Justice

A high school student dressed in a suit and tie sits at a table with a laptop while speaking to people off-camera.

Alaska state school board advances proposal to ban trans girls from girls high school sports teams

BY: - June 9, 2023

Alaska’s state school board voted almost unanimously Thursday to advance a proposed regulation that would bar transgender girls from playing on girls’ high school sports teams in the state. The vote will open a 30-day public comment period. After that period, the board will consider amending, rejecting or adopting the proposal. The decision comes amid […]

A 200-mile road project would connect Ambler Metals’ proposed copper mine to the Dalton Highway. (Alaska Division of Mining, Land and Water map)

Court filings provide mixed picture of Ambler road progress

BY: - June 6, 2023

A federal decision on the controversial plan to build a 211-mile road through the Brooks Range foothills to provide access for mining development might come a few months later than previously anticipated, according to recent court documents. However, other recent legal developments indicate positive signs for the road’s prospects. The Bureau of Land Management, the […]

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 7, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The speech marks Biden's first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Hate groups’ political influence growing, watchdog says

BY: - June 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — More than 1,200 hate and anti-government extremist groups were active across the United States in 2022, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest report on the nationwide prevalence of extremists who target people of color, LGBTQ people, Jewish communities and other religious minorities. While the overall number of hate and anti-government groups […]

Bulk food purchased with the $1.68 million Gov. Mike Dunleavy put towards supporting food banks is staged for delivery in Food Bank of Alaska’s Anchorage warehouse on April 21, 2023. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)

State roughly halves the number of Alaskans waiting on food aid, but more than 8,000 remain

BY: - June 2, 2023

The state says it has worked through thousands of backlogged applications, but thousands more Alaskans are still without food benefits.

Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, speaks Tuesday, May 10, 2022, on the floor of the Alaska Senate at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Airlines asks federal judge to dismiss mask lawsuit brought by former senator

BY: - May 31, 2023

Alaska’s leading airline has responded to a lawsuit from a former state senator, saying the legal claim “contains multiple deficiencies,” and asked a federal judge in Anchorage to dismiss it. Former state Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, sued Alaska Airlines in April, saying the airline violated her constitutional rights when it banned her from its […]

A formline drawing of a thunderbird is seen above a basketball hoop and backboard

Alaska state school board considers rule that would limit transgender athletes

BY: - May 31, 2023

The state of Alaska is proceeding with plans to limit transgender students’ ability to participate in sports and activities. On June 8, the state board of education will consider a regulation that would bar transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports and activities under their gender identity. It would limit students to either multi-gender sports […]

The Boney Courthouse building in Anchorage holds the Alaska Supreme Court chambers. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Supreme Court finds former North Pole refinery owner liable for pollution

BY: - May 30, 2023

The former owner of a North Pole petroleum refinery is financially liable for groundwater pollution that has contaminated drinking-water wells around the refinery, the Alaska Supreme Court said in a ruling published Friday. “While we’re still reviewing the decision in its totality, this is a huge win for the public, for the environment, and for […]

State Supreme Court offers new insight into 2021 dispute that brought Alaska to shutdown’s brink

BY: - May 29, 2023

No, the Alaska Attorney General may not sue the Legislature’s administrative wing to bypass a clause of the Alaska Constitution. That was the Alaska Supreme Court’s conclusion in a Friday ruling that offered a longer explanation for a brief decision issued in 2021 during a budgetary dispute that threatened to send the state into a […]

Alaska justices rule against Dunleavy administration in long-running union-dues lawsuit

BY: - May 27, 2023

The Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed that the state of Alaska will not be allowed to go ahead with a plan intended to make it more difficult for state employees to participate in a union. In a ruling released Friday, the court upheld and confirmed a lower-court decision that found the state acted illegally when […]

Research biologists pause among the wetlands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, with the Brooks Range in the background. During the short field research season, the biologists live and work in this remote camp at the edge of the continent. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/USFWS)

Alaska has more than half of America’s wetlands. A new ruling could change how they’re managed

BY: - May 25, 2023

A new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court likely exempts large areas of wetlands in Alaska from federal regulation under the Clean Water Act, a decision that has alarmed environmentalists and could speed road construction, mining and other development projects here. The decision, in a case known as Sackett v. EPA, means that the Environmental […]

Bags of heroin, some laced with the drug fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Bills on drug crimes and confinement of offenders fall short in Alaska Legislature

BY: - May 19, 2023

Two criminal-justice bills remain pending in the Alaska Legislature after Wednesday’s adjournment of the 2023 session, even though each passed one of the bodies. The first bill would reclassify drug-overdose deaths as second-degree murders instead of manslaughter cases. It passed the House on May 11 but failed to advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. […]

Sen. Robert Myers, R-North Pole, smiles while talking to another senator on Monday, May 16, 2022, in the Alaska Senate chamber in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Legislature votes to allow Alaska prisons to issue state IDs

BY: - May 16, 2023

​​The state’s prison system could soon issue state IDs to prisoners who don’t have one. A newly passed bill is intended to ease prisoners’ reentry into society after incarceration. The House passed Senate Bill 119 on Saturday with a unanimous vote. The Senate passed it last week. Valid ID is required for everything from getting […]