The 300-foot ocean-class ferry Tustumena is nearly six decades old. The plan for its replacement now includes a room for housing batteries with the potential to expand.

The ice-filled caldera of Takawangha, which rises 4,753 feet out of the Bering Sea, is in the far western Aleutians, about 55 miles west of Adak. The volcano has been showing signs of unrest since Nov. 18.

New regional airline Aleutian Airways touched down at Unalaska’s Tom Madsen Airport on Nov. 16., and with it arrived the hope of more stable and affordable air service to the remote Aleutian Island. The roughly 15 passengers on board Aleutian Airways’ inaugural flight from Anchorage were greeted by a few dozen cheering Unalaskans, including local officials from the city and school district. “It's nice to see change,” said local Karley Parker. “And it's a very welcome change. I'm glad that we have options. It's much needed here in Unalaska, for competition and rates and just getting people off the island.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with dredging the entrance to Iliuliuk Bay, a project that has been in the works for years. Once finished, the project would create a channel to pass through a large shoal of glacial moraine that runs across the bay. Currently, those compressed glacial boulders and rocks make the water much shallower than the surrounding areas.

The moment many Unalaskans have been waiting years for is just around the corner: fast and affordable high speed internet has made its way to the island and is about to get booted up.GCI has been working since the spring of 2020 to bring fiber optic broadband to the region through its Aleutians Fiber project. And now, two and a half years later, the initial cable tests are finished and things are about to “get lit,” according to the telecommunications company.

The Environmental Protection Agency has stepped up to take the lead in coordinating the cleanup of contaminated lands that were conveyed to Alaska Native communities, according to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Preliminary results are in for this year’s general election, and Unalaska seems to be breaking from one major statewide voting trend. Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski trails competitor Kelly Tshibaka in statewide results in the race for U.S. Senate. But the majority of Unalaska voters favored Murkowski over her fellow Republican challenger. In local results, Murkowski leads with about 51% of the vote. Unalaskans did follow the statewide trend in the race for U.S. House of Representatives and chose Democrat Mary Peltola as the island’s preferred candidate. She received 193 local votes from a total of 410 – that’s 47% of the total. That matches the statewide support for Peltola exactly. Republican Sarah Palin received about 31%, and about 19% of Unalaskans cast their ballots in favor of Republican Nick Begich.

The recent closure of the Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries has some of Western Alaska’s coastal towns taking a hard look at their futures, and one small island is bracing for a huge hit. The Pribilof Island of St. Paul runs on snow crab — also known as opilio crab. The community’s Trident Seafoods is one of the largest crab processing plants in the world. So when fisheries management officials announced the species “overfished” and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shut down snow crab for the first time in the fishery’s history in October, City Manager Phillip Zavadil knew the community needed to act fast. “We're trying to get creative and have people understand that this is going to happen more and more, and that we need to address it,” Zavadil said. “We can do something now, instead of waiting for next year, when we don't have any funding or we can't provide services.”

Millions of homeowners skipped mortgage payments during the pandemic, as people lost jobs and reevaluated their finances. In response, the U.S. Department of Treasury issued millions of dollars to states, tribes and U.S. territories to help prevent payment defaults and utility shutoffs. Now, the Aleutian Housing Authority is giving more than $2 million to homeowners in the Aleutian and Pribilof region through the Department of Treasury’s Homeowner Assistance Fund.

On Friday, Oct. 21, the Anchorage Unangax̂ Dancers took the stage for the very last performance of Quyana Nights, a highly-awaited celebration of traditional dance hosted by AFN. Unangax̂ dancer and drummer, Dustin Unignax̂ Newman, composed the newest song for the Anchorage dance group.