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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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In some states, it is a lawsuit that prompts a state to say, we.
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Need to look at this differently.
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We need to take very significant action.
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A national group takes this to force reforms in the foster care system. From Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, September 5th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, an economist looks at the long term impacts of the big beautiful bill on Alaska.
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I think that one open question is that a lot of the provisions in the bill that kick in later can potentially change over time.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
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Consider a gift of stock to Alaska Public Media. You may avoid paying capital gains tax and receive a deduction.
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Learn more@alaskapublic.org stock or contact your financial advisor.
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Alaska's Office of Children's Services is defending its practices in a federal court case that began last week in Anchorage. A national organization brought the class action lawsuit, hoping it can force court mandated reforms to a system they say is failing Alaska kids. And as Alaska Public Media's Rachel Cassandra reports, the strategy has worked in other states.
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When former foster youth Matthew Vandenberg took the stand on the first day of the federal trial, he told the judge about a foster placement he and other foster youth called the ramen house. He recounted his testimony in an interview.
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The people there would give you two ramen packs a day, and if you.
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Ate them, say in the morning because.
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You were hungry, you would have to wait until the next day to eat again.
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I lost over 30 pounds being at that foster home.
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He says he was shoved so hard that it broke a wall. In the same home, he testified that he moved foster placements about 13 times over about four years. OCS is supposed to visit kids in their care monthly, partly to make sure kids aren't mistreated. But Marsha Lowry says those monthly visits in Alaska just aren't happening, putting kids like Vandenberg at risk. She's an attorney and director of a national nonprofit, A Better Childhood, that brings lawsuits against states to push for foster care reforms.
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How else can you know whether a child is safe when you put a child in a foster home? How can you know when it's time to move a child to get freed for adoption? And the visits with both children and with parents are very, very Lowry says.
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That on many federal measures, Alaska's foster care system ranks among the worst in the country. Data shows that Alaska has fewer caseworkers visiting children, longer child protection response times, shorter average placements and more children maltreated while in OCS custody. And Lowery says the state has not taken the necessary steps to correct problems in the system.
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Alaska is one of the few places that I know of that hires workers who don't have college degrees. Nice, well intentioned people can't just do this job. They need an education.
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Lowry says lawsuits like this can be an effective way to force system reforms. She says her organization has sued 12 other states in the last decade to improve foster care systems. They've won four and eight are ongoing. She says when they sued New Jersey in 1999, their system was one of the worst in the country. Now it's one of the best.
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There was a court order entered and there was monitoring provided. And New Jersey over a period of time, reformed its system and had to go into court periodically and report on whether or not it was doing that. And that helped with the Legislature. The legislature then was required to appropriate more money.
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Alaska's foster care system has long been plagued with serious problems. Caseloads for caseworkers are often several times the expert recommended maximum. The state consistently reports high turnover, which experts say creates worse outcomes for kids. In 2018, a law required reforms meant to reduce caseloads and staff turnover with mandatory audits to check on the progress. The final audit, released this year, showed that by most measures, OCS hasn't made meaningful progress. But those involved in bringing this class action lawsuit to trial hope that if they win, it could actually force meaningful change. Alicia Grow is a national expert in child welfare systems and testified in the federal trial. She says a wide variety of things can force change in a child welfare system. But she agrees lawsuits can be effective. In some states, it is a lawsuit or the beginnings of a lawsuit that prompts a state to say we need to look at this differently. We need to take very significant action to address these concerns. But she says strong leadership is also an important piece of the puzzle. The Office of Children's Services declined an interview for this story while the trial is taking place. But in her testimony, OCS Director Kim Gui consistently pointed out that her office is just one piece of Alaska's child welfare system. She acknowledges caseloads can be high, but says the state can't implement caseload caps because OCS can't turn away kids or families who need help. Margaret Patton Walsh is assistant attorney general defending the state in the trial. She says one of the main problems is that Alaska has a serious caseworker shortage.
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Our perspective is child welfare work is really hard. It's especially hard in Alaska because of the size and the remoteness of so many of the communities. And we are doing the best that we can to manage the challenges that we have.
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She says OCS has made some positive changes in an overstressed system.
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OCS is trying to fix some things, but the world is changing around them. The economy is changing, the demographics of Alaska is changing. And so the solution that you might develop at one moment in time is not going to be a permanent fix.
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The federal trial is slated to wrap up September 10th. There's no timeline for when the judge will issue her decision. In Anchorage, I'm Rachel Cassandra.
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A 57 year old cruise passenger is dead after being struck by a car that went over the guardrail into Ketchikan Creek yesterday. The crash happened in a parking lot in the center of the busy downtown shopping district. Police have identified the victim as a woman from Auburn, Indiana. As KRBD's Jack Darrell reports, the town is mourning the tragedy while also honoring the bravery of a young man.
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The crash happened just after 8:30 in the morning. Bob Cooley, a cruise passenger from Texas, was there when it happened.
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We were about to go back in there, do some shopping and all of a sudden I hear this because her foot, she put her foot on the pedal and that's when my eyes zeroed in on her car and then it went and popped right over the curb.
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Says it looked like the driver pulled into a parking spot across the creek from the Good Fortune Chinese restaurant and in one fluid motion seemed to go through it and then through the boardwalk and the wooden railing. It was roughly 10 foot drop to the rocks and creek below. A business on Creek street near the crash site called Fish Creek company posted a video of the chaos immediately after the crash. The smoking car is sinking nose first into the creek with the driver inside. Tons of onlookers are crowded on the footbridge above. Break the window with a rock. Someone above is shouting. Hamilton Gelhar is the owner of Fish Creek. He took the video. Gelhar said over the phone afterwards that he arrived just after the car went over the guard rail. He recognized the driver as one of his neighbors, a fellow business owner on Creek Street. Police say the cruise passenger who died was walking in front of the car when it accelerated. She was 57, from Auburn, Indiana. She was walking to the museum with her husband. Catch can. Police Chief Eric Matson later said in a press conference that it all happened.
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Really fast and that vehicle accelerated at a pace where no pedestrian could have.
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Gotten out of the way. It was at the wrong moment for that woman. That vehicle grabbed her and took her.
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Over that embankment as it entered the creek.
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Her husband jumped down to the rocks after her. Officials say he's a retired volunteer firefighter back in Auburn. Matson says the cause of the tragedy is still being investigated. Officials say the driver went into cardiac arrest, but they don't know yet if the cardiac arrest caused the crash or was a result of it. As of Thursday evening, the driver was still in the hospital in critical but stable condition. Cooley, the Texan, says he didn't see the woman who was hit. Couldn't believe that that had happened in the moment. His attention was on the woman in the sinking car.
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It was crazy. It was crazy. Everybody wanted to help, but they just couldn't.
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And then he says he saw a young man, the long, dark ponytail.
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He literally ran and just jumped into the water. I mean, he. It was amazing. And then he. Like I said, he couldn't. He couldn't get the windows open.
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The young man was Dylan's Self. He's a server, Chinese restaurant, waiting for his shift to start.
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As soon as I seen her head go underwater, I knew she wasn't going to last more than 30 seconds before the inhale. So scaled the rocks as fast as I could until I got to the car and then dove in.
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Self says he grabbed a rock and dove across the creek. With both hands, he smashed the rear windshield. The glass cut a long gash in his arm. His buddy yelled, yo. The front window, the driver's side window was open. Self fought the current to pull her out of the window and onto the top of the sinking car. Started cpr. He'd never done CPR before, but he had help. People shouted instructions down from the crowd. Go higher on her chest. Move up a bit, Check for obstructions.
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By the time I pulled her out, she was already turning blue, like, really, really bad. And most of the water started kind of flowing up and out. That's when it kind of went to, like, a dark, pale. Yeah, it was crazy.
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Self says after the EMTs arrived and dragged her onto shore to continue CPR, he found an ambulance, climbed in. His arm was bleeding pretty heavily from where the rear windshield cut him. He says he was surprised by the amount of strength he was able to conjure down in the creek. In that moment.
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I have zero endurance. Also, the adrenaline really helped. Been able to do that without that.
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Cooley watched the whole thing. He said the driver was probably underwater for about two minutes. Another man jumped in to help but had to swim back to shore.
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And so it was literally that young man alone that saved that woman. The driver's life. He's a hero. He was a hero today.
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But in the chaos, Cooley, Self and others say they didn't know about the woman who was hit. Ketchikan police say they've interviewed the driver of the car, but are still investigating the cause of the tragedy. And catch a can. I'm Jack Darrell.
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Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, two Alaska communities combined forces for a culture camp.
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When you're using your summer to wake up at 9am to show up to dance, it's impressive.
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Hey, I'm Rick Steves. I've traveled all over the world and connected with so many fascinating people, and I'm looking forward to my visit to Alaska to share the lessons from my experience. Come see me at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on October 16th for travel as a political act. Tickets@alaskapublic.org events Ted Stay with us. The Alaska Division of elections has identified 70 possible noncitizens who voted or attempted to vote in Alaska since 2015. The Alaska Beacon reports that the state produced the 70 names at the request of the U.S. justice Department. Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher told the Beacon that noncitizen voting remains rare. She said many of the ballots cast by the 70 suspected non citizens were identified as question ballots. She couldn't say how many of them were actually counted. Typically, Beecher says, discrepancies in public records occur because someone made a mistake when they filled out the paperwork, often due to a misunderstanding. The list of 70 includes 10 residents of Whittier, originally from American Samoa. People born in that territory are US Nationals but not necessarily deemed citizens. The state has charged them with felonies related to voting. They pleaded not guilty this week following grand jury indictments. Some of the 10 told investigators they thought they were allowed to vote in local or state elections, but not for president.
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Foreign.
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Dave Bronson has resigned as manager of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport less than eight months after he was appointed to run the fourth largest cargo airport in the world. The Alaska Beacon reports that Bronson's final day was September 2nd, and he left the airport in good standing. The airport director's job is a political appointment by the office of the governor, according to the airport's communications specialist. The airport's division's operations manager will work as the acting manager while the position is vacant. Bronson did not immediately return a phone call or text message seeking comment on his resignation. Bronson, a Republican, was elected anchorage mayor in 2021, but lost his re election bid after being defeated by independent candidate and Current Mayor Suzanne LaFran. President Donald Trump's one big beautiful bill act that passed in July will likely have sprawling impacts on Alaska, from oil and gas production to a tax cut for whaling captains. But because of the way the nearly 1,000 page bill was written, it's hard to make specific predictions. Some elements, like changes to Medicaid, don't take effect until 2027. Alaska Public Media's Ava White spoke with Kevin Berry, a professor and chair of the Economics department at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Barry says those dates may be far out, but it doesn't necessarily mean it'll minimize the impacts.
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So to the extent that the current law stays current law and doesn't change, it just delays the impact for these things. In some cases though, it gives the state a chance to prepare or remove some of those impacts. So for instance, when we talk about the impacts to snap from the requirement for states to basically pay a penalty for payment mistakes, the delay in the implementation of that gives the state the opportunity to reduce those error rates and if we show a good faith effort, avoid some of those impacts. Now the state has a high error rate for snap payments and it depends on whether or not we can actually do those things over time. To the extent that we can't, we're just delaying the impacts. I think that one open question is that a lot of the provisions in the bill that kick in later can potentially change over time. To the extent that law stays the way that it is right now, we can make projections of what the bill looks like. But some of these things that are going to come into effect in the next couple of years may change in response. There could be political will to change impacts to different programs or different rules or dates that things kick in. And so it makes it really hard, I think, to forecast exactly what this is going to look like in 10 years. We can really only look at a lot of these baselines as what's under current law. But we've seen very recently that current law can change dramatically very quickly.
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And many economists in the state talk about how Alaska's economy sits on a three legged stool. One is gas and petroleum, one's other industries, and one is the federal government. What does our stool look like now.
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And will it continue to, I don't.
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Know if teeter is the right word, but shift?
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The three legged stool analogy comes from my now retired colleague Scott Goldsmith at ICER And I'll say first, there's a pretty regular conversation amongst the economists in the Department of Economics and the Institute of Social and Economic Research about updating that report and making sure that we still have exactly a three legged stool. None of us expect that it's changed dramatically, though these new developments potentially mean the oil sector is stronger into the future. And to the extent that that economic activity filters through the rest of the economy, our other sectors may perform better too. To the extent that the federal government is one third of our economy, I think that there's questions about the increase in the budget deficit and whether or not that's filled with spending cuts or tax increases in the future or more borrowing as well. And it's unclear what the strategy will be to deal with the deficit in the long run.
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How do you think the impacts of the big beautiful bill are changing the way people think about their own money and how they spend it, or will it change?
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So when I think about what's possibly going to happen, I most often think about what happened when we initially passed these tax cuts in 2017. And so we've got a few years of data afterwards that should be able to give us an idea of the impact of the bill. But unfortunately it's really hard to do that right, because yes, the aggregate demand effects should have kicked in in the first two years. So between 27 and 20, 20, 19, we should see an effect. Those seem like they're modest in the economic literature, that there's not huge impacts necessarily to aggregate demand. But the other big key part of the bill is how it more generously treats investment by businesses. So for folks who aren't economists listening to this, investment is when firms buy things like plants and equipment and basically the capacity to make more stuff in the future. Now those effects are obviously not going to all happen in the first year. And so the more generous expensing provisions are supposed to kick in over a decade or even longer. Unfortunately, we don't have any good data to tell what happened with the tax cuts and Job act the last time around because Covid happened and the economy got really, really weird. And so all those effects are kind of mixed in with shutdowns and mandates and impacts from the disease on human behavior and everything else that happened 2020 on. And so we don't really know what those provisions are going to do over time.
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Kevin Berry is a professor and chairs the Economics Department at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Contractors broke ground in Sitka last week on the final piece of a two decade project seeking more affordable housing. As KCAW's Hope McKinney reports, the new units will be rented at a reduced rate and aim to help young families stay in the community.
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It's a sunny, windy day in Sitka as a concrete truck pulls into the Sitka Land Trust slot on Halibut Point Road and starts to to pour gray concrete into a 25 by 34 foot foundation.
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So this is the first time it goes vertical, as we say, right? We're pouring concrete in the footings to help to start the very first building at the outside end here.
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Contractors are breaking ground on three duplex apartment buildings that once completed, will be rented to Sitkins at below market rates. The six units in the works are part of the Stone Suzhini Shock Cottage neighborhood, a land trust community where Sitkins can purchase a house but not the land beneath the house, which saves substantial money for the buyer.
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We're able to provide these homes as we envision to young families and first time home buyers entirely.
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Randy Huey is executive director of the Sitka Community Land Trust, which bought this land from the city of Sitka in 2015 for $1. The project is part of a decades long push for affordable housing in Sitka, which like many communities throughout southeast Alaska has struggled to keep up with housing demands, particularly during the busy summer season which sees an influx of both workers and visitors.
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Sitka has a housing problem. It has a housing crisis. It needs every kind of housing ownership and rental.
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The cottage neighborhood will ultimately have 14 owned homes and six rentals. The rental income, says Huey, will hopefully help the land trust, which relies heavily on the work of volunteers and semi retired staff like himself, build more affordable houses in the future.
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Our mission is home ownership, but we had the opportunity with this little piece of land that we're now standing on here at the far western end of the site, we saw the potential for creating some apartments and these we will provide at below market value and it'll create an income stream that will help sustain our work in creating home ownership opportunities.
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Huey says the crisis in Sitka is as much a demographic crisis as it is a housing crisis. Sitka has lost 800 people in the last 10 years, ringing in at just about 8,200 residents. The last time the population was that low was in 1987, nearly 40 years ago. In the past decade, the population of those 65 and older has grown by 43%. Meanwhile, the population of prime working age has decreased and the population of minors has shrunk by nearly 24%.
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That's a demographic crisis. So If Sitco wants to be a vibrant, healthy living community and not just some vacation getaway home or second home for people my age, then we got to change something. And the first thing to change is housing. We need more of it and it has to be less expensive. And it is my belief that home ownership is the way that you get young families to stay here, huey says.
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It comes down to the availability of land. Geographically, Sitka has the ocean in front, mountains behind, and a lot of muskeg in between. And a lot of that land is owned by the federal government, further limiting buildable space.
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But if Sitka were the community in southeast Alaska where young families could buy a home, we would be flooded with them. It's not about jobs, it's about housing.
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The beauty of the community land trust model, Huey says, is that it addresses the fundamental economic problem in housing in America, where property values have escalated vastly beyond incomes. And while these two and three bedroom houses and apartments are compact between 800 and 1200 square feet, he says both the owned homes and rentals will help young families get a foot in the door and encourage them to stay in sitcom.
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These are the size of homes that I grew up in and all my cousins grew up in. Everybody had small homes back then and when they sold them, nobody made a ton of money. They all made some money and were able to maybe buy a little bit bigger home or a little nicer, some land, whatever, but nobody was getting rich in home sales. Those days are past.
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The city of Sitka is currently working on a land study to determine the feasibility of land for future housing development. Thus far, consultants have identified nine possible sites in Sitka. I'm Hope McKenney.
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This summer, the communities of Atka and Akutan teamed up for a combined two week culture camp on Akutan Island. KUCB's Kenesha McGlashan Price reports campers spent a lot of the time on the dance floor this year.
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After chugging.
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We're going to do invitational chugging.
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For the first week of camp, students spent hours each day learning new choreography and songs. Six kids from atka, three from False Pass and more than a dozen from Akutan joined the collaborative camp this summer. Josephine Schengen is one of the co coordinators from Akutan and says they spent the whole first week focused on song and dance.
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It's a really ambitious lineup and it's been intense. We've got 1, 2, 3 and working on a fourth song.
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Together, campers and mentors workshopped lyrics and translated them into unongam Tenu. With language support from Krystal Dushkin and Sally Swetsoff of ATKA Achan Inga is a traditional name of Akitian village and the name of their new paddling song. It tells to us story of hunters moving through the fog in Akoon Strait, guided home by the voice of Ayera Tunatuk, a mountain in Akitan.
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And I'm amazed at how much work all the youth have put in and the hours and the focus, because when you're using your summer to wake up at 9am to show up to dance, you know, it's impressive and I'm really proud of all the kids.
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The camp is part of an ongoing collaboration. Since 2019, the Atka and Akitan communities have alternated hosting between the two villages. Coordinator Krystal Dushkin from Atka says each community brings unique teachings to the camp and helps one another fill in knowledge gaps.
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So in atka, we do our language and dance throughout the year. It's not, you know, just during the summer or just during culture camp.
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And so like the dance and the.
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Language part is incorporated in our camp, but it's not a heavy focus for us. But we do focus a lot on traditional foods at our camp.
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In atka, the second half of camp focused on other cultural practices like weaving, regalia making, model ikiya building, bentwood hat making, and mass carving. At the end of the two weeks, campers debuted the new songs for the community and then traveled west to perform at the first ever an Ngnunangan festival held in Unalaska in August. For KUCB in Unalaska, I'm Kenesha McGlashan Price.
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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 Rachel Cassandra and Ava White in Anchorage, Jack Darrell in Katchikan, Hope McKinney in Sitka, and Kenesha McGlashan Price in Unalaska. Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer, and I'm Casey Grove. Have a great weekend.