Anchorage

Spring has sprung in Anchorage and now the potholes can be seen everywhere. The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the city's maintenance crews are working together to repair damaged roads around town. Mayor Dan Sullivan says Anchorage has more than 1,400 miles of roads to inspect and repair. According to the DOT, olders pavement tends to have more potholes than newer pavement. Drivers are encouraged to report hazardous potholes in the Anchorage area by calling the Pothole Hotline at (907)

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the death of an Anchorage man whose body was found Monday near Kasilof, with few details immediately available on how it happened. A Friday AST dispatch says the body of 50-year-old Calvin Bennett was found at about 4 p.m. Monday, near Mile 102.5 of the Sterling Highway. “Bennett was found approximately 30 yards off the highway in the wood line,” troopers wrote. According to AST spokesperson Megan Peters, troopers don't believe foul play was involved in Bennett's death.

A construction worker from Anchorage was injured on the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing Friday afternoon when a piece of equipment rolled over his foot and lower leg, according to Alaska State Troopers. AST spokesperson Megan Peters says troopers responded just before 4:15 p.m. Friday to Mile 54 of the Sterling, where 31-year-old Ross Kennedy had been wounded in a “non-traffic accident.” Peters says Kennedy was medevaced from the scene by a LifeMed air ambulance, but no long-term road closures were reported during the incident.

Anchorage police say a 20-year-old man is in stable condition Friday after he was struck by a pickup truck Thursday night, suffering head injuries in a South Anchorage collision that closed part of Dimond Boulevard for a few hours. APD spokesperson Dani Myren says police responded at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday to reports of the collision, just west of Dimond's intersection with Jewel Lake Road, where a gray Toyota Tundra had been headed west on Dimond. “The vehicle had just cleared the Dimond-Jewel Lake intersection when it struck a pedestrian who was crossing Dimond from north to south,” Myren said.

An Anchorage-based Marine Corps recruiter convicted in a court-martial Friday of sexually assaulting a friend's girlfriend on New Year's Eve 2011 may face local charges in the crime, according to the Anchorage Police Department. In a Monday statement, APD spokesperson Anita Shell says the case against 33-year-old Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas Howard, who worked at the Dimond Center mall, has been handed over to the district attorney's office. “December 31, 2011 began as a birthday celebration which included the victim and her boyfriend, Howard and his wife, and a third female,” Shell wrote.

STORY UPDATED AT 8:54 p.m. at 5/6/13: (Photo: Scott Presley , 5-6-13) After spending five days in Alaska's largest city, the USS Anchorage left the Port of Anchorage shortly after 6:00 p.m. Monday. The navy warship arrived May 1 and held its commissioning ceremony May 4. "Talking with the folks within the Department of the Navy who do these commissionings all around the country, they remark that Anchorage has been the best so far with community support," Captain Brian Quin said.

It's a rare feat, even for a seasoned naval captain, to oversee the construction, christening and commissioning of a warship.  The USS Anchorage left port shortly after six o'clock Monday evening. Captain Brian Quin has enjoyed that privilege over the past couple years, an opportunity that has allowed him to develop a relationship with Anchorage's residents that he'll always cherish. "This is truly unconditional love, that the citizens of Anchorage have expressed and the citizens of Alaska have expressed," said Quin.  “We understand the love, we understand the Alaskan hospitality.

Several family pets died Sunday afternoon in a trailer fire in East Anchorage when the homeowners weren't home, according to the Anchorage Fire Department. The initial calls came in around 3:15 p.m. Sunday and crews responded to the 4100 block of Debarr Road in the Malaspina-Glacier mobile home park and were able to get the blaze under control in a few minutes. There were no injuries reported, however two cats and one dog were killed in the blaze. "With our primary investigation, we're believing it started in the kitchen and got into the roof and got in that way," Capt.

Watch live streaming video from usnavy at livestream.com The U.S. Navy held a commissioning ceremony for the USS Anchorage in the city with the same namesake on May 4, 2013. Contact Neil Torquiano

Despite winter weather, thousands of people came to the Port of Anchorage Saturday morning to celebrate the transition of the Navy's newest ship from a vessel to a warship. For the crew of the USS Anchorage, designated LPD-23, the commissioning ceremony was six years in the making. While the Anchorage is the Navy's seventh San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, Navy officials say it's the first to be commissioned in its namesake city -- as well as the first commissioning ceremony for Alaska's largest city.