Health

If the federal government shutdown continues, more than 66,000 Alaskans will lose federal food aid within weeks, the state of Alaska is warning.

On Monday, the Division of Public Assistance within the Alaska Department of Health said that the federal government “has directed states to stop the issuance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November due to insufficient federal funds. This means that Alaskans may not receive SNAP benefits for November, even if they are authorized to receive them.”

The division estimates that 66,471 Alaskans would be eligible for benefits under the program.

In its written statement, the division said that it tried to pay for the program with state money “and determined that a state subsidy was not mechanically possible under the federal payment system.”

Similar warning messages went out from other states across the country starting Friday. In Kentucky, where one in eight residents receives food aid, Gov. Andy Beshear said the pending cut makes this “a scary and stressful time.”

In Oklahoma, more than half a million residents receive food stamps and are expected to lose that help.

Altogether across the country, more than 42 million Americans rely on the food stamp program, which the federal government funds and individual states administer.

On Tuesday, the 21st day of the federal government shutdown, there appeared to be no progress toward resolution.

Sixty votes in the U.S. Senate are needed to advance a House-passed stopgap funding bill. That would require the support of some Senate Democrats, but they oppose its passage unless lawmakers also agree to extend subsidies for health insurance purchased through the federal marketplace.

Existing subsidies are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, sending prices soaring.

Thus far, Republicans have been unwilling to agree to the Democratic demand, and Senate Republicans also have been unwilling to change the Senate’s filibuster rule. Doing so would allow them to advance the stopgap funding bill with 50 votes instead of 60.

The Aleut Community Store is the only shop for the Bering Sea village of St. Paul’s 300 or so residents, so most people just call it “the store.”

You can get everything you need there, from produce and cereal to kitchen appliances and fishing supplies — even a Yamaha four-wheeler.

But in June, the barge that was supposed to bring groceries canceled its trip because of rough weather. Meanwhile the cloud ceiling remained too low for planes to land. When planes can’t land and deliveries don’t make it in, shelves go bare.

“Eggs were shorted, and then milk, too. Stuff like that,” said Ben Bourdukofsky, the store’s manager.

In all, 20,000 pounds of groceries got stuck in Anchorage for over a month. When the planes finally did arrive, a lot of that food had spoiled. The tribal government, which runs the store, estimates it had to throw away about a quarter of it.

The food shortage this summer was uncommon, but it wasn’t unheard of. The Pribilofs are some of the most remote communities in the nation, and freight can be logistically difficult, expensive and unreliable.

In 2020, the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands Association partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to survey community members across the region and assess their local food systems. They found that most residents rely on local stores, but that fresh, healthy options are often limited and expensive.

The survey also found that subsistence is the second most common source of food for families in the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse, exposing strains in Alaska’s food supply. A 2021 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that Alaska Native communities felt the brunt of that.

In 2022, Gov. Mike Dunleavy created a food security task force to advise lawmakers on how to strengthen local production and distribution — most of what you find on grocery shelves throughout Alaska still comes in from the Lower 48.

The task force’s main recommendation was to establish a state Department of Agriculture, which it said would bolster private agriculture in the state and reduce Alaska’s reliance on imports. Farmers and agricultural groups backed the proposal, but lawmakers rejected it during this year’s legislative session, largely on procedural grounds.

A response to the pandemic

Nikolski is another island village, about 300 miles south of St. Paul. Roughly 20 to 30 people live in the village, which also has a single store. The community otherwise relies largely on subsistence.

Tribal Administrator Tanya Lestenkof says they have experienced situations similar to this summer’s food shortage in St. Paul, notably in 2007.

“Our weather was so bad that we didn’t see a plane for like, four months,” she said.

Nikolski’s subsistence practice revolves around salmon fishing and hunting the roughly 5,000 reindeer that live on the island.

“The only food that I had in the house was the reindeer that I had put up and the salmon, but I had dogs, so the dogs got all the salmon, and I ate all the reindeer. And now I can’t eat reindeer anymore,” Lestenkof said.

The community responded by building a geodesic dome for a community garden.

Lily Stamm is a project coordinator for the tribal government. She says the community ramped up their investment in greenhouses after the pandemic’s supply chain disruptions further exposed the community’s vulnerable food supply.

“We realized we were going to have a much greater need for food security out here,” she said.

Today, they have five greenhouses, housing everything from community gardens to a sauna and a small pool.

Stamm says Nikolski has made food security and food sovereignty a community project.

“In this village, they’ve really prioritized it and started some really neat projects,” she said.

Subsistence is still critical to food security

But not all community investments in food security work out. In the Aleutians and Pribilofs, high winds and poor soil make growing things very difficult.

St. Paul has tried greenhouse projects, too — including a hydroponic grow center the community built on the ground floor underneath the Aleut Community Store. It ran for several years but eventually shut down.

Today, there aren’t any large-scale growing efforts on the island.

The shelves are full in St. Paul’s store now. But Bourdukofsky says this summer’s food shortage wasn’t the first time something like this happened, and it might not be the last. The challenges of isolation and weather aren’t going away

People in St. Paul also rely on fur seals for food. Richard Zacharof has helped organize that subsistence harvest for 40 years. He says they’d be lost without it.

“It puts food in the freezers for the winter months for people to enjoy their subsistence foods that we live on,” he said. “You know, it’s all part of our DNA.”

Among the most vulnerable Alaskans to the ongoing federal shutdown could be thousands of parents who depend on WIC (wick) to help them buy food.

WIC is the acronym for Women, Infants and Children, a federal program administered by the state. It provides food benefits to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and families that include a child under 5, as long as the household meets income limits.

Jeff Turner, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Dunleavy, says Alaska has enough money in the program to last through the first week of the shutdown. Whether cash reserves last beyond then is unclear.

In past funding lapses, Alaska found the money to keep paying WIC benefits. A statement from the governor says the state will have to reassess if the shutdown goes on beyond a month.

Nationally, WIC depends on money Congress must appropriate each year. In that way it is unlike the larger SNAP food program, which is considered an entitlement.

More than 8,000 Alaska households receive WIC benefits. For now, WIC offices around the state are open.

Congress seems no closer to passing a funding bill. The Senate adjourned until Monday.

It’s been a month since the sexual assault trial against a former Juneau chiropractor ended with two acquittals and 14 charges declared mistrials. Although Jeffery Fultz wasn’t found guilty, those charges are still active and he could stand trial again. 

But earlier this month, the judge in the case dismissed one of those remaining charges. And this dismissal reveals a gap in state laws that makes it harder for alleged victims of sexual assault to achieve justice.

Listen:

More than a dozen former patients have accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care while he worked as a chiropractor at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau. 

Judge Larry Woolford recently ruled that one alleged victim’s testimony doesn’t match the legal definition of the sexual assault by a medical provider charge. The acquittal order says the charge is being dismissed because the woman accusing Fultz was aware that the contact she received was “sexual and that it was not part of legitimate medical treatment.” 

In other words, Judge Woolford dismissed the charge because the victim knew she was being assaulted. That’s because a key part of the legal definition of sexual assault by a medical provider requires that the alleged victim isn’t aware of sexual contact happening at the moment.

State Prosecutor Jessalyn Gillum says the statute was originally written in response to a crime where a medical provider was sexually assaulting women behind a sheet, so they could not see the act. 

“Somebody who is receiving treatment and believing the behavior of the health care professional is consistent with that treatment, and then later finding out that that might not be the case,” she said. “That is a sort of a different kind of scenario than what was perhaps initially intended.”

So while that statute does apply to many of the women testifying against Fultz, some, like the one whose charge was dismissed after the trial, might fall through the gaps in the laws.

Jennifer Long is a former prosecutor and founded AEquitas, a nonprofit that advises prosecutors in sexual violence cases. She said that stipulation in the law doesn’t make sense. 

“To put that element in, that a victim is unaware that something is inappropriate, doesn’t really align with the dynamics of this kind of crime,” she said. 

She said that just because patients may realize that they are being assaulted doesn’t mean they are able to speak up or to leave an appointment immediately, especially when they are desperate for medical care. 

“You know what’s happened to you is wrong, and you have felt that it’s wrong, you may have still blamed yourself, or again, try to give the benefit of the doubt,” Long said. 

And Long said the power dynamic between a doctor and patient can be used to get patients to accept abuse or dismiss it. 

“This is just one other area where someone in a position of power is using a weapon, and it’s their power,” she said. “It’s no different than a gun. It’s no different than another threat. It’s just another way to get someone to comply.”

Let’s take a step back.

When the state first arrested Fultz in 2021 and charged him with assault, prosecutors were limited in what they could charge him with. 

At the time the alleged crimes were committed, the statute for sexual assault in Alaska required prosecutors to prove that the crime was committed under force, or threat of force. Almost all the alleged victims in Fultz’s trial said force was not involved.

The general sexual assault law changed in 2023, and the threat or use of force is no longer needed to prove assault. The new definition requires that a person did not freely give consent. But because that definition wasn’t law at the time of the alleged incidents, Fultz can’t be charged under it. 

The law change came amid a broader reckoning with sexual violence laws in Alaska. In 2018, an Anchorage judge faced public backlash, and was voted out, for accepting a plea agreement in a sexual violence case that he said reflected the state laws at the time.

So prosecutors in the case against Fultz had to choose between two limiting definitions of assault: one where there was a threat of force or one that specifies the defendant is a medical provider, and that the victim was unaware they were being sexually assaulted. They chose the second option. 

Fultz’s former defense did not respond to a request for comment on this acquittal, and a spokesperson from the Dept. of Law said over email that judges do not comment as a rule, “in order to maintain the integrity of their decisions.”

Three charges of the original 16 have now been dismissed.

The state plans to retry the 13 remaining charges. A status hearing to decide what will happen next in the case is scheduled for Oct. 15.

A former Juneau chiropractor accused of sexual assault now has a public defender. 

More than a dozen former patients have accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care while he worked at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. 

Last month, his trial ended in a mistrial on 14 counts of felony sexual assault, and two not guilty counts. The state is pushing forward to retry the remaining charges that are eligible to be considered again.

Fultz’s new lawyer will be a public defender. People accused of crimes are generally eligible for a public defender if they can’t afford a private lawyer.

At a hearing this week, state prosecutor Krystyn Tendy said that Fultz is living in an expensive home in Colorado that he purchased for $900,000, and his high housing payments don’t make him eligible for a public defender. 

“He is choosing to spend over $5,500 a month on housing,” Tendy said. “I think there is a very, very big difference between somebody being unable to pay in terms of they’ve leveraged themselves, and somebody who is truly indigent.”

But Judge Larry Woolford ruled that he did qualify, despite his financial situation.

“It is certainly true that on paper, in some ways, the defendant is a man of some substance,” Woolford said. “It is also unquestionably true that he has for many years now been dealing with the legal consequences of the allegations against him, and that he has spent a significant amount of money doing so.”

Fultz disclosed that he has just under $200,000 in assets between his house and vehicles, but Woolford argued that those assets are not easy to sell to pay legal fees. 

A status hearing, when all parties meet with the judge to determine next steps in a case, is scheduled for Oct. 15.

Bartlett Regional Hospital is taking over ownership of an independently-owned pediatric clinic in downtown Juneau. 

Glacier Pediatrics has been offering pediatric care in Juneau for more than two decades. But hospital administration says discussions with the practice about its struggles to operate independently have been ongoing over the past month and a half.

The clinic sees children from birth through age 19. Earlier this week, the city-owned hospital’s board of directors voted unanimously to purchase the assets of the practice and bring the clinic under Bartlett’s umbrella of care.

Under the plan approved by the board, the clinic will remain at the same location and its current employees will continue to oversee medical services. Clinic employees will become hospital employees and the clinic will be renamed Bartlett Glacier Pediatrics.

“I think (it’s) very much in the best interest of the hospital to have our dual system, where we still have privately-owned clinics, like Valley Medical, and have the option for corporate hospitals,” said Bartlett Board Member Hal Geiger.

Juneau has continued to see multiple private medical practices consolidate with larger entities, namely the Alaska Native-run Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. In the past two years, SEARHC has acquired multiple clinics throughout the region. This spring, Bartlett similarly took over Family Practice Physicians in the Mendenhall Valley.

The transition for Glacier Pediatrics is estimated to be complete by the start of next year. On Tuesday, the board approved $200,000 to purchase the assets. The purchase comes as Bartlett’s finances appear more secure following a difficult year.

In 2024, the hospital faced a multimillion-dollar deficit that threatened it with bankruptcy. Its board controversially chose to reduce staffing and shut down multiple programs to keep that from happening.