Research Vessel Won't Get to Alaska Unit 2015. A new polar ocean research vessel to be operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks will remain on the Great Lakes this winter because of construction delays, the National Science Foundation announced in a news release Thursday. The NSF said the ship was supposed to leave the shipyard in Marinette, Wis., where it was built, before the Saint Lawrence Seaway closed for the winter. It will not make that deadline because of construction delays. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 

Task Force to Address Violence on Reservations, Alaska Village. A special Justice Department task force will hold a series of public meetings around the country to study the scope and effect that exposure to violence has on Native American and Alaska Native children, the Justice Department said. The announcement, made by Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. this week, comes amid a surge of violence on many Indian reservations and complaints that federal law enforcement officials, who are responsible for investigating and prosecuting most major crimes in Lower 48 Indian Country, have done too little to address the problem. Anchorage Daily News 

Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates Exploding in Greenland. The infection rate of some sexually transmitted diseases has doubled in Greenland. According to an article in the Danish newspaper Politiken, the infection rate for gonorrhea has doubled over the past six years meaning that one in 26 adults is now infected. Arctic Journal 

US Navy Arctic Exercises Threatened by Budget Constraints. According to Rear Admiral Kenneth Perry, commander of all U.S. attack submarines based on the East Coast, one of the Virginia-class attack boats in Groton, Connecticut is being prepared for the next Ice Exercises, but they could be jeopardized by military spending cuts brought about by budget crises in Washington, Washington Post reports. The last Ice Exercise was held in March 2011, as Barents Observer reported. Barents Observer 

Acid Water Threat to Ocean Life. A major research project, by 500 of the world's leading acidification experts, suggests our oceans are souring at a faster rate than any time in the last 300 million years. They blame the amount of carbon monoxide produced by humans and say that 30 per cent of ocean life, including coral and sea-snails, may not survive beyond the year 2100. BBC News 

Poisonous Chemical Cocktails Still Threaten Arctic Bird Populations. A cocktail of contaminants could threaten to further push the Arctic's population of glaucous gulls into decline, a Canadian scientist has found. The breeding population of the glaucous gull - which looks like your average seagull - has halved in the Canadian Arctic since the 1980s. Nunatsaiq Online 

NOAA's Arctic Mission Comes to Eielson. EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- Miles north beyond Eielson rests the frigid waters of the Arctic. There, researchers and pilots from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration patrolled the airspace Oct. 19 - Nov. 7, collecting valuable data on the earth's atmosphere. The mission is one of global importance due to the fact that the Arctic feeds weather for the entire Northern Hemisphere. The information collected is used to investigate climate change around the world. Eielson Air Force Base 

New Report Investigates Alaska's Suicide Rates. A new report on suicide in Alaska from the State Division of Public Health's epidemiology section, found rates are higher in more northern regions. Erik Woelber is a graduate student intern with the epidemiology section. Woelber says the study breaks communities into three categories by size and road access and looks at factors that may have contributed to the suicide rate. Woelber says the rates of suicide at higher latitudes merits more research. APRN