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Current Topics
Savoring the darkness in Alaska. Alaska Beacon
(My comment: I loved this essay!! Mr. Lydon, thank you! I feel the same way about the beauty of winter and the darkness that brings so many hidden things to light!)
Hanging out at Starbucks will cost you as company reverses its open-door policy. ADN
If you want to hang out or use the restroom at Starbucks, you’re going to have to buy something.
Grocery shoppers willing to pay more for Alaska Grown produce, study finds. Alaska Beacon
Alaska grocery shoppers on average were willing to pay $1.90 extra for a head of lettuce if it was labeled as “Alaska Grown,” the study found. When given information about locally grown products’ benefits to health, the environment and the state economy provided by products with the “Alaska Grown” label, that premium jumped to $3.31 on average, the study found.
Municipality opens wood lot free of charge for debris from weekend windstorm. Alaska's News Source
Anchorage Municipal Solid Waste Services is accepting wood debris — free of charge until the end of the month after high winds downed trees and scattered debris over the weekend. The Anchorage Regional Landfill Wood Lot in Eagle River and the Central Wood Lot in Midtown are both open through the end of the month to residents who need to dispose of wood debris.
Arctic Issues
Quintillion fiber ring could quell Alaska's Arctic internet outages. Alaska Public Media
This is Quintillion’s Arctic fiber network, which stretches north from Nome all the way to Prudhoe Bay. There, it meets up with a landline that runs down to Fairbanks and on to the Lower 48. But for coastal communities south of Nome, there’s nothing like it.
Economy
Alaska teachers, local government workers go weeks without retirement contributions after state retirement division hacked. ADN
That means that the Anchorage School District and dozens of other employers have been unable to transfer employees’ retirement contributions to the state. Without transferring the contributions, they cannot be deposited in the employees’ retirement accounts, despite having been deducted from their paychecks.
(My comment: Yet another fiasco related to our teachers and other employees receiving the benefits they paid for. Food stamp backlog, paycheck delays, and now this. Its not a surprise that few people want to work in a public job with an administration that is in such disarray. The chaos is also because these departments are so understaffed and/or in some cases have brand new employees that were inadequately oriented to their jobs because the experienced staff have already left.)
Americans' Ratings of U.S. Professions Stay Historically Low. Gallup News
Nurses have earned the highest rating in every year but one since Gallup added them to the annual survey in 1999. The exception was 2001, when firefighters -- included only that year -- earned a record 90% trust rating after their heroism in responding to the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
1 big thing: Trump's "drill, baby, drill" problem. Axios
Look-aheads (oil projects) are written in faint pencil and change all the time. There's a reason major forecasting bodies do them monthly. Trump's vow to ease regulations could make more barrels economic to produce, though prices and investor goals are typically bigger drivers. EIA sees the Permian producing nearly 7 million barrels per day by the end of 2026. It was under 1 million 15 years ago.
(My comment: This makes Alaska contribution look small. Time for us to diversify our source of revenue away from oil taxes toward maximizing earnings of Permanent Fund and getting our economy, education system, public safety, and other services back to being productive.
Education
Rural Alaska Schools face funding shortfall after U.S. House fails to pass bipartisan bill. Alaska Beacon
“We are already down to one administrator with six certified teachers,” Pate said in a phone interview Thursday. “We have a small CTE (career and technical education) program. We don’t have any art, we don’t have any music. We have limited travel. Anything that we lose means we lose instruction, and our goal is for the success of our students.”
Fisheries
Legislative task force offers possible actions to rescue troubled Alaska seafood industry. Alaska Beacon
Members of a legislative task force created last spring now have draft recommendations that range from the international level, where they say marketing of Alaska fish can be much more robust, to the hyper-local level, where projects like shared community cold-storage facilities can cut costs.
Empty Nets: Big Changes in a Great American Fishery. Wilson Center
Energy
State lawmakers plan to continue to focus on the need for new Cook Inlet natural gas. Alaska Beacon
Since the 2011 Fukushima accident, Japan has restarted 14 nuclear reactors. EIA
Japanese utilities restarted two additional nuclear reactors in 2024 that had been suspended from operations in response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, taking the total number of restarted reactors to 14 since the accident. In November, Tohoku Electric Power Co. restarted its 796-megawatt (MW) Onagawa Unit 2 reactor, and in December Chugoku Electric Power Co. restarted its Shimane Unit 2 (789 MW). Onagawa is the nuclear power plant located closest to the epicenter of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
(My comment: Nuclear energy is the future. Its clean, dependable, and new technology makes it very, very safe. I’m doing what I can to move Alaska in that direction.)
Up close with world's largest supercomputer. Axios
El Capitan, along with a smaller sibling designed for non-classified work, sit inside a large data center inside Lawrence Livermore National Labs in Alameda County, roughly 30 miles east of Silicon Valley.
Looking at Nuclear Energy's Future. NCSL
Nuclear energy plays a significant role in our national energy supply picture and is seen by some as an invaluable piece of a future clean energy system. About 20% of the nation's energy supply comes from nuclear generation at more than 90 reactors and some experts believe the nation needs another 200 gigawatts of electricity from nuclear generation in the next 25 years.
EIA extends five key energy forecasts through December 2026. EIA
Politics
Cover du jour. Axios
"On January 20, 2025, the next leader of the United States — and of the free world—assumes power," Blitt writes. "Also on that day: Donald Trump is sworn in.”
Lawmakers have big plans for the legislative session but low oil prices are a barrier. Alaska Public Media
Lawmakers return to Juneau later this month to begin the first session of the 34th Alaska Legislature. A new bipartisan caucus made up largely of Democrats and independents will take over the state House, putting it in alignment with the coalition-controlled Senate. But oil prices are down, and Alaska Public Media’s state government reporter, Eric Stone, said that means there’s less money for lawmakers to spend.
Some felony cases in Anchorage are taking 5, 7 or even 10 years to resolve, reporter finds. Alaska Public Media
In Anchorage, some felony cases are taking years to resolve, despite a state law mandating trials occur within 120 days after someone is charged.
In a recent investigative story, Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica journalist Kyle Hopkins found that those deadlines are rarely being met and, in some cases, trials are being delayed for so long that accusers die before justice can be served.
News in Numbers: 10. Governing
That's the number of states that have a minimum wage of $15 per hour or more.
No cell phones in schools, free meals for children, a state flood authority: Here are some of lawmakers' first ideas ahead of the legislative session. ADN
The House and Senate are both expected to be led by bipartisan coalitions that bring together Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans all hoping to focus their efforts on a long-debated increase to public education funding and reform of the state’s struggling retirement system. They are also looking at solutions for a shortage of natural gas that powers much of the state.
Retirement reform reintroduced ahead of legislative session, topping agendas in House and Senate. ADN
Incoming majority members in the Alaska House and Senate say that reforming Alaska’s public retirement system is one of their top priorities in the coming legislative session in an effort to address the state’s recruitment and retention crisis, which has made it difficult to hire teachers, law enforcement officers and state workers in most departments.
Alaska lawmakers introduce first set of bills for upcoming session. Alaska's News Source
A resolution from Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, would put a proposition before voters in the next general election to amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions in Alaska.
Pensions, the Permanent Fund, AI and more: A look at some of Alaska's lawmakers' pre-session proposals. Alaska Public Media
But “this bill (defined benefit pension) is not your grandfather’s pension,” Giessel said, pointing to the proposal’s so-called “shared-risk” model, which would ratchet up contributions if the pension fund underperforms expectations. “This bill is a modern pension, which spreads the risk among retirees, active employees and the employer,” she said.
Alaska officials rejected 1,303 absentee ballots in November election, many for lacking a witness signature. ADN
Alaska election workers rejected 1,303 absentee ballots in the November election, in many cases because they were missing a witness signature.
Health Care
If it comes, we may not be ready. Axios
The bad news is that some experts fear the U.S. is behind and unprepared for an influenza pandemic, should the bird flu ever become one.
America's lonely habit. Axios
A typical teen spends 270 minutes on weekdays and 380 minutes on weekends looking at a phone screen, according to Digital Parenthood Initiative. That's about 30% of the time they're awake.
(My comment: The greatest risk factor for depression is loneliness. Depressed people attempt, and may succeed at, suicide, or other destructive behaviors toward themselves and others. Think about it.)
FTC Releases Second Interim Staff Report on Prescription Drug Middlemen. FTC.Gov
“The FTC staff’s second interim report finds that the three major pharmacy benefit managers hiked costs for a wide range of lifesaving drugs, including medications to treat heart disease and cancer,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC should keep using its tools to investigate practices that may inflate drug costs, squeeze independent pharmacies, and deprive Americans of affordable, accessible healthcare—and should act swiftly to stop any illegal conduct.”
“FTC staff have found that the Big 3 PBMs are charging enormous markups on dozens of lifesaving drugs,” said Hannah Garden-Monheit, Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. “We also found that this problem is growing at an alarming rate, which means there is an urgent need for policymakers to address it.”
(My Comment: This is why I have carried legislation for 10 years that tries to rein in these PBMs in Alaska. I continue to try to convince the Governor’s office and Division of Retirement and Benefits that Alaska could save state money and individual Alaska’s money. This only grows worse the longer it continues. So far, our state administration has failed to come to grips with this.)
PBMs made more than $7B marking up drugs: FTC. Axios
The three biggest pharmacy benefit managers made more than $7.3 billion over five years marking up the prices of specialty generic drugs for cancer, HIV and other conditions, the Federal Trade Commission charged on Tuesday.
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