Alaska
Sullivan ‘side-deal’ not enough to save rural Alaska public broadcasting, opponents of Trump proposal to funding cut say
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Hours before the Senate is set to vote on President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion proposal to cut funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid, opponents said Sen. Dan Sullivan’s negotiation with the Trump administration – which a spokesperson for Sullivan argued Tuesday night would preserve rural Alaska stations – would not be enough to save them, arguing it only amounted to a one-time check to Tribal public media stations.
“I think with a side deal like this, [with it] not in the underlying legislation, it is not going to be an amendment, so we are sort of relying on different sources both within Congress and the [Trump] administration to talk about what they’ve said they’ve agreed to,” Kate Riley, CEO and President of America’s Public Television Stations said.
But details of how the deal could potentially impact Alaska remain unclear.
Sullivan’s Tuesday night statement announcing the deal, from the senator’s spokesperson Amanda Coyne, did not clarify the framework of how the funding would be allocated.
“Because of the importance of public radio for rural Alaska, for years Senator Sullivan has been an advocate for funding for our rural stations, and has been working for the last number of weeks with his Senate colleagues and senior White House officials on alternative sources of funding to help keep rural radio stations on the air,” Coyne said. “Today, the administration committed to continued funding to help support our most rural stations.”
“As I understand it, there are no officially recognized ‘tribal’ stations in Alaska,” Alaska Public Media President and CEO Ed Ulman told Alaska’s News Source Wednesday. “Only Koahnic Broadcasting Corporation, which operates KNBA, is owned and operated by Alaska Natives.”
Leading up to Wednesday’s debate, last month KNBA President and CEO Jaclyn Sallee released a joint statement with 11 other Alaska public media stations explaining the potential impact.
“KNBA 90.3, could lose nearly 25% of its annual revenue, leading to cuts in service including local Alaska Native news and emergency alerts. Our award-winning national Native programs, Native America Calling and National Native News, part of daily schedules on stations across Alaska, would experience an even greater loss – one from which they might not be able to recover,“ she said. ”More than 60 tribal stations we serve would be disproportionately impacted where they offer efficient emergency alerts and vital community connections.”
The deal, according to Riley’s numbers, would potentially mean Alaska having to split $9.4 million among 28 Tribal stations in eight other states. She said those cuts would come out of reallocated programs from the Department of the Interior.
Senator Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, who was also reportedly part of the negotiations with the White House, said on X yesterday that cuts from the Green New Deal would fund these Tribal stations.
“We wanted to make sure tribal broadcast services in South Dakota continued to operate which provide potentially lifesaving emergency alerts,” he said. “We worked with the Trump administration to find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”
The funding, however, will not come in the way of additional legislation or an amendment to the president’s bill currently being discussed by the Senate. So far, Riley said, it only amounts to a Trump administration promise to provide support.
Though 28 Tribal stations would benefit from the promise, she added the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where funds to local stations would be cut from, provides support to 36 Tribal stations. She did not know which 28 stations would be supported.
Riley said the “side deal” also left unanswered what happens to other rural community public media stations.
“Those are not the only stations that serve native populations and there are many of our local stations that are providing service in communities where there are no other local media sources and no other broadcasters,” she said. “We think it’s critically important that all of those local station services be protected.”
Following America’s Public Television Station’s statement Wednesday, Alaska’s News Source reached out to Sullivan’s office who declined an interview.
When Alaska’s News Source first informed Alaska Public Media’s Ulman about Sullivan’s negotiation Tuesday, Ulman said he was “blindsided.”
“I can tell you for a fact that multiple folks in the state of Alaska have explained to the senator and his office how [public media] works and how [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] is essential to ensuring that the 27 public media outlets in Alaska can remain in operation,” Ulman said. “So, this isn’t even a compromise. It’s just not gonna work.”
Ulman said Alaska stands to lose more than $30 million in federal funding over the next two years, if the bill is passed.
″It’s a 20% cut to Alaska Public media’s operational budget. How do you run your household If you took a 20 Percent pay cut,” Ulman told Alaska’s News Source Wednesday. “Any type of cut that’s 50% or higher to an annual budget. You’re not the same organization and you can’t cut half of your operation and continue to really thrive.”
He added he’s concerned over how the promised funding to Alaska Native stations would be apportioned, and worried that hedging a bet on a promise from the Trump administration may be problematic.
“I want to see the details. If I were one of my colleagues, say in Petersburg, or in Talkeetna, (or in) Galena, I would want to know the deal. How is this really going to affect me?”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, told reporters in the halls of Congress Wednesday that the public media funding bill was crucial to Alaska.
“There has been probably no issue, no single issue, that has drawn out more interest across the state of Alaksa than support for public broadcasting,” she said. “I come from a state that is extraordinarily rural. I come from a state where access to other forms of information and communication may be limited. It may just come by way of your radio. Call it old school, it’s what we live in many parts of the state.”
Murkowski was one of only three Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, who voted not to move forward with a vote, while Sullivan joined most other Republicans in voting to move forward on the bill.
“For years, in numerous meetings, Senator Sullivan has been consistently warning executives from public media entities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and NPR that their biased programming and reporting, funded in part by the American taxpayer, would eventually jeopardize federal support for both national and local radio stations,” Coyne said.
As of publication, the Senate is voting on adding amendments to the legislation. If any amendments are approved by the legislature, the bill will be sent back to the House. The bill must pass Congress by Friday. Riley said she expected the vote to be close.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Saturday night, just before midnight, Anchorage police officers were called to the city’s Turnagain neighborhood for reports of shots fire, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
When officers arrived, they found evidence a “weapon was discharged in the area,” APD said.
That area, a dispatch supervisor said, is the 2000 block of Foraker Drive including part of Lyn Ary Park.
“While officers were on scene, they were notified of a victim who arrived at a local hospital suffering from a gunshot wound to the lower body. The victim is recovering,” according to APD.
The investigation is ongoing and no one has been arrested, APD said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 311.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.
Seward is not the first Seward in Alaska, nor the second one either. It is the third Seward worth noting, unless features besides settlements are included, in which case it falls further distant in the count. After all, creeks and glaciers and peninsulas matter. Then there was Fort Seward, completed after Seward was founded but, of course, not actually located in Seward.
Seward, not to be confused with antecedents or forgotten forts, is the fishing, whale-watching, aquarium-visiting port on Resurrection Bay. And indeed, it was not the first attempt at naming a town for William H. Seward, only the most successful, certainly the most enduring. From the 1890s into the earliest years of the 1900s, there was something of a rush to name things Seward, and that in a territory known for its mad rushes.
As regards Alaska, the existence of William H. Seward (1801-1872) is a never-to-be-forgotten piece of trivia. He was secretary of state from 1861 to 1869 and personally negotiated the 1867 purchase of Alaska. In fact, he was an avid expansionist with dreams of unifying the entire North American continent and more besides, including Greenland.
[When America considered trading part of Alaska for Greenland]
There is a longer history of Alaska place names encumbered by attempts to curry favor with, or otherwise honor, people who never set foot anywhere near this land. Fairbanks is named for Sen. Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana. Prince of Wales Island is named for George Augustus Frederick, later King George IV. Whittier — glacier and town — are named for Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier.
Yet, Seward at least visited Alaska, though not any of the locations that would later bear his name. In 1869, he made the trek north and gave a speech at Sitka, when he naturally talked about the weather like any other wandering politician. “The weather of this one broad climate of Alaska is severely criticized in outside circles for being too wet and too cold,” said Seward. “Nevertheless, it must be a fastidious person who complains of climates in which, while the eagle delights to soar, the hummingbird does not disdain to flutter.” He added, “It is an honest climate, for it makes no pretensions to constancy.”
The first earnest effort at a Seward town was Seward City, a gold-mining town established around 1890. It was located at the mouth of Sherman Creek, on the east side of the Lynn Canal, a little north of Berners Bay. It was between Haines and Juneau if that helps. The long-since abandoned settlement and its adjoining mine never quite developed enough for any permanency, let alone a significant population.
The limited documentation of Seward City suggests it may have been a rough place to live, particularly because of food shortages. In 1900, James Mathers and Alexander Irving died there after eating mussels contaminated by mine runoff. Two other men barely survived.
Fred and Marie Hanilla ran a hotel and general store there for over a decade but left due in large part to failing health. Their great-granddaughter, Beverly Keithahn, attributed their decline to the food. In 1998, she told the Juneau Empire, “Their diet, with little or no fresh food and improperly canned food, probably caused their untimely deaths in their 50s. There is no good winter anchorage at Comet, so it is supposed that they had no ships bringing food or anything else during the winter months.”
From an 1899 letter published in the Douglas Island News, Seward City was a “half dozen cabins — a fisherman’s hut and the two-story frame hotel under the direction of the genial Mr. (Hanilla).” In 1908, Seattle lawyer John W. Brown traveled north, the basis for his “Abridged History of Alaska” published the next year. He wrote, “Just as we were passing the north end of the gold belt, the captain wanted to know if I saw a town on the bank. I told him I did not; but he insisted there was one, and with the aid of the glasses we observed it to be one house, and which he said was Seward City.”
Seward City’s amorphous status was reflected in its names, plural. Some called it Seward City. With the arrival of the third Seward — that is the modern town of Seward — Seward City mine owner Thomas S. Nowell renamed the outpost after himself, Nowell City. It would later be called Kensington by presumably dozens of Alaskans.
However, for the brief periods when the town possessed a post office (1901-1902, 1936-1938), the stubborn Postal Service referred to it by another name in relatively common usage, Comet. There is a long history of post offices determining place names. Residents used to disagree on how to spell Soldotna. From 1949 to 1967, it was officially Soldatna. Note the “A” in the middle. In 1967, the Postal Service changed it to Soldotna. And more close to home, the Postal Service is why Anchorage is called Anchorage instead of Ship Creek, Woodrow, Alaska City, Terminal, Gateway, Mearsville, Strongov, Dgheyay Kaq’, or any of the other names tossed around.
[In 1915, Anchorage residents voted on an official name for the new city. The name ‘Anchorage’ came in 3rd place.]
The second attempt at a Seward town was on Kachemak Bay, by McNeil Canyon and near what would become Homer. In support of yet another mining operation, a post office was activated there on Oct. 26, 1895. Some sources incorrectly list this as being the site of modern-day Seward on Resurrection Bay, for the understandable reason of why wouldn’t Seward be at Seward. It closed a year later when a new location opened on the Spit, this time named Homer after con man mining promoter Homer Pennock.
Before introducing the third Seward settlement, there are all the other features adorned with Seward’s name, many of them likewise gaining the moniker before the modern town of Seward existed. The Seward Mountains are a small part of the Boundary Ranges in Southeast Alaska, named in 1868 by Staff Cmdr. David Pender of the British Royal Navy, who was surveying the adjacent Portland Canal region. Geologist Israel Russell named Seward Glacier in 1891.
Alaska Gov. John Green Brady proposed the Seward Peninsula name sometime around 1898. That moniker eventually won out over other contenders, such as Nome Peninsula, Kaviak Peninsula and Sumner Peninsula. The Seward Creek southeast of Eagle gained its name during the Klondike gold rush. There are other creeks, a passage and so many streets. There were and are ships and businesses. Certainly, there are more common place names in Alaska, but the state is absolutely lousy with Sewards.
As for the Seward Highway, it was built in increments over decades. In 1923, the road out of Seward ran 18 miles to Kenai Lake. By the late 1930s, it was possible to drive from Seward to Hope but not to Anchorage. Motorists from Anchorage would have their cars delivered via railroad to Moose Pass, where they could continue driving. The highway was completed in 1951, then paved and widened to two lanes throughout in 1954. The term “Seward Highway” was in use by the late 1920s, an informal designation that gained gravitas over the years, from back when the road was definitely not a highway as people would understand it now.
Then there is Seward, the third and most successful settlement of its name. In 1901, Seattle businessman John E. Ballaine decided to, in his own words, “organize and promote a railroad from the Pacific Coast through Central Alaska to the Yukon valley.” The Alaska Central Railway was organized in March 1902, and construction began the following year.
For a base of operations, he wrote, “my first aim was to establish the ocean terminus on a harbor easy of access and free from obstruction every hour of every day of the year.” Several locations were considered, including Cordova Bay, Iliamna, Resurrection Bay, Seldovia, Tyonek, Valdez, Whittier and Knik. The latter location was opposite Ship Creek on the Knik Arm. Ballaine narrowed his choices to Cordova Bay, Valdez and Resurrection Bay, settling on what would become Seward, where he “found every requirement to my complete satisfaction.”
That left the name of the new settlement. If Terminal and Lane sound like dire options for Anchorage, consider the alternatives for Seward. The other contenders were Almouth and Vituska, both given serious consideration by Alaska Central Railway bosses. Almouth was supposed to suggest the port was the mouth of Alaska. And Vituska was a combination of “Vitus” from Vitus Bering and the last two letters of “Alaska.” Bering was the Danish-born leader of two 18th-century Russian expeditions to Alaska.
In 1902, a group of Alaska Central Railway engineers made the acquaintance of Seattle journalist and historian Edmond S. Meany while traveling north aboard the steamer Bertha. Meany taught at the University of Washington and established the Washington Historical Quarterly journal. In 1907, he published an article in that journal that included relevant correspondence. So, the name of Seward is surprisingly well documented for Alaska of that era.
When one of those engineers wrote to Meany for place name suggestions, the professor quickly offered Seward. He wrote, “I thank you for the opportunity of suggesting a name for the southern terminus of the new railroad. The name above all others most appropriate for a prominent city in Alaska is Seward … More than any other one man is he responsible for American ownership of Alaska.” As regards the naming of Seward, that was essentially that. It speaks to the relative anonymity of Seward City that a Seattle journalist well familiar with Alaska was seemingly unaware of its existence.
As the concluding offering of trivia, there is Fort William H. Seward. From 1925 to 1940, it was the single permanent military facility in Alaska. And naturally it was not in Seward. Construction began in 1902 outside Haines and was completed in 1904. After it was deactivated in 1945 and eventually sold, it became Port Chilkoot, which was later merged into Haines.
The Alaska Central Railway was less successful than the town formed in its wake. The railroad only made it about 50 miles out of Seward before bankruptcy in 1907. But consider the opportunity costs, what was lost. Alas, scenic Almouth that we never had. ALMOUTH. It just rolls off the tongue and lands on the floor with a thud.
• • •
Key sources:
Ballaine, John E. “Where Seward Got Its Start and Name.” Seward Weekly Gateway. January 6, 1906, 1, 4.
“A Breezy Letter.” Douglas Island News. September 13, 1899, 1.
Brown, John W. An Abridged History of Alaska. Seattle: Gateway Printing Co., 1909. Washington D.C.:
Knopf, Adolph. Geology of the Berners Bay Region Alaska. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911.
Meany, Edmond S. “The Naming of Seward in Alaska.” Washington Historical Quarterly 1, no. 3 (1907): 159-161.
Orth, Donald J. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, Geological Survey, Professional Paper 567. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1971.
“Seward City to Become Nowell City.” [Skagway] Daily Alaskan. September 23, 1904, 3.
Seward, William H. Alaska Speech of William H. Seward at Sitka, August 12, 1869. Washington, D.C.: James J. Chapman, 1879.
Thomson, Lori. “Area’s Early Mining Days Detailed.” Juneau Empire. February 17, 1998, 1, 8.
“Two Men Killed at Seward by Poison.” [Skagway] Daily Alaskan. June 14, 1900, 1.
While you may not think of Alaska first when thinking about high school sports, there is no shortage of elite talent that has come from the northernmost state in the U.S.
Carlos Boozer, who won a championship with Duke and made multiple NBA All-Star teams, hails from Alaska. So does Curt Schilling, who dominated the mound over a 20-year MLB career. Jessica Moore of the WNBA played here, as did Olympic gold medalist Kristen Thorsness and three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth.
Simply put, it’s a crowd of athletes who made names in a variety of sports.
Which schools from the biggest state in the U.S. are the best for high school athletes?
According to a study conducted by Niche, which includes for survey feedback from students and parents as well as data from the U.S. Department of Education, the following make up the top 25.
25. Napaaqtugmiut School (Noatak)
Total number of sports: 3
24. Thunder Mountain High School (Juneau)
Total number of sports: 11
23. Wasilla High School
Total number of sports: 18
22. Petersburg High School
Total number of sports: 8
21. West Valley High School (Fairbanks)
Total number of sports: 12
20. Haines High School
Total number of sports: 6
19. Seward High School
Total number of sports: 5
18. Soldotna High School
Total number of sports: 10
17. Susitna Valley High School (Talkeetna)
Total number of sports: 11
16. Homer High School
Total number of sports: 9
15. Barrow High School (Utqiagvik)
Total number of sports: 8
14. Sitka High School
Total number of sports: 14
13. Catholic Schools of Fairbanks
Total number of sports: 15
12. Eagle River High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 25
11. Bartlett High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 25
10. Service High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 26
9. Mountain City Christian Academy (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 6
8. Colony High School (Palmer)
Total number of sports: 18
7. Juneau-Douglas High School
Total number of sports: 16
6. Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School
Total number of sports: 23
5. Grace Christian School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 11
4. Chugiak High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 26
3. West High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 26
2. South Anchorage
Total number of sports: 27
1. Dimond High School (Anchorage)
Total number of sports: 26
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