Funding

April’s Fund the Future winner is a 17-year-old from Kenny Lake who has strong opinions and the influence to do something about it. Monday through Friday, Mariah Doty listens and observes. But once a month, at school board meetings, she gets to say what she's really thinking. Mariah represents the Kenny Lake and Cooper Center schools as the student representative on the school board. At student council meetings she gathers ideas from her peers and brings their concerns forward at school board meetings.

During the final hours of this year's regular legislative session, the Senate Finance Committee approved up to $200,000 to study employment opportunities in the oil and gas industry on Alaska's North Slope. In committee hearings, legislators heard complaints that Alaskans are being skipped over for jobs that are being given to nonresidents.  Oil companies testified they'd love to hire Alaskans, but there aren't many jobs. They say lost development opportunities because of strict rules and regulations in Alaska are sending companies to states like Texas and North Dakota.

The State of Alaska's only dedicated domestic violence prosecution unit says it needs more funding to continue its work. The unit is awaiting word on whether it will receive a state grant similar to one it says will run out in a year. The Anchorage unit is a part of the Municipal Prosecutor's office, and works exclusively on domestic violence cases. Its supervisor, Jo-Ann Chung, says the city has laid the groundwork to start enforcing bail conditions statewide, which may help stop the cycle of domestic violence.

Strong financial gains by the Alaska Permanent Fund may be another indication that the nation’s economy is turning around. Friday, the board that oversees the fund’s investments reported growth of 14.5 percent during the first half of the fiscal year.  As of December 31, fund managers report earnings of $4.4 billion, pushing the total value of the fund to more than $38 billion. According to a news release, U.S. stock investments were the strongest performers, returning more than 25 percent over the first six months of the fiscal year.

School district officials from across the state are on a field trip to Juneau, trying to explain to lawmakers how extra help from the state would help avoid some painful cuts -- but some legislators think they've already done enough. Although most districts visit their lawmakers in Juneau annually, this time there's an added sense of urgency. Educators who visited the state Capitol came with a message that a vision without funding is just an illusion. “I think most of us across the state, you will see, are facing some pretty major budget shortfalls,” said Lon Garrison with the Sitka School Board.

Several Anchorage School Board members are on their way to Juneau in an effort to prevent program cuts. Their visit, in association with the Alaska Association of School Boards, comes just in time to meet with lawmakers about newly introduced bills. The Anchorage School District is facing a $12 million shortfall, prompting ASD Superintendent Carol Comeau to propose cutting about 50 jobs throughout the district. Those cuts created a lot of reaction at a school board meeting this week, making a trip to Juneau to lobby for more money especially important this session.

Our latest Fund the Future winner is an assertive leader in her classroom teams at school -- but she doesn't mind sharing the credit for her scholarship, since she didn’t enter her own name in Fund the Future. "My mom did," said 16-year-old Service High School student Jamie Wooding. Wooding considers student government class a free period -- not because she's not working, but because she gets to do all the work her way. "This one is mine, this one is mine; I don't want you guys to feel like I'm not doing my job as the community person," Wooding said.

A Mat-Su Valley ham radio club is trying to raise funds to replace a communications trailer that was destroyed in a Wednesday wind storm. According to the Matanuska Amateur Radio Association’s emergency coordinator, Don Bush, the 24-foot trailer filled with radio gear was parked at a group member’s home near Mile 12 on Knik Goose Bay Road when it was hit by a falling tree. “The tree just came down into it and structurally destroyed it,” Bush said. While members were able to salvage the communications gear and most of the trailer’s radio antennae, Bush says the trailer itself is a total loss.

Anchorage police are trying to make a case for cameras in their vehicles. They say it'll cost $4 million and they're asking state lawmakers for the money. Seventeen traffic patrol cars already have cameras, but this grant would install a video system throughout the entire fleet. APD Sgt. Justin Doll is helping organize the effort. Doll has been using the cameras for about seven months and says he finds it's difficult for offenders to argue when crime is caught on tape. “The public should be looking at this as one more tool for us to use to increase traffic safety and just improve the efficiency of the department overall.

Anchorage police say a new firing range could help them train using a wide variety of weapons, and now Mayor Dan Sullivan is asking the state for help planning the range. The length of the current police shooting range is just 25 yards. Police say with that short a range, officers can't fire weapons like sniper rifles and some types of shotguns. A proposed outdoor shooting range in Anchorage would fix that problem. “We could have several kinds of training going on at one time: pistol work on one, 50-yard shotgun and rifle on another, and you could have snipers using the 300-yard range,” said APD Chief Mark Mew. Right now for any long-range weapons practice, police have to train on the military bases or at public shooting ranges, and they say that poses a problem.