Jenna Kunze

3 weeks ago | adn.com | Jenna Kunze

A Catholic priest from Nigeria who served in Fairbanks and Alaska villages across the Seward Peninsula from 2017 to 2024 was kidnapped by an Islamic terrorist group over the weekend, according to the Diocese of Fairbanks. The Alaska diocese received news Monday that the Rev. Alphonsus Afina was ambushed and abducted by Boko Haram while traveling by car in northern Nigeria after Sunday Mass, said the Rev. Robert Fath, the vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks.

4 weeks ago | adn.com | Jenna Kunze

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday named the city of Anchorage among a list of U.S. “sanctuary jurisdictions” in 36 states that it asserts are “deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”Anchorage city officials and immigration attorneys dispute the claim of noncompliance with federal immigration law, pointing to a city ordinance and state data.

1 month ago | adn.com | Jenna Kunze

Inha Fozekosh is stressed. Each morning, the 33–year-old mother of one wakes up in her Sand Lake apartment in Anchorage, makes herself coffee, and logs in to the online U.S. immigration portal to check the status of her future. For the last several months, “there’s nothing,” no movement, said Fozekosh, who came to the U.S. in 2023 through a Biden-era program to escape the war in Ukraine. She’s among the 1,000 Ukrainians who have resettled in Alaska since the start of the war.

1 month ago | adn.com | Jenna Kunze

Days after lawmakers overrode Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a $180 million increase to Alaska’s education spending, administrators and school board members at the state’s largest school district remain anxious. “In a different set of circumstances … this would be a day for the confetti and the parades and that sort of thing,” Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

1 month ago | adn.com | Jenna Kunze

On the final day of the school year, dozens of Lake Hood Elementary students, dressed in plastic ponchos and goggles, unscrewed the geyser tops affixed to individual 2-liters of soda and — on the countdown of their teacher — released a stream of Mentos-induced, spouting cola. Screaming ensued. Several 9- and 10-year-olds pulled their plastic hoods tight against their faces and ran under a soda sprinkler. Younger students watched from a grassy hill.