The legislators have left, but the special session of the Alaska State Legislature will continue through at least Aug. 19 as House and Senate majority leaders seek to prevent Gov. Mike Dunleavy from repeatedly ordering lawmakers back into session. Ordinarily, the Alaska Constitution prohibits legislators from recessing — stopping business — for more than three […]
About 60 pregnancies per day in the U.S. end in stillbirth. The best way to find out why a stillbirth occurred is a fetal autopsy – yet these procedures are performed in only 1 in 5 of the over 20,000 stillbirths that occur each year. As I explain in my recent book, “Stillbirth and the […]
Sitka’s legislative representatives were pleased with the historic override of the governor's veto of education funding at Saturday's special session of the Legislature. It was the first time a budget veto by an Alaskan governor was overridden...
A large cash infusion to the U.S. Coast Guard’s budget and recent comments by President Donald Trump are stoking optimism that the country’s limited icebreaker fleet might soon greatly expand. That’s according to shipbuilders, other businesspeople and some diplomats who spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage this week. Icebreakers are particularly important to […]
A longtime Alaska fisher who was sentenced in May to a year in jail for illegally exporting crab, much of it disease infected, has now been ordered to pay $1.18 million in penalties for unrelated water pollution charges. Corey Potter and the companies he managed — the vessel Knot EZ, Aleutian Tendering LLC and the […]
Demonstrators came out to make their voices heard at the Alaska State Capitol on Saturday, as lawmakers returned for a special session, and urged a “yes” vote to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of more than $50 million in funding for Alaska’s K-12 schools. As legislators were set to gavel in at 10 a.m., about […]
A driver was killed and a passenger in his car injured after hitting a moose near the entrance to Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve. The Anchorage Daily News, citing a park statement, …
The Alaska Legislature, meeting in special session, has overridden Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of more than $50 million in public school funding. The vote was 45-14. At least 45 of 60 legislators are needed to override an Alaska governor’s budget veto. The override eliminates a 5.6% year-over-year cut to public school funding, leaving districts with […]
When water from melting glacier inundated her Juneau neighborhood last August, Danielle Lindoff made a hasty escape through a front window in her living room, her two unhappy cats in tow. She climbed onto a boat mobilized by her husband, and as he steered, she held a flashlight to scout in the dark for submerged […]
As the Trump administration shrinks and even considers eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Alaska Legislature is considering a substitute for one of the agency’s key functions. A bill introduced by Sen. Bert Stedman, a Republican from the Southeast city of Sitka, would establish an Alaska flood authority and an Alaska flood insurance fund. […]
As Alaska lawmakers prepare to convene back at the Alaska State Capitol on Saturday for a special session, on the agenda for lawmakers is a vote on whether to override a veto by Gov. Mike Dunleavy of a portion of the state budget. If the veto is overridden, the Legislature would provide more than $50.6 […]
The Alaska Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal from a man imprisoned for a murder he committed as a 17-year-old. Philip Chad Wilson was sentenced to a 99-year sentence after his conviction and argued that under subsequent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Alaska Court of Appeals, his sentence was illegal because […]
A small coastal community in Kivalina, Alaska sued several major oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil, in 2008. Local representatives argued that greenhouse gas emissions from these companies were contributing to the erosion of the coastline and causing irreversible damage to their village by heating the climate. But the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed […]
Alaska lawmakers are scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. in Juneau for a special session of the Alaska Legislature. You can watch live online on Gavel Alaska. Gov. Mike Dunleavy called the special session. The official agenda says that it will involve legislation about education policy and a proposed Alaska Department of Agriculture. No. They’re […]
A management overhaul is needed to address the faltering salmon runs in the Yukon River and the widespread harms that have resulted from shortages of fish along the river’s basin, according to a report by Indigenous leaders and Alaska scientists. The report, a peer-reviewed policy brief published in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, […]
The Alaska Legislature is scheduled to meet Saturday for a special session called by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, but lawmakers are expecting to eschew the governor’s agenda in favor of votes to either override or sustain some of his vetoes from earlier this year. The special session could last for 30 days, but legislators believe they […]
On the last day of Alaska’s legislative session in May, Sen. Donny Olson made a mistake. The longtime Democratic senator from Golovin, mishearing Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, voted to sustain Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that increases the state’s public school education formula. Heads snapped to Olson, and his colleague, Sen. Lyman […]
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Thursday that it will revoke three documents intended to form the basis for limits on oil drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Those documents, and the limits themselves, were issued in the last year of President Joe Biden’s administration. Since his election, President Donald Trump […]
One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded has struck Russia’s Far East, causing tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and warnings across the Pacific. The 8.8 magnitude temblor occurred early …
On July 17, Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media across the United States. The cuts, called a “rescission” in Congress-speak, are huge: They will take away some $1 billion that the federal government had previously allocated for the next two years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for national […]