Published July 9, 2026 03:00AM
Alaska
Government shutdown: Alaska’s 14,000 WIC families to receive funding through October, Murkowski’s office confirms
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The USDA has allocated $300 million to keep Alaska’s Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, running through October during the government shutdown, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office confirmed to Alaska’s News Source Thursday.
“Senator Murkowski was relieved that USDA has found the funding to ensure WIC participants will continue to receive benefits through the end of October should the government shutdown persist,” Murkowski spokesperson Joe Plesha said Thursday. “While our office is still awaiting details about how the funding will be implemented and whether this transfer of funds will at all impact school or childcare nutrition programs, this program is too vital to lapse. She is pleased that a temporary solution to this specific problem has been reached to allow time for negotiations to continue.”
WIC, according to the Alaska Department of Health, “offers free healthy foods, nutrition, and breastfeeding assessment, education, and support.” The program serves pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under five, and foster parents who meet income and nutritional need guidelines.
Alaska had 14,319 participants in the WIC program in 2024, according to the USDA, about 2% of Alaska’s population that same year. Nationally, the program served more than 6.5 million participants.
“As of today, Alaska WIC remains fully operational,” according to the program’s website, which includes an alert reading, “Alaska WIC clinics are open for business as usual, and you may continue to shop for your WIC foods.”
WIC is the second Alaska program to receive additional funding since the government shutdown began nine days ago.
Promises from Trump and Dunleavy
The White House had promised funding for the program earlier this week, though the amount was left unclear until Thursday’s announcement.
“The Democrats are so cruel in their continual votes to shut down the government that they forced the WIC program for the most vulnerable women and children to run out this week,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media Tuesday. “Thankfully, President Trump and the White House have identified a creative solution to transfer resources from Section 232 tariff revenue to this critical program.”
Section 232 tariffs are imposed on goods which “threaten to impair” U.S. national security, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Before Thursday’s funding announcement, Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, welcomed the efforts from the Trump administration but noted “families need long-term stability, not short-term uncertainty.”
The National WIC Association has not released a statement since the Murkowski office announcement.
If that initial promise from the Trump administration didn’t materialize, or the expected funding runs out, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s spokesperson Jeff Turner said in an email the state would step in, expecting USDA reimbursement.
“If the state needs to fund WIC benefits, the funds will not be diverted from anywhere else,” Turner said. “We are early enough in the fiscal year that the Department of Health has sufficient funds on hand until the USDA can reimburse the state.”
Turner added the state received notice for a federal award of $500,000 in WIC food funds Thursday morning.
“WIC benefits will be covered by the state if federal funding expires during the shutdown,” Turner said. “SNAP is a mandatory program that will also continue.”
WIC in Alaska
Shannon Davenport, president of the Alaska Nurses Association, said WIC is essential in Alaska.
“At Providence Hospital, that’s where I work, we do the best we can for our patients, but WIC is also an organization that can kind of step in and help those families that need a little bit more,” Davenport said.
She said if WIC wasn’t available the results could be disastrous.
“I think we’re going to see more people in our emergency rooms,” she said. “I think we’re going to see more people in our food banks and our homeless shelters.”
Davenport added that she believes a lack of funding could also increase disease and infection rates within the state due to confusion in where to get access to the same resources.
Davenport is not alone in her concerns. Rachel Miller, chief advocacy officer at the Food Bank of Alaska, said that while the food bank does not use WIC funding, the program plays a critical role in Alaska.
“We know that our state can’t afford any cuts to WIC, but we also can’t afford any gaps in time with WIC,” Miller said. “I hope the state has enough funds encumbered to cover any gap that we’re going to see in WIC due to the federal shutdown.”
Both women have reported seeing increased demand from Alaskans as winter approaches but say cuts and the shutdown is also playing a role.
“Anytime there is a shutdown, anytime there is a gap in any government assistance or resource, there is uncertainty, and unfortunately, food is the most flexible budget line in a household,” Miller said.
“The more that these cuts come down, the more the shutdown continues, it means more and more people are going to be coming to the hospital,” Davenport said. “And when are they coming? … They’re gonna wait till they’re really sick.”
Alaska’s News Source reached out to the Alaska Department of Health’s WIC program. A staff member said the department was working on a statement but had not provided that as of publication.
Shutdown enters day 9
After more than a week of impasse, congressional leaders continue to make little progress in passing a plan to fund the government.
Republicans say Democrats have refused to pass what they call a “clean continuing resolution” in the Senate, a bill that maintains current government spending levels without policy changes or additions.
If the resolution receives 60 votes, it will end the government shutdown. With almost all Republicans voting for it (Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cast the lone no vote) Democrats would need to provide the remaining votes.
Democratic leaders dispute that characterization, arguing the Republican bill isn’t truly “clean” because it ignores Democratic demands to restore nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts and extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire Dec. 31. Democrats say the credits would preserve health insurance for 3.8 million people.
In his statement to Alaska’s News Source confirming the USDA funding, Plesha said “Senator Murkowski continues to aggressively pursue solutions with her colleagues that will bring an end to this shutdown as soon as possible.”
Murkowski has proposed a plan she said would “avert government shutdown,” which includes $30 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an extension of enhanced premium tax credits set to expire at the beginning of August, and three appropriations bills.
“What’s going to happen next week is it’s going to get serious because we’re looking at getting close to the 15th,” David Owens, a national representative with the American Federation of Government Employees, said Thursday, referencing when federal employees would receive their last paycheck until the shutdown ends.
“It’ll have a major impact on the military. And I think a lot of members of Congress will start thinking a little bit different when the military members aren’t being paid and they’re in harm’s way,” he added.
Owens said federal employees will still receive one more paycheck before the shutdown affects their pay.
If the Senate doesn’t pass the current resolution, Congress would need to introduce and pass a new resolution through both chambers. The president would then need to sign the proposal for it to become law.
Alaska’s News Source reached out to Alaska’s entire congressional delegation for comment on WIC and the government shutdown. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office told Alaska’s News Source, “The Trump administration is working on a solution to keep WIC funded through tariff revenues. We will be getting more details on that in the coming days.”
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Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Black bear breaks into Alaskan mall, eats a peach and relieves itself on floor before leaving: video
Can bearly believe it!
A black bear was caught on camera seemingly running errands at a local shopping mall in Anchorage, Alaska over the weekend.
The bear entered the commissary mall at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson around 9 a.m. Sunday, KTUU reported, citing a JBER spokesperson.
Wild footage shows the young cub strolling through the commissary’s automatic doors and exploring all that the mall had to offer.
The hungry bear stole and ate a piece of fruit before emptying its bowels on the hallway floor on its way out of the building.
Kory Godbout, who works at the barber shop on the military base, was waiting for his first customer of the day when he spotted the furry intruder traveling through the automatic doors.
“My coworker, who is cutting hair in front of me, she yelled, ‘Bear!’” Godbout recalled.
“And I looked up from my phone and the bear was walking into the barber shop right in front of me,” the barber said. “And we all ran into the break room and shut the door behind us.”
After a few minutes, Godbout and his coworkers emerged from the break room and followed the out-of-place bear into the commissary, where it took a peach from the grocery store and ate it.
The barber recalled that a few onlookers were “going big to try and scare” the bear out of the grocery store.
But all of a sudden, the black bear returned to the barber shop.
“By that time, we were able to run back to the shop and then lock the door,” Godbout said.
“And then we were watching him from the window and then that’s when he decided to, you know, use the restroom in the hallway.”
Officers from Conservation Law Enforcement attended the peculiar grizzly scene and were able to direct the wild animal towards a river and into the woods, according to the JBER spokesperson.
JBER’s wildlife program manager Colette Brandt said in a press release that the bear had triggered the automatic doors and that Sunday’s events were entirely incidental, KTUU reported.
While there has been a decline in bear-related calls since the military base installed bear-resistant dumpsters, seven bears have been put down at JBER for public safety over the past year.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The southbound lanes of the Glenn Highway were closed Thursday morning near the S-curves due to a fatal crash, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
Police confirmed shortly after 11 a.m. that at least one person was dead. As of 12:45 p.m., one southbound lane is now open to traffic.
An Alaska’s News Source reporter on the scene said the crash took place near the Eagle River Loop Road. Video from the scene shows multiple vehicles took damage in the incident.
This is a developing story. It has been updated with new information.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Did I Find a Cure for Male Loneliness? No, But I Found a Way to Embrace Solitude in the Wild.
On the longest solo trip of my life, I stepped off a two-seat float plane onto the rocky shore of Upper Twin Lake in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park.
I had taken four flights from New Jersey to Alaska to write about the iconic cabin handbuilt by Richard “Dick” Proenneke, the self-taught naturalist whose 30-year solo life in the wilderness was captured in the beloved PBS documentary Alone in the Wilderness. Proenneke never married, never had children, and spent nearly three decades completely alone, save for the birds he fed by hand and bears that occasionally clawed at his logs.
“He must have been lonely out here,” a fellow traveler said during the park ranger’s tour of the cabin.
On that chilly June morning last year, I found myself wondering the same thing. I was just coming to a different conclusion.
Park officials told me the cabin has seen a recent uptick in visitors, which they attribute to Proenneke’s newfound popularity on social media, and to a direct flight to the property by an outback flying service. I visited the cabin as a member of a tour group led by two guides. My group included a doctor, a retired attorney, a veterinarian, and a handful of National Parks superfans. Still, I stuck mostly to myself, spending the trip deep in my own thoughts. In Alaska, I wound up pondering a life like Proenneke’s, sans the means or skills to make it happen.
According to podcasters, writers, polls, therapists, influencers, and anyone else with a mouth or keyboard, there’s a male loneliness epidemic eroding the dated fabric of masculinity, like the snake of patriarchy eating its own tail.
Remedies for this epidemic are everywhere in the media, with new ones popping up weekly. The New York Times wondered if pickleball held the answers; others have suggested buying a personal watercraft, joining a mosh pit, or taking off your shirt at a college football game, or watching a horror-comedy starring Paul Rudd. In recent months, brunch, AI-powered companion dolls, and Jack Black have been mentioned as cures.
Outside wondered whether “outdoor friendships,” volunteering, or getting a pet could work.
These cures may seem unrelated and even, perhaps, a little silly. However, the common theme between them seems to be social interaction, choosing community over individualism, a bowling league or running club over your PlayStation.
Some entrepreneurs have even launched businesses to combat male loneliness. A deep-dive earlier this year in the New Yorker revealed how fathers are paying men to turn their sons into “alphas,” while others are joining men-only retreats to be screamed at. Men are taking reams of peptides, smashing their cheekbones with hammers, and getting chin implants in an effort to chase some warped standard of masculinity.
Most of these solutions seem alien to the introverts of society, myself included. I’m not sure I’ve ever been lonely, per se, or even bored, unless I’m stuck in small talk. I’ve never loved team sports or double dates either. In school, hearing a teacher say “let’s break into groups” made me groan.
During my trip to Alaska, I realized that Proenneke enjoyed solitude but not loneliness. The former feels intentional and rewarding, as opposed to the latter, which causes anxiety and depression. He wasn’t a misanthrope. He welcomed visitors and was thoughtful enough to whittle a variety of walking sticks to match their height.
Monroe Robinson, author of The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke, spent nearly 20 years living at the cabin and maintaining it for the National Park Service. Robinson knew Proenneke, who died in 2003, at the age of 86. “He liked when people came to visit,” Robinson told me later in a call, “and he also liked when they left.”
I can relate.
My aversions to crowds and clubs have been a source of personal confusion over the years. I’m not a misanthrope, either. As a reporter, I crave deeply personal interactions with others and get invested in the people I write about to a fault. Part of me always thought loneliness was a good way to avoid heartbreak. I’ve loved deeply anyhow, and lost people in my life to suicide and divorce.
In June of 2024, I learned my then-wife was deeply unhappy in our marriage. I had a real breakdown. The ensuing algorithms of online divorce content can be toxic for men, a slippery slope greased by manosphere grifters. Well-intentioned friends and family will often just take your side during a breakup, too, and there’s not much growth in that. So I tried to avoid that noise, choosing to walk inside myself, to find a “vast inner solitude” as the poet Rainer Marie Rilke advised.
I wanted to confront my own bullshit.
I spent a few dozen nights sleeping in tents for the rest of that year, mostly in the Northeast. Sometimes I slept in single-digit temperatures. I’d reserved a tent site for my wedding anniversary, a campground where I’d wanted to renew my vows. But after my marriage began to crumble, I took my young daughter, instead of canceling. I put her in a hiking backpack to slog my way up a few summits. I kept on punishing myself too, on trail runs and difficult hikes, hoping exhaustion would tamp down the urge to beg my ex and anyone who knew her for answers. Bad cell service helped with that.
(I also found a great therapist, thankfully.)
On a long-planned family vacation to Southwest Colorado in August of 2024 that I couldn’t afford and couldn’t cancel, the San Juan Mountains loomed everywhere I went. I saw them from the window of my cabin, the dirt roads I drove along with my kids, and the hammock where I finished The Snow Leopard, in which author Peter Matthiessen joins an expedition to find the mythic beast in Nepal after the death of his wife.
The mountains felt timeless and unavoidable there, and they spoke to me, a perfect epilogue to the book’s zen message.
“Accept what’s happening” they said.
And so I accepted that my marriage was over.
In May of 2025, the divorce was finalized. A few weeks later, I was in Alaska as a freelancer, pinching myself as my plane touched down on the icy, blue lake.
Robinson, when I asked, said “feeling lonely was not a thing” for Proenneke. He was too active, too busy trying to survive. Proenneke left society, yes, but he didn’t withdraw from life. In the long winters, when no sun hit Proenneke’s sod roof, when no planes landed on the frozen lake, he would spend months penning thoughtful letters to close friends, family, and his growing legion of fans.
Proenneke cared about his cabin’s appearance too, about beauty, and that matters. He built a stone fireplace, an extra bunk for guests, and hand-carved a much-beloved Dutch door. Windows would be an inconvenient luxury in a trapper’s cabin in Alaska, but Prokenneke fashioned one that offered a grand view of the lake anyway.
While I was contemplating Proenneke’s contentment in Alaska, I was also watching contentment in action with the two young guides in charge of us there. For a moment or two, I envied both of them, the same way I envied Proenneke. Guide Dom Gawel, who is in his mid-20s, was the quieter of the two, and he led a few of us on some longer hikes while others stayed behind at camp. Later, I asked Dom about loneliness. He thought young men feel lost today “because they are comparing themselves to others in a negative way through social media” and “disconnected from nature.”
Luckily, there’s nothing close to a signal at Lake Clark National Park, no texts you feel compelled to answer, no influencers to interact with. That’s not easy to do in the United States.
I also found kinship with Dr. Adam Bolour, my kayak partner at Twin Lakes and roommate at Port Alsworth, a tiny Alaskan village on Lake Clark where we slept on our final night. We talked about fatherhood, relationships, and nature. He was traveling solo too, from California, and while he was upbeat and talkative with everyone, I watched him steal away to read some Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance by the lakeshore. I did the same with Proenekke’s book there.
I emailed to ask about male loneliness, when I got back to New Jersey.
“I cherish solo trips, whether I’m married, feeling alone, feeling super connected with someone or a big group,” he wrote. “It’s just great to get away and convene with silence and space.”
My revelations in Colorado and, later, at Proenneke’s cabin, helped me realize I must connect deeply with myself in the outdoors from time to time. Nature can’t just be an emergency room for me, either. It’s long-term maintenance for my physical and mental health, whether it’s trail running, floating in a swimming hole, or staring at mountains. It’s more than a hobby. The version of me who returns from those trips is a better father and, hopefully, a better partner someday.
Unlike Matthiessen, who spent months away from his young, grieving son in search of a snow leopard, or Proenneke, who spent 30 years away from almost everyone, I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to pull myself away from my children and responsibilities to that extreme. I have been guilty of that in the past. I’ll make do with a vow to see mountains like the San Juans as much as possible, even if it’s just a few days to convene with solitude, as Adam does. And if I can’t get to the Sawtooths or Switzerland, I’ll cut myself a break and keep exploring Pennsylvania or the Catskills.
A few months after I got back from Alaska, I tackled Pennsylvania’s Black Forest Trail. It’s the state’s most difficult hike, a 43-mile loop with a mind-boggling 8,500 feet of elevation gain. I was craving solitude, again, and found the trail emptier than the Alaskan backcountry. I saw as many rattlesnakes as people on that trip.
On my final night of the hike, after pushing hard for about 18 miles, I took off my boots and socks and stretched out on a shady vista as the sun began to sink. Two hikers came in, a father and son, after their own long day. They hoped to camp there too and asked if I minded. I said it was fine and then, a few minutes later, reached for my socks and boots.
I shouldered my heavy pack, wished them a deep sleep, and pushed on to find solitude, that little bit of loneliness all the world says is a problem.
Jason Nark is a reporter who covers the outdoors for the Philadelphia Inquirer and and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, The Alpinist, Adventure Journal, National Geographic, Dwell, and other outlets.
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