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- [00:00]
Casey Grove
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. We were motivated Marines. President of the United States told us to go different places and we went. That's what you do in the military. Senator Dan Sullivan sidesteps a debate on President Trump's National Guard deployments from Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, December 15th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, Governor Dunleavy says education reform is taking a back seat for him during his final year. You know, I've always said this year after year after year that once the issue of money is settled, nobody wants.
- [00:49]
Liz Ruskin
To talk about policy.
- [00:51]
Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. With U.S. senator Dan Sullivan running for re election next year. How he navigates the big controversies of President Trump's second term could determine his political future. Sullivan made a rare leftward tack Thursday, voting with Democrats on a failed bill to extend health care subsidies. Faced with a different hot controversy earlier that day, Sullivan opted for a political sidestep. Alaska Public Media Washington correspondent Liz Ruskin.
- [01:25]
Liz Ruskin
Explains the subject of the armed services hearing was one of the biggest disputes of President Trump's second term, his deployment of the National Guard within the United States. Democrats railed against the dispatch of the military to American cities. Some Republicans on the committee vigorously defended the urban deployments. Sullivan did neither. When it was his turn to speak, he vigorously defended Guard deployments that no one is arguing about. He spoke about the National Guard's role repell Russian and Chinese forces over the Pacific and the Bering Sea because these.
- [02:02]
Casey Grove
Are frontline operations going directly against our adversaries wing to wing when our fighters go intercept Russian bear bombers and MIGs that are armed. Dangerous work. We do it all the time up in Alaska.
- [02:14]
Liz Ruskin
Sullivan's campaign materials feature Trump's photo and endorsement prominently. Sullivan rarely criticizes him. Trump won a majority of Alaskan votes each time he was on the general election ballot. Still, even even in a red state, a Republican candidate could face peril by sticking too close to Trump if some of his actions become toxic to voters. Sullivan last week left the constitutional debate to other senators. He brought up the National Guard's actions in western Alaska this fall when it rescued people after fierce storms washed their houses away. And Sullivan said when he was in the marines in the 1990s, some in his battalion were sent to the southern border and some went to forest fires in the Pacific Northwest.
- [03:02]
Casey Grove
We were motivated, Marines, president of the United States told us to go different places, and we went. That's what you do in the military.
- [03:09]
Liz Ruskin
Sullivan did not engage as Democrats, and independent Senator Angus King of Maine spoke passionately against the Guard deployments to Chicago and other cities where governors don't want them.
- [03:21]
Casey Grove
The idea that we are saying that the president has the power to, in his own mind, decide what an emergency is and then deploy troops into our cities, I think is exceedingly dangerous. And the people who founded this country thought so, too.
- [03:38]
Liz Ruskin
King read the words of several founding fathers who warned of tyranny if a president has a standing army to use against his own people. A Trump administration witness countered that George Washington himself sent soldiers to put down a citizens rebellion in Pennsylvania. Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana was one of the Republicans who gave a former defense of the urban deployments in support of the Trump administration's massive deportation campaign. Sheehy addressed his questions to the top general responsible for the defense of North America.
- [04:15]
Casey Grove
As a military commander, what do you.
- [04:18]
Liz Ruskin
Feel is a greater threat to our.
- [04:19]
Casey Grove
National security, 500 volunteers, trained national Guardsmen walking the streets of our cities, or 20 million illegal immigrants who've entered this country over the past five years?
- [04:32]
Liz Ruskin
The general did answer, but it hardly mattered. Sheehy, a freshman senator, was planting a rhetorical stake in the ground. Reporting from the U.S. capitol, I'm Liz Ruskin.
- [04:44]
Casey Grove
Governor Mike Dunleavy is dropping a longtime priority ahead of next year's legislative session. At his annual holiday open house last week, Dunleavy told reporters he isn't planning to revive his push to reform the state's schools. You know, I've always said this for year after year after year, that once the issue of money is settled, nobody wants to talk about policy. So unfortunately for us, I think we're going to skip over that this year. Not from my perspective, but I don't think the legislature enough for the people in the legislature really have a desire to fix the outcomes. Improving the state's public schools was the top issue in the last two legislative sessions. Dunleavy vetoed a series of bills seeking to boost public school funding, saying they didn't do enough to improve student performance. He instead called for a variety of reforms that he said would help Alaska's low test scores, in part by boosting charter schools and correspondence home school. But lawmakers overcame Dunleavy's vetoes to break the stalemate earlier this year. Sitka Independent Representative Rebecca Himshute co chairs the state House Education Committee. She says lawmakers will continue to look at ways to boost student test scores even with budgets expected to be tight this year. We need to ensure the best value for the dollar. Obviously, accountability is very important and at.
- [05:57]
Liz Ruskin
The same time we need to make sure that our kids have opportunities and.
- [06:01]
Casey Grove
If we look to other states, there's a lot going on in other states that we could be doing here in Alaska. She says she'd also like to see a smaller boost to public school funding this year to keep up with inflation. Representative Andy Story, a Juneau Democrat who also co chairs the House Education Committee, says she wants lawmakers to override Dunleavy's veto of a corporate tax bill tied to education funding.
- [06:23]
Liz Ruskin
Those dollars are scheduled to go for reading intervention and career tech, and that would just, to me be a game changer.
- [06:33]
Casey Grove
Backers pitched the tax bill as a way to extract more state money from outside tech companies who sell to Alaskans. Dunleavy said he couldn't support it without a larger fiscal plan. Dunleavy said he hoped lawmakers would pass a bill that would create a pilot program of schools run by Alaska Native tribes. But Dunleavy told reporters his main goals for his final year are largely in other areas, including a forthcoming fiscal plan and preparation for a possible North Slope gas pipeline. Lawmakers reconvene in Juneau on January 20th. Powerful wind blasted south central Alaska for the second weekend in a row, with gusts topping 70 mph in parts of Anchorage and the Matanuska Susitna Borough. National Weather Service meteorologist Carson Jones says the wind was less severe than last weekend's Mat Su storm, which prompted a local disaster declaration. It wasn't quite as strong as the previous event, but Palmer was still reporting.
- [07:29]
Liz Ruskin
Winds near or above 80 miles an hour. And then Anchorage had some obs in Jay Bear and Ted Stevens that were above 70 miles an hour.
- [07:38]
Casey Grove
Officials did not report any major damage in Anchorage. They said the wind led to downed trees, some roof damage and power outages. The Anchorage Fire Department also warned of icy roads. Jones says a high pressure system along the Alaska Canada border is feeding cold weather into a large jet stream over western Alaska. That jet stream is steering the frigid, windy weather across Anchorage in the Mat Su, and Jones says it likely isn't going anywhere in the next two weeks. It's going to remain dry and cold and breezy, with chances for elevated winds really probably until maybe the solstice, is when we start to see maybe a pattern change, jones says current weather forecasts predict the jet stream will break down in certain spots, pulling in cold air from Siberia as well as the Yukon he says that'll spread frigid weather across the state. As we move on into next weekend, we will have cold air coming in from both areas so there's a chance for more widespread below average temperatures for the whole state. Both Anchorage and the Mat Su are forecasted to see low temperatures at or below zero through the rest of the week. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, friends, family and fellow musicians remember the life of Athabaskan fiddler Bill Stevens. When he'd start a tune, he wouldn't tell you what the name of the tune was gonna be, but he'd tell you the key. A good clue for the guitar players. That's ahead. Stay with us. The body of a Wasilla doctor facing recent charges that he possessed images of child sexual abuse was found in a fire Sunday at his home, according to Alaska State troopers. Trooper said in a statement posted online this afternoon that remains found in the burned home had been identified as 46 year old Ryan McDonough. An investigation of the fire's cause continues. McDonough had been charged with 10 felony counts of possessing child sexual abuse material. Local, state and federal investigators, working together in an operation dubbed Task force Dawnbreaker, arrested McDonough on Thursday. McDonough's attorney said he pleaded not guilty on McDonough's behalf at an initial court appearance Friday. Court records show McDonough's wife paid his $50,000 cash bail. McDonough was an interventional cardiologist at Mat Su Regional Medical center in Mat Su Medical Group until the hospital fired him shortly after learning of the charges, according to a hospital spokesperson. Governor Mike Dunleavy appointed McDonough to the state medical board in August. A spokesperson for the governor said. McDonough resigned in November. A Fairbanks mining firm announced last week that it struck a deal to merge with a company in British Columbia. Under the proposed merger, Contango Ore and Vancouver based Dolly Varden Silver Corporation would become one entity called Contango Silver and Gold. The main corporate office would be in Fairbanks, according to a press release. Rick Van Neuheise is the CEO of Contango Ore and would retain that role for the combined companies if the merger goes through. He spoke during a call with investors last week. Look, we think we're building a rocket ship here. We've got capital, we've got grade, we've got great management, we've got a great board behind us. Contango has a hand in both active and exploratory projects in Alaska, some of which have encountered resistance. The company is the junior partner in a controversial venture that's mining gold ore at the Moncho mine near Tetlin and trucking it along 250 miles of public highways to a processing facility north of Fairbanks. Contango is also trying to develop mining projects in Hatcher Pass, north of Palmer, as well as on land owned by an Alaska Native corporation that's surrounded by a national park in south central Alaska. As for Dolly Varden, executives during the call mostly touted its Kitsalt Valley resource as an asset for the proposed merger. That's an exploratory silver project in British Columbia east of Ketchikan, across the Alaska Canada border. The companies anticipate the deal to be finalized in late February or early March. According to last week's presentation, Alaska Native veterans have until the end of the month to claim 160 acres of federal land. The land grants were part of a government native allotment program created over 100 years ago to promote homesteads and private property ownership, but it was shut down in 1971 after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act passed. Vietnam veterans have been given a special exemption to apply for the land, but as KNBA's Rhonda McBride tells us, it isn't easy.
- [12:17]
Liz Ruskin
Congress passed the native allotment program in 1906. Decades later, in the years leading up to the Land Claims act, natives scrambled to file for their land, but many Vietnam veterans missed out because they were overseas and engaged in combat. The Alaska congressional delegation eventually succeeded in passing legislation to fix this. In 2019, President Trump signed a bill into law that opened a five year window for native vets to file for their land. But there still have been some hurdles. It's one thing to make laws, but.
- [12:52]
Casey Grove
It'S quite another thing when the bureaucracy.
- [12:55]
Liz Ruskin
Kicks in and starts developing these onerous processes that were really never anticipated. Jim LaBelle's challenges began in boarding school. He says he and his younger brother Kermit were unable to qualify for their allotments because they couldn't prove that they worked the land they hoped to receive. Then both brothers went to fight in the Vietnam War. Kermit was killed in action at the age of 18. After the war, LaBelle had about given up on efforts to claim his land, but tried again, and a few years ago the government accepted his application.
- [13:32]
Casey Grove
I took a little doing, but I.
- [13:33]
Liz Ruskin
Can'T say that I'm very happy with the lands that I got. LaBelle is Inupiaq, but wound up with land near the interior Alaska community of Tokyo, far away from his homelands.
- [13:46]
Casey Grove
It's an area I'm not familiar with, but was available at the time. The way I looked at the map.
- [13:52]
Liz Ruskin
It looks like I'd have to have.
- [13:54]
Casey Grove
A helicopter to fly in.
- [13:56]
Liz Ruskin
Labelle is now focused on getting his late brother Kermit's allotment. One of the challenges providing a death certificate. I also have to prove that he.
- [14:05]
Casey Grove
Was killed in Vietnam and I have.
- [14:07]
Liz Ruskin
To screw Kadari Abba.
- [14:11]
Casey Grove
A certificate of Indian blood. It's not a user friendly process.
- [14:14]
Liz Ruskin
Michael Livingston has been helping vets like Jim LaBelle apply. He says he volunteers because many of those who are eligible now in their 70s and 80s have had such a hard time dealing with a bureaucracy, they've given up.
- [14:29]
Casey Grove
Out of the 2,000 veterans that are eligible, only about 500 have applied, so that's only about 25%.
- [14:37]
Liz Ruskin
As of mid December, the Bureau of Land Management's website said it had received 519 applications, but fewer than 50 have been accepted.
- [14:47]
Casey Grove
So far, I've helped about 50 Alaska Native veterans apply for 160 acres of.
- [14:53]
Liz Ruskin
Land and that adds up to over.
- [14:56]
Casey Grove
8,000 acres that potentially is going to return to the hands of Alaska Natives. So in that sense it's been pretty rewarding.
- [15:04]
Liz Ruskin
Livingston encourages Native vets to file before the December 29 deadline, even if their application isn't finished. Sen. Dan Sullivan says that's a good idea.
- [15:14]
Casey Grove
Get your application in, we can work with you. We can help. If it needs to be updated, we can do that.
- [15:20]
Liz Ruskin
Sullivan says staffers in his Alaska offices are prepared to assist. For now, he says he's racing against the clock to get a bill passed to extend the program.
- [15:31]
Casey Grove
I just wish we could get my.
- [15:34]
Liz Ruskin
Colleagues to see that this is not.
- [15:36]
Casey Grove
A not a big ask. Believe it or not, the bill is a two word change. It's from five years to 10 years.
- [15:44]
Liz Ruskin
Sullivan says his bill has Republican support and he's worked with Democrats to attach his legislation to a package of bills that includes things the Democrats want but believe they continue to block it because they think it's a backdoor attempt to usher in more development, which he says is not true.
- [16:03]
Casey Grove
They've just been very reluctant to get more people, land and access to federal lands in Alaska.
- [16:09]
Liz Ruskin
Even so, Sullivan hasn't given up on trying to win bipartisan support for an extension in anchorage. I'm Rhonda McBride.
- [16:19]
Casey Grove
Over $3 million in federal housing assistance has been committed to reimbursing the state for supporting people who evacuated their homes after ex Typhoon Ha long. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced its approval of the funds last week. The money falls under FEMA's Housing Assistance Program, which is different from its individual assistance program. That program can support households with personal damages to property. Those impacted can still file for financial assistance by the extended deadline of February 20th. The public program will reimburse the state for providing shelter to displaced households that includes hotel rooms or larger congregate shelters. Local government and tribal councils can still file for FEMA's Public Assistance for things like debris removal, rebuilding infrastructure and preventative emergency measures. A new gymnasium opened in Kaktovic this month, nearly six years after the community's old school burned down. It's the first step towards building a new school and a chance for students to have a place to play and practice sports again. Alaska desk reporter Alyona Knighton has more.
- [17:39]
Liz Ruskin
The sounds of Inupiaq dancing and drumming reverberate from the walls of the new gym in Kaktovik as residents of the North Slope community of about 300 people celebrate the grand opening of the facility. Resident Flora Rexford has been teaching Inupiac language and culture at the Harold Kavilik School for the last 20 years. A week after the opening, she says everyone in the village had been eagerly waiting for that day. It was really emotional to see an actual gym in the community there and the kids enjoying it and playing, and it was a really good ground opening, much needed for our community. The school was destroyed in a fire in early February of 2020. Officials said at the time that the fire was likely caused by a heater that was left on to thaw frozen pipes. After the fire, students attended classes and buildings throughout the village until the interim school opened the following fall. The facility did not have a gym, so sport practice often took place outside in freezing cold and with polar bears in the area. Later on, the borough built a temporary gym for school practice, but Rexfort says the conditions were far from ideal. I mean, just imagine the kids playing in the tent that they had and it's cold and nothing was ever working right. Not being able to practice and, you know, you can tell the kids, you can just tell they're not as active. Nathan Gordon Jr. Is the mayor of the city of Kaktovik. He says the lack of proper space for exercise led many students to leave the school and the village.
- [19:22]
Casey Grove
We lost a bunch of kids who went to boarding school because they weren't able to play in a gymnasium, which is going to be great for those kids to come back home and enjoy.
- [19:32]
Liz Ruskin
A gym with us. And like in many Alaska villages, the gym was more than a place for sports.
- [19:38]
Casey Grove
It was staple for gathering. It was for fees.
- [19:41]
Liz Ruskin
Also, if there was so much people.
- [19:43]
Casey Grove
That were going to be included in.
- [19:44]
Liz Ruskin
A funeral, like they'd utilize that space. The new gym is just the first step of the three part process of rebuilding the school. Construction started in 2023 after a local company cleaned up lead paint and gasoline left in the soil after the fire. Rexford says the new gym includes a running track, a weight room, a play area for kids, as well as wood and metal shops. Students take buses to go there for physical education classes and recess. A lot of the younger kids have never experienced being in a gym and in March the school will host the regional tournament for basketball for our community to finally have their first home games in, you know, so many years. Everyone's excited about that. The next steps for the school rebuild will be constructing additional classrooms, a cafeteria, library and the new PAC language and culture spaces, according to a press release from the North Slope Borough. The borough had previously said that the whole building was expected to be completed around 2028. In Anchorage, I am Alena Knighton Celebrated.
- [20:51]
Casey Grove
Athabaskan fiddler Bill Stevens died in Fairbanks late last month at the age of 92. As Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska Desk, co performers say his music will live on in his students and in programs that spread fiddling across rural Alaska.
- [21:12]
Liz Ruskin
That's Bill Stevens playing as fiddle at the Pioneer Home, an assisted living center in Fairbanks back in 2023. His accompanist on the guitar and frequent fellow performer Lisa Yeager, says what you're hearing was his last public performance. She remembers it well.
- [21:33]
Casey Grove
Bill would play it at a lickety split pace. You know, we had to, you know, keep up with him. One of the things I really liked about Bill being a guitar player myself was that when he'd start a tune, he wouldn't tell you what the name of the tune was gonna be, but he'd tell you the key. A good clue for the guitar players, you know.
- [21:52]
Liz Ruskin
Stevens grew up in Fort Yukon, where fiddle music and dancing had been a staple at Quichin Potlatches. He writes in his autobiography, Ch' adza Agua, or he carries the Dance that Scottish and French Canadian fur traders brought fiddles and jigs to the Athabaskan villages in the northern interior when they came to work for the Hudson Bay Company. That was over 150 years ago, but those lively refrains just stuck.
- [22:18]
Casey Grove
It is so much fun.
- [22:19]
Liz Ruskin
It's done in groups and pairs and.
- [22:22]
Casey Grove
Brings a lot of joy to my heart.
- [22:24]
Liz Ruskin
That's Kaylee Nelson, the parish administrator for St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Fairbanks, where Stephen's attended. Nelson says she'll miss the lilt of Stephen's fiddle bouncing off the church walls when he performed for special services like Christmas Eve. She says those songs helped keep her culture alive.
- [22:42]
Casey Grove
I don't know my language, and it hurts. But when I sing the music, it makes me feel connected to my people.
- [22:55]
Liz Ruskin
It's hard to think about our history and our past. It makes you think about how resilient.
- [22:59]
Casey Grove
We are together when we come together and we sing together.
- [23:03]
Liz Ruskin
Former St. Matthews rector Scott Fisher was friends with Stevens for decades. He says he was a true gentleman in the old sense of the word.
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Casey Grove
He was humble.
- [23:14]
Liz Ruskin
I remember we did a Christmas pageant.
- [23:16]
Casey Grove
Here and we decided to use adults because it was too hard digging up kids. Bill was one of the three wise men dressed as an old trapper.
- [23:24]
Liz Ruskin
Stevens friends recall that his faith and St. Matthew's were a huge part of his life. The century old wooden church is a meeting point of many different cultures. Traditional celebrations sometimes take place in the parish hall, especially jigs. Father Steve Reed is the church's current rector. He says the jigs are a way of honoring the culture, tradition and history of its parishioners and inspiring joy and hope in times of great darkness, cold and loss. And for that, Bill Stevens was key.
- [23:56]
Casey Grove
Much of the world has acted shamefully when it comes to oppressing indigenous people and suppressing languages and culture and traditions. And so here you have Bill teaching it, bringing it back, reviving it, people singing it, remembering it.
- [24:15]
Liz Ruskin
Stevens also trained several generations of musicians through programs like the Young Native Fiddlers. Reverend Belle Mickelson founded Dancing with the Spirit, a series of traveling music camps that Stevens helped teach. She says their goal was always bigger than just the music. In a week, we really make those connections with the kids. And then by the end of the week, we usually have the elders and our other musicians talk to the kids about how important it is to stay away from drugs and alcohol, graduate and become leaders in their community. But friends and fellow musicians also remember that Stevens overcame years of personal struggles. Mike Mickelson is Bell's son and another one of Stevens, co performers from over the years. He also traveled from village to village with Stevens to teach music through Dancing with the Spirit. You know, the thing about Bill is that he went through some really challenging times and he wasn't playing music. And there was a lot of things in his life that other people haven't come back from. And music pulled him out of that bell and Mike Mickelson say they'll always remember him for encouraging Alaska Native youth to be their best, be proud of who they are, and for helping them connect to their identities with Athabascan fiddle music, sometimes even gifting them his own instruments. They say his music will live on through the generations of students he taught and continue to bring light and warmth to the world in the cold months. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
- [26:01]
Casey Grove
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 Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. eric Stone in Juneau, Wesley Early, Rhonda McBride in Iliona Knighton in Anchorage, Patrick Gilchrist and Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks and Samantha Watson in Bethel. Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night. This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.