Newscasts

In this newscast:

• Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is among 40 airports across the country forced to slash air traffic by 10% starting Friday as the government shutdown becomes the longest in U.S. history.
• The Juneau Assembly is facing some tough decisions in the coming months. That’s after Juneau voters approved tax cuts this fall, leaving an estimated $12 million annual hole in the city’s budget. Last night, Assembly members discussed what that will mean for the level of services the city can provide moving forward.
• The state of Alaska is moving forward with a controversial plan to build a brand-new ferry terminal north of Juneau that it says will have short- and long-term benefits. But the idea has stirred pushback in communities who rely on the ferry system to access healthcare, air travel and more in Juneau. An advisory board charged with overseeing the ferry system’s planning process has also raised concerns.
• The Municipality of Anchorage is set to own its city hall, rather than rent it, after the Assembly approved a purchase agreement Tuesday night. In total, the city is authorized to spend about $35 million dollars on both the building and renovations to the roof and fire systems.

In this newscast:

• Alaska might soon regulate its own hazardous waste if authorized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Haines and Skagway are among the communities across Alaska are doing what they can to support the more than one thousand people displaced by Typhoon Halong.
• The largest community in the North Slope Borough has a new grocery store.
• College Gate Elementary School now have 70 new students who evacuated from Western Alaska communities after ex-typhoon Halong last month.

In this newscast:

• The U. S. Coast Guard may briefly be unable to hear distress calls in Southeast Alaska for 3-5 minute intervals this week.
•  Tenants living in Juneau’s historic Telephone Hill neighborhood had until this past weekend to move out. But some didn’t, and several are now suing the city to reverse the evictions. At the same time, city officials are discussing the next steps for the downtown neighborhood’s redevelopment into new, denser housing.
• A controversial higher education compact from the Trump administration has sparked a petition from several University of Alaska unions, who say they’re worried about political overreach stifling academic freedom.
• Alaska’s state-owned economic development and finance corporation is committing another $50 million to the controversial Ambler Road Project. Earlier this month, the board of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority unanimously voted to make the money available to support the 211-mile project, which would connect the Dalton Highway to an undeveloped, mining region near the Brooks Range.

In this newscast:

• The Juneau Assembly doesn’t plan to take a stance on whether it’s in favor of the state’s proposed Cascade Point Ferry Terminal north of Juneau.
• Five firefighter apprentices in Juneau received their pins on Saturday — that means the formally joined the force.
• Renters living in Juneau’s Telephone Hill neighborhood had until Saturday to vacate their homes before the city would have evicted them.
• The Juneau Assembly is hoping to avoid paying a portion of the cost for a federal program that would offer buyouts to residents living on the street hardest-hit by the city’s annual glacial outburst flood.
• People who rely on food assistance from SNAP, the Supplemental nutrition Assistance Program, could have their electronic benefits cards refilled as soon as this week.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently canceled its contract with the entity that collects much of the data on earthquake and tsunami signals.

In this newscast:

• Thousands of Juneau residents will be in limbo as of tomorrow, as the SNAP program remains caught in a political battle between Congress, the Trump administration, and federal courts,
• Juneau schools are finding ways to support students and families in the midst of the government shutdown,
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last night that it will pay the full cost to extend and repair Juneau’s temporary levee meant to protect almost all Mendenhall Valley neighborhoods from glacial outburst floods in the near-term,
• The competitive commercial red king crab fishery in Southeast Alaska opens tomorrow, and it will be the first of its kind in eight years

In this newscast:

• The Juneau School Board swore in three members and honored two outgoing members at a meeting Tuesday,
• Though Alaskans approved ranked-choice voting nearly 5 years ago, the debate about whether it actually benefits voters persists. At a Chamber of Commerce luncheon this afternoon, two speakers shared what they think of the system,
• Juneau’s new hydroelectric utility passed one of its last hurdles this week toward expanding the capital city’s energy grid,
• A beloved maintenance employee at the University of Alaska Southeast starred in a low-budget sci-fi comedy a decade ago. This week, some UAS students screened the film to honor their friendly campus handy-man