Nathaniel Herz, Alaska Public Media
Nathaniel Herz is an Anchorage-based journalist. He's been a reporter in Alaska for a decade, and is currently reporting for Alaska Public Media. Find more of his work by subscribing to his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com. Reach him at natherz@gmail.com.
New consultant to Alaska Gov. Dunleavy has ties to national conservative figures Pence, Bachmann
Mary Vought, who worked for Pence when he was a member of Congress, is being paid $4,000 a month. She grew up in Alaska and once had Sarah Palin's father as a substitute middle school teacher.
The operators of the flight crashed last week, killing 5, had 3 other incidents in 2019
Yute Commuter Service, whose plane crashed and killed five people last week, including the pilot, is owned by a family whose aircraft were involved in several incidents last year.
Judge lifts hold on Recall Dunleavy campaign, saying order he issued 24 hours earlier was “inadvertent”
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth, in his second reversal in as many days, has revoked an order pausing the campaign to recall Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, saying he'd issued it accidentally.
LISTEN: A Washington Post correspondent talks about reporting on climate change on Alaska’s North Slope
The Washington Post made the Alaska North Slope village of Nuiqsut front page news earlier this month, under a provocative headline: "Alaska's warming, but can't quit big oil." We talked with the reporter who wrote the story.
LISTEN: Sadie Maubet Bjornsen is perhaps the best cross country skier in the world. She lives in Anchorage.
For a couple days earlier this winter, Anchorage was the hometown of the best cross-country skier in the world, Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, an Anchorage resident who trains with the Alaska Pacific University program, joined us last week to talk about her season so far.
After bruising first year, new Dunleavy budget trades cuts for big PFDs and deficit spending
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed a new budget Wednesday that would spend most of the cash left in the state's primary savings account to sustain government services at status quo levels, while paying out record-sized Permanent Fund dividends.
Anxious about Dunleavy’s new budget? Alaska lawmakers will likely temper it, maybe by a lot.
While the Alaska Constitution grants the governor substantial powers over state finances, they’re far from absolute, and the governor’s initial proposal often amounts to an opening offer instead of the last word.
Enstar wants permission to raise gas prices to cover $1 million in earthquake repairs
Anchorage natural gas company Enstar is asking state regulators to allow it to bill its customers to recover $1 million in costs from last year's major earthquake.
Alaska’s once-a-decade redistricting process is about to start
A newly formed committee charged with planning for Alaska's once-a-decade redistricting process will hold its first meeting next week.
NTSB: Pilot inexperience and unfavorable winds factored into fatal PenAir crash in Unalaska
The flight that crashed at the Dutch Harbor airport last month, killing a passenger, landed amid unfavorable but shifting winds, according to an initial federal report released Friday. And it was captained by a pilot with relatively little experience at the controls of Saab-2000 plane he was flying, the report said.
Murdoch-funded group gives major boost to initiative to overhaul Alaska’s elections
An organization funded by the Murdoch family has donated more than a half-million dollars to a campaign to overhaul Alaska’s election laws and establish a system of ranked choice voting, making it easier to elect independent candidates.
Passenger on Unalaska flight recounts crash landing: ‘He’s not going to stop — we’re going into the water’
Patrick Lee, 57, was on the plane returning home with his wife, daughter and granddaughter Thursday night. He said the approach was bumpy, though the pilot managed to get the plane on the ground.
Protest interrupts governor at AFN, reveals fissures over appropriate dissent among attendees
A group of protesters briefly interrupted Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s address to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention Thursday morning, drawing a rebuke from Will Mayo, one of the federation’s co-chairs.
Alaska Native groups have feuded...
A new menace for Anchorage dogs: river otters
“If I hadn't intervened," the dog's owner said. "I'm certain that they would have killed her."
Dunleavy administration announces amount of Alaska’s 2019 PFD checks
Each Alaska resident will receive a $1,606 Permanent Fund dividend this year, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration announced Friday.
The payment will be split between 631,000 recipients, and it's each person's share of the $1.013...
‘Genetic geneology’ is helping crack cold cases in Alaska. Here’s how it works.
Twice this year, Alaska investigators have cracked cold cases using new DNA technology called genetic genealogy. Steve Armentrout, Parabon NanoLabs chief executive, says it's a new science that's expanding quickly.
When the McKinley fire started, local firefighters took the first calls
Many of the local firefighters are still at the scene, but their initial efforts were especially important, officials said, amid diminished staffing levels at the end of the fire season, and as other wildfires around the state were competing for staff and equipment.
At least 50 structures lost in McKinley fire north of Willow
A 19-mile stretch of the Parks Highway was closed some 80 miles north of Anchorage, as authorities called for the evacuation of a subdivision that only has one road in and out.
Tali Birch Kindred, daughter of deceased state Sen. Birch, takes step toward trying to fill his seat
The daughter of recently-deceased state senator Chris Birch, Tali Birch Kindred, is seeking to replace him, according to documents she filed with state regulators Friday.
PFD fight splits Alaska GOP, leaving some aligned with Democrats
Typically, some of the most intense fights at the Alaska state Capitol are between Democrats and Republicans. But one of the biggest ideological fractures complicating this year's legislative session is within the GOP, and that's creating some strange bedfellows.