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Increasing numbers of Alaska wildlife testing positive for Movi bacteria

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Time lapse cameras caught this mountain goat gazing at the LeConte Glacier terminus. (Photo courtesy of Christian Kienholz, University of Alaska Southeast)

There’s more evidence of a bacteria potentially dangerous to some Alaska wildlife.

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State Division of Wildlife Conservation Director Bruce Dale says samples from Dall’s sheep and mountain goats have tested positive for the bacteria referred to as “Movi.”

”Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a bacteria that is found in caprinae which are things like sheep and goats and muskox,” Dale said.

Dale says Movi can paralyze the cilia, or hair like structures, in the animal’s airways, making them vulnerable to respiratory diseases like pneumonia, which can be devastating.

”Extreme morbidity and mortality, and those have been scene in Lower 48 big horn sheep populations,” Dale said.

Dale emphasizes that Movi strains vary in strength, and that the animals that tested positive in Alaska were healthy. The bacteria has long been common in Lower 48 wild and domestic goats and sheep. It’s in about 4 percent of Alaska’s domestic populations, and two samples from wild Brooks Range sheep tested positive for Movi in 2009. Dale says the latest positives confirmed by the state this month, include 13 from Dall’s sheep, and five from mountain goats.

”I think because it’s widespread now — we’ve seen it from the Kenai to the Brooks Range — that does suggest that it’s likely it’s been around a while,” Dale said. “Maybe a very long time.”

Dale says the new detections follows the recent year’s development of better tests and more widespread surveillance.

”The tests have evolved quite a lot in that time,” Dale said. “And a veterinarian told me just this morning that the rule for disease is the more you look for it, the more you find it.”

Dale says the state continues to ramp up field surveillance and monitoring, and is working with a laboratory to identify the Movi strains in Alaska. He attributes movement of the bacteria into Alaska to climate change and globalization.


Why Sullivan voted ‘no’ on $1.3T bill

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Sen. Dan Sullivan. (Photo: Liz Ruskin)

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan typically votes with the Republican leadership in the Senate. But in the wee hours of Friday morning, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill and Sullivan voted “no.”

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Sullivan has not granted interviews in recent days, and he caught a flight soon after the vote. Spokesman Matt Shuckerow says the senator voted “no” because he felt he didn’t have enough time to review the bill.

“His commitment to Alaskans is to provide an appropriate level of due diligence and attention,” Shuckerow said. “2,200 pages released at 8 p.m. the day before – he didn’t feel like that could be meet under those circumstances.”

That echos the complaints other senators, mostly Democrats, made last year. They said they only had a few hours to read the final versions of a health care repeal bill and the Republican tax bill. Sullivan voted for both of those. Shuckerow says those were different because Sullivan had a hand in crafting them.

“As for health care, the senator was there negotiating.  We were negotiating specific Alaska things,” Shuckerow said. “He was there at the table and having many conversations. And the tax bill itself as well. So I don’t think those analogies hold up.”

Shuckerow points out Sullivan voted against a spending bill in 2015, too, citing a lack of time to read the bill. (Back then, Sullivan also knocked the legislation for adding to the national debt.)

President Trump signed the 2018 spending bill into law Friday, but he, too, complained about the compressed timeline.

“But I say to Congress, I will never sign a bill like this again. I’m not going to do it again,” Trump said from the White House. “Nobody read it. It’s only hours old. Some people don’t even know what is (in it). $1.3 trillion!”

The bill was negotiated behind closed doors for days. After it finally emerged Wednesday night, the Senate put it on a fast-track for a vote, through a process called “unanimous consent.” If Sullivan had withheld his consent, the vote could’ve been delayed until sometime over the weekend. That would have derailed a lot of senator’s travel plans: They are now on a two-week recess. And Shuckerow says Sullivan figured it wouldn’t do any good.

“He didn’t think it was (enough) time. Whether it was 24 or 48 hours,” Shuckerow said. “So unfortunately, as I said, the votes were tallied, and the legislation was going to pass. So that’s kind of where he was.”

Thirty-two senators voted against the spending bill, most of them right-wing Republicans, such as Ted Cruz of Texas, or left-wing Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Congressman Don Young both voted for the bill. They issued press releases praising the bill’s boost for rural infrastructure, military pay and missile defense all things Sullivan likes to extol, too.

Alaska News Nightly: Friday, March 23, 2018

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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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Senate passes spending limit after Democrats leave over ruling

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

The Alaska Senate passed a bill today intended to limit state spending. But not before Democratic senators in the minority caucus staged a protest, leaving the Senate floor.

Why Sullivan voted ‘no’ on $1.3T bill

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan typically votes with the Republican leadership in the Senate. But in the wee hours of Friday morning, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill and Sullivan voted “no.”

Increasing numbers of Alaska wildlife testing positive for Movi bacteria

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

There’s more evidence of a bacteria potentially dangerous to some Alaska wildlife.

Winter Arctic sea ice again grew far less than normal

Associated Press

U.S. government scientists say ice covering the Arctic ocean reached its second lowest extent on record this winter.

Coast Guard medevacks a man from Unalaska fishing vessel

Zoe Sobel, KUCB – Unalaska

The U.S. Coast Guard medevacked a man today from a fishing vessel near Unalaska.

The Cost of Cold: Staying warm near Fairbanks

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

“It’s something that you kind of hand down… I did it with my parents and… my grandfather. And… I guess I’m passing the torch as you would say to them,” Jeremy Eberhardt said.

State air quality regulators invite public to review cleanup plan documents

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

State air-quality regulators are inviting people who live in and around the borough’s air-pollution-plagued Nonattainment Area to take a look at a series of draft documents that outline the problem and proposed solutions.

AK: Kasigluk Yuraq tradition dances through the generations

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

The 2018 Cama-i Dance Festival was dedicated to six elders from the tundra village of Kasigluk. The elders revived Yup’ik dance in the village and serve as the foundation of the community’s dance tradition today. The community is working to never need a revival again.

49 Voices: Vanessa Duhrsen of Anchorage

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

This week we’re hearing from Vanessa Duhrsen in Anchorage. Duhrsen is a senior at West High and recently received a Prudential Spirit of Community Award for her volunteer service throughout rural Alaska.

The Cost of Cold: Staying warm near Fairbanks

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The home of Jeremy Eberhardt and Ember Kalama, located in Fox, just outside Fairbanks. Eberhardt says that for him, using wood for fuel is about more than just saving money; it’s part of his Alaskan upbringing. (Courtesy of Jeremy Eberhardt)

Interior Alaska is known for extreme cold in the winter. But because Fairbanks doesn’t have easy access to natural gas, most people use pricey fuel oil to heat their homes. And as a result, many families turn to a cheaper local resource to bring down their heating bills: wood. But wood contributes to an air quality problem that has Fairbanks in trouble with federal regulators.

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Even with the downsides, one family says that wood is still their best option.

Jeremy Eberhardt and Ember Kalama live about 10 miles outside of Fairbanks with their four kids.

Kalama moved here from Hawaii when she was in her teens, but Eberhardt was born and raised here. He calls 20 below “T-shirt weather.” And he says burning wood for fuel is about more than just saving money; the whole process of chopping, drying, and hauling it is part of his Alaskan upbringing and something he’s teaching his kids.

“I don’t know what the kids think, but I think it’s a pretty good activity,” Eberhardt said. “It’s something that you kind of hand down… I did it with my parents and… my grandfather. And… I guess I’m passing the torch as you would say to them.”

But money is definitely part of it too. Kalama works in the plumbing industry, and Eberhardt is a mechanic. They say their income varies year to year, and it would take a real bite out of their budget if they were paying for heating fuel.

They did heat their home that way several years ago and Eberhardt says it cost them at least $700 a month.

The price of oil has gone down a bit since then, but Eberhardt says wood is still a lot cheaper. The only money they spend is on chainsaw and truck fuel and minor maintenance costs — less than $1,000 a year. They get the trees from their property or a nearby homestead that belonged to Eberhardt’s grandfather.

“I do all the chainsaw work,” Eberhardt said. “So I’m always cutting it or stacking with the Bobcat, moving it around. And the kids and Ember helped me haul it.”

Jeremy Eberhardt standing next to his family’s forced air furnace – it burns wood and distributes the warm air throughout the house. (Ravenna Koenig/ Alaska’s Energy Desk)

The part of the Fairbanks area where Eberhardt and Kalama live is a bit north of town — it’s not where the air quality issue is the worst. Even so, Eberhardt acknowledges that it’s a problem.

But Eberhardt also says that part of what makes the situation so bad is that people are burning wet wood.

“We have a lot of people that sell wood in the Interior that… aren’t taking care of it, and aren’t seasoning it properly,” Eberhardt said. “And in the midst of the winter when it gets cold and there’s a lot of people begging for firewood, these people are popping up going ‘oh, I got all this dry wood’ you know and it really isn’t.”

Eberhradt wishes more wood sellers and users would take the time to properly dry the wood.

Eberhardt and Kalama don’t use an average wood stove to heat their home. On the bottom floor of their house they have a forced air furnace —  a big hulking thing about the size of Eberhardt himself — connected to a duct, which distributes the warm air throughout the house.

On a typical day, Eberhardt says he adds wood to the furnace about three times. He says on the days when the temperature dips well under zero, he gets a feeling of satisfaction, knowing how hard he worked to keep the house warm.

Anchorage gathers in solidarity with national gun reform marches

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Organizers hold up a banner for March For Our Lives Alaska, asking for signatures (Photo by Victoria Petersen/ Alaska Public Media)

More than 1,000 people gathered at the Delaney Park Strip in Downtown Anchorage on Saturday in solidarity with the March For Our Lives in Washington D.C.

In about 26-degree weather, the March For Our Lives Anchorage chapter began the event with speeches from local student organizers. Among them was Keegan Blain, a junior at AJ Dimond High School.

“We all believe that no more innocent children need to lose their life if what is supposed to be a safe place,” Blain said.

Student organizer Keegan Blain (Photo by Victoria Petersen/ Alaska Public Media)

Among the demands from the organizers is increasing the age of firearm ownership from 18 to 21. They say high schoolers shouldn’t be allowed to own guns. High school junior James Schultz was one of the speakers at the March.

“If you buy a gun at 21, you’re not gonna be having a gun while you’re also enrolled in a school,” Schultz said. “You’d have it be in a college which has a lot more safeguards in place”

Currently Alaska residents can conceal carry firearms without a permit at 21, however most universities in the state don’t allow firearms to be carried without administrative approval.

The organizers also seek to require background checks for gun show purchases and reclassify certain weapons and ammunition magazines as military grade.

Student organizers used megaphones to interact with the crowd (Photo by Victoria Petersen/ Alaska Public Media)

In a state where about 62% of adults own firearms, the organizers assured the audience that their movement does not have the end goal of taking away people’s firearms.

“I don’t want to take away your 2nd amendment rights. I’ve got family members that have guns. What we want is gun reforms,” Schultz said. “So we want it to be harder to get a gun, but easy enough that if you’re healthy and you’re doing all the right things, you can get one.”

With signs showing varying messages such as Thoughts and Prayers are not Bulletproof and Books Not Bullets, participants lapped around the Park Strip marching and chanting phrases like “Spread love, not hate. We just want to graduate.”

What should an Alaska climate change policy look like?

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Arctic sea ice is seen from a NASA research aircraft on March 30, 2017, above Greenland. (NASA photo)

Alaska is on the front lines of climate change. A recent report found that we are living through the warmest period “in the history of modern civilization” – and in Alaska, we’re warming twice as fast as the global average. So what should we do about it?

LISTEN HERE

HOST: Rachel Waldholz

GUESTS:

  • Nikoosh Carlo – Senior Adviser to Gov. Bill Walker on Climate Change and Arctic Policy
  • Chris Rose – Renewable Energy Alaska Project

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 27, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

SUBSCRIBE: Get Talk of Alaska updates automatically by emailRSS or podcast.7

Man armed with knife dead after Anchorage police say he charged officer

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A weekend incident in Anchorage has left a man dead after police say he came at an officer wielding a knife.

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As of Sunday night, the deceased’s name has not yet been released by the Anchorage Police Department.

The incident started Saturday evening, when a bystander called police about a stabbing between a couple in the parking lot of a Home Depot.

A woman ran into the business with a non-life-threatening injuries from a knife wound.

After slashing two tires, the assailant fled on foot.

In a video of a Saturday night news conference at Anchorage police headquarters posted by Channel 2 News, police Chief Justin Doll said officers followed the man into an East Anchorage trailer park.

“At that point the person that was being chased turned and ran toward the officer while armed with a knife,” Doll said. “And the officer shot and killed him.”

As per APD’s protocols, all shootings involving officers are investigated to establish whether the use of deadly force was justified. The officer’s name is withheld until three days after the incident.

This is the first deadly shooting involving police in Anchorage of the year. The city saw four such incidents in 2017.

State air-quality regulators invite public to review PM2.5-cleanup plan documents

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The documents made available for public review by the state Air Quality Division show several measures that state and local air-quality regulators are considering including in the State Implementation Plan that will help reduce air pollution in the Fairbanks-North Pole area, which can become especially hazardous during cold winter days. (Patrick Cotter/PDC Engineers)

State air-quality regulators are inviting people who live in and around the borough’s air-pollution-plagued Non-attainment Area to take a look at a series of draft documents that outline the problem and proposed solutions. A local air-quality advocate says it’s important residents read the documents, to understand more about what’s being proposed to help clean up the area’s air — and to participate in finding solutions to the problem.

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State Air Quality Division Director Denise Koch says the documents made public by her agency Thursday are drafts that when completed later this year will form the basis of the so-called State Implementation Plan, or SIP, that will lay out how the Fairbanks area can reduce its PM2.5 emissions.

“These are the building blocks, if you will, of the SIP,” Koch said.

Koch says agency officials posted the documents to promote a two-way of exchange of information between them and the public. She says some portions of the documents are incomplete and require information they hope area residents will help them fill in.

“There are data gaps,” Koch said. “And we’re asking the public for additional information.”

The documents dozens of references to those gaps, such as how much Number 1 and Number 2 fuel oil is used locally, broken down in to residential and non-residential use. Koch says the agency also wanted to make the documents available to inform people about how it will oversee local efforts to reduce PM2.5 emissions to attain federal air-quality standards in what’s now called the Serious Nonattainment Area.

“We want complete transparency,” Koch said. “We know that this is a very important issue to the community, and we want people to be able to look at our early thinking.”

Longtime local air-quality advocate Jimmy Fox says he’s already reading through the documents, and he urges all other area residents to give them a look, so they can appreciate the complexity of the problem and understand the measures the Air Quality Division is planning and considering.

“This is the chance to kind of kick the tires on these draft documents and help the state come up with an implementation plan that we can live with,” Fox said.

Fox says it would behoove residents to get to know the many different strategies that’ll be employed under the SIP to clean up the air in the nonattainment area – and that are sure to raise eyebrows. They include such measures as requiring installation of emissions-control technology on so-called stationary sources such as powerplants, which would boost the cost of electricity for ratepayers. Also, possible requirements on the use of ultralow-sulfur heating oil, a costlier but cleaner-burning fuel.

“What I’m reading here is that preliminary estimates is that switching to that (fuel) to help address the problem would cost the average household and extra three to four hundred bucks a year in heating oil costs,” Fox said.

Fox says the locals can help the state understand more about the situation here in Fairbanks, and could provide information to regulators that would help them develop a better plan that would work for this area.

“What makes this plan successful is our ownership of that,” Fox said, “And I hope that all the citizens in the borough don’t shy away from this opportunity.”

Fox says some portions of the documents are fairly technical and can make for dense reading. But he says overall, they should be pretty understandable to most folks.

Koch says the Air Quality Division wants comments on the documents before May 23. They can be found on the division’s website, which is accessible off the state Department of Environmental Conservation homepage.


In Marshall, residents protect each other in a village without police

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Marshall, AK. (via Google Maps)
Marshall, AK. (via Google Maps)

Earlier this month, the village of Marshall pushed Governor Walker to issue an emergency declaration in their community due to the region’s lack of public safety. For most of the past two decades, Marshall has been without police. Now residents are working out ways to defend their community on their own.

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“Living in a village without public safety is a feeling of uneasiness,” Marshall Tribal Administrator Nick Andrews Jr. said.

Marshall is a tight-knit community of about 500 people, but Andrews says that it’s in dire need of law enforcement. He says that opioids are becoming a problem, crimes related to alcohol intoxication have increased since Bethel’s liquor store opened and there has also been a rise in gun crimes. Andrews can remember five times in the past year when shooters have put Marshall on lockdown.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time they’re intoxicated, enraged,” Andrews said. “We have houses being hit with bullets, people dodging bullets.”

Marshall residents have started organizing the lockdowns themselves over VHF radios, and five young men in town have recently taken it upon themselves to help their neighbors.

“They have been making citizen’s arrests,” Andrews said. “They have been protecting victims. We don’t call them vigilantes.”

The men don’t have any police training, but they did manage to talk down Marshall’s last shooter back in October.

Marshall’s tribal council unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month urging Governor Walker to issue an emergency declaration for their region. They hope that the resolution will generate enough funding to pay for law enforcement in the village. It was Andrews’ idea.

“We’re caught in the perfect storm of funding, latent tribal justice programs, and a regional non-profit with its own issues,” Andrews said.

There are different kinds of law enforcement that operate in the villages, each financed by a different governing body. All of them are underfunded. Marshall’s nearest Trooper post is a few communities away in St. Mary’s. According to Spokesperson Megan Peters, the Troopers in this area are stretched thin, which can delay their responses to service calls, and the weather can delay them for days.

“There should be a Trooper in every community,” Alaska Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan said.

But Monegan said that the state just doesn’t have the money to do that. It’s struggling to find enough applicants for existing Trooper positions as it is.

Marshall could also apply for a Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO), which the village could get through their regional non-profit, the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP). But according to Alvin Jimmie, who runs that program, the state only awarded funding for 10 VPSO positions in a region with 56 villages this year.

Marshall doesn’t have any Tribal Police Officers; its tribes are just beginning to set up a justice system now. As a municipality, Marshall could employ a Village Police Officer, but it would need state money to fund that position, and state money is drying up.

Over the past two decades, Tribal Administrator Nick Andrews Jr. says that Marshall has managed to get a Village Police Officer or a VPSO two or three times; they’ve always left within a year. In a small town with a high crime rate, AVCP’s Alvin Jimmie says that the job can burn officers out.

“You’ll be dealing with your best friends, your closest relatives,” Jimmie said. “Don’t expect a lot of friends.”

Becoming a VPSO can be the beginning of an ambitious career path, said Jimmie, and he encouraged prospective applicants to get in touch with him. AVCP’s Martha Whitman Kassock also encouraged Marshall to file the initial paperwork needed to obtain a VPSO for their community, which Andrews says that he’s in the process of doing.

Residents are on edge in Marshall, and Andrews knows it all too well. His daughter was assaulted by a man named Leon Edwards last January. Andrews ran to Edwards’ house and fought him himself.

“If anything was to happen to me, nobody would’ve known anything at that hour,” Andrews said.

The Troopers were called in to investigate, and Edwards was charged with six counts of assault. But a week before our interview, Andrews ran into Leon Edwards in the village.

“I was on alert,” Andrews said. “I have to be friendly, you know. ‘Hi, hello.'”

Spokesperson Megan Peters said that the Troopers have been to Marshall several times, but they haven’t been able to take Edwards into custody. So for now, the community copes as best it can.

Coast Guard suspends search for man missing from oil tanker south of Sand Point

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The motor vessel Challenge Prelude is a 587-foot tanker. (Courtesy of Hans Rosenkranz/MarineTraffic.com)Update

Update: The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for a man who reportedly fell overboard from an oil tanker traveling past the Aleutian Islands.

Petty Officer Lauren Dean says air crews spent 14 hours searching for the 22-year-old mariner, who went missing from the M/V Challenge Prelude yesterday afternoon.

“Due to the length of time, and with the extreme environment, the District 17 Command Center made the call to suspend the search,” Dean said.

Coast Guard responders covered almost 700 square miles in their search, which began south of Sand Point.

Dean says the tanker also retraced part of its own route in an effort to locate the man, whose name has not been released.

“Situations like this are never easy,” Dean said. “Our deepest condolences do go out to his family and friends. It is a tragedy.”

The Challenge Prelude was traveling from South Korea to Anchorage when the man went missing. Dean says it’s unclear why he fell overboard.

ORIGINAL STORY: About 24 hours after he went missing from an oil tanker, the U.S. Coast Guard is deciding whether to continue its search for a man who reportedly fell overboard in Aleutian waters.

The master of the M/V Challenge Prelude noticed the 23-year-old mariner was missing Sunday afternoon when the vessel was 126 miles south of Sand Point.

The tanker turned around to search for the man, while Air Station Kodiak sent two aircrews to assist.

“The helicopter was able to do two flights and the C-130 flew for quite a long time along the vessel’s track line,” Lt. Brian Dykens said. “But we haven’t done any searches [on Monday], and the command center is planning the next course of action.”

Dykens said the Coast Guard will make a decision on the search Monday afternoon. There’s been no sign of the missing mariner, whose name hasn’t been released.

This story has been updated. 

Nikolaevsk man dead and one Alaska State Trooper injured after officer-involved shooting

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A Nikolaevsk man is dead and an Alaska State Trooper sustained serious injuries after an officer-involved shooting Saturday evening. Troopers say 42-year-old Nikolai Yakunin was shot after he assaulted an officer, but it’s unclear how the altercation happened and if Yakunin was armed.

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Troopers in Anchor Point received a report that 42-year-old Nikolai Yakunin was in contact with a female who he was prohibited from speaking to under his probation conditions.

Troopers received the report at 2:17 p.m. Saturday afternoon and responded to Yakunin’s residence off Nikolaevsk Road on the south side of the small village of 350 people about five hours later at 7:07 p.m.

Yakunin’s father, also named Nikolai, was leading services at the local church when he says his wife told him about the shooting.

“I went out and she said our son had been shot, possibly killed, and she was crying,” Yakunin said.

Yakunin says he went to the house where troopers confirmed his son was dead on the scene. He says troopers have not disclosed any more information to him or his family.

“It’d be nice to find out what really happened with the trooper going into Nick’s house and getting into a fight with Nick or Nick getting into a fight with the trooper,” Yakunin said.

Yakunin says he does not think his son had any firearms. He also says the community is disappointed with the trooper’s use of force, and says it was police brutality.

“Is this the practice of the troopers? We know he was not armed,” Yakunin said. “He might have had some, a pipe or something, but other than that he had no firearm, but he was just taken down.”

According to a trooper dispatch, the responding trooper was incapacitated after Yakunin attacked him and additional troopers were dispatched for backup. Troopers say Yakunin continued his “assaultive behavior, and he was shot to prevent further assaults on any
Trooper or bystander.”

According to court records, Yakunin has been indicted on several assault charges dating back to late 2013, including a charge for threatening to hit troopers with a metal
pipe in May of last year.

The release does not say how Yakunin attacked the responding officer, and that the trooper was transported to South Peninsula Hospital in Homer with serious injuries.

Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said the trooper was still hospitalized late Monday afternoon.

The trooper who shot and killed Yakunin has not been named and has been placed on standard 72-hour administrative leave. Troopers say the investigation is ongoing.

Yakunin’s funeral is planned later this week.

Alaska News Nightly: Monday, March 26, 2018

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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 votes to restore PFDs to full $2,700

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

The Alaska House voted 21 to 19 this morning to restore the full amount for Alaska Permanent Fund dividends this year. PFDs would be roughly $2,700.

Man armed with knife dead after Anchorage police say he charged officer

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A weekend incident in Anchorage has left a man dead after police say he came at an officer wielding a knife.

Nikolaevsk man dead and one Alaska State Trooper injured after officer-involved shooting

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

A Nikolaevsk man is dead and an Alaska State Trooper sustained serious injuries after an officer-involved shooting Saturday evening.

Marches held across the state in solidarity with DC March For Our Lives

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

More than 1,000 people gathered at the Delaney Park Strip in Downtown Anchorage on Saturday in solidarity with the March For Our Lives in Washington D.C.

Glenn Highway detours end after bridge repairs

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Detours forced by a damaged bridge on the Glenn Highway ended in time for the state’s busiest commute this morning. The state has cited a semi driver for hitting the bridge.

In Marshall, residents protect each other in a village without police

Teresa Cotsirilos, KYUK – Bethel

For most of the past two decades, Marshall has been without police. Now residents are working out ways to defend their community on their own.

Department says Taku River salmon numbers are overestimated

Associated Press

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says it has been overestimating how many Chinook and sockeye salmon make it up the Taku River.

After 3 decades, Washington state bans Atlantic salmon farms

John Ryan, KUOW – Seattle

Atlantic salmon farming has been banned from Washington state waters after Gov. Jay Inslee signed the restrictions on nonnative fish farms into law last week in Olympia.

Juneau schools leave room for debate in climate change curriculum

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

New science standards being considered don’t shy away from attributing it to an increase of human activity. But how that’s taught in the classroom could be up to interpretation.

House votes to restore PFDs to full $2,700

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The board shows the House vote to amend the budget to restore permanent fund dividends, March 26, 2018. The vote was 21-19. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)

The Alaska House voted 21 to 19 Monday to restore the full amount for Alaska Permanent Fund dividends this year. PFDs would be roughly $2,700.

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The vote would add $892 million to the proposed state budget. This would decrease state savings, since there is no new revenue to offset the increase.

Minority-caucus Republicans provided most of the support for restoring the dividends to the full amount set under a legal formula used up until two years ago. It would be the largest amount in state history, without accounting for inflation.

Eagle River Republican Rep. Dan Saddler said the PFD shouldn’t be cut until the budget for state government services is smaller. He supported cutting a study of vitamin D deficiency funded in the budget.

“The budget is rising, despite the efforts of me and my caucus to hold down, to reduce the size of government, and even to just to slow the rate of increase, have been unsuccessful time after time after time,” Saddler said. “If we have a half-million dollars to spend on vitamin D, I have a very difficult time standing up and supporting a reduced dividend.”

The mostly Democratic House majority was nearly evenly divided. Ten voted for the funding, while 12 voted against it.

Anchorage Democratic Rep. Geran Tarr said the PFD shouldn’t be cut until the Legislature passes a plan that closes the long-term gap between how much the state spends and how much it brings in. The majority has proposed higher oil and gas taxes or a tax on income as part of a comprehensive plan.

“It shouldn’t lie on the shoulders of our children, our seniors, our veterans, and those on fixed incomes and … lower-income Alaskans to solve the budget crisis,” Tarr said. “Everybody needs to give in a way that’s meaningful, and those are the Alaskans who have given the most so far.”

Some opponents also say PFD cuts hurt lower-income residents. But they say that a larger PFD this year threatens future PFDs by chipping away at permanent fund earnings, as well as funding for state services.

Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Adam Wool said the state can’t afford the full amount.

“I know there are some people that make counterarguments that, ‘Since we didn’t get a more distributed revenue package that we should ditch this,’” Wool said of the reduction. “But I’m not one of those people. I think this is really important, to stick with it, stick with our plan and forge ahead.”

And some opponents, like Anchorage Rep. Chris Birch, argued that the PFD spending mirrors larger patterns in state spending. He was one of seven minority-caucus Republicans to vote no.

“I think it’s spending money we don’t have,” Birch said. “We’ve got a reputation collectively of doing that. And I think we can’t afford it. I think we need to take a very hard look at this budget effort.”

Gov. Bill Walker vetoed roughly half of the PFD money in 2016, and the Legislature cut the amount by more than half last year.

The House adjourned Monday after taking the vote. It’s not clear how the House will fund the PFD. And it’s not clear what will happen to the PFD in the Senate. Last year, the House proposed $1,250 dividends and the Senate proposed $1,000 dividends. They compromised on an $1,100 amount.

This map represents the vote on whether to restore the full amount of permanent fund dividends in the budget. Green districts are represented by House members who voted yes, while red districts are represented by those who voted no. (Map by Mikko Wilson/KTOO)

Scientists record volcanic thunder for the first time

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This satellite image shows a May 28, 2017 eruption at Bogoslof volcano. The cloud rose more than 40,000 feet above sea level. (Dave Schneider/Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey)

To the untrained ear, volcanic thunder sounds like the rumble of a plane engine or a distant river. But scientists are really excited about the low hum, clicks and pops that were recorded during a March 2017 eruption at Bogoslof volcano.

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That’s because it’s the first time a team has recorded the sound of volcanic thunder. The recordings come from Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands. Scientists say the recordings are just the beginning of a treasure trove of clues scientists are exploring in the wake of Bogoslof’s nine month eruption. One thing they’re learning is that lightning and thunder may help predict the risk ash clouds pose to aircraft.

John Lyons, a geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, says scientists weren’t sure if volcanic thunder was loud enough to hear over the roar of an eruption.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t think it was happening,” Lyons said. “It was that we didn’t know if we could record it.”

Sensors picked up the thunder from 40 miles away. Volcanic lightning and thunder occur when bits of ash and ice collide during an eruption.

Isolating the sound of thunder could help scientists better understand ash plumes — which pose a threat to airplanes.

Lyons says it’s a big deal because scientists are getting more out of their infrasound sensors than they imagined, even after an eruption has stopped.

“Maybe there are some signals you disregarded previously as noise, but those might actually be telling you something about processes happening in the eruption cloud as it moves away in the atmosphere from the volcano,” Lyons said.

Lyons says the recordings show infrasound sensors can be used to detect volcanic lightning, especially smaller sparks that might not register on global lightning monitoring networks.

At Bogoslof, scientists had another tool specifically designed for lightning detection. Last spring, volcanologist Alexa Van Eaton helped install new lightning sensors that can help signal when eruptions begin.

Although the Aleutians have a lot of rain, thunderstorms are rare — making lightning a prime tool for forecasting eruptions. In fact, Van Eaton says this is first time lightning was used as a near real-time monitoring tool.

“The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLN) was putting out rapid alerts that were triggering whenever there was lightning around the volcano and that was sending text messages to the AVO scientists and letting them know, ‘dude, lightning. There’s probably an eruption,’” Van Eaton said.

Van Eaton says lightning is one clue that helps scientists understand volcanic eruptions. It can make a difference in determining how big eruptions are and alert researchers that eruptions may be happening.

From when Bogoslof started erupting in December 2016 to when it stopped in August 2017, Van Eaton says half of the 60 or so eruptive events produced globally detectable lightning.

While volcanic lightning has been noted for well over a hundred years, the number of scientists in the field is small. Van Eaton says it’s gone from people thinking volcanic lightning was just a cool phenomenon to realizing that understanding it can help keep people safe from ash.

And Van Eaton says the data from Bogoslof is a windfall.

“It’s letting us ask cool questions like what happens if the eruption shoots seawater into the atmosphere along with the ash?” Van Eaton said. “Does that make more lightning or less lightning?”

They found that wetter eruptions had less lightning overall. Van Eaton says that was the opposite of what they expected. She says that’s important because it could help further refine predictions for when ash may pose a risk to health and safety.

“Being able to use the lightning to figure out if the eruption was wet or dry is potentially really important for thinking about how long the ash is going to be in the atmosphere and how quickly it might reach Dutch Harbor, or any of the airports, and how long aircraft are going to have to avoid the area,” Van Eaton said.

Van Eaton says dryer eruptions — eruptions with lots of lightning — tend to have ash particles that stick around longer and have the potential to travel farther.

Van Eaton believes volcanic lightning should be used with seismometers, infrasound sensors, and satellite data to help keep the people who live near volcanoes safe.

After 3 decades, Washington state bans Atlantic salmon farms

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Washington state posted an identification guide to help fishers distinguish native Pacific salmon species from Atlantic salmon on the right. (Photo by Megan Farmer/KUOW)

Atlantic salmon farming has been banned from Washington state waters after Gov. Jay Inslee signed the restrictions on nonnative fish farms into law last week in Olympia.

“These present a risk to our wild salmon runs that we cannot tolerate,” Inslee said.

The move comes eight months after an ill-fated fish farm near Anacortes started to come undone in a strong current on an otherwise calm summer day.

The floating farm, owned by New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture, tore apart a month later, letting as many as 250,000 Atlantic salmon escape into Puget Sound.

While lawmakers included a provision stating that the Legislature would research and revisit the issue as new science becomes available, Inslee vetoed that section, bringing what appears to be a decisive end to at least three decades of Atlantic salmon farming in Puget Sound.

Opposition to the farms grew after one of Cooke Aquaculture’s three net pens off Cypress Island imploded in August. Fish from another ocean quickly swam north into Canada, south past Tacoma and up several rivers, raising fears among tribes and environmentalists that the invaders could harm the region’s struggling runs of wild Pacific salmon.

While officials and early media accounts blamed a solar eclipse for the collapse, state investigators later concluded that the farm’s poor condition — corroded and overgrown with tons of mussels and other sea life — made it more vulnerable to the push of tidal currents that arrive like clockwork in Puget Sound.

The state’s remaining Atlantic salmon farms, all owned by Cooke, could be gone by 2022, once their existing leases with the Washington Department of Natural Resources expire.

The controversy over these fish might not be over.

Earlier this year, Cooke, which raises salmon on three continents, threatened to sue under the North American Free Trade Agreement if Washington officials tried to curtail its operations here.

“Our company and our rural sea farming employees are deeply disappointed by the Governor’s decision to ignore the science and sign the bill,” Cooke spokesman Joel Richardson wrote in an email after the signing.

Richardson said the company was evaluating all available options.


USGS project shows low fossil fuel burning can limit permafrost thawing, carbon release

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Coastal erosion reveals the extent of ice-rich permafrost underlying active layer on the Arctic Coastal Plain in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska. (Photo by Brandt Meixell, USGS)

Reduced fossil fuel burning can limit the thaw of permafrost, and the release of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. That’s the take away from a modeling project led by U.S. Geological Survey and University of Alaska Fairbanks senior scientist Dave McGuire.

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”There’s a handful of models now that do model the carbon that’s contained in permafrost itself,” McGuire said. “And so they have the capability, when they’re run with future climate scenarios, for coupling the thawing of permafrost to the exposure of this previously frozen soil carbon.”

McGuire says two scenarios were run through the model, one in which humans do not curb carbon emissions

”Basically, a business-as-usual one. Very little control of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere,” McGuire said. “And then another one, with the low emission scenario that we require carbon emissions by human society to be decreased by about 75 percent by the end of this century.”

McGuire says modelling indicates that the 75 percent emissions cut, would greatly reduce permafrost thawing and carbon releases by the year 2300.

”So what this basically indicates is that society can do something about the release of this carbon,” McGuire said.

While noting that frozen soils are slow to thaw, McGuire says once melting begins, the released carbon accelerates warming, additional thaw and releases, in what’s known as a positive feedback loop. McGuire and colleagues research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Alaskan Brewing Company unsure how steel, aluminum tariffs will affect manufacturing

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The canning line at the Alaskan Brewing Company on March 8, 2018 (Video by David Purdy/KTOO)

The Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs have a Southeast Alaska business unsure how it’ll be affected.

The Alaskan Brewing Company employs about 100 people making beer in Juneau.

The almost fully automatic canning line is behind the towering steel tanks that brew the beer.

A pallet full of empty aluminum cans is loaded into a machine, which feeds them into the almost fully automatic assembly line.

They slide down a series of conveyor belts. Along the way they’re washed, filled, sealed and finally packed into boxes.

The brewery buys those empty cans – ready to fill – from another manufacturer.

“We’re sort of almost an end user,” Andy Kline, the brewery’s communications director, said. “Not quite the end user drinking the beer – but we’re almost an end user of that aluminum.”

Since it has a supplier, the brewery is insulated to some degree from fluctuations in the cost of materials.

“We don’t directly pay that raw material cost,” Kline said. “That’s the other thing that’s hard to predict – what the multiplier effect of a raw material cost will cost to us kind of buying an end product.”

The price of steel actually concerns Kline just as much as aluminum, he said.

The two-story vats that brew the beer and the maze of pipes connecting them are all made of stainless steel.

Expanding the brewery’s infrastructure means a lot of money goes into steel.

But Kline doesn’t seem too worried. Making beer in Alaska, he says the brewery is no stranger to unusual supply chain concerns.

“We’re in one of the most unique positions in the United States for a beer supplier,” Kline said. “Every single thing we get in – 98 percent, about, of all of our materials are brought in by barge.”

The remote location requires some flexibility and creativity.

A few years ago, for instance, the brewery started taking the spent grain leftover after the brewing process, and burning it for fuel. Before then, they had to ship it out to dispose of in the Lower 48.

Why make beer in a place with so many unusual challenges?

For the brewery, it’s practically a founding principle. Showcasing the manufacturing possibilities of Alaska is actually in their mission statement.

Kline said the brewery doesn’t foresee any specific changes – there’s no plans for price increases or big layoffs – for now.

The brewery is just keeping an eye out for any impact the tariffs might have.

Bill would lift restrictions on Alaska’s naturopaths

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Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, speaking during an April 10, 2017, House Floor session, sponsors HB326 to expand the authority of naturopathic doctors. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)

Alaska’s naturopathic doctors seek to expand their authority to treat patients, despite a legal setback and mixed testimony from the medical profession.

Naturopathy is a form of alternative medicine that can be controversial.

Critics say it mixes pseudoscience and folk remedies with evidence-based medicine and is banned in two states.

Supporters counter that it makes use of traditional healing but doesn’t discount modern science.

More than a dozen states grant licensed naturopaths limited rights to prescribe medication, which allows them to treat many ailments normally handled by medical doctors.

Alaska isn’t one of those states.

A licensed naturopath in Alaska can swab a patient’s sore throat for strep bacteria but can’t prescribe the antibiotics to treat it. Nor can they stitch a wound.

They have less medical authority than nurse practitioners or physicians assistants.

The Alaska Association of Naturopathic Physicians sued to overturn these restrictions.

The case went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, which earlier this month upheld the rules.

“The recent court case was our trying to claw back a small scope of practice that we had that changed in 2014 due to interpretations by regulations,” AANP President Abby Laing, one of 50 practicing naturopaths in the state, said. “We respect this ruling, of course, but it still allows for substantial gaps to remain between what naturopaths are trained to do and what we’re allowed to do.”

House Bill 326 and Senate Bill 120 would effectively overturn the court ruling.

More than 60 patients wrote letters of support.

Jodi Oakes told lawmakers she suffered from chronic headaches last summer but decided not to take the medication prescribed by her doctor and instead sought out a alternative treatment.

“I have been migraine-free since October 2017 and I attribute this to the medical treatment I received from our naturopathic doctor,” Oakes testified.

Medical doctors have weighed in on both sides.

“I’ve seen patients that they’ve treated, and I think within their realm they do a good job,”  Fairbanks physician Peter Lawrason said. Lawson is the chair of the Alaska State Medical Association, which opposes the bill.

But Lawson said he’s skeptical naturopaths get enough training to prescribe drugs.

“They have the four years after college and that’s fine, but this is apparently rather variable from institution to institution and state to state,” Lawson said, “and that would bring us to the equivalent to just finishing medical school.”

Other medical doctors testified in favor of the bill and the profession.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of naturopaths over the course of my career in Alaska and I have always felt that they were well-trained in what they do,” Alan Gross, a medical doctor and advocate for making health care more affordable, said. “This bill improves both access and competition, which I believe will lower the cost of care. Health care costs are the biggest problem facing the state of Alaska today.”

The House bill’s sponsor is Anchorage Democrat Geran Tarr.

The Senate companion bill was filed last year by Anchorage Republican Cathy Giessel but has yet to be heard.

Man survives plane strike on Arctic sea ice north of Alaska

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A de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter flies over Beaufort Sea ice in support of Arctic Submarine Laboratory exercises. (Photo courtesy Arctic Submarine Laboratory Facebook page)

A man survived being struck by a plane that was taking off from sea ice 140 miles north of Deadhorse on the Beaufort Sea, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

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The man, whose name has not been released, worked at the Arctic Submarine Laboratory supporting exercises during which U.S. and British navy submarines surface through the sea ice north of Alaska. That’s according to a preliminary report from the NTSB, which continues to investigate the March 20 plane strike.

NTSB investigator Clint Johnson said the man was trying to snap a photo for his kids and was standing behind a snow berm next to an ice runway as the de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter took off.

“He was going to be leaving the ice within the next couple of days,” Johnson said. “He did want to get a picture of these small Lego figurines with the airplane in the background.”

The man told Johnson he talked to the pilot about taking the photo beforehand, though Johnson said the pilot, in a separate interview, did not recall the conversation.

Johnson described what the man says he saw as the plane started taking off:

“The airplane accelerated toward him. It didn’t climb as he anticipated,” Johnson said. “The airplane started a turn to the left, which means the left wing got closer to the ground. The next thing he knew is he saw the wing, and that’s all that he remembers. He remembered waking up in the medivac helicopter on the way to Deadhorse.”

According to the NTSB report, the pilot and co-pilot heard a loud thump, and they had trouble with the plane’s controls. They made an emergency landing back on the airstrip and found the man with serious head and neck injuries.

While the rest of the camp has since been removed from the ice, Johnson said the plane was not flyable and was left behind. He said the Twin Otter was still there as of Tuesday morning, a week later, with substantial damage to its left wing, and there were plans to use a heavy-lift helicopter to retrieve it from the drifting and deteriorating sea ice.

The plane’s owner, Homer-based Bald Mountain Air Service, released a written statement about the incident Tuesday but did not answer questions about the plane’s status.

Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, March 27, 2018

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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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Hill visits: It’s all about access in DC

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.

Conventional wisdom has it that politicians only grant access to donors or lobbyists. Does the phenomenon of the “Hill visit” prove the cynics wrong?

3-year-old boy shot, mortally wounded in Utqiagvik

Associated Press

A 3-year old died following a shooting in a home in the North Slope community of Utqiagvik.

Man survives plane strike on Arctic sea ice north of Alaska

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A man survived being struck by a plane that was taking off from sea ice 140 miles north of Deadhorse on the Beaufort Sea, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Newtok to Congress: thank you for saving our village

Rachel Waldholz, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

The $15 million in this year’s spending bill is just a fraction of what Newtok needs to fund its relocation. But village leaders say it’s crucial seed money that will make everything else possible.

USGS project shows low fossil fuel burning can limit permafrost thawing, carbon release

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

Reduced fossil fuel burning can limit the thaw of permafrost, and the release of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

Suspicious fires destroy dance hall, damage village building

Associated Press

The state fire marshal office will investigate two suspicious fires in the southwest Alaska village of Kotlik, including one that destroyed the community’s dance hall.

State ferries won’t stop sailing April 16, after all

Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau

The Alaska Marine Highway System has enough money to sail through the end of June. A bill signed by the governor fills an 11-week funding gap.

Scientists record volcanic thunder for the first time

Zoe Sobel, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Unalaska

The recordings are just the beginning of a treasure trove of clues scientists are exploring in the wake of Bogoslof’s nine month eruption.

Achieving wellness through Medicaid expansion

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Andi Riley needed medical help, but even though she was working, she couldn’t afford it. Until there was Medicaid expansion. It was her solution for wellness.

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