Published May 18, 2023 by Iris Samuels

The Alaska Legislature is set to start a special session Thursday morning after failing to reach agreement on the state budget by the midnight deadline Wednesday that marked the end of the annual regular session.

The House adjourned at 9 p.m. without taking a vote on a budget, three hours after the Senate sent over a take-it-or-leave-it spending plan.

Changes made at the last minute to the Senate’s budget would have provided for an additional payment next year on top of the dividend of up to $500 per Alaskan if the price per barrel of oil exceeds $73 over the fiscal year that starts July 1, leading to more state revenue than currently anticipated.

The changes also included cuts requested by the House to child care and home care funding totaling $15 million, and additional capital projects worth over $30 million for renewable energy projects, the University of Alaska, and trail projects, among other items.

Published May 18, 2023

Florida State University researchers have analyzed the carbon exported from surface waters of the California Current Ecosystem – the first-ever study to quantify the total carbon sequestration for a region of the ocean.

The study, published in Nature Communications, serves as a framework for assessing how the processes that sequester carbon might change in a warmer world, while also creating a blueprint for similar budgets in other ocean regions.

Co-authors were John P. Irving, Christian K. Fender, and Natalia Yingling, all from Florida State University; Thomas B. Kelly, an FSU doctoral graduate who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Mark D. Ohman from the University of California San Diego.

Published May 17, 2023 by Christina McDermott

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus is tucked between the library and the high school in downtown Dillingham. It opened in 1981 and in the following years started outreach centers in Togiak, New Stuyahok, and King Salmon. In 2015, the campus began overseeing education for the Aleutian-Pribilof region, which originally had its headquarters in Fairbanks.

Director Wanda Wahl said her connection to Bristol Bay and the Aleutians informs her leadership.

Wahl has worked at the campus for a decade. Since 2021, she’s served as both the interim director and administrative manager. Now, she will take on the directorship permanently.