The Last Frontier Republican Club is hosting a gubernatorial debate on Tuesday, September 8, at the Petroleum Club of Anchorage. Tickets are free for members, $15 for non-members. Register here: Events – Last Frontier Republican Club.
According to the Last Frontier Republican Club’s purpose statement, the group work to elect Republicans, support conservative leadership, and strengthen Alaska through informed participation. The group invites independents who share similar values “to join and help move our state in the right direction.”
Although not impossible, it is now improbably Republicans will unite around one ticket. The final tickets to appear on the general election ballot are now certified. Alaskan voters will see these four tickets on the ballot in November:
Bernadette Wilson/ Mike Shower Dave Bronson/ Josh Church Candi English/ Jodi Taylor Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins “JKT”/ Zac Johnson
There was a movie in 2008 called The Spiderwick Chronicles, adapted from the popular book series of the same name. In both the books and the film, the Grace children discover a pair of special glasses that suddenly reveal the hidden world of fantastical creatures living all around them—goblins, sprites, and other beings invisible to ordinary human sight. Without those glasses, the children remain completely blind to the dangers and wonders that share their everyday environment, a blindness that could have proven fatal.
The spiritual realm is similarly metaphysical: we humans cannot ordinarily see the good or evil spirits that surround us. Imagine for a moment that God were to give you the eyes to see and the ears to hear. How would you react? If you could perceive the full truth of the spiritual realm—and recognize that you, as a rational creature endowed with free will, stand amid an invisible combat between good and evil—what would you choose to do with that knowledge? How might your daily life be transformed?
Angels and Demons
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor of the Church, offers a profound and systematic philosophical framework for understanding this unseen reality. In the Summa Theologica (I, questions 50–64), Aquinas reasons from the hierarchy of being that the perfection of the created universe requires pure intellectual substances—angels—who are entirely incorporeal. These beings are subsisting forms of pure intellect and will, free from any admixture of matter. They occupy a rank intermediate between God, who is pure Act, and embodied rational creatures such as human beings.
All angels were created good by God; yet some, through a free choice rooted in pride and envy, rebelled and became demons. Neither angels nor demons can ever compel the human will, for free will remains inviolable. They influence us only indirectly: good angels illuminate the intellect with truth and gently stir the passions toward virtue, while demons present deceptive phantasms to the imagination and inflame disordered desires.
For Aquinas, the spiritual realm is not less real than the material world we perceive with our senses; it is more real and more perfect. It constitutes the higher order of creation that governs, ministers to, and ultimately perfects the lower order. Without the light of faith ordered by reason and revelation, we remain “blind” to this dimension, much like the Grace children before they put on the seeing stones.
If God were suddenly to grant us the sight to perceive our guardian angels standing at our side, the fallen spirits seeking our ruin, and the continuous spiritual warfare that surrounds every moral choice, our reaction would almost certainly be one of profound awe, holy fear, and a radical reorientation of priorities. Temptation would no longer register as a mere psychological impulse; virtue would no longer appear as optional self-improvement. Every decision would stand revealed as participation in a cosmic contest whose stakes are nothing less than eternal beatitude or eternal loss.
Aquinas develops this teaching further by explaining that each human soul is assigned a guardian angel from the first moment of existence (conception). This pure intelligence has a single mission: to guide the person toward the ultimate end of union with God while scrupulously respecting the freedom of the will. The angel works through subtle inspirations, sudden clarifying insights, unexpected strength in moments of weakness, and even physical protections that the unenlightened may dismiss as lucky coincidences.
At the same time, the demonic legions—though already defeated by Christ—retain the ability to suggest false goods and to exploit the lingering wounds of original sin. Thus, in Aquinas’s vision, the drama of every human life is never merely private or psychological. It is always enacted on a stage crowded with invisible actors whose presence is more decisive than the visible forces of nature, society, or personal psychology.
To receive the “eyes to see” would be to awaken fully to this truth, transforming the most ordinary moments of decision into conscious acts of cooperation with, or resistance against, these higher powers. Prayer would cease to feel like speaking into emptiness; it would become real dialogue with allies already present. Sin would lose its casual familiarity and stand exposed as temporary alliance with the enemy. Charity would gain new urgency, for every genuine act of love would be recognized as a tangible strengthening of the luminous ranks that stand between us and destruction.
Tolkien and Aquinas
J.R.R. Tolkien, whose deeply Catholic imagination was formed in the same intellectual and spiritual tradition that shaped Aquinas, dramatizes this exact unveiling with masterful clarity in The Lord of the Rings. When Frodo Baggins slips on the One Ring at Weathertop, he is abruptly drawn into the Unseen World—the wraith-realm that coexists with the physical world we know. Suddenly the black-robed Nazgûl appear in their true forms: tall, pale, crowned kings of death whose eyes burn with merciless hunger. At the same moment the Elf-lord Glorfindel, who dwells simultaneously in both the Seen and the Unseen, shines before Frodo as a figure of pure white light that does not diminish. The Ring does not merely confer invisibility upon its wearer; it strips away the veil so that, as Tolkien writes, “things appear as they truly are: beings of differing shades of light and darkness.”
Later, when Samwise Gamgee briefly wears the Ring in the tower of Cirith Ungol, the orcs around him become “a phantom company, grey distorted figures in a mist,” while the true spiritual corruption of Mordor presses upon his soul with almost unbearable clarity.
These moments function exactly like the magical glasses of Spiderwick: the ordinary physical world continues uninterrupted, yet a higher, more decisive reality is disclosed. The hobbits’ reaction—terror mingled with steely resolve—illustrates precisely what Aquinas would expect of a soul granted such vision: immediate recognition of the enemy’s true nature, instinctive reliance upon the luminous aid of the good, and a renewed determination to complete the quest of holiness even when the cost is great.
Tolkien returns to this theme repeatedly. As the Fellowship draws nearer to Mount Doom, Frodo and Sam experience successive moments in which the physical landscape of Mordor seems overlaid with a deeper spiritual desolation, a sense of being watched and hunted by powers no sword can reach. Gandalf, whose true nature as an incarnate Maia places him among the higher orders of created intelligence, continually reminds the Company that “there are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.”
When the Great Eagles arrive at the last possible moment to rescue the exhausted hobbits from the erupting mountain, the reader senses the unmistakable intervention of that same invisible hierarchy Aquinas describes—not by abolishing free will, but by answering the perseverance of those who have chosen the good despite overwhelming darkness.
Even Gollum’s tragic end, which simultaneously fulfills the quest and reveals the terrible consistency of a will long surrendered to the Ring, underscores Aquinas’s teaching that free creatures can either cooperate with grace or harden themselves against it until the final moment. In Tolkien’s narrative, as in Thomistic philosophy, the spiritual realm is never distant or abstract; it is the more real world pressing upon every choice, waiting only for the eyes of faith—or the sudden gift of clearer vision—to be recognized.
Such an unveiling would not leave any of us unchanged. Seeing the guardian angel who has accompanied us from the first moment of life, or the demon who has whispered the same familiar lie for decades, would strip away every remaining excuse of ignorance. We would pray with greater urgency, confess with greater honesty, and love with greater courage, knowing that every act of charity strengthens the legions of light, and every sin opens a door, however briefly, to the powers of darkness.
Experiencing Spiritual Reality
A few years ago, our family experienced a moment that brought this invisible reality into sudden, unforgettable focus. We were traveling along the Parks Highway on what had begun as an ordinary day. Ahead of us, around a sweeping bend, a car drifted across the center line and slammed directly into a group of six motorcyclists riding together. Time seemed to slow as we watched the catastrophic impact unfold. Motorcycles were hurled into the air like toys, crashing down onto the asphalt with sickening force and then skidding and tumbling wildly across both lanes of the highway. Metal, glass, and human bodies scattered in every direction.
My husband reacted instantly, slamming on the brakes. Our van swerved hard to the right in a desperate attempt to avoid the spreading chaos. That abrupt maneuver lifted the entire vehicle onto its two right-side wheels. For a suspended instant we hung there, balanced on the knife-edge between recovery and disaster. The driver’s-side wheels left the pavement; the ground rushed toward the windows. In that terrifying fraction of a second, I cried out the only prayer that rose from the depth of a mother’s heart: “Lord, please do not let my children suffer.”
What followed felt like an eternity of impending harm—an endless moment in which the van continued its slow, inevitable roll toward the steep embankment that dropped away from the shoulder of the road. Then, without any action on our part, a sudden, powerful thrust pushed against the tipping side of the vehicle, as though an unseen force had placed itself between us and the ground. In one seamless motion, the van settled firmly back onto all four wheels. We came to a controlled stop on the shoulder, the engine still running, the children safe in their seats, the world still turning.
We sat for a moment in stunned silence and then poured out thanks to God for His mercy. There was no natural explanation for the way the vehicle had been righted. We knew—beyond any doubt—that our guardian angels had acted in perfect unison, applying that precise, invisible pressure that restored us to solid ground, prevented us from rolling down the embankment, and quite possibly saved us from death or catastrophic injury. An inexplicable peace settled over the entire family even as the emergency unfolded around us. That peace did not feel like the absence of fear; it felt like the presence of something stronger than fear. We immediately got out of the van and went to help the injured motorcyclists scattered across the highway, doing what little we could until the first responders arrived.
God was truly and tangibly present on that stretch of road that day. Not a single day has passed since then that I do not thank Him for every ordinary moment of every ordinary day. That fleeting yet unmistakable glimpse of the spiritual realm—exactly the kind of intervention St. Thomas Aquinas describes in his theology of the angels and that Tolkien so vividly portrays in the unveiling of the Unseen World—has permanently reshaped the way I live. I now approach the most routine hours with deeper gratitude and firmer trust, confident that the same invisible help still surrounds us, guiding and protecting even when our physical eyes cannot perceive it.
If God were to grant us permanent “Spiderwick glasses” for the metaphysical world, the daily grind of work, relationships, errands, and quiet duties would be transfigured into the open theater of the great war between heaven and hell. We would live, as Aquinas insists we already do, as rational creatures summoned to cooperate freely with the higher intelligences God has placed at our service and to resist those who seek our destruction.
The ordinary commute, the patient conversation with a tired child, the decision to forgive or to withhold forgiveness, the choice to speak truth or to remain silent—all would stand revealed as moments of eternal consequence. Temptation would no longer feel like a private struggle against personal weakness; it would be recognized as the calculated whisper of an enemy already defeated yet still active. Moments of unexpected strength, sudden clarity, or unaccountable peace would be received as the tangible assistance of those pure spirits assigned to our care.
In short, we would begin to live the truth that faith already proclaims: that the visible world is only the surface of a far deeper reality, and that every human life is lived under the watchful eyes of both light and darkness. The only question that remains is whether we will begin even now, by the light of faith, to live as if we already see.
By Julie Sande, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED)
This article was originally published by Alaska DCCED and reprinted with permission.
I grew up in the logging camps around Ketchikan, Alaska. In communities like those, an industry is never just a number in an economic report. It is the reason families can stay, schools can keep their doors open, stores can remain stocked and local governments can provide basic services.
I witnessed what happened when the Ketchikan Pulp Company mill closed in 1997. More than 500 people lost their jobs. Children went back to school and found many of their classmates gone because their families had to leave. Ketchikan and the surrounding communities adapted and rebuilt their economies, but it did not happen overnight.
That experience has stayed with me throughout my career. It is why I believe we must understand the full consequences before speaking casually about eliminating or sharply restricting an industry that supports Alaska communities.
Today, that lesson applies to the public conversation surrounding pollock trawl fisheries.
Alaskans are right to care deeply about salmon. The loss of salmon returns in Western and Interior Alaska has caused real harm to food security, culture, family traditions and local economies. Bycatch matters, and it must continue to be reduced.
But responsible decision-making also requires us to follow the science and account for the entire system affected by a policy choice.
The pollock fishery is not an isolated industry operating somewhere beyond Alaska’s horizon. Between 2020 and 2023, pollock represented about 58% of Alaska’s seafood harvest volume. A 2025 Northern Economics study found that, in 2023, the Alaska pollock fishery supported 6,318 jobs in Alaska, generated $337 million in labor income and contributed $832 million in statewide economic activity.
Zoom in on Kodiak, where pollock helps processors operate beyond the short summer salmon season. That year-round volume supports resident jobs, shipyards, fuel providers, transportation companies and the local tax base. It also helps preserve the processing and vessel capacity that other fisheries need.
Multigenerational family-owned boats can fish pollock early in the year, rockfish and flatfish in the spring, tender salmon during the summer and return to pollock in the fall. Pollock may account for half or more of a boat’s annual income. Without it, vessels could spend much of the year tied to the dock.
Severely restricting or closing the fishery would affect more than pollock production. Salmon fisheries would lose tendering capacity, processors would lose year-round employees or shut down altogether, and local businesses would lose customers. Those effects extend to freight service and the cost of basic goods in coastal communities.
King Cove offers a sobering example. Fish-tax revenue, a major source of the city’s budget, has fallen by approximately 70% since the Peter Pan facility closed, forcing King Cove to eliminate positions, reduce employee pay and draw on limited resources to maintain essential services. In rural Alaska, the loss of a foundational industry can destabilize an entire community, even one that has spent years preparing, investing and building for the future.
The stakes extend across Western Alaska. The Community Development Quota program connects 65 communities to Bering Sea fisheries. Pollock is the program’s primary revenue source, supporting scholarships, workforce development, local fishing operations, infrastructure and other community investments.
In Alaska’s federal pollock fisheries, every salmon encountered is counted. NOAA requires extensive observer coverage, electronic monitoring and genetic sampling to identify where salmon originated.
Science does not support placing responsibility for the Yukon River Chinook crisis on a single fishery. New NOAA-led research found that increased natural mortality during the marine life stage, associated with prolonged heatwaves in the Bering Sea, was a major driver of the recent severe decline. Researchers found no evidence that harvest or bycatch removals were significant factors in the population-level decline. In 2024, genetic analysis estimated that a total of 105 Chinook caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery originated from Upper or Middle Yukon River stocks.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council reports that bycatch accounts for less than 2% of Western Alaska chum mortality annually. In 2026, the Council recommended a Western Alaska chum salmon cap and a migration-corridor closure. The fleet has also reduced chum bycatch by 90% over the past four years through avoidance measures, including real-time data sharing and vessel movement.
Alaska’s fisheries are considered a global model not because they have no impacts, but because they are closely monitored, publicly managed and expected to improve as science and technology advance. Sustainable fisheries and strong coastal economies are not competing goals. In Alaska, they depend on one another.
Before we reduce a fishery to a slogan, we should remember what an industry looks like from inside a community. It looks like a parent’s paycheck, a functioning harbor, a full classroom, reliable freight service and a young person who can imagine building a future in the place they call home.
Julie Sande is the Commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development and a lifelong Alaskan.
The Department of Public Safety has released the 2025 Crime in Alaska Report, its annual publication detailing crimes reported in Alaska. In 2025, the total number of offenses reported increased 7.2% from 2024; however since 2018, crime has decreased overall by 36.9%. Except for Murder and Rape offenses, all other Part I crimes (Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Arson) had more offenses reported in 2025 than in 2024. This increase was driven by increases in violent crime and property crime within the Municipality of Anchorage. The number of reported offenses for the Anchorage Police Department increased by 14.6% (19.4% property crime and 1.2% violent crime) while the number of reported offenses for the Alaska State Troopers decreased by 5.9% (-6.8% for property crime and -5.0% for violent crime).
“Public safety has been job number one for my administration since I took office, and we have made historic investments in law enforcement across the state that has resulted in significant improvements for the safety of Alaskans,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “While most of the state is much safer today than it was a few years ago, this data demonstrates that Anchorage policy makers must continue to make public safety a higher priority.”
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide effort by federal, state, city, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies to report data on crimes reported in their jurisdiction. The report is a resource for measuring the trend and distribution of crime in Alaska. Under Alaska law, law enforcement agencies in Alaska are required to submit UCR data to the State of Alaska. In 2025, 32 agencies reported crime data to DPS. These agencies represent 99.6% of the state’s population. All agencies except the Anchorage Police Department submitted their UCR data using the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) format which provides substantially more detail about UCR covered crimes.
“While 2025 crime data shows a lot of positive momentum, especially for the Alaska State Troopers, we must not become complacent as a state. Your Alaska State Troopers will continue to work to improve public safety across the state in both urban and rural Alaska,” said Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell. “Alaska’s commonsense approach to public safety and the overwhelming support of Governor Dunleavy, the Alaska Legislature, and the citizens of our state continue to drive State Trooper’s crime rates down and make our state a safer place to live, visit, work, and raise a family.”
Caution should be exercised when comparing data from year to year and making conclusions, as the report does not account for when an incident occurred; it accounts for when it was reported. For example, burglary or theft occurring in November of one year may not have been discovered and reported until February of the next year. The incident is not retroactively applied to a previous year’s data; it is counted in the year it was reported. Rape offenses are counted by victim, and each separation of time and place a rape occurs will also be counted. Sexual assaults spanning years will result in numerous counts of rape offenses being reported for a single victim.
The 2025 Crime in Alaska report was authored by the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s Division of Statewide Services. The Division of Statewide Services provides technical and specialized services to the Department of Public Safety and law enforcement agencies across the state. Past Crime in Alaska Reports and Felony-Level Sex Offenses reports can be found online here.
The UCR and Crime in Alaska reports are based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation UCR Program definitions of crimes to ensure consistency and uniformity in reported offenses nationally. The definitions do not always echo state definitions; therefore, federal publications cannot accurately be compared to reports that use the state definitions for crimes as these are unique to each state. Additionally, the population counts for Crime in Alaska come from the US Census.
Press release provided by the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Following Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom’s decision to not certify Treg Taylor for the 2026 general election ballot, Taylor’s running-mate Candi English is now running for governor with Taylor’s wife, Jodi Taylor, as her Lt. Governor. The Alaska Division of Elections marks the English/ Taylor ticket as pending as of September 1, 4:00 PM. Please check the Division of Elections for the most up-to-date information.
The three confirmed candidates are Republican Bernadette Wilson, who received 10% of the votes in the primary, Republican Dave Bronson (8.1%), and Democrat Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins (22.5%). Democrat Tom Begich had originally placed in the top four with 20.8% of the primary votes, but chose to withdraw, consolidating the Democrat vote for JKT. When Begich dropped, Treg Taylor (7.3%) moved up to fourth.
Due to APOC concerns that seem to prioritize compliance with bureaucratic rules over the constitutional right to privacy, Taylor was denied certification. His running-mate, Candi English, now has the opportunity to run for governor alongside her new running-mate Jodi Taylor. If the English/ Taylor ticket is not certified, only three candidates will appear on the November ballot. The candidate who placed after Taylor in the primary is Click Bishop, but he will not be moved up because state law requires those moves to be made before 64 days prior to the election—a window that ended August 31.
Although some Republicans urged a consolidation strategy similar to the Democrat’s strategy and asked Bronson and all subsequent Republican candidates to withdraw from the race, Bronson chose to remain on the ballot. Other Republicans argue that the best strategy for electing a conservative in a ranked-choice voting system is to rank all the Republican candidates. Treg Taylor and Candi English offered a unique third solution.
In a press release from the Treg for Alaska campaign, both Taylor and English urged Wilson and Bronson to team up as one ticket. Both Taylor and English said they would withdraw and endorse the Wilson-Bronson ticket if Wilson and Bronson decide to run together.
“Our campaign was overwhelmingly supported by Alaskans, with 94% of our contributions coming from inside the state,” said English. “We believe Alaska’s governor should answer to Alaskans— not California mega-donors or special interests.” 80% of JKT’s campaign donations are from outside Alaska with a significant portion coming from California AI/ data center mega-donors.
Much of the Republican debate on political strategy has focused on placing Alaskans before personal ego. If Wilson and Bronson ran together and English withdrew from the race, all three candidates would be making a sacrifice. It could make a powerful statement, demonstrating that Republicans value Alaska above their personal ambitions. And voters would see only two tickets on the ballot—Wilson-Bronson and Kreiss-Tomkins/ Johnson— rendering ranked-choice voting irrelevant.
As of now, it is most likely voters will see Wilson/ Shower, Bronson/ Church, and Kreiss-Tomkins/ Johnson on the November ballot. The English/ Taylor ticket is pending and may also appear on the ballot. Or the Republican candidates could strategize together and run only one ticket— Wilson/ Bronson— against the one Democrat ticket. More coverage to follow.
Almost 500 tons of crushing, ore sorting, milling, flotation, and refining equipment departed Seattle on August 26, 2026, aboard a barge bound for Nova Minerals’ processing site at Port MacKenzie, Alaska. The barge is expected to arrive Monday, September 7.
The development of the Nova Minerals Port MacKenzie antimony refinery is fully funded by a $43.4 million award from the U.S. Department of War. The refinery will support the establishment of a domestic antimony supply chain— currently dominated by China— with first production targeted for 2027. Antimony is a critical mineral used in military technology, flame retardants, vehicle and industrial batteries, and semiconductors.
Barge with over 40 containers and numerous other oversized loads being loaded in SeattleTug pushing barge to open water
The shipment on its way to Alaska, comprising more than 40 containers and multiple oversized loads, is expected to arrive by early September, marking the culmination of six months of detailed planning, procurement, and logistics coordination. “A key part of our strategy has been to acquire existing, modern processing equipment and mobilize it to Alaska, rather than build new equipment from scratch. That decision allowed us to move faster and more cost-effectively as we construct our processing plant at Port MacKenzie and work toward first antimony production in 2027,” commented Nova Minerals CEO, Mr. Christopher Gerteisen.
The Port MacKenzie plant is designed to process stibnite-bearing material, initially into antimony trisulfide as part of the U.S. Department of War (DoW) project, and is modular and easily scalable for future expansion into additional saleable refined antimony products, including antimony metal and trioxide. Port MacKenzie also provides a strategic location with access to deepwater port infrastructure, the proposed West Susitna Access Road, and Port MacKenzie rail spur.
Upon completion of the DoW-funded project, the Nova Minerals Port MacKenzie antimony refinery is expected to serve as a strategic U.S. processing and toll-treatment facility capable of producing refined antimony products for defense, industrial, and critical technology supply chains.
Mr. Gerteisen expressed the importance of the project: “Antimony is a critical mineral essential to our national and economic security, with applications in defense, energy storage, and electronics. We are proud to be advancing a domestic supply chain that will help strengthen US critical minerals security.”
About Nova Minerals Corp
Nova Minerals Corp is advancing one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold deposits into production and securing a U.S. domestic supply of the critical mineral antimony. The company is focused on the exploration and development of the Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project, located in Alaska, a tier-one mining jurisdiction.
Estelle hosts two defined multi-million-ounce gold resources and more than 20 prospects distributed along a 35-kilometre mineralized trend in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt, a province that hosts a greater than 220 million-ounce (Moz) documented gold endowment and some of the world’s largest gold mines and discoveries, including Kinross Gold Corporation’s Fort Knox Gold Mine.
In parallel, Nova is advancing its critical minerals strategy, fully funded by a US $43.4 million U.S. Department of War award to develop a domestic antimony supply chain, targeted for production in late 2026/2027.
Further discussion and analysis of the Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project is available through the interactive Vrify 3D animations, presentations and videos, all available on the Company’s website. www.novamineralscorp.com.
Information used in this story was primarily provided in a press release by Nova Minerals.All images used in this story were provided by Nova Minerals.
A new release of documents from U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s investigation into former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci raises questions about Fauci’s handling of government emails, his interactions with CIA officials, and the government’s examination of COVID-19’s origins.
The document release follows Fauci’s appearance before Sen. Rand Paul’s Senate committee, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. Fauci was then held in contempt by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with an 8-7 vote split along party-lines. Fauci’s repeated invocation of the Fifth Amendment does not itself establish criminal conduct. The committee’s subsequent contempt vote reflects its conclusion that his refusal to answer violated the subpoena, a position Fauci and his attorneys dispute.
The most direct issue concerns five emails in which Fauci explicitly instructed recipients to delete his messages after reading them. This potentially violates the federal law requiring the preservation of government records, including email conversations.
The emails span more than a decade, from 2009 through 2020. One 2012 message contains an unusually specific instruction: “Please delete this e-mail and then delete from the deleted file.”
Although the survival of the emails in the release by Sen. Rand Paul indicates Fauci’s requests were not granted, the requests themselves deserve scrutiny. Fauci repeatedly directed colleagues to delete correspondence sent from his government account— a direction that would be a federal crime with a penalty of up to three years in prison if complied with.
Five deletion requests
The documents contain evidence of at least five times Fauci made deletion requests.
In September 2009, Fauci wrote to Greg Folkers regarding a dispute involving AIDS-vaccine researchers and ended the message by asking the recipient to delete it after reading it.
In December 2011, Fauci wrote to Clifford Lane concerning controversy surrounding the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and research involving H5N1 influenza. He told Lane that he did not want to put his thoughts about the matter into an email and again instructed him to delete the message.
In March 2012, Fauci wrote Lane about a New York Times article concerning H5N1 research associated with Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier. Fauci instructed Lane to delete the email and then remove it from the deleted folder.
In February 2020, shortly after a widely discussed conference call about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Fauci wrote to NIH Director Francis Collins about the actions of other international health officials. He again instructed Collins to delete the message.
In July 2020, Fauci sent Folkers an email criticizing Sen. Rand Paul and discussing COVID-19 mortality statistics. He again asked the recipient to delete it.
The H5N1 connection
The 2012 deletion request warrants particular attention because of Fauci asking the recipient to not only delete the email, but also delete the email from the deleted folder.
Fauci was discussing research involving H5N1 influenza, including experiments designed to examine whether the virus could become more transmissible between mammals. The research became part of a broader debate over so-called gain-of-function research and the risks associated with experiments that increase the transmissibility or pathogenicity of viruses.
Although this particular email does not concern SARS-CoV-2, it does show Fauci privately discussing controversial virus research and directing a colleague to delete the correspondence.
Fauci and the intelligence community
The document package also contains records concerning Fauci’s interactions with intelligence officials investigating the origins of COVID-19.
One CIA memorandum describes a meeting in which Fauci discussed experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, possible illnesses among laboratory personnel, and the absence of an identified intermediate animal host.
The memorandum also says Fauci referred CIA officials to scientists Robert Garry, Kristian Andersen and Eddie Holmes. Those scientists had argued that features of SARS-CoV-2 supported a natural-origin explanation. The same memorandum also records Fauci discussing questions about Wuhan laboratory research and the possibility that Chinese authorities had removed or destroyed evidence at the Huanan market.
A separate CIA-NIAID arrangement
Another exhibit in the released file concerns a CIA-funded arrangement with NIAID involving forensic comparative genomics. The work focused on bacteria associated with biological threats, including Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia. The agreement included restrictions concerning the release of technical information.
According to Sen. Rand Paul’s initial summary of the documents: “Documents show that the CIA and NIAID had an interagency agreement under which the transfer of funds and the contractual relationship between the two agencies were unclassified but restricted from public release. The agreement provided that NIAID would not disclose the resulting data without the CIA’s permission.” The documents do not indicate anything beyond the usual contractual agreements involved in government research of potential biological threats.
A 2015 coronavirus document
The package also contains a 2015 CIA document concerning MERS coronavirus. The CIA’s Biological Sciences Experts Group received a request concerning MERS mutation rates and the number of human-to-human passages required for mutations to become established. The document demonstrates intelligence-community interest in coronavirus adaptation several years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is no evidence of Fauci being involved in this particular document. However, it does prove that U.S. intelligence officials were examining coronavirus mutation and human transmission five years before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Questions surrounding Scott Gottlieb
Another document concerns former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. A May 2020 CIA briefing included Gottlieb as an outside adviser. The CIA document identified him as a Pfizer director while he discussed vaccine technologies, remdesivir, seroprevalence, and the possibility that China could become the first country to deploy a vaccine. The document raises a potential conflict-of-interest question about the CIA’s use of an outside adviser who was a director of Pfizer. Fauci does not appear in this document.
What the documents establish
The latest release supports several factual conclusions.
Fauci repeatedly instructed colleagues to delete emails. The documents contain five examples spanning 2009 to 2020, including one instruction to even delete the email from the deleted folder.
The documents do not establish that any federal records were actually destroyed. Sen. Paul Rand’s release shows the emails survived. However, it seems reasonable to question whether other emails with the same directive were actually deleted, and what those emails may have said.
Fauci discussed laboratory-origin questions with intelligence officials. The documents show him asking about Wuhan laboratory research, laboratory personnel, and missing epidemiological evidence.
Fauci directed intelligence officials to scientists who favored a natural-origin explanation. The documents establish the referral but do not show that Fauci ordered investigators to reject the laboratory-origin hypothesis.
The CIA and NIAID collaborated on biological research. At least one document concerns biodefense research unrelated to COVID-19.
The CIA examined coronavirus adaptation before the pandemic. The 2015 MERS document establishes government interest in the coronavirus five years before the pandemic.
Alaska will receive roughly $16 million as part of a $17 billion multistate settlement holding Meta accountable for designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to kids. The funds (some estimates put the number closer to $21 million) will go toward enforcement, education and mental health treatment and research, paid out over nine years. The official press release provides the following details:
“The settlement requires Meta to implement a series of safety features on Instagram and Facebook, including:
Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
“Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year.
Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.
Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.
These are groundbreaking changes to Instagram and Facebook and more significant and comprehensive than previously ordered by any court. And perhaps most importantly, this settlement represents a down payment toward an industry-wide social media experience that allows kids to connect in a healthy way.“
Governor Mike Dunleavy is quoted as saying “This settlement was a necessary and imperative step to protect our children. Social media promised us connection and the ability to productively engage with each other in life’s joyful and mundane moments. What social media gave us was a generation of children scarred by bullying, harassment, doom-scrolling and predation.“
Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills said “As a mom of two, I can’t tell you what a relief this settlement brings to me knowing there will be better safeguards on Meta’s platform to keep teens healthy and positively engaged. As Attorney General, I am incredibly proud of all the work our consumer protection team brings to Alaskans on these and many other issues. Regardless of political party, attorneys general across the United States have consumer protection teams communicating and working together to tackle some of the largest and most important issues faced by consumers, and it is only through that collaboration that settlements like this are possible.”
Alaska Family Council commends AG Cori Mills for a task well done but reminds Alaska families this is just the beginning, not the end, of our fight for virtual accountability.
This settlement binds only one company. Kids were not harmed by just one platform, and this problem will not be solved with just one brokered settlement. We need Congress to act.
Don’t give Meta credit for these changes. Meta didn’t volunteer to make design alterations—it was forced to after being brought to court by twenty-nine AGs—and these updates come without any apology or admission of wrongdoing.
What the settlement does NOT do:
Provide an admission of wrongdoing
Hold accountable other platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger/DMs, VR, gaming, or AI
Resolve private lawsuits
Last forever—all obligations expire 10 years from the effective date
Constrain Meta’s future advocacy
Mandate specific content removal standards beyond Meta’s own policies
Congress must hold big tech accountable. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) passed Senate committee and is advancing. KOSA has the strongest protections to date, including a real, enforceable duty of care. Protecting kids goes beyond party lines. The bill is supported by two-thirds of the Senate. Congress returns to DC in mid-September, and we need the House to finish. Our lawmakers have the power to get KOSA to Trump’s desk before November.
CLICK HERE to encourage Senator Dan Sullivan to get KOSA passed CLICK HERE to encourage Representative Nick Begich to get KOSA passed
A Haines resident was walking a leashed dog on Mt. Riley Road in Haines early Saturday morning, Aug. 29, 2026, when she encountered a brown bear and was attacked. She was able to walk home and call 911. She sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries and is currently receiving medical treatment in Juneau.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) biologists, an Alaska Wildlife Trooper, and Haines Police Department personnel returned to the site to conduct an investigation. The initial investigation indicates that this was consistent with a defensive response of the bear and not a predatory attack. The team discovered that food waste had been dumped near the road, which may have attracted the bear. Bear sign was evident but no bears were observed during the investigation. Samples were collected and DNA analysis will be performed by the ADF&G Gene Conservation Lab in Anchorage to verify species and sex of the animal and possibly identify the specific bear. Initial reports identified the animal as a brown bear, however that will be confirmed once the genetic analysis is complete. ADF&G is continuing to monitor reports of bear activity in Haines and work closely with Haines Police Department and Alaska Wildlife Troopers. The Haines Borough has closed the Lily Lake Trail and we recommend extra caution for those in the area.
Southeast residents are reminded to be vigilant about bear attractants. Dispose of fish carcasses and other bear attractants appropriately. Store garbage, livestock and pet food inside. Do not leave barbecues and smokers unattended and clean them after use.
ADF&G recommends the following tips when in bear country:
· Always carry a deterrent, such as bear spray or a firearm and know how to use it.
· Travel in groups and stay together on trails.
· Make noise so you don’t surprise a bear. Stay alert, use your senses and look for signs of bears.
· Keep pets on leash when possible to avoid unwanted wildlife interactions.
If you surprise a bear, especially one with cubs or on a food cache, it may react in a threatened or defensive manner. The bear may be agitated and may huff, stomp, make a popping sound with its teeth, salivate, or lay its ears back against its head and charge.
· Stay calm during a bear encounter. Ready your deterrent. Stand your ground, group up with others and alert the bear by talking calmly. Don’t run.
· If the bear is stationary, move away slowly while keeping your eyes on the bear.
· If the bear starts to move toward you or charges, stop and stand your ground.
· Let the bear know you are not a threat. Behaving calmly, moving slowly, and speaking in a low calm voice will help de-escalate the situation.
· If the bear continues to approach, use your deterrent when the bear is within range.
