Alaska News Saturday Night, October 17, 2026

Here is your forecast. Winter in the White Mountains has been rescheduled. The Bureau of Land Management has moved it to November first. The snow is running late. From the Last Frontier, this is Alaska News Saturday Night. This was the week the rainy day fund kept paying for the rain, a sled dog track got traded for parking lots, and bear baiting flipped back one more time. And the whole state ran warm.

0:28Permanent Fund sends $3.8 billion to the state as it grows to $91.9 billion

The Permanent Fund sent three point eight billion dollars to the state this year. According to the corporation's annual report, that covers about two-thirds of Alaska's unrestricted general fund revenue. That money pays for the dividend and for state services. So, most of what the state does without a string attached to it comes out of one savings account. The fund itself is now ninety-one point nine billion dollars. It started in nineteen seventy-seven with a deposit of seven hundred thirty-four thousand. Which is ... I was going to say a nice house. It is a nice house in some neighborhoods. It is not a state government. It became one anyway. Jason Brune, who chairs the fund's board of trustees, told the Nome Common Council the fund was created "to save money for a rainy day." Then Brune told the same council that sixty-seven percent of the state's general fund budget is now funded by the Permanent Fund. So it's raining. It has been raining for a while. We just stopped calling it rain and started calling it the budget. The fund returned about twelve and a half percent this year. That beat its target. It also fell short of its performance benchmark. So the fund made six point eight billion dollars in a year, and still got a little note back that said, see me. The report also notes nobody put money in for inflation-proofing this year. The rainy day fund is paying for the rain,

1:57Anchorage Assembly approves Tozier Tract land swap with nonbinding housing targets

and nobody bought it an umbrella. In Anchorage, the Assembly voted twelve to nothing to trade away the Tozier Tract. That's the old sled dog track on Tudor Road, where the first Iditarod started in nineteen seventy-three. City plans had called for getting that land since nineteen eighty-five. The city finally got it in twenty twenty-one, trading away another parcel and adding two point three five million dollars. And now the city is trading the Tozier Tract to the state for four downtown parking lots. Both pieces are supposed to become housing. The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation leads on the Tozier site, the city takes the parking lots, and the ordinance lays out targets. At least fifteen homes an acre. At least seventy percent housing, mixed use or services. Every effort to break ground within three years. And an administration official confirmed that whole section only "recommends." Assembly member Erin Baldwin Day said that, as she understood it, the housing corporation did not want conditions imposed on it, and that sponsors were told a clause handing the land back would be a dealbreaker. So the city spent decades getting this land with no strings on it, and is giving it away with strings it was asked not to pull. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says the city is getting the better deal on market value, and the city memo does back up the appraisals. The tract came in around four point one million. The parking lots, around five point two. About nine and a half acres traded for about one and a half. In Anchorage, the most valuable thing you can put on dirt is apparently a parked car. The three-year clock to break ground starts when the deal closes. There is no closing date. A September letter from the housing corporation's chief executive, Bryan Butcher, called the exchange prospective, with soil studies, market studies and a rezoning still to come. So that's a target that only recommends, on a clock that hasn't started, for a deal its own other half calls ... prospective. Somewhere the sled dogs are lined up at the start of that track,

4:04Trump says oil will "drop like a rock" after the Iran war, citing Alaska oil

still waiting for somebody to say go. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that "oil prices are going to drop like a rock" once the Iran war ends. The president listed Alaska oil among the supply he expects to bring prices down. Which is nice. Alaska got a mention. Alaska got a mention as one of the reasons Alaska is going to have less money. The Department of Revenue says every dollar North Slope crude moves shifts the state's unrestricted general fund by roughly thirty-five million dollars. So when the president says drop like a rock, somebody filling up a truck in Fairbanks hears good news, and somebody at the Department of Revenue hears thirty-five million, thirty-five million, thirty-five million. For now the state's ahead. This year's budget was built on seventy-five dollar oil, oil has been running about nineteen dollars over that, and the budget is projected to finish about a hundred six million to the good. There's also twenty-six million in capital projects in the budget that only go forward if North Slope crude averages eighty or better from July through December. So somewhere in this state there is a project ... a roof, a road, I genuinely don't know which, that is now following foreign policy very closely. Forecasters are less sure than President Trump is. The federal Energy Information Administration expected Brent crude to average around ninety a barrel through the second half of twenty twenty-six. And the president said this same thing back in June, and again in a post on September fourteenth.

5:35Park Service final rule allows bear baiting again in Alaska national preserves

It is a very patient rock. The National Park Service issued a final rule Friday allowing bear baiting again in Alaska's national preserves, under state law, starting November eighteenth. Baiting was allowed starting in nineteen eighty-two. Banned in twenty fifteen. Allowed in twenty twenty. Banned in twenty twenty-four. Allowed again now. The bears have not changed their position. In twenty twenty-four, the Park Service said baiting gets bears used to human food and makes bad encounters with people more likely. Now the Park Service says neither public safety nor its policy on natural wildlife behavior justifies a ban. Same agency. Same bears. And the agency says it expects no more than ten bears a year to be taken over bait, across all the preserves combined. The agency got five thousand one hundred seventy-two public comments on this rule. That's more than five hundred comments for every bear the agency expects. President Trump's executive order told the Park Service to undo the 2024 rule and go back to 2020. The agency went back to 1981. It cites a letter from Safari Club International and a petition from the Alaska Outdoor Council asking it to roll back everything since twenty fifteen. Asked to rewind one tape, the Park Service rewound the whole shelf. The rule also brings back an old requirement. Notices closing parts of the preserves will again have to run in newspapers, go up at local post offices, and be offered to local radio stations. So the next time this rule flips, and the record suggests ... well, you may hear about it right here. We'll be around. So, by all appearances, will the rule. North of Normal is next, with Maggie and Bill.

7:27Alaska repeals its 1971 laser safety rules, which still listed asbestos as a beam stop

Thanks, Walter. The state is repealing its laser safety rules from nineteen seventy-one, effective November eighth. For carbon dioxide lasers, they call for a backstop of firebrick, asbestos, or other fire retardant material. Nobody sent in a comment. They outlasted the disco era recommending asbestos. That is not code.

7:53Nome council asks utility board to move its meetings from the power plant to City Hall

That is archaeology. Nome's council has asked the utility board to move its meetings out of the power plant and back to City Hall. The station that livestreams those meetings told the council the audio is still pretty abysmal, even after the plant changed which engines run during them. The board takes it up next Tuesday. Hopefully someone can hear the vote.

8:14State proposes splitting Fairbanks-area air pollution zone, separating North Pole

The state has proposed splitting the Fairbanks-area air pollution zone in two, roughly along Badger Road. The department says the Fairbanks side currently meets the federal standard, and North Pole would keep the violations. The state proposes to redistrict the smog.

8:32Antimony refinery developer Nova Minerals says its cash won't fund a year of plans

Nova Minerals, which is building a federally funded antimony refinery at Port MacKenzie, told federal securities regulators its cash will not cover its next year of planned work. Its own annual report says that on June thirtieth, it had two employees. So the critical minerals race is neck and neck with a doubles tennis team.

8:54Craig certifies uncontested city election after 9.7% turnout

Craig has certified its city election. All four candidates ran unopposed, turnout was 9.7 percent, and council members opened the 13 absentee ballots right there at the meeting. The official running the count confirmed all four cleared the 40 percent needed to win. The real race was for who had to sit there and count thirteen ballots by hand.

9:19Homer council to hear ordinance letting residents live-trap feral rabbits

Homer's council holds a hearing Monday on letting residents live-trap the feral rabbits they say are damaging their homes. Trapped rabbits could not be released, and the city shelter says it cannot take most of them. The fine print is you can catch them, you just cannot finish the sentence.

9:37Army Chinook flew a bridge to a roadless Interior radar site to secure its only water line

An Army Chinook flew a new aluminum bridge, slung underneath it, to the Indian Mountain radar site east of Hughes, to secure the site's only water line. There is no road, and the officer on the project says if there was ever a dog sled trail, it has grown over and been lost. That is not construction. That is a house call.

9:59Aleutians East draft hazard plan says Unga Island dam rated poor has no known owner

I love this one. The Aleutians East Borough's draft hazard plan says a seeping dam on Unga Island, which the state has preliminarily rated high hazard, has no known owner. So the borough proposes finding out who owns it, medium priority, three to four years. Step one in the hazard plan is whodunit.

10:21State proposes logging about 950 acres near Fairbanks, including along the Chena River

The state forestry division has proposed selling timber from about 950 acres near Fairbanks, including clearcuts between Chena Hot Springs Road and the Chena River. The sales are named Granger than Fiction Mixed, Chili Bean Mixed, Soy Bean Spruce, and Birchnanza. I tried to take the clearcuts seriously and then my mouth said Birchnanza out loud.

10:47BLM pushes White Mountains winter season to Nov. 1 for lack of snow

The Bureau of Land Management has pushed winter in the White Mountains back to November first, because the snow is not expected to reach six inches in time. Until then, wheeled off-highway vehicles keep running for 17 more days. Finally, a land-use decision that rewards whoever refused to pack the sled.

11:07Alaska has $27 million to get PFAS and other contaminants out of drinking water

Alaska has about 27 million dollars in federal money to get PFAS and other emerging contaminants out of drinking water. On the state's latest priority list, three of the four projects are for manganese. The contaminants are not even reading the same memo.

11:25Merrill Field planners propose King Air 200 as design aircraft for 20-year plan

Merrill Field's planners propose the Beechcraft Super King Air 200 as the aircraft that sets the airport's design for the next 20 years. The airport manager says the most common first stop for passengers after they land is Costco. The operational reality is still a grocery run with wings.

11:44Kenai Peninsula mayor proposes raising volunteer firefighter and EMS tax break to $50,000

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche proposes raising the property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and EMS responders from the first ten thousand dollars of a home's value to the first fifty thousand. At the areawide borough rate, the break is worth thirty-eight fifty a year. Under the mayor's proposal, it could be one ninety-two fifty. Same volunteers. Slightly louder applause. That's the desk. Here's the week ahead. Wednesday, a Board of Fisheries committee on process, management and research needs meets by webconference. The full board sets commercial, sport and subsistence rules for every region, and written comments are due Tuesday. Also Wednesday, the state opens bids on its land auction and its agricultural land auction, surveyed parcels any Alaskan can bid on, Southeast to the Interior. So Wednesday, the state helps shape the rules for your fishing, then sells you somewhere to live with them. It's still raining, and nobody's bought the umbrella. This has been Alaska News Saturday Night, join us again next weekend, Alaska News dot com.