JUNEAU — Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty is pushing back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after it took a step that could ultimately lead it to prohibit or restrict development of a massive gold-and-copper prospect in the Bristol Bay region.

The EPA announced Friday that it was exercising a rarely used authority under the Clean Water Act to protect the region’s world-premiere sockeye salmon fishery from large-scale mining.

JUNEAU — U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said Monday that Alaskans should never amend the state constitution as a “fix” for education.

Proposed constitutional amendments pending before state lawmakers would allow for public money to be used for private or religious schools. Supporters see this as a way to allow for more choice in where parents send their kids, but critics fear it could siphon needed money from public education. Republican Gov. Sean Parnell has called on state lawmakers to debate the proposal and send it to voters to decide.

JUNEAU — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is taking the first steps toward restricting or even prohibiting development of a massive gold-and-copper prospect near the headwaters of a premier sockeye salmon fishery in southwest Alaska — though no final decision has been made.

While the rarely used EPA process is underway, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot approve a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine project.

JUNEAU — A divided House Finance Committee advanced an abortion funding bill Thursday over concerns that it did not address expanded family planning services and chipped away at a woman’s access to an abortion.

The vote was 6-5. Republican Reps. Mia Costello, Cathy Munoz, Mark Neuman, Steve Thompson, Tammie Wilson and Bill Stoltze voted in favor; Democratic Reps. Les Gara, David Guttenberg and Bryce Edgmon, and Republican Reps. Lindsey Holmes and Alan Austerman voted against.