Sorted by date Results 1 - 21 of 21
One of Alaska’s largest private COVID-19 testing providers plans to close its public testing sites in the state by the end of June. The decision by the private company will not affect SEARHC’s continuation of testing services in Wrangell. The decision by Capstone Clinic is mainly driven by financial considerations, said Matt Jones, Capstone’s director of non-clinical operations. Jones said it began with an abrupt move by the federal government earlier this year to no longer cover the costs of COVID-19 tests or treatments for those without healt...
Just hours after a federal court judge voided the federal face mask mandate for air travel and other public transportation, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines on Monday afternoon said masks would be optional on their flights. Other airlines are expected to follow suit. Alaska Airlines said in a statement that because of the judicial decision, passengers and employees effective immediately would have the option to wear a mask while traveling in the U.S. “While we are glad this means many of us get to see your smiling f...
The Alaska House went back to work on Monday after canceling floor sessions last week when several members refused to wear face masks amid an outbreak of COVID-19 among lawmakers and staff. At its worst last week, almost 10% of the 60 legislators and more than 300 staffers in the Capitol had tested positive for the coronavirus. House Speaker Louise Stutes said she canceled floor sessions due to an unwillingness by several Republican lawmakers to comply with temporary masking rules she had imposed. The speaker announced March 28 that masks...
Alaska Airlines said last week it would trim its flight schedule by about 10% for the rest of January as it deals with “unprecedented” numbers of employees calling in sick during the COVID-19 surge. Service to Wrangell — Flight 65 northbound in the morning and Flight 64 southbound in the afternoon — are not on the list for service reductions, Tim Thompson, company spokesman in Anchorage, said Jan. 6. “Intra-Alaska service is not part of the current schedule reduction,” Thompson said. Though continued staff shortages could affect future scheduli...
High winds, deep snow, below-zero temperatures, frozen pipes, canceled flights and ice-covered everything - it was not a merry Christmas or a happy new year for many Alaskans. Ketchikan endured its coldest-ever Christmas, and the next day, too, shivering to a low of zero degrees on both days, breaking a 57-year-old record for Christmas Day. It was cold enough to freeze saltwater in shoreline areas of Bar Harbor, City Float, Mud Bight and Ward Cove. The 350 residents of Hydaburg, on the...
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 mid-December to drop the masking requirement for when students and staff returned to class on Monday, but the Anchorage School Board on Dec. 20 voted 5-1 to reverse the decision. Face masks will be required in the state’s largest school district until at least Jan. 15, when the board will review the policy. B...
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 endorsement. The former president has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported impeachment for Trump’s role in instigating last January’s insurrection at the Capitol during certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. Trump has endorsed Murkowski’s primary challenger, K...
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 future of the state’s dividend program. But the budget relies on high oil prices to help pay the bills and is heavily dependent on one-time federal pandemic aid dollars to help cover the cost of public services usually paid out of state funds, such as the Alaska Marine Highway System. The budget pla...
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 hold hearings to ask questions. The fund this past fiscal year grew more than 25%, with record returns on its investments. The board on Dec. 9 voted 5-1 to remove Rodell. The five votes came from members last appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The board did not disclose a reason for the decision, whic...
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 per-capita basis as did the 2020 CARES Act or 2021 American Rescue Plan. Much of the overall infrastructure funding will be distributed as competitive grants through federal agencies. Funds also will be directed to the states, with lawmakers making the decisions on which projects to undertake. The...
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 supported the map. The two who were not appointed by Republicans opposed the map. In addition to redrawing the boundaries for the state’s 40 House seats, the board had to decide the pairings of two House districts each to create 20 Senate seats. It was those Senate district boundaries that prompted l...
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 last Saturday covers three facilities that had already announced emergency protocols, including the largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, and facilities across the state, including hospitals in Wrangell and Petersburg. Though Wrangell Medical Center is covered under the o...
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 care workers, including about 300 nurses, to help the strained workforce. Alaska is using $87 million in federal funds to cover the costs. The first health care personnel reported to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage for orientation on Tuesday. The contractor said the remaining nurses,...
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 infections over the past week is more almost triple the national average — and higher than any other state — as reported on The New York Times COVID-19 tracking page. Alaska is facing “one of the sharpest surges” in the country, the state epidemiologist said Sept. 16, adding that it’s not clear when the situ...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he wants to use federal pandemic relief dollars for a national advertising campaign to support Alaska's tourism industry, though he provided no details or budget for the marketing campaign in the April 9 announcement. The governor's office also said tourism businesses will soon receive relief grants from the state, with details to come this week. Legislative approval is required to appropriate state funds. Dunleavy said he has put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new operating guidance for cruise lines, with at least one company just three days later submitting its plan to possibly resume sailings in July. An industry group, however, strongly criticized the instructions. The new federal guidance does not change the reality for Alaska that Canada has not lifted or amended its ban on cruise ships. Without a change in Canada, or a temporary waiver from U.S. law requiring a stop in a Canadian port for...
Alaska state transportation officials are contemplating sinking a ferry to save money. The Department of Transportation has considered turning the Malaspina into an artificial reef. The ship is one of the two large sister ships, along with the Matanuska, that helped start the Alaska Marine Highway System almost 60 years ago. The Malaspina has been tied up in Ketchikan since December 2019, when it was taken out of service to cut the budget. The department has said it could cost $18 million for...
Alaska officials and authorities in British Columbia announced they have completed and will not continue data collection on three transboundary watersheds, including the Stikine River, despite concerns from fishing and tribal interests that the effort does not go far enough. The work stemmed from concerns about possible damage that mining activity in Canada could inflict on waters that cross into Alaska. A 22-page final report released Feb. 25 culminated two years of data collected from water, sediment and fish tissue from the three waterways:...
The federal government has approved Alaska’s plan to distribute almost $50 million in pandemic relief payments to the state’s fishing industry. The decision came after two major revisions to the plan and more than 200 public comments from every industry sector. Applications will be accepted from March until May and payments could begin as early as June, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 26. They money is coming from the federal CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion package of pandemic relief aid, which Congress passed almost a year ago. The s...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said his administration will no longer respond to or participate in hearings led by Sen. Lora Reinbold, telling the fellow Republican in a withering letter Feb. 18 that she has used her position to “misrepresent” the state’s COVID-19 response and that her demands for information are “not based in fact.” Reinbold has criticized the governor’s pandemic disaster declarations and taken aim at health restrictions imposed by local governments, airlines and the Legislature, including mask requirements. She has used social medi...
JUNEAU - A state corporation is seeking almost $4.5 billion in federal funding to help build a $5.9 billion pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to Fairbanks. The project is being promoted as the first phase of the state-sponsored $38 billion project to move North Slope gas more than 800 miles to Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, where the gas would be supercooled into a liquid and loaded aboard 1,000-foot-long tankers to buyers in Asia. The larger project to transport and sell North Slope natural gas overseas has been around for decades,...
