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Support for Alaska Public Media On Demand.
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Comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents.
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45 states and two US territories. There's not a Christian on the planet that can live in unforgiveness and call himself a Christian. God says, I don't know you if you can't forgive. Speakers call for compassion and open dialogue at an Anchorage memorial for Charlie Kirk from Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, September 26th. Good evening. I'm Wesley Early. Also tonight, Juneau residents will soon decide whether to change the city's sales tax.
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We have a lot of out of.
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Town visitors and we have a lot of economic activity from non residents in the summer.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News nightly. Well over 500 people gathered to pray and remember Charlie Kirk at the University of Alaska Anchorage last night. Kirk was a right wing Christian influencer who founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point usa. He was known for his debates on college campuses and has been criticized for comments about race, women's place in marriage and transgender people. A sniper shot and killed Kirk September 10th while he spoke on the Utah Valley University campus. Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor went to the prayer vigil at UAA and has this story.
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It's nearly an hour before the vigil is set to start, but a line is already forming outside the University of Alaska Anchorage's Wendy Williamson Auditorium. The university had to change the location, too much interest for the much smaller student union. The crowd is a mix, college kids and retirees, members of the Republican Party, families with toddlers and babies, Friends shout and wave. Two women join the line in matching hoodies that say not today, Satan. At a voter registration table in the lobby, someone asks, anyone want to change their party affiliation to Republican? Matt Sims is by the stairs handing out flyers for a religious school program. He says Charlie Kirk's murder made him realize just how divided the country is.
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Well, it's just a sad time for the entire country and we see a division that we've never seen since Civil War, basically. And it's not a north against south, brother against brother.
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Sims says healing is necessary. He's just not sure it's possible. We just have to fight fire with.
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Water and fire with fire is going to do nothing but cause more division.
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Alaska Family Council President Jim Minry is in the lobby, too. He's scheduled to open the vigil with a prayer. Minry says healing can come from having uncomfortable conversations regularly like Kirk did in those campus debates.
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We can disagree, but we can also break bread together, and I hope that happens more.
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I mean, you know, I think that.
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That'S, that's our highest calling.
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People stream toward the front doors and pass a tiny pink card table where Christina Sikinga stands with her husband and their five kids, handing out pocket sized Bibles. Sikinga says she's been talking about Kirk with her children. She says she got emotional when she told them he had been murdered. I pulled the kids aside and just.
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Explained there was a very good godly.
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Man who spoke truth.
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And yet his.
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Life was taken, zikinga says she and her husband are raising their children to speak the truth, no matter what the cost.
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I certainly hope that we have a country where we can speak it clearly, where we can have discourse and do it in a peaceful way. But even if not, we will remain faithful to Christ.
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By the time the event starts, the auditorium is nearly full. No cameras or recording are allowed during the vigil itself. UA's Turning Point chapter sponsored the event. Freshman Jack Thompson, its new president, introduces the speakers, including Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox, who says he's known Kirk since he was an old soul at the age of 21, calls Kirk's life a testament to civil debate. State Republican Party chair Carmela Warfield pulls out a letter from Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy declaring October 14, 2025, as Charlie Kirk Day in recognition of the US Constitution's First Amendment. When the crowd leaps to its feet to cheer, she takes a photo to show Dunleavy, she says. Pastor Ron Hoffman closes out the vigil. He tells the crowd this is an Anchorage problem. Afterward, he explains that what he meant is he feels like the city is seeing a degradation of moral standards. Hoffman says it's his duty to speak.
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Out and we can do it in love and kindness. Obviously, we're not the rioters and the violent ones. We were just saying we can't do that anymore.
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But he says speaking up is different from holding onto anger. Forgiveness, he says, is key. Take Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika. At his memorial in Arizona, she talked about the man accused of killing Kirk, saying she forgave him. Hoffman says the Bible commands it.
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There's not a Christian on the planet that can live in unforgiveness and call himself a Christian. God says, I don't know you if you can't forgive. That separates the quote unquote Christians from God fearing people.
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Paul Van Kara is a recent graduate of uaa. He says the murder felt personal. His values are similar to Kirk's.
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For someone to die for his beliefs.
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And then me to be standing here.
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And be like, oh, you know, like.
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I feel like I'm too shy to.
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Tell someone about Jesus is. It doesn't seem right, you know, he.
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Says now he's more outspoken about his faith. In Anchorage, I'm Hannah Fluor.
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Meanwhile, a Homer Republican state representative is declaring victory after pressuring the local newspaper to revise a story about a different vigil honoring Charlie Kirk. As Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone reports, Representative Sarah Vance took issue with the newspaper's description of kir controversial views.
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On a sunny Wednesday evening in mid September, a week after Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah, hundreds gathered on the beach in Homer for a vigil honoring his life.
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Remember that the people who were spreading.
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Hate and vitriol are neighbors.
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Representative Sarah Vance helped organize it. She highlighted Kirk's commitment to free speech. He and his group, Turning Point usa, were famous for engaging in open debates about controversial issues and we need to.
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Do like Charlie and engage with them in open dialogue.
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That's respectful.
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That leads them to the truth.
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Homer News reporter Chloe Plesnak was there shooting video and taking photos. She says it was part of an ongoing effort to reach out to conservatives who didn't feel represented in the newspaper's coverage.
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I knew that, you know, there was probably people that weren't going to go to that that would maybe want to know what was being said that were her constituents. So that was part of it. But also I thought it was important to to document them honoring Charlie Kirk's legacy.
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In the original story, Plesnak recounted the event and in her second paragraph identified Kirk as a far right activist and an icon among Christian nationalists. It described some of his views as racist and controversial and said Kirk had perpetuated conspiracy theories. She didn't include concrete examples, but did link to an 1100 word article in the New York Times with many of them. Pluznak says she thought conservatives would appreciate the coverage. They did not. A day after the story went live online, Vance posted a letter on her official state letterhead on Facebook accusing the Homer News of hate baiting. Vance accused Plesniak in the newspaper of bias and said she was aware of a growing movement to boycott Homer News advertising. She urged the paper to review Plesnak's earlier work and its editorial standards. Vance ended the letter with a warning, quote, the future credibility of the Homer News and its advertising base depends on it.
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That's a step too far for elected Representative.
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Michael Armstrong is a former editor of the Homer News. He worked for the paper for more than two decades.
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That's government intimidation of a free press. And, you know, the First Amendment says the government shall not do that. I mean, it's right there up front. And I think she's crossed that line.
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Vance did not respond to interview requests, but the campaign appeared to work. The next morning, Plesniak says the paper's publisher, Carpenter Media Group, pulled the story off the web. It was later reposted without Plesnick's byline and without much of the language Vance had identified. The Carpenter Media executive responsible for the Homer News, Mary Kimmes, did not respond to calls seeking comment. Vance thanked the paper's owners in a Facebook post. She said she'd had a respectful email exchange with Carpenter Media. Armstrong, though, says he thinks Vance should be held accountable. He says government officials should respect the role that reporters play in American democracy.
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I don't think newspapers should be intimidated by their government. I think the government should be intimidated by the newspapers.
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He says if government officials don't like what they see in the newspaper, the right approach isn't intimidation. It's open dialogue. With additional reporting from Simon Lopez and Homer, I'm Eric Stone and Juneau.
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Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, while eyes are on Katmai for Fat Bear week, Sitkins prepare for a big week of their own.
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That one's definitely fat.
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Pothole week worthy. Yeah, this is like a whole archipelago.
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That's ahead. Stay with us. One of the defendants in a Klawack murder case was sentenced on Monday to 40 years of jail with 25 years suspended. 24 year old Blaise Diltz pled guilty of murder in the second degree and the death of 80 year old Lincoln Peratrovich. Diltz and two other defendants attacked Peratrovich in his home in March of 2023 after inflammatory comments circulated on social media. Diltz reportedly told investigators that he had seen a post alleging that Peretrovich had had catcalled an underage girl and chased her with an axe. Alaska State troopers investigated that allegation and found that no crime had occurred. Peratrovich died as a result of his injuries. In May, Diltz changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, which dropped four other felonies against him. Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Daniel Doty presided over the case. The state argued that Diltz participated in the beating of Paracevich but was not the most culpable of the three defendants. The other two defendants are scheduled to be sentenced in the next two two months. Meanwhile, Alaska State troopers shot and killed a man near Anchor Point on Thursday who they say brandished a knife after a foot chase. Troopers say 30 year old Tyler Moyer of Anchorage was wanted on a $50,000 felony arrest warrant. KDLL's Ashlyn O' Hara has more.
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An online dispatch describes troopers account of what happened. Troopers say they located Moyer's vehicle at the Stariski Campground just north of Anchor Point. Officers gave Moyer multiple commands to leave his vehicle, after which he fled on foot. After Moyer brandished a knife, a trooper shot him. Emergency first aid efforts were unsuccessful and Moyer was declared dead at the scene. After troopers located Moyer's car, they say a woman who was a passenger in the car tried to hurt herself. Troopers conclude their account by saying she was taken to a Homer hospital with non life threatening injuries. The officer who shot Moyer is on seven days of administrative leave per Department of Public Safety policy. The department was expected to release the officer's name on Sunday. The Troopers Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the shooting. After that, the state Office of Special Prosecutions decides if criminal charges are appropriate. A trooper spokesperson says the incident was recorded by two troopers, body worn cameras and a dashboard camera. The footage won't be publicly available until the bureau investigation concludes. Prosecutors decide whether to bring charges and any court case is resolved. Thursday's shooting marks the third time Alaska state troopers have fatally shot someone this summer. Last month, troopers shot and killed a man in Wasilla they say was armed with a handgun. Three troopers shot and killed a different man in Wasilla in June who they say drew a gun while officers tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. On the Kenai Peninsula. Thursday's shooting marks the third time in the last two years state troopers have shot and killed someone. Last year, troopers fatally shot a man in Kasilov who they say threatened officers with a harpoon. In January, troopers shot and killed a man after a four hour standoff. Also in Kasylof, the state Office of Special Prosecution separately charged two former Soldotna based state troopers with felony assault last year. In that case, prosecutors say body worn camera footage shows two troopers beating Tasing and having a police dog sick a man the troopers thought was someone else. That case is expected to go to trial next year. Reporting in Soldotna, I'm Ashlyn o'. Hara.
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More than a million cruise ship passengers visit Juneau each summer and the city is considering a seasonal sales tax to make the most of their spending. Some residents are wary of the idea, but as KTO's Clarice Larson reports, other Towns in Southeast have had success with similar systems.
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It's a rainy September day in Juneau, but the wet sidewalks and streets are still lined with cruise ship passengers donning thin plastic ponchos and holding shopping bags. Mickey hall and Pat Gensmer are at the front steps of the Alaska Shirt Company in downtown Juneau. They're holding the store's iconic bright red shopping bags.
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Yeah, I got a sweatshirt and my grandson got socks.
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They're in Juneau for the day, visiting off the New Amsterdam cruise ship. Without looking at the receipts, I asked them if they knew how much they paid in local sales taxes on the souvenirs they just bought and well, what.
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Is the sales rate?
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I thought it was free.
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No, I thought they had no sales tax in Alaska.
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That's half true. While Alaska has no statewide general sales tax, local taxes can still apply. In Juneau, the sales tax is 5% year round, but that could soon change. Juneau voters will decide this October whether the city should implement a new seasonal sales tax system. The city would bump up its tax rate in the summer when tourists are in town to 7.5%, then lower it to 3% in the winter to give locals a break. The change would apply to everyone. Advocates for the system say it's meant to take advantage of the tourist traffic while also giving some winter relief to year round residents. Juneau assembly member Neil Steininger supports the idea. He's an economist and previously served as the director of Office of Management and Budget for the state.
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We have a lot of out of town visitors and we have a lot of economic activity from know non residents in the summer. And so it allow us to shift some of that tax burden away from residents, making it even more affordable for.
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Individual residents in Juneau.
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While cruise ship passengers like hall and Gensmer say they won't lose sleep over the tax increase, not everyone is on board. Juneau resident Wayne Coogan is the co owner and general manager of Coogan Construction. He says he's worried that implementing a seasonal tax structure in Juneau will disproportionately affect construction spending.
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Everyone knows that the construction industry to.
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A great degree goes to sleep in the wintertime. They bed down and wait for the.
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Weather to come back for what's called the construction season. And so the heavy spending occurs in the summertime.
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While Juneau's city government does offer some sales tax exemption for construction materials, it doesn't cover everything. Coogan says the seasonal change will make buying goods in the summer more expensive, which will hit consumers. But other locals like Joel Ferrer say he sees the logic behind the system. He lives in Juneau year round and owns a tourist shop downtown. He says he's willing to try it.
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But the bottom line, there's no perfect system. There's always going to be a glitch or some people will be affected in a positive way, some will be in a negative way. No one's going to be totally happy with whichever.
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Nearby southeast Alaska towns like Ketchikan, Sitka, Craig Pelican and Skagway have already adopted seasonal tax structures. All of them see a significant amount of Summer tour implemented a seasonal sales tax structure within city limits in 2023. The borough has a population of about 14,000 year round residents, but it sees more than a million tourists each year. Ketchikan's mayor Bob Sivertson says the tax structure just makes sense.
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The reality of it is the community sees our resources being used, our streets being crowded. I think they see this as a positive way of community to utilize the economy that we have, which is the seasonal economy in the best interest of the community.
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The additional revenue the city takes in from the new system goes into its general fund and has paid for things like wage increases for city workers. Janice Walker runs Madison Lumber and Hardware in Ketchikan. She says while the new system hasn't dramatically changed her business, it does cause some headaches.
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You know, it's just something every six.
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Months we have to do and then.
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They also have a sales tax free day down here.
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So you got to do it for that day anyways.
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It just for the retailer makes it.
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A little more difficult.
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She says she supports the change as long as the revenue that the city takes in goes towards services that benefit year round residents in Juneau. The sales tax boost in the summer is intended to offset a proposal to exempt essential food and residential utilities from local sales tax. The cruise ship passengers on Franklin street, hall and Gensmer say go for it.
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Good for you guys.
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Yeah, people live here, they deserve a break.
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Yeah, no problem.
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But it's not up to them. Juneau voters will decide. The local election ends October 7th. In Juneau, I'm Clarice Larsen.
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The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, dispatched U.S. aircraft Thursday to intercept four Russian military planes flying in international airspace off Alaska. KUAC's Tim Ellis reports.
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A NORAD news release says the agency detected and tracked the two Russian Su35 fighter jets and two Tu95 bombers as they entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. In response, NORAD sent four F16 fighters, four KC135 air tankers and an E3 surveillance aircraft. The formation intercepted the Russian planes and escorted them through the air defense ID zone, according to the news release. The Russian planes remained in international airspace and didn't enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. NORAD is a U.S. and Canadian military organization that monitors and responds to aerospace activity around the two nations. Russian aircraft often fly through the air defense ID zones, which NORAD defines as international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security. The news release says the Russian incursions into the U.S. and Canadian air defense ID zones occurs regularly and is not considered a threat. The agency's last reported response to a Russian sortie into the zones occurred a month ago. NORAD officials didn't respond Thursday to questions about where and when the Russian aircraft entered and exited the Alaskan air defense ID zone. For KUAC News, I'm Tim Ellis.
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The only year round medical clinic in the small interior community of Healy announced last week that it will soon close its doors. As Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska desk, that may force residents to drive long distances for health care.
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The Interior Community Health center in Healy, just outside Denali national park, will shut down on November 1st. A press release sent out by the center's board said community testimony shows that the clinic isn't meeting the needs of Denali Burrow residents, many of whom also want year round 24. 7 emergency care, home visitation, imaging and pharmacy services. The release also said the clinic can't provide these services while remaining financially sustainable. End quote. Denali Borough Mayor Chris Knoll said in an email to KUAC that he was surprised by the announcement and that the closure means that many of his constituents will have to drive longer distances for care at other facilities, including about 40 miles away to the next closest clinic in Cantwell, 55 miles to Nenana, or 110 miles to Health facilities in Fairbanks. There's one other clinic in town, but it's only open during the summer tourist season. The Healy Clinic is a satellite office of the Fairbanks based Interior Community Health center and has been open in the community for more than two decades. After November, Interior Community Health center patients in Healy will still have the option to meet with their providers virtually, but exams will have to be done at the clinic in Fairbanks, two hours away. Interior Community Health Center CEO Cheryl Kilgore declined to comment on the closure. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
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Each fall, over a million people around the world rank Alaska's chunkiest bears for Katmai National Park's Fat Bear Week. Inspired by the popular contest, the city of Sitka has dubbed next week Fat Pothole Week, inviting Sitkins to become active participants in fixing city streets, KCAW's Ryan Cotter reports.
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While tourists draped in ponchos meander down Lincoln street, peering through the windows of Sitka's gift shops and snapping pictures of the famous Russian Orthodox cathedral, Melissa Lunas and Ariadne Will stand in the middle of a nearby alleyway to photograph a different a fairly large pothole.
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I'd say it's about 4 to 5, 5ft wide at the widest and then probably an inch and a half deep at the deepest. And it's on a pretty steep uphill.
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And it looks like it's been patched at least three times, if not four. That one's definitely Fat Pothole Week worthy.
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Yeah, this is like a whole archipelago.
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As a lifelong Sitkin and a city planner, Will is no stranger to navigating Sitka's potholes. But as the city began preparing its streets for the harsh winter months, Will noticed a parallel between the work the city does filling potholes and Katmai Bear's weight gain journey she has followed along for years.
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My grandparents maintain a private driveway and there's always a lot of potholes there and it's always kind of a journey to get through them and get around them. And I think that felt a little similar to me is the journey of these bears gaining all this weight and eating all these fish and getting prepared for winter.
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After initially sharing the idea as a joke with her co workers and friends, Will found it actually resonated with a lot of people. After pitching Fat Pothole Week to Lunis, the city's public and government relations director, in late September, they called for community members to submit their best pothole pics. Then, much like Fat Bear Week, the potholes portraits will face off in a week long bracket battle. The winner will be the first but not only pothole filled by the city's public works crew. Harry Greene is a city street superintendent. Given Sitka's rainy climate and decades old streets, Greene says it's an especially susceptible region for potholes.
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The Asphalt Institute says there's three enemies to asphalt and or pavement. The first one's water, the second one's water and the third one's water. So the water we have, it's, it's, you know, it's these aging roads we have, it's we have to keep keep after it. The potholes develop.
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When he heard about Fat Pothole Week, he hoped it would incentivize Sitkins to report them.
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We actually rely on people, people's complaints to tell us that there's a problem because we can't, we don't get it all. So, you know, people telling us where there's a pothole. I think it's a good idea.
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As the submission deadline draws near, Will is optimistic that Fat Pothole Week's will not only give Sitkins a laugh, but remind folks of the role they can play in preserving Sitka's infrastructure.
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We've built a lot up in this town, and to be able to take care of it is really important.
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Lunas shares Will's enthusiasm. She says that while the city often sends out surveys to gauge community interests, they have never done an initiative that connects their work to pop culture events. And Fat Pothole Week is getting folks attention. Lunis is glad for that, especially because it spotlights the dedicated and often unseen work of Sitka's streets crew.
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I would imagine that the community isn't very familiar with our asset management and how public works has schedules for everything that they do. And so this is kind of a fun way to bring that to light a little bit.
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If it proves successful. Lunas believes that Fat Pothole Week could become a Sitka tradition for years to come. After all, street maintenance never ends, so there are plenty of alley archipelagos across Sitka for those with the eyes to see them in Sitka. I'm Brian Cotter.
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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 Hannah Flor in Anchorage, Eric Stone and Clarice Larson in Juneau, Ashlyn o' Hare in Saldotna, Sydney Dauphine in Ketchikan, Shelby Herbert and Tim Ellis in Fairbanks, and Ryan Cotter in Sitka. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newslaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde, Madeline Rose is our producer and I'm Wesley Early. Have a great weekend.