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Shoppers and vendors mingle along rows of booths in the mall ballroom at Centennial Hall during the Juneau Public Market last year, which returns this year starting Friday, Nov. 28. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Shoppers and vendors mingle along rows of booths in the mall ballroom at Centennial Hall during the Juneau Public Market last year, which returns this year starting Friday, Nov. 28. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Cold water dipping is a centuries old stress reduction technique still practiced today. (Photo by Raven Hotch)

Recipes for stress reduction rooted in Indigenous knowledge

We must choose to live intentionally and learn to commit to our wellbeing.

Cold water dipping is a centuries old stress reduction technique still practiced today. (Photo by Raven Hotch)
Tone and Charles Deehr in Fairbanks, October 2021. (Photo courtesy Charles Deehr)

Alaska Science Forum: Red aurora rare enough to be special

Charles Deehr will never forget his first red aurora. On Feb. 11, 1958, Deehr was a student at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He asked… Continue reading

Tone and Charles Deehr in Fairbanks, October 2021. (Photo courtesy Charles Deehr)
Furloughed federal workers stand in line for hours ahead of a special food distribution by the Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries on Barlowe Road in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Government reopens after 43 days: Trump signs bill ending record shutdown

WASHINGTON — The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended Wednesday night when President Donald Trump signed a spending package that reopens the government and funds… Continue reading

  • Nov 13, 2025
  • By Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa & Shauneen Miranda States Newsroom
  • federal government
Furloughed federal workers stand in line for hours ahead of a special food distribution by the Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries on Barlowe Road in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
Photos by Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire
Yuxgitisiy George Holly, center, leads a Lingít dance and drumming class at Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley Elementary School on Oct. 23, 2025.

Q&A: Lorrie Heagy and Yuxgitisiy George Holly talk language revitalization

The Juneau Alaska Music Matters program uses the power of music to teach language.

Photos by Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire
Yuxgitisiy George Holly, center, leads a Lingít dance and drumming class at Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley Elementary School on Oct. 23, 2025.
Yuxgitisiy George Holly and Lorrie Gax.áan.sán Heagy (center left and right) stand alongside Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom (left) and other honorees at the Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award ceremony in Anchorage on Oct. 28, 2025. Holly won the Margaret Nick Cooke Award for Alaska Native Arts and Languages, and Heagy won the award for Individual Artist. (photo courtesy of Yuxgitisiy George Holly)

Two Juneau educators win Governor’s arts awards

Holly and Heagy turn music and dance into Lingít language learning, earning statewide arts awards.

Yuxgitisiy George Holly and Lorrie Gax.áan.sán Heagy (center left and right) stand alongside Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom (left) and other honorees at the Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award ceremony in Anchorage on Oct. 28, 2025. Holly won the Margaret Nick Cooke Award for Alaska Native Arts and Languages, and Heagy won the award for Individual Artist. (photo courtesy of Yuxgitisiy George Holly)
Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion: The vote is over, but the budget battle is just beginning

Win Gruening weighs in on Monday’s Assembly Reorganization Meeting.

Win Gruening (courtesy)
Close up view of an adult male mountain goat in late-winter, near Juneau Icefield, Alaska. In the background, steep avalanche prone slopes are visible. (Photo by Kevin White)

Avalanche lessons from mountain goats: A study of ‘Life on the Edge’

Wildlife biologist Kevin White shared the relationship between mountain goats and avalanches.

Close up view of an adult male mountain goat in late-winter, near Juneau Icefield, Alaska. In the background, steep avalanche prone slopes are visible. (Photo by Kevin White)
The Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska, Aug. 2, 2025. Paintings, poems and science are on display at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, illustrating the shared impact when carbon is released from the permafrost. (Chona Kasinger/The New York Times)

What happens when the ice melts? These women in Alaska are sounding an alarm

When Debbie Clarke Moderow was running the Iditarod — the 1,100-mile sled dog race through Alaska’s frozen interior — she had a moment. Her hands… Continue reading

  • Oct 20, 2025
  • New York Times
The Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska, Aug. 2, 2025. Paintings, poems and science are on display at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, illustrating the shared impact when carbon is released from the permafrost. (Chona Kasinger/The New York Times)

Rivers in Alaska, Yukon set to warm: how will this affect salmon?

Research coming from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder incorporated Indigenous knowledge into their research

  • Oct 15, 2025
  • Talar Stockton Local Journalism Initiative
A photo provided by the National Park Service shows 32 Chunk, a bear at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, Sept. 15, 2025. Fat Bear Week, a bracket-style competition to pick the bear best suited for winter at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, was won by Chunk. (The National Park Service/T Carmack via The New York Times) — NO SALES; EDITORIAL USE ONLY —

Meet this year’s Fat Bear contest winner

After a weeklong battle to the finish, this year’s Fat Bear Week victor has been crowned. Congratulations to 32 Chunk, a brown bear who weighed… Continue reading

  • Oct 2, 2025
A photo provided by the National Park Service shows 32 Chunk, a bear at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, Sept. 15, 2025. Fat Bear Week, a bracket-style competition to pick the bear best suited for winter at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, was won by Chunk. (The National Park Service/T Carmack via The New York Times) — NO SALES; EDITORIAL USE ONLY —
Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a press conference at the Alaska State Capitol on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: Dunleavy hides in the shadow of Trump’s assault on free speech

Using the power of the presidency to censor anyone who recognizes that is not only un-American, it’s an act of utter cowardice

Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a press conference at the Alaska State Capitol on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Sunlight gleams through the Tongass National Forest in Juneau on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)

My Turn: An open invitation to Secretary Rollins

I will introduce you to our communities and forests

  • Sep 28, 2025
  • By Marina Keli’ikuli
Sunlight gleams through the Tongass National Forest in Juneau on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Brent Merten (courtesy photo) [USE THIS ONE HE DOESNT LIKE OTHER ONE]

Living and Growing: Touch grass … and people, too

We all need to step back from the virtual world and its endless echo chambers

Brent Merten (courtesy photo) [USE THIS ONE HE DOESNT LIKE OTHER ONE]
Peggy McKee Barnhill (Courtesy photo)
Peggy McKee Barnhill (Courtesy photo)

Gimme a smile: _______ is good for you

We all have different ways to fill in the blank for what is good for you

Peggy McKee Barnhill (Courtesy photo)
Peggy McKee Barnhill (Courtesy photo)
These satisfying spiced bagels aren't sweet on their own, but pair well with a honey walnut cream cheese to please any sweet tooth. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)

The simple joy of pumpkin spice

These spiced bagels are chewy and satisfying and pair well with a honey walnut cream cheese.

These satisfying spiced bagels aren't sweet on their own, but pair well with a honey walnut cream cheese to please any sweet tooth. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Win Gruening (courtesy)

Opinion: New city hall plan deserves voter scrutiny

In a Committee of the Whole meeting on Sept. 8, CBJ Assembly members voted to advance an ordinance directing staff to “negotiate and execute the… Continue reading

  • Sep 22, 2025
  • By Win Gruening
Win Gruening (courtesy)
City and Borough of Juneau City Hall is photographed on July 12, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Juneau Empire file)

My Turn: We know the City’s finances. We think the stakes couldn’t be higher in this year’s local election

The ballot will ask voters three questions that seek to change how Juneau collects the money needed for public services

  • Sep 20, 2025
  • By Christine Woll and Neil Steininger
City and Borough of Juneau City Hall is photographed on July 12, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Juneau Empire file)
A makeshift memorial on the Utah Valley University campus, where Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a gunman a few days earlier, in Orem, Utah, Sept. 14, 2025. (Loren Elliott/The New York Times)

Opinion: Attentive listening humanizes our political adversaries

Today, we Americans are good at talking to like-minded people

  • Sep 20, 2025
  • By Rich Moniak
A makeshift memorial on the Utah Valley University campus, where Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a gunman a few days earlier, in Orem, Utah, Sept. 14, 2025. (Loren Elliott/The New York Times)
Courtesy photo
Adam Bauer of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Bahá’í of Juneau.

Living and Growing: The paradox of freedom

Religion teaches that spiritual freedom is found not in the rejection of all limits, but in choosing the right ones

Courtesy photo
Adam Bauer of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Bahá’í of Juneau.