Clarise Larson

In this newscast: Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium opened a new urgent care facility in downtown Juneau over the weekend; King salmon sport fishing opened today in Juneau’s hatchery harvest areas; Monday was the last day to officially begin a campaign for state or federal office in Alaska, after a few shakeups late last week. As Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone reports, there were also some twists in the hours before today’s deadline; Petersburg’s local tribe launched its first canoe in a century last Sunday setting out on a canoe Journey to the biennial Celebration Festival in Juneau. Pullers from around the region joined the highly-anticipated launch out of Petersburg, and dozens of people gathered dockside to see them off on the multi-day Journey.

In this newscast: Thousands of people will converge in Juneau next week to dance, sing and showcase their Indigenous culture; More than 100 Sitkans gathered at the Starrigavan boat launch Thursday morning for a blessing and send-off of the “Ancestral Echoes” canoe heading to Celebration in Juneau. Lingít elders Ed Peele and Harvey Kitka offered a blessing accompanied by drumming and singing before the 12 paddlers got into the red, blue, and black canoe to leave on their five-day journey to the capital city; The state’s first Justice Summit for Alaska’s missing and murdered Indigenous people got underway in Anchorage on Wednesday with a call to push harder for healing, learning, and action; Oil prices are going up because of the war in Iran, and in turn, the price of plane tickets has increased. Some of the hardest hit passengers are those in Unalaska, an 800-mile plane ride from Anchorage; May in Utqiagvik means whaling. But the community just landed its first spring whale last weekend, very late in the season.

In this newscast: The estate of a man who died after he was struck by a City and Borough of Juneau-owned truck has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the employee driving the vehicle; Former Gov. Bill Walker is considering another run for the state’s top elected office. Walker filed a letter of intent with Alaska campaign regulators this morning; A Juneau lawmaker’s bill that seeks to increase state funding for free legal aid to vulnerable Alaskans passed into law without the governor’s signature last weekA federally funded program aims to install thousands of heat pumps across southern Alaska by late 2029. ; But the program’s first year has been slow. As Avery Ellfeldt reports for the Alaska Desk, the groups managing the effort are ramping up advertising in hopes of boosting interest, and reducing energy bills; As the Arctic takes on greater geopolitical significance, Alaska has assets of interest to the U.S. military.