Politics & Government
RSSPolitics & Government in Alaska is the activity of state and local elections, lawmaking and public administration. It covers campaigns, ballot measures, ethics and campaign finance, legislative and executive action, and municipal and borough council decisions across Alaska communities.
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Monday, Sep 14
Juneau Assembly votes 6-2 to table nonprofit sales tax ordinance indefinitely
Juneau Assembly voted 6-2 Monday to table a nonprofit sales tax ordinance indefinitely, blocking a measure that would have narrowed tax exemptions starting January 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Juneau aging commission chair asks Assembly to fix or cancel paratransit contract
Juneau seniors and wheelchair riders are missing paratransit pickups under Ground Transportation Solutions. The aging commission chair asked the Assembly to fix or cancel the contract before winter.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Seward council approves five-year lease moving food pantry to senior center
Seward City Council approved a five-year lease moving He Will Provide Food Pantry from City Hall Annex to the senior center starting Jan. 1, 2027, gaining more space and a better kitchen.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Troopers identify driver who left Ester street light crash
Alaska State Troopers identified a driver who knocked down a street light near Chena Ridge Road in Ester and left the scene without reporting the crash.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Search resumes on Kasilof River for man missing after boat overturns
A 67-year-old Kasilof man is missing after his boat overturned on the Kasilof River Sunday. The search resumed Monday by air, boat and on foot.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A bill would guarantee vehicle access for the village inside Gates of the Arctic
A national park was drawn around Anaktuvuk Pass in 1980 without asking. A bill would guarantee the village the right to drive out and go hunting.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
APD's new drone notice leaves annual-report questions unanswered
APD disclosed a drone at Sunday's standoff, but the five-line notice leaves the warrant and footage questions missing from its annual report
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Anchorage seeks ideas for its Darwin sister-city partnership
Anchorage residents can suggest what the city should do with Darwin, Australia, its sister city since 1982. Ideas are due to the commission by Sept. 30.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
More from Politics & Government
Haines voters face five ballot measures, four of them about taxes
Haines voters face five ballot measures Oct. 6, four about taxes, including a new severance tax on gravel, timber and mining.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
A Merrill Field WWII memorial crumbles with no one responsible
A WWII memorial at Merrill Field is cracking and dark, repairs run about $100,000, and the only money in sight is a $17,000 grant meant for something else.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Anchorage assessment appeals hit a record, and the board filled up to cope
Anchorage owners filed a record 1,990 assessment appeals this year, quadruple last year's, and the board filled every seat for the first time in 20 years.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
An Alaska psilocybin initiative faces its signature deadline Monday
An Alaska psilocybin legalization drive spent $150,000 and has $1,354 left. Its signature deadline is Monday, and no count has been made public.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read
Haines votes on whether to stop electing its planning commission
Haines voters elect four planning commissioners Oct. 6 and, on the same ballot, decide whether the borough should go back to appointing them instead.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Anchorage coded most sampled spending to the wrong account, audit finds
Anchorage miscoded 72% of sampled spending, an audit found — because nobody ever wrote down what the city's accounting categories actually mean.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
The court found an obvious error in his commitment and upheld it anyway
Alaska's Supreme Court found an obvious error in a homeless man's commitment and upheld it anyway. The ruling came two and a half years after he was released.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read
Anchorage police shoot carjacking suspect after East 37th Avenue standoff
Anchorage police say the man officers shot on East 37th Avenue had, hours earlier, pistol-whipped an older man unconscious and stolen his truck.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
About Politics & Government
Politics and government in Alaska takes in state and local elections, lawmaking and public administration. It covers campaigns, ballot measures, campaign finance, legislative and executive action, and decisions by municipal assemblies and borough and city councils.
Recurring questions include how campaigns are funded and who pays for outside spending and political messages, which candidates qualify for the ballot, and how state agencies write and repeal regulations. Local governments such as the Anchorage Assembly and the Ketchikan assembly weigh spending on roads, water systems and police programs.
The subject reaches across the Legislature, state agencies and municipal governments. Advisory boards and councils that take public comment on matters such as state parks and disability policy are part of it as well.
More from Politics & Government
Fairbanks votes Oct. 6 on capping taxes, moving elections and hand counts
Fairbanks voters decide Oct. 6 whether to cap borough taxes, move elections to November and count ballots by hand. Any of it locks for two years.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Unalaska votes Oct. 6, at the one polling place in town
Unalaska votes for city and school board seats Oct. 6 at City Hall, the town's only polling place, open 8 am to 8 pm. Six people will run it.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readFrom 
Alaska's new ethics law names the wrong person in a complaint
Alaska's new ethics law tells the committee to meet with the wrong person in a complaint. The ethics committee voted to ask for a fix.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Mat-Su considers banning plate readers before it has them
Mat-Su votes Tuesday on banning license plate readers it doesn't own — the same night Anchorage debates regulating the ones it already has.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
South Anchorage council asks state and city for interim school-route safety projects
Fifteen pedestrians were killed on Alaska roads last year, the highest rate in a decade. One Anchorage council is asking for whatever can be done fast.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
Troopers find two asleep in sedan towing stacked logs, cocaine in driver's lap
Troopers pulled alongside a log-hauling sedan in Soldotna and found the driver and passenger asleep, cocaine in his lap, they say. He's presumed innocent.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Crews dig out buried hotspot near Tok home as Mukluk Fire hits 70% containment
Weeks after the Mukluk Fire, crews dug a still-smoldering log out of the ground near a Tok home, and fire managers expect more buried heat.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
North Pole council advances 3% pay raise for city employees
North Pole advanced a 3 percent raise for city employees Tuesday after rejecting a push to delay it and hearing that employee trust in the council is low.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom 
Coast Guard awards $315 million for Kodiak fuel pier, and comment on the review closes Sept. 16
The Coast Guard has awarded $315 million to Tutor Perini for a new fuel pier and major cutter mooring at Base Kodiak, competed with four offers and running to 2030. The draft environmental review of the project, including demolition of the existing pier, takes public comment only through Sept. 16.
by Alaska News2mo ago2 min read
Anchorage police report eighth officer-involved shooting of 2026 in two sentences
An Anchorage officer was in a shooting on East 37th Avenue, and the department's entire account is two sentences that don't say whether anyone was hit.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A stolen pickup went through the doors of three Tongass Avenue businesses
A stolen pickup went through the doors of McDonald's, Madison Lumber and Tongass Marine in one night. The damage estimate runs near $100,000.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Sunday, Sep 13
Juneau's Fourth of July parade committee disbands after free-speech flap
Juneau's July 4th parade has no organizer for 2027 — the committee disbanded weeks after barring a veteran's anti-war banner. The record doesn't say why.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A Seattle union gave its Alaska committee $500,000. It's spent $8,000 of it in cash.
A Seattle union gave its Alaska committee $500,000 to back Kreiss-Tomkins and six House candidates — and it's spent just $8,000 of it in cash.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
State to drop Whittier voter misconduct cases after appeals ruling
The form had no box for what Tupe Smith is. Whittier officials told her to check citizen. The state charged her with felonies and is now dropping them.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read
Troopers airlift injured boater from Cosna River after capsizing en route to air ambulance
Alaska State Troopers airlifted an injured boater from the Cosna River on Sunday after the boat capsized while heading to an air ambulance pickup.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Troopers say stolen truck hit dump truck head-on in North Pole
A truck troopers say was stolen hit a dump truck head-on in North Pole. The driver was arrested on theft and DUI charges, which are not findings of guilt.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The Kenai Borough Assembly president wants three votes to carry the assembly
The Kenai Borough Assembly president wants three votes to carry the assembly instead of five. Two of nine members were appointed on his motions.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
Bethel judge sentences Wassillie Brink to 30 years in Kasigluk assault
A man with a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a minor got 22 years to serve for a 2022 assault in Kasigluk. Western Alaska's rate is double the state's.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Troopers arrest Fairbanks driver on DUI charge after Steese Highway stop
DUI arrest in the north
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Mayor's substitute puts Anchorage's surveillance network before the Assembly Tuesday
Anchorage assembled cameras, drones, plate readers and commercial-data tools before writing enforceable rules for how police may use them.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago9 min readFrom 
The Permanent Fund earned a record $8.2 billion the Legislature can appropriate
The Permanent Fund earned a record $8.2 billion that lawmakers can spend. Nothing has been appropriated for inflation-proofing in three years.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
Landmine publisher takes copyright-strike complaint against APD to Assembly Tuesday
Alaska Landmine publisher Jeff Landfield asked the Anchorage Assembly to address an APD copyright strike that temporarily removed a video critical of Police Chief Sean Case from Facebook.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom 
Parents warn Mat-Su that cutting school nurses puts children at risk
Parents and staff told the Mat-Su school board that cutting nurses puts children at risk, as a Teeland Middle School nurse prepares to leave.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readFrom 
Kodiak Island Borough Assembly to vote on snow contract that drew a single bid
Only one contractor bid on Kodiak's snow removal after the school district opted to plow its own lots — a setup one assembly member calls "ridiculous."
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
