Congress approved an $886 billion defense bill Thursday and sent it to President Biden for his signature. The measure calls for more than $200 million in funding for construction projects at Alaska military installations, and a pay raise for service members.

Military leaders are encouraging Alaska service members to fill out a survey that’ll show how a recent cut in overseas cost-of-living allowances has reduced their purchasing power, especially for costly winter gear like parkas and snow tires.

Explosives experts from Eielson Air Force Base detonated nearly a hundred containers of old TNT discovered recently near Tok. The experts believe the explosives were used by crews building the Alaska Highway some 80 years ago.

The Army Corps of Engineers is looking at the feasibility of burying non-radioactive materials removed from Fort Greely’s old nuclear power plant at the Delta Junction landfill. The review is part of the final phase of preparation for dismantling the plant that was shut down 50 years ago.

The Army’s Eleventh Airborne Division released the names of the two Fort Wainwright-based soldiers killed Monday when their truck wrecked in the Yukon Training Area near Salcha, south of Fairbanks.

Federal officials have selected a contractor to install and operate a small self-contained nuclear power plant at Eielson Air Force Base. The contract is subject to clearing regulatory hurdles, but if all goes according to plan, the microreactor will be up and running within five years.

The decommissioning of an old nuclear power plant at Fort Greely can move forward now that the federal agency overseeing the project has resolved a contract dispute that delayed work for more than a year.

Eielson Air Force Base will present its biennial airshow this weekend. And besides the usual attractions, the 2023 Arctic Lightning Airshow also will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. military expanding the role of women in military aviation.

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan says Chinese nationals posing as tourists drove through Fort Wainwright’s main gate and onto the post before being stopped by security personnel. Sullivan said that and other incidents in recent years show that both China and Russia are trying to collect information on Alaska military installations and operations

Fairbanks police urged residents and businesses in an area near Pioneer Park to evacuate Thursday morning after a worker at a nearby substance-abuse rehab facility found what appeared to be a bomb. The evacuation was later called-off after experts determined the object was fake.