Category: Alaska 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.

Monday, April 13

*The House continues debating the operating budget for next year, so House committee meetings are contingent on that schedule

8 a.m. – House Education hears a that would mandate civics education

9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to an occupational therapy licensure compact

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn with Alaska Youth for Environmental Action

1 p.m. – House Judiciary hears bills related to consumer data privacy, to maintain sibling relationships for youth in foster care, and a bill to increase criminal penalties for selling fraudulent airbags

1 p.m. – House Resources hears the governor’s bill to provide tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill to establish criminal penalties for mail theft, and a bill to authorize pharmacists to prescribe certain medications

1:30 p.m. – Senate Judiciary considers the governor’s appointees for the Alaska Parole Board and the Human Rights Commission, and a bill to increase criminal penalties for hit-and-runs

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to the right to repair digital devices, and a bill related to allowable charges by health insurers

1:30 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce hears bills related to benefits for emergency dispatchers, telehealth reimbursement rates, damages limits for personal injuries or wrongful death, and to close a tax loopholes for C-corporations

3:30 p.m. – Senate Education hears a presentation on the history of the state’s Regional Education Attendance Areas

3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources hears a bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed 739-mile Alaska LNG gas line project

Tuesday, April 14

8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs considers “right to repair” legislation and hears bills that would make it easier for unhoused youth to get birth certificates and regulate autonomous vehicles

9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill that would increase access to retirement benefits for disabled veterans and a bill that would support the civil legal services fund

9 a.m. – Senate Resources continues considering the governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line

12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on delivering health care to Southeast Alaska

1 p.m. – House Energy hears a presentation on geothermal energy

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to establish an education fund

3:15 p.m. – House Health and Social Services hears a bill that would expand early education services, and a bill to establish an opioid litigation settlement fund for the state to record and better manage opioid settlement proceeds  

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs hears a presentation about how other states regulate artificial intelligence

3:30 p.m. – House Health and Social Services hears a resolution in support of the Rural Health Transformation Fund 

3:30 – Senate State Affairs hears a presentation on disaster management

Wednesday, April 15

Arctic Encounter Summit takes place in Anchorage

8 a.m. – House Education hears a bill to require CPR training in schools and a bill to fund free school breakfast and lunch

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to expand funding for the special education services agency

9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill to allow the transfer of inmates serving long sentences to out-of-state facilities and another to allow the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to provide loans to build workforce housing

12 p.m. – Documentary film screening: “Talking to the Tundra: How a Yup’ik Village Heals Together” by Indie Alaska

12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on the Alaska Fentanyl Response Project

1 p.m. – House Judiciary hears a bill that would allow the surrender of infants in so-called infant safety devices, a bill that would lower the legal blood alcohol limit for driving to 0.04 from 0.08, and a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to define that corporations do not have the same rights as people to donate to political campaigns

1 p.m. – House Resources hears a companion bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line

1:30 p.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to regulating cryptocurrency

1:30 p.m. – Senate Judiciary considers governors nominees for the Commission on Judicial Conduct — Aldean Kilbourn, Donald McClintock III and Jane Moore — and a bill related to AI-generated child sexual abuse material

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill that would allow municipalities to set local property tax caps

3:15 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce considers a bill that would regulate LNG gas import facilities3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources hears a bill related to state policy and oversight of the proposed Alaska LNG gas line project

3:30 p.m. – Task Force on Education Funding hears a presentation on national assessments, and holds a demonstration for lawmakers to take a state standardized test

Thursday, April 16

Arctic Encounter Summit continues in Anchorage

Native Youth Olympic Games begin at the University of Alaska Anchorage Alaska Airlines Center and run through Saturday.

8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs continues consideration of “right to repair” legislation

9 a.m. – House Finance considers a bill that would establish paid parental leave program for parental leave up to 26 weeks and increases unemployment insurance maximum weekly benefit amount through the Alaska Department of Labor, and create a new parental leave fund

9 a.m. – Senate Resources continues considering a governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line, and a bill to establish state policy for regulating and oversight of gas line construction

10 a.m. – House Fisheries considers a bill that would cap annual fees, streamline the permitting process and create exemptions from certain health and sanitary requirements for small commercial fishing vessels

10:15 p.m. – House Military and Veteran Affairs considers a bill that would create options for veterans who are exposed to service-related trauma and commit crimes to be able to access therapeutic services and avoid incarceration

12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on the science of child development

1 p.m. – House Energy hears a presentation on Alaska’s Sustainable Energy Corporation

1:30 p.m. Senate Community and Regional Affairs considers a bill that would require contracts for new data centers account for energy needs, prioritize renewable energy, and ensure other energy customers’ costs do not increase, and another bill that would expand the number of seats on the Board of Fisheries

3:30 p.m. House Health and Social Services considers governors’ appointees to several boards

3:30 p.m. – Senate State Affairs reviews the voter initiatives that have been certified to appear on the state ballot in November

Friday, April 17

Arctic Encounter Summit closes in Anchorage

1 p.m. House Resources continues hearing a companion bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line

3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce considers a bill that would require insurance to cover evaluations and treatment for certain pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders, and another bill to reclassify emergency dispatchers to be included in “protective services occupations” and eligible for the state’s public employees’ defined benefit retirement system

3:30 p.m. Senate Resources continues considering a governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line

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President Donald Trump on Friday called on Alaska voters to repeal ranked choice voting at the November election.

“The Wonderful People of Alaska desperately want to restore Free, Fair, and Honest Elections in their Great State, and get rid of their disastrous, and very fraudulent, “Ranked-Choice Voting,” Trump said on Truth Social.

An effort to repeal ranked choice voting in 2024 failed by just 737 votes. A separate repeal initiative, sponsored by figures aligned with the Alaska Republican Party, is set to appear on the 2026 general election ballot. 

Trump gave his “complete and total support” to supporters of the repeal effort, including U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Congressman Nick Begich, both Alaska Republicans running for reelection in November. 

The president’s post was seized on by Republican candidates for Alaska statewide office who echoed his calls to strike down the voting system.

Alaska voters narrowly approved a ballot measure in 2020 that implemented ranked choice voting for state and congressional elections, alongside open primary elections and tougher campaign finance disclosure requirements. 

Ranked-choice voting in Alaska lets voters pick candidates in order of preference rather than choosing just one. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and those votes are redistributed until someone surpasses 50% of votes.

However, the new election system has been controversial. Opponents argue that ranked choice voting is unnecessarily complicated, while supporters say it has led to more moderate and consensus candidates elected.

Ranked voting, open primaries and the tougher campaign finance disclosure requirements would all be struck down if the 2026 ballot measure is approved by a majority of voters.

Alaska for Better Elections is a group running voter education campaigns in support of retaining ranked choice voting and open primaries. Executive Director Juli Lucky said Alaska’s election system has allowed policymakers across the political spectrum to work together without fear of challengers in partisan primaries. 

“I think Alaskans will reflect on the results we’ve seen to decide whether our system of open primaries, ranked choice voting, and the strictest campaign finance laws in the country works for them,” Lucky said by text message after Trump’s post. “Ultimately, Alaskans created and enacted this system, and Alaskans will decide whether we keep it.”

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The borough manager has proposed a budget for the upcoming year that would hold big-ticket spending roughly steady, but would pay for it, at least in part, with significant spending from savings. 

In one of few larger spending changes, the manager has proposed a roughly 4% bump in school funding, on top of the increase approved by the assembly last year. 

The increase, which comes out to an additional $101,000 over last year, would bring the borough’s spending on the school to $2,668,000.

That’s still short of a 12%, or $295,000, increase requested this year by superintendent Lilly Boron, said borough manager Alekka Fullerton. 

The increase in borough school spending comes as a response to shrinking state funding.

In recent weeks, Boron told state lawmakers that the district is in dire financial straits, warning of potential “insolvency” if state funding levels continue to stagnate. 

District officials in the last two years have said their top priority with new funds is to increase teacher salaries. Under a newly-negotiated collective bargaining agreement, teachers in the district will see a 5% pay bump this year, followed by a 4% and 3% increase in the two years following. 

The district’s issues, of inflation-fueled cost increases and declining state-funding, have been problems for the borough as well, Fullerton said. “We have a very lean budget already and have battled inflation in every department over the last few years,” Fullerton wrote in a letter accompanying the budget. 

For a number of reasons, it has not been easy for the borough to pull in new revenue to match increasing costs. 

Property taxes are just about tied with sales tax as the largest sources of borough revenue. Raising property tax rates, however, is politically unpopular and capped by borough code. 

This year, Fullerton’s budget would actually drop property tax rates. As written, the rate in the townsite would drop 8% from last year and the borough-wide rate would drop 11%. 

Property tax rates are often expressed in mills — the dollars taxed per $1000 of assessed value. Haines’ rates in the proposed budget, 10.09 mills in the townsite and 5.74 boroughwide, come in below the 2025 state average of 10.58 mills, according to the Office of the State Tax Assessor. 

In recent months, borough leadership has sought to increase revenues outside of direct taxation of locals. 

New revenue streams approved by the assembly include a cruise ship head-tax and zero-balance ambulance billing, each projected to bring in low-to-mid six-figure sums annually. The revenue generating effort also included the seasonal sales tax, which voters approved last year, but which remains controversial, and a potential new severance tax on exported raw materials. 

Even with these new funding sources, revenue in the proposed budget falls about $2.7 million short of spending. To close the gap, Fullerton proposes dipping into borough savings. 

That would come from a number of different savings accounts, all of which are restricted to specific types of spending except for the unrestricted areawide general fund. That general fund, the largest of the accounts, funds items like the school, library, pool, and borough administration. 

The proposed savings draw would pull $1.1 million from the areawide general fund, which is expected to have $4.3 million in savings by the end of June 2026. 

The rest of the savings draw would largely come from the townsite-services fund and the economic development and tourism fund, each of which currently contain more than $1 million. 

The manager’s proposal is headed to the assembly, which controls final decisions on the annual tax-and-spend plan. 

Last year, the assembly approved additional spending beyond the manager’s plan for services like the school and the pool, which it could once again do this year. 

Assembly members will likely also comb through the budget to find cuts, like last year’s cancellation of a handful of new borough vehicle purchases. 

The manager has also left what she says are more political decisions to the assembly. For instance, there’s no money in her budget for non-profits or for the Freeride World Tour, which has asked to be paid $150,000 to return next year. 

The assembly’s deliberations will include three committee-of-the-whole meetings dedicated to the budget on April 21, April 28, and May 14. Then the assembly will hold public hearings on the budget on May 12 and May 26. If the budget is not passed at the May 26 meeting, the assembly will hold a third public hearing on June 9. 

According to borough charter, the assembly must pass the final budget by June 15. 

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The post Budget Nuggets: Manager’s budget proposes spending savings to keep services steady appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed off on a supplemental budget bill that authorizes nearly $450 million in additional state spending this year. 

The budget bill covers additional costs incurred by the state this fiscal year ending in June, including funds for disaster relief, education, corrections and transportation. 

The bill was approved by the Alaska State Legislature two weeks ago. Dunleavy signed the budget on Apr. 2, and transmitted it back to the Legislature on Thursday. 

“I appreciate the Legislature’s support of these proposals,” Dunleavy said in a letter announcing his signature on the bill. “The supplemental budget I have signed into law today enables the State to meet current fiscal year responsibilities and represents prudent and fiscally responsible investments in emergency and fire response, public safety and statewide transportation needs.”

The budget includes $75 million for disaster relief to address the response to the Western Alaska storms last fall, and nearly $100 million for fire suppression, particularly in Interior Alaska. It includes $20 million for the Alaska Department of Corrections overtime expenses, as well as $70 million in time-sensitive funding for transportation — sought by the construction industry to unlock a federal match of $630 million for state construction projects.

It also includes $130 million for the Alaska Higher Education Fund which provides grants and scholarships for students, as well as $34.4 million for Medicaid and $12.8 million for other public assistance programs through the Alaska Department of Health. 

The governor’s office submitted an additional $11.6 million request, but it was submitted too late to include in the budget bill, and will be rolled into the proposal for next year’s budget. 

Additionally, the state is waiting on an appeal decision after failing a federal disparity test for education funding, and could potentially be liable for $72 million in K-12 funding for next year, according to officials with the Legislative Finance Division. 

Oil revenues still uncertain

In the Legislature, the bill was delayed this year amid ongoing debate in the House of Representatives on whether to pay for the larger than usual budget bill out of state savings — an act that requires the approval of three-quarters of legislators.

Members of the House Republican minority caucus objected to spending from a state savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve. After the Alaska Department of Revenue projected the state would see an additional $500 million in oil revenue due to a surge in oil prices driven by the Iran war, they argued the state would not need to pull from savings to pay its bills. 

Members of the multipartisan House majority caucus objected to the uncertainty of revenue forecasts and future oil prices, and argued for a draw from state savings to fund the budget bill immediately.

If oil-driven state revenues from now until the end of the fiscal year are not sufficient to cover the $450 million supplemental budget, then lawmakers agreed to draw from state savings. That means oil prices must average approximately $82 per barrel of oil through June for state revenue to cover spending, according to officials with the Legislative Finance Division. 

House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, was among legislators who supported the draw from savings several weeks ago, instead of banking on uncertain future oil revenues. On Friday, he said it seems revenues will cover the budget bill. 

“As appears now, oil prices are continuing to move in an upward trajectory, which means that the bill at the very end could be fully funded,” Edgmon said. “But there’s still a fair amount of time in front of us for oil prices to, you know, continue to be volatile.”

Edgmon said barring a dive in oil prices, he doesn’t expect another vote on drawing from the state savings this session.

“That’s pending a dramatic drop in oil prices, of course, which doesn’t seem to be on the horizon.”

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On Thursday morning, Patrick Ford descended through clouds shrouding Juneau in a brand new Cessna 208 Caravan. The plane emerged from whiteout conditions at around 1600 feet above the Mendenhall Wetlands and glided gently onto the runway at Juneau International Airport.

Ford is a pilot and the director of operations at Alaska Seaplanes, the largest commuter airline in Southeast Alaska. For much of the test flight, he operated on autopilot using an approach that automatically followed fixed waypoints in the sky. 

“Every one of these little star-looking guys is a different fix. It’s just a three-dimensional point in space that you have to hit at a specific spot at a specific altitude,” Ford said. “It’s basically just like driving down the highway, and you’re driving the highway in the sky, following the markers.” 

The Federal Aviation Administration approved Alaska Seaplanes’ new departure and arrival paths in Juneau, Haines, Kake, Sitka, Hoonah, Klawock, Wrangell and Petersburg. Those paths are available to the company’s wheeled fleet, but not float planes. The goal of these new, proprietary approaches and departures is to improve flight safety and reliability for Southeast communities when pilots can’t see anything but clouds.

Andy Kline, marketing manager at Alaska Seaplanes, said the company spent millions to design and get authorization for the new paths. Since the expense was planned years in advance, he said passengers won’t see fare spikes from this.

The company’s new path in and out of Juneau International Airport goes through the south end of Gastineau Channel. Ford said it allows pilots to drop out of a cloud ceiling that’s as low as 580 feet above sea level, increasing a plane’s chances of landing in poor visibility instead of turning around.

“I’m sure you guys have been on a flight where you get halfway up to Haines and, you know, it’s shut down at Eldred Rock, and you have to turn around and come all the way back,” Ford said. 

Those new flight paths are paired with advanced GPS technology called synthetic vision, made by Garmin. A screen in the cockpit displays a computer-generated 3-D view of the terrain, allowing pilots to ‘see’ their surroundings when there’s zero visibility. 

Ford said that’s an advancement on what’s called instrument flight rules, or IFR, a set of FAA regulations that control the conditions for pilots relying on instruments to navigate rather than sight. 

“It’s a huge, huge improvement in safety,” Ford said. “I sleep better at night knowing that that’s an option.”

Kline said it brings the commuter airline closer to the capabilities of Alaska Airlines, which has had the technology for decades.

That matters to residents of Southeast, a notoriously cloudy and mountainous region. Large jets don’t land in many small towns in the region, so residents rely on small, commuter flights for air travel.

Sean Kveum, co-owner and chief operating officer of Alaska Seaplanes, said that flights were frequently cancelled decades ago, before commuter aircraft could fly in low visibility

“We just had to stay low below the clouds and wait for good weather, and you could go when it was good enough,” Kveum said.

He said the new flight paths and synthetic vision will improve flights for outlying communities like Hoonah, where he grew up. 

“It really allows us to be providing a more reliable service to the communities throughout Southeast,” he said. 

This story was originally published by KTOO.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Alaska Seaplanes does not have the exact same capabilities of Alaska Airlines.

The post Alaska Seaplanes gets approval for new departure, landing paths to reduce flight disruptions appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Alaska Legislature is considering proposals to ban bottom trawling in state waters as a way to protect salmon and the seafloor.

In recent years, popular social media campaigns have opposed trawling and its links to bycatch, the taking of salmon and halibut as fishers target other species. Meanwhile, trawlers have come out vocally in support of the industry, focusing on its economic benefits for Alaska while seafood processors and other stakeholders struggle. 

Access to salmon is a highly charged and emotional issue in Alaska. It is tied to jobs, food security and Alaska Native culture. 

A persistent salmon crash in the Yukon River has been linked to climate change, overfishing and salmon from hatcheries competing with wild salmon for food, among other causes. However, anti-trawl campaigners have focused their ire on trawling and bycatch, arguing that is the main culprit for the salmon crisis.  

Now, conservative politicians, tribal leaders and conservation groups have formed unlikely alliances that seek to limit bottom trawling, a form of fishing where open nets are dragged along the seafloor to harvest fish like pollock. 

Tok Republican Sen. Mike Cronk and Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe introduced bills last year to end bottom trawling and dredging in state waters, starting in 2028. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game would also be tasked with filing a report in 2027 that details the impacts of trawling in Alaska. 

State officials estimate it would cost roughly $3.9 million to construct surveying equipment and conduct the trawling study. 

Cronk told fellow lawmakers last week that the goals of his legislation are twofold: protect the ocean floor habitat and access to salmon for Alaskans. 

‘Salmon is our identity’

Federal regulators have responded to a salmon crash in the Yukon River by banning Chinook salmon fishing for seven years. Chum salmon bycatch has also been limited in the Bering Sea. 

Brian Ridley, chief/chairman of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, represents 18,000 people in Interior Alaska. Since 2020, he said TCC has purchased more than 120,000 pounds of salmon to replace lost food for tribal members. Ridley said it had cost the tribal consortium up to $2 million per year.

Beyond a critical source of subsistence, Ridley told legislators about the essential cultural nature of salmon for Alaska Native communities on the Yukon River.

“Salmon is our identity,” he said.

Bottom trawling largely takes place off the coast of Alaska for pollock in the Bering Sea. Large trawling ships, often based out of Seattle, can harvest around 3 billion pounds of pollock per year. 

State officials estimate that more than 90% of bottom trawling for pollock in the Bering Sea occurs in federal waters, which suggests a state ban on the practice may have a limited effect. 

At a recent Senate Resources Committee hearing, Cronk wore a bolo tie with a sockeye salmon clasp. He acknowledged trawling is not widespread in state waters. But he said banning bottom trawling would send a message to federal fisheries managers about the importance of salmon in Alaska.

“We’re putting Alaskans first and the resource first,” he said.

Trawl industry boosters point to billions of dollars in economic activity and thousands of jobs created by the fishery. They have also highlighted research that suggests only a small portion of salmon bycatch caught by the Bering Sea fleet are headed to the Yukon River. 

Still, the issue of bycatch remains divisive. 

The Senate Resources Committee received over 1,000 pages of public testimony for Cronk’s bill — much of it opposed to trawling from people who forwarded an online letter drafted by Alaska Community Action on Toxins. 

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska won a U.S. House seat in 2022, campaigning to limit bycatch among other issues. She continues to support protecting fish as a central part of her platform as she campaigns for the U.S. Senate this year. 

At her annual address to the Legislature in March, Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski spoke about the “crisis” impacting Alaska fisheries and the need to reduce bycatch. She said salmon run collapses could not be attributed to one factor, citing the impacts of climate change. 

Murkowski urged lawmakers to be cautious about “demonizing one sector of Alaska’s fisheries” in trawling.

“And while it is easy and often appropriate to point fingers at Seattle, we have to remember that many Alaska towns and villages are suffering after losing their fleets and processing plants,” she said. “Life isn’t necessarily better without them.”

No canneries

In general, bottom trawling is not widely practiced in Alaska state waters — areas of the ocean that are 3 nautical miles from the shoreline. But there are some state fisheries where it does occur, including scallop and shrimp fishing across Alaska, state officials said. 

Patrick O’Donnell, president of the board Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association, told legislators that trawling is a key aspect of seafood processing year-round in Kodiak. He said that around 280 Kodiak families would be impacted by the ending of scallop and shrimp trawling.

In recent years, major seafood processors have closed plants in rural Alaska. O’Donnell said that when he started fishing in Kodiak in 1990 there were 13 canneries. Now, there are three, he said. 

“I see a future where we might not have any canneries,” O’Donnell said. 

Cronk, who represents Interior Alaska communities, told lawmakers that it wasn’t his intention to end shrimp or scallop fisheries and that he could support amendments to the bill. 

However, Cronk and McCabe’s bills could go further than prohibiting bottom trawling. Their legislation states fishing gear that makes “substantial” contact with the seafloor would be included in the new ban. 

Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang of the Department of Fish and Game told legislators last week that could impact “pelagic” trawl fishing, where nets are used to target fish higher in the water column. 

Findings in 2022 suggest pelagic trawl fishing routinely sees nets make contact with the seafloor. 

Vinent-Lang said the bill could end trawling for pollock in Prince William Sound. Last year, that fishery became a flashpoint between supporters and opponents of trawling when the Alaska Board of Fisheries heard proposals to limit the practice. 

After heated testimony, state regulators allowed pollock trawling to continue in Prince William Sound. Conservation groups, tribal leaders and industry boosters have continued to lock horns since then. 

At last week’s Senate Resources Committee hearing, industry supporters testified against Cronk’s bill. They said Alaska’s state regulator for fish allotments — the Alaska Board of Fisheries — was the proper venue to debate methods of fishing.

In response, Cronk said he would prefer that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Board of Fisheries manage the state’s fisheries for the benefit of Alaskans. But he said “the fact is, they’re not doing that.”

The Senate Resources Committee has heard Cronk’s bill twice since it was introduced in April last year. The House Fisheries Committee has not heard McCabe’s bill. 

The 2026 legislative session must end by midnight of May 20. 

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Gubernatorial candidate Click Bishop, a former Republican state senator, on Wednesday announced he had chosen Greta Schuerch, an Alaska Native corporation board member, as his running mate.

Bishop is one of 18 candidates for Alaska governor. Incumbent Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, is constitutionally prevented from serving a third consecutive term.

Schuerch, 46, is from Kiana, a village in Northwest Alaska. She works as senior lead for government and external affairs for Teck Alaska, a Canadian mining company that operates Red Dog, an enormous but aging zinc mine near Kotzebue. 

Schuerch was elected in 2025 to serve on the board of directors of NANA Regional Corp., an Alaska Native corporation that owns the land where Red Dog operates. The corporation serves more than 15,500 Iñupiat shareholders.

At a campaign event in Fairbanks, Schuerch said that she is motivated to run for lieutenant governor due to the high cost of energy and a state budget deficit impacting families and schools. 

“The stakes are too high to sit on the sideline,” she said.

Schuerch is a registered nonpartisan. She ran for Alaska House in 2012 to represent the North Slope and Northwest Arctic. She lost in the Democratic primary election that year to Ben Nageak. 

Bishop is the third gubernatorial candidate to name a running mate. Republican Bernadette Wilson named former GOP Sen. Mike Shower of Wasilla as her pick for lieutenant governor; former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, a Republican, chose Josh Church as his running mate. 

Bishop served 12 years in the Alaska Senate. He previously served as a state labor commissioner in Republican administrations. 

Alaska lieutenant governors assume the governorship if the office becomes vacant. They are also Alaska’s top elected official overseeing state elections. 

Candidates have until June 1 to file for the Aug. 18 primary election.

All gubernatorial candidates and their running mates will appear on the same primary election ballot. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November general election.

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The chief of staff for a member of the Alaska House of Representatives was arrested early Sunday morning in Juneau and accused of driving under the influence of alcohol. 

Kathryn “Katy” Giorgio, 45, is an aide to Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, and pleaded not guilty to a class A misdemeanor in an initial hearing on Monday. 

Her arrest came less than a week after Forrest Wolfe, a Republican and aide to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, was also arrested for driving under the influence. It was Wolfe’s second DUI arrest and Giorgio’s first. 

Giorgio was released without bail. Ordinarily, DUI release conditions require that accused Alaskans stay out of bars and other places where alcohol is served.

In Giorgio’s case, Judge Kirsten Swanson and the municipal prosecutor agreed to one exception: Giorgio will be allowed to play trombone this week in the Red Dog Saloon as part of an Alaska Folk Fest concert.

Mina declined comment when reached by phone Thursday evening but confirmed that Giorgio remains a member of her staff and that the matter is an internal personnel issue.

Giorgio declined on Thursday to speak at length about the incident but said “it was a bad decision.”

“I was not driving erratically. I was a block away from my house, and it was just an unfortunate situation, and I’m working through the system to do what I have to do,” she said.

In an affidavit submitted to prosecutors, Juneau Police Department Officer Joshua Shrader said he pulled over Giorgio about 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning after observing her car speeding and “driving down the center of the road” in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley neighborhood.

“While Giorgio was searching for her registration,” he wrote, “I noted an open can of alcohol in the center console cup holder. Inside the center console glove box, Giorgio picked up another can of alcohol and attempted to conceal it in a napkin.”

Shrader said both Giorgio and the car smelled of alcohol, and her breath alcohol level measured at 0.126, more than the legal limit of 0.08.

A status hearing on Giorgio’s case has been preliminarily scheduled for April 24. A hearing in Wolfe’s case is scheduled for May 18. According to online court records, both have hired defense attorney August Petropulos. 

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(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Stella Swinton, 21 months old, holds an Easter egg during the egg hunt in the Haines High School on April 5, 2026.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Students rush to grab eggs during the Easter egg hunt in the Haines High School on April 5, 2026.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Lillee Grant hugs the dinosaur stuffy she got after finding a prize slip within an Easter egg in the Haines High School on April 5, 2026.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Students rush to grab eggs during the Easter egg hunt in the Haines High School on April 5, 2026.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Two-year-old Olen Leazier figures out how to get a lollipop out of an Easter egg during the egg hunt in the Haines High School on April 5, 2026.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) People walk down the causeway to board the MV Hubbard at the Haines Ferry Terminal on April 7, 2026 in Haines, Alaska.

(Lizzy Hahn/ Chilkat Valley News) Police officer Max Marty on April 2, 2026 in Haines, Alaska.

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