“For months it was like this slow-moving bullet coming straight at me, and didn't know if it was going to be a hit or a miss. And today, it's a miss.” - Ann Lind, a Juneau resident whose home was not inundated by a glacial outburst flood this year.
The Mendenhall River as it crests on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)
By Alix Soliman, Clarise Larson and Corinne Smith
Mendenhall Valley residents in the flood zone celebrated Thursday afternoon as the Mendenhall River crested at a level well below initial predictions. The event was much less destructive than disastrous floods that struck over the past three years.
The flood crested at 14.7 feet on the Mendenhall Lake gauge at 2:15 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. As floodwaters started to recede Thursday afternoon, only a handful of residents reported damage.
(Photo by Krisanapong Detraphiphat/Getty Images)
By James Brooks
An Anchorage Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the Alaska Division of Elections was correct to keep Anchorage Republican Jose Tagle on the primary election ballot for state House even though he filed a blank form when asked to disclose his personal finances.
State law requires candidates for public office to complete a Public Official Financial Disclosure form that lists their income and personal finances when they register as a candidate, but Tagle filed a blank form when he filed to challenge incumbent Rep. Ted Eischeid, D-Anchorage.
By James Brooks
Leading members of the Alaska House and Senate said this week that they will not meet to discuss Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s latest attempt to provide a tax break for the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline.
The bill, said Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Gary Stevens, lacks the support to advance in either body.
Trawl-caught pollock harvested during an Alaska research survey. (Photo by David Csepp/National Marine Fisheries Service)
COMMENTARY
By Laine Welch
In May 2024, when then-Congresswoman Mary Peltola introduced a Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act and Bottom Trawl Clarity Act, the bills drew immediate backlash.
Peltola, a Democrat, received a letter signed by 53 trawl interests and nationwide fishery stakeholders urging her to withdraw the proposed legislation saying, “These new federal mandates and timelines are utterly unworkable.”
Fast forward to 2026.
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