(286) stories found containing 'University of Alaska Anchorage'


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  • National conservation group now supports landless Natives legislation

    Joaqlin Estus, Indian Country Today|Dec 6, 2023

    The Wilderness Society conservation group has changed its position and now supports a bill that would create five new Alaska Native corporations in Southeast Alaska. It historically has opposed the creation of the new corporations. Federal legislation would create for-profit Native corporations for five communities left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. The settlement act transferred almost a billion dollars and title to 44 million acres to Native corporations to make profits and issue dividends to Native shareholders....

  • New director wants to add exhibits, events at Nolan Center

    Mark C. Robinson, Wrangell Sentinel|Dec 6, 2023

    Jeanie Arnold, who started work as the new director at the Nolan Center on Nov. 27, said she wants to "provide an overall sense of joy to the community of Wrangell through artistic exposure and historical storytelling." She replaces Cyni Crary, who is moving out of state. Crary had been in the job since July 2018. Arnold said some of her goals include broadening the scope of the center with new exhibits and events targeted at a wide variety of interests. She also hopes to collaborate with the...

  • Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom running for U.S. House against Peltola

    Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News|Nov 22, 2023

    Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom is running for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House, challenging Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in the 2024 election. In her campaign announcement on Nov. 14, Dahlstrom dubbed herself “a conservative Republican, law enforcement leader, military and veterans advocate.” Dahlstrom, 66, has served as lieutenant governor for less than a year. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy tapped her as his running mate in 2022. Before that, she served as commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Dahlstrom also served in the state...

  • Amount of the PFD has become an annual political battle

    Becky Bohrer, Associated Press|Nov 8, 2023

    Nearly every Alaskan received a $1,312 payment last month, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and housing are limited — rely on it for home heating fuel or snowmachines that are critical for transportation. The unique-to-Alaska payment has become a blessing and a curse in a state that for decades has ridden the boom-and-bust cycle of oil, and the annual Permanent Fund dividend now competes for fundi...

  • Last surviving signer of Alaska Constitution dies at 99

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Nov 8, 2023

    Vic Fischer, the last living signer of the Alaska Constitution and active in progressive state politics for seven decades, died Oct. 22 at age 99. His death came after several years of declining health and an extended stay in hospice care. Born May 4, 1924, in Berlin, Germany, to an American father and Latvian mother, his family rotated between the Soviet Union and Germany, leaving the latter country for good after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. As Josef Stalin’s purges took hold in the Soviet Union, Fischer’s father, journalist Louis Fischer...

  • Historian assembles 40 years of stories from Wrangell Institute

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 18, 2023

    Award-winning historian Ronan Rooney’s latest project is filling up a new webpage with interviews, photos, government and university reports — even the student newspaper and yearbooks — remembering the Wrangell Institute Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. Rooney started his “Wrangell History Unlocked” podcasts in 2020, recalling shipwrecks, the Stikine River route to the Klondike gold rush of 1898 and environmental advocate John Muir’s life and famous story about building a fire in 1879 atop what is now called Mount Dewey. “The Wrange...

  • Tourism traffic advances in Juneau while prime-attraction glacier recedes

    Becky Bohrer, Associated Press|Aug 16, 2023

    Thousands of tourists spill onto a boardwalk in Alaska’s capital city every day from cruise ships towering over downtown. Vendors hawk shoreside trips and rows of buses stand ready to whisk visitors away, with many headed for the area’s crown jewel: the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier gets swarmed by sightseeing helicopters and attracts visitors by kayak, canoe and foot. So many come to see the glacier and Juneau’s other wonders that the city’s immediate concern is how to manage them all as a record number are expected this year. Some residen...

  • Medical student comes to town through rural health care program

    Caroleine James, Wrangell Sentinel|Jul 26, 2023

    A medical student is visiting the Wrangell Medical Center for a month this summer to learn more about rural medicine and prepare herself for a future as a physician in Alaska. Christine Richter, who recently finished her first year at the University of Washington School of Medicine, arrived in town July 22 and will stay until Aug. 19. "I was so happy when I saw I got placed here (in Wrangell)," she said. Though she was born and raised in Anchorage, she hasn't had the opportunity to explore much...

  • Report says rural districts need to pay more to hire and retain teachers

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Jul 12, 2023

    Alaska school districts that are remote and serve mainly students from low-income households need to pay substantially more than they currently do to attract and retain teachers, a study from University of Alaska researchers found. Matthew Berman, a University of Alaska Anchorage economics professor, said the study shows that compensation does matter when it comes to recruitment and retention — and that some districts can and do pay teachers more to offset other disadvantages like a remote location. “Relatively advantaged districts are abl...

  • U.S. surgeon general hears about shortage of youth mental health services in Alaska

    Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News|Jul 5, 2023

    The nation’s surgeon general heard from Alaska mental health care advocates on June 26 about the need for more resources to address what they say is a crisis that is leading to more suicides, eating disorders and depression among young Alaskans. Dr. Vivek Murthy said he was in the state at the invitation of Sen. Dan Sullivan to learn how Alaska is dealing with the rising rates of isolation and depression that are affecting young people nationwide. He said that nationally, one in three adolescent girls in 2021 seriously considered suicide. M...

  • State surveillance finds new tick species moving into Alaska

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Jul 5, 2023

    More than 2,000 ticks collected over a decade in Alaska revealed a pattern: New tick species are being introduced to the state, often through dogs traveling from the south. They're joining the handful of tick species endemic to the state, which are usually found on small mammals like rabbits. The results are detailed in a new bulletin released by the Alaska Division of Public Health's Epidemiology Section. While several non-native tick species that can spread disease have been imported to...

  • Legislators disappointed but not surprised at governor's education funding veto

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Jun 28, 2023

    Southeast legislators said they were disappointed that Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the one-time increase in state money for K-12 public schools, but will try again next year to address education funding needs. “We heard from school districts around the state that needed the money,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz said June 21. The $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for the 2023-2024 school year was a compromise between House and Senate members, Democrats, Republicans and independents, he explained. The money, which Dunleavy cut...

  • First U.S. deep-water Arctic port will cost $600 million in Nome

    Mark Thiessen, Associated Press|Jun 28, 2023

    The cruise ship with about 1,000 passengers anchored off Nome, too big to squeeze into the city’s tiny port. Its well-heeled tourists had to shimmy into small boats for another ride to shore. It was 2016, and at the time, the cruise ship Serenity was the largest vessel ever to sail through the Northwest Passage. But as the Arctic sea ice relents under the pressures of global warming and opens shipping lanes across the top of the world, more tourists are venturing to Nome — a northwest Alaska destination known better for the Iditarod Trail Sle...

  • Federal grant will pay for Alaska nurses training program

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Jun 28, 2023

    A federal grant of nearly $3 million over five years will enable Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage to vastly expand its nursing-education programs, the university announced. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Labor, was one of 25 given to public-private partnerships across the nation to expand nursing training, APU said. While the entire nation is struggling with nursing shortages, Alaska’s situation is particularly dire. A 2022 report by the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association found that Alaska has the nation’s lowest pre...

  • Dunleavy's family policy adviser said rape 'pretty low on totem pole' of immorality

    Nat Herz and Curtis Gilbert, Alaska Public Media and American Public Media|Jun 7, 2023

    Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s adviser on “pro-family” policies resigned May 30 after revelations that he made incendiary and offensive statements on a podcast. A review of more than 100 hours of recordings found that Jeremy Cubas defended some of Adolf Hitler’s views, boasted that he uses a vile racial slur “on a daily basis” and said people should “get violent” in response to aggressive transgender activists. He also said it’s not possible for a man to rape his wife. “When you signed the contract, you have already consented,” Cubas s...

  • Donna Massin retires after 25 years educating Wrangell's students

    Marc Lutz, Wrangell Sentinel|May 31, 2023

    With a quiet demeanor and a head for mathematics and physics, one teacher has helped Wrangell's students understand all those calculations for a quarter of a century. After 25 years, teacher Donna Massin has decided X plus Y equals retirement. Last Thursday, she dismissed class for the last time at Wrangell High School and began a new chapter in life. Born in Mount Edgecumbe, she has lived in Anchorage, Ketchikan, Seward and Gulf Port, Mississippi. "I kind of bounced around," she said. Massin's...

  • Alaska envisions a future of making money from carbon credits

    Becky Bohrer, Associated Press|May 31, 2023

    Alaska’s push to become a bigger player in the clean-energy market was in the spotlight last week at a conference convened by the governor, even as the state continues to embrace new fossil fuel production, including the controversial Willow oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope. At the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage on May 23, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a measure he successfully pushed through the Legislature that would allow the oil-reliant state to cash in on the sale of so-called carbon credits to companies l...

  • Legislators likely headed into overtime, unable to agree on PFD

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|May 17, 2023

    Alaska lawmakers have been spending the final days of the 121-day legislative session disagreeing over the amount of this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend. As of Monday afternoon, the House and Senate appeared unable to agree on state spending for the fiscal year that starts July 1, likely pushing lawmakers into an overtime session. This would be the fourth year of extra session time since the cost of the dividend put a strain on tight state finances in 2017. The Republican-controlled House wants a $2,700 PFD this fall and is willing to draw hund...

  • Alaska's newest 737 takes Indigenous art to new heights

    Sophia Carlisle, Alaska Beacon|May 17, 2023

    Alaska Airlines last week unveiled a new design that replaced the popular Salmon Thirty Salmon jet. The new art still features salmon, but this time from an Indigenous perspective. Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl, a Tlingit artist and business owner from Juneau, created the new design in the style of formline art. Worl said she hopes that the plane will inspire non-Indigenous people to learn about the rich cultural history between Native Alaskans and salmon. The plane is designed in...

  • Students dissect, build, study and play in science trip

    Marc Lutz, Wrangell Sentinel|May 3, 2023

    They tested their abilities to follow instructions. They designed and built structures to withstand seismic activity. They studied the inner workings of marine life. They looked at sea lion poop. Over the course of seven days, six students from Stikine Middle School attended the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. ANSEP began in 1995 as a scholarship program but has since become an educational program to help Alaska Natives follow...

  • Almost 500 Wrangell households received Medicaid benefits last year

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Apr 12, 2023

    The state has embarked on a mandatory income eligibility review of about 150,000 households receiving Medicaid benefits — covering as many as 260,000 people, more than one in three Alaskans. Nearly 500 Wrangell households could be in that stack. That represents about half of all the households in the community of just under 2,100 residents. The Alaska Department of Health reported an average monthly caseload of 476 Wrangell households enrolled in Medicaid in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022. The program provides health care coverage f...

  • Legislation would require financial literacy class in Alaska high schools

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Apr 12, 2023

    Pointing to high credit card balances, growing student loan debts and inadequate savings for many U.S. households, Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski believes it is important to teach students “to avoid common financial pitfalls and manage their money successfully.” He has proposed legislation that would require Alaska high schools to teach a financial literacy course. His bill also would require that students complete the course to earn their diploma. The course would have to cover managing a bank account, setting a budget, credit card deb...

  • Lawmakers push back against Dunleavy nominee to university board

    Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News|Mar 29, 2023

    Some state lawmakers have signaled their opposition to the nomination of the leader of a conservative advocacy organization to serve on the University of Alaska Board of Regents. Bethany Marcum is executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum, which advocates for limiting government and reducing state spending, including on education. Gov. Mike Dunleavy nominated Marcum for the board earlier this year. Her appointment is subject to confirmation by the entire Legislature, which will vote on the governor’s nominations in April or May. The H...

  • Anti-discrimination bill gets first hearing in state House committee

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Mar 29, 2023

    Dozens of Alaskans testified in the state Capitol on March 20, urging lawmakers to advance a new anti-discrimination measure that would protect Alaskans from being denied housing or access to public accommodations because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. House Bill 99, from Anchorage Rep. Jennifer Armstrong, is being considered by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, which heard two hours of public testimony, almost entirely in support of the idea. Members of the committee have received more than 1,000 emails — m...

  • Boys defeat Petersburg in battle for second place, win spot at state

    Marc Lutz, Wrangell Sentinel|Mar 15, 2023

    In four days of tough battles on the hardwood, including an overtime win in the third round, the Wrangell High School boys basketball team took second place in the Southeast regional championships last Saturday in Juneau and a berth at the state tournament The boys and girls varsity teams, along with the cheer and pep squads, traveled to the capital city to vie for a chance to compete for the state championship in Anchorage. Like the boys team, the cheer squad took second place to qualify for...

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