No one who reads this commentary should take it as advice to avoid wearing a face-covering in public in these days of COVID-19. But neither is it an argument for masking. True […]
Masks unmasked
COVID gamble
As Alaska salmon processors head into the fishing season hopeful of dodging the perils of the pandemic, a new report on the meat and poultry industries paints a portrait of a problem-filled […]
Reds in peril
A group of Canadian and West Coast U.S. scientists think they have an answer as to why returns of sockeye salmon to the Kenai, Copper and other Western North American rivers have […]
At last
Finally a hint of good news for the isolated fishing port of Cordova that has been in a tailspin since fall when a cash-strapped state of Alaska cut ferry service. Then came […]
Irods COVID survivor
For Alaska musher Mille Porsild, the thrill of finishing her first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as Rookie of the Year in mid-March was followed almost immediately by the nightmare of COVID-19. […]
The immigrants
An ancient tooth uncovered in Russia is unlikely to do much to bridge Alaska’s rural-urban divide, but it does appear to indicate that Alaska Natives and the Caucasians who later followed them […]
Dirty hands
Worldwide, more than 1.5 million people per year were dying from lung infections – 60 percent of them caused by viruses – before the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerged earlier this year to spawn […]
Wasted
Commercial fishermen in Alaska’s Cook Inlet are accusing the state of a decades-long conspiracy to drive them out of business by allowing too many salmon to enter the Kenai River. Their argument […]
Iced out salmon?
The season of the salmon in the year of the COVID is not starting off well in the 49th state. A dismal opening for the fabled Copper River salmon fishery on Thursday […]
Pray for rain?
If the future is destined to track a new, COVID-19 study out of China, Alaskans might want to start hoping for a warm, wet summer. European scientists last month linked the rise […]
