Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 1788
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... Full story
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... Full story
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... Full story
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...
Midway through the decade, Alaskans have failed to make significant progress toward the 2030 health targets in numerous categories, according to an annual tracking report issued by state and tribal officials. The latest Healthy Alaskans update, compiled as of December, shows a lack of progress in reducing rates of drug- and alcohol-related deaths, continued sedentary behavior among adolescents, failure to improve inadequate rates of prenatal care for pregnant women and well-child care for young children, and continued high rates of death from... Full story
Alaska’s two U.S. senators split on a vote against President Donald Trump’s economic tariffs against Canada. The U.S. Senate voted 51-48 to approve a resolution April 2 that would end the presidentially declared emergency that allowed Trump to impose tariffs on Canada. The vote was largely symbolic because the resolution has almost no chance of passing the U.S. House, where the Speaker of the House has already taken action to prevent the proclaimed emergency from ending. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined Senate Democrats and thr...
A two-lane bypass around the Wolfe Point landslide area on the North Tongass Highway in Ketchikan opened last week for traffic to move in both directions. The gravel-surface bypass will remain the only route around the slide “until the stabilization project and full roadway repairs are completed,” according to a March 26 announcement from the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center. The bypass was built as a temporary roadway for traffic after the March 20 slide of rocks, trees and debris blocked the highway and cut the town into two disconnected...
The Alaska Legislature is considering a roughly $200 million draw from savings to address a deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30. That would still leave lawmakers with an additional gap of several hundred million dollars in the budget year that starts July 1. Declining oil revenue has helped balloon the state’s deficit. That’s due to lower-than-expected oil prices and an increase in oil company expense deductions for investments in new fields. In total, the Legislature is facing a roughly $680 million deficit over two fiscal years base...
Crews were able to clear enough rock and debris over the weekend from a landslide that covered North Tongass Highway in Ketchikan to open a single-lane bypass with limited hours as of Monday morning. The road was open for two hours Monday morning and three hours in the evening. The limited hours are necessary so that crews can continue working the rest of the time to fully clear the highway. Flaggers will control traffic during the openings, allowing vehicles to move in only one direction at a time on the single lane. Ketchikan schools...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the Trump administration needs to realize federal employees are operating programs that "truly are saving lives," and there needs to be support for agencies "that Americans are relying on for livelihoods and for safety." "Weather forecasters save lives in our state," Murkowski said during her annual speech to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature on March 18. "Public servants are not our enemies." Murkowski is one of the few congressional Republicans openly...
Sitka-based Silver Bay Seafoods has reached a deal to acquire a 50% stake in OBI Seafoods, expanding the company’s processing capacity in Alaska. The company announced March 19 that it will take over management of all OBI facilities and operations including plants in Southeast, Southcentral and western Alaska, and Washington state. Silver Bay is buying Icicle Seafoods’ 50% stake in OBI, partnering with the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. (BBEDC) which holds the other 50%. OBI was created in 2020 by a merger between Ocean Beauty Sea...
In remarks to the Alaska Legislature on March 20, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan praised the work of President Donald Trump, saying the new president's pro-mining and pro-drilling views are "great for those of us in Alaska." Sullivan, who walked through a crowd of anti-Trump and pro-democracy protesters en route to the speech in the state House chambers, downplayed the chaos caused in Alaska by the Trump-empowered Department of Government Efficiency, which has orchestrated the firing of hundreds of... Full story
In what it says is an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone. The only field offices in Alaska are in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks. More than 100,000 Alaskans receive Social Security benefits. Beginning March 31, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the Social Security Administration over the phone to c...
Troy Sauve, a Fairbanks resident, submitted his applications for food and heating assistance to the Alaska Division of Public Assistance on Oct. 24. His eligibility hearing was held more than four months later. Sauve, who works seasonally as a cook at a resort, relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to make ends meet. He is one of hundreds of Alaskans who have been waiting longer than three months for food assistance amid an ongoing backlog in the state office charged with processing aid applications. Sauve spent...
Vacation rental: Historic six-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion with eight fireplaces and ballroom. Vacant much of the year. Conveniently located in the heart of downtown Juneau, within easy walking distance of the Alaska State Capitol and other attractions. A bill introduced on March 17 by Fairbanks Rep. Will Stapp would turn the Alaska Governor’s House into a short-term rental. House Bill 139 would allow rentals at the three-story, 14,400-square-foot residence “when the legislature is not in session and the governor has not reserved the mansion in...
The Alaska Department of Revenue forecast on March 12 that the state will see a bigger budget deficit in the next fiscal year due to lower oil prices. Oil prices have dropped about $10 a barrel since early January as the market reacts to risks of U.S.-instigated trade wars, a weakened global economy and new oil supplies exceeding demand. Oil taxes and royalties are the second-largest source of general fund revenue for the state budget, behind only Permanent Fund earnings. The Alaska Legislature is facing a combined $650 million shortfall over...
Vigor Alaska, the private operator of the state-owned Ketchikan Shipyard, has been notified that the state will not extend the shipyard operating agreement with the company when the current contract expires in November. Citing less-than-full utilization of the shipyard and increasing unfunded maintenance at the facility under Vigor's management, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), which owns the facility, said in a Feb. 28 letter that it would give the company until...
Increased state investment in marketing would help the battered Alaska seafood industry seize an opportunity to improve sales within the United States, the head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute told state lawmakers. Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s executive director, attempted to make his organization’s case to the state Senate Finance Committee for $10 million in state funding. The money could be put to work to promote Alaska seafood at a time when there is no competition in the domestic market from Russian seafood, which was banned from the... Full story
A proposed 20-year plan seeking to restore the ailing Alaska Marine Highway System to a more reliable and sustainable operation calls for a major increase in funding for operations and building several new ships. The six new ferries and shoreside improvements could cost $3 billion. The draft plan also envisions an ambitious increase in service to smaller communities, including Wrangell, while shrinking the total fleet from nine ships to eight. The draft plan published Feb. 28 seeks about $3 billion in vessel and infrastructure spending, plus...
British Columbia Premier David Eby said on March 6 that he intends to introduce legislation that would place tolls on commercial trucks traveling from the Lower 48 states to Alaska through his province. Speaking at the Legislative Assembly building in Victoria, Eby said the move is one of several that he is taking in response to President Donald Trump’s erratic Canadian tariff plans. “I’m here to share that we will be introducing a new law in the coming days to respond to this historic challenge: unprecedented legislation. It will inclu... Full story
Legislative leaders on Feb. 27 wrote to Alaska’s congressional delegation, urging them to block deep cuts to federal programs that they say would “endanger the economic prosperity and social well-being of Alaskans.” “It is our duty to inform you that the legislature cannot fix the financial havoc that is being wreaked on Alaskans by the federal government,” said Kodiak Republican Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, in a strongly worded two-page letter. Stevens and Edgmon warned about the...
