"Sitka"

Potential cuts to senior benefits and Medicaid have many concerned. But the elder community faces another potential setback – this one tied to cuts to the Alaska Legal Services Corporation.

Some visitors who arrived in Haines on the ferry before the strike began are stuck. But some regional transportation services and tour companies are trying to pick up the slack.

The Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously Tuesday night for a new measure that makes it illegal to sell cigarettes, electronic smoking devices and other similar products to anyone under 21 years old.

The Alaska House of Representatives failed again to approve funding for the capital budget Monday morning. A measure that would draw funding from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve fell one vote shy of the 30 necessary for passage.

Without an override of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget vetoes, the UAS chancellor says the university will likely see significant layoffs of staff and faculty at the Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan campuses.

Juneau resident Shelby Surdyk recently attended a nuclear nonproliferation conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York. For next year, she’s helping to organize a youth conference in Sitka.