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- [00:00]
Alex Solomon
Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from PeopleMover. Help update the public transit service plan. Visit transitonthemove.com to take the latest public survey by April 26th.
- [00:18]
Delaina Johnson
We're setting the price for Alaskans at 1500, and it's just going to go down from there.
- [00:24]
Wesley Early
The Alaska House approves its version of the state budget, including the proposed PFD amount from Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaskan News nightly for Monday, April 13th. Good evening. I'm Wesley Early. Also tonight, the city of Gustavus looks for a solution for septic waste that's contaminated with forever chemicals.
- [00:41]
Delaina Johnson
There's not a whole lot we can do short of what we were doing.
- [00:46]
Wesley Early
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. The Alaska House approved its version of the state budget this afternoon. The budget passed along caucus lines, with all 21 members of the Democrat heavy bipartisan majority voting in favor and all 19 minority Republicans opposed. The budget underwent some major changes on the House floor, most notably to the permanent fund dividend. It came to the floor with a roughly $3,800 dividend contingent on a super majority vote to draw nearly $1.5 billion from the state's main savings account, the constitutional budget reserve. But in a dramatic vote Friday night, three minority Republicans voted with the majority to eliminate the savings draw and the $3,800 dividend from the budget. One of those was Ketchikan Representative Jeremy Bynum, who says the state simply can't afford it.
- [01:42]
Justin Ruffridge
Maybe it doesn't suit being here in this body very well, but I've spent my whole career of trying to make sure that the numbers match and when I disagree with what those numbers are, at the end of the day, they still need to match.
- [01:56]
Wesley Early
Fairbanks Representative Will Stapp and Eagle River Representative Dan Sadler joined nearly all of the bipartisan majority to instead set the dividend at roughly $1,500. It's far from the final word on the dividend, which will likely remain unsettled until the House and Senate agree on a final budget in the closing days of the session. But House Minority Leader Delaina Johnson, a Palmer Republican, says she'd rather set the House's ask much higher.
- [02:19]
Delaina Johnson
We're setting the price for Alaskans at 1500, and it's just going to go down from there.
- [02:25]
Wesley Early
During the House's final debate on the budget today, Representative Andy Josephson, an Anchorage Democrat who led the House's budget process, said the $1,500 figure represented a sustainable dividend.
- [02:37]
Justin Ruffridge
Now, I concede that this may not be the final word, but a yes vote reflects that, at least at this moment in time, we would like to pay $1,500. All in all, this budget prioritizes and values crucial areas impacting every Alaskan.
- [02:53]
Wesley Early
The House's budget also adds roughly $150 million to the state's budget for public schools and $10 million for student transportation. As districts across the state struggle to make ends meet, Republicans oppose the budget on a wide range of grounds. Representative Justin Ruffridge of Soldotna criticized the majority's decision to craft a budget that assumes oil prices remain elevated in the wake of the war in Iran.
- [03:15]
Justin Ruffridge
I think that the members who sit in these seats a year from now are going to be saying, man, what were those guys thinking? They really made a budget on $75 a barrel oil. Do we think that's reasonable?
- [03:29]
Wesley Early
The budget now heads to the Senate, which will consider the House's version, come up with its own draft and set the stage for final negotiations in the closing days of the legislative session in May. President Donald Trump on Friday called on Alaska voters to repeal ranked choice voting at the November election. The Alaska Beacon reports. An effort to repeal ranked Choice voting in 2024 failed by just 737 votes. A separate repeal initiative sponsored by figures aligned with the Alaska Republican Party is set to appear on the 2026 general election ballot. Trump gave his, quote, complete and total support to supporters of the repeal effort, including US Senator Dan Sull, Congressman Nick Begich, both Alaska Republicans running for reelection in November. Alaska voters narrowly approved a ballot measure in 2020 that implemented ranked choice voting for state and congressional elections alongside open primary elections and tougher campaign finance disclosure requirements. However, the new election system has been controversial. Opponents argue that ranked choice voting is unnecessarily complicated, while supporters say it has led to more moderate and consensus candidates elected. Ranked voting, open primaries and the tougher campaign financ disclosure requirements would all be struck down if the 2026 ballot measure is approved by a majority of voters. Alaska for Better Elections is a group running voter education campaigns in support of retaining ranked choice voting in open primaries. Executive Director Julie Luckey said Alaska's election system has allowed policymakers across the political spectrum to work together without fear of challengers in partisan primaries. Meanwhile, for communities in western Alaska, last year's Bering airplane crash is still being felt in the villages where the victims lived and worked. Now, the unalaklete school's former counselor is being recognized in a national monument for educators. Kanom's Ben Townsend has more.
- [05:34]
Alex Solomon
Ask Anyone at the Unala Cleete School what Carol Moores did for the K12 campus and you won't get a quick answer.
- [05:41]
Chris Busk
Like every week she would either have breakfast tacos for the staff or she would cook breakfast for the seniors.
- [05:47]
Alex Solomon
This is Chris Busk, the school's principal. He worked with Moore's for three years.
- [05:52]
Chris Busk
She was always in the student store, no matter what club was operating the student store. She was our cotton candy queen. She was a master at making a cone of cotton candy.
- [06:07]
Alex Solomon
Mors official job title was counselor, but she also served as a Spanish and French teacher. She ran the school's National Honor Society program and helped current and former students apply for financial aid. In February 2025, Morris was one of nine passengers to die in a Bering airplane crash. The cause of the crash is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Busk says the loss of Moores was
- [06:32]
Chris Busk
felt immediately had to teach the classes she was teaching her laugh at the staff meeting. She would always give raffle tickets, have prizes. It's just like it was an element in every single item of our operations. So you say, when did we notice her gone? It was. It was everywhere and in everything.
- [07:01]
Alex Solomon
Busk says from the moment Mors landed in Unilocleet, she made the entire village her family. And he says confronting her sudden loss hasn't come easy.
- [07:10]
Chris Busk
A lot of emotions, a lot of memories, a lot of kids needing to release with discussions about loss and grief and a lot of. A lot of reaching out to the family.
- [07:30]
Alex Solomon
Last year, longtime Alaska educator Bob Williams nominated both Moores and fellow educator Leanne Ryan to the National Teacher hall of Fame. Ryan also died in the Bering air crash but was ineligible for the K12 honor due to her work being funded by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Matty Fennell is the national teacher Hall of Fame's executive director. She says after the 202012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the organization set out to honor educators lost in the line of duty. Two years later, a monument was opened to the public. It resembles a black granite book with names of educators permanently etched into it. The site in Emporia, Kansas, sits near a 19th century schoolhouse that Fennell says was relocated to the site brick by brick. She says the quiet setting evokes a deep appreciation for the sacrifices made by educators.
- [08:20]
Matty Fennell
You know, teachers go, we often go into education because of our love of students. We never expect to have to give our lives, but teachers will and they've proven that, that they lay down their
- [08:30]
Alex Solomon
lives for their students, fennell says. The memorial has had to grow over the years.
- [08:34]
Matty Fennell
When they started the memorial, they had two granite books and they thought it would take them a very long time to fill those granite books. It took them five years.
- [08:41]
Alex Solomon
The nonprofit successfully fundraised for two new granite books this winter. Moores and 12 other nominees will join nearly 200 other names already etched into the monument. Reporting in nomenclature, I am Ben Townsend.
- [08:59]
Wesley Early
Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, a new movie theater opens in Ketchikan.
- [09:04]
Travis Robbins
I'm one of these guys that just likes to write down ideas constantly, and it was just a dream.
- [09:10]
Wesley Early
That's ahead. Stay with us. The Alaska Department of Transportation has opened the Taylor highway in the eastern interior, and the department will begin plowing snow this week on another seasonally accessible highway to the west. DOT opened the Taylor highway earlier this month, but crews are still working on it. Spokesperson Angela Stobbs recommends caution for anyone who wants to take a drive on the highway, which runs from Tetlin to Eagle near the Yukon border, so it is open.
- [09:39]
Angela Stobbs
However, motorists should be prepared for a range of spring conditions. We still have sections that have snow and ice, while others are slushy with standing water and ruts, stobbs says.
- [09:52]
Wesley Early
The going gets especially tough from mileposts 93 to 97 and 112 to 118.
- [09:58]
Angela Stobbs
Right now, travel is described as difficult and if people are going to try to venture out, we recommend four wheel drive vehicles and any vehicles hauling trailers or super heavy loads, they should be
- [10:13]
Wesley Early
equipped with chains, she says. Crews got to work in early March and it took about a month to clear a path through the snow that's been accumulating since the 160 mile road was closed back in October. Work on the Denali highway will get underway this week. That's the 133 mile long road that runs from Cantwell on the Parks highway to Paxon on the Richardson Highway.
- [10:34]
Angela Stobbs
Crews will begin snow clearing operations on April 11 from the Paxon side and April 15 from the Cantwell side, and those two teams will work on both ends and then kind of meet in the Middle around milepost 68.
- [10:49]
Wesley Early
Stubbs says dot officials also anticipate challenging driving conditions on the Denali highway over the next few weeks. And she says DOT is cautioning drivers to stop if they encounter barricades in the roadway while the spring clearing work is underway.
- [11:03]
Angela Stobbs
Please do not go past those barricades. We have those up to protect the public. The road is not passable and there's no opportunities to turn around they will get stuck.
- [11:17]
Wesley Early
DOT officials say motorists planning to drive the Taylor or Denali highways should first check on conditions and road work by going online to 511alaska.gov. Law enforcement officers and a SWAT team converged on a middle school in Fairbanks Thursday after getting a report of what officials later determined false information about gunshots at the school on the north side of town, KYC's Tim Ellis reports.
- [11:55]
Tim Ellis
Fairbanks Police Chief Ron Dupee said when he and more than 20 other officers got to Smith Middle School, a dispatcher relayed some information to him that raised doubts.
- [12:06]
Ron Dupee
As soon as we arrived on scene, we were advised by our dispatch center that the call had originated from Canada. So right away we we thought that, you know, there was a little something odd about that.
- [12:20]
Tim Ellis
Despite their suspicions, Dupee said officers responded to ensure there really was not a shooter in the schoolhouse or to determine it was just another so called swatting incident in which a person calls 911 to report a fake emergency that results in police and a SWAT squad responding and creating panic among bystanders at the scene.
- [12:43]
Ron Dupee
We went inside to the location where supposedly the incident had taken place. We found nothing out of the ordinary. Other law enforcement agencies started arriving on scene as well. At that point we determined that it was a hoax and that there was no active threat at the school, the chief said.
- [13:02]
Tim Ellis
Those agencies included Alaska State Troopers and members of the Northern SWAT squad.
- [13:08]
Ron Dupee
Anytime there's a call like this, even if we believe it to be a hoax, we go through the the whole process. We lock down the school. You know, we we go to the area to determine if there is any active threat and you know, if there's not, then we pass that on to the school district and you know, we
- [13:25]
Tim Ellis
can open the school back up, dupy said. Law enforcement officers in Fairbanks and nationwide have learned to take all reports of school shootings seriously because it's become an increasingly common phenomenon that's shown in studies like one CNN compiled last year that says after the pandemic, school shootings sharply increased from 2021 to 2024 and set new records every year.
- [13:54]
Ron Dupee
These unfortunately are not isolated incidents anymore. This is a more common occurrence and
- [14:00]
Tim Ellis
so are reports of shootings that turn out to be false, the chief said. That happened most recently in Fairbanks back in November at Lathrop High School.
- [14:10]
Ron Dupee
It's not funny, it's not a joke. Everybody takes these things really seriously and it can take an emotional toll on people.
- [14:17]
Tim Ellis
Doopie said Fairbanks PD is investigating the case. He suspects the call really didn't originate in Canada, but said that may be hard to determine. He said anyone with information about the Incident should call Lt. Amy Davis with Fairbanks Police Investigations Unit at 907-450-6500. In Delta Junction, I'm Tim Ellis.
- [14:43]
Wesley Early
The city of Gustavus doesn't have its own public works department, so it can't process its own septic waste. The community of less than 700 people shipped that waste to Juneau for years, but as KTOO's Alex Solomon reports, that longtime practice came to an abrupt end last year. Now both cities are trying to figure out their options.
- [15:02]
Alex Solomon
Most households and businesses in the rural community of Gustavus rely on septic systems, and for years a private company from Juneau ferried over to pump them out. But then the city and borough of Juneau stopped accepting septic waste from Gustavus last March due to concerns over the impacts of PFAS contaminated sludge. PFAS are called forever chemicals since they don't break down naturally, they're toxic, known to cause severe health problems, and they're everywhere, including in human waste. High concentrations of PFAS afflict the city of Gustavus since firefighting foams containing the chemicals were sprayed at the airport upstream from neighborhoods. Now many people living in Gustavus worry about what to do when their septic tanks fill up. Like Norma Fleek, I don't know.
- [15:47]
Delaina Johnson
I really don't have a plan for it.
- [15:49]
Alex Solomon
She spends around half the year in Juneau and the other half in Gustavus. Before she had a septic tank installed in the 1990s, she said her family dumped waste in a large hole on the Gustavus property. She says she might have to dig another big hole if Juneau won't reconsider taking her waste.
- [16:05]
Delaina Johnson
If there are places in Gustavus that are PFAS free, it would seem to me that at least they could allow those properties to be collected and accept that septuage.
- [16:17]
Alex Solomon
Fleek says her drinking water well has not tested high for PFAs, unlike some others in town. It was no secret that Juneau had been processing septic waste from Gustavus. It had been going on since the Alaska Marine Highway System brought ferry Service there in 2011. Despite that, Juneau's engineering and public works director, Denise Koch, says she only found out about it in 2025 when the city of Gustavus began looking at long term ways to deal with its waste stream. The contractor doing the study reached out to Juneau city staff. That's when Juneau's public works department sent a letter to the city of Gustavus telling them to stop sending their septic waste. Koch told KTOO last month that it was because Juneau's wastewater treatment plants have to comply with permits issued by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Those permits restrict toxic contamination in treated wastewater that's released back into the environment, and they require the city to conduct toxicity testing.
- [17:12]
Delaina Johnson
We know that PFAS is an emerging contaminant. We don't know if Gustavus septage would cause a problem with those whole affluent toxicity tests.
- [17:23]
Alex Solomon
Those tests help ensure wastewater facilities meet federal Clean Water Acts standards, and PFAS tests last spring showed solids in Gustavus septic waste did contain some forever chemicals. But Sam Dapsevich, a spokesperson at dec, wrote in an email to KTOO that there are currently no regulatory limits on PFAS in wastewater effluent and there's nothing in the city's permits that would prevent them from taking septic waste from Gustavus. In correspondence between Juno city staff and Decided, which was provided to ktoo, city staff say the state gave Juneau conflicting guidance. Koch says the city is planning to meet with state environmental regulators to talk about the issue soon. Kathy Leary is the city administrator for Gustavus. She says the small town doesn't have the authority to set up its own wastewater treatment facility since it doesn't have a public works department to oversee it. So she says the town is not equipped to manage the waste on its own.
- [18:17]
Delaina Johnson
There's not a whole lot we can do short of what we were doing and maybe trying to work with Juno and ADC to come to terms with, you know, allowing the small amounts that we have to be injected into their system. But again, I we're not there yet.
- [18:38]
Alex Solomon
Leary says since no one is coming to pump, some residents are thinking about other ways to deal with the waste. She says some have installed elevated leach fields to try to prevent E. Coli and fecal coliform from contaminating shelter shallow drinking water wells. And others are talking about digging a hole to dump it in. But neither solution will last forever. In Juneau, I'm Alex Solomon.
- [19:01]
Wesley Early
As prices rise, Alaskans looking for ways to control costs and be more self sufficient can grow their own food. And organizers of an all day event in Palmer later this week hope to give Alaskans the skills they need to do that. It's according to Kelly Marciales with Alaska Pacific University. She represents one of three organizations holding a free workshop in Palmer that would teach Mat Su residents how to address food security through agriculture and small scale farming.
- [19:25]
Delaina Johnson
As food prices rise, gas prices rise, cost of transportation rises. I think folks are looking for ways that they can sustain themselves.
- [19:36]
Wesley Early
Participants will learn how to grow from seed, preserve and canned food and even how to make sourdough bread. The workshop will feature hands on sessions in addition to providing support for individuals interested in starting a small scale farm. Marcialis hopes that people walk away from the event with the tools they need to help them feel more food secure.
- [19:54]
Delaina Johnson
Agriculture is just often left out of the food security picture and we want to make sure that it stays top of mind and help people understand that it's like within their grasp to be to be growing food and preserving food in one's own backyard.
- [20:11]
Wesley Early
The free workshop will take place Saturday, April 18th at the Alaska State Fairgrounds. Those who are interested can register at the Alaska Farmland Trust website. When Ketchikan's only movie theater, the Coliseum Theater, closed down last summer, rumors circulated about what would go in the building's place. The building owners kept things pretty quiet until now. KRBD's Sydney Dauphine has more on the new theater set to open for this year's cruise ship season. Every turn reveals a new challenge at
- [20:54]
Sydney Dauphine
CMAX, Ketchikan's newest theater. There's one movie playing Edge of the Wild. It's a 20 minute documentary style production with drone footage across Alaska, and it's a 4D multisense experience. The seats tilt and shake. Water sprays out of the armrests to accompany footage of whitewater rafting in Hope. Wind blows in your face when you're dog mushing in Seward. The seats vibrate like you're on a bumpy dirt road on an ATV excursion. In Ketchikan, the ground floor theater can see around 70 people. The main purpose of that theater is to show C Max's own movie, Edge of the Wild, produced just for this experience. Travis Robbins is a partial owner of C Max. He lives in Ketchikan and says this idea was in the making for years.
- [21:46]
Travis Robbins
I'm one of these guys that just likes to write down ideas constantly and it was just a dream.
- [21:52]
Sydney Dauphine
In 2017 he went to the Phoenix Zoo with his kids and watched A Bug's Life there. Something clicked.
- [21:58]
Travis Robbins
It had like the butt ticklers and the spray water and stuff like that and I was like, man, if we could have something in Alaska where you did this and got experience Alaska in this 4D style thing, it would be epic.
- [22:14]
Sydney Dauphine
When the owners of the old Coliseum Theater announced they would be closing, Robbins already had the idea for C Max. He thought they would have to construct A whole new building for it. But the old theater closing lined up perfectly with their plans, he says. When they bought the building, they made a promise to the previous owners that it would remain in some way a movie theater. Robbins and his business partner Mark Sivertson teamed up with two of their friends from the lower 48 to fund the project and put their ideas into action. And it didn't come without setbacks. Last November, people broke in and vandalized the space, slashing the big screen they'd just installed. For a while, they didn't know if insurance would cover it or how they would pay for it. Without any operating revenue, people think you
- [23:01]
Travis Robbins
can just go on Amazon.com and order a screen? It's not that simple.
- [23:06]
Sydney Dauphine
Some people were skeptical. They lashed out online, worried they were losing an important feature for locals for the sake of tourism dollars. Even as construction began, Robbins and Sivertson mostly stayed quiet about it. The project moved quickly, with all of the construction and film production happening in less than a year. Some of that process entailed figuring things out on the fly.
- [23:29]
Travis Robbins
That's why we had bit our tongues this whole time. We were really concerned that we were going to give people false promises. And I mean, we got kind of beat up a little bit on it on the social media aspect, but we had to just kind of ignored.
- [23:44]
Sydney Dauphine
Robbins and Sivertson say the movie will have local community interest. The Edge of the Wild producer traveled across Alaska to get drone footage and they hired a Ketchikan local to do narration. It's a unique, jam packed experience with a Ketchikan focused trivia style pre show. They recognize it is marketed towards tourists. Siverson says that's not necessarily a bad thing.
- [24:08]
Mark Sivertson
Tourism is unfortunately one of the driving markets here right now and so you kind of got to work with the hand you're dealt with.
- [24:18]
Sydney Dauphine
Severson says he wants to bring in profit and make it a benefit to the community.
- [24:22]
Mark Sivertson
You know, the main thing is, is that we're able to employ people year round. I mean, that's my ultimate goal is one, to run a successful business, but two is to keep people employed.
- [24:32]
Sydney Dauphine
Severson says they've been working with locals in every aspect of the project, from construction to social media to audio production. He hopes that the upstairs theater, which has been updated and expanded, will eventually show Hollywood movies and new releases. It's unclear if that will include evenings in the summer or just in the off season. Robbins says they need local support and a successful summer to make that happen.
- [24:58]
Travis Robbins
Without a different concept to keep the money coming into the theater. This thing would have just been a parking garage or like they say, another jewelry store. So I'm personally uber thankful that we're able to keep a movie theater in Ketchikan. It's going to take some, definitely some tourism money to keep it alive.
- [25:19]
Sydney Dauphine
C Max is already selling tickets for this spring and summer with shows beginning later this month. Tickets are available on their website. Reporting in Ketchikan, I'm Sydney Dauphine.
- [25:42]
Wesley Early
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 Alex Solomon in Juno, Ben Townsend in Gnome, Tim Ellis in Delta Junction, Michaela Finnerty in Anchorage, and Sydney Dauphine in Ketchikan. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer tonight is Crystal Hyde. Kirsten Dobroth is our producer. And I'm Wesley Early. Good night.
- [26:16]
Mark Sivertson
This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.