Unalaska, AK – The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development has released its April job numbers, and the unemployment rate in Southwest Alaska is on the rise even though other areas of the state are recovering jobs.

In the Southwest region, the unemployment rate jumped from 12.5% in March to 13.6% in April.

In the Aleutians West Census Area, which includes Unalaska, the picture is a little bit different. The Aleutians West Census Area traditionally has one of the lower unemployment rates in the state. In March, the unemployment rate was the lowest in Alaska, at 3.8%. Now it's gone up to 7.5%. However, that's not seasonally adjusted. According to the department, this increase in unemployment is a "a typical seasonal occurrence as some of its ground fisheries and crabbing seasons wind down."

Unalaska, AK – On Saturday, men, women and even toddlers gathered at the Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault & Family Violence - or USAFV - office to drink coffee, eat pie, and meet the non-profit's staff. It's a space that many community members have never seen, and that's exactly why executive director M. Lynn Crane thought it was important to open USAFV's doors.

"Many people in town may not ever have had to use our services, so the shelter's kind of perceived as a closed off place. We just wanted to invite people in to see the facility, look at our library materials, meet the staff, and get a sense of what the building is really like. So, if you make a referral to someone, you'll kind of know what they're coming to," says Crane. "We just want to make sure that people feel comfortable coming here."

Unalaska, AK – This Saturday, city council met to finalize the FY2012 budget.

During the unfinished business portion of the meeting, council unanimously adopted the Capital and Major Maintenance Plan, which sets the city's priorities for constructing and upgrading projects through FY 2016.

Council then moved on to discussion of the operational and capital budgets. The community support program, which funds Unalaska's non-profits, continued to be the primary subject of debate. Because funding for the community support program is formula-driven, council was expected to allot approximately $790,000 to the non-profits, a drop from $960,000. Further, Iliuliuk Family and Health Services' behavioral health services received additional scrutiny for management and financial reasons.

Unalaska, AK – Once pollock B season kicks into gear, trawlers might want to pay closer attention to their crab bycatch. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Marine Conservation Alliance have teamed up to tag both opilio and red king crab, and they're now looking to collect those markers.

The groups are offering an award of $200 for archival tags, which include information like the depth the crab was found at and what the water temperature was. They're also offering hats for the standard spaghetti tags.

Unalaska, AK – A power outage caused on Wednesday appears to have been triggered as part of the powerhouse upgrade process.

The Department of Public Utilities began testing the governors at the powerhouse on Monday with no problems. But on Wednesday morning, the governors seem to have reset themselves and gone back to the default settings, according to Public Utilities Director Dan Winters. That left the town without power for approximately two hours.

Unalaska, AK – The Intel International Science Fair -- or ISEF -- is one of the most competitive academic contests a high schooler can take part in. It attracts talented young chemists, biologists, and physicists from across the globe. This year, local student Noah Betzen was one of just a handful of Alaskan students to qualify. KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more.

Unalaska, AK – This weekend, Alaska's legislature wrapped up after an extended legislative session. But despite having the extra time, the state's politicians couldn't manage to come up with an agreement to keep the Coastal Zone Management Program going.

The Coastal Zone Management Program gives communities local input on nearby coastal projects. A compromise measure that would have extended the program failed by one vote. The program will now sunset on June 30.

Unalaska, AK – State scientists from Alaska and Washington are meeting to discuss the National Marine Fisheries Service's biological opinion on Steller sea lions.

The biological opinion - or BiOp - concluded that the western stock of sea lions' population was weak and that restrictions on commercial groundfish fisheries in the western Aleutian Islands were needed to boost their numbers. Now, scientists from the Alaska and Washington Departments of Fish and Game have scheduled to meet in Seattle on June 2 to discuss the scientific basis of the biop. David Bernard, Steven Jeffries, Andrew Trites, Gunnar Knapp will make up the panel.

Unalaska, AK – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be kicking off its bottom trawl survey today. Researchers from NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center will be trawling for groundfish, crab, and other species in the Gulf of Alaska to collect data for future stock assessments.

The vessels Ocean Explorer and Sea Storm have been chartered for the trip, and they're scheduled to leave Captains Bay on Friday.