Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the roughly 1,000-mile sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team Tuesday night across the finish line in …
Alaska’s Republican U.S. senators are pushing the Trump administration to waive a recently hiked visa fee for all public school employees. The Trump administration raised the fee for highly skilled workers visas, known as the H-1B visa program, from $5,000 to $100,000 per visa in September. That has consequences for Alaska school districts, which have […]
The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has left oil markets more uncertain than they were during the Great Recession, a state expert told the Alaska Legislature on Monday. In a pair of hearings, Alaska Department of Revenue economist Dan Stickel told state legislators that the volatility of global oil markets is the second-highest on record, leaving […]
Lawmakers are considering new legislation to increase state funding for Alaska schools, and heard public comment on Wednesday evening that showed overwhelming support for more funding for public education. The legislation comes on the heels of a historic increase to per pupil student funding last year — after political debate between lawmakers and Gov. Mike […]
A federal judge in Alaska has rejected a lawsuit that sought to reinstate a management plan that would allow heavier logging in the world’s largest temperate old-growth rainforest. The result leaves an Obama-era management plan in place, but it could be short-lived: The administration of President Donald Trump is already at work on a new […]
An agreement that protected about a million acres of sensitive Arctic territory is back in effect, meaning that this week’s oil and gas lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska will likely be smaller than the Trump administration had planned. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason’s ruling, issued Monday, ensures that a Native […]
Stacker compiled statistics on gas prices in Fairbanks using data from AAA.
Stacker compiled statistics on gas prices in Anchorage using data from AAA.
Just six days before the Trump administration is set to open bids in the first of several oil and gas lease sales for federal territory in Arctic Alaska, critics were in court on Thursday trying to win injunctions to temporarily block some or all of the sale. In one case, a Native organization called Grandmothers […]
The filing deadline for this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend is March 31, and if Rep. Nick Begich III has his way, this year’s dividend will be tax free. On March 3, Alaska’s lone member of the U.S. House introduced a bill that would exempt the dividend from federal taxes. When Begich mentioned it during […]
At the Alaska Beacon, we’re constantly trying to figure out where we should put our attention. There’s always more news than there are people to report it. Every Thursday, the Alaska Legislature publishes its committee schedule for the coming week. Public notices alert us to meetings and events. The governor’s office occasionally lets us know […]
A potential $500 million windfall is giving the Alaska House of Representatives a headache. On Friday, the Alaska Department of Revenue released a forecast predicting that the state of Alaska will collect hundreds of millions of dollars more oil revenue by June 30 than previously expected. That forecast landed in the middle of an ongoing […]
The Alaska Department of Revenue is predicting that the Iran war will cause high oil prices for most of 2026, it said in a revised forecast published Friday. Oil is no longer the No. 1 source of general-purpose state revenue in Alaska, but the higher wartime prices are expected to bring hundreds of millions of […]
After his address to the Alaska Legislature on Tuesday, Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, sat down for an interview with the Alaska Beacon. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity to remove “ums,” “ahs,” and other disfluencies, including the reporter’s cellphone alarm going off in the middle of the interview. Q: Do you have […]
Instacart reports on frozen pizza trends in Alaska and across the country.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Zack Fields was listening to a speech by Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III when he got fed up. Fields scribbled a note on a nearby sheet of paper: “ICE out of Alaska” and held it up on the House floor for a few minutes while Begich spoke to lawmakers. That simple […]
The Trump administration has already put money into a huge and controversial mining project by investing in a company that would benefit from the development. Now the administration is considering putting federal money into another aspect of the project: the proposed Ambler Access Project that would put a 211-mile industrial road through the currently undisturbed […]
The Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday postponed its final vote on a fast-track supplemental budget bill that would use the state’s largest savings account to cover some shortfalls in the current state budget. Members of the House voted 21-19 to pull the bill from the House floor after it became clear that there were […]
In a speech to the Alaska Legislature this week, Alaska Rep. Nick Begich III urged state lawmakers to boost the development of a proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline. “The federal path is largely cleared, but investors also need state level clarity, fiscal predictability and simplicity,” Begich said. “Scrutinize it carefully, model it thoroughly. But my […]
The Anchorage Police Department is featured prominently in the national investigative documentary series “Lost Women of Alaska,” which examines the case of serial killer Brian Steven Smith, who was arrested in 2019 and convicted for torturing and killing two Alaska Native women. In the three-part series now streaming on HBO Max, the victims’ families and […]