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Alaska governor pitches big tax break to spur $46B gas line

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy delivers the annual State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in the Alaska Capitol. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

By: Sean Maguire, Alaska Beacon

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy delivers the annual State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in the Alaska Capitol. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed eliminating property taxes for the Alaska LNG project to incentivize development of the $46 billion gas line and export facilities. 

The bill was introduced to the Legislature on Mar. 20 and would exempt the project from local taxes in Alaska, including property and sales taxes. Instead, a volume-based tax would be levied once the pipeline starts producing significant quantities of gas from the North Slope. 

In a statement, Dunleavy said his legislation “removes a structural barrier” that would help get the gas line built. The project is expected to create thousands of construction jobs, spur the development of new industries and potentially lower power and heating bills for consumers.

“We bring more gas into Alaska and stabilize supply — that lowers cost for families like yours and businesses,” Dunleavy said Wednesday on social media. 

The state of Alaska is expected to collect over $22.5 billion in new revenue from the project over the next 36 years, primarily from production taxes and royalties, according to state economists. 

In addition to exempting the project from property and sales taxes during its ramp-up period, the Alaska Department of Revenue estimates Dunleavy’s bill would equate to a 90% reduction in property tax revenue, once the pipeline is at full capacity.  

Municipal governments are expected to take the biggest hit from that change. If the project was built under current tax law, they would collect an extra $13 billion in revenue through 2062, or $360 million annually.

Some long-time lawmakers have questioned whether the pipeline will result in reduced gas prices. Others have questioned why such a sharp reduction in property taxes is needed. 

‘Industrial renaissance’

An 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope to deliver natural gas to market has been a dream in Alaska for decades. But prior efforts have all fallen short. 

Supporters say its prospects have never been stronger. Key permits are in hand, several Asian nations are interested in buying Alaska’s gas, and President Donald Trump has voiced support for the project.

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich has been hired by the Dunleavy administration to help advance the pipeline. He told lawmakers the 1973 oil shock helped spur development of North Slope oil. Now, war in the Middle East has upended LNG production and raised prices, which makes Alaska natural gas more attractive, he said.

“This is our moment,” he said to the House Resources Committee on Monday, calling the gas line “an incredible project.” 

Glenfarne, a New York-based company, signed on to develop the pipeline last January. It owns 75% of the project while the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., a state agency, owns the remaining 25%.

But the economics of the $46 billion gas line remain uncertain.

Glenfarne chose to split the project in two. The first phase would see construction of a pipeline for domestic consumption, with delivery of gas targeted for 2029. The second phase would construct a plant and shipping terminal in Cook Inlet for export. 

Alaska’s current tax structure means a 2% property tax can be levied on oil and gas infrastructure. 

Dunleavy’s tax proposal would impose a volume-based alternative. A new tax would be levied at 6 cents on every thousand cubic feet of gas, which would increase by 1% annually.

The tax would only be imposed once the pipeline delivers an average of 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day or 10 years after gas starts being produced. 

Dan Stickel, economist with the Department of Revenue, on Wednesday said reducing property taxes would help with front-end costs. He said the agency is not examining Dunleavy’s bill as a tax cut because it would help spur the pipeline and potentially lead to new state revenue.

Stickel told the House Resources Committee that AGDC and Glenfarne have said the project will not move forward without property tax relief. 

At full capacity, the pipeline is expected to deliver 3.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Southcentral Alaska’s demand for Cook Inlet gas equates to roughly 70 billion cubic feet of gas per year.

Glenfarne Group CEO and founder Brendan Duval and Alaska LNG President Adam Prestidge stand while Gov. Mike Dunleavy recognizes them during his State of the State address on Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

Adam Prestidge, president of Glenfarne Alaska LNG, said the project would be an “industrial renaissance” for Alaska. It could create 7,000 jobs during construction and spur new opportunities such as data centers, he said.

Wearing a lapel pin in a House Resources Committee hearing that said “build the line,” Prestidge told lawmakers discussions on gas agreements are ongoing with Alaska utilities. He said agreements could be signed and made public in the next couple of months.

“This is the only way to significantly bring down the cost of energy for Alaskans,” he said.

‘Huge give’

The Alaska Department of Revenue estimates the state would receive $22.5 billion in revenue from the gas line through 2062. The majority of that windfall would come from production taxes and royalties. 

Compared to Alaska’s current tax regime, Dunleavy’s proposal would see the state miss out on $200 million per year from property taxes once the pipeline is at full capacity, projections show. 

The alternative tax structure proposed by the governor would see $64 million per year collected by municipalities at full gas production and $9 million annually by the state.

For municipalities, there would be a bigger hit.

The gas line is expected to be built through four municipalities that collect property taxes: the North Slope Borough, Denali Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Kenai Peninsula Borough.  

Under Alaska’s current tax structure, municipal governments would be expected to share in $17.3 billion from the pipeline through 2062. Under Dunleavy’s tax bill, it would be below $4 billion. 

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski, vice-chair of the Senate Resources Committee, spoke at a Tuesday news conference. He said legislators would look closely at Dunleavy’s proposed tax break and determine whether a 90% cut in property taxes is appropriate. 

“I don’t know anybody in the Legislature who doesn’t want a gas pipeline. The question is, what is it going to take to get it?” Wielechowski said. 

State projections show that under both tax systems, the owners of the pipeline are expected to collect $60 billion over the next 36 years.

Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel, chair of the Senate Resources Committee, estimates Alaska has invested $1.1 billion to build a natural gas pipeline, but nothing has been built. 

On Tuesday, Giessel cited costs like public safety that could be borne by communities along the proposed pipeline. She said it would likely take until the second phase of the project before 1 billion cubic feet of gas is produced per day. Meaning, it could take years before municipalities collect Dunleavy’s volume-based tax, she said.

“That’s a long time for these communities to have no property tax,” she said. 

State data suggests local governments would take $6.3 billion in property taxes through 2042. Dunleavy’s volume-based tax would net them $1.3 billion over the same period.

“This is a huge give to the company,” Giessel said. “Will it still be enough for them? I don’t know.” 

Mayors in impacted communities are set to testify on the governor’s tax proposal on Friday afternoon before the Senate Resources Committee. 

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Cast a ballot and wait for the plane. In Alaska, a grace period for ballots is seen as a necessity

A sign hangs outside the director's office of the Alaska Division of Elections, Thursday, March 19. 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
A sign hangs outside the director’s office of the Alaska Division of Elections, Thursday, March 19. 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

 AP- The tiny Alaska Native village of Beaver is about 40 minutes — by plane — from the nearest city. Its roughly 50 residents rely on weekday flights for mail and many of their basic supplies, from groceries to Amazon deliveries of everyday household items.

Air service plays an outsize role in the nation’s most expansive state, where most communities rely on flights for year-round access. Planes also play a critical role in elections, getting voting materials and ballots to and from rural precincts such as Beaver and in delivering ballots for thousands of Alaskans who vote by mail — some in places where in-person voting is not available.

The vast distances and relative isolation of so many communities make Alaska unique and are why its residents have a significant interest in arguments taking place Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many here worry that a case from Mississippi challenging whether ballots received after Election Day can be counted in federal elections could end Alaska’s practice of accepting late-arriving ballots. Alaska counts ballots if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days, or 15 days for overseas voters in general elections.

“These processes have been in place for a long time just to ensure that our ballots are counted,” said Rhonda Pitka, a poll worker and first chief in Beaver, which sits along the Yukon River 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Fairbanks.

If the court decides ballots in all states must be received by Election Day, she said, “They’ll be disenfranchising thousands of people — thousands of people in these rural communities. It’s just basically saying that their votes don’t count, and that’s a real shame.”

Some ballots already arrive late

Alaska is one of 14 states that allow all mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive days or weeks later and be counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Voting Rights Lab. An additional 15 provide grace periods for military and overseas ballots.

But Alaska’s geography, weather and great distances between communities — Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, the nation’s second-largest state — raise the stakes for voters. The unusual way the state counts its votes also makes a grace period important, advocates say.

Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system for general elections, workers in small rural precincts call in voters’ first choices to a regional election office. All ballots, however, ultimately are flown to the state Division of Elections in the capital, Juneau. There, the races not won outright are tabulated to determine a winner.

Even with Alaska’s current 10-day grace period, ballots from some villages in 2022 were not fully counted because of mail delays. They arrived too late for tabulations in Juneau, 15 days after Election Day.

If the Supreme Court rules that ballots cannot be counted if they arrive at election offices after Election Day, scores of Alaska voters could be affected. About 50,000 Alaskans voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think there’s probably no other state where this ruling could have a more detrimental impact than ours,” Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski said in an interview.

Murkowski sees the case — a challenge by the Republican National Committee and others to Mississippi’s allowance of late-arriving ballots — as an effort to end voting by mail nationwide.

‘Seeing a level of voter intimidation’

The RNC argues such grace periods improperly extend elections for federal office, but Mississippi responded that no voting occurs after Election Day — only the delivery and counting of already completed ballots.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments as the U.S. Senate is debating legislation being pushed by President Donald Trump that would require people to show proof-of-citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.

Taken together, Murkowski said such efforts could discourage people from voting.

“I think we’re seeing a level of voter intimidation, I’ll just say it,” she said. “I feel very, very strongly that the effort that we should be making at the federal level is to do all that we can to make our elections accessible, fair and transparent for every lawful voter out there.”

Alaska’s other congressional members, Rep. Nick Begich and Sen. Dan Sullivan, both Republican allies of Trump who are seeking reelection this year, support the SAVE America Act now before the Senate. But they also said they want to ensure that ballots properly cast on or before Election Day get counted.

“We’ll see what the courts choose to do on that issue, but I do think that we need to allow for time for ballots to come in from the rural parts of our state,” Begich said during a recent visit to Juneau.

Alaska officials highlight challenges to the court

A court filing in the Mississippi case by Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox and Solicitor General Jenna Lorence did not take sides but outlined geographic and logistical challenges to holding elections in Alaska.

In Atqasuk, on Alaska’s North Slope, poll workers counted votes on election night in 2024, tallies they would normally relay by phone to election division officials. But the filing said they could not get through and “chose what they saw as the next best solution — they placed the ballots and tally sheets into a secure package and mailed them to the Division, who did not receive them until nine days later.”

The filing seeks clarity from the Supreme Court, particularly around what it means for ballots to be received by Election Day.

While it is clear when a ballot is cast, “when certain ballots are actually ‘received’ is open to different interpretations, especially given the connectivity challenges for Alaska’s far-flung boroughs,” Cox and Lorence wrote.

Effect on Native voters

Lawyers with the Native American Rights Fund and Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center said in filings with the court that limited postal service in rural areas means that some ballots might not be postmarked until they reach Anchorage or Juneau, which can take days.

In the 2022 general election, between 55% and 78% of absentee ballots from the state House districts spanning from the Aleutian Islands up the western coast to the vast North Slope arrived at an election office after Election Day, they wrote. Statewide, about 20% of all absentee ballots in that election were received after Election Day.

Requiring ballots to be received by Election Day, they warned, would “disproportionately disenfranchise” Alaska Native voters. The lawyers represent the National Congress of American Indians, Native Vote Washington and the Alaska Federation of Natives.

Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out the Native Vote, a nonpartisan voting rights advocacy group affiliated with the Alaska Federation of Natives, worries about creating confusion and fear among voters.

She sees the case before the Supreme Court and the Republican SAVE Act as “a multipronged attempt to take control or wrest control of elections away from states.” Alaska, she said, already has enough inherent barriers for many voters.

“There is a minute record of election fraud — not at the rate that requires this heavy-handed response through the legislature and the Supreme Court,” she said.

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Alaska Senate pushes for increase in oil tax revenue, amid war-driven oil boom

By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon

An oil tanker sits at the dock in Valdez, where vessels pick up crude moved from the North Slope by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. (ConocoPhillips photo)

The Alaska Senate approved a measure to boost state taxes on oil and gas production on Wednesday. Lawmakers tacked it on to what would have been a routine renewal of a state oil royalty agreement.

Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, sponsored the amendment to House Bill 194, saying it would close a corporate income tax loophole and potentially capture more than $100 million in new state revenues each year — at a time when Alaska is in dire need of revenue to pay for state services. 

Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage speaks on the Senate floor on Mar. 25, 2026 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage speaks on the Senate floor on Mar. 25, 2026 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

“Can we afford this loophole while we close schools? Can we afford this tax subsidy while we slash the permanent fund dividend? Can we afford this tax subsidy while our infrastructure languishes, while we struggle to recruit and retain state troopers and firefighters and maintenance crews?” Dunbar said. “The answer is no.”

The provision would impose the state’s corporate tax rate on oil and gas companies doing business in the state, at a maximum rate of 9.4% for companies whose net profits are more than $5 million per year. 

Alaska’s oil prices are surging amid the Iran War, and state forecasters are projecting hundreds of millions in potential state revenue in the coming months. Despite the spike in oil prices, Dunbar said lawmaker action to capture more revenue from the oil and gas industry is long overdue. 

“There is still a long term revenue problem in this state, regardless of short term prices connected to the Iran war,” he said. “Now is the time to do this. Prices for oil are high. These corporations are doing very well. You fix the roof when the sun is shining.”

The Senate approved the amendment by an 11 to 8 vote, then passed the underlying legislation by a 12 to 7 vote, with Sen. Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River, absent. 

The original legislation was introduced by the governor, and passed the Alaska House last year. It would renew a three-year oil royalty agreement between the state and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, for state owned oil to be processed at its refinery in Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula. The proposed contract is estimated to generate between $4 million to $18 million in state revenue.

However the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Soldotna, objected to the new oil tax provision, saying the Senate should take time to evaluate how the tax measure would affect the broader industry and energy supply for Alaskans. 

“I’m a no vote on this amendment, because we do need a legitimate plan,” he said. “We don’t rush things. We don’t do things in a half-cocked manner, because that’s how mistakes are made.”

He said lawmakers should model potential revenue measures so they know how they will function within a state fiscal plan.

Lawmakers have been hotly debating Alaska’s oil and gas tax structure for years. A bill introduced last year, Senate Bill 92, would change the way the state’s corporate income tax applies to the oil company Hilcorp, which is an S-corporation, and the state’s largest oil producer. Hilcorp is a privately held, Texas-based energy company that since 2020 has operated the Prudhoe Bay oil field in the North Slope, as well as most of the operations in Cook Inlet. 

That bill is currently in the Senate Rules Committee and has not moved this year. 

The measure approved by the Senate on Wednesday would enact state taxes not just on Hilcorp but many companies, and collect revenues that would otherwise be leaving the state, Dunbar said in an interview after the vote.

“To be clear, it’s not just Hilorp that might be affected by this, but that is one of the large, obvious holes we see in our oil tax structure right now that is causing us to shift tens of millions, and over the long term, hundreds of millions of dollars, from schools and roads and the permanent fund dividend to out of state companies and individuals,” he said.

The amended bill now goes to the House for a concurrence vote. 

Dunbar urged support for the measure, citing financial woes in his own district where the Anchorage School Board has voted to close three elementary schools and cut hundreds of staff positions to help address a $90 million budget shortfall. 

“I hope they agree that it’s not an acceptable world where the price is high and this industry is booming and we are closing Lake Otis Elementary School because we don’t have enough money,” he said.

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Alaska House passes elections overhaul bill amid national debate around voter access

By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon

A polling place sign at the State Office Building in Juneau on Aug. 15, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)

The Alaska House of Representatives passed an elections bill aimed at streamlining the state’s voting process and updating the voter rolls with a bipartisan vote on Monday. If signed into law, the bill would implement a new ballot tracking system, provide paid postage for all absentee mail-in ballots and implement provisions for faster election results, among other changes. 

The House passed Senate Bill 64 by a 23 to 16 vote on Monday evening, with Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, absent. Three members of the House minority caucus joined the majority in supporting the legislation: Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, and Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan. 

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, sponsored the legislation as chair of the Senate Rules Committee and said at a news conference on Tuesday the bill was at least a decade in the making and the result of a bipartisan effort. 

“We’re going to agree on the things that we can agree on, things that just fundamentally make our elections better. And after 10 years, I think this bill does that,” he said. “It’s not a perfect bill. There are still things that need to be worked on, but this goes a long way towards improving our election system for every single person in the state of Alaska.”

The House made a variety of changes to the bill that the Senate passed last year, and the bill now goes back to the Senate for a concurrence vote on Wednesday. If signed into law by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, some elections changes would be implemented immediately, like a review of the voter rolls. Changes to ballot tracking and curing would go into effect after the August primary. 

Lawmakers have focused on updating the state’s voter rolls to make sure voters are currently living in Alaska. Wielechowski said the new system will help the state maintain active voter rolls. 

“We have 105% more registered voters than we have eligible citizens in the state of Alaska,” Wielechowski said, calling the discrepancy a “fundamental problem.”

“Everyone in Alaska knows that our elections in Alaska are probably the most difficult elections to conduct in the United States for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of geography, because of weather, because people are just spread out over such a vast area,” he said.

Under SB 64, the Division of Elections would send a notice to confirm address and residency in Alaska if the voter has:

  • Registered to vote in a another state
  • Received a driver’s license in another state
  • Registered a vehicle in another state
  • Served on a jury in another state
  • Receives a residential property tax exemption in another state
  • Receives public assistance in another state

If the bill passes, the Alaska Division of Elections will review the voter rolls and, based on a list of factors, send a postcard by mail to verify a voter’s address and establish residency. Once the notices are sent, voters have a period of 45 days to respond and confirm their Alaska residency to the division — or be moved to an inactive voter list for a period of 28 months or two elections. 

Some members of the Republican House minority caucus expressed concern that military members stationed overseas would be kicked off the voter roles. 

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer and a member of the minority caucus, spearheaded the House version of the bill and said that even if voters are inactive, they will still be on a master voter list for eight years, under federal law.

“We cannot cancel, according to federal law, someone off of the master register for eight years. So this includes the military voters,” she said. “But I want to make sure that everyone else understands they’re not going to be inadvertently canceled either.”

Under the bill, voters would be able to show identification issued from a federally recognized tribe to register to vote or for voting. To confirm active voting status, voters would be able to  contact the division by calling, emailing or by voting.

Under the Senate’s version of the bill, the state would have done away with the requirement of a witness signature for all absentee mail-in ballots, but the House objected to that change and opted to keep the witness signature.  

If passed, the bill would also allow voters to fix mistakes on their ballot – a process called ballot curing — by requiring the division to contact the voter by phone or email within 24 hours. Within two to five days, the division would send notification by mail. The voter would have to return a form to correct the ballot with a copy of identification by email or by mail within 10 days of the election for their ballot to be counted.  

If passed, the bill would require the state to provide paid postage for all absentee mail-in ballots. The state would also enact a new tracking system so that voters will be notified when their ballot is received and counted. 

Wielechowski said that will help with transparency, as will new provisions to get election results published faster. Additionally, the elections department will start reviewing ballots 12 days ahead of Election Day — five days earlier than under current law — to allow more ballots to be counted on Election Day.

Other provisions in the bill include:

  • Require all absentee ballots to be received within 10 days of Election Day; 
  • Establish a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers;
  • Require the Permanent Fund Dividend Division to share data to improve the accuracy of the voter rolls’
  • Require the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach;
  • Require the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results.
  • Require presidential ballots to include a line for write-in votes for president and vice president 
  • Updates crimes of unlawful interference with an election, ballot tampering and election official misconduct

Wielechowski said the new rural liaison established by the bill would be charged with helping small, rural communities prepare to hold their elections, coordinate equipment and polling places, and hire poll workers to improve operations on Election Day.

“That person is responsible for working with the local villages … working with those communities to ensure that all the citizens are able to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” he said.

He pointed to recent examples of rural residents missing out on opportunities to vote due to issues with poll workers.

“The polls never opened in Wales in 2024 in the primary. The polls in Anaktuvuk Pass in 2024 opened up 30 minutes before closing, and roughly seven people out of about 250 were able to vote in that election in person,” Wielowski said. 

The changes to Alaska’s process of voting and elections this year could come amid potential sweeping changes to national elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that would require all ballots to be received by Election Day in order to be counted for federal elections. 

All ballots received after that deadline would be thrown out, which could potentially disenfranchise thousands of Alaska voters who cast ballots that may be delayed by weather, flight delays or election logistics challenges. 

“It’s going to create some havoc in our election system, and it may very well require a special session for us to come in and deal with it,” Wielechowski said. “And so you could get in a situation where you have ballots coming in that don’t count for the federal election, but do count for the state election. And so there would have to be some kind of way that you figure out how to process those ballots in a different manner.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule next summer. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is putting pressure on the U.S. Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would, in part, require voters to present identification and proof of U.S. citizenship in person when they vote. 

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has loudly opposed the bill, saying it’s logistically impossible for most Alaskans, as the state only has six in-person elections offices and fewer than a dozen DMV offices. Republicans U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III have supported the bill, saying they don’t think it would be hard to comply with its requirements. 

The U.S. Senate is currently debating the bill amid another contentious debate around funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ending a five-week partial shutdown for the department. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate may drop the voting bill in order to reach an agreement with Democrats over funding DHS, and return to it after Easter, according to reporting by Politico.

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Juneau Leaders, Army Corps committed to trio of Short-, Medium- and Long‑Term GLOF solutions

Tuesday morning press briefing with City Officials and the Army Corp of Engineers.

NOTN- Juneau is hosting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week as the community presses for answers on long-term protections against glacial lake outburst flooding.

Mayor Beth Weldon said the Corps arrived in Juneau Monday afternoon, taking a helicopter tour to inspect the basin area and visiting the city’s HESCO barrier installations before holding formal meetings today.

At a Committee of the Whole meeting in February, City and Borough of Juneau leaders detailed new modeling that shows a worst-case glacial lake outburst flood could send an estimated 118,000 cubic feet per second of water down the Mendenhall River, far beyond anything the city has experienced.

Maps presented at the meeting showed that a maximum event could push water beyond the Central valley, crossing Riverside Drive and Mendenhall Loop Road, affecting neighborhoods on both sides of the river.

Scientists from the University of Alaska Southeast, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and Tribal representatives from Tlingit and Haida identified a “lake tap” of Suicide Basin as the preferred enduring solution.

During a press conference this morning, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leaders outlined plans to expand and reinforce temporary flood barriers along the Mendenhall River while continuing to study more permanent solutions to GLOFs.

“We’re here today because we wanted to make sure that we are in tight, close communication with the local government here, ahead of the 2026 glacial outburst flood that we expect.” Said Assistant Secretary of the Army Office for Civil Works, “This is something that when I was a nominee for this position and going through Senate confirmation, Senator Sullivan called me into his office, and he very effectively impressed upon me the criticality of this issue to this community. Every time I’ve spoken about this publicly, including in a public hearing in September, and most recently in a public hearing last month, I’ve said we have to look at this short term, medium term and long term. And I’ve consistently conveyed that from the very first time I’ve ever spoken about this issue until now, short term, medium and long term. And we’ve had an outstanding discussion this morning with our Senate offices, local community leaders, and then all four levels of our Corps of Engineers organization to make sure that we’re all on the same page in terms of what we’re doing to address this challenge. And so we’ll get into some of that as the questions come but that’s really the reason we’re here.”

Officials said immediate work for 2026 includes raising existing HESCO barriers by 1 to 2 feet and extending the system by roughly 4 to 4.5 miles along both sides of the river, officials also the Corp is adding more armoring along the riverbanks and deploying pumps and technical experts to manage any water that gets behind the barriers.

Telle also mentioned a ‘Medium’ term solution, and here is what he said when asked the clarify.

“In the medium term, we’re looking at more permanent and more survivable barriers that can be implemented, as well as continuing to look at potential channel modifications. Those are all on the turn on the table for the short, medium term, we’re obviously continuing to look at long term options that will require significant technical analysis and engineering. We’re getting down that path every single day.” He said, “In my view, we can’t wait a decade to deliver, or six years, or 15 years, we can’t wait that long to deliver results for the citizens in this community, and so we’re tackling short medium with the same aggression that we’re tackling
long.”

Those potential channel modifications could look like dredging or reshaping.

“There’s been conversation within the community for years about straightening the channel. This can be done relatively quickly and for low cost. The question is, does that straightening actually just move the risk to a different part of the community? And so we want to be very careful about that. We’ve got extensive modeling underway right now.” Telle said.

The long-term solution remains under study.

“This is, I’ll just say, glacial outburst flooding is a unique challenge here in Juneau. This phenomenon that we have here is unique to the Corps of Engineers entire portfolio. I think with that uniqueness comes a lot of uncertainty from an engineering and technical perspective, and we’re trying to really reduce that uncertainty as fast as we can.” Telle said.

Telle said that among the “big universe of options” for a long-term solution, a tunnel or lake tap “at this moment appears to be the most viable technically” Still, he emphasized that no option has been taken off the table and that significant technical and cost uncertainties remain.

When asked by The Juneau Independent’s Mark Sabbatini what had changed since last month’s announcement suggesting the Army Corps had “pulled back” from the lake tap solution, officials said their position had remained consistent, saying “nothing has changed other than the reporting.”

“That’s one of the reasons we appreciate the Secretary and the Generals and the Colonel for coming here face to face.” Said Mayor Beth Weldon, “There’s not going to be a miscommunication problem at all. We appreciate their enthusiasm and dedication to a short, medium and long term solution.”

“You know, the HESCO barriers are exactly what needed to happen. They showed they were, but they also showed they were just a triage method.” Said President Richard J. Peterson of Tlingit and Haida, “We’re trying to make sure we come together. We had a charrette last year, we came together all unanimously on an enduring solution, but in the meantime, they have to do their job and look at all solutions. And I think that might have been where the miscommunication came in. It wasn’t pivoting away from this, but the messaging was, ‘we’re doing our due diligence to look at everything’. We have to turn to them. And this meeting was that opportunity for us to understand where we’re at.”

Authorities say they are mindful of the clock the community is under, and said coordination between federal agencies, the City and Borough of Juneau and tribal partners will continue as preparations accelerate in the months ahead.

And for those wondering, despite our recent poor weather, work on flood-protection infrastructure has continued.

Brotherhood Bridge has officially closed starting today for installation of Phase 2 HESCO barriers.

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Alaska House backs resolution urging waiver for $100k visa fee for international teachers

By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon

The Alaska House of Representatives passes a resolution to urge the Trump administration waive a $100,000 visa fee for international teachers on Mar. 20, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

The Alaska House of Representatives approved a resolution urging the Trump administration to waive a steep visa fee for international teachers. The vote comes amid a growing teacher shortage throughout the state. 

Lawmakers are calling for the Trump administration to waive the fee for teachers hired through the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from overseas. The federal government raised the fee from $5,000 to $100,000 for each new applicant to the H-1B visa program in September.

The House passed the resolution by a 38-0 vote on Friday, with Reps. Bill Elam, R-Kenai, and David Nelson, R-Anchorage, absent. 

Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, sponsored the resolution. The former teacher said the cost is impossible for Alaska school districts.

Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, speaks on the House floor on Mar. 20, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, speaks on the House floor on Mar. 20, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

“We know it’s a deep concern,” Galvin said on the House floor Friday. “In Alaska, in particular, in our rural areas, we are desperate for more teachers, qualified teachers in the classroom before our students. We have a true need here that can be met, and this is one tool that I hope all of us will raise our voice together and send to our federal delegation so they can use it.”

Rep. Ted Eischeid, D-Anchorage, a former science teacher, noted international teachers are also employed in urban districts like Anchorage.

​​”At last count, we had 66 teachers that work for the Anchorage School District providing critical education,” Edischied said, referring to the number of international teachers. “So if the most important educational reform is to have a highly qualified teacher in front of kids every day, this resolution moves us in that direction. So I support this.”

Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, said 60% of teachers in the Kuspuk School District in her district are international hires. “The Kuspuk district cannot recruit teachers fast enough off the road system. You can’t train somebody to be a teacher overnight,” she said. “Ten teachers at a $100,000 rate visa, that’s a million dollars. Do we have a million dollars in our budget to spare for these teachers? I don’t think so.” 

Jennifer Schmitz is director of the Alaska Center for Recruitment and Retention, a division of the Alaska Council for School Administrators, which supports districts in recruiting and hiring teachers and staff. After the vote, Schmitz said she was glad to hear legislators’ support because districts are hiring now. 

“I’m thrilled that it passed, especially that it was unanimous,” Schmitz said. “Legislators all seem to understand that this is an issue and that they’re supportive of helping our international teachers get here more easily.”

There are nearly 600 teachers in Alaska hired through the H-1B visa program, which lasts for five years. Despite that, Schmitz said the center’s job board has over 700 job openings across the state, including for teachers, administration, para-professionals and staff.

“Special education is always at the top and then often harder to fill,” Schmitz said. “Positions can be secondary specialties like math, science, and chemistry, those higher level classes, those are often harder to fill and harder to find qualified candidates. But we have openings in every possible position.”

Schmitz said the center recently held several job fairs, including connecting University of Alaska students with education jobs as well as recruiting from around the United States and internationally.

“We are hopeful that people can find teachers from that. But we’re just really at a standstill,” she said for international hiring because of the visa fee. “And our attorney is looking at ways around that and other kinds of visas, but we just don’t know if they’re going to work… And we need to get their paperwork going now if we want them here by fall.”

The resolution now goes to the Senate where it is expected to garner support. The initiative backs federal action in the U.S. Congress, where Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are cosponsoring a bill in the Senate to waive the $100,000 visa fee for all public school employees. A similar bill in the U.S. House is urging the Trump administration to waive the visa fee for health care workers.

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Federal ‘SAVE Act’ risks denying thousands of Alaskans the ability to vote, Murkowski says

By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks Thursday, March 19, 2026, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in this screenshot of a video broadcast by the Senate. (Screenshot)

An elections bill being debated by the U.S. Senate could cost thousands of Alaskans the ability to vote in this year’s elections, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday in a lengthy speech on Capitol Hill.

The SAVE America Act, supported by President Donald Trump and most congressional Republicans, is ostensibly intended to prevent noncitizens from voting in American elections, but its implementation could prevent many Americans from being able to vote. 

“While disenfranchisement may not be the intent of the SAVE America Act … I think that we will see that. In fact, I fully expect it to be an outcome of this,” Murkowski said.

The act would require that voters present photo ID when they vote, and that people present documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote. That would mean presenting proof of citizenship in person at an elections office or other specially licensed state license.

“This would be a major, major departure from how most Alaskans currently register to vote,” Murkowski said. 

In 2024, about 29,000 Alaskans registered to vote. Most of those — 25,000 or so — would have run into problems if the current bill had been law at that time, she said.

Most of Alaska’s voter registrations are done online or through the state’s motor-voter or PFD voter process. The bill could allow citizenship verification, but it’s not clear how that would happen, Murkowski.

Mandating in-person registration would have big effects in Alaska. 

The state has only six in-person elections offices, mostly on the Railbelt, and fewer than a dozen DMV offices where residents could present proof of citizenship. 

Some other state agencies might also be able to accept that proof, but the bill’s requirements take effect immediately, and it contains no funding for states to make changes that would allow remote offices to verify ID.

In practice, that means the bill would require rural residents to fly to urban Alaska, Murkowski said.

In addition, anyone seeking to register would have to have either a passport — roughly 50% of Alaskans don’t have one, Murkowski said — or some other form of appropriate ID. 

Alaska driver’s licenses wouldn’t be good enough to register to vote, nor would most tribal IDs, because they don’t specifically label someone as a citizen or not.

The bill allows someone to self-certify their citizenship if they sign an affidavit, but that clause only applies if the person has already made “reasonable efforts” to obtain a copy of a valid ID.

It isn’t clear what that means, Murkowski said.

The bill also would end Alaska’s practice of allowing anyone to cast an absentee ballot for any reason. It would restrict absentee voting to a subset of specifically identified voters, including people living out of the state where they are registered to vote.

Murkowski said she hasn’t seen evidence that these kinds of measures are needed to address a small-scale problem.

Voting by noncitizens is rare in Alaska. A report obtained by the Alaska Beacon through a public records request showed 70 possible cases since 2015. At least 11 people on that list have been charged in state court. 

“That’s basically seven a year,” Murkowski said.

“You look at what we’re trying to chase here with this balance — with disenfranchising so many who would be faced with almost insurmountable challenges in order to register or vote — I look at this and on balance, it doesn’t weigh,” she said.

Earlier this year, Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, voted in support of the bill as it passed out of the House, saying afterward that he doesn’t think it will be hard to comply with the bill.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has said he supports the act despite its ramifications for the state.

“I do think that having the ability to show an ID and proof of citizenship to keep elections safe is important, and it’s supported by the vast majority of Americans,” he said in response to a question during a February forum hosted by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.

At that forum, he was confronted by an angry attendee who questioned how he could speak on Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, a state holiday honoring an Alaska Native civil rights leader, and support a bill that would have detrimental effects on Alaska Native voters.

“I have a very, very, very strong record as it relates to the franchise for our people, in particular, the Alaska Native community,” he said, referring to actions he took during the 2010 Alaska election, when he served as attorney general. 

“I think voting, in my view, should be easy, but cheating on voting should not be,” Sullivan said.

While Sullivan has said he supports the bill, he also told reporters last month that he doesn’t support overriding the Senate’s filibuster to pass it.

In practice, the filibuster means that the bill would require 60 votes, not 50 and the vice president, to advance through the Senate.

With all of the Senate’s Democrats and Murkowski opposed to the SAVE Act, the bill — at least as of Friday — lacks the support it needs to become law.

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Alaska disability advocates praise progress and push for more at state Capitol

By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon

Judy and Eric Edwards pose for a photo at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new universal changing station installed on the first floor of the Alaska State Capitol on Mar. 19, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

Judy Edwards and her son Eric traveled from Palmer to advocate for people with disabilities at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau this week, and now one part of that process is a bit easier.

A newly installed universal changing station on the first floor of the Capitol is a clean, safe space for people who need assistance when using the restroom. The changing station is adult-size and adjustable, for people who use adult diapers and need help changing them. This is an upgrade for Eric, who is 18-years-old and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy with dystonia and uses a power wheelchair. 

Previously he and his mother would have had to use the floor. 

“This will make life easier for everybody,” Judy said. “Parents, especially younger parents, they just deal with things, but they shouldn’t have to. You know, parents hurt themselves because they’re trying to lift from the floor.”

At a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, lawmakers and advocates with the Key Coalition — a group of people with disabilities, their caregivers, service providers and supporters — gathered to applaud the new installation. 

Judy and Eric Edwards gather with Reps. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau and Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, and Capitol facilities manager Serge Lesh for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the installation of a new universal changing station at the Alaska State Capitol on Mar. 20, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Judy and Eric Edwards gather with Reps. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau and Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, and Capitol facilities manager Serge Lesh for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the installation of a new universal changing station at the Alaska State Capitol on Mar. 20, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

“I am so sorry that you’ve had to advocate for this and that those of us who are able bodied don’t automatically think about it,” said Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, who oversees a committee that runs maintenance in the Capitol. 

Hannan said the universal changing station cost the state less than $20,000 total, including the cost of the device, shipping and electrical costs for installation. She said the committee is in the process of reviewing and making accessibility upgrades around the Capitol, including plans to widen the door frame and install an automatic door opener for the first floor accessible restrooms.  

The Edwards family travel often for medical care. They are among the advocates who have been raising concern and pushing for more changing stations around the state. A new bill now introduced in the legislature, House Bill 141, would require at least one universal changing station be included in construction or renovation of all state or local government owned public buildings. 

Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, sponsored the bill.

“We’re looking at different ways to approach the issue, whether just on a funding level or policy, but ultimately, the goal is to just have types of changing facilities across the state,” Carrick said in an interview. “As legislators, the more we can do to just help all Alaskans have their basic needs met — that’s really where the motivation for this bill came from, and the awareness around this being a major challenge is so important.”

Advocates and lawmakers are focusing first on Alaska airports. The Edwards family was involved in raising awareness around access, resulting in a new universal changing station being installed at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in 2024. 

There is also a changing station at the Mat Su Health Foundation, and a temporary station was installed last summer at the fairgrounds of the Alaska State Fair. Edwards said she also wants to see one installed at Providence Alaska Medical Center hospital in Anchorage. 

Advocates with the Key Coalition flew to Juneau for an advocacy day on Wednesday, when they held a march and rally in front of the Capitol and met with lawmakers urging policy changes to increase access and services.

Demonstrators with the Key Coalition march through downtown Juneau to rally at the Alaska State Capitol for disability rights and increased services on Mar. 18, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Demonstrators with the Key Coalition rally at the Alaska State Capitol calling for disability rights and increased services on Mar. 18, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

“Having a disability could happen to any one of us,” said Michele Girault, board president for the Key Coalition. “So we’re creating communities where accessibility is at the top of the leaderboard, access to housing and good workforce and all the things that you might need to be supported, are available when you need it.” 

Advocates are pushing for the state to eliminate the waitlist for people with disabilities applying for Medicaid services. Girault said they also want to reduce wait times for reimbursements for service providers.

“So that people who provide the service to people with disabilities and elders across the state are reimbursed at a rate that keeps them in business,” Girault said. “Some people have left the state because they were tired of waiting for services, and some families are opting not to even put their names on the wait list.” 

Girault said the Key Coalition is continuing to support increased funding and expanded access for infant learning programs and early intervention services for youth experiencing developmental delays, which support families and children from infancy to age three.

Last year, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bill to provide $5.7 million to increase funding for the state’s 17 infant learning programs. But lawmakers are trying again this year, with Senate Bill 178, sponsored by the Senate Health and Social Services Committee, to expand eligibility for the programs and increase funding. 

A bill to update the state’s guardianship statutes is also supported by the Key Coalition. Girault said Senate Bill 190 would strengthen protections for people involved in the state guardianship system, including for medical guardians, partial guardians and in conservatorship. They’re also pushing for  improvements to access to public transportation.

Sara Kveum speaks to the crowd rallying at the Alaska State Capital for disability rights and increased services on Mar 18, 2026. She is beside Michele Girault, director of the Key Coalition of Alaska, which organized the rally as part of an annual legislative fly-in, and includes people with disabilities, their families, service providers, educators and advocates. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

“Transportation is in the top five barriers for people with disabilities. When you think about all the snow we’ve had this winter, how do you get to the bus stop? Once you’re at the bus stop, is the bus stop cleared?” Girault said. The Key Coalition is supporting House Bill 26, which would require a new state transportation plan to include access for people with disabilities. 

“This transportation bill requires the state to create a plan that actually thinks about all of the points of access for people across the state of Alaska, not just in major cities, but in rural areas as well,” Girault said.

More than 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. have some type of disability, including mobility, hearing, vision or cognition disabilities, and advocates say they want to see improvements across Alaska to expand access, care and dignity for all. 

For the Edwards family, and many advocates and families with disabilities, flying to Juneau isn’t easy, but Judy Edwards said it’s worthwhile — and she wants to see more changes to increase access across Alaska.

“I’m 67, but when I was a kid, you didn’t see people with disabilities out in public, really, much,” Edwards said. “And so today, it’s like, why not? I mean, we’ve come such a far way. Why not? We need to keep going.”

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Alaska lawmakers try to broker budget funding compromise amid war-driven funding dispute

Members of the Alaska House minority talk strategy during a break in the Wednesday, March 18, 2026, session of the Alaska House of Representatives. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)

By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

Members of the Alaska House minority talk strategy during a break in the Wednesday, March 18, 2026, session of the Alaska House of Representatives. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska legislators have sidetracked a bill originally intended for the legislative fast track.

In a pair of votes Wednesday, the Alaska House and Senate voted to send House Bill 289, the state’s supplemental budget bill, to a conference committee empowered to iron out differences between two different versions respectively enacted by the House and Senate.

Lawmakers took that unusual action after the House failed to approve a Senate-passed plan to pay for the bill with more than $373 million from the state’s principal savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

The committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting at 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

HB 289 is intended to fund expenses in the current state fiscal year that were incurred after lawmakers adjourned last year’s legislative session. 

That includes money needed to respond to last summer’s wildfires and ex-Typhoon Halong, which devastated Western Alaska in the fall.

One key item in the bill — $70.2 million intended to unlock federal construction grants — is time sensitive. For months, the state’s construction industry has been lobbying for fast action on that money, saying that without surety on federal grants, they cannot make hiring and purchasing decisions for this summer’s construction season.

In February, the House passed a version of HB 289 with more than $500 million in expenses and proposed to pay for it by spending from the reserve. 

It takes 30 votes in the House and 15 votes in the Senate to unlock the reserve. This month, in order to meet the threshold in the Senate, lawmakers there cut the bill to slightly over $373 million.

That earned unanimous support in the Senate, but not in the House, which is controlled by a 21-person multipartisan majority coalition. Meeting the 30-vote threshold would require some support from the 19-person, all-Republican House minority caucus.

For more than a week, that caucus has been united in opposition to spending from savings, saying that a forecast boon to state finances — caused by higher oil prices amid the Iran war — should be enough to pay for the extra spending.

Members of the House majority, meanwhile, have been just as adamant in their position that it is unwise to rely on war-driven oil prices.

Sens. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel; Bert Stedman, R-Sitka; and Mike Cronk, R-Tok, were appointed to represent the Senate on the committee. Reps. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage; Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage; and Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks; will represent the House.

Cronk and Stapp are members of their respective minority caucuses; the other four lawmakers are representing their respective majority caucuses.

Additional meetings are expected after Thursday’s initial organizational hearing.

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Lawmakers propose crackdown on AI-generated child exploitation material

By: Grace Dumas, News of the North

Senator Jesse Kiehl presenting SB 247 to the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee on Tuesday March 17, Photo courtesy of Gavel Alaska

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would expand criminal penalties for child sexual abuse material to include images generated using artificial intelligence and other digital tools.

Senate Bill 247, Sponsored by Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl, would create new crimes for the possession and distribution of “generated” child sexual abuse material, also known as CSAM, including images that appear to depict minors but may not involve real children.

Under the bill, distributing such material would be a felony, with harsher penalties for repeat offenders. Possession of generated CSAM would also be a felony offense.

Distribution under this bill is relatively broad and includes sharing or posting such content online.

United Nations, just this January released a warning on escalating AI threats to children.

The staggering amount of harmful AI-generated online content has prompted an urgent call from across the UN system for a raft of measures to protect children from abuse, exploitation and mental trauma.

This is a new form of sexual exploitation, the rapid progression of AI means lawmakers are struggling to craft legislation to prevent such harm from happening.

“Artificial intelligence is leading to the ability to generate images, generate videos, generate vast amounts of content, and that ability is growing fast, unfortunately, along with the ability to modify or create your own cute cat videos, some people use these technologies to terrible effect.” Said Kiehl, ” Senate Bill 247 addresses computer generated or otherwise generated Child Sexual Abuse materials. It amends Alaska law to create parity between generated Child Sexual Abuse materials and non generated Child Sexual Abuse materials, what we think of as photos or videos that have not been modified of real children. We know that artificial intelligence is, when it comes to images, a highly sophisticated collage machine, and that those images are made ultimately from things that are real, those are the data sources of millions, often billions, of real images on which these large language models, these artificial intelligences, are trained. The bill sets the punishments for generated Child Sexual Abuse materials on par with, and equal to non-generated CSAM that avoids overburdening bogging down law enforcement resources, court system resources, with the difficulty of proving that an amalgamated image has a real child under the age of 18 in it.”

The proposal also updates existing laws to include manipulated or altered images of real minors, even if the material was digitally created or modified.

In addition to criminal penalties, the bill would require the permanent revocation of teaching certificates for individuals convicted of certain sex offenses involving minors, including those tied to generated materials. It would also prohibit people convicted of those crimes from obtaining school bus driver licenses.

“The real prevalence of child sexual abuse is not known because so many victims do not disclose or report their abuse. However, adult representative or retrospective studies by the CDC has shown that one in four women and one in six men were sexually abused before the age of 18, and we know Alaska has one of the highest rates per capita of child sexual abuse in the nation.” Said Trevor Storrs, the President and CEO of the Alaska Children’s Trust, “Ai generated CSAM represents one of the most urgent and fast moving threats facing children today. In 2023 the National Center for Missing Exploited Children, received 4700 reports of AI related CSAM, by 2024 that number had grown to 67,000 and in the first half of 2025 alone, they received more than 400,000 such reports, an average of over 2000 every single day. At the same time, extortion, where offenders use real or AI generated images to blackmail children, continues to surge.”

Lawmakers say the bill is part of a broader effort to modernize Alaska law while technology continues to evolve, it’s one of several bills currently making their way through the legislature meant to strengthen protections for children.

SB 247 is set to be heard again in the legislature on Thursday.

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