This story was updated at 8:55pm Oct. 12. Rescue and recovery efforts began Sunday in western Alaska as a major storm caused by remnants of Typhoon Halong hit coastal communities with massive storm surge, flooding and hurricane-force winds up to 100 mph. The storm bore down on the lower Kuskokwim River delta region early Sunday […]
One of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction, is the subject of an effort for cutbacks from Republican lawmakers …
Officials with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development have walked back a proposal to limit local governments’ funding for public schools, instead asking the State Board of Education to take no action on the item this week. The State Board of Education was set to vote this week on a controversial measure that […]
A national group that backed Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s re-election campaign in 2022 must comply with a subpoena issued as part of a yearslong investigation, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a 13-page decision, the court rejected a series of arguments offered by attorneys representing the Republican Governors Association, and it ordered the organization to […]
As Alaska lawmakers contemplate the need to spend from savings to balance next year’s state budget, a unique investment by the state’s departing revenue commissioner is drawing their attention. Shortly before leaving office in July to run for governor as a Republican candidate, former commissioner Adam Crum approved a $50 million private equity investment with […]
Alaska judges will not hear a lawsuit alleging that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has mishandled the state’s valuable salmon returns. On Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a lower-court decision that dismissed a case brought by Juneau resident Eric Forrer in 2022. Forrer had argued that years of declining salmon returns in […]
The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a bill that would allow Alaska Natives to continue sales of traditional ivory art in states that have passed laws banning the ivory trade. The ARTIST Act, by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is intended to address state-level bans that were instituted to limit demand for elephant ivory but have […]
Three days after President Donald Trump signed an order approving federal permits for a proposed mining road through the Brooks Range, the U.S. Congress put the finishing touch on a resolution intended to further aid the Ambler Road project. In a 50-46 vote on Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution that overturns the Biden […]
The Alaska Legislature has filed a legal challenge to Gov. Mike Dunleavy in a case that could decide the limits of executive power in Alaska. In a complaint filed Friday and a motion for summary judgment on Monday, the Legislature’s contracted attorney asks a Juneau Superior Court judge to decide whether or not a governor […]
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance grew up outside the city during the Cold War. And the specter of nuclear conflict and an attack on the area’s military infrastructure loomed over her childhood. “The Soviet Union felt pretty close,” she said. “I remember feeling a sense of fear, like: ‘We’re going to be the first ones in […]
For the organization that oversees commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska, the most significant impact of the federal government shutdown might materialize in December. That is when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to issue harvest limits for Alaska pollock – the nation’s top-volume commercial harvested species – and other types of […]
A new study published by the Belfer Center of the Harvard Kennedy School has concluded that solar power plants are now cost-competitive with diesel for many rural Alaska communities, even if solar is only usable during part of the year. “The conclusion was that they were pretty darn competitive,” said Henry Lee, the study’s co-author […]
After a long series of gray, often rainy, and sometimes dreary days, a cloudless, deep-blue morning sky invites me into the Chugach Front Range east of Anchorage. I head to Falls Creek Valley, where I hope to find enough “wild Chugach blues” to do some serious berry picking. Accessible from the Seward Highway, the Falls […]
A federal judge has ordered Alaska’s prison system to reconsider a transgender woman’s request to undergo surgery after declaring a state policy on the issue is so restrictive that it violates the U.S. Constitution. The order, issued Sept. 26, follows a seven-year legal battle by Emalee Wagoner, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and […]
The FBI searched the cellphone records of Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and seven other U.S. senators and a member of the U.S. House as part of its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a newly released document shows. The call logs cover several days during and around the insurrection, […]
A line of pink lingers above the horizon, the April sun offering a welcome dose of brightness after the months-long polar night. A dozen miles off Point Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost tip, the sea is still frozen except where inky tendrils of open water spiderweb across the pack ice. On the surface, the scene feels hushed […]
Asian shares are mostly higher in quiet holiday trading, while Japan’s benchmark rose to new records on hope for more government spending and lower taxes under Japan’s first woman prime minister. …
Snow crab stocks in Alaska’s Bering Sea, which crashed a few years ago, have recovered enough to allow a modest harvest starting in mid-October. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Monday announced that fishers will be allowed to harvest 9.3 million pounds of Bering Sea snow crab from Oct. 15 to May. The […]
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order that overturns a decision by the Biden administration to cancel a 211-mile mining road through Alaska’s Brooks Range by denying a right-of-way permit. The action removes a major hurdle for the project, but developers would still need to overcome lawsuits and opposition from environmental and tribal groups. […]
This story was originally published by Grist and Alaska Public Media. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. The Kigluaik Mountains stretch across the Seward Peninsula of western Alaska like a spine, their jagged ridges keeping a record of time. The Inupiaq have long read these ridges and valleys as a living story: Fire and […]