Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
Trump campaign reveals list of Alaska Republican co-chairs and supporters
Alaska Republican leaders from all parts of the GOP spectrum are uniting behind Donald Trump for president. On Monday, the Trump campaign’s Alaska branch released a list of honorary co-chairs. Download Audio
Feds may finally sell Anchorage lot where Archives never went
The federal government owns about 60 percent of Alaska, but its portfolio is about to shrink, just a tiny bit. Congress this afternoon passed a bill allowing the federal government to finally shed ownership of a nine-acre lot in Midtown Anchorage, once planned as the Alaska home of the National Archives. Download Audio
Sullivan: U.S. economy nothing to boast about
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan gave the weekly Republican address on Saturday. The Alaska senator took the opportunity to bash President Obama for what he says is an anemic economy.
Hot, dry conditions have Alaska fire pros on alert
The images of a wildfire raging through subdivisions in Fort McMurray, Alberta last week were horrifying. Firefighters say the fire season is already well underway in Alaska, too, and they need citizens to do their part to keep their communities safe. Download Audio
Shell forfeits Arctic leases once worth $2b
Months after halting its exploration of the Chukchi Sea, Shell is now giving up all but one of its leases there. It will keep the parcel that includes Burger J, the sole test well it completed in its $7 billion Arctic exploration program. Download Audio
GOP supports mandatory drug-testing for welfare applicants
The Alaska Republican Party wants to require drug testing for welfare recipients. That’s one of the new planks it added to the party platform at its convention in Fairbanks over the weekend.
New GOP chairman calls for unity, but party fault lines still show
While Republicans nationally are divided for and against Donald Trump, the discord at the state convention in Fairbanks this weekend had a more local flavor. New party chairman Tuckerman Babcock asked fellow Republicans to let go of their grudges, which weren't far below the surface.
Alaska GOP names Babcock party chair
Tuckerman Babcock, a long-time Republican strategist and former aide to Gov. Wally Hickel, is the new chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
Republicans in Fairbanks vie to be national delegates
A few hundreds Republicans are gathered in Fairbanks today for the state party convention. APRN’s Liz Ruskin is reporting from there. Download Audio
Political intrigue at the Alaska Republican Convention
The state Republican Convention started this afternoon in Fairbanks. We sent APRN reporter Liz Ruskin to check it out. Download Audio
Republicans converge on Fairbanks, with eyes for Cleveland
If Donald Trump doesn’t have the presidential nomination in the bag by July, the Republican National Convention could be the most exciting in decades. Twenty-eight Alaskans get to participate, and this week Alaska Republicans will choose who gets to go to Cleveland. Download Audio
Alaska Republican donors go to court to boost campaign contribution caps
Money is the lifeblood of a political campaign, and if a legal challenge to Alaska’s campaign contribution limits succeeds, there could be more of it. APRN’s Liz Ruskin attended the first day of a trial in U.S. District Court in Anchorage today. Download Audio
How Murkowski crafted an energy bill that 80 senators have a stake in
The U.S. Senate is the final resting place for a lot of legislation, but today it passed a broad energy bill. It's passage is a political coup for its sponsor, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who says she had lots of co-authors. Download Audio
U.S. Senate passes Murkowski’s energy modernization bill
The U.S. Senate this morning passed Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s energy modernization bill, by a vote of 85-12.
EPA retiree, pulled back into Pebble, says he’s done
Retired EPA scientist Phil North, the alleged mastermind behind the effort to block the Pebble mine, spent a full day answering questions from a congressional committee Thursday. Now, he says he's done with the issue - or he hopes he is - and he's heading to Bali. Download Audio
Mallott, Murkowski try to put human face on King Cove road
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallottt was in Washington, D.C. this morning to make another plea for a road between King Cove and the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. Congressman Don Young threatened to build the road himself. Download Audio
Legislature tries again to let voters choose state AG
Proposals to make the state attorney general an elected position have appeared year after year in the Alaska Legislature. This time the measure, sponsored by Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, has moved through three committees and is pending in Senate Rules. Both sides of this debate -- pro and con -- say they want to keep politics out of the AG’s office. Download Audio
Growing a modern workforce in Ketchikan
The Ketchikan Shipyard had a reputation in the 1980s and '90s as a giant money pit. The state spent millions to build it, and critics complained it couldn’t do cost-effective repairs. It closed for two years. Then, with big infusions of public cash, the yard got going again. It is now building two major new ferries. Today, a shipyard executive spoke at a U.S. Senate hearing about what he hopes will be the yard’s new reputation, as a model of workforce development for modern manufacturing. Download Audio
FAA bill hits rough patch
Congress is back in Washington this week. High on its to-do list is passing an FAA bill before legal authority for the aviation agency expires in mid-July. The House bill includes a controversial provision that would privatize air-traffic control, but that bill is in a holding pattern and hasn’t been approved by the full house. The Senate is trying to pass its own bill. Download Audio
Forest Service chief: Firefighting cost leaves little room for prevention, other programs
The Forest Service is in a bad place: To pay the cost of fighting mega fires, the agency has had to raid other programs, including its fire prevention budget. Sen. Lisa Murkowski supports a plan to end so-called “fire borrowing.” But Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told her it’s not penciling out as they’d hoped. Download Audio