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Current Topics
Lawmakers
skeptical as developer of Alaska LNG megaproject sets rapid
construction timeline - ADN
Glenfarne has not sought any
support from the Legislature for Alaska LNG, though the company said
in a statement Wednesday that it is pursuing “property tax reforms”
with state and local leaders.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a project
supporter, has said he plans to introduce a bill that would reduce the
state’s oil and gas property taxes by 90% to assist the project.
Alaska's
chief justice highlights progress on court delays in speech to
Legislature Alaska Public Media
Alaska
Chief Justice asks for $775K for new Palmer judge, maintenance
funding despite tight state budget Alaska News Source
Alaska Supreme Court Chief
Justice Susan Carney highlighted efforts to reduce case backlogs and
asked lawmakers to fund new judges and long-delayed courthouse
maintenance during the annual State of the Judiciary address on
Wednesday.
‘Aren’t
taking our foot off the gas pedal’: Governor gives update on drug
interception efforts in Alaska Alaska News Source
Alaska officials continue
seizing record-setting volumes of illegal drugs, much of it through
ramped-up efforts at the state’s main airport complex in Anchorage,
though in lower quantities than 2024.
The
Alaska House’s draft budget has no PFD. Here’s what that means. Alaska Public Media
Alaska
House Republicans criticize majority decision to temporarily set PFD
at zero - ADN
House minority Republicans
are decrying a procedural decision to temporarily zero out the
Permanent Fund dividend size in next year’s draft budget while
conversations are underway on its ultimate amount.
Things That I Found Interesting
1
big thing: Loud AI alarm Axios
OpenAI's last
model helped train
itself. Anthropic's
viral Cowork tool built
itself. These
revelations — in addition to signs that AI threatens big
categories of the economy, including software or legal services — are
prompting lots of real-time soul-searching. The AI disruption is
here. Its impact is happening faster and more broadly than most
people and institutions are ready for.
PODCAST The
need for reliable child care in Alaska Talk of Alaska
Finding affordable child
care in Alaska is tough. Rising costs, long waitlists and staffing
challenges mean families don’t have a lot of options. State and local
leaders are tackling the problem from a variety of angles, but is it
enough? We’ll discuss the struggles facing families and the people
who watch their children on the next Talk of Alaska.
Most
drugs seized in Alaska last year came through Anchorage airport,
report says -ADN
‘Large
fight’ breaks out at Alaska’s maximum-security prison in Seward amid
downsizing effort Alaska Beacon
Officials with the Alaska
Department of Corrections told lawmakers a “large fight” with a hefty
price tag broke out at the state’s maximum security prison in
January, amid downsizing and cost-cutting efforts. The fight at
Spring Creek Correctional Center involved 50 inmates, some of whom
sustained minor injuries, officials said.
Arctic
Washington
and other Democratic-led states drop lawsuit against Arctic refuge
oil drilling in Alaska Alaska Beacon
Fifteen Democratic-led states
have dropped a
six-year-old lawsuit challenging the legality of a federal plan that
allowed oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The state of Washington was the
lead plaintiff. Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the Washington
State Attorney General’s office, confirmed that the states are
dropping their case but said they will continue their opposition to
ANWR drilling.
Alaska's
'Superbowl' of dog mushing, the Iditarod, set to run its normal
northern route
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog
Race is less than a month away and set to run on its normal northern
route this year.
Economy
Senate
hearing examines 8(a) contracts critical to Alaska Native
corporations Alaska
News Source
After
Trump administration attacks, Murkowski and others defend
‘transformative’ 8(a) contracting program ADN
At
Senate hearing, tribal leaders speak up for a program that benefits
Native-owned businesses Alaska Public Media
Alaska Native corporations
were created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971 to
manage tribal land and resources. Those corporations later gained
access to the 8(a) program, which supporters say promotes economic
self-determination for tribal communities. The program has become
critical to Alaska’s economy. The state describes its economic
foundation as a “three-legged stool” supported by oil, federal
spending, and industries like tourism and fishing.
Alaska
lawmakers grill transportation officials over controversial ferry
project Alaska
Public Media
Members of the House
Transportation Committee slammed state transportation officials on
Tuesday over a controversial ferry project that lawmakers said stands
to benefit private interests but not ferry users themselves.
PODCAST Alaska
lawmakers float sending inmates out of state as prison costs mount Alaska Public Media
As Alaska lawmakers reckon
with a tight state budget and rising costs in the Department of
Corrections, some are floating an uncomfortable idea: once again
sending Alaska inmates out of state. Over the last ten years,
lawmakers have boosted the Department of Corrections’ budget by 70%,
and even that hasn’t been enough. (My comment: The Dept of
Corrections has had massive overtime costs, as hiring is difficult,
as is retention.)
Opinion:
We built the pipeline. We can build stability. - Anchorage Daily
News
Premium pay, largely overtime
required to cover vacancies, has more than doubled. According to the
Alaska Department of Administration, statewide
premium pay totaled $72.5 million in FY16 and in FY25 it
climbed to $149.7 million. It is on track to exceed $200 million in
FY26.
Education
Alaska
school maintenance backlog has reached a crisis, students and school
boards tell lawmakers Alaska Beacon
Decades of deferred
maintenance for Alaska’s schools is reaching crisis levels,
lawmakers heard, with some districts grappling with deteriorating
school buildings, failing water and sewer systems.
Legislators
probe conditions at state boarding school where a quarter of students
have disenrolled - ADN
Lawmakers
call Mt. Edgecumbe conditions ‘deplorable’ Alaska News Source
'It's
cold out here.' Students, teachers warn of an education system in
crisis The Alaska Memo
“The quality of the
facilities was, I think, deplorable,” said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a
Bethel Democrat who went on the trip. Hoffman said students had
reported a rat frequenting the gym facility so often they gave the
creature a nickname: Twinkletoes.
At a hearing with the joint
House and Senate education committees on Monday, several teachers
testified that they’re struggling to teach in facilities that are
essentially falling apart. The supposed compromise between students’
needs and the budget, they say, isn’t working.
Opinion:
How to save our schools Anchorage Daily
News
PODCAST: Lawmakers
press superintendent, education commissioner over conditions at Mt.
Edgecumbe High School - KCAW
Rat
holes and decay: Lawmakers release 25 pictures of ‘deplorable’ Mt.
Edgecumbe conditions Alaska
News Source
Twenty-five pictures
released Thursday show deteriorating conditions inside Mt. Edgecumbe
High School in Sitka: narrow stairways crammed with boxes, brown
ceiling stains dripping down walls, exposed classroom wiring, and a
rat hole students named “Tip Toes.”
Elections
Federal
government may seek removal of individual Alaskans from state voter
rolls Alaska Beacon
Alaska
delegation split on bill requiring voters to prove citizenship at
registration Alaska Public Media
Dahlstrom
invited feds to intrude on state elections Reporting from Alaska
When the state of
Alaska turned
over a copy of the state’s voter rolls to the Department of Justice in December,
it also signed an agreement that allows the DOJ to ask the state
to put individual Alaskans on track for removal from the state’s
voter list.
Reporting
From Alaska- A wholesale invasion of Alaskans' privacy
The Dunleavy administration
has given the background data from the voter rolls to the Department
of Justice, including driver’s license numbers and partial Social
Security numbers. In
this confidential memo the state signed in December, it gave up on
local control of elections.
Federal Requests for
Statewide Voter Lists National Conference of State Legislatures
This is a summary of the
topic
Even Republican election
officials are balking at Trump Justice Department’s voter roll
crusade | CNN Politics
At least a half-dozen
Republican-led state election offices have declined the Justice
Department’s request for non-public voter data, which can include a
voter’s Social Security number, driver license ID number or current
residence, according to interviews, local media reporting and records
obtained by CNN and by the Brennan Center, a left-leaning think tank
that researches election issues.
Federal judge dismisses
Trump admin lawsuit over Michigan voter rolls - Bridge Michigan
A federal judge has
dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Michigan
over the state’s refusal to give the department an unredacted list of
registered voters, finding the state isn’t required by federal law to
turn it over.
Opinion:
What it is and what it isn’t: The facts of ranked choice voting Anchorage
Daily News
So, in a way it is a simple
choice: Do you want an open primary with an RCV general? Or a return
to the traditional closed primary, party selection of candidates by
the party itself, with one person, one vote in the general?
Alaska
Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of campaign ad disclosure
statements Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s legally required
campaign ad disclaimers do not violate the First Amendment, the state
supreme court ruled Friday, deciding a six-year-old dispute between
the Alaska Policy Forum and state campaign regulators. Justice Dario
Borghesan wrote the 61-page
decision on behalf of the court, which ruled unanimously
and upheld minor fines against APF that were issued by the Alaska
Public Offices Commission five years ago. The case dates from 2020,
when Alaskans voted to approve Ballot Measure 2. That measure installed
open primary elections, required disclosure of some political
donations and installed ranked-choice voting in general elections.
Energy
North
Slope workers for ConocoPhillips vote to unionize - ADN
About 250 oil field workers
with ConocoPhillips’ North Slope operations in Alaska voted Monday to
unionize, amid concerns that included the company’s global layoffs, a
person involved in the effort said.
House
Energy hears plans for Cook Inlet LNG import terminals - February 15,
2026 - Petroleum
News
There was discussion during
the House Energy meeting about potential issues relating to the
duplication of import capacity resulting from the implementation of
more than one import facility. Would this result in unnecessary costs
that would need to be recovered from gas and electricity consumers in
Southcentral? And would government regulators be willing to permit
the construction of duplicating facilities and approve any impact of
the duplication on the cost of gas?
Chugach
Electric pursuing hydro projects - February 15, 2026 Petroleum
News
Chugach Electric
Association is pursuing hydroelectric projects as part of efforts to
reduce reliance on natural gas and achieve decarbonization goals set
by its board of directors. Chugach said in a Feb. 10 release that it
is moving forward in investigation of potential Southcentral
hydroelectric sites.
ANS
hugs $70 level - February 15, 2026 - Petroleum
News
After making a
geopolitically-fueled second run in a trading week to mere pennies
below $70, Alaska North Slope crude dipped below $69 per barrel Feb.
10, down 45 cents to close at $68.90. West Texas Intermediate shed 40
cents to close at $63.96 on the day and Brent ticked 24 cents lower
to close at $68.80. Oil trading saw a choppy week as saber rattling
in the U.S.-Iran standoff contended with hopes for a peaceful
negotiated settlement to the tensions.
Trump
weighs Alaska offshore mineral leases - North of 60
Mining News
As part of the federal push
to secure domestic supplies of minerals and metals critical to
American industry and national security, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management (BOEM) is weighing interest in a potential lease
sale for tracts of Outer Continental Shelf lands off the coast of
Alaska enriched with cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, rare earths,
tellurium, and potentially other critical minerals.
To
deal with natural gas shortage, Chugach Electric explores 4
hydropower projects Anchorage
Daily News
Chugach Electric
Association has filed early applications for permits with state and
federal regulators to investigate the hydropower sites in
Southcentral Alaska for possible future construction, the utility
said in a statement.
Politics
‘It
hurts my heart’: Sen. Murkowski travels to Greenland after threats by
Pres. Trump to acquire territory Alaska News Source
“It hurts my heart, it
hurts my heart to know of the anxiety and concern that you and your
families face, as you look, as you feel this time of unsettledness
and what that must mean,” the senator said from Greenland on Monday.
Murkowski was the only Republican among four senators who took the
trip to Greenland after President Donald Trump’s repeated
threats to acquire the island. Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, is
a NATO ally.
The
most meaningful tariff pushback yet Axios
In a rare break with
Trump, six House
Republicans joined with Democrats yesterday to vote to overturn Trump's levies on
Canada, imposed using unprecedented presidential authority.
As
U.S. House votes to end Canadian tariffs, Alaska’s Begich seeks to
extend them Alaska Beacon
The U.S. House of
Representatives voted 219-211 on Wednesday to end President Donald
Trump’s national emergency at the Canadian border and end tariffs on
Canadian imports. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted to end the
Canadian tariffs; Sen. Dan Sullivan voted to extend them. Alaska’s
lone member of the House, Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, stuck with
Republican leaders and voted against ending the tariffs.
1
big thing: Brink of war Axios
The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle
East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.
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