Alaska News
Alaska Legislature considers comprehensive election bill in final days of session
The Senate broadly approved the bill on Monday. Prior election reform efforts have fallen short in recent years.
‘Molly of Denali’ will stop producing new content after fifth season airs
Molly of Denali is widely celebrated in Alaska because it features an Alaska Native lead character and showcases Indigenous culture.
‘No more leniency for dealers’: Mat-Su murder case brings together supporters of new law
House Bill 66, which adds stiffer penalties for dealing drugs that lead to deaths, took effect two months after 16-year-old Alena Toennis died along a snowy trail near Wasilla.
Alaska commission proposes $49,000 fine against Hilcorp for Cook Inlet violations
The violation involved failing to meet an annual deadline to discuss its well plugging and abandonment activities.
Conservative activist and former radio host files to run for Alaska governor
Bernadette Wilson is the third Republican to file for governor in next year’s general election.
State says it shot 11 bears but will pause Mulchatna predator program after court injunction
In the latest twist in a legal saga over a state predator control program, the court said Alaska officials are acting in bad faith and disregarding legal orders.
Fairbanks man killed by law enforcement officers following exchange of gunfire
The 36-year-old man shot and killed a 29-year-old North Pole resident before he was fatally shot by police, authorities said Tuesday.
Alaska House passes public pension bill, sending it to Senate
The bill passed narrowly after Republicans in the minority raised concerns over the plan’s affordability.
Anchorage officer shoots and kills driver during traffic stop on Bragaw Street
The officer saw that the person had a gun in their “lap area,” police Chief Sean Case at a briefing early Tuesday.
Alaska House passes bill that cuts rental vehicle tax and requires collection from platforms like Turo
Gov. Dunleavy vetoed legislation amending the state’s rental vehicle tax last year. Legislators hope the tax cut will elicit support from Dunleavy this time around.
Dunleavy’s hiring freeze prompts concerns about impacts to state workforce and services
A spokesperson for the governor said the order is a “strategic pause” on hiring that gives agencies time to focus on essential workforce needs.
Alaska will fly nonstop from Seattle to Europe in 2026, CEO says
Seattle will be at the center of the expansion, with plans to add 12 nonstop global routes with long-haul widebody airplanes by 2030.
3 Trump Cabinet members to visit Alaska for energy conference
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and two others will attend the Anchorage event in June.
Dan Seavey, mushing patriarch who raced the first Iditarod, dies at 87
Seavey finished third in the first Iditarod in 1973. His son Mitch and grandson Dallas have won the race multiple times.
Controlled burning underway on Anchorage Hillside
There’s no need to report smoke coming from Hilltop Ski Area, officials say.
Hilcorp already owns most Cook Inlet oil and gas. It just bought out another player.
A Hilcorp spokesman said the company is looking to drill new wells as soon as this winter.
A contentious mining project in Southeast Alaska just changed hands. Its new owner already wants to sell.
Opponents are celebrating the news as a setback for the Palmer Project near Haines, one of the state’s most advanced — and polarizing — mining projects.
State finds Anchorage police justified in fatal shooting of man during Midtown hotel standoff
A 41-year-old man barricaded himself in a room at the Hampton Inn Hotel with a woman and four children.
Trump administration cuts endanger critical science programs in Alaska, researchers say
Fishery surveys, weather and wave data, and wildlife counts to support sustainable hunts are among the efforts at risk, researchers say.
Anchorage officials want to turn your garbage into electricity
The Assembly recently gave the city the go-ahead to start looking at creating a mass burn waste-to-energy facility, which would be the first of its kind in Alaska.
An Alaska Mother’s Day tradition: Mingling with musk oxen in Palmer
All moms got a flower and free admission Sunday at the Musk Ox Farm, where people can get up close with a species that survived the ice age.
Alaska state trooper shoots woman near Wasilla
Troopers said the woman took aim at an officer with a weapon that turned out to be a BB gun but “closely resembled a semiautomatic handgun.”
Arctic refuge oil exploration could begin as soon as this winter, court documents indicate
AIDEA could get permission to start oil exploration work in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as soon as the third quarter of this year, according to court documents filed in Anchorage.
Conservation group’s lawsuit seeks to speed listing of Alaska king salmon under Endangered Species Act
The lawsuit asks a judge to order the service to “promptly issue” its decision on the petition by a specific date.
State will continue killing Southwest Alaska bears despite court order calling program ‘unlawful’
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will proceed with its third season shooting bears in an effort to grow the Mulchatna caribou herd.
Survey of Alaska’s small businesses shows ‘dramatic’ confidence drop as political uncertainty grew
It was the “highest level of economic pessimism” recorded by the survey, the Alaska Small Business Development Center said.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy opposes tax bills and urges creation of joint fiscal plan group after session ends
The governor also issued an administrative order late Friday that seeks to limit state spending by implementing a statewide hiring freeze.
Alaska’s Dale Guthrie was an influential paleontologist who opened the door to a lost world
Guthrie responded to the discovery of “Blue Babe,” a 50,000-year-old steppe bison found north of Fairbanks in 1979.
Cost estimates rising for permafrost-related damage to Alaska roads and buildings
Better knowledge and mapping of existing infrastructure is leading to a new estimate of future thaw costs under varying climate scenarios.
Trump endorses Alaska’s US Rep. Nick Begich
The state’s lone U.S. representative has aligned himself with President Trump’s policies.