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Ask a Climatologist: Anchorage, this gloomy spring is all in your head

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Clouds hang over Hope, Alaska on May 19, 2018. (Photo by Annie Feidt/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

In Anchorage, complaining about the gloomy weather this spring has become something of a new pastime.

But is the weather really worse than normal?

According to Brian Brettschneider with our Ask a Climatologist segment, the answer is no.

Brettschneider says since April, the weather in Anchorage has been a few degrees warmer than normal and also drier than normal.

How is that possible?

Brettschneider says there haven’t been any really warm days. Typically Anchorage hits 60 degrees at least once by May 14, but the warmest temperature so far has been 59 degrees.

“So there can be this disconnect where there can be no really warm days, but we can still be above normal,” Brettschneider says.

Brettschneider says it’s also been a bit cloudier and significantly windier than normal.

“But for the most part, the story of this spring has been warmth.”


This man and his yellow truck signal the arrival of spring in Fairbanks

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93-year-old Glenn Hackney, giving the thumbs down to a mattress he hauled off the side of the road in Fairbanks on April 30th, 2018. He starts picking up roadside trash as soon as the snow melts each year. (Ravenna Koenig/ Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Glenn Hackney of Fairbanks has been fighting the same battle for over 50 years. It starts every spring, and it’s won with plastic bags and a pickup truck.

“This is the most famous pickup in Fairbanks,” Hackney said. “This little yellow pickup has been hauling trash around town for 25 years.”

Hackney’s big battle is garbage. In Fairbanks his name is synonymous with the annual springtime clean-up day, but for 93-year-old Hackney, any day there’s not snow on the ground is an opportunity for tidying up.

Most of what Hackney picks up off the side of the road is pretty ho-hum: paper cups, plastic bottles, kids toys. But he’s also encountered some stranger stuff, like a bowling ball, and a gilded rose packed in a box.

“I figured it was a jilted lover who tossed it out the window,” Hackney said, laughing.

In late April, Hackney took me on a Fairbanks trash tour in his custard-colored pickup. He jokingly refers to the dents in it as “parking lot kisses.”

Hackney moved to Alaska back in 1948. He spent most of his career working in concrete and construction, and served eight years in the state legislature.

Hackney started picking up trash his first spring in Fairbanks as one of the organizers of the community-wide clean-up day. And he’s been a booster for the cause ever since.

“It gets in your blood,” Hackney said. “I like to see a clean community. I’m frankly appalled at what visitors to Fairbanks would think about right now driving along this section of highway I’m going to show you in a few minutes.”

We got out along a stretch of road that Hackney says is one of the biggest eyesores in town. Cars whipped past us at 55 miles per hour. And yes, there was a lot of trash lying around. But Hackney was there for one item in particular. A soggy mattress that someone had lost, Hackney presumed off the back of their pickup.

Hackney hauled it into the back of his truck with just a little help. He’s 93 years old, but he’s always had exceptional grit when it comes to improving the street view in Fairbanks.

Back in 1992, Hackney actually got hit by a car while doing it. The car broke both his legs, and he had to have surgery. That might give the average person pause about continuing. Not Hackney.

“You know what they say,” Hackney said with a grin, “Camaros never strike twice in the same place!”

Hackney would like to be clear: his enthusiasm is for clean roads, not necessarily the activity of cleaning them. He says he’d prefer it if there was no trash to pick up in the first place.  

To that end, there are some change’s he’d like to see around town: more people covering the backs of their trucks so stuff doesn’t fly out. And people with mattresses in the back, driving just a bit slower.

“They simply drive too fast and the law of physics, which is immutable, takes over and they fly out the back of the pickup,” Hackney said.

Hackney’s parting words to the people of Alaska: “Always keep busy, never give up, and pick up your darn trash!”

Additional federal gun charges brought on man charged with 2016 killing of Fairbanks policeman

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A man already facing a murder charge in state court for shooting a Fairbanks Police officer, has been additionally charged with federal crimes.

Thirty-year-old Anthony Jenkins Alexie of Fairbanks, accused of shooting Sgt. Allen Brandt in October 2016, has been indicted on federal gun charges related to the crime. US Attorney for the District of Alaska, Bryan Schroder announced the new charges Tuesday morning, during a press conference at Fairbanks Police Department.

”One count of using a firearm during a crime of violence, one count of stealing a firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm,” Schroder said.

The additional charges are related to Jenkins having a previous felony DUI conviction, and his alleged stealing of Sgt. Brandt’s service weapon, and patrol vehicle, after the shooting.

”The charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence, as we charged it in this case, is a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,” Schroder said.

The other federal charges could bring more time, all additional to the 99-year sentence Jenkins Alexie faces if convicted of first degree murder in state court.

Brandt was shot on a downtown street while responding to a call, public service Fairbanks Police Chief Eric Jewkes noted in thanking state and federal authorities for their work on the case.

”Clearly, the officers are out there are doing a very hard job, putting a lot on the line and doing a lot for this community,” Jewkes said. “And so, as Sgt. Brandt said at one time, we need your support. I think this a perfect example of that support that we need.”

Jenkins Alexie was recorded on dash cam video from Brandt’s patrol vehicle, and subsequently confessed to the shooting, describing it as an act of vengeance for police killings of relatives and friends.

Sergeant Brandt died two weeks after the shooting from complications during surgery to remove shrapnel from one of his eyes.

Jenkins Alexie’s murder trial in state court is scheduled to begin September 10th.

Three Unalaska residents to be honored for rescuing trapped child on Portage Glacier

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Damian Lopez Plancarte, Mary Heimes and Ronan Gray pulled a child out of a crevasse at Portage Glacier. (Photo courtesy of Ronan Gray)

Three Unalaska residents will be honored by the Anchorage Municipal Assembly.

On April 1, Ronan Gray, Damian Lopez Plancarte and Mary Heimes helped rescue a child from a crevasse on Portage Glacier.

Their flight home had been cancelled, so they went for a walk. And they were approached by a man who said his son was trapped in the ice.

“When I got to the crevasse and looked down it was just black. You couldn’t really even see anything,” Gray said. “I heard whimpering and then I saw movement. I saw the top of his head. That was when the extremity of the situation really hit me because I was frightened. I couldn’t even fathom going down there myself.”

But Gray did climb into the crevasse. He says it was less than two feet wide. The responders set up a rope and three people served as a human anchor while Gray was lowered 30 feet into the chasm.

“Once I got down into the hole, we got him out in about an hour,” Gray said. “He’d been down there about an hour before I got there.”

Gray says Jack Crockett was just wearing a t-shirt, so by the time he was pulled out of the glacier, Crockett had mild hypothermia.

Search and rescue volunteers took him to an ambulance where he warmed up. Crockett walked away with a few bruises.

Gray is an experienced climber and alpinist, but this was his first time participating in an ice rescue and he has no first aid training. This event, he says makes him want to learn more about those things.

Kodiak farmers market kerfuffle results in market move, addition of new market

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A “hoop house” green house on Sunday, May 20, where Judy Hamilton is growing greens to sell at the Kodiak Farmers Market. (Photo by Daysha Eaton)

After allegations that farmers market vendors were selling food that violated state food safety laws, the biggest farmers market in Kodiak is moving. And a new market is springing up where the old one used to be, bringing the number of markets in town to three.

It’s 40 degrees and pouring rain in Kodiak, but inside Judy Hamilton’s greenhouse, it’s downright balmy and rows of vegetables are growing.

“We have Chinese cabbage and bok choy, lettuce , arugula, kale, Brussels sprouts,” Hamilton said.

For years, Hamilton has sold her produce at the Kodiak Farmers Market at the local fairgrounds. But this year the market is moving after a controversy erupted about who should run it.

Deplazes has organized the market since it came together organically about eight years ago.

“Well it kind of all began when a friend of mine and I were talking about our gardens and how we were gettin’ a little tired of having to chase people down the road with bags of Swiss chard and kale and my friend said, ‘We should have a farmers market’. And I said, ‘Wouldn’t that be nice’,” Desplazes said.

The market flourished at the fairgrounds and expanded to include 20 to 30 vendors selling vegetables, fruit, arts, crafts and more.

But recently, Deplazes says, members of the Kodiak Rodeo and State Fair Board, which runs the fairgrounds, began approaching her about taking over the market.

“I think it may have begun last summer,” Desplazes said. “I believe that one of the members of fair board approached me at one of the later markets in the summer and said something to the effect of, ‘We’d like to take over management of the market’. At which point I said, ‘Oh you guys have plenty on your plates, you don’t need that too’ and left it at that.”

And Desplazes says it didn’t stop there.

“And then at one point, I talked to the president of the fair board and she flat said, ‘We’re taking over management of the farmer’s market.’ And I was kind of speechless,” Desplazes said.

“There was items being sold that were against state law,” Sadie McCusker, president of the fair board said.

McCusker alleges the main reason they stepped in was food safety and liability concerns.

“There was items being fried on scene in open flame. There was meat products being sold, there was dairy products being sold that were not, not legal,” McCusker said. “We tried to address this concern multiple times in different ways and they were not being recognised.”

State law allows vendors to sell “cottage foods,” like jams breads and pastries, without a permit. Food not allowed includes meat and fish products, baked goods that require refrigeration and cheeses – basically anything that requires temperature control to insure food safety. Packaged foods must be labeled.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation handles food safety and sanitation for farmers markets around the state. Because of state budget cuts the DEC closed their office in Kodiak 2016. DEC representatives visited Kodiak four times in 2017 for inspections, but they did not inspect farmers markets. They have not yet visited in 2018.

“We are the managers of the fairgrounds,” McCusker said. “We lease the property from the borough, so if state law is not being followed we are liable and so is the borough.”

As a result of the allegations, Deplazes recently moved the venue for the farmers market from the fairgrounds, across town to the Kodiak Baptist Mission. Then, McCusker announced that the fair board will host a new farmers market at the fairgrounds.

Farmers market vendor, Judy Hamilton says she has never seen problems with Deplazes’ management.

“She’s always addressed concerns about things and i really think — her management style is loose, but she also makes sure that everyone that comes in, alright you’re going to sign this, here’s the cottage rules, if you have a question you need to talk to DEC,” Hamilton said.

And Hamilton adds that there is such a demand for fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables in Kodiak, that perhaps another farmer’s market isn’t such a bad idea.

“There is a tremendous market for all those things, so we can just hope that Kodiak growers can expand to fill it,” Hamilton said, adding that she plans to be at the new Kodiak Farmers Market location at the Baptist Mission on Saturdays.

Urged by Alaska veterans, Sullivan supports cannabis research at VA

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Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is co-sponsoring a bill that would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to research medicinal cannabis.

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The bill calls on the VA to look into the “efficacy and safety” of cannabis in the treatment of veterans diagnosed with “chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder” and other conditions.

Twenty-nine states have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis, but it still remains illegal under federal law. That’s why it has been unclear if the VA is allowed to research cannabis, and the bill would specifically authorize the department to do so.

Sullivan said the legislation has his support because he’s heard veterans say in conversations and in public testimony that the VA should look at the benefits of cannabis.

“Some have tried to find the benefits of dealing with pain through self-medicating marijuana, and doctors, particularly at the VA need to understand this and how it can affect their diagnoses, and I have heard from veterans that this has been helpful,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan cited the over-prescription of opioids and the rising number of overdose deaths in the past year as reasons veterans are looking for other treatment methods.

Medicinal cannabis has been legal in Alaska for more than two decades, and Alaska voters legalized its recreational use in 2015 through a ballot initiative.

Sullivan has said he did not support the initiative, but said he accepted the mandate of state voters when it passed.

Sullivan said he thinks views of cannabis are softening, in general, in Washington D.C. after strong nationwide support for its medical use and the handful of states that have legalized its recreational use.

“I think there’s kind of a combination of people seeing the medical benefits, but also 10th Amendment elements of this, where the states have come out in statewide referendums like in Alaska, where they’ve come out in support, and even members of Congress who weren’t supportive or aren’t supportive of those kinds of referendums are saying, ‘Hey, look, the people are speaking … states have the right to do this,'” Sullivan said.

Sullivan, a Republican, is the lone co-sponsor of the VA cannabis research bill by Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana.

Alaska Congressman Don Young, a Republican, is one of 55 co-sponsors on an identical bill in the U.S. House.

Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, May 22, 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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This man hopes to bring the gavel down on ANWR drilling

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

If Democrats take control of the U.S. House in November, as many pollsters predict, the fate of some of Alaska’s biggest resource priorities could rest with someone most Alaskans have never heard of.

Urged by Alaska veterans, Sullivan supports cannabis research at VA

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is co-sponsoring a bill that calls on the Department of Veterans Affairs to look into the “efficacy and safety” of cannabis in the treatment of veterans diagnosed with “chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder” and other conditions.

Alaska mission to China kicks off with ceremony, trade talks…and speed dating

Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

The short meetings were a chance for Alaska businesses to introduce themselves directly to what they hope will be a giant market of new customers.

Additional federal gun charges brought on man charged with 2016 killing of Fairbanks policeman

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

A man already facing a murder charge in state court for shooting a Fairbanks Police officer, has been additionally charged with federal crimes.

Three Unalaska residents to be honored for rescuing trapped child on Portage Glacier

Zoe Sobel, KUCB – Unalaska

Three Unalaska residents will be honored by the Anchorage Municipal Assembly for helping rescue a child from a crevasse on Portage Glacier.

Kodiak farmers market kerfuffle results in market move, addition of new market

Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak

After allegations that farmers market vendors were selling food that violated state food safety laws, the biggest farmers market in Kodiak is moving. And a new market is springing up where the old one used to be, bringing the number of markets in town to three.

Ask a Climatologist: Anchorage, this gloomy spring is all in your head

Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

Since April, the weather in Anchorage has been a few degrees warmer than normal and also drier than normal.

This man and his yellow truck signal the arrival of spring in Fairbanks

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

Back in 1992, Glenn Hackney actually got hit by a car while picking up trash. It broke both his legs. That might give the average person pause about continuing. Not Hackney.

Alaska mission to China kicks off with ceremony, trade talks…and speed dating

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Ron Risher of Icicle Seafoods talk to Crescent Xuan, Manager of International Trade for the Sichuan Jinggong Flavor Co., during a “speed dating” event designed to bring companies with Alaska products to Chinese consumers on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Chengdu, China. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Imagine flying all the way to China for a blind date. Or waiting for that Alaskan from halfway around the world to make the first move.

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That’s kind of what it was like Tuesday for David McCarthy, co-owner of the 49th State Brewing Company, a craft beer brand with brewpubs in Denali and Anchorage.

McCarthy is traveling with Alaska’s trade delegation to China. The mix of Alaska companies and officials, led by Gov. Bill Walker, began their official visit this week at the annual China-U.S. Governor’s Forum in Chengdu.

The meeting brings together U.S. governors and regional Chinese leaders to talk about trade and investment, and allows for face-to-face meetings between local businesses.

That’s where the speed-dating comes in. After a long day of ceremony and seminars, McCarthy sat down with several Chinese companies.

And, just like a real date, there were a lot of tentative ni hao’s (or hellos). There were glances toward the interpreters (don’t you wish you had one of those on a real date?). And then… there were some surprises.

Gov. Bill Walker watches a show during a banquet capping the day of the Fourth Annual China-U.S. Governors Forum on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Chengdu, China. Walker is leading a 10-day trade mission with Alaska entities into China, hoping to deepen trade ties between the two. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Take one of McCarthy’s dates – a company from the northern part of China, interested in pairing McCarthy’s beer with Alaska seafood and selling it in mobile carts. The area, the translator noted, has a big population. Really big.

“50 million!” McCarthy marveled. “That’s a big market. ”

McCarthy asked the translator if she knew the population of Alaska. She didn’t.

“750,000,” McCarthy said, to laughter.

McCarthy and co-owner Jason Motyka are hoping to sell their beer directly into China. They talked about flying it into Beijing or Shanghai — anywhere Chinese consumers can drink Alaska beer, then hop on a plane and go see the state for themselves.

So, did the speed-dating work?

McCarthy said there were some promising exchanges.

“We did trade numbers with the last guys,” McCarthy said. “And maybe we’re going to go out for drinks later too!”

The short meetings were a chance for Alaska businesses to introduce themselves directly to what they hope will be a giant market of new customers. At the end of the day, it wasn’t immediately clear that anyone had landed that special someone. But several members of the delegation said they were astonished by the amount of interest in Alaska products, recipes and  brands.

Crescent Xuan is the head of the international trade department at Sichuan Jinggong Flavor Company. She spent a lot of time talking to the four seafood companies that are traveling with the Alaska delegation

Xuan said her company is interested in incorporating Alaska salmon into their food flavorings. And, she said, these short, fast meetings left her wanting to know more.

“Because I think the time is so short,” Xuan said. “If I had more time, more chance to communicate with the company and the people… We say, the more time for communication, more time for understanding.”

To that end, many of the companies traded numbers and promised to follow up. Just like a promising first date.


This man hopes to bring the gavel down on ANWR drilling

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Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., is likely to be chairman of House Resources if Democrats win the House in November. (Photo by Liz Ruskin)

If Democrats take control of the U.S. House in November, as many pollsters predict, the fate of some of Alaska’s biggest resource priorities could rest with someone most Alaskans have never heard of.

Listen now

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., is in line to become chairman of the House Resources Committee if the chamber switches hands. And he said Tuesday that a bill to close the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling will be at the top of his list.

If he becomes chairman, Grijalva will have grand hearing rooms available to him. He’ll be able to call formal proceedings on subjects he wants to draw attention to. But Tuesday, he made do with a medium-sized meeting room in a House office building for a forum on the Arctic Refuge.

“What’s going on right now in Washington right now is critically important to all of us,” Grijalva told the 50 or so people who turned out. Several Democrats from the committee were beside him. “The Arctic Refuge is something that is not only held in esteem but is a beloved designation by this … (Congress), thinking far-sighted, and it’s in jeopardy.”

Grijalva, from Tucson, is sometimes ranked the most liberal member of the House. He was the first in the House or Senate to endorse Bernie Sanders for President in 2015. Alaska Congressman Don Young often accuses Grijalva and other Democrats on the Resources Committee of just reading environmentalist talking points about Alaska. But Grijalva sees it differently. He sees championing environmental issues like the Arctic Refuge is a way of standing up against moneyed interests.

“The caribou don’t conduct a lot of fundraisers for us. And the wilderness can’t write us checks,” Grijalva said. “These are all being sacrificed to satisfy this Republican obsession with opening up every acre of public land to drilling or mining.”

This event was intended to highlight a new bill that would overturn last year’s decision to open the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to drilling. It has zero chance of passing now, with Republicans in charge of Congress. But Grijalva says it gives drilling opponents something to organize around.

In a written statement Tuesday, Rep. Young accused sponsors of the anti-drilling bill of attempting a “land grab.” Young invited them to Alaska so they can “understand what responsible resource development in the Arctic means for Alaska instead of what the environmental lobby tells them to believe.”

Grijalva cites reports that say the outdoors industry provides Alaskans with more jobs and than oil development does. He has never been to Alaska, his aids say.

He ended the meeting a little abruptly, with a glance at the clock.

Donetta Tritt, from Arctic Village, flew to Washington, D.C. to advocate against drilling. (Photo by Liz Ruskin)

“We have to clear out the room,” Grijalva said. “They only gave it to us until five minutes from now.”

Grijalva’s power will grow if Democrats win the House, well beyond his ability to reserve rooms.

Grijalva said Democrats are itching to hold Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to account and maybe rollback recent changes to  public lands policy. And he says one of their first bills will be one to stop development in the Arctic Refuge.

“This is something that you have to turn back,” Grijalva said. “You can’t negotiate a way out of this. You have to defeat it.”

Among the speakers at the forum was Donetta Tritt, who is Gwich’in Athabaskan. She spoke about how her people are tied to the caribou of the Arctic Refuge. Gwich’in opponents of drilling are frequent witnesses at Capitol Hill forums organized by Democrats. They don’t typically invite leaders of Alaska Native corporations, like Arctic Slope Regional Corp., who are eager for development in ANWR. Grijalva said the corporate support shouldn’t eclipse what the Gwich’in are saying.

Tritt, from Arctic Village, just met Grijalva, but she says she was impressed with how warm he was, and how intently he listened.

“At the end of the meeting, he reached out both his hands,” Tritt said. “And then just coming out here in the hallway and giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and saying we’re going to do everything we can to take back the House.”

Tritt said she’ll go back home and tell her people, drilling opponents, they have a friend in Washington.

And depending on what happens in November, that friend may holding a chairman’s gavel.

A Rose in Candle highlights the tale of Jewish immigrants during the Gold Rush

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(Alaska Jewish Museum graphic)

A family story of the early gold rush days in Alaska was featured in Anchorage on May 14th at the Alaska Jewish Museum. The documentary, A Rose in Candle, was directed by Anchorage history enthusiast Russ Reno and tells the story of a young Jewish woman who was a violist from Romania.

Rosa Robinson toured Europe and then the U.S. with a family orchestra in the early 1900s. She married in Seattle and moved to Candle with her husband to mine gold. Rosa’s granddaughter Beverly Churchill recorded her grandmother’s stories.

Churchill and Reno spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Lori Townsend about the film.

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CHURCHILL: When the orchestra settled in Seattle, she was the conductor, at that time, of the orchestra, which was unusual in those days. So I kinda like to think of her as an early feminist.

TOWNSEND: And did they come to Alaska specifically because the lure of gold was there?

CHURCHILL: Well, she met her husband in Seattle and he came out because his father, my great-grandfather was a gold rusher. He came originally to the Klondike and then he, when gold was discovered in Nome, he came over to Nome. So yeah, he was very involved with the mines and the Gold Rush. But my grandmother was there just because she happened to be married to his son.

TOWNSEND: Russ, I want to get you in here now. Russ Reno, you’re the director for this film, A Rose in Candle, which is Beverly Churchill’s grandmother’s story. How did you get involved in this? How did you even hear about it?

RENO: Wow. What an amazing story it is. Beverly approached me; she had these old cassette tapes, and she wanted to have them put onto a DVD. So I said, “Sure. I’ll help you with that.” And I did, we got them over and put them on there. Well, I started listening to these stories, I thought, “This is amazing. This is some really cool stuff here.” So I went back to Beverly, and I said, “Beverly, how would you like to put this to be a little bit more than just changing over those cassette tapes over to DVD? Let’s make a documentary out of it.” And three years later, we went for it, and we put together a 53-minute little “mini-movie” about her life.

TOWNSEND: Why was this important for you to get involved in this project that took quite a bit of time?

RENO: One word: history. It’s an amazing thing, and I learned a lot of things on this. And one was the influence of the Jewish immigrants that came up to Alaska. And I was surprised to hear how large and how acclimated Nome became with the 20,000+ estimated people that lived there during that time. So it was a really neat experience to understand how it got started, and these people that started out as originally coming up to gold mine then found a niche or a need for all of these little shops and merchants, and they started the first infrastructure for major cities and populations up in Alaska that was more modernized. Just an amazing story, from coming up on the SS Victoria and from dog mushing to Nome from Candle in order to just have her baby to walking all the way from Candle to Nome… Things like that that just… real true stories about Alaskan history.

TOWNSEND: Is Candle still there? Is there still a village there?

CHURCHILL: It is not an active community, but it is still there. The hospital was probably the best structure made there; it’s still standing. I believe a family still lives in it now. I took my father up there when he was probably about 86 years old, and this is where he was born, and my brother kind of puttered my father around on this four-wheeler. And there was some active mining going on up further from where we were, but it was funny to me because my father kept going down to the beach and looking around going, “This isn’t how I remember it. This isn’t how I remember it.” So I don’t know what’s happened. I do know probably about 1930, there was a major fire that pretty much leveled Candle, so it’s never been quite the same.

Bethel’s AC Quickstop liquor store shuts down

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The Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided against renewing AC Quickstop’s liquor license on Tuesday night, effectively shutting down Bethel’s only operating liquor store. (Geraldine Brink/KYUK)

AC Quickstop’s liquor store will not be open Wednesday morning. In a game-changing and emotional decision, the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided against renewing AC Quickstop’s liquor license on Tuesday night, which effectively shut down Bethel’s only operating liquor store. The Board’s decision will go into effect immediately.

In denying the liquor store its license, the ABC Board honored the Bethel City Council’s protest against AC Quickstop. In her comments on Tuesday, Bethel City Attorney Patty Burley told board members that the rate of alcohol-related deaths in Bethel has risen dramatically since AC Quickstop’s liquor store opened in 2016. The Bethel Police Department and paramedics have also experienced an overwhelming increase in calls. The liquor store is located in a densely populated neighborhood near Bethel’s public schools, and Burley argued that the Alaska Commercial company, which owns AC Quickstop, had both picked a dangerous location and done little to ensure the community’s safety.

The board made their decision after listening to almost five hours of tense and tearful public comments. Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta community members travelled to Bethel from throughout the region to attend the meeting. The Bethel Cultural Center was packed with about 150 elders, political leaders, health care workers and other residents; an unknown number of people in Y-K Delta villages also participated in the meeting by phone. Most of the people who spoke to the Board described the sheer devastation that alcohol had wrought in their communities.

While the ABC Board denied AC Quickstop’s liquor license renewal, it approved the Bethel Native Corporation’s liquor license renewal for Bethel Spirits, the city’s only other liquor store. The business is only open 30 days out of the year, and board members noted that the city of Bethel had not protested its license. BNC plans to transfer its liquor license to Caribou Trader’s Liquor, which is owned by the Sea Lion Corporation, a native corporation from the dry village of Hooper Bay. The Board opted to postpone its decision on the transfer until after Bethel’s October elections, where voters will decide whether they still want legal alcohol sales in their town or would prefer to return to local option.

Fairbanks City Councilman demands plan to recover groundwater contamination response Costs

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The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has identified PFAS in samples of water taken all around the city’s Regional Fire Training Center at 1710 30th Ave. The red dots indicate PFAS levels that exceed the the EPA’s lifetime health advisory level, the amount of exposure that EPA and DEC say will harm human health. (Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

Fairbanks City Councilman David Pruhs has directed staff to draft a plan over the next 90 days on how the city will respond to the growing problem of groundwater contamination caused by chemical compounds in firefighting foam. Pruhs told City Attorney Paul Ewers Monday that the plan must include a way for the city to compensate homeowners who could be paying for the local response to the contamination through their property taxes.

Pruhs told Ewers during Monday’s council meeting that the city must come up with a plan on how it’ll recover at least some of the $3 million the city has spent over the past year-and-a-half trying to help homeowners affected by the growing groundwater-contamination problem.

“I would like to see in 90 days a recovery plan from the City Attorney on addressing this,” Pruhs said. “What we can do, what we can’t do, who we’re going after. It’s time to step this up. I want to see it in 90 days.”

Pruhs said Tuesday the plan would include discussion of how the city could seek compensation for homeowners who he says will be paying for the city’s response to the contamination through their property taxes. He says the plan should include a list of agencies, companies and other entities that have used the city’s Regional Fire Training Center. That’s where personnel trained on the use of fire-suppressing foam that contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the chemical compounds that’ve contaminated groundwater near the fire-training center and elsewhere around Fairbanks.

“Are we going after 3M, who made the foam?” Pruhs said. “Are we requesting the State of Alaska to join us in a lawsuit against 3M? Are we looking at the parties who have made contributions to the pollution for reimbursement?”

Ewers says training with foam containing PFAS and related chemical compounds took place at the fire-training center for 30 years, ending in 2004.

The burn pit was lined with plastic, but firefighting foam was splashed outside the pit during training. That gave the PFAS and related chemical compounds a means to infiltrate groundwater.
(City of Fairbanks)

Mayor Jim Matherly said Tuesday that Ewers has been working on a legal strategy to respond to the groundwater contamination. He says Ewers will try to finish the job in 90 days – but he adds it’s a very convoluted and complicated case.

“Obviously this takes time to contact everybody,” Matherly said. “It takes time to figure out who used what, who used it when. Just because they used the fire-training center doesn’t mean they used the fire pit, where the chemical was.

The mayor says the case would get even more complicated if the city decided to go after 3M, the Minnesota-based manufacturer that developed PFAS and helped promoted its wide use in many other household and industrial products.

“What City Attorney Ewers is trying to do is to get on the bandwagon of money to collect – perhaps from the manufacturer of the chemical,” Matherly said, “which could turn into a great big lawsuit because this was nationwide they’ve used this chemical.”

Other local and state governments that’ve been affected by PFAS contamination have sued 3M, including Minnesota, which recently won an $850 million settlement with the company. Matherly says Ewers also is considering seeking compensation from local agencies that used the fire-training center.

“His other alternative is to contact the state, the university, some of the volunteer fire departments, and he’s done that, to see if they can share the cost,” Matherly said.

The mayor says the evolving strategy probably will require city property owners to pay up front, through the extra mill on their property tax bills, to cover the costs of assisting homeowners and pursuing lawsuits until the city can recover damages.

“If and when that happens, and we’re able to collect down the road, we can re-adjust it back down,” Matherly said. “This is what we do as a city, when it comes to lawsuits.”

Matherly says the council probably will decide in the fall to consider whether and when to levy the additional mill to help pay for the contamination response.

Final lecture from beloved UAF history professor Terrence Cole to be held tonight

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Professor Terrence Cole lectures on Alaska state history during UAF’s summer sessions. (UAF photo)

Terrence Cole says he immediately fell in love with Alaska and Fairbanks when he arrived in the state with his brother Pat in 1970. Pat was coming to UAF and Terrence realized he wanted to follow suit. As it turned out, his identical twin brother Dermot and their two younger sisters would also be drawn to the school. But Terrence Cole admits in college he had no inkling he would eventually be an historian until he fell under the spell of Bill Hunt and Hunt’s book on the Alaska gold rush era.

“I just love the gold rush stories and that book sort of really inspired me to think, ‘Gosh. I’d really like to be a writer, but I don’t have anything to right about. Heck, I could write about this,’” Cole said.

Cole has penned more than a dozen books about the gold rush as well as leading figures and institutions in Alaska.  Cole says he enjoyed his time in grad school at the University of Washington in Seattle and working for Alaska Northwest Books and editing the Alaska Journal, but he wanted to return to UAF. He got his wish in 1988 when he joined the history faculty.

“You know, I’m so lucky I got to work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks because I don’t think my style would necessarily fit in at most other universities,” Cole said.

Beside chalking up an impressive list of publications, Cole’s teaching style became legendary. He says he wanted to keep his students guessing.

“I would set the classes up so that people wouldn’t know what I was gonna do next,” Cole said. “Now this is sometimes a problem when you forget what you’re gonna do next.”

Nevertheless, Cole earned top marks from students for enthusiasm and garnered many awards for his teaching, writing and research. Several of the honors he’s received over the years were awarded jointly with his brother Dermot, a well-known journalist and columnist.

Last year, Cole learned he had inoperable gastric cancer, which prompted his decision to retire. While he’s receiving chemotherapy he’s also finishing a book on the gold rush. The same humor that inspired his teaching is evident as he discusses his so-called final lecture tonight at UAF.

“As Dermot’s wife Debbie said, just because it’s my last lecture doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop pontificating,” Cole said.

That lecture is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. in Schiable Auditorium.

Alaska jail sued over alleged mistreatment of Muslim inmates

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Anchorage Correctional Complex (Alaska DOC photo)

A national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against several members of Alaska’s Department of Corrections.

In documents filed Tuesday in Alaska’s U.S. District Court, the Washington D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations claim prisoners in an Anchorage jail are being denied their constitutional rights.

CAIR’s lawsuit pertains to how Muslim inmates are allowed to practice their faith during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when observers fast during the day. Alaska DOC has policies to accommodate practitioners, giving them bagged meals to eat in their cells after breaking fast. But according to CAIR, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs at the Anchorage Correctional Complex, the meals are inadequate.

“They’re literally being starved,” Lena Masri, lead counsel on the case, said during a fundraiser broadcast by CAIR over Facebook Live on Tuesday evening.

The complaint alleges that the bagged meals given to prisoners have less than half the calories that DOC says inmates should be given in a day. On top of that, CAIR says some of the sandwiches were believed to contain meat products with pork in them, violating Muslim dietary rules.

The plaintiffs also say that after they contacted CAIR, correctional officers took the punitive steps of “shaking down” their cells and removing food the men had stashed there, penalizing them further by denying them any more bagged meals.

“The prison retaliated against them by literally confiscating all the food that they had saved up, and so they ate nothing that day,” Masri said.

The lawsuit claims that Muslim prisoners are being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, as well as disparate treatment from inmates of other faiths. It names ten individuals within DOC as defendants, from guards all the way up to the commissioner. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation to cover legal costs and suffering associated with malnutrition, discomfort and risks to their health.

Jeremy Hough is the standards administrator for DOC. He could not comment on specific details of on-going litigation like claims of retaliation, but he said some of the allegations raised in questions from reporters don’t align with general institutional policies. For example, he disputed that the bologna in sandwiches given to Muslim inmates had pork in them.

“Those are non-pork. It’s a turkey bologna,” Hough said by phone on Wednesday. “Matter of fact, ACC is a non-pork facility.”

According to Hough, DOC’s nutrition guidance limits pork at its facilities in the interest of heart health.

Hough said there are 10 inmates at ACC registered to fast during Ramadan. As a pre-trial and jail facility where inmates generally stay on a shorter-term basis, it is more difficult to accommodate particular religious practices compared to bigger long-term facilities like Goose Creek, according to Hough. He was not sure of the total calorie count in the bagged lunches, but said the facility has reasonable alternative options like vegan meals for inmates who request them.

The CAIR lawsuit asks for immediate steps to be taken to keep the plaintiffs from suffering from hunger while observing their faith.

According to CAIR’s Carolyn Homer, an Alaska judge had granted an emergency hearing on the case for Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

This year, Ramadan started on May 16th and lasts until June 15th.

HistoryMakers to document diversity of Alaska African Americans as part of national project

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Julianna Richardson, the founder of the HistoryMakers project (Photo courtesy of HistoryMakers)

Documenting the rich diversity of the lives of African Americans is the mission of a national group called The Historymakers. Julianna Richardson is the founder and executive director of The Historymakers. Richardson and her videographers are in Alaska this week for the first time to capture the stories of 11 Alaskans. The video interviews here along with thousands of others are being archived at the Library of Congress and shared with more than 40 universities and public libraries. Richardson says she grew up not knowing her own history or the contributions of other African Americans to the United States, so even though her professional background is in law, The Historymakers became her life’s work.

Richardson spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Lori Townsend about the group.

Listen now

RICHARDSON: People don’t know about the African American experience. A lot of people think our project is about civil rights because it’s as if that’s the only thing they know about the Black experience. When I was saying that I was coming here to Alaska, people were like, “Are you kidding? There can’t be any Black people in Alaska. Black people don’t like cold weather.” (laughs) But, I have wanted to come here since the early days of my project. Each community has it’s own personality and there’s a lot of independent spirit here.

TOWNSEND: What did you hear from Alaskans that really stand out to you. Have you really had a chance to view the content enough yet.

RICHARDSON: Yes. What I want to say is that, Alaska for most of the people we interviews — I would say all of them, I wouldn’t say most — represented a chance to get away from a constrictive environment. To have opportunities that did not exist in their home states, and in many ways, a fresh start. And not to be sort of held back, not that… they’re not showing it as a fantasy, you know, that it was without racism. But, that’s what sort of resonates.

TOWNSEND: Do you see this as kind of resetting the whole idea of who Black Americans are? And instead of just this focus on the tragic past, that this can more normalize that people are doing every kind of profession and every kind of accomplishment that every other American is doing? Is that part of what’s at play here?

RICHARDSON: I won’t say that was my intent, but that’s essentially what it will do. I mean, the problem about slavery in the American tradition is that no one either wanted to be a slave, or wants to have that slave background, or no one wanted to be responsible for it. So what has essentially happened is that we’ve worked in unintended complicity to cover up this wonderfully rich history that has a lot of context to it. And I don’t want any other child to feel the way I felt, in a classroom where I was the only Black student. And the teacher was asking me about our family, you know, our backgrounds. And everyone knew their’s and I didn’t know mine. So that’s what I think, in the larger context, what we hav.

TOWNSEND: Julianna, as you well know, there’s a lot of racial tension in our country right now. Do you see a role for the HistoryMakers project in, sort of, alleviating some of that tension through education and sharing our collective experience as Americans? Do you think this effort to elevate these stories and accomplishments of African American citizens here can help somehow in this effort going forward?

RICHARDSON: Yes I do believe that. And I often sometimes refer to myself as sort of an activist historian, even though I’m a lawyer by training. I was born in 1954, which is the year of Brown v. Board of Education, which is often touted as a watershed moment. It was a watershed moment, but when you look back, now you wonder. and even now as you say in the current climate we’re in, I don’t think most of the people that we interview who grew up in a different point in time, and went through the Civil Rights Movement… I don’t think they could envision the climate we’re in, that it was possible to exist. And that we’re back, in many ways, in the same place. And divisions, like crazy horrible divisions. This is the question. What we’re really hearing being debated in society is who has value. Who has value to society? And the people who have value should stay and the people who don’t have value should leave. And so I think really that the fact that we have content that shows the complexity, there are just all these things that people don’t associate with the Black experience. And so, I feel very, very positive.

The 11 African Americans who will be interviewed by the HistoryMakers are:

  • Eleanor Andrews, Former Commissioner, Administration for Alaska;
  • Rex Butler, Defense Attorney;
  • The Honorable Lawrence Card, Retired Superior Court Judge;
  • The Honorable Bettye Davis, Former Alaska Senator and Current Anchorage Public Schools Board Member;
  • Mayfield Evans, Owner, Mayfield’s Quality Cleaners and E&S Diversified Services;
  • Celeste H. Growden, Director, Shiloh Community Development;
  • Jewel Jones, Public Administrator under six Anchorage mayors;
  • Sylvester Joubert, Owner, Midnight Sun & Van Car Rentals;
  • Reverend Alonzo Patterson, Pastor Emeritus, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church;
  • Ed Wesley, National Committeeman, Alaska Democratic Party;
  • Cal Williams, Former President, NAACP Anchorage.

A reception at 6 p.m. this evening in Anchorage will honor the 11 Alaskans whose stories will now be part of the national Historymaker’s project.


Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, May 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

Listen now

State-run raffle could be new way to fund schools

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Alaskans could have a new choice for what to do with their permanent fund dividends next year – a raffle that would fund public schools. Lawmakers passed a bill to start a raffle that could pay a top prize as high as 24 million dollars in the future.

Bethel’s AC Quickstop liquor store shuts down

Teresa Cotsirilos, KYUK – Bethel

In a game-changing and emotional decision, the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided against renewing AC Quickstop’s liquor license on Tuesday night, which effectively shut down Bethel’s only operating liquor store.

Alaska man pleads guilty in Florida airport shooting

Associated Press

An Alaska man has pleaded guilty in exchange for a life prison sentence in the Florida airport shooting that killed five people and wounded six.

Alaska jail sued over alleged mistreatment of Muslim inmates

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

In a complaint, the Council on American-Islamic Relations claims prisoners in an Anchorage jail are being denied their constitutional rights on observation of Ramadan.

Transboundary mine meeting includes State Department, B.C. reps

Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau

Alaskans concerned about possible affects of British Columbia mines on cross-border rivers will get an update during a June 1st meeting in Juneau.

Final lecture from beloved UAF history professor Terrence Cole to be held tonight

Robert Hannon, KUAC – Fairbanks

A long-time and popular University of Alaska Fairbanks professor gives his final lecture this evening. Terrence Cole has taught history at UAF for 30 years. Cole is retiring to concentrate on his health and finish a book.

HistoryMakers to document diversity of Alaska African Americans as part of national project

Lori Townsend, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Documenting the rich diversity of the lives of African Americans is the mission of a national group called The Historymakers. Videographers are in Alaska this week for the first time to capture the stories of 11 Alaskans.

Transboundary mine meeting includes State Department, B.C. reps

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The state has identified eight transboundary watersheds feeding Southeast Alaska rivers. A June 1 meeting will update concerned parties about efforts to protect fisheries. (Courtesy Alaska Department of Natural Resources.)

Alaskans concerned about possible impacts of British Columbia mines on cross-border rivers will get an update during a June 1 meeting in Juneau.

Listen now

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott will host the third annual transboundary mining meeting.

Mallott aide Albert Kookesh said officials from the federal, state and British Columbia governments will attend. So will tribal, industrial, environmental, fisheries and other leaders.

Kookesh said this year’s meeting will allow more time for discussion than previous gatherings.

“This is a chance for stakeholders, people who are interested in those types of transboundary issues, to come and talk to the powers that be, if you want to say it that way,” Kookesh said.

Much has changed since the previous meeting.

More mineral-exploration companies have announced discoveries of gold-bearing ore. A new coalition has taken control of British Columbia’s provincial government. And the U.S. State Department has become involved in the controversy.

Kookesh, a former Alaska lawmaker, said the State Department’s presence is new. He said officials will discuss results of a gap analysis.

“Essentially, that means, where are those areas that aren’t being really actively covered now by the transboundary groups in Alaska and Canada? And there’s a gap analysis being done by the State Department that says, ‘Here’s where we think there are areas of concern that we have to follow up on,’” Kookesh said.

Two mines on transboundary rivers, the Red Chris and Brucejack, are producing and processing ore. And other exploration projects, including the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell or KSM project, have accumulated necessary permits and are seeking investors.

Tribal and government groups are already sampling water from rivers with watersheds including mine and exploration sites. Concerns focus on possible pollution that could damage salmon and other wild fish runs.

The meeting will be from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. June 1 at the Vocational Training and Resource Center on Hospital Drive in Juneau. It’s open to the public, but will not be teleconferenced.

State-run raffle could be new way to fund schools

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Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, speaks in the Alaska Senate on April 15. Bishop sponsored legislation to fund public schools using a statewide raffle. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)

Alaskans could have a new choice for what to do with their permanent fund dividends next year – a raffle that would fund public schools. Lawmakers passed House Bill 213, a measure that would start a raffle that could pay a top prize as high as $24 million in the future.

Listen now

At a time when Alaska lawmakers have struggled to close the gap between how much the state spends and what it brings in, finding new funding for public schools has been hard.

Fairbanks Republican Sen. Click Bishop said he heard a wish during public testimony on the budget, year after year.

“ ‘I wish I had a way to donate my permanent fund to… the general fund, or education,’” Bishop said. “And now you’ve got a vehicle to do that.”

Bishop combined the idea of donating money with a strategy other states use to fund schools: a lottery.

“I think there’s 15 other states that have year-round education lotteries,” Bishop said. “And this is just an old-fashioned bucket raffle.”

Here’s how it would work: each Alaskan adult would be able to donate $100 increments to the raffle, when they apply for their PFD. Each $100 would count as one raffle entry. And once per year, four winners would be drawn. Kids couldn’t participate.

This cartoon depicts how the donations from PFDs would be divided under the recently passed bill. The cartoon is by John Manley, who has worked as an aide to Sen. Click Bishop (R-Fairbanks). Bishop is depicted in the upper left corner. (Screenshot from the Alaska Legislature site)

Each $100 would be split three ways. Half would go directly toward schools. A quarter of the donation would go to the raffle fund. And a quarter would be used to start a new state education endowment. Once that endowment fund hits $1 billion, it would pay out money each year to schools.

Of the raffle fund, 8 percent would go to the top prize, with smaller amounts going to three others.

The idea of donating money through the PFD may sound familiar. It’s the same method as Pick.Click.Give. That’s the program that allows Alaskans to donate to designated nonprofits.

And the bill has raised concern among Pick.Click.Give. supporters. Anchorage independent Rep. Jason Grenn is the former manager for Pick.Click.Give. Grenn noted that donations have dropped due to the recession. And he sees the education raffle further squeezing the nonprofits.

“I fear that a program that has been innovative and has raised tens of millions of dollars for hundreds of nonprofits across our state will start to see the deterioration even further,” Grenn said.

No one knows how much Alaskans would give to the program. Bishop used $60 million a year as a long-term target. That’s 600,000 of those $100 entries — an average of more than one per Alaskan adult. Pick.Click.Give. gets $2.5 million in total donations per year.

But it’s much less than the $350 million Alaskans currently spend on various forms of legal gaming, from pull tabs to bingo.

Fairbanks Democratic Rep. David Guttenberg voted against the raffle.

“This is a gaming bill disguised as educational funding,” Guttenberg said. “That’s all it is.”

Guttenberg said lower-income residents could be hurt.

“We fight amongst ourselves on how much we’re going to give in the permanent fund (dividends), because we want to give the people as much as we could possibly give, and now we’re put a temptation in front of them to gamble it away,” Guttenberg said.

But others said that it’s unfair to see the bill as primarily a form of gambling. That’s because most of the donations will go to fund schools, and only a small share will go to raffle winnings.

Bishop noted that gambling already exists in the state.

“Well, if we were so concerned about gambling away our permanent fund, then how come there hasn’t been a hue and cry to repeal the 18 different types of gaming that’s in Alaska now that you can play year-round, that does not benefit education,” Bishop said. “This bill benefits the children.”

It could take decades for the raffle fund to reach its maximum size under the bill of $300 million. Once it reaches that point, more of the donations would be directed to the new education endowment.

Bishop is hopeful about the bill. And even in the worst case, he said the state won’t be worse off.

“The proof’s in the pudding,” Bishop said. “It might be a total flop, but you know what? We were trying something.”

Bishop said he plans to put at least $100 of his dividend into the raffle each year. But he has a higher priority for his PFD – saving for college for his four grandchildren.

The Legislature hasn’t officially transmitted the bill to Gov. Bill Walker yet.

Photos: China Trade Mission

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Alaska’s Energy Desk’s Rashah McChesney is in China covering Governor Walker’s Opportunity Alaska: China Trade & Investment Mission 2018.

Homer’s first pot shop set to open Thursday

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Uncle Herb’s (Photo by Aaron Bolton/KBBI)

Homer’s first marijuana retail shop is set to open Thursday. Uncle Herb’s was approved by the state Marijuana Control Board back in September, and the shop will open its doors just in time for the busy summer season.

Store manager Aaron Stiassny will run the shop in Homer for his father Loyd. Stiassny currently manages the family’s shop in Anchorage under the same name.

The display cases in Homer were empty Wednesday evening, but Stiassny said the shop will be stocked and ready to go.

“I mean we’re just really excited to be the first cannabis shop in Homer. I know there’s a lot of residents eagerly awaiting the first cannabis shop,” Stiassny said as he stood behind the counter. “It’s a great opportunity to bring this business down here. This is going to provide good sales tax revenue for the community. We really want to be good citizens.”

Stiassny said the shop will offer about 15 to 20 marijuana strains to start. He adds that Uncle Herb’s will purchase a large portion of its marijuana products from cultivators on the Kenai Peninsula, but it will also feature strains grown by cultivators in and near Homer.

Stiassny explains that the shop will also offer strains high in CBD content, which are said to provide pain relief, in the future.

“Flower and pre-rolls will be the two main staples for our opening, and we have deliveries of concentrates and cartages and edibles,” Stiassny explained. “I don’t know if they are going to make the opening on Thursday, but we will definitely be stocked up sometime next week.”

Uncle Herb’s has hired eight part-time employees so far. Stiassny said that could change depending on business during the summer, and he said the shop’s hours will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“Those may change over the course of the summer depending on traffic. Opening day, we’re going to delay that, 2 [p.m.] to 10 [p.m.], just to give us some time to set up in the morning and get ready for the excitement,” Stiassny said.

Stiassny hopes to capitalize on Homer’s busy tourism season, but he said the shop will stay open year round.

Uncle Herb’s joins the roughly 30 marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and retail businesses in the Kenai Peninsula Borough.  It’s the first retail shop to open on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

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