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False citations show Alaska education official relied on generative AI, raising broader questions
The state’s top education official relied on generative artificial intelligence to draft a proposed policy on cellphone use in Alaska schools, which resulted in a state document citing supposed academic studies that don’t exist. The document did not disclose that AI had been used in its conception. At least some of that AI-generated false information […]
House Republican runs to unseat Republican incumbent in Kenai Peninsula Senate race
Republican Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, is not seeking reelection for a fourth term in the House. Instead, he is running against incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, for the Senate seat in the same region. In the primary, Bjorkman had a 4-percentage-point advantage over Carpenter, 44.3% to 40.3%. A third candidate, Democrat Tina Wegener of Sterling, […]
Alaska joins growing number of states considering crackdown on cellphones in schools
Alaska has joined a growing number of states that are considering cellphone restrictions in schools. Alaska’s Board of Education and Early Development directed the state’s education department to create a policy that limits the use of cellphones in schools during class hours at a meeting this month. Currently, there is no statewide cellphone policy in […]
Alaska Native scholars propose statewide reading standards for the state’s Indigenous languages
Twenty-three Alaska Native languages have been recognized alongside English as official Alaska state languages for a decade, but until this month there was no measure by which its schools could gauge reading competency in them. A group of Alaska Native educators developed reading standards for Alaska Native languages and presented them to the Alaska Board […]
What Alaska voters should know as they consider a repeal of open primaries and ranked choice voting
Alaska was the second state to adopt ranked choice voting in federal and statewide elections, but it may be the first to abandon it. A citizen’s initiative ballot measure that would repeal the state’s open primary and ranked choice voting system made it to the November ballot after legal challenges. As a result, Alaskans will […]
Alaska ranked choice voting repeal effort outraised by a hundredfold, campaign finance filings show
A group opposing the ranked choice voting repeal initiative, No on 2, has raised more than $12 million, according to its latest financial disclosure with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Phillip Izon II, whose campaign to repeal the state’s open primary and ranked voice voting system raised only $120,000, said he is still confident that […]
Alaska again lags in processing food stamp applications, new court filings show
Alaska’s Department of Health is again slipping into a backlog of food stamp applications. The news comes from state data included in a filing from the Northern Justice Project in its class action lawsuit against the state. The suit asks the court to make sure the state issues food stamp benefits on time after years […]
Anchorage Daily News staff votes on unionization, results to come in November
Non-management news staff at Alaska’s most widely read newspaper voted on whether or not to form a union on Tuesday afternoon. Former Anchorage Daily News staff handed out doughnuts in the parking lot, and members of the employee group that is asking to be recognized as the Anchorage News Guild wore t-shirts to show their […]
Grant increases museum access for Alaska Native artists and culture bearers
Sarah Knudsen has been beading for long enough that she says she can recognize where the artist is from in Alaska just by looking at their beadwork. “Gwich’in Athabascan beadwork is mostly flowers and stems. In the Southeast, the motif of their culture is that they have more Eagles and their clans. We don’t have […]
Wright and Eischeid face off again in a close state House race to represent East Anchorage district
In Anchorage’s North Muldoon and Russian Jack neighborhoods, two candidates are facing each other for the second time in two years for a seat in the Alaska House. While Republican incumbent Rep. Stanley Wright is seeking reelection, Democrat Ted Eischeid is on a mission to unseat Wright in the rematch. In 2022, Eischeid lost to […]
Two conservative Republicans compete in a close House race on the northeastern Kenai Peninsula
On the Kenai Peninsula, Republicans Bill Elam and John Hillyer are in a close race to fill the House District 8 seat left vacant as Rep. Ben Carpenter seeks election to the state Senate. Elam says he is running now, after serving on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, because he has seen the difference local […]
Alaska tribes get nearly $14 million in federal grants to address domestic violence, sexual assault
The U.S. Justice Department has announced more than $86 million in grants for American Indian and Alaska Native communities to support survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex trafficking. Nearly $14 million of those dollars were awarded to Alaska tribes and tribal organizations. The news comes after Alaska lawmakers increased state […]