Federal investigators say the plane that crashed earlier this month in southwest Alaska, killing former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and four others, was equipped with an emergency locator beacon but that that transmitter separated from its mounting bracket on impact. The antenna cable also was found separated from the beacon. This finding is included in the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on the Aug. 9 crash that also injured four people, including former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe.

A fourth day of searching has turned up no signs of a small plane carrying a pilot and three National Park Service workers that disappeared in southwest Alaska near King Salmon. The Park Service says managers sent aircraft back over search areas on Tuesday. Four helicopters and six fixed-wing aircraft took part in Monday's search. The Dehavilland Beaver failed to arrive as expected Saturday in King Salmon, 285 miles southwest of Anchorage, after leaving Swikshak Lagoon in Katmai National Park. The workers were preparing for a planned reconstruction of an old ranger station.

The recession still lingering across much of the nation has not put much of a dent in the Alaska economy. State labor economist Neal Fried told the Juneau Empire that Alaska is the envy of much of the country with an unemployment rate that dropped to 7.7 percent in July -- nearly two points below the national rate of 9.5 percent. Fried says many of Alaska's industries have been largely immune to the recession, which has hit the manufacturing and construction sectors hardest.

Candidates are pulling no punches in their last-minute push for voters in Tuesday's primary. The greatest proof is in the U.S. Senate race where Sarah Palin has re-emerged -- months after first endorsing GOP challenger Joe Miller -- to urge Alaskans to support him and to oust Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski's not shying away, running a new radio spot of her own, called "Truth," in which she uses audio from a talk show host's tirade against Miller to show Miller as distorting her record.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission has denied a request for an expedited consideration of a complaint alleging Republican state Rep. Jay Ramras violated election law with ads for his Fairbanks business that improperly promoted him. The panel said at a hearing Monday that it would launch a normal investigation, which won't conclude until after Tuesday's primary. Ramras is running for lieutenant governor and says the complaint is a baseless last-minute campaign smear job orchestrated by a supporter of his main rival, Mead Treadwell.

There's still no sign of a small plane carrying a pilot and three National Park Service workers that disappeared during bad weather in southwest Alaska. An intensive search continued Monday for the floatplane that was reported missing when it failed to arrive as expected Saturday in King Salmon, 285 miles southwest of Anchorage. It had departed from Swikshak Lagoon in Katmai National Park. Park Service spokesman John Quinley says Monday's search effort was similar to Sunday's with numerous aircraft looking for the missing plane, but over a wider area.

Officials say the four people aboard a missing plane include three National Park Service employees, two of whom are brothers. There's been no sign of the small plane that disappeared Saturday during bad weather in southwest Alaska. An aerial search Sunday focused on rugged coastal terrain between Swikshak Lagoon in Katmai National Park and the floatplane's destination in King Salmon, about 285 miles southwest of Anchorage. The park service identified the passengers as park service maintenance employees.

Alaska State Troopers say one person has been found dead after a house fire in Big Lake. Troopers say the human remains were found in the living room area during a search of the gutted home after the early Sunday morning fire was extinguished. The cause of the blaze on Horseshoe Lake Road is under investigation. Troopers say the victim was taken to the state medical examiner's office.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A lobbyist injured in the Alaska plane crash that killed former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and four others has returned to the Washington, D.C., area. A crowd of about three dozen relatives, friends and neighbors cheered for 54-year-old Jim Morhard of Arlington, Va., as he was wheeled on a stretcher into the arrivals lounge at Dulles International Airport on Saturday night.

The state of Alaska has confirmed at least two cases of salmonella matching the strain tied to recalled eggs. State health department spokesman Greg Wilkinson says that in at least one of the cases, in Anchorage, the person ate eggs. He says it's not yet clear whether the second person, in Homer, also did. The state reports a suspected case of salmonella in Girdwood, but tests are pending. He says that person reported eating raw egg in cookie dough.