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An investigation into the July 6 fire that destroyed most of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Petersburg determined that the blaze started with maintenance work outside the building. Petersburg Fire Marshal Ryan Welde said in a statement that the fire was accidental. The fire started at ground level on the exterior of the building, the statement said. The fire marshal’s report did not explain what maintenance work was underway that ignited the flames. The fire then traveled up the wall via rigid foam insulation behind the vinyl s...
Alaska’s Supreme Court, with support from the state bar association, approved a waiver at the end of last year that will allow specially trained nonlawyers to represent Alaskans in court on some issues. Nikole Nelson, Alaska Legal Services Corp.’s director, said the system is unique to Alaska — no other state has a program quite like it. She said these nonlawyers with legal training are crucial because there isn’t enough legal representation in the state. “As long as I’ve been working in legal aid, which is my entire legal career, we’ve faced...
Nick Begich III, a Republican candidate who lost to Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in last year’s races for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, said Thursday, July 13, that he will run against Peltola again in 2024. Peltola hasn’t announced a re-election campaign but has been raising money and has a campaign manager. In an August special ranked-choice election to replace Young, Begich finished third out of three candidates, behind Peltola and fellow Republican Sarah Palin. Post-election analysis of all ranked-choice ballots indicated that had Begic...
Alaska saw a drop in the number of food stamp recipients over the past year far larger than any other state as processing delays caused low-income households to miss out on their benefits. While more than half of states actually had an increase in SNAP beneficiaries, among those that saw a decline none came anywhere close to the 69% drop in participation Alaska experienced through this spring. Behind Alaska, Maryland saw a 21% decrease, Arkansas saw a 19% decrease and New Jersey saw a 14% decrease between March 2022 and March 2023. Those...
Thousands of aboveground tanks that store diesel fuel and other petroleum products would no longer be regulated by the state, under a proposal from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The proposal is to repeal regulation of what are known as Class 2 facilities, which are scattered throughout the state and store between 1,000 and 420,000 gallons of non-crude oil products such as diesel, heating oil and gasoline. If the state regulation is repealed, those Class 2 facilities will no longer be required to register their storage...
The spendable portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund is dwindling and could be exhausted entirely within three years, fund leaders were told during a regular quarterly meeting on Wednesday, July 12, in Anchorage. Deven Mitchell, CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., presented the results of limited modeling that estimates the fund’s performance over the next three years. Under the “low” scenario, the fund would be unable to pay for state services or dividends by summer 2026. The “mid” scenario calls for the spendable portion of the fund to b...
Proposed ballot measures — if they make it to the election and win voter approval — would raise Alaska’s minimum wage and add mandatory paid sick leave; limit campaign contributions; and restrict state spending on political party candidate nominations. The Alaska Division of Elections received the proposals earlier this month. One proposed ballot measure would make a series of changes to state labor laws. It would raise the hourly minimum wage — currently $10.85 — to $13 in July 2025, $14 in July 2026 and $15 in July 2027. Annual increases...
Juneau tourism companies are being forced to turn away visitors who want to see the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area this summer as they are reaching the commercial tourism limit due to “unprecedented increases in visitation,” the U.S. Forest Service announced July 7. The Forest Service each year doles out permitted “service days” to tour providers, such as bus companies or taxi services carrying tourists, in order to manage the area and protect the ecosystem. A service day equates to one tourist visiting the Mendenhall Glacier for one day...
When the shrinking Alaska fishing village of Karluk made a plea on social media asking two families with three to four children each to move to the community to save their cherished school, they did not expect thousands of responses to pour in. “We have been bombarded with phone calls, and overwhelmed with emails,” Alicia Andrews, the president of Karluk Tribal Council, told The Washington Post. “For years, we have been trying to save our school and our community, and now it seems we have a solution.” The advertisement that quickly spread...
Inflation in Alaska is dropping sharply this year after hitting a 41-year high in 2022, but it still remains unstable overall and uneven in some categories such as housing, according to a report published July 5 by the Alaska Department of Labor. The statewide inflation rate was 8.1% in 2022, but as of April this year was down to 3.1%, the lowest since February 2021, according to the current issue of Alaska Economic Trends, which is published by the department. “While it’s uncertain how long it will continue slowing, the rate in April approache...
A fire has left Petersburg's St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in ruins. No serious injuries were reported and the fire did not spread to any surrounding buildings, though smoke from the Thursday, July 6, blaze caused the Petersburg Medical Center and multiple businesses downtown to close. According to parish priest Father Jose Thomas, a few people were attending a prayer service in the chapel when they heard glass shattering and were alerted to smoke coming from the office. "We did not...
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...
The group that championed Alaska’s ranked-choice voting reform filed a complaint on July 5 against several individuals and entities that are leading an effort to repeal the state’s new election laws, alleging that they violated multiple campaign finance rules and obscured the source of their funding. The complaint alleges that opponents of ranked-choice voting founded a church called the Ranked Choice Education Association that could allow donors to gain tax advantages for their contributions while skirting disclosure requirements. Those requir...
The Haines Borough is challenging the U.S. Census Bureau’s official count of its population, saying the agency undercounted the town’s residents by almost 20%. The lower population number threatens millions of dollars of federal funding over the next decade. The 2020 census reported Haines’ population at 2,080, down from 2,508 in the 2010 count. “If we had lost almost 500 people, you would feel it in our town,” said Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton. “You would see it in empty houses, in schools and in voter rolls.” Census counts happen every...
Unalaska is preparing to start monitoring for European green crabs. That’s after the invasive species was first found in waters around Metlakatla last July. The crabs could cause a big problem. They destroy habitat and outcompete native species. Biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game say the monitoring program is crucial in the nation’s largest fishing port. They’re preparing to deploy traps later this summer. “We don’t have any reason to believe that European green crab are here or established in the region, but we’re als...
Nearly a decade after construction started and a month after it was put into service, the 280-foot-long Hubbard was officially christened as the newest ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System’s fleet on June 26 in Juneau. The Hubbard — first envisioned in 2006 as part of a project to shuttle passengers between Juneau, Haines and Skagway — has experienced plenty of rough waters before a couple dozen attendees boarded it for its christening during a stormy day at Juneau’s Auke Bay ferry terminal. Initial construction was completed in 2018, b...
The Department of Fish and Game has announced that 74,800 “treaty” king salmon (non-hatchery fish) will be available for taking in the summer commercial troll season’s first opening, which started Saturday. The department released summer king salmon harvest numbers on June 22. In total, 106,800 kings remain on the table following the spring fishery harvest, the agency said, and the troll fleet will be able to target 70% of those in the summer’s first opener. The fleet hooked 24,700 fish in the winter opener and an additional 14,100 kings i...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Department of Justice on June 28 announced it will be funneling more resources toward addressing the alarming rate of disappearances and killings among Native Americans. As part of a new outreach program, the agency will dispatch five attorneys and five coordinators to several regions around the country to help with investigations of unsolved cases and related crimes. Their reach will span from New Mexico and Arizona to Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Michigan and Minnesota. Attorney General M...
A newly filed ballot measure would set term limits for lawmakers serving in the Alaska Legislature. State legislators would be restricted to serving a maximum of 12 years consecutively in the state House or Senate, and they then would be required to take a six-year break before serving again. They would also be limited to serving for a lifetime maximum of 20 years as members of the Legislature. Sixteen other states have term limits for state legislators, including California, Florida and Ohio. Alaska governors are already limited by the state...
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...
Recent efforts are pushing the boundaries of ocean mapping in Alaska’s waters with the help of automated vessels and collaborative mapping efforts. Experts say these unmanned vessels and ambitious mapping missions can help create safer and more economic expeditions while shedding light on unexplored areas of the oceans. Meredith Westington, a chief geographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the efforts are critical to understanding the way oceans work and gaining more knowledge about the world. “It is kind of the...
Alaskans are having a harder time accessing child care now than they were five years ago, an expert told a new task force charged by Gov. Mike Dunleavy with developing a plan to make child care in the state more available and affordable. The task force, which Dunleavy formed in April, had its first public meeting on June 28 via Zoom with about 60 people, including the dozen task force members, in attendance. The group has until the end of December to deliver an initial plan to address the state’s child care challenges. At stake is the welfare o...
In the new online video series "Harvest" that recently won national television awards, residents of Prince of Wales Island show the entire process for harvesting and preparing beach greens, gumboots, seaweed, seal, herring eggs, fireweed honey, Indian cheese, dry fish, newspaper fish and stink heads. The series' 10 videos range from four to 15 minutes long and include gathering partners sitting in a patch of sea asparagus, floating over kelp forests. Another shows expert hands cutting seal and...
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...
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is set to become the new owner of Juneau-based Alaska Seafood Co., the tribe’s president said. “We’re finalizing the deal right now and we will probably take ownership by the first of the month,” Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson said Thursday, June 22, in a phone interview. The Alaska Seafood Co., established in 1987, is a seafood processor that sells Alaska salmon, black cod, halibut and salmon caviar including fresh, frozen, canned and smoked products. Its seafood can be found...