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A large earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 struck Alaska near Anchorage early Friday morning, damaging roads and buildings, knocking out power and sending people fleeing from buildings and to safety beneath door jambs. The epicenter was just north of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. It violently shook the most populous region of the state as people were settling in to work and school. There were no immediate reports of major injuries but it appeared parts of the region had suffered serious structural damage. The city of Anchorage declared a civil disaster declaration to access...

11:45 a.m. on Nov. 30, 2018 We understand there’s considerable damage being reported at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, due to a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit this morning. There are no reports of any injuries to employees or guests at the airport. As a precaution, Alaska Airlines is suspending operations at the airport until at least 12:30 p.m. Pacific (11:30 a.m. Alaska) to allow for a thorough safety assessment of the facility and infrastructure. We are pausing arrivals and departures in and out of Anchorage during this time.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A 6.6 magnitude earthquake has rocked buildings in Anchorage, prompting people to run out of offices and seek shelter under office desks. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake was centered about 7 miles north of Alaska's largest city. Officials issue tsunami warning for coastal areas of southern Alaska after earthquake. There was a tsunami alert for Cook Inlet, the National Weather Service in Anchorage said on Twitter.

The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote. The fate of Farr's nomination was held in suspense even going into the start of the vote on Wednesday afternoon. Four Republicans were viewed as potential swing votes: Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). But Collins...

JUNEAU, Alaska — It's a sign that every vote does count. A single mystery ballot found on a precinct table on Election Day but not counted then could decide a tied Alaska state House race and thwart Republican efforts to control the chamber and all of state government. The ballot arrived in Juneau last Friday in a secrecy sleeve in a bin with other ballot materials. Officials were investigating its origins and handling before deciding whether to tally it. "People kept calling it close," Democrat candidate Kathryn Dodge said of the race for the House seat in Fairbanks. "I just...

But hair sample could have been from a wandering mercenary. An early wave of migration into the New World and the Arctic has been identified by sequencing a genome from a frozen hair excavated in Greenland. Archaeological evidence shows that there were two waves of migration to Greenland starting 4,500 years ago, first with the Saqqaq and then the Dorset groups, collectively known as the Paleo-Eskimos. Later, around 1,000 years ago, came the Thule culture which led to the current native population. The relationship between these three groups has been uncertain. Some theories hold that Paleo-Eskimos derived from the populations...

FULL TITLE: Alaska voters make history by rejecting judge who approved no jail time for man who 'choked, kidnapped and masturbated on a woman' In an unprecedented move, Alaska voters have ousted a judge who signed off on a controversial plea deal that let a man serve only one year of home confinement for choking and masturbating on an Alaska Native woman. Voters on Tuesday opted to not retain Superior Court Judge Michael Corey, who oversaw the assault sentencing of 34-year-old Justin Schneider. Schneider in September pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. With credit for time...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted "Saturday Night Live" creator and producer Lorne Michaels after a comic on the show made fun of a Texas GOP congressional candidate who lost an eye serving in Afghanistan.Comedian Pete Davidson joked about retired Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw's eye patch, saying he looks like a pirate in a pornographic film.Davidson, 24, giggled afterwards, saying, "Sorry. I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever." Read Full Article While Crenshaw said Monday on "Fox & Friends" that he would not demand an apology from Davidson or the show, Palin fired back at Michaels on...

A former senior Alaska Airlines pilot who was fired earlier this year after a female co-pilot sued the airline, alleging that the captain drugged and raped her during a June 2017 work trip, has filed a lawsuit of his own against his accuser and the carrier. The aviator, who flew for Alaska for 22 years, claims he was wrongly terminated amid “false #MeToo claims” in a “negligent, flawed investigation.” Paul Engelien filed the lawsuit against former First Officer Betty Pina after the 40-year-old woman claimed the captain, 51, drugged and raped her during a layover on a work trip to...

A battered women's shelter in Anchorage, Alaska, is being investigated because it didn't allow a drunk man to sleep in the same room as women. A battered women’s shelter in Anchorage, Alaska, is being investigated by the city’s Equal Rights Commission because it didn’t allow a drunk man, who came to the shelter after hours and was bleeding from an injury, to sleep in the same room as women. Attorneys speaking on behalf of the Downtown Hope Center have repeatedly stated this man, who identifies as a woman, was not turned away because of his gender, but was sent to...

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said Thursday on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that it is “really important” that Democrats win either the House or the Senate, or both. “You have referred to yourself as a non-practicing Republican right now because the Republican Party has drifted away from what I believe were the values I think drew you to it,” Seth Meyers said to Wallace. “And these were the ‘isms,’ such as ‘nationalism.’ Is this something that you saw coming at any point? I mean, is this something that happened with Donald Trump or is it something that was trending this...

The Trump administration approved a company’s plan Wednesday to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, the first time oil would be produced from federal waters in the Arctic. The approval from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is conditional, and Hilcorp Energy Co. would still have to get other federal permits and abide by standards like restricting drilling seasons. “Working with Alaska Native stakeholders, the Department of Interior is following through on President Trump’s promise of American energy dominance,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “American energy dominance is good for...

Election nerds like numbers. They love charts, spreadsheets, tabs, data, and models. This is a numbers story for the election nerds in all of us, even the mathematically challenged. It’s about who asked for absentee ballots and who turned out to vote early, easy data points from which even Common Core math survivors can glean conclusions: The first day of early voting in 2014 saw 1,698 people turn out to cast their ballot at an early voting location. It was an exciting year with a U.S. Senate race that featured Dan Sullivan challenging Sen. Mark Begich. Alaska also had the...

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified "inappropriate comments" he made to a woman.

On this day in 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiasticly expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson. Negotiations between Seward (1801-1872) and the Russian minister to the U.S., Eduard de Stoeckl, began in March 1867. However, the American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,”...

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has stepped down after Gov. Bill Walker says he learned Mallott "made inappropriate comments that do not reflect the sterling level of behavior required in his role as Lieutenant Governor."

Fumbling away a chance to cement a solidly conservative majority on the Court for years due to pique over one of President Troll’s stinkier mouth-tweets would be very 2018.She’s bluffing, though.I think. Murkowski on Trump mocking Ford last night: "I thought the President's comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate, and in my view unacceptable. I am taking everything into account.” via @jeremyherb— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) October 3, 2018 Interestingly, Jeff Flake took the opposite approach. He won’t consider Trump’s comments when weighing whether to confirm Kavanaugh, he told CNN. “You can’t blame other people for what the...

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that “nobody’s going to beat” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska despite her opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. In an interview with The Associated Press, McConnell disputed President Donald Trump’s prediction that Alaskans “will never forgive” Murkowski and that she’ll “never recover” politically after bucking her party on Kavanaugh. Murkowski voted against advancing Kavanaugh’s nomination and “present” on the final vote. “She’s certainly going to recover,” McConnell said. He pointed out that Murkowski won re-election as a write-in vote in 2010. “She’s about as strong as you can possibly...

AFTER A 50-YEAR siege, the great strategic fortress of liberalism has fallen. With the elevation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court seems secure for constitutionalism — perhaps for decades. The shrieks from the gallery of the Senate chamber as the vote came in last Saturday, and the sight of that bawling mob clawing at the doors of the Supreme Court as the new justice took his oath, confirm it. The Democratic Party has sustained a historic defeat. And the triumph is President Trump’s. To unite the party whose nomination he had won, Donald Trump pledged to select his high...

Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider.