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The three candidates for U.S. Senate in November’s general election shared familiar political stances on Southeast Alaska issues during an hour-long forum at the Southeast Conference in Ketchikan on Sept. 13. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, emphasized accomplishments such as securing billions in federal infrastructure funds largely designated for ferries; Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka attacked President Joe Biden in nearly every answer and called less federal intrusion the path to regional growth; and Democratic c...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate race in Alaska has suspended his campaign, hoping not to divide the GOP vote during the general election by throwing his support to a fellow Republican backed by former President Donald Trump. Buzz Kelley, who finished fourth in the primary race, said his motivation for suspending the campaign on Sept. 12 came after Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in the special general election for the state’s U.S. House seat left vacant with the death in Mar...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined a group of other Republican governors in signing a letter to President Joe Biden opposing a recent move to forgive some student loan debt to eligible Americans. Biden announced his administration would relieve $10,000 to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for recipients making less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 as a household. In the Sept. 12 letter, Dunleavy and 21 other governors asked the president to withdraw the plan and criticized it as being burdensome to taxpayers and Americans who did not...
Eligible Alaskans will receive a $3,284 check, which includes the annual Permanent Fund dividend and a one-time energy relief payment, starting Sept. 20. Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the exact amount of the payments during a live stream last Thursday at a grocery store in Palmer, highlighting, he said, why the check is needed to help Alaskans cope with high grocery bills and energy prices. This year’s check breaks down into a dividend amount of $2,622 per person and an energy relief payment of $662, the Dunleavy administration confirmed. A...
The Wrangell Medical Clinic expects to receive doses of the new COVID booster this week or next, according to Randi Yancey, medical office coordinator at the clinic. Both the Pfizer and Moderna boosters will be available once the shipment arrives. The bivalent booster provides an immune response that is “broadly protective” against COVID-19, the Delta variant, and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant, according to a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release. As the original coronavirus has mutated over time, the ori...
Issues with lingering supply chain disruptions that started with the COVID-19 pandemic have put hunters and gun enthusiasts in a bind. Though there are signs that ammunition shortages are on the decline, stores in Southeast - and nationwide - are still having trouble getting stocked up, leading shooters to go on the hunt for ammo or to create their own. Last month, Mike White, manager of Sentry Hardware, was still waiting on a $75,000 ammo order he had placed in January. He said incoming stock...
Young Alaskans seeking to break into commercial fishing face a lot of the same barriers that confront young farmers in the Lower 48 states, but they have far fewer resources to help overcome those barriers, according to newly published research. A study by Alaska experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argues that the fishing industry and the communities that depend on fishing should have support similar to that offered to young farmers. "The sheer scale, depth, and...
Now that in-person school is available, the Wrangell homeschool community has shrunk to roughly pre-pandemic levels, though community awareness of alternative education options has increased. Homeschool education, which has been growing steadily nationwide since the 1970s, experienced a massive popularity boost in 2020, as families who were dissatisfied with their children’s Zoom classes explored other possibilities. While the percentage of homeschooled children nationwide was holding steady at around 3% before the pandemic, that number rose t...
A dream that started eight years ago smoothly sailed into reality in August. Last month, Muddy Water Adventures introduced the newest addition to its fleet: A 38-foot-long catamaran dubbed Island Cat. The new boat is the realization of owner Zach Taylor's nearly decade-long dream. "About eight years ago, I got passed by two of these boats that are smaller than (my new one) in front of town," Taylor said. "I was slogging along in five-foot waves in a jet boat, and they passed me, and the (pilot)...
The blood-type diets and elaborate self-care routines of the wellness industry offer an individualized view of health, where sicknesses and cures begin and end within a single person’s body. However, for Meda DeWitt, Tlingit traditional healer, wellness is intrinsically linked to community. DeWitt began her presentation at the Sharing Our Knowledge conference in Wrangell last Friday with a discussion of intergenerational health. “Prolonged exposure to stress changes the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of a person,” she explained, and t...
When Steve Brown, researcher and master carver, looks at totem poles, he sees details: the quality of the formline design, the subtle curves around a jaw, lip or eyelid, the amount and placement of any weathering or decay, the tiny, intricate figures hiding behind a bear’s ear or sitting on its shoulder, and the composition’s place within the continuum of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art history. Last Thursday, Brown visited Wrangell to present his research on the island’s totem poles as part of the Sharing Our Knowledge conference. His lectu...
Last Saturday at the Sharing Our Knowledge Conference, a “Break the Silence” panel discussion highlighted a wide range of perspectives on and experiences with Alaska Native boarding schools. Some panelists identified with the term “boarding school survivor;” others did not. Some lost their language while attending a church- or government-run institution; others did not. Even the act of recounting boarding school experiences, while healing for some, was exhausting for others. “We have different experiences. We’re different people,” sa...
Three years after adopting a pricing plan that adds a surcharge for passenger, vehicle and stateroom fares on popular sailings, the Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to suspend the program for its fall/winter schedule. The ferry system’s “dynamic pricing” added 5% to 50% to ticket prices, depending on the percentage of a ship’s capacity already booked — similar to airlines raising prices as flights fill up. The Alaska Department of Transportation announced the decision last Friday to suspend the surcharges. “Dynamic pricing works when...
It only took one week in mid-August to demolish five vessels that were impounded by the harbormaster over the course of 10 years. Typically, the number of impounded vessels to be destroyed and shipped out isn’t so high, but the demolition funds weren’t in the budget and the vessels had to wait, said Harbormaster Steve Miller. Since taking the helm two years ago, Miller has “been adding more and more money into our derelict vessel fund because also that money isn’t used for crushing boats and shipping them out,” he said. “It’s also in case...
Twenty-six places in Alaska received a new name Sept. 8 as part of the Interior Department’s initiative to remove a derogatory word for Indigenous women — a change that affects more than 650 sites and geographic features across the country. Of those, 26 sites are in Alaska. The official name change process has been almost a year in the making. In November 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland unveiled an order to remove the word squaw, a slur for Native women, from federal lands. Many Indigenous organizations, including the Alaska Fed...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last Friday vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum age to purchase and legally possess tobacco products from 19 to 21 years old. The bill also included a tax on electronic smoking products that contain nicotine, which is what Dunleavy took issue with. Currently, Alaska has a cigarette tax of $2 per pack. Other tobacco products, like cigars, are taxed at 75% of the wholesale price. Electronic smoking products like vape pens that contain nicotine are not subject to tax at the statewide level, though some...
It’s been more than 60 years since “The Sound of Music” debuted on Broadway and more than 20 years since Wrangell staged a community play, and organizers hope that the years have not diminished the appeal of either. Auditions for a community production of the famous musical will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20 and 21 at the Nolan Center. The performance is planned for the first weekend of December, said Cyni Crary, Nolan Center director. She and Tom Jenkins are the organizers of the theatrical production. “We’ve had a huge interest,” Crary said...
Democratic candidate for governor Les Gara and independent candidate former governor Bill Walker said that the best candidate is the one who shows up for public forums. The two had the stage to themselves at a Sept. 7 event sponsored by the Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce. The other two candidates did not attend. Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy was absent, as was Republican Charlie Pierce, who last month resigned his job as Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor at the request of the borough assembly after an investigation determined...
Grants totaling $12.4 million for Southeast Alaska projects ranging from a greenhouse in Yakutat to workforce development in forestry-related fields in Hydaburg were announced Sept. 6 by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the final portion of $25 million in Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy Investment Projects announced this year. Vilsack, in an online news conference with Alaska Native and other regional leaders, said the awards are intended to maximize the area’s sustainability and self-reliance through its n...
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, one of four candidates for Alaska governor, was asked to resign as mayor after an investigation determined a harassment complaint against him was credible. Pierce, a Republican, announced on Aug. 26 that he would resign as mayor at the end of September to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. He has refused to discuss reports that his resignation was motivated by a harassment complaint filed by a borough employee. Members of the Kenai Borough Assembly, who were briefed about the complaint on Aug. 23,...
A statewide coalition of fisheries and economic development organizations, led by the Southeast Conference, has won a $49 million federal grant to help build up Alaska’s mariculture industry. “This is a moon shot,” Robert Venables, executive director of the Southeast Conference, said of the challenges ahead and the potential rewards of growing the industry to raise and harvest shellfish and seaweed in larger commercial quantities. “It’s a big deal,” said Wrangell’s Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development F...
Less frequent service and the loss of about 6,000 ferry travelers a year over the past decade has cut deeply into Wrangell’s visitor industry. “People view Wrangell as hard to get to,” and the significant cuts to state ferry service perpetuate that image, said Marjy Wood, owner of Tyee Travel. After ferry service dropped from several port calls a week 10 years ago to one a week and developed dependability issues, travelers have booked ferries less frequently, she said. “It’s hard to schedule (trips) very far in advance and feel comfortab...
Two of the races on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot are contested: There are two candidates for mayor and three candidates to fill two three-year terms on the borough assembly. The other three races on the ballot — for port commission, a one-year school board term and two three-year school board seats — are all uncontested. Absent a surprising write-in turnout, the candidates on the ballot will win those elections. Patty Gilbert and Terry Courson are competing to succeed Mayor Steve Prysunka, who decided not to seek reelection to a thi...
Twenty years ago, the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska asked the Portland Art Museum to return nine objects that were taken from the Naanya.aayí clan in Wrangell almost 100 years ago. Among them are a mudshark hat and shirt, killer whale stranded on a rock robe, killer whale hat, killer whale with a hole wooden fin, killer whale flotilla Chilkat robe, two mudshark shirts, and a headdress the clan says was captured from the Tsimshian during a battle near the mouth of...
Items 1-3: X’átgu S’aaxw/mudshark hat; X’átgu Koodás’/mudshark shirt; Ditlein X’oow/killer whale stranded on a rock robe. According to Portland Art Museum records, former Schools Superintendent Axel Rasmussen obtained the hat and shirt in 1930 from a family member of Chief Shakes VI who died in 1915, and in 1934 he obtained the robe from another family member in Wrangell. According to oral traditional information presented by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, these items were removed by Wrangell police after the de...
