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Health officials urge Alaskans to keep following local mask rules after CDC relaxes guidance for vaccinated individuals Published 1 hour ago
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We re making this important information available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider supporting independent journalism in Alaska, at just $3.69 a week for an online subscription. State health officials are urging Alaskans to continue to follow local mask requirements and business-specific rules after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday relaxed its guidance for those who are fully vaccinated. In a significant shift, the CDC said Thursday that fully vaccinated people can now go safely without face coverings in most indoor and outdoor settings.
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.
Print article An Alaska psychiatrist criminally charged for punching a man in a grocery store in June was acquitted after a two-day trial in Juneau last month. The misdemeanor assault charge against Joshua Sonkiss, 50, made headlines during the tense pandemic summer in part because police said the psychiatrist punched a man in the face because he wasn’t wearing a mask. That’s not what happened, Sonkiss says. In an interview last week, Sonkiss said he went to a Juneau Fred Meyer to pick up groceries and cleaning supplies. He was standing at the checkout register when a man and his young son stepped close to him. Sonkiss says he asked the two to step back. They were not wearing masks, but many people weren’t at grocery stores in Juneau around that time, according to Sonkiss.
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.