Alaska
How Alaska became one of fentanyl’s deadliest frontiers

An inflow of fentanyl into Alaska within the final two years has vexed regulation enforcement, overwhelmed well being methods and deeply affected struggling Native communities.
In 2020 and 2021, the artificial opioid was a significant contributor in a spike in overdoses – the nation’s largest, in keeping with Alaska’s public well being division. In 2021, overdose deaths jumped by 74% in a single yr, with fentanyl deaths spiking by 150%, the report mentioned.
Drug traffickers have carved out a profitable marketplace for artificial medication like methamphetamine and fentanyl in Alaska, since they will extract greater revenue margins in a distant area.
AP
Fentanyl has grow to be a nationwide disaster lately, however Alaska faces distinctive challenges as a consequence of its location, measurement and restricted regulation enforcement assets, Alaska’s Excessive Depth Drug Trafficking Space program mentioned in its annual report back to Congress.
In the summertime of 2022, Alaska regulation enforcement seized almost 2.5 million doses of fentanyl, HIDTA mentioned.
Alaska has the nation’s largest proportion of its inhabitants which identifies as American Indian and Alaska Native at 19.6 p.c. And it’s these teams – who’ve lengthy struggled with systemic lack of assets, trauma and substance abuse – which can be being hit the toughest by the fentanyl scourge: For Alaska Natives and American Indians, the 2021 overdose charge was 77.7 per 100,000 folks, in comparison with a 2021 charge of 28.8 for White Alaskans.
Alaska officers battle with intercepting shipments of fentanyl – which is generally produced in Mexico – since massive swathes of the state are solely accessible by smaller boats and airplanes that assist the drug attain locations undetected.
And whereas an opioid capsule can price $2 in Arizona and lots of different components of the contiguous U.S., the identical capsule can promote for $40 in Alaska. Costs can differ extensively even inside the state, relying on the situation: in Anchorage, one dosage unit of fentanyl prices $15, whereas in Bethel, the hub for 56 villages within the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, (400 miles away from Anchorage) one dose can price $100, in keeping with the 2022 Alaska Annual Drug Report launched in January.
“We’re probably the most flying state within the union,” Lt. Paul Wegrzyn, deputy commander of the Alaska State Troopers’ drug enforcement unit, informed CBS Information. “Individuals suppose nothing of hopping on a aircraft. There may be air journey taking place all hours and all day and night time. It creates a problem to trace medication coming into these villages.”
The Biden administration has stepped up federal efforts to disrupt the circulate of fentanyl into the nation. However at the same time as regulation enforcement efforts enhance, authorities businesses have recognized racial and sophistication disparities in prevention and dependancy remedy providers.
Courtesy of Stevi Rae Angasan
In Alaska, the consequences of fentanyl on the Native inhabitants are being felt throughout the state. Throughout the pandemic from 2019-2020, overdose deaths elevated by greater than 40% for Native Alaskans, in keeping with CDC knowledge.
“Most individuals who died by overdose had no proof of substance use remedy earlier than their deaths,” in keeping with a CDC report. “In reality, a decrease proportion of individuals from racial and ethnic minority teams acquired remedy, in contrast with White folks.”
Stevi Rae Angasan, 38, was born and raised in Naknek, a fishing village on the northeast aspect of Bristol Bay. Simply up to now yr, she has seen two overdose deaths in her neighborhood of fewer than 800 folks unfold amongst three tribal villages: Naknek, South Naknek and King Salmon.
Angasan, a member of the Naknek tribe, mentioned she has struggled with dependancy since highschool. She married at 18, had a daughter at 19, and labored within the fishing trade. After the season ended, Angasan would spend all her cash on heroin till there was nothing left.
Angasan, who now works as an administrative assistant on the Naknek Native Village Council and has been sober for 5 years, mentioned she was grateful fentanyl wasn’t round when she was hooked on medication.
Immediately, she sees “nothing however accessibility.” She mentioned the issue is compounded by an absence of assets to struggle again. Alaskan tribal courts have prosecuted drug sellers promoting fentanyl and different opioids, however most communities depend on regulation enforcement a whole lot of miles from their properties.
And there are not any suboxone or methadone clinics to deal with dependancy in her space, Angasan mentioned.
There are solely seven remedy clinics in Alaska, in keeping with a spokeswoman on the State Opioid Therapy Authority. There are three clinics in Anchorage, one in Fairbanks, one in Wasilla, one in Juneau, and one in Sitka. She added that there are plans to open one within the fall of 2023 on Prince of Wales Island.
The Biden administration says it’s investing in overdose and dependancy efforts; $1.5 billion is being distributed all through all states for opioid and dependancy points, with $104 million to increase substance abuse prevention in rural communities. In 2021, the CDC invested $13 million to help in drug overdose prevention in tribal communities.
Angasan says the assets are urgently wanted.
“The neighborhood is at a standstill,” she mentioned. “We ask ‘what are we going to do?’”

Alaska
Alaska legislators prepare for August special session with veto override votes a top priority
Alaska legislators looking to override some of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes received a boost late Tuesday with news of a lawmaker’s plan to return from Europe for a special session set to begin next month.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Forrest Dunbar is deployed with the Alaska Army National Guard and was previously expected to miss the special session that Dunleavy called for August. But Dunbar said he had received permission to fly to the state to participate in the session.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate majorities have said they plan to vote on overriding Dunleavy’s veto of roughly $50 million in education funding — but to succeed, they need support from 45 out of 60 lawmakers. The presence of Dunbar, a reliable vote in favor of an override, increases the likelihood that they can meet that threshold.
Dunleavy called lawmakers into a 30-day special session to begin Aug. 2 with the stated goal of reviewing his education policy ideas and a plan for creating a new agriculture department. But majority members in the House and Senate have been skeptical of Dunleavy’s policy plans. Dunleavy has declined to provide specifics on his proposals until the beginning of the session.
Instead, lawmakers say they expect to hold a brief special session that will focus on attempts to override Dunleavy’s vetoes of what majority members describe as high-priority items.
Under the Alaska Constitution, lawmakers have a window of five days once they convene to consider overriding any of the vetoes Dunleavy has enacted since the regular legislative session ended in mid-May.
Earlier this month, Dunleavy asked House Republican minority members not to attend the first five days of the special session, to make it more difficult for majority members to secure the votes needed to succeed in overriding him. Additionally, Dunleavy scheduled the session in summer, when many lawmakers were set to be absent.
Dunbar’s announcement that he had succeeded in getting permission from his military superiors to return to the state for the special session indicates the lengths some lawmakers are willing to go to override Dunleavy’s vetoes.
Several House minority members, including House Minority Leader Mia Costello, have said they would not heed Dunleavy’s request for them to stay away from Juneau for the first five days of the session.
“I’m hearing from folks that they — at least my constituents — are telling me they want me to attend, because it’s my job,” said Costello, an Anchorage Republican.
But it was still not clear whether the Legislature could muster the 45 votes needed to override Dunleavy’s budget veto, Senate President Gary Stevens said Wednesday.
Costello said she hadn’t yet decided whether she would vote to override Dunleavy’s vetoes, despite voting to override Dunleavy’s veto of an education bill in May.
“I’m not sure if we have the votes, but we’re trying to figure that out right now,” said Stevens, adding that the Senate majority caucus would meet Friday to discuss its course of action.
And even if they did, Stevens said that Dunleavy was considering calling off the special session altogether, based on two phone conversations Stevens said he had with Dunleavy on Wednesday.
“The governor always has the right to cancel a special session right up until the time we call ourselves into order,” said Stevens. “Will he do that? I don’t know.”
In response to several questions about whether Dunleavy was considering calling off the special session, his spokesperson Jeff Turner said in a email only that Dunleavy “is having discussions with the Senate president about the policies that will be taken up in the special session.”
If the governor cancels the special session, lawmakers may convene one without his support. Such a move would require support from 40 lawmakers — a threshold Stevens didn’t immediately know whether the Legislature could meet.
If the special session goes ahead as planned, Stevens said he intends to prioritize votes to override Dunleavy’s education funding veto, and to override Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that was intended to provide clarity on the state’s audits of oil and gas tax revenue. Stevens and other legislative leaders said that the Dunleavy administration has refused to provide certain information on the tax revenue to the legislative auditor, raising concerns among lawmakers that the administration is leaving millions of dollars in revenue on the table. (Dunleavy has called the bill “sweeping and likely unconstitutional.”)
Those two veto override votes could come as soon as Aug. 2, the first day of the special session. And the special session could end soon after that, Stevens said.
“Any legislator saying, ‘I won’t be there on the first day,’ is abrogating their responsibility,” said Stevens. “It’s our duty, it’s our job to honor the call of the governor and be there on Aug. 2. And everyone needs to be there on Aug. 2. If they are not there, they are not doing their jobs.”
The bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate number 35 members combined. That means they need to draw support from 10 Republican minority members to succeed in overriding the governor on budget vetoes. Overriding policy vetoes — like that of the oil and gas tax audit bill — requires a lower threshold of 40 votes.
On paper, lawmakers have the support they need to override the governor’s veto of education funding and the oil and gas tax audit measure, known as Senate Bill 183.
The Legislature overrode Dunleavy’s veto of an education funding bill with support from 46 lawmakers in May. And Senate Bill 183 passed with support from 49 lawmakers.
But some lawmakers who supported the May veto override vote, including Costello, have indicated they have not decided yet whether to support an override of the budget veto.
Costello said Wednesday that she was spending time meeting with constituents this week to determine whether they support overriding the governor.
Some Republican lawmakers aligned with the governor have already announced they would not attend the special session. Among them is Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, a Wasilla Republican, who said he had a prior work commitment that would keep him away from the Capitol for the first days of the special session. Some House members have said they would follow Dunleavy’s request not to attend the beginning of the session, including Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican, and Rep. Jamie Allard, an Eagle River Republican.
Stevens said that if lawmakers are successful overriding Dunleavy’s vetoes of education funding and Senate Bill 183, they may move on to some of the governor’s other vetoes.
“That would be my intention of dealing with those two things primarily,” said Stevens. “Then, as we discuss it, we’ll see if there are other overrides we want to consider.”
The potential list of override votes is long: Dunleavy vetoed dozens of line items in the state budget, and he also vetoed four other policy bills, including ones that passed with broad bipartisan support from lawmakers.
But if the votes over education funding and oil and gas audits fail to reach their respective thresholds, “it would be pointless to go on to other overrides,” said Stevens.
Regardless of whether the special session goes as planned, education funding and oil and gas tax audits are “live matters that will be dealt with in January,” Stevens said.
Alaska
Opinion: We’ve done what the governor says Alaska school districts refuse to do. Now we’re at the breaking point.

As the superintendent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, I feel compelled to respond to the recent opinion article by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Education Commissioner Deena Bishop (“We’re not going to stop pushing for better Alaska student outcomes”) advocating for increased educational “options” and implying that districts like ours resist innovation to preserve the status quo. This narrative misrepresents both our district’s efforts and the real fiscal challenges we face.
In Fairbanks, we’ve made the hard decisions year after year in our school district. We’ve closed schools, consolidated programs, reduced administrative positions, outsourced evening custodial positions, and sought out efficiencies at every level. We’ve done this while navigating declining enrollment and a state education funding formula that has failed to keep pace with inflation for more than a decade.
When state leaders claim that districts like ours resist innovation or cling to the status quo, they aren’t just being unfair — they’re misrepresenting the truth. These assertions perpetuate a false narrative that undermines public confidence and damages enrollment in our schools.
Over the past four years, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has closed seven schools. These were difficult and emotional decisions to ensure that we could continue serving our students responsibly and sustainably. We have streamlined our operations, reorganized academic programs and redirected limited resources to classrooms where they matter most. These are exactly the kinds of changes critics call for — and we have already made them. We’ve shown innovation by streamlining, reorganizing, redirecting and focusing on what matters most, even when funding stops showing up.
We’ve done what the governor and others say school districts refuse to do. Yet despite all of these difficult and proactive steps, we still face significant funding shortfalls that directly affect our classrooms. The reality is this: doing more with less can only go so far. Continued underfunding is now eroding the quality of education we can provide, and we have already reached that breaking point.
Fairbanks has not stood still. We’ve embraced innovation and modernization in ways that reflect the diverse and evolving needs of our families. We’ve expanded career and technical education opportunities, strengthened blended and online learning options, and partnered with community organizations to support student mental health and early literacy. These efforts aren’t relics of the past; they are forward-looking, equity-driven strategies rooted in data and community feedback.
[Earlier commentary: Alaska education reform doesn’t start with budget cuts]
At the same time, we cannot ignore the reality of chronic underfunding. While some disingenuously claim that education funding has grown significantly in recent years, they fail to account for the full picture. Inflation, rising operational costs, and limitations in Alaska’s funding model have steadily eroded our real purchasing power. If the Base Student Allocation had simply kept pace with inflation, Fairbanks schools would be receiving approximately $30 million more each year. That funding would reduce class sizes, restore student support positions, and prevent program cuts that harm students.
Today, some classrooms in Fairbanks have more than 35 students — a clear reflection of the strain on our resources. We’ve had to make difficult decisions, including reducing teaching and counseling positions and limiting vital services that families rely on each day. When we talk about “saving jobs,” we are referring to the teachers, aides, librarians, and specialists who provide essential instruction, care, and support to our children. These positions are not bureaucratic; they are fundamental to student success.
The governor often points to Mississippi as a model for improving literacy outcomes. We agree that Alaska should aim for similar progress. But what he fails to acknowledge is that Mississippi made major investments to achieve that success — including more than $9 million in the first year and $15 million annually to fund literacy coaches and early intervention. In contrast, Alaska’s Reads Act, though promising in its design, has not been supported with the level of funding needed to deliver meaningful results. Good policy is only effective when matched with sustained investment. We cannot replicate outcomes without replicating inputs.
We also support the idea that families deserve options, and in Fairbanks, we offer a range of public school choices, including charter and homeschool programs. But we cannot expand “choice” by weakening the neighborhood schools that serve the vast majority of students — especially those with disabilities, English language learners and students who require additional support. When we shift resources away from these core schools, we undermine equity, stability, and access for all.
Despite what you may hear, Alaska’s public school leaders are not obstructionists. In fact, over the past two legislative cycles, our lawmakers have worked across party lines to support both increased education funding and thoughtful policy reforms. Unfortunately, each time meaningful progress has been made — including the most recent bipartisan effort to raise the Base Student Allocation — the governor has chosen to veto those advances rather than build on them. That is not collaboration. It is a refusal to meet in the middle. It’s a refusal to honor the hard work elected legislators from across our state have done to support all students in Alaska.
We welcome a different path. I invite the governor and commissioner to visit our schools, speak with our educators, and hear directly from our community. Come see how Fairbanks is working tirelessly to adapt, innovate and serve every student — even with fewer resources than we had a decade ago. The time has come to stop drawing battle lines and start building solutions together like we have seen the Legislature do.
If we are serious about improving education in Alaska, then we must fully fund our schools, protect vital teaching positions and ensure that policy reforms are supported with the resources required to succeed. Our students deserve more than rhetoric and political gridlock. They deserve a public education system that values both opportunity and excellence.
Fairbanks has done the hard work. Now we need a true partner in the state. All of Alaska’s children are counting on us.
Luke Meinert serves as superintendent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. He has held leadership and teaching roles with the Aleutians East, Yukon-Koyukuk and Fairbanks school districts.
• • •
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Alaska
Captured on camera: An ‘otter-ly’ fantastic adventure through Alaskan waterways

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – For the first time, an otter was captured on camera swimming through the weir at Westchester Lagoon. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game posted the video on their Sport Fishing Facebook page.
“Seeing them go in and out through, that isn’t anything unusual. It’s probably been happening for years. This is just the first time we’ve actually got video footage of it,” said Cory Stantorf, a biologist for the Department of Fish and Game.
According to Fish and Game, the camera was placed to monitor the movement of fish and invasive species throughout Alaskan waterways. A grant from Fish and Game’s Invasive Species Program funded the camera.
Stantorf said it is not uncommon for small marine mammals to find their way through weirs.
“It’s more common for river otters. They’re significantly more mobile in and out of water systems, so they’ll go from Campbell Creek over to Chester Creek, then they’ll bounce back,” he said.
Stantorf said otters are a vital part of the ecosystem that keeps watershed areas healthy. He reminded people to be respectful of all wildlife and to report any negative interactions to the Fish and Game office.
“Just like when people see other wildlife like bears or moose, otters are the same way. You have got to give them space. Don’t approach them,” Stantorf said. “We haven’t had any negative reports this year, which is great.”
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