Juneau

Juneau choreographer Hali Duran explores the six stages of a queen bumblebee’s life cycle in Acoustic Turbulence, a new production showing this weekend. 

But Duran said the project was also a way to reflect on the soul and journey of someone close to her. 

“I was researching ancient Egyptian mythology, and they believed that bees represented the journey of the soul, and that really spoke to me,” Duran said earlier this month on KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon. “My grandmother is in her last chapter of life. We’re helping her die gracefully. And to me, that premise really spoke to me, because I was like, there, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to use my grandmother as kind of my muse. She is my queen bumblebee.”

All the music, poetry and choreography of Acoustic Turbulence stems from this concept, and a narrative Duran wrote based on it. 

Duran, who’s been choreographing and dancing in Juneau since 2012, joined local performing arts nonprofit Orpheus Project last year. She’s the writer and director of Acoustic Turbulence, as well as the choreographer. She worked with several dancers creating, what she calls, “a whole new vocabulary.”

“We spent a lot of time figuring out ‘what does a bumble bee flying around look like in our bodies,’ if we are bumblebees. And you start to feel just different parts of your body activate. Who knew my shoulder blades could express deep sorrow, but they can,” Duran explained. 

One of those dancers is Juneau-raised Anouk Otsea, who lives in Seattle, but came home to dance the role of the Queen Bee.

“Hali would give us the concept, like ‘this is the phase that we’re working on, these are the emotions that we’re trying to evoke.’ Then we would play around with the ideas through dance improv and kind of set how that was going to be portrayed in movement,” Otsea said. “There’s a lot of motifs, which I really love. A lot of lifting, which is very fun.”

Other artists Duran collaborated with for the production include William Todd Hunt, artistic director of Orpheus Project and one of the show’s three composers. He said he found a lot of inspiration in Duran’s concept. 

“It’s like finding the bumblebee in sound, and more than just buzzing, which you’ll hear,” Hunt said laughing. “But it’s also about finding that connection with us as well. And the process that this life goes through, all of these different stages, the things that happen to it. It’s like, how do you put that into sound?”

Other composers are Spencer Edgers and Elena Levi. And the original music features words by Juneau poet ​Dita Devi. 

Acoustic Turbulence – a production of music, dance, visual art and poetry – plays this Saturday and Sunday at Thunder Mountain Middle School’s auditorium. More information about the show can be found at orpheusproject.org.

Listen here:

During Thursday’s meeting, the Juneau School Board discussed adding rather than cutting positions next school year. But unsettled union contracts continue to bring uncertainty to the budget process. 

The board added new positions to next year’s proposed budget to support the school district’s homeschool program and nursing staff.

Board member Steve Whitney proposed adding a full-time health assistant to the budget. District leadership recommended adding another position to give the district’s lead nurse the flexibility to support all schools.

Whitney said adding a position is needed to support the district’s nine person nursing staff. District staff have reported an increase in the number of students with medical needs in recent years.

“From what I’ve seen, that’s a hole the district has, and I think it’s a liability, and I think we’re putting kids in danger,” Whitney said.

Board member Jenny Thomas also requested adding a counselor position for the district’s homeschool program, HomeBRIDGE. The program doesn’t currently have a counselor. It was requested by the program’s principal, Corey Weiss. Thomas said she wants to support the 210  students expected to be enrolled in that program next school year.

“They said their graduation rates were higher when they had a grad counselor, and we’ve seen them going back down because they lost that grant funding,” she said. “So I think it’s very important – for thinking about what is best for our students, and is going to help them achieve graduation – that we put a counselor in there.”

The $4.4 million deficit in the board’s proposed budget will grow larger with the two added positions – but the board decided earlier to fill the deficit with district savings. 

The previous projected deficit was almost $1 million more. The budget now assumes 10% of employees will opt out of the district’s health insurance plan. As of earlier this month, more than 22% of them have waived the plan this school year.

But there are still some uncertainties. The district hasn’t reached new contract agreements with its teacher and support staff unions.

The current budget is based on the district’s most recent offer to Juneau Education Association, the teachers union –  as well as on the district’s initial proposed contract for Juneau Education Support Staff. 

Kelley Harvey, a teacher at Auke Bay Elementary School and co-chair of JEA’s negotiation support team, testified Thursday with that reminder.

“I would just ask that you remember that you have two units that have not settled a contract, that it’s just a one year contract that’s been offered to JEA, that we potentially would turn around and go into this again,” Harvey said. “And you’re just going to lose more teachers, and it’s the kids who suffer.”

It’s been more than a year since negotiations began with both unions. The district has an arbitration hearing scheduled with JEA on April 27 and 28, and JESS has been in mediation with the district.

During Thursday’s special meeting, there was no discussion of adding two positions that the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program could stand to lose when grant funds end this year. There had been significant public comment in support of adding those positions in a previous budget forum. 

The board will meet again about the budget on March 5. In the meantime, members will submit priorities on what else they want to add to the budget. The public can submit feedback on the budget by emailing the board at budgetinput@juneauschools.org or by completing Balancing Act, an interactive tool that lets the public build a budget and submit changes they want to see. That tool will close on March 1. The board plans to approve the budget by March 12.

A large gravel lot in the heart of downtown Juneau’s tourism corridor has sat empty for years. But that might soon change. 

On Tuesday, the city’s planning commission will consider whether to approve a conditional use permit for the construction of a two-story retail and entertainment building called “Alaska Fly & Dive.”

According to the permit application, the project will bring tourists coming off cruise ships into an immersive theater experience of Alaska’s natural wonders, like local glaciers and underwater adventures. The development would include three large interactive theaters/rides, a retail store and some office space. 

The project, estimated to cost at least $60 million with hopes of opening in 2027, would turn into a civic and educational venue in the tourism off-season. 

“I know it’s private property. They should be allowed to develop as they do, but I just don’t know that it will benefit Juneau, as I know it, or the Juneau that is here after the tourists leave,” former Juneau Assembly member Loren Jones said in an interview.  

Back in 2019, the Juneau Assembly negotiated a land swap with property owner Archipelago Properties LLC, a subsidiary of Morris Communications based in Georgia and the former owner of the Juneau Empire newspaper. The negotiation was so that the city could develop bus staging and additional pedestrian space along the seawalk. Plans for Morris Communications to develop something on their property have been discussed for at least close to a decade. 

Jones voted against the land trade deal. He was skeptical about how any development there would benefit the community as a whole. 

At the time of the deal, a representative for the property said they wanted to develop the lot into retail shops and restaurants starting in 2020. That never happened. 

Instead, the nearly 1-acre property adjacent to the downtown library and parking garage — along South Franklin Street and under the watchful eyes of the Elizabeth Peratrovich mural — has remained largely empty. That’s despite the property’s extreme proximity to where 1.7 million cruise ship tourists walk off ships and into downtown Juneau each summer.

Jones said he’s not totally against the current “Alaska Fly & Dive” project — but needs more convincing that it will actually benefit Juneau.

“I don’t see anything in there that tells me that somebody in the middle of winter is going to leave their home in the valley and go,” he said. “I can’t imagine any of us going down in the middle of winter to take a simulated boat ride or a simulated submarine ride.”

Still, the new project has received letters of support from the Juneau Economic Development Council, Travel Juneau, the Downtown Business Association and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. According to its application with the city, the development is in collaboration with Melvern Entertainment, a company that develops theater attractions for Disney, Universal Studios and Six Flags.

The proposed theaters include a 60-person 4D theater, a 72-person flying theater, and three 20-person ocean simulator theaters. The flying theater and ocean simulator theater would also be rides, taking guests via immersive films to see local glaciers and landscapes, and on underwater adventures.

Liz Perry with Travel Juneau said in an interview that she’s excited to see the empty lot turn into something new. 

“This would be a terrific year-round addition to our offerings for both visitors and residents — it will create something that hasn’t been in that lot,” she said. 

And before you ask – no, they’re not planning to build any housing there. At least not in this application. Alix Pierce is Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director. In an interview, she said she thinks the project could help with managing the number of tourists that come into town each day in the summer. 

“I think having something downtown on the waterfront that’s indoors and helps manage congestion by pulling people into an activity, is a positive thing,” she said. 

The applicant for the permit is Reuben Willis, a local insurance Agent for State Farm. He declined an interview with KTOO to speak about the project before the meeting on Tuesday. In the application, it states that he signed a sales agreement for the lot, which is in a “due diligence period.” Morris Communications has also not responded to multiple requests for comment. 

The Juneau planning commission will decide whether to approve a conditional use permit for the project’s construction, along with two other variance requests related to the project, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. 

A state legislator’s former chief of staff faces charges of child sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking. Federal agents arrested Craig Scott Valdez, 36, early Friday in Juneau, according to court documents.

Valdez is an Anchorage resident listed as having served as Republican Wasilla state Sen. George Rauscher’s chief of staff since November. Valdez was terminated Friday hours after the charges were made public, according to a press secretary for the state Senate minority caucus, of which Rauscher is a member.

Valdez was also elected as chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans in January 2025 and became the group’s state committee chair last month, according to social media posts.

A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Valdez on charges of sex trafficking a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor – for both allegedly producing and receiving child sexual abuse material – and coercion and enticement of a minor. The alleged crimes occurred in October 2025, according to the indictment.

Court documents detail a specific instance in which Valdez allegedly lured a 15-year-old girl to his Anchorage home. But prosecutors also wrote that the FBI has identified at least 11 other potential victims, and federal authorities are asking the public for help as their investigation continues.

In a court filing supporting Valdez’s detention in jail, federal prosecutors laid out what they say happened in October:

Valdez had met the 15-year-old girl on Snapchat, picked her up at her home and drove her to his house, “for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child to celebrate his birthday,” the detention memorandum says.

The girl’s sibling alerted her mother, who used a family tracking application to track her daughter to Valdez’s home in south Anchorage. The mother called Anchorage police after arriving at Valdez’s home and waited outside, where she heard her daughter inside the house say something about wanting to leave.

“(The girl’s) mother then entered the residence, struck Valdez once in the face and recovered the child, who exhibited signs of extreme drug or alcohol intoxication and had difficulty walking and maintaining consciousness,” the memo says. “(Police) responded a short time later, at which point Valdez, puzzlingly, chose to flee from his own residence.”

While the girl had left her own phone at Valdez’s residence, the mother was able to copy messages from a separate linked device showing Valdez had used Snapchat to entice the girl to come to his home for sexual purposes.

The girl later told investigators that other children had introduced her to Valdez when she was 13 or 14 years old.

Law enforcement officials do not think the October incident was the first time Valdez exploited the girl, nor do they think she was his only victim.

Federal prosecutors wrote in a news release Friday that investigators are looking for more information, including other victims. They say he went by the usernames “NONAME20233132” or “DOCHANK” and ask that anyone with further information on Valdez call the FBI Anchorage Field Office at 907-276-4441 or deliver tips anonymously to tips.fbi.gov.

A request for comment Friday morning to Rauscher’s office was referred to the state Senate minority caucus’s press secretary, who said she did not have any information to release beyond what was publicly available in the court documents. The press secretary, Cassandra Day, texted later to say that Valdez had been fired.

The next hearing in the case is set for Monday.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Valdez was fired from his position as state Sen. George Rauscher’s chief of staff Friday afternoon.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the group Valdez was elected chair of in 2025. He was elected chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans, not the Alaska Young Republicans.

After multiple weeks of closure, Juneau’s recycling center is back up and running at limited capacity. 

The partial reopening comes after the center has been closed on and off since late December, after Juneau was hit with back-to-back record-breaking snowstorms, which inundated it with a backlog of materials to process. 

Denise Koch, the city’s director of Engineering and Public Works, says the center will begin by accepting only cardboard and mixed paper, and only for this Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 pm. Other recyclables like plastic and glass are still on hold.

“We know that recycling is an important service for people, and we know it’s been really inconvenient for people to hang on to their recycling,” she said. 

The city contracts with Waste Management to operate its recycling program in Lemon Creek. Waste Management is the private company that runs Juneau’s only landfill, which is estimated to run out of space in the next decade.

Since late January, the city has been asking residents to hold onto their recyclable material while it fixed multiple issues with the recycling baler, which is the most critical piece of equipment for the center to operate. The baler is the machine that compresses the recyclables into blocks, which are then shipped by barge to recycling facilities in Seattle that repurpose the materials.

Koch said while the baler has since been fixed, the city is opening the center up at a limited capacity so that the machine does not get overloaded. She said the center’s staff will then decide further openings depending on how the baler performs this weekend. 

“We are, of course, hoping to be able to do that as soon as possible,” she said. “We are planning to make another announcement on Monday, after we see how things go on Friday and Saturday, and how quickly we’re able to move through material.”

More information and updates can be found on the city’s RecycleWorks webpage.

Nearly everyone who testified at a public hearing Tuesday afternoon at the state capitol was in favor of a Juneau representative’s bill that seeks to ban law enforcement officers from wearing face masks on duty in Alaska.

But one person who spoke against the bill happened to be the chief of police for Alaska’s largest city.

Juneau Democrat  Sara Hannan’s House Bill 250 would ban anyone acting as a law enforcement officer in Alaska from wearing a mask while on duty — including federal, state and local agents — with some exemptions like medical masks, transparent safety shields, cold-weather masks or masks worn by undercover officers. 

Hannan promotes it as being “pro-law enforcement.” She prefiled the bill in January, following public outrage after a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minnesota woman on camera. A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer killed another man in Minneapolis just weeks later. 

At the bill’s second hearing in the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon, the bill received support from eight of the nine public testifiers. That’s after a chilly initial reception from a couple of legislators the week before. 

Bridget Smith of Juneau said while she respects law enforcement, she doesn’t respect anyone who hides their identity.  

“A peace officer wearing a mask to conceal his face would immediately lead me to question that person’s motives and distrust whether that officer was really there to protect and serve me, or whether they wish to be unaccountable for their behavior,” she said. 

As the bill is currently written, an officer who violates the ban would be charged with a Class B misdemeanor per violation, which is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Some testifiers ask for the charges to be harsher.

Laura Lucas, also from Juneau, said she supported the bill because she believes it could prevent what’s currently happening in Minnesota, where federal immigration officers have ramped up deportations amid widespread public protests, from happening in Alaska in the future. Other states across the U.S. have sought to impose similar bans in recent months. 

“Within the past year, we’ve seen changes in this country that we’ve never imagined would happen before,” she said. “I see this legislation as potentially proactive for an issue that might arise in Alaska.”

The main dissent against the bill came from Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case. He said while he opposes police officers wearing masks to conceal their identity, he argued the bill is trying to address a problem that doesn’t exist in Alaska.

“Masking is not a practice in Alaska, and enforcing this bill would be impractical, giving it numerous exemptions,” he said. “It attempts to solve a nonexistent issue, while inserting local law enforcement into a debate about federal immigration enforcement, something outside our role and responsibility.”

He said the Anchorage Police Department already has other accountability measures in place, like requiring uniformed officers to wear their badges and identify themselves upon request.

“Despite real risks of harassment and violence, officers have continued to serve openly 

with visible name tags and badges,” he said. “That visibility is part of our responsibility to protect and serve our communities.”

While Case was the only one who verbally testified against the bill, the committee received written testimony as well — that included a couple of comments against, while most were in favor. 

Hannan’s bill is slated to be heard again by the House State Affairs Committee and has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. It’s unclear if it will have enough support to advance in the Legislature.