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A sign reading, "Help Save These Historic Homes" is posted in front of a residence on Telephone Hill on Friday Nov. 21, 2025. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)

Opinion

OPINION: The Telephone Hill cost is staggering

The Assembly approved $5.5 million to raze Telephone Hill as part of the “Telephone Hill Redevelopment Project.” The…

Gov. Mike Dunleavy gestures during his State of the State address on Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

Opinion

OPINION: It’s time to end Alaska’s fiscal experiment

For decades, Alaska has operated under a fiscal and budgeting system unlike any other state, and some could…

Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion

OPINION: Eaglecrest’s opportunity to achieve financial independence, if the city allows it

It’s a well-known saying that “timing is everything.” Certainly, this applies to the concerns surrounding Eaglecrest, Juneau’s municipally-owned…

Van Abbott is a long-time resident of Alaska and California. He has held financial management positions in government and private organizations, and is now a full-time opinion writer. He served in the late nineteen-sixties in the Peace Corps as a teacher. (Contributed)

Opinion

When lying becomes the only qualification

How truth lost its place in the Trump administration.

Atticus Hempel stands in a row of his shared garden. (photo by Ari Romberg)

Opinion

My Turn: What’s your burger worth?

Atticus Hempel reflects on gardening, fishing, hunting, and foraging for food for in Gustavus.

At the Elvey Building, home of UAF’s Geophysical Institute, Carl Benson, far right, and Val Scullion of the GI business office attend a 2014 retirement party with Glenn Shaw. Photo by Ned Rozell

Opinion

Alaska Science Forum: Carl Benson embodied the far North

Carl Benson’s last winter on Earth featured 32 consecutive days during which temperatures in his chosen town did…

Jamie Kelter Davis/The New York Times Masked federal agents arrive to help immigration agents detain immigrants and control protesters in Chicago, June 4, 2025. With the passage of President Trump’s domestic policy law, the Department of Homeland Security is poised to hire thousands of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and double detention space.

Opinion

OPINION: $85 billion and no answers

How ICE’s expansion threatens law, liberty, and accountability.

Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon The entrance to the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.’s Anchorage office is seen on Aug. 11, 2023. The state-owned AGDC is pushing for a massive project that would ship natural gas south from the North Slope, liquefy it and send it on tankers from Cook Inlet to Asian markets. The AGDC proposal is among many that have been raised since the 1970s to try commercialize the North Slope’s stranded natural gas.

Opinion

My Turn: Alaskans must proceed with caution on gasline legislation

Alaskans have watched a parade of natural gas pipeline proposals come and go, as in go nowhere. They…

Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion

OPINION: Juneau Assembly members shift priorities in wish list to Legislature

OPINION: Juneau Assembly members shift priorities in wish list to Legislature

Letter to the editor typewriter (web only)

Opinion

LETTER: Juneau families care deeply about how schools are staffed

Juneau families care deeply about how our schools are staffed, supported, and funded. The first draft of the…

Kenny Holston/The New York Times President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he departed the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews, bound for a trip to Britain, Sept. 16, 2025. In his inauguration speech, he vowed to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.

Opinion

OPINION: Ratings, Not Reasons

The Television Logic of Trump’s Foreign Policy.

Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion

OPINION: Transparency and accountability are foundational to good government

The threat to the entire Juneau community due to annual flooding from glacial outbursts cannot be overstated. Juneau…

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12, 2025. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Opinion

Opinion: Invasion of Venezuela – Not unforeseen

Is Colombia and Cuba Next?

A demonstrator holds a sign in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as arguments are heard about the Affordable Care Act, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)

Opinion

My Turn: The U.S. is under health care duress

When millions become uninsured, it will strain the entire health care system.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis is underway, June 3, 2025, from Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Storis is the Coast Guard’s first new polar icebreaker acquisition in 25 years and will expand U.S. operational presence in the Artic Ocean. (Photo courtesy of Edison Chouest Offshore)

Opinion

My Turn: Welcoming the Coast Guard for a brighter future

Our community is on the verge of transformation with the commissioning of the icebreaker Storis.d

Faith Myers stands at the doors of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Photo courtesy Faith Myers, file)

Opinion

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.

Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal Text messages between Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump.

Opinion

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…

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.

Opinion

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

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

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

Opinion

Opinion: Gold at the center of power

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

Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion

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…