Alaska News Saturday Night, October 24, 2026

Two Alaska campaigns lead to Wisconsin. One backs a word the Legislature's lawyer says changes nothing. The other spent seven hundred ten thousand asking voters to leave a box blank. From the Last Frontier, this is Alaska News Saturday Night. A week about fine print: a word the lawyers say changes nothing, a name already printed on the ballot, and a budget line nobody will explain. It ran mild statewide, with snow in the Interior and rain in Southeast.

0:31Valdez budget proposal sets aside $6.5 million for special litigation

Valdez put out its proposed budget for twenty twenty-seven this week, and the legal line is seven and a half million dollars. Six and a half million of that is set aside for what the city calls special litigation. The presentation does not say which cases. What it does say is that legal costs are highly variable due to council directed special litigation. So the council picks the fights, and the budget finds out later. And the city has been finding out for a while. In twenty twenty-three Valdez budgeted two million for legal and spent closer to three. The next year it budgeted eight. This year it started at four and a half and raised it partway through. That is not a budget line. That is a weather report. In June, Valdez did join the North Slope and Fairbanks North Star boroughs in a court appeal of how the state values the trans-Alaska pipeline for taxes. The presentation does not say that is where the money goes. The presentation does not say where anything goes. It is a very discreet slideshow. The leftover million is for operations, which I take to mean the ordinary kind of legal trouble. The kind you can describe at a work session without lowering your voice. Meanwhile the raw fish tax at the harbor came in almost double what the city budgeted. The fish, at least, are cooperating. The council looks at all of it Thursday, and the public hearing is November seventeenth.

1:50Ballot Measure 3 would add one word to Alaska's voting law, with most money from one donor

Alaskans started voting Monday on Ballot Measure 3, which adds one word to the state law on who can vote. The word is only. Right now the law says a citizen who is eighteen, has lived here thirty days and is registered may vote. The measure would make it say only a citizen may vote. The official ballot summary says the measure would not change the requirements to vote. The Legislature's own lawyer agreed. Alpheus Bullard of Legislative Legal Services told lawmakers in April, quote, I do not think that this initiative would change state law at all. The sponsors, three former Republican legislators, say that is the point. The word settles the question before... well, before a court ever gets asked it. Opponents say it fixes a problem Alaska does not have. So both sides agree the word does nothing. They just disagree about whether nothing is worth doing. Somebody thinks it is worth a lot. According to campaign filings, of the roughly eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars the campaign raised through early October, about seven hundred and fifty thousand came from a national group based in Virginia. That group's own Alaska filings list one donor, the chief executive of a Wisconsin company, who gave it nearly a million dollars. Two Alaskans have given a combined hundred and fifty. Which, to be fair, is closer to what one word should cost. And no group has registered to oppose it. Nobody in this state wants to go on the record against the word only. It does not sound like something you can beat. A yes vote adds the word.

3:29Alaska faces $45 million SNAP bill unless error rate drops below 6%, commissioner says

A no vote leaves the law the way the Legislature's lawyer says it already works. On Thursday, five of Governor Dunleavy's commissioners and senior officials went to a Commonwealth North forum in Anchorage to tell everyone what the next governor should know. Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg went with a number. Commissioner Hedberg says Alaska's SNAP payment error rate, the share of food assistance households are paid the wrong amount, is sitting at twenty percent. She says it has to get below six percent by the end of this year. Otherwise, she says, the new administration is looking at a forty-five million dollar price tag. The federal law known as H.R. ties each state's share of SNAP costs to that error rate. Alaska has had the worst SNAP error rate among states three years running. Alaskans elect a governor November third, and the winner takes office December seventh. So the next governor gets sworn in, gets the keys, finds the light switches, and about three weeks later, according to the commissioner, the deadline arrives. Most people get a fruit basket. Commissioner Hedberg says the congressional delegation wrote language into the bill giving Alaska more time, but the work changes have to happen this year. And to be fair to the department, Commissioner Hedberg says there has been progress. When she started four years ago, she says, a SNAP application took twelve months to process. Now she says it averages forty-seven days, against a federal target of thirty. Going from a year to about seven weeks is real. If the line at the store moved like that you would send a thank-you card. The same law also has Alaska renewing Medicaid eligibility every six months for about forty-seven thousand people. That started October first. Commissioner Hedberg told the forum, I still have the same number of staff. Every state employee in that room heard that sentence as a weather advisory.

5:19Trump says his side weighs legal options to remove second Sullivan from Alaska ballot

President Trump posted Wednesday evening that, quote, we are looking at powerful legal options to remove Daniel J. Sullivan Junior of Petersburg from Alaska's U.S. Senate ballot. Alaskans have been voting on that ballot since October nineteenth. The name is printed. The ballots are in mailboxes. The last day state law allowed a candidate to be swapped off was August thirty-first. At this point the most powerful legal option most Alaskans have for a ballot is a pen. President Trump's post did not say what the options were. He called the race totally confusing, and he called the candidacy a scam. He also wrote that the judge who allowed it should be ashamed of himself. That judge is Anchorage Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews. Back in June, the Division of Elections denied the candidacy, concluding it was not filed in good faith. Judge Matthews ruled the division had applied a good faith test found nowhere in the Constitution, state law or the division's own rules. The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed three days later. So the court did look at it. The court just could not find the rule. Judge Matthews also wrote that confusion could be handled by how the names are printed. And they are printed carefully. One line says Sullivan, Daniel J. Junior, with no party. The other says Sullivan, Dan S., with his party and the word Incumbent. That is about as much help as a ballot can give you without reaching up and pointing. President Trump has endorsed Senator Dan Sullivan, the incumbent, and has weighed in before. He told primary voters in August which Sullivan to mark. At an October first White House event he called the other one a fraud. Democrats, for their part, Mary Peltola's campaign, the state party and the national Senate committee, have all denied any involvement in the candidacy. Senator Sullivan's campaign calls it a sham. The candidate himself says professional politicians are trying to bully him off the ballot. Four people are on that Senate ballot, and only two of them are named Sullivan, which is somehow the part that needs a lawyer. President Trump wrote that even one, two or three percent could make the difference. In the August primary, Daniel Sullivan Junior got about two and a half percent. So the President has done the math. He did it in October... after the deadline, after the courts, after the ballots went out. Peltola led that primary. Senator Sullivan was second. Election day is November third, and whatever the powerful legal options turn out to be, they will be arriving in the same mail as everybody's ballot. That is the week. North of Normal is next, with Maggie and Bill.

7:58Sitka cellphone callers can't reach 911; city gives direct numbers for police and fire

Thank you, Walter. Cellphone callers in Sitka cannot reach 911 or the police and fire business lines, the city said Wednesday, and it has posted direct numbers to use until the carriers fix it. Landline calls still connect. So the official guidance is basically: stay home, near the wall jack.

8:18Proposed Moose Range rules limit target shooting to areas that don't exist yet

The state Department of Natural Resources has proposed rules for the Matanuska Valley Moose Range. On state land there, target shooting would be allowed only in designated shooting areas. People asked where those are. The department answered in writing: none have been designated. Friday's answer: nowhere. Bring a target and a time machine.

8:40AIDEA commits $25 million to nuclear startup NuCube as it seeks to go public

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has agreed to invest 25 million dollars in NuCube Energy, an Idaho startup developing a small nuclear reactor. NuCube has not built one. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company describes itself as pre-revenue, with ten full-time employees. Ten. As of June 30th. Smallest reactor in the room is the payroll.

9:12Fairbanks state office building closes again, this time for a water shutoff

State offices at 455 Third Avenue in Fairbanks closed Thursday for a planned water shutoff. State notices show the building also closed in December for no heat, a week later for remediation, and in September for flooding. The notice did not say when the water comes back. At this point the building should qualify for seasonal employment.

9:37Fall hunters topped the Fortymile quota, but a 100-bull winter hunt still opens Oct. 27

Fall hunters took 577 Fortymile caribou bulls. The annual quota was 550, which the Department of Fish and Game says the fall take slightly exceeded. The winter hunt opens October 27th anyway, with room for 100 more bulls. Fish and Game called it sustainable. I call it a sequel nobody greenlit.

9:59Mat-Su Assembly accepts $2.5 million to refrigerate the ice at Big Lake's rink

Good news from Big Lake. The rink there has been waiting on cold weather to make its ice. On Tuesday the Mat-Su Assembly accepted 2.5 million dollars from the Mat-Su Health Foundation so it can make its own. Ice. In Big Lake. Refrigerated ice sheet. New dasher boards. No more waiting on winter. Alaska: solving winter with a foundation check.

10:26Once-rare hybrid crab were nearly half of big Bering Sea males after snow crab collapsed

A cross between snow crab and Tanner crab, once rare in the Bering Sea, surged after the marine heatwave that wiped out billions of snow crab. NOAA Fisheries says the hybrids were never included in the federal plan that sets crab quotas, because they used to be so rare. Nearly half the big males, and the form still will not admit they exist.

10:50Callers posing as troopers are demanding gift cards and crypto to clear warrants

Alaska State Troopers say someone posing as a trooper has been calling Alaskans and demanding gift cards or cryptocurrency to clear warrants. Troopers say law enforcement will never ask you for money over the phone. The real ones want you to stop the car. These ones want you to start a transfer.

11:09State moves to finalize Juneau sewage plant permit despite years out of compliance

Juneau's downtown sewage plant has been out of compliance with federal clean-water rules in 12 of the past 13 quarters, according to federal records. On Friday the state posted a proposed final permit renewing its discharge into Gastineau Channel. Somewhere a regulator is defining success as showing up.

11:32Narwhal Exploration seeks state approval to drill up to three wells in West Harrison Bay

Narwhal Exploration wants state approval to drill up to three exploratory oil wells this winter from ice pads in West Harrison Bay. Its spill plan last year had drilling in early 2026. A revised plan moved it to 2027. Even the company named for a unicorn whale cannot get the calendar to migrate

11:54Military test used HAARP and Cold Bay receivers to detect aircraft beyond the horizon

on time. Alaskan Command says a military test used the University of Alaska Fairbanks' HAARP transmitter near Gakona and new receivers in Cold Bay to detect aircraft over the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. The signal bounces off the ionosphere and comes back down past the horizon. Turns out the most suspicious antenna farm in the state was doing line-of-sight, just farther.

12:20Houston plans a door-to-door income survey to qualify for an $850,000 fire station grant

Houston wants an 850,000 dollar grant for a fire station, which requires that 51 percent of the people it serves be low or moderate income. Federal housing figures put Houston at 49.6, the deputy clerk says. So city staff will go door to door and ask people their income. The fire station is eight hundred fifty thousand dollars away and also one polite conversation away.

12:48Juneau closes Calhoun Avenue pedestrian bridge a year after setting aside money to replace it

Juneau closed the Calhoun Avenue pedestrian bridge on October 9th after a state inspection, saying the 1977 structure had exceeded its useful life. More than a year ago the Assembly approved 750,000 dollars to replace it this year. City records through July show none of it spent. In Juneau you can still cross a resolution. You just cannot cross Calhoun Avenue.

13:13Wisconsin-based super PAC reports $710K urging Alaskans to leave Sullivan blank

A super PAC that has not said who funds it reported spending about 710,000 dollars on ads and mail telling Alaskans to rank Republican Gerald Heikes first for the Senate and leave Senator Dan Sullivan blank. It lists an address in Hudson, Wisconsin. Seven hundred ten thousand dollars, and the instruction is: do nothing. For that kind of money I expected at least a cheese plate with the instructions. Back to me, with the week ahead. Monday is the application deadline for the Board of Big Game Commercial Services Game Management Unit exam. If you guide or carry hunters for a living anywhere in Alaska, that exam stands between you and the work. Tuesday, the Fortymile caribou registration hunt opens for residents, one bull, in Units 20B, 20D, 20E, 20F and 25C. That is winter meat for a lot of freezers. Wednesday, the Board of Fisheries holds its annual work session in Anchorage. It changes no regulations, but it sets the agenda for the ones that touch every fisherman from Southeast to the Arctic. So: guides file paperwork Monday, the caribou get bad news Tuesday, and Wednesday the fish board schedules the arguments. The most powerful legal option is still a pen. This has been Alaska News Saturday Night, join us next weekend, Alaska News dot com.