A Nikiski man has been hospitalized in Anchorage for serious injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle crash early Wednesday, according to Alaska State Troopers.

In a Wednesday AST dispatch, troopers say that Soldotna dispatchers received a 911 call about the crash, in Nikiski on North Miller Loop Road, just before 12:30 a.m.

"Investigation revealed that Mark Souza, 41, of Nikiski rolled his three-wheeler as he was traveling on North Miller Loop," troopers wrote. "Souza was transported to Central Peninsula Hospital by Nikiski Fire Department before being flown to Anchorage for treatment of serious injuries."

AST spokesperson Beth Ipsen says no road closures were reported in Nikiski as troopers investigated the incident.

Troopers say Souza wasn't wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, and that alcohol is believed to be a factor.

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Southcentral Alaska law-enforcement agencies are teaming up to heighten DUI patrols during the Alaska State Fair and the Labor Day weekend, in a coordinated campaign starting Friday.

According to Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Dani Myren, the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" enforcement efforts are part of the National Impaired Driving Crackdown, targeting Labor Day on Sept. 2 and including the state fair's Aug. 22 start date. APD plans to put five additional officers on the streets for each weekend through Labor Day itself.

Myren says the campaign hits home for APD, which is holding a community rally at West High School Friday night on how to combat impaired driving in the wake of four alcohol-related crash deaths over the last two months. Its start date comes one week after 15-year-olds Brooke McPheters and Jordyn Durr were killed when they were struck by driver Stacey Graham, who faces murder and DUI charges in their deaths.

"Ultimately, impaired driving is a community problem, and it's important that we work together to circumvent any avoidable future tragedies," Myren said.

Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Beth Ipsen says the campaign, funded by grants through the Alaska Highway Safety Office, also includes the Wasilla and Palmer police departments. It's not clear how many troopers will be added, because AST's resources take the form of a statewide overtime pool usable for enforcement.

"There's not a specific number," Ipsen said. "There will be more."

Driving fatalities for Alaska have risen during the year to date, as recorded by state statistics.

"According to the Alaska Highway Safety Office, 34 people have died in 32 motor vehicle crashes on roadways this year as of Aug. 14, an increase in the number of fatalities from last year (30 in 29 crashes) during the same time frame," Ipsen wrote in a statement announcing the enhanced enforcement.

In addition to the added patrols by law enforcement, Myren urges people to help protect fellow motorists by calling 911 to Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately.

"They are our friends, they are our neighbors, they are our family," Myren said.

As part of an associated media campaign, troopers are warning drivers about the dangers of impaired driving and asking people to listen to their seat belts.

Contact Chris Klint

A committee began delving into the nitty, gritty details of whether Alaska's largest city should consider bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Before breaking off into subcommittees, emeritus member Rick Nerland, a key organizing committee member for Anchorage's close-but-losing bids to host the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, addressed the group about experiences learned from those bids.

Nerland said the things that made Anchorage attractive then are even stronger now.

City officials said other American cities considering bids are Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Olympics; Bozeman, Mont., and Reno/Lake Tahoe. The U.S. Olympic Committee will eventually decide if it will back an American city for the 2026 games before the International Olympic Committee.

International cities that have expressed interest for 2026 include Quebec City, Canada, and Krakow, Poland.

When people in one East Anchorage neighborhood woke up Thursday morning and went to their cars as they usually do, they were met with spray-painted graffiti on their vehicles and home facades.

Residents of Wonder Park were forced to deal with the damage someone caused right in their front yards, with vandals having hit multiple streets in the area. The extensive graffiti damaged garages, windows and even a motor home.

Vandalism reports are still coming in, but evidence of blue and white spray paint on East 4th, East 5th, and East 6th avenues from Boniface to Pine Streets was easily found, according to Anchorage police.

The nearly square-mile radius of vandalism covered multiple streets, leaving many area residents puzzled as to what happened and why.

"I had energy drinks in the back of the car and I went to grab one and I found that (graffiti damage)," said resident Mark Hart.

Hart says he's angry because he has to spend money he doesn't have to clean up the damage.

"I'm struggling as it is, so it's more money I need to spend to get it working," Hart said.

Dennis Sonnenberg is feeling the pain too. After working the night shift, he had to quickly find a shop that could get the graffiti off while taking care of his kids.

"They removed all the paint from my vehicle," Sonnenberg said. "They said within 24 hours -- if it would have cured -- they would have had to repaint the whole door."

Whether it's scrubbing or using other methods, the frustration permeating through the neighborhood remains: Residents have to clean up a mess they didn't create.

APD officials said they have received nine reports of graffiti vandalism in the Wonder Park neighborhood, but they expect more to come in through their online filing process.

Officials are recommending residents be on the lookout for anything suspicious and report what they see to police at 786-8900 or Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP.

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A grand jury will now decide if second-degree murder charges are appropriate for the man accused of killing two teenage girls in Anchorage last week.

Stacey Allen Graham, arrested after the Aug. 9 crash on Abbott Road that killed 15-year-olds Brooke McPheters and Jordyn Durr, was scheduled for a pre-indictment hearing Thursday. The state prosecution said Graham was not present but his attorney spoke on his behalf, asking for a grand jury to move forward with deciding if Graham would face felony charges of murder in the second degree. 

Second-degree murder and manslaughter are fairly similar, according to Alaska statutes. AS 11.41.110 says second-degree murder occurs when "a person knowingly engages in conduct that results in the death of another person under circumstances which manifests an extreme indifference to the value of human life." In contrast, AS 11.41.120 says the definition of manslaughter is "intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing the death of another person."

According to criminal defense attorney D. Scott Dattan, the difference is determined by the prosecution, but it's not unusual for a defendant in a DUI fatality to face murder charges. Dattan said he does not know all of the facts of the case, which would determine why state prosecutors chose to charge Graham with the more serious charge.

"It's a matter of degree obviously," Dattan said. "The facts surrounding the case would determine how the prosecution would choose between reckless conduct and extreme indifference to human life."

Channel 2 reached out to the district attorney's office to explain why Graham is facing charges of second-degree murder rather than manslaughter, but prosecutors said no one was available to speak directly to the case.

Graham was appointed a public defender following his first appearance in court Tuesday where he said he did not have the means to pay for an attorney himself. His bail is set at $100,000.

Dattan is not representing Graham.

Channel 2's Sarah Evans contributed to this story.

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Hundreds packed Faith Christian Community Church in Anchorage Thursday for a celebration of life for John Beyers, who died July 24 in a motorcycle crash on the Seward Highway.

Friends and family say John Beyers was no ordinary man of faith -- he loved God, but he also loved motorcycles, coffee, and almost everyone he met.

Beyers had turned 61 on July 4. In December, he was hired as state chaplain at the Anchorage Correctional Center.

"Some people just take up space, and others make space for themselves, but if you want to be like John Beyers, you have to make space for other people," said Beyers' boss, Jim Duncan.

Beyers made a lot of time for people less fortunate than himself, including inmates at the Anchorage and Palmer correctional facilities. Beyers and friend Paul Schindler helped start a transformational living program for inmates at the Palmer facility.

"In the prison setting, trust is huge," Schindler said. "He was somebody that you could approach. It didn't take long to figure out that he is someone that you could trust."

Those who watched Beyers work with the inmates say he approached them with the same warm, genuine attitude as he did with friends, family members and strangers -- a warmth that prisoners responded to.

"One of them came by and shook my hand and said, 'I hope to someday be like chaplain John Beyers,'" Duncan said. "I naturally responded, 'Start today.'"

Yellow bumper stickers were given out at the service asking drivers to use a little extra care around motorcyclists. Beyers was vice-president of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

Contact Adam Pinsker

An Anchorage man has been charged with sexually abusing underage girls on trips to Cambodia.

The Anchorage Daily News reports 43-year-old Jason Jayavarman was arrested Wednesday in Anchorage.

Jayavarman is the owner of Jason's International Youth Hostel in Anchorage.

Prosecutors say an undercover investigator pretended to be interested in traveling with Jayavarman to meet underage girls and they planned a trip for next week,

Prosecutors say records indicate Jayavarman starting in 2009 traveled a dozen times to Cambodia and had sex with girls as young as 13.

The charges say Jayavarman recorded the sessions on videos, which were seized.

A radio station focusing on interior Alaska Native issues is set to launch in Fairbanks.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports KRFF-FM is finishing final paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission and expects to broadcast soon.

The station is sponsored by the nonprofit Athabascan Fiddlers Association and was eight years in the making.

KRFF will be staffed by volunteers. It will feature Athabascan stories, music and indigenous language programs.

Fiddlers Association general manager Ann Fears says Anchorage-based Koahnic Broadcast Corp. will allow KRFF to use its feed for at least six months when local programming isn't available.

Gaming money from the association is backing the station.

A posting on Facebook has been warning of "armed prowlers" around homes in the North Pole area but Alaska State Troopers say the reality is a lot less threatening.

Troopers say two men playing with Airsoft guns were mistaken for armed suspects.

Airsoft guns shoot plastic pellets propelled by springs or compressed air.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports photos of men were posted online. One showed a picture of a man carrying a pistol. The posting warned that he had been spotted near Plack and Dawson roads.

Troopers tracked down the men, who were embarrassed to admit they were playing with the replica weapons and had strayed onto private property.

Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen says they promised not to do it again.

Alaska education officials have released the first school ratings calculated under the state's new accountability system for public schools.

The ratings unveiled Friday follow the Obama administration's May approval of Alaska's request for a waiver from provisions of the federal education law No Child Left Behind.

Alaska is among 40 states and the District of Columbia to receive approval of waiver requests.

States are allowed under the waivers to avoid certain requirements, such as all students showing proficiency in English and math by 2014, if other conditions are met. Those conditions include states imposing their own standards to prepare students for college and careers and setting evaluation standards for teachers and principals.

Alaska's new accountability system ranks schools between a high of five stars and a low of one star.

A Pilot Station man has been charged with assault, after Alaska State Troopers say he struck another man with an all-terrain vehicle and broke his leg early Thursday morning.

According to a Friday AST dispatch, troopers at the St. Mary's post were informed of the incident, in which 23-year-old Corey Myers was injured, at about 8:20 a.m. Thursday.

"Investigation of the report found that Malcolm Heckman, age 27, of Pilot Station struck (Myers) while driving an ATV at approximately (2:15 a.m.)," troopers wrote. "(Myers) suffered a broken leg and several abrasions."

In an email to Channel 2, AST spokesperson Beth Ipsen says both speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.

"Heckman was driving down the road, Myers was walking on the side of the road, Heckman hit Myers with the ATV, broke the guy's leg and Heckman took off on the four-wheeler," Ipsen wrote. "Heckman was driving way too fast and was reportedly impaired by alcohol."

According to Ipsen, no DUI charges were filed against Heckman due to the delay between the time of the incident and the time of Heckman's arrest.

Heckman was arrested on a charge of first-degree assault, and is being held at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional Center in Bethel.

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A 66-year-old man suspected of sexually abusing a child in Juneau and Ketchikan has been convicted of one count of attempted sexual abuse of a minor.

Former Southeast Alaska resident John W. Strickling pleaded guilty Thursday in Juneau Superior Court as part of a plea arrangement. Other counts were dropped.

He had tried to enter a guilty plea earlier but his mental competency was questioned. The Juneau Empire reports a Lemon Creek Correctional Center mental health clinician concluded that Strickling has persistent religious-themed delusions.

Assistant public defender Eric Hedland says an evaluation at Alaska Psychiatric Institute determined Strickling to be legally competent.

Prosecutors say Strickling abused a child under age 13 from 2002 to 2009. He was indicted in 2012 and arrested in Nome.

Jamie Love was a member of the state Investment Advisory Committee when the Permanent Fund was created in 1976.

During his time in Alaska, he also founded the Alaska Public Interest Research Group. Channel 2 caught up with Love, who is in town for a celebration of the organization's 40th anniversary.

Below is a Q&A with Love, and a look ahead at what PFD checks may look like this year.

Q: So what were the goals of AKPIRG in the early days?

A: The reason it was created was to build, outside the regular political interests, Republicans vs. Democrats, a voice for the public interest and a voice for workers in the political process. I'm glad to see they're still active today and getting ready to make a push to become even more active again.

Q: Can you describe what motivated the creation of the Permanent Fund was created?

A: There was a concern among a lot of people, both liberals and conservatives, young people and old people, that the tendency of the government would be just to spend whatever came in and spend it on projects, in some cases, of dubious value. The permanent fund was designed to be a way to ensure that the people living in the state at the time would not be the only beneficiaries of the wealth, and also to provide a fair way to distribute the wealth. ... You want to give the people that were born here, the people that grow up here, some kind of a fair shot at a future.

Q: How well has the program achieved a balance of saving for the future and investing in people who are here right now?

A: Alaska has done some good things with its oil wealth and done some things that are less productive. ... I'm always interested in seeing how things are done in Norway, because it has a lot of similarities with Alaska. They've invested really well and done a great job. There are also some really bad examples in the oil area; it's considered a really mixed blessing, especially in places without a well-developed economy. ... Sometimes you just have a lot of inflation, a lot of wasteful projects, boondoggles and things like that in different countries. So overall, Alaska has done relatively well.

Q: What could the state do better?

A: The state has always had a problem of thinking about how to develop jobs and economy in a state where it's expensive to do things, where you're far from markets. You have tourism of course, you have the fishing industry, you have the oil industry, but all these extractive industries are kind of boom and bust cycles. I think that in a way you have to be realistic about what are the sustainable industries you can do in a place like Alaska.

Q: Does anything specific stand out from your time here?

A: One of the big regrets I have in 1979, we came within one vote in the Senate of setting up a statewide healthcare system. I don't know if people remember that. But there were moments in the 70s when people were very ambitious about what we were trying here, long before it was close anywhere else.

Q: What prompted the creation of the Permanent Fund?

A: You want to give the people that were born here, the people that grow up here, some kind of a fair shot at a future.

Michael Burns, executive director of the Permanent Fund Corporation, said Thursday that the fund came into being because of the "libertarian streak that's so important to Alaska," he said. "The idea was to starve the beast of government."

Burns also said the most obvious result of the fund will soon be known.

Within a few weeks, he said, the amount of the Permanent Fund Dividend will be announced. This year has been strong, with preliminary returns on the corporation's investments estimated at 10.9 percent.

But dividend checks are calculated on a trailing 5-year average, meaning the height of the economic crisis will still bring down the number on the checks Alaskans will get in October.

A Sleetmute pilot was injured in crash during a test flight.

Alaska State Troopers say 64-year-old Henry Hill at about 11 a.m. Thursday was conducting a maintenance test flight of a Cessna 206.

The airplane crashed just south of the Sleetmute Airport runway in a heavily wooded area.

Troopers say the airplane was demolished.

Hill hiked to Sleetmute and took a commercial flight to Anchorage. He was treated and released for chest pains and a bloody nose at a hospital.

Sleetmute is a southwest Alaska community of 84 on the Kuskokwim River. It's 66 miles northeast of Bethel and 243 miles west of Anchorage.

An unusual creature from the deep sea has made another appearance in Juneau.

The Juneau Empire reports a resident this month spotted a dead ragfish on Lena Beach. Another was found in May.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologist Dave Csepp says ragfish can reach seven feet.

They are common off the Bering Sea slope and hang out in waters exceeding 4,600 feet.

The floppy, limp fish are long like a salmon but their skeletons are mainly cartilage. Csepp says a rap on the head with a salmon club probably would cut right through a ragfish.

NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle says ragfish have no scales and their skin resembles a squid's. They feed on small fish and cephalopods and are eaten by sperm whales.

The small town of Hope sits just south of Anchorage, yet it has maintained a fairly quiet existence for the past century.

The town prides itself as a quiet place, but history shows that hasn't always been the case. Much of the mining history is kept alive through old artifacts and buildings at the Hope and Sunrise Historical and Mining Museum.

"In 1895 there was a good clean up at one of the mines and word got outside and the next summer 1896 three thousand miners came up to Turnagain Arm Cook Inlet," said the museum's Development Coordinator Diane Olthuis.

A gold rush in the area began in 1896 and brought an estimated 3,000 miners to the mountains around Hope, a full year before the famous Klondike rush. Legend has it the town was named for a young man named Percy Hope, the first prospector to step off a boat that landed there. Buildings that now house the Seaview Café and Bar still stand from that year. The Social Hall, built in 1902 is credited with keeping the town going all these years.

Josh Anderson has worked at the Sea view Café and Bar for 6 years, though he says he's basically a lifelong resident of Hope. He says he has no intention of leaving.

"It was a place to hang out and with so many of them living in absolutely tiny cabins it was something special and it was part of the reason hope persisted," Anderson said. "It's the people in it that make it the place that it is really because everybody's so friendly and we're like one big family and you know we can work through anything."

The activity along Main Street may have changed over the past century but the residents of this city know what keeps Hope alive.

It's a major revamping of Alaska's educational system with education officials saying the new accountability system will be a better fit for Alaska's schools.
    
The state is replacing the No Child Left Behind law, the federal program that measures Adequate Yearly Progress, with its own version. With a waiver in hand, the state says the Alaska School Performance Index will inform the community about how each school is doing while also providing support to help them improve.
 
Some districts say it's only a piece of the puzzle to achieving huge student progress. 

It's not easy keeping a teacher in the Yupiit School District. Serving a population of 430 students in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta, teacher turnover remains a major challenge for rural schools.  Last year, they had 40% of certified staff leave for various reasons.   

"We find when a new teacher in their first year they are really struggling with the curriculum, with getting to know the students, getting know the area," said Yupiit School District superintendent, Kim Langton, who says that is one of the factors that hurts student's progress.

Based on the state's Alaska School Performance Index, the three schools in the Yupiit School District earned ratings of one star, two stars, and one star.
    
While Langton calls the new accountability system an improvement over AYP, he says what's being ignored goes beyond how a student does on a test.
     
"The key is going to be is ultimately really looking at the whole child, rather than just a score on a piece of paper on a particular day," said Langton who says for him it means teaching to your students. "If a child is going to ultimately have to know historically or scientifically about a rigor system somewhere in the world or another culture in the world, it makes sense that they first have their own culture, rigor, their own environment, honored, and valued and taught."

The new system will be based on a 100 point scale using one through five star ratings.

"Rather than apply a one-sized fits all set of consequences, its to really diagnose the issue, and then treat the issue," said Les Morse, who is the deputy commissioner of the state's education and early development department. 

Kindergarten through eighth grade schools scoring will be based on proficiency in reading, writing, and math, how well it improves and in how many students show up to class.

High schools will be rated based on those same factors plus how well students score on college and career readiness tests and how many of the students graduate.

"The goal of those targets is to reduce by half over a six year period the number of non proficient students," said Dr. Susan McCauley, the state's EED director of  teaching & learning support.

It's a snapshot of a schools progress; the Anchorage School District says it will use to break down how to further support individual students.

Because of the changes, the district will be able to spend some of its money differently to do just that. 

"Title I funds now have greater flexibility and what we will be doing with those funds is focusing on programs or practices that we've see success with," said Ed Graff, ASD superintendent.

Whether you're a student in Anchorage or Akiachak, educators statewide hope the new system will identify each schools needs so their students can do the best they can.

503 schools were rated under the new ASPI, 142 got either four or five stars, with 261 getting either a one, two, or three star. Schools with a one through three star rating are required to submit improvement plans to the state.
    
Officials say they are targeting struggling districts and offering education liaisons and coaches who will work directly with teachers.

To see where schools ranked click here

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The owner of a local youth hostel went before a federal judge on Friday, accused of traveling overseas to have sex with a minor.

The judge ruled to keep 43-year-old Jason Jayavarman in custody for the time being. He was arrested Wednesday and he waived his rights.

Jayavarman owns "Jason's International Youth Hostel" in Midtown, and workers were stunned to hear about the allegations made against their boss.

"I was shocked actually, he does not seem like that kind of person at all," Cree Biggs, manager at Jason's International Youth Hostel, said.

According to Biggs, Jayavarman occasionally spoke about growing up in Cambodia. They've known each other for the past two years, and Biggs says Jason never showed any signs of questionable behavior.

"He's a fairly private person," Biggs said. "We'd have conversations every now and then about guests that were staying here or things maybe going on in the news or things we needed for the hostel, but he pretty much keeps to himself."

Biggs also said he and Jayavarman had conversations about past girlfriends, but they were all adults.

"He has talked in the past about girlfriends he's had and some people that used to stay here and seen him with these girlfriends and they're adults," Biggs said.

Jayavarman is accused of attempting to travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and the production and transportation of visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to the criminal complaint document, during a series of conversations with an FBI undercover agent, Jayavarman discussed his previous trips to Cambodia for the purpose of having sex with children. Jayavarman told the agent that he videotaped and took still images of a child engaged in sexual acts with him at least once during a trip to Cambodia before bringing the video back to Anchorage. He also told the undercover agent he has made "films" in the United States.

The document also says Jayavarman explained to the agent the girls he abuses in Cambodia are from Vietnam.

While the FBI couldn't talk specifically about the case since it is an open investigation, Special Agent Deirdre Fike did say it looks at child exploitation cases seriously.

"The FBI does prioritize violence against children and part of the FBI's initiative against the domestic exploitation of children includes operations, national initiatives such as one that just occurred last month called Operation Cross Country where we really look at targeting any individuals that are involved in the trafficking and exploitation of children," Fike said.

Jayavarman's detention hearing will take place Aug. 21 and a preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 23.

The FBI encourages anyone who may know of someone involved in child exploitation to call local law enforcement.

Contact: Samantha Angaiak

If you're planning to attend the Kenai Peninsula Fair this weekend in Ninilchik, you might want to leave that pack of cigarettes in the car.
   
The Peninsula Clarion reports the fair association has made the fairgrounds a smoke-free workplace.
   
That's in line with the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, which went smokeless in 2011.
   
Kenai Peninsula Fair Manager Lara McGinnis says in a statement says the move to a smoke-free fair accomplishes three goals.
   
It affirms a family-friendly atmosphere, reduces the potential for children to associate smoking with a healthy lifestyle, and protects fair workers and attendees from smoking and tobacco related litter and pollution.
   
For those who must light up, there will be a designated smoking area by the rodeo grounds. The beer garden is also smoker friendly.