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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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We already had a go bag going and we already had the cars loaded up and ready to roll. And so we're rolling. Evacuations in Juneau as more intense weather threatened swaths of the city with avalanches. From Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, January 9th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, a look at what bills lawmakers are proposing for the upcoming legislative session. So this is kind of modeled after kind of the Reeds act, but in the math area, those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
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Hi, I'm Avery Elfelt, a reporter with the Alaska Desk. That's a joint reporting effort from Alaska Public Media, khns, where I work in Hanes, and other public radio stations in Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Aleutians. It allows us to connect you with the issues happening in communities all across the state. You can hear our stories during the morning news on Alaska News Nightly or online@alaskapublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible with the support of grants and listeners like you. Thank you.
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The city and borough of Juneau issued an avalanche evacuation advisory for all residents in slide zones this morning. The advisory comes as an atmospheric river slams Juneau after previous storms dumped several feet of snow. As KTO's Alex Solomon reports, some residents in the avalanche zone are following the advisory, while others are not.
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Two small avalanches release on a slide path of Mount Juneau above the Barrens neighborhood as Ezra Strong takes a morning walk in the pouring rain. The city issued an evacuation advisory about an hour earlier for junior residents in all known slide paths downtown and along Thain Road. Strong and his wife live on Gruening Avenue with their dog. He says they're not heeding the advisory.
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I think in part because we're a little bit protected by a rock wall and some other things behind us, in part because we have seen slides come down before on the main slide path that didn't even get close to us.
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During an online press conference Friday morning, the city's new avalanche advisor, John Brissette, said that many small slides can bring down the hazard.
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It's actually a good thing that we're seeing smaller slides, reducing the total snow load that is capable of producing an avalanche.
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Some avalanches also released above the Flume Trail today. The Alaska Department of Transportation confirmed numerous small avalanches along Thain Road this morning. The agency expects more avalanches this evening. Since the forecast shows continued heavy rainfall, strong winds and warming temperatures, the closure of Thain Road could be extended multiple days. Some residents of the Barrens neighborhood have evacuated to friends houses or Centennial hall, the emergency shelter set up by the city and the American Red Cross. Carlos Cadiente lives Kitty Corner from Juno Douglas High School. Yara Acathle in the Barrens slide path. He evacuated at around 11:30am in one vehicle while his wife drove behind in another at a stop sign. He says they're headed to a friend's house just down the street.
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We already had a go bag going and we already had the cars loaded up and ready to roll and so we're rolling.
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He says this is the first time they've followed an avalanche evacuation advisory in the decades they've lived here.
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But it's kind of extreme measures, you know, extreme weather that we've had had. So it's just been a battle for days and days and days. So we're just trying to be proactive and not be a problem.
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Brit Tonneson is the community disaster program manager for the Red Cross of Alaska in Southeast. In coordination with the city, the Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Centennial hall downtown for residents on Friday. At the shelter on Friday morning, she says they've been preparing for the last week. We've seen multiple fatal landslides and avalanches in the past decade. Evacuating to a congregate shelter is not people's dream idea. It's a safe place to go. We do the best to meet the needs and we have incredible, loving, warm.
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Volunteers to meet people.
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Tonneson says that anyone in the avalanche zones, as well as anyone who's worried about their roof collapsing, are welcome at the shelter. She says they are prepared to take 150 people. More than a couple dozen people signed up this afternoon. Avalanche weather and road conditions are expected to worsen this evening with help from Clarice Larson. I'm Alex Solomon in Juneau.
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Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories for snow over the weekend in several other parts of the state, including the Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nome and Bethel regions, and for cold weather in Fairbanks and Bristol Bay. There was a big question today in the highest court of the land that affects rural Alaskans who depend on wild fish and game. The US Supreme Court met to decide whether or not to grant the state's request to reopen a decades long battle over subsistence. Last year, a federal appeals court sided with federal fishery managers who sued the state. The court agreed that the state had failed to uphold a rural subsistence priority on the Kuskokwim river mandated by federal law. In September, the Dunleavy administration asked the U.S. supreme Court to weigh in to protect state sovereignty and Alaska's jurisdiction over its navigable waters. As KNBA's Rhonda McBride reports, it's not easy to predict what the court will do.
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The Kuskokwim river is long and muddy as it wends its way across southwest Alaska. But to state and federal appeals courts, the issue has been crystal clear. In areas where it cuts through federal land, the federal government has the right to manage for a rural subsistence priority in times of shortage. But in a 2021 fight over Salmon management on the Kuskokwim, the state developed fishing regulations that conflicted with the federal mandate. The Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fishing Commission is one of four tribal groups which sided with the federal government in this dispute. Their attorney, Tanner Amdur Clark, is cautiously optimistic that the US Supreme Court will choose to stay out of this fish fight.
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The Supreme Court only takes a limited number of cases, right? It only takes cases essentially of national.
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Significance, amdir Clark says. The state and federal court decisions were pretty much in alignment, so there's no reason for the high court to get involved.
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This is just a case about Alaska, about a statute that only applies in Alaska, where the Ninth Circuit has ruled on this particular point three times.
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Now Amdir Clark is talking about the landmark Katie John case, also known as the Katie John Trilogy, a fight waged by an Ahtna Athabaskan elder over her to take salmon and rivers that cross into federal land waters that were her ancestral fishing grounds. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation act, or anilca, is at the heart of this battle legislation Congress passed 45 years ago. It spells out a rural subsistence priority on federal lands, protections that were affirmed in the successive Katie John court battles.
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I think there is a real threat if the Supreme Court grants review in this Alaska versus US Case.
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Bob Anderson is one of the attorneys who represented the late Katie John.
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The effect of the state's current petition for review would be to return full state management, for the most part, to the state of Alaska and get the federal government pretty much out of the business of managing subsistence fishing in Alaska, which would be a huge blow to the federal subsistence priority in the way that it's worked for the last 30 years, roughly.
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And in all of these decades, the problem remains the same. The state's constitution conflicts with the federal law that allows for a rural preference, which has led to a dual system of state and federal fish and game management. The state could pass a constitutional amendment to resolve this, but has failed to do that. The Supreme Court, though, could potentially settle this question. The Safari Club International is one of the sport hunting and fishing groups that hopes it does and it's taken the state side in the case. John Sturgeon, a longtime Alaska Safari Club leader, says he he has no problem with subsistence, just federal management.
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One of our number one priorities is to have one manager of Alaska Fish and Game and that we think should be the state of Alaska. And we have absolutely no problem with our rural preference.
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Attorneys like Bob Anderson say the state doesn't have a good track record for protecting subsistence.
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It gives the native community and pro subsistence groups in Alaska a lot to worry about. And we won't know until Monday morning, early Alaska time, whether or not they've decided to review the case or not, or sometimes they just hold it over for their next conference and have further discussion about it. So I'll be on pins and needles. I guarantee at 5:30 on Monday morning.
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It will take four justices to agree to hear the case. And there's one wild carp, Chief Justice John Roberts, who represented the state of Alaska as an attorney in the Katie John case in the early 2000s. He has intimate knowledge of the issues. So how will that enter into the decision? In anchorage, I'm Rhonda McBride.
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Still to come in Alaska News Nightly, why the mayor of Busan, South Korea, was in Nome this week. This route doesn't have geopolitical tension compared to North Sea. That's ahead. Stay with us. I'm Shelby Herbert, a reporter with the Alaska Desk. That's a joint reporting effort from Alaska Public Media and Kat uac, where I work in Fairbanks and other public radio stations in Anchorage, Haines and the illusions it allows us to connect to the issues happening in communities all across the state. You can hear our stories during the morning news Alaska News Nightly or online@alaskapublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible with the support of grants and listeners like you. Thank you. The start of Alaska's annual legislative session is just over a week away, and there's plenty on the agenda for lawmakers this year, from a possible gas pipeline to a plan to stabilize the state's finances. But lawmakers have some other ideas they'd like to discuss in the next four months. Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone has this look at the first wave of new bills for the upcoming session.
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Some of the bills would make minor tweaks to state law, like one from Anchorage, Democratic Senator L.V. gray Jackson, which would set up a two year term for the president of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority's Board of directors. There's currently no set term for the board president.
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Just being consistent with other boards across Alaska, because I've never heard of a board that has a chair elected indefinitely.
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Some other bills, like one from Wasilla, Republican Representative Jubilee Underwood, take bigger swings. Her proposal would revamp the way Alaska's public schools teach mathematics.
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So this is kind of modeled after kind of the READS act, but in the math area.
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Underwood says she's inspired by the improvements in reading scores since lawmakers set up a targeted series of interventions for struggling students with the Alaska Reads act in 2020. Underwood's bill would essentially seek to ensure students are ready to take on algebra by the time they get to high school and also push high achieving students to take on more advanced math classes.
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Especially for younger kids. Getting them proficient in reading and math, I just feel like will really push our scores and our testing forward, which is what I feel like Alaska's Alaskans are kind of screaming for, is they want better outcomes.
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Of course, lots of bills get introduced, not a lot wind up passing. And Underwood and Gray Jackson both readily acknowledge their bills might not pass this year. But they say it's important to get the ball rolling to start a conversation that might lead to changes down the road. Democratic Juno Representative Sarah Hannon has one conversation starter. She's filed a bill that would greatly restrict law enforcement agents from concealing their identities behind masks.
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There's been a lot of concern about ICE agents, and especially when ICE first started ramping up that, you know, to many people they resembled random kidnappings.
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Hannon says the bill likely wouldn't bar federal agents from wearing masks, since federal law trumps state law. And she acknowledges that it's a controversial issue and that makes it harder to get across the finish line. But Hannon says another bill on her agenda is much more doable, closing a loophole in the state's sexual assault laws. Last year, a judge dismissed a charge in a high profile sexual assault case against a former Juno chiropractor. That's because current law paradoxically makes it impossible to prosecute a medical provider for sexual assault if the victim knows they're being assaulted. Hannon says that's an unintended consequence of an earlier attempt to revamp the state's laws around consent. And she says she'd like to fix it.
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I don't believe that that's good policy.
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I also don't believe it was ever.
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The intent of laws to allow that to be an offense that's not prosecutable.
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Representative David Nelson says he'd like to get a couple bills across the finish line this year, too. It's his last year in office. The Republican representing North Anchorage is not running for reelection, so time is of the essence. One bill would require school districts to come up with policies to combat digital impersonation and harassment, basically using AI to create fake images, video or audio of another student.
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You know, there's not a silver bullet that's going to solve everything, but if we're starting to have incremental approaches to help with younger individuals, mental health, I think that's something that we should definitely look into and work on.
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Nelson says he'd also like lawmakers to pass a bill allowing some psychologists licensed in other states to practice in Alaska. He says that's an especially common job for military spouses, and he says it would be a big help to military families deployed to the 49th state lawmakers will have 121 days to determine what moves forward and what doesn't, and it all starts January 20th. Reporting in Juneau, I'm Eric Stone.
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The former chief of a Delta Junction Area Volunteer Fire Department pleaded guilty Thursday to defrauding the department of more than $440,000. KUAC's Tim Ellis reports.
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Michael Pascal agreed to the plea deal in a hearing before Superior Court Judge Patricia Haynes. In exchange for his plea, the state agreed to Dr. Three felony charges of first degree theft and a misdemeanor count of evidence tampering. The charges relate to Pascal's actions while serving as chief of the Rural Deltana Volunteer Fire Department and secretary of the department's board of directors. Investigators say he stole the money from August 2017 and January 2024 and covered up the theft until board members discovered it two years ago. That's when board members learned that Pascal hadn't made the fire department's INS payments for several years. In response, they fired Pascal and removed him from his position on the board. Dave Newberger was the board chair at the time, and he said in a 2024 interview that he notified Alaska State Troopers about what he called accounting discrepancies right after they discovered the insurance problem and numerous other questionable transactions.
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Once we discovered this serious breach of trust, we took immediate action to address the situation.
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The board was forced to shut down the department because it lacked insurance to operate and locked the doors to its two fire stations until it could reinstate the policy. In response, Delta's city fire department agreed to temporarily cover rural Deltana's outlying areas and bring in some of its volunteers and pay to use some of its equipment. Rural Deltana resumed operating last fall. Prosecutor Andrew Granik summed up Pascal's actions Thursday in response to Judge Haynes request for the actual basis of the fraud charge.
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This gentleman was the chief of volunteer fire department at Delta Junction, and he was also in control of the bank account for the volunteer fire department. And in that capacity he basically manipulated the bank account, ran payment through his own credit cards, issued payments to himself.
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Granik says Pasco will face up to three years in prison. Under the terms of his guilty plea, defense attorney Hannah Marks argued he should only be required to serve a maximum sentence of two years. The two sides will present their arguments in court during a sentencing hearing scheduled for July. In addition to possible time behind bars, Pascal also must pay more than $440,000 in restitution to rural Deltana. In Delta Junction, I'm Tim Ellis.
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Alaska's draft summer ferry schedule is now live, and the state is seeking public input by January 13th. The Alaska Department of Transportation and the Alaska Marine Highway System released the proposed schedule on December 29. It covers sailings from the beginning of May to the end of September. A letter included with the schedule said that the plan was designed to meet community service needs while staying within available funding levels and maintaining regulatory and safety standards standards for the vessels. Public comment on the schedule is currently open, with the state seeking written comments by next Tuesday. That's January 13th. That day, they will host two virtual meetings based out of Ketchikan to hear comments and consider schedule adjustments for both Southeast and Southwest Alaska. Well, the mayor of South Korea's second largest city visited Nome Tuesday to discuss opportunities for international cooperation on Arctic infrastructure and trade. The ports in Nome and Busan operate at very different levels. According to the U.S. bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2022, Nome handled 36,000 containers. That same year, Busan handled over 22 million. And as K no M's Ben Townsend reports, the big divide between the drastically different cities left locals asking one big question and what is this whole visit for? Why are you in Nome?
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This is Tyler Rhodes, chief operating officer of Nordensound Economic Development Corporation. He's just finished giving Park Hong Joon, mayor of Busan, South Korea, a tour of Nome's fish processing plant. No less than 12 members of Hong Joon's entourage, translators, staffers, media and four delegates from the Korean Consulate in Anchorage slowly shuffle toward the exit. The group makes a brief but frigid walk from the front door to two idling vans. The day before, Hongjun met with anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance to sign a friendship cooperation agreement with Alaska's most populous city. He also met with Governor Mike Dunleavy, an interaction Hongjun described as very excellent.
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This visit will be a good opportunity for promoting our cooperation and working new projects.
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One of those projects is the Port of Nome's long awaited Modification project, which will deepen and expand the port. Once complete, the half a billion dollar endeavor will enable massive container ships to dock and receive fuel. According to trading economics, over 30% of South Korea's exports come from its robust electronics industry, including giants like Samsung and lg. To get these valuable goods to large markets like Europe, Busan can send them one of two ways, through Egypt's Suez Canal or the Panama Canal. Both journeys take about a month to complete. But as sea ice recedes in the Arctic, two new routes are becoming more viable. The Northern Sea Route hugs the coastline north of Russia, while the Northwest Passage spans from Alaska to Greenland. Both routes shave off over a week of travel time and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fuel. The Northern Sea route over Russia is faster by a few days, but but Hongjoon views the Northwest Passage as politically preferable.
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We are deeply interested in Northwest Passage because this route doesn't have geopolitical tension compared to North Sea Route.
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Back on the tour, the white vans pull up to the end of the port's causeway, which currently extends 2,000ft from the shore. Nome's port director, Joy Baker, directs Hongjoon's attention toward the frozen ocean as photographers hastily set up tripods through their thick winter gloves.
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So, Mr. Mayor, the expansion, the extension of the port will start here. This little short wall we call a spur. They will remove that and take this part of the causeway structure out 3,500ft.
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Baker points out areas of the port that'll be dredged to depths of 40ft, deep enough to accommodate container ships like one South Korea plans to send through the Arctic later this year as part of a pilot program.
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How do you like this cold, sir? No, not so much. Oh yes, freezing weather.
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Charlie Lean, a member of Nome's port commission, calmly walks as the delegation waddles toward the warm vans. Lean says the visit is flattering, but he has his concerns.
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I'm a little worried about them trying to displace local businesses, and I don't think that's how they think, but that they're looking for A business opportunity, a foothold on the beach, if you will. I think we can have some mutually beneficial things going on, but that's gotta be, gotta be wary.
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The delegation left on the evening Alaska Airlines flight with the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. Next on the itinerary there, cutting edge electronics from Korean companies will be on display, many of which leave the country through Busan. In the future, they might just make a pit stop in Nome.
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I hope that Nome citizens have more interest in Busan and Korea so we can make good cooperation and we can make good exchanges.
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Maybe we'll send you some crap. Yeah.
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The Alaska crab is very famous in Korea already.
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Reporting in Nome, I'm Ben Townsend.
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Alaskans around the state celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7th with hymns, feasts and a tradition called Starring or Slavic. One such celebration in Anchorage this week brought together people who couldn't celebrate the holiday with their families or in church. Alyona Nydin with the Alaska desk was there and has this story.
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Singers in kaspaks and headscarves chant Christmas hymns in English, Yupik, Russian and church Slavonic. Next to them, three young men spin sparkling pinwheel shaped stars on wooden poles, each with an Orthodox icon of a nativity scene in the center.
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Christ is born.
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The group is gathered for a Russian Christmas celebration hosted by the Alaska Native Medical center at their primary care clinic. The singers are from Saint Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral Choir in Anchorage, though most of them are originally from the Yukon Kazkokum Delta, Alaska. Orthodox Archbishop Alexei was a part of the opening of Starin or Slavic, a custom he says originated in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe.
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Wonderful, beautiful tradition that has been in Alaska for over a hundred years.
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Akalina Patricia Lekhanov Gregory is from an Alaska and grew up singing hymns in Aleut and Russian. Her family always gathered around Slavic to decorate stars for the celebration. Now she makes them herself.
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I just made this miniature one.
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My mom always wanted to be colorful.
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So Gregory says she wants to pass down the tradition to the next generation.
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Because it's her history, you know, Svengo.
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And coming over all the way from Ukraine, from Russia, and still being sung today. To me it's powerful.
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The best part of the night for Gregory is having a big feast, sometimes until two in the morning. And she loves it when the songs make people move. She remembers one song from her childhood, similar to Joy of the World, that shifted between fast and slow tempo.
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You could see the people kind of.
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Dance or move to it. Not supposed to dance in church, right? But this song they always did all the elders.
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You can see them tapping their feet and their head.
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So yeah, I miss that.
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Gregory says she was happy to attend Slavic at the primary care center to bring comfort and healing to patients. A choir sings at the front of the room, and Anastasia Alexa is harmonizing every song from the crowd. Alexa grew up in Anchorage but has roots in Cvithluc. She says in the region her family's from. Slavic unites people.
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It's a really big part of the year where the community gets together and neighboring villagers will come starring in neighboring villages and see each other's family.
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It's great.
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Alexa says she was glad that Alaska Native people staying at the hospital were able to be a part of this year's celebration.
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They need to feel like the culture.
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And the traditions are still including them. They're perhaps stuck in the hospital after following surgery or terrible illness. And it brings new life, life to this new year that we have. It's a blessing.
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After the performance, the group crossed the street from the primary care center and continued the procession at the patient housing in Anchorage. I am Alena Knighton.
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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 Alex Solomon in, Eric Stone in Juneau, Rhonda McBride and Alyona Knydon in Anchorage, Tim Ellis in Delta Junction, Katherine Rose in Sitka and Ben Townsend in Nome. Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer and I'm Casey Grove. Have a great weekend. This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.