Alaska News Daily Brief, Friday, November 6

Alaska News, Friday, November sixth. This morning's brief stretches from a jackknifed truck on the Dalton Highway to a storm drain in Ketchikan's harbor, with a water tank fight in Talkeetna in between.

0:13Analysis: Ranked choices would put Begich just over 50% as counting continues

On the ballots counted so far, Republican Representative Nick Begich would just clear 50 percent in Alaska's U.S. House race once voters' backup choices are applied. That's from an Alaska News analysis of the state's ballot data. Begich has 49.5 percent of first choices in the Division of Elections' report from Wednesday. Bill Hill, the nonpartisan Bristol Bay fisherman and retired educator, has 40.3 percent. Democrat Eric Hafner and Libertarian Jim McDermott trail far behind. McDermott is in last place, so he drops out first. About a third of McDermott's ballots stop counting. Most of the rest split evenly between Begich and Hill. That lifts Begich to about 50.8 percent. Under Alaska's rules, the count stops once someone has a majority. But Hill has won about half of the early and absentee ballots counted so far. Begich has 42 percent of those. And more of those ballots are still to come, out of tens of thousands left uncounted. By Alaska News' math, Begich wins outright if he takes about 51 percent of what's left. He'd still pass 50 after McDermott's ballots move if he gets about 47 percent. Below that, Hafner would be eliminated next, and it goes to a final round between Begich and Hill. On the current count, voters' rankings give Begich about 53 percent in that round. The division starts counting questioned ballots Tuesday. Those are ballots where a voter's eligibility needs checking. Absentee ballots mailed from inside the country can arrive through November 13th. Ballots from overseas can arrive through the 18th.

1:47Corps opens bidding on three-year Anchorage Harbor dredging contract

In Anchorage, the Army Corps of Engineers opened bidding Thursday on three years of dredging at the port. The contract runs 2027 through twenty twenty-nine. Each year, the contractor would remove about 900,000 cubic yards of fine-grained material that settles in the harbor. Bids are due December 7th. That buildup matters because the Port of Alaska takes in about half of everything shipped into the state. It serves about 90 percent of Alaskans. So the contractor has to keep the dock and terminals open to ships the whole time. An option would add 350,000 cubic yards a year of sand and cobbles from the marked entrance channel through Knik Arm Shoal. The award depends on the money being there. A Nome port official said last month that the Corps had no 2027 maintenance dredging money lined up for a number of Alaska ports. Anchorage was the exception. The Corps has kept the harbor 35 feet deep since the 1960s. The season usually runs from May through October. Work has to stop if a beluga whale comes within 50 meters of the dredge. An earlier Corps notice pointed to awarding the contract in January twenty twenty-seven.

3:08Mat-Su Public Works picks Front Street site for Talkeetna's new water tank and well

Up in Talkeetna, the Mat-Su Borough has picked a site for the town's new water tank and well. Some neighbors don't want it there. Borough Public Works Director Tom Adams signed off October 29th on two wooded state parcels on Front Street. They would hold a 375,000-gallon tank, a well and related buildings. The system serves about 225 accounts. It doesn't store enough treated water, so pressure drops when demand peaks. Borough staff have also called arsenic one of the top reasons to move the current wellhouse. Planning estimates put Front Street at five point two eight million dollars. The current C Street plant site, which opponents prefer, comes in at five point zero seven million dollars. The borough says owning the land avoids lease payments and helps with funding. The board's April resolution says a one point five million dollars forgivable state loan requires borough ownership. But borough staff have said ownership is a preference, not a mandate. The state pulled that loan offer last year while the borough looked at other sites. The Talkeetna Community Council wrote the state opposing the land transfer. A neighboring property owner told the Assembly the project moved ahead without public notice. Choosing the site doesn't approve construction. Plans could be done around summer 2027, with building in twenty twenty-eight. That neighbor wants formal public meetings before November 17th. That's when she says Public Works is scheduled to brief the Assembly.

4:40Analysis: Ranked choices would put Kreiss-Tomkins over 50% as counting continues

Quickly, around the state. In the governor's race, Republicans won more first-choice votes combined. But a third of the voters who picked Taylor, the last-place Republican candidate, ranked nobody else. On the count so far, that would edge Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins past 50 percent once backup choices are applied.

5:03Jackknifed tractor-trailer blocks Dalton at Mile 160; reopening planned Friday morning

A jackknifed tractor-trailer blocked the Dalton Highway in both directions at Mile 160 Thursday night. Alaska 511's listing shows reopening planned for 9:31 Friday morning. It's the main road to the North Slope oil fields.

5:19GCI says court ruling could disrupt subsidies behind nearly half its revenue

A court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission illegally created the group that runs its telecom subsidy fund. The Alaska phone and internet carrier GCI gets 47 percent of its revenue from that fund. The company says it can't yet say what the ruling means.

5:36Medicare finalizes cost-of-living boost for Alaska hospitals' outpatient payments

Medicare will pay Alaska hospitals more for outpatient care starting in January. It cites the state's high shipping costs and remote locations. The boost adds about sixty-six million dollars combined for hospitals in Alaska and Hawaii.

5:52Bipartisan coalitions pick Schrage, Giessel to lead Alaska House and Senate

Bipartisan coalitions have picked two Anchorage lawmakers, Calvin Schrage to lead the state House and Cathy Giessel to lead the Senate next year. Voters are still finishing the count that decides who's in those chambers.

6:05STAK says ExxonMobil signed 15-year gas deal for proposed North Slope computing campus

STAK Energy says it signed a 15-year natural gas deal with ExxonMobil for its planned computing campus on the North Slope. Neither the price nor the volume was disclosed. Key permits for the project are still pending.

6:19State catalogs 1970s drill notes from 26,000 NPR-A holes to help find North Slope gravel

In the 1970s, seismic crews drilled about 26,000 holes across the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and logged what they hit. The state has now cataloged those notes. They can help builders find gravel, which is scarce and expensive on the North Slope.

6:36Fish and Game closes West Behm Canal to sea cucumber divers for the rest of the season

Fish and Game has closed West Behm Canal to sea cucumber divers for the rest of the season. Divers hit the harvest cap there. It's the third area in Southeast closed this season.

6:48Ketchikan City Council adds $151,000 for harbor storm drain as damage sites grow to four

Ketchikan's City Council added one hundred fifty-one thousand dollars to a contract fixing storm damage at a harbor storm drain. The contract is now near two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The damage sites from October's storm have grown to four.

7:02Wrap-up

Not in the brief, but posted this morning: the state energy agency says it never spoke to a company that listed the agency's power cable as a partner, and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly voted to release a legal opinion on an election winner's eligibility. That's all for this edition of the Alaska News daily brief. The full stories, and more, are at Alaska News dot com. And that's the way it is, Friday, November sixth, twenty twenty-six.