Where does motherhood fit in our Women’s History Month celebrations?
Alaska Beacon
by Janice Ellis
20h ago
A statue of motherhood is at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, India. (KuntalSaha/iStock Images) As we come to the close of Women’s History Month, we have remembered and celebrated women who have broken barriers and made contributions in many areas in our society. But where does motherhood fit among the contributions to be honored? Motherhood should be among the first professions and accomplishments to be recognized. Your immediate thought might be, “We celebrate and recognize mothers on Mother’s Day.” We do. But how is that typically done? It is primarily done on a personal level, thanking an ..read more
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States rush to combat AI threat to elections
Alaska Beacon
by Zachary Roth
23h ago
The AI threat has emerged at a time when democracy advocates already are deeply concerned about the potential for “ordinary” online disinformation to confuse voters. (Getty Images) This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI — a form of artificial intelligence that can create new content, including images, audio, and video — became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. But, while Congress has done little to address the issue, states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions ..read more
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Alutiiq museum in Kodiak celebrates the past to connect with the future
Alaska Beacon
by Shirley Sneve, ICT
1d ago
The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository is undergoing a major renovation that officials hope will attract tourists to its Kodiak Island community in Alaska. The museum's efforts got a recent boost with a grant from the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association. (Photo courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository) A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourists to its Kodiak Island community got a boost from the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association. The association, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, awarded a grant to the Alut ..read more
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Microplastics found in artery plaque linked with higher risk of heart attack, stroke and death
Alaska Beacon
by Meiru Wang
2d ago
A researcher holds small pieces of microplastic pollution washed up on a beach. (Photo by Alistair Berg, via Getty Images) Microplastics and nanoplastics are everywhere in our environment – including in our oceans and lakes, farmland, and even Arctic ice algae. Microplastics found in water bodies across Southcentral Alaska Microplastics have also been found inside of us – with studies detecting them in various tissues including in the lungs, blood, heart and placenta. Understandably, concern is rising about the potential risks of microplastics on our health. However, while a growing body of r ..read more
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Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons
Alaska Beacon
by Claire Stremple
2d ago
The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on March 26, 2024. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon) A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in state custody that included proposals for solutions was abruptly canceled in an Alaska legislative committee on Tuesday morning. In a vote that fell along party lines, Republican members of the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee voted to cancel the talk prepare ..read more
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Nominee to Bering Sea fisheries council would tip balance toward tribes, away from trawlers
Alaska Beacon
by Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal
2d ago
Becca Robbins Gisclair is Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's nominee to the council overseeing Bering Sea fisheries. (courtesy photo) Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown on salmon and halibut bycatch are set to gain a new ally on the federal council that manages Alaska’s lucrative Bering Sea fisheries. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last week nominated Becca Robbins Gisclair, an attorney and conservation advocate, to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. If U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo accepts Inslee’s recommendation, Gisclair, senior director of Arcti ..read more
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U.S. Supreme Court justices seem skeptical of limits on access to abortion medication
Alaska Beacon
by Jennifer Shutt
2d ago
Opposing protesters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, are kept separated by fencing as U.S. Capitol Police and Supreme Court Police observe. The demonstrators held signs and chanted as the justices heard oral arguments over access to mifepristone, one of two pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — The future of medication abortion access in the United States went in front of the U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday, where several justices appeared somewhat skeptical as anti-abortion organizations argued u ..read more
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Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages
Alaska Beacon
by Yereth Rosen
2d ago
Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T'aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Group's Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word for month known in English as July is Łuk choo zhrii, meaning “the month of king salmon,” said Rochelle Adams, an Indigenous advocate who grew up in Beaver and F ..read more
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Culture wars and an embattled Utah monument
Alaska Beacon
by Stephen Trimble
3d ago
A rainbow is seen over Cheesebox Butte in Utah. (Photo by Stephen Trimble) Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument rarely leaves the news. The political tussle over this stunning expanse of red rock canyons exemplifies all the cultural dissonance in the rural West. Three presidents have signed Bears Ears proclamations. Barack Obama established Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, but supporters were devastated when Donald Trump eviscerated the monument the following year, reducing its area by 85%. In 2021, President Joe Biden restored the original boundaries and then some. What’s clear is that B ..read more
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An Alaska Olympian went to D.C. to testify on climate change. Then a senator dredged up old tweets.
Alaska Beacon
by Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal
3d ago
Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage cross-country skier, testifies at a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday. (Budget committee screenshot) Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage Olympic cross-country skier, arrived at his first-ever congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., knowing he could be a target. The Senate Budget Committee’s chairman, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, invited Schumacher to testify last week in one of a series of more than a dozen hearings about the harm climate change is inflicting on the nation’s economy. Alongside a flyfishing outfitter and an official from an outdo ..read more
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