Signs tell Juneau residents where to deposit their recyclables at the city Recycling Center in Lemon Creek. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/05CJRecycling.mp3 Editor’s Note: After we finished this story, a power outage forced the city’s recycling center to close for repairs. The city’s public works depa…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20230417-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Wrangell’s Nolan Center hosted a screening of Blue Ticket on Monday. It’s a film of a play that KTOO documented back in 2019. The play’s author, Maureen Longworth, documented how gay men in Juneau were exiled from the city in the 1960s. The Alaska Native Bi…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240416-NewsUpdate.mp3 In this newscast: The Juneau planning commission agreed to let an outdoor food court expand into the empty lot that once housed the demolished Elks Hall building, The National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition will conduct interviews to document abuse at boarding schoo…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240415-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Peter Pan Seafood announced Friday that it was ceasing operations, A partisan brawl is about to erupt in Congress over the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Alaska’s US senators are seemingly split over it, Tongass Voices: Je…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240412-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Cancer patients in Juneau who need gynecological surgery no longer have to leave town to get it, The Alaska House of Representatives passed its $6 billion operating budget todayBy KTOO Public Media

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240411-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: City officials in Juneau have proposed a municipal spending plan for next year that slightly raises the property tax rate, Many Alaskans have to travel a long way for certain healthcare treatments, but a bill in the state House aims to close that distance b…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240410-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: A group of activists in Juneau filed paperwork in the hopes of putting a question on the 2024 local election ballot about whether the city should begin enforcing “Ship-free Saturdays,” The Sitka Assembly is calling for the Southeast Alaska Regional Health C…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240409-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: The Norwegian Bliss docked in Juneau this morning, marking the beginning of the 2024 cruise ship season, State education officials continue to dispute the federal government’s claim that Alaska didn’t fund schools equitably during the pandemic, Athletes fro…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240408-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Some projects the city plans to fund with marine passenger fees are being contested by cruise line officials, A look ahead at this year’s cruise season, which starts tomorrow, Tongass Voices: Joey Scoggins and Khrystal Brouillette-Gillam and the Juneau Host…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240405-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Involvement in traditional games and Native Youth Olympics are growing across Alaska and two coaches from Juneau’s team visited Petersburg to show students what these sports are all about, Legendary Juneau musician Buddy Tabor died in 2012, and a group of S…

https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240404-News-Update.mp3 In this newscast: Students from Juneau and across Alaska walked out of school today to protest Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education funding veto last month, Curious Juneau: the state of fast food in Juneau, State lawmakers got some new details Tuesday about the federal government’…

Makenzie O’Halloran makes a sandwich at Subway in the Mendenhall Valley on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CJfastcurious3.wav Fast-food restaurants have come and gone from Juneau for decades — but very few stick around for long. Beyond Subway, McDonald’s, Domino’s, Papa John’s and Papa…

The Salvation Army Family Store on a busy Saturday donation day in February 2024 (Photo by Anna Canny/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/26cjthrift.wav Dick Wood wrestled white garbage bags and cardboard boxes from the backseat of his beat up red car. There were children’s books, toys and clothes that once belonged to Wood’s son…

Snow dusts trees on a mountain in Juneau on Nov. 30, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CJnames_lede.mps_.mp3 Anywhere you go in Juneau, there are mountains shooting up…

Alaska’s Capitol has a ground floor and a first floor. It’s relatively uncommon in American buildings. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/24capitol.wav When Americans walk into a multi-story building, they’d usually say they’re on the first floor. Not in the lobby of Alaska’s Capitol building. “It has a very Europ…

A jumble of fallen trees at Auke Nu Cove caught the attention of a Curious Juneau listener (Photo by Anna Canny/KTOO) https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/26microbursts.wav If you look across Auke Nu Cove from the parking lot at the Juneau ferry terminal, there’s a strange patch of fallen trees — about a dozen — that are splayed out in…

A Coast Guardsmen working on the recovery of the 81-year-old tugboat Tagish, which sank just south of Juneau’s cruise ship docks in December, 2022. (Courtesy of Coast Guard Sector Juneau)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/29CoastGuard_adjusted.mp3 At a Coast Guard change-of-command ceremony on Thursday, about 30 active-duty Coast Gua…

A sign at the airport tells drivers to go no faster than 19 1/2 mph. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/05sign.wav On a rainy afternoon at the Airport Dike Trail, Laura Minne is walking her dog, Bodhi. Over on the airport side of the fence, a speed limit sign tells drivers to go no faster than 19 ½ miles per hour.…

Charles McKenry poses in front of the menu at Juneau’s downtown Taco Bell in 1999. (Photo courtesy of Charles McKenry)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/03TacoBell.mp3 In the late ’90s, Juneau had two Taco Bells. But by the early 2000s, they were both gone. Juneau has a history of fast food franchises coming and going, but the disapp…

A street light near the Juneau Public Library glows purple on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. (Photo by Bridget Dowd/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/24PurpleLights.mp3 On a foggy Sunday night in Juneau, the corner of Ferry Way and Marine Way is made eerie by a violet glow coming from a nearby street light. It’s just one of several lig…

A Maloja Snake or naagáas’ cloud formation over downtown Juneau at dawn on Aug. 26, 2021. (Image captured from SnowCloud Services webcam) In the 2014 film “Clouds of Sils Maria,” the climax of the story features a scene in the Swiss Alps where the two lead actresses, Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche, hike up high in the mountains to witness an …

The 1958-1959 girls’ high school rifle club poses for a yearbook photo in the basement of Harborview. (Courtesy of Karleen Grummett) As part of KTOO’s Curious Juneau project, a listener asked: “Was there really a gun range in the basement of Harborview Elementary School?” The short answer is yes. It was there for decades, and there are plenty of pe…

https://media.ktoo.org/2019/05/28GOLDDREDGE-CJ-NPR1.mp3 It’s after work, and the summer sun and the tide are out at John Wright’s go-to fishing spot in Juneau: the wide, sandy beach where Sheep Creek meets Gastineau Channel. “I’ve been fly fishing in Alaska — Juneau specifically — for seven years. I’ve been fly fishing for 20 years. I’m 32, so that…

Even in the middle of the workday on Tuesday, there’s steady traffic at Costco in Juneau. The city assessor’s records put its total square footage at 76,696. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)https://media.ktoo.org/2019/03/28COSTCO-CJ.mp3 The other day, Phil Fleming was loading up a car in the parking lot of the Costco in Juneau. He said a salty version …

The alder trees — and the peace sign among them — at the end of Commercial Boulevard in Juneau are about 10 years old, pictured here on Jan. 8, 2019. The Juneau Urban Forestry Partnership and local chapter of Veterans for Peace got an OK from a Juneau Assembly committee on Monday to prune the overgrowth and plant spruce seedlings in the peace sign’…

Norah Jones performs on tour in 2010 promoting her album “The Fall.” (Creative Commons photo cropped from original by youngrobv) Juneau mom Mara Jennings said she was over the moon when she found out Norah Jones was playing a concert in Juneau. Over the years, she’s sung the nine-time Grammy Award winner’s songs like lullabies to her kids at night.…

The alder trees — and the peace sign among them — at the end of Commercial Boulevard in Juneau are about 10 years old, pictured here on Jan. 8, 2019. The slope was cut and stabilized as part of the construction of the Home Depot. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO) https://media.ktoo.org/2019/01/11PEACE.mp3 Have your own Curious Juneau question? Submit it…

Have your own Curious Juneau question? Submit it, subscribe to Curious Juneau podcast and catch up on past curiosities on the Curious Juneau page. https://media.ktoo.org/2018/10/30CJBELLS.mp3 As recently as 2009, clock bells marked a specific location in Juneau. That year, former KTOO reporter Casey Kelly began a story like this: “As the clock chim…

The famous gun as seen on Aug. 13, 2018 — more than a century after famous gunslinger Wyatt Earp is reputed to have left it behind on his way to Nome. (Photo by Jacob Resneck/CoastAlaska) Juneau’s Red Dog Saloon claims it has a pistol that belonged to one of history’s most notorious gunslingers. But does the bar’s story check out? Wyatt Earp was am…

“Barefoot Guy” Ezra Strong looks out on Dredge Lake during a hike. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO) Xtratufs, Bogs, Muck Boots — comfortable, waterproof footwear is pretty much a necessity here in Juneau. But not for the local some know as “the barefoot guy.” Curious Juneau stars you and your questions. Every episode we help you find an answer. Catch …