Sorted by date Results 861 - 885 of 1731
In the final debate of Alaska's U.S. Senate election, incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her principal challenger, Republican Kelly Tshibaka, argued about contentious issues including abortion and gun control, but their biggest difference was one of strategy and bipartisanship. During a fast-moving hour Oct. 27, Tshibaka criticized Murkowski for working with Democrats and the administration of President Joe Biden during her latest term in Congress, while Murkowski defended her choices...
Republican lieutenant governor candidate Edie Grunwald is withdrawing from the Nov. 8 election after her running mate, former Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, was sued over allegations he sexually harassed a former borough employee. Grunwald encouraged Alaskans to vote for fellow Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. She said "recent circumstances" surrounding Pierce had led her to make the decision to step aside. "I support and advocate for the respectful treatment of women in politics, t...
Alaska's four candidates for governor sparred over crime, education, abortion access and the state budget on Oct. 19 in the only live televised debate ahead of the November election. Independent former Gov. Bill Walker and Democratic former state legislator Les Gara devoted much of their responses to attacking Republican incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his record. Meanwhile, Dunleavy and fellow Republican candidate Charlie Pierce, former mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, appeared to agree...
The cost of preschool child care is a growing problem in Alaska, one of 33 states where the annual cost of day care exceeds the cost of college tuition. The University of Alaska Fairbanks charges $9,870 per year; the latest available estimates of child care costs predate the COVID-19 pandemic and range between $10,000 and $14,000 per year. In forums, debates and questionnaires, Alaska’s four candidates for governor have been asked what they would do to address the problem: In the past two years of incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s ter...
In unprecedented move tailor-made for Alaska’s new voting system, two different campaigns for governor on Oct. 28 released a joint ad urging voters to rank them either first or second — regardless of the order. It’s not a new message for independent candidate former Gov. Bill Walker and Democratic candidate former state Rep. Les Gara. Both Walker and Gara for months have indicated that they would vote for the other candidate second. But it’s the first time their campaigns have indicated as much in an ad jointly produced by the two campaig...
Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in a televised debate Oct. 26 called partisanship a threat to the country as the Democrat sought to make the case for reelection to the seat she’s held since September against challengers including Republican Sarah Palin. Peltola beat Palin and Republican Nick Begich in a ranked-choice August special election to fill the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Don Young’s term. Those three, along with Libertarian Chris Bye, are running in the Nov. 8 election for a full two-year term that starts in January. This ele...
The Alaska Supreme Court issued a full opinion on Oct. 21, explaining why it upheld the state’s new ranked-choice voting and open-primary system as constitutional in January. The five justices issued a brief order at the time in favor of the new system that was narrowly approved by voters in a 2020 ballot measure. It was issued quickly to confirm to the Alaska Division of Elections that the new voting system would be used this year. Alaska is the second state after Maine to implement ranked-choice voting, in which voters are asked to rank f...
At East Ohmer Creek, 22 miles south of Petersburg, is a tree believed to be the largest left on Mitkof Island. U.S. Forest Service Fish Biologist Eric Castro said foresters estimate the tree, which grew on a once-rich floodplain, is around 600 years old. "Those giant pumpkins are what used to grow in this type of environment," Castro said. That tree stands in contrast to those that have grown around it over the past 60 years, which have reached four to eight inches in diameter - about a tenth...
Years of flat state funding create budget stress for schools across Alaska By James Brooks and Lisa Phu Alaska Beacon The Anchorage School District, which is considering the closure of six elementary schools amid a projected $68 million budget shortfall, isn’t the only district facing a major fiscal problem. At the end of the last school year, Fairbanks closed three schools. In Juneau, the school board is considering whether to fire specialists intended to help students recover reading skills lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. In rural A...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican candidate for governor, Charlie Pierce, faces a lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed a former assistant while he was mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The lawsuit filed in state Superior Court on Friday accuses Pierce of “constant unwanted physical touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Daily News reported. The borough already has paid two other former employees a combined $267,000 in settlements for separate complaints against Pierce. “When an elected official abuses their power a...
Alaska’s Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she plans on ranking Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola first in the U.S. House race on the Nov. 8 ballot, where Murkowski’s own name will also appear as she runs for a fourth term. Murkowski broke the news after delivering remarks to a packed room of Alaska Federation of Natives convention delegates at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Center, where she was greeted with a standing ovation and frequently interrupted with rounds of applause. Her remarks focused on what she sees as reasons for optimism for the...
Alaskans voting by mail will need to put 84 cents worth of postage on their ballot envelopes to send them back by post to the state Division of Elections. One Forever stamp is currently worth 60 cents, meaning a second stamp would be needed to mail absentee ballots. Voters are required to use the correct amount of postage when mailing a ballot, but the U.S. Postal Service has a policy to still deliver ballots even if postage is unpaid or if there is insufficient postage. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said the postage costs were...
The state’s largest Alaska Native organization declared its opposition to a constitutional convention on Saturday, saying rural Alaska could have the most to lose if a convention is called. The Alaska Federation of Natives also called for a potential reduction in the amount of fish caught in Area M, a state-managed fishery off the Alaska Peninsula, in order to protect salmon runs that have crashed on the state’s two largest rivers, the Yukon and Kuskokwim. And, after passing several other measures, the organization voted in executive ses...
The Skagway borough assembly has unanimously approved spending almost $3.2 million for a temporary solution to protect cruise ships, their passengers and the dock itself from frequent rockslides. Several slides have come down this year, hitting the railroad dock and forcing the closure of the forward berth, costing the community lost tourism business. Even while using the forward berth, ships had to tender their passengers to shore using small boats from the other side of the vessel to avoid putting people the dock. This year’s slides r...
Since 2016, no issue has divided Alaska state lawmakers more than the issue of the Permanent Fund dividend. The annual struggle over the amount given to state residents has repeatedly driven the Legislature into impasses that have brought the state to the brink of a government shutdown. Ahead of this year’s governor election, independent candidate Bill Walker, Democratic candidate Les Gara and Republicans Mike Dunleavy and Charlie Pierce have each outlined different approaches to solving the impasse, which voters have said is a top issue of c...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has indicated that he will vote in favor of calling a convention to consider amending the state constitution. Candidates for governor at an Alaska Resource Development Council forum on Oct. 11 were asked during if they would be voting for a constitutional convention in next month's general election. Candidates responded by raising “yes” or “no” signs. Dunleavy and Republican Charlie Pierce raised “yes” signs. Former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, and Les Gara, a Democrat, raised “no” signs. A...
Wildlife officials in Metlakatla continue to trap record-setting numbers of the invasive crab species that threaten local subsistence food sources and fish habitat. The tribe's Department of Fish and Wildlife has trapped hundreds of European green crabs - but the numbers keep growing. Months after the first green crab shell was found on the beach in Metlakatla, the community is still trying to figure out how to handle the arrival of a species that officials call one of the most invasive around....
Natalie Bennett was walking surveying a beach on Annette Island as part of a team trying to defend Southeast Alaska from marine invaders when she made a major but ominous discovery: the state’s first documented shell of an invasive European green crab. Bennett, a summer intern with the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute who was working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, noticed the tell-tale spines on the side of the eye areas. Right away, she notified one of her internship advisers, Barb Lake of NOAA Fisheries. ...
SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and for the first time have also scrapped the winter harvest of smaller snow crab. The move is a double whammy to a fleet from Alaska, Washington and Oregon chasing Bering Sea crab in harvests that in 2016 grossed $280 million, The Seattle Times reported. The closures reflect conservation concerns about both crab species following bleak summer populations surveys. The decisions to shut down the snow crab and fall king crab harvests came after days of d...
An Anchorage man pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of illegally trafficking in walrus ivory and was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine and sentenced to two years on probation. Uzi Levi, 71, of Anchorage, purchased six Pacific walrus tusks and one three-tusked Pacific walrus head mount from an undercover U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent, all of which is in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is unlawful for a non-Alaska Native to transport, purchase, sell, export or offer...
The stakes in Alaska are high in the search for a solution to the problem of bycatch, the unintended at-sea harvest of non-target species, such as hundreds of thousands of salmon a year, by commercial fishermen that are going after pollock or other fish. A special task force is nearing the end of a year-long process to find solutions that satisfy competing interests to the problem of bycatch. Many of the mostly Indigenous residents of western Alaska who depend on now-faltering salmon runs in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers have said strict rules...
The Alaska Quakers apologized to Alaska Native communities for the boarding schools it ran in Alaska and the United States, which forcibly assimilated and abused Indigenous children, separated them from their families and caused intergenerational trauma. In the 1800s and 1900s, the Quakers ran about 30 boarding schools for Native American and Alaska Native youth in the U.S. and its territories, including one in Alaska — the Douglas Island Friends Mission School in Juneau. Members of the Alaska Friends Conference of the Religious Society of F...
Liz Landes found a 30-pound puffball mushroom while on a bike ride on the Haines Highway. She said she was enjoying her bike ride when she spotted something unusual. "I looked up from the highway and saw what initially looked like a river rock," Landes said. "I turned back and hiked up the hill and was totally amazed. I didn't necessarily have the intention of taking it, but it broke off the ground more easily than I thought." Landes had found a giant puffball mushroom, a fungi typically found...
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican Museums are home to some of the most magnificent artworks in the world, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to ancient Egyptian antiquities and a pavilion full of papal chariots. But one of the museum’s least-visited collections became its most contested one ahead of Pope Francis’ trip to Canada in late July. The Vatican’s Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum, located near the food court and right before the main exit, houses tens of thousands of artifacts and art created by Indigenous peoples from around the world...
JUNEAU (AP) — Ben Stevens, a former Alaska Senate president and son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, has died. He was 63. The state troopers said they responded to a report last Thursday evening of a hiker — later identified as Stevens — having a medical emergency on the Lost Lake Trail near Seward. The troopers’ statement said a medical service team reached the scene around 6:40 p.m. and that lifesaving measures were unsuccessful. A Republican women’s group posted on Facebook that Stevens died of a heart attack after collapsing on the trail...