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This photo was taken after the Alaska Peace Officers Association’s annual Guns and Hoses hockey game and fundraiser in 2018. This year’s game will be at the Douglas Treadwell Arena at 6:30 p.m. Friday. (Courtesy / Shawn Phelps)

News

Paired-on-ice city: Guns and Hoses hockey fundraiser is coming up

Take my down to the capital city where the rink is clean and the fundraiser names are witty.

Juneau Police Department responds to motor vehicle crash on Egan Drive near Fred Meyer on Monday night. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

News

Plans in place to improve site of recent crash

Only minor injuries reported.

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire Fireworks from the finale of Juneau’s Fourth of July celebration light up the sky earlier this year. No such official celebration is planned New Year’s Eve, and both restrictions on personal fireworks use and stormy winter weather will mean a darker hue to the celebrations welcoming in the year 2023.

News

Weather drops the ball on New Year’s Eve

Personal fireworks again available for limited locations, but wet and windy night may dampen spirits

Traffic passes by Fred Meyer in Juneau in November 2019. Many Juneau residents may need — or at least want — to get their prescriptions somewhere other than Fred Meyer as of Jan. 1, since its parent company Kroger has announced the termination of an agreement with a pharmacy benefit manager that works with insurers such as Cigna and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)

News

Insured prescriptions from Fred Meyer may end for many Jan. 1

Corporate parent severing contract with company that reimburses city, military, other local workers

Pacific wrens were formerly included with winter wrens, but are now considered to be a separate species (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

News

On the Trails: Field notes and name games

Thoughts on the taxonomic road and local trails.

This photo shows a high school basketball. The start of the Princess Cruises Capital City Classic has been delayed due to flight cancellations, but is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)

Sports

Canceled takeoffs mean delayed tipoff for Capital City Classic

Games will be played Wednesday through Friday.

Rachelle Garrett kicks the ball over the leg of opposing player, Ariel Barrios, during a soccer match Monday evening at the Dimond Park Field House a part of the Holiday Cup soccer tournament. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Juneau Holiday Cup soccer tournament kicks 2022 goodbye

The annual tournament celebrates 30th anniversary

A bucket of compost awaits pickup by Juneau Composts on Douglas Tuesday morning. The City and Borough of Juneau was earmarked to be included in the $1.7 trillion spending bill which would allocate $2.5 million in funding toward designing and constructing a commercial-scale compost facility in Juneau. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

News

City set to receive $2.5M from feds to create new commercial-scale compost facility

City officials say it could extend the landfill’s dwindling lifespan.

Applications and notifications about changes to benefits line a table at the entrance of the Alaska Division of Public Assistance office in Juneau. The division’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is months behind processing applications to due to workforce shortages and lingering problems of a cyberattack. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Food stamps backlog expected to continue for months

8,000 Alaska households go months without SNAP benefits; cyberattack, lack of workers blamed

This photo provided by Amy Watson of Portland, Ore., shows her during an iron infusion in December 2022. Watson, approaching 50, says she has “never had any kind of recovery” from COVID-19. She has had severe migraines, plus digestive, nerve and foot problems. Recently she developed severe anemia. (Amy Watson)

News

Long COVID: Could mono virus or fat cells be playing roles?

Scientists are still trying to figure out why some people get long COVID.

Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire The former Juneau Youth Services building was recently purchased by JAHMI Health and Wellness Inc. and is set to be renovated into specialized behavioral health care for children, adolescents and their families. The renovations, expected to be complete in May, are funded by an $870,000 allocation earmarked in the recently passed $1.7 trillion spending bill.

News

New youth behavioral health facility set to open in Juneau this spring

Renovations to begin “as soon as possible,” funded by omnibus spending package allocation.

CCFR prepares to perform a rescue on the frozen ice on Saturday after receiving a report of a man slipping and injuring himself roughly half a mile from the visitor’s center at the Mendenhall Glacier. (Courtesy Photo / Capital City Fire/Rescue)

News

CCFR rescues injured man near Mendenhall Glacier on Christmas Eve

He was rescued safely with non-life threatening injuries.

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program conducts a preflight checklist before the Asteroid Bounce campaign Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, in Gakona, Alaska, as temperatures hit 40 below. The mission is slated for Dec. 27. (Photo courtesy UAF/GI photo by JR Ancheta)

News

Alaska research site to send radio signal to asteroid

The purpose of the experiment is to probe the interior of the asteroid

A worker replenishes the dairy goods at Foodland IGA downtown Thursday morning ahead of the holiday weekend and winter storm. Many Juneau stores will be closing their doors to observe the holiday weekend. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)

News

Holiday weekend closures and reduced hours in Juneau

Only a handful of businesses will remain open, most shelters open

Blowing snow impairs visibility in rural Linn County, Iowa, on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. A winter storm brought wind chill values of more than 30 degrees below zero and whiteout conditions to Eastern Iowa. (Nick Rohlman / The Gazette)

News

Winter storm batters U.S. power, snarling Christmas travel

A winter storm knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. Saturday.

Bill Legere, president and general manager of KTOO since 1991, is retiring on Jan. 3 after a career in public broadcasting spanning more than 50 years. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Legere leaves a legacy

KTOO’s president and general manager retiring after 40 years of transforming Alaska’s public media

Kendra Hergett wraps a cookbook at Kindred Post located downtown at 145 S. Franklin St. Friday morning as part of their gift wrapping service. Each gift comes complete with two types of wrapping paper, ribbon and a wax seal stamped with the store’s logo. Kindred Post will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire)

News

A delightful dozen: 12 shoppers reflect on best gifts given or received

What’s on your list?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leaves the chamber as the final votes of the 117th Congress are cast for the $1.7 trillion spending bill that finances federal agencies and provides aid to Ukraine, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. Pelosi is stepping aside from her top leadership role in the new Congress. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

News

House passes $1.7 trillion spending bill with Ukraine aid

The bill passed mostly along party lines, 225-201.

"Break out that old menorah and put on your dreidel-spinning shoes," writes Geoff Kirsch. "For eight nights you’re going to party like it’s 165 BCE!" (Dad Grass / Unsplash)

Neighbors

Slack Tide: Great Alaskan Hanukkah or ‘Alaskanukkah’

You didn’t move all the way from New York to Alaska to reconnect with Judaism.

In this photo released by the U.S. Department of Defense, volunteers answer phones and emails from children around the globe during annual NORAD Tracks Santa event at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Dec. 24, 2021. The U.S. military agency known for tracking Santa Claus as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve doesn’t expect COVID-19 or the “bomb cyclone” hitting North America to impact Saint Nick’s global travels this year. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is responsible for monitoring and defending the skies above North America. (Jhomil Bansil / U.S. Department of Defense)

News

U.S. officials: COVID, bomb cyclone won’t slow Santa’s travels

This article has been moved in front of the Empire’s paywall.