Interior Department: ‘Shell screwed up’ drilling in Arctic

Shell failed to oversee contractors that were central to its bungled efforts to explore for oil in the Arctic waters off Alaska last year, the Interior Department has concluded. | 03/14/13 19:52:20 By - By Sean Cockerham

Five companies vie to build wind farms off North Carolina coastline

Five companies are interested in developing wind farms in the ocean off North Carolina, hoping to take advantage of what could be the East Coast’s most promising chance to create energy through giant turbines anchored to the sea floor. | 03/12/13 18:23:19 By - By Sean Cockerham

Interior nominee Sally Jewell tells Senate she’ll balance development, conservation

Recreational Equipment Inc. chief executive officer Sally Jewell worked Thursday to convince Republican senators rattled by her leadership in conservation groups that she supports fossil fuel development and should be the nation’s next interior secretary. | 03/07/13 16:08:10 By - By Sean Cockerham

With natural gas so abundant and cheap, should U.S. export it?

The natural gas boom in North Texas is sputtering, with the number of rigs working the Barnett Shale recently hitting a 10-year low. It’s an issue elsewhere, as well, as the glut of domestic energy that’s transforming America drives down the price of natural gas and makes drilling less profitable. | 03/07/13 15:43:21 By - By Sean Cockerham

Court rejects Alaska’s bid to remove polar bear from threatened species list

A federal appeals court has rejected the state of Alaska’s attempt to remove polar bears from the threatened species list. | 03/01/13 16:54:16 By - By Sean Cockerham

State Department opens door to Keystone XL Pipeline approval

The State Department announced Friday that construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline is unlikely to have a significant impact on climate change, a finding that could open the door for President Barack Obama to approve the controversial project. | 03/01/13 19:12:18 By - By Sean Cockerham and Erika Bolstad

U.S. oil is booming, led by Texas and North Dakota

U.S. oil production has soared to heights not seen in 20 years, largely driven by an explosion in crude harvested from Texas shale rock. | 02/28/13 17:53:41 By - By Sean Cockerham

Plagued by problems, Shell pulls out of Arctic drilling – for now

Shell is dropping plans to drill in the Arctic waters off Alaska this year after a 2012 drilling season marred by equipment failures and ongoing investigations by the Coast Guard, Interior Department and the Department of Justice. | 02/27/13 18:38:45 By - By Sean Cockerham

Coast Guard finds violations on Shell’s Arctic drilling rig

The Coast Guard has found serious safety and environmental violations on a Shell drilling rig used in the Arctic waters off Alaska, another blow to the company’s controversial bid to harvest oil in the petroleum-rich but sensitive region. | 02/22/13 18:07:39 By - By Sean Cockerham

Democrats ask: How can we drill, baby, drill if we let sequester happen?

The upcoming automatic federal budget cuts would mean a big hit to energy development, as well as to America’s national parks, according to the Interior Department, which says oil and gas leasing would be slowed and popular parks would see reduced hours and fewer services. | 02/21/13 16:32:44 By - By Sean Cockerham

Kentucky suffers as coal use rises everywhere but in U.S.

Eastern Kentucky coal country is filled with people competing for nonexistent jobs, tied to the area by family and unable to sell their homes even if they want to leave. | 02/15/13 13:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

Southern governors implore Interior nominee Sally Jewell to drill off their coasts

The governors of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia are pushing President Barack Obama’s choice for interior secretary to abandon federal opposition to drilling off the Atlantic Coast, where production has been blocked for decades. | 02/14/13 18:33:10 By - By Sean Cockerham

Russia signs deal for stake in Alaska’s natural gas wealth

Russia’s state-owned oil company is poised to play a major role in developing America’s Arctic natural gas under a new agreement to give the company a stake in a huge Alaskan project. | 02/13/13 17:55:16 By - By Sean Cockerham

Obama picks REI chief Sally Jewell to lead Interior

Sally Jewell, a conservation advocate who’s the head of the outdoor gear and clothing retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., is President Barack Obama’s choice to be the secretary of the interior. | 02/06/13 19:34:39 By - By Sean Cockerham

Republican energy plan calls for more drilling, nothing to rein in greenhouse gases

The Senate’s top Republican on energy issues, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has crafted a blueprint for U.S. energy policy that calls for increased drilling while opposing laws to cap greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming. | 02/03/13 22:08:53 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska Native-owned subsidiary under investigation in Gulf of Mexico oil explosion

A subsidiary of Alaska’s Native-owned NANA Development Corp. is under investigation by members of Congress and federal regulators after the deaths of three workers in an offshore oil platform explosion in November in the Gulf of Mexico. | 01/24/13 19:36:44 By - By Sean Cockerham

Salazar leaves legacy of drilling expansion, moratorium

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement that he’s stepping down at the end of March leaves his successor to grapple with contentious issues including drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska and fracking for natural gas and oil on public lands. | 01/16/13 18:07:14 By - By Sean Cockerham and Rob Hotakainen

What happens to Venezuelan oil when Chavez is gone?

The end of Hugo Chavez could mean big changes for the struggling state-owned Venezuelan oil industry, which drives its nation’s economy, provides the money for Chavez’s export of socialism, and has helped prop up Cuba through subsidies of hugely discounted oil. | 01/16/13 15:03:14 By - By Sean Cockerham

Obama administration to review Shell’s beleaguered Arctic operations

The Obama administration is launching a fast-track review of Shell’s troubled Arctic drilling efforts in the wake of a grounded drilling rig, a failed spill equipment test and other problems. | 01/08/13 17:59:08 By - By Sean Cockerham

Shell’s foundering ship has some questioning wisdom of Arctic drilling

Critics want a halt to offshore Arctic drilling in the wake of Shell’s latest mishap in the waters off Alaska, but there’s no sign the Obama administration and key members of Congress are backing off their support for drilling in the sensitive region. | 01/03/13 18:49:49 By - By Sean Cockerham

Economic wave may course through icy, but melting, Arctic

In a twist to the debate over global warming, melting Arctic sea ice is making it easier to transport the fossil fuels that produce the planet-warming gases, which appear to be causing it to thaw in the first place. | 12/26/12 14:41:27 By - By Sean Cockerham

Proposed Coles Hill uranium mine: Buried treasure or hidden threat?

Beneath an estate that’s been farmed by the Coles family since just after the Revolutionary War lies the nation’s largest untapped uranium deposit, a potential $10 billion bonanza amid rolling hills, oak trees, pastures and a historic plantation home. | 12/23/12 00:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham and John Murawski

Connecticut school attack unlikely to change Alaska delegation's assault weapons ban opposition

The horrific Connecticut shootings don't appear to be changing the opposition of Alaska's Congressional delegation to renewing the assault weapons ban or toughening gun laws. | 12/18/12 06:47:38 By - Sean Cockerham

Fiscal cliff threatens national parks, advocates say

Congress’ looming failure to solve the fiscal cliff crisis leaves national parks facing large-scale cuts and the prospect of fewer visitors as tax increases leave Americans with less money to travel. | 12/06/12 16:45:07 By - By Sean Cockerham

Study: Exporting natural gas a boon to U.S. despite price hikes

A major new study for the U.S. Department of Energy supports controversial efforts to sendnatural gas to foreign nations, a conclusion that could push the president to approve exports over the objections of those who say it would hurt the country. | 12/05/12 18:02:06 By - By Sean Cockerham

U.S. budget cuts might hit Federal government dependent Alaska hard

Economists are warning that the nation’s “fiscal cliff” crisis might cause the loss of 4,600 to 10,400 jobs in Alaska, a state where federal money supports an estimated one-third of all jobs and income. | 12/05/12 17:03:06 By - By Sean Cockerham

Following oil spill charges, BP suspended from federal contracts

The U.S. government is suspending oil giant BP from winning new federal contracts or oil leases, saying the company’s “lack of business integrity” makes it an unfit partner in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. | 11/28/12 17:35:06 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska Rep. Don Young has hefty purse for 2014 race

A Louisiana family with interest in offshore Arctic drilling and Lower 48 tribes that run casinos all gave heavily to Alaska Rep. Don Young in the 2012 election cycle and have helped position him to scare off future rivals. | 11/21/12 16:01:14 By - By Sean Cockerham

With election over, will Obama OK Keystone pipeline?

President Barack Obama’s decision on whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline looms huge now that the election is over, and it could define Obama on energy and climate change. | 11/16/12 16:31:47 By - By Sean Cockerham

BP to pay record $4.5 billion criminal penalty in Deepwater Horizon spill

Oil giant BP will plead guilty to misconduct and felony criminal manslaughter for the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and led to the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. | 11/15/12 18:37:57 By - By Sean Cockerham and Erika Bolstad

As fiscal cliff looms, wind industry works to protect tax break

Wind energy advocates have just weeks to save a multibillion-dollar tax break, arguing half the jobs in the industry will be lost if Congress allows it to expire as scheduled at the end of the year. | 11/13/12 17:05:39 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska has plenty to ponder with second Obama term

President Barack Obama lost the Alaska vote Tuesday in a landslide and Gov. Sean Parnell has been openly hostile toward him, but now the state’s leaders have no choice than to accept that a majority of the rest of the nation wants Obama as president. | 11/08/12 18:26:47 By - By Sean Cockerham and Kyle Hopkins

Fracking can hurt property values of nearby homes with wells, study suggests

Property owners near shale gas wells are liable to suffer a major loss in value because of worries over water contamination, according to economists from Duke University and the nonprofit research organization Resources for the Future.Their study found Pennsylvania homeowners who use local groundwater for drinking lost up to 24 percent of their property value if they are within a mile and a quarter of a shale gas well. | 11/06/12 18:13:33 By - By Sean Cockerham

Issue of U.S. exporting fuel is absent from presidential campaign

While President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney trumpet the need for lower fuel prices and American energy security, the United States has exported petroleum products at a record pace. | 11/01/12 17:26:28 By - By Sean Cockerham

Obama, Romney disagree over tax break for wind energy

The wind energy industry is at a crossroads, rapidly shedding jobs and preparing for bigger layoffs if Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney gets his way and a billion-dollar tax break for the industry is allowed to expire. | 10/29/12 15:28:59 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska argues to keep polar bear off ‘threatened’ list

A lawyer arguing for the state of Alaska that polar bears are not a threatened species ran into skeptical appeals court judges Friday. | 10/19/12 17:21:48 By - By Sean Cockerham

In debate hot seat: Obama, Romney and Candy Crowley

When President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney walk out Tuesday evening for their second debate, they won’t be the only people in the spotlight. | 10/15/12 18:22:02 By - By Sean Cockerham

Paul Ryan hasn’t delivered Wisconsin to GOP ticket

Miles Tooher, a 65-year-old whose patio furniture business is going under in the conservative Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, thinks Republican Mitt Romney could help turn the economy around if he could win the presidency. | 10/09/12 17:13:53 By - By Sean Cockerham

Romney basks in glow of debate win, Obama looks for comeback

Republican Mitt Romney sought Thursday to use his superior performance at the first presidential debate as a springboard to build momentum for his once beleaguered campaign. | 10/04/12 21:03:51 By - By Anita Kumar, William Douglas and Sean Cockerham

Democratic senators want a stop to Arctic drilling

A group of Democratic senators is calling for the Interior Department to halt future Alaska offshore drilling leases, saying the president hasn’t made the case that drilling in the environmentally sensitive region is safe. | 09/26/12 17:13:44 By - By Sean Cockerham

Critics question university research with ties to shale gas industry

Professors funded by the shale gas industry have produced influential research supporting the industry at major institutions including Penn State University and the University of Texas at Austin and don’t always disclose where the money is coming from. | 09/25/12 16:58:08 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska declines to protect wolves near Denali National Park

The state of Alaska refuses to restore a ban on hunting and trapping wolves just outside Denali National Park, despite the killing of a key breeding female and the breakup of an iconic pack viewed by Denali visitors from around the world. | 09/19/12 18:39:21 By - By Sean Cockerham

Shell abandons drilling for oil in Arctic Alaska this season

Shell is giving up for the year on drilling for oil in the Arctic waters off Alaska after another setback to its troubled oil spill-containment barge. | 09/18/12 06:30:32 By - Sean Cockerham

Mitt Romney and Obama embrace coal industry

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama have wholeheartedly embraced coal on the campaign trail, despite past statements from Romney and Vice President Joe Biden that pollution from coal-fired power plants kills people. | 09/17/12 14:52:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

Shell Arctic drill ship gets pass on air emissions limits

The Obama administration has cleared another hurdle for Shell to drill in Alaska’s Arctic waters – the second in as many days – changing the company’s air pollution limits so its drill ship can operate in the Chukchi Sea. | 08/31/12 18:35:30 By - By Sean Cockerham

Obama to let Shell drill in Arctic – but not too deep

The Obama administration has decided to allow Shell to drill in Arctic waters off the Alaska coast, saying that for the time being the company must not go so deep as to hit actual oil because its troubled oil spill containment barge isn’t ready. | 08/30/12 18:38:42 By - By Sean Cockerham

Would cutting out ethanol lower corn prices?

This summer’s brutal weather is the backdrop for a renewed battle between fuel and food interests: The meat industry and several governors want less of the nation’s corn going to make ethanol, but it’s questionable whether the pullback would really help lower corn prices skyrocketing because of the worst drought in 50 years. | 08/29/12 17:02:52 By - By Sean Cockerham

Paul Ryan is well-liked back home, but is it enough to deliver?

The small Wisconsin city of Janesville, a heavily union town that’s long been a reliable vote for Democratic presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, isn’t the obvious place to produce and support a revolutionary from the right such as Rep. Paul Ryan. | 08/15/12 17:46:26 By - By Sean Cockerham

Olympics over, U.S. gets taste now of Obama, Romney fall campaign

With the 2012 Summer Olympics winding down, the 2012 presidential campaign geared up Sunday, with President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney framing arguments and trading accusations that will likely set the tone and tenor of the upcoming political conventions and the fall campaign. | 08/13/12 08:16:25 By - By William Douglas, Sean Cockerham, and Lesley Clark

Paul Ryan: Policy wonk, conservative thinker, prom king, fitness buff

Paul Ryan has made a startling rise in the past four years from a relatively obscure congressman representing southern Wisconsin to the darling of conservative thinkers and now Mitt Romney’s choice as the Republican candidate for vice president. | 08/11/12 19:06:09 By - By Sean Cockerham

Republicans say EPA is digging in too soon on possible Alaska copper mine

Congressional Republicans are lining up against the possibility of the Environmental Protection Agency blocking what would be North America’s largest open pit mine in a region of Alaska that supports some of the richest wild salmon runs in the world. | 08/10/12 16:44:01 By - By Sean Cockerham

New Orleans homeless hole up in Hurricane Katrina’s abandoned buildings

The New Orleans-area homeless population is estimated at 4,900 – twice as big as before the levees failed in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina – and the majority sleeps in the some 40,000 abandoned buildings that remain after the storm. This is an aspect of the city that most tourists don’t see, the other side of the coin from its celebrated cuisine and music. | 07/30/12 00:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

GOP stalwart Don Young blasted for endorsing a Democrat in Senate race

Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young's support for a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Hawaii is under attack from the Republican in the race, former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, whose campaign brought up Young's past ethics issues and called him one of the House's "most controversial members." | 07/26/12 07:26:41 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska’s Murkowski voted against Dems’ disclosure bill - because it didn’t go far enough

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski this week helped Senate Republicans block a bill that would require groups that pour hundreds of millions of dollars into influencing political campaigns to disclose who funds them. | 07/20/12 19:11:06 By - By Sean Cockerham

New Orleans resurgent but troubled seven years after the storm

Carmen Mills had enough. Her husband was carjacked. Then there was a murder on her block in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, long a rough part of a city that was falling to pieces. | 07/16/12 00:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell might reject Medicaid expansion

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell is expressing "serious concerns" about letting the federal government pay for medical care of more than 30,000 lower-income Alaskans, saying it would also result in state costs he's hesitant to take on. | 07/12/12 08:07:43 By - By Sean Cockerham

In Cajun land, a reveille to French heritage

There’s a major effort in Louisiana, a state named for the French king Louis XIV, to restore the French language. It’s part of a resurgence in cultural pride, and there are signs that the decline in French speakers has slowed. Among the last hopes is the nation’s largest French immersion program, in which every subject except English is being taught in French to kindergarteners through eighth-graders. | 07/03/12 16:00:43 By - By Sean Cockerham

Deal in Congress saves Alaska Railroad from massive budget cut

The Alaska Railroad said Thursday that Congress has struck a deal to save it from a massive budget cut that could have meant large-scale layoffs and less passenger service. | 06/29/12 06:47:47 By - Sean Cockerham

New Orleans laments defeated Times-Picayune daily paper

Clifford Burchfield sleeps in an abandoned building in the Algiers section of New Orleans, with no plumbing, electricity or running water. He can’t afford television, much less the Internet. But Burchfeld still devours the news every day from The Times-Picayune. Or at least he will until this fall, when New Orleans becomes the largest metro area in the nation without a daily paper. | 06/20/12 16:01:43 By - By Sean Cockerham

Oil industry opened the checkbooks to influence Alaska legislators

The oil industry spent more than $1 million lobbying in Alaska as it tried to lower state oil taxes this year, including a $3,120 dinner in Washington, D.C., when the Alaska Legislature shut down for lawmakers’ “Energy Break” trip to the nation’s capital. | 05/30/12 17:00:00 By -

Justice Dept.: Two Sen. Ted Stevens trial prosecutors acted with reckless misconduct

The Justice Department's internal watchdog office has concluded that two federal prosecutors acted with reckless misconduct in the botched case against then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and should be suspended without pay but not fired. | 05/25/12 06:54:10 By - Sean Cockerham

Justice: No misconduct in declining to prosecute Ted Stevens witness Bill Allen on sex charges

The Justice Department said Friday that its investigators had found no misconduct in the decision by federal prosecutors to abandon the teen sex-crime case against disgraced former Veco Corp. Chairman Bill Allen, the government’s star witness in the failed prosecution of then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. | 05/25/12 17:46:03 By - By Sean Cockerham

Beyond oil, can Alaska be tapped as a source for renewable energy?

Alaska has massive hydro, wind, geothermal and other renewable resources, but the state's rural villages are chained to diesel and suffer oppressive energy costs they say threaten their existence. Lawmakers, energy experts and Native leaders said Thursday it's a dire problem with elusive solutions. | 05/24/12 17:44:46 By - By Sean Cockerham

Violence Against Women Act stalled as Congress bickers

The federal reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act has fallen victim to political bickering, with the House of Representatives and the Senate refusing even to consider the versions passed by each other. | 05/23/12 17:49:42 By - By Sean Cockerham

Federal spending in Alaska has leveled off, report says

The explosive growth of federal spending in Alaska has flattened, according to a new analysis, but the state’s per-capita haul is still more than 40 percent above the national average, even with legendary spender Ted Stevens gone from the Senate. | 05/20/12 00:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

Idaho businessman defends himself against Obama campaign

President Barack Obama’s campaign says a wealthy Idaho businessman and major fundraiser for Mitt Romney is “a bitter foe of the gay rights movement,” pointing to his effort to get a documentary on how teachers deal with gay issues pulled from public television in 1999. | 05/17/12 13:20:11 By - By Sean Cockerham

Test successfully pulls natural gas from Alaskan ice

The Department of Energy has successfully completed an unprecedented test of harvesting the vast storehouse on Alaska’s North Slope of methane hydrate, essentially natural gas locked in ice crystals under the permafrost. | 05/02/12 17:39:19 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska tribes say Violence Against Women Act could harm their people

Alaska Natives are lining up in opposition to Lower 48 tribes over the congressional reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, saying it actually would take away their power to intervene in domestic violence. | 04/24/12 18:12:57 By - By Sean Cockerham

Tainted evidence aside, did Ted Stevens do it?

Colleen Walsh, one of the jurors who found then-Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens guilty in 2008, wonders every time she reads a story about prosecutors concealing evidence during the trial whether any of it would have resulted in a different verdict. | 04/22/12 00:00:00 By - By Sean Cockerham

Ex-aide: Alaska Congressman Don Young used campaign funds for personal expenses

A former aide to Alaska Congressman Don Young told criminal investigators in 2008 that Young and his wife, Lu, used campaign funds for personal expenses including meals and travel between Alaska and Washington D.C. | 04/21/12 16:05:34 By -

Attorney defends prosecutor Bottini in Ted Stevens case

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini has been wrongfully smeared by allegations he purposely hid evidence from the defense in the case against then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, his attorney said Thursday in the face of calls for Bottini to be fired and even disbarred. | 04/19/12 18:01:14 By - By Sean Cockerham

Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador takes tea party message to the media

A freshman Idaho congressman, unsatisfied with news coverage dominated by the top members of the House of Representatives, has put together a group of tea party-backed freshmen who are trying to influence how bloggers and traditional media are covering Congress. | 04/18/12 19:21:35 By - By Sean Cockerham

Alaska Railroad credit rating gets hit after Senate's $30 million funding cut

Moody's Investors Service has lowered the outlook for Alaska Railroad bonds from stable to negative, saying the U.S. Senate's move to gut the railroad's budget could leave it short of money to pay off debt. | 04/10/12 06:39:23 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska's Supreme Court reviews federal gun-shop liability law

A Bush-era federal law that protects gun dealers from being liable for murders committed with guns from their shops is under fire in an Alaska court case that's led the Justice Department and gun-control activists to intervene. | 04/03/12 18:18:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Sen. Begich breaks with Democrats, Obama on oil tax breaks

President Barack Obama says Congress should end billions of dollars in tax breaks for the global oil companies, but Alaska Sen. Mark Begich has broken with nearly every other Senate Democrat to oppose the idea. | 03/28/12 06:48:44 By - Sean Cockerham

Justice Department: We won't repeat Ted Stevens mistake

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that its misconduct in the case against then-Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was an isolated incident and Congress shouldn't pass a law forcing prosecutors to disclose all evidence they have to the defense. | 03/28/12 19:22:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Idaho lawmaker Nicole LeFavour wants less frustration, so runs for Congress

Nicole LeFavour knows too well what it's like to fight battles against incredible odds. LeFavour, Idaho's only openly gay legislator, gave copies of the movie "Brokeback Mountain" for Christmas to 60 fellow members of one of the most conservative legislatures in the nation and pushed in vain a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. | 03/23/12 14:22:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Senate bill cuts $30 million from Alaska Railroad budget

The Alaska Railroad faces a huge budget cut from the U.S. Senate that could mean large-scale layoffs, less passenger service and a default on the state-owned corporation's bonds. | 03/20/12 06:46:37 By - Sean Cockerham

Probe into Ted Stevens case finds vital evidence concealed

A special prosecutor’s finding that Justice Department attorneys concealed vital information from the defense in the case against then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, one of the nation’s longest-serving senators, has prompted calls for Congress to clamp down on prosecutors. | 03/15/12 10:26:27 By - By Sean Cockerham and Richard Mauer

Senate women lead fight to renew domestic violence law

After winning a fight just last week to preserve contraceptive health-insurance coverage for women, Senate Democrats on Thursday battled conservative Republicans who say they don't want to expand an 18-year-old federal law that created a national strategy to prevent domestic violence against women. | 03/15/12 18:05:00 By - Rob Hotakainen and Sean Cockerham

Appeals court says Ted Stevens report can be released

The U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied an attempt to stop Thursday’s release of an investigative report detailing prosecutorial misconduct in the case against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. | 03/14/12 11:51:44 By - By Sean Cockerham

Senate rejects plan to open Arctic refuge to drilling

The Senate on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a sweeping measure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected areas to oil drilling, as well as to approve construction of the Keystone pipeline project. | 03/13/12 17:26:00 By - Sean Cockerham

New State Department visa rules concern Alaska's seafood industry

The State Department is moving to halt visas that allow foreign students to work in U.S. manufacturing jobs, which Alaska seafood processors say could create an employment crisis going into the summer season. | 03/12/12 06:07:37 By - Sean Cockerham

Idaho Gov. Otter wants more federal money for wolves

Hunters, trappers and others wiped out nearly a third of Idaho's wolves last year after the state took over management from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But about 750 survived, and Gov. Butch Otter wants federal money as reimbursement for Idaho having to host them. | 03/08/12 10:42:54 By - Sean Cockerham

GOP senators hit Holder on Ted Stevens case

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the $1.8 million in federal money spent helping prosecutors fight charges that they criminally mishandled the botched case against the late former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. | 03/08/12 17:09:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Murkowski votes with Republicans in birth control debate

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who in the past has broken with the Republican Party on women's rights issues, is among those fighting the president's stand that all women should get insurance coverage for free birth control. | 03/01/12 18:18:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Idaho Gov. Otter wants control of federal timber

Idaho is at big risk for a catastrophic wildfire because of the lack of logging, Gov. Butch Otter told members of Congress on Tuesday. | 02/28/12 17:33:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Audit finds lax oversight of Alaska Native corporations contracting program

The debate over the sole source contracting privileges that Alaska Native corporations have used to make billions of dollars is flaring in Congress with a new government audit that found lax oversight of the program. | 02/08/12 06:44:44 By - Sean Cockerham

Judge: Disclose details on federal misconduct in Ted Stevens case

Calling the case a national symbol of what happens when prosecutors cross the line, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that an investigative report on misconduct by Justice Department attorneys in the prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens must be made public. | 02/08/12 15:53:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Rural Alaska air travel subsidies survive cost cutting in Congress

Subsidies for rural Alaska air travel survived the cost-cutting talk as Congress passed a four-year funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday after years of dispute. | 02/07/12 06:40:52 By - Sean Cockerham

Republicans rip into Attorney General Holder at Fast and Furious hearing

House Republicans accused Attorney General Eric Holder of hiding information at a hearing Thursday over the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking investigation, while Holder dismissed calls for him to resign and said he's not to blame for the scandal. | 02/02/12 18:14:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska's congressional delegation opposes closing of U.S. bases

Members of the Alaska delegation and others in Congress are vowing to resist a recommendation from the Pentagon to close military bases around the country. | 01/30/12 06:38:23 By - Sean Cockerham

Pentagon call for U.S. base closures a political move, lawmakers say

Legislators on Capitol Hill vowed Friday to resist a recommendation from the Pentagon to close unneeded military bases around the country as a way to save money, saying communities could not afford it and defense budget cuts could be made elsewhere. | 01/27/12 18:54:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Sean Cockerham

Alaska film 'Big Miracle' premieres in nation's capital

"Big Miracle," the first major production subsidized by a state of Alaska film incentive program among the most generous in the nation, premiered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as debate burns in Alaska over whether the program is worth the cost. | 01/26/12 11:32:59 By - Sean Cockerham

Congress opts for bipartisan seating for State of the Union speech

The partisan atmosphere in Congress has become so poisonous it's reached the point where Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and others are touting the fact they'll be sitting with a member of the opposite party when the president gives his State of the Union speech today. | 01/24/12 06:44:54 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska's 'bridge to nowhere' needs state cash to move ahead

The fate of a project nationally mocked as a "bridge to nowhere" when Congress earmarked money for it now hangs in the balance as the state of Alaska decides whether it's worth putting its own cash on the line. | 01/18/12 16:35:00 By - Sean Cockerham

Staff of Alaska Sen. Murkowski wagered on wildfires

Severe criticism from the wildland firefighters association and the parents of a fallen firefighter have committee staffers for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski apologizing for an office pool on how many acres wildland fires will destroy. | 01/13/12 06:57:14 By - Sean Cockerham

Feds to probe why Ted Stevens witness Bill Allen wasn't tried in teen sex case

The Justice Department has agreed to investigate whether there was misconduct involved in federal prosecutors' decision to stonewall the teen sex crime case against disgraced former Veco Corp. chairman Bill Allen. | 01/13/12 20:51:58 By - Sean Cockerham

EPA agrees to end emissions testing program in Anchorage

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday agreed to let Anchorage end its vehicle emissions testing program after 27 years, saying all the hassle isn't necessary for air quality. | 01/11/12 06:23:26 By - Sean Cockerham

Supreme Court hears Idaho couple's argument against EPA

The Supreme Court appeared sympathetic Monday to an Idaho couple's fight to build their dream home over the objections of the Environmental Protection Agency, in a case that could have far broader implications and limit the EPA’s ability to regulate developers, energy companies and others. | 01/09/12 14:44:43 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska lawmaker Tuck in feud with TSA over body scanners

Alaska state Rep. Chris Tuck is running TV ads telling people they can skip the new body scanners at Alaska airports and should call airport police if the Transportation Security Administration gets too frisky with the resulting pat-downs. | 12/20/11 06:48:37 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Sen. Begich tops Murkowski, Young in estimated worth

Sen. Mark Begich appears to be the most affluent among the Alaska congressional delegation, with a net worth estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics at $2.3 million. | 12/12/11 06:42:07 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Rep. Young faces House ethics investigation

Alaska Congressman Don Young is the target of an ethics inquiry into whether he took more contributions than allowed to pay his legal bills. | 11/29/11 06:41:17 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Sen. Murkowski calls for probe of why feds won't prosecute Bill Allen

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is asking for an investigation into why the federal Justice Department abandoned the teen sex crimes case against former Veco Corp. Chairman Bill Allen and blocked the state's effort to prosecute Allen. | 11/29/11 06:38:16 By - Sean Cockerham

Dustup involving Alaska's Young, historian Brinkley quickly got personal

The feud between Alaska Congressman Don Young and prominent historian Douglas Brinkley that started at a House committee hearing last Friday has continued, with Brinkley calling Young a bully and a "low-grade Joseph McCarthy." | 11/25/11 06:49:19 By - Sean Cockerham

FEC drops Joe Miller's Senate race complaint against Alaska Native corporations

The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint by losing U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller alleging Alaska Native corporations broke federal law by pumping more than $800,000 into the effort to re-elect Sen. Lisa Murkowski. | 11/14/11 06:33:42 By - Sean Cockerham

Justice Dept. probe of late Alaska Sen. Stevens prosecutors almost complete

The Justice Department is almost finished with its investigation into misconduct by prosecutors in the 2008 prosecution of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The inquiry by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is in its "last stages," Attorney General Eric Holder told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. | 11/09/11 06:48:41 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska air travel, farm subsidies survive Senate appropriations bill

Subsidies for rural Alaska air travel and farmers in the 49th state survived in the $182 billion spending bill the U.S. Senate passed on Tuesday.

It's the first appropriations measure to pass the Senate since the debt limit deal enacted in August under which lawmakers have to cut. Tea party Republicans argued that reductions in discretionary spending in the bill did not go nearly far enough. But challenges to programs including rural air subsidies and the Rural Development Agency failed. | 11/02/11 06:26:25 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Gov. Parnell's natural gas-to-Asia plan has lawmakers intrigued

Alaska politicians are interested in Gov. Sean Parnell's push to try to export the state's natural gas to Asia rather than the Lower 48, with influential lawmakers saying the state should consider paying to help to make it happen. | 10/31/11 06:48:52 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska borough voters reject controversial mine

Voters in two Alaska boroughs rejected a giant mine that is controversial because of its potential impact on salmon in Bristol Bay. Now the matter goes to the courts. | 10/19/11 09:10:59 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Sen. Begich warns against 'showboat' politics in Native contract hearing

Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey on Wednesday called for hearing to investigate Alaska Native corporation federal contracting in the wake of a massive bribery and kickback scandal involving an executive at a subsidiary of the Eyak Corporation. | 10/06/11 06:37:52 By - Sean Cockerham

John Katz, Alaska's top lobbyist in D.C., resigns

John Katz is resigning after directing the Alaska governor's office in Washington, D.C., for almost three decades, citing "the polarization and deterioration of the public policy process at the federal level." | 10/05/11 06:47:24 By - Sean Cockerham

Eyak Technology executive charged in federal bribery case

Federal agents arrested an executive with an Alaska Native corporation subsidiary Tuesday for his alleged role in a massive kickback scheme likely to intensify scrutiny of the federal contracting privileges Native corporations have used to make billions of dollars. | 10/05/11 06:44:10 By - Sean Cockerham

Sarah Palin announces she won't run for president in 2012

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, said Wednesday that she won't run for president in 2012. She made the announcement on the Mark Levin radio show, saying her family's wishes were the main factor in her decision. | 10/05/11 18:39:12 By - Sean Cockerham and Erika Bolstad

Alaska Rep. Young wants regulations rolled back to 1991 levels

Alaska Rep. Don Young suggested Tuesday he plans to introduce a bill to repeal every regulation that's been put into effect in the last 20 years, an idea that could have huge implications for everything from aviation safety to oil drilling if it actually happened. | 09/28/11 06:38:57 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska Gov. Parnell continues push for lower taxes on oil companies

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell continued to bash the federal government Tuesday and said he's lobbying legislators to pass his proposal for a major reduction in how much the state taxes oil companies. Parnell on Tuesday morning gave the opening address at the Alaska Oil and Gas Congress, an annual petroleum trade gathering being held at the Marriott Hotel in Anchorage. | 09/21/11 06:35:08 By - Sean Cockerham

In Alaska, vote nears on giant copper and gold mine

Voters in a remote part of Alaska could soon decide on whether the gigantic Pebble mine will go forward. It's one fo the most controversial development projects ever in Alaska. | 09/20/11 10:58:21 By - Sean Cockerham

Alaska expected to cover Knik Arm bridge project shortfall

Consultants on Alaska's billion-dollar Knik Arm bridge project were pretty clear Thursday the financial plan for the bridge is for the state to foot the bill for any difference between how much money is collected in tolls and how much the private developer will be paid. | 08/19/11 06:30:06 By - Sean Cockerham

Murkowski aide Fuglvog pleads guilty to breaking fishing law

Arne Fuglvog, who was Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's top fisheries adviser, pleaded guilty Thursday to breaking commercial fishing law and also indicated he could be feeding information to prosecutors in an attempt to lighten his sentence. | 08/12/11 06:26:32 By - Sean Cockerham