Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, arrives for a closed-door Republican meeting to advance President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, arrives for a closed-door Republican meeting to advance President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has joined a group of Republican senators urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to release federal education funds already approved by Congress for the 2025 fiscal year.
In a letter sent to OMB Director Russell Vought, the senators asked the agency to fully implement the Fiscal Year 2025 Full-Year Continuing Resolution Act, which includes funding for several education programs supporting students, educators and adult learners.
“The decision to withhold this funding is directly contrary to President Trump’s goal of returning K-12 education to the states,” the senators wrote. “This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families. Withholding this funding denies states and communities the opportunity to pursue localized initiatives to support students and their families.”
The funding in question includes grants for Supporting Effective Instruction, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Student Support and Academic Enrichment, English Language Acquisition, Migrant Education, and Adult Basic and Literacy Education, including integrated civics and language programs.
Murkowski and her colleagues argue the funds are essential for local school districts and adult education providers, especially those that support English learners, workforce training, and after-school care. They also emphasized the bipartisan nature of these programs, writing, ” We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs. However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds. These funds go to support programs that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support like after-school and summer programs that provide learning and enrichment opportunities for school aged children which also enables their parents to work and contribute to local economies.”
The letter was also signed by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Boozman (R-AR), Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Hoeven (R-ND), Jim Justice (R-WV), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and M. Michael Rounds (R-SD).
The senators said they welcome further collaboration with OMB and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, writing, ” We want to see students in our states and across the country thrive, whether they are adult learners, students who speak English as a second language, or students who need after-school care so that their parents can work. We believe you share the same goal.” They urged Vought to reverse the decision and release the congressionally approved funding without further delay.
A full copy of the letter is available on Sen. Murkowski’s official website, or on her Facebook page.
A school bus passes in front of the Alaska Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
A school bus passes in front of the Alaska Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
By: Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom
Republican members of the U.S. Senate called on Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought in a letter Wednesday to release the $6.8 billion in funds for K-12 schools that the Trump administration is withholding.
The letter marked a major friction point between President Donald Trump and influential lawmakers in his own party as his administration tests the limits of the executive branch’s authority in clawing back federal dollars Congress has already appropriated. Every state has millions in school funding held up as a result of the freeze.
Wednesday’s letter came after the Supreme Court temporarily cleared the way earlier this week for the administration to carry out mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Department of Education that Trump ordered earlier this year.
Just a day ahead of the July 1 date when these funds are typically disbursed as educators plan for the coming school year, the Education Department informed states that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives.
“Withholding these funds will harm students, families, and local economies,” wrote the 10 GOP senators, many of them members of committees that make decisions on spending. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, led the letter.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the broader Senate Appropriations Committee, also signed onto the letter, along with: Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Jim Justice of West Virginia.
“The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump’s goal of returning K-12 education to the states,” the senators wrote. “This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families.”
States Newsroom has asked the Office of Management and Budget for comment on the letter.
Meanwhile, a slew of congressional Democrats and one independent — 32 senators and 150 House Democrats — urged Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon in two letters sent last week to immediately release the funds they say are being withheld “illegally.”
Democratic attorneys general and governors also pushed back on these withheld funds when a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia sued the administration earlier this week.
A strong earthquake Wednesday off the Alaska coast triggered a tsunami warning. (AP Graphic)
A strong earthquake Wednesday off the Alaska coast triggered a tsunami warning. (AP Graphic)
(AP) — Communities along a 700-mile (1,127-km) stretch of Alaska’s southern coast ordered residents to higher ground after a powerful offshore earthquake Wednesday, but officials quickly downgraded and then canceled a tsunami warning for the region. There were no reports of significant damage.
The earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, struck at 12:37 p.m. local time south of Sand Point, a community of about 600 people on Popof Island, in the Aleutian chain, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.
There were 40 aftershocks detected within the first three hours, the center said.
“We have seen other earthquakes in the area that have not generated significant tsunami waves, but we’re treating it seriously and going through our procedures, making sure communities are notified so they can activate their evacuation procedures,” said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for Alaska’s emergency management division.
The quake was felt as far away as Anchorage, almost 600 miles (966 km) to the northeast.
The National Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for an area stretching from about 40 miles (64.4 km) southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, a distance of about 700 miles (1,126 kilometers). Among the larger communities in the area was Kodiak, with a population of about 5,200. The warning was downgraded to an advisory about an hour later, and canceled just before 2:45 p.m.
The highest water level generated by the earthquake in Sand Point was not quite 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) above the tide, the center said.
“There’s no damage at the airport, doesn’t appear to be any damage at the harbor, no damage to speak of, really,” Sand Point Police Chief Benjamin Allen said.
There was some damage — in the form of broken bottles — at the Alaska Commercial general store in town. Manager Vickey McDonald said about half of the store’s alcohol aisle had crashed and shattered.
“I’ve got liquid smoke and barbecue sauce and pickles … broken on the floor,” McDonald said. “It smells horrendous in here.”
In Unalaska, a fishing community of about 4,100, officials urged people in possible inundation zones to move at least 50 feet above sea level or 1 mile (1.6 km) inland. In King Cove, which has about 870 residents on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, officials sent an alert calling on those in the coastal area to move to higher ground.
Tourists Jodie Stevens and her husband, Aaron Park, were looking at the puffins at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward when they heard someone yelling that there had been an earthquake and they needed to evacuate. They walked a few blocks uphill in the rain, with a woman from the center yelling to those they passed to get to higher ground.
They were about halfway to the official high ground spot when they heard a siren signal that all was clear, she said.
The National Weather Service said in posts on social media that there was no tsunami threat for other U.S. and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, including Washington, Oregon and California.
Alaska’s southern coast is earthquake-prone, and Wednesday’s was the fifth in roughly the same area since 2020 exceeding magnitude 7, state seismologist Michael West said.
“Something’s moving in this area,” he said. “I would not call this an isolated earthquake. It appears to be part of a larger sequence spanning the last several years.”
That has the attention of seismologists, he said.
“This area has been and remains capable of larger earthquakes and earthquakes capable of significant tsunami damage,” he said.
Wooden gavel with books in background. Law and justice concept
Wooden gavel with books in background. Law and justice concept
If you’re an Alaskan and believe a government agency or public official is doing something seriously wrong, something that puts public safety or welfare at risk, you now have a clear and official way to ask for an investigation.
Alaskan residents now have a more transparent process to request an Investigative Grand Jury to probe suspected systemic wrongdoing by public figures or public entities in Alaska. This effort aims to empower the community and ensure that public trust in government is maintained.
This Department of Law initiative formalizes a process that follows rules created by the Alaska Supreme Court by dedicating a new webpage, standing up policies and procedures, and assigning attorneys to examine criteria to facilitate the convening of an Investigative Grand Jury in situations where citizens present evidence on matters that jeopardize public welfare or safety.
“The Alaska Constitution guarantees that an Investigative Grand Jury will have the authority to investigate matters of public welfare or safety, and that this right shall never be suspended,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. “This new, transparent process ensures that every Alaskan’s voice can be heard when it comes to safeguarding our community and holding our government accountable.”
An investigative grand jury is a group of citizens that are tasked with investigating potential criminal activity or issues of public welfare and safety within a specific jurisdiction. Unlike a trial jury, its role is not to determine guilt or innocence, but rather to investigate potential wrongdoing and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to issue an indictment or make recommendations for action.
Back in 2022, the Alaska Supreme Court updated the rules around Investigative Grand Juries. The Court gave the Attorney General and the Department of Law the responsibility of reviewing citizen requests and determining whether they should go forward. But until now, there wasn’t a public-facing process for how to do that.
If a citizen investigation involves actions, sections or offices within the Department of Law, a neutral prosecutor will be appointed to advise the Investigative Grand Jury.
The Department of Law says this is just phase one of a broader effort to make Alaska’s legal system more open and responsive to public concerns. More improvements and public input opportunities are expected to follow.
Elayna Cunningham, a college student interning at Koahnic Broadcast Corp., records a program on July 10, 2025, at the Anchorage, Alaska, studios of KNBA, the flagship station for National Native News. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Elayna Cunningham, a college student interning at Koahnic Broadcast Corp., records a program on July 10, 2025, at the Anchorage, Alaska, studios of KNBA, the flagship station for National Native News. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
AP- Dozens of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to industry leaders.
The U.S. Senate is set to vote this week on whether to approve the Department of Government Efficiency’s plan to rescind previously approved public broadcasting funding for 2026 and 2027. Fear is growing that most of the 59 tribal radio stations that receive the funding will go dark, depriving isolated populations of news, local events and critical weather alerts. The House already approved the cuts last month.
“For Indian Country in general, 80% of the communities are rural, and their only access to national news, native story sharing, community news, whatever it is, is through PBS stations or public radio,” said Francene Blythe-Lewis, CEO of the Lincoln, Nebraska-based Native American video programming producer Vision Maker Media. “If the claw back happens, I would say a good 90% of those stations will cease to exist.”
Native American communities rely on local radio stations
Local radio plays an outsized role in the lives of many who live in Indigenous communities, where cable television and broadband internet access are spotty, at best, and nonexistent for many. That leaves over-the-air TV stations — usually a PBS station — and more often local radio to provide local news, community event details and music by Indigenous artists. Sometimes the news is delivered in Indigenous languages.
“It means we’re not going to hear our language on the radio,” Blythe-Lewis said.
Flagstaff, Arizona-based Native Public Media, which supports the network of 59 radio stations and three television stations serving tribal nations across the country, said about three dozen of those radio stations that rely heavily on Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding will be the first to go dark if funding is cut for the coming fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
Loris Taylor, CEO of Native Public Media, said in an op-ed that the tribal stations reach more than 1.5 million people and “may be the only source of locally relevant news, emergency alerts, public safety announcements, language preservation, health information and election coverage.”
Republicans face pressure to pass the cuts
GOP senators are under pressure from President Donald Trump, who promised last week on his Truth Social platform that any Republican who votes against the cuts “will not have my support or Endorsement.”
Many Republicans say the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, recently defended the cuts as necessary to hack away at the nearly $37 trillion national debt, adding, “It is critical in restoring trust in government.”
But some Republicans have pushed back, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who questioned the proposed cuts last month during a Senate committee hearing. She said that while some of the federal money is assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, most of it goes to locally owned public radio and television stations.
Tribal stations provide lifesaving alerts
Jaclyn Sallee is president and CEO of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and KNBA, its radio station in Anchorage, Alaska. Koahnic produces National Native News, a five-minute daily newscast that features headline news from across Indian Country, and Native America Calling, a daily hourlong call-in program, for about 190 stations across the nation. It also produces Indigefi, a music program in Indigenous languages.
KNBA is on Native Public Media’s list of those stations that would be most affected by the federal funding cuts — a concern Sallee confirmed, as 40% of the station’s funding comes from CPB.
“What we’re really worried about are the rural stations in Alaska where they may be the only station in the community,” she said. “The people that live there depend on the station for vital weather alerts, emergency alerts; it’s the local hub of the community where people share information. So that is very troublesome because people’s lives are at risk without this service.”
It’s currently fishing season in Alaska, she said, “which means getting out in the ocean or in rivers and going long distances to subsist, and so they really rely on weather reports.”
Having the news reported in a tribe’s language isn’t just about preserving that language, she said. Sallee spent summers in Nome with her mother’s family. Her grandmother, she said, spoke only Inupiaq.
Loss of small stations could hurt the larger system
New Mexico PBS’s signal reaches all but one of the more than 20 tribes and pueblos in the state. It also has signed an agreement with the Navajo Nation, which has the largest reservation of any tribe in the U.S., that allows the tribe to carry the PBS signal and programming on the Navajo Nation Television network, New Mexico PBS general manger Franz Joachim said.
“It’s no question in my mind that, you know, immediately some stations will pretty much go dark,” Joachim said.
When those first stations fail, it won’t take long for others to follow, Joachim said. And as they do, it will mean fewer and fewer stations left to pay membership dues that also help fund all of the stations.
“So now the whole system starts to fracture,” he said. “So for me, the federal funding is really about the system as a whole that keeps us in place.”
That funding also helps produce national content that groups like Vision Maker Media produce. Those include Native American documentaries shown on PBS like “Mankiller,” the story of Wilma Mankiller who became the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Blythe-Lewis compared the potential loss of tribal stations to the country’s past attempts to erase Native American cultures, such as through federal boarding schools where Indigenous children were sent for generations to assimilate them into white society and where systemic abuse of Indigenous children was carried out.
“We’re erased from public media and therefore invisible and therefore become unknown and unheard of,” she said.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
Federal funds for adult education services were among those blocked by the Trump administration on July 1, causing immediate cuts to Alaska adult education and workforce development programs and staff layoffs.
The U.S. Department of Education has withheld more than $6 billion in congressionally approved grants for education, including over $629 million for adult education basic grants, and more than $85 million in adult integrated English literacy and civics education grants. The administration has said that it’s withholding the federal funding to review the grant programs to ensure they align with the Republican president’s priorities.
Adult education can range from classes that help adults learn basic literacy to programs that assist students in gaining certificates equivalent to high school diplomas, and can teach skills that are essential to performing certain jobs.
Alaska had over $1.1 million allocated as part of an adult education basic grant, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which administers the grants. A department spokesperson said on Tuesday the grant amounts for English literacy and civics education this year were not available, but the state received more than $99,600 last year.
The withheld funds means immediate cuts to services for Alaska adult learners and staff layoffs, according to grant recipients.
“We were definitely blindsided,” said Lucie Magrath, executive director of the Literacy Council of Alaska, a Fairbanks-based nonprofit that provides adult education programs, including adult literacy, English language learning, civics and General Educational Development, or GED, preparation classes.
Magrath said an estimated $180,000 in federal funding, or over half of their budget, was impounded, causing immediate cuts to services and staff layoffs. While the organization did not identify the number of layoffs in an interview last week, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has since reported that there were five layoffs.
“So we are having to make some pretty drastic decisions with staffing and programming,” she said in a phone interview on Thursday. “We likely will not be able to serve nearly as many people this year, and we’re making staffing cuts right now.”
The organization provides in-person and virtual instruction and mentoring to adult learners in Fairbanks, as well as in villages in the Interior and Western Alaska, stretching from the Yukon Flats to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
They also have a workforce development program, the Pathways Program, serving youths and young adults ages 16 to 24, and run the used bookstore Forget-Me-Not Books in Fairbanks, which provides revenues for its programs, jobs training and employment.
Shelby Cooke is the assistant executive director of the Literacy Council of Alaska, and said it’s difficult to fill such a large funding gap, especially on such short notice, and Alaskans will be impacted.
“The real detriment is to our students and Alaskans who need that GED credential to go to work, or maybe they’re a super-skilled person in their native tongue, but they need enough English to be able to navigate a job interview,” she said. “Those are the folks that are suffering, and in turn, our economy suffers too.”
Magrath said some programs will be suspended immediately. It’s possible that these suspensions will be temporary, as her organization figures out its next steps. “We’re looking at restructuring some of our programs just to be able to use the resources that we have to the maximum impact for our community and our students,” she said. “So we have a lot to figure out right now.”
Southeast Regional Resource Center, a nonprofit educational services agency that provides a variety of services statewide, including adult education, English language learning and workforce development programs. In addition, SERRC provides educational and business services to school districts, including special education programs, human resources and grant administration.
“We do have some state funds, and so we’ve had to modify our budget just off what we know we have for funding — for state funds — and we are looking at having to reduce our staffing,” said Chris Reitan, its executive director, in a phone interview Thursday. He said the organization is looking at cutting at least two staff positions and a few part-time positions. “So we are concerned about the ability to have the same level of impact.”
Reitan said the federal funding freeze withheld over $86,600 for adult education programs in Southeast Alaska, and over $64,000 in the Aleutians region.
Chris Reitan, executive director, SERRC, said SERRC’s program served 112 students last year in the areas of GED support, English language learning and workforce development across the state.
“Number one, adult education provides a kind of a lifeline for Alaskans seeking to improve their lives, and it also helps strengthen our state’s workforce,” he said, and will have an immediate impact on adult learners, “which then could immediately impact their ability in regards to getting good-paying jobs, their ability to provide for their families, their ability to contribute to their local communities.”
He added: “I see this as being a significant impact across the state, in regards to our citizens being able to have the opportunity to better themselves.”
SERRC and the Literacy Council of Alaska are two of 14 adult education programs across the state with grant funding administered by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. A department spokesperson, Adam Weinert, said by email that the department has continued to award available state matching funds for the programs, totaling more than $1.9 million.
“Sub-grantees were informed that we were moving forward at this time with state funding only,” Weinert said of the programs. “Once federal funding is released, we will move forward with a budget modification to provide for the federal funding.”
The full impact of how the freeze will affect some programs in the long term remains unclear.
The University of Alaska system has several adult education programs, funded in part by federal funds, as well as state and local funding. Jonathan Taylor, the university’s director of communications, said by email Monday that “discussions are ongoing” around funding but those programs are scheduled to continue.
Taylor said at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Bristol Bay Adult Education program will start up in August with funding from Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp.
Within the University of Alaska Anchorage, there are adult education programs at Kodiak College, serving the Kodiak Island Borough; Kenai Peninsula College, serving the Soldotna, Homer and Seward regions; and Prince William Sound College, serving the Valdez, Cordova and Copper Basin regions.
“We have received assurances that all three will receive some sort of funding this year,” Taylor said. “To our knowledge, the state will initiate these awards using either state funding or federal funding it has access to. If additional Federal Funds become available, the state will amend the agreements to make up to the original intended funding amount. Currently, this is an active endeavor and ongoing discussion with the state.”
The Juneau Assembly has proposed updates to the city’s disorderly conduct laws, tightening rules around blocking sidewalks, public disturbances, and behavior in public spaces.
The focus of the new updates- making it easier for the Juneau Police Department to arrest individuals, particularly unhoused individuals for disruptive actions in public areas.
The ordinance adds language allowing police to intervene when people stand, walk, or camp in places like sidewalks, stairwells, parking lots, and garages.
“We had a long conversation about the community impacts of public camping, and that was probably the longest agenda item that we discussed.” Said Deputy Manager Robert Barr, “it would make it a bit easier for our police department officers to do some enforcement activity that they already do.”
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the changes bring city code in line with state law, removing steps that currently delay enforcement, which lie within officers arresting individuals for trespassing rather than disorderly conduct.
“Our first course of action whenever we’re engaged in that sort of activity with folks who are unhoused, is to try and connect to resources and seek voluntary compliance.” Said Barr, “but sometimes it’s not possible.”
Alaska already grapples with its growing unhoused population, Juneau currently operates under a “dispersed camping” policy for its homeless population, allowing camping on unimproved public land as long as it minimizes impact and doesn’t violate specific regulations like blocking public rights-of-way.
Juneau Police cleared the unhoused encampment on Teal street back in June, Barr said the assembly asked to bring back more information at a future meeting, likely the next Committee of the Whole, on creating a shelter safety zone in the Teal Street area, “just to investigate whether other tools that we could implement would protect our social service providers out there.” said Barr.
Juneau has had the highest average sale price for a single-family home in the state for the past two years and a report from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, shows that housing costs are nearly half of most Alaska residents’ annual income.
These proposed updates come amid nationwide trends, with the Supreme court ruling that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places last year.
Sandbag filling and distribution, photo generously provided by CBJ
The City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida will hold sandbag distribution events on Saturday, July 19 and Saturday, July 26, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dimond Park Field House parking lot in preparation for another glacial outburst flood.
With the summer heat rising and water levels climbing in Suicide Basin, emergency officials, city officials and the National Weather Service are closely monitoring the threat of another glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in the Mendenhall River Valley. This threat follows a record flood event on August 6, 2024, which swept through neighborhoods, damaged property, and reshaped how Juneau prepares for these recurring flooding events.
Suicide Basin, located above the Mendenhall Glacier, has released floodwaters nearly every year since 2011. These events occur when meltwater trapped behind the glacier breaks through ice dams, sending torrents into Mendenhall Lake and River below.
As of Saturday, July 12, water levels in the basin are around 1,263 feet, about 108 feet below the spillway level. That’s slightly lower than this time last year, due to a colder spring and early summer.
At the current rate, or around 4 feet per day, the basin could reach full capacity by August 8.
Sand, bags, and shovels will be available for residents to fill on site. Households in the 18-foot flood risk zone may collect up to 75 sandbags total, including from earlier events.
For flood prep info, visit juneauflood.com or bit.ly/JuneauFloodReady, and sign up for alerts at bit.ly/CBJAlerts.
Artist Crystal Worl has completed restoration work on her mural honoring Tlingit civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich in downtown Juneau.
The project was made possible thanks to equipment donated by Tyler Rental, which provided the use of a forklift from July 6 to 12.
The lift allowed Worl to safely access and restore the 60-by-25-foot mural that spans the south-facing wall of the Juneau Public Library and Marine Parking Garage.
The mural that Worl, who is Tlingit and Athabascan, began planning in 2018 was originally installed in September 2021, and is a tribute to Elizabeth Kaax̱gal.aat Peratrovich, a member of the Lukaax̱.ádi (Sockeye Salmon) clan. She is remembered for her advocacy in the fight for equality for Alaska Natives, and for her pivotal role in the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first civil rights legislation of its kind in the United States.
The restoration is part of an ongoing commitment to preserving public art that celebrates Alaska Native heritage and leaders. “We appreciate this generous support in helping to maintain a public artwork that honors the legacy of a great Alaska Native leader,” Sealaska Heritage Institute said in their Facebook post.
Located on Áak’w Kwáan territory, the mural is now fully restored.
Crystal Worl writes on her website about the mural, “Educating the public about the local Indigenous values, culture, and history is important for Alaskans and visitors alike. I hope that this mural will contribute to the movement to transform Juneau into the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world and will beautify and enhance the downtown Juneau area. With the world recovering from the COVID pandemic and embracing racial and social justice ideals, artists must also rise to the occasion to tell our history and our stories.”
RADM Bob Little, the new commander of the Coast Guard's Arctic sector, smiles as he shakes hands with RADM Megan Dean, the departing commanding officer, during a change of command ceremony Friday, July 11, 2025, in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
RADM Bob Little, the new commander of the Coast Guard’s Arctic sector, smiles as he shakes hands with RADM Megan Dean, the departing commanding officer, during a change of command ceremony Friday, July 11, 2025, in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Last week, President Donald Trump signed a budget bill with almost $25 billion for new Coast Guard construction, including almost $9 billion for new icebreakers and $300 million for new Coast Guard facilities in Juneau.
On Friday, Rear Adm. Bob Little, the new commander of the Coast Guard in Alaska, said it remains to be seen how those new ships will be used and when they will arrive in the Arctic.
“What I hope is, regardless of where in the service that capacity ends up, is that it will overall increase the capacity for the Coast Guard and that the Arctic District can certainly benefit from that increased capacity,” he said.
Until last week, the Coast Guard’s Alaska force was known as District 17. As part of a nationwide renaming project, it’s now the Coast Guard Arctic District. In a ceremony held at Juneau, Little took command of the newly renamed district from Rear Adm. Megan Dean, who has been assigned to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a change in name, but our missions, our priorities remain the same,” Little said.
Alaska has the largest commercial fishing fleet in the United States and produces more than half of the nation’s seafood. Key maritime trade routes between Asia and California run through Alaska waters, and cruise ships carry more than 1.5 million passengers through Southeast Alaska each year.
Altogether, the Coast Guard employs almost 2,500 people, including almost 2,000 active-duty Sentinels, as active-duty members are formally known.
Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, commander of the Coast Guard in the Pacific Ocean, speaks during a change of command ceremony Friday, July 11, 2025, in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Speaking at the ceremony, the head of the Coast Guard in the Pacific Ocean, Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, noted that it has been an extraordinarily busy year for the agency, which responded to fishing disasters, medical emergencies, foreign ships near American waters, and the recent sinking of a cargo ship carrying 3,000 cars.
Last year, the Coast Guard responded to 16 cases of foreign ships approaching the international border near Alaska, Tiongson said, calling it “the most significant foreign military presence in our waters near Alaska … in decades.”
Tiongson, who will retire later this month, said he expects the number of foreign ships near Alaska to grow.
Both China and Russia have sailed military ships through international waters near Alaska recently as part of freedom-of-navigation missions to demonstrate their right to travel through international waterways. The United States conducts similar missions near both countries.
Foreign fishing vessels frequently catch fish near the international boundary that marks the economic activity zone between Russia and the United States.
“We have an obligation to be present and to push back, to deter or deny malign activity anywhere that we have sovereign U.S. rights, and in the Arctic District, we have a lot of those and a lot of interest,” Little said.
Right now, the big budget bill isn’t expected to bring immediate help for the Coast Guard in dealing with those issues.
The Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter program, which received $4.3 billion under the federal budget bill, isn’t expected to deliver its first new ship until 2030 at the earliest.
When that ship, the Polar Sentinel, arrives in service, it likely will replace the Polar Star, which was commissioned in 1976 and is primarily used to keep open the sea lanes to American research stations in Antarctica.
Additional ships are expected in the following years.
The budget bill also contains $3.5 billion for a new Arctic Security Cutter program, which seeks to launch a lighter icebreaker within three years of a contract being awarded.
That ship, according to published specifications, would only be able to break ice up to 3 feet thick, less than the capability of the Coast Guard’s sole medium icebreaker, the Healy, and equivalent to a Class-5 icebreaker, second-lowest on the six-level international standards rankings.
The bill also contains $816 million to procure additional, unspecified light and medium icebreaking cutters.
That could involve buying and converting commercial ships.
Next month, the Coast Guard is expected to commission the icebreaker Storis in Juneau. That ship was formerly the Arctic oil drilling support ship Aiviq but was purchased by the Coast Guard as an interim icebreaking solution.
Speaking Friday, Little confirmed that the Storis will be operating on a more limited basis until it undergoes a comprehensive refit.
“She’ll be transitioning from kind of an initial operating capability into what we’ll eventually consider full operational capability,” he said. “But that doesn’t diminish the fact that we’ll have a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, painted red with a Coast Guard stripe, operating in the region this summer.”
The budget bill includes $300 million to construct a new port and support facilities in Juneau to support the Storis, but Little said he didn’t have any information Friday on the timeline for construction and development.
For this summer, he said, the plan is to “limit the mission space” for the Storis until its crew and the Coast Guard are familiar with the ship.
“We’ll step into that very thoughtfully,” he said.
Friday’s ceremony didn’t include as much discussion of aviation. The budget bill includes $2.3 billion for up to 40 new MH-60 helicopters, the long-distance workhorses of Coast Guard heliborne aviation.
It also allocates $1.1 billion for six new HC-130J fixed-wing aircraft. In Alaska, five of those aircraft are based at Kodiak and used for extremely long-range search-and-rescue missions, as well as “Arctic domain” flights that can involve flights along the American border in the Arctic Ocean.
The budget bill also contains $2.2 billion for new maintenance facilities nationally, $4.4 billion for shoreside facilities — including the $300 million for Juneau — and $266 million for long-range drone aircraft, an under-developed area for the Coast Guard.
Little said that kind of spending is a “fundamental change” for the Coast Guard, whose annual budget is only about $14 billion.
Coming into his new job, he said he’s aware that as ship traffic increases in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding waters, there are “increased risks, increased commercial traffic, increased tourist traffic, cruise ships, and increased access to what were otherwise hard-to-access waters.”
The risk of a “no-notice incident that we might have to respond to — and it might be a large incident in a more remote area than we’re accustomed to operating, that would be the thing that would maybe keep you up at night.”
