Category: Alaska News

Kimani Johnson

An Anchorage jury found the Alaska Department of Corrections negligent in its handling of inmate Jonathan Pace’s care, awarding roughly $800,000 after hearing testimony about a traumatic brain injury, an excessive-use-of-force incident and delayed medical care following a broken jaw.

A full-scale aircraft emergency exercise took place at Helena Regional Airport to test how airport teams, airlines and emergency responders work together during a crisis.

On the day that his campaign announced it had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from employees of a California-based artificial intelligence company, Democratic governor candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins said that if elected, he will seek to temporarily ban new computing data centers in Alaska.

As Americans grow frustrated with artificial intelligence software and concerned about the side effects of data centers, they have become a major issue in this year’s midterm elections. Alaska’s gubernatorial race is no exception, particularly since the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority announced plans for a development that could include data centers in Southcentral Alaska. 

All four candidates — Republicans Dave Bronson, Treg Taylor and Bernadette Wilson and the Democratic Kreiss-Tomkins — have staked out different policy positions before Alaskans vote this fall.

Data centers need reliable connections to the internet, cheap electricity and a cooling method. Currently, the North Slope is the most promising location for all three. 

One $500 million proposal on the North Slope intends to burn local natural gas for power and use the natural cold air of the Arctic. 

Another shipping-container-sized plan involves a gas-powered data center processing Bitcoin.

Current Gov. Mike Dunleavy has backed data centers, saying they could be an economic driver — they would create construction jobs and demand for infrastructure that would enable further development. 

Dunleavy is term-limited and cannot run again this year. Four candidates remain in the race to replace him.

“I’m a big believer in data centers. I know that might be unpopular with some folks here,” said Bronson at a candidate forum hosted by Commonwealth North in Anchorage on Thursday.

A former Anchorage Mayor, retired Air Force pilot and former director of the state’s largest airport, Bronson said he sees economic opportunity if data centers are built in Alaska, and he would like to encourage them.

“The logistics (are) minimal, and there’s a lot of money in data centers, but you’ve got to deal with the noise. You’ve got to deal with the cooling, and you’ve got to deal — certainly — with the electricity. And the groups that I’m talking to, they said we’re not going to take your electricity because it’s not reliable. … We will produce our own, and we will move, and we will build our own data centers. That’s good for us. That’s a very strong revenue source,” Bronson said.

At a Sept. 8 forum in Anchorage, Taylor — the state’s former attorney general — offered a similar perspective.

“I think we need to embrace it,” he said of data centers. 

“We have all the makings of a great place for a data center to thrive and produce good-paying jobs for Alaskans,” Taylor said.

He added that electricity costs are his biggest concern. Any data center must “bring their own energy,” he said, and if a data center then sells excess power it generates, it could be a benefit to Alaskans if it is cheaper than other power available nearby.

“It doesn’t have to drive up costs if you do it correctly. It can produce a net savings to the ratepayers in Alaska,” he said.

Bronson and Taylor each said they see data centers as the future and fear that Alaska will miss out if it doesn’t embrace them.

“It’s a service everybody’s using and everybody has to adapt to and use, or you’re going to get left behind,” Taylor said.

Kreiss-Tomkins is advocating a temporary pause on data center development in the state.

“I support a moratorium on data center development in Alaska until the Legislature can pass a comprehensive regulatory framework for that development in Alaska,” he said during a Sept. 8 forum in Anchorage.

Any limits on development would be decided by negotiations between himself and the Legislature, he said.

While Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign has received large donations from people employed by the AI company Anthropic, those employees have tended to recommend restrictions on AI development as well.

This year, the Alaska Senate voted 14-5 to pass a data center bill, but the House failed to take it up before the end of the legislative session. That bill would have regulated how data centers can use electricity from public utilities and would have required them to create decommissioning plans. 

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, will return to the Legislature next year, and the coalition majority that passed the bill is also likely to return, meaning that the next governor will likely be confronted with similar legislation.

Kreiss-Tomkins has also endorsed legislation that would ban AI-generated fake images intended to mislead the public and a bill that would require political advertisers to disclose AI-generated content. 

Wilson, asked about her position by text message, criticized Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign for accepting large contributions from AI company employees.

“Unlike Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins — better known as Chat JKT — our campaign is not funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars from California AI companies hoping to own our governor and exploit our state,” she said before explaining her position. “Our administration will make independent decisions that are in the best interest of Alaska, not big donors from the Lower 48. I will never allow Alaska to be littered with hyperscale data centers that take our resources and spoil our lands. Our natural beauty, environment and quality of life matter to every person who calls Alaska home and my job is to represent them, not big tech liberals.”

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An Alaska nominee for federal judge joined other nominees in a joint confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and declined to answer some questions about the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

President Trump nominated Kyle Reardon, a federal magistrate judge and former prosecutor, to fill the last of three federal judge seats for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in August.

Reardon was endorsed by Alaska’s Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to fill the vacant seat, after former judge Joshua Kindred resigned in disgrace in 2024.  

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Reardon would be one of three federal judges in Alaska serving lifetime appointments. 

Reardon appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for a nomination hearing along with nominees Daniel Ballou for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Richard Bennett for the Southern District of Texas, Courtney Coker for the Northern District of Texas, Trevor Pemberton for the Eastern District of Oklahoma and Zach West for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Nominees answered a variety of questions from committee members, including their views on the administration of justice, impartiality, diversity, abortion access and the 2020 election. 

President Donald Trump has continued to falsely deny that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election by claiming election fraud without evidence. Biden won both the popular vote and the majority of Electoral College votes in 2020. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, posed the questions to the six nominees on the topic. He also asked whether the U.S. Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6, 2021. The event was widely documented and reported — Trump supporters attempted to interfere with Congress’ certification the 2020 election results in a violent attack that caused significant damage, dozens of injuries and at least five deaths. 

When asked who won the 2020 election, Reardon answered that Joe Biden did. 

But when Blumenthal asked the nominees who won the popular vote in 2020, he gave a different answer. 

Nominees from Kentucky and Texas answered before Reardon. Daniel Ballou from Kentucky responded: “I believe it’s inappropriate under the canons of judicial ethics to weigh in on matters of political controversy.” 

Reardon agreed, and said “I have the same answer.” Coker, Pemberton and West said the same.

Blumenthal then asked if the U.S. Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6.

Richard Bennet of Texas responded before Reardon and declined to call it an attack.

“I saw some of the coverage and the violence, the vandalism and the trespass, and I condemn those,” he said. “But characterizing it as an attack, I believe, weighs into a matter of political controversy, and it’s inappropriate for me to comment on that under the canons.”

Reardon agreed with Bennett’s response: “Senator, I concur with Judge Bennett’s characterization,” he said. 

Following the exchange, Blumenthal questioned the judges’ independence. “The failure to answer the question of who won the 2020 election again, I think, indicates that you would be unwilling to stand strong against political influence, particularly from the White House, which has asserted that it wants to dominate the Department of Justice and our entire justice system,” Blumenthal said. 

Blumenthal said he would oppose their nominations for that reason: “Right now, we’re in a very perilous time, and I would have expected more from nominees of the United States District Court.” 

Reardon was not available Friday, according to his clerk’s office, to comment on his reason for declining to answer the questions or on Blumenthal’s assertion it indicated an unwillingness to stand against political influence.

Alaska U.S. Sen. Murkowski strongly condemned the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and called for Trump to immediately resign, just weeks before Biden’s inauguration. She also condemned Trump for issuing blanket pardons last year for roughly 1,600 people criminally convicted for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Murkowski responded to Reardon’s responses, and whether they were a sign of unwillingness to stand up to political influence as Blumenthal said. 

“President Biden won the popular vote in the 2020 presidential election, and the U.S. Capitol was attacked on January 6, 2021. These are facts, despite the controversy that has come to surround them,” said Joe Plesha, communications director for Murkowski, in an email. 

“During multiple interviews and conversations with Mr. Reardon, Senator Murkowski was impressed by his professionalism, judgment, and independence,” he said. “Based on those interactions and his record of public service in Alaska, she expects Mr. Reardon to demonstrate those qualities as a District Judge for Alaska should he be confirmed.”

Sullivan also condemned the violence on the U.S. capitol. Later he voted to acquit Trump at a subsequent impeachment trial saying, in part, that Trump was already out of office. Sullivan declined to comment on the blanket pardons of those involved in Jan. 6 but said publicly that Trump had promised on the campaign trail to do so. 

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Sullivan declined to comment on Reardon’s responses at the hearing because the senator was traveling. The spokesperson pointed to an August post on social media congratulating Reardon on the nomination. 

Both Alaska senators have endorsed Reardon’s nomination. At the hearing, Murkowski spoke in support of Reardon, praising his career in public service and on the bench in Alaska. “This is an individual that is not only qualified for this position, he is ready to hit the ground running as a U.S. District Court judge,” she told senators. 

In an opening statement, Reardon grew visibly emotional while thanking his family members for their support. He also thanked President Trump and Alaska’s senators for the nomination, saying “it is a professional honor of a lifetime.”

Reardon has served as a federal magistrate judge in Alaska since 2021, a role which oversees a variety of judicial proceedings. His career in the judicial system includes serving as a federal prosecutor as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Alaska and California, clerking for two federal judges, and serving as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army, according to his questionnaire submitted to the committee.  

There is no set schedule for the judiciary committee to vote on confirming the nominees. The judges were asked to answer additional questions from senators in writing before a committee vote, then their nominations go to a vote before the full U.S. Senate, expected in the coming weeks.

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The Coast Guard icebreaker Healy will not sail to the Arctic Ocean this year.

The Healy is one of only two active Arctic icebreakers in the Coast Guard’s fleet and had been scheduled to return to service this year and sail to the Arctic after an overhaul, but during a post-shipyard voyage in July, it suffered a severe mechanical breakdown off the coast of Washington state. 

The website gCaptain, which reported on the incident at the time, cited unnamed sources who said one of the ship’s crankcases had exploded. 

In July and again this week, the Coast Guard declined to answer questions from the Beacon asking to confirm that account. 

In a written statement, a Coast Guard spokesman said only, “The Coast Guard continues investigating the cause of the engineering casualty onboard Coast Guard Cutter (CGC) Healy. CGC Healy will not complete its planned 2026 high-latitude summer mission. However, the Coast Guard is developing repair plans and evaluating the feasibility of additional operations.”

The Coast Guard did not answer multiple followup questions, including how long the Healy’s repair will take and whether the Coast Guard will seek to have another icebreaker take the Healy’s place.

This is the second major problem aboard the Healy in two years. In 2024, an electrical fire aboard the ship canceled its fall voyage into the Arctic. 

Without the Healy, the Coast Guard’s sole Arctic icebreaker is the former oilfield services ship Storis, which was commissioned into Coast Guard service last year and is not yet fully operational to Coast Guard standards.

The heavy icebreaker Polar Star is operational but is committed to service in Antarctica and is thus unavailable for Arctic service.

The Storis is less effective in ice than the Healy, which has reached the North Pole several times, and does not have dedicated science lab space, as the Healy does. 

Earlier this year, the Coast Guard awarded construction contracts for 11 new icebreakers of two different designs. The first four ships — two from each design — are being built in Finland and are scheduled for delivery by 2028. 

In the meantime, the Coast Guard has been using non-icebreaker ships in the Arctic. This summer, the CGC Munro monitored two Chinese research ships operating in the Arctic off Alaska. 

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This story was originally published in the Mat-Su Sentinel.

PALMER — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District will use state and local taxpayer funding to cover startup costs for a new program allowing teachers and staff members to carry concealed weapons in schools, district officials said.

School board member Andrew Shane helped spearhead the concealed carry program and initially said he planned to propose an amendment directing the district to move forward with the policy only if officials could secure outside funding.

That amendment was ultimately not introduced and was not part of the final policy the board approved in June ahead of its annual summer break.

Shane said he still hopes to secure grant money to cover the program’s costs, but declined to share specific details about who could provide it.

He said he believes the program is worth doing now regardless of the funding source because it addresses what he said is a critical school safety issue.

“One of the main reasons I ran was because I wanted to make our schools a safer place,” he said. “There’s going to be people that believe that this is the wrong way to do things, and there’s people who believe this is the right way to do it.”

The concealed carry program is meant to supplement the district’s existing school policing program, which operates under contracts with the Wasilla and Palmer police departments.

Those contracts provide five officers who rotate among elementary and secondary schools in Big Lake, Wasilla and Houston, and secondary schools in Palmer. They cost the district about $800,000 annually, according to contract documents. Schools in Talkeetna, Trapper Creek and Willow do not have assigned officers included in the contracts.

District officials estimate initial startup costs for the concealed carry program will run about $130,000, according to data released in June. That includes consultant fees for designing rules and standards to operate the program and costs for creating a training program for teachers and staff who want to participate. District officials are expected to provide an update on program costs and progress next month.

District officials closed three neighborhood schools and made more than $11 million in other cuts ahead of the current school year because state and local funding did not match the district’s ongoing costs.

A $16 million state funding package tied to oil revenue and announced late last month restored money to some of the cut programs, including about $1.5 million for student transportation and activities, and covers new shortfalls, such as more than $5 million in increases to staff health care costs.

The district will designate money to pay for the concealed carry program as part of the school district’s October budget update, Assistant Superintendent Katie Gardner said in an interview last month.

Setting up the concealed carry program is one of the administration’s six priority projects for the 2026-27 school year, Mat-Su Superintendent Randy Trani told the board at a work session late last month.

“The concealed carry is in the works now — including training standards and how individuals will be chosen to participate,” he said.

Once the program opens for enrollment, accepted teachers and staff will receive a $500 stipend designed to cover the cost of required training and certifications, according to the policy.

Would-be participants must hold an Alaska concealed carry permit and complete between 24 and 40 hours of initial training to qualify, then between eight and 24 hours of annual training to remain in the program, the policy states.

Participants also must undergo a psychological evaluation before joining and complete additional screenings after experiencing a “life-altering event,” as defined by a policy the district is developing as part of implementing the program.

Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com

This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra and Isabela Espadas Barros Leal of The 19th. Meet Shefali and Isabela and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

The first-ever congressional hearing on menopause is coming with a request to the federal government: Evaluate how to better fund treatment and research of menopause and healthcare for middle-aged women.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat who convened the Wednesday hearing, and Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, announced the request in a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which investigates how the government uses federal funds.

“Considering the importance of a rigorous health research agenda for women, we are interested in a GAO report related to menopause, with a focus on the federal government’s role in advancing research, ensuring access to evidence-based treatments, and strengthening oversight of existing programs,” reads the letter, which was also signed by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democratic from Maryland, and three Democratic women in the House.

The GAO request, Gillibrand said during the hearing, “will tell us what the federal government actually does on menopause, how well our doctors are trained and where the gaps are. You can’t fix what you refuse to even measure.”

The hearing, titled “Half the Country, Zero Hearings: Meeting the Moment to End the Menopause Care Gap in America” and held by the Senate Committee on Aging, which is chaired by Scott, focused on topics such as training physicians in caring for menopausal patients and increasing funding for research into the topic. Speakers included gynecologists and other experts who study menopause and treatment options.

“I am proud to lead the fight to get this critical healthcare issue out in the open so that we can find the best ways to improve research, training and care for women experiencing menopause,” Gillibrand said in a statement to The 19th. “I am committed to working with all of my colleagues — men and women, Democrats and Republicans — to meet the moment on menopause.”

Several of the speakers praised the Food and Drug Administration’s recent removal of the black box label on some hormone treatments but urged further research to help a more diverse range of patients. At least one speaker mentioned her own difficulty in getting insurance coverage for menopause treatments, including estrogen patches, which have faced chronic shortages. 

Menopause has seen an explosion of interest in recent years. Most statehouses have considered menopause-related bills, including those that would require insurance to cover menopause treatments and expand hormone therapy coverage for state employees going through menopause. Laws have passed in states of all political stripes, including Illinois, Louisiana, Utah and California. Multiple bills are under consideration in Congress, including legislation that would increase funding for research, address medical education and provide workplace accommodations for people experiencing menopause symptoms. None are likely to pass before the November midterm elections.

Dr. Lynne Coslett-Charlton, an OBGYN in Pennsylvania, said interest in learning more about the subject has been so widespread that she was recently surprised by a patient in her mid-20s who wanted to discuss symptoms associated with perimenopause.

“‘Perimenopause has a vibe, and I want to be ready,’” Coslett-Charlton recalled her patient saying.

That attention has also come with a surge of misinformation, especially surrounding alternative treatments to manage symptoms, a fact highlighted by the witnesses.

“Menopause has become big business, and many women are turning to influencers rather than trained clinicians for advice. Much of my time is spent counseling patients about different supplements and unregulated products marketed online on different platforms,” Coslett-Charlton said.

But witnesses urged more than just symptom management. Addressing hormonal changes, they said, is vital to help prevent other health risks that older women face, including heart disease, bone loss and genitourinary syndrome of menopause, a common condition tied to the vaginal dryness many women experience in their 40s or 50s.

“Women’s health research, particularly in older women, has been underfunded. We need studies that further examine how hormonal changes across the lifespan influence healthy longevity,” said Jean Wactawski-Wende, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Buffalo.

About 30 percent of women in the workforce are between the ages of 45 and 60, which is when most will experience symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. That can include hot flashes and night sweats, but also heavy bleeding, pain during sex and mood swings.

Figures range, but the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research group, estimates that menopause symptoms result in losses of $5.4 billion annually, largely due to women retiring early or scaling back their involvement in the workforce as symptoms worsen. Gillibrand said during the hearing that “as many as one in 10 women leave the workforce because of menopause.”

“This issue has way more resonance than members of Congress or everyday voters realize,” said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, the executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at New York University’s School of Law, who testified at the hearing. She added: “I hope this hearing is part of that education.”

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(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s dairymen are happy to see the latest farm bill move forward at the Capitol.

The Alaska Court System is now offering automatic reminders by text message for people with upcoming court hearings, part of an effort to reduce the number of missed appearances.

The court system announced the service Wednesday. State courts already offer automatic text notifications for jury duty and upcoming criminal cases. 

To sign up for the new service, text a case number to (575) 222-8484. The system will ask for a confirmation. Reply yes. Reminders go out at 4 p.m. the day before the hearing.

People who receive notifications do not need to be part of the case, and there is no limit to the number of signups per phone number.

The court system, which operates the service, will not sell your phone number to a third party, and it will not share it, the court system says in its terms and conditions.

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