For Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the One Big Beautiful Bill is a hot potato she just tossed to the House. Now, she has called on House Republicans to send the “One Big Beautiful Bill” back to the Senate for further refinement because it’s not ready. This, even though Murkowski cast one of the decisive votes in favor of the sweeping Trump budget and priorities package.
“My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” Murkowski told reporters Tuesday, after the Senate passed the bill in dramatic fashion, ending a 28-hour vote-a-rama.
The legislation narrowly cleared the Senate with Murkowski emerging as a pivotal holdout whose support tipped the balance to a 50-50 split. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Murkowski’s decision came after last-minute negotiations secured her a provision doubling grant funding to rural hospitals, which will pour money into rural Alaska.
But despite helping pass the bill, Murkowski now says the package still needs work and is urging her colleagues in the House to reject it in its current form and send it back.
Adding to the political firestorm, former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola weighed in on social media Tuesday, posting a sharp critique of her “former colleagues,” accusing them of being bought by billionaires. Though Peltola didn’t name names, her post was widely interpreted as a jab at both Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s two sitting senators.
The irony wasn’t lost on political observers: Peltola’s own 2024 congressional campaigns was among the most well-funded in Alaska history, with millions in support from out-of-state donors and progressive PACs. Despite the backing of billionaires like Reid Hoffman, Michael Bloomberg, and Dustin Moskovitz, she lost her re-election bid in 2024 to Republican Nick Begich III. Adding to the irony is that Murkowski was a supporter of Peltola when she first ran for office, and Murkowski opposed Begich. Her support was more private in 2024, but still detectable. Now, Peltola has tuned on her.
The Bureau of Land Management’s Fairbanks District Office has issued an emergency order restricting open fires, fireworks, and explosives on BLM-managed lands throughout the district, excluding areas north of Wiseman, Alaska. The restrictions go into effect at midnight, July 1, and will remain in place until further notice.
The move comes as Interior Alaska experiences hot, dry, and windy weather that has created explosive fire conditions. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning, citing a high potential for rapid fire growth across central and eastern regions of the Interior.
“With over 190 active wildfires burning statewide, and Alaska at Preparedness Level 4—the highest priority level in the nation—these restrictions are necessary to prevent additional human-caused fires,” the BLM stated. Nearly 1,500 firefighters are currently deployed across the state to protect communities, infrastructure, and natural resources.
The order prohibits:
Open campfires (except in designated sites)
Use of fireworks
Use of explosives, including exploding targets
Campfires within established rings are still permitted at select BLM-managed campgrounds, including:
White Mountains National Recreation Area: Mt. Prindle, Ophir Creek, and Cripple Creek
Fortymile Region: West Fork, Walker Fork, and Eagle
Dalton Highway Corridor: Arctic Circle, Five Mile, Marion Creek, and Galbraith Lake
Use of gas stoves, propane grills, or charcoal in fire-proof containers are also allowed across all BLM Fairbanks District public lands.
Officials urge travelers in fire-prone areas to be cautious and follow these guidelines:
Be alert for firefighting crews and equipment along roadways
Reduce speed in smoky areas
Turn on headlights to improve visibility
To report a wildfire in Alaska, call 1-800-237-3633 or 911.
Many Alaskans were recently spammed with texts that appeared to have been sent from the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles. The messages warned of impending penalties for alleged violations and looked, at first glance, like official notifications.
But a closer look revealed that these were just another example of the phishing attacks that have become increasingly common nationwide.
In a statement, the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities warned that these scams are getting more sophisticated and aggressive.
“Scammers are constantly adapting their tactics,” the DOT&PF said. The agency also encouraged Alaskans “to remain skeptical of any unsolicited text messages involving money, especially those appearing to come from government agencies.”
These messages often include links or request an immediate reply, which can funnel victims into surrendering personal information. Recipients, in this case, were threatened with what appeared to be imminent fines for speeding violations.
“ALASKA Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Final Notices: Enforcement Penalties Begin on June 20. Our records show that as of today, you have an outstanding traffic ticket,” the texts read. To add a layer of officialdom, the messages referenced a non-existent section of “Alaska Administrative Code.”
According to sources, phishing scams rose globally by nearly 60 percent from 2022 to 2023. That explosion has been fueled by the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which provides scammers with new methods of targeting victims, like voice phishing and deepfake phishing.
AI tools now allow people to clone the voices of politicians, celebrities, loved ones—or even your own—and use them to confuse and deceive their targets.
Major data breaches have also contributed to the growth of these attacks and their enhanced threat profile.
Earlier this year, it came to light that a dataset containing 16 billion user credentials had been circulating online. The massive tranche consisted of both previously leaked and newly compromised login information, which has enabled even more aggressive forms of scamming. Some victims will only become aware that their data has fallen into an attacker’s hands when they receive one-time codes and password reset requests.
Attackers often target the elderly, who are less tech-savvy. In 2023, scammers stole approximately$3.4 billion from older U.S. adults—a 14 percent increase over the previous year. The psychological toll incurred by succumbing to these scams can be profoundly unsettling, triggering bouts of depression and, at worst, suicidal ideation.
People can take proactive steps to protect themselves, like implementing two-factor authentication. But beyond that, Americans are wading into uncharted waters of a strange new era of AI-fueled scams.
The University of Pennsylvania has reached a resolution agreement with the US Department of Education to address Title IX violations stemming from the school having allowed male swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation on the women’s swim team during the 2021–2022 NCAA season.
The agreement comes after a months-long investigation that found UPenn failed to protect the rights of its female athletes under federal law. The university will also issue a formal apology.
“Today’s agreement marks a long-overdue victory for fairness in women’s collegiate sports. By restoring titles to biological female athletes and implementing clear, biology-based eligibility standards, the Department of Education and UPenn have taken a vital step to protect the integrity of women’s athletics under Title IX,” said Alaska Rep. Jamie Allard, who has championed legislation to protect girls and women athletes in Alaska.
The Department of Education concluded that UPenn’s decision to allow Thomas, a man who had who previously competed on the university’s men’s team but who had taken female hormones as part of a transgender transition, to participate in women’s collegiate swimming events constituted a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.
As part of the resolution, UPenn will also ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports teams and will adopt biology-based definitions of male and female for athletic eligibility.
The agreement also mandates the university to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to the biological female athletes who were displaced by Thomas during the 2021–2022 season. This move effectively vacates Thomas’s wins and reassigns them to the runners-up.
“Great news! Lia Thomas won’t be able to compete in women’s category at the Olympics or any other elite competition. He has just lost his legal battle in Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling. This is a victory for women and girls everywhere!” wrote Riley Gaines, a former swimming competitor who was bested by Thomas in competition.
UPenn is required by the settlement to issue formal letters of apology to each affected female athlete. The letters will acknowledge that their athletic experiences were negatively impacted by the university’s prior policies, which the Department of Education found to be discriminatory under Title IX.
The controversy surrounding Thomas began when he became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship in 2022. His participation drew national attention and sparked a backlash from several of his former teammates and other collegiate athletes, including Gaines, Paula Scanlan, Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist. These athletes raised concerns about competitive fairness and privacy in shared locker rooms.
The resolution follows a February 2025 investigation triggered by legal complaints from former swimmers, as well as a broader review of UPenn’s compliance with federal civil rights law.
In March, shortly after Donald Trump became president again, his administration escalated pressure his alma mater by pausing $175 million in federal funding, a move that reportedly accelerated UPenn’s negotiations with federal officials.
The lawsuits filed by several former athletes remain ongoing. These cases seek additional remedies, including the formal revocation of awards granted to Thomas and broader accountability from the NCAA and the Ivy League.
This resolution represents one of the most significant federal interventions to date regarding transgender participation in collegiate sports and is being hailed by women’s advocacy groups as a major victory for women’s athletic rights.
The Trump Administration has officially ended the US Agency for International Development’s role in implementing foreign assistance, marking the most sweeping restructuring of American foreign aid in decades.
As of July 1, all foreign aid programs will now be managed directly by the US Department of State under a newly restructured model aimed at aligning international assistance with America’s strategic and economic interests.
“The era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has come to an end,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “From now on, American aid will promote American priorities.”
USAID had decades and seemingly unlimited taxpayer money to advance American influence, promote economic development worldwide, and allow billions to stand on their own two feet. But beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War, Rubio wrote. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown.
The administration’s decision follows a review of more than $715 billion in inflation-adjusted foreign aid spending since the end of the Cold War. According to the review, USAID’s programs frequently failed to achieve development goals, while US favorability measurably declined in key regions that received substantial funding.
For example, sub-Saharan African nations, despite receiving $165 billion in US assistance since 1991, voted with America at the United Nations only 29% of the time in 2023, the lowest rate of any region.
In the Middle East and North Africa, $89 billion in aid has produced lower favorability ratings for the U.S. than for China in all but one country.
Under the new model, the administration is replacing what it calls a “charity-based” foreign aid philosophy with a system based on trade, investment, and strategic partnership. Future assistance will be time-limited, results-driven, and focused on countries that demonstrate both the ability and willingness to build sustainable, independent economies.
Another major change will be symbolic but strategic: All aid will now be clearly branded with the American flag. No more anonymous non-governmental organizations will be used to pass through money from US taxpayers.
“Recipients deserve to know that the assistance they receive is not a handout from an unknown organization—it’s an investment from the American people,” Secretary Rubio said.
The administration also emphasized its intent to counter China’s influence in the developing world by offering an alternative to Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy and state-centered aid model.
The State Department says it is already making progress by streamlining appropriations, cutting red tape, and empowering diplomats on the ground with real-time authority and feedback systems. Aid will now be delivered through regional bureaus, which are tasked with ensuring every dollar advances U.S. interests.
The administration also announced it is pushing international partners and allies, especially the United Nations and NATO members, to take on a greater share of funding for global development and security projects.
“For Americans and many around the world,” Secretary Rubio wrote on Tuesday, “July 1 marks the beginning of a new era of global partnership, peace, investment, and prosperity.”
On July 1, the LGBTQ+ flag is still flying at Anchorage City Hall, even though Pride Month ended June 30. It may become a permanent feature under the current leadership of the city.
Today is also Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s first anniversary as mayor. Last week she presided over the raising of the rainbow and transgender flag over Anchorage as a part of the Pride Month celebrations, where she made sure the municipality had a strong presence, paid for by taxpayers.
The 41 illegal immigrants who were briefly being housed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex have been relocated to prisons in the Lower 48.
Alaska took the inmates in to help relieve overcrowding in a Tacoma ICE facility. Earlier this month, six of the inmates were then relocated, and the final 35 inmates left on Monday.
Their stay in Alaska was part of a renegotiated agreement that the State of Alaska Department of Corrections has with ICE, under which illegal immigrants who are awaiting deportation processes can be housed in Alaska prisons when space is available.
The ACLU-Alaska, Socialists, and Democrats decried the move, and the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to expose the matter as a violation of human rights.
Local left-leaning media has insinuated that Department of Corrections released the inmates based on the pressure from the ACLU, but the housing of the inmates was always a temporary measure and their removal from Alaska was under the control of ICE and was part of standard operations to get illegal aliens out of the United States as quickly as possible.
Alaska’s K–12 education system is collapsing under the weight of a bloated, centralized bureaucracy. Per Bob Griffin’s “Why aren’t teachers more upset?” June 30, 2025, MRAK piece, despite spending nearly $3 billion annually, about 5% of the state’s GDP, Alaska ranks near the bottom nationally in academic performance.
How many times and over how many years have writers at Must Read Alaska sounded the alarm? We have all diligently exposed the truth that Alaska’s education system is collapsing, not because of a lack of funding, but because it’s become a taxpayer-funded money tree for special interests instead of a pathway to student success. And yet, despite these warnings, how many Alaskans have looked the other way, stayed silent, or failed to act? The real shame isn’t just in the system’s failure.
It’s our collective complacency that allowed it to happen.
Griffin adroitly points out, in the 2023–24 school year, only 19.6% of K–12 education expenditures went to classroom teachers, according to the National Education Association. That means over 80% of the state’s education budget was diverted to non-instructional spending, including administration, facilities, and bureaucracy.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposal for direct teacher bonuses rightly targeted this imbalance, acknowledging that the current system shortchanges educators while rewarding inefficiency.
The Alaska Education Reform and Local Control Act (see MRAK, February 21, 2025, “Alaska Education Freedom and Local Control Act Would Establish Parent Education Accounts And More”) offers a twofold solution: massive cost savings and improved academic outcomes. The numbers are revealing. Alaska spent $576 million to pay 7,315 teachers in 2023–24, while total K–12 spending reached $2.93 billion. A reasonable administrative and managerial expense for Alaska’s K–12 system should be no more than $234 million per year. Anything significantly higher is a sign of bureaucratic bloat and misplaced priorities.
The remaining funds did not enhance education. They sustained an administrative empire.
Just like the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, all 54 school district boards, and NEA-Alaska, none of these institutions teach a single child. Instead, they operate as part of a massive government money redistribution scheme. A scheme that the Alaskan public has largely been misled into supporting, driven by the loudest and most politically entrenched voices in the room.
Per-student spending nearly doubled between 2004 and 2024, from $11,432 to $22,747, yet teacher salaries only increased 51.3%, lagging the 59.7% rate of inflation. The financial discrepancy is not only unsustainable, but also morally bankrupt.
Is anyone listening to the warnings from Bob Griffin, Kevin McCabe, Suzanne Downing, David Boyle, and others? Alaska’s education system is not just failing; it is intellectually and financially bankrupt. The crisis is real, and without bold reform, we are condemning another generation of children to a future of dependency and decline.
Compounding the problem is Alaska’s underutilization of facilities. The Anchorage School District (ASD) projects only 12,000 K–5 students by 2029, despite maintaining capacity for 25,000. Yet instead of consolidating space, ASD is spending $50 million to expand Inlet View Elementary, while other half-empty campuses suffer from over $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Compare this to Winterberry Charter School, which built its entire facility for just $3.5 million. The contrast is clear: community-driven schools deliver results at a fraction of the cost.
This stark difference in outcomes is no accident. As Bob Griffin highlights, Alaska’s charter and correspondence schools educate more students with fewer staff and at significantly lower costs. These schools average 110 students per teacher. This frees up traditional schools to operate at an extremely low 13.5 student-to-teacher ratio. Yet instead of learning from this efficiency, Alaska’s education system continues to sink billions into buildings and bureaucracy, sidelining the very students and teachers it claims to serve.
The Alaska Education Reform and Local Control Act proposes a structural reset that puts students and communities, not bureaucracies, at the center of education. In 2023–24, Alaska spent $576 million on teachers, just a fraction of the $2.93 billion total K–12 budget. Administrative and managerial costs alone accounted for an estimated $234 million. By cutting just 10% of overall non-instructional spending, including waste in bloated district offices and underutilized facilities, the state could free up nearly $300 million per year. That’s money that could go directly into teacher pay, student programs, or back into the pockets of Alaskans through tax relief. In real terms, this isn’t just a reform, it’s a recovery of misused public funds for the benefit of children, educators, and taxpayers.
Importantly, the Act is also grounded in strong legal precedent. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot exclude religious schools from publicly funded education programs. This decision, alongside Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (2017) and Carson v. Makin (2022), reaffirms that education funding must follow students regardless of whether they choose secular or religious institutions. These decisions strengthen the constitutional foundation of the Alaska Education Reform and Local Control Act and support policies that prioritize parental choice and student needs over bureaucratic preservation.
Governor Dunleavy’s direct bonus plan for teachers was a step in the right direction, recognizing that educators are the cornerstone of student success. But more than one-time bonuses are needed. We must overhaul the way Alaska delivers education. With targeted reinvestment into teachers and streamlined, community-focused governance, we can improve Alaska’s bottom-five national rankings in math, reading, and graduation rates.
This is more than an efficiency issue, it’s a moral one. Alaska’s education system, as currently designed, dooms too many of its children to lives of dependency, poverty, and disillusionment. It fails to prepare them for the economic and civic responsibilities of adulthood. It traps families in a cycle of low expectations and limited opportunity.
If we do nothing, we condemn another generation to academic failure and economic dependence. But if we act to support and pass the Alaska Education Reform and Local Control Act, we will save our children, restore purpose to public education, and reclaim a future of independence, prosperity, and dignity.
This is not just a conservative proposal. It is a necessary revolution. For the sake of Alaska’s children, teachers, and taxpayers, it’s time to stop funding failure and start funding the future.
In the end, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill, a budget and priorities package crafted by Republicans. Vice President JD Vance had to cast the tie-breaking vote. All Democrats voted against the bill, along with Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine.
Lasting about 28 hours, it was the longest vote-a-rama in Senate history. The bill, being a reconciliation bill, only required a simple majority.
The bill contains the largest tax cut for middle-class and working-class families. There will be no tax on tips or overtime hours worked. There’s a massive investment in border security and removing illegal criminal aliens.
The bill extends the Trump tax cuts from his first administration, doubles the child tax credit to $2,000 from $1,000, doubles the standard deduction, creates the 20% small business deduction, and doubles the death tax exemption.
“The Senate’s passage of HR1 marks a turning point for energy independence and Alaskan prosperity. By streamlining permitting and unlocking access to our vast oil, gas, and critical mineral reserves, this bill gives Alaska the tools to power America while creating high-paying jobs for our communities. It’s a win for national security, a win for our state’s economy, and a win for every family struggling with high energy costs,” said Brett Huber, of Power the Future.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) sent a statement of support:
“The Senate’s vote to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included provisions that will restore the opportunity to have local control and self-determination in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). The reconciliation bill offers opportunities to strengthen our economy, invest in our communities, and uphold our Indigenous culture. Today’s development reaffirms that Alaska’s North Slope – which the North Slope Iñupiat have stewarded for thousands of years – is vital to our nation. Going forward, it is imperative that federal and congressional decisionmakers engage regularly and often with our regional and local elected leaders to ensure that our Indigenous perspective is included in the policymaking process. Through cooperation, we can drive forward lasting progress for America and the North Slope Iñupiat.”
Reportedly, Murkowski won concessions for rural hospitals, doubling the amount from $25 billion to $50 billion.
The bill must return to the House of Representatives for a final agreement on changes made in the Senate.
President Trump, in advance of the final votes, wrote that the OBBB, as it is known, “gives the largest Tax Cuts and Border Security ever, Jobs by the Millions, Military/Vets increases, and so much more,” and warned that failure to pass the bill would result in a “whopping 68% Tax increase, the largest in history!!!”
Before the bill passed, Sen. Chuck Schumer was successful in a motion to remove the name “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” from the bill’s title.
