A News

The City of Hoonah has a new chief of police to replace the last chief who was fired while trying to resign last spring. 

James Beck of Oklahoma began his role as Hoonah’s new chief of police and director of public safety in January. Hoonah, a community of less than a thousand people, is located on the northeastern side of Chichagof Island, west of Juneau. 

Beck has served in multiple law enforcement roles for more than two decades, holding positions including tribal police officer, tribal chief of police and sheriff at different agencies in the Lower 48. 

In an interview, Beck said he took the job because he was looking for a change and was drawn to Hoonah’s Indigenous culture. Beck is an enrolled tribal member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. He said his goal is to build trust between the community and the police department. 

“If you’re always truthful, you’re going to remember what you told somebody,” he said. “If you go to trying to tell fibs and little white lies and just being dishonest, it’s going to come back on you eventually, because you’re going to spin a web of lies, and it always collapses.”

Beck’s hiring comes after Hoonah’s former chief, Carlos Frias, alleged he was fired from his role after two years because he began investigating domestic violence and sexual assault complaints made against some city leaders. However, city leaders rebuffed his claims, saying he was fired for a series of violations, including excessive use of force. Frias has since moved away from Hoonah and is now a police officer in Tucson, Arizona.

Beck said one of his goals as chief is to increase transparency and accountability. 

On Thursday, the City of Hoonah is hosting a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall for residents to ask questions or make suggestions to him about the police department. Community members can participate in person or online. 

“I think these community meetings is for me to put myself in front of the community so that I could increase that transparency, because I do believe in transparency and law enforcement,” he said. 

Beck said he would also like to increase staffing levels at the four-person department and upgrade the station.

Bill Miller, Hoonah’s mayor, said Beck has been a great addition to the community so far. 

“His community involvement is really good. He’s been attending all of our meetings because he’s wanting to know the community,” he said. “He fits well for it. He’s got a really good attitude, very knowledgeable.”

Benjamin Botts, formerly with the Ketchikan Police Department, served as interim chief after Frias was fired. According to the city’s website, Botts now serves as a multi-service officer for the department alongside two other officers.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is scheduled to deliver his annual address to the Alaska Legislature at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The Alaska Legislature invites the congressional delegation to deliver an address while they’re in session each year. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is scheduled to address the Legislature in March.

Sullivan was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014. Prior to that, he served as Alaska’s Attorney General and Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. He’s up for re-election in November, and is being challenged by former U.S. Representative for Alaska Mary Peltola.

Watch a live stream here, on KTOO 360TV or tune into KTOO 104.3 or 91.7 FM.

Anchorage cross-country skier Gus Schumacher won a silver medal Wednesday at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic games, after racing a near-perfect anchor leg in the team sprint event.

Paired with teammate Ben Ogden from Vermont, Schumacher challenged Norwegian superstar Johannes Klæbo on the last climb of the six-lap race and finished just ahead of Italy.

It’s Schumacher’s first Olympic medal, and he said he was dialed in nearly all the way to the finish line to claim it.

“I think I did a good job of not thinking too, like, results-wise until, you know, I could see Ben on the other side there and knew I had space,” he said. “I’m really proud of how I just sort of skied with abandon in a way, because when I’m skiing free I’m the best.”

Schumacher is 25 years old and grew up in Alaska and has dreamed about the Olympics for most of his life.

He became the first American to win a gold medal in an individual race at the Junior World Ski Championships in 2020. Then in 2024, he became the youngest American to win a World Cup cross-country ski race. Schumacher was one of eight Alaska Nordic skiers competing in this year’s Olympics.

Schumacher raced against Ogden on the U.S. circuit starting at a young age. They’ve since become close friends and are rooming together in Italy, where Ogden also won a silver in the individual sprint race.

Schumacher said that history made it particularly special to stand on the podium alongside Ogden. There’s a whole community that makes a result like an Olympic medal possible, he said.

“Amazing to cross that line and celebrate with Ben, and then just like everyone who’s helped us along the way. Like, my parents are here, and the whole wax staff, and the staff in general, and coaches and everything,” Schumacher said. “It means a lot to all of us.”

Schumacher and his coach Erik Flora say they’re delighted to get home and share the medal with teammates, friends and other Alaskans.

Travelers can now schedule ferry rides with the Alaska Marine Highway System for May through September. That’s after the summer schedule opened for booking Feb. 12.

The schedule looks a lot like recent years, with six of the state’s nine vessels sailing. There is not enough funding or staffing to run them all, said Shannon McCarthy, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation.

“Our crew is relatively stable right now, but, you know, it’s not expanding rapidly,” McCarthy said. “Our budget is also a concern this year, so we will only be running one of the mainliners at any given time.”

Only one mainliner – the Columbia – is scheduled to travel weekly through Southeast to Bellingham, Washington. That means a round trip every two weeks for most residents.

McCarthy said the Kennicott will be on standby in case the Columbia needs repairs.

“The nice thing is, it is much better to have two vessels — main liners — that are able to be sailed at any point,” she said. “It puts the state in a much better position.”

The Tustumena will sail the southwest region between Homer and the Aleutians. That’s roughly two round trips per week from Homer to Kodiak, and one full Aleutian Chain run per month.

The day boat, Leconte will sail Prince William Sound. And Lynn Canal will be similar to last year, with the Hubbard doing nearly daily runs between Juneau, Haines, and Skagway.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski helped secure hundreds of millions in federal ferry funds over the last five years. But the state is now waiting on a key federal grant for this year. DOT Commissioner Ryan Anderson is scheduled to be in DC this week to talk to the Alaska Delegation about it.

“Because this money is still available — it was written into the law,” McCarthy said. “So, we’re just trying to figure that out, to see if there is some relief there.”

With ongoing funding issues, the state is considering selling the Matanuska, a 63-year-old mainliner that’s been tied up in Ketchikan and used for housing new ferry workers. McCarthy says they’ll still be able to offer housing in the mainliner that’s not currently sailing.

In this newscast:

• State transportation officials will hold a virtual public forum tomorrow evening on proposed safety improvements at one of Juneau’s most dangerous intersections.
• For the first time, Juneau police confirm immigration enforcement activity in Alaska’s capital during President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration push.
• A proposed mining road in Juneau is up for public comment.
• Mariculture experts and tribal members gathered in Juneau last week to talk about the pressing obstacles – and opportunities – shaping the mariculture industry in Southeast Alaska.

Listen to this story:

At the end of a dock in Auke Bay, an oyster farmer lifted a creaky hatch door on an unassuming floating platform. Inside were bins holding thousands of young oysters, called spat.

The platform is called a floating upweller system, or FLUPSY, and it’s one way oyster farms can keep more stock.  

“This is just a cheaper way to buy spat in a smaller size, much bigger quantity,” said Maranda Hamme, owner of Shinaku Shellfish Company, a small, family-run Pacific oyster farm in Klawock. Hamme was part of a small group that visited Juneau for a day-long mariculture workshop organized by Alaska Sea Grant and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska last week.

Nutrient-rich water flushes through the FLUPSY, so the tiny oysters can quickly grow big enough to fit into mesh bags out on a farm. The oysters in the FLUPSY are around the size of a penny — they’ve been growing here for roughly 9 months.

The FLUPSY in Auke Bay belongs to Salty Lady Seafood Company, the only oyster farm in Juneau. Hamme said she’s planning to stock her own FLUPSY in Klawock because it can help her scale up, even when there are bottlenecks in the supply chain. 

“Currently, there’s only so many FLUPSYs in the state, and as a farmer, we’ve already not had seed needs met,” she said.

Most oyster farmers in Alaska, including Hamme, have to ship in spat from out-of-state hatcheries in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon or California. Sometimes there are shortages at those hatcheries. 

Spencer Lunda manages the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ mariculture research hatchery at Lena Point. He said developing in-state hatcheries can help solve that problem. 

The facility pumps in seawater that gets heated and flows into troughs filled with oysters, where Lunda and his team are studying ways to produce spat locally for farms across Alaska. 

“It would be nice to have spat production in the state, and be able to produce oysters that perform better in the conditions of Alaska, because the water is very cold here compared to where oysters are typically grown,” he said. 

Lunda said the ultimate goal is to breed oysters that grow relatively quickly in cold water and form a deep cup with a lot of meat — traits desirable for both farmers trying to turn a profit and consumers slurping them from the half-shell. 

Back on the dock, Hamme said the lease process to enter the industry is another issue that could be improved.

“I’m here sharing about being a farmer and the struggles and challenges that we face firsthand so other Indigenous farmers can get into the industry,” said Hamme.

She said it took two years to get an aquatic farm lease through the state. She also said the process doesn’t include tribal consultation to see whether proposed farm sites would overlap with subsistence seafood harvest sites.  

“I think it’s crucial that the state of Alaska incorporates tribal consultation, rather than just city government,” Hamme said. 

But developing mariculture operations could become a boon for Native communities, too. 

Frank Nix, the cultural foods manager for the Organized Village of Kasaan, attended the workshop to see how mariculture could bolster economic development and food security in his small village. 

“Most of us are already working three or four jobs, and all of our facilities are running three or four programs,” Nix said after touring the small Auke Bay oyster hatchery. “So when it comes to looking at opportunities like, well, maybe we don’t have the manpower to run a farm — but, you know, it seemed like one or two people could manage a space of the size that we were just in.” 

He said he’s grateful to attend the workshop on a travel scholarship, and the recent availability of funding and training in Alaska mariculture makes the industry attractive. 

“I think one of the most valuable things that I’ve seen so far is that this seems perfectly doable,” he said.