CBJ-The American Red Cross will host a free workshop and resource fair on Sunday, July 19 at the Mendenhall Valley Library. The event is designed to help older adults, individuals with access or functional needs, and medically fragile persons prepare for emergencies.
The event begins at 12 p.m. with a presentation, available both in-person and online, followed by a planning workshop and resource fair from 1 to 3 p.m.
Attendees will have the opportunity to build an individualized disaster plan, complete an emergency contact card, learn how and where to safely store important documents and more.
Registration is free and available online at bit.ly/4vZJlPL. Information for virtual attendance will be provided upon registration
The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, which is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the western U.S. (Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an Alaska state attorney in Anchorage and is holding him in an ICE detention facility in Washington state, according to an agency spokesperson.
Shucheng Yang, a 32-year-old Chinese national, was arrested in Anchorage on July 10.
“Yang violated the terms of his admission and is a deportable alien,” said Jason Chudy, an ICE Public Affairs officer, by email on Thursday. He said Yang is currently detained in the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, pending immigration proceedings.
Yang is an attorney with the Alaska Department of Law’s labor, business and corporations section, according to the state employee database. Yang was admitted to the Alaska Bar Association and licensed to practice law in the state in June 2025. A spokesperson for the department declined to respond to questions about his immigration status, employment status or work authorization when hired, saying the department does not comment on personnel matters.
Chudy declined to say how Yang violated the terms of admission into the country. “To be clear, work authorization does NOT confer legal status in the United States,” he said in the email.
He referred further questions about Yang’s work authorization to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A spokesperson for USCIS referred the question back to ICE, and said the agency does not comment on individual immigration cases.
The state requires applicants to self-disclose their employment eligibility and work authorization through the I-9 verification process during hiring, according to the Alaska Department of Administration, as reported by Alaska News Source.
There are no state criminal charges against Yang, according to court records. Yang pleaded no contest on June 26 for a speeding citation.
A spokesperson for the Municipality of Anchorage confirmed the Anchorage Police Department issued the traffic ticket on April 25. “They have had no other interaction with Mr. Yang since April,” said Nora Morse, communications director for the municipality, by email on Thursday.
“The Anchorage Police Department does not ask for someone’s immigration status as part of a routine traffic stop,” Morse said.
A spokesperson for the ACLU of Alaska said they were trying to get in touch with Yang’s attorney, and had no other information on his case.
The Alaska Department of Corrections contracts with ICE to hold detainees in Alaska under an agreement with the U.S. Marshals. A spokesperson confirmed that Yang was detained in Alaska for two days after his arrest until he was transferred on July 12.
DOC has held 17 people arrested by ICE since June 1, and 73 people since the beginning of the calendar year, according to spokesperson Betsy Holley on Thursday.
The Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday voted down a multibillion-dollar tax break for the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline project. Glenfarne LLC, the project’s lead developer, has said the tax break is necessary for it to obtain financing from banks and equity investors.
The Alaska Senate voted 11-8 to approve a compromise version of House Bill 381, which contains the tax break. But after that vote and as the House gaveled in, Dunleavy announced he would veto the bill if it were to pass.
In a statement on social media, the governor said a provision that applies a corporate income tax to certain kinds of privately owned oil and gas companies “raises serious concerns.”
Legislators are meeting in a second 30-day special session devoted to HB 381, and Dunleavy said he will call the Legislature into a third session starting July 27.
After the governor’s message was read on the House floor, only 19 members of the House voted in favor of the bill. Twenty-one votes were needed to approve it.
Many of those who voted against the bill spoke against the provision identified by the governor, with Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, calling it a “parasite” within a bill intended to benefit the gas pipeline.
The provision came at the insistence of state senators who said it was necessary for the bill to earn their votes.
“If you want a gas line, everybody’s got to compromise, and I think that’s ultimately what you saw today,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and one of the most vocal advocates of the provision questioned by the governor.
After the governor’s announcement, Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said he was unsure how the Senate would proceed in the next special session.
The bill could be referred back to the Senate Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage and a leading project critic. The Senate Finance Committee could consider the issue further.
Senators could simply take no action and wait for the current Legislature to end and Dunleavy to leave office in December.
“I sort of feel you need to go to the next Legislature,” Stevens said.
First gas expected before 2030, developer says
As currently planned, the Alaska LNG project would include three separate subprojects, built in two stages. Altogether, the project is expected to cost as much as $54.5 billion, making it one of the largest natural gas projects in the world.
Gas would be pumped from North Slope wells to a processing plant on the North Slope, then down a pipeline to an export facility on the Kenai Peninsula.
Developers expect to reach a final investment decision on the project’s first phase this year. It would include the pipeline, part of the North Slope processing plant and part of the export facility.
Initially, the export facility would function in reverse, as a place for Alaska to import natural gas for local use while the pipeline is under construction.
Adam Prestidge, president of Glenfarne Alaska, told state senators on June 3 that after the final investment decision, it should take about three years for construction and commissioning before gas begins flowing through the pipeline to in-state residents.
The second, export phase of the project would take several more years to complete.
Switching from a property tax to a gas tax
The main intent of the bill is to replace Alaska’s 2% petroleum property tax with a lower tax on gas shipped through the pipeline.
The pipeline is exempt from the tax during construction, but the state would start collecting taxes when gas begins flowing. Glenfarne has said that’s a problem because it won’t begin making money until exports begin several years later.
Glenfarne executives have said they cannot get financing to build the pipeline unless the tax is changed.
That led Gov. Mike Dunleavy to propose the tax change in March. Legislators were unable to pass the bill by the time the regular legislative session ended in May, and Dunleavy has now called lawmakers into special session twice to get it done.
Because petroleum property taxes mostly go to municipalities, the amount received by cities and boroughs during that period would drop by another $5.3 billion.
Proponents of the change have focused on the benefits, rather than the lost revenue. Without the reduction, the pipeline cannot be built, they say. If the pipeline isn’t built, the state and municipalities get nothing.
“We want Alaskan gas for the Alaskan people, instead of Canadian gas for Alaskan people, instead of imports,” said Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, on the House floor. “It means the world to our people…lowered heating bills, a stronger economy.”
While proponents of the tax break have run a “Build the Line” ad campaign insinuating that the tax reduction would guarantee a pipeline, some state legislators say there is a low chance of a pipeline, even if the tax break becomes law.
Members of the conference committee tasked with negotiating a final compromise AKLNG tax bill from House and Senate versions, debate the bill on July 16, 2026, before moving it to a vote before the full House and Senate. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
“This has been billed as the bill that either makes a pipeline be built or does not make a pipeline be built, and that just really is not true,” said Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna.
No ‘better shot’ at compromise, drafter says
The House and Senate passed different versions of HB 381 in June, sending the bill to a six-member multipartisan conference committee tasked with negotiating a compromise.
For weeks, the key point of contention has been whether or not the bill will also include the erasure of a tax exemption for “pass-through corporations,” generally large companies that are owned privately and not traded on public markets.
In Alaska, erasing that exemption would affect the oil and gas company Hilcorp, which operates the vast Prudhoe Bay oil field, among other work in the state.
It also would raise taxes on the proposed gas pipeline.
On Thursday morning, the conference committee adopted a new version of HB 381 that specifically exempts “income of an Alaska liquefied natural gas project” from the revised tax.
That would include all three segments of the pipeline project. But it was unclear whether it would cover gas shipments between the wellhead and the North Slope processing plant.
“It will be up to the Department of Revenue to determine the scope of that exemption,” said legislative attorney Emily Nauman, answering a question from Ruffridge.
The revised bill also delays the start of the tax until 2029. Affected companies would be required to submit an “informational tax return” the year before the tax starts.
That would give the state better information about how much money the tax will raise and whether the proposed tax rate needs to be changed.
Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, chaired the conference committee.
Rep. Calvin Schrage speaks on the House floor in support of the compromise AKLNG gas line tax bill in July 19, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
“I don’t think, frankly, that we’re going to get a better shot at this,” he said before the House vote.
“I don’t think you’re going to get closer alignment between the different factions on this issue than you are going to get today.”
While the conference committee consulted with Glenfarne, the Dunleavy administration and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., it didn’t discuss the bill at length with members of the House’s 19-person, all-Republican minority caucus.
Ruffridge, the minority caucus representative on the conference committee, said he received the final copy of the bill only 30 minutes before the meeting that adopted it.
On the House floor, members of the House minority lambasted the final version.
“In my opinion, this process was neither transparent nor collaborative,” said Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks and a member of the minority.
One member of the Democratic-independent-Republican coalition majority in the House also voted against the bill.
House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, alluded to the way the pass-through tax would impact Hilcorp. Changing its taxes, he said, would deter future drilling because it would create uncertainty about what additional changes might be made in the future.
“From my perspective, that’s what’s killed this iteration of the bill,” Gov. Dunleavy said about the pass-through tax.
Climate protesters and oil advocates opposed the compromise
On Thursday morning, a small group of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Capitol to protest the gas line and the proposed tax break. Protest signs called for investment in renewable energy instead of fossil fuels to help combat climate change, and called the megaproject a “pipedream” and a “scam.”
Protesters gather outside the Capitol on July 16, 2026, as lawmakers consider a tax cut for the proposed AKLNG gas line project. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
“I’m really concerned about the cost to the state and to the communities that would be impacted by the project,” said Sally Schlichting, a Juneau resident. “Especially by these proposed tax breaks. I just think it’s horrendous to forego all that revenue for so long, and I feel like there’s very little guarantee this project will ever happen.”
Schlichting said she’s concerned that Alaska is giving up too much, and the project developer Glenfarne has not disclosed who is investing or how much.
“I just think this is the most wrong-headed way of approaching resource development,” she said. “We don’t fund our education. We are running out of money, and Alaskans own the resources, and we deserve to receive the revenue from it — and not later, now.”
Another Juneau resident, Emily Kane, called the project a “boondoggle,” and said she also came out to protest the project’s climate change impacts.
“I am very concerned about the habitability of the planet if we don’t seriously dial down fossil fuels,” she said. “I know young adults who are choosing to not have children, and it just really breaks my heart — this selfishness about not thinking about future generations.”
A group of pro-development organizations, including the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, Alaska Support Industry Alliance, Alaska Chamber of Commerce and Resource Development Council, briefly found themselves on the same side as the protesters.
After the conference committee passed its compromise version of HB 381, they sent a letter to legislators, urging them to vote down the conference committee compromise.
Rebecca Logan, CEO of the Support Industry Alliance, said by phone that the pass-through tax would hit companies that are drilling for gas in Cook Inlet, at a time when the region is running short.
“The gasline is our future, but what we’ve got right now, we can’t hurt,” she said.
Like many of her relatives, Amy Duggar King has been deeply affected by Joseph Duggar’s criminal cases.
During a recent interview, she shared that she has actually spoken to Joseph’s alleged victim.
Amy says that she offered encouragement and praise to the girl, who was only 9 for the series of 2020 incidents.
She also expressed dismay that Joseph could confess but then take it back and force this girl to endure his trial.
On ‘The Sarah Fraser Show,’ Amy Duggar opened up about speaking to her cousin’s teenage accuser. (Image Credit: YouTube)
‘You are such a strong person’
During her recent interview on The Sarah Fraser Show, Amy revealed that she has spoken with the girl at the center of Joseph’s criminal case in Florida.
In 2020, Joseph went on a family vacation. Traveling between states to vacation during the first month of a deadly pandemic is, sadly, the least horrific detail of this story.
The unnamed accuser, who is now in her early teens, was only 9 years old when she says that Joseph repeatedly molested her during the trip.
It was only earlier this year, it seems, when she told her family. Her father called Joseph, who reportedly confessed twice to the despicable crime — though he has since pleaded not guilty in court.
“I just gave her hope. I said, ‘This doesn’t have to destroy you. It really truly doesn’t,’” Amy reported of having spoken with the girl. “I told her that if she ever just needed a safe place to talk, that I’m here.”
According to Amy, she also praised the girl’s strength for coming forward.
“You speaking out and you being so honest and vulnerable,” she correctly assessed.
Amy added that “knowing the backlash and knowing the people that would turn their backs on you and not believe you, you are such a strong person.”
Admittedly, we’re unclear on why Amy and the girl spoke. It seems unlikely that any courtroom wants to hear about a relative of the defendant speaking to the victim ahead of trial.
However, she’s right when she says that coming forward takes tremendous courage. Particularly if, as many suspect, the girl is from a similarly insular, fundamentalist social circle where girls are second-class at best, and where consent is not really taught or understood.
On ‘The Sarah Fraser Show,’ Amy Duggar discussed her disgraced cousins and late grandfather. (Image Credit: YouTube)
‘I don’t understand …’
Like many, Amy expressed dismay at how Joseph reportedly confessed more than once to the crimes but then entered a plea of not guilty when it came to his arraignment.
“I don’t understand how you can admit to it and say you did it, and then backtrack and change it,” she expressed.
Amy continued: “And be like, ‘Well, I might have said that, but I didn’t mean that.’”
Obviously, many confessions are coerced out of people, some of whom may lack legal representation and may have been subjected to sleep deprivation.
Joseph reportedly first confessed to the child’s father and then, over the phone, to police. That’s not quite the same scenario as someone kept up all night and then at risk of losing their job if they show up late to work the next day, believing that they can leave an interrogation room if they just sign a false confession.
Some on social media have speculated that perhaps the child and her family are known to the broader Duggar family, and not only to Joseph.
If so, that might explain why Amy was allowed to speak with her. Were the Duggars unknown to the family except for Joseph, that could still happen, but would seem less likely.
As for the “not guilty” plea … one can only assume that either the reality of losing everything set in, or Joseph simply spoke with an attorney who (in all fairness, doing their job) told him the realities of prison.
Without knowing more, it’s hard to say whether his previous confessions can be effectively used against Joseph in court.
It seems likely that any defense attorney would move to preclude the prosecution from even mentioning them, let alone entering any recordings into evidence, playing them for the jury, or bringing testimony about the confessions from those who heard them.
It is just a shame that this girl will likely have to testify and even face cross-examination in court.
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We have tragic news to report from the world of movies today:
Brenda Fricker — the Oscar-winning Irish actress best known to American audiences for her role in Home Alone 2 — has passed away.
She was 81 years old.
Actress Brenda Fricker attends the world premiere of the movie “Veronica Guerin” at the Savoy Cinema on July 8, 2003 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by ShowBizIreland.com/Getty Images)
News of Fricker’s death comes courtesy of a statement from her agent, Phil Belfield.
“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield told The Sun, adding:
“I was honoured to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over.”
Fricker’s acting career began back in 1964, with a small role in Of Human Bondage, the film adapted from W. Somerset Maugham’s classic novel of the same name.
She continued to work steadily in the decades that followed, and in 1989, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work as Daniel Day-Lewis’ mother in My Left Foot.
Fricker would achieve a new level of fame three years later with her unforgettable role in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.
As the so-called “Pigeon Lady,” Fricker brought warmth and unexpected emotional complexity to one of the biggest holiday blockbusters of all time.
While she’s certainly starred in more highly acclaimed films, Fricker’s work in Home Alone 2 lives on for the millions who still revisit the movie annually.
Several more high-profile Hollywood profiles would follow, including roles as Mike Meyer’s mother in So I Married an Axe Murderer and Matthew McConaughey’s assistant in A Time to Kill.
A lifelong Dublin resident, Fricker continued to take on film work until 2024.
Our condolences go out to her loved ones during this difficult time.
Tom Holland is not letting even ancient Greek literature steal his girl.
In a recent interview alongside The Odyssey costars Robert Pattinson, Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, he addressed a theory… E! Online (US) – Top Stories
We’re counting down the hours until the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale officially kicks off!
The highly-anticipated sale opens to the public at 12:01a.m. PST July 18, but you can preview everything… E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Tom Holland is not letting even ancient Greek literature steal his girl. 
We’re counting down the hours until the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale officially kicks off!