Sorted by date Results 601 - 622 of 622
Out of 1,904 registered voters in Wrangell, according to preliminary election results for the 2018 midterms, there was a local turnout of 733. This is a percentage of 38.5 percent. Kim Lane, Wrangell city clerk, said there were 175 early ballots that were not yet counted. Statewide, Alaska had a voter turnout of 41.9 percent, or 239,604 votes cast out of 571,851 registered voters. Alaskan voters had the opportunity to vote for a new governor and U.S. Representative. The “Stand For Salmon” ballot measure one was also voted on. Wrangell, a par...
The midterms have come again, and Wrangell turned out to make their voice heard in the Nov. 6 election. Polls were open at the Nolan Center. On the ballot was the position of Alaska governor and lieutenant governor, U.S. representative, and state representative. The race for governor was hotly contested. Bill Walker, the current governor of Alaska, suspended his re-election campaign in October, though his name still appeared on ballots. The other candidates include Democratic candidate Mark...
“With fisheries, it’s almost the forgotten resource of our state as an economic driver. It’s almost like they are an afterthought. We have to realign that,” said Mark Begich, Democratic candidate for Alaska governor, as we readied for an interview during his trip to Kodiak last week. Begich came to Kodiak despite the cancelled fisheries debate caused by a no show by his Republican opponent, Mike Dunleavy, who has not responded to requests to share his ideas and vision for Alaska’s oldest industry. “I think it’s appalling,” Begich said. “I...
Cell phones are being used by fishermen to bounty hunt for lost fishing gear for pay. California fishermen created the retrieval project last year along with the Nature Conservancy to get ropes, buoys, pots and anchors out of the water after the Dungeness fishery so they don’t entangle whales, and Washington and Oregon quickly followed suit. Nearly 50 whales were taken on the west coast last year after the annual crab opener, one of the region’s largest and most lucrative fisheries. “They are using their cell phones and its GPS to take a pictu...
After voting on Aug. 21, the results of the Alaska primary election have started to come in. Unofficial election results have been posted online at the Alaska Division of Elections’ website. According to the election results, it was a low turnout for the primary, with only 18.2 percent of Alaska’s voting public casting ballots. There were seven candidates running for the position of U.S. Representative this year, three Republicans and four Democrats. Alysa Galvin took 19,735 votes, or 54.09 percent, securing the Democratic nomination for the...
As Bill Governor Walker prepares to sign a bill this week enacting the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan, 16 new applicants hope to soon begin growing shellfish and seaweed businesses in just over 417 acres of tideland areas in Alaska. The new growers will add to the 35 farms and 6 hatchery/nurseries that already are producing a mix of oysters, clams, mussels and various seaweeds. Eventually, sea cucumbers, scallops, giant geoduck clams and algae for biofuels will be added into the mix. Most of the mariculture requests in Alaska are located...
Shockwaves rocked the Alaska seafood industry when China announced on Friday that it will add an additional 25 percent tariff on seafood imports starting July 6 in retaliation to Trump’s trade war. “The 25 percent will be added to the current base tariffs which typically range from 5 to 15 percent,” said Garrett Evridge, a fishery analyst with the McDowell Group. The list of seafood products includes all Alaska salmon, pollock, cod, herring, flatfish, Dungeness crab, snow crab, Atka mackerel, sablefish, geoduck clams and more. “This is devasta...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Democratic former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich is running for governor of Alaska, complicating Gov. Bill Walker’s re-election bid. Begich made his plans official shortly before a Friday filing deadline. Before the announcement, Walker, an independent, said he would skip the Democratic primary and gather signatures to appear on the general election ballot in November. A recent court ruling allowed independents to run in the Democratic primary if they want the party’s backing. Walker was elected in 2014 with Democratic suppor...
Hagfish is the real name for what is commonly called slime eels and it could become a viable fishery with ready markets standing by. Little is known about hagfish in Alaska, although they are commonly caught elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. In Oregon, for example, a fleet of 15 to 20 boats catches up to two million pounds each year in customized five gallon buckets or large barrels and pay fishermen up to $1.25 a pound. Now, two Alaska biologists are testing the waters for a fishery with longliner in Southeast who were given a special permit...
A shuffle in some funding leaves Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape to manage the resources and target important projects across the state. At first glance, the $69 million operating budget for FY19 appears to be down slightly from last year’s $72.3 million but that’s not the case. “Most of that difference is a sort of ‘cleanup’ in authority we no longer had funding for, such as the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund, test fishing and some interagency items. The rest is due to $1.1 million shortfall in Commercial Fisheries E...
Spring is usually the busiest time of year for brokers in the buy/sell/trade business for Alaska salmon permits. But that’s not the case this year. Values for several salmon permits had ticked upwards after a blockbuster salmon fishery in 2017, but they have remained stagnant since last fall. “That sort of summarizes the salmon permit market. There is not a lot of excitement about any of them,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. A lackluster catch forecast for the upcoming salmon season - down 34 percent – has helped dampen...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Gov. Bill Walker on Monday announced plans to seek re-election as an independent, saying he’s focused on a vision for the state and not on partisanship. He and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott filed candidate paperwork with the state Division of Elections. They also filed separate letters of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Walker told reporters they plan make an independent run and to collect signatures necessary to qualify for next year’s ballot. He said they announced their plans now because Alask...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A Republican state senator has announced plans to run for governor in Alaska. Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla on Monday filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission a letter of intent to run. The election will be held next year. Gov. Bill Walker, a Republican-turned-independent, has not formally announced whether he’ll seek re-election. Walker told reporters Monday that he is focused on getting a state capital budget passed. Dunleavy had been flirting with the idea of running for governor for some time. Earlier this yea...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Legislature, motivated by the threat of a government shutdown, approved a plan late Thursday to fund state operations for another year. The proposal, advanced by budget negotiators and passed by the House and Senate, would continue to draw from savings to help fill the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit, something Gov. Bill Walker had hoped to avoid. It also would fully fund K-12 education, provide $57 million for oil and gas tax credits and limit to $1,100 the size of this year’s dividend check Alaskans recei...
The Senate Finance Committee reviewed a bill which could end up reshaping the future of the state’s finances last week. As with two other bills under consideration, the Permanent Fund Protection Act (Senate Bill 26) would arrange the Permanent Fund’s Earnings Reserve Account – from which the state’s annual dividends are paid out – so that the amount of money drawn from the earnings would be tied to an historical average of percent of market value (POMV). Proposed by Gov. Bill Walker, a percentage of the ERA under this new regime would the...
As the Alaska House and Senate continue to prepare budgets for the coming year, residents of Wrangell and Ketchikan were invited to their Legislative Information Office locations for a call-in session with Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-District 36). Meeting late in the afternoon February 23, 10 Wrangell residents and seven in Ketchikan tuned in for the representative’s pitch for House Bill 115, a proposal to reconfigure Alaska’s Permanent Fund along with revenue enhancements being sponsored by the Majority-led House Finance Committee. The bill calls for...
Entering its third full week of the session, Alaska’s Legislature continues to look at a variety of spending cuts and revenue options. On February 2, the Senate Finance Committee heard SB 21, a proposal of Sen. Bert Stedman to restructure how Permanent Fund earnings are appropriated. Currently the $56B in the fund are constitutionally protected, but the bill proposes further limiting the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the principal to 4.5 percent of market value, based on a rolling five-year average. That rate falls within the f...
Alaska’s 30th Legislature convened for its new session on Tuesday, with the state’s finances presenting a daunting challenge for the next 90 days. The spending deficit is projected at around $3.1 billion this year if the budget is left as-is. Agency spending has come to just over 13-percent since FY15, and the budget as a whole has taken a 29-percent cut when capital projects and other funding is considered. Revenue has failed to cover operating expenses since FY13, but has covered an ever-dwindling proportion since. This year the $1.2 bil...
JUNEAU (AP) – Alaska legislators agree on the need to address the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit. But rifts remain over how best to do that, with divisions forming over taxes, how much to keep cutting spending and whether the state needs to tinker with Alaskans’ beloved yearly oil wealth checks. A new 90-day legislative session began Tuesday, with many lawmakers citing a sense of urgency amid the continued drawdown of state savings. Last year’s regular and special sessions were snarled by gridlock ahead of a heated election season....
JUNEAU (AP) – Bills that would restore the portion of Alaskans’ oil wealth checks that were cut by Gov. Bill Walker last year were filed Monday, ahead of the start of the new legislative session. The legislation to restore dividends was proposed by Republican Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla and incoming Republican Rep. David Eastman of Wasilla. Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski of Anchorage revived a proposal he has pushed previously with little success which he said would enshrine the current dividend formula in the state Constitution. The Ala...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said Monday that Alaska is an area of strategic importance to the country, given its foothold in the Arctic and production of oil, seafood and other resources. In an address to state lawmakers, he spoke about the state’s role in improving its own fiscal standing and that of the United States. He also highlighted several issues facing Alaska, including long-standing problems with domestic violence and sexual abuse, a veterans’ health care system that he said is not working and rising number of opioi...
Volunteers are needed to help craft new safety rules that are being written for older boats – which includes the bulk of Alaska’s fishing vessels. Called the Alternate Compliance Safety Program (ACSP), it is part of the 2010 US Coast Guard Authorization Act and is aimed atvessels that will be 25 years old by 2020, are greater than 50 feet in length, and operate beyond three nautical miles. The program will include most of Alaska’s fishing fleet — a 2014 maritime study by the Juneau-based McDowell Group shows that the majority of Alaska...