Anchorage
RSSNews from Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska may stop requiring liquor license applicants to buy newspaper ads as required public notice
Alaska liquor license applicants have to buy three weeks of newspaper or radio advertising. A draft rule would end that requirement entirely.

The Supreme Court will rule on Dunleavy's agriculture department after he's gone
The Supreme Court will decide after the election whether Dunleavy could create an agriculture department by order. He'll be gone by the time it matters.

An outside group has spent $3.77 million on Alaska's Senate race
Americans for Prosperity Action has put $3.77 million into the Alaska Senate race. More than half of it landed in just the last three weeks.

A police drone searched south Anchorage for a brown bear before dawn
Anchorage police flew a drone over a south Anchorage neighborhood before dawn looking for a brown bear. Whether they found it is not public.

Left lane closed on O'Malley Road northbound until 4 p.m. Tuesday
One northbound lane of O'Malley Road is closed until 4 pm Tuesday for guardrail and fence repair. The road itself stays open the whole time.

Spann sues state, governor and PFD director in Anchorage court
The creator of a 37,858-signature PFD petition has sued the state, representing himself. What the lawsuit is actually about is not yet known.

State agencies host Oct. 12-13 Anchorage conference on disability employment
State agencies host an Employment First Conference Oct. 12-13 in Anchorage to address why only 51% of Alaskans with disabilities work, compared to 77% without.

The Indian Health Service is paying an Alaska firm to clear a coding backlog
An uncoded clinic visit is an unbilled one, and unbilled means money the clinic never sees. IHS is paying an Anchorage firm to help catch up.

Anchorage judge sentences Adam Pringle to 55 years for 2022 killing of Keenan Wegener
The second man convicted in the 2022 killing of Keenan Wegener got 55 years, a few more than his co-defendant. It took four years to reach sentencing.

Labor committee reports $125,000 in ads for four Alaska candidates
Putting Alaskans First reported $125,000 in Meta ads supporting four legislative candidates. Two other committees reported smaller buys.

Anchorage schools model a $9 million budget gap for fiscal 2028
Anchorage schools project a $9 million fiscal 2028 gap after reserves and assumed energy relief. Officials say underlying cost growth is closer to $40 million.

Anchorage officials fail to agree on shared school-closure committee
The Assembly and School Board could not agree on giving both bodies votes on a school-closure committee. The existing board-led panel remains.

Anchorage schedules Oct. 6 hearing on transit-corridor plan
Anchorage will hear testimony Oct. 6 on plan amendments calling for 25 to 36 homes per acre in designated transit corridors.

Anchorage service-area debate exposes unanswered questions about taxes and emergency coverage
Anchorage Assembly members questioned how service-area taxes match actual fire, emergency and parks coverage. Several answers remain unresolved.

Alaska governor candidates agree on Permanent Fund, split on taxes
Taylor and Bronson opposed broad new taxes; Kreiss-Tomkins backed targeted revenue as three candidates compared fiscal, energy and workforce plans

Chugach will charge you less at night, if you actually move your usage
Chugach will sell you cheaper power overnight and pricier power all day long. Sign up and change nothing, and you end up paying a little more.

Anchorage appeals board sets five more property hearings for Sept. 22-25
Anchorage was supposed to have finished hearing property assessment appeals by June 1. It is still hearing them, nearly four months later.

An appeals court reopens a McLaughlin Youth Center abuse conviction
An appeals court withdrew its decision upholding a former McLaughlin Youth Center officer's abuse conviction, sending it back over withheld records.

Anchorage's school funding gap has shrunk to about $6 million
Anchorage's school funding gap for next year has halved to about $6 million, after the Legislature capped how much the local contribution can grow.

Summit on Aging offers 15-minute one-on-one slots with Alaska health leaders
Alaska's aging summit runs Oct. 15 to 17 in Anchorage, and you can book 15 minutes to tell state health leadership exactly what you think.

Anchorage's required 2027 school contribution rises to about $138 million
Anchorage owes its schools $138 million next year and may give up to $108 million more. The board says no school closes for money either way.

Anchorage's property tax cap rises $18.5 million for next year
Anchorage's property tax cap rises $18.5 million next year to $381.7 million. Last year the city collected everything it was allowed, minus $325.

A woman was killed at East 3rd and Orca, where the state mapped a cluster
A woman was killed by a driver who left the scene at East 3rd and Orca, on the edge of an area the state mapped as a pedestrian death cluster.

A jet fuel truck at JBER is out until at least the end of December
A truck that pumps 600 gallons of jet fuel a minute is sitting dead on the JBER flightline. The replacement engine is not due until late December.

A Dena'ina artist's work is headed for downtown Anchorage's signs
Dena'ina artist Sebastian Garber's MOA50 designs reach downtown Anchorage's wayfinding signs next year, drawing on Indigenous quillwork patterns.

Seward Highway and Tudor Road interchange design study goes to Anchorage hearing Nov. 2
The state wants to rebuild the Seward Highway interchange at Tudor Road. It goes to a public hearing Nov. 2, with most of the funding still unbuilt.

Port of Alaska must ship contaminated soil out of state after storm drain dig
Crews at the Port of Alaska hit soil dirtier than testing predicted. It's now headed out of state, on a project with a grant deadline attached.

Anchorage Assembly shelves mayor's homebuyer tax break 11-1
Anchorage Assembly indefinitely postponed a 10-year property-tax exemption for first-time buyers of newly built homes on an 11-1 vote, with members questioning the proposal's target and who would benefit.

Anchorage housing overlay hearing carries to Oct. 6 after divided testimony
Anchorage heard nearly 90 minutes of divided housing testimony, then ran out of time. The 30,000-parcel overlay returns Oct. 6

An Anchorage firm will run Job Corps in the South Bronx and Brooklyn
The Labor Department tried to shut down Job Corps last year and lost in court. Now it's signing new contracts, and an Anchorage firm got two in New York City.

Anchorage police launch phased pre-arrest deflection pilot Sept. 23
Anchorage's deflection pilot begins Sept. 23. Police make the referral, True North handles navigation and community providers deliver treatment.

Childcare center at downtown Anchorage church set to open Oct. 1 with municipal funding
Alaska's first worker-run childcare center opens in downtown Anchorage next month, with room for 82 kids and $200,000 in marijuana tax money behind it.

Anchorage delays surveillance rules as sponsors and mayor remain divided
Anchorage delayed its surveillance ordinance to Oct. 20. The crime center keeps operating under police policy while lawmakers reconcile rival rules.

Anchorage confirms drone deployment was omitted and checks for others
APD's manual drone log lost at least one deployment. Anchorage is checking for more omissions and owes the Assembly a revised report Oct. 6.

Three students share the Anchorage Assembly's youth representative seat
Anchorage Assembly Chair Anna Brawley appointed three high school students to share the youth representative seat through April 2027, a nonbinding advisory role open to residents ages 16 to 19.

The Senate questions Alaska's nominee for a long-empty federal judgeship
The Senate questioned Anchorage magistrate judge Kyle Reardon for Alaska's federal trial court, a seat empty since 2022.

Two Anchorage men patented a plier jaw built to stop slipping
Two Anchorage men just patented a plier jaw with V-shaped teeth meant to stop tools slipping off rounded hardware. No company, no product, just the patent.

Cook Inlet Tribal Council runs free career classes toward certification
Cook Inlet Tribal Council runs free 90-minute career classes at its Anchorage campus, each counting toward its ARCTIC Workforce Certification, with Developing a Leadership Mindset repeating at noon Sept. 22 and Sept. 29.

Anchorage School Board spends $3 million on classrooms, deepening next year's deficit
Anchorage's school board voted to spend the $3 million on students this year. Next year's hole grew to $9 million and 20 fewer teaching jobs survive.

Housing on the Tozier Tract would likely close off a planned road
Opening a Tudor Road parcel to housing would probably kill a road connection the city has planned for years. The state planner said so and did not object.
