Starr Marsett is resigning from the Anchorage School Board to spend more time with her family.
Marsett is the president of the school board. The process for replacing her is the board appoints a replacement until the next election, April 6, 2021. The board typically sets up a process for individuals to submit their resumes and letters of interest. Then, the applicants are interviewed.
Her last meeting will be Jan. 5, 2021, after which she will join her husband in Arizona.
By KELLY TSHIBAKA
Liberals should love Amy Coney Barrett. As an independent woman who has held prestigious positions in legal academia, private practice and the judiciary, she embodies the ideal of professional excellence for feminists. Equally impressive and inspiring was that she attained to these rarified heights, while also raising seven children and volunteering in her community.
If tenacious women like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepared the way for women to practice law, formidable women like Judge Amy Coney Barrett have paved it. Judge Barrett is an incisive jurist who has developed an impressive body of thoughtful academic writing and legal opinions over the course of two decades. So, what is all the outcry about? While red herring arguments abound, it simply comes down to this: Judge Barrett is an originalist who will interpret the U.S. Constitution as the Founders intended, and a textualist who believes words mean what they say, not what you wish or want them to say.
A fierce intellectual debate rages between jurists who believe the role of the judge is simply to interpret the law as it is written and those who believe it is to help make law. Unfortunately, that debate has hyper-politicized the pursuit of justice. Activist judges and their liberal supporters have sought to rip off Lady Justice’s blindfold, thereby giving her a sneak peek at a judge’s pre-determined outcome of a case, while originalist judges like Judge Barrett have fought hard to keep that blindfold from being removed. Judge Barrett’s judicial philosophy champions civil rights — it seeks to protect citizens from a jurisprudence that, at bottom, is arbitrary, autocratic and authoritarian.
Yet, curiously, liberals instead view Judge Barrett as a threat to justice because, in 2017, her judicial philosophy led her to argue that Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion upholding Obamacare “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.”
However, is not the real threat that Justice Roberts read into the law a meaning that simply was not there? Do Judge Barrett’s opponents really believe that any of them would be safe if a judge who bases her legal opinions on her political views and personal convictions, rather than on the law, were to hold such a powerful office? In truth, they do not.
Indeed, those who oppose Judge Barrett, including powerful senators like Dianne Feinstein, have articulated their concern that her faith might influence her legal opinions; they fear she might be a judicial activist with respect to causes they hold dear. Ironically, in so doing, they admit that they, too, are originalists and textualists. So, their opposition of a jurist who is one of the most respected originalists and textualists of our generation is puzzling.
Judge Barrett’s opponents are concerned she will gut health care, end legal abortion and destroy civil rights. On what basis? Amy Coney Barrett has a long track record that demonstrates her devotion to originalism, to not corrupting her interpretation of the law with her personal views. Indeed, because of prior precedent, she recently issued a ruling that supports buffer zones at abortion clinics.
Finally, it is truly perplexing that Judge Barrett’s opponents would think that a woman who adopted two Haitian children, and who advocated for one of her blind students, would seek to undermine people’s civil rights. These concerns are not reflective of the evidence of Judge Barrett’s life and legal record, but of the polarized and paralyzed political nature of the judicial confirmation process that Democrats, led by then-Sen. Joe Biden, initiated with the late Judge Robert Bork and continued with the “high-tech lynching” of Clarence Thomas.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said legal “dissents speak to a future age.” One of the justice’s closest friends was Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Barrett’s mentor. With Judge Barrett’s nomination, we may now have stepped into that “future age” when those who heard, and even helped write, Scalia’s dissents are rising to take the place of their mentor. I imagine that at least part of Ginsburg would be overjoyed to see her seat filled by a woman who was her dear friend’s “favorite” mentee. That is something liberals and feminists should celebrate; it is something we all should celebrate.
Kelly Tshibaka, commissioner of the Department of Administration, is a Harvard Law School-educated government watchdog, national security attorney and civil liberties attorney who served in the Trump, Obama and Bush administrations. This column ran in the Washington Times.
President Donald Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, it was announced today.
Hope Hicks, a senior aide to President Trump, was announced as positive for the virus earlier in the day.
Trump is 74 years old and carries extra weight, both of which are conditions that can lead to complications from the virus. However, he also has the best medical care in the world.
The election is 32 days away. Before his test results came in, Trump had a full schedule of campaign events on Friday. He was tested at midnight, Eastern time and the announcement came shortly after 1 am Friday.
Trump tweeted:
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”
Among those who have had close contact with Hicks in recent days are Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. Kim Guilfoyle, Lara Trump, Tiffany Trump, Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, Jason Miller, and Kayleigh McEnany.
This story is breaking news and will be updated.
8:15 am Friday update: Joe and Jill Biden have tested negative for the coronavirus.
For the second time in two weeks, Sen. Cathy Giessel has used her official letterhead at the Alaska Legislature, where she serves as Senate President, to campaign against candidates who support a full Permanent Fund dividend.
“The Governor will be putting out his budget ideas by December 15. I am hearing a few people running for the House and Senate in our District saying that they will vote for $2.1 billion in PFDs, plus about $4 billion more for “back Dividends” (a couple of those people have signed a pledge to do that).,” Giessel wrote this week.
On Sept. 17, she also talked against candidates: “Even if you vote for ‘full PFD’ candidates, they won’t be able to pay for it any way except to ROB the Permanent Fund itself,” she wrote.
Although Giessel was defeated by Roger Holland in the Republican Primary for Senate Seat N, she will continue to serve until the next senator for the district is sworn in, which occurs in January. Holland must still win on Nov. 3; he will face Carolyn Clift on the General Election ballot. Holland has supported a full Permanent Fund dividend as established by Alaska Statute.
Until then, Giessel is bound by legislative ethics rules that forbid her from using her office or resources for the purposes of campaigning for or against candidates.
Chuck Sassara, who served in the Alaska State House of Representatives from 1965 to 1970, has passed.
Sassara and his wife Ann came to Alaska in 1955 from California, where he had graduated from UCLA. Sassara was a pilot, a mariner, business owner, and author. In 2015, he wrote “Propellers, Politics & People,” memoirs of his life and adventures in Alaska, which can be found at Amazon.
“A master of aviation, an honorable legislator, a cherished and selfless husband, father, grandfather, and friend—Chuck Sassara was larger than life itself. His desire to serve others was a driving quality, one that set him apart from the rest. In his role as an Alaska State Representative, Chuck was a key proponent in pivotal legislation which shaped Alaska into what it is today,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “Rose and I extend our deepest sympathies to the Sassara family in their time of grieving.”
For more information about this movement, head over to Alaskans for Open Meetings.
Suzanne LaFrance, the Democrat nominee for House District 28, told public broadcasting viewers on Wednesday night that she opposes the recall of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
However, her name appears on the list of those signing the recall petition application in 2019.
LaFrance is running against James Kaufman, the Republican nominee for House District 28, South Anchorage. He opposes the recall.
She is the hand-picked nominee from the Alaska Democratic Party, substituted in after the primary — after her Democratic placeholder Adam Lees quit. LaFrance is a member of the leftwing controlling body of the Anchorage Assembly.
During the “lightning round” of questions, candidates were yes or no. She hesitated at the question on the recall, nodded her head back and forth, before “no.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan, a colonel in the U.S. Marines Reserve who served in Afghanistan, was in the Senate subway when a CNN reporter approached and asked him his thoughts on the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on Tuesday. The answer given to the reporter prompted Sullivan’s opponent, Al Gross of Juneau, to call him a “Coward.”
Sullivan had responded to the reporter: He didn’t see the debate because he had been hosting one of his own events at the time.
It was, in fact, a campaign event at the Dimond Center in Anchorage, which took place at the same time as the debate. Sullivan had to teleconference into the event because the Senate had been called back to Washington. But he attended his own event nonetheless.
Then, as the doors were closing, the reporter asked Sullivan the “gotcha” question: Did Trump’s actions “refusing to condemn white supremacy” hurt Sullivan’s re-election chances?
The doors to the subway closed and the reporter said Sullivan stared silently for 8 seconds. Others said it was all over in a second, not 8 seconds, but this was CNN.
Al Gross, the doctor who embellished his involvement in killing a bear, had one word for the Marine who served around the globe and who spends three weeks training with the Marines every year: “Coward.”
It had been a set-up question from a CNN reporter who knows that Senators are not allowed to talk about their campaigns while they are in the U.S. Capitol.
The president has on several occasions denounced white supremacy, but also knows that this is a political attack and has responded forcefully to such questions.
As for Sullivan, he is married to an Alaska Native and is the father of Alaska Native children. But that somehow escaped the narrative for CNN and Al Gross.
Sullivan’s office released the following statement: “Senator Sullivan doesn’t know what the President actually meant by his comments. For his part, Senator Sullivan has consistently and unambiguously denounced white supremacy and expects all others to do the same. Period.”
By DAN FAGAN
How bad was former Gov. Bill Walker for the state of Alaska? Let me count the ways. He was certainly one of the most consequential governors in Alaska’s short history.
His expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare has had a devastating impact on the state’s budget. In the year 2000, Alaska spent $486 million on Medicaid. That accounted for less than 10% of the state’s budget.
But since Walker’s expansion of the entitlement program, Medicaid costs to the state have exploded in growth. Since 2000, Medicaid spending has skyrocketed 379%.
In 2018, more than one-fifth of the state’s budget went toward Medicaid expenses. Medicaid spending in Alaska is currently growing 25 times as fast as state revenues.
Since Walker expanded Medicaid to include able-bodied childless adults, it’s created close to an additional 100,000 government dependents. Before expansion Medicaid was limited to Alaskans who are elderly, disabled or families with low-income children and pregnant women. As of Aug. 31, 232,735 Alaskans are now on Medicaid. That’s up from 125,616 before Walker expanded the entitlement program.
Walker told us expanding Medicaid would lower health care costs for all Alaskans. It didn’t. Since 2014, the average health care costs for Alaskans is $11,000 higher than any other state.
Walker also left a mark on Alaska when he committed political suicide after opening the door to raiding the Permanent Fund. Legislation Walker signed allowed for the propping up of Alaska’s Jabba-the-Hut-like government.
Before Walker, politicians would not dare talk of using money set aside for the yearly dividend and using it for government. Walker not only talked of it, he made it happen.
Walker was a wholly owned subsidiary and creation of Big Labor and other special interests. We know how much Big Labor loves big government. Former AFL-CIO union boss Vince Beltrami along with former newspaper publisher Alice Rogoff created the Walker/Byron Mallott Unity Ticket. The only thing the Walker/Mallott team unified around was special interests depending on government largess to survive.
Walker did them proud by opening the spigots of the multi-billion-dollar Permanent Fund, causing a tidal wave of cash to flow into state government. No need for cutting with that kind of cash pouring in.
Lobbyists, union bosses, non-profit cabal types, deep-staters, and benefactors of corporate crony capitalism were thrilled. They finally had access to the massive Permanent Fund they’d been lusting after for years.
With Walker raiding the Earnings Reserve Account came the shrinking of the yearly dividend check. Walker signed legislation causing the Permanent Fund to operate more like an endowment. That meant each year the Legislature would determine how much was spent on dividend checks. Previously, the amount was determined by a statue (still in law) based on a five-year average of the fund’s earnings.
This allowed Walker to veto the money the Legislature appropriated. His first year in office, Walker vetoed approximately half of the money allocated for the dividend check, costing each eligible Alaskan $1,100. Since the policy change, an Alaska family of four is out more than $30,000 in dividend check money and counting.
Who knew electing the Unity Ticket would be so expensive?
The Walker plan to allow the Legislature, not a statutorily mandated formula, determine the size of the dividend check each year also favored special interests by tying the hands of future governors who wanted to see a full dividend payout.
Walker’s successor, Republican Mike Dunleavy, campaigned on issuing a full dividend and returning the money vetoed from previous checks. But the Legislature wouldn’t appropriate the money needed for Dunleavy to keep his campaign promise.
As a result, many of those incumbent legislators were ousted and like Walker, today, couldn’t win a seat on their local community councils.
Another reason Walker is so disliked among Alaskans is his signing of so-called criminal justice reform legislation in 2016. The new law was nothing more than letting the bad guys out of jail early scheme to save money. It also weakened penalties so significantly that criminals got nothing more than a light slap on the wrist for stealing.
Next to ACES, Senate Bill 91 was the most devastating piece of legislation politicians ever passed. Many of the legislators who voted for the law lost reelection.
Walker was able to get through much of what he wanted as governor. Fortunately, for all of us, he was unable to tie Alaska closely to the Communist government of China and his long-held dream of building a gas pipeline.
Walker’s plan all along was to rip the leases from oil companies with rights to Alaska’s gas and cozy up to China to get his pet project pipeline built. Walker often spoke of the Norway model where the government, not the private sector played a bigger role in developing resources. That’s the reason Walker ran in the first place.
Fortunately for the state, he was unable to accomplish his most important goal.
Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive radio show in Alaska weekdays on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.