Alaska

The families of three more victims of last year’s fatal Bering Air plane crash have sued the regional airline.

The pilot and all nine passengers died when Bering Air Flight 445 crashed on sea ice on its way from Unalakleet to Nome.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the Cessna Caravan was overweight when it flew into icing conditions. The agency hasn’t yet determined the cause of the crash.

The family of one of the passengers, JaDee Moncur, filed the first wrongful death lawsuit in Nome Superior Court last week.

Two more lawsuits followed in Nome Superior Court in the days after – one filed by the family of passenger Talaluk Katchatag and another one by the families of Donnell Erickson and Kameron Hartvigson.

All of the complaints are based on the NTSB preliminary report and assert claims for wrongful death.

In a statement, Bering Air President Russell Rowe said it would be inappropriate for the company to comment on the lawsuit now “out of respect for the legal process and the families involved.”

“Bering Air continues to cooperate fully with the NTSB, the FAA, and all other appropriate authorities as their investigations continue,” Rowe wrote.

The NTSB expects to release a full report into the crash in early summer.

Students and school officials from across Alaska visited the Legislature — from the North Slope, to the Yukon Flats, to Yakutat and Hoonah — to make what has become an annual plea to lawmakers to invest in the state’s public education.

“I have been in this building every February for 20 years, and for 20 years I have been saying nearly the same exact thing, and we’re at a point now where that conversation is at an inflection point, ” said Lon Garrison, executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, which organizes the annual fly-in event on Monday.

“Pretty soon, public education will not work in the state of Alaska,” he said. “And we have to do something. We have to be bold.”

Decades of deferred maintenance for Alaska’s schools is reaching crisis levels, lawmakers heard, with some districts grappling with deteriorating school buildings, failing water and sewer systems.

Alaska’s school maintenance problems are well-known, but the schools’ needs come with a multi-million dollar price tag. Lawmakers will be negotiating how much to allocate to schools among a slate of other dire state funding needs, from transportation to increased disaster relief funding. That negotiation is further complicated by declining oil prices and state revenues — and the threat of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen.

But on Monday, students and school board members, some parents themselves, shared emotional testimony of how schools continue to endure failing infrastructure.

“Some of our schools are so riddled with black mold that I developed a headache almost immediately,” said Julia Phelen, a member of the school board with the Delta-Greely School District, on visiting rural schools in the Delta Junction area district. “Some of them have only one working restroom in the entire building, and others are hauling water and using honey buckets.”

Last year, the Legislature approved $38 million to address school maintenance needs on the state’s major maintenance list, a ranking of school projects submitted to the state for reimbursement. That was enough to cover the top nine projects on the list. Gov. Dunleavy vetoed that down to roughly $12.8 million, citing declining oil prices and state revenues, to fund the top three projects on the list.

This year, whether lawmakers will allocate more funding for public education remains uncertain amid early budget negotiations.

But leaders in the bipartisan Senate Majority Caucus expressed support for addressing more of schools’ major facilities needs at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Now this year, we’ve got $401 million on the deferred maintenance list of schools,” said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, a member of the Senate Finance Committee. “We need to have a dialogue with the administration and try to get them to work with us so we can, you know, slow down this deferred maintenance. Because every year doesn’t get addressed, it just gets worse.”

The deteriorating school facilities are coupled with stretched budgets — some districts face steep budget shortfalls and school closures — and rising costs, especially for rural districts. Some speakers said budget shortfalls are forcing districts to cut classes, teachers and activities, which they said is posing a growing risk to students’ safety and wellbeing, including mental health.

Reanna Brown, a school board member from Yakutat, testified that in rural communities like hers, which are connected to the road system only by boat and plane, the costs of education are higher, from retaining teachers to powering buildings and transporting supplies.

“Our students deserve the same opportunities as any student in Alaska, regardless of their zip code,” Brown said. “Stable, equitable education funding allows us to retain quality educators, support student services and provide safe, consistent learning environments.”

In the Yukon Flats School District, which covers a vast area in the northeast of the state, Rhonda Pitka, a school board member, said the decades of deferred maintenance is a constant problem.

“There’s always a problem with the sewer systems and the water systems,” Pitka said. “One of our smallest schools, Chalkyitsik, has about 13 students this year, but they’ve had this water issue for like, 20 years,” she said.

She said extreme cold and the remoteness of schools in the Interior is also exacerbating schools’ water and sewer issues.

“We have incredibly cold weather. It was 50 below for five weeks, and then it hit a three day streak of minus 70 below in the Interior. So, you know, at those temperatures, nothing’s running, nothing’s working,” Pitka said, and spoke about the difficulties of retaining essential maintenance workers in the villages at $20 per hour.

Many speakers thanked lawmakers for supporting the increase to the state’s per student funding, the base student allocation, last year, but said that state education funding still falls far short of what is needed.

“Every day we see the impact of not having enough resources for our education,” said Melina Pangiak, who testified with a classmate, Lucia Patrick, from the Chevak school in the Kashunamiut School District in Western Alaska.

The students spoke about the cuts to elective classes and learning opportunities. “Elective classes are more than just extra courses. They are where we discover what excites us and where we find talents and when we could discover our future paths,” Pangiak said.

“When these classes are cut or limited, it feels like doors are being closed on our potential,” Patrick added.

Students and school officials testified that there is a growing need for more school counselors and resources for mental health support.

“Our region recently experienced another suicide, which deeply affected our students and our only regional counselor,” said Kay Andrews, a school board member from the Southwest Region School District that includes eight schools spanning across the Bristol Bay region.

“Schools are more than our classrooms. They are community centers. They are safe places for our children, yet, schools are being asked to do more with less,” she said.

Some speakers pointed to bill proposals that lawmakers are considering this year as potential solutions. Some testified in support of House Bill 261, proposed this year by Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, that would redefine how districts calculate their student count to create more predictable budget estimates in the spring.

“It’s come to be a guessing game, almost, because we’re not sure how many students we’re going to have,” said Jack Strong, a board member from the Chatham School District, which serves four rural schools in Southeast Alaska. “It’s really hurting us in the long run, our children are not getting the education that they need, basically because of the way the paper shuffle is.”

Speakers also expressed support for state pension reform, House Bill 78, currently being debated in the House Finance Committee, to help support recruitment and retention of teachers.

Students came with solutions as well: Maddie Bass, a sophomore at Juneau Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé testified to the stress of teachers struggling with low pay, and leaving to pursue other jobs with health care benefits. Following the hearing, Bass said she’d like to see the state generate more tax revenue from the millions of tourists that visit Alaska each year.

“I’m seeing the government turning to taxing Alaskans. They want to tax Alaskans more instead of taxing corporations, and I think that that is the wrong idea,” Bass said. “I think to bolster the education system in Alaska, it would be a good idea to tax the tourism industry or cruise ships more, instead of putting a further burden on Alaskans that are just trying to work, learn and live here in the state.”

Fifteen Democratic-led states have dropped a six-year-old lawsuit challenging the legality of a federal plan that allowed oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

The states announced their plans in a notice filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, where the lawsuit was filed in February 2020.

The state of Washington was the lead plaintiff. Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the Washington State Attorney General’s office, confirmed that the states are dropping their case but said they will continue their opposition to ANWR drilling.

“Washington is proud to have led the multistate lawsuit challenging the 2020 actions regarding the Arctic Refuge,” he said. “New congressional and administration actions require a new course of action on our part. We are evaluating the best path forward to continue to advocate for a clean and healthy Arctic, including supporting the litigation of Alaska Native organizations and community groups.”

The coastal plain is to the east of the vast Prudhoe Bay oil deposits and is believed to hold similarly large amounts of oil and gas. The Trump administration has made drilling in the refuge a top priority as it seeks to expand American oil and gas production.

The other participating states were California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.

A group of environmental and tribal groups had filed suit in 2020 at the same time as the Democratic-led states. Last month, that coalition renewed their suit.

Faulk declined to say whether the Democratic states would be siding with the coalition.

While two oil and gas lease sales have taken place in the refuge and additional sales are expected, no oil drilling or seismic surveying has occurred to date.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, Alaska’s state-owned investment bank, won several leases in the first lease sale, which took place in 2021, and is seeking to keep the refuge’s coastal plain open to development.

Last year, Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the Biden administration had illegally canceled AIDEA’s leases. That ruling has since been appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Those cases are separate from the lawsuits challenging the overall legality of the oil and gas program in the refuge.

Sitting in the Legislative Information Office in Bethel, full of hardbound volumes and photos of the state’s political history, Sen. Lyman Hoffman said he’s ready to close the book on his own four-decade career in politics.

“I think it’s, it’s time … the next closest person behind me is 14 years behind me,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman has spent most of his time in the Senate, representing Southwest Alaska. He said he thinks he’s made a difference in the lives of rural Alaskans.

“I funded weatherization, set up a weatherization program where close to 60% of the funds, about $700 million, went into weatherizing people’s homes. People have come up to me and said, as a result of the weatherization program, their heating bill went down by hundreds of dollars a month,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman also cited his creation of a billion-dollar endowment to protect rural electricity subsidies under the state’s Power Cost Equalization program. He does admit that the cost of living in rural Alaska remains staggeringly high.

Hoffman said that his priority in his final session is finding ways to fund the budget. He said that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s idea of a sales tax is not one of them.

“I haven’t heard anybody that really likes that idea in the legislature,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that the proposal to add a 4% sales tax during the tourist season and a 2% sales tax during the other half of the year would run up against local taxing schemes adapted to rural needs.

“He wants no exceptions, no loopholes, no food, heating, fuel. Everything is going to be taxed. And I would say that that would put rural areas at a larger disadvantage because we already pay the highest cost for heat,” Hoffman said.

In Bethel, there have already been long-standing challenges collecting the 6% local sales taxes the city levies. Hoffman said that the governor’s proposal would mean the state would collect taxes on behalf of cities like Bethel, removing that burden. But he said this potential upside is far outweighed by the downsides.

Dunleay’s fiscal plan also proposes a constitutional amendment that would require half of the state’s yearly draw from the Permanent Fund to go toward paying higher dividends. Critics say that would make balancing the budget nearly impossible.

Hoffman said the state might be in a better position today if lawmakers hadn’t stripped down a 2018 bill that used Permanent Fund earnings to cover state operating costs for the first time. Hoffman said he supported a provision to set the dividend at a lower, more sustainable rate. But that idea was rejected.

“If we had passed that bill with that provision in it, the dividend would be $1,500 and continue to grow out in the future. Now, we’re fighting tooth and nail to try to get at least $1,000 in the dividend and fund government,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that he has encouraged Dillingham Independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon to run for his Senate seat in November. Edgmon is also the current Speaker of the House. Hoffman said it makes sense because of Edgmon’s record of rural and urban support, and the fact that he’s already represented Kuskokwim River communities within his district.

Hoffman said that he’s concerned that there will be less rural representation on the powerful Senate Finance Committee he co-chairs when he leaves. But he’s optimistic that the bipartisan Bush Caucus he has played a key role in can continue to wield power across the aisle, and that rural issues will continue to get attention statewide.

“The influence of people off the rail belt over the last three decades has been tremendous,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that it is critical that legislators form a better working relationship with the governor in 2026. When it comes to ways the state can support ongoing relief efforts following damage from Typhoon Halong, he said Dunleavy has given him an open ear. But Hoffman said specific ideas should come from affected communities.

“The decisions on what needs to be done has to be decided by the local people, and we have to see how we can implement them,” Hoffman said.

Soon, Hoffman will be stepping away from politics. On top of having more time to spend with his wife, Lillian, who he says has been his greatest source of support, Hoffman plans to take time for hunting and fishing around Bethel.

“I’m going to jump on my snowmachine and ride away into the sunset,” Hoffman said.

The 2026 regular legislative session is scheduled to wrap up by May 20.

The head of Alaska’s court system is set to deliver the annual State of the Judiciary Address from the Capitol in Juneau at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The Alaska Legislature has a tradition of inviting the Alaska Supreme Court’s chief justice to deliver an address each year during session. Chief Justice Susan Carney was appointed to the court in 2016 and became chief justice last year.

Watch Gavel Alaska coverage of Carney’s address live on KTOO 360TV or here, or listen on your local public radio station, including KTOO 104.3 FM and 91.7 FM in Juneau.

The Juneau Assembly approved more than $2 million in city funding to support four proposed affordable housing projects on Monday.

The money comes from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. The fund was created five years ago to help combat the city’s housing shortage. It offers grants or loans to projects that aim to build more low- and middle-income housing.

The projects approved Monday are expected to create more than 40 housing units, including both single-family homes and apartment complexes located throughout the borough.

Dave D’Amato is a developer attempting to renovate the shuttered Bergmann Hotel in downtown Juneau into an apartment complex. In an interview on Tuesday, he said it hasn’t been easy.

“There’s quite a few elements that are outside the city’s control that are conspiring to make building very challenging and very costly,” he said. 

Last night, he got some help with those costs. The Assembly approved a $900,000 loan for his project that would turn the historic 46-room hotel into an 18-unit apartment complex. The loan is close to one-third of the total projected cost of $3.1 million. 

D’Amato said he hopes to have the units ready for renters within two years. He’s been working on redeveloping the building since 2017.

“I was really pleased that the Assembly decided to preserve the Bergmann and to simultaneously add 18 housing units to its affordable housing profile moving forward,” he said. 

The Assembly also approved two grants to Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority. One grant is for $800,000 to help fund the construction of 16 single-family homes in the Pederson Hill subdivision, some of which are currently being built. The other grant is for $250,000 to help pay for building five single-family homes on North Douglas.

Southeast Endeavors, LLC was approved for a $200,000 loan to construct a fourplex on Lee Street in Auke Bay. The Assembly did not vote on a fifth project that was up for a $150,000 grant to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul because of a clerical error. That vote was pushed to a later meeting.

At the meeting, the Assembly also approved zoning changes at two locations in Lemon Creek to allow for more housing developments in the future.