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Artwork by Eric Bealer, seen here, and his wife, Pam, will be featured at Alaska Robotics Gallery as part of first Friday in April. (Sitka Conservation Society photo)

News

Here’s what’s happening for First Friday in April

Annual UAS student ceremics show, Folk Fest sneak peak and art exhibits in full bloom.

Many Juneau School District employees will be in new places during the coming school year due to a consolidation plan that will result on one high school and one middle school instead of two of each. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

Juneau’s principals, vice principals get new assignments under school district’s consolidation plan

The principal of the one middle school won’t be the just-named Southeast principal of the year.

Alwen Carrillo, a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, signs a letter of intent on Monday to play college basketball at Edmond College in Lynnwood, Washington. (Photo courtesy of Annie Lazo-Chappell)

Sports

Alwen Carrillo signs letter of intent to play basketball for Edmond College

All-state JDHS guard averaged 16.2 points, 5.2 assists during senior season.

Donovan Jackson, 12, of Juneau competes in the one-foot high kick during the 2022 Traditional Games on April 2, 2022. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire file photo)

Sports

Record number of participants expected for seventh annual Traditional Games

Teams from Alaska, Canada and Lower 48 to compete in 12 Indigenous skills events starting Friday.

A gate stands at the entrance to the Little Rock Dump about a mile and a half south of downtown, which is being proposed as a campsite for people experiencing homelessness this summer by some business operators near the city’s cold weather emergency shelter, stating there have been problems from people staying there. (Photo by Laurie Craig)

News

Homeless will be on their own when warming shelter closes, as Assembly ponders campground decision

Deputy city manager: “There will be a period of time where we don’t have a CBJ-sanctioned campground.”

Uhtred Permanentfundsen, the “defender of the Permanent Fund,” occupies a shelf near the head of the table in the Senate Finance Committee room at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

Sunday is the last day to apply for the 2024 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend

Online applications can be submitted until 11:59 p.m.; PFD expected to be at least $1,582.

The Kuskokwim River is pictured. (Photo by Peter Griffith/NASA)

News

Federal judge sides with Biden administration, rejects Alaska bids to expand Kuskokwim fishing

Rejects Dunleavy effort to expand salmon fishing opportunities beyond federal government limits.

Alaska Department of Transportation program manager Ryan Marlow demonstrates the agency’s robotic dog in Anchorage on March 26. The device will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska’s second-largest airport, the DOT said. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

News

Robot disguised as a coyote or fox will scare wildlife away from runways at Alaska airport

A headless robot about the size of a labrador retriever will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox…

In this Sept. 29, 2023, photo at the grave of Lucky Pitka McCormick, her granddaughter Kathleen Carlo, left, and McCormick’s great-great-grandchildren Lucia, center, and Addison Carlo place candles and stones on the grave during a reburial ceremony in Rampart, Alaska. Pitka was one of the Lost Alaskans sent to a mental hospital in the 1930s. Her grave was recently discovered, and family members brought her back to Alaska for a proper burial. (Wally Carlo via AP).

News

Volunteers uncover fate of thousands of Lost Alaskans sent to Oregon mental hospital a century ago

Lucy Pitka McCormick’s relatives cooked salmon, moose, beaver and muskrat over an earthen firepit on the banks of…

Fishing boats are lines up on Oct. 3, 2022, at a dock at Kodiak’s St. Paul Harbor. Commercial fishing injuries and illnessness are not covered by workers’ compensation, so a state-managed Fishermen’s Fund serves as backstop payor for medical costs. A newly passed bill, if signed by the governor, would increase maximum allowable payments from the fund. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Alaska Legislature boosts allowable payments from fund that covers fishers’ crew medical costs

Maximum payouts from a fund that covers medical costs of injured seafood harvesters would be boosted under a…

A view of downtown Juneau. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)

News

Mill rate increase, permits for large public gatherings at parks among items on busy Assembly agenda

Homeless campground, first look at FY25 budget, more summer city buses also on Monday’s schedule.

Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Deena Bishop and Gov. Mike Dunleavy discuss his veto of an education bill during a press conference March 15 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

State owes nearly $30 million to four school districts, including Juneau, federal government says

Juneau’s share is just under $200,000; biggest amounts are $16.6M for Anchorage and $9.7M for Kenai.

The front page of the Juneau Empire on March 25, 1994. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Empire Archives: Juneau’s history for the week ending March 30

Three decades of capital city coverage.

Juneau’s PJ Foy, shown winning the 2023 100 yard butterfly in 48.27 for Thunder Mountain High School during the ASAA state championships at the Dimond Park Aquatics Center on Nov. 4, 2023, qualified for the 2024 June Olympic Team Trials by swimming a 100 long course meters butterfly in a personal best 53.44 on March 16, 2024, at the Speedo Sectionals in Federal Way, Washington. (Klas Stolpe for the Juneau Empire)

Sports

Foy ‘flies’ through 100 meters to qualify for Olympic Swim Trials

“To do what nobody else can do, I need to do what nobody else will do”

The Captain Cook, one of two tour boats formerly operated by Adventure Bound Alaska, in Aurora Harbor prior to a scheduled sealed-bid auction for vessels that has been extended until April 10. (City and Borough of Juneau)

News

Auction of Adventure Bound boats gets delay, big minimum bid increase due to liens

Two vessels from troubled tour company now selling for several times the original listed bids.

An employee works on the deck of an Alaska Marine Highway System vessel in a photo used by AMHS on social media to advertise jobs openings during the summer of 2023. (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities photo)

News

Crew shortages continue to limit AMHS operations, likely to keep Kennicott idle again this summer

Situation improved from a year ago, but wheelhouse employees and engineers still a crucial need.

A harbor seal lazily floats in the calm cool downtown harbor waters on March 21. (Photo by Denise Carroll)

News

Wild Shots

To showcase our readers’ work to the widest possible audience, Wild Shots have been moved in front of…

Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School Principal Molly Yerkes has been named AASSP Region 5 Principal of The Year for 2024, the second time she has won the award since 2020. (Courtesy photo)

Neighbors

Neighbors: DZ Principal Molly Yerkes named regional principal of the year for second time since 2020

Middle school’s principal for past 14 years also recipient of national Millikan award in 2013.

A lot in Thane near the city’s cold weather emergency shelter, seen at right in the background, is being proposed as the site for a campground for people experiencing homelessness that would open in April. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

News

Moving homeless campground next to warming shelter strongly opposed by nearby businesses

Damage, safety, theft among concerns cited in petition to Assembly, which considers proposal Monday.

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)

News

Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”