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Bering Straits firm wins environmental work at four Air Force bases

An Anchorage firm owned by Norton Sound shareholders will run environmental compliance at four Air Force bases, two of them nuclear-mission installations.

Melinda Communities.Newsby Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Bering Straits firm wins environmental work at four Air Force bases

Free school supplies offered in Nome on Aug. 26

Nome families can get free school supplies, snacks, and crafts at the Recreation Center on Aug. 26 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., as the school district faces budget cuts.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Free school supplies offered in Nome on Aug. 26

A suction dredge permit off Nome is open for public comment through Aug. 18

A suction dredging permit for a small operation off Nome is open for public comment through Aug. 18, in waters where gold dredging has long been established.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom

Follows: A new Nome dredge application enters the pipeline that just rejected a fiercely fought gold mine

Cover image for article: A suction dredge permit off Nome is open for public comment through Aug. 18

Alaska issues intent to award $30 million to 37 rural health projects

Alaska issued notices of intent Friday to award $30 million to 37 rural health projects, with recipients required to spend funds by June 30, 2027.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Alaska issues intent to award $30 million to 37 rural health projects

Alaskans already on heating aid don't have to reapply for a new $10 million round

Alaskans already enrolled in federal heating assistance will automatically get a share of a new $10 million round in September, no reapplication needed.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Alaskans already on heating aid don't have to reapply for a new $10 million round

Alaska Supreme Court shields Nome hospital's staff housing from tax

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Nome can't tax a Norton Sound Health building housing doctors and nurses, calling the staff housing vital to the hospital.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Alaska Supreme Court shields Nome hospital's staff housing from tax

A new Nome dredge application enters the pipeline that just rejected a fiercely fought gold mine

A new suction-dredge application near Nome enters the same regulatory pipeline that just rejected IPOP's massive Bonanza Channel gold mine

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Safety Sound near Solomon, Alaska
Cover image for article: A new Nome dredge application enters the pipeline that just rejected a fiercely fought gold mine

A decade after a plan promised lower energy costs, Bering Strait villages are still studying the problem

A decade after a regional plan promised lower energy costs, Bering Strait villages are still studying the problem — as Kawerak seeks contractors to assess the diesel infrastructure keeping 20 communities running.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News2mo ago2 min read
Bering Strait Region, Alaska
Cover image for article: A decade after a plan promised lower energy costs, Bering Strait villages are still studying the problem

NTSB: Bering Air crash that killed 10 was a chain of preventable failures

The NTSB found the Bering Air crash that killed 10 near Nome resulted from a chain of preventable failures — an overweight plane the company routinely flew heavy, severe icing, and a pilot overloaded in the final minutes.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: NTSB: Bering Air crash that killed 10 was a chain of preventable failures

Eight welders certify in Nome as a $400 million port job looms

Eight Bering Strait adults certified in welding in Nome just as a $399 million port expansion gears up to need exactly that skill. And nobody had to leave the region to train.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Eight welders certify in Nome as a $400 million port job looms

Unalakleet's new greenhouse sends its first harvest to the elders

Unalakleet's new greenhouse is sending its first harvest to village elders — and the schoolkids who named the potatoes will be back in fall to pick them.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Unalakleet's new greenhouse sends its first harvest to the elders

Nominations open for Arctic shipping panel with reserved Alaska seats

Alaska Native tribes and coastal groups have until Sept. 22 to seek seats on a new federal panel shaping U.S. Arctic shipping policy as sea lanes open.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Nominations open for Arctic shipping panel with reserved Alaska seats

State weighs 30-year lease for St. Michael barge dock

No roads reach St. Michael, so everything arrives by barge. The state is now weighing a 30-year lease for the dock it lands at.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: State weighs 30-year lease for St. Michael barge dock

High surf and minor flooding for Alaska's west coast through Thursday

A Bering Sea low is pushing high surf and minor flooding into Alaska's west coast through Thursday night, with water 1 to 3 feet above the normal high tide line.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Norton Sound and Yukon Delta, Alaska
Cover image for article: High surf and minor flooding for Alaska's west coast through Thursday

Nine years of one-year permits in the waters where the North Slope hunts

Federal regulators are weighing a ninth straight one-year permit letting Navy research disturb whales and seals in the Beaufort and Chukchi — the waters where North Slope communities hunt.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea, Alaska
Cover image for article: Nine years of one-year permits in the waters where the North Slope hunts

A storm hits Norton Sound just before Friday's gillnet opening

A Bering Sea storm hits Norton Sound Thursday with 45 mph gusts and 9-foot seas, a day before a 24-hour commercial gillnet opening.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Norton Sound, Alaska
Cover image for article: A storm hits Norton Sound just before Friday's gillnet opening

Chukchi and Beaufort Seas carry most ice in decades, even as Arctic shrinks

Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska hold the most summer ice in decades, bucking the Arctic's overall decline as Atlantic-side ice hits record lows.

Melinda Communities.Newsby Melinda Communities.News3mo ago1 min readFrom
ArcticBering StraitClimate
Cover image for article: Chukchi and Beaufort Seas carry most ice in decades, even as Arctic shrinks

Kawerak extends RFP deadline for construction management services in Bering Strait Region

Kawerak extended its deadline to July 31 for construction management firms to bid on transportation projects across the Bering Strait Region.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Bering Strait Region, Alaska
Cover image for article: Kawerak extends RFP deadline for construction management services in Bering Strait Region

NMFS proposes removing economic data reporting requirements for BSAI trawl and crab programs

Federal fisheries managers proposed eliminating economic reporting requirements for Bering Sea trawl and crab harvesters, citing limited usefulness and cost savings.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Cover image for article: NMFS proposes removing economic data reporting requirements for BSAI trawl and crab programs

How a borrowed good-luck charm became Bering Strait ivory art

A grinning good-luck charm invented Outside became a Bering Strait ivory art form — thanks to master carver Happy Jack, who made the borrowed Billiken his own.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: How a borrowed good-luck charm became Bering Strait ivory art

A Nome teacher heads to Stanford to rethink how schools teach

A Nome reading teacher is off to Stanford for a Ph.D. — studying how Inuit knowledge and values can be built into what schools actually teach.

Melinda Communities.Newsby Melinda Communities.News3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: A Nome teacher heads to Stanford to rethink how schools teach

Higher-than-normal tides along western Alaska's coast through Tuesday

Higher-than-normal tides hit western Alaska's coast through Tuesday, up to 3 feet over the high tide line in Eastern Norton Sound. Move gear off the beach.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Eastern Norton Sound, Alaska
Cover image for article: Higher-than-normal tides along western Alaska's coast through Tuesday

Saturday's wind split the Bering Sea fleet by boat size

Saturday's 45-knot gusts appear to have split the Bering Sea fleet — small set-netters in, big drift boats out — though the report's from a citizen post, not an agency.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Bering Sea
Bering StraitWeather
Cover image for article: Saturday's wind split the Bering Sea fleet by boat size

Bering Straits bets big on federal contracting, just as the business gets harder

Bering Straits Native Corp. bought nine federal contractors, doubling down on government work just as awards to Native-owned firms drop and the 8(a) program comes under fire.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Bering Strait region, Alaska
Cover image for article: Bering Straits bets big on federal contracting, just as the business gets harder

An Unalakleet playwright brings Alaska's hardest truths to the stage

An Unalakleet playwright turned her work in suicide prevention into The Bird Blind — a story of abuse, addiction, and survival in an Iñupiaq village, told in its own voice.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: An Unalakleet playwright brings Alaska's hardest truths to the stage

Bering Straits promotes a shareholder into its executive ranks

Bering Straits promoted Nome shareholder Brittany Daletas to VP of operations — a step in something ANCs keep working at: growing their own shareholders into the people who run them.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Bering Straits promotes a shareholder into its executive ranks

A half-acre fire near Golovin tests a new federal firefighting agency

A half-acre lightning fire near Golovin isn't threatening homes or subsistence allotments, and rain may help. Two smokejumpers went in — an early test of a new federal agency.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Bering StraitGolovinWildfires
Cover image for article: A half-acre fire near Golovin tests a new federal firefighting agency

In Koyuk, old fuel tanks left petroleum in the ground. Now someone will measure it.

Two old fuel tank farms left petroleum in the ground in Koyuk, part of a statewide legacy of thousands of contaminated sites. A federal grant will assess how bad it is.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: In Koyuk, old fuel tanks left petroleum in the ground. Now someone will measure it.

Kawerak's mentors help Bering Strait students through the leap to college

Kawerak pairs new college students from Bering Strait villages with mentors who've made the same leap — celebrating small wins and, for one, a chance to study in Japan.

Melinda Communities.Newsby Melinda Communities.News4mo ago2 min read
Bering Strait Region, Alaska
Cover image for article: Kawerak's mentors help Bering Strait students through the leap to college

Kawerak hauls 4,000 pounds of e-waste out of Nome

Nome shipped 4,000 pounds of old electronics to the Lower 48 — because rural Alaska's unlined landfills can't safely hold the poison inside them, so the only option is to haul it out.

Alaska Newsby Alaska Newsadded 4mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Kawerak hauls 4,000 pounds of e-waste out of Nome

Nome is becoming America's first deepwater port in the Arctic

After nearly 20 years, work is underway to make Nome the first deepwater port in the American Arctic — a ~$600M project deep enough for Coast Guard icebreakers.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
1
Cover image for article: Nome is becoming America's first deepwater port in the Arctic

Aleut & Bering Straights, scholarship deadlines arrive this summer

Two Alaska Native corporations have summer scholarship deadlines — part of how ANCSA's land-settlement corporations quietly fund the education of the generations that followed.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Aleut & Bering Straights, scholarship deadlines arrive this summer

Teller pressed Graphite One on subsistence risks at the Graphite Creek mine

Teller residents pressed Graphite One on subsistence risks from the proposed Graphite Creek mine at a June 2026 meeting, raising concerns about caribou, fish, and marine mammal impacts. • Community members questioned spill response plans, dust and traffic in harvesting areas, and how the company would enforce hiring and revenue commitments rather than merely promise them. • The company met privately with Native entities before the public meeting, a sequencing that drew scrutiny from attendees.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Teller pressed Graphite One on subsistence risks at the Graphite Creek mine

BSNC placed 16 interns across its operations — building homegrown management

Bering Straits Native Corporation placed 16 interns across its operations this summer, including returning participants pursuing business degrees, to build management talent from shareholders and descendants in the region.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 4mo ago2 min read
Alaska
Cover image for article: BSNC placed 16 interns across its operations — building homegrown management

Kotzebue Sound crab opener set for June 15 with no buyers registered

Alaska opens Kotzebue Sound red king crab fishing June 15 with a 10,000-pound limit, but no registered buyers, forcing fishermen to sell directly to dockside customers instead of processors.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
Kotzebue Sound
Cover image for article: Kotzebue Sound crab opener set for June 15 with no buyers registered

Sitnasuak Buys the River the Gold Rush Left Behind

Land the gold rush claimed a century ago now belongs to Sitnasuak — permanently undevelopable, which lawyers may someday find interesting.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min readFrom
Cover image for article: Sitnasuak Buys the River the Gold Rush Left Behind

Trump's announced $64 billion DHS funding would touch Alaska Coast Guard, Arctic security, and fentanyl interdiction — but the underlying bill isn't in primary federal records

Trump announced $64 billion in DHS funding that would affect Alaska's Coast Guard, Arctic security, and fentanyl interdiction, but the bill he cited does not yet appear in public federal records.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Trump's announced $64 billion DHS funding would touch Alaska Coast Guard, Arctic security, and fentanyl interdiction — but the underlying bill isn't in primary federal records

House passes Alaska Native walrus-ivory protection bill

House passed legislation allowing Alaska Native artists to sell walrus-ivory handicrafts nationwide, overriding state bans that had criminalized traditional art protected under federal marine-mammal law.

Alaska Newsby Alaska Newsadded 4mo ago2 min read
1
Cover image for article: House passes Alaska Native walrus-ivory protection bill

Norton Sound king salmon fishing closed for the season

Alaska closed sport king salmon fishing in all Norton Sound rivers from Bald Head to Point Romanof through August 15 due to a below-average forecast for the spring run.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News4mo ago2 min read
Norton Sound, Alaska
Cover image for article: Norton Sound king salmon fishing closed for the season

Kawerak offers CDL scholarships for Bering Strait Tribal members

Kawerak is offering scholarships covering meals, travel, and lodging for Bering Strait Tribal members to complete a four-week Class A CDL program in Palmer from July 13 to August 6, with applications due June 24.

Alaska Newsby Alaska Newsadded 4mo ago1 min read
Alaska
Cover image for article: Kawerak offers CDL scholarships for Bering Strait Tribal members