NOTN- Ballots for Juneau’s municipal election have been mailed to voters, if you haven’t already received them.
Voters can return ballots by mail or use one of five drop boxes: at the Statter Harbor boat launch parking lot, outside the Mendenhall Valley Public Library, outside AEL&P in Lemon Creek, outside the Douglas Public Library and outside City Hall.
Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Oct. 6. Deputy Municipal Clerk Andy Hirsch said, and she recommended that voters mailing ballots close to the deadline ask the post office to date-stamp them in person.
Voters who did not receive a ballot, or who prefer to vote in person, can do so at vote centers at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library or City Hall. The library is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. City Hall is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Both locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.
“If for any reason you didn’t receive a ballot, you can go vote in person. In fact, you can vote in person for any reason at all, even if you did receive your ballot.” Hirsch said.
In-person voters will also use a by-mail ballot, Hirsch said, allowing election officials to process ballots consistently and help ensure each person votes only once.
This year’s ballot includes up to three Assembly seats, an area-wide seat and seats for districts one and two, as well as two school board seats and three propositions. Juneau’s voter turnout has generally been around 30%, Hirsch said.
“Every year I’m like pie in the sky, we’re gonna have the biggest voter turnout ever because that’s what I want to happen. Historically, we’re generally in the 30 percent. Voter turnout…There’s a couple of different things going on, but one is how interesting the ballot is, and we have a really interesting ballot this year.”
Want to know more about what’s on the ballot? Here is CBJ’s voter info collected for ease;
Riley Green’s performance at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, on September 26 became an especially memorable night for one very special fan in the crowd.
When attending a concert, it’s almost guaranteed that in some point of the show, the performer will notice a fan who is especially excited to be there, whether they’re celebrating a birthday, attending their first show or simply singing and dancing along. This time, it was an older fan who caught Green’s attention as she danced toward the stage with her cane in hand and a smile on her face.
“I don’t normally do this, but I decided there’s one person in the crowd that im gonna have to sing this song to that really caught my eye,” he told the crowd. “This young lady right here has been giving me the eye all night.”
Riley Green; Photos via TikTok
The country singer was in the middle of performing his hit duet with Ella Langley, “You Look Like You Love Me,” as part of his Cowboy As It Gets Tour when he spotted the fan. She was slowly approaching the very front of the barricade, dancing along the way and clearly enjoying every second of the performance. Green smiled back at her and moments later had taken the mic off the stand and made his way over to her.
He even jumped off the stage to get on her level and put his arm around the woman while singing the story behind the award-winning chart-topper directly to her. The sweet interaction drew attention from the crowd, who cheered as Green made the moment extra personal for the fan.
When the song came to an end, Green leaned his head down toward the woman. She responded by giving him a kiss on the cheek before he made his way back up to the stage.
The moment was captured and shared across social media, prompting users to state how sweet it was for him to take the time to acknowledge the woman and make it a night she will hopefully never forget.
One comment read, “When I thought I couldn’t love him anymore and he goes and does this!!”
Another said, “He just made grandmas whole life right then.”
“This was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen last night.”
Other users joked that this moment had given them the idea to dress up as a grandma the next time they attend one of the Alabama native’s concerts so they can score a kiss too.
Riley Green’s “Cowboy As It Gets Tour” will continue through the fall before wrapping up on October 3, at the Choctaw Grand Theater in Durant, Oklahoma. Today, he announced that he has no plans to slow down anytime in 2027 because starting April 1, he will launch the “That’s Just Me Tour,” in support of his latest album of the same name.
The upcoming trek will feature 29 show dates spanning across major cities including Seattle, Chicago, Calgary, Ft Worth, and more. Green will be joined on tour with special guests Muscadine Bloodline, Randy Houser, Jake Worthington, along with Hannah McFarland.
Kacey Musgraves had the incredible opportunity to honor the late Dolly Parton during the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards.
Musgraves returned to the VMAs stage for the first time in five years, paying tribute to her friend and country music icon with a special performance of “I Will Always Love You.” The performance was pre-taped, but still delivered an emotional moment as Musgraves put her own spin on the iconic song.
Musgraves donned a pink gown adorned with feathers and styled her hair in a big, voluminous look, seemingly paying tribute to Parton’s signature style.
Kacy Musgraves at The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs); Photo: Matthew Taplinger/CBS
The performance opened with a video of Parton singing the iconic song before Musgraves took the lead after the chorus.
Following Musgraves’ performance, Parton reappeared on the screen, saying, “I Will Always Love You.” She then bid farewell with a simple “Bye bye” as she waved into the camera.
Fans reacted to the performance on social media, writing things like, “that performance was straight up beautiful, wow. kaceys voice is unreal” and “wow, kacey always hits the feels, that’s beautiful.”
With three career nods, Musgraves was nominated at the VMAs this year in the Best Country category for “Dry Spell.” Ella Langley ultimately took home the honor for “Choosin’ Texas.”
Days after Parton’s passing, Musgraves also honored her during her Middle of Nowhere Tour stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. While on stage, Musgraves took a moment to remember Parton and reflect on the impact she had on her life and career.
“I’m not over it, and I’m never gonna be over it,” Musgraves told the crowd, according to Rolling Stone.
Kacy Musgraves at The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs); Photo: Matthew Taplinger/CBS
She went on to call Parton “the closest thing we’ve ever had to royalty” and a “supernova of a person.”
“I definitely, for sure, I would not be able to stand up here and do what I do if it hadn’t been for Dolly Parton,” Musgraves later added.
That night, she dedicated her performance of “Rainbow” to the late singer-songwriter.
Hosted by Snoop Dogg, the “VMAs” aired live from Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 27 (7:30-9:30 PM, ET/4:30-6:30 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network, simulcast on MTV and streamed on Paramount+ (Premium) in the U.S. The show was also available globally the following day on Paramount+ and MTV.
Preschoolers play in the snowmelt at Hillcrest Children’s Center in Anchorage on April 18, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska childcare providers, families and employers are under intense strain with the lack of childcare availability and funding, according to advocates. They are calling for major state investment in the childcare industry and seeking policy changes under the next governor and Alaska State Legislature.
Leaders with several non-profit groups held an online webinar Wednesday focused on barriers and potential solutions to what they called “Alaska’s childcare desert,” which included advocates with the Alaska Children’s Trust, Southeast Childhood Collective and thread, a statewide resource and referral organization.
Advocates described a patchwork funding system of federal, state and some local municipal grants for childcare providers, which has resulted in a lack of childcare spaces to meet demand, long waitlists, high costs for families and a lack of qualified childcare providers, who also work for low pay.
“It’s a battle right now,” said Candice Vialpando, marketing and communications director with thread. “But every little bit helps, and every bucket of money that we are getting, we’re just putting out into the field to try and help, and keep programs open.”
Alaska has seen a wave of childcare centers close in recent years. Last year, one of Anchorage’s largest childcare facilities, Bright Beginnings Learning Center, closed due to rising costs and a shortage of workers, displacing 125 children and 35 staff. Since 2019, 25% of childcare facilities have closed, according to thread.
The organization estimates 50% of Alaskan families cannot fully participate in the workforce because they lack access to childcare. They estimate the average cost Alaska parents pay is nearly $14,000 per year per child.
Advocates are pushing legislators and state political candidates to make childcare a priority in this election.
“Alaska is a childcare desert,” said Blue Shibler, executive director of the Southeast Childhood Collective, which provides resource, funding and workforce development support throughout Southeast Alaska. “The good news is, advocates like us on here have been working for years on this issue, and there is quite a bit of framework systems development that could turn all of that around pretty quickly.”
She said that the state could make big changes quickly if a new executive branch and motivated legislators were open to their policy and funding ideas.
Shibler said childcare providers are struggling to recruit childcare workers and pay liveable wages, which can result in long wait lists for care.
“Childcare providers cannot charge families enough money to pay competitive wages in this labor market, and so they’re limited at how many kids they can take based on that,” she said. “So we’re working to improve that.”
This year, the Legislature approved $6.4 million to help boost pay and retain childcare workers, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it.
“That really hurt us,” Vialpando said.
Dunleavy also vetoed Legislature-approved increases of $355,000 to the family support program Parents as Teachers, a $3.7 million increase for Head Start programs and a $3 million increase for infant learning programs to support children with developmental delays or disabilities.
A spokesperson for the Dunleavy administration, Jeff Turner, said by email Thursday that “substantial funding was provided,” for childcare. He pointed to the governor’s approvals in this year’s budget for $13 million in Head Start grants, $475,000 for Parents as Teachers and $12.3 million for early intervention and infant learning programs.
“Governor Dunleavy also proposed legislation for funding and opportunities to expand workforce training, unfortunately the legislature chose not to pass his legislation,” Turner said, referring to a bill that would have expanded the unemployment insurance trust fund.
State assistance grants, licensing and economic impacts
For state childcare assistance grants that are paid out to providers and families, Vialpando described issues with delayed payments, which can cause children to lose their spots.
Vialpando said one issue is if families miss renewal dates, they have to reapply for assistance all over again. “It’s not just a quick renewal. It’s like a whole new application period, which takes a very long time,” she said.
“And during that application period, they’re not getting assistance, so their childcare provider is not getting paid, so they don’t have care for their child during that time. And it’s like, does this person care for the kid without getting paid? Does the child stay home?” she said. “It’s a really bad effect that is happening, so I think that needs to be addressed: prompt payment.”
Officials with the Alaska Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment on state assistance delays on Thursday.
Nonprofit groups are working to boost childcare worker support and professional development opportunities, including apprenticeship programs, and helping new providers with licensing and regulatory standards for new childcare programs.
Shibler and others said providers continue to struggle with licensing issues and regulatory hurdles, and the Department of Health could do more to ease the strain.
“A lot of the licensing regulations are just really old and outdated. They just need a review,” she said. “To figure out how many of these are really important to maintain health, safety, and quality, and which ones are just sort of extra that we don’t need to be dealing with and putting on providers.”
With support from an Anchorage initiative directing marijuana tax revenue to the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund, Vialpando said thread is able to provide grants to childcare providers for supplies, equipment upgrades, rent and other operational costs. The organization is also using a mix of state and federal grants to provide health care benefits to childcare workers statewide. “Which is huge in a sector where people do not have healthcare,” she said.
Teresa Wrobel, director of policy and advocacy, Alaska Children’s Trust noted childcare is becoming a priority issue for employers, as there’s a loss of hours as employees need to tend to childcare needs. She and others acknowledged lack of childcare is a major factor in some families leaving Alaska.
Wrobel emphasized the Alaska Children’s Trust – which is focused on reducing child abuse and neglect — is advocating to address childcare issues to help alleviate stress on families. “Neglect happens with families when there is stress in the family, and we just know that childcare is one of those methods that can reduce stress on the family,” she said.
Shibler and others expressed hope that future state leaders will address the state’s growing childcare gap.
“So there’s all these little band-aids out there, you know, trying to fix the problem because nobody wants to take off the big bite, which is we really need to invest $50 million into a compensation system in Alaska,” Shibler said.
“Childcare is a public good: it needs a public subsidy,” she said. “We subsidize public goods all the time. We’re just not doing it for childcare for some reason.”
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify thread is a statewide resource and referral organization, and to clarify state and federal funding, not ACCE funding, is supporting childcare workers’ healthcare benefits.
Mary Peltola listens to a question posed by moderator Michelle Egan at a candidate forum held by the Alaska Oii and Gas Association on Aug. 27, 2026. Next to Peltola is i Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola, a Democrat and former U.S. House member, is challenging Sullivan. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska observers say it is too early to say how reports of bad behavior by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola might affect the state’s closely watched election, and some supporters suggested this week that she may be subject to a double standard because of her gender.
“While it’s surprising news, I think there’s a very hefty proportion of people who go, ‘It’s a hit job. It’s typical politics,’ and kind of brush it off,” said Ivan Moore of Alaska Survey Research, a political polling firm active in the race.
“It takes a lot to swing someone over from being a Peltola voter to all of a sudden going, ‘Oh, OK, I’ll vote for Sullivan.’ So we’ll see,” Moore said.
On Wednesday, the New York Times published an anonymously sourced article documenting abusive behavior by the former Alaska congresswoman, now a leading candidate for Senate. The article said she was hostile to her staff and used slurs and profanity to privately criticize others.
The article detailed accounts from former staff members who said she required aides to feed her family’s pet chameleon and said that in 2024, she wrote that she hoped a local Planned Parenthood board member would “die of a botched abortion.”
That comment came after the group was slow to endorse Peltola in that year’s election. This year, she does not appear on the group’s endorsement list.
“Planned Parenthood has been called worse and withstood more in its 100+ years; we’ll talk with her about what was reported when she’s Senator-elect,” said Morgan Lim, Alaska state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. “Nothing has changed in the stakes of this race and we remain laser-focused on ousting Sullivan from the Senate — making sure Alaska voters know that Dan Sullivan is an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ fanatic who will continue to rubber stamp Trump’s judicial nominees.”
Peltola was elected in 2022 to fill the remainder of Congressman Don Young’s term after his death that spring. She subsequently won the general election in November and served a two-year term of her own.
Her time in office coincided with a period of personal loss. Five months after she began her full term, her mother died. Three months after that, her husband died in a plane crash. She sued his employer a year and a half later, and a trial is set to begin in March.
Harry Child, a spokesman for Peltola’s campaign, said by text that the Times article is exaggerated.
“Like any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief. But she treats her staff with respect and care, and she maintains close positive relationships with her staff spanning her nearly 30 years in public service,” he said. “Exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong.”
A double standard for judging Peltola?
Polling indicates Peltola, a Democrat, is in a close race against Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan for one of Alaska’s two U.S. Senate seats. The winner of that election may decide whether Democrats or Republicans hold a majority of the Senate.
Moore said he doesn’t know whether the Times article will affect the eventual result.
Readers of the Anchorage Press said they don’t think it will, with some labeling the Times article a “nothingburger.”
The Times found something similar in a followup article of its own. A spokesperson for the Alaska Democratic Party called the initial article “a hit piece.”
“Mary grew up working on a fishing boat and was made in the mold of great Alaskan leaders that came before her. She’s the only candidate in this race who will actually fight to lower costs and put Alaska first, and Alaskans will send her to the Senate this fall because she will deliver,” the spokesperson said.
Nate Adams, a spokesperson for the Sullivan campaign, said by email, “Nearly 30 people close to Mary Peltola were interviewed and more than 100 screenshots informed this reporting. What the Times printed is only a fraction of it, so imagine what was left out, and what else Mary Peltola is hiding from Alaskans.”
Jim Lottsfeldt, a veteran political campaigner who is working on pro-Peltola efforts this year, said he sees somewhat of a double standard in the way she’s being treated.
“Stevens blew his stack, and we were all like, ‘That’s great, because he blew his stack for our benefit.’ And then you had Don Young saying the most outrageous things occasionally, but got like tons of things passed,” Lottsfeldt said. “So when all this stuff happens with the guys, nobody really clutches their pearls, and now we have little Mary Sunshine, Mary Peltola, who may have said the word f**k when she was mad, and now we’re acting like it’s a major political story, and I don’t think it is.”
Some former staffers back Times reporting, others dispute it
After the Times published its initial article, the Beacon contacted more than a dozen former Peltola aides in an attempt to verify its contents. Some, speaking anonymously, said they could not confirm all the incidents described by the Times but said the article matched the tone and mood of their time in her Congressional office or with her campaign.
They asked to not be named in order to offer frank opinions and because their current jobs may require them to work with Peltola in the future.
But at least some defended their former boss.
Kate Consenstein worked for Peltola in the Alaska Legislature and now runs a communications firm in Anchorage. The Peltola campaign suggested her as someone whose experience doesn’t match the Times article.
“I wouldn’t want to engage in denying the veracity or the accuracy of those people’s accounts, especially because I don’t know who they are,” she said, “but I would just say the person that I worked for, and the person that I still know, is kind, generous, and not an abusive boss.”
Current U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a Republican who endorsed Peltola’s 2024 U.S. House run but is backing Sullivan this year. She told reporters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, “I do acknowledge that while she was here in her first term, she was not only thrown into a very challenging situation immediately running for campaign, but then to lose her husband in that airplane crash and to deal with all of that. That’s pressure that is hard for anybody to bear.”
Sullivan, also interviewed by D.C. reporters on Thursday, said, “I think it’s very sad, very disturbing that so many Alaskans had to get put through that kind of severe abuse, which is very disturbing, but not surprising.”
Tyson Fick, a fisherman from Juneau who worked as a special assistant in Peltola’s congressional office, said there’s no doubt that Peltola would want a “mulligan” for some of the things she said, and he feels she was frequently second-guessed by East Coast staff.
“She never, I thought, was abusive, but also she often got some inadequate staff work,” he said.
“Having been around some operations where they were a little more, you know, systematic and organized, it was hard for me. I had to get out of there. I love Mary. I’ll be with Mary till I die, but I knew I couldn’t sign up for them again,” he said.
Fick and other Alaskans interviewed for this article were particularly critical of Anton McParland, who replaced Alex Ortiz as Peltola’s chief of staff. Ortiz, who declined to comment for this article, had previously worked for Young. When Peltola was elected, McParland did not live in Alaska; he has since registered as an Alaska voter.
In addition to the personal losses that Peltola suffered, there was also a conflict between the people Peltola brought from Alaska and the people she hired from the East Coast.
Peltola and Fick are fishermen and accustomed to salty language, he said. Someone with a trust fund may not understand it, he said.
“Sometimes you say some salty stuff just for effect, and it doesn’t reflect a cultural bias … I get that words mean things, and words hurt, and people get their feelings hurt, and maybe it’s not right, but there’s also times when you’re under super stress, and you’re grieving, that stuff comes out like in inopportune moments, and it’s like, yeah, we could communicate better, we could do better, but also we could have — I could have done better for her,” Fick said.
Cody Johnson’s tour runs like a well-oiled machine, but it’s the way he treats his people that really sets it apart from the rest. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
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If you love yourself a good old baked potato, try branching out into international eats with a British jacket potato, topped with this tasty canned staple.
