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Begich discusses campaign viability, ‘path forward’

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Democratic candidate for Alaska Governor Mark Begich told KRBD on Wednesday that, like many Alaskans, he was surprised by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s abrupt resignation and withdrawal from the campaign.

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“It does change the dynamics for sure in the election here. How and what that means is still not clear,” Begich said. “I think a lot of people are waiting to hear what the governor’s going to do or not do. In the meantime, we’re here today, we’re going to continue to campaign.”

Begich was in Ketchikan to attend the Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Camp convention, which kicked off on Wednesday.

Gov. Bill Walker, who is running for re-election, accepted Mallott’s resignation on Tuesday, citing “inappropriate comments” that the lieutenant governor recently made to a woman. Mallott admitted to making the comments, and has apologized.

Walker on Tuesday also talked about ongoing discussions with the Begich campaign about a “path forward” to defeating Republican candidate Mike Dunleavy. Walker didn’t get into detail about those discussions.

Begich confirms there have been talks. He, too, didn’t reveal any firm plans. The main point of any path forward, Begich said, would be to keep Dunleavy from becoming governor, which he said would be a disaster.

“A lot of dynamics have changed in the last 24 hours. The question now, really, is the viability of campaigns,” Begich said. “We’ve always believed we have a strong campaign. We have a great network. We have people all over the state. We usually are second in the polls in a three-way race, even though we spent the least amount of money.”

Begich said combining his campaign with Walker’s is unlikely, because ballots already have been printed. He didn’t answer a suggestion of one candidate withdrawing in favor of the other, but said the next few days will be “very enlightening” for those watching Alaska’s gubernatorial race.


Lt. Gov. Davidson delivers first public speech in new position

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Valerie Davidson at the APU 2018 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration. Davidson was appointed as Lt. Gov. of Alaska following Byron Mallott’s resignation. (Photo courtesy of the office of Gov. Bill Walker)

The state’s new Lt. Gov. gave her first public speech today. Valerie Davidson is the first Alaska Native Woman to hold statewide office in Alaska. She spoke at the annual tribal conference, held today at the Egan Center to kick of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, which starts tomorrow.

Davidson began by acknowledging the troubling circumstances that led to her being sworn in as Lt. Gov. yesterday, when Byron Mallott abruptly resigned after admitting he made inappropriate comments.

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This speech has been cut down and transcribed for length. 

DAVIDSON: Quyana for allowing me to be here today and I just want to acknowledge that, while I’m really honored to step into the role of lieutenant governor, this is not really a situation that any of us could have predicted. And I’ll just be honest, yesterday was a really tough day for all of us.

But today is a new day, and today is our opportunity to move forward, to work together, to continue to heal the past so that we can move forward in strength and together and that’s what we do as Native people, and we will continue to do that today. I know actually a lot of you in the room today, but there are some of you who I don’t know.

So let me do a proper introduction. My Yup’ik names are Nurr’araaluk Amillamarnan. My English name is Valerie Davidson. If you forget my Yup’ik names, we Yup’iks have this wonderful word which basically means hey you. So do take care to practice it carefully though because if you say something else it’s something else entirely and we don’t want to go there.

I’m originally from Bethel. I grew up in Bethel and also upriver in Aniak. My mother’s family is Yup’ik from [a village that] literally means “Village With no River” because it’s located on the ocean. If you’re ever in Bethel and you head downriver, once you hit the ocean hang a right, and you will run into my mother’s home village. Her English name is Tilly Davidson. She’s a Mount Edgecumbe graduate.

My father’s family is kass’aq, which basically means “not Yup’ik” and they’re from Port Orchard, Washington. And in the fine Yup’ik tradition, my mother made my dad move completely from his home community and move to the Bethel area.

I was also recently adopted by the Jackson family in Kake and they are both Tlingit and Haida and I was given the Haida [a] Haida name which I’m told means “noisy lady.” And I was named after my late aunt, and I like to think that I was given that name because I have a really loud authentic Native laugh.

So the other things that you should know about me; probably the most important thing, I’m a mother of four children. I also have a godson. They are my greatest accomplishments in my entire life. They make me better than I really am and I love them dearly.

You should also know that I’m a village girl. And I’m proud to be a village girl because when you grow up in a village you learn from a really early age, it doesn’t matter whether it’s 40 above or 40 below. If it’s tough weather outside, it doesn’t matter. We get up, we put on our clothes, we pack water, we chop wood and we do what needs to get done to face the day and that’s where we are today.

Lt. Gov. Valerie Davidson, speaking at the annual tribal conference organized by Alaska Federation of Natives and the National Congress of American Indians. The speech was recorded in a Facebook Live video from the Anchorage Daily News.

Bethel VPO to be honored for improving the lives of Alaska Native women and children

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Mountain Village Village Police Officer Anna Bill at the Alaska Airlines terminal on October 16, 2018 during a layover in Bethel on her way to Anchorage to receive the 2018 Shirley Demientieff Award at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. (Photo by Anna Rose MacArthur / KYUK)

It was 10 a.m. and Anna Bill had just fallen asleep. It had been another rough night. She’d taken one person into custody and had responded to a suicide attempt. The Mountain Village village police officer had already drifted off when Gov. Bill Walker called.

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“And I thought I was dreaming,” Bill told KYUK on Tuesday at the Bethel airport during a brief layover on her way to the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage.

Through the phone line, Gov. Walker told Bill, “Congratulations! You’ve won the 2018 Shirley Demientieff Award.” The annual award presented by Alaska’s Governor at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention honors an individual or organization for their work to improve the lives of Alaska Native women and children.

“And I said, ‘Okay, thank you.’ And I hung up,” Anna Bill said, laughing. “And when I woke up, I was like, ‘Was I on the phone this morning?’”

Then another thought occurred to her. She would have to write an acceptance speech. Bill took to Facebook to ask for pointers, and she’s drafted something that she’s proud to share.

“Halfway through it I tend to tear up and cry, because it means so much to me. Not only to accept this award, but everything I’ve been through this last year,” Bill said. “I’m really hoping this speech will touch everybody’s heart like it touched mine.”

Bill had stepped back into her role as a village police officer a couple days before Gov. Walker’s call. A month prior, she’d resigned from the position while on medical leave for an on-the-job injury incurred by someone physically assaulting her.

“I think I resigned out of anger and frustration,” Bill explained. “I was going through a phase where my PTSD had gotten the better of me, and I was so mad at everybody in the world.”

Bill decided she needed to help herself before she could help her community. During her month off she sought counseling, and all the while, people in Mountain Village encouraged her to return to public safety.

People told her, “You’re doing good. Don’t give up. Keep going. We miss you.”

“And so as that came along,” Bill said, “it made me think about how much I really miss my job.”

She decided to return to work. The night before she was due back, tragedy struck. A person in the community committed suicide. When Bill had been on the force, she had responded to 66 suicide attempts in less than a year and no one had died on her watch.

“It took a lot out of me just thinking about, you know, what if he’d had somebody to talk to? Or what if I’d signed on a day before? Or, you know, there’s always these ‘what ifs’,” Bill said.

The next morning, Bill was back on the job. That was last week. The death is motivating her more than ever to respond thoroughly to every call, and this time she’s not alone. Previously Bill had often been the only law enforcement in town. Now, she is joined by a fellow village police officer and two tribal police officers. Something else is different; the officers share a small spending budget to buy uniforms. She hopes that the city and tribe can also secure grants to provide training and buy safety equipment for the officers.

“To get more handcuffs, and mace, and bulletproof vests,” Bill listed.

And to pay their officers in full. Bill is on call 24/7, but often she avoids clocking in and instead volunteers her time. She has a family to support, but knows that the city lacks the money to pay for all of her hours. Bill hopes that receiving her award will motivate government officials to better fund public safety in rural Alaska.

“Hopefully they’ll be able to look at all this and say, ‘Hey, maybe we can send them $10,000 to get a vehicle, or uniforms, or bulletproof vests,” Bill said. “Or maybe we can send more Troopers to that area, or increase police funding where they can hire outsiders to come in or hire more local people, and pay them better or give them health insurance.”

In the meantime, Bill encourages communities to respect and thank their law enforcement officers for their work. She says that support is often what keeps her going.

Mountain Village Village Police Officer Anna Bill is scheduled to receive the Shirley Demientieff Award from Gov. Bill Walker at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

Below is the full speech Bill has prepared.

First of all, I want to say what an honor it is to be here being presented with the Shirley Demientieff Award. I never imagined I would be standing in front of all of you today. I would like to thank Governor Bill Walker for presenting me the award and also to my friends and family, Michelle, my childhood best friend and boss, the Mountain Village City Council, the mayor, Matt Andrews. Also to Sergeant Kevin Yancey with the Alaska State Troopers for believing in me and always standing by my side.

Being the only female police officer in Mountain Village has its challenges. There will be times where you are challenged, where nothing seems to be going right, where tragedy strikes, and you’re left to pick up the pieces. These experiences leave us feeling weak and hopeless, but that is no reason to stay down for long.

No matter what you’re going through in life, other people just like you have gone through the same or worse and have come out stronger than before. It’s times like these you need to stand strong and never give up. Be the person who touches the lives and hearts of people. Be a positive light to others as you put a smile on their face. For in the end, it’s not what you say that matters; it’s how you make them feel that lovingly stays in their memory.

I have always been inspired by my late mom Maria Koutchak, my father Leonard Landlord, and my late grandfather Dana Kopanuk to work hard, to always have faith, courage, honesty, but most importantly, to always work from your heart.

Everyone has a story, but not everyone has a voice. That’s where I come in. I want to be that voice for our people. I want to hear the stories. I want to help write the pages, and most of all, I want our people to know there is someone who loves and cares for them, regardless of what their past holds.

As I look at my children, I want them to remember the courageous mother they have. A mother whose love is so strong and so pure that I have endeavored a lot of heartaches, turmoil, travesty. I have been assaulted numerous times while making arrests. I have been threatened and outnumbered, but that has not deteriorated my dedication to my people.

As I continue to move forward, I’m astonished by the number of lives I’ve touched, the number of people I’ve saved, the number of people who look up to me, the elders who give me strength, and my community who gives me hope, courage, and the support I need to push forward another day.

I will continue to work hard with integrity, honesty, and with faith as long as I possibly can. I will continue to uphold my badge with honor. For I hope to inspire someone to never give up, no matter how hard life may get.

Thank you.

Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, Oct. 17, 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 @AKPublicNews

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Democrats would like to see Walker step aside in campaign

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Governor Bill Walker has a big decision to make: whether to continue his campaign in the wake of Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott’s resignation. Alaska Democratic Party leaders would like to see him step aside.

Begich discusses campaign viability, ‘path forward’

Leila Kheiry, KRBD – Ketchikan

Democratic candidate for Alaska Governor Mark Begich said, like many Alaskans, he was surprised by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s abrupt resignation and withdrawal from the campaign.

Lt. Gov. Davidson delivers first public speech in new position

Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

She spoke at the annual tribal conference, held today at the Egan Center to kick of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, which starts tomorrow.

State regulators to Alaska lobbyist: Stop helping candidates raise money

Nathaniel Herz, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

Alaska lobbyists have been breaking an anti-corruption law by helping political candidates promote their fundraising events, according to a preliminary opinion from the state’s campaign finance watchdog.

35th Elders and Youth conference wraps up

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The conference passed eight resolutions that will be presented to AFN in the coming days.

Bethel VPO to be honored for improving the lives of Alaska Native women and children

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

One of the first presentations to open AFN this year includes honoring a Mountain Village law enforcement officer. Village Police Officer Anna Bill will receive the 2018 Shirley Demientieff Award.

Ester hosts meeting to discuss high levels of arsenic

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

State environmental and public health officials are hosting a public meeting in Ester tonight to discuss high levels of arsenic found in a well that serves the Ester Fire station.

Ask a Climatologist: Why hasn’t it snowed in Fairbanks yet?

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

With each day that passes without snow at the official recording site, so grows the record for Fairbanks’s most snowless start to winter.

35th Elders and Youth conference wraps up

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A group of students from Kodiak perform a song at the close of Elders and Youth (Photo: Zachariah Hughes – Alaska Public Media)

The 35th annual Elders and Youth conference has finished in Anchorage.

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Liz Medicine Crow is the president of the the First Alaskans Institute, which puts on the event, and said that more than ever she sees young people taking ownership and pride in their indigenous heritage.

“A Yupik elder said to us one time that, ‘Our young people are waking up hungry, what are we feeding them?’ And we are coming into a generation, I think, of healers,” Medicine Crow said. “Our elders and our adult population now who have been working really hard to make sure that our children have better opportunities to know who they are and to feel that strongly. And I think what we’re seeing now are the results of that investment.”

First Alaskans Institute CEO Liz Medicine Crow speaks at the close of the conference (Photo: Zachariah Hughes – Alaska Public Media)

The last day of the conference is built around reflection, affirmation and continuing actions. A brief panel touched on evolving gender roles in Alaska Native society. Charlene Apok told the audience that young people today are redefining what it means for indigenous men to be providers.

“I see young Alaska Native men going to school. I see young Alaska Native men working those jobs to provide for their families in a different way. I see Alaska Native men being providers through fatherhood. Men who are staying at home to raise our future generations,” Apok said.

The conference split apart for youth and elders to meet in a men’s house and women’s house, traditional spaces for intergenerational dialogues. This year, for the first time, there was also a Two Spirit house for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Attendees ended the day by passing eight resolutions.

“A resolution in support of wearing Alaska Native and American Indian regalia during graduation ceremonies,” Ayyu Qassataq read before passage through a show-of-hands vote.

Most of the measures were approved unanimously.

Other resolutions called for more Alaska Native history be incorporated into educational curricula, ask for native corporations and tribes to solicit more feedback from elders and discourage the use of e-cigarettes and vaping. Those resolutions will be presented to the Alaska Federation of Natives during its convention, which formally starts Thursday morning at the Dena’ina Convention Center.

State regulators to Alaska lobbyist: Stop helping candidates raise money

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Lobbyists Royce Weller and Ashley Reed talk in the benches on the second floor of the State Capitol in January, 2017. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Alaska lobbyists have been breaking an anti-corruption law by promoting fundraising events on behalf of political candidates, according to a preliminary opinion from the state’s campaign finance watchdog.

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Lobbyist Ashley Reed asked for the formal opinion from the Alaska Public Offices Commission. He wanted to know whether state law allows for lobbyists to email copies of invitations to fundraisers for political candidates.

Jerry Mackie’s portrait from when he was a state senator.

The Legislature banned lobbyists from engaging in fundraising activity more than two decades ago. Proponents of the ban said candidates who get help from lobbyists on their campaigns could, once elected, have a harder time refusing lobbyists’ requests for action on legislation.

But in spite of the ban, as Alaska Public Media reported last week, Reed and another lobbyist, Jerry Mackie, have been sending copies of fundraiser invitations to their clients and friends.

Reed and Mackie are among the state’s most influential lobbyists, and each earns more than $700,000 representing businesses in health care, oil development, mining and other industries.

On Monday, the commission’s staff issued a three-page draft opinion. It addresses Reed’s question about whether he can send invitations to fundraisers.

The short answer: No, because that’s engaging in fundraising activity, which the law bars lobbyists from doing.

The opinion is still a draft — it has to be approved by the commission’s politically-appointed leaders at their next meeting, in January.

Reed, reached by phone Wednesday, wouldn’t discuss the draft opinion.

“I don’t want to fight in the media,” Reed said. “I want the commission to decide.”

Among the candidates who benefited from the emails from Reed and Mackie are Gov. Bill Walker and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon.

In earlier interviews, the lobbyists cited a section of the law that allows lobbyists to personally advocate on behalf of a candidate. The lobbyists also said they had informal approval to send the emails after talking with an employee of the public offices commission.

Democrats would like to see Walker step aside in campaign

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Gubernatorial candidates Mike Dunleavy, Bill Walker, and Mark Begich introduce themselves at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce forum on Thursday, September 6, 2018, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Gov. Bill Walker has a big decision to make: whether to continue his campaign in the wake of former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s resignation. Alaska Democratic Party leaders would like to see him step aside.

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Walker’s name will be on the ballot this fall – alongside the name of Byron Mallott. But he could stop campaigning. This would effectively turn the campaign into a two-way race between Republican Mike Dunleavy and Democrat Mark Begich.

Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Jay Parmley wants to see that happen. And that’s something Democrats would have liked the independent Walker to do all year.

“Any way that this could become a two-way race would change the dynamic, even with three weeks to go,” Parmley said.

If Walker were to drop out, Parmley said, there’s still enough time for the campaign to get the word out.

“While of course it’s not ideal that names remain on a ballot, that’s just the way it is, and we would work with that appropriately,” he said.

Walker campaign manager John-Henry Heckendorn told the Associated Press that Walker was already in talks with Begich before Mallott’s resignation occurred. The talks focus on a “path forward for Alaska” and concerns about Dunleavy.

There are reasons for Walker to make a decision quickly. One is the Alaska Federation of Natives convention beginning Thursday. It could provide a launching point for the rest of the campaign with one of  the state’s most important organizations.

A second reason is the fact that absentee ballots – including those from the military – have already been mailed in. Every day that passes without a change in the race locks in more votes for Walker and Mallott.

And a third reason to make a decision is the beginning of early voting on Monday.

Another Democrat who would like to see Walker end his campaign is Hollis French. He was Mallott’s running mate four years ago and withdrew when Mallott joined Walker’s campaign.

That change occurred after Mallott and French won the Democratic nominations but before the deadline to withdraw. That allowed Walker and Mallott’s unity ticket to appear on the ballot. While that’s not possible this year, French said Walker faces a similar decision to the one that the Democrats faced four years ago.

“With three weeks to go before the election, and with the resignation of his right-hand running mate, the governor I think is left with doing the right thing for the state, which is to take a step backwards and make the sacrifice that he asked many of us to make four years ago, for the good of the state,” French said.

Ivan Moore has polled Alaskans on the governor’s race three times in the past month. The last poll was done Friday through Sunday – before the Mallott news broke. Moore found that Dunleavy was 17 points ahead of Walker and Begich in a three-way race, but only 7 points ahead of each in two way races.

Moore spelled out what he sees as the most likely result unless there’s a change.

“Dunleavy would win,” Moore said. “He’s going to have to crater in a huge way to mess this one up. Because Begich and Walker just are not differentiating. My expectation was that one of them would kind of pull into second place and the other one would drop off and that a kind of viable challenger would rise from the two of them, but that hasn’t happened.”

Moore said Mallott’s resignation is a “body blow” to Walker. Moore also said Walker dropping out wouldn’t be enough for Begich to win, since polling shows about a third of Walker supporters prefer Dunleavy to Begich. But he said that if Walker and Begich found a way to somehow team up, they might bring both of their constituencies together. Moore doesn’t know how that would happen.

Moore noted that Walker and Begich are tied after trading places in the previous polls.

“It appears that this is a message that the contest between them is an intractable problem and that something needs to happen,” he said. “And maybe the events of yesterday were just kind of divine intervention of some sort.”

Walker is scheduled to speak Thursday at AFN. Mallott is no longer scheduled to speak.

Ask a Climatologist: Warm early winter topples century-old records

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With each day that passes without snow at the official recording site, so grows the record for Fairbanks’s most snowless start to winter.

It’s the first time in more than a century with no recorded snow — not even a trace — this late in October, as of Tuesday the 16th. On top of that, warm weather across the state is setting marks for the latest freeze date on record.

We thought this called for an emergency installment of Ask a Climatologist and called our resident climatologist, UAF’s Brian Brettschneider. He talked to Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove.

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BRETTSCHNEIDER: Not even a passing flake of snow has landed at the Fairbanks International Airport. So it’s really noteworthy. I mean, this time of year, the sun angle is getting lower, the temperature really drops, and we expect snow to be flying for the northern half of the state by this date. And it’s just not happening this year. Plenty of rain around Fairbanks and the entire interior, it just hasn’t been cold enough to snow.

It’s been a couple of days where got down to say 20 degrees. But that was clear-sky, ideal radiational cooling. Now the looking at the forecast, it looks like it’s going to snow a little bit maybe Friday night or into Saturday morning. If that happens, it would obviously end the streak. We’re talking right now about a trace or more of snow. When we talk about measurable snow, Fairbanks has actually gone as late as Halloween — October 31st — without any measurable snow.

GROVE: You mentioned Halloween. And, I don’t have the hundred years plus records that the the Weather Service has, but I grew up in Fairbanks, and — I don’t remember it ever not being snowy and pretty cold on Halloween, out trick-or-treating.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Well, you know, the climate is warming every year, every decade. But there’s a lot of day-to-day, season-to-season variability, so over the last century Alaska has warmed 3 or 4 degrees, but we can still on any given Halloween, especially in Fairbanks, have a 50- or 60-degree range Fairbanks has a perfect record.

You know, we talk about a white Christmas. They have a perfect record of having a white Halloween (in Fairbanks) and even Anchorage has a greater than 50 percent chance historically.

GROVE: And after all, you said that it may snow here in a couple days in Fairbanks, right? And Halloween’s a couple weeks off. But I think you had also mentioned that there were other significantly mild early winters happening in the state.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: So to some degree the lack of snow in Fairbanks is almost an oddity. What’s really significant has been the lack of cold around the state, particularly western Alaska, and Southcentral. I mean Anchorage now has moved past their record for the latest freeze on record, and there’s no freezes expected for at least the next week.

Bethel has blown past their record for their latest first freeze, they’re already 10 days past it, and they may have one in four or five days. Kotzebue just had their first freeze of the season two days ago. They had a little bit of snow yesterday. It’s the persistence and the extreme persistence of these above normal temperatures and it’s really been this kind of perfect confluence of things.

In September we had this massive Bering Sea area of high pressure that cleared the skies out, let us get some solar energy. If that had happened in the winter, that’s actually a cold setup. So that actually kind of been moved out and now we’ve got a low pressure in the Bering Sea, and now it’s pumping massive amounts of warm air in from the subtropics.

So it’s been this from one setup that promotes warmth in September to another that promotes warmth in October. And looking forward, there’s really is no end in sight. People that are kind of waiting for cold and snow, you know, they’re more likely to be disappointed than not.

Snow and precipitation is harder to characterize on a seasonal scale than temperatures. But again these events are becoming more and more frequent. We look at our list of warmest winters or our list of least snowiest winters for most places, they’re in the last few years. We can still have the the odd cold winter, and we can have the odd big snow winter, but the scale is tipping more toward warmer and toward less snow.

GROVE: Our skier friends would say “bummer dude.”

Well, Brian, thanks as always for being here.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: My pleasure.

 


Anchorage School District enters mediation with teachers union over contracts

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Teachers in the Anchorage School District are working without a contract. That’s how they began the school year and two months of negotiations between the teachers union and the district have failed. There’s a wide gap between the salary increase teachers are asking for and the offer from the district. The parties are in mediation Oct. 18 and 19.

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Generally, ASD teacher contracts last for three years, but for the past two years, Anchorage teachers have had year-to-year contracts. For Tom Klaameyer, it feels like the negotiations have been never ending. He’s the head of the Alaska Education Association, the teachers union.

“Having started the subsequent year with an expired contract, we’ve just been at this for so long, that I think it’s become difficult,” Klaameyer said.

The initial request from the AEA was a 10.25 percent increase in a three-year contract. The district’s initial offer was a zero percent increase for the first two years and then a flat $500 increase the third year.

Currently, the AEA is requesting a salary increase of 9.5 percent over three years. It would end up being 3 percent for the first two years and then 3.5 percent the third year. The school district is offering a 2.25 percent increase over three years. That would be zero percent the first year, followed by a .75 percent increase the second year and a 1.5 percent increase the third year.

The dispute comes during the longest recession in state history. For the past three years, the BSA, or Base Student Allocation, from the Legislature has been flat. That’s the money that the district receives per student from the state. The Legislature did allocate a little over $10 million in its last budget, but ASD Chief Financial Officer Jim Anderson says it’s not enough.

“Well, you do that for two or three years in a row, it’s really not flat funding, because other costs keep going up,” Anderson said. “Utilities go up, rent goes up, contracts for copiers, paper, all those things keep increasing.”

Anderson says teachers already receive raises every year — called step increases — of about 2 percent based on experience and education level.

Klaameyer says that the union is frustrated that despite stagnant salaries for teachers, higher-level administrators in the school district received significant raises a year and a half ago.

“From the time that the previous superintendent, when Ed Graff was there, and hen when they hired Dr. Bishop — I’d have to look at the numbers again — it was something like from $180,000 to $230,000,” Klaameyer said. “And then next year, she got a 5 percent raise while everybody else was getting zeroes.”

Anderson, with the district, defended those raises, noting administrators are exempt from step increases, and that Superintendent Deena Bishop cut administrative positions in order to allow for that funding. Overall, it resulted in about $80,000 less in spending for the fiscal year. Anderson says giving teachers comparable raises isn’t feasible.

“Now for us to do that for teachers, we have to lay off 600 to 800 of them,” Anderson said. “Well that’s not possible.”

In its contract request, the AEA has also asked for more flexibility for teachers in their lesson plans. Klaameyer says the district implemented curriculum that limits the ways teachers can teach. Anderson says that’s an unfair characterization.

The mediation phase of the contract negotiation is the second step in a five-step negotiation process, after the initial offer. If the mediation doesn’t result in an agreement, the next phase would be bringing in an arbitrator to make an offer that both sides could agree to. If that doesn’t work, the two parties are obligated to bargain one last time before teachers could strike. That’s something neither side wants. Jennifer Haldane works in Human Resources for the school district.

“At this point we are just working towards reaching an agreement,” Haldane said. “That’s the stage of mind we’re in right now.”

Seward prepares for emergency declaration as flooding continues

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Excavators and other heavy machinery are being used around Seward to clear gravel and debris washed down from the mountains by heavy rains. (Photo courtesy of Kenai Peninsula Borough)

The city of Seward is prepared to make an emergency declaration following several days of heavy rainfall and flooding. The city council will meet Friday to vote on the formal declaration.

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In the meantime, city and borough crews along with local contractors have been working overtime to give all of that rainwater somewhere to go. As the borough’s emergency manager Dan Nelson told the assembly during a special meeting Wednesday, the problem isn’t too much water, it’s all the debris the water washes toward Resurrection Bay.

“In the Seward area, when we have these high velocity flood waters, when we have these things coming down from the mountains, that is also carrying gravel and debris,” Nelson said. “What that does in Seward is that tends to fill that existing channel with debris. We still have a water channel that has to move somewhere, so that causes those streams to meander and of course, typically those streams start meandering into areas where we have our roads, bridges and resident’s homes.”

The city and the borough have deployed a lot of heavy machinery around stream beds near roads and bridges to clear out accumulated debris and give the water a more clear path to the bay. The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved releasing half a million dollars in emergency funds to help protect its assets outside the city. In a memo to the borough, Seward’s interim city manager Jeff Bridges said their declaration will remain open as the current weather system moves through. Crews have been at work since Friday. Nearly five inches of rain have fallen since Monday with more expected into the weekend.

Tara Sweeney returns to AFN, now representing feds

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Tara Sweeney addressing the audience during AFN at the Dena’ina Conference Center in Anchorage. (Photo by Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage)

Assistant Interior Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney was welcomed back to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention with loud cheers and applause.

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Sweeney is Inupiaq and a former co-chair of AFN. She is the first Alaska Native to hold the assistant secretary position, but when she took the stage, she gave honors to the late Morris Thompson of Tanana. In 1973, Thompson became the first Alaska Native to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, before the assistant secretary position was created. Sweeney says he paved the way.

“So I share this stage with him and his family and his spirit,” she said.

Sweeney provided a progress report on issues of importance to Alaska Natives. She said Interior is working on a new process for how Alaska tribes can apply to put their land in trust. Tribes can acquire Indian Country jurisdiction over lands if the U.S. government agrees to accept them in trust. That allows them to avoid local taxes and impose their own, among other benefits. Sweeney said consultations on a new process are underway. The comment period ends in December.

Sweeney also called for continued vigilance to fight drug use in Alaska Native communities.

“Now, I’m fully aware that BIA does not provide law enforcement in Alaska,” she said. “But I am committed to finding new ways for the BIA to be engaged in protecting our Alaska Native villages.”

And she spoke about the Indian Child Welfare Act. That’s a 1978 law aimed at ending the removal of Native American children from their communities. A federal judge in Texas recently concluded the law is unconstitutional. Sweeney assured the convention the government will fight that decision.

“The Department of Interior strongly opposes any diminishment of ICWA’s protection for Indian children, families and tribes,” she said.

The Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, Joe Balash, also gave an address. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke taped a video that was played to the convention.

Some Board of Fish members express interest in limiting hatchery production

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Net pens at Cook Inlet Aquaculture’s Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery. (Photo by Aaron Bolton/KBBI)

The Alaska Board of Fisheries’ agenda was packed with hatchery issues Tuesday.

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Board members considered putting some issues on future agendas, but they also held a public forum on the broader state of hatcheries following a lengthy report from Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff.

Some board members expressed interest in taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to increasing hatchery production.

The board spent about four hours on hatcheries beginning with a long report from Fish and Game Chief Fisheries Scientist Bill Templin. Templin addressed a plethora of hatchery issues, namely hatchery straying and ocean carrying capacity.

The department is currently conducting an extensive study on hatchery strays in Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska, but when it comes to the volume of salmon the North Pacific Ocean can support, Templin explained that the scientific community is far from providing a comprehensive answer.

“Because we’re not just talking about a larger area, but about the entire North Pacific,” Templin explained. “As has been mentioned, one of our Russian colleges likens it to catching a moon beam in a jar.”

The department’s hatchery-wild research project is due to release the first round of several genetic reports in the coming months, which will inform the board’s discussion on whether hatchery fish that spawn with wild stocks reduce their productivity.

Templin also noted that some hatchery programs could be brought more closely in line with department policies. He gave a few recommendations for Prince William Sound programs, which have drawn an increasing amount of scrutiny after hatchery fish from the region were found in lower Cook Inlet streams.

“Recommended actions that can be taken immediately include completing the identification of significant and unique stocks in wild stock sanctuaries, implementing an annual survey to index stray rates in wild streams, and completing the work that has already begun on population structure and productivity through the Alaska Hatchery Research Program,” Templin listed.

Board members also held a public hatchery forum, which turned into an hour-long listening session filled with comments from hatchery supporters, critics and those in between.

However, board members reserved most of their comments for when the board considered two agenda change requests related to hatchery production.

The first mirrors previous requests to prevent the Valdez Fisheries Development Association from increasing the egg-take at its Solomon Gulch Hatchery by 20 million. The hatchery operator has already taken and hatched those additional eggs.

The board shot down the request. Board member Israel Payton didn’t support the proposal, but he did question increases in production more broadly.

“Looking at that graph, it looks like slowly over the years, the relation of hatchery caught fish and wild stock fish and harvest rates are getting closer,” Payton said. “They’re both large, but when do we say hatchery fish should we stop? Is it when we’re catching 51 percent hatchery fish? So I think a lot of people are just concerned about that, taking breath and not introducing more.”

Member Orville Huntington echoed Payton. According to Fish and Game staff, the total permitted egg-take across the state has increased by nearly 1 billion eggs since 2000, and hatchery fish accounted for 21 percent of the total commercial catch in 2017.

Those numbers were called into question by another request calling for the board to reduce the total statewide egg-take to 1.2 billion.

Chairman Reed Morisky spoke in favor of considering the proposal.

“This ACR (agenda change request) is not talking about eliminating hatcheries,” Morisky said. “It’s talking about capping capacity. As the department indicated, there’s more science that needs to be done, and it’s uncertain when or how that might occur. And I think we should take a pause.”

Morisky and Huntington were the only board members to vote in favor of putting the proposal on a future agenda. The board’s discussion on hatchery issues is set to continue in March when the full board will meet as the hatchery committee for the first time.

The board is set to focus on more regional hatchery issues in the coming years.

Apology from Gov. Walker over historical trauma highlights day one of annual AFN convention

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Governor Bill Walker gets emotional addressing the resignation of his lt gov during his address during AFN at the Dena’ina Conference Center in Anchorage (Photo by Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage)

The first day of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage saw protests and a high-level apology.

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Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson was already set to be the keynote speaker. But the speech took on even more importance after the surprise announcement Tuesday that she had been sworn in as Lieutenant Governor amid Byron Mallott’s sudden resignation over “inappropriate comments” — something Davidson referred to in her speech.

“Let’s acknowledge where we are. Just two days ago our world shifted,” Davidson said. “I want you to know, Alaskans deserve the highest standard of conduct from their elected officials. Respect for women and the dignity of all Alaskans is our responsibility.”

Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson giving her keynote address at the Dena’ina Convention Center during AFN (Photo: Zachariah Hughes – Alaska Public Media)

The address was broad and personal, touching on the administration’s expansion of Medicaid, Davidson’s own struggles with childhood trauma, and the importance of the tribal compact the state announced last year. Over and over again, Davidson said the current administration’s policies have significantly elevated the role of Alaska Natives in guiding state policy.

“We invited more people to the conversation and recognized that listening is more important than litigation,” Davidson said.

Soon after came an address by Walker himself. He, too, referred to the week’s resignation without calling Mallott a brother and “soul mate” who had taken responsibility for a mistake. Though Walker never overtly focused on the dynamics of his re-election campaign, which currently favor his Republican opponent, he did allude to it briefly.

“This may be the last time I address you formally. I recognize that,” Walker said.

With that, Walker primed the audience for a big announcement, and for a minute it seemed like the room was holding its breath. But it wasn’t a campaign revelation; instead, it was a formal apology to Alaska Natives for the wrongs they have endured from the State.

“As the 11th governor of the state of Alaska, I apologize to you, Alaska’s first people, for the wrongs that you have endured for generations,” Walker said. “For being forced into boarding schools, I apologize. For (being) forced to abandon your Native language and adopt a foreign one, I apologize. For erasing your history, I apologize. For the generational and historical trauma you have suffered, I apologize. This apology is long overdue. It is but one step in hundreds more to go on this journey towards truth, reconciliation and healing.”

It was the first such apology to Alaska Natives on past state policies from a sitting governor, according to a Walker aid.

Walker also thanked the federation for embracing him during his term as governor.

Two blocks away from the convention stage, demonstrators gathered for a rally focused on defending indigenous women and protecting the environment.

Quannah Chasing Horse Potts called for an end to violence.

Quanna Chasing Horse Potts speaking during a rally by Defend the Sacred AK outside the Performing Art Center not far from AFN (Photo: Zachariah Hughes – Alaska Public Media, Anchorage)

“For far too long, women, our indigenous women, our lands and our waters, have been traumatized and victimized,” Potts said.

The rally was organized by Defend the Sacred AK, and brought together a patchwork of groups focused on wildlife conservation, subsistence rights, as well as domestic violence and sexual assault prevention. Well over a hundred people gathered outside the Performing Arts Center in downtown Anchorage.

AFN continues through Saturday, with remarks from gubernatorial candidates and Alaska’s congressional delegation in the days ahead.

This story contained contributions from Zachariah Hughes, Abbey Collins and Andrew Kitchenman. 

Walker remains in the race — for now

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Republican former state Sen. Mike Dunleavy, moderator John Sturgeon, independent Gov. Bill Walker, and Democratic former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich attend the debate on resource development at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on Thursday (Photo by Elizabeth Harball/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday that he intends to stay in the race for governor – unless something changes.

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Walker talked to reporters after a debate with the other candidates for governor, Republican Mike Dunleavy and Democrat Mark Begich.

When asked if he’s committed to staying in the race until the Nov. 6 election, Walker responded:

“I’m 100 percent committed to a process, and we’ll see what happens between now, now and election day,” Walker said. “I’ll tell you what: It’s been an interesting few months. I’ll put it that way.”

Democratic leaders have asked for Walker to end his campaign.

It’s too late to be removed from the ballot. Roughly 1,000 absentee ballots have already been returned.

Walker said his message to those considering voting early is that he’s still in the race and that new Lt. Gov. Valerie Nurr’araaluuk Davidson would be very good at the job. He pushed back on a question about whether anyone else could become lieutenant governor.

“It’s too soon for that,” Walker said. “I don’t have any reason to think it would be anybody other than Val Davidson. I think she’s a phenomenal Alaskan and she’s eminently qualified for that position.”

Dunleavy asked Begich during the debate if he’s in negotiations with the Walker camp to cut a deal for one of them to drop out. Begich said he’d like Dunleavy to drop out.

Walker added that the Republican Party asked him to be their candidate. He later clarified that Republicans spoke with someone close to him after Dunleavy filed to run last year.

“Yeah, they contacted me,” Walker said. “They wanted me to be their candidate.”

Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock denied that. He said in a press release that Walker “attempted a lame joke – unless recent stress is causing him to lose grip on reality.”

Babcock said the party’s only contact regarding Walker was from Walker’s chief of staff Scott Kendall, asking if Walker could run as a Republican. Babcock said the party told him it was a free country, but predicted the reception would not be warm.

Walker was a Republican until he ran in 2014 as an independent, and said he wanted to remain an independent.

“For me, it’s not a matter of hanging on at any cost, hanging on for another four years at any cost,” Walker said. “I still got to be the same person walking out that walked in. And I’m not going to become somebody else to do that. I’m just not.”

Walker’s administration was shaken Tuesday by the resignation of former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. Walker has said Mallott made an inappropriate overture to an unnamed female victim. Walker said he made a commitment to the victim to only disclose information he had discussed with her. He said that saying more would violate her rights.

“What kind of a message would that send?” Walker said of the idea of violating the commitment. “You know, it’s more important for us to get it out for our benefit for, you know, campaign purposes and at the victim’s expense? What’s going to be the message to other victims, that won’t come forward and say they felt something was inappropriate? We want them to come forward, you know. We want them to. So we aren’t going to be the ones that are going to walk away from that commitment. I’m just not going to do it.”

The governor’s wife Donna Walker stepped in to say Mallott did the right thing by resigning.

“He paid the price — you can’t really get much more of a price out of a situation like this – stepped down from the second-highest job in the state,” she said. “And he and his family are suffering. This is a man whose, you know, outstanding career, so many accomplishments. … The family’s in grief. And we’re in grief with them.”

Donna Walker said speculation online about Mallott is far from the truth.

Alaska News Nightly: Thursday, Oct. 18, 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 @AKPublicNews

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Walker remains in the race — for now

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

It’s too late to be removed from the ballot.  Roughly 1,000 absentee ballots have already been returned.

Apology from Gov. Walker over historical trauma highlights day one of annual AFN convention

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The first day of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage saw protests and a high-level apology.

Tara Sweeney returns to AFN, now representing feds

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

Sweeney called for continued vigilance against drug use in Native communities. “I am committed to finding new ways for the BIA to be engaged in protecting our Alaska Native villages,” she said.

Ex juvenile official charged with possessing child pornography

Associated Press

A former high-ranking official in Alaska juvenile justice has been charged with possession of child pornography.

Anchorage School District enters mediation with teachers union over contracts

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Teachers in the Anchorage School District are working without a contract, and in negotiations for a new one. The parties are in mediation Oct. 18 and 19.

Seward prepares for emergency declaration as flooding continues

Shaylon Cochran, KDLL – Kenai

The city of Seward is prepared to make an emergency declaration following several days of heavy rainfall and flooding. The city council will meet Friday to vote on the formal declaration.

Seismologist says earthquake may have triggered mudslide on the Haines Highway

Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines

Heavy rains hit Southeast Alaska, too, triggering a large mudslide on the Haines Highway.

Fairbanks commission calls for more sustainable practices

Associated Press

A draft proposal outlines plans for the Fairbanks North Star Borough to become more sustainable by boosting food security, reducing energy consumption and minimizing waste.

Some Board of Fish members express interest in limiting hatchery production

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

The Department of Fish and Game’s hatchery-wild research project is due to release the first round of several genetic reports in the coming months, which will inform the board’s discussion on hatchery fish.

In small town Alaska, conflicts of interest a tricky subject

June Leffler, KSTK – Wrangell

Running a small town can be tricky: everyone knows everyone and conflicts of interest easily arise as people move from public service to public employment – and back again.


Seismologist says earthquake may have triggered mudslide on the Haines Highway

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Mud and debris covered the road at milepost 23 on the Haines Highway on Sunday. (Photo by Lynn Cambpell)

Southeast Alaska had a very dry September. Heavy rains returned to the region this month, triggering a large mudslide on the Haines Highway over the weekend. Now the Alaska Earthquake Center says seismic activity may have also played a role.

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State road crews spent most of Sunday clearing mud and debris along a four-mile stretch of the Haines Highway that kept the road closed until early evening.

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Aurah Landau said the two main slides were in places crews are familiar with.

“19 mile and 23 mile have a history of sliding,” Landau said. “There’s maybe a couple times a year that the material comes down over the road. ”

Landau said Sunday’s largest slide was roughly 100 feet long and up to 8 feet deep.

“In this case, especially at the 23 mile slide, it was like soupy jello that they were shoving off the road,” Landau said.

The cleanup is estimated to cost the state $200,000 to $400,000.

When it comes to mudslides, wet weather is usually the culprit. Three inches of rain were recorded by the National Weather Service at the U.S.-Canada border post 20 miles from the slide.

Federal meteorologist Joel Curtis said the steep slopes above the Haines Highway can only absorb so much rainwater.

“Once you start soaking them in real good and they become completely saturated, clearly that adds more weight to the system and is also some lubricant that allows it to move,” Curtis said.

But there’s evidence of another force at work.

A 3.6 magnitude earthquake centered about 12 miles from the slides was recorded at 7:04 a.m. Sunday. The first report of the highway mudslide came just 25 minutes later.

Seismologist Natalia Rupert at the UAF Alaska Earthquake Center reasoned the two could be linked. She told KHNS that the small quake likely provided that extra push that saw tons of mud, rock and earth tumble down and blanket parts of the highway.

So between the heavy rain, the steep terrain and a small temblor, Sunday saw the perfect storm for a slide on the Haines Highway.

DOT can’t stop material from coming down the hillside above the Haines Highway. That is just part of the geology of the area. However, Landau said that DOT plans to make improvements to the stretch of highway between milepost 19 and 23 to help minimize the effect of the slides.

New report compares Alaska’s recession to other energy-dependent states

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When oil prices sank three years ago, Alaska’s economy went in the same direction, falling into recession. And, while recessions in other energy-dependent states have come and gone, Alaska’s economy has yet to recover.

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Economist Mouhcine Guettabi looked at why it’s taking longer here. He set out to compare Alaska’s recession to those of other energy-dependent states, and how oil prices influence these states. Guettabi works at the University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research.

In a new report, he found that, out of 13 historically energy-dependent states, six experienced economy-wide job loss as a result of oil price declines, starting in 2014. Out of those, Guettabi says North Dakota and Alaska are the only two that continue to be in recession.

According to Guettabi, Alaska lost ground for 34 straight months — the longest recession in the state’s history. In that time, the state has lost between 12,000 and 13,000 jobs.

Guettabi says while Alaska is not the only state in the country that relies on oil revenue, in Alaska, that reliance is on another level.

“The ones that don’t have a lot of oil revenue dependence seem to recover a little bit faster because they only had that private channel dependence, and their budgets weren’t struggling as much as ours,” Guettabi said.

He says the state’s decision to use permanent fund earnings to help pay for state government should help the economy in the future.

According to Guettabi, states that recovered faster also had industries that were still growing while the economy as a whole was in recession.

“In Alaska, with the exception of healthcare and tourism, basically everything across the board was going down,” Guettabi said.

Guettabi says going forward, it will be important to support other sectors of the economy, to ensure they are less dependent on oil and gas.

He looked at states where the economy has recovered. There, he found when oil prices started rising again, the economy reacted and grew faster than it has in Alaska.

Larry Persily is a former federal pipeline coordinator in Alaska. He says the state will always be the last to come out of oil-driven recession.

“Alaska is more heavily dependent on oil and gas than any of the other producing states, be it Oklahoma, North Dakota, Texas, Louisiana, California, New Mexico, the list goes on and on,” Persily said.

Persily says the state could take more steps to reduce that reliance, but so far that hasn’t happened. He says the lessons to be learned here are painful.

“As exhibited by the fact that Alaska could have learned a lesson over the past decades, but has chosen not to,” Persily said.

While the price of oil is up right now, Persily says it’s inevitable it will dip again at some point. He points to taxes income and sales taxes in other states, that lesson dependence on oil prices.

“It wouldn’t hurt us to pay for the public services that we enjoy,” Persily said. “And not be so heavily reliant on the fluctuation in global oil markets and production.”

While Alaska’s economy is not out of recession yet, there are some positive signs leading economists to believe it may be nearing the end. Whether the state will have a different experience if oil prices dip again is another question.

In small town Alaska, conflicts of interest a tricky subject

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Wrangell’s Assembly meets at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at chambers in City Hall. (Photo courtesy of KSTK)

Running a small town can be tricky: everyone knows everyone and conflicts of interest easily arise as people move from public service to public employment – and back again. Wrangell’s city manager’s recent decision to hire a sitting Assembly member raised eyebrows.

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Rolland Howell was recently tapped to be the director of Public Works. The job pays $80,000 a year and has good benefits. But here’s the thing: when Howell applied he was an elected member of the Assembly.

What’s that mean? Well, the city manager hires senior city employees. And they serve at the pleasure of the Assembly.

Imagine being interviewed by one of your employees for a job where they’d be your boss.

City Manager Lisa Von Bargen understands the weird optics. But she checked with the city’s attorney.

“There was nothing that precluded him as a seated assembly member at that time from applying,” Von Bargen said.

Those in the know say this type of thing happens all the time.

“When it comes especially to small communities across Alaska we have community members who are wearing multiple hats,” said Nils Andreassen, the executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, which advises local governments on sticky issues like these.

“I think a good best practice is just be be upfront about what that conflict of interest is,” Andreassen said.

The move didn’t sit right with one Assembly member. David Powell voted against the deal.

“I consider Mr. Howell a friend, but this is not about him being a friend or him getting a job. It’s about our code,” Powell said.

So what does Wrangell’s code say? An elected official can take a city job if he or she receives a waiver from the Assembly – and then resigns. That’s what happened. The vote was 4 to 1 with only Powell against.

Other assembly members defended the move.

“The point of the waiver process as well is that it puts it in front of the community in an open forum, a public forum so we can have that discussion and make a judgement call,” Assemblywoman Julie Decker said.

Local governments like Wrangell write their own rules. They can be as strict or lax as they want. That’s because Alaska is a home rule state, where the state has little influence on how a city governs itself. In fact, until this year, Wrangell’s rule was a lot stricter.

“We’ve had multiple occasions where good assembly members had to step down from serving on the assembly because their grandson wanted to work at the movie theater, or their daughter wanted to be a lifeguard at the pool, where we can’t even get enough lifeguards to apply,” Decker said.

But the city’s policy against nepotism was loosened after a mayor’s son-in-law brought up the issue. He’d had a job offer with parks and recreation retracted due to his relationship with the mayor. That’s when the Assembly changed some rules.

Wrangell’s school district made a similar move this year, though with less public scrutiny.

Georgianna Buhler served as the School Board president. She left her seat to apply for and be hired as the district’s business manager.

The district says this hire didn’t conflict with its own rules. It seems the city’s deal wasn’t unusual in a town of 2,000-plus people.

Gov. Walker suspends campaign for reelection in AFN announcement

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Alaska Gov. Bill Walker listens to a question from KTOO and Alaska Public Media reporter Andrew Kitchenman from his Capitol office in Juneau on June 19, 2018. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)

Gov. Bill Walker announced today that he is suspending his campaign for reelection. That leaves a two-person race for governor between Republican Mike Dunleavy and Democrat Mark Begich.

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Walker made the announcement onstage at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage, with Dunleavy and Begich in the crowd. It comes after Walker’s lieutenant governor, Byron Mallott, resigned and dropped out of the race Tuesday. Walker said Mallott had made inappropriate comments to a woman.

Walker repeated his campaign slogan “Alaska First” and talked about accomplishments from what will be his one term in office.

“With that said, effective today, I am suspending my campaign for reelection as governor,” Walker said.

The crowd gasped.

Walker says he made the decision after discussions about whether he or Begich had a better chance against Dunleavy.

“The determination was made that at this point, Begich has the better odds,” Walker said.

Walker expressed concern about the potential reversal of the Medicaid expansion by Dunleavy, “whose campaign record and rhetoric indicates that he will eliminate Medicaid expansion that has provided healthcare access to 44,000 Alaskans, created jobs, and brought $1 billion of federal dollars into an economy that dearly needed it, decreasing statewide health care expenditures by $16 million and kept hospitals from closing and saved lives.”

Walker also predicted that Dunleavy would take away funding for the Alaska natural gas pipeline.

The move could allow Begich to pull closer to Dunleavy in the race for governor. The names of Walker and Mallott must remain on the ballot, because it’s past the deadline to withdraw. Libertarian Billy Toien also is running.

Walker is the nation’s only independent governor.

He begin his administration with broad support. A national poll in early 2016 listed him as among the country’s most popular governors. But that June, Walker’s decision to veto half of Permanent Fund Dividend funding began a long decline in his approval rating.

While the Legislature voted for two later PFD cuts, Walker took much of the blame. The reductions allowed the Permanent Fund to grow, which Walker argues will allow PFDs to continue into the future.

The move also allowed the Legislature to pass a plan to pay for state government using Permanent Fund earnings. Walker said that without this, deep reductions in state government services would hurt Alaskans by harming schools, health care and the state’s economy.

But political opponents criticized Walker for the cuts and capitalized on the PFD cuts’ unpopularity.

Walker said he was disappointed and that if there had been more time before the election, he thought he and newly appointed Lt. Gov. Valerie Davidson would’ve had a better chance.

But Walker repeated something he said he told his cabinet earlier this week in an emergency meeting.

“Ultimately, it’s not how long my team and I serve, it’s how well we serve the people and the state we love while we have the opportunity and the honor to serve,” Walker said.

This story contains contributions from Casey Grove, Andrew Kitchenman and Wesley Early. 

AK: Vusi Mahlasela, ‘The Voice,’ sings for Hiland

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Vusi Mahlasela and Mongezi Ntaka perform at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center on Oct. 11, 2018. (Photo by Kirsten Swann/Alaska Public Media)

Vusi Mahlasela has serenaded listeners around the world. Known as “The Voice,” he’s performed at the World Cup and Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, and shared stages with Dave Matthews Band, Sting, Paul Simon and Josh Groban.

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Hiland Mountain Correctional Center isn’t his typical venue. That doesn’t matter, Mahlasela said.

“Wherever that spirit sends me, it is for a purpose,” he said, standing in the gym at the Eagle River prison Oct. 11.

Mahlasela spent the middle part of the month touring Alaska as part of his Township Tour, but before he performed at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts or sang for audiences in Cordova, Haines, Skagway or Juneau, he hosted a special show for inmates at Hiland.

From a portable stage set up in the middle of the gym floor, he performed for an audience dressed in matching yellow pants and shirts. He sang songs about his home in the Mamelodi Township, sometimes pausing to speak about the history of the music or offer words of advice.

“If you don’t forgive, you become like your own prisoner. You become like a bitter leaf that can just be squashed or stripped away any time — so forgiveness is very important, and we should all wear it like a crow,” Mahlasela told the crowd, who whooped and applauded in response.

The Anchorage Concert Association worked with the Department of Corrections to arrange the event. James Fredrick, ACA community engagement director, said it’s part of the concert association’s intention to serve every member of the community.

“That doesn’t necessarily just mean ticket sales at the performing arts center,” Fredrick said.

That afternoon, sitting in the audience in the gym, Corine Camille said the music carried her to a place outside the prison walls. When she listened, she said, she pictured a place far away.

“I was … trying to picture what it looks like where they’re from,” Camille said. “Just trying to get something in my mind of what it would look like, with people dancing. It took me out of here.”

Sitting in the front frow, Kendria Huskey said the music gave her goosebumps. When Mahlasela sang, she said, she felt like he was delivering a deeper message.

“That was a testimony to me,” Huskey said. “I’m African American and American Indian, so I was able to get my heritage, my culture, right here, given to me in place that you would never imagine.”

After Mahlasela performed, audience members had the chance to ask questions about his music, his work with Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign, his travels and his trip to Alaska. Listening to him was a blessing, Huskey said.

“I believe that everything happens for a reason, and also that you gotta be in the right place at the right time. And I just so happened to be here at this right time,” Huskey said, sitting in the correctional center gym after the show. “Not that I want to be here, but you know…I have to do what I have to do…so this is perfect. I would have never imagined finding this type of opportunity in a place like this.”

From his perch on stage, Mahlasela could see the way the music affected the crowd, he said. Women danced in their seats. Men smiled and tapped their feet. Packing up his guitar after the show, Mahlasela called it a success.

“We could actually read some kind of transformation from the faces of everybody, you know?” Mahlasela said. “When you see that, you’ve served the purpose.”

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