Wooden gavel with books in background, News of the North File
The state of Alaska has settled lawsuits against Juul and Altria, two nicotine vapor manufacturers, for a combined $7.8 million, the state Department of Law said on Friday.
The suits were part of a nationwide pattern: Alaska and other U.S. states had alleged that the companies deliberately targeted children with advertising, something that likely contributed to a surge in nicotine use among children and young adults.
Altria settled Alaska’s lawsuit for $2 million last year, and the state announced a $5.8 million consent judgment with Juul on Friday.
Under the settlements, neither Juul nor Altria must admit fault, but both must abide by marketing restrictions. One key point in the settlement: Juul can’t use cartoons to advertise its products.
“This case took five years and a great deal of work from our public health and consumer
protection teams, but it was worth it,” said Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox, in a prepared statement.
“We now have strong court-enforceable limits on how these companies can operate in
Alaska, and we’ve obtained a per-capita recovery that ranks near the top nationally, with
those dollars going straight into prevention and consumer protection.”
Alaska was one of the last states in the country to settle with Juul, which has already paid more than $1 billion to states across the country.
Some states have since filed additional lawsuits against vape distributors, alleging that they contributed to a surge in nicotine vapor use among children and young adults.
Money from Alaska’s Juul settlement is to be paid over the next five years.
Under the financial terms of the consent judgment, half of the proceeds would be used to fund tobacco control and prevention programs, and the other half would go to the Department of Law’s consumer protection program.
Typically, the spending of money earned in financial judgments must be approved by the Alaska Legislature before becoming official.
“The use of vapes and other nicotine products among youth in Alaska remains a concern,” said Alaska Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg in a prepared statement. “This funding will help families and communities continue to access education, prevention, and cessation programs.”
NOTN- The Juneau Assembly spent its Saturday retreat examining an estimated $11 million budget shortfall, Mayor Beth Weldon said it will take one to two years to fully understand as the city assesses the effects of recent voter-approved ballot measures.
“This is just an estimate because it will take us a year or two to figure out exactly what the ramifications of the ballot measures are, good or bad.” Weldon Said.
According to Weldon, about $4.4 million of the projected deficit is considered one-time cost.
The Assembly directed the manager to split reductions between delaying capital projects, including a planned waterfront museum, and pushing back one year of planned street work funded through the 1% temporary sales tax.
The remaining $6.6 million is tied to recurring costs. Weldon noted that additional financial pressures remain, including school district funding questions and outstanding police and fire labor contracts.
“To give people an idea of how big that is, when we did our priority list budgeting, all of our recreational facilities, everything together was $6 million. So we’re looking at some definitely cuts in service.” She said, “And on top of that, we also have to keep in mind that we have to have funding for glacial lake outburst floods and we have to have contracts out there for police and fire.”
To address the recurring shortfall, the city said it will tighten budget assumptions, such as eliminating long-vacant positions and delaying the launch of new programs, increase revenue, primarily through higher dockage fees and begin service reduction.
“We’re looking for community input on this, because this is where the community is going to feel it.” Weldon said.
NOTN- Juneau Dance Theatre celebrated its 20th production of The Nutcracker over the weekend.
The annual holiday tradition has become a cornerstone of the city’s festive season.
The four performances, held Dec. 5-7, featured guest artists Nanako Yamamoto and Aldeir Monteiro of the American Repertory Ballet, who returned for a second year in the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. They joined a cast of about 85 dancers ranging in age from 4 to adult volunteers.
“We have families that come back year after year,” said Juneau Dance Theatre Executive Director Bridget Lujan “We have little ones that are in the audience one year and then on the stage with us the next year. There are all kinds of aspiring Ballerinas born the weekend of Nutcracker.”
JDT, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, has staged The Nutcracker nearly every season since the early 2000s.
Rehearsals for the cast, which includes dancers from age 8 through high-school seniors, were held on weekends through the fall, with dancers putting in extra hours of practice to prepare.
“We spend most of the weekend at the studio, we want to be efficient with the time, but we generally work about four hours on Saturdays, another four hours on Sundays, and that’s on top of all of their class time.” said Lujan.
As in past years, Juneau Dance Theatre offered a free outreach performance, giving nearly 1,200 elementary school students the chance to experience live ballet.
Juneau Dance Theatre will next host auditions for its variety showcase, Juneau’s Got Talent, on Dec. 13–14, followed by a winter showcase performance in mid-January.
More information about JDT programs and upcoming events is available at juneaudance.org.
An exploration site at ConocoPhillips’ Willow prospect is seen from the air in the 2019 winter season. Willow is located in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. (Photo by Judy Patrick/provided by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.)
The White House announced Friday evening that Trump had signed Senate Joint Resolution 80 into law.
SJR 80 uses the Congressional Review Act to reverse restrictions enacted during the administration of President Joe Biden. Those restrictions, imposed as part of a 2022 activity plan for the reserve, were intended to protect environmentally sensitive areas against harm from oil and gas drilling.
Developers and drilling advocates opposed the restrictions, saying they could deter work that would provide revenue for local residents and Alaskans at large. Trump has also been interested in developing Alaska’s oil reserves as part of a broader effort to increase American energy production and reduce imports.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow project is in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. (Map by USGS, Department of Interior)
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is approximately 23.5 million acres. Located to the west of Alaska’s vast Prudhoe Bay oil fields it — unlike the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to the east — has been the subject of interest from oil companies.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, approved during the Biden administration, was the first major project to take place in the reserve, and others are planned.
Friday’s signing was one of several Trump administration actions taking place simultaneously to reduce regulatory obstacles for developers interested in drilling within the reserve.
CBJ-With snow coming to Juneau, CBJ Streets & Fleet Maintenance would like to share information about winter snow removal in Juneau.
CBJ Streets crews clear snow from the streets in order of the following priorities:
Clear access for emergency vehicles, public transit, commercial routes, and high-traffic streets.
Residential areas.
Low-traffic areas, including dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs.
Snow berms: Operators make every effort to minimize snow accumulation on private property. However, berms and windrows are unavoidable. Crews do not clear snow—including berms—from driveways.
Sidewalks and driveways: Property owners, landlords, and tenants are responsible for clearing snow and ice from sidewalks and driveways. Snow or ice may not be placed on any sidewalk, street, roadway, or parking area per CBJ 72.24.075.
Garbage cans: Please place garbage cans at least five feet from the edge of the street to prevent them from being damaged during snow removal.
Heavy snowfall brings challenges to both snow removal crews and property owners alike. CBJ Streets crews appreciate the work that you are doing to keep your home accessible, as well as your understanding of what our crews are able to accomplish.
Students swing on a playground at Meadow Lakes Head Start in Wasilla, Alaska. It closed in 2024 due to funding and staffing challenges. (Image by Lela Seiler, courtesy of CCS Early Learning)
The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s child support system has first priority when a foreclosed property is sold to pay multiple debts.
The court issued its opinion on Nov. 28, resolving a long-running lawsuit brought by Global Federal Credit Union (formerly Alaska USA) against the state and several other defendants.
“This is a pretty important case from my client’s perspective,” said Jonathan Clement, a senior assistant attorney general who represented Alaska’s child support system.
“This is the first time that a court has actually decided that child support gets priority over all other judgment lien holders, even liens recorded earlier, when there’s surplus funds at issue,” he said.
The case decided by the court involved property in Eagle River that was mortgaged by Wells Fargo. In 2017, Global levied a lien against the property for unpaid debt. Shortly afterward, the state’s child support division recorded another lien against the property for unpaid debt.
Typically, liens are repaid in chronological order: First filed, first paid.
In 2018, a law firm sold the property through foreclosure and paid off the remaining Wells Fargo mortgage. There was money left over, but not enough to pay both Global and the state.
The state protested the law firm’s plans to pay Global first, and the firm complied with a state order that required it to pay the state first.
Global sued in state court, but a district court judge and a superior court judge each ruled against the credit union before it appealed to the supreme court.
Writing on behalf of the court, Justice Jude Pate concluded, “Our interpretation of (state law) provides an effective priority for CSSD liens over competing judgment liens.”
Alaska’s Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is now known as the Child Support Enforcement Division (CSCD).
That priority doesn’t put the state above a bank holding a mortgage or “deed of trust” but it does give the state priority over other liens on the property.
“The important thing for this case is that it gives CSCD another tool where they can try to collect money that’s owed by the obligors,” Clement said.
“I would say of all the cases I’ve worked on, this is the one that will have the most impact in my career going forward,” he said.
An attorney representing Global declined comment on behalf of the credit union.
In a footnote attached to the case, Pate wrote that the court’s ruling could cause people to behave differently during foreclosure auctions.
He suggested that if the Legislature disagrees with the court’s interpretation, it might want to pass a law clarifying two conflicting statutes interpreted by the court.
“If our interpretation is contrary to the legislature’s intent,” he wrote, “amendments to the relevant child support statutes could clarify the interaction between child support liens, other liens, and mortgages.”
Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
AP- A powerful, magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in a remote area near the border between Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon on Saturday. There was no tsunami warning, and officials said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it struck about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Whitehorse, Yukon.
In Whitehorse, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Calista MacLeod said the detachment received two 911 calls about the earthquake.
“It definitely was felt,” MacLeod said. “There are a lot of people on social media, people felt it.”
Alison Bird, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the part of Yukon most affected by the temblor is mountainous and has few people.
“Mostly people have reported things falling off shelves and walls,” Bird said. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve seen anything in terms of structural damage.”
The Canadian community nearest to the epicenter is Haines Junction, Bird said, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away. The Yukon Bureau of Statistics lists its population count for 2022 as 1,018.
The quake was also about 56 miles (91 kilometers) from Yakutat, Alaska, which the USGS said has 662 residents.
It struck at a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) and was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks.
Art Scraps features by Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper, photos courtesy of Juneau Douglas City Museum
The Juneau-Douglas City Museum is gearing up for Gallery Walk tonight, featuring the opening of a new exhibition, “Art Scraps.”
Museum Director Beth Weigel said the annual downtown celebration will include a trolley stop at the Capitol, making it easy for visitors to drop into the museum and explore the new show by Juneau artists Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper.
“It’s just so fun and whimsical.” She said, “There’s lots of pieces for sale, and it’s just going to be a super fun exhibit and opportunity at the City Museum.”
Anderson and Harper, partners in life as well as in art, said the exhibit grew out of both artists’ shared love of repurposing found materials.
“I will have piles of random things sitting in my house and go, what if I did this, with this material, and turn it into something completely different and new.” Said Harper.
Anderson and Harper met at Perseverance Theater.
“We met 21 years ago, Kathleen was a props master and a stage manager, and I was a young carpenter,” Anderson said.
Bo Anderson is known for his works that gained a local following through the museum’s free little art gallery.
“He was very famous in our free little art gallery for a long time. He kind of took that on as one of his passions during covid.” said Weigel, “So people have come to know his little sketches.”
The museum will also serve as a drop-off site for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank during Gallery Walk. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned goods and other nonperishable items.
“We’ve got some milk crates there, and you can bring in cans of food.” Weigel said, “It’ll be easy just to carry that along in your purse on the trolley when you come up and drop that into the containers, and then we send that off to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, because everybody’s wanting to make sure that we get everybody fed this holiday season.”
Along with Art Scraps, both artists will lead workshops in December. Anderson will host a drop-in “sketch with Bo” session on Dec. 6, and Harper will teach participants how to craft roses from coffee filters on Dec. 20.
Gallery Walk festivities at the museum run from 4:30 to 7 p.m. tonight.
Parking will also be easier in the downtown core this evening, paid parking downtown will not be enforced and enforcement will end at 3 p.m. for the evening.
On-street parking will not be limited to two hours, and free parking will be offered at the Shopper’s Lot, the North Franklin Lot, the Downtown Transportation Center Garage, the Marine Parking Garage, the Whittier Lot and the South Franklin Docks & Harbors lots.
A commercial bowpicker is seen headed out of the Cordova harbor for a salmon fishing opener in June 2024 (Photo by Corinne Smith)
One of Alaska’s smallest telecommunications companies is about to provide a critical backup for the entire state.
On Wednesday, Cordova Telecom Cooperative and GCI announced a partnership to lay an undersea fiber optic cable from Juneau to Cordova and a second cable from Cordova to Seward.
When open for service in fall 2027, the two cables will provide high-speed internet to small communities in Prince William Sound and northern Southeast Alaska.
The development matters to the rest of the state as well, because when combined, they will provide a route for internet traffic between the Railbelt and Outside. Currently, four undersea cables through the Gulf of Alaska are the principal routes for internet and phone traffic between Alaska and the rest of the world.
Matanuska Telecom Association opened the state’s first overland fiber connection in 2020 as an alternative, and the new route will give the state another redundant option, said Cordova Telecom CEO Jeremiah Beckett.
“With what we’ve built out, scalability wise, we could put all the current Alaska traffic on our network if needed,” Beckett said.
This map, provided by Cordova Telecom Cooperative, shows the route of the proposed FISH in SEAK cable that will come online in fall 2027. Cordova’s existing fiber route is shown in green. (Image courtesy Cordova Telecom Cooperative)
While satellite internet services like Starlink have transformed life in rural Alaska, ground-based fiber internet remains the backbone of worldwide telecommunications, delivering service faster and in volumes that satellites can’t provide.
“It’s kind of like rural communities that don’t have the ferry,” Beckett said. “Places without fiber don’t have the same access that folks with fiber do. So this is really to help connect those rural areas and give them the same access to the digital economy and marketplace as the rest of the world.”
Despite their advantages, fiber-optic cables can be vulnerable.
“Up north, it’s ice scouring … and in our area, it’s typically ship anchors and earthquakes,” Beckett said.
Alaskans have become intimately familiar with the consequences of broken cables in recent years.
Northern and northwest Alaska are particularly familiar: Quintillion’s fiber-optic cable has been severed three times in two years. The latest break wasn’t fixed for more than seven months because sea ice precluded repairs. That caused widespread problems in areas served by the cable.
In March, a break in a subsea cable left the Alaska Legislature to do business on paper for a day and knocked out both cellphone and internet service for much of Juneau. Juneau had alternatives; a temporary fix was in place within days.
Adding a backup fiber route reduces the odds of blackouts like those. Currently, Cordova is served by a single undersea fiber line through Prince William Sound to Valdez.
When the project is complete, internet and phone traffic will have three possible routes: north, west, and east.
The two cables will cost roughly $88 million combined, according to figures provided by Beckett, and the project is principally funded through two federal grants. Cordova Telecom is paying for part of the project, as is GCI, which will be what Beckett calls an “anchor tenant and partner.”
“It was a good matchup for both of our long-term goals,” he said.
In a prepared statement, GCI senior vice president Billy Wailand praised the plan, which is formally known as Fiber Internet Serving Homes in Southeast Alaska, or FISH in SEAK.
“Critical state services require network diversity,” he said. “GCI turned up the first subsea cable to Alaska in 1999 and landed a second diverse fiber in 2008. We are thrilled to partner with CTC on its FISH in SEAK project, which includes a next-generation cable that ensures Alaska and its capital city continue to benefit from the newest technologies and adds another crucial layer of redundancy to the network.”
Communities along the cable route will see huge changes, Beckett said. Residents of Pelican on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, who use boardwalks instead of roads and four-wheelers instead of cars, will be able to get fiber internet access directly to their homes.
The island village of Chenega in Prince William Sound, which has about 50 year-round residents, likewise will have new access to fiber internet.
Alaska’s Lost Coast, between Glacier Bay and Yakutat, could be dotted with cellphone towers.
Beckett, who grew up in Cordova, returned to the town with his spouse 12 years ago, “basically when Cordova got its subsea fiber,” he said. “We were both teleworkers, and that created the opportunity for us to move back to Alaska, essentially.”
Since then, he’s seen internet service improve and has become head of his local telecom, which has just 20 employees.
Because it’s a cooperative, it’s run as a nonprofit, he said. That means the telecom’s goal is to deliver faster service and low rates, not necessarily generate a profit.
In Yakutat, “a few years ago, you couldn’t get cell service anywhere,” Beckett said.
“We’ve upgraded the cell service there to 4G and outside of the fishermen complaining because their wives can get hold of them, it was a huge boost for the community,” he said.
“If someone gets hurt, they can call the paramedics and not have to drive 20 miles before they get to service. … It’s giving people reasons to think about moving home, because it’s one less inhibitor to be back in Alaska,” Beckett said.
“Yakutat actually got a new clinic a couple years ago, and then with this, I think they’re going to see some good growth. Everyone likes core services, right?”
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau.
(Photo by Greg Knight/News of the North)
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau. (Photo by Greg Knight/News of the North)
NOTN- Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon said the city is finalizing its annual list of legislative funding priorities, shaped by months of committee work, public input and recommendations from numerous city boards and commissions.
“The planning commission, Systemic Racism Review Committee, General Commission on Sustainability, Utilities Advisory Board, Docks and harbours, Eagle Crest, Parks and Rec Advisory Committee, Historic Resources Committee, General School District and the General Commission on Aging, lots of hands have touched this list.” Weldon said.
The list, which guides Juneau’s requests to state lawmakers and Alaska’s congressional delegation, will be introduced to the full Assembly on Dec. 15 and is scheduled for a public hearing in January.
“What this list is, is it’s our priorities that we’re looking at, so it’s not all of our capital priorities by any stretch of imagination, but this is the list that we send to the State Delegation and the Federal Delegation in the hopes that there’s some money, either state money, which we know there’s not much of, or federal, that we can get help with. So again, this is not our complete list.” Weldon said.
The top projects on Juneau’s 2025 legislative priority list are; Mendenhall Glacier outburst flood response, North Douglas crossing, Mendenhall Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades, Peterson Hill housing development, Juneau School District security and safety upgrades, Gold Creek flood control rehabilitation, prompted by flume failures, Bartlett Regional Hospital emergency department renovation, Statter Harbor wave attenuator project and Telephone Hill redevelopment.
Weldon said Juneau hopes to secure funding for even a portion of its top five projects. “We’ll be shocked to get any money on the top five. But you got to have a list for people to look at to help support you.” She said, “So this is to help our state delegates, who are having an open house today.”
The mayor encouraged residents to take advantage of the opportunity to speak with lawmakers during their open house at the state Capitol today.
Juneau Senator Jessie Kiehl added, “We’re opening up our offices from 11:30 to 1:00 today. We’ll have some snacks, some beverages, and good cheer.” He said, “Come on by the Capitol, just say hi. We don’t have an agenda, we don’t have a presentation, but we want to talk to you.”
