Alaska / Public News Service

The Alaska Energy Authority has funded three large solar energy projects in the largely rural state, efforts that could be derailed under changes in the new Trump administration budget. (Adobe Stock)

Federal budget hobbles Alaska wind and solar industries

Rural Alaska power customers are likely to pay higher electricity rates as a result of the elimination of incentives to switch away from traditional f…

Places like rural Dutch Harbor, Alaska, rely heavily on diesel powered generators for a majority of their power production. (Adobe Stock)

Federal cuts threaten already challenged Alaskan power grid

Despite last-minute concessions in the Trump administration's budget, which removes alternative energy tax incentives, rural Alaska power providers …

Utility providers in rural Alaska are using sources of alternative energy production to overcome the geographical and logistical challenges to getting electricity into some of the most remote parts of the state, seeking to reduce reliance on traditional power distributions systems. (Adobe Stock)

Rural Alaska village banks on alternative energy as economic driver

Despite debate in Washington over ending incentives to help Alaska's smallest places move away from traditional oil and gas-based power generation in …

Utilities have invested nearly $700 million in renewable energy projects throughout the last decade across Alaska, from small rural villages to Anchorage, according to The Nature Conservancy. (Adobe Stock)<br />

Tax incentive cuts could stall rural Alaska deployable power

Potential cuts to alternative energy tax incentives could slow alternative energy distribution in the rural parts of Alaska. Lawmakers in Congress …

The majority of Alaska's energy producers are small, municipally owned companies and did not qualify for most energy tax credits before the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022. (Adobe Stock/AI)

Big budget bill would roll back tax credits for AK power co-ops

Energy experts said cuts proposed for renewable energy tax credits in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" could be a significant blo…

The annual Kids Count Data Book found 12% of Alaska's children live in poverty, 78% of fourth graders are not proficient in reading, 7% lack health insurance and 32% live in single-parent families. (Adobe Stock)

Report: Alaska ranks 40th among states for child well-being

Children's advocates said Alaska has failed to adequately fund essential child and family services, consistently leaving critical programs under-…

Women of childbearing age make up nearly 20% of Alaska's population. Many live in areas not accessible by road, leaving them vulnerable to a loss of critical medical care under proposed cuts to federal social service programs, such as Medicaid. (Adobe Stock)

Report: Medicaid cuts would hobble rural Alaska health care

Proposed cuts to Medicaid would put hospitals in jeopardy in rural states, where health care services are already scarce, according to new research …

Many rural Alaska communities rely on diesel-fueled generators for electricity. Those could be in jeopardy if the Inflation Reduction Act is repealed. (Adobe Stock)

Repeal of clean energy incentives would hurt AK economy, families, advocates say

Some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, are considering repealing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy incentives…

American Heart Association Alaska executive director Kristin George delivers one of hundreds of CPR and first aid kits to a remote village in rural Alaska. (AHA-Alaska)

Heart Association spreads CPR, AED lifesaving skills across rural Alaska

The Alaska branch of the American Heart Association is helping save lives by teaching the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external …

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of all serious mental health conditions begin by the age of 14 and 75% by age 24. (Adobe Stock)

Alaska lawmakers work to improve in-school mental health care

A new report card on in-school mental health services found some states, including Alaska, are making significant progress toward meeting policy …

International students, who make up more than 5% of all U.S. higher education students, may be impacted by a federal policy change that newly allows ICE to make arrests on campuses. (Adobe Stock)

Higher ed experts advise campuses on how to prepare for ICE

On President Donald Trump's second day in office, his Secretary of Homeland Security rescinded a Biden-era rule barring Immigration and Customs …

For many in Alaska, a trip to the doctor can mean an airplane or boat ride. Medicaid plays a significant role in making sure rural Alaskans have transportation for health care. (Adobe Stock)

Medicaid cuts could hurt low-income Alaskans, damage health care system

Experts said Medicaid cuts proposed in next year's federal budget could hurt almost 250,000 Alaskans and threaten thousands of jobs in the state's hea…

Recent data from KFF Health show 90% of Americans said there is a mental health crisis in the country. Alaska's geography and racial and cultural diversity makes providing adequate mental health services especially challenging. (Adobe Stock)

Addressing Alaska's 'staggering' mental health care crisis

Advocacy groups said the country needs a better national system for responding to mental health emergencies. In Alaska, the absence of services for …

Many rural residents in Alaska must travel long distances to see a doctor. Proposed cuts to the Medicaid program could slash funding for those trips, making access to care more difficult and expensive. (Adobe Stock)

Health care advocate says future of Medicaid critical for rural Alaskans

A new report finds that significant cuts proposed for Medicaid funding would disproportionately affect rural and small-town residents in Alaska and ma…

As of 2022, there were more than 79,000 Alaskans on Medicare. (Adobe Stock)

Advocates: Alaskans should review health plans during open enrollment

With open enrollment season underway, advocates are reminding Alaskans to consider their options before the window closes. Medicare's open enrollment …

The most recent estimate by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Cook Inlet beluga whales is 331 individual animals, down from 1,300 in 1979. (Adobe Stock)

Alaskan belugas face threat from dwindling food supply, pollution

Beluga whales are known as the "canaries of the sea" for their melodious songs but conservation groups are concerned one pod in Alaska could be render…

Advocates are calling for higher teacher salaries to help Alaska can recruit and retain more educators. (Jacob Lund/Adobestock)

Report: Alaska ranks near bottom in overall child well-being

Alaska ranks 41st in the nation in terms of overall child well-being, according to the new 2024 Kids Count Data Bookfrom the Annie E. Casey …

Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier has narrowed and thinned by about 2,000 feet during the past four decades. (Adobe Stock)

Southeast Alaska is heating homes with its rainfall

By Taylor Kate Brown for Grist.Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Alaska News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Serv…

Well-child visits include vision screenings, but if a primary care provider detects a vision problem CHIP also covers comprehensive eye exams and necessary treatment. (Tyler Olson/Adobe Stock)

Report: AK covers fewer kids with public insurance vs. 2019

A new report shows the number of children covered by Medicaid varied widely between states as pandemic-era protections were lifted, with Alaska …

Alaska's Brooks Range is home to critical caribou habitat that covers about 157,000 square miles, which is equal in size to the state of Montana. (Adobe Stock)

Opposition grows to major road project in AK's iconic Brooks Range

Opposition is growing among hunters and anglers to a proposed road in Alaska's iconic Brooks Range. The state has invested millions in the project…

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has about 6,800 students. (Jacob/Adobe Stock)

Two AK schools focus on remedies for second-year college 'stop-outs'

A group of colleges is exploring ways to keep students enrolled in their first two years - the time period when they're most likely to drop out…

An assessment of whether to develop on Alaska's D-1 lands includes 28 million acres, an area larger than the state of Virginia. (BLM Alaska/Wikimedia Commons)

AK Tribes to BLM: protect lands from extraction

Alaska tribes are urging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to keep protections in place for more than 28 million acres they say are critical to …

Roughly 68 million culverts carry roadways that were built with design approaches dating from the 1950s, which did not consider the needs of aquatic organisms to move up and downstream, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. (Adobe Stock)

Millions in Federal Money for Culvert Fixes in Alaska

Fish passage is set to improve in the Northwest with an investment from Congress's bipartisan infrastructure law. The Biden administration has …

A new report finds 8% of Alaska children live in high poverty areas. (Tyler/Adobe Stock)

Report: Alaska Children Struggle in Key Areas

Alaska's children face challenges in a number of areas, according to a new report. The Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kids Count Data Book ranks …

Alaska has more than 322 million acres of public lands, more than three times the acreage of the entire state of California. (Adobe Stock)

BLM Grants Alaska $5 Million for Wildland Waterway Restoration

The Bureau of Land Management has announced a $161 million investment in habitat and wildland restoration projects in 11 western states. Alaska is …

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