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Legislative task force offers possible actions to rescue troubled Alaska seafood industry • Alaska Beacon

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Legislative task force offers possible actions to rescue troubled Alaska seafood industry • Alaska Beacon


Alaska lawmakers from fishing-dependent communities say they have ideas for ways to rescue the state’s beleaguered seafood industry, with a series of bills likely to follow.

Members of a legislative task force created last spring now have draft recommendations that range from the international level, where they say marketing of Alaska fish can be much more robust, to the hyper-local level, where projects like shared community cold-storage facilities can cut costs.

The draft was reviewed at a two-day hearing in Anchorage Thursday and Friday of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. It will be refined in the coming days, members said.

The bill that created the task force, Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, sets a deadline for a report to the full Legislature of Jan. 21, which is the scheduled first day of the session. However, a final task force report may take a little longer and be submitted as late as Feb. 1, said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, the group’s chair.

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The draft is a good start to what is expected to be a session-long process, said Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, a task force member.

“We can hit the ground running because we’re got some good solid ideas,” Stutes said in closing comments on Friday. The session can last until May 20 without the Legislature voting to extend it.

Another task force member, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, urged his colleagues to focus on the big picture and the main goals.

“We need to take a look at how we can increase market share for Alaska seafood and how we can increase value. Those two things aren’t easy, but those are the only two things that are going to matter long term. Everything else is just throwing deck chairs off the Titanic,” he said Friday.

Many of the recommended actions on subjects like insurance and allocations, if carried out, are important but incremental, Bjorkman said. “If the ship’s going down, that stuff isn’t going to matter,” he said.

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Alaska’s seafood industry is beset by crises in nearly all fishing regions of the state and affecting nearly all species.

Economic forces, heavily influenced by international turmoil and a glut of competing Russian fish dumped on world markets, have depressed prices. Meanwhile, operating costs have risen sharply. Climate change and other environmental factors have triggered crashes in stocks that usually support economically important fisheries; Bering Sea king and snow crab fisheries, for example, were closed for consecutive years because stocks were wiped out after a sustained and severe marine heatwave.

Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, and Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, listen to testimony on Thursday from Nicole Kimball of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association. Kimball was among the industry representatives who presented information at the two-day hearing, held on Thursday and Friday, of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

In all, the Alaska seafood industry lost $1.8 billion from 2022 to 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Those problems inspired the creation of the task force last spring. The group has been meeting regularly since the summer.

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The draft recommendations that have emerged from the task force’s work address marketing, product development, workforce shortages, financing, operating costs, insurance and other aspects of seafood harvesting, processing and sales.

One set of recommendations focuses on fisheries research. These call for more state and federal funding and an easy system for fisheries and environmental scientists from the state, federal government and other entities to share data quickly.

The draft recommends several steps to encourage development of new products and markets for them, including non-traditional products like protein powder, nutritional supplements and fish oil. Mariculture should be expanded, with permitting and financing made easier, according to the draft.

The draft recommendations also propose some changes in the structure of seafood taxes levied on harvesters and processors, along with new tax incentives for companies to invest in modernization, product diversification and sustainability.

Other recommendations are for direct aid to fishery workers and fishing-dependent communities in the form of housing subsidies or even development of housing projects. Shortages of affordable housing have proved to be a major challenge for communities and companies, the draft notes. More investment in worker training — using public-private partnerships — and the creation of tax credits or grants to encourage Alaska-resident hire, are also called for in the draft recommendations.

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Expanded duties for ASMI?

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state agency that promotes Alaska seafood domestically and internationally, figures large in the draft recommendations.

The draft calls for more emphasis on the quality and sustainability of Alaska fish and, in general, more responsibilities for ASMI. An example is the recommended expansion of ASMI’s duties to include promotion of Alaska mariculture. That would require legislation, such as an early version of bill that was sponsored by outgoing Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan. It would also require mariculture operators’ willingness to pay into the program.

But ASMI, as it is currently configured, is not equipped to tackle such expanded operations, lawmakers said. Even obtaining modest increases in funding for ASMI has proved to be a challenge. A $10 million increase approved by the Legislature last year was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who cited a failure by ASMI to develop a required plan for the money. 

The governor’s proposed budget released in December includes an increase in state money for ASMI, but his suggestion that $10 million in new funding be spread over three years falls far short of what the organization needs, Stevens said at the time.

Incoming House Speaker and task force member Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said there will probably be a need to reorganize or restructure ASMI to make it more autonomous. That might mean partnering with a third party and the creation of more managerial and financial independence from whoever happens to be in political office at the time, as he explained it.

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Dillingham, and Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, listen to information presented on Jan. 9, 2025, at a hearing held by the Joint Legislative Take Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry. Edgmon and Bjorkman are two of the eight task force members. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, listen to information presented on Thursday at a hearing held by the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. Edgmon and Bjorkman are two of the eight task force members. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

“The umbilical cord needs to be perhaps cut to some degree,” Edgmon said on Friday, during the hearing’s public comment period. The solution could be to make ASMI more of a private entity, he said.

“Because the world is changing. It’s a global marketplace. We need to have ASMI to have as large a presence as possible,” he said. 

But for now, ASMI and plans for its operations have been constricted by political concerns. “People are afraid of how it’s going to go back to the governor’s office,” Edgmon said.

Federal assistance

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, spoke to the task force on Thursday about ways the federal government could help the Alaska seafood industry.

One recent success, she said, is passage of the bipartisan Fishery Improvement to Streamline Untimely Regulatory Hurdles post Emergency Situation Act, known as the FISHES Act, which was signed into law a few days earlier.

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The act establishes a system to speed fisheries disaster aid. It can take two to three years after a fisheries disaster is declared for relief funds to reach affected individuals, businesses and communities, and that is “unacceptable,” Murkowski said.  The bill addresses that situation, though not perfectly. “It’s still not the best that it could be,” she said.

Another helpful piece of federal legislation that is pending, she said, is the Working Waterfronts Bill she introduced in February. The bill contains provisions to improve coastal infrastructure, coastal energy systems and workforce development.

More broadly, Murkowski said she and others continue to push for legislation or policies to put seafood and fisheries on the same footing as agriculture. That includes the possibility of fishery disaster insurance similar to the crop insurance that is available to farmers, she said.

But getting federal action on seafood, or even attention to it, can be difficult, she said.

“It is a reality that we have faced, certainly since my time in the senate, that seafood has been viewed as kind of an afterthought by many when it comes to a food resource, a source of protein,” she said.

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Inclusion of seafood in even simple programs can be difficult to achieve, she said. She cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision, announced in April, to include canned salmon as a food eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC. She and others had been working for several years to win that approval, she said.

Tariffs a looming threat

Seafood can also be an afterthought in federal trade policy, Murkowski said.

Jeremy Woodrow, at right, fields questions from lawmakers on Jan. 9, 2025, at an Anchorage hearing of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry. Woodrow is executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Next to him is Tim Lamkin, a legislative aide for Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Alaska, the task force chair. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Jeremy Woodrow, at right, fields questions from lawmakers on Thursday at an Anchorage hearing of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. Woodrow is executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Next to him is Tim Lamkin, a legislative aide for Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, the task force chair. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to impose on U.S. trade partners pose a serious concern to Alaska’s seafood industry, she said.

“The president-elect has made very, very, very, very clear that this is going to be a new administration and we’re going to use tariffs to our advantage. I don’t know what exactly to expect from that,” she said.

In the past, tariffs imposed by the U.S. government have been answered with retaliatory tariffs that cause problems for seafood and other export-dependent industries.

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Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s executive director, has similar warnings about tariffs, noting that about 70% of the Alaska seafood, as measured by value, is sold to markets outside of the U.S.

“We tend to be, as an industry, collateral damage in a lot of trade relationships. We’re not the main issue. And that usually is a bad outcome for seafood,” he told the committee on Thursday.

To avoid or mitigate problems, Alaska leaders and the Alaska industry will have to respond quickly and try to educate trade officials about tariff impacts on seafood exports, Woodrow said.

Task force members expressed concerns about impacts to the export-dependent Alaska industry.

“If we raise tariffs on another country, won’t they simply turn around and raise tariffs on us?” asked Stevens.

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Tariffs on Chinese products, which Trump has suggested repeatedly, could cause particular problems for Alaska seafood, Stutes said. She pointed to the companies that send fish, after initial processing, to China for further processing in preparation for sale to final markets, some of which are back in the U.S.

“If there is a huge tariff put on products going and coming from China, that would seem to me to have another huge gut shot to those processors that are sending their fish out for processing,” Stutes said.

Bjorkman, a former high school government teacher, said history shows the dangers of aggressive tariff policies.

The isolationist “America-first” approach, as carried out at turns over the past 150 years, “hasn’t worked out very well. It’s been real bad,” Bjorkman said.” As an alternative, he suggested broader seafood promotions, backed by federal or multistate support, to better compete in the international marketplace.

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Only in Alaska. Welcome to the ‘totem pole capital of the world.’

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Only in Alaska. Welcome to the ‘totem pole capital of the world.’


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  • Ketchikan, Alaska is known as the “totem pole capital of the world” with over 80 poles.
  • Totem poles are unique to the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and represent family history, stories, and events.
  • Many of Ketchikan’s oldest totem poles were moved from abandoned villages to the Totem Heritage Center for preservation.

KETCHIKAN, Alaska – An arched sign stretching between two city blocks welcomes travelers to “Alaska’s first city” and the “salmon capital of the world.” But Ketchikan, the first port on many Alaska cruises, has another nickname: the “totem pole capital of the world.” 

Totem poles are unique to the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The ones around Ketchikan are particularly old and numerous.  

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“The history and the clans that own (the totem poles), like their animal clan crests, those are still living,” said Irene Dundas, Cultural Resources manager for the Ketchikan Indian Community. According to KIC’s website, its tribal citizens descend from Southeast Alaska’s three main Native peoples – Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian – as well as other Alaska Native tribal nations. “We’re not black-and-white photos … We still practice our culture every day, and we live it.”

“Travelers should know that there are spectacular and diverse Indigenous experiences and stories across every region of the United States, each unlike the other and each transcending generations to get to them,” said Sherry L. Rupert, who is Paiute and Washoe and CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association. 

Here’s what else visitors should know about Ketchikan, the “totem pole capital of the world.”  

Why it matters

“Totem poles are often used to show like family history, clan relationships, crest animals, stories, events, or to memorialize a specific person or event, like a battle or a visit by a dignitary, those types of things,” said Hazel Brewi, a visitor information assistant at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, an interagency visitors center for public lands across the state.  

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There are more than 80 totem poles around Ketchikan, many of which are visible to the public, according to Erika Jayne Christian, program coordinator for Ketchikan Museums, which include the Totem Heritage Center, where the oldest totem poles are found. 

Normally, she said, “They’re only really meant to last a generation – 70 or 80 years from the time that this giant western redcedar is felled and then carved and then raised in ceremony” until it naturally deteriorates. 

However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, residents of Native villages on neighboring islands began moving to Ketchikan for various reasons, including job opportunities. When surveyors went back decades later, they discovered many totem poles had been vandalized or stolen. 

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“When it comes to the totem poles, our village was totally wiped out by an expedition that came up,” said Teresa DeWitt, who is Tlingit and serves as a program assistant for Ketchikan Museums.  

To protect the totem poles that remained, elders from Tlingit villages on Tongass Island and Village Island and a Haida village on Prince of Wales Island allowed theirs to be moved. “It was a very big thing,” DeWitt said. “It’s not something we normally do.” 

The Totem Heritage Center was built to house these totem poles, which still belong to the villages’ descendants, and preserve and perpetuate the traditions behind them, with continuing guidance from a Native advisory board. 

Outside the center and elsewhere around Ketchikan, visitors can find newer totem poles, including recreations carved as part of a Civilian Conservation Corps project that began in 1930s and modern-day totem poles by master carvers. 

“There has been a real revival effort, and so people are learning to carve and learning to do Northwest Coast design,” said Dundas. “Totem poles are just a little sliver of the overall beautiful, beautiful culture.” 

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What to see

Visitors can see totem poles throughout Ketchikan, but there are three clusters. 

Totem Heritage Center: A $9 Museum Pass covers admission to both the Totem Heritage Center and its sister museum, Tongass Historical Museum. “You’re able to really learn about where it is that you’re visiting … where you are in place and time,” said Christian. 

Single museum admission costs $6 for adults under age 65, and $5 for those who are older. Admission is free for children age 17 and under, active-duty military service members, and local residents. Both museums are in downtown Ketchikan and reachable by foot from the cruise port or the borough’s free shuttle bus during the summer. 

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Saxman Totem Park: Visitors can see recreations of historic totem poles, a community clan house and a working totem pole workshop in the Organized Village of Saxman, less than 3 miles from downtown Ketchikan. Totem park tours run throughout the cruise season, from late April to early October. They can be booked directly through Cape Fox Tours, part of the village’s Alaska Native Corporation, or as excursions through cruise lines. Self-guided tours cost $8 while Cape Fox’s guided tours start at $129 and may include additional experiences, like traditional dance performances.

Kristy Shields, who is Tlingit, recalls being told as a kid “that we were going to dance on the dock for big canoes and it ended up being cruise ships.” Now she helps pass the tradition on to younger generations as tours dance manager for Cape Fox Tours. “They are dancing. They know their songs. They know who they are. They know where they come from.” Saxman can be reached by Ketchikan’s free shuttle in the summer or $2 city bus. There is also a foot and bike path, but walking from downtown takes about an hour.  

Totem Bight State Historical Park: More than a dozen Tlingit and Haida totem poles and a community clan house stand in this 11-acre state park, according to a guide on its website. Like many of the totem poles in Saxman, Christian said these were carved as part of a CCC totem pole restoration program. Park admission costs $5 per person from May through September and is free from October through April. The park is roughly 10 miles north of downtown Ketchikan and can be reached by $2 city bus. 

Not-so hidden gems 

Salmon Walk: This scenic 1.5-mile loop meanders through the heart of the city, along Ketchikan Creek, where salmon famously swim in the summer. There are various interpretative signs and points of interest along the way, including famous Creek Street and both Ketchikan museums. Visitors who don’t want to complete the loop can catch a free downtown shuttle from the Totem Heritage Center, which marks the path’s halfway point. 

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Southeast Alaska Discovery Center: This is a great point for learning about the region through ranger-led activities, educational films and elaborate exhibits. Three master-carved totem poles in the atrium represent the region’s three main Native peoples. Visitors can learn more through the Native traditions exhibit, developed by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian elders so “they could tell their own story,” Brewi said. “The voices of the elders echo through that space and it is absolutely beautiful to walk through, especially at the quieter times of the day, because it’s all motion-activated and you can actually stand and just listen to those elders speak.” 

The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center is located a few blocks from the cruise port. Admission is free from October through April. From May through September, admission costs $5 for visitors over the age of 15 and is free for anyone younger. Visitors with America the Beautiful Interagency Passes also get free entry. 

Tongass National Forest: Ketchikan is nestled within America’s largest national forest and the “world’s largest intact temperate rainforest,” according to the USDA. Visitors eager to explore the great outdoors will find over two dozen hiking trails around Ketchikan, many of which can be reached on public transit, according to Brewi. She recommends first stopping by the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center for the latest information on conditions and bears.  

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Best time to visit 

By far, summer is the busiest time of year with the mildest weather and the widest array of visitor experiences. Travelers hoping to avoid crowds may opt to visit early or late in the cruise season.  

However, Dundas notes, “Later in the season, like in October, you’re really, really pushing it with weather and you have to be prepared for Ketchikan weather.” Ketchikan got over 12 feet of rain in 2025, according to the National Weather Service, and October is among its soggiest months.  

She recommends visiting in July and early August, when various festivals are held, and packing a raincoat like locals.  

If you go 

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Getting there: Most visitors arrive by cruise, including more than 1.5 million people in 2025, according to the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau.  

Travelers can also fly into Ketchikan International Airport, a short ferry ride away on Gravina Island. Alaska Airlines provides daily service between Ketchikan and Seattle, as well as several other Alaska cities.  

Where to stay: Ketchikan offers a variety of hotels. Campgrounds and vacation rentals are also available nearby. 

The reporter on this story received access from Celebrity Cruises. USA TODAY maintains editorial control. 



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‘Ticking time bomb’: Extreme snowfall fuels avalanche danger around Haines

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‘Ticking time bomb’: Extreme snowfall fuels avalanche danger around Haines


Avalanche professionals are warning backcountry adventurers to stay out of risky terrain after snow slammed the Upper Lynn Canal in late December.

National Weather Service data shows the storm dumped at least 44 inches of snow in Haines, making it the sixth snowiest five-day period in more than two decades. Other reports documented closer to six or seven feet.

“It was definitely one of the higher snowfalls you’ve gotten in five days, pretty much out of all your time that the station’s been there,” said Juneau-based meteorologist Edward Liske.

The dumping has created a risky situation in the backcountry that warrants extreme caution, said Jeff Moskowitz, the director of the Haines Avalanche Center.

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His main message: “Avoid being in or around avalanche terrain.”

Earlier this week, Moskowitz dug a snow pit in town – in front of Haines’ historic Fort Seward – that confirmed his assessment. Standing chest-deep in the pit, he pointed out layers of snow stacked on top of each other, each representing a different storm.

There was a somewhat fluffy layer on top, from the snowfall in early January. Below that, there was a roughly three-foot-deep layer that was more compact, from the late December storm.

And then there was a thin, feeble layer of snow just inches from the ground that crumbled like sugar when Moskowitz ran his hand through it. That snow was on the ground before the big storm – it’s the layer that could collapse and trigger an avalanche under the weight of more precipitation, snowmachines or humans.

“We have about a meter of really strong snow just sitting over this sugar,” Moskowitz said, calling it a “dangerous combination for avalanches.”

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Jeff Moskowitz directs the Haines Avalanche Center, the Chilkat Valley’s primary source of avalanche information.

Starting Dec. 27, the situation prompted the center to issue warnings about high avalanche risk in the Haines area. Moskowitz said people should stay off slopes that are greater than 30 degrees – and avoid traveling beneath them.

“It’s just a tricky situation, because there’s lots of snow, and we want to go play,” he said. “But we still have this strong-over-weak layering in most places.”

In some places, he said, the weak layer may be buried so deep that a human or snowmachine wouldn’t trigger it. But in shallower areas, like near trees or rocks. the layer would be closer to the surface and more likely to trigger an avalanche.

“People could ride that slope numerous times until one person finds that weak spot,” he said.

The deluge has stopped for now. But the situation could get worse before it gets better, as temperatures rise and the top layer of snow consolidates into a heavier, thicker slab. New precipitation or other conditions could trigger a natural avalanche cycle, wiping that weak layer out.

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“Otherwise, it’s a little bit like a ticking time bomb,” Moskowitz said.

Haines Avalanche Center

The Haines Avalanche Center is a nonprofit and the main source of avalanche information in the Chilkat Valley, which draws backcountry adventurers from around the world. Moskowitz emphasized the importance of donations, grants and borough funding to make that work possible.

In the past, the Haines Borough has asked nonprofits to apply for funding from a $100,000 bucket. But Haines Mayor Tom Morphet said that, amid a steep budget deficit, the assembly discontinued that grant process for fiscal year 2026, which runs through June.

That has meant less funding than usual for the Avalanche Center, which has just three part-time employees, including Moskowitz.

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“Less funding means less staff time,” Moskowitz said. “And staff time means that locals who are avalanche professionals and have certifications are out there, digging in the snow, making assessments, posting that information publicly.”

The center posts a general avalanche information product every week, plus a weather forecast and season summary. They also issue advisories when avalanche danger is high, including three days in a row in late December.

But the center does not currently have the funding or staff capacity to consistently publish advisories when avalanche risk is low, moderate or considerable.

“What we don’t want, is that there’s an accident that sparks the public interest in supporting the Avalanche Center,” Moskowitz said. “We just need to maintain the services we provide and just keep it going year after year after year.”

Morphet, the mayor, said the borough and assembly are “acutely aware” of the center’s importance.

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Moskowitz said people who recreate in the backcountry can help by paying close attention to their surroundings – and he urged them to send in their observations online.

That could mean details about a human-triggered or natural avalanche, about where the sun has hit the mountains on a particular day, or an observation that feathery crystals – known as surface hoar – have started forming on the snow’s surface.

“There’s very little information that we’re not going to find useful,” Moskowitz said. “All of that is very valuable, and it helps to inform this bigger picture.”



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Alaska delegation mixed on Venezuela capture legality, day before presidential war powers vote

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Alaska delegation mixed on Venezuela capture legality, day before presidential war powers vote


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s congressional delegation had mixed reactions Wednesday on the legality of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela over the weekend, just a day before they’re set to vote on a bill ending “hostilities” in Venezuela.

It comes days after former Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro was captured by American forces and brought to the United States in handcuffs to face federal drug trafficking charges.

All U.S. Senators were to be briefed by the administration members at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to CBS News.

Spokespersons for Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, say they were at that meeting, but from their responses, the two shared different takeaways.

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Sullivan, who previously commended the Trump administration for the operation in Venezuela, told KDLL after his briefing that the next steps in Venezuela would be done in three phases.

“One is just stabilization. They don’t want chaos,” he said.

“The second is to have an economic recovery phase … and then finally, the third phase is a transition to conduct free and fair elections and perhaps install the real winner of the 2024 election there, which was not Maduro.”

Murkowski spokesperson Joe Plesha said she had similar takeaways to Sullivan on the ousting of Maduro, but still held concerns on the legality.

“Nicolás Maduro is a dictator who led a brutally oppressive regime, and Venezuela and the world are better places without him in power,” Plesha said in a statement Wednesday. “While [Murkowski] continues to question the legal and policy framework that led to the military operation, the bigger question now is what happens next.”

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Thursday, the Senate will decide what happens next when they vote on a war powers resolution which would require congressional approval to “be engaged in hostilities within or against Venezuela,” and directs the president to terminate the use of armed forces against Venezuela, “unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”

Several House leaders have also received a briefing from the administration according to CBS News. A spokesperson for Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, said he received a House briefing and left believing the actions taken by the administration were legal.

“The information provided in today’s classified House briefing further confirmed that the actions taken by the Administration to obtain Maduro were necessary, time-dependent, and justified; and I applaud our military and the intelligence community for their exceptional work in executing this operation,” Begich said in a statement.

Looming vote

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, authored the war powers resolution scheduled for debate Thursday at 11 a.m. ET — 7 a.m. AKST.

It’s a resolution which was one of the biggest topics of discussion on the chamber floors Wednesday.

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, said on the Senate floor Wednesdya that the actions taken by the administration were an “act of war,” and the president’s capture of Maduro violated the checks and balances established in the constitution, ending his remarks by encouraging his colleagues to vote in favor of the resolution.

“The constitution is clear,” Paul said. “Only Congress can declare a war.”

If all Democrats and independents vote for the Kaine resolution, and Paul keeps to his support, the bill will need three more votes to pass. If there is a tie, the vice president is the deciding vote.

“It’s as if a magical dust of soma has descended through the ventilation systems of congressional office buildings,” Paul continued Wednesday, referring to a particular type of muscle relaxant.

“Vague faces in permanent smiles and obedient applause indicate the degree that the majority party has lost its grip and have become eunuchs in the thrall of presidential domination.”

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Legality of actions under scrutiny

U.S. forces arrested Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas home in an overnight operation early Saturday morning, Alaska time. Strikes accompanying the capture killed about 75 people, including military personnel and civilians, according to U.S. government officials granted anonymity by The Washington Post.

Maduro pleaded not guilty Monday in a New York courtroom to drug trafficking charges that include leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a narco-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. The U.S. offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Whether the U.S. was legally able to capture Maduro under both domestic and international law has been scrutinized in the halls of Congress. Members of the administration, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have been open in defending what they say was a law enforcement operation carrying out an arrest warrant, The Hill reports. Lawmakers, like Paul or Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, say the actions were an act of war and a violation of the constitution.

While the president controls the military as commander in chief, Congress constitutionally has the power to declare wars. Congressional Democrats have accused Trump of skirting the Constitution by not seeking congressional authorization before the operation.

Murkowski has not outright condemned or supported the actions taken by the administration, saying in a statement she was hopeful the world was safer without Maduro in power, but the way the operation was handled is “important.”

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Sullivan, on the other hand, commended Trump and those involved in the operation for forcing Maduro to “face American justice,” in an online statement.

Begich spokesperson Silver Prout told Alaska’s News Source Monday the Congressman believed the operation was “a lawful execution of a valid U.S. arrest warrant on longstanding criminal charges against Nicolás Maduro.”

The legality of U.S. military actions against Venezuela has taken significant focus in Washington over the past several months, highlighted by a “double-tap” strike — a second attack on the same target after an initial strike — which the Washington Post reported killed people clinging to the wreckage of a vessel after the military already struck it. The White House has confirmed the follow-up attack.

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Sullivan, who saw classified video of the strike, previously told Alaska’s News Source in December he believed actions taken by the U.S. did not violate international law.

“I support them doing it, but they have to get it right,” he said. “I think so far they’re getting it right.”

Murkowski, who has not seen the video, previously said at an Anchorage press event the takeaways on that strike’s legality seem to be divided along party lines.

“I spoke to a colleague who is on the Intelligence Committee, a Republican, and I spoke to a colleague, a Democrat, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee … their recollection or their retelling of what they saw [was] vastly different.”

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