Alaska News

Last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded eleven billion-dollar weather events.  That brought the total for the last two years to 25.  The average up until then had been less than four.  Climate change is already here and it’s not changing back any time soon.  Communities are going to have to become more resilient, and for some
that means a closer look at local food.  One of the top experts on sustainable and climate-resilient “food-sheds” will be the guest on the next Talk of Alaska.

HOSTS:

• Steve Heimel

GUESTS: 

• Gary Paul Nabhan, Chair, Sustainable Food Systems Program in Southwest Borderlands Food and Water Security, University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioural Science, Tucson
• Callers Statewide

PARTICIPATE:

• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
• Send e-mail to talk [at] alaskapublic [dot] org (comments may be read on air)
• Call 550-8422 in Anchorage or 1-800-478-8255 if you’re outside Anchorage during the live broadcast

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

SUBSCRIBE: Get Talk of Alaska updates automatically by e-mail, RSS or podcast.

TALK OF ALASKA ARCHIVE

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. The Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them.

The so called Silver Tsunami is lapping at Alaska’s shore, and care providers are worried that there won’t be sufficient programs — or enough funding — to meet it. The graying of Alaska is more pronounced than in other areas of the country. Alaska leads all states in having the fastest growing senior population of persons age 65 or older, which now accounts for 13.6 percent of state residents.

One of the top priorities for Alaska’s seniors is housing. Denise Daniello, with the Alaska Commission on Aging,  did not want to comment on tape, but  says senior housing needs to encompass the full range of care, from helping independent seniors stay in their own homes to creating living facilities for seniors with special needs. With limited funding, that is going to be a tough task

Daniello  says older Alaskans are no longer moving out of state. they came here as baby boomers and stay. As more and more boomers age, the state’s senior population will grow with them over the next 25 years.

Mark Romick is director of planning and program development for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which plays a multi-faceted role in senior housing .

   “The demand for senior housing is like every other housing component of the market. It’s based on people’s ability to pay, and suffice it to say, that there is a fairly substantial need, well over four or five hundred units in the next ten or twenty years,” he says.

Most senior housing funds come from two pots of money AHFC manages from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. [Senior Housing Grant Development Fund and AHFC's Senior Housing Development Loan Fund.] Romick says in general projects for low income seniors are financed through grants, but assisted living or medium income facilities have to rely on private financing or loans. AHFC offers rental assistance, or vouchers, to low income renters of any age, but the waiting list is long, often years. And the sequester is expected to add to the crunch by shrinking that program, according to HUD spokesman Lee Jones

 ”The number of available vouchers is going to be reduced by about 125, 000 nationally. That obviously shrinks the resource base for people who need that kind of assistance, ” according to Jones.  He says cuts to HUD appropriations could begin when discussions on the FY 14 federal budget start.

Since the majority of Alaska’s senior housing projects target low income seniors, middle income seniors suffer. They have too much money to qualify for rental assistance or low income housing, but they can’t afford market rate rents. AHFC data indicates about 2 /3 of Alaska’s seniors can’t afford urban rents. A brief white paper released this [february] month by the state department of Health and Social Services identified some funding strategies that could be used to develop “graduated income” housing to accommodate residents of mixed incomes.   Mark Romick says that will take some changes:

 ”I think it’s pretty obvious that alternative sources need to be developed. Private financing is a huge component of that. There is not enough money available through the state or federal government to address the housing need of all the seniors that might need an affordable place to live. People are going to have to be more creative about how they address the financing of senior housing in the future. ”

 

One group of seniors in Fairbanks is a jump ahead of the game. Karen Parr says the Raven Landing retirement community there was created, funded and designed at the instigation of a group of retired teachers who wanted to stay in Fairbanks, but couldn’t find middle income senior housing in their city. Parr says Raven Landing is a model for communities looking for solutions.

“The thing that’s so good about Raven Landing that is kind of unique, is that it was created by a group of local residents who planned it to suit this particular group of people, this kind of people. It’s kind of an Alaskan version of a continuing care plan.”

The city of Fairbanks helped to buy the land, and in 2008, the first building with 20 units opened. Another 20 units became available last year, and twenty more opened up last month. AHFC has provided grants and loans for each of the apartment buildings while individual and corporate donations help support the Retirement Community of Fairbanks non profit which operates the complex. RCF is now in the process of getting funds to build a community center. I’m Ellen Lockyer

 

 

 

　

　

　

 

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

[25senior housing lockyer pack feb. 25]

　

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. As KSKA’s Ellen Lockyer reports, the Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them. [:21]

　

The so called Silver Tsunami is lapping at Alaska’s shore, and care providers are worried that there won’t be sufficient programs — or enough funding — to meet it. The graying of Alaska is more pronounced than in other areas of the country. Alaska leads all states in having the fastest growing senior population of persons age 65 or older, which now accounts for 13.6 percent of state residents.

One of the top priorities for Alaska’s seniors is housing. Denise Daniello, with the Alaska Commission on Aging, *did not want to comment on tape, but* says senior housing needs to encompass the full range of care, from helping independent seniors stay in their own homes to creating living facilities for seniors with special needs. With limited funding, that is going to be a tough task

[Daniello would not comment on tape, but she says older Alaskans are no longer moving out of state. they came here as baby boomers and stay. As more and more boomers age, the state's senior population will grow with them over the next 25 years.]

Mark Romick is director of planning and program development for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which plays a multi-faceted role in senior housing .

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors romick 3 use first.wav

Time: 15s

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In-cue: the demand

Out-cue: twenty years]

["The demand for senior housing is like every other housing component of the market. It's based on people's ability to pay, and suffice it to say, that there is a fairly substantial need, well over four or five hundred units in the next ten or twenty years. "]

Most senior housing funds come from two pots of money AHFC manages from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. [Senior Housing Grant Development Fund and AHFC's Senior Housing Development Loan Fund.] Romick says in general projects for low income seniors are financed through grants, but assisted living or medium income facilities have to rely on private financing or loans. AHFC offers rental assistance, or vouchers, to low income renters of any age, but the waiting list is long, often years. And the sequester is expected to add to the crunch by shrinking that program, according to HUD spokesman Lee Jones

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors jones.wav

Time: 11s

Title: 27seniors jones

Description: 27seniors jones

In-cue: the number

Out-cue: assistance]

["The number of available vouchers is going to be reduced by about 125, 000 nationally. That obviously shrinks the resource base for people who need that kind of assistance. "]

　

Since the majority of Alaska’s senior housing projects target low income seniors, middle income seniors suffer. They have too much money to qualify for rental assistance or low income housing, but they can’t afford market rate rents. AHFC data indicates about 2 /3 of Alaska’s seniors can’t afford urban rents. A brief white paper released this [february] month by the state department of Health and Social Services identified some funding strategies that could be used to develop “graduated income” housing to accommodate residents of mixed incomes. Again, Mark Romick

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors romick 4 use last.wav

Time: 23s

Title: 27seniors romick 4 use last

Description: 27seniors romick 4 use last

In-cue: i think

Out-cue: future]

["I think it's pretty obvious that alternative sources need to be developed. Private financing is a huge component of that. There is not enough money available through the state or federal government to address the housing need of all the seniors that might need an affordable place to live. People are going to have to be more creative about how they address the financing of senior housing in the future. "]

One group of seniors in Fairbanks is a jump ahead of the game. Karen Parr says the Raven Landing retirement community there was created, funded and designed at the instigation of a group of retired teachers who wanted to stay in Fairbanks, but couldn’t find middle income senior housing in their city. Parr says Raven Landing is a model for communities looking for solutions.

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors parr.wav

Time: 21s

Title: 27seniors parr

Description: 27seniors parr

In-cue: the thing

Out-cue: care plan]

["The thing that's so good about Raven Landing that is kind of unique, is that it was created by a group of local residents who planned it to suit this particular group of people, this kind of people. It's kind of an Alaskan version of a continuing care plan."]

　

The city of Faribanks helped to buy the land, and in 2008, the first building with 20 units opened. Another 20 units became available last year, and twenty more opened up last month. AHFC has provided grants and loans for each of the apartment buildings while individual and corporate donations help support the Retirement Community of Fairbanks non profit which operates the complex. RCF is now in the process of getting funds to build a community center. I’m Ellen Lockyer

 

　

　

　

 

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Gov. Sean Parnell’s oil tax proposal is steadily making its way through the Senate.

His bill advanced out of the Senate resources committee on Wednesday, with a few changes. Instead of setting the base tax rate at 25 percent, it bumps it to 35 percent. It offset that by increasing a tax break for oil produced from new areas, and giving oil companies a $5 per barrel credit. Like the governor’s bill, it gets rid of a mechanism that would raise taxes on oil companies when profits are high. Parnell described the changes as a positive step forward at a press conference on Thursday.

The new version of the oil tax bill’s impact on the state’s revenue is close to Parnell’s original version. According to the bill’s fiscal note, the bill would cut taxes on oil companies by up to $900 million over the next year. Parnell’s would cut taxes by roughly the same amount.

The new version of the bill got support from all members of the resources committee, save one. Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat, still had questions about the effect the bill would have both on oil production and revenue, and he had concerns about the pace of the review process.

“The amendments we’ve adopted make some significant changes. The CS [committee substitute] we put in front of us last Friday basically revamps the governor’s bill and adopts some significant new measures. I don’t feel like we’ve fully vetted that. The fiscal notes, which we’ve all received this afternoon, have not been discussed by the committee,” said French. “And so, I believe that the totality of the circumstances are that this is rushing through this committee to the next one, and I don’t feel confident of the work.”

Sen. Peter Micchiche, a Republican from Soldotna, countered that a previous committee had already spent time with the bill, and that more hearings are still to come.

“Some of us have spent hundreds of hours processing this bill in two different committees,” said Micciche.

The bill is now being heard in finance, the last Senate committee that will review the plan.

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So far, eight Republican governors have decided to split with their party and accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion in their states. Today, Sean Parnell announced that he won’t be joining them, at least for now.

On Thursday, Parnell said that he will not ask legislators to put any money toward broadening the health program and opening it up to more low-income Alaskans. His concern is that the federal government could end up reneging on promised funds, given the current fiscal climate in Washington.

“So if we expand the Medicaid population and the federal government fails to keep its financial commitment, the state would likely have to backfill forward-lost federal dollars to cover beneficiaries of the expansion and to protect the health coverage of everyone currently in the program,” said Parnell.

Parnell plans to revisit the prospect of Medicaid expansion in December, when he rolls out his annual budget proposal.

If Medicaid were expanded in the state, it’s projected that it would extend coverage to 40,000 Alaskans. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will cover the full cost of growing the program for the first three years. After that, the state share would gradually go up to 10 percent.

Because the federal government will start offering extra money for Medicaid expansion in January, putting off a decision on the program means that Alaska will be opting out of that funding for the first six months that it is available.

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The saga has been going on for decades, and Wednesday evening, the dozen or so residents in D.C expected nothing more than a photo-op with Secretary Salazar.

They were pleasantly surprised Thursday morning.

“We’re closer now than we ever have been,” said Stanley Mack, mayor of the Aleutians East Borough.

By Mack’s count, he’s been fighting for a connector road from King Cove to Cold Bay for thirty years.

Standing outside the Interior Department Thursday morning, Mack called the meeting with Salazar excellent, saying he’s confident Secretary Salazar will reevaluate a Fish and Wildlife decision that blocked the land transfer.

It’s not certain he’ll reverse the decision. Mack called Salazar a hard negotiator, and even harder to read.

Della Trumble said Secretary Salazar needed to hear the human factor; that the environmental review had not taken lives into consideration.

She said she’s more optimistic now, if for no other reason, the meeting went longer than planned.

“We initially had half an hour meeting, but he did allow us a little over an hour,” she said. “And I feel, just optimistic, that hopefully he’ll take a closer look at this issue. He said he understands it a lot better from us being here.”

The Borough and city of King Cove paid for the trip to Washington.

The state would cede 41,000 acres, and the King Cove Corporation would cede 16,000 more. In exchange, they’d receive a 200 acre easement in the wildlife refuge. That easement would allow for the construction of a ten mile, one lane, gravel road.

Residents say they need it for emergency medical services; that flying in and out of King Cove is too dangerous and too often cancelled.

Trisha Trumble’s point, another King Cove resident in D.C., said weather in the Aleutians can change on a dime, making one flight safe, and the next dangerous. She recounted to Secretary Salazar the crash she survived in 2010.

“The pilot stated that we were coming in and getting ready for landing. We were going about 60, we hit an air pocket and it dropped, it made the whole plane drop, he looked at the speedometer and we’re going 120. He was lucky enough to bring it up and crash that plane perfectly on the runway which then turned sideways. We went down the runway sideways,” she said.

She drove the point home by stressing how close death was.

“And then there was fuel shooting out, and if we didn’t have a gravel runway and it was pavement, any spark would made the plane blow up.”

The residents would be allowed to use the road for everyday use, but it could not be used for commercial purposes. There would be a cable barrier preventing people from driving off road on ATV’s to hunt birds.

Nicole Whittington-Evans is the Alaska Regional Director for the Wilderness Society.

“A one lane gravel road with a 10, 15, maximum 20 miles per hour limit on it, from King Cove to Cold Bay will be approximately 35-40 miles, it’s going to take an hour and a half to two hours for a person to drive that road, in good weather,” she said by phone Thursday afternoon.

She said the federal government paid for a hovercraft that could take residents from King Cove to Cold Bay in twenty minutes. The Borough stopped operating the hovercraft in Cold Bay, and moved it to Akutan.

Mayor Stanley Mack said the hovercraft cost more than $1 million dollars per year, and it was unsafe in high seas and strong winds.

“The 1.2 million hovercraft was just the sporadic operation of the hovercraft. We could not operate it. It was costly and unreliable – totally,” he said.

The Department of Interior will not decide the fate of the road before Salazar’s 30 day public interest review deadline of March 18th.  He could resolve the issue before the Senate confirms his successor, Sally Jewell.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who supports the road, met with Ms. Jewell Wednesday morning, a normal part of the confirmation process.  Senator Murkowski said she did not ask for any assurances on the land transfer.

“I want Secretary Salazar to do the right thing, plain and simple. I don’t think he should let this hang over and let … He needs to right this wrong that his agency has put forward. And I want him to correct that,” she said. 

Even though she puts the onus on Secretary Salazar, Ms. Jewell could feel the punishment. If Secretary Salazar does not override the decision before stepping down, Senator Murkowski threatened to hold up the nomination of Ms. Jewell.

Parliamentary rules allow any Senator to stall any proceedings.

Della Trumble said even though she’s optimistic after the meeting with Secretary Salazar, she’s prepared to continue fighting.

“We’ve always maintained, before you make a decision on this, please, please talk to us,” she added. “And the other point is, we can send a plane load this large every week, because there are so many stories about why this road is so important.”

They’re unlikely to get another meeting with the Interior Secretary.

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Hundreds of union workers turned out to testify before the Anchorage Assembly Wednesday night, against an ordinance that could limit unions.

Cars driving by honked their horns in support of protesters at the corner of Denali & 36th outside Loussac Library.

That’s where I found Kimberly holding a red and black sign in support of unions and her dad, a union member who works for the Anchorage School District.

“I know he works very hard for what he does and so I wanted to support him for that because he supported me for so long .”

Kimberly’s Dad, Tom says his job isn’t at stake, because he’s not a municipal employee. But Tom says if the Mayor’s proposed ordinance is passed, he’s afraid his job could be next.

“I think the big fear is the reduction in the standard of living for your middle-class people. And we’re just tired of seeing the erosion of the middle-class. We want to make the middle-class strong. That’s why this country became real strong is because of the middle-class, not because we have rich and poor with nobody in between.”

Tom and Kimberly did not want us to use their last names. Near the library entry, it was a sea of more red and black signs and a saxophone serenaded protesters.

Officials estimate there could have been around a thousand people at the hearing which took place in the Anchorage Assembly chambers at the Loussac library. The Wilda Marston Theatre was opened with live broadcast from Assembly Chambers, and others crowded into the entry to sit and stand around a T.V. Inside the Assembly Chambers, It was standing room only and a line to testify stretched from the podium to the back of the room.

Mayor Dan Sullivan proposed the ordinance, which would would impact approximately 22-hundred municipal employees, about three weeks ago. It eliminates raises based on longevity and performance, links pay to a five-year average of the consumer price index and limits benefit choices. It also eliminates the option of a strike. But it’s centerpiece is the introduction of managed competition, a process in which a public agency competes with private firms to provide public services. Fire and police departments as well as emergency services would be exempt from managed competition. Public testimony was emotional, as one municipal employee after another got up in front of the Assembly to tell them the ordinance was a bad idea. Municipal worker Roy Smith, who said he’s live in Anchorage for nearly 30 years and worked for he city nearly a decade, said the ordinance was evil.

“Almost as evil as, what do I want to compare it with? How bout the movies, how bout Star Wars — Darth Vader and the Dark Side of The Force. This is wrong. I know you mean well. And I’ll tell you what, when I hear the radio spot that’s being aired I hear the warm fuzzy stuff in my head, but down here in my gut, this is what tell me the truth — I feel sick.”

Smith was referring to a radio ad that began airing last week featuring Mayor Sullivan talking about his proposed ordinance. Assembly member Dick Traini asked Smith this about the radio ad:

“How do you feel about your tax dollars being utilized to bring that message out to the public? 28-thousand tax dollars in tax payer’s dollars. (Audience)Boooo, booo. (Smith) Thank you very much. I don’t feel good about it all, not at all, not one bit.”

Julius Matthew, a resident of Eagle River, says he’s been a member of the IBEW for 30 years. He says he’s offended by the Mayor’s so-called ‘Responsible Labor Act’.

“There’s nothing responsible about it whatsoever. This is not about money or trying to control the spending of money. This is about control. So Sullivan wants control over thousands of hard-working men and women that have banded together in the form of unions to protect their families against guys like Dan Sullivan.”

Elstun Lauesen, the husband of former Assembley member Harriet Drummond, who is now a statehouse representative for Anchorage, said the Mayor was playing a financial game that was doing more harm than any contracts.

“This Mayor, with the complicity of Miss Frasca, for successive years, brought in budgets under the cap. And when you bring in budgets under the cap, the cap drops. They have created a structural deficit of 28 million dollars.”

Assembly member Honeman asked Laueson for a solution.

“I suggest that you sit down and negotiate in good faith with the working men and women of the municipality and negotiate a contract.”

Cindy Calzada read her brief testimony from a small piece of paper.

“AO37 is a terrible ordinance which begins the destruction the livelihood of working people in this city. More than that, it dishonors and disrespects the memory of all those who fought and died for union rights we have today. With this bill you begin the systematic dismantling of what the working class built over centuries of fighting. You will begin a downward spiral that will put us back to the sixties.”

Ordinance 37 is scheduled for a vote of the Assembly on March 12th.

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The Gastineau Channel Historical Society presents a $5,000 check to organizers of the Empty Chair project in Juneau. On the far right are sisters Mary Tanaka Abo and Alice Tanaka Hikido, whose brother John inspired the proposed memorial to Juneau’s Japanese American internees. Photo by Casey Kelly/KTOO.

A proposed monument in Juneau to Japanese Americans interned during World War II got a big boost last weekend.

The Gastineau Channel Historical Society donated $5,000 to the Empty Chair Project, and a fundraising concert raised nearly $2,000. Organizers have been collecting funds for about a year and need about $6,000 more to meet their $40,000 goal.

Third generation Japanese American violinist Steve Tada and pianist Nancy Nash performed several compositions, including Michio Miyagi’s “Haru no Umi” at the Empty Chair benefit concert on Saturday.

Sisters Mary Tanaka Abo and Alice Tanaka Hikido sat in the front row as honored guests. Alice Tanaka was nine-years-old in 1942 when the entire family was taken from Juneau and placed into internment camps.

“We were identified with the enemy when we were not the enemy at all,” she said.

Brother John Tanaka, who died several years ago, inspired the Empty Chair project. He was valedictorian of Juneau High School’s class of 1942, but could not attend graduation after the family was taken from the Capital City. The school set up an empty chair at the ceremony to acknowledge that John Tanaka was not there.

The memorial will be a slightly larger than life-size bronze replica of the empty chair at Juneau’s Capital School Park, located next to the old Juneau High School. Project organizer Margie Shackleford has been friends with Mary Tanaka since childhood.

“We can’t always redress everything, but we can at least acknowledge that an injustice occurred,” Shackleford said.

The Tanakas’ father, Shonosuke, operated the City Café in downtown Juneau for more than 50 years. In the early 1940s, the territorial capitol was home to about 6,000 residents, and the restaurant was open 24 hours a day to serve miners, fishermen and other laborers.

Alice recalls that federal agents came for her father just a day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

“They took all the men, actually. It wasn’t just my father, but all the immigrant-born men,” she said. “Then shortly after that they were taken away from Juneau. We didn’t know where they were going to be taken to, so, there was a lot of unknown.”

While their father was interned in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Tanaka children and their mother were sent to Camp Minidoka in Idaho, where they would spend the next three years.

“It was a small room that we shared with a pot-bellied stove, and that was our home for the duration of the war,” Alice Tanaka Hikido said.

“And then we had all of our meals in the mess hall, did all of our showering and bathroom needs in what they called the laundry room. So, it was kind of communal living.”

Violinist Tada, whose family lived in the Seattle area, had relatives taken to Camp Minidoka as well.

“They published what was called a ‘Memory Book’ and it has group photos of everybody’s family in front of their barracks,” he said. “And it kind of reads like a school yearbook. They had social clubs, they tried to have dance bands, and morale builders, and they even had Boy Scout troops.”

After the war, the Tanakas returned to Juneau, where Alice says her father re-opened the City Café with community support.

“He had to take a loan out from the bank, and the bank gave him the loan unconditionally,” she remembers. “And suppliers were family friends who told my father that he didn’t have to pay his bills until he had a cash flow that made it possible.”

Seattle artist Peter Reiquam has a design concept for the Empty Chair memorial. Shackleford says it will include the names of all the Japanese Americans taken from Juneau during World War II.

“Plus a Japanese symbol for remembrance and memory, and a text telling a story of the empty chair,” Shackleford said.

With the funds raised at the benefit concert, organizers are confident they’ll be able to dedicate the memorial in the summer of 2014.

• Juneau Empty Chair Project website

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Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum.  In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. The Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them.

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Photo by Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

The Junior North American sled dog championships are underway in North Pole.  Among young mushers competing is a group of middle and high school students who flew in with their dogs from an interior village to race.

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A routine traffic stop in downtown Homer Saturday afternoon turned into an emergency situation when an Alaska State Trooper found a methamphetamine laboratory inside a vehicle.

In a criminal complaint filed at the Homer Courthouse, Trooper David Chaffin wrote that he pulled over a silver 2000 Oldsmobile sedan at about 2:47 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the intersection of Waddell Way and the Sterling Highway, after the driver failed to signal for a right-hand turn.

Chaffin says that when he contacted the driver – 26-year-old Homer resident Timothy Igou – he noticed what appeared to be a handgun on the front seat. A pat down of Igou revealed a glass pipe that the suspect admitted was for smoking methamphetamine, and a small baggie of what the officer suspected was methamphetamine.

Although it’s not detailed in the criminal complaint, Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters says Chaffin soon suspected that Igou was operating a mobile laboratory for making methamphetamine in the vehicle.

“It was determined there was what we felt was a meth lab,” she said. “We have haz-mat crews come in and deal with that because the substances can be very volatile. That’s why the road was closed down for such a length of time.”

The hazardous material crew was called in from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in Anchorage, says Peters, and the area around the Homer Post Office was closed off until 10 p.m. while the crew dismantled the lab.

She says it’s not unheard of for law enforcement officers to find a meth lab that is small and mobile.

“There (are) different ways that people can make methamphetamine,” she said. “They can be small enough to fit in a backpack or they can be large enough to fill up an entire garage.”

Igou was arrested and transported to the Homer Jail, where he is being held without bail. He is charged with Fourth Degree Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance but Peters says further charges are likely pending an ongoing investigation.

According to Alaska Court records, Igou was convicted of Fourth Degree Assault in January and was sentenced to one year in jail, with nine months suspended and credit for time served.

All criminal suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Federal prosecutors say four Anchorage residents have been indicted on multiple charges, including identity theft, for using the identities of people in the prison system to file false income tax returns and get refunds. The four named in the indictment are 46-year-old Steven McComb, 42-year-old Michael Sexton, 47-year-old Paulando Williams and 44-year-old Helen Maloney.

Prosecutors say Sexton had not yet been arrested.

According to prosecutors, the conspirators submitted about 100 false tax returns seeking more than $213,000, of which the U.S. Treasury issued refunds totaling more than $110,000.

With both of Shell Oil’s Arctic drill rigs headed to drydock for repairs, the company says it’s suspending its 2013 drilling season.

Spokesperson Curtis Smith says the New Year’s Eve grounding of the Kulluk drill rig prompted Shell to reassess its plans.

“This was our decision, and our decision alone,” Smith says. “[It was] based on, among other things, our strong desire to incorporate learning from our 2012 operations, and to ensure that our assets and our employees are really prepared to work again in the Arctic in the future.”

Last year’s drilling season was plagued with problems. The company had trouble getting its oil spill containment barge certified. Then the Noble Discoverer nearly ran aground in Unalaska. The year ended with the grounding of the Kulluk in shallow offshore waters near Kodiak.

But Shell did drill the beginnings of two exploratory wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, and it plans to finish those in the future.

Alaska’s congressional delegation hailed the decision to suspend operations as a sign that the company is committed to safety.

Environmental groups also praised the decision, but interpreted it differently. Mike LeVine is senior counsel for the ocean conservation group Oceana.

“This announcement, while it comes as no surprise, reflects a crisis of confidence for the company,” LeVine says. “And the government agencies charged with regulating it.”

The Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the Justice Department are all investigating aspects of Shell’s Arctic operations, but LeVine called for them to go further.

“The government must take this opportunity to reassess the standards that govern the decisions it makes about our Arctic Ocean resources, the way it makes those decisions, and its oversight of multinational companies that are beholden to their bottom line and have shown clearly they are incapable of operating with the care Alaskan waters deserve.”

Shell will continue to do scientific research in the Arctic this summer, and may also try to do some prep work at its drill sites.

In the meantime, the company is focused on getting its damaged rigs to drydock in Asia. The Kulluk started retracing its route back to Unalaska on Tuesday.

Shell hopes to complete the 800-mile journey in less than 10 days, although that’s dependent on weather.

From Unalaska, the massive drill rig will be loaded onto an even more massive ‘heavy-lift’ vessel. That ship will take the Kulluk to dry dock in Asia for repairs.

The Noble Discoverer is still in Seward, but it will also be picked up by a heavy lift vessel in the near future.

APRN’s Annie Feidt contributed reporting to this story.

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This month has been a busy one for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s winter storms reconnaissance project. The agency tracks developing winter storms in the North Pacific with an airplane equipped to eject data gathering instruments into the atmosphere. That data is quickly fed into weather models to help refine the forecasts for potentially damaging storms that will hit Alaska and the Lower 48.

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Alaska’s Redistricting Board is awaiting the outcome of a United State Supreme Court case that could remove some federal restrictions from state redistricting plans. Wednesday, the nation’s highest court heard arguments over whether states with a history of discrimination need to get Department of Justice approval for state voting maps. Although the federal Supreme Court case was brought by an Alabama county, it has implications for Alaska.  The state of Alaska filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs, while the Alaska Federation of Natives filed a brief in support of the federal government.

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Epilepsy, eclampsia, pulmonary hypertension, and sickle cell anemia. Those are all conditions where a low-income woman would still qualify for abortion coverage under a new bill being considered by the Alaska state legislature. But depression, schizophrenia, alcohol dependence and bulimia aren’t on the list. Nor are any other mental heath conditions.

Alaska’s Medicaid program pays for a few hundred abortions each year, and some lawmakers believe that a portion of those might actually be elective and shouldn’t be covered. At a hearing on Wednesday, the Senate judiciary committee considered a bill that provide a strict definition of the term “medically necessary,” and they consulted with a trio of doctors affiliated with the anti-abortion movement on where the line should be drawn.

The three medical professionals invited to testify at the bill’s first hearing laid out their case for why only conditions that endanger a women’s physical health should be covered by Medicaid.

Priscilla Coleman, a psychologist whose research focuses on abortion and depression, called in from Ohio.

“I can say with a reasonable degree of scientific and medical certainty that abortion is a substantial contributing factor in women’s mental health problems,” said Coleman. “Abortion is a particularly risky choice for women with preexisting mental illness.”

Coleman explained that her studies had shown that abortion can correlate with future depression and substance abuse, and for that reason an abortion on mental health grounds shouldn’t qualify for state funding.

But Coleman’s research has come under scrutiny from inside Alaska and beyond. The chair of the Alaska Democratic Party described her and the other doctors invited to testify as “extremists,” and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has previously called Coleman’s research “unreliable.” The American Psychological Association has also found fault with her research linking abortion and mental health issues.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, the lone Democrat on the committee, questioned her on that point.

“All we get from the professional organizations are very biased, very politically driven efforts to summarize what’s available,” Coleman responded.

The other two doctors invited to testify were also supportive of the bill. John Thorp, an obstetrician from North Carolina, said that in the event of major trauma to a women or a fetus, termination of pregnancy short of massive hemorrhaging on the part of the fetus was always an elective procedure. Susan Rutherford, an obstetrician from Washington, provided the committee with a couple of other physical conditions that should be included in the bill, but also rejected the idea of a mental health allowance. Both are listed in the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ directory.

Sen. John Coghill, who chairs the judiciary committee and is the lead sponsor of the bill, said earlier this week that he invited the group to testify to get a medical perspective on the bill since it wasn’t going through the Senate’s health and social services committee. He also said he found the work conducted by the testifiers to be credible.

During the hearing, most of the committee members seemed receptive to the bill, with three of the five members already having signed on as co-sponsors.

But Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, questioned the need for the bill. During the hearing, legislative aide Chad Hutchinson stated that the bill was necessary because its supporters had reason to believe that Medicaid is currently covering elective procedures. Wielechowski pushed him to identify a case where an abortion that was not medically necessary had been funded.

WIELECHOWSKI: Do you have any evidence of any abortions in the state of Alaska that have been paid for by Medicaid that were elective as opposed to being medically necessary.

HUTCHINSON: Sen. Wielechowski, through the chair, I believe the statistics that we quoted show that that is occurring.

Hutchinson did not name a case, but elaborated that Medicaid covers over a third of abortions in the state, and that data from the Guttmacher Institute suggested that a much smaller percentage of abortions performed nationally were done out of medical necessity.

Testimony on the bill continues next week, when Planned Parenthood is invited to testify.

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Most rural Alaska communities use diesel generators to create electrical power. But fuel is expensive, so they’re trying out alternatives.

Yakutat, on the eastern Gulf of Alaska, wants wave power. A project in the works for several years just won a key permit. But it still faces substantial barriers.

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Bikers obliterated a previous course record in this year’s Iditarod Trail Invitational.  The first riders pedaled across the finish line Wednesday morning to complete the 350 mile race between Knik and McGrath.  Four of the race’s top five finishers this year are all cyclists from Alaska.

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Thursday evening, 15 women will be inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Anchorage. The recognition of women’s contributions to the state started in 2008 during the 50th anniversary of statehood.

Former Anchorage Assembly chair and prior year inductee Jane Angvik is on the steering committee. She says women from several service organizations decided the statehood celebration was a good time to honor great Alaskan women.

“How do we make sure that we find the women who have made a difference in Alaska in any field, in any community activities or who made a difference statewide or impacted the nation, from Alaska,” Angvik said.

This is the fifth year of recognizing those contributions. There are 15 women being inducted Thursday evening bringing the total to 110. One of the inductees is Judge Karen Hunt. Judge Hunt was the first female superior court judge appointed in Anchorage in 1984. She was a teacher in Los Angeles schools but decided to go to law school in the 60s. She says things have changed dramatically from the time when the big issue was whether women could work in a private firm.

“Pretty much the federal government was hiring, the state government was hiring and so the entry for many women into the practice of law was in government agencies. But trying to get a job in a private firm, in which you would face the responsibility of meeting face to face with clients was a hurdle that women lawyers were having trouble getting over,” Hunt said.

Judge Hunt was appointed by Governor Bill Sheffield. After years of being a trial attorney, she says the first day she entered court as a judge and everyone stood up. She turned around to see who was behind her and then, embarrassed, realized she was the reason they were standing. She says being inducted into the hall of fame is humbling.

“I have a little trouble thinking that I belong in that group, but I have to tell you that I’m extraordinarily pleased to have been considered and included. It’s, it’s quite humbling,” Hunt said.

Marie Nash is another inductee this year. She is of Aleut and Japanese descent and was born in a Japanese internment camp during World War Two. After college, Nash first worked for Alaska Congressman Howard Pollack. She went on to spend 20 years working for Senator Ted Stevens.

Nash also served on the Bristol Bay Native Association board for more than a decade. From her early beginnings as an American whose rights were stripped because of her heritage to working for a powerful U.S. Senator, Marie Nash is happy to be inducted.

“Well I was surprised and like Judge Hunt, very humbled,” Nash said.

The Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony is Thursday evening at 6 p.m., at the Wilda Marston Theater, in the Loussac Library in Anchorage.

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John Nick Marvin, Jr.

The judge in the John Nick Marvin, Jr. case has turned down a request for a new trial which could have led to a shortened sentence for the murder of two police officers.

Sitka Superior Court Judge David George on Thursday declined to set aside earlier findings that one of the Hoonah police officers was actually in performance of his official duties when he was shot over two years ago.

Judge George also denied a companion motion for a new trial to determine whether Sargent Anthony Wallace was actually performing those duties when he was chatting with a colleague’s children on Front Street in Hoonah.

Public defender Eric Hedland filed the motions following last November’s trial in which Marvin was convicted in the murder of Wallace and Officer Matthew Tokuoka. Both were killed during the August 28, 2010 shooting.

Marvin could be sentenced to anywhere from 20- to 99-years for Tokuoka’s murder, but a straight 99-years for Wallace’s murder because the sentence for a first degree murder of a peace officer is defined in statute.

Wallace, although in uniform, was socializing with the Tokuoka family at the time of the shooting. Hedland argued that was not part of his official duties.

Marvin’s sentencing is still scheduled for April 5th.

Preliminary shuttle ferry deck plans are part of a design concept document released by transportation officials. AMHS image.

New Lynn Canal shuttle ferries will be 280 feet long, seat about 300 passengers and operate no more than 12 hours a day.

Part, but not all, of the car deck may be open. And the ships will have no staterooms or crew quarters.

That’s according to a draft design-concept report prepared for the Alaska Marine Highway System by Anchorage-based Coastwise Corporation.

Officials say it’s one of several steps in the design process for what’s being called the Day Boat-Alaska Class Ferry.The shuttle plan replaces an earlier Alaska Class design that called for a larger vessel that could sail longer routes.

Deputy Transportation Commissioner Reuben Yost says amenities will be limited, including food service.

“What we envision at this point of time is vending machines. So it would be similar to what we have on the fast ferries, in terms of amenities. So there won’t be a cafeteria, there won’t be cooked for but there will be food in machines and drinks in machines most likely,” Yost says.

Hulls and decks will be configured so vehicles can drive in one end and out the other, for quicker loading and unloading.

Yost says the ships could carry 53 large vehicles, but not all would be under cover.

“Essentially the vehicle space for the last 15 vehicles, if the car deck was full, would be in an area that we’re saying potentially could have an open roof,” he says.

Yost says high walls and other design elements will protect against ocean spray. He also says the vehicle deck is usually not full in winter months when wind and waves are at their worst.

Marine Highway General Manager John Falvey says the ships will be designed for Lynn Canal’s harsh conditions. For example, they’ll lack sponsons, which project from the side of the hull.

“It will not have the sponsons forward, which eliminates a lot of the slamming and potentially a very flared … bow which will deflect the spray. We feel that a vessel of these characteristics will have very good sea-keeping ability,” Falvey says.

They would be built to sail at an average speed of 15-and-a-half knots. That’s about the same as other ships in the fleet, except the fast ferries.

The design document estimates the final design could be completed by next November. And officials hope to keep costs within the $117 million put aside by the state.

Falvey says plans are to build two identical vessels.

“The shipyard is, in essence, lofted up and tooled up as far as their particular class of vessel that they’re building. You can throw a lessons learned and experience factor into the second vessel. There are actually many savings we will be able to see on the second vessel if we are able to sign a two-ship contract with the shipyard,” he says.

The draft plan will be presented to the Marine Transportation Advisory Board and the House and Senate Transportation Committees this week.

Opportunities for public comment will come later in the process.