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The editor and publisher of Alaska’s oldest newspaper passed away Thursday morning after fighting a battle with cancer, just shy of her 73rd birthday.

Nancy McGuire purchased The Nome Nugget in 1982 and served as its editor and publisher for 34 years, the paper reported Thursday.

McGuire was born in 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1965 with a master’s in education as a biology major; she then taught in high school and university classrooms in her home state before moving to Nome in 1973.

In Nome, McGuire first worked for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Northwest Campus. In her early years in town, she also worked for the Norton Sound Health Corporation regional hospital and with the Alaska Science Foundation. McGuire volunteered for many years, the Nugget reports, as an EMT with the Nome Volunteer Ambulance Department; she is also credited with forming the first internet service provider in Nome.

McGuire got her start at the Nugget as a part-time reporter.

Her tenure as the head of the Nome weekly newspaper, from 1982 onwards, endured for nearly half of her lifetime — and led to her being awarded the Alaska Press Club First Amendment Award in 2012.

She built a rapport with Nugget readers, in part, through weekly editorials, which were often platforms for frank opinions on current affairs or politics in Nome, the state of Alaska, or the nation.

The last of McGuire’s editorials was published on Thursday, Nov. 17, the same day as her death, and was both a defense of the editorial form itself and a valediction to her readers.

“An effective editorial starts the reader thinking. That’s its job. I hope my editorials have done that—stimulated thought about what has been happening—bad or good—for our community over the 34 years I have been editor and publisher of The Nome Nugget,” McGuire wrote. “I have loved Nome and the folks in our community and our village neighbors since the day I took over in 1982. I must depart soon. I will bid an affectionate farewell to all.”

McGuire battled cancer for over a decade.

With her passing, the Nugget will continue under private ownership, according to the newspaper’s obituary for McGuire.

A funeral Mass will be held for Nancy McGuire at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Nome.

Juneau residents remembered and paid tribute to those who’ve worn the uniform of service during an observance Friday at Centennial Hall.

Rear Adm. Michael McAllister, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 17th District, recounted several stories of service members who he said “leaned in” to demonstrate their mettle in the face of a challenge or danger.

“This day, above all, is an opportunity to celebrate the choice one makes to serve their country,” McAllister said. “For some, it means the world-wide conflict of World War II, or a lifetime of peacekeeping missions, or the tense standoff of the Cold War. Others found themselves in the jungles of Vietnam or in Korea, Panama or other conflicts. And, of course we can’t forget that today, continuing today, for many, service means multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, on active duty or as reservists, or as guard members who have sacrificed twice because they often have to give up their civilian jobs in order to serve our country.”

McAllister also asked everyone to honor service members by supporting veterans organizations, helping family of service members serving overseas, promoting a career of service for youth, hiring veterans, visiting a VA hospital, and helping homeless veterans.

He also called on veterans to share their stories with others so they could better appreciate their service and sacrifice.

Friday’s observance was presented by Taku Post 5559 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Taku Post Commander Kevin Hassin presented the opening remarks.

Chaplain Kirk Thorsteinson delivered the invocation and benediction.

Sara Chambers led the singing of God Bless America.

This weekend, the first veterans town hall to be held in Alaska is happening in Palmer.

The event is part of a growing national movement to better integrate the lives and experiences of veterans with the civilian world.

Veterans town halls are non-partisan opportunities for former service members to speak to an audience for ten minutes apiece about “what it felt like to go to war.”

Non-veterans are invited to listen.

The forums started last year in Massachusetts from an idea by former conflict journalist Sebastian Junger.

This year they’re happening in eight states.

Team Red, White and Blue, a veterans support community in Alaska, helped organize the town hall.

“I hear a lot, ‘I wish I knew how to support our veterans,’ and I think that we often try to fill that gap by doing something like giving people a 10 percent discount or saying ‘thank you for your service,’” organizer Amy Buschatz said. “Those are great things, but if you knew somebody’s story and knew where they were coming from you might be better equipped to reach into their lives and do something that’s actually going to impact them.”

Buschatz also is a reporter and editor with the news site military.com, and her husband served in the Army.

The Team Red, White, and Blue’s overall aim is connecting vets with nearby members of their community, usually through activities, public service or exercise, she said. The town halls fit the same mold.

“We believe that people do better in community. That we want to have community and that we need community to really thrive,” Buschatz said. “And our veteran are coming from a place where they are used to that community and then thrown into the civilian world where they don’t necessarily have that.”

The Veterans Town Hall will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at the Palmer Depot.

You can find more information about Anchorage’s chapter of Team Red, White, and Blue by searching for them on Facebook.

Brianna McCourt had a bad feeling when she walked outside the Bergmann Hotel and saw state troopers and police with their mobile command center at her doorstep.

“The mobile command center showed up and we’re like, ‘What’s really going on here,’” said McCourt, who works security at the Bergmann for a company called CPR Services that recently took over building management.

McCourt said when she got word the police were heading to the building, she thought the worst.

“It’s the Bergmann. I mean it’s been known for its riffraff and its drugs,” McCourt said.

Juneau police descended on the downtown housing development last Friday, but they didn’t come to make arrests. They wanted to help.

It’s not unusual for the police to be called to the hotel, but this time was different.

McCourt said the police weren’t alone.

“They came with the Department of Health and Social Services,” she said. “I believe that they had Front Street Clinic, and drug and alcohol treatment (officials to) speak with the residents that lived here.”

Residents got information on programs that could help them find work and opportunities to get counseling for substance abuse and mental health.

Service providers passed out sharps containers for safe disposal of used needles, and they gave her McCourts of Narcan – a medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

“Having sharp boxes in the bathroom and knowing that we have stuff to help people if we do run into an overdose is very helpful,” she said.

Lt. Kris Sell with Juneau Police Department said their outreach to the hotel was part of a strategy to, once a month, give special attention to issues they’re especially worried about in Juneau.

“Part of the chief’s instruction for me is once a month he wants to know, ‘OK, what can we go do that’s a focused approach to some area or some problem?’” Sell explained.

The department has gotten a lot of complaints from people in the Bergmann’s neighborhood, Sell said.

“People that lived up there and people that worked up there were unhappy with noise and finding needles in the area,” Sell said.

She said not all of these problems were tied directly to the hotel, but it was the place people most often associated their complaints with.

So Sell said JPD had a choice. They could have focused on one option: finding lawbreakers and arresting them, but they didn’t want to.

“Really, modern policing is also about, ‘How do you apply positive pressure so that you can work with the people that are having challenges and get them on a more law-abiding path so they can get along with their neighbors?’” Sell explained.

She said most of the residents were suspicious at first.

When they offered one guy help, he hesitated but eventually said he wanted a job.

“He probably asked two or three times before we introduced him with the gentleman from the job service if we were tricking him or if this was some sort of trap,” Sell said.

Some people turned them down flat, but most were receptive after they got over their surprise.

Brianna McCourt said it goes a long way when people from the community show up and say, “We want to help you.”

“I do sympathize with what the police and the community did today, with the outreach program,” she said. “It kind of shows people that there is help out there if you ask for it. A lot of problems a lot of times with being a recovering addict is you’re afraid to ask for that help.”

McCourt knows what she’s talking about.

She is in recovery right now for the second time.

She was sober for eight years before she relapsed. She said her drug of choice was methamphetamine.

She didn’t decide to get clean until she had a near fatal car accident this summer.

“I didn’t want to ask for help. I didn’t want to admit that it was indeed a problem,” McCourt said.

She admitted that it can be hard to help other people, especially addicts because they need to want to help themselves first.

But she said people shouldn’t turn anyone away if they do make the decision to help themselves.

The tourist season is over and many downtown Juneau shops are closed, but that’s not keeping other businesses from working to make it a more vibrant place.

This week, the Downtown Business Association met with Kathy La Plante. She’s a hired consultant with Main Street America, a national program that’s helped cities around the country enhance their downtowns for nearly 30 years.

According to the Juneau Empire, the DBA spent about $6,500 for the consulting job, and will have to pay an annual fee of $250 to stay in the program.

La Plante said it was great to see the community work together on a plan. She said she knew Juneau was a tourist town and was surprised to see events still going past the tourist season.

“I thought, ‘Oh, they’re very cruise ship oriented, I’m going to go there and see half the stores closed up because it’s a summertime economy,’” she said. So I’m really impressed that it does still remain a very vibrant place in the downtown.”

On Halloween, for example, dozens of businesses passed out candy to trick-or-treaters.

La Plante’s met with more than 100 business owners and community members. At a meeting Tuesday evening, attendees voted on their priorities.

“The number one was increasing the housing stock, and affordable housing, housing that could happen,” La Plante said. “We know that there are a lot of upper stories in the downtown area that are vacant and unused and we have to look at what’s preventing those from being developed or what new housing construction can happen here (and) what business amenities go with that.”

Other priorities included improving parking and marketing Juneau as a destination spot for Alaskans. La Plante acknowledges that traveling to the capital city is expensive.

She said she’ll create a summary report based on her visit and share it at a Downtown Business Association meeting in early January.

Colleen Goldrich, owner of Annie Kaill’s and a Downtown Business Association board member, said downtown Juneau’s been changing for the better.

“There’s been a lot of growth in downtown with new stores opening, new restaurants opening and shops and services, and things like that,” she said.

City Manager Rorie Watt attended a couple of the meetings this week, and said he believes in the program.

“You know, I appreciated is that Kathy and main street’s program sort of provides structure for bringing people together,” Watt said.

He said addressing some of the social ills that cause problems like homelessness, or housing and parking availability, are complex.

But he stresses that efforts continue to be made on the city level.

Update | 9:58 a.m. Monday

The distinctive logos on the woman’s clothes appear to identify it as an Airblaster Ninja Suit, a base layer marketed to snowboarders.

Original story | 5:11 p.m. Sunday

Juneau police are searching for a woman who appeared to be planning an armed robbery but ran away before threatening anyone Sunday morning.

According to a Juneau Police Department press release, surveillance video shows the woman standing outside of the Douglas Breeze In with a handgun.

The video stills show the suspect wearing sunglasses, a dark hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, and she her lower face covered with a dark cloth.

She was seen leaving in a van driven by an unknown person.

Later, police found the van used in the incident. They believe the vehicle is owned by a fishing charter and it had the name “Chum Fun” printed on its side. Police weren’t able to contact the vehicle’s owner by the time of the release.

The Juneau Police Department has posted pictures of the woman to its Facebook page and officers are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact them.