Category: Alaska News

“I was surprised, I was pretty content just being a Hall of Fame wife,” Juneau Lions Club President Marie Beierly said after being selected into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame. “This was definitely something we did not expect, and we just enjoyed the years we have been involved with Gold Medal. I guess it is kind of like a second honeymoon.”

Beierly was part of the 2026 Hall of Fame class inducted March 27 during the 77th annual Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in Juneau.

She was inducted as a radio play-by-play announcer, the same as her husband — Juneau Lions Club past president Tim Wilson was noted for his induction in 2018, along with his playing career for Klukwan and Lions Club work. They are the first husband and wife in the Gold Medal Hall of Fame.

“I am just so happy for Tim,” Beierly said. She laughs. “Oh my, that sounded like bragging… I am happy for his honor.”

That same day last week, Wilson received one of the tournament’s highest honors, the Dr. Walter A. Soboleff Award for Lions Club leadership, motivation, spirit and outstanding volunteer work and pride in communities throughout Alaska.

Wilson was visibly shaken when standing with all the present Hall of Fame members as the honor was announced, he began to recognize the list of volunteerism being read for the 2026 Soboleff winner.

“I do not know what to say,” a tearful Wilson said later that night. Each question asked resulted in more tears and deflections to those whom he credited for his involvement in the Lions Club. “I… I am really overcome… But I am just so happy for Marie, for her award… For her to join her father in the hall, that means so much to me.”

Marie’s father, Bob (Robert Paul Beierly II, 1940-2009) Beierly, was inducted posthumously into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame in 2010. Her mother, Flora Mae Beierly (1942-2021), was a Lions Club volunteer. Bob Beierly was a long-time Gold Medal radio announcer and is responsible for the journey daughter Marie and son-in-law Tim are still traveling.

Marie, too, was visibly shaken as she sat at the announcers’ booth court-side and the impact of her induction began to sink in.

“So surprising, so unexpected,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to do. Thought of my dad… I thought of Tim.”

What she did was receive the congratulations of a gym full of fans and players and shook the hands of Hall of Fame members standing on court until reaching her husband, who placed the GMHOF medal around her neck and the two embraced.

“You know,” she said. “I have been working at Gold Medal longer than I have known Tim.”

The tie that binds this all together started back at Haskell Indian Nations University in  Lawrence, Kansas in 1993. That college has a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Kansas focusing on education, service and research.

The two shared a public speaking class, and Tim looked over and smiled at Marie.

“I didn’t like him,” Marie said. “I didn’t like him at all. I thought he was full of himself.”

And persistent.

Marie ran track and cross-country. Tim played football. Their practice times overlapped as much as their classroom times.

A dinner after practice did not help.

“I still did not like him,” Marie said, laughing. “But he just kept glaring at me in class and I kept ignoring him to make him mad enough to stop bothering me.”

Tim stated, “The more she ignored me the more I wanted to keep bothering her.”

Marie was a senior from Alaska in her last semester, Tim a freshman from Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

“Eventually I started talking to him,” Marie said. 

Marie finished her studies at the University of Alaska Southeast and Tim at Kansas, but after the semester he came to Juneau and she introduced him to Gold Medal. The two were married in 1995.

At first Tim was just ushering people to seats and helping wherever needed.

“He did try announcing a few times and he was pretty good at it,” Marie said. “He got to know the players and his voice really projects really loud so everybody in the gym can hear him. He kind of put that on the backseat and started really getting deeply involved with Lions Club. Just really sitting and listening and learning.”

Bob Beierly was already a Lions Club member and announcing the tournament.

Walter Soboleff persuaded Marie to join her father as a member in 1996.

Marie had already been helping her father since 1974.

“My dad was the radio announcer and I just kept coming to the games with him,” she said. “One day he says, ‘Sit by me, I need you to help spot these players for me. You tell me who made the shot and tell me how many fouls.’ So I did, and we worked out this hand system and then I would whisper in his ear the player’s name and he would announce it. And I had to be really quick because his eyesight was getting a little poor, so was his hearing. After years of that, he says, ‘I need to take a break. Here, take the mic.’ I was like, ‘What, no, the game’s still going on.’ So, I started announcing myself, doing the shot by each player and timeout, the whole thing. And when I was really nervous or scared he would ask me to tell him what happened in the game and said he needed another break and I got more comfortable with it. Then he finally said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. You have to take over from me.’ And I did.”

Marie said a moment that stands out to her is a championship night in the 2019 masters bracket game between Kake and Hoonah. Kake’s Kip Howard made the winning shot from half court.

“It went in, buzzer beater, Kake won,” Marie said. “Nobody could hear me over the mic. The entire gym was roaring, applauding, and I say, ‘The new master bracket champions, Kake…’ No one can hear me.”

She said an emotional realization was seeing some of the current players and remembering seeing them as young kids pretending to be their favorite Gold Medal basketball player, or announcer.

“Throughout the years when I was announcing there was sometimes a child sitting right next to me every single game I announced,” Marie said, motioning in the direction of current JDHS senior Raynonna Fraker. “She is a senior graduating this year and she was one of my announcers last year, but she can’t do it this year because she’s really busy as a senior. She’s got lots of activities going on and I look at her I was like, oh my god, she was one of those little kids that was sitting right next to me every single game.”

Marie noted that the nature of the game can involve a bad call, and she tries to keep the crowd in line and entertained.

“A lot of people remember my dad,” she said. “They love the energy that he would give back to the crowd. And I try to do the same. The new thing for me this year is the jokes.”

Her jokes, very old-school corny, always include her own laughter bursting out before she says the punchline and results in even more fan-friendly laughter when the joke is revealed.

Tim remembers his first Gold Medals. The announcing was a family thing with Bob, Marie, and her brothers Robert (1964-2013) and Thomas.

“As the years went on, it was actually her dad that introduced me to the Lions Club and took me to my first meeting,” Tim said. “He told me, ‘If you just sit there and shut up, you might learn something.’ Those were his exact words. That was my introduction to the Lions Club. And then I had Lions like Ted Burke and Janet Burke and Steve Brandner. I never realized it at the time, but it was kind of like they were grooming me one day to be able to do what I am doing now. I never really realized it for a long time just how much they meant to our club and the tournament and for them to teach me and lead me…I mean, everything, everything I do is because of them. It is what they taught me. And if I am not sure about something, I always ask myself, ‘What would Ted do? What will Steve do?’ And to this day I have called them.”

Tim’s accomplishments that earned the Walter Soboleff Award far exceed his Gold Medal work that allows the club and tournament to run smoothly. They include dressing as the Grinch for Light Flights to entertain kids waiting for the helicopters, picking up youths for Shop with a Cop, wrapping and delivering Christmas gifts to those in need, collecting and shipping clothes to a small western Alaska community struck by a catastrophic storm and receiving the Lions International Melvin Jones Award for exemplary service to the club and community. He spent his own money to give away special blankets at this year’s tournament.

He noted that when the Walter Sobleff Award winner’s accomplishments reached a second sentence, “I just started shaking my head. I love the Lions and sometimes I stretch myself too far above volunteering for things or volunteering us for things. My wife will tell you she’ll be the first one to say, ‘Stop it. Slow down.’ I love our tournament, I love what we do.”

Two minor health scares brought him to the realization “that I can have others help me do some of the things we need done.”

Last week, during a brief moment to sit after the awards, he noted this year’s proudest moment among the Gold Medal faithful, when he looked at the packed crowd on the first day, that increasingly pushed the seating to its limits.

“Four days of ferries had been canceled,” Tim said. “We had three days of flights being canceled. But look at the gym. I mean it’s packed. We had to open up the balcony. It’s hot in there so we are opening up the doors. Our players and our fans, they are the greatest. I mean, you look at them and you look at the gym and you’re wondering, how did they get here? How did they do it? And they went above and beyond. They were chartering flights. I heard that they were calling for extra catamarans. They called to see if they could get another ferry scheduled. I used fishing boats. Fishing boats. They’re taking fishing boats in that weather, in those seasons, they’re bringing fishing boats from Haines. I know what Stuart DeWitt brought his boat from Haines. I mean, are you kidding? We have the best fans in the world. The best fans. And, you know, if they are willing to go above and beyond like that to show their support for their community and for the tournament. Then we should be too.”

It was actually a day later before Tim and Marie realized they were the first husband and wife in the Gold Medal Hall of Fame. Their daughters Lijo and Jazz, who also volunteer, pointed out that distinction to them.

On the final day of Gold Medal, Marie asked Tim what he thought their parents would think of how far they had come.

“I am sure they would be proud,” he said.

What both have noticed is the new era of youth and Gold Medal, of social media and fitting in. This year was marred by communities losing loved ones to suicide and substance abuse. Special attention was given to let young fans and players know that they were special, that they were loved and they are needed in this world.

“It is hard,” Marie said. “My dad’s philosophy…when he was younger he saw these two kids fighting downtown, like fist fighting, beating the tar out of each other. He said to them, ‘You got this much energy you come back and see me tomorrow at this time.’ And he put a basketball in their hands. And he made them play basketball.”

She mentions the two youths’ names and that from then on her father took the two lads and others to play in youth tournaments at Sitka.

“Gold Medal is a great relief for a lot of people,” Marie said. “And it has been a long exhausting winter. Coming to Gold Medal and just forget about roofs collapsing or shoveling and coming to the gym and burning off all that energy, rooting for your favorite player or your favorite team. We need things like Gold Medal or Celebration.”

Tim never expected to hear his name in the same sentence as Walter Soboleff.

“I never expect to receive anything for doing this,” he said. “I have always said that at Gold Medal we are all family and friends. And we proved that the other night when tragedy struck Hydaburg and we did a five-minute blanket dance and raised over $2,400 in less than five minutes. And it is things like that which makes this all worth it.” 

The post Gold Medal Hall of Fame completes a marriage dream appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

At the Alaska Beacon, we’re constantly trying to figure out where we should put our attention. There’s always more news than there are people to report it.

Every Thursday, the Alaska Legislature publishes its committee schedule for the coming week. Public notices alert us to meetings and events. The governor’s office occasionally lets us know ahead of time that something’s coming down the pike, too.

Here’s what we know about for the coming week. If you know of something that’s coming up that you should think we should pay attention to, email us at info@alaskabeacon.com.

We can’t cover everything on this list, but we’re interested in them and we think you should know about them in case you’re interested in them, too.

This list is ripped from our notebooks, and it is likely to change over the course of the week. We’ll update it when we can.

Are you trying to keep track of when to testify on a bill? The Legislature has a website for that.

Saturday, April 4

University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus Alumni Night and 50th anniversary celebration, 6 p.m., Nome.

Monday, April 6

No legislative committee meetings as lawmakers are away for the Easter holiday.

Alaska Miners Association trade show opens in Fairbanks.

Tuesday, April 7

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel. 

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Alaska infrastructure development symposium opens in Anchorage.

Governor’s health and safety conference opens in Anchorage.

Alaska Sea Grant 2026 Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference Apr. 7-9 at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center, UAF Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel, Alaska, see event info here. 

8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs will consider a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska: Julie Vogler and hear bills related to birth certificates and identification for unhoused young adults and retirement benefits for emergency dispatchers

10 a.m. – House Fisheries considers a bill related to a new administrative area in Cook Inlet for certain commercial set net fishing entry permits

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn presentation on postsecondary education opportunities

1 p.m. – House Transportation hears an update on rural aviation and public testimony on a bill related to the maintenance of transportation facilities in wildland urban interface zones

1:30 p.m. – Senate Community and Regional Affairs hears a bill related to criminal penalties for hit-and-runs and a bill related to data centers

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to pharmacists’ prescription authority and a bill to add one more superior court judge in the state

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs considers a governor’s appointee to the Board of Parole: Steve Meyer and the Alaska Police Standards Council: Veronica Lambertsen. It will consider a bill related to reduced interest on certain loans and a bill related to municipalities charging for public records

3:30 p.m. – Senate Health and Social Services Committee will hear a resolution related to the Rural Health Transformation Fund; a bill related to banning food dyes in school meals and a bill to establish a Citizen’s Review Panel for all cases of children taken into foster care

Wednesday, April 8

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel.

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Community Advisory Board Meeting about programming and services at Alaska Public Media takes place at 6 p.m. in Anchorage and online.

House/Senate floor sessions in the morning 

8 a.m. – House Education hears a bill related to funding school meals; and a bill related to establishing CPR training in all schools

9 a.m. – Board of veterinary examiners regular meeting

9 a.m. – Board of optometry examiners regular quarterly meeting

9 a.m. – Alaska Supreme Court hearing, Orutsararmiut Native Council v. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Donlin Gold. Boney Courthouse, Anchorage.

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to funding special education

9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill proposed by the governor to create a seasonal sales tax, and an increased tax on oil and gas in part to fund a bigger PFD

11 a.m. – Alaska Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Donlin Gold lawsuit

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn on the Arctic Winter Games

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn on Life Center West and organ donation

1-2 p.m. – Alaska Commission on Aging monthly meeting

1 p.m. – House Resources considers a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska: Julie Vogler; and a bill related to the governor’s tax break proposal for the Alaska LNG gas line

1:30 p.m. – House Finance considers a bill related to paid parental leave

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to expanding the number of seats and adds criteria for membership on the Board of Parole; and a bill related to disclosure of wage information

1:45 p.m. – Senate Judiciary will hear a bill related to increasing criminal penalties for hit-and-runs

3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce will hear a bill related to reimbursement rates for telehealth services

3:30 p.m. – Senate Education will hear a bill related to a student loan forgiveness program, a bill related to local contributions to school districts and a bill related to University of Alaska fees

3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources will consider Julie Vogler as a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and a resolution to support the proposed Alaska LNG gas line project

Thursday, April 9

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel.

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Alaska Young Professionals summit opens in Anchorage.

Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council spring meeting, Fairbanks.

8 a.m. – House Tribal Affairs hears an update on the Alaska Council of Native Languages

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to how the state pays its contracts

9 a.m. – Senate Finance debates the capital budget

10 a.m. – The State of Alaska, Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), invites representatives from all 229 federally recognized tribes to a listening session. They want to hear your direct input on issues related to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. See info on public testimony here. 

12 p.m. Lunch & Learn presentation on the Port of Alaska

1:30 p.m. Senate Community and Regional Affairs hears two bills related to child sexual abuse material

1:30 p.m. House Finance considers the capital budget and hears a presentation on Bond Reimbursement and Grant Review Committee by the Department of Education and Early Development

1:30 p.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to a state defined benefit retirement system

3 p.m. – Pioneer Homes advisory board meeting

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs hears a bill related to regulating PFAS chemicals, remediation and water testing

3:30 p.m. Senate Health and Social Services hears a bill related to health compacts and the Rural Health Transformation Fund

Friday, April 10 

Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council spring meeting, Fairbanks.

8 a.m. House Education hears a bill related to retaining teachers; and a bill related to school maintenance positions

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to expanding the number of state judges

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn presentation on the history of the global perspective on oil and gas

1 p.m. – House Judiciary considers a resolution passed by the Senate to lower the votes needed for a veto override

1 p.m. – House Resources considers a bill related to the governor’s proposed tax breaks for the Alaska LNG pipeline

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to peace officer or firefighters disability benefits

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to employer contributions and a bill related to social worker licensure compact

3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to emergency planning for pets and a bill related to corporate income tax

3:30 p.m. – Task Force on Education Funding hears a presentation on required local contributions and federal funding toward schools

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Fishers in Southeast Alaska will be allowed to harvest 205,300 Chinook salmon this year, returning to a normal total after last year’s ultra-low harvest limit.

The Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest total, set in accordance with the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty, was announced this week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Last year’s Southeast Chinook catch limit of 133,500 fish was the lowest in any year since the Pacific Salmon Treaty went into effect in 1985, according to the department.

Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, make up the smallest total harvest of Alaska’s five species of salmon. But they are also sold at a premium, usually fetching the highest market prices. Those that swim in Southeast Alaska waters are the subject of management from different jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, through the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The treaty is necessary because the fish are highly migratory and swim through and spawn in various locations, said Dani Evenson, Pacific Salmon Treaty and Arctic Policy Coordinator for the department’s Division of Commercial Fisheries.

“They kind of ignore things like international borders and jurisdictions, and they’re going to do what they do,” Evenson said. “And so we have this treaty where we share the burden of conservation, we share the available catch. And it’s a shared resource.”

Along with Alaska and the federal governments of the U.S. and Canada, participants in the treaty process include Washington state, Oregon, British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and tribal governments.

Southeast Chinook salmon are the only Alaska salmon for which a numerical harvest cap is set each year, Evenson said.

Alaska’s cap and those for the other jurisdictions covered by the treaty are the products of analysis conducted by regional panels and technical committees. Those panels and committees provide information to the bilateral Pacific Salmon Commission, the decision-making body under the treaty.

Last year’s record-low cap reflected what appeared to be poor conditions for the region’s highly prized Chinook. Evenson said the slashed harvest levels posed a hardship on some fishing dependent communities.

“Last year was terrible,” she said.

It turned out, as determined through post-season analysis, that last year’s harvest cap was overly conservative and that another 53,800 Chinook salmon could have been safely caught by Southeast Alaska fishers, she said.

Improvements in abundance and ocean conditions support this year’s increased catch limits, Evenson said. Nonetheless, the overall harvest limit is at a level considered “judicious,” in light of conservation challenges facing various Chinook stocks and the contention over harvest allocations.

“Chinook have been a flashpoint,” she said. “It seems prudent to approach more cautiously.”

As determined by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, most of this year’s Southeast Alaska Chinook catch – 146,000 fish, about three quarters of the total — is allocated to harvesters who use troll gear. Salmon trolling involves hooking individual fish, and those caught in that method fetch high prices because they can be iced quickly and handled carefully, thus maintaining high quality.

The next largest total, 43,600 fish, is allocated to sport anglers, according to the Board of Fisheries decision. The remainder of the Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest is allocated to fishers who use nets and are targeting other salmon species but catch some Chinooks incidentally.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted online its first large tranche of advanced genetic data from measles viruses spreading last year. Scientists with knowledge of the operation expect the agency to post heaps more in weeks to come, revealing whether the U.S. has lost its hard-won measles elimination status.

The CDC withheld the data for months as a team hit hard by mass layoffs and resignations sorted through the information. But now that scientists at the agency have posted their first batch of whole measles genomes — the genetic blueprint of the viruses — the rest should “start flowing more smoothly at a more rapid cadence,” said Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary virologist at the Scripps Research Institute who isn’t involved with the CDC’s effort but is following it.

The CDC did not answer queries from KFF Health News on its timeline for publishing measles data or analyses. However, once all the data is public, researchers can run quick initial analyses that will signal whether outbreaks across the U.S. last year resulted from the continuous spread of the disease between states, rather than separate introductions from abroad. If there was continuous transmission for a year, that means the U.S. has lost its status as a country that has eliminated measles. That status, which the U.S. has held since 2000, reflects a country’s vaccination rates: Two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine prevent most infections and so stop outbreaks from growing.

More careful analyses take weeks.

“We should see a report in April,” Andersen said, “assuming no political interference.”

This is the first time that the U.S. has applied sophisticated genomic techniques to measles, which largely disappeared from the country a quarter-century ago because of broad vaccine uptake.

Declining vaccination rates, misinformation, and the Trump administration’s budget cuts and lagging response to outbreaks have fueled a resurgence of the disease. With at least 2,285 cases in 44 states, 2025 was the worst year for measles in more than three decades. This year is on track to surpass that, with 1,575 cases as of late March.

While welcoming the science, researchers say the government’s top priority should be to stop the virus from spreading.

“I think it’s incredibly important to do whole genome sequencing for outbreaks,” Andersen said, “but we shouldn’t need to do this for measles in the first place, because we have an extremely effective and safe vaccine.”

“That we’re even talking about this is nuts,” he added.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other government officials should sound an alarm about measles’ comeback and launch nationwide vaccine campaigns, said Rekha Lakshmanan, executive director of The Immunization Partnership, a nonprofit in Houston that advocates for vaccine access.

“I applaud the science,” she said, “but the more urgent need is to get measles under control as quickly as possible.”

Top officials have instead downplayed the seriousness of the disease, and false notions about vaccines have been granted new life in Kennedy’s CDC. This includes abrupt changes to vaccine information on CDC websites that medical associations say aren’t based on evidence and endanger lives.

Kennedy continues to promote unproven remedies that could mislead parents into believing that they can avoid vaccines without consequence. On the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in late February, Kennedy spoke at length about measures to improve America’s health but didn’t mention vaccines. He said preventive measures could entail “holistic medicine, or take vitamins, or take vitamin D, which is, as you know, it’s kind of miraculous.”

“The risk of measles remains low for most of the United States,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard wrote. “CDC has made $8.5 million available to address measles response activities in 7 jurisdictions experiencing outbreaks,” she wrote. “The CDC, HHS principles, and the Secretary have been vocal that the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against measles.”

1,000 Genomes

In December, the CDC enlisted the help of one of the country’s leading centers for virus sequencing, the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Major outbreaks in Texas, Utah, and South Carolina had been fueled by the same type of measles virus, labeled D8-9171. But since that type also circulates in Canada and Mexico, researchers need more data to discern whether it spread among states or entered the U.S. multiple times.

Whole genome sequencing provides that information because viruses evolve over time. The measles virus acquires a mutation every two to four transmissions between people, said Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen surveillance at the Broad.

“There is enough signal in this data to tease apart questions at hand,” MacInnis said, “the main one being sustained transmission within this country.”

MacInnis’ team worked overtime to sequence the entire genomes of inactivated measles viruses that had been collected from states in 2025 and 2026.

“We’ve done about 1,000 samples and delivered the genome data back to the CDC,” sending it on a rolling basis since December, MacInnis said. “This is the CDC’s data to publish.”

The CDC didn’t post a single one of those genomes until late March, when eight appeared on a public database hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. By April 1, an additional 154 had gone online.

“It should be on NCBI within a couple of weeks of being produced,” Andersen said, “and certainly not take longer than a month when you have an active outbreak.”

Genomic data holds clues about how outbreaks start and spread. It allows researchers to develop tests, treatments, and vaccines — and detect variants that might evade them.

Such data was critical in the covid pandemic. Chinese and Australian scientists posted the first SARS-CoV-2 genome online on Jan. 10, 2020, within a week of sequencing it. “It definitely shouldn’t take the CDC months,” said Eddie Holmes, the Australian virologist who helped publish the first coronavirus sequence.

One reason for the delay is that the CDC’s measles lab has been sorely understaffed amid mass layoffs and other turmoil at the agency over the past year, a CDC scientist told KFF Health News. Another reason, the researcher added, is a learning curve: The CDC and health departments haven’t needed to sequence hundreds of whole measles genomes before now. (KFF Health News agreed not to identify the scientist, who feared retaliation.)

In contrast with the CDC, the Utah Public Health Lab has shared measles genomes rapidly. Most of some 970 measles genomes posted online since Jan. 1, 2025, were sequenced by the state, hailing from Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, and other states willing to share them.

“We’ve only got a handful of samples from Texas that were collected kind of in the middle of their outbreak,” said Kelly Oakeson, a genomics researcher at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The genomes of the Texas and Utah measles viruses are similar but distinct, Oakeson said, meaning that intermediate versions of the virus are missing.

If the genetic code of viruses collected late in the Texas outbreak are a closer match to those from Utah’s, that will suggest that spread was continuous and the country has lost its measles-free status. The hundreds of genome sequences still sitting at the CDC probably hold the answer.

Waiting on the CDC

The CDC expected to finish its analysis before April, said Daniel Salas, executive manager of the immunization program at the Pan American Health Organization, which works with the World Health Organization. That’s when PAHO was slated to evaluate the United States’ measles status.

He said PAHO delayed its evaluation until the organization’s annual meeting in November, partly because the CDC needed more time to do the genomic analysis and partly because the measles status of Mexico, Bolivia, and other countries is also under review, and holding staggered meetings for each country is inefficient.

The U.S. is the only country using whole genome sequencing to answer the elimination question, Salas said. Typically, countries classify measles viruses according to a tiny snippet of genes, then assume that large outbreaks caused by the same type are linked. Whole genomes provide a more accurate view.

“If the U.S. can fill in the blanks with genomic data, that’s a sort of breakthrough,” Salas said. “That doesn’t mean other countries are going to be able to pull off this kind of analysis,” he added. “It takes a lot of specialized knowledge and resources.”

Equipment to sequence and analyze genomes costs upward of $100,000, and the cost to process each sample, including paying the researchers involved, typically ranges from $100 to $500 per sequence.

“I’m pro-science, but we shouldn’t have to do this,” said Theresa McCarthy Flynn, president of the North Carolina Pediatrics Society. “We don’t have to have a measles epidemic.”

Flynn said she regularly fields questions from parents concerned by misinformation spread by Kennedy and anti-vaccine groups, including the one he founded before joining the Trump administration. Parents have also pointed to changes in the CDC’s recommendations and to its websites that are at odds with the scientific consensus.

Before Kennedy took the helm, a CDC website said “Vaccines do not cause autism” in prominent type, and listed several large studies in premier scientific journals that refuted a link between vaccines and developmental disorders.

Last year, the website shifted to saying, “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” The high-quality studies were replaced with a report from a single investigator who has ties to anti-vaccine groups. In an email to KFF Health News, HHS spokesperson Hilliard echoed the altered website’s claims about vaccines, disregarding extensive studies on the topic.

Flynn, of the pediatrics association, said, “The CDC itself is spreading misinformation about vaccines. I cannot overstate the seriousness of this.”

Although the acting director of the CDC, Jay Bhattacharya, says vaccines are the best way to prevent measles, he too has undermined vaccine policy. He said the controversial January decision to reduce the number of vaccines recommended to children was based on “gold standard science.” In fact, the new schedule makes the U.S. an outlier among peer nations. Hilliard wrote that the updated schedule was “aligning U.S. guidance with international norms.”

A federal court temporarily invalidated the change last month in a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups.

Bhattacharya hasn’t held briefings with the public or the press on the surge of measles this year or activated the CDC’s emergency capabilities.

“Normally, we’d have a big push to get vaccination rates up in areas where it’s low. We’d do a big social media push, put out ads on getting vaccinated,” said another CDC scientist whom KFF Health News agreed not to identify, because of fears of retaliation. “People at the CDC want to do this, but political leadership at the agency has not allowed the CDC to do it.”

Further, the Trump administration’s cuts and delays to public health funds have made it hard for local health officials to protect communities. Philip Huang, director at Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas, said the department lost over $4 million when the administration clawed back about $11 billion from health departments early last year as a measles outbreak surged in the state.

“We lost 27 staff and had to cancel over 20 of our community vaccination efforts, including to schools identified as having low vaccination rates,” he said. “There are simultaneous attacks on immunizations that are making our jobs harder.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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The Alaska House Finance Committee on Wednesday advanced a draft operating budget with a roughly $3,800 Permanent Fund dividend.

For a decade, the annual PFD check has been part of the Legislature’s annual budget-making process. A $3,800 PFD would follow a formula from a 1982 statute.

Lawmakers on a budget panel adopted the full, statutory dividend in the evening after long debate. Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andy Josephson, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, cautioned legislators that the vote means Alaskans “will absolutely have the impression” that “a very liberal dividend” will be paid this year. 

Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed a full PFD as part of his budget proposal in December. A $3,800 dividend check is estimated to cost roughly $2.47 billion, the largest single spending item in the budget. 

Ketchikan independent Rep. Jeremy Bynum proposed that the PFD would come from two sources. Almost $1 billion would be drawn from the general fund of the state treasury. A simple majority of lawmakers is required to spend from that account.

However, close to $1.5 billion would come from the state’s main savings account, the $3 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve. Three-quarters of the House and Senate would need to support spending from that account. 

If the three-quarter vote fails, the dividend paid to Alaskans in 2026 would drop to around $1,500. Some lawmakers cautioned that would still leave the state roughly $100 million in deficit. 

Last year’s dividend paid to over 618,000 Alaskans was $1,000.

The roughly $3,800 PFD was approved 6-5 by the House Finance Committee. All five minority House Republicans supported a check of that size, alongside Nome Democratic Rep. Neal Foster, co-chair of the House Finance Committee.

The remaining five members of the Democrat-dominated House majority voted no.

Supporters of a full PFD said that high oil prices justified a larger dividend this year. In 2022, Alaskans received a $3,284 dividend and energy relief check when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices skyrocketing.

Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks, said that the “people of Alaska are hurting right now” and are facing difficult circumstances from high energy bills. 

The U.S.-Israel war in Iran has seen oil prices spike to well over $100 per barrel. The Alaska Department of Revenue projected last month that would see the state collect $1 billion more revenue than expected over the current fiscal year and the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Lawmakers have already earmarked a substantial portion of that additional revenue to pay Alaska’s outstanding bills. 

The operating budget now advances to debate by the full Alaska House. Once approved in that chamber, it advances to the Alaska Senate for its consideration before heading to the governor’s desk. 

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The headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service will move from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday, a move the agency described as a “common-sense approach to improve mission delivery.”

Noting that the lands, partners and operational challenges it serves are overwhelmingly in the West, the agency said in a news release it hopes to “begin a sweeping restructuring” of the office by moving its leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves.

“Effective stewardship and active management are achieved on the ground, where forests and communities are found — not just behind a desk in the capital. Through this transition, we will strengthen our connection to the forests and the people who depend on them, while supporting our employees and honoring the dedication that has always defined our service,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in a statement.

In addition to the relocation, the Forest Service will also start a transition to a “state-based organizational model,” in which 15 state directors will be assigned throughout the country overseeing the agency’s operations within one or more states. The office locations are planned for states including Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, New Mexico, among others.

All regional offices are set to close under the new model, though some facilities will be retained to serve other needs. The formal restructure will be implemented over the coming year, the agency said in the release.

The news was welcomed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who said in a social media post that the relocation means hundreds of jobs coming to the state “and better, faster decisions on the ground for the people who rely on our public lands, from ranchers and timber producers to families who work and recreate there.”

Cox also said in a statement that moving into a more state-focused approach “strengthens federalism and helps the Forest Service do its job more effectively.”

However some environmentalists were less pleased with the announcement, arguing that the agency’s headquarters should be where federal policy is made.

“This is a costly bureaucratic reshuffle that will hand more power to corporations and states like Utah to log, mine and drill the public’s forests for private profit. It punishes career staff who deserve so much better,” Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. “National forests belong to all Americans. Our nation’s capital is where federal policy is made and where the Forest Service headquarters belongs.”

Under the restructuring, the Forest Service is also planning on consolidating research operations leadership, going from governing structures in multiple research stations to a single research organization located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“These changes are designed to unify research priorities, accelerate the application of science to management decisions, and reduce administrative duplication,” the agency said in the release.

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Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com.

The Alaska House on Wednesday advanced a bill to establish cooperatives for salmon setnetters, which would allow commingling of fish.

Since territorial days, multiple permitholders, often from the same family, have stored and delivered their salmon together. But the language of state statute and regulation suggests that individual permitholders need to store and deliver their salmon separately.

Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes said that is impractical and unsafe. Permitholders are often elderly or children, she said, and setnetting routinely involves fishing in skiffs in rough water in remote regions.

Since 2022, Alaska Wildlife Troopers have investigated over a dozen potential violations statewide, involving misdemeanor charges and citations. 

The House Fisheries Committee’s bill would allow setnetting cooperatives to form. If passed, the Alaska Board of Fisheries would be directed to issue regulations on the maximum number of permitholders allowed in each cooperative. That number could change region-by-region.

“This bill, at its heart, is not only about preserving the status quo, but about keeping local access to permits in rural communities,” Stutes said before the final vote.

The Alaska House on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill. Anchorage Republican Rep. David Nelson was absent from the final vote.

House Bill 117 received support from fishing groups across Alaska. The bill now advances to the Alaska Senate for its consideration.

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When dignitaries visit Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s home state in the summer, their hosts often take them fishing for salmon.

But what does Dunleavy do as a visiting dignitary himself, traveling on official business to far-flung locales such as the United Arab Emirates?

Alaskans now have a glimpse of the red-carpet treatment afforded to their famously hunting-obsessed chief executive on a trip last year to the Middle East to solicit investment — courtesy of a legally required gift disclosure Dunleavy filed recently with state regulators.

In it, he shared details of an overnight traditional falcon hunt he took with the Emiratis — one that involved a journey by helicopter, a stay at a private camp and the avian pursuit of rabbits and a fluffy desert prey bird called a houbara.

“It reminded me of Alaska,” Dunleavy said in a phone interview this week. “Wide open spaces — kind of like western and northern Alaska, in terms of low-lying, rolling hills made out of sand.”

Dunleavy valued the hunting trip at $8,420, of which $5,000 was the estimated cost of the helicopter trip. In all, the governor and his wife accepted gifts valued at at least $54,000 in 2025, including travel to speaking gigs and events; luxury box access at a professional hockey game from the chief executive of Trident Seafoods; and a fall moose hunt supplied by a renowned Alaska guide, according to Dunleavy’s disclosure.

High-level state executives like Dunleavy are required to file the financial disclosures — which report gifts, income and other business affairs — in part to ensure that public officials are “free of the influence of undisclosed private or business interests,” according to state law.

Dunleavy, in the interview, dismissed the idea that the free falcon hunt from his Emirati hosts would lead to favorable terms if the region’s wealthy investment funds ultimately choose to do deals in Alaska.

“‘Since we invited you on a falcon hunt, we’re wondering if you can give us a reduced cost in oil and gas?’ No — there was no ask for any of that stuff,” Dunleavy said, chuckling. “‘Dunleavy sells out Alaska for an invited falcon hunt.’ No, that didn’t happen.”

Dunleavy said his week-long trip to the Middle East was facilitated by the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates at the time, Martina Strong, who previously attended an Alaska energy conference organized by the governor’s office.

Dunleavy, accompanied by officials from at least three state agencies, appeared at multiple events during the trip and met with representatives from Middle East airlines, ports and oil and gas companies. He spoke at an energy summit hosted by a global research company, and pitched investors on developments like Alaska’s partially state-owned LNG export project.

No major deals have been announced, however.

In the lead-up to the trip, Emirati officials, knowing Dunleavy’s love of hunting, contacted the governor’s office to invite him out to a hunting preserve, he said.

If you visit another place on business and get there early, he said, “they want you to partake in whatever the local culture is.”

“If you go to Louisiana, it’s going to be the Louisiana blues fest. If you go to Florida or you go to California, it might be golf,” he said. “If you go to the United Arab Emirates, they’re going to get excited if somebody they know is an outdoor person. Because they have a long tradition of raising falcons, for thousands of years.”

Dunleavy, who’s hunted bears and musk ox in Alaska, said the day-and-a-half long hunting trip entailed a night’s stay at a “modern tent compound,” which he acknowledged could be described as “glamping.” The hunt itself was from a pickup truck, he added.

“You put the falcon on your arm, and when they see the bird, you take the hood off the falcon; the falcon sees the bird,” he said. “They get the bird, they knock it out of the sky or they get it on the ground. They stay on it, and then the guys come over and they take the falcon off the bird — and that’s how they hunt.”

The houbara was taken back to camp, cooked and sampled by Dunleavy, who said it tasted good.

The experience also included a gift of a tailored traditional robe called a kandura, which Dunleavy acknowledged donning on the trip. But Alaskans may never get to judge the fit: Dunleavy’s office would not release any images from the governor’s trip in response to a formal public records request from Northern Journal.

Later, after the phone interview, Dunleavy, through an aide, agreed to share a single photo. It showed him wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt outside a tent, standing on artificial turf with a group of locals — and no falcons in sight.

Asked why no photos were released in response to the earlier request under the Alaska Public Records Act, Dunleavy’s records access officer, Guy Bell, said the image shared by the governor was “personal,” and “not acquired or used for state business.”

“Therefore, it is not considered a public record,” Bell said.

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.