Articles written by Amy Bushatz


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  • Mat-Su Borough will display the Ten Commandments at assembly building

    Amy Bushatz, Mat-Su Sentinel|Oct 9, 2024

    The Ten Commandments and six other historical documents will be placed on permanent display in a lobby outside the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly chambers in Palmer, according to a resolution unanimously approved by the assembly on Oct. 1. The display will “honor historical documents” that have influenced U.S. and state law, the resolution states. It will include the Ten Commandments, a summary of the Code of Hammurabi (a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755–1750 B.C.), the Magna Carta (written in 1215 to establish the princ... Full story

  • Mat-Su Borough will pay for firearms training for residents

    Amy Bushatz, Anchorage Daily News|May 22, 2024

    Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will have access to free or low-cost weapons training under a new borough grant program targeted at compensating for limited local law enforcement. Officials estimate that the $75,000 grant could pay for private firearms safety training for up to 300 residents over the next year. The grant was approved in a 5-2 vote by the borough assembly this month as part of the larger approval process for the borough’s $455 million budget for 2025. The program is designed to give residents the skills to respond to t...

  • State calls off pilot plan to give tribal police officers more authority

    Amy Bushatz, Anchorage Daily News|May 15, 2024

    A plan to grant special law enforcement powers to Chickaloon tribal police officers has been put on indefinite hold because state public safety officials feared it could lead to altercations between tribal officers and nontribal members, officials said May 6. The pilot plan, which was to be in place by mid-June, would have allowed Chickaloon police officers to enforce certain state laws and arrest members of the general public in a roughly 68-square-mile area near Sutton, northeast of Anchorage. It was designed to augment state trooper...

  • Mat-Su borough assembly advises residents to arm themselves for protection

    Amy Bushatz, Anchorage Daily News|Feb 7, 2024

    A new Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly resolution urges residents to own weapons and ammunition to compensate for limited local law enforcement in Alaska’s fastest-growing region. The action, which doesn’t have the power of law, reflects ongoing discussion in the region about the lack of borough policing powers as the state troopers struggle with continued staffing issues that have left the local trooper detachment with roughly 20% of its positions unfilled. Unlike Anchorage, which has lost residents overall for the past nine years, Mat...