Juneau Independent

How global oil chokepoints, fragile supply chains and federal policy choices collide in Alaska’s most vulnerable communities.

The Tongass is the largest national forest in the country, and that’s no small thing to trifle with. But trifle the Trump administration is doing, treating the Tongass, the U.S. Forest Service employees who work in the Tongass and the communities that live here as not worthy of being told about their future.

In Southeast, wild foods provide a value of up to $1,691 per rural resident, on average.

In February 2025, to the shock of University of Alaska faculty, staff and students, the University of Alaska Board of Regents passed a motion that banned the use of the words “DEI,” “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion,” reversing decades of work by the universities to better serve Alaska and its diverse population.

My husband, a father and a loved community leader, Jacob Sebring, lost his fight with cancer last December. At just 43 years old, his courageous battle with Stage IV colon cancer came to an end. He should still be here. He should still be making our children laugh, building Legos with our son, holding our baby girl, and chasing our toddler through the house. He should still be beside me.

In Juneau, as we struggle to maintain our standard of living amidst competing interests and rising costs — we still find ourselves with uncontested local elections and manager-driven city policies-- policies which all too often subsidize private profit on our public dime. 

Criticism is an essential element of democracy and of good government. However, in recent times, an anti-tax, anti-government movement has emerged in Juneau. Their relentless attacks on the Assembly and city staff are misguided and damaging to the town they undoubtedly love.

A lot has been written this past week about how the campaign that led to the last weekend’s landslide defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán could be a model for defeating the illiberal MAGA movement led by President Donald Trump. 

I was a long-distance operator on Telephone Hill, connecting people to friends and family all over the country and the world. It was kind of wild sitting on top of the city almost in the clouds on that wonderful hill in an old home with my headset and mouthpiece on making sure Juneau could talk to the world.

Alaskans in November will decide for the third time on ranked-choice voting. They approved it in 2020, rejected an initiative in 2024 to repeal it, and now will vote this fall on another repeal initiative.

On March 31, President Trump issued a new executive order on citizenship records and mail‑in ballots entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The order has nothing to do with election integrity — the name is like “Newspeak,” Orwell’s fictional language for a totalitarian state. It is an unlawful attempt to seize control of how Alaskans vote and to make an error‑ridden federal database the gatekeeper of our ballots.

There’s a difference between rebuilding and wanton waste