Two people walk across Front Street as Iditarod musher Richie Diehl reaches heads arrives at the Iditarod finish line the evening of March 15, 2022. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
Brent Sass and his 12 dogs raced into White Mountain at 11:05 a.m. Monday in first place. (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media)
Alaska Public Media’s Lex Treinen caught up – just in the nick of time – with Brent Sass, who mushed into White Mountain and a mandatory eight-hour rest in the lead, in a great position to win his first Iditarod.
Well, we’ve got a race, folks. Obviously, with 45 mushers out on the Iditarod Trail vying for positions, we’ve got a race. But at the very front, it’s looking like a real battle setting up between Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey for first place. As the frontrunners head for the Bering Sea coast, we’ll have a look at the teams reaching the Yukon River, we’ll talk about a pretty big scratch, women mushers, a bit about superstition, and of course we have a dog profile and a listener question.
Forty-nine mushers and hundreds of sled dogs dashed 11-miles through a snowy Anchorage on Saturday for the ceremonial start of the 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. These are our favorite 30 photos from the snowy 2022 Iditarod ceremonial start.
Wearing bib #47, musher Apayauq Reitan drives her dog team around a notoriously tough turn during the 2022 Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage. Reitan is the first out trans woman to run the Iditarod. Her sled is waving the Trans Pride flag. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
The 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off Saturday in Anchorage with its usual fanfare, after not holding a ceremonial start in 2021. Alaska Public Media reporters Casey Grove, Tegan Hanlon, Lex Treinen and Jeff Chen were out in the snow with the mushers, dogs and race fans, including plenty of kids and other trailgaters.
Check out more Iditarod coverage here and sign up four our new daily Iditarod newsletter here.
The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau hosts budget negotiations on a rainy day in April. Supporters of the state’s medical education program, WWAMI, want the Legislature to agree to fund the program during the special session scheduled to start on Aug. 16. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media)
A joint House-Senate council of the Alaska Legislature voted on Thursday to pay per diems during the legislative session scheduled to start next week.
The payments to lawmakers from outside of Juneau supplement their salaries and cover their living expenses during the session. They receive $293 per day.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy had vetoed the payments in June. He said it didn’t make sense for legislators to receive the money until they’ve resolved the future of permanent fund dividends.
In December, he proposed restoring the $2 million in per diem funding in a bill that supplements the current budget. But that bill would also pay an additional $1,215 PFD, to make up for the difference between last year’s dividend and the amount he proposed. Legislators expressed concern last year that larger dividends would require drawing more than planned from the permanent fund.
The Legislative Council voted 12 to 1 to transfer money from capital funds to the Legislature’s account for salaries and allowances.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Matt Claman voted for the transfer. He said delaying it would hurt some legislators.
“A reduction in per diem – or not paying, getting per diem started right away – really disadvantages those legislators that actually bring their families to Juneau,” he said. “And I think it’s really essential for some of the families that do have kids that we have those representatives and senators with us.”
Wasilla Republican Rep. Cathy Tilton was the only council member to vote no. She said the transfer wasn’t needed to pay per diems because the Legislature could pass the governor’s supplemental bill.
She also has supported the governor’s plan to pay larger dividends.
“There are also other things in that supplemental that should be taken care of immediately as well,” she said.
The council plans to refill the capital funds if the supplemental bill passes.
Legislators can receive roughly $35,400 in per diems for a 121-day session, in addition to salaries of $50,400.
The State Officers Compensation Commission is scheduled to discuss a proposal on Tuesday that would increase lawmakers’ salaries to $64,000 while cutting their per diems to $100. The combined change would decrease the overall amount of money that lawmakers take home. If the commission approves the changes, they would go into effect next year unless the Legislature votes to block them.
After the vote, an internet outage disrupted the council meeting. The council plans to meet again before the session starts to discuss the COVID-19 safety rules for the Capitol building.
The post appeared to be supportive of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany, but the former officer says it was a reference to a comedy film that was taken out of context.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not adding a testing requirement to its isolation guidelines for people infected with COVID-19 who want to end their isolation after five days.
Despite pressure from health experts who advocated for adding a testing requirement, the agency is standing by its original guidance that a negative test is not needed for people who are fever-free and whose symptoms have improved.
Those who contracted the virus can end their isolation after five days while continuing to wear a well-fitting mask for an additional five days.
The CDC did include additional information for people who want to take a test before ending isolation, but it did not say people should get tested.
According to the CDC’s updated guidance, the agency recommends that if an individual has access to a test and wants to test, the best approach would be to use an antigen test toward the end of their five-day isolation period.
If the test result is positive, then an infected individual should continue to isolate until Day 10, according to the CDC. If the test result is negative, officials said the person can end isolation but should continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others both at home and in public until Day 10.
The agency also released a brief explanation of the science behind their decision, noting that studies suggested that a small percentage of people (25%-30%) were self-isolating for a full 10 days.
“Although many people have intentions to self-isolate, both isolation and quarantine are challenging; especially in the context that many infections are asymptomatic,” the CDC said.
Still, the agency stressed the importance of mask-wearing, as modeling data showed that about 30% of people remain infectious five days after receiving a positive test.
On Monday, the U.S. reported a record 1,082,549 new COVID-19 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — with numbers that probably include cases from the holiday weekend.
The seven-day daily average for infections is hovering at nearly 500,000 per day.
Last week, the CDC shortened the number of days a person who tests positive for COVID-19 should stay home, down from 10 days to five — followed by another five days of mask-wearing.
“The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and has the potential to impact all facets of our society,” the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said in a statement about the change. “CDC’s updated recommendations for isolation and quarantine balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses. These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives.”
News of the shortened isolation period prompted a backlash from public health experts, who urged the agency to require a negative rapid test to end isolation.
The Biden administration, which has come under pressure for not increasing the widespread availability of at-home tests, has rolled out a plan to set up federal testing across the country.
In addition, government officials say they will buy a half-billion at-home test kits and mail them out, with deliveries starting this month.
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Alaska National Guard members unload gifts from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Buckland on Dec. 14, 2021, as part of Operation Santa Claus. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Maj. Chelsea Aspelund)
A camouflaged Santa whirled into Buckland on a funny-looking sleigh this year. As part of its annual Operation Santa Claus, the Alaska National Guard delivered 261 presents to the community in northwest Alaska on December 14. Santa says he’ll drop off 360 gifts to Chevak after the holidays and once weather conditions allow.
A present bound for a child in Buckland flies on a military plane to Nome on Dec. 2, 2021. 261 presents will soon be delivered from Nome to children in Buckland, as part of the Alaska Air National Guard’s Operation Santa. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
Azara Mohammadi, tribal liaison for the Alaska National Guard, coordinated with the Native Village of Buckland and Chevak Native Village to organize and shop for gifts. The Salvation Army made the purchases, and volunteers wrapped gifts that began their journey to the two predominantly Alaska Native communities at the start of the month.
Members of the Alaska Air National Guard board a C-130 plane at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Dec. 2, 2021, to participate in Operation Santa. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
On December 2, 24 Guard members boarded a C-130 plane loaded with 631 presents. The gifts were offloaded in Bethel and Nome, where they would be stored until delivery to the two communities. The Chevak-bound presents are still in Bethel, as of Christmas Eve.
Joseph A. Sallaffie, a sergeant with the Active Guard Reserve in Bethel, during Operation Santa on Dec. 2, 2021. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
Joseph Sallaffie, a sergeant with the Active Guard Reserve in Bethel, said Operation Santa helps the communities a lot during the holidays. “Yesterday, me and my wife went to the local store here to look for some water and Gatorade, and we just had a hard time getting cases of water, so imagine if Bethel stores are having a hard time, imagine what the village stores are going through.”
Randell Andrew, a sergeant with the Active Guard Reserve in Bethel, operates a forklift to unload 2,770-pounds of presents from an Operation Santa flight on Dec. 2, 2021. Presents will be delivered to Chevak as part of Operation Santa. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
Dana Rosso, a public affairs specialist with the Alaska National Guard, said Operation Santa began in 1956, when St. Mary’s Mission was hit with spring floods and then a drought – impacting subsistence fishing and hunting. Rosso said the Air National Guard flew in donated gifts and supplies to help residents that year.
“Yeah, we’re Santa Clause up front, driving the reindeer around.” Trevor Bunkers, a captain with the Alaska Air National Guard’s 211th Rescue Squadron, copilots an Operation Santa flight from Anchorage to Bethel, to Nome, and back to Anchorage. In Bethel and Nome, military personnel unloaded presents that will ultimately be delivered to Chevak and Buckland. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
Rosso said Operation Santa recipient communities are identified by Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management as communities that have experienced particular hardship that year. The tribes in Chevak and Buckland could not be reached by time of publication.
Members of the Alaska Air National Guard ride on a C-130 plane to Bethel on Dec. 2, 2021, the first stop in Operation Santa. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
No Guard members wore masks on the trip to Bethel and Nome, but Rosso said service members selected for the mission came from the same unit and office area, in order to lower the risk of Covid transmission. December 2, the day of the initial Operation Santa flight, was also the national deadline for Air National Guard service members to be vaccinated. Rosso said he did not have current vaccination numbers for the Alaska National Guard.
Michael Cashman, a tech sergeant with the Alaska Air National Guard’s 211th Rescue Squadron, looks out the window of a C-130 plane. Cashman is a rescue loadmaster, but for Operation Santa, “We’d be the elves.” For Chevak, he and another loadmaster loaded 2,770-pounds of presents, and for Buckland, they loaded 1650-pounds of presents. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)
“This means a whole lot since, like I mentioned, Covid-19 and hard times – this means a whole lot, Sallaffie said. “It’s kind of hard for them to enjoy a Christmas like it used to be, but with all this, it makes a difference.”
An Operation Santa flight delivers 2,770-pounds of presents to Bethel on Dec. 2, 2021, where they’ll be stored until they can be transported to their final destination in Chevak. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)A Buckland resident helps unload gifts from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Dec. 14, 2021, as part of the Alaska National Guard’s Operation Santa Claus. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Maj. Chelsea Aspelund)A Buckland resident helps unload gifts from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Dec. 14, 2021, as part of the Alaska National Guard’s Operation Santa Claus. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Maj. Chelsea Aspelund)
