KTOO News Update
The day’s local and state news in about 10 minutes.
Newscast – Monday, June 8, 2026
In this newscast: A Juneau family reported a 29-year old man missing on Friday. He was last seen on May 26 near Safeway; The Juneau School Board will decide on whether to adopt the school district’s new strategic plan Tuesday night at its last regular meeting of the fiscal year; Tickets at Eaglecrest Ski Area are about to get more expensive; The U.S. Forest Service is now saying mining interests played an important role in its decision to cancel a recreational cabin project near Juneau’s Herbert Glacier, after denying it months ago; The Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program unveiled a Lingit comic book during Celebration last week; A sale on oil and gas drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge garnered more than $3.7 million in winning bids
Read More »Newscast – Friday, June 5, 2026
In this newscast: The Alaska State Board of Education unanimously approved a new master's in teaching program for Indigenous languages at the University of Alaska Southeast Thursday; Residents will have a chance to testify on some major budget topics and glacial outburst funding decisions at the Juneau Assembly's upcoming meeting on Monday; An unusual partnership is sailing Alaska's waters this summer; Leqpquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim Tsmsyen Dancers leader Se'iga Liimii Marcella Asicksik talks about a song her dance group wrote for Celebration.
Read More »Newscast – Thursday, June 4, 2026
In this newscast: Democratic incumbent Rep. Andi Story now has an opponent in the race for her current seat in the state House: Annette Kreitzer, Haines’ former borough manager; After years of planning, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska soft-opened a casino on Douglas Island this week. It’s Juneau’s first casino; The National Science Foundation plans to yank a long-standing ocean observation station from the sea floor far off the coast of Alaska next year. It’s one in an entire ocean monitoring system slated to be dismantled as part of the Trump Administration’s rollback on federal science programs that help researchers study the changing climate; The developer of the Alaska LNG project released its first specific public cost estimates Wednesday for the proposed 800-mile gas pipeline and associated infrastructure.
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, June 3, 2026
In this newscast: Celebration officially starts with a Grand Entrance tonight; Carvers have developed a new method to build traditional canoes without relying on old growth trees; Some cruise ship companies in Southeast Alaska say customers are concerned about Hantavirus, but state health officials are more worried about other diseases; Dozens and dozens of candidates officially kicked off their campaigns for governor, Congress and the state Legislature on Monday
Read More »Newscast – Tuesday, June 2, 2026
In this newscast: Twelve people were infected by an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness while aboard a cruise ship traveling through Southeast Alaska last week; A new public use cabin opened near Ward Lake this week; Thirteen canoes bringing Alaska Native paddlers from across Southeast Alaska and Canada arrived in Juneau Tuesday afternoon; A soon-to-be change in shipping services for Juneau's Costco is expected to make it more difficult for small businesses in outlying communities to get products to their towns; Petersburg residents give items at the dump a second life through the borough's salvaging program.
Read More »Newscast – Monday, June 1, 2026
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.
Read More »Newscast – Friday, May 29, 2026
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.
Read More »Newscast – Thursday, May 28, 2026
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.
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, May 27, 2026
In this newscast: Juneau Representative Andi Story says she will seek reelection for a fifth term in the Alaska Legislature this fall; An 82-year-old Juneau man has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing his brother; State lawmakers voted to increase state unemployment benefits for the first time since 2009 during the state Legislature’s race to the finish last week; Several proposed mines in British Columbia are located along transboundary rivers that wind through Southeast Alaska. Residents on the Alaska side of the border say there’s a lack of tribal consultation and some worry about pollution in salmon-bearing streams vital to the region’s fisheries; State lawmakers passed two bills on the last day of the legislative session aimed at fulfilling requirements of a federal health care expansion effort.
Read More »Newscast – Tuesday, May 26, 2026
In this newscast: University of Alaska officials are calling for a systemwide strategy to address challenges and opportunities ushered in by generative AI; A beloved Lingit leader and fishing rights advocate in Juneau died last month at the age of 77; With years of collective experience, Juneau Mountain Rescue volunteers sometimes deal with worst-case scenarios; A tribal college on the North Slope bought a piece of land last month to build a new campus
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