Nat Herz, Alaska Public Media

When it comes to how much money should be set aside for PFDs each year, Alaska state lawmakers are still divided. And many of them have sharply different views than Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s.

Each eligible Alaska resident will receive a $1,606 permanent fund dividend this year, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration announced Friday.

Stevens, Dunleavy’s new chief of staff, once left his job in the state Senate amid a federal corruption investigation, though he was never charged. Now, he re-enters public service with links to some of the same industries that found favor from his father, the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

A judge has declared a crisis in the state’s courts, saying turnover among public defenders is delaying criminal trials and denying justice for victims and defendants alike.

Alaska’s coastal residents have long warned of dire effects if lawmakers sharply reduce ferry budgets. Now, absent an adjustment to the ferry schedule by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration, those warnings could become reality.

Officials say it will take years before they decide whether to add more water that could help restore salmon in the Eklutna River.

The wildfire damaged transmission lines that carry power from a major hydroelectric dam near Homer, officials said. And it could be months before the lines are fixed.

In a prime-time presidential climate change forum, Democrats spent seven hours on the issue. But there was no substantive discussion of Alaska, even though the state is one of the most affected by global warming.

Joe Balash, the Trump-appointee who pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing, is taking a job with Oil Search, a company developing an oil project 100 miles to the west of the refuge.

If wildfire frequency and temperature rise in Alaska like the paper’s authors expect, broadleaf trees like birch and aspen could become dominant.