Category: Alaska News

(The Center Square) – The U.S. was no stranger to terror attacks before Sept. 11, 2001, both at home and abroad, but none shaped America and the world quite like the attacks on 9/11, which occurred 25 years ago Friday.

Potlucks get repetitive fast. These 13 recipes mix chilled salads, creamy dip, baked pasta, cake, cookies, cornbread, smoked appetizers, and a Dutch oven stew so the table has more range.The post 13 potluck recipes my sister-in-law admitted she couldn’t recreate…

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The latest news and information from your Alaska news station.

The latest news and information from your Alaska news station.

Wasilla High School is getting a big upgrade at Veterans Memorial Stadium thanks to a $250,000 donation from the Crowson Law Group. New LED stadium lights are now in place, helping address safety concerns with the old lights. The donation…

This story was originally published by KYUK. 

Former Bethel judge Terrence Haas became the state’s top public defender in September 2023. Last week, he announced in a resignation letter sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy that he was stepping down. That letter was shared with KYUK, in an email by the Anchorage Daily News, who first reported on the story.

In the letter, Haas wrote that the governor’s office had made his job untenable because of the response of the governor’s office to a recent legal pleading which, among other allegations, claims that Haas was romantically involved with his now-wife when he was a Bethel Superior Court judge and she was his law clerk.

As of Sept. 4, the governor’s office still hadn’t confirmed Haas’s resignation or provided comment on the allegations against him.

The allegations stem from a new filing in a case first assigned to Haas in 2021. In August of 2022, a Bethel jury convicted Kasigluk resident Peter Albrite of five counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor. Four years later, the 65-year-old Albrite is still awaiting sentencing, and his case remains open amid questions about his competency.

This June, Albrite’s defense attorney filed a motion for a new trial. The motion claims Albrite was never evaluated for competency prior to standing trial. Since his conviction, the motion claims the court has found Albrite not competent at least five times.

The motion also claims the court denied Albrite a fair and impartial trial due to what it alleges were overlapping romantic relationships between judge Haas, his former law clerk, and the public defender assigned to the case at the time, Danail Mizinov. KYUK has withheld the name of the former law clerk, based on the fact that she did not have direct responsibility for legal decisions made in the Albrite case.

Mizinov said in a sworn deposition cited in the motion that he began a romantic relationship with the clerk in early 2022, while Albrite’s case was still pending. That relationship ended before the trial.

When Haas learned of the relationship, Mizinov alleged that his interactions with Haas deteriorated. He said the judge made unreasonable demands and criticized his defense strategy in front of the prosecutor.

In the months leading up to the trial, Mizinov said he believed Haas – who was married to a different woman at the time – was also romantically involved with the clerk. Mizinov produced text messages sent to him by the clerk in which she mentioned late-night drinking sessions with Haas in Bethel. The texts include details that Mizinov interpreted as indicating that there was “more going on.”

Haas has wholly denied the allegations. In an email to the state prosecutor for the case shared with KYUK, he wrote that both he and the former clerk — who he married in 2025 — testified unequivocally under oath that no romantic or intimate relationship occurred during her clerkship. The former clerk is currently an attorney with the Alaska Office of Public Advocacy.

Alleged performance concerns

Prior to his appointment as a Bethel Superior Court judge in 2018, Haas served as a public defender in Bethel for a decade. With his decision to step away from the judgeship in 2023 to head the Public Defender Agency, he became Mizinov’s boss.

A year and half later, Haas gave Mizinov the option of resigning or being fired for cause. In a May 2024 letter, he criticized Mizinov’s performance and what he said was a failure to adequately prepare for serious cases. Despite language in the letter that implied Mizinov had been dismissed, Haas testified in a recent deposition that he did not ultimately terminate him. Mizinov currently works as an attorney with the Office of Public Advocacy. In 2023, Mizinov also applied for the top public defender spot that Haas was ultimately appointed to.

The Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions has argued that Haas’s concerns about Mizinov’s performance were at the root of their poor interactions. Assistant Attorney General Bailey Woolfstead, the prosecutor in the Albrite case, claimed in a recent court filing that any hostility perceived by Mizinov was due to Haas’s frustration with Mizinov’s level of preparedness during trial. The filing claims that, rather than act impartially, Haas had taken steps to protect Albrite’s rights and raise issues on his behalf during trial based on his concerns about Mizinov’s performance.

Reactions and re-hiring

In his Aug. 28 resignation letter, Haas wrote that his wife had gone through enough and that he would not expose her to further public controversy. Haas said the job had been the greatest honor of his legal career, but he was also critical of Dunleavy.

“Your administration has concluded that the political consequences of an allegation matter more than determining whether it is true,” Haas wrote.

In an emailed statement shared with KYUK, Mizinov called Haas’s resignation a positive step forward for the agency. He wrote it was also a positive step for attorneys with “an extremely difficult, thankless job that should not be further denigrated by the personal, petty grievances of their superiors.”

A spokesperson for the Alaska Judicial Council – which under state statute screens and nominates at least two applicants for the top public defender position – said on Sept. 2 that the timeline for doing that was unclear. As of Friday, they said the governor’s office had still not sent written confirmation to the council confirming a vacancy at the agency.

The Alaska Public Defender Agency confirmed by email on Sept. 2 that Haas is no longer head of the agency, and that attorney Ariel Toft is currently serving as Acting Public Defender.

Oral arguments regarding the motion for a new trial in the Albrite case are scheduled for Sept. 21 in Fairbanks court.

This story was originally published by KYUK, public media for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

The Trump administration on Friday moved to exempt oil projects in federal territory on the west side of the North Slope from environmental reviews that have been standard for decades.

An industry-initiated proposed rule announced by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would eliminate the need for review of individual development projects in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, or NPR-A.

Those projects would be excluded from requirements for individual reviews, as is prescribed by the National Environmental Policy Act, which was signed into law in 1970.

Instead of being subject to case-by-case studies, NPR-A projects would be covered by a single environmental study, under the rule. The BLM would also be required to issue permits to covered projects within 60 days of developers’ applications, under the proposed rule.

The quicker approvals are in the nation’s interest, Trump administration officials said.

“Responsible development shouldn’t be held back by redundant paperwork. By utilizing over 20 years of rigorous environmental data, we are replacing slow, case-by-case reviews with a standardized process that maintains our high environmental standards, while giving operators the predictability they need to build,” BLM Director Steve Pearce said in a statement. “This is about working smarter, honoring the Trump administration’s commitment to energy security, and ensuring Alaskans directly benefit from the resources in their backyard.” 

The statement describes the rule as one that will “streamline” permitting.

The proposal comes in response to a petition submitted in May by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The trade organization asked the Trump administration for a new system to fast-track development in the Arctic region that has become increasingly attractive to oil companies.

In its petition, the industry group said the BLM need not do case-by-case environmental analysis of new development projects in the reserve because past environmental impact studies for previously approved projects and management policies have already covered the questions sufficiently.

“Those collective (National Environmental Policy Act) reviews have spanned a period of almost three decades and have generated a substantial amount of information and analyses regarding the environmental impacts associated with production sites in the NPR-A and similar adjacent lands, and the mitigation of those impacts,” the petition said. “For sites meeting the common specifications of those that have already been exhaustively analyzed, the environmental impacts and the mitigation of those impacts are well-studied and well-known.”

The proposed rule is set to be published Sep. 8 in the Federal Register. That will launch a 60-day public comment period, to end Nov. 9.

Opposition expressed

Environmental groups have opposed the idea since May, when AOGA submitted its petition and the Trump administration launched the formal process that resulted in Friday’s proposed rule.

They reiterated their opposition Friday.

“This rule rigs our system for fossil fuel interests by requiring BLM to approve massive oil projects while eliminating the public’s freedom to say ‘No’ to unwanted developments on these shared lands. No company should get a blank check to develop the Western Arctic,” Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager of The Wilderness Society, said in a statement.

“What we’re seeing here is a concerted attack by the Trump administration to greenlight oil and gas drilling in the Western Arctic while ignoring the harm it will cause to these irreplaceable public lands and also the government’s obligation to protect these lands for wildlife and future generations,” Erik Grafe, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said in a statement. The proposal “flaunts basic environmental laws meant to protect land, wildlife and people,” Grafe added.

Last week, in anticipation of the rule announcement, the leader of a North Slope Native organization issued a statement of opposition.

“Once again, the Trump administration is moving forward with a catastrophic proposal without consulting or considering the communities who will bear its consequences,” Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, executive director of Grandmothers Growing Goodness, said in an Aug. 27 statement. “In the past, we have worked directly with the government to prevent the worst impacts of oil and gas development in the Western Arctic. This new categorical exclusion shuts us out of the process, silencing the people who know the land best and puts our way of life – and future generations – at risk just to serve corporate greed.” 

Other organizations representing the North Slope’s Indigenous people have expressed a more mixed view of the idea.

That was reflected in comments submitted to the BLM in July, during the initial scoping process that led to Friday’s announcement, by the North Slope Borough, the for-profit Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, a Tribal government,

The groups are “generally supportive of efforts to streamline permitting for production sites in the NPR-A,” the joint comment document said. However, they said they had concerns that the new rule might not allow for proper consultation with local communities and might not adequately protect subsistence resources.

Industry interest

The 23-million-acre petroleum reserve is currently seen as a highly prospective area for new oil development in the Arctic. The northeastern part of the reserve has drawn keen industry interest in recent years, largely because of related geological formations called Nanushuk and Torok that run through it.

ConocoPhillips, the dominant company operating in that part of the North Slope, has numerous fields already producing oil or in development that tap into Nanushuk and Torok oil.

One is the huge Willow project in the reserve, under construction and expected to start producing in late 2029. It is on track to be the westernmost producing oil field in Arctic Alaska, and the company has said peak production is expected to be 180,000 barrels a day from a resource that is estimated at about 600 million barrels.

A federal lease sale held in March, part of a series conducted by the government since 1999, drew a record $163 million in high bids.

Oil  is not the only resource of interest in the Indiana-sized reserve. The site is used by caribou herds, migratory birds and other wildlife, and the area is important for traditional subsistence food-gathering by residents of the region’s Native villages. 

The reserve is also famous for its paleontological resources; an area along the Colville River has yielded numerous significant discoveries of Arctic dinosaurs.

The reserve has had a history of management changes that resulted in a multiple-use approach balancing development with conservation.

It was established by President Warren Harding in1923 as a potential source of petroleum for the nation’s military forces. A federal law passed in 1976 gave the BLM authority over the reserve, and a 1980 amendment to that act established a series of environmental protections. Among those protections was the designation of a special area for Teshekpuk Lake, the largest Alaska lake above the Arctic Circle.

Trump administration policies have sought to strip protections from the Teshekpuk Lake area and the caribou herd that bears the lake’s name. Those policies have resulted in litigation.

The petroleum reserve went undeveloped for most of its history, with only sporadic exploration until the end of the 20th century.

Industry and government attention began to shift to the petroleum reserve after Arco Alaska in the 1990s discovered the large Alpine field on state land bordering the reserve, at the Colville River Delta. Arco’s assets, including Alpine, are now owned by ConocoPhillips. That company in 2015 became the first to produce oil from land within the reserve boundaries. Since then, other production in the reserve has followed.

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The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. plans to ask the Alaska State Legislature for additional funding as it renews its pursuit of a proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline in 2027.

Frank Richards, AGDC’s president, said the state-owned corporation will seek $2.5 million from state lawmakers next year for a previously announced program that would allow Alaskans to invest in the pipeline project.

“It will be something that we’ll have to go to the legislature next year to be able to say, ‘Here’s the program. If the state is interested, then these are the funds necessary for us to be able to accomplish this work,’” Richards said. 

Richards’ remarks came during a Thursday meeting of the state-owned corporation’s board of directors. It was the first time the board had met since the Alaska House voted down a compromise tax-cut bill intended to advance the latest version of the pipeline project. 

Glenfarne, a Texas-based development company, owns 75% of the project. AGDC owns the remaining 25%.

The compromise bill would have cut the state’s petroleum property tax as applied to the pipeline and supporting infrastructure, largely replacing it with a tax on gas shipped through the pipeline. It also would have imposed a corporate income tax on some privately-held oil and gas producers who currently do not pay that tax. Gov. Mike Dunleavy opposed the increase, proposed by members of the state Senate, as did many members of the House. 

The Senate was unwilling to advance the bill without the increase, and the resulting impasse killed the bill. Dunleavy proposed a compromise halfway between the House and Senate-backed ideas during the third special session this summer, but neither half of the Legislature took it up. 

A new governor will take office in December, and new legislative majorities will take office in January.

“So next year we’ll have a new administration. Next year we’ll have — certainly — a newly elected legislature, and they’ll be starting again from scratch. Hopefully, looking at tax relief in some way or form for the project,” Richards said.

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Alaska is set to receive up to $23 million from Meta Platforms Inc. under a landmark $17 billion settlement agreement that would also require the company to implement a sweeping set of safety features for its social media platforms, aimed at protecting children from addictive features and harmful content.

The multistate settlement agreement was announced Wednesday that state officials are lauding as one of the biggest consumer protection settlements in history outside the Big Tobacco…

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