First City futsal Indian nation destroys own buildings over • Trio to join team Alaska at Arctic leadership dispute, Winter Games, See page 6 Page 8 42 º/39º Weather, page 3 $K1.00 ETCHIKAN WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26, 2020 T WDITTER.COAM/KDNI NEWLS Y N WWW.KEETCHIWKANDAILYNSEWS.COM 14 PAGES Old Glory Rests Murkowski Recall effort talks Tongass collecting Discusses her support for the Tongass exemption from federal Roadless Rule signatures By SAM STOCKBRIDGE 71,252 signatures required Daily News Staff Writer U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, discussed her support for exempting the Tongass National Forest from the federal Roadless Rule, and other legislation to initiate recall election that she said would affect Southeast Alaska residents during an interview at the Daily News office on Thursday. Murkowski visited Anchorage, Juneau, JUNEAU(AP) — A campaign to recall Alaska's gov - Sitka and Ketchikan over the course of last week, spending Thursday and Friday ernor has started with the distribution of petition book - in Ketchikan. lets that will be used to collect signatures. Murkowski said she was "frustrated" by misperceptions about how Southeast The Alaska Division of Elections delivered the book - Alaska communities would be affected if the Tongass was exempted from the lets that organizers will use to try to gather the mini - Roadless Rule, saying that other guidelines and restrictions would still limit de - mum of 71,252 signatures required to initiate an velopment in the Tongass, even without the Roadless Rule. Murkowski is in election to recall Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, favor of a complete exemption for the Tongass. KTOO-FM reported. "With the designations that are in place — monuments and natural settings Organizers received the booklets Friday before mail - — ... a little more than 80% of the Tongass is off limits — period. To anybody. ing about 60 packages to supporters. The recall group said Dunleavy, who took office in See ‘Murkowski,’ page 2 late 2018, violated the law by not appointing a judge within a required time frame, misused state funds for partisan online ads and mailers and improperly used his veto authority to "attack the judiciary." Dunleavy said campaigners want to remove him Contracts, goals from office to keep him from implementing his agenda. The recall organizers gathered 46,405 valid signa - tures over five weeks to apply for the recall. But the campaign must start over with a new signature drive on Board agenda to put the recall on the ballot. The campaign has established 44 different locations statewide to gather signatures. Campaign kickoff events are scheduled for the up - School Board also will consider coming weekend in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. The effort will also include roving signature gather - adopting new grad requirements ers, campaign manager Claire Pywell said. "We want it to be easy, so when someone's leaving By SAM STOCKBRIDGE ered in January. the house, right, or they're taking the kids to gymnas - Daily News Staff Writer The originally proposed require - tics or they're going to the grocery store later, they can The Ketchikan School Board will con - ments included a contentious recom - just go to the website and look up where they can reli - sider adopting a set of new graduation mendation: requiring one semester of ably find a signature gatherer, and go and get it done," requirements at its regular meeting on American government to graduate in - Pywell said. Wednesday. It also is set to approve 15 stead of the two prescribed by the cur - Recall organizers have said they want to hold the administrator contracts for the 2020- rent requirements, though the total election as soon as possible. 2021 school year. number of social studies classes needed The petition must be submitted before April 20 to Graduation requirements to graduate would not decrease. guarantee a special election before the Aug. 18 primary. The School Board could approve re - The administrative team that recom - The effort could be halted if the Alaska Supreme visions to the Ketchikan School Dis - mended the changes explained that it Court overrules a Superior Court decision allowing the trict's graduation requirements for high hoped to give students flexibility to petition to move forward. Arguments in the case are school students at its regularly sched - choose which classes they wanted to scheduled for March 25. uled meeting. The revisions up for con - take. But several parents and commu - Grounds for recall in Alaska are lack of fitness, in - sideration were debuted at the board's nity members criticized the reduction An American flag catches no wind Feb. 17 near the Westflight docking facility. c o m p e t e n c e , n e g l e c t o f d u t i e s o r c o r r u p t io n . T h e r e c a ll Feb. 12 meeting, and are a modified at board meetings after the recommen - group is not alleging corruption. form of proposed graduation require - dations were announced. Staff photo by Dustin Safranek ment changes that the board consid - See ‘School Board,’ page 3 As world scrambles, experts warn virus spread in US certain By ADAM GELLER and KIM TONG-HYUNG severe illness," Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the U.S. Centers Associated Press for Disease Control and Prevention said in a call with re - NEW YORK — U.S. health officials warned Tuesday that porters. Report: New virus could the burgeoning coronavirus is certain to spread more widely The CDC's call for Americans to be prepared added new in the country at some point, even as their counterparts in urgency to response efforts that, until this week, focused on hurt Hawaii's tourism Europe and Asia scrambled to contain new outbreaks of the a disease largely confined to China, where it apparently illness. originated, and neighboring countries. HONOLULU (AP) — A research report has predicted "It's not so much a question of if this will happen any - In other developments Tuesday: Hawaii may be hit by the economic fallout of a new virus, Ketchikan Daily News - 02/26/2020more, but rather moCopyre a que stReducedion of exactly w tohen 54%this wil l from• N eoriginalw clusters of tothe ifitllne sletters popped pageup far from China, negatively affecting the tourism industry. happen — and how many people in this country will have causing increased concerns for officials in some of the The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organi - wealthiest nations in Europe and Asia, as well as in coun - In this Feb. 20 file photo, people wear masks as zation said the spread of COVID-19 could undermine pre - tries with far fewer resources. But many remained uncertain vious predictions that 2020 would be a better year for they commute during the morning rush hour in about how best to contain it. See ‘Hawaii,’ page 2 Chuo district in Tokyo. AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato See ‘Coronavirus,’ page 3 Budget cuts left AMHS with only one operating mainline ferry While presidential candidates and lawmak - ers in Washington decry the wobbly state of ‘The ferry is an important enough lever that it has Then the Matanuska broke down America's infrastructure and pitch multibil - By IAN DUNCAN When they finally arrived, Milos, her hus - lion-dollar plans to fix it, the collapse of pushed us from economic growth into economic decline.’ The Washington Post band and their cat, Squeaks, were only 70 Alaska's ferry system this winter dramatically The change in the noise coming from the miles from home in Haines, a small commu - illustrates how years of problems and a final — Clay Coplin, Cordova mayor Matanuska's engines was a clue something nity up the Lynn Canal from Juneau. But they blow in the form of a slashed budget caused a was wrong with the ferry. A peek out the win - were effectively stranded. vital transportation link to fail altogether. for a week with their 1988 Nissan Pathfinder. stretches into the northern Pacific, covering dow was confirmation. A 30% budget cut imposed on the ferry sys - When a road is riddled with potholes or a Finally, the weather improved enough for her some 3,500 miles in all. In the last budget year "We were creeping along," said Adrianne tem last year and unforeseen maintenance rickety bridge has to be closed, there's likely to fly home, while the SUV made its way on a it carried about 250,000 passengers and Milos, one of the passengers making what problems meant the Matanuska was the only to be another way around. That's not the case barge. 100,000 vehicles. should have been a three-day trip from mainline ferry operating on the Alaska Marine with Alaska's ferries, which serve three dozen People in remote Alaskan settlements say "We got so used to having it over the last 50- Bellingham, Washington, home to Alaska in Highway System. Now it was broken down, communities, many of which aren't connected it's hard for outsiders to grasp how important some years," said Milos, a retiree who initially late January. presenting more than an inconvenience to to the rest of the continent by roads at all. the AMHS is to them. The ferry network dates moved to Haines to take a job working on the The crew came on loudspeakers and an - Milos and fellow passengers: Communities al - In Juneau, Milos and her husband packed back to the earliest years of statehood in the ferries. "It is our highway." nounced they'd be bringing the ship into ready reeling from service cuts faced a month up their cat in a catamaran arranged by the 1960s.