Alaska city experiences first sunset in months

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — For the first time since May, the sun has set in what is billed as the northernmost city in the United States.

According to the National Weather Service, the first sunset in Barrow, Alaska, since May 10 occurred at 1:57 a.m. Friday. The sun rose again at 3:12 a.m.

Barrow has continuous daylight for so long because of its location, hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation.

The town of about 4,500 people will gradually lose sunlight each day until November. After that, the sun won't rise again until January — again, because of the rotational tilt.

The first sunset in months was a nonevent for some residents like Bob Green, an area resident since 1978 who didn't stay up to watch it the sunset.

"I've seen enough of them," he said. "I'm just glad that it's happening. I've had enough sun. I much prefer the winter."

Green, reached at work at Pepe's North of the Border restaurant, said Barrow seems to run better "when it's frozen."

There are no bugs or mud to deal with during the winter months, he said. Also, it's easy to make light in the winter but hard to get rid of that "big light bulb" that is the sun in summer.

While some people might find it strange to live somewhere with extended periods of sunlight or darkness, Patuk Glenn, museum curator at the Inupiat Heritage Center, said residents have grown accustomed to the seasons.

"Most of us, anyway, don't really suffer from that seasonal affective thing," she said, adding: "It's just part of life."

Things like successful spring and fall subsistence whale hunts are cause for excitement in Barrow, she said. There's no real fuss about the first sunset in months.

Like Green, she didn't stay up to see it.

"You know, I'm sleeping at that time," she said, noting she has a job to get to in the morning.

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Alaska man runs onto frozen lake to avoid jail

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Anchorage police say a young man who didn't want to return to jail ran out onto the uncertain ice of an Alaska lake to escape officers armed with an arrest warrant.

Police spokeswoman Dani Myren says officers were sufficiently concerned about the thickness of the ice covering Cheney lake that none of them wanted to venture onto it. So a standoff ensued.

KTUU-TV reports (http://is.gd/4WCBub ) that police negotiators and Fire Department dive teams were staging on the lakeshore when the young man finally surrendered late Thursday afternoon.

Myren says officers went to a home earlier in the afternoon to serve 19-year-old Siaosi Sila with a warrant alleging failure to comply with probation conditions. The spokeswoman says Sila saw police as he approached the home in a vehicle, bailed out and headed for the lake.

It wasn't immediately clear why he was on probation.

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Information from: KTUU-TV, http://www.ktuu.com

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Alaska brewery powered by … beer

The Alaska Brewing Co.'s Brandon Smith stands in front of his company's new broiler system that uses spent grains …A brewery is Alaska is being fueled by its own beer – in a manner of speaking.

The Alaskan Brewing Co. (ABC) plans to use spent grain from the brewing process to help power the majority of the brewery’s functions and reduce energy costs by 70 percent.

"We had to be a little more innovative just so that we could do what we love to do, but do it where we're located," ABC co-founder Geoff Larson told the Associated Press.

The process works using an expensive broiler system purchased by the brewery, which will convert the grain into steam. Or, as the ABC officials put it, they are now creating, “beer-powered beer,” in one of the nation’s largest craft breweries.

And even though the brewery spent $1.8 million on the broiler, minus a $500,000 federal grant, it is expected to save the company money over the long run. Brandon Smith, the brewery’s operations and engineering manager, says the new broiler will save his company about $450,000 per year.

“Renewable energy is one of the integral components to Alaska’s future. The new steam boiler at ABC is a great example of a forward-thinking approach to harnessing a new fuel source,” Alaska Rural Development State Director Jim Nordlund said in a statement on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website. “We’re happy to have played a part in this company’s innovation.”

Most breweries sell their spent grains to local farms for a profit. But because of the Alaskan brewery’s remote location, drying and shipping the grain was proving to be both expensive and wasteful.

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