Anchorage public schools opened the new year with face mask requirements still in place, after the school board reversed a decision by the superintendent that would have made masks optional. Schools Superintendent Deena Bishop decided in...

Almost 60 borough employees, union and non-union, will receive a 2% raise retroactive to July 1, 2021. A second 2% raise is scheduled for July 1 of this year. The new wage scale is the result of a collective bargaining agreement between the borough...

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has accepted Donald Trump’s endorsement for his 2022 reelection campaign, telling the former president he will not support Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid for the U.S. Senate — a condition of winning Trump’s endor...

The nine-member Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board, a new advisory panel created by the Legislature last year, has moved closer to full membership. State Senate President Peter Micciche last month appointed Paul Johnsen, of Petersburg, and David...

Dec. 22, 1921 A live Chamber of Commerce for Wrangell promises to be a reality. Last week, half a dozen citizens who styled themselves organizers sent out invitations to the business and professional men of the town to attend a meeting in the...

Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week outlined what he called a responsible budget proposal that doesn’t dip into savings, bolsters law enforcement and calls for direct payments of about $3,700 to residents amid an unsettled dispute with lawmakers over the f...

If the almost 5.5 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide seem remote and irrelevant in Wrangell; if you feel a safe distance from the 805,000 deaths across the United States; and if the 946 deaths reported in Alaska as of Monday don’t touch anyone i...

The board that oversees Alaska’s multibillion-dollar investment portfolio has fired Angela Rodell as chief executive officer of the Permanent Fund Corp. Legislative leaders and Finance Committee members are upset at the surprise decision and plan to...

Former Alaska Senate President Cathy Giessel plans to run for the state Senate next year. Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, announced her plans Dec. 1 in the newsletter she has regularly distributed since leaving office earlier this year. Giessel...

There is an inescapable irony to the fact that Alaska joined with a dozen other states in suing the federal government over their right to cut taxes. This from a state that has no property tax on homes or businesses, only on the oil industry. No...

Tribes nationwide will receive an infusion of federal money from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to expand broadband coverage, fix roads and address water and sanitation needs. The measure does not allocate funds to individual tribes on a...

Gov. Mike Dunleavy is in reelection campaign mode, which is sort of like pie á la mode — political apple pie with a big scoop of partisanship on top. The governor earlier this month issued an administrative order that he said was necessary to protect...

A divided Alaska Redistricting Board voted last week on a final map that could give one of the more conservative areas of the state, Eagle River, a second seat in the state Senate. All three board members appointed by Republican elected officials...

Doctors at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute are there to help make people think and feel better about themselves, to overcome the troubles that disrupt their lives and sometimes endanger the public. They are not there to make a governor look good,...

The state has activated emergency crisis protocols that allow 20 hospitals to ration care if needed as Alaska reports among the nation’s worst COVID-19 infection rates of recent weeks, straining the state’s limited health care system. The declaration...

Once again, Alaska legislators have gaveled back into special session because Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants to show his constituents that he believes in one thing above all else: The largest Permanent Fund dividend in state history. He’s like a w...

The first 100 out-of-state health care workers have started arriving in Alaska to help at medical facilities overwhelmed with record patient counts due to surging COVID-19 infections. The state health department has contracted to bring on 470 health...

While Wrangell did not report a single COVID-19 infection between Sept. 10 and 21, the state tracking website reported almost 8,000 new cases over that period. Alaska’s numbers are so bad lately that the state’s average rate of daily new inf...

At this point, anything is worth a try. If a healthy life, caring about family and neighbors, and wanting to dream about perhaps someday flying without a face mask isn’t enough of an incentive, maybe a chance at winning the Alaska vaccination l...