Alaska News Daily Brief, Saturday, November 14

Alaska News for Saturday, November fourteenth. A quieter morning, but one year keeps turning up: 2027, when the university's new prices begin and when comments close on a federal land rule.

0:14Peltola nears 50% and Begich's lead shrinks in new Nov. 13 results

Mary Peltola is now 445 votes short of a majority in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, after the state added another 22,511 ballots to the count last night. About half of those were absentee ballots from Anchorage, Eagle River and Chugiak. Peltola won about 59 percent of the new Senate votes. Her lead over Republican Senator Dan Sullivan grew to 10,412, up from 5,800 the day before. That 50 percent line matters. Under state law, a candidate with more than half the first-round votes wins outright, with no ranked-choice rounds. The state's live results page already shows Peltola at 50.0 percent, because that page leaves out write-ins and rounds the number. About 10,500 accepted ballots still aren't in the results. That includes about 2,600 questioned ballots from the Anchorage area, and none of those have been counted yet. Overseas ballots can still arrive through November eighteenth. To clear 50 percent, Peltola needs about 54 percent of the Senate votes that are left. If she falls short, ranked-choice rounds come after the final count on November eighteenth. By Alaska News' math, Peltola would finish about 9,500 votes ahead of Sullivan in those rounds on the ballots counted so far. In the House race, nonpartisan Bill Hill took about 48 percent of the new votes. That cut Republican Congressman Nick Begich's lead to 16,833. But Begich would still finish about 8,200 ahead in a ranked-choice count. To catch up, Hill would need more than 90 percent of the remaining ballots that rank either man. And in the governor's race, CNN projected Thursday that Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins will win. Kreiss-Tomkins is now about 2,200 votes over half, up from 125.

2:08University of Alaska regents adopt per-program tuition and seek $49 million more from state

At the University of Alaska, what you study is going to start setting what you pay. Regents meeting in Fairbanks last week approved a single tuition rate for each academic program, starting in fall 2027. Tuition and the extra course surcharges get folded into one price per credit. A bachelor's program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will run three hundred twelve dollars a credit. Business and engineering there will cost three hundred fifty-eight dollars. At UA Anchorage, most bachelor's programs will be two hundred seventy-eight dollars a credit, and aviation, business and engineering will be three hundred three dollars. Maritime programs at UA Southeast will be three hundred forty dollars. The university says more of a student's cost will count toward financial aid. The board agenda says the change raises tuition revenue across the system by less than 2 percent. It also lines up with the regents' August vote to get rid of out-of-state tuition that same fall. Faculty raised questions before the vote. They asked about the cost of general education classes and whether the pricing is fair. They also asked how it could change what students choose to study. The regents are also asking the state for four hundred thirteen million dollars, which is forty-nine million dollars more than this year. That includes money for a drone program, for graduate students, and for expanding nursing and air traffic control training at UA Anchorage. The request now goes to the governor and the Legislature.

3:47BLM planning rule would cut Alaska governor's review of federal land plans to 30 days

On federal land, the Bureau of Land Management wants to cut the time Alaska's governor gets to review its land plans, from 60 days down to 30. That review is the window the state has to tell the federal government that a plan conflicts with its own. The proposal, released this week, would also end the governor's ability to appeal to the bureau's director. Local governments would get their own 30-day review. The bureau also would no longer try to match its plans to tribal plans. It says federal law only requires that for state and local plans. The agency says it's clearing out procedures that federal land law never required. The rules date back to 1979. The public would get less time, too. The 90-day minimum comment period on major draft plans would drop to 30 days, with at most 30 more. Protests would have to be filed online, and paper filings would end. The rule wouldn't apply to the National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope, which federal law exempts. Comments are due January eleventh, twenty twenty-seven. The bureau will hold an online information session December third, and a separate one for tribes and Alaska Native corporations December tenth. It says it will invite all 575 federally recognized tribes and about 200 Alaska Native corporations to consult.

5:08Juneau Assembly to take up 10% tax on vehicle rentals that start near cruise docks

Around the state, briefly. The Juneau Assembly takes up a 10 percent tax Monday on vehicle rentals that start near the downtown cruise docks. Stacked on top of existing taxes, some of those rentals could end up taxed at 24 percent.

5:26FAA ground stop delays Juneau flights leaving Alaska as in-state flights keep departing

In Juneau, yesterday's federal ground stop held up flights leaving Alaska. Flights staying inside the state kept going. The nationwide halt caused more than 200 cancellations across Alaska

5:40FAA lifts nationwide ground stop as Duffy blames old, overloaded equipment

and Hawaiian Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted that ground stop after more than four hours. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed old routers that couldn't handle the load. Alaska Airlines kept its in-state flights running through it.

5:55Anchorage mayor asks Assembly to accept $610,711 state grant for AnchorRIDES senior trips

Anchorage's mayor is asking the Assembly to accept a six hundred ten thousand seven hundred eleven dollar state grant for AnchorRIDES trips for seniors. The city would add seventy-four thousand five hundred one dollars of its own money.

6:08Bethel proposals would forgive uncollected hotel sales tax and cut the 12% rate to 6%

Bethel is weighing a cut to its hotel sales tax from 12 percent to 6. A second proposal would forgive the 12 percent tax that was never collected. The city has a hearing set for December fifteenth.

6:21Wrap-up

Not in the brief, but posted this morning: a blizzard warning on the North Slope coast through Sunday morning, and the Senate taking up the Reardon nomination for Alaska's last open federal judgeship. 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, Saturday, November fourteenth, twenty twenty-six.