Pat Pitney, who is the Finance director for the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau, is the interim president of the University of Alaska System, the University of Alaska Board of Regents announced today.
Pitney is a former vice chancellor for the Fairbanks campus and was the Office of Management and Budget director for former Gov. Bill Walker.
Former President Jim Johnsen resigned effective July 1 after saying some things in a job interview in Wisconsin that were politically incorrect concerning Alaskans, the Permanent Fund dividend, and white privilege.
A Democrat-heavy political action committee from the East Coast that is working on over 1,100 legislative races around the country has identified a few races in Alaska to dig into.
The Future Now Fund has the stated intent of preserving a Democrat-controlled House leadership in Alaska, but it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to say who the donors are to the chosen races. All that can be seen at this point is that the group is raising money for Democrats and is targeting 15 states this year.
Future Now Fund’s man on the ground in Alaska is said to be John-Henry Heckendorn, Gov. Bill Walker’s former campaign manager, but Must Read Alaska has not been able to verify this yet; disclosures of expenditures will come as early as 10 days of making them.
For Alaska, the candidates that the group is supporting is odd — most of them are in safe races, and some don’t have opponents:
Democrat Rep. Bryce Edgmon, District 37, unopposed.
Democrat Rep. Harriet Drummond, District 18, unopposed.
Democrat Rep. Sara Hannan, District 33, unopposed.
Democrat Andy Josephson, House District 17, unopposed.
Stephen Trimble, ultra-left independent running in District 22, trying to unseat Sara Rasmussen.
Democrat Rep. Chris Tuck, District 23, unopposed in primary.
And then there’s one who clearly is different: The only Alaska Republican on the Future Now Fund list is Republican Rep. Gary Knopp of District 30.
In fact, Knopp may be the only Republican in the entire country supported by this group, although MRAK did not check more than a couple of dozen names on the list.
Knopp, who used to be a registered Democrat before registering as a Republican, was part of the group that broke from the Republican majority caucus and forged a Democrat-led leadership team in the House starting in 2018. Democrats have not filed a candidate to run against any him over the last two cycles.
This time, he is facing not only a real primary with Republican Ron Gillham and Kelly Wolfe, but if he wins his primary, he has a challenge in the General Election from James Baisden, a Republican who plans to go straight to the General Election ballot to take out Knopp.
Future Now Fund’s website ays the group’s goal for Alaska is to “Defend a bipartisan coalition.
“Democrats hold a minority in the State House but control the chamber thanks to some moderate Republicans who are working with mainstream Democrats to form a governing majority focused on the people.” – Future Now Fund website
The organization supports candidates who sign a pledge that says they are committed to, among other things:
Expanding affordable healthcare for all Alaskans, including by protecting Medicaid from cuts.
Implementing an innovative program to reduce vaccination costs for patients.
Pursuing an ambitious vision of an Alaska that leads in renewable energy, driving economic growth that would benefit all Alaskans.
The Future Now Fund is a hybrid political action committee that can operate as a traditional political action committee, contributing funds to the candidates’ campaigns, but also as a super PAC, which operates independently from the campaigns. The so called “Carey Committee” structure means that compliance and reporting are a bit more technical, which is why the group has hired a DC compliance company to manage the money coming in and going out.
Ultimately, Alaskans will not be able to tell who has donated through this committee to the Knopp campaign because donors will be masked until long after the election.
The group can virtually raise no funds outside of Alaska for a State PAC. PACS can give no more than $1,000 to a campaign.
But the way this PAC/Super PAC works is essentially running a campaign funding laundromat. When the Supreme Court struck down Alaska’s tight rein on Outside money, it opened up new PAC activity for Alaska. This is a different, enhanced version of Act Blue.
Read more about the Future Now Fund here.
For more information about this Democrat group backing the Knopp race, follow this link at FollowtheMoney.org
PETITION SEEKS MAKING IT A PERMANENT PART OF CALHOUN AVE
Workers dabbed black paint over the white “Black Lives Matter” graffiti that was scrawled on Calhoun Avenue asphalt last week in front of the Governor’s House in Juneau, an historic site, (as seen in the above photo by Michael Penn that was posted by a Juneau activist at Change.org.)
In an action echoing graffiti-marked streets across the nation’s biggest cities, this particular graffiti was not pretty, and there was no attempt made to make it aesthetic. It was an artless message of revolutionary origins. But it was not there long, either.
The remediation work by the city prompted a swift response from one person associated with the graffiti, who started a petition online to have the slogan permanently painted in front of the iconic white mansion, which is a tourist attraction and serves as the official residence of the sitting governor.
Change.org is the website where thousands have started petitions, from Black Lives Matter to demanding the tearing down of statues. Over 19 million people have signed the “Justice for George Floyd”petition at Change.org.
Another Juneau-initiated petition on the site is calling for the removal of the statue of William Seward from in front of the Capitol building in Juneau.
Rochelle Smallwood, who started the newest Juneau petition at Change.org wants a permanent and official street painting of Black Lives Matter.
“Across the world there have been beautiful “Black Lives Matter” murals painted on streets to stand in solidarity for Black lives. In Juneau, Alaska, we had one painted on the road outside of the governor’s mansion until city employees removed it. At first, I was infuriated because of the blatant symbolism at the core of what they were doing. Then I felt inspired because I know we live in a community filled with people who do believe in equality, the arts, and change,” she wrote on her petition, which has over 500 signatures so far.
The City of New York, under the direction of Mayor Bill DeBlasio, recently painted huge yellow “Black Lives Matter” letters on the street in front of Trump Tower. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had her workers paint “Black Lives Matter on a city street leading up tot he White House in June, and also a section of 16th Street officially named “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Smallwood is associated with the Sealaska Heritage Institute and is a Native artist. She wants 16 local artists chosen, and each would design one letter of Black Lives Matter and create a collective work of art. Each artist would paint their letter onto the street to “show that Juneau stands for Black lives, dreams, and futures.”
One signer of the petition added that the letter should be designed only by “people of color.”
Smallwood reminded readers that for a while Juneau gay-rights activists painted one of the crosswalks with rainbow colors, which kept being painted over by the city for safety reasons until the city finally conceded and allowed one crosswalk to be painted in a rainbow, in coordination with the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council.
Black Lives Matter is a movement but also a political organization that funnels money to the Democratic National Committee through the fundraising portal ActBlue.com. Some people think it is also a terrorism group because of the violence surrounding its activities.
ODD NEW GWICH’IN GIFT TRADITION INCLUDES YELLINGAT HOSTS
The science is clear — handling raw caribou organs can be a hazardous activity, especially if the animal is infected with Brucellosis, which occasionally it is in Alaska.
Allowing the raw organs to come in contact with your skin is not something to be taken lightly, as most hunters know. Brucellosis is a highly contagious disease caused by the Brucella suis bacteria type 4 found in caribou and reindeer.
When Anchorage activist Kathleen Bonnar tried to toss or shove a raw and bloody caribou heart at U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and his wife Julie, she could have been tossing a deadly infection at him. Blood from the organ, which had been tied with a clumsy noose, spattered onto “heart-stopping” Matt Shuckerow, as he wrestled the item from her and ushered Bonnar out the door of the fundraiser on Saturday evening.
Kathleen Bonnar tries to throw a raw caribou heart at Sen. Dan Sullivan and his wife, Julie, but is blocked by Campaign Manager Matt Shuckerow, while Steve Strait subdues one of Bonnar’s accomplices, as the Sullivans look on in surprise.
It was unclear at the time just what Bonnar was reaching for in her bag, but the immediate reaction from witnesses was that they thought it might be a gun, a bomb, or some other weapon.
Shuckerow, a longtime political aide, has worked in Washington, D.C. on the staffs of both Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, and he personally knows people who were shot by the gunman at a congressional staff baseball game in 2017. Shuckerow knows the dangers that lawmakers face these days, particularly with the unhinged Left.
It turns out, this time it was just blood and guts being slung with a two-foot-long nylon rope tied to it, a raw organ from an animal considered sacred in some Alaska Native cultures.
Brucellosis is spread in the afterbirth and fluids during calving, according to the Department of Fish and Game. There hasn’t been a case reported in a few years, but animals may appear healthy and not show any signs of disease. You can get the disease if the blood, fluid, or tissue from an infected animal comes in contact with your eyes, nose, mouth, or skin. Shuckerow did get blood on him during the brief encounter with Bonnar. His shirt was stained in blood by the time the woman was removed from the building.
Bonnar, who until very recently worked at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau as a content specialist, might not have known that without gloves, she may be infected with the illness that is characterized by a high fever that comes and goes with frequency — the same symptoms as COVID-19.
Kathleen Bonnar receives an award from the Public /Relations Society of America while she worked as a public relations specialist at South-central Foundation.
Since Bonnar works at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium these days, she should be able to get herself tested for either Brucellosis or COVID-19 at no cost to herself.
Ironically, her now-future boss Andy Teuber was attending the Sullivan event as a guest.
Bonnar explains her new twist on Gwich’in gift-giving traditions this way on Facebook, without describing the screaming, yelling, and threatening behavior:
As for the caribou heart, it ended up in a bloody splat on the floor before being moved to the trash. Event organizers did not think of having it tested.
Other notes about the people associated with the attack on Saturday in Anchorage:
Crystal Berwick: The woman who bull-rushed and hip-checked Shuckerow is a TSA agent. She tried to prevent Shuckerow from stopping Bonnar from following through with her “gifting” of the raw heart to the Sullivans. Berwick is a registered Democrat who began voting in Alaska in 2015. Her trail leads back to the East Coast.
Soren Wuerth: A teacher at Dimond High School, his name may be familiar to Must Read Alaska readers. Wuerth has taught classes in nonviolent civil disobedience in his spare time. While he was teaching such a class three years ago, a man came into the building and pepper-sprayed the participants.
Rina Kowalski: She said she tried to unfurl a “Heartless Sullivan” banner, but it was taken away from her by bystanders and she also tried to intervene against Shuckerow, who was attempting to stop Bonnar from harming the senator and his wife.
Rina Mae was also a protester in Washington D.C. in 2018 against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Fairbanks News Miner photoshows Kowalski at a protest in the nation’s capital against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Interestingly, Rina, as she is known, gave a fake name to event organizers. She wore a name tag that said she was Dana Dardis, who is an older radical activist in Anchorage, but who was not observed at this event.
Erin Jackson: A staffer for the Poor People’s Campaign, she is a paid agitator who was instrumental in the tent city occupation of the Delaney Park Strip last summer, as well as the tent occupation of the Valley of the Moon Park. She was in Wasilla and occupied the legislature as they were meeting at the Wasilla Middle School. Her funding comes from Outside.
Will Bean: He goes by the pronoun “they,” rather than a gender, and is an LGBTQ+ activist.
Several of the members of this protest are associated with the Native Movement nonprofit, whose board includes notable Alaskan Jody Potts, who was a close ally of former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, before she became a foe of his:
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and his mostly left-leaning counterparts on the Assembly have the maturity level of a small spoiled child.
You remember when you were a kid and the ice cream scoop on top of your cone wasn’t as big as your siblings’ scoop. “It’s not fair!” you’d yell out in a whiny voice.
Those leading Anchorage have yet to comprehend the fundamental truth that life is not fair.
Here’s the thing about those duped, deceived, and seduced by the poisonous and deadly ideology of Leftism. They’re obsessed with equality. It’s seemingly all they think or talk about. They’re not concerned with what’s true, real, right, or wrong. They just want us all to be equal.
What Leftists like Berkowitz and his Socialist friends on the Anchorage Assembly don’t get is inequality is a byproduct of a free society. Some will make better decisions, take more risks, work smarter, and harder than others. In America, making good decisions pays huge dividends. Sitting on your butt in your mother’s basement playing video games all day does not. In our nation, more than any other, making good decisions will reward you with a prosperous life.
I’m not arguing racism no longer exists in America. It clearly does. But it’s not an excuse for failure when the data shows poverty is caused by choices, not racism or oppression.
Poverty in America is almost exclusively confined to single-parent households with kids headed by a female regardless of race. It’s true African Americans and Alaska Natives disproportionately live in poverty, but they also have the highest percentage of children born out of wedlock. More than 70% of black babies and 69% of Alaska Native babies are born into single-parent households. The same is true for only 28% of white babies. 97% of all millennials with a high school diploma, work full-time and married before having children do not live in poverty in America regardless of their race.
Berkowitz and the Assembly ignore this reality and blame inequality on racism. Therefore, the mayor and Assembly want to use some of your hard-earned tax dollars to create the Office of Equity and Justice. What will this taxpayer-funded office do? Nothing of any substance.
But it’s not a total waste of your money. At the very least creating the Anchorage Office of Equity and Justice allows Berkowitz and the Socialist on the assembly to virtue signal to their Leftist comrades that they care about the underprivileged, disadvantaged, underserved, and oppressed. And the “woke” media will view them as enlightened, compassionate, and fighting the never-ending scourge and epidemic of racism so prevalent in Alaska.
Keep in mind the racially aggrieved in Anchorage can already go to the Equal Rights Commission or the Office of Equal Opportunity. Soon, they can also belly-ache to the Office of Equity and Justice.
The ordinance uses 564 words to describe what the Anchorage Office of Equity and Justice will do. Never in the history of mankind have 564 words said less. Here’s one function: “Develop leadership opportunities for municipal staff and residents designed to provide career advancement pathways for communities of color, the disability community, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+ residents, including continued hosting of annual Civic Engagement Academy.”
The above description should have also said we’ll accomplish this by discriminating against anyone not in any of the groups listed. The way to achieve equality of outcome is punishing good decision-makers and rewarding bad ones. Also, discriminating against groups that do not fit in the category of the so-called oppressed. It’s the dirty little secret Leftists never admit.
Anchorage is hardly recognizable from what it was before Berkowitz became mayor and the Assembly skewed decidedly left. The drug and alcohol addicted street people have taken over and are trespassing and occupying much of the city. Now city leaders want to use more taxpayer money to buy them hotels and other facilities making it easier for them to live their self-destructive lifestyles.
Anchorage has gone the way of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Rising property taxes, more crime, and an epidemic of homelessness. But what would you expect when you elect politicians who ignore real problems and instead stubbornly try to make life fair when it clearly isn’t.
Dan Fagan hosts a morning radio show on Newsradio 650 KENI from 5:30 to 8 a.m.
Equity and Justice are the vogue terms for the social justice warrior sector. The Anchorage Assembly will on Tuesday take up an ordinance establishing the Office of Equity and Justice in the Office of the Mayor of Anchorage.
The move would also create a “chief equity officer,” who would be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly, and who would be responsible for developing, supporting, and implementing the municipality’s equity agenda.
The chief equity officer would be paid at a range of 23E. A Range 23 in the State of Alaska is a deputy director level salary, and an E step is generally a six-year employee.
Chief Equity Officer’s responsibilities, as described by the ordinance will include these deliverables:
Co-lead Welcoming Anchorage initiative and ensure ongoing updates and implementations;
Develop leadership opportunities for municipal staff and residents designed to provide career advancement pathways for communities of color, the disability community, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+ residents, including continued hosting of an annual Civic Engagement Academy;
Provide leadership, guidance, training, and support to internal and external partners in the development and delivery of equity programs and tools;
Recruit and manage municipal boards and commissions to ensure community representation;
Actively monitor equity:
Establish baseline equity data targets/benchmarks in collaboration with partners and establish goals and initiatives to make progress and processes to track outcomes;
Develop methods to determine how disparate impacts will be documented and evaluated;
Collect, evaluate, and analyze indicators and progress benchmarks related to addressing systemic disparities.
Direct, evaluate, and coordinate analyses and recommendations regarding race and equity policy issues and long-range plans to address department and community needs and services;
Develop and coordinate reports and supporting materials to be presented to the Mayor and Assembly for information or action;
Ensure municipal compliance with Language Access laws;
Work closely with the Office of Equal Opportunity, the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, the Ombudsman Office, and the Resilience Subcabinet
Represent equity concerns throughout municipal efforts on housing equity, food security, equitable climate action, legal rights and justice issues, and economic equity
Develop and deepen relationships with community members and non- profits committed to racial equity work; and participates in community equity collaborations on behalf of the Municipality to identify and address cumulative impacts of institutional and structural inequities in the Municipality.
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will continue to advance the Berkowitz Administration’s efforts to support the city’s vagrant population.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz plans to buy the Best Western Golden Lion Hotel on 36th and New Seward Highway, the former Alaska Club on Tudor Blvd., and America’s Best hotel in Spenard, as well as Bean’s Cafe, a soup kitchen run by a nonprofit on Third Ave.
All of the facilities would be used for day or night services for vagrant drug and alcohol abusers in the Anchorage bowl, under programs yet to be revealed to the public, and by using moneys yet to be secured.
The Berkowitz vagrant housing program is also being done without the usual public process, because the mayor has been granted emergency powers by the Assembly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current plan involves a “lease to own” scheme, so the municipality would use federal funds from the CARES Act — funds meant to help businesses, workers, homeowners, and renters during the economic downturn.
After the sale of Municipal Light and Power to Chugach Electric is completed later this winter, the CARES Act loan would then be paid back and redistributed in some way yet to be explained by the Berkowitz Administration. That could be months away, as the ML&P sale isn’t expected to close this year. Also, there is no plan for what services would be offered or how they would be incorporated into the municipal budget.
The CARES Act specifically states any money used for sheltering is to be used only for temporary, emergency shelter related to COVID-19.
Right now, vagrants are being housed at the Sullivan Arena and Boeke Arena, but the mayor said that the arenas would only be temporarily used. He has had possession of them since March.
Under the plan now being considered, the Assembly would rezone major portions of the city from Spenard to East Tudor, turning three of the four facilities into rehabilitation centers without having to go through the Planning and Zoning Commission, and therefore avoiding additional public input.
At present, the Alaska Club on Tudor Blvd. cannot house homeless people because is lacks sprinklers and other required systems.
The idea is to move vagrants into the America’s Best in Spenard, since it’s “move-in ready.” But America’s Best can only hold about 150 people, so the spillover would be the Golden Lion Hotel, which is also move-in ready and has nearly 100 hotel rooms.
For now, it appears the Alaska Club on Tudor would be a day center for vagrants, who would be released into the neighborhoods at night. Those plans remain unclear.
Members of the Assembly are also indicating that the Golden Lion will become the “new Clitheroe,” which is a 42-bed substance use disorder and dual diagnosis residential treatment center in Anchorage.
The Assembly work session about the Berkowitz plan on Friday went on for two hours. Some Assembly members were surprised when the administration recommended to table AO2020-58, which was the original ordinance that would have bypassed the Planning and Zoning Commission. The mayor ditched the ordinance after the public pressure he received, sources told Must Read Alaska.
But there’s a backup plan. It’s called AO 2020-66, and it just purchases the buildings, but does not address the planning and zoning issues with what to do with the buildings. There are two new versions of AO2020-66 — one uses CARES Act money and the other uses Municipal Light and Power sale money.
Neighborhood groups have been gathering information and plan to be at the Tuesday meeting of the Anchorage Assembly to weigh in with their concerns about the associated ordinances, which have been swapped out with substitution ordinances over the past week. The meeting starts at 5 pm at the Loussac Library on 36th Avenue. Seating is limited.
On Friday, it was clear the Berkowitz Administration intends to go forward with the acquisitions, but the neighborhoods are now activated. Groups have been meeting almost daily from Rogers Park to Heather Meadows near Tudor, and now Fred Meyer and Walmart corporate offices have gotten engaged to stop the plan. The neighborhoods have hired an attorney to help and have raised over $20,000 in donations for legal fees.
A fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan was interrupted Saturday evening when a protester rushed the stage and reached into her bag to pull out what appeared to some as a gun, to others as a cell phone, and to still others as the heart of a caribou, or was it a moose?
It turned out that it was some kind of animal organ and some associated blood and other organic matter that she was attempting to lob at Sen. Sullivan and his wife, Julie, who at that point stood as the only line of defense between the attacker and the senator.
A brief tussle ensued as the attacker was brought to the ground and then she and her several accomplices were removed from the hangar near the Ted Stevens International Airport, where the fundraiser had brought together over 150 supporters of the senator.
The Sullivan campaign had been tipped off that Al Gross supporters were coming into disrupt the event, as they had earlier done in Fairbanks. Trackers for Gross have been to other Sullivan events, but this was the most violent attack so far.
Bystander Mike Robbins was in the crowd and saw someone rushing the stage. His instincts kicked in and he grabbed two of the women protesters, and escorted them out, and came back in and ejected a man who was trying, at that point, to blend in with the crowd. The rainbow-haired man evidently was the protesters’ filmmaker there to document the event.
Protesters removed from the fundraising event for Sen. Dan Sullivan.
One of the protesters tried to unfurl a banner, but it was whisked away by a woman in the crowd. Rep. Sharon Jackson also sprung into action to protect and defend her former boss, Sen. Sullivan.
Another ecoterrorist is escorted out.
The commotion only lasted a few minutes before the four or five protesters were hustled outside, but meanwhile, the scene was chaotic and unsettling for the people attending, who had been attempting to socially distance.
The Recall Dunleavy Committee has until Aug. 5 to turn in its petition with over 71,200 signatures in order to get the recall question on the November General Election ballot.
The group has about 30,000 more signatures to go in the next 25 days until Wednesday, Aug. 5, needing to get over 1,200 signatures per day. It appears to have few signature-gathering events on the calendar, except for one event going on in Juneau in coming days, where the group has already acquired most of the signatures that they will probably get.
Alaskans interested in voting in the Primary Election that ends Aug. 18 should be aware of several dates coming up that relate to that election:
July 17: Last day candidates in the primary can loan their campaigns more than $5,000.
July 19: Deadline for voters to register to vote or update their registration.
July 20: Candidates and groups reports are due with the Alaska Public Offices Commission; 30-day report. This will show the strength of the various campaigns.
Aug. 3: Absentee in person, early voting, electronic transmission, and special needs voting begins.
Aug. 8: Deadline for Division of Elections to receive absentee by-mail applications.
