In this newscast:
- Goldbelt Incorporated is a step closer toward its plan to build a $500 million cruise ship port in Juneau. The State of Alaska issued a preliminary decision last week to approve a 25-year lease of state-owned tidelands on Douglas Island to the Alaska Native corporation.
- The Juneau Assembly bid farewell to two longtime members at its meeting Monday night and unanimously voted to reject an ordinance to establish regulations for electric motorcycle use in city parks, trails, and recreation areas and on designated Eaglecrest trails. Assembly members plan to pursue a different ordinance that would enact citywide regulations.
- Data centers are proliferating in rural areas across the United States to support the rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) industry. And proposals to construct them in Southeast Alaska have recently cropped up in Wrangell and Petersburg. At a meeting on Wednesday, the Sitka Planning Commission recommended prohibiting the construction of data centers, at least for now.
- Ketchikan’s city council last winter approved updates to its municipal code that limit where people can sit, lie or camp within city limits. The changes were met with both support and opposition, with some arguing that they could negatively impact the city’s unhoused population.
