Quinton Chandler, KTOO

A 17-year-old boy was killed in an accidental shooting outside a home in the Mountain Wood Circle neighborhood Saturday morning.

The boy was one of four males preparing for a duck hunt according to a Juneau Police Department press release.

He was reportedly standing outside of a truck when he tried to pull his shotgun out of the back seat by its barrel. The shotgun went off and the boy was hit in his torso.

The rest of the hunting party was standing outside of the truck during the shooting. Police said they tried to give the victim first aid before 1st responders arrived.

An ambulance took the victim to Bartlett Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

JPD spokeswoman Erann Kalwara said accidental shootings are rare in Juneau. She wasn’t certain how many occur but said there are no more than two per year.

Gov. Bill Walker won’t challenge a decision to reverse his veto of education spending.

In late June, Walker vetoed $6.35 million previously allocated to a formula that funds schools based on their enrollment numbers.

The Legislative Finance Division reviewed the veto and decided it was ineffective for technical reasons. Basically, the governor’s veto cut one source of funding. But, there’s another source of funding that would replace that amount automatically. Walker didn’t cut that.

Pat Pitney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the governor could have challenged that analysis, but at a high cost.

“It was possible because of all the intent that was written into the vetoes, and the backup information, that there was clarity in the 6.3 (million dollar) reduction,” Pitney said. “But if it was challenged, it would be a lot of wasted time and (a) court battle.”

Pitney said the administration decided going to court would have left schools in limbo, questioning how much money they would get from the state. She said even if a court decision favored the governor, the amount of money saved might not have justified the effort.

“There were 58 million in education-related vetoes and now by accepting (Legislative) Finance’s interpretation there’s 53 million in school-related vetoes,” Pitney said.

The Walker administration’s cuts to education were part of a larger attempt to close the state’s spending gap.

Pitney said the state’s revenue that legislators have the most power over has dropped by more than 80 percent since its average in the oil boom years between 2007 and 2013.

“So it’s like if you were a $100,000 household and now you’re making $16,000. You have fixed costs. Education is a fixed cost,” Pitney said. “The amount of money we put into education exceeds the amount of money the state receives — just education.”

Pitney said the state needs a sustainable fiscal plan.

A small landslide blocked Glacier Highway for about an hour Friday afternoon near mile 21. Jeremy Woodrow with the Alaska Department of Transportation said it took about 20 minutes to clear the debris.

“I don’t believe there was any significant damage,” Woodrow said. “There definitely was material put into the ditch and drainage area so we had to do some more work to remove that. But, that’s to be expected when you have some movement of dirt into our ditches. That’s one reason why our ditches are there to catch some of that.”

Woodrow believes the slide was caused by last week’s heavy rains. He said they’re not a frequent occurrence, but it’s possible there will be more slides as the rainy season approaches.

“You do tend to see more slope movements during the fall when we get lots of rain,” Woodrow said. “It saturates the ground and kind of loosens the soil up. You tend to get more slides during that time than at other times of year.”

He cautioned drivers to keep an eye out for slides. He asked anyone who witnesses one to contact the Juneau Police Department. The police will call DOT and they will send crews to clear the road.

Hands covered hearts and veterans saluted as a Juneau Police Department Honor Guard raised the flag to half-staff in concert with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

The Juneau Glacier Valley Rotary Club’s annual service, held at the Sept. 11 Memorial in Riverside Rotary Park, followed a pattern similar to past services held since 2002.

The highlights included Capital City Fire/Rescue firefighter Andrew Bishop’s explanation of the significance behind each piece of the memorial.

Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch laid a ceremonial wreath at the memorial’s base while bagpipes played somberly in the background.

Lieutenant Kris Sell with Juneau Police Department shared her initial thoughts on the repercussions of 9/11 and the lessons learned from the aftermath.

“We came together as a nation 15 years ago and it was beautiful. It’s time to do it again and for the long haul,” Sell said.

She encouraged the crowd to support first responders and U.S. soldiers as “the ultimate way” to honor the lives lost 15 years ago.

Lisa Golisek was at an airport in route to Indiana on 9/11. She says it is especially important to her to pay respects to first responders who lost their lives serving others.

“Also the ones that are living. I am married to a first responder so it’s very important to me,” Golisek said.

She said her husband is a former Juneau police officer.

The entire ceremony took less than an hour. Golisek thought it was “appropriate.”

Alaska public schools will still receive $6.35 million in education funding that Gov. Bill Walker tried to veto from the state’s budget in late June.

Walker’s education cuts were part of a series of line item vetoes totaling $1.29 billion.

Department of Education and Early Development spokesman Eric Fry said in an email that the Division of Legislative Finance didn’t believe the K-12 foundation formula funding veto sufficiently addressed technical language in the state’s operating budget bill.

Fry said “instead of allowing uncertainty to continue,” the state will distribute formula funding to schools as if the veto didn’t happen.

He cautioned that formula funding for the fiscal year, which started in July, still is not decided because it is based on estimates.

Final state funding for schools depends on each school’s enrollment, Fry said. Before the veto was reversed, the Juneau School District faced a $212,938 cut in its formula funding.

The governor also vetoed another $6.35 million in student transportation funding that still is in effect. That veto has reduced Juneau School District’s student transportation funding by $248,764.

Together the two cuts would’ve contributed to a roughly $460,000 budget deficit for the district.

A number of Juneau parents are worried about the price of EpiPens, according to Auke Bay and Glacier Valley Elementary School Nurse Luann Powers.

Most allergic reactions can be treated with Benadryl, but if there’s a life-threatening reaction, known as anaphylaxis, it usually sets in within two hours, she said.

“It can start with simple hives and then there can be problems with your respiration because it can cause swelling inside of the breathing tubes,” Powers said. “It can cause vomiting — severe vomiting because the gut is responding.”

That’s why it’s important for adults in charge of an allergic child to know how to recognize and respond to shock, she said.

“As soon as you give an EpiPen, you need to call 911 or have somebody calling 911 when the occurrence is happening,” Powers said. “That child will need to be seen at the emergency room following an EpiPen.”

Mylan, the pharmaceutical company that makes the EpiPen, said in a news release last week that it plans to offer a more affordable a generic version of EpiPens.

Mylan said the generic’s list price would be about $300. That’s less than half the EpiPen’s current list price, the release said.

The company expected to launch the generic in several weeks.

“I think it’s great if we can have generics. I think that will reduce the cost,” Powers said. “Although, I did query over at Costco this weekend to see what the difference in cost was and it’s not really that much.”

Juneau’s Costco pharmacy said before insurance, its current EpiPen alternative costs customers about $512. The price for a two pack of name brand EpiPens is about $680.

Those prices change drastically between pharmacies.

Juneau Drug Company only carries an EpiPen alternative for about $497.

At Ron’s Apothecary Shoppe, an alternative sells for $538 and the brand name costs $695.

Powers said the medicine generally expires after one year, so parents have to keep buying more.

She said she has 12 students with allergies who have EpiPens at Auke Bay Elementary. There are a few more who don’t have EpiPens but still have allergies.

“That number for me has gone up tremendously,” Powers said. “I’ve been a school nurse for 13 years and when I first started I only had a few kids, just at this school.”

She said the number of kids with allergies is going up around the district.

She said each school does keep a stock of EpiPens, provided for free by Mylan; but only a nurse, a health assistant or a teacher trained to give the injection can use them.