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Current Topics
Ranked
choice supporters accuse Alaska election officials of using ‘untrue’
language in repeal ballot measure ADN
"The language explaining
what they're voting on must be simple, complete, and impartial,"
Giessel said in a statement from the group. "Alaska has uniquely
strong dark money disclosure laws that ensure voters know who is
spending money on political campaigns, and yet the current ballot
language fails even to mention it would repeal these laws, along with
open primaries and ranked choice voting."
Officials
report no serious injuries as massive drilling rig topples on North
Slope - ADN
No one was seriously injured
and all personnel were accounted for in the incident, which occurred
around 4:45 p.m. Friday and involved the Doyon
26 rig,
ConocoPhillips Alaska and the North Slope Borough said in a joint
prepared statement.
Some
PFD filers unintentionally open new accounts after administrative
change to Alaska 529 - Anchorage
Daily News
last year, some PFD filers
unintentionally contributed to new accounts, which automatically
opened even if they had previously contributed to a child’s 529
account. This happened unless they called the Alaska 529 office
before the end of August to specify which account to direct their PFD
to.
Dunleavy
administration contradicts industry’s call for ‘urgent action’ on
transportation funding ADN
Members of the administration
of Gov. Mike Dunleavy are contradicting a coalition of major business
and industry groups on how urgently the Legislature must adopt a $70
million funding request to secure federal transportation projects.
(My comment: I’m not
interested in what a Commissioner thinks. If Alaska jobs and
companies are at risk of closing due to an ill-advised veto by the
Governor and state government ineptitude, we need to act to correct
this now.)
Opinion:
Fixing Alaska’s revolving door requires reality, not rhetoric - ADN
The most urgent cost of our
current instability is the erosion of public safety. Alaska has
become a subsidized training ground for the Pacific Northwest. We
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to recruit and train Alaska
State Troopers, police officers and firefighters, only to watch them
vest their minimal benefits and move to departments in Washington or
Oregon that offer the retirement security Alaska lacks. When we lose
a veteran officer, we lose decades of investigative experience and
community trust that cannot be replaced by a sign-on bonus.
Things That I Found Interesting
When
America considered trading part of Alaska for Greenland. ADN
Alaska and Greenland first
crossed paths within the expansionist mind of Secretary of State
William Seward. In 1867, the same year he negotiated the purchase of
Alaska from Russia, he also initiated discussions with Denmark to
purchase the Caribbean islands of St. Thomas and St. John. Former
Treasury Secretary Robert J. Walker suggested the talks expand to
include Greenland and Iceland.
(My comment: This is a
fascinating, little-known history.)
Arctic
Opinion:
Empire building or energy security? Trump’s Greenland fixation misses
what Alaska has to offer. ADN
Russian
and Chinese Threats to Greenland and the New Artic Sea Routes Are
Low. USNI
Many arguments have been put
forward regarding the imperative for the United States to control
Greenland for its national security. Such arguments are not all
outlandish and have a firm basis in both history and geography. It
should be sufficient to simply recall the island’s crucial role in
U.S. military operations during World War II, both to win the Battle
of the Atlantic and to transfer massive fighting power safely to
Europe.
‘Harm
against our family’: Alaska’s Indigenous leaders call for solidarity
with Greenlanders amid Trump’s threats Northern Journal
Economy
Legislature
votes against overriding Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of revenue bill. ADN
Alaska
lawmakers fail to override Dunleavy’s veto of corporate income tax
bill. Alaska
Public Media
The
Sunday Minefield. Landmine
One of the largest concerns
in the supplemental is the $70 million that Dunleavy vetoed
for transportation projects. They $70 million, if approved, is
matched by $700 million in federal highway
funds. Dunleavy vetoed it due to what he said were funding
source issues, but then he put the money back in his supplemental
request. The construction industry is saying if the money is not
approved soon, the summer construction season could be in
jeopardy.
The new bet against Trump Axios
Countries that used to hold
their cash in dollars or Treasuries are looking to diversify away
from the U.S. Central banks own more gold than U.S.
Treasuries for the first time in 30 years as of October. The trend has continued into 2026. Increasing geopolitical
risks — a trend partially driven by Trump — are also
contributing to the spike in gold.
Consumer
confidence plunges Axios
The steep drop was seen
across both survey respondents' assessment of the present situation
and their expectations for the future. The index is now below
even its level at the depths of the global pandemic, when
unemployment peaked at nearly 15% (it was only 4.4% in December).
Education
Nonprofit’s
marketing effort aims to bring Lower 48 teachers to Alaska. ADN
A nonprofit organization has
launched a marketing campaign intended to attract educators to Alaska
from the Lower 48 in order to quell a statewide teacher shortage. The
advertisements are being directed at potential applicants — primarily
from northern states — through YouTube and other social media
platforms.
School districts file lawsuit
saying Alaska has failed to adequately fund education. Alaska Beacon
Aguillard spoke by phone
Wednesday, as she was managing the evacuation of around 50 students
from the Aniak Jr. Sr. High School due to a roof failure earlier this
week. It’s one of many severe school facilities issues facing the
Kuspuk School District, and other
districts around the state. The estimated cost of deferred maintenance is over $400
million in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, the
other plaintiff in the case, said Frank Meinert, its superintendent.
That is all while grappling with budget shortfalls, difficulty maintaining
teachers and growing class sizes, he said.
State
education board OKs UAA program aimed at tackling school psychologist
shortage Alaska Public Media
The State Board of
Education and Early Development unanimously approved a school
psychology master’s program at the University of Alaska Anchorage
aimed to address the state’s shortage of school psychologists. The
approval took place during the board’s special virtual meeting on
Thursday. This comes after the board voted
it down last October after some members brought up
concerns about mentions of social justice in a sample syllabus.
(My comment: Good that the
state school board came to their senses. These services are needed
and these clinician are in short supply. Some people advocate that AI
can be the counselor; that’s been tried with occasionally deadly
results.)
Energy
Gas
storage expansion projects could buy ‘breathing room’ for
Southcentral utilities. Alaska Public Media
Japanese Energy Companies Step
UP U.S. Investments CSIS
Japan’s appetite for gas
continues to set the tone for strategic engagements with the U.S.
Tokyo’s latest trade commitments to Washington include “stable and
long-term incremental purchases of U.S. energy, including LNG,
totaling $7 billion per year, while exploring a new Alaska offtake
agreement for such LNG.” But Japanese companies may be demonstrating
a cautious approach in differentiating between gas investments in the
Lower 48 versus Alaska LNG, with its extremely challenging project
economics.
State
investigation confirms oil company wasted four months of natural gas
on North Slope Alaska Beacon
The state agency that
protects Alaska’s state-owned oil and gas from waste confirmed Friday
that a small North Slope company deliberately burned off state-owned
natural gas for almost four months because reinjecting the gas was
inconvenient for the company.
Politics
Alaska
Reports state police conducted no phone wiretaps in 2025. Alaska Beacon
Alaska judges approved no
police wiretaps of phone lines in 2025, the Alaska Department of Law
disclosed in a
legally required annual report this month.
Alaska
lawmakers seek details on 11th Airborne Division’s possible
deployment to Minneapolis. ADN
Gray said lawmakers are
drafting a letter to federal officials seeking answers to basic
questions about the prospective deployment of Alaska-based forces to
an American city, which was first
reported over the
weekend. Those kinds of issues fall outside the normal remit of the
Legislature.
Opinion:
Alaska deserves an attorney general who pursues justice, not Lower 48
headlines. ADN
'Our
government is out of control,' Alaska legislator says, calling for
end to state aid for ICE. Alaska Beacon
"The facts are that our
government is out of control. Norms have been broken at an alarming
rate, and the world is watching us in shock,"
New
lawsuit claims Alaska’s description of a proposed elections ballot
measure is biased. Alaska Beacon
“The proposed measure
(24ESEG) would not ‘restore,’ ‘bring back,’ or add even a single
campaign finance rule to Alaska’s statutes,” the suit states.
“Rather, 24ESEG would fully repeal a litany of campaign finance
disclosure requirements, and eliminate enhanced fines.”
Crum
deviated from state law and policy when investing Alaska’s savings,
review finds. AKPub
“Mr. Crum’s process for
selecting the DigitalBridge fund and the two other private funds in
which he intended to invest did not involve rigorous due diligence,
and Mr. Crum did not follow Department of Revenue protocols designed
to assist him in meeting his fiduciary duties in connection with the
investment,” the report states.
Murkowski
condemns Noem and ICE actions: ‘I think it is probably time for her
to step down' Alaska Beacon
“Accountability goes all the
way to the top, and I think you have a secretary right now that needs
to be accountable to the chaos and in some of the tragedy that we
have seen.”
Health Care
PODCAST: Rural
health funds Talk to Alaska
Improving health outcomes
for Alaskans is at the heart of a multi-billion dollar federal plan
aimed at improving rural healthcare systems. Alaska is in line to
receive as much as 1.3 billion dollars over 5 years. What will the
funding support-- and what do state health officials think Alaska’s
healthcare system needs to help all Alaskans have healthier lives?
We’ll learn about the Rural Health Transformation program on this
Talk of Alaska.
(My comment: This is a huge
amount of money coming into our Dept of Health. This Dept is flagged
every single year for errors or inadequate reporting of federal money
utilization. I’m concerned about our capacity to appropriately manage
this amount of money, and whether the money will be wasted. Can we
maintain programs started with all this money, after the money is
gone?)
US State-Level Prevalence of
Adult Obesity by Race and Ethnicity from 1990 to 2022 and Forecasted
to 2035 JAMA
This cross-sectional
analysis estimated that in 1990, 19.3% of the US adult population
were living with obesity; by 2022, this had increased to 42.5%. By
2035, this was forecasted to increase to 46.9%. There was substantial
variation by state and race and ethnicity group, indicating large
disparities in obesity prevalence.
(My comment: Alaskans are
gaining weight which increases multiple diseases, which increases
health costs. We control our weight ourselves; let’s do that)
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