Ella and Tucker’s Nashville night out has sparked plenty of curiosity, but a new report claims the two country stars’ connection goes back further than we even knew. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Month: September 2026
By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
Apartment rents in Alaska rose 2.1% over the past year, the most modest increase in five years, according to analysis by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The statistics on rental costs are part of a package of articles about housing costs published in the September issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the department’s research section.
Rental statistics, based on prices recorded in March of this year, show some striking geographic differences.
The Wrangell-Petersburg area in Southeast Alaska had the cheapest rent of the 11 cities and areas analyzed, with a median monthly rate of $1,288 for a two-bedroom apartment. Bethel, a rural hub in Western Alaska, had the highest rents, with a median of $2,030 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Kodiak, Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Juneau were behind Bethel with monthly median rentals above $1,700.The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, just north of Anchorage, was on the low side for median rents, at $1,567 a month, but it had the biggest yearly increase, measured at 12.8%.
That reflects demographic characteristics in the bustling borough, where many residents are commuters who work in Anchorage, said Gunnar Schultz, a state labor economist and one of the authors of the housing-cost stories.
“Mat-Su obviously has been growing in contrast to most of the rest of the state,” he said. “So I think that that obviously puts upward pressure on price.” Proximity to Anchorage is another contributor because it means money is coming into the borough from the state’s largest city, he said.
The analysis is part of the department’s regular monitoring of housing costs. The rental comparisons covered much but not all of the state; the North Slope Borough and Bering Strait region, for example, were not included.
For homebuyers in Alaska, there are some economic headwinds, according to the economists’ analysis. Mortgage costs are much higher than they used to be, they said.
For a 30-year fixed rate mortgage on a $415,000 Alaska home — the median value — the monthly payment in 2025 was about $2,050. That is 84% higher than the estimated median monthly mortgage payment in 2019, the analysis said.
A big driver is the rise in home values, from an average of about $300,000 in 2019 to an average of $415,000 just six years later. Another factor is the increase in interest rates, from a median under 3% in 2020 to 6.5%in 2023, the analysis said.
But while home values and thus monthly mortgage costs increased, so did wages in Alaska.
The result of all those combined changes was that purchasing a home became marginally more affordable in 2025 than in the two years prior, according to the analysis.
Alaska’s Housing Affordability Index, the number that represents how many people earning the average monthly are needed to make mortgage payments, dropped a bit in 2025 to 1.37. That is down from last year’s index of 1.39 and from the 2024 index of 1.4, which was the highest in recent years. But it is above the indexes measured in previous years; from 2019 to 2021, the index was below 1, indicating that a single person earning average Alaska wages had enough money to afford monthly mortgage payments.
Despite the slight improvement in the affordability index, buying a house remains a hefty burden in Alaska, Schultz said. “It’s still so much higher than it was during COVID and before,” he said.
A slight decline in interest rates last year was a contributing factor to the small improvement in housing affordability. However, interest rates are now heading up, the analysis pointed out.
Also affecting housing affordability is the availability of homes, and on that subject, there is positive news for would-be buyers, according to the economists’ analysis.
Housing construction in 2025 hit a 10-year high after years of increases that followed the big drop during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 2,261 single-family and multifamily housing units were built last year, the analysis said. That compares to 1,747 in 2020 and 1,726 in 2021. Home construction has been steadily rising since those years, according to the data.
The Alaska Economic Trends articles did not compare housing costs in the state to those nationwide, but the U.S. Census Bureau has some U.S. statistics that provide some contest.
Nationally, home ownership costs remained flat from 2020 to 2024, while rents increased by $100 more a month to a median $1,413 during the period, according to the Census Bureau. The analysis considers areas around the nation with populations over 5,000, so most of Alaska’s rural communities are not included.
One day after Dolly Parton’s manager filed a lawsuit against her nephew, a judge sided with him. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
One day after Dolly Parton’s manager filed a lawsuit against her nephew, a judge sided with him. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday lifted a statewide executive branch hiring freeze, removing restrictions on managers who had been required since May 2025 to obtain special permission before hiring new state employees.
The governor’s decision was revealed without fanfare in a new administrative order that took effect Monday.
This week’s order also repealed a freeze on new state regulations and on state employee travel. Both of those restrictions, and the hiring freeze, had been imposed by the same administrative order last year.
At the time, Dunleavy cited concerns over state spending, and his actions were similar to ones he took during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Both moves mimicked action by former Gov. Bill Walker during a mid-2010s slump in state oil revenue.
Since Dunleavy’s 2025 order, the state’s fiscal situation has improved because of the Iran war. Alaska North Slope oil is worth significantly more than it was last year, and the state has now had consecutive fiscal years with a budget surplus.
Jeff Turner, the governor’s communications director, said on Tuesday that no one from the administration was available to speak about the repeal of the freeze order.
While state agencies have been able to continue working amid the regulation freeze, it has nonetheless had various effects on operations.
On Tuesday, for example, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska announced that it was unable to allow the state’s electric utilities to buy more home-produced solar power.
The commission said it had requested a waiver of the regulations freeze in order to proceed but did not receive it, and thus utilities cannot buy as much solar power as they desired.
The hiring freeze has coincided with a general decline in the number of people employed by the state. In August, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state had 23,500 workers. That’s down from 24,800 in April 2025, the month before the hiring freeze.
Doug Carson is the lead business agent for the Alaska State Employees Association, Alaska’s largest union for state workers.
“Hiring freezes … they’re a lot more PR stunts than they have any actual dramatic impact in terms of hiring,” he said by phone.
“It doesn’t stop hiring completely, but the one serious impact I think it has is it affects recruitment and retention. People are less inclined to apply for state jobs because they see a hiring freeze is on,” he said.
Carson said he also believes that a hiring freeze encourages state agencies to outsource jobs to private contractors. One example: The state’s Division of Public Assistance, which is working through a large backlog of applications and has continued to contract out much of the work to a company in Massachusetts.
“We think that money belongs in state, in Alaskans’ pockets,” Carson said.
Heidi Drygas, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, said that while she sees the lifting of the hiring freeze as “a step in the right direction,” it doesn’t fix pre-existing problems in state agencies.
“Things were already pretty bad and pretty rough from department to department in terms of vacancy rates and burnout and just general working conditions, and the freeze just made it worse,” she said.
“It’s going to be for the next administration to deal with, just like a whole host of problems that this administration is leaving for the next governor,” Drygas said.
Categories
The NY governor race pollster scrum
Q THE LANDSLIDE: Quinnipiac University released a poll today that found Gov. Kathy Hochul leading Republican Bruce Blakeman 58-39 — putting her on track for the fourth-largest landslide by a New York gubernatorial candidate in the past 200 years.
It’s by far the best poll for Hochul this year and certainly better than a Siena University survey out this morning that found her with a modest 9 point lead over the Nassau County executive.
So which one’s closer to reality?
The last time both pollsters released New York numbers on the same day was a few weeks before Hochul’s last election in 2022. Siena found at the time that her lead over then-Rep. Lee Zeldin was quickly shrinking, having dropped from 17 to 11 points.
The Q Poll painted a more dire picture for the governor.
“We released a poll in mid-October showing that Hochul had a 4 point lead over Lee Zeldin,” Quinnipiac spokesperson Mary Snow said. “And it went against the grain of other polls out there at the time.”
Hochul wound up winning that race by about 6 points.
Pollster vs. pollster results in prior elections have been mixed. Both Q and Siena nailed Andrew Cuomo’s eventual 23 point margin of victory in October 2018 polls, though Siena’s early November numbers that year found Cuomo’s lead had shrunk to 13. An infamous Q Poll from September 2010 found Cuomo with a stunningly small 6 point lead over Buffalo firebrand Carl Paladino, while a Siena poll the next day found a much more predictive 57-24 Cuomo advantage.
The biggest difference this time around is that Quinnipiac assumed a higher share of November’s turnout will be in deep blue New York City.
The five boroughs accounted for 31 percent of the statewide turnout in 2022 and 34 percent in 2018. Siena’s sample assumed 30 percent of this year’s voters will come from there, while 38 percent of Quinnipiac’s sample was from the city.
Quinnipiac also does more to avoid undecided voters. “One tweak that we made after 2020 was an adjustment to the questions that we ask, so that we try to cut down on the number of people who say they don’t know,” Snow said.
Only 3 percent of the Q Poll’s sample declined to weigh in on the Hochul-Blakeman race, while the comparable number was 9 percent in Siena’s poll. And it appears as if a lot of the Quinnipiac respondents who might not have answered Siena’s questions broke toward the incumbent: Siena has Hochul winning New York City 61-27 while Quinnipiac has her up 70-27; Siena had her up 57-34 among women while Quinnipiac found her lead at 63-34.
Another notable difference between the methodologies that may account for the divergent results is that Quinnipiac’s sample was based on asking respondents what party they affiliate with. Siena uses voter registration files.
“For a couple of years running, the New York Times/Siena Poll was ranked as the most accurate poll in America,” Siena spokesperson Steve Greenberg said. “Siena has been polling New York state for nearly a quarter of a century, and we have shown that we get it right almost all of the time.”
Republicans, for their part, believe both sets of numbers are far overstating Hochul’s advantage.
“Blakeman is closer in the polls I’ve seen than Lee Zeldin was at this moment in time four years ago,” state Senate Republican Campaign Committee Chair George Borrello said. “As I travel around New York state, I have seen literally thousands of Bruce Blakeman signs. Yet I can count on one hand the number of Kathy Hochul signs I’ve seen, unless you count the ones that say ‘Fire Hochul.’” — Bill Mahoney
From the Capitol
MEGAWATT DEAL: New York has made its first awards for large-scale batteries under a new program and secured contracts for new renewables that are close to getting built.
The state’s energy authority contracted for 719 megawatts from 13 solar, wind and hydroelectric projects and 950 megawatts of battery storage from eight projects.
NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris announced the awards Wednesday during a Climate Week event hosted by the state’s renewable developers association.
“Everything that we do with respect to our energy system costs money,” Harris said. “When we invest in clean energy, not only are we talking about low single-digit percentage increases in cost, we are talking about benefits that far exceed those costs.”
Hochul warned that federal headwinds and rising expenses made a more ambitious pace of transitioning to clean energy too costly as she successfully fought to weaken New York’s ambitious climate law earlier this year. But she has highlighted her continued support for progress on offshore wind, renewables, storage and nuclear this week.
New York and developers are racing the expiration of federal tax credits. Renewables that didn’t start construction by July 4 — or don’t finish work by the end of the year if they start after that deadline — won’t be eligible for those key incentives that lower the cost of contracts for the state.
Read more from POLITICO Pro’s Marie J. French here.
FROM CITY HALL
MAKING ROOM: Bellevue Hospital announced a major renovation and expansion of its inpatient psychiatric wing, fueled by an infusion of $25.6 million from the City Council.
Bellevue, which is part of the NYC Health + Hospitals system, will use the new capital funding to add 40 beds for adult psychiatric patients over the next few years — bringing the division’s total capacity to 204 beds.
Hospital officials said the expansion will ease the bottleneck of patients with severe mental illnesses who need to be admitted for continued observation and treatment; those inpatient psychiatric units have been operating consistently at 98% capacity.
“The need here demanded an investment of this scale,” Council member Virginia Maloney, who spearheaded the funding, said during a news conference in the hospital’s atrium.
Bellevue Hospital CEO Eric Wei said the facility has seen a bump in psychiatric patients since the April 2025 closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel several blocks away. Bellevue’s dedicated ER for psychiatric patients, which Wei said sees about 30 patients daily, is undergoing its own $40 million expansion.
“We are unfortunately needing to transfer out about 90 patients a month to other inpatient units because there’s no room in our inpatient psychiatric units,” Wei said in an interview. “We’re always feeling like I’m toeing the line. We’re very busy.”
Bellevue was so overwhelmed as of late that hospital officials asked FDNY to stop bringing them patients with psychiatric emergencies, according to EMS union Local 2507. Those diversion requests continued for at least a couple weeks in late August and early September, a union spokesperson said. — Maya Kaufman
IN OTHER NEWS
— INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE: A NYC high school which once enrolled 3,000 students now has only 90. (The City Reporter)
— FIRST IN THE NATION: In a new TV ad, Hochul is touting her first-in-the-nation data center moratorium. (City & State)
— HITTING THE BRAKES: The rollout of electric school buses in New York state has been rocky. (The New York Times)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
CORRECTION: This newsletter has been updated to accurately reflect the amount of money allocated to Bellevue Hospital by the City Council.Politics
Heading into Week 4 with a comfortable 3-0 record, how will No. 1 Texas continue its success on the road, facing No. 14 Tennessee? It’ll be up to quarterback Arch Manning. Manning has spent all season at the top of every NFL Draft prospect list and earned praise for taking down top-ranked Ohio State in Week 2. Especially under head coach Steve Sarkisian, the buzz around the Longhorns and Manning only continues to grow. After last year’s first season as starting quarterback, his underwhelming start drew plenty of criticism, especially with the expectations his last name carries. However, his strong finish defeating then-No. 7 Texas A&M made him an intriguing quarterback — amongst a deep NFL Draft class of signal-callers — to watch this season. But what does FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt think of Manning’s performance entering Texas’ pivotal Week 4 matchup? Klatt thinks Manning has not lived up to the hype. “Arch has just been OK, at best,” Klatt said while appearing on Wednesday’s edition of “The Herd with Colin Cowherd.” “He played really gritty for three series against Ohio State and competed his butt off … Outside of that, against UTSA … he needs to play better.” Through three games this season, Manning has completed 59-of-96 passes for 661 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions. What does help Manning’s case for his talent and his potential this year is his surrounding cast. In the offseason, Sarkisian reloaded with weapons like wide receiver Cam Coleman and running back Daylan “Hollywood” Smothers, giving Manning a balanced offense against a difficult conference schedule. Looking ahead to facing true freshman Faizon Brandon and the Volunteers, Klatt did not hesitate to acknowledge the difficulty of winning on the road, especially against a top-25 team. “I think it helps that they can run the football. They have some backs that they trust. They need to play quality defense,” Klatt said. “The other part of this …it’s really tough to win on the road. Think about every single big game this year, the home team wins. I think it’s going to be close. I picked Texas, but I think it’s going to be a very close game.” After its road contest at Tennessee, the Longhorns still have to face No. 4 Ole Miss and No. 21 Florida at home, as well as No. 10 LSU and No. 23 Texas A&M on the road. If Manning can lead Texas to a strong SEC win on the road, momentum could carry the Longhorns into a successful regular season which could turn into a return to the College Football Playoff.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
Heavy rain forced Luke Bryan’s Farm Tour stop in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to be postponed last week. Now, organizers say the concert will not return to 1846 Farms.
Bryan’s Farm Tour concert at 1846 Farms in Unity Township was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, Sept. 17, however the weather resulted in extremely muddy field conditions that made it difficult to safely accommodate the thousands of fans and vehicles expected for the event. The Georgia native apologized for the difficult decision that had to be made and explained to fans that he and his team were working on figuring out next steps.
“I am so sorry. This call was made for everyone’s safety,” he stated.
According to a new post from 1846 farms, there will be no rescheduled date for the Farm Tour show. They opened up about exploring “every possible option” to make it work, but were ultimately saddened to share that they were unable to find a time that aligned with Bryan’s schedule.
“This summer brought an extraordinary amount of rain across the region, creating extremely wet and muddy conditions at multiple Farm Tour locations. As working farms, these properties rely heavily on fields for parking and access, and the saturated ground ultimately made safely accommodating thousands of vehicles incredibly difficult,” the post explained.
“We know how disappointing this news is. So many people spent months looking forward to these shows, and countless hours of hard work went into preparing the farms and communities to welcome everyone. We share in that disappointment and are incredibly grateful for the patience, understanding, and support shown throughout this entire experience.”
Fans who had already purchased tickets to attend Luke Bryan’s Farm Tour concert will be refunded. Ticketholders are asked to watch their email associated with the purchase and Luke Bryan’s official Farm Tour webpage for more information.
“From all of us at 1846 Farms, thank you. The support shown to our farm, our team, and our community has meant so much to us.”
This week, the country act returns to Nashville to perform Luke Bryan & Friends at Bridgestone Arena. He has already started teasing his surprise guests by dropping hints on social media that has fans guessing who they think will make an appearance.
Then Bryan will continue with his Word on the Street Tour and perform the final stop on his stadium run with Jason Aldean, The Double Down Tour, which wraps up in Las Vegas on December 11.
The post Luke Bryan’s Pennsylvania Farm Tour Stop Will Not Be Rescheduled After Rainout appeared first on Country Now.
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It’s not all sweetness and light in country music. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
It’s not all sweetness and light in country music. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs