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Ben Townsend
Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand
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Casey Grove
comes from alyeska Pipeline Service Company maintaining
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Ben Townsend
and operating the 800 mile Trans Alaska Pipeline since 1977. Learn more at alyescapipeline.com.
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Clarice Larsen
Then those people, their ballots don't count
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Rachel Cassandra
and that's disenfranchising people.
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Casey Grove
The US Supreme Court considers a challenge to mail in ballot deadlines with big implications for Alaska. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, March 23rd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, the skyrocketing cost of health insurance leaves thousands of Alaskans looking for other options. I mean, that's the most expensive place to get health care in the entire healthcare system. Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
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Clarice Larsen
The PFD application is open. Just a small amount of your PFD will help share local news and stories about Alaskans with Alaskans across this great state. When you choose Alaska Public Media through
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Casey Grove
Pick click give the U.S. supreme Court heard arguments today in a case challenging mail in ballot deadlines in Alaska. The court's decision could extend to other types of voting as well. The Republican National Committee is challenging Mississippi's law allowing mailed ballots to arrive up to five days after Election Day. Alaska accepts ballots that arrive up to 10 days after election Day, as long as they're postmarked on or before that date. The case could be consequential for the midterm elections when control of Congress is at stake. While people of both parties vote by mail, more permissive rules for it are perceived to help Democrats, especially since President Trump rails against the practice. U.S. solicitor General John Sauer argued that counting ballots that arrive late violates the federal law that sets the election day for the whole country. All ballots have to be received and the ballot box has to close on Election Day. In Alaska's last general election, more than 50,000 ballots arrived by mail, although the Division of Elections could not immediately say how many of those arrived in the 10 days after election Day. Sometimes even Alaska ballots cast in person on Election Day aren't received the same day. The village of Atkasuk on the North Slope tried to phone in its 2024 election results, but couldn't get through to the Division of Elections. The mailed ballots arrived nine days later. Alaska's attorney general wrote a brief asking the court to be clear in its ruling and to consider places like Atkasuck. Pat Redmond is co president of the Alaska League of Women Voters. She says the current deadline is fair and allows remote places time to deliver their ballots.
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Clarice Larsen
Not every place has electronic transmission, then
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Rachel Cassandra
those people, their ballots don't count and that's disenfranchising people.
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Casey Grove
Attorney Scott Stewart, defending Mississippi's ballot deadline, says it's wrong for the Solicitor General to suggest that late arriving ballots are subject to fraud.
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Patrick Gilchrist
They've sounded the anti fraud theme. They haven't cited a single example of fraud from post election day ballot receipt.
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Casey Grove
Okay, thank you. The court is expected to issue a ruling in June, and an attorney who challenged the Mississippi law said states would have time to change their ballot rules in time for the November elections. Tribal members of Kipnuk have voted overwhelmingly to relocate their community after devastation caused by the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long, according to results released by the tribe on Friday. KYUK's Evan Erickson has more more than
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Evan Erickson
92% of adult tribal members that the tribe was able to contact by phone in recent weeks voted to relocate. Nearly all of the tribal members living in Kipnock at the time of the storm remained displaced in Anchorage, Bethel and in other communities. The tribe asked members to vote on which of two potential relocation sites they preferred. Both sites lie around 13 miles to the northwest of Kipnock, roughly halfway between the village and the community of Chafornik, near the site of a historical settlement called Chiching. Around two thirds of tribal members that were contacted voted in favor of an option further inland currently owned by Chifornicks Village Corporation. The remainder voted for a site located roughly a mile from the Bering Sea coast owned by the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service. According to Tribal Environmental Coordinator Raina Paul, both sites range in elevation from 40ft to 150ft above sea level. Kipnok sits at a little more than 10ft above sea level, Paul said. The community is currently in discussions with leaders in Sifornik about relocation possibilities. Reached by phone on Saturday, Kipnok Tribal President Daniel Paul said the tribe is in the process of grieving recent deaths in the community and will provide updates about the next steps when the time is right.
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Ben Townsend
Out of all respect for the native village of Kipnut and our 12 members, we'll move forward by and by, so it's going to be a long process.
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Evan Erickson
Around 700 people were living in Kipnok before the near total evacuation of the community after the October 2025 storm. The tribe's total membership, which includes many not living in Kipnock at the time of the disaster, is nearly twice that that worked out to 799 eligible adult tribal members on the voting rolls. The tribe was ultimately able to reach 662 members by phone to record their votes on the question of In Bethel, I'm Evan Erickson.
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Casey Grove
About 25,000 Alaskans lost all or part of their health insurance subsidies in 2026 due to the one big beautiful bill act that left many with skyrocketing health insurance costs and enrollment in healthcare.gov declined by about 10%. Others are likely to lose Medicaid in the coming years due to new work requirements. So Alaska Public Media's Rachel Cassandra dug into options for getting affordable health care without insurance.
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Rachel Cassandra
Having thousands more uninsured Alaskans can spell financial disaster for individuals, families and the state. One main reason is that when people are uninsured, they tend not to get care until it's a true emergency. Jared Kosan, who heads the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare association, says people often end up in the er.
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Casey Grove
I mean that's the most expensive place to get health care in the entire healthcare system.
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Rachel Cassandra
Ers have to provide medical care even if people can't pay their bills and that drives up healthcare costs for everyone. So I wanted to find out what kinds of options are available to Alaskans without insurance, especially for preventative care that could prevent high bills, heartache and trips to the er. Experts like Kosin were hesitant to even talk about non insurance options. He wants to find more ways Alaskans can be covered, but he suggested that if people are stressed out about accessing care, they can reach out to their
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Casey Grove
provider, ask them directly if they have any suggestions, and see if they can come up with anything. I know in the hospitals we have charity care programs, he says.
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Rachel Cassandra
Some doctors offices also have charity programs and some clinics offer free or sliding scale care. There are four other health insurance alternatives accessible for most Alaskans, some of which are newly allowed in the state. The first are healthcare sharing ministries. They're faith based organizations where members share healthcare costs. But as the Alaska Division of Insurance points out on their website, these organizations don't have to follow health insurance regulations and there's no legal requirement for them to cover health costs for members. The second option is memberships with primary care provider clinics.
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Clarice Larsen
It covers their annual exams that they have, all their annual lab work, their annual flu shot, pneumonia vaccines, those kind of things that people need.
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Rachel Cassandra
That's Cindy Alkire at Areit Family Care in Anchorage, which offers a direct primary care membership.
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Clarice Larsen
And then we also allow three other visits per year, sick visits for things that are going on or chronic conditions.
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Rachel Cassandra
The plans are affordable compared to most health insurance for adults under 45, it's $125 a month, and it's $90 a month for kits, including childhood vaccines. There are several clinics in Alaska offering memberships like this, but the plans don't cover things like X rays, hospital visits or some expensive medications. The third option is health discount plans. You may have heard of GoodRx, which is a free prescription discount plan, but there are also paid discount plan dental care and vision, hearing aids, lab work and less commonly, healthcare. They're nothing like health insurance, but they can make it cheaper to pay out of pocket. And if the worst happens, there's a fourth option. It's a safety net program that can get people free care for complex medical needs. Melinda Freeman is executive director of Anchorage Project Access.
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Gabe Dunham
We provide specialty medical, dental and mental
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Clarice Larsen
health care that's provided for people who
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Gabe Dunham
are unable to access care, this type of care through their primary care doctors.
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Rachel Cassandra
It's free and includes complex care like cancer treatment or surgeries. It's available to uninsured people or those awaiting enrollment for Medicaid, but it requires treatment in Anchorage and a healthcare provider referral, although people can refer themselves for dental care and mental health care programs in Anchorage. I'm Rachel Cassandra.
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Casey Grove
You can find links to the programs mentioned and more details on the web version of this story@alaskapublic.org. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, University of Alaska President Pat Pitney delivers a message of optimism for the years ahead.
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Clarice Larsen
Today, we're positioned for long term sustainable growth.
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Casey Grove
That's ahead. Stay with us.
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Clarice Larsen
Hi, I'm Avery Elfeldt, a reporter with the Alaska Desk. That's a joint reporting effort from Alaska Public Media, K and S, where I work in Hanes, and other public radio stations in Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Aleutians. It allows us to connect you with
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Rachel Cassandra
the issues happening in communities all across the state. You can hear our stories during the
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Clarice Larsen
morning news on Alaska News Nightly or online@alaskapublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible
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Rachel Cassandra
with the support of grants and listeners like you.
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Clarice Larsen
Thank you.
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Casey Grove
The Lower Kuskokwim community of Akiak has made an emergency request to tribal and state officials for fuel to keep its municipal power plant running as its local supplies dwindle. In a letter sent last week to the association of Village Council presidents and other tribal and state entities, the city of Akiak requested 30,000 gallons of fuel to avoid a loss of essential power services. According to the letter, the city's power plant only has around 2,000 gallons of fuel remaining. That's far short of what the community will need to get by until the first fuel barges of the season arrive on the lower Kuskokwim river in early June. The request also references recent leadership changes in the city's administration. It says the current fuel shortage is a direct result of past administrative failures. Mayor Olinka Jones said on Friday that the city is looking for any help it can find in obtaining the fuel. Fuel can currently be delivered by truck using the Kuskokwim River Ice Road. Jones says city officials believe Akiak could be less than a week away from running out of fuel. Without municipal power, residents would need to rely on backup generators. Last fall, Akiak was without power for roughly six weeks due to mechanical issues at the power plant. The Juneau School district has reached a tentative agreement on a contract with its teachers union. This comes after more than a year of negotiations that escalated to a successful vote authorizing the union to strike last week. The two year agreement covers this school year and the next. In a joint press release, Juneau Education Association President Jeanette Slepi said she's grateful to all the parties involved. Juneau School Board President Brittany Chioni Haywood said in the press release that the board looks forward to the agreement coming before the board for approval now. The agreement is awaiting ratification from the union, which includes about 275 people. It will require a majority of voters to approve the ratification, a representative with the union said in a text to ktoo. That is not expected to happen until after the district's spring break this week. After that, it will head to the school board, which will require two meetings before a vote of approval. The terms of the agreement will be in the meeting packet of the next school board meeting following union ratification. Alaska youth and advocates are calling on lawmakers to create a statewide fund for suicide prevention by charging a small fee on Alaskans monthly phone bills. Advocates rallied on the steps of the Alaska State Capitol last week, asking lawmakers to pass bills that they say would save lives. KTO's Clarice Larsen reports in a note to listeners. The story mentions suicide.
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Clarice Larsen
988 it's the nation's suicide and crisis lifeline. It's the easy to remember number to call that was launched in 2022 to give immediate help and resources for people who are struggling with mental health issues such as depression, substance use and suicidal ideation. At the steps of the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday, advocates and youth gathered to speak about the importance of supporting suicide prevention measures like 988 in the state, according to the Alaska Department of Health. Alaska has the highest rates of youth suicide in the nation and the second highest rates of adult suicide. But statewide funding for prevention has been unreliable in the past.
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Ben Townsend
I've traveled hundreds of miles to be here today because I want to be a voice for those I have lost to suicide.
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Clarice Larsen
That's 20 year old Jacob Nikolai. He traveled all the way from the isolated village of Tuksuk Bay in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta to speak at the rally with the Alaska Chapter of the American foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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Ben Townsend
I've lost a couple people to suicide. It made me feel like my family was broken. Losing a loved one through suicide is hard. It can feel like a part of you is gone.
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Clarice Larsen
Nikolai and other youth were in Juneau specifically to advocate for House Bill 138 and Senate Bill 196, which were introduced in the Alaska Legislature last session. The bills seek to establish a monthly surcharge for wireless and landline numbers in Alaska. The money generated from it would go toward creating a dedicated behavioral health crisis services fund for Alaska. The cost would be less than a dollar a month for individual users, but in turn it's estimated to generate between 6 and 8 million dollars annually to go toward enhancing the state's capacity to respond to mental health emergencies. The proposed surcharge would support critical prevention services like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Life, which the state funds a portion of, along with mobile crisis teams and crisis stabilization centers in the state. Anchorage Democratic Representative Genevieve Mina sponsors the bill in the House. For her supporting suicide prevention is extremely personal. Her father died by suicide when she was a child. As a survivor of suicide loss, I didn't understand what he had been going through when I was a kid and why he had ended his life. I didn't understand why he never talked about it, she says. Prioritizing suicide prevention and creating a sustainable funding source for resources in the state could save lives. The most important thing is to talk about it. Talk saves lives 988 saves lives and supporting our crisis system saves lives. The way that we are currently funding that crisis system has been a patchwork. It's been unreliable. Both House Bill 138 and Senate Bill 196 have yet to advance from committees, and it's unclear if they will have enough support to advance in the Legislature this year. If you or someone you know is in crisis, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available to call, text or chat by dialing 988 or contact the crisis text line by texting. Talk to 741741. You can be connected to community resources by calling 211 in Juneau. I'm Clarice Larson.
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Casey Grove
University of Alaska President Pat Pitney delivered her final State of the University address Thursday in Fairbanks. She's set to retire at the end of May. As KUAC's Patrick Gilchrist reports, Pitney's roughly 30 minute speech emphasized overcoming challenges and entering what she says is a period of promise.
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Patrick Gilchrist
Pitney worked in the University of Alaska system for more than two decades before leaving to serve as state budget director under former governor Bill Walker in 2014. She took over as interim UA president in 2020 and was appointed to the permanent position about a year and a half later. In her sixth and final State of the University address, Pitney used some form of the words stability, opportunity and growth about 10 times apiece, according to a transcript of her speech.
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Clarice Larsen
When I returned to UA as president in 2020, we were focused on survival. Today, we're positioned for long term sustainable growth that will shape Alaska's future for decades to come.
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Patrick Gilchrist
She says declining enrollment, the COVID 19 pandemic and major state funding cutscenes contributed to the fight for survival toward the beginning of her tenure. And she says turbulence at the federal level has added another layer to the difficulties. But Pitney says state funding has stabilized and enrollment has started to rebound. As of the fall 2025 headcount, the university reported a roughly 4.5% enrollment increase compared to the previous year. She also says the most recent survey from the National Science foundation showed that UA had $273 million in research expenditures, a university system record. That survey covered fiscal year 2024, fiscal
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Clarice Larsen
stability, research excellence, recruitment, retention and graduation. That's progress. That progress is empowering Alaska.
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Patrick Gilchrist
Pitney will retire at the end of May, which she says is bittersweet. The Board of Regents, a 14 person search committee and third party search firm Wyciefer are charged with finding her successor. In February, Board of Regents Chair Scott Jepsen announced they were concealing the identities of finalists. That's a break from the system's typical practice of holding public interviews and forums for senior leadership positions. Jepsen wrote that in recent years, highly qualified candidates have declined to participate in searches with the public evaluation process due to concerns about professional risk if they are not selected for the role. The move caused some consternation, including from UAF's Faculty Senate, which passed a resolution in early March opposing the search model. It says the University system has been well served by the typical process and that whomever is selected will have less community support than previous candidates because of the lack of public input beforehand. Speaking to reporters after her address Thursday, Pitney defended the confidential search, which was recommended by Witkiefer.
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Clarice Larsen
That was a calculus to say how do I get the best and biggest pool of people and how do I not threaten those people for getting in the pool? And so I think it's valuable. It is hard for people to grasp.
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Patrick Gilchrist
Pitney says her biggest goal ahead of retirement is finding the best leaders for the UA system and for uaf. Mike Srega, the former US Arctic ambassador, is currently serving as interim chancellor at UAF in Fairbanks. I'm Patrick Gilchrist.
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Casey Grove
So let's say you just completed the frigid thousand mile Iditarod Trail sled dog race. What happens next? KOM's Ben Townsend tagged along with Iditarod veteran Gabe Dunham to find out.
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Ben Townsend
As frost slowly forms on her eyelashes, Gabe Dunham checks on her team in the so called dog lot of the Iditarod. It's just down the road from the race's burled arch finish line. The specially bred dog athletes lay in crates stuffed with straw to keep them warm and cozy.
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Gabe Dunham
That one's Usher.
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Ben Townsend
He's one of your leads, right?
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Gabe Dunham
Yeah, super great dog.
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Ben Townsend
After completing the 1000 mile endurance race, the dog team's metabolisms are still on overdrive. Dunham says while they wind down, she feeds them what they would normally eat out on Trail, including 10 pounds of ground beef fat a day.
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Gabe Dunham
Every year, the dogs kind of change up their idea of what I should be cooking them.
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Ben Townsend
How do you know that?
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Gabe Dunham
And so you figure it out on the trail like you'll make something with a slight difference to it. And all of a sudden they just smash it. They're like, that was delicious. So you're like, okay, we'll stay with delicious. Here's the Alaska Airlines vehicle.
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Ben Townsend
A white box truck arrives and Alaska Airlines chief dispatcher Rick J. Bush hops out the front seat and slides up the back door of the truck.
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Gabe Dunham
Hello. How are you doing?
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Ben Townsend
Cold.
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Gabe Dunham
It is cold.
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Clarice Larsen
How many dogs we got?
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Gabe Dunham
We've got 11 dogs and a sled.
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Ben Townsend
JBush says he first got involved with Iditarod Logistics in 2003. These days, it's just him helping load dog teams onto Alaska Airlines fleet of cargo jets. Transportation costs aren't included in the Iditarod standard $4,000 entry fee, so mushers like Dunham pick from a handful of options like Alaska Airlines or Lynden.
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Gabe Dunham
I was shocked to hear that it was only $500 to fly everybody home, but like to Give you an idea. It cost me $500 just to ship emp up here.
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Ben Townsend
One by one, the dogs are removed from their crates and the straw inside is dumped out. It's a fire hazard, Jabosch says. The crate then goes into the back of the box truck. The dog is loaded into it and slid to the side, leaving a narrow alleyway. The process is repeated until all 11 of Dunham's dogs are aboard. The dogs go on a short drive to the Nome airport, where a giant metal pallet awaits. Each crate, as tediously as they were loaded, is carefully unloaded and placed on the pallet. When the cargo plane lands in a couple hours, the entire team will be loaded on for the quick trip to Anchorage.
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Gabe Dunham
They're pretty well traveled. This team's gone to Bethel a number of times for the Cusco 300. They've been here in Nome a couple times, and so most of them just kind of sit in their crates and be quiet and calm down and no problem. They'll sleep all the way to Nome or to Anchorage.
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Ben Townsend
From there, some friends will pick up and drive Dunham's dogs back to their home in Willow. Dunham's first time running the Iditarod, came back in 2020, but she scratched out of Uniliclete about three quarters of the way through the race. She came back in 2024 and successfully reached the Nome finish line. Dunham returned in 2025, but scratched after over 500 miles on trail. This was Dunham's first Iditarod since her father died in January. She says he introduced her to the world of mushing at the Copper Basin 300 over three decades ago.
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Gabe Dunham
I remember meeting like now they're all the historical mushers, right? Like Susan Butcher and Ali Zirkel and Martin, and all of those guys were
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Ben Townsend
there before his passing. Dunham's dad asked her to carry his ashes on the trail this year, not to be spread, but to just go for one last ride with his daughter. Dunham says she felt his presence on a dark night when an especially vibrant aurora lit up the sky. As she watched her dogs quietly trot on the trail ahead, her father's favorite song, Big Iron by Marty Robbins, started playing through her headph to the town
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Clarice Larsen
of our free who wrote a stranger one?
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Gabe Dunham
I think that was just like a really great experience in the moment, and it may have just been coincidental, but I feel like it was more spiritual that his song came on. And then as soon as that happened, the northern lights just blew up. Like that. All that came to my head, I just said, thank you, dad, you know, and it was just like, just a lot of peace and love and gratefulness.
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Ben Townsend
Dunham admits she didn't get to spend as much time prepping for this year's race as she would have liked, instead spending as much time with her father as possible. From the start, her goal was simply to finish and make good on that promise to bring him along for the ride. Reporting blocks from that finish line in Nome, I'm Ben Townsend,
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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. evan Eris in Bethel, Rachel Cassandra in Anchorage, Jamie Deep and Clarice Larson in Juno, Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, and Ben Townsend in Nome. Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde. Kirsten Dobroth is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.