Looking Back — June 26, 2025

10 YEARS AGO

June 26, 2015 — juneau — More than 16,000 Alaskans w ill be able to keep federal subsidies to help cover health insurance premium costs following a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The high court Thursday upheld the subsidies underpinning the federal health care law.

Gov. Bill Walker said he was pleased so many people could continue receiving health care.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the ruling simply means Alaskans who followed the law won't be punished for its shortcomings.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he's committed to repealing the health care law and replacing it with "patient-centered reforms."

Walker also said it's important to continue work toward Medicaid expansion so more Alaskans can receive coverage.

A spokeswoman said Walker is weighing his options on expansion, which the legislature held off on, citing a need for further review.

25 YEARS AGO

June 26, 2000 — WASHINGTON—High oil prices, reflected in heating bills last winter and now at gasoline pumps, suddenly are a major factor in the presidential campaign. But it is unclear which candidate might get burned — former oilman and industry benefactor Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore, whose administration is in control of energy policy.

If the price of a barrel of oil continues to top $30 into the fall, both may be vulnerable, especially in battleground states such as Illinois and Michigan that could decide the election and where $2-a-gallon gasoline already is causing an uproar, political strategists said.

"It's political dynamite," says Patrick Quinn, a Democrat and former Illinois state treasurer.

And high prices could persist beyond the summer driving season, energy experts said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed last week to boost production by 708,000 barrels a day, but industry analysts said that would do little to help U.S. drivers.

50 YEARS AGO

June 26, 1975 — WASHINGTON — President Ford asked Congress today to permit and encourage private industry to end a government monopoly by producing and selling billions of dollars worth of enriched uranium to nuclear power plants around the world.

Ford outlined his proposal at an early-morning Cabinet-room meeting with members of the Senate-House Committee on Atomic Energy before submitting a special message on the matter to Congress.

Government officials said key features of the plan include:

A federal guarantee of up to S8 billion lo cover losses if private firms found, through no fault of their own, that they were unable to build and economically operate new plants to produce enriched uranium, a type of fuel suited for power plants but not for weapons.

Private firms would expect to raise 50 to 60 per cent of the financing needed to build the plants from foreign sources, but control would rest with American interests. Among countries described by officials as interested in putting up the money were Iran, Japan, and West Germany.

75 YEARS AGO

June 26, 1950 — Seattle — The speedboat "Slo-Mo-Shun IV" today roared 160.3235 miles per hour over the measured mile on glass-smooth Lake Washington to crack the world's hydroplane record.

Owner-pilot Stanley S. Sayres piloted the 1,500 horsepower Slo-Mo-Shun to the new record on the first attempt.

The Slo-Mo-Shun cracked the old record of 141.74 miles per hour set in 1939 by Sir Malcolm Campbell on Lake Coneston, England.

Sayres also cracked two other records — the American record of 138.60 miles per hour set in 1949 in Picton, Ont., By Harold Wilson in the boat "Miss Canada IV," and the United States record of 127.063 miles per hour set on Aug. 20, 1949, by Dan Arena at Gull Lake, Mich., in the boat "Such Crust."

100 YEARS AGO

June 26, 1925 — Fairbanks Daily News-Miner digital file unavailable.