Daniella Rivera
Investigative & Courts/Crime Reporter
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Daniella has spent half a decade working as a broadcast journalist in Alaska.
She’s traveled to villages in Bristol Bay to tell stories about the impacts of potential cuts to rural education funding. She stood among Alaskans in Fairbanks the night the Fairbanks Four were released from prison. Daniella reported on Anchorage's spice epidemic and two record breaking years of homicides, one in which a serial killer walked the city’s streets. She hosted a half-hour special investigative report highlighting problems with a new, experimental bail system and broke the story about a no-jail-time plea deal that exposed a loophole in Alaska’s sexual assault sentencing laws, sparking changes to those laws less than a year later. She traveled along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race route two years in a row as a digital reporter. And when the ground shook in November of 2018, Daniella helped deliver live breaking news coverage of the aftermath of a 7.1 earthquake.
In five years, her reporting in Alaska has earned two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, a regional Emmy award, several Alaska Press Club awards and Alaska Broadcasters Association (ABA) Goldie awards and she was honored as the ABA Broadcaster of the Year in 2018.
Daniella is a tenacious truth seeker with a passion for telling the stories of Alaskans. She’s also living an exciting story of her own. Daniella met her husband in Alaska and they continue to live happily in Anchorage with their kitty and now a corgi pup.
Connect with Daniella on Facebook (Daniella Rivera – News), Instagram (@RiveraReports) and Twitter (@RiveraDanie), and if you see her out and about, please say hi! If you have a story idea you would like her to investigate, she would love to hear from you.
(Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photography)
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One after another, doctors who have been treating Alaska’s sick and dying COVID-19 patients called into an Anchorage Assembly work session Friday to share the horrors they’re seeing inside overwhelmed intensive care units and plead for the city’s leaders to act.
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As a candidate, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson promised cuts to the city budget and property tax relief for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, his administration faces questions about whether those promises will be reflected his first budget.
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Members of the Anchorage Assembly and Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration are working with third-party facilitators to develop a plan to address homelessness and hope to agree on a winter sheltering proposal by the end of August.
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On Tuesday, state data showed there are 132 people being hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide. That’s up from 123 people on Monday, and 116 late last week.
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As COVID-19 cases in Alaska continue to rise, the city’s newly hired chief medical officer said he will not recommend mask mandates or capacity restrictions to Mayor Dave Bronson.
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The shuttered Palmer Correctional Center is on track to open next week after $16 million in renovations and repairs.
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The Anchorage Police Department did not release a revised version of its draft body camera policy Wednesday as expected, citing legal issues for the delay.
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Anchorage Assembly members voted to confirm six more of Mayor Dave Bronson’s executive appointees during their regular meeting Tuesday evening.
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Under the leadership of newly sworn in Anchorage Police Chief Ken McCoy, officers will spend more time investigating lower-level drug offenses and crimes of public disorder.
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Public participation in the development of the Anchorage Police Department body camera policy is waning, with some community members criticizing the process.
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Anchorage assembly members grilled the mayor's health director appointee Tuesday on his qualifications for the job, his understanding of public health and controversial comments he’s made about the pandemic.
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The Anchorage Assembly is expediting the confirmation process for the mayor's health director appointee in response to concerns over comments he has made about the pandemic.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson called COVID-19 vaccines "experimental" on Thursday after his newly hired chief medical officer encouraged Alaskans to get the shot.
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The delta variant is sparking a new wave of COVID-19 cases in Alaska, prompting questions about what the Municipality of Anchorage’s pandemic response will look like under a new administration.
Alaska hospital administrators issued an urgent plea to the public Tuesday: Get vaccinated before hospital capacity is overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.
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An assistant attorney general has been removed from his caseload pending the outcome of an investigation by the state of Alaska after a report by The Guardian named him as the user behind a white-supremacist twitter account.
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The number of people infected with COVID-19 and needing hospitalization is growing quickly, putting stress on Anchorage’s already strained health care system, according to health officials.
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An Anchorage lawmaker sponsored a legislation package aimed at improving public safety policy in Alaska.
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Recent court filings reveal an Anchorage police officer facing felony charges in both state and federal court for allegedly depriving someone of their constitutional rights had a known history of using unjustified force.
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Mayor Dave Bronson and members of the assembly prepare to regroup and continue working toward a more permanent solution.
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By failing to introduce the measure, assembly members allowed Mayor Dave Bronson’s resolution and a competing proposal on the agenda to die, sending his administration.
The first confirmation hearings for Bronson’s executive appointments began Friday, offering a glimpse at upcoming changes the new administration plans to propose.
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It’s unclear what it will cost the city to relocate the lot, and how quickly that could be done.
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The next opportunity for community members to weigh in on the development of a body camera policy will be during a public meeting on Aug. 4.
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Alaska State Troopers suspended their search Wednesday for the missing boater in Big Lake.
After officially taking office, Bronson and his team met with the Anchorage Assembly to discuss his upcoming request to fund what the administration calls a "navigation center."
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The Anchorage Police Department hosted a community listening session Wednesday to hear input from members of the community on the department’s draft body camera policy.
Incoming mayor-elect Dave Bronson and his transition team unveiled a proposal to address homelessness during an Anchorage Assembly housing and homelessness committee meeting Tuesday.
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Mayor-elect Dave Bronson plans to unveil a plan to address homelessness to the Anchorage Assembly next week.
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Alaska’s Court System has a backlog of cases to work through after jury trials were halted during the pandemic.
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Anchorage Mayor-elect Dave Bronson has announced his picks to lead the city’s public safety team.
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Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services issued a public health alert Monday in response to a recent increase in opioid overdoses.
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Ahead of a community listening session this month, the Anchorage Police Department has released a draft policy for body-worn cameras.
The Anchorage Police Department gave public presentations during an Anchorage Assembly public safety committee meeting Wednesday on the processes and tools available to law enforcement when it comes to addressing homeless camps and panhandling.
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Unredacted reports containing the personal information of thousands of people involved in car crashes were released in error for nearly two years, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
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Anchorage Mayor-elect Dave Bronson is announcing his picks to lead his homelessness and budget review teams.
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An effort to fact check statements the Anchorage Police Department posted on Facebook in February revealed the department has been charging what attorneys call unlawful fees for public records.
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Dave Bronson, set to win mayoral runoff election, announces his transition team.
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Opioid involved overdoses have spiked in Alaska, prompting public health officials to double down on substance abuse awareness and outreach efforts as they try to understand what is causing the spike.
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Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services is working to adopt technology that would give Alaskans quick access to their immunization records as well as a uniform way of providing proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.
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In a new tourism ad aimed at branding Alaska as a safe place to visit this summer, Gov. Mike Dunleavy touts a claim about the state’s COVID-19 vaccination rate that is no longer up to date.
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The added convenience of getting a COVID-19 shot comes at the cost of an increase in vaccine wastage, something public health officials say is to be expected.
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The acting mayor had sought to leave enough time for the school district to protect students through the end of the school year.
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In Anchorage, a mask mandate remains in effect despite new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that significantly eases mask requirements for fully vaccinated people.
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The runoff race for Anchorage mayor is still neck and neck, with updated preliminary results on Wednesday showing candidate Dave Bronson pulling slightly ahead of Forrest Dunbar.
With voters set to choose a new mayor next week, Ken McCoy might only have the next two months in the job as Anchorage’s top cop.
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The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services released results from a statewide COVID-19 vaccine survey Thursday.
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Eagle River resident Eddie Thomas Jr., 36, is facing several charges in connection with the suspicious death of 27-year-old Jerilyn Nicholson.
In the days after her disappearance, missing persons flyers with photos of Nicholson were posted on windows and buildings around Eagle River and shared on social media.
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The six months that Austin Quinn-Davidson has spent serving as Anchorage’s acting mayor have been very different from the terms of those who served in the role before her.
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