Pablo Arauz Peña, KTOO

In this newscast:

• Juneau residents from Thane to the end of the road woke up with no electricity this morning. Some of the outages persisted into the afternoon.
• Why are there 22 judges on the statewide ballot on Tuesday, what does it mean, and how is Alaska’s judicial retention process different from other states in which judges actually have to campaign, make speeches, and raise funds to stay on the bench?
• Researchers track Arctic sea ice “extent” every year — essentially how far it extends from the North Pole.
• Alaska health officials say a major overflow site is prepared for a quick start to take patients if the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms bed capacity, but that staffing remains a concern.

In this newscast:

• While the Juneau School District board celebrated its newly elected member Martin Stepetin yesterday, the district continues to face the tough challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Juneau Democrat Andi Story is facing a challenger for her seat representing the Mendenhall Valley in the Alaska House of Representatives.
• City staff say skateboarders are causing problems on Juneau’s downtown docks.
• The grocer Alaska Commercial Company, also known as AC, has been fined more than $20,000 by the federal Department of Labor for child labor violations.

While the Juneau School District board celebrated its newly elected member Martin Stepetin yesterday, the district continues to face the tough challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Estimates show the district will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars this year. Superintendent Bridget Weiss says that’s because the district lost nearly 11% of its enrolled students. 

“So rough calculation, we’re still running numbers by other people to make sure because it is complicated,” she said. “But we have a rough estimate of about $358,000 loss due to enrollment.”

That doesn’t exactly mean fewer students are in class this school year. Many enrolled in the district’s HomeBridge program.

“Where we normally have about 35 Homebridge students we now have over 400 Homebridge students,” said Weiss.

The district is receiving some aid from the state because of a provision of Alaska’s public school funding that covers them if a loss in enrollment is greater than 5%. The district is also requesting additional aid in CARES Act funding from the City and Borough of Juneau.

In this newscast:

• Final results are in for Juneau’s local election. The Canvass Review Board met Tuesday to certify the Oct. 6 election results.
• Correction: A story aired on yesterday’s news update erroneously defined what state right of way is.
• This year, the Alaska Day organizing committee canceled the parade and other public events because of the coronavirus pandemic. But the growing effort to re-brand the holiday “Reconciliation Day” continued.
• Rural Alaska tribes are working to get more funding for law enforcement for communities that have few, or no, public safety officers.
• Juneau residents may see displays of the aurora borealis because of the sun’s activity and rare clear skies in Southeast.

In this newscast:

• Polls opened Monday for early in-person voting in Anchorage and across the state.
• The Division of Elections reported that 3,726 votes were cast on Monday.
• Earlier this month Ricky Diesing of Juneau noticed to big campaign signs in front of his house had disappeared.
• Alaskans across the state woke up this morning to a strange threatening email telling them how to vote.
• The National Tsunami Warning Center has lifted a tsunami advisory after a reported 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the Alaska Peninsula on Monday.

 

In this newscast:

• Juneau election officials finished processing ballots for the city’s election on Friday.
• The future of Permanent Fund Dividend checks is one of the most pressing issues facing state lawmakers.
• The Alaska Federation of Natives’ first virtual convention came to a close on Friday.