Southcentral
RSSSouthcentral region news
Places
Local organizations and topics
Numbers are stories in the last 30 days.
Have a story from Southcentral? Send a tip
Sunday, Aug 9
A Chugach substation rebuild draws a neighbor's concern over transformers near a home
A Chugach substation rebuild in south Anchorage draws a neighbor's concern over two nearby transformers, with a hearing before the planning commission Monday.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Matanuska Electric goes on taproom tour as members absorb rising rates and a looming gas cliff
MEA's CEO is hitting the taprooms to meet members — right as they absorb a rate hike, brace for 5%-a-year increases, and face a 2029 gas cliff.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Big Lake man charged with 21 theft counts after Mat-Su traffic stop
Big Lake man Jonathan Meeks faces 25 criminal counts after troopers found stolen credit cards, IDs, checks and prescription drugs in his impounded vehicle.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Yentna River crest ties to flood risk for Lake Creek lodges
Yentna River crested at 22.52 feet Thursday near Lake Creek, two feet above flood stage and high enough to push water into cabins at seven fishing lodges along the Western Susitna Valley.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends
Lower Cook Inlet's purse seiners are shut down while set netters in the same district keep fishing, right as the salmon season closes out Aug. 15.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Wasilla woman charged in storage-unit burglary that netted stolen firearms
A Wasilla woman faces 14 counts in a December storage-unit burglary that took multiple firearms, troopers say — with an accomplice still at large.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Father and daughter rescued by boat from Kenai River island at mile 73
A father and daughter stranded on a Kenai River island at mile 73 on July 27 when rising water cut off their return were rescued by boat the same day.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Saturday, Aug 8
Kodiak will homeport the Coast Guard's first Arctic Security Cutters
Kodiak will homeport the Coast Guard's first two Arctic Security Cutters, part of a multibillion-dollar Arctic buildup, with a third headed to Seward.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
More from Southcentral
A proposed cap would limit how high Mat-Su can set its property tax rate
A proposed ordinance would cap Mat-Su's areawide property tax rate at 7 mills, or $700 a year per $100,000 of value, capping what future assemblies could set.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
The Legislature let local voters decide school board term lengths — and Mat-Su is first in line
Mat-Su asked the Legislature to let it extend school board terms, and got it: SB 143 becomes law by Aug. 12 unless vetoed, just before a borough vote to use it.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read
Upper Cook Inlet reopens to a one-king limit after a spring closure
Upper Cook Inlet anglers north of Bluff Point can keep one king salmon from Aug. 16 through Sept. 15, after a closure meant to protect declining king stocks.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Fewer than one in twenty Palmer voters turned out, the city's own packet shows
Fewer than one in twenty Palmer voters turned out in either phase of a municipal election, the city's own packet shows, though the figures are preliminary.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A state filing ties $1.5 million from Musk to Alaska's ranked-choice voting repeal
A state filing ties $1.5 million from Elon Musk to Alaska's ranked-choice voting repeal, back on the ballot after losing by 743 votes in 2024.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Magnitude 5.6 quake northwest of Skwentna felt across Anchorage and Mat-Su
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake near Skwentna was felt across Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley on Saturday night, with no damage reported so far.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Kotzebue chum fishermen get a better price but have just one buyer left
Kotzebue chum fishermen are getting nearly 20 cents more a pound this season, but with only one registered buyer left, their market now hinges on a single company.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cook Inlet's oil and gas discharge rules expired in 2021, and EPA is finally rewriting them
The rules for what oil and gas exploration can discharge into federal Cook Inlet waters expired in 2021 and have run on an extension. EPA is rewriting them.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
About Southcentral
Southcentral Alaska is the region of the state centered on Anchorage, its population center and transportation hub. It spans the Kenai Peninsula, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, and reaches communities such as Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Seward, Cordova, Palmer, Wasilla and Eagle River.
Much of the region's civic life runs through the Anchorage Assembly, the Kenai Peninsula and Matanuska-Susitna borough assemblies, and city councils. Questions of housing and zoning come up often, along with who pays to extend water and sewer lines to building sites. School budgets, road safety on its highways and oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet also return.
The Kenai River and Cook Inlet tie the region to fishing, and the Parks Highway and Seward Highway link its communities. Windstorms that cut power and trooper reports from the Matanuska-Susitna area are common subjects as well.
More from Southcentral
A weak coho run just shut down federal commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet
A weak coho run just closed commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet's federal waters through Aug. 15, and the low cap is already squeezing state gillnetters.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Potter Drive designs test Anchorage guidance on in-street bike lanes
Anchorage planners will review four design options for Potter Drive that would add its first sidewalks and bike lanes, though two conflict with a city plan recommending a separated bikeway.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read
A Whittier man trying to sell booze on a family glacier-tour boat
A Whittier man is fighting a plan to serve alcohol on the family Ptarmigan glacier-tour boat, which has run dry for decades. The Assembly decides by Aug. 15.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
A Larsen Bay spillway is 'nearing failure' and unfunded in Kodiak's list
A spillway supplying Larsen Bay's water and power is "nearing failure," but the $1.2 million fix isn't funded and ranks sixth, in Kodiak's out-year pile.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
The state is drilling test holes for a Seward Highway fix, as a bigger $1.5 billion plan draws fire
The state is rebidding a routine Seward Highway drilling job, but the real fight is a $1.5 billion rebuild up the road that critics call oversized.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Bethel man arrested for DUI near Cooper Landing after a REDDI report
A driver reported swerving into oncoming traffic near Cooper Landing was arrested on a DUI charge Friday night, flagged through the state's REDDI line.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Sitka's Coast Guard cutter dock clears review; work set for 2026
Sitka's Coast Guard cutter dock cleared its environmental review, with waterfront construction set to run from 2026 to 2028.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Wrangell-St. Elias weighs letting e-bikes park at Kennecott
You may soon be able to e-bike into Kennecott and park like every other vehicle, under a Wrangell-St. Elias rule change fixing an odd gap that left e-bikes out.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Friday, Aug 7
Kodiak is projected to lose about 1,200 residents by 2045 as young adults leave
Kodiak is projected to lose about 1,200 people by 2045, shrinking every census since 2000 as young adults leave — numbers one business owner called "scary."
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Kodiak moves to bump standby pay for police as staffing runs tight
Kodiak would raise police standby pay from two hours to three, citing tight staffing and heavy reliance on officers staying on call. The council votes Thursday.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
The 5th and 6th avenue rebuild just hit $370 million — and even planners are flagging "scope creep"
Anchorage's 5th and 6th avenue rebuild just hit $370 million with no clear way to pay for it — and even the city's planners are flagging scope creep.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A murder conviction is reversed because a suspect's question about a lawyer wasn't enough for police to stop
Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday that police must stop and ask for clarification when a suspect hints at wanting a lawyer, a stronger protection than federal law requires.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read
Soldotna man arrested nearly two months after report he exposed himself to two minors
Alaska State Troopers arrested a 23-year-old Soldotna man Thursday, nearly two months after a report that he exposed himself to two minors.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Troopers cite three anglers for keeping snagged sockeye on the Kenai
Alaska Wildlife Troopers cited three anglers on the Kenai River in late July for keeping snagged sockeye salmon, seizing four fish total that went to charity.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Big Lake man arrested on seven sexual assault counts in Wasilla case
A 62-year-old Big Lake man was arrested Thursday on seven sexual assault counts stemming from a case first reported in May 2025, more than a year before the grand jury indictment.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
When a custody case is filed in both tribal and state court, whoever filed first wins, Alaska Supreme Court rules
Filed in both tribal and state court, a custody case goes to whoever filed first, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled — here decided by an eleven-day gap.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Alaska Supreme Court says legislative immunity shields ethics committee from Reinbold suit
Alaska Supreme Court ruled legislative immunity shields the ethics committee from lawsuits over disciplining legislators, ending former Sen. Lora Reinbold's four-year fight for a public hearing.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read
Anchorage Assembly meets six finalists for youth representative seat
Assembly Chair Anna Brawley will select one or more youth representatives from six high school finalists to cast non-binding votes on Assembly business from September through April.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Yukon salmon conservation rules are now locked into state regulation, not left to managers' discretion
Yukon salmon conservation is now binding state regulation — fixed thresholds that keep the river's own commercial and much subsistence fishing closed.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Prince William Sound stays at one king a day through Sept. 15
Prince William Sound's king limit stays at one fish a day through Sept. 15, four harbors excepted, right as kings start showing up near Glacier Island and Pigot Bay.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Rockfish limit in Resurrection Bay stays at three a day through Sept. 15
Anglers in Resurrection Bay stay limited to three rockfish a day through mid-September, a cap in place since April that covers peak charter season.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Kodiak restarts landlocked silver salmon stocking after 11 years
Kodiak's road-system lakes are getting a landlocked silver salmon fishery back, the first stocking since 2015, though the fish need three years to grow to catchable size.
by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Anchorage asked to raise bus tire contract authority by $500,000
Anchorage needs up to $500K more for tires on its 63 city buses, which it leases rather than owns, as leasing and labor costs rise — funded by bonds and grants.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
