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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.
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Jamie Deep
45 states and two US territories.
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Ann Weaver
We're working really hard through the weekends to make sure that we can get the benefits out as soon as possible.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Mixed messaging from the courts and the Trump administration are complicating SNAP payments from Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, November 10th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, the University of Alaska Board of Regents votes to increase tuition.
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Jamie Deep
I think this may be our best.
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Fernando Escobar
Approach for right now in order to support student needs in the system.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. The state of Alaska is limiting payments to SNAP recipients this week in response to federal guidance. As recently as Friday, state officials were preparing to fully refill SNAP debit cards. But then over the weekend, after the Supreme Court stepped in to stop a lower court ruling, the federal government told states they could only issue a total of 65% of the monthly benefit. President Trump threatened financial penalties if states did not comply. So the roughly 66,000 Alaskans on SNAP will still be short of what they were expecting for this month. Division of Public Assistance Director Deb Etheridge says the shortfall is the result of shifting instructions from the federal government.
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Ann Weaver
We're here and we're ready, and we're.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Working really hard through the weekends to.
- [01:43]
Ann Weaver
Make sure that we can get the benefits out as soon as possible.
- [01:46]
Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
By Wednesday, she says, people who were eligible for a November 1st SNAP payment will have 65%, about 2/3 of their usual benefits. But that'll still leave the average household hundreds of dollars short, according to state data. Etheridge says the state had hoped to fill the gap with state dollars freed up by a disaster declaration issued by Governor Mike Dunleavy last week. But she says the shifting guidance from the courts and the Trump administration has complicated the state's efforts to get those state dollars to SNAP recipients debit cards. The SNAP reductions are part of the Trump administration's response to the government shutdown. And the government appears to be on the verge of reopening. Etheridge says assuming the federal government moves quickly once it reopens, beneficiaries could have their cards refilled in a matter of days. The Trump administration paused and reduced SNAP benefits early this month. That's put a lot of pressure on folks who already struggle with Alaska food prices, especially in the interior, where the cold is setting in and utility bills are starting to climb. But as Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska desk, Fairbanksons are Stepping up to make sure their neighbors don't go hungry.
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Shelby Herbert
It's bananas. On the ground floor of the Fairbanks Community Food bank on a Friday afternoon, a dozen volunteers are rapidly unloading preparations, packing boxes and wheeling carts past me. As I talk to Ann Weaver, the food bank's CEO, she inspects a food box destined for a household in need today.
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Ann Weaver
This box we're looking at right now is a single mom with a child. I see some milk, peanut butters, lots of canned goods. We get a lot of produce wonderfully, and so we share that. This particular box also appears to have some eggnog, so if we have treats, we're able to share them, but the goal is to have breakfast, lunch and.
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Shelby Herbert
Dinner items, Weaver says. With the holidays approaching and with heating and fuel bills stacking up, this is already their busy season, Weaver says. Now the bank is getting even more demand while the federal government is shut down.
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Ann Weaver
We were receiving calls from folks that, hey, I've made a good wage, but now, for example, I have no income. And so now instead of being one of the donors, I need to be one of the recipients. There are emergencies you can't plan for. So with our emergency food boxes, we say, you know what? You get up to 10 of them in a calendar year and hugs chew as you're going through this.
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Shelby Herbert
Weaver says the food bank is ready to rise to the occasion. She has a fleet of volunteers ready to box up the donations that are pouring in from businesses, nonprofits and individuals across town. Even students are getting involved. Four middle schools across the Fairbanks North Starborough school district are competing to collect the most canned food donations before the end of the month. Heather Johnson is the principal of Tanana Middle School. The government shut shutdown motivated Johnson to reach out to other middle schools and turn their annual food drive into something bigger and more competitive.
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Pamela Washington
With our school being about 53% military, I know that a lot of our.
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Shelby Herbert
Kids and families are going to be.
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Pamela Washington
Affected by all of this, so I wanted to make sure that we were able to reach as many people in.
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Shelby Herbert
Our community as possible, she says. So far, she's seen a passionate response from students and parents alike. The winning school will get a pizza party, but the outlook is less bright elsewhere in the community. Hannah Hill, who uses they them pronouns, directs the Breadline, a soup kitchen in Fairbanks.
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Pamela Washington
Typically, we're serving, gosh, almost 1,000 meals less a month than we are right now.
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Ann Weaver
It's very disruptive to people who are.
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Pamela Washington
Already living in a very vulnerable and.
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Ann Weaver
Marginalized type way economically.
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Shelby Herbert
Even before the federal shutdown. The state SNAP backlog kept thousands of Alaskans from receiving government benefits. Hill Every time there's a disruption like that, traffic picks up at the soup kitchen. But they say what happens outside the breadline frightens them even more. According to Feeding America, one of the nation's largest anti hunger organizations, for every one meal that's provided by a local charity like the breadline SNAP provides nine things are also getting tight over at the Fairbanks Senior Center. Darlene Suplee, the center's executive director, says it's always been challenging to feed Fairbanks aging population, which is quickly becoming the largest in Alaska. The center's Meals on Wheels program has a 35 person wait list and Suplee is expecting it to grow even longer with the SNAP benefit lapse due to.
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Pamela Washington
Wintertime, seniors will not drive. And so we'll have a lot of silent hunger behind closed doors out of the sheer timing of the SNAP benefits not being available to our senior population.
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Shelby Herbert
Back at the Fairbanks Food Bank, Ann Weaver is surveying boxes of food stacked almost two stories high. She says she expects it'll be a rough road ahead through the holidays. But her recipient's stories keep her going like the one she heard from a local school nurse who connected with a hungry student.
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Ann Weaver
Mary was 8 and the parents were doing absolutely everything that they could. Her dad's car kept breaking. They didn't have the money to fix the which meant he couldn't be reliable at work. And she was able to give her granola bar and send her back to class and then start making phone calls.
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Shelby Herbert
That's how Mary's family got on the food bank's emergency food box calendar, which helped feed them until they could get back on their feet. Weaver says she'll think about the power of that one granola bar in the days to come. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, this year's Yukon Quest. Alaska will see several new changes as signups begin.
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Ann Weaver
Different trail, different race mileage. A lot different this year.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
A man shot and killed another man in the parking lot of a south Anchorage sports complex Saturday during an argument between parents. Police say multiple children witnessed the fatal shooting. Alaska Public Media's Hannah Fluor has the story.
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Fernando Escobar
The Anchorage Police Department began receiving 911 calls reporting a shooting around 11:45 on now 36 year old Luke Charles Simonson faces murder charges and the death of 45 year old Timothy Grotejer. According to a charging document. Multiple children witnessed the shooting outside of the Fox Hollow Golf Course and Sports Dome on Brayton Drive, a local soccer club, hosts trainings for children there on Saturdays. The charges say the incident started in the parking lot when Greta J's wife accused Simonson of nearly hitting one of her kids and accounts included in the charging document diverge on what exactly happened next. The charges say that Simonson told police he heard shouting as he was pulling out of the parking lot with his wife and young child after soccer. He said both Grotege and his wife were yelling. Simonson told police that Grote J came around the front of the vehicle. He said he then got out, pulled a handgun from his jeans pocket and pointed it at Groteje, he said. The two began to argue, according to the charging document. Simonson told APD that Gordie J, quote, kept coming at him. Simonson told police Gorditcher didn't have a gun, but he felt threatened. He said he shot him multiple times, according to police. Dashboard camera footage from another person in the parking lot showed that as Gredej reached the front of the truck's driver's side, Simonson got out and immediately shot him. Grote J turned away and Simonson moved toward him, firing multiple times. The video shows Gordige's wife walking toward her husband, who was on the ground. Simonson pointed his handgun at her and she put her hands in the air and backed away. Charges say an off duty officer was in the parking lot. He found Goddige on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach. The officer tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. On Monday, the sports complex was open and an employee declined to comment, saying staff wanted to let police complete their investigation. Simonson is being held at Anchorage Correctional Complex on charges of first and second degree murder as well as third degree assault. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday in Anchorage. I'm Hannah Fluor.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
The University of Alaska Board of Regents last week approved increasing tuition across the board by 4% next year, despite an initial proposal of only 3%. Ktowo's Jamie Deep has more.
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Jamie Deep
The university will increase tuition for the entire system for a second year in a row, and it's higher than what its administrators recommended. They recommended a 3% increase, but student Regent Fernando Escobar proposed the additional increase to fund mental health initiatives. He says mental health services have not been funded for five years and suggested the increase as another way for the university to meet the need. I'm optimistic this legislative session, but I have to be realistic and I think this may be our best approach for.
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Fernando Escobar
Right now in order to support student needs in the system.
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Jamie Deep
The board is requesting $965,000 in mental health services across the three campuses for the next fiscal year. State funding for the university goes through the Alaska Legislature for approval. UA President Pat Pitney says the 4% increase is beyond what she considers to be a modest increase. She says they recommended the 3% increase as a way to avoid a large increase while factoring in rising costs.
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Shelby Herbert
It also balances that there are anticipated.
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Pamela Washington
Fee increases in housing and dining services as we're working on our auxiliary.
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Ann Weaver
Enterprises.
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Jamie Deep
Regent's Karen Perdue says she wants to see a way for progress to be made on providing mental health support to students. One way to think about this is.
- [11:45]
Ann Weaver
It could be the student's skin in.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
The game to go ahead and continue.
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Jamie Deep
To advocate at the legislature for some.
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Ann Weaver
So some portion of the mental health would there would be progress made finally on this issue.
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Jamie Deep
Peyton Callahan is the chair of the Coalition of Student Leaders, a group that represents students across the university system. She testified that many students already oppose any increase and that the 4% figure might blindside students.
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Heather Johnson
I don't know that that aligns with.
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Ann Weaver
Trying to keep retention because I don't know that students frankly can afford that increase considering the current economic State Union.
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Jamie Deep
Of Students University of Alaska Anchorage the student government for the Anchorage campus passed a resolution last month requesting the board increase the tuition by just 2% instead. But not every incoming student will see higher tuition next year. Out of state undergraduate students at the University of Alaska Southeast will pay in state tuition for the first time. That's still a lower rate than what they currently pay, but UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer says the additional increase might affect the campus's ability to recruit Alaskans.
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Shelby Herbert
My sense is that we would still be a great deal in terms of out of state students, but in terms of in state students, we may not get that buy in if we go to 4%.
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Jamie Deep
Regents approved the increase unanimously, with one member absent. The new tuition rates will go into effect next fall In Juneau, I'm Jamie.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Deep A local nonprofit released a new YUPIC glossary with behavioral health terms. Yupik speakers, including those affected by the recent western Alaska storm, can use it to communicate with their health providers and to understand their mental health better. Alyona Nydin with the Alaska Desk has.
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Heather Johnson
More Last month, Moses Mahak Weizman was helping with Yupik translation at the Anchorage shelters that hosted evacuees from the recent western Alaska storm. He was also sharing a new glossary with Yupik Words for behavioral health terms. Wiseman is originally from Chifornuk and says it was a helpful resource for supporting people who might be not used to talking about mental health.
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Casey Grove
When you're not of the Western culture, when you have a culture of your.
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Jamie Deep
Own that's not a part of American.
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Casey Grove
Culture, it's a taboo thing to talk.
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Jamie Deep
About behavioral health and mental health care.
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Casey Grove
So like having this available when it was available, it's just an ease of mind, I think.
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Heather Johnson
Wiseman is the Alaska Native Languages Program director at the Alaska Institute for Justice. Last month, the nonprofit that supports Alaskan's human rights released a new glossary called.
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Jamie Deep
So it's terminology related to Health and well Being.
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Heather Johnson
It's free on the institute's website. People can type in a modern health related term, self stigma, and listen to its Yubic pronunciation and read its meaning in English and yupik. Weizman says it should help Yupik interpreters and service providers to break down language barriers and help people understand their health and healthcare system better. Though anyone can use it, Indra Arriaga is the strategic and operational director at the Institute for Justice. Sometimes people just need to know what things are, especially where you do have a stigma around depression, a stigma around suicide. And this is a way of getting information and not feeling like you're exposing yourself, right? It's out there, it's reliable, it's in your language. It's a door. Central Alaskan Yupik is the most widely used Alaska Native language, with around 10,000 speakers in the western part of the state. That's according to data from the Alaska Native Language center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Arriaga says the glossary has been years in the making in collaboration with YUPIC speakers. The project was funded by a grant from the Alaska Department of Health and included training interpreters in medical terminology and practices. Then the organization consulted nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals to put together a list of widely used behavioral health terminology. A panel of YUPIC translators discussed that list, looking at the best ways to translate the terms or come up with a new word for a concept that doesn't exist in Yupik. It's a living language, so it's a living process and it's going to be a living glossary. Arriaga says that the plan was to launch the project on November 1, but when the remnants of the typhoon ha long forced hundreds of people to evacuate to Anchorage, the organization decided to release it sooner, Arriaga says. Now the work with evacuees and the use of the glossary is just beginning. The care and the healing of the folks who are here from Kipnok and other villages is going to continue. So this is a resource that now can really be used in settings where they're going to be talking about different things that affect their mental health and behavioral health. The organization is now looking for funding to complete the next step of the project, a similar glossary, but for terms relevant for emergency care and intake In Anchorage, I am Alena Knighton Mushers put.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Pen to paper at a signup event in Fairbanks on Saturday, looking to cement their spots in the 2026 UCON West Alaska. KUAC's Patrick Gilchrist was at the signups and has this report.
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Casey Grove
An ensemble of paperwork, small group conversation and the occasional door prize announcement sets the casual but enthusiastic tone at the Yukon Quest Alaska office. A couple dozen people filter into the log cabin on First Avenue. Among them are mushers, race vans, staff and board members. They mingle standing around merch displays and the snack table or huddled in a cluster of folding chairs as the glow of an ever shortening November afternoon spills in through the windows. Some of the competitors are locals. Some are experienced Quest Alaska mushers. Some are both like defending champion Jeff Dieter and runner up Josie Shelley. Others are neither.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
I'm a fishing guide in the summer.
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Ann Weaver
And love running dogs and living out.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Away from people and just trying to.
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Jamie Deep
Let dogs have a good time and yeah, see the trail.
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Casey Grove
Shane Blumentritt lives on the Kenai Peninsula and drove up to Fairbanks for the in person signups. He's inked his name on the list of competitors for the marquee event, the 750 mile race. Blumentrit, who's also signed up for the 2026 Copper Basin 300, is a quest rookie. He says he thinks the mileage will be a good introduction to a longer race, and he says he's looking forward to competing on the new route while also trying to exercise caution and have a good time.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
So it's going to be a challenge.
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Ann Weaver
Of learning a new trail at the.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Same time, as well as trying to.
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Casey Grove
Trust my dogs to let them go.
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Ann Weaver
To what they think they're capable of.
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Jamie Deep
Not pulling them back too hard.
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Casey Grove
The course still won't go as far as the storied 1000 mile Yukon quest International Sled Dog Race that's been on hiatus ever since the Alaska and Canada sides parted ways in 2022. But at 750 miles, the 2026 Alaska event will feature the longest race distance in the short solo history of the Fairbanks based nonprofit that organizes the new quest, and the trail will run along a looped route that covers new terrain and that both starts and finishes in Fairbanks. The slate of races for 2026 also includes only short and long distances. That's opposed to the short, middle and long distances that were offered in previous years. Lisa Mackey is the board president for Yukon Quest Alaska, which is currently without an executive director.
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Ann Weaver
So different board members, different trail, different race mileage, a lot different this year.
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Casey Grove
But it's that very difference that makes the 2026 Yukon quest Alaska similar to its recent predecessors. Counting the upcoming 750 mile event, the Alaska organization's premier races have covered three different distances, using four different routes in four years. In no uncertain terms. Mackey says the board is ready to bring that unpredictability to a halt. She pledges that the variable distance of their signature race is a thing of the past and they expect whomever they bring on as executive director to commit to the 750mile race. But she says they don't plan to hire for the role ahead of the 2026 eventually.
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Ann Weaver
So hopefully after this year we can get an executive director that is passionate and driven, you know, that wants to see this race grow and succeed because the 750 is here to stay. It's not going nowhere. That's going to be our race. It is going to be The Yukon Quest Alaska 750.
- [21:08]
Casey Grove
Mackie says she wants that stability to grow the field and make it easier for mushers to plan each year. She said that for the 2026 event, the board is hoping for at least 20 teams to hit the trail for the long distance race when mushers leave the chute in February. UconQuest Alaska staff said by phone Monday afternoon that seven mushers had signed up for the YQA 750. The window for new entries is scheduled to close on January 9th in Fairbanks.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
I'm Patrick Gilchrist, Alaska's first female African American judge retired last month after 15 years on the bench. Pamela Washington, a Chugiak High School graduate, was appointed to the District Court in 2010, and she approached the job like a lot of dedicated public servants as a member of the community trying to help others resolve conflicts in her case through the justice system. But as Washington put it, justice is not just done, justice is seen and justice is experienced. Washington and her husband moved to Mississippi shortly after her retirement, but she spoke to Alaska public media in 2019. She said the significance of being Alaska's first female African American judge was not lost on her.
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Pamela Washington
I do applaud that progress that we've made. And I think the experience I had was I could tell so many people were very proud. It didn't matter if they were locked up or in jail. I mean, I could just see the way they responded to me, particularly African American people and other people of color. They would even say congratulations in the middle of. You know, didn't matter if I was giving them a hard sentence or challenging them about some of their behaviors. I still felt that there was some respect that someone that looked like them was actually in the courtroom. And that's. And I can. You know, we take it for granted, but there's something about that. Justice is experienced. And so I feel like we sort of up the game of justice when the court system looks like the people we serve.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
You're very much homegrown here in Anchorage. I think you had said at one point you were the only African American in your senior class. What was that like growing up in the Anchorage area? I guess Eagle River. Right.
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Pamela Washington
Well, when we first moved to Anchorage, I went to Clark Middle School, and that was the eighth grade. So when I started ninth grade, we had moved out to Eagle River. Now, mind you, coming to Alaska, I hadn't even recognized that I was a minority. But as soon as I got to Alaska, I began to recognize that I was different than just about everyone that I saw around me.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
Remind me, where did you move up from?
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Pamela Washington
We moved directly up from Jackson, Mississippi, but I'm from New Orleans. My stepfather moved us to Alaska, and so we were brand new. I had never been on a plane before. I had never seen snow before. Alaska was quite different. Right away, I started to fit in. I think it's not unusual for people to try to just fit in. And so I sort of did that. And one of the things I did was just do what everybody else did. And I got involved in activities and organizations and tried to minimize the differences in that regard.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
I think you had said in a speech that rather than describing America or even Anchorage as a melting pot, that you prefer to use the term salad bowl. It's mixed up like a salad bowl. What do you mean by that?
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Pamela Washington
Well, like I said, when I first got here, the thing was trying to blend in. I think we are taught that America's a melting pot. And so people come from all over the place and they try to blend in. And if you throw everything in a pot, we all look the same. And so I basically say that true diversity is more like a salad bowl where you can have all sorts of ingredients, amazing ingredients, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, nuts, fruit, lettuce, tomato. And you can toss it up in this bowl and together these flavors are pretty amazing. But you can still see each ingredient. So you don't have to lose who you are and what you bring to the table just to really be a part of the big whole.
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Narrator / Alaska News Nightly Anchor
That was retired Alaska District Court Judge Pamela Washington speaking in 2019. Washington was Alaska's first female African American judge and retired at the end of last month. 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 Jamie Deep in Juneau, Shelby Herbert and Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, and Hannah Flor and Ilona Knydon in Anchorage. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newslaskapublic.org 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.