Claire Stremple

Juneau Public Health began administering vaccines to young children under 5 years old last week. So far, 24 of Juneau’s youngest eligible population have gotten the shot.

“We’ve been booked! They filled up really quickly,” said Public Health Nurse Alison Gottschlich. She says the clinic usually only does vaccines on Friday, but they added Wednesdays because of the response.

The clinic has 200 vaccine doses — 100 Pfizer and 100 Moderna — for children aged 6 months to 5 years.

The first Friday of July is fully booked, but there are a few walk-in appointments available if you’re willing to wait.

“We are getting full. I think there’s still a handful of appointments available for next Friday, but we do have Wednesday appointments available. Beyond next Friday there’s still plenty of availability,” Gottschlich said.

Juneau Public Health has Wednesday and Friday appointments available through the end of July. The vaccine is also available at SEARHC and Juneau Urgent Care.

At a state public health presentation earlier this week, doctors stressed the important of vaccinating young children against COVID-19 to protect against the possibility of a severe case.

Hundreds of Juneau residents rallied against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade over the weekend. They say they’re taking their outrage to the polls.

The crowd was thick across the street from the Capitol on Saturday. Passing cars tooted their horns and the sun reflected off of signs.

Madeline Bowman carried one that read: “Wait, so you’ll let me have a gun, but you won’t give me bodily autonomy?”

Bowman just graduated from high school and turns 18 this week.

“It feels so disappointing,” she said of the decision. “Just feels very heavy to wake up and see that.”

Deb Etheridge says she’s marched in Washington, D.C. and has been an advocate for women’s rights for decades.

“I can’t believe we’re going back 50 years and I just need to be here,” she said.

She said she wants her daughter — and her daughter’s daughters — to have the same protection that she had. She carried a watercolor painting of a uterus “raising the fallopian tube finger.”

The rally was organized by the Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition and included speakers from throughout the community.

Juneau Assembly member Michelle Hale urged the crowd to go further than protest.

“This is really important what we’re doing here, but we need to get into office and be in office and make these things happen,” she said.

She asked the crowd to consider running in upcoming elections—and to consider which campaigns and candidates they’d like to support.

“It’s hard and it’s so, so important and we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to protest, but we’ve got to take those actions and protect each other as well.”

Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan and Sen. Jesse Kiehl spoke at the rally. Kiehl condemned the decision but reassured the crowd that their rights are safe in Alaska because of the explicit right to privacy in the state’s constitution.

“Folks, as long as we can keep their mitts off the Alaska constitution that’s going to stay that way in our state,” he said.

But he warned that a constitutional convention could threaten those rights. Every decade, Alaskans get to choose whether or not to revisit the state constitution. That vote comes this November.

Kiehl also said the ruling opened the door for other rights to be stripped.

“They are coming from marriage equality. They are coming for nondiscrimination laws. They’re coming for you if you don’t live exactly the way they want,” Kiehl said.

Elliott Tibbetts-Travis invited the crowd to recognize that trans and non-binary people are also affected by the ruling.

“I’m not a woman, but I can still get pregnant. I’m not a woman, but I can still give birth and I’m not a woman, but I can still nurture life,” they said.

Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition asked for support and made their mission clear. Their mission is to get pro-choice candidates elected to protect women’s rights in the state.

In this newscast:

• A Norwegian Cruise Line ship stopped in Juneau after it hit an iceberg on Saturday;
• Access to safe and legal abortions in Alaska is likely to remain, but the Supreme Court ruling last week could open the door to restrict that access;
• July is National Minority Mental Health Month and Alaskans weigh in on what can be done to raise awareness;
• The U.S. Forest Service seeks public comment on plans to build more cabins near Kake, Wrangell, and Petersburg.

Coast Guard divers in Juneau assessed damage to the 2,000-passenger cruise ship Norwegian Sun on Monday.

The Norwegian Cruise Lines ship hit an iceberg near Hubbard Glacier on Saturday. A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Lines said the ship was “engulfed by dense fog, limiting visibility,” and that’s the reason it hit what the cruise line is calling a “growler” — a small iceberg about the size of a grand piano.

But passenger Jason Newman of Atlanta, Georgia, says the fog had cleared when he felt the impact.

“The ship had a severe judder,” he said “You could feel the strike. And then it listed minorly.”

Newman said the ship limped out of the bay and all the way to Juneau at 10 mph — he tracked their speed using a phone app. The ship skipped its scheduled Skagway stop on Sunday and reached Juneau on Sunday night at around 5 p.m.

He said passengers did not hear from the captain until 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, when he confirmed the ship had struck an iceberg.

Newman says passengers were allowed a five-hour shore leave Sunday night in Juneau but were confined to the ship on Monday.

“They told us they couldn’t get the authority to approve us to leave the ship,” he said.

Newman said the cruise line had canceled the entire day of tours for everybody on board by 10 a.m. He had planned a jeep tour in the morning.

“I’m sure that all the tour operators lost revenue,” he said.

The cruise ship was moored at Franklin Street Dock in Juneau until Monday afternoon when it left port. It skipped port calls in Ketchikan and Victoria and headed back to Seattle directly for repairs, according to a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line. The U.S. Coast Guard and other maritime authorities gave it clearance to sail.

The cruise line did not reveal the extent of the damage, but the Norwegian Sun’s next cruise—set to embark on June 30th—is canceled.

Passengers say the cruise line has offered full refunds on the cruise and credits on a future sailing.

This story has been updated to reflect that the ship left Juneau Monday afternoon and cut its itinerary short to head back to Seattle for repairs.

In this newscast:

• Juneau residents react to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the right to abortion;
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski was among 15 Republicans who voted to pass a bipartisan gun safety bill;
• Four more teams crossed the Race to Alaska finish line in Ketchikan;
• Politics reporter James Brooks weighs in on the special primary election after Al Gross dropped out.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, eliminating the right to abortion after 50 years. Nearly half the states are expected to ban the procedure.

Abortions are still legal in Alaska, though many women live hundreds of miles from access to abortions.

Juneau residents Emily Chapel and Brian Sparks took to the corner of Egan Drive and Main Street with signs protesting the decision around 9 a.m.

Chapel said she was there because restricting access to safe and legal abortions will cause harm and suffering.

“I just can’t believe that my daughter has fewer rights today than I did and her age,” she said. “I’m really upset. Guns have more rights than I do at this point, as a woman in the United States.”

She carried a sign that read: “No forced births, f— SCOTUS, I trust women.”

Sparks said he was there to support women and their right to choose.

Nancy Courtney is a board member for Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition. She says the board is dismayed by the Supreme Court decision.

“We knew it was coming. We knew it was coming. But it’s still a shock,” she said.

The Coalition is organizing a rally Saturday at Dimond Courthouse.

“I’m hoping that we can come together as Alaskans and do the right thing and maintain safe legal abortion in our state,” Courtney said.

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that abortion rights are protected by the state constitution. But in the November election, Alaskans will decide whether to hold a constitutional convention, which anti-abortion activists see as an opportunity to change that.

Some Alaska lawmakers had repeatedly tried to limit abortion access in the state. Rose O’Hara-Jolley, state director with Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska, is preparing for a fight.

“We know that they’re going to try to come against that because they already do,” O’Hara-Jolley said. “In their last session was a constitutional amendment to remove abortion. Also, HB 206 was one of the most extreme anti-abortion bills in the country, and it was in the Alaska state House.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a statement affirming he is pro-life. He said he will introduce a resolution during the next legislative session for a constitutional amendment that would determine whether abortion is a constitutionally protected right.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she strongly supported Roe v. Wade and codified abortion rights, although in May, she voted against a bill that would have protected abortion rights if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine introduced a narrower bill in February that drew little support.

This story has been updated. Alaska Public Media’s Wesley Early contributed to this report.