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  • Legislature wants to direct more money to assist crime victims

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Mar 13, 2024

    Money in a state account that grew out of efforts to aid victims of violent crimes has been going predominantly to the Department of Corrections instead, to cover inmate health care. Meanwhile, the state’s victim services programs are scrambling for money as a major federal funding source diminishes. An Anchorage legislator wants to correct what she sees as an imbalance. Of the $25 million in the state’s Restorative Justice Account, nearly $20 million went to the Department of Corrections. Only about $500,000 went to nonprofits that serve crime...

  • Minimum wage increase and anti-ranked-choice initiatives likely on November ballot

    Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News|Mar 6, 2024

    A pair of citizen-backed initiatives will likely appear on the general election ballot in November, including one seeking to repeal Alaska’s voting system, state election officials said Feb. 27. After a monthlong review, the state Division of Elections made the initial assessment that separate groups had gathered enough signatures to place the two questions on the ballot. Voters will be asked if they want to overturn Alaska’s ranked-choice voting and open-primary system; and whether they support increasing the minimum wage and amending sta...

  • Aleutian waters warmest in more than a century; cod most vulnerable

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Feb 28, 2024

    The waters off the Aleutian Islands registered the warmest winter temperatures last year in over a century, part of a decade-long period of warming, according to a report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The record-high temperatures in the western and central Aleutians moderated later in 2023 but warmer-than-normal conditions persisted for the rest of the year throughout the waters around the 1,100-mile chain extending from southwestern Alaska, according to the 2023 NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem Status report for the...

  • Senate committee advances measure to reject governor's takeover of ferry advisory board

    Juneau Empire and Wrangell Sentinel|Feb 28, 2024

    A state Senate committee has advanced a measure that would block an executive order giving the governor total appointment authority over the entire Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board. State statute currently provides that House and Senate leaders appoint four members of the nine-member advisory panel. The executive order removing legislative power to appoint members to the board is one of a dozen issued by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in mid-January. The orders, dealing with various state boards, will take effect unless the House and Senate meet in...

  • Feds buy Alaska seafood for national food programs

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Feb 28, 2024

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture will purchase about 50 million pounds of Alaska seafood to use in national food and nutrition-assistance programs, state officials said on Feb. 20. The seafood purchase is to benefit needy children and adults and school lunches, said the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which announced the department’s plans. The purchases are authorized through a federal law which allows the Agriculture Department to buy surplus food products, and through the department’s Commodity Credit Corp., a government entity cre...

  • Alaska Airlines flight attendants authorize strike, but nothing planned

    Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News|Feb 28, 2024

    Flight attendants with Alaska Airlines have voted to authorize a strike for the first time in more than 30 years. News of the vote emerged as more than 60 flight attendants protested for better pay outside the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Feb. 13. The vote does not mean a strike will occur. But the decision raises the stakes in an effort by the attendants to negotiate what they say is their first new contract in a decade. They say Alaska Airlines has awarded large pay increases to pilots but does not provide a livable wage to...

  • Juneau plans consolidation into one high school to save money

    Mark Sabbatini, Juneau Empire|Feb 28, 2024

    Facing a multimillion-dollar budget hole, the Juneau school board has approved a plan to consolidate the district’s two high schools into one, close its two middle schools, close an elementary school and rearrange where sixth, seventh and eighth graders go to class. The board approved the plan in a contentious all-night meeting that ended at about 12:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23. The decision followed hours of testimony from a crowd that board members called one of the largest in recent memory, with attendees overflowing the high school library i...

  • Volunteers smash purple sea urchins to save California kelp forests

    Julie Watson, Associated Press|Feb 28, 2024

    CASPAR BEACH, Calif. - A welding hammer strapped to her wrist, Joy Hollenback slipped on blue fins and swam into the churning, chilly Pacific surf one fall morning to do her part to save Northern California's vanishing kelp forests. Hollenback dove into the murky depths toward the seafloor. There, she spotted her target: voracious, kelp-devouring purple urchins. Within seconds she smashed 20 to smithereens. "If you're angry, it's a cathartic way to get it all out," Hollenback joked. "It's...

  • Alaska seafood shippers pay $9.5 million penalty for violating federal law

    Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News|Feb 28, 2024

    Two Alaska seafood shipping companies agreed to pay a $9.5 million penalty to the federal government for violations related to their use of a tiny rail track in Canada that the federal government said was an illegal attempt to avoid requirements of the U.S. Jones Act. Kloosterboer International Forwarding and Alaska Reefer Management accepted the settlement in January, agreeing to what amounts to the second-largest settlement involving the act, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Feb. 23. The companies provide transportation and...

  • Permanent Fund trustees support investing borrowed money

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Feb 28, 2024

    The leaders of the $77 billion Alaska Permanent Fund have voted unanimously to adopt a strategic plan that calls for borrowing up to $4 billion in order to increase the amount of money available for investments, looking to earn more on the investments than the fund would owe in interest on the debt. The Feb. 16 board of trustees’ vote, however, has limited effect: The borrowing could take place only if the Alaska Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy change state law to allow it. The Alaska Permanent Fund is the No. 1 source of general-purpose sta...

  • State almost clear of backlogged food stamp applications

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Feb 28, 2024

    As of last week, the backlog of Alaskans waiting for the state to process their food stamp applications was down to just over 500 — a big improvement over the 14,000 unresolved applications of a year ago. The state’s Division of Public Assistance is on track to be up to date by the end of the month, said Deb Etheridge, division director. In an interview, Etheridge described how the state is balancing the need to comply with federal regulations — Alaska has been warned it’s at risk of losing federal funding for failing to comply — with getting f...

  • Legislature starts process to reject governor's change to ferry advisory panel

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Feb 21, 2024

    The Alaska Senate has taken the first formal steps needed to reject some or all of the 12 executive orders Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued at the start of this year’s legislative session, including the order that would take away the Legislature’s authority to name four members of the state ferry system advisory board. Lawmakers in the Senate introduced 12 resolutions of disapproval on Feb. 12, and hours later the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee approved three of them. Those three resolutions would preserve the boards that govern massage the...

  • NOAA reports 45 killer whales caught up in fishing gear since 1991

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Feb 21, 2024

    Over the past three decades, 35 killer whales were entangled in fishing gear in Alaska, resulting in 25 deaths, according to a report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report from NOAA Fisheries covers documented cases from 1991 to 2022. It does not include the unusually high number of 2023 cases, in which an additional 10 killer whales were found ensnared in fishing gear — mostly bottom-trawl gear — with nine of them found dead. That raises the total caught in gear since 1991 to 45 killer whales, with 34 dead....

  • Boss of proposed gas pipeline project is highest-paid state executive

    Alaska Beacon|Feb 21, 2024

    The head of the state corporation in charge of a long-dreamed Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline is once again Alaska’s top-paid public executive. Frank Richards, president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., received $479,588 in compensation during 2023, according to the state’s annual executive compensation report, released in January. The state took over development of the proposed gas pipeline in 2016 when North Slope producers walked away from the venture, saying it was not economically viable. Richards was hired as pre...

  • Klukwan church given to tribe after century of Presbyterian ownership

    Lex Treinen, Chilkat Valley News Haines|Feb 21, 2024

    The church, originally known as the Klukwan Presbyterian, has been holding regular Sunday services for nearly a century. But one thing about the church has changed: its owner. More than a year ago, a national denomination of the Presbyterian Church transferred the deed to the Klukwan tribe as part of the denomination's effort to reconcile past abuses by clergy members and teachers against Alaska Native people. The formal ceremony, which had been delayed by COVID-19 concerns, was held in...

  • Haines loses appeal of census count that showed 17% population drop

    Lex Treinen, Chilkat Valley News Haines|Feb 21, 2024

    The U.S. Census Bureau has rejected Haines’ appeal of the agency’s 2020 count, which showed the Southeast Alaska community’s population dropping by 17%, or 428 residents. “I’m deeply disappointed. I really thought that our response was compelling,” said Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton, who worked on the appeal. “I was mad. It’s a big deal to our community.” Multiple federal funding programs are based on the census count. The Census Bureau counted 2,080 residents in Haines in 2020, down from 2,508 in 2010. The borough appealed that number in Ju...

  • State offers grants for locally grown food efforts

    Sentinel staff|Feb 21, 2024

    The state is offering an additional $2.2 million in small grants this year for individuals and groups around Alaska to increase the quantity and quality of locally grown food. The grants of up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations can go toward greenhouses and small-scale gardening projects, efforts to promote and provide subsistence foods and even livestock. The Alaska Division of Agriculture is distributing the federal money through its Micro-Grants for Food Security Program. Priority for the competitive grants will be...

  • Head of troopers says state lacking in rural communities

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Feb 21, 2024

    Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell told lawmakers on Feb. 6 that he doesn’t know how the state can justify the relative lack of resources it has provided to rural Alaska. “Since statehood, the state has followed a false pass on how we provide law enforcement services around this state,” he said. “We certainly have disproportionate resources in rural Alaska. And it’s shameful.” As bills to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people in Alaska move through the legislative process, the state is re...

  • It'll be hard for state to resume ferry service to Prince Rupert

    Sam Stockbridge, Ketchikan Daily News|Feb 14, 2024

    Numerous challenges are stopping the resumption of Alaska Marine Highway service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the ferry system’s director said at a conference of Southeast officials last week. During a Southeast Conference transportation symposium in Juneau on Feb. 8, Ketchikan Vice Mayor Glen Thompson asked for an update about service to the Canadian port, which was a regular stop for Alaska ferries for decades until 2019, with only a brief return to service in 2022. Craig Tornga, the ferry system’s marine director, listed the cha...

  • School funding supporters continue work in state Capitol

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Feb 14, 2024

    Supporters of education funding crowded a legislative committee room on Feb. 5, advocating for a permanent increase in the state funding formula for public schools. Though the advocates were unified in their message to a joint meeting of House and Senate education committees, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Education Commissioner Deena Bishop don’t support a permanent increase to the school funding formula. Instead, they have proposed targeted investments in certain areas, such as charter schools. Education administrators from across the state attempted...

  • Southeast trollers pull in record king salmon catch in January

    Shannon Haugland, Sitka Sentinel|Feb 14, 2024

    Despite the rough weather, Southeast trollers recorded a record chinook salmon catch for January in the winter troll fishery, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The January catch totaled 7,200 kings, well above the previous record of 4,800 in 2016. “I knew it was good but didn’t realize we were that far above the previous high,” said Grant Hagerman, Fish and Game Southeast troll biologist in Sitka. But “it’s not all roses,” Hagerman said. The fish are smaller on average, and the prices are below the five-year average. “We’re h...

  • Alaska governor would like to send state Guard troops to Texas

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Feb 14, 2024

    Gov. Mike Dunleavy told reporters on Feb. 7 that he’d like to answer Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for National Guard soldiers to support a state-run effort along the Mexico border, but he’s not sure the Alaska Legislature will approve the cost. “To send the Guard down will cost us about — according to Adjutant General Saxe — about a million dollars a month for 100 folks. We’ll test the waters with the Legislature to see if they’re willing to fund that, and I wouldn’t mind helping Texas with their issue on the border,” Dunleavy said. The...

  • Alaska courts still dealing with backlog of cases from COVID shutdown

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Feb 14, 2024

    Alaska’s courts have had a backlog of cases since courts shut down for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The backlog has persisted, in part because of attorney shortages. The court typically carries many pending cases, but the number of pending cases is currently 27% higher for felonies and about 13% higher for misdemeanors than it was in 2019, pre-COVID. “The overall numbers are going down, which is what we want to see,” said Stacey Marz, the Alaska State Court System’s administrative director. “We want to see fewer cases that are pendi...

  • Legislator wants to require armed volunteer on school grounds

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Feb 14, 2024

    A new proposal from Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes would require Alaska school districts to train a volunteer able to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds. Schools would be exempted only if no one agrees to accept the duty or if no one is able to do so. Hughes’ proposal, Senate Bill 173, received its first hearing in January in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. The K-12 School Shooting Database includes 346 shootings and near-shootings at schools or school buses in the United States in 2023. Hughes said many of A...

  • State troopers, other agencies struggle under high vacancy rates

    Claire Stremple, Alaska Beacon|Feb 14, 2024

    To keep Alaska communities safe and workloads manageable, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jim Cockrell said he would need 35% more state troopers than he has now. After he fills the 62 vacancies in the department, he wants to ask for about 90 more positions. But he said things used to be worse — at one point last year the department had 70 vacancies of 411 trooper positions. “The bottom line is we’re making steady progress,” he said. “We’ve made some huge steps forward between the administration and the Legislature.” The Department of...

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