ot long ago, the phrase “It’s in the mail” meant that something sent via the United States Postal Service (USPS) was on its way, but the delivery date was uncertain. Thanks to an advanced postage system with tracking capability, that uncertainty has greatly diminished. However, technology often requires updates to handle compliance issues that arise in new situations. In 2024, USPS is enacting the final stages of postage meter requirements to increase efficiency and security of mail originating in the United States.

hile visiting Seattle, an Alaskan takes in the sights and smells of Pike Place Market. Wishing to financially support the shopping mecca, the visitor locates Rachel the Pig, a bronze statue that collects spare change for the Market Foundation. But oh darn, the Alaskan isn’t carrying cash.

No problem. About two blocks away, at 2nd Avenue and Pine Street, an ATM at BECU (established as the Boeing Employees Credit Union) dispenses dollars as readily as cash machines back home. BECU is part of the Co-op Solutions Shared Branch network, as are many Alaska-based credit unions. The network extends the reach of in-state financial institutions to more than 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide.

ver wondered why certain careers are called professions? The term comes from the Latin root “profiteri,” as in professing something of importance to others. The hallmarks of today’s professions are years of dedicated training, academic rigor, and a passion for having a positive impact in the community. The first step toward becoming such a practitioner is a professional degree, sometimes referred to as “first” degrees. Theology (MDiv, MHL, BD, or Ordination) and Medicine (MD) were the traditional professional fields, and now the list includes Law (LLB, JD) as well. The medical profession has expanded into Dentistry (DDS or DMD), Optometry (OD), Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Pharmacy (PharmD), Podiatry (DPM, DP, PodD), Veterinary Medicine (DVM), and most recently Psychologists (PsyD, PhD Clinical Psychology).

ay Welding Services’ motto is, “We build custom aluminum vessels, with an emphasis on the custom, yet they all share the same DNA.”

That heritage dates back to 1974, when Allen Engebretsen started a mobile marine repair business out of a car trailer. The company expanded into manufacturing in 1996 with its first aluminum skiff.

For fifty years, Bay Welding has been assembling boats and barges in Homer for commercial fishing, passenger vessels, sports fishing, landing craft, law enforcement, and oil spill response.

Success is reflected in its current 30,000-square-foot production facility that employs fifty-five people. Next year, its campus will expand to accommodate more employees and larger projects.

y rust-coated Miniature Pinscher, Vin Vin the Min Pin (I call him Vinny), has traveled with me on airplanes four times—but only once in the cabin. During that first and only experience, Vinny silently chewed through his carrier, under the seat in front of mine. When the flight attendant—not me—noticed his head peeping out, she told me I must keep him down there. We both knew that Vinny was unlikely to comply.

“Fine,” she sighed, “hold him in his carrier on your lap.” The flight attendant ignored me for the rest of the flight. In my arms, Vinny relaxed. Later, walking in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, struggling with my carry-ons and a dog held close to my torso in a carrier, I got looks of surprise. Mostly, people laughed at us.

Before Vinny, I had flown between Anchorage and Seattle with my silver Weimaraner, Clyde. On this flight when Vinny pulled his escape stunt, Clyde was in the plane’s baggage hold. Unlike Vinny, Clyde was calm while flying, curling up in his kennel when I delivered him to the loading area. My cat, Millie, behaved similarly.

very Alaskan has a shipping story: the package that never came, the item that cost more to ship than to purchase, the full online cart that was abandoned when the buyer learned the seller won’t even ship to Alaska. Domestic shippers seem to treat the 49th state like a foreign country, which is especially galling given Anchorage’s centrality to global air cargo.

Local and national carriers and retailers are working to change this. With Amazon’s first ground-based delivery station in Alaska now open, Anchorage and surrounding areas are already seeing faster delivery of packages. Investments and new infrastructure from FedEx Express and NorthLink Aviation also promise to streamline the flow of goods in and out of Alaska.

ot too long ago, Alaska’s salmon fishery was at a high. The record for the largest salmon run was set in 2018, and again in 2021, and again in 2022. It wasn’t just Bristol Bay; across Western Alaska, sockeye and pink salmon populations reached historic levels between 2021 and 2022, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But all good things must come to an end.

The sockeye salmon run in Bristol Bay is forecast to be millions of fish short of the 2023 season, although the run is still supposed to be above the ten-year average, according to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game.

f British Columbia had its way, the Alaska Panhandle would’ve contained no mainland territory south of Glacier Bay. During a long-standing boundary dispute, the province asserted the maximum claim, leaving only the major islands of Chichagof, Baranof, and Prince of Wales for the United States.

For its part, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom claimed somewhat less, leaving a fringe of mainland that would’ve excluded Juneau and Ketchikan from their dominion. And the United States claimed a deeper slice of the continent, to the eastern foothills of the coastal mountain ranges. The border settled by arbitration in 1903, five years after the Klondike Gold Rush, split the difference.

The temperate rainforest of the Pacific coast was first divided in 1825, when the Russian Empire agreed with its British rivals to demarcate their zones of influence along “the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast” until reaching 141 degrees west longitude, where a straight border through unexplored territory satisfied both parties. Vaguely defining which summits, exactly, led to the conflicting claims.

hen oil emerges from the depths of the earth on Alaska’s North Slope, the journey has just begun. Transporting crude oil from 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle to its first destination in Valdez is only a portion of the process required to deliver this valuable natural resource to its final customers. The transport starts at Pump Station 1 in Prudhoe Bay, where crude oil enters the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)—but it does not end 800 miles away in Valdez, which is not even halfway to the finish line.

he morning of February 8, workers in the Southwest village of Kwigillingok discovered a spill of diesel fuel from a tank farm. Nearly 9,000 gallons overflowed from a 10,000-gallon tank during a transfer operation, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Four days later, US Coast Guard personnel arrived and determined that the spill posed a threat to the Kwigillingok River, about 500 feet away. The agency brought in a three-person team from Resolve Marine, an oil spill response contractor, to conduct on-site plume delineation, drone imagery, and sampling.

Over the next week, Resolve Marine mobilized recovery materials from its staging area in Bethel. The company had to create infrastructure for its specialized crews, who were handling the clean-up, to both work and stay in. Then the company had to move equipment to recover the fuel, but the nearest skid-steer excavator was miles away in Kongiganak. Some equipment was driven overland from village to village, and some had to be flown in. For that task, Resolve Marine used cargo aircraft suitable for short takeoffs and landings because the village’s runway is only about 1,500 feet long.

n the transportation industry, the term telematics refers broadly to using computers in concert with telecommunications systems. The term has evolved to refer to systems used in automobiles that combine wireless communication with GPS tracking.

In 2010 the Association of Equipment Management Professionals standardized the use of telematics in equipment for the shipping industry. The Association of Equipment Management Professionals represents close to a thousand fleet professionals who work in construction, government, utilities, energy, mining, and any industry that requires the effective deployment of heavy equipment and is the heavy equipment industry’s only professional organization for equipment managers and their teams. The adopted ISO 15143-3 standard “aims to create a universal data communication protocol, ensuring compatibility and interpretability across diverse telematics systems from various manufacturers. It outlines precise specifications for data types, transmission frequencies, and access methodologies.” This allows for a unified, comprehensive view of all operational metrics across the organization.

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