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What they mean when they say ‘immigration problem’

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Photo: Carrie Braes

A day after President Trump issued an executive order to stop separating families caught crossing the southern border, members of Congress are scrambling to figure out what to do with subsequent families who make the journey to the United States. Lawmakers paint different pictures of what the problem actually is and who the victims are. And that’s true even within Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation.

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Trump’s order will continue the “zero tolerance” arrests for border crossers, with the intention that children would be detained with their parents. Sen. Dan Sullivan said it’s good to end the family separations, but the order doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

“The president’s executive order gives a pause and I think brought relief to people who are concerned about the issue,” Sullivan said. “But who knows how long that’s going to last because it’s going to be litigated.”

A 1997 legal settlement says children can’t be detained for more than 20 days, even with their parents. Sullivan said lawsuits will make it hard to hold families longer.

“Or if (the limit of) 20 days hits, do you just say, ‘OK you’re allowed to go free into the country, even though we haven’t adjudicated your status’?” Sullivan said.  “That’s the whole issue of ‘catch and release.'”

Sullivan is concerned about people walking away from their immigration proceedings and taking up illegal residence in the U.S. And he sees a problem with people using children, even trafficking children, to game the system.

“And the last thing we want to be doing,” Sullivan said, “is send a signal that ‘hey, if you show up in the United States with a child, somehow you’re going to get a free pass into the country after 20 days.'”

Sullivan is co-sponsoring two bills that would provide more family shelters and add immigration judges to expedite court cases and asylum claims.

The current family separation crisis began this spring, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions imposed the new “zero tolerance” policy. But as Alaska Congressman Don Young sees it, the real problem is decades old, due to Congress not passing a good immigration law.

“Because people don’t want to solve the problem. It’s a political issue,” Young said. “It’s politics and politics is nasty nowadays days, and they’re using the children as a pawn, and that’s wrong.”

And Young, like Trump, says the people at fault are the Democrats. As for the solution, Young wants a wall — but on Mexico’s southern border.

“If you build a wall in Mexico down there where the bottleneck is, that’d be a pretty short wall. I’d even pay for it,” Young said. “And then we have chance to check them out before they go through to Mexico.”

Young said a compromise immigration bill in the House won’t solve the problem, but is better than nothing.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, when discussing the border problem, focuses on families from Central America who have legitimate asylum claims. She said some have tried to present their claims at official crossing points but have been turned away because the lines are long and there aren’t enough U.S. staff to accept their paperwork.

“And so what are those people supposed to do?” Murkowski said. “You’ve come from a place where you live in fear. You’ve probably got very little financial assets to get you to return. Are you going to walk back 2,000 miles? That’s not going to happen.”

Murkowski said people may cross the border illegally because they have no other way to contact U.S. officials and apply for asylum.

She’s working with a group that includes Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on a bipartisan bill.

Unlike a lot of her colleagues, Murkowski doesn’t focus on adults who may be exploiting children to better their chances of gaining access to the country.

“I don’t mention them because I don’t know to what degree it’s happening,” Murkowski said. She added that she is concerned children could be exploited to gain entry to the United States. “I am not so naive as to believe there are not some bad actors out there.”

But Murkowski said there are families with valid asylum claims and she doesn’t want to punish the many for the crimes of a few.


Southcentral king salmon sport fishing closures continue

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(Alaska Public Media file photo)

Sport fishing for king salmon is looking bleak in Southcentral after recent closures announced by the Department of Fish and Game.

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All sport fishing for kings on the Kenai River, including catch and release, closed Wednesday. Farther to the north, king fishing will close starting Friday morning on the Susitna and Little Susitna rivers, as well as the Big Su’s tributaries. A subsistence fishery on the Upper Yentna is also set to close early Monday.

The more recent closures follow earlier, broader restrictions for streams off the Parks Highway and elsewhere. Now, the popular Deshka River king salmon sport fishery is also closed.

“It is pretty widespread,” Area Management Biologist Sam Ivey said. “As far as I know, we’re the last area up here in the north to close to fishing for wild king salmon. The only fisheries open now are hatchery-stocked.”

Biologists say fish counts have shown far fewer king salmon swimming upstream to breeding grounds than were expected. The closure notices say shutting down sport fishing for kings is necessary to protect fish numbers and fishing opportunities in the future.

The closures for the Susitna and Little Su rivers are set to run through July 13 and to the end of July for the Kenai River.

Fansler sentenced to year of probation, alcohol treatment and community service

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Rep. Zach Fansler, D- Bethel, addresses the Capitol Press Corps during a House Majority Press Availability in March 2017. Fansler pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment in connection with a January incident in which he repeatedly struck a woman in his hotel room. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)

Former state Rep. Zach Fansler pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree harassment in connection with a January incident in which he struck a woman in his hotel room.

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Juneau District Court Judge Kirsten Swanson sentenced Fansler to a 10-day suspended sentence and a year of probation.

Fansler will also have to do 80 hours of community service and seek alcohol treatment. He’s prohibited from drinking any alcohol for a year.

Chief Assistant Attorney General Paul Miovas urged Swanson to require community service. He said Fansler enjoys hurting women.

“The victim in this case is 100 percent adamant – and we believe the evidence supports it – she did not agree to this conduct,” Miovas said. “Whatever the agreement was, whatever the relationship was, she did not agree to let him hit her in the head multiple times, causing a ruptured eardrum. That was not part of the deal.”

Fansler called into the hearing. His lawyer Wallace Tetlow said he disagrees that Fansler likes to hurt women. He noted that Fansler had no prior record of arrests. Tetlow alleged there was some degree of consent from the victim. He argued against the community service.

“He lost his position with the state Legislature,” Tetlow said. “He lost what looked to be a very promising career in politics, which … there’s no question that that’s not going to happen.  That’s out of the question from here on out.”

In a written statement to Swanson, the victim said Fansler’s actions were predatory and intentionally violent.

“I want Zach to take responsibility for what he did,” the victim wrote. “I also want resolution as soon as possible. I want this to be over.”

Swanson was moved as she spoke about the effect of the incident on the victim.

“Certainly when I read her letter, it was clear, not only the physical harm that she had with the eardrum, but also what she felt emotionally,” Swanson said.

The incident happened on the night of Jan. 13, and became public two weeks later, when the Juneau Empire reported it. Fansler submitted his resignation six days after that.

The Democrat was elected in 2016 to represent the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Fansler is originally from Pennsylvania. His current state of residence isn’t clear. A call to his attorney hadn’t been returned by deadline.

Whale collides with ferry Tustumena

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A photo taken on board the Tustumena. and shared with DOT officials. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Transportation)

The ferry Tustumena passengers traveling to Kodiak watched a whale collide with the vessel Wednesday morning.

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NOAA received a report of the incident from the Alaska Marine Highway System, according to NOAA Fisheries Alaska region spokeswoman Julie Speegle.

Eyewitnesses say a whale breached into the side of the ferry, Speegle said.

“Afterwards, the whale was seen swimming abnormally and then it sank out of sight,” Speegle said. “From the force of the breach, it is likely that this whale suffered mortal injuries.”

The whale struck the ferry’s starboard stabilization fin.

Department of Transportation public information officer Aurah Landau said the ferry schedule will not be affected.

“Divers took a look at the stabilizer, and it was able to be retracted,” Landau said. “The vessel can run safely as is without that one stabilizer, and so we don’t anticipate needing repairs at this point.”

Speegle said NOAA may be able to learn more, such as the whale’s species, if its body floats to the surface.

Searching for closure on Colony Glacier

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Military recovery crew on Colony Glacier (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

A Blackhawk helicopter lifts off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. It tilts towards the Chugach mountains, flying low over forests and farmlands, alongside rocky peaks and silty valleys.

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Blackhawk helicopter landing on Colony Glacier (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

A half hour later, Colony Glacier comes into sight. The Blackhawk lands on a flat patch of ice and Captain Victoria Martinez ducks under its roaring rotors. She straps spikey crampons to her boots. She’s geared up with a wool hat, a neck warmer and gloves

“I probably have four layers on,” Martinez said, with a laugh.

Martinez is from the Air Force Mortuary Affairs, an operation responsible for the return of fallen service members. Out here on Colony Glacier, she’s leading the effort to recover remains and personal effects left after the crash.

The recovery crew works during the month of June, since it’s warm enough in July warm enough that the ice can crack and shift. (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

“We get on our hands and knees,” Martinez explained. “We have a trowel and we are flipping over all of these rocks. We’re looking for the smallest pieces of tissue or bone. So this is what we do every day for a month, six days a week.”

In 1952, an Air Force plane collided with the side of a mountain north of Anchorage. All 52 service members aboard perished. In the days after the crash, a storm buried the wreckage.

It wasn’t until 2012 that the remains were rediscovered on the Colony Glacier. A crew has assembled every June since then to bring closure to the families of the service members who lost their lives.

It’s still cold out on the glacier, but June is the safest time to work. In May, there’s still a chance of snow and by July, Martinez explained, it’s warm enough that the ice can crack and shift.

Right now, that powder blue ice is covered in a thin layer of gravel– little pebbles, larger rocks. A few of those rocks are painted orange, telling the crew which areas to search.

Martinez walks carefully around debris.

“This is a piece of a shirt– a blues uniform,” Martinez said. “You can kind of see the collar where the button would go.”

It’s all just lying on top of the ice despite decades of winter weather and summer melt.

A shirt collar is among the debris found on Colony Glacier from the 1952 crash. (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

Martinez’s team has found playing cards, nail clippers, a pack of cigarettes — you can still make out the camel on the side of the pack. There’s a camera completely intact and a light bulb that’s gone unbroken for more than 60 years.

These were things service members packed away in their luggage or tucked into their shirt pockets to keep safe.

Clay Allen is an Army medic and remembers looking down and seeing something shiny on the glacier’s surface.

“I picked it up, looked at it, and it turned out it was a wedding ring,” Allen said. “It was a pretty amazing find [considering] how big this area is– to find something was pretty neat.”

Cpt. Victoria Martinez holds one of the three wedding rings found this year on Colony Glacier (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

The crew found two more wedding rings just this month. If they can be identified, the rings will be returned to the service members’ families.

As for any human remains, those will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Colonel Dawn Lancaster is commander of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs based in Dover.

“Their loved ones died in service to this great nation,” Lancaster said. “It’s the least we can do.”

So far, 38 of the 52 people on board in 1952 flight have been identified.

“I would love to know someday that we’re going to be able to identify all 52 members. Is it possible? Yes, but I know it may not happen,” Lancaster admitted.

But if she can get 50, “that’s 50 families I’ve taken care of and they have some form of closure and know that we kept our promise to them.”

Most of the crew is based at JBER, but some have come as far as Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

That promise to fallen soldiers includes an escort, a dignified arrival and burial with full honors.

Captain Victoria Martinez has personally escorted the remains of two service members that went down in this crash. She says it’s an emotional experience for everyone.

“They relive those moments 60-plus years later, so they’re grieving,” Martinez explained. “But at the same time we’re giving them closure.”

Martinez and her crew will keep searching, sifting through ice and gravel on this hallowed ground — in the hopes of bringing more of these men home.

AK: Bristol Bay fishing captains ‘speed hire’ to find their perfect match

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Skipper, Bob Bonanno, interviews potential crew member, Adam Henry, during speed hiring at the Bristol Bay Fish Expo. (Credit- Avery Lill, KDLG)

It’s early days in Bristol Bay’s commercial salmon season. For the past several weeks, the boat yards have been filled with skippers and crew readying their vessels to hit the water. The draw of fishing the world’s largest sockeye run sometimes even leads hopefuls to hop on a plane with nothing but a ticket and a dream of finding a job.

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The Bristol Bay Fish Expo in Naknek is playing matchmaker.

Men and women move seats at a long row of folding tables. Their goal: to convince the captains on the other side that they are the one.

Skippers Ante Vukic and Bob Bonanno both had crew members back out at the last minute. Both have in mind what they’re looking for in a match.

“Basically, safety and will to learn. Drug-free and alcohol, more or less free. Because that’s the biggest killer of the fishermen,” Vukic said.

“Basically, someone that’s not shy, that appears physically fit and just has a passion and doesn’t look to be prone to drama,” Bonanno said. “I don’t like drama on the boat.”

Each speed hiring pair has five minutes to chat. The moderator keeps time. (Credit – Avery Lill, KDLG)

The lanky youth across the table from Bonanno looks at the skipper earnestly. He tells the man that he already knows his knots and hitches.

He’s been in Naknek for days. without a lot of success.

“I — well, tell you the truth, I haven’t really got a job yet. Thing is, before I flew down — I came from Tennessee,” Adam Henry said. “Saw some stuff on Facebook about the Fish Expo. So I had that in my mind. But I came down here early, walked the docks. And that didn’t work out so good. But I’m hoping I’m going to find my home for this time being here.”

Henry’s story of walking the docks is pretty typical. That’s why speed-hiring has been a highlight event at the Bristol Bay Fish Expo for two years. Katie Copps-Wilson is an expo organizer.

“Actually, it came from Tinder, the dating website. And we were thinking about all the captains and crew that came up,” Copps-Wilson said. “There’s a lot of crew that are beating the docks looking for a boat, and there’s a lot of skippers out there looking for crew members. And it just seems like there was a lot of work going into those two things, so last year we came up with ‘speed dating,’ well which we term ‘speed hiring’ in order to connect captains and crew.”

The organizers settled on a structure more similar to old time speed dating than Tinder. Captains and crew don’t have to make a split second decision about whether or not they click.

“So I just think it’s really cool because it gives everybody an opportunity to visit and move on and kind of give an idea for the people, and it keeps people moving along, so they can kind of see what’s out there,” Copps-Wilson said. “Because if you just gave them one room, then, you know people like captains, they’ll cork everybody off.”

For you landlubbers, corking off is slang for putting out a net just outside someone else’s net and intercepting their fish.

So did this year’s captains find what they were looking for? Did they fill that hole in their crew?

Here’s what Ante Vukic and Bob Bonanno had to say

“Well, I met quite a few interesting people, younger people that they wanted to give it a chance,” Vukic said. “I was pretty happy with what I heard this morning, and I am planning to call this guy back and have a little longer interview with him.”

“I have two very good prospects, so I’m going to work on that a little bit, go through my notes and give one of them a call here shortly,” Bonanno said.

Sounds like more matches made in Bristol Bay.

49 Voices: Nicolai Alokli of Kodiak

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Nicolai Alokli of Kodiak (Photo by Janet Kotwas, Courtesy of Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository)

This week, we’re hearing from Nicolai Alokli in Kodiak. Alokli was a fisherman in his youth and has lived in Old Harbor and the Alitak cannery area.

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ALOKLI: I’m 82 years, and I’m an only child. My mom died when I was five, and I never really got to know her. My dad died when I was 14. I’ve been on my own since I was 14. I grew up all by myself. I’d say I did pretty good.

All my friends from Old Harbor speak Alutiiq. That’s how I kept my language strong. Grandpa was a reader in church, a Russian reader. He used to read the Gospel in Russian in church, and he’d read the Gospel in Alutiiq. I understood every word of it. He was teaching me to speak Russian, but he passed away before I learned.

I lost my oldest boy. He just passed away, I can’t remember… ten, 15 years ago. He was only 43 years old. I started him fishing when he was five years old. Oh he loved his fishing. And he went out, he joined the Navy. After the Navy, he came home to the local crab shop and he got in a boat, and he caught fish for 18 years, then he came home and died. He was only 43 years old.

He accomplished so much in a short life. I was really proud of him.

Holland America cruise in Alaska hit by norovirus

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The Holland America cruise ship Zaandam docked in Juneau on June 22, 2018. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting an outbreak of norovirus on a Holland America cruise ship in Alaska.

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Some 73 people reported falling ill on the Zaandam which is carrying more than 2,000 passengers and crew.

Juneau’s top attraction is the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier’s visitor center can receive as many as 6,000 cruise ship visitors in a single day. The U.S. Forest Service monitors reports of outbreaks on cruise ships so it can step up sanitation as a precaution.

“We take it really serious,” Visitor Center Director John Neary said. “Hand washing is just super important for our health, or else we’re not going to survive the season well with a lot of losses of staff time. So it’s a pretty important issue.”

The 781-foot Zaandam was docked in Juneau all day on Friday. It’s scheduled to depart at 10 p.m. and is headed to a number of Alaska ports including Hoonah, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak and Sitka before it returns to Seattle on July 2.

It’s the sixth reported norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship this year and the second in Alaska, according to the CDC. The 610-foot Silver Shadow reported 36 people fell ill during a May voyage that included Dutch Harbor, Kodiak and Homer.

Norovirus can cause vomiting and diarrhea usually a day or two after exposure. Most people fully recover within a few days.


Two Alaska projects selected for federal marine energy innovation grant funds

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A turbine device being tested in the Kvichak River close to the village of Igiugig in 2015. Grant money from the Department of Energy will be used to update this model, with the goal to transition the village from primarily diesel to primarily water power. (Photo Courtesy of the Ocean Renewable Power Company)

Two energy projects that could help rural Alaskan villages lower their energy costs just got a financial boost from the federal government.

The grant money comes from the Department of Energy and is part of a larger award to support innovation in marine energy generation.

$2.3 million will go to the Igiugig Village Council in rural southwest Alaska, and its partner the Ocean Renewable Power Company. Since 2014, they’ve been testing a device that uses turbines to generate power from the Kvichak River. The grant money will help them update that design, with the ultimate goal of transitioning the village’s main power source from diesel to water.

Another $1.3 million will go to the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and its partner Renergé Inc.

That grant will help develop what the company is calling a “water horse.” It’s designed to harvest energy from small rivers where the water is not deep enough for large turbines.

Anchorage police arrest dozens in ‘Operation Midnight Sun’

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Around 100 uniformed and undercover officers, including aerial support from Alaska State Troopers, were split into eight teams and conducted a variety of crime suppression activities all over Anchorage in “Operation Midnight Sun.” (Anchorage Police Department photo)

Dozens of alleged criminals were swept up this week in what Anchorage police are calling “Operation Midnight Sun.”

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Police say uniformed and undercover officers worked with state and federal law enforcement agencies over the course of several days during the coordinated, street-level crime suppression operation.

Police say the operation resulted in the seizure of nearly 20 guns, a little less than a pound of drugs and five stolen vehicles. It also led to a total of about 60 felony charges or arrests for outstanding warrants, including the arrest of one man on a murder charge.

Anchorage police lieutenant Jack Carson says Operation Midnight Sun went beyond the department’s day-to-day police work to do something more proactive.

“Crime suppression is actually going out and targeting criminal activity before they can victimize somebody,” Carson said. “So, we’re taking it to ’em prior to that, so we’re actually going out there and seeking them out and arresting them.”

Anchorage police say the operation brought together the FBI, ATF, DEA and others. It also included an Alaska State Trooper helicopter helping spot and track suspects from the air.

Carson says that required a highly coordinated effort.

“You know, it’s one of the biggest operations that we’ve run with all of our federal partners,” Carson said. “We’re doing this type of stuff everyday,but just not to this level.”

Anchorage police say the operation was possible because the department has increased the number of officers on the force and noted that Anchorage residents can expect similar coordinated efforts in the future.

Search still on for bear that killed one, mauled another in Eagle River

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A brown bear that fatally mauled a hiker in Eagle River this week – and later attacked and injured another man – is still on the loose.

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The Department of Fish and Game says an autopsy confirmed that 44-year-old Michael Soltis died as a result of the bear attack.

Police say Soltis was last seen Monday night and was on a hike near his home on Hiland Road when the bear attacked. The bear – or possibly a different bear – appeared to be guarding Soltis’s remains when it attacked another man Wednesday who was part of a group searching for Soltis. The second victim was expected to survive.

However, the bear’s fate is uncertain.

Fish and Game spokesperson Ken Marsh says the department has personnel in the area still looking for the bear, as well as game cameras and traps placed on nearby private property. Marsh says they’ll likely have to kill the bear.

“This is a public safety concern,” Marsh said. “If we’re fortunate enough to get a bear coming back to that site, we’re going to have to probably move on it. We just can’t take the chance that we’re letting a dangerous bear go.”

People are still being warned to avoid the area, but Marsh says hikers can encounter bears in just about any part of Alaska. He says preventing negative bear interactions is always important and traveling in groups and making noise while hiking can help. And Fish and Game recommends carrying some kind of deterrent, whether bear spray or a firearm.

Marsh says there was no evidence either man attacked this week was carrying either bear spray or a gun.

Investing in small business

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In less than a year, Whitehorse beader Heather Dickson developed a booming online business, Dickson Design. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Alaska has a lot of entrepreneurs. Small business owners do everything from walk dogs to design clothing. How has the small business climate evolved in the state and what’s on the horizon? Where can people with big plans get support and capitalize on the interest in buying locally?

HOST: Lori Townsend

GUESTS:

  • Amy Cortese – Author and journalist, Locavesting.
  • Amy Pearl – Director of Community Development, Seedpay, Hatch innovation.
  • Jasmin Smith – Anchorage based start-up facilitator, Business Boutique.
  • 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 26, 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 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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Anchorage police arrest dozens in ‘Operation Midnight Sun’

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Dozens of alleged criminals were swept up this week in what Anchorage police are calling “Operation Midnight Sun.”

State is one step closer to getting a gas pipeline, but not the Walker administration wants

Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

Alaska is one step closer to getting an in-state natural gas pipeline; though it’s not clear if the project will ever be built.

Search still on for bear that killed one, mauled another in Eagle River

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A brown bear that fatally mauled a hiker in Eagle River this week – and later attacked and injured another man – is still on the loose.

Power lunch: US senators transfixed by Bear Cam

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

Even U.S. senators got in on the joy of Katmai Bear Cam this week, and that’s not the only Alaska delight the senators sampled from afar.

Whale collides with ferry Tustumena

Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak

The ferry Tustumena passengers traveling to Kodiak watched a whale collide with the vessel Wednesday morning.

Holland America cruise in Alaska hit by norovirus

Jacob Resneck, KTOO – Juneau

At least 73 people have reportedly fallen ill aboard the Zaandam following an outbreak of norovirus on the Holland America cruise ship. It’s the second reported outbreak of norovirus this year on a cruise ship in Alaska.

A series of recent deaths puts an entire village behind on subsistence fishing

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

For many residents of the Kuskokwim River, June is the most important month for subsistence salmon fishing. But in a small community, death can put a hold on that essential practice. A series of recent deaths in Kasigluk means that many families have barely begun putting away fish for the season.

Searching for closure on Colony Glacier

Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

In 1952 an Air Force plane collided with the side of a mountain north of Anchorage. A crew has assembled every June since 2012 to bring closure to the families of the service members who lost their lives.

AK: Bristol Bay fishing captains ‘speed hire’ to find their perfect match

Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham

Men and women move seats at a long row of folding tables. Their goal: to convince the captains on the other side that they are the one.

49 Voices: Nicolai Alokli of Kodiak

Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak

This week, we’re hearing from Nicolai Alokli in Kodiak. Alokli was a fisherman in his youth and has lived in Old Harbor and the Alitak cannery area.

Power lunch: US senators transfixed by Bear Cam

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Katmai bears fish at Brooks Falls. Photo: NPS

Thousands of people around the world are again thrilling at the sight of brown bears fishing at Brooks Falls, now that the Katmai National Park has fired up Bear Cam for another season. Even U.S. senators got in on the joy, and that’s not the only Alaska delight the senators sampled from afar.

Listen now

It’s been a heavy week in Congress, and the Senate isn’t known as a fun-loving place on a normal day, with all the formal tedium, the perpetual observations about absent quorums and time expiring.

But here’s something you won’t see on C-SPAN: Almost every Thursday, Republican senators meet behind closed doors, just outside the chamber, for a theme lunch. Whichever senator is hosting brings food and treats from his or her home state. It’s been going on since the 1970s. This week, it was Sen. Dan Sullivan’s turn.

“You can almost smell the aroma right now,” Sullivan teased from the Senate floor. “We’re baking it in the kitchen here. Salmon, halibut, reindeer sausage.”

And there was more. Caesar salad from Alaska-grown kale. Potato salad from Alaska spuds. Ice tea with Alaska mint. And rhubarb. Some of the veggies came from Meyers Farm in Bethel.

“Arguably, it’s a giant brag session amongst their colleagues,” Sullivan spokesman Matt Shuckerow said. He said the Thursday lunches are an opportunity for comradery, policy discussions and a chance for the host senator to highlight issues of importance to his state.

The big hit, though, at the Sullivan lunch was the two large screens showing live Katmai Bear Cam. Sullivan says the senators could hardly focus on anything else.

“You can have the leader of the U.S. Senate up talking and you have all the senators looking, and they’re not looking at Mitch,” Sullivan said. “They’re, like, looking at the bears. It’s hilarious.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski agreed: Nothing could compete with video feed of bears lunging for salmon.

“All of this important stuff is being talked about and no one is listening,” Murkowski said, “Because we’re – ‘There! He got it! He got it!'”

Party favors are customary at these lunches. Sullivan gave out goody bags that included salmon jerky and a can of Alaska-brewed beer. The hosts aren’t allowed to spend government money on the lunch. Shuckerow says Sullivan used campaign funds.

Kodiak-based Coast Guard intercepts illegal Chinese fishing vessel

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A USCGC Alex Haley boarding team boards the fishing vessel Run Da after the vessel was suspected of illegal high seas driftnet fishing in the North Pacific Ocean, 860 miles east of Hokkaido, Japan, June 16, 2018. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

An illegal fishing vessel was intercepted off the coast of Japan with 80 tons of chum salmon and one ton of squid onboard.

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“Legally, they can go up to about two-and-a-half kilometers. This vessel had almost five times the legal limit of nets,” Captain Darran McLenon, chief of response for the 17th Coast Guard District said.

McLenon says the captain of the vessel Run Da admitted to fishing with driftnets up to 5.6 miles in length.

The crew of the Kodiak-based cutter Alex Haley detained the 164-foot Chinese-flagged fishing vessel with 29 crew onboard on Saturday, June 16. McLenon says they apprehended the vessel in international waters 860 miles east of Hokkaido, Japan.

McLenon says they couldn’t have done it without help from the crew of a Kodiak-based C-130 aircraft which spotted the illegal fishing vessel.

“Because of them finding, detecting this, we were able to vector in the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley, which at the time was about 500 miles away and what they did was put boarding officers on board with Chinese ship riders,” McLenon said.

The joint international boarding was conducted in partnership with Chinese Coast Guard officers.

The vessel is suspected of violating the worldwide driftnet moratorium called for by the United Nations General Assembly.

The Run Da and its crew are being escorted back to China for prosecution. McLenon added that this is the first apprehension of a large-scale, high seas driftnet vessel since 2014.


State one step closer to gas pipeline, but not the one the Walker administration wants

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The current route planned for the Alaska Standalone Pipeline — an in-state natural gas pipeline designed to bring gas from the North Slope to Alaska communities. (Map courtesy of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation)

Alaska is one step closer to getting an in-state natural gas pipeline; though it’s not clear if the project will ever be built.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that it had released the final supplement for its environmental review of the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline project. The final permit in that process should be released sometime in the next three months.

The in-state pipeline project has taken a backseat to the massive Alaska LNG export project.

Both projects would pipe gas several hundred miles from the North Slope to market, but the standalone pipeline is designed for in-state use, while the Alaska LNG project is designed to sell that gas to Asian markets.

Staff at the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation have repeatedly said that they are focused on building the larger project. Frank Richards is the senior vice president for both projects at the state’s gasline corporation. He said the in-state pipeline project is basically on hold, now that it has the permits it needs.

“It’s truly the backup plan,” Richards said. “It means we will have the permits and authorization to construct, should the need arise.”

Even though the in-state pipeline project is on hold, Richards said it can still help the state develop the Alaska LNG project. The pipeline projects are similar enough that federal regulators could use work done on one to guide permitting for the other.

Also, Richards said there is about $11 million left over from developing the in-state project that can now be used to fund the export project.

Seabirds washing up dead in Western Alaska; scientists investigating

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A dead murre that washed ashore in Nome in June 2018. (Photo: Zoe Grueskin, KNOM)

Seabirds have once again been found washed up on beaches in Western Alaska.

Beginning in May, birds have been reported dead or behaving strangely in communities throughout the Bering Strait region, from Shishmaref to Unalakleet and on St. Lawrence Island.

Large-scale die-offs of seabirds and other marine animals have been occurring around the state for several years, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) wants to know why. That takes the help of boots-on-the-ground partners across Alaska.

Gay Sheffield is one of those partners. She’s a marine biologist with Alaska Sea Grant in Nome, and she has helped coordinate the collection of dead birds. She says only one bird has been tested so far this year: a murre, collected in Unalakleet in May.

“The murre was tested for harmful algal blooms, tested for avian cholera, was tested for bird flu, and a full necropsy—or a little bird autopsy—was done, and the result was that the bird had starved to death,” Sheffield said.

But Sheffield says knowing that a bird ultimately didn’t get enough food doesn’t answer the larger question of why it died.

Robb Kaler is a wildlife biologist at USFWS’s Migratory Bird Management office in Anchorage. He’s been monitoring the seabird die-offs statewide.

“They’re dying of starvation, but there might be other contributing factors,” Kaler said.

Kaler says factors contributing to bird deaths could include neurotoxin poisoning from algal blooms, increased storminess, or shifts in the type of fish available to birds to eat. And he says many of the factors could be connected to warming sea surface temperatures off the coast of Alaska.

Both Sheffield and Kaler underscored the importance of collecting more freshly dead birds. More samples mean more testing — and more information that can be returned to communities where healthy seabirds mean food security.

“We need to provide them with answers on whether these birds are safe to consume or not, whether their eggs are safe to consume,” Kaler said.

Several birds were recently collected from Shishmaref and Gambell. Test results are forthcoming.

To report a seabird or other marine animal found dead or behaving strangely, contact Gay Sheffield at 434-1149 or Brandon Ahmasuk at Kawerak at 443-4265. You can also call U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Dead Seabird Hotline at (866) 527-3358.

Gov. Walker signs bill to help villages run background checks on police

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Gov. Walker signed Senate Bill 148 on June 22, 2018. The bill will help villages to run background checks on future police officers, but it is voluntary for village police officers. (Photo courtesy of Yuut Elitnaurviat)

Governor Bill Walker visited Bethel last week to sign Senate Bill 148 into law. The bill allows the Alaska Police Standards Council to work with villages to conduct background checks for future police officers. But for tribal police officers, it will be voluntary.

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Walker’s administration sent a delegation to Marshall two weeks ago to address an ongoing public safety crisis. Marshall’s tribal council had issued a request for an emergency declaration last spring. The community has been without a police force for the better part of two decades and opioid and alcohol epidemics are wearing the town down.

“We looked at ways we could sort of help them transition to have some in that village for public safety,” Walker said.

Marshall’s tribal administrator, Nick Andrew Jr., previously told KYUK that the delegation didn’t make any promises. But during his Bethel trip, Walker said that he is committed to finding a solution and that this bill could be part of it. Gov. Walker says that the bill will make sure that village communities and tribes have the tools available to run background checks on potential officers.

“So that has not been available to the rural areas,” Walker said. “As they bring someone into the system, [this] is going to allow them to the background checks as they do in the bigger cities.”

But the new law doesn’t require compliance from tribal police officers. However, Walker hopes it will help with the issues from village police officers, who have made headlines in a recent investigative reporting series in the Anchorage Daily News, which highlighted the lack of vetting for these officers.

In some cases, VPO’s were found have had prior charges and convictions and ended up abusing their positions.

Public funding, or rather the lack thereof, also came up. Walker says that he wants more funding for public safety, but that recent budget cuts are making that hard to do.

“Well, we certainly apply for every federal funding dollar we can, there’s no question about that,” Walker said. “We have done all the cutting, and I think we’re seeing a significant impact in public safety.”

Walker says that should his administration return to office next year, it would try to increase public safety funding in the next budget proposal.

A previous version of this story said iS.B. 148 does not apply to village police officers. That is incorrect. It applies to VPOs, but not tribal police officers. 

Alaska Aerospace Corporation schedules launch at Kodiak facility

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Alaska Aerospace Corporation launch facility in Narrow Cape. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Aerospace Corporation)

The Alaska Aerospace Corporation scheduled a launch next month at its Kodiak facility.

President and CEO Craig Campbell said a commercial company will conduct the launch sometime July 14-20. He says the site will be closed for certain hours during those days.

“The intention is that the rocket will launch in the first day, but if the weather’s bad, if there’s an equipment issue, it protects the next few days so that they can continue to launch the rocket within the specified window,” Campbell said.

Campbell said a couple of previous launch attempts this year were not completed, and he isn’t able to share anything more about the operation because of a nondisclosure agreement.

He said Alaska Aerospace Corporation, which has a contract with the Missile Defense Agency, is trying to build the number of commercial companies it contracts with.

During Eielson visit, Defense Secretary Mattis highlights Alaska’s strategic military role

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Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis speaks with Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan on June 25, 2018 on the Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, flight line. Mattis and Sullivan held a joint press conference after a visit to Fort Greely, Alaska.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Eric M. Fisher)

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. military increasingly relies on Alaska, both to provide a base of operations to maintaining dominance of the Indian and Pacific oceans to the south and to enable the Coast Guard and Navy to maintain control of U.S. Arctic waters, to the north. Mattis spoke at a news conference this morning at Eielson Air Force Base, after a tour of the missile-defense facility at Fort Greely.

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Mattis stopped over at Eielson on the first of a five-day trip to Asia, where he’ll meet separately with Chinese, South Korean and Japanese officials. He told reporters at Eielson this morning before resuming his trip that the military sees Alaska as the key to the U.S. military’s policy of maintaining dominance of what he calls the Indo-Pacific region.

“It is probably the gateway to the Pacific in many, many ways,” Mattis said.

Mattis has just returned from a quick tour of the missile-defense base at Fort Greely. He says the interceptor missiles there constitute the cornerstone of the defense of the homeland – and two adjacent and increasingly important regions.

“The interceptors we have up here – I will just tell you ladies and gentlemen that Alaska is in many ways the absolute center of the defense of our country, for the Indo-Pacific region and certainly over the polar ice cap,” Mattis said.

The secretary says the Pentagon is challenged to respond to the opening of the Arctic Ocean due to retreating sea ice, which has opened sea lanes and access to resources in the region. He says other nations, especially Russia and China, are taking advantage of that and are increasingly active in the Arctic, which the Pentagon now considers a region of growing strategic importance.

“It’s cited as an area of concern with our national-security strategy, as it looks more broadly,” Mattis said. “And then as a national defense strategy, it looks more specifically how we deal with certain other countries in the world.”

Mattis says he appreciates Congress’s efforts to support construction of six icebreakers, three heavy vessels and three medium, to replace the nation’s two aging heavy icebreakers – one of which has been in drydock in Seattle for eight years now. And he says the U.S. needs more infrastructure to support the new vessels, including a deepwater port on the Bering Sea coast. But Mattis says the nation has a ways to go to acquire the assets needed to protect U.S. interests in the Arctic.

“So the reality is that we’re going to have to deal with the developing Arctic – and it is developing. It’s also going to open not just to transport, but also to energy exploration,” Mattis said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, who accompanied Mattis on his flight to Alaska, says the Senate last week approved a provision in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to fund construction of the six icebreakers. The senator says he’ll work to keep that provision from being stripped out of the final version that’s now being worked on in a conference committee. And he says Congress has already authorized a federal study on a Western Alaska port to support the new icebreakers.

“Two years ago, we did get a provision in there – again, into law – for the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to look at the need and characteristics of what we determined was called a strategic Arctic port,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said in a followup interview that the Senate also has authorized a study of further expansion of the missile-defense base at Fort Greely beyond the project now under way that would boost the number of interceptor missiles there to 60.

“Last year’s bill, we did put in a provision for them to look at a study for a hundred silos there – so that would be total, a total of a hundred,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan says those additional interceptors would still be needed even if U.S. negotiators secure an agreement with North Korea to give up its nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the nation’s defense would still require the additional interceptors.

“You still have Iran,” Sullivan said. “You still have other rogue nations.”

Sullivan predicts continued expansion of the base at Greely and other missile-defense facilities, including radar sites at Clear and Shemya, and more testing at the Pacific Space Launch Complex in Kodiak.

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