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Vol. 49, Issue 270
In the news
U.S. ed secretary visits alternative schools ANCHORAGE — The U.S. education secretary is touring Alaska to see how communities use alternatives to traditional K-12 public schooling, a report said. The trip this week is the first visit to Alaska by Secretary Betsy DeVos, Alaska Public Media reported Monday. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy hosted DeVos at Mat-Su Central School in Wasilla, a public alternative school that focuses on individual student outcomes. The school coordinates with district and charter schools and other private options to build curricula around students, officials said. DeVos is a champion of school vouchers and charter schools and said the Mat-Su model could serve as a template for rural communities. Responding to a question for DeVos, Dunleavy said alternative schools would not look like boarding schools. Many Native communities oppose them. “Some of those trepidations are probably steeped in history when kids were forced to go to a boarding school, or forced to do something that they or their parents didn’t want to have happen,” Dunleavy said. “That’s an era we’re not dealing with now.” Village schooling alternatives could implement local culture in a robust manner, DeVos said. “I think the opportunity to actually embrace and celebrate the culture and the experience of some of the indigenous people is one focus of how to rethink education and think about it anew,” DeVos said. DeVos also visited American Charter Academy in the Mat-Su Borough with Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted against her confirmation as education secretary because of concerns about DeVos’s lack of experience with public schools and Alaska. DeVos is scheduled to visit Anchorage, Nome and Kotzebue. — Associated Press
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Local recipes for the seasonal favorite
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BP sells assets to Hilcorp Alaska for $5B By Becky Bohrer Associated Press
JUNEAU — BP plans to sell its interests in Alaska’s once prodigious North Slope to a company seen as having a reputation of giving new life
to aging fields. The sale to Hilcorp Alaska, an affiliate of Texas-based Hilcorp Energy Co., would be worth $5.6 billion, and include interests in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, Point Thomson gas field and the
trans-Alaska pipeline system, BP said in a release. Harvest Alaska, another Hilcorp affiliate, will acquire BP’s stake in the pipeline. The sale announced Tuesday would be subject to state and federal approval. The
sale comes as BP attempts to divest $10 billion in assets by 2020. Energy analyst Phil Flynn said since Bob Dudley became BP’s chief executive, the company has been shedding older fields and those
‘Trying to prepare for just about anything’ As the Swan Lake Fire continues to grow, Cooper Landing remains in ‘SET’ status, Sterling Highway delays likely
seen as more inefficient and expensive. He sees BP’s announcement as strategic. Jason Rebrook, president of Hilcorp Energy Co., in a statement said his company See BP, Page A14
Union plans to fight ruling over dues By Peter Segall Juneau Empire
a very safe place for a cultivation company to be,” said Abel, an owner of Greatland Ganja in the Kenai Peninsula community of Kasilof. Abel is among a number of Alaska pot growers who have struggled
The State of Alaska is not in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding state employee payments toward unions, according to an opinion released by Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson Tuesday. But union leaders see the ruling as another attempt to undermine collective bargaining power. The opinion is “just another attempt by the Dunleavy administration to stifle workers’ constitutional rights on the job,” Jake Metcalf, executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association (ASEA), told the Empire by phone Tuesday. Clarkson’s opinion states that the current process whereby a State of Alaska employee must choose to opt-out of union dues or fees is a violation of free speech, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31. That 2018 decision says because unions engage in political activity employees might not agree with, making non-union employees contribute to unions either through dues or agency fees violated their right to free speech. The state’s current “opt-out” violated the First Amendment under the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus, Clarkson said, because it automatically includes union deductions for public employees. Employees must instead choose to “opt-in” to union contributions, Clarkson’s opinion states. Furthermore, sufficient evidence that “those consents are knowing, intelligent, and freely given,” must be provided to the state and updated regularly, the ruling said. “Forcing State employees through state law to pay union dues that will be used for political purposes and speech they may not agree with has created an unconstitutional restriction of free speech,” Clarkson said in a press release. “The nation’s highest court has ruled repeatedly that freedom of speech also means the right to refrain
See taxes, Page A3
See dues, Page A14
Photo courtesy Great Basin Incident Management Team
Trinity Hotshots battling the Swan Lake Fire hold the line during burnout operations Monday along the Sterling Highway.
By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Cooper Landing remained in “SET” status Tuesday night, a day after the Swan Lake Fire’s movement across Resurrection Trail spurred highway closures and an alert that residents should be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. The Sterling Highway was open as of 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, but travel was not advised from Watson Lake at
Mile 71 to Seward Highway at Mile 36. Cooper Landing School was closed on Tuesday. Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Director of Communications Pegge Erkeneff said that the school will remain closed until Cooper Landing is no longer in “SET” status. Erkeneff said that the school district is working with the state on a waiver so that the missed days will not have to be made up later in the year.
Emergency shelters have been reestablished at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex and Seward High School. Red Cross volunteer Brenda Chamness said that no one used the Soldotna shelter Monday night, but the shelter was visited by Emergency Manager Dan Nelson from the borough, Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce and Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski. See fire, Page A2
Tax bite worries licensed pot growers By Becky Bohrer Associated Press
JUNEAU — Alaska marijuana grower Leif Abel considers his business successful but still feels like he’s living “paycheck to paycheck” much of the time.
A greenhouse expansion is behind schedule, and he said the company could have hired more crews to work on it if taxes and other expenses weren’t so high. “We don’t have enough of a cushion where we could comfortably have a crop failure, and that’s not
Special delivery: Rescued sea otter pup gets airlift from Homer By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
On Monday, a sea otter pup was rescued by the Alaska SeaLife Center near Homer. The pup, who was found stranded against rocks by strong current, was admitted to the center’s Wildlife Response Program, a Tuesday press release from the Alaska SeaLife Center said. The pup is estimated to be about three weeks old and weighs 5 pounds, and staff said she’s in stable condition. The female pup was picked up in Homer, but due to road closures caused by the Swan Lake Fire, the center’s staff were unable to meet the pup in Homer. The Homer
Vet Clinic cared for the pup overnight before Homer pilot, Duke Marolf, transported the pup to Seward through a donated flight. Air transport of animals is rare at the Seward Airport and has only happened a few times in the center’s 20-year history, the release said. With the arrival of the pup, the center now is caring for six sea otters. Four of the sea otters have graduated from the Wildlife Response Program and are awaiting their final placement, while the new pup and another pup named Tazlina are the youngest and require extensive, around-the-clock care. In the wild, sea otter pups are dependent on their mothers for about six months.
Photo courtesy Alaska SeaLife Center
Veterinary Technician Sarah McMillen returns with a sea otter pup in Homer pilot Duke Marolf’s plane on Monday, Aug. 19.