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Vol. 49, Issue 209
In the news Anchorage police say fatal shooting followed altercation ANCHORAGE — An 18-year-old was killed and a teenage boy seriously wounded in a shooting during an altercation between a group of juveniles near popular athletic fields, police said Monday. The shooter has yet to be arrested. The names of the victims have not been released. Police said they were working to notify the dead teen’s next of kin. Police said they received a report just before 6:30 p.m. Sunday of shots fired near Sullivan Arena, a convention center and athletic arena. The arena borders a football stadium and near baseball fields used by high school and adult teams. A few minutes later a dispatcher took a call from a person who said he had been shot. Officers found the dead teen and the critically wounded juvenile in woods that police described as far off the trail system. Police initially said both victims were juveniles. Both had been shot multiple times. The shooter ran away. Detectives are working to identify and find the suspect, police said.
Coast Guard ends search after owner identifies drifting boat ANCHORAGE — The Coast Guard says an empty boat that launched a search east of Whittier had drifted away from its owner and was not the result of anyone overboard. The owner came forward Monday to identify the boat. A 10-foot blue and gray Zodiak was reported adrift at 7:30 a.m. Monday in Passage Canal. The boat carried fishing gear, oars and cat food, which can be used as shrimp bait. The boat had no motor and no identifying numbers on the hull. Fearing someone overboard, the Coast Guard launched a search with a Jayhawk helicopter from Kodiak, a response boat crew from Valdez and an auxiliary crew out of Whittier to search. —Associated Press
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Senate to consider $1,600 PFD By Alex McCarthy Juneau Empire
After all the talk of a super-sized dividend or a smaller-than-average dividend, Alaskans might be getting the same Alaska Permanent Fund dividend this year that they got last year. The Alaska Senate is considering a bill that would give out a $1,600 dividend this year, which would be the same amount as last year. The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sens. Bert w and Natasha von Imhof, proposed the bill Monday, and the Senate is set to debate the bill at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The bill introduced Monday, Senate Bill 1002, could be amended on the Senate floor Tuesday, so the $1,600 figure could change before it gets sent to the House. Gov. Mike Dunleavy would also have to sign off on the bill, and
words in a statement Monday, assuring that if the bill gets to his desk, he will veto it.
stick and another where he went into a handstand while the board was on its side. See SKATE, page A2
See COD, page A2
“This bill kills the Permanent Fund Dividend as we know it,” Dunleavy said See PFD, page A3
Reaching new heights Nikiski skateboarder enters the world stage By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Not everyone associates Alaska with skateboarding, but Vaughn Johnson certainly does. Johnson, 32, is a lifelong Nikiski resident and avid skateboarder, and for the past two years he has represented Alaska in the World Round-Up, an international Freestyle Skateboarding Competition in Cloverdale, British Columbia. The competition took place May 17-20, with participants each getting 90 seconds to perform a choreographed routine set to music. Forty contestants from Australia to Chile competed in the pro and amateur divisions, with Johnson competing in the amateur division. Johnson said that this year he didn’t do as well as he would have liked, but for him the experience of seeing his friends from around the world is more important than winning. “It’s not like we show up and we’re all hyped on competing with one other,” Vaughn said. “We’re all just excited to see what everyone can do.”
Vaughn Johnson performs a pogo maneuver outside his home in Nikiski on Wednesday. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Freestyle skateboarding involves performing tricks on flat ground without incorporating ramps, rails or any other objects
beside the board itself. Johnson showed off a few moves as an example: one where he balanced on his board like it was a pogo
Hold music changes leave artists waiting by the telephone By Ben Hohenstatt Juneau Empire
Some musicians were surprised to see their songs cut from the playlist when the Alaska Music on Hold project returned this month. Alaska Music on Hold replaces the state’s more typical hold Muzack with music by Alaska artists. It went live Nov. 25 last year, and was paused sometime in January because of complaints that some songs included in the mix were inappropriate for public use, according to a state Department of Administration response to a
Juneau Empire inquiry. The music’s return was announced via a May 17 press release, and when it came back a pair of songs — “Flicker of Light” by Whiskey Class and “Mother Carries” by Harm — were no longer on the list of hold music. One new selection, “Bravura Variations on Alaska’s Flag Song” by Paul Rosenthal, is now part of the lineup. “Nobody emailed us, no one called us,” said Heather Warren, lyricist and percussionist for Harm. “No one has notified us with anything. We didn’t even know that it
was an issue.” Patrick Troll of Whiskey Class said he also was not notified of the change. Both Warren and Troll said they were initially excited about the additional exposure being part of the initial five-song lineup that included Grammy Award-winning band Portugal. The Man. Ben Brown, Chairman for Alaska State Council on the Arts, confirmed that the songs by Whiskey Class and Harm were no longer part of the Alaska Music on Hold Project, with which the council assists. Brown said he was See HOLD, page A3
Bering Sea survey could provide insight on cod finds ANCHORAGE (AP) — U.S. scientists plan to survey the Bering Sea this summer and hope to shed light on why fish not normally seen in its northern stretches have been found there. Cod is caught in large numbers by commercial boats in the Bering Sea but typically hundreds of miles south of Nome. Yet, last fall, fisherman Adem Boeckmann, who lives outside Nome, said he found cod in some of his crab pots. He told Alaska’s Energy Desk he had never seen anything like that. Lyle Britt, a federal fisheries scientist, said there aren’t clear answers. “Is this part of an environmental shift, where with the warming, the northern Bering Sea is going to become a topdown system?” he said. “Or, is this more like an ephemeral trend that just happened because we had an unusually warm year, and things will reset? We don’t really know.” The surveys are being done by the Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which is an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They will include the northern part of the Bering Sea, full surveys of which have been done less frequently than those in the eastern Bering Sea, a region that also will be included in this summer’s work. The two most recent surveys of the northern Bering Sea occurred in 2010 and 2017, the latter of which was a warmer year with lower sea ice. The year’s surveys could shed light on whether 2017’s results, which showed large amounts of pollock and cod in the northern Bering Sea compared to 2010, reflected an isolated event or the start of a long-term trend. The eastern Bering Sea cod and pollock fisheries are worth an estimated $2 billion. Fishermen have seen a gradual shift northward in their cod fishing patterns, said Chad See,
Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, left, Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, center, and Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, listen to Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, present SB 1002, a bill to provide a Permanent Fund Dividend of $1,600, to the Senate Rules Committee at the Capitol on Monday. (Michael Penn/Juneau Empire)
he has been adamant that he wants to give Alaskans a full, $3,000 dividend. Dunleavy did not mince
Partly cloudy
More airspace restrictions sought near radar station FAIRBANKS (AP) — The U.S. military has proposed expanding restricted airspace around Alaska’s Clear Air Force Station, officials said. The U.S. Missile Defence Agency’s plans for a new Long Range Discrimination Radar include a proposal to increase restrictions beyond those of the existing radar facility north of the small community of Healy, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Sunday. Public meetings to inform pilots and others about the proposed changes are scheduled this week in Anchorage, Anderson and Fairbanks.
The defence agency already prohibits airplanes from flying in the immediate vicinity of the station about 112 miles southwest of Fairbanks, officials said. Additional restricted airspace is needed to protect aircraft from a high-intensity radiated field from the new system, officials said. Conditions in the world have changed the way the defence agency wants to use the radar system, which is not yet complete, officials said. “Real-World adversary threat evolution has significantly changed operational tempo and expanded See AIR, page A3