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Ashlyn Gates of Thunder Mountain High School deflects the ball past a Craig High School player during the Gold Bracket semi-final game of the Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza at Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé High School on Saturday. TMHS, the top seed in the six-team bracket, lost the title game to Chugiak High School. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Sports

TMHS falls in ’epic’ JIVE finale to Chugiak

Local No. 1 seed falls short to rally by No. 2 team during two-day regional volleyball tournament

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire A totem pole stands outside Hospice and Home Care of Juneau, which is shutting down Wednesday after providing services for about 20 years due to lack of staff. The closure will affect 17 home health and two hospice patients, with program and city officials in discussions with Bartlett Regional Hospital and SEARHC about taking over services for such patients.

News

Hospice and Home Care of Juneau closing Wednesday

Program halting due to shortage and high cost of staff. Officials hope BRH, SEARHC can offer care.

Chesbro For Alaska Pat Chesbro, the lone Democrat in the three-way race for one of Alaska’s U.S. Senate seats in the November general election, poses for her official campaign profile picture.

News

Chesbro says she holds the keys to victory

Democrat a longshot in U.S. Senate race, but one of her Republican opponents needs her voters to win

Kelly Tshibaka, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, poses for her official campaign biography photo this spring. (Kelly For Alaska)

News

Tshibaka sees more than red:Trump-back candidate discusses policy goals in Senate

Weighty words ranging from seabeds to outer space.

A sign stands at the site of a proposed 444-unit subdivision along the 7400 block of Glacier Highway in Juneau. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire) Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire A sign stands at the site of a proposed 444-unit subdivision along the 7400 block of Glacier Highway in Juneau.

News

444-unit housing project raises hopes, concerns

Backers of proposed subdivision say it addresses shortage, neighbors worry about impacts.

Forms to run for state office are displayed at the Alaska Division of Elections’ offices in Juneau in June. Candidates and organizations in statewide contests were required to file campaign finance reports on Monday, detailing their spending, expenses and cash on hand one month before the Nov 8 election. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

Big bucks back constitutional convention opponents

D.C. group spends on ballot measure, Dunleavy has big cash advantage in governor’s race.

Rep. Mary Peltola is interviewed on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 12, a day before being sworn in after winning the Aug. 16 special election to fill the rest of the late Don Young’s term. The Democrat from Bethel is seeking reelection to a full two-year term in the general election against the same two Republicans she defeated in the special election. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

News

Peltola seeks full House term in a political storm

Alaska Native Democrat, facing likely GOP majority, says she’s ready to follow Young’s path to success

A map shows more than 50 proposed cabin projects in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests the U.S. Forest Service is considering using $14.4 million in federal funds. About half of the projects are expected to be approved, with the public able to comment online about their preferences until Oct. 31. (U.S. Forest Service)

News

Cabin fever fueled by Forest Service funds

More than 50 proposed new Alaska sites, half in Tongass, draw strong opinions.

Les Gara smiles outside of the Juneau Empire’s offices following an interview earlier this week. The former Anchorage lawmaker is the lone Democratic candidate in Alaska’s gubernatorial race. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)

News

Gara sticks to steady message on rocky campaign trail

Former Anchorage lawmaker seeking to become first Democrat elected governor since 1998.

Heidi Drygas, who is running for lieutenant governor, and Bill Walker, who is running for governor, smile outside the Juneau Empire’s offices after an interview this week. Walker said he’s hopeful voters will understand his decision to draw from the Alaska Permanent Fund to fund state government. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)

News

Walker hopes voters willing to accept hard truths

Former independent governor seeking office again after “I threw myself on the Permanent Fund grenade. ”

Workers replace a failed log culvert with a small foot bridge over Switzer Creek in a project funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with some materials provided by the Alaskan Brewing Company. The federal government on Thursday announced an additional $1 billion in grants is being made available during the next five years for culvert repairs in areas where fish passage is blocked. (Courtesy Photo / Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition)

News

Cash flow: $1B in fed funds for freer fish

Grants to replace culverts impeding streams available to tribal, local and state governments

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Les Gara, left, discusses hospitality industry issues during a forum Wednesday with independent candidate Bill Walker, right, at Louie’s Douglas Inn. The forum was hosted by the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association, with the organization’s president and CEO Sarah Oates acting as the moderator. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Walker, Gara get into a bar debate

Candidates for governor talk about serving, shortages and ships during industry forum in Juneau

A bald eagle looks toward the Mendenhall Glacier near the visitor center on Tuesday. The U.S. Forest Service is proposing expanding a ban on mining and other mineral resource extraction activities from an area on the glacier a short distance from the existing face to several hundred yards inward, extending outward to the mountainsides along both sides. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire)

News

Forest Service seeks input on expanding mineral extraction ban near glacier

Forest Service seeks input on expanding mineral extraction ban in recreation area

Melanie Hardin, right, greets the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.’s Board of Trustees before her interview for the APFC’s executive director’s job Monday in Juneau, (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Permanent Fund board picks new executive director

Trustees work overtime selecting from three candidates after interviews Monday

Rep. Mary Peltola, an Alaska Democrat, delivers a speech on the U.S. House floor before Thursday’s vote approving her first bill, establishing an Office of Food Security in the Department of Veterans Affairs. It passed the House by a 376-49 vote, although its fate in the Senate is undetermined. (Screenshot from official U.S. House video)

News

Poll: Peltola’s a popular pol

Food for vets bill passes House, pollster says she is “the most popular figure in Alaska right now.”

Screenshot / Alaska Public Media’s YouTube channel Bob Bird, left, chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party, and former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman make the case in favor of a state constitutional convention during a debate in Anchorage broadcast Thursday by Alaska Public Media.

News

Constitutional convention debate gets heated

Abortion, PFD factor into forum.

A parking sign awaits the new executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund at its Juneau headquarters, Three finalists will be interviewed for the job during a public meeting Monday by the fund’s board of trustees, who are expected to deliberate and announce the new director immediately afterward. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Interviews, selection of new Permanent Fund CEO set for Monday

Three finalists seeking to manage $73.7B fund to appear before trustees at public meeting in Juneau

Mindy and Will Jones, who lived next door to Resurrection Lutheran Church, talk to neighbor Elva Bontrager in their yard on Wednesday. The couple said they are sympathetic to disadvantaged residents staying at the church’s warming shelter during sub-freezing winter nights, but there have been incidents with people being loud and rowdy outside late at night. The church provided the warming shelter for the first time last winter and on Tuesday the city approved extending the number of days and hours the shelter can be open during the coming winter. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Longer season, hours OK’d for warming shelter

Extended operations for church’s second year as host seeks less frigid winter for homeless, neighbors

The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. building in Juneau is scheduled to be the site where the board of trustees will select a new executive director on Monday, following the investigation into the firing of former CEO Angela Rodell last December being presented to state lawmakers on Wednesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Investigators: Permanent Fund CEO’s firing legal but departed from policy

Trustees acted legally, despite not following official policy, and governor didn’t influence decision

A chart shows what critics claim is poor financial performance by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, especially in subsidizing private industry projects intended to boost the state’s economy, during its 55-year existence. The chart is part of a report released Tuesday criticizing the agency. (MB Barker/LLC Erickson & Associates/EcoSystems LLC)

News

AIDEA’s fiscal performance fishy, critics say

Report presented by salmon industry advocates asserts state business subsidy agency cost public $10B