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Former Alaska Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Bakalar speaks a news conference on Jan. 10, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska, after she sued the state. A federal judge on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, ruled that Bakalar was wrongfully terminated by the then-new administration of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for violating her freedom of speech rights. (AP File Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

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Judge sides with attorney who alleged wrongful firing

Alaska judge says the firing violated free speech and associational rights under the U.S. and state constitutions.

Data from the state of Alaska show a steep increase in COVID-19 cases in January 2022. (Department of Health and Social Services)

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Omicron drives COVID spike in Alaska as officials point to decreasing cases in eastern US

On Friday, the seven-day average number of daily cases skyrocketed to 2,234.6 per 100,000 people

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks with reporters during a news briefing on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Juneau, Alaska. Dunleavy said he doesn’t see his acceptance of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as hurting his relationship with the state’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial last year and whom Trump has vowed to fight in her reelection bid. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer,File)

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Dunleavy says work with Murkowski endures despite Trump nod

Trump last month praised Dunleavy and offered his endorsement, provided that Dunleavy does not endorse Murkowski

Peter Segall / Juneau Empire Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, D-Anchorage, speaks to the Empire in his office at the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday. Begich introduced the Alaska Reads Act with Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2020, but despite strong bipartisan support, disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the bill’s progression. But Begich is confident this will be the year a reading bill passes the Legislature.

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Years in the making, lawmakers hopeful reading bill will pass

Bipartisan support for bill.

Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce is photographed at the Kenai Peninsula Clarion office in Kenai, Alaska, on Sept. 25, 2020. (Peninsula Clarion file)

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Pierce joins race for governor

The borough mayor notified local officials in an email Thursday

FILE - Former Alaska lawmaker Jason Grenn holds an Alaska Division of Elections brochure explaining ranked choice voting at his office in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld as valid a voter-approved election system that would end party primaries in the state and institute ranked choice voting in general elections. A brief order released Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, affirmed a lower court ruling from last year. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

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Alaska high court upholds ranked choice voting system

The voter-approved election system would end party primaries in the state

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this month a $500,000 grant to regional development corporation Southeast Conference to help design a processing facility on Prince of Wales Island to aid the mariculture industry there. The planned facility will help small mariculture farms, like this oyster farm north of Juneau seen in a February 2019 file photo, to process and ship their products. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file)

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USDA grants $500,000 for mariculture facility on Prince of Wales

Facility meant to aid small growers, boost mariculture industry

In this image from Senate Television, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks on the floor of the U.S. Senate Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)

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Voting bill collapses, Democrats unable to change filibuster

The outcome was a stinging defeat for President Joe Biden and his party

From left to right: Anna DeVolld, Rachel Sallaffie, John Green, Carl Schrader and Nona Safra were honored at an awards ceremony in Anchorage on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, by Gov. and First Lady Dunleavy. Schrader, a Juneau resident, was honored for his work in hospice care. (Courtesy photo / Office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy)

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Dunleavy appoints peninsula residents to boards, commissions

Volunteer of the Year Safra is appointed to Commission on Aging

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, Jan.19, 2022, in Washington. In a rebuff to former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court is allowing the release of presidential documents sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

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Supreme Court allows Jan. 6 committee to get Trump docs

Following the high court’s action, there is no legal impediment to turning over the documents

COVID-19. (Image courtesy CDC)

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New COVID cases skyrocket; total deaths top 1,000 statewide

The average number of statewide daily cases over the past week was 2,099.7 per 100,000 people

Peter Segall / Juneau Empire House Speaker Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, gave a stern warning about decorum to members of the Alaska House of Representatives on the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday, Jan 18, 2022. Last year the Legislature was so divided it took a full regular session and four special sessions before work was completed.

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1st day of session brings familiar tensions to Legislature

The session opened with calls for bipartisanship, but tensions were evident

The Alaska State Capitol building seen on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022 in Juneau, Alaska. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

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State lawmakers face proposed salary hike, allowance limits

A commission voted 3-1 to raise the base salary from $50,400 a year to $64,000

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters alongside, from left, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., during a press conference regarding the Democratic party’s shift to focus on voting rights at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

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Big voting bill faces defeat as 2 Dems won’t stop filibuster

This is the fifth time the Senate will try to pass voting legislation this Congress

Donated blood is prepared for storage and eventual transport at the Blood Bank of Alaska’s Juneau location. There is a statewide shortage of donated blood. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)

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‘National blood crisis’ presents challenges in Alaska

Donation centers contend with COVID, weather and other disruptions as they work to stock hospitals.

Members of the Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce listen to a briefing by Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan during a joint luncheon at the Soldotna Sports Complex on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (Camille Botello/Peninsula Clarion)

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Sullivan reports in from D.C.

The senator touched on infrastructure, voting rights, defense spending and the pandemic

Peter Segall / Juneau Empire Chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. Board of Trustees Craig Richards answers questions from the members of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee on Monday. The committee called Richards and other members of the board to answer questions about the December firing of former APFC CEO Angela Rodell, who has claimed her termination was politically motivated.

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Permanent Fund Corp. board members defend CEO firing

A tense start to session.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy addresses members of the press on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. (Screenshot)

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Dunleavy talks upcoming session, lambasts media

In a press conference Monday, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy discussed his goals for the upcoming legislative session and…

A State of Alaska epidemiology bulletin can be found at https://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/pages/default.aspx.

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State updates STI protocol after reported drop

The state has been experiencing an outbreak since 2017

Image via Alaska Board of Fisheries

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Statewide shellfish meeting rescheduled

This comes after the board bumped back its Southeast and Yakutat shellfish meeting