Must Read Alaska

Alaskan - Conservative - Innovative - Enduring. We are an Alaskan media source providing honest, quality conservative news on what matters most to Alaskans.

[Sen. Dan Sullivan @SenDanSullivan]

Veterans Day is sacred in Alaska, the state with more veterans per capita than any other. Today, we take time to recognize and honor the men and women who’ve answered the call to defend our nation and their family members who sacrifice in their own way too. 🇺🇸

[Alaska Division of Elections @ak_elections]

#StayInTheKnow Here are some important dates to keep in mind.

[Must Read Alaska @MustReadAlaska]

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A sleigh ride toward Mission Alaska: An interview with Fr. Matthew Heynen, O.P.

By Dr. Cindy

On December 14, 2024, the Dominican Friars of the Western Province premiered Sleigh Ride: Christmas in the Last Frontier at the Bear Tooth Theatre in Anchorage. The short documentary follows two friars on a 548-mile journey, from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, to celebrate Mass in Trapper Creek, Talkeetna, and Glennallen, Alaska: three remote communities with no resident priest. The film won a Gold People’s Telly Award in the Film & Shorts category (decided by public vote) and a Bronze Telly Award in the Film & Shorts Holiday & Seasonal category (selected by a judging council of more than 250 media industry experts). It was also named a runner-up in the Documentary Short category at the Catholic Media Association’s 59th Annual Gabriel Awards.

Sleigh Ride is the companion piece to a larger feature documentary, Mission Alaska: To the Ends of the Earth, which premiered in Fairbanks on November 5, 2026, with further premieres in Seattle (November 9), Anchorage (November 11), Oakland (November 13), and Rome (December 6), ahead of its general release in December. Deacon Dez and I recently sat down with Fr. Matthew Heynen, O.P., the friar at the center of Sleigh Ride, to talk about how the film came together, what the journey was really like, and what he hopes both films will do for the Church in Alaska.

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#MissionAlaska

[Must Read Alaska @MustReadAlaska]

Alaska veterans speak to young Americans

By Natalie Spaulding

I cannot think of a better way to honor our veterans than to listen to their stories and learn from them. Many brave men and women have served our country in the military whether as a soldier, pilot, doctor, engineer, or in another capacity. Alaska’s veterans embody the best of the Last Frontier spirit: courage, fortitude, and leadership. Their stories are worth remembering.

In 2026, Must Read Alaska published eight Alaska veteran stories in a series called “Service to My Country.” Each veteran shared their experiences, the lessons they learned, the hardships they faced, and lastly, what they would say to young Americans. To honor Veterans Day 2026, I ask readers to read, reflect on, and share the advice each of these veterans has given to the next generation of leaders. Their words are far more worth reading than mine.

Thank you to every veteran who has served our country. God bless America!

Hear from Alaska veterans: https://t.co/z9Y3f9tttD

@DeptVetAffairs #VeteransDay2026

[Governor Mike Dunleavy @GovDunleavy]

Alaska's schools need reliable internet, especially in rural communities. During my administration, we raised the state-funded school broadband standard from 10 to 100 Mbps, reaching 126 schools in 2026. We also increased per-pupil transportation grants by 10%.

[Must Read Alaska @MustReadAlaska]

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Analysis: How the Valley can make the most of the opioid settlement money

By Dana Raffaniello

The Mat-Su Borough has about $2.3 million in opioid settlement money coming over 18 years. Right now, it is being handed out in small grants that are paid in advance, measured by head count, and will not add many treatment beds. We can do better, and the rules already allow it.

For about twenty years, prescription painkillers moved through a supply chain that failed at nearly every link. Manufacturers marketed opioids as low risk. Wholesale distributors shipped volumes to small-town pharmacies that no legitimate prescribing could explain. Pharmacy chains filled prescriptions that should have raised red flags.

Thousands of states, counties, cities, and tribes sued. The result was a series of national settlements worth about $50 billion. The three largest distributors agreed to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years. Manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson, Teva, Allergan, and Purdue paid roughly the same. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger paid about $15 billion.

Alaska’s share of the first round was $58 million, split between the state and nine local governments. The Mat-Su Borough was one of them. This money comes from the companies, not from taxpayers. It is still public money now, and we have every right to ask whether it is doing any good.

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@draffaniello #addictiontreatment #MatSu

[Must Read Alaska @MustReadAlaska]

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Opinion: The skunk returns— AML’s education agenda needs a public price tag

By Ed Martin, Jr.

In my October 26 analysis of the Alaska Municipal League, I asked what protects independent judgment when outside organizations gain access to public officials. The education funding task force’s November 9 draft gives Alaskans another reason to follow the paperwork.

The skunk is back. To my nose, this smells like another expansion of institutional influence before the public has received the full bill. That is my judgment about the policy process. The documents establish an advocacy trail; they do not establish a purchased vote or criminal wrongdoing.

The Alaska Municipal League is a nongovernmental membership organization representing municipal interests. It can advocate. Legislators remain responsible for independently testing its proposals against the interests of all Alaskans— including families choosing education outside traditional classrooms.

AML’s Resolution 2026-01, adopted December 12, 2025, sought inflation-linked school funding, a dedicated facilities allocation, and predictable school bond reimbursement. AML subsequently published a detailed facilities-funding design. Now, page 7 of the task force report recommends a separate allocation for facility operations, management, and lifecycle renewal. Its footnote expressly credits an AML document explaining such an allocation.

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#akleg @AlaskaMunicipal

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Dunleavy announces two new initiatives to attract data center investment

By Natalie Spaulding

Governor Mike Dunleavy is moving to position Alaska for a larger role in the rapidly expanding data center and artificial intelligence industries, announcing two new initiatives designed to attract private investment, develop digital infrastructure, and potentially give Alaskans a direct financial stake in the projects.

The initiatives, announced November 9, 2026, include a new subsidiary of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) called Alaska Data Corporation LLC (AKDC) and a state-sponsored infrastructure financing platform called InvestNorth.

The initial focus will be digital infrastructure, including data centers in communities across Alaska. The administration hopes to use the two initiatives to bring together state resources and private capital to develop projects that could generate jobs, expand Alaska’s technological capabilities and create new sources of economic activity.

The announcement comes as demand for computing power continues to grow alongside artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and other data-intensive technologies. Data centers require substantial infrastructure, including reliable electricity, telecommunications networks, land and significant capital investment. Alaska’s geographic position and resources present potential opportunities, but realizing them will require careful planning and substantial investment.

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@GovDunleavy #invest #datacenters

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Opinion: The Education Task Force is positioning itself to bring homeschool curriculum under its authority

By Daniel Cooper

On Monday, the Legislature’s Joint Task Force on Education Funding released its recommendations, and most of them ask for more money for some of the worst-performing schools in the country. On page nine, though, the task force takes its first step toward regulating how Alaska families teach their own kids.

The task force recommends “reviewing Alaska’s existing correspondence school statutes, which allow broad exemptions from statewide content standards, proficiency assessments, and fiscal audits,” and asks districts to consider “incorporating public correspondence programs into a broader brick-and-mortar framework.” Those exemptions let families choose their own curriculum, and more than 20,000 Alaska kids have left the brick-and-mortar system.

On the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, Alaska ranked 51st of 53 jurisdictions in fourth-grade reading, fourth-grade math, and eighth-grade reading, and we spent $20,340 per student to get there, 23 percent above the national average. Mississippi, poorer and spending thousands less per kid, focused on phonics and rose to first in fourth-grade reading among low-income students, while ours ranked 49th.

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#akleg

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Department of Justice launches task force to prosecute criminal use of Super Intelligence

The U.S. Department of Justice is announcing the formation of its Super Intelligence (SI) Task Force (DOJ-SITF). President Trump has made clear that “America stands at the forefront of a new technological revolution in intelligence,” and the Department will be a leader in safeguarding against malicious SI actors.

Led by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Associate Deputy Attorney General Stephen Weiss, the DOJ-SITF will ensure that America’s leadership in SI is not compromised by the misuse of SI by foreign state and state-sponsored actors, transnational criminal organizations, and individual or corporate actors engaged in fraud or other unlawful conduct.

In September 2026, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order requiring “all departments and agencies to use the terms ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch and to no longer acknowledge the terms ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or ‘AI’.” According to Trump, the term Super Intelligence better “conveys the true capabilities of the technologies being developed today, unlocking new forms of human creativity and empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible—not simply imitating or automating human intelligence.”

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@TheJusticeDept #AI

[Must Read Alaska @MustReadAlaska]

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Liberal-led education task force makes policy suggestions for “adequate” and “equitable” schools

By Natalie Spaulding

The Alaska Legislature’s Task Force on Education Funding (TFEF) released a draft of recommendations to the public aimed at identifying “what the Alaska State Legislature can and should do, in the short and long term, to meet its constitutional responsibility to provide an adequate education for all Alaskan students.” The draft report presents short-term, mid-term, and long-term policy solutions. The public is invited to comment on the draft on Thursday, November 12.

The Task Force consists of six members. The Senate Co-Chair is Senator Löki Gale Tobin (D-Anchorage). The House Co-Chair is Representative Rebecca Himschoot (I-Sitka). The other members of the Task Force include Senator Mike Cronk (R-Tok), Senator Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau), Representative Andi Story (D-Juneau), and Representative Justin Ruffridge (R-Soldotna).

The section of short-term recommendations is the longest section in the draft, offering nine policy objectives:

-Adopt a definition of adequate education
-Initiate an equity and adequacy study
-Make school funding stable, timely, and consistent
-Adjust the BSA for inflation
-Separate annual facility operation funding needs from the BSA
-Address the crisis of Alaska’s current public school facility stock
-Address rising energy costs for school districts
-More accurate legislative fiscal notes
-Reading proficiency incentive grants

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#akleg

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Real gains and real gaps: assessing Trump’s record after Congress turns blue

By Natalie Spaulding

In response to Democrats taking control of both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate in the midterms, President Donald J. Trump claimed Republicans would have won if he were on the ballot. The White House “Weekly Briefing” newsletter sent November 6, 2026, heavily emphasizes Trump’s record, and his commitment to being “Mr. Veto” against any attempts to “undo his record.”

The White House’s newsletter pointed to a lengthy compilation titled “President Trump’s Second Term: Promises Made, Promises Kept, Results Delivered,” released November 2, asserting that Trump has fulfilled 127 campaign and early-term pledges. The release highlights border security, immigration enforcement, crime reduction, tax policy, and foreign policy, framing the results as a rapid restoration of “sovereignty, strength, and prosperity.”

While claims regarding immigration enforcement, crime reduction, and certain economic policies hold true, the release fails to address Americans’ concerns about everyday affordability and gas prices. Below is a fact-checked summary of Trump’s accomplishments as well as areas where he has fallen short of his promises.

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@realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse #MAGA