Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 71
A three-judge panel at 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower-court decision that could have temporarily halted troll fishing for salmon in Southeast Alaska. The appellate court decision, announced Friday, clears the way for the region’s troll fishery to continue. It had been threatened by a lawsuit from the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy, an environmental group. The group filed suit in 2020, arguing that National Marine Fisheries Service rules applied to the fishery were inadequate when it came to protecting endangere... Full story
Forty-three people spent the night in Juneau's emergency shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School on Monday night as a record-high flood from the Mendenhall Glacier inundated homes. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the total number of people who evacuated their homes is likely several times that; shelters are usually a last resort for people who cannot stay with family, friends or in a hotel. "You can imagine how hard it would be to wake up with water in your house, not expecting there to be... Full story
Seattle has more power in the U.S. House of Representatives than the state of Alaska. And yet, ahead of this year’s House elections, there’s as much at stake with Alaska’s race than all four of the contests in King County combined. The vast majority of the 435 seats in the House are firmly Democratic or firmly Republican. Alaska is among a dwindling number of exceptions that could go in any direction. More than that, it’s one of just five places in the country that voted for Donald Trump as president in 2020 yet elected a Democrat to the Hou... Full story
Supporters of Alaska’s ranked choice election system are asking the Alaska Supreme Court to rule on one final attempt to keep a repeal measure from this November’s election ballot. Earlier this month, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin ruled that there was insufficient evidence to disqualify the measure from a statewide vote. While Rankin disqualified some signatures from a petition seeking to force a repeal vote, a recount by the Alaska Division of Elections confirmed that enough signatures remain for that vote to take place. On T... Full story
In closely watched oral arguments last Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated that it is unlikely to grant an environmental group’s petition for an order that could halt — at least temporarily — the valuable Southeast Alaska king salmon commercial troll fishery. In May 2023, a judge in the U.S. District Court covering western Washington issued an order stating that federal officials were allowing Alaska fishermen to harvest king salmon at rates that harmed an endangered population of killer whale...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prodding the state of Alaska over its failure to update water pollution rules. Last Thursday, the EPA issued a formal determination that the state should update pollution limits that are based in part on the amount of fish consumed by state residents. Under federal law, those limits are supposed to be reviewed every three years, but Alaska hasn’t updated its limits since 2003. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has been working since 2013 on an updated list of water quality s... Full story
The 33rd Alaska State Legislature came to a shuddering but active end early Thursday morning as lawmakers passed the state’s annual budget and a series of high-profile bills addressing crime, climate change, the looming Cook Inlet energy crunch, and problems with the state’s correspondence education programs. “I think it was a great session,” said Speaker of the House Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla. “We’ve taken care of energy … we were able to take care of the correspondence folks. And we had a great crime bill that we passed. So I think it was... Full story
After a court ruling that overturned a key part of Alaska’s education correspondence programs, members of the state Legislature have proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow public money to go to private and religious schools. House Joint Resolution 28 is scheduled for hearings Wednesday and Friday next week in the House Judiciary Committee. If approved by two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate and voters this fall, HJR 28 would remove the part of Article VII, Section 1, that says, “no money shall be paid from public fun... Full story
An Anchorage Superior Court judge on Friday struck down an Alaska law that allows the state to distribute cash payments to the parents of homeschooled students on the grounds that it violates constitutional prohibitions against spending state money on private education. “This court finds that there is no workable way to construe the statutes to allow only constitutional spending,” wrote Judge Adolf Zeman, concluding that the relevant laws “must be struck down in their entirety.” The decisio... Full story
As the Alaska House of Representatives opened debate on the state operating budget Tuesday, financial experts away from the House floor were calculating that the draft spending plan under discussion may not be affordable. The operating budget, which will pay for state services for 12 months starting July 1, clocks in at $6 billion, excluding federally funded and fee-funded programs. The state’s capital budget, which covers construction and renovation projects, is expected to be another $550 million. Other legislation, labor contracts under n... Full story
Members of the Alaska House Finance Committee revised their latest budget draft Tuesday to include more money for child care and eliminate funding for an experimental reading institute operated by the state. The committee spent most of the day Tuesday debating amendments to the state’s operating budget, an $11.3 billion document that pays for state services and Permanent Fund dividends during the 12 months that begin July 1. The committee is expected to consider additional amendments through Wednesday at least, and the budget would then a...
A new state revenue forecast that includes modestly higher oil prices promises to give Alaskans a slightly larger Permanent Fund dividend and the Alaska Legislature some additional breathing room as lawmakers craft a new state budget. The forecast, released Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Revenue, updates a fall estimate and predicts that the state of Alaska will collect $140 million more in revenue than previously expected during the 12 months that begin July 1. That will help legislators as they write a budget bill that must be passed a... Full story
Leading Alaska legislators said last week that there’s little appetite for spending from savings to pay a super-sized Permanent Fund dividend this year, likely killing a proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In December, the governor proposed spending almost $2.3 billion on a dividend of roughly $3,500 per recipient under a formula in state law. That would result in a $1 billion deficit and require spending from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve, but as a draft budget takes shape in the House, top members of both the House and Senate sai...
The Alaska Senate voted without dissent Monday to allow the Department of Natural Resources to stop publishing some public notices in local newspapers. Senators approved Senate Bill 68 by a 17-0 vote. It now advances to the House for consideration. Sens. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel; Bert Stedman, R-Sitka; and Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, were excused absent. Before the final vote, newspaper publishers unsuccessfully asked legislators to reconsider their plans. Allowing the state to control its public notice process poses transparency risks, they...
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an ultimatum to state legislators on Tuesday, saying he will veto a multipart education funding bill unless lawmakers pass separate legislation that contains his education priorities. Speaking from his office in Anchorage, the governor said lawmakers have two weeks to reconsider teacher bonuses and changes to the way charter schools are approved, two items that were voted down during the debates over Senate Bill 140, the education bill. If they don’t act, Dunleavy said he will veto SB 140, killing a permanent f... Full story
The leaders of the $76 billion Alaska Permanent Fund voted unanimously on Friday to adopt a strategic plan that calls for borrowing up to $4 billion in order to increase the amount of money available for investments. Friday’s vote has limited effect: The borrowing could take place only if the Alaska Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy change state law to allow it. “It’ll start out as a legislative effort, then it would take a bill,” said Paulyn Swanson, communications director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., which manages the fund. The Ala... Full story
Sitka's Mount Edgecumbe volcano is wired. On Jan. 26, the Alaska Volcano Observatory announced the completion of a new instrument network intended to measure the activity of a volcano that could be awakening after a period of dormancy. The network includes four seismic stations and four sites that measure the way the ground is deforming as magma moves deep below the volcano. Since April 2022, the movement of that liquefied rock has caused hundreds of small earthquakes and raised concerns that... Full story
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a far-reaching administrative order on Monday that calls for public agencies to stop doing business with companies that support an economic boycott of Israel. The order makes Alaska the 38th state to take executive acts or pass legislation against boycotts intended to support Palestinians. Many of those actions are years old, but the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a conflict that has killed more than 25,000 people since October, has intensified attention on a two-decade-old campaign that urges companies to boycott... Full story
In an unusual use of executive powers, Gov. Mike Dunleavy this month issued 12 executive orders abolishing state boards and granting new powers to the heads of state departments. The orders, which account for almost 10% of all executive orders issued since statehood and are equal to the number of all executive orders issued in the previous 20 years, will automatically take effect in March unless the Alaska Legislature specifically disapproves of them in a joint vote of the House and Senate. “We have never, in my experience, had 12 executive o... Full story
The Alaska Legislature’s big education funding bill will reach the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives by next week, a leading Republican lawmaker said Monday. “We’re going to get it out. It’s not going to sit anywhere,” said Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage and chair of the House Rules Committee. On Saturday, members of Johnson’s committee heard more than seven hours of public testimony, mostly in favor of a large increase in Alaska’s funding for public schools. The committee declined to fulfill that request before advancing Sen... Full story
Staff for Gov. Mike Dunleavy quashed the publication of a new Department of Labor and Workforce Development report examining the competitiveness of teacher pay in Alaska, an act that current and former staff say could damage the apolitical reputation of the division that publishes state economic data. “This is data that typically is available to the public, and it’s never good to suppress good, objective data,” said Neal Fried, who retired in July after almost 45 years as an economist with the department. The report, which had been the cover... Full story
The board in charge of Alaska’s retirement system for public employees has recommended the closure of its commonly used managed accounts program after an independent review found workers were being charged high fees and receiving lower-than-expected returns. Managed accounts cover more than 10,000 of the 122,000-plus accounts in Alaska’s state employee retirement system and were the default option when the state switched from a pension-style retirement system to its current 401(k)-like approach in 2006. Many of those employees are only now dis... Full story
The five-person board in charge of drawing Alaska’s legislative districts will pay $400,000 to settle financial claims brought by a group of East Anchorage plaintiffs who successfully challenged the boundaries of Eagle River’s state Senate district last year. In total, the state will have paid more than $600,000 to settle financial claims resulting from what the Alaska Supreme Court called “an unconstitutional political gerrymander.” Two smaller financial claims by other plaintiffs remain unresolved, but Friday’s decision by the redistric... Full story
This year's Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend will be $1,312. The Alaska Department of Revenue announced the figure last Thursday, two weeks before the annual cash payments will be delivered by direct deposit. PFD applications that were filed electronically, slated for direct deposit and have been deemed eligible will be paid out Oct. 5. The Department of Revenue will mail paper checks and begin direct deposits from paper applications later in the month. This year's PFD amount had been estimated... Full story
The state of Alaska, a coalition of business groups and a pair of electric-power organizations have opened a new round in the generation-long fight over environmental protections in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. On Sept. 8, the state and two other groups of plaintiffs filed three separate federal lawsuits to challenge a Biden administration rule restricting new roads in parts of the forest, which is home to some of America’s last stands of old-growth trees. Each lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to ove...
