Government

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.

The U.S. Forest Service officially kicked off its public process for the Tongass National Forest Plan Revision on Wednesday, with an initial 30-day public comment period intended to guide a draft plan and environmental review. 

The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the U.S., with more than 16 million acres covering 80% of Southeast Alaska, including more than a thousand islands.

Forest-wide decisions made at the federal level shape the environment and the lives of Southeast residents — from industrial uses like mining and timber, to tourism and recreation, to the health of ecosystems and quality of subsistence harvests.

The last forest management plan was completed in 2016. That plan phased down the amount of old-growth available for logging over several years. The revised plan will set the stage for how the agency intends to manage the forest over the next 10 to 15 years. 

In its public notice released Tuesday, the agency outlined six proposed goals for the updated plan that address land use designations; economic uses of the forest; the rise in cruise ship visitors, collaboration between different groups; subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering needs; and Indigenous knowledge.

The public notice said the agency will ensure the plan is consistent with two of President Trump’s executive orders aimed at maximizing mineral extraction and logging in the Tongass. 

The agency also noted that a long-term timber demand analysis underway at the Pacific Northwest Research Station will inform projected timber sale quantities. The last analysis, published in 2016, estimated demand for Tongass forest products would range from roughly 41 to 76 million board feet per year between 2015 and 2030.

The public comment period for the scoping phase ends March 19 at 11:59 p.m. The agency expects to publish a draft revised plan and draft environmental impact statement this fall, followed by a 90-day public comment period. The final plan is expected next May.

Immigration enforcement agents swarmed a Soldotna home Tuesday morning and took a family of four, including a kindergartner, into custody.

Sonia Arriaga, from Jalisco, Mexico, has lived in Alaska since 2023. Her husband, Alexander Sanchez-Ramos, said agents arrived in about five vehicles and pulled her from her car when she returned from driving her middle child to school.

“I’m not talking about nicely, either. I’m talking about aggressively grabbing her and pulling her out. You know, she’s still in her pajamas, for crying out loud,” he said.

Sanchez-Ramos is an American citizen, born in Seward. He said masked agents placed him in handcuffs as he stood outside in temperatures hovering in the teens, wearing gym shorts and sandals. They questioned him about who else was at home. A relative brought the youngest child out.

“He was upset. He was crying, asking for his mom,” Sanchez-Ramos said.

Arriaga and her three sons, ages 5, 16 and 18, were eventually taken to Anchorage. The oldest son was put in jail, Sanchez-Ramos said, while the younger sons and their mom were detained in a hotel.

The story of their arrest reached a group of church leaders in Anchorage who told reporters the case raised grave moral concerns.

“How could anyone possibly claim to support family values when they are willing to stand by and be silent when a five year old is taken into detention?” said Rev. Michael Burke, senior pastor at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.

He said the incident could traumatize a child for the rest of his life.

Burke said he isn’t disputing the lawful enforcement of immigration restrictions. But, he said, federal agencies are trampling the law and violating the pledge that stepped-up enforcement would target criminals and the “worst of the worst.”

“As faith tradition leaders, grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we say that there is something deeply wrong here,” he said from his church pulpit, with eight pastors representing different congregations behind him. “There is a moral crisis in America where we detain and arrest families and small children.”

Sanchez-Ramos said Arriaga was in the country legally and was seeking asylum based on threats of violence in Jalisco. She had legal authorization to work, he said. She missed a hearing date in January, he said, but their lawyer assured them all the paperwork had been filed to revive her claim.

They met at a Mexican restaurant where they both worked and married earlier this month, he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not yet responded to an emailed query about the case.

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.

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.

A 17th candidate has announced she’s running for governor.

Meda DeWitt, 45, is a traditional healer, drawing on her Tlingit heritage. She teaches at the University of Alaska.

She’s running as a nonpartisan.

“I care about our future,” she said. “I care about the way that we steward our lands and want to see a state that has a thriving ecosystem and healthy communities that can live in perpetuity.”

In 2021, DeWitt chaired a campaign to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The petition gathered more than 60,000 signatures but fell short of the number needed for a recall election.

Her campaign website lists a wide array of priorities, from cost of living to health care to the state economy.

DeWitt lives in Anchorage and has family roots in Wrangell and Yakutat, as well as relatives around the state.

The Aug. 18 primary will feature a long list of gubernatorial candidates, most running with the Republican label. In the primary, voters can choose just one. The top four candidates, of any party, will advance to the November ballot. General election voters will have the option of ranking up to four candidates.