The Ketchikan Borough Assembly voted last night to approve the school district’s budget with additional funding; Indigenous leaders speak out against fake totem poles in downtown Ketchikan; and state Sen. Bert Stedman, who represents most of Southeast Alaska including Ketchikan, reflects on this year’s budget process.

Ketchikan’s public electric utility is grappling with aging infrastructure, short staffing, and underfunding; the family of a man fatally shot by Anchorage police is calling on the city to release body camera footage; and repatriated Native objects are unveiled at the Nolan Center in Wrangell.

State government reporter Eric Stone breaks down what happened this session with education funding and what it means for Ketchikan; Troopers charge two juveniles who allegedly stole a vehicle after running away from a Prince of Wales-based camp for troubled youths; a Sitka aquaculture organization looks to expand its footprint; and a bill to ban “forever chemicals” in firefighting foams is headed to the Governor’s desk.

The Ketchikan School District notifies 52 teachers and administrators of potential layoffs; the Juneau School District changes start times to accommodate their consolidation plan; Sitka high schoolers are awarded for their work in Indigenous science; and a new study examines the threat avalanches present to mountain goats. 

An elderly tourist sues the borough for injuries he says he sustained on a public bus in Ketchikan. Klawock gets its first cruise ship. The US Forest Service plans to raise cabin fees in the Tongass, in exchange for building a few more cabins. The subsistence fishery for chinooks in the Stikine River closes for the eighth year in a row. 

The Prince of Wales city of Craig is considering raising sales taxes to help cover education budget shortfalls; Alaska lawmakers add several Indigenous languages to the state’s official list of languages; a bill regulating community solar projects is poised to pass in the Legislature; and a look at why the pre-statehood executions of two Black men should be remembered. 

The Ketchikan borough is the victim of cybercrime. The shocking similarities between gold mines in Canada and Ponzi schemes. Inflation in Alaska is going down but so is the population - and there may be a connection.

The Northern Lights are heavily in the forecast this weekend. Ketchikan residents protest a pair of imitation totem poles made by a convicted murderer. Local weaver Holly Churchill’s visit to Wrangell. 

Researchers look into the possibility of a hatchery-only king salmon sports fishery in Southeast, with input from a Ketchikan fisherman; Petersburg high schoolers take part in a “Financial Reality Fair”; and Kodiak’s Filipino community celebrates a prominent holiday.

Ketchikan’s First City Haven homeless shelter will stop offering a place to sleep next week; a cruise ship employee in Juneau is arrested for allegedly stabbing multiple people; Alaska launches a fentanyl education campaign; the FEMA deadline for the Wrangell landslide is approaching; and Petersburg residents march for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People awareness.