Articles written by Becky Bohrer
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Interior Department further restricts oil drilling on North Slope
The Biden administration said April 19 it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres of a federal petroleum reserve on Alaska’s North Slope to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar bears as the Arctic continues to warm. T...
State Supreme Court says police need warrant for airborne zoom lenses
Alaska law enforcement officers now must obtain a warrant before using aircraft to scope the area around a person’s home with binoculars or cameras with zoom lenses, the state’s highest court ruled in a decision released March 8. The Alaska Sup...
Judge rejects challenges to biggest Alaska oil project in decades
A federal judge has upheld the Biden administration’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope, a decision that environmental groups swiftly vowed to fight. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected re...
Amount of the PFD has become an annual political battle
Nearly every Alaskan received a $1,312 payment last month, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and hou...
Rush of water from glacial basin caused Juneau river flooding
The destruction came as a glacial dam burst in Alaska’s capital city on Aug. 5, swelling the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree. The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jökuhlaup, and while it’s relatively little-know...
Tourism traffic advances in Juneau while prime-attraction glacier recedes
Thousands of tourists spill onto a boardwalk in Alaska’s capital city every day from cruise ships towering over downtown. Vendors hawk shoreside trips and rows of buses stand ready to whisk visitors away, with many headed for the area’s crown jew...
Helmet camera films Juneau man's drowning in Mendenhall Lake
A Juneau man inadvertently filmed his own drowning on Mendenhall Lake with a GoPro camera mounted on his helmet, but authorities who recovered the camera have not yet found his body, officials said July 18. Alaska State Troopers said teams would...
Holiday weekend charter boat accident near Sitka takes 5 lives
A fishing adventure turned tragic for a family when disaster struck one of the two Sitka boats they chartered over the Memorial Day weekend, leaving three people dead and two missing despite a search over hundreds of square miles of ocean. The...
Alaska envisions a future of making money from carbon credits
Alaska’s push to become a bigger player in the clean-energy market was in the spotlight last week at a conference convened by the governor, even as the state continues to embrace new fossil fuel production, including the controversial Willow oil p...
Food stamp delays hit hardest in rural Alaska villages
Thousands of Alaskans who depend on government assistance have waited months for food stamp benefits, exacerbating a long-standing hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic, inflation and the remnants...
State House censures member for child abuse comments
JUNEAU (AP) - An Alaska lawmaker with a history of incendiary remarks was censured by the state House on Feb. 22 after he said it has been argued that cases of fatal child abuse can be a "cost...
Opposing sides continue debating proposed North Slope oil project
Alaska’s U.S. senators and several Alaska Native leaders on Feb. 14 urged the federal government to approve a major oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope, casting the project as economically critical for Indigenous communities in the r...
Governor's promotes carbon-storage plan as big moneymaker
Oil-dependent Alaska has long sought ways to fatten its coffers and move away from the fiscal whiplash of oil’s boom-and-bust cycles. The newest idea, promoted by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, would have the state capitalize on its oil and gas e...
EPA uses veto power and blocks proposed Pebble Mine
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took an unusually strong step Jan. 31 and blocked a proposed Alaska mine heralded by backers as the most significant undeveloped copper and gold resource in the world. The EPA based its veto on concerns over...
BLM review recommends approval of $8 billion Alaska oil project
The Biden administration released a long-awaited study Feb. 1 that recommends allowing an $8 billion oil development on Alaska’s North Slope that supporters say could boost U.S. energy security but that climate activists decry as a “carbon bom...
Will Palin become 'old news' or find new role?
JUNEAU (AP) — Republican Sarah Palin re-emerged in Alaska politics over a decade after resigning as governor with hopes of winning the state’s U.S. House seat. She had a lot going for her: unbeatable name recognition, the backing of former Pre...
Dunleavy will be sworn in for second term Dec. 5
JUNEAU (AP) —Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has won reelection, becoming the first governor in the state since 1998 to win back-to-back terms. Dunleavy received 50.28% of the vote after final tallies were released Nov. 23. Because he won a majority o...
Murkowski wins with 54% of the final vote tally
JUNEAU (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has won reelection, defeating Donald Trump-endorsed GOP rival Kelly Tshibaka. Murkowski beat Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 ranked-choice election. The results were announced Nov. 23, when elections o...
Peltola defeats Palin 55% to 45% in final count for U.S. House
JUNEAU (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola has been elected to a full term in the House, months after the Alaska Democrat won a special election to the seat following the death earlier this year of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young. Peltola defeated R...
Report accuses Pebble mine boss of misleading U.S. House panel
Backers of a proposed copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska “tried to trick regulators by pretending to pursue a smaller project with the intention of expanding” after the project was approved, a report released Oct. 28 by a U.S. House panel sai...
U.S. House candidates talk in TV debate about partisanship
Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in a televised debate Oct. 26 called partisanship a threat to the country as the Democrat sought to make the case for reelection to the seat she’s held since September against challengers including Republican Sarah P...
Two Russians flee across Bering Sea to Alaska to avoid military service
Two Russians who said they fled their country to avoid military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after beaching their boat on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office said last Thursday. Karina B...
Voting ends Saturday in 48-candidate U.S. House primary
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska voters are facing an election unlike any they have ever seen, with 48 candidates running to succeed the man who held the state’s only U.S. House seat for 49 years. While some of the candidates in this week’s special prima...
EPA proposes restrictions that would block Pebble Mine
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 25 proposed restrictions that would block plans for a multibillion-dollar copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region, the latest in a long-running dispute over eff...
Legislature closer to passing tribal recognition bill
JUNEAU (AP) — The state Senate passed legislation last Friday to formally recognize tribes in Alaska, which supporters say is an overdue step that would create opportunities for the state and tribes to work together. The measure passed 15-0 and w...
