The Alaska House of Representatives has issued messages honoring high school sports teams, Olympic gold medalists, farmers, anniversaries, and even notable animals.

In an unusual move on Friday, it declined to bestow honors on conservative political commentator Suzanne Downing.

In a 21-17 vote, the House tabled a citation from Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River that praised Downing.

Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, led the vote to turn down the citation.

“I have not objected to dozens of citations for people who had views strongly opposed to mine … I objected to this citation because there is a long record of outright dishonesty with this particular person, and it’s caustic in our discourse,” he said on the House floor.

When it became clear that there were enough votes to vote down the citation altogether, members who supported Downing asked that it be tabled out of courtesy.

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, was one of three members of the House’s Republican minority who voted for the tabling motion.

“I think that was the way to go, to not go down the road of rejecting a citation,” he said.

Downing, who has a background in journalism and Republican politics, founded the website Must Read Alaska in 2016 to spread conservative news and commentary, mostly in support of conservative members of the Alaska Republican Party.

In 2023, she sold the website to Jon Faulkner, a prominent Republican donor and owner of the Land’s End Resort in Homer.

Allard said in a text that Downing deserved the recognition.

“There’s an entire page in the U.S. Congressional Record dedicated to Suzanne Downing and her many extraordinary contributions to the state of Alaska,” Allard said. “She has obviously moved the needle, much to the irritation of a few Democrats. Zack Fields has been the target of some of her criticism over the years, and so naturally he is taking this quite personally. Sad!”

Legislators present on the House floor Friday said they couldn’t recall the last time the House failed to approve a citation for someone.

In 1994, as an April Fool’s Day joke, a lawmaker submitted a citation praising conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, entitled “Honoring Excellence in Broadcasting.”

Several House members, including multiple Democrats, cosponsored the citation before realizing it was about Limbaugh, then voted it down.

“I’d rather see his very ample butt flossed with barbed wire,” said then-Rep. Joe Sitton, D-Fairbanks, before voting against it.

After Limbaugh’s death, the House did eventually vote to honor him with a citation.

On Monday, Fields noted that he voted for that citation as well as another posthumous honor for conservative radio talk show host Dan Fagan.

“Someone who’s willfully and repeatedly dishonest, I just I’m not going to vote for that, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Legislature to commend them for being willfully dishonest,” he said.

While individual legislators have occasionally voted against particular citations, it is extraordinarily unusual for a legislative body to vote them down collectively, even when the person being honored has been convicted of crimes.

In 1994, legislators censured Sen. George Jacko for sexually harassing a legislative page. On Jacko’s last day in office, they passed a citation that praised Jacko for having “a great sense of humor as well as the esteem of his staff and colleagues.”

Former state Rep. Tom Anderson was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the VECO corruption scandal. Last year, after Anderson’s death, the Legislature unanimously passed a citation honoring his life.

Legislative citations have occasionally drawn ire, too.

In 2008, legislators issued a citation praising attorney Wayne Anthony Ross. The following year, they rejected Gov. Sarah Palin’s decision to name him attorney general, marking the first time the Legislature had ever turned down a cabinet appointment.

“The hypocrisy there is quite glaring. I believe they need to be called out on that,” Palin said at the time.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the number of minority House members who voted to table the citation.

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com.

A 2025 volcanic eruption at Mount Spurr near Anchorage is “likely” according to a new bulletin by the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The timing of the eruption and its size remain uncertain, the observatory said in a notice published Tuesday, and it’s also possible that there may be no eruption at all.

Spurr, whose summit is 75 miles west of Anchorage, is the closest active volcano to Alaska’s largest city.

The new bulletin follows one published last month that indicated 50-50 odds of an eruption. Since then, said coordinating scientist David Fee, two flights above the volcano have found high levels of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and other gases that indicate the presence of magma near the surface.

Sulfur dioxide levels during one flight last week were nine times higher than a similar flight in December, and data from the first March flight was preliminarily confirmed by another flight on Tuesday, prompting the new bulletin.

“There was basically nothing coming out before, and now there’s a lot of gas, particularly CO2 coming out, which usually, when we’ve seen this at volcanoes in Alaska and across the world, it means that eruption is getting more likely,” Fee said.

Since April 2024, observers have been tracking a growing number of earthquakes under and near the volcano. They’ve also watched the ground near the volcano bulge upward.

It’s similar to what the mountain did before its 1992 eruption, which closed area airports and caused Southcentral residents to stay inside to avoid ash.

If the mountain does erupt, the observatory advises that up to a quarter-inch of ash could fall on Southcentral Alaska. Under a microscope, volcanic ash often resembles small flakes of glass. Inhaling it can cause breathing problems. Air filters can become clogged, and flights may be postponed or canceled to avoid ash clouds.

An eruption will likely be preceded by weeks of escalating activity, including nonstop earthquakes and melted ice and snow atop the volcano. That’s kept scientists from raising their alert levels.

“If we were to see strong, sustained volcanic tremors, that would be kind of a telltale sign that we think an eruption is much closer. We have not seen that yet, and we’re looking very closely for any signs of it. There could be other signs as well,” Fee said.

Some observers have noted a steam plume from Spurr’s summit. That’s not a sign of imminent eruption, Fee said. Plumes can be created by atmospheric conditions just as much as volcanic ones.

In addition, an eruption is likely to come from Crater Peak, the source of Spurr’s 1954 and 1992 eruptions, rather than the summit of the volcano itself.

“The recent gas data suggest that a new pathway towards the Crater Peak vent has opened, and that fresh magma may rise and erupt there. Crater Peak is the site of all historical eruptions. The last known eruption from Spurr summit occurred several thousand years ago,” the new Alaska Volcano Obervatory bulletin states.

As the AVO monitors Spurr, the organization itself is suffering budgetary tremors caused by the Trump administration’s erratic firings and budget freezes.

The AVO is a cooperative effort between the state and federal government. In February, federal staff had their payment cards frozen, interrupting the telecom links that transmit data from the volcano.

“Most of those (issues) have been worked around at this time,” said Fee, a state employee.

“We haven’t had layoffs. What we have had are kind of some of the other impacts,” he said. “There’s also some concerns with the lease of the (AVO) building in Anchorage, but hopefully that will be resolved as well.”

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com.