According to the proposed ordinance, when an officer-involved shooting occurs that causes death or serious injury to an officer or someone else, Juneau Police Department would release body-worn camera footage no later than 30 days after the incident. (Photo courtesy City & Borough of Juneau website)
A Juneau Police Department vehicle(Photo courtesy City & Borough of Juneau website)
A woman was arrested and a man was hospitalized following an altercation outside the Douglas Library on Wednesday evening, according to the Juneau Police Department.
Police responded to a report of a woman fighting with a man near the library at approximately 7:32 p.m. on July 30. Officers identified the woman as Marisa Didrickson, 47, of Juneau, and the man as a 52-year-old Juneau resident.
According to police, Didrickson allegedly threw water in the man’s face and made racially charged remarks, including comments suggesting the man, who is black, did not belong in Juneau. She was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
As officers attempted to place Didrickson into a patrol vehicle, she continued to shout at the 52-year-old man and directed a 49-year-old male friend to “take care of him,” while nodding toward the man, police said.
The 49-year-old, also a Juneau resident, then approached officers in what police described as an aggressive manner. the man was taken to the ground during arrest and sustained a head injury.
He was transported by Capital City Fire/Rescue to Bartlett Regional Hospital and later medevacked to Anchorage for further treatment.
Didrickson was transported to Lemon Creek Correctional Center. The incident remains under investigation, police said.
The press release comes after a video was circulated by a civilian on social media.
The arrest has sparked controversy in comments, with some saying the officer used unnecessary force.
The Juneau Police Department has requested and was granted assistance from an outside law enforcement agency to lead an investigation into the officer’s use of force in this incident.
Once the agency concludes its investigation, the State of Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions will review the case to determine whether the use of force was consistent with AS.11.81.370. The Officer involved has been placed on administrative leave per department policy. Their name will be released following the investigating agency’s review. In accordance with CBJ code, body-worn camera footage related to this incident will be released and posted on the JPD website 30 days from the date of the incident.
Photo provided by CBJ following the installation of the HESCO barrier project
Photo provided by CBJ following the installation of the HESCO barrier project
NOTN- Deputy Mayor Greg Smith joined KINY’s morning show on Thursday to recap Wednesday’s joint flood initiative meeting, discussing long-term solutions for flooding caused by the Mendenhall Glacier’s Suicide Basin.
In the short term, HESCO barriers remain the primary line of defense for vulnerable neighborhoods.
“We’re approaching historical release times” said Smith, “I mean, of course, everyone is crossing their fingers and just hoping for the best possible outcome.”
The Army Corps emphasized that a more permanent solution—such as a levee around Mendenhall Lake, is likely necessary. But planning and engineering such infrastructure takes time.
“they’re doing studies, but they need to know, you know, what is the risk from Suicide basin, in 5 years, what’s the risk in 50 years? There are more basins back up behind the glacier, and they need to know what those situations could be.” He said, “There’s a lot of factors that go into it. So for them to engineer a viable, long-term solution that will not fail, it does take time. We’ve heard them say it’s probably the top issue for the Army Corps in the state of Alaska.”
A federally funded technical study is underway, and officials hope that data from current modeling and previous floods will help shorten the usual multi-year timeline.
Still, even an expedited timeline might take seven years or more, but Smith says he’s optimistic about that timeline.
“The fact that we just got federal money to do this technical study is tremendous.” Said Smith.
With the Alaska Legislature back in town for the special session, Smith urged residents to take the opportunity to raise the issue with state lawmakers.
“I think some of the takeaways for people, is letting our congressional staff or congressional delegation know the importance.”
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference on Friday, March 15, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference on Friday, March 15, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
NOTN- The Alaska Legislature will reconvene in Juneau on Saturday for a special session called by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, with two major items on the agenda: education reform and the creation of a new Department of Agriculture. But lawmakers are also preparing to challenge some of the governor’s recent vetoes, including cuts to public school funding.
Under Alaska’s constitution, when the governor calls a special session, he sets the subjects lawmakers may address.
“He has, apparently, a new education bill. Most of it is stuff that we have seen before, that he’s proposed before, and that has not had a lot of support.” Said Juneau Senator Jessie Kiehl, “And the other thing he wants to take another crack at is creating an Alaska Department of Agriculture. We have a Division of Agriculture. He wants it to be its own State Department.”
But overriding vetoes may take center stage during the first five days of the session, a constitutionally limited window for legislators to reverse the governor’s decisions.
At the top of the list: restoring approximately $51 million in statewide public school funding that Dunleavy vetoed.
That override will require a three-quarters majority, or 45 votes.
“It is the highest, toughest veto override threshold in all 50 states or any of the territories.” Said Senator Kiehl, “I have talked to colleagues all over this state, Republicans, Democrats, rural, urban and the agreement is our schools are hurting, and they need that money.”
Lawmakers are also considering overriding a veto of a bipartisan bill that would empower the Legislative Auditor to review oil tax enforcement practices
That override will require two-thirds of the Legislature, or 40 votes.
In addition to the override votes, lawmakers may consider a commercial fishing bill and discuss items in the governor’s education package through the new legislative Education Task Force.
A recent report suggested that Dunleavy had asked some minority Republicans to stay home in an effort to block override votes. Kiehl said he believes most lawmakers plan to attend.
“My understanding is that in the last week or so, the governor has come the other way and said, everybody, go ahead and be there.” He said, “The Constitution has some rules for how you do your job when you raise your right hand as a legislator elected by the people and take on this duty, I don’t believe in cutting work when I’m on the job, I think the vast majority of my colleagues feel the same way.”
Bill introductions are scheduled for the session’s opening day, August 2, with hearings requested to begin Sunday, Aug. 3.
Several oil projects are active in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. (Photo by Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management, CC BY-SA)
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Thursday that it will revoke three documents intended to form the basis for limits on oil drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
Those documents, and the limits themselves, were issued in the last year of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Since his election, President Donald Trump has prioritized administrative moves that would reverse Biden decisions limiting oil and gas drilling in Alaska.
That decision followed prior decisions by the Biden administration and President Barack Obama’s administration that put about half the reserve off limits to oil development.
Thursday’s announcement, rescinding three planning documents, is a step toward that end.
On Wednesday, ahead of the official notice in the Federal Register, all three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation expressed support for the move and praised the Trump administration for taking action.
KCAW in Sitka is one of more than two dozen public radio stations broadcasting across Alaska. (Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal)
On July 17, Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media across the United States.
The cuts, called a “rescission” in Congress-speak, are huge: They will take away some $1 billion that the federal government had previously allocated for the next two years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for national outlets like NPR and PBS as well as local radio and television stations with much smaller budgets.
That funding is essential to many of Alaska’s local news outlets. It’s no exaggeration to say that losing that money — which was slated to be delivered starting September 30 — threatens the very existence of some stations that provide news coverage and other programming, like emergency alerts, around the state.
To get a sense of how local radio and television stations are responding — and what their leaders expect in the months ahead — Northern Journal correspondent Max Graham sent some questions to two longtime public media employees in rural Alaska: Sage Smiley, news director at KYUK in Bethel; and Lauren Adams, general manager at KUCB in Unalaska.
Below are their responses, lightly edited for brevity.
What have the last few days been like for you and your colleagues? How are you feeling?
Sage Smiley: We’ve spent seven months facing – and trying to publicly push back on – an increasingly likely existential threat to public broadcasting. It’s been exhausting, and demoralizing.
Beyond the threat to our jobs, or even to this station we care so much about and where we’re trying to serve the communities of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, it’s incredibly concerning and challenging to see the attack on journalism and on that pillar of democracy that this and other actions by the Trump administration represent.
In a way, though, rescission of funds has been deeply motivating to the news staff. We may be in the unique position of defining the end of a chapter of KYUK’s newsroom history, and want to do the best job we can, for as long as we can, serving the mission of KYUK and its newsroom.
Lauren Adams: On the day that the vote took place, KUCB’s entire staff was working to inform our community about a tsunami evacuation following a large earthquake in the region. Our entire community, including the fishing industry workers, were evacuated to high ground. Our emergency response went off without a hitch, and we worked in tandem with our community’s public safety department. It was a huge affirmation of our connection to the community and our important mission.
That night, I was very happy to hear U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski speak about KUCB on the Senate floor in defense of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding. It was incredibly disappointing that her colleagues didn’t hear the message and that they voted in favor of the rescission.
The following days were really low! There was a sadness and a heaviness in the office that I haven’t experienced before. I know my staff was concerned about the future of their jobs and we met as a group the following day to talk through their concerns.
I told them that we will have to make changes in the future but for now we will use reserves to keep our essential services up and running and those services depend on having people on the payroll. In short, we aren’t cutting staff right now.
In my case, I am beyond frustrated and dismayed looking at a budget that’s just not going to balance this year without severe cuts. The federal funding cut comes on the heels of already lean years, given the lack of funding from the state of Alaska, which was eliminated under Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
One silver lining has been seeing donations come in every day from people all across the country expressing their support for the work we do. While the funds won’t fill the gap made by the elimination of federal funding, the sentiment and the comments have been a real morale boost for all of us.
Could you help readers understand how significant federal funding is for your station? What proportion of your budget does it account for, and what does it pay for?
Smiley: KYUK is both a radio and a television station, called a dual licensee, so we receive two community service grants each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Together, those grants represent about 70% of KYUK’s operating funds – over $1 million. That money pays for everything from salaries to equipment to travel on bush planes for reporting.
Adams: Federal funding last fiscal year was over $280,000, over 40% of our total budget. We had it budgeted at $289,602 for this fiscal year, which started on July 1. That was 45% of this year’s projected budget. There is no replacement for these funds. Our community is small but residents support us in substantial ways already. We estimate that about 8% of people in Unalaska are KUCB donors and also support us through daily non-monetary acts of generosity. We have consistently done well with local fundraising allowing us to match federal funds with local income. But we can’t expect community members to fill this gap: It’s just not possible.
Funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting supports KUCB’s local news content, a comprehensive community calendar, emergency alerts, health and safety information and government accountability through live broadcasts and streaming of municipal meetings.
What are your expectations for your station moving forward?
Smiley: KYUK has been a community institution broadcasting to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for over 50 years, committed from the beginning to uplifting Yup’ik voices. Our call letters, Y-U-K, were picked because Yuk means “real person” in Yugtun, the Yup’ik language. Our ultimate goal is to stay on the air, which we have to do to keep our licenses. KYUK is unique and incredible – the only station I’m aware of in the state broadcasting news and public affairs that provides shows bilingually on a daily basis – and we want to preserve that legacy of support for Yup’ik language and culture, however possible.
The entrance to KYUK in Bethel. (Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal)
Adams: We had a reporter leave the station in June to fill a Report for America position in Texas. Because I was concerned about funding, I chose not to post that position until we had a better sense of federal dollars. That means we started the fiscal year with a little financial breathing room, but also with a newsroom that was down by a quarter of our former reporting capacity. Thankfully, we have a summer news intern funded by Alaska organizations promoting journalism and community development. When she leaves next month, our community will start to notice the reduction in news coverage, which is unavoidable.
At this point, I don’t know exactly what we will sound like. We will have to meet with our board of directors and with community leaders to make changes under their guidance. I imagine that we will have to sacrifice some of our daily news coverage during times when we have a lot going on.
For instance, we are going into our municipal election season and this is a mayoral election year. I am confident that we will hold our usual forums and we will produce a voter guide as we do every year. This is an important responsibility for us because we employ the only reporters in the community. But if our staff is doing this work, we will have to give up the other stories and newscasts in order to prepare for the forums. We need to be mindful of not burning out staff by just piling more work on the two remaining members of the news team.
We are lucky because our studio is located in a municipal building and the rent is free. We also receive an operations grant from the City of Unalaska. Because of this, I don’t fear that our station will go dark. My bigger concern is that we will be more of a repeater station, playing statewide content instead of local content, and that we won’t have the staff to cover the region’s news and events and we won’t be as effective during an emergency.
I imagine news of the lost funding has brought up, or will bring up, some pretty tough conversations at your station about programming cuts and layoffs. Could you shine some light on those discussions if you’ve already had them? Or are you still waiting and seeing what the full impacts will be?
Smiley: There’s a lot that’s still unclear, and I would say that at this point, KYUK’s future is also unclear. Seventy percent of our funding will cease to exist at the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30. That’s catastrophic. We may have to make drastic cuts to staff in order to keep providing basic broadcasting to the communities we serve.
Adams: We are hoping to hold off on layoffs for at least six months using reserves. In the meantime, we will strip our station budget down as much as possible while maintaining as much of our essential content – local news and information – as possible.
Places where we can cut immediately include syndicated programming, interconnection costs, travel, training, dues and subscriptions, computer hardware and software purchases, internet and phone, and potentially utilities. In the future we might turn off broadcast television and focus on our radio operations, but this is a hard choice that requires giving up a broadcast license that we have held locally for 50 years.
I’ve heard some talk that potential funding from philanthropists could make up for the lost federal spending. Is that really a possibility? Or are there other funding alternatives that are giving you hope?
Smiley: Our fall fundraiser usually brings in around $50,000, and our federal grants are 20 times that. As an ardent lover of the public broadcasting system, I would be overjoyed if a philanthropist decided to fund the network in perpetuity. But I don’t think that’s realistic, or a real solution. The whole point of the public broadcasting system is the system, and the commitment of the United States government to supporting that egalitarian, deeply democratic, equal-access system. It’s the fact that public broadcasting reaches 99% of Americans. It’s that it’s free, and available practically everywhere. A patchwork solution, one that doesn’t preserve the entirety of the system, isn’t going to address what will be lost more broadly.
Adams: I am in one of the most remote corners of the state and I might not be the one to ask about major philanthropy donors and the advocacy efforts. We have a small staff and all of us are working daily to keep our systems up and running and to provide the services that our community relies on. I don’t have the resources to go after major donors. At the statewide level, I think we are all doing our best to try to envision a future where there’s increased funding from philanthropists and donors. I don’t know how quickly this could come together or how sustainable the model would be.
I think that federal funding filled a need, and we were a great fit for the funds because we brought crucial health and safety services to our remote community. I am not aware of a viable long term substitute for Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds.
With that said, I would love to see restoration of public media funding in our state budget. We’ve always received bipartisan support for state funding until the line gets vetoed by the governor. Maybe given the new funding circumstances, and the real need for the services that public broadcasters provide in Alaska, we could see restoration of some state funding.
I also know from years of experience at KUCB that building a station’s relationship with a community, and establishing an award-winning news team, takes a lot of time and effort. I also know that while it’s slow to build, it’s very quick to erode. With reduced news staff, fewer editors, reduced equipment maintenance, and cuts to our services, we will see a spiral of reduced local income.
Could you highlight recent work at your station — whether news reporting or other programming — that wouldn’t have been possible without federal funding and that illustrates the importance of your station to your community?
Smiley: Everything you see on KYUK’s website is supported by federal funding. Our calendar of fisheries openers. The local newscasts in Yugtun and English. Yup’ik Word of the Week. Decades-worth of archival television material from throughout the Delta. Our call-in shows: Fish Talk, River Watch, Talkline, Yuk to Yuk, the Birthday Line. Live coverage of high school basketball games. City Council meetings.
And then there’s all the stuff that goes out over the radio but isn’t necessarily online: radio programming the funding allows us to license, search and rescue messages, boil water notices, public service messages from the local and state governments, emergency alerts.
Adams: Again, I think that the tsunami response earlier this month is an amazing example of the work we do locally — work that is only possible with federal funding. Unalaska is a volcanic island in the middle of a chain of volcanoes, and we experience extreme weather pretty frequently. Emergency alert procedures are essential and a very real part of the work we do.
Additionally, we are the only newsroom located in the Aleutian region. The reporting work that our staff does every day is essential. While cutting syndicated programming wouldn’t hurt our community because yes, we have internet in Unalaska and can get our national news and our music programming from a variety of sources, there is no replacement for the unique daily news and information that KUCB provides. We broadcast every city council meeting, ensure transparency of local government, highlight the arts and culture events that make Unalaska a unique and vibrant place to live, and provide fisheries and science reporting from an important port surrounded by some of the most productive fishing grounds on earth.
Northern Journal contributor Max Graham can be reached at max@northernjournal.com. He’s interested in any and all mining related stories, as well as introductory meetings with people in and around the industry.
This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Nathaniel Herz. Subscribe at this link.
FILE - Emil Bove, attorney for former US President Donald Trump, sits Manhattan criminal court during Trump's sentencing in the hush money case in New York, Jan. 10, 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via AP, Pool, File)
FILE – Emil Bove, attorney for former US President Donald Trump, sits Manhattan criminal court during Trump’s sentencing in the hush money case in New York, Jan. 10, 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via AP, Pool, File)
AP- The Senate confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove 50-49 for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge Tuesday as Republicans dismissed whistleblower complaints about his conduct at the Justice Department.
A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Bove was on Trump’s legal team during his New York hush money trial and defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases. He will serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Democrats have vehemently opposed Bove’s nomination, citing his current position as a top Justice Department official and his role in the dismissal of the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. They have also criticized his efforts to investigate department officials who were involved in the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Democrats have also cited evidence from whistleblowers, a fired department lawyer who said last month that Bove had suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim that Bove denies — and new evidence from a whistleblower who did not go public. That whistleblower recently provided an audio recording of Bove that runs contrary to some of his testimony at his confirmation hearing last month, according to two people familiar with the recording.
The audio is from a private video conference call at the Department of Justice in February in which Bove, a top official at the department, discussed his handling of the dismissed case against Adams, according to transcribed quotes from the audio reviewed by The Associated Press.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the whistleblower has not made the recording public. The whistleblower’s claims were first reported by the Washington Post.
None of that evidence has so far been enough to sway Senate Republicans — all but two of them voted to confirm Bove as GOP senators have deferred to Trump on virtually all of his picks.
Democrats say Bove’s confirmation is a ‘dark day’
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Bove’s confirmation is a “dark day” and that Republicans are only supporting Bove because of his loyalty to the president.
“It’s unfathomable that just over four years after the insurrection at the Capitol, when rioters smashed windows, ransacked offices, desecrated this chamber, Senate Republicans are willingly putting someone on the bench who shielded these rioters from facing justice, who said their prosecution was a grave national injustice,” Schumer said.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against Bove’s confirmation. “I don’t think that somebody who has counseled other attorneys that you should ignore the law, you should reject the law, I don’t think that that individual should be placed in a lifetime seat on the bench,” Murkowski said Tuesday.
At his confirmation hearing last month, Bove addressed criticism of his tenure head-on, telling lawmakers he understands some of his decisions “have generated controversy.” But Bove said he has been inaccurately portrayed as Trump’s “henchman” and “enforcer” at the department.
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee released Tuesday evening just before the vote, Bove said he does not have the whistleblower’s recording but is “undeterred by this smear campaign.”
A February call emerges as evidence
Senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing asked Bove about the February 14 call with lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which had received significant public attention because of his unusual directive that the attorneys had an hour to decide among themselves who would agree to file on the department’s behalf the motion to dismiss the case against Adams.
The call was convened amid significant upheaval in the department as prosecutors in New York who’d handled the matter, as well as some in Washington, resigned rather than agree to dispense with the case.
According to the transcript of the February call, Bove remarked near the outset that interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon “resigned about ten minutes before we were going to put her on leave pending an investigation.” But when asked at the hearing whether he had opened the meeting by emphasizing that Sassoon and another prosecutor had refused to follow orders and that Sassoon was going to be reassigned before she resigned, Bove answered with a simple, “No.”
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Bove defended his testimony as accurate, noting that the transcript of the call shows he didn’t use the word “reassigned” when talking to the prosecutors.
At another moment, Bove said he did not recall saying words that the transcript of the call reflects him as having said — that whoever signed the motion to dismiss the Adams case would emerge as leaders of the section.
But in the letter to Grassley, Bove said he did not intend to suggest that anyone would be rewarded for submitting the memo but rather that doing so would reflect a willingness to follow the chain of command, something he said was the “bare minimum required of mid-level management” of a government agency.
Republicans decry ‘unfair accusations’
Grassley said Tuesday that he believes Bove will be a “diligent, capable and fair jurist.”
He said his staff had tried to investigate the claims but that lawyers for the whistleblowers would not give them all of the materials they had asked for until Tuesday, hours before the vote. The “vicious rhetoric, unfair accusations and abuse directed at Mr. Bove” have “crossed the line,” Grassley said.
The first whistleblower complaint against Bove came from a former Justice Department lawyer who was fired in April after conceding in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who had been living in Maryland, was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison.
That lawyer, Erez Reuveni, described efforts by top Justice Department officials in the weeks before his firing to stonewall and mislead judges to carry out deportations championed by the White House.
Reuveni described a Justice Department meeting in March concerning Trump’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act over what the president claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Reuveni said Bove raised the possibility that a court might block the deportations before they could happen. Reuveni claims Bove used a profanity in saying the department would need to consider telling the courts what to do and “ignore any such order,” Reuveni’s lawyers said in the filing.
Bove said he has “no recollection of saying anything of that kind.”
In this image taken from a video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers inspect a kindergarten damaged by an earthquake in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image taken from a video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers inspect a kindergarten damaged by an earthquake in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, Wednesday, July 30, 2025. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
AP- One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off Russia’s sparsely populated Far East early Wednesday, sending tsunami waves into Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. Several people were injured, but none gravely, and no major damage has been reported so far.
Authorities warned the risk from the 8.8 magnitude quake could last for hours, and millions of people potentially in the path of the waves were initially told to move away from the shore or seek high ground.
But the danger already appeared to be lessening in some places, with authorities downgrading their warnings in Hawaii, Japan and parts of Russia.
Residents fled inland as ports flooded on Kamchatka near the quake’s epicenter, while frothy, white waves washed up on the shore in northern Japan. Cars jammed streets and highways in Honolulu, with standstill traffic even in areas away from the sea.
People flocked to evacuation centers in affected areas of Japan, with memories fresh of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused reactor meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. No abnormalities in operations at Japan’s nuclear plants were reported Wednesday.
Russian authorities said several people were injured, but said all were in stable condition, though they gave few details. In Japan, at least one person was injured.
A tsunami height of 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) was recorded in Kamchatka, 60 centimeters (2 feet) on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, while tsunami waves about 2 to 5 feet high reached San Francisco early Wednesday, officials said.
Much of the West Coast, spanning California, Oregon, Washington state, Briefly coastal Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia, were under a tsunami advisory.
Hawaii downgrades to tsunami advisory
Hawaii was still under a tsunami advisory as Wednesday began, but evacuation orders on the Big Island and Oahu, the most populated island, had been lifted.
An advisory means there is the potential for strong currents and dangerous waves, as well as flooding on beaches or in harbors.
“As you return home, still stay off the beach and stay out of the water,” said James Barros, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
The impact of the tsunami could last for hours or perhaps more than a day, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska.
“A tsunami is not just one wave,” he said. “It’s a series of powerful waves over a long period of time. Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour — as fast as a jet airplane — in deep water. But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up. And that’s where that inundation problem becomes a little bit more possible there.”
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green earlier said Black Hawk helicopters were activated and high-water vehicles ready to go in case authorities needed to rescue people.
The Oregon Department of Emergency Management said on Facebook that small tsunami waves were expected along the coast. It urged people to stay away from beaches, harbors and marinas and to remain in a safe location away from the coast until the advisory is lifted.
“This is not a major tsunami, but dangerous currents and strong waves may pose a risk to those near the water,” the department said.
A tsunami of less than 30 centimeters (under 1 foot) was forecast to hit parts of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and waves of up to 1.4 feet (under 30 centimeters) above tide levels were observed in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
Assembly member Ella Adkison is seeking re-election to the Juneau Assembly’s area-wide seat, hoping to continue her work on housing affordability, economic resilience, and education funding after finishing out the term of a previous member.
“This will be my first full term if I’m elected,” Adkison said in an interview. “I’ve really enjoyed the work, and I hope Juneau isn’t sick of me yet.”
Adkison, 25, first joined the assembly two years ago. A lifelong Juneau resident, she said her decision to run stemmed from seeing her peers and local businesses struggle during the pandemic.
A major focus of Adkison’s platform is housing. She supports efforts to increase density across Juneau, she discussed the city’s land constraints and high cost of living. “it’s just so important, in my opinion, to have density, because that’s one of the things that Juneau lacks right now.”
Adkison pointed to the city’s ongoing Title 49 rewrite, a comprehensive update to land use codes, as a long-term tool to ease development barriers and encourage growth.
“I want to make sure the Assembly keeps pushing for solutions that make it easier to build housing here,” she said.
She says projects like Telephone Hill are complicated but could potentially add 100-150 housing units, addressing housing needs for Juneauites across generations.
“Housing is one of those issues where it actually affects every demographic in Juneau, right? I mean for young people, I first think of all my friends and people I grew up with who have to leave Juneau because they can’t afford it.” She said, “but also with our seniors, if they’re in bigger houses and there are no smaller, friendly units for them to move into, then they have to stay in the larger houses that may not be comfortable for them, and then a young family maybe can’t have that big house because it’s not available.”
Education funding is also high on her list of priorities. Adkison emphasized the importance of maintaining support for local schools, especially while there is uncertainty over state-level contributions.
“Juneau is committed to supporting our schools, we’re doing our part, and the state has to do theirs.”
Adkison also noted the importance of collaboration within the assembly, “assembly members, they all want to work together to make a thing happen, even when people come to the assembly or send us an email and say we don’t like what you’re doing, it’s never just criticism. It’s always, we really appreciate your work, how can we help you get there? And I think that’s been the best part of the assembly is knowing that, even with all our disagreements, I know that everyone wants to get to the same end goal, which is a strong, healthy capital city.”
Adkison is gearing up this campaign season, she intends to go door-to-door, participate in candidate forums, and have direct conversations with voters, she says that’s her favorite part of the process.
“I really like knocking on doors, talking to people one on one, because when you’re on the assembly, you have a very high-level view of things, and just having the opportunity to go door to door and talk to individual Juneauites and have them tell you what matters to them is a really good public opinion reset in my brain.”
Election Day is October 7, with ballots expected to arrive by mail beforehand. Adkison encouraged voters to watch for candidate forums, attend events, and reach out directly with questions or concerns.
“I want to emphasize what a privilege it’s been to be on the assembly and represent such an amazing community.” she said, “Juneau is my home and has been, and it’s place I am so happy to work for.”
In a packed meeting Monday night, the Juneau Assembly approved key measures, including a proposed seasonal sales tax structure and the city’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, while deferring several bond issues and continuing deliberation on ranked-choice voting.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said one of the most significant decisions was the approval of a revised seasonal sales tax ordinance, which will now head to the October ballot for voter consideration.
“The idea is to have a lower sales tax in winter months and a higher sales tax in summer months.” Barr explained, “and the Assembly did, ultimately pass the ordinance with some amendments.”
One amendment, introduced by Deputy Mayor Greg Smith, lowers the winter sales tax rate further, from 2.5% to 2%. Including the existing temporary 1% tax, which is renewed by voters every five years, the total off-season rate would be 3%.
The Assembly also passed the final draft of the All-Hazard Mitigation Plan, following public testimony, much of it centered on landslide risk.
“At the end of the day, the Assembly did pass the resolution.” Said Barr “So the next steps for that plan is that it will go on to the state and then to FEMA for adoption, and we’re hopeful that that will happen in time for us to be able to apply for grant opportunities that are coming down the line.”
The plan is key to unlocking federal funding opportunities, including hazard mitigation grants.
Deliberations also continued on ranked-choice voting, with the Assembly choosing to send the matter back to the Committee of the Whole for further discussion.
“There’s three or so ranked choice voting options that they’ve been working their way through. They’re all pretty complex.” Said Barr “And again, my general sense of the body last night is they just wanted more time to think, discuss and hear public input on those three options before deciding what to do.”
Barr encouraged residents to stay engaged and informed by signing up for Juneau’s emergency alert and notification system, which also offers general civic updates.
“Beyond that, looking at our agendas when they come out, usually on Thursdays before the next week’s meetings.” He said, “People can find those on juneau.org.”
This article has been corrected to adjust the winter sales tax from from 2.5% to 2%, rather than 3.5% as previously written.
A throng of protesters gathered at the Alaska State Capitol on April 5, 2025 to speak out against the administration of President Donald Trump.
(Photos by Greg Knight/News of the North)
A throng of protesters gathered at the Alaska State Capitol on April 5, 2025 to speak out against the administration of President Donald Trump.
(Photos by Greg Knight/News of the North)
NOTN- Juneau for Democracy, a local organization formed in January, says its intention is to mobilize Alaskans to protect civil rights through peaceful protests and direct civic engagement.
The group, founded by concerned citizens, focuses on holding elected officials accountable and addressing issues ranging from healthcare access to immigration policies.
They are also responsible for the June ‘No Kings’ protest held in Juneau, which had over 1500 participants in the capital city alone.
The organization regularly hosts rallies, and encourages constituents to contact their representatives. Members also maintain a weekly presence with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office staff and hold “Stand for Staff” events every Thursday to support federal employees affected by recent mass firings.
“It is really rewarding to have these conversations, because people feel heard.” Said Juneau for Democracy’s Ariel Hasse-Zamudio, “That’s a huge way that we can make a difference, if we’re not building relationships, if we’re not having conversations, then we’re not able to move forward and elevate our issues.”
Juneau for Democracy is focusing on a few key issues in their activism, including budget allocations that affect Medicaid.
“Just a little under 40% of Alaskans are on Medicaid, and that’s a huge number, because we’re only a state of 741,000 people.” Said Hasse-Zamudio, “that’s your neighbor, that’s your friend, that’s the people you might have seen at the hospital, and because so many people are going to lose their health care because of the requirements of the bill, that’s going to cause medical facilities to shut down.”
The tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law July 4 enacts wide-ranging changes to public policy, including major revisions to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and federal tax laws.
A provision in the bill will require the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid, to check paperwork at least twice a year to ensure those enrollees are volunteering or working at least 80 hours a month or attending school at least half-time.
The new law provides states $200 million for fiscal year 2026 to get their systems up and running. But some experts say states will have difficulty meeting the deadline with that funding and worry enrollees might lose their health benefits as a result.
“It’s actually more important now that the bill has passed that we continue to elevate the decisions that our federal delegation made that are against Alaskan interests.” Hass-Zamudio said.
The group also spotlights protecting public lands, and opposing what they describe as overreach by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The group argues ICE can currently arrest individuals without warrants or clear cause.
“We need accountability for this organization, if this organization is to exist and be funded.” Said Hasse-Zamudio, “there’s really no oversight right now.”
Recently, the Alaska Department of Corrections has held dozens of immigration detainees in Anchorage under conditions that violate federal standards for humane treatment.
According to Alaska Public Media, three immigration lawyers said the men were denied phone access to their attorneys and consulates, held in lockdown for long periods and, in one incident, subjected to pepper spray.
ICE teams are continuing to carry out enforcement operations, and officials have said targeting criminals is a priority, but a key issue to watch is how the term “criminal” is defined. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the administration sees all undocumented immigrants as criminals.
Megan Lingle from Juneau for Democracy added” I know that my Tlingit ancestors sacrificed a great deal, and we are still living with the trauma of those sacrifices. I mean, boarding schools were not that long ago, many of my grandparents generations were abducted and forced into them, and that hits really close to home when we hear ice might be in town.”
Lingle also emphasized the collective effort of Juneau for Democracy, “It’s crucial not only to use my voice, but also to encourage others to do the same, because fear grows in silence.”
The organization is planning another protest at the Capitol building on August 2 in Juneau, advocating for education funding as a part of a national day of protest, “Rage Against the Regime.”
“Juneau may seem small, but every voice matters.” Said Lingle “”We are the leaders we are waiting for.”
