The emergency cold-weather warming shelter is seen in Thane on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)

Man charged for alleged rape at warming shelter

Staff have increased the frequency of safety rounds, and are discussing potential policy changes.

Eaglecrest Ski Area as seen in a photo posted to the hill’s Facebook page on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Eaglecrest Ski Area photo)

Eaglecrest boots up for a limitted opening this weekend

15 degree highs usher in the hill’s 50th season.

SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is one of the primary health care providers in Juneau, accepting most major public and private insurance plans. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)

Marketplace health premiums set to rise in 2026

Here’s what you need to know about how coverage is changing, and for whom.

Capital City Fire/Rescue completes last season’s ice break rescue training at the float pond near Juneau International Airport. (photo courtesy of Capital City Fire/Rescue)

On thin ice: Fire department responds to season’s first rescue at Mendenhall Lake

This week’s single digit temperatures have prompted dangerous ice ventures.

Downtown Juneau experiences its first significant city-level snow fall of the season as pictured on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)

Sub-zero temperatures to follow record snowfall in Juneau

The National Weather Service warns of dangerous wind chills as low as -15 degrees early this week.

Brenda Schwartz-Yeager gestures to her artwork on display at Annie Kaill’s Gallery Gifts and Framing during the 2025 Gallery Walk on Friday, Dec. 5. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)

Alaska artist splashes nautical charts with sea life

Gallery Walk draws crowds to downtown studios and shops.

Holiday lights decorate the Governor’s House on Dec. 4, 2019 before the Governor’s Open House on Dec. 10. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)

Cookies, cider and a 12-foot spruce: Governor’s Holiday Open House returns

The century-old tradition continues Tuesday.

Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon 
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during a news conference in Juneau on Thursday, April 27, 2023. To his side is a screen displaying significant budget deficits and exhausted savings accounts if oil prices perform as expected.

Disasters, dividends and deficit: Alaska governor unveils first-draft state budget

In his final year, Gov. Dunleavy again proposes to spend from savings in order to pay a larger Permanent Fund dividend

  • 2 days ago
Gulls hunting seeking scraps of fish swarm the docked fishing vessel Gold Rush, which harvests pollock and other groundfish, and Trident Seafood's Kodiak plant on Oct. 3, 2022. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set 2026 Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ccatch limits for pollock and other groundfish species, but the prolonged federal government shutdown interrupted the flow of information that would normally be used to set those harvests. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Without completed 2025 reports, federal fishery managers use last year’s data to set Alaska harvests

Lacking the usual amount of data to guide them, federal fishery managers relied on last year’s reports to set the Continue reading...

  • 3 days ago
Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks Wednesday, April 23, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska Senate. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

State senators express skepticism about proposed Juneau ferry terminal backed by Dunleavy

In a Friday hearing, members of the Alaska Senate spoke critically about a proposed new ferry terminal in Juneau, questioning Continue reading...

  • 3 days ago
A commercial bowpicker is seen headed out of the Cordova harbor for a salmon fishing opener in June 2024 (Photo by Corinne Smith)

Planned fiber-optic cable will add backup for Alaska’s phone and high-speed internet network

The project is expected to bring more reliable connection to some isolated coastal communities.

  • 1 week ago
Video
The student band performs at Thunder Mountain High School. (Screenshot from student film “Digging a Hole in the School Budget”)

Thunder Mountain High School graduates win film festival award

Documentary by Jade Hicks, Hayden Loggy-Smith portrays human impacts of school consolidation plan.

 

An entangled humpback whale seen from above on Oct. 10 near Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. (Photo by Sean Neilson, NOAA MMHSRP Permit No. 24359)

Juvenile whale caught in heavy fishing apparatus freed by team effort

Rescue follows the loss of a whale calf to a vessel strike in August

 

Juneau’s Anthony Garcia (22) carries the ball deep into West Anchorage High School territory to set up the Huskies’ first touchdown early in the third quarter during Saturday’s game in Anchorage. (Screenshot from Juneau Huskies football livestream video)

Depleted Huskies lose at West Anchorage 59-21

JV players make up one-third of Juneau’s squad during matchup against top team in conference.

 

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (left) views the Mendenhall River on Tuesday as Juneau Assembly member Wade Bryson explains changes that occurred to the riverbank due to record flooding from Suicide Basin last Saturday. Juneau state representatives Sara Hannan and Andi Story were among the other officials taking part in the trip. (Tom Mattice / City and Borough Of Juneau)

Flood cleanup, fundraising events planned this weekend

As state and federal officials consider large-scale actions, residents can offer immediate help.

 

Photography
James Edens looks at 35mm film he had just developed. Photo by By Jonathon Dawe/ Wrangell Sentinel)

Father and son share love for old-school film photography

For photographers like James Edens, film photography never lost its allure

  • 4 months ago

 

In an undated image provided by Chris Miller, an image of the northern lights in Juneau shows what a camera with a longer exposure captures. As astrotourism booms, the northern lights get a boost from digital photography. (Chris Miller via The New York Times)

Is the aurora borealis really that mind-blowing? Or is it just your cellphone photos?

In August, over a calm Michigan lake, Karl Duesterhaus, 34, of Chicago, Continue reading...

  • 11 months ago

 

A harbor seal lazily floats in the calm cool downtown harbor waters on March 21. (Photo by Denise Carroll)

Wild Shots

To showcase our readers’ work to the widest possible audience, Wild Shots Continue reading...

  • 2 years ago

 

Mendenhall Glacier and Mendenhall Lake on Jan. 28. (Photo by Deana Barajas)

Wild Shots

To showcase our readers’ work to the widest possible audience, Wild Shots Continue reading...

  • 2 years ago

 

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