The CEO of the Community Development Quota group for the Aleutian Islands Region says there will be major expansion at processing plants in False Pass and Atka. Mike Mason tells us that Larry Cotter announced the plan at the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference economic summit recently.

A former aide to Sarah Palin has been fined for using confidential emails to write a tell-all book. Frank Bailey was fined $11,900 for violating the state's ethics law.

Don Young plans to make it official today. Young's campaign says he will file for re-election at the Division of Elections office in Anchorage.

The state is concerned about a big increase in the number of new HIV cases in Fairbanks. Last year, Fairbanks reported eight new HIV cases and the outbreak is ongoing. In recent years, two or three new cases were more typical. The state is also seeing a syphilis outbreak in Anchorage. Susan Jones is Alaska’s HIV and STD program manager. She says the state first became concerned about the increase in HIV cases in Fairbanks last summer.

A House committee this morning approved a bill setting up a loan program for people who want to convert their home heating equipment from oil, coal or wood heaters to another fuel source.

House Majority Leader Alan Austerman says he’s open to changes to a bill that would re-establish an Alaska Coastal Management Program.

Governor Sean Parnell has signed a bill easing the state’s requirement for certain political candidates to file disclosure information electronically.

A rocket was successfully launched from Poker Flat north of Fairbanks over the weekend. Saturday night’s flight was part of a multi-university project aimed at understanding the effect of the northern lights on global positioning system and other radio signals. Principle investigator Steve Powell of Cornell University says satellite data indicated an intense stream, of charged particles from the sun heading toward the earth, and the aurora did not disappoint.

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn, became the first American to orbit the Earth. And fifty years later, astronauts still face the unknowns of space. There is new evidence that prolonged weightlessness, or even short periods without the pull of gravity, can have lasting physical impacts on the human body. In December of last year, in a paper published by the American Academy of Opthamology, an Anchorage doctor looked at how space travel can effect eyes.

A bill introduced in the state legislature offers energy relief for Alaskans. The bipartisan sponsored measure would provide vouchers to all Permanent Fund Dividend eligible adults for 250 gallons of heating fuel, or an equivalent amount of natural gas, or 1,500 kilowatt hours of electricity.