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Support for Alaska Public Media on demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
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Like, in terms of where people land and what what they support, I think that it's not going to be clear cut.
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State lawmakers expect a messy session this year as legislators grapple with the state's fiscal future. From Alaska Public Media, this statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, January 16th. Good evening. I'm Wesley Early. Also tonight, political analysts weigh in on whether Mary Paltola can unseat Senator Dan Sullivan.
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I think Alaska is still very much a state that is a lot more complex than red team and blue team.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Lawmakers return to the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, and as always, they've got a long agenda to tackle, from health care and energy to the state's persistent budget struggles. Alaska Public Media state government reporter Eric Stone will be tracking the session in Juneau, and he joins us now to give a sense of what the session will bring. Hi, Eric.
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Hello, Wesley.
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So, Eric, lots to do, only four months to do it. What are lawmakers prioritizing ahead of the session?
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Well, Wesley, you're not wrong. There is a lot to do and there will always be some surprises. But what's not a surprise, of course, is how difficult the budget will be this year. We heard a lot last year about how this might be a painful year. And, you know, maybe this will set the tone. Last year we had a $1,000 permanent fund dividend that was the smallest ever when you adjust it for inflation. And this year what I keep hearing is that even $1,000 dividend will be a challenge. Here's Fairbanks Republican Representative Will Stapp. He sits on the House Finance Committee.
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The current level of spending and revenue, I don't see how that's possible without large savings draws. And I don't know how people are going to feel about that.
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This has been an issue for years. Of course, lawmakers and the governor have worked to cut state spending in a variety of areas. There is some dispute about how much there is left to cut. Stapp says he'd like lawmakers to take a closer look at department budgets with something known as zero based budgeting. Basically, that's, you know, rather than starting from a baseline of like what did we spend last year that's starting at zero and then building the budget back, you know, from scratch. Stapp included an amendment in last year's budget asking the governor's office to try that for one department of their choice. But he says as far as he can tell, that didn't happen. So he says he's renewing his efforts.
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This year because you don't really want to tell people the staking is a lot more money in terms of taxes with the new constraints, when we can't really articulate where the money goes initially and what the money does.
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Governor Mike Dunleavy's budget, as usual, you know, contains what he calls a statutory PFD, $3,800 or so. But that and the expenses they have to catch up on this current year, that means that the governor's budget would require spending more than half of what the state has in savings. But that budget is a bit incomplete. The governor has said he plans to introduce a fiscal plan. Last we heard, when he released his budget in December, it was still a work in progress. But the governor has his last state of the State speech this session. Usually those come pretty early in the session, so a fiscal plan would be something to watch for there. Then again, a few years ago Dunleavy said he was planning to introduce a sales tax and never did. Democratic Anchorage Representative Andrew Gray, though, says he really hopes Dunleavy does propose some kind of tax.
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You know, he's not running for reelection, so he can afford to take that risk. And he could, you know, going forward into the future, have established a reliable source of revenue to fund our state. I mean, there could be no more worthy legacy for him. It would be monumental.
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Gray says he'd prefer an income tax. He says, you know, that would be fairer to low income Alaskans. But if the governor proposes a sales tax, Gray says he thinks lawmakers would have to find a way to get it passed. He says lawmakers on both sides would be willing to discuss just about any solution to secure the state's financial future. But of course, at the same time, it's an election year and a fiscal plan requires some hard votes. So it'll take some gumption for lawmakers and the governor to actually come together rather than kick the can down the road once again.
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All right, so it sounds like we have the sort of perennial budget debate with a bit more urgency this year. That'll be something to watch. What else is on your radar?
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Well, this one came up recently, health care. We've heard a lot about it in Congress, of course, but it hasn't been a focus of the legislature in the past few years. You might have heard of this thing called the Rural Health Transformation Program that'll send more than a billion dollars to the state over the next five years to essentially improve health care. There are a bunch of restrictions on how that money can be spent, and most of the decision making around how to spend that money will happen within the Department of Health and the executive branch. But Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg said on a call with reporters recently that there is a role for the legisl to play here to make Alaska's grant application for this money more competitive. The state said it would do, you know, a bunch of things by the end of 2027. Those include expanding what pharmacists are allowed to do with their license and, you know, joining a variety of what are called license compacts for, you know, EMS workers, nurses, a few others. The deal is basically if you're licensed in some states, you can also practice in Alaska without, you know, a need for retraining. That's an issue. The legislature has not made a focus in past years, though there are some pending bills. And Dr. Gray says, you know, the debate over those bills could wind up scrambling some caucus lines, like in terms.
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Of where people land and what what they support. I think that it's not going to be clear cut. It's not going to be majority versus minority. I think that it's going to be all over the place.
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But Grave, who is also a physician assistant, it should be noted, says he supports the policy changes, which would include a license compact for physician assistants. Stapp, for his part, says he's on board. He says he's still reviewing what all is needed and all the details. But, you know, from what he's seen so far, he told me he doesn't see why those policy changes will be a problem.
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Finally, Eric, what about the Alaska LNG project? Are you expecting any movement on that front?
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That one is interesting. WESLEY the gas pipeline developer Glenn Farn has yet to announce what's known as a final investment decision, the green light to move forward. Lawmakers heard last year from their consultants about a variety of changes they could make to ensure the project is profitable enough and stable enough to go forward. So we could see some movement on that. For instance, Governor Dunleavy says he'd like to see lawmakers offer some property tax relief to the gas line project to help it pencil out. And a lot of lawmakers have said in the past they support efforts to bring the gas line forward. But, you know, I think they'll approach that question with some caution. They don't want their home communities or the state to get taken to the cleaners, so to speak.
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Well, that's Alaska Public Media's legislative reporter Eric Stone in Juneau, giving us a preview of the upcoming session. Eric, thanks so much for joining us.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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When former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola announced on Monday she's challenging US Senator Dan Sullivan, national Democrats cheered. Peltoli gives them a shot at winning a majority in the Senate. Does it though? Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin examines the claim.
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Alaska far more often than not votes Republican in statewide races. Lauren French knows that. She's a senior political advisor with Senate Majority PAC affiliated with the Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York. Still, French argues this year the Democrats have a real chance to win the Senate race.
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Well, Alaska might be a state that has traditionally voted for Republicans, but it's far more of an independent state than it is a hard Republican state. You have people there who cross parties just looking for someone who will fight for them and represent them well in.
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The U.S. congress and in the in the U.S. senate.
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French talked up Peltola's attributes as a candidate and says she has a winning message, which is in part an Alaska version of affordability, a case Democrats are using nationwide. And she cites the adage that the president's party tends to lose seats in Congress in midterm elections.
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So you're likely to see an election that just by historical standards is a little bit tougher for Republicans.
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Is that just wishful Democratic thinking, though? I put the question to analyst Kyle Condike at the University of Virginia center for Politics. He's the managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, which rates political races. Condike says Republicans are favored to win control of the Senate and Alaska is more Republican than the country as a whole.
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I think that the truth here is that the Alaska Senate race is a lot more competitive now than it was before Mary Peltola got in. I do still think that Dan Sullivan is favored.
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When Peltola announced her candidacy, Condiket moved the rating on the race two categories to the left, from safe Republican to leans Republican. That's one category away from toss up. Conduct says Peltola proved in 2022 twice that she can win a statewide election in Alaska, even if she went on to lose her U.S. house race in 2024.
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Even in losing, she performed fairly impressively. Donald Trump won Alaska by 13 points. She lost in the final ranked choice voting allocation to now Representative Nick Begich by about two and a half points.
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Conduct says the gap in the 2024 election results with Trump winning Alaska by a lot. And Peltola losing by much less is important. It shows a significant number of Alaskans who voted for Trump also voted for Peltola. Condict says Peltola will need that crossover appeal again this year.
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And I do think Peltola has a fighting chance to win, even though I think you generally rather be the, you know, the Republican nominee in a state like Alaska.
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As Condict sees it, Sullivan mainstream Republican without baggage, which gives him the leg up. Alaska pollster Ivan Moore, who's worked for Democrats, points to a different gap.
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He finds significant 7% more Alaskans like Mary than like Dan.
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Moore's firm, Alaska Survey Research, has been asking Alaskans four times a year for several years whether they have a positive or negative view of various political figures, including Peltola and Sullivan. Some since Peltola became known statewide in 2022, Moore has found her positives to be consistently higher than Sullivan's. Moore says it's a simple measure that matters.
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It's about who you like. You generally tend not to vote for people that you don't like, and that's Sullivan's problem because the percentage of people that don't like him is 51%.
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But Moore says likability is not the whole story. He found that 10% of people who said they didn't like sull they'd vote for him. Moore says that could be because they prefer Republicans or because they like Trump. And Sullivan aligns himself with the president. Moore says how Alaskans feel about Trump is tied to how they feel about.
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Sullivan, and so his numbers will rise and fall based on Trump's fortunes.
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Sullivan's campaign spokesman Nate Adams says they're confident he'll win re election. And Adams doesn't think much of the idea that Sullivan's fate is l Trump's popularity.
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I think Alaska is still very much a state that is a lot more complex than red team and blue team.
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Amid the substantial national attention Peltola generated with her launch, Sullivan's team has been running ads that feature prominent Alaskans endorsing the Republican incumbent.
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You know, Alaska native leaders, trades unions, and there are more of these forthcoming, but these are. These are groups and coalitions that have traditionally backed Mary and her previous races, who on day one, if not before and certainly in the days after, have decided to support Senator Sullivan.
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One thing everyone is counting on is that national groups on both sides will raise and spend boatloads of money trying to win Alaska's U.S. senate seat. Reporting from Washington, I'm Liz Ruskin.
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Still to come on Alaska News Nightly the Rangel School district is getting a new totem pole made by local art.
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We just told him if you guys get a log for us, we'll carve it because we want to do something for the school.
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Anyway, that's ahead. Stay with us. A pilot with Bethel based air carrier UTE Commute Service is uninjured after being forced to land on a frozen slough several miles southwest of Antiac on Wednesday evening. According to a company statement, the pilot had just taken off from Antiac to return to Bethel when the Cessna 207 encountered engine anomalies and the pilot decided to make a precautionary landing. The pilot was the only occupant on board the plane. UTE Commuter Service says the pilot was not injured and the plane was not damaged in the incident. It says a team of Antiac locals responded by snow machine to return the pilot to Antiac within a few hours of the event. According to the National Weather Service, the temperature at Antiak was 31 degrees below zero at the time of the incident. It's not yet known if the cold temperatures were a factor. As of Thursday evening, National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Clint Johnson said the agency was still working to confirm the circumstances of the incident. In its statement, UTE Commute Service said it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration and conducting its own internal review to ensure continued safe operations. Meanwhile, Anchorage city officials have proposed a series of code changes aimed at better addressing certain unwanted behavior like public intoxication and indecent exposure. Municipal Attorney Eva Gardner says Anchorage police regularly get calls about that type of behavior, but it hasn't been clearly prohibited under city law. Here's Gardner at an Anchorage Assembly Rules Committee meeting earlier this month.
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This conduct is happening. There's no response we can make. There's no opportunity for law enforcement to engage for years.
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Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case says that lack of enforcement has created frustration among officers and the public. Even back when he was a patrol.
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Officer, multiple times a day I would.
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Get calls that were like this where there was no report to take, there was no arrest to make, there was no citation to issue, and it was this type of disorder conduct behavior.
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Under an ordinance introduced by the assembly on Tuesday, public indecency like unwanted sexual exposure as well as threatening behavior, physical harassment and public intoxication would be considered low level misdemeanors that could result in jail time. Case says the goal of the ordinance is to be preventative rather than punitive. He says the ordinance requires officers to offer transportation to people who are intoxicated in public before arresting them. Overall, he's hopeful that the risk of jail time will cut down on both disorderly conduct and police work.
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Settling it having people go their separate ways, or settling it by getting someone into treatment or into services. Those are easier paths in terms of just work than making the arrest.
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Case acknowledges that statistically, the code changes are more likely to impact the city's unhoused residents. But he says he hopes the changes will result in connecting people who might have underlying trauma or mental health issues to resources they need.
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In my perspective, this is an attack on homelessness. This isn't over policing homelessness. This is a way that one more way that we can use tools to try to help these folks.
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Assembly members are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the code changes ordinance and potentially vote on it January 27th. The fishing industry group Alaska Groundfish Data bank has closed its doors after nearly 40 years of representing trawlcatcher vessels and processors in the Gulf of Alaska. As KMXT's Davis Hovey reports, the Kodiak based organization revolved around one person for most of its lifespan.
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Since 1986, the Alaska groundfish Data bank has been the central member based organization in Kodiak, gathering fisheries data from and advocating for policy for the Gulf of Alaska pollock trawl fleet. Julie Bonney joined the data bank as an analyst five years after it started.
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And I thought it would be a good entry level position. And if you really know the fishing industry right now, the vast majority of people that are involved have been observers in terms of scientific folks or leads for advocacy groups. Pretty much everyone I can think of was an observer at one point or another.
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After being an analyst with the organization for a decade, Bonnie took over as the head of the Alaska Groundfish Data bank in 2001. But after roughly 35 years with the group, Bonnie says the data bank has closed its office in downtown Kodiak and is phasing out all operations.
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Basically, we're spinning off responsibilities and winding down and so there are a couple things that I will continue in 2026.
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She will continue to work out of her home this year to close out some lingering projects, such as a research program with Alaska Pacific University. She is the wife of a longtime seafood processor and says she's always been interested in fisheries data. Bonnie has run the cooperatives for the central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish program since 2007 and was heavily involved in starting the electronic monitoring program for the Gulf's Pawlik trawl fleet. That policy went into effect last year Last fall, the data bank requested that someone else take over those two service contracts. Even though the fisherman and shoreside processor cooperatives will still exist and the electronic monitoring program will continue for trawlers in the Gulf of Alaska. Bonnie says there isn't another organization that can solely fill the data bank's role in Kodiak.
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Honestly, it's the only organization that includes both processors and harvesters in the same under the same tent.
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Bonnie says she made the decision last summer to close the Alaska Groundfish Data bank by the end of 2025 and transition into retirement. But while the data bank was preparing to close, the organization was caught up in an Alaska State Troopers investigation into seafood processors allegedly profiting illegally from salmon and halibut bycatch, according to reporting from the Northern Journal. In November, troopers seized Bonnie's work laptop and cell phone, along with all electronics and fisheries data from the Kodiak organization. No charges have since been filed against Bonnie or the Alaska Ground Fish Data Bank. Bonnie says she cannot comment on the investigation as it's still ongoing, but she maintains that she's done nothing wrong.
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I'll continue to defend myself obviously because I have done nothing wrong, but that's going to take a while to get to the other end.
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While the Alaska Groundfish Databank phases out of the Kodiak fishing community, local trawl vessels will be heading out in the Gulf of Alaska for the start of the Pawlik a season after January 20th. Reporting in Kodiak, I'm Davis Hovey.
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A Juno born athlete is headed to Italy next month to represent Team USA's biathlon team in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Last month 24 year old Maxime Germain made the team for the event that combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting. This week Jermaine spoke to KTOO from Germany where he's racing in the Biathlon World Cup. He says he's very excited to represent Alaska as well as the US in the Olympic Winter Games.
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There's a lot of opportunities, especially our sport has never had a medal. So we as a team are very excited and I am very excited to give that opportunity this year.
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Jermaine was born in Juneau in 2001, but he says his family moved away after about a year. Then after living in Hawaii and France, he returned to Juneau for another year to attend kindergarten at Saik Gastineau Community School.
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I didn't ski when I was a little kid in Juneau because there was no snow and also I was too young but it made me appreciate the wild as well. Like I like training in the mountains and open area like Alaska.
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He then spent most of his youth in France, but returned to Alaska when he was a teenager, where he graduated from West Anchorage high school in 2019. During his time in Anchorage, he trained with the Anchorage Biathlon Club and raced for the APU Nordic Ski Center. Jermaine says he's grateful for his time in Alaska. He says living and training in the state was pivotal for his career. He pointed to other successful skiers that have come out of the state, like Gus Schumacher, Luke Jaeger and Zandon McMullen.
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The Alaskan community in Nordic is awesome. Like, we're one of the highest producer of like high end athletes in the country, but especially in Nordic.
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The 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy begin on February 6th and run through the 22nd. Two of Wrangel's totem carvers are working on an original piece of work for the school district. KSTK's Colette Zarnicki visited the local tribe's cultural center and carving shed to see what they've been carrying.
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Wood chips and sawdust cover the floor as carver Mike Hoyt adds and carves a red cedar pole. Some gets on the older totems laying horizontally nearby. Initially he felt bad about that, but.
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Then and then I was thinking like, well, no, it probably enjoys it in a way. Like, I think something about the spirit of the poles being around that creative process I think is kind of nice.
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Hoyt says a lot of the work has been inspired by ancestors who were carvers. The idea for the new pole came from Kevin McAllister as the school district's maintenance director. He was removing a rotten wooden post in the courtyard between the middle school and high school, and he thought it would be cool to have a totem pole there.
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My entire family grew up on reservations back east on native reservations. And so, you know, I try to respect the culture everywhere I live.
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So he asked Rangel's carvers about it. Hoyt says they liked the idea so much they decided to carve one for free.
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We just told him if you guys get a log for us, we'll carve it because we want to do something for the school anyway. We love the idea of having more native art at the school. We both have, both have worked at the school. You know, Tony's a graduate of there.
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As in Tony Harding, the other main carver on the project. Hoyt says his family has been here for generations. Both of his grandmothers were cheerleaders.
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Be right by the gym and so just knowing that it's something that I guess, in a way kind of honors that connection, that history, I think that's what's important to me.
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On and off. For the past few months, they've been carving the red cedar pole. Sometimes with others help, it will stand just shy of nine feet tall. The central figure on the pole is a wolf.
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We looked at a lot of different wolf designs all up and down the Northwest coast and kind of settled on, you know, taking different elements from different pieces, changing them, kind of making it our own, he says.
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It looks like a mix of Haida and Tlingit styles. Hoyt says in Wrangel, there's only one other totem pole with the wolf on it. At the bottom of the totem is a face inspired by Chief Shakes House posts.
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It's kind of a way of giving a nod to some of Wrangell's carving history into Rangel's indigenous history. I kind of like that it's the foundation that the wolf is standing on in a way that kind of is a connection of, you know, standing on. On your history, on your past.
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Hoyt says an eagle is on top between the wolf's ears to represent the elementary students who are known as Evergreen Eagle. The other carver, Tony Harding, hopes this inspires the younger generation to take part in revitalizing their Alaska Native culture.
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I think it's great that I get.
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To honor our culture in a very cool way with, you know, the high school and our culture. Hopefully the kids are. Hopefully inspires the kids to want to carve.
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They hope to share their carving skills with youth in the future. For now, they're excited to see this new totem raised in Wrangle. I'm Colette Carnecki.
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The totem unveiling will be held in the courtyard between the middle and high schools at 2pm on Saturday, the day of Rangel's homecoming. And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online@alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Eric Stone and Clarice Larson in Juneau, Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. evan Erickson in Bethel, Davis Hovey in Kodiak, and Colette Zarnicke in Wrangell. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Tobin Shelby. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Wesley Early. Have a great week.