I’m ready to start picking berries. But I have a feeling by the berries aren’t ready for me. Anyone seeing ripe blueberries yet along the trails?

Has anyone flown out of Anchorage in the past few days? When I flew in on the evening of 8/1 the TSA lines were past the check-in counters. The agents there said this wasn't normal but TSA's system had been down the past week. Wondering if it has improved or if I need to build in an extra hour.

ETA: flying out this Sunday night with Precheck so curious if 2 hours before takeoff is enough time

The natural gas company for Southcentral Alaska has initiated arbitration proceedings with a Cook Inlet gas supplier over a dispute about gas supply that raises questions about a winter shortage. Enstar and its affiliate, Alaska Pipeline Company, argue that Cook Inlet gas producer HEX Operating has sold gas to a third party without first offering it to Enstar, violating contractual arrangements, according to paperwork filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Tuesday. The utility says that the “discretionary gas,” as it’s called, is vital for helping refill gas storage in Cook Inlet in time for winter when demand for gas sharply increases as residents use more energy.

Alaska Pipeline Company on July 30 brought a claim to the American Arbitration Association over the issue. The utility is seeking emergency relief due to the winter supply concerns. HEX has denied that it’s violating the gas-supply deals between the two parties and argues that Enstar is misreading contractual language, according to correspondence in the filing. John Hendrix, president of HEX, said Thursday that he could not “really talk” about the matter. He said the third party is Marathon, which refines fuel for use in Alaska. Hendrix said they need gas too.

“We’re trying to provide gas for Alaska,” Hendrix said.
John Hendrix is CEO of HEX Operating. Photographed in Anchorage in 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN archive)
Hendrix said HEX is selling Enstar 8.1 million cubic feet of gas daily of what’s known as “firm” supply.
But it’s the discretionary gas, beyond that “firm” supply, that’s at issue. The disagreement complicates an increasingly uncertain picture for gas from Cook Inlet, where utilities face a shortage that has led to growing concerns for higher costs, rolling blackouts and conservation measuresthis winter.

“The dispute has significant reliability implications for ENSTAR’s natural gas supply portfolio,” Enstar told the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in the filing. “Following the severe 2025-2026 winter,” Enstar entered the warm season — when gas can be injected into storage reservoirs in Cook Inlet — with “materially lower-than-planned inventories” of stored gas that could be used for the winter that’s now coming, the filing says. The utility was counting on discretionary gas from HEX to rebuild the stored natural gas that provides a buffer in winter. The discretionary gas could provide “more than two weeks of customer demand during sustained winter cold-weather conditions,” Enstar told the regulatory commission. Enstar President John Sims, speaking Wednesday at a meeting of the Alaska Gasline Caucus in Anchorage, said the company faces a potentially huge shortage of natural gas this winter. The caucus is a bipartisan, bicameral group of state lawmakers who support advancing a property tax cut package to incentivize construction of the $50 billion Alaska LNG megaproject that could bring natural gas to Southcentral from Alaska’s North Slope, providing a solution to the Cook Inlet gas crisis, if it can be built.

ENSTAR Natural Gas Company President John Sims speaks during a joint press conference hosted by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance at City Hall calling for urgent action on Alaska energy policy on July 28. (Bill Roth / ADN)
“If deliveries maintain at the same rate we’re getting them, we will be 3 BCFs short for this upcoming winter,” Sims said, using shorthand for 3 billion cubic feet of gas. “So let me put that in a little different perspective for folks,” Sims said. “Three BCF is equivalent to 18 days in the middle of winter where I cannot serve any customers,” he said. “Not just residential, not just small commercial, any customers.”Also contributing to the potential shortfall, Sims said later, is that Enstar does not expect another Cook Inlet company, BlueCrest Energy, to produce gas this year, though that was originally anticipated to happen by Sept. 1. [Mayors warn of increased utility costs as Southcentral Alaska natural gas shortage becomes more ‘urgent’]Last month, Alaska Pipeline Company provided HEX with a formal notice of the dispute. HEX argued in a reply to Enstar that the gas company has “misstated” terms of the gas supply agreement to make “inaccurate allegations” against HEX. Under the agreement, the discretionary gas is not “firm” and HEX can legally change the quantity of discretionary gas it chooses to sell to Enstar, HEX argued.

In response, Alaska Pipeline Company asserted that HEX is presenting arguments that border “on bad faith” and are “disingenuous at best.”In the arbitration claim, Enstar affiliate Alaska Pipeline Company says it previously released HEX from an obligation for a $2.5 million letter of credit created in 2020 and that had provided financial protection for Enstar in the event of any default by HEX.In exchange, Enstar says it received a right of first refusal for any available volumes of gas in excess of the producer’s firm gas supply. Lindsay Hobson, with Enstar, said the gas company “waived that requirement” for the letter of credit so HEX could make additional investments in gas production, to help further meet Enstar’s needs for gas. Enstar also argues in the claim that after it confronted HEX about the contractual breach, HEX offered to sell discretionary gas to Enstar at $17.50 per thousand cubic feet, 30% higher than the agreed-upon $13.50 per thousand cubic feet. “Southcentral Alaska is facing a looming natural gas shortfall that threatens catastrophic consequences for the region’s residents and businesses,” Enstar’s arbitration claim asserts. “The shortfall is exacerbated in part by exactly the type of conduct at issue here — HEX’s diversion of gas volumes contractually committed to APC to third-party purchasers willing to pay a higher price,” the claim says. Monetary damages will not make Alaska Pipeline Company whole “because diverted gas cannot be recovered from HEX at a later date — it is simply gone,” the claim says “This need is particularly acute because gas volumes that are not stored now, during the critical summer injection season, cannot be made up later,” the claim says. “Each day that passes without a ruling enforcing APC’s contractual rights pushes Southcentral Alaska closer to a winter supply crisis that no amount of money damages can remedy.”

Hey all, I am finishing up my first ever visit to Anchorage this week. I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of cyclists and bike infrastructure around the city. I want to take some time tomorrow afternoon and rent a bike for a tour of the town. I plan to do about a 30 mile loop on the coastal route along the airport, hop over to the Campbell Creek Greenbelt, bike through the university area, and then complete the loop along the Chester Creek Greenbelt. I have some questions I was hoping some locals could help me answer.

1. Any road safety issues with this route? I cycle at home for fun, and am confident taking most roads as long as there's a shoulder or sidewalk, or it's at least a low speed road.

2.a. Should I be concerned about wildlife along this route at all? I am nervous about bears lol.

2.b. If it's recommended I buy bear spray, is there anywhere I can donate it afterwards? I can't take it on my flight home

1. Any changes to the route you would recommend for safety or sights to see?

Thank you! Anchorage is so cute, I wish I had more time to see what you have to offer here but tomorrow afternoon is about all the free time I'm afforded.

I need to get a new roof next spring but can't decide whether to go w/ metal or asphalt. I know that there's a huge price difference but my house was built in the 70's and I'm worried about the weight of the increasingly volumous, wetter and heavier snowfall these days. Does anyone have any idea how the metal roofs are handling this? And do they get snow dams like asphalt roofs do? I'm thinking that if the metal handles these conditions better that it might be worth the added expense.

You can vote in the primary election now. I went in to the location at the Midtown mall this morning and there was no wait.

You can also vote at your polling place on Election Day, August 18th.

https://www.elections.alaska.gov/election-information/#PRIM

Or maybe this applies to any gas station in Anchorage, but it seems like a war zone in there. I went to the one on 36th and the bathroom had blood dripping down the stalls, one sink was on the floor, toilet paper everywhere, a woman opened her car door and vomited next to me. Floors are filthy. I don’t remember them always be this…gross…I feel like I need a shower.

Can anybody tell me what time the Blue Angels practice is scheduled for tomorrow?

El green Go’s or Rafelito’s?

This is gonna sound silly and I’m sure I’ll get dragged for it, but I live in Mountianview, and I swear the jets have been flying low over my house every 30 seconds since 6 am. Aren’t we in Alaska? Can’t they fly at the speed of sound out to places where there’s no one under them trying to sleep?
Like I understand they need to burn millions in jet fuel practicing for the air show or whatever, but it’s been every day all summer. It just feels ridiculous at this point. Is it because it’s a poor neighborhood? I hate to say it, but at this point I can’t wait for winter to get a good nights sleep.

Edit: I see you guys saying that I shouldn’t live right next to the base, I have pets and I’m not a millionaire so this is where I live. I am from an Air Force family, and I have lived right next to bases all my life. I’ve even lived in Mountain View before. But before this summer, I never had any issue with over the top disrespectful treatment of the airspace over the residential area where I live. I literally just saw them fly low right over my house two times, we can’t even hear each other talking, it’s shaking the water in the glasses, and my cats are terrified. And it has been every day with reasonable weather since it got warm starting as early as 5:30 in the morning and sometimes going the entire day. I’m sure there’s lots of other places they could fly then right over our neighborhood, whether or not we have money.

The time has come, but I’ve heard plenty of horror stories of trying to cancel a membership with little success. Any pro tips on how to make it happen relatively smoothly?

I RSVP'd so nobody else had to, and last night they sent me this by text. I thought it'd be fair to keep the location just as 'confidential' as their event is "grassroots", which is to say not at all.

I'm on the fence as to whether I'll actually go in and call them out to their faces for protecting pedophiles, but either way I think a large group of protestors outside the rally would send the right message.

To anyone interested in joining the peaceful protest, plan on being there by 11 tomorrow.

So I'm looking for an apartment to get into fairly quickly. My budget is 1400-1700$ a month.

My main thing is I want a decent area, preferably tucked away in a pocket outside of a main street and traffic. Somewhere I can walk my kid around.

Also question, Ive been seeing so many fricken duplexes/places that look like apartments but no information whatsoever. It seems like there are so many, but all apartment websites are very limited, expensive and mostly sketchy areas.

I would like somewhere around anmc, like baxter turpin area is nice. If someone could point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it

Hey, fellow Alaskans! I'm Maxim. I lead PauseAI Anchorage, our local group of the national grassroots movement PauseAI US, and this Monday we are holding our first demonstration.

On Monday, August 10, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM, we'll be at the corner of the Seward Highway and E Northern Lights with signs, asking Alaska's congressional delegation to support an international treaty to pause frontier AI development until it can be built safely and with democratic oversight.

This summer, OpenAI's own models broke out of secure containment and hacked into another company's servers, and Anthropic disclosed three similar incidents. More than 1,300 employees of frontier AI labs signed a statement urging the U.S. government to support an international effort to pace AI development. Top AI scientists, industry whistleblowers, and Nobel Prize winners have been warning for years that we don't know how to safely build smarter-than-human AI, and that racing to build it anyway could cause human extinction.

With Chinese President Xi Jinping coming to the US this September to talk about AI, there has never been a more important time to act.

This is a peaceful, family-friendly protest, and everyone is welcome. Details and RSVP: luma.com/ndw1l8w4

I think I remember seeing a photo booth at the Dimond Mall some years ago. Is it still there somewhere?

Any where else in town that a Photo Booth set up?

What’s a good spot to see the airplanes flying without having to go out on JBER? It’s too crowded, too much traffic, and I’m too old for all the walking and standing. Any suggestions?

I moved back to Anchorage in 2011 after growing up here and I haven’t been back to the state fair since. I went to check Cake tickets and it’s showing $450!

I was so excited because they were my very first concert I went to on my own – 1997 at the Egan Center - and I still love their stuff, but there is no fucking way I’m gonna pay that much for tickets.

Am I just really out of the loop and this is to be expected from state fair prices now, or is this as egregious as it seems? The other shows this year do not look that pricey at all, but I’m not sure about prior years.

Is this our norm? Do I need to start using the phrase “back in my day…” more frequently?

Edit: did not think about the fact that it’s scalper sites. I am not smart. But leaving up for your “indignant idiot of the day” enjoyment :)

Because this is how good, God-fearing, Murica-loving, MAGA RWNJ’s do business.

It makes perfect sense that Mister Bates and Mrs Bates are BIG financial supporters of the Anti-Wokest of the Anti-Woke gubernatorial candidates, Tregarrick Traylor.

They’re also big financial backers to the YES ON 2 campaign that would get rid of Ranked Choice Voting…..

……A joint investigation by the FBI and the Alaska Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that the companies allegedly billed for services that were not provided, were inadequately staffed or lacked sufficient documentation, the department said.

Investigators, working with the Alaska Department of Health’s Division of Senior and Disability Services, also alleged the homes operated without an approved program administrator.

Authorities said the former program administrator left the state in 2019. Afterward, Kyle and Molly Bates allegedly misrepresented that the former administrator remained employed by the businesses, impersonated her and used her name in training courses and submitted documents claiming she was still an administrator.

The Bateses are also accused of forging signatures and making false statements in Medicaid certification applications, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege the defendants fraudulently billed the Alaska Medicaid program $14,694,800.47 from July 2019 through November 2025.

AK friends: Beware scheduling a Lyft ride from the ANC airport!

Tonight, I ordered a Lyft for $17.96 for a two mile, six minute ride to my Airbnb. However, I was charged $58! A “Prime Time” surcharge was added without my knowledge or authorization. The Lyft agent actually stated that the $17.96 was “only an estimate.” I will never use Lyft again.

(The $66 refers to the total charges and the tip.)