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Apayauq Reitan, the first transgender woman to participate in the Iditarod, tells the House Education Committee on March 30, 2023, why she opposes a bill restricting sex and gender content in schools. A second meeting for public testimony is scheduled Thursday. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)

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Peninsula voices among ‘parental rights’ debate in Juneau

People who spoke in opposition outnumbered those who spoke in support by three to one

This March 10 photo shows fentanyl pills seized by police. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)

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State health alert issued for fentanyl mixture

Xylazine is not approved for human use and naloxone will not be able to reverse its effect

Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat River is seen on May, 30, 2013. The Chilkat and its main tributary, the Klehini River, are listed among the nation’s most at-risk rivers because of the planned Palmer Project copper and zinc mine being developed upstream from the village of Klukwan. (U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center)

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Looming mine development puts Southeast’s Chilkat-Klehini system on list of endangered rivers

A pair of connected Southeast Alaska waterways are on the 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers issued…

State Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, listens to an overview of the state’s balance sheet under a proposed budget for next year introduced by the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing Wednesday. The budget contains a surplus of more than $1.4 billion, but that’s a misleading number since it doesn’t include Permanent Fund Dividends, an increase in education funding and other spending that are virtually certain to be added following public testimony during the next couple of days. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

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Senate budget draft includes huge surplus and no PFD

Initial draft also lacks education funding boost, but changes to come after public comment process

In this Thursday, April 6, 2023, image provided by Providence Alaska, a moose stands inside a Providence Alaska Health Park medical building in Anchorage, Alaska. The moose chomped on plants in the lobby until security was able to shoo it out, but not before people stopped by to take photos of the moose. (Providence Alaska)

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Moose feasts on lobby plants in Alaska hospital building

Even stranger than that John Mulaney bit.

A chart shows the number and type of Alaska residents receiving Medicaid coverage based on either 2022 Alaska Medicaid Claims data (yellow) or 2021 U.S. Census data (orange). More than 260,000 residents are currently enrolled, about 30,000 more than 2020, due to a federal provision that kept states from removing people during the COVID-19 pandemic. That provision ended April 1 and Alaska officials are scheduled review eligibility of all residents enrolled during the next 12 months. (Alaska Division of Public Assistance)

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Medicaid eligibility for all enrollees under review

Coverage for more than 260,000 Alaskans to be checked during next year as COVID-19 protection ends

The American island of Little Diomede, Alaska, left, and on the right, the Russian island of Big Diomede, are seen from the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica in the Bering Strait, on July 14, 2017. The Alaska Air National Guard on April 3, 2023, traveled nearly 660 miles to rescue a pregnant woman on a small island two miles from Russia who had severe abdominal pains, a reflection of the challenges patients face in the nation's largest state where the most remote areas have no roads and hospitals can be hundreds of miles away. (AP Photo / David Goldman)

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660-mile rescue flight highlights Alaska’s unique challenges

The rescue call came Monday morning…

In this aerial view is the Donlin Gold project, located around 12 miles north of the Kuskokwim River community of Crooked Creek, Alaska, on Aug. 11, 2022. Three Alaska Native tribes have sued to block what they say would be one of the largest gold mines in the world. Tribes from the communities of Kwethluk, Tuluksak and Bethel filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, April 5, 2023, challenging the adequacy of a 2018 environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and issuances of a key permit and lease by federal agencies for the Donlin Gold project. (Loren Holmes / Anchorage Daily News)

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Three tribes sue to block major gold mine project

ANCHORAGE — Three Alaska Native tribes have sued to block what they say would be one of the…

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announces the formation of a child care task force that is scheduled to issue a report of recommendation in July of 2024 during a press conference Thursday in Anchorage. (Screenshot from official video of press conference)

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Governor creates child care task force

Group scheduled to issue final report in mid-2024; some lawmakers seeking quicker action

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, offers an apology Thursday on the House floor for “escalating” tensions during a heated session on Wednesday when most members of the minority caucus staged a walkout over what they called a “hostage” situation involving education funding. A few other lawmakers also expressed similar sentiments.

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Extra education funding restored – with a catch

House majority ties increase to minority’s willingness to balance budget with reserve funds

An ice-covered ConocoPhillips sign is displayed at the Colville-Delta 5, or as it's more commonly known, CD5, drilling site on Alaska's North Slope, Feb. 9, 2016. Construction can proceed related to a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope after a federal judge on Monday, April 3, 2023, rejected requests to halt work until challenges to the Biden administration’s recent approval are resolved. (AP Photo / Mark Thiessen)

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Alaska oil plan opponents lose 1st fight over Willow project

Judge said the groups did not succeed in showing it would cause irreparable harm before she makes a…

Ed Sniffen, former acting attorney general for Alaska, appears in an Anchorage courtroom for an evidentiary hearing on Jan. 5, 2023. Sniffen was indicted in September 2022 on three felony charges of sexual abuse of a minor in 1991. On Friday, March 31, 2023, a judge dismissed the sex abuse case against Sniffen, citing the statute of limitations in place when the alleged abuse happened over 30 years earlier. (Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

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Sex abuse case against ex-Alaska attorney general thrown out

A judge cited the statute of limitations in dismissing the case.

This map shows the location of the Willow oil-drilling project in Alaska’s Western Arctic, which the Biden administration approved March 13. (Associated Press)

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Willow-related construction allowed as lawsuits play out

ConocoPhillips Alaska can forge ahead with cold-weather construction work.

Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on March 28 in Juneau. Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire) Rep. Justin Ruffridge works in the Alaska State Capitol building on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)

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House bill aims to boost Alaska Performance Scholarship use

The scholarship is awarded to support education after high school graduation

This March 28, 2023, photo shows Bruce Boolowon, left, posing with Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, during a ceremony in Gambell, Alaska. Saxe presented Alaska Heroism Medals to Boolowon, the last surviving guardsman who helped rescue 11 Navy crewmen after they crash landed on St. Lawrence Island on June 22, 1955, and to the family members of 15 other guardsman who are now deceased. (AP Photo / Mark Thiessen)

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Alaska Native Scouts honored 67 years after rescuing Navy crew

“I’m glad we did our duty as a guardsman.”

Vera Metcalf stands on Wednesday by a chunk of sea ice transported from Utqiagvik and displayed at the Arctic Encounter Symposium. The melting ice, which started at 310 pounds, symbolizes the rapid climate change that is weaking the Arctic ice pack, with profound implications for ecosystems, communties and cultures. (Photo by Yereth Rosen / Alaska Beacon)

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Sea ice, critical to ecosystems and communities, looms large at Alaska conference

Suspended in netting in a downtown Anchorage building is a potent symbol of Arctic climate change: a chunk…

Nayeli Hood, 10, foreground, and Ona Eckerson, 9, testify against a bill limiting sex and gender content in schools during a House Education Committee meeting Thursday night. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

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Testimony gets colorful on ‘parental rights’ bill

Opponents of restricting sex and gender content in schools dominate five-hour hearing

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, inquires about election legislation during a committee hearing Tuesday at the Alaska State Capitol. Carpenter, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is sponsoring bills to decrease business taxes and implement a 2% statewide sales tax that got hearings this week.

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Tax on, tax off: Cutting corporate taxes while imposing 2% sales tax gets skeptical response

Fiscal plan focus of a committee hearing.

Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire State representatives Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, left, and Andi Story, D-Juneau, discuss a proposal requiring school districts to maintain a public online checkbook with Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, the bill’s sponsor, during a break in a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday. The two Southeast Alaska representatives expressed concerns about cyber security and small remote districts that do not have official websites.

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Lawmakers try to fill in some blanks in ‘online checkbook’ for schools bill

Proposed online register raises questions about practicality, cyberattacks, offline districts.

Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, speaks during a meeting of the House State Affairs committee on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Juneau, Alaska. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

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Kenai area lawmakers set sights on financial fixes

KENAI — The central Kenai Peninsula’s representatives in the Alaska House of Representatives have their eyes on state…