LISA MURKOWSKI

Alaska’s congressional delegation announced more than $104 million in port and maritime infrastructure investments across six coastal communities, with $11 million allocated to renovate St. Paul’s city dock.

Representatives from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan’s offices arrived in Sand Point Monday, their first stop on a multi-city tour around the region. The trip, which will include stops in King Cove and False Pass, comes ahead of a strategic plan the senators are expected to present to the Secretary of Commerce this summer.

Commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska found what the U.S. Department of Defense is calling a “large balloon with payload” and delivered it to the U.S. Coast Guard in Dutch Harbor.

The claims to extended continental shelf territory, to be asserted by the U.S. State Department, include an area within the Arctic Ocean that is bigger than California.

Unalaska’s Alaska Native village corporation, Ounalashka Corp., is set to receive $1 million from the federal government to clean up contaminated land. The Ounalashka Corp. said it will use the grant money to remove soils contaminated with PCBs and conduct an initial round of soil and groundwater sampling at a WWII-era warehouse.

Several U.S. Navy warships were dispatched to the Aleutian Islands last week, after 11 Chinese and Russian military vessels were found operating in the region. The exact location of the foreign ships was not disclosed.

A series of fish- and ocean-related bills have been introduced by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and colleagues from coastal states.

At a U.S. Senate committee hearing about the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off South Carolina, Sen. Lisa Murkowski lashed out at the Biden administration. “As an Alaskan, I am so angry, I want to use other words, but I’m not going to,” said Murkowski, who asked representatives from the Defense Department why the administration waited so long to respond to the threat – and why it did not take action, when the surveillance balloon first entered U.S. waters north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28.

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.

A week after traveling to Unalaska in an effort to spur the government into action, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is still waiting for a commitment from the Department of the Interior to coordinate cleanup efforts on contaminated lands conveyed to Alaska Natives.