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Friday, Jul 3
Drones find stranded Craig hiker on Sunnahae Mountain before midnight
Drones found a 23-year-old hiker safe on Sunnahae Mountain near Craig after he stopped texting his family Thursday night.

Thursday, Jul 2
Juneau isn't changing its cruise caps — it's deciding how to decide
Juneau's tourism task force isn't touching its cruise ship limits yet — it's building the criteria future officials would use to change them, with new docks looming as the pressure point.

A new tower roof could eat half of Juneau airport's reserve, as pilots push for more
Juneau's airport board may spend nearly half its small reserve on a new tower roof — as 50+ pilots dispute a master plan that claims no unmet demand for fuel.

A Ketchikan-area geoduck farm wins a 20-year lease renewal
Geoducks are giant, long-necked clams that can live past 100 and sell for a fortune. A Ketchikan-area farm that grows them just locked in 20 more years.

SHI book documents the fraught origins of three Juneau totem poles
Sealaska Heritage Institute released a book on Juneau totem poles. It details how the Forest Service commissioned Native art while seizing Native land.

What "Lake No Lake" is, and why the Taku is running cold and full of debris
Lake No Lake is exactly that — a basin behind a glacier that fills, then drains all at once. It just did, sending cold water and debris down the Taku. No flooding expected.

Fishing Prince of Wales for kings? The nonresident limit just dropped.
Nonresident king limits on Prince of Wales tightened July 1. Two ADF&G documents disagree — the annual cap may be as low as one fish — so confirm the number before you keep one.

When the Coast Guard searches, Sitka's sky can close
A Coast Guard search shut a patch of low airspace over Sitka for two days — a small disruption elsewhere, but real in a roadbound town that flies for a living.

More from Southeast
Juneau man Oscar Griffin found dead after two-day search
Oscar Griffin, a Juneau man missing since Monday, was found dead Thursday by SEADOGS volunteer searchers — the morning after fireworks paused the K-9 search.

At The Aleut Corporation, a promotion is a window into how a Native corporation works
The Aleut Corporation promoted Theresa Cross to oversee operations across four subsidiaries — a look at how an ANCSA regional corporation works for its Unangax̂ shareholders.

A new federal water-testing rule could check rural Alaska for 'forever chemicals' — if it reaches us
An EPA rule would test drinking water for 30 contaminants, including the PFAS Alaska already has in its water. The catch: whether it reaches the state's small, rural systems.

Wednesday, Jul 1
A Juneau artist beads a warrior, a relative, and a record
A Tlingit artist told a Juneau audience her beaded robe is more than art — it's at.óow, a clan relative with spirit, carrying an ancestor's story to generations she'll never meet.

The West Coast halibut fleet left most of its quota for the July 7 opener
The West Coast halibut fleet caught just 27% of its quota in the first opener, so about 191,000 pounds are still up for grabs when boats head back out July 7.

Sitka's Fourth of July party is back — just leave the car behind
Sitka's Fourth brings a parade, a Coast Guard rescue demo, and a firefighters-vs-Coast Guard water fight — but downtown streets close July 3–5, so plan to walk.

French anthropologist reframes Tlingit foodways as living relational system, not subsistence
A visiting anthropologist echoed what many Alaska Native people say: "subsistence" misses the point. Tlingit traditional foods are about connection, not calories.

Two rulings just reshaped Alaska's Senate race
The Supreme Court just erased limits on party spending coordinated with candidates — unleashing money into Alaska's Senate race the same week a second Dan Sullivan made the ballot.

Coming up
Alaska State Parks Southeast Region Citizen Advisory Board Meeting
Online only: Microsoft Teams (Meeting ID 252 102 001 646 565 7, passcode Xq3o7kf3) or phone +1 907-202-7104, conference ID 521 494 427#
Meeting
Energy in the North: Robert Venables on Southeast Conference Economic Development
Class
Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office Sealed Bid Deadline
Public notice
Southeast Alaska Geoduck Fishery Closure (Holiday Period 1)
Public notice
Directed Lingcod Fishery Season End
Public notice
About Southeast
Southeast Alaska is the panhandle region along the state's southern coast, an archipelago of islands and fjords that includes Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. Its towns, among them Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Skagway and Hoonah, are linked by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system.
Its economy rests on commercial fishing, cruise tourism and the Tongass National Forest. Fish and Game manages dive fisheries for sea cucumbers and geoducks, salmon seine and gillnet fisheries, and rockfish openings across its inside and outer waters. Cruise docks, the decisions of city and borough assemblies, land use rules and heavy coastal weather are recurring local questions.
Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian communities are part of the region's life, and institutions such as Tlingit & Haida and Huna Totem run programs and businesses across it. Huna Totem ventures have built or sought to run cruise docks in Juneau and Haines.
More from Southeast
Tanana Chiefs Conference reshuffles its leadership
Tanana Chiefs Conference staffed up this week — a former lobbyist to lead advocacy, a new tribal-priorities director, and a split of its top health job as the system keeps growing.

Tuesday, Jun 30
Juneau's new budget ends all trail brushing and cuts the arboretum
Juneau's new budget ends all brushing on city trails and cuts arboretum staff — so in a rainforest that grows back fast, the trails are now on their own.

Juneau may bar the fastest e-bikes from its trails — but not the most common ones
Juneau may keep pedal-assist e-bikes on its trails but bar the faster throttle kinds — a split that roughly tracks what the limited research actually shows.

Two Alaska towns run on water — and want more of it
Wrangell and Petersburg run on hydropower from a remote mountain lake — and a planned third turbine would draw 12 more megawatts, meaning fewer days burning costly diesel.

Taku River glacial outburst flood warning in effect until 11 p.m. tonight
A glacial outburst flood warning is in effect on the Taku River until 11 p.m. tonight, with fast water and debris hazardous to boaters.

Sitka sets new ground rules for its cruise-season crush
Up to 7,000 cruise passengers a day hit a town of 8,000 — so Sitka rolled out new (voluntary) ground rules to keep the visitor boom from wearing on the people who live there.

A Sitka Assembly seat just opened — and the window's short
A Sitka Assembly seat opened when Tim Pike resigned — and residents have only until July 8 to apply for the appointment before October's election decides it for good.

In Sitka, they're carrying your luggage by hand this summer
Sitka is running its biggest projects all at once — and at the torn-up airport, workers are hand-carrying travelers' bags to keep flights moving through tourist season.

Monday, Jun 29
Petersburg's hospital more than doubled its cash reserves in three years
While rural hospitals nationwide struggle, Petersburg's has more than doubled its cash cushion in three years, to 133 days on hand, on tighter billing and better management.

Petersburg residents can finally get an MRI without leaving the island
Petersburg just got its first MRI, so island residents no longer have to travel off-island for a scan. A July 14 open house lets people tour the new suite.

In Juneau, the shellfish rules just moved in opposite directions
Juneau's shellfish rules split around July 1: personal-use king crab reopens for residents, but shrimping in Section 11-A and Tenakee Inlet stays closed with no date set.

Bring it back whole: a catch rule for Craig and Klawock anglers
Fishing out of Craig or Klawock? Certain fish have to come back whole — so the dock crews counting them can do the sampling that keeps the fishery healthy.

Sitka confronts a child care shortage it can't fully fix alone
Sitka doesn't have enough child care — a problem hitting all of Alaska, driven partly by the real cost of the safety rules that make care expensive to provide.

Sunday, Jun 28
Juneau's ski hill picks a new leader — in public
Eaglecrest is interviewing its lone GM finalist in open session Thursday — a returning Juneau face — while a mystery sit-down with Goldbelt raises the more interesting question.

A Tlingit robe turns a warrior's last stand into sacred clan property
A Juneau artist is beading the story of a Tlingit ancestor who fought a giant octopus into a clan robe — a piece that will become at.óow, sacred property with a soul.

Saturday, Jun 27
Kodiak Borough weighs tax on recreational harvest
Kodiak Borough is exploring a flat fee on fish boxes and game containers from recreational harvests, modeled on Sitka's $10 per box tax, and could adopt it by ordinance without a public vote.

Soccer came home this summer — Where to watch the World Cup in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau
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.

McGuire campaign says Sara Rasmussen will replace Elizabeth Rexford as lieutenant governor running mate
Alaska's deadline could have thinned its 17-way governor race. It barely did: the GOP field stayed packed, and the headline move was just a McGuire running-mate swap.

Juneau to host world premiere of first Tlingit opera
Juneau hosts the world premiere of Ḵutulagaaw, the first Tlingit opera in recorded history, Sept. 11-20, performed entirely in Tlingit language.

A new cruise terminal could rise in a humpback whale feeding ground near Juneau
The feds want comment on a Douglas Island cruise terminal whose two years of pile driving could "harass" 10 marine mammal species in a humpback feeding ground.

Juneau harbor board considers $2.5M ADOT grant bids, insurance surcharge cut
Juneau's harbor board backed a $2.5 million state grant bid for two projects and recommended cutting the uninsured moorage surcharge to $1.00 per linear foot from $1.50.

A Ketchikan stabbing, and the jail violence the public rarely sees
A man at the Ketchikan jail is charged with stabbing another inmate with pencils — a rare public glimpse of the kind of violence that is common behind bars and rarely reported.

NSRAA shuts Southeast Cove, Crawfish Inlet to common-property chum all season
NSRAA closed Southeast Cove and Crawfish Inlet to common-property chum fishing all season, cutting purse seine access at two northern Southeast harvest areas.

Starry Fire hits 70% containment; wetting rain expected Friday night
Starry Fire near Anderson hit 70% containment Friday as rain moves in, dropping evacuation status from GO to READY.
