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The Legislature appears to have reached a deal on an education bill. The Senate passed the measure with a $700 increase in per-student funding, almost a 12% boost, on a 19-1 vote at midday Monday, April 28. The House was expected to take up the bill on Wednesday. House approval would send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his approval or veto, though the wide margin of legislative approval indicates lawmakers could have enough votes to override a veto. House Bill 57 started three months ago as a measure to place limits on student cellphone...
The Senate Finance Committee is considering a draft of Alaska’s state operating budget that would cut more than $200 million from a version adopted earlier this month by the state House. The committee unveiled the first draft of its operating budget proposal at an April 24 meeting in the Capitol in Juneau. The committee’s version of the budget would send less state money to school districts than the House had proposed, though it appears a compromise has been reached on that number — less than the House and school districts wanted but more than...
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s 90th annual tribal assembly voted on April 18 to give Southeast Alaska communities more representation by reducing the number allocated for larger cities such as Anchorage and Seattle. The change in representation on the tribal assembly was approved after an emotional five-hour debate at the gathering in Juneau. The change, part of Tlingit and Haida’s first constitutional convention at its assembly since 2018, makes significant shifts to a tribal delegation where Juneau and...
Legislation passed April 16 by the Alaska House of Representatives would require school districts to adopt policies that restrict the use of cellphones by students during school hours. House Bill 57, which advanced to the Senate after a 34-6 vote, does not require districts to ban students’ cellphones but does require them to regulate students’ use of phones during regular school hours, including during lunch and the time between classes. Wrangell’s middle school already bans cellphones on the premises during school hours. The high schoo...
The Alaska Senate passed legislation on April 17 that would significantly cap the interest rates and fees payday lenders can charge for loans of $25,000 or less. Senate Bill 39 would remove payday lenders from an exemption in the state’s lending laws, and require payday loan companies to cap interest rates and fees at an annual percentage rate of 36% for loans of $25,000 or less. An estimated 15,000 Alaskans take out a payday loan each year, according to research by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group....
Members of the federal government’s ocean-mapping corps and Alaskans training for the merchant marine would continue to receive Permanent Fund dividends while away from the state, under a bill approved by the Alaska House of Representatives. House Bill 75, from Rep. Jeremy Bynum, is the first piece of legislation from a freshman lawmaker to pass either the House or Senate this year. Bynum, who was elected last year, represents Ketchikan and Wrangell. The legislation also would change state law to make the names of dividend applicants c...
Southeast Alaska’s golden king crab fishery reached an all-time high value of $5 million this year, marking an impressive recovery for a fishery that was struggling just a few years ago. The East Central management area, which includes waters around and north of Petersburg, led the record-breaking season with a harvest value of $2.97 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game data. The high value comes despite lower harvest volumes than last year. Fishermen landed 177,060 pounds from the East Central area this year, c...
As the Trump administration continues to cut federal spending in multiple areas, Sitka’s 4-H program has received notice that the Department of Agriculture has terminated the grant that funds about half of the 4-H budget. The 4-H Alaska Way of Life program is run by the nonprofit Sitka Conservation Society in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, offering people ages 5 to 18 a chance to learn outdoor skills such as boating and water safety, bicycling, deer and fish butchering and berry gathering. “It’s all about teaching skill...
Thirteen years ago, Palmer farmer Scott Robb set a world record with a 138-pound cabbage he brought to the Alaska State Fair. Not long afterward, Palmer’s local visitor center dedicated a statue to the cabbage and the other colossal world-record vegetables grown in the area. Now, at the urging of a leading visitor center volunteer, a state legislator from Palmer is proposing to enshrine Alaska’s giant cabbages in state law as the official state vegetable. If adopted by the House, Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, House Bill 202 would declare tha...
The federal leader of the Denali Commission said April 18 she is trying to save long-planned Alaska infrastructure projects now threatened by the Trump administration — and the life of the independent federal commission itself. Julie Kitka, who served for three decades as president of the Alaska Federation of Natives before taking on the new role in October as federal co-chair of the Denali Commission, discussed those challenges in Nome at a conference organized by that city’s government. “I have to tell you that dealing with the new feder...
Josh Chevalier says working as the chief engineer aboard the state ferry Columbia is rewarding because there's always a new problem to solve, but right now one of the challenges is finding other workers who share that enthusiasm. He was among the crew members providing members of the State Legislature insight into a day in the life of working aboard the biggest and fastest ship in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet. "It's nice to see them come out and look at the boats and find out what we...
Along with announcing his veto of an education funding bill on April 17, Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced new legislation with less of an increase in the state’s per-student funding formula, along with additional funding and policy items to benefit charter schools and homeschool programs. At a news conference in the state Capitol, the governor said there were two reasons for his veto. “One of the reasons is that the (state) revenue situation has deteriorated a lot” in recent months, Dunleavy said. “And the second reason for the veto is there’s...
The Alaska House of Representatives on April 16 approved a $6.2 billion draft state operating budget, putting Alaska on track for a deficit of as much as several hundred million dollars in the fiscal year that begins July 1. If the House version of the operating budget is added to the capital budget passed a day earlier by the Senate — and counting a planned supplemental budget needed to fill holes in this fiscal year’s spending plan — total general-purpose spending this legislative session would come in near $6.6 billion. The Alaska Depar...
A change to Alaska’s corporate income tax structure could add as much as $65 million a year to the state treasury by expanding the tax code to collect more from digital businesses, such as online merchants located outside the state. The Alaska Senate voted 16-4 on April 15 to approve Senate Bill 113, which changes the state’s corporate income tax code to require online merchants and other businesses pay taxes in Alaska based on their sales into the state, even if they have no employees or property in Alaska. Selling goods or services to Alaskan...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has long struggled to compete with corporate America to recruit tech workers to maintain the complicated computer systems that track the federally regulated seafood harvests off Alaska. These chronic staffing shortages at NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region have been greatly exacerbated by the Trump administration's efforts to cut the federal workforce. As of mid-March, the Alaska Region had 29% of its staffing positions vacant, and the Information...
As Alaska legislators confront a major state budget deficit, the state Senate on April 15 voted unanimously to approve a “bare bones” $162 million capital budget to pay for construction and renovation projects across the state. The spending plan, which would take effect July 1, remains a draft subject to approval by the House. Gov. Mike Dunleavy could also veto individual items in the spending plan. The budget bill passed by the Senate is almost entirely limited to the minimum in state money needed to unlock more than $2.5 billion in fed...
At least one refugee family in Juneau has received notice from the Trump administration ordering them to leave the country immediately or face prosecution, while at least four international students at the University of Alaska Anchorage had their visas revoked, officials said April 14. Both actions mirror nationwide targeting of foreigners who were residing legally in the United States but are now being subjected to detention, arrest and deportation for reasons including expressing views the Trump administration finds disagreeable and alleged...
Federal workers across Alaska have been fired as part of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting efforts, leaving many in a state of uncertainty, frustration and limbo. Three of those former employees spoke with the Alaska Beacon about the work they did, the experience of losing their positions and their insights into how the job losses will affect Alaska. Kitty Sopow was fired from her job with the National Weather Service, based in Nome. She was given warning of her impending termination — a complete sur...
Sitka voters will cast their ballots May 28 on a citizens initiative to limit the number — and days — of cruise ship passengers in town. If approved, the limits would take effect next year. The Sitka assembly approved the special election March 27. Advocates of limits on cruise ship visitors to town, Small Town SOUL, collected almost 700 petition signatures, more than enough to earn a spot on the ballot. The yes-or-no question on the ballot will determine whether or not Sitka limits cruise ship port calls May through September; sets aside at...
The Alaska Department of Health is at risk of losing federal funding because of an ongoing backlog in reviewing food assistance applications, federal officials told the state last month. The state has repeatedly failed to comply with deadlines to process applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, leaving thousands of Alaskans waiting months for help. The processing backlog has persisted despite the state spending tens of millions of dollars to address it, and despite orders from state and federal judges for the...
Some shareholders with one of Alaska’s largest Native corporations are speaking out about the company’s involvement in immigration detention centers overseen by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, including at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba. NANA, the Alaska regional Native corporation for Northwest Alaska, gets most of its revenue from its Akima subsidiary. Akima owns dozens of companies which provide a variety of contracting services to the federal government. Some of the contracts include running migrant detention centers wher...
Visitors to the state Capitol in Juneau will have to go through a metal detector under a new policy adopted last month. The visitor screening policy was approved in a 9-4 vote by the Legislative Council, a committee comprised of members from both the House and Senate that sets the rules for the Capitol complex. Lawmakers did not publicly discuss or debate the policy change. Before the vote, they met in a session closed to the public for more than an hour and a half for a security briefing and to discuss the policy proposal. The screening is...
The Alaska Legislature has voted to allow teenagers as young as 18 to serve alcohol in the state. The Alaska House of Representatives voted 32-8 on April 2 to pass Senate Bill 15, which lowers the minimum alcohol-serving age in restaurants, breweries, wineries, distilleries, resorts and similar businesses. The minimum age to serve alcohol at a bar or sell it at a package store remains 21. A separate provision of the bill requires alcohol-serving businesses to post a sign stating that alcohol causes cancer. The House’s vote follows a 19-0 v...
A Mt. Edgecumbe High School student tried on his new basketball shoes in the gym - a pair of Nikes originally intended for NBA legend LeBron James. The student was Rashawn Stone, a freshman who already plays on the Braves' varsity basketball team. In addition to their shared affinity for basketball, Stone and the NBA star have something else in common: feet that fit a size 16 shoe. Stone's new shoes are a donation from a Portland nonprofit. They ended up on Rashawn's feet in large part because...
Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new jobs, some laid-off federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: Relatives cheering their firing. The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of the government’s cost-cutting measures. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste. “I’ve been trea...