ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Wade Marrs leads out of the halfway point of Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The 26-year-old veteran musher left Huslia at 7:05 p.m. Friday with 14 dogs.
Current champ Dallas Seavey was 34 minutes behind him to take second place, after dropping one of his 14 dogs.
Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway trailed the lead by two hours, followed by former champion Mitch Seavey.
Peter Kaiser left Huslia at 3:49 a.m. Saturday in fifth place.
A 2-year-old male dog on Scott Smith’s team died Friday in transit from the Galena checkpoint. The injured Smoke had been dropped Tuesday. A necropsy is planned.
The race across nearly 1,000 miles of Alaska wilderness started Monday in Fairbanks. The winner is expected next week in Nome, along the frozen Bering Sea coast.
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — The smoking age in Sitka is unlikely to change, as officials say convincing Sitka Assembly members has been a struggle.
The Daily Sitka Sentinel reports that city Health Needs and Human Services Commission Assembly Liaison Tristan Guevin told the commission Wednesday that Assembly members have been reluctant to back the commission’s goals.
A motion supporting the commission’s health priorities — to raise the tobacco sale age to 21 and to add a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages — was passed with a 4-3 vote at a February Assembly meeting.
Guevin says even getting those goals approved was a struggle, meaning it’s unlikely either initiative will gain traction with the assembly despite support by the public and the commission.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska is among the 46 Obama-era federal prosecutors asked to resign by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Chloe Martin, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Alaska, told the News-Miner in an email Friday night that Karen Loeffler was asked to submit her resignation.
Martin wrote: “Karen Loeffler, our U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, was one of the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys who were asked to tender their resignations.”
Loeffler was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2009.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker has introduced legislation to keep in place the public health disaster declaration he issued in response to rampant opioid abuse in Alaska.
The bill cites a state law limiting disaster emergency proclamations to 30 days unless extended by the Legislature. Walker signed his declaration Feb. 14. He is seeking a one-year extension.
Walker has said the declaration would allow the state to provide standing medical orders allowing for broader distribution of naloxone, which can be used to prevent opioid overdose.
He had proposed spending about $4.1 million in federal grants through August 2021 for a naloxone program.
The state’s chief medical officer, Jay Butler, says the program would be on hold if a bill isn’t passed. Or, he says, officials would need to find another administrative tool, such as memorandum agreements for each organization it is working with.
About 700 people gathered at the Minnesota capitol in St. Paul to show support for Republican President Donald Trump on March 4, 2017. It was one of many “March 4 Trump” events held around the country. About 100 people were also there protesting against Donald Trump. (Creative Commons photo by Fibonacci Blue )
Supporters of President Trump gathered at locations across the U.S. on Saturday, in a bid to challenge what rally organizers call the country’s “seditious fringe.” In a series of demonstrations dubbed the “March 4 Trump” — or the Spirit of America Rallies — organizers have pledged to provide “forgotten voices a mechanism so they can be heard.”
“They aren’t giving [Trump] a chance,” Patty Collins, a local organizer, told The Indianapolis Star. “We are here to show support for the president of the United States.”
Saturday’s demonstrations — which were intended to be small, according to the Main Street Patriots — come just one week after Trump tweeted something of a call for rallies backing his administration.
“Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally,” Trump tweeted. “It would be the biggest of them all!”
Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!
From New York City to Raleigh, N.C., from Austin to Washington, D.C., Trump supporters answered that call — though in many instances, counterprotesters were also there to meet them.
At the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, scuffles broke out between pro-Trump demonstrators and a smaller group of anti-Trump protesters, according to the Star Tribune. While the two parties were quickly separated by police and fellow demonstrators, the Minneapolis newspaper reports that both sides continued to lob insults at each other from close range:
“The two groups continued to trade taunts — ‘Get a job!’ was one volleyed at the counterprotesters — and chants and shouts reverbated through the rotunda. Someone — it was unclear who, except that it was not police — sprayed a chemical irritant, causing some scattering and coughing on both sides.
“At least two people were arrested.”
Kerfuffles like the one in Minnesota broke out elsewhere, as well.
Outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin, where police estimate roughly 300 supporters gathered, Taylor Goldenstein of the Austin Statesman witnessed heated confrontations between the two groups amid chants of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” Those skirmishes were broken up by police without serious injury.
— Taylor Goldenstein (@taygoldenstein) March 4, 2017
For the most part, however, the demonstrations have been peaceful — and in Austin, at least, charitable as well. The Austin American-Statesman notes that pro-Trump “attendees are told to bring donations for the homeless and veterans, such as canned goods, clothing, blankets and hygiene products, according to the [organizers’] Facebook page.”
“There have been so many protests against [Trump], we just want to spend a day showing him there are people who support him,” Jennifer Drabbant, a local organizer, told the Statesman.
It was a sentiment echoed at the D.C. rally, where a man who identified himself as a registered Democrat told the gathering he was frustrated with the worldwide women’s marches the day after Trump’s inauguration. Most of the people who joined those marches expressed opposition to the new president’s agenda.
“He was in office less than 24 hours,” the man told the crowd from stage.
Meanwhile, Michigan Public Radio’s Cheyna Roth reports “it was a clash of the signs and chants” outside the State Capitol on Saturday, as demonstrators gathered near counterprotesters.
“He’s doing a good job, I think,” Trump supporter Trent Herbert told Roth. “I think a lot of times he should stay off Twitter.”
Christy Trammell of Franklin, Tenn., says she’s attending the Nashville demonstration — her first political rally — as a direct response to January’s women’s marches.
Farmer reports that the Nashville rally, which wasn’t quite as big as organizers would have liked, nevertheless voiced their support of Trump’s proposed wall along the border with Mexico, as well as rolling back transgender bathroom protections.
Still, in Nashville, as elsewhere, protesters persistently chanted slogans from the edges. Organizers of one counterprotest in D.C. summed up their motivations behind showing up in opposition.
“We won’t sit idly by when Trump supporters come to town and celebrate: fear, hate, and misogyny,” Smash Racism DC wrote on its Facebook page.
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
The small Alaska fishing community of Homer is wading into national politics.
Homer is the latest U.S. city to consider affirming its commitment to inclusion following the election of President Donald Trump.
On Monday, the City Council is expected to weigh a resolution that states Homer will resist any efforts to profile “vulnerable populations” and will reject any expressions of fear and hate.
It doesn’t go as far as San Francisco and other sanctuary cities.
If the resolution is approved, Homer would join cities such as Boise, Idaho, that have branded themselves as welcoming.
The Homer proposal has been softened from an early draft that mentioned Trump and was worked on by local residents.
But even with the softer tone, some residents see the effort as a slap in the face and unnecessary.
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