Juneau Independent

Lawmakers with the bipartisan majority caucus have expressed support for more funding for schools, but point to Gov. Dunleavy’s history of vetoes as a major roadblock.

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 families of four of the 10 people who died in the February 2025 crash of a Bering Air flight near Nome have filed three separate wrongful death lawsuits against the airline, alleging its actions are to blame for the crash.

The University of Alaska may soon be legally required to provide itemized bills to students and give them more notice of fee increases.

A federal oil and gas lease sale in Alaska that was to have been held in early March has now been postponed for nine days because of public notice mistakes.

The Alaska Legislature is expected to declare this week that parts of Western Alaska are still in a state of disaster following a major storm in October.

In a public notice last week, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said it is willing to give away seven spans of the Gerstle River Bridge near Delta Junction, built in World War II for the Alaska Highway.

In a decision that was delayed by the prolonged federal government shutdown last fall, federal fishery regulators have increased this year’s allowable harvest of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska.

Here’s what’s happening in the Alaska Capitol and elsewhere across the state.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said lawmakers are mistaken if they think things will be easier under a new governor next year.

The first independent candidate in Alaska’s 2026 gubernatorial election is a single mother of five who says she’s frustrated with the condition of Alaska’s fisheries, its economy and the Permanent Fund dividend.

Proportion of nonresident workers in Alaska is near an all-time high, but many hold seasonal jobs and earn less annually.

Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management director updated lawmakers, and outlined a “significant cleanup mission” planned for this summer

Trump administration’s 5.5-million-acre auction is one of several mandated over next few years for federal lands in Alaska and federal waters off the state’s coast.

The independent federal agency that provides Alaska with utilities, infrastructure and economic support is considering a number of new environmental hazards as it updates its statewide threat assessment.

Spokesperson for governor says he didn’t know about decrease in benefits announced by Dept. of Health set to take effect Feb. 1.

As the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities prepares to build a new airport for the Northwest Alaska town of Noatak, the agency says it will need to build a 67-mile ice road for three consecutive winters in order to transport supplies.

The confirmation fills one of two vacant seats in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska; no one has yet been nominated for the other.

Two of Alaska’s largest news organizations and two top reporters did not commit defamation when they described a former state employee’s statements about rape, a state judge ruled on Tuesday in Anchorage.

The bill seeks to expand existing state law around CSAM to also prohibit AI-generated CSAM, which is currently only prosecuted by federal law enforcement.

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is the third Democrat to enter the race to replace incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

A shift in state funding could help, but a big gap likely remains unless a key federal grant is issued Cars drive aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Hubbard on June 25, 2023, in Haines. (Photo by James Brooks) By James Brooks Alaska Beacon Alaska’s state ferry system is at risk of a partial or total shutdown this summer due to the failure of the federal government to issue a key annual grant. “Currently right now, we have a shortfall in our budget,” said Dom Pannon

Alaska children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing would be guaranteed a local education under a proposal passed unanimously by the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday.

HB 93 seeks to mirror most Permanent Fund dividend residency requirements and apply them to fish and game entry requirements.

New mainline ship would sail the longest, most remote state ferry route in the United States, with a range of 4,000 nautical miles.

Here’s what’s happening in the Alaska Capitol and elsewhere across the state.

The Trump administration has denied Alaska’s request for full reimbursement for disaster relief efforts immediately following last October’s devastating Western Alaska storms, despite the Dunleavy administration’s claim that the federal disaster declaration meant the state would be fully reimbursed.

As directed by a court ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is starting to craft a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Donlin Gold mine.

Chronic absenteeism has remained high since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the reasons for why students are missing class are difficult to define and vary widely across the state.

The Alaska state House’s ethics committee has launched an investigation into whether Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance illegally used state resources when she successfully pushed the local newspaper to remove and revise a story.

University’s Institute of Social and Economic Research analyzed the side effects of various taxes and cuts being considered for a long-term state budget-balancing plan Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, reads a document entitled “Alaska’s Fiscal Options” while listening to a presentation by the Institute for Social and Economic Research of the University of Alaska Anchorage on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, at Centennial Hall. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon) By James Brooks Alaska B

Trump appointee threatened sanctions on Canadian halibut exports if the country’s negotiators didn’t accept a cut to the British Columbia catch, according to multiple sources.

Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp. says a seasonal ice and snow road link is unrelated to oil, but needed to reduce costs and improve life in the isolated village A sign in Kaktovik with images of polar bears is seen on Sept. 24, 2018. The village's Native corporation is seeking federal permission for an ice- and snow-road crossing over part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to provide seasonal travel access to Deadhorse. The seasonal road link would enable more affordable shipment

Environmental and tribal groups had challenged a federally approved effort to search for oil in parts of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

In 2025, the state extended its streak of negative net migration to a post-WWII record of 13 years.

Roughly half of Alaska’s school districts qualified for the five-year grant program, which is managed by the state’s education department.

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.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management wants to gauge support for what would be the first Alaska Outer Continental Shelf minerals lease sale.

Alaska’s congressional delegation is split on its response to ICE actions in Minneapolis.

Local assistant district attorney says the charge is reasonable because many ICE agents do not wear uniforms.

A smaller substitute will be used as the company develops the Willow Project on Alaska’s North Slope during the winter construction season.

‘We are essentially the same people’

Here’s what’s happening in the Alaska Capitol and elsewhere across the state.

Video shows 165-high mast shattering as it hits the ground; DEC says it is monitoring the situation.

Opponents of Ballot Measure 2 filed suit against the Alaska Division of Elections on Thursday in state court.

Plaintiffs say the Office of Children’s Services should pay living stipends to older youth, as it does to foster families, and youth are struggling to pay for basic items like clothing and food.

Alaska had fewer overdose deaths in 2024 than in the year prior, and state health officials are working on ways to continue to reduce that total in the future.

Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and the Kuspuk School District filed the lawsuit alleging the state is failing its constitutional obligation to maintain public education.

Bill Hill joins the race for Alaska’s lone seat in the US House of Representatives.

Judiciary Committee chair said stories by ADN, ProPublica about sluggish court proceedings ‘stab my heart’