When oil prices rise, the state of Alaska gets a windfall in taxes and royalties.  When gold prices rise — as they have, in dramatic fashion, this spring — state revenue barely ticks up.  Industry critics often draw this comparison, arguing that the huge mining corporations that operate in Alaska aren’t compensating the state enough […]

Five days after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a major increase to Alaska’s per-student public school funding formula, a Senate committee has proposed a smaller increase. On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee amended a bill related to regulating cell phones in schools by adding a $700 increase to the base student allocation, core of the K-12 […]

A major mining company is pulling out of Western Alaska’s Donlin Gold project, selling most of its shares to a U.S. billionaire with a history of investing in gold. Barrick Gold Corp., a Canadian company that operates in 18 countries, said Tuesday it is selling its 50% share in Donlin Gold for about $1 billion. […]

The Alaska Senate passed legislation on Thursday that would significantly cap the interest rates and fees payday lenders can charge for loans of $25,000 or less.  Senate Bill 39 would remove payday lenders from an exemption in the state’s lending laws, and require payday loan companies to cap interest rates and fees at an annual […]

In a political environment where the president and his administration are pushing for more fossil fuel development and scorning alternative energy, Alaska’s senior U.S. senator is defending renewable projects in the rural areas of her state. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaking at an Anchorage conference on Tuesday, recounted her efforts to convince Interior Secretary […]

When the state of Alaska seized a bootlegger’s plane, it did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s excessive fines clause, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling, published Friday, involves a 13-year-old dispute that followed the conviction of Kenneth Jouppi for attempting to transport beer from Fairbanks to Beaver, an Interior Alaska town that has […]

Five weeks before Election Day, at an evening ceremony at the office of the U.S. Department of State, America’s first-ever Arctic ambassador was sworn into his new job. Barely 100 days later, on Jan. 20, Mike Sfraga resigned — departing his post, like other ambassadors, as Donald Trump took power. Now, Sfraga’s position remains unfilled. […]

The Alaska Legislature has voted to uphold Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that would have significantly increased the funding formula for Alaska’s K-12 public schools. Dunleavy vetoed House Bill 69 last week, citing cost concerns and the lack of policy measures he endorsed. With the House and Senate meeting in joint session, the […]

As Alaska continues to grapple with fiscal uncertainty, the Alaska Permanent Fund remains at the heart of the conversation. Its performance and structure profoundly affect our state’s budget, the future of the Permanent Fund dividend, and the long-term economic health of Alaska. Yet its structure — specifically the division between the Earnings Reserve Account and […]

Members of the federal government’s ocean-mapping corps and Alaskans training for the merchant marine would continue to receive Permanent Fund dividends while away from the state, under a bill approved last week by the Alaska House of Representatives. House Bill 75, from Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, is the first piece of legislation from a freshman […]

A jury has begun deliberating whether to hold The New York Times liable for an error in a 2017 editorial that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says damaged her reputation. The jury started …

Jury finds that The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has testified at a defamation trial that an editorial in The New York Times in 2017 was a game changer in her life that “kicked the oomph” out of her. The former …

The federal leader of the Denali Commission said Friday she is trying to save long-planned Alaska infrastructure projects now threatened by the Trump administration — and the life of the independent federal commission itself. Julie Kitka, who served for three decades as president of the Alaska Federation of Natives before taking on the new role […]

Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other coastal senators have proposed new legislation to exempt seafood processing companies from a cap on the number of international workers they can hire through the temporary H-2B visa program. The Alaska seafood industry regularly recruits and hires workers from around the world each year, including Mexico, the Philippines […]

Alaska’s state House and Senate are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday to vote on whether or not to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill increasing the state’s per-student funding formula. Multiple lawmakers have said that the Legislature likely lacks the votes for an override. Under the Alaska Constitution, the votes of […]

Legislation passed Wednesday by the Alaska House of Representatives would require the state’s school districts to adopt policies that restrict the use of cellphones by students during school hours. House Bill 57, which will advance to the Senate after a 34-6 vote, does not require districts to ban students’ cellphones altogether but does require them […]

Volcanoes inspire awe with spectacular eruptions and incandescent rivers of lava, but often their deadliest hazard is what quietly falls from the sky. When a large volcano erupts, as Mount Spurr appears close to doing about 80 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, it can release enormous volumes of ash. Fine ash can infiltrate the lungs of […]

JUNEAU — Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy flew to Taiwan last month to pitch business and government leaders on Alaska’s state-sponsored liquefied natural gas export project. The same day Dunleavy and other Alaska officials arrived in Taipei on the unannounced trip, his office received an email from China’s vice consul in San Francisco, Ba Yanfeng. The […]

At least $1.6 million in federal funds for projects meant to capture and digitize stories of the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children in boarding schools at the hands of the U.S. …