KUAC's Dan Bross talks with Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy climate specialist Rick Thoman about the rapid drop in fall temperatures.

U.S. jet fighters have scrambled at least a dozen times so far this year to intercept Russian military aircraft that fly into airspace off Alaska’s coasts. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says that’s the highest number of intercepts that NORAD has responded to in recent years. And Sen. Dan Sullivan says it’s part of Russia’s policy of expanding its influence and military presence in the Arctic.

A study finds that winter ice in the Bering Sea has been at its lowest levels in the last 5,500 years. KUAC’s Mary Auld reports.

Public schools in the Fairbanks area are on track to open classrooms to elementary students on October 5 and middle school students October 19. The Board of Education for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District had another late-running meeting late night to hear conflicting testimony from parents, teachers and students. But the issues for returning high school students were too complicated for the board to pick one of two plans and the board rejected both of them.