Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Support for Alaska Public Media On Demand comes from Aliaska Pipeline Service Company, marking nearly 50 years of commitment to operating the Transalaska Pipeline system. More at aliaskaPipeline.com. When you're in a shutdown... You do not have equal branches of government. You just don't. Senator Lisa Murkowski worries about checks on the president's actions during a government shutdown. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News Nightly for Tuesday, September 30th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, staff at multiple Alaska newspapers resign over forced changes to a story. I feel like I should be able to trust, you know, Carpenter Media, and that's just not what happened in this case. Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Alaska Public Media is now partnering with an Alaskan auction service so a helpful local team can get the biggest return for the least hassle should you decide to donate your vehicle. Learn more at alaskapublic.org slash vehicle. A short-term bill to continue funding the federal government failed in the U.S. Senate today, all but ensuring a government shutdown at midnight. Both Alaska senators voted for the stopgap spending bill to continue funding while Congress works on a longer-term bill. It got 55 votes but needed 60. President Donald Trump is threatening mass federal layoffs, and Senator Lisa Murkowski says by not passing a spending bill, Congress is giving Trump free reign. When you're in a shutdown... You do not have equal branches of government. You just don't. The legislative branch is just kind of ceded this. Senate Democrats are holding out to get Republicans to agree to continue health care subsidies for millions of Americans. Some of the subsidies are due to expire at the end of December, which will double or triple the monthly costs for millions of Americans who buy marketplace plans. Lisa Murkowski would also like to continue insurance subsidies that some 25,000 Alaskans depend on, but she says negotiations went nowhere last week, so today she voted for the bill to keep the government operating. Lisa Murkowski warns that the partisan standoff could be a long one because each side believes voters will blame the other party. No one has an incentive. If the Democrats feel that they've got the edge, where's their incentive for them to get out of it? If the Republicans feel like we're gaining with our base, what gives us any incentive to... to end it. Key functions of government will continue through a shutdown, including mail service and social security payments. Some federal employees, like the military and law enforcement, are deemed essential and have to work without pay until Congress agrees on a spending bill. Hours before the shutdown was to begin, only some agencies had published their shutdown plans.

Most of the staff running three Alaska newspapers in Homer, Keeney Saldana, and Juno resigned in protest yesterday. As Alaska public media's Eric Stone reports, the decision came after the paper's corporate owner forced revisions to a story after pressure from a Republican state lawmaker. The resignations include the regional editor in charge of three papers across the state, the Kenai Peninsula Clarion, the Homer, along with the Clarion Sports Editor and two reporters based in Kenai and Homer. Clarion's senior reporter Jake Dye says it's a long time coming. He says he's repeatedly complained about mismanagement since Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group bought the paper out of insolvency last year. But Dye says capitulating to pressure from a state lawmaker going over the editors and reporters' heads, that's a step too far. Dera JD Vance sent one letter, you know, on a Wednesday night. She probably didn't even put a ton of thought into it and got our story changed. And, you know, what stops her from doing that the next time? What stops anybody? Last week, Homer Republican Representative Sarah JD Vance posted a letter on state letterhead to her official Facebook page objecting to an item in the Homer News, about an article for the slain activist Charlie Kirk. She highlighted a paragraph that identified Kirk as a, quote, far-right leader with, quote, racist and controversial views. A day later, the story was removed, edited, stripped of a my line, and reposted. Without, Dye says, any consultation with the reporter or the regional editor. On social media, JD Vance thanked Carpenter Media for responding to her concerns after a discussion with the paper's publisher. JD Vance and Carpenter Media did not respond to interview requests. Dye says he also hasn't gotten answers on what JD Vance asked for and what Carpenter agreed to. In the other staff say on their joint resignation letter that the incident undermines their ability to do their jobs. I feel like I should be able to trust. you know, Carpenter Media, and that's just not what happened in this case. Dai says the mass resignations leave the three papers with just two reporters, one for the Homer News and another with the Juno Empire. Veteran Alaska journalist and University of Alaska Fairbanks, Professor Paula Dobbin says she was shocked by the episode, not just by JD Vance's pressure campaign, but by Carpenter's decision to give in. We pride ourselves as Americans on having freedom of the press. And for, you know, an ownership group to just go ahead and alter a news story based on a complaint by a politician without consulting the editor or the reporter, I just think it was appalling. And I fully support the staff for not putting up with it. She says it's especially alarming given the fragile state of journalism in Alaska. It's not clear what will happen to the paper with most of the editorial staff gone, and she says she's concerned that'll leave Keenai Peninsula communities less informed. I certainly hope that the Keenai is not going to become another news desert because, you know, people have the right to be informed, and there's a lot that's happening down there, and we certainly need coverage of it.

She says she hopes another news source will emerge to fill the void. She points to the nonprofit Juno Independent. That's an online outlet founded by the former editor of another Carpenter paper, the Juno Empire, who also resigned over disagreements with management. Dye, the reporter, says as much as he loves journalism, he's not planning to go independent. We don't have any plans like that. I don't think the others are really interested in that. We certainly don't have the money for that. I mean, I unfortunately kind of think this is it. He says he hopes Carpenter Media will invest in its Alaska papers, but he says he's not optimistic. For now, Dye says he's headed to the local job center to apply for a job as a 911 dispatcher. Reporting in Juneau, I'm Eric Stone. The Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, or CASC, is so far spared from closures coming to a third of these climate science centers across the country, as first reported by the Washington Post. Elsewhere in the U.S., some centers are expected to run out of money soon because the federal government has stalled funding and essential agreements with universities that the U.S. Geological Survey needs to manage the centers. But Alaska's center is safe for now. Kristen Tim is Alaska Cask's university co-director at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She says the center's funding through next summer has already been dispersed. But, of course, we're worried about how long our funding will continue to last. The center's budget is roughly $2.2 million per year, and CASC signed an agreement with the University of Alaska in 2023 that maintains their partnership through July of 2008, which should ensure the center's existence until then. Tim says about 25 university employees receive a significant portion of their salary through the CASC, but she says two grants are on hold. One would have funded communications interns. The other would have funded a study on how climate change could affect a caribou herd that's important to subsistence hunters. She says the center does projects that Alaska communities and decision makers have asked for. If we don't get funded, you know, one of the major projects that would really affect Alaskans is the work around the glacier outburst flood and suicide basin. The center funded the interactive website juno flood.com that helped inform Juno's Mendon Hall Valley residents about the threat to their homes. The center has also funded research around improving wildfire forecasts and how climate change is affecting salmon in the Yukon River basin.

Still the Common Alaska News Nightly meet the Inupiac artist behind a major art installation coming to the Anchorage Museum. Our cultures are so magical. They need to be represented. That's ahead. Stay with us. Alaska Public Media is now partnering with an Alaskan auction service so a helpful local team can get the biggest return for the least hassle should you decide to donate your vehicle. Learn more at alaskapublic.org slash vehicle. Wasilla couple has been charged in connection with the death of a child that was in their care. Last week, a Palmer grand jury indicted 47-year-old Jackie Caswell on murder charges and both her and 46-year-old Sergei Kruikov III on charges of child endangerment. Alaska state troopers arrested the pair on Saturday after earlier issuing a public notice seeking information to help locate them. The Anchorage Daily News reports the case involves a four-year-old girl. Troopers said in a written statement posted online that they responded August 11th to a report of a child requiring CPR at a Wasilla home. The child was brought to a local hospital where she died, according to the trooper statement. The death was ruled a homicide. Palmer District Attorney Trina Sears did not respond to a request for comment. According to a daily news account of Caswell and Krukov's first court appearance on Monday, Sears told the judge handling the case that Caswell had hit the child, resulting in brain damage. The newspaper reported that Sears also told the judge that the couple had withheld food from the child. Both Caswell and Krukoff pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday. The judge ordered Caswell held on $300,000 cash bail, and Krukoff held on $35,000 cash bail. Both remain jailed as of today. The next court hearing in the case is set for October 14th. Juno's chief of police, Derek Boss, says the police department is taking action to reform its policies after an officer was filmed slamming a man to the ground during an arrest in July. Last night, Boss presented the findings of an internal review to the Juno Assembly at a committee meeting. Overall, he says he believes the officer's actions do not reflect his character or the department as a whole. I firmly believe he is a good officer who made a very bad mistake on that day. The presentation comes nearly two months after Officer Brandon LeBlanc's arrest of the man circulated widely online and prompted a public outcry. LeBlanc has since resigned. Chief Boss said following the incident, the department has updated its policies for requesting medical assistance when someone loses consciousness. Additionally, he says officers learn tactics at the state's basic training academy that do not align with the Juno Police Department's expectations and policies. He says the department is now developing plans to address that disparity. Boss went on to defend the department's hiring standards. That's despite Assembly members' concerns about LeBlanc's background. A man previously sued LeBlanc for excessive force and battery while he served as an officer in Louisiana. A jury found LeBlanc not guilty. Our standards are very high. And we and me specifically are not going to accept a worm body, just to accept a warm body. Boss said the department is committed to working with the community and other entities to be transparent and build trust following the incident. Once the external investigation of LeBlanc's use of force is completed, the state's office of special prosecutions will review the case to determine if his response was justified.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks canceled morning classes today as police investigated an alleged bomb threat. A subsequent UAF press release said that no explosive devices were found after a search of campus. The university received an email this morning about a potential explosive device near the LV building on the west side of campus, according to a news release from UAF. Colleges and universities across the country reported getting similar threats this morning. including in Delaware, Michigan, Texas, and Alabama. UAF police had blocked off the West Ridge area this morning and urged the public to avoid that part of campus. Regular university operations and classes resumed after the all-clear this afternoon. University representatives did not respond to a request for comment. An Alaska Native corporation says it has big plans for its proposed $500 million cruise ship port on Juneau's Douglas Island. KTOO's Clarice Larson has more. Gold Belt Incorporated is finally sharing more about its proposed cruise ship port on the backside of Douglas Island. Its president and CEO McHugh-Pierre presented the plan to the Juneau Assembly for the first time at a committee meeting on Monday night. We have some really big, bold ideas. Last fall, the local Alaska Native Corporation announced plans to develop the port in partnership with Royal Caribbean Group. At the time of the announcement, city officials said they felt blindsided by the news. But on Monday, Pierre and Gold Belt's board chair presented to the Juno Assembly in front of a packed audience to explain exactly what's in store for the development called Gold Belt Ani. Pierre says the goal of the semi-private cruise destination is to uplift clinket culture and support Juno's economy moving into the future. We believe it's our mission to invest in the community. grow opportunities, build certainty, and provide that foundation for families to grow and have confidence to remain in Juneau. Gold Belt owns roughly 1,800 acres of land along the northwest coastline of Douglas Island between False Outer Point and Point Hilda. The port would be located on about 250 acres just beyond where the road ends on North Douglas. The plan is to develop the port in phases, starting out with basic dock and welcome center infrastructure, before moving into broader ambitions, like developing a child care center, employee housing, and a replica clinket village. Once developed, the land would be subject to property taxes. Pierre estimates the project will cost $500 million. Gold Belt says it would catapult the corporation to become the city's number one property taxpayer. We're excited to contribute to the community, to have a strong community, and to put our money where our mouth is. Assembly members had a lot of questions. Wade Bryson questioned the Douglas Highway's ability to handle the traffic the port would bring. That's the thought that is on many of our minds.

How do we deal with North Douglas Highway in trying to accommodate this development? Several members also asked the corporation how it intends to curb concerns that the new port would overwhelm the community with cruise tourism. Pierre says Goldbelt believes the new port will actually help alleviate visitor traffic and congestion by containing visitors at the port. Pierre didn't commit to a firm timeline for when the port would open. That's because of all the hurdles the corporation still needs to jump over to get permitting approvals with the city and other governmental agencies. The project's website states 2028 as its grand opening. The project is adjacent to a lot of city land. City leaders say they want to thoroughly plan for the North Douglas area before Gold Belt starts developing. Pierre pushed back at that. Goldbelt would be happy to work with the city concurrently. but Gold Belt would not be happy to be sidelined and stopped altogether from development because the city wants to do something on its land or plan something around its land. The project will need approvals from both the City Planning Commission and the Juno Assembly to move forward. Gold Belt has yet to apply for any city permits. Pierre says the corporation intends to provide updates to the community as the project moves forward. Juneau, I'm Clary Slarson. The city and borough of Juneau has pushed back the eviction deadline for renters living in the historic Telephone Hill neighborhood in downtown Juneau. Residents now have until November 1st to move out. The city's attorney told the Juneau Assembly during an executive session last night. Mayor Beth Weldon announced the change to the public during an assembly committee meeting that followed. It comes just two days before residents were supposed to vacate the neighborhood. According to the city's attorney, the city received two notices in the past week from attorneys indicating that it did not properly and legally serve residents with eviction notices. Upon review, the city discovered the property management company in charge of alerting residents on the hill that their rental agreement was ending did so, but did not properly document it. The city and borough of Juneau sent out an October 1st eviction notice in late May. The city plans to demolish the houses on the hill this December in hopes of making way for newer, denser housing in response to the city's housing crunch. The city does not yet have a developer signed on to the project. Last week, dozens of residents attended the Juneau Assembly meeting to protest the plan to evict residents. The city plans to put out new notices to vacate tomorrow.

The state of Alaska imagines a future when the already growing shellfish farming industry takes off. Researchers studied an oyster farm in Juneau to understand the environmental conditions there and what it might say about the challenges and opportunities for growing shellfish in Alaska. KTOO's Alex Solomon has more. Maida Mesdeg owns Salty Lady Seafood Company, the only Pacific oyster farm in Juneau. In Bridget Cove, she grows thousands of oysters arranged in rows of floating mesh bags. Some years, naturally occurring toxic algal blooms have shut down her farm for weeks at a time. That motivated her to ask researchers. Can she predict when it will happen? It's such a mystery. On Mondays, Mesdick samples her oysters for algae called Alexandria Catanella and sends them to the state lab in Anchorage. The algae produce a neurotoxin that builds up in shellfish when they eat it. Just one milligram can kill a person. Testing is federally regulated. If the test comes back clean, she harvests. But if the oysters test positive for the toxin above the FDA limit, the farm shuts down. And when you're not making any money but you're spending money on labor, that can be really expensive and hard. In 2023, Mesdick says that caused her to shut down for half of her 20-week harvest season. Since the farm couldn't sell oysters, she says she lost clients and had to lay people off. To reopen, the farm has to pass a series of tests. We just have to wait, and we don't know how long it takes. That loss of sales isn't great for business. The federal government is invested in boosting mariculture in Alaska's waters, and there are still questions about how the environment here affects the health and quality of oysters. The state is invested in those questions, too. About a decade ago, it set a goal to grow Alaska's mariculture into a $100 million industry by 2040. The study had a humble start. Mesdeg's question landed on Courtney Hart's desk when she was studying paralytic shellfish poisoning as a graduate student at the University of Alaska Southeast. Now she's a crustacean shellfish program manager with the Port Campbell's Column tribe in Washington. The first year, I was just trying to figure out if there's an easy way to monitor for Alexandria or harmful algalgo blooms on her farm so I could help. like warn her essentially when a bloom was coming. Bahart says she hit a dead end. We didn't really solve that problem. Sometimes the researchers would detect the toxic algae in the water and not see it in the oysters. Other times they'd see it in the oysters, but not the water. And she says the problem is not unique to Alaska. Harmful algal blooms are notoriously unpredictable. Whether that bloom... Becomes toxic for shellfish really depends on so many factors that scientists have been studying for a long time and haven't quite pinned down. But she says the study morphed when NOAA researchers joined. They wanted to answer a bigger question. What environmental conditions impact the health and quality of oysters in Southeast Alaska? Besides toxic algae, other environmental factors pose challenges to the growing industry.

Hart says the spring phytoplankton bloom provides oysters a feast for only a short period, and they practically starve over the winter. And often it may mean that it takes three years for your oysters to reach the right size versus just two years, which is more typical down here in Washington. But there are benefits, too. Hart says the consistently cold water prevents the oysters from spawning, so they retain high levels of lipids. healthy fats that make for a high-quality oyster. Like, as far as health of an oyster, for humans, it's good. While environmental conditions play an important role in how the industry develops, Bobby Hudson says reaching the market is key. She's the executive director of the Pacific Shellfish Institute. She splits her time between Washington State and Gustavis and is working with Southeast Conference on an upcoming report about investments in the mariculture industry. Alaska can have tremendous goals. But at the end of the day, if there's not a market for those products or a really strong market for those products, they're going to be able to reach those goals. She says things like scaling up production, setting up cold distribution networks, and making toxin testing more efficient could help Alaska's shellfish farms grow. In Juneau, I'm Alex Solomon. Kristi Noem resident and enupiac graphic artist Katie O'Connor was recently invited to design a new three-panel, large format display celebrating Denina culture and language at the Anchorage Museum. O'Connor's dynamic line work welcomes visitors into the Smithsonian Arctic Study Center, a gallery that houses over 600 Alaska native cultural heritage pieces on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. K&O.M's Laura Davis-Susan Collins has more. That's exactly what I want to do with my art is level up to the next biggest thing, you know, and me being from Kristi Noem, not on the road system, that said a lot that they reached out to me. Katie O'Connor was born and raised in Kristi Noem. She's a mother, a wife, a photographer, a small business owner, and a graphic designer. Her art is rooted in the culture and subsistence lifestyle of her home. She recently collaborated on a Yupik coloring book. funded by the Rasmussen Foundation. So in the Yupik ABC coloring book that she did with Nikki Corbett, we really loved her line work and her attention to detail and thought that that would be a perfect design style to portray these scenes. That's Alex Tate, an assistant curator at the Anchorage Museum. The staff worked closely with O'Connor through the design process to create the three massive panels, two of which were over 70 feet long. But O'Connor says the process wasn't without hiccups. It wasn't until a week after creating, designing the first wall that we established I needed to completely switch directions with my software. The software that I was using originally and knew like the back of my hand was based on pixels. And O'Connor's pixel-based software couldn't create a large enough file for the murals.

So O'Connor taught herself how to use a new vector-based program to create expandable designs. But technology wasn't the only thing O'Connor had to learn. As an Anupiac artist from Northwest Alaska, she needed to understand more about the Dinah culture as well. They're not my culture. They're not what I'm used to. They're not Western Alaskan coastal cultures. So working from a distance, the Anchorage Museum staff, they were really prepared, and they gave me all the files that I needed with all of the resources I needed for. each individual wall. So for a huge project, the biggest one I've ever taken on myself, working virtually went as smooth as it possibly could. Tate agrees, working from a distance created challenges. But she says technology created opportunities for connection and collaboration, and no problem was insurmountable. Distance doesn't always help with that. because we couldn't just meet up with her. But she was very excited to work through these things and learn how to overcome some of the technology issues. And we ended up with three beautiful scenes. In black and white line work, O'Connor crafted three subsistent scenes, depicting life prior to the arrival of the Alaska Railroad to South Central Alaska. Each scene captures a distinct area in the Denyna region. The Sissetna Flats, Ship Creek, and Acclutna Lake. The exhibit also involves audio for visitors to hear the denina names for wildlife, places, and subsistence activities depicted in the murals. O'Connor encourages everyone with an interest from kindergarten to adulthood to keep creating. She says even rural residents have opportunities for their talent and culture to be put on a statewide stage. I remember being in kindergarten and starting my art adventure and never giving up. I just want to encourage kids to stick with it. You can go places and do things with your artwork in the future. And like I said, there's so many resources and funding out there. Our cultures are so magical. They need to be represented. O'Connor plans to keep working, to keep getting jobs. She aspires to design an Alaska Airlines plane to represent the Anupiac culture of northwest Alaska. They just haven't asked her yet. In Kristi Noem, I'm Laura Davis-Susan Collins.

And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online at alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C., Eric Stone, Alex Solomon, and Clarice Larson, and Juneau. Wesley Early in Anchorage, Shelby Herbert and Fairbanks, and Laura Davis Susan Collins and Kristi Noem. Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.