Kenai – A plane crash in Soldotna this morning involved a plane owned by a lawmaker.
11:12 am Update: Sources revealed to MRAK that Gary Knopp was piloting one of the planes, which was headed to Fairbanks with one passenger.The other was a charter air service “High Adventure Air” based out of Mirror Lake, with several on board.Mirror Lake is about two miles from the Soldotna Air Strip. High Adventure Air has an excellent reputation for communicating their location and intentions for air traffic.
Two planes collided over Mayoni Street, close to mile 91.5 of the Sterling Highway. The highway was closed for a time but is now open and Troopers are on the scene.
One of the planes was registered to Rep. Gary Knopp. Must Read Alaska reached out to Knopp on his cell phone this morning but it went to voice mail.
Knopp, who represents District 30, reportedly owns a new Super Cub. The other plane was a Beaver, according to MRAK sources.
There are reportedly deaths, and apparently one survivor. Central Peninsula Hospital confirmed one person arrived by ambulance.
This is a breaking story. Check back for more information.
The Alaska House of Representatives Committee on Committees unanimously supported Speaker Bryce Edgmon’s choice for the Alaska Redistricting Board, according to a source that was close to the committee.
That means four Republicans denied their own party a conservative pick to the board that will shape the political destiny of Alaska for the next decade.
Although Nicole Borromeo is not the most radical member of any Redistricting Board in the state’s history, she is close. Perhaps only Vikki Otte and Julian Mason of the 2001 Redistricting Board are more to the left of Borromeo, who is a Doyon shareholder. She was a leader and spokesperson in the successful ouster of sitting Judge Michael Coreyin 2018, and she was outspoken against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Borromeo also signed the petition to recall the governor.
The concern about the Redistricting Board going blue all started in 2019. Edgmon, a Democrat who only became an undeclared voter in order to become Speaker, had signed a pledge in February of 2019 that said his pick to the board would meet with the approval of the majority of the Committee on Committees, which was mainly Republican, albeit Republicans who had abandoned their fellow Republican Majority.
That single line was part of the binding caucus agreement that seven Republicans cobbled together to put him in the Speaker’s chair for the past two years, even though he is a lifelong Democrat. The House of Representatives has a clear majority of Republicans, with 23 of the 40 seats. In fact, it had been controlled by Republicans for decades. Then seven Republicans went over to the other side and created a deal for themselves.
On Feb. 13, 2019, one day before the binding caucus agreement was signed, Must Read Alaskawrote: “Giving Edgmon the Speaker’s gavel effectively gives the Democrats one seat on the five-member redistricting board, something Republicans are opposed to.”
There are just 15 Democrats and two members who are undeclared in the House. The seat on the Redistricting Board was supposed to be chosen by a Republican Speaker — but that was denied by the “unity” ticket approach that installed a Democrat at its head.
The four Republicans on the Committee on Committees who supported this choice for Redistricting are Louise Stutes, Jennifer Johnston, Chuck Kopp and Steve Thompson. Neal Foser and Bryce Edgmon are the only two Democrats actually on the committee.
According to MRAK sources, the committee met telephonically with all members present except for Rep. Chuck Kopp, who was fishing in Bristol Bay. Edgmon said he had Kopp’s approval before the meeting.
The Redistricting Board is appointed toward the end of every U.S. Census and redraws political boundaries as populations shift. The board members must come from different areas of the state. Borromeo is in place to represent rural Alaska because she has roots in McGrath, although she lives in Anchorage.
An excellent history of Alaska redistricting can be found at this link in a master’s thesis by Chloe Cotton, while a student at Claremont College.
Only one seat remains to be named to the Redistricting Board, and it is the choice of Alaska Supreme Court Justice Joel Bolger, who has come out publicly against the Dunleavy Administration on several occasions. The other seats have been named by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who chose Bethany Marcum and E. Budd Simpson, and by Senate President Cathy Giessel, who chose John Binkley.
In a story in the Anchorage Daily News, readers are led to believe that the Trump Administration is pushing a statewide mask mandate for Alaska. And that the Trump Administration says seafood processors should hurry up and mask up.
On the same page, the newspaper touts how fake news about COVID-19 is hurting the nation’s health response: “Untruths about virus are proving highly contagious,” the headline reads.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the irony of those two headlines didn’t escape him.
In fact, in Alaska seafood processors came to an agreement with the State of Alaska in mid-May, and since May 15, all processors require masks of their workers. The last thing processors need is for a lawsuit from a worker who says they are not wearing masks, as mandated by the State of Alaska.
“To insinuate we are not, is just shoddy reporting,” Dunleavy said. “I wish they’d save the shoddy reporting for other aspects of government,” rather than misinform readers about COVID-19.
In the story, the reporters said that Dunleavy has “steadfastly declined to require masks statewide.”
In fact, Dunleavy has said time and again that he believes that kind of mask mandate is a local government prerogative, since many communities in Alaska will never see a case of COVID-19. Anchorage and Juneau have mask mandates, and other cities are considering them on a regular basis.
Alaska has the sixth fewest number of cases of the coronavirus per capita in the country. But seafood processors have been a hot spot in Alaska. Rather than the processors’ employees bringing the virus to the communities, it appears to be the other way around, however.
In Anchorage, Copper River Seafoods is covered not only by the existing mask mandate for processors, but by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s mask mandate for the city.
Nevertheless, 76 workers out of 135 at Copper River Seafoods came down with the virus.
Dunleavy was so irritated with the weaponization and politicization of the story that he took to YouTube today to explain why the headline on the right rail of the newspaper was accurate, and the headline at the top of newspaper was an example of fake COVID-19 news.
“Just be careful what you read,” Dunleavy said. “And what certain outlets want you to believe.”
The Anchorage Daily News was referring to a July 26 report by the Trump Administration’s coronavirus task force, which was first published by The New York Times.
In the report, the Trump Administration says no part of Alaska is in the “red zone,” but that Alaska is in the “yellow zone” for cases, indicating between 10-100 new cases per population in the week prior. And Alaska is in the green zone for test positivity, with a positive rate of under 5 percent.
WHEN KIDS ARE MOLESTED BY SAME-SEX, WHERE WILL THEY TURN TO SORT OUT CONFUSION?
Eagle River businessman Matt Hickey was molested at age 13. He says the assault left him wrongly believing he was gay for much of his teenage years. Hickey says if he had proper counseling it would have saved him years of shame, self-loathing, and heartache.
Three openly gay members of the Anchorage Assembly — Christopher Constant, Felix Rivera and Austin Quinn-Davidson — are sponsoring an ordinance requiring counselors and even clergy to endorse and validate same-sex attraction or gender confusion when dealing with teenagers. Hickey says if the ordinance passes, it will deny teenagers the help he wishes he had after being sexually molested.
Hickey says the ordinance would be a huge win for pedophiles:
“If you can’t go to a counselor, pedophiles are going to love this because they’re going to be able to approach these kids even more and the kids are going to be afraid to say anything because there’s going to be nobody to talk to, “ says Hickey.
Hickey says the distant family member who targeted him for molestation was a sexual predator with multiple victims. He says his molestation greatly altered his teenage years.
“When a child gets molested, a boy is going to react naturally. He cannot help that, “says Hickey. “When a boy is being molested, he’s going to have an erection. He cannot help it. When you’re 13 and your hormones are flying you can rub up against a tree and have an erection.”
Hickey says as a 13-year-old, he knew nothing about sex.
“Now I’m thinking, oh my God, I’m enjoying this.” Hickey says of the experience. “It was a very confusing time and I told myself there was something wrong with me because I enjoyed the molestation, I thought I had something wrong with me.”
Hickey says he spent the next few years believing he was gay. Today, he is married has children. Hickey now says he’s “as heterosexual as you can get.” He credits God for delivering him of unwanted same-sex attraction.
Hickey believes Constant, Rivera, and Quinn-Davidson are sponsoring the ordinance forcing counselors and clergy to endorse homosexuality and transgenderism when dealing with teens to validate their own lifestyle.
“I lot of people that claim to be gay today have been molested. And they know it. They know what I’m talking about. They can deny it all day long but it’s a fact. You can just Google it,” says Hickey.
The data on whether most people living the gay lifestyle were sexually molested as a child is mixed and difficult to decipher. Leftist bent media conclude there is no link between sexual abuse and homosexuality while conservative media claims there is. On a personal note, every gay friend I have has confided in me that they were molested as a child. Admittedly, that is far from conclusive evidence proving a link between homosexuality and child sex abuse.
Hickey says it’s difficult for him to understand why the Assembly members sponsoring the ban on counseling can’t see how their ordinance would enable pedophiles.
“If they can’t see real simple and plain that this is going to hurt kids, that the kids are not going to be able to go to anybody when they’ve been molested. If they can’t see that little thing right there, then I’m going to have to probably worry about them, to be honest with you. Something is not right here. “says Hickey.
Mark Nelson is a former gay activist but is now straight. He says the ordinance proposed by the Anchorage Assembly is like other bills around the country.
Nelson, who works for the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse, says the end goal of this type of legislation is to eventually prohibit all counseling that does not reaffirm and condone homosexuality and transgenderism. Even when counseling involves adults. Like Hickey, Nelson credits God with delivering him of his unwanted same-sex attraction.
It’s mind-boggling three members of the Anchorage Assembly are so radical they would propose legislation prohibiting counselors, pastors and clergy from helping teenagers overcome their shame, confusion, and self-condemnation as a result of being a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a child predator.
As Matt Hickey said, “Something’s not right here.”
Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon has appointed one of the legal counsels for the Alaska Federation of Natives to the Alaska Redistricting Board.
The appointment of Nicole Borromeo, who signed the recall petition against Gov. Mike Dunleavy, shocked Republicans, who were reminded by Must Read Alaska last week that Edgmon had signed a pledge to have the majority of the Committee on Committees approve his pick.
That committee majority that apparently approved the pick would have to include two of its Republicans — Rep. Chuck Kopp of District 24, Rep. Jennifer Johnston of District 28, Rep. Louise Stutes of District 32, and Rep. Steve Thompson of Fairbanks District 2.
The redistricting seat should have been picked by a Republican Speaker of the House, based on the overwhelming majority of Republicans elected, but seven Republicans bolted from the caucus in 2019 and installed Democrat Bryce Edgmon as Speaker. They won powerful seats in the process, including seats on the Committee on Committees. Kopp is Rules chair and Johnston is co-chair of Finance. Thompson is Majority leader and Stutes is whip.
The Alaska Redistricting Board is the group that redraws the political boundaries of the state following every U.S. Census. It is an exercise that will take place in every state at the close of the Census this year.
The choice of a hardline radical may cost Kopp and Johnston their races this year in the Legislature, and could hurt Thompson as well. Stutes is probably safe in her district, which encompasses Kodiak and Cordova.
Edgmon said earlier this week he intended to appoint an Alaska Native to the Redistricting Board. As part of his agreement with the Republicans who installed him, he re-registered as a nonpartisan voter in 2019. But he’s a lifelong Democrat, and the reregistration was merely to give the seven cover for not installing a Democrat Speaker, which would have brought sanctions from the Alaska Republican Party.
“Ms. Borromeo has served as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Alaska Federation of Natives since 2014. In that capacity, she provides executive level leadership and advises the AFN President and Board on a wide array of legislative and litigation matters, including voting rights. In addition to her decade of legal and public policy experience, Ms. Borromeo spent two years working on Capitol Hill for the late Sen. Ted Stevens and the Senate Appropriations Committee,” the Speaker’s press release noted.
Borromeo lives in Anchorage. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law. Ms. Borromeo was recognized as one of Alaska’s “Top 40 Under 40” in 2018.
Other members of the board are E. Budd Simpson and Bethany Marcum, appointed by the governor, and John Binkley, appointed by Sen. Cathy Giessel.
This is the second part of the series by Alexander Dolitsky of Juneau.
This is a response to recent comments on my column, “White Privilege in America” (see below) by those whom I consider friends and good neighbors.
I understand and appreciate the authors’ emotional and factual narrative. In this, I want to clarify my position on “white privilege” vs. those addressed in prior articles.
In regard to “disparities” in criminal justice, specifically in incarceration rates relative to proportional representation in the general population, proportional representation in the general population is not the relevant metric. Proportional representation in the population of people conducting criminal behavior is the important metric for comparison. I don’t know those data, but I sure know that this comparison to the general population is nonsense, yet we see it all the time for all sorts of “racial discrimination” statistics.
The rest of the narrative in both articles is just about injustices done to other people than whites. And then the conclusion is that, therefore, in comparison white people have been “privileged.”
So, what really is the point? That life is unfair; that injustices have occurred; and that by extension, white people must now fess up to their privilege and be ashamed of themselves (like most of these authors) or even be made to pay for their supposed sins of the past?
The whole premise is that race, especially by skin color alone (“white”), is of paramount importance in categorizing and understanding people, and that by recognizing somebody as “white,” tells much about the relative advantages they have had in their lives. But that is such an over-simplistic, purely racial view of human society.
The truth is that the relative advantages and disadvantages that have been experienced by individual white people vary across an enormous spectrum within human culture, and assuming that the color of one’s skin alone is enough to indicate anything about where any one person might fall on such as spectrum is pure nonsense.
Categorizing people by race and prejudging them by race is racial prejudice. Why don’t we make a concerted effort to stopracial prejudice rather than redirecting it?
In my opinion, discrimination may take different shapes, forms, conditions, behavior, race, religion, ethnicity, etc. For example, Jews, (another invisible minority) are judged as “privileged “ only by white skin color.
In fact, antisemitism is racism as much as assumptions about “white privilege.“ Frequent discrimination of immigrants, disabled people, LGBT community, etc. is based on either their sexual preferences, physical limitations or social status, and, yet, they are in a category of “privileged” because of their skin color—white.
Historically, Jews have been discriminated for over 2000 years, and often times based on their physical characteristics, appearance, religion, behavior, and funny talk. The dilemma I have is this: How long we should keep referencing our past?
For example, my grandfather Roman Umansky, was killed by German Nazis in 1941 in Kiev, Ukraine. He was captured and brutally killed. I never met my grandfather Roman. But I don’t expect young generation in today’s Germany to apologize to me for the atrocities committed to my former country, Soviet Union, and for killing my grandfather. I will not forget, but I forgive them.
In short, in my prior article entitled “White Privilege in Today’s America,” I shared my experience as an immigrant in our country, and I refuse to be categorized under umbrella of “white privilege.” I am just American.
My point is simply that any categorization and prejudging anyone on the basis of their skin color alone is by definition racial prejudice. Isn’t it? Prejudging someone on the basis of their race. What part of that is so complicated to understand?
Certainly, racial prejudice and discrimination is wrong in any case and shape. Labeling all “whites” as a racial category that has been “privileged” is prejudging all individuals in that category on the basis of their race alone. To call that a “fact” rather than “racial prejudice” is either extremely hypocritical (that racial prejudice is OK if targeted against your chosen target group) or is ignoring the concept as defined by the English language.
I think my immigrant story, probably similar to many other immigrants in the United States, is important because it illustrates the ideals expressed in the U.S. Constitution, especially in relation to equality for all without regard to race, ethnicity or origin; that I have fully accepted those ideals; but that now I find a significant segment of American society overtly acting directly against them by blatantly espousing racism (so-called “white privilege”). Even politicians seem to feel free to do that in public forums.
To me, this seems inappropriate. There should be no tolerance for racism at all. We should celebrate hard work and the American ideals versus racist concepts and accusations masquerading as kindness and understanding of supposed injustices that are also often used to advance a political agenda. Period.
Alexander Dolitsky is an author, anthropologist and historian who lives in Juneau. Born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union, he received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1977; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and attended the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present.
A day after a group of Republicans attacked upstart candidate Jesse Sumner with a recall petition to try to remove him from the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, Sumner has apologized for misstatements about Rep. David Eastman’s per diem. Sumner is challenging Eastman in the District 10 Republican primary.
Sumner had said that Eastman took per diem while the Legislature was meeting in Wasilla in 2019. That was not possible, since legislators cannot take per diem when the Legislature is meeting within 50 miles of their home. A handful of Eastman supporters decided to go after his Assembly seat for those misstatements. They started an application for a recall.
“I apologize. I made a mistake and I take complete ownership. When I said that my opponent had the most per diem during the 2019 special session in Wasilla, I was inaccurate,” Sumner said.
“I apologize to my opponent, his supporters and the voters of District 10. I assure everyone, I did so unintentionally,” Sumner said.
Sumner provided the actual chart of per diem for 2019, which shows that Eastman took $48,622 in per diem, $22,704.92 in relocation reimbursement, along with the $50,400 in wages he earns as a legislator.
His per diem is slightly more than Speaker Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, at $47,716, and slightly less than Rep. Neal Foster of Nome, who took $51,642.
Sen. Donny Olson billed the state for over $50,434 in per diem, putting Eastman in third place for the most per diem taken last year.
However, for the weeks that the session was called to Wasilla, he was not permitted to take per diem.
For per diem in 2017, Eastman’s per diem and relocation appears to be 171 percent higher than then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy’s per diem that year. Dunleavy lives in Wasilla and is now governor.
The Chair of District 9 Republicans says she is taking legal action against a Facebook personality known as “Politidick.”
Carol Carman, a conservative in D-9, has been Chair of the distict since 2016, reelected in 2018 and 2020. But this year, Politidick decided to try to force her out of her chair. She says has been accused on Facebook of illegal activity and that Politidick has been running a harassment campaign against her and her family.
Carman has asked Politidick to cease harassing her multiple times but the response has been threats, she said.
Carman started a GoFundMe page to help her with legal fees. She would not reveal all the problems she has had with the harassment, but says that the original harassment page on Facebook that was started against her was removed, evidently by Facebook, but that other harassment has continued, including personal messages.
There is a fable of unknown origin about a scorpion and a frog. The scorpion wants to cross a stream but cannot swim; the scorpion asks the frog for a ride a ride across the stream. The frog is doubtful because he fears that the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion assures the frog that he won’t sting him because if he did, they’d both die.
Of course, the frog accepts the scorpion’s assurances and allows the scorpion to ride on his back across the stream. Before reach the opposite shore, the scorpion stings the frog, and as he is dying, the frog asks the scorpion “why?” The scorpion replies that it is in his character, and they both die.
Police unions all over America, including here in Anchorage, are living out this fable, but with the Democratic Party.
The Alaska State Troopers’ union, from its formation in 1979, used the State’s management like the cabin boys on a Greek freighter.
By the late 1980s, we at the State of Alaska were tired of it, resolved to effectively confront them, and were pretty successful at it.
Anchorage, on the other hand, kowtowed to the police unions.
In my last years with the State, the Troopers would flop down the Anchorage cop contract and say, “We want what they have,” and we’d say, “Well, go to work for them.”
That’s changed a bit in the last decade or so since there is nobody left working for the State who knows what they’re doing.
I think it is accurate to say that the cop and firefighter unions own the MOA government. The brazen stupidity of Anchorage’s AO-37 gave Alaska’s unions power and influence they didn’t even have in their glory days during the pipeline construction days. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is their boy; they own him.
But now, in mid-stream, the Berkowitz administration is threatening to sting the cop union. Berkowitz and his Assembly lackeys want to rein in the cops and limit their “use of force.” Berkowitz and his liberal allies want to turn us into Portland or Seattle, where the police are just bystanders to mob violence.
In urban America, the communists, excuse me, Democrats have repudiated their previous alliance with the cop unions. In my working days, I always assumed that if I could get the cops, the supervisors, and the guys who drove the orange trucks under contract I could handle the rest of them. I think the Democrats are going to get a lesson about that.
There is no way that cops are going to support Joe Biden and that is going to trickle down into down-ticket offices. The Democrats have made their bed with the Antifa and BLM crowd, and the cop unions aren’t in that club.
Bill Evans is the prominent conservative/Republican opposition to the Leftist/unionist contenders for mayor. Evans is widely thought to be the architect of AO-37. Now the unions/lefties have a tough choice. They hate Evans, but they now have to confront the fact that the lefties will throw them under the bus.
Cop unions all over America have to confront this conundrum; they’ve been kicked to the curb by every Democrat governor and mayor in the country. I wrote the section in my book (see below) about cop and correctional officer unions about 15 years ago, and I said all a Republican had to do was promise them that they wouldn’t put a criminal justice professor or a lesbian social worker in charge of them; I don’t think that has changed.
The Democrats have managed to turn every cop in America into a Trump supporter. Their unions will stay in the Democrat fold at least publicly, but they’re gone too.
My rule in dealing with lefties in my working days was, “Let them be themselves.” I think it was a good “frog and the scorpion” rule.
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.
