Alaska

Thousands of Alaskans haven’t received food stamps in months, with no relief in sight

Published

2 years ago

December 24, 2022

Thousands of Alaskans haven’t received food stamps in months, with no relief in sight

Lutheran Social Companies meals pantry at 3303 West thirty third Avenue in Spenard on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (Invoice Roth / ADN)

Tabytha Gardener and William Foord say this Christmas vacation season feels quieter, extra subdued than common.

Usually, Christmas dinner for the Anchorage couple features a prime rib roast or a turkey with all of the trimmings, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, a inexperienced bean casserole, corn for the choosy ones, rolls, pumpkin and pecan pie, and apple cider.

This 12 months, it’s macaroni and cheese and scorching canines. Their checking account is overdrawn by $497.

The couple is amongst hundreds of Alaskans whose meals stamp advantages have been severely delayed over the past 4 months amid an unprecedented backlog of functions and a staffing scarcity on the Alaska Division of Public Help.

State officers attribute the issue to the workers scarcity, a cyberattack that disrupted on-line providers for months and an inflow of recertification functions they obtained early this fall when Alaska’s pandemic-era Emergency Allotment Program expired in September. This system had made it simpler for Alaskans to obtain most advantages with out annual recertifications, and ended when the state’s emergency declaration did.

All states have needed to take care of an inflow of functions that adopted the top of that federal program. However none appear to be experiencing such important delays in processing as Alaska, the place delays common about two to 4 months, Leigh Dickey, an advocacy director with Alaska Authorized Companies, instructed the Each day Information. The company supplies free authorized help to lower-income Alaskans.

The backlog “simply exhibits how fully damaged our system is,” Dickey stated.

Alaska Division of Public Help director Shawnda O’Brien stated in an interview this week that the company has been working to rent extra workers to satisfy the demand and work via the backlog, and tackle numerous know-how challenges which have slowed the approval processes.

However she didn’t have a transparent timeline for when Alaskans, a lot of whom depend on Supplemental Diet Help Program advantages — also called SNAP, or extra colloquially as meals stamps — to feed their households, would obtain the assistance they’d been ready on.

In the meantime, quite a few meals stamp beneficiaries interviewed for this story stated they’d been placed on maintain for 4 to 5 hours at a time after they tried to succeed in the state’s name middle for SNAP. They expressed frustration with an absence of transparency about why their advantages had been being delayed and after they would possibly obtain some aid, and described rising stress round the place their subsequent meal will come from and what they’ll do subsequent to make ends meet. Longtime SNAP recipients stated this was the longest they’d ever waited to obtain help.

“We’re Band-Assist-ing the whole lot,” Gardener stated.

Miracles out of nothing

Greater than 80,000 Alaskans, or about one in 9, depend on meals stamps to assist feed their households. Greater than two-thirds of recipients have kids of their households, and most have incomes beneath the federal poverty line.

When an Alaskan applies for SNAP advantages, or tries to resume their present advantages, the state has 30 days to course of that paperwork. It’s now taking for much longer on common to course of these functions — as much as 4 months.

State officers stated this week that the delays had been impacting, on the very least, 8,000 Alaskans who had utilized for or tried to recertify their SNAP advantages in August, but additionally hundreds extra who’ve utilized since then.

Chrystal Gillmere, a single mom of 4 dwelling in Homer, submitted her annual SNAP renewal paperwork on Aug. 30, a full month and a half earlier than it was due.

Up till then, she’d been receiving $934 a month in advantages for her household of 5. It’s the one earnings she receives in addition to the $27 she will get in baby help from her kids’s father.

Gillmere can not work as a result of there isn’t any one to handle her kids, ages 13, 5, 4 and three. With out work, she can not afford baby care.

When October got here round and no SNAP advantages had been deposited in her account, Gillmere referred to as the Alaska Division of Public Help.

After a protracted wait, they seemed up her case and instructed her they noticed she had turned in all her paperwork. They instructed her they didn’t know when her case would get reviewed or when her advantages would kick in.

Gillmere stated she tried to go in individual to the Division of Public Help workplace in Homer, however when she arrived, she discovered all of the desks had been cleared out and not one of the lights had been on. The workplace had been completely closed, she was instructed afterward.

So she referred to as again the state helpline day-after-day for a month. Most days, she was placed on maintain for hours. She cried practically day-after-day, too.

To outlive, on Monday and Friday, she goes to the native meals financial institution in Homer.

“I’ve needed to make miracles out of nothing,” she stated.

No timeline for aid

Meals stamp beneficiaries are feeling an rising sense of urgency because the months go.

However there’s no set date when Alaskans ready on delayed SNAP advantages can anticipate the cash, stated Alaska Division of Well being commissioner Heidi Hedberg and O’Brien, the Division of Public Help director, in an interview this week.

O’Brien stated that when the general public well being emergency led to July, there have been 8,000 folks whose functions wanted to be renewed because of this — about double the company’s common month-to-month workload.

She stated the company on the similar time skilled a staffing scarcity “on account of folks retiring, transferring out of state, or simply making different selections.” At one level, practically 27% of all positions had been vacant, she stated.

Lately, the company created 45 new short-term positions to assist with the inflow, a lot of whom O’Brien stated are being onboarded “within the subsequent month.”

The company can be ramping up its recruitment efforts for everlasting positions, O’Brien stated.

“We’ve obtained a devoted crew of people we simply introduced on to deal with the oldest work after which the remaining workforce that’s persevering with to work via the present paperwork,” she stated. “That can actually assist to deal with the workload challenges that we’re dealing with.”

When requested how shortly the brand new workers would possibly assist the company work via backlogs, O’Brien stated she didn’t have an estimate.

“I don’t wish to set an expectation that we are able to’t meet,” she stated, including that Alaskans ought to begin to see the impacts of the brand new hires “shortly,” and that she would be capable to replace Alaskans within the coming weeks on progress.

Within the meantime, Alaskans can go to their native Division of Public Help workplaces, that are open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, or name the state’s Digital Contact Middle, 800-478-7778, O’Brien stated.

One weekday in December, the common wait time for the decision middle was about an hour and a half, Hedberg stated, although many Alaskans interviewed for this story described for much longer maintain instances.

Greater than half the calls the middle obtained that day had been deserted: Usually, the individual waited so lengthy that they hung up earlier than being put via to anybody.

When callers do join, all of the individual on the road can inform them is whether or not their paperwork has been obtained — not how quickly their software could be reviewed or after they may anticipate a call about their advantages.

Solely those that meet the state’s standards for expedited software processing may be bumped up within the queue, with a timeline of every week, O’Brien stated. The standards for expedited processing may be very slender: They must have lower than $150 in money, and fewer than $100 in some other form of assets, together with earnings or a financial savings account, she stated.

Mounting frustrations

Dickey stated this week that Alaska Authorized Companies has been inundated with requests for assist from Alaskans who’ve been ready on SNAP advantages and don’t know what else to do.

She stated that attorneys along with her agency are in a position to assist Alaskans who’ve been ready greater than 30 days for the state to evaluation their SNAP advantages functions or renewals apply for a good listening to, which generally is a easy solution to transfer functions to the highest of the pile.

As a result of SNAP is a federal program, the state has to deal with any request for evaluation as a good listening to request, Dickey defined. All that’s required is a kind, which the agency’s attorneys will help fill out and switch in to the state, Dickey stated.

“They appear to have a choose group of workers that may evaluation these inside 10 days,” Dickey stated. “That’s how folks can get themselves out of the backlog,” she stated.

Dickey stated she was pissed off by the Division of Public Help’s tepid response to hundreds of Alaskans being with out advantages, and stated the company has had years to higher streamline their software and renewal course of to reflect, for instance, the state’s Everlasting Fund dividend portal.

The Alaska ombudsman’s workplace, which investigates complaints about state companies, has additionally obtained practically 200 complaints associated to SNAP delays, Katie Buckhart, Alaska state ombudsman, instructed KTOO Public Media.

Advocates say an alternative choice that hungry Alaskans have is to name 2-1-1 for assets, or attain out to their native meals financial institution for assist.

Faculty college students Demetrius Johnson and Sam Monroe volunteered to make meals packing containers on the Lutheran Social Companies meals pantry at 3303 West thirty third Avenue in Spenard on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (Invoice Roth / ADN)

Cara Durr, chief of advocacy and public coverage with the Meals Financial institution of Alaska, stated her group has seen a dip in donations and a rise in want in latest months as the price of dwelling has risen.

In Anchorage, residents can go to anchoragefood.org for a every day record of free meals pantries close to them.

“We’re sympathetic to the challenges the state is having. We all know that individuals there are working actually laborious to clear the backlog,” Durr stated. “However persons are actually pissed off. And so they have been actually pissed off for some time.”

In the meantime, Tabytha Gardener and William Foord, the Anchorage couple, aren’t certain how for much longer they will watch for aid.

Foord is unable to work due to a power sickness. Gardener misplaced her meals stamps within the fall when she obtained a job at Dwelling Depot. She reapplied in October.

Three weeks in the past, she was instructed by a division employee that her advantages could be deposited in her account inside 4 days. Relieved, she paid some payments utilizing the small sum of money left in her checking account.

Two days earlier than Christmas, Gardener stated her SNAP advantages nonetheless hadn’t been deposited. She’ll must take an Uber to work for an early shift that begins earlier than buses are working.

She’s confronted with an unattainable selection: paying for meals for her household, or paying for a solution to get to work to purchase the meals. Subsequent on the chopping block can be their web service. Warmth. She’s already obtained a disconnect discover from the electrical firm for being two months behind on a invoice.

“At present is my daughter’s sixteenth birthday,” she stated. “And we are able to’t even get her a cake.”

• • •

In Anchorage, Alaskans can go to anchoragefood.org for an inventory that’s up to date every day exhibiting free meals pantries round city. The Meals Financial institution of Alaska additionally has a web based calendar of meals distribution websites. Statewide, Alaskans can name 2-1-1 free of charge help connecting to native assets for meals help.

• • •

Assist our reporting

Reporter Annie Berman is a full-time reporter for the Anchorage Each day Information masking well being care and public well being. Her place is supported by Report for America, which is working to fill gaps in reporting throughout America and to position a brand new era of journalists in group information organizations across the nation. Report for America, funded by each personal and public donors, covers as much as 50% of a reporter’s wage. It’s as much as Anchorage Each day Information to search out the opposite half, via local people donors, benefactors, grants or different fundraising actions.

If you want to make a private, tax-deductible contribution to her place, you may make a one-time donation or a recurring month-to-month donation through adn.com/RFA. It’s also possible to donate by examine, payable to “The GroundTruth Challenge.” Ship it to Report for America/Anchorage Each day Information, c/o The GroundTruth Challenge, 10 Visitor Avenue, Boston, MA 02135. Please put Anchorage Each day Information/Report for America within the examine memo line.

• • •

Source link

Alaska

Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia

Published

2 hours ago

January 16, 2025

Press Room

Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia

Map of areas that experienced ecosystem climate stress in the Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 as detected by multiple variables including satellite data and long-term temperature records. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center

Ecological warning lights have blinked on across the Arctic over the last 40 years, according to new research, and many of the fastest-changing areas are clustered in Siberia, the Canadian Northwest Territories, and Alaska.

An analysis of the rapidly warming Arctic-boreal region, published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides a zoomed-in picture of ecosystems experiencing some of the fastest and most extreme climate changes on Earth.

Many of the most climate-stressed areas feature permafrost, or ground that stays frozen year-round, and has experienced both severe warming and drying in recent decades.

To identify these “hotspots,” a team of researchers from Woodwell Climate Research Center, the University of Oslo, the University of Montana, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), and the University of Lleida used more than 30 years of geospatial data and long-term temperature records to assess indicators of ecosystem vulnerability in three categories: temperature, moisture, and vegetation.

Building on assessments like the NOAA Arctic Report Card, the research team went beyond evaluating isolated metrics of change and looked at multiple variables at once to create a more complete, integrated picture of climate and ecosystem changes in the region.

“Climate warming has put a great deal of stress on ecosystems in the high latitudes, but the stress looks very different from place to place and we wanted to quantify those differences,” said Dr. Jennifer Watts, Arctic program director at Woodwell Climate and lead author of the study.

“Detecting hotspots at the local and regional level helps us not only to build a more precise picture of how Arctic warming is affecting ecosystems, but to identify places where we really need to focus future monitoring efforts and management resources.”

The team used spatial statistics to detect “neighborhoods,” or regions of particularly high levels of change during the past decade.

“This study is exactly why we have developed these kinds of spatial statistic tools in our technology. We are so proud to be working closely with Woodwell Climate on identifying and publishing these kinds of vulnerability hotspots that require effective and immediate climate adaptation action and long-term policy,” said Dr. Dawn Wright, chief scientist at Esri. “This is essentially what we mean by the ‘Science of Where.’”

The findings paint a complex and concerning picture.

The most substantial land warming between 1997–2020 occurred in the far eastern Siberian tundra and throughout central Siberia. Approximately 99% of the Eurasian tundra region experienced significant warming, compared to 72% of Eurasian boreal forests.

While some hotspots in Siberia and the Northwest Territories of Canada grew drier, the researchers detected increased surface water and flooding in parts of North America, including Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and central Canada. These increases in water on the landscape over time are likely a sign of thawing permafrost.

Warming severity “hotspots” in Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 were detected by analyzing multiple variables including satellite imagery and long-term temperature records. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center
Map of areas of severe to extremely severe drying in the Arctic-boreal region. Drying severity was determined by analyzing multiple variables from the satellite record. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center
Map of areas that experienced vegetation climate stress in the Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 as detected by multiple variables from the satellite record. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center

Among the 20 most vulnerable places the researchers identified, all contained permafrost.

“The Arctic and boreal regions are made up of diverse ecosystems, and this study reveals some of the complex ways they are responding to climate warming,” said Dr. Sue Natali, lead of the Permafrost Pathways project at Woodwell Climate and co-author of the study.

“However, permafrost was a common denominator—the most climate-stressed regions all contained permafrost, which is vulnerable to thaw as temperatures rise. That’s a really concerning signal.”

For land managers and other decisionmakers, local and regional hotspot mapping like this can serve as a more useful monitoring tool than region-wide averages. Take, for instance, the example of COVID-19 tracking data: maps of county-by-county wastewater data tend to be more helpful tools to guide decision making than national averages, since rates of disease prevalence and transmission can vary widely among communities at a given moment in time.

So, too, with climate trends: local data and trend detection can support management and adaptation approaches that account for unique and shifting conditions on the ground.

The significant changes the team detected in the Siberian boreal forest region should serve as a wakeup call, said Watts.

“These forested regions, which have been helping take up and store carbon dioxide, are now showing major climate stresses and increasing risk of fire. We need to work as a global community to protect these important and vulnerable boreal ecosystems, while also reining in fossil fuel emissions.”

More information:
Regional Hotspots of Change in Northern High Latitudes Informed by Observations From Space, Geophysical Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL108081

Provided by
Woodwell Climate Research Center

Citation:
Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia (2025, January 16)
retrieved 16 January 2025
from https://phys.org/news/2025-01-arctic-hotspots-reveals-areas-climate.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Source link

Alaska

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job

Published

10 hours ago

January 16, 2025

Press Room

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job

A flight attendant’s viral TikTok video ended up costing her job. Nelle Diala, who was working as a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines for over six months was reportedly fired from her job after recording a twerking video while at work, the New York Post reported. After losing her job for “violating” the airline’s “social media policy”, Diala set up a GoFundMe page for financial support. The twerking and dancing video, posted by Diala on her personal social media account, went viral on TikTok and Instagram. The video was captioned, “ghetto bih till i D-I-E, don’t let the uniform fool you.”

After being fired, Diala reposted the twerking video with the new caption: “Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive. What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.” She added the hashtag #discriminationisreal.

According to Diala’s GoFundMe page, she posted the “lighthearted video” during a layover. The video was shot in an empty aircraft. She wrote, “It was a harmless clip that was recorded at 6 am while waiting 2 hours for pilots. I was also celebrating the end of probation.”

“The video went viral overnight, but instead of love and support, it brought unexpected scrutiny. Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn’t think it would cost me my dream job,” she added.

Also Read: To Wi-Fi Or Not To Wi-Fi On A Plane? Pros And Cons Of Using Internet At 30,000 Feet

Talking about being “wrongfully fired”, she said, “My employer accused me of violating their social media policy. I explained that the video wasn’t intended to harm anyone or the company, but they didn’t want to listen. Without warning, they terminated me. No discussion, no chance to defend myself-and no chance for a thorough and proper investigation.”

The seemingly “harmless clip” has led Diala to lose her “dream job”. She shared, “Losing my job was devastating. I’ve always been careful about what I share online, and I never thought this video, which didn’t even mention the airline by name, would cost me my career. Now, I am trying to figure out how to move forward.”

Source link

Alaska

Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway

Published

18 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway

New federal funds will help Alaska’s Department of Transportation develop a plan to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife on one of the state’s busiest highways.

The U.S. Transportation Department gave the state a $626,659 grant in December to conduct a wildlife-vehicle collision study along the Glenn Highway corridor stretching between Anchorage’s Airport Heights neighborhood to the Glenn-Parks Highway interchange.

Over 30,000 residents drive the highway each way daily.

Mark Eisenman, the Anchorage area planner for the department, hopes the study will help generate new ideas to reduce wildlife crashes on the Glenn Highway.

“That’s one of the things we’re hoping to get out of this is to also have the study look at what’s been done, not just nationwide, but maybe worldwide,” Eisenman said. “Maybe where the best spot for a wildlife crossing would be, or is a wildlife crossing even the right mitigation strategy for these crashes?”

Eisenman said the most common wildlife collisions are with moose. There were nine fatal moose-vehicle crashes on the highway between 2018 and 2023. DOT estimates Alaska experiences about 765 animal-vehicle collisions annually.

In the late 1980s, DOT lengthened and raised a downtown Anchorage bridge to allow moose and wildlife to pass underneath, instead of on the roadway. But Eisenman said it wasn’t built tall enough for the moose to comfortably pass through, so many avoid it.

DOT also installed fencing along high-risk areas of the highway in an effort to prevent moose from traveling onto the highway.

Moose typically die in collisions, he said, and can also cause significant damage to vehicles. There are several signs along the Glenn Highway that tally fatal moose collisions, and he said they’re the primary signal to drivers to watch for wildlife.

“The big thing is, the Glenn Highway is 65 (miles per hour) for most of that stretch, and reaction time to stop when you’re going that fast for an animal jumping onto the road is almost impossible to avoid,” he said.

The city estimates 1,600 moose live in the Anchorage Bowl.

Source link