Juneau Independent

The Alaska Marine Highway System has never fully paid its own way with ticket revenues; it’s always needed state money to cover the gap between what it costs to operate the fleet and what it can collect from travelers.

While some Alaska salmon runs remain strong, sharp declines in others are causing a crisis for numerous Western Alaska communities.

Juneau has developed a habit of confusing opposition with wisdom. For years, major transportation investments have been met with skepticism, delay, and, ultimately, a reflexive “no.” The justification is almost always the same: the project is flawed, the benefits uncertain, the costs too high. Each objection may be defensible in isolation. Taken together, they reveal a deeper problem — short-term thinking that mistakes preservation for strategy and resistance for leadership.

A report published last week by the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) gave Sen. Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) new fodder to better frame an old argument. “ISER clearly stated the most regressive form of balancing our budget is to rely on cutting the PFD,” he wrote in his latest newsletter. 

The Assembly should close a costly loophole in Juneau’s election code for citizen initiatives. The current ambiguity around when petitioners get extra time to gather signatures undermines the charter’s clear standards and invites unequal treatment from one campaign to the next.

Everyone needs a break from reality — myself included. It’s a depressing and distressing time to think about what’s happening in our country and the rest of the world.

Following the killing of Alex Pretti last Saturday, and the deviant attempt by members of the Trump administration to label him a domestic terrorist, Sen. Lisa Murkowski justifiably called on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kristi Noem to step down. It’s the right thing to do. But treating the symptom of the disease won’t put an end to the president’s war on the truth. 

Sen. Sullivan replied to most of my letters, but didn't address any of the issues I raised. As for Rep. Begich, he did not reply at all. So last August I wrote to the senator and congressman to say I was finished writing to them because they didn't care about my constituent issues.

I was raised in Sunday school to follow the Golden Rule, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in the final year of his 2,918-day, two-term career in the job, is picking at the plate of a long-term fiscal plan for the state, much like a kid skips the broccoli and wants to move straight to the dessert. The governor talks about a full menu of legislation to build a balanced budget for years to come, with enough revenue to meet expenses — a goal which has eluded Alaska for much of the past decade as the state has burned through its savings.

What is happening in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the country with ICE is unconscionable.

The winter of 2026 is a time of unsettled and unsettling politics for Alaska and the country. In Alaska, a deepening fiscal crisis is exacerbated by the federal administration’s cuts or holds on federal funds appropriated by Congress, including funds for education, work programs, health care, energy projects, disaster relief and food assistance programs.

Hard bycatch limits and adherence to subsistence law could help us save our salmon. Our lives depend on the science of Indigenous knowledge — and putting our right to fish above corporate profits.

Last week, I expressed my displeasure with Sen. Lisa Murkowski for endorsing Sen. Dan Sullivan’s bid for reelection. That doesn’t mean I won’t criticize his most formidable opponent. If former Rep. Mary Peltola really thinks “our future depends on fixing the rigged system in D.C. that’s shutting down Alaska while politicians feather their own nest,” then she must start by speaking out against the self-dealings of President Donald Trump.

In reference to the article "City surveying residents about budget priorities as leaders face post-election spending cuts," it makes sense to poll residents about their funding priorities. But the city's survey is flawed in some important ways that limit its usefulness and risk misleading both respondents and decision-makers.

This is for all of us who don’t have perfect hair — and for those of us with no hair left to style, fluff, slick or comb. It’s for those of us who haven’t had our teeth straightened, capped and whitened. Or our bodies surgically enhanced. Our eyebrows shaped, our muscles toned by a private coach, our clothes selected by a private shopper or our shoes polished by a private valet.

Americans voting in the 1980 presidential election were challenged to make their choice by answering one question, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" In November the question may well be: “Do you feel safer than you did two years ago?” 

If President Trump orders units from the 11th Airborne Division, based at Ft. Wainwright, to deploy to Minnesota, the soldiers and officers — to a person and/or by unit — would best serve their country by refusing to obey this probably "illegal" order, as discussed recently in a video by five veterans now serving in Congress.

Some of you might remember Jeff Brown as the funny, freewheeling prankster of the storied newsletter The Juneau What? Today Jeff Brown is living with advanced Parkinson's disease. As his health declines, he and his family now face eviction from the home they have occupied for nearly half a century — in the middle of winter — despite agreeing, in writing, to vacate at the end of February.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has rarely been afraid to stand up to President Donald Trump. But this week she endorsed one of Trump’s reliable enablers.

I have lived in Haines for the last 30 years, year-round. As a senior citizen I oppose the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal because it establishes a barrier, rather than an improvement, in our ability to travel from Haines (or Skagway) to Juneau.

I am writing about the 22nd annual 12 x 12 Exhibition at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. The theme for this year is “Monochrome in Color.” I would like people to know more about it so they can submit a piece of their work if they are interested. 

Our wake-up call to get the roof of our house shoveled this year was the chicken coop collapsing. (Note: No animals used in this essay have suffered harm.) I heard it collapse and the dogs rushed across the deck to be let in. We love these dogs dearly but they are City dogs and not very courageous.

Condolences to the family of Jirdes Winther Baxter, who led a long and storied life. The delivery of the diphtheria serum that saved her life became known as the Nome Serum Run. The Serum Run was a one-time occurrence, prompted by a public health crisis. Today, lifesaving medicine is delivered to places like Nome by air.

It’s an election year for governor and the Legislature. Which means it’s a chance to elect people who will help pull our foot out from under the fence and get Alaska back into the game. Sitting on the fence is not an answer.

Too often in recent months this childhood taunt has come to mind as I have listened to or read accounts of forceful interventions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or border patrol agents in deportation raids that are rocking cities (mostly Democratically-governed) around the country.

As the Alaska Legislature prepares to return to Juneau, lawmakers once again confront a familiar and contentious choice. The governor has proposed a so-called “full” Permanent Fund dividend and a budget that relies on a roughly $1.5 billion draw from the Constitutional Budget Reserve to deliver it. 

Creating a charter-level process for advisory, non-binding votes would give Juneau a clearer way to hear from residents early, thoughtfully, and consistently. Importantly, such a process would apply not just to Eaglecrest, but to future decisions that shape the community over decades.

Two stories in the past week illustrate how Sen. Dan Sullivan is trying to cope with the dismantling of America’s constitutional order. They involve the authoritarian impulse to cling to power. And in both, the president of the United States makes Sullivan look like an uninformed fool. 

Eaglecrest has long been Juneau’s beloved recreational crown jewel, a recruitment tool for employers to attract a workforce and a reason for people to stay here and raise their families.

The Alaska Legislature will reconvene in Juneau in less than two weeks, with a stack of difficult issues weighing on lawmakers.

The U.S. attack on Venezuela and capture of its president early Saturday morning as observed by "Isabella," a Venezuelan woman who moved with her family to Juneau in May of 2024.

(Alaska Division of Elections photo) By Rich Moniak The U.S. Department of Justice has been unusually busy the past few months. But it has nothing to do with its mission to “uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights.” Rather, the lawsuits they filed against 21 states and Fulton County, Georgia, are part of the Trump administration’s attempt to erect a façade of credibility for the president’s never-ending lies about the 2020 election. To avoid ma

What drove me off the Juneau Assembly last year was the fever pitch of issues; the deep anger felt by my friends and constituents about, well, many things, including CBJ issues; and the speed at which a normal-seeming issue became a flashpoint. There are no normal issues these days.

When they credit the author of the most well-known and loved Christmas poem in American history, I feel a new sense of knowing, even pride at hearing the name, Clement Clarke Moore. I’m still grasping that my friend, ski buddy and fellow longtime Juneau resident Linda Ogden Squibb is a direct descendant of the author who penned what became "The Night Before Christmas" for his children nearly 200 years ago, in 1822.

The complaint regarding the historic significance of the neighborhood won’t be heard until August. However, as CBJ noted in their response to that issue in this case, Telephone Hill is not on the National Historic Register. And the bar for admission to that is so low that it contains hundreds of places that have no historic significance whatsoever.

The Alaska Division of Elections director’s office in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent) By Bridget Smith Alaskans treasure autonomy and independence. It is part of our DNA, whether we have been here for thousands of years or we arrived last week. I wonder what Alaskans think of a recent divulging of their confidential information by the State of Alaska. On Tuesday, December 23, 2025, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the Alaska Division of Elections, turned o

It’s the season of warm wishes, goodwill, families and friends. It’s a time for sharing old memories and making new memories with the new year. It’s a break in everyday life to remember the past and think about the future.

Normally on solstice I would be packing last year’s Christmas tree into the back of the truck for a bonfire at Sandy Beach. But with the minus temperatures and gusty winds, I am inside thinking about the significance of crossing over toward more light in our daily lives.

On Saturday evening, water began pouring down Wire Street. It was dark, it was very cold and it was hard to see what was going on. Whatever it was, it sure wasn’t good.

A couple of months ago, I was reporting on the typhoon that hit Western Alaska and stopped by a news conference convened by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. I was there to ask him about long-term plans for protecting vulnerable coastal villages. But the governor diverted my focus by talking about Donald Trump and the president’s concern. The previous week, Dunleavy said, “I was texting him at one in the morning, his time, about this disaster.”

“Alaska’s future is bright,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy proclaimed last week, “but we have to have discipline and be forward-thinking now so that our short-term budget challenges don’t turn into long-term burdens on Alaskan families and businesses.”

Oh, thank goodness. A hidden benefit. My laptop is offline and there is no WiFi here and I am blessed. I am on a solitary spiritual retreat so I am actually doubly blessed.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, now in his final year in office, has spent more time talking about Alaska’s resource potential, whether getting oil and gas and minerals out of the ground or getting paid to store climate-warming carbon dioxide underground, than he has spent dealing with the reality of today’s state checkbook.

When I heard that Governor Dunleavy was providing five Alaska National Guard members to “assist the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Anchorage with administrative support,” I wondered several things.

On Dec. 5, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation director Randy Bates wrote an opinion piece arguing against Salmon Beyond Borders and the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association's (ALFA's) assertion that, 10 years after the Walker administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with British Columbia, the Dunleavy administration is "leaving Alaskans in the dark."

Last week, the Trump administration released its 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS). The president called it a “roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history.” But in patented Trump fashion, it’s filled with contradictions.

On the verge of World War II and in the early Cold War, isolationists promoted the idea of walling off the country from the prospect of “foreign wars” and entanglement in alliances which would inevitably draw us into conflict. This “Fortress America” concept was xenophobic, anti-immigrant, nationalistic and, honestly more than slightly paranoid about the enemies both “without” and “within.”

On Dec. 5, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Randy Bates published an opinion piece refuting Salmon Beyond Borders’ and the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association’s assertion that the Dunleavy Administration has largely abandoned the promises outlined in the Alaska-British Columbia Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation, signed 10 years ago by the Walker Administration. Clearly, we struck a nerve.

In a Friday hearing, members of the Alaska Senate spoke critically about a proposed new ferry terminal in Juneau, questioning why the project would be worth its multimillion-dollar cost.