About 200 people with bold and colorful homemade signs showed up Thursday afternoon near the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium campus in Anchorage to protests the forced Covid-19 vaccinations of employees.
Several of them said they would be losing their jobs in October, when the deadline for getting the vaccine was in full effect. One woman works for an airlines and was there to support the medical workers, saying she fears her company will be next to mandate vaccines.
One woman holding a sign so her face could not be seen by her employer said she has a medical exemption because she reacts badly to the flu shot and gets a type of paralysis, and she said that ANTHC will not give her an exemption.
Both ANTHC and Southcentral Foundation have enacted the “jab or no job” policy. A shortage of medical workers in Alaska has already begun to create problems in the health care sector.
ANTHC and Southcentral employ more than 5,000 people.
Whether employers can force employees to get vaccinated is not settled law. But in June, a Texas judge ruled that a hospital can mandate the Covid-19 vaccine to all employees, and since then the tactic by employers has spread across the nation.
Providence Hospital in Anchorage has said it is only encouraging its staff to be vaccinated.
Five thousand years of the plodding progression of Western Civilization ended and a new World was born a little after 8:15 am Japanese Time (GMT +9) on Aug. 6, 1945.
Five thousand years of history and human progress being dictated by the clashes of kings, emperors, tyrants, and Empires ended in a blinding flash 1,600 feet above Hiroshima, Japan. The end was sealed three days later with another blinding flash over Nagasaki, Japan, when the last of the ancient empires, Imperial Russia in the guise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was stymied in its imperial ambitions in Asia.
Little did the Soviets know that the United States was out of nuclear bombs, though the U.S. government was so riddled with Soviet spies that they may have known.
We don’t like to talk about it but the U.S., like England, was a very war-weary nation in the spring and summer of 1945. The ink was barely dry on the German surrender when the British turned out Sir Winston Churchill for “free stuff.”
The U.S. and England had agreed on a “Germany First” strategy. Huge Army and air resources as well as logistical support and military transport had been devoted to the European war and to aid to the U.S.S.R. The U.S. shouldered most of the load in the Pacific with enormous naval resources, including naval air power, but relatively limited use of U.S. ground troops. The U.S. and Commonwealth troops who fought the island-hopping campaign across the Pacific did most of it with tens of thousands of troops, not the hundreds of thousands devoted to the retaking of North Africa and Continental Europe.
But as the Allies neared the Japanese home islands, the butcher’s bill became much, much dearer. Between June of 1944 and June of 1945, the U.S. took a million casualties. Men who had survived fighting from North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy were looking at being packed into troop transports and sent to the Pacific for the invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Needless to say, morale was poor both in the ranks and on the home front. Years of wage and price controls and rationing had led to unrest and growing labor disputes. The U.S. was considering even drafting women for service in war production industries. The U.S. really needed to end the war.
In late July the Allies held the Potsdam Conference to settle the disposition of German and war-torn Europe and to set policy for ending the war with Japan. During the Conference, President Truman was informed that the first US atomic bomb test had been successful. He let Stalin know that the U.S. now possessed a new and powerful weapon, which of course Stalin already knew. The Allies delivered an ultimatum to Japan demanding its unconditional surrender or face destruction. The Japanese ignored the ultimatum. The U.S. made good on the ultimatum on Aug. 6.
Two days later our gallant Soviet allies denounced their neutrality pact with Japan, turned their armies east and tried to scoop up as much Japanese held territory in Asia as they could, including much of China. We owe the existence of communist China, communist North Vietnam, and North Korea to that adventure.
So, you can get a good debate about whether the Nagasaki bomb was “dropped on Tokyo or Moscow.” It is a valid argument that the Hiroshima bomb had not persuaded the Japanese militarists to surrender, so the Nagasaki bomb was added persuasion.
It is an equally valid argument that the Nagasaki bomb was dropped to demonstrate to the Soviets that the first one wasn’t a freak. Imagine if you will the Soviets turning their vast following in the U.S. left against further prosecution of the war.
Much of academia, media, and organized labor were sympathetic to if not allied with Soviet communism. An “End the War” campaign in England and the U.S. would likely have led to accepting terms with Japan that would have made Asia into Soviet chattel.
In less cynical terms, as a practical decision, the two atomic bombs saved millions of lives. The U.S. was estimating taking as many casualties in taking the Home Islands as it had taken while restoring Europe. Most of our literature and history about the Pacific war understates the ruthlessness of that front.
We remonstrate a bit about the Japanese cruelty to prisoners and such, but generally Allied troops asked no quarter and gave none. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are barely in the top 10 list of civilian casualties from conventional bombing of German and Japanese cities. If necessary, the U.S. could and would have burnt every structure in Japan to the ground; in one night a B-29 low-altitude raid using incendiary bombs leveled most of Tokyo that March of 1945.
Just burning things down didn’t have quite the drama of a single big bang and a bright flash. The world is better for Aug. 6.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon.
Photo: Air Force Col. Paul Tibbetts waves from the cockpit of the Enola Gay moments before takeoff on Aug. 6, 1945. A short time later, the plane dropped the first atomic bomb in combat. Armen Shamlian/US Army Air Forces
The teachers gathered in the Bartlett High School auditorium in Anchorage, crowded in together, hardly a mask in sight, while a woman who appeared to be Superintendent Deena Bishop sashayed across the stage to the microphone.
The lyrics to the song, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” blared, and teachers rose from their seats and clapped, bobbed, and sang along, as they would in church:
“There’s been so many things that’s held us down But now it looks like things are finally comin’ around I know we’ve got, a long long way to go And where we’ll end up, I don’t know”
It was a school leadership conference moment captured for posterity by Assembly member John Weddleton for his Facebook followers, and he was clearly in the groove with enthusiasm when he wrote, “The School Board has way more fun than the Assembly. The ASD leaders summit turned into a dance party. There seems to be a lot of excitement for a year that is not like last year.”
That didn’t age well.
One day after the video went live on Facebook, Bishop sent a letter to parents saying that she will require face masks on all 50,000 children in the district, from K-12, plus on staff and teachers’ faces when school begins this fall.
Her decision was reviewed by the Anchorage School Board on Tuesday and they declined to take any action or advise her to change course.
Bishop, the leader of Anchorage schools and ultimate decider, was taking her cues from the board itself. Word is, school board member Pat Higgins had bullied her and said she would be fired if she didn’t put a mask mandate in place. And so she did. Her job was clearly on the line. The decision was clearly in her wheelhouse, but she bent to the pressure of her employers, the Anchorage School Board. It’s pure cowardice.
The decision not only covers all traditional buildings operated by the school district, but also stretches to charter schools that operate out of their own private buildings, if those schools are under the supervision of the school district.
Anchorage parents wondered what happened to the mayoral order, made on July 1 by Mayor Dave Bronson, that said, “Effective today, mask mandates in all Municipality of Anchorage owned, leased, or used buildings is rescinded. While individuals may make personal choices to wear a mask as a protective health measure, masks will not be required to be worn by anyone entering or while with a municipal facility. In addition, the Municipality of Anchorage will not require any employees, or applicants for city employment, to be vaccinated.”
Aren’t school buildings owned by the Municipality of Anchorage? If not the municipality, then is it the school district? Has the mayor no jurisdiction to override the superintendent?
Such are the questions of reasonable people, the ones who observe with a raised eyebrow the see-saw advice coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But our government is structured in such a way that the Assembly must stay out of the School Board’s realm.
Even child advocate Assemblywoman Jamie Allard, who said that masking children eight hours a day constitutes child abuse, only has her voice to use — she has no authority over the school board or the superintendent. She can only be a verbal champion and critic of the mask policy being laid down as law in Anchorage Schools. At least she stood up and said what many parents think: This mask policy is child abuse.
In the same way, the governor of Alaska cannot hand down edicts to the Anchorage School Board. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has his own jurisdiction and in reality, Alaskans would not want to grant a governor that level of authority.
Friends, we get the local government that we elect. Anchorage voted for this school board, and this school board’s the exception of one, is a radical body. Scores and graduations are dropping, suicides among students are rising, and this board and this superintendent is going to muzzle the young faces all over again — with no end in sight, no set point for when the muzzles can come off.
It was Kelly Lessens who was elected to serve out the term of Starr Marssett, who resigned earlier this year. Lessens said during the most recent school board meeting that Americans don’t live in a fundamentally free society, inferring that putting a mask on children should be an acceptable price to pay for living in America.
She will have to run for reelection in 2022 and those words will, perhaps, come back to haunt the hardcore Democrat.
Margo Bellamy, the racially charged School Board President who supports using critical race theory in schools, has a term that also ends in 2022. Her seat could use some freshening up, as well.
If both of those seats flip to conservative, the Anchorage School Board will be more diverse in its perspective, but it will still vote for a progressive, union agenda at least until the 2023 election. Only Dave Donley is standing for education, not fads, for Anchorage schools.
The adage goes, “The beatings will stop when morale improves.” This is our Anchorage School District today under the current leadership.
The fear-based, NEA-driven, science-free masking of our children will continue until Anchorage voters have had enough and start treating the school board elections with more concern than any other elected body. There are recalls, there are lawsuits, but all of this has to start with the stakeholders — the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, and dare we say, the students themselves.
The Alaska Senate Democrats are asking Gov. Mike Dunleavy to fight a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that made the $500 campaign donation limit in Alaska illegal.
The court said in Thompson v. Hebdon that Alaska laws placing limits on certain campaign contributions violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“If the court’s ruling stands, there will be no limits on individual campaign contributions to candidates or political groups, and no limits on nonresidents’ campaign contributions,” the group wrote in a letter to the governor.
“Alaskans recognize the corrosive effects of big money in politics and understand that elections should not be decided simply by wealthy individuals capable of making unlimited campaign contributions—including Outsiders who do not live and work here, and cannot vote here, but seek influence over Alaska’s elected representatives for favorable policy from which they will reap benefits. Unlimited campaign contributions are a threat to our democracy and should not be permitted to drown out the voices of average Alaskans,” the Democrats said.
The campaign limit is one that especially hurts Republican candidates because they do not typically get donations from union organizations, which are exempt from the limit.
But the group is saying the governor has a constitutional duty to fight the court.
“We therefore urge you to direct the attorney general to seek rehearing en banc within the timeframe required for the petition. The case was decided by a three-member panel of judges, with the court’s Chief Judge dissenting in the outcome. If the petition is granted, eleven members of the court will review these issues, and the Chief Judge would serve on that bench,” the group wrote, adding that “The Chief Judge’s dissenting opinion is factually and legally sound, and the state should rely on that reasoning for our arguments.”
The Democrats say the ruling is going to threaten the integrity of elections and must be blocked by the governor.
“Campaign season is already underway, and there is a danger that a gap in the law could result in wealthy donors making significant, unfettered campaign contributions. Therefore, as long as legal proceedings continue or should the petition be denied, the attorney general should seek a stay of the Thompson ruling until it is overturned or until Alaska enacts constitutionally permissible changes to our donation limits,” they wrote.
Those signing the letter were Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, Scott Kawasaki, Jesse Kiehl, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Donny Olson, and Bill Wielechowski. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat, did not sign the letter.
Superintendent of the Mat-Su Borough School District Randy Trani presented his school Covid-19 mitigation plan to the borough school board on Wednesday night.
The plan to be rolled out is school-specific, and is dramatically different from that being implemented by the Anchorage School District, where it’s “one size fits all” and students and staff must be masked when in campus facilities, except in limited situations.
For Mat-Su schools that have no cases of Covid-19, no masks are required of students and staff, while if there is a Covid-19 diagnosis at a school, the administration will review information from the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, and has an option of masks or other measures. If there is a widespread outbreak at a school, the campus may be closed temporarily, with students doing distance learning.
“We are treating each individual school building as a community,” said Thomas Bergey, who is president of the School Board. The only guidance the board has given to the superintendent is that the schools will remain open, he said. The details of how to do that are operational matters in the purview of the superintendent.
“What folks don’t understand is that school boards, under Title 14 of state code, have specific duties, and the superintendent has specific duties. Keeping schools open or closed — that is the superintendent’s job,” he said. “The school board doesn’t have the authority to close the schools but has the authority to end a superintendent’s contract.”
Enrollment numbers for Mat-Su Borough schools were released last night by Trani during his superintendent report, and it appears the district will be on track for about 19,000 students, Bergey said, about the same as last year.
In Anchorage, parents are sharing stories about moving to the Mat-Su so their students can attend school without masks, and play football or other sports and take part in after-school activities. Bergey has heard those stories. Many parents testified at the board meeting on Wednesday, and nearly all of them wanted the board and superintendent know that they oppose masking the children.
In a parent survey responded to by 750 people in the Mat-Su, only 17 percent supported masks for school this fall, while 71 percent of the parents said “no” to masks on students. 55 percent of all parents participating in the survey were in the “hell no” category.
The two school districts geographically contiguous to the Anchorage School District, Kenai and Mat-Su, have rejected mandatory masking of students for the coming school year. At the Aug. 3 meeting of the Anchorage School Board, Superintendent Deena Bishop presented her plan for Anchorage schools this fall.
It included changing from the completely successful Summer School policy of parent-choice optional masking to essentially full-time mandatory masking of every child while in a school district building. Some case-by-case exceptions will be allowed.
Students will not be forced to wear masks while actively doing sports. No longer will parents have the option to choose this health decision for their children.
The School Board could have rejected mandatory masking at the Aug. 3 meeting, but my three amendments against it all failed without being seconded. Those were essentially 6-1 votes in favor of no parental choice and mandatory masking.
The Board received hundreds of messages specifically on the masking issue both in support and opposed to mandatory masking. On the night of the meeting, my count was about 20 people testified in support and almost 50 against.
The primary expressed justifications for mandatory masking were support from the American Association of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control; the increased risk of the Delta COVID-19 variant; and currently increased COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations. Additionally, proponents argued that masks have some, however small, ability to reduce COVID-19 transmission, so why not force their use?
The primary oppositions to mandatory masking were that:
1. Parents are the best at deciding personal health choices for their children and not a one-size-fits-all bureaucracy;
2. Typical masks do not work well against COVID-19 transmission;
3. Optional masking has worked successfully all summer in Anchorage Summer School, with only one publicized case out of 9,000 students;
4. Masks are potentially damaging to the physical and mental health of children;
5. The Centers for Disease Control has been so wrong so often and so political they cannot be trusted (the primary justification for the newest CDC mask recommendation was a single Massachusetts event that was not school related, and the school environment has many special safeguards);
6. The World Health Organization does not fully agree with the CDC;
7. Even the CDC reports that fewer than 1 in 200,000 or .005% of children infected have died from COVID-19, which is less than the children who die from influenza (the flu) most years, and we have never mandated masks due to the flu;
8. While the Delta variant is much more contagious, it is no more deadly, and the vaccines we have do a very good job of preventing serious illness;
9. Mandatory masking just will not work for the youngest children, at least those in kindergarten and first grade, and is harmful to them educationally, mentally and physically.
10. The school district’s process for approving exceptions to the masking rules is not working well, and children with special needs are suffering;
11. Some district staff will likely use the guidelines to justify forcing mask-wearing even outside the buildings and in spite of the identified exceptions;
12. Just like last year, because of other non-student-based influences, once a policy is in place, the school district will delay or refuse to change even if the science clearly no longer supports it;
13. Many parents who can afford to or can homeschool so will withdraw their children from ASD if masks are mandatory.
I extensively read and studied the facts and the data and concluded that, on the whole, mandatory masking of all students will do more harm than good for the students of the Anchorage School District. I am especially concerned with increased suicides, mental health damage to our children directly caused by mask mandates, and educational loss.
Accordingly, at the Aug. 3 meeting, I proposed three amendments to the policy, all of which failed due to having no supporting second for my motions. No other amendments were proposed. The plan then went into effect without the Board actually voting to adopt it.
My amendments were:
1. That the Board amend the plan to continue the Summer School parent-choice optional masking policy.
It failed for lacking a second.
2. That the superintendent reconsider the plan based on the public testimony.
It failed for lacking a second.
3. That the Board amend the plan to continue the Summer School optional masking policy for kindergarten and first-graders.
It failed for lacking a second.
I hope the superintendent and my fellow board members will reconsider and actively seek alternatives to mandatory masking of all students.
One idea a testifier offered to preserve parental choice was to group students into mask and no-mask classrooms. Our community needs to hold the district’s leadership responsible for promptly returning masking choices to parents if Anchorage is not in a high COVID-19 risk condition.
Dave Donley is a lifelong resident of Anchorage, parent of teenage twins, attorney, and served as a state representative and senator for 16 years. He wrote this as an individual School Board member and not on behalf of the Anchorage School District, School Board or any appointed or military position he may hold.
From former Gov. Bill and Donna Walker, union representatives, to politicos whose resumes stretch far back in Alaska history, about 150 people gathered for the annual Congressman Don Young “Taste of Alaska” fundraiser for his next campaign for reelection.
Young has run for reelection since winning a special election to become Alaska’s lone congressman in 1973. He has served 25 two-year terms.
At a lovely private home on the lower hillside in South Anchorage, Young was introduced to the crowd by Julie Fate-Sullivan, wife of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who was to be a special guest but has been held in Washington D.C. by the infrastructure bill vote, which is pending.
Young held forth in his usual good-humored stump speech, telling the crowd that he’ll serve in the role as long as Alaskans say they need him there.
Spotted in the crowd were these notables (and many others): CJ Zane, Admiral Tom and Sylvia Barrett, Chuck Heath (brother of Sarah Palin), John Boyles, Rep. James and Nancy Kaufman, Jeremy Price, John Hendrix, Ashley Reed (father of Truman Reed), Sarah Erckmann Ward, Jim Udelhoven, Rachel Bylsma, Frank Bickford (Young’s 1984 campaign manager when he was challenged by Pegge Begich), Aves Thompson, Carl Mars, Joe Balash, John Crowther, Tara Sweeney, Mike Anderson, Daniel Shaw, Zoi Maroudas, Jason Hoke, Mary Ann Pease, Judy and Randy Eledge, Joseph Lurtsema, Frank McQueary, Curtis Thayer, Perry Green, Jordan Schilling, Deb Bronson, Ryan McKee, Daniel George, former Sen. Cathy Giessel, and former UA President Jim Johnsen.
Congressman Young was accompanied by his wife Anne Walton Young.
The annual Taste of Alaska event was postponed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and made a triumphant return at a new venue, and with many familiar faces, and several young up-and-comers.
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is making permanent repairs to areas damaged by the Nov. 30, 2018 earthquake throughout Southcentral Alaska.
Starting Friday, Aug. 6, DOT is closing the on-ramp northbound Seward Highway at Tudor Rd at 10 pm. The ramp and highway will reopen at approximately 4 am on Monday, Aug. 9.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services completed the first of a three-step process to recover from the attack on its information technology infrastructure.
Back online are a few services, such as the ability to get birth, death, and marriage certificates.
The “detection and analysis phase” is complete and the department’s security contractors identified those responsible for conducting the attack. The department has called it “a highly sophisticated group known to conduct complex cyberattacks against organizations such as state governments and health care entities,” but did not elaborate.
“At this time, the investigation has found no indications that this was a ransomware attack and there is no current evidence that Alaskans’ protected health information or personally identifiable information was stolen,” the department said in a statement.
“The type of group behind this disruptive attack is a very serious operation with advanced capabilities,” said Commissioner Adam Crum. “DHSS is intensely focused on responding to the attack and we continue to work with our security partners and the state Office of Information Technology to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.”
“This was not a ‘one-and-done’ situation, but rather a sophisticated attack intended to be carried out undetected over a prolonged period. The attackers took steps to maintain that long-term access even after they were detected,” said Technology Officer Scott McCutcheon. “In addition to getting everything back up and running, our team is taking strong, preventative actions and developing more robust incident response capabilities so we can quickly respond to any future cyberattacks.”
DHSS is focused on:
Containment, eradication and recovery: “Significant progress has been made in removing the attacker from DHSS systems and we have no evidence of the attacker being active in our environment at this time. Recovery work continues to build back resilient systems and restoring services. A firm timeline on full restoration of services is not yet known as the Information Technology Incident Response Team is developing and implementing new processes and technologies to provide more secure and resilient services.”
Post-incident activity: “DHSS will further strengthen its processes, tools and people to be more resilient to future cyberattacks. Recommendations for future security enhancements and any additional funding needs will be provided to Commissioner Crum.”
The first system brought back online was the Electronic Vital Records System used by the Health Analytics and Vital Records Section (HAVRS) to fulfill requests for vital records such as birth, death and marriage certificates.
Access to the system was restored on July 26, HAVRS has been transitioning back to automated processes and addressing the backlog of work created by the outage.
Both the Juneau and Anchorage Vital Records Offices have restored most of their certificate services, with a few limitations in place so staff can focus on processing the backlog orders.
There is no timeline for how long it will take to eliminate the backlog, but this task is a priority for HAVRS, and staffing has been adjusted to work through the process as quickly as possible, the department said.
“As systems move closer to coming back online, DHSS recognizes this lengthy outage of many of its online services has been disruptive to Alaskans but again asks for everyone’s patience as we work through this ongoing situation. Staff are working as efficiently as they can to process requests in a timely manner; however, in many cases, the procedures they have been following take longer due to the need to perform tasks manually,” the department said.
For phone assistance during business hours (8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.), contact the department at 907-269-7800 or download this detailed list of contacts for divisions, sections and programs. Many divisions have temporary webpages available with their most critical information and forms at dhss.alaska.gov.
For questions specific to COVID-19, the COVID-19 vaccine helpline is available at 907-646-3322 from 9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on weekends. You may also email [email protected] for help or visit the temporary COVID-19 section of the DHSS website at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/COVID-19/default.aspx.
