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Support for Alaska Public Media On Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories. It was pretty scary to see. And that's not even including dental, which I'm obviously going to skip this year. So Alaskans on the federal health care marketplace are getting sticker shock as subsidies expire. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Monday, November 24th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, the state is funneling law enforcement resources to Fairbanks to combat a spike in crime. We've not had to do this in Fairbanks. There have been other regions in the state where we have had violent crime. Pop up those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Thousands of Alaskans who rely on the federal marketplace for health insurance are experiencing sticker shock as they apply for coverage for the coming year. That's because key health care subsidies that have helped millions of Americans afford their insurance are set to expire. As Congress continues debating over whether or not to extend the tax credits, some Juneau residents are growing increasingly worried about how the sharp premium hikes will hit their wallets and their access to life saving health care. KTO's Yvonne Crumry reports.
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David Elrod books performers for the Crystal Saloon in downtown Juneau. He's worked in bars for nearly 20 years and he's never had a bar job that offered health insurance. Right now he pays about $60 a month for a basic plan through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. When he went to apply for his 2026 plan, he got quite a shock. The number on the screen said $1,030 a month.
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It was pretty scary to see. And that's not even including dental, which I'm obviously going to skip this year.
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So he said the plan still had a $2,500 deductible, the amount he would have to pay each year before insurance kicks in. And this is not like a Cadillac health insurance plan. He isn't the only one seeing a massive jump in their premiums. Federal subsidies that keep plans in the health care marketplace affordable are set to expire if Congress doesn't act to extend them by the end of the year. In fact, the question of whether or not to extend the subsidies was the fundamental debate behind the recent record breaking government shutdown. The State estimates that 27,000 Alaskans buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act. KFF Health News reports that nationwide enrollees who benefit from federal subsidies will see monthly payments increase on average by 114% if federal subsidies disappear. But Alaskans could see much higher jumps, likely causing some to opt out of insurance. For Elrod, though, going without insurance isn't a good option. He has a condition that requires expensive medication to prevent blood clots from forming.
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So if I don't take this medication, yeah, blood clots will come back.
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They will kill me.
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I'm going to try to, like, cut back to one pill a day instead.
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Of two pills a day.
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You know, it's like those are the decisions that I'm having to make right now.
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For people in Juneau struggling to afford the health care they need, Heidi Adams says she and her team may be able to help. Adams is a care navigator with Jami Health and Wellness.
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Everyone's situation is so very different, and so by coming in we can assist them with connecting. But also if we can't meet those needs, who might be able to in a way that's affordable or easily accessible?
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JAMI is a health nonprofit in Juneau. It provides primary care services and behavioral health treatment regardless of insurance. With Alaska having some of the highest healthcare costs in the nation, care is often already out of reach for many junior residents. Now, with subsidies potentially ending and upcoming restrictions to Medicaid, Adams says she thinks the nonprofit will see an increase in people seeking medical care.
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We can assume it's going to we're going to see a much larger population coming in because they can't afford it any other way.
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Open enrollment on the federal Marketplace lasts until January 15th for coverage that begins with the new year. The deadline is even sooner, on December 15th. In the meantime, Elrod said he's waiting as long as he can to finish his application in the hopes that something changes in Juneau. I'm Yvonne Crmery.
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The chair of the State Commission on Human Rights sued blogger Jeff Landfield of the Alaska Landmine on Friday. As Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone reports, Doreen Lorenz says Landfield defamed her by implying she stole state funding intended to preserve a historic building in Seward. Jeff Landfield likes to stir the pot. Nobody really wonders what I think because I tell them the blog he edits and co owns, the Alaska Landmine, is a home for brash gossip about all things state government, and he's often the first to report on significant political news in the 49th state. You know, I really consider myself a watchdog. So on a recent Monday, Landfield poked fun at a land acknowledgement Alaska State Commission on Human Rights Chair Doreen Lorenz read at a United nations gathering in Switzerland. We would like to acknowledge that this is the land of the Swiss people who have bravely taken the neutrality so that we can all hear. He called the statement, quote, super loose and bizarre and labeled Lorenz a, quote, absolute nut. And Lorenz says she gets it. It comes with the territory. You can call people names. That's fine.
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You can suggest that they did horrible things.
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That's fine. The post also pointed to an episode in her past. Quote, remember when she got in trouble for using state money for the Jesse Lee home for herself? End quote. Delanfield was referencing a mid 2010s move by Governor Bill Walker's administration to cancel a grant to a group Llorens chaired seeking to restore the now demolished Jesse Lee home in Seward. The state found the friends at the Jesse Lee home spent grant money on a wide variety of disallowed and questionable items, everything from stereo equipment, unapproved travel in an office remodel, to a tub of bikini wax. But Lorenz insists she did not use the money for herself, and she says Landfield's post crosses a line.
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You cannot say that a public figure stole public money when you know for.
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A fact that they didn't. Proving defamation can be an uphill battle, but Loren says she thinks she has a good shot at it. In subsequent posts and livestreams, Landfield pointed to a 2018 Alaska Public Media article detailing the grant cancellation. But notably in that article, a deputy commissioner with the department said he did not believe Lorenz or anyone else involved had pocketed the money. Lorenz says that's key to her case. Obviously, he's aware that that is the statement and the conclusion of the state of Alaska. In an interview, Landfield stood by the statement. He called Lorenz's use of state funds a, quote, scam and a quote, grift that wasted millions of dollars. And he says he's confident he'll prevail. I'm gonna be spending my immediate future to getting every single document, every single grant reimbursement request, and I'm gonna show just what this woman did. You know, she really messed with the wrong one. He says it's the first time anyone's followed through on a threat to sue him. And he says he's looking forward to fighting it in court. Reporting in Juneau. I'm Eric Stone. Alaska's Department of Public Safety is funneling resources to Fairbanks in response to a spike in violent crimes. That's according to Captain Tony Wegzin, the commander of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, who spoke at a press availability in Fairbanks today. State law Enforcement officials are looking into four recent crimes involving firearms with suspects yet to be identified. In two of the cases, officials say there is currently no evidence suggesting the crimes are related. Wegzen says channeling personnel to a particular region can reduce what's available elsewhere in the state. But he says the situation in Fairbanks has become a top concern for the bureau. This takes priority. We have members who are working on other cases that can't come to this, but anybody who could take a break is. So while this isn't sustainable forever, we can bring a surge of folks to to this area. On Friday, the bureau launched what they're calling an attempted murder investigation. That was after troopers got reports of two incidents of shots being fired at Black Gold transports ore hauling trucks as they were driving on highways between Eielson Air Force Base and Fox. The next day, the bureau opened a homicide investigation into the death of 37 year old Michael Boyd. In that case, troopers say they responded to a call early Saturday morning and found Boyd dead of gunfire in a car at a gas station off Farmer's Loop Road near Fairbanks. In a third case over the weekend, troopers arrested 27 year old Brooklyn Whitman of Anchorage. She's been charged with murder for allegedly shooting and killing 34 year old Ashley Spann Saturday at an apartment near Fairbanks off Chena Pump Road. Alaska state troopers are also still searching for 18 year old Darius Morgan. He's wanted in connection with the deadly shooting of a teenager at a party in Fairbanks last month. Morgan has been indicted for murder in the case and a warrant for his arrest recently increased from $100,000 to $1 million. Wegson says sending additional resources to an area to respond to a spike in violent crimes is standard for the bureau. But he says it's not something they've done in Fairbanks in recent years. Well, I've been the commander of ABI for a couple of years now. We've not had to do this in Fairbanks. There have been other regions in the state where we have had violent crime pop up. Maybe not to this degree, but we have funneled resources to those areas as well. Not dissimilar to what we're doing here this weekend and moving forward. Wegzin said today they've already received information from the public that's helped the investigations, but they're still requesting tips. He encourages people who may know something related to any of the cases to call the Dispatch center at 907-451-5100. Still to come at Alaska News Nightly, Southeast's red king crab fishery at a historically high value. It means that you know a little.
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Crab that goes a long way, especially.
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For crew shares and for individual fishermen. That's ahead. Stay with us. Alaska State troopers say a teenage boy from the lower Yukon river community of Amonic died after a snow machine he was driving sank in the river at some point on Friday. According to a trooper dispatch, 16 year old Kennedy Tagunlakla had been attempting to hydroplane the snow machine over open water, known as skipping, when the accident occurred. Troopers say they received a report of the accident just after 8pm on Friday. Search and rescue crews from a Monarch and the nearby community of Alukkanuk responded to find Tagunlakla deceased roughly two hours later. Tagunlakla's next of kin have been notified and his body has been released to his family. An Alaska Marine Lines barge that was taking on water off the coast of British Columbia has continued its journey south to Seattle. The cargo ship coming from Alaska was spotted floating lower than normal last week near Bella Bella, about 260 miles south of Ketchikan, according to an email from Alaska Marine Lines Director of Marketing Ryan Dixon. The barge was damaged during transit but was secure and not sinking. On Tuesday, the company announced that a second barge was sent to offload some of its cargo. As of Sunday, both were en route to Seattle. In the email, Dixon said the barge did not contain bulk cargo or petroleum products. It also did not contain groceries or supplies for southeast Alaska, which Dickson said will not cause supply chain disruptions for the region. A regional tribe in Southeast Alaska wants to expand Internet services in the region. They plan to do that in Petersburg by building three communications towers. However, some community members have expressed surprise and concern about the construction. KFSK's Taylor Heckard has the story.
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Three years ago, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska received nearly $50 million from the federal government to develop high speed Internet infrastructure in Southeast. Tlingit and Haida created Tidal Network, an Internet service program. Tidal Network offers their own Internet plan and sells Starlink. In an email, Tlingit and Haida spokesperson Dixie Hutchinson wrote that Tidal Network wants to bring high quality Internet to tribal citizen and their broader communities. Tidal Network's towers also have space for other cell providers and emergency response equipment. Company officials were not available for an interview. Hutchinson wrote that Tidal Network has plans for three towers in Petersburg, one on Haugen Drive near the fire station, one on Mill Road and one at the flower farm at Papke's Landing. The one on Mill Road is already being built. Some community members in Petersburg have expressed confusion and concern about the projects. At the November 17 assembly meeting, Petersburg resident Tom Kowalski said he lives near Mill Road and was surprised to hear construction nearby.
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This past Saturday, I heard some construction noise on the next road over Mill Road, right behind my house and curious to see if somebody's building another home. Homes have been going up there. Come to find out they're building a cell phone tower. It's 250ft from my property.
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Kowalski said he didn't know that Title Network planned to build a tower near his neighborhood.
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I was shocked. I had no idea this was coming. And yeah, maybe I live under a rock. A lot of us here do. That's why we live here. But I got no notification. I had no idea what's going on. I still don't know what it is. I just found out about it.
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According to the building Permit obtained by KFSK, Title Network applied to the borough on October 14th to build a tower on privately owned property on Mill Road. The tower would be 150ft tall with an elevated steel platform and surrounded by a fence. The borough approved the application the next day. Petersburg resident Micah Klein has testified publicly multiple times about her concerns regarding Tidal Network's towers. She says she often receives calls from community members who didn't know about any plans to build towers in Petersburg.
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Yeah, I think the biggest concern is.
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That people feel like they're getting these cell towers with no input whether they want them or not, and that there's no. Literally no, no. Nobody has any information that it's even.
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Happening and they don't get a say in it.
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According to the borough's Community Development director, Liz Cabrera, the lot on Mill Road is industrially zoned and the borough allows commercial communication towers in those zones. Builders only have to provide construction plans and apply for a building permit. There is no public hearing requirement for building permits. Tidal Network is also in the process of buying a borough owned lot on Haugen Drive. The assembly unanimously voted in September to proceed with the land sale. The property still needs to be subdivided and assessed before the borough can negotiate the sale. Hutchinson wrote that Title Network bought the flower farm property this year, which is about 10 miles south of town, in order to build a tower there. Multiple assembly members have expressed that they're aware of community concerns around the construction of the towers. The assembly originally rejected Assemblymember Jeff Mucci's request on November 3rd to have an open work session with Tidal Network. But at their November 17 meeting, some assembly members said they would be interested in discussing the towers more. In an email, Hutchinson wrote that Tidal Network will be hosting a community meeting in Petersburg on on Tuesday, December 16th. She wrote, quote, tlingen Haida president Richard Peterson and other team members will be present to listen to the community, end quote. In Petersburg, I'm Taylor Heckert.
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Southeast Alaska's first competitive commercial red king Crab Fishery in eight years is underway. And as KFSK's Olivia Rose reports, the exceptional starting price came in above expectations for the high value fishery, which is set to generate an estimated $5 million.
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Here at south harbor, fishermen are walking the docks and putting away gear on a clear afternoon. Petersburg is home to over half of the permit holders for southeast Alaska's commercial red king crab fishery, which opened this fall for the first time in nearly a decade.
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So far, it went really well.
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Adam Messmer is a regional shellfish biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game. He says fishermen have caught around £190,000 of crab so far, and there's still more available to harvest.
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I think we're in a good spot with red crab for the, for the time being.
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Red king crab is a low volume, high value fishery. It last opened in southeast Alaska in 2017. The catch that year was over 120,000 pounds, worth around $1.2 million at the docks. But eight years later, the value has skyrocketed to roughly $5 million. Messmer says it came as a surprise. It's definitely at a historic high. Selling at 26 to $30 a pound, the red king crab are worth about $200 apiece. That's around four times the value of the last commercial opening. To have it come out, to start.
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It, you know, 26, 27 was, I think, above everybody's wildest dreams.
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Messmer's not sure why the crabs are going for so much money, so I reached out to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Jeremy Woodrow is the executive director.
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And this is a point where you'd say, you know, historically high, right?
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But it's great because people are making money and they're making good money and our fishermen should be rewarded for that. Woodrow says there's a few things at play in this historically high value, like inflation and rarity. He says there's high demand for the red king crab, especially around the holidays. But low crab stocks and little harvest opportunity have led to less crab in the marketplace in recent years. He says that drives up the price tag, too.
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What we have of our crab right now in Alaska, whether it be from southeast Alaska or from the Bering sea is now at a higher value because there's.
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The demand is still there, but there's.
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Not quite as much art to go around.
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So who's buying these rare crab? Woodrow says that while it's not an everyday meal for most families, some people will splurge to celebrate, be it for the holidays or at high end restaurants. One local example Woodrow gave is Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau, where Alaskan red king crab sold for about $80 a pound before closing for the winter. The historically high value of southeast Alaska's commercial red king crab fishery, Woodrow says, is a positive thing for the state, the permit holders who participated and their communities. It's exciting to see that fishermen are getting that type of value for their catch.
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It means that, you know, a little.
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Crab does goes a long way, especially for crew shares and for individual fishermen. And so you actually don't have to.
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Harvest a lot of grab this year.
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To make it worthwhile to go out, and that's wonderful to see. Messmer, the biologist, says state managers used a new kind of tactic for the southeast commercial fishery this year. Instead of opening one big area, they split it into several different areas, he says. That's because they didn't want all the catch coming out of one spot, and that seems to be working.
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We're being able to monitor where those crab are harvested a little bit better than in the past and make decisions on that so we can keep fishing on them in the future.
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Musmer says fishermen have been hitting harvest targets and haven't gone dramatically over so far, which he says bodes well for the future. And for now, about £20,000 of harvestable red king crab are still in the water. In other words, there's over half a million dollars left to make. In Petersburg, I'm Olivia Rose.
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Thousands of Anchorage residents are without housing, and while many organizations are working to get them shelter and services, those on the front lines say some of the most urgent needs are also the smallest and they can't be covered by existing programs. As Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor reports, a new community based fund aims to close that gap.
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Rabi Anagiak has been disabled his whole life. He's been homeless in Anchorage for nearly two decades, and he says he really depends on his friends to keep him going.
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I got my street family, you know, and they look out for me.
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They really do.
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They take care of me. And even though I can be a pain in their butt, they still take care of me.
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Until recently, they were all camping together not far from a Busy city intersection. Then the Muni cleared them out. Not the first time they prepared to move on like they had before. They were determined to stick together.
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You become attached to people, you know, we think of ourselves as a family, you know, and we don't leave anybody.
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Behind because, I mean, that's how people die. They thought sticking together meant staying outdoors. The way shelters and transitional housing works in Anchorage, it's tough to find space for big groups. But now Anagiach is living in the Creekwood Inn. He didn't abandon his street family. They're all here with him. The move was possible because of the Good Neighbor Fund, a program that just launched in collaboration with the mayor's office. It's been a couple years in the making. A personal project, two friends testing an idea. What if there was a pot of money that went directly quickly to those in need? Sometimes that means immediately covering something big, like hotel rooms for Nanguillac and his crew. But most of the time, it's the small things. Replacing an id, buying a tank of gas, paying for a cell phone. Outreach workers say it's often those minor expenses that stand in the way of getting people help. And until now, they didn't have a way to cover them. Leaving people stuck because of the smallest hurdles. The fund is Kenny Peterson's idea, and he's watched it work over the last couple of years.
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They can fulfill promises and there's not a dashed hope or another application or another program to try to go through. For me, I really wanted to have no dead end referrals because the hope goes down and discouragement increases.
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The idea came to Peterson while working at his family business, looking out at people homeless on the sidewalk below. It was more than 15 years ago, but he still remembers the feeling, Here.
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I am in my chair, warm and comfortable, and they were not. And I felt that disparity between the two of us.
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Slowly, the idea of a community supported fund took hold. He says. People want to help. It's just hard to know how.
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If you ever seen a neighbor in need on the street corner, laying in the side of a street or sheltering in a tent, and you're going, is someone going to come and help them? This is that. And wondering if there's some better way to help a panhandler, this is that.
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Eventually, Peterson launched the pilot project using $40,000 of his own money. He partnered with Kathleen McLaughlin. She's been working with Anchorage's homeless residents for years. She would decide who to give the money to. Since then, she's spent it on IDs and cell phones, food and health care and pet care and transportation, tracking each expense meticulously. She says the fund has already changed lives. You know, we had a gentleman who had stage four cancer. He was here from Minnesota. He got stranded here, and we were able to fly him back to his hometown. And about three weeks ago, why wouldn't we do that? Even small amounts of money can have outsized effects. I drove somebody to DMV because they needed a driver's license. A driver's license replacement is 15 bucks, and he had a job waiting for him, but he didn't have the driver's license, and it was a $15 issue. Now that the fund has officially launched, the Alaska Community foundation is managing the account. It's raised more than $34,000 from almost 100 people. A handful of outreach workers will decide how to spend the money, and there are strict guidelines for them to follow. First, needs have to be immediate, and they have to be needs, not wants. And all of the money donated to the fund has to be spent on those needs. Administrative costs are covered elsewhere. At the Clearwater Inn, Anagiach says he's thankful for the fund and the comforts that come with living indoors, like the light switches. No more fumbling around in the dark for his flashlight or eating hot soup and feeling warmed from the inside out. But that's not the best part.
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It's a luxury, you know, to be able to have somebody. You can invite somebody into your place and show them that, hey, I do care.
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Nagia says his friends are constantly coming and going, joining him in his room, making food, checking in. Then Anchorage, Hannah Fluor.
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And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online@alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Yvonne Crumry and Eric Stone in Juneau, Patrick Gilchrist and Fairbanks, Evan Erickson and Bethel, Hunter Morrison in Ketchikan, Taylor Heckard and Olivia Rose in Petersburg, and Hannah Flor 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.