Category: Alaska News

Former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday that he is considering whether to formally file as a candidate for governor on Monday, the deadline to enter the 2026 race.

Walker and former Department of Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck filed letters of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Thursday, a necessary step before officially registering as candidates with the Alaska Division of Elections.

Both would run as independents if they decide to register, Walker said.

“We’ll meet a few times more over the weekend,” Hoffbeck said. “We both feel very strongly that we need to raise the level of discussion on a (state) fiscal plan and the gasline, but our consideration is: Can we move the needle? Is this the best use of our time and resources?”

The deadline to file as a candidate in this year’s statewide elections is 5 p.m. Monday. If Walker formally becomes a candidate, he would be the 19th in this year’s race.

Walker, elected as an independent in 2014, served four years in office. When he ran for re-election, a scandal involving then-lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott caused Mallott to resign less than a month before Election Day 2018. Walker suspended his re-election campaign, and Republican Mike Dunleavy went on to be elected, defeating Democratic candidate Mark Begich in the process.

Walker ran for re-election in 2022 against Dunleavy and Democratic candidate Les Gara. Dunleavy won that race but is term-limited and cannot run again. That’s led to a wide field of options for the 2026 election.

“There’s a flavor for everybody, no question about that,” Walker said.

During his term in office, Alaska experienced a sharp drop in oil prices that led to a fiscal crisis. Walker slashed the state’s budget and vetoed a portion of the 2015 Permanent Fund dividend, becoming the first governor in state history to do so.

Since then, successive editions of the state Legislature have set the annual dividend amount themselves, rather than using a formula.

During Walker’s term, he proposed a comprehensive state fiscal plan that would have shifted Alaska away from a reliance on oil revenue, but lawmakers failed to adopt it. 

In his final year, legislators approved one aspect, an annual transfer from the Alaska Permanent Fund to the state treasury. That transfer is now the No. 1 source of general-purpose revenue for the state, used for dividends and services alike.

By phone on Thursday, Walker said he was concerned about a state fiscal plan in 2014, and he still is.

“They got some of it passed but not enough of it,” he said, referring to the proposal he made while in office, “and so we need a fiscal plan. I haven’t heard a lot of discussion on the campaign trail from (other candidates) about what they’d do on the fiscal side, and — well, I’m not a very good spectator when there’s work to be done.”

Hoffbeck, who would serve as Walker’s lieutenant governor, was his revenue commissioner from 2014 through 2017, when he resigned to become an interim minister, working at churches whose ministers had recently departed.

“It won’t be an easy job, but you know, we can sit back on the sideline and just complain, or we can get involved and actually try and do something, and I think that’s kind of where Bill and I are at,” Hoffbeck said. “I like being retired, I like what I’m doing right now, but I’m also frustrated with what I’m hearing and seeing, and so, I guess at some point in time you’ve got to stop talking and do something.”

In addition to the surprise possible return of Bill Walker, the last days before the candidate filing deadline have brought a flurry of lieutenant governor candidate announcements.

Democratic candidate Tom Begich announced former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Julia Hnilicka as his running mate on Wednesday, while Republican candidate Adam Crum declared former healthcare CEO Robert Craig as his choice for lieutenant governor on Thursday morning.

Hours after that, Democratic candidate Matt Claman said Sarah Skeel, former chief administrative officer of Providence Alaska Medical Center, would be his lieutenant governor pick. Independent candidate Meda DeWitt has scheduled an announcement event on Saturday.

If a gubernatorial candidate does not have a registered lieutenant governor candidate by 5 p.m. Monday, they are ineligible to run. 

Registered candidates have until June 27 to drop out. If a candidate for governor withdraws, the lieutenant governor candidate may take their spot and pick a new lieutenant governor. A lieutenant governor candidate who withdraws may be replaced with another.

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The state of Alaska has the right to make public data from exploration wells drilled by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, an appeals court has ruled.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, issued Wednesday, overturns a 2023 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason that allowed well data to remain under wraps.

At issue is a collection of wells drilled in the reserve, which is federal territory. ConocoPhillips argued that data confidentiality is explicitly guaranteed in federal law and that federal law supersedes state law, but the appeals justices disagreed.

On the National Petroleum Reserve, “Alaska has its own authority to gather — and disclose — data collected from oil and gas exploration, authority that it exercised even before Congress opened the Reserve to private exploration,” the appeals court ruling said.

The Indiana-sized National Petroleum Reserve is of keen interest to energy companies. It is underlain by a formation called the Nanushuk, the source of oil for ConocoPhillips’ huge Willow project, which is under development, the Santos-operated Pikka project, which recently started production, and other prospects. A lease sale held in the reserve in March, the first since 2019, drew a record $163 million in high bids.

Under state law, data from exploratory oil and gas wells is to be disclosed publicly after those wells are completed. State law provides for a 24-month period of confidentiality, after which the AOGCC is to make the data publicly available, unless the Department of Natural Resources commissioner grants an exemption to keep the information confidential for a longer period.

After ConocoPhillips’ request for a DNR exemption was denied, the company in 2022 sued the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to keep the data confidential.

ConocoPhillips argued that the federal Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act expressly prevents the AOGCC and Gas Conservation Commission from disclosing data from the wells, which were drilled on federal leases.

Gleason’s March 8, 2023, ruling came to a slightly different conclusion that nonetheless backed ConocoPhillips. She found that the federal law implicitly protects data confidentiality, despite state law.

The appeals court judges agreed that the federal law has no explicit restriction on state release of well data, but they drew a different conclusion from that finding than Gleason did.

For the state, the appeals court ruling is a victory that is good for future development, Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said in a statement.

“Alaska relies heavily on our resources and resource development. We are also stewards of those resources for the citizens of Alaska. Alaska’s law both allows resource development now, and encourages further development and exploration in the future. We’re pleased that the Ninth Circuit recognized that federal law has not overridden Alaska’s balanced approach,” Mills said.

ConocoPhillips is still considering its next steps, a company spokesperson said. “ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. has received the court’s decision and is evaluating it. ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. has not decided on whether to appeal the decision,” company spokesperson Megan Olson said by email.

The well data that is the subject of the case remains confidential, according to court documents. Confidentiality has been maintained all the time that the court case has been active.

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Sunday, May 17
A caller in the 100 Block of Third Ave reported a person locked their keys in their vehicle. Vehicle lock out information was relayed.
Officers assisted another agency in the 300 Block of Haines Hwy.
A caller in Klukwan reported a lost kayak on the Chilkat River. Officers obtained the item description and contact information.
A caller in the 100 Block of Third Ave reported an accidental alarm activation at their location. There was no fire.

Monday, May 18
A caller on Sawmill Road reported concerning behavior of people interfering with traffic.

Tuesday, May 19
Police received a report from OCS in Haines. An officer was advised.
An officer at Mud Bay Road and River Road conducted a vehicle stop. The driver received a verbal warning for speeding.
An officer in the 1000 Block of Haines Highway performed a civil paper service.
A caller in the 200 Block of Main Street requested information about a note left on their vehicle.
An officer on the 400 Block of Allen Road performed a follow up report.
A caller on Mud Bay Road reported a road rage incident with a speeding vehicle yelling profanity at them.
A caller on Mud Bay Road reported losing a set of keys. Item descriptions and contact information were obtained.
A caller on Sawmill Road reported juveniles on top of a building.
An officer in Haines performed a follow up report.
A caller in the 50 Block of Haines Highway reported and turned in a set of keys. An officer took the keys to the post office to return to the owner.

Wednesday, May 20
A caller in the 300 Block of Haines Highway requested to speak with an officer about bullying behavior.
A caller in Haines reported a missing cell phone and wallet. Item descriptions and contact information were obtained.
A caller in Haines reported receiving a spam phone call. HBPD contacted the caller by phone.

Thursday, May 21
A caller in Haines reported receiving a spam phone call. HBPD contacted the caller by phone.
A caller on Gruening Road reported and turned in a found wallet and personal items. The property owner was contacted and the property was returned.
An officer in the 300 Block of Haines Highway performed citizen assistance.
A caller in the 200 Block of Beach Road reported a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed.
An officer in the 200 Block of Beach Road performed a follow up report.

Friday, May 22
A caller at 3 Mile Haines Highway requested a welfare check on a friend after the friend stated they were injured.
A caller on Mud Bay Road reported a boat appeared to be stuck on a shoreline. The harbormaster responded and HVFD and AST were advised.
An officer on Portage Street conducted a vehicle stop. The driver received a verbal warning for driving infractions.
An officer at Main Street and Harbor conducted a vehicle stop. The driver received a citation for registration.
An officer at Main Street and Haines Highway performed a traffic stop for a registration check.
An officer at Carrs Cove performed a vehicle check on a parking violation.
An officer on Small Tracts Road conducted a vehicle stop. The driver received a verbal warning for speeding.
A caller at 20 Mile Haines Highway reported a driver driving reckless and dangerously.
An officer on the 2000 Block of Lutak Road conducted a vehicle stop. The driver received a verbal warning for camping regulations.
An officer in the 200 Block of Main Street advised a business door was unlocked. The owner was contacted and aware the building was unlocked.
A caller on Main Street reported multiple hanging plants had been pulled down.
An officer in the 600 Block of Haines Highway advised a building door was open and unlocked. The building was cleared and secured.

Saturday, May 23
A caller on Sawmill Road reported and turned in a backpack. The item was logged in lost and found.
A caller on Fair Drive reported a brown bear in the area. An officer advised and a Nixle was sent out.
A caller in the 200 Block of Front Street reported a group of barking dogs in the area for a long period of time.
The Haines Volunteer Fire Department performed a service call in Haines.
The Haines Volunteer Fire Department performed standby for Beerfest.
An officer on Second Avenue performed a follow up report.
An officer in Haines performed a routine vehicle stop.
A caller in the 20 Block of Portage Drive reported bicycles stolen.
An officer in the 20 Block of Portage Drive performed a follow up report.
An officer in the 200 Block of Main Street performed a follow up report.
A caller on Main Street reported damage to private property.
A caller in Haines requested to speak with an officer about a possible probation violation.
A caller at the Fairgrounds reported and turned in a cell phone. The owner was contacted and picked up the phone.
A caller at the PC Dock reported people standing on top of golf carts.
An officer in the 20 Block of Haines Highway responded to a vehicle stopped in the roadway. The vehicle was moved by the driver.

There were 25 burn permits issued, seven EMS calls and five 911 hang-up calls during this reporting period.

The post Blotter: May 17 – May 23 appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Ten Years Ago

Borough Approves Group’s Leafletting

A new Religious sign-and-cart operation has been setting up along the Haines waterfront in recent weeks, stirring concerns for some residents. 

A group of Jehovah’s Witnesses have sporadically set up along the waterfront a portable 24-by-15 foot placard on a 37-by-16 foot cart, which they use to distribute nonprofit religious brochures.  

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for their door-to-door preaching and aggressive evangelism, a core tenet and duty of their religion. 

Tour operator Joe Ordonez said he recently saw the Jehovah’s Witnesses set up at Lookout Park. “I just really thought nothing like that was allowed. It’s proselytizing,” Ordonez said. 

In years past, Ordonez has seen children selling small trinkets or musicians seeking tips run off for soliciting on public property, so he wondered why the distribution for religious pamphlets was allowed. 

“If you think, from the visitor perspective, they don’t really want people hawking tours in any loud sort of way,” Ordonez said. “It’s not like I lost any sleep over it. I’m in the visitor industry and I think about visitor experience. I’ve seen a lot of things come and go and this was a new twist.”

Twenty Years Ago

Paintballers Compete in Local Tourney

About 60 residents and visitors turned out to watch or participate in Sunday’s Spring Paintball Tournament at Emerson Field.

Will Morrissey, Steven McLaughlin, and Fred Graham took first place among 13 teams participating in the double-elimination contest, which was held among a maze of barricades set up on the field at the junction of Mosquito Lake Road and Haines Highway.

Among those participating were paintball enthusiasts from Juneau and professional snowboarder Travis Rice. 

Dozens turned out to watch the event and enjoy a nice picnic lunch, said Nancy Morrissey. “Organizers are hoping to make this an annual event,” she said. 

Forty Years Ago

Postmasters to Gather in Haines Next Week

Usually there is only one postmaster in each community in the United States, but next week Haines will host between 25 and 30 of them. Postmasters are coming from all over Alaska to attend the 31st annual Convention of the Alaska Chapter of Postmasters of the United States. In addition to postmasters from as far away as Barrow, Eagle, Metlakatla and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, there will be visitors from Kentucky, Alabama, Washington, D.C., California and Colorado. When given the choice of which of the 51 State conventions (Puerto Rico, too!), most of the postmasters chose Alaska as their first choice. 

“We are honored that Hugh Bates, National President of the NAPUS, elected to come to Haines with his wife, Janie, for the convention,” Postmaster Bill Hartmann said. “Our chapter president, Deane Nelson from Barrow, invited him when we were in Washington, D.C. in February.” 

Bates will be the keynote speaker at the final convention banquet Thursday at the Hotel Halsingland. Most of the meetings and training sessions will be at the Chilkat Center. 

The post This Week in History: Leafletting, paintball tournament and postmasters appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

After pulling the Chilkoot Indian Association out of debt and completing a backlog of audits, tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette was recognized as the 2025 Tribal Administrator of the year. She was presented with the award during the annual Alaska Tribal Administrators Association symposium in April.

Looking back at her time with the Chilkoot Indian Association, Brouillette said that she was the first and only employee in 1995 before she went back to school and took a different position working for the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. 

Then she got a call from an elder telling her it was “time to come home,” Brouillette said, noting that this call came at a time when the tribe was going through a rough time managing Bureau of Indian Affairs funding. Brouillette left the CIA again to work for Klukwan Inc. after a friend of hers told her she had to “jump off this sinking ship” after they had looked at the accounting system.

The struggles came after the federal government offered funding to tribes, which allows them to self-govern programs instead of relying on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to assist them.

“There was a huge learning curve,” Brouillette said. When Brouillette started in 2013, she said that the CIA was about $2.5 million dollars in the red.

“We were on the verge of losing all our federal funding and we were years behind on our audits.” The association is required to conduct federal audits each year, and had not done one in a few years, according to Brouillette. A consultant said that it was a “tangled mess” and that it would take years to get out of, time that Brouillette said they didn’t have. “We need to get out of it now.”

Brouillette said she and staff figured out how to operate federal grants and got audits completed with the goal of getting out of debt. They filed three audits in one year and then the following year filed two audits and “got them all out of the way.” 

With the audit and debt worries resolved and core funding back in place, Brouillette said that CIA started developing new projects including the environmental science, transportation and housing programs. Brouillette estimated that the current budget for the environmental department is in the millions while the transportation department’s budget is “more along the lines of about $3 million.” 

In recent years, Brouillette said the association leveraged funds to purchase the CIA dock as well as open the Taste of Deishu restaurant. Brouillette said the businesses will bring in unencumbered funding that won’t be restricted by the federal government.

“The idea now is for the tribe to become more self-sustaining, instead of relying on grants,” Brouillette said.

Brouillette said it was nice to be recognized for something because Haines is predominantly non-native and not a lot of people “think of this as a native community.” She said CIA has offered language classes and currently teaches subsistence hunting and gathering, and regalia-making. She referred to these activities as “luxuries” because the tribe is at a point where it is stable enough to host these cultural programs.

“They’re like a treat,” she said. 

Brouillette said she mainly looks at big-picture projects and issues, one of those being the ongoing push to include Haines, Tenakee, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan into the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A federal amendment to the 1971 Act would include the five communities. By joining ANCSA, these communities would receive recognition from the federal government “so that we could have our own village corporation.”

Brouillette said she hopes the effort to get the five landless tribes added to the ANCSA settlement would help CIA get a “very small portion of our lands” returned. “The Tongass forest is over 17 million acres and we’re just asking for a very tiny portion of that to be returned to us,” she said. 

With this land, “we can subsist and hunt and gather, and maybe find an old growth tree to cut, so that we can build a canoe or carve a totem,”she said. 

Looking towards the future, Brouillett said there are ideas to turn a building on Main Street into a cultural and language center that provides a daycare and childcare setting in addition to after school programming. Additionally, CIA is currently developing a new nonprofit arm to bring in more unencumbered funding to fund cultural education classes. Brouillette said CIA is close to launching the nonprofit.  

“I think that we’ve come a long way,” Brouillette said. “They [ancestors] are holding me up, and I’m holding up my kids and my grandkids. With each generation we become stronger.”

The post Chilkoot Indian Association’s Brouillette named tribal administrator of the year appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

This article was first published by Post Alley.

Early this month, a mobile floating gas station of sorts pulled up alongside the towering cruise ship Star Princess at Seattle’s Pier 91 terminal. For the next eight hours, the refueling crew made news by pumping a large volume of super-cooled natural gas into the bowels of the cruise liner.

The newest cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises is the first oceangoing vessel to be refueled in Seattle with liquefied natural gas (LNG). It could be the start of a new way of fueling the Alaska cruise ships that operate out of Seattle and Vancouver all summer.

“I’m just delighted to see there’s no smoke coming out of the cruise ship. We’re plugged in. We’re burning the cleanest gas you can right now,” Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman said while observing from an adjacent pier. “Right now, this is about as good as it gets in the industry.”

The steadily-growing fleet of mammoth cruise ships that ply the Inside Passage has a sizable carbon footprint – ship fuel being the biggest single component. Cruise line executives acknowledge that they need to do their part to soften the environmental impact. The major cruise lines in the Alaska market, through their trade association, have committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from ship operations by 2050. The challenge until now has been finding an alternative fuel that is cost-competitive and available at scale locally.

Felleman said the Port of Seattle is striving to be the “greenest” cruise homeport. The gleaming floating palace over his shoulder demonstrated a fuel technology that the maritime industry appears to be coalescing around to improve air quality in port communities such as Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver. But the lengthy transition is accompanied by some sniping and griping.

The super-chilled natural gas arrives on a specialized small-scale tanker ship from British Columbia in a multiday journey that underscores the novelty of the alternative marine fuel. Vancouver-based Seaspan Energy acquired three refueling tankers (commonly called bunkering vessels) from a Chinese shipyard to offer ship-to-ship LNG refueling along the West Coast.

“We’ve been held to a very high standard, not only in the construction of these vessels, not only in the crewing and the credentials of the people operating on these vessels, but in the actual play-by-play operations,” said Seaspan Energy President Harly Penner during an online roundtable hosted by the Port of Seattle. “We’re going to make sure it’s done safely.”

Penner appeared to anticipate LNG’s detractors who portray the fuel as acutely risky if spilled, due to its very low temperature. Critics also worry about the wide, devastating impact if an LNG cargo ignited, which Penner said has never happened during ship-to-ship refueling elsewhere in the world.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Seattle Fire Department reviewed and were satisfied with Seaspan’s LNG bunkering plans. A Star Princess passenger posted the safety instructions applicable to passengers on board. The cruise line handout told people assigned to staterooms overlooking the Seaspan tanker to stay off their balconies during the refueling operation and that smoking in the Star Bar would be forbidden while fueling was underway. A Port of Seattle police boat also kept watch a couple hundred yards off the stern of the cruise ship, which has a 4,300-passenger capacity.

Overall, Port of Seattle officials appear to be giving a tempered welcome to LNG as they celebrate what is anticipated to be the busiest Alaska cruise season in port history. Maritime Division Managing Director Stephanie Jones Stebbins said the port is interested because of the “tremendous” reduction in air pollutants, such as diesel particulates and harmful sulfur and nitrogen oxides. But port staff pointedly avoided claiming a global warming mitigation benefit and also told elected commissioners that there are no plans to invest in local infrastructure to supply LNG from shore.

“We know LNG is ultimately a fossil fuel. We view it as a transition fuel,” Jones Stebbins said. “We are looking beyond that to renewable fuels – options like green methanol, renewable natural gas, ammonia, drop-in synthetic fuels, electrification.”

Shipping line TOTE Maritime converted two large cargo ships on the Tacoma-Anchorage circuit to LNG propulsion in 2022. The ships refuel from an adjacent Puget Sound Energy liquefaction and LNG storage facility that remains controversial in Tacoma and has so far failed to attract other marine users.

On the wrong course?

Climate protection campaigners and some political conservatives take issue with the maritime industry’s fuel transition, but for very different reasons.

The environmental group Seattle Cruise Control urged the Port of Seattle to reject LNG-powered ships. The group labels LNG as a “false promise” because activists calculate the carbon footprint of natural gas from “well to wake” to be as bad or worse for the climate than traditional marine fuels. (The math varies in the industry, and some like Penner claim a positive greenhouse gas benefit.)

“The use of LNG will continue harming the climate, lock in obsolete technology, and delay the necessary transition to zero-emissions fuels,” Seattle Cruise Control co-founder Elizabeth Burton said in an email.

Conservative voices, meanwhile, including at the highest levels of the Trump administration, are pushing back on maritime decarbonization because of the potential pass-through costs to consumers.

“Popular fuel alternatives, such as liquefied natural gas and hydrogen, require double to more than triple the tank size of oil. In an industry that monetizes every square foot of space, it’s a costly gamble for regulation that may not come to pass,” wrote opinion columnist Kate Farmer in the Wall Street Journal last month.

Princess Cruises spokesperson Negin Kamali described LNG as “the best readily available fuel that significantly reduces direct greenhouse gas and other emissions and particulate matter now.” Notably, the cruise line barely mentions the dual-fuel capability of its newest vessel in marketing and advertising. The Love Boat’s other amenities get all the love – such as the restaurants, stage shows and luxury staterooms.

This summer, Star Princess is scheduled to refuel with LNG in Seattle every other weekend. Kamali said that should be sufficient to operate the big ship on LNG throughout the season. When LNG is unavailable, Star Princess’ engines burn traditional marine gas oil.

Star Princess was mistakenly credited by a port and a chamber of commerce in southeast Alaska as the first LNG-powered cruise ship to visit the Last Frontier. That title actually belongs to Silver Nova, which was refueled by Seaspan with LNG in Vancouver before an Alaska sailing last year in May. The dual-fuel luxury liner is being relocated to the Mediterranean for this summer by its operator, Silversea Cruises.

The challenge of decarbonizing

A demonstration last summer in Seattle involving another cruise line, Holland America, showed the multiple challenges and cost barriers involved with decarbonizing large ship operations. For this project, Holland America and the port teamed up to refuel the cruise liner Eurodam with renewable diesel made from vegetable oil.

A port memo described the three refuelings as a bit cumbersome, but ultimately successful from an operational point of view. However, the biofuel netted out to triple the cost of conventional low-sulfur marine fuel. So, the bottom line was that the experiment would not be repeated until biofuel costs come down and availability improves.

Bud Darr, CEO of the trade group Cruise Lines International Association, said it takes “an awful lot of courage” for ship owners to spend as much as $2 billion on new dual-fuel cruise ships designed to burn various kinds of climate-friendly fuel that cannot be procured today.

Darr said there is not much uptake on methanol because the industry is still waiting for bio- or synthetic forms of the fuel to become available at scale. Darr said “the safety case” for carbon-free ammonia is not strong enough to work as cruise ship fuel because of the high toxicity of the gas were it to leak.

That basically leaves LNG as the preferred alternative marine fuel, Darr said during the Port of Seattle’s industry roundtable in April. He said no ship owners had told him that the fossil fuel LNG was their final answer.

“Really, we’re looking to progress from the fossil form of LNG,” Darr said, “on to a renewable version of that.”

Commissioner Felleman is also zeroing in on renewable natural gas as the way to have a thriving cruise industry and protect the climate. Renewable natural gas – aka RNG or bio-LNG – is most commonly derived around here from the breakdown of landfill waste, municipal sewage or feedlot cow manure. Felleman said he is encouraged that the steep price premium for RNG is slowly coming down. Other branches of government are trying to spur greater supply with carbon credits.

“The fastest way to make progress with the existing and growing fleet of vessels is to incentivize the use of alternative fuels,” Fellman said.

Post Alley launched in June 2019 as part of a new, Seattle-based writers’ collective aimed at helping fill gaps in local journalism and exploring new ways of delivering quality reporting and commentary. Learn more about the publication here.

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The Alaska Legislature approved legislation to add a superior court judge to the state’s third judicial district. The new judge is to be based at the Palmer courthouse where the new position is intended to alleviate rising civil and criminal case workloads.

The Alaska Court System requested the legislation, House Bill 262, which would bring the total number of superior court judges from 45 to 46. Lawmakers approved the change by a combined vote of 57 to 0, with three House members absent. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.  

Officials with the court system said the state needs to add a judge because the four current superior court judges in Palmer are grappling with unsustainable workloads. That judicial district has the highest numbers of civil and criminal caseloads in the state – nearly 50% higher than the statewide average, with an average of 683 cases per year. That’s an average of 13 cases per week per judge. 

Officials noted that adding a fifth judge to the Palmer courthouse would only bring average caseloads down to an estimated 546 cases per judge annually. “This would still exceed the statewide average number of cases per judge, and Palmer judges would still have the highest caseload per judge of any court in the state, but it would be a welcome and needed improvement,” said Nancy Meade, General Counsel to the Alaska Court System, in a statement requesting the bill.

The population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has grown 40% over the past twenty years, a major contributing factor to the rising need in legal services and case numbers at the Palmer courthouse, Meade said. In the same time period, the number of cases filed has risen by 55%.

Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, carried the bill in the House, saying the high number of cases at the Palmer courthouse has spillover effects in Anchorage. 

“Cases in Palmer take too long to be heard. In fact, some Mat-Su residents choose to file their cases in Anchorage so that they have a chance of being heard sooner. This means that Anchorage has more cases than they would otherwise have,” he said, speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote on April 22. “We need to fix this problem, so that we can better provide basic justice to all Alaskans,” he said. 

The new judge position is estimated to cost $268,000 annually, according to a state fiscal note. 

If the bill is signed by the governor, the new judge would be selected by a nomination process, including interviews and vetting by the Alaska Judicial Council. The council puts forth two nominees and the governor has 45 days to make a selection for superior court judge. New judges serve for an initial term of three years, after which they appear before voters in a retention election where voters can weigh in on whether the judge should remain on the bench by a yes-no vote. If approved by voters, judges’ subsequent terms are six years until mandatory retirement at age 70.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the vote count. The bill passed 57 to 0, with three House members absent.

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Four years after Gov. Dunleavy vetoed a similar measure, lawmakers passed a bill imposing state’s first tax on electronic cigarettes and related products.

The legislature’s approval of Senate Bill 24 was a victory for Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. It was the third such bill sponsored by Stevens, who is retiring this year.

“This bill is about protecting our children from becoming addicted to nicotine,” Stevens said in testimony to the House Finance Committee on May 7.

The bill is intended to counter the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry’s efforts “to addict young people to these substances” in the face of declining use of traditional cigarettes, he said.

E-cigarette products use battery-operated devices to produce vapors that are inhaled, a contrast with traditional tobacco that is burned. They were not widely marketed in 2006, the last time Alaska’s state tobacco tax was adjusted. While many Alaska municipalities have updated their tax systems to include e-cigarette products, the state had not.

If it becomes law, the bill would impose a 25% tax on retail products, as well as prohibit purchases by anyone under 21, the same legal age for traditional tobacco purchases.

Supporters of the bill said the tax and the age restriction would discourage youth use of the product, just as higher taxes and other restrictions contributed to a reduction in youth smoking.

“We know that tobacco and nicotine are highly addictive drugs. The younger you start, the more severe your addiction is likely to be, and if we can delay your introduction to the product, the less likely you are to become addicted. Young people are also price-sensitive,” Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, who carried Stevens’ bill in the House, said in floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.

Opponents objected to the idea of a new tax, and they also argued that vaping should be treated as more benign than smoking.

“My concern is that this isn’t a tobacco bill. This is a tax bill. This is tax, tax, tax,” said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River. She added that she believes 18- and 19-year-olds should have the right to smoke or vape. 

“My point about this whole thing is freedom. They’re not doing anything wrong, and now you’re imposing a law to take people’s freedom away that doesn’t impair them. So, what’s next? We need to stop. These are adults,” she said.

The bill passed the House 24-16, and the Senate concurred the next day by a vote of 15-5.

Evolution of the bill

During public testimony on the bill, some opponents said that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking, an argument that the industry has made.

Health experts take issue with the claim. While e-cigarettes expose users to fewer toxic chemicals than cigarettes do, they also pose health risks. Along with leading to nicotine additions, they are associated with a dangerous lung condition called EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury.

Stevens’ first bill on the subject passed in 2022 by wide margins, but Dunleavy vetoed it, citing his desire to avoid new taxes. Another version died in 2024 after members of the House, then with a Republican majority, stripped the e-cigarette tax provisions from it and added a reduction in marijuana taxes.

A key difference between the 2022 bill and the new bill is the way the tax is applied. The previously passed bill would have imposed a 45% tax at the wholesale level. The newly passed bill applies a 25% tax on the retail level.

The change reflects the varying types of e-cigarette products. While some are sold as complete units, others are not supplied to retailers as finished products. Instead, they are assembled by retailers from liquids and other components, and it would be very difficult to track down all those suppliers to impose a wholesale-level tax, bill supporters said.

Senate Bill 24 underwent other changes on its way to final passage.

The most controversial was an amendment that allows indoor smoking at designated cigar bars. It was added by Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, during House floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.

He said it would help local economies by allowing for specialty cigar bars that can be operated separately from any other food or beverage establishments. He pointed to successful cigar bars operating elsewhere in the nation.

“Frankly, Mr. Speaker, some adults just want a nice quiet place to go enjoy a nice premium cigar,” McCabe said in floor debate.

While anti-tobacco organizations advocated for Senate Bill 24 and previous versions of it, they said the cigar amendment undermines protections for smokefree environments.

“The scientific evidence is clear: there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and cigar smoke is no exception. Cigars produce large volumes of toxic smoke that damage the heart and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and lung disease—for workers and patrons alike. The only safeguard against secondhand smoke is not to allow it,” said a statement issued by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Lung Association.

A different amendment, approved during the committee process, added synthetic nicotine products to the tax program. Those products are generally sold in pouches and deliver nicotine that is derived through a lab process rather than from tobacco.

Another change dropped the maximum fine for a minor possessing tobacco or nicotine products from $300, as proposed in the original form of the bill, to $100.

Federal policy

The federal government, like Alaska, currently imposes no excise tax on e-cigarette products, even though most states do. Democrats in Congress have tried to impose a federal e-cigarette tax since 2019 through a bill called the Tobacco Tax Equity Act, but the bill has yet to pass.

Among those who opposed it is Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. In a 2022 message, Sullivan said he opposed increased tobacco taxes, “even if done to curb tobacco use,” arguing that they are unfair to low-income consumers. And he said e-cigarette use should not be discouraged through taxation. “If taxes are raised on these products, I worry that it could exacerbate smoking issues by disincentivizing the use of these safer products,” he said in his message.

Legislative opponents of Senate Bill 24 cited Sullivan’s position on federal legislation in their arguments against a state tax.

The Alaska legislation comes as the Trump administration is loosening restrictions on e-cigarette products.

President Donald Trump has positioned himself as an ally of the industry. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to “save vaping.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 5 authorized the use of four types of flavored vapes, including mango and blueberry, over public health advocates’ objections. Days before the FDA announced its decision, a subsidiary of tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee.

The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, welcomed the FDA decision allowing fruit-flavored products back on the shelves and lauded Trump for it. But the group said it was only a “first step.”

The e-cigarette industry has lost some customers in recent years. Youth use of the products is down from a peak reached in 2019, both nationally and in Alaska, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alaska Department of Health.

Researchers attributed the decline in part to past bans on flavored products. And the CDC cited education campaigns to discourage youth vaping. The Alaska Division of Public Health is among the agencies involved in such campaigns; it has a youth-focused program called “Not Buying It.”

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One of the most widely used campgrounds in the Chilkat Valley is closed.

The Alaska Division of Parks, part of the Department of Natural Resources, has decided not to open the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area campground this summer  

“[It’s] kind of an alarming development,” said borough mayor Tom Morphet during Tuesday evening’s assembly meeting. He said he wasn’t sure what was driving the closure, but that the campgrounds are an important part of the local tourism economy. “We may have to raise our voices a little bit, stomp our feet.” 

Regional superintendent Brad Garasky did not return repeated phone calls and emails seeking more information about the closure. He instead forwarded questions to DNR spokesperson Lorraine Henry who wrote in an email that the campground is closed “due to a lack of staffing” and that the department didn’t have an estimated opening date.  

The state has been operating under a hiring freeze ordered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in May of 2025. 

Henry did not clarify what kind of staffing would be needed to reopen the area. But during the Tuesday assembly meeting, Haines Borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she has a meeting scheduled with DNR commissioner John Crowther about the hiring freeze  and what would need to happen to allow state parks to hire a park technician. 

“There are several communities that have received a waiver of the hiring freeze,” Fullerton said. 

Henry wrote in the email that no one was available for an interview on the Chilkoot campground.  But noted that the rest of the state parks’ operated area is open for use, including the boat launch and the area available to commercial operators to take people on tours.  

It’s the second time in recent years that state parks, which oversees Chilkat State Park, Chilkoot Lake Recreation Site, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, and the campground at Mosquito Lake, has closed a local campground. 

The state also oversees the downtown Portage Cove State Recreation Site, which banned camping at the site in 2022. Morphet organized a ‘camp-in’ and gathered signatures from people pushing state parks to reopen the area. Ultimately the borough signed an agreement with state parks to take over active management of the area which is now again used for camping.  

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