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 forest floor

Alaskans react to Trump Administration’s Roadless Rule rollback in the Tongass

Proponents of the change say that the industry is at risk of disappearing, while environmentalists and Indigenous tribes say that logging threatens the ecosystem.
A square tan and grey building

State blames obsolete technology on delay in $300 weekly unemployment payments

Dunleavy says he hopes the state can start paying the benefits by the end of this week.
Red billowy objexxt with blue rods latching onto them

In the Mat-Su and on the Kenai Peninsula COVID-19 case rates are doubling every week

The Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai Peninsula boroughs are seeing the most rapid increase in coronavirus cases in Alaska.
UAA Chancellor Cathy Sandeen at a desk.

UAA Chancellor Cathy Sandeen takes new job in California

The news of her departure comes about two years after Sandeen became the leader of Alaska’s largest public university.
Man in car. Subtitle quotes him saying "you aren't held to your promises"

New Pebble tapes: ‘You aren’t held to your promises’ in election season, mine exec says

The group that captured Pebble Mine executives bragging about their sway over Alaska's senators and governor have released new footage.

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute says it’s resuming admissions after investigating COVID-19 cases

The decision is a reversal from Friday, when the health department said that the state-run psychiatric hospital would not admit new patients for two weeks after four of patients tested positive for the virus.
An open gym with cots on the floor

Hospital overflow sites remain at ‘ready,’ but officials worry about staffing

The hospital overflow site at Alaska Airlines Center can be ready to use within 48 hours, according to a state health official, but it’s not preparing the facility just yet.
Two women in conversation. One sits at a table in front of a laptop. The other stands next to the table.

In Alaska’s US House race, Galvin campaign goes big AND goes home

Rep. Don Young's challenger is running a $4 million campaign, much of it spent on ads. But in Galvin's Anchorage split-level, it's a more home-spun effort.
A female teacher points to a word projected on a white board in a classroom with three students sitting a tables facing the front of the classroom

Concerns about in-person learning reach Anchorage Assembly

Top leaders from the Anchorage School District will present the plan next week to bring some students back into classrooms starting Nov. 16.
Steel boats on a grassy bank in a brown muddy river

Coast Guard ends search for 7 boaters missing from Quinhagak

Local search efforts continued for the boaters, who were last seen near Eek.
Lori Townsend talks with experts on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women in Alaska.

Addressing the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women in Alaska | Alaska Insight

Alaska has some of the highest rates in the country of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. After years of organizing around the issue, advocates are seeing more attention and resources brought to bear.
Governor Dunleavy, wearing a greenish zip up jacket, gestures as he talks

On masks, Alaska Gov. Dunleavy tells local leaders to use power they say they don’t have

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has resisted imposing a mask mandate and maintains that such decisions are best made by local governments. But municipal officials in pockets of the state where COVID-19 is spreading fastest say they lack the legal power to require mask-wearing.

Sullivan ad criticized for ‘anti-Semitic’ images

The campaign of Sen. Dan Sullivan is taking heat for an ad that critics say is anti-Semitic.
One woman sits at a table flanked by two older men

With deadline looming, Dunleavy and legislative leaders trade letters on potential special session

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s chief of staff and the two top legislative leaders traded letters on Friday over whether the Legislature should call itself into a special session to extend Alaska’s public health emergency disaster declaration.
A white man in a orange patagonia jacket standing next to a window

Campaigns make last push for votes in Alaska before election

The major candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race are making their last push for votes ahead of Tuesday’s election, with the campaigns calling Alaskans and knocking on doors and the candidates holding last-minute rallies and stops.
A black and red tender with a white cabin with a hilly spruce tree forest in the background

Settlement in deadly crab boat sinking calls for over $9M

The owners of a Seattle-managed crab boat have reached a settlement of more than $9 million with two survivors and the families of four crew members who died last year when the Scandies Rose went down in the Gulf of Alaska.

Expecting higher pandemic traffic, hundreds of Alaskans ask for better Turnagain Pass plowing

More than 1,600 Alaskans are asking Governor Mike Dunleavy to restore money for snow plowing in Turnagain Pass, which they say is needed more than ever during the ongoing pandemic.

Here’s how one Anchorage elementary school is preparing for in-person learning

Across the Anchorage School District, elementary school teachers and staff are preparing for younger students to return to classrooms on Nov. 16.
A sign in a grassy field reads "Vote here today."

PHOTOS: Election Day across Alaska

Here's a look at election day around Alaska.
A white woman with a black facemask and blond hair holds an "I voted sticker:

‘It’s voting day’: In Alaska’s largest city, residents head to polls

Advocates said that despite concern elsewhere in the country, voting in Anchorage was mostly an example of democracy working as it should.