ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 18, 2022
Don Young, a blunt-speaking Republican who was the longest-serving current member of Congress, has died. He was 88. A cause of death was not provided. He made a career out of railing against “extreme environmentalists” and a federal bureaucracy that he saw as locking up Alaska’s mineral, timber and petroleum resources. His career was marred by investigations. Fresh off a reelection win in 2020, Young announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, months after he had referred to the coronavirus as the “beer virus” before an audience that included older Alaskans.