Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference on Friday, March 15, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
NOTN- Governor Mike Dunleavy on Thursday released his proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget, a plan that would rely heavily on state savings to cover a substantial revenue gap.
The Office of Management and Budget projects the state will receive $15.3 billion in total revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, including $6.2 billion in unrestricted general funds available for lawmakers to appropriate, according to the statement release by Governor Dunleavy.
With declining revenue forecasts and rising costs attributed to inflation, Dunleavy’s proposal calls for withdrawing $1.5 billion from the Constitutional Budget Reserve, Alaska’s primary savings account, which currently holds about $3 billion.
Dunleavy said he plans to introduce a fiscal plan next session aimed at stabilizing state finances without raising taxes. He said the proposal will focus on expanding the private sector, controlling government growth and broadening the state’s economic base beyond oil.
Key elements of the governor’s FY 2027 budget include full statutory funding for K–12 public education, a full statutory Permanent Fund dividend of $3,650 per person and continued investment in public safety.
In an interview with KINY earlier this morning Juneau Senator Jessie Kiehl said, “The expectation is that it will be a budget that grapples with low oil prices. They’re closing below $64 a barrel, and that’s that’s really rough on the Treasury, and costs are going up for state services, just like they’re going up for Alaska. The governor has said that he’s submitting a fiscal plan, and that will be a very welcome change of pace, and if he is serious about that, it will give us a huge amount of work to do in this coming session, if we can get the state’s finances stabilized, not fat and happy, just stable, so we’re off the roller coaster. Alaska is poised for great things.”
Karmen Monigold, a member of Protect the Kobuk, a Northwest Arctic advocacy group opposed to the Ambler Access Road, poses for a portrait in Kotzebue, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
AP- Ice blocks drift past Tristen Pattee’s boat as he scans the banks of Northwest Alaska’s Kobuk River for caribou. His great uncle Ernest steadies a rifle on his lap. It’s the last day of September, and by every measure of history and memory, thousands should have crossed by now. But the tundra is empty, save for the mountains looming on the horizon — the Gates of the Arctic National Park.
Days after Pattee’s unsuccessful hunt, the Trump administration approved construction of the Ambler Access Road — a 211-mile (340-kilometer) route designed to reach massive copper deposits that would cut through that wilderness, crossing 11 major rivers and thousands of streams where salmon spawn and caribou migrate. The approval, which is facing lawsuits though proponents believe construction could start next year, came as record rainfall in Northwest Alaska flooded villages and ripped through fish spawning habitat — the latest climate-driven blow to Indigenous communities already watching caribou and salmon numbers plummet.
As the co-owner of a wilderness guiding company in Ambler, Pattee’s livelihood depends on keeping this landscape intact. An Inupiaq hunter, his ability to feed his family and continue the subsistence traditions of his ancestors depends on healthy caribou and fish populations.
Yet he supports building the road.
“Everything takes money nowadays,” said Pattee, who serves on Northwest Arctic Subsistence Regional Advisory Council, a federal advisory group. Jobs in local villages are scarce, and with gasoline at $17.50 a gallon, the ability to power all-terrain vehicles and boats needed to hunt is out of reach for many. Pattee estimates a single caribou hunting trip from Ambler costs $400. Mining jobs, he believes, would offer a lifeline, and the minerals could slow the climate shifts that are threatening his subsistence way of life.
It’s the irony of climate change in Northwest Alaska: the minerals needed to power the green energy transition sit beneath some of the continent’s last pristine wilderness — a landscape already on the frontlines of the climate crisis, where temperatures are rising four times faster than the rest of the planet.
“I see the climate changing. I’ve been seeing it for years now. It’s scary,” said Pattee. “Losing our culture, our tradition, is very concerning. So let’s do anything we can to help mitigate it.”
The decline before the road
Over the last two decades, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd has plummeted from nearly half a million to some 164,000 — a 66% decline, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Of those that remain, fewer now cross the Kobuk River during fall migration, where Pattee and other Inupiaq hunters would historically gather in late summer to stockpile meat for winter. While caribou populations naturally fluctuate, scientists say the increasingly delayed cold and snow that triggers the migration south has caused caribou to remain in the Brooks Range, where they are difficult for hunters to access.
The day after Pattee’s unsuccessful hunt, the first snow fell. On Oct. 6 — far later than historical norms — caribou began trickling across the Kobuk. Then the rains came, bringing heavy, late-season downpours that scientists say are becoming more common in the warming Arctic and devastating for salmon. Intense rainfall can damage and dislodge eggs, while rising water temperatures reduce oxygen levels fish need to journey upstream.
One recent study found dozens of clear streams in the Brooks Range have turned orange with toxic levels of metals — changes researchers believe is the result of permafrost thaw — which may help explain recent drops in salmon numbers. Chinook and chum salmon in particular are experiencing “sustained and dramatic declines” with periodic population crashes, which has led to complete closures of some fisheries, according to NOAA Fisheries.
Experts worry about what this year’s record storms will mean for future runs.
“Elders who’ve lived here their entire lives have never seen environmental conditions like this and they’ve never seen fish conditions this poor,” said Alex Whiting, Environmental Program Director for the Native Village of Kotzebue.
Adding pressure to a buckling landscape
The Ambler Road would add its own pressures. Thousands of culverts and nearly 50 bridges would disrupt water flow and fish passages, and more than 100 trucks would traverse the road daily over the decades-long production period. Federal biologists warn the region’s rocks contain naturally occurring asbestos and that heavy traffic would kick up dust that would settle on thousands of waterways as well as the vegetation caribou depend on. The road would also fragment the habitat of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, potentially hindering migration patterns. The Bureau of Land Management designated some 1.2 million acres of nearby salmon spawning and caribou calving habitat as “critical environmental concern.”
Then there’s the mine. Vast amounts of water would be drawn from rivers and lakes, while groundwater levels and permafrost would be permanently disrupted. The operation would generate enormous quantities of waste rock and require a tailings facility to store toxic slurry, risking spills that could send heavy metals into waterways.
Given the record-breaking rainfall the region has seen in recent years, residents downstream worry about breaches. In Kotzebue, a hub of 3,000 at the mouth of the Kobuk where flooding prompted an emergency declaration this fall, many fear contamination could harm drinking sources and traditional Inupiaq foods like fish and bearded seals, which are already threatened by disappearing sea ice.
Poop “rolls downhill — and that’s where Kotzebue’s at,” said Karmen Monigold, an Inupiaq member of Protect the Kobuk, a grassroots effort working to stop the road, and co-chair of the Kotzebue Sound Subsistence Advisory Council.
Monigold learned to live off the land as a child from her grandparents. Determined to share her connection to nature, she taught her four sons and their cousins to hunt and fish. She’s watched climate change erode the subsistence lifestyle she fought to preserve and fears the road would accelerate that loss.
Like many opponents, she doubts promises that the road would remain private and notes other Alaska roads, such as the Dalton Highway, opened to the public despite similar assurances. An influx of outside hunters and fishers, they fear, would further stress fish and caribou populations. Even Pattee’s support for the road hinges on it being closed.
“We lose so much every generation,” Monigold said. “But right now we still have enough of a culture for it to be worth fighting for.”
In an emailed statement, Kaleb Froehlich, Managing Director of Ambler Metals, the company behind the mining project, said the operation would use proven safety controls for permafrost and will treat all water from the mining process to strict standards. The company also tracks precipitation to size facilities for heavier rainfall and has a binding agreement with NANA, an Alaska Native corporation, to prioritize recruitment from nearby communities.
Ambler Metals declined to comment on concerns specific to the road, including naturally occurring asbestos, traffic impacts, public access and habitat fragmentation, noting the company is not the road developer, though it has contributed to pre-development costs and would be its primary user. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state-owned investment bank developing the road, did not respond to a request for comment.
The carbon footprint of decarbonizing
Critical minerals are becoming increasingly vital — growing demand for green energy technologies could scale production by nearly 500% by 2050, according to a 2020 World Bank report. The Arctic deposit would yield not just copper, but also zinc, lead, silver and gold. At an estimated 46.7 million tons of mineral reserves, it ranks among the largest undeveloped polymetallic deposits in North America.
But there’s no guarantee the minerals would fuel clean energy. President Donald Trump has spoken openly about his disdain for electric vehicles and wind power, and the majority of copper in the U.S. goes to construction projects, according to the Copper Development Association.
The Trump administration has framed the issue as one of national security and deemed reliance on “hostile foreign powers’ mineral production” an acute threat. In March, the White House issued an executive order instructing the Secretary of the Interior to prioritize mineral production and mining as the primary land use on all federal lands known to hold mineral deposits.
Yet even that argument doesn’t quite fit. While the U.S. is heavily reliant on China for some 20 different minerals, the Arctic deposit’s primary minerals — copper and zinc — are not among them, according to the 2025 USGS report. The U.S. sources 45% of its refined copper from Chile, Canada, Mexico and Peru, and 73% of its zinc from Canada and Mexico. The rest is mined domestically.
The real issue isn’t whether the minerals are needed — it’s who gets to decide, said Andrea Marston, an associate professor of geography at Rutgers University who studies mining and Indigenous rights in the Americas. Mining projects like Ambler are sometimes located on Indigenous lands, creating what she calls a false ethical dilemma: mine to save the climate, or protect the land and perpetuate warming. That framing, she argues, obscures other possibilities like investing in mass public transportation, recycling minerals that already exist and designing systems that consume less.
“You cannot justify steamrolling Indigenous lands with a kind of global story of climate change because that just ends up reiterating colonial plunder in a new way,” she said. “The starting point should be: it is their land to decide what to do with.”
A community divided
Ambler mayor Conrad Douglas recognizes the exorbitant cost of living in his village and the desperate need for jobs. But he also knows the Canadian and Australian mining companies that hold the rights to the Ambler deposits may source workers from elsewhere, and he fears what it would all do to the land.
His concerns are layered: fugitive dust, tailings runoff and a cruel cycle where increasingly heavy rains wipe out fish runs, forcing people to rely more on caribou just as the road threatens to further disrupt those herds. With gas prices already putting hunting out of reach for many families, the equation becomes impossible.
“I don’t really know how much the state of Alaska is willing to jeopardize our way of life, but the people do need jobs,” he said, dressed in a pro Ambler Road hoodie.
Douglas worked at Red Dog Mine in the early 1990s and has seen how it benefited neighboring villages with jobs and community support. But he worries the companies behind Ambler won’t take the same approach.
For Pattee, the jobs represent more than income — they would allow people to reconnect with their culture. Young Inupiaq hunters once took immense pride in providing for their families, he said.
“That was their proud moment. That was what they lived for,” he said. “Nowadays, without being able to afford hunting, a lot of that’s been taken away.”
As for impacts on fish and caribou, Pattee believes mining safeguards work. In addition to wilderness guiding, he works as an environmental technical supervisor at Red Dog Mine and has seen good practices firsthand.
Still, “there’s always a worry,” he said.
What would be left
Nick Jans, an author who moved to Ambler in 1979, has watched the landscape transform over 46 years. When he first arrived, permafrost banks held firm against the rivers and caribou poured through by the hundreds of thousands.
The road, he argued, would deliver the final blow to a landscape already stressed by climate change.
“This isn’t about my backyard — this is about your backyard. This is the world’s backyard,” he said, his voice catching. “We have to protect something that was this planet as it was before us. Otherwise, we’re gonna lose our way. And I would say we already have.”
The night after his unsuccessful hunt, Pattee and his family gathered around a table of bowhead whale, beluga, seal and moose — a rare meal all together as relatives had flown in from Anchorage. Like many in Ambler, Pattee’s family members have left over the years to find jobs. In a village this small, each departure is felt — the population has dwindled from 320 in 2010 to some 200 today.
“We’re losing our community. We’re literally losing it,” he said. “People want to be home but they just don’t have the opportunities to keep them there.”
Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks Wednesday, April 23, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska Senate. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
In a Friday hearing, members of the Alaska Senate spoke critically about a proposed new ferry terminal in Juneau, questioning why the project would be worth its multimillion-dollar cost.
Earlier this year, state legislators planned to divert $62 million from a variety of transportation projects in order to pay for the state share of federal transportation grants worth between $500 million and $600 million.
Lawmakers included the diversion in their budget for the year, but Dunleavy vetoed the maneuver, saying that the “funding is either still obligated in the original project or has been fully expended and is unavailable for reappropriation.”
That left legislators’ spending plan partially unfunded.
One of lawmakers’ biggest targets this past spring was DOT’s plan to build a new ferry terminal in Juneau, roughly 30 miles north of the existing terminal in Auke Bay, in Juneau at a place called Cascade Point, which would shorten ferry runs to Haines and Skagway.
Legislators sought to divert $37 million from an account intended to fund that new terminal, but Dunleavy vetoed the transfer and the Department of Transportation subsequently signed a $28.5 million contract for work on the terminal.
In October, the state’s ferry advisory board concluded that the project likely did not make economic sense.
“Do you agree with that study?” asked Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, during Friday’s hearing of the Senate Transportation Committee.
“Can you please make the case to the Alaska people why you think investing this money … in the Cascade Point project makes fiscal sense for Alaskans?”
Anderson responded that “as a public agency, we’re more than economics. In this case, there’s this idea of saving people time with a much shorter run, saving money, the cost of operating that ship, we’re saving fuel. It’s less carbon emissions. I mean, there’s a lot of good benefits to shorter ferry runs.”
Lawmakers don’t have the votes to override the governor’s vetoes, which means that when they reconvene in January, they’ll have to come up with a new way to fund construction work this summer.
According to documents presented to the committee on Friday, the Alaska Department of Transportation has “deferred” about 25 projects 1-3 years “to remain within available match.”
Without new money, “fewer projects will move to contract award, limiting construction activity.”
Ryan Anderson, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, told the transportation committee that his agency is prioritizing “shovel ready” projects, those that are about to go to construction.
“As we go and prioritize projects through this year, we’ll continue that action, and we’ll be ready. That’s really how we’re looking at this program,” he said.
The Alaska Governor’s Mansion is seen on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2022 during the annual holiday open house. (Photo by James Brooks / Alaska Beacon)
Holiday music, decorations and thousands of cookies are ready at the Governor’s Residence for the annual Holiday Open House today, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Students from the Thunder Mountain Middle School Carolers, the Juneau Douglas High School Band, Faith Christian School, and Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) will perform holiday music, while Alaska’s 15 state commissioners will serve up hot apple cider to all visitors.
Cookies and other holiday treats will be provided 17,050 cookies, 35 pounds of toffee and 90 pounds of fudge and chocolate will be served in the dining room. This year’s Christmas tree was donated by the U.S. Forest Service and was harvested from the Tongass National Forest.
The first open house was held by Territorial Governor Walter Eli Clark and his family on New Year’s Day 1913. The annual tradition has been held every year since, apart from two years during World War II and in 2020 due to COVID-19. Individuals with special accessibility needs can contact Maxine Lucero at (907) 465-3500, to arrange entry from 2:15-2:30 p.m.
An exploration site at ConocoPhillips’ Willow prospect is seen from the air in the 2019 winter season. Willow is located in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. (Photo by Judy Patrick/provided by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.)
The White House announced Friday evening that Trump had signed Senate Joint Resolution 80 into law.
SJR 80 uses the Congressional Review Act to reverse restrictions enacted during the administration of President Joe Biden. Those restrictions, imposed as part of a 2022 activity plan for the reserve, were intended to protect environmentally sensitive areas against harm from oil and gas drilling.
Developers and drilling advocates opposed the restrictions, saying they could deter work that would provide revenue for local residents and Alaskans at large. Trump has also been interested in developing Alaska’s oil reserves as part of a broader effort to increase American energy production and reduce imports.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow project is in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. (Map by USGS, Department of Interior)
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is approximately 23.5 million acres. Located to the west of Alaska’s vast Prudhoe Bay oil fields it — unlike the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to the east — has been the subject of interest from oil companies.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, approved during the Biden administration, was the first major project to take place in the reserve, and others are planned.
Friday’s signing was one of several Trump administration actions taking place simultaneously to reduce regulatory obstacles for developers interested in drilling within the reserve.
Students swing on a playground at Meadow Lakes Head Start in Wasilla, Alaska. It closed in 2024 due to funding and staffing challenges. (Image by Lela Seiler, courtesy of CCS Early Learning)
The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s child support system has first priority when a foreclosed property is sold to pay multiple debts.
The court issued its opinion on Nov. 28, resolving a long-running lawsuit brought by Global Federal Credit Union (formerly Alaska USA) against the state and several other defendants.
“This is a pretty important case from my client’s perspective,” said Jonathan Clement, a senior assistant attorney general who represented Alaska’s child support system.
“This is the first time that a court has actually decided that child support gets priority over all other judgment lien holders, even liens recorded earlier, when there’s surplus funds at issue,” he said.
The case decided by the court involved property in Eagle River that was mortgaged by Wells Fargo. In 2017, Global levied a lien against the property for unpaid debt. Shortly afterward, the state’s child support division recorded another lien against the property for unpaid debt.
Typically, liens are repaid in chronological order: First filed, first paid.
In 2018, a law firm sold the property through foreclosure and paid off the remaining Wells Fargo mortgage. There was money left over, but not enough to pay both Global and the state.
The state protested the law firm’s plans to pay Global first, and the firm complied with a state order that required it to pay the state first.
Global sued in state court, but a district court judge and a superior court judge each ruled against the credit union before it appealed to the supreme court.
Writing on behalf of the court, Justice Jude Pate concluded, “Our interpretation of (state law) provides an effective priority for CSSD liens over competing judgment liens.”
Alaska’s Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is now known as the Child Support Enforcement Division (CSCD).
That priority doesn’t put the state above a bank holding a mortgage or “deed of trust” but it does give the state priority over other liens on the property.
“The important thing for this case is that it gives CSCD another tool where they can try to collect money that’s owed by the obligors,” Clement said.
“I would say of all the cases I’ve worked on, this is the one that will have the most impact in my career going forward,” he said.
An attorney representing Global declined comment on behalf of the credit union.
In a footnote attached to the case, Pate wrote that the court’s ruling could cause people to behave differently during foreclosure auctions.
He suggested that if the Legislature disagrees with the court’s interpretation, it might want to pass a law clarifying two conflicting statutes interpreted by the court.
“If our interpretation is contrary to the legislature’s intent,” he wrote, “amendments to the relevant child support statutes could clarify the interaction between child support liens, other liens, and mortgages.”
A commercial bowpicker is seen headed out of the Cordova harbor for a salmon fishing opener in June 2024 (Photo by Corinne Smith)
One of Alaska’s smallest telecommunications companies is about to provide a critical backup for the entire state.
On Wednesday, Cordova Telecom Cooperative and GCI announced a partnership to lay an undersea fiber optic cable from Juneau to Cordova and a second cable from Cordova to Seward.
When open for service in fall 2027, the two cables will provide high-speed internet to small communities in Prince William Sound and northern Southeast Alaska.
The development matters to the rest of the state as well, because when combined, they will provide a route for internet traffic between the Railbelt and Outside. Currently, four undersea cables through the Gulf of Alaska are the principal routes for internet and phone traffic between Alaska and the rest of the world.
Matanuska Telecom Association opened the state’s first overland fiber connection in 2020 as an alternative, and the new route will give the state another redundant option, said Cordova Telecom CEO Jeremiah Beckett.
“With what we’ve built out, scalability wise, we could put all the current Alaska traffic on our network if needed,” Beckett said.
This map, provided by Cordova Telecom Cooperative, shows the route of the proposed FISH in SEAK cable that will come online in fall 2027. Cordova’s existing fiber route is shown in green. (Image courtesy Cordova Telecom Cooperative)
While satellite internet services like Starlink have transformed life in rural Alaska, ground-based fiber internet remains the backbone of worldwide telecommunications, delivering service faster and in volumes that satellites can’t provide.
“It’s kind of like rural communities that don’t have the ferry,” Beckett said. “Places without fiber don’t have the same access that folks with fiber do. So this is really to help connect those rural areas and give them the same access to the digital economy and marketplace as the rest of the world.”
Despite their advantages, fiber-optic cables can be vulnerable.
“Up north, it’s ice scouring … and in our area, it’s typically ship anchors and earthquakes,” Beckett said.
Alaskans have become intimately familiar with the consequences of broken cables in recent years.
Northern and northwest Alaska are particularly familiar: Quintillion’s fiber-optic cable has been severed three times in two years. The latest break wasn’t fixed for more than seven months because sea ice precluded repairs. That caused widespread problems in areas served by the cable.
In March, a break in a subsea cable left the Alaska Legislature to do business on paper for a day and knocked out both cellphone and internet service for much of Juneau. Juneau had alternatives; a temporary fix was in place within days.
Adding a backup fiber route reduces the odds of blackouts like those. Currently, Cordova is served by a single undersea fiber line through Prince William Sound to Valdez.
When the project is complete, internet and phone traffic will have three possible routes: north, west, and east.
The two cables will cost roughly $88 million combined, according to figures provided by Beckett, and the project is principally funded through two federal grants. Cordova Telecom is paying for part of the project, as is GCI, which will be what Beckett calls an “anchor tenant and partner.”
“It was a good matchup for both of our long-term goals,” he said.
In a prepared statement, GCI senior vice president Billy Wailand praised the plan, which is formally known as Fiber Internet Serving Homes in Southeast Alaska, or FISH in SEAK.
“Critical state services require network diversity,” he said. “GCI turned up the first subsea cable to Alaska in 1999 and landed a second diverse fiber in 2008. We are thrilled to partner with CTC on its FISH in SEAK project, which includes a next-generation cable that ensures Alaska and its capital city continue to benefit from the newest technologies and adds another crucial layer of redundancy to the network.”
Communities along the cable route will see huge changes, Beckett said. Residents of Pelican on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, who use boardwalks instead of roads and four-wheelers instead of cars, will be able to get fiber internet access directly to their homes.
The island village of Chenega in Prince William Sound, which has about 50 year-round residents, likewise will have new access to fiber internet.
Alaska’s Lost Coast, between Glacier Bay and Yakutat, could be dotted with cellphone towers.
Beckett, who grew up in Cordova, returned to the town with his spouse 12 years ago, “basically when Cordova got its subsea fiber,” he said. “We were both teleworkers, and that created the opportunity for us to move back to Alaska, essentially.”
Since then, he’s seen internet service improve and has become head of his local telecom, which has just 20 employees.
Because it’s a cooperative, it’s run as a nonprofit, he said. That means the telecom’s goal is to deliver faster service and low rates, not necessarily generate a profit.
In Yakutat, “a few years ago, you couldn’t get cell service anywhere,” Beckett said.
“We’ve upgraded the cell service there to 4G and outside of the fishermen complaining because their wives can get hold of them, it was a huge boost for the community,” he said.
“If someone gets hurt, they can call the paramedics and not have to drive 20 miles before they get to service. … It’s giving people reasons to think about moving home, because it’s one less inhibitor to be back in Alaska,” Beckett said.
“Yakutat actually got a new clinic a couple years ago, and then with this, I think they’re going to see some good growth. Everyone likes core services, right?”
The scales of justice are seen in an undated photo. (Getty Images)
The Alaska Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal from a man who received one of the highest prison sentences ever given in Alaska to a juvenile convicted of murder.
In an order published Friday, the court concluded that the recantation of a key witness is not enough to warrant a retrial for Brian Hall, who was 17 at the time. In 1995, Hall was sentenced to 159 years in prison for the killing of two men in Anchorage, Mickey Dinsmore and Stanley Honeycutt.
Despite the rejection, wrote Judge Marjorie Allard on behalf of the court, Hall is eligible for resentencing as part of a wave of juvenile punishments being reconsidered by state courts.
“At sentencing, the court sentenced Hall to 159 years to serve, one of the highest sentences — if not the highest sentence — that a juvenile tried as an adult in Alaska has ever received,” she wrote. “As a juvenile sentenced in 1995 to a de facto life without parole sentence, Hall has been granted the opportunity for a resentencing in which his youth and the unique attributes of youth will be appropriately considered.”
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits courts from sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole, except in homicide cases.
Two years ago, the state appeals court said the Alaska Constitution imposes further limits in addition to those provided by the U.S. Constitution.
Since then, Alaska courts have resentenced several former juveniles who were sentenced to long terms in prison. In September, Alaska’s youngest convicted female murderer was released from prison on parole after 40 years behind bars.
Hall, who has been in prison for 30 years, could receive similar treatment.
At the time of his trial, Hall claimed he acted in self-defense and that he believed, based on a statement from then-15-year-old Monica Shelton, that Dinsmore and Honeycutt — the people he killed — were armed.
At trial, Shelton denied telling Hall that the two were armed. Hall was convicted and sentenced with that testimony.
While in prison, Hall married Angela Diaz (now Angela Hall), and Angela hired a defense investigator who got in contact with Shelton. In a recorded interview, Shelton said she was scared at trial and lied in her testimony.
In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Hall said he is full of remorse about his crime and isn’t the same person he was at 17.
Years of legal arguments followed the investigator’s interview as Hall first requested a new trial, then asked for post-conviction relief.
Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman dismissed that request, siding with state prosecutors who had raised procedural errors, including the idea that Hall’s filings were too late.
He also concluded that Hall failed to show that Shelton’s recantation would “probably result in an acquittal,” the standard that applies to timely filings for post-conviction relief.
Allard, writing on behalf of the appeals court, overruled Zeman on the procedural elements of Hall’s argument but concluded that even with the recanted testimony, it wasn’t clear that a new trial would result in a new outcome.
“The problem that Hall still faces, notwithstanding Shelton’s recantation, is that the rest of the evidence from trial indicates that Hall’s mistaken belief that he had to use deadly force … was not objectively reasonable,” she wrote.
“Hall was required to show that, viewing all the well-pleaded facts in the light most favorable to Hall, it is “highly probable” that Shelton’s recantation would result in an acquittal at any retrial,” Allard said.
“But while Shelton’s recantation constitutes important new evidence that sheds more light on Hall’s motivations and the reasons for his subjective fear, it does not alter the fact that his actions in shooting both men still appear overly impulsive and objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.”
Even with that finding, Hall is eligible for resentencing, Allard said.
“As part of that resentencing, the court should take into account Shelton’s recantation and the effect of that recantation on Hall’s level of culpability.”
Solar panels at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center campus in Fairbanks are seen on June 5, 2025. The Cold Climate House Research Center, which became part of the National Renewable Energy Labortory system in 2020, is focused on designing sustainable and energy efficient housing that is resilient to climate change in the far north. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The federal government research organization that has been devoted for half a century to renewable energy development has had the word “renewable” stripped from its name.
The Trump administration, which broadly opposes renewable energy projects, changed the name of the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory to “National Laboratory of the Rockies.”
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the name change on Monday, effective immediately.
“The energy crisis we face today is unlike the crisis that gave rise to NREL,” Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said in a statement. “We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources. Our highest priority is to invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs, and help this country meet its soaring energy demand. The National Laboratory of the Rockies will play a vital role in those efforts.”
NREL has a prominent presence in Alaska. The agency in 2020 joined into a partnership with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The UAF facility is one of four NREL centers; two campuses are in Colorado and there is an office in Washington, D.C.
Jud Virden, the laboratory’s director, said the new name “embraces a broader applied energy mission entrusted to us by the Department of Energy to deliver a more affordable and secure energy future for all,” according to the statement.
However, the name change is a troubling sign to one Alaska organization involved in projects promoting renewable energy and energy affordability.
“Removing ‘Renewable’ and ‘Energy’ from NREL’s name raises concerns. Renewables are key to affordable, secure energy and deliver long-term economic benefits, especially for rural communities,” Bridget Shaughnessy Smith, communications director for the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, said by email.
“While it’s not yet clear if this name change signals a broad mission shift, any refocus cannot come at the expense of renewable energy or by prioritizing already well-funded fossil fuel industries. Remote microgrid communities in Alaska are working with NREL to innovate toward affordable, reliable energy, and this name change must not disrupt that critical work,” Shaughnessy Smith continued.
NREL’s history started in 1974, when the organization was established as the Solar Energy Research Institute. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush elevated it to national lab status and changed the name to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The Cold Climate Housing Research Center was established in 1999 with a mission of improving housing and building conditions in Alaska’s extreme climate. The center has focused on renewable energy, along with energy efficiency, structural integrity for buildings on permafrost, indoor air quality and designs that are sustainable in the far north. The center headquarters is the world’s farthest-north building with a platinum rating, the highest possible, bestowed by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The NREL-Cold Climate Housing Research Center partnership has participated in numerous recent energy and environmental innovations, including the development of non-plastic housing insulation made from a fungi-wood pulp blend.
The NREL name change adds to a list of government agencies and geographic sites changed by the Trump administration this year to align with the president’s agenda.
On the day he was inaugurated for his second term, President Trump issued an executive order directing that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed “Gulf of America” and that Denali, North America’s tallest peak, revert to its previous federal name, Mount McKinley.
The Denali name comes from the traditional name for the Alaska peak used by the Koyukon people, the region’s Indigenous residents. The name, which translates to “the high one,” has been the official state of Alaska name since the 1970s. The McKinley name, for former president and Ohioan William McKinley, has been widely panned in Alaska, and state lawmakers passed a resolution asking for the Denali name to be restored for federal government use.
In September, Trump issued an executive order directing that the U.S Department of Defense be renamed “Department of War.” That resurrected a department name that was dropped in 1947.
Members of the Alaska Air and Army National Guard, Alaska Naval Militia, and Alaska State Defense Force work together to load plywood onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, in Bethel, Alaska, Nov. 2, 2025, bound for the villages of Napaskiak, Tuntutuliak, and Napakiak. The materials will help residents rebuild homes and restore community spaces damaged by past storms. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Ericka Gillespie)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has approved a U.S. Defense Department request for Alaska National Guard service members to assist the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Anchorage with “administrative support,” the guard office announced Tuesday.
The Alaska National Guard said five service members will assist with “administrative and logistical” duties at the Anchorage ICE office for up to a year.
“The Alaska National Guard members are administratively supporting the Enforcement & Removal Operations section and Homeland Security Investigations section, ensuring seamless operations at the Anchorage ICE office. Their mission includes a wide range of duties, from vehicle fleet management and safety compliance to office support and processing purchase orders,” the Guard statement said.
The announcement included a list of clerical duties, including data entry and creating reports, answering phones, managing fleet vehicles and checking fire extinguishers. Officials said the partnership is authorized by Title 32 Section 502(f) of the U.S. Code, which enables National Guard members to perform additional duties under the direction of the President or Secretary of Defense.
Grant Robinson, Dunleavy’s deputy press secretary, confirmed the governor approved the request.
“The Alaska National Guard members joined the guard to serve our nation. This support they are providing the Anchorage ICE office is in service of the nation,” he said by email Tuesday.
Grant did not say whether the National Guard would provide further assistance with immigration enforcement actions.
“Any future requests for administrative and logistical support will be considered on a case by case basis,” he said.
The Trump administration has continued to accelerate immigration enforcement operations, and officials have promised to “limit legal and illegal immigration,” after the shooting of two National Guard service members in Washington, D.C. last week. The Trump administration has also continued to roll back humanitarian programs for immigrants, including ending the temporary protected status of 330,000 nationals from Haiti last week.
While ICE has been conducting mass raids, court house arrests and large-scale detentions and deportation operations across the United States, in Alaska ICE has focused enforcement efforts on specific individuals identified through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or having interactions with law enforcement, according to the ACLU of Alaska.
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage is the co-chair of the Alaska Joint Armed Services Committee and has been outspoken about his concerns about the Alaska National Guard being deployed domestically for “civil disturbance operations.”
“I see it’s a long list of boring, banal administrative tasks that are in no way controversial or concerning in and of themselves,” he said of the National Guard announcement. “What’s concerning is that Alaska ICE is requesting additional support, and the assumption that I make is that it’s because Alaska ICE intends to be doing more detainments, and intends to be doing more field operations in which they’re going to need this administrative support behind them. So that’s my concern.”
Gray was reached by phone Tuesday leaving a meeting with U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in Washington, D.C. Gray said he expressed his concerns at the meeting about the leadership of U.S. Department of Defense, which the Trump administration has renamed the “Department of War,” and Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Gray said he’s also concerned about a wider chilling effect of ICE activity and increased immigration enforcement in Alaska.
“It’s going to increase fear, not only in the undocumented folks that might be in Anchorage and the rest of Alaska, but also fear in people who are here legally, and even U.S. citizens who might be mistaken for someone who might be undocumented,” he said.
An October investigation by ProPublica found that more than 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE in raids and at protests, and the government does not track how many citizens are held by immigration agents.
Dunleavy’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the concern around ICE overreaching its authority, and arresting and detaining U.S. citizens.
“It seems that Alaska’s notorious SNAP backlog caused by a lack of workforce doing many of the tasks in this memo would be much better use of our Guard,” Gray added. “Why not deploy Guard members to feed Alaskans instead of deploying them to earn brownie points with the Trump administration?”
Cindy Woods, senior staff attorney on immigration rights with the ACLU of Alaska, said they have tracked at least 70 ICE arrests this year, as reported in the custody of the Alaska Department of Corrections. That’s an almost 500% increase from last year.
“We have been seeing a growing ICE presence in the state and a growing trend of ICE enforcement,” she said. The ICE activity has been largely in Anchorage, she said.
“We are very concerned about what this signals in relation to our state government’s willingness to cooperate with federal law enforcement, specifically in relation to ICE enforcement operations,” she said of the National Guard announcement. “I think it can’t be overstated the negative impact that increased enforcement has had across the country and Alaska, unfortunately, is not immune to that.”
An estimated 7.7% of the population, or more than 57,000 people, in Alaska are foreign-born, Woods pointed out, and the Trump administration’s continued restrictions on paths to legal immigration and citizenship, as well as humanitarian and refugee resettlement programs are impacting Alaskans.
“It’s kind of an assault from both sides, and so we’re really concerned about that as well,” she said.
Woods said the ACLU is not aware of any U.S. citizens being detained by ICE in Alaska, but there is heightened scrutiny.
“One case that we have heard of recently is of a longtime Anchorage resident who has been happily married and was going to their interview for their green card based on that marriage, and being arrested with basically accusations of marriage fraud,” she said. “And so we’re seeing folks who are in affirmative applications, who are not in any sort of civil enforcement proceedings, who are also being subject to heightened scrutiny and enforcement actions.”
