The traveling breast cancer screening unit that serves Southeast Alaska won’t be visiting small communities this year, due to COVID-19. For some communities, that means some women won’t receive their annual breast exam. 

Northwest Arctic Borough residents have dealt with reductions in air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to a bankruptcy of the bush air carrier Ravn Alaska. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines also saw economic trouble which impacted their established passenger service to Kotzebue.

A community online forum asked residents for their opinions about the future of the Carlson Center. The contract with the current management company is ending. The Fairbanks North Star Borough will review options for the big arena and convention space on the riverbank in Fairbanks.

The dominant user of the Carlson Center has been the University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team, whose scheduling of the ice for practices and games has determined much of how the facility has been used. That dominance turns out to be a common gripe among folks who participated in the community forum.

On July 27, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it will open its first office dedicated to investigating cold cases in what has been called an epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People. There will be seven of these offices nationwide.