Posts by Emily Hofstaedter

Alaskans around the state continued to sign petitions and collect signatures through the end of Labor Day (Monday) as the first stage in an effort to recall Governor Mike Dunleavy drew near its close.

Across from the Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome, construction on the new Wellness Center continues. But they’re continuing without financial help from the State of Alaska, after Governor Mike Dunleavy held firm to his line-item veto of $10 million for building substance abuse treatment facilities.

After Monday night’s City Council meeting, there are still no sitting commissioners on the new Nome Public Safety Commission. The process for creating the group has taken over a year so far, and now members of the public are concerned that the background check being run on potential candidates is too invasive.

Nome residents can expect to continue paying online municipal sales tax for goods purchased through vendors like Amazon, but they will see a break on their personal property taxes for ATVs and snowmachines.

The Nome City Council aims to further clarify the scope of municipal sales tax for online purchases in their regular meeting tonight (Monday, Aug. 26).

Update: Alaska State Troopers and local law enforcement successfully apprehended Brandon Agathluk on Friday after he had escaped police custody two days earlier.

Senator Lisa Murkowski came through the Bering Strait region late last week, visiting three communities she has never been to before: Teller, Wales, and Brevig Mission.

The search for a Nome City Manager gets closer to the end after the City Council interviewed candidates in a special meeting last night (Tuesday).

On Monday, the Nome roundtable discussion “Reclaiming Our Native Communities” was a forum for a discussion on public safety challenges in Western Alaska: violent crime, missing and murdered Native Americans, and narcotics. A lead voice in the discussion was Tara Sweeney, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Law enforcement has apprehended two Nome residents officials say were trying to bring approximately $62,000 worth of narcotics into Nome on Thursday.