Alaskans plan widespread pro-democracy protests, joining national movement
By James Brooks w/photos by Yereth Rosen
As President Donald Trump orders the U.S. military into Los Angeles to confront protesters there, hundreds of Alaskans are preparing to join pro-democracy rallies planned for Saturday.
At least 18 events are scheduled to take place in Alaska, and more than 1,500 are scheduled nationwide as part of the “No Kings” movement, which is organizing to oppose Trump actions.
Dave Musgrave is organizing an event in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a region north of Anchorage that voted overwhelmingly for Trump last year.
“We want to raise concerns about what this administration is doing. It’s very much an authoritarian overreach,” he said by phone.
Saturday’s events were originally scheduled to counter a military march in Washington, D.C., for Trump’s 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.
They’ve taken on a new tone since the president ordered the National Guard and the U.S. Marines to oppose protesters in Los Angeles.
“I think the scene is going to be a gathering of citizens concerned about what has been going on, most recently with Donald Trump sending troops to L.A.,” said Laura Stats, who has been helping organize an event in Juneau, Alaska’s capital city.
Protests were already taking place in Anchorage on Wednesday against the state’s decision to accept people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Protesters gather outside the Anchorage Correctional Complex on June 11, 2025. It was the third consecutive day that protestors gathered at the jail site in response to Trump administration immigration actions. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Forty-two people were arrested outside the state and flown here by federal officials,according to the Alaska Department of Corrections.
The small demonstration taking place on a weekday is expected to be followed by a much larger event on Saturday, outside the Anchorage offices of Alaska’s three-person congressional delegation.
That demonstration will be followed by a march to the Anchorage Park Strip, where Juneteenth celebrations will be taking place.
Lu Dyer is communications director for Stand UP Alaska, which is helping organize the event.
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Trump wants Congress to slash $9.4B in spending now, defund NPR and PBS
By Jennifer Shutt
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration sent its first spending cuts request to Congress on Tuesday, asking lawmakers to swiftly eliminate $9.4 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and various foreign aid programs.
The request for what are called rescissions allows the White House budget office to legally freeze spending on those accounts for 45 days while the Republican-controlled Congress debates whether to approve the recommendation in full or in part, or to ignore it.
The proposal calls on lawmakers to eliminate $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. That means NPR and PBS would lose their already approved federal allocations, if the request is approved by Congress.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May seeking to block the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from providing funding for NPR and PBS, leading to twoseparate lawsuits citing First Amendment concerns.
In the rescissions request, Trump wants to cut $8.3 billion from foreign aid programs, including the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a global initiative to combat HIV/AIDS, and the African Development Foundation.
The proposal is the first of several that will seek to codify efforts undertaken by U.S. DOGE Service and billionaire Elon Musk before he left his official role as a special government employee.
White House budget director Russ Vought wrote in a letter accompanying the request that it “emphasizes the need to cut wasteful foreign assistance spending at the Department of State and USAID and through other international assistance programs.”
“These rescissions would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests, such as funding the World Health Organization, LGBTQI+ activities, ‘equity’ programs, radical Green New Deal-type policies, and color revolutions in hostile places around the world,” Vought wrote. “In addition, Federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.”
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Mount Spurr: Preparation Can Ease the Pain
By Allison Sayer
TNews Staffwriter
On March 12, The Alaska Volcano Observatory announced “an eruption [of Mount Spurr] is likely, but not certain, to occur within the next few weeks or months. The most likely outcome of the current unrest is an explosive eruption (or eruptions) like those that occurred in 1953 and 1992. Those eruptions each lasted a few hours and produced ash clouds that were carried downwind for hundreds of miles and minor ashfall (up to about ¼ inch) on southcentral Alaska communities.”
Many simple, low cost preparedness tips are available from the Municipality of Anchorage Emergency Operations Center and ready.alaska.gov. The common advice from these and other sources is to have a mask handy, stock up on relevant air filters, and put some forethought into what would happen if you must shelter in place somewhere.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/mount-spurr-preparation-can-ease-the-pain
Cross Country: Native Alaskan Ava Earl stars as squad climbs to new heights
By Henry Frieman, Sports Editor
The Daily Northwestern
Girdwood, Alaska, population estimated at 2,500, sits in a valley at the base of Mount Alyeska, a ski resort in the winter and a hiking destination in the summer. The mountain town has one main road, a two-lane highway surrounded by hemlock and conifer.
There is one elementary school, but the nearest high school is 30 miles away in Anchorage. There is a fire department, but no police station. Further away from the resort, the paved roads turn to gravel.
It was on the gravel paths and dirt trails of the Alaskan woodlands where Northwestern cross country runner Ava Earl, now a senior, fell in love with running.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/ava-earl-carries-alaskan-roots-to-nu-cross-country-stardom
Raw Market: ‘Together, We Thrive’
By Hannah Dillon
Assistant Editor
A red ribbon hung on the entrance to the Raw Market—just off Holmgren Ave. next to The Laundromall—as community members gathered around the store at 5 p.m. July 2. When the ribbon was cut, a new local market officially opened in Girdwood.
People quickly entered the intimately-sized store once the doors were open. Aesthetic lighting and plants hovered overhead as customers sorted through bell peppers, chocolate milk glasses, candles, locally made pottery, dried herbs, cherries and aloe vera plants.
Behind the register, employees created delicious acai bowls and smoothies for everyone in need of a cool treat on a warm sunny day.
Michelle Young, who, along with her husband James Glover, owns the Raw Market sat down with Turnagain News to discuss opening day and a little history of the store.
Young said the inspiration to establish a store like Raw Market stems from a visit to Maui, where nearly every small town had a juice bar that sold acai bowls, smoothies and juice. “We really loved the abundance of fresh food,” said Young.
Young’s experience with the fresh food available on the streets of Maui inspired Young and Glover to bring that experience to Girdwood.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/raw-market-together-we-thrive
Girdwood Board reverses community decision on Alyeska Development
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
The Girdwood Board of Supervisors, in a 3-2 decision Monday, rescinded an earlier community vote that rejected a subdivision proposed in a popular recreational area.
The board's move tells municipal planners it has no objection to plans by Alyeska Resort to build an assortment of housing, roads, parking lots, a tram and in the Glacier Creek watershed north of the town's airport.
The GBOS has since voted to reconsider its Monday vote and will discuss the reconsideration at a meeting Thursday at 1 p.m.
"I suspect [the vote] will be changed," said Supervisor Mike Edgington on Wednesday. "We're basically going back for a re-do."
He said he feels Pomeroy's goals for development are sound, but the location the company has chosen for development isn't.
In both meetings, community members expressed criticism, skepticism and dismay about Pomeroy Lodging's plan to acquire nearly 100 acres of municipal land in the upper valley for housing.
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https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/girdwood-board-reverses-community-decision-on-alyeska-development
Alaska newspaper publishers worry about bill ending some public notice requirements
By James Brooks
The Alaska Senate voted without dissent Monday to allow the Department of Natural Resources to stop publishing some public notices in local newspapers.
Senators approved Senate Bill 68 by a 17-0 vote. It now advances to the House for consideration. Sens. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel; Bert Stedman, R-Sitka; and Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, were excused absent.
Before the final vote, newspaper publishers unsuccessfully asked legislators to reconsider their plans. Allowing the state to control its public notice process poses transparency risks, they testified, and it likely will harm papers’ finances, potentially reducing the amount of independent reporting available in Alaska.
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Potter Marsh Watershed Park is on the Horizon
Great Land Trust has been working with Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) Heritage land Bank and GCI to conserve 300 acres of important hillside watershed features that are critical to sustaining the vibrant habitat of the Potter’s Marsh, located between Golden View Drive to the east and Old Seward Highway.
“We are thrilled how this project is proceeding and it is nice to be doing a project in Anchorage at this scale as these opportunities are few and far between,'“ said Dave Mitchell, Conservation Director with Great Land Trust.
“We select our projects based on prioritizations that look at wetlands and anadromous streams and adjacency to protected areas and we try to collect all the data we can and rank and put it into GIS and rank land based on conservation value,” he added. “This property actually ranked number one.”
Set between the old and new Seward highways, Potter Marsh is a portion of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge is Anchorage’s gateway to Turnagain Arm. The new Potter Marsh Watershed Park will be owned, operated and maintained by the MOA Parks and Recreation Department.
El Nino May Not Be Behind November Snowfall, Experts Say
An unprecedented storm that hurled over three feet snow across Turnagain Arm this past week occurred during an El Nino year, but it is unlikely a natural cycle of warming ocean water is responsible for that event, said Alaska Climate Specialist Rick Thoman.
Nevertheless, El Nino and global warming are having and will have impacts on our winters, scientists say.
"I've had a lot of questions in the last couple weeks, [such as] is this south central snow, the warmth and lack of sea ice in parts of western Alaska, is this tied to El Nino'. Thoman said in videotaped briefing Friday.
[But} where these storms are the first half of November give me confidence to say--and I don't often get to say this--we think pretty darn confidently that our unusual weather is not directly linked to El Nino," he said.
Yet, while there were other influences causing the storms, El Nino will likely create a warmer winter and spring in Alaska and "win out in the end" as a leading factor in weather systems, he said.
Heavy, wet snow that fell last week cut off power across Girdwood and parts of Anchorage, clogged local roadways, and even restricted, in some cases, cell service. On the Richardson Highway, around Mile 46, 72 inches of snow fell in a 20 hour period.
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Alyeska Unveils Expansion Plans at Town Hall
Alyeska Resort's owners laid out a sweeping vision for Girdwood's upper valley Thursday night, one of a "village", parking lots, recreational facilities, a conference center, a daycare center and other amenities.
About 150 people attended the meeting which was billed as a "town hall" meeting held amid platefuls of cookies and snacks in the weathered Sitzmark Bar, with its indigo paisley stained glass ceiling and worn, burnished booths.