KTOO News Update
The day’s local and state news in about 10 minutes.
Newscast – Thursday, March 13, 2025
In this newscast: The Juneau School District Board of Education is expected to pass a budget at a special meeting tonight. The board made last minute changes at its Tuesday meeting and now needs to rebalance the proposed budget
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, March 12, 2025
In this newscast: The Alaska House narrowly approved a bill today that would substantially increase state funding for public schools on a long-term basis for the first time in nearly a decade; Dozens of Juneau residents protested as Congress considers drastic funding cuts to Medicaid; President Trump issued two executive orders on March 1 to expand logging in national forests. That's after he suspended the Roadless Road, which banned new road construction in national forests. Together, these orders could increase timber harvest in the Tongass National Forest; The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that all recently terminated employees will be rehired, with back pay; The likelihood of an Alaska volcano's eruption not far from the state's largest city has increased
Read More »Newscast – Tuesday, March 11, 2025
In this newscast: Alaska House lawmakers made a few changes to a high-priority education bill during a marathon floor session on Monday; No one was hurt in a fire at the Dzantik'i Heeni campus in Juneau earlier today, but evacuated students huddled outside for hours; The state Department of Transportation is resurrecting the controversial idea to build a road between Juneau and the communities of Haines and Skagway; Congress is considering huge cuts to Medicaid and Alaska health care experts say that would have an outsized impact in the state; One of the teams in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is comprised mostly of shelter adoptees
Read More »Newscast – Monday, March 10, 2025
In this newscast: The ACLU of Alaska is suing the Alaska Department of Corrections for its role in the 2023 death of Lewis Jordan Junior on behalf of Jordan's family; The University of Alaska Southeast is taking next steps to remove mentions of DEI from its website; Alaska's National Weather Service offices have not been spared from the Trump administration's efforts to slash the federal workforce; Members of Juneau's LGBTQ+ community, and the people who support them, gathered in droves on Sunday to protest the Trump administration's policies and language surrounding queer and trans people
Read More »Newscast – Friday, March 7, 2025
In this newscast: The Juneau School District Board of Education appears to maintain its concerns about state funding as it moves through the budget process for the next fiscal year; Juneau residents join protesters nationwide in response to President Trumps scientific research funding cuts and firings at federal science institutions; Anglers will be able to fish for king salmon near Petersburg this summer after a recent decision from the Alaska Board of Fisheries; There's a 50-50 change the Alaska Permanent Fund won't have enough spendable money to pay dividends and the state's bills at least once over the next decade.
Read More »Newscast – Thursday, March 6, 2025
In this newscast: Homes in Juneau's Mendenhall Valley are seeing a decline in their assessed value following last August's glacial outburst flood; Juneau's trail maintenance nonprofit, Trail Mix, wants to hire fired Forest Service employees if — it can raise enough money to pay them; Three heli-skiers who died in an avalanche Tuesday near Girdwood had ties to Minnesota; Research in marine species show they may be fixtures in the Arctic, to the interest of scientists. It may also mean changes to subsistence to Alaska's most northern communities.
Read More »Newscast – Wednesday, March 5, 2025
In this newscast: State lawmakers unveiled a revised education funding ahead of a floor debate in the House tentatively scheduled for Monday; The City of Juneau is doing site assessments at homes to prepare for flood barrier installations; Untried defendents - people accused of crimes but presumed innocent until found otherwise by the court - remain in jail as criminal cases take a long time to go to trial; GCI users in Sitka will lose internet service starting Friday for up to ten days.
Read More »Newscast – Tuesday, March 4, 2025
In this newscast: President Donald Trump’s long-promised tariffs on goods imported from China, Canada and Mexico took effect this morning. It marks the start of a trade war that has many Alaskans bracing for higher prices. Despite the growing tensions between the countries, local leaders in Juneau say they are committed to maintaining a close relationship with the Canadian City of Whitehorse; Juneau’s trail maintenance nonprofit won’t be maintaining Forest Service trails this season, unless it can crowd-source funding for a new trail crew; There are just 33 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race teams sprinting to Nome right now, tying the record of the smallest field ever. As Alaska Public Media’s Ava White reports, mushers all point to one big challenge.
Read More »Newscast – Monday, March 3, 2025
In this newscast: Temporary cell service and internet connection has most Juneau residents back online after a damaged subsea cable caused a region-wide outage late last week; Former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola and her former chief of staff are now working for Holland and Hart, a law and lobbying firm; Protestors took to the streets of Gustavus on Saturday, joining hundreds of demonstrations around the country in response to staffing cuts at national parks; A hydroelectric project in the remote Southeast Alaska community of Angoon is on pause following the federal grant freeze announced in late January by the Trump administration; Leaders in the Alaska House and Senate say they're deeply concerned about the impacts of federal staff cuts and a forthcoming congressional immigration and tax cuts bill; With changes to requirements by the Trump administration, it's an uncertain time for immigrants, but the new Philippine Honorary Consul for Alaska hopes she can be of service
Read More »Newscast – Friday, Feb. 28, 2025
In this newscast: A damaged subsea cable is the apparent cause of the internet and cell service outage in Juneau; More federal workers were fired in Alaska yesterday, this time at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Fired Forest Service staffers in Juneau are uncertain about their futures — and the safety of visitors at the glacier; Lawmakers' cost questions are stalling a bill that would offer Alaska students free meals
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