An update from the Northern Journal trail
Some news and notes, including a leg wrestling video, about my work and travels over the past couple of months.
Nathaniel Herz
How a risky state investment in seafood cost Alaskans millions and left a fishing town in crisis
There were warning signs ahead of the bet on Peter Pan Seafood, which is expected to cost Alaskans more $29 million.
Think sled dog racing is fading? In Alaska's mushing-crazy Kuskokwim Delta, it’s booming.
High school boys in one Kuskokwim River village can “forget the muscle cars,” said Barron Sample, principal of the school there. “You get the muscle dogs,” he said.
The last skipper in Ouzinkie: How Gulf of Alaska villages lost their Native fishing fleets
A permitting system designed in the 1970s was supposed to make Alaska’s commercial fishing industry more sustainable and more profitable. But over the last 50 years, it has hollowed out many Indigenous coastal villages where residents no longer can earn a living by harvesting salmon.
Rolling blackouts could loom for urban Alaska as natural gas crunch intensifies
Homer Electric Association, which serves much of the Kenai Peninsula, recently announced that it secured an “interruptible” gas agreement for the next year — meaning that it could experience a shortfall of the fuel during a cold snap.
A national championship ski race was set for Kincaid Park. Then the moose showed up.
The real drama during Thursday's race was a quintessential Anchorage wildlife standoff — one that may have even altered the women’s podium.
'We're not heading in the right direction': A Q&A with Murkowski on health care
"I'm worried about the current situation, because we've got some demographics that are working against us," U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in an interview. "Alaskans are getting older, and our chronic conditions are just getting chronically worse."