl fishing in Alaska are continually monitored to ensure long-term ecosystem health.

Sam Wright is a lifelong Alaskan born and raised in Homer. He has fished for over 30 years for crab, flatfish, Pacific cod and other species in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska.

Dan Carney is an Alaskan, homesteader, farmer, fisherman, 43-year Bering Sea survivor.

Jason Chandler was born in Kodiak and is a lifelong resident. He has participated in multiple fisheries over more than 30 years and is now owner/operator of his family’s trawl vessel.

Kiley Thomson is a 32-year resident of Sand Point who fishes for salmon, crab, pollock and cod in the Gulf of Alaska. He is president of the Peninsula Fishermen’s Coalition and the Area M Seiners Association organizations, representing small vessels in Alaska groundfish and salmon fisheries respectively.

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