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Alaska Beacon
Mail delays postpone the start of pre-Election Day voting in parts of rural Alaska
Early voting opened Monday for Alaska’s Aug. 20 primary election, but ballots headed to many rural Alaska polling locations failed to arrive in time due to delays in the mail, the director of the Alaska Division of Elections said Wednesday. That’s left some rural voters waiting to cast their ballots, and the delay has caused […]
Mat-Su school district must return most banned books to library shelves, court rules
All but seven of the 56 books the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District removed from school libraries must be reshelved by next week, pending a trial next year, ruled U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason on Tuesday. The banned books, including well-known titles like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The […]
Quiet bay on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet proposed as protected zone for belugas
Two environmental groups are seeking new protections for endangered beluga whales in an area of southern Cook Inlet that could be converted into an industrial port for a proposed mine. The petition from the Center of Biological Diversity and Cook Inletkeeper asks the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries service to establish a protective zone […]
Juneau flood inundates at least 100 homes, triggers state response
Forty-three people spent the night in Juneau’s emergency shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School on Monday night as a record-high flood from the Mendenhall Glacier inundated homes. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the total number of people who evacuated their homes is likely several times that; shelters are usually a last resort for people […]
Lack of eviction data obscures extent of the affordable housing crisis
Evictions are a window into America’s rental housing crisis: In 2022, more than half of all renters spent over a third of their income on housing, and millions of tenants who miss rent payments are evicted each year. When renters are kicked out of their homes, the consequences can be disastrous. Families might lose their […]
Living costs, housing, energy and ‘Moosemas’ are among U.S. House candidates’ biggest targets
Twelve candidates are vying to reach the final four in the race for Alaska’s U.S. House seat, and each has a different view of the state’s biggest need. Early and absentee voting is underway for the state’s Aug. 20 primary, and the four top vote-getters, regardless of political party, will advance to the November general […]
Early voting opens for Aug. 20 primary; mailed absentee application window closes this week
Early voting for Alaska’s Aug. 20 primary election opened Monday at polling stations across the state. Locations will be open in a variety of places through Aug. 19. The Alaska Division of Elections is also accepting applications for mailed absentee ballots through Aug. 10. If a voter wants to download and print out an absentee […]
Ice rink fumes have sent kids to the hospital. Still, few states require tests.
Last December, dozens of young hockey players were rushed to hospitals in the Buffalo, New York, area — some vomiting, lethargic and suffering from headaches. The skaters had been exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide at an indoor ice rink, a problem that is far from uncommon. Most rinks use ice resurfacing machines — […]
As early voting opens in U.S. House race, current and former candidates talk about what’s at stake
Seattle has more power in the U.S. House of Representatives than the state of Alaska. And yet, ahead of this year’s House elections, there’s as much at stake with Alaska’s race than all four of the contests in King County combined. The vast majority of the 435 seats in the House are firmly Democratic or […]
Chinese warships off Alaska, Cambodia highlight role of near and far waters in sea power dominance
Chinese warships were recently spotted sailing close to the Aleutian Islands, just off the Alaskan coast. Meanwhile, naval boats have begun to dock at a Beijing-built military port in Cambodia. While these two events took place on different sides of the globe, they’re both part of an important geopolitical development – one that may lead […]
Lackluster investigations may perpetuate high Native infant mortality rate nationally
When Jessica Whitehawk helped start a women’s health support center over a decade ago, her team worked out of a tiny room in the back of a nonprofit office on the Yakama Nation Reservation in Washington state. Pregnant women traveled to that room from the farthest reaches of the 1.3 million-acre reservation because they had […]
The Alaska Supreme Court weighing citizens’ right to challenge state’s predator control program
Do nonhunting Alaskans who enjoy viewing wildlife have legal standing to challenge a state program that kills scores of bears and wolves for the purpose of boosting caribou numbers? That is the question now before the Alaska Supreme Court. In a hearing in Anchorage, Michelle Bittner, an Anchorage attorney who opposes the state’s predator control […]
Alaska officials echo federal push to promote healing after boarding schools report
A new national report includes a series of recommendations from the U.S.’s top Indian Affairs official to promote healing from the forced assimilation of American Indian and Alaska Native children. Twenty-two of the 417 federal Indian boarding schools that operated in the United States in the 1800s were in Alaska, according to an investigative report […]
Alaska Supreme Court hears arguments on personal watercraft ban near Homer
On Wednesday, the five members of Alaska’s highest court heard arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to restore a ban on personal watercraft, commonly known as Jet Skis, in a pair of conservation areas near Homer. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang repealed the 19-year-old ban in 2020, an act that prompted […]
How red is Alaska?
On the national political scene Alaska is regarded as bright red, but a closer examination would change that view. Take, for instance, the political composition of the Legislature. The Senate has a supermajority caucus that includes almost equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. The House is composed of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, and […]
Alaska Gov. Dunleavy vetoes five bills passed late by state House
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed five bills passed by the Alaska Legislature after the constitutionally mandated date to end its session. The canceled bills include bonding authority for a cruise ship dock in Seward, a bill allowing licensed 18-year-olds to serve alcohol, a measure that would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to elected officials, […]
What Alaskans need to know ahead of the Aug. 20 primary
Alaska’s primary elections, less than three weeks away, are slated for Aug. 20. They are the first major elections to be overseen by the Division of Elections’ new director, Carol Beecher. Absentee by-mail ballots were sent out beginning last Friday, according to the Division of Elections’ operations manager, Michaela Thompson. However, voters can still apply […]
Alaska adds millions to address domestic violence and sexual assault; advocates say more is needed
The Alaska Legislature recently increased state funding for domestic violence and sexual assault efforts, but a leading advocate says the effort doesn’t go far enough to meet the need. One of the main federal funding sources for Alaska’ domestic violence and sexual assault prevention efforts and programs has dropped over the years, creating a hole […]
Dunleavy signs bills aimed at modernizing energy production and delivery in Alaska’s Railbelt
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday signed three energy bills passed by the Legislature in response to looming energy shortages and delivery problems in the state’s most populous region. Dunleavy said the bills are part of a wider strategy of modernizing Alaska’s energy portfolio and systems of delivery, making them more diverse and dependable. “Over the […]
New Alaska Permanent Fund reports show fiscal crisis growing closer
Financial documents published Wednesday by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. show the fund lacks enough spendable money to immediately pay for items in the state’s annual budget, a sign that the state’s top source of general-purpose revenue is on course for a future crisis. This year, lawmakers and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved a $1 billion […]
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