Day: July 29, 2026

Chilkat Valley Community Foundation held another “People’s Choice Award “ at the Fair last weekend, and 158 people cast a vote for their favorite local nonprofit. Thank you to all these loyal supporters! By random selection, two nonprofits were each awarded a $250 CVCF grant: Four Winds Resource Center and Haines Animal Rescue Kennel. Thank you Chilkat Valley!

Cynthia Allen, for the CVCF Board

The post HARK, Four Winds Resource Center get “People’s Choice Award” appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

 The Alaska voting system dilutes party and billionaire control and elevates the importance of running for office and voting in every election. That’s great! Today in Juneau, bipartisan “majority caucuses” lead the Alaska Senate and House of Representatives. Republicans, democrats, and independents—caucusing together—are getting Alaska’s business done. The minority caucuses? Both are entirely Trump republicans and exactly where they belong. 

Ballot Measure 2 is sort of like Trump’s SAVE-Act, only Alaska style. It would dismantle Alaska’s home-grown electoral innovation, one that constrains power-politics, parties, and billionaire backers. Maybe that’s why Senator Sullivan calls it “rigged.” In November, I will vote No on ballot measure 2. 

Besides the “ranked-choice” general election provision, the Alaska system has other important features: 1) every candidate gets into our one orderly primary election—no members-only caucus, XYZ party primary, “super-delegates”, or the proverbial “smoke-filled rooms;” 2) No “Dark Money.” Alaska requires prompt disclosure for campaign donations over $2000 and if funds are Alaskan, or originate from out-of-state. Trumpian spin-doctors now describe the Alaska system as “inherently corrupt” — a blatant falsity.

The primary election is August 18^th and a lot of names are on the ballot. Seventeen vie to be Governor, sixteen for U.S. Senate. More—not fewer—candidates are better for Alaska and America. Alaska’s system is neither “rigged” nor “inherently corrupt”. Please check out the primary ballot and plan to vote. You’ll also find Ballot Measure 1, which defines rational limits for campaign donations. 

Burl Sheldon

The post Alaska Voting System, a Winner appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

At least one person in Anchorage had measles in early and mid-July, creating a risk that the highly infectious disease could spread through the state’s largest city, state health officials are warning.

The proof is in the sewage.

Samples taken from Anchorage’s John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility revealed genetic material from the strain of measles that has caused outbreaks in the Lower 48.

It means someone carrying the virus was in the part of Anchorage served by the state’s biggest wastewater treatment plant, said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Alaska’s state epidemiologist.

“It doesn’t tell us where exactly they were in the sewershed, and it also doesn’t tell us if there was any human-to-human transmission that’s occurring,” he said.

But it does provide an early warning to health providers and the general public, McLaughlin said.

“It’s important for people to take a look and see if they’ve been vaccinated, or if their children have been vaccinated,” he said. If children have not been vaccinated, “go ahead and get them vaccinated, because we know that this virus has been present in the community. And it may still be present.”

The presence of measles RNA, the virus’ single-strand genetic material, was detected in samples taken on July 7, 8, 9 and 14, health officials said. State and municipal health officials are still waiting for results from more recent wastewater testing, McLaughlin said.

Samples from the Asplund plant are usually taken every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, said Clayton Weingartner, the Division of Public Health’s wastewater surveillance coordinator.

Performing the scan that detects measles genetic material is a complex process, he said. “it’s an expensive test, and it takes longer to get the results,” he said. That is why state officials are still waiting for results from last week’s sampling, he said.

For now, public health officials say, Anchorage residents and other Alaskans should be on the lookout for signs of measles.

Symptoms, which usually arrive a week or two after infection, include a high fever, a runny nose, red eyes and a skin rash. The disease can be serious and even fatal, especially for young children. There were three measles deaths in the United States last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Tuesday, there were no new reports of any patients with measles in Anchorage. The last Anchorage case was in October, affecting an adult who tested positive after traveling to the city from the Lower 48, according to municipal officials. There was also a child in Anchorage who was diagnosed with measles in May of 2025.

Elsewhere in the state, there were four measles cases diagnosed last year, according to health officials.

McLaughlin said there are reasons for Alaskans to be vigilant.

There are more measles cases in the United States now than at any time in the past 35 yeas, he said.

 “And we’re at peak tourist season right now, so there are people coming into Alaska from the Lower 48 and from many different countries, and they’re bringing with them, some of them, different pathogens,” he said. “And one of them can be measles. And we know that measles is the most contagious virus that we’re aware of on the planet.”

Additionally, Alaskans are at elevated risk because the rate of measles vaccination is low compared to the rest of the nation.

Medical providers should be notified if there are suspected measles infections, McLaughlin said. Patients should not be in clinic waiting rooms because the virus is so contagious, he said.

Whenever a case is identified, health officials have to trace the places where that patient may have exposed others to the virus, such as daycare centers, stores and recreational sites. “All that kind of stuff takes a lot of work, and that’s just for one case,” he said.

Wastewater sampling in Alaska screens for a variety of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, different varieties of influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, as well as measles.

Numerous sites participate in the National Wastewater Surveillance System, or NWSS, that was set up by the CDC in 2020 as part of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Asplund plant, which serves most of Anchorage’s residents, is the only one in Alaska that participates in the most advanced testing program, a privately operated system called WastewaterSCAN, Weingartner said.

“The WastewaterSCAN program has very limited testing slots,” he said.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp. are also testing wastewater for disease pathogens, he said. Samples are regularly collected from wastewater in Eagle River, Juneau and Bethel.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

It is a disgrace the way our congressional delegation has abandoned U.S. veterans. The Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which Murkowski, Sullivan and Begich all voted for, gave more tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations, while at the same time squeezing the middle class and the poor. Among the casualties are U.S. veterans. 

In order to fund more tax breaks for the top 1%, government services to everyone else had to be cut. NPR reported that the Trump administration killed a Veterans’ Administration home loan program. Veterans are now losing their homes to foreclosure. The New York Times reported that the Veterans Affairs Department cut thousands of positions for doctors and nurses, and left vacant many unfilled positions. Furthermore, the Trump administration reversed expanded health benefits for women. The VA also pledged to end support for Housing First, the approach that was the VA’s greatest housing success. Huffington Post reported that mass firings at the VA — where many of the employees are veterans — will negatively impact its critical mission in healthcare, disability claims, services for transition to civilian life, suicide prevention and addiction treatment. 

The VA cut funding for research, including a promising study using electronic medical records to improve outcomes for veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The New York Times reported that among the cuts at the VA was a collaborative research study with Harvard Medical School into veterans’ suicide. NPR further reported that the VA is making it harder for male veterans to get care for breast cancer — a rare disease for men, but just as deadly for them as it is for women. It has been widely reported, including in the Huffington Post, that ICE has arrested for deportation legal residents who served in the military with a promise of thereby obtaining US citizenship. Apparently, we are no longer a people of our word. 

The repercussions of the decimation of the staff and programs at the VA will last for years. It will not be easy for a new administration — one committed to honoring the service keeping the promises to our veterans — to undo the damage done by the Big Beautiful Bill by fully funding the agency and its programs. 

While all of our congressional delegation shares the responsibility for this disgraceful bill, I think it is Sen. Dan Sullivan who is the most to blame. He runs his campaigns in part on the fact that he is a former Marine and a champion of veterans’ causes. In a Congressional hearing, he went so far as referring to them as “my veterans.” Well, he has let them down and they are now our veterans. It is up to us to inform our congressional delegation that they will soon answer to us at the polls. Candidates now running for Senate and the House of Representatives should give voters specifics of how they will revitalize the VA.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.