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Jews in Israel and Palestinians in Gaza are embroiled in the deadliest fighting in decades, prompted by an organized assault by Hamas soldiers who murdered innocent people in Israel on Oct. 7, while also taking hostages. Israel has followed the Hamas raid with deadly retaliatory attacks on Gaza — military targets but also more innocent civilians caught in the war. I am losing hope for a lasting peace in the Middle East, even though I was always told it was possible and always wanted that to be true. I am Jewish — culturally, not rel...
A statewide effort to build up Alaska’s mariculture industry is looking to expand production at the same time it grows the market, particularly for kelp. “Everyone talks of the chicken-and-the-egg situation,” Juliana Leggitt, mariculture program manager at the Southeast Conference, said of what comes first: More kelp or more buyers. “There are definitely challenges in both.” The Alaska Mariculture Cluster, a consortium led by the Southeast Conference, has $49 million in federal money and $15 million in cash and in-kind matching funds to use ove...
Alaska Seaplanes has decided to shut down its Wrangell and Petersburg operations, citing poor economics. Its last flights to the communities are scheduled for Oct. 31. "Unfortunately, it wasn't financially sustainable with the ridership," Carl Ramseth, general manager, said Thursday, Oct. 5. "It hurts to pull out of those two communities." Alaska Seaplanes started scheduled service into Petersburg in spring 2021, with daily flights from Juneau, and added a Sitka-Petersburg-Wrangell-Sitka flight...
WRANGELL — While ground work is underway at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision upland from Shoemaker Bay, borough officials are at work researching options for how the residential lots — as many as 42 — will be sold. The sale is expected by next summer or fall. “People are excited about it,” said Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director. The community has never seen so many building lots come up for sale at one time, she said in an interview Friday, Oct. 6. “This is a new opportunity for us.” Borough officials...
WRANGELL — The Stikine Sportsmen Association is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever illegally killed a cow moose and left the carcass to rot in the woods south of Wrangell. A hiker discovered the kill and reported it Sept. 24, said Chadd Yoder, the state wildlife trooper in Wrangell. After inspecting the carcass, he estimated it had been dead five to 10 days. The moose was “human killed,” and all of the meat left at the site, Yoder said Friday, Sept. 29, declining to share too many details about the o...
Alaska Airlines would like to improve passenger flow at its Wrangell and Petersburg airport terminals. The idea of making any changes to the buildings was put on hold during the pandemic. "We've got to find a way to improve the passenger flow in both those terminals," Scott Habberstad, the airline's managing director for Alaska, said last week. The tight space for people waiting to board after they clear TSA security screening creates a logjam on heavy traveler days that can slow down the...
With high oil prices driving up state revenues, Southeast legislators say to expect a larger capital budget next year for public works projects, more money for deferred maintenance and another attempt to boost state funding for public schools. That’s assuming oil prices stay elevated as the state works its way through the fiscal year that will end on June 30 and remain high in the forecast for the next year. Lawmakers will return to work at the Capitol on Jan. 16. With oil prices last week 30% higher than assumed in this year’s spending pla...
The state wants to send the Matanuska, the oldest vessel in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet, into a shipyard for the equivalent of a full-body scan. Management wants to find out just how much of the ship's steel has rusted, and how far the rust has eaten into the thickness of the metal. The 60-year-old Matanuska has been tied up at the dock in Ketchikan since last November, waiting for the state to decide whether to repair the vessel and restore it to working order, or give up on the...
High oil prices could provide an additional $500 for Alaskans a year from now. As part of the end-of-session budget deal put together by legislative leaders, particularly in the Senate, lawmakers in May adopted a provision in the fiscal year 2024 state spending plan that will provide a one-time “energy relief payment” next fall if state revenues exceed estimates. Global supply shortages, caused largely by production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia, have driven up oil prices and boosted state revenues for the first three months of the fis...
When I was much younger, hallucinations were an affliction of college students who figured drug-assisted education was the answer to life — or at least worth a try. Not me (honest). I found it more entertaining to stay sober and watch everyone else act stupid, and then tell them the stories the next day and at reunions for years to come. I had figured that self-inflicted hallucinations were in the past, an unhealthy phase of life, much like eating four hot dogs, with fries, in one sitting. It was my favorite weekend meal with high school f...
Employers everywhere are finding it hard to recruit and retain employees. But it sure seems that the state of Alaska, under the disengaged leadership of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, is sinking to new lows of high vacancies. The empty desks and undone work are degrading public services and hurting Alaskans. The administration’s reactions have been to express concern, provide excuses, talk about doing better and, in some offices, shuffle around available personnel to plug the biggest holes. And the governor proclaimed May 10 as State Employee A...
Oversupply from bumper harvests last year and inflationary pressures squeezing household food budgets have made it a terrible year for Alaska salmon prices. A near-record pink salmon harvest in Russia isn’t helping by adding more fish to the market. “It’s a challenging year for all Alaska seafood,” said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Pollock prices are down, “we’re seeing impacts on crab too, and other whitefish species,” he said Aug. 10. And now, “salmon is getting the microscope.” Th...
Oil and water don’t mix. We learned that in high school. And we learned it again when water got into a heating fuel line. In Alaska, oil and salmon don’t mix either, unless the oil is brushed on the grill before cooking a fillet. However, oil and salmon are in the same boat — economically speaking in Alaska. They both respond to supply and demand. When global oil supplies can’t keep up with demand, the price of a barrel of crude climbs higher. A shortage — or even a fear, a hint or speculation of shortage — drives up prices for the commodity....
The Head Start program operated in 10 Southeast communities by the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska wants to reduce its authorized enrollment by 80 children as the nonprofit adjusts to a tightening budget situation and staffing shortages. Tlingit & Haida is approved to serve 262 children across Southeast but has asked federal officials for permission to reduce the number to 182, according to Head Start Director Christa Green. Federal funding covers almost 80% of the program’s budget. The program provides 20 Head Start...
Elected officials who say the proposed Alaska North Slope natural gas project is closer than ever to putting steel pipe in the ground and money in the pockets of construction workers should take a break from their political grandstanding and pay attention to the facts. Not a single analyst tracking gas projects around the world ever mentions Alaska when they list developments with the best potential of getting built. The talk about multiple liquefied natural gas export projects going to construction along the U.S. Gulf Coast, in Qatar,...
The Washington State Ferries system still has not returned to its full pre-pandemic schedule, coming up short due to fewer riders, an inability to recruit, hire and train onboard crew, high rates of retirements and resignations, and a “lack of vessels due to unanticipated breakdowns and an aging fleet.” Some sailings have been canceled for lack of crew, and a few routes are running at reduced service. It sounds a lot like the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Washington state system, which has been around since 1951, 12 years older than Alaska...
The Alaska Permanent Fund has prospered for almost half a century, growing ever more important for the state’s future. What started as a source of pride and prudence — showing the naysayers going back to statehood that Alaska can manage its money and save for when oil revenues go into decline — the fund has matured into the single-largest consistent source of income for public services. It has profited from good investments through a diversified portfolio. It has prospered from strong public support, protecting it from dumb ideas like writi...
After the past few years when resignations and retirements far outpaced new hires, the Alaska Marine Highway System was able to hire as many new onboard crew as it lost in the first six months of this year. It showed a net gain of two workers, adding 47 and losing 45, though most of the new hires were in entry-level jobs and not the critical experienced positions that remain vacant. The lack of enough crew to fully staff the state ferries has been a problem, keeping the Kennicott tied up this summer and creating spot shortages the past couple...
Opponents of ranked-choice voting in Alaska want to put an initiative on the ballot so that voters can overturn the law in the 2024 election. To do that, they need to collect signatures from about 26,000 registered voters to win a spot on the statewide ballot. To do that, and then run a statewide campaign to convince a majority of voters to dump the new voting system, they will need money. Six-figure money. Which means fundraising. But the laws around soliciting and accepting campaign donations are a problem for people who want to remain...
Petersburg will go without any southbound ferry service in alternating weeks from Oct. 1 to mid-November under the Alaska Marine Highway System's draft fall/winter schedule. The town is on the schedule for its usual weekly northbound stop during that period. The rest of the winter schedule shows once-a-week service to town in each direction, with the bonus of two stops in each direction the second week of each month from mid-November through February when the Kennicott will shorten its...
More than two months ago, Gov. Mike Dunleavy told legislators he would introduce a state sales tax as part of a long-term, budget-balancing fiscal plan. Something is needed to end the annual budget battles that have dominated Alaska politics for the past three decades. A sales tax is not the best option, but at least the governor appeared ready to participate. However, he never introduced the bill, nor did he ever say why he failed to do what he said he would do. Later that same month, the governor said he would likely call lawmakers into...
The Alaska Marine Highway System, which five months ago embarked on improving its hiring process to address chronic crew shortages, is unable to say how many new employees it has hired since then. The push started after a consultant’s report in January determined the state had hired just four out of 250 job applicants the over prior 12 months. The crew shortage forced the state to pull the Kennicott, the second-largest operable ship in the fleet, off this summer’s schedule and keep it tied up at the dock in Ketchikan. Asked how many new emp...
People are growing increasingly cynical about government: How money is spent, how hiring decisions are made, and how it seems there are few consequences for actions that hurt the public. Yet too many elected leaders continue making bad decisions that add to the cynicism. Such as Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointing to the University of Alaska Board of Regents his former chief of staff whose poor judgment — and illegal actions, according to a judge — cost the state at least half-a-million dollars. Tuckerman Babcock, a longtime political adviser to the...
Alaska lawmakers reached a compromise on the state budget and adjourned after a one-day special session last week, approving a $1,300 Permanent Fund dividend for this fall with the possibility of a second, smaller payment next year if oil revenues exceed projections. The amount of the PFD and the capital budget — construction and maintenance projects in legislators’ home districts — were the final items that forced legislators into a special session after the regular session ended May 17 without a budget. The governor called them back to work...
The budget that legislators approved last week and will send to the governor for his signature into law or veto would provide around $804,000 in one-time additional state funding to the Petersburg school district for the 2023-2024 classroom year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has not publicly stated whether he will approve the increase in state funding for public education. He did not propose any increase in the budget that he submitted to lawmakers at the start of the session in January, leaving it to legislators to decide an amount. State funding for pu...
