Anchorage news

• Alaska pollock processors drop foreign worker program, citing uncertainty

  14-01-2026 02:23 via ktoo.org
  The UniSea processing plant in Unalaska in Jan. 2019. (Berett Wilber/KUCB)
  Some of Alaska’s largest pollock processors are abandoning a foreign worker visa program that once supplied up to half their workforce, citing rising costs and uncertainty under stricter immigration policies.
  Tom Enlow is the president and CEO of UniSea Seafoods, Unalaska’s largest seafood processor. He said the company is moving away from the H-2B visas to save money on an inconsistent system.
  “The H-2B
  
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• Newscast – Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026

  22-01-2026 03:04 via ktoo.org
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260121-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:An Alaska foster youth advocacy organization is suing the state Office of Children’s Services for allegedly failing to provide food and necessities for older youth in their care.
  Governor Mike Dunleavy says he’ll soon propose a statewide sales tax as part of his larger plan to stabilize the state’s finances.
  KTOO’s Alix Soliman speaks with Alaska’s acting regional forester Je
  
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• Man sentenced for 2017 death of Kake woman

  22-01-2026 02:17 via ktoo.org
  Jade Williams. (Courtesy of Jeremy Williams)
  More than eight years after 19-year-old Kake resident Jade Williams was killed at a party, a man has been sentenced for causing her death. 
  On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Marianna Carpeneti sentenced 33-year-old Isaac Friday to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. Friday has already spent several years in prison since his 2019 arrest. The judge suspended the remaining years of the sentence. 
  Instead of serving more time in prison, Friday
  
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• Foster youth organization sues OCS for alleged lack of food and necessities

  21-01-2026 23:48 via ktoo.org
  Amanda Metivier, director of Facing Foster Care, at a presentation in the state capitol. (Courtesy of Amanda Metivier)
  An Alaska foster youth advocacy organization is suing the state Office of Children’s Services for allegedly failing to provide food and necessities for older youth in their care.
  The lawsuit by Facing Foster Care in Alaska claims foster youth placed in shelters or college dormitories don’t receive enough money for food or basic needs like they would if they were in
  
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• Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan talks about what a successful session looks like

  21-01-2026 21:52 via ktoo.org
  Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, smiles for a photo at KTOO on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature just kicking off, it’s a good time to check in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities and plans for the session. Rep. Sara Hannan (D-Juneau) spoke with KTOO’s Mike Lane last week just before the session started. 
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20RepHannan.wav
  The
  
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• Lawmakers return to Juneau with four months to address a packed agenda

  21-01-2026 05:46 via ktoo.org
  Lawmakers including Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage and Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, sit in the House chamber in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on Jan. 20, 2026. (Eric Stone | Alaska Public Media)
  The Alaska Legislature is back in session. Lawmakers in the House and Senate gaveled in this afternoon.
  At the Capitol Tuesday, the atmosphere was a bit like the first day of school — lots of smiles and hugs, some what-did-you-do-this-summers. Blue delphinium
  
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• Newscast – Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026

  21-01-2026 03:13 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260120-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:After more than a year of negotiations, the Anchorage School District and the local teachers’ union have come to a tentative contract agreement.
  The Alaska Legislature is back in session.
  With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature underway, KTOO is checking in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities and plans for the session.
  
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• Newscast – Monday, Jan. 20, 2026

  21-01-2026 03:13 via ktoo.org
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260120-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:After more than a year of negotiations, the Anchorage School District and the local teachers’ union have come to a tentative contract agreement.
  The Alaska Legislature is back in session.
  With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature underway, KTOO is checking in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities and plans for the session.
  
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• ‘A period of change’ at the Forest Service: A conversation with Alaska’s acting regional forester

  21-01-2026 00:51 via ktoo.org
  Herbert Glacier carves through the Tongass National Forest on Aug. 6, 2025 (Photo by Alix Soliman/KTOO).
  Alaska lost about a third of its U.S. Forest Service employees in the past year due to federal staffing cuts led by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Before that, the agency had around 700 Alaska-based staff. This month, the agency told KTOO that 467 remain. 
  Leading this workforce in flux is Jerry Ingersoll, the U.S. Forest Service’s acting regional for
  
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• After party breaks up, Alaskan Independence members will get official notice from state

  20-01-2026 23:33 via ktoo.org
  “I voted” stickers are seen on display in the headquarters offices of the Alaska Division of Elections in Juneau on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (James Brooks | Alaska Beacon)
  After the dissolution of the state’s third-largest political party, the Alaska Division of Elections is sending out notices to the 19,117 members of the former Alaskan Independence Party, warning them to update their voter information.
  “In the coming weeks, the DOE will inform the voters registered as a
  
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• Democrats say Peltola can win Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat. Really, though?

  20-01-2026 15:00 via ktoo.org
  Mary Peltola at the U.S. Capitol in 2022, after she won a special election for a congressional seat. (Liz Ruskin | Alaska Public Media)
  WASHINGTON — National Democrats cheered when former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola announced on Monday that she’s challenging U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.
  Peltola, they said, gives Democrats a shot at winning a majority in the Senate.
  But much more often than not, Alaska votes Republican in statewide races. Is it just wishful Democratic thinking that
  
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• Alaska lawmakers return to Juneau on Tuesday. Here’s what to expect.

  20-01-2026 08:03 via ktoo.org
  Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, speaks to a nearly empty floor at the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (Clarise Larson | KTOO)
  Lawmakers return to the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday and, as always, they’ve got a long agenda to tackle, from health care and energy to the state’s persistent budget struggles.
  Alaska Public Media’s state government reporter, Eric Stone, will be tracking the session in Juneau. He joined Wesley Early on Alaska News Ni
  
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• Alaska’s first on-site addiction treatment for those who overdose launches with pilot programs

  19-01-2026 19:00 via ktoo.org
  Dr. Jennifer Pierce with an Anchorage Fire Department vehicle on Jan. 9, 2026. Pierce and the vehicle are part of a new program that will offer addiction treatment to those who overdose. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)
  Stomping through stubborn, crunchy January snow, Dr. Jennifer Pierce made her way recently to a new Anchorage Fire Department vehicle. It might look like a simple SUV, but it’s equipped as a new mobile unit that – for the first time – will allow emergency resp
  
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• Proposed surcharge on oil would help pay for responses to climate-related disasters in Alaska

  19-01-2026 18:02 via ktoo.org
  A fish camp in the Nome area, seen on Sept. 24, 2022, shows damages wreaked by the remnants of Typhoon Merbok. The day before, then-President Biden declared a major disaster for a vast stretch of western Alaska that had been slammed with high winds and floods caused by the remnants of that typhoon. The storm is among several recent disasters in Alaska that scientists link to climate change. (Photo by Jeremy Edwards/Federal Emergency Management Agency)
  Landslides, storm-driven floods, infrastruct
  
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• Newscast – Friday, Jan. 16, 2026

  17-01-2026 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260116-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The Juneau School Board held off returning about $1 million in funding earmarked for childcare to the City and Borough of Juneau amid questions about the current privately-run program,
  Alaska’s capital city will soon have a new fire chief,
  A local master Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver has been awarded a national fellowship that bolsters culture and tradition across the United States,
  Martin Luther Ki
  
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• Newscast – Friday, Jan. 16, 2025

  17-01-2026 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260116-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The Juneau School Board held off returning about $1 million in funding earmarked for childcare to the City and Borough of Juneau amid questions about the current privately-run program,
  Alaska’s capital city will soon have a new fire chief,
  A local master Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver has been awarded a national fellowship that bolsters culture and tradition across the United States,
  Martin Luther Ki
  
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• ‘Gestures of Our Rebel Bodies’ exhibition curators explore ‘tradition in motion’ with Indigenous artists from across the Northwest Coast

  17-01-2026 02:44 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Juneau Afternoon – Recorded live on Friday, January 16, 2026“Gestures of Our Rebel Bodies” exhibition opening at Aan Hít, legislative preview with Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone, and Njuzu Marimbas is sponsoring a workshop and special performance.
  “Gestures of Our Rebel Bodies” exhibition opening at Aan Hít on Saturday, February 24. A panel presentation is set for Thursday, February 22. Co-curators Ursala Hudson and Kimberly Fulton Orozco prev
  
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• City and Borough of Juneau announces new fire chief

  17-01-2026 02:29 via ktoo.org
  Capital City Fire/Rescue’s new fire chief, Thomas Hatley, during a public presentation in Juneau on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  Alaska’s capital city will soon have a new fire chief. 
  The City and Borough of Juneau named Thomas Hatley as Capital City Fire/Rescue’s new fire chief on Friday afternoon. His first day will be Feb. 9. 
  He was one of the two finalists for the position to replace longtime fire chief Rich Etheridge, who retired at th
  
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• Juneau School Board delays returning $1 million to the city due to questions about after-school child care

  17-01-2026 02:01 via ktoo.org
  The Harborview Elementary School playground on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Jamie Diep/KTOO)
  The Juneau School Board held off on returning $1.05 million in funding earmarked for child care to the City and Borough of Juneau this week amid questions about the current privately-run program and the possibility of an additional operator in the future.
  Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said at a meeting Tuesday she still has questions around how things are going with Auke Lake Preschool, like the statu
  
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• Alaska kicks off billion-dollar effort to ‘transform’ rural health care

  17-01-2026 00:19 via ktoo.org
  Attendees watch during a breakout session at the kickoff of Alaska’s Rural Health Transformation Program in Anchorage on Jan. 15, 2025. (Alaska Department of Health)
  Hundreds of health care workers and government officials descended on Anchorage this week for the kickoff of a five-year, $1.3 billion program aimed at reimagining medical care across Alaska.
  The money comes from the Rural Health Transformation Program created by President Trump’s signature tax- and spending-cut legislat
  
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• MLK Day events in Juneau celebrate King’s legacy of activism

  17-01-2026 00:01 via ktoo.org
  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the day he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington. (Photo Courtesy of National Park Service, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
  Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up on Monday.It’s a day to remember the legacy of the famous civil rights leader and a national day of service, and local organizations and volunteers will
  
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• ChoiceFest welcomes guest filmmaker Asha Dahya, Sentinal Lighthouse event ‘Hops & History’

  16-01-2026 23:43 via ktoo.org
  Juneau Afternoon recorded live on January 15, 2016
  The Gastineau Channel Historical Society, which manages the Sentinel Island Lighthouse, has teamed up with Alaska Brewing Company for an event on Thursday, January 22, called “Hops & History.” Gary Gillette, Renee Hughes, and Amanda Breslow preview the event and the history and mystique of lighthouses.The 3rd Annual ChoiceFest, featuring films and a guest speaker/filmmaker, Asha Dahya, is scheduled for Friday, January 16, at Cen
  
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• Anchorage judge overturns state law limiting live music at breweries and distilleries

  16-01-2026 23:17 via ktoo.org
  Musicians perform Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, at Devil’s Club Brewing in Juneau. The event was among the first three allowed under a newly amended state law. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
  An Alaska Superior Court judge has ruled that a state law limiting live shows at breweries, distilleries and wineries in Alaska is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment and the Alaska Constitution’s protections for free speech.
  Judge Adolf Zeman issued his decision Wednesday in a two-year-o
  
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• Alaska Appeals Court takes up American Samoa-born woman’s voter misconduct case

  16-01-2026 19:14 via ktoo.org
  The seal of the state of Alaska hangs behind the dais at the Boney Courthouse, where a three-judge panel of the Alaska Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Thursday, Jan. 15 in the voter misconduct case of Tupe Smith. (file photo/Alaska Public Media)
  The Alaska Court of Appeals took up the case of a Whittier woman Thursday who was indicted in 2023 on felony charges of voter misconduct.
  Like others born in American Samoa, Tupe Smith is a U.S. national but not a U.S. citizen. Smith says she thoug
  
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• Newscast – Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026

  16-01-2026 03:00 via ktoo.org
  
  
  https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260115-News-Update.mp3
  In this newscast:The Juneau School District Board of Education agreed to approve the $180,000 in funding to help pay for a new playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus in Lemon Creek,
  Southeast Alaska’s largest tribe has earned nearly $40 million from U.S. Navy contracts in Guantanamo Bay,
  KTOO is checking in with members of Juneau’s legislative delegation to talk priorities, predictions, and plans for t
  
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• Dzantik’i Heeni playground inches toward reality following school board funding approval

  16-01-2026 02:40 via ktoo.org
  This is a concept design rendering of a portion of the proposed Dzantik’i Heeni campus playground. (Courtesy/Juneau School District)
  The Juneau School District Board of Education agreed to approve up to $180,000 dollars in funding to help pay for a new playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus in Lemon Creek.
  During a special meeting Thursday, board members agreed to pull the money from an afterschool child care fund to match a foundation’s grant toward the project. The child ca
  
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• Juneau weaver receives national fellowship with $50,000 attached

  16-01-2026 00:07 via ktoo.org
  Master weaver Lily Hope. (Courtesy of Lily Hope).
  Local master Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver Lily Hope has been awarded a national fellowship that bolsters culture and tradition across the United States.She is one of the United States Artists awardees for 2026, which means she gets $50,000 toward her work with no strings attached. 
  “It’s a wild gift to have somebody just hand you some money and say, ‘Do what you will,’” she said. “There is absolutely zero
  
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• Local bar association offering free legal help sessions on MLK holiday, AWARE looking for couples for 10-week relationship course, Mudrooms 2nd annual adult-only event.

  15-01-2026 22:07 via ktoo.org
  
  
  Juneau Afternoon recorded Wednesday, January 14, 2026:
  The Juneau Bar Association, in conjunction with the Alaska Bar Association, is hosting its annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Legal Aid Clinic at two locations in Juneau. Check the Alaska Bar Association website for details.AWARE is offering a 10-week relationship course specifically designed for partners to strengthen their bond before challenges arise. The course begins January 22. Information and sign-up are available at the AWARE website.
  
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• Priorities, predictions and plans going into the legislative session with Juneau’s Sen. Jesse Kiehl

  15-01-2026 21:43 via ktoo.org
  Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, speaks during a town hall at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature beginning on Tuesday, it’s a good time to check in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities, predictions and plans for the session.
  Sen. Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) spoke with KTOO’s Mike Lane about what he expects to see this year.
  https://media.k
  
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• Priorities, predictions and plans going into the legislative session with Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl

  15-01-2026 21:43 via ktoo.org
  Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, speaks during a town hall at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
  With the second regular session of the 34th Alaska Legislature beginning on Tuesday, it’s a good time to check in with members of Juneau’s delegation to talk priorities, predictions and plans for the session.
  Sen. Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) spoke with KTOO’s Mike Lane about what he expects to see this year.
  https://media.k
  
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