Wrangell Sentinel -

Just as other communities, Wrangell is enduring a springtime bloom of COVID-19 cases. As of April 20, the state health department reported 79 new cases in the community in the past 30 days. Most of those were reported to the state in late March and...

The borough could receive about $300,000 under a Senate Finance Committee plan to pay back municipalities across Alaska for years of short-funding of the state’s share of local school construction bond debt. The committee version of the state b...

Global supply chain shortages and delays have extended past grocery stores, car dealers and electronics to the Alaska Marine Highway System. The state ferry Kennicott was delayed coming out of winter overhaul. Instead of returning to service last wee...

The Alaska Senate by a wide margin last week approved legislation to tax e-cigarette products just as the state taxes cigarettes and tobacco products. The legislation, which is scheduled for hearings this week in two House committees, also would...

Amid all the legislative debate over the size of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend, the amount of state support for schools and loud pleas from communities across Alaska for more money for docks, sewage treatment plants, roads and building repairs,...

The Alaska Marine Highway System has been hoping since last August to bring back the Columbia to service this year after an almost three-year absence, but with the start of the summer schedule only weeks away the state has not announced a decision...

Former Alaska governor, former vice presidential candidate and former reality TV personality Sarah Palin added her well-publicized name to the list of four dozen candidates seeking to fill Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House, hoping to take over f...

It only takes a fraction of a second for a school, health care center, municipality or others to be the victim of a cyberattack. It could take months or even years to recover, if at all. Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber of commerce...

I was pleased to learn that the Legislature finally has a bill, Senate Bill 170, to transfer the Alaska Marine Highway System from the Department of Transportation to a separate state-owned corporation similar to the structure of the Alaska...

After a 30-month absence due to a new federal requirement for armed customs agents and the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of Canadian waters, the Alaska Marine Highway System is scheduled to resume limited service this summer to Prince Rupert, British...

KENAI (AP) — Republican Charlie Pierce, Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor, has picked the chair of the Alaska Parole Board, Edie Grunwald, of the Matanuska Valley, to be his running mate as he campaigns for the governor’s job. Grunwald previously ran...

JUNEAU (AP) — A bill in the Alaska House would repeal a provision of law that allows a court to grant permission for someone as young as 14 to marry. House members last Wednesday adopted the repeal as an amendment to a bill dealing with witness r...

Alaska’s share of a $26 billion nationwide settlement with opioid distributors and a manufacturer is $58 million, the state Department of Law announced March 1. According to the Department of Law, 15% of the $58 million — roughly $8.7 million — will...

The Alaska Department of Transportation is asking anyone interested in taking ownership of the nearly 60-year-old Malaspina to speak up by March 7. The state has been spending about $75,000 a month to keep the unused ferry moored and insured at Ward...

An Alaska judge upheld most of the state’s newly redistricted legislative district map on Feb. 15 but overturned a decision that created two East Anchorage Senate seats linked with more politically conservative Eagle River. The judge also ruled in f...

If at first you don’t succeed, it’s not always better that you try, try again. But try, try again is what we do well in Alaska. Well, not so successfully, but we are consistent in trying the patience of common sense and fiscal restraint. For Ala...

Closed schools and mitigation protocols have complicated recruitment for the U.S. Coast Guard over the two years of the pandemic, officers said. “We are definitely, in comparison to pre-COVID numbers, we are not doing as well,” said Cmdr. Andrea Smi...

An Alaska state ferry hasn’t stopped in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, since fall 2019, but officials “remain hopeful” they can add back the Canadian port to Southeast Alaska runs on May 1. “The Alaska Marine Highway System continues to work cl...

For the third year in a row, lawmakers are considering legislation that would impose a tax on e-cigarettes, such as vaping devices, intended to make it more expensive and harder on young people to buy the products. “This bill is about protecting our...

The Alaska Marine Highway System has activated the dormant state ferry Tazlina for more than 30 sailings from Juneau to northern Southeast communities in February and March, filling in service gaps to Haines, Skagway, Hoonah, Angoon and Gustavus....

Though they say the level of funding for the state ferry system in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is adequate, coastal legislators don’t like that the governor wants to use one-time federal money to pay the bil...

The Alaska Department of Transportation on Jan. 14 announced it had awarded a $15 million contract to Vigor’s Ketchikan shipyard for installation of living quarters aboard the state ferry Hubbard, which will enable the ship to carry a change of c...

The Alaska Department of Transportation is contracting with Allen Marine to run one of its vessels “as needed” between Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg this winter, though no runs are scheduled and any operations likely would depend on whether the...