Alaska News

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.

Photo by Daysha Eaton, KSKA – Anchorage

After a decade of review, the Anchorage Assembly passed Title 21 Tuesday night.

Several versions of the Assembly have been revising Title 21, or Anchorage land-use law, for about 10 years. At their regular meeting Tuesday night the current assembly finally approved it, with more than 150 amendments. One major revision was the elimination of all commercial design standards, with an exception for big box stores. Assembly member Bill Starr spoke in support of the amendment.

“And if buildings become ugly, unsafe, unusable, too icy, to slippery, I think tenants won’t move into them. That’s the other motivation there, let the free market do it’s work. I’m gonna support the deletion of this small section and I think the industry can police itself,” Starr said.

The amendment was submitted by Assembly member Chris Birch. It passed 6-5. The design standards that were deleted called for windows that are visible from streets, clear entryways and easier pedestrian access. Municipal planners were in favor of them. Besides Trombley and Birch, Assembly members Bill Starr, Cheryl Frasca, Ernie Hall and Jennifer Johnston voted in favor of the amendment. The Title 21 process began back in the early 2000s and included a chance for the public could weight in on how they wanted the city to grow and develop. It was linked to the city’s recently adopted comprehensive plan, Anchorage 2020, which was meant to serve as a blueprint for 20 years. When Mayor Dan Sullivan came into office he began a review Title 21, using consultants. Critics say the process was directed away from the goals of 2020 and ended up being taken over by special interests.

Another major change was the decision to allow mother-in-law apartments on single family residential lots. Ossiander proposed the amendment. Gray-Jackson spoke out against it.

“This is a real big change and we really need more public discussion on this issue. And to go ahead and approve this amendment right now, I think, disenfranchises our community and I think it’s just simply not fair,” Gray-Jackson said.

The amendment passed 8-3.

Assembly member Patrick Flynn proposed amendments that would have limited invasive plants and trees, but they were shot down. He also proposed an amendment that would have made stream setbacks 50 feet versus 25. Ossiander was concerned that municipal stream-mapping was poor. She said she wanted to wait six months for a study to come out that would provide more information. That didn’t fly with Flynn.

“Jumpin’ Jimminy Cricket on a Pogo stick. We have been working on this for 10 years! Now we want six more months. Please, as much fun as this is, let’s just be done with it,” Flynn said.

There was a an exception for existing homes that were built closer to streams. The amendments was voted down 7-4 with Flynn, Traini, Honeman and Gray-Jackson voting in support of larger setbacks.

Another big issue was lighting. Assembly member Johnston proposed an amendment that allowed lower lighting on some streets in more rural areas. The assembly passed it. Then Mayor Sullivan vetoed it. Some assembly members said lower lighting was more appropriate in rural areas, despite the concerns of attorneys. The Assembly overrode the mayor 8-3, with Traini, Honeman and Gray-Jackson supporting the Mayor.

There was also a push by Trombley for to allow electronic signs to flash messages every two seconds instead of every 20 seconds, but it was voted down.

Former Assembly member and previous Planning Director, Dr. Sheila Selkregg, says the Title 21 passed Tuesday night has taken a U-turn away from the direction of Anchorage 2020. The deletion of commercials design standards, in particular, she says, will have dire consequences for the look and feel of the city.

“It means you can pretty much build any kind of design you want on a building. It can be as ugly and and as cheap as possible and you don’t have to meet any expectations.”

Selkregg says she’s disappointed that the Assembly didn’t listen to the public who turned out in numbers to recent public testimony to ask for a return to a provisionally adopted version of Title 21. She says the passage of the amended version can be attributed to one source.

“Big business owners, big property owners, BOMA, who don’t want to pay taxes, they don’t want to be told what to do — they really want to be able to do anything that they want in this town. They’re demonstrating that they’ve really put energy into political candidates and it’s paying off for them. And I think if the public wants something different, they need to get engaged and elect people that expresses their interests,” Selkregg said.

In the end the Assembly passed Title 21, 9 to 2, with Trombly and Flynn the only nay votes.

• Title 21 Rewrite

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Eighty-five billion dollars in federal budget cuts are set to begin Friday.

The U.S. Senate will debate competing measures to replace the cuts on Wednesday, but neither will become law.

The National Park Service is slated to lose 5 percent of its budget, and that would trickle down to every park in Alaska.

On a conference call Monday afternoon, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar laid out what a 5 percent cut to national park spending would look like.

“Reduced hours of operation for visitors centers, shorter seasons, closing of campgrounds, hiking trails and other recreational areas when there is insufficient staff to ensure the protection of visitors, the staff and resources,” Salazar said.

Salazar was joined by director of the National Park Service, John Jarvis.

Jarvis says a 5 percent cut means fewer seasonal workers, highly skilled workers who fight forest fires and perform search and rescues.

“As a consequence we may be reducing access to some areas because of that concern, if we can’t respond, and we don’t really want the public getting into trouble,” Jarvis said.

To some in Washington, the cuts seem a bit draconian. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski says the White House is selecting cuts that people note.

“Is it a Washington Monument syndrome? Yes it absolutely is,” Murkowski said.

The Washington Monument syndrome – the DC term for cutting tourist attractions and popular government services so people take notice.

It may as well be called the Denali National Park syndrome in Alaska, but it’s unclear whether a 5 percent cut to Denali would affect the day-to-day operations just yet.

“This didn’t sneak up on us by any stretch of the imagination,” Don Striker, the superintendent of Denali, said.

Striker has been on the job about a month, coming north from the New River Gorge in West Virginia. But he’s been with the National Park Service for decades.

“The sequestration planning exercises started early last year,” Striker said.

Though it wasn’t formal, Striker says the Park Service warned him last month he’ll need to present a plan on how to operate at 95 percent.

He was prepared. Striker says Denali is operating at about 80 percent employment now. He hasn’t wanted to fill those positions, fearing the new hires would soon be laid off, or furloughed.

Striker’s 5 percent cut will be absorbed by the vacancies – meaning he won’t hire to full capacity. But he won’t need to furlough anyone either. NPS officials say that’s the case for the entire state.

If furloughs eventually come, they’ll need a 30-day advance notice.

Striker says Denali pumps at least $150 million into the state economy through vendors and seasonal companies – like the buses that take people to see Wonder Lake.

“We can’t get the road open unless we have the seasonal employees we need to plow it open, and because of the nature of the hiring process I need to be deciding by next week which positions I’m going to be hiring,” Striker said. “And I need to be making those job offers in order to get the people here in time to start plowing the roads.”

But there’s a hiring freeze. He says he needs to know which seasonal positions he’ll be able to fill in two weeks, otherwise the May 15 opening date is in jeopardy.

It’s unclear whether Secretary Salazar required other Interior agencies to detail a 5 percent reduction in operating expenses.

Jim Stratton is the regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

“You’re not going to fix America’s budget problems on the backs of the National Park Service,” Stratton said. “It’s 1/14th of 1 percent of the discretionary money in the budget.”

But if the cuts happen, and Congress delays a solution, that small sliver of the budget could help Congress to act.

In the meantime, Denali Superintendent Don Striker says he’s prepared to plow the roads if he has to. But he really doesn’t want to.

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State Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, 24, quickly puts his tie on before heading to a committee meeting on Feb. 14, 2013. The freshman Democrat from Sitka was elected by 32 votes. (KCAW photo by Ed Ronco)

When he ran for the Alaska House last year, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins visited each community in his district, knocking on almost every door. The strategy paid off. The 24-year-old Democrat won a seat in the Legislature by just 32 votes.

And now that he’s been on the job six weeks, it’s becoming clear that Kreiss-Tomkins’ busy campaign schedule wasn’t a sprint, so much as the start of a marathon.

The early morning hours in state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins’ office, on the fourth floor of the Alaska Capitol, are actually pretty calm. Coffee is dripping into a pot near the door, and classical music plays softly from a speaker as staffers Nancy Barnes, Tully McLoughlin and Holly Smith pore over calendars and answer e-mails. The calm does not last long.

Kreiss-Tomkins arrives out of breath and wearing most of his suit — the jacket and tie are waiting for him in his office. There’s a strap around his right ankle to keep his pants free from the chain on the bicycle he rides to work every morning.

Kreiss-Tomkins represents Alaska’s 34th district — a collection of communities in Southeast that include Sitka, Haines, Angoon, Kake, Craig, Kalwock, Metlakatla and more.

Today, the 24-year-old freshman Democrat gets to the Capitol at 7:55 a.m. with two meetings already under his belt: one at 6 a.m., the other at 7:30. Next on the schedule is a committee meeting.

Kreiss-Tomkins puts on his tie and jacket, and dashes down the hall to the staircase. He says the frenetic pace of today is typical.

“Well, there’s not enough time in the building during the business day, so I’ve taken to scheduling 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. morning meetings,” Kreiss-Tomkins says as he walks down the Capitol’s main staircase.

He ducks into the State Affairs committee. Today, it’s a presentation on the health care system for state employees. The rest of the day includes a Fisheries committee meeting on derelict vessels, a minority caucus meeting, a flash mob protesting violence against women, a Transportation Committee meeting, and then a variety of visits with an official from BP, and local elected leaders from Anaktuvik Pass, Haines, Pelican and Sitka, all of whom are in the building today to lobby their lawmakers.

About eight hours later, after running down to the legislator’s lounge for his first food of the day, and then running back up to his office, holding some food he calls “breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he finally has time to sit down and talk.

KCAW: How is having the job different than running for the job?
Kreiss-Tomkins: If I closed my eyes when I was a candidate, I couldn’t picture that I’d be waking up at 5:45 to get down to the 6 a.m. meeting, to get to this, to get to that. Going to the lounge to scrounge some leftovers… none of that would have been in my mind. I never could have pictured that, unless I worked here as a staffer, which I never did.
KCAW: What’s the bigger challenge to the way you’re doing your job? Being a freshman, or being in the minority?
Kreiss-Tomkins: Freshman.
KCAW: Why?
Kreiss-Tomkins: Everything is a learning curve. The biggest divide in this building, from what I’ve seen, is not party affiliation, it’s geography. It’s coastal versus rail belt. Juneau is not Washington, D.C. The biggest surprise I’ve had since coming here — and I very consciously tried not to have expectations before coming here — is how collegial this place is. It’s surprisingly bipartisan. There are very meaningful working relationships.
KCAW: During the campaign, one of the primary arguments not to vote for you was that Southeast would be giving up a lot of power if you were elected. Do you feel that’s happened? How’s that shaken out?
Kreiss-Tomkins: Yeah. Southeast, and coastal Alaska — we think in terms of Southeast Alaska, but really, our compatriots from Kodiak and Bristol Bay and the Y-K Delta are just as important to our cause as we are to theirs — lost a tremendous amount of power. And I would argue, and I think almost everybody in this building would agree, that the biggest powershift was not the defeat of Bill Thomas, who I ran against, but the loss of the Senate coalition.

The Senate’s bipartisan coalition was disbanded after Republicans won more seats in November. Kreiss-Tomkins says that the bipartisan coalition was also the Legislature’s coastal caucus. The three most powerful senators in the last session came from coastal communities: Kodiak, Sitka and Bethel.

In this session, he worries those coastal voices are diminished. And as a freshman in the minority, Kreiss-Tomkins doesn’t have a lot of power in the halls of the Capitol. But he says for now, he’s just focusing on doing his job well.

KCAW: Assuming you do want re-election, what do you hope you can tell people in 2014 at the end of your first term, and how are you going to get there?
Kreiss-Tomkins: I’m running for re-election. I believe good government is good politics. So performing in this job to the fullest extent of my ability and working absolutely as hard and as smart and as effective as I can, is the best way in which I can make a bid to have my job for two more years — another two year lease.
KCAW: This job seems very personal to you.
Kreiss-Tomkins: Deeply personal. You’re representing people. People’s lives. The legislation we pass affects people’s lives. I can’t imagine more heady stuff day-to-day to consider.

Our interview ended around 6 p.m., after which Kreiss-Tomkins went to a budget hearing before boarding a ferry for an overnight sailing to Kake. After that, it was back to Juneau, for the start of another week running through the halls of the Capitol, sometimes literally.

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Last year, chinook salmon runs were so weak that the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, along with Cook Inlet, were designated federal disaster zones. Now, a group of legislators from those regions want to create a permanent endowment that would fund research on the fish.

Rep. Bob Herron of Bethel is the lead sponsor of the endowment bill, and he introduced it before the House fisheries committee on Tuesday. He says that long-term research of chinook is needed to better understand their decline — and the decline of other salmon stocks as well.

“The chinook salmon is a trend species,” says Herron. “In other words, it’s the canary in the coal mine. If there’s things affecting chinook, usually it’s the species that tells us that there are issues within its life environment, and the other salmon species may follow unless we do something about it.”

The endowment fund would be governed by six representatives from different regions of state, along with the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. That board would be responsible for awarding grants to organizations like non-profits and universities studying chinook salmon. The bill doesn’t mandate that any money be put into the endowment, with the idea that it could be funded down the road.

Herron sees the bill as being different from a research plan back by Gov. Sean Parnell. Parnell’s initiative would give Fish and Game a total of $30 million over the next five years to examine and monitor Alaska’s chinook stocks. Herron says he wants to see partnerships with outside organizations, and for the chinook decline to be studied for a longer amount of time than one salmon life cycle.

“That’s where the governor and I part ways, because I’m not so sure that we want to just dump $10 million over the next three years,” says Herron.

This isn’t the first time the legislature has considered creating a chinook research fund. Herron introduced a similar bill last year before the disaster, but it ultimately stalled.

According to state estimates, fishermen suffered over $10 million in damages as a result of the Chinook disaster.

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Studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Government Accounting Office show increasing numbers of Alaskans will be affected by floods and erosion in coming years due to rising waters and extreme weather events. And the studies predict some communities are likely to be destroyed by 2017.

Of those, Newtok is the furthest along in relocating. But an Anchorage human rights attorney says changes are needed so agencies can more effectively help people being dislocated due to the impacts of climate change.

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