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.

Saturday, April 4

University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus Alumni Night and 50th anniversary celebration, 6 p.m., Nome.

Monday, April 6

No legislative committee meetings as lawmakers are away for the Easter holiday.

Alaska Miners Association trade show opens in Fairbanks.

Tuesday, April 7

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel. 

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Alaska infrastructure development symposium opens in Anchorage.

Governor’s health and safety conference opens in Anchorage.

Alaska Sea Grant 2026 Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference Apr. 7-9 at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center, UAF Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel, Alaska, see event info here. 

8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs will consider a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska: Julie Vogler and hear bills related to birth certificates and identification for unhoused young adults and retirement benefits for emergency dispatchers

10 a.m. – House Fisheries considers a bill related to a new administrative area in Cook Inlet for certain commercial set net fishing entry permits

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn presentation on postsecondary education opportunities

1 p.m. – House Transportation hears an update on rural aviation and public testimony on a bill related to the maintenance of transportation facilities in wildland urban interface zones

1:30 p.m. – Senate Community and Regional Affairs hears a bill related to criminal penalties for hit-and-runs and a bill related to data centers

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to pharmacists’ prescription authority and a bill to add one more superior court judge in the state

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs considers a governor’s appointee to the Board of Parole: Steve Meyer and the Alaska Police Standards Council: Veronica Lambertsen. It will consider a bill related to reduced interest on certain loans and a bill related to municipalities charging for public records

3:30 p.m. – Senate Health and Social Services Committee will hear a resolution related to the Rural Health Transformation Fund; a bill related to banning food dyes in school meals and a bill to establish a Citizen’s Review Panel for all cases of children taken into foster care

Wednesday, April 8

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel.

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Community Advisory Board Meeting about programming and services at Alaska Public Media takes place at 6 p.m. in Anchorage and online.

House/Senate floor sessions in the morning 

8 a.m. – House Education hears a bill related to funding school meals; and a bill related to establishing CPR training in all schools

9 a.m. – Board of veterinary examiners regular meeting

9 a.m. – Board of optometry examiners regular quarterly meeting

9 a.m. – Alaska Supreme Court hearing, Orutsararmiut Native Council v. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Donlin Gold. Boney Courthouse, Anchorage.

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to funding special education

9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill proposed by the governor to create a seasonal sales tax, and an increased tax on oil and gas in part to fund a bigger PFD

11 a.m. – Alaska Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Donlin Gold lawsuit

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn on the Arctic Winter Games

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn on Life Center West and organ donation

1-2 p.m. – Alaska Commission on Aging monthly meeting

1 p.m. – House Resources considers a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska: Julie Vogler; and a bill related to the governor’s tax break proposal for the Alaska LNG gas line

1:30 p.m. – House Finance considers a bill related to paid parental leave

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to expanding the number of seats and adds criteria for membership on the Board of Parole; and a bill related to disclosure of wage information

1:45 p.m. – Senate Judiciary will hear a bill related to increasing criminal penalties for hit-and-runs

3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce will hear a bill related to reimbursement rates for telehealth services

3:30 p.m. – Senate Education will hear a bill related to a student loan forgiveness program, a bill related to local contributions to school districts and a bill related to University of Alaska fees

3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources will consider Julie Vogler as a governor’s appointee to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and a resolution to support the proposed Alaska LNG gas line project

Thursday, April 9

Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference takes place in Bethel.

Alaska Municipal League infrastructure conference takes place in Anchorage.

Alaska Young Professionals summit opens in Anchorage.

Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council spring meeting, Fairbanks.

8 a.m. – House Tribal Affairs hears an update on the Alaska Council of Native Languages

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to how the state pays its contracts

9 a.m. – Senate Finance debates the capital budget

10 a.m. – The State of Alaska, Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), invites representatives from all 229 federally recognized tribes to a listening session. They want to hear your direct input on issues related to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. See info on public testimony here. 

12 p.m. Lunch & Learn presentation on the Port of Alaska

1:30 p.m. Senate Community and Regional Affairs hears two bills related to child sexual abuse material

1:30 p.m. House Finance considers the capital budget and hears a presentation on Bond Reimbursement and Grant Review Committee by the Department of Education and Early Development

1:30 p.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to a state defined benefit retirement system

3 p.m. – Pioneer Homes advisory board meeting

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs hears a bill related to regulating PFAS chemicals, remediation and water testing

3:30 p.m. Senate Health and Social Services hears a bill related to health compacts and the Rural Health Transformation Fund

Friday, April 10 

Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council spring meeting, Fairbanks.

8 a.m. House Education hears a bill related to retaining teachers; and a bill related to school maintenance positions

9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to expanding the number of state judges

12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn presentation on the history of the global perspective on oil and gas

1 p.m. – House Judiciary considers a resolution passed by the Senate to lower the votes needed for a veto override

1 p.m. – House Resources considers a bill related to the governor’s proposed tax breaks for the Alaska LNG pipeline

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to peace officer or firefighters disability benefits

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to employer contributions and a bill related to social worker licensure compact

3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to emergency planning for pets and a bill related to corporate income tax

3:30 p.m. – Task Force on Education Funding hears a presentation on required local contributions and federal funding toward schools

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Fishers in Southeast Alaska will be allowed to harvest 205,300 Chinook salmon this year, returning to a normal total after last year’s ultra-low harvest limit.

The Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest total, set in accordance with the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty, was announced this week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Last year’s Southeast Chinook catch limit of 133,500 fish was the lowest in any year since the Pacific Salmon Treaty went into effect in 1985, according to the department.

Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, make up the smallest total harvest of Alaska’s five species of salmon. But they are also sold at a premium, usually fetching the highest market prices. Those that swim in Southeast Alaska waters are the subject of management from different jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, through the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The treaty is necessary because the fish are highly migratory and swim through and spawn in various locations, said Dani Evenson, Pacific Salmon Treaty and Arctic Policy Coordinator for the department’s Division of Commercial Fisheries.

“They kind of ignore things like international borders and jurisdictions, and they’re going to do what they do,” Evenson said. “And so we have this treaty where we share the burden of conservation, we share the available catch. And it’s a shared resource.”

Along with Alaska and the federal governments of the U.S. and Canada, participants in the treaty process include Washington state, Oregon, British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and tribal governments.

Southeast Chinook salmon are the only Alaska salmon for which a numerical harvest cap is set each year, Evenson said.

Alaska’s cap and those for the other jurisdictions covered by the treaty are the products of analysis conducted by regional panels and technical committees. Those panels and committees provide information to the bilateral Pacific Salmon Commission, the decision-making body under the treaty.

Last year’s record-low cap reflected what appeared to be poor conditions for the region’s highly prized Chinook. Evenson said the slashed harvest levels posed a hardship on some fishing dependent communities.

“Last year was terrible,” she said.

It turned out, as determined through post-season analysis, that last year’s harvest cap was overly conservative and that another 53,800 Chinook salmon could have been safely caught by Southeast Alaska fishers, she said.

Improvements in abundance and ocean conditions support this year’s increased catch limits, Evenson said. Nonetheless, the overall harvest limit is at a level considered “judicious,” in light of conservation challenges facing various Chinook stocks and the contention over harvest allocations.

“Chinook have been a flashpoint,” she said. “It seems prudent to approach more cautiously.”

As determined by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, most of this year’s Southeast Alaska Chinook catch – 146,000 fish, about three quarters of the total — is allocated to harvesters who use troll gear. Salmon trolling involves hooking individual fish, and those caught in that method fetch high prices because they can be iced quickly and handled carefully, thus maintaining high quality.

The next largest total, 43,600 fish, is allocated to sport anglers, according to the Board of Fisheries decision. The remainder of the Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest is allocated to fishers who use nets and are targeting other salmon species but catch some Chinooks incidentally.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted online its first large tranche of advanced genetic data from measles viruses spreading last year. Scientists with knowledge of the operation expect the agency to post heaps more in weeks to come, revealing whether the U.S. has lost its hard-won measles elimination status.

The CDC withheld the data for months as a team hit hard by mass layoffs and resignations sorted through the information. But now that scientists at the agency have posted their first batch of whole measles genomes — the genetic blueprint of the viruses — the rest should “start flowing more smoothly at a more rapid cadence,” said Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary virologist at the Scripps Research Institute who isn’t involved with the CDC’s effort but is following it.

The CDC did not answer queries from KFF Health News on its timeline for publishing measles data or analyses. However, once all the data is public, researchers can run quick initial analyses that will signal whether outbreaks across the U.S. last year resulted from the continuous spread of the disease between states, rather than separate introductions from abroad. If there was continuous transmission for a year, that means the U.S. has lost its status as a country that has eliminated measles. That status, which the U.S. has held since 2000, reflects a country’s vaccination rates: Two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine prevent most infections and so stop outbreaks from growing.

More careful analyses take weeks.

“We should see a report in April,” Andersen said, “assuming no political interference.”

This is the first time that the U.S. has applied sophisticated genomic techniques to measles, which largely disappeared from the country a quarter-century ago because of broad vaccine uptake.

Declining vaccination rates, misinformation, and the Trump administration’s budget cuts and lagging response to outbreaks have fueled a resurgence of the disease. With at least 2,285 cases in 44 states, 2025 was the worst year for measles in more than three decades. This year is on track to surpass that, with 1,575 cases as of late March.

While welcoming the science, researchers say the government’s top priority should be to stop the virus from spreading.

“I think it’s incredibly important to do whole genome sequencing for outbreaks,” Andersen said, “but we shouldn’t need to do this for measles in the first place, because we have an extremely effective and safe vaccine.”

“That we’re even talking about this is nuts,” he added.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other government officials should sound an alarm about measles’ comeback and launch nationwide vaccine campaigns, said Rekha Lakshmanan, executive director of The Immunization Partnership, a nonprofit in Houston that advocates for vaccine access.

“I applaud the science,” she said, “but the more urgent need is to get measles under control as quickly as possible.”

Top officials have instead downplayed the seriousness of the disease, and false notions about vaccines have been granted new life in Kennedy’s CDC. This includes abrupt changes to vaccine information on CDC websites that medical associations say aren’t based on evidence and endanger lives.

Kennedy continues to promote unproven remedies that could mislead parents into believing that they can avoid vaccines without consequence. On the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in late February, Kennedy spoke at length about measures to improve America’s health but didn’t mention vaccines. He said preventive measures could entail “holistic medicine, or take vitamins, or take vitamin D, which is, as you know, it’s kind of miraculous.”

“The risk of measles remains low for most of the United States,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard wrote. “CDC has made $8.5 million available to address measles response activities in 7 jurisdictions experiencing outbreaks,” she wrote. “The CDC, HHS principles, and the Secretary have been vocal that the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against measles.”

1,000 Genomes

In December, the CDC enlisted the help of one of the country’s leading centers for virus sequencing, the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Major outbreaks in Texas, Utah, and South Carolina had been fueled by the same type of measles virus, labeled D8-9171. But since that type also circulates in Canada and Mexico, researchers need more data to discern whether it spread among states or entered the U.S. multiple times.

Whole genome sequencing provides that information because viruses evolve over time. The measles virus acquires a mutation every two to four transmissions between people, said Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen surveillance at the Broad.

“There is enough signal in this data to tease apart questions at hand,” MacInnis said, “the main one being sustained transmission within this country.”

MacInnis’ team worked overtime to sequence the entire genomes of inactivated measles viruses that had been collected from states in 2025 and 2026.

“We’ve done about 1,000 samples and delivered the genome data back to the CDC,” sending it on a rolling basis since December, MacInnis said. “This is the CDC’s data to publish.”

The CDC didn’t post a single one of those genomes until late March, when eight appeared on a public database hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. By April 1, an additional 154 had gone online.

“It should be on NCBI within a couple of weeks of being produced,” Andersen said, “and certainly not take longer than a month when you have an active outbreak.”

Genomic data holds clues about how outbreaks start and spread. It allows researchers to develop tests, treatments, and vaccines — and detect variants that might evade them.

Such data was critical in the covid pandemic. Chinese and Australian scientists posted the first SARS-CoV-2 genome online on Jan. 10, 2020, within a week of sequencing it. “It definitely shouldn’t take the CDC months,” said Eddie Holmes, the Australian virologist who helped publish the first coronavirus sequence.

One reason for the delay is that the CDC’s measles lab has been sorely understaffed amid mass layoffs and other turmoil at the agency over the past year, a CDC scientist told KFF Health News. Another reason, the researcher added, is a learning curve: The CDC and health departments haven’t needed to sequence hundreds of whole measles genomes before now. (KFF Health News agreed not to identify the scientist, who feared retaliation.)

In contrast with the CDC, the Utah Public Health Lab has shared measles genomes rapidly. Most of some 970 measles genomes posted online since Jan. 1, 2025, were sequenced by the state, hailing from Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, and other states willing to share them.

“We’ve only got a handful of samples from Texas that were collected kind of in the middle of their outbreak,” said Kelly Oakeson, a genomics researcher at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The genomes of the Texas and Utah measles viruses are similar but distinct, Oakeson said, meaning that intermediate versions of the virus are missing.

If the genetic code of viruses collected late in the Texas outbreak are a closer match to those from Utah’s, that will suggest that spread was continuous and the country has lost its measles-free status. The hundreds of genome sequences still sitting at the CDC probably hold the answer.

Waiting on the CDC

The CDC expected to finish its analysis before April, said Daniel Salas, executive manager of the immunization program at the Pan American Health Organization, which works with the World Health Organization. That’s when PAHO was slated to evaluate the United States’ measles status.

He said PAHO delayed its evaluation until the organization’s annual meeting in November, partly because the CDC needed more time to do the genomic analysis and partly because the measles status of Mexico, Bolivia, and other countries is also under review, and holding staggered meetings for each country is inefficient.

The U.S. is the only country using whole genome sequencing to answer the elimination question, Salas said. Typically, countries classify measles viruses according to a tiny snippet of genes, then assume that large outbreaks caused by the same type are linked. Whole genomes provide a more accurate view.

“If the U.S. can fill in the blanks with genomic data, that’s a sort of breakthrough,” Salas said. “That doesn’t mean other countries are going to be able to pull off this kind of analysis,” he added. “It takes a lot of specialized knowledge and resources.”

Equipment to sequence and analyze genomes costs upward of $100,000, and the cost to process each sample, including paying the researchers involved, typically ranges from $100 to $500 per sequence.

“I’m pro-science, but we shouldn’t have to do this,” said Theresa McCarthy Flynn, president of the North Carolina Pediatrics Society. “We don’t have to have a measles epidemic.”

Flynn said she regularly fields questions from parents concerned by misinformation spread by Kennedy and anti-vaccine groups, including the one he founded before joining the Trump administration. Parents have also pointed to changes in the CDC’s recommendations and to its websites that are at odds with the scientific consensus.

Before Kennedy took the helm, a CDC website said “Vaccines do not cause autism” in prominent type, and listed several large studies in premier scientific journals that refuted a link between vaccines and developmental disorders.

Last year, the website shifted to saying, “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” The high-quality studies were replaced with a report from a single investigator who has ties to anti-vaccine groups. In an email to KFF Health News, HHS spokesperson Hilliard echoed the altered website’s claims about vaccines, disregarding extensive studies on the topic.

Flynn, of the pediatrics association, said, “The CDC itself is spreading misinformation about vaccines. I cannot overstate the seriousness of this.”

Although the acting director of the CDC, Jay Bhattacharya, says vaccines are the best way to prevent measles, he too has undermined vaccine policy. He said the controversial January decision to reduce the number of vaccines recommended to children was based on “gold standard science.” In fact, the new schedule makes the U.S. an outlier among peer nations. Hilliard wrote that the updated schedule was “aligning U.S. guidance with international norms.”

A federal court temporarily invalidated the change last month in a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups.

Bhattacharya hasn’t held briefings with the public or the press on the surge of measles this year or activated the CDC’s emergency capabilities.

“Normally, we’d have a big push to get vaccination rates up in areas where it’s low. We’d do a big social media push, put out ads on getting vaccinated,” said another CDC scientist whom KFF Health News agreed not to identify, because of fears of retaliation. “People at the CDC want to do this, but political leadership at the agency has not allowed the CDC to do it.”

Further, the Trump administration’s cuts and delays to public health funds have made it hard for local health officials to protect communities. Philip Huang, director at Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas, said the department lost over $4 million when the administration clawed back about $11 billion from health departments early last year as a measles outbreak surged in the state.

“We lost 27 staff and had to cancel over 20 of our community vaccination efforts, including to schools identified as having low vaccination rates,” he said. “There are simultaneous attacks on immunizations that are making our jobs harder.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Alaska House Finance Committee on Wednesday advanced a draft operating budget with a roughly $3,800 Permanent Fund dividend.

For a decade, the annual PFD check has been part of the Legislature’s annual budget-making process. A $3,800 PFD would follow a formula from a 1982 statute.

Lawmakers on a budget panel adopted the full, statutory dividend in the evening after long debate. Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andy Josephson, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, cautioned legislators that the vote means Alaskans “will absolutely have the impression” that “a very liberal dividend” will be paid this year. 

Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed a full PFD as part of his budget proposal in December. A $3,800 dividend check is estimated to cost roughly $2.47 billion, the largest single spending item in the budget. 

Ketchikan independent Rep. Jeremy Bynum proposed that the PFD would come from two sources. Almost $1 billion would be drawn from the general fund of the state treasury. A simple majority of lawmakers is required to spend from that account.

However, close to $1.5 billion would come from the state’s main savings account, the $3 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve. Three-quarters of the House and Senate would need to support spending from that account. 

If the three-quarter vote fails, the dividend paid to Alaskans in 2026 would drop to around $1,500. Some lawmakers cautioned that would still leave the state roughly $100 million in deficit. 

Last year’s dividend paid to over 618,000 Alaskans was $1,000.

The roughly $3,800 PFD was approved 6-5 by the House Finance Committee. All five minority House Republicans supported a check of that size, alongside Nome Democratic Rep. Neal Foster, co-chair of the House Finance Committee.

The remaining five members of the Democrat-dominated House majority voted no.

Supporters of a full PFD said that high oil prices justified a larger dividend this year. In 2022, Alaskans received a $3,284 dividend and energy relief check when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices skyrocketing.

Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks, said that the “people of Alaska are hurting right now” and are facing difficult circumstances from high energy bills. 

The U.S.-Israel war in Iran has seen oil prices spike to well over $100 per barrel. The Alaska Department of Revenue projected last month that would see the state collect $1 billion more revenue than expected over the current fiscal year and the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Lawmakers have already earmarked a substantial portion of that additional revenue to pay Alaska’s outstanding bills. 

The operating budget now advances to debate by the full Alaska House. Once approved in that chamber, it advances to the Alaska Senate for its consideration before heading to the governor’s desk. 

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The headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service will move from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday, a move the agency described as a “common-sense approach to improve mission delivery.”

Noting that the lands, partners and operational challenges it serves are overwhelmingly in the West, the agency said in a news release it hopes to “begin a sweeping restructuring” of the office by moving its leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves.

“Effective stewardship and active management are achieved on the ground, where forests and communities are found — not just behind a desk in the capital. Through this transition, we will strengthen our connection to the forests and the people who depend on them, while supporting our employees and honoring the dedication that has always defined our service,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in a statement.

In addition to the relocation, the Forest Service will also start a transition to a “state-based organizational model,” in which 15 state directors will be assigned throughout the country overseeing the agency’s operations within one or more states. The office locations are planned for states including Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, New Mexico, among others.

All regional offices are set to close under the new model, though some facilities will be retained to serve other needs. The formal restructure will be implemented over the coming year, the agency said in the release.

The news was welcomed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who said in a social media post that the relocation means hundreds of jobs coming to the state “and better, faster decisions on the ground for the people who rely on our public lands, from ranchers and timber producers to families who work and recreate there.”

Cox also said in a statement that moving into a more state-focused approach “strengthens federalism and helps the Forest Service do its job more effectively.”

However some environmentalists were less pleased with the announcement, arguing that the agency’s headquarters should be where federal policy is made.

“This is a costly bureaucratic reshuffle that will hand more power to corporations and states like Utah to log, mine and drill the public’s forests for private profit. It punishes career staff who deserve so much better,” Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. “National forests belong to all Americans. Our nation’s capital is where federal policy is made and where the Forest Service headquarters belongs.”

Under the restructuring, the Forest Service is also planning on consolidating research operations leadership, going from governing structures in multiple research stations to a single research organization located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“These changes are designed to unify research priorities, accelerate the application of science to management decisions, and reduce administrative duplication,” the agency said in the release.

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Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com.

The Alaska House on Wednesday advanced a bill to establish cooperatives for salmon setnetters, which would allow commingling of fish.

Since territorial days, multiple permitholders, often from the same family, have stored and delivered their salmon together. But the language of state statute and regulation suggests that individual permitholders need to store and deliver their salmon separately.

Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes said that is impractical and unsafe. Permitholders are often elderly or children, she said, and setnetting routinely involves fishing in skiffs in rough water in remote regions.

Since 2022, Alaska Wildlife Troopers have investigated over a dozen potential violations statewide, involving misdemeanor charges and citations. 

The House Fisheries Committee’s bill would allow setnetting cooperatives to form. If passed, the Alaska Board of Fisheries would be directed to issue regulations on the maximum number of permitholders allowed in each cooperative. That number could change region-by-region.

“This bill, at its heart, is not only about preserving the status quo, but about keeping local access to permits in rural communities,” Stutes said before the final vote.

The Alaska House on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill. Anchorage Republican Rep. David Nelson was absent from the final vote.

House Bill 117 received support from fishing groups across Alaska. The bill now advances to the Alaska Senate for its consideration.

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When dignitaries visit Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s home state in the summer, their hosts often take them fishing for salmon.

But what does Dunleavy do as a visiting dignitary himself, traveling on official business to far-flung locales such as the United Arab Emirates?

Alaskans now have a glimpse of the red-carpet treatment afforded to their famously hunting-obsessed chief executive on a trip last year to the Middle East to solicit investment — courtesy of a legally required gift disclosure Dunleavy filed recently with state regulators.

In it, he shared details of an overnight traditional falcon hunt he took with the Emiratis — one that involved a journey by helicopter, a stay at a private camp and the avian pursuit of rabbits and a fluffy desert prey bird called a houbara.

“It reminded me of Alaska,” Dunleavy said in a phone interview this week. “Wide open spaces — kind of like western and northern Alaska, in terms of low-lying, rolling hills made out of sand.”

Dunleavy valued the hunting trip at $8,420, of which $5,000 was the estimated cost of the helicopter trip. In all, the governor and his wife accepted gifts valued at at least $54,000 in 2025, including travel to speaking gigs and events; luxury box access at a professional hockey game from the chief executive of Trident Seafoods; and a fall moose hunt supplied by a renowned Alaska guide, according to Dunleavy’s disclosure.

High-level state executives like Dunleavy are required to file the financial disclosures — which report gifts, income and other business affairs — in part to ensure that public officials are “free of the influence of undisclosed private or business interests,” according to state law.

Dunleavy, in the interview, dismissed the idea that the free falcon hunt from his Emirati hosts would lead to favorable terms if the region’s wealthy investment funds ultimately choose to do deals in Alaska.

“‘Since we invited you on a falcon hunt, we’re wondering if you can give us a reduced cost in oil and gas?’ No — there was no ask for any of that stuff,” Dunleavy said, chuckling. “‘Dunleavy sells out Alaska for an invited falcon hunt.’ No, that didn’t happen.”

Dunleavy said his week-long trip to the Middle East was facilitated by the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates at the time, Martina Strong, who previously attended an Alaska energy conference organized by the governor’s office.

Dunleavy, accompanied by officials from at least three state agencies, appeared at multiple events during the trip and met with representatives from Middle East airlines, ports and oil and gas companies. He spoke at an energy summit hosted by a global research company, and pitched investors on developments like Alaska’s partially state-owned LNG export project.

No major deals have been announced, however.

In the lead-up to the trip, Emirati officials, knowing Dunleavy’s love of hunting, contacted the governor’s office to invite him out to a hunting preserve, he said.

If you visit another place on business and get there early, he said, “they want you to partake in whatever the local culture is.”

“If you go to Louisiana, it’s going to be the Louisiana blues fest. If you go to Florida or you go to California, it might be golf,” he said. “If you go to the United Arab Emirates, they’re going to get excited if somebody they know is an outdoor person. Because they have a long tradition of raising falcons, for thousands of years.”

Dunleavy, who’s hunted bears and musk ox in Alaska, said the day-and-a-half long hunting trip entailed a night’s stay at a “modern tent compound,” which he acknowledged could be described as “glamping.” The hunt itself was from a pickup truck, he added.

“You put the falcon on your arm, and when they see the bird, you take the hood off the falcon; the falcon sees the bird,” he said. “They get the bird, they knock it out of the sky or they get it on the ground. They stay on it, and then the guys come over and they take the falcon off the bird — and that’s how they hunt.”

The houbara was taken back to camp, cooked and sampled by Dunleavy, who said it tasted good.

The experience also included a gift of a tailored traditional robe called a kandura, which Dunleavy acknowledged donning on the trip. But Alaskans may never get to judge the fit: Dunleavy’s office would not release any images from the governor’s trip in response to a formal public records request from Northern Journal.

Later, after the phone interview, Dunleavy, through an aide, agreed to share a single photo. It showed him wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt outside a tent, standing on artificial turf with a group of locals — and no falcons in sight.

Asked why no photos were released in response to the earlier request under the Alaska Public Records Act, Dunleavy’s records access officer, Guy Bell, said the image shared by the governor was “personal,” and “not acquired or used for state business.”

“Therefore, it is not considered a public record,” Bell said.

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.

University of Alaska staff announced a vote to form a union on Wednesday. The union would represent 2,300 permanent staff across the three universities and a dozen community campuses. 

Staff voted to form the union Coalition of Alaska University Staff for Equity, or CAUSE, which would be part of the national United Auto Workers union, in a 1,106 to 610 vote, with 64% voting yes. 

UA staff that would be represented by the union include student services staff, researchers, fiscal and administrative staff, development staff, science communicators, information systems specialists, library workers, athletics coaches and many others, according to a statement announcing the vote. 

“Amid growing uncertainty around state and federal funding for the University, staff cited several reasons for forming a union: consistency and competitiveness in pay and benefits; greater transparency in promotion, career development, and retention; fair workload; and more,” the statement said. 

“This is an exciting day for staff at UA,” said Mike DeLue, a researcher with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in the emailed statement. 

“We did our research, discussed and debated, and overwhelmingly chose to unionize. As soon as the result is certified, we’re ready to sit down with the University and work constructively on addressing the issues that motivated us to form a union in the first place. Improving our working conditions will help us serve more students, enhance UA’s research capacity, and support Alaska communities,” he said. 

The results of the union vote are expected to be certified on April 8, barring any objections or challenges filed by either of the parties, said Jonathon Taylor, director of UA public affairs, by email on Wednesday. 

Taylor also cited financial uncertainty as one of the reasons the university opposed the union effort, which he said was communicated to employees ahead of the vote.

“The university opposed unionization because we believed it would reduce flexibility, slow decision-making, and limit our ability to respond to financial uncertainty,” he said. “That position was operational, not ideological.”

“UA respects the outcome and the right of staff to organize,” he said by email. “We’ll be bargaining in good faith with CAUSE-UAW in accordance with Alaska labor law.”

Taylor noted that existing wages and working conditions will remain in place while the contract is negotiated. He said initial contracts take roughly 400 days to negotiate. He said a 3% salary increase the university requested of the Alaska State Legislature in next year’s budget for all unionized and non-union staff will not apply to the new union members since they are in the process of forming the union and have not yet negotiated a new contract.

“Under Alaska labor law and case law, a contract with a bargaining unit must be in place for negotiated raises to be requested and approved by the legislature,” he said. Taylor said the issue was communicated to staff ahead of the union vote. 

“Non-represented staff remain eligible for that increase,” he said. 

But Charlie Banks, an organizer for the union effort and an academic advisor with the University of Alaska Anchorage, said Thursday that it is the university’s choice, and the new union members should be eligible.

“We believe that the university has the ability to issue the pay increases to us,” she said in a phone interview.

She said support for salary increases is also a show of support for retaining staff, which she says is a common goal of both the union and the university.

“We agree with university admins concerns about difficulties with recruitment and retention. One of the main reasons for this is that Alaska is not keeping up with its peers in maintaining competitive packages for workers,” she said. “Not surprisingly, our peer institutions that have staff unions have much stronger recruitment tools because their contracts are responsive to their needs.”

The new staff union follows the 2024 unionization of UA graduate workers to form the Alaska Graduate Workers Association within the United Auto Workers Local 1907. The union represents graduate teaching assistants, researchers and fellows. They bargained their first three-year contract within 96 days, which secured higher pay, an updated grievance process and a change from at-will to just-cause employment, according to reporting from the student-run newspaper The Northern Light. 

The new staff union joins the national UAW union, which includes approximately 120,000 higher education workers across the country, including staff at the University of Washington and University of California. 

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