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Some fired federal employees received letters on Monday notifying them they were “reinstated” according to a federal court order, but on “paid, non-duty” status, a type of administrative leave. The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a letter to fired employees, including those formerly with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, who shared a copy with the Alaska Beacon. “When I first heard the decision, I was super excited,” said one former employee with NOAA, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid potential r... Full story
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, encouraged members of the Alaska Legislature – and the public – to work together to get things done, despite major uncertainties caused by the Trump administration, as well as its cuts to budgets, personnel and programs. “I’ll tell you I accept the challenge. I want you to know that I’m going to do everything in my power to make the best of this,” Murkowski said, of her role in advocating for Alaska’s priorities in Congress. “We are engaging every day to try to identify where we are seeing challenges pres... Full story
The state of Alaska is still facing a significant budget deficit despite a revised state revenue forecast published Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Revenue. Oil revenue makes up about 40% of Alaska’s general-purpose revenue, leaving state finances unstable and dependent upon estimated oil prices. The Department of Revenue updates its outlook twice per year, and its changes can radically alter the state’s budget process. For the 2025 fiscal year, which ends June 30, the department is estimating $6.23 billion in general-purpose rev... Full story
This is a developing story. The Trump turmoil in the federal workforce continued at full tilt Tuesday as the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced all fired probationary Forest Service workers will be reinstated with back pay at least temporarily. Meanwhile the Department of Education made another round of mass firings that essentially cut its workforce by half. Those two moves were just part of the day's chaos that Trump administration officials are embracing as a necessary shakeup and detra...
Coffman Cove commercial fisherman Dugan Paul Daniels, 55, was sentenced on Monday to six months in prison for illegally “taking” an endangered sperm whale and falsifying fishing records in 2020. The term “take” legally means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. According to research done by the prosecution in preparation for Daniels’ case, this appears to be the first Endangered Species Act charge to result from a sperm whale take in the United States. The Nati...
Last week’s federal budget resolution — which narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a 217-215 vote — has sparked serious concerns about healthcare funding for Alaska’s most vulnerable. The resolution directs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion over 10 years from the section of the federal budget that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter, Jared Kosin with the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, and Brandy Boggs PMC Patient Navigator joined Hannah... Full story
A damaged undersea communications cable disrupted cell phone service in Petersburg on Saturday and other Southeast Alaska communities since Thursday – the damaged Alaska Communications (ACS) subsea cable system serves as a carrier for multiple cell providers, including AT&T. The broader regional outage began around 9:15 p.m. Thursday, with ACS and AT&T customers in Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus reporting limited or no service. Alaska Communications confirmed Friday that damage to their subsea cable system was the cause. The cell phone o...
JUNEAU — President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders in recent weeks to expand logging in the nation’s forests, but stakeholders say the recent mass firings of U.S. Forest Service employees could hinder the administration’s plans in Alaska. Trump’s actions are the latest chapter in a decades-long tug-of-war between conservation and development in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest — by far the largest of the nation’s forests. On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order to boost development o...
Alaskans were among the hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees who began receiving firing notices this week, a blow to an agency that provides everything from weather forecasts to fisheries management to cutting-edge climate science in Alaska. The cuts — part of a broader effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to drastically slash the federal workforce — came after other agencies, including the National Park Service, had abruptly fired probationary workers in recent weeks. Nationally, more than 800...
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday ordered all federal departments and agencies to submit reorganization plans outlining how they would implement large-scale layoffs before March 13. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell wrote in a seven-page memo the reason for the expected layoffs is that the “federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt.” “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public,” they wrote. “I... Full story
Gov. Mike Dunleavy says “it’s like Christmas every day now” since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Some other state Republican leaders spent Tuesday talking of a winter blunderland. “It’s Christmas every day if all you expect is coal in your stocking, “ Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said in response to Dunleavy’s assessment. “It’s a tough, tough time for all of us.” Dunleavy’s holiday-season cheer is based largely on the prospect of uninhibited oil drilling and similar industrial activity that might or might not h...
Red king crab commercial permit holders in Southeast Alaska will have a better chance of fishing in the coming seasons. The Alaska Board of Fisheries approved a change in management regulations proposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) that allows for a conservative commercial fishery when crab stocks aren’t enough for a typical competitive opening. Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crab can bring in over $100 each. But commercial openings have been few and far between — just one in over a decade. Sev...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to cancel plans to replace the controllable-pitch propellers aboard the state ferry Columbia next year, opting to keep the 52-year-old ship in service until a replacement vessel is built. The propulsion system project was estimated in 2022 to cost as much as $20 million. The Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, serves the ferry system’s longest and most heavily traveled route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. It had been scheduled to head into a shipyard for much of next y...
A voting error led one Alaska House of Representatives minority-caucus member on Wednesday to vote to move a public-school funding increase one step closer to passage through the Alaska House of Representatives, at a time when the House’s majority caucus has a narrow margin. Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, joined 20 members of the House majority in voting to move House Bill 69 from the House Education Committee to the House Finance Committee. Twenty votes were needed. If signed into law, HB 69 would permanently increase the state’s per-student pu... Full story
The Alaska Senate is considering a bill that would allow parents who are owed child support to apply for the Permanent Fund dividend of the parent who is delinquent in their payments, providing a work-around to collect from parents who do not bother to apply for their annual PFD. “The reality is that in some cases,” said Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar, the bill’s sponsor, the owing parent either forgets to apply or decides not to apply out of spite to deny the money to the other parent. Under state law, garnishment of the dividend for child...
Alaska nonprofits face immense uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants and loans. That’s the message state lawmakers heard during a House Judiciary meeting Monday afternoon. Laurie Wolf is executive director of the Foraker Group, a state nonprofit association that advocates for the sector. She said nonprofits in the state receive about $1.2 billion from the federal government yearly, and that funding impacts every Alaskan. “Every Alaskan is a nonprofit beneficiary, because nonprofits are woven into the fabric of ou... Full story
The state of Alaska is bringing in less money than it is spending, and is on pace to finish the current fiscal year with a deficit of $171 million, according to figures presented Tuesday. Lacey Sanders, Gov. Mike Dunleavy's top budget official, told the Senate Finance Committee that spending from the Constitutional Budget Reserve likely will be needed to close the gap. To do this would require support from three-quarters of the House and three-quarters of the Senate. That's a critical... Full story
Facing steep growth in demand, constant turnover and employee retirements, Alaska’s health care industry has a staggering need for new workers, a new report says. “To meet those variables, we have to find over 9,400 new health care workers every single year,” Jared Kosin, executive director of the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, said on Monday. Kosin, who presented the information to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, characterized the workforce situation as a good news-bad news story. “I’m like, ‘Hey, we have these opportuniti... Full story
Southeast Alaska fishermen filled the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan on Tuesday to ask the seven-member Alaska Board of Fisheries to grant them opportunities in state-managed fisheries for all "finfish" species, namely Chinook salmon and herring, that sustain communities, industries and cultural traditions regionwide. The Board on Tuesday heard more than seven hours of public testimony regarding fisheries for salmon and trout species, as well as herring, that are the subject of 87...
President Donald Trump’s order to pause the spending of billions of dollars in federal grants triggered a wave of anxiety, fear and uncertainty on Tuesday in Alaska, a state dependent more than any other on federal spending. “For me, it was pandemic-level chaotic,” said Nils Andreassen, director of the Alaska Municipal League, which works with cities and boroughs statewide. A federal judge’s ruling late Tuesday temporarily blocked the presidential order, but that only defers an act with broad consequences. “We’re waiting for the other shoe... Full story
WRANGELL - Unique bedrock formations, a thick layer of loose sediment, and a concentrated water drainage system flowing down from the ridgetop were three of the main ingredients that led to the Nov. 20, 2023, landslide that killed six people at 11.2-Mile. These three causes, all benign on their own, became disastrous when heavy rains down poured on Wrangell Island. Though the airport weather station reported rainfall conducive to a "large but not especially large" storm, members of the public...
Rural schools, mostly in Southeast Alaska, are facing a major funding shortfall this year after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to reauthorize a bill aimed at funding communities alongside national forests and lands. The bipartisan Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act was first passed in 2000, and enacted to assist communities impacted by the declining timber industry. It provided funds for schools, as well as for roads, emergency services and wildfire prevention. The award varies each year depending on federal lan...
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced a state budget proposal on Thursday that would draw down roughly half the amount remaining in the state's budget reserve fund. "We're going to follow the laws and we have the savings," the governor said at a news conference announcing the spending plan. "That's why you have the budget designed as it is." The $16.8 billion draft budget for the 12 months beginning in July is $344 million more than the amount the state plans to spend in the current budget. The in... Full story
Alaska Airlines has received a federal subsidy since 1976 to provide Wrangell and Petersburg with twice-daily jet service, and community leaders in each community are rounding up support to urge the government to issue a new contract after the current agreement expires in 2025. “I want to ensure it stays around,” Wrangell Mayor Patty Gilbert said of her petition drive to show community support for Alaska Airlines under the U.S. Department of Transportation Essential Air Service program. Sixty-five communities in Alaska —including 10 more in So...
After 11 straight years with more residents leaving Alaska than arriving, the state for the first time projects a long-term population decline, according to a report released Monday from the state’s demographer. And as Alaskans keep getting older, the number of deaths will rise while births keep falling, adding to the population decline looking out to 2050, according to David Howell, state demographer, writing in the state’s latest Alaska Economic Trends magazine. The projections, if they hold, could have important consequences, he said in an...
