Clarise Larson

In this newscast: Southeast Alaska’s Native-run health consortium is acquiring another privately owned healthcare facility in downtown Juneau. Southeast Medical Clinic will join SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, also called SEARHC, in April of next year; A bill that would increase thousands of Alaskans’ Social Security benefits is headed for President Biden’s desk after passing the Senate early Saturday. The bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, would repeal two provisions that cut benefits for people who spend part of their career working for employers who don’t participate in Social Security — including the state of Alaska and many local governments; Southeast Alaska’s commercial golden king crab and Tanner crab fisheries will open on February 17. As KFSK’s Olivia Rose reports, the Tanner crab population is on a slight decline, whereas golden king crab is seeing an overall harvest level increase.

In this newscast: U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed a lawsuit filed by the State of Alaska that sought ownership of the land beneath Mendenhall Lake and part of the river. It’s a defeat in the Dunleavy administration’s push to take control of federal lands in the state; After three previous failed attempts, a fourth application to put a cruise limit question before Sitka voters has passed the city’s initial legal review; Alaska has the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, and one of the highest rates of domestic violence. But survivors, especially in rural areas, don’t always have access to someone who can collect forensic evidence of those crimes. So an Anchorage nurse is training healthcare providers on how to do this for their patients.