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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 6.6 magnitude earthquake has rocked buildings in Anchorage and caused lamp posts and trees to sway, prompting people to run out of offices and seek shelter under office desks. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake Friday morning was centered about 7 miles (12 kilometers) north of Alaska's largest city.

The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote. The fate of Farr's nomination was held in suspense even going into the start of the vote on Wednesday afternoon. Four Republicans were viewed as potential swing votes: Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). But Collins...

JUNEAU, Alaska — It's a sign that every vote does count. A single mystery ballot found on a precinct table on Election Day but not counted then could decide a tied Alaska state House race and thwart Republican efforts to control the chamber and all of state government. The ballot arrived in Juneau last Friday in a secrecy sleeve in a bin with other ballot materials. Officials were investigating its origins and handling before deciding whether to tally it. "People kept calling it close," Democrat candidate Kathryn Dodge said of the race for the House seat in Fairbanks. "I just...

Newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are trading barbs on Twitter. “Now that’s *TWO* fallen GOP Vice Pres candidates going after a freshman Congresswoman that’s not even sworn in yet,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Isn’t it a little early to be bringing out the big guns? Especially when they look like the FWD:RE:FWD:WATCH THIS grandpa emails from the ‘08 election they lost.” The spat began after Palin, running mate to Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008, tweeted on Monday: “YIKES: Ocasio-Cortez Fumbles Basic Civics TWICE In 1 Statement.”

FULL TITLE: Alaska voters make history by rejecting judge who approved no jail time for man who 'choked, kidnapped and masturbated on a woman' In an unprecedented move, Alaska voters have ousted a judge who signed off on a controversial plea deal that let a man serve only one year of home confinement for choking and masturbating on an Alaska Native woman. Voters on Tuesday opted to not retain Superior Court Judge Michael Corey, who oversaw the assault sentencing of 34-year-old Justin Schneider. Schneider in September pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. With credit for time...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted "Saturday Night Live" creator and producer Lorne Michaels after a comic on the show made fun of a Texas GOP congressional candidate who lost an eye serving in Afghanistan.Comedian Pete Davidson joked about retired Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw's eye patch, saying he looks like a pirate in a pornographic film.Davidson, 24, giggled afterwards, saying, "Sorry. I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever." Read Full Article While Crenshaw said Monday on "Fox & Friends" that he would not demand an apology from Davidson or the show, Palin fired back at Michaels on...

A battered women's shelter in Anchorage, Alaska, is being investigated because it didn't allow a drunk man to sleep in the same room as women. A battered women’s shelter in Anchorage, Alaska, is being investigated by the city’s Equal Rights Commission because it didn’t allow a drunk man, who came to the shelter after hours and was bleeding from an injury, to sleep in the same room as women. Attorneys speaking on behalf of the Downtown Hope Center have repeatedly stated this man, who identifies as a woman, was not turned away because of his gender, but was sent to...

The Trump administration approved a company’s plan Wednesday to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, the first time oil would be produced from federal waters in the Arctic. The approval from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is conditional, and Hilcorp Energy Co. would still have to get other federal permits and abide by standards like restricting drilling seasons. “Working with Alaska Native stakeholders, the Department of Interior is following through on President Trump’s promise of American energy dominance,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “American energy dominance is good for...

Election nerds like numbers. They love charts, spreadsheets, tabs, data, and models. This is a numbers story for the election nerds in all of us, even the mathematically challenged. It’s about who asked for absentee ballots and who turned out to vote early, easy data points from which even Common Core math survivors can glean conclusions: The first day of early voting in 2014 saw 1,698 people turn out to cast their ballot at an early voting location. It was an exciting year with a U.S. Senate race that featured Dan Sullivan challenging Sen. Mark Begich. Alaska also had the...

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified "inappropriate comments" he made to a woman.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott (D) abruptly resigned Tuesday following the discovery of unspecified "inappropriate comments." "It is with profound disappointment and sadness that I accepted the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott," Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) said in a statement. "Byron recently made inappropriate comments that do not reflect the sterling level of behavior required in his role as Lieutenant Governor," Walker wrote. "I learned of the incident last night. Byron has taken full responsibility for his actions and has resigned."

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has stepped down after Gov. Bill Walker says he learned Mallott "made inappropriate comments that do not reflect the sterling level of behavior required in his role as Lieutenant Governor."

Fumbling away a chance to cement a solidly conservative majority on the Court for years due to pique over one of President Troll’s stinkier mouth-tweets would be very 2018.She’s bluffing, though.I think. Murkowski on Trump mocking Ford last night: "I thought the President's comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate, and in my view unacceptable. I am taking everything into account.” via @jeremyherb— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) October 3, 2018 Interestingly, Jeff Flake took the opposite approach. He won’t consider Trump’s comments when weighing whether to confirm Kavanaugh, he told CNN. “You can’t blame other people for what the...

AFTER A 50-YEAR siege, the great strategic fortress of liberalism has fallen. With the elevation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court seems secure for constitutionalism — perhaps for decades. The shrieks from the gallery of the Senate chamber as the vote came in last Saturday, and the sight of that bawling mob clawing at the doors of the Supreme Court as the new justice took his oath, confirm it. The Democratic Party has sustained a historic defeat. And the triumph is President Trump’s. To unite the party whose nomination he had won, Donald Trump pledged to select his high...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is brushing off questions about potential political retribution over her opposition to putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, which has earned her fierce criticism from President Trump and conservatives. "I took the vote that I took. And I'm good with it and I'm moving forward. I think we all need to be, so I'm not going to dwell on the 'what ifs,'" Murkowski told reporters in the Senate basement on Tuesday evening. Murkowski was the only Republican senator to oppose Kavanaugh's nomination, saying that she thought he was a "good man" but that she "could...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider. Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.

Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider.

Democrats are planning to force a vote in the Senate this week on overturning a Trump administration rule expanding non-ObamaCare insurance plans. The Democratic resolution, which will likely get a vote on Wednesday, would overturn a rule finalized in August that expanded the availability of short-term health insurance plans. Democrats decry the plans as “junk” insurance because they does not need to cover pre-existing conditions or follow other ObamaCare rules. Republicans argue the plans provide a cheaper option alongside ObamaCare plans. The resolution, which is supported by all 49 Senate Democrats, is unlikely to pass given that it would need...

President Trump revealed Saturday that he had asked Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R) to take time off to attend his daughter's wedding over the weekend, causing him to miss a confirmation vote for Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Supreme Court nominee. The president tweeted Saturday afternoon following Kavanaugh's successful confirmation in the Senate that he advised Daines to skip the vote once Republicans learned that they had the necessary number of votes to prevail. "I have asked Steve Daines, our great Republican Senator from Montana, to attend his daughter Annie’s wedding rather than coming to today’s vote," Trump wrote on Twitter shortly...

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins -- a key swing-vote whose dramatic floor speech on Friday assured Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court -- revealed on Sunday that she initially thought Kavanaugh "perhaps needed to withdraw" after she heard Christine Blasey Ford's "very compelling and painful" testimony. But then, Collins said, "When [Kavanaugh] came back with a forceful denial, the anger and anguish he showed, and then the lack of corroboration, led me back to the fundamental issues to our legal system." Both Ford and Kavanaugh testified at length in late September before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford alleged that...