Programs

This week on Addressing Alaskans we're hearing a debate about Ballot Measure 2, regarding ranked-choice voting and campaign finance disclosures. Proponents say Alaskans need more options and transparency in their elections. Opponents say the initiative would make voting unnecessarily complicated.

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance identifies challenges facing the city. Plus, a Juneau health care facility for children in crisis closes.

New reports are painting a grim picture for the future of polar bears. Studies looking at climate change impacts clarify that without ice, polar bears will have difficulty surviving. Polar bears in Alaska are particularly vulnerable and at risk of disappearing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have just released a polar bear conservation management plan that identifies arctic warming as the largest threat to the bear’s survival. KSKA: Tuesday, July 7, at 10:00 a.m. Listen now:

We look at three major problems hitting Alaska's mushing community ahead of the Iditarod. The Anchorage Daily News' Tegan Hanlon and Alaska Public Media's Zachariah Hughes sit down with host Casey Grove to discuss the whirlwind of recent news, including a doping scandal, musher mutiny, and increasing pressure from animal rights groups.

As 2015 came to a close, Juneau artist MK MacNaughton finished a art project that portrayed 52 of her fellow community members—or, a portrait a week for a year. MacNaughton picked her subjects not for how they look, but for what they do, where they do it, and how hard they work at it. Download Audio

The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer is just the latest version of a story heard way too often in America. Eric Gardner, Breanna Taylor and Aumaud Arbery are just a few of the Black lives that have been cut short due to the entrenched, systemic racism persistent in American culture.

The COVID-19 surge pushes Governor Dunleavy to implement crisis standards of care for the entire state. Also, an investigation has found Alaska makes up a growing share of the country’s fatalities involving commuter, air taxi and charter flights. And a graduate studies program focuses on elevating Indigenous knowledge in science.

This week we’re hearing from Zion Phillips in Anchorage. Phillips is a UAA freshmen and president of UAA’s Black Student Union. Listen now

For the first time in 45 years, the Coast Guard will get a new icebreaker. Also, what a decline in caribou means for subsistence and sport hunters.

Sanders fan vs. ‘superdelegate’: Re-enacting a 100-year feud; ex-EPA official Phil North returns to U.S. for lawsuit between EPA and Pebble; Petersburg schools testing down due to Kansas cable debacle; Legislative council meets to discuss fate of LIO building; Alaska experiences second warmest winter in last 90 years; cost to apply for a marijuana permit? $50K. If you’re lucky; Palmer's Meat and Sausage fights to stay open; tractor falls in Tuntutuliak River causing oil spill; study evaluates economic impact of 'quiet recreation' on BLM lands; new high-quality digital Alaska maps available to the public Download Audio

The Alaska gasline announces a step forward, but the project still faces skepticism. Plus, researchers improve flood forecasts in Juneau.