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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.
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Hopefully the issues in the Middle east get settled down, but we'll be taking
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a cautionary view of that going forward.
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Alaska lawmakers urge fiscal caution as war in the Middle east pushes oil prices higher. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Tuesday, March 3rd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, Anchorage voters will decide on two ballot initiatives aimed at supporting the local school district.
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It certainly makes a huge difference in
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how we start looking at our facilities
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over the next several years.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
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The PFD application is open. Just a small amount of your PFD will help share local news and stories about Alaskans with Alaskans across this great state. When you choose Alaska Public Media through
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Pick Click give Senator Dan Sullivan is doubling down on his support for the US War on Iran, while Senate Democrats assert that only Congress has the authority to decl war, Sullivan said at an Armed Services Committee hearing today that the US did not start this conflict.
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To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, wake up. This country's been at war with us for almost a half century, and they've killed thousands and wounded thousands of our best and brightest.
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Fault lines are appearing among Republicans as Congress gears up for a vote to require President Trump to get congressional approval for the war. Some in the MAGA faction say it doesn't fit with the America first agenda. Still, it's unlikely that more than a handful of Republicans will vote to constrain Trump. And Sullivan made it clear he fully backs the decision to strike Iran.
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It's been a bipartisan goal of every president to make sure the Iranians don't
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get nukes and don't get ballistic missiles, and that's what the president and our brave troops are undertaking right now. Compared to Sullivan, Senator Lisa Murkowski has so far sounded more neutral. She said in a social media post Saturday the Iranian regime needs to be held to account. She also said the administration needs to brief Congress on the scope and objectives of the war. Senate Democrats say the administration has announced a shifting series of objectives. Responding to Sullivan at today's hearing, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said Democrats don't need convincing that the Iranian regime is an enemy.
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The reason why there's so much consternation is because President Trump has not given us a clear reason why he is in Iran Iran if he wants to declare war on Iran, that is the job and responsibility of Congress under the Constitution. So he is subverting our authority in every respect.
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Like Sullivan, Alaska Congressman Nick Begich is also backing Trump's decision to strike Iran. In a statement on Saturday, he said half measures have only emboldened Tehran and that the path forward should be centered on removing the leadership. Iran's supreme leader and other officials were killed at the outset, but the Islamic Republic is still asserting it has control of the country. Alaska lawmakers are preaching caution as war in Iran and across much of the Middle east pushes oil prices higher the US oil benchmark price rose $8 between Friday and today, or about 12% so far. Analysts say it's a relatively moderate reaction from the oil markets and a prolonged conflict or wider war could push prices even higher. But Senator Burt Stedman, a Sitka Republican and co chair of the Senate Finance Committee, says even a short term bump in oil prices could reduce the amount the state has to draw from savings to make ends meet. This year that could amount to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise come from a dwindling savings account. But Stedman says lawmakers shouldn't count on a sustained price increase. We don't want to get into a position of overspending in the in the budget and have a snapback in overly optimistic oil prices, so we want to be a little careful. Oil prices have an outsized impact on Alaska's budget. It's not the state's largest revenue source anymore, but it's by far the most volatile. A $1 change in oil prices swings the state budget by 25 to $35 million, according to legislative budgeters. House Minority Leader Delaina Johnson, a Palmer Republican, says she's taking a similar view.
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If this keeps us from having to
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go into savings, well that's great.
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I don't think we should elevate spending based on the elevated oil prices, though.
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Ahead of the session, the bipartisan Democrat heavy Senate majority listed increasing state revenue as its top goal for the year. Lawmakers are considering a variety of tax proposals to address a long running structural deficit that emerged when oil prices Collapsed in the mid 2010s Senator Lyman Hoffman, a Bethel Democrat and co chair of the Senate Finance Committee, says lawmakers should remain focused on those efforts to raise revenue. I think the the bigger question is
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what are we going to do as a state to balance our checkbook on
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the long term and address the needs that our citizens expect of us? Lawmakers are set to receive an updated state revenue forecast in mid. State prosecutors are no longer pursuing charges against a University of Alaska Fairbanks student who ate AI generated art displayed on campus. KUAC's Patrick Gilchrist reports.
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20 year old Graham Granger had faced one count of misdemeanor fifth degree criminal mischief, but prosecutors dismissed the single count on February 19th, a little more than a month after his arrest. That's an outcome both parties had sought after reaching a monetary compromise, according to court records. The charge initially came after Granger ripped up and chewed the artwork of UAF Master of Fine Arts student Nick Dwyer in January. The work, titled Shadow chatgpt Psychosis, was part of an exhibit at the UAF Art gallery involving a handful of graduate level students. Dwyer had created a series of images in concert with artificial intelligence, a process Granger sought to protest, resulting in his arrest and the criminal mischief charge. In early February, the defense filed a motion to dismiss the case after Dwyer signed an affidavit that said a $220 payment from Granger was a sufficient consequence. The affidavit cites Alaska statute that allows some misdemeanors to be resolved by parties agreeing to civil remedies. But the case stayed open for about two weeks after those filings. That was until the Fairbanks District Attorney's office decided to drop the case before the judge could rule on the motion to dismiss. The case closed the same day, February 19th. Granger, a sophomore in UAF's Film and Performing arts program, says he's glad the case is over. He says he probably won't repeat his actions, but he didn't count out protesting AI in art in other ways. I think that repeating it wouldn't have the same impact as it has had just because it's been done. It would have to be something totally different, he says. He was protesting AI in art, not Dwyer, specifically, whom Granger says he's never met. Granger says the case's dismissal has allowed him to speak more freely with people about what happened. He's also posted a video of the whole thing on YouTube that he recorded on his phone. The video starts by showing the 160 small images arranged neatly together on the UAF art gallery wal. Two water bottles sit on the floor. Granger approaches the images. Within the first few seconds of the video, he yanks one off the wall from the top left of the arrangement before turning back to face the camera and taking his first bite. The video is titled Zero Calories because I was eating something that had Little to no substance and Art made by AI has no substance because it's not made by somebody. The video runs roughly 21 minutes and had about 1700 views as of Monday. It shows Granger tearing the work from the gallery wall over and over again and putting it in his mouth. He occasionally sips from one of the water bottles. In the latter half of the video, bystanders begin to ask questions, which he answers with head shakes and hand gestures. Granger continues stuffing more images into his mouth as paper bits of the artwork start falling at his feet with greater frequency. The final 30 seconds show two UAF Police Department officers arriving and escorting Granger out of the frame before the video ends.
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Hey, sir. Sir.
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London stood out for me, okay?
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Police estimated Granger destroyed 57 of the images. Dwyer, who teaches a ceramics course at uaf, couldn't be reached for comment in time for this story, but The Sun Star, UAF's student run newspaper, reported in January that his work was exploring AI psychosis, a phenomenon he said he experienced himself. Fairbanks District Attorney Joe Dillair said in an emailed statement Monday that his office talked with Dwyer on multiple occasions about the case. Dillair also noted the motion to dismiss and Dwyer's accompanying affidavit, which cites the civil compromise statute. And he said input from victims is critical to us making decisions that serve the interests of justice. End quote. In Fairbanks, I'm Patrick Gilchrist.
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Still the common Alaska News Nightly snowshoers on Team Alaska get ready for this year's Arctic Winter Games and it's like
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just a lot of spirit and friendly competition. It's really, really fun.
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That's ahead. Stay with us.
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I'm Shelby Herbert, a reporter with the Alaska Desk. That's a joint reporting effort from Alaska Public Media and kuac, where I work in Fairbanks, and other public radio stations in Anchorage, Haines and the allusions. It allows us to connect to the issues happening in communities all across the state. You can hear our stories during The Morning News, Alaska News nightly or online at AlaskaPublic.org the Alaska Desk is only possible with the support of grants and listeners like you. Thank you.
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Since the U.S. army Corps of Engineers pulled back its decision to design a way to tap a lake to stop annual glacial outburst flooding in Juneau's Mendenhall Valley, local and congressional leaders have pressed the agency to explain why until recently, the Army Corps was pursuing the lake tap solution, which would involve digging a tunnel through Bullard Mountain to continuously drain the glacial basin that fills with rain and meltwater so the water can't rush out all at once. Each year, it would work like a bathtub drain and the idea drew broad local support. Juneau's city leaders say they're concerned this change will delay a long term solution. Senator Dan Sullivan asked the Army Corps for transparency at a US Senate committee hearing last week.
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There is this perception that things are going dark.
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People are nervous again that the Corps is not engaged. Adam Tell, assistant secretary of the army for Civil works, said this change of course is not a pullback on the agency's commitment to protecting the valley from flooding. We are committed to a short, medium and long term solution for the challenge that faces Juneau. Lt. Gen. William Graham, chief of engineers and commanding general of the Army Corps, told Sullivan that the agency will take more time to evaluate all of the options for a long term solution besides a lake tap. Those options are a dam at the outlet of Mendenhall Lake, a permanent levee along the Mendenhall River, a bypass channel through the floodplain, or relocating impacted residents. It's too soon to take any options
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off the table because what we're wrestling
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with most here is time. Graham said at the hearing that if the agency moves ahead with the lake tap, the temporary levy could fail before a tunnel is completed, meaning the valley could get hit by catastrophic flooding. Again, the temporary levy protected most valley homes from a record breaking flood last summer, but water rose within inches of the top and seeped through some areas. So Graham said the Army Corps wants to look for an intermediate solution. Juneau City Manager Katie Kester sent an email to Juneau residents Friday saying she is deeply concerned about the uncertainty around a long term solution. Last week, the city submitted an $8 million congressionally directed spending request to fund a plan for a lake tap. She wrote that the city will, quote, keep the pressure on and invited residents to continue advocating for a solution that will protect the valley in the long run. Next month, Anchorage voters will decide on two ballot initiatives that would support the Anchorage School District. As Alaska Public Media's Wesley early reports, the efforts come after the local school board cut roughly $90 million from the district's budget.
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The first school related ballot proposition is a roughly 80 million dollar bond that would pay for a number of capital projects. In a presentation to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce on Monday, the school district's chief operations officer, Jim Anderson, said the bond supports schools across the district that require maintenance.
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Our average age of our Schools is now 40 years old, so still much younger than me, but they're not getting younger and actually 42% of them are over 50 years old.
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Specific projects the bond would target include paying for a secure front entrance and roof replacement at one school, building upgrades at three other schools and improving student meals across the district. And for the first time since 2015, the state is resuming a program that helped reimburse school bond debt incurred by municipalities across the state for Anchorage. Anderson says that means about $40 million of the bond will be covered by the state, making this school bond the cheapest proposed to voters in over a decade.
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It certainly makes a huge difference in
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how we start looking at our facilities
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over the next several years.
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Last year's school bond passed by a margin of roughly 1600 votes. The other school related item on Anchorage ballots this year is a one time tax levy to support the school district totaling about $12 million. If approved, the taxpayers can expect to pay no more than an additional doll and $0.40 per $100,000 of assessed taxable property value. The Anchorage School Board recently passed a budget that addressed a $90 million deficit by cutting hundreds of staff positions, including more than 300 teachers, and increasing class sizes by an average of four students. Anchorage School District Superintendent Jarrett Bryant says the district is committed to putting all of the tax levy toward hiring about 80 teachers.
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You might have heard this term pupil to teacher ratio thrown around in the media or in comments at the school board meeting. It's very significant in that we could reduce our people to teacher ratio by 2 district wide if this levy were to pass.
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The district's chief of staff, MJ Tim, says a recent district survey of more than 1,000 people shows respondents opposed the bond by a large margin, but he says they were evenly split on the one time tax. Tim says the district also asked those who didn't support the tax if they would be more supportive if the district cut down on costs by consolidating schools.
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There were 30% that said, yeah, I might consider changing my vote if the school board moves forward and closes schools, so to speak.
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As part of its budget vote, the school board did vote to consolidate programs including closing three elementary schools. Tim says he's hopeful that will be enough to sway some voters to support the one time tax hike. Anchorage's municipal election will be held on April 1st. Reporting in Anchorage, I'm Wesley early in
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the weeks since federal immigration officials detained and deported a mom and her kids from Soldotna, community members have come together at least three times to show their support for the family. KDLL's Ashlyn O' Hara went to the latest two events and has this story.
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A crowd of about 50 people cluster near the amphitheater at Soldotna Creek park on Sunday. At sunset, the group shivers in the single digit temperatures singing as their light sources electric candles, phone, flashlight, headlamps bob with the melody.
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We are here tonight to deal with our own emotions but also help the family deal with theirs, right?
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Reverend Karen Martin Titchener stands on the stage looking out at the crowd.
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For Alex and Sonia and the boys to know that we love them, we care about them, they matter and we
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want justice for them.
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We are in this for the long haul and to know that they are not alone.
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Titchener is talking about Alex Sanchez Ramos and Sonia Espinosa Arriaga. The couple married in Kenai in early February. A few weeks later, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained and deported arriaga and her two minor children. Her oldest son, who's 18, was sent to ICE's Tacoma, Washington detention center. As of Monday, he's still there. Sanchez Ramos, who is a US Citizen born in Seward, told KDLL that Arriaga received a deportation order after missing an immigration hearing in January. He says Arriaga and her three sons came to the United States several years ago seeking asylum from cartel violence and domestic abuse in Mexico. After missing the hearing, Sanchez Ramos says he and Arriaga contacted a lawyer to ensure they filed the correct paperwork to rectify the error and do what they needed to prevent Arriaga's deportation. During Sunday's vigil, Sanchez Ramos told attendees that he and Arriaga are both grateful for the support they've received so far, financial and otherwise. He says their legal fees have been paid for and that all additional money raised is going to help Arriaga and her two youngest sons start over in Mexico.
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This gave me a reminder how much I love small towns and this community especially.
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The vigil came a little over a week after a community meeting hosted by Christ Lutheran Church and mirrors similar events held in Anchorage last week. A group of about 20 Soletna High School students also rallied for the family. They walked out of school and into sub zero temperatures to protest ICE operations and the deportation of their classmate. Arriaga's 16 year old middle son is a freshman at Soldana High School. Normally, Kira Albright would be in US History class, but the high school junior says the walkout is more important. I believe that ICE is wrong and the levels they're taking to deport people aren't right. The walkout will ding Albright and the other school attendance records, but that didn't deter them, sophomore Savannah Prieto says. It's about perspective. I want excuse absence against someone who's
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not allowed to go to the school anymore because they got deported to a
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totally different Though the walkout and the vigil were organized independently, both groups expressed support for better treatment of immigrants in the United States. Back at the vigil, speaker Susan Smalley helps close it out with what she dubs a prayer for the government.
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Each person standing here with a light source is also a source of hope and love and compassion connected together to focus a spotlight on the darkness that ICE creates whenever they show up.
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A lawyer representing Arriaga and her children is actively challenging their detention in federal court. There's no timeline for what awaits her oldest son at ICE's Tacoma Detention Center. Reporting in Soldotna, I'm Ashlyn o' Hara
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everywhere I go if you applied for individual assistance after last October's storms in western Alaska and got a denial letter, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says you might just need to provide additional information to get your application processed. People who have received denial letters by mail or email have 60 days to appeal the decision. In cases where documents are missing, you can either upload them to your FEMA application or include them with appeal letters. To set up an account online to appeal a denial, upload necessary documents or check the status of your application, head to disasterassistance.gov and click apply Online. As of today, FEMA has received a little more than 2,300 individual assistance applications. According to its website, the agency has approved roughly 1,600 applications and more than $38 million for individual assistance. The state has expanded a fishing closure for shrimp in southeast Alaska to protect the species. Shrimping in Southeast is now closed to all harvesters through the end of April. It's the first time the seasonal closure has expanded to sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries. Troy Tinis coordinates commercial fishing in the region for the Alaska Department of Fish and game. He says 20 to 30% of Southeast's overall shrimp harvest is caught by sport, personal use and subsistence permit holders around Southeast. We've seen declines in shrimp abundance and this was in a response to that and we've also seen, you know, increase in the proportion of harvest from these sport personal use systems fisheries.
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Based on our permit data.
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The annual closure, which is typically reserved for commercial fishermen, comes after the Alaska Board of Fisheries adopted regulations last year to protect shrimp eggs during their hatch period. According to the department, the seasonal closure is intended to benefit the long term sustainability of the fishery. The shrimp fishery will reopen to sport, personal use and subsistence permit holders on May 1st. It will reopen to commercial users on May 15th. You can find more information about the closures on the Alaska Department of Fish and Games website, adfg.alaska.gov. The Arctic Winter Games begin Sunday in Whitehorse. Middle and high schoolers from most circumpolar regions of the world will compete in sports from speed skating to volleyball to traditional snowshoeing. KTool's Alex Solomon caught up with half of Alaska's snowshoe running team at their practice in Juneau and has this story.
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On the hard packed snow at the start of Pioneer Road in North Douglas, Sigrid Eller straps on traditional racing snowshoes that have little in common with newer aluminum models. These have a wooden frame and webbing made of animal sinew. She ties them to her rawhide mukluks with a long string of oil lamp wick. You put around your heel in the back, cross it over your top of your foot and you go under here. These very snowshoes have been passed between generations of of athletes. They're treated with wood varnish to make them last through Juneau's wet winters. Eller is 15 years old. She's one of four Juno snowshoers representing Team Alaska in the 2026 Arctic Winter Games hosted in Whitehorse, Yukon. The four will join 270 other young athletes from around the state. Juneau is sending a total of 29 athletes who will compete in hockey, futsal, basketball, alpine skiing, volleyball, figure skating and Arctic sports, which are traditional games like the Alaskan high kick and the knucklehop. Eller competed at the games in Palmer two years ago. Now she says she's excited to see some of her teammates experience the fun for the first time. There's just so many kids there and they're all doing like this different, really cool Arctic sport. And it's like just a lot of spirit and friendly competition. It's really, it's really fun. Nine teams will compete in the Games this year representing Arctic regions in the U.S. canada, Greenland and Scandinavia. Russia has been excluded since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. As the sun sets and the wind whips up, coach Jeff Rose times the snowshoers as they run 5km on the Nordic Trail.
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Okay, ready, set, go.
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Coach Mary Elfson says form is key. The athletes want to keep the long, pointed heels of their snowshoes on the ground. So they get themselves out there for 30 minutes pushing it. Generally you develop some blisters underneath your feet, so we want to get through those phases and give them a chance to really relax into their form because it is different. Their adductors are gonna hurt. They're using different things when you don't do a normal running form. Elfson has been snowshoeing since the 1990s. She says the most wonderful thing about the Arctic Winter Games is the camaraderie between the teams. Everyone comes in in their Team Alaska gear, which they will have by the closing ceremonies. In the week, they've traded it all. It's just this great sharing of who we are sort of manifested in what we wear. It doesn't really matter. We're still out here and we're celebrating the north, she says. That's the spirit of the Games as she's bundled up in a puffy coat with Team Nunavut's logo representing Canada's vast northern island archipelago. In Juneau, I'm Alex Solomon.
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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 Liz Ruskin and Wesley early in Anchorage, Eric Stone and Alex Solomon in Juneau, Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, Ashlyn o' Hara in Soldotna, Evan Erickson in Bethel and Hunter Morrison in Ketchikan. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newslaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde, Kirsten Dobroth is our producer and I'm Casey Grove. Good night. This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.