Nine years ago, Michael LeMaitre went missing running the race in Seward. No sign of him has been found, but his disappearance changed the way the race is run.
Curious Alaska: Where does the money that DOC makes off inmate phone calls go? In Alaska, the majority of money that families spend on phone calls with incarcerated people goes right back to paying for the imprisonment itself: for inmate towels, food, bedding and drug testing. The rest enriches a private equity-owned corporation called Securus Technologies Ltd. It works like this: All phone calls from any Alaska jail or prison have to be made through Texas-based Securus. For at least 30 years, Securus or its precursor company Evercom has been Alaska’s prison phone service contractor, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Question: How are we impacted by the nationwide shortage of rentals?
Curious Alaska: As Alaska gears up for the summer tourism season, one typical travel essential is in short supply: rental cars. Nationwide, rental cars are proving hard to find because of a lack of supply and a surge in demand as Americans bolstered by COVID-19 vaccinations and loosening restrictions start to travel this summer. And even when cars are available, some renters are being slapped with skyrocketing rates. When the floodgates open next month, arriving tourists in Alaska may meet a similar fate if they haven’t reserved a car yet.
Question:
When I first moved to Anchorage, one would regularly see hot air balloons dotting the skies around Anchorage and Eagle River. Now, they’re gone. What happened? Was there some change in regulations, or in insurance? What would need to be done to bring them back?
Curious Alaska: For a time, Anchorage was hot air balloon heaven. Then cocaine and insurance costs ruined everything. Well, not exactly. But the tale of what happened to hot air ballooning in Anchorage reflects broader change in a young city. Anchorage’s balloon days seem to have commenced in the 1970s. Mike Bauwens thinks he brought the first hot air balloon to Anchorage, around 1976.