Every summer, people living near the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, keep a close eye on the water level. When the river level begins to rise rapidly, it’s a sign that Suicide Basin, a small glacier-dammed lake 5 miles up the mountains, has broken through the glacier again and a glacial lake outburst flood is […]

Officials with the Alaska National Guard said plans to deploy a trained rapid response force this month to support federal authorities in Washington D.C. has been pushed back to May.  Gov. Mike Dunleavy in November approved the U.S. Secretary of the Army’s request for 100 service members to deploy to the nation’s capital as part […]

The Alaska Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to spend more than $300 million from savings and reverse some of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s most recent budget vetoes. In a pair of 20-0 votes, the Senate approved a bill that would spend $373.5 million from the Constitutional Budget Reserve to pay for a variety of expenses and fill […]

A coalition of environmental and tribal groups have withdrawn their attempt to stop wintertime survey work by ConocoPhillips in parts of the federally controlled National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope. Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Center for Biological Diversity, and The Wilderness Society filed a notice of dismissal Friday, a little over one […]

The state of Alaska filed civil lawsuits Tuesday against six crowdfunding websites, accusing them of illegally soliciting donations for thousands of Alaska charities without consent. In complaints filed at Anchorage Superior Court, the consumer protection unit of the Alaska Department of Law said GoFundMe, PayPal, Charity Navigator, Pledgling Technologies, JustGiving and Network For Good each […]

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is planning to relax the requirements for a subsidy program intended to attract cargo airlines to Fairbanks International Airport. In a March 6 public notice, the department said it will waive landing and fuel fees for a year at Fairbanks for one or more airlines that provide […]

Ten conservation groups have sued the Trump administration over its decision to remove decades-old protections from 2.1 million acres of federal land in Interior Alaska. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, targets the Department of the Interior’s action to overturn public land orders dating back to the early 1970s that protect […]

Wind and snow whipped at Kotzebue preacher Rusty Dimmick and three travelers as they stood in a circle holding hands. The travelers, all from the Northwest Arctic, planned to drive over 600 miles to dozens of remote villages across Western Alaska by snowmachine, educating rural residents about voting. But weather wasn’t part of that send-off […]

The Dunleavy administration has proposed a $523 million budget for the Alaska Department of Corrections for the next fiscal year, which House lawmakers with a finance subcommittee advanced without substantial changes last week.  It’s the largest corrections budget proposal to date, according to state data. It includes just over $514 million requested in state funding, […]

The winner of last year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska says he's feeling intense pressure to repeat as champion. Jesse Holmes took off Sunday along with 33 other competitive mushers on the …

Microplastics are super small pieces of plastics that come from the breakdown of all kinds of larger plastic products. In 2025 Alaska Research Survey and AK Community Action on Toxics did a survey that showed that 75% of respondents see microplastics as a major or moderate threat to contaminating our drinking water and food, including […]

Billionaire investor John Paulson made a splash in Alaska’s mining industry last year when he paid $800 million for a 40% stake in the huge Donlin gold project. But while working to advance Donlin, Paulson quietly sold his position in a separate Alaska-focused company that soared in value after the Trump administration approved the Ambler […]

The Alaska Division of Banking and Securities is planning to approve the merger of Credit Union 1 and MAC Federal Credit Union, the agency said in a public notice this week. The two credit unions announced their merger plans last year, but state law required a review. Credit Union 1 is Alaska’s only state-chartered credit […]

The Trump administration is seeking to open national preserves in Alaska to bear baiting by sport hunters. The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday announced that it will propose a new rule to overturn restrictions imposed by the Biden administration and prior to that, wider restrictions imposed by the Obama administration. The proposed rule […]

The Iditarod returns to Anchorage as hundreds of dogs and their mushers line up for the race’s ceremonial start. On Saturday, fans pack downtown to cheer teams before the competitive start a day …

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 […]

All three members of Alaska’s delegation to Congress showed their support for the new war with Iran this week, voting against resolutions intended to restrain President Donald Trump. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, voted against a measure in the Senate on Wednesday, and Rep. Nick Begich III, also a Republican, voted against […]

A Bangladeshi man accused of using social media to trick teenage girls into sending him sexually explicit images — and then threatening to share them with their friends and family if they didn’t …

In Alaska, a suspended driver’s license will stay suspended unless a driver takes steps to reactivate it, the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled this week. In an opinion published Friday, the court upheld the conviction of a Southcentral Alaska woman for driving with a revoked license. Attorneys representing Kasey Malay had argued that under the […]

Friends, from my view, it doesn’t look so good in the Valley these days… Property tax assessment notices are up everywhere in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, even for swampy lots that have not increased in real value, while the school district considers school closures in the face of a $23 million deficit. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School […]