Sarah Yu

As cars rush by at the end of a busy workday, curious pedestrians stop to look at a mangled, bright blue Audi in the KTOO parking lot.

The car is part of a display from the Taylor White Foundation for Advancing our Community, Inc., started by Taylor White’s parents, after the 18-year-old Juneau-Douglas High School graduate was killed in a drunk driving accident in 2009.

Four signs explaining the incident were created by students in the Thunder Mountain High School Digital Art Class. According to Carol White, Taylor White’s mother and co-founder of the foundation, it was important to get Juneau’s youth involved.

“It needs to be messages that kids are giving other kids rather than adult generated messages,” says White.

The Juneau Police kept the vehicle in the impound lot for a year as possible evidence. The driver, 18-year-old Tyler Emerson, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in August 2010. He was sentenced to six years in prison with five years suspended. He went back to jail for nine months in 2012 after violating his probation.

The Whites got permission from Emerson and his family to show the car and “to be sure everybody was feeling like it was gonna be worth the pain,” White says. The car has been displayed 15 times in the past four years.

The narrative is deeply personal, describing Taylor White as a good friend, though not particularly outgoing. 

Other signs recount the accident in great detail and include facts about drunk driving that put the tragedy into perspective. For example, car crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S teens.

The crushed Audi sparks different reactions from different people.

A teenage couple, on their way to get ice cream, refers to it as the “creepy car.”

“Seeing the car kinda made me melt inside,” says Honour Miller-Austin, a student at Thunder Mountain, adding that it reminds her of a friend that had recently passed away.

They agree that five years after the accident, drunk driving is still a major problem in Juneau.

“I think it’s exactly something that could happen to friends. My brother lost his best friend in a drunk driving accident,” says Chris O’Brien, also a student at Thunder Mountain.

The display, though aimed at teenagers, also makes adults stop and think.

“I often wonder what it would be like if they made Juneau a dry town. Things like this wouldn’t happen,” says Wayne Smallwood, an MMA fighter and Native carver.

Jessica Louise Billy, an 18-year-old Juneau-Douglas senior, died in a car crash last month. According to Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, six teenagers died in car crashes in Alaska in 2013.

The car in the KTOO parking lot is part of a safe driving initiative spearheaded by KXLL, KTOO’s sister station, and includes student-voiced public service announcements and a high school dance which raised $400 for the Taylor White Foundation.

(*Editor’s note: The story originally stated that Tyler Emerson went to trial. Emerson actually pleaded guilty without going to trial. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.)

Juneau firefighters will be sitting more comfortably this year, thanks to a donation from Charmin.

Charmin has donated 960 rolls — a year’s supply for about 20 firefighters — to the Auke Bay Fire Station, to be divided among all the local stations.

Ed Quinto, assistant chief for Capital City Fire/Rescue, estimates the toilet paper would cost the department $1,200 if purchased from Fred Meyer.

Quinto didn’t know Auke Bay had won until the delivery last month. The firehouses were nominated through Facebook and Twitter.

Quinto says the donated rolls “are not the industrial type, they’re the residential type.”

“So yes, they are a lot smoother, so it will soften a few butts.”

Volunteer firefighter Donald Law nominated the downtown Juneau and Auke Bay fire stations. He thought the donation would help CCFR handle a budget shortfall.

“It’s kind of nice to have something for us, that’s given to us. Because we do what we can to help the city and everybody that needs the help,” Law says.

The Charmin Relief Project began in 2012. Charmin donated 70,752 rolls of toilet paper to the Detroit Fire Department after learning its firefighters were paying for toilet paper with their own money.

The company this year provided toilet paper to 50 firehouses across the U.S., one in each state.

Juneau City Manager Kim Kiefer is expected to detail her proposed budget cuts to the Assembly Finance Committee on Wednesday, as the city faces a $12 million shortfall over the next two budget years.

On Tuesday, Kiefer told the city’s Aquatics Facilities Advisory Board she would recommend temporarily mothballing the Augustus Brown Swimming Pool downtown. According advisory board member Tom Rutecki, the pool would close Nov. 4 this year through either the mid-2015 or mid-2016. During the closure the city would assess the cost of renovating the facility.

Rutecki says the manager did not mention how the plan would impact employees. He says hours would be extended at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center in the Mendenhall Valley.

Kiefer was unavailable for comment.

Rutecki says closing the pool would affect many Juneau residents, including students taking water safety courses, seniors in water aerobics classes and members of the Glacier Swim Club.

“There’s a pretty strong clientele that goes down there, especially people right now—legislators use it and state office workers at noon. And in the morning the place is packed, if you go to the 6 o’clock lap swim it’s like 3 to 4 people to a lane,” Rutecki says.

He says he suggested to the manager that the city lease or rent the pool to the Glacier Swim Club, which has a wait list for people wanting to join.

Kiefer told the committee that there would be cuts to other Parks and Recreation programs discussed in the finance committee meeting.

Juneau is the healthiest community in Alaska, according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin.

The fifth annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps ranks communities based on 31 different metrics, including obesity, health insurance, pollution, longevity and quality of life. It was published last week.

Within Alaska, Juneau ranked healthiest overall. The study broke the state down into 27 communities. The borough excelled in healthy behavior and clinical care. For example, only 18 percent of Juneau adults smoke compared to 36 percent in the Wade Hampton Census Area, the lowest ranked community in Alaska. Juneau was in the nation’s top 10 percent for multiple categories such as access to exercise opportunities, ratio of health care providers and college education.

Juneau ranked third for longevity in Alaska, behind the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. Juneau’s quality of life was ranked eighth.

“And so what we hope is that the rankings are a call to action for communities—that they start a conversation about what’s happening within each individual community, what’s going well and what are some challenges,” says Kate Konkle, an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The institute conducted the study with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Sitka is a finalist for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Roadmaps to Health Prize, given to communities developing creative strategies for improving the health of its citizens. In response to a previous year’s data, Sitka created a “food hub” to encourage healthy eating, increase food security and improve access to local produce. Sitka ranked second in Alaska.

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence has also ranked Juneau the healthiest community in Alaska.

Traditionally, the Legislature puts everything on hold for one week in March to attend a meeting of the Energy Council in Washington, DC. It’s been going on for so long that many lawmakers and staff don’t even know when it started.

But now, the streak ends. House Speaker Mike Chenault announced on Thursday that the break would not happen this year.

“It’s my intent that the House continues to work,” Chenault told reporters.

Chenault says there will be floor sessions and committee hearings during the first week of March. His counterpart in the Senate, Charlie Huggins, has also resolved to work through Energy Council.

“Normally, as you know, we have more people in DC than we have in Juneau during that time frame, and that won’t be the case this year.”

In 2013, a third of the Legislature attended Energy Council – 10 from the House, and 10 from the Senate. This year, just six representatives from the House — Mia Costello, Eric Feige, Pete Higgins, Doug Isaacson, Ben Nageak, and Dan Saddler — will be attending. Sens. Bert Stedman and Johnny Ellis will be representing the Senate, with Sen. Lesil McGuire traveling to DC at the same time on separate business.

Huggins says with subjects like education and the development of a natural gas pipeline under consideration, many lawmakers opted to stay in Juneau this year. On top of that, leadership is hoping to gavel out in less than 90 days. The session is currently scheduled to end on Easter Sunday, and Huggins would like to close out before the holiday.

“We want to stay here, we want to work hard, and our reward may be to get out a day or so early,” says Huggins.

Huggins says money is not a factor in this travel decision. Expense reports from previous years show the cost usually exceeds $2,000 per legislator.

The Energy Council is an association of energy-producing states in the Americas that meets quarterly. The spring conference in Washington, DC, is scheduled to run from March 6 to 9.

The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit that halted a voter-passed law requiring health care providers to notify parents of minors before performing abortions.

The legal case centers on privacy grounds and equal protection grounds.

Planned Parenthood attorney Janet Crepps said the law would end up discriminating because it subjects a minor seeking an abortion to a delay that would not be faced by a pregnant minor simply seeking pre-natal care:

“The idea that the state can discriminate among pregnant minors because the health interest of some are more important than others cannot be a legitimate distinction,” Crepps said. “Properly framed, the question is whether the state has a legitimate interest in delaying access to health care for one group while allowing unimpeded access for another, the answer is clearly, ‘no.’”

Crepps said women in those two situations should be considered “similarly situated.” Arguing for the initiative sponsors, attorney Kevin Clarkson said they were not “similarly situated.” The only time a delay would be involved is if a pregnant minor made a choice:

“There is the issue of the choice, you know, once you’re pregnant, you really don’t have a choice to not have a baby other than abortion, so the focal of the law is on the abortion choice, because that’s the choice, once they’re pregnant,” Clarkson said.

Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh told the Supreme Court that the state’s interest justifying the delay was family cohesion.

The judicial bypass provision of the law, which allows minors to get an abortion without the consent of their parents if certain criteria were met, was also a point of contention.

Kevin Clarkson says the clear and convincing evidence standard must be adequately applied, because there is more at stake during the judicial bypass proceeding than the girl’s reproductive freedom.

“It is her parents’ fundamental right to the care, custody and control of their minor daughter,” Clarkson said. “It’s a fundamental right that both the U.S. Supreme Court and this court have recognized. They have absolutely no opportunity to be heard. They don’t even know that they have a reason to be heard because they don’t know it’s taking place.”

“The absolute minimum that we can do in this law is to tell the judge, ‘when you make your decision, be sure.’”

Janet Crepps disagreed, saying that the argument over parental rights was framed incorrectly.

“The parental notice law burdens fundamental rights of minors in order to increase parental involvement. But, parental rights don’t add to that interest,” Crepps said. “They’re not an enforceable right. Mr. Clarkson referred to them as the parents’ fundamental rights being adjudicated, but that is not true.”

The parental notification law was voted into effect through an initiative after a parental consent law was ruled unconstitutional.