One of the men killed in a Girdwood-area avalanche last March whose body was recovered earlier this week was identified as 39-year-old Charles Eppard, Alaska State Troopers said Friday.

Eppard, of Montana, was one of three heli-skiers fatally engulfed by a March 4 avalanche about 9 miles northeast of Girdwood, in a mountain cirque near the west fork of Twentymile River.

His remains were found Tuesday in the slide area of the avalanche, according to a state Department of Public Safety online statement.

Troopers released Eppard’s name after the State Medical Examiner Office positively identified the remains and his next of kin were notified.

Eppard and two other friends from their high school days in Minnesota, David Linder and Jeremy Leif, were skiing with Chugach Powder Guides, a longtime Alaska heli-ski operator, when they were buried by the avalanche. A fourth member of the group survived.

The avalanche was the nation’s deadliest since 2023.

Troopers recovered the body of 39-year-old Linder, of Florida, from a log jam in a river flowing underneath the avalanche area on Oct. 3. The remains of Leif, 38, haven’t been found.

A group seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system says it has gathered enough signatures to put the repeal question on the 2026 ballot.

The group formed after the 2024 election, when a similar effort narrowly failed to pass.

It began gathering signatures in February, looking to collect more than 34,000 signatures from three-quarters of state House districts.

Supporters of the repeal effort now say they have gathered more than 48,000 signatures. Once they’re submitted to the Division of Elections, state workers will review the signatures to ensure they come from registered Alaska voters, were collected according to state laws, and meet the geographic distribution requirements. If approved by the state Division of Elections, the repeal question will appear on the 2026 ballot.

The petition was formed by former state Rep. Ken McCarty, an Eagle River Republican, along with Republican candidate for governor Bernadette Wilson and Judy Eledge, president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club.

Ahead of submitting their petition to the Division of Elections for verification, a group of repeal supporters gathered in an Anchorage parking lot to celebrate the milestone. Among the group were McCarty, Eledge, Alaska GOP Chair Carmela Warfield and Bethany Marcum, a former Americans for Prosperity-Alaska director who has taken a leading role in orchestrating the repeal effort.

The roughly two dozen supporters marched across a parking lot to the Division of Elections, following a dump truck festooned with a hand-painted “dump RCV” sign, while blasting the “Rocky” theme song from a portable speaker. At the state office’s doorstep, the truck ceremonially dropped a pile of empty cardboard boxes. The signature booklets were delivered later in the day.

While the effort so far has been led and orchestrated by Republican politicians and activists, McCarty said he did not want it to be perceived as partisan. McCarty himself lost a state Senate race last year to a more moderate Republican, Sen. Kelly Merrick of Eagle River.

Alaska voters approved ranked choice voting and open primaries by a small margin through a ballot measure in 2020.

The voting method has since been used in state and federal elections. It has been celebrated by some elected Alaska politicians who say it favors moderate candidates more likely to work across the aisle. But conservative Republicans have largely decried the election reform, warning that it makes it harder for farther-right GOP members to win elections, and reduces the power of the GOP to pick its own candidates through a closed primary system.

A group funding the repeal effort had raised more than $247,000 by early October. Nearly three-quarters of its funding — $181,000 — came from Aurora Action Network, a political action committee registered with the Federal Election Commission.

The Aurora Action Network formed on June 6. Later that month, it began giving money to the repeal effort. According to federal reports covering June, the committee is funded by Damien Stella, an Alaska engineering consultant, and Michael Rydin, a Texas political activist who has donated large sums to conservative causes.

Most of the group’s spending has gone to Upward LLC, a Florida-based signature gathering company.

Marcum said Thursday that 65% of the petition signatures were gathered by volunteers. The remainder were gathered by paid workers who traveled to rural parts of the state where the group did not find volunteers.

Already, a group called Protect Alaska’s Elections has registered its intent with the state to spend money to defend Alaska’s election system. In 2024, a similar group opposing the previous repeal initiative spent $15 million on a campaign in defense of open primaries and ranked choice voting.

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – Two men were arrested in separate drug investigations led by the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) task force in Southeast Alaska after authorities intercepted packages containing methamphetamine, according to the Juneau Police Department.

In one case, investigators in Ketchikan identified a suspicious package on Oct. 28, that was determined to contain around 2,056 grams – roughly 4.5 pounds – of methamphetamine. The package was delivered on Nov. 1 and picked up by 33-year-old Louisiana resident Adidas Nike Zion Brown, who took it to his residence on the 1000 block of Dunton Street, according to the Juneau Police Department.

After Brown opened the package, officers seized the drugs, which have an estimated street value of $315,960. Officers also seized a firearm at the scene. Brown was arrested and taken to the Ketchikan Correctional Center.

Brown is facing three counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third degree, two counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the fourth degree and two counts of misconduct involving a weapon in the third degree.

In a separate investigation, SEACAD identified two suspicious packages shipped to Haines between Oct. 27 and Nov. 4. The packages were found to contain about 235 – about half a pound – of methamphetamine combined.

On Nov. 5, the packages were delivered in Haines and picked up by 30-year-old resident Austin Elmer Benedict Hotch, who took it to a residence on the 200 block of 2nd Avenue, according to the Juneau Police Department. Investigators later seized the drugs, valued at about $50,000. Officers also seized roughly $24,000 in cash.

Hotch was arrested and taken to the Haines Borough Community Jail on a charge of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third degree.

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