Category: Alaska News

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Officials say aviation limitations played a role in the response, but agencies involved say available aircraft were either unable or unsuitable to perform the rescue

(The Center Square) – Imagine the value of your home goes way up, but your property tax bill goes down.

(The Center Square) – The former Los Angeles fire chief is suing Mayor Karen Bass for defamation related to the devastating Palisades Fire.

A free VSP Eyes of Hope clinic at the Fairview Recreation Center is providing eye exams and prescription glasses at no cost to people without vision insurance. Open to anyone ages 5 and older, the event aims to improve access…

Alaska and fisheries are intrinsically linked, both economically and culturally. Alaska’s fisheries provide for communities and rural economies across the state—and they will do so sustainably, year after year, provided we take care of the ocean and rivers that support them. 

That is why Alaska should be excluded from the federal government’s latest plan for offshore drilling, called the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, or Five-Year Plan. It would open almost all of Alaska’s coasts to drilling and the oil spills that inevitably follow.

The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that Alaska’s abundant waters produce more than half the fish caught off the U.S. coasts, with an average wholesale value of almost $4.5 billion a year. Indigenous communities depend on these fish stocks for subsistence, cultural practices and livelihoods. Commercial fisheries are the largest private sector employer in the state.

Early in his term, President Trump signed Executive Order 14276 titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” It was aimed at reducing regulations that seemed overly burdensome and “modernizing” the U.S. fishing industry to increase competitiveness in world markets. To assist with this mission, an Office of Seafood was created at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and government programs currently available to farmers and ranchers are being expanded to include fishermen. In direct contradiction to that goal, our nation’s fishing grounds are now under threat from offshore oil and gas development, with Alaska squarely in the crosshairs.

The most recent part of the Five-Year Plan, the Draft Proposed Program, included almost all the Alaska coast, including the Arctic. This would offer important fishing grounds to the oil and gas industry for possible development, along with the already highly vulnerable marine ecosystems of the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea. 

Alaskans know firsthand how damaging oil spills in our waters can be. The Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 released 11 billion gallons of oil, killing billions of salmon and herring eggs, leading to the collapse of the herring fishery in 1993 and the loss of more than $166 million in income over the 20 years after the spill. Given the value of Alaska’s fisheries, the lack of in-state infrastructure to contain a spill and the wildness of Alaska’s weather, outer continental oil development is simply not worth the risk.

The prospect of offshore drilling is also unpopular in Alaska. In every comment period of this process, Native communities and state representatives have opposed the oil industry drilling in our waters. Both Alaska senators issued a statement against drilling outside of Cook Inlet. 

Alaska’s waters support the most thriving fisheries in the country, and they provide the highest quality seafood on the global market. Expanding drilling into the turbulent waters off Alaska creates an untenable risk. The next phase of the offshore drilling plan is expected soon, but there is still time for the Trump Administration to protect Alaska and remove our coasts from consideration before it’s too late.

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(The Center Square) – U.S. states and territories made a collective $10 billion in improper payments to SNAP recipients nationwide in fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.

Under a new law, Alaska boroughs and cities will be able to offer property tax breaks to first-time homebuyers, new trailer parks and homeowners who convert short-term rentals into long-term rentals.

Those breaks and more are included in House Bill 13, which became law this week after Gov. Mike Dunleavy declined to veto it. Eight other bills also became law without the governor’s signature.

The new laws:

• mandate that foster children receiving psychiatric treatment receive a court hearing within one week if they’re detained; 
• require specific education for deaf children; 
• allow Alaskans to bet on the amount of snow that falls on a particular spot; 
• enable a variety of out-of-state medical providers to work in Alaska; 
• update the rules for the Legislature’s ethics investigations;
• establish permanent directors for the state’s big-game hunting board and its board of dental examiners;
• renew and extend a tax credit for commercial fishermen and processors;
• and expand the state’s agricultural tax credit to non-food growers like flower farms and hay farms (but not marijuana), as well as farmers who are registered as S corporations.

The largest of the new laws, House Bill 110, was written by Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, to include a licensing compact that allows out-of-state social workers to practice in Alaska and meet a demand for services.

In the Senate, it was amended with four other licensing compacts — ones covering psychologists, physician assistants, doctors and emergency medical service workers. Under the terms of these multi-state compacts, someone who is licensed in one compact state can practice in other states.

The compacts give Alaska a bonus in the scoring for grants offered under a new multibillion-dollar federal program, but they could reduce the number of practitioners who live in Alaska year-round because they would more easily allow people to live outside Alaska but work here.

A similar nursing compact failed to pass the Legislature this year.

The pace of gubernatorial action is unusually fast and concentrated this year. 

Legislators are meeting in special session, and under the Alaska Constitution, the governor has “fifteen days, Sundays excepted” to act on a bill if it is sent to him while the Legislature is in session.

In addition, lawmakers have deliberately transmitted bills to the governor on a concentrated schedule that would allow them to hold veto override votes during the special session.

The bills approved Monday include six from the House and three from the Senate. 

The Senate bills were not due back until Thursday, but the governor sent letters to the Senate Secretary’s office saying that he will allow them to become law without his signature.

Two other bills have due dates Thursday. One would reduce public disclosure for some Alaska Native corporations, and another would increase regulations on businesses that provide home care for the elderly. 

Twenty-five bills are due back from the governor next week.

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