Protestors assemble outside the Hilton Hotel in Anchorage in August 2011. One of the concerns the Unions who signed onto the ACLU lawsuit have is that the sidewalk law could be used to fine or arrest workers who were protesting. Photo by Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage

The ACLU of Alaska is challenging the Municipality of Anchorage law on sidewalk-sitting and panhandling. They say the law is unconstitutional.

Jeffrey Mittman is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. He says the ordinance adopted by the Anchorage Assembly created two distinct unconstitutional sections in Anchorage Municipal code that are in conflict with the Alaska Constitution.

“As Alaskans, we depend upon our incredibly strong constitution, which is very clear, this ordinance is not permissible,” Mittman said.

The law bans most sitting or lying down and panhandling on downtown sidewalks. It was adopted by the Assembly in November 2011. ACLU attorneys argue the ordinance violates freedom of expression and infringes on the right to peaceably assemble. The ACLU wrote letters to the Assembly expressing concern about the change in law. The Assembly repealed the ordinance in September 2012. Mayor Dan Sullivan quickly vetoed the repeal. Joshua Decker is the ACLU attorney handling the case. He says the ACLU has reached out to municipal officials hoping to amend the code.

“We’re very happy to work with the municipality to craft laws that address problems of sitting on the sidewalk, problems of obstructing traffic, but they should be well-tailored to Alaska, well tailored to Anchorage, but those laws sadly are not,” Decker said.

Decker says the Mayor’s office has not been responsive. The ACLU is concerned that the law could be used to prevent workers from protesting and artists from performing. The eight plaintiffs signed onto the lawsuit range in age from 26 to 95-years-old and from liberal to libertarian. They include activists in the Occupy movement and artist. Two labor unions also signed onto the lawsuit. Vince Beltrami is president of the Alaska AFL-CIO. He says he’s concerned that workers protesting unfair labor practices could be arrested.

“Oftentimes workers may have issues that put us on the street protesting you know poor treatment or whatnot,” Beltrami said. “Maybe unfair labor practices that have been committed by an employer or city government officials for that matter.”

“This would preclude us from being able to protest. Our basic first amendment rights to free speech are being stifled if we don’t stand up for this.”

Beltrami says that he doesn’t know of any workers who have been fined or arrested while protesting since the ordinances were put in place. Teeka Ballas is an artist who runs the city’s arts magazine. She is concerned the law could prevent her from performing in downtown Anchorage.

“I just really hope that there’s a rewording that comes with this so that people can still sit and eat their lunch and not have the threat of maybe being harassed by police officers or fined by police officers and that, as a performance artist, I can continue to do art in a visible area,” Ballas said. “If you want to bus if you want to do a flash mob, if you want to protest, the only reasonable place to do that is downtown Anchorage, and right now, currently, we don’t have that right.”

Anchorage Police Department Officials say that they have not yet cited anyone using the law since it went on the books. But they have enforced it by asking people to leave the sidewalk.

Mayor Sullivan proposed ‘the side-walk sitting law’ after a homeless man, John Martin, was camped out in front of City Hall in 2011 protesting the Mayor’s policy of clearing out homeless camps in Anchorage.

Dennis Wheeler, an attorney for the Municipality of Anchorage said he was surprised by the lawsuit.

We spent a significant amount of time and effort to craft an ordinance that we felt met the constitutional requirements and that’s why we spent so much time working to model it as close as we could after the Seattle version gone through the federal 9th circuit court of appeals and had withstood a constitutional challenge, by among others the ACLU, so we feel very comfortable that we’ve crafted something that works,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler adds it has never been the intention of the municipality to interfere with people’s ability to freely assemble.

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Video from Greenpeace.

Next week the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council may start work on zoning the ocean – something it began in 2005, when it protected the coral gardens of the Aleutian Islands.  This time, sea skate nursery areas are being considered.  The Council’s preferred alternative would avoid restricting fishing in these areas, instead directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to keep an eye on them.  But this issue may set the stage for deliberations later this year on two large canyons in the Bering Sea that are full of corals, sponges and skates.

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The state’s long held dream of an Arctic deep water port has moved one step closer to reality. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft report Wednesday that names the Nome/Port Clarence region as the best location for the port. It will be the subject of an upcoming feasibility – level study which will help further determine a site.

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Right now, if you and a group of like-minded individuals want to set up a charter school in your community, you need to petition your local school board to get your plan approved. A new bill could change that and open authorization up to universities, other government agencies, and nonprofits.

Rep. Lynn Gattis, a Republican from Wasilla, is behind the bill, and she says that her intent is to make it easier for charter schools to get set up.

”Parents are clamoring for it. Parents in the Anchorage school district are saying, ‘Hey, come on. We’re in line. Year after year, we’re waiting,’” Gattis said.

The way the bill works is that a group would first have to get approved by the state’s education department to set up and administer a school. After that, they would be given the same responsibilities that school districts now have in tracking a school’s effectiveness, and potentially revoking a school’s charter if they’re not meeting standards. These schools would operate under the same state funding formulas as charters set up by school boards.

One other thing the bill does is allow charters to hire teachers who aren’t subject to collective bargaining agreements.

That provision of the bill doesn’t sit well with Ron Fuhrer. He’s the president of the National Education Association’s Alaska affiliate, a labor organization.

”It just appears to be kind of a backdoor attack on collective bargaining in the state of Alaska for public school teachers,” Fuhrer said.

Fuhrer says that bill could create sort of a two-tier system, where charters could employ both unionized and non-unionized teachers, and that it would create confusion over what benefits those non-unionized teachers would receive. Fuhrer says the bill could also take local control away from school boards, and could reduce enrollment and funding for existing public schools.

Gattis says that some teachers have called her with some of those same worries, and that she’s responding to them.

”They’re all valid concerns. But here’s what I say: You got a great school and you’re doing great things, then you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to worry that somebody wants to charterize if you’re responsive to your customers — the parents and the students. Those school districts or those schools, they don’t have to worry about it,” Gattis said.

She adds that her bill could in effect create a more competitive education market, which she sees that as a strength.

As chair of the House education committee, Gattis has the muscle to get the bill in motion at the very least. She says she intends to schedule it for a hearing soon.

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U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is trying to make a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope more feasible.

Environmentalists are welcoming a stretch of pipeline through Denali National Park.

Senator Murkowski introduced a bill that would allow a seven-mile stretch of pipeline to run through the National Park. For that to happen, Congress needs to pass a law granting approval.

She says it creates an equal playing field for proposed routes along the Richardson and Parks highways.

“Once the decision was made which way to go, we wanted there to be a clear path forward,” Murkowski said.

The pipeline would be buried through the park’s industrial corridor. Jim Stratford says the plan presents the best possible option. He’s the regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

“Bearing it along the highway through Denali National Park makes way more sense to us than going to the east and putting a new road or putting a new pipeline in what is essentially virgin wilderness right now,” Stratford said.

And there’s an added boost, says Larry Persily. He’s the federal coordinator for the Alaska Gas Pipeline. He says that in addition to making it easier for producers, this legislation could add to the health of the park’s economy, because it would allow park operators to access some of the cleaner-burning fuel.

“It’s been talked about for years,” Persily said. “If there’s a pipeline nearby there are a lot of environmental and cost advantages to using natural gas for the hotels, for the vehicles, for the businesses, instead of continuing to burn diesel.”

Of course, granting the go-ahead to a seven-mile stretch of what would be a route that extends hundreds of miles is not the major barrier to construction.

That’s something Senator Murkowski readily concedes.

“This did nothing to resolve whether or not we even do it,” Murkowski said. “When you’re looking at alternate routes, if one route is complicated because of the proposed path, if you can correct that ahead of time so that’s not an issue, it doesn’t take away the big issue, which of course, is the price tag.”

And that price tag could total as much as $60 billion.

This bill passed out of the Senate last Congress on a voice vote – meaning there wasn’t any opposition. But it didn’t receive a vote in the House.

So the process begins a new … with votes required in both chambers.

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The Matanuska Susitna Borough is offering to give away the ice breaking ferry “Susitna.”   Borough officials want to give away the ship to federal, state or local governments, because it is costing the Borough too much money to maintain it.

The Borough will also consider selling the ferry to a private entity. The “Susitna” was built with federal dollars as a U.S. Navy prototype vessel.  It can hold 20 vehicles and 120 passengers. It was supposed to serve passengers between Port MacKenzie and Anchorage. The Borough has not been successful in finding a landing site for the vessel on the Anchorage side of Knik Arm, and the Borough does not have funds to maintain the ship.

Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan says the borough could sell the ferry to a private company for about $7 million – enough to cover federal grants the borough may have to pay back.

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Last year the rate of pertussis or “Whooping Cough” in Alaska reached epidemic proportions and it’s likely the epidemic is ongoing.

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One of Southeast’s most prominent environmental organizations has started a marketing campaign – for timber.

The Sitka Conservation Society recently printed a glossy brochure selling the virtues of second-growth Tongass timber for projects from furniture to housing.

The only problem is: There’s no way – yet – to economically harvest and process second growth.

SCS director Andrew Thoms is the first to admit that an industry based on second growth may be decades away, but he doesn’t think it’s too early for wood users to consider local products.

“As we think long-term about where we get our resources, how local we live, the cost of shipping things, and our overall carbon footprint, we need to start looking more locally about where we get our resources. And eventually we’re going to have to build the economy and the networks where we’re able to buy wood that comes from the region rather than from across the continent.”

The brochure that SCS has produced is called Alaskan Grown: A Guide to Tongass Young Growth Timber and its Uses. It features a pair of recreational log cabins built by the Forest Service in Sitka and Wrangell, a private residence in Gustavus, and a recent project in the Sitka High School woodshop using red alder to build night stands.

None of the wood for these projects was purchased through conventional means. But Thoms says there are networks of small-scale mills, from Hoonah, to Wrangell, to Prince of Wales, that can a reasonable alternative for people willing to try something that – for now – remains unconventional.

“We’ve heard anectdotally from some of the builders in town that once they have figured out a way to get a supply of local wood, the prices are cheaper, or comparable to, buying all their wood from someplace else.”

“Alaska young growth is no different than any other tree that grows in North America,” says Allen Brackley, director of the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Sitka.

“Be it lumber, or pulp and paper, or particle board, plywood, or engineered products. You can make them out of Alaska young growth.”

Brackley says the one limitation on young growth is that it cannot produce sawn, clear boards. That is a feature of old growth, and why it remains so valuable.

Brackley does not view the turn to young growth in the Tongass as especially innovative. Young growth is the name of the game in much of the nation’s timber industry.

“You go down to Washington and Oregon, they’ve almost totally converted to a young growth economy. Some of the industrial forest lands have made the transition to almost a plantation – a highly-managed stand – situation.”

Roughly a million acres of the Tongass was clearcut during the pulp mill era between 1960 and 1990, and is now in second-growth. But the rate of re-growth, despite Southeast’s uniform appearance from the air, is really variable. Brackley says a lot of people are working on projecting sustainable yields through time in the Tongass. But time, in this forest, works on a different scale. Brackley thinks we’re thirty- to forty years out from having enough young growth to sustain major industry again.

“Right now there is no possibility that you could support anything other than a very, very small industry.”

Brackley says that projection could change.

The SCS brochure lays these facts on the line, but Andrew Thoms is undeterred. He says the Sitka Conservation Society just wanted to show agencies and potential users what is possible with young growth, and to point the way to a more sustainable economic future for Southeast communities. He hopes many previously clearcut areas will be set aside, and not logged again for young growth. And some wood, like yellow cedar, is just too slow-growing to be a practical young growth product.

Thoms is just as deliberate in spreading the word about young growth. You probably won’t find a printed copy, except at the SCS office.

“We wanted to use as little wood as possible, and reduce our amount of paper. I think people can read this real well on the internet.”

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Individual news stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn.

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ACLU Challenges Anchorage Sidewalk Law

Daysha Eaton, KSKA – Anchorage

The ACLU of Alaska is challenging the Municipality of Anchorage law on sidewalk-sitting and panhandling. They say the law is unconstitutional.

NPFMC May Start Ocean Zoning Work Next Week

Steve Heimel, APRN – Anchorage

Next week the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council may start work on zoning the ocean – something it began in 2005, when it protected the coral gardens of the Aleutian Islands.  This time, sea skate nursery areas are being considered.  The Council’s preferred alternative would avoid restricting fishing in these areas, instead directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to keep an eye on them.  But this issue may set the stage for deliberations later this year on two large canyons in the Bering Sea that are full of corals, sponges and skates.

Study Names Nome, Port Clarence As Best Region For Deep Water Arctic Port

Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage

The state’s long held dream of an Arctic deep water port has moved one step closer to reality. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft report Wednesday that names the Nome/Port Clarence region as the best location for the port. It will be the subject of an upcoming feasibility – level study which will help further determine a site.

Murkowski Works On Making In-State LNG Line More Feasible

Peter Granitz, APRN – Washington DC

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is trying to make a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope more feasible. Environmentalists are welcoming a stretch of pipeline through Denali National Park.

New Legislation May Change Charter School Authorization Process

Alexandra Gutierrez, APRN – Juneau

Right now, if you and a group of like-minded individuals want to set up a charter school in your community, you need to petition your local school board to get the plan approved. A new bill could change that and open authorization up to universities, other government agencies, and nonprofits.

Mat-Su Borough Offering To Give Away Ice Breaking Ferry

Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage

The Matanuska Susitna Borough is offering to give away the ice breaking ferry “Susitna.”   Borough officials want to give away the ship to federal, state or local governments, because it is costing the Borough too much money to maintain it.

The Borough will also consider selling the ferry to a private entity. The “Susitna” was built with federal dollars as a U.S. Navy prototype vessel.  It can hold 20 vehicles and 120 passengers. It was supposed to serve passengers between Port MacKenzie and Anchorage. The Borough has not been successful in finding a landing site for the vessel on the Anchorage side of Knik Arm, and the Borough does not have funds to maintain the ship.

Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan says the borough could sell the ferry to a private company for about $7 million – enough to cover federal grants the borough may have to pay back.

Alaska Whooping Cough Cases On The Rise

Mike Mason, KDLG – Dillingham

Last year the rate of pertussis or “Whooping Cough” in Alaska reached epidemic proportions and it’s likely the epidemic is ongoing.

Eco Marketing Campaign Backs Young Growth Timber

Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka

One of Southeast’s most prominent environmental organizations has started a marketing campaign – for timber.

The Sitka Conservation Society recently printed a glossy brochure selling the virtues of second-growth Tongass timber for projects from furniture to housing.

The only problem is: There’s no way – yet – to economically harvest and process second growth.