Blank financial disclosure form

By James Brooks

An attorney defending the Alaska Division of Elections against a lawsuit argued in state court Friday that candidates for state office are not obliged to disclose their finances when they file for office.

If that argument is upheld in court, it would upend existing practices and could end voters’ ability to examine political candidates’ personal finances in the early stages of a primary election.

By Corinne Smith

The U.S. Department of Education is expected to award $41.3 million in grant funding through the Alaska Native Education Program to 26 Alaska grantees after some delay, according to an announcement from Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The grant funding was expected on July 1, but has been delayed more than a month. Grantees alerted Murkowski’s office they had not yet received the funding, prompting Murkowski to press the U.S. Sec. of Education Lisa McMahon to release the awarded funding, according to the statement on Aug. 5. 

The 2026 AlaskaVoter Guide is here! This year, the Alaska Beacon worked with Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media and KTOO to bring you all the information you need on candidates, races, and important dates. 

Creating this free guide requires significant resources. If you’ve found our journalism valuable, consider supporting the Beacon today. 

A small cruise ship operating in Southeast Alaska made an unexpected detour on Monday night to help a 21-foot skiff that ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau.

Michael Love, a software developer from New York City, was a passenger aboard the cruise ship and described the event on social media. 

What got his attention the most wasn’t the rescue itself — it was when the captain announced that the yacht of billionaire Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg was closer and hadn’t answered the radio call for help.

By James Brooks

The Alaska Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by former state Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, against the state of Alaska and the Alaska Legislature’s committee on legislative ethics.

Reinbold had sued the committee and the state’s executive branch in 2022 after the committee concluded that Reinbold had violated the Legislative Ethics Act by blocking people from commenting on her legislative Facebook page “solely for expressing opinions in disagreement with her own.” 

The Alaska Navigator bills itself as “independent news covering the Last Frontier.” On June 10, the outlet published an article headlined, “As Fentanyl Deaths Rise in Alaska, Sullivan Pushes Tougher Penalties and Enforcement.”

The piece, which has no byline, reports that Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) — who is locked in a competitive campaign against Democrat Mary Peltola — “is leading efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and support law enforcement agencies confronting the epidemic.”

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