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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.
- [00:20]
Brett Watson
If you think about how many dividends it would take you to purchase a home in 1982, it would take you 120 dividends or so to be able to buy a house.
- [00:28]
Casey Grove
How far does this year's PFD go after inflation? An economist does the math. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Thursday, October 2nd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, events around the state recognize the harmful legacy of the boarding school era.
- [00:45]
Jamie Bricker
Orange Shirt Day is about remembering that every child matters. We can't change the past, but we can honor the truth.
- [00:53]
Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Alaska US Senator Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote no this week on President Trump's nominee to be Undersecretary of the Navy. Hung Cao was nonetheless confirmed Wednesday with 52 votes. Murkowski spokesman says the senator respects Kao's military service, but has concerns about his past statements and conduct. End quote. Kao retired from the Navy as a captain and then ran twice for political office. His opposition to diversity in recruitment fits with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's war on wokeness. At a debate for U.S. senate candidates in Virginia last year, Kao said the military needs to recruit what he called alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. US Senator Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Kao payments for this year's permanent fund dividend started today. More than 600,000 Alaskans will get the thousand dollar PFD when adjusted for inflation, it's the smallest amount in state history. Alaska Public Media's Ava White spoke with Brett Watson, an economist with the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research. He wanted to know how the purchasing power of the PFD has changed over the last 42 years. And to do that, he picked three years, 1982, 2003 and 2025, all years with a PFD of around $1,000.
- [02:31]
Brett Watson
So I think looking at the PFD in this way tells us as much about how we think about inflation or the things that we buy as it does about the dividend itself.
- [02:40]
Alex Solomon
What categories did you look at and why?
- [02:43]
Brett Watson
So I looked at how purchasing power of televisions might have changed, how purchasing power of housing might have changed, and how purchasing power of travel services might have changed over this period. As you alluded to in Your introduction. It's certainly true that the aggregate purchasing power of the dividend has shrunk over time when we think about this in terms of the purchasing power as measured by the consumer price index. But I think people might be wondering, well, what actually goes into the cpi? And so I think looking at it in terms of these three components provides a little bit more rich detail and helps inform us about how the CPI is actually calculated. So I thought about calculating this in just physical distance terms. So how many round trip drives could you make from Anchorage to Fairbanks on a single single PFD payment? So we want to account for a couple of things in this calculation. We want to look at the average fuel economy of vehicles, because that's been changing over time. Vehicles were a little less fuel efficient in the 80s versus the 2000s versus today. We want to take into account gas prices and then obviously account for the dividend size. So in 1982, you might be able to make that round trip drive between anchorage and Fairbanks 16 times on a single PFD payment. In 2003, you might be able to make that same drive 14 times. In 2025, though, you'd only be able to make that round trip drive eight times. So half the number of round trips between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
- [04:13]
Jamie Bricker
And then what about housing?
- [04:15]
Brett Watson
So fuel is not the most important part of the CPI basket. In fact, the most important part of the CPI is how much we spend on shelter or hous. So that was another component that we looked at for this little analysis. We compared the price of housing In Anchorage in 1982, 2003, 2025, those same time periods again. In 1982, the typical home in Anchorage was selling for about $120,000. In 2003, the typical home was selling for $180,000. And in 2025, the typical home in Anchorage was Selling for $390,000. Pretty considerable escalation in that housing category. And that's really important because as I mentioned just a minute ago, housing is the most important part of our consumption basket. We spend about 30% or 40% of our income on shelter. And so if there's a lot of inflation in that category, it really erodes our overall purchasing power. If you think about how many dividends it would take you to purchase a home, in 1982, it would take you 120 dividends or so to be able to buy a house. And in 2025, it would take you almost 400 dividends to buy a house. Right. Four times as much or four times as many PFDS in order to purchase a home then, as it would now.
- [05:33]
Jamie Bricker
Should we talk about TVs?
- [05:35]
Brett Watson
Hard not to relate the PFD to purchases of kind of these big ticket consumer durable items like televisions. So in 1982, what kind of TV could you buy for your thousand dollar dividend back then? Well, you might have been, you might have purchased an RCA color swivel track. This was a 25 inch television. It came in one of those cabinets, right? A big wooden cabinet. That cabinet probably weighed like 200 pounds. Got to look at the old ads for these televisions as part of this little project. The advertisement said that it came with a remote which was kind of an exciting feature for this television in 1982. What can you buy for $1,000 today in the TV market? Well, that might buy you a Sony Bravia LED 4.4K ultra high definition smart TV and you could get probably a 75 inch TV for that thousand dollars dividend in 2025. And not only is it considerably larger, almost three times the screen size of that television from 1982, it also weighs less.
- [06:36]
Casey Grove
That was Brett Watson, an economist at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, speaking with Alaska Public Media's Ava White. Southwest Airlines will start offering flights to and from Anchorage in 2026. The company made the announcement at a news conference at Anchorage International Airport today. Southwest COO Andrew Waterson says bringing routes to the state's largest city has been a work in progress for well over a decade.
- [07:03]
Brett Watson
We already carry more customers traveling the United States than any other airline, so it's appropriate to connect the 49 states to that vast domestic network.
- [07:12]
Casey Grove
Starting next May, Southwest will offer daily nonstop flights between Anchorage International Airport and Denver, Colorado. A second route will run daily between Anchorage and Las Vegas. Southwest officials on Tuesday declined to say how much tickets would cost, but said passengers can start booking those routes next week. Scott McMurran writes the Alaska TravelGram newsletter. He says it's always good news when a new airline comes to the city because it increases competition and has the potential to lower airfare costs.
- [07:40]
Bill Torgerson
If Southwest comes out with a low ball to Denver or Las Vegas, the airlines will be mad at each other. And remember, that goes back to rule number one. When the airlines are mad at each other, the traveler wins.
- [07:53]
Casey Grove
Alaska Airlines flies nonstop to Las Vegas twice a week, but McMurran thinks the added competition could spur more frequent flights. United Airlines flies direct to Denver daily. Officials said flights heading south would be red eyes. McMurran says the flights will be a pipeline for Southwest customers who want to visit the state.
- [08:12]
Bill Torgerson
What's new about it is that it brings to the forefront all of Southwest's loyal customers who want to use their rewards to come up to Alaska or take advantage of their pricing.
- [08:26]
Casey Grove
Southwest officials said they aim to grow wherever they do business, but didn't announce specific plans for adding more Alaska routes in the future. Next year, American Airlines is adding a seasonal nonstop route between Anchorage and Phoenix, Arizona. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, how a Fairbanks man's love for balloon animals blew up into a full time career.
- [08:50]
Bill Torgerson
The only thing that really ever holds me back is the amount of balloons and the amount of time that I've got.
- [08:54]
Casey Grove
Those balloons are ahead. Stay with us. Close to 50 Skagway residents gathered at Garden City RV park on Tuesday with somber faces. Many wore bright orange T shirts in honor of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. They stood on city owned property that once housed a Catholic mission school for Alaska Native children. That land is a source of pain for the local tribe. KH&S's Melinda Munson was there and has.
- [09:25]
Melinda Munson
This report Commonly known as Orange Shirt Day, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a Canadian holiday that recognizes the harm of residential school systems designed to eradicate Indigenous culture. The event is unofficially marked across parts of the US Jamie Bricker is the Skagway Traditional Council's president. She has relatives that were forcibly placed in Skagway's residential school.
- [09:50]
Jamie Bricker
My grandfather Andrew from Kodiak, taken from his family in his Supiac homeland when he was just four years old, along with his older brothers Fred and Harlan. They spent the rest of their youth here in the grips of the church under Father Gallant, rotating priests, some of whom are now confirmed convicted child abusers.
- [10:11]
Melinda Munson
The Pius 10 Mission Residence School for Native children operated in Skagway from 1932 to 1959 under the direction of the Catholic Church. No one knows exactly how many children attended the school because records are scarce, but the reason for Indigenous boarding schools is well documented.
- [10:30]
Jamie Bricker
Kill the Indians, Save the Man was a slogan used to promote the mission of Native American assimilation through federally funded boarding schools. It encapsulated the US Government's intent to eradicate Native American culture while coercing Native people into conforming to American society. Through the boarding school efforts, languages and traditions were nearly pushed into extinction.
- [10:54]
Melinda Munson
The Juneau Archdiocese sold the land to the municipality of Skagway in 2013. The Skagway Traditional Council raised concerns at the time that the land should not be sold but returned to the tribe according to a federal law that says lands of former boarding schools should go back to indigenous owners. But that didn't happen. Last year, the U.S. department of Interior released Volume 2 of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative report. It recognized Pius 10 as a federally funded boarding school.
- [11:21]
Jamie Bricker
This lends gravity to STC's claim that Pius could have been eligible for a return of the land.
- [11:27]
Melinda Munson
Currently, the land functions as an RV park, but plans are in the works to subdivide the land to sell for housing. Two of the lots had been promised to the tribe, but that process was controversial and so painful for the tribe that they stopped participating in discussions. Bricker seemed hopeful by the turnout for the Orange Shirt event.
- [11:45]
Jamie Bricker
It's really inspiring to see so many people here today to learn about this locally. I think in the past that's been problematic for our community. Orange Shirt Day is about remembering that every child matters. We can't change the past, but we can honor the truth and we can ensure that no child is ever again taken from their family or culture.
- [12:07]
Melinda Munson
The tribe has been working for several years to collect first hand accounts of Pius 10 students and combing through church records. Skyway Traditional Council recently launched a website that documents the history of Pius 10 and shares Survivor stories.
- [12:22]
Jamie Bricker
I have witnessed both the pain and the strength that comes with speaking the truth about boarding schools and hard histories. Many who attended these schools carried the burden of abuse, neglect and separation and silence for decades. Others worked fiercely to break the cycle of generational trauma, and many didn't get a chance to face it. Before walking into the forest, the group.
- [12:45]
Melinda Munson
Tied orange cloth swaths to the green fence posts at the aging RV park, then march to the Tribal center to watch a documentary on residential boarding schools in Chicago. I'm Melinda Munson.
- [13:06]
Casey Grove
Juneau is mulling over how to prepare for next year's glacial outburst flood. The city's temporary levy protected most Mendenhall Valley neighborhoods from a record breaking flood this summer, but it needs repairs and potentially some upgrades and now a shutdown of the federal government could complicate the city's decision making process. KTOO's Alex Solomon has more City staff.
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Alex Solomon
Presented the big questions about how to protect valley neighborhoods from flooding to Juneau assembly members during a committee meeting Monday. The questions include how high to build a levee for next year, whether to expand it, whether to sponsor a buyout program for those left unprotected and how to pay for those projects. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr says the answers to some of those questions will depend on federal information and funding that might be delayed by the US Government shutdown.
- [13:54]
Robert Barr
That's what we'll be working on over the next week, is figuring out kind of who's who's still at the table, who still can be at the table, and trying to kind of keep things moving as best as we can.
- [14:05]
Alex Solomon
This year, the city's temporary levy protected most homes in the flood zone, but Barr says the model that projected how it would perform wasn't entirely correct.
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Robert Barr
We certainly saw things in real life this summer that the model did not predict, and we got a little bit lucky with the height of the hescos and where things landed.
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Alex Solomon
The levee leaked, flooding a couple dozen homes, and the city's memo to assembly members says floodwater flowed over the top of the levee in some sections. So one question is how high should they build it? Experts won't be able to forecast the height of the next glacial outburst flood until it's underway. But the floods have grown over the past three years, and Barr says they won't be able to make an educated guess about how high to build the levee until researchers publish the data from this year's flood. Aaron Jacobs is a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Juneau. He says the agency is exempt from the federal furloughs that began Wednesday. That's because its work is deemed essential for public safety.
- [15:02]
Robert Barr
The weather service work is going to go on, so our analysis and our work of looking at the data and forecasting the events and stuff like that, that's still going to go forward.
- [15:11]
Alex Solomon
The flood science team is made up of federal workers at the National Weather Service and the U.S. geological Survey and scientists at the University of Alaska Southeast. Jason Ammonson is a glaciologist at uas. He says the university's flood researchers haven't been affected by the shutdown. But he says one of his colleagues at USGS went up to Suicide Basin Tuesday to maintain the monitoring equipment before agency staff were furloughed, sort of anticipating.
- [15:36]
Robert Barr
That there would be the government shutdown. So he was able to get up and make sure the cameras were up and running and should be hopefully good to go through the winter.
- [15:44]
Alex Solomon
Amundsen says he thinks his team will be able to get data to city decision makers on time, but that could depend on how long the shutdown lasts. The second big question is how to pay for the levee's ongoing maintenance, the stacked baskets of sand called hesco barriers that sustained an estimated $1 million of damage in the August flood. Barr says the way the city paid for construction in the first place might not be the best way to pay for upkeep. The third major question is whether to extend the temporary levy to protect more properties. A proposed Phase two of the HESCO project would expand the levy to stretch from Backloop Bridge to just before the airport. Barr says a levy expansion would be much more expensive than Phase one because the riverbanks would need more boulders to armor against erosion.
- [16:30]
Robert Barr
There's a much larger number of properties that aren't already sufficiently armored, and city.
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Alex Solomon
Staff say that getting help through federal funding ahead of the next flood will depend on how long the shutdown lasts and what funding is still available when it ends. But there's another potential project that could expand flood protection. City Manager Katie Kester said the Army Corps is talking about a solution that could come sooner than its original to 10 year timeline.
- [16:59]
Jamie Bricker
Army Corps of Engineers is really racing towards a much an expedited, I guess we'll call it a midterm solution rather than a enduring solution, she says.
- [17:10]
Alex Solomon
Construction could start a couple of years from now, but moving that quickly would restrict the opportunity for public feedback. And the project still depends on continued federal funding since the government shut down. City staff say they don't know where that plan stands now. Finally, the fourth major question is whether to sponsor a federal buyout program for View Drive, the street that's been hit hardest by flooding and is left unprotected by the city's levy. A buyout would pay residents to leave, demolish their homes and transform the land into a Park if all 18 eligible properties participated. It would cost around $25 million. If the Juneau assembly votes to sponsor it, the city would have to pay around $6 million. Federal staff working on this project have been furloughed due to the shutdown and were unable to respond to requests for comment. The city plans to hold a special assembly meeting to discuss these questions in detail on October 30th. City staff say final decisions won't be made until December. In Juneau, I'm Alex Solomon.
- [18:11]
Casey Grove
The Alaska Federation of Natives convention is less than three weeks away, and there are worries that the federal shutdown might affect some of the high profile guests lined up for the gathering if it continues through October 16, when AFN officially gets underway. Several Trump administration cabinet members are scheduled to appear, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. AFN President Ben Milotte says traditionally, AFN has had strong relationships with interior secretaries, no matter whether there's a Democrat or Republican on the job. Milott says the Department of Interior probably has the single most impact on Alaska Native people than any branch of the federal government. And while the Trump administration has made some decisions that have hit Native communities hard, Milotte says as governor of North Dakota, Bergam had a good relationship with tribes and might be able to help build bridges within the administration.
- [19:01]
Brett Watson
I think Doug Burgum has had an open ear to larger issues and concerns, so I think it's building relationship.
- [19:06]
Casey Grove
That's something that we've always valued with the department here and the secretaries. And while the issues keep changing, Milott says it's the relationships that last. That's why he says the secretary's first visit to AFN is so important. Milott says he's encouraged by the amount of time the secretary has spent with his tribal advisory committee.
- [19:23]
Brett Watson
Spend a whole day with that committee, which is amazing for a secretary to spend a whole day with a tribal advisory committee.
- [19:29]
Casey Grove
Burgum is scheduled to speak on Thursday, October 16, in the morning, then. Ron Jarman, the acting secretary for the Census Bureau, will address the gathering in the afternoon. The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Doug Collins, will appear on Friday. Milott says AFN is making backup plans in case the federal shutdown prevents them from attending the convention. This year's theme for AFN is Standing Strong, Standing United. The convention is the state's largest gathering and draws thousands of people from across the state. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance today rolled out her administration's budget proposal for the next year. There aren't any major spending increases or reductions, though officials warn of a looming fiscal cliff. Alaska Public Media's Wesley early has more.
- [20:13]
Wesley Early
Mayor LaFrance's budget proposal is only about $9 million more than this year's. She says her first budget is mayor focused on staffing up departments and services? Next year's budget largely keeps things at the status quo, but she warns of serious financial challenges ahead.
- [20:29]
Alex Solomon
For now, we've narrowly avoided cuts in service delivery to Anchorage residents, and the Office of Management and Budget received tens of millions of dollars in additional budget requests that we simply can't fund.
- [20:44]
Wesley Early
LaFrant says her administration is prioritizing full funding for public safety commitments like the police and fire departments and maintenance and operations positions. Anchorage Management and Budget Director Ona Brauss says roughly 60% of the city's revenue comes from property taxes. She says the city has been seeing less money in federal grants and a continued decline in state support for years.
- [21:05]
Alex Solomon
We actually have lost almost that entire billion dollars of revenue in the last decade, and that is one of the.
- [21:13]
Brett Watson
Reasons that our infrastructure feels the way.
- [21:15]
Alex Solomon
That it feels we have now gone through 10 years of lost funding, so it means that we can feel the.
- [21:21]
Brett Watson
Impact of that loss of revenue.
- [21:23]
Wesley Early
Brous says the city has about two years to come up with a new revenue source or it potentially faces large reductions to major services. LaFrance says she's open to a number of proposals for new taxes, including some proposed by Anchorage Assembly.
- [21:37]
Alex Solomon
There's one around a sales tax that has been introduced and I believe, well, there's one for a short term rental tax also. That's before the body and conversation around looking at the bed taxes too.
- [21:52]
Wesley Early
LaFrent says her preferred option would put new tax revenue towards property tax relief, public safety initiatives and investing in various community resources and needs. Anchorage Assembly Budget and Finance Committee co chair Anna Brawley says she hasn't had a chance to fully review the budget yet, but she agrees that the city doesn't have a lot of wiggle room to spend more on services.
- [22:12]
Alex Solomon
That's about all we can do with the budget as designed and the fiscal structure we have even as our needs continue to grow.
- [22:20]
Wesley Early
The budget is currently about $175,000 under the tax cap. That's the most the city can spend without major adjustments to property tax rates. Assembly members will begin their process of amending and voting on the budget during their meeting next Tuesday night. Reporting in Anchorage, I'm Wesley Early.
- [22:44]
Casey Grove
As many Alaskans know, winter in the northern interior is brutal and when temperatures dip into the negative 30s and the sun sets in the afternoon, it can be tough for people dealing with seasonal depression. As the Alaska Desk's Shelby Herbert tells us, one man in Fairbanks has a unique antidote to his winter blues balloon art.
- [23:03]
Shelby Herbert
In the summer months, Bill Torgerson is kind of like a professional clown sans make up. For about a decade his full time job has been making balloon animals, ninja swords and other balloon objects for kids at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and public festivals. At a Labor Day barbecue he was wearing a big yellow bow tie and towering over a long line of kids that looped around his booth. He'll make them anything they want.
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Bill Torgerson
The only thing that really ever holds me back is the amount of balloons and the amount of time that I've got.
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Shelby Herbert
So 10 year old Ellen Schreiner asked for a hamburger and I don't think.
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Jamie Bricker
He'S like really made that one before because he was like hmm. But then he made it for me.
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Shelby Herbert
But right about now that work drops off. He still does some indoor events, but it's slow and with snow starting to Fall already in interior Alaska. The part of the year that's hardest for him is getting started in Fairbanks. Cold air can create a temperature inversion, trapping wood smoke and other pollution close to the ground like fog. And on the coldest days, touching exposed metal can give you frostbite in an instant. That's when Torgerson, who lives with severe clinical depression, feels the most vulnerable.
- [24:17]
Bill Torgerson
Right after like the holiday season. A lot of people end up getting really depressed during like January. And so like me in particular, I have a lot of struggles with that.
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Shelby Herbert
What helps him keep his spirits up are bigger and wilder balloon art creations that he just does for his own enjoyment. For example, an almost 13 foot tall Godzilla costume made of balloons that covers his entire body. Or a giant balloon chandelier or a car sized replica of the Eiffel Tower.
- [24:48]
Bill Torgerson
And it really helps keep me going for the most part. It is basically the fresh breath of life that I'm kind of hoping to put out there that I need for myself.
- [24:58]
Shelby Herbert
He shows those projects off on TikTok to an audience of over 30,000 followers.
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Bill Torgerson
Hi everybody, I'm Incredibloons. I'm going to teach you how to make some incredible balloons.
- [25:07]
Wesley Early
Today.
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Shelby Herbert
His most popular videos have around half a million views.
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Bill Torgerson
I like the idea of being able to bring something so unique and so literally big to my small town.
- [25:24]
Shelby Herbert
This winter, he's trying to break the Guinness world record for the tallest balloon costume. He's doing Godzilla again, only this time, spikier, greener and 15ft tall. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
- [25:40]
Casey Grove
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. ava White, Rhonda McBride and Wesley early in Anchorage, Melinda Munson in Skagway, Alex Solomon in Juneau and Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.