Alaska | featured news

The president of ConocoPhillips Alaska was killed in an avalanche and another person in his snowmobiling party is missing, according to Alaska State Troopers.

A spokesman for The Discovery Channel says the captain of the "Deadliest Catch" fishing vessel Cornelia Marie has died. Capt. Phil Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the boat was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. He was flown to Anchorage for surgery.

E-mails shed new light on Todd Palin's role while his wife was Alaska's governor, showing that the one-time oil field worker's advice was sought on board appointments and suggesting he was close to matters related to state government, his wife's image and politics....

One down, more than 309 million to go.

U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves on Monday began the 2010 count of the nation's residents in a village in Alaska's arctic hinterlands.
The first person tallied in Noorvik, an Inupiat Eskimo community of 650, was Clifton Jackson, a World War II veteran and the town's oldest resident.

"It's all downhill from now," Groves said after exiting Jackson's house.

The rollout for former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's highly anticipated and score-settling memoir began Thursday with all the orchestrated stagecraft, wild accusations, inconvenient leaks and media fascination that characterized her campaign as Sen. John McCain's running mate during the 2008 presidential race.

Levi Johnston is going for the ultimate exposure - the 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin's grandchild will pose nude for Playgirl, his attorney said Wednesday....

The husband of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has quit his oil field job on the North Slope. Todd Palin's resignation as a production operator for oil giant BP PLC comes almost two months after his wife stepped down as Alaska governor and shortly before the release of her highly anticipated memoir in a deal rumored to be worth millions....

Sarah Palin has made no commitments so far. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this week will begin accepting and rejecting the more than 1,070 invitations she has received for paid speeches and political appearances since she resigned from office, aides said.

After two centuries of an epic infestation, Alaska's Rat Island finally may merit a name change. The island, part of a national wildlife refuge in the sprawling Aleutian chain, appears to be pest-free for the first time since rats overran it after a Japanese sailing ship wrecked there in the late 1700s.

Global warming has melted glaciers in the United States at a rapid and accelerating rate over the last half-century, increasing drought risks and contributing to rising sea levels, the federal government will report today based on data from a 50-year study of glaciers in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.