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Good afternoon. It’s Tuesday, February 4

In today's newsletter:

The Alaska Legislature is facing a substantial, $200 million-plus deficit in the upcoming fiscal year, due largely to diminished oil revenue.
In response to the new federal stance on immigration, the Anchorage School District briefed principals on Monday and published information for families on its policy if immigration police officers enter a school.
A pair of South Anchorage High School students are leading an effort to fund and install period product dispensers and free pads in eight middle and elementary school bathrooms throughout the district.

As of Feb. 2, it has been 100 years since Gunnar Kaasen drove a dog team into Nome with the medicine that saved lives and staved off a potential diphtheria epidemic. On the centennial of the Nome Serum Run, historian David Reamer delves into the story of the sordid aftermath for its two most famous dogs, Balto and Togo.

Anchorage weather

Areas of patchy, freezing fog will give way to mostly sunny skies later today, and the high is around 21 degrees. We'll continue to see mostly clear skies through the rest of this week, with daytime temperatures hovering in the high teens and low 20s.

Here’s what else is making headlines in Alaska today.

— Megan Pacer, mpacer@adn.com

Alaska Legislature faces a $200M-plus deficit as it weighs school funding against the PFD →

This year’s Permanent Fund dividend could be reduced from last year’s $1,703 check, legislative leaders say. The state’s main $3 billion savings account — the Constitutional Budget Reserve — also may be targeted to balance the budget, but legislators are broadly trying to avoid that.

In message to families, Anchorage School District describes response to new federal stance on immigration →

The school district does not ask for a child’s immigration status during enrollment, nor would they share it with law enforcement officers should they learn it — except in specific, rare situations, like if an immigration officer has a warrant or court order, according to district staff.

Anchorage high schoolers lead effort to expand access to period products in district schools →

The initiative, dubbed The Period Project, aims to make period products more accessible to increasingly younger menstruating girls by bringing them to where they are needed most: school bathrooms.

Spending on salaries for Alaska’s top officials increased more than 10% last year →

The state of Alaska spent more than $26 million paying executive-level officials in 2024, an increase of more than 10% from the previous year, according to a recent report.

Beaufort Sea ice cuts fiber-optic cable, limiting internet for about 20,000 residents of Northwest Alaska through summer →

The cable, owned by telecommunications company Quintillion, is a key piece of Northwest Alaska’s broadband infrastructure. Since the break, internet access has been significantly diminished for thousands of residents of the region.

More from the ADN

Federal layoffs ‘likely’ if too few employees choose to quit, memo says →

Juneau teen dies in shooting between vehicles after pointing pellet gun, police say →

Anchorage man convicted of second-degree murder in wife’s death →

Trump is preparing order to dismantle the Education Department as Musk’s team probes data →

Alaska’s tuberculosis rate remains elevated, preliminary figures show →

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