Juneau Independent

Roger and Mary Hames announced Tuesday that after carefully considering all options and offers, they will sell Sea Mart and all their other businesses to the national grocery store chain Albertson’s/Safeway.

In a 3-1 vote, the planning and zoning commission responded to concerns and opposition raised by residents and denied Tidal Network’s application for a conditional-use permit to erect a 230-foot-tall telecommunications tower near 13-Mile Zimovia Highway.

A Haines man with a gunshot wound was medevaced out of the Chilkat Valley for treatment Saturday afternoon. 

The trial of Pietr K. Dabaluz, a 19-year-old Juneau man involved in a fight during an Aug. 30 protest at the Sitka roundabout, has been rescheduled to January while a Juneau judge considers a motion to dismiss the three felony charges Dabaluz faces.

Juneau, other Southeast communities also dealing with issues related to how maps are used for policymaking, development

When Elizabeth Bagley received an email from a representative of Pope Leo XIV inviting her to a climate change conference near Rome, she was sure it was spam.

Metlakatla Indian Community, which has been at the forefront in the effort to control the invader, has trapped more than 40,000 of them this year.

The 29th Alaska Bald Eagle Festival will draw raptor enthusiasts to Haines in early November, though it’s not clear how many people will show up as organizers say event registrations are slow. 

Much like Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which voters approved in 1976 to ensure that some of the state’s oil revenues would be saved for future needs, Wrangell has its own permanent fund that holds a piece of one-time federal money from almost 30 years ago.

Seventh-grader Ayla Harris wasn’t enrolled in the filmmaking elective at Stikine Middle School last year, but that didn’t stop her from knocking on a door, pitching a project and teaching herself how to piece a film together. A month later, she had a documentary — and now an invitation to participate in the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada in November.

Mayor Tom Morphet will meet with Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson this week about a dispute that has the borough and tribe headed to a hearing in Alaska Small Claims Court. 

Blatchley Middle School has won a U.S. Department of Education award as a high-performing school based on its achievements in academics and other criteria. But the honor was somewhat bittersweet after the school learned the National Blue Ribbon School program – a part of the U.S. Department of Education for more than 40 years to recognize high achieving public and private schools, and schools that close the achievement gap – was discontinued by the Trump administration in

Community’s state legislators host office hours and two town halls while in the Chilkat Valley.

More than a dozen parents of Mt. Edgecumbe High School students shared concerns with the MEHS Advisory Board on Thursday regarding changes in staffing, academics, extracurriculars and residential life at the state-run boarding school.

“Taku for Two” duo focuses on the history of Juneau and Southeast Alaska.

Development at Cascade Point north of Juneau, road extension south of Haines among projects now advancing.

On a dreary evening late last week, dozens of people packed into the back of the Haines Public Library. Before long, two attendees broke...

Dungeness crab fishing is back on for a full fall season that began Wednesday and extends through Nov. 30, although Alaska Department of Fish and Game harvest projections show that Southeast Alaska fishermen might not achieve the harvest threshold for a full season.

Southeast Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) has submitted building plans to the borough for a proposed hospital and medical facility near Jones Point.

The Chilkat river king salmon run returned in high numbers to spawn this summer — the first season after the run was removed from the state-designated stock of concern list.

Voters will decide whether to adopt a seasonal sales tax and cash in on the tourists who visit Haines each summer. 

A juvenile bald eagle rescued near the Haines airport is recovering in Sitka and is expected to make a full recovery, though it’s not clear exactly how it got injured.  

Sitka was under a high wind warning this afternoon, with sustained winds of 35 mph gusting to 60 mph and seas of more than 30 feet in the National Weather Service's forecast, brought on by a hurricane force low pressure system.

In return, Tlingit and Haida asks that tribal-government-owned businesses be exempted in borough code from paying sales tax

A low-pressure system hit Elfin Cove like a tornado around 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, causing serious damage to at least five residences, and cutting off the small town’s boardwalk and trail system, electrical infrastructure and water lines, as well as its Raven Radio transmitter station.

Sitkans can submit photos through Friday of the most impressive potholes on city-maintained streets. 

Haines resident Steve Kroschel says he’s in Russia and unsure if he’ll return to face the charges.

Roughly 250 Holland America cruise ship passengers were met on shore by rain blown sideways by gusting wind. Then, after cold, wet tours, many sat inside tenders knocking against the dock, or waited on the dock itself, until they were told they wouldn’t be heading back to their boat, the Nieuw Amsterdam. 

Private docks planned by Huna Totem Corp., Goldbelt among projects that can expand economic and Indigenous culture opportunities, panelists say.

A long road may lie ahead for Southeast Alaskans seeking changes to the way guided sport fishing operators and businesses who offer unguided “bare boat” charters register to do business in this region.

Waters off Sitka were warm enough to lure fish from the south, and local anglers took advantage of conditions to harvest species that make rare appearances in Alaska.

Two houses and a number of parked vehicles were damaged late Wednesday night by debris from a small landslide that fell from Cedar Heights Road down to Cascade Creek Road.

The unusual sight of a brown bear sow with four cubs in tow is drawing bear watchers, photographers and enthusiasts to the crowded Chilkoot corridor this year. 

Wrangell police are investigating reports that an adult posed as a young girl on Snapchat to add adolescent girls to his friends list and tried to arrange in-person meetings, according to Police Chief Gene Meek.

Each Southeast troll fisherman can harvest another 15 chinook salmon during a “limited harvest fishery" opening that’s set to begin Thursday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday.

A Juneau man was charged with two felony assaults, theft, criminal mischief and robbery Saturday, Aug. 30, afternoon following a fight during a protest at the roundabout that sent one man to the hospital.

Revisions to the management plan for the Haines State Forest could be available for public review as early as this winter and could lead to significant changes in land use and management. 

Saxman master carver Lee Wallace hopes to send totem to Juneau this month as one of 30 planned for Kootéeyaa Deiyí along the waterfront.

The Haines Animal Rescue Kennel can no longer perform a difficult, but necessary, task in animal care: euthanasia. Without staff certified to administer the drugs, the community’s only shelter is unable to help pet owners facing end-of-life decisions or emergencies involving fatally injured animals. 

The Anan Wildlife Observatory won an Award of Excellence from the Alaska chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, joining the Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial in receiving the honor for 2025.

The ‘Roadless Rule’ has prohibited new road construction, a prerequisite for large-scale logging, on vast swaths of federal land since 2001.

Tidal Network, which is looking to expand the reach of its wireless internet service in town, is considering its next steps after the planning and zoning commission unanimously rejected the tribal nonprofit’s permit application to install a 250-foot-tall signal tower back from the highway near 13-Mile.

Fisheries managers cut short this summer’s Southeast Alaska commercial dungeness crab season by six days because initial harvest projections fell below the required threshold for a full season. But now, after determining that a high number of soft-shelled crabs contributed to low harvest projections, managers have opted to open fall dungeness fishing for its full length.

Pickup using helicopter occurs two hours after emergency transmission from Chilkat mountains.

Close call in Tracy Arm 50 miles south of Juneau on Aug. 10 is the latest sign that as glaciers melt, risks may rise.

A plan to upgrade the early warning and alert systems in Haines and Skagway is on hold after a federal grant program issued a stop work order to KHNS, which was in the middle of ordering equipment for the upgrades.

Some assembly members are hoping to reconsider their vote last week to hire a new federal lobbyist after learning that the candidate they thought they were voting on is not a lobbyist at all — and is also the managing director of a mining company. 

Hatchery managers had hoped that June’s steady rainfall would spare them from having to intervene in this year’s king salmon run, allowing fish to reach the Crystal Lake Hatchery in Petersburg naturally, without the stress of human handling.

Wrangell Police Chief Gene Meek has started a public safety campaign to enforce new e-scooter regulations through education and enforcement.

After a historic land buyback by the US Forest Service, Tlingit crew members are demolishing culverts to restore streams, salmon runs and cultural history deep in the national forest.