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. …

The Trump administration plans to create a new designated region for offshore oil leasing in Arctic waters off Alaska, an area where past exploration attempts have failed amid extremely high costs, logistical challenges and safety problems. The Department of the Interior said it will soon release a new five-year national plan for offshore oil and […]

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed in California for only brief […]

Endowments have been around for a long time. Many universities have had them for decades and are major revenue generators. Have you ever heard a threat to overdraw an endowment fund? Probably not, because they are set up precisely to prevent that from happening. Unfortunately, our current Permanent Fund structure has a gaping hole in […]

For the first half of his career in law enforcement, working as a police officer in South Florida, Chase Fopiano did not think cyberattacks on police agencies were a serious threat. Many of his law enforcement colleagues were under the same impression — that since they were the most likely to investigate the attacks, there […]

Alaska’s voter-approved mandate for paid sick leave has not yet gone into effect, but some lawmakers are already trying to reduce the number of workers who would benefit from it. A bill pending in the Alaska Legislature, House Bill 161, would exempt businesses with fewer than 50 employees, a change from the 15-employee threshold in […]

Along with announcing a veto of an education funding bill on Thursday, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced new legislation with a lower per student funding boost, plus additional funding and policy items focused on charter schools and homeschool programs. Dunleavy held a news conference at the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday, saying there were two […]

For the second year running, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed an education funding bill on Thursday, citing a lack of policy changes he supported. House Bill 69 would have increased the base student allocation — the core of the state’s...

An Alaska Native man who maintained his innocence in the 1997 killing of a white teenager has agreed to an $11.5 million settlement with the city of Fairbanks. The settlement resolves Marvin Roberts' …

An emotional former opinion page editor for The New York Times has apologized to Sarah Palin for a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her career. James Bennet testified Thursday that he “blew …

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was being held in the Leon County Jail Thursday, charged with illegally entering Florida as an “unauthorized alien” — even as a supporter waved his U.S. birth certificate in court. The man, who was arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop in which he was a passenger on his […]

For the second year running, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed an education funding bill on Thursday, citing the state’s current finances and a lack of policy changes he supported. House Bill 69 would have increased the base student allocation — the core of the state’s per-student funding — by $1,000 in the funding formula. The […]

Southcentral Alaska’s Susitna River is one of the nation’s most endangered rivers because of a state plan to build a 100-mile road into its uplands to encourage mining, oil and gas drilling, logging and other development, according to a report released Wednesday. The Susitna ranked eighth on a list of 10 threatened waterways cited in […]

A change to Alaska’s corporate income tax structure is expected to add as much as $65 million per year to the state treasury by diverting money from other states. The Alaska Senate voted 16-4 on Tuesday to approve Senate Bill 113, which clarifies that online sales to Alaskans amount to business activity within the state. […]

A crowd of over 100 residents gathered in front of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on Wednesday, for a “pop-up” protest calling for due process and justice for a Maryland man mistakenly deported and imprisoned in El Salvador.   “Protect the Constitution!” the crowd chanted, and demonstrators held hand-made signs reading: “Uphold the rule of […]

The Alaska House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $6.2 billion draft state operating budget, putting Alaska on track for a significant deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1. If Wednesday’s draft is added to a capital budget draft passed Tuesday by the Senate and a planned supplemental budget needed to fix a […]

Three Alaska Native tribes have filed a lawsuit to overturn the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit granted to a company seeking to dredge for gold in a sensitive wetland area near Nome. The tribes, in their complaint filed on April 10 in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, said the Corps had erred by issuing […]

For the first time in more than 25 years, the Alaska House of Representatives has voted against budget language that seeks to limit Medicaid coverage for abortions. On Monday, the House failed by a single vote to approve a budget amendment that would forbid the state from spending money on abortions unless they are deemed […]

As Alaska legislators confront a major state budget deficit, the state Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a “bare bones” $162 million capital budget to pay for construction and renovation projects across the state. The spending plan, which would take effect July 1, remains a draft subject to approval by the House. Gov. Mike […]

I strongly oppose the change to Alaska’s Constitution to allow spending from a proposed single-component Permanent Fund.  Today, the Permanent Fund has two components, its principal account and earnings reserve account. The principal is nonspendable and, accordingly, is the “permanent” part of the Permanent Fund. The ERA is, at present, the only component that money […]