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Current Topics
For
Western Alaska evacuees, life in Anchorage hotels brings new routines
and new strains. Alaska Public Media
Legislative
auditor warns of ‘degradation’ in Alaska state agencies ADN
Curtis attributed the
increase in audit findings to “a lack of experience, lots of
turnover, vacancies” and “poor training” in Alaska’s state workforce.
That all amounted to a “degradation within the departments’ internal
controls,” she told lawmakers
(My comment: This is not new.
It’s been in the audits for the last decade. State service is losing
skilled professionals who get higher pay and retirement elsewhere.)
Gov. Dunleavy approves
deployment of Alaska National Guard to Washington D.C. in 2026 Alaska Beacon
“Governor Dunleavy approved
the request because he wants to help the Trump Administration restore
public trust and improve the quality of life in the nation’s
capital,” said Jeff Turner, the governor’s director of
communications, by email.
This
Thanksgiving, the kids are not all right Axios
Disaster
relief crews begin to depart Western Alaska as winter sets in,
officials say Alaska Beacon
Emergency
personnel with the Alaska Organized Militia, the Alaska Division of
Forestry and Fire Prevention and veteran-led volunteer organization
Team Rubicon are ending their missions and departing the region this
week. Their work for the season should be complete by Nov. 26, according
to a division update.
Dunleavy
makes new pick for Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. board of directors Alaska Beacon
Craig Richards, a longtime
member of the board in charge of the Alaska Permanent Fund
Corporation, has been replaced. Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced he
had selected Ralph Samuels
Alaska
state agencies are increasingly struggling to comply with the law,
auditor warns Alaska
Public Media
Curtis told the
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee that the issue has gotten
progressively worse over the past decade. All told, Curtis said her
team identified
85 issues in the 2024 fiscal year audit. That’s about double what her team
found a decade ago.
Things That I Found Interesting
That
figure you've heard on how much food Alaska imports? It's not real. Alaska Public Media
That’s not to say the figure
is totally off base. It’s well established by now that the vast
majority of food Alaskans purchase is imported from elsewhere. And
Lord is among those who have said 95% is a reasonable ballpark
estimate.
(My comment: Regardless of
the exact number, Alaska can and needs to produce more of its own
Alaska Grown products. Our resilience in case of a disaster is pretty
shaky.)
A
realistic female crash test dummy. Axios
Women face a much higher
risk than men of being seriously injured or killed in a crash — but
most vehicle safety systems are tested using male crash test dummies.
Fisheries
Alaska’s
commercial salmon harvest rebounds after ultra-low harvest last year Alaska Beacon
Strong
2025 sockeye run roughly doubles value of local commercial fisheries. KDLL
The state commercial salmon
haul totaled 194.8 million fish, the 12th largest since 1985,
according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s preliminary
annual summary, released this month. But the amount of money
paid to harvesters delivering their fish – known as ex-vessel value –
was the 13th lowest since 1975, when adjusted for inflation.
This year’s total was $541 million, the department said.
Energy
New
offshore drilling plan opens almost all federal water off Alaska. Alaska Public Media
The plan released Thursday is
a "first analysis," with two more planned before final
approval. If it survives, the first lease sale would be in the
Beaufort.
It’s not clear oil companies
would be interested. Shell spent 10 years and $7 billion trying to
drill there before giving up on offshore Arctic exploration.
Japan’s
Biggest Nuclear Plant in Niigata to Get De Facto Restart Approval - Bloomberg
More
nuclear power for Japan would have an impact on its liquefied natural
gas imports. Masanori Odaka, at consultancy Rystad Energy, said a
restart of KK’s No. 6 unit could reduce LNG demand by roughly 130,000
tonnes a month. That would be more than 2% of Japan’s average imports
year to date.
Charted:
California's natural gas decline Axios
Utilities
say Alaska needs an LNG import terminal. Consumers could end up
paying for two. Alaska Beacon
There’s also a risk that the
region’s utilities could build two separate import projects to meet
differing priorities and timelines when one project could be enough
to meet demand.
Arctic Issues
Finland
sharpens Arctic stance as security pressures rise; Canada among key
allies.
Radio Canada
Finland
cites Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s increasing activity in the
polar regions, and rapid climate change as the main drivers reshaping
how Helsinki views the region.
(My
comment: We need to pay attention to our Arctic neighbors.)
US,
Canada, and Finland double down on joint icebreaker effort in DC
meeting. High North News
Officials from the US,
Canada and Finland renewed pledges to continue working together under
the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact. The initiative,
originally implemented under the Biden administration, resulted in
the first concrete results earlier this year when the US government
announced its intention to purchase four icebreakers from two Finnish
shipyards.
Cave
in Greenland points to higher ancient air temperatures in High Arctic IceNews
Scientists
connected the timing of the cave’s mineral growth to both warmer
nearby seas and relatively moderate atmospheric CO? levels. They
found that thawed ground and running water occurred whenever carbon
dioxide climbed to about 310 ppm or higher. One researcher noted that
each cave behaves like its own character, preserving climate history
in a distinct and unpredictable way.
International
research team discovers a potential source of abiotic methane in the
Arctic Ocean Phys.org
The Frigg
Vent Field represents one of the most fascinating discoveries of the
expedition, opening new research avenues into methane formation,
deep-sea ecosystems, and Arctic geology.
Cave
in Greenland points to higher ancient air temperatures in High Arctic IceNews
Scientists
connected the timing of the cave’s mineral growth to both warmer
nearby seas and relatively moderate atmospheric CO? levels. They
found that thawed ground and running water occurred whenever carbon
dioxide climbed to about 310 ppm or higher. One researcher noted that
each cave behaves like its own character, preserving climate history
in a distinct and unpredictable way.
Education
Opinion:
Alaska can't afford another year of teacher flight. ADN
We ask our teachers, our
police officers and our firefighters to dedicate their careers to the
most vital state services, yet we offer them a (non) retirement
system that forces them to bear all the risk, encourages them to
leave early, and leaves them with zero guaranteed retirement income.
Anchorage
schools welcome students displaced by Typhoon Halong. ADN
Berntsen helped kickstart
a Yup’ik
language immersion program at the school in 2018. So when Halong hit
the West coast of Alaska on the morning of Oct. 12, he promptly
volunteered to receive students who needed a new school, most of whom
came from Yup’ik communities.
Economy
New
graduates from the Alaska Department of Public Safety academy reduce
state trooper vacancy rate. Alaska Beacon
Roughly one third of the
graduates, or six trainees, are headed to the Alaska State Troopers,
in wildlife or state trooper roles. The state law enforcement agency
has struggled with
vacancies in recent years, which leaders have said has limited its ability
to address time-sensitive criminal investigations.
1
for the roadL Auction for last pennies. Axios
"Each of these
coins exhibits a small Ω privy mark of the final Greek letter
Omega, indicating their role as the capstone to a two-centuries-long
legacy that first began in 1793," the announcement says.
Politics
Former
revenue commissioner's 'non-routine' investment decision under review
by Alaska legislative auditor. ADN
Sen. Bert Stedman, a longtime
chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said that the Mustang
investment was “well-intended (but) misguided.” Stedman called Crum’s
recent investment “gross incompetence.”
Legislative
auditor warns of 'degradation' in Alaska state agencies. ADN
Curtis attributed the
increase in audit findings to “a lack of experience, lots of
turnover, vacancies” and “poor training” in Alaska’s state workforce.
That all amounted to a “degradation within the departments’ internal
controls,” she told lawmakers
(My comment: This is not new.
It’s been in the audits for the last decade. State service is losing
skilled professionals who get higher pay and retirement elsewhere.)
Gov.
Dunleavy approves deployment of Alaska National Guard to Washington
D.C. in 2026. Alaska Beacon
“Governor Dunleavy approved
the request because he wants to help the Trump Administration restore
public trust and improve the quality of life in the nation’s
capital,” said Jeff Turner, the governor’s director of
communications, by email.
Federal
judge orders Trump administration to end National Guard deployment in
DC. ADN
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb
concluded that President Donald Trump’s military takeover in
Washington, D.C., illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to
direct law enforcement in the district. She put her order on hold for
21 days to allow for an appeal, however.
Health Care
Talking
numbers. Axios
Poll after poll finds
that majorities of Americans have a lot of confidence in vaccines. A
Pew Research study
out this week, for example, found that nearly two-thirds of
Americans are extremely or very confident that childhood vaccines are
highly effective at preventing serious illness.
Wyoming
Leads Nation in Obamacare Price Jumps Governing
Possible
end of federal health care subsidies could hit Alaskans especially
hard. Alaska
Public Media
With their
Affordable Care Act insurance premium costs set to rise from the
current rate of $600 a month to $3,000 starting next year, Elizabeth
Aranow and her husband aren’t sure what to do.
(My
comment: Alaska is right there also.)
Waning
immunity and falling vaccination rates fuel pertussis outbreaks Alaska Beacon
“Pertussis
cases increase in a cyclical fashion driven by waning immunity, but
the size of the outbreak and the potential for severe outcomes in
children who cannot be vaccinated can be mitigated by high coverage
and good communication to folks at risk,”
The
Trump administration wants everyone to reapply for food stamps. What
does that mean? Alaska Beacon
“If she’s
suggesting that they’re going to somehow redo that process for more
than 40 million people who already demonstrated their eligibility and
who already have to periodically recertify their eligibility, that
would be pretty duplicative and would likely create pretty
significant paperwork backlogs that would cause people who are
eligible to lose the food assistance that they need,”
Alaska
medical board cancels meetings as board seats remain unfilled ADN
Dunleavy’s head of boards and
commissions, Jordan Shilling, did not respond to emailed questions
about what has caused the long delays in filling vacancies on the
board.
Alaskan
nurses impacted by ‘non-professional’ designation Alaska News Source
The
designation of nursing degrees no longer having “professional” status
means that students loans for those degrees are capped at $100,000,
as opposed to the previous $200,000.
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