Alaskans In LA Times Stories

Saturday's  LA Times' page 2 had just one story,  by Alaska's Zachariah Hughes , about a transplanted North Carolinian in Kotzebue.  In part:

“I like the fall up here,” said Jay Denton, an educator raised in North Carolina who’s spent the last decade in the small towns and villages of the region. Now he lives in Kotzebue, the town of some 3,200 residents about 20 river miles from Hugo’s bald dome. 

Denton stared down at the broad cursive of the Noatak River as it trickled from the western edge of the Brooks Range toward the Chukchi Sea, flanked by taxi-yellow willows and spiky green spruce and miles of rolling tundra.

Fall in the Arctic is something to behold. It begins with a rush of chilled air that prompts the vegetation to change, a shift in the light, and a flurry of movement, both human and animal. It is a season of paradoxes as the flora and fauna come alive on the cusp of winter. But there’s also the inevitable feeling of decay, of an ephemeral landscape slipping away.

Lillian Lennon photo in LA Times

Today, a long story on the ups and downs for transgender folks nationally, includes a picture of Anchorage's Lillian Lennon, who worked to defeat the referendum that would have repealed transgender rights in Anchorage.

"In April, transgender people got some support from voters in Anchorage. By a 6-percentage-point margin, they defeated a ballot measure that would have repealed a trans-inclusive civil rights ordinance and required transgender people to use public bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender at birth.
For activists, that result was heartening in light of events in Houston in 2015 after its City Council adopted an ordinance that included protections for transgender people using restrooms based on gender identity. Opponents of the ordinance gathered enough signatures for a repeal referendum, then campaigned using the slogan “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms.” By 61% to 39%, the anti-bias ordinance was repealed."

I included the Houston part, just so Alaskans don't get complacent.  The article also mentions a similar referendum is on the ballot in Massachusetts.