News from Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage Assembly votes July 21 on $351,143 to count pedestrians and bikes on city roads and paths, combining federal money with local budget funds.

An Anchorage audit found a program paid to fix 20 homes fixed one, a shelter thousands of bed-nights short — and in three years the city never once made anyone pay for it.

A Ford F150 crossed the median at Glenn Highway S Curves on Thursday morning, killing two drivers and sending a child to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Anchorage water and sewer bills rose $5.46 per month in 2026 after the Assembly approved increases and AWWU filed tariffs with state regulators, opening public comment through July 31.

Anchorage Assembly will vote Tuesday on a resolution directing city infrastructure spending toward neighborhoods absorbing new housing under municipal growth plans.

Anchorage will not finish auditing 570 flagged tax-exempt properties until 2031 or 2032 without more staff, though the work could recover roughly $811,000 in annual tax revenue.
A fish truck rolled on the Seward Highway late Friday, scattering its load and closing the road into town for hours — just as crowds arrived for the Fourth and Mount Marathon.
Alaska Supreme Court ruled the Sleep Clinic owes back taxes for 2016 through 2018 because it performs health services, not a qualifying small business.

Alaska Federation of Natives opens nominations for a new co-chair to be elected October 24, with applications due September 25.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is happening across North America with viewer-friendly Alaska timing, and Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau have free or easy watch parties through mid-July.

Alaska Zoo moved a female brown bear to solitary housing after a June 14 fight with a male bear, sparking a petition for an independent review of the zoo's animal integration practices.

One person was killed in a multi-vehicle crash on the Glenn hwy.

Want to grow 1,710 plants to heal a retired Campbell Tract trail? You'll need a women-owned firm — it's a federal set-aside. Quotes due July 24.

Three Alaska military bases are auditioning to host the AI boom — JBER can't power it, Eielson is leaking PFAS at it, and Clear has 4,769 acres, a DDT drum dump, and all the groundwater you can drink.
Anchorage Assembly reviewed removal and censure procedures Friday that have never been used in the 30 years they have existed, with Chair Anna Brawley stressing the session was procedural only.

Anchorage's proposed public safety commission got punted again — stuck on whether it should actually have power, what it would cost, and what problem it's even solving.

Two members want Martinez gone over APOC fines. The removal law they're trying to use might not be a fit, and the math to carry it out would be an uphill battle.
Nathaniel Herz and Veri di Suvero are reviving the Anchorage Press, an alternative weekly that closed years ago, by folding Northern Journal into it and launching a print edition this fall with arts, culture and Alaska politics coverage.
Anchorage Assembly unanimously passed a veteran-owned business preference for city contracts, letting qualifying vets match the lowest bid rather than automatically winning at higher cost.
Anchorage police and fire overtime budgets are running millions over approved limits because the city has not updated the math since roughly 2010, OMB told the Assembly on Thursday.

After the Supreme Court pulled federal protection off more than half the nation's wetlands, their fate now falls to states and cities — and no state has more wetlands than Alaska.

Anchorage wants to let you build a house on commercial strip-mall land — the latest zoning tweak in its long slog toward 10,000 new homes.

NWS Anchorage issued a Wind Advisory for all of Anchorage on Tuesday, July 14, with southeast winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts reaching 45 to 65 mph from 4 AM to 10 PM AKDT, posing power-outage and driving risks, especially along the Seward Highway between Potter Marsh and Bird Point.

Anchorage votes July 21 on up to $4M in park fencing — a routine-looking contract that lands as the city works to hold parks it cleared of homeless camps.

Can you believe it equipment gets old! Womp Womp

Former state senator Natasha Von Imhof launched a campaign for Anchorage mayor against incumbent Suzanne LaFrance. The election is scheduled for April 6, 2027.
An audit found Anchorage didn't penalize grant recipients who missed goals — one repaired 1 of 20 promised homes — just as the city moved to route millions more through the same office.

Anchorage's Planning and Zoning Commission will vote on making homes easier to build in commercial zones while restricting large parking lots and self-storage facilities.

Bill Falsey moved from CAO to municipal manager — less a shakeup than a relabeling, as Anchorage dissolves his old post and shifts a few reporting lines.

Oh goodness... I guess campaign finance laws were made for a reason.

Anchorage's Ship Creek closes to all fishing July 3–13. A weak king return isn't meeting hatchery broodstock goals that supply fisheries across Southcentral, not just the creek.
Anchorage is trading peak-summer warmth for a cool, wet stretch — near-60 highs, repeated rain into next week, and jacket weather at the low end of July's normal range.

Russia keeps calling the 2025 Anchorage summit the birthplace of a Ukraine peace deal. The U.S. says it produced a proposal, not an agreement.

Denied a Senate ballot spot, Daniel J. Sullivan sued today. Lawmakers held a hearing on the same question the same afternoon.
Alaska schedules a three-day guide-outfitter exam in Anchorage in December, with applications due Oct. 26 for the first component.

Anchorage Assembly will hear a third version of a public safety commission ordinance July 21, restoring an advisory forum vacant since January 2024.

Anchorage's June 23: a tax break for starter-home buyers, plus new utility fees on the same construction. The math depends on builders.
Anchorage's Skinny Raven Half & 10K hits the Delaney Park Strip Sunday — trail miles, maybe a Denali view, and an easy one to spectate. Sign up before prices jump Thursday night.

Anchorage School Board members got handed a $2.8M curriculum bill at a summer meeting and basically said: first we're hearing of it.

Two sets of lived experience meet at Anchorage's homelessness debate: those in shelters and those who watched encampments grow.











