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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. I was committed to voting yes on this bill for quite some time. I think transparency is important. US Congressman Nick Begich votes with the rest of the House to release the Epstein files From Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Tuesday, November 18th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, an Alaska shipping company is trying a new strategy to reduce whale strikes.
- [00:41]
Jamie Goen
The hope is this new technology will make that even more rare of an occurrence in the future.
- [00:47]
Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. The U.S. house passed a bill today forcing the Justice Department to release the files it has on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The U.S. senate has also agreed to pass the bill by unanimous consent, meaning without a roll call vote. With that, all three members of the Alaska delegation support it. Alaska Public Media Washington correspondent Liz Ruskin reports.
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Liz Ruskin
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich voted with nearly the entire US House to release the Epstein files. Begich says he have voted yes, even if President Trump was still urging Republicans to block it.
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Casey Grove
I was committed to voting yes on this bill for quite some time.
- [01:38]
Craig Perry
I think transparency is important.
- [01:40]
Liz Ruskin
For months, Trump pressed Republicans to stop the Epstein bill. That presented lawmakers with a difficult political choice between following Trump or heeding the Republican base still clamoring for the files. Trump abruptly abolished that dilemma. He reversed course over the weekend and called on Republicans to pass the bill. Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson took issue with it, saying just before passage it didn't do enough to shield the identities of victims and witnesses. Begich agreed and said he hoped the Senate would amend it.
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Craig Perry
Obviously, we want to make sure that we're protecting the victims.
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Casey Grove
We're protecting the innocent.
- [02:20]
Liz Ruskin
Democrats and the four House Republicans who persistently fought to advance the Epstein bill say it already protects victims and witnesses. The Senate made no changes. Alaska senators have a mixed record on the Epstein files. They've said they favor making them public. And Senator Lisa Murkowski praised the House Epstein bill. But in September, she and Senator Dan Sullivan voted with most Republicans to set aside an amendment that would have released the Epstein files. Murkowski says that's because it would have killed the underlying bill, the National Defense Act.
- [02:57]
Jamie Goen
What we were trying to do was to keep a poison pill off of the ndaa, and we did just that.
- [03:05]
Liz Ruskin
Murkowski says the Epstein measure was a poison pill in September because Trump was fiercely opposed to it at the time and his House allies would not have crossed him. Murkowski became a co sponsor of the Senate Epstein bill, but only this week. She says she wanted to sign onto it last week, but Congress was out of session. Reporting from Washington, I'm Liz Ruskin.
- [03:29]
Casey Grove
Alaska legislators with the state Joint Armed Services Committee are raising concerns that a federal directive to prepare the Alaska National Guard to deploy domestically for civil unrest could divert service members from disaster relief efforts. The Alaska Beacon reports that in October the Pentagon ordered all states to prepare the National Guard to be trained for civil disturbance operations, according to an internal directive first reported by the Guardian. The federal directive said National Guard members should be training in crowd management and riot control, including the use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray. A spokesperson told the Beacon that the Alaska National Guard received a directive to prepare a 350 member Quick Reaction Force by January 1, but said the state's National Guard hasn't begun any specific training outside typical readiness training. Anchorage Democratic Representative Andrew Gray is co chair of the Alaska Joint Armed Services Committee and a veteran of the Alaska National Guard. Gray and Fairbanks Democratic Senator Scott Kawasaki sent a letter expressing concerns to Major general Torrance Sachs, adjutant general of the state's National Guard, who is also the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. The letter in part said the broad and vague nature of this mandate raises serious questions about its intent and implications, particularly regarding the potential use of these forces in domestic law enforcement situations. End quote. Gray published an op ed in the Anchorage Daily News Monday, saying the committee has not received a response about the plans. Gray said he's requested a meeting with the Alaska National Guard leadership for an update, but so far his questions have not been answered. Leaders with the Alaska National Guard declined repeated interview requests. Governor Mike Dunleavy's office also did not respond to questions about what circumstances would trigger the deployment of the Quick Response Force, whether in Alaska or nationally, or the concerns raised in the legislator's letter. Researchers say vessel strikes are a major threat for whales, including in the waters off Alaska, but a new technology is aiming to change that by using AI thermal imaging and marine observers. Aliona Nydin with the Alaska Desk reports more companies that do business in the state are giving it a try.
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Alyona Nydin
Matt Cox is the CEO of Madsen, a company that delivers cargo and cars from Tacoma to Anchorage, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor. He says the company is trying a new type of technology called Whale Spotter, which will help Madsen ships detect whales.
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Jamie Goen
Every handful of years. We unfortunately do have a strike and of course we report that up. But the hope is that this new technology will make that even more rare of an occurrence in the future. That's our hope.
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Alyona Nydin
Wellspotter was introduced commercially about a year ago and is now used by a dozen companies, including some in Alaska. Metson is the latest to partner with Whale Spotter to limit whale strikes and the first container ship company to use the system. Researchers say ship strikes are one of the leading causes of whale deaths worldwide. In the Juneau area alone, at least nine humpback whales were hit by ships in the last five years, according to a local project, Juneau Whale Health.
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Jamie Goen
So this is a problem for sure.
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Alyona Nydin
Andy Szabo is the director of the Alaska Whale foundation that studies and protect whales, primarily in southeast Alaska. Szabo says ship strikes are especially prominent in the areas frequented by crews and cargo ships.
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Jamie Goen
Whenever you're running high speed large boats through whale waters, that increases the likelihood of strikes.
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Alyona Nydin
Sabo says humpback whales are the most prone to strikes because they often swim close to the surface or to shore. Plus, he says several populations of humpbacks have been declining after a marine heat wave that happened about a decade ago.
- [07:24]
Jamie Goen
They're not doing great at all. So when you have that and then you overlay on top of that, you know, vessel strikes, even if it's not a lot of animals, it can have an impact.
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Alyona Nydin
Whale Spotter technology is designed to alert ship crews when there is a whale nearby and give them an opportunity to adjust their course or stop operations. Sean Henry is the chief executive officer at the company.
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Craig Perry
We're enabling a vessel to detect a whale well ahead of the amount of time it needs to make a turn or slow down.
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Alyona Nydin
Henry says thermal cameras track temperature changes in a 4 nautical mile radius around a ship. Then the technology uses artificial intelligence to determine which images likely captured whales. Remote marine mammal observers. That means real people watching the data feed from elsewhere do the last checks. Then the system sends a real time alert to crews about a whale nearby, Henry says. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts has been developing the technology for the last 15 years. The institute granted Wellspotter a license to sell the technology, and for about a year the company has been working with different clients.
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Craig Perry
We have a number of different other types of vessels that are using the product, some of them vessel strike avoidance, some of them for marine operations like cable laying and pile driving and things like that.
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Alyona Nydin
Cox, the CEO of Madsen, says that the company plans to have it on all three of its Alaska ships.
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Jamie Goen
It's something that they haven't had before. It's very effective and there's a genuine enthusiasm and excitement on board the vessels, which is frankly most gratifying to me.
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Alyona Nydin
Zaba, with the Alaska Whale foundation, says that outfitting ships with the technology to detect whales is the first step, but he says he wants to know more about what the crews will do with that information. He says also having protocols and training can help make sure the new technology is as useful as it can be. In Anchorage, I am Ilona Knighton.
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Casey Grove
Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, disaster assistance for crab fishermen is rolling out, but advocates say the wait was too long.
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Jamie Goen
Waiting four to six years to get your paycheck. That just doesn't work for most families.
- [09:46]
Casey Grove
That's ahead. Stay with us. An Alaska Railroad train struck and killed a Fairbanks man Sunday who officials say was walking on the tracks near Anderson. Alaska State troopers identified the victim as 76 year old Walter Peter, a trooper. Dispatch says they got a report around 10:30am Sunday about the incident. An Alaska Railroad news release said the southbound train from Fairbanks was headed to Anchorage when it struck the man near milepost 399 of the railroad's main line that's about 80 miles south of Fairbanks on the park's highway. Both troopers and Alaska Railroad police responded to the report, but the railroad police took responsibility for the case. Railroad spokesperson Megan Clemens said Peter's death was a tragedy for all involved.
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Jamie Goen
It's such a terrible loss for the victim and their loved ones, and it's an incredibly difficult event for our train crews.
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Casey Grove
Clemens said the incident serves as a reminder of why Alaska railroad corridors are not for public use.
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Craig Perry
There's very little that the train crew.
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Jamie Goen
Can do to slow a train in reaction to seeing someone on the tracks. It can actually take over a mile to bring a train to a stop, and that's why it's so important that folks stay on off of the tracks, keep a safe distance back from what is a, you know, heavy equipment operating corridor.
- [11:05]
Casey Grove
She said the railroad tracks and the surrounding right of way are closed to the public. The corridor extends 100ft from both sides of the tracks. Clements said the victim's body has been sent to the state medical examiner's office for autopsy and that an investigation into the incident is underway. It's the third time this year that the Alaska Railroad has reported a train hitting someone who was walking on or near tracks. Two of those incidents resulted in a fatality. The man who was slammed to the ground by a former Juneau police officer this summer is suing the city and borough of Juneau and the officer in Civil Superior court Christopher Williams Jr. Filed a lawsuit last week against the city and former Juneau police officer Brandon LeBlanc for allegedly violating his civil rights during the arrest. The violent arrest knocked Williams unconscious. He was later medevaced out of town. The lawsuit comes just over a month after the state Office of Special Prosecutions cleared the officer of criminal charges. Video of the July incident recorded by a witness circulated widely online and prompted a public outcry. Jeff Barber is an attorney representing Williams. In an interview, Barber says the lawsuit seeks to hold the city and LeBlanc accountable.
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Jamie Goen
It's just, it's dehumanizing to see the way Mr. Williams was treated in this case by police. And so I think more people should be aware of these kind of actions. And, I mean, it represents an assault on human dignity when you see someone act like that.
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Casey Grove
The lawsuit asserts several allegations of wrongdoing by both LeBlanc and the city. It claims that LeBlanc acted with, quote, intentional malice when arresting Williams and that his actions led Williams to suffer severe and permanent physical injury. It says LeBlanc intentionally failed to render aid to Williams after he was injured. The lawsuit also claims the city is liable for hiring LeBlanc and failing to reasonably train and supervise the officer who was previously sued by a man for excessive force and battery while he served in Louisiana. The jury in that lawsuit found LeBlanc not guilty. After Williams arrest in July, LeBlanc was placed on paid administrative leave. He later resigned from his position just a day before JPD released the body worn camera footage of the arrest. In his statements to the Office of Special Prosecutions, he denied any wrongdoing and said he acted out of fear for his own safety during the incident. Juneau Police Chief Derek Boss defended the department's hiring of LeBlanc during a presentation to the Juneau assembly in late September, saying LeBlanc is a good officer who made a very bad mistake, end quote. BARBER WILLIAMS ATTORNEY DISAGREES yes, we're seeking.
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Jamie Goen
Money damages from the entities that are responsible all the way from the top on down. So if it looks like the city and borough of Juneau shouldn't have hired this guy in the first place, we're going to hold him accountable for that.
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Casey Grove
The lawsuit does not specify the amount of damages Williams seeks. Juneau's city attorney, Emily Wright, said this afternoon that the city had yet to be served with the complaint and could not comment. A controversial mineral exploration project near Haines is changing hands again just one year after the last shakeup. Vizsla Copper Corporation is the new owner. The company says one of its key priorities is earning local support, but at least for one local tribe, that's not in the cards. The Alaska Desk's Avery Elfeld has more.
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Avery Elfeld
Vizsla Copper announced Thursday it's taking full ownership of the Palmer project. That's a zinc, copper, gold, silver and barite exploration site north of haines and about 14 miles upstream from the native village of Kluquan. Vizsla is based in British Columbia, and it purchased the project from American Pacific Mining Corp. Which has been involved since 2022. In a pre recorded video, the two companies lauded Palmer as an exciting prospect, particularly amid surging global demand for critical minerals and the Trump administration's efforts to boost mining in Alaska. Here's Vizsla CEO Craig Perry.
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Craig Perry
The US and particularly Alaska, wants to see mineral projects developed or advanced and developed to supply, you know, particularly US Markets for metals that are critical to life as it is now and as we go forwards.
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Avery Elfeld
Still, the project, which has been under exploration for nearly two decades, has a long road ahead, Perry says. This deal doesn't change that.
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Craig Perry
I think it's crucial to highlight that this is a long way from being a mining project and there's a lot of stages you have to go through to get there. So we're many, many years away from that.
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Avery Elfeld
The project has fueled debate for decades over what a mine would mean for the Chilkat Valley. Some say a mine would boost the local economy, while others argue it's not worth risking impacts to the Chilkat watershed. Perry of Vizla acknowledged that the mining industry needs to do a better job of working with local communities, but he says his company has made that a priority on other projects and would do the same with this one.
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Craig Perry
We've sort of demonstrated that not only do we listen, but we act on what we hear from communities and first nations groups and look to work in partnership with those guys.
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Avery Elfeld
The Chilkat Indian village of Klukwan has long opposed the Palmer project out of concern that a future mine would contaminate the Chilkat river, which supports runs of all five species of Pacific salmon. During an interview following Bizzle's announcement, Council President Kimberly Strong said that concern still stands.
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Jamie Goen
I seriously do not believe there is any opportunity to gain community support, that the threat is too significant for my community and I think for the wider Chilkat Valley.
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Avery Elfeld
Strong also says she's skeptical about any mining companies that claim to prioritize engagement with tribes, particularly given her experience with the myriad companies that have already had a hand in the local project.
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Jamie Goen
The moment we sit down with them, it's considered engaging with the tribe. Yeah, it's not meaningful engagement when they they'll come and listen, but they'll still do whatever they want.
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Avery Elfeld
Purchasing the Palmer project means Vizsla will also acquire Constantine Metal Resources, which has operated the project locally since 2006. And at least for now, Konstantin's role won't change. The company declined to comment. Vizsla noted in a statement that it will need to raise $25 million from investors to move forward with exploration. American Pacific, for its part, will walk away with $15 million in Vizsla shares as opposed to cash. The company could also net an additional 15 million on two conditions. First, if Fizzler finds that the project could yield a certain quantity of minerals, and second, if the project ever becomes a commercial mine. Reporting in Hanes, I'm Avery Elphelt.
- [17:59]
Casey Grove
Last night, the Juneau assembly officially killed a proposal to locally implement ranked choice voting. The body unanimously voted to table the ordinance to adopt a ranked choice voting system for municipal elections beginning next year. The decision came after multiple people testified on the topic at the Assembly's regular meeting, almost all against adopting the change. Roger Calloway was one, and he says he doesn't think the decision should be up to the Assembly.
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Craig Perry
I'm here to testify against the adoption of this ordinance. I believe it's wrong for you, the assembly, to decide how we the voters get to cast our votes.
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Casey Grove
Alaska already uses a ranked choice voting system for statewide elections. In local elections, Juneau voters choose one candidate in single member races like assembly seats. With ranked choice voting, voters would have instead ranked candidates by preference. Juneau's recently retired city clerk, Beth McEwen, testified against the change. She said that while she supports ranked choice voting at the state level, she argued it's unnecessary for Juneau and would confuse voters.
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Jamie Goen
I think it was a good decision for state elections, not for local elections. Local elections are nonpartisan. The state has a partisan system and we have primaries and general elections at the state. We don't have that at the local level.
- [19:15]
Casey Grove
Assembly Member Ella Adkisson originally introduced the ordinance earlier this summer. She made the motion to table it indefinitely last night, which means the proposal is dead. A similar ordinance could still arise in the future under a new Assembly. Adkisson says it is not the right time to implement the change as the city faces more pressing issues like budget cuts following the results of the recent local election. We are going to have to cut.
- [19:38]
Avery Elfeld
Services and we are going to have.
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Liz Ruskin
To lay people off and that is.
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Casey Grove
The thing we are going to work.
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Avery Elfeld
Together as a community to get through.
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Casey Grove
But it's going to be a really.
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Liz Ruskin
Tough time for Juneau, and we're going to have to spend a lot of.
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Avery Elfeld
Time and energy as a community getting.
- [19:49]
Casey Grove
Through that hard time. According to data from the state's Division of Elections, Juneau voters favored ranked choice voting at the state level. Juneau overwhelmingly voted against a repeal effort on the ballot last election, which only narrowly failed statewide. Advocates have already filed new initiatives in an attempt to repeal it in the 2026 state election. Financial relief is finally reaching Alaska fishermen roughly four years after the crab crash hit the Bering Sea fleet. The payments covered Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries for two seasons from 2021 to 2023, when stocks collapsed and the fisheries remained closed, the trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers coordinated with harvesters, processors and communities to ask governor Mike Dunleavy to request a federal disaster declaration. That request was then approved by the US Secretary of Commerce in May 2023. Relief money started going out earlier this year, but executive director Jamie Goen says fishermen should not have to wait years for relief.
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Jamie Goen
It needs to be within six months so that it's useful for these families that are trying to make monthly payments. Waiting four to six years to get your paycheck. That just doesn't work for most families.
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Casey Grove
The crab stocks have been steadily rebounding from the crashes a few years ago. The current season that opened last month looks promising, but Dunleavy submitted another separate disaster declaration for last season, too. Goen says the goal is not more relief. It's a stable fishery.
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Jamie Goen
We want to be fishing. We don't want to be asking for fishery disasters.
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Casey Grove
Eligible captains and crews have until the end of the year to apply for aid. The October storm that heaped destruction on the southwest Alaska coast has also brought an outpouring of support. A brother and sister have teamed up to do their part and help others do the same. But as KNBA's Rhonda McBride tells us, it's about more than raising money.
- [21:46]
Rhonda McBride
A donation of any amount will get you a digital copy of Don Reardon's book Moving Salmon Bay.
- [21:54]
Craig Perry
It's keeping the needs visible and finding a way for people to get direct relief.
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Rhonda McBride
The money will go to the Bethel Community Services foundation for It's Together We Will Weather the Storm Fund. Reardon worries about the hundreds of people now forced to leave not just their homes, but the world they love and know.
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Craig Perry
Once you live in a community where someone sees you looks you in the eye, says your name, acknowledges your humanity. Then you come to town and people don't look you in the face. They don't say hello. Yeah, you just feel invisible.
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Rhonda McBride
Today, Rudin teaches writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage. But having grown up in Bethel and villages nearby, he knows how that transition to urban life can SAP the soul even more so. Under the present circumstances, he says, his efforts might seem small and insignificant amid such widespread destruction, but he hopes it will keep those who can't go home for who knows how long in our hearts.
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Craig Perry
And what matters is community.
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Rhonda McBride
Community is what Reardon explores in Moving Salmon Bay, the story of a fictional village on the verge of falling into the ocean because of climate change. As a writer, Reardon has an eerie pattern of writing about things before they come to pass. His book Raven's Gift was a fictional story about a deadly disease that swept across southwest Alaska, written years before the COVID 19 pandemic. One of the ironies. He wrote the first draft for Moving Salmon bay more than 15 years ago.
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Craig Perry
The reality in October just seems so.
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Rhonda McBride
Much more horrifying and far stranger than fiction.
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Craig Perry
I didn't imagine families in houses floating away spinning like some crazy wizard of Oz scene. I didn't imagine anything that terrifying.
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Rhonda McBride
But the book does make palpable the intimate connection between the people of Salmon Bay and the land. It's that connection which Reardon Sister Beth Hill has celebrated in her art. One of her pieces graces the COVID of Moving Salmon Bay and will be raffled off to donors. Hill painted it not long after she was hired to do a series of murals for the school in Kwikillingoc, one of the communities devastated in October Storm. She visited the village four times to fully understand the seasonal rhythms of harvesting seals and other subsistence foods.
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Jamie Goen
It was a really incredible place, the food and the lifestyle. It's so incredible that we have that here. And just to be able to see it and showcase it was an honor.
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Rhonda McBride
And now, she says, it's an honor to give back.
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Jamie Goen
They're so connected to the land and being displaced like that, it just breaks my heart.
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Rhonda McBride
The same is true in Kockonok in Bristol Bay, where Hill lives and develops programs for teaching indigenous languages. She says her community is closer inland than the villages hit this October. But, says Cock, a Knock is not immune from the impacts of a warming climate. Both brother and sister hope their art will serve as an important reminder.
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Craig Perry
We're just one disaster away from being in this exact same situation, reardon says.
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Rhonda McBride
Once we accept that, we're all in this together. We become a community. In anchorage, I'm Rhonda McBride.
- [25:33]
Casey Grove
And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. We had reports tonight from Liz ruskin in Washington, D.C. alyona Knighton and Rhonda McBride in Anchorage, Tim Ellis in Delta Junction, Avery Elfelt and Haynes, Clarice Larson in Juneau, and Theo Greenlee in Unalaska. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer tonight is Tobin Shelby. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.