The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected the latest redistricting plan, telling the Alaska Redistricting Board it must redraw Southeast Alaska’s legislative districts.

The board wasn’t told specifically how to draw them, but was told to focus first on the Alaska Constitution’s requirements for legislative districts.

Among the constitutional requirements for legislative districts are “contiguity, compactness and relative socioeconomic integration,” along with other factors such as local government boundaries and drainage and other geographic features when possible.

The U.S. Postal Service is proposing cuts to hours of operation at small rural post offices, including several of Juneau’s neighbors, but that cost saving measure may help buy time for the threatened Douglas Post Office.

Douglas’ post office was targeted for closure last year, but a decision on that office’s future was put off until mid-May.

Now, the Postal Service is proposing cutting window hours at thousands of rural post offices, but the list of offices with potential cuts didn’t include Douglas.

A persistent legal battle over redistricting changes to Fairbanks legislative seats is reopening the hopes Petersburg has for remaining part of Sitka-based, rather than Juneau-dominated, House and Senate districts.

“Our council is pretty emphatic that we’d like to stick with our current districts,” said Kathy O’Rear, city clerk for Petersburg.

Growing population outside Southeast means districts locally are expanding. For Juneau, that means several new communities are being joined to the capital city, including Petersburg, Gustavus, Tenakee Springs and Skagway.

A new bill aimed at helping to keep Alaska’s Native languages alive hasn’t even gone to the governor yet, but the issue is already getting the attention the legislation was intended to bring.

Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell will chair a meeting of the Alaska Historical Commission on Monday, starting a new focus on the saving some of the state’s endangered languages while there is still time.

“If we lose our Native languages, I think we lose a big part of who we are as a people whether we are Native or not,” Rep. Cathy Muñoz, R-Juneau said.