Sen. Mike Shower at the state Capitol in Juneau. (Marc Lester / ADN)
In the halls of the Alaska State Legislature, a recent resolution has sparked debate — not for its substance, but for its intent.
Seemingly a gesture of goodwill toward Canada, it’s actually a deliberate jab at President Donald Trump. This is no grand geopolitical strategy; it’s simply a poke in the eye.
Most legislators have little background or global experience to wade into strategic battles beyond our state’s borders. As someone who has served all over the world in the military and as an airline pilot, including alongside our Canadian comrades in arms, I can say with certainty: Alaskans and Canadians don’t need a resolution to affirm their mutual respect for each other. The only message this resolution sends is one of political shade. It’s a game the Alaska Senate should refuse to play.
This distraction comes at a pivotal moment. President Trump, from day one, has signaled a commitment to unleashing Alaska’s vast energy and resource potential — a stark contrast to the Biden Administration, which issued 70 executive orders stifling our state’s development. Where the Biden Administration treated Alaska like a colonial outpost, Trump sees our oil, gas, timber, minerals and other rich resources as national assets. His reversal of policies that smothered Alaska offers a lifeline to a state looking to stand on its own.
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Our private sector is weak. We’ve relied on oil and gas, an industry which helped build Alaska and kept us afloat. However, it is always volatile.
Most of the money for the budget we spend every year comes from the federal government. It’s not free money because most of us pay income taxes.
Alaska gets a lot more money from the federal government than we put into it because we’re so small. We have a small population by size compared to our landmass, which is more than twice the size of the next largest state. We have a lot of far-flung infrastructure to maintain. With so few people, there is no realistic way for us to pay for this without help if we continue to support every corner of Alaska.
When most of our budget flows from Washington, D.C., this binds us to federal whims.
Can we wean ourselves off this dependency? Our population cannot shoulder the costs alone, and the state’s spending often defies fiscal sense.
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Here’s an example: Alaska has a population of 740,133 people and includes 54 school districts. Our largest school district has shrinking enrollment, new buildings, while continuously threatening to cut programs and asking for significant increases in funding. The Legislature sets the purse strings, but local districts decide how to spend the money. As a result, we are stuck in a cycle of “just add money” without requiring improved accountability and better performance.
If a school district or borough struggles with funding priorities, that’s on those entities — not the Legislature. In fact, the state has spent so much in recent years that we are hundreds of millions of dollars behind being able to pay the state’s bills this year, and next year is worse. Many of the problems we are facing aren’t from a lack of spending money, even money we don’t have.
An unfortunate “scare” tactic school districts and other government agencies use is a phenomenon called the Washington Monument Syndrome. It’s a form of political extortion whereby an organization faced with budget reductions threatens to cut the most visible or appreciated service in order to spark public outcry. We, the Legislature, have little control over what those districts do beyond providing funding.
The real hope for Alaska lies in reclaiming our land and resources in order to maximize their potential for all — including the public and private sector. With Trump’s backing, we could manage more of our own territory — timber, fish, minerals and energy that’s the envy of most of the world — freeing us from federal dependency.
We all want to protect our pristine lands for future generations, but we also must have sustainable development to fund that future. Projects like these take years, and with oil prices shaky, the next few years may be bumpy. But 6 to 10 years from now, as pipelines, mines, energy projects and more come online, Alaska can boom. Our potential is vast, but it demands leaders who see beyond political stunts to a self-reliant future.
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Sen. Mike Shower is a member of the Alaska Senate. He lives in Wasilla.
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Last month, Alaska Attorney General Stephen J. Cox announced that his office entered into a settlement with a group of Swickard car dealerships, resolving false advertising allegations against the dealers. As part of the settlement, the dealers agree to pay a civil penalty of $800,000.
The Alaska AG alleged that the dealers engaged in bait and switch advertising by promoting vehicles that were not actually available for purchase in order to draw customers to its lots. The AG also alleged that the dealers refused to honor advertised prices, requiring customers to purchase expensive dealer add-ons.
In announcing the settlement, Cox said, “Car dealers don’t get to advertise one price and charge another—or advertise cars that aren’t really there. That’s a bait-and-switch, and it’s unlawful. Alaskans already face higher costs than most—this settlement holds Swickard accountable and reinforces that the price you see should be the price you pay.”
Interestingly, the consent decree includes a provision that says that if the dealers engage “in a reckless violation or persistent violations” of Alaska’s consumer protection laws in the future, the court may impose an additional penalty of up to $200,000.
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This enforcement action is yet another example of the heightened scrutiny that car dealer advertising is under right now. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission settled a similar action. And, in March, the FTC sent warning letters to nearly 100 car dealers.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Palmer’s Colony High School Northern Knights Robotics won the First Robotics Competition (FRC) regional championship on April 4, becoming the first team from Alaska to win the title.
The Northern Knights’ business manager, sophomore Carter Fickes, said that the FRC is one of the most prestigious robotics competitions in the world.
“The game elements are a lot bigger,” he said.
“There’s a lot of more coding challenges as well, because you have what is called an autonomous period where your robot’s running strictly on code, and then you have a teleop period where it’s driver controlled.”
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According to Fickes, the regional competition in Minneapolis saw the team paired with and against groups from Minnesota, Illinois, the Czech Republic, Japan, and China.
Teams were required to make “alliances” with each other, before competing together in the quarterfinals.
“Being collaborative with other teams and being open to their strategy is great.” he said.
“We were telling them our main marketing strategy was ‘we’re flexible, and if you want us to do something, we can do it.’”
Fickes told Alaska’s News Source that the competition required teams to program and direct their robots to shoot balls towards targets in order to score points.
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The Northern Knights programmed their 85-pound robot to focus on defense, blocking shots from the opposing team.
“Our alliance partners had semi-automatic turrets that could shoot like hundreds of balls in a minute,” he said.
“We were blocking the other robots from getting on the other side and scoring fuel.”
Fickes said this was the first year that their team was selected to be a part of an alliance.
After the quarterfinals, the Northern Knights went on to dominate the rest of the competition.
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“We were untouched,” he said.
“We were outscoring them by 200 points, and then the finals matches, I think it ended up being like 400 to 200 or 300.”
By winning both the finals match, as well as the Rookie Team of the Year award, the Northern Knights earned themselves a ticket to the FRC Worlds Competition in Texas beginning on April 29.
“Our mentality is kind of like, ‘we’ve made it this far, so why not try our best?’” he said.
“If we don’t win the whole competition, it’s not the end of the world. A team from Alaska has never done this before, and if we like our goal is to win and to qualify and do good.”
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Unlike many other robotics teams across the country, Ficker said the Northern Knights are entirely funded through private donations.
“We built our robot in our team captain’s basement. He let us use his house, and we spent hours upon hours upon hours in his basement building and testing.”
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A U.S. Senate race in Alaska is turning into one of the most expensive in the state’s history as a Democrat tries to flip a seat held by two-term incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.
The fundraising bonanza comes as the odds of Democrats taking control of the Senate in this year’s midterm elections appear to be improving, according to political analysts.
Democrat Mary Peltola, who held Alaska’s sole House seat from 2022 to 2025, raised almost $9 million in the first quarter of 2026, Politico reported. It’s the largest first-quarter stockpile in Alaska political history, according to her campaign.
“I’m so grateful for the support we’ve received from every single borough and census area across our state, and it’s that support that will bring us to victory this November,” Peltola said.
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GOP incumbent also has millions
Sullivan, who’s seeking a third term, brought in $2.1 million in the first quarter and has $7.5 million of cash on hand, Politico reported.
“This historic support sends a clear message: Alaskans know that Dan delivers,” Sullivan campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said in a statement.
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In 2020, Democrat Al Gross outspent Sullivan but still lost by 13 points.
Alaska is a heavily Republican state. President Donald Trump carried the state by 10 to 15 points in each of the last three elections.
However, Democrats are optimistic about a recent poll from Alaska Survey Research. The survey showed Peltola with a positive rating of 48.5%, compared to Sullivan’s 40.7%.
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Dozens of US Senate seats in play
Thirty-five U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs in November, with Republicans defending 22 and Democrats, 13.
With the GOP holding a current majority of 53-47, Democrats need to flip four seats to take control of the upper chamber for the remaining two years of Trump’s second term.
The Cook Political Report reported Monday that “the Senate battlefield is shifting in Democrats’ favor.” However, securing the magic number of 51 is still a “tall order.”
Cook rates the Peltola-Sullivan race as “leans Republican.” Eighteen other races are currently rated as either “likely Republican” or “solid Republican.”
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The nonpartisan newsletter shows three races in the “leans Democrat” category. One other is “likely Democrat,” and nine are listed as “solid Democrat.”
With Election Day more than six months away, three races — in Maine, Michigan and Ohio — are listed as toss-ups.
National Democrats see Peltola as a key to winning a majority in the Senate.
Politico said super PACs supporting Democrats have already spent more than $3 million in ad buys in Alaska, while the Republican’s Senate Leadership Fund has indicated it intends to spend $15 million on the race for Sullivan.
