Quantcast
Channel: News - Alaska Public Media
Viewing all 17594 articles
Browse latest View live

Pogo officials consider extending life of gold mine if exploration shows promising deposits

0
0
More than 300 people work at the Pogo Mine, located in the Upper Goodpaster Valley about 38 miles northeast of Delta Junction and 85 miles east-southeast of Fairbanks. (Photo courtesy of the Pogo Mine)

Pogo Mine officials say the company may extend the life of the mine northeast of Delta Junction if exploration they’re conducting this summer confirms the presence of potentially rich gold deposits.

“What we’re doing this summer is quite a bit of exploration,” Pogo spokeswoman Wendie MacNaughton said. “We are dedicating about $21 million to exploration and definition drilling, which will really just help us determine where the rest of the gold is – how do we get it, how much is there.”

MacNaughton says it was the discovery of additional gold reserves around the Fort Knox Mine north of Fairbanks that prompted Kinross Gold Corporation officials to announce Tuesday they’ve extended the life of that mine through the coming decade.

“They did their exploration, and they found very favorable results earlier in the spring,” MacNaughton said, “And so they have since translated that to extend the life of the mine to 2030.”

MacNaughton says officials with Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo already have extended the life of the Pogo Mine since it began operation in 2006, because additional gold reserves were discovered. And it’s now extended to 2021. She says that could change, depending on what this summer’s exploration reveals.

“So we’re hoping towards the end of the summer we’ll have a pretty good idea of how much gold we can access,” MacNaughton said.

MacNaughton says the exploration will focus on two areas near the mine: the Fun Zone and West Goodpaster. Company officials said during the annual Alaska Miners Association conference in April that initial exploration last year showed promising prospects in those areas.

“It is very, very promising,” MacNaughton said. “I think we’re all very optimistic that there’s quite a bit of gold out there.”

The Pogo Mine is located about 38 miles northeast of Delta. It employs about 320 people and does business with more than a hundred contractors.


Even a rainforest can experience a drought, weather service says

0
0
The green rectangles show average Ketchikan precipitation for that month over the years. The black dots show what happened over the past nine months. (Graphic courtesy National Weather Service)

There are no tumbleweeds blowing through the streets of Southeast Alaska towns, but the region has received less precipitation than usual over the past nine months.

Listen now

The National Weather Service presented a webinar this week about Southeast Alaska’s drought.

Southeast Alaska is the kind of place where you can get a lot of rain but still be in the middle of a drought.

It’s home to the Tongass National Forest, the largest of about a half-dozen temperate rainforests in the world.

Communities scattered through the lush evergreen forest measure rainfall in feet. Ketchikan is one of the wettest, with about 12 feet of annual average precipitation.

“Drought is one of those things that, it seems like, oh, everybody knows what a drought is,” National Weather Service climate scientist Rick Thoman said. “But the more you think about it, the harder it gets to pin down.”

A drought is a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time.

The deficiency level and the time period can vary, Thoman said.

Whether or not it becomes a “drought” also depends on how much demand there is on water resources – by people and the environment.

Considering all those variables, Southeast Alaska is in the middle of a drought.

It started last fall, following a wetter-than-normal summer.

Ketchikan, for example, received record rainfall levels in August.

“Starting in September, we see that precipitation in Ketchikan totaled a little over 11 inches,” Thoman said. “That doesn’t sound like a drought to me, being a Fairbanksan. Sounds like an awful lot of precipitation. But by Ketchikan standards, that was actually below normal.”

Normal in September is closer to 15-16 inches.

“October, again, over 11 inches of rain, but that’s well below normal in Ketchikan in October, followed by well-below normal precipitation in November, as well,” Thoman said.

October usually sees 15-25 inches of rain; a typical November is slightly under that, but similar. November last year, though, was about 8 inches.

December and January went back to average levels, Thoman said, but then February and March were dry — again by rainforest standards.

All that means overall precipitation in Southeast Alaska since fall has been below normal. By a lot.

“September to February: The driest of record in this analysis since, this would be since 1925-26 — southern Southeast has not had a drier September to February.”

October to March also was the driest for its time frame.

Rainfall in April and May improved the situation somewhat, but a deficiency remains.

National Weather Service Juneau senior hydrologist Aaron Jacobs said that deficiency has had an effect on the region.

Hydroelectric power generation, for example, was hit hard.

“The main reason for this type of an impact is the lack of precipitation in the wet season,” he said. “If Southeast Alaska doesn’t get that rain in that October, November and into December time frame, there could be deficits in water levels that may not be able to recover.”

When hydroelectric dams don’t have enough water, communities need to use more-expensive diesel power.

Jacobs said a drought also affects community drinking water supplies, seafood processers and the natural habitat of the entire forest.

Salmon have a difficult time spawning when streams don’t have enough water, Jacobs said, and yellow cedar mortality increases when rainfall is lower than normal.

What will happen next? Thoman said there isn’t a clear signal at this time.

“We do have increasing signs of an El Nino developing for this fall and winter, and that often has a significant precipitation signal in Southeast Alaska,” Thoman said. “At this point I would say as we move towards the wet season for Southeast, stay tuned.”

Public Safety in rural Alaska

0
0
A police car sits unused in Sand Point.
(Zoe Sobel/KUCB)

Rural Alaska has long had a lack of adequate law enforcement. State budget cuts have exacerbated the problem and recent reporting reveals trouble with how or if some local law enforcement officers are screened before they’re hired. What’s being done to make rural Alaska safer?

HOST: Lori Townsend

GUESTS:

  • Walt Monegan, Department of Public Safety Commissioner
  • Andrew Merrill, VPSO Captain
  • Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast
  • Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
  • Send email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

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

Alaska News Nightly: Friday, June 15, 2018

0
0

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

China responds to U.S. tariffs with tariff on Alaska seafood

Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham

The U.S. today released a list of Chinese goods on which it will place 25 percent tariffs. Shortly afterward, China announced reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods, including Alaska seafood.

State backlog means long wait for health coverage for some Alaskans

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

There are 20,000 unresolved applications for Alaskans waiting for Medicaid and other public assistance programs.

Final public hearing on ANWR drilling held in DC

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

The final and only public hearing outside of Alaska on the department of interior’s plans to open the arctic national wildlife refuge to oil drilling, took place in Washington DC today.

Even a rainforest can experience a drought, weather service says

Leila Kheiry, KRBD – Ketchikan

There are no tumbleweeds blowing through the streets of Southeast Alaska towns, but, the region has received less precipitation than usual over the past nine months.

AK: Keeping memories alive on Father’s Day

Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The Dinner Party connects people grieving the loss of a loved one. On Father’s Day they’re sharing stories on social media from the thousands of Dinner Partiers all over the world whose dads have died.

49 Voices: Bruce Gordon of Excursion Inlet

Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines

This week we’re hearing from Bruce Gordon in Excursion Inlet. Gordon works as the watchman for the Ocean Beauty cannery.

China to slap tariffs on Alaska seafood, among other U.S. products

0
0
The Ocean Beauty seafood plant. (Photo by Eric Keto/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

The United States released a list of Chinese goods Friday worth $50 billion on which it will place 25 percent tariffs. Shortly afterward, China announced reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods, including Alaska seafood.

Listen now

Garett Evridge, an economist with the McDowell Group, who specializes in the seafood industry, explained that the tariff on seafood is likely to be far reaching.

“Our initial review of this is indicates that really all salmon species, pollock, ground fish, herring, really across the board for Alaska seafood products, in addition to lobster and other products used throughout the U.S., it looks like the announcement indicates that tariff would be 25 percent on product, including Alaska seafood products,” Evridge said.

Both U.S. and Chinese tariffs will reportedly take effect July 6. Evridge said it is too early to know what this will mean for the seafood market.

“There’s a whole other side of this with diplomacy and strategy on the side of China and the U.S. that we’re not really aware of,” Evridge said. “But in the event that this actually occurs, it will certainly be a challenge to the industry, and it will impact processors, communities, fishermen just because a 25 percent tariff means an increase in cost.”

One thing is clear, however. China plays a major role in Alaska’s seafood industry, so the tariffs would affect a significant portion of the market.

“In 2017, Alaska exported about 1.1 million metric tons of seafood to countries around the globe,” Evridge said. “Of this total, China accounted for a little bit less than half of that. In terms of salmon, exports of Alaska salmon to China account for about 40 percent of our total salmon exports. And over the last five years or so, about one in three salmon that has been exported from Alaska has gone to China.”

These tariffs would be added to already existing tariffs on Alaska seafood entering China which vary from five to 15 percent, depending on species.

Murkowski, Young respond to Chinese tariff on American seafood imports

0
0
A seafood market on Beijing, China. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Alaska’s economy could suffer as a result of China’s 25 percent tariff on American seafood imports and that worries U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Listen now

China announced the new import tax Friday in response to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. They will take effect July 6.

In a written statement, Murkowski urges President Donald Trump to reach a trade policy with China that protects the export market.

Congressman Don Young also will ask the administration to ensure Alaska’s seafood industry is protected.

Sen. Dan Sullivan did not respond to an inquiry by deadline.

Alaska’s congressional delegation wrote Trump in May warning that a trade dispute could prompt China to retaliate against American seafood.

Their letter said a tariff could make targeted exports “uncompetitive in an instant.”

They also said the Chinese market for premium Alaska seafood is especially important because Russia banned seafood imports in response to U.S. sanctions in 2014.

Alaska’s northernmost town still in transition 1 1/2 years after official name change

0
0
The new logo for the City of Utqiaġvik, photographed June 5. In October 2016, residents of the town formerly known as Barrow voted to officially change the name of their city to the traditional Iñupiaq name Utqiaġvik. (Photo by Ravenna Koenig/ Alaska’s Energy Desk.)

The town most of the world knew as Barrow voted in 2016 to officially start going by the traditional Iñupiaq name of Utqiaġvik.

Listen now

The vote passed by a slim margin of six votes.

Some residents pushed back in the ensuing months, wanting to keep the name Barrow. Others said the town historically had a different traditional name, which was the view of the local Native corporation that filed a lawsuit to try to stop the change.

Over year and a half later, Utqiaġvik is still what the town is officially called.

But when you arrive by plane, the first thing you see is the word “Barrow” printed over the airport on the side facing the tarmac.

“Barrow” is everywhere while walking around town: on the fire trucks, in the name of the high school, the local utility company, on the North Slope Borough’s official logo. It’s even scrawled on some of the brightly painted dumpsters.

City Hall has “Utqiaġvik” on the front of the building. And on bulletin boards around town where people post notices to the community, “Utqiaġvik” is starting to appear in some municipal department letterhead.

When you ask people what they call it, you get a real mix:

“I call it Utqiaġvik now,” James Koonaloak said.

“I still call it Barrow,” Murphy Nuglene said.

“I will use both at this point,” Muriel Brower said.

“I still call it Barrow out of habit,” Mary Patkotak said.

“Utqiaġvik,” Richard Okpeaha said.

“I was born in Barrow and I still live in Barrow,” Isaac Kalayauk said.

“Utqiaġvik,” Edith Nageak said. “I’m very happy they changed it to the original name.”

A lot of feathers got ruffled here when the name change went through.

Less than 20 percent of the town voted.

A mile post close to the airport in Utqiaġvik. It’s one of many visible ways that the transition from the name ‘Barrow,’ is still ongoing. (Photo by Ravenna Koenig/ Alaska’s Energy Desk.)

Some said they didn’t have enough time between the proposed change and ballot voting to really become aware of what was going to be decided at the polls.

There are people who still feel the official name should have remained Barrow.

Charles Brower, interim executive director at the Native Village of Barrow — the local tribal government — is one of them.

“I wasn’t interested in changing the name to Utqiaġvik,” Brower said. “It’s always been Barrow.”

Brower added that the tribal council has no plans to change its name.

Then there are those who were really supportive of the change.

Fannie Akpik, the coordinator for Iñupiaq Education for the North Slope Borough school district, says hearing people calling the name of her hometown Utqiaġvik “warms my spirit.”

Akpik is in her 60s and says she doesn’t remember hearing the name Barrow until she showed up for her first day of school and saw it written on the building.

For her, the reversion to the traditional name is a way of affirming the Iñupiaq identity of this place.

“Someday I hope everybody will walk around and be proud to live in Utqiaġvik like I do,” Akpik said.

Tennessee Judkins teaches Iñupiaq education for the school district.

Judkins voted to change the name, but also said that she’s OK if certain things in town continue to be called “Barrow” such as the high school where she played volleyball and rooted for the basketball teams.

“I wouldn’t be sad if it never changed,” Judkins said of her alma mater. “That’s one thing I’m like, cool, you can keep it Barrow High School, ’cause we are Barrow Whalers.”

Some of the initial hubbub about the name change has quieted at this point.

But Utqiaġvik is still in transition.

There’s a mountain of logistics that go into changing a place’s name. And some of that costs money, which was one of the initial concerns brought up by people who were against the change.

It’s unclear how long it will be before all the signage, textbooks, maps and the airport code fully reflect the name Utqiaġvik.

A T-shirt for sale at the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Utqiaġvik. In the gift shop you can buy items that say both ‘Barrow,’ and ‘Utqiaġvik.’ (Photo by Ravenna Koenig/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

For now at least, what people call this place seems to be a choice they’re making day by day, conversation by conversation, document by document.

At the DMV, for example, residents can choose what name they want printed on their driver’s license.

Dawndee Ipalook, who works at the DMV, issues those IDs. When asked for an estimate of the percentage of people who are choosing Barrow versus Utqiaġvik, Ipalook said, “I would say about probably 80-20.”

That’s 80 percent Barrow, 20 percent Utqiaġvik.

A lot of people choose Barrow because it’s easier to spell, Ipalook said.

Others have come in to add Utqiaġvik to their ID even though it hasn’t expired yet, just because they’re proud of the name.

Robert Nageak, who grew up here, says he respects the change, and uses Utqiaġvik sometimes himself, but he’s not a stickler for what people call this place.

“I just don’t have a problem with either/or,” Nageak said. “Utqiaġvik; Barrow; still the same place. The most northern city in the United States of America.”

In other words, home.

State backlog means long wait for health coverage for some Alaskans

0
0
Jill Yordy and her daughter Raven, 5, are waiting for an application for Denali KidCare to be completed. The family is moving to Colorado. (Photo courtesy of Jill Yordy)

There are 20,000 unresolved applications for Alaskans waiting for Medicaid and other public assistance programs.

Listen now

The state is taking action to reduce the backlog. But some people have been waiting for a long time.

Anchorage resident Jill Yordy has been waiting since January to learn whether her five-year-old daughter Raven has qualified for Denali KidCare. That’s the state and federal program that provides health care to children in lower-income households, much like Medicaid does for adults.

Yordy recently spent a day trying to learn more about Raven’s application. Since she couldn’t reach anyone on the phone, she waited in line at the Division of Public Assistance Anchorage office.

“How are people supposed to keep jobs if they’re required to stand in these lines all day, without knowing when they’ll be seen, without knowing when their case will get an answer and you have to just stay there?” Yordy asked. “You’re chained to that office until your name is called, or you miss your chance.“

Raven isn’t alone. More than 15,000 applications have been waiting more than four months to be processed. Some have it worse. One hundred and two have been waiting for more than three years.

The state leaders who work on public assistance say the size of the backlog overstates the number of people actually waiting. The state uses two different computer systems to handle the applications. And they don’t always talk with each other when cases are resolved.

Juneau resident Corey Peratrovich has a unique perspective on the backlog. Until February, he worked in a Division of Public Assistance office, including answering phone calls from those in the backlog.

“There were times when I had over 100 calls per day … and they are very upset,” Peretrovich said. “There was a number of people who would use choice four-letter words and there were other people in tears.”

Peratrovich left the job and applied for Medicaid in February. Now he’s part of the backlog. It’s been a confusing experience.

“I’ve received a letter saying that I am approved for Medicaid; I was not approved for Medicaid; and then I was approved for Medicaid,” Peratrovich said. “So I received two letters saying approval, one letter saying denial and all these letters came in at the same time.”

On the other end of the process is Matt Stangley. He’s been working on the backlog for the state as the chief of policy and program development for the division. He said the job of processing the applications has been stressful. The attrition rate doubled after the backlog grew four years ago.

“They take these positions because they want to help people in need, right?” Stangley said. “They’re also human, so it’s hard not to take this job home. And they realize that there’s a large amount of work to be done, and they know the work that it takes to do that. So certainly that’s going to weigh on them and increase the stress that they feel.”

The state plans to hire 20 new workers to handle the applications. The Legislature approved half the 40 workers Gov. Bill Walker’s administration requested.

Stangley hopes that having more workers will improve the morale for the rest of the workers and reduce the attrition rate.

“We’re grateful for the positions that we got,” Stangley said. “And we’re going to do the absolute best that we can with them. And then, obviously, we’ll report back to the Legislature next year.”

Stangley said the backlog began to grow when the federal Affordable Care Act was rolled out. At the same time, a new state enrollment system wasn’t ready. People applied, didn’t hear back, and then they reapplied, adding to the backlog.

Stangley said the state is working to speed up the applications for those with urgent needs. The state has hotlines to assist pregnant women and Alaskans requiring urgent care apply for public assistance.

Stangley said the division has emphasized meeting applicants in person, rather than answering the phone. The new workers will be assigned to reduce the backlog and to rural offices.

Jill Yordy won’t be waiting much longer for Raven’s Denali KidCare application to be processed. She and Raven are moving to Colorado. She would have liked to have seen the Legislature approve more workers to clear the backlog.

“It sounds like a recipe for burnout to me for those employees,” Yordy said.

Yordy is a former legislative aide who was statewide coordinator for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. She said legislative candidates should do more for those in the backlog.

“I think they need to spend at least one day of their campaign standing in line with everyone who’s waiting to get assistance and hearing their stories and hearing the struggles this backlog causes,” Yordy said.

The state will start hiring the new workers in July.


Larsen Bay mayor worries aging water infrastructure could collapse

0
0
The spillway in Larsen Bay. (Photo by Kayla Desroches / KMXT)

Larsen Bay, a community of fewer than 100 people on southwest Kodiak Island, is dealing with ongoing water issues.

Listen now

Kodiak representative Louise Stutes visited the village recently with the director of the Alaska Office of Management & Budget, Pat Pitney, to take a look.

The spillway of Larsen Bay’s reservoir, which supplies its hydroelectric plant with water, is aging. But during the visit, it became apparent that that’s only one point of weakness in the community’s water system.

The acting mayor of Larsen Bay, Bill Nelson, stands on a wooden structure extended over the community’s reservoir like a dock.

“Yesterday our village consumed 92,000 gallons of water in 24 hours, and our well only produces 36 gallons per minute, so without this reservoir, we would be in big trouble right now,” Nelson said.

“Well, you’d have no water,” Stutes said.

Louise Stutes (left) and Pat Pitney look at map of Kodiak Island while in Larsen Bay city building. (Photo by Kayla Dersoches / KMXT)

Nelson is leading a tour of the water facilities for Stutes along with state budget director Pat Pitney.

Nelson points to what looks like a waterfall on one side of the reservoir.

“As you can see, I take the excavator, and I pile all rocks, and I had sandbags all the way down here, but of course in the spring with the water runoff, they’ve all washed out,” Nelson said.

The sandbags Nelson is talking about are lined up at the mouth of the waterfall, but the water has pulled some of them close to the edge. He says they add them to raise the water level during dry spells in the summer to maintain water flow over the spillway and feed the hydroelectric plant.

The concrete spillway was built along with the reservoir system in the 1980s. The aging spillway is a major point of weakness, Nelson explains because it’s eroding.

Over the past 10 years, Nelson has reached out for help from state agencies, but so far hasn’t had much success finding a permanent fix. Now, he says, the situation is more urgent than ever. He’s afraid the spillway will collapse.

“Our power would go away, drinking water, and the canneries.”

Nelson says 75 percent of the community’s water comes from the reservoir and the other 25 percent comes from the well.

Part of Nelson’s tour includes a stop at the water treatment plant.

Hugh Kennan, who runs the plant, says there’s another infrastructure problem.

“I’m making 93,000 gallons a day and estimating that 40,000 of it never gets into a home,” Kennan said.

Larsen Bay, like many of the island communities, deals with hard-to-find leaks.

“Again, the infrastructure here is dated, and it’s not gonna get better and, in fact, we’ve watched it go from a loss of 10,000 gallons a day to a loss of 40,000 gallons in probably five years,” Kennan said.

And that’s on top of yet another issue.

Nelson says there are five connected beaver dams along the water system which help control the water flow. A section of the dams washed out in 2011 and filled the reservoir with dirt and mud, which they had to clean up. Nelson says the beavers have since rebuilt the dams.

Nelson is afraid it could happen again. But for now, his focus is on repairing or replacing the spillway.

Stutes says a visit like this one is essential to understanding the situation here.

“I can tell them anything, but if you see it, you can relate it to something. You can relate it to people,” Stutes said. “You can relate it to an actual spot and say I saw that.”

Stutes says she hopes she can help connect Larsen Bay with the right people to find a solution.

Pitney says it’s not likely her visit will result in direct state funds.

“We’re still running a deficit, and so the communities are gonna have to handle themselves to a great degree, but there’s many programs that are out there,” Pitney said.

Nelson says he’ll continue applying for funds to fix the problem and keep on reaching out to legislators.

“Hopefully, the more I talk and the more I bark, people will listen because this would be a disaster if this spillway ever let loose,” Nelson said.

Nelson says fixing the problems now would cost less than cleaning up the mess later if the infrastructure collapsed.

After a difficult year, scandal-plagued Iditarod seeks ‘new blood’

0
0
Nome musher Aaron Burmeister at the Iditarod Ceremonial Start in downtown Anchorage, March 1, 2014. Burmeister is one of the ITC board members who may be resigning soon. (Photo: David Dodman, KNOM).

Changes are coming to the Iditarod’s board of directors. According to a press release, the board of the Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) approved expanding its numbers from nine to 12 earlier this month. And several directors may step down.

The changes come after a December report by the nonprofit Foraker Group found major flaws within the ITC, which plans and oversees the thousand-mile sled dog race.

Board member John Handeland says the board’s restructuring is a balancing act.

“It’s always good to get new blood in an organization, with new ideas and new contacts, but the historical knowledge is also deemed to be important, and we want to ensure that this transition is as seamless as possible,” Handeland said.

According to Handeland, the Foraker report identified six board members who have potential conflicts of interest. Three have ties to race sponsors. That includes Handeland himself and Stan Foo, who was associated with Donlin Gold. Foo was recently named chief operating officer of Graphite One Alaska, which wants to build a graphite mine on the Seward Peninsula.

Two have family ties to mushers. And one is a musher himself: Wade Marrs, the official musher representative on the board. He’s president of the Iditarod Official Finishers Club (IOFC).

None of the six are being pushed out, Handeland says. The board didn’t feel those conflicts were significant. But they did take away the musher rep’s vote.

“We felt that it was very important to include the mushers and current mushers on the board so that we had their perspective of any changes or any current activities with the trail,” Handeland said.

Marrs could not be reached for comment before the airing of this story. In February, IOFC demanded the resignation of board president Andy Baker, the brother of musher John Baker.

As for who might be leaving now, Handeland only named Aaron Burmeister and Rick Swenson. If they do resign, there’ll be five vacant seats, and the board says it hopes to fill them by the end of June. Handeland says a three-member committee will seek candidates for the board to vote on.

“We’re looking for both diversity in it and also, then, folks that bring to the table sponsors and other organizations that would be a benefit to the organization and the Iditarod as a whole,” Handeland said.

New board members will be subject to a new limit of three three-year terms. But current board members won’t be required to leave immediately. The Foraker report specifically recommended that the board not dump everyone at the same time.

During its meeting last Friday, the board also approved using the Mush with P.R.I.D.E. kennel management standards as official Iditarod policy.

Supreme Court agrees to hear Alaska Hovercraft case again

0
0
John Sturgeon discusses his U.S. Supreme Court case with the Alaska Senate Resources Committee, Feb. 17, 2016. Sturgeon is the plaintiff in in Sturgeon v. Frost, a case involving a dispute over federal control over navigable waters. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rehear the case of an Alaska moose hunter whose use of a hovercraft in the Nation River got him in trouble with the National Park Service.

Listen now

John Sturgeon was on his annual moose hunt in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in 2007 when rangers told him Park Service rules prohibit hovercraft.

The case has become a test of the state of Alaska’s sovereignty. Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth says if Sturgeon loses, the federal government will be allowed to overrun Alaska’s right to make decisions about managing state waters “to promote the best interests of Alaskans.”

Sturgeon and the state claim the Park Service hovercraft ban doesn’t apply to the Nation River, even when it flows through the federal preserve, because the land under navigable waters belongs to the state.

The Supreme Court heard the case in 2016 and sent it back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the court’s interpretation of the law was wrong. But the high court didn’t say what the correct interpretation is, so when the Ninth Circuit again ruled against Sturgeon, citing a different reason, it seemed inevitable the justices would hear the case again.

The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case sometime in next term, which runs from October until next June or July.

Alaska News Nightly: Monday, June 18, 2018

0
0

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

Murkowski zeroes in on Trump admin to stop splitting families at border

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

“The time is now for the White House to end the cruel, tragic separations of families,” Murkowski said in a written statement. If the administration doesn’t act quickly, she said, Congress must. Sen. Dan Sullivan called the situation complicated and called for a bipartisan solution from Congress.

Murkowski, Young respond to Chinese tariff on American seafood imports

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

Alaska’s economy could suffer as a result of China’s 25 percent tariff on American seafood imports and that worries U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. In a written statement, Murkowski urges President Donald Trump to reach a trade policy with China that protects the export market.

Supreme Court agrees to hear Alaska Hovercraft case again

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

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rehear the case of an Alaska moose hunter whose use of a hovercraft in the Nation River got him in trouble with the National Park Service.

Larsen Bay mayor worries aging water infrastructure could collapse

Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak

Larsen Bay, a community of fewer than 100 people on southwest Kodiak Island, is dealing with ongoing water issues.

EPA, Corps agree to new wetland mitigation guidelines

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

Two federal agencies have beefed up their guidelines for wetlands mitigation in Alaska. The announcement comes after a news outlet found only 26 percent of Alaska permittees were required to mitigate wetland damage.

Pogo officials consider extending life of gold mine if exploration shows promising deposits

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

Pogo Mine officials say the company may extend the life of the mine northeast of Delta Junction if exploration they’re conducting this summer confirms the presence of potentially rich gold deposits.

NN Cannery History Project collects stories of former cannery workers

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

In canneries, the term “Mug Up” means coffee break. It’s also the name of a new effort to share the history of the NN Cannery, a now-closed cannery in South Naknek that functioned almost continuously for 120 years.

Alaska’s northernmost town still in transition 1 1/2 years after official name change

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

“Barrow” is everywhere while walking around town: on the fire trucks, in the name of the high school, the local utility company, on the North Slope Borough’s official logo. But the name “Utqiaġvik” is showing up, as well. It’s on City Hall and on municipal department letterhead.

Can a liquor store help a community solve alcohol-related problems?

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Alcohol abuse is an issue throughout the country, even in areas where it’s illegal. Banning alcohol doesn’t always solve the problem, so should communities try swinging the other way and make it more available? Could opening a liquor store help a community, not harm it? The village of Kiana is finding out – and reviews are mixed.

Murkowski zeroes in on Trump admin to stop splitting families at border

0
0

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is calling on the Trump administration to stop separating children from their parents when families are caught crossing the southern border.

Listen now

“The time is now for the White House to end the cruel, tragic separations of families,” Murkowski wrote in a statement issued Monday afternoon. She also said she’s “troubled” that asylum seekers are turned away before they have a chance to file their papers.

Murkowski urged the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to change its policies “today.”  If the administration does not act quickly, she said Congress should step in.

As criticism has intensified over the family separations, the Trump Administration has blamed Democrats and lawmakers. Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen argued with reporters about who is responsible for changing the new “zero tolerance” policy, which gave rise to the family separations when the parents were sent to jail.

“Congress could fix this tomorrow,” Nielsen said.

On Sunday, both of Alaska’s U.S. senators posted Father’s Day messages on Facebook that drew a flood of comments from people demanding they speak out against the family separations. Some also asked that they support a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would halt the practice.

Sen. Dan Sullivan issued his first statement on the issue Monday. He did not directly criticize the administration or its policy, though he said the government’s “default position” should be to keep families together whenever possible.

“Nevertheless, this is a complicated issue that needs a bipartisan approach to keep kids with their parents, while at the same time ending the catch and release policy of the previous administration that encouraged further illegal immigration, and worse, trafficking of children,” Sullivan said.

(Washington Post fact-checkers looked into assertions that “catch and release” is a Democratic policy. They found it to be mostly false.)

Like Nielsen, he called for congressional solutions. Sullivan also called for more funding for immigration judges and new facilities so parents and kids can stay together.

Compared to a statement she made last week in response to a reporter’s question, Murkowski’s latest stance is more pointed and urgent. She said last week she had “concerns” about taking young children from their parents for an indefinite period.

A spokeswoman for Don Young said last week the congressman believes detaining people who cross illegally is important to border security but thinks there are solutions that can keep families together. She said Young looks forward to considering a bill that allows for family unity.

EPA, Corps agree to new wetland mitigation guidelines

0
0
Aerial view of Upper Talarik Creek, in the Bristol Bay watershed. (Photo: EPA)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have beefed up their guidelines for wetlands mitigation in Alaska, elaborating on ways a developer can compensate for disturbing bogs, ponds and streams.

Listen now

The idea of mitigation is that developers are permitted to fill a wetland if they restore or protect a similar property nearby. But mitigation is challenging in Alaska, where much of the state is considered a wetland and opportunities to restore private land in the area may be scarce.

Energy & Environment News reviewed wetlands permits in Alaska going back to 2015 and found the Corps had only required mitigation 26 percent of the time.

The new agreement between the federal agencies says the mitigation can be farther afield from the construction project and may be on public land. It also allows “out of kind” mitigation, meaning that the project may involve filling a wetland, but the mitigation for it could be the restoration of a stream.

It’s unclear whether the guidelines will result in more mitigation projects in Alaska, but E&E News says it seems to take aim at several of the justifications the Corps used to conclude mitigation was not required for particular permits.

Spike in shipping costs has Southeast businesses up in arms

0
0
Barges carry containers full of product to ship to Southeast towns. (June Leffler/ KSTK)

Lisa Messmer works for a furniture store in the small island town of Wrangell. Earlier this year, she received an email with the heading: freight rate increases.

“When I saw the heading I didn’t read the rest of it because we don’t have a choice here,” Messmer said. “You can’t call them up and say you aren’t going to pay. We’re just stuck, and we pay what they say we pay.”

Wrangell and the rest of Southeast Alaska receive groceries, hardware, appliances and alcohol by seafaring barges coming from the Seattle. It’s really the only way things get to small island towns or remote villages.

Freight rates increase all the time. And at small increments, people just suck it up. But small business owners are seeing a steeper hike than anyone expected.

“We know freight is high here, It’s just doing business in Wrangell, Alaska,” David Powell said. He runs the Bay Company. This year, his minimum load freight rate increased 58 percent. For larger loads, it’s three times what it was last year.

Powell sells boats, motors, buoys, anything for the water. He anticipates raising his prices to meet the extra freight costs.

“We’re talking about a boat that would sell for $5,700 now would probably sell for $6,400 next year,” Powell said.

A bar owner saw his liquor freight increase 58 percent this year as well. He had to make a tough business decision after seeing that increase.

“Our prices went up the day after I got that invoice,” Powell said.

There are only two barge companies operating in Southeast, Alaska Marine Lines and Samson Tug and Barge.

Samson’s Vice President Jerry Morgan says the rates have increased to meet their own operating costs. He says when Samson got into the Southeast market five years ago, its competitors were setting low rates for the area.

“I don’t know why the rates were so, low but they were so out of market range it just doesn’t make sense to even provide service to Wrangell at the rates they were offering before,” Morgan said. “The rates in Southeast are pretty low across the board it’s just a difficult market to compete in.”

It’s difficult to peg one number for overall freight increases. Freight rates are based on different weight loads, commodities and ports. Plus, individual businesses have their own contracts with these freight companies, that all look a little different. But companies regularly submit to the federal government their tariffs, which are a baseline of their rates. Here are some of the rate changes for Samson from 2017 to 2018 in Wrangell (at minimum weight loads). Groceries went up 7 percent, building supplies went up 13 percent, liquor went up 80 percent, and mixed freight loads went up 35 percent. Gas went down 8 percent.

Alaska Marine Lines is the bigger barge company in Southeast. An AML representative said its rates are also going up, particularly for smaller loads.

The representative says handling 20 to 30 different orders in a single container requires much more handling than unloading a container for a single customer. And AML has jacked up their rates to reflect that internal cost.

But raising rates on smaller loads, means raising rates on smaller businesses. Those that are already struggling to compete with big box and online retailers. Even though it is a hard decision, there’s no way around it, businesses are going to pass that cost along to their customers.


Kalskag negotiating new subsistence fishing regulations with Kuskokwim fishery managers

0
0
Gillnet fishing on the Kuskokwim River near Aniak, about 50 miles upstream of Upper and Lower Kalskag. (Dave Cannon / KYUK)

How you fish on the Kuskokwim River depends on where you are. According to local fishermen, how you fish near Upper and Lower Kalskag is unlike anywhere else on the river. Fishermen in these communities claim that their unique situation requires unique fishing regulations and are meeting with tribal, federal and state managers on Tuesday, June 19 to negotiate a solution.

Listen now

Mike Savage has been fishing in the same eddy on the Kuskokwim River since 1959. Savage lives in Lower Kalskag and began fishing this eddy as a child. Over six decades, he’s learned to read it well.

“And every year it changes,” Savage said. “You know, you got to look at it.”

But this year he can hardly see it. The river water is about two feet above average and nearly swallows his fishing spot.

“It’s hardly an eddy at all because of high water,” Savage said.

An eddy is where the current hits something solid, like rocks or the bank, and flows back on itself, creating a reverse current on the downstream side of the obstacle. Fish congregate in the swirling water, making them ideal fishing areas, but when the water is high, eddies wash out and disappear as the river flows over what was previously a barrier.

Around Upper and Lower Kalskag there aren’t many eddies to begin with, and this year they’re smaller than usual because of high water rushing over them. Some eddies nearly disappeared after high water during breakup tore off sections of river bank. This means that the two communities that make up the Kalskag section of the Kuskokwim have a lot of fishermen and not a lot of places to fish. Many fishermen take turns drifting.

“If there are three or four boats, it’ll be an hour to an hour and a half before we make another drift,” Savage explained.

There’s another limiting factor: timber. Trees line this section of the Kuskokwim and fill the river, snagging and tearing nets. Savage says that his brother-in-law had to cut a new, six-inch mesh gillnet during a recent opening to free it from a snag.

“And we spend two hours, an hour trying to mend it,” Savage said.

That’s time spent not fishing during an opening that only lasted 12 hours. High water means more water and more timber flowing into the river. That’s less places to fish and more snags. On top of that, there are no non-spawning salmon tributaries near Kalskag where fishermen can driftnet outside the main river. So when gillnet openings occur, all the Kalskag fishermen are taking turns drifting their nets in the same few eddies and stopping often to unsnag and mend them. By the time the fishing period closes, no one has had time to do much fishing.

Mike Savage wants to change that by extending the openings to 24 hours for the Kalskag area. Savage represents the Middle River on the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group. Tuesday afternoon, he and other Kalskag representatives are meeting with the managers from the tribal, federal and state entities in hopes of coming up with a solution.

Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge Manager Ken Stahlnecker oversees the Kalskag federal waters. Stahlnecker announced last week that he’s willing to work with the Kalskag communities and can change the rules through a federal emergency order.

This is not the first time Kalskag has had special rules. In 2016, the feds made an exemption to include Kalskag under state regulation. Kalskag lies less than 50 miles downstream of the refuge boundary on the federal side, but the community’s fishing style and circumstance more closely match the upper river on the state side. Including Kalskag under state regulation for the remaining season is another option that Savage wants considered.

Tour guides, bear hunters seek solutions after tourists witness a hunt in the Tongass

0
0
Two brown bears on July 10, 2012 in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness on Admiralty Island in the Tongass National Forest. (Photo courtesy Don MacDougall/U.S. Forest Service)

Small luxury cruises in Southeast Alaska offer guests a chance to explore remote spots in the Tongass National Forest. Passengers get a front row seat to look for wildlife. But there’s another kind of tourism happening at the same time: big game hunting. That can be a problem when the two interests overlap.

Listen now

Now, two seemingly different groups are trying to find a solution.

The Safari Endeavour was designed to give guests the experience of adventure with the comfort of sleeping in high-end sheets. On this ship, you can wake up to locally sourced food, and spend the afternoon paddling to a distant cove.

Those perks are available to a small passenger list of up to 70 people.

Dan Blanchard aboard the Safari Endeavour. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

CEO and owner of UnCruise Adventures, Captain Dan Blanchard, shows off favorite place on the boat to take in the scenery roll out a yoga mat, or even spot a bear from the deck.

That’s a big part of what Blanchard said UnCruise is all about: being able to view wildlife in this pristine environment.

“Southeast Alaska is a bastion for wilderness — not just for Alaska but for our world,” Blanchard said.

The trips have become so popular the company has even made a push for an earlier start season. Of course, this Safari Endeavour is a hunt for the eyes. But last year, on a different UnCruise boat, the hunt became real.

As guests peered through binoculars at a bear, they saw a hunter shoot it.

“My reaction was it’s bound to happen,” hunting guide Thor Stacey said. He’s been guiding in Alaska for decades.  To be clear, it was a local hunter — not a guide — who shot the bear as a boat of surprised tourists watched. But Stacey said generally nobody, including hunters, wants to see that happen.

Still, Stacey thinks as more small cruises expand into the spring and fall, the conflict seems inevitable. That’s traditionally the bear hunting season. A time when as many as 20 guides lead clients around the region.

Stacey said that’s led to frustrations for both small cruise ships and hunting guides alike.

Stacey has heard the complaint: ‘There’s all this country out there? Why can’t we just go where we want in the spring,’ and we’re sitting there saying we’re already here … and our use has been here since the 1930s.”

The Tongass is huge. But small cruises and big game guides can’t just go anywhere. They have to obtain special use permits from the U.S. Forest Service. That becomes a problem when the two ventures overlap. For bear hunters, the scent of an entire boat of people can throw off the animal’s behavior.

Stacey said hunting guides attracted some of the original adventure tourists to the region. As the small cruise industry expands, he said the game guides are the ones who feel “threatened.”

“In America, the bigger you are the better things generally work out for you … So when you see a large economic interest like that show up and you’re a group of small business,” Stacey said. “The fear of being pushed out or being pushed aside is very intense.”

Add to that the misconceptions people have about big game hunting, Stacey said. He stresses this is a regulated industry. He’s concerned about the sustainability of the bear population and keeping the Tongass wild just as much as anyone else.

So, after word got around about the bear shooting by the local hunter, Stacey said it was time for a conversation with the small ships.

“We figured if we helped them out, the outcome would be much better,” Stacey said.

Blanchard said he began to understand what it means to harvest a bear and how the hunts are controlled.

“That quite frankly, even though I’m not a bear hunter, it put me at more comfort,” Blanchard said.

In January, the two groups got together — in meetings moderated by the forest service — to hatch a plan. Hunting guides shared their knowledge and made suggestions on alternative spots for the small cruise ships to explore. There’s now a voluntary schedule where the businesses can keep tabs on each other to avoid being in the same place at the same time.

Blanchard acknowledges this new agreement, so far, has been a challenge.

“It’s not a lot of places and probably when we go back we’ll need to try to charter new spots for the small ships next spring,” Blanchard said.

But Blanchard thinks there’s still room for different types of tourism to coexist in the Tongass.

Campbell Creek Science Center offers reward for information on stolen mammoth tusk

0
0
Someone stole a 10,000-year-old mammoth bone from the Campbell Creek Science Center in March. They’re now offering a $500 reward for information. (Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media)

Outside the Campbell Creek Science Center, a line of kids sings a call-and-response song with their camp counselor as they follow him down a path. They’re part of a summer camp at the Center that teaches kids about the outdoors and wildlife. But this summer’s campers are missing out on a hefty piece of Alaska’s history that campers and visitors enjoyed in the past.

Listen now

In March, someone stole a 10,000-year-old mammoth tusk from the Center. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which owns the Center, announced that it’s offering a $500 reward to anyone with information leading to the recovery of the missing 100-pound tusk.

Inside the Center, Kids and counselors mill about grabbing backpacks as they head outside. BLM spokesperson Maureen Clark points to a corner of the Center’s classroom where the five-foot-long tusk used to sit on top of a counter. It’s now been replaced by two blue plastic bins.

“People could come up and touch it,” Clark said.

Because the investigation is ongoing, she can’t share much about the theft but says someone stole the tusk in the early morning of March 8th. Police and BLM investigators responded that day.

“It’s important not to release too much information too early in the investigation, otherwise you could risk losing important evidence and suspects early on,” Clark said. “And so, at this point in time, it was a good time to go to the public and ask for help.”

Clark said the tusk was one of several found on BLM land in the Colville River area up on the North Slope in the 1980s. The tusk was polished, restored and put on display. It’s curved and brown and off-white in color.

A photo of the 100-pound mammoth tusk released by the Bureau of Land Management to help identify the tusk if found. (Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management)

“It was on display, really kind of a neat piece, (and) an amazing part of Alaska’s natural history. These animals that used to roam the earth during the ice age left behind their tusks,” Clark said. “It was popular with the kids and with the public.”

Clark said there’s a legal and an illegal market for ivory as well as paleontological resources like the tusk. Nothing else was stolen at the time of the burglary.

Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, June 19, 2018

0
0

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

Alaska senators veer apart on family separations

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

A gulf has opened between Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan on how to end family separations at the border. She signed a letter asking the attorney general to stop it immediately. Sullivan says it’ll take a new law.

Accused of 2016 murders, Palmer man faces possible death sentence

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage says it’s only the third time in the past 25 to 30 years that a formal intent to pursue the death penalty has been filed in an Alaska case.

Walker asks Trump administration to protect those with pre-existing conditions

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Americans with pre-existing medical conditions are protected under the current federal law in buying individual health insurance. But President Donald Trump’s administration says the protection included in the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Alaska Governor Bill Walker joined a bipartisan group of eight other governors in support of continuing the protection.

ASMI says Chinese tariff increase will not apply to secondary processing

Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak

Since last week, processors have been waiting to find out whether secondary processing of Alaska fish will be subject to a new 25 percent tariff,

New Alaska regs requires oil and gas wells anchor below permafrost

Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

Companies drilling oil and gas wells in Alaska will now have to dig deep enough to avoid problems stemming from thawing permafrost.

AEL&P to share the wealth from corporate tax cut

Jacob Resneck, KTOO – Juneau

Ratepayers in Juneau can expect a rebate on their power bills.

Palin’s son moves to court program after assaulting father

Associated Press

Track Palin has formally entered into a diversion court program after assaulting his father so severely that it left him bleeding from the head.

Bolger picked to be new Alaska Supreme Court chief justice

Associated Press

The Alaska Supreme Court will have a new chief justice, starting July 1.

Kalskag negotiating new subsistence fishing regulations with Kuskokwim fishery managers

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

How you fish on the Kuskokwim River depends on where you are. And—according to local fishermen— how you fish near Upper and Lower Kalskag is unlike anywhere else on the river.

Campbell Creek Science Center offers reward for information on stolen mammoth tusk

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Someone stole a 10,000-year-old mammoth tusk from the Campbell Creek Science Center in March. They’re now offering a $500 reward for information.

Tour guides, bear hunters seek solutions after tourists witness a hunt in the Tongass

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

In January, the two groups got together — in meetings moderated by the forest service — to hatch a plan to keep the hunting guides and small cruise ships from overlapping.

Alaska senators veer apart on family separations

0
0
Photo of U.S. Capitol by Liz Ruskin/Alaska Public Media

The separation of families detained at the southern border is dividing Republicans as they try to keep the scenes of despair from becoming a GOP public relations disaster, and Alaska’s two senators have staked out distant positions, at least for the short term.

Listen now

Almost everyone says it’s bad to take children from their parents, but that’s what’s happened to thousands of children as a result of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for unauthorized border crossers.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and 12 other Republicans signed a letter Tuesday asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to halt implementation of the zero tolerance policy to keep families together while Congress works out a solution. The letter was spearheaded by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. It calls the forced separations “inhumane.”

But Trump and other Republicans say Congress needs to pass a law to end the separations. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said that was the direction Senate Republicans took in their weekly policy gathering on Tuesday.

“Literally, almost the entire lunch that I just walked out of was all focused on what is the legislative solution,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan agrees families should be kept together.

“But you also have to address this other issue that’s related. It’s the ‘catch and release’ policy,” Sullivan said, referring to the previous policy of giving court dates to people claiming asylum and releasing them from federal detention.

Asked if the president should end family separations immediately, Sullivan said if there’s a way to move up the processing of families so their cases can be heard within 20 days, the administration should consider doing that. Sullivan said he’s interested in a bill by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. It would authorize new temporary family shelters and double the number of immigration judges, to about 750, to decide claims more quickly.

But President Trump on Tuesday rejected the idea of hiring massive numbers of new immigration judges.

“One of them says ‘we want to hire 5,000 more judges.’ I don’t want judges,” Trump said in a speech to small-business owners. “I want border security. I don’t want to try people. I don’t want people coming in.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., emerged from the weekly policy lunch saying he wants to pass a targeted bill within days that would keep families together. But that would mean leaving out the trickier issues, like an immigration overhaul and the president’s proposed border wall. And it’s not clear that’s a solution the president will accept.

All 47 Senate Democrats, plus two independents who caucus with them, are backing a narrow bill that would prohibit removing children unless they’re being abused or trafficked.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives are drafting two separate bills to address broader immigration policy. One is put forth by the party’s hard-liners, the other is a compromise bill aimed at moderates. It’s not clear either has the votes to pass.

Trump said earlier in the day he would make changes to their proposals, but Tuesday evening he reportedly said he’d support either House bill.

Viewing all 17594 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images