Alaska News

A bipartisan group of senators is laying out the framework for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration status.

Alaska’s senators are welcoming the movement.

Alaska’s share of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants is relatively small. The Pew Research Center estimates there are fewer than 10,000 illegal immigrants in the state. That’s less than one and half percent of the state’s work force.

Senator Mark Begich is confident they’ll soon be on the path to living in the country without fear of deportation.

“You have eight Democrats and Republicans, four of each, pretty cross section of folks in that group, who are supporting a concept which I think is a good sign,” Begich said. “That’s a good sign for us.”

That concept is the most recent plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. There is no bill just yet – that’s still at least a month away.

But it’s a blueprint that’s getting positive reviews, if for no other reason than the bipartisan nature of it.

It lays out a path to citizenship for those currently living in the country illegally, but only after increased border enforcement is put in place.

It would require any immigrant to learn English to qualify for permanent resident status.

And, among other things, would stiffen penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. The government would require an online verification system.

Senator Begich says it’s a good starting point.

“From Alaska’s parochial position, we have some issues we have to resolve, and this would be a great vehicle to do that,” Begich said.

Namely, retooling the J-1 visa program that allowed foreign students to work in Alaska’s fisheries until the State Department removed the state’s processing plants from the program in November.

Senator Lisa Murkowski says she hasn’t seen the plan, so she can’t comment any specifics. But she welcomes the progress – even if this is the first step.

“I like the fact there is clearly a very real effort to be addressing the issue,” Murkowski said. “It is an effort that goes beyond an administration proposal.”

This is not the first real effort though. Congress has attempted to change immigration policy as recently as 2010. That program would have allowed students who came to the country illegally as children the chance to enroll in college as in-state students. It failed.

Arizona Senator John McCain says there is one key difference between America in 2013 and the America of 2010.

“Elections. Elections. The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens,” McCain said.

If there’s anything that motivates Congress, it’s the next election.

And everyone in both chambers knows President Obama took more than seventy percent of the Latino vote in November.

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The U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully tested an anti-missile warhead over the weekend. The test marked the first time in over two years that missiles like the ones at Fort Greely have been launched. It sets the stage for missile-defense contractor Boeing to conduct a full-scale test later this year.

Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Carlton says Saturday’s test of the ground-based interceptor rocket and its so-called “kill vehicle” that destroys incoming enemy missiles, was a smashing success – even though the test didn’t involve smashing a target in space, as it’s designed to do

“Getting back to flight testing has been the number-one priority for us,” she said, “and we’ve been working closely with our customers as well as our industry teammates to get to yesterday’s test.”

Missile Defense Agency officials declared the test successful because it proved the operability of a new-generation kill vehicle that is launched from the ground-based interceptor missile when it reaches outer space. The kill vehicle is designed to collide with and destroy an incoming enemy missile in space.

The missile defense base at Fort Greely is the hub of the nation’s Ground-based Midcourse missile-defense system. About 25 interceptor missiles are based at Greely.

The last time the system was tested, in December 2010, the kill vehicle malfunctioned and failed to intercept the dummy target missile. According to Bloomberg News, the $35 billion ground-based midcourse defense system hasn’t successfully intercepted a target missile since 2008. Bloomberg says the system has logged a 53 percent rate of success during several years of testing.

Carlton says even though testing had been suspended over the past couple of years, the system has remained up and running.

“Throughout our work, and throughout returning to flight, throughout the design solutions, GMD has always remained on alert,” she said. “This system is 24/7/365.”

Missile Defense officials say they’ll test the new and improved kill vehicle in upcoming testing involving a target missile later this year.

Bloomberg News says 10 of those missiles at Greely have been fitted with the new-generation kill vehicle that was successfully tested Saturday.

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Courtesy of McDonald’s Facebook

This week, McDonald’s doubled down on its commitment to Alaskan pollock. The chain announced that it will stop using other fish and switch to 100 percent Alaskan pollock in all 14,000 of its United States restaurants.

The pollock is served in Filet ‘o’ Fish sandwiches, and in a new menu item called Fish McBites.

McDonald’s also unveiled new packaging for those products, featuring the Marine Stewardship Council’s ecolabel. The label says McDonald’s fish is verified as sustainable, “wild-caught Alaskan Pollock.”

McDonald’s is paying the MSC to use that label, though they won’t divulge how much.

According to Erik Gonring, a public affairs representative with McDonald’s, it’s part of a strategy to attract socially conscious diners.

“We know customers are increasingly interested in knowing where their food comes from, and also understanding what a business does to be a responsible corporate citizen,” Gonring says.

Sylvia Ettefagh, who manages the fishing boats in the Unalaska Fleet Cooperative, says McDonald’s new menu and marketing could give Bering Sea fishermen a boost.

“With the addition of the fish bites, they’d be using more pollock,” says Ettefagh. “And it certainly isn’t going to hurt, by putting the MSC label on even their fish sandwiches.”

McDonald’s started using Alaskan pollock 55 years ago. Since then, the fishery’s developed a reputation for sustainability. It was certified by the nonprofit MSC almost a decade ago. Some environmental organizations have criticized the MSC’s standards as being too lax.

But regardless, the designation has given Alaskan fishermen an edge over their major competitors in Russia. Alaska’s pollock is more expensive, but considered more sustainable than Russian fish.

But now, the Russian fishing industry is now pursuing the MSC designation as well. One segment of the Russian fishery just passed its sustainability study with the lowest required score.

Ettefagh says that’s a big letdown for Alaskan fishermen:

“We’ve worked hard at getting the word out and changing things within our own systems, to step up to the plate and be good stewards and good citizens,” says Ettefagh. “And yet, the Russian certification is sliding in on the minimum.”

Gonring, the McDonald’s PR representative, says he can’t confirm whether McDonald’s would buy fish from a certified Russian source.

“I know that our commitment is to source from 100% sustainable fisheries, and the MSC standard is the one we’ve chosen,” Gonring says.

The MSC is supposed to make a final judgment on the Russian pollock fishery in February. McDonald’s new Fish McBites will also debut in February.

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A plant tapped as a health supplement offers an economic opportunity in Alaska.  Rhodiola prospers in high latitudes and has long been recognized by Alaska Natives for its medicinal qualities. Some Alaska farmers are positioning to sell into a lucrative world market.

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The latest installment of Alaska reality TV will feature the small, isolated communities of Russian Old Believers that call the Kenai Peninsula home. National Geographic Channel is interested in profiling families who live in the Old Believer villages and are specifically looking for “big personalities.”

Natalia Livingston is a producer with National Geographic Channel. She says a casting call will take place Tuesday evening in the Russian Old Believer village of Nikolaevsk, between Homer and Anchor Point.

“We’re just looking for big personalities and people excited to be part of the show,” said Livingston.

Livingston says the idea for the show came last summer from an Alaskan who works for National Geographic.

“We heard about this community of Old Believers and … basically, we just researched them a little bit and came up with a pitch,” she said.

That pitch includes money, of course. Executive Producer Lisa Blake told the Homer Tribune that each family would earn $3,500 per episode of the show, which is tentatively planned to run for three years.

In addition to its very popular show “Alaska State Troopers,” National Geographic Channel has produced a couple of programs that have focused on small, isolated religious cultures like the Mennonites and the Hauterites.

Livingston says National Geographic Channel has already made contact with a handful of Old Believers in Nikolaevsk and has a number of cast members already set.

In particular, the show’s producers are looking for large families involved in the fishing and boat-building industries.

One issue the producers might face when they arrive in Alaska is the very thing that attracts them to the idea of the show – the fact that the Kenai Peninsula’s four small communities of Russian Old Believers are isolated. The three small Old Believer villages at the head of Kachemak Bay – Voznesenka, Razdolna and Kachemak-Selo – are particularly isolated and although the people who live there participate on the broader Homer community, they still like to keep to themselves.

“We are aware of that,” said Livingston. ” So far we have a had a great response and … people have been very interested in talking to us.”

The casting call will take place at Nikolaevsk School, beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday evening.

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The K-300 Sled Dog Race brought new international teams to Bethel this year. Team Beringia is made up of two teams—one from Russia and one from Norway. They are part of an educational program that is linking students in classrooms across the Bering Sea.

Before they left Bethel last week, they stopped into the elementary Immersion School and talked about their dogs, their countries and answered questions from the students. The Russian translator was Elizabeth Shea.

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The area in blue shows elevation below 100 feet on the north end of Mitkof Island. Areas not colored blue are above 100 feet. Image courtesy of Emil Tucker.

Petersburg officials are reviewing the community’s response to a tsunami warning from the January 4th earthquake that rattled Southeast Alaska and sent residents scrambling to higher ground in the middle of the night. The voluntary evacuation went smoothly by many accounts but also highlighted some possible areas of improvement.

Petersburg’s public safety advisory board discussed the tsunami warning response at a meeting earlier this month. Police chief Jim Agner thought the community’s response went well under tough circumstances. “Because this was some of the worst possible conditions,” Agner said. “It was just above freezing, it was the middle of the night, it was raining, it was about a miserable thing and the entire community did very well.”

A tsunami warning was issued following a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that rocked the region just before midnight on January 4th. It was located off the coast of Southeast about 71 miles from Craig. Here in Petersburg, residents were urged to move inland to higher ground. Many received notice of the warning through the community’s Code Red notification system. Police also announced the evacuation over loudspeakers while driving along the waterfront.

Agner told the board that dispatchers moved out of the downtown police building and worked from a communications trailer and from the new fire hall. “We have done a couple of sort of dry runs but there are some things you just don’t do,” he said adding, “And one of them was throwing the switch and we turned off this police facility. And when I left, I walked out to close the door and for probably the first time in 50 years, no one was in that building for a fairly significant amount of time. We walked away and we seamlessly made the conversion on both phones and radios.”

Agner said other things did not go as hoped, the Code Red warning system for instance. He said the emergency warning phone system notified many people about the tsunami danger, but far fewer people received the “all-clear” warning.
The board agreed that community members should prepare emergency bag with supplies in case people cannot return to their homes immediately.

Board member Jim Engel said another need to consider in planning was a place to gather for people without vehicles. He said police dropped off one couple where he was waiting at the Hammer and Wikan parking lot. “You know obviously when the hospital was evacuated they were brought to Mountain View manor,” Engel said. “But coming up with a pre-designated place for that population of people who don’t have a vehicle to sit in, that don’t have the ability to just say hey can I jump in your car. What do you do with that group? It isn’t necessarily a large population but it’s enough that the hour and a half they were up there they would’ve froze.”

Other people waited out the warning at the Petersburg Indian Association, Alaska Airlines terminal and the baler facility to name a few. And some residents chose not to leave their homes. Many evacuated to the location originally designated as the community’s gathering spot in Petersburg disaster response plan, the ballfields. At a meeting of the borough assembly this month, borough manager Steve Giesbrecht acknowledged problems with sending so many people to there. “Everybody goes to the ballfield and then we had a mess at the ball field,” Giesbrecht said. “You know the lighting is not as good, there’s only one way in and out, bathrooms weren’t open. So it may not be long-term the best place to send the whole town to all at once, so we gotta work through that a little bit.” Petersburg’s local emergency planning committee will revisit the community’s plan and determine other evacuation sites.

Giesbrecht also told the assembly the borough was looking into the cost of completing an inundation study. “It’s seemingly spending money on something we maybe already know but it basically says in the event of a tsunami it starts to outline where we should send people,” he said. “And today, because we’ve never done that we have to tell people the standard response which is one mile inland or 100 feet up. Which kind of limits where we can send people.”

An inundation study is one requirement for designation as a tsunami ready community. That’s a National Weather Service’s program aimed at helping coastal areas plan for potential impacts of an ocean wave. Other requirements are developing a formal tsunami plan, holding emergency exercises and posting signs for evacuation routes and safe zones. 16 Alaska communities, including Juneau Sitka and Yakutat in Southeast, are designated tsunami-ready.

There are a few tsunami zone signs are already posted on Mitkof Island. Drivers might have noticed the signs on Mitkof Highway near the Crystal Lake hatchery south of Petersburg. Those mark safe zones for the event of a failure of the Crystal Lake dam which could drop reservoir water down the mountain onto the roadway and buildings below.

Sandy Dixson, fire and ems director and chair of the Local Emergency Planning Committee said an inundation study and tsunami ready designation for the community may depend on the cost and finding funding. However, short of a full study she says the community could map out safe areas. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to start with the 100 foot elevation because that’s just a general rule of thumb that the state has put out there, the 100 foot elevation mark or one mile inland and it would be good for people out the road especially for them to find out where that is for them, where they should go,” she said. “And obviously that would be the cheaper route.”

Dixson agreed the response January 4th went well but says communication is always an issue. The warning siren failed and officials are looking into that problem. Also a number of people did not receive notification on the Code Red system, including Dixson, one of system’s administrators. Dixson said she’s heard from others who were not notified. “And my recommendation to them was to go into the system to make sure that you are registered and that you did put appropriate phone numbers in and then again trying to trouble shoot where that disconnect was because I should’ve, I have four numbers listed and again I didn’t get the calls,” Dixson said. “There is some type of disconnect there and we’re trying to figure that out.”

Other than a test of the system, the evacuation was the first community-wide call out on the Code Red system. Dixson encouraged people to plan ahead and take personal responsibility for readiness. “Don’t think of just a tsunami but what if their house was damaged what would they have done? What if they had been where the power’s been out. So it’s not just big events where it affects the whole community, what about just their neighborhood or just their home. So being ready, you know what medications do you need to go, do you need money, do you need a change of clothes, if you have babies do you need diapers and wipes, kind of thing. We as the city cannot provide that for each individual family. So we can do general things.”

She also cautioned people about getting information from reliable source, like the radio or code red system and being careful about unsubstantiated information sent around on social media.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says January’s quake was the largest recorded in Southeast since a 6.8 temblor in June of 2004. Other strong earthquakes also were recorded on the same fault in August of 1949 and July of 1972.

A sled dog waits patiently in a box for his check-up.Photo by Emily Schwing , KUAC – Fairbanks

More than 300 sled dogs have been cleared to run in this year’s Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.  KUAC’s Emily Schwing stopped by the vet check in Fairbanks on Saturday to find out what it takes to become a race-worthy sled dog.

Chatanika musher Dan Kaduce pulls his truck into a warehouse in south Fairbanks as two Yukon Quest veterinarians slap on latex gloves, swab thermometers with Vaseline and grab for their stethoscopes.  The four time Yukon Quest finisher has 15 race dogs in his truck.  They’re here for their pre-race check-up.  Kaduce climbs out and pulls a 63 pound male husky from a dog box.  “This is Draco.  He don’t like females or strangers.  He is from Fort Yukon,” says Kaduce.

Draco sniffs at the air with his huge gray and tan nose.  Sled dogs that come from rural parts of Alaska are often large.  Their ancestors pulled sleds and worked traplines in heavy snow and deep cold.  Kaduce squats down to comfort Draco and Yukon Quest trail Veterinarian Nina Hansen moves in for an examination.
“I start at the front and work my way back and I start generally with teeth and gums.  He’s nice and pink,” she says, as she looks in the dogs mouth. “When you push on their gums they turn white, they should back to pink in less than two seconds.   And then I pick up their skin and it should fall down immediately and his does.  He’s also a four for body condition.”

Race dogs are ranked on a scale from 1 to 5.  Number one means the dog is too thin.  A five means the dog is overweight.  Most of Kaduce’s dogs are ranked as fours. “I just feel their hip bones, you shouldn’t be able to feel their spine between there,” she explains. “You should be able to feel their ribs, and I can.  He seems like a more nervous dog, so his heart rate is probably going to be a little higher than average.”

Hansen listens to Draco’s heart and checks his paws.  “He has big feet!” she exclaims.  Dan Kaduce agrees.

Draco is definitely large in comparison to other Quest dogs.  At two-years old, he’s also young, which is why he isn’t microchipped yet.  All Yukon Quest dogs are required to have microchips. It’s a tiny radio frequency device, with a unique identification number.  Hansen reaches for a needle and inserts the chip under the skin on Draco’s back.  But Draco doesn’t even wince. The chip is smaller than a grain of rice. “Alright, let’s scan that,” says Hansen.  She uses a green rectangular scanner to make sure the chip is working.

This is the third time she’s examined Draco this winter.  He ran the 350 mile Top of the World sled race in December and the 300 mile Copper Basin in early January.  Hansen was a vet for both races.  She says he doesn’t appear any worse for the wear. “I want to say his body condition is maybe a little bit better,” she looks up from the dog.  “He was never thin.  But there should be more weight on them now because they’re doing a thousand miles.  The top of the world, they just need to go 350, but he was never too thin.”

Hansen approves Draco for this year’s Yukon Quest. “He looks great!” she calls, and Kaduce hefts the brown eyed dog back into the truck.  He reaches for the next one and the whole process begins again.

Nearby, Kathleen McGill surveys the scene.  This is her seventh year as Head Veterinarian.  She first started working with quest dogs as a trail vet more than a decade ago.  Since that time, she says race dogs have changed significantly. “The feet were not as good as they are today,” remembers McGill.  “There was a lot more lameness.  The dogs just weren’t as toned and as athletic I think.  More recently, we’re getting more of a hound-like dog and the feet are still really good, but the coats are thinner and the dogs aren’t thin, but they’re more athletic.”

Over the last two years, mushers, judges and veterinarians have all voiced concerns about dogs’ physical appearance toward the end of the race.  Some have finished underweight.  A rule change this year requires mushers to carry an adequate amount of emergency food in addition to what they routinely carry on the trail between checkpoints.  Race Marshall Doug Grilliot will be watching to make sure dogs stay well-fed this year.  “We’re gonna have a little bit more of an emphasis on the dog’s weight issues,” explains Grilliot.  “A lot of that comes down to communication with the mushers in a timely manner from vets and officials.  You don’t wait till the last minute.  Most of the dogs will get progressively better or progressively worse as the race goes on.”

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