Dustin Ruckman, 23, will face an Unalaska jury in late August for counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless driving.

A new judge overseeing a criminal case involving a fatal 2019 car crash in Unalaska has granted the defense extra time to solidify a new trial date. In a status hearing on Feb. 8, Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews allowed Julia Moudy, the lead counsel for the defense, another month to go through discovery materials, gather experts and find a trial date that will fit her schedule. That comes after several delays and complications in the case – the latest being a change in lead counsel for the defense, which led to the appointment of a new trial judge.

Two longtime King Cove residents died from injuries sustained in a suspicious fire that took place in Anchorage on Feb. 1. The fire is being investigated as arson and the deaths are being investigated as homicides.

A former police chief of the remote Pribilof community of St. Paul was sentenced last week to seven years in prison for sexual abuse of a minor. The victim’s mother, Stacy Bourdokofsky, hopes this will help the family move on, but stops short of calling the sentence “justice.”

Diana Rentaria has been attending hearings, arraignments and trial calls for nearly five years, in hopes of eventually finding justice in a criminal case involving the death of her 18-year-old daughter Kiara R. Haist and another Unalaska teen. In May 2019, Dustin Ruckman, a high schooler at the time, drove his truck off of Unalaska’s Ulakta Head Cliff. Haist and 16-year-old Karly McDonald were ejected from the vehicle and killed as the pickup descended nearly 1,000 feet down the mountain. From that time on, Rentaria says she has been in limbo, trying to adapt to her new life without the child she used to call “Kiwi.” “You just try to live in the world as that other person you're supposed to be,” Rentaria said. “But at the end of the day, you go home and you wonder, ‘Are you okay? Are you hungry? Are you cold? Can I see you in the moon if I stare at the moon long enough?’” Jan. 17 would have been Haist’s 23rd birthday.

Former Unalaska police chief Jay King has come under fire at his new position as police chief in Prosser, WA. He’s facing accusations of creating a toxic workplace, similar to accusations described in four lawsuits brought against the police department in Unalaska when King was chief.

A conversation with USAFV's M. Lynn Crane about patterns of abuse, how people can spot the signs, and ways community members can support one another while processing trauma.

A former St. Paul police chief was convicted Tuesday of sexually abusing a minor, according to the State of Alaska. A jury convicted Nicholas Hunnicutt of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree for inappropriately touching a 14-year-old.

The Yakov E. Netsvetov School in Atka evacuated classes Tuesday after the district received a bomb threat, just one of several schools that received threats throughout the state.

The Unalaska City School District was not among the schools that received bomb threats Tuesday. The Aleutians East Borough School District was similarly unaffected.