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The budget passed by the Senate today includes $4.3 billion in unrestricted general funds (UGF) for agency and statewide operations – a reduction of $258 million over last year – and $1.94 billion to pay each eligible Alaskan a Permanent Fund dividend of approximately $3,000. 

Including a $3,000 dividend in the Senate’s version of the budget creates the possibility for a House and Senate conference committee to negotiate up to the full, statutory dividend amount. 

“This budget protects the Permanent Fund for future generations of Alaskans, grows the economy, and keeps Alaskans safe,” said Senator Bert Stedman (R-Sitka) co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “The nine-member Senate Finance Committee – representing diverse viewpoints across our vast state – produced a budget Alaskans can be proud of.”  

$18.4 billion of Alaska’s $64.5 billion Permanent Fund is currently in an earnings reserve account that can be spent by the Legislature with a simple majority vote. To protect these funds, the Senate’s budget moves $12 billion from the earnings reserve into the constitutionally protected corpus, which cannot be accessed without amending the state’s constitution.     

“Defending the Permanent Fund is a top priority for the Senate,” said Senator Natasha von Imhof (R-Anchorage) co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “This budget locks away $12 billion into the Permanent Fund’s principal, taking nearly one-fifth of the fund’s assets off the table. This historic transfer will force the Legislature to have a conversation about a sustainable dividend calculation moving forward.”  

The House's operating budget bill passed with a vote of 24-14 on April 11th and was sent to the Senate for consideration. The House did not address the permanent fund dividend in their operating budget referred to the Senate for consideration. The House approved a $4.3 billion of unrestricted general fund spending for Fiscal Year 2020, meaning there was a $200 million reduction compared to what will be spent in this fiscal year. The Senate operating budget passed today included a reduction of $258 million over last year and $1.94 billion to pay each eligible Alaskan a Permanent Fund dividend of approximately $3,000. 

House Bill 39 passed the Senate by a vote of 19 to 1 and is now on its way back to the Alaska House of Representatives for concurrence. Because changes were made in the Senate, a joint House-Senate conference committee will convene to sort out the differences before final passage from the Legislature. The Senate's $1.94 billion to pay each eligible Alaskan a Permanent Fund dividend of approximately $3,000 will be considered by the House. 

Once the operating budget is passed by the Legislature, Governor Michael Dunleavy then has 30 days to sign the bill or to make vetoes.

The Senate’s budget affirms the FY20 forward-funding for K-12 education approved last year. In mid-April, the House operating budget protected K-12 education, with the base student allocation and per pupil transportation fully funded and forward funding for Fiscal Year 2021. Head Start, Early Childhood Education grants, and Best Beginnings were also fully funded, as was public broadcasting infrastructure. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Alaska: Beware of Scam in Swabbing Cheeks of Seniors for DNA Cancer Checks - The Consumer Protection Unit of the Alaska Attorney General’s Office warns Alaskans that a new health care scam is on the rise and may be coming to Alaska. The Division of Insurance has received reports of groups going to senior living communities, assisted living facilities, senior centers and RV/trailer parks offering to swab the cheeks of seniors for genetic material. The scammers are saying the swabs are to perform tests of DNA for cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.

If a non-cancer patient provides material for genetic testing under the pretense that the test would be covered by Medicare, this may be a scam or fraud. Be alert if anyone asking to swab your cheeks requests that you agree to be billed for services in the event Medicare does not pay. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Chemical records in teeth confirm elusive Alaska lake seals are one of a kind
One of the Iliamna Lake seals seen just off a gravel beach on the east end of the lake, the seals’ primary habitat.
Photo By Jason Ching/University of Washington

Alaska: Chemical records in teeth confirm elusive Alaska lake seals are one of a kind - Hundreds of harbor seals live in Iliamna Lake, the largest body of freshwater in Alaska and one of the most productive systems for sockeye salmon in the Bristol Bay region.

These lake seals are a robust yet highly unusual and cryptic posse. Although how the seals first colonized the lake remains a mystery, it is thought that sometime in the distant past, a handful of harbor seals likely migrated from the ocean more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) upriver to the lake, where they eventually grew to a consistent group of about 400. These animals are important for Alaska Native subsistence hunting, and hold a top spot in the lake's diverse food web.

Scientists now know these "colonizing" seals must have found the lake suitable enough to stay and raise their offspring. Generations later, the lake-bound seals appear to be a genetically distinct population from their ocean-dwelling cousins -- even though they are still managed as part of the larger Eastern Pacific harbor seal population. 

But if the lake seals are distinct and show signs of local adaptation to their unique ecological setting, this would mean that their conservation -- especially in the face of the rapidly changing climate of western Alaska and proposed industrial developments -- should differ from that of nearby marine populations.

Lifelong chemical records stored in their sequentially growing canine teeth show that the Iliamna Lake seals remain in freshwater their entire lives, relying on food sources produced in the lake to survive. In contrast, their relatives in the ocean are opportunistic feeders, moving around to the mouths of different rivers to find the most abundant food sources, which includes a diverse array of marine food items in addition to the adult salmon returning to Bristol Bay's nine major watersheds. These findings are described in a paper published online in March in Conservation Biology.

"We clearly show these seals are in the lake year-round, throughout their entire lives," said lead author Sean Brennan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "This gives us critical baseline information that can weigh in on how we understand their ecology, and we can use that information to do a better job developing a conservation strategy." - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Alaska: Scientists see fingerprint of warming climate on droughts going back to 1900 - In an unusual new study, scientists say they have detected the fingerprint of human-driven global warming on patterns of drought and moisture across the world as far back as 1900. Rising temperatures are well documented back at least that far, but this is the first time researchers have identified resulting long-term global effects on the water supplies that feed crops and cities. Among the observations, the researchers documented drying of soils across much of populous North America, central America, Eurasia and the Mediterranean. Other areas, including the Indian subcontinent, have become wetter. They say the trends will continue, with severe consequences for humans. The study appears this week in the leading journal Nature.

In general, scientists agree that as global warming progresses, many now dry regions will become drier, and wet ones will become wetter. Some recent studies suggest that human-induced warming has intensified droughts in particular regions, including a now near 20-year ongoing drought in the southwestern United States. However, the last report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says confidence in attributing specific ongoing events directly to humans is still chancy. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Southeast Alaska: AMHS to Hold Open House on State's First 'Made in Alaska' ferry - In celebration of the Alaska Marine Highway's (AMHS) first Alaska Class ferry revenue voyage and the state's first Made in Alaska ferry, AMHS will hold an open house this weekend on the new Alaska Class Ferry, the M/V Tazlina.

The open house will be held at Juneau's Frank Palmer Auke Bay Ferry Terminal on Sunday, May 5, 2019 from 3 PM to 5 PM. The vessel will be open to the public and will remain docked throughout the event.

The Tazlina is named after the Tazlina Glacier located 43 miles north of Valdez, and was named by Melea Voran who won a vessel-naming essay contest as a 7th grader in the Port Alsworth Tanalian School.

The vessel was designed by Elliott Bay Design Group of Seattle, Washington and constructed at Vigor Shipyard in Ketchikan, Alaska. The Tazlina is the first Alaska Marine Highway ferry built in Alaska, along with its sister ship the M/V Hubbard. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Ketchikan: New officers installed for Ketchikan VFW, Auxiliary - April elections brought a few new faces to Ragnar Myking VFW Post 4352 and its Auxiliary. While some officers remained in their stations to continue their service to veterans and the community, some new members stepped forward to take a greater role in the organization.

All new officers were installed during a post ceremony on April 27, 2019. The VFW Post election took place at their April 9th meeting. The Auxiliary election took place at their April 2nd meeting.

Newly elected officers to the VFW include: Frank Sherman as Junior Vice Commander, Joseph Reeves as Quartermaster, and George Houck as Trustee.

Returning officers to the VFW include: Paul Robbins Jr. as Commander, Edsel Clayton Jr. as Senior Vice Commander, Dennis Spurgeon as Chaplain, Ken Horn as Trustee, and Gwenna Richardson as Trustee. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Ketchikan: Ketchikan Community Foundation to Announce 2019 Grant Winners - On Friday May 10, the Ketchikan Community Foundation (KCF) will announce this year’s recipients of its grants awards program. KCF expects to award at least $20,000 to qualified nonprofit organizations serving the Ketchikan area.
The grants will be presented at 5:30 p.m. Friday May 10 at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, 50 Main St.

A total of 16 organizations submitted grant applications this year, according to Marggie Sweetman, KCF grant committee chair. Of those, she said eight were able to be funded.

The public presentation to grant recipients and their supporters has become an annual affair, according to Sweetman. “It’s a wonderful event that allows many of our local nonprofit organizations to gather together to celebrate the work they all do,” she said. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

JEfF LUND: Dear summer guests,  - People get really poetic about their fishing trips, hunting trips or cruise ship excursions in Alaska. Those who get the most fired up about it here, talk about Alaska as if it’s a love story, as if it provides the essence to their existence yet when they return home, how many of them can tell their friends about a single person who lives there? What type of person calls this place home, do you have any idea? That’s the real treat. What type of person endures all that rain you hear about and lives all those stereotypes – not just works here for the nice part of the year. The people who are part of a community, not just the work force. 

Chances are you’ve seen photography or read articles inspired by Alaska that were done by people on visits just like you. But we’ve got our own stories to tell. 

That hoodie that says “Net Fish and Chill” was made by a seventh generation Ketchikanian. When worthy members of his family pass, they are honored with Viking funerals. He could probably do the ancestory.com thing, but probably doesn’t have to. 

That kid over there fueling up the plane before you take off to the Misty Fjords? He helped Kayhi win its first state basketball championship in over 40 years. That kid over there? She was on the Academic Decathlon team that won the National Championship last year. Yeah, National. Competed against private schools around the nation, and she and her teammates won. That girl won state in the National Oceanic Science Bowl, that kid is heading to Princeton.

In fact, contrary to what you might think about being sheltered, I’ve found that students in Ketchikan might just be more prepared for the real world than that of their Lower 48 counterparts. I taught high school in California for ten years and would put the best Ketchikan has to offer up with the best I had down there. Why? Alaska kids have summer jobs that require charisma, social skills and combating stereotypes. By the time they are ready to get to college, they have organized schools of you esteemed guests and know that if Ketchikan isn’t like the stereotype, most other places probably aren’t either. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 01, 2019

Political Cartoon: Stunt Your Growth
By Rick McKee ©, The Augusta Chronicle, GA
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.