Category: Alaska News

A surprising amount of what feels like farmers market etiquette is actually the law. A market can turn away a golden retriever at the gate … Read moreThe post Farmers markets are booming, and shoppers still don’t know the rules…

A week exploring Finland’s iconic saunas reveals why this centuries-old tradition is about community, wellness, and much more than warmth.

Finnish Sauna (solovyova/depositphotos)

At SEC Media Days, Eli Drinkwitz was asked which players’ success he thinks are most critical to the Tigers in 2026. Here’s a look at the players and positions he listed and the roles they’ll play for MU.

(The Center Square) – Military installations pivotal to national security, including Marine bases and the Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina, are ticketed for millions of the $1.15 trillion authorized in national defense discretionary spending within the U.S. House of…

The latest news and information from your Alaska news station.

Chilkat Valley Community Foundation held another “People’s Choice Award “ at the Fair last weekend, and 158 people cast a vote for their favorite local nonprofit. Thank you to all these loyal supporters! By random selection, two nonprofits were each awarded a $250 CVCF grant: Four Winds Resource Center and Haines Animal Rescue Kennel. Thank you Chilkat Valley!

Cynthia Allen, for the CVCF Board

The post HARK, Four Winds Resource Center get “People’s Choice Award” appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

 The Alaska voting system dilutes party and billionaire control and elevates the importance of running for office and voting in every election. That’s great! Today in Juneau, bipartisan “majority caucuses” lead the Alaska Senate and House of Representatives. Republicans, democrats, and independents—caucusing together—are getting Alaska’s business done. The minority caucuses? Both are entirely Trump Republicans and exactly where they belong. 

Ballot Measure 2 is sort of like Trump’s SAVE-Act, only Alaska style. It would dismantle Alaska’s home-grown electoral innovation, one that constrains power-politics, parties, and billionaire backers. Maybe that’s why Senator Sullivan calls it “rigged.” In November, I will vote No on ballot measure 2. 

Besides the “ranked-choice” general election provision, the Alaska system has other important features: 1) every candidate gets into our one orderly primary election—no members-only caucus, XYZ party primary, “super-delegates”, or the proverbial “smoked-filled rooms;” 2) No “Dark Money.” Alaska requires prompt disclosure for campaign donations over $2000 and if funds are Alaskan, or originate from out-of-state. Trumpian spin-doctors now describe the Alaska system as “inherently corrupt” — a blatant falsity.

The primary election is August 18^th and a lot of names are on the ballot. Seventeen vie to be Governor, sixteen for U.S. Senate. More—not fewer—candidates are better for Alaska and America. Alaska’s system is neither “rigged” nor “inherently corrupt.” Please check out the primary ballot and plan to vote. You’ll also find Ballot Measure 1, which defines rational limits for campaign donations. 

Burl Sheldon

The post Alaska Voting System, a Winner appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Alaska is now in charge of hazardous waste regulation in the state, a task that can be made more challenging by geographic remoteness.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday officially transferred authority for hazardous waste regulation to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. That makes Alaska the 49th state to be granted hazardous waste primacy — the term for primary responsibility for management and enforcement — over the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA.

The applicable federal law is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA.

Before Wednesday, the last state to be granted RCRA primacy was Hawaii in 2001, according to EPA records. Now the only state without RCRA primacy is Iowa, according to the EPA.

The transfer of authority, completed with a signature ceremony, was several years in the making, said Emma Pokon, EPA’s Pacific Northwest regional administrator and a former DEC commissioner.

DEC has assembled a hazardous waste program and team and has created state regulations that became effective a year ago. The Alaska Legislature has made regular appropriations in budgets for the hazardous waste program, which is part of DEC’s Division of Environmental Health.

“The good news is that the state has been implementing the program hand-in-hand with the EPA for the last several years,” Pokon said in a brief interview. “This moment isn’t a new imposition of costs. . . They are up and running. They’re staffed up. They’re trained up.”

Lori Aldrich, the DEC staffer managing the program, is “a gem of a public servant,” Pokon added.

Hazardous waste, as defined by RCRA, include a variety of substances like solvents, petroleum refinery sludges and dioxin-containing materials. Sources range from large industrial and military facilities to individual households.

Alaska in 2023 reported 2,729 tons of RCRA-classified hazardous waste, a total that ranked 48th among states, according to the EPA. The top sources that year, which is the most recent year with data available publicly, were the Petro Star Valdez Refinery, Eielson Air Force Base and a Palmer-based environmental services company that manages such wastes as part of its operations, according to the EPA.

For Alaska, distance poses a major challenge to hazardous waste management, Pokon said.

There are no hazardous-waste disposal facilities in the state, so almost all of the collected materials have to be shipped out for proper disposal, she said. And the shipping has to be timely, she said.

“There are limitations on holding times because of the risks presented by those materials,” she said. “The logistics involved with — once you get something into the community — getting it out, pose specific special challenges.”

Challenges are exacerbated when communities are especially remote or when there are natural disasters, she said. For that reason, hazardous waste management is part of preparation for and response to events like the Mendenhall Glacier outburst floods that now affect Juneau on a nearly annual basis or the Western Alaska floods from ex-Typhoons Halong and Merbok.

The newly formed program at DEC has already been addressing those emergency response tasks, Pokon said.

“One of the great things about DEC having the program is that really it’s been their teams that have been closer to the on-the-ground issues,” she said.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

An Alaska Native “landless” bill the state’s congressional delegation has sought for more than three decades is a Senate vote away from passing both chambers of Congress.

The version sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, advanced to a floor vote earlier this month. Murkowski expressed optimism the legislation on behalf of five Southeast Alaska communities may finally succeed during a visit to Juneau last month for Celebration.

“I think really it is about a measure being ripe for passage, if you will,” she said in an interview. “It has taken us many years to negotiate the maps in terms of identifying parcels. As we know, when it comes to the Tongass, every acre is precious to someone. And so when you’re trying to identify areas that are perhaps outside of your immediate community, it’s challenging. What it has required is years of an open process.”

If the Alaska Native Landless Equity Act passes, the Native residents of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Wrangell could form urban corporations and receive land entitlements. Murkowski said the bill fulfills a promise made more than 50 years ago.

Murkowski vowed continued efforts to pass the “landless” bill on June 6 during a Celebration event. The U.S. House companion bill by Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, passed without opposition on June 2.

“I share with people who will not understand back in Washington, D.C — I share with them that perhaps the most significant honor was when I was adopted into the Deisheetaan clan,” Murkowski told the crowd inside Centennial Hall.

She said with her gifted Lingít name Aan Shaawátk’i (Lady of the Land), she bears the responsibility “to care for our land.” 

On July 16, Murkowski announced her bill had advanced to the U.S. Senate floor after passing out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In 2023, a landless bill introduced by Murkowski passed out of the committee for the first time.

She said the House support in moving the legislation was significant and credited Begich for his efforts.

“We’ve been working with the communities for years now in identifying the parcels to be exchanged,” she told the Independent. “We wanted to make sure that we were working with the House to do an identical measure, so that when it advances through one body, we can try to move it through as quickly as possible.”

On Dec. 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act into law. The law compensated Alaska Natives for the loss of lands historically used and occupied, allowing regional and village Native corporations the right to select 44 million acres of land and appropriated $962.5 million to them. 

The five Southeast Alaska Native communities were excluded from ANSCA, the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history. 

The bill directs the Department of the Interior to convey specified land to each urban corporation. DOI must also convey the subsurface estate for that land to the regional corporation for Southeast Alaska. Each community would receive 23,040 acres of federal land or “one township.” 

The land conveyed to each urban corporation must include any U.S. interest in all roads, trails, log transfer facilities, leases and appurtenances on or related to the land conveyed to the urban corporation.

The bill also allows each urban corporation to establish a settlement trust to promote the health, education, and welfare of the trust beneficiaries, and preserve the Alaska Native heritage and culture of their communities.

“This is what Native self-determination is all about,” Murkowski said. “To make that decision for themselves and for the benefit of their people.”

Alaska’s congressional delegation has introduced “landless” legislation since the early 1990s. Several legislative attempts to recognize the five communities have failed. Murkowski said the current language and circumstances make her hopeful this bill will pass the Senate. 

“Is it a perfect bill? No. Is it one that we have agreement amongst everybody as to the maps? Probably not. But is it a work product that I think we and the communities can stand behind? Absolutely,” she said. “We’re finally to that place where all of that legwork has been done.”

Murkowski said she and her staff have spent extensive time holding meetings in the impacted communities.

She noted support from environmental groups including The Nature Conservancy and The Wilderness Society, who previously opposed the bill.

“While our defense of the Tongass continues, we must correct the injustices faced by certain Native communities in Southeast Alaska,” a March letter from The Wilderness Society states in support of the House companion bill.

In contrast, Murkowski said there’s potential opposition from those who want to preserve lands in federal control.

“I will share that there are some on the other side of the aisle who have reservations about the landless bill because they philosophically disagree that land should go from the federal estate into private hands because they are looking at these areas in the Tongass and saying, ‘All of these need to be preserved, and the best way to preserve that is to keep them in — again — in the federal estate,’” Murkowski said.

She said the support from environmental groups made an impact on her colleagues.

“My observation is that when you return the land to the original stewards of the land, perhaps there’s going to be better balance there,” Murkowski said. “These are people who live and work and raise their families in these areas. Yes, they want to have jobs, but this is a place that they will call home.”

Murkowski added not all of her colleagues in Washington, D.C., understand Alaska Native cultural heritage and stewardship. 

“The best way in my view to educate is to get people up here,” she said. 

Murkowski said when this isn’t possible, leaders from the five landless communities travel to Washington, D.C., and explain why the bill’s passage is important to them. 

She said striking a balance in the Tongass National Forest has long been sought after, and the Sealaska Corp. land settlement proved it’s possible without federal control through its carbon credit program. Sealaska was established in 1972 under ANSCA.

Not all environmental groups support that argument. The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition states, “between 1971 and 2020, Sealaska clearcut nearly all old-growth forests on these lands employing some of the most environmentally destructive logging practices seen anywhere in North America.”

The coalition adds “in an instant, this legislation could condemn these lands to industrial logging and mining projects that would not be subject to public input or oversight.”

Murkowski said one way many Southeast Alaska Native communities want to use the land is by developing greater ecotourism opportunities. 

“I believe that the people who live here are ultimately the best stewards and will determine the future of the region,” she said. 

This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.

The post Murkowski’s ‘landless’ bill advances to US Senate floor appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.