Category: Alaska News

The state has been promised a more-than-quarter-billion dollar windfall, and some of it could end up in the Chilkat Valley.

The $272 million materialized in Juneau just before New Year’s for the Rural Health Transformation Program — part of the Trump Administration’s tax and spending bill, often referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July.

As a whole, it’s a complex set of changes to state healthcare funding. The federal spending bill included cutbacks to Medicaid that could total between $1.5 to $2.5 billion in Alaska over the next decade, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

But state officials hope the rural health funding, a last-minute addition to the bill, could blunt that Medicaid loss, state health commissioner Heidi Hedberg  said in an interview with Alaska Public Media this summer. 

As the plan stands, Alaska is slated to receive similarly sized rural health awards in each of the next four years. But it’s not a one-for-one trade.

The rural health funds come from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But rather than go toward health insurance, the money will go to the state to disburse in grants, which specifically supplant Medicaid payments, according to federal guidelines. As for where the grants will end up, all that’s currently known is a set of wide-ranging eligible categories.

The state’s six listed priorities for the funding include phrases like “spark technology and innovation,” and “healthy communities.”

State documents list suggested uses within these categories ranging from telehealth platforms to medical-delivery drones, to postpartum and chronic-disease care.

Like the expansive list of eligible uses, a broad range of public and private entities are eligible to apply, including municipal governments, tribal governments, healthcare providers, tech companies, non-profits and trade organizations. 

In the Chilkat Valley, that means traditional healthcare providers like SEARHC will be vying with non-profits like Haines Huts and Trails and the borough government for a chunk of the same funding pot.

A tight turnaround

While local applicants say the program is a significant opportunity, they’ve also been challenged by uncertainty and a tight timeline.

To get a foot in the door, applicants had to submit letters of interest detailing potential projects by March 11. That was just weeks after information about the program was released.

The total sum for the state was announced by the federal government on Dec. 29, just before the new year. Then, roughly a month later, borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she received notice of the program from Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office, which she immediately forwarded to all non-profits in the Chilkat Valley.

Meanwhile, the state’s Department of Health rolled out information to the general public at roughly the same time, including a Feb. 10 webinar introducing the general application process and eligibility guidelines.

That left only a month to produce letters of interest.

Many in the borough who hope to apply say that compressed timeline is out of the ordinary.
Borough grants administrator Helen Alten and Four Winds Resource Center board member Erika Merklin both said a more familiar timeline is a three- or four-month grant application window.

Amid the rush for funding, the borough government and local organizations are still trying to get a handle on the application process. At a public meeting last Wednesday, borough officials and non-profit leaders hoped to discuss their applications to avoid overlap. But much of the meeting consisted of organization leaders trading basic application information back and forth, gathered from various webinars and conversations about the program rollout — with frequent refrains of “I heard,” “I read,” and “what’s your understanding?”

It’s not just borough leaders feeling the rush, and it’s not just this week’s deadline that’s the issue. Department of Health communications director Shirley Sakaye this week described the situation as “evolving quickly,” even though the state’s program website says grants may be awarded starting this spring.

Meanwhile, Alten said this week the state’s grant matrix — which will describe criteria for the stage of the grant application after letters of intent — continues to change.

Federal timelines down the road are speeding up the process in other ways. According to federal guidelines, the state has to award the money by October this year. Organizations that receive money then have to spend it all by the following October. According to federal guidelines, whatever funds are unspent by that deadline could be taken away. Failure to spend the full amount could also decrease funding in future years of the program.

Mayor Tom Morphet said Murkowski, at last month’s Southeast Conference, told municipal leaders to “ask for everything and the kitchen sink.” Provided with a high volume of applications, the state can ensure all the funding gets awarded, Morphet said.

But for all the guidance to go big, the tight deadlines have been a handbrake for some applicants.

“I was hesitant to do too much in the first year because we want to be able to get it done,” said Nate Arrants from Huts and Trails at the borough meeting. “At this point, we have a week to get these cooperating partners together.” Amid the rush, certain types of organizations may see existing advantages compounded, Merklin said.

“You know who’s really ready to get this money is SEARHC. People in Anchorage. (Organizations) with grantwriters. With us in rural areas who really need it, it’s a bigger push with less capacity.”

Participants at the borough’s meeting last week, including Alten, said they had heard from Department of Health officials that the state would be prioritizing fleshed-out, “shovel-ready” projects. That could further the advantage for entities with more significant capacity.
Some of those large organizations have a presence in Haines, like SEARHC, or Southeast Alaska Independent Living. But those organizations could be putting in for system-wide grants, with no guarantee the Chilkat Valley will see direct returns. Morphet last week said he had heard from SEARHC officials that they would only be submitting on a system-wide basis.

SEARHC spokesperson Matt Carle did not respond to a question this week about his organization’s applications.

Possibilities for the Chilkat Valley
Some organizations in the Chilkat Valley have ambitious plans.

The Haines Volunteer Fire Department will apply for funding for a mobile paramedicine program to deliver care to people’s homes. With a grant to fund a new vehicle, equipment and training, assistant chief Tim Holm said the department can do more preventative care.
“Wound care, substance abuse care, we could bring antibiotics to people’s houses in Klukwan or Mosquito Lake or Lutak — people who don’t want to or can’t come in to the clinic,” Holm said.

According to department EMS director Julie Anderson, working models for the program already exist in Juneau, Ketchikan and the Anchorage area.

If initial startup costs are grant-funded, the program could then be funded by the department’s new zero-balance ambulance billing system, Holm said.

The borough will be submitting letters of interest for other programs. The top priority, Fullerton said last week, is funding for a padded jail cell in the public safety building and funding to train police department and fire department employees in responding to mental health crises.

Borough grants administrator Helen Alten said the borough will also be applying for two more initiatives. One would replace the HVAC system and increase pool programming, including a partnership with SEARHC for pool-based health and rehab activities. The other grant application would fund more meals at the senior center, bumping the senior lunch from three times a week to daily. 

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Haines resident Graham Kraft hosted a friend from Whitehorse, and one day turned into four with the closure of the Haines Highway north of the border. A highlight of the extended stay was that Canadian friend Ryan Bougie finally got to meet local Brian Rougie. Both are friends of Kraft, and he had eagerly awaited the opportunity to introduce them. Ryan Bougie and Brian Rougie shared a fun ski day.

Lenore (Nori) Nash and Dan Henry joined Harlequin Romance writer Anna Grace on March 1 for a presentation of their past and upcoming publications in Eugene, Ore. Bill Winkley, former Haines Children’s Theater director, hosted the panel at The Abbey, a senior living center in downtown Eugene. Stan Coleman, another former Children’s Theatre director, entertained with piano tunes. Former Skagway resident Nita Nettleton, who now lives in the Abbey, attended. Robin Grace cooked a brunch of local organic produce and a sensational frittata. The audience was treated to a lively discussion as the authors shared inspiration and experiences writing novels and non-fiction. Nori Nash has written 11 books. Her mother Nancy Nash’s love of Agatha Christie and assorted “ladies of crime” were some of the inspiration for Lenore’s foray into a new genre for the soon-to-be- released, “She Fell Away,” a mystery thriller. Nancy and Dwight Nash missed the event as their ferry out of Haines was canceled. They are headed off to Portland for a family visit.

Tim Huber was asked to represent Alaska at the national AgrAbility conference mid-March in Michigan. Agrability is a relatively new program in Alaska run by University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension. Huber was recommended by Leslie Shellcross. Huber will receive training and visit farms with disabled farmers. Shellcross did an assessment on Alten’s land and Henderson Farm last spring, while in town for the growers conference.

A predator ate Helen Alten’s chickens. Her neighbor, Blythe Carter, also lost a few ducks and chickens to something. The neighbors lost 20 birds between the two houses in under a week. Taylor Ashton lost a few birds nearby. Local trapper Nate Motes speculated that it could be a marten, so he set some traps. The animal escaped the first traps, and left prints. Motes caught a mink in the live trap by 8 p.m Thursday. “This is the culprit,” said Motes. He said that minks like water, so Chilkoot Lake is where the mink lives for now. So watch out Lutak chicken tenders. “Them critters ain’t gotta chance when they got the Cajun on the case.” Motes is from Louisiana.

The 39th Buckwheat International Ski Classic started in the rain, was delayed two hours for avalanche danger, and ended with sunshine. This year’s theme was “The Blizzard of Oz.” Chip Lende and Thom Ely completed the 16-kilometer course. Lende’s time was 1:30:27.5 and Ely’s time, 1:59:32.5. Deborah Marshall was disqualified, but had a good excuse. Ely says that she followed someone and went off course.
Amanda Painter, Leslie Ross and Cynthia Adams attended the Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria Oregon. Painter describes it as fisherfolk from California, Oregon and Alaska sharing stories, songs and poems about their fishing experiences, sharing their joy, emotions and grief on stage. Ross says it was an incredible show of community expression, and cannot wait to go back.
Chloe Copeland helped her friend Lylith Widmer rehome 12 boxes of stuff and hundreds of pounds of heavy houseplants from Haines to Fairbanks. None of it would be possible without Copeland’s prowess with a wheelbarrow and heavy jade plants on ice-covered walkways. Copeland says that they made the trip in record time to avoid shocking the plants. The roadtrip included a Sarah Bishop e-book recommendation, and 15 hours of curated music from Copeland. Widmer has lived in Haines since 2015 and said she plans to be back. For now, she will enjoy Fairbanks, skijorning regularly and having a dishwasher.

Hammer enthusiast and museum owner Dave Pahl has been preserving the history of the hammer for years. Recently, he had the opportunity to share his expertise with a wider audience, contributing a series of articles to Gristmill Magazine, a publication dedicated to traditional tools and woodworking. Pahl has written three articles for Gristmill Magazine – Midwest Tool Collectors Association. Pahl said that the three articles, “A Tale of Two Hammers,” “The Wedge,” and “Daisy Guard for the Tool Heads,” appeared in the June, December and March editions, and should be available at the Haines public library soon and at the Hammer Museum by mid-May.

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A coalition of environmental and tribal groups have withdrawn their attempt to stop wintertime survey work by ConocoPhillips in parts of the federally controlled National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope.

Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Center for Biological Diversity, and The Wilderness Society filed a notice of dismissal Friday, a little over one month after U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason struck down their request for a preliminary injunction.

That denial meant ConocoPhillips could proceed with its survey work, and a further challenge would have been moot.

Judge Sharon Gleason approved the dismissal this week.

The groups, represented by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, had argued that the Bureau of Land Management failed to implement sufficient environmental protections during the winter survey season. 

“While we are not continuing this case, we will continue to monitor BLM’s compliance with its updated mitigation measures, which BLM adopted after we filed our case, and which now include a commitment to assure adequate snow cover to protect the tundra from oil and gas activities,” wrote Earthjustice attorney Ian Dooley in a prepared statement sent by email. 

Several other lawsuits pertaining to oil and gas work in the NPRA remain pending in federal court.

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The state of Alaska filed civil lawsuits Tuesday against six crowdfunding websites, accusing them of illegally soliciting donations for thousands of Alaska charities without consent.

In complaints filed at Anchorage Superior Court, the consumer protection unit of the Alaska Department of Law said GoFundMe, PayPal, Charity Navigator, Pledgling Technologies, JustGiving and Network For Good each violated the Alaska Charitable Solicitations Act thousands of times. 

That act, in place since 1993, requires state registration for anyone who seeks donations on behalf of a charity. 

The suits ask a judge to order the sites shut down the pages devoted to Alaska nonprofits and immediately disburse any donations to those nonprofits. It also asks for “separate civil penalties … of not less than $1,000 and not more than $25,000 per violation.”

According to the complaints, the six crowdfunding sites scraped IRS data to obtain the information of thousands of Alaska nonprofits, then set up donation pages for each of those nonprofits without their consent.

That scraping was part of a nationwide campaign that encompassed almost a million and a half federally registered organizations.

In some cases, the sites charged fees or encouraged “tips” to themselves during the donation process. In many cases, they poured donations into a third-party account and only released donations to charities who stepped forward to claim them, according to the complaints.

Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox said the state became aware of the issue after California reporters and state officials began investigating why GoFundMe created donation pages for 1.4 million nonprofits without their consent or knowledge.

GoFundMe later took down many of those pages, but other crowdfunding websites did not. On Tuesday morning, donation pages were still visible on Charity Navigator, one of the defendants named in the new Alaska lawsuits.

Earlier this week, almost two dozen state attorney generals sent a letter to GoFundMe, demanding answers to questions about its policies.

Alaska did not sign that letter, in part because officials here believed the response was too weak.

In a prepared statement, Cox said, “Alaska law is clear: if you’re going to raise money in a charity’s name, you must first get the charity’s consent. These lawsuits are about protecting donors, protecting nonprofits, and preserving the public trust that makes charitable giving possible.”

Laurie Wolf is President and CEO of the Foraker Group, which advises Alaska nonprofits and provides them with administrative support.

The Foraker Group has been issuing warnings about the issue for months, and Wolf filed an affidavit in support of the lawsuit, as did a representative of the Bethel Community Services Foundation and Bread Line Inc., which operates a food bank in Fairbanks.

By phone on Tuesday, Wolf said the issue is a matter of consent: “They are impersonating 1.2 million nonprofits across this country, they’re impersonating them without their consent or even their knowledge.”

She said the issue became particularly important last fall, when people across the United States and the world became aware of the devastation caused by ex-Typhoon Halong in Western Alaska.

Many people, not knowing local Alaska charities, simply donated via links they found on internet searches. Some of those donations may have never reached their intended recipients.

If a crowdfunding website operates independently of the charity it intends to benefit, it might interfere with the charity’s own fundraising, she explained.

Someone might never be recognized for their gift and become angry, hurting the charity’s long-term relationship with their community.

“They take away the ability for the organization to make choices for itself about how it wants to build trust and relationships with its donors, and how it wants to put its brand and its mission out in the public sphere. They’ve taken away all of our choices about that,” she said.

In addition, donations may be subject to fees or never reach a charity at all, particularly if the charity is unaware that a crowdfunding website is holding money for it to collect.

The Foraker Group went so far as to conduct an experiment and had an employee donate to the group through several of the defendants’ platforms. In multiple cases, it took weeks before the donation reached its intended recipient, and in some cases, the donor’s identity was concealed, making it impossible for the charity to properly thank them.

GoFundMe was the only defendant to respond to emailed inquiries before the Beacon’s reporting deadline on Tuesday.

“GoFundMe’s mission is to help people help each other by making it easier for donors to discover and support the causes they care about. We are committed to helping nonprofits reach new supporters by connecting them with the millions of people on our platform who want to make a difference. Nonprofit Pages were created using publicly available information to help people support nonprofit organizations, with donations going to the intended nonprofit,” said Jeff Platt, communications manager for GoFundMe. 

“After hearing feedback from nonprofit leaders in October, we acted quickly to make Nonprofit Pages fully opt-in, removed and de-indexed unclaimed pages, and turned off search engine optimization by default. The immediate changes we made directly addressed the concerns of the nonprofit community, and reflect our continued commitment to transparency, accountability, and partnership with the nonprofit sector,” he said.

This week’s lawsuits in state court rely in large part on the 1993 Alaska Charitable Solicitations Act. 

That bill passed the Alaska Legislature amid a surge of concern about telemarketers soliciting donations by phone. 

Then-Rep. Ron Larson, a Democrat from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, sponsored the act and told fellow lawmakers at the time that “lookalike organizations” were “ripping off” legitimate charities.

The act made no mention of donations by internet, and in state law, it’s still labeled as “Telephonic solicitations,” but it goes on to state that under any circumstances it is unlawful to use a charity’s name or symbol without their permission.

“Alaskans are generous people. But generosity depends on trust,” Cox said in his prepared statements. “GoFundMe and similar platforms used nonprofits’ good names to solicit donations without coordinating with the organizations actually doing the charitable work. That means some Alaskans may have donated thinking they were supporting a specific charity, when the charity never authorized the page and may never have received the donation — or may have received less than donors intended because of fees.”

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The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is planning to relax the requirements for a subsidy program intended to attract cargo airlines to Fairbanks International Airport.

In a March 6 public notice, the department said it will waive landing and fuel fees for a year at Fairbanks for one or more airlines that provide at least three months of weekly cargo service between Fairbanks and a new destination city. 

That’s down from a requirement that they provide six months of service.

Only newly added service is eligible on a first-come, first-served basis for airlines, and the program is expected to last until 2032, according to the notice.

Currently, the Alaska International Airport System Passenger and Cargo Airline Incentive Program requires an airline to provide six months of new weekly cargo service before receiving the waiver. The new change offers an extra incentive for Fairbanks air cargo.

The overall incentive program and the new change — formally known as “Class 6” — were created by staff at DOT and the Alaska International Airport System, said Shannon McCarthy, communications director for Alaska DOT.

“The Class 6 addition concept was created to incentivize cargo carriers to temporarily move some operations during the upcoming busy construction season at ANC to FAI,” she wrote by email, using shorthand for the airports at Anchorage and Fairbanks. “Costs in Fairbanks for short term operations can be higher than negotiated contractual rates in Anchorage (hotels, fuel, etc.) so this helps offset those increases while utilizing the system and keeping the activity within Alaska and AIAS.”

McCarthy said that while the waiver “reduces revenue on those specific flights for a limited period, the program is designed to stimulate incremental operations that would likely not occur without the incentive, thereby generating new economic activity and long-term airport revenue once the incentive period ends.”

The new subsidy program is scheduled to take effect April 6; public comments on the plan can be submitted through April 5. 

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Ten conservation groups have sued the Trump administration over its decision to remove decades-old protections from 2.1 million acres of federal land in Interior Alaska.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, targets the Department of the Interior’s action to overturn public land orders dating back to the early 1970s that protect a portion of the corridor around the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

The department’s decision, finalized on Feb. 25, allows the state government to take over the land and open it to development. Potential uses for the land include construction of the controversial Ambler Access Project, a proposed 211-mile road through the Brooks Range foothills to an isolated mining district in northwest Alaska, and a long-proposed pipeline megaproject that would ship natural gas from the North Slope.

The lawsuit alleges that the Department of the Interior violated several laws with its action by failing to hold any public hearings in affected communities, failing to provide justification for removing long-established protections from “iconic areas of northern Alaska” and other lapses.

The laws cited in the suit are the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

The 2.1-million-acre corridor and the areas around it are “profoundly important to Alaska’s wildlife and people,” the lawsuit says. It supports 25 different species of fish, including salmon, and holds habitat for migratory birds, moose, caribou and a variety of other species, making it important to subsistence food harvesters and recreational visitors, the lawsuit says.

In a statement, the plaintiffs cited mining development as a particular threat to natural resources and the people who depend on them.

“The Trump administration conjured up flimsy and vacuous reasons about ‘putting America first’ to try to justify transferring public lands out of federal management to benefit billionaires,” said Bridget Psarianos, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska, the nonprofit environmental law firm representing the plaintiffs.

“The Trump administration’s destructive obsession with giving away our public lands for the benefit of mining companies has forced us to go to court,” Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society, said in the statement.

The administration’s action poses special threats because the corridor now stripped of protection lies between Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the plaintiffs said.

Revoking protections that had been in place for half a century is “a blatant effort to avoid national environmental laws to allow construction of a road that will enrich foreign mining companies and harm wild lands, Alaska Native communities, and America’s conservation legacy,” Jim Adams, senior Alaska director of National Parks Conservation Association, said in the statement. “Ending these public land orders also exposes the entire eastern side of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to state management practices along its border that devalue park wildlife and the needs of rural residents.”

The Department of the Interior declined to comment on the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Promoting ‘Energy Dominance’ agenda

When he announced the action on Feb. 20, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it will help achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of “unlocking opportunity for American Energy Dominance.”

“By opening these lands, we are empowering Alaska to chart its own course and develop energy, minerals and infrastructure that strengthen America’s security and prosperity,” Burgum said in a statement then.

At the time, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation hailed the decision as important to the state’s resource-extraction-based economy.

“Alaska has a right to produce, and Alaska has a right to benefit from our God-given resources,” U.S. Rep. Nick Begich. R-Alaska, said in a joint statement issued by the delegation.

But the Tanana Chief Conference, an organization of Interior Alaska tribes that is not part of the latest lawsuit, condemned the administration’s action.

The decision was made without necessary tribal consultation, and it could strip federal subsistence-harvesting protections from important food-gathering sites, TCC said in a statement.

“This decision opens the door to development that puts our lands, animals, waters, and subsistence resources at real risk,” TCC Chief and Chairman Brian Ridley said in the statement. “For our communities, these are not remote acres on a map. These are the places where our families hunt, fish, and gather to feed our people. Protecting these resources is critical to our food security, our culture, and our future.”

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Wind and snow whipped at Kotzebue preacher Rusty Dimmick and three travelers as they stood in a circle holding hands. The travelers, all from the Northwest Arctic, planned to drive over 600 miles to dozens of remote villages across Western Alaska by snowmachine, educating rural residents about voting.

But weather wasn’t part of that send-off prayer on Feb. 12. Back-to-back snowstorms, along with some mechanical issues, forced the group to return to Kotzebue after about 80 miles.

Now the group plans to fly to Emmonak, pick up snowmachines, and travel to villages from there.

“Our people need to be heard in their voice,” said Aucha Kameroff, the group’s leader. “One of the voices that we have as people in rural Alaska, or any place, is by voting.”

Voting in Northwest Alaska is down from historic highs decades ago. In 1982, for example, state election data shows that more than 80% of the region’s registered voters participated. A little over 30% voted in the 2024 presidential election.

“It’s so important for our peoples to carry on what our peoples before us started,” Kameroff said. “So we need to tuupaq — that means ‘wake it up’ — and really look at what’s going on so that we can make an impact.”

The communities they plan to visit – around the Lower Yukon village of Emmonak and around the Northwest Arctic – are not connected by roads. Visitors usually arrive by small plane.

But Kameroff said traveling by snowmachine will make it easier to connect.

“I say, ‘go back door’ into the village,” she said. “It’s so important to be at the level of our peoples, no matter where.”

The group plans to give presentations in local schools to help educate high school seniors and community members about the issues, who is on the ballot and how to register to vote.

The trip is funded in part by nonpartisan organizations Get Out the Native Vote and the Rural Mobilization Center.

The group plans to give their first presentations in Emmonak. From there, they’ll head inland, visiting villages as far up the Yukon River as Pilot Station. Then they’ll head down to Nunam Iqua before flying back to Kotzebue.

After that, they plan to visit all 10 of the Northwest Arctic villages.

Although the trip is focused on voter education and advocacy, Kameroff said the group just enjoys being out in the country. And there’s another goal – healing and processing grief.

“It’s for me to be out there in the country where I love to be and get my mind clear,” said Arthur Richards Sr.

Richards lost his wife, the mother of his four children, to cancer this fall. He said it’s been hard, but things are getting better, and he’s looking forward to the trip.

Raymond Brown Jr., is traveling with Richards and Kameroff. His brother, Elmer Brown, died in November after falling through thin ice near Kotzebue. Brown also thinks the trip will give him perspective.

“It’s really gonna give me fresh air,” Brown said. “It’s going to be awesome.”

The group plans to arrive in Emmonak as early as Feb. 27. Kameroff said she’ll give updates on the group’s travels on social media.

This article is republished with permission from KOTZ Local News.

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