Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Summary

Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, September 24, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Alaska News Nightly, hosted by Casey Grove, explores the profound impact of new federal H1B visa regulations on Alaska’s education system, the consequences of mixed vaccine messaging for public health, local innovation in artificial intelligence, pressing community infrastructure issues, major legal updates, and evolving conversations in iconic Alaskan events and scientific research. Drawing on voices from across the state, the program blends policy, community stories, and current events affecting Alaskans everywhere.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Drastic H1B Visa Fee Increase Threatens Alaska's Schools and Workforce

Segment Start: 01:07

• Summary:
  President Trump’s executive order increases H1B visa costs from $5,000 to $100,000 per year. While intended to prioritize domestic hiring and target large IT firms, the sweeping policy threatens Alaska’s ability to hire critically needed foreign teachers, nurses, and other skilled workers.

• Impacts on Alaska’s Schools:

  • School districts like Kodiak, Nome, Bering Strait, and Kenai Peninsula rely on international teachers to fill persistent shortages.
  • Funding the new visa costs is untenable for public schools, risking classroom vacancies and educational setbacks.

• Stakeholder Quotes:

  • “With a pinstroke, we possibly have ruined the future of education for Alaska students.”
    — Cindy Meka, Kodiak Island Borough School District superintendent (02:02)
  • “I can't imagine what our classes would look like without those international teachers filling the need.”
    — Cindy Meka (02:17)

• Legal & Political Uncertainty:

  • Conflicting guidance from federal agencies; uncertainty over whether currently approved applications are affected.
  • Immigration attorney Margaret Stock highlights the challenge for clients and schools.
    • “It’s hard to figure out what to do when the president issues a proclamation that is then contradicted by everybody who works for the president... it’s just hard to advise clients.”
      — Margaret Stock (Cindy Meka relating, 03:20)

• Political Response:

  • Representative Nick Begich and Alaska’s congressional delegation are working to clarify the policy and advocate for school districts.
    • “I do support the ability to bring in J1s and H1Bs to support...the education workforce in rural Alaska...when you’ve got positions that go unfilled, it means that kids are going uneducated.”
      — Rep. Nick Begich (04:12)

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2. Vaccine Messaging Muddles Alaska’s Public Health Efforts

Segment Start: 04:52

• Summary:
  Public health providers in Alaska express concern that mixed messages, especially from national leaders—including President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—are undermining trust in vaccines, risking lower uptake rates crucial for public safety.

• Provider Concerns:

  • Nationally conflicting guidance contributes to hesitancy; some families are opting out of vaccines at higher rates.
  • Former chief medical officer Ann Zink urges focusing on local expert advice.
    • “Vaccines are available, they're accessible, they're covered by your insurance, and you should just talk to your provider and get vaccinated.”
      — Ann Zink (05:38)

• State and Insurance Landscape:

  • CDC continues to recommend flu, COVID-19, RSV, and pneumococcal vaccines with some changes in age eligibility.
  • Insurers in Alaska will cover these vaccines at no cost for patients.

• On Vaccine Hesitancy:

  • Anchorage pediatrician Janet Shen witnesses increased family refusal since January, pointing to political and social media misinformation.
    • “A lot of medicine is about prevention, and I think vaccines have been one of the major advances in medicine in terms of preventing illness.”
      — Janet Shen (08:50)
    • “But we all live in a community and we should not only protect ourselves, but think about the people around us: the vulnerable, the infants, the elderly, the immunocompromised.”
      — Janet Shen (09:07)

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3. UAA’s Community-Focused Artificial Intelligence Initiative

Segment Start: 09:27

• Summary:
  University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is seeking public input on community problems solvable with artificial intelligence, through the Alaska AI Solutions Consortium funded by the National Science Foundation.

• Community Outreach:

  • Kenrich Mock, Dean of UAA’s College of Engineering, encourages any group—technical or not—to propose ideas.
    • “What we're doing is we're asking the community, what kind of problems do you have that potentially could be addressed with AI? And we've kept it kind of broad on purpose...”
      — Kenrich Mock (09:40)

• Real Applications:

  • Social service partnerships (e.g., finding links between depression and diabetes among Alaska Native elders) already underway.
  • Interested parties should reach out to UAA.

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4. Major Legal Updates

a. Nurse Practitioner Conviction Overturned

Segment Start: 11:33

• Summary:
  The 2022 conviction of Jessica Spade for overprescribing painkillers (leading to five overdose deaths) is thrown out after revelations of inappropriate relationships by the original judge. Federal prosecutors now must decide on an appeal or re-trial.

b. Juneau Chiropractor’s Sexual Assault Case Set for Retrial

Segment Start: 11:33

• Summary:
  Jeffrey Fultz, previously acquitted on two counts, will be retried on 13 remaining charges of sexual assault alleged by former patients between 2014–2020.

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5. Anchorage Police Department Adopts AI Data Review Tool

Segment Start: 14:11

• Summary:
  Anchorage Police have adopted “Closure,” an AI tool to analyze extensive investigative data (e.g., jailhouse calls), streamlining workload and boosting efficiency. The five-year contract was approved unanimously.

• Quote:
  “There are some cases where you have detectives listening to over a thousand hours of jail call data to try to find a word, a phrase, a name, a threat, things like that....”
  — APD Chief Sean Case (Kenrich Mock, 14:11 paraphrase and context)

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6. Selawik Drinking Water Crisis Exposes Infrastructure Gaps

Segment Start: 15:12

• Summary:
  Selawik, Northwest Arctic, has had no reliable drinking water for over three weeks owing to unpaid bills for water treatment chemicals and equipment failures. Residents rely on the river (unsafe due to giardia), rainwater, and costly donated bottled water.

• Voices from Selawik:

  • “People are collecting rainwater or people are going to the river and dipping it out... to use for... super light washing.”
    — Tanya Ballad, acting mayor (15:32)
  • “The city is in such financial disarray that it wasn’t able to pay on its chemical bills.... Our customers are not paying their bills for us to pay our bills.”
    — Tanya Ballad (15:57)
  • “Our water is very—it’s high in beaver fever and so we can’t drink it straight out of the river.”
    — Tanya Ballad (16:59)
  • “We're haunted by our situation now because of climate change. Again, a lot of our pipes and utilidors are going left and right. It's something beyond control.”
    — Clyde Ramoth, Selawik Tribal Council (17:45)

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7. Mat-Su Borough Requests Federal Forgiveness for Ferry Project Debt

Segment Start: 18:38

• Summary:
  The Matanuska Susitna Borough seeks forgiveness of most of the $12 million in federal transit grants (now just under $6 million owed) after the failed Knick Arm Ferry project, to avoid financial penalties. The federal agency has not yet responded.

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8. Iditarod Champion Jeff King Calls for Race Reforms

Segment Start: 19:01

• Summary:
  Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King proposes a major overhaul:

  • Make the first third of the race "untimed," restarting the clock at McGrath to reduce early strain on dogs and mushers.
  • Lower the maximum team size from 16 to 14 dogs.

• Rationale:

  • To reduce dog deaths, increase musher completion rates, mitigate staff workload, and balance competitiveness with welfare.

• Memorable Quotes:

  • “You know, just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.”
    — Jeff King (11:15, 21:14 paraphrased, 21:42 direct)
  • “The number of entrants is down... The story they tell is not a good one. And as rare as fatalities of dogs are, it’s still happening.”
    — Jeff King (20:09–21:14)
  • King reports he has submitted his proposal to the Iditarod Board; as of air date, there’s been no reply.

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9. Five Finger Lighthouse Researches Humpback Whale “Thrumming”

Segment Start: 23:32

• Summary:
  Researchers at the Five Finger Lighthouse are recording the enigmatic “thrum” of humpback whales—subtle, low-frequency communication possibly akin to elephant rumbles. The sound is under-studied and may provide novel insight into whale behavior.

• Researcher Quotes:

  • “Our main target is the thrum, or the purr. It’s kind of like analogous to the rumbles of African elephants.”
    — Friend Sharp (23:59)
  • “...as far as we can tell, they’ve never been described in the scientific literature and which is amazing because it's really, it's one of the most common sounds that you hear out here.”
    — Friend Sharp (25:05)
  • “We don’t know what the meaning is, if any, of these signals...so far we can’t really say that with any confidence because we haven’t found any rule structure yet.”
    — Friend Sharp (25:24)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “With a pinstroke, we possibly have ruined the future of education for Alaska students.”
  — Cindy Meka, on H1B visa fees (02:02)

• “Vaccines are available...you should just talk to your provider and get vaccinated.”
  — Ann Zink, on cutting through vaccine messaging (05:38)

• “But we all live in a community and we should not only protect ourselves, but think about the people around us, the vulnerable, the infants, the elderly, the immunocompromised.”
  — Janet Shen, pediatrician (09:07)

• “Our water is very—it’s high in beaver fever and so we can't drink it straight out of the river.”
  — Tanya Ballad, Selawik (16:59)

• “You know, just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.”
  — Jeff King, on Iditarod changes (21:14)

• “…as far as we can tell, they’ve never been described in the scientific literature and which is amazing because it's really, it's one of the most common sounds that you hear out here.”
  — Friend Sharp, whale research (25:05)

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Timestamps for Main Segments

| Time | Segment | |---------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:07 | H1B Visa Fee Hike - Impact on Schools & Teachers | | 04:52 | Vaccine Messaging & Public Health Concerns | | 09:27 | UAA’s Artificial Intelligence Community Initiative | | 11:33 | Major Legal Updates (Nurse Practitioner, Chiropractor) | | 14:11 | APD’s Adoption of AI “Closure” Tool | | 15:12 | Selawik’s Drinking Water Crisis | | 18:38 | Mat-Su Ferry Project Debt Forgiveness Request | | 19:01 | Jeff King’s Opinion on Iditarod Race Format | | 23:32 | Five Finger Lighthouse: Humpback Whale Thrum Research |

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Conclusion

This episode intricately weaves together the localized consequences of national policy, public health uncertainty, the promise and challenges of technology, urgent legal stories, community infrastructure struggles, traditional Alaskan institutions seeking modernization, and unique glimpses into Alaskan scientific discoveries. The voices are varied but uniformly urgent, reflecting Alaska’s ongoing adaptation in volatile times.

Transcript

[Brian Venoit]

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.

[Cindy Meka]

With a pinstroke, we possibly have ruined the future of education for Alaska students.

[Casey Grove]

Sudden changes to H1B work visas spell trouble for Alaska's many foreign teachers. From Alaska Public Media, this is StateW on Alaska News Nightly for Wednesday, September 24th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, health care providers worry mixed vaccine messaging could lead to lower vaccination rates in Alaska.

[Cindy Meka]

Think about the people around us, the vulnerable, the infants, the elderly, the immunocompromised.

[Casey Grove]

Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Alaska Public Media is now partnering with.

[Rachel Cassandra]

An Alaskan auction service so a helpful.

[Casey Grove]

Local team can get the biggest return for the least hassle should you decide.

[Tanya Ballad]

To donate your vehicle.

[Casey Grove]

Learn [e-mail] vehicle President Donald Trump announced plans to increase the cost of some types of work visas on Friday. It's the latest move to tighten national immigration policy and encourage domestic hiring. But as KMXT's Brian Venoit reports, it could have major consequences for Alaska's schools and businesses.

[Brian Venoit]

In an executive order, President Donald Trump announced he would up the price of H1B work visas, which used to cost about $5,000. Those visas will now cost $100,000 per person per year, according to the new executive order. H1B visas are generally used to fill high skilled jobs like nurses and allow for longer careers in the US by providing a path to permanent residency like a green card. In recent years, H1B visas have become incre popular for Alaska schools to hire teachers from abroad too. But there's a concern that many Alaska school districts can't afford the price hike.

[Cindy Meka]

With a pinstroke, we possibly have ruined the future of education for Alaska students.

[Brian Venoit]

Cindy Meka is the Kodiak Island Borough School District's superintendent. She says she texted that to another superintendent in Alaska after she heard the news this weekend.

[Cindy Meka]

I can't imagine what our classes would look like without those international teachers filling the need.

[Brian Venoit]

There are over 30 teachers in Kodiak School District who were hired abroad, many of whom currently hold H1B visas. And earlier this year, Micah organized a recruiting trip to the Philippines with administrators representing the Nome, Bering Strait and Kenai Peninsula school districts, too. Districts across the state have faced shortages for teaching staff and struggled to fill positions with domestic hires, including from the lower 48. For some, international hiring efforts are a sort of stopgap measure to ensure classrooms and kids needs are met. Much of the justification out outlined in Trump's executive order, however, targets large information technology firms. But immigration lawyers like Anchorage attorney Margaret Stock say multiple industries like Alaska's public education system are collateral damage.

[Cindy Meka]

It's been complete chaos since last Friday, stock says.

[Brian Venoit]

Alaska's university system, healthcare, accounting and financial service and tourism sectors all use H1B visas, too, and Trump and his team haven't had consistent messaging about how they might be affected.

[Cindy Meka]

It's hard to figure out what to do when the president issues a proclamation that is then contradicted by everybody who works for the president. It's just hard to advise clients, she says.

[Brian Venoit]

She's seen the White House and various federal agencies issue conflicting statements surrounding the new H1B fees. A staffer with Senator Dan Sullivan's office said via email on Tuesday that previously approved visa applications won't be subject to the new fees. Micah says she's heard something similar from the school district's legal team, but Stock says it's unclear what final decisions will.

[Cindy Meka]

Be made and they seem to be motivated mainly by collecting a lot of money from people, but they didn't even roll out a way for people to pay this $100,000 per person fee.

[Brian Venoit]

Mika says she's already working with Alaska's congressional delegation to find some kind of solution for Kodiak and other school districts. Representative Nick Begich, who was in Bethel this week, says he's already brought up how important internationally hired teachers are with the Trump administration.

[Casey Grove]

I do support the ability to bring in J1s and H1Bs to support, as a supplement to local Alaskans and Americans generally, the education workforce in rural Alaska. We know that it's a hard job to fill, and when you've got positions that go unfilled, it means that kids are going uneducated.

[Brian Venoit]

Staffers for Senators Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski both said via email and text on Tuesday that there's a lack of clarity and want schools to have the resources they need. For now, the consensus is that everyone's wa waiting for more details from the White House, with reporting help from Sage, Smiley and Bethel. In Kodiak, I'm Brian Benoit.

[Casey Grove]

The recommendations for vaccines for this respiratory illness season have not changed much this year in Alaska, but providers in the state are worried that conflicting messages about vaccines on the national level will keep some patients from seeking them out. Alaska Public Media's Rachel Cassandra talked to public health experts and physicians to find out more.

[Rachel Cassandra]

Both President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Have openly questioned vaccine efficacy and safety, going against widely accepted scientific research and professional provider groups and the FDA have issued conflicting recommendations. Ann Zink is a physician and former chief medical officer for Alaska. She hopes Alaskans don't get overwhelmed by national news on vaccines in general.

[Janet Shen]

Vaccines are available, they're accessible, they're covered by your insurance, and you should just talk to your provider and get vaccinated.

[Tanya Ballad]

If that is something that you think.

[Janet Shen]

Will help you stay healthy and well, like it will. For many people across the state, Zink.

[Rachel Cassandra]

Says, access to vaccines this year will likely largely stay the same. According to the latest guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, everyone 6 months or older can get a COVID vaccine in consultation with a provider. And Zhang says unlike in some other states, a pharmacist is considered a provider.

[Tanya Ballad]

Pharmacists in Alaska can prescribe and administer vaccines, and so it does have to.

[Janet Shen]

Involve shared clinical decision making. So how pharmacists may interpret that may be different.

[Tanya Ballad]

But you do not need to go.

[Janet Shen]

Running to your clinician to make an appointment.

[Rachel Cassandra]

Vaccines for respiratory season typically include flu, Covid RSV or respiratory syncytial virus, and sometimes pneumococcal vaccines, which prevent pneumonia. The age ranges for some of those vaccines have changed this year. That's according to Sarah Aho, immunization program manager for the state. She says flu shots remain the same and are recommended for everyone 6 months and older. RSV vaccines are now recommended for those age 75 and up, and she says vaccines preventing pneumonia are now recommended for those over 50. Ajo says based on CDC recommendations, insurance should cover Covid vaccines.

[Casey Grove]

Last week, the trade group America's Health.

[Janet Shen]

Insurance Plans said that its members would.

[Rachel Cassandra]

Cover the shot at no cost to patients, she says. That trade group includes all major insurers in the state, according to their press release. They will cover recommended vaccinations, including this year's Covid and flu vaccines. Ajo says vaccine supply should also look similar to past years. But she says overall the state has seen a decline in kindergarten vaccine rates since January. And she says mixed messaging about the COVID vaccine could be confusing for Alaskans. Multiple professional provider groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have published their own guidelines for Covid vaccines and and those differ from each other and from the FDA and cdc. Recommendations like the biggest difference in these.

[Janet Shen]

Is for the childhood or the pediatric group of you know, some are recommending all, some are recommending high risk or underlying health conditions.

[Rachel Cassandra]

So she suggests Alaskans have a conversation with a healthcare provider about their specific health needs. Those kinds of conversations are something Anchorage pediatrician Janet Shen says she's having more and more often with families.

[Cindy Meka]

I think we're definitely seeing having more conversations about vaccines with patients, I think just because it's been in the news a lot more, she says.

[Rachel Cassandra]

Anecdotally, she's seen more families choose not to vaccinate since January. She sees it as a byproduct of vaccine hesitancy in the country's leadership, as well as confusing or incorrect information posted on social media. But she says she continues to share much of the same advice.

[Cindy Meka]

A lot of medicine is about prevention, and I think vaccines have been one of the major advances in medicine in terms of preventing illness.

[Rachel Cassandra]

And she says individual choice around vaccines is important.

[Cindy Meka]

But we all live in a community and we should not only protect ourselves, but think about the people around us, the vulnerable, the infants, the elderly, the immunocompromised.

[Rachel Cassandra]

And she says that should also figure into our decisions about vaccines. In Anchorage, I'm Rachel Cassandra.

[Casey Grove]

Researchers at the University of Alaska Anchorage are looking for community problems to solve using artificial intelligence. Kenrich Mock is The dean of UAA's College of Engineering, and he says researchers are casting a wide net.

[Kenrich Mock]

What we're doing is we're asking the community, what are these, what are, what kind of problems do you have that potentially could be addressed with AI? And we've kept it kind of broad on purpose so that someone doesn't think, oh, I have to be a tech geek or something to be, to be trying to use AI to solve the problems.

[Casey Grove]

It's what the university calls the Alaska AI Solutions Consortium, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Right now they're asking businesses, community groups, and anyone else interested to get together with a faculty member to develop a proposal for a project. Mach says AI can be useful in solving a wide variety of problems, and especially ones that deal with large amounts of data.

[Kenrich Mock]

The more data that's available, then, the more likely it is. We could train some kind of model that could make some interesting inferences. But there are some cases also where you don't need to have a lot of data and it's more kind of searching for solutions. And so I guess I'd say we just encourage folks to ask us if they have an inkling that AI might apply, he says.

[Casey Grove]

They've already had a lot of interest from social service groups. One of Mock's colleagues is working with AI to study the connections between depression and diabetes among Alaska Native elders. Mock says anyone interested in collaborating with the university's AI researchers should reach out to his office or visit UAA's website. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, an Iditarod veteran recommends changes to the race, which he says has gotten too fast to the detriment of dogs and mushers.

[Jeff King]

You know, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done.

[Casey Grove]

That's ahead. Stay with us.

[Rachel Cassandra]

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.

[Casey Grove]

Visit alaskapublic.org shop a judge has thrown out a former Eagle river nurse practitioner's convictions for over prescribing pain medication after a scandal ousted the previous judge overseeing the case. A jury in 2022 found Jessica Spade guilty of 10 felonies, including distributing opioids that resulted in the overdose deaths of five people. In 2023, former U.S. district Court Judge Joshua Kindred sentenced Spade to 30 years in prison. Then, in 2024, a report from the 9th Circuit Judicial Council revealed Kindred had engaged in inappropriate sexualized relationships with two federal prosecutors. Kindred resigned, leaving dozens of criminal cases up for review for possible conflicts of interest. Spade's attorneys argued Kindred had a motive to rule in the federal government's favor and that Spade had been treated unfairly. The new judge in the case, Marco Hernandez, ordered her convictions thrown out. The judge's ruling leaves the federal prosecutors to decide whether they want to appeal, put Spade on trial again or resolve the case in another way. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Spade. State prosecutors said Tuesday they will retry the sexual assault case against a former Juneau chiropractor now facing 13 criminal counts. More than a dozen former patients accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care between 2014 and 2020 while he worked at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau. It's been nearly three weeks since a jury acquitted Fultz on two criminal counts and failed to reach a unanimous verdict on 14 others. Last week, the judge in the case dismissed one of those. That means that even though Fultz was not found guilty, the remaining 13 charges are still active. Those are the charges the state can retry, prosecutor Kristen Tendi said at a hearing Tuesday. The state is still working to determine how many charges will be retried. Foltz's attorneys said at the hearing they are withdrawing from the case. A representation hearing to determine Foltz's future legal representation is scheduled for next week. The Anchorage Police Department has adopted artificial intelligence software to better review investigative data. Police Chief Sean Case told Assembly members last night that the department has been testing a software called Closure for four months. He says the program is able to analyze large amounts of data.

[Kenrich Mock]

There are some cases where you have detectives listening to over a thousand hours of jail call data to try to find a word, a phrase, a name, a threat, things like that. And so when we tested the software, one of the things that we primarily used it for was throwing in geocall data, case says.

[Casey Grove]

This is the first time APD has officially adopted AI software for department use. The department had previously tested software for writing reports, but officials decided not to adopt it. Case says city lawyers have reviewed the software and determined it would not negatively impact the prosecution of cases. The assembly unanimously approved a five year contract with closure for $375,000 at its meeting last night. The Northwest Arctic community of Selwick, a city of over 800 people, has not had consistent drinking water for over three weeks. And as KOTZ's Desiree Hagan reports, it's just the latest in the community's infrastructure challenges.

[Tanya Ballad]

In late August, Soliwick lost its drinking water. Community members say it caused school to close for nearly a week. Residents have had to haul water from the nearby Soliwick river for day to day activities like flushing toilets and laundry. Tanya Ballad is Selwyck's acting mayor and administrator for the Villages tribe.

[Cindy Meka]

People are collecting rainwater or people are going to the river and dipping it out of the river to use for, you know, flushing their toilets or doing some light, light, super light washing.

[Tanya Ballad]

Ballot says the recent issue with the community's water came down to financial challenges. The city did not have enough money to purchase chemicals to adequately filter the water.

[Cindy Meka]

The city is in such financial disarray that it wasn't able to pay on its chemical bills. The city's revenue is very, very limited. Our customers are not paying their bills for us to pay our bills and so just a ripple effect.

[Tanya Ballad]

Ballard says the chemicals cost about $2,000 plus an additional $4,000 to air freight them to the community. Ballot says residents have relied on bottled water donated from Nana Regional Corporation and support from the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, but donated bottles to go fast. And at Solewick's main grocery store, a case of water is over $40 if it's in stock, city officials say the chemicals arrived last week, but there still hasn't been consistent drinking water because of a bad pump, according to a representative from Solewic tribe and residents are not able to safely drink water from the nearby rivers and streams.

[Cindy Meka]

Our water is very it's high in beaver fever and so we can't drink, we can't drink it straight out of the river.

[Tanya Ballad]

Beaver fever refers to a parasite called giardia, which can cause diarrhea and other symptoms. Ballot says. In the meantime, the village has been advising residents to boil water flowing from pipes for at least two minutes. Clyde Ramoth is a former mayor and sits on Selawick's Tribal Council. Ramoth says this year the water levels of the Selwick river were the highest he has seen. And for Selawick, a community that rests on top of tundra swamps connected by boardwalks, high water and aging infrastructure all add to the community's struggles.

[Cindy Meka]

We're haunted by our situation now because of our climate change. Again, a lot of our pipes and util doors are going left and right. It's something beyond control, raymuth says.

[Tanya Ballad]

Selwick has struggled with above ground pipes freezing during its cold months from October to April. Water and sewer can be cut off to a large section of town for months. Ramoth says it's a race against time.

[Cindy Meka]

Hopefully they'll do make some repairs and stuff before the winter sets in.

[Tanya Ballad]

Raymond says the water is running now, but the pressure is off. He says he's worried that if the issue is not resolved before winter, it could compound the community's existing water challenges and pose more health and sanitation concerns. In Kotzebue, I'm Desiree Hagan.

[Casey Grove]

The Matanuska Susitna Borough wants federal officials to forgive millions of dollars of transit grant repayments it owes as part of the fail Knick Arm Ferry project. The Matsu Sentinel reports that the borough asked the Federal Transit Administration to forgive the debt in a letter sent last week. This comes after transit officials renewed their decade old effort to require the borough to repay just under $6 million late last month. The full amount in grants spent on the project between 2002 and 2008 is just over 12 million. The remainder of those grants was already forgiven because the money was used for design work on the project. Borough officials are asking the debt to be further reduced to just over $1 million. If they do not return the funds, the borough could face fines and the withholding of current federal grant payments. There is no set timeline for the FTA's response. Four time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Jeff King wants the thousand mile race across Alaska to change in an opinion piece published in the Anchorage Daily News this week. King proposes that roughly the first third of the race should be untimed. King says there would be a deadline to reach a particular checkpoint. He suggests McGrath about 330 miles into the race, and teams that met the deadline would then undergo a restart. With the race clock ticking for the remaining trail to Nome, King also thinks the iditrad should return to a limit of 14 dogs per team, down from the current limit of 16. King says his proposals are meant to support more mushers finishing the race, prevent dog deaths and lower the burden on Iditarod's staff.

[Jeff King]

The race has had increase in scratches of mushers not being able to complete the event for one reason or another. And the number of entrants is down.

[Cindy Meka]

And.

[Jeff King]

The disparity between first and last is often pretty dramatic. I believe many mushers and all the dogs would benefit from predictably having a pace through there that was less aggressive. And I was really bummed to see how many teams had to scratch last year. These people put in so much effort and money, they don't really have a story to tell when it's over. The story they tell is not a good one. And as rare as fatalities of dogs are, it's still happening. And I just don't think where we are now is going to work as well as it would if we made these changes.

[Casey Grove]

And just to play devil's advocate, I imagine maybe some of the more established teams with maybe bigger kennels to draw on, they might say they've shown that they can do this race safely in the times that they're doing them, you know. What would be your response, I guess, to the concern that it would make the race too easy, that it would like, hurt its reputation as being such a tough sled dog race.

[Jeff King]

I'd ask them if they thought that was the case with the 24 hour break and why at one point there was no limit on the number of dogs. We have to think of the big picture, not one or two teams that can pull it off. I still think whatever team would win the race without this rule. I think Jesse Holmes would have won last year's race under these rules, but more people would have finished and there would have been less expense and hopefully we'd have been able to spot whatever the issue was with the dog that died in last year's race. So, you know, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done.

[Casey Grove]

Given that you've made these recommendations in the Anchorage Daily News, why not take that directly to the Iditarod. Or is it a case of like they haven't been receptive to this already?

[Jeff King]

I sent this proposal to the Board of Directors and the Rule committee in April. This past April I confirmed it was received and to date I have not had a response.

[Casey Grove]

That was Jeff King, a dog musher based in Denali who has won the Iditarod Trail slide dog race four times in 30 attempts. You can find his opinion piece recommending changes to the [e-mail] the Iditarod did not respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday. At the historic Five Finger Lighthouse in southeast Alaska, researchers have been recording the mysterious thrumming sounds of humpback whales. KFSK's Taylor Heckert traveled out to the lighthouse to learn more about how these under researched sounds could tell us more about whale behavior.

[Janet Shen]

In the shadow of a tall, white boxy lighthouse friend, Sharp is fiddling with a microphone recorder. Two long cables connect the recorder to hydrophones on either side of the small island. They're essentially underwater microphones and they let Sharp and his team listen to the sounds humpback whales make in the water. Nearby, another microphone is taped up on a railing. That's because the specific whale sounds they're looking to study can be heard both above and below the water.

[Kenrich Mock]

Our main target is the thrum, or the purr. It's kind of like analogous to the rumbles of African elephants.

[Janet Shen]

Five Finger Lighthouse is a great place to listen for these sounds. It's quietly situated between Stevens Passage and Frederick Sound, a spot where humpback whales like to hang out. Researchers can record from the island rather than from a noisy boat. These humpback whale thrums are at such a low frequency, they're at the very limit of what humans can hear.

[Kenrich Mock]

We know it's associated with an exhalation you can actually hear basically at close range. The thrum is like a raspberry. It's kind of like this really loud sort of guttural raspberry.

[Janet Shen]

Humans have been recording humpback whale sounds in and around Alaska for decades. The sounds they make while eating or breeding have taught researchers more about whale behavior. Sharp's been studying whales in Alaska since the 80s and says he's heard the thrumming sound many times throughout the years. But he says this sound hasn't gotten much attention from the scientific community.

[Kenrich Mock]

Yeah, as far as we can tell, they've never been described in the scientific literature and which is amazing because it's really, it's one of the most common sounds that you hear out here. Especially when there's plenty of whales around.

[Janet Shen]

Sharp says his team has learned the thrumming sounds usually happen during twilight or the evening, but they're not exactly sure why the whales make this noise, although.

[Kenrich Mock]

We don't know what the meaning is, if any of these signals. I mean, presumably there's tons of meaning, but so far we can't really say that with any confidence because we haven't, we haven't found any rule structure yet.

[Janet Shen]

Their research is in its second year. Sharp's month at the lighthouse ended mid September, and he says his team will analyze the audio they've collected in the field to learn more. Hopefully, this research will help humans understand whales and their behavior even better. At Five Finger Lighthouse, I'm Taylor Heckert.

[Casey Grove]

And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're [e-mail] and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Brian Venoit in Kodiak, Rachel Cassandra and Wesley early in Anchorage, Eric Stone in Yvonne Crumry in Juneau, Desiree Hagan in Kotzebue, and Taylor Heckert in Petersburg. Our audio engineer tonight is Dave Waldron. Madeline Rose is our producer and I'm Casey Grove. Good night. Alaska News Nightly was made possible by.

[Brian Venoit]

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, marking 48 years of commitment to operating the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline. Learn more at alyescapipeline. Com.

[Casey Grove]

Support for public radio comes from the communities we serve. Whether you give as an individual member or through your business, know that your contribution makes possible programming that informs, inspires and entertains. We thank you for the role you play in your public radio station.