Pablo Arauz Peña, KTOO

In this newscast:

• After a nonexistent tourism season, most downtown hotels are especially looking forward to the arrival of lawmakers and the opportunity to make up some lost revenue.
• The chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court plans to retire in June, the court system announced today.
• A Social Security phone scam seems to have gotten a second wind as Alaskans head into the holiday season.
• The Hawaii-based shipping company Matson announced last week it will donate free ocean shipping of food supplies to food banks, including in Alaska, through 2023.

In this newscast:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased the severity of its warning against cruise ship travel.
• Sixteen U.S. Coast Guard cadets were sent in to replace 18 regular crewmembers who got stuck in quarantine. The quick addition of the cadets meant that the cutter Munro could go ahead with its Bering Sea patrol as scheduled this summer.
• Alaska voters elected 13 new members to the state Legislature. The first-time lawmakers are a heavily Republican group, and the only Democrat is also the only woman.
• A judge has ruled the federal government was correct in allowing a southeast Alaska tribe to organize an out-of-season hunt because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Update | 5:50 p.m.

Juneau city officials are asking residents to be “COVID conscious” this holiday season as COVID-19 cases increase statewide.

Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said it’s difficult to get a sense of how the virus is being contained while contact tracing is impaired.

“The disease is moving,” she said. “It’s moving via travel, it’s moving the family groupings, and community spread is increasing.”

City Manager Rorie Watt said that statewide numbers show the virus is spreading in every way possible. He asked residents to keep groups small during the holiday.

Watt also brought back a phrase used often at the start of the pandemic.

“We want to flatten the curve,” he said. “One of the ways that you flatten the curve is you get people to test and you get a lot of testing in the community.”

April Rezendes, the local incident commander for the State Division of Public Health, was also present at the community update. She says that even people with mild symptoms should get tested.

“If you do wake up with that headache in that congestion, go get tested, stay home until you have that test result back,” said Rezendes. “That will decrease your number of close contacts.”

The team also answered questions about the relief grants for businesses and individuals that were approved yesterday.

Juneau residents with symptoms can call 586-6000 or go to the city’s COVID-19 page for more info.

 

Original story

The City and Borough of Juneau’s weekly community update is at 4 p.m. today.

Members of the city’s emergency operations center will provide information about the COVID-19 response in Juneau and answer questions.

Community members can submit questions to COVIDquestions@juneau.org.

Watch on Zoom, Facebook Live or here once the meeting is live. You can also call the city to listen by phone by calling 1-346-248-7799 or 1-669-900-6833 or 1-253-215-8782, webinar ID 985 6308 5159.

In this newscast:

• Alaska state flags were lowered to half-mast on Friday in honor of Jay Kerttula, the only state legislator to serve as both senate president and speaker of the house.
• Hundreds of people have complained to the state’s environmental watchdog about air pollution from cruise ships.
• The Alaska Department of Corrections says an inmate with underlying health issues has died from complications related to COVID-19.
• The coronavirus pandemic has hurt the U.S. seafood industry due to a precipitous fall in imports and exports and a drop in catch of some species.
• Analysis suggests two out of three Alaska adults have at least one risk factor health officials link with a higher chance of severe COVID-19 infection.

In this newscast:

• Last year, Norwegian Cruise Lines outbid competitors when it agreed to pay the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority $20 million for a 3-acres of waterfront land in downtown Juneau.
• The majority of candidates elected by Alaska voters to both the state Senate and House are Republicans. But it’s not yet clear if the majority caucuses that govern both chambers will actually be Republican.
• Federal investigators say they’re baffled over what caused an air ambulance over Southeast Alaska to rapidly plunge into the water in January of last year — killing all three aboard.

In this newscast:

• New travel requirements from the State of Alaska take effect this Saturday.
• Yesterday, 30-year-old Joshua Allen Shaff was arrested and charged with the murder of 69-year-old Majid Sateri.
• Next year’s budget hasn’t been approved yet, but ConocoPhillips Alaska says it’s planning to restart some of its drilling projects on the North Slope.
• In this new study, scientists have linked warming Arctic temperatures, changing wind patterns and shifting currents to the movement of pollock.
• Two weeks into an outbreak, the number of COVID-19 cases at Goose Creek Correctional Center in Point MacKenzie keeps climbing.