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- [00:00]
Avery Elfelt
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 Pick Click Give.
- [00:21]
Ben Townsend
The federal barriers are coming down. Permits are moving.
- [00:26]
Lori Townsend
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich urges state lawmakers to encourage resource development. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Tuesday, March 10th. Good evening. I'm Lori Townsend. Also tonight, a billionaire shakes up this year's Iditarod race and not everyone is happy.
- [00:44]
Ben Townsend
So it just adds more to the mushers plate to have to try to contemplate what they're gonna do.
- [00:50]
Lori Townsend
You know those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
- [01:02]
Avery Elfelt
Hi, I'm Avery Elfelt, 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 the issues happening in communities all across the state.
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Lori Townsend
State.
- [01:19]
Avery Elfelt
You can hear our stories during the morning news on Alaska News Nightly or online@alaskapublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible with the support of grants and listeners like you. Thank you.
- [01:32]
Lori Townsend
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich today urged the state legislature to be bold with policies to encourage resource development, just as a previous generation did to build the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin reports.
- [01:47]
Avery Elfelt
Begich told state lawmakers to lay the groundwork for more drilling and mining and to enable the LNG gas line by adopting a favorable tax system.
- [01:56]
Ben Townsend
The federal barriers are coming down, permits are moving, the investment is flowing. But this window of opportunity for Alaska will not remain open forever.
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Avery Elfelt
In his annual address to the Legislature, the Republican who represents Alaska in the US House struck a tone of economic optimism and bipartisanship. Begich rarely crosses President Trump, but he hardly said his name, even as he lauded the administration's signature policies and legislative achievements like border enforcement and deportations.
- [02:32]
Ben Townsend
When you enforce the law, chaos recedes. And when you weaken cartels, American communities are safer.
- [02:39]
Avery Elfelt
Last year, as a brand new member of Congress, Begich told the legislature Alaska was too dependent on federal spending. He supported the Doge spending cuts and said the federal budget was unsustainable. This time he spoke more of the support he's helping to deliver on disaster relief for western Alaska. Begich said he's trying to get the Trump administration to reverse course and pay 100% of the state's claim. Representative Nellie Jimmy, the Democrat who represents the region, asked what he's doing to win federal support to move and rebuild communities destroyed by the How Long? Storm in October. Begich said it would take time, but
- [03:21]
Ben Townsend
it needs to be done in a way that's durable so that people have the confidence to go back to their villages and know that they're going to be safe. And that's my commitment to those communities. That's my commitment to you, and we will work with you to find the best way forward to achieve that.
- [03:35]
Avery Elfelt
Anchorage Representative Andy Josephson was struck by how nonpartisan Begich's speech sounded compared to that of US Senator Dan Sullivan last month.
- [03:45]
Ben Townsend
As a progressive Democrat, I found most of his speech and his tone inoffensive and some of it welcoming.
- [03:57]
Avery Elfelt
Josephson, though, says Begich glossed over a few harsh realities, like his assertion that Trump's enforcement of immigration law has lessened chaos. Josephson says that's not what he sees.
- [04:10]
Ben Townsend
What's ensued has been lots of chaos, right, and real harm and real division in the country and real fear of our own federal government. So I thought that was misguided, insensitive, all of those things, but said pleasantly enough.
- [04:29]
Avery Elfelt
Begich skipped the customary post address press conference, but did take a few questions from reporters in the hallway. For Alaska Public Media, I'm Liz Ruskin.
- [04:48]
Lori Townsend
The city of anchorage is investing $1.3 million worth of federal funding in several local programs aimed at helping homeless residents get and keep stable housing. The mayor's office put out a request for proposals to local nonprofits last week. Thea Agnew Bamben is with the mayor's office. She says addressing people's physical, developmental and behavioral health needs is a big piece the municipality's homeless response.
- [05:14]
Ben Townsend
One of the biggest needs that we have is housing options that provide supports so that people who have, you know, additional challenges to maintaining housing can actually get into a housing unit and maintain it.
- [05:28]
Lori Townsend
Agnew Bemben says supportive housing programs have people on staff to help with things, from buying groceries and using the bus system to managing their emotions and resolving conflict with roommates. Supportive housing programs have existed in Anchorage for decades, and right now the city has more than 1500 units. Agnew Bemben says she hopes the funding will both augment what already exists and add some more new units.
- [05:53]
Ben Townsend
It really is kind of the bedrock of what helps people who otherwise would probably be experiencing homelessness and be using a lot of emergency services. It helps them maintain housing and really improves their I mean, it extends their
- [06:07]
Lori Townsend
life, agnew Bemben says the programs are proven to be very effective in keeping people housed. The city hopes to award the money by mid spring and have the additional supportive housing up and running by early summer. The Iditarod is known for its toughness, but this year three teams on the thousand mile trail to Nome are in the race's first ever non competitive Expedition class. Two are wealthy businessmen who have contributed money to the race. One is a former champ, and despite the financial contributions, some mushers are questioning what the businessmen are doing in Alaska's super bowl of dog mushing. KN's Ben Townsend has more.
- [06:48]
Ben Townsend
Three, two, one, go. Ladies and gentlemen, from Norway in starting position numbers or excuse me, from Switzerland, Jell Roque at Iditarod 54.
- [07:00]
Aaron Burmeister
That's the sound of Shell Roque's setting off from the Iditarod ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage. Roque is the Iditarod's first billionaire dog musher and he's involved in different businesses, but he made a lot of his money on dog food, specifically a type made from Antarctic krill, the tiny shrimp like crustaceans. He's sponsored Iditarod mushers before and has given the race at least 300,000 bucks this year to lower musher entry fees and boost the race purse. Rocket's entry into the race is rubbing some people the wrong way. That includes Fairbanks musher Jeff Dieter, an Iditarod veteran with six finishes.
- [07:35]
Ben Townsend
He's running under his own slash, no rules. He's swapping dogs in and out on the trail. I mean, there are things that he's doing, his group is doing that are not representative of Iditarod and long distance racing and I have a real problem with that.
- [07:48]
Aaron Burmeister
The Iditarod Trail Committee is the nonprofit that puts on the race and it struggled to stay out of the red in recent years as costs have gone up and sponsorships have declined. The ITC announced in June that Roque would join the race and was contributing financially, but race officials declined to answer questions about his entry. It wasn't until two days before the race started that race officials offered more information. The release said expedition mushers like Roque aren't limited to a set 16 dog team. Like the other mushers, they can swap in fresh dogs, aren't required to take any layovers and can receive outside assistance in any form. And so far in the race, Roque is also mushing very close to the 2020 champion, fellow Norwegian Thomas Warner, who's supporting Roque on the trail. The race has also said Expedition mushers are explicitly instructed to separate themselves from the competitive element of the race and must not interfere in any way. And it's that last part that former mushers like Iditarod veteran Aaron Burmeister are keeping an eye on. Aside from Warner's dog team, Roque is being flanked by two snow machines tasked with breaking trail and setting up camp. Burmeister says snow machines piloted by locals or Iditarod's video crew are common along the trail and he says they can be a good thing, particularly if a blizzard makes the course hard to follow. But snow machines come with downsides too.
- [09:11]
Ben Townsend
If they break the crust up and you fall through the base, now you're going from nine miles an hour on a dog team down to seven struggling to go through deep sill.
- [09:21]
Aaron Burmeister
Defending Iditarod champion Jesse Holmes has concerns as well, at least in part related to where he plans to take a mandatory 24 hour break.
- [09:30]
Ben Townsend
Well, I think that it's really thrown me for a loop on how I plan to run the race. I plan to go to cripple for the 24, but apparently Thomas and Roark, they plan to push an aggressive pace and race us to Nome and beat us to Nome.
- [09:45]
Aaron Burmeister
And the Cripple checkpoint is usually quiet. It's not a community and consists of only a couple small buildings. Despite fewer amenities, some mushers like to take their 24 hour break there because it's away from hustle and bustle. Holmes says the extra snow machines are making him second guess his strategy.
- [10:03]
Ben Townsend
So just adds more to the mushers plate to have to try to contemplate what they're going to do, you know.
- [10:09]
Aaron Burmeister
Roque's history with the Iditarod goes back to at least 2019, when a company he owned began sponsoring Warner. Warner says he's been training with Roque for four years now, including a notoriously brutal section of trail along the Northern Sound coast.
- [10:23]
Ben Townsend
I'm looking forward to see the trail again, the whole trail. But we've been going from, you know, from McGrath to know last year, so you know, we've seen a lot of trail again.
- [10:31]
Aaron Burmeister
The Iditarod typically takes just over eight days for the top teams to complete and longer for others, meaning mushers spend a lot of time on the runners watching the dogs trot along the trail. Roque calls running the Iditarod a great adventure.
- [10:44]
Ben Townsend
But I'm really not a dog man per se, but I, I connect very well with the dogs. You have to be in a good mood whatever happens. Smile, laugh, tell them story, sing, and that's what I do.
- [10:56]
Aaron Burmeister
Roque was the six musher depart the Willow restart and along with Warner, lingered around the front of the pack for the opening stage of the race. On the opposite end of the procession was the only other Expedition musher, Canadian businessman Steve Curtis, whose entry into the race came as a surprise just days before the start. The Iditarod did make one thing clear in its earliest statements about the Expedition Class. If Roque or Curtis make it to the famed Burled Arch, the race's finish line in Nome, they will not receive an official Iditarod finisher's belt buckle, but instead will win a separate Expedition Class belt buckle with help from Eva White in Anchorage, blocks away from that finish line in Nome. I'm Ben Townshend.
- [11:37]
Lori Townsend
As of this afternoon, 36 Iditarod teams remained. Rookie New Hampshire musher Jay Fouche scratched this morning at the Rainy Pass checkpoint for what the race described in a written statement as personal reasons after mushing through a windstorm at last check, Riley Dyke and defending champion Jesse Holmes were the race's front runners, trailed by 2023 champ Ryan Reddington and Paige Drobney. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, moose meatballs and mountain goat stew teach one group of Juneau bigger lesson.
- [12:10]
Ben Townsend
I'm trying to kind of plant those seeds, those seeds of empowerment and giving them those opportunities.
- [12:15]
Lori Townsend
That's ahead. Stay with us.
- [12:18]
Avery Elfelt
Hi, I'm Avery Elfelt, a reporter with the Alaska Desk. That's a joint reporting effort from Alaska Public Media, KH&S, where I work in Hanes, and other public radio stations in Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Aleutians. It allows us to connect you with the issues happening in communities all across the state. You can hear our stories during the morning news on Alaska News Nightly or online@alaskapublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible with the support of grants and listeners like you. Thank you.
- [12:48]
Lori Townsend
Social service providers in Juneau say they're worried about fallout if the Juneau assembly decides to cut city funding to some of Juneau's most critical social services. On Monday night, multiple providers testified during the Assembly's regular meeting to advocate for the city's continued funding of social service grants. Kaya Quinto is the executive director of Juneau Housing First Collaborative, also known as the Glory Hall Homeless Shelter. The shelter offers more than 15,000 emergency beds and serves over 60,000 meals to patrons in Juneau each year. Quinto says the shelter relies on the Assembly's funding of the Endowment to provide its service to Juneau.
- [13:27]
Avery Elfelt
These funds are crucial and essential services cannot be provided. Without them, we cannot afford to lose
- [13:33]
Lori Townsend
these critical safety net programs each year in the city's budget. Since 2016, the assembly has provided a block of funding to the Juneau Community Foundation, a local philanthropic organization. The foundation then combines it with additional funding from its HOPE Endowment program and disburses the funds as grants to organizations in Juneau that address critical social issues such as homelessness, food insecurity, suicide prevention and substance misuse. But this budget season, the Juneau assembly is faced with a multimillion dollar budget shortfall, which will likely result in cuts to some city services. Last year, the assembly approved just over 2 million toward the social service grants, but some providers are concerned that some of the funding could now be at risk. Quinto and other representatives from Social services, including JAM High Health and Wellness, Southeast Alaska Food Bank, Catholic Community Service, Alaska Legal Services Corporation and more, testified at the meeting. Dan Parks, the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Food bank, says demand is at a record high. He says a cut social services would have a negative ripple effect throughout the community.
- [14:39]
Ben Townsend
Hunger doesn't exist in a vacuum.
- [14:42]
Aaron Burmeister
It's a indicator, a canary in the coal mine, if you will, of other social ills. If the city wants to help us reduce the amount of people in our line, we need investment in mental health care, investment in affordable housing, affordable child
- [14:57]
Lori Townsend
care, juneau's Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city manager's draft budget does not recommend any cuts to the grant funding. The Juneau assembly will begin making budget decisions decisions, including any cuts to services, once the city manager releases the draft budget this month. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says it launched 12 aircraft last week to monitor two Russian reconnaissance planes that were flying through international airspace off the coasts of Alaska and Canada. A NORAD news release says the command detected and tracked the two reconnaissance and anti submarine planes that were operating in the Alaskan and Canadian Air Defense identification zones. Those are areas outside of sovereign airspace where foreign aircraft must identify themselves in the interest of national security. In response, NORAD dispatched a formation of 12 aircraft to identify, monitor and escort the Russian planes through the Alaskan and Canadian Air defense ID zones. The news release says the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace throughout the sorties and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. NORAD says this kind of Russian activity in the Alaskan and Canadian aircraft ID zones occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat. Wednesday's foray was the second time in a month that Russia flew aircraft through the aircraft ID zones. Last month, five Russian aircraft flew through the zones, including two bombers two fighter jets and an early warning plane. NORAD is a binational combined military command that monitors and defends US and Canadian sovereign airspace as well as the two nations air defence ID zones. Petersburg resident Katie Holmland was named one of the Alaska Journal of Commerce's Top 40 Under 40 awardees last month. As KFSK's Taylor Heckert reports, the award recognizes Homeland's years of work to create outdoor child care programming in Petersburg.
- [17:03]
Taylor Heckert
If you ask Katie Homeland what it was like to be named one of Alaska's top 40 under 40 this year, she's humble.
- [17:09]
Avery Elfelt
Well, it was unexpected. Definitely not something that was needed, but definitely appreciated.
- [17:16]
Taylor Heckert
If you see Homeland out in the community, there's a good chance you'll see a line of children trailing behind her. In 2018, she co founded the popular outdoor childcare program Kinderskog, which later transitioned to be a program under Petersburg's hospital. Homeland now oversees all of the Petersburg Medical Center's youth programs, which include Kinderskog and camps for older students. During these programs, it's not uncommon to see Petersburg's youth out kayaking, fly fishing and jumping into the muskeg. Rain or shine, these programs promote healthy risk taking and help young people feel safe and confident outdoors. According to the local paper the Petersburg Pilot, over half of Petersburg's elementary school students participated in the hospital's outdoor programs last year. Homeland says this award is about a lot more than just her instead, it's a community effort.
- [18:08]
Avery Elfelt
It highlights what can happen when a community really invests in our kids. I keep telling people it feels sort of ridiculous to be recognized individually for what is truly a community effort, but really trying to highlight the fact that when we can come together and put kids first and invest in them, really good things can happen for all of us.
- [18:27]
Taylor Heckert
Julie Walker, who oversees community wellness and public relations for the hospital, agrees that it does take a team to make those youth programs a success, but it also requires strong leadership from Homeland to thrive.
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Ben Townsend
Just her innovation, her ideas. She takes them from what if we did this? To making it happen and seeing in
- [18:49]
Taylor Heckert
action and hearing from the families.
- [18:51]
Jamie Deep
My family being one of them that
- [18:52]
Avery Elfelt
has benefited from the programs.
- [18:55]
Taylor Heckert
She's definitely deserving of this award. Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstadter says Homeland is a driving force behind the hospital's youth programs.
- [19:04]
Ben Townsend
To me it's so it's such a
- [19:06]
Aaron Burmeister
model for youth and the ability to
- [19:09]
Ben Townsend
grow the program and develop it even further so we can meet the needs of, you know, all youth in the community is just such an amazing thing.
- [19:19]
Taylor Heckert
The 40 under 40 awardees will be recognized during a gala in Anchorage in April. They will also be featured in a commemorative magazine in Petersburg. I'm Taylor Heckert.
- [19:31]
Lori Townsend
The U.S. forest Service announced last week its public meeting schedule for residents across Southeast to share feedback on a revised Hongass National Forest Management Plan. The plan will set the agency's priorities for the forest over the next decade or so. The Tongass is the largest national forest in the U.S. with more than 16 million acres covering 80% of southeast Alaska. Forest plans are typically updated every 10 to 15 years, and the last one was completed in 2016. The new plan will influence how the Forest Service balances a range of uses, including logging, recreation, tourism, subsistence harvest and ecosystem health. In person. Meetings are planned from the end of March through early May and will take place in Juneau, haines, Skagway and 15 other southeast communities. The Forest Service launched the public process for updating the plan last month with an initial 30 day public comment period and a notice to begin an environmental review. The public notice said the agency will ensure the plan is consistent with two of President Trump's executive orders aimed at maximizing mineral extraction and logging in Alaska, and that a new timber demand analysis will inform logging projections in the plan. The first deadline to submit comments electronically is March 20. The agency expects to publish a draft revised plan and draft environmental impact statement this fall, followed by a 90 day public comment period. The final plan is expected next May. The state's Transportation Department and a Southeast Alaska nonprofit are partnering in a new way to help the region plan for its future. The state designated Southeast Conference last month as a new regional planning organization or or rpo. Southeast Conference is a nonprofit organization that works to develop the region's economy through grants and programs for 33 communities. Robert Venables is the longtime executive director. He says Southeast's regional needs will get more statewide recognition through the rpo.
- [21:30]
Ben Townsend
There are metropolitan planning organizations in the big communities like Anchorage and Fairbanks and Almatsu, and there's really not a formal seat at the table for regional communities such as we have in Southeast Alaska. So this is kind of a little bit of a new thing and this RPO will allow the communities to have a formal seat at the table, he says.
- [21:53]
Lori Townsend
The new label won't bring any dramatic changes to the nonprofit's work. But being a so called regional planning organization mostly formalizes what Southeast Conference already does. They won't hire extra staff, but they will get some new funding, about 50 to $75,000 from the state every year going forward Venable says there will be more community engage engagement. Southeast Conference holds two big regional meetings a year and Venable says the public should see more engagement beyond those events.
- [22:21]
Ben Townsend
What this does is puts responsibility for Southeast Conference to do what they do really well, which is facilitating conversations, bringing stakeholders together and, you know, getting as much regional consensus as possible.
- [22:35]
Lori Townsend
The new RPO comes at a time when the state's Marine Highway System is struggling with funding and staffing shortages and the state's aging ferry fleet is requiring more and more repair work. Shannon McCarthy is a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation. She says Southeast Conference's new RPO designation could help with planning the Marine Highway System's future.
- [22:56]
Avery Elfelt
It does provide that organization, that structure for us to talk about what the needs are of the region and ensure
- [23:04]
Taylor Heckert
that they're integrated into our planning structures
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Avery Elfelt
in a very formal way and then
- [23:10]
Lori Townsend
ensure that we are checking in with
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Ben Townsend
the group, you know, periodically.
- [23:15]
Lori Townsend
Southeast Conference is creating an advisory board for the RPO to oversee policies and is seeking new board members to fill seats. More information about that is available on the nonprofit's website. The Juneau School District has one of the oldest school based hunter education programs in Alaska. Its current teacher recently won the state's Hunter Educator of the Year award after bringing back hunter education into the classroom. KTOO's Jamie deep swung by the class for a day and has this story.
- [23:46]
Ben Townsend
Tell me need or want air? Need. Need, right? You need to breathe air and if you're not breathing air, you're not getting oxygen throughout your body.
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Jamie Deep
James White goes through a list of wants and needs for survival with seventh graders on a recent Friday morning. White is the hunter education teacher at Thunder Mountain Middle School. Students sit around countertops equipped with with sinks, sand, mixers and various cooking equipment. Moose antlers are propped up on top of several refrigerators at the front of the classroom and microwaves are tucked into cabinets in the back. As part of survival and hunting skills, White teaches students first aid, cpr, firearm safety and basic cooking. White says he cooks game meat for students and it's one of the main ways to get buy in from them.
- [24:30]
Avery Elfelt
He made us moose meatballs and mountain goat.
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Jamie Deep
Stewart how is that?
- [24:37]
Ben Townsend
Amazing.
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Jamie Deep
That's seventh grader Scotland Beck. She's excited about learning basic cooking skills, which is part of the class. I want to learn how to make
- [24:44]
Ben Townsend
spaghetti because that's my little brother's favorite meal so I can make it for him.
- [24:49]
Jamie Deep
White was recently awarded the Hunter Educator of the Year award by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for his work on the program. He says the skills he teaches allow students to apply many different math and science concepts to something practical.
- [25:00]
Ben Townsend
What we're doing here is really unique, but it's also exactly how education should be. When you're bringing in cooking to math and to science and firearm safety to physics and anatomy, chemistry, I mean, it really is holistic in the approach that we take.
- [25:17]
Jamie Deep
It took time to make the course a part of the school day, though. Last year, White taught hunter education as an after school club, though either way, class or club, he says it's a community effort to teach students these skills. Guest speakers from Fish and Game and Bartlett Regional Hospital teach about wildlife conservation and first aid skills. And the Taku River Sportsmen association donates money to cover the cost of the student's hunter education certification through the state, which lasts a lifetime.
- [25:41]
Ben Townsend
So many people are willing to give up time to teach these skills, but some of it's also because I'm going to share the woods with these kids, too. You know, I want to make sure that they're going to be safe when I see them or when the other instructors share time and come across them, you know, in a muskeg and see them wearing their hunter orange, like, it's like, oh, cool, all right. Like this kid knows what's up.
- [26:02]
Jamie Deep
But the most important part for White is teaching students to be safe and empowered in hunting.
- [26:06]
Ben Townsend
I'm trying to kind of plant those seeds, those seeds of empowerment and giving them those opportunities to kind of guide whatever their life ends up being, but seeing how unique and how amazing, you know, what we have here in Juneau and our community is and what's allowed people to live and be successful living, living here is that connection to the land and that respect for it.
- [26:29]
Jamie Deep
Students still have a couple more months to go before they can earn their basic hunting certification. At the end of the school year in May, when they finish the course, they can move on to the life skills class in eighth grade to take their cooking and survival skills to the next level in Juneau. I'm Jamie Deep.
- [26:55]
Lori Townsend
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 and Hannah Flor in Anchorage, Ben Townsend in Nome, Tim Ellis in Delta Junction, Clarice Larson, Alex Solomon and Jamie Deep in Juneau, Angela Denning and Taylor Heckert in Petersburg. If you want to send a send us a news tip question or comment. Email us newslaskapublic.org Our audio engineers, Crystal Hyde. Kirsten Dobroth is our producer. And I'm Lori Townsend. Good night.
- [27:35]
Jamie Deep
This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.