A man allegedly carrying black tar heroin was arrested as he stepped off a plane in Sand Point last month. It’s the most recent development in the town’s fight against hard drugs.

Twenty-two-year-old Gage Carlson is facing two felony charges after his April arrest: one for transporting heroin with intent to sell it, and another for possession of Oxycodone.

Carlson has been in custody in Anchorage, pending another hearing in Sand Point District Court this week.

Carl and Laresa Moses at the Alaska House Finance Committee in 1998. /Courtesy: Bryce Edgmon

Flags flew at half-staff Friday as Alaska said goodbye to its longest-serving state representative.

Carl Moses died in Sand Point on Wednesday after a long illness. He was 84.

As KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports, he leaves a legacy of service in Southwest Alaska and across the state.

Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard has finished investigating a Bering Sea rescue that left a 28-year-old crewman with fatal head injuries late last year.

According to a review board, faulty equipment and work practices developed by the crew of the cutter Waesche put Petty Officer Travis Obendorf in harm’s way.

Obendorf and the rest of the Waesche crew had been on patrol in the Bering Sea for three months when they were called to help the Alaska Mist. It was a large fishing vessel that lost propulsion and started drifting near Amak Island.

The M/V Tustumena (Courtesy: Nancy Heise)

With the state ferry Tustumena nearing the end of its life, the Department of Transportation is looking to build a bigger boat -- and they want communities on the ferry's route to weigh in on the design.

The DOT announced Wednesday that they'll hold public meetings on the Tustumena replacement next month in Unalaska, Kodiak and Homer.

The state expects to replace the Tustumena with the new, longer boat in the next few years. The proposed 325-foot vessel would carry more vehicles and passengers and would be designed for a smoother ride.

The proposed 44-mile right of way between King Cove and Cold Bay. / Courtesy of Alaska Department of Law

Over the last year, residents of King Cove have been ramping up their campaign to build what they say is a life-saving road to Cold Bay through a federal wildlife refuge.

The issue has made national news. Alaska’s lawmakers have taken up in the fight in the state legislature and in Congress. And now, the issue may be headed for court.

Kent Sullivan is an assistant attorney general for the Alaska Department of Law.

"Before the state can legally file suit against the federal government, it has to give notice to the affected agency," Sullivan says. "And so that’s what the state’s done with by recent filing, with the secretary of the Interior and the secretary of Homeland Security."

The new helicopter takes off from Akutan, bound for the airport on Akun Island. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

Akutan residents are pleased with their new airport taxi -- a helicopter that came online in February.

But the Aleutians East Borough is already running out of money to pay for it.

Now, they've settled on a permanent solution to connect to the airport.

As KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports, it’s one they rejected a decade ago.

A group of tribal and government officials from King Cove are back from a week of lobbying in Washington, D.C. -- and they’ve come home with a new assignment.

The point of the trip was to convince Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to reconsider their request to build a road to an all-weather airport in Cold Bay. Residents of King Cove say it would provide easier access to commercial medevac flights.

Pilot Todd Engle rolls a barrel of fuel over to the helicopter on his first day flying in Akutan. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

For the past year and a half, people on Akutan have been taking a hovercraft to get to their airport. It’s on a different island, Akun.

Now, the Aleutians East Borough has made the switch to a helicopter as their new airport taxi.

KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports that the change has been a relief for residents.

The Seeker docked in Warrenton, Oregon in 2010. /Courtesy: marinetraffic.com

The Coast Guard has called off its search for a fisherman who fell overboard from his vessel in the Bering Sea Wednesday.

The Coast Guard isn’t releasing the man’s name, but friends, family and local news reports say he is Eric Eder. Eder was fishing aboard the F/V Seeker. The Coast Guard says it’s an 87-foot trawler based in Newport, Oregon.

Eder fell from the Seeker Wednesday morning, 10 miles northwest of Unimak Island. Another vessel in the area, the F/V Seafreeze Alaska, alerted the Coast Guard.