Parnell signs the resolution alongisde King Cove Mayor Henry Mack. (Courtesy: State of Alaska)

Governor Sean Parnell was in King Cove Friday to sign a resolution urging the federal government to allow an access road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

The road would connect King Cove to Cold Bay's all-weather airport for medevacs and other uses. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell nixed the plan last year, saying it would damage protected wilderness.

Now, Parnell and the state legislature are the latest to ask Jewell to reverse that decision.

Three hundred and thirty-one people voted at Unalaska City Hall on Tuesday. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

The fight to repeal the state’s oil tax structure brought Unalaskans to the polls during Tuesday's primary -- but as of Wednesday, it looks like the system may be here to stay.

The ‘no’ side, which supports keeping the current tax breaks system, was up by about 7,000 votes Wednesday morning. Nearly 20,000 absentee and early ballots still have to be counted.

Plenty of Unalaskans were hoping things would turn out differently.

Unalaskans can vote in the primary today at City Hall. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

Update, 5 p.m. Tuesday:  Voters turnout has been slow but steady today. As of just before 5 p.m., about 170 people had voted in Unalaska.

Year-round residents and visiting workers alike came out to cast their ballots.

Many said the biggest issue on the ballot for them was the controversial referendum to repeal the state’s tax structure for oil companies.

A C-130 dropped the Civil Response Team in Unalaska on Sunday. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)

An elite team of emergency responders is visiting Unalaska this week to test their skills in unfamiliar territory.

The Civil Support Team is an offshoot of Alaska’s Air National Guard, based in Anchorage.

"With traditional guardsmen, it generally takes a little while to call them out," says Captain William Yeo. "But we’re always on a one-hour leash to head out the door."

When the Interior Department axed a proposal last winter to build a gravel road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, conservation groups cheered.

Now, eight of them are stepping up to defend the government's decision in court.

The Sierra Club, the Audubon Society and Wilderness Watch are among those joining Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in a federal lawsuit. According to a recent filing, the groups will focus their arguments on "protecting the exceptional wilderness and wildlife values of Izembek."

Kashega Village on Unalaska Island was deserted after residents were forcibly relocated during WWII. /Courtesy: UAA Archives

Sen. Mark Begich wants the National Park Service to include sites where Alaska Native peoples were forcibly relocated during World War II.

Begich introduced a bill Thursday, asking the Department of the Interior to study the cost and feasibility of adding Aleut internment-related sites as one or more units of the parks system.

A Sand Point man is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of two minors.

James Griffith is 26. He had been accused of molesting a seven-year-old boy during a babysitting job in 2011. The case moved slowly, and Griffith was granted a conditional release -- as long as he stayed away from children.

But Sand Point police arrested Griffith in December 2013 for exchanging electronic messages with a 15-year-old boy.

A crew member aboard a commercial fishing vessel died after being swept overboard near King Cove last weekend.

State troopers say 53-year-old Rudy Paul Dushkin, Jr., a King Cove resident, was aboard the F/V Matt-Michelle Sunday morning, gillnetting for salmon. Dushkin was hauling in the anchor when a large swell hit the side of the boat and knocked him into the water.

Skipper Bert Bendixen was the only other person on board at the time. He put out a distress call, and was able to tow Dushkin closer to shore using a longline. He then put on a survival suit to pull Dushkin out of the water. But Dushkin couldn’t be revived.

Adak Island (Creative Commons)

State troopers believe that a set of human remains found on Adak this month are those of a long-lost camper.

"Based on a wallet with some ID that was found near the remains, we believe that this is Samuel Arrington, who was 57 at the time of disappearance," says trooper spokesperson Beth Ipsen.

Arrington went missing in July 2008 during a camping trip at Lake Betty. The lake is about a mile from the spot where two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees stumbled on the human remains in mid-June.