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Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has won reelection in Alaska, defeating independent Al Gross in a race that attracted outside attention with control of the Senate at stake. The race had been determined too early to call on Election Day Nov. 3 due to a large number of outstanding absentee ballots. Election officials began counting more than 150,000 absentee and other ballots on Tuesday. The result in Alaska means that control of the Senate won’t be decided until January Senate runoffs are held in Georgia. The Gross campaign on Wednesday did n...
ANCHORAGE — Don Young, often referred to as Alaska’s third U.S. senator because of his long tenure as the state’s sole representative in the U.S. House, has been elected to a 25th term. Young, the longest serving Republican ever in the U.S. House, was declared the winner of the general election on Wednesday after officials started counting more 150,000 absentee and other votes. He again defeated Alyse Galvin — an independent who won the state’s Democratic primary — after winning against her in 2018. With Young’s victory, Alaska’s thre...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Federal and state wildlife managers have announced an extension of the wolf trapping season on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. Officials on Friday announced the extension of the trapping season by five days with a limit of five wolves, CoastAlaska reported. Alaska Department of Fish and Game regional wildlife supervisor Tom Schumacher said managers looked at data and decided trapping could be safely allowed from Nov. 15 to Dec. 5. “It’ll allow a little bit more opportunity,” Schumacher said. “But we think that that w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislative Council approved a measure that requires lawmakers, employees and reporters to be screened for the coronavirus when entering the Capitol and to wear masks or face coverings in the building and other legislative offices. The council also voted on Thursday to keep the Capitol building closed to the public until at least January, when the next Legislature convenes. Legislative staff and reporters will still be allowed into the building, KTOO Public Media reported. The council's chair, Sen. Gary S...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a final Alaska Roadless Rule that exempts the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 provision that prohibited road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvests. The Record of Decision identifies the selected alternative, provides the rationale for the decision, and explains that the exemption does not authorize any specific projects in Alaska. Proposed projects must continue to comply with the 2016 Tongass Land Management Plan and be analyzed under the N...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The debate between the candidates for Alaska’s sole seat in Congress became contentious Thursday, with challenger Alyse Galvin saying she’s tired of U.S. Rep. Don Young misrepresenting her position on issues. “I’m so tired of the lies that have been said throughout this entire campaign,” Galvin said, saying she doesn’t support the so-called Green New Deal, Medicare for all or for culling Second Amendment rights. “I’m really upset that this campaign has come to this,” she said. “You’re better than that, Don Young. A...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The major candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race attacked each other’s integrity and clashed on issues of health care and the Supreme Court in a high-profile broadcast debate less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic-supported independent Al Gross somewhat shared the Anchorage debate stage; Sullivan, who appeared on a monitor beside Gross, participated from Washington, D.C., where the Senate is preparing to vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney B...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Eligible Alaska residents receiving unemployment checks from the state are expected to receive a $300 increase to their weekly payments beginning next week, officials said. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the increase in August to replace a $600 increase from Congress that ended in July, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. The increase will be paid from a federal disaster relief fund for unemployment aid to counter the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic. President Donald Trump in August signed an e...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska is redoubling efforts to sell two fast ferries by accepting sealed bids. The state Department of Transportation issued a public notice of the bidding process Thursday, CoastAlaska reported Monday. The state set a minimum reserve price for each ship but does not plan to reveal the amount until the bids are unsealed Dec. 15. Prospective buyers are required to post a refundable $25,000 deposit with each bid for the M/V Chenega and M/V Fairweather. The agency told lawmakers earlier this year that the cost of mooring b...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Al Gross commands a fishing boat as a narrator describes him prospecting for gold and killing a grizzly bear in self-defense in an ad meant to underscore a central theme of Gross' U.S. Senate campaign as an independent: that he knows Alaska. “Out here,” he says as the boat rocks on the water, “if you can't think for yourself, you won't survive.” Gross, a doctor running with Democratic support, is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in a state that has long been a GOP stronghold, outraising Sullivan and putting Re...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. government ignored the requests of some Alaska Native groups to uphold national Roadless Rule restrictions in the Tongass National Forest, tribal officials said. The U.S. Forest Service recommended lifting the rule completely and is expected to make the decision official before the end of October, CoastAlaska reported Friday. The agency started a 30-day clock last month to completely exempt Tongass National Forest from the 2001 regulation. “It's just another broken promise to tribes as far as we're con...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and challenger Al Gross met in a debate focused on fisheries policy that ended up focusing on other issues including federal COVID-19 relief funding and Pebble Mine. The candidates for Sullivan’s seat in the U.S. Senate squared off Saturday in the 90-minute debate on Zoom, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, repeatedly characterized Gross as a threat who could hand Democrats control of the Senate. The debate was hosted by ComFish Alaska and the Kodiak Chamber of...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A “private social event” held last Saturday has led to a 48-hour shutdown of all sports and activities for an Alaska high school, officials said. The Anchorage School District said Friday in a letter that students from at least five Eagle River High School sports teams and activities attended the party. The football team was placed on a 14-day quarantine, meaning the team will be forced to miss its playoff game next week against reigning state champions Soldotna. Eagle River was supposed to play undefeated East High...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A judge on Friday ordered the state to pay about $190,000 in attorney fees and costs after losing a case to the group seeking to recall Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Department of Law spokesperson Maria Bahr said the department was reviewing Superior Court Judge Herman Walker Jr.’s decision. The order can be appealed. The Recall Dunleavy campaign sued last year after Alaska’s then-attorney general, Kevin Clarkson, found the statement of grounds for recall to be “factually and legally deficient” and an election official...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska conservationists are urging state and federal officials not to reopen wolf hunting season around Prince of Wales Island. They are imploring officials to do so in order to allow the population of wolves to recover from last season’s record harvest, CoastAlaska reported. Much of the island is part of the Tongass National Forest, which makes state and federal governments in charge of managing hunting and trapping. The U.S. Forest Service had postponed the federal subsistence wolf season until Oct. 31. The sta...
BETHEL, Alaska (AP) —Alaska may have reached the limit of hospital space available for care of people infected with COVID-19, a health care company official said. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation recently had to keep a patient at its Bethel facility for an extra day because there were no available beds in Anchorage, KYUK-AM reported Wednesday. The corporation’s hospital in Bethel does not have an intensive care unit, which medical staff deemed necessary for the patient’s treatment, said Dr. Ellen Hodges, the corporation’s chief of staf...
During Southeast Alaska's record breaking rainfall this summer, the Swan Lake hydroelectric facility reached its full capacity for the first time since the project was upgraded three years ago, according to a press release from Sen. Bert Stedman's office and Southeast Alaska Power Agency. Water levels reached the flashboards and forced a reservoir spill on July 24. The upgrade expanded the capacity of the hydroproject from 86,000 acre-feet to 111,800 acre-feet, according to the press release. Th...
BETHEL, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska village has regained electrical power after a month-long outage during which some families lost subsistence harvests stored in freezers. Newtok’s backup generator gave out in late August and power was not restored until Sept. 21, KYUK-AM reported Tuesday. The backup failure happened three years after the main generator stopped working in the village west of Bethel populated by members of the Yupik Alaska Native tribe. Short, intermittent outages are expected as testing of the system is completed, Tribal Adm...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has caused a national increase in the number of people enrolling in the federal Medicaid health payment program and officials have said Alaska residents are joining at unprecedented levels. Over the last six months, more than 12,000 people in Alaska have joined Medicaid, known in the state as DenaliCare and Denali KidCare, Juneau Public Media reported Friday. Alaska’s program covered 232,735 participants as of Aug. 31, or nearly one out of three state residents, including most children. Alaska’s Me...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump has said he will issue a permit for a rail line connecting Alaska and Canada, he said. Trump sent a tweet last Friday citing the influence of two members of Alaska’s congressional delegation on his decision, The Anchorage Daily News reported. “I will be issuing a Presidential Permit for the A2A Cross-Border Rail between Alaska & Canada. Congratulations to the people of Alaska & Canada,” Trump said in the tweet. Trump credited what he called a “strong recommendation” by U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U...
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to exempt the country’s largest national forest from a ban on timber harvests and road building in roadless areas, a move conservation groups denounced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, under which the Forest Service falls, announced Thursday the upcoming release of a final environmental review identifying a preferred alternative to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the so-called Roadless Rule. Once the review is released, at least 30 days must pass before a final decision is made. The Tong...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The amount of donations to a fight over an Alaska oil tax ballot initiative has exceeded $17 million, with the vast majority contributed by big oil companies opposed to a tax increase. OneAlaska, the opposition group to the proposed Fair Share act, reported raising $15.4 million as of Friday, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Most of the opposition money has come from Alaska’s top oil producers, ConocoPhillips Co., ExxonMobil Corp. and Hilcorp Alaska LLC, the three companies that would face tax increases under the act...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Native corporations are not eligible to receive a share of the $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding set aside for tribes, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday in overturning a lower-court decision. The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit found an Alaska Native corporation cannot qualify as an Indian tribe under the federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act unless it has been “recognized as eligible for the special programs and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A larger than normal number of young bears and dwindling natural food supply for them are forcing the animals to head for Juneau's garbage with unusual frequency, a wildlife official said. A poor berry crop and lackluster salmon runs this year mean more bears are looking for food among the city's trash, KTOO Public Media in Juneau reported. Conditions have made bears desperate to fatten themselves before they hibernate for the winter, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska plans to allow the online sale of raffle tickets for the first time to help nonprofit organizations faced with limited fundraising opportunities because of coronavirus restrictions. The state Department of Revenue approved the temporary change over the summer allowing organizations holding charitable gaming permits to sell raffle tickets and draw winners online, Alaska Public Media reported Monday. State Gaming Unit Director Katrina Mitchell said this is the only instance in which any online gaming has been p...
