Last week, Anchorage’s second homicide of 2018 took place, and police are looking for two persons of interest.
Carlton Tarkington and Aarron Settje are wanted in connection with the East Anchorage shooting death of 33-year-old Kortez Brown. Investigators believe they may have information regarding the events that led to Brown’s death from a single gunshot wound.
But the two also have existing felony warrants out for their arrests on other charges.
Settje has had a string of run-ins with the law. In mid-October, he was charged with Class C Felony theft, and earlier that month he was charged with causing fear of injury with a weapon, also a Class C felony, as well as criminal trespass. He has an association with the Soldotna-Kenai communities and may have worked as a laborer at an asphalt company.
In 2013, he changed his Facebook profile photo to something ominous:
But Tarkington? He started his criminal life early. He now has a record a mile-long, and has had a warrant out for his arrest for assault with a weapon.
In 2016, he and another man were accused of watching a man withdraw cash from an ATM at a gas station. They then followed the victim to his house and robbed him at gunpoint on Mercy Drive in Eagle River, according to police. They also took the victim’s phone.
The robbery occurred at 8 pm.
“It was reported that the suspects had taken the victim’s phone and the victim was able to track the phone’s location. Officers were able to find the suspect vehicles at the Tesoro parking lot located at 545 Muldoon Road.”
Police charged 27-year-old Kyon Watson and 23-year-old Tarkington with first degree robbery. Tarkington is now just 25 years old.
Tarkington has been out of jail on community supervision status.
FIRST HOMICIDE OF 2018 — STILL UNSOLVED
The first homicide of the year came shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, when an Anchorage man walked out of a downtown bar downtown, and someone emptied some cartridges into him.
Thirty-nine-year-old Timothy Smith broke the First Law of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s public safety plan: “Don’t go out after midnight.”
Timothy Smith was gunned down on New Years Day.
Smith lasted a few minutes into 2018 before he was shot dead near 4th and D Streets.
Police are still looking for the occupants of a silver Chevy TrailBlazer that was in the area and sped away. Someone must have seen it. It was caught on security cameras nearby:
The following people have submitted their letters of interest to Districts 9 and 10 Republicans to fill Senate Seat E, which is being vacated by Sen. Mike Dunleavy.
Those interested in serving as a senator for the Palmer-to-Valdez district are:
Randall Kowalke, Mat-Su Borough Assembly member, District 10
Tom Braund, retired, Sutton, District 9
Bob Bickel – Realtor, Alaska Fine Homes and Real Estate, District 9
George Rauscher, House of Representatives for District 9
Todd Smolden, economics teacher, Republican District 10 precinct chair
Doyle Holmes, business owner, Republican chair of District 10
Mike Shower, pilot, District 10
Thomas Arts, school custodian, Valdez, District 9
Vicki Wallner, “Stop Valley Thieves” Facebook group co-director, District 9
Eddie Grasser, Alaska Safari Club and NRA
Jim Colver, former representative for District 9, who was ousted by George Rauscher in the 2016 primary.
Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, was asked by District 9 and 10 chairs Carol Carman and Doyle Holmes to be the chair of the selection committee. The committee may choose three or four names to forward to the governor by Monday night.
However, it is unlikely that Jim Colver’s name will be among them. Babcock reminded the committee that Colver had been sanctioned by the Republican districts in the Valley for forming a “Musk Ox” alliance with Democrats, and the entire party had also withdrawn its support for Colver. No action has been taken to rescind that vote by party members.
Babcock offered this in a written statement:
“Mr. Colver was an incumbent Republican Representative from District 9 in 2016. When Mr. Colver ran for reelection as a Republican in Primary, the District 9, District 7, District 8, District 11 and District 12 Committees voted to deny all support to his reelection and to endorse his Republican opponent in the Primary, George Rauscher.
“The State Central Committee of the Alaska Republican Party also considered the matter and then voted to withhold all support for his reelection and endorsed his opponent in the Primary. We actively and successfully campaigned against the reelection of Jim Colver in the Republican Primary for State Representative in 2016.
“The Alaska Republican Party and the Mat-Su Districts have not rescinded, or amended, those decisions.”
The deadline for applying for the seat was 5 pm Sunday. Sen. Dunleavy’s term ends on Jan. 15.
Dunleavy is going to focus on his run for governor, rather than try to represent his district while he runs for a statewide office. The governor will choose from among the names the District selection committee gives him. The legislative session starts on Jan. 16.
Sen. Dunleavy said, “The seat belongs to the people. I’m confident the process will end with a number of good names nominated by the district and sent along to the govenror, and that the governor and the Senate will move expeditiously to put a senator in place so the good people of District E will have representation.”
“It’s been a privilege and honor serving the constituents of District E,” Dunleavy said.
Democrat Alyse Galvin of Anchorage announced Thursday that she will run for the seat now occupied by Congressman Don Young, the longest serving congressman in the United States.
Galvin had already hinted broadly in December that she would do so, and the surprise element was lost weeks ago in her soft social media roll-out.
It was some of the best earned media that a candidate with zero name recognition could hope for.
But when industry leader Rebecca Logan filed for Anchorage mayor on Sept. 25, the media silence was deafening.
To date, none of the major news organizations has done a story about her candidacy, her platform, or her background as she takes on the well-known Democrat stalwart and mayoral incumbent Ethan Berkowitz. So much for the “Year of the Woman”.
The municipal election — now an absentee ballot only — begins in less than 60 days, and with the media focused on “Year of the Woman,” only female Democrats need apply.
DAILY NEWS CALLS THE ELECTION FOR BERKOWITZ
A few weeks prior to Rebecca Logan’s September announcement, the Anchorage Daily News’ lead columnist all but called the April 3 election for Berkowitz.
“Mayor Ethan Berkowitz holds the high ground going into next spring’s election. Local government conservatives remain in disarray three years after their rout over a labor law known as AO 37,” Charles Wohlforth wrote on Aug. 7.
The columnist’s liberal echo chamber led him to conclude that former Mayor Dan Sullivan was the only possible candidate, and that he wasn’t likely to run. If he ran, he couldn’t win.
It never occurred to Wohlforth that others — Rebecca Logan, Bill Evans, Nick Begich III, and Rep. Lance Pruitt — were evaluating a run.
Must Read Alaska spoke with the possible contenders over the summer and wrote up a summary in September:
Wohlforth wrote that crime had been a concern for Anchorage residents, but that was in the past. Of Berkowitz, he wrote:
“His vulnerabilities all have answers. The most important is crime. A year ago, Anchorage was worried about a serial killer. The Anchorage Police Department projected an aura of defensiveness and secrecy under its chief at the time.
“But worries change. This summer, we’re in a panic about bears, and that can’t be the mayor’s fault. He [Berkowitz] will be able to credibly blame the opioid crisis and state law changes for public worries about crime. And he can blame his predecessor and most likely opponent for APD’s weakness.”
Wohlforth was apparently not the owner of one of the 3,100-plus cars that were stolen in Anchorage last year. His home was not one of the thousands that were burgled and ransacked.
This month, the Anchorage Press crowned Berkowitz Anchorage’s “Person of the Year.”
LOGAN DOESN’T FIT ‘YEAR OF WOMAN’ HYPE
When Logan launched her campaign, reporters didn’t bother to call. Wohlforth’s column was the first and the last the coverage on the upcoming race, at least so far.
Logan is the CEO of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance and was the president of Associated Builders and Contractors. She is conservative and pro-business. She’s a fierce champion of business.
She comes by that pro-business stance honestly, having been a small-business owner with three restaurants in Anchorage, including The Perfect Cup in the Dimond Center.
Logan is running because crime is out of hand, property taxes are going up, and businesses are closing down. She has a different vision than the current mayor: Lower taxes and pro-jobs.
Logan has also had a number of very successful fundraising events around town. Attendance has been strong.
ALYSE GALVIN: SHE’S WITH THE D’S
In stark contrast to Logan, Alyse Galvin has had gushingly favorable treatment from Alaska’s media. She’s someone with whom reporters identify.
Galvin is 52, founded a small band of left-leaning education activists called Great Alaska Schools, and she pushes for more spending in schools. No amount of spending is ever enough for Great Alaska Schools — the group continues to move the goal posts for education spending.
Galvin is the champion of the teacher’s union, the NEA. Her advocacy group is media-savvy, and often it appears bigger than it actually is because it can rally the entire Left under its flag. After all, who doesn’t like children and who doesn’t want better school outcomes?
Yet Great Alaska Schools is made up of about 10 people on a good day — 10 friends who know how to work their media allies and get pink-pussy-hatted women to hold signs and yell at lawmakers.
Women organized by Great Alaska Schools founder Alyse Galvin prepare to protest the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, last winter in front of the Anchorage office of Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
Last legislative session, Great Alaska Schools went quiet, staying off social media and not holding rallies in front of the Capitol. The group is smart enough to know when the public has had enough of advocacy groups asking for money when there simply is none.
Now, with the help of the Alaska Democratic Party, Galvin will run as an unaffiliated candidate — they are calling it Independent, but there is no such designation. It’s just as well — there’s still not enough state money for Galvin’s school group to scrap over; Great Alaska Schools has started to look like they don’t get it, when it comes to the state’s fiscal problem.
To help Galvin, the Democrats brought back to the state the former campaign manager of Steve Lindbeck, the Democrat who took on Rep. Young in 2016. Galvin will get that campaign manager and other staff who led the Lindbeck campaign to lose quite badly with Young receiving over 50 percent of the vote, Lindbeck 36, and Libertarian and unaffiliated candidates dividing up the rest.
The Daily Kos, a leftwing blog, described the relationship between Galvin and the Democrats this way: “In a bit of an Alaskan twist, she’s running as an Independent, but also on the Alaskan Democratic primary ballot (recently upheld in the courts as legal for party to choose to allow this if they so choose), so if she wins the primary (she will) not be running against any Democrat in the general election.”
That prediction may be a surprise to the Democrat who has filed as a Democrat, Dimitri Shein, who is learning that his own party is going to actually take sides and back someone against him in the primary — someone who is not even running as a Democrat. Welcome to the party, Dmitri.
Shein is a Russian immigrant with a made-for-movies life story, having witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union and moving to Alaska at age 12. He’s an inventor, a business owner, and a father of six.
A FAMILIAR PATTERN
The silence on the municipal race and the gushing coverage of a relatively unknown liberal candidate filing against Don Young is part of a larger pattern. Last year, Alaska media outlets featured the Gov. Bill Walker-Byron Mallott announcement of a another run on the Independent ticket prominently.
By contrast, the entry to the gubernatorial race of Republican candidates such as Sen. Mike Dunleavy, former Sen. Charlie Huggins, Rep. Mike Chenault and businessman Scott Hawkins have drawn remarkably little coverage, and close to none in the Anchorage Daily News.
LOGAN CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS GRAND OPENING
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to remain silent on the big election on April 4. Mayoral candidate Rebecca Logan, who as an advocate for business knows well the political leanings of newsrooms in Alaska’s biggest city, soldiers on without acknowledgement from the press.
For the Berkowitz campaign, this willful ignorance in the media is golden. The unions supporting the mayor will work behind the scenes for weeks and it’s to his advantage that the voter turnout is weighted toward those who are being contacted door-to-door and by phone by off-duty firefighters. The mail-in ballot that Anchorage has adopted helps those with a big army of volunteers, mainly unions working to elect Democrats.
In fact, the longer the press holds off talking about the quality of life in Anchorage under Berkowitz, the better it is for the mayor. By the time the media catches up, many of those ballots may already be in the mail.
Logan is certainly the underdog in the campaign, but she’s a fighter, and she has many from the business community on her side.
Logan will have a grand opening at her campaign headquarters from 3-6 pm on Jan. 20, one day after the “official” filing season starts for the municipal races. Logan for Mayor headquarters is at 329 E. 5th Ave, just 10 blocks from City Hall.
Will Anchorage’s mainstream media find its way there? Here’s a map:
Rep. DeLena Johnson of Palmer and her husband Steve were finishing a six-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands when, while still aboard their ship in Pearl Harbor, Johnson received a text message:
“Emergency Alert. BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
“I thought maybe being in Pearl Harbor was not the best place to be because good things don’t happen to ships in this harbor,” she said today by phone. Johnson represents the Palmer area, District 11. She also served as mayor of the City of Palmer.
Eventually, they were allowed to disembark, and joined what looked like a thousand other passengers in the terminal. Police were at the doors and they were not being allowed to leave the terminal.
Johnson called a friend of hers who serves in the Hawaii Legislature and asked him if the alarm was real. Yes, he said, and he and his children were in the bathtub in the middle of their house, the safest place they could find.
A fellow ship passenger said she received the same alert and also a notification that her flight home had been cancelled.
“People had no idea what was going on. There was a little bit of panic,” Johnson said. The entire scare lasted about 40 minutes before another message came through, saying the alert was a false alarm.
By then, Johnson was recalling that when she made the reservation to take the cruise, she had joked with Norwegian Cruise Lines about North Korea’s missile threat. But she never thought she’d be in the middle of what seemed like a credible warning.
The two were taking it easy in Honolulu today before heading back to Anchorage, and then to Juneau, where the Alaska Legislature will gavel in on Tuesday for the 90-day session.
Hawaii emergency officials confirmed that the alert went out when a state emergency worker pushed the wrong button. The mistake happened during a shift change when employees were going over their checklists.
By BILL McALLISTER THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Jan. 13, 2002
(Dear Reader: You read that date right. This column is from Jan. 13, 2002, when Juneau Empire reporter Bill McAllister was pondering the legislative session just ahead. McAllister was a colleague of Must Read Alaska Editor Suzanne Downing, and he passed away Dec. 15, 2017. But his writing had grace and marvelous cadence then, and is pertinent today. We offer this one in his memory.- SD)
“The Legislature is about to descend on you,” former Gov. Jay Hammond warned a Juneau audience Friday.
So let’s brace ourselves for what could be, starting Monday, four months of the most acrimonious public discourse in memory.
Omens abound:
Republican House Speaker Brian Porter says the budget proposal by Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles is “irresponsible” and “disingenuous,” proving that in seven years “he hasn’t learned a damned thing.”
Rep. Scott Ogan, a hard-right conservative Republican, says Knowles did an “unconscionable” – and impeachable – thing in dropping the Katie John subsistence case. Ogan said he’s not sure he’ll show up in the House chamber Wednesday night for the governor’s final State of the State address.
Dave Donley, Republican co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is blasting the administration for not proposing budget cuts in the face of billion-dollar deficits. “The true legacy of the Knowles administration is the complete failure of its fiscal policy,” Donley said.
Conversely, Knowles’ chief of staff, David Ramseur, has counseled commissioners to develop an agenda that will put the Republican majority “in a box” as the administration makes its bid for the history books.
And while Republican leaders are moving toward a more open, constructive relationship with the Capitol press corps – agreeing to weekly on-the-record briefings for the first time – an emerging strategy among certain Democratic legislators, staff and activists seems to be quick condemnation of reporters who don’t do exactly what they want.
Throw in the redistricting battle, 57 legislative campaigns, the race for governor, the dispute over who appoints the next U.S. senator if Frank Murkowski is elected governor, and you have an unbeatable recipe for ugly.
And yet …
Knowles raises the possibility that incredibly demanding times – with the fiscal gap threatening to throw the state into chaos in two years – could move leaders beyond partisanship. He has a vested interest in having a successful session, of course, but presumably so do Republicans.
The governor’s professed optimism in a subsistence solution this year is hard to understand, but maybe it takes a seemingly quixotic attitude to achieve the biggest breakthroughs.
In the House, Porter has not ruled out a Committee of the Whole approach in working on long-range fiscal issues with Democrats, doing business out in the open.
And with Porter and Senate President Rick Halford pledging to address the “urban-rural divide” this session, isn’t it premature to abandon hope? Maybe it’s the season of miracles.
Porter has dropped strong hints that this session is his last. “Getting into a Legislature isn’t supposed to be a life sentence,” he said recently.
He’ll be missed.
“Brian Porter is a wonderful person,” said Democratic Rep. Mary Kapsner of Bethel. “I think the speaker is a bridge-builder, to the extent he can be.”
“Brian has been the most balanced, professional leader,” said Rep. Bill Hudson, a Juneau Republican.
It’s not clear who would replace Porter as speaker, should Republicans hold the majority after the election. Under the redistricting plan currently before the courts, House Majority Leader Jeannette James would face fellow North Pole Republican incumbent John Coghill.
I had the honor Friday morning of playing chauffeur to Hammond as he made the rounds of talk shows and speaking engagements. Although he’s using a cane now, he remains feisty and a bit of a quote machine. A sample:
“There are three stages in life: youth, adulthood and ‘Gee, you look great.’ “
“I hear as well as I used to, but everybody started mumbling.”
“(It should be) emblazoned on the brow or buttocks of every legislator, depending on where their brain is located: … ‘Thou shalt not spend any more than thou art willing to tax for.’ “
This week, the Anchorage Municipal Clerk’s Office mailed a second set of address verification postcards to 208,000 qualified registered voters in the municipality.
Anchorage voters should receive their postcard in the mail this week.
The postcard asks you to review your current mailing address so you’ll get a ballot in the mail in about two months. Ballot packages that are undeliverable will not be forwarded by the U.S. Postal Service.
Alternately, if you are qualified for a 2018 Permanent Fund dividend, you will automatically be registered to vote when you apply for it under the new system voters approved that provides for automatic registration and updating of your address for elections purposes. That deadline is March 31, but for the Anchorage Municipal Election, you’ll need to get on it now.
Anchorage will no longer operate as many traditional polling locations. The ones that will be operating — for those needing extra assistance — will not be in the usual neighborhoods.
Instead, qualified registered voters will be mailed a ballot package 21 days before Election Day: March 13. That is the day people will start filling in their bubbles.
Voters will need to think like an absentee voter and return their ballots via mail or an election drop box, which will be like a mail box in various locations around the city. (Parents may need to show their millennial offspring how to use stamps and envelopes.)
EASY AS 1-2-3-FRAUD
Vote by mail may be ripe for fraud.
If you’re like many Anchorage residents, you’ll see verification postcards for yourself and several others — people who used to live at your address, such as the one received by this Anchorage voter at her apartment address:
There’s no instructions given on what to do with all the extra ballot verification postcards. Likely there are thousands of these misdirected cards being received throughout the city.
The elections office is using signature verification to ensure that people are who they say they are, but it’s unclear if this is adequate. The absentee ballot is considered the least secure ballot and the most prone to fraud.
Ethan Berkowitz, Rebecca Logan
WHO IS RUNNING
Two declared mayoral candidates will appear on the ballot so far: Rebecca Logan, who runs the Alaska Support Industry Alliance trade group, and current mayor Ethan Berkowitz, who is finishing his first term.
In addition, three school board seats are up for election: Seats D, E, and F. Numerous candidates have filed for them. Must Read Alaska will cover the races for those seats in coming days.
Prospective candidates will need to file with the Alaska Public Offices Commission before they raise any funds (more than $5,000), and file officially with the municipality between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.
CAMPAIGNING GETS REAL
The early voting means Anchorage voters will start choosing the local leaders on about March 13. By the time the sun rises on April 3, most of the ballots will already have been marked and in.
Candidates are having to change their strategies to address this new calendar, where essentially everyone is going to an absentee ballot format.
Will there be a need for the traditional sign-waving on April 3? Or will volunteers be better used going door to door to get people to turn in their ballots? How will candidates pace their resources as the April 3 deadline closes in?
VOTER QUESTIONS? ATTEND A PRESENTATION
The Anchorage Municipal Clerk’s Office is accepting requests for community presentations about how vote by mail will work in the April 3 municipal election.
The former husband of the former owner of the Alaska Dispatch News is getting involved in the bankruptcy proceedings of his former wife, Alice Rogoff.
Rogoff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 12, and that proceeding eventually became a Chapter 7 liquidation, which is now being sorted out by the courts. David Rubenstein, her ex, is getting dragged in.
This week, Rogoff’s attorney asked the court to hold off granting access to her bank accounts until Rubenstein’s lawyers can take a look at them.
Rogoff is battling the bankruptcy plaintiffs who want her to use her personal finances to make whole the dozens of creditors she — or her broken company technically — has across Alaska. There are debts in the millions of dollars to everyone from reporters to GCI. In addition, she said her company owes her over $16 million, too.
Rogoff sold the news operation to the Binkley Company in September for $1 million after she had run the newspaper into the ground. The Binkley Co. restored the newspaper’s former name, the Anchorage Daily News.
While Rubenstein’s finanical strength would allow the jet-setting financier to simply pay off Rogoff’s creditors, he’s evidently not willing to do that yet. Instead, he has hired lawyers to file an objection to anyone seeing the terms of their marital settlement.
“Rogoff’s ex-husband David Rubenstein has a contractual confidentiality right in the MSA (marital settlement agreement) that must be respected,” his attorneys wrote the courts. If the terms of the settlement are probed, Rubenstein’s lawyers are saying they’ll seek remedies, although they don’t say what remedies they have in mind.
Rogoff is politically connected, but Rubenstein is a political powerhouse, and that might come into play. If the contractors, suppliers and former landlords thought they were simply battling an eccentric heiress who skips out on her bills, they’re now facing a sultan of the upper crust of American society, one who has real resources that he can bring to bear.
The Alaska Journal of Commerce has the latest twists and turns in a case that has fascinated Alaskans.
How many people could there be in Juneau named Heidi Drygas? The only one we know is the Commissioner of Labor … no pun intended.
Heidi Drygas gave birth to Olive Jane Sund on Dec. 23, 2017. The baby’s grandmother is DeeDee MacKinnon Sund, her great grandmother is Jane MacKinnon, who is the mother of John MacKinnon, who is married to Sen. Anna MacKinnon, and all this may mean the youngster is Juneau royalty and also has some tie to mining claims. Olive’s grandfather is former state representative John Sund, the family says. She is fourth-generation Juneau.
Fuller Cowell is retiring as the publisher of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner next month, and Richard Harris, now the publisher of the Kodiak Daily Mirror, will take the reins on Feb. 5. Cowell will continue as a consultant for a few months and remain on the paper’s editorial board. He’s had a 50-year career in the newspaper business. As for the Kodiak Daily Mirror, Robert Monteith is the new publisher. He has been editor of the newspaper for about a year.
Christopher Clark has signed on to work for Senate Finance as an aide to Sen. Click Bishop. Clark worked for Rep. Cathy Munoz and other lawmakers and knows his way around the Capitol and where every body is buried.
Fainting spell: President Trump called Haiti a sh—hole, former Sen. Bill Stoltze called a representative a f—ing c—, and although we mourn the loss of civility, there’s far too much whining over things that are not sticks and stones. Last year it was “Black Lives Matter,” and this year it’s the “Me Too” and now everyone seems to need a panic room when someone is impolite or having a potty-mouth episode. Not everything is sexual harassment and not everything in politics is bullying. Just saying.
Downtown Partnership: An email sent from the Anchorage Downtown Partnership caught the eye of a Must Read Alaska reader. Evidently the Partnership is now openly promoting a highly partisan women’s march on Jan. 20 — and even reminding people to wear their pink hats.
MAYOR DEBLASIO: The mayor of New York City is crowding in on the territory of Al Gore, announcing today that he is suing the fossil fuel industry, and saying the city will divest itself of $5 billion its pension funds have invested in fossil fuels. The mayor will be suing BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell and will assert that the oil companies are like tobacco companies — they were aware that fossil fuels caused climate change but engaged in the business anyway.
It’s not your imagination — there really are fewer people in Alaska than a couple of years ago.
According to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state’s populationdropped for the first time in 29 years.
We’re now at 737,080, down 2,629 since 2016. Out-migration has been negative for five years in a row, meaning that more people are leaving the state than moving in.
Last year at this time, the department announced that the state’s population had actually increased by 2,645 people—about one-third of 1 percent—from July 2015 to July 2016. Most of that came from babies being born.
New births are keeping the population from not falling faster, but they are not keeping up with the number of people who are moving out of the state.
Alaska’s job market is the worst in the nation, with unemployment remaining above 7 percent. As employable people move out of state, the demographic make-up will shift to both an older population, and a very young one, neither of which are part of the workforce.
Alaska lost 6,300 jobs in 2016, and 3,600 jobs in 2017. This year, another 1,800 jobs are projected to disappear, for a total of 11,800 jobs in three years.
The birth rate is the lowest it has been in over a decade, with 10,786 babies born in 2017. The number of deaths, 4,530, is the highest on record.
Here’s the breakdown on where Alaskans live:
SAM’S CLUB CLOSING IN ALASKA
Sam’s Club will close its Alaska locations on Jan. 26. The company has three stores in Alaska — two in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks. Today the stores are shuttered while the staff prepares for going-out-of-business sales. They’ll open tomorrow, and people who purchased membership cards can stop in and get their fees refunded.
Sam’s Club tweeted out the news: “After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we’ve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy. Closing clubs is never easy and we’re committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition.”
Sams Club stores in other states will also be closing. The news came at the same time Walmart announced it will increase its hourly minimum wage to $11 and give bonuses of $1,000 to many of its workers.
