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Support for Alaska Public Media on demand
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comes from alyeska Pipeline Service Company maintaining
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and operating the 800 mile Trans Alaska
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Pipeline for nearly 50 years.
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It means accepting that your land, your family has known for thousands of years is gone.
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State and federal lawmakers urge action on relocating two western Alaska villages destroyed by ex typhoon Ha Long. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, May 20th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, friends and loved ones of veterans lost to illnesses linked to chemical exposure speak out ahead of Memorial Day.
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I miss him every day and Memorial Day will probably magnify that.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Alaska legislators are closing out their regular session by midnight. And just in the last 24 hours, the legislature has passed a number of high priority bills. The House passed the state operating budget last night, including $1,200 in payments to Alaskans. That's awaiting a final vote in the Senate. And lawmakers will be coming back tomorrow to kick off a special session on tax cuts for the Alaska LNG project. Governor Mike Dunleavy called the special session on Tuesday after a deal linking the gas line bill to a pension proposal fell AP night. Alaska Public Media State government reporter Eric Stone has been in the Capitol all session and joins us now. So, Eric, where do things stand?
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Well, there's a lot happening, Casey. I'm talking to you around 4pm so things could change. But there are a few things to highlight today. One is a package of crime legislation. It rolls 10 bills and some new legislation into a big omnibus bill and I'll tick through some of the highlights. This bill raises Alaska's age of consent from 16 to 18. It bans AI generated child sexual abus. It seeks to speed the processing of sexual assault kits and creates two new crimes, mail theft and airbag fraud.
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I'm sorry, did you just say airbag fraud?
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Yeah, I did. Yeah. It makes it a crime to sell a non functioning or counterfeit airbag. Obviously you want those, you know, to work. In any case, the thing to know here is that the decision to link all of these bills together is what got this package passed and backers hope it also helps encourage the governor to sign it. The age of consent portion is pretty important to a lot of people. The idea is, you know, it'll make it easier to process prosecute people who sexually assault minors. Representative Andrew Gray, an Anchorage Democrat who's made that a priority, he actually teared up after the bill passed the Senate yesterday.
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I can think of nothing that my office will ever do that is important as what happened today.
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To be honest, there were a lot of tears after this bill passed. Representative Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican who pushed for the prohibition on AI generated child sex abuse material, shed a few, too.
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We're all emotional because this bill protects victims. It tells them that we hear them and we're willing to strengthen our laws so that it can prevent future crimes and that they will get justice.
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The bill passed the Senate unanimously and in the House on a 39 to 1 vote. Despite the wide margin, though, a bunch of lawmakers from both chambers and both parties say the individual elements in the sprawling bill should have gotten a closer look. Now, Casey, right after this bill passed, Representative Gray got a text from Dunleavy's legislative director saying it was, quote, almost guaranteed that the governor's office would, quote, find significant legal problems with the bill. The governor's communications director told me that should not be taken as a veto threat. He said Dunleavy would review the bill when it reached his desk, which is, you know, honestly what he says about almost every bill. But the governor's office did also say that some elements of the bill hadn't had enough scrutiny.
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Hmm, interesting. So that'll be something to watch in the next few weeks.
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Yeah, definitely. And since lawmakers will be in special session, if it does get vetoed, lawmakers would have a chance to override it. And that goes for any number of bills as long as they're physically transmitted to the governor's office relatively quickly. If they're vetoed, the legislature could have a chance to override.
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Yeah, about that. The governor called a special session to work on tax breaks for the Alaska LNG project. What are you expecting to come out of that?
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That one is a hard one to predict. First of all, I will tell you that I do expect them to take at least a short break after tonight. They will gavel in at 10am tomorrow as required, but I'm not expecting them to get to work right away. The storm cloud looming over all of this is that deal that fell apart on Monday night. Lawmakers had hoped to pass a bill acceptable to Dunleavy in exchange for Dunle letting a bill restoring public pensions pass into law. But that deal fell apart in the House. There are still some things to be worked out. And really, Casey, that's why it's so hard to predict. There are some fundamental disagreements between the House and the Senate and the governor on what they're willing to do to get this project built.
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Okay, back to the end of this regular legislative session. What Will you be watching in these final hours?
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Well, there's so much still happening, Casey. One big thing is a bill on the Rural Health Transformation Program. So the state committed to joining a bunch of these things called compacts for all kinds of healthcare workers, EMTs to doctors, a bill that would join most of those compacts excepting one on nursing, which has been very controversial. That bill has the Senate today with many majority members opposed. It's pending a final vote in the House. That'll be an interesting one to watch. Another, of course, is the budget. You mentioned the $1,200 payment. That is a $1,000 PFD and a $200 energy relief check. It's also got up to $144 million for schools depending on oil prices and help for high energy costs for communities and individuals. And you know, just honestly lots and lots that I just can't get into in the limited.
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Yeah.
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And as we've been saying as things have come down to the wire, we'll have updates@alaskapublic.org that was Alaska Public Media's state government reporter Eric Stone. Eric, thanks for being here.
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Thank you, Casey.
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Lawmakers in the state and national capitals implored their colleagues this week to help two western Alaska villages relocate to safer ground after a devastating storm last year. State House member Nellie Jimmy represents Kipnock and Quigilingok. Homes were set adrift there and caskets unearthed when the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long struck in October. Jimmy urged the legislature to pass a resolution to support the community's decisions to re establish themselves. Jimmy said both communities have voted to relocate.
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That sentence does not come close to Kerry. The weight of what it actually means to say it means accepting that your land, your family has known for thousands of years is gone. The water didn't just take our homes, it took our dead.
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The Alaska House passed the resolution Tuesday without opposition. It urges the governor to develop a relocation framework. It also calls on Alaska's congressional delegation to restore and expand federal funding for community relocation and oppose cuts to disaster relief for the villages. In the U.S. senate today, Senator Lisa Murkowski also asked for the federal government to better support Kipnock and Quigillingock. Murkowski recalled meeting a six year old storm evacuee in an Anchorage shelter who was making a drawing of her house.
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And then she kind of hugs my leg and she says, are you afraid of the dark? And I said, no, I'm not afraid of the dark. Are you afraid of the dark? And she said, I didn't used to be, but now I am.
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The girl had been in one of the homes that was carried away by the storm waters. Murkowski says she doesn't know how that 6 year old's trauma will ever go away. The senator says the government needs a more coordinated response for disaster relief and relocation and to make its programs easier for small villages to navigate. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, after years of disrepair, the state's oldest lighthouse will reopen to the public.
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It was heartbreaking for me knowing how we kept that thing and then to have it literally abandoned.
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That's ahead. Stay with us. A man accused of breaking into two homes in Juneau's Mendenhall Valley and assaulting three people earlier this month has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Juneau resident 24 year old C T MOA faces six felony charges and three misdemeanor charges related to the alleged break ins and the alleged sexual assault of one person. MOA is currently in Department of Corrections custody and appeared in person at his initial court appearance on Monday. According to Juneau police, two Juneau residents reported a man knocking on their door and attacking them in the early morning hours of May 2. Both were knocked unconscious and the woman reported being sexually assaulted. Police said. The man fled when she woke up 15 minutes later. A nearby resident called police to report that a man broke into his home when he was sleeping and punched him in the face. Juneau police took Moa into custody May 7, charging documents say. Police canvassed the area of the attack and residents identified MOA in video footage of the suspect. According to the charges, MOA claimed he was intoxicated and didn't remember what happened that night. MOA also faces one misdemeanor theft charge related to an alleged theft at Alaska Cash Liquor in downtown Juneau earlier in the night. MOA is jailed at Lemon Creek Correctional center with bail set at $10,000. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 8th. Some communities along the lower Yukon are flooding as breakup rolls down the river. In the community of Holy Cross, flooding has entered two households. Residents have been evacuated to the local lodge. Dave Walker is the city's water plant operator. He says since early Tuesday, Holy Cross's airstrip has been covered with water and appears unusable. He's worried about its structural integrity even when the water recedes.
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Polly Even if the water go down and it may be too soft or unsafe for them to land on the 12 hour, we're in for a kind of long haul.
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Due to flooding in the lower side of town, Holy Cross turned off power at the gas station and lift station. The city has also turned off water to the south loop of town following a major leak in the water system. Those residences remain without piped water but are able to haul water from the community's Washeteria. The rest of town continues to have access to water, electricity and sewer. Walker says in over 40 years of living in the community, this breakup flooding feels out of the ordinary.
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Well, I've seen it come up since I lived here twice, but not as high as it is now.
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Downriver, the community of Russian Mission braces for potential flooding. As of Tuesday afternoon, water levels were resting at the riverbank and had not yet entered the community. Agnes Haussler, Russian Mission's city administrator, says the community is on flood watch.
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Can't sleep at night because we don't know if we'll have to evacuate during early hours of the morning.
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In Russian Mission, several households preemptively evacuated their homes due to increasing water levels. Haussler says they are staying with friends in the community and that no homes had been impacted by water as of Tuesday evening. Well, as Americans remember veterans this Memorial Day, some hope their friends and loved ones aren't forgotten. Even though they died on US Soil years after their service, they were victims of illnesses linked to toxic chemical exposure. Shelby Herbert reports for the Alaska Desk
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on a nippy spring morning at Birch Hill Cemetery in Fairbanks. I'm standing on Ben O. Cleveland's gravesite, the one he picked out himself.
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Same time I purchased the one in between.
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Absolutely. So this is you right here?
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Yeah.
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I'm so sorry I was standing on it.
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No, it's all right. I hope they all do a happy dance for me.
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Cleveland is in Nupiac, one of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. He served in the Vietnam War and received two Purple Hearts. Cleveland holds an eagle feather for the strength and courage to speak, he says about the spot where he plans to spend eternity.
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So this is hallowed ground. This is sacred ground.
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Cleveland says he chose to be buried between his father, who served in World War II, and his friend James Akivana, another Vietnam veteran. Cleveland and Akavana were both exposed to Agent Orange during their service. That's an herbicide the US Government used to remove dense tree cover during the war. Its effects on human health were not fully understood or publicly acknowledged for many years now. It's associated with cancer, nerve damage, diabetes and other long term illnesses that affect hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans, including Cleveland.
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Going to talk about Agent Orange and there's old sayings that a picture is worth a thousand words.
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That's a gallon sized Ziploc bag full of his medications. His friend Akivana died a couple years ago, officially of copd, though friends and family say they believe Agent Orange had a role.
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There is a saying that I was killed in Vietnam. I just haven't died yet. And that pertains to those that have been affected with Agent Orange.
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On this Memorial Day, Cleveland hopes Americans remember veterans like Akavana. Akavana's widow, Garnedak Ivana, says she feels the pain of her husband's death particularly hard on Memorial Day. She remembers her late husband as a kind man with a warm sense of humor, but says things like war films and even the sound of jets overhead would take him straight back to Vietnam.
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After he came back, he got changed. He couldn't watch Pearl harbor or anything like that because it would end up on the floor. And he said, they're coming and I heard those bombs.
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Akivana says life has been hard without him. Between her grief, financial struggles, and trying to navigate the Veterans affairs system, their story is hardly rare in Alaska, home to the nation's highest population of veterans per capita. Ann Masker moved to the state with her husband, Willard, after his service in Vietnam.
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His favorite thing was scrambling around the Wrangell Mountains looking for Dall sheep. So my assumption is the reason he went was for the peace.
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Willard succumbed to Agent Orange related vascular dementia a few years ago. Though Masker says it felt like she lost him years before he died.
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The kinds of things that he loved to do, he couldn't do. So he would spend literally hours in his requirement with the clicker, you know, watching tv, watching sports, watching this, watching that, and drifting off.
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Masker says this time of year always brings back memories of the life she shared with her husband.
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I'm sorry to be so simple, but first of all, I miss him every day, and Memorial Day will probably magnify that. But I'm so proud of him and who he was and of the many people we knew and people we lost. And Memorial Day is all about respect.
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Looking back on his life in service, Ben o' Cleveland echoes that sentiment. He's preparing a speech for the community's annual Memorial Day ceremony to honor the service members who gave their lives for their country, either in wartime or decades after they served. Reporting in Fairbanks, I'm Shelby Herbert.
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The Juneau assembly voted Monday night to divest from Eagle Crest ski area's gondola project and pay back a $10 million investment from Goldbelt Incorporated. The vote marks a reversal of The Assembly's controversial 2022 decision to purchase the gondola for the city owned ski area. It comes after the assembly learned the project's price tag would be nearly four times more than expected due to additional parts, high const costs and tariffs on imports. Despite backing out of the estimated $37 million project, Juneau taxpayers still fronted more than $12 million up to this point, which includes the payback to Goldbelt approved Monday night due to compounding monthly interest on the investment. The city actually owes gold belt around $12.2 million, but it has roughly $2.7 million still set aside for the project, so it will pay about 9.5 million. The money comes from the city's general fund. Assembly Member Alicia Hughes Scandes said the assembly should avoid making a mistake this big again. She was one of the few members on the assembly who were around in 2022 when a slim majority of members voted to purchase the gondola. She voted against it back then.
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Sincerely, I'm sorry that things went this
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way and I think it's really important that we study it after it is over so we know that we're not going to make a magnitude of the same or a mistake of the same size.
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With its initial purchase, the gondola was hailed as a saving grace for Juneau's ski area, which has struggled to maintain infrastructure and pay its staff without subsidies from the city. The ski area's plan to become self sustainable was heavily reliant on the success of the gondola to promote summertime operations. But now with the gondola out of the picture, Eagle Crest's future hangs in the balance. Last week the assembly voted to subsidize the ski area so it can stay open next season on a bare bones budget with a cut to nearly half the staff. What will come after that is still up in the air. Mayor Beth Weldon voted in favor of divesting from the gondola project despite originally voting for it in 2022.
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We did not come up with the idea for the gondola. That was totally the general manager and the board at the time and we grasped at the straw trying to save Ecocrest. So call us gullible, call us naive, but that's what we to do. So that was our intent.
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Assembly member Nano Brooks was the only member to vote against the decision. He argued the assembly should hold off until next year to search for other options. Lawmakers in the Alaska Senate last week approved a land sale between the port town of Whittier and the state owned Alaska Railroad. The Alaska Beacon reports that the bill returned first to the House for a final procedural vote before going to governor Mike Dunleavy for enactment or veto. State law mandates that any sale of railroad land must be approved by the Legislature. Under the approved sale, the city will buy three parcels, all located in the central part of town. The city and railroad are also close to agreeing on a sale for two more parcels, both located closer to a new cruise ship terminal that had its first full operating season last year. In total, the sale encompasses about 85 acres in strategic areas to allow for more growth. The land is currently being used for things like parking or boat storage. Ownership by the railroad doesn't currently allow for any kind of building on that land, but city ownership would open up options for new businesses, housing or other opportunities. Whittier is home to 275 people, but city officials told state lawmakers at a legislative hearing in February that the town sees about 700,000 visitors a year. State officials have been working on a transportation master plan to deal with the influx. The city is also working on a long term waterfront and economic development plan. About halfway between Juneau and Haines, there's a small rock with a big history. On it sits the Eldred Rock Lighthouse. The facility has been there for over a century and today is the oldest original lighthouse in Alaska. It's been in disrepair for decades, though, and after years of restoration work by volunteers, the lighthouse will open to the public for the first time later this month. Ahead of the grand reopening. The Alaska Desk's Avery Elfeld made the journey to the rock with a boat full of volunteers and has this story.
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Some two dozen people carefully hop from a large boat to a smaller one and then onto a rocky island in the middle of Lynn Canal. The wind is whipping and the boat lurches in the waves. Once on shore, they carry supplies uphill toward a red and white lighthouse perched high above the water. Inside, up several flights of stairs, a small group is hurriedly building bunk beds.
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Oh great.
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Working.
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I love that. Keep going. Please build me a bed. I'd like that, actually.
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So York is the executive director of the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association. The nonprofit is dedicated to restoring the lighthouse, which first opened in 1906. Kebers lived and worked here until the 1970s, when the U.S. coast Guard started automating lighthouses across the state. Since then, York says, the only longer term known residents were of a different kind.
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And these sea otters came in and spent the winter up in the attic and they crapped everywhere and so the first job that some of the volunteers did was put on a respirator and Tyvek to clean up otter crap.
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York and volunteers from Haines and Juneau recently journeyed to Elder Rock to build bunks and work on other projects in the final days before the lighthouse opens to the public. The reopening is the culmination of years of work by the nonprofit, its many volunteers, and paid contractors. Moving forward, the space will be used for artist retreats, family getaways, and weddings, all organized by the preservation group. There will also be tours offered by a local operator, which will help fund ongoing restoration efforts. Perhaps most important, though, is that the lighthouse and the stories it holds will once again be intact. York says it's impossible not to feel like part of history when you come
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out here and you feel you sleep where the keepers slept, and you take care of the light that the keepers took care of, and you watch the boats go by, you know, the ferry every day, the Fiordland.
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For others, the reopening offers a chance to relive their own history.
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So I still haven't been out to the Rock well, since 1970.
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That's Ralph Crane. He's 75 and lives in Homer, but he spent two years at Eldred Rock when he was just 19 years old. Crane spent his days here operating the light and radio beacon, making weather reports every hour on the hour, and doing everyday chores.
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Like I say, it was the best and worst time of my life, and a lot more best than worse.
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When Crane was off duty and the weather cleared, he, the other keepers, and their two dogs, Ken Moran, Pee Pee, would take the boat out to set crab pots, fish, and comb nearby beaches. He says the restoration is a labor of love that amounts to keeping history alive. He's planning to drive to Haines from Homer with his daughter for the opening ceremony. They'll camp along the way, there and back. Crane says he's thrilled his former home has been restored and is excited to return.
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That's. That's a lot of history to just see crumble into disrepair. It was heartbreaking for me to. Knowing how we kept that thing and then to have it literally abandoned.
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A big part of the cleanup effort has been dealing with widespread lead contamination and making sure the area is safe for the public. It's been a major feat so far. The restoration has cost more than half a million dollars, York says. Making matters more complicated is the reality that doing any work require hauling people and equipment to the island, often in bad weather.
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It's the worst weather in North Glen Canal. So our challenge has always been and always will be transportation and safety coming
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on and off the island.
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So we have to make tough decisions.
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On the morning of the most recent trip, volunteers from Haines loaded stacks of lumber onto a 50 foot aluminum boat known as the Taz. But rough seas meant those supplies never made it onshore and that the day's work was cut short, York had to ask most volunteers to pack up early and quickly get off the rock. A handful stayed behind. They'll spend the week here, working toward ensuring it's ready for visitors in just a few days time. Reporting in Haines, I'm Avery Elphelt.
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And finally tonight, a correction to a story Monday about the criminal case against a former Juno chiropractor accused of sexual assault, which gave an inaccurate number of total active sexual assault counts against Jeffrey Foltz. Fultz actually faces 13 such counts. 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 go, get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Eric Stone, Yvonne Crumry and Clarice Larson in Judo Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. samantha Watson in Bethel, Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks and Avery Elfelt in Hanes. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us@newsalaskapublic.org Our audio engineer is Crystal Hyde. Kirsten Dobroth is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.
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This is statewide news on Alaska Public Media.