Search Results for: SUSTAINABLE ALASKA

State Sen. Forrest Dunbar (D-Anchorage) speaks during a candlelight vigil Wednesday at the Alaska State Capitol by participants calling upon federal lawmakers not to cut Medicaid funding (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Proposed Medicaid cuts in Alaska: A protest, a Senate resolution and where things currently stand

Some Republicans in D.C. balk at full $880B reduction; work requirements, other trims still in play.

State Sen. Forrest Dunbar (D-Anchorage) speaks during a candlelight vigil Wednesday at the Alaska State Capitol by participants calling upon federal lawmakers not to cut Medicaid funding (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The front page of the Juneau Empire on May 12, 1995. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
The front page of the Juneau Empire on May 12, 1995. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Members of the Alaska Senate watch the tally board for the vote on the state’s draft operating budget, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Senate approves pared-down budget draft while warning of ‘coming storm’ in state finances

Proposal now goes to the House; if lawmakers reject it there, further negotiations are in store.

Members of the Alaska Senate watch the tally board for the vote on the state’s draft operating budget, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center as seen on March 14, 2025. (Photo by Laurie Craig)

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center: Preserving the past, greeting the future

Generations of architects and naturalists have navigated through mass evolution of visitors and ice.

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center as seen on March 14, 2025. (Photo by Laurie Craig)
The Alaska Senate Finance Committee meets on Friday, May 2, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Senate committee’s draft budget has a surplus — and that’s a sign of trouble

Committee leaders say they’ve created a “buffer” against a huge expected deficit in 2026.

The Alaska Senate Finance Committee meets on Friday, May 2, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Sunlight gleams through the Tongass National Forest in Juneau on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

Threads of the Tongass: Opinions split on whether there is a market for mass logging in Southeast

Some support revival of timber industry and jobs; others seek preservation of culture and ecosystem.

Sunlight gleams through the Tongass National Forest in Juneau on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Participants of the 2024 Sustainable Southeast Partnership annual retreat in Sheet’ká (Sitka). This week more than 150 people are gathering for the 12th annual retreat to strengthen relationships, accelerate ideas and energize work already happening across the region. (Photo by Bethany Goodrich)
Participants of the 2024 Sustainable Southeast Partnership annual retreat in Sheet’ká (Sitka). This week more than 150 people are gathering for the 12th annual retreat to strengthen relationships, accelerate ideas and energize work already happening across the region. (Photo by Bethany Goodrich)
Josh Chevalier, chief engineer of the MV Columbia, shows legislators the engine control room, and explains the control and monitoring systems on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

‘Out of sight, out of mind’: Engineers are the ones who keep state ferries moving

Challenges of workforce recruitment and retention persist in globally competitive maritime industry.

Josh Chevalier, chief engineer of the MV Columbia, shows legislators the engine control room, and explains the control and monitoring systems on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
A rainbow spans the University of Alaska Southeast campus in September of 2024. (University of Alaska Southeast photo)

Sustainable Alaska: Reading relations

For the program’s 14th iteration, UAS’s One Campus, One Book committee selected Max Libioron’s challenging “Pollution is Colonialism.” Starting this fall, students and faculty across… Continue reading

A rainbow spans the University of Alaska Southeast campus in September of 2024. (University of Alaska Southeast photo)
Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, talks to fellow legislators during a break in budget debates Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska House approves draft budget with large deficit and estimated $1,400 dividend

Under-construction state operating budget now goes to Senate, which is expected to make further cuts.

Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, talks to fellow legislators during a break in budget debates Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
(First Things First Alaska Foundation photo)

My Turn: RIP Road Scholars for Juneau Access project

The latest version of the state’s capital budget reappropriates approximately $37 million from designated Juneau Access funds for use as federal match for transportation projects… Continue reading

  • Apr 13, 2025
  • By Paulette Simpson
  • Opinion
(First Things First Alaska Foundation photo)
Contractors continue work on the new SEARHC medical center on Japonski Island. The completion estimate has been pushed back to the spring of 2026. (James Poulson / Sitka Daily Sentinel)

Pent-up complaints heard by SEARHC during annual “listening session” in Sitka

Concerns voiced about faulty care, home health for elders, waits for service and hard-to-navigate system.

Contractors continue work on the new SEARHC medical center on Japonski Island. The completion estimate has been pushed back to the spring of 2026. (James Poulson / Sitka Daily Sentinel)
Clockwise from top center: Malia Towne, Mackenzie Englishoe, Sophie Swope and Jazmyn Lee Vent. (Image by Mer Young/High Country News)

How Alaska Native youth are protecting the land for their future ancestors

Four women devoting careers to preservation of Indigenous lifeways under threat in Alaska.

  • Apr 2, 2025
  • By Lyndsey Brollini and Meghan Sullivan, High Country News
  • Alaska Natives
Clockwise from top center: Malia Towne, Mackenzie Englishoe, Sophie Swope and Jazmyn Lee Vent. (Image by Mer Young/High Country News)
(Illustration by Stephanie Harold)

Woven Peoples and Place: Seals, science and sustenance

Xunaa (Hoonah) necropsy involves hunters and students

(Illustration by Stephanie Harold)
A troller fishes near Ketchikan last summer. (Photo by Jeff Lund)

I Went to the Woods: Fish farm fiasco

I’ve spent almost all of my life searching for and evaluating fish. As a boy, I rode home from the river with wild silver salmon… Continue reading

A troller fishes near Ketchikan last summer. (Photo by Jeff Lund)
A mother and baby sperm whale swim together in a photo taken in 2013. (Photo by Gabriel Barathieu, under a Creative Commons license)
A mother and baby sperm whale swim together in a photo taken in 2013. (Photo by Gabriel Barathieu, under a Creative Commons license)
Sabrina Donnellan and her family attend a community luncheon for federal employees at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

Fired and current federal employees find solidarity as community offers support

Trump administration seeks to make government more efficient; fired employees say opposite will happen.

Sabrina Donnellan and her family attend a community luncheon for federal employees at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Katrina Hotch is the Sustainable Southeast Partnership’s Community Catalyst for the Chilkat Valley. (Photo by Ḵaa Yahaayí Shkalneegi Muriel Reid)

Woven Peoples and Place: Sharing knowledge as an honor and responsibility

A Q&A with Chilkat Valley Community Catalyst Katrina Hotch

Katrina Hotch is the Sustainable Southeast Partnership’s Community Catalyst for the Chilkat Valley. (Photo by Ḵaa Yahaayí Shkalneegi Muriel Reid)
Members of the Alaska State Employees Association and AFSCME Local 52 holds a protest at the Alaska State Capitol on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: The peril of reintroducing defined benefit pensions in Alaska

As Alaska faces one of its most difficult fiscal challenges in decades, a bill to radically expand Alaska’s retirement plan for government workers is winding… Continue reading

Members of the Alaska State Employees Association and AFSCME Local 52 holds a protest at the Alaska State Capitol on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Passengers aboard an Alaska Marine Highway System vessel are seen on the cover of a draft 20-year plan for the ferry system released Friday. (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)

20-year plan for Alaska Marine Highway envisions better service, if government provides more money

Draft long-term plan calls for six new ships in eight-ship fleet; public comments open until March 30.

Passengers aboard an Alaska Marine Highway System vessel are seen on the cover of a draft 20-year plan for the ferry system released Friday. (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)