Rashah McChesney

• Tlingit culture bearer and leader King̱eestí David Katzeek died suddenly last night,
• While the pandemic put a damper on many holidays this year, determined Juneauites are finding creative ways to celebrate Halloween,
• More than a dozen candidates for the Alaska Legislature gathered for a virtual forum last week on racial equity,
• Governor Mike Dunleavy says obsolete technology has prevented the state government from distributing additional money to Alaskans who are unemployed due to COVID-19,
• Alaska’s congressional delegation and governor are welcoming the Trump administration’s decision to fully exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Clinton-era Roadless rule. that’s a federal regulation that generally restricts road-building and industrial activity on national forest lands that don’t already have them.

The City and Borough of Juneau announced 26 new COVID-19 cases among Juneau residents Thursday. 

Eleven are part of a new cluster among employees at the Mendenhall Auto Center, which closed to the public earlier this week. According to a city media release, half of the business’s 65 employees have been tested and the other half were expected to be tested Thursday.

Public Health believes the risk to people who visited the auto center is low because the business closed quickly and had health measures in place. 

But because of a surge in new cases and the state’s backlog, thorough contact tracing is strained. According to the city, that means it’s not clear where many of the residents who tested positive recently got the virus. 

There are three people with the virus being treated at Bartlett Regional Hospital.

Statewide, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported 355 new people with COVID-19 and six more deaths, though it’s not clear how many of them happened recently.

Those who died include a woman in her 80s from Fairbanks, a woman in her 70s from the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, a woman in her 80s from Anchorage and two men from Anchorage in their 70s. One person died out of state. 

• Juneau officials are reporting 12 new cases of COVID-19 in the area. Half of those are connected to a cluster of infections among the city’s unsheltered population,
• The Juneau Assembly made a decision earlier this week requiring the disclosure of real estate sales prices to the city assessor’s office, despite opposition from local realtors,
• Gov. Dunleavy’s public health emergency disaster declaration is set to expire on Nov. 15. Healthcare providers and local governments say they need that declaration, which allows them to better respond to the pandemic,
• Juneau’s harbor officials have received the all-clear to scuttle The Lumberman, a derelict tugboat, offshore and in deep water.

The CEO of Juneau’s city hospital is retiring. 

Charles “Chuck” Bill has been with Bartlett Regional Hospital for six years. 

Bill says his tentative last day is Feb. 5.  Though when he announced his retirement to the hospital’s Board of Directors on Tuesday, he offered to stay on as an advisor while they find someone else to fill the role.

After 51 years of working in health care, Bill said he’s looking forward to retirement. He and his wife will be moving to Colorado, where he jokes that there is more golf and less rain. 

And, COVID-19 has made things harder, but Bill said it was time to retire pandemic regardless. 

“It’s difficult but that really wasn’t a driving factor. It was a component of the decision, but it wasn’t a driving factor,” Bill said. 

He said he loves Juneau and has had a wonderful time living in the community. And, he said the hospital’s leadership is strong.

“I think the hospital is in a tremendous position,” Bill said.  

• After seven months, Juneau’s residential substance abuse treatment facility reopens this week. Although Rainforest Recover Center will limit the number of patients for now, providers say the need in – and outside – the community is growing,
• With contact tracing capacity strained by COVID-19 outbreaks statewide, Juneau city officials are asking the public to take more proactive steps to help contact tracers,
• Alaska won’t start counting absentee ballots this year until a week after Election Day. And that could mean a long wait for final results, since people are voting absentee in huge numbers because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And early voting trends suggest Republicans are likely to perform better in early counts, while Democrats could catch up later,
• A labeling mistake has led the FDA to order the recall of more than two tons of packaged halibut filets produced by a subsidiary of Sealaska, the Juneau-based Alaska Native regional corporation,
• The federal government has withdrawn an appeal of a court ruling stopping one of the largest old-growth timber sales in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

• Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services reported another 348 new coronavirus infections today,
• A new community radio station is being developed in the Southeast Alaska village of Klukwan,
• Health care and personal wealth came up again and again during a debate between Republican Senator Dan Sullivan and his Independent challenger Al Gross,
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced this weekend that she will vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court,
• A former teacher at a school in the village of Nuiqsut is suing the North Slope Borough School District, claiming the city did not properly address racist actions by students,
• Eight little Kodiak piggies escaped and went on a walkabout through town, spawning a cuteness overload.