Alaska News Daily Brief, Monday, October 12

Alaska News for Monday, October twelfth. One weekend vote is already settled. Most of the rest is still open, with a local meeting on the calendar nearly every day this week.

0:11Sullivan and Peltola trade Epstein donor attacks that outrun the record

Both Senate campaigns are trading attacks over Epstein money, the Permanent Fund's annual report is out, and a fishery council changed how it takes new ideas on a Sunday. Alaska's Senate race has turned into a fight over who took money from Jeffrey Epstein's associates. An Alaska News review found the records back parts of each campaign's attacks and undercut the rest. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan's campaign has a new ad saying he voted to force the Epstein files out. The same ad says Democrat Mary Peltola took huge checks from Epstein's associates. Peltola's own ad, from August, says Sullivan cast the deciding vote to keep the files hidden. Start with the votes. In September of last year, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to set aside Chuck Schumer's amendment that would have made the Justice Department publish the Epstein records. Sullivan and Senator Lisa Murkowski both voted to set it aside. Any one of those 51 senators could have flipped it to a tie, so the record doesn't single out Sullivan as the deciding vote. But Sullivan's ad leaves that vote out. The files law that did pass came that November, after President Trump changed course. The Senate passed it with no senator objecting. Murkowski cosponsored it. Sullivan didn't. On the money, both candidates have taken donations from people whose contact with Epstein is documented. Sullivan's campaign says Peltola took more than one hundred forty thousand dollars. That figure counts fifty thousand seven hundred dollars from three donors Alaska News couldn't find in the files. The nearly ten thousand dollars her ad says Sullivan took rests on two donors whose names appear in the files. Neither one is shown in contact with Epstein. Being named in the files, or having had contact with Epstein, isn't evidence of wrongdoing. Peltola left Congress in January twenty twenty-five and never voted on either measure.

2:03Permanent Fund sends $3.8 billion to the state as it grows to $91.9 billion

The Permanent Fund's annual report shows the fund sent three point eight billion dollars to the state in the fiscal year that ended in June. That's about two-thirds of the revenue the state can spend freely. It's the money that pays for the dividend and for state services alike. Jason Brune chairs the fund's board of trustees. Brune told the Nome Common Council last month that 67% of the state's general fund budget now comes from the Permanent Fund. He also noted that the Legislature sets the size of the dividend. The fund itself grew six point eight billion dollars, to ninety-one point nine billion dollars. It returned a little over 12%, which beat its target but fell just short of its benchmark. It also booked a record eight point two billion dollars in net income. The state's yearly draw is 5% of the fund's average value over five of the last six years. Nothing went to inflation-proofing the fund this time. The report puts that skipped amount at one point six billion dollars. Trustees met in Nome at the start of this month and reelected Brune as chair. The fund began with a seven hundred thirty-four thousand dollars deposit of oil money in February nineteen seventy-seven, and it marks its 50th anniversary this year.

3:17North Pacific fishery council will consider new proposals at only two meetings a year

Over at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, a vote on Sunday changed when new issues can get in front of the body that shapes Alaska's federal fishery rules. The council voted 10 to 1 to start new management actions at only two of its meetings each year. The reason is staffing. All meeting long, people raised concerns about thin staff at the council and at the National Marine Fisheries Service. Rachel Baker made the motion. She said the council often doesn't know how much it can handle when it takes on new work. Weighing new ideas twice a year, with the whole list in front of it, would be more focused and transparent, she said. Some testifiers pushed back. Duncan Fields of Cape Barnabas said it sounds like a muzzle, with the council under intense scrutiny. Hannah Heimbach of the Under 60 Cod Harvesters said it could erode the public process without fixing the staff shortage. The council will revisit the change after a year. Its leaders will also look at giving people more time to testify at meetings where nothing new starts. Staff now have four priorities, including Gulf of Alaska Tanner crab protections and Bering Sea herring bycatch limits, that is, limits on herring caught by accident. The council also added work on observers who carry a special endorsement called lead level 2, after boats testified they're struggling to find them. Council member Vanderhoeven said vessels she knows of haven't been stuck at the dock yet, but it's getting really close.

4:43Homer commission backs limiting residential short-term rentals to operators' homes

Quickly, around the state. In Homer, the city's Economic Development Advisory Commission wants short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods limited to the operator's own home. That would keep investors from renting out multiple properties on those streets. The commission finalizes its advice Tuesday. It only advises, and the City Council will decide.

5:05Corps seeks state water quality OK for $402 million Homer harbor to end five-deep rafting

Homer's harbor is so crowded that boats tie up as many as five deep. The Army Corps of Engineers wants a four hundred two million dollars fix. It needs the state to sign off on water quality first. Homer would owe about one hundred seventy million dollars, and the Corps' own math finds about 77 cents of benefit for every dollar of cost.

5:27Homer council to hear ordinance letting residents live-trap feral rabbits

Homer's council will hear an ordinance letting residents live-trap the feral rabbits damaging their homes. But the animal shelter mostly can't take trapped rabbits. Letting them go isn't allowed either.

5:39DEC plans to cut 20% of its discretionary rules by year's end under Dunleavy order

The state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to cut about 2,600 of its roughly 13,000 discretionary rules, the ones it isn't required by law to have, by the end of the year, under an order from Governor Dunleavy. The list includes laser standards for a program the department says it doesn't have.

5:59Kenai commission weighs ending newspaper publication of land notices

Kenai's Planning and Zoning Commission meets Wednesday to weigh ending newspaper publication of zoning and land notices. Those notices would move to a city webpage instead. That changes where neighbors find out about development near their property.

6:13Kenai will seek up to $250,000 in federal money to replace Old Town Park's playground

Kenai will apply for up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars in federal money to replace the playground at Old Town Park. Taking the grant means that land has to stay a public park, more or less forever.

6:26Kenai library rules move out of city code Friday and into staff-approved policy

Kenai's library rules leave city code Friday and become policy the staff approves. The sleeping ban changes with them. Sitting for quiet rest will be fine, and lying down still won't.

6:38State moves to adopt Haines State Forest plan with logging in habitat and recreation lands

State forestry officials plan to open habitat and recreation lands in the Haines State Forest to logging. That grows the area available for timber from 41,652 acres to 74,360, an increase of about three quarters. Final public comments are due by 5 o'clock on November 2nd.

6:59Montana Creek, Peterson Lake among four Juneau trails up for federal grant money

Juneau has four trail projects in line for federal grants. They're Montana Creek, Peterson Lake, Eagle Beach and a new crossing at Gold Creek. If the state approves them, federal money covers up to 90% of the cost.

7:14Kodiak Assembly to weigh $300,000 for landfill fence after state says bears are getting in

State wildlife officials told the Kodiak Island Borough its landfill bear fence is no longer effective. Bears are getting in. The Assembly takes up three hundred thousand dollars for a new perimeter fence on Thursday. Neither Senate campaign's attack holds up in full. If you care about logging in the Haines State Forest, comments are due by 5 o'clock on November 2nd. Driving north? The state is urging drivers to avoid the Parks Highway from Talkeetna to Cantwell. Full stories are at Alaska News dot com.