Top Stories

News stories, radio and TV episodes that warrant one of six spots on our homepage. The homepage is in chronological order of publication date, so stories are moved off the homepage as more are categorized “top stories.”

A mirrored building.

Anchorage Assembly overrides Bronson’s veto of the creation of a homelessness task force

The Assembly also overrode the mayor's veto of federal COVID-19 relief money.
a dirty revolver dug up from the ground

Palmer man convicted of murder in drug robberies won’t face death penalty after all

Prosecutors say John Pearl Smith II, 36, shot and killed Ben Gross and Crystal Denardi in a garage during another attempted robbery in 2016 in Wasilla, after which he burned the bodies and garage.
Students eat lunch of homemade pizza and caesar salad at the Albert D. Lawton Intermediate School, in Essex Junction, Vt., Thursday, June 9, 2022. The pandemic-era federal aid that made school meals available for free to all public school students — regardless of family income levels — is ending, raising fears about the effects in the upcoming school year for families already struggling with rising food and fuel costs. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

As students go back to school, many face a lunch bill for the first time in 2 years

Parents and schools prepare to lose free meals provided as federal assistance during the pandemic at a time when families are feeling the strain of high food, gas, housing and utility costs.
COVID Testing Center

Alaska’s COVID ‘superstorm’ experience of 2021 offers lessons for future pandemics, study says

Alaska's 2021 COVID pattern showed positive impacts from vaccination but negative impacts from early easing of protections, study says.

Electric buses are in the works for Ketchikan and Metlakatla

In Metlakatla, the bus will run to the ferry terminal, which is 14 miles outside of town — a first for the community.
two fish swim together in foggy water

Yukon River chum and coho runs remain too low to open subsistence harvest

Biologists do not expect either to reach their goals for fish reaching their spawning grounds.
A woman looks out a window from inside a building with plywood on the interior walls.

Alaska faces unique housing challenges, as feds send millions of dollars to help, top HUD official says

Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman was in Alaska recently. Her trip was filled with meetings and tours in Anchorage, Wasilla and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta -- including the villages of Napakiak and Oscarville -- to learn about Alaska's housing challenges and to see the work the department has been funding already.
a sticker says "I voted" with feet

Groups sue over lack of process to fix mail ballot mistakes

Alaska elections officials are violating voters’ rights by not providing a process through which voters can fix mistakes on mail ballot envelopes, a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
a memorial of flowers, pictures and array of personal items

Military man charged in fiery Anchorage crash that killed 2

A member of the military charged with manslaughter in a fiery crash in Anchorage that killed two people told authorities he was so drunk, he didn’t remember driving, according to charging documents.
a man in a tie sitting in front of a flag and behind a microphone

Biden is canceling up to $10K in student loans, $20K for Pell Grant recipients

President Biden announced a sweeping effort to forgive up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients, and up to $10,000 for other borrowers making under $125,000 a year.
a humpback sticks its tail out of the water with a boat far behind it

One of Juneau’s most-sighted whales has a new calf, and it’s a bit too bold

A humpback calf appears to be okay after an encounter with a tour boat in near Juneau that left some of the whale’s skin on the boat’s hull.
photo collage of three people

Peltola gains in Alaska’s updated special U.S. House election results

Democrat Mary Peltola increased her lead in the special U.S. House race. But no second-choice ballots have been counted.

Tara Sweeney ends campaign for U.S. House, opening spot for Libertarian on November ballot

Sweeney had substantial financial support from Alaska Native corporations and their affiliates. But she said she doesn't think she can win.
a herd of caribouo eat grass in some rolling hills

The last remaining private bidder in last year’s ANWR lease sale pulls out

Knik Arm Services says it doesn’t want to wait out legal battles over development in the refuge.
exterior: a plane being towed away after making an emergency landing

Private plane makes emergency landing on Bethel road after running out of fuel

Tyler Bartlett and his copilot were just 3 miles away from the Bethel airport on Sunday afternoon when they felt the Cessna 172 begin to sputter.
a man in a tie

Anchorage HR director ‘walled off’ from investigating library staff complaints

HR director Niki Tshibaka has faced criticism over his support for Deputy Library Director Judy Eledge as complaints regarding her conduct were being investigated by the city’s Office of Equal Opportunity Director.
a man in a kuskpuk speaks into a microphone

Former Alaska state Rep. Westlake died after son ‘pummeled’ him, according to manslaughter charges

Tallon Westlake, 36, faces charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering in the death of his 62-year-old father, Dean, who was from Kiana and served in the Alaska House of Representatives from January to December 2017.
view of a mountainside of a docked cruise ship

Rockslides are battering a Skagway cruise ship dock and crushing the town’s economy

Skagway’s mayor says the city needs to do something about the slides so it can get back to the full load of cruise ships its economy depends on. And that needs to happen fast.