Juneau’s fire marshal has declared an immediate ban on open burning to be in effect through at least Tuesday. The presence of wildfire smoke in the area triggered the ban.

The Coast Guard is reporting a 45-year-old passenger on Holland America’s Zaandam is missing and believed to have gone overboard between Douglas Island and Glacier Bay National Park this morning.

Alaska freshman Sen. Mark Begich gave his “maiden” speech on the floor of the Senate and chose the Arctic as his topic.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Air Quality is reporting hazy conditions today from Skagway to Juneau due to fires in the Yukon Territory and British Columbia.

Volunteers are sought to help residents of flood-damaged Eagle rebuild before winter.

While I agree that our health is in our hands first and that the diet is far more important than we are led to believe, I disagree with the vegan approach discussed by Susan Levin in the article, “Real health care reform starts in the lunchroom” (Empire, July 30). So would Dr. Robert Atkins and the multitude of other educated physicians and health professionals who take exception to the “one diet fits all” path Ms. Levin pushes our way.

We are appalled that the Environmental Protection Agency has chosen to make a back door attempt to overrule the US Supreme Court decision affirming Slate Lake for the Kensington mine’s tailings disposal, thereby undermining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the proper permit-issuing authority.

ANCHORAGE – Lu Young, the wife of U.S. Rep. Don Young, has died. She was 67.

ANCHORAGE – Yukon River smokehouses should be filled this summer with oil-rich strips of king salmon – long used by Alaska Natives as a high-energy food to get through the long Alaska winters. But they’re mostly empty.

While vulnerable Alaskans are waiting for home health services, a variety of state and federal elected officials are pledging to solve problems that have led to a federal moratorium on new clients.