Unalaska will be without power for up to two hours early tomorrow morning during a planned island-wide outage.

The outage will start at 4 a.m. Wednesday and will last until around 6 a.m. Engineers will be installing control systems for the fourth engine at the powerhouse during that time.

Next week, Alaskans will vote on whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state. The passage of ballot measure 2 would mean a major adjustment for local governments and police -- and in Unalaska, they think it’s a step in the wrong direction.

City council will vote on a resolution declaring their opposition to the ballot measure at their regular meeting tonight. It was handed to them by Unalaska police. According to Sgt. Bill Simms, legalizing the drug "wouldn't work" here:

Shell Oil has spent the better part of a decade -- and more than $6 billion -- trying to explore prospects in the Alaskan Arctic.

But they have little to show for it.

Now that the clock is ticking down on their oil leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, Shell is asking regulators for more time.

The company is seeking a five-year suspension from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, to keep its leases from expiring. 

Shell's request has been in process since July. But it wasn't public until Monday, when the conservation group Oceana distributed a copy to the media.

(Jennifer Canfield/KTOO)

Before the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention wrapped up in Anchorage last week, a handful of attendees made history. They watched as Governor Sean Parnell signed legislation making Alaska Native dialects -- like Unangam Tunuu -- official languages in the state. 

KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal heard from two speakers of the Aleutian-Pribilof language who were there to witness the event.

A Coast Guard aircraft conducted a flyover of the drifting barge this past weekend. (Courtesy: USCG Air Station Kodiak)

A small fuel barge is drifting toward Arctic sea ice, north of Prudhoe Bay -- and the Coast Guard says it’ll probably be stuck there until next summer.

The 134-foot unmanned barge broke off from its tugboat in a storm last week. Since then, Coast Guard commander Shawn Decker says it’s been drifting away from Alaska’s shoreline.

At this rate, he says it’s likely the barge will get trapped in sea ice to the north. In that case, the Coast Guard would have to wait to remove it until the ice thawed next June.

Jesse Lee, 24, is accused of sending roughly $70,000 worth of drugs from Washington State to Unalaska this month. The destination was a post office box that's registered to Lee and 30-year-old Kyle Eby.

Update, 5 p.m. Friday: An unmanned fuel barge adrift in the Beaufort Sea hasn’t run aground yet.

(Courtesy: UCSD)

Unalaska’s school board has a new president, capping two years of major turnover.

The board voted Melanie Magnusen in as chair at an organizational meeting this week. She’s replacing Abner Hoage, who’s leaving Unalaska next month to become fire chief in Ketchikan.

Hoage took over from Tammy Pound, who served on school board for more than a decade. Now, Magnusen is the board's longest-serving member by a long shot, with seven years under her belt. 

Courtesy of Greenpeace

Shell Oil might be known for selling fuel, but their logo isn’t limited to gas stations.

They’ve also appeared on Lego toy sets for the last 50 years under a unique marketing agreement.

Now, that’s breaking down under pressure from environmentalists.