Southeast

“They Don’t Talk Back” opens at Perseverance Theatre tonight (Friday, Jan. 27). Among other themes, it’s a play about family, identity, colonization and cultural preservation. It features three generations of Tlingit men in Southeast Alaska facing change.

Business and community leaders have told state officials they’d like to see new sources of money to finance economic development.

The budget for state-funded tourism marketing has been cut by nearly 80 percent, but Alaska’s tourism industry continues to grow. Visitor counts for 2016 aren’t available yet, but in 2015, the state attracted a record 2 million visitors.

Before Trump’s inauguration, his transition team met with Native leaders to ask what they wanted out of the new administration.

The Alaska State Council on the Arts facilitates the selection of the Writer Laureate. The Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities can be seen on 360 North beginning at 8 p.m.

The Juneau Access Project envisions 50 more miles of road up Lynn Canal to a ferry terminal closer to the road system. It has divided the Juneau community for decades and faces significant opposition from other southeast cities including Haines and Skagway. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker pulled the plug on the $574 million project last month.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office will not pursue timber sales at controversial sites in Petersburg and Ketchikan – at least for now.

With a federal land swap in the works, the Alaska Mental Health Trust says they’ll pass on the controversial timber sale.

Gov. Bill Walker signed an administrative order in early 2015, creating a mariculture task force in hopes of boosting aquatic farming and fisheries. The task force has been examining all areas of the mariculture industry and will present a comprehensive plan to Walker in 2018. The 11-member panel has split its resources into five advisory committees over the past year.