Jeff Chen

Caring for someone with memory loss can be exhausting both physically and emotionally. The number of people with Alzheimer’s or dementia in Alaska is set…

Roughly 200 people attended the rush hour reproductive rights rally Tuesday in the wake of the release of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that suggests justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Alaska experienced a nearly 70% increase in the number of drug overdose deaths between 2020 and 2021, according to preliminary data from the state health department. That means 245 Alaskans died from an overdose in 2021, including Anchorage resident Bruce Snodgrass. Alaska Public Media’s Jeff Chen brings us a story of his mother who wants to make sure her son is more than a statistic.

We’ve been publishing a “dog of the day” during the Iditarod. Here’s a round-up of who we’ve met so far.

Tempest is Jessie Holmes’s lead dog. She’s a sweetheart who likes to bark at just about anything, he said. Without a dog like her, he said, “you just can’t pull off what we’re trying to pull off.”

“Nice to be in Eskimo country!” said Iñupiaq musher Ryan Redington. He said his mother was born and raised in Unalakleet, and it’s been nice to visit with the community.

The trail and the non-trail looked exactly the same on the way into McGrath. The only way to tell the difference: When they stepped off the trail, they sank into hip-deep snow.

One musher has regrets. Another is focused on canine appetite. And a third is relieved to have survived the "spiciest" trail.

Hugh Neff said his 54-year-old arms were exhausted by the constant bumping. “I’ve taken a few Tylenols, let’s say,” he said.

For his first-place arrival, Burmeister won a pair of locally-made musher mitts and a musher hat.