"Office of Public Advocacy"

Some of Alaska’s most vulnerable residents were left ailing, indebted and at risk of losing their housing after their guardianship cases were transferred from a public agency to a fledgling nonprofit.

The office provides guardianship services for adults with severe mental illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, dementia or traumatic brain injuries, along with young adults transitioning out of the custody of foster care or the juvenile justice system.

Her heirs are expected to get about a $1 million of the judgment.

An intrastate case raised grand legal questions about poor, rural Alaskans’ access to the justice system. Yet it was also an exercise in budgetary semantics with almost no practical effect — except for running up publicly funded legal bills.

Transition chairman Tuckerman Babcock said the resignation requests allow at-will workers to let the transition know they want to be part of the Dunleavy administration.

Laron Carlton Graham, 40, faces two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 2015 deaths of 36-year-old Robert Meireis and 34-year-old Elizabeth Tonsmeire.

Alaska Bar Association President Darrel Gardner was in Ketchikan this week to meet with local bar members. He and ABA Pro Bono Director Krista Scully came by KRBD Monday to talk about some of the association’s outreach programs, meant to help low-income Alaskans facing legal matters.