Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will vote this fall on whether the borough should consider doing its own policing.

The Borough Assembly voted last week to put the question of whether the borough should look into providing police services on the Oct. 2nd ballot. The borough cites rising crime in the region and a decline in services from the state.

Ideas to solve what some have described as a crisis ranged from expanding the city police departments’ service areas to giving the borough policing responsibilities — possibly even something like a sheriff’s department. Other ideas include contracting with the city police departments or the state to provide more State Troopers.

Borough officials – and language in the advisory question itself – acknowledge adding police powers would require higher taxes for police service areas.

Assemblyman George McKee has opposed the idea of putting the question to voters. McKee said at Tuesday’s Assembly meeting that he and others want the state to, “do their job” of providing law enforcement to the borough.

McKee says the advisory vote will create an expectation that the borough can deal with crime effectively.

“We are a rural area. a policeman doesn’t walk a beat here,” McKee said. “A policeman who goes by your house at 55 mph, once a week, doesn’t do a blinkin’ thing about stopping crime.”

Despite objections by McKee and Assemblyman Randall Kowalke, the measure passed 5 to 2. Borough Mayor Vern Halter said he did not support it but said he would not veto the measure.

The borough election is still set for October 2nd. But last week, the borough clerk certified a ballot initiative that aims to change that.

Voters will also be deciding whether to move the borough’s elections from the first Tuesday in October to the first Tuesday in November. That’s when statewide general elections are held and turnout is generally greater.

The city of Kodiak paid $265,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the family of an autistic man whom a Kodiak Police officer pepper sprayed the year before.

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A father-and-son pair of tourists called 911 when they saw now 30-year-old Nick Pletnikoff nearby their car and believed he was attempting to break in.

According to family attorney Josh Fitzgerald, Pletnikoff was returning home with his family’s mail.

Body cam footage captured the encounter between now 30-year-old Nick Pletnikoff and three police officers who arrived at the scene.

The footage shows officers forcing Pletnikoff to the ground and Sgt. Francis de la Fuente pepper-spraying him in the face in response to what he saw as resistance.

De la Fuente said he did not know Pletnikoff was autistic at the time.

However, one officer at the scene was acquainted with Pletnikoff, knew he had special needs and addressed Pletnikoff by name during the encounter.

Nick’s mother and guardian Judy Pletnikoff says she’s glad the legal battle is over, but she didn’t get what she set out for.

“Money is what we did not want. And I walked into the lawyer’s office first day saying we don’t want anything but an apology,” Judy Pletnikoff said. “We want to sit down with the city in good faith and have a conversation about what happened and how we can move on from here.”

City attorney Bill Ingaldson told the Kodiak Daily Mirror newspaper that the city settled partly because it was concerned a jury would not understand the police officers’ point.

Reigning Yukon Quest champion Allen Moore headlines mushers who have registered for the 2019 race.

Opening day sign up events in Fairbanks and Whitehorse were held over the weekend, and a total of 22 mushers registered for the thousand-mile race. It’s the largest number of people to sign up on opening day since 2013, according to race organizers.

Moore of Two Rivers is a three-time Quest champion. Fellow past winners Matt Hall, also of Two Rivers, and Brent Sass of Eureka also registered to run the race again.

Noticeably absent is two time Quest Champ Hugh Neff of Tok. Neff has been banned from running the Yukon Quest for two years, due to dog care issues in last year’s race.

While Neff is absent, his wife, Olivia Webster has registered to make her rookie run. Webster, whose grandfather Leroy Shank helped found the race, is one of seven first timers who signed up on opening day.

A major player at the Federal Communications Commission is due in Unalaska.

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Commissioner Brendan Carr will arrive Monday night and spend about 24 hours on the island to learn about the broadband challenges facing rural Alaska.

The FCC regulates communications across the country — from radio and satellite to television and internet.

Brendan Carr joined the agency as a commissioner last summer, after the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed his appointment by President Donald Trump.

Since then, he’s helped the Republican-led FCC to repeal net neutrality protections and spearheaded a $100 million program to expand access to telemedicine.

Carr’s short trip to Unalaska, however, is expected to be educational rather than policy-driven.

“To get a feel for the place,” GCI Vice President Dan Boyette said. “I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.”

Boyette said Carr will tour GCI’s local facilities, along with the island’s other providers, Optimera WiFi and TelAlaska.

“He’s a relatively new commissioner, and there are a lot of Alaska-based issues in front of the FCC at this point,” Boyette said. “I think he’s just looking to learn.”

Those issues include how to develop infrastructure in rural areas and how to manage competitive federal subsidies that help pay for those projects.

Overall, Mayor Frank Kelty said he wants to emphasize that Unalaska’s slow satellite service affects everyone — from individuals and businesses to schools and the clinic.

“I don’t know if we’re going to have time to do everything,” Kelty said. “But he can be made fully aware of the needs that we have in this community on the lack of connectivity.”

Carr will be escorted by the staff of U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, who encouraged the commissioner to visit the island during his first trip to Alaska.

A Sullivan spokesperson said the senator heard about Unalaska’s broadband struggles during his own trip in 2016 — and thought this would be a “perfect community” for Carr to visit.

The commissioner will stop in in seven other communities during his five-day swing through the state, including Anchorage, Dillingham and Utqiagvik.

Fishermen in Ugashik Bay are used to their sockeye showing up late in Bristol Bay’s salmon season. This summer though was especially trying, but for some, the wait was worth it.

Listen now

Conrad Day and his crew tow a net into the Ugashik River in preparation for the incoming high tide.

“Now we’ll just wait on the switch, cause when the water floods the fish come with it,” Day explained. “It’s like a free ride upriver.”

Things are quiet out on the water tonight, but a few days ago the river would’ve been full of fellow set netters preparing for the evening sockeye run.

Day described what fishing was like at the season’s peak.

“There’s like four boats anchored out, but earlier this week there was probably between 20 to 30 boats anchored out. Everyone had a crew of four or five people.” Day said. “So, it’s crazy how Pilot Point will go from a ghost town to you know an extra 300 people walking around and a few months later it shuts off again.”

It is the end of the season, so a lot of people have packed up and headed home, but there still are a few set netters, like Day, fishing. He is a college student at Texas A&M studying nuclear engineering. Set netting has been a great summer job for him the last three years. Every salmon that strikes the net in front of him is little more money towards his education.

“That’s actually a lot of fish [hitting the net,]” Day said. “Probably between 20 to 50.”

Even though the salmon are coming in now, for a long time things didn’t look good in Ugashik Bay. It was so bad that Catie Bursch, a set netter who’s fished in Pilot Point for over 30 years, thought the run may have failed.

“I was nervous whether they were going to come back or not,” Bursch said.

The Ugashik fishing district traditionally has one of the latest runs in Bristol Bay, but this year took it to a whole new level.

This summer’s run was so slow for so long that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed down commercial fishing at the beginning of July. But then the fish hit, the district was open and from July 13th to around the 23rd things got busy. Bursch said those days were pretty hectic

“We were sitting around and were like ‘can you believe we’ve only been fishing for 10 days?’ It felt like a whole entire salmon season got squeezed into 10 days,” Bursch said.

“We went from like 18,000lb to like 60-70,000 pounds in less than a week,” Traveler Terpening agreed.

This has been Terpening’s best year ever in Pilot Point. His crew pulled in over 125,000 pounds. The Ugashik district’s run is almost up to four million red salmon. That’s about one million sockeye higher than the area’s average for the last two decades. But the way Terpening sees it, a good season depends on more than the number of salmon returning.

“It doesn’t really matter if we have a huge run,” Terpening said. “It comes down to if the drifters come down, you know how did the fish come in, how do the tenders serve us.”

And this summer, more than 100 fewer drift boats fished in Ugashik at its peak compared to last year. Terpening says that let plenty of sockeye through to fishermen along the beach. On top of that, there were plenty of buyers for set net sockeye, and fishermen are getting around $1.25 per pound, plus quality bonuses for bled and chilled salmon. That’s up almost 50 cents from two years ago.

This year’s late run was a roller coaster ride, but Terpening said that he expects every summer to hold a lot of surprises.

“Basically our big joke is that every season we say ‘God this is a weird season,’ and then we reflect and say ‘oh we said that last year, oh we say that every year,'” Terpening said. “So every year is a weird season.”

Back out on the water, Conrad Day and his crew have just finished picking their nets and are bringing a load a fish out to a tender. This tide’s haul was only around 500 pounds which isn’t a lot, but it adds up. That’s not lost on Day.

Four people are confirmed dead with a fifth unaccounted for and presumed dead after a crash in the Alaska Range on Saturday. It is the first fatal crash in the Alaska Range involving a commercial operator since 2003.

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On Monday morning, the National Park Service saw a potential window to reach the site of a DeHavilland Beaver that crashed fourteen miles southwest of the summit of Denali on Saturday. Bad weather had kept rescuers away Saturday night and all day Sunday.

Katherine Belcher, Public Information Officer for Denali National Park and Preserve, says there was hope that the five people aboard the airplane might still be alive.

“We had no visual confirmation of the condition of the plane, so I would say we were hopeful for a happy outcome,” Belcher said.

That happy outcome was not to be, however. The rescue helicopter was able to reach the crash site on a narrow ridge known as Thunder Mountain, and a ranger was lowered on a tether to inspect the plane. He was able to reach the downed Beaver and confirm that at least four of its occupants were dead.

“He had a very small window of space, a very small area, where he could get close enough to the plane to kind of look inside,” Belcher said. “Unfortunately, he was able to see that four of the passengers were deceased. He couldn’t actually get inside the airplane to do any sort of real investigation. He was only on the ground for about five minutes.”

With the weather closing quickly, the ranger was not able to locate the plane’s fifth occupant, but Belcher says conditions are such that the person is presumed dead as well.

“The body may still be in the plane, but we just couldn’t see,” Belcher said. “Until we get a little more time on the ground, we won’t know for certain, but we’re pretty confident that the person did not get out of the aircraft.”

On Monday afternoon, the National Park Service identified the pilot of the aircraft as Craig Layson of Saline, Michigan. The Saline Post newspaper says Layson is married with three children.

The four passengers aboard have not been identified, but were all Polish citizens according to the Park Service.

What was a search and rescue has now become a recovery effort. Belcher says park personnel are developing plans for when the weather clears.

“They’re working on some plans right now, because they want to recover the bodies. The aircraft recovery will probably come later,” Belchr said. “The next opportunity for clear weather may be as early as Wednesday, but may be later in the week.”

K2 Aviation, the company that owns the plane, released a statement Monday saying its staff is grieving the loss of life and that the company cooperating with all agencies involved in the recovery and investigation. The company has suspended all flightseeing tours in the wake of Saturday’s fatal crash.

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 @AKPublicNews

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Pilot identified in fatal Alaska Range crash

Phillip Manning, KTNA – Talkeetna

Four people are confirmed dead with a fifth unaccounted for and presumed dead after a crash in the Alaska Range on Saturday. It is the first fatal crash in the Alaska Range involving a commercial operator since 2003.

Austria man dies in Alaska pack-rafting accident

Associated Press

An Austria man has died in a pack-rafting accident in Alaska.

Kodiak pays $254K to settle lawsuit filed by family of autistic man

Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak

The city of Kodiak paid $265,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the family of an autistic man whom a Kodiak Police officer pepper sprayed the year before.

New data on Chukchi Sea polar bears leads to subsistence harvest level increase

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

Native hunters in Alaska are about to see an increase in the number of polar bears they can harvest from the Chukchi Sea bear population.

Troopers seize 33,000 pounds of illegal salmon near Homer

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

Alaska State Troopers say five commercial fishing vessels illegally caught and transported thousands of pounds of salmon near Homer in late July.

After a long wait, Ugashik fishermen’s patience pays off

Mitch Borden, KDLG – Dillingham

After a very slow beginning to their season, fishermen in Ugashik Bay saw millions of sockeye salmon return in a little over a week in mid-July. The short intense peak of the season turned out to be beneficial for some of the fishermen who stuck it out all the weeks without fish.

FCC Commissioner to visit Unalaska during state broadband tour

Laura Kraegel, KUCB – Unalaska

Commissioner Brendan Carr will arrive Monday night and spend about 24 hours on the island to learn about the broadband challenges facing rural Alaska.

Empty grocery shelves stem from missed shipments

Joe Viechnicki, KFSK – Petersburg

The shelves at the grocery store in some Alaska communities may be a little emptier than normal this summer and it’s not because customers are buying up all the food. A national food supplier is having shipping problems from Tacoma, Washington.

Kodiak feels tropical at 78F and breaks a 1941 record

Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak

If you were in Kodiak this morning, it felt more like Hawaii than Alaska.

Anchor Point residents aim to keep an eye on crime

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

Anchor Point residents are looking to form neighborhood watch groups following complaints that Alaska State Troopers aren’t responding to calls.

Philanthropic horticulturists and other prison community leaders

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The world inside Spring Creek Correctional Center is in many ways just like the world outside. Prison clubs function as nonprofits, filling service gaps and trying to build healthier communities.

Alaska State Troopers say five commercial fishing vessels illegally caught and transported thousands of pounds of salmon near Homer in late July.

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According to a trooper dispatch released Monday, a wildlife trooper observed operators of the fishing vessels Little Star, Relentless, Northstar and Windstar working together in Dog Fish Bay south of Homer to drive salmon out of waters closed to commercial seining and into areas open for commercial harvest. Troopers say the vessels harvested fish in closed waters as well.

A fifth vessel, the Maranatha, was also said to be present and allegedly transported some of the illegally caught fish. Troopers seized all 33,000 pounds harvested during the alleged incident, which troopers say took place during the early morning hours of July 20.

Homer residents Eric Winslow, Paul Roth and Mark Roth were charged with driving salmon in closed waters among other charges. Robert Roth of Anchor point was charged with failure to complete fish tickets and unlawful possession of commercial fish. All charges were filed in Homer District Court.

An idea by a prominent Alaska Democrat likely would have shaken up the state’s gubernatorial race.

Hollis French’s proposal, which was first reported by Anchorage Daily News columnist Charles Wohlforth, suggested either Gov. Bill Walker or former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich drop out of the race.

“I think there’s a lot of what I would call anxiety in the center and the left of the political spectrum in Alaska,” French said.

French wants Walker and Begich to agree that one of the two candidates could drop out to eliminate that anxiety.

Begich supports the idea, but Walker rejected it.

Four years ago, independent candidate Walker joined forces with Democrat Byron Mallott, shrinking a three-way race down to two major candidates.

Mallott’s running mate French dropped out to allow that to happen.

Walker then defeated incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell.

French’s proposal suggests a measurement of which candidate is strongest would decide which candidate should drop out.

The candidates could decide how to do that, French said.

French suggested that if three different polls find that one candidate is polling worse than the other, the lower-polling candidate would commit to dropping out.

“I got a yes from Mark Begich and I guess I would characterize it as a no from the Walker campaign,” French said.

Under French’s proposal, both candidates would stay in the race if the polling was mixed.

French supports Begich, but said he would vote for Walker if the race came down to the incumbent governor and either of the leading Republican candidates, Mike Dunleavy and Mead Treadwell.

Begich said it took a couple of days to think about the idea.

“I don’t want people to get the misunderstanding that I don’t believe I can win,” Begich said. “I believe I’m going to be in a three-way race, I have a great shot of winning it straight out. But I was happy for the greater good to consider the idea that he laid on the table.”

Begich hoped Walker would agree to the proposal.

“I was hoping that he would consider it, but it’s a determination that he needs to make, just as he decided not to run in the Democratic primary after committing to it,” Begich said. “He decided to switch and create the three-way race, which I think is what’s caused a lot of the dilemma here.”

Begich decided to run after concluding he could win either a two-way or a three-way race. He also said he was concerned about Walker’s ability to win a two-way race.

The AFL-CIO commissioned a poll in late June that found Dunleavy would win a three-way race, with Walker and Begich tied for second, but both Walker and Begich were ahead of Dunleavy in a two-way race.

Walker campaign manager John-Henry Heckendorn said the governor will convince Alaskans that he’s made necessary decisions.

“First I want to be absolutely clear, Mark Begich knew that if he got into the race, Bill Walker was going to run against him in the general, not in the Democratic primary,” Heckendorn said. “Walker was interested in the race for who had the strongest vision for Alaska’s future, not a competition for who was the best Democrat between him and Mark Begich. And Mark Begich knew that.”

Heckendorn said Walker wasn’t the candidate who created the three-way race.

“The governor filed in August of last year,” Heckendorn said. “Mark Begich filed a half-hour before the filing deadline. He absolutely had control over whether or not to put Alaskans in that position.”

The deadline for candidates to remove their names from the general election ballot is Sept. 4.

If you were in Kodiak on Monday morning, it felt more like Hawaii than Alaska.

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John Selman, a meteorological technician with the National Weather service in Kodiak, says the warm temperatures are due to northwest winds.

“Anytime we get a northwest flow, and we all know that it gets really hot in the interior. We get all that warmth that kind of funnels down towards Kodiak,” Selman said. “And with that northwest flow it is almost guaranteed that we are going to break 70.”

By 12:56 p.m. it had reached a record-breaking 78 degrees.

The former record was 75 degrees on this day in 1941.

The record low was 39 degrees in 2011.

Selman adds that with a northwest flow comes windy weather, especially in channels.

Northwest winds are predicted to continue into midweek.

Native hunters in Alaska are about to see an increase in the number of polar bears they can harvest from the Chukchi Sea bear population.

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The commission responsible for setting that limit recently raised the quota from 58 to 85 bears per year, shared equally between Alaska and Russian hunters.

The quota increase was based on new science and traditional ecological knowledge indicating that the polar bear population is doing well.

Eric Regehr is a polar bear biologist at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center and one of the scientists who advised the commission.

“Currently the nutritional condition, or the fatness, of the bears in the Chukchi Sea is on par with what it was 20, 30 years ago,” Regehr said.

In 2010 the U.S. and Russia put a limit on the number of polar bears Native hunters were allowed to harvest from the Chukchi Sea population. It was part of an effort to conserve the animals in the face of uncertainty about how they would respond to sea ice loss.

Regehr says the new research indicates that the population numbers and reproductive rates of the Chukchi Sea polar bears are good, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns for the future.

“Sea ice loss associated with climate change is the primary threat to the species,” Regehr said. “And we don’t know when or how it may affect Chukchi Sea polar bears, but we would expect, from a scientific perspective, that at some point in the future there will be some negative effects.”

Regehr says that in contrast to the Chukchi Sea bears, evidence suggests that Alaska’s other group of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea is already experiencing negative impacts from the decline of sea ice, including weight loss and a reduction in both reproductive and survival rates.

On average, Alaska Native hunters take about 30 Chukchi Sea polar bears a year.

Katya Wassillie is executive director of the Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council, or ANCC, the group that represents Alaska Native polar bear hunters. She says that the good health of the Chukchi Sea bears is cause for celebration.

But while ANCC is pleased that the harvest number has increased, Wassillie says the group was advocating for an even larger quota.

“When you introduce something like a quota, that creates a different atmosphere, one with more anxiety, with competition,” Wassillie said. “And our hunters were concerned about that. So they wanted just a cushion; the freedom to be able to manage through our own traditional values, our own traditional practices.”

The commission that sets the harvest limit reviews the quota annually. A quota has been in place since 2010, but as of yet is not enforced.

A proposal to keep the offices that link constituents with lawmakers open Friday afternoons fell short in the Alaska Legislative Council.

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The proposal did lead the council to vote to close the Unalaska office.

Eagle River Republican Sen. Anna MacKinnon voted Monday to close the Unalaska office — and against adding hours to the others.

“I’m concerned that we’re still in a budget deficit, and that these are re-occurring expenses on the operating budget,” MacKinnon said. “While I think the closure is a good recommendation in this time that we’re walking through, with finances in Alaska, I have a hard time supporting adding full-time.”

The nonpartisan Legislative Affairs Agency made a two-part proposal:

• The first part would close the Unalaska legislative information office.
• The second part would have used the savings to keep the 22 other LIOs open on Friday afternoons when the Legislature is out of session.

Only eight of the 14 council members were present. All of their votes were necessary to take action.

The Unalaska closure passed. But two members– MacKinnon and Wasilla Rep. David Eastman — voted against the expanded hours.

The Legislature voted to cut back the Friday hours about two years ago to save money.

Unalaska was the most recent legislative information office to open — in 2011. But residents didn’t make much use of it — there wasn’t a single person who testified from the Unalaska LIO this year.

In a separate action, the council voted to approve $913,000, plus a $91,000 contingency if there are unexpected costs, to pay for a new electronic voting system to track legislators’ votes during floor sessions.

The old system was outdated and failing, according to the Legislative Affairs Agency.

A Haines candidate for Alaska House District 33 is asking the public not to vote for him.

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It’s past the deadline to withdraw as a candidate in the primary election, but 28-year-old James Hart says he no longer wants to be considered.

Hart says a summer job in Sitka complicated campaigning in his district. However, Hart says the experience allowed him to get his foot in the door and understand areas he needs to work on for the future.

Hart says he still wants to be involved in politics in a different capacity, but he’s still figuring out what that looks like.

Hart is a Chilkoot Indian Association Tribal Council member. He’s also a delegate of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes. Last year, he worked as a public policy fellow for Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.

The state primary election is August 21. Early voting started yesterday.

Three other candidates remain in the democratic primary race: Sara Hannan and Steve Handy of Douglas and Tom Morphet from Haines.

House District 33 represents Skagway, Haines, Klukwan, Excursion Inlet, Gustavus, downtown Juneau and Douglas.

A new Alaska law aims to increase transparency about medical costs and expand access to behavioral health services.

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Governor Bill Walker signed SB 105 into law yesterday. It combines three different pieces of healthcare legislation into one and requires healthcare providers to post signs letting patients know they can request estimates of medical costs in advance. Patients must receive the estimates within 10 days of asking. It also requires providers to post the costs of their most common procedures.

In addition, the law allows independent, licensed marital and family counselors to bill Medicaid directly. The goal is to increase the number of behavioral health providers who will accept Medicaid patients. There’s currently a shortage of Medicaid-eligible behavioral health providers in the state.

Behavioral health services include treatment for substance abuse, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and other mental health conditions.

The Surgeon General is touring parts of Alaska this week talking about solutions to the opioid epidemic. He spoke at the Alaska Prevention Summit in Palmer on Tuesday.

Listen now

Surgeon General Jerome Adams told the crowd at the Glenn Massay Theater that he sees some progress in combating the epidemic. Doctors are prescribing opioids less frequently, but the drugs are still available.

“The first drug dealer for the majority of folks isn’t some bad guy out on the street,” Adams said. “It’s grandma, it’s aunt, it’s uncle. It’s the next-door neighbor. It’s you all. It’s us, who have left medications in our cabinets.”

To solve that, the state’s Department of Health and Social Services is distributing drug disposal bags that make opioids unusable. Medications can also be taken back to pharmacies and police departments.

Elizabeth Ripley, CEO of the Mat-Su Health Foundation, said her organization is trying to prevent opioid addictions by partnering with other groups to address childhood trauma. That means getting at the root of some community problems, like racism and the unequal representation of people of color in the foster care and criminal justice systems.

“A crucial part of what we have to do is go upstream and say ‘We’re causing stress for certain segments of our community in disproportionate ways, and we have to break down those barriers,’” Ripley said.

Organizations in the Mat-Su region are hosting Undoing Racism workshops and conversations around race to begin the process.

During an interview after the panel conversation, Surgeon General Adams said addressing the opioid crisis has opened the door for larger conversations.

“When you look at untreated mental health issues, when you look at un-wellness in our communities, all those lead to substance use disorder,” Adams said. “And if we use this tragedy as an opportunity to address those upstream causes then we’ll solve not only the opioid epidemic but so many other health woes that are affecting our country.”

Part of the strategy is helping people understand that health affects all aspects of our society, including the economy.

“Investing in health is also investing in jobs,” Adams said. “It’s also investing in safety and security. It’s investing in the things that they care about and they vote on. And if we don’t invest in those things it’s going to continue to be a drag on our economy, on our safety, and our ability to devote resources to the things that we care about.”

Adams said to accomplish these larger goals, communities need to focus on developing new partnerships with businesses, the faith community, and treatment providers that the use limited funding more efficiently and effectively.

Adams will be a guest on Line One: Your Health Connection Wednesday at 10 am on Alaska Public Media.

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 @AKPublicNews

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Proposal would have either Walker or Begich drop out of race

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

“I think there’s a lot of what I would call anxiety in the center and the left of the political spectrum in Alaska,” said Hollis French, who wants Walker and Begich to agree that someone drop out to eliminate political anxiety. Begich supports the idea, but Walker rejected it.

Alaska House candidate Hart asks voters not to consider him

Abbey Collins, KHNS – Haines

A Haines candidate for Alaska House District 33 is asking the public not to vote for him.

Legislative Council votes against adding Friday hours for legislative information offices

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

The nonpartisan Legislative Affairs Agency made a two-part proposal: the first part would close the Unalaska legislative information office; and the second part would have used the savings to keep the 22 other LIOs open on Friday afternoons when the Legislature is out of session.

Governor Walker signs bill increasing medical cost transparency, access to health services

Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A new Alaska law aims to increase transparency about medical costs and expand access to behavioral health services.

Groups seek to influence Murkowski on Kavanaugh vote

Associated Press

The political arm of the National Rifle Association says it’s running a TV ad in Alaska urging Sen. Lisa Murkowski to confirm President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Comment period extended for draft Donlin reclamation plan

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel

A state agency is extending the deadline for the proposed Donlin mine’s draft reclamation plans. The project would be one of the biggest gold mines in the world.

Y-K nonprofit looking at how rural Alaska handles alcohol

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel

In October, Bethel residents have a big decision to make: whether or not alcohol sales will remain legal. Now a non-profit wants to study how Bethel and the surrounding region have dealt with local option, both in the past and present.

In Palmer, Surgeon General says preventing addiction requires looking at larger community problems

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The Surgeon General is traveling around Alaska talking about the opioid epidemic. Though he sees progress, he says the community needs to form new partnerships to address larger issues to get to the root of the problem.

High level military to visit Anchorage this week

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

On Wednesday, Secretary of the Army, Doctor Mark Esper, is holding a short press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The next day, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will be at JBER.

New business offers shuttle service between Whitehorse and Haines

Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines

If you don’t own a car, finding a way to get to Whitehorse from Haines can be challenging. For years, there hasn’t been any regular transportation service between the two cities. David Simmons is hoping to change that with his new business Hinterland Express.

Togiak’s slow but steady salmon run cracks record

Austin Fast, KDLG – Dillingham

Togiak has Bristol Bay’s smallest and latest salmon run, but it’s following the Nushagak’s lead and broke through 1980’s total run record of 1.2 million sockeye on Monday. Follow this set net crew out on the water in Togiak Bay.

Sugpiaq artist shares work, culture with Kodiak residents

Daysha Eaton, KMXT – Kodiak

Traditional Sugpiaqa artist, Andrew Abyo visited Kodiak over the weekend as a guest of the Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository.

A special election for a seat on the Anchorage Assembly appears to have a decisive winner.

After a snap campaign and mail-in vote this summer, attorney Austin Quinn-Davidson has an 18-point lead over her closest competitor to represent West Anchorage on the 11-member body.

Thirty-eight-year-old Quinn-Davidson positioned herself as a progressive candidate in the race, attracting support from prominent liberal and Democratic figures, as well as drawing donations from several union groups.

At a gathering of supporters in Spenard Tuesday night, Quinn-Davidson was confident her lead would hold as final votes are tallied.

“We just had such engagement on our campaign, and really I feel like this campaign was run by volunteers, and it was won by volunteers,” Quinn-Davidson said. “We just had a lot of people engaged, and I think it’s because they really wanted to see me win and bring their values to the Assembly.”

So far, voter turn-out in the unusual summer special election is just under 17 percent. That could go up slightly as several hundred last-minute ballots are processed by the municipal clerk’s office.

Quinn-Davidson currently has 49 percent of the vote, with conservative-leaning candidates Nikki Rose at 31 percent, and Sam Moore at just under 10 percent.

In June, sitting-Assembly member Tim Steele, representing West Anchorage, resigned, citing health reasons. That triggered the off-season vote to replace him.

Quinn-Davidson’s election isn’t expected to significantly change the Assembly’s current liberal-leaning composition or its general alignment with Mayor Ethan Berkowkitz’s administration.

A state agency is extending the deadline for the proposed Donlin mine’s draft reclamation plans. The project would be one of the biggest gold mines in the world.

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The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says that the public can submit comments until September 6. The agency also extended the deadline for comments on how Donlin plans to pay for the clean-up.

Last week, the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Alliance, a local working group which opposes the mine, sent a letter to DNR and the Department of Environmental Conservation saying that there simply wasn’t enough time for the public to weigh in, particularly in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

It’s the height of the subsistence season, and most people are gathering berries and fishing to stock up for the winter, the letter says, which means that people can’t find the time to read and comment on a 400-page document.

The local working group also asked for a public hearing. Faith Martineau, the Executive Director for the permitting process at DNR, says that the agency is considering that request.

Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers is on track to roll out its record of decision on the mine next week. The decision will determine how the project moves forward.

When someone has a health problem in a rural area like Port Graham, health aides like Tania McMullen are generally the first line of defense.

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“We have three health aides, including myself,” McMullen said. “We have the health aides switch over; we take after-hour calls. So one week it’ll be one, then another one takes it.”

McMullen is video conferencing with doctors working at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is also here, learning about the ways specialized doctors in Anchorage are able to help with issues an aide like McMullen isn’t trained or equipped to handle. Dr. Rachel Lescher is a Pediatric Endocrinologist, meaning she specializes in issues like kids diabetes. Tele-health services allow Lescher to diagnose patients who may be hundreds of miles away, off the road system.

“Trying to make people fly in with their parent escort for a half-hour, 45-minute visit every three months, when it takes a day to travel here and they spend a night at a hotel, then they spend the next night in a hotel, then they travel home and they’re missing three days of work and school… is not very practical,” Lescher said.

It may not seem like the Federal Communications Commission has a lot to do with healthcare, but in Alaska they play a major role. Rural health care providers receive subsidies from the FCC to help pay their sometimes hefty Internet bills. However, this year, the committed subsidies were less than one percent of what providers were anticipating. That resulted in some service shutdowns in rural communities like Cordova.

“For years, the program was under-subscribed, meaning we weren’t hitting the cap on the support that we would provide through the Universal Service program,” Carr said. “Last year, and the year before that, for the first time, we started hitting and going over that cap, and so the FCC voted a couple months ago to raise the cap so we can provide the necessary funding to support these deployments.”

Carr says that raising that cap from $400 million to $571 million is one of the ways that the FCC is addressing subsidy issues. He also says that the commission is working to process the payments more effectively due to concerns from service providers that it was taking too long.

Getting those subsidies will help rural health aides like Tania McMullen continue to use tele-health services, which she says she uses every day.

Commissioner Carr will round out his Anchorage visit with meetings with local broadcasters before flying up to Utqiagvik and Wainwright and later Dillingham and Point Clark. He heads back to D.C. Friday night.

The Yes for Salmon initiative — or at least most of it — will be on the November ballot.

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The Alaska Supreme Court today ruled that only certain provisions of the controversial ballot initiative are unconstitutional. Whether the rest becomes state law will be up to Alaska voters.

The decision guarantees a big fight ahead. The initiative is aimed at putting in place a much tougher permitting regime for projects built in salmon habitat, and is fiercely opposed by a coalition of mining and oil companies, Alaska Native corporations and other groups.

The court ruled that only two of the initiative’s provisions are unconstitutional because they explicitly bar the state from giving some projects a permit, in specific situations. That goes against a section of Alaska’s Constitution, which states that ballot initiatives can’t prioritize one state resource — here, certain fish species — over others, like mines and oil developments.

So the Alaska Supreme Court is ordering that those two provisions must be cut out. But the court says the rest of the Yes for Salmon initiative is good to go.

Stand for Salmon director Ryan Schryver, who is organizing the campaign in support of the initiative, said he’s satisfied with the outcome.

“We’re a little bit bummed that the Supreme Court removed a couple of provisions of the initiative. But they have left intact the heart and soul of what we were trying to do,” Schryver said.

Lawyers for the state, who challenged the initiative in court, are also counting the outcome as a win. That’s because they weren’t arguing whether Yes for Salmon is good policy or not — they just said it violated a specific part of the Alaska constitution. Now that the Supreme Court took out the unconstitutional provisions, the state’s narrow legal challenge ends.

“Our role as the attorneys for the Division of Elections and the Lieutenant Governor’s office is to ensure that no measure that violates article 11, section 7 [of the Alaska constitution] reaches the ballot. And so we succeeded in upholding that mission today,” Elizabeth Bakalar, an assistant attorney general for the state who helped argue the case, said.

Yes for Salmon’s opponents, such as the group Stand for Alaska, said the decision doesn’t change how they feel about the initiative.

“The ballot measure still is just as concerning to our group and our 400-plus coalition members as it was yesterday,” Stand for Alaska campaign manager Kati Capozzi said.

Stand for Alaska is backed by the state’s biggest oil, gas and mining companies, like BP, ConocoPhillips, the Pebble Limited Partnership and Donlin Gold, as well as Alaska Native corporations, trade unions and other groups. Capozzi argued even in its altered form, Yes for Salmon will still have wide-reaching impacts on resource development in Alaska.

“We plan to march forward, we plan to still continue informing Alaskans on the negative impacts this ballot measure will have on their lives,” Capozzi said.

Stand for Alaska will march forward with a lot of money behind it — recent filings with the state show the group has raised more than $9 million over the entire campaign, including staff time. Yes for Salmon reports raising significantly less — just under $1 million, also including staff time.