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People walk on the dock in front of Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. The ship docked in Juneau on July 23, 2021. (Bridget Dowd / KTOO) Cruise ships have returned to Southeast Alaska, but they aren’t full. Southeast businesses say they’re a hopeful sign, but this isn’t an easy year. Listen to this story:…

Auke Lake (Gillfoto / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) The Ironman triathlon is coming to Juneau next year. It will be the first time the event is ever held in Alaska. The race will be on Aug. 7, 2022. It’ll include a 2.4-mile swim in Auke Lake, a 112-mile bike ride out the road…

Avery Barnaby dances on the playground during her first day back to school as a first-grader at Sayéik Gastineau Community School on Jan. 14, 2021, in Juneau. Juneau’s Board of Education has decided that when school starts in August, everyone inside of school district buildings will be required to wear masks. (Rashah McChesney/KTOO) With less…

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, says we need to make sure that people with compromised immune systems are protected. (Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images( Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden, says an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose is needed for people who have compromised immune…

Two people pick up donations of chum and king salmon that will be distributed to villages along the lower Yukon river. (Olivia Ebertz/KYUK) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly podcast.  Thursday on…

The village of Nuiqsut in June 2018. (Elizabeth Harball/Alaska’s Energy Desk) Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Thursday that his administration will not appeal a ruling earlier this week that the state must maintain a more than $1 billion endowment to lower electricity costs in high-cost areas.  Dunleavy said in a statement that the ruling provided clarity…

The Northwest Arctic village of Noatak. (Photo courtesy of Northwest Arctic Borough) COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Northwest Alaska, according to regional health care provider Maniilaq Association.  Maniilaq announced 31 residents in its service area have tested positive for the virus since Sunday. Maniilaq serves Kotzebue, the surrounding 10 Northwest Arctic Borough villages and…

Jose Urrutia gets a nostril swab on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, afternoon at the Loussac Library, one of Anchorage’s free COVID-19 testing sites. The Municipality has seen a significant increase in the amount of individuals getting tested. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Demand for COVID-19 testing is soaring in Anchorage.  To reduce wait times, the city has…

With its majestic views and status as a National Monument, float planes tours of Misty Fjords are a popular choice for visitors who come to Ketchikan on cruises, tours, and as independent travelers. (Wikimedia Commons) The pilot of a sightseeing plane that crashed last week near Ketchikan, killing all six on board, was involved in…

A server delivers food to customers dining at a restaurant in Los Angeles on Aug. 7. Restaurants are boosting pay to attract workers, and that could have an impact on already-high inflation.(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) A lot of workers are getting wage hikes this year as employers compete for scarce labor. But it’s…

Server Katie Grato brings water to a large table on a Wednesday evening in July at 49th State Brewing. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Alaska’s racial and ethnic diversity increased over the last 10 years, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The share of Alaska’s population that identifies as a race or…

Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Center (Greg Kim/KYUK) The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation is requiring its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, it announced in a statement this week. YKHC said the policy started last Thursday due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant and Alaska’s limited critical care infrastructure. Unvaccinated employees have 30 days to receive…

A rainy day in Anchorage on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. (Matthew Faubion / Alaska Public Media) Sunday was the rainiest day Anchorage has seen in almost six years. Meanwhile, parts of Western Alaska recently saw their wettest month on record, and forecasters are expecting an atmospheric river to soak Southeast. National Weather Service climate researcher…

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The oil would eventually impact more than 1,100 miles of non-continuous coastline in Alaska, making the Exxon Valdez the largest oil spill in U.S. waters at the time. (Creative Commons by NOAA Office of Response and Restoration/Wikimedia)…

Spring Creek Correctional Center. (Department of Corrections photo) Prisons in Seward, Ketchikan and Eagle River are on lockdown due to COVID-19 cases. Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, a maximum security prison that currently houses about 500 people, reported 21 general population cases Wednesday.  In Eagle River, Hiland Mountain Correctional Center, a women’s prison, is…

Alaska Airlines flight landing at the Juneau Airport. (Heather Bryant/KTOO) Alaska Airlines says it’s “looking closely” at a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its workforce, which includes some 1,800 employees in Alaska. In a prepared statement late Wednesday, the company said the highly contagious delta variant is driving its consideration of a mandate, which would not…

Rain falls on July 19, 2021. Smoke particles in helps water in the atmosphere form rain drops, which can sometimes cause heavier precipitation. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska Public Media on Facebook and on Twitter @AKPublicNews. And subscribe to the Alaska News Nightly…

Misty Fiords National Monument. (File photo by Leila Kheiry/KRBD) Improved weather conditions Wednesday allowed crews to access the site where a sightseeing plane crashed last week in Southeast Alaska, killing six people. Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska division, said he was hopeful the wreckage could be returned to Ketchikan later…

Kaliksuna Autumn Madison (left) was named 2021 Miss World Eskimo-Indian Olympics on Friday. Other finalists are Ashley Luke of Healy Lake (center left), Lucy Gordon of Utqiaġvik (center right) and Laura Ekada of Nulato (right). (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media) Stories are posted on the statewide news page. Send news tips, questions, and comments to news@alaskapublic.org. Follow Alaska…

Metlakatla’s longhouse on Oct. 3, 2020. (Eric Stone/KRBD) The Southeast Alaska community of Metlakatla has gone into lockdown after confirming seven new COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to a public notice by the Metlakatla Indian Community. Of those seven, one person has been hospitalized. The Monday night notice urged the public to stay home for 72 hours…

The Anchorage School District displayed the variety of face masks and face shields it will have available for students and staff on Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. (Tegan Hanlon/Alaska Public Media) The debate over whether to require children to wear masks at school in Anchorage is intensifying with just a week before school starts. Monday evening,…