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WASHINGTON — Alaska’s U.S. senators want to rename an active volcano in the Aleutian Islands after the late U.S. Rep. Don Young. The longtime congressman’s former peers, Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, say Young is a fitting namesake for a volcano. The one they hope to rename Mount Young is currently called Mount Cerberus. “My goal is that we not only pay tribute to a great man who did so much for our state, but that it ensures that what he has done for Alaskans is not forgotten,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Don Youn...
If Alaska’s state legislators remove constituents’ comments or block them on social media, they may forfeit state-paid legal protection, according to a new social media policy adopted last Friday. A House-Senate panel voted 8-3 in favor of adopting the new policy on behalf of the entire Legislature. Anchorage Rep. Matt Claman said the new policy means “that the Legislature is not going to be put in a position of always having to represent representatives who may or may not handle their social media properly.” Over the past year, three state l...
JUNEAU — The Alaska Permanent Fund’s board of trustees used a “deficient” performance evaluation process to justify firing CEO Angela Rodell, who said her removal was “political retribution” for opposing Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget plan to overdraw the fund, but an eight-month independent investigation found no credible evidence that Dunleavy was involved in Rodell’s ouster. Rodell, who served as the corporation’s CEO from 2015 until 2021 and led it to years of strong returns, was abruptly fired during a board meeting last December. There w...
As part of an effort to push Sitka’s fishing fleet away from carbon-emitting propulsion, a Sitka troller has received a $40,000 grant to add electric power to augment the diesel power of his classic wooden boat. The award came through the Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, one of three organizations chosen by the New York-based Acme Smoked Fish Corp. for grants to mitigate the effects of climate change. The other two projects are in Maine. Eric Jordan said his goal is to reduce his boat’s fuel consumption and carbon signa...
When the remnants of Typhoon Merbok were barreling toward western Alaska to unleash what turned out to be the region’s strongest storm in more than half a century, meteorologists knew what was coming. What they could not predict was the exact level and location of flooding – devastation that prompted a federal disaster declaration by President Joe Biden and a whirlwind Alaska tour by Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell. “The large-scale weather models nailed this storm, days in advance. The storm surge model...
Alaska officials are asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide 100% of the funds necessary for Western Alaska communities to recover from damages inflicted by Typhoon Merbok. That would match the 100% funding that was committed to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Fiona in President Joe Biden’s federal disaster declaration. Typically, FEMA covers 75% of disaster-relief costs, leaving the remainder to be matched by state, local or tribal governments. For Western Alaska, “we feel that that’s just not acceptable, parti...
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is preparing a new program that would allow Alaska sawmills to sell lumber for local construction without having that wood graded for quality by an Outside inspector. The program was announced by Alaska State Forester Helge Eng on Sept. 13 at Southeast Conference, a gathering of Southeast Alaska political and business leaders. Eng said the program, which may take two years to implement, would encourage the growth of Alaska’s lumber industry by making it easier to use locally produced lumber. Many resid...
The busy cruise ship town of Skagway is looking for a solution to the rockslides that continue to roll down on its largest cruise ship dock. It also hopes to prevent a major rockslide that experts are calling inevitable. And as winter approaches, the window to execute a workable solution gets smaller and smaller. The forward berth of the town’s largest cruise ship dock was shut down earlier this summer, about a week before a large slide hit the area. The town has been operating only three out of four berths ever since. That has resulted in t...
In a Sept. 21 candidate forum hosted in Fairbanks by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, Democratic governor candidate Les Gara and independent candidate Bill Walker said that if elected they would seek new state revenue to pay for a variety of projects and reverse years of cuts to state services. Both men are seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has advocated cuts to public services and opposes any new taxes unless approved by a statewide vote of the public. Also competing in the Nov. 8 general election is Republican...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is extending until Dec. 2 the timeline to decide whether to proceed with proposed restrictions that would block plans for the controversial Pebble copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region. The agency, in a recent notice, said this would “help ensure full consideration of the extensive administrative record, including all public comments.” The public comment period ended Sept. 6. The EPA earlier this year released a proposal that it said would bar discharges of dred...
Millions of federal dollars are going to Alaska Native organizations and entities across the state for education projects. The U.S. Department of Education has announced it awarded funds totaling more than $35 million dispersed over three years to support Alaska Native education programs statewide. Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska were among the 30 organizations that were awarded the funds. The program aims to improve curricula, education programs and education needs for Alaska...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A former Alaska attorney general has been indicted by a state grand jury on three felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, a special prosecutor announced Sept. 21. The allegations against Clyde “Ed” Sniffen involve an Anchorage West High School student while Sniffen was in a position of authority in 1991, according to a statement released by the attorney general’s office on behalf of Gregg Olson, the special prosecutor. Sniffen was arraigned Monday. Olson in May filed the charges against Sniffen, 58, and the grand jury returne...
Before departing Sitka on a recent cruise stop, The Serenade of the Seas took more than passengers aboard — it took 2,000 pounds of fresh Sitka seafood. It’s the latest development in a collaborative effort that started decades ago among seafood processors, cruise lines and their chefs, and the industry organization Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska. “We’ve had fish come off the (fishing) boats, into the processing room and onto the cruise ships within one and a half hours,” said Fred Reeder, Sitka port director for Cruise Line Agencies....
An Anchorage judge said last Thursday that based on the limited evidence presented, Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman is likely ineligible to hold public office, but his name will stay on the general election ballot until a trial scheduled for December is held. Former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assemblymember Randall Kowalke, who filed the lawsuit, has argued Eastman’s membership in the Oath Keepers runs afoul of the state Constitution’s disloyalty clause, which bars a person from holding public office in Alaska who advocates for the overthr...
A federal appeals court has ruled that Metlakatla tribal members shouldn’t need state permits to fish in waters they’ve traditionally relied on — even outside their reservation’s boundaries. The decision is a major victory in the tribe’s decades-long fight for fishing rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 28-page opinion on Sept. 8 is broad and unambiguous: The 1891 law that created Metlakatla’s reservation gives tribal members the right to fish in areas near Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island, outside the boundaries of the Annett...
As he neared the end of an ocean swim just south of Sitka earlier this month, Dean Orbison felt a pain in his foot and thought he’d kicked a rock. But when the pain recurred, he stopped to look around and was startled by what he saw. A river otter was in hot pursuit and biting at his feet. “I was about 50 yards from the boat on my way back and I felt something bite at my foot and I turned around and thought, ‘That was weird.’ But I didn’t see anything. I thought I must have just kicked a rock, because I was in a really shallow rocky place. ...
A team of scientists exploring an underwater region of southern Southeast Alaska has discovered what might be the oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world. The existence of the fish trap, which is thought to date to at least 11,100 years ago, was confirmed earlier this year by a group of university academics and Sunfish Inc., a robotics company specializing in undersea exploration and inspection. The scientists, in partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, are using artificial intelligence to explore ancient, submerged caves in the...
The remnants of a massive Pacific typhoon that battered a thousand-mile stretch of Western Alaska dissipated Sunday morning, with floodwaters dropping and communities assessing damage from one of the worst storms on record. The storm left a trail of wreckage across coastal Alaska, with flooding, telecommunications outages and damage to buildings and infrastructure including roads, docks, seawalls and village runways. As of Monday morning, there were no reports of deaths, serious injuries or people missing, said National Weather Service...
The three candidates for U.S. Senate in November’s general election shared familiar political stances on Southeast Alaska issues during an hour-long forum at the Southeast Conference in Ketchikan on Sept. 13. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, emphasized accomplishments such as securing billions in federal infrastructure funds largely designated for ferries; Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka attacked President Joe Biden in nearly every answer and called less federal intrusion the path to regional growth; and Democratic c...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate race in Alaska has suspended his campaign, hoping not to divide the GOP vote during the general election by throwing his support to a fellow Republican backed by former President Donald Trump. Buzz Kelley, who finished fourth in the primary race, said his motivation for suspending the campaign on Sept. 12 came after Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in the special general election for the state’s U.S. House seat left vacant with the death in Mar...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined a group of other Republican governors in signing a letter to President Joe Biden opposing a recent move to forgive some student loan debt to eligible Americans. Biden announced his administration would relieve $10,000 to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for recipients making less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 as a household. In the Sept. 12 letter, Dunleavy and 21 other governors asked the president to withdraw the plan and criticized it as being burdensome to taxpayers and Americans who did not...
Eligible Alaskans will receive a $3,284 check, which includes the annual Permanent Fund dividend and a one-time energy relief payment, starting Sept. 20. Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the exact amount of the payments during a live stream last Thursday at a grocery store in Palmer, highlighting, he said, why the check is needed to help Alaskans cope with high grocery bills and energy prices. This year’s check breaks down into a dividend amount of $2,622 per person and an energy relief payment of $662, the Dunleavy administration confirmed. A...
Twenty-six places in Alaska received a new name Sept. 8 as part of the Interior Department’s initiative to remove a derogatory word for Indigenous women — a change that affects more than 650 sites and geographic features across the country. Of those, 26 sites are in Alaska. The official name change process has been almost a year in the making. In November 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland unveiled an order to remove the word squaw, a slur for Native women, from federal lands. Many Indigenous organizations, including the Alaska Fed...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last Friday vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum age to purchase and legally possess tobacco products from 19 to 21 years old. The bill also included a tax on electronic smoking products that contain nicotine, which is what Dunleavy took issue with. Currently, Alaska has a cigarette tax of $2 per pack. Other tobacco products, like cigars, are taxed at 75% of the wholesale price. Electronic smoking products like vape pens that contain nicotine are not subject to tax at the statewide level, though some...
Democratic candidate for governor Les Gara and independent candidate former governor Bill Walker said that the best candidate is the one who shows up for public forums. The two had the stage to themselves at a Sept. 7 event sponsored by the Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce. The other two candidates did not attend. Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy was absent, as was Republican Charlie Pierce, who last month resigned his job as Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor at the request of the borough assembly after an investigation determined...