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- [00:07]
Julie Colomb
I really appreciate the work that's been put into this version. I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel with this version, and that makes me very excited.
- [00:15]
Casey Grove
State House members have a new draft of a key bill for the Alaska Gas Line project. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, April 29th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, supporters of changing conflict of interest rules on the board of fish say they want to level the playing field.
- [00:34]
Louise Stutes
Very rarely do you ever hear of a sport fisherman being conflicted out or a subsistence person being conflicted out.
- [00:47]
Casey Grove
Lawmakers in the state House rolled out a new draft of Governor Mike Dunleavy's proposal cutting taxes for the Alaska LNG project on Monday. The House Resources Committee's version would raise more money for the state and local communities than Dunleavy's proposal, but far less than the draft under consideration in the state Senate. It's an effort to make the 800 mile pipeline export facility and gas treatment plant competitive in a global market for liquefied natural gas. But legislators and local officials say they're concerned that too much tax relief or a poorly structured bill could could lead local property and sales taxpayers to subsidize the $46 billion project. Committee co chair Robin Nayuk Freer, a Democrat from utqiagvik, says the new version is a work in progress, but she says she's trying to find common ground.
- [01:35]
Nene Wolf
We're still trying to work with not
- [01:37]
Casey Grove
only the majority members and priorities as well as the minority members, and making sure that we can get something across the finish line. That is what workable and hopefully we
- [01:48]
Nene Wolf
don't end up in a special session.
- [01:50]
Casey Grove
The House Resources Committee's draft would impose a total tax about three times larger than what Dunleavy proposed. The bill would also make that tax relief conditional on a number of things, most notably the construction of a spur pipeline to Fairbanks. The bill would also give the North Slope borough and the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which would host the gas treatment plant and export facility, the option to buy equity in the project instead of receiving tax revenue. Representative Julie Colomb, an Anchorage Republican, says there's still work to be done, even
- [02:21]
Julie Colomb
though we're seeing some, maybe some adjustments that need to be made. I really appreciate the work that's been put into this version. I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel with this version, and that makes me very excited.
- [02:33]
Casey Grove
Officials with the state agency that owns 25% of the project, the Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation, said the new version represented real progress towards a workable bill, but they said the higher tax rate presented a challenge to the economics of the project. Commercial fishermen harvest the overwhelming majority of fish taken in Alaska, but of the seven members on the state Board of Fisheries, only one is an active commercial fisherman. A bill awaiting governor Mike Dunleavy's signature could make it easier for the industry to be represented on the board by relaxing conflict of interest rules. Currently, state law says a member of the Board of Fisheries or Board of Game who has a personal or financial conflict of interest can't vote, deliberate or otherwise participate in the board's business on the matter. Under House Bill 33, conflicted members still would not be able to vote, but they could at least participate in the board's discussion. Recusals due to conflicts of interest have been common on the Board of Fisheries, with about one recusal for every eight proposals considered. Kodiak Republican Representative Louise Stutes says her bill would help level the playing field.
- [03:40]
Louise Stutes
But very rarely do you ever hear of a sport fisherman being conflicted out or a subsistence person being conflicted out. But you regularly hear of a comfish guy getting conflicted out, and consequently it's very difficult to get a board member for comfish because they say, why should I? I'll be conflicted out, stutes says.
- [04:05]
Casey Grove
Versions of the bill have repeatedly failed. Last week was the first time it's cleared the Legislature. A spokesperson for the governor says Dunleavy will review the bill before deciding what to do. Residents of an Anchorage mobile home park are pushing back against a plan to redevelop the property where their homes have sat in some cases for decades. The developer plans to clear the area and build townhouses, and he's offering the residents $6,000 each to vacate the property so the project can move forward. But the residents who own their mobile homes and rent the space upon which they sit say that's a fraction of what it would cost to move their homes, and many aren't sure where they'd go anyway. Anchorage Daily News reporter Michelle Theriault Boots has followed the unfolding tension at South Park Estates. She says her reporting highlights how plans to build more housing for some Anchorage residents can end up taking away affordable housing for others.
- [05:06]
Michelle Theriault Boots
This is a mobile home park that has been around really since Alaska became a state. It was purchased in 2005 by Debenham, Sean Debenham's company, and pretty quickly the company realized that there was extensive environmental contamination in some of the soil left over from the heating oil lines. They always planned to redevelop it. But they kind of settled, settled in and said, okay, we're going to own this park for probably decades until we get to do what we want to do with this land, which is turn it into brand new townhomes. In 2021, he applied to and received permission to rezone it. And then last year, people were told that there would be a phased eviction and they would need to move out and move away their mobile homes. People said, well, I can't move my mobile home. So they were looking at potentially losing their biggest investment. Basically, some people that we talked to said they had put upwards of $70,000 into these mobile homes.
- [06:06]
Interviewer
Is this a question of whether they can stop this redevelopment from happening, or is it more of just a sort of a PR campaign to try to
- [06:16]
Casey Grove
get a better deal?
- [06:17]
Michelle Theriault Boots
I mean, the truth is that Debenham owns the land, he owns the property, and he would like his project to move forward. I think what's up for debate or negotiation is what the residents might be compensated in, under what terms and on what timeline. And, you know, I think that is still ongoing, so I could not tell you how that's going to turn out. But I think what they're. What the residents want is to get more compensation for the homes that they say that they cannot move.
- [06:53]
Interviewer
So the context of this is also pretty interesting because Mayor Suzanne Lafrance has this initiative to get more housing built in Anchorage. It's, what is it? 10,000 new homes in 10 years? But there's this interesting nexus there where it's like, we're going to build more housing, but it's going to put some other people out of their housing, right?
- [07:16]
Michelle Theriault Boots
Yeah. I think one of the most interesting things I learned while reporting this story is that I talked to Thea Agnew Bembin, who works for the city, and she said, look, in the early 1970s, when she was growing up in Anchorage, mobile homes were like, one of the main forms of housing. Like, lots and lots of people lived in mobile home parks. But due to city ordinances in the 80s and 90s and 2000s, it became really, really hard to operate a mobile home park. And very onerous for owners to update or move their mobile homes. So this was a form of really affordable housing that kind of has withered away over time. And Debenham himself, you know, I interviewed and he says, you know, the way the laws are right now, it's not really possible to operate a mobile home park in the way that he wants to operate it. He says it's too hard to kind of enforce quality of life things like trespassing and to tow junked cars and basically to keep the park a safe, clean, nice place. And it has been his plan all along to build townhomes which he says are in high demand but will be more expensive and not an ownership option for the same people that can live in these mobile homes. And so what's happening is mobile home parks are going away, but there's sort of a doughnut hole where there hasn't been an as affordable form of housing that has come in to take its place that's really viable that also has that ownership option.
- [08:47]
Interviewer
So just, I mean, zooming out from this particular mobile home park, Michelle, what do you think this story says about Anchorage in general and I guess the future of housing in Anchorage?
- [08:58]
Michelle Theriault Boots
Yeah, I think that this story shows that mobile homes are an important but very much endangered form of affordable housing in Anchorage. And that really came into focus at the special assembly meeting where this was discussed. And Midtown Assembly Representative Aaron Baldwin Day said just tonight we've reproved several rezones that will likely lead to other mobile home housing being converted and redeveloped into apartments or something else. We need to figure out how we as a city are going to kind of reckon with this change and this issue because this is just the beginning.
- [09:37]
Casey Grove
That was Anchorage Daily News reporter Michelle Theriault Boots. You can find her full story about the South Park Estates mobile home park@adn.com. Still the common Alaska News Nightly advocates plan, an Anchorage remembrance of missing and murdered indigenous people.
- [09:55]
Michelle Yachmineff
And we know that the numbers are really high and I just know that we do so much more when we're together doing it.
- [10:03]
Interviewer
That's ahead.
- [10:04]
Casey Grove
Stay with us. An Anchorage police officer has been charged with driving under the influence more than a month after a fellow officer reported that he had driven his patrol vehicle while drunk. Alaska Public Media's Wesley early reports 41
- [10:19]
Wesley Early
year old Charles Bowser faces one misdemeanor criminal count after the March 9 incident in which a test of his blood showed a level of alcohol more than three times the legal limit. The investigation started when Bowser's fellow police officer, who's also his neighbor, called a police sergeant to report that Bowser appeared to be intoxicated when he pulled his patrol vehicle into his driveway. According to a charging document. He was off duty at the time. Other officers found Bowser slumped over on his front steps. According to the charges, Bowser told them he didn't know how much he'd had to drink, but said that he'd been drinking hard liquor. Bowser exhibited signs of a, quote, high level of intoxication, including bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, the charges say. Medics took Bowser to a hospital. His blood alcohol level was 0.29, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08. Police say they found an empty package in the vehicle that had originally contained 10 small bottles of 99 proof alcohol and an almost empty bottle of whiskey. The patrol car had a built in video system that activates whenever the vehicle hits 80 mph, which Bowser allegedly reached multiple times. Officers reviewed the system and saw footage of the vehicle swerving dangerously, running multiple stop signs, snowbanks and of Bowser buying alcohol from a liquor store, the charges say. Anchorage police officials say Bowser is on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. He's been on the police force since 2014. They declined to comment further on the incident. Bowser is scheduled to make an initial court appearance May 22. Reporting in Anchorage, I'm Wesley Early.
- [12:01]
Casey Grove
A walk to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous people is set for tomorrow evening at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Event organizer Michelle Yachmineff is an Alaska Native Success coordinator and CEO of ancep, the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, which is located on the UAA campus.
- [12:18]
Michelle Yachmineff
UAA is a big part of the community here and it's just so important that we show support that there's people at the university who really care about this.
- [12:29]
Casey Grove
This is the event's third year. Participants plan to walk a short loop carrying posters and drumming to spread awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people and to remember missing loved ones. The event is scheduled to begin at 5:30pm with a performance from Chupik dancers and drummers at the ANSEP Building on Spirit Way. Yachmenev says she will be carrying the photo of a missing person whose family is unable to make it to the event. She says that being asked was special and heartfelt.
- [12:57]
Michelle Yachmineff
We need to work together. I think one missing and murdered Indigenous person is too many and we know that the numbers are really high and I just know that we do so much more when we're together doing it.
- [13:14]
Casey Grove
Tatiana Ticknor, program coordinator with Data for Indigenous justice, is set to deliver a speech to the MMIP walk participants. The project aims to reclaim data on missing and murdered Indigenous people. Mount Edgecumbe High School is cutting staff for the second year in a row amid ongoing budget and enrollment issues. While last year's position cuts were mostly refilled at the end of the summer Administrators say they'll only rehire for the cut positions this year if more students enroll. KCAW's Hope McKinney reports the state run
- [13:46]
Hope McKinney
boarding school in Sitka serves students from across the state, the majority of whom are Alaska Native from rural rural communities without local high schools. News of deteriorating facilities and an exodus of roughly a quarter of its students over the past year prompted state legislators to visit the campus in February and hold hearings to question school leadership. In an alumni Advisory board meeting on April 23, School Superintendent David Langford, who was hired last summer, said that new student applications have slowed to a trickle.
- [14:20]
David Langford
Right now we're at 37% below where we are normally at this time for new applications coming in. So yeah, that's lower than what it has been before and that's what's driving us to look at alternative budget projections.
- [14:39]
Hope McKinney
In response to dwindling enrollment, Langford said the school has cut several positions and he's not sure how many they'll be able to refill. Langford said as of now, six teachers won't be returning, two are retiring, one is moving and three non tenured teachers were given the option to either resign or be, quote, non retained, which means they're not being offered a contract for next year.
- [15:03]
David Langford
It's important to note that nobody's getting fired. That's a whole different category, which means really we don't want you to ever teach anywhere again basically in that category and we're not doing that to anybody.
- [15:18]
Hope McKinney
In an interview with kcaw, Langford said if enrollment exceeds their projections, they may look at hiring all six positions back.
- [15:27]
David Langford
We live off of the enrollment and that's how we get funding. So if we don't have students coming in, we can't fund teachers.
- [15:35]
Hope McKinney
Matt Hunter, president of the union representing teachers, said a non retention can happen for any non tenured teacher for any reason. He said the cuts that happened last spring and the upcoming cuts for next school year are strictly budgetary.
- [15:50]
Matt Hunter
This year's reductions came from some budget issues that we ran into last year. We had some overspending and we were relying on Covid funds that had expired and weren't there any longer. And that's why we had such big cuts between last year and this year and looking forward in order to budget wisely, you have to look at how many applications you have and how many kids you're likely to have or you'll promise the job that they want and then find out in August you can't afford it, which would be terrible, hunter said.
- [16:19]
Hope McKinney
When families hear bad news about the school Enrollment goes down, but recent news coverage of Mount Edgecumbe's challenges only tells part of the story.
- [16:28]
Matt Hunter
We have students who are some of the most genuine, kind people I've ever met, and we have good stuff happening in our classrooms. We offer some really neat classes. I think it's going to be going to be a good school next year. We're still going to have good teachers, we're going to have wonderful students. We just need people to come.
- [16:43]
Hope McKinney
Langford said the biggest priority moving forward is rebuilding enrollment by showcasing how special Mount Edgecumbe is.
- [16:50]
David Langford
Yes, we might have fewer students next year than normal, and that would be a rebuilding year to build back culture and pride and all the kinds of things that maybe we're lacking this year.
- [17:04]
Hope McKinney
Mount Edgecumbe lets out on May 8th for the summer break and reconvenes in late August. Langford said despite current enrollment numbers, he's optimistic about the year to come. Reporting in sitka, I'm Hope McKenney.
- [17:19]
Casey Grove
Kodiak brown bears are known across the world for being big. But according to a new study published this month, Kodiak bears harvested by hunters have gotten bigger over the past few decades. As KMXT's Katherine Irving reports, the study's authors say this means the population is being well managed.
- [17:36]
Jamshid Parshezadeh
It's a giant male high up there on that ridge, right in the snow. That's the type of bear that Pat's traveled these thousands of miles to see. And now the stalk begins.
- [17:49]
Katherine Irving
Anyone who knows anything about Alaska has probably heard of the Kodiak bear. Kodiak bears are a subspecies of brown bear that live only on the Kodiak Archipelago. They have drawn hunters from all over the country to the island for decades.
- [18:04]
Jamshid Parshezadeh
You want to make that first shot count because he's close and he could be on you in a matter of seconds.
- [18:11]
Katherine Irving
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, male Kodiak bears can weigh up to £1,500, making them the largest brown bear in the world. Nate Svoboda, a Kodiak area biologist with the department and a co author of the study, says that distinction gives them an almost mythical status, especially with hunters,
- [18:29]
Nate Svoboda
hunters who are trying to achieve that goal of shooting a trophy animal. There's no better bear to get in a lot of their opinions than a Kodiak brown bear just because of the sheer size of them.
- [18:40]
Katherine Irving
Fish and Games says There are around 5,000 people applying for just over 300 Kodiak bear hunting permits in the early 2000s, meaning that less than 1% of people who applied got a permit. Svoboda says the number of applicants has since more than doubled.
- [18:55]
Nate Svoboda
We get a lot of pressure to increase the harvest, increase the number of permits, increase the opportunity for hunts, but we've, we've maintained the status quo.
- [19:03]
Katherine Irving
Svoboda and the team of study authors wanted to see if maintaining that status quo has affected the size and age of harvested Kodiak bears. They figured that since hunters usually want to target the biggest and therefore oldest animals, the number of older, bigger bears on Kodiak island would go down. Here's study author Jamshid Parshezadeh, who is a wildlife biologist at Michigan State University.
- [19:26]
Jamshid Parshezadeh
This is a trophy hunt, right? If we do not have larger bears, it means that larger, larger bears are running out, and that's why hunters are hunting smaller bears.
- [19:37]
Katherine Irving
According to the study, this has been the case for other big game animals across the country, like black bears and bighorn sheep. After reviewing data from 1987 to 2023, the team was surprised to find the opposite result. The average school size of bears harvested in 2023 was bigger than the school size of bears that were hunted during the three decades prior. The 2023 Bears were also older on average than past year's bears. Perseidae says this means the department is doing at managing the population.
- [20:05]
Jamshid Parshezadeh
This lesson can be learned by other managers elsewhere in this world that if you have good, conservative harvest regulations, you can have healthy and sustainable wildlife populations.
- [20:18]
Katherine Irving
Co author Svoboda says that the department's refusal to cave to pressure to increase permits and education outreach they've done with hunters and guides have played a role in this success. He adds that the credit should go not just to managers, but to the people of Kodiak, too.
- [20:32]
Nate Svoboda
Those guides out there, their livelihood literally depends depends on the ability to harvest these bears. But they are more than willing time and time again to reduce their financial income for the betterment of the bears. And it's something that we should be proud of and they should be proud of.
- [20:47]
Katherine Irving
Sobota says the team is hoping to do more research to figure out whether the fact that harvested bears are getting bigger and older also means that Kodiak bears in general are getting bigger and older. But he says his office has documented a few big boars that look to have died of natural causes over the past few years, a sign that these behemoths are living to old age without ever looking down the barrel of a gun. Reporting in Kodiak, I'm Katherine Irving.
- [21:29]
Casey Grove
A small trail system in downtown Haines is a favorite among locals for dog walking and cutting through town. But one afternoon last weekend, the trails transformed into a walking gallery of sorts when local artists set up shop in the middle of the woods for public art demonstrations. The Alaska Desk's Avery Elfelt walked the trails and has this story.
- [21:49]
Nene Wolf
It's a clear spring day in Haines, and the trails that run through the heart of town are busier than normal. Local artists are posted up in the woods carving, crocheting and playing music. Nene Wolf is seated on a sunny platform playing her button accordion. Sky Skiles is backing her up on an electric version of a Japanese style drum known as an okedo. Wolf and Skiles are participating in an annual live art on the trails event. It's part of a broader two week Chilkat Valley art fest put on by a local nonprofit. Wolf says she's only been playing the accordion for a year and a half.
- [22:29]
Bailey Pearson
It wasn't.
- [22:29]
Louise Stutes
It was a total accident. I had never in my mind even dreamed of touching one or didn't know anything about him or anything.
- [22:36]
Bailey Pearson
So how did that happen?
- [22:39]
Nene Wolf
Wolf says she was looking for a button accordion for her dad in Anchorage. She eventually got in touch with someone named Marge Ford, who Wolf says is
- [22:47]
Louise Stutes
the queen of accordion in Alaska. And she was so cool. Yeah, it's like I'm gonna take lessons from her.
- [22:53]
Nene Wolf
Ford ultimately had an accordion for Wolf and later taught her how to play.
- [23:00]
Louise Stutes
It brings a lot of joy.
- [23:02]
Nene Wolf
She wanted me to try.
- [23:08]
Bailey Pearson
That's so fun.
- [23:11]
Louise Stutes
So this is the G row.
- [23:13]
Nene Wolf
After my short lesson from Hanes own accordion queen, I move on. Deeper in the woods, I find Cody Hotch. He's a formline artist and is perched on a bench etching a design into a small flat piece of wood.
- [23:26]
Cody Hotch
Been designing for two and a half years, but I've been kind of in and out of carving and doing all that stuff since high school.
- [23:32]
Nene Wolf
Hodge is working on a formline raven carving that he started that same day. He says he needs to outline the bird before defining its various shapes and then sinking down the background so the design pops out. He later adds that in Tlingit culture, ravens represent shape shifters.
- [23:50]
Cody Hotch
Put lots of different faces and stuff in there and then usually within the designs, they put a lot of like human esque figures since he can transform into a human too.
- [23:58]
Nene Wolf
So just down the way. Bailey Pearson is also hard at work. She's a printmaker and is carving out a new design she recently sketched. It's an image of several salmon hanging on coat hooks above a few pairs of extra tufts she explains the process to local Kathleen Menke and her granddaughter, who was in town visiting.
- [24:16]
Bailey Pearson
Yeah, so this is my original sketch, and then I was able to transfer it over here.
- [24:21]
Nate Svoboda
Thank you.
- [24:22]
Bailey Pearson
Yeah. So I'm hoping that, like, all the fine details will pop out.
- [24:26]
Nene Wolf
Pearson is trying out a new material, hard linoleum, which she says is a bit less forgiving than the rubber she usually uses. As more visitors stop by her table, she jokes about trying something totally new during a public demonstration.
- [24:40]
Bailey Pearson
Yeah, I was like, might as well do it today while the pressure's on. Right. Maybe not the best idea. Challenging. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And then there's the mosquitoes coming at my face, coming out. Yeah, I know. It's.
- [24:54]
Katherine Irving
We're all here.
- [24:58]
Nene Wolf
Pearson is one of many local artists preparing for a market at Tlingit park this coming weekend that marks the end of the annual art fest. She'll be selling printed clothing items, plus paper prints of the new design from her newly carved linoleum block. Reporting in Hanes, I'm Avery Elpholt.
- [25:17]
Casey Grove
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 Eric Stone and Juno Davis, Huffy and Kathryn Irving in Kodiak, Wesley early and Michaela Finnerty in Anchorage, Hope McKinney in Sitka, and Avery Elfelt in Haines. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us. Email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde. I'm Casey Grove. Good night. This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.