DJ Summers

Journalist

Anchorage, AK

I work as a business and politics reporter for the Alaska Journal of Commerce, where I cover the commercial fishing industry, the commercial marijuana industry, healthcare, banking, and telecommunications. Prior to the Journal, my work has appeared in a variety of publications including the Salt Lake Tribune, Bleacher Report, Fortune, and the Guardian.

DJ Summers

Journalist

Anchorage, AK

Court rules no guns for medical marijuana cardholders
Alaska’s hunters and concealed carry holders can’t continue to pack iron if they hold a medical marijuana card, according to a recent court decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on a Nevada case on Aug. 31 that upholds previous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives order to gun sellers not to sell firearms to state medical marijuana cardholders.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Claims for expanded Medicaid group $30M over estimates in first year
Alaska’s new Medicaid enrollees are already costing more than what economists predicted they would in 2021. This matches a national trend. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently reported to Congress that Medicaid expansion enrollees cost $6,366 per person for fiscal year 2015 (ended last Sept. 30), about 49 percent higher than estimated.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
As sales near, cannabis industry still lacks unified voice
More than 300 licenses spread among a landmass the size of Mexico is causing some organizational problems for an industry without income or central leadership. Common theory in the Alaska cannabis industry says the industry needs more time to get onto the map than its sister states in the Lower 48.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Blood Bank CEO: export contract about inventory control, not financial gain
Editor’s note (Aug. 10, 2 p.m.): The Blood Bank of Alaska is disputing the description of O negative blood inventory provided by Karen Lakey of Alaska Regional Hospital in this story. The Blood Bank of Alaska chose not to refute Lakey’s statements on the record prior to publication, but after publication did provide information to the Journal indicating that hospitals around the state have been fully stocked with O negative blood since it entered an export contract on May 1.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Launch : Alaska aims to attract, keep startups in Anchorage
“Diversify the economy” is Alaska’s rallying cry as oil production and prices sink. First of its kind Alaska tech accelerator Launch : Alaska wants to put the idea into action with the hot-ticket item of booming Lower 48 metro areas. The program combines Anchorage municipal goals to draw more diverse businesses into the city with private investment.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Port State Measures targeting IUU fishing takes effect June 5
The international Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing will go into effect next month as one more step in curbing a worldwide network of fish piracy. The agreement only needs 25 countries to enter into force. It will go into effect on June 5.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
FDA: only Alaska pollock is 'Alaska pollock'
Alaska pollock is having a good 2016 so far, with boosted quotas, favorable certifications, and a federal rule that will give Alaska an edge over Russia. “I have long fought to resolve this issue, and I am thrilled that this change has been made to protect both our fisheries and consumers,” said Sen.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Building space scarce for Anchorage marijuana business
A proposed land use ordinance would restrict marijuana businesses to certain areas. Retail would be restricted to B-3 commercial zones, in deep red on the map. Cultivation and manufacturing would confined to industrial zones, in light gray on the map. Anything within the dotted lines would violate a proposed 1,000-foot buffer zone from schools and playgrounds.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Confluence of factors causing disconnect in salmon pricing
A load of sockeye salmon is unloaded at Naknek earlier this summer. Fishermen in Bristol Bay received just 50 cents per pound this year, but that hasn’t translated to lower prices at retail as a slew of factors have contributed to a large gap between what is paid at the docks and what customers pay at the store.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Fighting in the cyber trenches
Relations between the U.S. and China and Russia are tense, but no shot has been fired. Online, it’s a different story. For one unnamed American biomedical company, it took five years to bring a new product to market as it stuttered on the ideation assembly line. There was genesis, then research and development, then meticulous rounds of testing to refine what came before and meet regulatory scrutiny.
The portrayal of boxers in film: clever political parables or clichéd bores
After Grudge Match's genre baiting, we might need a year off to take boxing films seriously again. Hopefully after 2014's boxer-free film schedule we'll get back to the grit, poverty, powerlessness and pathos the screen fighter suffers on our account. The ubiquity of the boxer in film doesn't always make for the freshest films.
The Guardian
Boxing in the age of Netflix: how the sport can survive 21st century media
So much of boxing's appeal is how it relates to the world around it, including media and their free-market functions. As we move away from legacy media and towards a deeply consumer-driven world, boxing's powers that be have ignored some business principles and suffered for it. They shrank their supply channel, undermined where their product demand is and lagged behind the favorite media methods of their richest demographic.
The Guardian

About

DJ Summers

Writing

Research

Interviewing

CMS management

Adobe software

Mac and PC software

social media

I stumbled into journalism in 2012 when I took a job with my college newspaper looking to improve my writing skills.
I didn't know I'd love it enough to make it my career.
While an undergraduate, the Salt Lake Tribune hired me as a staff reporter. Shortly afterward, I left for Syracuse University, where I got my master's degree in Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism in 2014.
Since graduating, I've worked for Gannett Inc. developing online apps, as a cyber security correspondent for Fortune, a boxing and MMA columnist for Bleacher Report, contributor to the Guardian through the inimitable boxing blog The Queensberry Rules, and whatever else I can find.