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Weeks from restarting, schools across Alaska are struggling to find teachers
Bobby Bolen is trying to fill around 50 teaching positions at the North Slope Borough School District. “This is our focus 24 hours a day right now – to get classrooms staffed for students,” Bolen said. Bolen is the brand-new human resources director at the North Slope Borough School District, which has around 2,000 students […]
Alaskans can now dial 988 to reach mental health crisis hotline
Alaskans who find themselves in a mental health crisis can now call or text 988 to access a trained crisis counselor. Support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to individuals of all ages. The three-digit number for suicide prevention and mental health crisis support became operational in Alaska and across the […]
Alaskans will get PFD checks slightly earlier this year, governor announces
The state of Alaska will begin distributing payments of around $3,200 to eligible Alaskans on Tuesday, Sept. 20, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on Facebook Friday afternoon. That amount includes this year’s Permanent Fund dividend as well as a one-time energy relief payment. Eligible Alaskans who selected direct deposit on their Permanent Fund dividend application are […]
Alaska school board picks deputy Heidi Teshner as acting commissioner
The Alaska Board of Education and Early Development on Wednesday appointed Heidi Teshner acting commissioner for the state’s education department. Teshner, who was most recently deputy commissioner, is filling the department’s top position following Michael Johnson’s resignation June 30. Board chair James Fields said the board wasn’t in any rush to pick a permanent commissioner. […]
Record number of Alaskans turned out Saturday to support abortion rights
More than 4,000 people attended the Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska rally in Anchorage this past Saturday, making it the largest abortion rights event the nonprofit has ever held, according to its director. The Delaney Park Strip event was also the largest rally in Alaska against the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade to […]
Universal free school meal program going away for about half of Alaska’s schools
During the pandemic, public schools were able to provide free meals to all students, regardless of income, due to federal waivers. Starting this fall, that access is going away for about half the schools in Alaska that participate in the federal school meal program. Families attending these schools will return to pre-pandemic ways of getting […]
Tracing a lineage of Chilkat weavers in ‘A Life Painted in Yarn’
It’s called Between Worlds. And it features a diving whale. “Peering through the bones of this diving whale pattern is this ancestor with her face and hands pressed against the veil between worlds,” Alaskan Chilkat and Ravenstail Weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope said. “Because we talk about the Chilkat dancing blanket as the veil that […]
With post-Roe focus on abortion access, Alaska advocates plan events for Saturday
Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska is holding events in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Homer and Juneau on Saturday focused on abortion access advocacy. The goal of the events is “so that people know how to get involved and that they’re not alone,” said Rose O’Hara-Jolley, Alaska state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska. “We’re going to […]
Neglected and forgotten: Volunteers work to restore Native gravesites in Juneau
Jamiann S’eiltin Hasselquist plays a song from her phone at a gravesite near Lawson Creek on Douglas Island in Juneau. She rests the phone down on the ground. “It was a T’aaḵu Kwáan song, the wolf song. I suspect that he’s of the T’aaḵu Kwáan, and so I’ve played the song to honor him and […]
Seeking efficiency, Alaska breaks its health agency into two new departments
The state agency that led Alaska’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dissolved. As of Friday, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is now two separate agencies: the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Community Services. The split, first proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in late 2020, is intended […]
College of Health building renovation aims to increase number of grads, address worker shortage
A renovation to the University of Alaska’s College of Health building is slated to result in almost double the amount of graduates in three programs, slightly easing the current healthcare worker shortage in the state. The University of Alaska Anchorage is in the early planning stages after receiving a $4 million federal grant. The grant, […]
Constitutional convention ballot question in November becomes focus in Alaska’s abortion fight
With the overturning of Roe, reproductive rights advocates in Alaska are encouraging voters to vote no on a constitutional convention during the general election this coming November, while abortion opponents are encouraging voters to vote yes. The right to have an abortion in Alaska is protected through the state constitution’s provision on privacy, as recognized […]