NOTN- Capital City Fire Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge will retire this fall after more than 15 years leading the department and 34 years in public service.
Etheridge told News of the North the time felt right to “hang up the helmet and put away the ax.”
“It’s just been a roller coaster of a ride,” Etheridge said. “I’ve got to do some amazing stuff, work with some fantastic people, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s always a new challenge. Prior to this, I used to get bored of jobs after just a couple of years. But every day is something different, something new. there’s challenges at every turn, so it’s been fun. If you like problem solving, it’s definitely a good career.”
Etheridge said he plans to remain in Juneau, spending more time with family and focusing on his woodworking business, Fairweather Woodworks, which started as a hobby for stress relief.
“It went from doing a lot of stuff for friends and neighbors to Hey, can you make this for me?” Etheridge said, “It’s just kind of naturally started growing, and so I’ll probably be doing that a little more full-time in retirement.”
Assistant Chief Sam Russell praised Etheridge’s leadership, saying the chief’s guidance made it easy for others to do their jobs.
“He’s fantastic to work with,” Russell said. “He’s always sort of looking forward to the next thing that needs to be done, and then lets us go to work trying to solve the problems.”
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau.
(Photo by Greg Knight/News of the North)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau.
(Photo by Greg Knight/News of the North)
A panel of state lawmakers voted 9-2 on Wednesday to approve spending up to $100,000 on a lawsuit against Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The lawsuit, if filed, would challenge the governor’s decision to press ahead with plans to create a cabinet-level Alaska Department of Agriculture via executive order.
The governor issued an executive order in January, but lawmakers rejected it in a 32-28 vote in March, saying they preferred to create it through legislation instead. Creating the department through legislation, legislative leaders said, would allow lawmakers to debate and structure the department how they wish, instead of relying on the governor’s plans alone.
Dunleavy disagrees with that approach and in August filed a new executive order during a 30-day special session.
The leaders of the House and Senate refused to accept the filing, saying that it was not within the governor’s power to issue an executive order during a special session, or to reintroduce an already-rejected order.
The governor’s office has said that lawmakers’ failure to vote down the new order means that it will take effect and allow the executive branch to create the cabinet-level department at the start of 2026.
Why does the Legislature’s failure to vote on the executive order matter?
Article III, section 23 of the Alaska Constitution says that executive orders automatically take effect “unless disapproved by resolution concurred in by a majority of the members in joint session.”
The question that could be decided in court is whether lawmakers need to take that vote if an order is issued during a special session. Is issuing an order in a special session even legal? And does it matter if the order is identical to one that’s already been issued and voted upon?
Under Article III, section 23 of the Alaska Constitution, the “legislature shall have sixty days of a regular session, or a full session if of shorter duration, to disapprove” executive orders that would make a change to the functions of the executive branch.
For almost two hours on Wednesday, members of the joint House-Senate Legislative Council — a committee that makes decisions for the Legislature when it is out of session — heard about the dispute behind closed doors, then debated it briefly in open session before voting.
“It’s a disagreement between the Legislature and the governor about whether or not the governor has the authority under the Alaska Constitution to introduce an executive order during a special session,” said Emily Nauman, director of Legislative Legal Services, the legal department for Alaska’s legislative branch.
Because the House and Senate’s presiding officers returned the order to the governor without taking action, “the governor is asserting that he will give effect to the executive order because it was not specifically rejected or disapproved by the legislature, thus causing a conflict in the interpretation of the Constitution between the Legislature and executive branch.”
Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, voted in favor of authorizing the Legislature to prepare and, if necessary, file a pre-emptive lawsuit to keep the governor from enacting the executive order.
“It’s just a question, to me, of, we said, ‘No. Don’t you understand what no means?’”
Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, also voted in favor of moving forward with a lawsuit. He said that while there is still time for the governor to back away from his position, “I really see it as our prerogative to protect ourselves procedurally, and for us to do that, I believe we need to file litigation.”
The two votes against Wednesday’s proposal came from Reps. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, and Mike Prax, R-North Pole.
Prax said he feels as if it could set a precedent that could allow lawmakers to disapprove of a future governor’s actions in a “more urgent” situation by simply not taking action.
“We would establish a precedent that the Legislature can do something by doing nothing, and that just does not seem like a very good practice to have established for any organization,” Prax said.
Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, said he doesn’t think that’s a correct interpretation of the lawsuit.
“With great respect to Representative Prax, no one is asserting here that the Legislature may act by inaction. What is before us is the question of whether the second shot at an executive order came in a way that the Constitution allows. I am convinced it did not.”
Kopp said he believes the governor may be prepared to change course on his executive action, and he’s reluctant to approve a lawsuit unless the governor attempts to take action and actually create the department.
“I would like to see us not initiate this until there’s some overt action by the administration that clearly indicates their intent to move unilaterally on this issue outside of the legislative process,” he said.
As of Friday, there was no estimate as to when a lawsuit might be filed.
Under the Alaska Constitution, the executive branch may not sue the legislative branch. Lawsuits by the Legislature against the governor are rare; this would be the fourth against Dunleavy during his two terms in office beginning in 2018.
In 2019, lawmakers sued the governor over a school funding issue. The governor won that case in the Alaska Supreme Court. The following year, legislators sued Dunleavy over their failure to consider some of his appointees during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The Alaska Supreme Court again ruled in Dunleavy’s favor.
In 2022, lawmakers filed a ‘friendly’ lawsuit against the governor in a dispute over the proper handling of oil and gas tax settlements. That dispute, which dates to the administration of Gov. Bill Walker, has yet to be decided by the Alaska Supreme Court.
The sign at the entrance to the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus welcomes students on Sept. 20, 2023. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The U.S. Department of Education has terminated grant funding for universities’ Alaska Native and Native-Hawaiian-serving programs and support services, an act that University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor Mike Sfraga said “will have a substantial and negative impact on a large number of Alaskans, including our Alaska Native students.”
Sfraga announced the federal decision in a campus-wide email on Thursday.
Mike Sfraga spoke at an Alaska Senate hearing in April 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Sfraga said the funding cut for UAF is estimated at $2.9 million, and the full effects are still under review. More than 20%, or an estimated 1,450 students at UAF are Indigenous, Sfraga noted.
The full extent of the grant funding freeze across the University of Alaska system is still being analyzed, said Jonathon Taylor, UA director of public affairs, by email on Friday.
UA President Pat Pitney said in an emailed statement on Friday that the university will continue to create a welcoming environment for all students.
“We are evaluating the impact these changes will have on our services to Alaska Native students, and are communicating directly with students, staff, and faculty who may be affected,” Pitney said. “A significant part of UA’s identity is our commitment to Alaska Native culture, language, art, heritage, business, and tribal management and governance; that remains unchanged. We proudly embrace our global leadership in Alaska Native and Indigenous studies, and will continue to sustain a welcoming environment where all – including our Alaska Native and Indigenous students – can thrive and succeed.”
Taylor said the University of Alaska Southeast has at least one grant-funded program on the Sitka campus aimed at improving student services, and university officials are waiting to hear whether it will be eliminated. Taylor said the University of Alaska Anchorage does not have any programs funded by this federal grant.
As of fall 2024, there were 3,254 students enrolled at the University of Alaska that identified as Alaska Native or American Indian, and 266 that identified as Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander, according to the university, and 19,629 students total across the UA system.
The University of Alaska announcements came after the Trump administration said Wednesday it will withhold an estimated $350 million of congressionally-approved funding for minority serving colleges and universities, saying the money will be allocated elsewhere. The measure continues President Donald Trump’s initiative to eliminate programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Sfraga said the federal government is allowing up to a year to close out the programs. UAF has multiple grants which fall under the program, Sfraga said, and most are under the College of Indigenous Studies and the UAF Community and Technical College.
Sfraga said the grant program does not fund student aid, but it does support degree programs and support services like student advising and recruiting, workforce development and student success initiatives across campuses.
University officials report that to date, the Trump administration has cancelled $6.6 million in research grants and almost $45 million has been frozen.
Each year, the university receives an estimated $250 million in federal research funds, Taylor said, adding that “95% of the university’s broad research portfolio remains intact. UA has experienced only minor disruptions as a result of the rapidly shifting policy picture in Washington, D.C., and we are closely monitoring developments as they evolve.”
Protesters gather at the Roadless Rule Rally September 13th, Photo by: Greg Knight/ News of the North
NOTN- Conservation group Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC) and local advocates like Juneau for Democracy are urging Alaskans to speak out against a federal proposal that could roll back long-standing protections for millions of acres in the Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.
The call to action culminated as Alaskans from Juneau to the organized village of Kake, rallied at the downtown whale statue, where they gathered in solidarity to oppose the Trump administration’s renewed attempt to rescind the federal roadless rule.
The roadless rule, adopted in 2001, bars large-scale commercial logging, mining, oil and gas development and road construction on 58.5 million acres of national forest land across the United States. In the Tongass alone, the protections cover 9.3 million acres of old-growth forest that support subsistence, recreation and some of the state’s most profitable industries.
“It was a rule process that involved the public for many years to get support, it was by far one of the biggest public participation events on a federal document in the history of the United States.” Said Nathan Newcomer, Federal Campaigns Manager of SEACC, “1.6 million people submitted comments on this rule-making process back in 2001, and the vast majority was support, it was 96% of Americans who wanted to see the Roadless Rule put in place.”
The Trump administration attempted to eliminate the rule once before, which triggered widespread public opposition before former President Joe Biden reinstated the protections.
The administration has now revived the effort, this time under an accelerated timeline.
A notice of intent was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 29, opening a public comment period of just 21 days, far shorter than most federal rulemaking processes. That window closes in less than a week.
“Initially it was only going to be 14 days that the public could comment on this document. That’s unheard of, It’s unprecedented. ” Said Newcomer, “They gave us an extra week, So they gave us 21 days.”
The window for public comment closes on September 19th.
Eagle Raven dancer Raelhiya Fulmer took part in the event. Photo: Greg Knight/ News of the North
Advocates say tribal voices have been sidelined in the process. The Organized Village of Kake, a federally recognized tribe, has led opposition to the rollback since the early 2000s. President Joel Jackson from the Organized Village Kake and President Mike Jones from the Organized Village of Kasaan joined Saturday’s rally in Juneau.
“We’ve been battling all this since time’s first contact,” said Áakʼw Ḵwáan Tribal spokesperson Fran Houston, “this was our land, this was our territory, and it was taken away from us. And now, hundreds of years later, here I am standing on the grounds of my ancestors, trying to protect what they had. we were forced to live in two worlds.”
“This is the home of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people, and to cut them out of the process is reprehensible.” Newcomer said, “I can tell the audience that the US Department of Agriculture was supposed to hold a tribal consultation online Zoom meeting with tribal governments, and then they canceled at the last minute and never rescheduled it. So what does that tell you?”
Áakʼw Ḵwáan Tribal spokesperson Fran Houston spoke at the event. Photo: Greg Knight/ News of the North
In a commentary article published by the Alaska Beacon, Ariel Hasse-Zamudio, public advocate with Juneau for Democracy and the Director of Alaska Energy Infrastructure, wrote, “For thousands of years, the Tongass National Forest has provided for the people and wildlife who have lived below its canopies and along its shorelines. The lands protected by the Roadless Rule are the delicate habitats that allow the rest of the forests to thrive. Resource development, while sometimes necessary, almost inevitably changes or destroys habitats essential to the flora and fauna humans depend on.”
Tourism and fishing, two industries closely tied to the health of the Tongass, contribute billions of dollars annually.
According to Newcomer and Hasse-Zamudio, commercial fishing generates more than $6 billion a year, while tourism adds more than $5 billion.
“Without this protection, the other parts of the forest that are able to be managed for logging and mining, won’t be healthy enough for us to even be able to use those resources.” said Hasse-Zamudio, “So this is also about the health of the entire forest, even the parts that are managed for resources.”
For now, the focus is on generating public comments before the deadline. As of this article, more than 86,000 comments have been submitted nationwide.
“It is a specific action everyone can take to elevate their voice and be a part of the democratic process, because it is work to be a citizen in a democracy, and this is how you participate.” Said Hasse-Zamudio.
Saturday’s protest included cultural performances, speakers from tribal governments and conservation groups, and a message of solidarity.
“Because we do live and work in this sacred land, and we need to stand up for it with one solid voice.” Said Newcomer.
Public comments can be submitted through the Federal Register under ‘Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands.’
For more information about the Roadless Rule, visit the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council website.
From the Southeast rainforest to the Arctic tundra, warming conditions are creating a variety of Alaska landslide hazards, some of them posing extreme hazards to human safety and others creating expensive problems for important infrastructure.
Just how many hazardous sites are out there? Bretwood “Hig” Higman, a geologist based in the Kenai Peninsula town of Seldovia, has done a basic inventory.
From 2012 to early this year, there have been more than 1,000 slow-moving slides of different varieties, with triggers that include receding glaciers, thawing permafrost, extreme weather or combinations of those factors, according to his calculations.
A Ketchikan landslide covers the Tongass Highway at a spot called Wolfe Point on March 20, 2025. The slide closed that part of the highway for days after, but there were no injuries that resulted from it. (Photo provided by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)
In a state where people contend with earthquakes, floods, wildfires and erupting volcanoes, it may be difficult to add another type of natural disaster to the public’s list of worries, Higman said. But elevating landslide awareness and preparedness is necessary as events increase, he said.
“It is vastly more risky than most things we deal with,” said Higman, a partner in an Alaska landslide science program created by the Massachusetts-based Woodwell Climate Research Center.
Shallow, sudden slides triggered by rain
The lesson has been learned in Southeast Alaska, where catastrophic slope failures triggered by extreme rains have proved deadly. Since 2015, 12 people have been killed by landslides in Sitka, Haines, Wrangell and Ketchikan. Victims included an entire family of five killed by a sudden slide in Wrangell in late 2023.
In Southeast Alaska, steep mountains that were created through tectonic processes rise from the water’s edge, and rain is frequent. It is naturally susceptible to landslides.
A rainstorm-caused landslide in Haines is seen on Dec. 3, 2020. Extreme rainfall caused several slides in that Southeast Alaska town, including one that killed two people. (Photo by Lt. Erick Oredson/U.S. Coast Guard)
“One of the primary processes that sculps the landscape in southeast Alaska is landslides and glaciers and rivers,” said Dennis Staley, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and Alaska landslide program leader. “When you combine rapid uplift with steep slopes with junky rock and lots of rainfall, you have all of the key ingredients for landslides.”
Southeast Alaska landslides are classified as shallow slides because they involve the soil, trees and other materials atop the bedrock rather than the rock itself. Those slides are numerous; the USGS recorded 162 news-reported slides in Southeast Alaska from 1990 to 2024. They are longstanding threats. A 1936 landslide in Juneau, for example, killed 15 people.
Now climate change is compounding the threat by creating more extreme rainfall events, driven by atmospheric rivers, as well as bringing more winter rain that, in other years, would be snowfall.
That means efforts to monitor landslide risks extend not just to topography studies but also the details about precipitation. Whether it is rain or snow – or rain-on-snow – has implications for slope stability, and the multiagency team studying landslide risks in Southeast Alaska has developed a prototype monitoring station to record precise qualities of the precipitation, as well as wind and temperature.
Dennis Staley, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska landslide team leader, stands in the agency’s Anchorage warehouse on Aug. 20, 2025, by a prototype of a monitoring device that scientists hope to use in Southeast Alaska. The device has instruments to measure wind, precipitation and discern whether precipitation is rain or snow. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Beyond federal and state agencies’ work and that of university organizations like the Alaska Earthquake Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, there is focused work by tribal governments and community organizations.
The Sitka Sound Science Center, previously known for its fisheries and ocean science work, now has one of the most well-developed landslide programs. The center’s landslide program was launched in 2015, after a slide there killed three. The center now maintains a local landslide hazards dashboard, and it participates in and coordinates a variety of research projects and educational programs.
One is the Kutí project, a partnership with the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and other tribal partners. Named for the Lingit word meaning “weather,” the program is funded by a National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2022. The purpose is development of a more regional Southeast Alaska monitoring, warning and educational system.
The Sitka center’s work has been hampered by Trump administration budget cuts and policies. A landslide conference that the center was set to host last spring was canceled because Trump administration policies prevented federal partners from attending.
Permafrost thaw and frozen lobes
A sign seen on May 5, 2023, advises travelers that the road through Denali National Park is closed at about its midway point because of the landslide at Pretty Rocks. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Farther north, slopes are shifting and creeping as permafrost thaws, creating hazards for infrastructure. The best-known case may be in Interior Alaska at Denali National Park and Preserve, where one of the more than 140 detected landslides along the park’s sole road interfered with travel.
That slide, at a site called Pretty Rocks at the midpoint of the 92-mile road, had been ongoing for years, creating maintenance headaches for park staffers trying to keep the road open. In 2021, it finally made the road impassable there.
A project is underway to create a bridge over the slide area, but it is proving more complicated than originally envisioned. Early on, it was estimated to cost a bit under $100 million and expected to be completed by the 2025 tourist season. Since then, the completion date has been pushed back, with full road access expected to resume in 2027. The cost is now estimated at $150 million, a figure that does not include potential work at other landslide sites along the park’s road.
More than infrastructure at risk from Interior landslides. Last summer, when a guided rafting expedition encountered a landslide on the Nenana River just outside the park, a woman in the party was killed.
A frozen debris lobe in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is seen in 2020. This lobe of frozen material was stable and nearly completely vegetated until about 2005, when it began to thaw and move downslope. (Photo provided by the National Park Service)
Yet farther north, masses of frozen material are working their way down to the corridor that holds the trans-Alaska pipeline. University of Alaska Fairbanks and state scientists have identified more than 200 of them in the Brooks Range. As of last year, said UAF’s Margaret Darrow, there were 99 identified along the Dalton Highway, the road that parallels the trans-Alaska pipeline and the sole land route to the Prudhoe Bay oil complex.
The conglomeration of moving ice, water, crumbling rock and vegetation have their own descriptive name: “frozen debris lobes.” Darrow, the principal investigator on various UAF projects, began studying them in 2011, when she drove up the Dalton Highway for a two-family camping trip with a colleague.
The lobes, which move more quickly than thawing permafrost but are not causing sudden collapse, proved enough of a threat to the highway that the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities rerouted a section in 2018, part of a $25 million project that addressed thaw problems along the highway.
The reconfiguration proved necessary. The leftover section of highway was left in place as a test site, and the frozen debris lobe continued to flow. By late 2023, it had shoved the leftover highway section about a foot to the side, according to research led by Darrow.
Margaret Darrow, in her University of Alaska Fairbanks office on Oct. 10, 2024, holds a piece of thin, brittle slate retrieved from a far-north site where thawing lobes of ice, rock, soil and vegetation are creeping down mountain slopes. The geology in those areas contributes to the slides. Darrow leads the UAF team studying the frozen debris lobes along the Dalton Highway and elsewhere in the Brooks Range. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
In the Arctic, in Alaska and elsewhere, permafrost thaw caused by warming temperatures has triggered widespread landslides known as retrogressive thaw slumps.
Among the affected sites is the Noatak Valley in mountainous Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, considered a hotpot for such slides. In that remote region, the safety of people and property is not much of an issue, but water quality can be. Numerous retrogressive thaw slumps have dumped tens of thousands of cubic meters of sediment into a single creek, according to the National Park Service.
Keeping abreast of the hazards from all types of unstable slopes in Alaska requires coordination by agencies at all levels of government, universities and other entities, said Jillian Nicolazzo, a geologist who leads the state’s landslide hazards program.
“At the moment, we can’t do it all,” said Nicolazzo, a geologist who leads the landslide program at the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. “Everyone pitches in a little bit, because it is just too much for any one agency.”
A retrogressive thaw slump in the Noatak National Preserve is seen in this photograph. The escarpment on the top is about 10 feet tall. (Photo provided by the National Park Service)
Addressing federal uncertainty
The state program gets funding from the USGS, and a big boost for U.S. landslide monitoring has been provided by the National Landslide Preparedness Act signed into law in 2021. Through that act, Congress in 2021 appropriated $4 million specifically to landslide hazards in Prince William Sound.
But the law, which authorized federal funding for landslide programs, expired in 2024.
Legislation is pending in Congress to reauthorize it, with sponsors from Alaska and Washington, states with deadly slides in recent years. One bill is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington. Another is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington.
Without reauthorization, prospects for future funding are clouded.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year would cut funding for USGS natural hazards work – which includes landslide hazards – by about a quarter, from $203 million to $157 million, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
As with the canceled Sitka conference, Trump administration policy interrupted landslide work last spring in Prince William Sound. Massive federal layoff and spending freezes prevented some planned maintenance work at the Barry Arm landslide site.
If federal support for Alaska landslide monitoring becomes spotty, there is a potential backstop: citizen science.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks on April 22, 2025, at the Alaska Infrastructure Development Symposium in Anchorage. Murkowski and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, are sponsoring a bill to reauthorize the National Landslide Preparedness Act. A similar bill is pending in the U.S. House. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys earlier this year launched an online app through which members of the public can report the landslide risks they encounter. Those could be actual slides, small rockfalls, cracks or anything unusual, and the division encourages people to submit photographs.
The hope is that important information will be gathered “if people are out hunting and fishing and recreating, especially if they see a lot of landslides that we don’t,” Nicolazzo said.
Without help from the public, scientists like her have to rely a lot on things like satellite imagery, she said. “I mostly sit at a computer and look at Google Earth. The images can be years old,” she said.
So far, the Alaska Landslide Reporter app has not been promoted or used much. But Nidolazzo is hopeful about its eventual utility.
Public awareness is, for now, the prime solution to the landslide problem in a place as big, mountainous, wild and fast-changing as Alaska, Nicolazzo said.
“I think educating people about the risk is the best we can do at this point. Because the area is so large and people are everywhere,” she said.
The U.S. Capitol on July 2, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan joined fellow Senate Republicans Wednesday night in voting to set aside a budget amendment that would have compelled the U.S. Department of Justice to release files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The vote to table the amendment, stopping the Senate from considering it, was 51-49.
All of the Senate’s Democrats voted in favor of the amendment, as did Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The failure of either of Alaska’s Republican senators to vote for the amendment drew criticism from the Alaska Democratic Party.
Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (Alaska Beacon file photos)
Murkowski, talking by phone on Thursday, said the amendment, proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, came as a surprise, and she voted against it for procedural reasons, not because she opposes the idea of a release.
“What Schumer did was nothing more than a political stunt,” Murkowski said.
In July, Murkowski and other members of a Senate budget subcommittee voted unanimously to amend a proposed appropriations bill to mandate that the U.S. Department of Justice compile a report on the activities of Epstein, a sex trafficker with extensive ties to rich and powerful people worldwide. Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial in 2019.
The final text of the bill requires a report, but not the release of original documents in the possession of the federal government.
President Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the documents during last year’s presidential election, but this summer has since broken that campaign pledge, downplaying the case
In February, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had Epstein’s client list “sitting on my desk right now.” But in July the FBI announced in a memo that there was no “client list” and no more public information would be released. The announcement caused a public outcry, and the federal government still has not released the documents.
Trump’s social relationship with Epstein was well-documented, and this week, the Wall Street Journal published a copy of a birthday greeting Trump sent to Epstein in 2003. Trump has claimed the letter doesn’t exist, but it bears his signature.
The letter was released to the public after being obtained by U.S. House members investigating the Epstein case.
“I have been — I don’t know if it’s fair to say one of the rare Republicans — certainly a very early Republican on the Senate side who said, ‘Look, just, just release these Epstein files. Just get this stuff out there,” Murkowski said.
The appropriations bill with Murkowski’s preferred Epstein language would fund the U.S. Department of Justice and other commerce and science-related parts of the federal government. For that reason, it’s been nicknamed the “CJS bill.”
It has not yet come to a floor vote, and with senators hurrying to pass budget bills before the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, it isn’t clear when it will come up.
“Will we see the CJS as part of a floor package that could move through the Senate? It’s not impossible, but we are kind of running out of daylight,” Murkowski said.
Schumer’s amendment would have forced the Senate to debate the Epstein issue immediately, as part of the annual defense authorization bill now under debate.
In response to a request for comment, Sullivan’s office issued a written statement that also criticized Schumer’s amendment and defended his vote.
It said in part, “Senator Sullivan has repeatedly said that he believes the DOJ should release as much information as possible on Epstein’s horrific crimes, while protecting survivors. Chuck Schumer tried slipping the Epstein provision into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), knowing full well it would be stripped out as the bill went through the process, leaving no doubt he’s using Epstein’s atrocious crimes as a political pawn instead of focusing on building up our military in the NDAA, which Schumer has never shown any interest in doing.”
Murkowski said the amendment disrupted normal work on the defense bill and “threw a real wrench into the whole negotiated process that had really been moving along in a positive way.”
She said she believes Schumer brought up the Epstein issue because Senate Republicans are preparing to change the rules for the confirmation of Trump’s executive-branch nominations.
Ordinarily, the Senate approves uncontroversial nominees without a roll-call vote to make the process more efficient. Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, none of his nominees have been approved without a roll-call vote, an unprecedented change in the Senate, and one that has slowed both the Senate and the Trump administration’s confirmations.
In response, Senate Republicans are planning to change the Senate’s rules to allow the approval of multiple nominees with a single vote.
“I think he was trying to kind of change the narrative,” Murkowski said of Schumer’s proposed amendment. “I don’t think he was making much headway on his pushback on some of the nominations. And he made a decision that, I think, is going to be short-lived in its political fire. He really kind of poisoned the waters around here in terms of good-faith negotiations.”
The day after the vote, Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft released a statement, saying by email: “Just two months ago, Dan Sullivan called on the Department of Justice to release the documents to shine a light on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes. But last night, Dan Sullivan was a deciding vote to continue the cover-up and block an effort to force the DOJ to release the Epstein files. Instead of listening to Alaskans and the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, Sullivan acted in his usual fashion – like a spineless politician who’s only loyal to his billionaire buddies. Alaskans and survivors deserve better.”
Sullivan faces re-election in 2026 and is running for another term in Congress.
To date, no Democrat has filed with the Alaska Division of Elections to challenge Sullivan. Filings with the Federal Elections Commission show Republican Christopher Miklos of Homer and Democrat Ann Diener of Fairbanks have filed forms necessary to begin fundraising.
The U.S. House, meanwhile, is close to having enough support to force a vote on the Epstein issue. While Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, opposes bringing up the topic, a bipartisan petition could override the Speaker if it has 218 signatures. As of Wednesday night, it had 217. Alaska’s lone member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Nick Begich, has not signed the discharge petition. His office did not respond to questions about his position on the Epstein issue and whether he will sign the petition.
9/11 Memorial ceremony at Glacier Valley Rotary Park, Photo by Greg Knight/NOTN
September 11, 2025, 24 years after the day the world changed forever. 9/11.
Across the State of Alaska, remembrances were held in many boroughs and communities. In Juneau, one of the largest remembrances in the state was held at Riverside Rotary Park in the Capital City.
Capital City Fire Rescue Chief Rich Etheridge spoke to why the day of remembrance is so important, even more than two decades later.
“So many people gave their lives, had lives taken, and it was the one moment in our history that I was aware of where we all came together, not just as a nation, but as a world, to stand up and look out for each other.” Ethridge said, “It was a moment in time that lasted for a little bit, and it started to fade. And so, you know, we’ve all promised never to forget that day and those events and really live up to what it was and celebrate the heroes that charged in, even though they knew that it was a one way trip.”
Alaska Representative Andi Story, whose District 3 seat ranges from Juneau north, attended the event.
“So many people lost their lives that day, and we need to let the families know that we care for them.” Story said, “We haven’t forgotten so many people went and served and tried to move our country more towards peace. And their efforts are admirable, and they suffered for it, and we need to stand with them.”
We remember. But what does it mean to remember now, after two decades, a new generation, and the scars that never fully heal? The story of 9/11 isn’t just about history; it’s a living question.
How do we keep honoring the past without being chained to it?
NOTN- Juneau officials are moving forward with plans to buy two floors of the Michael J. Burns building downtown, calling it the most financially responsible option for consolidating city staff after voters rejected a proposal for a new City Hall.
At a work session this week, the assembly voted to advance negotiations on the purchase to the full assembly for final approval. A decision could come within the next month.
Assembly member Christine Woll, head of the Finance Committee said the city’s current office spaces are aging and expensive to maintain. “The Burns building has emerged as the most financially responsible option, and makes the most sense to bring all our city employees into a single building that’s not leaking like our other locations right now. And so last night, we officially moved that decision to negotiate purchase to the full assembly, so we’ll ultimately make that final decision in about a month. But this was the last big stop to say, yes, this is what we’re interested in doing.”
If approved, the city would form a condominium association with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, which owns part of the building. Renovations would be required to adapt the space for municipal use.
Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, speaks Friday, April 12, 2024, on Senate Bill 187, the capital budget. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower will run for lieutenant governor alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, the two announced Tuesday night in Big Lake.
Wilson is the first of Alaska’s 10 governor candidates to announce her running mate.
The other nine candidates include former Democratic Sen. Tom Begich of Anchorage and eight Republicans: former state Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks; former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum; current state Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom of Eagle River; Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries; podiatrist Matt Heilala of Anchorage; former teacher James William Parkin IV of Angoon; and Bruce Walden of Palmer. Former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor is also expected to file for the office.
Current Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, said he will run for Shower’s seat in the state Senate. Rauscher previously ran for Senate in 2018 and said he put his name in “one minute after Bernadette stated it was Shower.”
By phone, Wilson said the lieutenant governor has two jobs: taking care of the state seal, and taking care of elections.
“The Division of Elections is incredibly important and too important to get passed off to who is the politically expedient candidate,” she said.
Bernadette Wilson and Mike Shower pose for a photo on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Big Lake, Alaska. (Bernadette Wilson photo)
Wilson said she believes “election integrity and the ability to vote at the ballot box is the very foundation of the Republic” and said that Shower is the right person to fix problems with voting in rural Alaska, an unusually large voter roll, and slow-to-arrive results.
“I felt very confident that Sen. Mike Shower has the knowledge in that area. It is an area that he is passionate about, which is the first step in solving any problem, and he’s worked on that extensively. So I felt that that was incredibly important and made him the best choice for Alaska’s next lieutenant governor,” she said.
Shower served over 20 years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and currently works as a commercial cargo pilot.
Shower was originally appointed to the Senate in February 2018 to replace Mike Dunleavy, who held the seat until resigning to run for governor. Elected on his own merits later that year and re-elected in 2022, he has repeatedly introduced proposals to make changes to the state’s elections system.
His first proposal was introduced in 2019 related to election security protocols, before President Donald Trump began lying about fraud in the 2020 election.
Currently the Senate’s minority leader, he has regularly re-introduced legislation related to the state’s elections system and has frequently been a key figure in end-of-session negotiations on the topic. Thus far, the Legislature has been unable to pass significant changes.
As a member of the Senate, Shower has consistently endorsed the idea of a large Permanent Fund dividend, going so far as to propose a statewide tax in order to pay for it.
Wilson said that she and Shower are confident in their ability to win the governor’s race, but if they finish behind another Republican in the August primary, they will withdraw and throw their support behind the leading Republican.
Under Alaska’s current voting system, all candidates for the same office run in the same race, regardless of political party. The top four-vote getters advance to the general election, where Alaskans use ranked choice voting to pick the ultimate winner.
Wilson, one of the leaders of a campaign to repeal that system, said she believes “that when you’ve got multiple people on the ballot of any party, it leads to so much confusion, it leads to voters only ranking one at the end of the day. … I think it’s very arrogant to say, Well, I’m not the top vote getter, but I’m going to stay in anyways. I just don’t think that that’s appropriate.”
An Anchorage Superior Court judge’s ruling has cleared the way for the state of Alaska to repeal its “80th Percentile Rule,” enacted by the state in 2004 as part of an attempt to reduce health care costs in the state.
The Dunleavy administration repealed the rule in 2024, saying it was counterproductive and argued it contributed to higher health care costs. Medical providers say that isn’t true and that repealing the rule will cause some clinicians to close down.
In 2023, a group of medical providers sued the state, alleging problems with the process used to repeal the rule. On Aug. 27, following a four-day bench trial in February, Judge Yvonne Lamoureaux ruled in favor of the state.
In her findings of fact and conclusions of law, Lamoureaux concluded that the repeal was not “unreasonable or arbitrary,” and the state did not conduct an improper procedure.
An appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court is possible.
When in place, the rule required that insurance companies reimburse out-of-network medical providers at a rate equal to the 80th percentile of charges for the given service.
If five clinics provide a given procedure, the required payment would be what the second-most-expensive clinic charges.
The rule was intended to prevent Alaskans from being left with large medical bills after visiting out-of-network clinics. The state and Alaska’s largest health insurance company, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, contend that it required insurance companies to pay more for services than was warranted, contributing to higher insurance costs.
