Mary Ciuniq Pete died November 17 at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. She succumbed to complications from ovarian cancer.

She left behind a huge legacy in Alaska as she worked to protect subsistence, and then later as the Director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus.

KYUK spoke with several friends and former colleagues who remembered the contributions that Pete made to Alaska, and to the lives of everyone in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Pete was born in Stebbins, Alaska, in April of 1957. She was raised practicing her Yup’ik values, which informed every part of her later career, including as an educator. Pete went on to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1984.

Pete clearly valued education, and she strongly advocated for her students to succeed, especially her Indigenous ones. She was the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus Director from 2005 until her death. Her colleague at KuC, Diane McEachern, said that Pete knew when and when not to compromise.

“The times she would not compromise were usually around something important to Indigenous education or the Indigenous students, and I appreciated that. She wasn’t wishy-washy at all,” McEachern said.

Pete honed those negotiating skills over the years while serving in a high-profile role in then-Governor Tony Knowles’ administration. Her substantial knowledge about subsistence caught Knowles’ eye, and he chose her to direct the Subsistence Division at the Department of Fish and Game, a role she held from 1996 to 2005. She was the first Alaska Native woman to do so which was, and still is, a huge achievement.

Knowles remembered how Pete worked to protect the fisheries during a failure of the king salmon run on the Yukon River, and how she was later part of the Alaska delegation negotiating rules for managing the river under the Pacific Salmon Treaty with Canada.

“It was a really difficult time because there had to be closures, and that included subsistence closures. But because of the way she handled this: she was science-based, she communicated well with the communities, and she got their understanding and support, and that is very difficult when there are tough times,” Knowles said. “Secondly, on the Yukon River there’s always a struggle to come to agreement with Canadians on the treaty that we had with them for many years, but had really not been in effect for a really long time. And I asked if she would be a lead negotiator with the Alaska team and once again, conservation was the first, protect the resource, and that’s not really necessarily the way Canadians have handled their salmon. But we were able to come to an agreement for many years, and it went a long way to providing first for the conservation of the resources, and secondly the first priority of the taking of any salmon for harvest for subsistence use.”

Pete’s reputation spread to the White House. Then-President Barack Obama named her to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in 2010. She also held leadership roles on the local level. One of her most prominent was her position on the board of the Tundra Women’s Coalition (TWC) during the 1980s. TWC advocates for domestic violence and sexual abuse victims. She also served on the state Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Michelle DeWitt led TWC for more than a decade, and gave Mary an award for her service.

“If there was a perspective that was needed, or you wanted to run an idea by someone, Mary was the person to turn to in those situations. The thing I appreciate the most about Mary is she is a strong and fierce leader,” DeWitt said.

And for some Alaska Native women, Pete will be remembered as a mentor. Tiffany Zulkosky, who successfully kept her seat in the state House representing District 38 this year, said that Mary helped her navigate the tricky waters of standing up for herself as an Alaska Native woman in public service.

“I remember an incident where I had taken an opportunity to speak truth to power and was talking to her about that incident, and letting her know just about the context of the situation and that my voice was shaking somewhat when I was making my statement, and she told me that there was a time when she was younger and she was in a similar situation. She said, ‘My voice would shake, but my message never wavered,'” Zulkosky said.

Many people remembered her deep, loving relationship with her life partner and husband Hubert Angaiak, and her vibrant love for berry picking. For Pete, there were never enough berries, and the best way to pick them was with friends and family. Bethel resident Mary Sattler Peltola had this to say about Pete’s relationship to her husband:

“They both have such a great sense of humor, and both have had such a great admiration for each other,” Peltola said.

Each person KYUK talked to recommended several more until dozens were on the list. The list and the memories could go on and on. Mary Pete is survived by her mother, Jeanette Pete, her husband, Hubert Angiaik, and her two adopted sons, Conor and Chase.

There are some pro-Second Amendment citizens that say they feel put off by the National Rifle Association’s politics. That’s leading to the emergence of left-leaning shooting groups across the country. Meet the Socialist Rifle Association in Alaska.

It’s the Sunday before the election and members of the Socialist Rifle Association are meeting at a public shooting range on the outskirts of Anchorage. It’s the group’s first “range day” where the membership (all two of them) meet to shoot guns and talk politics.

“When I tell people that I’m a member of the Socialist Rifle Association, they get confused,” said the 30-year-old member, who didn’t want to give his name. (We’ll get to why in a bit.) “There’s just a notion that socialists are authoritarian and anti-gun, and they get really scared, just by that word: socialist.”

This self-described socialist who works on the pipeline sports a ball cap, fuzzy facial hair and knee-high steel toe rubber boots. He believes strongly in the Second Amendment but said he’s put off by the apparent axis between mainstream gun culture and right-wing populism.

“I was actually on the verge of joining the National Rifle Association but this one just seemed more in line with my views,” he said.

The Socialist Rifle Association legally incorporated last month in Kansas. It’s part of trend of leftist gun groups that’s sprung up as an alternative to the NRA’s fiery rhetoric.

“You look at some of the rhetoric that the NRA has been putting out over the last year or so, and I think possibly they’re the real extremists, not us,” said Nick, a 34-year-old warehouse worker from Anchorage. He’s helping set up the Socialist Rifle Association’s Alaska chapter.

Why should self-described socialists organize a firearms association in the first place?

“I think that there’s a lot of marginalized groups that could benefit from self-defense,” Nick replied, “such as the LGBT community, minorities and also poor people where they’re not as well-served by the police as people with more money.”

The right to bear arms is widely supported in Alaska. A poll in 2017 found 60 percent of Alaskans oppose stricter gun laws.

The Second Amendment is one thing these guys and more right-wing gun enthusiasts do have in common.

“It’s been one of the icebreakers when I have a big disagreement with somebody where it starts getting nasty, and they have these preconceived notions of what a leftist is, is to start talking about guns and gun ownership and gun rights,” the pipeline workers said. “It’s very healing.”

So why the anonymity? Both say they’re worried about their jobs. The pipeline worker said he often talks politics while on the job. But he’s worried that his managers could fire him for his unorthodox associations. There are no First Amendment protections in the workplace.

“And I don’t want to scare anyone in my workplace with this. Because it is, it’s a really sensitive issue,” he added.

It is sensitive. Organizing around guns and ideology in a polarized political climate has potential dangers.

“Our society’s flooded with assault-style rifles,” said Bill Morlin, a veteran journalist who’s covered militia movements in the Pacific Northwest for decades. He now works for the Southern Law Poverty Center which tracks extremist groups and is a correspondent for its online publication Hatewatch. He recently covered a Patriot Prayer rally in Seattle this August where self-described alt-right militia and antifa counter-demonstrators faced off with rifles slung over shoulders and pistols in holsters.

“There’s a political pot out there and it’s really boiling,” Morlin said by phone from Spokane, Washington. “You have the far-left and the far-right and they’re both in this pot. And all this has really — the temperature of the boil and the rapidity of the boil — really kicked up with the November 2016 election of Donald Trump.”

He said most political violence stems from the far-right. This year alone, his group has tracked at least 41 murders by far-right extremists or those who admitted to be inspired by far-right rhetoric.

“The rise of right-wing domestic terrorism is a serious issue in this country,” said Socialist Rifle Association President Alexander Tackett by telephone in Wichita, Kansas. “But the moment a bunch of leftists meet up at a gun range, people start getting antsy when this has already been going on on the other side for a long time.”

The group has rules against open carry at demonstrations or rallies. But he said it stands in solidarity with armed leftist groups that do.

Back at the pistol range, the Alaska members say armed activism isn’t what they joined up for.

“We’re not a militia and we don’t support any activism that includes violence,” the pipeline worker said. “I mean, guns are our premise as an organization but we don’t advocate violence and we’re not okay with it unless it’s in self-defense.”

The Socialist Rifle Association is proving popular. A little over a month since it was incorporated it’s gone from a humorous Facebook page to a legally incorporated social welfare organization with nearly a thousand card-carrying members. And there are now chapters in all 50 states, including Alaska.

Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove contributed to this report.

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

Dunleavy transition team requests state worker resignations

Casey Grove and Andrew Kitchenman, Alaska Public Media & KTOO – Juneau

Governor election Mike Dunleavy’s transition team sent an email asking at-will state workers to resign on Friday. This action has led to a lot of questions from the affected workers.

New, all-Republican Senate majority forms

Andrew Kitchenman, Alaska Public Media & KTOO – Juneau

Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel will be the Senate president when the 31st Legislature is sworn in on Jan. 15.

Regional manager appointed to lead Department of Labor and Workforce Development

Andrew Kitchenman, Alaska Public Media & KTOO – Juneau

Tamika Ledbetter currently manages the Anchorage/Mat-Su Economic Region for the department.

Young wins seat on Republican Steering Committee

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington

When Congressman Don Young became the dean of the U.S. House, the role had no power. It does now.

Student charged following Anchorage school threat

Kirsten Swann, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A student was arrested and charged with terroristic threats and criminal mischief Monday in connection with a written shooting threat at Begich Middle School, according to the Anchorage Police Department and the Anchorage School District.

Chukchi Sea polar bears thriving, study shows

Associated Press

A population study of polar bears in the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia finds that the population is thriving for now despite a loss of sea ice because of climate change.

Tooth boosts archaeological research

Lex Treinen, KUAC – Fairbanks

A baby tooth is deepening our understanding of how North America was first populated by humans. The long archived specimen from northwest Alaska is the subject of new research by Fairbanks based scientists, which is increasing genetic knowledge of a people known as Ancient Beringians.

The very first tally of the Chukchi Sea polar bears has just been published, and here’s the big takeaway: Despite a decline in their sea ice habitat, for now the bears are doing well.

In a study published last week, researchers found that the Chukchi bears are healthy, and they estimate there are about 3,000 of them — which is relatively abundant.

That’s despite the fact that the bears’ window to hunt on the ice has been reduced by about a month over the last few decades.

Eric Regehr is a polar bear researcher at the University of Washington and led the study, which collected data on bears between 2008 and 2016.

His team thinks a possible explanation for the population’s health is that the Chukchi Sea is especially rich in the bears’ food source: ringed and bearded seals.

“Our hypothesis is that even though the bears in the Chukchi Sea have less time on the sea ice, during those months on ice in good hunting habitat that they do have, there are so many seals they’re able to fulfill their annual nutritional requirements,” said Regehr.

That could be a factor in why polar bears in the Chukchi Sea are still thriving, while Alaska’s other population of polar bears on the Beaufort Sea are getting thinner and seeing a population decline.

Regehr said the Beaufort Sea likely has fewer seals than the Chukchi Sea, so the Beaufort bears may not be getting the food they need as sea ice declines.

He stresses that just because the Chukchi bears are doing well now, it doesn’t mean that they will continue to do so.

“Unless the underlying problem of climate change is addressed, the sea ice is expected to continue to diminish,” said Regehr. “And at some point that will likely have a negative effect on the bears in this Chukchi area.”

Variability in the Arctic means that, in the short term, there may be differences in the health of the 19 groups of polar bears worldwide. But in the long-term, continued ice loss will likely cause negative effects for polar bears across the board.

Congress will have a new look in January. Democrats will control the U.S. House and Republicans will increase their slim majority in the Senate by two seats. Will there be a new spirit of cooperation between parties or more division and bitter partisan rhetoric? And what does it mean for Alaska priorities and the work we need from our congressional delegation?

HOST: Lori Townsend

GUESTS:

• Sen. Dan Sullivan – U.S. Senator for Alaska

Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast

Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).

Send an email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

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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

Sen. Sullivan: Mueller doesn’t need Congress to protect him

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan says he doesn’t think Congress needs to pass a bill to protect the Mueller investigation.

Trump administration moves to open environmentally sensitive National Petroleum Reserve land to oil drilling

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

The Trump administration has moved to open up even more federal land in the Arctic to oil development, kicking off what could be Alaska’s next big environmental controversy.

Search continues for White Mountain man missing since Nov. 4

Emily Hofstaedter, KNOM – Nome

The search continues for 63-year-old Lincoln Simon of White Mountain, with crews from Golovin, White Mountain, Savoonga and Bethel all joining the effort.

State asks for new housing units to help Alaskans in recovery

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Tamika Ledbetter currently manages the Anchorage/Mat-Su Economic Region for the department.

Citing E. coli outbreak, US officials say don’t eat romaine

Associated Press

U.S. health officials are telling people to avoid eating romaine lettuce because of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 32 people in 11 states.

Fairbanks City Council approves homeless camp removal ordinance

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

The Fairbanks City Council approved an ordinance Monday that provides a legal basis for city police and public works employees to remove homeless camps in unauthorized areas on public land.

Ask a Climatologist

Casey Grove

Will Alaska see more snow or colder temps for Thanksgiving? Catch up with resident climatologist Brian Brettschneider.

Fairbanks considers air quality improvement recommendations

Robyne, KUAC – Fairbanks

A Fairbanks North Star Borough-organized group is forwarding dozens of recommendations for how to improve local air quality to the state for consideration.

First Costco opens in Fairbanks

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

Fairbanks’ first Costco has been highly anticipated, and a crowd turned out for the store’s opening.

Over the past three decades, pollock spawning times in the Gulf of Alaska have varied as much as three weeks.

That’s potentially deadly for baby fish that are spawned into an environment that’s not ideal.

Now, new research confirms what some scientists have long suspected: Warmer ocean temperatures are playing a role.

Pollock have been a big part of Lauren Rogers’ career. She works as a research fish biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices in Seattle, and you could say she takes her work home with her — and straight to the dinner table.

“I’ll go with my most common way. It’s got to be fish sticks,” Rogers said. “I have two little boys and, eating fish [sticks] that would be their preferred method.”

Chances are, those fish sticks could have originated from pollock caught in Alaska. It’s the nation’s biggest fishery.

The fish are caught in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. In the Gulf, pollock typically spawn in the spring.

“So if it’s warmer, pollock generally spawn a little bit earlier. If it’s colder, they’re going to hold off and spawn later,” Rogers said.

But exactly when could be a crucial detail that determines the chance of survival for baby pollock. According to NOAA meteorologists, waters in the Gulf of Alaska have been warmer than normal.

Rogers said that warm water, in addition to some other factors, could signal to the pollock it’s time to spawn. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean the food sources will be there. It could be too early.

For pollock, this could play out in two ways.

“Well, maybe you’ll get really lucky and the spring bloom will also be three weeks earlier, and then your babies are going to hit it right on time,” Rogers said. “They’re going to have lots of food. They’re going to grow up fast.”

They’re going to move out of the house, get their own apartment and go on to be productive members of the aquatic society. Or rather, take the form of those fish sticks mentioned before.

That is, if the pollock spawn their babies around the right time — when food sources are available.

“However, maybe you get it wrong?” Rogers said. “Maybe actually, it’s warm now. But it cools off all a sudden and production is a little bit delayed, and there’s not food available and your babies all die.”

Right now, the catch rate for pollock in the Gulf of Alaska has been consistent.

But scientists like Rogers are trying to understand how much variability exists in the spawn time. To get an idea, Rogers used more than 30 years of information consisting of samples from larval pollock.

“By looking at the ear bones of the larval pollock, you can actually see daily growth rings on there. And you can figure out how old they are,” Rogers said.

With some back calculating, she was able to figure out how spawning for pollock changed over time: a variation of as much as three weeks.

But the big question remains: Could this mean a future with less fish?

“Well, I think it’s not necessarily a doom-and-gloom story,” Rogers said. “But I don’t know if it’s going to be, ‘Everything’s great,’ either.”

Rogers said as the environment continues to warm, with less and less cold years, spawn time may actually become a little more stable from year to year. But that’s only one piece in the complex puzzle that is the ocean.

Scientists are trying to get a handle on how the new normal of climate change is going to affect everything else.

The search continues for 63-year-old Lincoln Simon of White Mountain, with crews from Golovin, White Mountain, Savoonga, and Bethel all joining the effort.

Simon went missing on November 4 after his four-wheeler broke through thin ice. The Alaska State Trooper (AST) dispatch reports that Simon was able to call his family and report his situation and location. Simon was at the mouth of the Fish River and Golovin Bay when the incident occurred. An aircraft was able to locate the four-wheeler sitting under ice near the river’s mouth, and Golovin Search and Rescue (SAR) located objects they believe to be Simon’s.

Irene Navarro is the President of the Chinik Eskimo Community in Golovin and reported that the effort now includes divers, an airboat and helicopter. She says at least 3 members of Bethel SAR have joined the effort, and Joe Akeya of Savoonga has been diving when conditions allow. The search also utilizes underwater cameras.

According to Navarro, the biggest challenge has been wind. She says that wind has prevented helicopters from flying but also has pushed water through open areas of the river and out onto the ice. Such conditions make diving or searching on the ice too dangerous. SAR volunteers from White Mountain have been scanning the area by snowmachine.

Navarro describes the effort as a true community event. Searchers have received hot breakfasts, lunches, and dinners from volunteers at the Chinik Eskimo Community building.

She used words like “blessed” and “thankful” to describe the donations given to the searchers from communities all over the region and said, “we have no intention of giving up until we bring him home to his family.” Simon is the sitting Vice-President of the Tribal Council of White Mountain.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he doesn’t think Congress needs to pass a bill to protect the Mueller investigation.

“The president has said, and you know, other members – the majority leader – have said ‘he doesn’t intend to replace Mr. Mueller,'” Sullivan said Tuesday on Talk of Alaska, Alaska Public Media’s call-in show. “I take him at his word on that.”

President Trump has repeatedly railed against Robert Mueller and his team. They are examining Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether anyone from the Trump campaign aided the Russians. Sullivan, though, doesn’t think Mueller needs Congress to intercede to keep his position.

“I’m not sure it’s needed right now,” Sullivan said, echoing what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters last week.

The bill says Mueller can’t be fired except for good cause, and then he could appeal to a judge.

Sullivan said Mueller should be allowed to finish his investigation. But he also said the work needs to begin “wrapping up.” Mueller was appointed a year and a half ago.

Several Senate Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski, have said they’ll join Democrats to pass the Mueller protection bill, if McConnell changes his mind and allows it to come to the floor. Murkowski said she’s not sure the president would fire Mueller but she sees no harm in passing the bill.

Sullivan does see potential harm in it.

“Well, you know, there’s some elements and some people that have raised the constitutionality of that issue,” Sullivan said.

The president has constitutional authority to fire his cabinet members, and Sullivan said his right to fire Mueller may also be protected by the Constitution.

When Congressman Don Young became the most senior member, or “dean,” of the House, the role had no power. But it does now.

An internal rule House Republicans adopted last week says the dean of the House shall sit on the Republican Steering Committee. That’s the panel that decides who will lead all the other committees.

The rule was adopted by voice vote after it was proposed by Young himself.

Young told a reporter for the publication The Hill that his “self-serving” amendment was made for fun, but that he does have knowledge he thinks would benefit the steering committee.

Young became the dean of the House in January. He’s been in office since 1973 and, earlier this month, won his 24th general election.

The Alaska Peninsula Corporation announced Monday that it has signed a land agreement with the Pebble Limited Partnership, paving the way for a transportation corridor through APC lands.

If the proposed mine makes it through the permitting process, APC has agreed to allow Pebble to build a transportation corridor on APC land.

The corporation is celebrating the agreement, saying it would provide employment opportunities around the region and incentivize people to stay. APC said the deal would especially benefit the villages of Kokhanok and Newhalen.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity for everybody in the region,” said Brad Angasan, the vice president of corporate affairs for APC. “There’s a couple of benefits that are associated with the infrastructure development there. One is obviously the greater access to transportation and lower cost of energy through the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to the port site at Amakdedori and through Alaska Peninsula Corporation lands to the project site. One of the deals we’ve worked out with Pebble is that APC villages at Kokhanok and Newhalen have access to that natural resource when it pipes into the region.”

Under the agreement, Pebble would have access to about 1,400 acres of APC land to develop transportation infrastructure, including roads, pipelines and ferry landing sites.

APC would receive annual toll payments and other fees from PLP before and during the mine’s construction and operation. It would also have preferred status in bids on Pebble-related contracts on the corporation’s lands.

Pebble has several options for transportation routes. While this agreement gives PLP the option to use APC lands, it could still choose an alternative, such as a northern route between Williamsport and Pile Bay.

APC is the merged Alaska Native village corporation of South Naknek, Port Heiden, Ugashik, Kokhanok and Newhalen. It has more than 900 shareholders and is one of the largest private landowners throughout the Bristol Bay region.

This is just one of a slew of permissions Pebble Limited Partnership needs to acquire in order to build a mine in the Iliamna Lake region. On the local level, the Lake and Peninsula Borough would need to issue a large project development permit to PLP. Lake and Peninsula representatives are currently travelling to communities seeking input on the proposed mine.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently preparing a draft Environmental Impact Statement it expects to publish this January. It will then be opened to public comment. The Army Corps estimates that the final EIS will be published late next year.

At-will state workers are learning more about what the resignation request from Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy’s transition means for them. It’s also raised concerns from leaders of Gov. Bill Walker’s administration.

Walker said he only asked 250 people to resign four years ago, and they were only in senior, political roles. That’s compared to approximately 800 resignations the Dunleavy transition team has asked for.

“As an Independent, I chose to retain many of those appointees as well as other state workers who served under Governor Sean Parnell but viewed their jobs as service to Alaskans rather than partisan political activity,” Walker said in a statement.

Walker said his team strongly advised Dunleavy against the blanket resignations, which he said are “…creating anxiety and uncertainty for committed, nonpolitical public servants such as prosecutors who work tirelessly to keep our state running.”

Tuckerman Babcock, the transition chairman, said the resignation requests allow at-will workers to let the transition know they want to be part of the Dunleavy administration.

A large share of the workers who received the email asking for their resignation are prosecutors and other lawyers with the Department of Law and Office of Public Advocacy. They also include some oil and gas experts.

Leslie Ridle, the commissioner of the Department of Administration, said many workers who had to submit resignations work in positions that are difficult to fill, often at lower pay than they’d receive in the private sector.

“We compete for employees, just like Conoco, BP, law firms – everybody – doctors,” she said. “And pretty soon, we’re going to be unable to hire those positions, because people won’t want to work for us. We’ll be an undesirable employer.”

In a statement, the transition team said it disagrees with Ridle and believes that the state will continue to be seen as an excellent place to work.

Ridle said the transition’s blanket resignation request goes against what she’s communicated to state workers.

“This is what I say to employees when I hire them: ‘Your position would be partially exempt. You technically could be asked to leave at a change in an administration, but most likely you won’t. They rarely go below the director or deputy director positions, to lay them off,’ ” Ridle said.

When asked if she was concerned about the transition team looking to workers’ political leanings as a reason to ask them to resign, Ridle said yes. She said workers shouldn’t have to worry about what they say outside of work.

“State employees are American citizens too and have a right to the First Amendment of free speech,” Ridle said. “When they’re outside of their job, they have a right to legal free speech, just like everybody else does.”

But transition spokeswoman Sarah Erkmann Ward said workers’ political philosophy will “absolutely not” be used by the transition in deciding whether to accept workers’ resignations.

The extent of the resignation requests is becoming clearer. On Friday and Monday, 804 workers received emails. The departments with the most requests are Law, with 263, and Administration, with 107, followed by the governor’s office, with 101.

There are a total of roughly 1,200 state workers who are exempt or partially exempt from the state’s personnel law — but some are protected from the resignation request by state law. Department of Law spokeswoman Cori Mills said the department isn’t aware of a list of which employees are protected.

The Department of Administration has prepared a list of answers to frequently asked questions from those asked to resign. If workers who were asked to resign want to keep their jobs, they have to say so in a response to the email asking for their resignation. If they want to change jobs, they can apply through the Dunleavy transition website.

“When the people elect a new governor, all at-will employees should submit a letter of resignation,” said Babcock.  “It is a reminder to us all that as at-will employees, we serve the public, and the public elects the chief executive, the governor.”

More email notices were expected Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the governor’s office.

The Fairbanks City Council approved an ordinance Monday that provides a legal basis for city police and public works employees to remove homeless camps in unauthorized areas on public land.

Police Chief Eric Jewkes told the council the ordinance is needed to allow officers to evict homeless people from illegal camps and remove and clean up the sites.

“For years and years, we’ve done this,” he said, “but there’s been so legal backing for it.”

Jewkes says the measure will authorize police and other city personnel to respond to complaints about homeless camps that are causing problems.

“We have homicides,” he said. “We have sexual assaults. We have serious assaults. We have other criminal problems, especially when they (the camps) get too large.”

Fairbanks Housing and Homeless Coordinator Mike Sanders says the ordinance also will help protect the more vulnerable residents of the camps.

“I think it’s incredibly important that the police department has the ability to help these people out of that spot,” he said.

Sanders estimates about 50 people camp through the winter around Fairbanks. He says many don’t want to stay in shelters and just want to be left alone. Some have problems with addiction and behavioral health issues. And others end up in the camps just because they’re down on their luck.

“Most people experiencing homelessness in Fairbanks is (due to) under-employment or unemployment,” Sanders said. He says for 51 percent of the Fairbanks area’s homeless, “that was their only barrier – underemployment and unemployment.”

The ordinance was introduced by Mayor Jim Matherly and is modeled after a measure recently approved by Anchorage. It authorizes police to give residents of the camps 10 days’ notice before they and their belongings are removed. In cases where the camps present a more immediate danger, 72-hour notices may be given. The measure requires camp residents to be given up to 30 minutes to pack up.

Jewkes says he appreciates a provision in the measure that authorizes the city to store their belongings until they’re reclaimed within 30 days.

“We know they’re people,” the chief said. “We know that even though it may be stuff and it may look like junk, it’s all they have. And it’s important to them and we don’t take that for granted.”

City Public Works Director Jeff Jacobson says his staff takes that humane approach when they’re called out to clean up the camps.

“It’s a very sensitive matter when you’re dealing with people who are at that position in their life, removing what little they have from their campsite,” Jacobson said.

Before council members passed the ordinance, they approved an amendment proposed by newly elected Councilwoman Shoshana Kun that deleted language that stated the illegal camps “tend to foster drug and alcohol use.” Her amendment changed the language so it simply says the camps “tend to foster illegal activities,” to de-stigmatize the use of intoxicants that some homeless people don’t indulge in.

“I just want to get the stigma away from drug and alcohol use,” Kun said.

The four council members present approved the ordinance. Jerry Cleworth and Valerie Therrien were absent.

Also Monday, the council approved applying for a nearly $34,000 grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation to help the city Fire Department pay for live-saving equipment. The grant requires no city match.

Electricity is expensive in Alaska. And that can make things difficult for families and businesses.

One solution to that problem could be nuclear power. But the idea has been explored in Alaska before, in the Interior village of Galena, and went nowhere.

At an Anchorage conference this month, the Resource Development Council, an industry group, took another look.

“From a project development standpoint, it may sound crazy,” said Eric Fjelstad, an Anchorage lawyer who chairs the RDC’s board, as he introduced a pair of nuclear industry leaders the conference. But, he added: “I’ve been in discussions that were serious about: ‘Why don’t we have nuclear?’”

There are a lot of things that make nuclear power attractive in Alaska.

Chief among them is the state’s high price of energy. In rural Alaska, electricity can cost six times the national average.

It’s a big problem not just for the people who live here, but for developers trying to extract Alaska’s natural resources. Fjelstad works with oil and gas and mining companies, so he knows this firsthand.

“Frankly, a lot of these projects that are in Alaska are power-challenged. That’s one of the biggest cost items,” Fjelstad said in an interview. “Mines require a lot of energy. So do oil and gas projects and other things.”

Nuclear power, he added, “might be one of the tools in the toolbox.”

It’s not just big, remote industrial projects that could benefit from nuclear power. John Hopkins, who runs a nuclear power company and was one of the speakers at the conference, said he thinks his reactors could be competitive in Alaska road system communities too.

Hopkins’ company is called Nuscale. It’s based in Oregon and has 350 full-time workers; it’s trying to develop what are called small nuclear reactors, or SMRs.

Each one can produce 60 megawatts of electricity, or about half as much as Anchorage’s new power plant off the Glenn Highway. Nuscale wants to fit as many as a dozen at a time into a power plant, which Hopkins referred to as a “12-pack.” The company says the reactors can safely turn off and stay cool without human intervention.

“What we’re looking at is, does it make sense in a place like Fairbanks? We have a lot of defense priorities who need, essentially, 24-7 power,” Hopkins said in an interview. “And not only do you want to be able to provide the energy for the defense facilities, like let’s say Fort Greeley, but also the supporting community.”

Alaska has taken a pretty hard look at nuclear power before. More than a decade ago, Toshiba, the Japanese corporation, offered to give a small nuclear reactor to the Yukon River village of Galena. It would have run unattended and had almost no moving parts.

That project never happened. But energy experts say that small reactors like Toshiba’s and Nuscale’s could still be viable in Alaska. Gwen Holdmann, the director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at University of Alaska Fairbanks, helped write a report on them in 2011.

“At a conceptual level, the economics do work better here in Alaska that they might in most markets,” she said. “And it is because we are shipping in a lot of fuel, especially in our more remote locations.”

There are still all kinds of obstacles that would have to be negotiated to get nuclear power to Alaska.

Permitting. Earthquakes. What to do with the used fuel.

And before you even start worrying about those problems, there’s one thing that Holdmann says hasn’t changed from when she finished working on the report nearly a decade ago: You still can’t go out and buy a small modular reactor.

“They really are not prime time. They’re not ready. They’re not available. They’re not off-the-shelf,” she said.

Hopkins, who runs the nuclear power company, said his first project won’t be online until 2026.

In the meantime, Holdmann said her organization is looking at hosting a workshop on small nuclear reactor technologies within the next six months, in partnership with a federal nuclear lab in Idaho.

When golden eagles migrate to and from Alaska each year, they have to fly around a huge obstacle: the 16,000-foot peaks of the Wrangell Mountains.

Some of the eagles choose a route that skirts the northern edge of the mountains. Others go south. A new study examined how the weather affects which way the eagles fly.

First, the scientists caught golden eagles at Gunsight Mountain, off the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Glenallen, using roadkill moose and caribou as bait. Then, they fitted the eagles with miniature, solar-powered GPS backpacks that weigh about as much as a Snickers bar.

Every few hours the backpacks pinged the eagles’ locations up to a satellite, and Eisaguirre and his collaborators could chart them on a map.“You put out some carrion bait to try to lure in the eagles,” said Joe Eisaguirre, a PhD student at University of Alaska Fairbanks and the lead author of the study, which appeared in a journal called Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “And yeah, catch them that way.”

Every spring, the eagles migrate to Alaska, and in the fall they leave. Eisaguirre was looking for the answer to a pretty basic question: How does the weather affect the eagles’ route choice around the Wrangell Mountains?

His paper combined the eagle data with information from a weather model to show that in the fall, a northern route around the mountains becomes more popular with stronger winds from south.

“That south wind comes off the Gulf of Alaska, potentially bringing some pretty bad weather with it — some precipitation and low clouds that might make that route less desirable,” Eisaguirre said, referring to the southern route.

In the spring, when the weather is better, stronger south winds actually made the southern route more popular, the study found. Eisaguirre said he thinks that’s because the wind flowing into the mountains can create good updrafts that the eagles can use to fly.

The study’s results showed how changes in weather tied to climate change have the potential to change animals’ migration patterns, Eisaguirre said, though it will take more work to figure out exactly how that could happen with Alaska’s golden eagles.

Time is running short for a company that wants to do seismic exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this winter.

SAExploration has applied to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for permission to bring track-mounted vibrating trucks to the coastal plain, or 1002 Area, of the refuge to conduct a 3D seismic survey. The plan is to collect data for potential bidders before the government holds an oil lease sale next summer.

But the work can only be done in winter, and the company’s permit application is still pending.

“At this point, it is getting very tight, if their activities are going to begin in January,” said Assistant Interior Secretary Joe Balash.

SAExploration is in talks with the Fish and Wildlife Service about how to comply with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Balash said.

“We’re basically waiting to see how those conversations go and whether there’s a plan that can proceed here this winter ahead of the sale,” he said.

SAExploration wants to bring at least a dozen track-mounted vibration trucks to the Coastal Plain, as well as two camps to support 160 workers each.  The trucks would drive in parallel lines across the entire plain, some 2,600 square miles, stopping regularly to lower their vibration plates.

Balash said the company doesn’t necessarily have to start in January, but the season is limited. The tundra must be frozen with adequate snow cover, and crews have to avoid polar bear dens.

Medicaid has an old rule that says it won’t pay for substance abuse treatment if a facility has more than 16 beds. Now, as it faces an opioid epidemic, Alaska can ignore that restriction.

Gov. Bill Walker said the good news came Wednesday in a call from the White House: The federal agency in charge of Medicaid has granted the State of Alaska’s request for a waiver.

The state said the waiver makes an additional 66 treatment beds available for Medicaid patients struggling with drug addiction. The 16-bed limit came in the original Medicaid law in 1965. It was designed to ensure that states remained responsible for funding psychiatric hospitals.

Alaska’s new waiver also expands options for community-based treatment and for medication-assisted treatment.

Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy named the head of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska to lead the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

John MacKinnon was the department’s deputy commissioner of highways and public facilities from 2003 to 2008. He also served on the Juneau Assembly and the Juneau Planning Commission. In addition, he was a construction contractor for 25 years.

MacKinnon said his priorities as transportation commissioner will include safety and economic growth. He also said he’ll consider the sustainability of what the department is building and maintaining.

MacKinnon addressed some specific projects in his first press conference. He said the state should choose the most sustainable plan for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

MacKinnon said he would look to see what it would take to restart the Knik Arm bridge, the Juneau Access road, and the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project, depending on the direction Dunleavy gives him.

MacKinnon said he has always supported these projects, which he described as legacy projects. But Dunleavy added that the Knik Arm bridge would have to fit into the state’s fiscal reality.

MacKinnon said he and his wife, outgoing state Sen. Anna MacKinnon, have been focused on retirement. But in explaining why he took the job, he noted they both have worked in public service.

MacKinnon said he would look at what it would take to restart the Juneau Access road before he was asked about a potential conflict of interest he has with the project. MacKinnon owns 11 percent of Hyak Mining Co., which leases land to Kensington gold mine. MacKinnon said he would recuse himself from decisions affecting the Juneau Access road, which would benefit the mine.

Dunleavy made the announcement at the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce office. He said the nearby Knik-Goose Bay Road is dangerous. He cited work on the road as an example of potential improvements to public safety and job creation.

When hunters in Utqiaġvik haul whales to shore in the fall, many members of the community flock to the beach to help butcher it.

Among them are North Slope Borough scientists, who for almost 40 years now have been collecting samples of those whales as part of a singular whale study program that has been built in concert with whalers.

On the snowy beach north of town during the last week of October, portable floodlights illuminate the work of over a dozen whalers as they cut the blubber and meat from a recently-landed whale. There’s heavy machinery out there helping, since this whale is particularly large, but it’s still hard work and they’ve been doing it for hours. When a whale is brought ashore, it’s something of a race to harvest it before the meat spoils.

That time crunch also applies to Craig George, a biologist with the North Slope Borough’s Department of Wildlife Management who’s lived in Utqiaġvik since the 1970s and has been with the bowhead program since its early days. He’s been awake until the early hours of the morning several days this week to take samples of whales.

George and his colleagues, with the permission of whaling captains, collect muscle, eyes, kidney, spleen — their collection checklist is a page long. Before butchering starts they also examine the whale for any outward harm like signs of net entanglement, orca attacks or ship strikes.

Their work then continues about a mile away in a small lab that’s part of the old Navy research complex on the outskirts of town.

George and his colleague, Raphaela Stimmelmayr, a wildlife veterinarian and research biologist for the department, work around each other in the narrow field lab to weigh, measure, and catalog the whale parts.

The purpose of this program is to look at the health and numbers of the bowhead whale population, in part for setting an appropriate hunting quota.

It was started back in the ‘80s because the International Whaling Commission had concerns that the bowhead whale population was too depleted to support a hunt the size of which Alaska whaling communities had traditionally practiced.

But through years of study, including a whale census that’s done periodically in the spring, North Slope Borough scientists were able to show that the population was doing well, which backed up what whalers had been saying.

The research also provides an important check that there’s nothing in the whales that could be harmful to the people who eat them, like parasites or contaminants.

Stimmelmayr said that new questions are coming up about how bowhead health — and consequently, human health — may be affected by rapidly warming oceans.

“Emerging diseases can occur. You know, we’re dealing with harmful algae (sic) blooms,” said Stimmelmayr. “So there are things now that are kind of coming towards the Arctic that maybe weren’t an issue 20 years ago.”

Borough scientists don’t have any evidence that the whales are being affected by harmful algal blooms at this point. In fact, they see evidence that the bowheads are actually benefiting from warmer waters because their food source is growing.

But no one knows what the future holds. So they’re watching closely.

While all this science has been done for a practical end, it’s also contributed a huge amount to what the scientific community understands about bowheads, and whales in general. Hundreds of peer-reviewed papers have come out of the borough’s Department of Wildlife Management over the years.

George said they cover all aspects of cetacean biology, from population work to genetics.

The involvement of whalers has been critical to that. It’s only with the permission of whaling captains that these scientists get access to fresh samples, which they can’t get any other way since it’s against federal law to intentionally kill whales except for traditional subsistence use.

But equally important is the expert knowledge of whale behavior and attributes that hunters have shared over the years.

“Migratory behavior, ice-breaking behavior, when they calve, where they calve, their feeding habits,” said George. “Just endless. And slowly… we were pretty clueless, but we listened.”

The way North Slope Borough scientists put it, the science has spent the past few decades catching up to traditional knowledge — documenting scientifically what hunters already knew. Like the fact that the whales can smell, and that they can travel under the sea ice.

George said that as scientists continue to learn about the bowhead, getting information from hunters who closely observe the species is invaluable.

“When you have 500 or more whale hunters from St. Lawrence Island to Kaktovik sharing observations, we learn a lot about things that we could never possibly capture in a study,” said George.

The samples that were collected this year will be sent out to institutions around the world and will form the basis of dozens of new studies, adding to the data that scientists on the North Slope — and worldwide — now have about the bowhead whale.

Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management asked for public input on allowing more oil development in Arctic waters — the Trump administration is aiming to hold an oil lease sale in the Beaufort Sea next year.

Letters came from all the usual places: oil lobbying groups called for more access to drilling. Environmental groups raised concerns about climate change and how oil development could harm wildlife.

But one letter arrived from an institution you might not think of as having a stake in Arctic oil development: NASA.

That’s right, the space agency.

NASA funds Poker Flat Research Range, near Fairbanks. Operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, it’s the only high-latitude rocket range in the United States.

“What we’re known for is doing research on the aurora,” said Kathe Rich, director of Poker Flat.

To do this, scientists launch rockets that pass through the aurora. Rich said that research is important because the aurora is like a visual manifestation of the sun’s energy entering the earth’s upper atmosphere, and that energy can affect things like cell phone communications or the electrical grid.

But Rich said sometimes the rockets they launch to study the aurora can end up flying quite a ways.

“If we’re looking for something that’s fairly far north, it’s going to come down in the Beaufort Sea or the Arctic Ocean, one or the other,” Rich said.

In April, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center sent a letter to BOEM estimating that 70 rocket parts have landed in the Beaufort Sea since the 1960s.

The agency’s concern, it wrote, “is that future oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea could result in the need to protect additional persons and property when conducting launch operations.”

And because scientists are using higher performing rockets nowadays, NASA thinks an increasing number could need to land in the Beaufort Sea — just as the Trump administration is gearing up to allow more oil development there.

To be sure, Rich said it’s extremely unlikely that rocket parts will come crashing down on oil rigs. That’s because scientists wouldn’t launch them in the first place if they think anyone or anything of value could be in danger.

Rich said what’s more likely to happen is that more oil activity in the Beaufort Sea could limit research opportunities.

“The downrange area that we have, it can be kind of like threading a needle with all the various things that we need to avoid,” Rich said. “So every time that you have to add something else in that can be avoided, that can result in fewer launch opportunities for us.”

But Rich said she’s optimistic that NASA and the BOEM will be able to work something out.

In an emailed statement, BOEM spokesman John Callahan said the agency will work with NASA to explore the best options as they move forward with potential oil and gas leasing.

“We’re happy they’ve reached out to us to talk about safe operations in the Beaufort,” Callahan said. “It’s a great example of good lines of communication between federal agencies here.”

Callahan added BOEM recognizes the value of NASA’s research, saying “it’s not all rocket science, but it is incredibly important work.”