Pablo Arauz Peña, KTOO

In this newscast:

• The City and Borough of Juneau says it’s not going to change its testing strategy to match new guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Indigenous leaders are creating mockups of Vogue covers to share on social media to raise awareness for policy changes to the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest.
• A local COVID-19 testing program aims to identify and isolate any positive cases for residents and seasonal workers in Petersburg.

In this newscast:

• Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson has resigned after a series of texts with a younger state worker became public.
• The Juneau Assembly passed an ordinance last night creating a systemic racism review committee.
• Efforts to relocate Juneau’s shelter for homeless residents has seen pushback from other residents.
• The Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska received a $150,000 investment from the federal government this week.
• The group tasked by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to plot the course of Alaska’s ferry system is holding two rounds of public comments on the future of the fleet.

The Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska received a $150,000 investment from the federal government this week. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of its CARES Act Recovery assistance program. It’s intended to directly assist Tribal citizens.

The council plans to purchase equipment to provide virtual training classes for citizens.

“We recognize, you know, the economic injury people are experiencing during COVID and we want to ramp up and be a resource to our Tribal citizens and to the community at large,” said Sarah Dybdahl who works with the Tribe’s vocational training program.

Dybdahl says the council also plans to create a lending library for the equipment and resources people will need to participate.

“Not all of our Tribal citizens will have the equipment, you know, on hand to participate,” she said. “And one of the things that we are working to do is to have a lending library. So if they need a laptop, we can loan a laptop.”

The council is also currently looking into getting citizen feedback on what educational opportunities are relevant to them. That may include language and arts training classes.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the funds are intended to help Tlingit and Haida “make a swift and lasting economic comeback.”

The grant funds are part of a national funding effort by the Department of Commerce to assist Native organizations responding to the pandemic.

In this newscast:

• School starts today in Juneau and classes will remain virtual for the time being.
• There was another glacial dam release that dumped a lot of water into Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River over the weekend.
• Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph’s latest project is a reproduction of the Waasgo Pole for the Sitka National Historic Park.
• Environmental groups have wasted no time challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to allow oil and gas drilling in an Alaska refuge.

In this newscast:

• Alaska tribal governments and organizations are asking the State of Alaska to withdraw a lawsuit filed recently in federal court, calling it “disgraceful” and “racist.”
• Alaska’s Ballot Measure 1, which seeks to increase the production tax on Alaska’s 3 biggest oil fields is shaping up to be a big fight.
• Postmaster General Louis Dejoy says he’s considering cutting Alaska’s bypass mail program to save money.
• There are conflicting accounts over how many people were exposed to COVID-19 at the Juneau airport in early August.

In this newscast:

• As Juneau’s number of positive COVID-19 cases trends upward, new policies are taking effect to control the spread.
• A Ketchikan mayor has vetoed a resolution asking the state legislature to expand sexual and gender identity protection.
• A Haines man was awarded a prize in the town’s Fourth of July parade when he donned a Donald Trump mask and drove a car that was cut in half.
• City and state transportation officials signed a deal recently that’s a step toward a long-standing goal to build a second road crossing to Douglas Island.
• A key federal permitting decision on a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could still be weeks away.