Unalaska, AK – A former tribal leader on Saint Paul Island has pled guilty to federal charges of illegally selling seal genitalia. Michael Richard Zacharof could face up to a year in prison. KIAL's Charles Homans reports.

(The audio link here is an updated version of the story, including comments from Zacharof's lawyer, posted on June 20.)

Unalaska, AK – With the fate of the illegal tramper Polestar and its cargo still up in the air in Morocco, a second pirate vessel has been spotted near Dutch Harbor.

The vessel Seed Leaf arrived over the weekend, according to Dutch Harbor port officials, and is now anchored in Captains Bay off Unalaska Island. The Panama-flagged tramper was blacklisted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources after it was caught shipping undocumented fish in February of last year. It apparently is owned by Sandnes Dampskibs, a Norwegian shipping company.

Unalaska, AK – Unalaska firefighters spent two hours containing a grass fire on Friday evening behind the Crowley dock on Captain's Bay Road.

Public Safety Department Fire Chief Sidney Johnson said the fire started when the wind blew embers from a controlled pallet fire up into the valley behind the Crowley facility, igniting the dry grass on an adjoining hill.

"It was a huge portion of the hill," Johnson said. "I would say, roughly estimating, about three-quarters the size of a football field."

Unalaska, AK – The Aleutian Rod and Gun Club held its annual Father's Day Pin Shoot on Sunday at the shooting range. The event was sponsored by the local chapter of the Alaska Peace Officers Association, and featured three categories:

-Forrest Bowers won in the revolver contest, followed by Bill Simms and Dan Masoni.

-Jamie Sunderland won the semi-automatic pistol round, followed by Forrest Bowers and Shannon Morrison.

Unalaska, AK – While the fate of a pirate tramper arrested in Morocco last month remains undecided, an international fisheries organization decided Thursday that the $9 million worth of Alaska pollock it was carrying may be released. In Unalaska, KIAL's Charles Homans reports.

Unalaska, AK – A 40-year-old man is being held by the Department of Public Safety after allegedly attacking his roommate with a chair to get him to stop snoring.

Alfred Tucker was arrested for first degree assault Thursday, after officers received a call from his residence and found Tucker's roommate, Ivan Sady Cantor-Rincon, with contusions and blood on his face and upper body and a missing tooth. A third roommate, Kevin Smith, told officers he saw Tucker pull Rincon off the bed where he was sleeping, throw him on the floor and beat him on the back and head with a metal chair. Smith said he got the chair away from Tucker and into another room, but returned to find Tucker attacking Rincon with another, wooden, chair.

Unalaska, AK – Public Utilities Department technicians are working to pinpoint the location of a problem responsible for a power outage that left Unalaska in the dark for about an hour and a half yesterday evening.

Public Utilities Director Dan Winters says the culprit was a power line in the Ballyhoo Road section of the grid that went to ground, knocking out power on the Unalaska side of town and about half of the Dutch Harbor side. The system was rerouted around the problem area last night, and technicians were still working to find and fix the downed line this morning.

Unalaska, AK – Development of a promising geothermal resource in Unalaska may be more difficult and expensive than city planners originally thought. In Unalaska, KIAL's Charles Homans reports.

Unalaska, AK – A 28-year-old man was killed last week in an accident onboard a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea.

Vinh Phan died instantly when his head was crushed in a hydraulic lock door on the fishing trawler Enterprise on June 3. The ship was about 450 miles from Dutch Harbor at the time.

The Unalaska Department of Public Safety investigated the incident on June 5 when the ship arrived in Dutch Harbor. Sgt. Matt Betzen said that following interviews with the ship's crew, Phan's death appears to have been an accident, and isn't under further investigation.