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Photo by James Brooks / Alaska Beacon Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy greets a child during the governor’s annual holiday open house on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2022 at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau.

Pipeline deal and disasters were highlight and low point of 2025, Alaska governor says

Alaska’s traditional industries got a boost from the Trump administration, but more drilling and mining are likely years away

Photo by James Brooks / Alaska Beacon Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy greets a child during the governor’s annual holiday open house on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2022 at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau.
Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal Text messages between Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump.

Commentary: Alaska’s governor said he texts Trump. I asked for copies.

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… Continue reading

Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal Text messages between Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump.
Faith Myers stands at the doors of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Photo courtesy Faith Myers, file)

Alaska’s system of protecting Trust beneficiaries is 40 years behind best practice

The lower 48 has a 3-century headstart on protecting people in locked psychiatric facilities.

Faith Myers stands at the doors of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Photo courtesy Faith Myers, file)
The whale sculpture at Overstreet park breaches at sunrise on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire)

Weekly events guide: Juneau community calendar for Dec. 22-28

Visit Juneau Arts and Humanities Council at JAHC.org for more details on this week’s happenings.

The whale sculpture at Overstreet park breaches at sunrise on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire)
Jeff Lund photo The author practices in case he had the chance to be Jimmy from the 1986 movie Hoosiers. He never got the chance on the basketball floor, but had moments in life in which he needed to be clutch.

Opinion: Everyone wants to be Jimmy

Sports, and the movie “Hoosiers,” can teach you lessons in life

Jeff Lund photo The author practices in case he had the chance to be Jimmy from the 1986 movie Hoosiers. He never got the chance on the basketball floor, but had moments in life in which he needed to be clutch.
veggies File Photo Community organizations that serve food at their gatherings can do a lot by making menus of whole, nutritious offerings according to health and wellness coach Burl Sheldon.

Food served by “groups for good” can be health changemakers

Health and wellness coach thinks change can start on community event menus

veggies File Photo Community organizations that serve food at their gatherings can do a lot by making menus of whole, nutritious offerings according to health and wellness coach Burl Sheldon.
Laura Rorem (courtesy photo)

Living and Growing: Gracious, gentle power

Gracious power is grace expressed with kindness and mercy.

Laura Rorem (courtesy photo)
Juneau as pictured from the Downtown Public Library on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire)

Weekly events guide: Juneau community calendar for Dec. 15-21

Visit Juneau Arts and Humanities Council at JAHC.org for more details on this week’s happenings.

Juneau as pictured from the Downtown Public Library on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire)
Hiking down from Dan Moller cabin in mid-January 2025. (photo courtesy John Harley)

Sustainable Alaska: Skiing on the edge

The difference between a great winter for skiing and a bad one can be a matter of a few degrees.

Hiking down from Dan Moller cabin in mid-January 2025. (photo courtesy John Harley)
Patrick Sullivan stands by an acid seep on July 15,2023. Sullivan is part of a team of scientists who tested water quality in Kobuk Valley National Park’s Salmon River and its tributaries, where permafrost thaw has caused acid rock drainage. The process is releasing metals that have turned the waters a rusty color. A chapter in the 2025 Arctic Report Card described “rusting rivers” phenomenon. (Photo by Roman Dial/Alaska Pacific University)

Ecosystem shifts, glacial flooding and ‘rusting rivers’ among Alaska impacts in Arctic report

NOAA’s 2025 report comes despite Trump administration cuts to climate science research and projects

Patrick Sullivan stands by an acid seep on July 15,2023. Sullivan is part of a team of scientists who tested water quality in Kobuk Valley National Park’s Salmon River and its tributaries, where permafrost thaw has caused acid rock drainage. The process is releasing metals that have turned the waters a rusty color. A chapter in the 2025 Arctic Report Card described “rusting rivers” phenomenon. (Photo by Roman Dial/Alaska Pacific University)
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Moderate US House Republicans join Dems to force vote on extension of health care subsidies

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in the U.S. House will face a floor vote in early 2026 on Democrats’ plan to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act… Continue reading

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
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Letter: Trump’s language seeks to diminish an entire community

“Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

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Construction equipment operating at night at the White House. (photo by Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Opinion: Gold at the center of power

What the White House’s golden ballroom reveals about Modern America

Construction equipment operating at night at the White House. (photo by Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Gift card displays, such as this one in a CVS in Harlem, N.Y., have been a source of concerns for lawmakers hoping to combat gift card fraud. “Card draining,” or stealing numbers from poorly packaged cards, is one of the costliest and most common consumer scams, and states are trying to combat it with consumer alerts, arrests and warning signs on store displays. (Photo by Robbie Sequeira/Stateline)

Alaskans targeted by scammers posing as government officials, FBI warns

The FBI reports Alaskans lost over $26.2 million to internet-based scams in 2024, with $1.3 million of those losses due to government impersonation scams

Gift card displays, such as this one in a CVS in Harlem, N.Y., have been a source of concerns for lawmakers hoping to combat gift card fraud. “Card draining,” or stealing numbers from poorly packaged cards, is one of the costliest and most common consumer scams, and states are trying to combat it with consumer alerts, arrests and warning signs on store displays. (Photo by Robbie Sequeira/Stateline)
The trans-Alaska pipeline, seen on Oct. 8, 2008, threads over snow-covered terrain in the Brook Range foothills. A gryfalcon is perched on one of the pipeline’s thermosphyons in the lower center of the photo. (Photo by Craig McCaa/U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

Alaska revenue forecast predicts more oil, but its importance to the state budget is declining

The Permanent Fund, not oil, is Alaska’s No. 1 source of general-purpose money and has been for years

The trans-Alaska pipeline, seen on Oct. 8, 2008, threads over snow-covered terrain in the Brook Range foothills. A gryfalcon is perched on one of the pipeline’s thermosphyons in the lower center of the photo. (Photo by Craig McCaa/U.S. Bureau of Land Management)
Downtown Juneau experiences its first significant city-level snow fall of the season as pictured on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)

Weekend guide for Dec. 12-14

Visit Juneau Arts and Humanities Council at jahc.org for more details on this week’s happenings.

Downtown Juneau experiences its first significant city-level snow fall of the season as pictured on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)
Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference in Juneau on Thursday, April 27, 2023. To his side is a screen displaying significant budget deficits and exhausted savings accounts if oil prices perform as expected.

Disasters, dividends and deficit: Alaska governor unveils first-draft state budget

In his final year, Gov. Dunleavy again proposes to spend from savings in order to pay a larger Permanent Fund dividend

Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference in Juneau on Thursday, April 27, 2023. To his side is a screen displaying significant budget deficits and exhausted savings accounts if oil prices perform as expected.
Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion: Affordability message delivered to Juneau Assembly; but will it matter?

On October 7, frustrated voters passed two ballot propositions aimed at making Juneau more affordable and decisively defeated an Assembly-sponsored sales tax increase. The message… Continue reading

Win Gruening (courtesy)
Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks Wednesday, April 23, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska Senate. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

State senators express skepticism about proposed Juneau ferry terminal backed by Dunleavy

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… Continue reading

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks Wednesday, April 23, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska Senate. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Gulls hunting seeking scraps of fish swarm the docked fishing vessel Gold Rush, which harvests pollock and other groundfish, and Trident Seafood's Kodiak plant on Oct. 3, 2022. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set 2026 Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ccatch limits for pollock and other groundfish species, but the prolonged federal government shutdown interrupted the flow of information that would normally be used to set those harvests. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Without completed 2025 reports, federal fishery managers use last year’s data to set Alaska harvests

Lacking the usual amount of data to guide them, federal fishery managers relied on last year’s reports to set the coming year’s harvests for the… Continue reading

Gulls hunting seeking scraps of fish swarm the docked fishing vessel Gold Rush, which harvests pollock and other groundfish, and Trident Seafood's Kodiak plant on Oct. 3, 2022. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set 2026 Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ccatch limits for pollock and other groundfish species, but the prolonged federal government shutdown interrupted the flow of information that would normally be used to set those harvests. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)