Tribal health organizations played a significant role in Alaska’s overall vaccine rollout, sharing doses with outside communities and in some cases expanding eligibility faster than the state.
The court is considering whether Gov. Mike Dunleavy improperly kept in place appointments to boards, commissions and his Cabinet after lawmakers failed to meet to consider the appointments.
Tshibaka, a Republican who has led the Department of Administration since early 2019, in a statement said she is resigning to pursue the Senate race.
With the summer tourism and fishing seasons looming, officials are weighing whether to offer a one-dose shot at the airports in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and Ketchikan.
There was finger-pointing over why things played out as they did with the state’s emergency disaster declarations, the last of which expired in mid-February.
One site opened briefly in Ketchikan in October, near the start of a statewide COVID-19 surge that an owner said forced it to hit pause. The other, in Fairbanks, hopes to open later this year.
The hearing is would come more than a month after Dunleavy said his administration would no longer participate in hearings led by Sen. Lora Reinbold.
Attorney General Treg Taylor said he would reach out to the Legislature’s attorneys to see if there are ways to come together on major issues. Taylor’s appointment is subject to legislative approval.
Officials partially cited the volume of vaccine coming into Alaska and said they wanted to get as many shots into arms as possible.
The Alaska House rebuked comments that Rep. Zack Fields made about a female colleague’s physical appearance during what was supposed to be a birthday tribute to her last month.
A spokesman said Gov. Dunleavy “will not be retracting his letter” to Reinbold.
If the people of Alaska decide that “because I did not support my party that I can no longer serve them in the United States Senate, then so be it,” Murkowski told reporters during a visit to the state Capitol.
