APRN Alaska News

Aliy Zirkle greets fans at the ceremonial start of the 2013 Iditarod in Anchorage. Photo by Josh Edge, APRN – Anchorage.

Aliy Zirkle has taken the lead in the 2013 Iditarod. She checked into the Grayling checkpoint at 9:54 a.m. Friday.

Aaron Burmeister and Jake Berkowitz arrived in Grayling about 30 minutes apart, at 11:06 a.m. and 11:37 a.m., respectively.

Martin Buser and Sonny Lindner round out the top-5, and are on the 18 mile run from Anvik to Grayling.

Buser is the only one of the five leaders who has taken both the mandatory 8-hour and 24-hour layovers.

All five have completed the 24-hour layover.

Anchorage School District Superintendent Jim Browder was not chosen to lead Des Moines Public Schools.

Anchorage School District Superintendent Jim Browder. Photo by Daysha Eaton, KSKA – Anchorage.

Browder was in the top-3 candidates for the position and went through his final interview with the district on March 6.

The Des Moines School Board opted to go with Thomas Ahart, who had been serving as the interim superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools since May 2012.

• Resignation Looms For ASD Superindendent

Combining extreme geography with extreme temperature is the specialty of Alaska science writer Bill Streever.  He has been on the North Slope when it was too cold to fly, and he has walked on fire.

HOSTS:

• Steve Heimel

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• Bill Streever, author of “Heat”
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LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

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TALK OF ALASKA ARCHIVE

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, known for his wit and willingness to cut deals with both parties, wanted one key answer:

“I see that you have worked on the Alaska pipeline, that you’re an oil and gas engineer, you said you’ve actually fracked a gas well. You were a banker for 19 years. You’re the chief executive of a billion dollar company. How’d you get appointed by this administration?”

Ms. Jewell spent the morning and part of the afternoon defending the administration’s positions on climate change, public lands and fossil fuels.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the committee made clear, the spat over a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge would not be an issue at the hearing.

She said outgoing Secretary Ken Salazar needs to address the issue before leaving office.

Instead, Senator Murkowski sought to pin down Ms. Jewell on the often dueling roles of the Department.

“We need you to affirm that public lands provide not just a playground for recreational enthusiast, as important as that is, but also paychecks for countless energy producers, miners, ranchers, loggers,” she said in her opening statement.

Senator Murkowski said she worries about Ms. Jewell’s environmental leanings, she serves on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association; that she’ll put conservation in front of energy production.

Ms. Jewell had a ready answer.

“Many people that enjoy the outdoors, they jump in a car to get there. It requires fuel,” she said. “Many of the products are industry produces are produced in some way or another with materials that derive from fossil fuels.”

Most on the committee sought commitments on parochial issues in their state; some with wider appeal.

Would she commit to pursuing more oil and gas development on public lands?

“We’re blessed with many resources on federal lands, and certainly leaning in to domestic oil and gas production is an important part of the mission of, particularly the Bureau of Land Management, but also the Department of the Interior,” she said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked her if she believed in climate change.

“There is no question in my mind that climate change is real, and the scientific evidence is there to back it up,” she responded.

On other issues, like revenue sharing for offshore oil drilling, she avoided an answer like a seasoned politician:

“I certainly have heard from a number of senators about this issue. And if I’m confirmed in this role, I look forward to better understanding the issues by different states, and hopefully bringing it to an appropriate resolution.”

Ms. Jewell seemed to satisfy most Democrats on the panel, and some Republicans.

Hanging over the hearing was Senator Murkowski’s threat to filibuster the nomination.

Ms. Jewell made overtures to Senator Murkowski; saying they both worked on TAPS in some form, that she spent years as the lead banker for the NANA Corporation, that she supports Arctic drilling, so long as it’s done safely.

Ms. Jewell’s home state senator, Maria Cantwell, lent a hand.

“This nominee has probably had more experience dealing with Alaska in a variety of ways in anybody we’ve seen since Alaska Governor Hickel served in this position 40 years ago,” Senator Cantwell said in her introduction of Ms. Jewell.

Ms. Jewell needs to pass a committee vote before the full Senate can debate the nomination. No vote is scheduled yet.

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State agencies no longer need a Department of Environmental Conservation permit to use herbicides and pesticides on state property and rights of way. That’s unless it’s sprayed from an aircraft or directly into water. The DEC recently did away with the public review and permitting requirement for using the chemicals on state land. The agency called the permit process “burdensome” and said was not commensurate with the risk. Critics say that by eliminating public oversight, the DEC is endangering human health as well as fish and wildlife habitat.

Until now, the Alaska Railroad, the Department of Transportation and other state agencies had to get a DEC permit if they planned to treat their property, like roads or other rights-of-way, with herbicides or pesticides. The permit process meant they had to provide a detailed plan that went out for public review, comment and sometimes public hearings as well. Other state and federal agencies could also weigh-in before the DEC decided whether to issue a permit and those decision could be appealed. Permits are still required for spraying directly on water or by aircraft. The DEC says that’s because the increased risk of harm to public health and the environment warrants closer review.

However, the agency has eliminated that public and government review process for land-based pesticide use.

Pamela Miller, Director of the group Alaska Community Action on Toxics, calls that decision a serious breach of the public’s trust.

“Many of our roadways and certainly the railbelt are located in close proximity to drinking water sources, places where people fish, gather greens and berries. And to simply remove public notification and the right of the public to participate in decisions about these herbicides and pesticides is a very serious assault on our democracy,” she says.

The DEC changes come at a time when the legislature has eased restrictions on cruise ship waste and Governor Sean Parnell has asked the Department Natural Resources and other agencies to look at ways of making their permitting processes more efficient.

According to Miller, out of nearly 150 public comments, only a couple individuals and state agencies supported the DEC’s regulation changes. She says a couple were neutral and the rest were opposed. Her group has asked lawmakers to take a closer look at the issue:

“We do think this is a violation of rights and interests here that are grounded in the constitution of our state and these cannot be taken away. These are rights that can’t be taken away without due process. That includes notification, our right to know and the opportunity to be heard on decisions that can affect our health and well-being.”

Miller points out that if the DOT, for example, decided to spray herbicides on land along the roadways in southeast, they could do so without public review and comment, regardless of potential runoff into drinking water sources, salmon streams or other particularly sensitive areas.

That’s not just a hypothetical situation. In a letter supporting the proposed regulation changes last summer, DOT Special Programs Manager Dan Breeden wrote that the agency had a direct interest because they intended to, “….apply herbicides in our rights-of-way, airports, and at some facilities.” The agency has used only mechanical means to clear brush for more than 20 years according to Breeden, who described several goals for vegetation control including highway vehicle safety, better visibility for pedestrians, bicyclists and animals along the road and better drainage.

Similar comments came in from the Alaska railroad, which said it, “….must apply herbicides to its right-of-way and other track-related facilities to address serious safety concerns and regulatory requirements related to the growth of vegetation…..”

While those agencies will no longer need a permit to use herbicides, the DEC says they will still have to publish public notices in a newspaper 30 days before the chemicals are applied.

“They do have to do public notice that they’re doing this so people are aware of what their plans are and can, you know, choose to avoid the area or what have you. They also have to notify DEC so we have the opportunity to inspect the application if we decide we need to.” says Bob Blankenburg, DEC Solid Waste and Pesticides Program manager.

Blankenburg says the permitting process was a problem for state agencies dealing with what he calls time-sensitive pest-management issues, “…such as invasive weeds along right of ways and in a lot of cases the inability to treat those promptly results in the weeds spreading and creating a greater problem that either needs to be addressed in the future or is not able to be addressed.”

In its written response to public comments on the issue, the DEC emphasized the federal government’s registration and labeling requirements for pesticides and maintained that the Environmental Protection Agency’s analysis of each product was, “sufficient to protect human health and the environment from unreasonable adverse effects.”

Instead of a permit, the new state regulations call for an Integrated Pest Management Plan that must be followed before pesticide and herbicide applications can occur on state-owned lands. According to Blankenburg, that requires agencies to evaluate the extent of the problem and how it should be addressed, “And then consider non-chemical means first before they choose chemical means. So, in some cases that could result in them doing that analysis and choosing not to use herbicides or pesticides.”

But, since no permit is required, that decision would be left up to the agency that’s considering the use of herbicides, not the DEC.

Anchorage Representative Les Gara was among those who submitted comments opposing the changes. He calls the integrated pest management plan requirement meaningless.

“It doesn’t do anything in terms of making sure we protect our fishing streams, nothing substantial. You can still spray pesticides along a fishing stream and according to DEC, that’s OK without any public comment at all. You can still spray in an area where…..it might be a vein that leads to somebody’s water-well, DEC won’t know. You might spray in an area where kids play or families hike. DEC won’t know,” says Gara.

He says his office is considering legislation on the issue.

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The Alaska Railroad is cutting more than 50 jobs in an effort to trim the corporation’s costs as federal grants and revenue decline sharply.

About half of the jobs are already vacant. Christopher Aadnesen is President of the Alaska Railroad. He says the cuts will come from all areas of the company, but more than 1/3 of the jobs lost are in management.

“Maybe the best way to explain it is to give you an example, my direct reports have gone from 13 to 6 and we’ve taken out lots of management positions, many of them senior management positions,” Aadnesen said.

Aadnesen says one of the company’s main revenue sources comes from shipping coal, but the railroad is operating just two coal trains a week, down from four last year, because the international coal market has weakened. Grant funding from the Federal Transit Administration has also declined sharply. Combine that with an unfunded federal mandate to implement a new safety system and Aadnesen says it adds up to a $45 million hit to the corporation.

Besides the job cuts, Aadnesen says the railroad is trimming millions of dollars by conserving fuel, changing the way it maintains vehicles, and reforming other out of date practices.

“So we have changed the company so it looks very different from the inside, but shouldn’t look different from the outside, to passengers, freight shippers, the public, hoping that as we go forward we will be nimble enough and lowered the cost base of the company enough where we can weather additional storms that may come along while we look for and hope for revenue increases to come back to get us out of this challenge,” Aadnesen said.

Since 2009, the railroad has cut nearly 300 positions out of a workforce of about 900 employees.

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A jury today ruled in favor of the City of Homer and three Homer Police officers who were accused of acting recklessly during a 2006 shootout at the Homer Airport.

The eight-member jury decided not to award any money to the plaintiff, Cherry Dietzmann, who had sought 23-million dollars in compensation for severe injuries caused to her son, Jason Anderson, Jr.

The case stems from a chaotic scene that unfolded at the airport when U.S. Marshalls, working with Homer Police and Alaska State Troopers, attempted to apprehend 31-year-old Jason Anderson, Sr., a wanted drug felon from Minnesota who had fled to Homer.

The marshals lured Anderson to the airport after convincing him there was a problem with his rented Jeep Cherokee. When police cornered him, he pulled a handgun and three Homer Police officers returned fire. Anderson, Sr. was killed during the resulting shootout and his then-two-year-old son, Jason Anderson, Jr., was shot in the head. The boy lost sight in one eye and suffered brain damage that has required 24-hour medical care ever since.

Dietzmann’s attorneys said in court that she had warned the marshals that Anderson was armed and had threatened to hurt his own children. Attorneys also refuted findings from the state medical examiner, claiming that the bullet that hit Anderson, Junior had been fired by Homer Police Officer William Hutt and not by Anderson, Sr.

In 2011, Dietzmann settled a separate lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals for $3.5 million dollars. Homer City Attorney Thomas Klinkner says the city tried to reach a settlement with Dietzmann but to no avail.

The jury reached its verdict Tuesday afternoon, following a month-long trial.

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Photo by Dave Bendinger, KDLG – Dillingham

A Dillingham couple attempted to set a new world record yesterday. They believe they have built the most air-tight house on the planet. KDLG’s Dave Bendinger stopped by as they prepared to test that theory.

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The hill where the University of Alaska Fairbanks sits is again being recognized by its Athabascan name.  A Native elder is calling it an important first step toward restoring many Athabascan place names around Fairbanks.

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Around this time of year, Juneau is known for the bustle of the legislative session — the committee hearings, the press conferences, and the many, many floor speeches. But after hours, some members of the capital gang can be found making noise of a different variety.

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Iditarod, the namesake of the dogsled race to Nome, doesn’t get a lot of visitors, and there is very little left standing that alludes to the gold rush-era importance the town once had, but it was once a bustling hub on the Historic Iditarod Trail that many prospectors journeyed through as they searched for the riches Alaska had to offer,  In the summer of 2011, APRN’s Josh Edge and KSKA’s Kristin Spack had a chance to go out to the ghost towns of Iditarod and Flat, located about 10 miles apart, with Kevin Keeler, from the Bureau of Land Management. Here’s a sneak peak inside Iditarod and once of it’s focal points, the N.C. Store.

Martin Buser at the 2013 Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage. Photo by Patrick Yack, APRN – Anchorage.

Martin Buser has regained the lead in the 2013 Iditarod. After just under five hours of rest at the checkpoint, Buser left Iditarod at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday to begin a 55-mile jaunt to Shageluk.

Lance Mackey, Sonny Lindner, Jeff King and Aaron Burmeister remain at the Iditarod checkpoint.

Buser and Burmeister have taken taken the  mandatory 24-hour layover.

ASD Superintendent Jim Browder is currently interviewing for the superintendent position with the Des Moines Public School District. Screenshot from DMPStv.

Anchorage School District Superintendent Jim Browder is currently in the interview process for the superintendent job with Des Moines Public Schools. He is one of three finalists for the position.

Video from Des Moines Public Schools 

Lance Mackey was the first musher to reach the race’s namesake checkpoint of Iditarod. He checked in at 8:36 p.m. Wednesday.

Sonny Lindner arrived at the checkpoint shortly after 10:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Former champions Jeff King and Martin Buser arrived in Iditarod on Thursday morning, checking in at 1:06 a.m. and 9:02 a.m., respectively.

Of the four mushers in Iditarod, Buser is the only one who has taken his mandatory 24-hour layover.

Ramey Smyth leaves Willow at the beginning of the 2013 Iditarod. Photo by Rhonda Edge.

As Iditarod teams spread out on the trail, lead dogs will start to prove themselves.  It’s up to mushers to make sure their leaders remain healthy at the front of the team.  As KUAC’s Emily Schwing reports, that’s no small feat.

The wind picked up along the Takotna River as Aaron Peck blew through the checkpoint.  Peck is coming off a 24 hour rest in McGrath.  He’s pleased with his lead dogs.

“They’re both three years old, so they’re just entering their prime and loving the trip,” Peck said.

But dogs are tricky.  Brent Sass had to drop two of his main leaders back in Rainy Pass.  Now, he’s thinking of other ways to run his team.

“When you don’t have your main dogs, especially those that can run on the coast, it can be challenging for them, so try everybody up there, switch ‘em around and see who does best in what conditions,” Sass said.

Dropping a leader in Takotna or Ophir may be in the cards for Mike Williams, Jr. of Bethel.

“I don’t want to drop him.  If I carry him now and try him out after that rest, he’ll have a little over 30 hours and maybe he can make it to Nome,” he said.

The young veteran says he’s not ready to make any major decisions.  But major decisions were made for Ramey Smyth.  He says a vet forced him to leave a very experienced lead dog back in Skwentna.

“His name was Barley, he was a perfect dog, immaculate health.  He should be here helping the team.  He’s a leader.  I’m sure he misses the fact that he’s not here.  I miss him,” Smyth said.

It was a move Smyth didn’t agree with.  He was still stewing over the incident as he furiously bootied up his dogs in Takotna.  He says he’s trying not to let it get to him.

“Yep! Gets you off on the wrong foot.  Now, I’m doing great and I’ve got a very positive attitude, but I want official action against those vets,” Smyth said.

Smyth requested an official apology from race veterinarians.  He’s also requesting official action from the Race Marshall.

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For the past two days, the House Finance Committee has heard testimony on what it should cut from the operating budget and, especially, what it shouldn’t. Opposition has been especially vocal when it comes to an $8.4 million reduction in behavioral health funding.

Kathi Collum serves on the board of Juneau Youth Services, an organization that receives state grants. Her son also received treatment there.

As a child, my oldest son was a little bit difficult, the proverbial wild child. As he grew into his teens, it escalated to the point where we began to fear for our own safety. At that point we took him for an assessment to Juneau Youth Services, and he was diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder,” Collum said.

Collum urged the finance committee to keep funding for behavioral and mental health at the levels set by the governor’s budget. She says that the money spent on her son benefitted him — and the state.

“I feel that a year at Miller House is what prevented my son from becoming another faceless number in an overcrowded prison system,” Collum said.

The $8.4 million cut isn’t from any specific program: It’s getting rid of a pot of money that hasn’t actually been allocated. The concern is that by removing it from the budget, it could lower the base funding level for behavioral health in future years.

Rep. Lindsey Holmes, an Anchorage Republican, says that the committee is focused on tightening the budget in the face of a deficit, but that they are taking the public’s testimony very seriously.

“We hope people keep in mind that I know that there are certain changes that have been made to the budget that have a lot of people concerned. It is a long process. This is one of the very early stages,” Holmes said.

The finance committee is expected to start taking amendments on budget as soon as Monday.

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South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told the story of Alice Boland to make his case. She was charged in 2005 of threatening to kill members of Congress and then President George W. Bush.

“In 2013 this young lady, who is paranoid schizophrenic, plead not guilty by reason of insanity to kill the president of the United States,” Graham said at a Wednesday press conference. She “was admitted to a mental health treatment facility, found by a federal court to be a risk to herself and others, went to Walterboro, South Carolina in February of this year, and legally purchased a firearm.”

Boland took that gun to a school, where she was unable to fire a shot.

Senator Graham labeled Boland one of the 14,000 in his state who have been through federal courts, or other adjudicative bodies, and yet managed to pass federal background checks.

Senator Begich said he does not know how many people fit that qualification in Alaska, but he estimated the number to be in the thousands.

“Dangerous people can fall through the cracks in part because the background check system lacks a clear definition of mentally incompetent,” he said.

The bill defines who would be barred from owning a gun because of mental illness: people who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, people who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals, people who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case.

The seemingly noncontroversial bill does not address universal background checks. That’s something Senator Begich said gives him heartburn; he said it’s unrealistic to require background checks in remote villages.

Both Senator Graham and Begich oppose an assault weapons ban. So does Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Arkansas and cosponsor of this new bill.  And Jeff Flake, the final cosponsor, said he’d have a hard time supporting a new ban.

Senator Begich said they’re trying to move legislation lawmakers can agree on.

“We’re finding a piece of the puzzle that you can get a fairly strong bipartisan support on. We don’t want to get caught up on all the other issues, but let’s try to move forward and make some difference,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

Those other issues, like the assault weapons ban, will get their time in the spotlight Thursday morning when the Senate Judiciary Committee marks them up.

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Three days into the Iditarod, the race is still anyone’s game. And the mushers are keeping it interesting this year. Martin Buser completed his 24 hour layover early in the race. Lance Mackey and Sonny Linder appear to be embracing the opposite strategy…  making their way down the trail to the Iditarod Checkpoint, which is also the official half way marker in the race.  But many of the veteran mushers decided to stick to a plan they know, resting in the popular 24 layover village of Takotna.

Snow fell on Martin Buser’s team as he cruised into Takotna and dropped his snowhook.  He only planned to stay long enough to drop two dogs and snack the remaining 14.

As the four-time champion switched dogs around, he chatted and sang to them.

But he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone else.

“Let me do my work.  This is probably not the best time to chat.”

He sped off eight minutes after arriving. Buser made an extraordinary early run into Rohn, where he claimed his mandatory 24 hour layover.   12-time finisher Aliy Zirkle says she usually stops in Takotna.

“Takotna’s pretty lush for the mushers as well as the dogs.  It’s exactly like a 300 mile race into it.”

The Iditarod is in its 41st year.  But only in the last 15 has it become standard practice to claim 24 hours rest in at the 300 mile mark.

“So you can get a pretty good view of your team as far as 300 miles and then assess your situation.”

Martin Buser’s strategy is one many mushers used to execute, albeit with a whole lot more rest.

27 teams were snuggled under blankets and bedded down in straw as Buser sped through the race’s eighth checkpoint.  Over the last two days, they’ve all been travelling relatively close together.

“Oh I love it, because over the next 34 hours of leaving here, it won’t be like that anymore.”

John Baker holds the race record.  This is his 17th Iditarod.

I have a team that’s doing just fine right now, so I choose to let them try and do what they think they need to do, because I know what I am dong can work, so I’ll stick with what I know works.”

There are mushers who, like Martin Buser, sped through Takotna to find resting places elsewhere.  Jason Mackey plans to bed his team down in Iditarod.  Lance Mackey says his plan is to head all the way into Anvik. Jake Berkowitz is currently in Ophir resting his team until early Thursday morning.

John Baker says he appreciates all the strategies mushers have for resting on the trail.

“It’s so neat first of all Martin competing and doing something different and making things happen.  I absolutely love that.  He’s probably the most experienced musher in the field so anything he does is going to demand a lot of respect, which it should.

16 time finisher Paul Gebhardt says even though mushers are only a third of the way into the race, there is some method to the seeming madness in Takotna.

The first 300 miles is probably the toughest 300 miles as far as conditions go physical condition for the dogs and when you leave here you’re going uphill so your dog team doesn’t just take off and start loping or something stupid you know they can’t go that fast going uphill so it lets ‘em have time to work out the lactic acid in their body,.”

Gebhardt also sees the next run to Ophir as a sort of insurance policy.  If one of his dogs has a problem, it’s not so bad to carry it twenty miles.  Once teams leave Ophir, they have another 80 miles before the hit the Iditarod checkpoint.

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Delegates in Thailand are scheduled to decide Thursday whether to increase protections for polar bears under an international treaty that regulates trade of endangered species. The United States is proposing to upgrade the polar bear listing to the highest level of protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speices, or CITES. If it passes, it will ban international commercial trade of polar bear fur and other parts. Bruce Woods is a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.

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More than 60 people showed up for a second public hearing in Fairbanks last night on a proposal that could permit mining in the White Mountain National Recreation Area. And like last month’s meeting, most strongly encouraged the Bureau of Land Management to maintain a current ban on mining.

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