Category: Alaska News

The Alaska House of Representatives advanced a bill Wednesday that aims to address a lack of oversight for minors treated at psychiatric facilities in Alaska. The bill would mandate an annual report on conditions and treatment at such facilities from the state’s Health Department, as well as unannounced biannual inspections.

Rep. Maxine Dibert, D-Fairbanks and the bill’s sponsor, said the measure is a necessary step to increase accountability around the treatment of minors in psychiatric hospitals in the state, amid constituent concerns. 

“These are not sweeping mandates, they are basic expectations of transparency, of communication and accountability of our youth here in Alaska,” she said on Wednesday.

The bill passed the House of Representatives with 37 yes votes. Three legislators were absent. It has been transmitted to the Senate for consideration.

The bill would also guarantee patients confidential telephone or video communication with a parent or guardian for two hours per week and require the Department of Health to notify a patient’s parent or legal guardian when seclusion or restraint is used within 72 hours. 

The annual report would include information about the total uses of seclusion or restraint, findings of facility inspections and data on the number of minors who received residential care at psychiatric hospitals.

Dibert cited a 2004 investigation by the Disability Law Center of Alaska that found 261 episodes of seclusion and restraint over three months in psychiatric institutions, which the organization called “quite high.”

The United States Department of Justice issued a report in December 2022 that found that Alaskan youth are institutionalized in psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric residential treatment facilities at higher rates and for longer periods than minors in other states as a result of a lack of available and accessible community-based mental health services, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage and Chair of the House Health and Social Services Committee, voiced her support for the bill and drew attention to a finding by the DOJ that identified gaps in community-based services in Alaska.

Community-based services include home-based family treatment for early intervention services, intensive case management and crisis services, according to the DOJ.

“We have to face the reality that many of these kids are in these institutionalized settings because we have underinvested in our home and community based services in this broader continuum of care,” Mina said. 

“The dearth of community-based services in Alaska is so pronounced and widespread that institutional placement has become, for many behavioral health service providers in the state, the default option to which they refer children with long-term behavioral health need,” DOJ investigators wrote in 2022.

According to the DOJ, more than 800 Alaskan children received behavioral health services in a psychiatric institution in 2020. Approximately a third of the patients were Alaska Native and parents reported to the DOJ concerns about separating their children from their culture while in residential treatment. In addition to four psychiatric residential treatment facilities in Alaska, the state sends children to 17 out of state psychiatric residential treatment facilities. 

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, told legislators that the bill provides oversight and accountability that legislators are expected to institute.

The bill received support from the Alaska Federation of Natives, Lives in the Balance, a nonprofit that advocates for the fair treatment of children, Dot Lake Village, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organization that aims to eradicate abuse in mental health settings, and Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association.

The Department of Health estimated in a fiscal note that it would cost approximately $222,800 annually for a full-time nurse consultant to perform inspections, conduct interviews with patients and conduct investigations and for two nurse consultants to attend trauma informed care and cultural awareness training.

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Capital budget proposals from both the governor and state legislature propose redirecting cruise ship inspection money toward electrical hookups at cruise ship docks in Juneau and Ketchikan.

It’s been two decades since Alaska voters approved the Ocean Ranger program, placing state environmental observers on large cruise ships and creating a tax to fund the program. The tax charges a $4 per-passenger berth fee on all large-commercial passenger vessels in state waters.

The program, however, has been dead for the past five years

The ingredients are still there: the program remains written into state law, and the fee continues to bring in revenue each year — between $7 million and $9 million. But since 2019, the money hasn’t paid for any Ocean Ranger staff.

Under Alaska statute, funding sources like the per-berth fee can’t be restricted to a specific use, outside of a few exceptions. So while voters approved an intention to use funds for cruise-ship environmental regulatory compliance, the state’s budget process requires legislators to make the spending decision each time they write their annual plan.

That gives the governor, who holds the power to veto any item in the legislature’s budget, a significant lever of control. In 2019, governor Mike Dunleavy used his veto to block the legislature’s Ocean Ranger appropriation, eliminating the program’s roughly $3 million operating budget, if not its statutory authority.

That shifted oversight duties away from the 22 marine engineers contracted by the program to a smaller number of Department of Environmental Conservation employees.

In materials submitted to the legislature in 2020, the governor’s office called the program “costly for its outcomes” and said it subjected the cruise industry to a uniquely burdensome level of oversight.

At the time, the Haines Borough Assembly passed a resolution opposing the governor’s veto and expressing support for the Ocean Ranger program.

But still the berth-tax revenue continues to flow in, and redirecting it elsewhere poses a challenge. Federal regulations on taxing interstate transportation mean the funds can only be used to “offset costs of compliance programs and to provide facilities associated with handling vessels and passengers,” the legislature’s finance division says.

With the per-berth fee still charged on each cruise ship, money in the account has accumulated, up to a projected $26 million at the end of the fiscal year in June.

Now, the governor and the legislature appear to have agreed on a new destination for the funds.

Last year’s state capital budget directed just over $6 million in Ocean Ranger funds to port electrification in Whittier, allowing large ships there to draw from shore power while docked rather than running their engines for electricity, thereby reducing air emissions.

Both a Senate Finance Committee budget draft last week and the governor’s draft from December would continue down that path, spending down the fund’s balance on additional port electrification projects.

Senate Finance’s capital budget draft, released last week, would put a total of $18.3 million toward port electrification at the Juneau and Ketchikan cruise ship terminals. An earlier Governor’s draft for the capital budget proposed $15.3 million to port electrification, without specifying which ports would receive the funding.

It’s unlikely Haines will see any benefit from state spending on port electrification — at least for the foreseeable future. Adding a cruise ship to Haines’ existing power demand would exceed the area’s maximum electricity output, said borough harbormaster Henry Pollan.

The proposed spending on Juneau and Ketchikan’s terminals would empty most, but not all, of the account balance. Some of the Ocean Ranger revenue will likely go to the state’s current compliance program, the replacement for the Ocean Ranger observers.

Both the governor and the House proposed operating budgets that pull a little over $2 million in Ocean Ranger revenue for that purpose, mirroring spending from last year.
The roughly $2.2 million budget for the compliance program is a drop-off from the Ocean Ranger-era compliance funding, even as the number of cruise ship passengers in the state has risen significantly, over 30% since 2018, according to industry data.

Decreased funding has translated to fewer total compliance checks, state records show. Last season, DEC staff conducted 76 total inspections on large cruise ships, the majority of which came while cruise ships were in port.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the last year of the Ocean Ranger program, the program’s marine engineers filed 1,580 daily reports.

The changes have resulted in a greater reliance on cruise-ship industry self-reporting, and at times, cruise ship companies have denied state inspectors access to wastewater data, claiming they don’t have the same statutory authority as Ocean Ranger observers, KHNS’ Avery Ellfeldt reported earlier this month.

Last year, the department recorded 21 instances of cruise ships failing to meet wastewater regulations. In 2018, Ocean Ranger observers reported 56 wastewater violations, as well as a range of other violations, including 40 reports of oil pollution.

Former commissioner Jason Brune, however, in the 2020 hearing, said that 264 reported wastewater violations in 12 years of the Ocean Ranger program only resulted in six official notices of violation. Many of the observers’ reports of violation “had insufficient info to make the determination or were under other jurisdictions, like federal jurisdiction,” Brune told legislators at the time, adding that many of the reports “were quickly resolved” before an official notice of violation was issued.

Though the shape of the compliance program has changed in practice, Dunleavy’s attempts in recent years to officially take the Ocean Ranger program and per-berth tax out of state statute have failed to advance through the legislature, suggesting some amount of legislative support for keeping the program on life support.

Because of that, particularly given the end of Dunleavy’s term this fall, the program will remain an open possibility for future governors and legislators — or just a source for more port infrastructure improvements.

The post Cruise ship environmental compliance funds budgeted for port infrastructure appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

An injured snowmachiner caught in an avalanche near the border was picked up by a Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventure helicopter Wednesday evening and brought into Haines for medical treatment.

SEABA founder Nick Trimble said a group with the injured person contacted SEABA directly for help, which is not unusual, but rarely happens.

“We’ve done a number of rescues over the years, bear maulings, cliff falls. When we’re here, we’re a resource,” he said. “It’s rare, thank goodness. I’d say maybe five calls in 12 years.”

Trimble said the extraction happened right on the border between the U.S. and Canada.

“Right on the boundary. We’ll have to review that, and just in case, we called state troopers and the RCMP,” he said. “It’ll get sorted.”

He didn’t know when the call came in and said everything unfolded quickly when they received the call.

“It was getting pretty dark, so it was a real fast thing. It’s really hard for the helicopter pilot to see when the light gets flat,” he said.

“It was probably like 5-5:30, something like that.”

An ambulance crew from the volunteer fire department was waiting when the helicopter arrived in Haines.

Haines fire chief Zak Overmyer said first responders took the person to the SEARHC clinic, where they are being treated for a leg injury.

Overmyer said responders followed procedures for treating injured skiers that were developed with each heliski operator at the beginning of the season.

Trimble said the ambulance crew who showed up to pick up the injured person were “incredible.” “Those guys are serious.”

Snowmachine traffic in the upper Chilkat Valley has increased this year, according to Trimble.

He said the snow conditions have drawn many visitors from other parts of the state. Many have moved into the pass.

As the weather warms up, the snow conditions at lower elevations are changing rapidly.

“Even though I think those guys were pretty good at what they do, they got snuck on,” he said. “Be careful out there.”

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Firefighters saved a Fort Seward home Saturday, putting out a basement fire before it could reach the structure above.

The fire started just after 11 a.m. when a spark from a wood stove ignited flammable material nearby, both homeowner Fred Shields and Haines fire chief Zak Overmyer said.

The first fire crews into the basement reported heavy smoke but were able to contain the fire within roughly ten minutes using handheld, water-filled fire extinguishers, Overmyer said.

Shields this week was still working to sort through burnt ash and debris in the basement. Damage around the basement wood-stove includes burns on walls and ceilings and broken windows. While his home and art-gallery above were undamaged, they will have to be professionally cleaned due to smoke, he said.

Shields expects insurance to cover repairs to the basement; likely the more difficult cost will be personal possessions. Many of them, badly charred, Shields took one last look at while cleaning this week, before tossing them finally into the stove that had started the fire.

“There’s an emotional piece to it,” Shields said Tuesday.

Both he and Overmyer commended the effectiveness of the fire crews that responded, which totalled 14 firefighters from the Haines Volunteer Fire Department and eight from the Klehini Valley Fire Department.

“Without the quick response time and the professionalism of the fire department, the outcome may have been very different,” Shields said.

The firehouse was empty when the fire was reported, with an on-duty fire-captain and EMT out on an ambulance call. Nevertheless, firefighters responding from home had the first truck out of the station, crewed by four firefighters, four minutes after first report of the fire, Overmyer said.

Speed was of particular concern given the old fort home, which Overmyer said poses a particular risk, given old, dry wood, potential lack of firebreaks between floors, and studs running from basement to attic.

The post Firefighters save Fort Seward home appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Alaska House of Representatives advanced a bill Wednesday to add a fifth superior court judge in the third judicial district in an effort to lower judge’s caseloads and provide justice to Alaskans in the state’s busiest court.

If the bill becomes law, the number of superior court judges statewide would increase from 45 to 46. It would bring the number of superior court judges in the third judicial district to 29. The third judicial district includes Anchorage, Cordova, Dillingham, Glennallen, Homer, Kenai, Kodiak, Naknek, Palmer, Sand Point, St. Paul Island, Seward, Unalaska and Valdez.

Alaska Court System General Counsel Nancy Meade wrote to legislators in January with the request from the Alaska Supreme Court for one new superior court judge to handle a mix of civil and criminal cases in Palmer.

Meade called the current workload of the four superior court judges in Palmer unsustainable, citing that each judge is assigned 225 cases more than the state average of 458 cases per superior court judge.

The population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has increased by 40% and the number of cases filed in the Palmer superior court has increased by 55% since the last time a judge was added in 2006, according to Meade.

Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday: “We need to fix this problem so that we can better provide basic justice to all Alaskans.”

According to a fiscal note, the additional judge will cost the state $268,000 annually.

The bill passed with 37 yes votes in the House of Representatives. Three legislators were absent. It has been transmitted to the Senate for consideration.

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On Friday afternoon in downtown Anchorage, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, arrived at the Arctic Encounter Summit at the Dena’ina Convention Center, an annual gathering of policymakers, business leaders and international officials focused on Arctic strategy.

 A day after welcoming news that two additional U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers would be homeported in the state — a development she has sought for decades – Murkowski struck a tempered tone.

“We got what we wanted,” she told an audience at a luncheon. “But not in the way that we wanted it.” 

From this ballroom, not far from where polar ice melt is outpacing earlier scientific expectations, Alaska’s senior senator rattled off a litany of concerns — from repeated Russian incursions in the U.S. airspace to President Donald Trump’s musing about leaving NATO. Murkowski also pointed to tensions over Greenland, which have strained relations between the U.S. and its Arctic allies, troubling a region long recognized as a “zone of peace.” 

Since taking office, President Trump has pushed for the United States to take control of the semi-autonomous Inuit island under the Kingdom of Denmark, at times suggesting it could be acquired by force, despite repeated rejections from Greenlandic and Danish officials. Last week, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told NBC News that many Greenlanders “don’t feel safe” amid Trump’s repeated rhetoric to claim the territory.

As these tensions test alliances, new questions were raised at the conference about U.S. strategy in the Far North. Senator Murkowski, arguably the leading congressional voice for establishing U.S. Arctic power, has cast a steady light on the Greenland crisis alongside what she sees as the Trump Administration’s imbalanced Arctic strategy. Despite the administration’s historic investments that are closing the gap on U.S. Arctic engagement — mostly in the form of military and Coast Guard spending — Murkowski expressed concern. “We’re all in on defense,” she said, “But we haven’t prioritized what we need to do with the diplomacy side of things, or the science and research side.”

In January, Murkowski led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Denmark with Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, followed by a visit to Greenland the next month. The effort to ease rising Arctic tensions would typically fall to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs. But for more than a year, the position has remained vacant.  

Meanwhile, changes within the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, including the recent appointment of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, reflect a broader shift in federal priorities as the agency pivots from its longtime focus on environmental science toward greater emphasis on military and commerce. This shift is one of many now testing the concept of “Arctic exceptionalism,” the region’s long-standing norm of peaceful cooperation, which some speakers at the Anchorage summit say may already be unraveling.

For 13 years, former Murkowski staffers have organized the Arctic Encounter Summit, branded as “North America’s premier Arctic policy and business convening.” Drawing on a network of high-profile colleagues — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, attended in 2022 — Murkowski has used the annual gathering to advance U.S. Arctic policy, share the stage with international leaders and offer updates from Congress. She has even taken attendees to Utqiaġvik, the nation’s northernmost community and hub for Arctic research and strategy. More broadly, the summit reflects a policy legacy she has carried forward from Alaska’s past — building on the work of previous Alaska Republican Senators like her father, former Sen. Frank Murkowski, and the late Sen. Ted Stevens. Both helped elevate U.S. Arctic interests through science, research and maritime policy.

This year, Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont who traveled to Denmark with Murkowski, joined an international group of Arctic parliamentarians. Together they huddled with the Alaska senator for an afternoon of panel discussions on the last day of the Arctic Encounter.

For months, Murkowski has worked mostly with congressional Democrats like Welch to push back on the president’s Greenland bid in an effort to preserve stability in the Arctic. As a founding member and co-chair of the Senate Arctic Caucus formed in 2015, she has also noted that neither the White House nor the State Department has sought the group’s input on the issue.

“I think that is a disadvantage to them because we do have a level of connection through the Arctic Caucus,” she said at the luncheon. “I think we should be viewed as a valued asset.”

Welch is a member of the Arctic Caucus and also the Senate Finance Committee. Recently, he pushed back on Trump administration tariffs, including those threatened against NATO allies that sent troops to Greenland in a symbolic show of support for its sovereignty, last January. After his trip to Denmark, he introduced a resolution to block the tariffs targeting the eight Arctic nations. The effort, while not formally passed, helped prompt the administration to back down.

“What’s so disturbing to me is that even many of our NATO allies are internalizing that they can’t count on the United States, and that’s upsetting to me, because we have been so benefited by that level of cooperation,” said Sen. Welch at the conference. “What Russia is doing now in Ukraine is just so violent and vicious and terrible that we can’t afford to be having any friction that is self-made amongst allies who have a shared interest in standing up for the independence of a sovereign nation.” 

At the same time, Welch is co-sponsoring the Arctic Refuge Protection Act of 2025 which directly challenges Sen. Murkowski’s long-game ambitions to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain to oil drilling. To her, the effort represents the “Holy Grail of Alaska politics.” But supporters of the bill describe the extraction plan as a “fictional financial windfall,” citing weak lease sales in 2021 and 2025.

Despite those differences, the two senators united at the summit in their support for maintaining Arctic cooperation and strengthening alliances — a bipartisan approach Murkowski is known for. Days later, they appeared again in Fairbanks for talks hosted by the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, a biennial forum of eight Arctic nations. Murkowski serves as vice chair of its standing committee, while Welch attended as part of the U.S. congressional delegation.

In Fairbanks, Murkowski stopped short of declaring an end to Arctic exceptionalism, instead broadening the definition of security in a changing North — even as she promotes recent military investments for Alaska, like the future commissioning of the U.S.S. Ted Stevens, a missile destroyer. “Security isn’t just military,” she said, pointing to what she described as other forms of security critical to the Arctic: food, family, education and environmental and energy stability.

A key voice for Welch in that discussion was the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an international organization representing about 180,000 Inuit across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia. At the summit, its Alaska branch released an Arctic Strategy outlining priorities for Indigenous self-determination and governance in the region.  Murkowski also invited ICC Alaska delegates to take part in the high-level talks in Fairbanks.

“Their whole culture couldn’t survive without a basic consensus‑oriented and cooperative approach,” Welch said, arguing that Indigenous perspectives must remain central to Arctic governance. And he warned against any agenda that sidelines the Inuit. “There’s an immense amount of anxiety about the new interest in the Arctic where the interests and the values of the Indigenous peoples and everyday Alaskans can be imperiled.”

Murkowski echoed that view, aligning with Welch on the importance of Indigenous leadership in shaping the Arctic’s future.

“Right now, we’re not talking to Russia,” said Murkowski, explaining the impasse as a symptom of the ongoing assault on Ukraine. But she drew attention to how the ICC is still able to maintain dialogue with Chukotka, the Russian region home to the Inuit diaspora there. “They are the only entity that is able to keep a connection with people in Russia – Indigenous people at that level. This is noteworthy,” she said.

Though Murkowski often draws criticism for her middle-way approach in balancing environmental priorities with support for military spending and resource development – a contrast reflected by the League of Conservation Voters, which gives Welch a lifetime score of 95% against Murkowski’s 20% – the senator, nonetheless, described his colleague as an important bridge between Alaska’s old Arctic power brokers and a new generation of leaders. “Your father, Ted Stevens — there’s a real through line,” Welch said.

Across their conversations, the lawmakers seemed to imply that a more assertive congressional role — through funding, diplomatic appointments and Arctic engagement — will be key to restoring stability in the Arctic after the Greenland crisis and shaping whether the region will be governed by cooperation or coercion. That includes the Ambassador-at-large for Arctic Affairs, a position Murkowski codified in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, elevating it to a permanent diplomatic post.

“The role of Congress has to be much more aggressive, assertive and independent,” said Sen. Welch. “What we need is more Lisa Murkowskis who are pushing actively through the appropriations process to do something.”

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With only four weeks left of the legislative session, the Senate Judiciary Committee has merged several bills into a wide-ranging omnibus crime bill. Even with the tight timeline, some lawmakers are optimistic about its chances for passage before the end of the session.  

The new draft omnibus crime package combines ten bills ranging from raising the age of consent to increasing criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material into one large bill supporters hope will have the momentum to pass both the House and the Senate in the next 28 days. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, introduced the 55-page omnibus bill on Friday, saying the bills have a stronger prospect as a package.

“I think that increases the likelihood we’ll be able to pass it,” he said in an interview on Monday. 

With one month to go in the second year of the two-year legislative cycle, this is the last opportunity for bills to be passed by the 34th Legislature. 

The draft omnibus crime bill was added to House Bill 239, sponsored by House Majority Leader Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, who spoke in support at the hearing on Friday.

“This bill has grown, it’s gone from the sports car to the school bus” he said. “Policies I all support as a bill sponsor.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy sponsored two bills included in the omnibus package, but did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. 

The bills included are in various stages. Some have passed the House, while others are being considered by various committees in the House and Senate. Several lawmakers who sponsored bills now included in the omnibus package agreed that politically it could increase chances of passage by May 20. 

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, sponsored a bill that would create state felony penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material. It unanimously passed the House last month.

“I’m excited that it’s included in the omnibus bill, because that shows intent by the Senate to pass the bill,” Vance said on Monday. “So I have great confidence that it will cross the finish line.”

But Claman, who is running for governor, has drawn public criticism for the process of how the omnibus crime bill was put together this session. 

Advocates for raising the age of consent — along with the Anchorage Daily News editorial board — criticized Claman for holding a bill to raise the age of consent to 18 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which passed unanimously by the House last year, in order to be included in the omnibus bill. Critics urged Claman and the committee to pass the bill and allow it to move forward as a stand alone bill toward a full Senate vote and final passage.

Claman has argued that despite limited time left in the session, the bills included have been vetted and the combination package will garner more support among legislators and the governor to pass in the last few weeks of the session. 

“I’ve been in the Legislature now since 2015, and so in the last 11 years, we’ve passed 11 different bills relating to public safety,” he said. “So I think there are ten different measures that we put into the bill, and if we tried to do them all individually, probably wouldn’t get them all passed.”

Claman pointed to an omnibus crime bill, House Bill 66, enacted in 2024, with support from Gov. Mike Dunleavy and across political affiliations. “That’s certainly, I think, the best example,” he said. “So I do have confidence we’ll get it passed.”

Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, sponsored House Bill 101, the bill that would raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old. Backed by advocates for sexual violence prevention, he said the change in law is essential for protecting teens from sexual exploitation and abuse. Under current law, it’s legal for an adult to have sex with a 16 or 17 year old. But when they are assaulted, teens must prove that they did not consent. 

Despite previous disagreement and pushing for a stand alone bill, Gray said Monday he will back the omnibus crime bill in order to see the law changed. 

“If that happens, inside an omnibus crime package that has other bills that are also worthy of passage, I’m fine with that,” he said. “I just want the policy to change.”

The draft omnibus crime bill now contains ten bills that previously stood alone:

• House Bill 239 — would increase criminal penalties for hit and run incidents so that drivers that cause a death and knowingly failing to stop and render assistance, and establishes mandatory sentencing of four to seven years for a first hit and run felony conviction
• House Bill 101 — would raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old, with provisions to allow consent to sex with someone up to six years older than them. The draft bill also allows 16 and 17 year olds to consensually exchange sexual or explicit messages within the six year close-in-age gap without penalties.
• Senate Bill 247 — would create state criminal penalties for creating AI-generated images or video that depicts sexually explicit or obscene content involving anyone under 18 years old
• House Bill 62 — Sponsored by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the bill would establish a statewide tracking system for sexual assault examination kits, expedite processing times, and ensure that survivors can privately monitor the status of their own kit. 
• Senate Bill 100 — Also sponsored by the governor, and would establish the crime of organized theft, including mail theft and medical record theft
• House Bill 242 — would redefine criminal law to prohibit any sexual contact or assault by a health care worker during professional treatment, changing the current law which only applies to patients being unaware of sexual contact or assault for criminal charges to apply. 
• Senate Bill 17 — would establish the crime of airbag fraud for knowingly selling, installing or manufacturing a counterfeit airbag in a vehicle 
• House Bill 81 — would establish minor marijuana related convictions to remain confidential on individuals personal records, under certain criteria
• House Bill 384 —  would expand confidentiality agreements between victims and service providers by updating the definition of “victim counseling center” to include tribal organizations
• Senate Bill 233 — would reassign the Controlled Substances Advisory Committee from being administered by the Department of Law to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. 

The new version of Vance’s bill focused on AI-generated child sexual abuse material included in the bill is closer to her initial proposal. Social media controls for minors added by the House were stripped out of the Senate version. Vance said she supports the amended version given First Amendment protections around social media. 

“I think that was a wise decision right now, because Alaskans are very mixed on how they feel that we should address social media,” Vance said. 

Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, is the sponsor of House Bill 242, and said she supports her bill being included in the Senate omnibus, but she is still pushing to advance her standalone bill in the House.

“I need people who didn’t serve on the two committees that heard it in the House to understand it,” she said, as the Senate draft will come back to the House for a concurrence vote. “It still helps to educate on the issue.”

Hannan’s legislation follows a high profile case in Juneau last year where the court dropped several charges against a chiropractor because under current law part of the legal definition of sexual assault by a medical provider requires the alleged victim to be unaware the assault is happening. 

“Right now, the victim needs to be unaware, and the perpetrator needs to know that they are unaware,” Hannan said Tuesday. “So to change that in statute, I think is an important policy statement for us to make.”

Hannan said significant policy bills typically take several years to get through the Legislature, with public input, debate and support gathering. But she expressed confidence in the support for the omnibus crime bill in the weeks ahead. 

“We’re running the clock down,” she added. “The only downside, from my perspective, is the advocates and the victims that were directly involved in the case that inspired this bill. You know, they get more acknowledgement when it’s the standalone bill… But in the end, if the goal is to change the policy, there’s no downside to it.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee will continue to hold hearings on the crime bill this week and its members have until Friday to introduce amendments before it advances to the Senate floor for a vote. Claman said he expects that to be in the last week of April. 

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The Alaska House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday banning restaurants from providing food in polystyrene foam containers.

Representative Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced the bill to address what he called an “alarming problem” of plastic pollution.

Josephson cited a statistic from the ​Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit, that found polystyrene foam is found in 22% of food takeout containers in the U.S.

Polystyrene foam is a non-biodegradable plastic that is used to make insulated and disposable plates, cups and takeout containers. It contains chemicals that can be harmful when heated and contributes to environmental pollution. Styrofoam is a form of expanded polystyrene foam.

The Ocean Conservancy estimates that Americans use 5.6 billion pieces of plastic foam annually. 

“There’s enough foam produced every year to fill the Dallas Cowboys stadium five times. That’s what’s at issue here,” Josephson said.

If the bill makes it into law, Alaska will become the thirteenth state to ban polystyrene containers. The Alaska municipalities of Bethel, Cordova and Seward enacted bans on polystyrene food containers.

The proposed restrictions would not apply to food prepared outside of Alaska or to areas affected by a disaster emergency. Restaurants would be able to apply to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation for exemptions.

The bill would prohibit the state from using or purchasing polystyrene foam disposable food service ware and instructs the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to recommend that restaurants reuse food service ware instead of using disposable containers.

Green Alaska Solutions LLC, Alaska Community Action on Toxics and Oceana, an advocacy organization focused on ocean conservation, supported the bill.

Opponents of the bill included the Foodservice Packaging Institute, the Alaska Chamber, the Plastics Industry Association and the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant, and Retailers Association, or CHARR.

Kati Capozzi, president and CEO of the Alaska Chamber, wrote that the bill would impose financial burdens on Alaska’s businesses and Sarah Oates Harlow, president and CEO of Alaska CHARR, said that the bill would decrease restaurant profit margins, with both expressing concerns that the bill would negatively impact small businesses.

“By requiring restaurants to use more expensive alternatives that may not perform as well—especially for hot or cold foods—this bill threatens to increase operating costs for businesses already struggling with narrow margins. The unintended consequence could be higher costs for consumers and additional strain on small businesses,” Capozzi stated in a letter to legislators.

The bill passed with 25 yes votes and 15 no votes in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, said that he opposed the bill vehemently.

“This is using the power of government to force people to do things that the government believes are best for you…the government seldom knows best on these kinds of things.”

Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, supported the bill and spoke to its environmental impact.

“It (polystyrene foam) never goes away. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller and smaller particles and finds its way into our diverse ecosystem, primarily waterways.”

She also said that legislators should not only consider the cost of alternative disposable food service ware, but the cost of landfills and Alaskans’ health.

Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, voted in support of the bill and compared the ban to seat belt laws and the establishment of smoke free workplaces. She told legislators that the long term benefits to public health and the environment outweigh the short term costs.

Lawmakers’ efforts to expand the bill failed in a lengthy amendment process. There were attempts to ban paper straws, to ban polystyrene packaged outside the state, to allow municipalities to allow restaurants to provide prepared food in polystyrene foam disposable food service ware, and to create a telephone line to report violations.

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The state agency leading some of Alaska’s most polarizing development projects has approved a new communications budget, saying it needs to do a better job telling its own story amid attacks from critics.

The state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is run by a former chief of staff to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and is charged with promoting economic growth and expanding natural resource extraction and exports.

It is leading work to develop state-owned oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and also hopes to build two controversial new roads to access mining prospects in Northwest Alaska and outside of Anchorage.

Those projects have drawn sharp opposition from conservation organizations and other critics, including lawsuits, critical op-eds and campaigns that have labeled the agency “Bad AIDEA” and caricatured its leaders.

At a meeting in Ketchikan this month, board members, with no public discussion, authorized AIDEA’s staff to spend up to $700,000 a year on a new communications budget — formalizing a plan that the agency says was previously budgeted inconsistently through spending on individual projects.

The new communications plan, the agency said in its formal resolution authorizing the spending, will “ensure proper public engagement, transparency, and stewardship of the authority’s mission.” The money could go toward trade shows and conferences, responding to media inquiries and “other communications-related needs,” according to the resolution.

The agency’s executive director, Randy Ruaro, referred questions about the plan to Dave Stieren, an AIDEA employee who ran an advertising agency and hosted a conservative talk radio show before joining the Dunleavy administration.

Stieren said he could not provide exact figures on AIDEA’s past communications spending, but he acknowledged that the new plan should allow the agency to meaningfully boost its public profile.

The $700,000 a year, he added, is a limit, and the agency will set a final budget through a request for proposals process.

“Mothership AIDEA has done, frankly, little to nothing on a consistent basis to tell our story,” Stieren said in an email — particularly when it comes to its loan programs that have helped finance tourism and hospitality businesses, like the Alaska Club fitness chain and Anchorage’s Bear Tooth pizza restaurant and theater.

“We’re far more than roads,” Stieren said. “But since we’ve really not promoted or showcased our efforts in traditional finance areas, I understand the narrative or lack thereof that folks may have.”

Stieren has also personally defended AIDEA on social media, including over the weekend — when he posted a conservative news website’s positive story about an agency-owned shipyard and said that “when commie libs attack AIDEA, they attack projects like this.”

AIDEA’s board chair, Bill Kendig, declined to answer questions about approval of the new communications budget when reached by phone.

At the Ketchikan meeting, one AIDEA critic, Melis Coady, credited the agency with formalizing communications spending as a “step toward accountability.” But she said that the plan doesn’t “deliver the transparency it describes” because it gives Ruaro, the executive director, authority to approve communications spending, and only requires that he report it to the board if asked.

“The authorization is broad, the dollar amount is undefined, and expenditures are approved solely by the executive director,” said Coady, who leads a conservation group called the Susitna River Coalition.

Ruaro, in an email, said AIDEA will issue reports on communications to board members “whether requested or not.”

AIDEA’s board chair, Bill Kendig, declined to answer questions about approval of the new communications budget when reached by phone.

At the Ketchikan meeting, one AIDEA critic, Melis Coady, credited the agency with formalizing communications spending as a “step toward accountability.” But she said that the plan doesn’t “deliver the transparency it describes” because it gives Ruaro, the executive director, authority to approve communications spending, and only requires that he report it to the board if asked.

“The authorization is broad, the dollar amount is undefined, and expenditures are approved solely by the executive director,” said Coady, who leads a conservation group called the Susitna River Coalition.

Ruaro, in an email, said AIDEA will issue reports on communications to board members “whether requested or not.”

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