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Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
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Who out there can find an additional half of their income to go towards insurance?
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Health insurance costs could spike dramatically for some Alaskans due to expiring subsidies from Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Tuesday, September 23rd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, the Anchorage mayor's office rolls out the latest proposal to make housing easier to build. The current rules are making it really hard to build very small like three story six apartment buildings. Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.
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Alaska Public Media is all about community. Wear your community on your sleeve with the purchase of branded clothes and collectibles from our online store. Visit alaskapublic.org shop unless Congress steps in.
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With a solution, thousands of Alaskans will lose health insurance subsidies at the end of December and see the cost of their premiums shoot up. As Alaska Public Media Washington correspondent Liz Ruskin reports, For some, the cost hike will be astronomical.
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For a dramatic example of what will happen, consider a couple in their 60s who earn about $53,000 a year each. Now they pay less than 9% of their income to get two silver level plans. If their subsidies go away, they'd spend almost 50% of their income to keep those insurance plans. Senator Lisa Murkowski says that's an impossible increase. You tell me who out there can find an additional half of their income to go towards insurance. This fictitious middle aged middle income couple are a subset of the roughly 25,000 Alaskans who buy subsidized insurance plans. Think small business owners and their employees, fishermen or people who work for nonprofits. Really, anybody who earns modest pay and does not have employer sponsored insurance. The imaginary couple and a few thousand Alaskans like them would be affected the most if what's known as enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of the year. But nearly everyone who buys insurance on the marketplace would see their payments rise too. Ultimately, it strains the health care system everyone relies on. Murkowski isn't the only person in Congress who has noticed the expiring subsidies are at the heart of the budget standoff that has the government teetering on the edge of a shutdown. As we look to how we keep the government open, let's also figure out how we avoid this looming crisis with the cost of insurance. The enhanced tax credits were adopted during the COVID pandemic. They increased the original Affordable Care act subsidies and for the first time extended them to people who earned more than the initial group, such as the fictitious 60 year olds. In our example, if the enhanced credits disappear, leaving only the classic ACA subsidies, the Alaska Division of Insurance says on average subsidized consumers would have to pay more than double what they pay now.
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Doubling and tripling of premiums is substantial, so I think it's fair to say we can expect to lose quite a few Alaskans in terms of having insurance coverage.
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Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association President Jared Kosin says some people will stop buying insurance, stop getting routine care.
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They have nowhere else to go. And so that starts to put more pressure on emergency rooms. It puts more pressure on hospitals because that care will be completely unpaid for.
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State Representative Genevieve Mina, an Anchorage Democrat, foresees cascading effects just when a number of poorer Alaskans are losing coverage from Medicaid.
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And we all know that uninsured people increases uncompensated care, which increases costs for everybody else.
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The Alaska Legislature passed a resolution this spring calling on Alaska's congressional delegation to press for an extension of the tax credits. US Senator Dan Sullivan did not grant an interview request. His office says he's talking to colleagues and the Trump administration to try to prevent the expiration of the subsidies. Congressman Nick Begich's office did not grant an interview request nor provide a statement. Reporting from Washington, I'm Liz Ruskin.
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Democrats and independents in the Alaska state legislature are urging Congress to preserve federal funding for science and research. In a letter sent Friday, 14 lawmakers urged the state's all Republican congressional delegation to oppose cuts that President Trump proposed in his 2026 budget. Fairbanks Democratic Representative Ashley Kerik wrote the letter asking the delegation to resist cuts to NASA, the National Science foundation and the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her district includes the main campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and she says cuts to federal funding would undermine research on everything from Arctic health to drones. These research dollars don't just impact the.
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Studies that are currently ongoing, but they.
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Also impact all of the real life applications of research that's happening in Alaska, across the Arctic and around the country. Trump's budget would slash funding for basic scientific research by roughly a third. That's according to the American association for the Advancement of Science, an advocacy group. Wide ranging layoffs and grant cancellations have already caused chaos for researchers who rely on federal support. But a president's budget is just a proposal. Congress decides what to spend money on when it passes appropriations bills, and the House and Senate have yet to agree on a spending bill that would fund agencies like NASA and NOAA for the next year. The Appropriations Committees have shown little appetite for the deep cuts to scientific agencies Trump has proposed. A spokesperson for one Appropriations Committee member, Senator Lisa Murkowski, says she has long supported the University of Alaska's partnerships with federal agencies and that she hopes the spending bill will be approved soon. A spokesperson for Senator Dan Sullivan said he was not available. Representative Nick Begich III's office did not respond to her request for comment. For now, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are currently at loggerheads over a short term spending bill to avert an impending government shutdown. A jury has declared a Juno artist not guilty of terroristic threatening Mitchell Whatley was accused of threatening the public in 2023 when he distributed printed notes around town that referenced school shootings. KTO's Yvonne Crumry has more.
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Mitchell Whatley was accused of four felony counts of terroristic threatening. His attorney argued that he did not intend to cause fear when he distributed the notes in March 2023, Whatley made notes depicting an automatic rifle on a transgender pride flag and the words, quote, feeling cute might shoot some children. He left them in grocery stores and the state office building downtown. In the course of the trial, jurors heard from police, school administrators and Whatley himself. Former Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss testified that schools took the notes seriously.
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In my world as a K12 educator.
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In the world we live in, a.
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Sick joke is a threat.
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Juno police officers also testified that they were concerned about public safety when the notes were found and that the department stationed extra officers near the school that day. Whatley himself took the stand. His attorney, Nick Pulaski, asked him about his intentions.
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Did you think people would perceive it to be a threat? Not at all. Okay. Did that thought even cross your mind?
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Never.
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Pulaski argued that the incident could not meet the definition of a true threat, the crime Whatley was charged with. Pulaski told KTIO over email that for a statement to be a true threat, the speaker doesn't need to have planned to act on the threat, but, quote, the person must mean for the message to be a threat, unquote. Watley said the notes were intended as a meme to spread his beliefs. At the time, he thought that transgender people were dangerous.
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I kind of assumed that it would be like when we see a meme of that nature on social media. They would look at it and form an opinion and then kind of disregard it or think about it for a moment and then move on, whatley said.
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He was thinking about a Tennessee shooting that happened earlier that year. The perpetrator was a transgender person. According to the Violence project, less than 1% of mass shootings in the United States have been committed by a transgender person. Whatley distributed the notes on Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event recognizing the obstacles transgender individuals face and their contributions to society. He's an illustrator, and when he was arrested in 2023 local shops pulled his book from their shelves, saying that his notes perpetuated a growing anti trans climate. Whatley said that he doesn't think about transgender people much these days. The trial against Whatley lasted four days. The jury returned its not guilty verdict on Wednesday. In Juneau, I'm Yvonne Crmery.
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Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, remembering the life of Mary Shields, the first woman to complete the Iditarod. I don't think she ever knew how much she inspired me 30 years ago. That's ahead. Stay with us.
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Alaska Public Media is now partnering with an Alaskan auction service so a helpful local team can get the biggest return for the least hassle should you decide to donate your vehicle. Learn more@alaskapublic.org Vehicle power has been restored.
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To part of Elfin Cove after multiple landslides and high winds hit the remote Chichagoff island community on Monday. Tyler Maggart lives in Elfin Cove seasonally and owns a business there. She says a response team from the Alaska Department of Transportation arrived this morning with a drone to assess the slide activity that can't be seen from the ground at sea level. Residents are still trying to quantify the.
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Damage, so it almost looks like a tornado came through because the wind was just ripping the trees down and across things. So there's one house that was completely obliterated, several, several trees. We can't even get to it to see how many there are landed on it. Another home has one tree on it, another has several around it and I think two on it. Those people also lost their shop and completely under a tree and they also lost their fish house and they're fishermen and have a massive fish house. So it's a big, big loss.
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The state DOT owns and maintains a harbor, seaplane float and the community's boardwalks. In an email, spokesperson Angelica Stobbs told KCAW that the state will assess the infrastructure as they make plans to repair those facilities. As of this afternoon, Stobbs had not received a report from the three person team in the field. Magggert says there are at least 15 downed trees on the town's boardwalk alone. She says from an aerial view the state's response team could see a lot of blown down trees and some isolated slides in addition to the landslide that cutoff the town's power.
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It doesn't look like the hillside from initial assessment is as unstable as we were worried about, but there is like another slide in a different spot in the back of the COVID that's come over the electrical line down there and covered it over pretty good. And the boardwalk, the main access for houses back there and the basically the state right of way.
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While power has been restored to the center of town, the southeast side of the COVID remains without utilities. Magret says her family has not returned home yet. They're staying with friends for now in a home with access to power and water. Moose are in their mating season, also known as rutting season, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is reminding Anchorage residents to put away objects in their yards that could tangle up the animals. Corey Stantorf is the Anchorage area biologist for the department. He says there have been a handful of different moose entanglements recently involving Christmas lights. But there are other things that can.
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Catch the animals, but they also start rubbing up against and fighting soccer nets, zip lines, playground sets, electrical cords, you name it. If it's dangling and hanging off, they find themselves in those objects.
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Moose are not normally aggressive, but they may be. During the rut, which runs through late October, the animals are sometimes able to get untangled from whatever they're caught in, but it could be dangerous. For example, if a moose's antlers are tied up in an electrical cord, it might dangle into their eyes and impair their vision, Stantorff says. That increases the likelihood of the animals wandering into roadways and vehicles hitting them, Stantorff says. If people see an entangled moose, the sooner they call it in, the better.
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These are wild animals, so they've never been restrained in their lives. So they fight and fight and fight until they exhaust themselves and die. And there have been several instances where we just weren't notified soon enough to get out and free an animal and it has unfortunately died being entangled.
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If you see an entangled moose In Anchorage, call 311 or your local fish and game office. The department advises against trying to untangle the animal. Your the Anchorage mayor's office on Monday released the latest draft of a plan meant to make it easier to build housing in the city. Officials say public feedback has been shaping revisions over the last couple of months. As Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor reports, the public's opinion is changing as the.
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Plan changes Graham Downey works on housing at the mayor's office. He says the rules for what can get built in Anchorage are very, very specific.
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Townhomes are regulated differently than single family homes are regulated differently than mobile homes are regulated differently than apartments.
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That's a problem. He the more detailed the rules are, the more likely those rules will just prevent things from being built. And Anchorage has a housing shortage. The city needs new construction. So over the last year, the mayor's office has been working on a proposal that Downey says would make it easier for people to build in certain parts of the city. It's called tisdo, short for Transit Supportive Development Overlay. And it's meant to simplify the current 1000 page zoning code.
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The goal of TISDO is to increase the flexibility in the zoning code in the core of the city so that we can build more and more types of housing.
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The first version of the plan was introduced in July. The latest version is number five. The proposal got a lot of public comment and a lot has changed. The original version allowed buildings up to six stories in the Tisdo zone. That's been scrapped. And it would have allowed businesses in some residential neighborhoods that'll likely be pushed back till the spring. Downey says the plan was always to tweak things. Based on public comment, it seems like.
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Folks are really, really engaged. We're getting lots of really useful feedback on the ordinance, so that's been really positive.
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So let's walk through this fifth version. First thing to know, it doesn't cover all of the city, but it does cover much of it. North of Tudor Road, like section of turning in South Addition, Rogers park and Muldoon. And Downey says despite the changes, it still addresses a big problem with the current rules. It really only pencils out for developers to build big luxury houses on the edges of the city. Smaller, more affordable homes aren't worth it. And in much of the city, it's not even legal to build apartments or other multifamily housing without a long, expensive bureaucratic process.
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We do know that the current rules are making it really hard to build very small, like three story, six apartment buildings, making it really hard to build starter homes. And so we do know we need to create flexibility to allow that type of housing.
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The current version of the plan would do that in a few ways. It would allow all kinds of housing. Single family apartments, multiple tiny homes, all okay. And housing lots could be smaller. There would be no minimum. So they could be subdivided with a building on each piece making for more housing. And in theory, Smaller, cheaper lots. Another change right now, often buildings can't cover more than 30 or 40% of a plot of land, basically requiring green space. The TISDO proposal would increase that to 80%, making it possible to fit bigger, multifamily buildings onto smaller lots of. And buildings could be taller three stories instead of the two stories that are allowed in much of the city. There's more, but that's the basic idea behind the fifth version, which may or may not be the last version. People are still commenting. Like John Isaacs, he's on the community council in Turnagan, a neighborhood that would be affected by the proposal. One thing he says the municipality should have done a lot more public outreach.
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They have no legal requirement, but as a neighbor and a resident, you know, I think they could do more to let people know that this is out there.
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He says he's also concerned about unintended consequences, like a lack of parking spots in higher density areas.
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I really appreciate the changes they're making and they've addressed some of the problems. I think more dialogue is necessary.
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But not everyone is happy with the changes. Jason Norris is part of a group of housing advocates that originally drafted the plan. He says he's still in favor of the proposal, but he's afraid this fifth version is so watered down that it won't actually change anything. Nora says the feedback the municipality has gotten isn't representative, and it's because they're going about it wrong.
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The only rooms you're walking into are those opposed. You're not going out to places where just everyday working people trying to live their lives, who could benefit from this. You're not going out and asking them. You made no effort.
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He says it's not that he wants Anchorage to transform into Lower Manhattan. He just wants more neighborhoods where people are prioritized over traffic in cars.
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We're not fighting this fight for ourselves. We're not fighting it to protect our precious little corner of Anchorage. We're doing this for the next generation because they're leaving, our future's leaving, and that's really what we're trying to address.
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The proposal is scheduled to go before the Planning and zoning commission on October 6. It will then head to the Anchorage assembly, likely in November. In Anchorage, I'm Hannah Fluor.
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A specialized plane camera and a crew of four are in Alaska to understand the ecosystems of the Bering and Chukchi seas. KN's Wally Rana joined them on the airstrip in Nome as they showed the tools they used to study the Arctic.
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Joshua Zhang is A research scientist at the University of Washington for the last four summers, she's brought a team of researchers to NOME for the Arctic Airborne Investigations and Research Project, or Arctic Air for short.
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So Arctic Air does all sorts of research ranging from physical geography to sea ice surveys to phytoplankton studies and remote sensing, and sometimes we also onboard some observers to do some marine mammal surveys.
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Zhang says. One of the team's main objectives is to monitor algal blooms. Algae is a critical part of the ocean's ecosystem, but some species can be harmful to human health. Zhang says data collected by Arctic Air is used in research tracking the growth of algae in the Arctic. Another goal of the project is to develop cutting edge buoys packed with sensors. This year's work began with deploying buoys in Prudhoe Bay, about 500 miles north of Fairbanks. The buoys are drawn from Arctic Air's plane and track conditions in the ocean.
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Buoys are like our fingertips on the ocean.
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That's the new Shinobuas. A principal research scientist and engineer at the University of Washington, she specializes in ocean sensors, and this is her first expedition with Arctic Air.
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Like, you want to sense what's going on in the ocean and you can't physically be there all the time. So we send out buoys in our stead to collect data about the ocean and how it's changing.
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Arctic Air's team flies aboard NOAA's de Havilland DHC 6300, also called the Twin Otter. Sean Cheng is one of the Twin Otter's pilots. He says the aircraft is designed to FL at slower airspeeds, so that makes.
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It really easy to control when it.
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Comes to, you know, at those low airspeeds that we need to be at for survey conditions.
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At the bottom of the craft is a hyperspectral camera, which points down to the water below. While flying at high altitudes, the camera is powerful enough to distinguish between different types of phytoplankton.
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The hyperspectral work that we've done here is really collect ocean color data and try to understand the different phytoplankton groups, whether there are harmful species here or there are other species that are not harmful.
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Zhang and Nawaz both stress that their work on a broader scale is observing the changing climate. Nawaz says she's thrilled to be part of Arctic Air.
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I feel honored that I can be part of this mission of looking at what has changed and how can we help humanity live in a changing climate.
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Zhang says the project is an open science platform where other researchers can hop on to test instruments and survey ideas. This year's expedition has a team stopping in Prudhoe Bay, Nome and then Kotzebue. They'll be wrapping up later this month. And Nome. I'm Wally Rana.
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Over a hundred Alaskans celebrated the life of dog mushing trailblazer Mary Shields just outside Fairbanks. Earlier this month, Shields was the first woman to complete the Iditarod Trail sled dog race. She died at the age of 80 in July. As Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska Desk, people from around the state reflected on Shield's accomplishments, but also her kindness.
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Mary Shield's memorial took place at the Ken Kunkel Community center on the outskirts of Fairbanks. The weathered wooden building could stand in for almost any musher checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail. The atmosphere inside is similar, too. The room is packed with homemade food and smiling people. I catch one of Shields friends, Sharon Alden as she's filing to get in.
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Oh my God. Goodness, there's a million people here.
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Shields made history by being the first woman to complete the Iditarod dogsled race back in 1974, for which she was inducted into the Alaska Sports hall of Fame. She went on to author five books about her life and mushing Many women mushers at the memorial honored her for clearing the way for them. Sue Steinacker, a close friend of Shields, read a letter from Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod at the gathering.
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Happy trails, Mary, and thanks for being who you were.
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You've come a long way, baby. They said that back then, and it's even more true today.
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In a later interview, Riddles, who won about a decade after Shields historic run, said that today there's no question that women are worthy of the finisher's belt buckle. But in her and Shields time, it was a different story.
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Yeah, back then, the guys had to even think about it if they were going to even let women race in the Iditarod. You know, that kind of did something proud for all women, I think.
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But mushing was just one part of Shields life. Friends remembered her as a prolific gardener and baker who constantly distributed flowers and treats. She mentored many kids in the community, and she really, really cared about her dogs, especially Cabbage, the first of many puppies she raised. She had this wild and quirky streak, too. Friends recalled the time Shields tried to use popcorn to insulate her Fairbanks cabin, and at the memor, a table was stacked with bags of it for guests. About a dozen Goldstream firefighters also stick out in the crowd in their dark blue uniforms. Student firefighter Kenna Beshears says Shields befriended the whole department.
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Mary's just, she's the sweetest woman you ever did meet. She cared about everyone and every little thing that she did. She made some pretty killer cookies. I mean, they were great. Always chocolate chip. They were the best. They were so good.
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Ali Zirkle, the first woman to win the Yukon Quest sled dog race, recalled a chance encounter with shields 30 years ago when she was snow machining on the mushing trails near Bettles. She said Shields pulled up to her on her dog sled and said, hi, I'm Mary, then took off towards her next camp spot. She said it was a 50 below day on the tundra, but that's just who Shields was.
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She was living her best life unto herself. And I don't think she ever knew.
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How much she inspired me 30 years ago.
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To this day, I try to live my best life.
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So thank you, Mary, for breaking trail.
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The last guest in line for the mic doesn't bring a speech with him, just a harmonica to honor her memory. Shield's friends and loved ones are assembling items for an upcoming interior and North Slope mushing exhibit at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau. The exhibit will showcase some of Shield's own mushing gear and is tentatively scheduled to open in 2027. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
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And finally tonight, a correction to a story last night about Alaska centenarians that misstated that World War II veteran John Strong had been awarded the Medal of Honor. Strong says he was verbally promised the award at the end of the war but has not received it. 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 in Washington, D.C. eric Stone and Yvonne Crumry in Juneau, Ava White and Hannah Flor in Anchorage, Wally Rana in Nome, and Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newslaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.