An Alaska State Trooper is charged with attempted sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly trying to meet a 16-year-old girl at an Anchorage hotel Sunday, according to a written statement from the Department of Public Safety.

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Soldotna-based Trooper Vance Peronto, 57, first met the girl when he was on duty and stopped her for driving with her headlights off April 8 on the Kenai Spur Highway, according to the charging documents. The felony charges say Peronto did not cite her, but he later contacted her on social media, starting an online relationship marked by racy, back-and-forth messages.

The girl’s father discovered the relationship, notified the authorities on Thursday, and Peronto, a 16-year veteran of the troopers, was arrested in an apparent sting operation on Sunday.

According to the charging document, this is what investigators say happened:

After his first contact with the girl on Facebook, Peronto’s messages “quickly became flirtatious,” the charges say. When the girl told Peronto her age, he allegedly replied, “WOOOW Gulp.” Peronto gave the girl his cellphone number and offered to be her “personal trooper.”

Over the next several days, the messages escalated to include sexually explicit comments, with Peronto allegedly asking for videos and photos. The girl sent several, including some in which she appeared to be nude or partially nude. In several separate messages, Peronto allegedly gave the girl his home address and told her she could come see him there. He also mentioned wanting to perform sex acts with her.

In a subsequent message, Peronto apparently tried to end their relationship, which he acknowledged was veering toward an in-person sexual encounter.

“I’m sorry … I’ve got to put a stop to this,” he allegedly wrote. “You’re not worth my career or 10-20 years in jail. Hell no.”

But it didn’t end there. Peronto messaged about wanting to watch a movie together.

The girl’s father discovered the messages and contacted troopers on Thursday, providing investigators with copies of the communication.

Peronto came to Anchorage for a training event, and the girl messaged him that she, too, was in Anchorage. She told him that she was staying at a hotel with her father but had her own room. Peronto told the girl he was going to buy her some panties, and they made plans to meet at the hotel room.

The charges do not say if the girl was working with investigators or if they had access to her social media account, but the investigators were at least aware of the plans.

When Peronto arrived at the hotel — in his patrol vehicle — and went to the room he believed the girl to be in, he was met by other troopers and officers with the Anchorage Police Department.

They arrested Peronto, and took him to jail, where he made a court appearance Monday afternoon. A judge set Peronto’s bail at $10,000 cash and included a condition that, if he bails out, Peronto is prohibited from using social media.

Col. Hans Brinke, director of the Alaska State Troopers, addressed Peronto’s arrest in a written statement Monday.

“This case and investigation have been handled in the same manner as any other, and we are informing the public of these developments today to maintain transparency,” Brinke said. “AST and the Department of Public Safety are committed to fulfilling our mission to protect the public, and staying accountable to the people of Alaska.”

The Anchorage School District is considering a huge change. The district is looking at implementing new school start times, with elementary schools starting earlier and high schools later.

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The district held a series of open houses recently to educate the community and hear feedback.

At the first open house for school start times, poster boards are set up on tables inside Lake Hood Elementary. Parents, teachers and community members were gathered around tables, talking with school district personnel about the potential start time changes.

Pamela Witwere, a parent and a teacher at Gladdyswood elementary school, says she’s worried about the potential change.

“I have major concerns because my kids aren’t early risers, and many of the families that I work with, none of their kids are early risers,” Witwere said. “So these aren’t kids that are up at 6 a.m. They struggle to get to school at 9 as it is,”

Witwere isn’t alone. Nearly every parent and teacher interviewed at the open house expressed similar concerns.

The school district is proposing the change in an effort to improve attendance, reduce tardiness and increase graduation rates. The school district cites national research that suggests middle schoolers and high schoolers do better with later start times and and younger students benefit from starting earlier.

Anchorage School District superintendent Deena Bishop says the open houses are an opportunity to gather input about the new start times.

“This change isn’t as simple as just change the start time and everybody will be happy. The entire community is nearly affected, so we wanted to be sure that we data sourced it,” Bishop said.

Bishop says she recognizes that switching elementary schools to an earlier start time will not be easy and she understands the change would ripple throughout the community. Childcare is a big issue — making sure daycare providers are able to adjust their schedules to match the school district. Bishop says the district would hope to tackle that issue through partnerships with local nonprofits.

“We would never want a parent to be stressed from just having a family, and running a family, and getting to work on time, and getting to school and back and forth, and getting food on the table. All those things are real life worries and actions for our families, so we wouldn’t want the school to put extra stress on families,” Bishop said.

The school district is proposing four scenarios, one of which is no change to the schedule at all. The other scenarios have high schoolers starting at 8:30 am or after, and the elementary students starting no later than 7:45 am.

Last year, a student created an online petition that urged the school district to study later school start times for high schoolers. The petition gathered thousands of signatures and pushed the school district to hire Western Demographics to study the issue.

Shannon Bingham is leading the research team. He says it’s clear high schoolers benefit from later start times. But the research isn’t as conclusive on elementary kids starting earlier.

“So as far as the quantity of research that’s out there, there’s significantly less. So some of the minority opinions and some of the more recent research is saying earlier start times are not necessarily good for elementary school children either.”

But Bingham says the research they conducted on elementary students showed that younger children who had to wake up earlier weren’t negatively impacted.  .

Jose Lopez attended the Lake Hood open house with his wife and three children. He thinks it would be hard for elementary kids to make the switch.

“I have three kids that attend school early. I kind of have a hard time making the younger kids start earlier than the older kids,” Lopez said.

The Anchorage School District says the comments received so far have been mixed. Parents of middle and high school students tend to be in favor of the change, while parents of elementary students are not.

The Anchorage School Board will make a decision later this year, and any change will be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year.

A wolf killed a dog Monday morning along the Brotherhood Bridge Trail, the second time a wolf’s killed a dog in Juneau in six months.

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Ryan Scott is a wildlife supervisor for Southeast Alaska for the Department of Fish and Game, one of the agencies that responded to the attack.

Scott declined to name the dog owner, but said they lost sight of the dog along the tree line. The owner eventually found the dog dead next to a deer carcass just off the trail. The site was about 300 yards from the trailhead on Glacier Highway. Officials were called about 8:45 a.m.

Scott’s theory is the wolf killed the deer and was protecting its kill, both normal behaviors.

“There was already a kill site there, and potentially, the dog wandered into it,” Scott said. “You know, the wolf didn’t take the dog, it took the deer that was already dead.”

Scott said the dog was off leash and that the owner thinks they spotted the wolf leaving with a piece of a deer.

Scott said officials removed the remains of the deer to reduce the chance of more trailside wildlife encounters.

Scott said he doesn’t think there’s any public safety or pet safety issue out of the ordinary on Brotherhood Bridge Trail. He said just stay vigilant.

“Keep an eye on your pets,” Scott said. “I mean, these are such random things that happen. But it’s just keeping an eye on what’s going on and paying attention to our surroundings.”

Here’s Scott’s advice for wolf encounters.

“Make yourself big, lots of noise, don’t run, stand your ground. It’s very similar to what we would recommend for bears,” Scott said.

The last negative wolf encounter Scott was aware of was in November on the Lemon Creek Trail, when a Chihuahua was killed.

The United Nations group that regulates international shipping recently decided to move toward banning the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic. The thick oil presents unique challenges for cleanup in the event of a spill, especially in cold temperatures.

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Environmental groups are cheering the decision, but the ban is still a ways from becoming a reality.

Heavy fuel oil, also called HFO, is relatively cheap. Which is why it’s commonly used by big commercial ships around the world, and to a lesser but still significant degree in the Arctic.

Kevin Harun is the Arctic program director for Pacific Environment, an international conservation organization. He represented the group in early April in London, at the meeting of one of the committees of the International Maritime Organization.

“It is a big deal that the IMO has been looking at a ban,” Harun said. “It’s a very cautious body and it normally does not act without strong support from countries.”

The United States was one of several countries that submitted a paper recommending the move.

Heavy fuel oil is especially viscous and could present some particular difficulties in a spill. It sinks in many cases when it’s cold, and it doesn’t disperse easily.

Austin Ahmasuk from Nome also attended the meeting. He’s a marine advocate for the Bering Strait regional nonprofit corporation Kawerak and he supports HFO being taken out of use in the Arctic.

“We want our waters as pristine as possible,” Ahmasuk said. “And a heavy fuel oil spill, or burning of heavy fuel oil… is some of the dirtiest ship power generation that exists.”

One of Ahmasuk’s big concerns is how such a spill could affect marine subsistence resources in the Bering Strait region.

Even though the regulatory group made the decision to start developing a ban, there’s still a lot that will have to happen before it’s put in place. Jeff Lantz is with the U.S. Coast Guard and was the lead representative for the US at the meeting. He says the group will have to do an assessment on the impacts of a ban.

“It would be looking at the environmental benefit but it would also be looking at the cost to shipping,” Lantz said.  “It could be looking at the cost to communities in the Arctic. Would it raise the cost for delivery of goods and services to these communities?”

Once the assessment is done, the terms of the ban will have to be negotiated, including things like when it would go into effect. A final decision may still be several years out.

The Alaska Senate has a passed a bill that adds “hunting preserve” to the names of eight state wildlife refuges. The original version of the bill passed by the House last year, clears up boundary discrepancies for numerous state refuges and critical habitat areas.

The refuge name changes were added in a Senate committee Friday at the request of Senator Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican. Giessel told the full Senate Wednesday that it more accurately reflects the refuge’s purpose.

”Hunting is available in all of the places we added ‘hunting preserve.’ Mr. President, a lot of people seem to think hunting is a dirty word,” Giessel said. “I would oppose that attitude. As Alaskans, we should take pride in our hunting heritage, our hunting tradition.”

The amended bill also replaces the word “protect” with “conserve” in regard to the refuge and habitat areas purpose, terms the Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials say are interchangeable, but Anchorage Democratic Senator Bill Wielechowski questioned.

”If it’s not gonna change anything, why are we changing the words. Of course, it’s gonna change something,” Wielechowski said.

Wielechowksi referred to a legal opinion provided to legislators that says the wording could sway future refuge management. Wielechowski also expressed concern that the name and purpose wording changes were made in a committee, without opportunity for public comment.

”And just in the last couple days since this ha happened, we have gotten letters of opposition,” Wielechowski said. “We have gotten letters and emails and phone calls people who are saying, ‘No. Don’t change this. Give us an opportunity to weigh in on this. We don;t know how this will change things.”

The Amended HB 130 passed the Senate 16 to 4. The House will have to consider the changes made to it by the Senate, before the bill can be forwarded to the Governor.

The Anchorage Assembly doesn’t think the city has decent childcare options. On Friday, members convened a work session to hear about high costs and limited availability, a first step in learning about the issue as they prepare potential policy proposals.

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Assembly members heard the message from daycare professionals that quality childcare in Anchorage is not currently financially feasible. Care for a single infant costs $10,100 on average, and households spend nearly double a share of their income on childcare as is recommended by federal guidelines, 13 percent in the city compared to to seven percent.

Assembly chair Forrest Dunbar says the issue came on his radar during a short-lived proposal from him and member Suzanne LaFrance related to subsidizing daycare for elected members. In the process, constituents told him that even middle-class families with two working parents struggle to pay for childcare.

“It’s more expensive than a mortgage, more expensive than healthcare in some cases,” Dunbar said after an assembly work session. “It’s their single largest expense.”

Dunbar says the goal of upcoming meetings on the topic is to better understand municipal policies that can affect childcare costs and availability. That might include adjustments to zoning requirements or other code changes. He expects a potential ordinance could come during the summer.

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is preparing for a future that includes more tourists and a melting attraction.

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On Thursday, more than 50 people attended an open house to catch a glimpse of the new concepts. That includes expanding some of the national forest trails and creating a shuttle system to reduce traffic.

But some of the biggest proposed changes could help people get closer to the retreating ice.

John Neary, the visitor center’s director, says his agency is trying to adapt.

“The glacier we know is going to disappear within that 20 years time frame. We’re pretty sure of that,” Neary said. “So given that, and given that most people are coming here to see the glacier, we’re going to chase the glacier up the valley.”

Neary says small commercial boats — possibly electric — could be the solution to getting up close. The boats could take you to some kind of mobile visitor center, near the old ice caves, which would move with the glacier over time.

Docks would be built along Mendenhall Lake.

The ideas were collected after nearly two years of meetings with locals, facilitated by Corvus Design.

First, the plans have go through a federal environmental study. But the U.S. Forest Service hopes to announce which projects to take on by December of this year.

An Anchorage judge heard arguments Monday on whether a lawsuit brought by sixteen young Alaskans suing the state over climate change should advance.

The plaintiffs in the case, Sinnok v. State of Alaska, argue the state is violating their constitutional rights by failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions – and they’re asking the courts to intervene.

But the state says climate change policies must be decided by the legislature and the executive branch, not the courts.

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About a dozen of the young plaintiffs, ranging in age from elementary school to their early 20s, sat in the front row of the small courtroom during the hour-long arguments.

They watched as Assistant Attorney General Seth Beausang, arguing for the state, asked the court to dismiss the case entirely. Beausang said past court rulings have established that only the elected branches of government can balance the impacts of climate change against other interests, like economic development.

“The court said that weighing all those interests was a policy decision entrusted to the political branches, and not to the courts,” Beausang said.

That ruling came in a similar climate change case, Kanuk v State of Alaska, dismissed by the Alaska Supreme Court in 2014.

That case and this new one were both brought with the help of an Oregon-based nonprofit, Our Children’s Trust, which has filed legal actions on behalf of young people across the country demanding action on climate change.

The young plaintiffs in this case say that in the years since the 2014 Supreme Court ruling, Alaska has implemented a de facto climate policy by continuing to encourage activities like oil and gas production. Attorney Andrew Welle of Our Children’s Trust, argued that this policy violates the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, requiring the courts to step in.

“The state’s climate and energy policy is causing catastrophic harm to Alaska’s climate system and endangering plaintiff’s lives and liberties and their very futures,” Welle said. “These claims are squarely within the authority of the court.”

Bob Shavelson is with the environmental group Cook Inletkeeper. His five- and eight-year-old daughters are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Standing in the hallway outside the courtroom after the hearing, he said the case is about much more than which branch of government is responsible for policymaking.

“I think it’s one of the most important lawsuits, if not in the past decade in Alaska, in the state’s entire history,” Shavelson said. “We’re really talking about the future of Alaska here.”

Alaska Superior Court Judge Gregory Miller will decide whether the case can move forward. Attorneys for both sides said they expect a ruling within the next six months.

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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Charges: Alaska State Trooper tried to meet 16-year-old girl for sex

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

An Alaska State Trooper, 57-year-old Vance Peronto, is charged with attempted sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly trying to meet a 16-year-old girl at an Anchorage hotel Sunday, according to a written statement from the Department of Public Safety.

Sixteen young Alaskans hope courts can force the state to act on climate change

Rachel Waldholz, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

An Anchorage judge heard arguments today in a lawsuit brought by 16 young Alaskans who are suing the state over climate change.

Legislature passes bill lowering bond amounts in order to pay pensions

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Alaska owes public workers $6.6 billion more in pensions than it has in assets.  The Legislature has passed a bill to lower the amount of bonds the state could sell to reduce this unfunded pension liability.

Before the flames: Alaska firefighters prep for wildfire season

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

It’s the start of wildland fire season in Alaska, and to make sure they’re ready for it, firefighters have been testing their proficiency at operating equipment, as well as their mental and physical fortitude.

Reception mixed on ASD proposal to switch school start times around

Victoria Petersen, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The Anchorage School District is considering a huge change. The district is looking at implementing new school start times, with elementary schools starting earlier and high schools later.

How tourists could see the Mendenhall Glacier after it retreats

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is preparing for a future that includes more tourists and a melting attraction.

Wolf kills dog along Brotherhood Bridge Trail in Juneau

Jeremy Hsieh, KTOO – Juneau

Wildlife biologist Ryan Scott thinks the wolf just happened to kill a deer near the trail and was protecting its kill. He doesn’t think there’s any public safety or pet safety issue out of the ordinary.

Assembly takes up high cost of Anchorage childcare

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

High costs and limited accessibility spark search by elected officials for potential municipal fixes.

Octopus eggs hatch at Alaska SeaLife Center

Renee Gross, KBBI – Homer

Alaska SeaLife Center’s family of octopuses is growing. A giant Pacific octopus, named Gilligan, laid thousands of eggs about a year ago. Less than a hundred hatched this month. Aquarium curator Richard Hocking expects the remaining eggs to hatch by the end of May.

Friendly competition and sibling rivalry abound at Native Youth Olympics

Johanna Eurich, KYUK – Anchorage

The Native Youth Olympics is much more than an athletic competition. It is an expression of arctic culture, with games based on the skills required to survive on land and ice.

Alaska owes public workers $6.6 billion more in pensions than it has in assets.

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The Legislature has passed a measure, Senate Bill 97, to lower the amount of bonds the state could sell to reduce this unfunded pension liability.

Current state law allows the Gov. Bill Walker’s administration to sell up to $5 billion in bonds, but the Legislature needs to appropriate that money. The bill would reduce that amount to $1.5 billion. But it signals that at least some lawmakers could support an appropriation in the future.

Sen. Anna MacKinnon, an Eagle River Republican, said the bill is a compromise for senators and House members.

“There are some in both bodies that thought we should eliminate all possibility of borrowing,” MacKinnon said.

The bonds would essentially be low-interest debt. The state could use that money to invest. If investment returns were higher than the bonds’ rate, the state would save money.

The House passed the bill on Saturday and the Senate agreed Monday to changes the House made.

It’s bright yellow and only flown in only a couple spots around the city. Few people have probably seen Anchorage’s municipal flag, but it plays an important role in the city’s symbolism.

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Abigail Ash says she goes to the Anchorage public library at least two to three times a week.

“I noticed the flag, but I didn’t know what it stood for,” Abigail Ash said. “My daughter’s even come here and they’re like ‘what’s that?’ It’s like ‘I have no clue’,”

Ash is referring to the municipal flag, which flies next to the U.S. flag and the state flag at the library.

Most people don’t notice it, or know what it stands for. Don Burgman also frequents the library about twice a week.

“I look at the flags, all three of them, and occasionally I notice they’re at half mast and I’m curious about why,” Burgman said. “But I never noticed it was the city flag. Now that I know that I’ll appreciate it,”

The library and museum are among the few places in Anchorage where you can see the flag flying in the wind. Both Burgman and Ash agree that Anchorage needs a city flag, and that they’d like to see it around more.

The flag features the municipal seal, designed with Captain Cook’s ship the Resolution, a nod to the explorer’s history with Anchorage. It has a large anchor and a small airplane to symbolize Anchorage as a port and as the air crossroads of the world. The seal sits on a field of bright yellow, and the words “Anchorage, Alaska” adorn the top and the bottom of the seal.

Ted Kaye is a vexillologist, which means he studies the design of flags. Kaye lives in Portland and is the secretary for the North American Vexillological Association. He says poorly designed city flags are flown less. Which may explain why few Anchorage residents recognize their flag.

“I like to say that in every bad flag design, there’s a good flag design trying to get out. Anchorage’s flag is no exception,” Kaye said. “It has great imagery, an anchor for Anchorage is just super. But writing the words Anchorage, Alaska on the flag, in a sense, shows that Anchorage is insecure about its symbolism.”

Kaye has written numerous books about flag design, including one about the history and design of 150 different city flags across the nation. He says his researchers found nearly nothing gathering information about Anchorage’s flag page.

“We know what the design represents, but we didn’t know who had designed it or exactly when. That was just not available to our researchers when we contacted Anchorage,” Kaye said.

After reaching out to the museum, the Mayor’s office and the library, it was discovered that Anchorage artist Joan Kimura was the original designer. A longtime artist in Anchorage, Kimura taught art at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and formerly the Anchorage Community College from 1973 to 1994. The UAA Kimura Art Gallery is named in her family’s honor.

Kimura submitted an acrylic painting of her flag design for a contest the city was having in 1973. It’s almost exactly the same as the flag flying at the museum and the library today.

In 1975, in a Anchorage Assembly resolution, the seal design from the flag was adopted as the official seal for the city of Anchorage, the same seal the municipality uses today.

The North American Vexillological Association ranked Anchorage’s city flag 29th out of 150 in a survey on city flags across the nation in 2004. The flag received a score of 5.3 out of 10. Juneau’s city flag is rated one of the worst city flags in the survey at 134th, with a score of 2.7.

Thorne Bay, Wrangell, Wasilla, Homer, Houston and Ketchikan are a handful of other cities in Alaska that have official flags. North Pole features Santa Claus on their flag. Seward’s flag was chosen in 2016 from a contest that featured art from over 350 schoolchildren.

Some might ask why a city flag is important. Kaye says flags can be used for people to identify with and to rally around.

“City flags look both inward and outward,” Kaye said. “Inward they create a sense of identity to tie the residents together and help define who they are. Outward a flag creates a brand to represent the city to the outside world.

Residents see the municipal seal everywhere, from liquor licenses, to ballots, to the sides of municipal vehicles. However, spotting it flying is far rarer.

The Bureau of Land Management received thousands of public comments on the controversial proposed Ambler Road during the scoping period for the project, which ended in January. The BLM released a summary of those comments this week.

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The road, which is proposed by the state, would begin at the Dalton Highway and run over 200 miles west, along the southern edge of the Brooks Range. Proponents say it’s needed to develop the Ambler mining district.

Tim La Marr with BLM said the agency received input from people on all sides of the issue.

“I was impressed with the range of comments that we got,” La Marr said. “Comments from the mining industry, comments from environmental groups, a lot of comments from the tribes… comments from people throughout Alaska and people in the Lower 48 as well.”

La Marr said that of the 7,000 or so written comments, most were form emails. But over 800 were unique messages, many with substantive suggestions for issues that BLM should consider as they assess the impacts of building the road.

Some of those comments argue the road will lead to job growth and economic benefits for the state. Others raise concerns that it would disrupt the Western Arctic Caribou Herd’s migration, or enable more drugs and alcohol to enter rural communities.

A topic that came up often in the comments was who would have access to the road. The state says the road will only be permitted for non-public, industrial use. But a number of people who commented questioned the state’s ability to keep the road closed to the public, especially over the long term.

“A lot of those comments stem from the concern that if it is opened up to public use, then that opens up a huge area in Alaska that sport hunters and fishermen can start to… use those resources at the expense of subsistence uses,” La Marr said.

The comments will help the agency develop an environmental impact statement for the project. That assessment will underpin BLM’s decision on whether to allow the road to be built on federal land.

The state is funding the federal environmental review process. The legislature appropriated funding for the project in the past, but Governor Walker has only allowed a portion of that to be spent so far.

BLM says the state has provided funding through the end of the scoping phase of the Environmental Impact Statement process. To complete the EIS, the state will need to provide BLM with additional funds.

First Quantum Minerals and Northern Dynasty announced today another delay in finalizing their option agreement.

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Northern Dynasty Minerals is the sole owner of the Pebble Limited Partnership. In December, the parties announced that First Quantum had agreed to buy into Pebble at $150 million over four years. At the end of those four years, First Quantum would have the option to become a 50 percent owner of PLP. The original framework agreement gave the companies until April 6 to finalize the agreement.

After the December announcement, Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier said that the initial $150 million would help fund the permitting phase of the proposed gold, copper and molybdenum mine in Bristol Bay

Last month, the companies extended the deadline to finalize the agreement to April 30. They’ve now extended it a second time. The new deadline is May 31.

Relocating the Newtok school into a temporary building at Mertarvik will be delayed until the fall of 2019. What’s the hold up? The Newtok Village Council informed the Lower Kuskokwim School District that the problem is a lack of housing.

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The district had hoped that they would be able to make the move this summer, but now it looks to be over a year away.

LKSD Assistant Superintendent Carlton Kuhns said that housing for families won’t be available this fall, so the kids would not be at Mertarvik to be taught.

“It is going to happen, there is vertical construction happening over there,” Kuhns said. “Managing the funding sources the Tribal Council has, has got to be incredibly difficult.”

That’s with funds coming from three or four different federal and state agencies.

Superintendent Dan Walker also told the LKSD board that he’s concerned about teachers getting stranded without housing at the new village site. Walker told the Board that the district’s lobbyist has been in touch with both Y-K Delta legislative representatives and Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, who told him that they aim to have $400,000 budgeted specifically for teacher housing. Walker added that the district is trying to get one of the retrofitted military barracks being barged in from Anchorage for village housing set aside for teacher housing at Mertarvik, but that won’t happen until 2019.

Walker said that the district is also seeking funds from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.

Army Corps of Engineers officials were at Fort Greely last week to begin planning in earnest for the decommissioning and possible dismantling of the old mothballed nuclear power plant on post. The staff from the Corps’ Baltimore office also are talking with officials on post and in Delta Junction about the project, which could take up to a decade to complete.

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Decommissioning a nuclear power plant is a complex undertaking under the best of circumstances. Even more so when the plant is located in the same building as the facility that provides heat and backup power to Fort Greely.

“We have to work very closely with the installation, as well as with the privatized utility, to make sure that we’re not interfering with their ability to provide utilities to the installation and the mission,” Brenda Barber, a project manager with the Corps’ Deactivated Nuclear Power Plant Program, said. “But we also need to make sure we can achieve our mission.”

Barber says isolating and removing some or all of the old SM-1A components from the area next to the steam-heat facility, which the nuke plant once powered, is one of the thornier problems that’ll have to be overcome during the decommissioning project.

“There will be a lot of complicated decisions that need to be made,” Barber said, “A lot of collaboration that’s going to be required in trying to separate those two systems, which were originally designed to be together.”

The Army hooked-up diesel-fired boilers to the post’s district heating system after it shut down the SM-1A in 1972. A few years ago, the Army privatized the steam-heat plant, and it’s now operated by Doyon Utilities. So, the project will have to include provisions to ensure the safety of the steam-heat plant workers as they keep it operating while work is under way on the SM-1A.

“Our key point is going to be health and safety of both the occupational workers for our staff as well as the staff on the installation and the public as a whole,” Hans Honerlah, a health physicist with the Corps, said.

Honerlah says an important part of the preliminary planning now under way includes determining how much of the SM-1A can be safely removed without creating a risk to human health from exposure to radiation.

“The goal is for it to be outta here,” Honerlah said. “And the goal is to reduce the risk. Now, could I say every atom is going to be gone? No. We’re going to reduce the risk to a level that’s going to be more acceptable.”

Barber says the decommissioning plan that’s now being developed will address those complexities. She expects that plan to be completed in 2021, and she says the Corps hopes to begin soliciting for a project contractor the following year. She estimates the projects will be done in 2027. But she couldn’t estimate how much the project will cost, because there are so many unknowns. But she says a project to decommission a similar nuclear power plant was estimated to cost $34.6 million.

“Unfortunately, due to the challenges and the complexity of that work, that contract price doubled,” Barber said. “That contract is sitting at $66.4 million right now, and we’re hopeful we can finish for that.”

Barber says the Corps has begun market research on potential contractors capable of doing the main project and others to do subcontract work and other possible projects that may be done separately, such as construction of a man camp to accommodate workers.

“It (the survey) allows us to understand if there are Native Alaskan companies, if there are what we call 8(a) companies, small business,” Narber said. “We will look for opportunities where smaller businesses could take advantage of finite pieces of the work.”

Barber says the project also will include designating the SM-1A an historic property. She says artifacts that were buried with the reactor in 1973 will be returned to post officials. And she says the federal government will work with the Alaska State Historic Preservation Office to help preserve the story of the SM-1A, Alaska’s first and – so far – only nuclear power plant.

The Department of Public Safety continues to investigate after prosecutors filed felony charges Monday against an Alaska State Trooper accused of attempted sexual abuse of a minor.

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But the accused, 57-year-old Vance Peronto, is no longer a trooper. The Department of Public Safety said the 16-year veteran of the force is not employed by the state anymore, as of Tuesday morning. He had been based in Soldotna.

According to the charges, Peronto struck up an online relationship with a 16-year-old girl after a traffic stop several weeks ago. The charges say their conversations became sexually explicit and included nude photos. The girl’s father discovered the messages and reported them to authorities Thursday, kicking off an investigation that culminated in a sting operation in Anchorage on Sunday.

The charges say Peronto arrived at a hotel in his patrol vehicle hoping to meet the girl in her room. Instead, he found other troopers behind the door, and they arrested him.

Maj. Andrew Greenstreet, deputy director of the troopers, said there were many troubling aspects to the case.

“You get kind of a sinking feeling, that something like this could be going on,” Greenstreet said. “These types of cases where we investigate one of our own come up from time to time, and we act on them very swiftly and deliberately.”

A Department of Public Safety spokesperson said the case has prompted further investigation of Peronto’s past interactions with other members of the public. Greenstreet said the Alaska Bureau of Investigation is conducting a thorough review and taking any other complaints seriously.

“It’s a real possibility that other charges could stem as a result of that investigation,” Greenstreet said.

Jail records show Peronto remained behind bars Tuesday. A judge has ordered him held on $10,000 cash bail.

Peronto previously appeared in news reporting earlier this year in relation to a lawsuit, in which he was accused of sexual harassment for allegedly sending disturbing text messages to a state prosecutor’s personal cell phone.

Officials with the troopers and Department of Public Safety refused to comment on whether Peronto faced any review or reprimand related to that case.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected from an earlier version that said the Alaska State Troopers fired Peronto. The troopers have declined to say why Peronto’s employment ended, as it is a confidential personnel matter.

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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Troopers continue to investigate one of their own for alleged sexual abuse attempt

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Charged with attempted sexual abuse of a minor, 57-year-old Vance Peronto, is no longer a trooper. The agency fired the 16-year veteran of the force Tuesday morning. He had been based in Soldotna.

Deadline for Northern Dynasty and First Quantum to finalize Pebble option agreement extended, again

Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham

First Quantum Minerals and Northern Dynasty announced today another delay in finalizing their option agreement.

Medicaid work requirements won’t save money, state says

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

An analysis by state officials finds that requiring people who receive Medicaid to work won’t save the state government money. That’s because the state would have to pay people to help residents find work, and to check that they’re complying with the requirement.

Caribou, access concerns vs. mining’s economic promise — BLM releases public input on Ambler Road

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

“I was impressed with the range of comments that we got,” La Marr said. “Comments from the mining industry, comments from environmental groups, a lot of comments from the tribes… comments from people throughout Alaska and people in the lower 48 as well.”

Death penalty won’t be sought in Florida airport shooting

Associated Press

The Justice Department has decided not to seek the death penalty against an Alaska man accused of killing five people and wounding six in a Florida airport shooting.

Newtok school relocation delayed until Fall 2019

Christine Trudeau, KYUK – Bethel

Relocating the Newtok school into a temporary building at Mertarvik will be delayed until the fall of 2019. What’s the hold up? The Newtok Village Council informed the Lower Kuskokwim School District that the problem is a lack of housing.

Army soldier in Alaska brigade dies in Afghanistan

Associated Press

The Army says a 22-year-old soldier assigned to an Alaska post has died in Afghanistan.

Corps of Engineers officials visit Fort Greely to plan for nuclear power plant decommissioning

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

Army Corps of Engineers officials were at Fort Greely last week to begin planning in earnest for the decommissioning and possible dismantling of the old mothballed nuclear power plant on post.

After a tragedy, a Yup’ik dance group in Hooper Bay keeps dancing

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Yup’ik dancing has helped people connect and heal for centuries. It can’t prevent all tragedies, but this Hooper Bay group shows that it can help.

Why don’t more residents know about Anchorage’s flag?

Victoria Petersen, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

It’s bright yellow and only flown in only a couple spots around the city. Few people have probably seen Anchorage’s municipal flag, but it plays an important role in the city’s symbolism.

An analysis by state officials finds that requiring people who receive Medicaid to work won’t save the state money. That’s because the state would have to pay people to help residents to find work, and to check that they’re complying with a requirement.

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President Donald Trump’s administration is encouraging states to require people to work if they benefit from Medicaid or other low-income programs.

Senate Bill 193 seeks to do this by requiring Medicaid recipients to seek work or job training, volunteer, engage in subsistence activities or provide caregiving. The requirements would apply to adult Medicaid recipients who are younger than 65, who do not have disabilities and who aren’t being treated for substance abuse.

The state Department of Health and Social Services said the state would need to hire workers to ensure the state meets federal requirements.

Deputy Health and Social Services Commissioner Jon Sherwood said federal officials set a high bar for states to meet, in part because the work requirements will face legal challenges.

“Their policy was written with defending litigation around this issue in mind, so there are a lot of requirements imposed upon states who move forward, to ensure that the individuals subject to these requirements have adequate protection,” Sherwood said.

To do this, the department proposed hiring 49 people. The expense from the added positions, along with other costs to help people find work, means the department estimates the added requirement would cost nearly $14 million per year. Even if the state could cut most of the projected expenses from the bill, the costs would still exceed the savings, because most of the savings would go to the federal government, which funds the bulk of Medicaid costs for those affected.

Senators pressed Sherwood on why the department didn’t expect more savings for the state. He defended the approach.

“We do our best to come up with what we think are reasonable assumptions, and avoid making highly speculative guesses,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood noted that the constant monitoring of whether Medicaid recipients are complying with requirements would be more expensive than other social programs.

Republican Sens. Anna MacKinnon of Eagle River and Peter Micciche of Soldotna support eliminating the 49 proposed positions. They argue that private contractors or the Department of Labor and Workforce Development could do the work. But they want more information about how that would work.

Micciche said there must be a way to not add to department costs.

“The organization is a bureaucracy that does things a certain way – most of it’s born in D.C. and we inherit it,” Micciche said. “And that’s the problem – is that it does things a certain way, and that certain way isn’t working.”

Due to the various health and age exemptions, the bill would only affect 25,000 Alaskans: roughly one in 10 people who receive Medicaid.

The Senate Finance Committee discussed the measure Tuesday. The committee plans to bring the bill up again Wednesday.

The first people who came to Alaska likely trekked on foot across a land bridge during the last ice age. It’s always been a bit of a mystery how they survived the long, dark winters we still see today.

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A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers some clues into how the first Alaskans adapted to their new home.

The story of how the first Alaskans survived is really a story about moms and how they adapted to care for their babies in a harsh, new world.

For thousands of years, the narrator of the PBS documentary ‘Great Human Odyssey,’ explained, humans fought impossible odds.

“It shouldn’t have happened, that homo sapiens– our species– survived,” the narrator said. “Our ancestors not only survived, they spread into every corner of the globe.”

Including Alaska. Sea levels were a lot lower during the last ice age. The theory is that humans crossed the Bering Land Bridge and settled in Alaska about 20,000 years ago.

Leslea Hlusko is an assistant professor of integrative biology at University of California Berkeley.

“It was probably a lot like what it is today– so not exactly a nice, warm sunny place to live,” Hlusko explained of the conditions in Alaska 20,000 years ago.

Hlusko was asked to give a talk last year on human migration into the Americas. That got her thinking about genetics, specifically about one mysterious mutation that leads to thick, straight hair and shovel shaped teeth.

Those traits are found in the first Alaskans — but no one really knew why.

“You can wave your arms around,” Hlusko exclaimed. “And say, ‘thick hair keeps you warm,’ or, ‘shovel shaped incisors keep your teeth from wearing down too fast.’”

But that wasn’t all that convincing.

So, Hlusko started thinking about vitamin D and sunlight.

People living in higher latitudes evolved to have lighter skin in part so they could soak up more vitamin D. But at a certain latitude, like here in Alaska, it doesn’t matter how light your skin is– there’s just not enough sunlight.

“So even if you were naked with really light skin,” Hlusko said. “You’re not going to make enough vitamin D to be healthy.”

The first Alaskans had already started eating the vitamin D-rich diet that’s still around today — for example, lots of fish and seals. That was one way of adapting.

“When a culture changes its diet, everybody who’s eating solid foods benefits from that,” Hlusko said.

Except for babies, Hlusko explained. So how were they getting the vitamin D they needed?

It turns out the same mutation that leads to thicker hair and grooved teeth also leads to more ductal branching — that’s the tiny tubes that branch out from a woman’s nipples into her breasts.

Hlusko explained “they get finer and finer and finer and smaller and small and smaller,” until they reach the fat cells.

Those tubes then pull nutrients, including vitamin D, out of those fat cells and send them back through the mother’s breast milk.

Every woman has those tiny tubes. But Hlusko thinks women in Alaska during the last ice age developed more of them and that helped keep their babies healthy.

“So it shifted our thinking of this mutation as a being a gene that influences hair or tooth shape, to maybe the most important thing is that this is a gene that influences breast development,” Hlusko said.

Hlusko and her colleagues found the genetic mutation in every one of the more than 3,000 remains they studied.

And it’s a mutation that a lot of women still carry today — not just in Alaska but in in eastern Asia and in Native populations throughout North and South America.

“If you run your tongue against the top teeth at the front of your mouth– if the back of them have little buttresses,” Hlusko said, “then you have shovel shaped incisors.”

And likely the same genetic mutation that helped the first Alaskans keep their babies healthy during the long, dark winters.

On Hoonah’s waterfront, a former eatery is undergoing a bit of a makeover.

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The former Misty Bay Lodge will be the new home of Icy Strait Brewing, the Hoonah-based microbrewery.

Previous owners Dan Kane and his business partner Todd Thingvall sold the business, recipes and equipment to Tawney Letterman and Keith Quinn, who hope to open in time for the first cruise ship on May 12.

“We couldn’t have purchased a brewery from more solid people,” Letterman said. “They’ve been gracious as well and helpful getting everything thing over here and giving us any kind of guidance. We definitely couldn’t have had more incredible people to purchase it from.”

Letterman, 29, previously worked in Vancouver, British Columbia. She hopes the influx of tourists will want to sample the brewery’s familiar oatmeal stout, blonde, pale ale and India pale ale.

When her mother and her mother’s business partner called about the opportunity to buy the brewery, Letterman couldn’t pass it up.

“I’m not totally sure how they found out about the brewery being for sale,” Letterman said. “But they called me in December and asked me and my husband if we wanted to be a part of it. We said yes, and the rest is history.”

About a four-minute walk from the original site, the large two-story, red building will house the business.

Letterman and Quinn are busy fixing up the inside to utilize the space, and provide plenty of seating next to the building’s large windows overlooking the water.

Letterman calls it a “modest remodel,” but hopes to include some Southeast Alaska decor.

“It’s like a total construction site here right now,” Letterman said. “We obviously have a lot of work to do but we’re looking at two weeks hopefully.”

The outside will be repainted red to make it more vibrant and noticeable, and it’ll get a new sign for the brewery.

Letterman said they’ll keep all the previous beer recipes.

“We’re actually going to stay with the beers that Hoonah is familiar with. One of the brewers who worked at Icy Strait Brewery, the original one, came along with the brewery,”  the 10-year veteran said of the service industry. “And he graciously agreed to come and get us started.”

The brewery previously rotated a smaller batch of blueberry blonde and also a short run of hefeweizen.

“I’m really into a Belgian hefe,” Letterman said. “I like lighter and more fruity beers, but I definitely have a place in my heart for the darker, more heavy beers. Just maybe not as often.”

The brewery also plans to sell growlers and will offer food under the Misty Bay brand.

Letterman said the brewery will get most of its ingredients from the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, but she wants to source locally whenever possible. So they’re working on getting hops grown in Hoonah.

“Just because we’re in a small town doesn’t mean that we don’t have the capacity to make a really high quality beer that you might find anywhere else,” Letterman said. “It’s really exciting to be able to live in such a remote location and be able to do what we’re doing.”