Sorted by date Results 401 - 420 of 420
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) –Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott resigned Tuesday over unspecified inappropriate comments, complicating what was already a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Bill Walker. Mallott, in his resignation letter, said his decision was “compelled by inappropriate comments I made that placed a person whom I respect and revere in a position of vulnerability.’’ He apologized and acknowledged that his actions had compromised Walker’s ability to lead the state. The nature of the comments remained unclear, though Walker described...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Tension over changes to Alaska’s famed oil-wealth checks hangs over this year’s governor’s race, threatening Gov. Bill Walker’s chances for re-election. For decades, residents have shared in the state’s oil wealth, eagerly anticipating the much-hyped reveal of the annual check’s amount and dreaming about how they’d use their portion. The checks go to every man, woman and child who meets residency requirements, peaking at $2,072 in 2015. But since 2016, the excitement has been muted and, for some, replaced with anger as W...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Some of the sharpest jabs during a relatively tame debate Thursday featuring the major candidates for governor in Alaska were aimed at Republican nominee Mike Dunleavy. The conservative former state senator said later that his rivals, independent Gov. Bill Walker and Democrat Mark Begich, could see him as the one to beat and the one who concerns them the most. “They should. I think I’ve got some great ideas to get us out of this,” he said. Alaska fell into a recession after a crash in oil prices that also exploded the siz...
After voting on Aug. 21, the results of the Alaska primary election have started to come in. Unofficial election results have been posted online at the Alaska Division of Elections’ website. According to the election results, it was a low turnout for the primary, with only 18.2 percent of Alaska’s voting public casting ballots. There were seven candidates running for the position of U.S. Representative this year, three Republicans and four Democrats. Alysa Galvin took 19,735 votes, or 54.09 percent, securing the Democratic nomination for the...
As Bill Governor Walker prepares to sign a bill this week enacting the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan, 16 new applicants hope to soon begin growing shellfish and seaweed businesses in just over 417 acres of tideland areas in Alaska. The new growers will add to the 35 farms and 6 hatchery/nurseries that already are producing a mix of oysters, clams, mussels and various seaweeds. Eventually, sea cucumbers, scallops, giant geoduck clams and algae for biofuels will be added into the mix. Most of the mariculture requests in Alaska are located...
Shockwaves rocked the Alaska seafood industry when China announced on Friday that it will add an additional 25 percent tariff on seafood imports starting July 6 in retaliation to Trump’s trade war. “The 25 percent will be added to the current base tariffs which typically range from 5 to 15 percent,” said Garrett Evridge, a fishery analyst with the McDowell Group. The list of seafood products includes all Alaska salmon, pollock, cod, herring, flatfish, Dungeness crab, snow crab, Atka mackerel, sablefish, geoduck clams and more. “This is devasta...
Hagfish is the real name for what is commonly called slime eels and it could become a viable fishery with ready markets standing by. Little is known about hagfish in Alaska, although they are commonly caught elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. In Oregon, for example, a fleet of 15 to 20 boats catches up to two million pounds each year in customized five gallon buckets or large barrels and pay fishermen up to $1.25 a pound. Now, two Alaska biologists are testing the waters for a fishery with longliner in Southeast who were given a special permit...
A shuffle in some funding leaves Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape to manage the resources and target important projects across the state. At first glance, the $69 million operating budget for FY19 appears to be down slightly from last year’s $72.3 million but that’s not the case. “Most of that difference is a sort of ‘cleanup’ in authority we no longer had funding for, such as the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund, test fishing and some interagency items. The rest is due to $1.1 million shortfall in Commercial Fisheries E...
Spring is usually the busiest time of year for brokers in the buy/sell/trade business for Alaska salmon permits. But that’s not the case this year. Values for several salmon permits had ticked upwards after a blockbuster salmon fishery in 2017, but they have remained stagnant since last fall. “That sort of summarizes the salmon permit market. There is not a lot of excitement about any of them,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. A lackluster catch forecast for the upcoming salmon season - down 34 percent – has helped dampen...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Senate leaders on Tuesday urged Gov. Bill Walker to go back to the drawing board in seeking nominees for a vacant Senate seat if he could not support a candidate from the initial slate of finalists. Walker on Friday appointed Randall Kowalke to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla. Dunleavy resigned last month to run for governor. Kowalke, a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly, was among 11 applicants for the seat but he was not on the list of three finalists Republicans in t...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska state Sen. Mike Dunleavy plans to resign his seat to focus on running for governor. In a statement released Monday, the Wasilla Republican said the best way for him to advocate for his constituents’ values is to devote his full time and attention to ensuring that a new governor is elected this year. A Dunleavy campaign spokeswoman, Amanda Price, said the resignation will be effective Jan. 15 — the day before the new legislative session begins. State Republican party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock said he expects local...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Gov. Bill Walker said Friday that he will probably run for re-election. But he currently has more pressing issues on his mind including crafting a tax bill that he hopes will garner support from lawmakers. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Walker said it’s imperative that revenue issues be addressed this year. He expects to unveil a tax proposal for consideration sometime this year, but he could not provide a timeline for doing so or details on what the bill might include. He did say it would not be...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Legislature, motivated by the threat of a government shutdown, approved a plan late Thursday to fund state operations for another year. The proposal, advanced by budget negotiators and passed by the House and Senate, would continue to draw from savings to help fill the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit, something Gov. Bill Walker had hoped to avoid. It also would fully fund K-12 education, provide $57 million for oil and gas tax credits and limit to $1,100 the size of this year’s dividend check Alaskans recei...
Entering its third full week of the session, Alaska’s Legislature continues to look at a variety of spending cuts and revenue options. On February 2, the Senate Finance Committee heard SB 21, a proposal of Sen. Bert Stedman to restructure how Permanent Fund earnings are appropriated. Currently the $56B in the fund are constitutionally protected, but the bill proposes further limiting the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the principal to 4.5 percent of market value, based on a rolling five-year average. That rate falls within the f...
JUNEAU (AP) – Legislators on opposite ends of the political spectrum are supporting an Alaska Senate bill to restore the portion of Alaskans’ oil wealth checks cut by Gov. Bill Walker last year. Walker vetoed about half the amount available for checks after legislative sessions that focused on the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit ended in gridlock. Senators who want the rest of the checks restored disagree with Walker’s veto but they also have different ideas on what a fiscal plan should include. Signing on as co-sponsors to Republi...
JUNEAU (AP) – Alaska legislators agree on the need to address the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit. But rifts remain over how best to do that, with divisions forming over taxes, how much to keep cutting spending and whether the state needs to tinker with Alaskans’ beloved yearly oil wealth checks. A new 90-day legislative session begins Tuesday, with many lawmakers citing a sense of urgency amid the continued drawdown of state savings. Last year’s regular and special sessions were snarled by gridlock ahead of a heated electio...
WRANGELL – Alaska’s 30th Legislature convened for its new session on Tuesday, with the state’s finances presenting a daunting challenge for the next 90 days. The spending deficit is projected at around $3.1 billion this year if the budget is left as-is. Agency spending has come to just over 13-percent since FY15, and the budget as a whole has taken a 29-percent cut when capital projects and other funding is considered. Revenue has failed to cover operating expenses since FY13, but has covered an ever-dwindling proportion since. This year the $...
JUNEAU (AP) – Bills that would restore the portion of Alaskans’ oil wealth checks that were cut by Gov. Bill Walker last year were filed Monday, ahead of the start of the new legislative session. The legislation to restore dividends was proposed by Republican Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla and incoming Republican Rep. David Eastman of Wasilla. Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski of Anchorage revived a proposal he has pushed previously with little success which he said would enshrine the current dividend formula in the state Constitution. The Ala...
JUNEAU – A state court judge ruled Thursday that Gov. Bill Walker had the authority to reduce this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, siding with the state in the politically charged case. Superior Court Judge William Morse’s decision followed arguments presented by both sides in Anchorage on Thursday morning. Morse said he expected the issue ultimately to be decided by the Alaska Supreme Court. State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said he planned to appeal. The lawsuit, brought by the Anchorage Democrat and tw...
Volunteers are needed to help craft new safety rules that are being written for older boats – which includes the bulk of Alaska’s fishing vessels. Called the Alternate Compliance Safety Program (ACSP), it is part of the 2010 US Coast Guard Authorization Act and is aimed atvessels that will be 25 years old by 2020, are greater than 50 feet in length, and operate beyond three nautical miles. The program will include most of Alaska’s fishing fleet — a 2014 maritime study by the Juneau-based McDowell Group shows that the majority of Alaska...
