The U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] awarded over $2.5 million [2.6] in funding to Alaska this year to improve the quality and quantity of locally grown food; long time career and technical education teacher Walter Love has resigned from Homer High School; and Treefort Theatre, a Kenai Peninsula-based performing arts group, will soon stage the Kenai Art Center’s first ever theatrical production.

High school seniors are waiting longer than usual to get financial aid offers from colleges this year, and fishermen are once again looking at lower catch limits for halibut this year.

The Nikiski Middle/High School Drama, Debate and Forensics team recently took home a state championship. Fishermen are once again looking at lower catch limits for halibut this year. That’s after harvest levels were cut last year too. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is threatening to veto a key bipartisan education bill that would boost state spending on public schools by about a quarter billion dollars a year.

The Anchor Point Post Office marked its 75th anniversary with an open house last Friday, and the final public comment period on the fate of Ketchikan’s rural status was held last month.

Grant Aviation has purchased two new planes, which it will use to increase flight offerings between Kenai and Anchorage, according to an announcement from the company last Friday. The Anchor Point Post Office marked its 75th anniversary with an open house last Friday. A remote Kenai Peninsula village petitioned to have its dilapidated school replaced more than 10 years ago. Now, the clock on a $10 million grant from the state is running out, and the borough is trying a creative approach to make that funding work for the community.

Alaska State Troopers charged a Soldotna man this week on one count of cruelty to animals after they say he shot his dog in an attempt to euthanize it. The dog, which was later spotted by a motorist, was brought in for emergency surgery and is expected to survive, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s website is soon getting a revamp, correcting what borough officials say is a difficult-to-navigate site.

Parents and school staff filled the seats at the Homer Middle School Library for a panel discussion about teen mental health earlier this week [2/27]; and Alaska State Troopers arrested a Soldotna man this week on one count of cruelty to animals after they say he shot his dog in an attempt to euthanize it.

Parents and school staff filled the seats at the Homer Middle School Library for a panel discussion about teen mental health earlier this week, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly heard public comment on an ordinance to sell borough-owned land and discussed pending legislation on energy and resilience projects at Tuesday night’s meeting, and the Alaska House of Representatives is mulling an amendment to the state Constitution that would guarantee residents a Permanent Fund dividend payment according to a set formula every year.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly heard public comment on an ordinance to sell borough-owned land and discussed pending legislation on energy and resilience projects at Tuesday night’s [2/27] meeting; and The Homer City Council unanimously rejected an ordinance that would require short-term rental operators to register their property at Monday night’s meeting [2/27].

Short-term rentals play a significant role in Homer and in towns across Alaska, from being a viable small business to shaping the face of residential neighborhoods. The Homer City Council unanimously rejected an ordinance that would require short-term rental operators to register their property at Monday night’s meeting, and Kenai Police have charged a 40-year-old Nikiski man with five counts of sexual abuse of a minor for a 2022 incident.