Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Rob Allen
“They knew that it was a power line issue. They went out right away to take a look, and by the time they got from the station to their vehicles, the fire was called in. By the time they got to the fire, it was 15 acres and going through to 20.”Alaska DNR Forestry: Tok Community Meeting for the Mukluk Fire, August 18 · Aug 18, 2026
Anna Brawley
“So this is 15A, AR 2026-225, a resolution of the Anchorage Assembly approving a marijuana license and special land use. Use permit for Baltazar Holdings LLC, DBA Sensimia, a marijuana retail, uh, sales establishment with license number M35490, located at, uh, 1431 Muldoon Road.”Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 18, 2026 - 2026-08-18 17:00:00 · Aug 18, 2026
Pamela Rager
“this is not against a person. At least for me, it is never against an individual. It's about an issue or a policy or procedure that has not been followed.”Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 18, 2026 - 2026-08-18 17:00:00 · Aug 18, 2026
Rob Allen
“Good day on the fire again today. We got a little bit of a break from the wind this morning.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We used some water scooping aircraft in there to check up the fire today. Going around the top, we've had some folks out looking along the river. We did get a spot out on one of the islands in the river today.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We're probably almost at 200 people now on the fire. The other news that, that by having some extra folks and getting the dozer line down and around and through the community is we're now out to work out on the edges and keep the fire from coming back around into the town of Tok and threatening the highway. Out in the east flank, we've got the fire burning into the 1990 burn scar.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We're able to have a lot of our resources in and around the area between the Alaska Highway and Red Fox Road working in and around the structures in there, securing that area.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We did shrink up the, the go area just a little bit because of the success we've had with the dozer line in there, and we'll be evaluating that every day to the point where we can turn that notification off”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“One of the other things we did do today, um, we did an in-brief today with the Alaska Incident Management Team that will be taking over the fire at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. That'll allow us to pull our initial attack resources back, get them rested, get them set up.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We'll have 4 tomorrow. Along with the water scooping aircraft, have been building line ahead of 6 dozers that are pushing line heading out to the, towards the Tanana River. We're looking for a good spot out here where the fuel changes to be able to tie that into and keep that also from coming to the west, circling back around, and again threatening the highway and the back end of Tok.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We've had two crews on the road right now. Two more crews will be coming in hopefully tonight or first thing tomorrow morning, and that'll give us much more horsepower to work out. We've got this fire now broken out into four divisions, so we have leadership working in four different quadrants around the fire.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Rob Allen
“We used helicopters to knock that down, and as we get people out to patrol the river, as we get more resources in, we'll be taking a look at that and also coming up with protection plans for the allotments and cabins that are along the Tanana.”Alaska DNR Forestry: MUKLUK FIRE OPERATIONS BRIEFING -August 19, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
Pat Higgins
“I remember in November when we talked about the savings we would have with closing Fire Lake and Lake Otis, and given the number of additional kids that the charter schools may have, we could lose money that year.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Nicole Somerville
“we have about a 90% usage rate. The teachers are all using it, and where the art comes and where the teachers get that creativity is the engagement. Yes, there is a script.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“That used to serve as the chair of the committee, because what you're describing is not the function of a chair, especially in committee work. At least the chair, like, decides when meetings are and what's on the agenda and then presents it, and then the committee itself collectively affirms the agenda. Is— it sounds more like there's an absence of a chair.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I think that if we put this amendment in front of our expedition forward about where do we need to go forward, I think it turns an olive branch into something with a fuse, a time bomb, and there's a condition set”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Kelly Lessens
“the Assembly requests the mayor identify essentially a ceiling and a floor for how the school district will be funded under the municipal tax cap. And that's worrisome to me because we already know that we have a projected deficit for FY28”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“this resolution gives the board Well, gives the public the clear voice of us that says we will essentially accept the superintendent's recommendation not to close any schools except in the cases of emergencies.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Kelly Lessens
“I would be interested in offering an amendment that basically— well, maybe it's not an olive branch, maybe it's a stick, um, would nullify the entire resolution if at the end of the municipal budget passage the 2027 municipal funding for our schools is less than we expect to receive.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jim Anderson
“if there was a 2-week delay and we could get permits and approvals and environmental Everything else, if you could get that in a 2-week period, um, you might still have a playground in November. Anything past 2 weeks pushes it into next spring, summer.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Rachel Blakeslee
“if we can't guarantee that spending this amount of money right now is going to net an immediate impact that's positive for kids kids this school year and that the timeline would essentially be the same, but we could save money, I feel like that's what it would be in favor of.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jim Anderson
“I don't know that it will save money if— I just don't know. We have not talked to a designer. We haven't gone out for the permits.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“this resolution in a nutshell what we would be voting on is to express to the public that our intention this year to close schools or not to close schools is definitely on the side of not to close schools.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I will be voting no, not that this is the wrong book for the choice that we have to make tonight, but that I think we as a board need to actually honor that the teacher's ability to teach should be less confined than this process was designed to build.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I'm advocating for the olive branch version where this year we should spend the year investing in dialogues”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Rachel Blakeslee
“ADEC does state that Alaska has no landfills permitted to accept regulated hazardous waste, but there are potentially other options... any materials with concentrations of, for example, 1 to 10 parts per million of PCBs can be left in place or used as backfill.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Carl Jacobs
“AC Memorandum Number 012 passes by a vote of 7 to 0.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Carl Jacobs
“AC Memorandum Number 008 is adopted by a vote of 6 to 1.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Carl Jacobs
“That resolution is adopted by a vote of 5 to 2.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Carl Jacobs
“I'll say that for my part, I would be interested in hearing the board deliberate on a postponement makes sense to get the information. Um, absent the choice to postpone to get the information, I probably will support the underlying recommendation coming from administration.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“Right now we're saying not to at any time until the conclusion of the committee's work, which would be in May.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jharrett Bryantt
“if the board declined to adopt this particular adoption in a process that's been executed for numerous years... then I would recommend that we do a wholesale deep dive into the process, which would delay the curriculum, which would mean that students wouldn't have these high-quality materials next school year. It would also deter us from being able to implement a pilot implementation in the spring.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Pat Higgins
“I still don't know why Campbell, the only STEM program, gets cut the same year we approve a STEM high school”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“This will amend the Inlet View Elementary School replacement the current project contract for a total contract value of up to $42,744,256.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Kelly Lessens
“this resolution shall become null and void If either the mayor's proposed budget for 2027... or the Anchorage Assembly's November 17th, 2026 adoption of the FY 2027 general government and utility operating budget would fund the municipality's optional local contribution to the Anchorage School District for the 2027-28 school year to a lesser extent than the maximum allowed under the municipal tax cap.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jim Anderson
“So the playground, if it stays on track, will be ready to occupy mid to late October.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Rachel Blakeslee
“that answers a lot of my questions. So thank you for the additional context, because I don't think I would have been able to vote for this without that context. But with the context, I think I— well, I will be voting for it.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I moved the board to approve the adoption of My Perspectives, published by Savvas, as the English language arts instructional materials for grades 6 through 10.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I don't support the amendment as an amendment or an ability to conditionalize this moratorium.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jharrett Bryantt
“we also, um, left you with this document that we're happy to project and walk through... because we want to make sure that we have a full, robust perspective about the process. And we're really excited to get your feedback and answer questions so we leave this conversation with clarity”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jim Anderson
“A little over a year ago, The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation changed the disposal protocols in Alaska to a much, much higher standard. We found that out as we were getting ready to demo Ursa Major, and they had changed the standard.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Kelly Lessens
“on July 21st, the Anchorage Assembly unanimously, 12 to 0, passed a document called AR 2026-11.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Rachel Blakeslee
“So you could fit— you could fill it versus actually taking all that material, hauling it away to a whole other state. So while there aren't landfills to dispose of the PCBs, you could have a much cheaper option by leaving it in place, capping it, and burying it.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Pat Higgins
“I'm, I'm not going to support this amendment, and I'm not sure if I'm even going to support the resolution right now. I believe we're trying to establish that we're not going to go out there and target neighborhood schools this year. But we're putting in here language that says if we get funding from this one source less than what we want, we get to change our mind.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Rachel Blakeslee
“So, while $800,000 plus, almost $900,000 doesn't seem maybe significant in the grand scheme of things in some ways, in other ways I would argue that it feels very significant in a resource-scarce environment like the one that we're in.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Jim Anderson
“they went back and validated that, uh, anything 10 parts per million is over the ADEC limit, which would be what's in the current slab. The water level in the area, um, right at the slab is between 3 and 5 feet... they feel somewhat doubtful that now that we have raised it and we know that it has PCBs, that they would allow us to bury it and leave it in contact with the groundwater.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Paul McDonough
“I move that the board approve and authorize the superintendent to approve one change order in the amount of $849,673 and a contract modification to Cornerstone General Contractors, Inc. for a total value of $849,673.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026
Pat Higgins
“we give them a I'm just kidding maybe type statement. I think we're making a serious mistake, and I absolutely oppose it.”Anchorage School Board: 8/18/26 ASD School Board Meeting · Aug 18, 2026