Wessex Water has become the latest utility to face a multimillion-pound enforcement package for sewage leaks, the industry regulator has announced.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Month: December 2025
The UK’s unemployment rate has risen further, with official figures showing young people being particularly hard hit by the jump in job cuts under Labour.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Food safety chiefs are sounding the alarm over Dubai-style chocolate and warning that some people should not eat it.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Rob Reiner’s son – who has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the filmmaker and his wife – was reportedly disruptive at a party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien the night before the killings.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Winter is closing in on the Bidston Rise housing estate in Birkenhead, but there’s one front garden that hasn’t given in yet.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
There is a growing risk that Russia could attack the UK, and the nation’s “sons and daughters” need to be ready to fight, the head of Britain’s armed forces has said.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging the corporation’s Panorama documentary portrayed him in a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious” manner.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
NOTN- Cold weather and heavy snow have hit Juneau, schools are closed today and CBJ offices are opening late, but Streets and Fleets is making sure those who can’t avoid travel, will get where they need to go.
Scott Gray started working for the City and Borough of Juneau in 1994, his job involved hauling snow off city streets.
More than three decades later, Gray now oversees the entire Streets & Fleets division, responsible for maintaining hundreds of miles of roads, sidewalks and public vehicles across the capital city.
Gray is superintendent of CBJ’s Streets & Fleets division, which maintains more than 250 lane miles of roads and roughly 32 miles of sidewalks. The division also manages snow removal, pavement repairs, traffic signs, stormwater systems and emergency response during glacial flooding events.
“One year, we got 194 inches of snow,” Gray said in a post on CBJ’s Facebook. “We were hauling, and hauling, and hauling. Emergency vehicles weren’t going to move if we didn’t do something.”
The work of Streets & Fleets extends well beyond snowstorms.
Planning begins months in advance to ensure equipment is operational and staff schedules are in place before winter arrives.
“Our crews have shifts starting at one in the morning through the afternoon to keep roads safe.” Gray said.
According to CBJ Public Works Streets Division, the Street Maintenance Division provides equipment and staffing for year-round preservation and maintenance of CBJ streets.
Operations include pavement surface maintenance, pedestrian facility maintenance, street sweeping, maintenance of storm drain facilities and snow plowing and removal during the winter months.
A staff of 32 full-time and seasonal employees to keep the streets and sidewalks safe for public travel.
While CBJ crews maintain most city roads, major arterial routes such as Egan Drive, Douglas Highway and North Douglas Highway fall under the responsibility of the Alaska Department of Transportation.
The division’s full-time employees maintain more than 260 vehicles and pieces of equipment used by Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Docks and Harbors and Community Development departments. That includes heavy-duty trucks, off-road equipment, generators and fueling systems.
As infrastructure and technology evolve, so do the demands on fleet maintenance staff. CBJ currently operates four electric vehicles and plans to expand its EV fleet in the future. Modern equipment now relies heavily on computers and emissions systems, increasing the need for specialized maintenance.
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Though the state of Alaska is anticipating more oil production in the fiscal year that starts July 1, money from oil continues to make up a dwindling share of general-purpose state revenue, according to a forecast published Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Revenue.
The projection, one of two per year published by the department, was released in conjunction with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s draft budget for fiscal year 2027.
Altogether, the state expects to earn $6.2 billion in general-purpose dollars between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, the next fiscal year. Officially known as “unrestricted general fund revenue,” it’s the section of the budget where lawmakers and governors focus most of their attention.
Federal money and money designated for specific programs can sometimes be shifted around to different priorities, but not easily. General-fund dollars can (and are) assigned to different priorities each year.
The forecast for next year’s unrestricted general fund revenue is higher by almost $260 million than the current year’s expectation, but most of that increase isn’t coming from oil.
Since 2018, an annual transfer from the Alaska Permanent Fund to the state treasury has been the No. 1 source of general-purpose dollars for services and the Permanent Fund dividend.
That’s more true than ever, according to the state forecast.
In the next fiscal year, just 23% of the state’s general-purpose revenue is expected to come from petroleum revenue — royalties, property taxes and production taxes.
The Permanent Fund transfer would account for almost 66% of the general-purpose money.
That difference comes despite an expectation that oil production will rise significantly between this fiscal year and next — from an average of 457,000 barrels of oil per day to 517,800 per day on average.
According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, that’s due to the startup of production in the Pikka oil field and other new production on the North Slope.
Despite that new production, oil revenue is expected to rise only slightly — from $1.43 billion to $1.44 billion.
That’s because the state is expecting North Slope oil prices to average just $62 per barrel during the next fiscal year, down from $65.48 in the current fiscal year.
At the same time, the Permanent Fund transfer is rising by almost $200 million, causing oil to become a still-smaller share of state revenue.
Even though revenue is expected to rise between the current fiscal year and the next one, the projected deficit in Dunleavy’s proposed spending plan stands at more than $1.8 billion.
If oil revenue alone were needed to fill that deficit, average North Slope prices would have to be near $100 per barrel, or the state would have to produce more than 1.2 million barrels of oil per day during the next fiscal year, an amount that is geologically, economically and mechanically unfeasible. The state hasn’t posted an annual average of over 1 million barrels of North Slope oil per day since the turn of the century.
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan joined Senate Democrats and a handful of other Republicans on Thursday in voting to extend federal subsidies that would have prevented a major spike in health care prices at the end of the year.
Sixty votes were needed to advance a bill containing the extension, but the vote failed 51-48. An alternative Republican-backed bill, which would have offered marginal help to offset the cost increases, also failed despite support from Murkowski and Sullivan.
Barring additional action before Jan. 1, thousands of Alaskans and millions of Americans who buy health insurance through the federal marketplace will pay significantly more for health care next year.
“I would just suggest that we have failed,” Murkowski said in a floor speech following the votes.
Sullivan, in a written statement, said in part that “there is little doubt that a lot of hard-working Alaskans, families, entrepreneurs and small business owners will be negatively impacted if these enhanced premium tax credits expire.”
Both Murkowski and Sullivan said they would continue working to try to find a compromise before the end of the year.
The failed Democratic proposal would have offered a flat three-year extension of subsidies that were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and extended during the Biden administration.
Most Republican senators opposed a flat extension and emphasized instances of fraud and abuse, saying that further changes were needed to the program.
Even with those changes, the Republican-backed proposal offered only a small cash payment and didn’t extend the subsidies; many Americans and Alaskans would still face large cost increases.
“Now that both the Republican and Democrat proposals failed to advance, I will redouble my efforts to develop a compromise solution. In the longer-term, we need to focus on getting federal government health care dollars out of the hands of insurance companies and into the hands of the people,” Sullivan said in his statement.