Alaska News Nightly: Friday, August 21, 2015

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359 years for man convicted of double-homicide, sexual assault of a 2-year-old

Associated Press

A man has been sentenced to 359 years in jail for the beating deaths of an elderly couple and the sexual assault of a 2-year-old child in Anchorage.

Potentially exonerating info leaked in Fairbanks Four case

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

Statements undermining murder convictions of the so called “Fairbanks Four” were briefly published in an on line Fairbanks Daily Newsminer article.  The web story, which was quickly taken down by the paper today, shares leaked court documents outlining long sealed statements about the 1997 murder of John Hartman.

A year after Roxanne Smart was killed, Chevak still waits for justice

Daysha Eaton, KYUK – Bethel

The community of Chevak, in Southwest Alaska, has been breathing a collective sigh of relief after the arrest of a man in July for the murder of Roxanne Smart.

Search teams race to find 3rd victim before storm sets in

Rachel Waldholz, KCAW – Sitka

Search teams in Sitka are racing the clock Friday afternoon, as they work to find the third victim of Tuesday’s landslide before a new storm arrives tonight.

Murkowski hears testimony on the state’s growing prison population

Joaqlin Estus, KNBA – Anchorage

Alaska has already outgrown the $250-million Goose Creek Correctional Center that opened in 2012. People testifying during a field hearing in Anchorage for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Thursday said it’d be smarter to put some of the money that goes into building and maintaining prisons toward keeping people out of them.

DNR vets competing water applications in Chuitna coal proposal

Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage

The state Department of Natural Resources held a public hearing in Anchorage today [Friday] to get additional comments on pending applications for water rights to a tributary of the Chuitna River.

AK: Saving a life by leaving it behind

Lisa Phu, KTOO – Juneau

It’s been a year since Juneau resident Jennifer Fletcher started to publicly present herself as a woman, less than two years since she first started to shed her male identity and rebuild herself as female. But the inner journey to get to that point started long before then.

49 Voices: Gary Hanchett of Bettles

Monica Gokey, KSKA – Anchorage

Gary Hanchett is a do-everything kind of Alaskan — he is the vice mayor of Bettles, the backup postmaster, election chair, tour guide and trapper. He tells us about some of the more notorious residents of Bettles — the mosquitoes.

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