Alaska
Mat-Su Borough schools abandon remote learning
The icy weather that closed Mat-Su Borough schools this week might add extra school days to the school calendar, due to a recent policy change by the state’s education commissioner.
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools in 2020, the Mat-Su Borough School District quickly responded with remote learning. With remote learning, students could log in from their homes and be taught through online teleconferences. After students returned to school, at the end of the pandemic, remote learning remained as a learning option. It was used for those days when school was closed, due to poor weather conditions.
Until last week, remote learning was counted as a day in session for students. This meant no extra days were required to be added to the school calendar. According to Alaska state law, the school term in Alaska is 180 days long, with 10 days reserved for in-services and other events. If school closures result in less than 170 days of school, those days must be made up.
Deena Bishop, the commissioner of the state Department of Education and Early Development, said last week that the department is reconsidering whether to count “e-learning” due to unanticipated school closures toward the minimum number of instructional days required by state law.
Bishop, a former MSBSD superintendent, made the comments during a state Board of Education meeting on Dec. 5 — when schools in Anchorage and parts of the Mat-Su Borough declared a remote learning day due to freezing rain.
Bishop said that weather-related school closures were part of a broader problem of increasing school absences. She indicated that absenteeism might be a factor in students’ underperformance in school.
Bishop sent a letter on Dec. 7 to school superintendents indicating that remote learning days should not be expected to count as school days. In response, MSBSD officials swiftly announced that remote learning days are no longer an option for bad weather.
It’s likely that students celebrated this week when school was canceled due to icy roads. Rather than log in to the classroom in the morning, they were granted a day off. Students may not be celebrating in the spring however, when they find that the school term ends a few days later than expected.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Ever since his 2024 diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, much of three-year-old Caleb Seidl’s life has been rooted in uncertainty.
“We’ve been through some really intense treatments,” Caleb’s father Reuben Seidl said. “It’s amazing, his resilience and his energy and just the fight that he’s shown, not even realizing that he’s been fighting, but just trying to be a kid and be himself.”
One way Caleb and his family have found to help him be himself has been embracing his love of hockey.
“As anyone that has a toddler knows, it’s hard to get them to sit on one idea or one want,” Reuben Seidl said. “But Caleb has always loved sports. He’s always loved watching hockey games even before his diagnosis.”
He’s joined a Alaska All-Stars Hockey Association team that’s usually meant for kids six and older. But it made an exception to accommodate the fast-learning Caleb.
“It’s a real privilege to get to support a kid like Caleb that’s out here fighting a battle you don’t wish on your worst enemies,” All-Stars coach Nic Cohen said. “The kid started off with a pusher and now he’s flying around out there having a blast every night.”
That’s why, when the Make-A-Wish Foundation approached the Seidl family with news that Caleb qualified for a wish, he made himself abundantly clear.
“He always landed on wanting to be a hockey team,” his dad remembered. “So we passed that on and we worked with the wish coordinators, and they were like, ‘Man, it’s pretty unusual for a three-year-old to want to be a hockey team.’ But it’s amazing. They’re making it work.”
All it took was slightly adjusting the syntax of Caleb’s wish – and enlisting the help of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken – to put a plan together.
“We got to meet [mascot] Buoy from the Kraken in June,” Reuben Seidl recalled. “And we got to meet John Hayden, who played with the Kraken last season.”
The second phase of that wish gets going Monday when the Seidl’s head to Seattle to watch the Kraken take on the Pittsburgh Penguins with a group of family and friends tagging along.
“The Kraken and Make-a-Wish were so blown away by the support,” Reuben Seidl said. “They ended up helping everybody find an amazing seat.”
Caleb will also get to participate in a Kraken practice the next day.
“Every single person we’ve talked to has just been incredibly generous, and kind, and supportive,” Reuben Seidl said. “Just making sure that the family, and Caleb especially, feel special.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. The unit is based in Alaska and specializes in operating in arctic conditions.
One defense official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely-used 19th century law that would allow him to employ active duty troops as law enforcement.
The move comes just days after Trump threatened to do just that to quell protests against his administration’s immigration crackdown.
In an emailed statement, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny the orders were issued and said the military “is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon.”
ABC News was the first to report the development.
On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he would invoke the 1807 law “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
He appeared to walk back the threat a day later, telling reporters at the White House that there wasn’t a reason to use it “right now.”
“If I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump said. “It’s very powerful.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act throughout both of his terms. In 2020 he also threatened to use it to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.
The law was most recently invoked by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to end unrest in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat and frequent target of Trump, has urged the president to refrain from sending in more troops.
“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Walz said last week on social media.
___
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
High School
Hockey
Tuesday
West Valley 3, Lathrop 2
Wasilla 5, Palmer 1
Kenai Central 4, Homer 3
Eagle River 4, Service 3
Wednesday
Dimond 6, Service 2
Chugiak 5, Eagle River 0
Thursday
Wasilla 3, Soldotna 2
West Valley 3, Dimond 0
Juneau-Douglas 4, Delta 2
Friday
Juneau-Douglas 11, Delta 1
Palmer 11, Kenai Central 3
Saturday
Houston 3, Kenai Central 2
South 4, West Valley 2
• • •
Basketball
Girls
Monday
West 52, South 13
Bartlett 70, Eagle River 12
Tuesday
Dimond 53, South 31
North Pole 56, West Valley 20
Service 80, Eagle River 18
West 68, Chugiak 41
Colony 74, Palmer 17
Monroe Catholic 58, Hutchison 15
Redington 28, Susitna Valley 26
Wednesday
Soldotna 55, Bethel 18
Hoonah 54, Skagway 19
Thursday
Tok 54, Galena 53
Hoonah 52, Skagway 22
Fort Yukon 58, Birchwood Christian 12
Minto 68, Nunamiut 20
Lathrop 68, East 44
Nikiski 54, Bethel 50
Nome-Beltz 46, Cordova 38
Wasilla 60, Mt. Edgecumbe 21
Friday
Chief Ivan Blunka 52, Manokotak 39
Delta 59, Minto 35
Fort Yukon 62, Cook Inlet Academy 19
Mt. Edgecumbe 43, Ketchikan 32
Wasilla 64, Sitka 28
Tri-Valley 46, Susitna Valley 28
Cordova 62, Akiachak 17
Chief Ivan Blunka 52, Tanalian 49
Unalakleet 68, Alakanuk 26
Wrangell 42, Petersburg 28
Saturday
Nome-Beltz 70, Akiachak 24
Walter Northway 49, Birchwood Christian 19
Susitna Valley 45, Cook Inlet Academy 29
Boys
Sunday
Buckland 94, Shungnak 55
Monday
Hydaburg 60, SISD 28
Kake 62, Yakutat 17
Bartlett 65, Eagle River 34
Tuesday
Kake 53, Yakutat 17
Hydaburg 47, SISD 38
Redington 51, Susitna Valley 40
Colony 60, Palmer 41
Wasilla 61, Grace Christian 48
West Valley 44, North Pole 22
West 83, Chugiak 41
Dimond 59, South 45
East 85, Bartlett 28
Service 85, Eagle River 23
Wednesday
Kenai Central 60, Bethel 54
Skagway 71, Hoonah 34
Thursday
North Pole 71, Galena 47
King Cove 96, Koliganek 20
Skagway 61, Hoonah 15
Nunamiut 82, Tok 75
South 74, Susitna Valley 47
Bethel 75, Homer 50
Barrow 58, Monroe Catholic 44
Walter Northway 93, Birchwood Christian 43
Lathrop 70, Service 62
Grace Christian 63, Soldotna 41
Wasilla 74, Bartlett 53
West 81, Eagle River 27
Colony 80, Juneau-Douglas 60
Sand Point 36, Dillingham 34
Nome-Beltz 76, Valdez 43
Friday
Tok 55, Glennallen 50
King Cove 96, Togiak 30
Birchwood Christian 62, Nenana 49
Minto 55, North Pole 48
Delta 85, Nunamiut 29
Cook Inlet Academy 63, Gambell 52
Manokotak 56, Bristol Bay 48
Chief Ivan Blunka 59, Tanalian 56
Akiachak 64, Cordova 40
Unalakleet 97, Alakanuk 28
South 66, Barrow 50
Saturday
Juneau-Douglas 74, Bartlett 41
Galena 67, Glennallen 49
Bristol Bay 58, Manokotak 44
Chief Ivan Blunka 64, Tanalian 62
Birchwood Christian 61, Fort Yukon 54
East 84, Juneau-Douglas 70
Nome-Beltz 59, Lathrop 56
North Pole 90, Nunamiut 44
Redington 60, Akiachak 41
Colony 84, Bartlett 25
Soldotna 38, Mountain City Christian Academy 37
Unalakleet 73, Alakanuk 30
• • •
Cross-country skiing
Wednesday
West Skiathlon
Boys A
1. Service (Freedom Bennett/Jack Leveque), 17:10.7; 2. South (Kevin Downs/Vebjorn Flagstad), 17:11; 3. South (Braxton Thornley/Ethan Elliott), 17:30.
Girls A
1. South (Maya Tirpack/Alise Elliott), 19:39.3; 2. South (Elin Lunoe/Solvej Lunoe), 19:41.4; 3. Service (Talia Smith/Faith Harlamert), 20:04.1.
• • •
College
Hockey
Friday
UAA 1, UAF 0 (SO)
Saturday
UAA vs. UAF (Late)
• • •
Women’s basketball
Thursday
UAA 79, Simon Fraser 72
Western Washington 72, UAF 47
Saturday
Simon Fraser 109, UAF 46
Western Washington 81, UAA 65
• • •
Men’s basketball
Saturday
UAF 91, UAA 76
• • •
NAHL
Friday
Anchorage Wolverines 2, Fairbanks Ice Dogs 1 (SO)
Saturday
Anchorage Wolverines vs. Fairbanks Ice Dogs (Late)
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