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Current Topics
First Safety Express Project Underway! Safer Seward Highway Project
Safety Express projects are immediate improvements we’re implementing now while the broader, long-term program is still in development.
Stuff I Found Interesting
Notre Dame unveiling. Axios
After more than five years of frenetic reconstruction work, Notre Dame Cathedral showed its new self to the world today — with rebuilt soaring ceilings, and creamy, good-as-new stonework erasing somber memories of the devastating 2019 fire.
Opinion: Building parks and futures: the impact of YEP. ADN
A 9-year-old Kenai girl is the star at the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree ceremony - Alaska Public Media
Rose Burke, a quiet fourth-grader from Kenai, was at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday and lit the Capitol Christmas tree. Rose, a home-schooler, had the honors because she won an essay contest for Alaska fourth-graders. Rose didn’t know she had a talent for writing. She was reluctant at first.
Economy
Slight increase in Alaska's minimum wage coming ahead of larger, voter-approved increase. Alaska Beacon
The state’s minimum wage will increase by 18 cents to $11.91 an hour at the start of the new year, the result of a ballot measure passed 10 years ago, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said on Wednesday.
Gen Z's $600,000 angst. Axios
Financial services company Empower surveyed more than 2,200 Americans in September, and the Gen Z respondents — born between 1997 and 2012 — said they would need to make more than $587,000 a year to be "financially successful." That's roughly three times to six times what any other age group said they would need.
(My comment: “Gen Z” was born between 1997 -2012. This is the youngest members of our workforce. They expect large salaries, but…are they prepared to do the work, either with the soft skills of showing up on time and commitment to doing a good job, or with the educational achievement and intellectual curiosity to excel?)
How Trump's economic team will think about South Korea. Axios
Korean exports to the U.S. have boomed, led by cars and auto parts amid tariff changes. It's difficult to know if the deficit would have been even larger were it not for the new deal, says O'Brien, the chairman of American Global Strategies.
Reality check: A trade deficit isn't necessarily a bad thing — economists have long pointed to the benefits to productivity and the economy that come from lower priced goods and foreign investment in the U.S.
Alaska's state-backed housing lender relaunches $10,000 rebate for new energy-efficient homes - Alaska Public Media
The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. will offer a $10,000 credit for roughly 650 new homes that receive a five-plus or six-star energy efficiency rating. Alaska Housing CEO and Executive Director Bryan Butcher said in an interview that he hopes to boost supply.
Politics
Election reform was on the ballot - voters largely said 'no'. Alaska Beacon
With increased political polarization, rules governing who can participate in primary elections have received more attention from advocates looking to reduce that polarization. That has led to an election reform movement across the country that during this past election put nine ballot measures before voters across seven states and Washington, seeking to reform current systems.
California Legislature reaches historic milestone for women in office. CBS News
Women now make up 49% of the overall legislature and, for the first time, will hold a majority in the state Senate.
Gov. Dunleavy appoints Fairbanks lawyer Oravec to Alaska Supreme Court. Alaska Beacon
Oravec is the lead attorney for Doyon Utilities LLC, which is part of the regional Native corporation for the Interior. She has both lived and practiced law in Alaska for nearly 26 years. She has worked as an employment lawyer in civil, administrative and appellate practice.
Alaska governor grants clemency to 5 residents with prior drug, alcohol abuse convictions. Alaska's News Source
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy granted clemency to five people with prior drug or alcohol-related convictions on their record. Dunleavy announced on Nov. 27 that William May, Richard Vicknair, Daniel Smith, Daniel Woods, and Kit Stavrum were granted clemency due to “efforts consistent with changing their life.”
Healthcare
Justices review FDA flavored vape rejections. Axios
The justices on Monday grappled with whether the FDA erred when it denied applications for more than a million flavored vapes due to regulators' concerns they'd make youths likelier to take up smoking. The case brought by a pair of vaping manufacturers focused on whether the agency's guidance for showing that new e-cigarette products promote public health is unclear, or has shifted.
(My comment: Vaping is another form of addictive behavior that our kids don’t need more of. Obesity is already rampant in today’s kids. The Alaska Legislature passed a bill to restrict the sale of vaping materials to kids under 21. Governor Dunleavy vetoed the bill.)
Formaldehyde Increases Your Cancer Risk No Matter Where you Live — ProPublica
As the backbone of American commerce, formaldehyde is a workhorse in major sectors of the economy, preserving bodies in funeral homes, binding particleboards in furniture and serving as a building block in plastic. The risk isn’t just to the workers using it; formaldehyde threatens everyone as it pollutes the air we all breathe and leaks from products long after they enter our homes. It is virtually everywhere.
Biden seeks to end subminimum wages for workers with disabilities. Axios
The median hourly wage for these folks was $3.46 as of May, per the department's analysis. (The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.)The overwhelming majority of employers that are paying below minimum wage are nonprofit community rehabilitation programs that serve people with disabilities, typically in shelters or segregated settings.
Stunning stat: 10% of these workers earned $1 an hour or less in parts of 2023 and 2024, the Labor Department says.
Immigration curbs threaten caregiving. Axios
Some of the earliest and lasting effects from President-elect Trump's promised immigration crackdowns would be in home health and long-term care, both of which rely on a substantial number offoreign-born and undocumented workers. Reducing an already thin labor market could have serious ramifications for aging adults or those with disabilities — and potentially put more stress on family caregivers.
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