Fresh produce is seen at the Alaska Commercial Company grocery store in Bethel on Oct 15, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Alaskans who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program received half of their benefits nearly a week late as a result of the federal government shutdown this month. Their full benefits were two weeks late, even though the state had emergency funds to prevent that.
Officials say the state never used the $5 million per week it set aside to keep people from waiting for food benefits because the state’s system had to be reconfigured to use state money rather than its usual federal funding source. SNAP is a federal food assistance program that is run by the state.
Division Director Deb Etheridge said the state is now prepared to react quickly if a similar situation arises in the future.
“We went through all the steps we needed to create an opportunity for a state-only benefit to be issued through our EBT contractor,” she said. “So in the event that anything like this happens again, we can move swiftly to issue that state-only benefit.”
Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed an emergency order declaration on Nov. 3, following a request by state legislators and similar action by other states.
Etheridge said information technology and system operations teams had to scramble to come up with solutions, but by the time they found a way to get money to Alaskans, the federal government had begun to partially fulfill its obligations.
She said the state was closing in on a solution when the federal government released 50% of the money for benefits on Nov. 4. She said that money was processed and ready for Alaskans to spend by Nov. 6.
Etheridge said the eligibility technicians that process benefits were not excessively burdened by the shutdown.
“Eligibility workers were doing business as usual, processing cases and managing, obviously, increased phone calls — people wanted to know where their benefits were,” she said. “The pressure came on our system operations and our IT.”
The shutdown delayed service in a state division with a history of slowdowns in recent years. The DPA has battled long backlogs in processing food benefit applications as a result of staff shortages and technology issuessince 2022. The division made progress against its backlog before slipping again in 2023. Paperwork slowdowns kept thousands waiting again earlier this year.
Etheridge says the division is currently working to make sure people displaced by the October storms in Western Alaska continue to receive benefits, even if they have lost access to critical paperwork.
FILE – In this undated photo provided by the United States Geological Survey, permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska’s North Slope. (David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP, File)
AP- Congress has passed a measure to overturn a plan enacted during the Biden administration that put off limits to oil and gas leasing nearly half a vast petroleum reserve in Alaska. Critics see the vote as political meddling that creates confusion over the future management of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Tuesday’s House vote followed passage by the Senate during the government shutdown of the resolution disapproving a management plan for the reserve that was finalized in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden. The offices of Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation members have said the resolution “fulfills the objectives” of an Alaska-specific executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. The executive order called for reinstating a plan dating to the first Trump administration that sought to make available for leasing about 80% of the reserve.
The measure next goes to Trump for consideration.
There has been outsized attention on Alaska since Trump’s return to office, with moves to expand development of oil and gas and other resources cheered by state political leaders who had considered the Biden administration overly restrictive in its approach.
The votes are among the latest taken under the Congressional Review Act that are aimed at nullifying land management plans adopted under Biden. A statement from the congressional delegation last month said the review act provides an expedited way to overturn certain federal rules and forbids an agency from issuing another substantially similar rule unless it’s authorized by law.
But Alex Cohen, director of government affairs for the Alaska Wilderness League, called use of the act a “super, super blunt instrument.” Regulatory policy instead requires “very careful, considered stakeholder engagement, scientific analysis,” he said.
The approach taken by Congress also raises questions about what constitutes a substantially similar rule, Cohen said, adding there is a lack of clarity around what happens when a plan is overturned.
A bill passed earlier this year calls for oil and gas lease sales in the petroleum reserve, for which the last sale was held in 2019, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Major companies sat out the first two lease sales held for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the first was at the end of Trump’s first term and the second near the end of Biden’s.
A mother with her newborn baby in the hospital. Mothers from northern and Western Alaska are more likely than other Alaska mothers to give birth preterm (Photo by Thanasis Zovoilis)
Fewer Alaska babies were born in 2024 than the year prior, continuing a yearslong decline in the state’s births and women’s fertility rates, a new report shows.
There were 8,950 Alaska babies born last year, down from 9,031 in 2023, according to the Alaska Vital Statistics 2024 Annual Report released by the state Department of Health. The number of births has fallen in each of the past five years, the report showed. In 2020, there were 9,486 babies born in Alaska.
Annual numbers of Alaska births from 2020 to 2025 have declined steadily. The decline continued last year, according to the Alaska Vital Statistics 2024 Annual Report. (Graph from the Alaska Vital Statistics 2024 Annual Report/Alaska Department of Health)
Fertility rates — defined as the number of births per 100,000 women aged 15 to 44 — also continued to decline. In 2024, the statewide fertility rate was 61, down from 61.8 the year before and 65.5 in 2020. Fertility rates were highest in Southwest Alaska in 2024, at 86.9, and lowest in Southeast Alaska, at 48.5, the report said.
The most popular names for boys were Oliver and Theodore. For baby girls, the most popular names were Amelia and Olivia, the report said.
At the other end of the life cycle, there were slightly fewer deaths in Alaska last year than in 2023 — 5,525 in 2024, compared to 5,544 the year before, the report said. Alaska’s death total peaked in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when 6,227 residents died, the report said. Death numbers have declined since then, and the 2024 total was similar to the 2020 total of 5,204.
Death statistics revealed that the top three causes in 2024 were the same as they were in most years: cancer, which was responsible for about a fifth of all Alaska deaths; heart disease, with totals for those deaths on the decline since 2021 and 2022; and accidents, a category that includes poisonings and drug overdoses.
COVID-19, which was the No. 3 cause of death in 2021, slipped out of the top 10 in 2023, a year when it was cited as the cause of 56 deaths. Its impact on state demographics was still small in 2024, when it was found to be the cause of 58 Alaska deaths.
Buttons at a table set up by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention, seen Oct. 16, 2025, bear an anti-tobacco slogan. Fewer expectant mothers in Alaska are using tobacco than in the past, the state’s annual vital statistics report said. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Embedded in the vital statistics report were some positive signs.
Life expectancy increased to a statewide average of 77.6 years, continuing an upward trend since the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2021, when life expectancy hit a low of 75.4 years.
The teen birth rate was the lowest since 2020, the report said. That rate, which measures the number of births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, was 13.5 in 2024, down from 14.8 the year before.
Use of tobacco by pregnant women has also steadily declined in recent years, according to the report. In 2024, 7% of expectant mothers used tobacco, down from 11% in 2020.
Report shows declines in certain cancers
A separate report released by the department detailed cancer statistics through 2022, the year with the last available data.
Cancer incidence overall in Alaska decreased between 1996 and 2022, especially in the years 2009 to 2012, when incidents dropped by an annual average of 3.4%, the report said. Breast cancer remains the most frequent cancer among women, while prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer among men, the report said.
Certain types of cancers have decreased in Alaska since 2016, including leukemia, bladder cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer. There is a caveat, however. “Recent trends have started to show an increase in prostate cancer statewide and nationally,” Shirley Sakaye, a spokesperson for the department, said by email.
A walk-in inflatable model colon, on display on Oct. 20, 2022, at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention, gives visitors a close-up view of a typical precancerous polyp. This is the smaller of two inflatable displays that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Southcentral Foundation use to raise awareness of colorectal cancer. Alaska Natives have the nation’s highest rate of colorectal cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Also on the decline in Alaska was colorectal cancer, which ranked fourth on the list of diagnosed cancers in the state in 2022, according to the cancer report.
Colorectal cancer trends are of special concern in Alaska because of a high prevalence among Alaska Natives. Alaska Native people have had the nation’s highest recorded rates of colorectal cancer, according to a recent report by the American Cancer Society. The reasons are not fully understood by health experts, but they may relate to diet, according to the report.
While colorectal cancer numbers have declined in recent years, rates are notably high in one of the most rural regions of the state: the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Western Alaska. The colorectal cancer rate there was 88 per 100,000 people in 2022, compared to the statewide rate of 40.8 per 100,000, according to the report.
Alaska Native tribal health organizations have boosted awareness, and screening has increased over time.
Because of relatively high rates of colorectal cancer among younger adult Alaska Native people, the Alaska Native Medical Center and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium recommend that screenings start at age 40, compared to the recommendation for most Americans to start screenings at age 45.
Donlin mine camp, June 23, 2025. (photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld state regulators’ decision to grant permits for a large gold mine planned for Southwest Alaska, bringing the proposed Donlin project a step closer to construction.
In a unanimous ruling published Friday, the court’s five justices said the Alaska Department of Natural Resources did not need to consider the environmental impact of the entire proposed Donlin Mine when it approved water use permits and a right-of-way permit needed for a natural gas pipeline intended to power the mine.
Their ruling has implications for many major development projects on private land and likely applies to projects on federal land as well, such as the large oil projects on Alaska’s North Slope.
“This decision is a major win for Alaska,” said Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox in a written statement. “The Court rightly recognized that the State’s permitting process met constitutional standards and that Article VIII (of the Alaska Constitution) does not extend to lands owned by Alaska Native Corporations or other private entities. This ruling not only affirms the integrity of DNR’s work but also protects the rights of Alaska Native Corporations and provides certainty for future development.”
The natural gas pipeline will stretch across state land, but the mine itself will be dug on land whose subsurface rights are owned by Calista Corporation, a regional Alaska Native corporation.
Writing on behalf of the court, Justice Dario Borghesan said the distinction is important.
“Because these are private resources, rather than state resources, the Department was not required to consider the cumulative impacts of their development when deciding whether to allow the use of state waters and access over state lands to develop the mine,” he wrote.
The ruling says that to approve the gas pipeline, regulators needed to consider only the impact of the pipeline, not of the mine it allows.
Until Friday, a 2013 decision by the Alaska Supreme Court known as REDOIL had required regulators to “take into account all aspects of a project” and consider the “cumulative impacts” when issuing permits for work on state land.
Friday’s decision somewhat limits that precedent, particularly for Alaska’s North Slope oil and gas industry, where most new drilling is taking place on federal land, not state land.
“This decision, I believe, makes clear that the REDOIL requirement to assess cumulative impacts only applies to projects that are on state lands,” said Jon Katchen, an attorney familiar with the new decision and author of a friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court.
Friday’s decision covered two lawsuits filed by the Orutsararmiut Native Council and other Alaska Native tribes opposed to the mine’s development.
They appealed the case to the Alaska Supreme Court after an Anchorage Superior Court judge also ruled in favor of the defendants. The high court heard arguments one year ago.
“While this ruling is unfortunate, our work challenging the Donlin gold mine continues,” said Gage Hoffman, Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council President, in an emailed statement.
ONC and other plaintiffs are being represented by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and a spokeswoman for that organization said it has another case on appeal at the Alaska Supreme Court as well as federal litigation.
“We will be pushing to ensure that the supplemental environmental study that the court ordered from our federal victory adequately analyses the risks posed by the mine,” Hoffman said. “Our people deserve to know about these dangers; our ways of life are dependent on healthy lands and waters, and it is our responsibility to ensure they are protected for future generations.”
Friday’s ruling covered separate lawsuits filed over different sets of permits.
One lawsuit involved a permit challenged repeatedly since a preliminary decision in 2019, granting the use of state land needed to build a gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to the mine site.
Referring to legislative history and the text of the state’s Right of Way Leasing Act, Borghesan concluded, “none (of this) can be reasonably read to require the Department to consider the downstream effects of industrial activities by users of gas transported by the pipeline.”
The other suit addressed 12 water use permits issued in 2013 and 2016 by DNR to Donlin.
Plaintiffs argued that the Alaska Constitution, as interpreted by REDOIL, required DNR to consider the impact of the whole project.
Not so, Borgesan wrote.
“In our view, such a rule would extend article VIII (of the Alaska Constitution) far beyond its command to ascertain whether the development of state-owned resources is in the public’s interest.”
He also added that imposing such a restriction would be particularly problematic in the case of Donlin, because it involves land “chosen by ANCSA corporations as compensation for the loss of Alaska Natives’ aboriginal title to their ancestral territories. … These lands and minerals are reserved for their benefit, not for the benefit of Alaskans generally.”
Plaintiffs had argued that DNR failed to consider what will happen after the mine closes, when the mining pit will be filled by rainwater and seepage.
“Pumping will be required in perpetuity to ensure the lake’s water levels do not overtop its banks,” Borghesan wrote, adding that water treatment will also be required forever.
“This is because the water will have high levels of heavy metals due to contact with mining waste, and will have to be treated in perpetuity to protect downstream lands, waters, fish and wildlife, and people.”
Despite that conclusion, he said the justices “are persuaded that the Department was not required to consider the environmental impacts of the pit lake” because that lake will be regulated by state and federal pollution permits and rules, not just the water-use permits.
Friday’s decision emphasized that the justices are not intending to give an open hand to development.
“We hold only that the Department was not required, when deciding whether to issue water appropriation and pipeline right-of-way permits for use in mining privately owned minerals on private lands, to condition those permits on an analysis of the cumulative impacts of the mining itself,” the decision states.
NOTN- Juneau residents will soon see changes at the checkout counter as the city moves to implement Proposition 2, which exempts food and utilities from sales tax starting November 20.
Barr said the goal is to make the transition “as seamless as possible” for both residents and businesses.
“Residents won’t have to do anything. You just simply won’t see sales tax on your receipts or your bills for food and utilities.” He said.
The measure, approved by voters earlier this year, eliminates the city’s 5% sales tax on groceries and household utilities. Barr said some exceptions apply, “There’s a couple of exceptions for utilities that you buy in person, like wood or wood pellets or the retail purchase of fuel. For those specific exemptions folks will have to come downtown or go online and get a card number from us, because, while food is exempt for everyone, utilities aren’t.” said Barr.
He said most utility vendors already have systems in place to differentiate between the two.
Proposition 2 defines “essential utilities” as those sold to individuals for non-commercial use within the City and Borough of Juneau. This includes the sale of electricity, heating fuel, water and wastewater service, refuse and recycling collection at a City and Borough of Juneau resident’s principal place of abode, and the non-commercial use of landfill facilities by CBJ residents.
CBJ released an official statement that clarifies some concerns on extra steps; Because most, if not all, utilities already designate commercial and residential rates for billing purposes, and to ensure that the intent of the ballot sponsors and the will of the voters is honored, CBJ is working with utilities to utilize their definition of residential and commercial while maintaining the intent of the ballot initiative. CBJ also provided definitions for guidance where utilities do not already designate rates as commercial or residential.
In practice, this means that residents are not required to obtain an exemption number or card to receive the exemption for billed utility use (electricity, water, etc.). However, residents may choose to apply for an exemption card if they intend to make retail purchases of eligible essential utilities (wood pellets, propane, etc.). If residents believe they are mistakenly designated as commercial by billed utilities, they may also apply for a utility sales tax exemption card and submit their exemption card to the utility to receive the exemption. Essential utilities exemption card application details will be available at juneau.org/finance/sales-tax and at the CBJ Sales Tax Office prior to the November 20 enactment date.
CBJ is working with utility providers on the implementation process. It may take time for providers to apply the new exemptions to their many thousands of accountholders.
According to the proposed ordinance, when an officer-involved shooting occurs that causes death or serious injury to an officer or someone else, Juneau Police Department would release body-worn camera footage no later than 30 days after the incident. (Photo courtesy City & Borough of Juneau website)
(Photo courtesy City & Borough of Juneau website)
NOTN- The Juneau Man who was knocked unconscious during an arrest in July is now suing the city and Former JPD Officer Brandon LeBlanc, alleging he used excessive force.
The case was opened November 13, and assigned to Judge Amanda Browning according to court documents.
Christopher Williams Jr. is represented by attorney Jeffrey Barber.
No response from the City and Borough of Juneau or Brandon LeBlanc has been filed in the publicly available record as of November 18.
The video of the arrest was posted to social media, prompting widespread public outcry, from city leaders, Tlingit and Haida, and even prompting peaceful protest as well as policy and training reforms within the Juneau Police Department.
Williams was medevaced to Anchorage after being taken to the ground outside the Douglas Library.
A GoFundMe was set up for Williams’ recovery in August and raised $4,692.
LeBlanc resigned from the department a day before the body camera footage was released, and the state office of special prosecutions did not file criminal charges.
Nearly 100 protesters peacefully called for accountability and systemic police reform following his arrest with organizer Jamiann S’eiltin saying the incident reflects a broader pattern of violence against Indigenous people.
“This isn’t something new,” S’eiltin said in July. “This has been going on since almost time immemorial, since the arrival of Western European settlers. So, just want to put that out there that we are brutally attacked 10 times more than the national average.”
NOTN- City Officials said the next Juneau Assembly meeting on Monday featured lively discussion on ranked choice voting, a proposal that has drawn significant public comment.
The ordinance was discussed back in August and residents have been vocal about the topic.
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting just one. “If your top choice doesn’t win, your vote still counts for your second choice,” said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr, “That’s the argument for ranked choice voting.”
Mayor Beth Weldon said Tuesday that the city will not move forward with adopting ranked-choice voting for municipal elections, following significant public testimony and a divided response from residents.
Although last night’s agenda was relatively light, Weldon said the proposed voting change drew the most attention.
“Ultimately, Ms. Atkinson tabled this indefinitely, which in one sense kind of kills it for a while,” Weldon said. “There are reasons for and against in in our emails that we got, there’s definitely people on both sides.”
Residents opposed to adopting ranked-choice voting cited concerns about cost, delays in results, and a desire to maintain what they described as a simpler system. Those who supported the change argued that it encourages more candidates to run and reduces fears of splitting the vote.
Juneau will continue using its current municipal voting system, while Alaska’s statewide ranked-choice system remains in effect, though repeal efforts are ongoing.
Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III aircrew, assigned to the 176th Wing, offload gear and supplies at Bethel, Alaska, while supporting storm recovery operations following Typhoon Halong, Oct. 15, 2025. (Alaska National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Moon)
Alaska legislators with the state Joint Armed Services Committee are raising concerns that a federal directive to prepare the Alaska National Guard to deploy domestically for civil unrest could divert service members from disaster relief efforts.
A spokesperson said the Alaska National Guard has received the directive to prepare a 350 member “quick reaction force” by Jan. 1, but said the state’s National Guard has not begun any specific training outside typical readiness training.
“This mission requirement does not impact our support to ongoing Typhoon Halong response operations, and we continue to meet all state and federal mission requirements,” said Dana Rosso, a public affairs officer for the Alaska National Guard, via email.
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, is co-chair of the Alaska Joint Armed Services Committee, and a veteran of the Alaska National Guard. He said he’s concerned about the possibility of a quick response force being used to quell “civil unrest” in Alaska and across the country.
“The fear is, of course, that when you have a tool, an expensive tool, at your disposal, that you’re going to find a reason to use it. And so I think the fear about having this quick response force locked and loaded is that they could be used when it’s inappropriate to use them,” he said. “Peaceful protest would be the perfect example.”
The federal directive said National Guard members should be training in crowd management and riot control, including the use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray.
Lawsuits, protests and federal courts have repeatedly challenged and barred the Trump administration deploying National Guard troops to American cities to assist police and immigration enforcement, asserting it is illegal and an abuse of executive powers.
Additionally, an estimated 200 Alaska service members are now deployed to assist with disaster relief efforts one month after the devastation of Typhoon Halong, officials said. It’s deemed the largest off-the-road system response by the National Guard in the state’s history.
Members of the Alaska Air and Army National Guard, Alaska Naval Militia, and Alaska State Defense Force work together to load plywood onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, in Bethel, Alaska, on Nov. 2, 2025, bound for the villages of Napaskiak, Tuntutuliak, and Napakiak. The materials will help residents rebuild homes and restore community spaces damaged by past storms. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Ericka Gillespie)Alaska Organized Militia members, assigned to Task Force Bethel, arrive at Tuntutuliak, Alaska, for post-storm clean-up efforts during Operation Halong Response, on Oct. 25, 2025. (Alaska National Guard photo by Capt. Balinda O’Neal)
Gray and committee co-chair Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, sent a letter expressing concerns to Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard, who is also Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
“The broad and vague nature of this mandate raises serious questions about its intent and implications, particularly regarding the potential use of these forces in domestic law enforcement situations,” the letter said, in part.
Gray published an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Monday saying the committee has yet to receive a response from Maj. Gen. Saxe about the Alaska National Guard’s plans.
Gray served for nine years in the Alaska Army National Guard as a medical provider, and deployed to Kosovo in 2019. He commended the agency’s work and unprecedented disaster relief effort.
“I don’t want to disregard the enormous amount of stress and pressure on them right now for this particular disaster response,” Gray said. “That may very well be a valid reason why they haven’t been able to meet to discuss this issue. But that would be really good and reassuring information for the public.”
Gray said he’s requested a meeting with the leadership of Alaska National Guard for an update, but so far his questions have not been answered.
“Most importantly,” he said, “under what circumstances does our leadership in Alaska expect to be utilizing this force?”
Leaders with the Alaska National Guard declined repeated interview requests. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office also did not respond to questions about what circumstances would trigger the deployment of the quick response force, whether in Alaska or nationally, or the concerns raised in the legislators’ letter to Commissioner Saxe.
In an email, Rosso said that preparing a reaction force is not a new mission for the National Guard. “It has existed for two decades as a rapid-response capability designed to assist civil authorities when requested by a governor. Each state’s NGRF (National Guard Reaction Force) is organized as a temporary task force under state control and can respond quickly to protect lives, property, and critical infrastructure,” he wrote.
Rosso said the Alaska National Guard has not begun any specific training, but that some readiness tasks “such as security operations and initial protective equipment training,” are already part of the National Guard’s ongoing training. He said they are conducting an inventory on equipment and weapons listed in the memo, like Tasers, batons and pepper spray.
Col. Christopher Stutz, commander of the Alaska Army National Guard’s 297th Regional Support Group, addresses members of the Alaska Organized Militia’s Task Force Bethel at Bethel, Alaska, on Oct. 19, 2025, as part of the response to ex-Typhoon Halong. (Alaska National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Moon)
“Many units already use authorized protective equipment and training devices as part of their annual readiness training. Before making any new equipment purchases, we are assessing what capabilities already exist,” he wrote.
Rosso said the Alaska National Guard had no further communication from the Pentagon on the mission of the National Guard response force. “We have not received any official taskings for NGRF support or deployment,” he said.
The Oct. 8 memo signed by Maj. Gen. Ronald Burkett, the director of operations for the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau, orders all states to prepare National Guard forces, totaling 23,500 troops nationwide, to be ready within a 24 hour notice. The memo cites Trump’s executive order to address the “crime emergency” in Washington D.C., which has come under intense criticism and legal challenges, which has continued as more troops were mobilized to Los Angeles, Memphis, Portland and Chicago.
Retired Lt. Colonel Daniel Maurer, a veteran active-duty Army officer and former Judge Advocate General, testified on the topic to the Alaska Joint Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. He is now an associate professor of law at Northern Ohio University.
But Maurer said none of the Trump administration’s justifications for the order are legally accurate, because he says they’re not based on credible, factual evidence.
The Trump administration has claimed illegal immigration is a national security threat, and troops are needed in U.S. cities for illegal immigration enforcement, as well as to combat protesters accused of being part of “Antifa” or a “domestic terrorist threat.”
“As a result, the military is being ordered in situations where they lack sufficient training and sensitivity to the constitutional rights and protections of those civilian protesters,” he said. “It puts soldiers in terribly awkward positions where they must act like police, and police fellow Americans on American civil streets.”
The remarks were part of a broader discussion at the committee hearing on constitutional concerns and politicization of the U.S. Department of Defense policies and actions in 2025.
The military is prohibited from enforcing civilian law under the Posse Comitatus Act, unless authorized by Congress or by the U.S. Constitution. Only under the Insurrection Act can the president deploy the military to suppress an insurrection.
Maurer said there is no evidence of such a need. “It is extreme, especially what is predicated on flat out lies. The triggers that these laws are based on aren’t being triggered. They’re just not happening on the ground. Court after court after court have said it’s not,” he said, adding that troops are being used to intimidate protesters.
“There was no problem to fix with the military,” Maurer said. “It is simply an effort to show force — muscular, robust camouflage, armed force — to show protests, because this president does not like protests.”
Gray said he’s also worried about the National Guard intimidating voters around the 2026 midterm elections, including in Alaska. He pointed to Trump’s criticism of recent elections won by Democrats, and a social media post falsely calling California’s elections approving redistricting by mail-in voting “rigged.” There’s no evidence the National Guard was involved or used to intimidate voters in recent elections this month, and the memo does not call for such use.
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, speaks Friday, April 26, 2024, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Gray said he’s also concerned that the National Guard would assist in immigration enforcement operations in Alaska like it already has in other parts of the country, especially as the Trump administration has revoked protections and legal status for refugees, like Ukrainians fleeing from war.
“People are afraid to leave their homes. We’ve heard these stories about folks who have to have food brought to them. You know, they won’t even go to the grocery store because they see things happen, like what happened in Fairbanks with the woman literally going to the grocery store and being picked up off the street by ICE,” he said, referring to a Fairbanks woman and mother of six detained by ICE for two months over her immigration status, and recently released.
Gray said based on his own National Guard experience, he also questions whether 350 Alaska service members will be available for rapid deployment. He said in 2019 Alaska was not able to coordinate the 220 service members called on to deploy to Kosovo, so he said others were recruited from Wyoming. “So I’m curious about how easy it would be to do 350 at a moment’s notice,” he said. “Without having it have an impact on folks, families, jobs, etc.”
But his main concern is for transparency about where, when and why Alaska service members could be called to respond to civil unrest.
“Again, we need to be able to ask those questions,” Gray said. “We need to find out what our leaders in Alaska’s interpretation of the use of that quick reaction force is. How will it be used here? How will it not be used here?”
Members of the Alaska Organized Militia board an Alaska Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter, assigned to the 207th Aviation Troop Command, while traveling from Bethel to Tuntutuliak, Alaska, during storm response operations, Oct. 23, 2025. (Courtesy photo)
UAS’s Whale statue with a light dusting of snow, photo courtesy of UAS’s Facebook page
The University of Alaska Southeast spotlighted rapid Arctic environmental change at its Evenings at Egan lecture Friday, featuring UAS’s new professor of forest ecology, Dr. Logan Berner.
His research tracks how northern ecosystems are reshaping in a warming world.
Berner, who grew up in Gustavus and studied as an undergraduate at UAS before returning as faculty.
“Growing up on the edge of Glacier Bay National Park, you know, you’re right there on the edge of the Arctic.” Berner said, “Seeing glaciers receding and these mounting impacts of climate change in Southeast Alaska was something that really drew me to the science of forest ecology and global change ecology.”
Berner said the Arctic has warmed three to four times faster than the rest of the planet, in recent decades.
“This long term warming trend has had all sorts of impacts on these northern ecosystems, which are otherwise the coldest ecosystems that we have on our planet.” Said Berner, “Not surprisingly, as temperatures rise, we see all sorts of ecological impacts occurring. We see trees and shrubs expanding across northern landscapes. We see impacts on wildlife as habitat changes, and all of that then influences people who live in the North as well as broader global society.”
Berner said caribou populations have declined by more than 60% across much of the Arctic in recent decades as expanding shrubs outcompete lichens crucial to winter forage
However, he said species tied to woody habitat, moose and beaver, are pushing north and, in some cases, reaching Alaska’s Arctic coast.
“It’s not all necessarily doom and gloom in terms of wildlife change, right? while caribou might be really suffering under these warmer, shrubbier environments, moose and beaver are thriving.” He said, “The animals that are historically more used to living in the boreal forest, it’s been possible for them to expand northward, up into the Arctic tundra, as those northern landscapes have become progressively dominated by woody plants.”
While Berner says not all change is negative for wildlife, the pace of transformation requires careful attention.
Berner’s work combines field ecology, satellite remote sensing, and ecological informatics to understand terrestrial ecosystems in the warming world.
His past research projects included field work in various parts of Alaska, as well as northern Canada, Finland, and Russia.
Though his work primarily centers the Arctic, Berner says Juneau serves as a point of research at the ‘edge of the Arctic.’
“If you go up into the mountains around town, these are Arctic tundra ecosystems, they’re fingers of mountain ranges that push out of the Arctic and have many of the same plant communities as you find in the more polar north.” Berner said, “Juneau really is part of the Arctic ecologically. Juneau offers a unique opportunity to study those changes in those kinds of ecosystems at the edge of the Arctic, and there are certainly folks at UAS who are studying various aspects of ecosystems around Juneau, from changes in Glacier dynamics, outburst floods, to wildlife populations, to the kind of biogeochemistry of rivers. There’s a lot of research that happens at UAS focused on understanding ecosystems at the edge of the Arctic.”
UAS’s Evenings are free to the public and have accessible attendance options including livestreams.
The series concludes Dec. 12 with a “Winter Fire Showcase” of local writers and artists.
Rayann Martin, a 10-year-old displaced from the village of Kipnuk by ex-Typhoon Halong, left, talks with new classmate Lilly Loewen, 10, right, as they work in the Yup’ik language at College Gate Elementary, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
AP- Rayann Martin sat in a classroom hundreds of miles from her devastated Alaska Native village and held up 10 fingers when the teacher asked the pupils how old they were.
“Ten — how do you say 10 in Yup’ik?” the teacher asked.
“Qula!” the students answered in unison.
Martin and her family were among hundreds of people airlifted to Anchorage, the state’s largest city, after the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated their small coastal villages along the Bering Sea last month, dislodging dozens of homes and floating them away — many with people inside. The floods left nearly 700 homes destroyed or heavily damaged. One person died, two remain missing.
As the residents grapple with uprooted lives very different from the traditional ones they left, some of the children are finding a measure of familiarity in a school-based immersion program that focuses on their Yup’ik language and culture — one of two such programs in the state.
“I’m learning more Yup’ik,” said Martin, who added that she’s using the language to communicate with her mother, teachers and classmates. “I usually speak more Yup’ik in villages, but mostly more English in cities.”
There are more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of Anchorage School District students. Yup’ik, which is spoken by about 10,000 people in the state, is the fifth most common. The district adopted its first language immersion program — Japanese — in 1989, and subsequently added Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, French and Russian.
After many requests from parents, the district obtained a federal grant and added a K-12 Yup’ik immersion program about nine years ago. The students in the first class are now eighth-graders. The program is based at College Gate Elementary and Wendler Middle School.
A principal’s connection makes a difference
The principal at College Gate Elementary, Darrell Berntsen, is himself Alaska Native — Sugpiaq, from Kodiak Island, south of Anchorage. His mother was 12 years old in 1964 when the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated her village of Old Harbor. He recalls her stories of joining other villagers at high ground and watching as the surge of water carried homes out to sea.
His mother and her family evacuated to a shelter in Anchorage, but returned to Kodiak Island when Old Harbor was rebuilt. Berntsen grew up living a subsistence life — “the greatest time of my life was being able to go out duck hunting, go out deer hunting,” he said — and he understands what the evacuees from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and other damaged villages have left behind.
He has also long had an interest in preserving Alaska Native culture and languages. His ex-wife’s grandmother, Marie Smith Jones, was the last fluent speaker of Eyak, an indigenous language from south-central Alaska, when she died in 2008. His uncles had their hands slapped when they spoke their indigenous Alutiiq language at school.
As the evacuees arrived in Anchorage in the days after last month’s flooding, Berntsen greeted them at an arena where the Red Cross had set up a shelter. He invited families to enroll their children in the Yup’ik immersion program. Many of the parents showed him photos of the duck, goose, moose, seal or other traditional foods they had saved for the winter — stockpiles that washed away or spoiled in the flood.
“Listening is a big part of our culture — hearing their stories, letting them know that, ‘Hey, I live here in Anchorage, I’m running one of my schools, the Yup’ik immersion program, you guys are welcome at our school,’” Berntsen said. “Do everything we can to make them feel comfortable in the most uncomfortable situation that they’ve ever been through.”
Displaced students join Yup’ik immersion classes
Some 170 evacuated children have enrolled in the Anchorage School District — 71 of them in the Yup’ik immersion program. Once the smallest immersion program in the district, it’s now “booming,” said Brandon Locke, the district’s world language director.
At College Gate, pupils receive instruction in Yup’ik for half the day, including Yup’ik literacy and language as well as science and social studies. The other half is in English, which includes language arts and math classes.
Among the program’s new students is Ellyne Aliralria, a 10-year-old from Kipnuk. During the surge of floodwater the weekend of Oct. 11, she and her family were in a home that floated upriver. The high water also washed away her sister’s grave, she said.
Aliralria likes the immersion program and learning more phrases, even though the Yup’ik dialect being spoken is a bit different from the one she knows.
“I like to do all of them, but some of them are hard,” the fifth-grader said.
Also difficult is adjusting to living in a motel room in a city nearly 500 miles (800 km) from their village on the southwest coast.
“We’re homesick,” she said.
Lilly Loewen, 10, is one of many non-Yup’iks in the program. She said her parents wanted her to participate because “they thought it was really cool.”
“It is just really amazing to get to talk to people in another language other than just what I speak mostly at home,” Loewen said.
Bridging the gap between generations
Berntsen is planning to help the new students acclimate by holding activities such as gym nights or Olympic-style events, featuring activities that mimic Alaska Native hunting and fishing techniques. One example: the seal hop, in which participants assume a plank position and shuffle across the floor to emulate how hunters sneak up on seals napping on the ice.
The Yup’ik immersion program is helping undo some of the damage Western culture did to Alaska Native language and traditions, he said. It’s also bridging the gap of two lost generations: In some cases, the children’s parents or grandparents never learned Yup’ik, but the students can now speak with their great-grandparents, Locke said.
“I took this as a great opportunity for us to give back some of what the trauma had taken from our Indigenous people,” Berntsen said.
