Economy

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed another big event in Bethel into the virtual space. The Association of Village Council Presidents plans to hold its annual convention online, starting on Wednesday, Sept. 23. 

It’s not too late to enroll as a Calista Regional Native Corporation shareholder. The deadline to apply and be included in the next dividend distribution is Aug. 31.

  The deadline for a federal program allowing tribes to apply for broadband spectrum access has been extended a month. 
 

Since February, the Federal Communications Commission has been accepting applications from tribes across the country to gain access to the 2.5 GHz broadband spectrum. Under this rural tribal window, tribes would be able to access parts of the broadband spectrum that fall on their tribal land. With those licenses, tribes could have the potential to start their own broadband internet networks for their communities. 

U.S. Census officials are sounding the alarm about a low rate of response in Alaska, despite having started the once-a-decade tally of everyone living in the United States in an Alaska village. But they say that the lack of response might not be due to the usual difficulties of counting Alaska's remote communities, or the new challenge of the pandemic.

Bethel residents are waiting in line longer at the post office this summer. The reason? A huge volume of mail, according to U.S. Postal Service spokesperson James Boxrud. 

"We have higher volumes of packages right now than we do even at Christmas time," Boxrud said.