Alaska News Daily Brief, Tuesday, October 13

Alaska News for Tuesday, October thirteenth. Much of what you'll hear this morning is still a draft: maps, rules and plans that somebody can still change. In one case, that somebody is you. A truck on its side has the Parks Highway shut, and the president is in Wasilla, so the roads north of Anchorage are where the news is.

0:21Overturned commercial truck closes Parks Highway in both directions at Milepost 183

The Parks Highway is closed in both directions at Milepost 183 after a commercial truck rolled over early this morning. The truck is blocking both lanes. The closure started at 12:57 this morning. The state transportation department expects it to last into midday, with an end time of 12:56 this afternoon. A separate Alaska 511 listing puts the planned reopening a little earlier, at 12:17. The Parks is the main road between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The department sent a high-importance alert to drivers in the Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks and Mat-Su regions telling them to avoid the area. A second alert went out across the state, from Juneau up to the Dalton Highway corridor. This stretch carries local traffic and commercial trucks all year round. That's according to the department's own project documents from twenty eighteen, which also say traffic grows every summer. Neither alert says what caused the crash. The state hasn't said whether anyone was hurt, and it hasn't released anything about the driver. Alaska 511 is posting current road conditions.

1:27Proposed rules for Bering Sea chum salmon bycatch cap expected by end of 2026

Out in the Bering Sea, the pollock fleet is headed for a hard limit on how many Western Alaska chum salmon it can catch by accident. The cap is 45,000 fish. Federal fisheries managers expect to release the proposed rules by the end of twenty twenty-six. The limit would take effect for the fleet's 2028 B season. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended it in February. The council is responding to falling chum returns on Western and Interior Alaska rivers. Subsistence fishing on those rivers depends on those fish. Pollock boats account for about 99 percent of the chum caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutians. The cap would cover a corridor north of Unimak Pass from June tenth through the end of August. It's split among 4 pollock sectors. A sector that hits its share has to close half the corridor for the rest of that stretch. In a year with strong Yukon summer and fall chum runs, the cap and the closure wouldn't apply. The fleet would also have to use new in-season genetic data and do more to keep tribes informed. The council says about 80 percent of the chum the fleet catches aren't from Western Alaska. Most are Russian and Asian hatchery fish. More than 170 people testified before the vote. Western Alaska commenters had proposed a 100,000-fish cap overall, paired with a 50,000-fish limit inside the corridor. In written comments, they said the trawl fleets "have no limit on the number of chum salmon they can pull in as bycatch."

2:57Alaska DNR revises plan to give up about 5.7 million acres of statehood land selections

The state Department of Natural Resources has redrawn its plan to drop claims on about 5.7 million acres of federal land. The revised maps came out October eighth. Those claims are called selections. They're federal land the state has marked for eventual transfer. Dropping a claim means the land stays federal. On federal land, rural residents have a priority for subsistence hunting and fishing. The state was granted 105 million acres at statehood. It's received about 102 million, so it's still owed about 3.2 million. But its claims add up to more than 19 million acres. Federal law lets the state claim up to 125 percent of what it's still owed. Another federal law requires it to let go of anything over that line. The department says it'll keep its higher-priority claims and drop the lower-priority ones. The September maps included the Kotzebue Peninsula, the Noatak River and the Selawik Hills. They also named the Nowitna and Kuskokwim rivers, the South Yukon Checkerboard and the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District. The list is preliminary, and the acreage could change after public comment. Each future batch of land will get its own public notice. Comments on this round are open through October twenty-sixth. Quickly, around the state.

4:18State expects seismic retrofit of Tanana River Bridge at Big Delta to start in mid-October

Near Delta Junction, crews are expected to start earthquake work this month on the Tanana River Bridge at Big Delta. The state transportation department has 7 more bridges lined up after it. Alaska is the most seismically active state.

4:32Seward City Council requires wider, paved streets and no cul-de-sacs in new subdivisions

In Seward, the City Council voted 6 to 0 to change what new subdivisions have to look like. Streets have to be wider and paved, with room for people on foot. Power lines go underground, and cul-de-sacs are out.

4:46Wasilla adopts airport plan that charts a path to a 6,000-foot runway

Wasilla adopted a 20-year airport plan that points toward a 6,000-foot runway. That's more than half again as long, which would let bigger planes use the airport. Nobody testified, and nobody on the council objected.

5:00AFN board won't endorse candidates this year after backing Peltola in 2022 and 2024

The Alaska Federation of Natives board won't endorse any candidates this year. The group backed Mary Peltola in twenty twenty-two and 2024. Peltola is now running for the U.S. Senate.

5:12Wasilla streets close Tuesday for Trump rally; expect highway delays

In Wasilla, streets around the Menard Center are closed from 8 this morning to 6 tonight for President Trump's rally. Trips on the Glenn and Parks highways could take up to 30 minutes longer.

5:24Anchorage Assembly sponsors say Axon police contract lets vendor keep metadata

In Anchorage, 3 Assembly members say the city's eleven point eight million dollars police technology contract with Axon lets the company keep data about police activity indefinitely. They say the contract also lets Axon analyze that data.

5:39State closes Unit 14A Chugach goat registration hunts Tuesday night, weeks early

Fish and Game is closing the Chugach goat registration hunts in Unit 14A at 11:59 tonight. The season had been set to run through October thirty-first, so it ends weeks early.

5:51Glenn Highway northbound left lane closed near mile 26 Monday for guardrail repairs

On the Glenn near Eklutna, crews closed the northbound left lane near mile 26 on Monday for guardrail repairs. That stretch has had the same repair closures before.

6:02Renewing with Moda would raise Homer employee benefits costs 7.9%, broker says

In Homer, a benefits broker told the City Council that staying with Moda would raise the city's employee health costs 7.9 percent. That works out to nearly one hundred ninety-seven thousand dollars a year.

6:15Outside groups report nearly $13 million in Alaska Senate spending in one week

Outside groups reported nearly thirteen million dollars in spending last week on the Senate race between Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola. That's the most in a single week so far. Some of those groups still haven't had to say who's paying. If you're heading north, plan around the Parks until midday, and Wasilla streets stay shut until 6 tonight. If the state's maps cover ground you hunt or fish, you can comment through October twenty-sixth. Also today: an atmospheric river aimed at southern Southeast, and Alaska dropping its tracking of TB tests. That's all for this edition of the Alaska News daily brief. The full stories are at Alaska News dot com. And that's the way it is, Tuesday, October thirteenth, twenty twenty-six.