Site Logo
Ketchikan senior Jonathan Scoblic shoots under pressure from East Anchorage senior Muhammed Sabally (23) during the Kings’ 43-25 loss to the Thunderbirds on Saturday in the 4A championship game of the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 4A Basketball State Championships in Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Ketchikan gives East Anchorage a run for 4A title

Kings fly close to sun, fall to defending state champ Thunderbirds.

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé dance team performs a portion of their Region V tournament routine during halftime of the East Anchorage/Ketchikan state championship game Saturday at the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 3A/4A Basketball State Championships in Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

JDHS dance team brings magic to state tournament

Crimson Bears return to state venue for first time in 18 years

Hydaburg’s Devin Edenshaw looks for a move against Hoonah’s (#2) during a C bracket game Sunday at the the 76th Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament on Sunday, March 23, at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Opening day of 76th Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament sets the bar high

Big games, little games, games of all shapes and sizes are underway at weeklong tournament at JDHS.

An aerial view of part of Southeast Alaska’s Kensington gold mine. (Photo by James Brooks)

News

Months after fish died near Kensington mine, regulators and mine owner still don’t know what killed them

“Sometimes you’re just never going to have data that says, ‘Yes, that’s what it was,’” says state regulator.

JDHS junior Gwen Nizich hits a shot past the arc over Mountain City Christian Academy’s Jasmine Schaeffer (23) during the Crimson Bears’ 57-37 loss to the Lions in the 3rd/5th-place game Saturday at 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 4A Basketball State Championships in Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

JDHS girls fall to Mountain City to finish state play

Crimson Bears place fifth in 57-37 loss to Lions on Saturday

Zosha Krupa in action at the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 1A/2A Basketball State Championships at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Southeast referee Zosha Krupa picks stripes over clipboards

Former star player giving back to community through officiating gets lead duties at state tournament.

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé sophomore Layla Tokuoka (14) gets a shot off over Colony senior Hallie Clark (22) as JDHS juniors Cambry Lockhart (3) and Gwen Nizich (11) move down court in the Crimson Bears’ 56-34 loss to the Knights in a Friday 4A girls semifinal at the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 3A/4A Basketball State Championships at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

JDHS girls fall to Colony 56-34 in state semifinal game

Crimson Bears will play for third, Knights advance to title contest.

Ketchikan senior Gage Massin (5) hits the game winner in the Kings’ 46-43 semifinal overtime win against the Grizzlies on Friday at the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 3A/4A Basketball State Championships at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Ketchikan boys top Grace to earn championship game

Ketchikan senior Gage Massin hit a fade-away shot in the key with 1.5 seconds remaining to give the…

Andy Romanoff, the executive director of the nonprofit organization Alaska Heat Smart, speaks at an empty-chair town hall held for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

News

Juneau shows up for democracy at empty-chair town hall

Constituents across Alaska feel unheard by congressional delegation, take the lead in community outreach.

Rep. Alyse Galvin, an Anchorage independent, takes a photo with Meadow Stanley, a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on April 4, 2024, before they took part in a march protesting education funding from the school to the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

Fire, ready, aim: Alaska’s delegation says contact them about troublesome Trump cuts. How’s that working out?

After president’s slashing of government, those affected told to justify how their existence serves him.

Sara Kveum speaks to the crowd rallying in front of the Alaska State Capitol, alongside Nikki Bass, both members of the Key Coalition of Alaska advocating for disability rights on March 19, 2025 (Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

News

‘We are done waiting!’ Advocates and supporters of Alaskans with disabilities rally at the Capitol

Participants focus on Medicaid, eliminating waitlists for support services, infant learning programs.

Salmon dries on a traditional rack on the beach in the Seward Peninsula village of Teller on Sept. 2, 2021. Salmon is a dietary staple for Indigenous residents of Western Alaska, and poor runs have created hardship. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

News

Bill would change the makeup of the Alaska Board of Fisheries

Would require commercial, sport and subsistence members, along with one representing scientists.

A small commuter plane that crashed in western Alaska in early February killed 10 people. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

News

Small plane that crashed in Alaska, killing 10 people, was a half-ton overweight, U.S. says

A small plane that crashed in Alaska last month, killing all 10 people on board, was a half-ton…

Hoonah’s Melissa Fisher and Taryn White (24) challenge a shot by Angoon’s Tasha McCoy during their elimination game in the 2015 Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Gold Medal returns with hearty schedules

New division is expected to draw some new fans

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Storis near Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 10, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

News

Storis icebreaker expected to make ceremonial visit to Juneau this summer, officials say

Coast Guard icebreaker set to be homeported locally will still need further upgrades for deployment.

Research biologists pause among the wetlands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, with the Brooks Range in the background. The Trump administration is taking steps to offer the entire coastal plain for oil and gas leasing, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Thursday. (Lisa Hupp/USFWS)

News

Interior secretary announces plans to advance new Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil leasing

Follow-ups to Trump executive orders will mean leasing across ANWR, wider NPR development.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) walks through a hallway of protesters with his wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, before his annual address to the Alaska Legislature on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

News

Sullivan generates warmth and heat with energy filled speech to Alaska Legislature

Senator takes barrage of friendly and confrontational questions from lawmakers about Trump’s agenda.

Sitka junior Trey Johnson (24) challenges a shot by Mt. Edgecumbe senior Richard Didrickson Jr (21) during the Wolves’ 64-62 semifinal win over the Braves on Thursday in the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 3A/4A Basketball State Championships at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

Sports

Wolves tip Braves in epic state semifinal hoops battle

Number two Sitka, number three Mt. Edgecumbe go down to the buzzer

SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s Vintage Park Campus on its opening day of Dec. 19, 2023. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

SEARHC starts up new online portal for patients

Starting later this month, SEARHC patients will be able to schedule appointments, message their medical team, renew prescriptions,…

The exterior of the Governor’s House on Wednesday, with Nov. 20, 2024, with decorations in place for the holiday season. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Empire file photo)

News

Turning Governor’s House into a short-term rental proposed by Alaska lawmaker

Republican House member says intent is fiscal responsibility, not a slight of often-absent GOP governor.