Economy & Business
RSSAlaska News covers state economic issues including cannabis banking, state dividends, and business development opportunities.
Cordova would get one ferry sailing a month this winter, and none in January
Cordova would get one ferry round trip a month this winter instead of none. January still has no service, and February hangs on how fast a shipyard works.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago2 min readAI
Anchorage board weighs dropping a shared-driveway rule for two Lake Otis lots
Anchorage Platting Board hears a request Wednesday to let two Lake Otis Parkway lots have separate driveways instead of sharing one.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage trails plan keeps Muldoon trail but drops JBER from its name
Anchorage kept the Muldoon trail in its revised plan but dropped JBER from the name after the military base cited security concerns during public comment.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Anchorage trails plan adds inland fallback route for stalled Kincaid-to-Potter Marsh trail
Anchorage planners added an inland route option to a stalled coastal trail between Kincaid Park and Potter Marsh, blocked since the 1990s by private land and wildlife refuge concerns.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
A $293 million plan would rebuild and narrow Anchorage's downtown couplet
A $293 million rebuild of Fifth and Sixth avenues would narrow the couplet that funnels traffic through downtown Anchorage. No one commented at the meeting.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Red Dog is one approval away from a new corporate owner
Teck Resources, owner of the Red Dog zinc mine near Kivalina, awaits one final regulatory approval before its merger with Anglo American closes, likely between September 2026 and March 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
GVEA's fuel charge drops 12.6%, reversing about a third of June's increase
GVEA's fuel charge dropped 12.6 percent Tuesday, cutting about $15 from monthly bills for Interior members, though the rate remains far above pre-summer levels after diesel prices spiked.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Alaska schools warned on parental consent for surveys and student records
Alaska schools could risk federal funding if they survey students on sensitive topics without written parental consent, or withhold records parents can see.
by Melinda Communities.News2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage will weigh housing density, not just price, when it sells land
The Anchorage Assembly voted 11-0 to tell the city to weigh housing density and affordability, not just price, when it disposes of municipal land.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
A judge let Alaska start 2.8 miles of the King Cove road with the land swap vacated
A judge will not stop Alaska from starting 2.8 miles of the King Cove road, even though the land swap for the full route has been thrown out.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago3 min readAI
Mat-Su explores building the troopers a new home and leasing it back
Mat-Su is exploring building troopers a $13 million facility and leasing it back. Troopers now work from six buildings never designed for police work.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
North Slope Borough Assembly raises lot density to four homes in zoning code rewrite
North Slope Borough Assembly voted 9-0 to allow four homes per lot instead of two, aiming to address a shortage of 637 housing units across the region.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Alaska rent increases were the smallest in five years, but Mat-Su and Kenai set records
Alaska rents rose again this year, but the pressure shifted. Mat-Su and the Kenai set records while Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau saw their smallest rises.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Hilcorp wants to plug five Cook Inlet wells for good
Hilcorp asked the state to dissolve a Cook Inlet unit and permanently plug five of nine wells at an offshore platform, as the basin runs short of gas.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago2 min readAI
A barge of secondhand equipment is bringing a military antimony refinery to Port MacKenzie
A barge of secondhand refining gear is headed for Port MacKenzie to start a $43.4 million military project for a metal the US stopped mining in the 1990s.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago3 min readAI
Alaska's labor agency has management and a union teaching bargaining together
A city HR director and an IBEW business agent will teach Alaska public employers and unions how to bargain, together, at a state session this month.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Alaska joins a suit accusing Amazon of setting the price its ad auctions were meant to discover
Amazon promised advertisers they would pay only enough to beat the runner-up bidder. Regulators say Amazon quietly made itself the runner-up.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Sitkana's new patent covers how its tidal generator looks, not how it works
Juneau's Sitkana won a 15-year design patent for its floating tidal generator, protecting the device's exterior shape.
by Melinda Communities.News2w ago2 min readAI
Matanuska Electric's next CEO inherits a gas contract that expires in 2029 and years of rising bills
Clay Koplin takes over as Matanuska Electric CEO on Jan. 7, 2027, as the cooperative braces for rising natural gas costs that could push member bills up 5% yearly for three years.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago2 min readAI
$21 million for 29 miles of the road that supplies the North Slope
Federal records show $21 million for 29 miles of the Dalton Highway, the road that supplies the North Slope. The state awarded the work in May 2025.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
New flood maps would end mandatory flood insurance for thousands of Fairbanks properties
New flood maps would pull 2,343 more Fairbanks structures out of the high-risk zone than they add, ending mandatory flood insurance for thousands.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Atlas Air would get five more acres of cargo ramp in Anchorage
Atlas Air would get three more cargo parking pads at Anchorage's airport, a little over five acres of ramp, at a rent of $38,847.47 a month.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
A fight over whether North Slope oil money stays local or goes to the whole state
Alaska's bigger cut of North Slope oil revenue has set off a fight over whether it stays with the communities nearest the drilling or goes to the whole state.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago7 min readAI
Kenai Elks Lodge RV spaces get a city permit after years without one
Kenai Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit for six RV spaces at the Elks Lodge that operated without one for years.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago1 min readAI
Juneau's five-ship cruise cap moves toward city code
Juneau's five-ship-a-day cruise cap would move from a negotiated agreement into enforceable city code under an ordinance advanced Monday.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
ENSTAR raised its gas line relocation estimates and Mat-Su road budgets absorb the cost
ENSTAR nearly doubled its estimates on eight Mat-Su road projects. The borough has to absorb it, and there is no other gas utility it could call.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago1 min readAI
Sitka requires appointments for large scrap loads and vehicles at Gary Paxton yard
Sitka's scrap yard now requires appointments for loads larger than a dump truck or for large vehicles, citing limited space and shipping container shortages.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Juneau airport's control tower to get its first new roof since 1987
Juneau's airport control tower is finally getting a new roof — the original one's been up since 1987. The FAA covers most of the roughly $1 million tab.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Cook Inlet Housing Authority chief backs Anchorage housing code changes his projects use
Cook Inlet Housing Authority's chief backed Anchorage's housing code changes Tuesday, crediting them for enabling his organization's Nest project.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago2 min readAI
HunaTek takes a State Department order worth up to $6 million
A Juneau company owned by Huna Totem Corporation will staff the State Department's Western Hemisphere bureau, in an order that could reach $6 million.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Right lane closes on E Tudor Road eastbound Monday for drainage work
The westbound Tudor lane closed since July reopens Monday. Savor it. A bigger dig near Lake Otis starts Sept. 12 and closes lanes in all directions.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Homer Spit seafood plant lease passes to Silver Bay at unchanged $69,877 rent
Homer City Council approved a lease transfer of the seafood processing plant on the Homer Spit to Silver Bay Seafoods-Valdez, LLC, keeping the annual rent at $69,877 through 2036.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago1 min readAI
An Anchorage firm will guard a federal satellite archive in South Dakota
An Anchorage company owned by Ahtna Athabascan shareholders will guard a federal satellite data archive in South Dakota for five years.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage Assembly weighs $305,000 more for South Goldenview road repairs
South Goldenview wants $305,000 for erosion repairs, the largest request yet from the Hillside neighborhoods that pay for their own roads.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min readAI
Unalaska approves airport gate power line, with the state covering the cost
Unalaska City Council approved a power line extension to supply new airport access gates, with work due by August 2027 at an estimated cost of $1 million to $2.5 million.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2w ago1 min readAI
Bristol Bay corporation's Anchorage arm takes $2.7 million Interior repair order
Anchorage contractor CCI Facility Contractors won a $2.7 million contract to repair water leaks at a former Interior Department building in Washington, D.C.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago2 min readAI
A $2.5 million geothermal training grant for Unalaska sits 3 percent spent
Unalaska abandoned its Makushin geothermal project in May 2025, but a $2.5 million federal training grant tied to it remains open and largely unspent with only $75,000 spent so far.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago3 min readAI
The FAA is paying $4.3 million to design a radar tower near Sitka
The FAA is paying $4.3 million just to design a radar tower on Biorka Island south of Sitka, with an option for the same firm to build it later.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage legalized triplexes. Now it wants to drop their landscaping requirement
Anchorage legalized triplexes in 2023 and barely got any. Next it wants to drop their landscaping buffers, which some neighbors say screen the density.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min readAI
Mental Health Trust clears a road easement north of Seward
Kenai Peninsula Borough won a legal easement across Alaska Mental Health Trust land north of Seward to reach its own property, swapping access rights with the Trust.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago1 min readAI
