Alaska is still in recession- and the state’s economic engine is significantly smaller than it was three years ago. But job losses have slowed.  So is there an end in sight for the first state recession in three decades? And what will it take to stage a real recovery?

HOST: Anne Hillman

GUESTS:

• Mouhcine Guettabi – economist at ISER
• Neal Fried – state economist
• Jon Bittner – executive director of the Small Business Development
  Center in Anchorage

Participate:

• Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast
• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
• Send email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

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As Girdwood’s Nicolas Petit, Norwegian Joar Leifseth Ulsom and defending champ Mitch Seavey lead a chase pack to Unalakleet and the Bering Sea coast, we talk to Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes about how the 2018 Iditarod shaped up like this and how that chase pack got so bunched up. Also on today’s Iditapod, we have a report from KCAW’s Katherine Rose about a way for Iditarod fans around the world to get connected to the race: fantasy mushing.

It’s Monday and the frontrunners in the 2018 Iditarod are on the Bering Sea coast, venturing out on the trail from Shaktoolik to Koyuk. Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes caught up with the top three — Nicolas Petit, Mitch Seavey, Joar Leifseth Ulsom — in Unalakleet on Sunday, as well as the legendary musher DeeDee Jonrowe, who scratched earlier in what she says was her last Iditarod after 36 total starts. We also hear from a Norwegian mushing reporter on four-time Iditarod champ Dallas Seavey’s foray into the Finnmarksløpet, Europe’s longest sled dog race.

The three mushers leading this year’s Iditarod pack passed through Unalakleet yesterday afternoon. The racers arrived in very differing shape, offering signs of what could be ahead in the last stretch toward Nome.

Mushers reached Unalakleet after crossing a long, historic portage route from Kaltag. It’s the stretch of the trail where the long, flat slog down the Yukon River finally relents and transforms into the fickle terrain and weather of the Bering Sea coast. When Nic Petit pulled in, the checkpoint is filled with onlookers as he quickly parks his dogs and dolls out a fatty meal that they start wolfing down.

“I’ve been feeding them so much, I can’t believe how much they’re eating,” Petit said. “They’ve been eating better than they ever have.”

Appetite is one of the most dependable measures of a team’s health and drive. Petit’s team looks strong, alert and energetic – indications they’ll be able to keep up their competitive pace. He rested for several hours in between checkpoints, but says its worth the commotion here at the edge of town to escape the afternoon’s warm sun and get the dogs more rest.

“On this race I’ve camped more than I normally do, and that’s nice because you’re on your own with your dogs,” Petit said. “But I wake up when I start shivering, and then I go again. So, checkpoint I can skip the shivering part.”

One of the liabilities being the front-runner is all the attention that it brings. Particularly in bigger communities like Unalakleet, where locals, tourists and members of the press mob mushers with cameras, autograph requests and questions. All at a time when they are sleep deprived and have to focus on their dog-care.

As Mitch Seavey pulled in a few hours later, his dogs look tired, with the leader meandering on the way toward the race checker. Seavey is having problems with his team. A few were sick, some have minor aches and one hasn’t been eating well. Seavey’s granddaughter and son Danny are on hand, and after making headway with some of his chores the elder Mitch starts running down a list of issues.

“All that deep snow and stuff, I think their back legs are just really tired,” Seavey said. “They’re willing to go fast when it doesn’t require a lot of pushing, but when it’s uphill or downhill nothing.”

Mushers did not have an easy time on the Yukon. Seavey is sore and short on rest. He says this year’s race has taken a toll.

“It’s hard to keep your attitude right, ya know,” Seavey said. “That river was so tough.”

Not long after, the third musher to arrive is Joar Ulsom. Both he and his team look good. The dogs are perky, and Ulsom’s mood is equally bright as he briskly pulls off Velcro booties.

“Oh, I’m probably sit down and have a good meal, I think,” Ulsom said.

Ulsom had spent a few hours camped out along the trail, but wanted to stop again to charge his team and wait out the few remaining hours of hot sunlight.

“It’s too hot, too slow going,” Ulsom said.

For a few minutes, all three of the front-runners were in the checkpoint at the same time, eyeing one another, trying to glean what the competition is like before hitting the last 261 miles of the trail.

After eating, Ulsom heads out at sunset, about an hour before Seavey, and in second position behind Petit.

The search continues for two missing climbers who did not return from their ascent last week of the Mendenhall Towers.

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Winter weather has made it difficult for rescuers to search for Ryan Johnson of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc of British Columbia on the Mendenhall Ice Field. They were due back last Wednesday, the same day a snow storm hit Juneau.

Johnson and Leclerc were dropped off March 4 near the towers and were due to return three days later via the West Glacier Trail.

Both are experienced climbers but neither carried a satellite phone or emergency beacon with them for the trip.

Family and friends last heard from them March 5.

The Alaska State Troopers were notified Wednesday when the pair did not arrive.

Searchers located some of their gear on the ice field, but poor weather prevented search efforts Saturday.

Troopers reported that the Alaska Army National Guard was able to launch a helicopter Sunday from Juneau with members of Juneau Mountain Rescue on board during a weather window.

The helicopter searched the south face of the towers, but did not locate any additional clues.

Juneau Mountain Rescue posted on Facebook shortly after 11 a.m Monday that another helicopter team is headed out to search for the missing climbers.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust is considering handing over control of nearly 2,000 acres of Cook Inlet land to Donlin Gold.

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Using a land agreement known as a mitigation offset, conserving land in Cook Inlet would give Donlin the right to disrupt wetlands hundreds of miles to the west at the mine site north of Crooked Creek. The mine would affect an estimated 2,800 acres of wetlands on the Upper Kuskokwim.

Under the proposed agreement, the Alaska Mental Health Trust would continue to own the land in Cook Inlet and maintain subsurface rights to it. The Trust would hold the land, totalling 1,933 acres, for up to a decade for an annual fee of $20,000 while Donlin tries to get its permits.

Once construction at the Donlin Gold site began, the agreement would bar any surface development on the conserved land, located near the village of Tyonek, for at least 99 years in exchange for a $1.5 million payment. The revenue would provide income for the Trust. Activities like hunting, fishing, and hiking could continue.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust is collecting public comment on the proposed agreement through April 12.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is now offering a third dose of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to Alaska residents who would like additional protection against mumps and who have received their second dose more than five years ago. In typical cases, Americans receive two doses as children.

Last summer health providers in Alaska reported an uptick in cases of mumps in Anchorage. The viral illness typically causes fever, headaches and swollen salivary glands and can cause serious health complications. In the five previous years, Alaska averaged less than one case of mumps per year. Since May, the state has received reports of 271 confirmed and probable cases.

Southwest Alaska has not seen a case of mumps during this outbreak. However, the DHSS cautioned in a public health advisory it issued at the end of February that the outbreak is not slowing and that cases are appearing in communities outside Anchorage.

“It’s good to remember that Alaska is not the only state in the US experiencing a mumps outbreak,” Amanda Tiffany, an epidemiologist with the Alaska Division of Public in Health, said. “Over 4,900 mumps infections were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 48 states and the District of Columbia in 2017. We know that Alaskans are very mobile, traveling within Alaska and from Alaska to the Lower 48 and Hawaii.”

Risk of exposure, Tiffany explained, is not specifically associated with travel to one place, like Anchorage. The spread of the mumps is also exacerbated by the illness’s long incubation period, 12 to 25 days.

“Vaccination is the best way to prevent infection with the mumps virus. It’s important to know the signs and symptoms of mumps and to see a doctor if you start experiencing symptoms. The doctor will tell you to self-isolate for 5 days after symptoms start; this is really important to stop the spread of the virus. This does mean staying at home and away from public places and members of your family – no work, school, church, social activities,” Tiffany said.

In order to slow the spread of the virus, a state-supplied third dose of MMR is available to Alaska residents, provided it has been five years since their second MMR dose and they are either covered by Alaska Medicaid, insured by a carrier that participates in Alaska Vaccine Assessment Program or whose medical provider has opted-in to AVAP for uninsured adults.

As Alaskans decide whether to receive a third dose of the vaccine, Tiffany suggested they consider a couple of factors.

“One, how long has it been since your last MMR? We know that immunity to mumps wanes over time, the more time that has passed since your second dose of MMR the less immunity you may have if you’re exposed to the virus,” Tiffany said. “Two, are you at risk for exposure to the virus?”

In addition to vaccination, Tiffany said hand washing is with warm and soapy water is a simple tool for helping prevent the spread of disease, including mumps.

Andrew Kurka’s first place finish in the men’s downhill race on Friday was the first medal ever for an Alaskan athlete at the Winter Paralympic Games.

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“The fact that I came out here and I put down the very first Paralympic medal for Alaska, my home state, and the fact that it’s gold, to me is a fantastic feeling,” Kurka said in a release by Team USA.

Kurka started dreaming of the Olympics when he was just eight years old.

“I was an avid wrestler– always competing, always being active,” Kurka explained.

Kurka grew up in Palmer and put everything he had into wrestling. He was a six-time state wrestling champion by the time he was a teenager.

But then, at 13, his Olympic dreams came crashing down. Kurka was out on a fishing trip at Jim Creek when his 4-wheeler flipped and landed on top of him.

Kurka broke his back and was paralyzed from the waist down. He said that’s when a physical therapist encouraged him to try Paralympic skiing.

“I loved it and I dedicated everything to it. I knew I wanted to be the best skier in the world,” Kurka said.

Kurka qualified for the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia when he was 22 years old.

But then, another accident. In his first downhill training run in Sochi, Kurka crashed and broke his back again.

“My Sochi experience– my very first Paralympic experience [and] the chance for me to really prove myself and make all my dreams come from– definitely fell short when I broke my back in the first downhill training run,” Kurka said.

Kurka called the experience a black cloud. He said it hung over him for years. But he went to more physical therapy and got back on the ski slopes.

Just last year, Kurka won gold in downhill at the World Championships Italy.

“Winning my very first world championship was a huge honor,” Kurka said. “It felt like a bit of the weight from Sochi had been lifted off my shoulders.”

So it’s no surprise that Kurka came to the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea with a medal on his mind.

After nearly two decades, Kurka’s dream came true on Friday. The wrestler turned skier won gold in the men’s downhill, earning the first medal ever from the Winter Paralympic Games for his home state of Alaska.

“This right here is redemption,” Kurka said in the Team USA statement. “I wouldn’t change Sochi. I wouldn’t change anything that’s happened throughout my life. It’s all a journey and this is my journey to gold.”

And Kurka’s journey didn’t stop with gold. The next day, Kurka won silver in the super giant slalom, or super-G, on Saturday.

Kurka plans to compete in two more events at the Paralympic Games– the men’s super combined super-G on Tuesday and giant slalom on Wednesday.

There’s been a shakeup along the Iditarod trail. Bad weather along the coast earlier today hampered the race’s front runners. Nicholas Petit, who was the first out of Unalakleet Sunday evening, was overtaken by Joar Ulsom on the way into Koyuk. Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes is on the line to help break down what’s happening.

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Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

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House passes fast-track bill to fund Medicaid, ferries

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

The House today passed an extra funding bill to allow the state to make Medicaid payments to hospitals and the Alaska Marine Highway System to operate through the spring.

Tariffs already boosting Alaska aluminum prices

Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau

How will President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs affect Alaska? In at least one sector, the impacts are real.

To disrupt land in Upper Kuskokwim, Donlin Gold may preserve land by Cook Inlet

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

The Alaska Mental Health Trust is considering handing over control of nearly 2,000 acres of Cook Inlet land to Donlin Gold.

Weather hampers ongoing search for missing Mendenhall climbers

Adelyn Baxter, KTOO – Juneau

The search continues for two missing climbers who did not return from their ascent of the Mendenhall Towers last week. Winter weather has made it difficult for rescuers to search for Ryan Johnson of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc of British Columbia on the Mendenhall Ice Field.

Petit lead disappears as Ulsom overtakes on coast

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

There’s been a shakeup along the Iditarod trail. Bad weather along the coast earlier today hampered the race’s front runners.

Alaskan skier wins gold, silver medals at Paralympic Games

Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Andrew Kurka’s first place finish in the men’s downhill race on Friday was the first medal ever for an Alaskan athlete at the Winter Paralympic Games.

Governor Walker asks feds to declare Pacific cod disaster

Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak

Governor Bill Walker and Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott signed a letter last week asking the federal government to declare the 2018 Pacific Cod Fishery in the Gulf of Alaska a disaster.

Ferry reform effort gets a legislative boost

Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau

The effort to reform the Alaska Marine Highway System took a step forward Thursday. The House Transportation Committee voted to instruct staff to draft legislation that would establish a public corporation to take over the system. But it’s a long way from a done deal.

Cama-i 2018 honors its roots

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

In the 1980s, a gathering of a few traditional village dance groups in Bethel started what may now be the world’s largest gathering of Alaska Native dancers: the Cama-i Dance Festival.

Ask a Climatologist: A winter of warm temps and decent snow

Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

For climatological winter, Alaska was about seven degrees above normal.

The House Monday passed an extra funding bill to allow the state to make Medicaid payments to hospitals and the Alaska Marine Highway System to operate through the spring.

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House Bill 321 is known as the “fast-track supplemental.”

It would appropriate $110 million. That includes $45 million the House added in an amendment Monday to pay for Medicaid. Hospital advocates have expressed concern that some small hospitals wouldn’t be able to pay their bills if the Legislature doesn’t pass the Medicaid funding.

Homer Republican Rep. Paul Seaton said the state made a commitment to those providers.

“That’s why this $45 million is in the budget now,” Seaton said, who caucuses with mostly Democratic majority. “And that is, you know, probably our responsibility, if we have statutory requirements that providers provide services, that we make the payments.”

Eagle River Republican Lora Reinbold, who is in the Republican minority caucus, opposed the amendment to fund Medicaid and the overall bill. She noted the large number of Alaskans enrolled in Medicaid. There are 200,000 in Medicaid and Denali KidCare.

“Now they’re dependent on a government that is growing out of control,” she said. “We have a recession going on and every dollar that we spend – every single dollar that we spend, whether it’s federal or state dollars – comes out of the private sector. And a lot of the private sector people can’t afford health insurance.”

The bill also includes $24 million for the ferry system and $18 million for the Department of Corrections.

The House voted 32 to 7 on the bill. All of the no votes were cast by representatives from Matanuska-Susitna Borough or Eagle River. It now heads to the Senate.

Currently, the top of the Iditarod leader-board is filled out with younger mushers, most of them in their 20s and 30s — the race’s up-and-comers.

Mitch Seavey is the only former champion among the top-20 teams.

Most of the sport’s titans are way further back, if they’re still running at all.

Many esteemed members of mushing’s old guard are content to watch a new generation inherit the mantel.

Usually along the trail, Jeff King has a giant tub of animal crackers. But right now in Unalakleet, surrounded by bags of snacks, he’s liberally enjoying a bag of candy.

“I’m eating a couple of peanut butter cups by Reese’s, before I go up to the community center,” King said.

King has won the Iditarod four times, among innumerable other distinctions in a sport he’s helped define for decades. But his drive to win is diminished.

“My motto has been, ‘I’m gonna get there as fast as I can without rushing,’” King said. “I just need sleep now I didn’t used to need, or at least I’m not willing to go without to keep up with these yayhoo’s. I’m not physically up to it.”

As he watches younger mushers stress over minutes lost in their scramble to win, King doesn’t feel envy.

Instead, it’s causing him to re-examine a notorious reputation for competitiveness that came at the expense of much else.

“There’s even part of me on the Yukon watching these guys go, why are you and why did I used to feel so compelled to get my dogs to Nome faster than your dogs,” King said. Who really gives a rip?”

Instead, King is approaching the race more philosophically, and compares racing his dog-team a thousand miles to his mother growing heirloom tomatoes.

“You don’t rush it. You plant it, you nurture it, you care for it, and then you monitor the fruit,” King said. “In this case the fruit is the energy and athleticism of the dogs. But you don’t pick the fruit until its ready.”

What King means is that he isn’t going to push his dogs or himself for the sake of race position.

King sang a similar tune last year when, early in the race, he was solidly in the middle of the pack, yet sprinted down the coast and seized 11th place.

Though King has kept a comfortable pace this year, he’s looking forward to speeding down the next few hundred miles. He insists it has nothing to do with winning. It’s just fun to do when you’ve got a gang-line full of ripe tomatoes.

A single spot ahead of King is one of his main competitive rivals: Martin Buser, a four-time champion. He’s just finished a baggie of muktuk given to him as a gift, and is on the way inside for a nap.

“Hahahaha. It wasn’t any faster than the Yukon,” Buser said, chuckling while describing his slog over the portage into Unalakleet. “Everything feels like going in slow motion this year.”

Buser is upbeat, but there are notes of melancholy. He’s had a little bit of fun this year, but after years of jockeying for first place he says its frustrating to have a good team, solid strategy, and familiar routines, yet still be just barely in the top 30.

“It’s just part of the game,” Buser said.” One of the trials and tribulations we have to overcome.”

Buser and King haven’t said anything about not running future Iditarods.

But that isn’t the case for DeeDee Jonrowe, one of mushing’s most vibrant celebrities. She announced a while back that she’d be retiring from competition, then scratched early in this year’s race.

“My personal health had gotten to the point where dog care could possibly be compromised,”Jonrowe said. “That’s not who I am, that’s not who I want to be. And quite frankly I think I could have been a burden.”

Jonrowe flew to Unalakleet to stay with friends, greet peers at the checkpoint, and start enjoying the race from a new vantage point.

“I thought it could possibly be kind of sad, wishing I was on a team,” Jonrowe said. “It is not. It feels good on this end.”

Jonrowe said she’d like to spend the next few Iditarods as a volunteer at the checkpoint in Unalakleet.

There was a major shakeup at the front of the 2018 Iditarod on Monday, when Joar Leifseth Ulsom slipped past previous leader Nicolas Petit while Petit lost the trail on the Bering Sea coast between Shaktoolik and Koyuk. The table is now set for Ulsom, first to White Mountain and only 77 miles from the finish in Nome, to win his first Iditarod championship and the first for a Norwegian — or anybody else not originally from the U.S. — since 2005. But, as we hear in this episode, a lead and a long rest at White Mountain hasn’t always translated to a win. Meantime, many of mushing’s old guard are happy to pass the mantle to the next generation of elite mushers (not including defending champ Mitch Seavey, still mushing near the front in third place).

The federal agency responsible for studying the environmental impact of the Alaska LNG project has released a timeline for completing that review.

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced on Tuesday, March 13, that it planned to release a draft of the final Environmental Impact Statement in about a year.

If the federal commission sticks to that schedule, they could authorize the project as early as March of 2020.

The state was hoping to get through that permitting process by 2019 and begin construction.

Still, Alaska Gasline Development Corporation President Keith Meyer said in a press release that the schedule will keep the gas export project on track to come online by 2025.

The state corporation is still looking for customers for Alaska’s gas and partners to help finance the $45 billion project.

In at least one sector in Alaska, the impacts of President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs are real.

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Homer’s Bay Weld Boats makes custom aluminum watercraft, from 60-foot tenders to 22-foot seine skiffs.

General manager Eric Engebretsen has been keeping an eye on plans for a 10-percent tariff on imported aluminum.

He’s not alone.

“The supply chain heard this was potentially going to happen back in early January and the whole marine aluminum supply chain started to adjust itself and prepare itself for this,” Engebretsen said.

Engebretsen’s company buys sheet aluminum from a local supplier. He said his understanding is that it’s manufactured in the United States.

But that hasn’t made any difference.

Bay Weld and other aluminum users started buying up supplies in advance of the announcement.

“We’ve seen over 35 percent and in some cases 50 to 60 percent increase in our pricing structure of purchasing aluminum,” Engebretsen said.

The second-generation business owner hopes the hikes will level out soon, but Engebretsen’s not counting on it. He said that will increase prices on the 12 to 18 custom boats his up to 32 employees make in a year.

Alaska has a number of other aluminum boatbuilders.

Other businesses make or repair steel ships, including Vigor Marine, which runs the Ketchikan Shipyard, where state ferries have much of their work done, including rusty steel replacement.

Trump’s imported steel tariff is 25 percent.

The state Department of Transportation includes the ferry system.

“DOT doesn’t expect the tariffs will impact our state transportation,” spokeswoman Aurah Landeau said. “DOT doesn’t purchase foreign steel because we operate under the Buy America program.”

Beyond shipbuilding, Alaska businesses fabricate fuel tanks and other goods out of the embargoed metals. But not a lot.

“We tend to have a pretty small manufacturing industry in Alaska,” state economist Karinne Wiebold said.

Wiebold said the tariffs could still drive up prices which will affect stores, warehouses and other sellers. She said their response could shake up sectors of our economy.

“If the cost of the final product goes up, the demand may fall as consumers either cut back on that product or substitute for something that (has) a comparably lower cost,” Wiebold said.

That’s also the case for steel and aluminum used in bridges, buildings, ports, pipelines and other public projects. And overall, many parts of Alaska’s construction industry have slowed down.

“Road construction, airport construction, that’s still very healthy and it’s been under the Buy America Act for years,” John MacKinnon, executive director of the Alaska Chapter of Associated General Contractors, said.

Steel’s role in construction is pretty obvious. But MacKinnon said many people aren’t aware of how much aluminum is used.

“On the building side, you’ve got a lot of aluminum because all the windows, storefronts and that sort of thing are aluminum,” MacKinnon said. “The structure is usually steel or concrete. And the highway projects, road projects, most of your signage and there’s other components in there, are aluminum.”

MacKinnon said prices change for a variety of reasons. Tariffs, such as Trump’s, are only one type of variable in his industry.

“Will it make much difference? Not from the practices that we’ve been going on for the last few years,” MacKinnon said.

Back at Homer’s Bay Weld Boats, Engebretsen said some in the business are scratching their heads.

“There was a political layer to this that really wasn’t driven by the industry itself,” he said. “The industry didn’t ask for the aluminum pricing to be adjusted. It was kind of something that was forced on us and now here we are,” Engebretsen said.

Engebretsen is already considered how much he’ll have to raise his prices.

It could be 5 to 10 percent, which is not out of line with other adjustments for inflation, Engebretsen said.

“But it’s also a fairly high-dollar product. I suspect it will have an impact,” Engebretsen said. “But we just don’t know yet.”

The president has granted exemptions for metal imports from Canada and Mexico, which could lessen some of the price hikes.

The exemptions are only temporary, and they’re dependent on negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott signed a letter last week asking the federal government to declare the 2018 Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska a disaster. If the fishery is declared a federal disaster, it’s eligible for relief funds, although where the money would go is unclear at this point in the process.

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Last year, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to decrease the 2018 Pacific cod quota in the Gulf by 80 percent in response to a decline in stock. Fishing communities geared up for long-term consequences.

The Kodiak Island Borough and City of Kodiak were among those to send a letter of support for a disaster declaration at a state level.

City Councilman John Whiddon, who co-chairs the borough and city’s Fisheries Work Group, says it’s too soon to tell what the decline means for the community. He says they may know more after the cod season wraps up and tax numbers come in.

“So, once we start to collate that, and if this is indeed a multiyear impact, then we’ll start to put together better information to forward onto the governor, and we’ll have more specific requests as to the general disaster declaration, so this is just the first stage I think in what’s gonna be a multi-year process,” Whiddon said.

This’ll be the second fishery disaster the Gulf has gone through in recent years. The first was for the 2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon season, which the state requested after the season ended.

The federal government declared that fishery a disaster at the beginning of last year. And, in February, the state learned the pink salmon season would be one of nine fisheries to share $200 million in relief funds. That’s much less than the $150 million senators requested for Alaska alone.

Barbara Blake, senior advisor to Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, says the pacific cod declaration is different in that the state is requesting it before the season is over, but the process for securing funds is similar.

Blake says the letter will go to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and, if the declaration goes through, the federal government will work with the state to make an appropriation request.

“How we’ve seen this come about in the past is that that request goes in along with other natural disasters, and that’s usually how we end up getting the appropriations for that is that they roll it into natural disasters like hurricane relief and things of that nature,” Blake said.

That’s how the 2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fisheries won funding. It’s unclear if the timeline for this declaration will be comparable.

The effort to reform the Alaska Marine Highway System took a step forward Thursday.

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The House Transportation Committee voted to instruct staff to draft legislation that would establish a public corporation to take over the system. But it’s a long way from a done deal.

The ferries are run by the state Department of Transportation.

The plan would shift control to an independent board that could make its own decisions about labor contracts, fares and other parts of the operation.

It would also forward-fund the system, allowing for better schedule planning.

During the committee meeting, Anchorage Republican Rep. Chuck Kopp said a seven-member board of experts would provide better oversight than 60 ever-changing members of the Legislature.

“Imagine if we were trying run the Anchorage International Airport as a legislature,” Kopp said. “It would be a disaster. But it’s the No. 4 air cargo airport in the world and entirely successful.”

Several other members of the House Transportation Committee also expressed support at the hearing.

Big Lake Republican Rep. Mark Neuman is intrigued by the marine highway reform plan, but he’s not ready to ask for a bill.

“There’s still a lot of questions to be answered and this is something that’s going to take massaging of a couple years to work through,” Neuman said. “I can understand how that can work, let alone trying to figure out how we’re going to come up with a couple hundred million dollars for a fund.”

The committee voted 5-2 in favor of writing a reform bill, which will be discussed and modified at future meetings.

Two other ferry reform bills, addressing funding and ports, have already been introduced, but haven’t had a hearing.

Action will likely wait until the next legislative session.

The plan came out of a task force set up by the state and the Southeast Conference, the regional development organization that pushed for the ferry system’s creation more than 50 years ago.

Reform would create a more flexible system that could more quickly respond to problems, task force consultant Susan Bell of the McDowell Group told lawmakers.

“That financial expertise that the board would lend to guide the organization has value,” Bell said. “By maintaining the Alaska Marine Highway as a public corporation, it maintains some of the existing strengths, but it addresses some of the existing limitations.”

The reform effort is in response to large cuts in state funding, which have shrunk the number of ships and sailings.

While the impetus has come from Southeast, the initiative includes leaders from Southcentral and Southwest communities where ferries also sail.

Coinciding with the Iditarod sled dog race, Unalakleet issued an emergency ordinance to address loose dogs running free around the community.

Many residents complained about a problem, and not everyone is happy with the solution:

Interim City Manager Davida Hanson explained why the City Council voted in January, before the 2018 Iditarod began, to allow local law enforcement to catch loose dogs with or without collars.

“One of the reasons that the city decided to do an emergency ordinance was because there were so many loose dogs in town and also because Iditarod was going to be coming through,” Hanson said. “With the problem we were having, we didn’t want that to affect Iditarod, and we didn’t want to have loose dogs running around during Iditarod, with all the dog mushers coming through.”

Another concern, according to Hanson, was that the growing population of foxes in the area could carry a risk of rabies and potentially infect one of these loose dogs, which would be even more of a concern to deal with.

If dogs with collars are found, then they are held in a public dog pen for 24 hours, where their owners can pick up the dogs for a fine of $50.

Hanson said the city then contacts the pet owner and allows them time to get their pets, but if the 24 hours is up or the dog is found without a collar, then something more drastic happens.

“If the dogs don’t have a collar on them, then we are assuming that the dog doesn’t belong to anybody, and can be, according to the ordinance, all uncollared dogs will be caught and dispatched immediately in a humane manner,” Hanson said.

According to Hanson, it’s up to the Unalakleet police department to determine what qualifies as a humane way to dispatch un-collared dogs.

Local resident Charaleigh (Chara) Blatchford said their methods have not been exactly humane.

“I have had pets before that I’ve never collared, we don’t believe in tying our pets up,” Blatchford said. “Mom had let the dog out to use the bathroom, tried to call him back in, within a 20-minute period, and the dog never came back, so we figured he was just running around, he’d be fine, it has happened before.”

The next day after her dog didn’t return, Blatchford found her pet had been dispatched or shot and disposed of, then left at the community dump.

Blatchford knows of at least two local family’s dogs, including her own pet, who have been shot and killed in Unalakleet.

Blatchford would like to prevent that from happening to more pet owners in the community.

“I think that they could have kept putting the dogs inside the kennels, with or without a collar. I don’t understand the difference between the two,” Blatchford said. “It’s a small enough community where you know who everyone’s pets are, and just simply asking somebody if you don’t know, somebody in the neighborhood is going to know.”

To people like Blatchford, who have found their pets deceased in the local dump, Hanson said the city of Unalakleet apologizes, but the local government felt it needed to do something to control the number of untethered dogs.

“It seems to be working, and we hope that the community will continue to keep their dogs tied up,” Hanson said. “If you are out walking your dog, walk it with a leash. And if this is your pet and you don’t want something to happen to it, then everybody should take care of their pets.”

The Unalakleet City Council will meet in tonight, and Hanson said the loose dog issue is on the agenda.

This emergency ordinance is set to expire nine days from now, on March 22, after all the Iditarod mushers have come and gone.

Iditarod musher Joar Ulsom was the first to arrive at the checkpoint in White Mountain this morning, potentially setting him up to be the first into Nome sometime overnight.

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Ulsom arrived just before 8 am, three-and-half-hours ahead of Nicolas Petit. The arrival kicked off an 8-hour mandatory hold before mushers can take off for the last 77 miles to Nome.

Bad weather along the coast has made it difficult for media and support crews to reach some coastal checkpoints over the last few days. Ulsom told a camera crew from the Iditarod Insider that it was slow going when he left the checkpoint of Koyuk, and he had to walk along the sled.

But then, it got better:

“And then we went over the mountain and we were really rolling,” Ulsom said. “I decided to keep them going since we were doing so good. We had a trouble free trip here. It was awesome.”

Ulsom gained his lead Monday morning when the front-runner, Nicholas Petit, strayed off course on the sea ice between Shaktoolik and Koyuk on the Bering Sea Coast.

Petit accidentally veered east towards shore, then doubled back to re-find the marked trail. At the time, the area was facing strong northerly winds and a ground storm that severely reduced visibility.

Petit’s error created a window for Ulsom, who passed him and reached Koyuk first — taking away a lead many thought Petit had locked in.

Ulsom’s runtime between the two communities was a little over eight hours. Petit’s, by contrast, was more than 13. A few hours later, Mitch Seavey arrived in Koyuk, posting a 12-hour run time.

There were two scratches along the trail today. Wade Marrs stopped his race in Koyuk when his dogs refused to leave the checkpoint and rookie Tom Schonberger scratched along the trail between Grayling and Iditarod.

As the mushers race to Nome, their progress is tracked in various elementary school classrooms. It’s also tracked in the halls of the U.S. Senate. One hallway, to be specific. Here’s the scene from just outside Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s door in the Hart Office Building.

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Just after lunch, a crowd had gathered in the hallway leading to the offices of Murkowski and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. Right between their doors, Murkowski staffers have put a map of the Iditarod Trail. It’s mounted on poster board, sitting on an easel.

A group from Chicago didn’t know what to make of this map, with its neon arrows and a leaderboard with unfamiliar names. They were with the National Association of Postal Supervisors, waiting to meet with Duckworth. Most said they’d never heard of the Iditarod.

But after a little explanation, the postal supervisors were intrigued. They had questions about dog care, and how the mushers feed their dogs on the trail. They pondered the board, showing Norwegian Joar Ulsom was ahead in Alaska’s Last Great Race.

“How would you let someone come in from Norway? How does that happen?” one asked.

“Yeah,” another said. “How does that happen?”

The drama of how Ulsom claimed the lead took place Monday, on the Bering Sea ice. And right about then, a few thousand miles away, Murkowski staffer Devin O’Brien took the poster board down to update it.

O’Brien logged on to Iditarod.com and pulled up the GPS tracker. She noticed something curious. It looked like Nic Petit of Girdwood had hardly moved since the last update. He was No. 1 on the Iditarod leader board at that moment, but the GPS suggested a different story.

“It looks like Joar is actually ahead,” O’Brien said. “So I’ll move his arrow on our map ahead along the route.”

O’Brien would soon learn this was a pivotal moment in Iditarod 2018, when Petit had gone off-course and had to backtrack, giving the lead to the Norwegian.

Murkowski Press Secretary Hannah Ray said the tracking map builds camaraderie in the office, where much of the staff is Alaskan.

“Even other offices are asking us about it. ‘Well, have you updated it today? What are the standings?'” Ray said. “People who probably didn’t know anything about the Iditarod before this was out are buzzing about it.”

Ray said she’s talked to people who only know the story of the 1925 serum run to Nome through the animated movie “Balto.”

“I had someone say they had no idea that was a true story,” Ray said. “So to hear them coming to ask about Alaska history is really cool.”

Murkowski’s office intends to keep the map up until the last musher reaches Nome.