Alaska State News

High energy costs are a fact of life in remote, rural Alaska with few easy answers. But siblings Vjosa and Drini Pellumbi — who recently won top honors for their boiler heat recovery system design — are committed to being part of the solution.

On June 13, community members flocked to Riverview Park for the Return of the Salmon event put on by Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition, a grassroots organization opposing the proposed Donlin Gold mine.

Despite not being a licensed guide, 36-year-old Michael Beans used Facebook to advertise trophy hunts that took in nearly $60,000 in advance payments from dozens of out of state clients. The hunts were canceled before they started.

Alaska is one of 29 states that allow at least some late-arriving ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked on or before election day. But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling could complicate that, especially for voters in the Bush.

On June 3, Mother Kuskokwim, an advocacy group opposing the proposed Donlin Gold mine project on account of environmental concerns, hosted a protest event in Bethel.

The tribe originally applied for the declaration in January, several months after an October 2025 storm destroyed an estimated 90% of homes and led to the mass evacuation of nearly all of the community’s roughly 1,000 residents.

The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge announced a 30-day closure for all migratory bird species. The closure will be in effect from June 6 through July 6 and applies to the entire region. The only exception is scoters, which have their own closure from June 11 through July 11.

KYUK’s Evan Erickson spoke with Northern Journal reporter Nat Herz, who traveled to Hooper Bay as part of a broader look at what leaders describe as an unfolding crisis that threatens barge-dependent communities in Western Alaska.

The increase would have been limited to disaster relief during the first 90 days after the storms. It would have covered the bulk of costs related to debris removal and emergency protective measures, costs that the state says reached $20 million in the first weeks after ex-typhoon Halong.

Following reporting by KYUK, ProPublica, and NPR, lawmakers tripled the funding the state would allocate toward school construction and maintenance. The budget increase would still only cover about 13% of what school districts requested.