Site Logo
Elijah Newbern, left, Ellimarie Bravo-Moe and Shelby Noel sing “I Have Been Blessed” at their graduation ceremony on Friday, May 19, 2017 at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Kenai, Alaska. Newbern and Bravo-Moe are graduates of the Wings Christian Academy. Noel is a home school graduate. (Kat Sorensen/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Wings Christian Academy graduates 3 students

Each of the three graduates at Wings Christian Academy’s graduation and awards program spoke to three points as…

Spring in the valley In this May 13 photo, the snowy Chugach Mountains stand over Vagt Lake near Moose Pass. Though ice is still breaking up on the high alpine lakes, the lower lakes in the valleys on the eastern Kenai Peninsula are ice-free, if cold. Vagt Lake, about a mile and a half down a trail that begins just off the Seward Highway near Moose Pass, is stocked with rainbow trout every year by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Coho salmon and Arctic grayling may also be available in the lake, according to Fish and Game. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

Photo: Spring in the valley

By ELIZABETH EARL Peninsula Clarion

This map shows the newly formed Eastern Peninsula Highway Emergency Service Area, which authorizes the Kenai Peninsula Borough to provide emergency services along the Sterling and Seward Highways, where thousands of drivers pass through largely empty land on their way to the peninsula every day. (Courtesy the Kenai Peninsula Borough)

News

Assembly forms eastern peninsula highway service area

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly has taken the first step toward providing a safety net of emergency services…

News

Borough wrestles with school funding, taxes

The Kenai Peninsula Borough is facing the same budget conundrum as the state, just on a smaller scale:…

From right, Alaska Department of Fish and Game geneticist Sam Rabung, Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack and Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation Acting Director Matt Weideke listen to concerns from Homer and Tutka Bay residents about a permit that would authorize Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association to move its net pens in Tutka Bay from the lagoon to the head of the bay at a meeting at the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on May 15 in Homer. (Photo/Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Park users, commercial fishermen clash over Tutka Bay net pens

HOMER — The debate over whether a Cook Inlet hatchery operator can move some net pens out into…

A bufflehead duck flies between three drift boats of birders on Thursday, May 14, 2015 as the group tours the Kenai River during a long weekend of Kenai Birding Festival activities. (Clarion File Photo)

News

Birding festival takes flight May 18

Grab your binoculars, the annual Kenai Peninsula Birding Festival starts Thursday, May 18 and runs through Sunday, May…

This graph, compiled by the Alaska Senate Majority, shows the state government’s spending by agency for fiscal year 2017. (Courtesy the Alaska Senate Majority) This graph, compiled by the Alaska Senate Majority, shows the state government’s spending by agency for fiscal year 2017. (Courtesy the Alaska Senate Majority)

News

How big can the Alaska health care bubble grow?

Alaska faces a paradox with its health care industry. In an economy sliding downhill, health care is the…

Nesting season on the Kenai A trumpeter swan sunbathes on an unnamed lake near Skilak Lake on Thursday on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Trumpeter swans, which mate for life, typically nest in marshes next to small lakes as early in the spring as thaw allows, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. They need between 140 and 54 ice-free days to complete a breeding cycle. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has a growing population of swans, with about 50 nesting pairs. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Photo: Nesting season

A trumpeter swan sunbathes on an unnamed lake near Skilak Lake on Thursday on the Kenai National Wildlife…

News

Senate kills income tax

The Alaska Senate on Friday voted 15-4 to kill an income tax proposed by the House, all but…

A sockeye salmon makes its flight into the back of a truck on a set gillnet site on July 11, 2016 near Kenai, Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

News

While other species increase, salmon, herring landing values drop

The total value of commercial fisheries landings in Alaska didn’t change much between 2014 and 2015, but by…

Mariano Gonzales discusses his show “Swimming Upstream” on May 4, 2017 at Kenai Fine Art Center in Kenai. The show will hang until May 27. (Kat Sorensen/Peninsula Clarion)

News

‘Swimming Upstream’ on display until May 27

Be careful with what you touch at the Kenai Fine Art Center this month— you may get shot…

Participants in a streambank rehabilitation workshop at the Donald E. Giman River Center unwrap bundles of felt willow to install as reinforcement along a damaged section of the Kenai River’s bank Wednesday, May 10, 2017 in Soldotna, Alaska. The free two-day annual workshop, hosted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, teaches people how to properly repair damaged fish habitat along streams in Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion) Participants in a streambank rehabilitation workshop at the Donald E. Giman River Center unwrap bundles of felt willow to install as reinforcement along a damaged section of the Kenai River’s bank Wednesday in Soldotna. The free two-day annual workshop, hosted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, teaches people how to properly repair damaged fish habitat along streams in Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Kenai Peninsula residents get hands-on with streambank restoration

A sunny, warm Wednesday in Soldotna found about 40 people busily digging trenches and mounting willow boughs into…

News

Anchor Point, Kasilof to have field assessments this year

Borough assessors will be scoping out properties in the Anchor Point, Deep Creek, Ninilchik, Clam Gulch and Kasilof…

News

Senate budget cuts holes in public health service

The state’s public health division has been whittled down significantly over the past several years and is facing…

Brooke Kent, a Cook Inlet Academy graduate, plays and sings the song “Soar” by Meredith Andrews at the school’s graduation ceremony Sunday, May 7, 2017 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion) Brooke Kent, a Cook Inlet Academy graduate, plays and sings the song “Soar” by Meredith Andrews at the school’s graduation ceremony Sunday in Soldotna. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Cook Inlet Academy graduates take off

Cook Inlet Academy’s graduating class may be small, but the students have been busy. With years of soccer…

News

Assembly passes rules for attending meetings by phone

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members may be blocked from participating in meeting telephonically in the future if the…

Quilters work on quilts for charity at the Funny River Community Center on Thursday, April 27, 2017 in Funny River, Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

News

State cuts ripple through borough budget

Quilts covered the walls at the Funny River Community Center, the result of hours of work by charity-minded…

News

Assembly again denies K-Beach flooding land deal

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to show that the initial land trade proposed in 2014 would…

This photo taken July 3, 2015 shows cars lined up on the Seward Highway along the Turnagain Arm in after a fatal accident in which a trooper vehicle struck and killed a motorcyclist it was pursuing closed the highway for several hours. Troopers have reduced their coverage of a stretch from about mile 75 of that highway to south of McHugh Creek due to budget cuts. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

News

Agencies struggle to fill Seward Highway gap left by trooper withdrawal

Drivers on the Seward Highway between McHugh Creek and the Turnagain Pass are facing a potential law enforcement…

News

Borough commits to school funding

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly committed to spending at least $48.3 million on education in fiscal year 2018,…