Alaska Native writers whose work is widely published and read by many are not very common nowadays. However, one published writer from the Norton Sound region is set to receive an award from the State of Alaska which she hopes will inspire more Alaska Natives to share their words with others.

Although she has had less time to write lately with the birth of her son almost seven months ago, Laureli Ivanoff of Unalakleet continues to reach wide-ranging audiences with her writing.

Ivanoff’s most recent piece from October, “The Bearded Seal My Son May Never Hunt,” was published in The New York Times. Now, the nationally-published writer is being recognized by the State through a Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award.

For Ivanoff, this honor was surprising, humbling, and even a little awkward.

“In our communities and where we live, we are taught by example to be humble and not to bring attention to ourselves,” Ivanoff said. “So, to receive this award — and it’s a Governor’s award — it’s a little uncomfortable for me.”

Ivanoff says balancing those feelings and emotions has even prompted a writing topic for her next piece.

This is not the first time, though, that Ivanoff’s writing has put her in the spotlight; she says she’s even been nominated for a Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award in the past. But this time around, the Unalakleet resident sees a nice change of pace with writings from an Alaska Native being recognized in this way.

“Honestly, it’s just really refreshing, and I think it speaks to the current trend where our country and our state are moving in a way where indigenous voices are being listened to and people of color are… you know, we have a voice and we have a presence, and we are not backing down,” Ivanoff said.

Laureli Ivanoff is one of nine award recipients selected from a large group of public nominees by the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation, and the Office of the Governor.

The award committee’s statement mentions that Ivanoff’s stories are written from and about her home in Unalakleet, which provides a sense of place and connection. Her work “strengthens communities by illustrating a side of rural Alaska too rarely seen in mainstream media.”

Ivanoff’s piece “Why Can’t Media Portray the Rural Alaska I Know,” is one of many articles she has published in the Anchorage Daily News (formerly the Alaska Dispatch) that speaks further to this point.

Ivanoff says she hopes her award will inspire other Alaska Natives and indigenous people to be writers, too.

“I feel like, often times, I’m the only Alaska Native writer at this point. There’s not a lot being published by Alaska Natives, so I just hope that more voices come to the forefront, more people study journalism, and more get into the media — because the way our communities are portrayed is very important,” Ivanoff said.

And as Ivanoff puts it, who better to share stories about Alaska Native communities than those who grew up and lived there. Her advice to those aspiring young writers from rural Alaska is this:

“If you’re a young person in high school or college and you really enjoy writing, that’s your own spirit telling you what your gift is to this world,” Ivanoff said. “Recognize it, cultivate it, and you’ll do great things.”

It will be a family affair when Ivanoff formally accepts her award next month in Juneau as she plans to bring along her husband, her baby boy, and her daughter, who will be a high school graduate by the time of the awards ceremony.

The Governor’s Awards Ceremony is scheduled for February 7 at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center.

A rare wooden rattle attributed to a famous Tlingit artist sold at an art auction in California last month. The 230-year-old piece came from a private collector and sold for half a million dollars.

When Sealaska Heritage Institute Native Arts Curator Steve Brown first laid eyes on the shaman’s rattle, he was amazed by the piece’s excellent condition.

“Nobody had ever seen this before,” Brown said. “It had just kind of come out of the woodwork.”

The rattle came from a private collector who was trying to sell it. Representatives from Bonhams, an international art auction house, contacted Brown to identify the rattle’s origins. Brown determined it was the work of a woodcarver named Kadjisdu.axch, who lived in a village near modern-day Wrangell 200 years ago.

The artist has been described as the greatest carver of wood in the history of the Tlingit people.

Haines Master Carver Wayne Price teaches Northwest Coast design and carving at the University of Alaska Southeast. He said that Kadjisdu.axch has had a profound influence on carving in Southeast Alaska.

“He didn’t let anything interfere with what he was trying to say with his woodwork. He pushed the most absolute expression of the wood in that particular spot to express his idea,” Price said.

Price and Brown immersed themselves in the work of Kadjisdu.axch while making replicas of a set of house posts that he carved for Chief Shakes in Wrangell.

These house posts, as well as the Whale House posts in Klukwan, are among the carver’s most well-known creations.

According to Brown, there are roughly 20 known pieces that have been attributed to Kadjisdu.axch, but it can be difficult to identify his work with certainty.

“No traditional native artists on the northwest coast signed their work. That was important. It wasn’t about the artist. It was about the clan leaders and the people for whom the art was made,” Brown said.

The rattle sold at the auction last month depicts an oystercatcher with several other creatures incorporated into the design.

There are several characteristics of the rattle that can be linked to the house posts that Kadjisdu.axch carved. Brown points to similarities in the two-dimensional design work.

The rattle’s asymmetry showcases the artist’s unique style as well.

“On one side of it, there’s this salmon. The head of it is in the mouth of the bear. Coming around the side of the rattle, as if it wasn’t even meant to be there like it just crashed the party, is this little wolf figure that looks like he just walked around the side of the rattle and grabbed the tail of the fish,” Brown said.

Kadjisdu.axch’s carvings have been the subject of controversy in the past. In 1984, the house posts he carved in Klukwan were removed from the Whale House in an attempt to sell them to an art dealer in Seattle. The house posts were returned to the village following a tribal court case and are currently on display in the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage center.

When asked how he feels about the rattle’s sale by a private collector in the Lower 48, Brown said he understands the tendency to lament native artwork that has been taken away from Southeast Alaska.

“But on the other hand when things have been preserved in museums and even private collections, they’re available to educate people about the historical art traditions so that people, in general, can gain a respect and understanding of what these obscure tribal traditions were and have a greater respect for the people involved,” Brown said.

Price said he has his own opinions about the sale of native art, but he’s more concerned about teaching the next great carver.

“I can’t change what’s already been done. But I can train students and show them this kind of work,” Price said. “I hope that it’s brought out in a place that people will be able to visit it and see it. If you know about wood then you have a lot to learn by being in the presence of such a great piece.”

Representatives from the Bonhams auction house were unavailable to comment for this story. No information has been released about the seller or the buyer. At this point, it’s unclear what will happen to the rattle.

After just nine months, a small airline in Southeast Alaska is ending scheduled service between Petersburg and Juneau. Island Air Express is discontinuing scheduled stops in the two communities on Jan. 15.

Scott Van Valin, co-owner and director of operations for the regional airline, said there was not enough passenger demand on those flights.

“When you peel everything back, our attempt to do this operation and that route, I can’t see how we can look back and say, ‘If we had only done this it would’ve worked,’” Van Valin explained. “You know we put the best equipment, best pilots, everything that was required to make this a quality service in place, and it’s just the one component that is the most important component is the passengers, and unfortunately there aren’t enough to sustain it.”

The airline offered a scheduled, same-day round-trip between Petersburg and the capital city. There are no changes planned for the Ketchikan-Klawock service, which the company has offered for about a decade. Van Valin explained that Island Air didn’t want the new service to jeopardize that established connection.

“We’ve seen many air carriers in the past in Alaska not follow that procedure, that idea or the concept, and basically take a long-term company that was operating for many successful years and, within a year, a new idea can topple it all down,” he said. “That’s kind of why we are not willing to attempt much more. That was kind of the game plan.”

Island Air will still do charter flights around the region. Van Valin said it was a difficult decision to end flights to Petersburg.

“You know, I’ve lived on Prince of Wales (Island) for 30 years and have been to Petersburg quite a few times and never got super involved. And I can tell you from our time last spring until now, I now can see why Petersburg has always been considered a really neat, tight community, because everybody we came in contact with during the past nine months were just extremely outgoing, friendly and welcomed us into the community,” Van Valin said.

The company has six planes and 24 employees in Ketchikan and Klawock.

In sled dog racing, dog care is key. There’s no physician for the mushers during the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race, but there is a team of volunteer veterinarians flying up to ensure the dogs are safe to run. A vet checks each dog before the race, at the checkpoints, and after the teams cross the finish. This essential program has come together for nearly 30 years largely through of the efforts of one woman.

Jackie Klejka loves dogs. Currently, she owns the least number of dogs that her family has had in decades: only six.

“Pretty low-key dog yard,” Klejka said, unchaining the dogs from their homes. “Just sweet old guys, and a couple mid-life younger guys.”

The dogs are retired. The ones that can still compete were given to local kennels and to Jackie’s oldest child, Jessica, who’s building a kennel of her own. As Jackie pets the dogs, she’s wearing what she always wears: a K300 hat, a dog pendent necklace, and a sweatshirt with dogs racing across it.

“This is my normal thing,” Jessica said, laughing. “It’s who I am more than anything. I love animals and people. I always say that people have to come first because who’s gonna take care of the animals?”

The answer is Jackie. She arrived in Bethel with her family in the fall of 1992 as a veterinary technician. A few months later, she was flying with the race vets to the K300 Tuluksak checkpoint while pregnant with her third child.

“When we went to land, it had been so windy on the way there that everyone in the plane was sick except for me,” Jackie said, proudly. “And I had been eating crackers the whole way, because I did not want to be the only one that wasn’t feeling well when we landed.”

Jackie calls that first race “wonderful” and has been coordinating the K300 veterinary program for the nearly three decades since. During that time, she’s seen dog care improve.

“You can’t mush with dogs that aren’t very well taken care of. It just won’t happen,” Jackie explained. “They just won’t go.”

Teams are better wormed and vaccinated, mushers have refined their run/rest schedules, and the dog food is made for elite athletes. The gear has advanced too: from more durable booties, to lines that don’t tangle as easily, to more efficient sled runners, brighter headlamps, and warmer dog coats. The dogs have also changed. Bred for speed instead of work, the dogs are smaller.

“It’s not the same look as those old guys that were real fluffy and really all seem to be really, really big,” Jackie said.

These big work dogs formed the beginning of the Klejka kennel. Then, a dentist was leaving town and needed a home for his mushing team. When asked how many dogs the dentist gave them, Jackie said: “Four and a half, we’ll say, because one was really old.”

The kennel eventually grew to 22 dogs. Jackie’s husband began competing in local races, and their seven children were raised in the sport.

“Everyone had a job, every single child,” Jackie said. “Usually two teams were going out of our driveway. They had no time to get in trouble as teenagers.”

The six oldest children competed in the Junior Iditarod, and the eldest is training for her first Iditarod this year. She’s also returning to the K300 as a race veterinarian.

The hard work of raising a kennel built Jackie’s family into a team, and her children, she says, into better people, learning to work together and care for something outside themselves.

“Bethel is a doggie town,” Jackie observed.

Their neighborhood had nine kennels.

“I think that really encourages you and helps you with your team when you see other dogs going out,” Jackie explained. “And you know, oh, the weather is good because Dr. Crevens is getting on his dog sled. Or Myron would call and say, ‘We’re heading out today to go 30 miles.’”

Myron Angstman is a Kuskokwim 300 founder and has been one of the Klejkas’ strongest supporters.

“Myron would call and ask if my bucket blew away,” Jackie remembered. “And all I would hear was, ‘Did your bucket blow away?’ And I would say, ‘It sure did.’ And he’d just hang up the phone. And I’d be like, ‘You know what, somebody else had their bucket blow away today. I can do this.’ Because it was a struggle just to keep going in those early days.”

What kept her going was Bethel’s strong mushing community. A community that shared expertise, dog food, gear, moral support, and a winter of local races.

After former Gov. Bill Walker’s disaster declaration in February 2017, the Department of Health and Social Services worked with over 20 organizations to put together the recently released 2018-2022 statewide opioid action plan. The six goals identified by DHSS include:

• Unite to reduce stigma and change social norms surrounding substance misuse and
  addiction
• Communicate, coordinate and cooperate on substance misuse efforts
• Reduce the risks of substance misuse and addiction
• Experience fewer problems associated with drug use
• Timely access to the screening, referral and treatment services they need
• Build communities of recovery across Alaska

To read the full report, click here.

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

Federal furlough drives Alaskans to the unemployment line

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

Hundreds of furloughed federal workers in Alaska are filing unemployment claims. They’ll have to pay back any benefits they receive once they get retroactive pay.

Lt. Gov. Meyer prepares to wield gavel amid House uncertainty

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer will gavel in the legislative session on Tuesday, and there’s an unusual amount of uncertainty surrounding the Alaska House of Representatives. As of Monday afternoon, there was still no majority coalition.

Legislature releases audit of state’s gasline corporation

Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

The legislative committee tasked with auditing the state’s gasline corporation released the results of a two-year inspection today.

Protesters target SAExploration in Texas over Arctic Refuge

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

A group of Native American protestors went to the offices of SAExploration in Houston today to object to work the company wants to do in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Nic Petit wins back-to-back Copper Basin 300s

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit has repeated as winner of the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race.

UAA loses national accreditation for initial teaching licenses

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Two-hundred-fifty students in teaching programs at the University of Alaska Anchorage are wondering if they’ll qualify for teaching licenses when they graduate. That’s because UAA’s education program lost it’s national accreditation late last week.

DEC: Beaver fuel spill not endangering nearby water sources

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

A fuel spill at the Beaver Village School does not appear to threaten a community well or the nearby Yukon River.

GVEA studying proposal to buy power from ‘hybrid’ wind-propane-battery system

Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks

Golden Valley Electric Association is studying a Colorado-based company’s ambitious proposal to sell 55 megawatts of electricity generated by a hybrid-power system based mainly on wind.

Longtime Anchorage homicide detective Slawomir Markiewicz retires after over 30 years on force

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A longtime Anchorage homicide detective – Slawomir Markiewicz – recently retired after three decades on the force. As detective sergeant of the Anchorage Police Department’s Homicide Unit, Markiewicz was a familiar face – and voice – in news stories about Anchorage murders.

What’s in a name? After student push, Juneau-Douglas High School adds Tlingit name: Yadaa.at Kalé

Zoe Grueskin, KTOO – Juneau

The Juneau School Board voted unanimously to accept the gift of a Tlingit name for Juneau-Douglas High School. Yadaa.at Kalé is a name given to Mt. Juneau, meaning “beautifully adorned face.”

A group of Native American protestors went to the offices of SAExploration in Houston today to object to work the company wants to do in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Protestors streamed video of their event in Texas on Facebook. It showed the group crowded into the reception area of the company’s office. They left a stack of boxes they said contained more than 100,000 messages urging SAExploration to give up its ANWR project.

Organizers included the Sierra Club and Alaskan Bernadette Demientieff, director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee.

SAExploration has applied for permission to conduct a seismic survey in the refuge this winter and next, using a fleet of tracked vehicles to thump the ground. The plan is to survey the entire 1002 area, the coastal plain that Congress opened for leasing.

Before the partial government shutdown, the company was in talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resolve concerns about denning polar bears. The CEO told the Anchorage Daily News last month the shutdown was delaying their plans.

The company did not respond to phone and email messages Monday.

Despite the shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management is advancing a plan to hold a lease sale in the refuge this year.

The legislative committee tasked with auditing the state’s gasline corporation released the results of a two-year inspection on Monday.

The Division of Legislative Audit was charged with determining how the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation spent nearly $480 million the Legislature has appropriated to it over the last eight years.

Alaska’s gasline development corporation is a quasi-public state corporation tasked with developing a gasline. Currently, it oversees development of two potential projects: One is an in-state natural pipeline known as ASAP; the other is the $45 billion Alaska LNG project that would pipe natural gas from the North Slope to Cook Inlet for export to Asian markets.

Auditors found that, generally, the corporation’s spending followed the conditions that the Legislature put on it. But there were a few issues.

First, the corporation’s board is supposed to be notified of contracts worth between $1 million and $5 million. But there were nine times over the past two years that didn’t happen.

And over the last four years, the board has seen operating budgets but hasn’t voted on or formally approved two of them.

Auditors recommended fixes to those problems and made one other recommendation: that the board follow state law and establish a preference for Alaska veterans when soliciting contracts for goods and services.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council may not be able to make any official decisions at its February meeting due to the partial federal government shutdown.

Congress’s battle over funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is also causing the council, which regulates federal fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean, to remove some items from the agenda.

Employees at the federal register are no longer working. The council’s Deputy Director Dianna Evans said it needs to publish notices for final action items in the register by Jan. 21.

“There are three actions on our February agenda that are scheduled for final action,” she said. “At this point, unless we can meet those notification requirements, the council will likely be required to take perhaps a preliminary final determination for those different actions and actual final action will need to be rescheduled for another time.”

That means the council may not be able to set catch limits for the summer red king crab fishery in Norton Sound, which starts in May. The council is also due to take final action on agenda items surrounding rockfish retention and tweaks to regulations for leasing halibut and sablefish quota.

The council is also removing discussion papers on increasing fees fishermen pay for observer coverage and changes to economic data reporting requirements in the fishing industry.

“Because we were not able to ensure we would have adequate review or collaboration to get input from National Marine Fisheries Service staff, that’s why we decided to postpone those action items,” Evans explained.

Committee meetings that take place outside of the council’s decision-making process may also be impacted for the same reason. Evans said council staff will update the schedule and agenda online if any additional changes are made.

The council will meet Feb. 4 through the 6 in Portland.

A longtime Anchorage homicide detective, Slawomir Markiewicz, recently retired after three decades on the force. As detective sergeant of the Anchorage Police Department’s homicide unit, Markowitz was a familiar face and voice in news stories about Anchorage murders.

Now-retired Sgt. Markowitz spoke to Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove.

Grove: If you don’t mind, I know it’s an interesting story, can you tell me how you got to the U.S., and how you ended up in Alaska?

Markiewicz: So I’m originally from Poland, and when I was growing up in Poland, actually, my dad was a police officer and that was kind of my dream at the time, that’s what I thought I would do. But then when I went to high school, became a teenager, became more aware of the Communist system in which I was living, and basically in the Communist Bloc, I realized that that I would never want to work for the communist government. There were demonstrations, that was martial law. A lot of people were immigrating. People were leaving Poland escaping the Communist repression by the thousands and then tens of thousands. So myself and my wife we were able to get on a trip to Rome to see the pope, and we went to Italy and we never came back. Once in Italy, we asked for political asylum, we were put in a refugee camp near Rome and then we got immigration visas and we came here in 1985. The way we ended up in Alaska was that we had some friends here who were sponsoring us, so they were our sponsors and they basically picked us up at the airport and took care of us while we were still, you know, learning how to function here. The day when we arrived here was actually one of the happiest days in our life.

Grove: So you said that your dad had been a cop and is that sort of the driving force to getting here and realizing that dream?

Markiewicz: Maybe one word about my dad, that he was just a street cop walking his beat. Certainly, it was the communist government, but he was keeping the peace and protecting citizens. But, yes, when I came here, I had an engineering degree and I had friends that went to work to like for the oil industry. I, kind of, from the beginning started looking into getting into law enforcement and when an opportunity arose I took the tests for APD in 1987, and I passed them and eventually I was hired.

Grove: When did you start deciding you wanted to pursue being a homicide detective?

Markiewicz: As it happens in life, there are, sometimes it’s just a coincidence or opportunity or doing the right thing at the right time. I was in detectives, actually, was approached by the sergeant and asked if I wanted to come to the homicide unit. At that time, I had two small children, and my wife sometimes had to travel on business, so I just didn’t see that as a possibility, because how could I go out in the middle of the night to go investigate a homicide if there are two little kids at home and there’s no no one else to take care of them? So I had to wait, and then the opportunity arouse my when my kids were 12 years old. There was an opening for the sergeant position in the homicide unit. At that time, I was already a sergeant, and I got the position and that was in 2005 and I remained there until my retirement.

Grove: What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have, about the job that you had for such a long time?

Markiewicz: I think the challenge that we saw and other detectives saw, and the misconception, is seen like in the jury room, sometimes maybe the jurors expected too much. Not all of them, but there was a time when everyone believed in DNA magic, if there is DNA, you know, you have the case solved. If there’s no DNA, you know, you can’t prove it. But it’s not as easy as that, you know, 90 percent of the time it’s good detective work. It’s not actually the technology or the crime scene that you see on TV, a lot of times, that solves it. It’s actually hard work, talking to people, interviews, looking for inconsistencies. Sometimes you get like “golden nuggets,” we call them, some nice pieces of evidence that will make the case stronger. But it’s still the detective that puts it all together. I imagine you’re not going to miss getting woken up in the middle of the night to go to a crime scene, but is there anything about it that you are going to miss you think? I have always been proud of working for APD. It’s been an honor and privilege to be a member of APD and I will just miss being around so many talented and smart people, and I will miss serving the wonderful people of Anchorage.

As the partial federal government shutdown enters a fourth week, federal workers throughout the United States are staying home, unpaid — or in the case of “essential” employees, are going to work but still aren’t getting paid.

Depending on how much savings a family has, that means no money for bills, the mortgage or groceries.

“It’s not that we don’t have money. It’s that I need to hoard our money,” Tucker said. “I can’t have money going out because I have no idea when more money is going to be coming in.”

Money needs to be saved for daily essentials, like groceries for a family of five; gas to ferry three kids to various activities; heating oil.

So Tucker recently made the rounds of local bill collectors.

“And I really was prepared for a lot of pushback,” she said. “You don’t go to a bill collector thinking that when you tell them, ‘Hey, I can’t pay you!’ that they’re going to be understanding. But everybody I went to was really understanding and compassionate.”

A Ketchikan Public Utilities representative, for example, was so empathetic, “I walked out and had to, like, gather myself because I was so emotional over the fact that she was so kind to me.”

Tucker said she had a similar experience at GCI. They didn’t even ask for documentation.

“It wasn’t official. It was very human. It wasn’t a process that I felt like a number. I really felt like a human being,” she said. “And even Wells Fargo — which they don’t have the best reputation in dealing with people — but when I called them, it wasn’t like, ‘OK, we’ll suspend things until this is over, let us know,’ like everybody else, but they were like, ‘We have programs, we have ways to work with you.’ And again, they treated me like a person and not a number.”

Tucker said the community has shown support in other ways. She normally works seasonally during the summer cruise months and then focuses on her family’s needs during the winter.

But with the overriding need for cash, Tucker is taking on odd jobs that people are happy to offer.

“In fact, I’m starting to get more work than I can actually do, which is wonderful,” she said. “You tell one person you need something and all of a sudden, this community of Ketchikan just pours in.”

She said many businesses — small and large — are stepping up to help, and friends have definitely shown the love.

“It’s actually a little awkward for me. I’m not normally a receiver,” she said. “My family, my husband and I, we work hard. We don’t want handouts. But there’s all this love coming in. You can’t not accept it, but it is an awkward situation.”

Because it’s so much easier to give than receive.

“I’m happy to help anybody, but asking for help is really hard for me,” she said. “So, yeah, it was a day that was so difficult but so uplifting.”

Out of concern for her husband’s job, she didn’t want to talk about the politics surrounding the shutdown. But Tucker was willing to address the frustration.

“This is a really stressful thing. It’s always there in the back of your mind,” she said. “We’ve done everything right. We pay our bills. We do those things. It would be really great if the government could figure out how to do that, too.”

And that’s essentially what’s happening, Tucker said: The government isn’t paying its bills.

“You don’t get to not pay your bills just because you’re in an argument with your spouse,” she said.

A man in Arctic Village reports that in early January he encountered and shot a polar bear. That may be an unprecedented event in Arctic Village, which is over a hundred miles south of the Beaufort Sea coastline, far outside polar bears’ normal range.

Jim Hollandsworth has lived in Arctic Village for about 30 years. He said he has never seen a polar bear before now. Neither have any of the elders he’s spoken to.

“One of the elders had heard about polar bears before, maybe, but no one’s ever actually seen one,” Hollandsworth said.

He reported that he went to check a trapline about a week and a half ago and immediately saw evidence of the bear when he arrived at his camp, which is about 20 miles from town by trail.

“Tore up one of the snowmachines, flipped it completely over,” said Hollandsworth, describing the damage. “Destroyed everything all around it, um, kinda marking its spot.”

Hollandsworth didn’t see the bear itself until the next morning, when he stepped outside to put gas in the generator.

“My dog barked, and the bear was on my back, right behind me. And I jumped back inside, grabbed my rifle,” said Hollandsworth. “By time I got turned around, it was heading for the door, the open door. Wanted to come in. So they got shot point-blank right there at the doorstep,” he said.

Hollandsworth said it was still pretty dark out, and it was only after he’d shot the bear that he realized what it was. He said that the bear appeared to be a young female, probably about two years old.

When he reported the incident to the Alaska State Troopers, they put him in touch with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for managing polar bears.

Polar bears are federally protected, but there’s an exception when a bear is killed in self-defense.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife did not respond to requests for comment, presumably due to the government shutdown.

“It’s not common for polar bears to be way outside of the typical range, but it’s not unheard of,” said Eric Regehr, a polar bear researcher with the University of Washington who’s worked in Alaska.

He said that bears in Alaska usually stay within a few miles of the coast, with the exception of pregnant females who may go farther inland to build their dens. But even those bears generally don’t venture as far south as the Brooks Range.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game provided two examples of polar bears appearing unusually far south in the past two decades: one in Fort Yukon in 2008, and the other on the haul road almost to Toolik Lake back in 2002.

Regehr said that in individual cases like this, it’s very difficult to attribute cause to why a bear wandered so far from its typical area.

“It seems to particularly happen with young bears,” he said. “And it’s not clear if they’re dispersing, looking for new habitat. It’s not clear if they got, you know, mixed up, if they’re just inexperienced and they went the wrong way.”

He said that generally, declining sea ice due to climate change may lead some bears to appear in unusual places, but at this time of year — when sea ice is present — it doesn’t seem to him to be a likely explanation.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says it’s slow-going, but she sees progress at the U.S. Capitol among lawmakers working to end the partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week.

Does she see a path to reopening government? The question prompted her to sing a Beatles line: “A long and winding road. Buh-boom.”

Murkowski has been meeting with other senators, Republicans and Democrats, who also want to end the stalemate. She said their numbers are growing, and she’s somewhat hopeful.

“The important thing for folks is to know that we’re not just sitting back here and hoping that one day (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi or President Trump are going to wake up and say ‘I’ve changed my mind.’ That’s not how we’re going to to get out of this,” Murkowski said. “I think it’s going to take a coalition of the willing, and I’m part of that willing.”

Her latest plan may sound familiar: She wants Congress to pass a short-term continuing resolution that would re-open government now, and then consider all the elements in President Trump’s border security package, including the wall. President Trump just rejected a similar idea.

“Well, it’s been re-floated,” Murkowski said. “And it’s been suggested that, look, if there is a there is a significant group of folks that would get behind this, is this something that we can talk about? And so we’re taking very baby steps here.”

Murkowski says she knows that workers who are no longer getting paid want to see more than baby steps, but she says it takes some work to resolve what’s become a serious impasse.

Sen. Dan Sullivan said on the Senate floor the solution has to include Trump’s border security program.

“Every nation has the right, has the responsibility to protect its citizens, protect its sovereignty, and in my view this is something that should not be controversial,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan sees a different path forward.  He says all sides are near an agreement to secure pay for the Coast Guard, and he says that can serve as a template for ending the broader shutdown.

Meanwhile, in an unusual display of impatience, a group of Democrats, all brand-new House members, marched over to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office to urge him to break the impasse. But, McConnell wasn’t in.

“We left a note for them to set up a meeting,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told a throng of reporters following them. “So we’ll be back!”

After a few more statements to the Capitol press corps, they turned to head back to the House.

They went the wrong way.

“Hey, we’re freshmen,” one said.

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

Alaska House tied in knots on session’s first day

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

The uncertainty over control of the Alaska House continued today, on the first day of the legislative session.

In this shutdown, every day is a winding road

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

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says it’s slow-going, but she sees progress at the U.S. Capitol among lawmakers working to end the partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week.

Polar bear encounter reported in Arctic Village, many miles south of normal range

Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks

Polar bear researcher Eric Regehr says that in individual cases like this, it’s very difficult to attribute cause to why a bear wandered so far from its typical area.

Alaska Railroad tank car derails; no spill detected

Associated Press

A railroad tank car carrying turbine engine fuel derailed south of Denali National Park, but Alaska Railroad officials have not detected a spill.

Fairbanks city, borough take in $1M in pot taxes for 2018

Associated Press

The city of Fairbanks and the Fairbanks North Star Borough will collect more than $1 million in taxes on marijuana for 2018.

State Board of Game votes against requiring IDs on traps or snares

Joe Viechnicki, KFSK – Petersburg

The state’s Board of Game Sunday voted down proposals to require ID tags or signs around traps and snares in Southeast Alaska. The board was split on one of the proposals that was intended to help with enforcement of trapping regulations and to address problems of pets getting caught in traps.

Upper Lynn Canal leaders discuss implications of Juneau cruise industry lawsuit

Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines

In December, a federal judge ruled that the City and Borough of Juneau’s cruise ship passenger fee could not be used to fund projects that did not directly support cruise ship vessels. Since then, communities in the Upper Lynn Canal have been trying to determine if the decision could affect funding for local infrastructure projects.

Repurposed shelter houses Nome’s homeless 7 days a week

Davis Hovey, KNOM – Nome

Just before New Year’s, a new facility opened in Nome to serve those who have no other place to go. This shelter complements the existing seasonal operation in town called Nome Emergency Shelter Team, or NEST, and together, the two offer more comprehensive coverage than was ever available before in Nome.

Ask a Climatologist: Fairbanks sees low-temp, but brief, cold snap

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Interior Alaska had its first real cold snap of the winter last week with temperatures colder than 40 below zero in many places. That was enough to force indoor recess for Fairbanks elementary school students – and, for older students, posing in front of the University of Alaska Fairbanks time and temp sign.

The State Department of Education and Early Development announced Tuesday night that it will continue to recognize teaching license recommendations from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Education department. The decision comes just days University’s education department lost its national accreditation.

The state says it will recognize the students who meet licensure requirements during 2019 Spring and Summer semesters. State Director of Educator and School Excellence Tamara Van Wyhe says the decision was made quickly to support students who were blind-sided by the loss of national accreditation from the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation, or CAEP.

“There are a lot of folks in the UAA pipeline who are finishing up their teacher credentialing programs and we just don’t feel like it’s fair for those pre-service teachers to be out in the cold, for some of them, just months before they graduate,” Van Wyhe said.

Van Wyhe says that while the students will still receive licenses despite a lack of national accreditation, the state plans on providing additional support to them as they move on to their careers.

“There will be something additional that we will offer, either in terms of resources or support, to those teachers and the districts hiring them, so that everyone can feel confident and comfortable that those folks are prepared for the classrooms and the challenges they’ll meet,” Van Wyhe said.

On February 4, the State Board will take a critical look at the timeline that led to the loss of accreditation and discuss the next steps for the university. Van Wyhe says it’s a serious problem that could have important consequences for UAA’s program.

“It will not be a quick, ‘Let’s look the other way and allow things to keep going,'” Van Wyhe said. “Losing CAEP accreditation is a big deal, and the state board of education takes it very seriously.”

State education commissioner Michael Johnson said in a press release, that the review is crucial “at a time when Alaska ranks at the bottom of our country in fourth grade reading.”

In the meantime, UAA chancellor Cathy Sandeen says the university is already looking at options for prospective teachers who will be graduating after summer 2019, including transferring to one of the other University of Alaska campuses.

“Regents policy now limits the number of total credits that can transfer from one to the other. We need to see about getting an exception to that policy for this group of students,” Sandeen said. “So there’s a lot of things that need to happen to help the students make that move. And we are working together with the other universities.”

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau both still have national accreditation for their education departments.

Sandeen also clarified that the loss of accreditation for UAA’s education department is not reflective of the university as a whole — and that UAA is still an accredited institution.

Meetings between the state and the university are set to kick off on Tuesday with School of Education Interim Director Claudia Dybdahl attending a work session with the state Board of Education.

A Fairbanks man is charged in the death of his mother. Thirty-four-year-old George Rosa faces a first degree murder charge in the death of 70-year-old Molly Rosa.

Police report being called to a Bridget Avenue residence by a friend of the victim, who said he went to check on her Tuesday, and found her dead.

Police say they responded, and during a sweep of the apartment found George Rosa hiding in a bathroom. They say Rosa admitted to choking his mother to death, five to six days earlier.

George Rosa is jailed at Fairbanks Correctional Center.

Democratic congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona and two of his colleagues in the House today wrote a letter to the Interior department demanding the agency halt its work on offshore oil leasing and permitting during the partial government shutdown.

It was spurred by Interior’s decision last week to bring in 40 employees to work on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s national offshore oil leasing plan. That plan, as initially drafted, would open up far more of Alaska’s federal waters to oil development.

Grijalva now chairs the House Resources Committee and is often at odds with the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda. He thinks Interior is breaking the law by proceeding with offshore oil work during the shutdown.

“This is an outrageous step,” the letter states, calling Interior’s justifications for the decision, “farcical, and make it clear the administration cares only about the impacts to its favorite industry and not about workers, their families, and ordinary Americans.”

The letter states that if Interior does not stop the work, Democratic lawmakers “insist” that acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt come to Capitol Hill to explain the agency’s reasoning.

In a statement, Interior spokesperson Faith Vander Voort said, “we are happy to meet with the Committee, as appropriate, and we are confident that we are fully meeting our legal obligations.”

This is not the first time Grijalva and Interior have locked horns over oil development work continuing despite the shutdown in recent weeks. Last Monday, the congressman wrote a letter to Interior demanding answers about the agency’s move to keep advancing work on oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in addition to proceeding with public meetings on potentially expanding oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The agency wrote back, claiming that work was also legally funded and “critical to the state of Alaska and the nation.”

Democrats and environmental groups are also calling for the Interior department to extend the comment period for its program to hold an oil lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because of the shutdown. The Bureau of Land Management has announced it is postponing public meetings related to that program, but the comment deadline — February 11 — remains the same.

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 seeks PFD back payments over three years

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Governor Mike Dunleavy campaigned on paying Alaskans back the amounts cut from permanent fund dividends the last three years. Today, he announced he wants to make those payments over three years.

Democrats demand Trump administration stop offshore oil leasing work during shutdown

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

It was spurred by Interior’s decision last week to bring in 40 employees to work on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s national offshore oil leasing plan. That plan, as initially drafted, would open up far more of Alaska’s federal waters to oil development.

Communities reliant on Coast Guard services feel the pain of the federal gov. shutdown

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

Most U.S. Coast Guard operations are suspended and that’s holding up commercial boat and permit sales as well as some construction of passenger vessels.

Fairbanks man charged with murdering his mother

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

A Fairbanks man is charged in the death of his mother. Thirty-four-year-old George Rosa faces a first degree murder charge in the death of 70-year-old Molly Rosa.

State says it will temporarily recognize teaching license recommendations from UAA, amid accreditation loss

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The state says it will recognize the UAA students who meet licensure requirements during 2019 Spring and Summer semesters.

State Board of Game votes down changes to moose hunting season

Joe Viechnicki, KFSK – Petersburg

The state’s Board of Game Saturday voted down a proposed change to moose hunting seasons in Southeast Alaska.

Military’s remote Cold War radars face a new threat: climate change

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Even with decades of technological advances, 15 remote radars across Alaska are still the military’s primary way to monitor airspace over huge swaths of the continent. But now their core mission is threatened by climate change.

Bethel’s children advocacy center takes a big step toward national accreditation

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel

Bethel’s Children’s Advocacy Center reached a major milestone last week: an agreement with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation to allow medical examiners to be part of the multidisciplinary team dealing with children who have been victims of sexual abuse. This big step will help the center achieve national accreditation.

Juneau has no plans to add fluoride to water following study

Associated Press

Juneau officials say there are no plans to resume fluoridating the drinking water in Alaska’s capital after the city stopped the practice more than a decade ago.

On Alaska’s stately birds, some ponder the beguiling raven

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

There are flutterings of a small movement taking wing in Alaska to change the state bird from willow ptarmigan to raven.

Cruise Lines International Association Alaska’s lawsuit against Juneau’s passenger fees isn’t over. The cruise industry is asking a federal court to limit the city’s collection of the $8 per passenger fee and for the judge to define how it can — and can’t — spend it.

Judge H. Russel Holland ruled Dec. 6 that Juneau had been spending passenger fees from cruise ships too liberally. Passenger fee revenue could only be spent on things related to the vessels themselves. But the judge found that spending on services and facilities that benefited only the cruise passengers — like crossing guards and sidewalk maintenance — still ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution.

Five days after the judge’s ruling, the cruise industry’s attorneys wrote the city’s lawyer a letter. The industry wanted to know: How was the city planning to comply? Reduce the fees? Repeal them altogether?

“We were looking for a signal from Juneau that there would be a substantial reduction in fees,” said Jonathan Benner, the CLIA’s lead attorney in the lawsuit. “Or that the fees would be repealed or restructured or whatever to become compliant with that order.”

The city’s outside counsel responded in a letter that nothing in the ruling challenged the constitutionality of collecting the fees.

“Consistent with the decision, the city will follow its code, held to be constitutional,” wrote Juneau attorney Bob Blascoe. “And as always, CLIA is invited to submit written comments as to any expenditures.”

Benner said that led the industry to ask the judge to clarify his order.

“When we received the response from the city indicating that they felt that very little would change because of the decision,” Benner said, “we felt it was appropriate to advise the court that we felt injunctive relief would be necessary to get the city’s attention.”

That led to a recent 15-page filing asking the judge to expand on his order and force the city’s hand to reduce or repeal its passenger fees.

Some of the industry’s objections were specific: crossing guards, fire and ambulance services and payphones. Others items were broad: tourism-related infrastructure. None of these, it argued, serve the marine operation of a cruise ship and are therefore can’t be paid for with passenger fees.

Benner said if the industry gets its way, the judge’s order could take different forms.

“But I would expect it to give the city some fairly clear boundary lines about what it could use the fees for or perhaps more importantly what it could not use the fees for,” he said.

Juneau has already spent more than $800,000 since spring 2016 defending itself in this lawsuit. And the industry is also asking the city to pay its legal fees.

Other port communities use passenger fees to pay for services and facilities serving the influx of cruise visitors to Southeast Alaska.

The Ketchikan City Council recently pledged $100,000 toward an appeal should the Juneau Assembly contest the judge’s ruling. And the city council pledged to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the capital city.

“Judge Holland’s decision remains under review by the Ketchikan City Council and staff, and we have no further comment at this time,” wrote Ketchikan Assistant City Manager Lacey Simpson in an email.

But will Juneau file an expensive appeal? So far Juneau officials have been mum.

Juneau City Manager Rorie Watt told a Juneau Rotary Club luncheon that the city has a dilemma on its hands.

“People tell me two things about the cruise ship litigation when I see them in public,” Watt told the Tuesday crowd. “And they typically say, ‘You should settle!’ Or, ‘Don’t give into the cruise industry!’”

According to CLIA estimates, more than 1.3 million cruise passengers are projected to visit Alaska this year. They’ll bring cash to local economies but also demands for services and infrastructure.

Watt said the industry’s hard-line position could backfire in the long run. Port communities need to be able to invest passenger fees in things that make them attractive to visitors, he said.

“It’s a little bit like the dog catching the car,” Watt said. “Do they really want to argue that crossing guards aren’t a benefit? Do they really want to argue that restrooms aren’t a benefit? I don’t think so.”

But that is what the industry is arguing. The city’s legal motion is due Thursday. Then the ball is back in the judge’s court.

The second day of legislative session Wednesday took an unusual turn.

A day after the Alaska House of Representatives became stuck on how to swear Sharon Jackson into office, Jackson tried to take matters into her own hands.

Jackson walked across the street from the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau to the Dimond Courthouse, where she took what appeared to be an unofficial “oath of office.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were caught off guard when Anchorage Republican Rep. Joshua Revak posted a two-minute video on social media of the oath.

(Source: Rep. Josh Revak’s Facebook page)

Republican leader Dave Talerico issued a written statement.

“While the sentiment of this effort to get Ms. Jackson seated quickly is appreciated, the House Republicans anticipate the official swearing-in of Ms. Jackson to take place on the House floor,” Talerico said.

Talerico said House Republicans look forward to welcoming Jackson to the body as soon as possible.

Rep. Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham Democrat, said there were productive talks before the unofficial oath.

“What happened today with what’s essentially, I would call a prank of sorts, just became a distraction to all of that,” he said.

Edgmon said the Legislature’s nonpartisan legal advisers say Jackson’s oath on Wednesday won’t count. Edgmon said she should be sworn in after there’s a temporary speaker.

The video of Jackson’s unofficial oath starts with an introduction by Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman.

Eastman later said Jackson’s constituents are legally and constitutionally entitled to representation.

“I find it ironic that now, when it’s time to swear in a representative from the opposing party, suddenly those rules are more important than our state law,” he said of House Democrats.

The House cancelled a scheduled floor session on Wednesday. It’s now scheduled to meet Thursday morning.

The House has been unable to agree on a temporary speaker to take over for Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer. Normally, a permanent speaker is elected on the first day of the session. But neither side has a majority.

Nineteen Republican representatives — as well as Jackson — want a Republican-led majority. Sixteen Democrats — as well as Republicans Louise Stutes and Gabrielle LeDoux, and independent Dan Ortiz — are the remnants of last year’s majority. And Kenai Republican Gary Knopp wants a majority with a balance between the two parties.