Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Stop Insider Trading Act that would ban members of Congress from purchasing new individual stocks. Rep. Nick Begich was one of its 93 co-sponsors.

I encourage everyone to vote no on Ballot Measure 2. You will be saving your right to choose.

We as Alaskans have a belief in human decency and in not causing pain to others. And yet recently, our own United States government announced that the Department of Homeland Security plans to purchase electric shock gloves for ICE agents for $20 million.

The federal government last week finally, behind schedule and without any plausible reason for the delay, released money that will go toward running the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The price-gouging at laundromats across CBJ has got to end.

About three weeks ago, Dunleavy administration officials — ADF&G and DEC Commissioners Doug Vincent-Lang and Randy Bates, along with DNR deputy commissioner Brent Goodrum — recently co-authored an opinion piece in the Juneau Independent praising cleanup progress at Canada’s abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine. That mine has been contaminating international waters flowing into Alaska since before Alaska became a state.

Unless Sen. Dan Sullivan suddenly finds his political spine, three new White House developments should help convince independent voters that it’s time to kick him out of Congress.

My career has been in water quality, split between chemistry lab work and field sampling, and water quality management for the state. I also did a stint on the Assembly and at some point I realized that my attraction to working in government was driven by the same curious part of me that led me to a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

Newspapers used to stand tall in their communities across the country, Alaska included. But now they stand like stricken spruce trees, falling victim to declining revenue and readership, much like trees decimated by spruce beetles that feed on the vital, inner layer of wood.

Juneau is spending a lot of money adapting to climate change. After four straight years of damaging Mendenhall glacial outburst floods, we're weighing long-term solutions that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. We need to make that investment — protecting people, homes, and businesses has to be the priority.

Mary Peltola gave a speech in my hometown a couple months ago that made me think about what a great state we have — and how much we deserve a great US senator like her.

Last week, I was back home in Juneau, where I grew up and where my connection to Alaska runs deepest. I spent several days on the water with my family fishing for coho and halibut, pulling crab pots and shrimping. I came home with a well-stocked freezer, a taste of home to last the year, and another reminder of just how deeply wild seafood is woven into life in Alaska.