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Narrator/Announcer
Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from alyeska Pipeline Service Company maintaining and operating the 800 mile Trans Alaska Pipeline since 1977. More at alyescapipeline.com.
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Haven Harris
Eight contracts have been getting awarded at a lesser rate than they were previously.
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Casey Grove
State lawmakers pass a resolution to support Alaska Native corporations in participating in a federal contracting program From Alaska Public Media. This is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, May 13th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, farmers in Alaska hope to recruit the next generation, hopefully in some
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Dylan Blankenship
small way that this is another stepping stone for them to give Alaska a chance to be their home forever.
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Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Senator Lisa Murkowski voted against the war in Iran today for the first time since it began at the end of February. The Associated Press reports that despite Murkowski's vote, her fellow Senate Republicans again blocked the Democratic legislation that would halt President Donald Trump's war with Iran. Still, the number of GOP senators voting against the war grew, and the close 49 to 50 vote on the war powers legislation reflected growing unease. Even if it were to pass the Senate, a war powers resolution would have a slim chance of passing the House and would also certainly be vetoed by Trump. But Democrats say the votes are about building political pressure on the president either to withdraw from the conflict or seek congressional authorization. The White House has asserted that it does not need congressional authorization for the war and has circumvented legal requirements to gain approval from Congress to continue the military campaign. It claims that it has terminated hostilities with Iran because the US has entered a ceasefire. That posture has created tension between the Republican controlled Congress and the White House because presidents under the War powers Resolution of 1973 are required to obtain authorization from Congress after 60 days of engaging in a conflict. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers this week that the US could start attacking Iran again without the White House seeking congressional approval. He told Murkowski during a hearing on Tuesday that the Trump administration believes it has all the authorities necessary. Murkowski voiced skepticism about that argument. She pointed to the troops and warships deployed to the region, saying it doesn't appear that hostilities have ended. Spending in Alaska's U.S. senate race is ramping up. The Democratic Senate Majority PAC says it's reserving $10 million of Alaska TV time to air political ads. The group said by email that it will support Democrat Mary Peltola against Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan. The announcement also suggested a possible theme would be rising costs and Sullivan's loyalty to President Trump reserving TV time is not a binding commitment, but the group's announcement signals national Democrats believe they should invest in the Alaska race and that they think Sullivan might be vulnerable. Campaign finance laws allow super PACs like Senate Majority PAC to raise and spend unlimited funds, but they aren't allowed to coordinate with a candidates campaign. Typically, Super PACs and other non candidate campaigns air some of the harsher attack ads, leaving the candidates themselves free to run ads that project a positive image. The Democratic House Majority PAC announced last month that it plans to spend $2.4 million on ads in Alaska. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee says it's investing in the ground game ahead of November's midterm elections. The party says it's already deployed staffers to take Trump's message directly to Alaska voters. A spokesman for the RNC would not disclose how many people it has sent to Alaska, but said more are on the way. The federal government has decided against listing Gulf of Alaska king salmon with Endangered Species act protections. The national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said today that while kings, also known as chinook, in southern Alaska, have declined, their populations are still strong, genetically diverse and well distributed. The decision comes more than two and a half years after a Washington state environmental group first called on the agency to list kings under the Endangered Species Act. The Wild Fish Conservancy filed the petition on the grounds that king salmon populations have experienced significant declines over the last two decades and and that they face ongoing threats from factors including climate change. Emma Halvorson is the group's executive director.
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Delaina Johnson
What we see is really a coastwide crisis that isn't unique to Alaska but
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Zoe Fuller
is not unique to any specific region.
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Delaina Johnson
This is something that we need to
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Zoe Fuller
really seriously think about if we're going to have chinook salmon anywhere on our
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Delaina Johnson
coast in 50 or 100 years from now.
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Casey Grove
NOAA in 2024 found that the listing might be necessary. But after additional review, the agency said this week that listing Gulf of Alaska chinook is unwarranted. Had the listing gone through, it could have impacted fisheries and communities along the state's sprawling southern coastline that includes the central Gulf of Alaska but also all of southeast Kodiak and the Aleutians. The state Department of Fish and Game welcomed the news. In a statement this morning, the agency argued that Gulf of Alaska chinook do not come close to meeting the definition for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The agency also said the listing would have shifted oversight of king salmon management from the state to the feds. Commissioner Doug Vincent Lang acknowledged that king populations have declined across the state since 2007. But he also said the agency has taken the trend very seriously, including by imposing fishing limitations and boosting research on the issue. He added that some stocks have recently shown signs of improvement. Helvorson, with the Wild Fish Conservancy, says the group is still reviewing the 400 page document released by NOAA. From there, the group will weigh next steps, if any. Earlier this week, state lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution to support Alaska Native Corporations participation in a federal contracting program. The show of support comes amid increased scrutiny of the program and growing concerns from Native contractors. Alyona Nydin with the Alaska Desk has
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Alyona Knighton
more Alaska legislators passed a joint resolution supporting Native participation in federal contracting through the 8A business development program. The program falls under the US Small Business Administration and allows disadvantaged individuals, tribes and Alaska Native corporations to compete for federal contracts. Haven Harris is the senior vice president of growth and strategy at Bering Straits Native Corporation and says those contracts are crucial for his organization.
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Haven Harris
We were able to give out a record dividend last year. We gave out our first special dividend ever just a month ago, and it's all because of the benefits of federal contracting for us.
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Alyona Knighton
For Alaska Native corporations, federal contracts are often their primary source of revenue and help pay dividends to shareholders and support services in their communities. But over the past year, the program has faced increased scrutiny. Several federal agencies have been reviewing the program, and U.S. secretary of Defense Pete Hexseth called it the oldest DEI program in the federal government. End quote. Native contractors across the state and country say they're concerned that the government is awarding fewer contracts and has has not been accepting new applications into the program. Harris is also a board co chair of Native American Contractors Association. He says that in the past year,
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Haven Harris
eight contracts have been getting awarded at a lesser rate than they were previously.
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Alyona Knighton
Harris says no new businesses have been accepted into the program since August of last year. He says back in 2024, a record of 600 new applications were approved, but last year it was just 65, or almost 10 times less. The Native American Contractors association and about 50 other Native organizations, many of them in Alaska, signed a letter to the federal government earlier this month and asked it to resume a timely review of applications.
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Haven Harris
And the gist of the letter was essentially to ask the SBA to really come and sit at the table with us. And then more specifically, we'd like more information on why the SBA has not approved an 8 application since about August 15th of 2025, Harris says.
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Alyona Knighton
So far they received responses from congressional delegations from across the country. The organization has been in contact with members of the Small Business Administration, hoping to set up a formal meeting with the agency. Alaska's congressional delegation and governor Magdalen Levy have signaled their support toward the program, and Harris says the Legislature's joint resolution is also a helpful step. Nicole Barromio is the president of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act regional association representing local native corporations. She helped move forward the Legislature's joint resolution in support of the program and says she's glad to see its universal recognition.
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Nicole Barromio
We believe that once our federal partners and the administration understands the efficiency tool that they have in the 8 program and the good work that we have done, the value to taxpayers and the war fighter as well, that we will be back to the cadence that we've become used to.
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Alyona Knighton
Both Baromeo and Harris say that despite recent slowdowns and challenges, they hope the 8A program continues to benefit Alaska Native corporations and their shareholders. In Anchorage, I am Alena Knighton.
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Casey Grove
Still to come on Alaska News nightly, two St. Paul artists retell a classic story with an indigenous protagonist.
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Hannah Zimmerman
One of the fifth grade students came up to me. He was like, I didn't know alligators could be superheroes.
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Casey Grove
That's ahead. Stay with us. A quick warning to listeners. This next story discusses sexual abuse. The state has charged a Prince of Wales island man with over 40 felony and misdemeanor counts following an Alaska State Trooper drug investigation. According to troopers, 24 year old Peyton Brewer distributed drugs and alcohol to minors on Prince of Wales Island. The charges include felony sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assault and witness tampering. They also include murder of an unborn child from an alleged assault that resulted in a miscarriage. Troopers say that during their investigation, multiple juveniles and adults independently and consistently reported sexual offenses, domestic violence, controlled substance distribution, witness tampering and endangerment of minors. Some of the charges alleged that Brewer provided alcohol to minors and then sexually abused them. Troopers say Brewer admitted to most of the alleged offenses, which occurred in numerous Prince of Wales communities between 2023 and 2026. A judge set Brewer's bail at $1.1 million cash during his initial court appearance Tuesday and said the court would appoint him a public defender. An attorney at the hearing entered not guilty pleas for Brewer on the misdemeanor charges. Brewer's next court appearance is scheduled for May 22 at the Prince of Wales Courthouse in Klawack. As state lawmakers spar over a wide range of issues in the final days of the Alaska Legislature's regular session, One idea is bringing them together. The state House of Representatives voted unanimously today to make the giant green cabbage, Alaska's official state vegetable. If approved in the Senate, the giant green cabbage would join the willow ptarmigan, the king's salmon, the Sitka spruce, and the PRE1964 Winchester Model 70 rifle as one of Alaska's official state symbols. Representative Delaina Johnson, a Palmer Republican, is the bill's primary sponsor.
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Delaina Johnson
Some people would think if you hear the word a cabbage bill that maybe we have nothing else to do, and that's of course not true. This is a, this is really a marketing. It is a piece of our marketing of Alaska and our agriculture, and we have not ran out of problems to solve.
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Casey Grove
But it's not just a piece of marketing, Johnson says. The giant green cabbage, the Os Cross cabbage to be precise, is a symbol of Alaska's history. Almost every year for the past 90 years, cabbage growers have competed in a way off at the Alaska State Fair. Plumber's own Scott Robb set a world record with his 138 and a quarter pound cabbage back in 2012. Johnson says the giant green cabbage, enabled by the midnight sun, is also a fitting symbol of Alaskan spirit.
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Delaina Johnson
You have to look at the cabbage and think it's resilient. It's, it's enormous, it's. And it somehow survives so many conditions that, that would never thrive in other states, Mr. Speaker, and certainly never get this big.
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Casey Grove
There's very little time left in this year's legislative session, but the bill could move quickly through the Senate. It's already scheduled for a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Thursday. Meanwhile, the number of farmers in Alaska is increasing, while the number of young producers, those under 35, is staying flat. That's according to the U.S. department of Agriculture. There are several economic hurdles that make it tough to attract young producers, partially because it can be tough to make a living. But as Alaska Public Media's Ava White reports, a few farmers in Alaska are dedicated to recruiting the next generation.
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Abby Reisenen
Hey, there's going to be a big pig coming out.
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Ava White
Abby Reisenen lets her pig Magpie out of the pen and she barrels straight for her freshly filled food bowl. Over a dozen piglets waddle behind her.
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Abby Reisenen
So now she just eats and then I do the other chores along with swine.
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Ava White
Her family's farm in Wasilla is home to several cows and chickens. The 16 year old also works at a microgreen farm nearby and recently received the Alaska Agricultural Youth Impact Award. While finishing up chores, she says she's learned a lot through raising animals like patients.
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Abby Reisenen
It's a really good experience. You're always learning. There's so much that goes into raising livestock that you never would know everything. I'd say it's fun. It keeps me busy.
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Ava White
Alaska has one of the smallest agricultural industries in the country, according to the US Department of Agriculture. But it's growing. Some in the industry say more producers are needed, but several economic factors make it hard to get started, especially for young Alaskans. Dylan Blankenship is working to Change that. The 30 year old owns a hay farm in Point Mackenzie and chairs the statewide chapter of Young Farmers and Ranchers, a national program with about 60 Alaska members that offers support to producers 18 to 35. Blankenship says the group aims to support the next generation of producers like Abby by giving them a seat at the table.
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Dylan Blankenship
It's so easy to forget that there's a next generation that wants to do this. We're losing people wanting to get an ag in Alaska. They're going to to lower 48, hopefully in some small way that this is another stepping stone for them to give Alaska a chance to be their home forever.
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Ava White
The number of young producers in Alaska, defined by the USDA as those under 35, has remained flat over the last two censuses, according to the Alaska Food Policy Council. Food production has become increasingly expensive and is often seen as a risky investment, which can limit Alaskans from starting farms. And many farmers in the state work more than one job to make ends meet. Blankenship is one of them.
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Dylan Blankenship
I have not met a single farmer yet who does not have an off farm income. Everyone up here doing it is doing it because they love to do it and they hope one day it can be economically viable. And we're all trying for that. But it's for the love of the
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Ava White
game that raises the question, how do you attract a new generation? It's one Blankenship says keeps him up at night. Despite the challenges, the number of farms in Alaska has doubled since the early 1990s. But they've gotten smaller. Over 40% of farms in the state produce on less than 10 acres. Zoe Fuller is one of those small scale farmers. The 32 year old owns Singing Nettle Farm in Palmer, which grows vegetables on just over an acre of land. Fuller says most farms in Alaska don't fit the stereotype, which she finds inspiring.
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Zoe Fuller
We think of a man on a tractor on 100 acres. That is not what it looks like in Alaska. I think we have an incredible farming network here that is small scale farms that are operated by hand, and we're producing a whole lot of food on a small acreage.
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Ava White
Fuller farms full time. Her partner is a teacher, which she says helps with insurance and income. Fuller grew up on the land she's farming now. Her parents bought it a few decades ago, and she says that's a privilege. Access to affordable land is a significant hurdle for producers, and that problem is amplified in Alaska. She says growing her own food feels like a cushion against rising costs.
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Zoe Fuller
We're able to kind of buffer those costs for ourselves by growing our own food, but also, you know, beyond that, for our extended family and our community, she says.
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Ava White
Alaskans are hungry for more locally grown food, and by feeding her community, she's built one. Abby, the Wasilla teen, says there's a lot of benefits to raising your own food, like knowing where it comes from. Plus, she says, it tastes way better than what you can buy at the store. She says she hopes to continue farming as an adult.
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Abby Reisenen
I really enjoy farming. It would be cool to stay in it, just see what, what the future brings.
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Ava White
A few of the animals she's helping raise will be auctioned off this fall at the Alaska State Fair in the mat. Su I'm Ava White.
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Casey Grove
In October 2024, a massive fire demolished a string of storefronts and apartments along the Haines waterfront that included a convenience store, liquor store and sporting goods shop known collectively as the Quick Shop. But last Friday, after a year of construction and a major financial loss, the Quick Shop opened its doors once again drawing a crowd. The Alaska Desk's Avery Elfelt stopped by and has this story.
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Avery Elfelt
It's four on a Friday in Haines, and there's only one place to the brand new Quick Shop, a hulking, shiny building stocked with almost everything you could imagine. Think ice cream, gun safes, candy, eggs and an entire row of extra tough boots. That's a big deal in a small town with limited shopping options. Twenty minutes after opening, some 50 people are already in line, with dozens more milling about. That includes tons of kids with their arms piled high with goodies. Among them is five year old William Tarleton. He describes his hall. Further back in the store, owner Mike Ward is busy scanning toilet paper amid the chaos. In between, greeting customers and accepting their congratulations, he says it's been a long road to get here.
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Mike Ward
It's a relief to finally be open. Hi, thank you. But we got a lot of work ahead of us, so it's not that much of a relief.
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Avery Elfelt
Ward says he aims to have the store fully stocked and in order by October 5th. That would be the two year anniversary since his business burned down. Ward says he launched into rebuilding right away and tried to move the project along as quickly as possible. He heard that a larger convenience chain was thinking about moving into Hanes and he wanted to edge out any potential competition.
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Mike Ward
That's one of the major reasons why I got aggressive, right. And just I didn't even think about taking the money and running. I just decided I was going to put it back.
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Avery Elfelt
But the money part hasn't been easy. Ward's insurance policy didn't come close to covering rebuilding costs or the cost of the products that also went up in flames.
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Mike Ward
I got hosed. I took a two and a half million dollar loss.
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Avery Elfelt
The loss was felt in the community too. The Quick Shop offers another shopping option in a small town where the grocery stores close by 8pm most days and even earlier on Sundays. The Quick Shop, for its part, is open until midnight.
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Tom Morfett
Avery it's a big day for our town.
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Avery Elfelt
That's Haines Mayor Tom Morfett. He calls me over from the checkout line and says the new store is a testament to Ward's faith in the town's capacity to keep it open.
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Tom Morfett
Yeah, we're only 20002500 people here, so it's kind of a shot in the arms to town morale. And you can tell people here are so excited, right?
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Avery Elfelt
People like to have nice stuff, he says. And the new Quick Shop, he adds, it's beautiful. Reporting in Haines, I'm Avery Elphelt.
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Casey Grove
This summer the Alaska Native Language center will publish a novel that recounts a story from Rudyard Kipling's famous Jungle Book. The story is the only one in the collection that takes place outside of India and happens to be set on St. Paul island in the middle of the Bering Sea. Two local artists living on the Pribilof island will retell the century old story from the perspective of a young indigenous protagonist named Sergei. KUCB's Maggie Nelson has more.
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Garrett Pletnikoff
Dear reader, what you will find in these pages is not a retelling of traditional Unangan stories, nor a reproduction of traditional Unangan knowledge. Rather, you will enter a fantasy world of our creation based on many published Unangan fables, extensive research.
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Hannah Zimmerman
Garrett Pletnikoff is the co author of the new young adult chapter book Sergei and the White Seal. The story is an adaptation of one in Kipling's Jungle Book, the White Seal, published in 1894 and actually names Pletnikoff's great great great grandfather as a main antagonist. Kipling portrays Pletnikoff's ancestors through a disparaging colonial lens as unclean murderers of the innocent marine mammals.
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Garrett Pletnikoff
Frederick Kipling just didn't understand the full scope of what's going on here.
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Hannah Zimmerman
Pletnikoff says. This adaptation is a chance to tell a different story, to portray the Unangan community and the seals as partners instead of enemies, as Kipling wrote them. The foreword of the new novel provides a brief historical context of the forced labor of the Unangan people and the true and dark history of the Russian and American seal fur trades.
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Garrett Pletnikoff
The White Seal includes violent descriptions of seal harvesting, but Kipling never mentions that these harvests were not done by Unangan free will. The Unangan people of the Pribilof Islands were subjected to forced labor, often described as slavery, under both Russian and United States rule, lasting for nearly 200 years.
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Hannah Zimmerman
Hannah Zimmerman co authored the book with Pletnikoff. She says they chose a different antagonist for their story.
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The enemy here, instead of being, you know, Unangan seal hunters that are a personification, you know, of an industry, is we picked something that really is affecting our region, and it's illegal overfishing practices.
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Zimmerman says the story follows the boy, Sergei and a seal working together to save their island. She says they were inspired by Unangan lore and mythology and decided to name their main character after a spiritual leader from the Aleutian chain, Sergey Soborov.
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It's a story of Sergey who discovers that he's a shaman and he has this, you know, magical ability to talk to animals, and he discovers his purpose as a conduit between the animal world and the human world. At the same time that the seal, the white seal, Kotick, is coming of age and discovering that he needs to protect his species.
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Zimmerman says they used Sergei's role as a shaman to talk about elements like how colonization wiped out certain indigenous practices. She says that the book can also be a source of pride for the local indigenous community.
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When we read the book to fourth and fifth graders in the fall at the St. Paul Island School, and we were like, we're working on this. What do you guys think? And I'll never forget how at the end of the book, one of the fifth grade students came up to meet and he was like, you know, I didn't know Aleuts could be superheroes.
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Zimmerman says the Kipling Society has been supportive of the retelling. She says they've even bought a copy and plan to place it next to the original in their library. Sergey and the white seal is now available through the University Press of Colorado's website. Zimmerman and Pletnikoff will also be working on recording a full cast audiobook this summer. They'll be in Unalaska in July to record with local actors. Reporting for kucb, I'm Maggie Nelson.
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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 Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. avery Elfelt in Haynes, Alyona Knighton in Anchorage, Hunter Morrison in Katchikan, Eric Stone in Juneau, Ava White in the Matsu, and Maggie Nelson in Unalaska. 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.