Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
AP- A powerful, magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in a remote area near the border between Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon on Saturday. There was no tsunami warning, and officials said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it struck about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Whitehorse, Yukon.
In Whitehorse, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Calista MacLeod said the detachment received two 911 calls about the earthquake.
“It definitely was felt,” MacLeod said. “There are a lot of people on social media, people felt it.”
Alison Bird, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the part of Yukon most affected by the temblor is mountainous and has few people.
“Mostly people have reported things falling off shelves and walls,” Bird said. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve seen anything in terms of structural damage.”
The Canadian community nearest to the epicenter is Haines Junction, Bird said, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away. The Yukon Bureau of Statistics lists its population count for 2022 as 1,018.
The quake was also about 56 miles (91 kilometers) from Yakutat, Alaska, which the USGS said has 662 residents.
It struck at a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) and was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks.
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.
A cruise ship emerges from a fog bank Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
CBJ- The City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) invites the public to submit proposals for how proceeds from the 2026 Marine Passenger Fee (MPF) are used. Proposals can be made via webform from December 1 to December 31, 2025. This annual process ensures that all members of the community can have a say in how fees from the cruise ship industry are reinvested in local business and services.
Various fees and taxes make up a $13 total fee per cruise ship passenger. These fees are designated to fund projects directly related to the visitor industry which enhance the tourism experience in Juneau and offset community impacts created by the cruise ship industry.
The use of these fees is constitutionally restricted. CBJ and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) settled a lawsuit in 2019 with an agreement that governs how and where CBJ spends the fees. CBJ therefore encourages project proposals that benefit cruise ship passengers as well as Juneau residents. For a full description of project eligibility, please see CBJ 69.20.120.
Exciting examples of past projects funded in part through the MPF include the Downtown Seawalk project, growing pedestrian access to Juneau’s waterfront, and improvements to Juneau’s wastewater systems, increasing utility effectiveness and efficiency for all of Juneau’s residents and visitors. For more details, please see the full list of FY26 projects & associated funding totals.
After the proposal period has ended, the City Manager will develop a draft recommendation list followed by a 30-day comment period that can be found on the Marine Passenger Fee Program website. All materials will then be submitted to the Assembly Finance Committee for review, and then to the Assembly for consideration during the upcoming budget cycle.
Proposals must be submitted by December 31 on the webform or the City Manager’s Office, attention Alexandra Pierce, 155 Heritage Way, Juneau, Alaska 99801.
Alaska Airlines planes are shown parked at gates with Mount Rainier in the background on March 1, 2021, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
AP- Air travelers in the U.S. without a REAL ID will be charged a $45 fee beginning in February, the Transportation Security Administration announced Monday.
The updated ID has been required since May, but passengers without it have so far been allowed to clear security with additional screening and a warning. The Department of Homeland Security says 94% of passengers are already compliant and that the new fee is intended to encourage travelers to obtain the ID.
REAL ID is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that meets enhanced requirements mandated in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Obtaining the ID — indicated by a white star in a yellow circle in most states — means taking more documents to the motor vehicle agency than most states require for regular IDs. It was supposed to be rolled out in 2008 but the implementation had been repeatedly delayed.
Beginning Feb. 1, travelers 18 and older flying domestically without a REAL ID and who don’t have another accepted form of ID on them, such as a passport, will pay the non-refundable fee to verify their identity through TSA’s alternative “Confirm.ID” system.
TSA officials said that paying the fee does not guarantee verification, and travelers whose identities cannot be verified may be turned away. If approved, however, the verification covers a 10-day travel period.
The fee can be paid online before arriving at the airport. Travelers can also pay online at the airport before entering the security line, but officials said the process may take up to 30 minutes.
The TSA initially proposed an $18 charge for passengers without a REAL ID, but officials said Monday they raised it after realizing the alternative identification program would cost more than anticipated.
Other acceptable forms of ID include military IDs, permanent resident cards and photo IDs from federally recognized tribal nations. TSA also accepts digital IDs through platforms such as Apple Wallet, Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet at more than 250 airports in the U.S.
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.”
AP- Costco is joining other companies that aren’t waiting to see whether the Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump’s most sweeping import taxes. They’re going to court to demand refunds on the tariffs they’ve paid.
The U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled earlier this year that Trump’s biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. The case is now before the Supreme Court. In a Nov. 5 hearing, several of the high court’s justices expressed doubts that the president had sweeping power to declare national emergencies to impose tariffs on goods from almost every country on earth.
If the court strikes down the tariffs, importers may be entitled to refunds on the levies they’ve paid. “It’s uncertain whether refunds will be granted and, if so, how much,” said Brent Skorup, a legal fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. ”But the possibility has prompted many companies — including Costco — to file actions in the U.S. Court of International Trade to get in line, so to speak, for potential refunds.”
In a complaint filed last week with the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, Costco said it is demanding the money back now “to ensure that its right to a complete refund is not jeopardized.″ The operator of warehouse-sized stores expressed concern that it could not get a refund once the tariff bills have have gone through liquidation by Customs and Border Protection, a process Costco says will start Dec. 15.
Revlon and canned seafood and chicken producer Bumble Bee Foods have made similar arguments in the trade court.
The tariffs facing the court challenged have raised around $90 billion so far. Trump warned back in August that the loss of his tariffs would destroy that American economy and lead to “1929 all over again, a GREAT DEPRESSION!”
John Crowther, center, listens during a Nov. 13, 2025, panel discussion at the annual Resource Development Council for Alaska conference in Anchorage. At the time, Crowther was the acting commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. At left is Kara Moriarity, senior adviser for Alaska Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and at right is Kevin Pendergast, Alaska state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has selected Crowther to lead the department on a permanent basis. (Photo by John Whipple/State of Alaska)
John Crowther, who stepped in as acting commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources last month after John Boyle, the previous commissioner, resigned abruptly, is the governor’s choice for the more permanent position.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Friday he will ask the Legislature to confirm Crowther as the commissioner once the 2026 session gets underway.
John Crowther, formerly serving as the deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, was tapped by Gov. Mike Dunleavy as acting head in October and commissioner-designee on Nov. 28, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources)
“John Crowther brings a deep understanding of Alaska’s natural resources and a proven commitment to responsible stewardship. His balanced approach to development and conservation makes him an exceptional choice to lead the Department of Natural Resources and serve the long-term interests of Alaskans,” Dunleavy said in a statement.
Crowther is a department veteran, having joined DNR in 2012. Prior to being named acting commissioner, he served as deputy commissioner managing the department’s oil and gas project permitting and geological survey divisions.
After his first years working for DNR, Crowther served from late 2017 to January 2019 as Alaska’s director of state and federal relations under then-Gov. Bill Walker, according to his professional biography. From January 2019 to January 2021, he served as a U.S. Senate Natural Resources Committee aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. After that, he returned to DNR, the governor’s statement said.
“The Department’s constitutional mission to develop, conserve and maximize the use of Alaska’s natural resources is critical to our state,” Crowther said in the governor’s statement. “I will continue working as hard as I can to advance this mission and improve Alaska’s future through stewardship and responsible use of our resources. I am honored and humbled to accept the Governor’s designation and enthusiastic to lead the dedicated professionals of DNR.”
Crowther is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Georgetown University Law School.
Photo of typical smorgasbord with breaded ham, meatballs, sausage, pickled herring and side dishes.
AP- A recent survey finds 81% of Americans show love for family and friends by preparing holiday dishes, but there’s always one dish at Christmas that tests how polite your family is. Someone’s one forkful away from blessing the cook’s heart, but nobody dares to leave that recipe off the menu. It might be a wobbly mold of aspic with floating shrimp, a salad that doesn’t contain a single leaf of lettuce or a fruitcake packed with neon cherries and nuts so dense it could double as a doorstop.
It’s probably not as bad as Aunt Bethany’s crispy cat food congealed salad from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” but it still gets a few side-eyes and maybe even a small gag from the kids who have to take a bite.
No one is entirely sure who started the tradition, but it stuck. Christmas wouldn’t feel complete without it. The dish may not win any awards, but it earns its place through sheer persistence. It outlasts trendy desserts, fancy sides and every attempt to modernize the holiday spread.
What makes a recipe weird
A weird Christmas recipe isn’t always outrageous. Sometimes it’s just a dish that doesn’t quite fit. It might be sweet when everything else is savory or built from ingredients that shouldn’t go together. These recipes often come from old cookbooks and church potlucks: lime Jell-O with cottage cheese, cranberry molds shaped like wreaths or even a tomato soup cake. Dishes that were once modern and exciting now sit somewhere between nostalgic and highly questionable.
In the 1950s and 1960s, home cooks embraced new products like canned fruit, instant pudding, gelatin and every version of cream-of-whatever soup. These products represented convenience and creativity. A pie made with saltine crackers or a casserole bound by condensed soup was considered inventive at the time.
Aspic, a savory gelatin made with meat stock, was once considered elegant enough for dinner parties. Cookbooks from the early 20th century featured versions with chicken, eggs, seafood and vegetables suspended in translucent layers. What once signaled sophistication now makes people cringe, yet a few families still set it out every December because it’s what they’ve always done.
“The holidays always include spaghetti in my family, but with a secret ingredient,” says Ashley Wali of Wanderlux. “We add grape jelly to the tomato sauce, and while it sounds crazy, you just get the sweetness and no fruit flavor. My cousin asked for the recipe just the other day!”
Why it stays on the menu
Some recipes are harder to get rid of than tinsel. They show up every Christmas, no matter what’s on the menu. Someone hangs the ornaments while Dad curses the tangled lights, and someone else digs through old recipe cards, trying to remember which casserole dish belongs to which story.
Michelle Price of Honest and Truly says, “We have salad for every Christmas dinner, except it’s a marshmallow salad. We call it Marguerite salad for my grandmother, who instituted the tradition, and anyone who comes to Christmas dinner who didn’t grow up with it always looks at it askance. But Christmas dinner wouldn’t be complete without this sitting on the plate next to our mashed potatoes and ham and green beans. Of course, marshmallows and pineapple and maraschino cherries pair perfectly with that!”
It’s a habit, but it’s also comforting. And it’s good for a laugh. Every family has a running joke or two, and the weird recipe gives you something to talk about between the standing rib roast and the chocolate fudge pie. There’s always one relative who takes a second helping, one who politely avoids it and one who swears it tastes better this year.
Anyone who marries into the family learns quickly that this dish is a rite of passage. You take a scoop, smile bravely and pretend it’s delicious. It’s a kind of holiday hazing everyone endures once before earning the right to roll their eyes next year like the rest of the family.
Regional quirks
Three out of four Americans prefer traditional holiday dishes. It’s no wonder a few strange ones have stuck around. Once a recipe becomes part of the family, it’s hard to cross it off the list. Every time someone suggests replacing it, another person declares, “We can’t have Christmas without that.”
In the South, there’s pear salad made from canned pear halves topped with mayonnaise, shredded cheddar and a cherry in the middle. In the Midwest, cookie salad blurs the line between dessert and side dish with pudding, whipped topping and crushed cookies. Some New England tables feature molded cranberry salad with nuts, while parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio favor ham loaf baked in a sticky, sweet glaze.
The stories that stick
Every odd Christmas recipe has a story. Some were pulled from a magazine decades ago and somehow became permanent. Others came from a church cookbook or a neighbor’s potluck dish that everyone pretended to like, and the tradition just stuck.
Most of the time, the recipe is tied to a person more than to taste. It might have been your grandmother’s creation or your dad’s yearly experiment. Before long, it’s not really about the food at all. It’s about remembering where it came from and who brought it to the table in the first place.
That’s how these dishes last. They hang on through the stories that go with them. They remind us of the people who came before and the meals that felt the same, no matter how much else changed. That small connection matters more than the recipe itself.
Keeping the weird stuff on the table
What to do when it’s your turn to host and you want to make changes to that weird family recipe? Go ahead and swap in fresh fruit or ditch the gelatin if you want, but don’t try to fancy it up too much. Half the charm is that it’s a little ridiculous, and everyone knows it. You don’t want to miss an opportunity for someone to say, “Is that Great Aunt Edith’s chicken cherry Jell-O salad?”
Set it out proudly and tell the story. Let people laugh and take pictures. Someone will take a spoonful, and someone else will ask for the recipe, even if they don’t really want it. That old recipe may never be your favorite, but it’s part of your family’s Christmas. It has survived generations of teasing and still shows up every year. That alone is reason enough to keep it.
Lucy Brewer is a professional writer and fourth-generation Southern cook who founded Southern Food and Fun. She’s passionate about preserving classic Southern recipes while creating easy, crowd-pleasing dishes for the modern home cook. Lucy currently lives in Augusta, Ga.
