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Facing a deficit of $111 million, the Anchorage School District released its draft budget on Jan. 31 calling for massive cuts to programs and positions. The cuts represent about 20% of the district’s spending plan for the 2025-2026 school year. In a letter to Anchorage parents, Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said the deficit is “driven by more than a decade of flat state funding and rising costs due to inflation.” The budget proposal came on the heels of Gov. Mike Dunleavy rejecting a plan by Alaska lawmakers to significantly increase state...
On Jan. 28, more than 2 million federal workers received an emailed offer to resign but be paid for eight months, part of an aggressive effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to drastically cut the size of the federal workforce. The move could have major consequences in Alaska, a state with 15,000 federal workers. The “deferred resignation” plan is part of a suite of changes the Trump administration is trying to make to the federal government, including slashing equity programs and ordering remote workers back to offices. Wor...
State political campaign regulators have issued a second heavy penalty against the organizers of a failed campaign that sought to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system. On Jan. 27, the Alaska Public Offices Commission fined Alaskans for Honest Elections, Alaskans for Honest Government, the Ranked Choice Education Association and Anchorage resident Arthur Matthias a combined total of almost $157,000. The commission imposed the maximum allowable fines on the parties, stating that they have “proven themselves shockingly poor at com...
A state commission is recommending automatic inflation-driven pay raises for Alaska’s governor, lieutenant governor, members of the state Legislature and top officials at state agencies. The recommendation, approved by the three members of the State Officers Compensation Commission on Jan. 29, will become effective after the 2026 state election unless the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approve a measure within 60 days rejecting the pay hikes. “If we’re really going to have a system where anybody can run (for office) and be able finan...
A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish last month — but it came with a catch. LocalCoho, a going-out-of-business salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, New York, wanted to give 40,000 pounds of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a motherlode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families. But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm’s giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them pro...
The U.S. Forest Service’s “Sustainability and Climate” web page is gone, as are the news sections for the homepages of Alaska’s national forests and the Tongass National Forest. Likewise for a vast amount of federal government weather, disaster assistance, fisheries, health, education and other reports. In some instances they can still be accessed through submenus or via virtual backdoors such as the exact URL for a specific report. In others, the information has simply halted — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity a...
Alaska law enforcement officials say statewide drug enforcement actions focused on the U.S. Mail resulted in the seizure of more than four times as much alcohol in 2024 than in 2023. Officials seized more than 8,500 liters of distilled spirits, malted beverages and wine, according to new data by the Alaska Department of Public Safety released in an annual report for the state’s drug enforcement unit. State authorities identified and intercepted large and small alcohol imports headed for communities that have opted to prohibit alcohol, known a...
In the fall of 2018, officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and their partners celebrated what they thought was a milestone: an end to the infestation of invasive northern pike in the Kenai Peninsula. Their laborious program - they thought - had ridden the peninsula of the salmon-gobbling species that has wreaked havoc on the natural runs that are important to commercial and sport fishers, as well as to the overall ecological system. "We were all excited, you know. We spent,...
A member of the Alaska House majority on Jan. 24 introduced legislation that would increase the state’s public school funding by more than 35%, marking the beginning of what will likely be a lengthy debate over lawmakers’ top priority for the session. The bill would add roughly $464 million to the state’s annual education spending, which currently hovers around $1.2 billion per year to Alaska’s schools. The measure was introduced by Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, a Sitka independent who co-chairs the House Education Committee, and who worked as a publ...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is proposing legislation that would shorten the window for early voting in statewide elections and make other changes to the way elections are conducted. The bill would require all mail ballots to be received by the Division of Elections by Election Day, changing statutes that have existed for decades. Currently, ballots must be postmarked by Election Day but can be received up to 10 days later for most voters, and 15 days after Election Day for overseas voters. The bill faced immediate criticism from an advocate for voting...
The two U.S. Border Patrol officers newly stationed in Juneau will work with law enforcement throughout Southeast on high-priority illegal activities — largely involving drugs — not conducting workplace raids and setting up deportation camps, said Ross Wilkin, patrol agent in charge of the Border Patrol’s sector office, which is responsible for operations in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. “We don’t want people to be concerned that there’s a restaurant that’s going to get raided or something like that,” he said. “This is not the goal of this...
Money's going to be tight, but a permanent education funding increase rather than another one-time boost is among the essential tasks facing lawmakers this session, state Senate leaders said as the Alaska Legislature gaveled to work on Jan. 21. Energy and development issues also dominated conversations with lawmakers during the first day of the session, which came the day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to vastly expand oil and other natural resources production...
North America's tallest peak is a focal point of Jeff King's life. The four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race operates his kennel and mushing tourism business just 8 miles from Denali National Park and Preserve's entrance, and the 20,310-foot mountain looms large as he trains his dogs on nearby trails. King and many others who live in the mountain's shadow say most Alaskans will never stop calling the peak Denali, its Alaska Native name, despite President Donald Trump's...
The loss of an estimated 4 million common murres during the marine heatwave known as the “Blob” was the biggest bird die-off in recorded history, and seven or eight years later the Alaska population has not recovered, biologists report. The findings, in a study led by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Heather Renner, show that the toll on common murres killed 4 million, about half the Alaska population. It was not only the largest bird die-off in the modern era but also appears to be the largest wildlife die-off, said the study, whi...
Alaska education advocates are gearing up for another attempt to substantially increase state funding for public schools, but they say it’s unclear how a looming legislative stalemate will be broken. Last year, the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy failed to approve an expansive education package after protracted negotiations. Legislators fell one vote short of overriding Dunleavy’s veto of a historic school funding increase. The Legislature later approved a major $176 million one-year funding boost for schools as a compromise. School adm...
An ongoing failure by the state to process food stamps and other public assistance applications in a timely manner will now be subject to federal court scrutiny: The state will have to file monthly reports as a result of two lawsuits stemming from the backlog. A preliminary injunction issued Dec. 31 by a federal judge in a food assistance lawsuit filed by 10 Alaskans was followed by a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit on Jan. 6 imposing nearly identical reporting requirements for cash assistance to elderly and disabled residents....
Helena Pagano’s great-grandfather was the last Alaska Native chief of a remote island in the Bering Sea, closer to Russia than North America. He died starving as a prisoner of war after Japanese troops invaded during World War II, removing the few dozen residents from their village, never to return. Pagano has long believed Japan should pay more restitution for what its soldiers did to her great-grandfather and the other residents of Attu Island. But her demand was sparked anew last summer by her first visit to the island. She went alongside J...
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it. A rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on St. Paul Island, part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the North” for its diversity of life. That’s because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands...
Alaska lawmakers from fishing-dependent communities say they have ideas for ways to rescue the state's beleaguered seafood industry, with a series of proposed legislation likely to follow. Members of a legislative task force created last spring now have draft recommendations that range from the international level, where they say marketing of Alaska fish can be much more robust, to the hyper-local level, where projects like shared community cold-storage facilities can cut costs. The draft was...
Members of the Alaska Senate are making another run at restoring the state’s pension system for public employees, one year after inaction by the Alaska House killed a prior effort. Senate Bill 28, filed Jan. 10 by Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel, would create a system slightly modified from the one eliminated by state lawmakers in 2006. Its early introduction is a sign that returning to a defined-benefit retirement plan — based on years of service — for state, municipal and school district employees will garner significant attention in the 34th...
Challenges in recruitment and retention of state employees continue to bog down public services, according to budget documents. In recent months, the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, a state-operated assisted-living facility, has reduced its capacity because of a shortage of staff. The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage, the only public inpatient mental health facility in the state, relies on contracted staff rather than employees to provide care. The Division of Juvenile Justice has closed its Fairbanks facility due to staffing shortages. The...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has asked President-elect Donald Trump to immediately reverse the Biden administration’s Alaska environmental and tribal lands policies, arguing that they hurt the state’s economy. “Your election will hail in a new era of optimism and opportunity, and Alaska stands ready to and is eager to work with you to repair this damage wrought by the previous administration, and to set both Alaska and America on a course to prosperity,” Dunleavy said in a letter accompanying a 27-page document listing his desired Alaska policy changes...
A creative Southeast Alaska fish processor took the often-discarded collars of black cod, smoked and canned them and came away with a new product for the holiday season that sold out to wholesalers within a few days. Mathew Scaletta is director of facilities and operations at Wildfish in Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island. Black cod tips, also known as collars, because they are taken from a part of the fish just below the head, offer a prime example of stretching a seafood harvest, and thanks to a $6,000 grant from the Alaska Sustainable...
A group of homeowners has filed a lawsuit against the Native Village of Eklutna over a casino planned near Anchorage. It would be the third tribal-owned casino in the state, following by more than a decade much smaller operations in Metlakatla and Klawock in Southeast Alaska. The Eklutna gaming hall would be built on about eight acres of land, a few miles off the Glenn Highway, about 25 miles driving miles north of downtown Anchorage. “There’s a lot of horses and dog mushing, and that kind of activity out here,” said Debbie Ossiander, who lives...
Officials are still not close to reaching their goal of returning at least 5 million salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River Basin. However, new data shows a positive trend in total abundance of fish in the basin. That’s according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which met Dec. 10 to discuss the latest data of salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin. Before 1850, salmon and steelhead runs to the Columbia River Basin were estimated to have been between 10 million to 16 million annually. Dams s...