People & Culture
RSSAlaska News coverage of people and culture topics including community events, arts funding, local businesses, and cultural institutions.
Tlingit & Haida sought $8.4 million for child care after the landslides and floods, and got $1.1 million
Tlingit & Haida received $1.15 million in federal child care recovery money for six Southeast Alaska communities, about one-seventh of the $8.4 million the tribe requested.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
BBNC Dillingham IT apprenticeship applications close Friday
BBNC is hiring one IT apprentice in Dillingham, applications close Friday, Sept. 4. The one-year role includes CompTIA certifications and requires BBNC or Choggiung shareholder status.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
CDC placed $2 million with an Anchorage firm without competition
CDC awarded $2 million in one-year contracts to Anchorage-based Eagle Health Analytics for emerging infectious disease and Ebola response work, running through September 2027.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago2 min read
Alaska put a price on crisis beds the Legislature created in 2022
Alaska proposed Medicaid rates for crisis mental health facilities: $1,833 a day for adults and $2,197 for adolescents, the highest on the state's chart.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Kenai parks staff helped the middle school start pickleball in gym class
Kenai parks staff spent Thursday helping the middle school start pickleball in gym class. The school has paddles, nets and one court taped to the floor.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Tanana Chiefs holds first culture camp for K-6 students
Tanana Chiefs Conference held its first culture camp for K-6 students in Fairbanks, teaching Athabascan languages, potlatch dancing and traditional skills, with plans to repeat annually.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
Free school supplies and dinner at Nome's Back-to-School Bash
Nome families got free backpacks, school supplies and pizza at a community Back-to-School Bash — a welcome hand in a year of tight budgets and $10 milk.
by Alaska Newsadded 3w ago1 min read
Alaska joins an EMS licensure compact, but it won't take full effect until 2027
Alaska is joining a compact letting out-of-state paramedics and EMTs work here without a separate license — but it won't really kick in until 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Alaska draws 50 people a year off a disability waitlist that has passed 800
Alaska was ordered to eliminate the waitlist for home-based disability care four years ago. Providers say it has roughly doubled since then.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Alaska's youngest students are improving in math and reading. Older grades aren't.
Alaska's youngest students are gaining in math and reading, but older grades have stalled — and most students still aren't testing proficient in either.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
University of Alaska draws $8.7 million Education Department payment running through 2031
The University of Alaska will receive $8.69 million in federal money through 2031, and the award record does not say what it is for.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago1 min read
He fought the fire that destroyed his Kaktovik school. Now he's helping to rebuild it.
Kaktovik crane operator Roy Robert Fischer-Akootchook, who fought the 2020 school fire, now operates equipment on its rebuild, with the new gym open since December 2025.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Interior Alaska's tribal health system is recording patient visits with AI
Tanana Chiefs Conference clinics are recording patient visits with an AI scribe. Patients can say no, and TCC says the recordings are deleted after 90 days.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Alaska raised the age of consent, and school districts have new duties
Alaska raised the age of consent to 18 in July. School districts now must report such conduct to police, notify parents, and file with the state.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
UAF launches a fellowship to grow Alaska Native leaders in food and agriculture
UAF is launching a program to grow Alaska Native leaders in food, farming and natural resources — fields where Native people are badly underrepresented.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Tanana has a health center again, 44 years after its hospital closed
Forty-four years after its hospital closed, Tanana has a new health center with a lab, pharmacy, radiology and a two-bay morgue, in a village of about 230.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
Alaska's only blood bank is critically short of O and AB blood; six centers are taking donors
Blood Bank of Alaska needs O and AB blood types urgently, with only 2 percent of Alaskans donating annually despite serving 21 hospitals statewide.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
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 Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Alaska says school improvement grant reviews are delayed by staffing gaps
Federal money for Alaska's lowest-performing schools is stuck. The state office that reviews the applications is short-staffed, and deadlines have not moved.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Chugachmiut's Sugt'stun language game gets new gameplay footage
Nunaka means my village in Sugt'stun. It is also a free game teaching the language to children in a region where fluent speakers are dwindling.
by Alaska News3w ago2 min read
Districts learned about $115 million after school had already started
Alaska school districts learned they were getting $115 million the day after school started, because the money depended on oil revenue counted Aug. 31.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
Anchorage school district proposes splitting $32 million in one-time state money
Anchorage schools will split $32 million in one-time state money, spending more than half this year and saving the rest to shrink a $40 million deficit expected next summer.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Anchorage band teacher tells school board he now teaches 330 students a day
Anchorage band teacher Dan Whitfield teaches 330 students daily after the district cut a part-time director position, leaving classes of 45 to 83 students with no jazz band or extra help.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Unalaska is paying $800,000 to keep its emergency room open around the clock
Unalaska City Council adopted new grant guidelines on Aug. 25, but the exact changes remain unclear because city records do not include the full resolution text.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago1 min read
A statewide suicide prevention activity is open to any Alaska resident through Sept. 10
ANTHC is running a free statewide suicide prevention activity through Sept. 10 with an online scavenger hunt, candle lighting, and a survey with Amazon gift card drawings open to all Alaska residents.
by Alaska News3w ago2 min read
Alaska districts have three weeks to apply for hunter education money
Alaska school districts have until Sept. 18 to apply for hunter education grants of up to $50,000, with $500,000 available statewide.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Four groups keep full Medicaid after Oct. 1. Refugees and asylees are not among them.
Alaska is moving to cut full Medicaid coverage for refugees, asylees and trafficking victims starting Oct. 1 when federal funding for noncitizens ends, leaving them with emergency-only coverage.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Therapy dogs at the North Pole library Sept. 19, first of five Saturdays
North Pole library hosts therapy dogs for children's reading sessions on Sept. 19 and Oct. 17, drop-in from 1 to 3 p.m., no registration needed.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Mat-Su assembly member puts possible school closures on Sept. 8 joint agenda
Mat-Su Assembly and School Board will discuss possible school closures Sept. 8 after enrollment dropped 2,153 students since 2018.
by Alaska News4w ago1 min read
Alaska schools fight FCC proposals that could cut their internet lifeline
Alaska schools rely on $200 million a year in discounted internet through E-Rate, and education groups are fighting FCC proposals that could cut it back.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 3w ago2 min read
Kenai will pay a high school pool's utility bills to keep it open another year
Kenai will pay $46,400 of a high school pool's utility bill to keep it open one more year. The swim club's hourly rate more than doubles.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
Alaska seniors get free Summit on Aging seats, but must register in advance
Seniors 65+ and Alaskans with intellectual or developmental disabilities get free registration at the Oct. 15-17 Statewide Summit on Aging in Anchorage if they sign up in advance.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago1 min read
Alaska has no marine radio examiner, so UAS is asking to become one
No one in Alaska can give the marine radio license exam in person. UAS has asked the FCC for permission to do it at its Ketchikan training center.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 4w ago2 min read
Alaska's youth suicide rate reached a 10-year high in 2025, state data show
Alaska's youth suicide rate reached a 10-year high in 2025. The Anchorage Assembly takes up a resolution Tuesday marking Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago1 min read
Juneau's city-owned ski area has an unresolved drinking water violation
EPA records show a March drinking water violation at Eaglecrest Ski Area in Juneau, in the agency's most urgent category, with no resolution recorded.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A health center's request to Unalaska grew nearly six-fold in a year
A health center's grant request to Unalaska grew from $180,000 to more than $1 million in a year, pushing the city's grant program past its own guideline.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
$5.5 million for Anchorage public health nurses, WIC and child care inspectors
The Anchorage Assembly takes up $5.5 million in state grants Tuesday for public health nurses, WIC clinics and child care inspections, without a hearing.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Petersburg hospital gets preliminary nod for behavioral health grant
Petersburg Medical Center has preliminary approval for about $400,000 in behavioral health money, but cannot hire or buy anything until the state signs off.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A course that usually means flying to the East Coast is coming to Anchorage
A hospital cleaning certification course usually held on the East Coast is coming to Anchorage in September, if 20 people sign up by Sept. 4.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Alaska seeks groups to run perinatal substance use treatment program
Alaska is seeking groups to run its perinatal substance use treatment program. In 2022, only about 10% of pregnant Alaskans who needed such care got it.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
