Senators propose spending limit to curb future sprees
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
The amount allowed under the constitutional limit has grown so much that the state is nowhere near it.
Lawmakers might have more control over the Permanent Fund than they think
Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
One senator’s lawsuit over PFDs changed the way the Permanent Fund managers can use investment earnings.
Grand jury indicts 13 Fairbanks Correctional Center inmates for August jail riot, standoff
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
A Fairbanks grand jury has indicted 13 Fairbanks Correctional Center inmates on charges of rioting and criminal mischief related to an August 17th riot at the jail.
Walker hopeful plan to pay off oil tax credit debt with bonds will pass this session
Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
What the state owes in tax credit payouts varies wildly from year to year. By paying off the tax credit debt with bonds, the repayment rate would theoretically become predictable.
Riled: Young keeps true to form
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.
At the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Don Young has a reputation for having a short fuse. He did nothing to dispel that notoriety at a hearing Thursday, where he seemed to let Democrats get under his skin.
Wrangell declares water emergency
June Leffler, KSTK – Wrangell
City officials say the Southeast community has about one month of supply left. They’re asking residents to cut way back on use.
Dog dies at Koyuk checkpoint
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
A dog has died at a checkpoint along the Iditarod trail.
Fishermen’s network creates map of ocean floor to reduce bycatch
Emily Kwong, KCAW – Sitka
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association is nearing completion of a bathymetric database to help fishermen in the Fishery Conservation Network (FCN) meet quota and reduce bycatch.
Tribes plow longest Kuskokwim ice road ever
Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel
The Kuskokwim River now has its longest ice road ever in a year when people thought there might not be any ice road at all. The graded, marked road stretches 200 miles from Bethel upstream to Crooked Creek.
Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, speaks in April 2017. Micciche supports a bill to impose a limit on state government spending. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
The Alaska Senate is considering a bill intended to limit how much the state government spends.
When oil prices soared in 2008, so did Alaska’s state spending. Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche said that if the state had the limit he supports back then, it would have spent less — and it would have another $15 billion in savings.
“It’s not too late to make the changes in the future that we need to make, to ensure we don’t put ourselves in the same position that we’re in today,” Micciche said.
Alaska does have a limit on spending in its state constitution. But the amount allowed under the constitutional limit has grown so much that the state is nowhere near it.
Under Senate Bill 196, spending on state government departments couldn’t be more than $4.1 billion in the fiscal year starting next year. That’s a little more than the amount that Gov. Bill Walker proposed for the year starting this July.
The limit would make a few exceptions. State payments to increase the Alaska Permanent Fund, permanent fund dividends and capital spending wouldn’t count toward the limit. And payments that the state is obligated to make to pay off debts also would be excluded.
The limit would grow based on inflation.
Anchorage Republican Sen. Natasha von Imhof said the spending cap would provide stability.
“We can set something in place that people can predict for several years in the future and budget for,” von Imhof said. “And I think that just provides confidence. It provides predictability. And that is what we need for a future economic growth and investment.”
Former Division of Water Director Michelle Hale opposed the bill.
Hale said applying the limit could force cuts to state services.
“Spending caps and arbitrary cuts are blunt tools. They’re blind,” Hale said. “If we say we have to cut by another $100 million this year and turn that over to the agencies to do, basically the Legislature is abrogating its responsibility to the state and the people of the state of Alaska.”
The Senate Finance Committee discussed the bill Thursday and plans to consider it again Friday.
Members of Alaska State Troopers and Fairbanks police tactical units stand down outside Fairbanks Correctional Center after inmates involved in the Aug. 17 riot surrendered. (Eric Engman/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
A Fairbanks grand jury has indicted 13 Fairbanks Correctional Center inmates on charges of rioting and criminal mischief related to an August 17th riot at the jail. The inmates took over a part of the jail for about an hour and a half before surrendering after they were tear-gassed by members of two tactical police units that were called in.
When the 13 inmates took over the A Wing of Fairbanks Correctional Center on August 17th, the jail was locked down and Wilbur Street, which leads to the facility, was closed-off. Alaska State Troopers and Fairbanks police helped Corrections staff secure the area, and both Troopers and city police called in tactical-response units. They ordered the inmates to surrender, and the prisoners responded by breaking windows and pouring slippery soap on the floors in anticipation of the officers charging in. But after police fired a volley of tear gas, the inmates surrendered.
Some of the 13 indicted inmates have lengthy criminal records that include convictions for violent offenses, and whose cases have now been reopened as a result of their roles in the riot.
They include 23-year-old Tevyn Alonza Davis, of Fairbanks, who’s charged with two counts each of first- and second-degree murder, in connection with shootings at a south side nightclub that left one man dead and another wounded in 2016.
And 24-year-old Dametrey Jaymes Rice, of Fairbanks, who’s charged with kidnapping, assault and armed robbery related a home invasion last Christmas, in which one man was pistol-whipped and another held at gunpoint.
Fairbanks District Attorney Gregg Olson was traveling today and unavailable to talk about the case.
Spokespersons for the state Department of Corrections and Alaska State Troopers didn’t respond to queries by deadline, and Fairbanks Police declined to comment.
List of the indicted inmates released Thursday by Alaska State Troopers:
Jerald Burton Jr., 24; Patrick Burton-Hill, 24; Tevyn Davis, 23; Robert Gentleman III, 39; Anthony Heard, 41; Marcus Howard, 22; Donovan Huntington, 34; Hoe Kim, 31; Nicholas Pierce, 24; Dametrey Rice, 24; R.J. Seymour, 20; Eli Simpson, 22; Justin West, 26.
The bottom of the ocean as complex as the topography of land. Fishermen with good maps can more precisely target a species. In 2009, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association began a comprehensive mapping project to combine fishermen’s’ data with state and federal data. (Photo from ALFA)
They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but what about a rising data set? The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association is nearing completion of a bathymetric map to help local fishermen catch more efficiently. The map was made possible through a network of small boat fishermen that have spent the past decade gathering data on the bottom of the sea floor.
Stephen Rhoads was exploring the open ocean with the click of a mouse.
“This is a great image of how good our data is getting,” Rhoads told a group of fellow fishermen.
During a workshop earlier this month, Rhoads demonstrated the latest version of a bathymetric map that details the rise and fall of the ocean floor. Sitka Sound is presented in vivid detail.
“To the west of that is state data and to the east of that is our user data. We’re getting pretty close on the shape of the bottom,” Rhoads added.
Fishermen have long used soundings to visualize in their mind what the seafloor looks like and target species known to gather near certain topographical features. With these maps, Rhoads is able to home in on those locations more precisely.
Rhoads toggles with a slider, which paints the map with colors to represent different depths.
“Most of the time when I’m fishing, I use the discrete mode because my brain gets stuck in,” Rhoads said. “Fish in the green. That’s where they’re at.’”
The fishermen in the room are more than the future users of this product. They were its data scientists too, pinging the seafloor with echo sounds for years while out fishing. At the end of every season, the Fishery Conservation Network (FCN) sent their data to the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. Like pieces of a puzzle, ALFA reconciled the local data set with federal and state maps, working in concert with a software company called Nobletec TimeZero.
Executive Director Linda Behnken said the result is one of the most complex bathymetric databases on the eastern side of the Gulf of Alaska.
“140 million data points have been contributed. It’s been a lot of years getting to this point. We’re really excited about the level of detail we have now and the quality of the maps,” Behnken said.
ALFA is now ready to share these maps with the fishermen who helped make them. The .xyz file can be run on a $1000-value computer that supports the Nobletec software. Fishermen are invited to contribute to and clean-up the data set while out on the water.
The goal of all of the bathymetry project is to make Sitka’s small boat fleet more competitive and efficient. Behnken said the project was born out of a desire to help the fleet target the fish they want and avoid the fish they don’t.
“For example, halibut tend to be hard bottom areas rather than sandier, muddy bottom. But if you get into hard bottom with too many pinnacles, then you get too many rockfish,” Behnken explained.
In addition to reducing bycatch, Behnken hopes the maps will help fishermen avoid areas that host sensitive species, like corals and sponge, and protect their gear.
Fishermen can start downloading the database on March 15th. The maps are available to all ALFA members in good standing at $600 or $250 with three year annual renewal. The Nobletec software costs $3000. All participating fishermen will sign user agreements pledging not to share the data outside of the network.
The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat annual board meeting at the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska in March 2018. Governor Walker and Lt. Governor Mallott were also in attendance. The organization consists of many of the Iñupiat leadership organizations of the North Slope, and the Governor has been invited to fill an advisory role on the board. (Credit: Brice Habeger, Office of the Governor)
In a place like the Alaskan Arctic, local issues often unfold on a national, or even international scale. Oil companies, the state, the federal government, environmental groups — they all have something that they want to see happen there.
So, how do the wants of local people get heard? And who gets to speak for them?
There’s a new organization that says the Iñupiat of the North Slope will be stronger if they speak as one.
The group is called Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, or VOICE. It’s a nonprofit, and gets its funding from the North Slope Borough and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. Their goal is to bring together the leaders of the region to weigh in on policies that affect their communities.
John Hopson, Jr. is the mayor of the village of Wainwright and vice chairman of VOICE.
“Whether it’s development, whether it’s subsistence rights, we want to be heard in our fashion, in our manner,” Hopson said in a promotional video on their website. “Not someone who lives in Washington D.C. telling us what’s right and what’s wrong for us.”
Leaders like Hopson from the local governments, tribal councils and Native corporations say they kept hearing outsiders — like politicians in Washington, D.C., and environmental groups — talking on a national stage about their local issues. And some of those leaders felt that their groups would be better heard on that national stage if they unified.
Speaking at a Resource Development Council conference last November, VOICE Chairman Rex A. Rock Sr. described the idea for the group this way: “To allow us, as many different individual organizations with unique purposes and goals to come together, to finally speak with one voice.” Rock is also the President and CEO of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.
Since VOICE was launched in 2015, it’s invited 28 leadership organizations across the North Slope to be members. Twenty have accepted.
The city of Utqiaġvik is a member, and the mayor, Fannie Suvlu, represents the city at VOICE meetings. She says that hard conversations sometimes happen around the table. Some policies affect certain parts of the North Slope differently than others, and not everyone agrees. She likes that part of it — hearing what other leaders are thinking.
“I know what’s happening with [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], but I don’t know how it’s affecting the people at home in ANWR,” Suvlu said. “Or…I know that that we have development in Alpine real close to Nuiqsut, but I don’t see the everyday effects of that.”
But Mayor Suvlu also says that in this regard the organization hasn’t yet reached its full potential.
That’s because despite the emphasis on unity, there are some big gaps in the membership. For example, there’s currently no representation from the village of Nuiqsut, which is one of the places on the North Slope most directly impacted by development.
Also missing is the regional tribal government, the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, or ICAS. That’s the group that the federal government has to consult with before taking any action in the region.
George Edwardson is the President of ICAS.
“We don’t want to weaken our ability to speak and stand, and to join the VOICE we would have to,” Edwardson said.
To be clear, Edwardson doesn’t have a problem with the fact that these other leadership groups have teamed up as VOICE. He just thinks that remaining separate from the organization will give his group the independence it needs to counterbalance some of the others in the region, like the local corporations.
“They’re doing what they were designed to do: make money,” Edwardson said. “And as a regional tribal government, my job is to protect the ecosystem, and the people and the culture.”
One of Edwardson’s group’s big issues is offshore drilling. He says they’re completely opposed. But VOICE has decided not to take a position on offshore development, though they have said they want several critical subsistence areas to be off-limits.
And this gets at the real question facing leaders on the North Slope. Do they join together, hash out their differences, and try speak to issues with one voice, like Mayor Suvlu and the members of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat are suggesting?
“I definitely think it’s possible to have a unified voice but it’s never going to be truly unified unless all entities that were invited to the table take advantage of it,” Mayor Suvlu said.
Or, are their constituents better served by a chorus of distinct ones, like George Edwardson and his group?
“So when the community has issues, we’ll stand up with them,” Edwardson said. “Sometimes the issues might be against one of the organizations in Voice of the Arctic… Sometimes we internally fight each other; that’s no problem…that’s how democracy works. Everybody has its voice.”
Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat says it respects the regional tribal government’s decision not to become a member, and that the door is always open for the groups that have been invited to join.
The Yes for Salmon initiative has enough signatures, but the state Supreme Court still has to weigh in before it lands on the ballot. (Photo by Katrina Mueller/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Sponsors of a controversial ballot initiative that aims to strengthen state law protecting salmon habitat say its been certified by the Alaska Division of Elections.
The Yes for Salmon initiative reports it received close to 42,000 signatures, significantly more than required. The initiative will appear on the ballot either during the primary election in August or the general election in November, depending on whether the Legislature ends its session on time.
“Economic development is necessary, but protecting salmon habitat is too,” Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, Yes for Salmon ballot sponsor and director of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said in a statement. “Promoting responsible development is something we can control and is the most important proactive step we can take to keep our runs strong. And now we officially have the chance to vote on this critical issue.”
But a vote on the issue isn’t guaranteed. The state of Alaska claims the ballot initiative is unconstitutional and is challenging it in court. If the Alaska Supreme Court rules in the state’s favor, Yes for Salmon won’t be on the ballot.
Many of the state’s biggest mining and oil companies are against the initiative, saying it threatens the viability of future projects like the Donlin Mine.
“This misguided and poorly written ballot measure is ripe with unintended consequences,” Kati Capozzi, manager of the group Stand for Alaska, said in a statement. Stand for Alaska is a coalition formed to oppose the initiative. Capozzi is also with the Resource Development Council, an industry group.
“We look forward to a robust discussion in the coming months so voters will learn that this proposed ballot measure is not what it claims to be,” Capozzi said.
The end of the road, May 25, 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh)
A newly published poll found more than half Juneau respondents support the stalled Juneau Access Project.
The group that helped finance the survey said it shows public opinion is shifting in favor of building the road.
The McDowell Group poll found 54 percent said they support extending Juneau’s road north to the Katzehin River where a ferry would connect to Skagway. Thirty-nine percent said they were opposed to the plan known as Juneau Access Project.
Pollsters asked 402 people on landlines and cell phones their positions on transportation issues over a single week in January.
Executive Director Denny DeWitt, who also lobbies for small businesses and AAA, said the results released Thursday should be instructive to political leaders.
“This is the best data set we’ve ever had and I think that it is something that ought to be looked at and thought about very seriously by those folks who are trying to represent all the people in Juneau,” DeWitt said.
The road project has been perennially divisive within the community and is also opposed in Skagway and Haines.
Earlier this week a House budget amendment proposed keeping the $21 million budgeted toward the project locked in state coffers.
Juneau’s House delegation’s two votes in opposition were critical to its failure.
Democrat Rep. Sam Kito III noted on the House floor Monday that the project isn’t in the state’s transportation plan.
“Putting $21 million back into an account that cannot be expended until the project is in our statewide transportation improvement program, until the project is moving forward and under construction, that money will be sitting there waiting and not spent,” Kito said.
Kito reiterated Thursday that he’s skeptical that the road project as designed makes sense.
“If we had a much larger population in Juneau or in Whitehorse, spending a billion dollars on a highway project to connect it might make sense,” Kito said. “But this project doesn’t actually even connect the two communities or the two reasons. It actually ends up in a ferry terminal at the end of a road that’s going to require a significant of amount of supportive services.”
On the House floor Monday, fellow Juneau Democrat Justin Parish said that the Legislature couldn’t afford to lock away the money when it had pressing spending needs this year.
“Ultimately, I do remain supportive of the Juneau Access Project,” Parish told fellow lawmakers in explaining his no vote. “However, if it comes with the risk of derailing timely funding for Medicaid, if it comes with the risk of derailing timely funding for the Alaska Marine Highway, I cannot support it at this time.”
The amendment failed 19-20.
Of those respondents opposed to the Juneau Access Project, about 26 percent said they more likely would support a road that went to Skagway.
DeWitt said the poll shows the road is finding favor in the capital city.
“It certainly demonstrates that there’s better than a majority of citizens here in Juneau who want the road to go to Katzehin, it’s very clear from the data,” DeWitt said. “Also clear from the data, is that if it were to go all the way – and it will ultimately – to Skagway, the numbers would probably be north of 60 percent.”
About 54 percent said the current state ferry service is adequate for Juneau.
Nearly 80 percent supported a second crossing over Gastineau Channel to connect the Mendenhall Valley with north Douglas Island.
Eduardo Rocha offered a workshop for Brazilian jiu-jitsu students at Sitka’s Hames Center in late February. He’s operated a gym in Oakland, California since 2011 and was the first person outside the Gracie family given permission to open a gym in the Brazilian family’s name. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
In the world of martial arts, the name Gracie is a major heavyweight. The Gracie family is synonymous with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and brought the sport to the United States over 40 years ago. A student of the Gracie family brought his teachings from Brazil to a local gym in Sitka.
In a brightly lit room, a dozen Sitkans donning belted robes are in a low lunge. They drag their back legs behind them, noses practically grazing the floor as they slither across. It looks exhausting. And I wonder, “Doesn’t a good fighter stay off the mat?” But the floor is one of your greatest allies in the world of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
“Using the leg that is up, I’m going to lift my hips a little bit and I’m going to puuushhhh my hips up,”Eduardo Rocha demonstrated.
Rocha’s not a big guy, but tough. And a total stickler when it comes to form. He shows his students the right way to move. To grip. If fighting takes maturity, then he compares his students to toddlers, just learning how to crawl.
“Still crawling,” Rocha said. “They have a long, long road to go.”
And some are just kids. Cadence LaRose is here with her older brother, Ryatt. She boasts that even at 59 pounds, jiu-jitsu technique makes her a fearsome opponent.
“I’ve took him down and pinned him,” Cadence said.
“I’ve pinned you!” Ryatt protested.
“I pinned you,” Cadence retorted.
“We’re both the same,” Ryatt said. “We’re both good-ish. I don’t know.”
Core to the philosophy of jiu-jitsu is that weight class doesn’t matter. A smaller person can take on a bigger person — and win. That happened way back in 1993, when Royce Gracie defeated seven other competitors with more physical strength than him using a unique style of fighting his family developed in Brazil — during the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC.
That fight helped catapult Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to international fame. Rocha brings it up in class.
“A skinny guy, looked like a lawyer, beat everyone,” Rocha said.
Keeley LaRose says jiu-jitsu has strengthened her legs for softball. She grew up watching UFC and other mixed martial-arts contests. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Rocha trained with the Gracies as young man in Rio de Janeiro. He’s now a 4th degree black belt and was the first person outside the family to get permission to open a gym in the United States. One of his students later moved back to Sitka – Brendan Jones – and that’s why Rocha is teaching a weekend class at this gym on an island in Alaska. Caleb Storm Harris can scarcely believe his luck.
“As far as getting pure, accurate training, this is the closest thing that we can get without actually going to Brazil,” Harris laughed.
Four months ago, Harris couldn’t touch his toes. Now, he’s here at the Hames Center at 5:30 in the morning five days a week. He considers BJJ a form of mindfulness practice.
“You know, the world is really, really busy,” Harris said. “And you can’t be anywhere else if someone is on top of you trying to get at you. And then you learn how to be wherever you are.”
Growing up in Rio, Rocha describes himself as a shy kid, insecure and afraid of a lot.
“We have only five channels on TV. No video game,” Rocha said. “You have to go out to the street to play. Every time I go out to play, the other kids beat me. And then when I turned 14, I thought, ‘This is going to end.'”
A poster of the founding father of the sport – Hélio Gracie – hangs on the gym wall, above us. That was Rocha’s first teacher and his lessons have gotten him through the stress of the past few years: leaving Brazil, his marriage ending and opening his own business.
“I have to live here for five years by myself, dealing with the different language, different culture, different people. Away from my family, my culture, away from everything,” Rocha said. “And I know for sure, because jiu-jitsu training, my mind and my heart to support that kind of pressure. You have to really break your body in a thousand pieces and rebuild piece by piece, but once you’re able to do that, you’ll be reborn a new person.”
“If you’re in a fight,” Rocha said later. “And you don’t know what you’re doing, you have to know how to fall.”
The lessons of jiu-jitsu readily translate beyond the mat, but meeting Rocha shows me how putting them into practice can take a lifetime.
AKPIK: I held my father’s hand and he made me promise that I will graduate from high school, and I’m going to go into college and come back and contribute to our society here.
I did drop out the first three months after he passed, but it was a caring teacher, named Mrs. Griffin, that… she was always coming over to visit and help me with things around the house. Anyway, if it hadn’t been for her, I would’ve been a dropout. I’m grateful that I kept promise with my father.
Even though no one came to my high school graduation, I felt my father’s presence. He made me believe that he’ll always be with me in spirit. So, to this day I believe that.
I managed to graduate from high school, but today I realize that my learning at thattime was to colonize me. And I always felt mixed up, not the true me, when I lived the white man’s way of life — Western way of life.
When they started the bilingual programs in the mid-70s, I was just a measly teacher aide in a special ed classroom. And I enjoyed it because I was helping these children that had emotional and mental problems, and they were of my people.
Someday, I’d like to see our own Inupiaq school, teaching everything that I was taught from an infant until I went into high school.
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky is flying back to Bethel for Cama-i. (Christine Trudeau/KYUK)
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky is flying back to Bethel for the Cama-i Festival this weekend, and she’s bringing staffers from the governor’s office with her. The group will discuss alcohol’s impact on Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages at a “Listening Session” on Saturday evening.
The delegation arriving in Bethel on Saturday is something of a task force drawn from the Walker administration’s staff. Walt Monegan, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, will be there. Representatives from the Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor’s offices will be, too. Representative Zulkosky organized the meeting in direct response to resolutions issued by the villages of Napaskiak and Marshall, which urged the governor to declare a state of emergency in their communities last week.
Both villages addressed the Y-K Delta’s lack of public safety. In Napaskiak, tribal council members claim that Bethel’s liquor store has led to a sharp increase in alcohol-related deaths in their village.
“We’ve buried so many loved ones,” Tribal Administrator Sharon Williams said. “So many already.”
In Marshall, tribal council members say that they’ve also seen a spike in alcohol-related incidents, and the village is struggling to handle it. With the exception of occasional Trooper visits, Marshall has no law enforcement. According to Marshall Tribal Administrator Nick Andrew Jr., that makes coping with the alcohol and opioid epidemics next to impossible.
“Living without public safety – in America, mind you – it’s a scenario where you feel like America’s forgotten,” Andrew said.
Both villages urged Governor Walker to intervene. Now, their resolutions are gaining traction at a state and national level. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski mentioned Napaskiak’s resolution on Wednesday during a meeting of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
“It is just yet one more reminder to me that when we think about those who we serve and the cries for help that they are asking us for, we have so very much to do,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski also referred to stresses caused by opioid use in rural Alaska. She said that Alaska’s rate of heroin overdose deaths in 2012 was over 50 percent higher than the national average, and the overdose death rate was highest among Alaska Native people.
Tiffany Zulkosky’s “Listening Session” on the impact of Bethel’s liquor store on the Y-K Delta is open to the public. Constituents are welcome to discuss other concerns as well. It’s scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Bethel Regional High School in room C-22.
Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 16 at Bethel Regional High School in classrooms C-22 and C-23, a men’s and women’s house Qasgiq will be hosted by First Alaskans Institute, with Torin Jacobs [left] hosting the men’s house and Andrea Sanders [right] hosting the women’s house. (Christine Trudeau / KYUK)For the first time ever, this year’s Cama-i Dance Festival will have traditional Yup’ik talking and healing circles for men and women on opening day.
Several years ago, the First Alaskans Institute decided to tap into cultural strengths and traditions by bringing back the use of the Qasgiq annually at the statewide Elders and Youth conference that precedes the Alaska Federation of Natives convention.
Now this custom is being taken back to the Y-K Delta, where it originated.
First Alaskans’ Policy Center Director Andrea Sanders, whose Yup’ik name is Akalleq, said that the Qasgiq is the men’s house, and they decided to bring the women’s house with that.
“It’s a chance for our young people to really sit and listen and learn from the guidance of our elders,” Sanders said.
Sanders says that what’s talked about in the Qasgiq is determined by the participants. Everyone pays attention, and each person speaks in turn.
“Taking the time to share knowledge, love one another, and make sure that nobody is feeling alone or unheard, or isolated, with the way that modern society can make our young people feel,” Sanders said.
Sanders will host the women’s house with Institute CEO Liz Medicine Crow and staffer Angela Gonzalez. Hosting the men’s house will be Samuel Johns and Torin Jacobs of Bethel.
“One of the things that the men’s house has done in the past is to lay everything out, to teach the boys how to be men, not just as hunters, not just as fathers, but as husbands, as lovers, as educators, as everything that you could possibly think of to make a human being proper,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs describes the experience as “strengthening,” and Andrea Sanders speaks of “interconnectedness” that she hopes young people will be able to feel as Cama-i gets underway.
“There’s a reason that we’re still here, that we still dance, that we still gather,” Sanders said. “That we still celebrate our traditions and that if our youth are able to tap into that inner strength and that inner spirit, that they will feel that connection, that they will feel that they’re part of something really powerful that is healing, that is strength, that is love. I hope they’ll feel that if they join us in the Qasgiq.”
That starts tonight at 6 p.m. at Bethel Regional High School in classrooms C-22 and C-23, and is open for all to attend.
(Graphic courtesy of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services)
Suicide rates for Alaska Native youth are still high — but groups are actively working to change that. Community members and researchers are focusing on the strengths of Alaska Native peoples and cultures to reduce the risk and promote wellness.
HOST: Anne Hillman
GUESTS:
Stacy Rasmus – interim director of the Center for Alaska Native Health and Research
Evon Peter – Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education at University of Alaska Fairbanks
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).
Higher oil prices will mean more revenue for the state government. That’s the upshot from a new state forecast released today.
Iñupiat leadership organizations contemplate a “unified voice”
Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks
“I definitely think it’s possible to have a unified voice but it’s never going to be truly unified unless all entities that were invited to the table take advantage of it,” Utqiaġvik Mayor Fannie Suvlu said.
Salmon initiative clears another hurdle
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
The Yes for Salmon initiative reports it received close to 42,000 signatures, significantly more than required. But a vote on the issue isn’t guaranteed.
New poll shows Juneau leaning pro-road
Jacob Resneck, KTOO – Juneau
A new poll shows 54 percent of Juneauites say they support “the road” in the form of Juneau Access Project. The survey conducted by the McDowell Group asked 402 people transportation questions and was jointly funded by the City and Borough of Juneau and a pro-development group.
Zulkosky organizes meeting to discuss alcohol’s impact on villages
Teresa Cotsirilos, KYUK – Bethel
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky is flying back to Bethel for the Cama-i Festival this weekend, and she’s bringing staffers from the governor’s office with her. The group will discuss alcohol’s impact on Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages.
First Alaskans Institute helps revive Yup’ik traditional Qasgiq teachings at Cama-i
Christine Trudeau, KYUK – Bethel
For the first time ever, this year’s Cama-i Dance Festival will have traditional Yup’ik talking and healing circles for men and women on opening day.
AK: Staying power: world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor comes to Sitka
Emily Kwog, KCAW – Sitka
In the world of martial arts, the name Gracie is a major heavyweight. The Gracie family is synonymous with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and brought the sport to the United States over 40 years ago. A student of the Gracie family brought his teachings from Brazil to a local gym in Sitka.
49 Voices: Fannie Akpik of Utqiagvik
Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks
This week we’re hearing from Fannie Akpik in Utqiagvik. Akpik is the coordinator of Iñupiaq Education for the North Slope Borough.
The Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Director Ken Alper fields questions from members of the House Finance Committee in the Alaska State Capitol on Feb. 27. Alper said Friday that rising oil prices will reduce the state’s deficit. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
Higher oil prices will mean more revenue for the state government. That’s the upshot from a new state forecast released Friday.
In December, the Alaska Department of Revenue predicted that the price of oil would be $56 per barrel this year. This new forecast says it will be five dollars higher at $61 and go up even more next year.
Even at that price, the state will still have a gap of $2.3 billion between what it spends and what it raises. And the state doesn’t have that much money in the savings account it’s used in the past, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
State Division of Taxation Director Ken Alper said the state will have to draw from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings but that draw won’t be enough to close the gap.
“We still have a deficit,” Alper said. “It’s just a little bit smaller. You know, it may be $300 to 500 million is what we need to cover after the use of the permanent fund.”
The report projects the state will be have $256 million more in revenue this year and $212 million more next year. Oil production will be somewhat lower than previously projected this year – but slightly higher in future years.
Lawmakers from the two majorities in the Legislature had different responses to the news.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Les Gara said higher oil prices don’t reduce the need for a long-term plan for the state budget that includes new revenue. Gara supports higher oil and gas taxes.
“The budget gap is phenomenal and we will be out of savings within a year if this Legislature does not get its act together to put together a budget plan that requires, maybe, oil companies to chip in,” Gara said. “Oil companies that are now paying no production taxes whatsoever. Can we afford to do that when the state is rearranging the chairs on the Titanic?”
Eagle River Republican Sen. Anna MacKinnon responded to Gara’s call for higher oil taxes.
“Well, I think that’s shocking,” MacKinnon said. “First of all, industry as well as the state has suffered through losses, per se, in investment dollars. And industry specifically has been bleeding and not receiving profits.”
MacKinnon said the improved forecast supports the Senate’s position: to pass a plan to draw from permanent fund earnings now and to consider any remaining spending gap in the future.
A rig in the Pikka unit, where oil companies Armstrong Oil & Gas and Repsol say they’ve found 1.2 billion barrels of oil. (Photo courtesy Armstrong Oil & Gas)
The state has released the list of companies it reimbursed for oil and gas exploration and development work last year.
These cash-for-credits recipients used to be kept confidential, but a law passed in 2016 now requires that the state report them.
According to the Department of Revenue, the state spent just over $75 million last year, paying down a debt it owes under the now-defunct program.
The total debt has ballooned up to about $900 million this year. The state is making minimum payments on that debt — it’s not scheduled to pay them off fully until about 2025.
A company doing work on the North Slope, Repsol, got the highest payment, at nearly $18 million.
Despite getting payments totaling about $28 million, several companies like BlueCrest Energy, Caelus and Great Bear Petroleum have slowed or halted work in the state. Company leadership has consistently cited slow reimbursement from the state under the program as a reason for the delays.
Thomas George and his grandson accept an award on behalf of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people for the traditional halibut hook. (Photo courtesy of 360 North/Juneau Economic Development Council)
The Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame recently inducted its first indigenous tool. Few people still use the hand-carved halibut hook, once popular with Southeast tribes. But there’s a push to make sure the tradition sticks around for future generations.
Standing on a stage with his grandson at the Juneau Innovation Summit a few weeks ago, Thomas George accepted an award.
“I’ve been trying to get help to keep this part of our heritage alive for years or decades,” George said.
The Alaska State Committee on Research gives credit to people and inventions which have made a lasting impact in the state.
George accepted the honor for a collective achievement: the halibut hook, which has been used by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people for thousands of years.
Even though the technology is old, George says it isn’t a relic.
“Over the years everybody thought it was decoration for the wall,” George said. “But my hooks never did hang on the wall. They hung out on the porch.”
George only knows of one other person — in all of Southeast Alaska — who fishes with the traditional halibut hook, and he’s a big proponent for bringing them back. He’s taught classes at the Sealaska Heritage Institute on how to make them.
Growing up in Klawock, George says carving the hooks was part of his childhood. His grandmother was one of the people who passed on the knowledge, and he remembers some advice she gave him: All of the measurements you need to know are in your own hand.
“And if you got small hands you don’t need a big fish,” George said.
A traditional halibut hook at Sealaska Heritage Institute. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
Typically, people jig for halibut on their boat using a metal circle hook. But the traditional design and method is different. The hook itself is shaped like a V, with a more buoyant wood like yellow cedar on one side and a denser wood on the other. This makes it float in a certain direction.
George says the best part about this way of fishing is you can set the line in the water and come back later. It’s suspended by floats.
“You could go to the beach and build a fire and boil coffee,” George said.
Each of his hooks is named after a different girlfriend, which he admits can sometimes be confusing.
“It’s getting harder to remember all of my girlfriend’s names, Tlingit names,” George said with a laugh. “Catching less and less fish.”
But over the years George says there’s been plenty of fish in sea. Just one hook alone, he estimates, has caught around 800 halibut.
George says even though the practice is sustainable and effective, fishing the traditional way hasn’t always been encouraged.
Back in the 1970s, before there were subsistence permits, George invited a state trooper to see the halibut hooks’ in action. After about five minutes, he had a halibut on the line.
“And we rolled them in, and he pulled up beside us and he said, ‘My god! I was going to confiscate your gear and write you a citation.’ But [the trooper] said, ‘That was truly amazing just to witness,’” George recalled.
George begged the state trooper to write him a citation because he wanted to challenge the issue in court. But the trooper was elated. He never bothered him again.
In 2000, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council established a subsistence program for halibut. But George thinks there’s still roadblocks to preserving the traditional ways. He says having to obtain a subsistence permit at all creates an additional barrier, and he’d like to see more people use the hand-carved halibut hook.
“So that part of our heritage does not die,” George said.
George wishes the state legislature would address the issue and take it up with the regional fishery management council.
In the meantime, George is doing his part to make sure the next generation knows how to make the traditional hooks. His 14-year-old grandson has already picked up the skill.
“Well, he hasn’t said much except ‘let’s go fishing’,” George said.
George says the state recognizes the halibut hook is an important innovation. It’s a technology worth keeping around.
Shoes found on the back steps of a house next to a cafe in Scotland. (Creative Commons photo by Dan)
Social workers’ caseloads for child neglect and abuse are dramatically increasing in Southeast, and apparently statewide, according to the head of a regional service provider. Threats to state children’s service workers are also increasing.
Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Service in Juneau, testified before the House Finance Committee earlier this month. She asked for more funding to deal with a 59 percent increase in referrals to her nonprofit’s child advocacy center, or CAC. It deals with cases of children who may be victims of abuse and neglect across Southeast.
“It’s dramatic, it’s pervasive and, from what we’ve heard from the other CACs, it is statewide. And I’m here to ask you to consider increasing the funding for CACs statewide,” Walker-Tolles said.
In Juneau, the S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center performs forensic interviews and, when necessary, physical examinations for evidence of sexual abuse. It’s one of 13 across the state. Accredited CACs work to minimize the trauma victims experience by sharing their stories and increase the likelihood of successful prosecution. Workers also assist families with navigating the legal system should their case go to trial.
In Southeast, victims usually travel to Juneau from remote communities by plane or ferry to be interviewed by staff. The center operates out of an undisclosed location to protect victims’ identities.
The number of children referred to the center shot up from 97 in 2016 to 154 last year. Half came from outside of Juneau.
S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center Program Manager Susan Loesby and Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Service, at the CCS building in Juneau. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)
Program Manager Susan Loseby has worked at the center for six years. She said they’re not sure what caused the increase.
“I would hope that more kids aren’t being abused. It’s just that more people are reporting what they suspect as abuse,” Loseby said.
One thing is clear: They need more people to deal with the workload.
The center has three full-time employees and three on-call nurses who perform medical examinations. Walker-Tolles and Loseby are asking for $77,000 to hire and train an additional staff member.
Loseby said working with children who have been abused and even raped takes a significant toll on staff, especially when they’re constantly on call. Secondary trauma for interviewers is a constant reality, and self-care and time off is key to being able to continue working in the field.
“It’s a lot to digest, hearing all of the disclosures that children are making and then working with the families who are also in trauma,” Loseby said. “It has, of course, increased the hours that we work, it has decreased the time that we can take off to heal and get the respite that we all need.”
The majority of funding for CACs comes from federal welfare grants that the Office of Children’s Services distributes statewide.
Walker-Tolles said despite the costs, the service is desperately needed.
“Ethically it’s the right thing to do. And if you want to talk about money, honestly it’s a cost-savings to the entire community and the state,” Walker-Tolles said. “If these kids are able to heal, be safe, grow up, go to college or school or find a vocation that inspires them and contribute to the economy, instead of falling into despair, failing school, not having job opportunities. The outcomes can be pretty grim.”
Meanwhile, the state’s Office of Children’s Services plans to place security officers at its Kenai and Fairbanks offices. Director of OCS Christy Lawton said the department has seen an increase in threats to workers over the years.
It came to a head in 2015 when the Anchorage office feared an active shooter scenario.
Since then, security personnel have been installed at field offices in Anchorage, Wasilla and Juneau.
“It’s not uncommon to be threatened, it’s not uncommon to be name-called, but when it starts to be people potentially laying hands on our staff that really draws the line,” Lawton said. “Our staff take a lot of abuse, and we do so because we understand the pressure and stress families are under, but there’s a line there and of course worker safety has to be a priority.”
Lawton said the security measures are also an effort to better comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for worker safety.
OCS was fined following an OSHA complaint after a worker was shoved at the Fairbanks office.
They also plan to create a safety officer position based in Anchorage to help coordinate security efforts among the department’s 24 field offices.
But in much of rural Alaska, and even some cities, the primary heating source is diesel, also called heating fuel.
Many families in some of Alaska’s largest cities, like Juneau and Fairbanks, rely primarily on heating fuel. In rural parts of the state, even more people do. Take the Nome area, for example where, 90 percent of households use heating fuel according to U.S. Census data.
And it is not cheap. Cady Lister is chief economist with Alaska Energy Authority, a state corporation that works to reduce the cost of energy.
“If you are in a small isolated village that has to have fuel flow in, or even just barged in, but just at a high cost, you still are paying amongst the highest cost for heating fuel and for electricity in the country,” Lister said.
Just how high is the cost of heating fuel? Lister says it varies wildly across the state.
The state surveys communities on the cost of heating fuel twice a year. In the most recent survey, the lowest price was $1.40 in Atqasuk, on the North Slope, where the borough subsidizes the price.
“And the highest was Shishmaref at a little over $15 per gallon, which is pretty astronomical,” Lister said.
Even heating fuel at about $4.50 a gallon, which is close to the state average right now, can put a significant economic strain on families. For example, in the lower Yukon Kuskokwim region, families spend an average of 26 percent of their income on heat and electricity. Compare that to the railbelt, where that figure is a little less than seven percent.
Lister says given that economic burden, residents are pretty resourceful — they find other ways to heat their homes, like wood.
“If you’re in a place where there’s a lot of forest and a lot of wood and biomass around, you’re obviously going to have households that are taking advantage of that resource,” Lister said. “There are large parts of the state where there are not a lot of trees and there’s not a lot of option in terms of what you use to heat your home.”
Even in treeless communities though, residents often find ways to scavenge for wood. In places where cord wood is for sale, Lister says one of the things people like about that option is that the cost is relatively stable.
“Over the last ten years, we see it’s 200 – 300 dollars a cord and there’s not a whole lot of change to that. It doesn’t really follow the price of heating fuel like it could. And that is a benefit to people,” she said.
But Lister says no matter where you are or how you heat your home, the single most effective way to mitigate the high cost of fuel is energy efficiency.
The polar bear is deemed a threatened species in Alaska. The Fish & Wildlife Service lists eight Alaska species as threatened or endangered. Photo: USFWS
The Trump administration has agreed to rewrite rules that would have made it easier for the government to designate areas as “critical habitat” for endangered species.
The move is another step toward eroding the Obama administration’s environmental legacy. It comes after Alaska joined other states in a lawsuit challenging habitat rules for the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The states claim a 2016 update to the rules goes far beyond the Endangered Species Act.
Maria Bahr is an assistant attorney general for the state.
“Alaska hasn’t had any critical habitat designations based on the 2016 rules,” Bahr said. “However, we would be concerned about designations of critical habitat being over-broad for those designations currently being considered or those that would be prospectively considered.”
Once an area is declared “critical habitat,” federal agencies have to consult with each other more before they can permit or fund projects there. The 2016 rules allowed agencies to deem an area “critical” even if a species was not using it. The lawsuit claimed the new regulations are so vague that a desert might be considered critical habitat for fish.
Alaska and 19 other states dropped their legal challenge after the Trump administration agreed to reconsider the rules.
The Center for Biological Diversity says the rules provided strong, reasonable protection and claims the Trump administration has shown “hostility” toward endangered species.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will publish a final rule in the Federal Register Tuesday setting combined charter and commercial quotas in Southeast, area 2C, at 4.4 million pounds. That’s about a 17-percent drop from the total allowable catch in 2017.
In the central Gulf of Alaska, area 3A, commercial and charter fishermen will be allocated 9.1 million pounds, a roughly 900,000-pound difference from last year and about 400,000 fewer pounds than what U.S. commissioners requested. In all, Alaskan charter and halibut fishermen will be allowed to harvest 20.5 million pounds, down about 2 million pounds from last year.
This comes after Canadian and U.S. IPHC commissioners, who typically set quotas together, could not come to an agreement at their annual meeting in January, the first time since 1990. Both countries decided to set quotas through their own domestic rule-making processes.
According to a NOAA press release, the U.S. will continue following the IPHC process, but says it may seek to re-negotiate the 1923 treaty that created the international regulatory body in order “to improve the circumstances for U.S. fishermen.” The 2018 halibut season will open on March 24.
