Story and photos by Nancy Wiechec, Catholic News Service FARGO, N.D. -- Native American Catholics are being urged to become language "warriors" and to help preserve their culture in liturgy and song.

The Hong Kong-flagged freighter vessel Federal Rideau sits hard aground in the downbound shipping channel of Lake St. Clair near the Detroit River, July 28, 2014.

Last April, UAA students voted for a smoke-free campus. They specifically banned cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs, bidi , clove cigarettes and e-cigarettes on the Anchorage campus, including dorms and apartments.

The small private natural gas utility in Fairbanks, which has about 1,100 customers, "engaged in numerous highly irregular transactions" that warrant a state investigation, according to the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

OPINION: What has become of Alaska? Has partisanship caused us to lose our humanity? Pictured: A sign from a "Choose Respect" rally to show support for ending domestic violence and sexual abuse sits along a road in the Western Alaska town of Bethel in May 2013.

Not all of Alaska's research materials and government records will move to Seattle when the National Archives and Records Administration closes its Anchorage branch.

Volunteers from the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage have released a young bald eagle that was injured in a fire.

Palin launches online channel: Exhorting viewers to "live life vibrantly, purposefully and boldly" former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Sunday announced on Facebook the launch of her own online media site .

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex partners are eligible for death benefits, even though they are prohibited from marrying by the state Constitution.

SSWC 2014 was a marathon in drinking beer, hanging out with awesome folks, shredding local trails, and staying up waaaay past my bedtime.

Those searching for the truth about what happened in the shoot-down of the Malaysia airliner over Ukraine can take little comfort from the history of another passenger jet that was blasted out of the sky over the Soviet Union more than three decades ago: The Kremlin at the time dodged, weaved and obfuscated.

Thursday's games Pilots cruise past Chinooks The visiting Pilots racked up 14 hits and held the Chinooks to just four as Anchorage cruised to a 9-0 win.

Kenai Police patrol vehicle makes a pass on the beach after the 11 p.m. closure at the mouth of the Kenai River on Friday, July 11, 2014.

On the Yukon River, an experimental commercial dipnet fishery was wildly successful this year, landing more than 250,000 chum salmon, providing $1 million in income for village residents and saving thousands of threatened king salmon, says the buyer of the fish.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough's long-idle ferry is gathering a layer of marine life thick enough to slow the unique craft once heralded as a high-tech solution for travel between the Valley and Anchorage.

Behind her the valley stretches wide and far, and out in the distance two eagles float across the sky.

The USAF Thunderbirds flying F-16 Falcon's make a pass at the 2014 Arctic Thunder Air Show at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, AK on Saturday, July 26, 2014.

The administration of Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, forecasting a budget deficit in 2015, is asking department heads to cut budgets by 0.5 percent before the end of the year.

OPINION: House candidate Laurie Hummel argues that the Regulatory Commission of Alaska added insult to injury in keeping public out of Enstar rate hike.

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