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.
The Juneau Police Department wants help identifying a dead man discovered near an avalanche chute above Gastineau Avenue on Saturday.
Police report the man is an Alaska Native in his 20s or 30s with distinctive chest and arm tattoos, according to a Juneau police news release. He did not have any identification.
A hiker reported finding the body that afternoon and led Juneau police to the area, about 500 feet from the roadway.
It’s unclear how long he’d been dead. The body had signs of being unattended in the woods.
The body’s been sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office for identification and to determine cause of death.
Contact the Juneau Police Department with information at 907-586-0600 or contact Juneau Crime Line.
Two injury accidents in two days have occurred along one stretch of often-icy road in Kodiak.
A Kodiak teenager was injured Sunday evening when his car crashed near the Coast Guard Base.
Devan Monkiewicz, 18, was driving Sunday on Rezanof Drive West when his car left the roadway and crashed in a ditch near Mile 9, Alaska State Troopers said.
The engine compartment of his 2007 Subaru burst into flames.
Monkiewicz was wearing a seat belt in the crash, but was found unconscious when witnesses pulled him out of the burning car.
Emergency medical technicians transported him to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center, and he was later medevac’d to Anchorage.
His current condition was unavailable.
The Coast Guard police and fire department units assisted in the incident.
The car was destroyed.
Less than a day earlier, a Kodiak woman was hospitalized after her car hit a patch of ice and left the road at Mile 7.5 of Rezanof Drive West, along Womens Bay.
Maryelizabeth Dehning, 25, was driving a 2015 Nissan Rogue then collided with a utility pole, breaking its base.
Dehnning was transported by EMS to Providence with what troopers reported as moderate injuries. Her vehicle was a total loss.
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A Juneau police sergeant who shot at a Juneau man on Dec. 3 was found justified in the incident, according to Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson.
The state Department of Law and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Johnson discussed the results at a news conference this afternoon and walked through the incident with dash cam video, eyewitness cell phone video and audio recordings of the incident.
Johnson said the driver, 38-year-old Jeremie Tinney of Juneau, had pointed finger guns and a “rifle-bored axle” at officers and paramedics. Johnson said Tinney escalated the situation, did not comply with the officers’ commands, and had previously threatened to shoot police. Gifford and Schultz believed they were in danger of being shot.
Gifford fired a single round into the vehicle that did not strike Tinney. His “superficial” injuries were sustained from shrapnel created from the bullet entering the vehicle, Johnson said.
Tinney was later medevaced to Seattle and arrested on unrelated charges after being released from the hospital. He’s being held in Bellingham according to a Whatcom County jail official.
Gifford and Schultz were placed on administrative leave following the incident, according to department policy. Gifford returned to desk assignment a couple of weeks ago. Schultz returned to duty shortly after the incident.
Juneau police have not charged Tinney with anything, though Johnson said that investigation is ongoing.
It’s the end of the year and that means we’re looking back at KTOO’s most popular stories. For 2016, we’re keeping the list to stories KTOO produced with specific ties to Juneau. Some serial stories are lumped into one entry.
In no particular order, here we go:
Public safety
From car crashes to crime, public safety has been on Juneau’s mind.
Rescuers work at the site of a crashed small plane on Admiralty Island on April 8. (Photo courtesy Sitka Mountain Rescue)
‘Spent money like a drunken sailor’: A former Juneau Bone and Joint Center employee was sentenced for stealing more than $514,000 in December. Charges billed to Christena Leamer’s employer included $112,000 for food, liquor, clothing and four dozen flights to the Lower 48, that included a trip to Disneyland.
Jennifer Canfield’s “Meaning of Names” series plugged into a conversation about a cultural shift among Alaska Natives choosing to use their indigenous names.
Martin Sensmeier, a 32-year-old actor from Yakutat, co-starred in a remake of “The Magnificent Seven.” The film also stars Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.
Scott Burton interviewed the young actor in September. He talked about growing up in Yakutat and getting work as an actor and model.
Juneau municipal politics gained global attention when an local man with a public Twitter fixation for large-breasted women ran for the Juneau Assembly.
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
A screenshot of William Quayle Jr.'s Twitter account. (Screenshot by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
William Quayle Jr. ran for the Juneau Assembly District 1 seat. In September, news broke that Quayle had tweeted over 400 times about women with very large breasts. The women are professional adult models who post revealing photos of their surgically enhanced breasts — sometimes as big as a P cup. I don’t even know how big a P cup is.
Quayle declined an interview, but said in an email, “I do not wish to discuss about my fetishes, I am a heterosexual male and that is that.”
Quayle lost the municipal election on Oct. 4, garnering only 224 votes. Mary Becker won with 3,095 votes, and Arnold Liebelt also lost with 2,753 votes.
Marijuana plants grow at Rainforest Farms’ facility in Juneau, Nov. 7, 2016. Co-owner James Barrett says these plants will provide the first legal marijuana for sale in Juneau. (Photo courtesy Rainforest Farms)
Angoon Trading Co. store owners Shayne and Sue Thompson said perishable items were the hardest to keep in stock while the LeConte was offline for about five weeks.
During the hiatus, they flew to Juneau to get fresh food. It costs $1.10 a pound to bring things over on Alaska Seaplanes.
“A gallon of milk weighing 8 pounds coming from Seattle? Normally, we’ve got it cut down as much as we can, but if we have to fly that over a dollar a pound? It’d be close to $15 to $18 depending, and that’s ridiculous for milk!” Sue Thompson said.
Big box store closes:Wal-Mart announced in January it would shutter its Juneau store, along with 154 other stores across the country. The chain owned 13 stores in Alaska but the Juneau location was the only one that was slated to close. The Juneau store employed about 180 full- and part-time workers.
Alaskans file their Permanent Fund dividend applications in downtown Anchorage in March 2016. (Photo by Rachel Waldholz/Alaska Public Media)
Oh deer: A group of tourists on an 18-passenger tour vessel saw two deer swimming in August across the water on the west side of Shelter Island. By the time they reached the site, only one was there, struggling. Audrey Benson, a naturalist with Gastineau Guiding Co., and the passengers and crew lassoed the animal and pulled it into the boat. They delivered the deer to Shelter Island.
A 25-foot whale sculpture arrives at the Auke Bay ferry terminal and is delivered to a temporary spot under the Douglas bridge on August 8, 2016. The life-size bronze sculpture of a humpback whale will eventually be erected in an infinity pool on Juneau’s waterfront. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
‘Spirit of Alaska’: Sculptor R.T. “Skip” Wallen’s baby was delivered to Juneau in the form of a 6-ton, 25-foot-tall whale statue. The life-size bronze sculpture arrived in August at the Auke Bay ferry terminal. Wallen and about 20 people welcomed it home.
The cat, a 10-year-old female domestic short hair calico, was terminally ill. The owner brought the cat to the animal shelter to be euthanized, but the facility didn’t have a veterinarian on staff to perform the service.
Lt. David Campbell of the Juneau Police Department said the owner had just come from a veterinary clinic and couldn’t afford the $600 euthanasia.
Campbell said the man put the cat on the tailgate of his truck and used a metal snow broom handle and his weight to break its neck.
Our Facebook Live coverage of Celebration in June tops the charts in regards to reach and engagement. Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian dance groups converged on Juneau to kick off Celebration 2016.
Blood quantum is calculated by the federal government, using ancestors with Indian blood who were enrolled in federally recognized Indian tribes or whose names appeared on the rolls of federally recognized tribes.
Certain blood quanta extend certain rights to some Alaskan Natives. For some with less, their ability to continue cultural practices, such as hunting marine mammals, is in jeopardy.
Keeping with tradition, Lily Hope covers her weaving in January 2016. She wouldn’t publicly share photos of it until the blanket is finished. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/KTOO)
“How lucky am I to sit here in front of this piece, in front of this ancient art form and have my hands in this warp and be like, wow!” Hope said. “It’s a little overwhelming and kind of leaks into the rest of life to have gratitude to be able to do this, but gratitude to go home and see my kids.”
So like many Alaskans, Diane Buck of Juneau was facing an estimated $600 a month to heat her home.
“It scares me. I really don’t like messing with it. That’s how afraid I am right now,” Buck said of her thermostat. “Because if it gets any higher than $600 a month, I’m screwed. I’m going to get a disconnect notice because I can’t pay it.”
An unattended car in Gold Creek drew Juneau police on Dec. 14. Someone discovered the white 1994 Chevy SUV resting on its passenger side in a channelized portion of the creek near Cope Park. Ownership was pending transfer. Footsteps were seen in the snow leading away from the car.
A sign at the end of Glacier Highway, near where the Juneau Access Road extension would begin. Walker had weighed its fate for months. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
