Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent his Fourth of July holiday in Alaska, fishing and kayaking in the Homer area.

Alaska seems to have made an impression on the billionaire, who penned a long Facebook post in admiration of the state’s Permanent Fund dividend, subsistence fishing and Alaska Native corporations.

Two brief but dramatic eruptions at the small Bogoslof volcano in the Bering Sea mark the latest of least 50 since December.

Researchers say they could also signal more to come.

Belinda Davis’ uncle died more than half a century ago on a remote Alaska mountaintop. His body was never recovered. But five years ago, a new possibility emerged that her family may find some closure.

Edmond W. “Eddie” Mize was one of 52 people who died on Nov. 22, 1952, when a C-124 Globemaster airplane traveling from Washington state to Elmendorf Air Force Base crashed into Mount Gannett in the Chugach range, about 50 miles east of Anchorage.

The wreckage was quickly lost beneath snowfall in the ice field above Colony Glacier. No bodies were recovered for decades.

“It’s like waiting for a funeral for 60 years,” Davis said.

from ADN.

Smoke from a fast-growing wildfire on the Kenai Peninsula descended on Anchorage overnight Saturday and triggered a spate of concerned calls to 911.

The East Fork Fire in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge ignited with a lightning strike Thursday evening, officials said. The blaze has grown to more than 800 acres, said Celeste Prescott, fire information officer with the Alaska Division of Forestry.

A man was removed from an Alaska Airlines jet in Anchorage late Thursday after he made threats during a flight from Seattle, airport police say.

The man, who hasn’t yet been identified, was a first-class passenger on Flight 755, according to Police and Fire Chief Jesse Davis at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Police were called to meet the aircraft as it was taxiing to a terminal shortly after 11:30 p.m., when air traffic controllers relayed a report from the flight crew that “they possibly had an armed passenger on the plane.”

Davis said four officers “immediately” boarded the aircraft. The man was taken into custody without incident.

“We also had checked the plane and interviewed witnesses, and it appears that there was no weapon,” Davis said. “He had just made a statement that he would shoot other passengers or blow up the plane.”

Passenger Ron Klein, who was traveling with his son in first class, said the man was in the first row, two rows ahead of them. Klein didn’t notice any unusual behavior during the flight but said the man “looked kinda eager to get off the plane” as it arrived at the gate.

After a brief delay opening the plane’s door, Klein said, officers stepped onto the plane with their guns drawn and ordered the man to come with them.

“The guy, he was just kinda, ‘What, what’s going on — what the heck?’ ” Klein said. “They pulled him off and then pulled him in (to the jetway), and then that was the last I saw of him.”

Davis said Klein’s account of the incident was consistent with police procedures for responding to reports of armed passengers. He emphasized that the boarding was safely conducted.

“At no time were the passengers in any danger,” Davis said. “The fact that the passenger was seated up front made it easier for us to intervene.”

The man wasn’t immediately arrested, Davis said, as police consulted with the FBI on whether to charge him with state or federal offenses.

Davis said the man showed signs of intoxication, but airline spokeswoman Halley Knigge didn’t have word on whether the man had been drinking during the flight. She said deplaning continued after the incident.