Articles written by Yereth Rosen
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CDC study finds Alaska Natives have highest colon cancer rate in the world
Alaska Natives continued to have the world’s highest rates of colorectal cancer as of 2018, and case rates failed to decline significantly for the two decades leading up to that year, according to a newly published study. The study, by experts from... Full story
State senator tries again for e-cigarette tax and raising age to 21
Nearly six months after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bill aimed at reducing youth use of electronic cigarettes, its primary sponsor is trying again to pass similar legislation. Senate President Gary Stevens on March 1 introduced Senate Bill 89, which... Full story
Governor wants to eliminate college degree requirement for many state jobs
Alaskans will no longer need college degrees for most state jobs, under an administrative order issued Feb. 14 by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The action is needed because of the labor shortage that affects Alaska and the nation, Dunleavy said in a... Full story
Alaskans who went to college out of state more likely not to return home
Nearly 18 years ago, about 6,000 young Alaskans left high school and launched into adulthood. Where did they end up? Slightly half were still in Alaska as of 2021, but the percentage was much smaller for those who got college degrees outside of the... Full story
Endangered listing for sunflower sea stars could affect West Coast fishing
One of the biggest sea stars in the world has been devastated by a malady likened to an underwater "zombie apocalypse" and could soon be granted Endangered Species Act protection. Sunflower sea... Full story
Scientists say collapse such as Bering Sea crab stocks could happen more often
The first-ever cancellation of Alaska’s Bering Sea snow crab harvest was unprecedented and a shock to the state’s fishing industry and the communities that depend on it. Unfortunately for that industry and those communities, those conditions are... Full story
NOAA rejects commercial fishing in Bering Sea crab area
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has rejected a petition from crab fishers to bar all commercial fishing for six months in an area of the Bering Sea designated as a special protective zone for red king crab, which have suffered a... Full story
NOAA work says fishing nets pose risk to Wrangell area porpoises
There are at least two distinct populations of harbor porpoises in Southeast Alaska waters, and one of them — which swims around Zarembo and Wrangell islands — appears to be particularly vulnerable to deaths from entanglements in commercial... Full story
State Senate leader lists school funding, teacher retention as priorities
As the Alaska Legislature’s 2023 session approaches, a state Senate leader last Thursday highlighted the potential benefits of that body’s newly formed bipartisan majority coalition. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel said the nine... Full story
Federal spending bill includes fisheries disaster funding for Alaska
Aid to Alaska fishermen, seafood processors and marketers and communities was included in the year-end congressional appropriations package that won final passage last month. The $300 million in aid follows official disaster declarations issued by... Full story
Alaska teens increasingly substitute vaping for cigarettes
Alaska teens have largely ditched cigarettes over the past two decades, but they have substituted that unhealthy habit with another: vaping. About 25% of surveyed high schoolers reported using electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to... Full story
Damages increase as warming Arctic threatens entire ecosystem
Disruptions in Alaska over the last year, some of them threatening health and safety of people, are part of the ongoing pattern of rapid warming and transformation of the Arctic, said an annual report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric... Full story
Warming seafloor could reduce food for Pacific walruses
There is danger lurking on the floor of the Bering and Chukchi seas for mussels, snails, clams, worms and other cold-water invertebrates, according to a new study led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists. If climate change... Full story
Lower 48 tribes join up with Alaska Natives to protect transboundary rivers
Alaska Native tribes seeking better protection from the environmental impacts of Canadian mines have enlisted allies in their flight: Lower 48 tribal governments with concerns of their own about transboundary mining impacts. A delegation of tribal... Full story
State task force recommends 'science-based' cap on salmon bycatch
New controls on how fish are commercially harvested and more research to understand the effects of climate change in the ocean and freshwater spawning grounds are some of the key recommendations of an Alaska task force examining ways to address... Full story
Republican and Democratic state senators organize in coalition
Seventeen of Alaska’s 20 state senators and senator-elects have banded together to form a bipartisan majority coalition that members promise will be moderate and consensus-focused. Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican and veteran lawmaker known as a m... Full story
Ongoing worker shortage drags down Alaska economy
Alaska’s economy shows signs of prosperity. But it’s also facing an emerging crisis. A veteran economist described these contradictory forces in a presentation Nov. 16 at an industry conference in Anchorage. “We have the strangest and weirdest... Full story
Murkowski, Peltola wait for final count, but both appear headed to re-election
Alaskans may have decided to re-elect Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola to Congress, but the final outcome will not be known until the last ballots are tallied next week and, in one or both races, ranked-choice voting is factored into the... Full story
Metlakatla working to prevent spread of invasive green crabs
Natalie Bennett was walking surveying a beach on Annette Island as part of a team trying to defend Southeast Alaska from marine invaders when she made a major but ominous discovery: the state’s first documented shell of an invasive European green... Full story
State task force focusing on possible answers to salmon bycatch
The stakes in Alaska are high in the search for a solution to the problem of bycatch, the unintended at-sea harvest of non-target species, such as hundreds of thousands of salmon a year, by commercial fishermen that are going after pollock or other f... Full story
Quakers apologize for Native boarding schools, including one in Juneau
The Alaska Quakers apologized to Alaska Native communities for the boarding schools it ran in Alaska and the United States, which forcibly assimilated and abused Indigenous children, separated them from their families and caused intergenerational... Full story
NOAA report sees opportunities and challenges for Alaska mariculture industry
Alaska has special opportunities for developing a thriving aquaculture industry, but also special challenges that stand in the way of such ambitions, according to a new strategic science plan issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
Modeling saw the storm but not the surges that devastated coastal Alaska
When the remnants of Typhoon Merbok were barreling toward western Alaska to unleash what turned out to be the region’s strongest storm in more than half a century, meteorologists knew what was coming. What they could not predict was the exact...
State requests 100% federal disaster funding to pay storm costs
Alaska officials are asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide 100% of the funds necessary for Western Alaska communities to recover from damages inflicted by Typhoon Merbok. That would match the 100% funding that was committed to... Full story
To encourage more young fishermen, look to farm programs as models, new study argues
Young Alaskans seeking to break into commercial fishing face a lot of the same barriers that confront young farmers in the Lower 48 states, but they have far fewer resources to help overcome those...
