Unalaska, AK – Unalaska's Filipino community packed into the big gym at the City School Sunday night for a landmark event: the first performance by a Filipino artist in Unalaska.
They actually got to see four of them: Singers Kuh Ledesma, Pops Fernandez and Eric Santos and comedian Chokoleit, all of whom entertained the crowd with more than two hours of music and entertainment.
Early on in the show, Fernandez told the crowd that while this was the first performance of its kind in Unalaska, she hoped it wouldn't be the last.
Unalaska, AK – The state Department of Environmental Quality is testing bays and harbors around Unalaska for oil contamination, more than a decade after they were first identified as polluted.
Iliuliuk Bay was listed as an impaired body of water on account of petroleum pollution in 1990, and Dutch Harbor followed suit in 1994. DEC Division of Water environmental program specialist Laura Eldred said that both bodies of water were listed because of oil sheens that appeared on the surface at the time, but the DEC hadn't done on-site testing prior to last week.
Unalaska, AK – With its small population and enormous distance from pretty much anywhere else, Unalaska isn't on most musicians' itineraries. But this Sunday will be the exception to that rule: a group of Filipino pop stars has diverted its American tour from Anchorage to Unalaska.
Kuh Ledesma and Pops Fernandez are the headlining acts. Ledesma is a popular singer in the Philippines, and Fernandez is a movie star and TV talk show host. They'll be joined by comedian Chokoleit and singer Eric Santos for a variety show called Kuh & Pops at the Movies. Ledesma said it will combine a little bit of all of their work.
Unalaska, AK & Washington, DC – Dockside inspections and other measures have improved commercial fishing safety dramatically over the past decade and a half, but the industry still has a long way to go.
That was the message delivered to a Congressional subcommittee in Washington yesterday in a hearing on the issue.
The purpose of the meeting of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation was to look at whether safety statutes adopted 19 years ago have actually improved the safety records of what remains the country's most dangerous industry.
Unalaska, AK – A statewide education project by the University of Anchorage Alaska's Environment and Natural Resources Institute is killing two birds with one stone, teaching junior high and high school students about aquatic biology while gathering useful data about the health of Alaska's freshwater streams. In Unalaska, KIAL's Charles Homans has more.
Unalaska, AK – An Unalaska man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly selling methamphetamine out of his houseboat in Unalaska's small boat harbor.
Harmon Fisher, 49, had his first pre-indictment hearing in Unalaska's District Court today on six counts of 3rd degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, a Class B felony. He was also served a federal arrest warrant this afternoon.
Unalaska, AK – A dispute between city officials and some Public Safety Department volunteers that erupted at last Saturday's special Unalaska City Council meeting is likely to continue at the council's regularly scheduled meeting tonight.
At issue is a memo sent by city administrators to the Department of Public Safety last week instructing fire and EMS volunteers, some of whom are recreational divers, not to fill up their personal air tanks at city-operated facilities. The decision rankled some of the divers, particularly volunteer fire Capt. Roger Defendall. He said he sees the city's memo as the first step toward limiting riskier elements of the training that the department provides its fire and EMS crews, something he said is crucial in attracting new volunteers.
Unalaska, AK – A fisherman who attacked his crewmate with a crowbar last month pled no contest to 1st degree assault in Unalaska's District Court on Wednesday.
Nineteen-year-old Sione Pakalani was sentenced to 180 days in jail, with 150 days suspended, on charges stemming from a fight onboard the fishing vessel Deep Pacific. According to the criminal complaint, crew member Floyd Decker initially threatened Pakalani's cousin with the crowbar in the ship's freezer hold. Pakalani wrestled the crowbar away from Decker and hit him in the face with it, injuring him badly enough that he had to be medevac-ed to Anchorage for treatment.
Unalaska, AK – A 25-year-old man who stole a truck from Harbor Crown Seafoods in December pled no contest to 1st degree attempted vehicle theft and a related drunk driving charge in Unalaska's District Court on Thursday.
Jason Fennimore was sentenced to 180 days in jail with 160 days of the sentence suspended. He was also fined $3,000. Fennimore was arrested on December 17 after Harbor Crown security told Public Safety Department officers that one of the company's trucks had been stolen early that morning. The truck was found abandoned in the middle of Dutton Road, and officers followed footprints and tire tracks in the snow to a house where Fennimore was staying.
