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Current Topics
Congratulations to the Athena Award Winners (amazing
women leaders): Evelyn Abello, Dana Fabe, Gretchen
Wieman Fauske, Susanne Fleek Green, Jessica Graham, Katherine
Jernstrom, Catkin Kilcher Burton, Alex McKay, Michele Parkhurst,
Kikkan Randall, Lori Townsend.
Minnesota
Sen. John Hoffman Returns to Work ‘Changed,... - NCSL
In the months of healing
since he was shot nine times by a would-be assassin, Minnesota Sen.
John Hoffman has focused on a goal: walking unassisted into the
Senate chamber on the first day of a new session at the Capitol in
St. Paul.
‘We
do not consent!’ Demonstrators protest US Sen. Dan Sullivan ahead of
legislative speech - Alaska Beacon
Sullivan
laces annual address to Legislature with partisan complaint - Alaska Public Media
Sullivan
touts record as Senator in annual legislature speech amid looming
Peltola race - Alaska News Source
In
legislative speech, Dan Sullivan reiterates support for Trump
administration, denounces Democrats - Alaska Beacon
Sullivan
takes umbrage when Dunbar asks if he would ever say no to Trump - Reporting from Alaska
He reiterated his support for
the Republican-drafted budget plan known as the Big, Beautiful Bill
Act. It’s since been rebranded the
“Working Families Tax Cuts Act.”
Opinion:
A family taken by ICE — and Alaska’s conscience tested - ADN
We write with grief, urgency
and moral clarity in response to the detention of a
mother and her three children in Soldotna on Feb. 17. Immigration
enforcement agents arrived in force, swarming a family home and
taking into custody Sonia Espinoza Arriaga and her children, ages 5,
16 and 18. The youngest is a kindergartner. None has a criminal
record. The husband and father, an American citizen born in Seward,
was handcuffed outside his home in freezing temperatures.
Mask
ban for law enforcement gets support from public but opposition from
Anchorage police chief - Alaska Public Media
Juneau Democrat Sara
Hannan’s House Bill
250 would
ban anyone acting as a law enforcement officer in Alaska from wearing
a mask while on duty — including federal, state and local agents —
with some exemptions like medical masks, transparent safety shields,
cold-weather masks or masks worn by undercover officers.
Major
oil tax rewrite headlines new Alaska Senate draft of Dunleavy tax
bill - Alaska Public Media
“The fact is, we are at the
fiscal cliff that has been foretold for at least the last 10 years,”
Giessel said. “We're not just at it anymore. We are falling over it.”
The new Senate version also drops some must-haves from Gov.
Dunleavy’s fiscal plan. Dunleavy’s tax plan was linked to limits on
state spending, a periodic review of state agencies and a
constitutionally guaranteed Permanent Fund dividend. But with senior
senators skeptical of those limits, the new version of the tax plan
would stand alone.
Alaska’s
Department of Corrections spent $24M over budget last year, mostly on
staff overtime Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Department of
Corrections spent over $24 million more than the budget approved by
the Legislature last year, with a large portion for staff overtime,
raising alarm from lawmakers.
Alaska
House caucuses at odds over drawing $500M from state savings - ADN
Alaska
House passes nearly $500M budget deficit bill, amid split support for
Dunleavy spending - Alaska Beacon
The Alaska House is poised to
vote this week on whether to approve nearly $500 million in state
funding to cover expenditures in the current fiscal year, amid
opposition from House Republicans.
The Alaska House of
Representatives advanced a nearly $500 million supplemental budget
bill to address the state’s budget deficit — one of the largest
budget shortfalls to date — amid debate and scrutiny from Republicans
who opposed drawing from a state savings account to pay for it,
leaving the bill unfunded for now.
(My comment: Please note that
we don’t have $500 million in regular revenue to pay for this
overspending by the Dunleavy administration. Why can’t we put more
money toward education? – Because its not there to spend.
Alaska
House advances supplemental spending bill but fails to reach
threshold for savings draw - ADN
Alaska
House approves $490M fast-track budget bill, but savings draw in
question. - AK Public Media
The Alaska House of
Representatives on Monday advanced a budget bill seeking to add
roughly $500 million to the current year’s spending plan. Minority
Republicans, including those who have often been in line with
Dunleavy’s agenda, criticized what they called runaway spending by
the Dunleavy administration.
Dunleavy
signs ‘shared stewardship’ agreement with U.S. Forest Service to
boost timber production - Juneau Independent
The agreement, similar to
those signed by several other Republican-led states and a tribe in
Oregon,
"stems from President Trump’s Executive Order 14225, ‘Immediate
Expansion of American Timber Production,’ which identified timber
production as critical to the nation’s well-being," according to
a press release issued by Dunleavy’s office.
Things That I Found Interesting
Farmers,
advocates push for renewal of program that doubles SNAP’s buying
power at farmers markets Alaska Public Media
The Alaska Farmers Market
Association has administered a program for the last five years that
tries to address both at once. Through the program, Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can double the value of their
SNAP benefits when they shop at farmers markets. It’s called Double
Up Food Bucks, and it’s paid for by a state capital request. But that
funding runs out this spring.
(My comment: This is a
great program. Families access fresher, healthier foods. Kids start
to learn where food comes from. (I’m told one child, visiting a farm,
asked his mother, “Why are the vegetables in the dirt?”))
UAF
hosts senators, military officials at the Museum of the North Alaska News Source
Senators Lisa Murkowski and
Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, joined senior military officials, including
Gen. Randy George, Chief of Staff of the Army, at a working social
held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Museum of the North.
💓 Charted: Our resting heart rates - Axios
The heart is an incredible
organ, working tirelessly every second of every day. Understanding
how various heart metrics reflect your overall well-being can empower
you to lead a healthier life. Thanks to the participants in the Apple
Heart and Movement Study, researchers have gathered valuable data to
help us better understand this relationship. By tracking metrics like
cardio fitness (VO2 max), resting heart rate, heart rate during
sleep, and activity, we can uncover patterns that inform us about our
cardiovascular health.
1
big thing: Anthropic ultimatum - Axios
Anthropic is willing to
loosen its existing usage restrictions, but wants to wall off two
areas: the mass surveillance of Americans, and the development of
weapons that fire without human involvement.
Opinion:
Toponymic narcissism, or why everything should be named after me - Anchorage Daily
News
Not surprisingly, this
practice of naming places after oneself in order to satisfy a
leader’s ego-driven need for admiration and permanence has a name:
toponymic narcissism.
1
big thing: AI's biggest threats Axios
Most voters want to go slow
on AI, don't trust business, and fear the technology could erode
creative thinking and threaten
humanity. Neither party is trusted to handle it.
Arctic
Greenland's
west coast posts warmest January on record Phys.org
Greenland's capital Nuuk
registered its warmest ever January—beating a record that stood for
109 years—as temperatures soared across the Arctic island's west
coast
Alaska-based
warplanes intercept 8 Russian military planes - Alaska Public Media
U.S. aircraft intercepted a
total of eight Russian military planes Thursday that were flying
through international airspace off the western coast of Alaska,
according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD said
in a news release issued Thursday that a formation of five Russian
aircraft flew into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone
earlier that day. The formation included two Tu-95 bombers, two Su-35
fighter jets and an A-50 surveillance plane.
Why
do female caribou have antlers? - Phys.org
In the cold and dry climate
of the Arctic tundra, shed antlers can sit undisturbed for hundreds
of years, providing a ready source of minerals such as calcium and
phosphorus for foraging caribou at a key time of their epic
migration.
Economy
Supreme
Court strikes down Trump’s broad tariffs, a central plank of his
economic agenda Anchorage Daily
News
The Supreme Court struck down
President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday,
handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic
agenda.
Is
this the Most Important Supreme Court Case of the Century? The New York Times (David French)
Gorsuch explained this
masterfully in his concurrence. “For those who think it important for
the nation to impose more tariffs,” he wrote, “I understand that
today’s decision will be disappointing. All I can offer them is that
most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the
American people including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are
funneled through the legislative process for a reason.” The
legislative process can be slow and frustrating, Gorsuch explained,
but “through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of
the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or
man. There, deliberation tempers impulse, and compromise hammers
disagreements into workable solutions. And because laws must earn
such broad support to survive the legislative process, they tend to
endure, allowing ordinary people to plan their lives in ways they
cannot when the rules shift from day to day.”
Trump’s
response to Supreme Court tariff ruling opens new era of uncertainty - ADN
The blockbuster Supreme Court
ruling that invalidated President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs
ends one chapter of economic uncertainty and begins another. Even as
the nation’s high court determined Friday that the president had
exceeded his authority by slapping tariffs on goods from just about
every country in the world, Trump made clear at a White House news
conference that he was determined to do so again, though this time
within the bounds of the law.
Education
Anchorage
School Board approves ‘severe’ budget with hundreds of staff layoffs
and 3 school closures - Alaska Public Media
The Anchorage School Board
has approved deep reductions to the district’s budget. At a meeting
Tuesday night, the board voted to cut more than 500 staff, including
over 300 teachers. They also opted to close three elementary schools
in order to preserve some programs and teachers.
Opinion:
An education budget crisis years in the making - Anchorage Daily
News
(My comment: Ms. Sorbel is
absolutely correct. This has been years in the making. Six months
ago, the State of Alaska gave away $685 Million in PFD to every man,
woman, and child (age 1 year and above). What do we have to show for
it? Did each person, including children, make a contribution to their
local school with that money? We have spent $31.3 Billion on the PFD
over the years. How long do we continue this crazy policy?)
Alaska
legislators press Mt. Edgecumbe officials after over 100 students
disenroll this school year Alaska Beacon
Lawmakers held a series of
hearings with officials from Mt. Edgecumbe High School, the largest
state-run boarding school in Alaska, following a tumultuous year of
budget and staff cuts, administration changes and a wave of student
disenrollments.
Anchorage
school lottery changes for 2026: Waitlists reset annually, deadline
extended Alaska
News Source
Two schools in this lottery
system feature alternative learning, Sand Lake Elementary’s Japanese
Immersion and AKChoice.
Parents,
nurses oppose Anchorage School District nursing model proposal Alaska News Source
School nurses and parents
are raising concerns about a
proposed nursing model for the Anchorage School District where they would
assign 9 to 11 nurses to regions including 12-14 school buildings
each, rather than having at least one nurse at individual schools at
all times.
Elections
Editorial:
Why is the Dunleavy administration sending your personal info to
D.C.? - Anchorage Daily
News
State
gives confidential information to feds on hundreds of thousands of
Alaskans - Reporting from Alaska
The memo
says the state “will clean” its records by “removing ineligible
voters” as determined by the Department of Justice within 45 days. It
also requires the state to send the corrected voter list back to the
Justice Department to “verify” that the state has followed
directions.
Energy
RCA
opens docket to gather Cook Inlet LNG importing information -
February 22, 2026 - Petroleum
News
Regulatory Commission of
Alaska opened a docket to gather information about plans for
implementing liquefied natural gas import terminals at Nikiski on the
coast of the Kenai Peninsula. The LNG will be used by gas and
electricity utilities to supplement gas supplies from Cook Inlet oil
and gas fields, as Cook Inlet gas production declines. The purpose of
the docket is to assemble the information that the RCA will need for
determining future RCA actions regarding costs incurred by the
utilities from LNG importing.
Planning
for the future - February 22, 2026 - Petroleum
News
Ed Jenkin, chief executive
officer of the Railbelt Reliability Council, talked to state
lawmakers about the RRC approach to the regional planning of the
Railbelt high voltage electrical system. The system consists of the
electricity transmission network and associated power generation
facilities along the Railbelt, stretching from the southern Kenai
Peninsula north through the Anchorage region and up to Fairbanks in
the Interior. The purpose of the planning is to ensure adequate and
reliable electricity supplies for consumers at the lowest realistic
cost.
Ambler
Road agreement calls for private access, subsistence safeguards and
Native corporation contracts Northern Journal
A newly signed agreement
that could advance the controversial Ambler Road calls for
preferential contracting with Alaska Native corporations, along with
assurances that the project will be a “private, controlled-access
road” with security guards stationed at its entrance at all hours,
year-round
Alaska
lawmakers and regulators question need for 2 gas import facilities in
Southcentral - ADN
State officials are moving to
address concerns that the construction of two gas import projects
will lead to higher utility bills in Southcentral Alaska. The
Regulatory Commission of Alaska recently opened an investigation to receive details from Enstar natural gas
and Chugach Electric Association about their interest in separate
projects.
Politics
Thanks
but no thanks: Trump’s hospital ship plan provokes defense of
Greenland health care system - Anchorage Daily News
U.S. President Donald Trump
said he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, alleging that many
people there are sick and not receiving care, even though both of the
U.S. Navy’s hospital ships are currently docked at a shipyard in
Alabama. “It’s a no thank you from here,” said Greenlandic Prime
Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Trump’s social media post about a
hospital ship came after Denmark’s military said its arctic command
forces on Saturday evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine off
the coast of Greenland for urgent medical treatment.
Canada's
divorce over defense - Axios
Canadians today
view the U.S. as more of a risk than a partner, according to
a Globe
and Mail poll conducted by Nanos Research. (Only 9% agreed
that the "U.S. is a trustworthy ally of Canada.")
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