Tim Ellis

Alaska has finally regained the jobs it lost during the pandemic, according to a new report from the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development. // A Fairbanks woman who worked at Denali State Bank is suing the financial institution in federal court over claims of sex-based discrimination and retaliation. // The U.S. Coast Guard officially added the first icebreaker to its fleet in more than 25 years. The Cutter Storis was commissioned Sunday in a ceremony in Juneau, its future home port. // A massive tsunami ripped through a fjord near Juneau early Sunday morning. Scientists say it was set off by a huge landslide. // A science journal recently published a study that found roads can significantly alter caribou behavior and delay their migrations for weeks.

President Donald Trump says he’ll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this Friday in Alaska to discuss a deal for ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. // Searchers on Saturday found the body of an Alaska Native man in Fairbanks who’d been missing since Wednesday. // Hunters from the North Slope community of Point Lay will collaborate with a UAF anthropologist from Russia this summer, to document traditional knowledge about walruses. // Alaska will get $6.7 million from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to clean up contaminated sites on land owned by Alaska Native corporations and villages. // U.S. Coast Guard officials said Friday they were monitoring two Chinese research ships transiting through American waters in the Bering Sea. // More than 2,000 people bought tickets to the first Midnight Sun Scottish Highland Games on Saturday at the Mushers Hall on Farmers Loop Road in Fairbanks.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski did not rule out running for governor during a Monday news conference in Anchorage. // Fairbanks researchers recently successfully tested the feasibility of a system that stores heat in the ground in summer for use during winter. // A lack of reliable housing and other infrastructure leads to health and economic problems for kids in rural Alaska, according to panelists at a conference last week in Anchorage. //Wildfire season has slowed, but not ended. Warm, dry weather over the weekend created conditions in an area about 120 miles northeast of Fairbanks that've led to an uptick in fire activity there.

GVEA’s board of directors decided last week they're not ready to sign a contract to begin buying power from a proposed large-scale wind project. // Alaska lawmakers on Saturday voted to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of state funding for public schools. // Alaska legislators also overrode Dunleavy’s veto of a bill enabling the legislative auditor to review tax and royalty settlements the state negotiates with oil companies. // State lawmakers refused Saturday to accept an executive order from Dunleavy seeking to create a state agriculture department. // A group of Indigenous leaders, scientists and policy-makers have published a study on the complex causes of the Yukon River's salmon population crashes in recent years.

State and federal firefighters say they’re encountering a growing number of incidents involving small drones in airspace above and around wildfires. When that happens, firefighters must ground their aircraft, which delays operations to extinguish the fire.

The federal Bureau of Land Management this week will reopen portions of the White Mountains Recreation Area north of Fairbanks, due to hard work by firefighters and cooler wet weather that’s slowed down wildfire activity in the area.

Mike Sfraga, the new interim chancellor for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, began his first day at the job on Monday. // The federal Bureau of Land Management will reopen portions of the popular White Mountains Recreation Area this week. // The Trump administration wants to eliminate funding for the Denali Commission, the federal agency that's helped Alaska villages develop more than $2 billion in infrastructure. // The Alaska International Business Center's president and CEO says President Trump's proposed tariffs will hurt Alaska businesses that export their products.

Researchers have begun using new and more accurate methods to measure wildfire smoke like the stuff that blanketed Fairbanks a few weeks ago. // The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly on Thursday postponed a vote on revising its ethics code 'til Aug. 14. // The Alaska Bar Association’s board of governors is considering whether to recommend disbarring former federal judge Joshua Kindred.

The UAF Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension will showcase the fruits of its research next week in two events at its experiment farms in Fairbanks and Palmer. Organizers want to show the public what the institute is doing to improve food security. And they hope folks will talk about what’s going on in their own gardens.

The state agency that’s heading-up an effort to develop a veterans cemetery in Salcha achieved another milestone recently with completion of a draft environmental assessment of the project. The document includes the Alaska Interior Veterans Cemetery’s master plan.