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Alaska joins 12 states in opting out of unemployment premium payments

At the KFC/AW shop in Fairbanks, the sign reads, “Bi Weekly Stimulus Check – Apply Within.” It’s a statement about how hard it is for restaurants and other businesses to find workers these days.

On Friday, Alaska Department of Labor announced that along with at least 12 other states, it will opt out of the federal unemployment premium payments that give unemployed Alaskans another $300 a week while they do not work.

Many employers across the country have said they cannot get workers to return because the unemployment benefits are giving them hefty incentives to just stay home. The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program was approved by Congress last year to mitigate the impact on families of the economy that was depressed by Covid-19 and the policy reactions to the pandemic.

Alaska Department of Labor Commissioner Tamika Ledbetter said Alaska will end its participation in the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefit on June 12.

“As Alaska’s economy opens up, employers are posting a wide range of job opportunities and workers are needed,” Ledbetter said.

Unemployment Insurance is a short-term relief program funded through employer and employee contributions.  Federal and state program expansions have added additional weeks of eligibility and supplemental funding to the normal state benefit, the department noted.

Since March 2020, the department has been at the forefront of Alaska’s response to the pandemic. More than $1.2 billion in federal and state funds have been distributed through the UI program.

Extensions of the basic state benefit will continue to Sept. 6, 2021, and will be available to both eligible UI recipients and self-employed filers.

As the economy rebounds, the department has seen a steady reduction in the number of active filers. There are currently 32,000 filers across all available programs – down from a high of approximately 65,000 last May.

“There are numerous training and employment resources available to Alaskans looking for work,” said Commissioner Ledbetter. “A great example is the Virtual Job Fair happening right now. More than 50 local employers have posted recruitments, and the response has been very positive. Employer demand for workers is outpacing job applicants. For those seeking employment, the time is now.

“Therefore, it is time for Alaskans who are able and available to go to work to do so,” Ledbetter said. “For those Alaskans still burdened by lack of childcare or transportation or other issues, I understand the challenges — this period has been like no other in our history. However, unemployment is a temporary support system. The benefits are funded through employee contributions, and the system’s sustainability is built upon a healthy economy.”

What? Election workers haul blank ballots into Anchorage ballot counting offices

In what may be seen as an act of transparency or sheer cluelessness, election workers unloaded 50 boxes of blank ballots at the Anchorage Election Office on Friday, and stacked the boxes in one of the spacious rooms. In broad daylight, while counting is underway in the mayor’s runoff election.

Bronson for Mayor campaign workers were on site, and approached the operation to document it. The campaign may file a challenge over the action, since there are now thousands of blank ballots in the same building where ballots are being counted. The room the ballots are in has a push-button code, but it’s unknown how many municipal workers have the code.

The boxes of blank ballots are said to be leftover from the in-person voting centers in Anchorage. These ballots were available to people who did not wish to participate in the mail-in election, but wanted to vote in person on May 11. It’s unknown how many ballots are in these boxes.

Election observers were not notified that the blank ballots were arriving, but the Bronson Campaign has a robust monitoring crew on site.

The Anchorage mayoral election ended on May 11, and counting of ballots continues on Friday. As of Thursday evening, 80,993 ballots had been counted. The election is scheduled to be certified by the Assembly May 25, and the new mayor will be sworn in on July 1.

Read: Soft concession or distraction: Dunbar loses hope but Bronson fights on

Democrat pollster Ivan Moore says Bronson stole election, suggests it’s time for city hall vandalism

Ivan Moore, principal at Alaska Survey Research, posted on Facebook Thursday that candidate Dave Bronson stole the election in the Anchorage mayor’s race.

“Well Bronson clearly stole the election. What say we go smash some windows at city hall?” Moore wrote.

Was Moore kidding? That’s hard to say, because he is often tart and unreserved in his pronouncements. He didn’t say “LOL” at the end of his post, nor did he use any emojis that would indicate he’s kidding.

Ivan is calling for vandalism, and that may be difficult to explain.

Moore is a pollster who conducts surveys for primarily Democrats. He has a reputation for doing polls at a critical point as a method to raise money for his client.

Moore continues to build on his record for being consistently wrong. In October of 2014, he predicted then-Sen. Mark Begich would win over now-Sen. Dan Sullivan; in 2018, he said then-Gov. Bill Walker would win over now-Gov. Mike Dunleavy; and in 2020 he predicted that Alyse Galvin would win over Alaska Congressman Don Young.

Moore also picked Forrest Dunbar to win over Congressman Don Young, who he called an “old fart,” in 2014.

Micciche: No masks in Senate

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Alaska Senate President Peter Micciche said today that he is lifting the mask mandate in the Alaska Senate; when senators are at their desks they can take their face masks off. Desks in the House and Senate have been surrounded by Plexiglas since the Covid-19 virus arrived in Alaska.

The Legislative Council has the authority over the rest of the building, and has a working group within the council that is assigned to the mask, vaccine, and testing policies. House Speaker Louise Stutes has authority over the House Chambers and may make a similar announcement now that the CDC has said those who are vaccinated don’t need to wear masks indoors or out.

Senators will wear masks on the way to desks, but may then take them off. Micciche has expressed the desire to go back to normal — not a new normal with masks, but a normal normal.

Micciche made news known during his regular Friday press briefing. Outside the Capitol building, children were walking to school in Juneau, wearing masks on their way through neighborhoods, while in the open air. For some children in communities, masks are now the “normal normal,” but for those in the Capitol, things are returning to how they were a year and a half ago. But the reporters at the press briefing with Micciche kept their masks on.

Peace Officers Memorial Day ceremony

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proclaimed Saturday, May 15, as Peace Officers Memorial Day.

On Friday, May 14, law enforcement officers from across Southcentral Alaska, will gather outside of the Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Lab at 4805 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. in Anchorage to honor the 68 peace officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in The Last Frontier.

The ceremony will start at 3 pm and will be streamed live on the Alaska State Troopers’ Facebook page for those unable to attend. The event is open to the public and media.

Additionally, there will be a ceremony in Juneau at noon at Evergreen Cemetery. A ceremony will be held in Interior Alaska at a later date.

Soft concession or distraction? Dunbar says he can’t catch up, but Bronson keeps working for every vote

On Facebook, mayoral candidate Forrest Dunbar has told his supporters that it’s unlikely that he will win, since Dave Bronson is ahead by 627 votes. He’s going to be off the grid for three days at a National Guard exercise and is leaving further communications to the public to his campaign staff.

That’s not how the Dave Bronson for Mayor team sees the race. Volunteers have been busy calling voters whose ballots were rejected, and encouraging them to head to the Election office at Ship Creek in Anchorage to “cure” their ballots. This usually means showing identification and confirming their signature, or fixing some other aspect of the ballot they turned in. There were hundreds of rejected ballots that need to be fixed.

The Bronson team believes the count could tighten up with the ballots that have not yet been counted. Those include ballots voted at the Loussac Library on the final day of the election, May 11.

The elections center had received 89,469 ballots as of Thursday. As of then, 80,993 ballots had been counted. The election is scheduled to be certified by the Assembly May 25, and the new mayor will be sworn in on July 1.

Read: Bronson gains ground with 627-vote lead

Check back for updates.

Craig Campbell: To mask or not to mask, America has been scammed

By CRAIG E. CAMPBELL

Last month I wrote a piece in Must Read Alaska that statistically showed, using Center for Disease Control data, that masks were not the decisive action that suppressed spread of the 2019 coronavirus influenza pandemic. The fact is, Covid-19 had much higher death rates in states with strict mask mandates than in those that had more lenient mandates. 

Before you start with the, “He is spreading a false science narrative,” let me be clear I never said that masks did not provide some level of protection from the spread of respiratory infections. 

It’s all a matter of balance between protecting the public health from serious and deadly diseases and protecting our constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At what point has government overstepped its role in protecting a free society from disease?

Wearing masks has known health risks. It’s a fact that wearing a face covering substantially increases the inhalation of carbon dioxide which creates an oxygen deficiency to the brain.

This causes headaches, drowsiness, and other negative impacts. Long-term oxygen deficiency kills brain cells, which may be the explanation for why the infamous Dr. Anthony Fauci remarked on national news last week that, “So it is conceivable that as we go on, a year or two or more from now, that during certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory-borne viruses like the flu, people might actually elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory-borne diseases.”  

Bingo, the door is opening to reveal a glimpse of the future envisioned by Fauci.

Just a year ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Fauci stated there was no need to wear face coverings. A couple months later, he declared face coverings should be worn, coupled with social distancing and washing hands, to reduce the spread of Covid-19. 

By the end of last year he was publicly telling us that two masks work better than a single mask. Now the wizard of medical spin is introducing us to their eventual objective; wearing masks most all the time to prevent the spread of respiratory infections. Not just for Covid, but eventually, government requiring masks be worn during any period of respiratory-borne disease, like even the seasonal flu.  

This is exactly what I predicted: Power-hungry government “leaders” sought to expand their control over our lives by turning us into submissive sheep, wearing masks to stop disease. Can’t wait for society to finally be disease-free when we are all forced to live in our own plastic bubbles of HEPA-filtered, sterilized air. 

Were masks the saving grace to stop the Covid spread in Florida and Texas? They were not. Florida and Texas were two of the first states to remove the mask mandate and make it optional and they had some of the lowest per capita death rates in the nation. 

Yesterday the Fauci said it was OK to not wear a mask outdoors if you have been vaccinated.  

“If you are going into a completely crowded situation, where people are falling all over each other, then you wear a mask. But any other time, if you’re vaccinated and you’re outside, put aside your mask. You don’t have to wear it.” Fauci boldly proclaimed.

Really, Captain Obvious?  Where have you been? If you are vaccinated why do you need to wear a mask at all?  This protracted messaging that we need to wear a mask even after being vaccinated, which we are told is nearly 99 percent effective to protect against Covid, clearly shows they are not following the science but are merely using an orchestrated political effort to continue controlling our lives, even when science has proven them wrong. That’s’ the purest definition of being a dishonest and politically motivated hypocrite Dr. Fauci.

Today the CDC announced that “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.” Poof! In the blink of an interview, all is well with the world.  

This charade has gone on long enough. Masks were never proven by science to prevent the spread of Covid.  Science has proven that vaccinations can prevent a person from getting Covid. President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was a visionary approach to accelerating the best path towards public health in the period of Covid. Biden’s mishandling of the “pandemic” has been a disingenuous attempt at portraying leadership where none exists. 

Don’t be fooled. Retaining the mask mandate kept elected officials in control of our lives and, using the prophet Dr. Fauci as he spread fear in Americans that an influenza is the most dangerous and deadly health problem facing society, gave them the power to make us all even more subservient to government, forever. 

The Biden Administration’s waffling on masks, while claiming credit for the success of President Trump’s action is disgraceful. Today’s admission by the CDC is clear evidence we have been scammed for the past four months by a bunch of con artists trying to retain control over our liberties under the false veil of protecting public health.

Excuse me. What about the nearly 600,000 that die each year in the US from heart disease and the other 600,000 that die from cancer?  

What about the 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2019 alone? What about the dramatic increase in suicide this past year?  What about the number of people who died from accidents related to the use of alcohol and marijuana?  

Nope, just watch, the most dangerous health crisis America will now face will be the seasonal flu, so shut-up, get your flu shot, and wear your damned mask when Big Brother tells you.    

Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor. He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation.  He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).

Breaking: Bronson gains ground

Candidate Dave Bronson gained a bigger lead in the race for Anchorage mayor today.

Bronson has a 627 vote lead on Forrest Dunbar in the May 11 mayoral runoff.

  • 40,810 votes for Bronson, 50.39%
  • 40,183 votes for Forrest Dunbar, 49.61%

A total of 80,993 ballots have been counted so far. The lead that Bronson has currently is more than one half percent, which would avoid an automatic recount.

The Election Office cannot say how many ballots they have left to count but there may be another 10,000 ballots or more left in uncounted status. Election officials have not yet counted votes from the Loussac Library or Eagle River that were voted in person on Election Day.

Election officials also could not say whether they intend to work on Saturday, according to the Bronson campaign.

Breaking: Governor calls special sessions to deal with Permanent Fund dividend, appropriation and tax limits

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a proclamation calling the Alaska Legislature into special session beginning May 20 to complete work on the state budget and to act on his constitutional amendment protecting the Permanent Fund, Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), and power cost equalization (PCE). 

This is phase one of two efforts to fix several of the state’s fiscal condition and to regain the trust of Alaskans as it pertains to their Permanent Fund dividends. The capital budget and supplemental budgets are also in the proclamation.

Never before has an Alaska governor given a legislature as much notice about a special session. Dunleavy sources said it was a sign of him trying to work in good faith with the leaders of all four caucuses.

“It is clear from my conversations with legislative leaders that more time is needed to complete this year’s budget and to address a long-term, permanent solution to protecting the Permanent Fund and PFD. Consequently, today I’m calling a 30-day special sessions to give lawmakers additional time to complete those tasks” Dunleavy said. “Nothing is more important than giving Alaskans a long-term solution to our fiscal challenges, and this session is an important first step.”

The first special session begins May 20, 2021 and directs work on three topics:

  • FY22 Operating Budget & Mental Health Budget (HB 69/HB 71)
  • FY22 Permanent Fund Dividend (HB 72/SB 52)
  • Constitutional Amendment protecting the Permanent Fund, PFD, and PCE (SJR 6/HJR 7)

Dunleavy also set a second special session to address other elements of a comprehensive state fiscal plan including a constitutional spending limit, consideration of new revenue measures, a prohibition on new taxes without voter approval, and appropriations of federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act funds.

The second special session is Aug. 2, 2021 and directs work on four topics:

  • Constitutional Amendment to establish an appropriation limit (HJR 6/ SJR 5)
  • Constitutional Amendment to prohibit new state taxes without voter approval (HJR 8/ SJR 7)
  • Appropriations of federal relief funds, including ARP funds
  • Potential measures to increase state revenues

Read the governor’s special session proclamations here.