Yvonne Krumrey

In this newscast:

• The Alaska Department of Transportation is beginning to host open houses on a possible new bridge to connect Juneau and Douglas,
• The annual Tribal Assembly meeting of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida discussed the five Southeast communities left out of ANCSA,
• The first large cruise ship of the season arrives in Juneau on Monday, and early season cruise ships are predicted to have lower occupancy,
• The Interior Department will open 27 million acres of federal land for Alaska Native Vietnam veterans,
• Governor Mike Dunleavy’s proposal to overhaul environmental regulation of cruise ships has passed the Senate Resources Committee

In this newscast:

• A marine geology expert says signs suggest upward movement of magma below Mt. Edgecumbe,
• Alaskans for Better Elections taught Juneau residents about voting changes with M&Ms,
• State health data shows Alaska has a high seven-day case rate

On Tuesday morning, the City and Borough of Juneau announced that masks will no longer be required on public transportation like city buses or at Juneau International Airport.

The decision happened fast. On Monday, a federal judge struck down the mask mandate for public transportation. On social media, people posted videos of passengers taking off their masks mid-flight when pilots announced the change.

The next day, the City and Borough of Juneau announced that it wouldn’t require masks on city buses anymore. That mask mandate had been in place since March of 2020. 

At the downtown transit center a few hours after the announcement, there weren’t any signs on the buses or in the transit center about the change. Many riders were still wearing masks — some by choice and some because they hadn’t heard about the rule change.

The city had a choice whether or not to keep its mask mandate for bus service after the federal mandate went away. Denise Koch is with the city’s public works department and has been the second in command for the Emergency Operations Center, making decisions for the city during the pandemic. 

“I’d say the country and Juneau are moving from a more emergency posture, surrounding COVID to a posture of living with COVID,” Koch said.

She says that the city’s COVID-19 leadership has been anticipating the end of the public transportation mask mandate, but a federal judge striking it down suddenly wasn’t expected, Koch said. 

Still, the plan has always been to follow federal guidelines, based on Juneau’s level of risk.

“So given that the community is low risk, it just seemed to make sense,” Koch said.

Anchorage mayor Dave Bronson announced the end of mandatory mask wearing for his city’s bus service. 

Some cities, like Seattle and Portland, have chosen to keep their mask mandate.

Correction: A previous version of this story had the wrong date on the photo caption. The photo was taken on April 21 in Juneau, not April 10.

In this newscast:

• Masks are no longer required for Juneau buses,
• Youth Encouraging Alaskans’ Health is hosing an anti-tobacco summit this week,
• Wrangell Island’s two cemeteries are nearly at capacity,
• Denali National Park may have more climbers this season than since before the pandemic

In this newscast:

• Juneau pet owners are scrambling for care as one of the city’s three veterinary offices closes,
• Researchers are studying Alaska salmon gillnetters to gain further understanding of sleep deprivation in fishermen

In this newscast:

• The Juneau spring housing crunch may be worsened by increased Airbnbs,
• The cruise industry predicts 1.5 ship passengers to visit Alaska this season, says Brian Salerno of Cruise Lines International,
• Alaska Airlines announced that it’s ending its mask requirement after a federal judge struck down the May 3rd extension,
• The state’s first large wildfire of the season near Kwethluk