Alaska

Opinion: Stop self-sabotaging Alaska’s opportunity of a lifetime

Published

11 months ago

March 31, 2025

Opinion: Stop self-sabotaging Alaska’s opportunity of a lifetime

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.

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.

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.

Sen. Mike Shower is a member of the Alaska Senate. He lives in Wasilla.

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The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

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Alaska

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

Published

6 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A musician with Alaska Native roots recorded an hour-long live set in Interior Alaska beneath the aurora.

Chastity Ashley, a drummer, vocalist and DJ who performs under the name Neon Pony, celebrated a year since she traveled to Nenana to record a live music set beneath the northern lights for her series Beats and Hidden Retreats.

Ashley, who has Indigenous roots in New Mexico, said she was drawn to Alaska in part because of the role drums play in Alaska Native culture. A handmade Alaskan hand drum, brought to her by a man from just outside Anchorage, was incorporated into the performance in February 2025.

Recording in the cold

The team spent eight days in Nenana waiting for the aurora to appear. Ashley said the lights did not come out until around 4 a.m., and she performed a continuous, uninterrupted hour-long set in 17-degree weather without gloves.

“It was freezing. I couldn’t wear gloves because I’m actually playing, yeah, hand drums and holding drumsticks. And there was ice underneath my feet,” Ashley said.

“So, I had to really utilize my balance and my willpower and my ability to just really immerse in the music and let go and make it about the celebration of what I was doing as opposed to worrying about all the other elements or what could go wrong.”

She said she performed in a leotard to allow full range of motion while drumming, DJing and singing.

Filming on Nenana tribal land

Ashley said she did not initially know the filming location was on indigenous land. After local authorities told her the decision was not theirs to make, she contacted the Nenana tribe directly for permission.

“I went into it kind of starting to tell them who I was and that I too was a part of a native background,” Ashley said. “And they just did not even care. They’re like, listen, we’re about to have a party for one of our friends here. Go and do what you like.”

Ashley said the tribe gave her full permission to film on the reservation, and that the aurora footage seen in the episode was captured there.

Seeing the aurora for the first time

Ashley said the Nenana performance marked her first time seeing the northern lights in person.

“It felt as if I were awake in a dream,” she said. “It really doesn’t seem real.”

She said she felt humbled and blessed to perform beneath the aurora and to celebrate its beauty and grandeur through her music.

“I feel incredibly humbled and blessed that not only did I get to take part in seeing something like that, but to play underneath it and celebrate its beauty and its grandeur.”

The Alaska episode is the second installment of Beats and Hidden Retreats, which is available on YouTube at @NeonPony. Ashley said two additional episodes are in production and she hopes to make it back up to Alaska in the future.

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

18 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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