And now for a brief intermission

Gone relaxin'.

Good evening, Alaska!

The Alaska Redistricting Board “concluded” its work on Wednesday, marking the latest intermission between court visits in the state’s reapportionment process. It’s been largely exhausting—even for the wonkiest of wonks—as the process long ago veered off the policy rails and crashed into the realm of acrimonious partisanship that leaves everything feeling grimy. This next week in the process, which will probably contain a status hearing of some sort and briefings about when briefings will be due, coincidentally and mercifully lines up with some long-planned time off for me.

Barring something really unusual happening—which feels like I’m already jinxing things—I’ll be back at things in earnest on April 25. Until then, I’ll be getting outside, eating some good things and catching up on everything there is to catch up on.

That said, I’m also extremely excited to announce that I’m working with freelance writer Shannon Cole to start covering the Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage politics in a more focused fashion! She hit the ground running this week with excellent coverage of the Anchorage Assembly meeting and her writing will be appearing here and on the blog before too long. I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to work regularly with Shannon, which is something your support for this newsletter has made possible.

Thank you.

Take care and don’t feel like you have to save any slush for me,

Matt

Oh! And this is really nice.

It features former KTOO editor Rashah McChesney, who’s onto big things, who got to record this piece at the station during Juneau’s Folk Festival with “with some of my favorite Juneau ladies in a love letter to the South.”