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Alaska’s public schools may see the largest permanent funding boost in well over a decade, after the Alaska Legislature voted for the first time since 2002 to override a sitting governor’s veto. With a 46-14 vote, lawmakers significantly increased Alaska’s per-student public funding formula, overriding Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s decision to reject House Bill 57. Forty votes were needed for an override. “This was a truly bipartisan vote reflective of everyone in Alaska,” said Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham. While the new law changes s... Full story
President Donald Trump’s budget proposal would cut funding by more than half for the Essential Air Service program, which has ensured daily jet service to Wrangell, Petersburg, Yakutat and Cordova for almost 50 years. The program covers 65 small communities in Alaska — which includes 11 in Southeast — and 112 communities in the Lower 48, Hawaii and Puerto Rico as of late last year. Congress created the Essential Air Service subsidy in 1978 to ensure a minimum level of service for communities that otherwise might receive no regularly scheduled f...
After losing more than $500,000 in federal funding, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has put on hold this year’s community food distribution of herring roe and salmon. The Southeast tribal nonprofit’s Traditional Foods Security Department had planned to use the money to continue the program, which over the past three years has distributed more than 52,000 pounds of herring roe on kelp, 120,000 pounds of salmon and 31,000 pounds of black cod to the tribe’s 21 recognized communities. Wrangell is among the commu...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House panel in charge of overhauling Medicaid by cutting hundreds of billions in federal spending wrapped up debate on its bill Wednesday, following a 25-hour session. The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 30-24 along party lines to sign off on the legislation, sending it to the Budget panel, which is expected to bundle it together with the other 10 measures Friday to create Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill.” The full House is set to vote on that package next week, though GOP leaders need to make sure nearly all of...
Members of the Alaska Senate issued warnings Wednesday as they approved a draft operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Senators’ draft, which includes an estimated $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend for eligible Alaskans and a small year-over-year increase for K-12 education, also cuts services. The proposal would cut proposed funding increases for early education programs, reduce funding for state prisons, eliminate the state’s office of citizenship assistance, mostly defund the state militia, reduce road maintenance, and deny salary inc... Full story
The Alaska House of Representatives has approved a formal letter asking Congress to extend a series of Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. Unless the credits are extended, Alaskans insured through the federal health insurance marketplace — about 25,000 people — could see their rates rise by an average of 67%. The House passed House Joint Resolution 9 by a vote of 26-14 on Monday. It is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee on Tuesday. If approved by the Senate, the... Full story
Alaska’s public schools might get more money, after all. Nine days after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a significant increase to the state’s K-12 public school funding formula, the Alaska Senate has approved a compromise education bill that includes a smaller increase. The bill includes some — but not all — of the policy changes that Dunleavy said were necessary to prevent another veto. House Bill 57, originally drafted to restrict public school students’ cellphone use, was amended by the Senate before being approved on a bipartisan, 19-1 vote... Full story
Should public media be spared the budget cutting axe of President Donald Trump and the congressional allies of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE? I’m not going to directly answer that question myself, because I’m not an unbiased observer: I’ve worked for years as a reporter and contractor for Alaska Public Media, Anchorage’s public radio and television station. I also have close friendships and working relationships with many of the reporters across the state whose jobs could be at stake. I do, however, feel confident in saying... Full story
The Alaska Legislature has voted to uphold Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that would have significantly increased the funding formula for Alaska’s K-12 public schools. Dunleavy vetoed House Bill 69 last week, citing cost concerns and the lack of policy measures he endorsed. With the House and Senate meeting in joint session, the vote to override Dunleavy was 33-27, sustaining the veto. Forty of the Legislature’s 60 members were needed for an override. In its final version, HB 69 would have increased the state’s base student allocat... Full story
Southeast Alaska's golden king crab fishery reached an all-time high value of $5 million in 2025, marking an impressive recovery for a fishery that was struggling just a few years ago. The East Central management area, which includes waters around Petersburg, led the record-breaking season with a harvest value of $2.97 million, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game data. The unprecedented value comes despite lower harvest volumes than last year. Fishermen landed 177,060 pounds from...
The federal government has revoked the visas of four international students at the University of Alaska Anchorage, without explanation or prior notice to students or the university, university officials said on Monday. “This week, we learned that the federal government has revoked visas for four individuals affiliated with UAA — one current student and three recent graduates in post-graduation training — without prior notice,” said UA President Pat Pitney in a university wide email on Monday. No students at the University of Alaska Fairban... Full story
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow Ukrainians with temporary protected status to remain in the country, following reports people had received an email that their status was revoked and they had seven days to leave the U.S. The agency has said the April 3 notice was issued by mistake, and the Ukrainians' designation under what's known as "humanitarian parole status" has not been terminated. They had been granted the status under the "Uniting for Ukraine" program. But Murkowski... Full story
A constitutional convention along with candid discussions of difficult federal and state issues that have surfaced in recent months are scheduled during the three-day 90th annual Tribal Assembly by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska starting Wednesday. More than 120 delegates from 21 communities in Alaska, Washington and California are scheduled to gather at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall where they will also consider resolutions and elect some tribal positions. It will be the first constitutional convention by Tli...
A month after the Dunleavy administration put the Juneau Access Road back on the political map, the Alaska State Senate has clawed back $37 million in funds set aside in years past for the project as lawmakers try to scrap together enough funds to pass a balanced budget by next month. The Juneau Access funds are being redirected to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as part of the annual capital budget unanimously passed Tuesday by the Senate. Nearly all of the $2.9 billion budget consists of federal funds for...
A Canadian environmental nonprofit group, long critical of the Red Chris Mine in the northern watershed of the Stikine River, has released a new report that cites increasing underground seepage of contaminants from the mine’s tailings pond. The report comes as British Columbia regulators are considering the mine operator’s application to expand ore recovery by changing to underground tunneling instead of open-pit surface mining. The gold and copper mine started operations in 2015 and sits about 50 miles east of the Stikine River community of...
Southeast Alaska fishermen discovered Tuesday that harvest limits for Chinook salmon in 2025 will be almost 40 percent less than last year’s. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced an overall allocation of 130,800 treaty Chinook salmon — fish that didn’t originate in Alaska hatcheries — for all gear groups targeting Chinook in waters off Southeast Alaska and Yakutat in 2025. In recent years, Southeast Alaska’s all-gear allocation has ranged between a high of 355,600 treaty kings in 2016 down to 130,000 in 2018, Fish and Game reco...
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...
