Sorted by date Results 726 - 750 of 786
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has extended a no-bid contract awarded to a relative of a major financial supporter of the governor. The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday that the one-year contract extension was given July 1 to Clark Penney for economic development consulting services for the administration of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The 34-year-old owns Penney Capital Inc., which the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority pays $8,000 monthly, with a monthly travel allowance. Clark Penney’s grandfather, Bob Penney, con...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —State health department officials want to take another look at options for running Alaska’s state-owned psychiatric facility, including privatization. The request for proposals was released Monday, the same day Gov. Mike Dunleavy and department officials touted progress at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. The state Department of Health and Social Services has been under contract with Wellpath Recovery Solutions to stabilize the facility and take steps to bring it to full operation. The contract is set to run through 201...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The governor of Alaska is moving ahead with a plan to increase in prices at assisted living homes, a report said. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed increasing Alaska Pioneer Home rates between 40% and 140% by Sept. 1, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The Dunleavy administration submitted the proposal to offset the state budget’s $12.3 million cut to funding for the homes, state officials said. There are currently three levels of service ranging from about $2,500 a month to $6,800 a month depending on the lev...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The first strike by Alaska ferry workers in over 40 years has snarled travel plans for thousands of people during the busy tourist and fishing season, leaving some stranded and catching the attention of a Democratic presidential candidate. Members of the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific went on strike Wednesday after failing to reach agreement with the state on contract terms, bringing Alaska's ferry system to a halt. State transportation Commissioner John MacKinnon...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature on Monday approved a roughly $1,600 oil-wealth fund dividend to residents this year as part of a measure that also seeks to reverse many of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s operating budget vetoes. The legislation now goes to Dunleavy, who called it “a dark day for the PFD and for Alaskans who support the PFD and for those that are looking at a sustainable budget. These add-backs take us in the other direction.” PFD refers to the Permanent Fund dividend, which is traditionally paid annually with earnings of the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn proposed Obama-era restrictions on mining activity in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, angering opponents of the Pebble Mine project. EPA says the proposed restrictions were based on hypothetical scenarios and are outdated now that the Pebble Limited Partnership has submitted project plans. The agency says other processes are better suited for working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the corps seeks to finalize an environmental review of the project. A reg...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The University of Alaska has taken its first steps toward consolidating its three accredited campuses into a single entity. Facing severe budget cuts as a result of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen, the UA Board of Regents voted Tuesday to authorize President Jim Johnsen to immediately reduce administrative costs and prepare a plan for a transition to a single institution. Johnsen painted a dire financial picture for the university and said delaying a decision would compound the size of the cuts to be made later this yea...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) —Alaska’s Head Start early childhood education program is preparing to close pre-K classrooms and cut jobs after budget vetoes, officials said. The program lost its $6.8 million in state funding, which is used to unlock federal funds, when Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month vetoed line items equaling $444 million in cuts to the state operating budget, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The federal program is Alaska’s largest provider of early childhood services, offering free pre-K, meals, medical care and o...
Juneau, Alaska (AP) - A spokesman for a union representing workers for the Alaska ferry system says the union has gone on strike. Hundreds of ferry workers went on strike Wednesday after failing to reach agreement on a contract with state negotiators. Robb Arnold, a spokesman for Alaska's Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, said the strike began Wednesday afternoon after a meeting with state officials did not yield an agreement. He said the union remains open to a deal. "Unfortunately, we had...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska House failed by one vote Monday to win sufficient support to use reserve funds to help pay for a state infrastructure budget. The vote came on reconsideration, after a similar vote failed Sunday. Lawmakers still could try to revive the measure for another vote later. The measure previously passed the Senate. “We are not giving up hope,” House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said in a statement. “We thank everyone who voted for the capital budget and for the growing commitment to find compromise on this issue and the man...
Wrangell District Ranger Clint Kolarich, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, is closing the June 21 – July 31, 2019 Federal subsistence Sockeye Salmon fishery in the Stikine River. The closure will be effective Sunday, July 21, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. and will remain in effect through the rest of the 2019 season which ends July 31. The 2019 preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 90,000 Sockeye Salmon which is below the average 153,000 fish. The forecast includes 66,000 T...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State budget cuts have University of Alaska officials anticipating the possibility of program and staff reductions, while Anchorage’s largest homeless shelter will cut its hours and services, reports said. The university Board of Regents will decide Monday whether to take the uncommon step of declaring “financial exigency,” The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. The declaration will allow university officials to more quickly discontinue programs and academic units and remove tenured faculty across the system....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature failed Wednesday to override budget vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy that will prompt a massive 41% cut of state funding to the University of Alaska and lay waste to other programs the governor deemed unaffordable. More than one-third of lawmakers missed the vote — many because of an ongoing dispute about where the Legislature should have met for the special session. Lawmakers needed 45 votes — a three-fourths majority of the 60 members of the state Senate and House — to override the vetoes by Dunl...
JUNEAU – On Wed., July 17, Gov. Mike Dunleavy amended his call for the Second Special Session to include the unfinished capital budget appropriations bill and to change the session location from Wasilla to Juneau. Lawmakers will gather in the Alaska State Capitol on Thurs., July 18, to begin working on the expanded agenda and to continue working on the many pressing issues facing our state. “Legislative leaders from all four caucuses are meeting frequently with the governor. We have identified areas of alignment and found a productive next ste...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —The head of the U.S. Forest Service visited Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to investigate timber sales and related issues, a report said. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosted Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen during the July 6-7 visit, CoastAlaska reported Monday. Christiansen stopped in Wrangell, Ketchikan and Prince Wales Island as part of a flying visit with Alaska’s senior senator. The meetings were not publicized in advance. Murkowski questioned Christiansen about the service’s southeast Alaska timber sales during b...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Australia mining company is seeking permission to start exploratory drilling for the rare element vanadium in southeast Alaska. Northern Cobalt Ltd. has applied to the U.S. Forest Service for the proposed project on Snettisham Inlet, CoastAlaska reported. The site is in the Tongass National Forest about 35 miles southeast of Juneau. Vanadium is used in steel alloys, as well as rechargeable industrial batteries used in power grids and industrial plants. There are no active federal mining claims at the site. E...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The message on the front page of Alaska's second-largest newspaper was unmistakable. A nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) headline, outlined in red, in Monday's edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner contained a single word: OVERRIDE. It appeared over a full-page editorial calling for state lawmakers to "save Alaska" from severe budget vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the likely economic devastation that would follow. Emotions are running high ahead of a joint legislative s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Budget vetoes of $444 million by Alaska’s governor could cause widespread job losses, economists said. Analysts and business leaders predict lost jobs are only one of the consequences of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavey’s vetoes, The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday. Losses from the vetoes would be roughly between 4,500 and 7,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research. Higher local property taxes could also result from the 182 line-item vetoe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — One of the most powerful Republicans in the Alaska Senate is bucking the Senate president’s call to meet in Juneau on Monday, as legislative factions barrel toward trying to hold special sessions in two different cities, hundreds of miles apart. Senate Majority Leader Mia Costello, in an opinion piece published by her hometown Anchorage Daily News, said Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a legitimate call for lawmakers to convene in Wasilla and she will heed that call. “It doesn’t matter how we feel about the governo...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska officials closed some forest lands to all uses as a wildfire approached the Chugach National Forest, a report said. Smoke from the growing Swan Lake wildfire pushed into Anchorage Sunday, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday. Air quality was listed as unhealthy in Anchorage as of 11 a.m. Sunday. The fire on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska was ignited by a lightning strike June 5 and has been burning in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The fire had stretched to about 144 square miles (373 square...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Coast Guard is searching for a commercial fisherman missing near Bristol Bay. A crewman from the vessel Pail Rider went overboard at approximately 3 a.m. Monday in Nushagak Bay. The man was not wearing a life jacket. Remaining crew members fired flares and other vessels arrived to help search but the man has not been found. The Coast Guard says the man was wearing orange and it’s hoped the bright-colored clothing will help him be found. A Jayhawk helicopter and a C-130 Hercules aircraft from Kodiak is searching alo...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy slashed the University of Alaska system budget by $130 million on Friday, part of more than $400 million in vetoes he characterized as difficult but necessary amid an ongoing state deficit. Critics called the cuts disappointing and dangerous for an economy that’s shown bright spots after a prolonged recession. Dunleavy, a Republican, also cut state support for public broadcasting, reduced spending for Medicaid and eliminated a program that provides mon...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Juneau man who suffered a stab wound to his abdomen two weeks ago has died at a Seattle hospital. Juneau police say 61-year-old Gregory Bowen died Saturday at Harborview Medical Center. Police on June 17 took a call from a woman reporting that a man was bleeding from a stab wound. Emergency responders found Bowen on the floor of a home. He was rushed to Bartlett Regional Hospital and later flown to Seattle. Police arrested 42-year-old Sonya Taton that night on a felony assault charge and seized a fillet knife as e...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska state government says it will not delay implementation of a new boat registration law. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday that the statement came in response to a request by United Fishermen of Alaska. Beginning this year, all vessels longer than 24 feet (7.32 meters) are required to be registered with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. A United Fishermen official says very few fishermen are aware of the regulation and stand to be prosecuted for non-compliance. Earlier this month, UFA requested a d...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- A former Superior Court judge ousted by voters after accepting a plea deal in an assault case that some saw as too lenient has joined former Gov. Bill Walker’s law firm. The Anchorage firm of Brena, Bell and Walker said Michael Corey is expected to handle complex civil matters and help resolve disputes outside of court. Corey lost a judicial retention vote last year after accepting the plea deal for Justin Schneider. Schneider was accused of attacking and masturbating on a woman in 2017. Schneider pleaded guilty to f...
