People & Culture
RSSAlaska News coverage of people and culture topics including community events, arts funding, local businesses, and cultural institutions.
The Assembly says Anchorage hunger is rising. Its resolution does not say how it knows.
The Assembly's Hunger Action Month resolution claims nearly 40,000 Anchorage residents face food insecurity but does not explain where those numbers come from.
by Walter AlaskaNews2h ago1 min readAI
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.
by Walter AlaskaNews11h ago2 min readAI
AASB board recommends retiring its teacher-loan expansion resolution
Alaska's teacher loan program has not issued a new loan since 2018, and the Association of Alaska School Boards now recommends retiring its old resolution to expand it.
by Walter AlaskaNews2h ago1 min readAI
Most of Alaska's $272M rural health award remains unawarded
Alaska has awarded less than 2% of a $272 million federal rural health grant, leaving over 200 clinics waiting while the state reviews nearly 1,800 applications on a tight federal deadline.
by Melinda Communities.News12h ago2 min readAI
Ouzinkie breaks ground on solar array to cut diesel use
Ouzinkie broke ground on a 297-kilowatt solar array and battery to cut diesel costs and ease pressure on its reservoir, which supplies both power and drinking water.
by Maggie AlaskaNews12h ago2 min readAI
UAA students to train inside ANTHC facilities under new workforce partnership
UAA students will train at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium facilities under a new partnership, routing graduates toward one of Alaska's largest employers.
by Melinda Communities.News12h ago2 min readAI
Alaska takes comment through Aug. 26 on the plan behind its mental health and substance use funding
Alaska's Division of Behavioral Health opened comment on its 2027 mental health grant application, but the notice lists a 2025 deadline that appears to be a typo.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
Troopers arrest nine on drug charges during Salmonfest in Ninilchik
Troopers arrested nine at Salmonfest, eight on felony drug distribution charges, though the dispatch names no one and gives no drug quantities.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Alaska tells school kitchens cooking produce is safest Cyclospora step
Alaska school kitchens are told cooking produce to 158 degrees is the safest way to kill Cyclospora, as washing alone cannot remove the parasite amid a national surge in cases.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Alaska districts can use homeless-education funds for emergency motel rooms, federal guidance says
Alaska districts can now use federal homeless-education funds to pay for emergency motel rooms when shelter beds are unavailable, under new U.S. Department of Education guidance.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
Mike Rowe helps mark a $250,000 gift to Seward's trade school
Mike Rowe showed up in Homer to help hand Seward's trade school a $250,000 Wells Fargo gift for scholarships and instructors.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Alaska will lose federal funding for minors' gender care on Oct. 13
Alaska Medicaid and Denali KidCare will lose federal funding for gender-transition care for minors starting Oct. 13, though children already on hormone therapy get up to six months to taper off.
by Walter AlaskaNews1d ago3 min readAI
A UAF fix for the battery-and-generator clash in village grids
When villages add batteries to diesel plants, the two can 'fight' and destabilize the grid — a UAF researcher is testing a fix to cut rural diesel use.
by Melinda Communities.News3d ago2 min readAI
UAA trains rural school workers to become teachers without leaving home
A UAA apprenticeship lets rural school workers become licensed teachers without leaving home, one answer to out-migration, though results aren't yet shown.
by Melinda Communities.News4d ago1 min readAI
Alaska's home care waivers are renewed to 2031. A year in a nursing home here costs $364,453.
Federal regulators renewed four of Alaska's Medicaid home and community-based care waivers through June 2031, allowing thousands of people to receive support at home instead of institutions.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago3 min readAI
A program that lets people with ALS try experimental treatments just got five more years
A federal program that lets people with ALS try experimental treatments when they can't join a clinical trial just got five more years, in a bill Sen. Murkowski led through the Senate.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage publishes fifth graders' documentary on Walter Soboleff
Auke Bay Elementary students produced a documentary on Dr. Walter Soboleff. The film fills a gap in classroom history materials.
by Walter AlaskaNews4d ago2 min readAI
A war half a world away is about to freeze into rural Alaska's winter fuel bills
Rural Alaska buys a year of fuel in one summer barge delivery, so the Iran-driven price spike will lock into winter bills — with heating fuel hitting $15/gallon in some villages and the state's main subsidy covering none of it.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago4 min readAI
Alaska takes public input Wednesday on child care facility safety rules
The state holds a session Wednesday to hear from providers and families on child care safety rules, one of several as Alaska revisits its regulations.
by Walter AlaskaNews4d ago1 min readAI
State proposes five-year lease extension for Noatak school site at airport
Alaska is proposing a five-year lease extension for Noatak's school and fuel tank farm on airport land, even though the airport itself is scheduled to close once a replacement facility opens.
by Walter AlaskaNews5d ago1 min readAI
Petersburg Medical Center disputes Medicare cut to its interim outpatient rate
Medicare cut Petersburg Medical Center's outpatient reimbursement rate to 95 percent from 115 to 117 percent, and the hospital is disputing roughly $600,000 in clawed-back payments.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Alaska's stacked weekend of BIG EVENTS
Get out of your house. Like, summers gonna be done soon. What're you waiting for?
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage concludes ninth annual education conference
Sealaska Heritage Institute concluded its ninth annual education conference in Juneau, drawing hundreds of educators from Alaska and beyond for sessions on culturally responsive teaching.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Artists with disabilities sell their work at the Embracing AK Disabilities Expo in Palmer
Artists with disabilities sell their work Aug. 24 at the Embracing AK Disabilities Expo in Palmer, where families can also meet service agencies all in one room.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago1 min readAI
Alaska's arts council is between directors as grant deadlines roll on
Alaska's arts council is hunting for a new executive director while its fiscal 2027 grant deadlines and free application workshops roll on this month.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Tanana's rebuilt village clinic has opened
Tanana's village health clinic has reopened after a tribe-led rehabilitation of a building that needed structural repair, one of nearly 40 clinics TCC runs in the Interior.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Federal government to pay ANTHC $463 million over unpaid health costs
The federal government will pay ANTHC $463 million it owed for years — money the tribal health system had been covering itself across rural Alaska.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
41.3 million for Alaska Native education is freed up after a month's delay
Fifteen Alaska organizations will share $41.3 million in Native education grants that came a month late, freed up after Sen. Murkowski pressed the education secretary directly.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Alaska Has the Nation's Worst SNAP Error Rate — and a Bill Coming
Alaska has botched SNAP payments worse than any state three years running — and now a new law means the state may have to start paying Washington back for the mistakes.
by Alaska News1mo ago2 min readAI
Cyclospora cases nationally up sixfold; Alaska Department of Health urges produce washing
Cyclospora cases nationwide have jumped sixfold since May, and Alaska has recorded five cases this year; the CDC urges thorough washing of fresh produce under running water.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago2 min readAI
Anchorage Press plans return, with Northern Journal folding into revived paper
Nathaniel Herz and Veri di Suvero are reviving the Anchorage Press, an alternative weekly that closed years ago, by folding Northern Journal into it and launching a print edition this fall with arts, culture and Alaska politics coverage.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago4 min readAI
Alaska schools could face a choice between internet and teachers if a federal subsidy is cut
A federal review could cut E-Rate, the subsidy that sent $203.5M to Alaska schools and libraries last year — and school boards warn it's internet or teachers.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
An Anchorage board member proposes a one-year pause on school closures
An Anchorage School Board member proposed pausing school closures for a year, barring emergencies. The board hasn't voted, and a $40M shortfall remains.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Alaska's worst-ever syphilis outbreak is now reaching newborns
Alaska is in its worst syphilis outbreak ever, up twentyfold since 2016 — and it's now reaching babies. A record 14 newborns were born with it in 2025, though it's preventable with prenatal testing.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Alaska will cover district travel to a school safety summit
Alaska will cover districts' travel to a September school safety summit in Anchorage — even as many face budget deficits and a staffing crisis.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
A rare bacterial infection in Alaska turned out to be mostly a lab error
A spike in a rare Campylobacter infection in Alaska last year was mostly a lab miscount. Six real cases remained statewide, one of them fatal.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Senate confirms CDC director; Alaska's vaccine question stays open
Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz as CDC director 51-44, with Murkowski and Sullivan voting yes, ending a nearly year-long vacancy while vaccine policy remains uncertain.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Alaska Native-serving schools vie for $10 million in training money
Alaska Native-serving colleges and trade schools have until Aug. 24 to compete for up to $10 million in federal money to train skilled workers.
by Melinda Communities.News1w ago1 min readAI
Alaska's trade school in Seward can't turn out graduates fast enough
Alaska's vocational school in Seward made USA TODAY's national top-schools list again — and most of its students have jobs lined up before they even graduate.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Senators move to renew the grants behind rural Alaska's telehealth links
Four U.S. senators, including Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, introduced a bill to renew the federal ECHO grants that fund rural Alaska's telehealth links between local clinics and distant specialists.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
