Associated Press

University of Alaska’s president is facing a no-confidence vote related to a decision to headquarter the school of education at the Juneau campus instead of Fairbanks.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the Fairbanks Faculty Senate is expected to take up the issue Monday.

Proposed resolutions find no confidence in President Jim Johnsen and put forward ways to keep faculty more involved in decision-making.

Initial plans were to consolidate the education program in Fairbanks.

Plans changed to the University of Alaska Southeast after Juneau lawmakers lobbied and the city committed to a $1 million donation.

The Board of Regents approved the move in December.

Faculty Senate President Orion Lawlor said the goal is to send a message and encourage the president and board to include faculty in making decisions.

Editor’s Note: The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported the UAF Faculty Senate drafted two resolutions. The first resolution voices disapproval over the decision to house the school of education at UAS. The second raises broad concerns with President Johnsen’s leadership and his decisions on a University of Alaska cost-savings initiative called Strategic Pathways. 

Health officials are seeking information on dogs and veterinary care in rural Alaska to create a base of data that could be used to pursue funding.

KYUK-AM reports there were 982 recorded dog bites in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in the last 10 years.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium considers this a public health concern.

Children younger than 10 years old represented more than half of the people bitten and many of the incidents involved stray dogs.

Consortium environmental health consultant Brian Berube said stray dogs pose many risks to sanitation.

He said more visits from veterinarians would help in addressing the issue.

Berube said the surveys going to various groups will help gather more data and could open funding options.

People can also take the survey online.

Columbus Day would be known as Indigenous Peoples Day in Alaska under legislation that passed the state House Friday.

House Bill 78, from Democratic Rep. Dean Westlake, passed 31-7. It next goes to the Senate.

Bills seeking to designate Indigenous Peoples Day in Alaska failed last year. One of the bills, like Westlake’s proposal, would have marked Indigenous Peoples Day on Columbus Day. Another would have set it for Oct. 18, Alaska Day.

Columbus Day, which falls on the second Monday in October, is a federal holiday but not a state holiday in Alaska. For the last two years, Gov. Bill Walker has proclaimed that day to be Indigenous Peoples Day.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alaska is one of four states considering such legislation this year.

An underwater volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands has erupted more than two dozen times since mid-December and may keep going for months.

Geologists at the Alaska Volcano Center continue to monitor Bogoslof Volcano because its ash clouds threaten aircraft.

Most of the 6,000-foot volcano is underwater. The summit forms tiny Bogoslof Island 850 miles southwest of Anchorage.

U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Chris Waythomas says at least two factors are at play in the eruptions.

Dissolved gases under high pressure in magma explode when they approach the Earth’s surface. Magma also explodes when it comes in direct contact with seawater.

Waythomas says eruptions could end when the system runs out of magma or if the volcano extrudes a dome above sea level, lessening the interaction of magma and seawater.

The official start of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race could take place in Fairbanks because of poor conditions on key parts of the nearly 1,000-mile route from Anchorage to Nome.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the Iditarod Trail Committee announced Wednesday that a decision on the location of the restart, which marks the beginning of actual racing, will come Feb. 10.

The ceremonial start kicks off in Anchorage March 4, with the restart currently scheduled for the following day in Willow.

Since the first Iditarod 44 years ago, the restart has been held in Fairbanks twice, in 2003 and 2015.

Iditarod officials considered holding the restart in Fairbanks again last year because of poor snow conditions in south-central Alaska, but ultimately decided to keep it in Willow.

Many Republican legislators are pushing for a tighter cap on state spending than the limit enshrined in Alaska’s constitution more than 30 years ago.

It’s being billed as a way to restore public confidence in lawmakers’ ability to responsibly manage state dollars. But not everyone thinks it’s a good idea.

Under the existing cap, which excludes certain types of spending, this year’s budget could not exceed $10.1 billion. Current spending falls well below that.

So far, Republicans have proposed three constitutional measures aimed at restricting spending growth.

These come as lawmakers, faced with a multibillion-dollar deficit, are expected to debate deeper budget cuts, taxes and use of earnings from Alaska’s oil-wealth fund to make ends meet.