This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.

Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?

It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.

Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.

A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.

Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.

Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.

That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.

Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.

This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.

Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”

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OLYMPIA, Wash. — A missing and endangered child from Arizona was found at the homeless encampment known as “The Jungle” in Olympia, after investigators received information that the child may have been a victim of sex trafficking. U.S. marshals said.

The girl had been reported missing to the Mesa, Arizona, Police Department in May, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

On June 18, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified the agency that the child was potentially being sex trafficked in Washington state.

A deputy U.S. marshal assigned to missing children investigations in the Western District of Washington developed a lead that brought authorities to the 3200 block of Martin Way East, a 20-acre homeless encampment known as “The Jungle.”

The agency described the area as having high rates of violence and community safety concerns. Back in 2023, a woman was found dead at the homeless encampment.

The city’s estimate of the number of people at the encampment generally ranges from about 100 to 250 people, with additional visitors sometimes coming to the site during the day. Overall, the number varies throughout the year, Olympia city officials said.

City staff visit the site several times each week, while service providers offer food, water, clothing, sanitation services, and other basic assistance.

On Thursday, U.S. marshals, assisted by the Washington State Department of Corrections, canvassed the encampment and found the missing child. The female juvenile was transferred to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families and the Olympia Police Department for treatment and victim assistance.

“Protecting our nation’s children is of the highest importance,” Acting U.S. Marshal Donrien Stephens said in a statement. He credited local, state, and community partners for helping safely recover a youth at elevated risk of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

A photo of an Olympia homeless camp, where a man was arrested by police after allegedly throwing “softball-sized rocks” at firefighters who were responding to an active fire. (KOMO News)

The U.S. Marshals Service said the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 expanded its authority to help law enforcement recover endangered missing children, regardless of whether a fugitive or sex offender is involved, and led to the creation of its Missing Child Unit.

Since the law’s passage, the agency said it has contributed to locating or recovering 5,281 missing children.

The child’s exact age was not made public by U.S. marshals, just that she had been found safe.

The Marshals Service asked anyone with information about wanted fugitives to contact the nearest U.S. Marshals office or the agency’s Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102.

Three firefighters died and two were injured while tackling fires on the Colorado-Utah border, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service reported Sunday.

The agency — created earlier this year to streamline firefighting and fire reduction across public lands — said the firefighters had been part of an interagency response to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday.

“The U.S. Wildland Fire Service stands united with the USDA Forest Service in grief and in our unwavering support for the loved ones left behind. Their bravery, dedication, and sacrifice will never be forgotten,” it said in a statement on Facebook.

The agency said it would share more information when it is available to be released. 

Wildfire activity has intensified across the western United States, as consecutive days of hot, dry and windy weather have fueled flames in Utah, Arizona and elsewhere as new fires popped up across the region.

The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire, was burning in rugged terrain in southwest Utah. It ballooned Saturday to more than 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) after marching through canyons and mountainsides, destroying part of a ski resort and other summer cabins along the way.

Authorities in Beaver County began working with fire teams on Saturday to assess the extent of the damage, but no estimates were immediately available. Gov. Spencer Cox in a post on social media called it bleak, but he thanked crews for what he called “several miraculous stops and saves.”

The cliffs and steep slopes have made the job even harder, said Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire.

“It’s hard to get dozers and other heavy equipment into that. It’s hard to get engines into that,” she said. “It doesn’t make it impossible to firefight, but it does just kind of slow things down.”

Hundreds of firefighters have been arriving in the arid state to battle new starts as well as those that have been growing because of what forecasters called critical fire weather — dangerously low humidity levels, warm temperatures and gusty winds.

The danger is even higher this year because of Utah’s record-low snowpack and its warmest winter on record. Much of the West is grappling with similar conditions, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

From Alaska to Florida, crews worked Saturday to corral dozens of fires, including three dozen that were classified as large and uncontained.

Nationally, nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) have burned since the start of the year. That is more than the 10-year average.

The conditions in Utah were critical enough for Gov. Spencer Cox to declare an emergency earlier this week and clear the way for the state to ban fireworks ahead of the July Fourth holiday. The order comes as Utah is experiencing one of the most severe wildfire seasons in recent history, fueled by historic drought conditions.

State officials said that over the past week, Utah has seen an increase in wildfire starts, with each fire showing unprecedented behavior. These starts have stretched the state’s wildland firefighting capabilities, State Forester Jamie Barnes said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also declared an emergency on Saturday, and authorized the use of the National Guard to tackle the fires.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service over recent days have been issuing red flag warnings for a wide swath of the West, from California to Arizona and New Mexico.

South of Grand Canyon National Park, authorities said the flames of a new wildfire were moving away from Grand Canyon Village and the nearby community of Tusayan on Saturday. But about 50 miles (80 kilometers) away, another fire prompted Coconino County officials to issue evacuation orders for those near Kendrick Mountain.

Parts of northern Arizona were without power Saturday as the utility serving the area initiated a safety shut-off in hopes of lessening the wildfire risk.

Power shutoffs have become more common in the West as wildfire risk has expanded. It is usually a last resort after utility forecasters weigh factors like sustained wind and gust speeds, available fuels and topography.

With extreme fire conditions persisting in Utah, Rocky Mountain Power also shut off power lines serving Beaver County and other areas.