A recent transplant to Juneau from Iowa, Tripp J Crouse has more than 13 years of journalism and newspaper experience, and was previously the social media editor for the Quad-City Times of Davenport, Iowa, from April 2013 to July 2016.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan delivers his address at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, to the Alaska Legislature Joint Session.
Watch the live stream at 10:30 a.m. of Gavel Alaska coverage. Or watch on 360 North television, which is available in Juneau over the air on channel 3.3, or on cable and satellite.
You can also listen to coverage here on KTOO and over the air.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski delivers her address at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, to the Alaska Legislature Joint Session.
Come back to this post at 11 a.m. for a live stream of Gavel Alaska coverage. Or watch on 360 North television, which is available in Juneau over the air on channel 3.3, or on cable and satellite.
You can also listen to coverage here on KTOO and over the air.
Southeast Alaska’s rainforest is home to several species of flora and fauna. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if some mysterious creature was hiding up in the mountains, rarely making its appearance known.
And just maybe that creature had a political platform to run for the municipality’s top office.
Erin Heist, who works as a state admin officer, wasn’t sure where she heard the rumor, but it ate at her constantly.
Heist moved to Juneau with her family when she was 9. Sometime during high school, she says the rumor struck: A gorilla had ran for mayor in Juneau’s storied past.
Welcome to Curious Juneau, starring you and your questions. Every episode we’ll help you find an answer to your question. This episode we look into the rumors about a Juneau mayoral candidate whose political platform went — bananas. You can listen to the full podcast here:
Heist reached out to Curious Juneau in the hopes of finding an answer. KTOO’s Matt Miller sat down with her in the studio to help her get to the bottom of her mystery monkey mayor candidate.
“I vaguely remember at some point hearing that a gorilla ran for mayor in Juneau, and promised everyone bananas. That was his big campaign promise,” Heist said. “I just want to know if that happened.”
Heist never saw the gorilla, she said. She also wasn’t sure where she heard the rumor. Only when: about 1999 or 2000, she said.
“(My husband) has this saying that I have a degree from MSU, which is making stuff up,” Heist said. “So he’s pretty sure that I made this up, and I feel like 85 percent sure that I didn’t.”
Heist said she thought the gorilla’s political platform was bananas.
“Bananas for everyone,” she said. “Who doesn’t like bananas?”
“I feel like this political year a gorilla running for mayor, promising everyone bananas — that would be the best.”
“What would you say if the gorilla was still around?” Miller asked her.
“You mean like happily retired here in Juneau!?” she said.
The studio door shuts. Heist turns to her right.
And screams.
Confronted with a 5-foot-plus tall gorilla with black fur, she shouts “Nooooo!!” when a familiar voice speaks to her.
“Hi, How’s it going, Erin?”
It’s KTOO’s programming director Jeff Brown, a master of monkeyshines.
You see, Heist first met Brown in 2000, when she started volunteering for KTOO during her senior year of high school. More recently, the two have frequently worked together for the Alaska Folk Festival.
But she had no idea he was the gorilla.
Brown, a long time Alaskan, has won numerous awards for his humor and entertainment, including a lifetime achievement award from the Governor’s Awards for the Arts.
In 1985, Brown ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for Juneau mayor. He donned the monkey suit, created the moniker Joe Gorilla. According to an Associated Press story published in the Daily Sitka Sentinel that year, Brown lost to Ernie Polly.
“Is that the actual gorilla outfit!?” Heist asks Brown, looking over the mothballed costume.
It is. But it wasn’t just bananas the one-time mayoral candidate promised everyone, it was banana daiquiris.
“I’d been doing singing telegrams for a number of months, and when the election came around, I just knew I had to run,” Brown said.
And how did he come up with the platform?
“It just came naturally to me,” he said. “It’s a jungle out there!”
The best political platform of the bunch.
Brown says Joe Gorilla still gets write-in votes from time to time.
Election results for Joe Gorilla weren’t immediately available from the municipal clerk’s office for 1985 or succeeding elections.
Municipal Clerk Laurie Sica said in an email that Juneau adopted a policy in 2006 to provide a generic number of votes cast for write-in candidates in the results. To be specifically listed in the results, a person needs to file as a write-in candidate a minimum of five days before the election.
“I can’t wait to tell my husband,” Heist said. “It’s all real. I didn’t make it up.”
Alaska Chief Justice Craig Stowers delivers the annual State of the Judiciary Address at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.
Come back to this post at 11 a.m. for a live stream of Gavel Alaska coverage. Or watch on 360 North television, which is available in Juneau over the air on channel 3.3, or on cable and satellite.
You can also listen to coverage here on KTOO and over the air.
Police have charged and identified Brent M. Sanders as the suspect in the assault of Rochelle Stevens and another woman early Tuesday morning.
According to a Juneau police news release, Sanders, 26, was arrested on a felony parole violation warrant related to two previous counts of third-degree assault.
Now police are seeking charges of first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault in Tuesday’s incident.
Sanders is in Lemon Creek Correctional Center. No bail is set.
He is scheduled for an initial court appearance this afternoon.
Alaska Native Medical Center spokeswoman Michelle Weston said Rochelle Stevens was in fair condition Wednesday morning in Anchorage.
A 37-year-old woman was medevaced to Anchorage after she was found with a knife in her head, and multiple stab wounds in her back in a Mendenhall Valley apartment.
Juneau police responded to a call about 1:35 a.m. Tuesday to a residence in the 1900 block of Cinema Drive, according to a news release. Police said the woman was attacked by a 26-year-old Juneau man.
Juneau police spokesman Lt. David Campbell said a second woman tried to intervene and the man punched her in the face. The male suspect fled the scene before police officers arrived.
Family friend Emily Carrillo set up a Go Fund Me page for the stabbing victim and identified her as Rochelle Stevens. Carrillo described it as a “domestic situation.”
Anchorage’s Alaska Native Medical Center confirmed that Rochelle Stevens was in surgery Tuesday afternoon, but did not have her status.
Carillo said on the fundraiser page that Stevens was stabbed eight times. Campbell said the woman was stabbed at least five times in the back with a folding pocket knife — and at least once in the head.
“She was talking and conscious and able to provide us with some statements, even though she had — a knife sticking out of the side of her head.”
Campbell says he couldn’t guess on the length of the blade.
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my 22 years and I’ve never seen that before,” Campbell said.
Both women were transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital. Only Stevens was medevaced to Anchorage.
The man returned to the apartment complex about 5:25 a.m., and residents on Cinema Drive called police. He was taken into custody. Authorities haven’t named him; he has not been formally charged. The investigation is ongoing.
Campbell said he could not say whether the incident was domestic violence related. Drugs and alcohol appear to be contributing factors.
Nine incidents of using fake or counterfeit money have been reported by local businesses in the last month, according to a Juneau Police Department news release.
The fake and counterfeit notes include $50 and $100 bills with the words “Motion Picture Use Only.” And at least one bill was described as having Chinese writing on it.
Juneau police urge businesses to ask staff to keep an eye out for fake bills, and to familiarize themselves with the color and quality of U.S. currency.
If a fake or counterfeit bill is encountered, contact JPD at 586-0600 or Juneau Crime Line online.
