Print article A Dunleavy administration proposal to allow off-road vehicles on Alaska’s roads is raising safety and enforcement questions in the state’s more populous areas even as its origins remain hazy. Right now, state law only allows off-road vehicles to cross roads. The proposed policy would change existing regulations to allow four-wheelers, snowmachines and “all-purpose vehicles” on roadways with limits of 45 mph or less a broad category that includes some of the busier roads in many communities. Anyone riding on the road would need to be licensed, registered and insured, state officials said this week. They’d also need lights, brakes and a working muffler.
Print article While unmitigated government boobism seems de rigueur nowadays, somebody in the administration of Gov. Michael Dunleavy is proposing ATVs, snowmachines and “all-purpose vehicles” be allowed on public roads with speed limits up to 45 mph, further raising the bar on nitwittery. To compound this crime against good sense, news reports say the administration refuses to identify the idea’s author, the agency seeking it or the whozits and whatzits involved. There apparently was little-to-no analysis offered and apparently there were no consultations with knowledgeable interested groups and communities ahead of time. The news media? They dutifully reported the administration’s refusal to disclose and then, crickets.
DeSmog
The Life and Death of a Pioneering Environmental Justice Lawyer
How Luke Cole and an Alaskan community spearheaded a landmark climate lawsuit against fossil fuel giants and helped empower other marginalized communities to stand up for themselves.
Apr 7, 2021 @ 15:44
Luke Cole illustration by Sam Whitham. Clockwise from center, photos courtesy of Nancy Shelby and Brent Newell. Photo of Kivalina children by Dave Malkoff, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Each storm season brings increased stress and fear for the people of Kivalina, a tiny Native village of some 400 Inupiaq people that sits on a small barrier island on the shore of the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. For decades, there was no reliable way of evacuating people in the event of a severe storm; the only way on or off the island was by small plane or boat, neither of which are available or safe during high winds, storm surges, and inundation. A bridge to the mainland was only recently completed. Meanwhile, the island is rapidly eroding
Major Anchorage development deal to build a new city health department and a grocery store falls through Published 2 hours ago
Share on Facebook
Print article The Anchorage municipality has paid $1.1 million to settle a dispute with a Washington-based developer over a failed deal involving a
major project on East Tudor Road. The developer and the city had envisioned a huge new complex on largely vacant land at the southwest corner of Tudor and Elmore roads. The plans included
a new city health department building, a grocery store, apartments, restaurants
and offices. New downtown apartments
for seniors were also part of the deal.
Updated at 4:15 p.m.
A Thursday morning earthquake near Cantwell that measured a magnitude 5.5 was felt as far south as Anchorage and as far north as Fairbanks. It was the biggest earthquake recorded in that area in nearly 20 years.
The quake occurred at 9:10 a.m. about 17 miles southeast of Cantwell in the Alaska Range, and it was a deep one, about 78 kilometers, or a little more than 48 miles. That depth is what prevented significant damage from occurring, according to a seismologist with the Alaska Earthquake Center. There have been no reports of damage.
âThe nice thing when itâs a little deeper is they disperse the energy coming from it,â seismologist Jana Pursley said. âThose bigger ones, right below the surface, less than 10 kilometers, cause damage.â