Claire Stremple

In this newscast:

• Juneau volunteers reboot trail work efforts after the pandemic put a hold on maintenance;
• State economist Rob Kreiger spoke with Alaska public Media about what’s driving the state’s tightened housing market;
• Alaska is the most scammed state in the country—this year there have been nearly a thousand reports of fraud.

In this newscast:

• Two Tlingit dance groups from Wrangell are leads at Celebration, the biannual festival honoring Tlingit, Hainda, and Tsimshian people;
• A large tundra fire is threatening the village of St. Mary’s;
• A rare lightening storm knocked out power to thousands of Homer Electric Association members Thursday morning.

In this newscast:

• State health officials report 144 new cases of COVID-19 in Juneau over the last week;
• Experienced travelers say staff shortages and COVID-19 outbreaks are spoiling their Alaska cruises;
• The governor and some legislators celebrated the passage of the Alaska Reads Act while others are skeptical about the bill’s requirements for school districts;
• U.S. Coast Guard rescued two people from Douglas Island in Juneau after their plane crashed 100 feet from shore;
• Carlton Waterhouse, President Biden’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency office that manages Superfund sites, says he’ll make progress on cleaning up contaminated lands conveyed to Alaska Native Corporations.

Juneau’s Community Development department is doubling down on its refusal to permit a downtown affordable housing project.

The Glory Hall plans to convert its former homeless shelter building downtown into seven housing units. The city denied construction permits for the job back in December because it said the renovation would increase density in an avalanche hazard zone.

The Glory Hall appealed that denial successfully at the end of May. The Juneau Planning Commission sent the permit back to the city’s Community Development Department and gave it 30 days to reconsider its decision.

The city filed an objection to the Planning Commission’s decision on Wednesday. That means the case will go back to the Planning Commission for its reconsideration, according to city officials.

Juneau police and the regional drug task force Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) have made three drug busts in the last five days.

“It’s not typical,” said Lieutenant Krag Campbell. “Especially to have, I mean, it’s a pretty large quantity amount for Juneau — and even Southeast Alaska. And then to have them pretty much back to back like that.”

On Saturday, police arrested a Washington woman at the airport with 4,100 pills believed to contain fentanyl and 55 grams of methamphetamine.

On Monday, police intercepted a Juneau man who received drugs by mail at Harris Harbor. The package contained about 2,640 pills believed to contain fentanyl, plus 134 grams of methamphetamine and 40 grams of heroin.

And on Tuesday afternoon, police arrested two Juneau men at the airport with more than 3,000 pills believed to contain fentanyl and nearly 70 grams of methamphetamine.

Campbell said he’s proud of the work the regional task force does, and he’s grateful for support from the state’s federally funded drug task force, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. But he says the real drug crackdown will come from the courts.

“We can arrest 1,000 people, but if the people aren’t held accountable and they’re not given sentences to change behaviors then it’s not that impactful,” he said.

Fentanyl is behind a 71% increase in drug overdose deaths in Alaska from 2020 to 2021. More than 250 Alaskans died from a drug overdose last year. Alaska has the highest rising rate of overdose deaths in the nation.

In this newscast:

• It’s Walter Harper Day and a monument to the Koyukon Athabaskan who was the first person to summit Denali will be installed in Fairbanks;
• Kind salmon fishing is no longer allowed for the early run in the Kenai River due to low salmon counts;
• Data from the Gulf of Alaska’s sea floor could answer questions about the effects of bottom trawling;
• A national nonprofit is helping Alaska foster children appeal a court decision that allows the state’s health department to spend their social security benefits.