The Alaska Shield drill meant a busy weekend for Unalaska's emergency responders. They faced simulations involving power outages, extreme cold, and -- yes -- even a potential axe murderer at sea.

KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has this story.

Local fans packed the Unalaska City School gymnasium this weekend for a rare set of Raider home games.

On Friday night, the boys basketball team destroyed the Nikolaevsk Warriors. The Raiders started strong and then maintained a wide lead through the game, beating the Warriors 82 to 25. Andrew Seman was the game’s high scorer, with 24 points. On Saturday, the Warriors had to forfeit to the Raiders due to two injuries on their team. The two schools then scrimmaged, with some Raider players joining the Warriors to boost their numbers. The Unalaska team beat the combined team 69 to 38. Andrew Seman was again the top scorer, with 27 points.

Numerous studies have shown that getting kids interested in science early on helps achievement later.  Last week, students in Unalaska’s schools got some extra science instruction with the help of the Kenai-based Challenger Learning Center. 

KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce reports.

Gov. Sean Parnell joined The Exchange to discuss the legislative session and answe questions from our listening audience.

Gov. Parnell has been in office since 2009, and before that he served as Lieutenant Governor under Sarah Palin, worked for ConocoPhillips and the lobbying firm Patton Boggs, and represented the Eagle River area in both the Alaska House and Senate.

Listen to hear his thoughts on oil tax legislation, rural infrastructure, broadband internet, and more.

Pennelope Goforth lived in Unalaska during the 1980s, and during the time, she fished, she worked as a photographer, and she founded The Aleutian Eagle newspaper – a weekly that would later turn into The Dutch Harbor Fisherman.

Though it’s been over 20 years since she left the island for Anchorage, she still spends a lot of time thinking about the Aleutians and its history. Recently, she made an important discovery of six logbooks written by Alaska Commercial Company agents stationed in the Aleutian Islands, and the ledgers give us greater insight into what life was like in the region during the 19th century.

Firefighters in St. Paul stayed up through the night trying to put out a large blaze in the middle of town.

Anchorage television station KTUU first reported that a warehouse owned by Trident Seafoods erupted in flames at about 10:30pm Thursday. While the fire has continued to smoke through the afternoon, a group of 25 responders, including Coast Guard personnel, have been able to keep it from spreading to nearby buildings.

As shipping and energy exploration increase in the Arctic, so do the chances of an oil spill.  On Tuesday, the federal government bumped up the deadline for a project that will help responders coordinate if an oil spill ever does happen. 

The Environmental Response Management Application or ERMA is basically Google Earth in your web browser.  There are a bunch of data layers that can be switched on and off that show information like where drill rigs are located, how thick the ice is and where there’s critical polar bear habitat.  All of the information is displayed on a single map, so responders don’t have to call the oil companies, then the weather forecasters, then the biologists, all they have to do is click a box.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is asking for at least 15 months to assess the impact of their Steller sea lion protection measures.

Last month, a federal judge determined that the agency had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to produce an environmental impact statement before shutting down two commercial fisheries in an effort to stop the decline of an endangered stock of sea lions. While Judge Timothy Burgess generally favored NFMS in his ruling and stated that he plans to keep the fishing restrictions in place, he still called upon the agency to review the environmental and socioeconomic effects of the closures as quickly as possible. In a brief filed yesterday, NMFS gave the court two potential timelines for doing so.

The Unalaska Department of Public Safety has found a contraband weapons left in its jail.

Police made the discovery Saturday, following the transfer of four inmates to other facilities. According to Deputy Chief Mike Holman, the two weapons were crudely made, but still deadly.

“One of them was a pen that had paper wrapped around it that had been moistened. As it dries, it hardens, so it stiffens the pen up. The pen had then been scratched so it had a sharpened edge,” says Holman. “The second one was made with strictly magazine paper.”