Alaska News January 17, 2018

By Mike Ross: Homicide ‘person of interest’ in custody
Additionally, APD said previously that both Settje and Tarkington have existing “unrelated felony warrants.”

Anyone with information about Settje’s whereabouts is asked to contact Anchorage Police at (907) 786-8900 or Crime Stoppers at (907) 561-STOP.
 
 
 
 
By Lauren Maxwell: Coffee stand buying more guns after armed robbery
 
 
 
 
By Heather Hintze: Judge to decide on evidence before Grunwald murder suspect’s trial
 
 
 
 
By Nathaniel Hertz: Alaska Gov. Walker’s administration wants a new felony charge for drug dealers
State lawmakers have spent the past several months scrutinizing the state’s criminal justice system amid that epidemic and a public outcry over a 2016 law, Senate Bill 91.

That legislation cut sentences for nonviolent criminals, with supporters citing research that showed those steps could save money and reduce the number of people who cycle in and out of prison.

[Read the ADN’s explainer on Senate Bill 91]

The Walker administration’s new proposal would be the latest reversal of SB 91’s provisions, which lawmakers already scaled back sharply in a special session in November. SB 91 eliminated an existing Class A felony charge that applied to dealing any amount of opioids like heroin, replacing it with a system based on weights.

 
 
 
 

By Joe Vigil: 4 injured in O’Malley Road crash

By Emily Carlson: Alaska lawmaker refuses sexual harassment training
Rep. Tammie Wilson (R-North Pole) says she won’t to go to mandatory sexual harassment training until a separate group looks into what happened when a legislative staffer accused then-Rep. Dean Westlake of sexual harassment.

“I guess my question would be, do you have to have training to know not to put an allegation in a drawer for months and months and do nothing,” Wilson said. “Training doesn’t do that but it also has to be the correct training.”
 
 
 
 
By Devin Kelly: Ballot proposal trades fire protection for taxes on the outskirts of Anchorage
 
 
 
 
By Richard Mauer: Good and bad news as Legislature opens
 
 
 
 
By Mary Kate Burgess: Service hockey holds 5th annual superhero game
 
 
 
 
So will it be sold to Alaskan folks or just “appropriated”?~~
By Jack Carney: Should Alaska finally tap its $63 billion Permanent Fund?

“So the idea of using the earnings from the permanent fund, to balance the budget – it seems to me is not something that is a big issue for those people in Juneau,” said Townsend. “What is an issue is how you sell it to the people of Alaska.”
 
 
 
 
By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post: Nearly all members of National Park Service advisory panel resign in frustration
 
 
 
 
By Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media: AK Attorney General asks Congress to open banking for pot businesses
Alaska Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth and 18 other attorneys general sent a letter to congressional leaders asking for legislation that would establish a “safe harbor” for the billions of dollars being generated from recreational and medical cannabis sales each year.
 
 
 
 
Alaska News from APRN
 
 
 
 
By Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post: In the coldest village on Earth, eyelashes freeze, dinner is frozen and temperatures sink to minus 88
 
 
 
 
Red Cross volunteers install smoke detectors