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Instead of the usual businesswear worn in the Alaska State Capitol, many female legislators are wearing kuspuks, the traditional and comfortable Inupiat-Yupik garment not often seen in boardrooms. It’s also being adopted by some men in the capitol.

On this particular Friday, Senate Secretary Liz Clark’s kuspuk is getting a lot of attention.

Somebody told me the fabric is called Fairy Frost so it’s sort of a turquoise blue and it’s got the Fairy Frost trim with some red ric-rak over top. It also has the multi-colored cat heads lining the hood and the pocket. It’s more a dress length with a ruffle. It feels like a mumu to wear so it couldn’t be more comfortable.”

Clark owns five kuspuks. She and other legislative staff easily joined what’s become a tradition among legislators, who started wearing kuspuks to work on Friday about a decade ago.
Anchorage Senator Lesil McGuire credits the idea to former representative Mary Kapsner, an Alaska Native from Bethel.

Back when she was in the House of Representatives serving, she had an aide named Katie Real and they started wearing kuspuks every Friday.”

When Real passed away from an illness, Kapsner and other women in the House of Representatives continued wearing kuspuks to honor her legacy.

Kuspuk Friday soon spread to the Senate where now it’s part of the Friday uniform for the pages. The Senate Secretaries, the Sergeant-At-Arms, and her assistant also take part in the tradition. Three of these kuspuk-clad individuals on the Senate floor are men. Senate McGuire would like to see every more males embrace kuspuk Friday.

Part of what we’re trying to do is get more masculine fabrics introduced. Our assistant Sergeant-At-Arms Andy Higgins has come out with a really bold black one with some gold piping so it would be nice to get the Senate President and the Majority Leader wearing a kuspuk as well.”

Eagle River Senator Anna Fairclough served with Mary Kapsner. Most Fridays, Fairclough can be seen wearing a kuspuk. While she enjoys the functional purposes of the garment, like the big pockets, Fairclough says Kuspuk Friday means something more.

It’s the solidarity per se with the women around Alaska that we know where our roots are at. We know there are traditional values in all cultures across Alaska that need to be respected and it’s our way of embracing that.”

While a kuspuk is a traditional Alaska Native garment, Senator McGuire notes most of those wearing kuspuks on Friday in the Capitol Building are not Native.

Non-Native Alaskans take pride in celebrating the Alaskan Native Heritage and I think that’s something that I have really enjoyed seeing grow in this building in my thirteen years here. It’s something that I would not say was immediately a part of the culture but it’s certainly become a part of it.”

Wrangell Representative Peggy Wilson owns four kuspuks.

I love wearing it because it’s so much more comfortable than anything else I wear.”

Freshman Representative Harriot Drummond of Anchorage borrowed a kuspuk from a friend for Kuspuk Fridays. She says it fits her normal, outside-the-capitol style.

I like wearing hoodies in my off hours and this is an appropriate type of hoodie to wear to work.”

In the usual sea of dark suits and stiff collars in a state capitol, Kuspuk Friday adds a touch of fun, color, and comfort to the work week. It’s also a symbol of Alaska’s diversity of cultures and people.

It’s no secret that Alaska has one of the highest rates of suicide in the country.

While it strikes some populations more than others, just one suicide often results in another. According to the Centers for Disease Control, youth who are exposed to suicide or suicidal behaviors are more at-risk for attempting suicide.

The Juneau School District is implementing a new program, called Sources of Strength, which helps connect students with trusted adults as well as build multiple sources of support for youth.

Training started last week for middle and high school students, with Executive Director of the program, Mark LoMurray.

“How many of you have had a friend that’s been suicidal?” he asked the teenagers and adults sitting in a big circle on the JDHS auditorium stage. About half the hands went up.

“I’m just going to have you break out into some groups and I want you to put down all the stuff that gives you strength,” LoMurray said, as he handed out poster-sized sheets of white paper to the groups.

Students spent a few minutes brainstorming then compared notes. Many were similar to this list:

“We have friends and family, and traveling and writing; journaling is sometimes helpful. And reading, drawing, eating food, watching TV, exercising.”

The exercise is one of several used this day to start students thinking about factors that could lead to suicide and the strengths they have to guard against it. Life skills, LoMurray said.

Sources of Strength began when he was working on rural North Dakota Indian Reservations, where the suicide rate was high.

“And one of the things we found is we need to have peer leaders involved and we also need to have a strength-focused approach,” he said.

Now Sources of Strength is in schools, universities and communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. It’s been adopted by the Tanana Chiefs Conference and is being used in some Interior Alaska villages.

LoMurray said teens can spread a positive message with their peers in a way adults can’t, whether it’s on Facebook, going into a classroom, or just hanging out.

That’s one of the reasons JDHS principal Ryan Alsup has embraced the program.

“They see things in the hallway that we as adults don’t necessarily see. They also see kids in a social setting and they’re also the first to notice when somebody becomes more withdrawn from their group,” Alsup said. “To me the beauty of the Sources of Strength program is that it’s student centered and not adult centered. We can do a lot of talking at kids, but kids talk amongst themselves.”

The youth and teachers train together. They were selected by school staff and represent a cross-section of the student bodies from Dzantiki Heeni Middle School as well as Juneau-Douglas, Thunder Mountain and Yaakoosge Daakahidi high schools.

JDHS English teacher Tonya Mosher has taught for 16 years. She said it was easy to agree to take part.

“As an adult that kids come to, I’m often trying to get them connected with other people to help, so this just seemed like a natural fit,” Mosher said.

Dressed in a pressed blue shirt, tie and argyle vest, freshman Brian Holst says he wants to help students who need a hand up, “so they know where to go to find those people that want to help them.”

While it’s dress-up day for Holst and his friends, Makelini Mausia looks more comfortable in sweatshirt and jeans. The JDHS freshman has Tongan roots and knows the value of family as a source of strength.

“I’m kind of proud that I was recommended because I do kind of try to help people that are in trouble and I do have some friends that are,” she said.

Ati Nasiah will serve as an adult advisor from Juneau’s AWARE Shelter. She said AWARE will bring in experts on teen dating violence, domestic violence and other issues. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is also involved.

Nasiah calls Sources of Strength an empowerment program for teens “providing opportunities for youth to know they’re powerful agents of change to really change the school climate.”

JDHS senior Esra Siddeek has just a couple of months left in high school. She knows the program will help equip her for college next year, where life will be even more complicated.

“It’s definitely a huge thing we could do for our community and school,” she said.

It will take about three years to implement the Sources of Strength program in the Juneau School District, with new students trained every year.

Hilary Young will head it up. She works for Juneau Youth Services, which already offers the Signs of Suicide educational curriculum in the high schools.

Young says Sources of Strength doesn’t stop at school; to be successful youth must hear “the same message when they go to soccer practice with (CBJ) Parks and Rec, you know, or when they are playing baseball, or whether they’re at youth group, or culture club, or whatever it is, these messages are getting reinforced across the community.”

One job is not enough for minimum wage earners who rent in Alaska.

A new study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that Alaska is one of the top ten most expensive states for renters.

The NLIHC estimates the housing wage for Alaska to be $21.37. That’s the “full-time hourly wage that a household must earn to afford a decent apartment at the HUD estimated Fair Market Rent (FMR), while spending no more than 30% of income on housing costs,” according to NLIHC.

The fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Alaska is $1,111 which means a renter has to earn a little under $4,000 a month in order to not spend more than 30% on housing.

At $7.75 an hour, someone earning only minimum wage would have to work 110 hours per week all year long to afford the average fair market rent.

The average renter in Alaska is estimated to earn $16.26 an hour. But even at that rate, 40 hours a week aren’t enough. A renter would still have to work 53 hours a week to make rent and not go over the 30% threshold or have another earner in the house.

The report also estimates that approximately half of renters are unable to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rent in Alaska.

In Juneau the average rent is closer to $1,300 a month.

NLIHC estimates the average renter in Juneau makes $12.77 an hour. The rent that is affordable at that wage is only $664 a month, a hard number to find in Juneau’s tight housing market.

According to a report by the Juneau Economic Development Council last November, roughly 1,800 renters are paying more than 30% of their income on rent. Most of those households make less than $50,000 each year. The report highlights the need for additional rental housing.

Alaska is the 9^th most expensive state for renters while Hawaii tops the list with a housing wage of $32.14. However, the data show there is no state in which a minimum wage earner can afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.

View the data for Alaska. (All information from NLIHC)

The NLIHC used data from the U.S. Census American Community Surveys (2007-2011)

Juneau’s Twin Lakes are slowly receding and will remain dry through April to control the invasive weed milfoil.

CBJ Parks and Landscape Superintendent George Schaaf says the gates under Egan Drive were opened about 4:30 Tuesday morning.

 “We do it at negative tide so there is plenty of pressure for the water to get out of the lakes,” Schaaf says, “and then when they get refilled we  do it when we’re having really big tides so that we can get the lakes as full as possible.”

Draining the lakes and filling them with salt water reduces milfoil growth without using herbicides.

State Fish and Game Biologist Brian Glynn says Northern Water Milfoil is common in Alaska.  He says Twin Lakes conditions are ripe for a health supply of organic matter.

“You know you get warm water conditions there (and) aquatic plant growth. These species in particular do very well in those conditions.  Then you get a bit of a positive feedback loop in that as they decompose in the fall, they provide fertilizer for subsequent year’s growth,” Glynn says.

Fish and Game has been stocking Twin Lakes with king salmon for more than 20 years, Glynn says, “and as the weed problem developed, that started cutting into that sport fishing opportunity, especially along the shoreline where anglers want to fish.  It got to the point where you were guaranteed reeling in weeds as opposed to maybe catching one of the hatchery king salmon.”

Glynn says once refilled the popular Twin Lakes will be restocked with about 10,000 little salmon, just in time for Family Fishing Day.

An avalanche described as a powder cloud came down Mount Juneau Tuesday morning.

CBJ Avalanche Forecaster Tom Mattice said the snow stopped high in the open meadows above the homes in the slide path.

He called it a size two avalanche, triggered by new snow and wind. Mattice said the wind had switched direction overnight and started blowing over the top of the mountains, and that filled in the urban avalanche paths.

“It was lone little piece of the avalanche path. There’s still a whole bunch up there that hasn’t slid, so an long as the winds continue to blow that direction there’s still danger.  I don’t expect it to be of the size that would endanger any structures, but if the entire thing went at once, it could happen,” he said.

Mattice was on Douglas Island Tuesday morning taking pictures of the urban snow slide paths, when he saw the avalanche release.

The slide came to the bottom of the run out zone, but left no significant debris.

“It’s cold snow, so it travels fast and it travels far, but by the time it gets to the end of its duration, it doesn’t have some big old pile, it usually spreads out,” he said.

(Pictures courtesy of Tom Mattice, CBJ Emergency Programs Manager / Avalanche Forecaster)

 

 

 

 

Chugiak Republican Bill Stoltze is a big fan of Alaska produce. Where other legislators offer cookies or chocolates to their guests, Rep. Stoltze stocks his office with carrots.

Alaskan carrots have an incredible flavor profile. You can tell the difference when you buy one from the local store and you buy one that’s produced in the Mat Valley or the Tanana Valley or anywhere else in Alaska,” says Stoltze. “The flavor profile is leaps and bounds better.

Stoltze would like more Alaskans to eat local carrots, and potatoes, and fish for that matter. Less than 5 percent of food consumed in Alaska is harvested in the state, according to a 2007 study by the United States Department of Agriculture.

To that end, Stoltze wants the governor to create a new working group focused on increasing food production in Alaska, for consumption in Alaska. His resolution laying out objectives for the group unanimously passed the House on Monday.

The idea is that the commission would bring together representatives from different state agencies and have them work local food production into their missions. For example, the Division of Homeland Security could be directed to include more Alaska products in their emergency management plans. The Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development could be encouraged to do more promotional work for the state’s fish and produce.

Stoltze also sees a role for the Department of Corrections.

We have some big dormitories being built in the Valley,” says Stoltze. “It’d be nice if they’re buying seasonally more lettuce, instead of buying it out of Salinas, California, or Washington, especially with freight costs and energy costs.

The resolution doesn’t provide many details for what the working group would look like, leaving that up to the governor’s discretion. The only real directive is that the working group collaborate with the Alaska Food Policy Council, a panel with a similar mission that has a mix of private and public members.

But one thing that it’s not is a new Department of Agriculture. Stoltze says he doesn’t want the commission to act like a new state bureaucracy. He also says that he wants food production in the state to grow by using already existing infrastructure, instead of putting money behind something like a new state creamery.

[Alaska food production] is going to increase incrementally. And it’s a lot stronger if it grows that way,” says Stoltze. “It’s not going to be through these government mega-projects, which I’ll run as fast as I can the other way from folks that propose those types of ideas about a big commune or a coop.

The resolution doesn’t allocate money for a working group or set a timeline for its creation, but Stoltze says he’s been in communication with the governor’s office and that the legislation falls in line with Sean Parnell’s goal of increasing food security in the state. A companion measure is currently working its way through the Senate.