PATH TO JUDGESHIPS RUNS THROUGH LIBERAL TRADE ASSOCIATION
The Alaska Family Council has released a study that reveals the political leanings of members of the Alaska Bar Association, which is the professional organization that has an oversized role in the choosing of Alaska’s judges.
According to the report just released by the organization, of all ABA members, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a wide margin – 27.48% to 15.85%.
“That’s polar opposite of voters in Alaska, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly 2-to-1 (24.25% to 12.83%),” said Jim Minnery, president of the conservative values-oriented organization.
“When liberals have the power to select our judges, the public is stuck with the decisions of liberal judges,” he said.
The report comes two days before Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger delivers his annual “State of the Judiciary” address to a joint session of the Legislature.
Minnery wrote that Justice Bolger may brush off his talking points from remarks he gave to October’s Alaska Federation of Natives convention, where he warned about “attacks on judicial independence.”
“That would be ironic, because for decades, activist judges in Alaska have waged a war against the legislative and executive branches of government. In case after case, these lawyers in black robes have trampled on the constitutional authority of lawmakers who obtain consent to govern us by winning an election,” Minnery said.
Alaska lawyers rise to the bench after being nominated by the Alaska Judicial Council, whose membership is made up of a majority of bar association members. As a part of the Judicial Council’s vetting process, members of the bar are asked to offer their opinion of the applicants.
“Not surprisingly, there’s a long track record of conservative lawyers receiving lousy scores on the Bar survey,” Minnery noted.
Not all lawyers are associated with a party, but for typically Undeclareds vote more conservatively and nonpartisans vote for more liberal candidates.
Nonpartisan voters make up 14.45 percent of the electorate in Alaska, but make up over 24 percent of attorneys.
From Sitka south to Oregon, geoduck divers are hanging out in coffee shops instead of diving for giant clams.
The market for geoducks, those spectacular squirting shellfish, is dead in the water in the Northwest because the main consumers for the clams are in Hong Kong and China, where geoducks (pronounced gooey-duck) are considered a delicacy.
The issue is that 90 percent of geoducks are shipped live because they can fetch $30 a pound live, and due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, there is no guarantee that ports will be open in Asia to receive a live product.
No harvester wants to risk the investment and have the clams die while waiting for a longshoreman, who may be quarantined in a moment’s notice.
Already, the coronavirus has disrupted the global shipping industry. Some shipping lines have been rerouted, and many are reducing the number of calls to Chinese ports, which is disrupting the supply chain for many industries. While many of think of the popular consumer items such as cars and electronics, the little geoduck industry has already been hit.
There are only a handful of geoduck divers in Alaska, where the giant clam has been endangered by an overpopulation of ambitious sea otters, and where the dive fishery is highly regulated to test for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP).
The average size of recreationally caught geoducks on public beaches in Puget Sound, Wash. is 2.47 pounds, according to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. One bivalve beauty weighed in at over 8 pounds in the year 2000 and commercial harvesters have reported them even larger. Geoducks reach their maximum size in about 15 years and live as long as 168 years, according to WDF&W.
Washington State geoduck harvesting.
In 2015, it was a $74 million export industry for the state of Washington.
In Alaska, where the water is colder, it takes geoducks longer to put on weight. Alaska’s geoduck harvest is at about 400,000 pounds, and main harvest areas are Ketchikan’s Gravina Island, Craig, Metlakatla, Wrangell, and Symond’s Bay near Sitka. Geoducks have been harvested in Kodiak, as well.
In Washington and Oregon, the geoduck divers have all been laid off for now, according to Must Read Alaska industry sources. In Southeast Alaska, the divers say they are digging for sofa change instead of diving for geoducks. At least for now.
Senate President Cathy Giessel of Anchorage is the lone Republican senator to sign as a cosponsor of a bill lowering the rates at the Alaska Pioneer Homes.
House Bill 96 would put the retirement home rates in statute, rather than allowing the State to establish rates via regulation.
The Alaska Pioneers Homes, with about 500 residents in all, are unique to Alaska. They began in 1913 with the original site in Sitka established for indigent elderly miners and loggers. The home was a converted U.S. Marine Corps barrack.
In the mid-1950s, women and Alaska Natives became eligible for admission. During Alaska’s oil boom, another five homes were built around the state. Meanwhile, Natives generally seek elder care at Native-owned facilities, and costs of caring for the elderly rose.
Alaska’s Pioneer Homes are some of the least expensive elder-care facilities in the nation, heavily subsidized by the State of Alaska for a small clientele of often-well-to-do Alaskans whose offspring object to the rate increase; they don’t want to lose their anticipated inheritance to the care facilities to pay for the care of their elderly parents. The Anchorage home is where former Gov. Wally Hickel breathed his final breath, cared for in the memory care unit.
The average age of residents at the Pioneer Homes is 87 and more than 58 percent of them require higher levels of care. More and more are asking to be admitted to the memory care “neighborhoods” for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Sen. Giessel’s mother is a resident of one of the Pioneer Homes, an apparent conflict of interest, although not illegal.
In Fiscal Year 2019, Alaska subsidized Pioneer Home residents with $34,592,000 in state funds.
Sponsored by Anchorage Democrat Rep. Zack Fields, House Bill 96 passed the House, 35-4 in May and will be heard next in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee on Wednesday at 1:30 pm.
The new law would prohibit the state from charging for the actual cost of caring for the homes’ residents and instead would establish, in statute, the following rates:
$2,976 a month for housing, meals, emergency assistance, and recreation
$5,396 a month for housing, meals, emergency assistance, medication administration, health-related services, recreation, and intermittent assistance with activities of daily living.
$7,814 a month for the provision of housing, meals, emergency 29 assistance, medication administration, health-related services, recreation, and extensive assistance with activities of daily living;
$8,500 a month for the provision of housing, meals, emergency 01 assistance, medication administration, medication management, health-related services, recreation, assistance with activities of daily living and nursing services for 24 hours a day, and intermittent behavior management.
HB 96 not only rolls back the rate structure, it provides for what is called “reasonable and regular rate increases” based on Social Security cost-of-living schedules. The cost-of-living rate set by Social Security was one third of one percent in 2017.
The state Pioneer Home Assistance Program has $25 million in it to assist those who cannot afford the new rates. In the past, the residents have covered about 44 percent of the cost of their care, with state funds picking up the rest.
Giessel joined Senators Scott Kawasaki, Bill Wielechowski, Donny Olson, Tom Begich, Elvi Gray-Jackson, and Jessie Kiehl as cross sponsors.
In November, a pair of attorneys filed a lawsuit against the Dunleavy Administration over the rate increases. Vance Sanders and Libby Bakalar have asked the courts to stop the rate increases, and they are asking that the State pay their legal fees associated with the case, which they are requesting to be accepted by the court as a class-action lawsuit.
After months of hearings, mountains of evidence and mostly second-hand witness testimony, the impeachment inquiry and trial of the President this past week ground slowly to its inevitable conclusion of acquittal.
It did so without convincing a majority of the U. S. Senate or the country that whatever actions transpired over Ukraine defense funding, they didn’t rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
Win Gruening
On the other hand, the American people now have proof that Congressional Democrats will stop at nothing to overturn the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Constitutional scholars described the Democrats’ “weaponization” of the impeachment process as a dangerous precedent where future policy differences could be interpreted as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The two articles of impeachment, “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress”, were masterpieces of vagueness. Neither defined a crime by any legal standard.
Even last-minute leaks of unsubstantiated claims by ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton fell mostly on deaf ears as many had reached the conclusion that the charges leveled against Trump, even if true, weren’t serious enough to remove a sitting president from office nine months before standing for election.
The lack of due process afforded the President and the purely partisan nature of the impeachment vote were reason enough to end the process quickly. Indeed, the only real drama unfolded 11 days after the trial began when a vote was scheduled to allow the calling of witnesses. Strictly a procedural vote requiring a Senate majority to pass, most Republicans saw it as a delaying tactic not affecting the ultimate trial outcome.
If passed, it certainly would have extended the trial weeks or months as wrangling over witnesses and testimony ensued – providing opportunities for Democrats to level additional unsubstantiated accusations against the President.
Unsurprisingly, this thrust Sen. Lisa Murkowski into the national spotlight. Seen as a possible swing vote on impeachment, her vote on this issue was uncertain as she had previously indicated interest in hearing from additional witnesses. She became the focus of intense pressure from both sides of the aisle.
This became a litmus test for the validity of impeachment as well as for Murkowski personally. After all, if U.S. House impeachment managers couldn’t convince the moderate Murkowski on expanding their inquiry, it would be another indication of the weakness of their case.
And just like her lack of support for Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation in 2018, a vote to allow additional witnesses would send a message to her home state supporters that she was, once again, out of step with her Republican colleagues.
To her credit, Murkowski remained above the fray and said she would consider all sides prior to the vote. In the end, in contrast to Senate Democrats, she remained thoughtful and deliberative, issuing this statement, in part, “…I will vote against considering motions to subpoena. Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate.”
Later expanding her comments in a floor speech, she said “…the U.S. Constitution provides for impeachment but does not demand it in all instances. The voters will pronounce a verdict in nine months, and we must trust their judgment.”
The final vote to allow additional witnesses and evidence ultimately failed 51-49 with the final vote on acquittal an anti-climax. Unfortunately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) chose to disparage Senate Republicans by questioning their motivations for rejecting impeachment by stating: “We knew this was an uphill fight. We’re not in the majority; we have a president who strikes fear in the hearts of Republicans.”
That statement must have surprised Murkowski, who has shown no fear when she crossed President Trump on more than one occasion previously. While Murkowski is no fan of the President, she is true to herself. Her vote proved she still has the courage to represent the interests of her Alaskan constituents and uphold her constitutional responsibilities as one of Alaska’s two senators.
And it proved something else. The Democrats’ cynical and political use of impeachment backfired and has only bolstered the possibility of Trump’s re-election.
Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.
Before Iowa Caucuses, few had heard of the “Shadow” app, the smart-phone technology deployed by Iowa Democrats to report results from precincts across that state last Monday, Feb. 3.
It was a colossal face plant, and Iowa Democrats still cannot say with certainty who won the Iowa Caucus, although it appears to be Pete Buttigieg, by a nose.
Iowa’s meltdown was when Shadow caught the attention of political observers, and it came out from, er, the shadows.
Conspiracy theories soon followed. Who needs Russian interference, when you have Democrat-built election software, people mused.
Yet, it is even worse than it appeared on election night, when it seemed strange enough to have Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats’ rising candidates, declaring victory before the count was even close to being reported.
Later, investigative writers discovered that Buttigieg had invested heavily in the Shadow operation.
FEC report shows Pete Buttigieg as one of the largest investors in Shadow, Inc.
There was more: Tara McGowan, the founder of the umbrella organization that owns Shadow, is married to Michael Halle, a political consultant who has worked as as a senior strategist for Pete Buttigieg.
Shadow is part of a web of companies orbiting a nonprofit group called ACRONYM, founded by McGowan, who herself is a former digital producer for the Obama 2012 reelection campaign.
Today, the company website says it is just an investor:
McGowan is putting as much space as possible between herself and Shadow. In a “note to supporters” published last week on Medium, she wrote:
“While we are investors in Shadow, the company is a distinct for-profit entity, which builds political campaign technology. The company has other private investors too. Shadow also has its own Board of Directors. When it comes to day-to-day operations, Shadow and its full-time employees operate independently from ACRONYM. Payroll, accounting and other systems are also separate. We’re two distinct entities.”
But McGowan is contradicted by the CEO of Shadow, Gerard Niemira who wrote on ACRONYM’s website last year that Shadow would “exist under the ACRONYM umbrella.”
Niemira is the former chief technology officer and chief operating officer of Acronym. It was Niemira’s company, Groundbase, that was purchased by ACRONYM, and he was in charge bringing the product to market for use by Democrats in Iowa, Nevada, and other states, such as Wisconsin.
The tentacles of ACRONYM don’t stop at the “Shadow” technology.
TARGETING THE SWING STATES WITH FAKE NEWS OPS
ACRONYM is also building out a network of “progressive” news outlets in states considered pivotal in the 2020 election cycle. These news sites are filling the void where mainstream media is faltering economically.
The fake news network, called the Courier Newsroom, is already up and running in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Virginia, and is trying to staff up news operations in North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania.
Not coincidentally, all of these states are considered essential for a win for the White House in 2020. Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are “must win” states Democrats are targeting. Courier Newsroom is hiring staff now for these operations.
ACRONYM says it’s also just “an investor” in Courier.
But a look at Courier’s website description of itself shows that ACRONYM is not just any investor, but is, in fact, the owner:
A DEEPER DIVE INTO COURIER NEWSROOM
Tara McGowan started the ACRONYM machine shortly after the 2016 presidential election. She describes it as a nonprofit that is owner in for-profit companies “that share our unwavering mission to build power and digital infrastructure for the progressive movement.”
“When local journalism dies, we no longer read shared headlines and, in turn, we understand one another less. Having fewer shared sets of facts also erodes trust in our democracy and obscures the pathways for people to participate in it,” explains the Courier Newsroom website.
“This is why we are launching Courier Newsroom, a progressive media company that’s investing in local journalism across the country, and we’re starting by building newsrooms in Arizona, Virginia, Wisconsin, and three other states, as well as a national platform, COURIER.
“Journalists will surface stories that highlight the effects of federal policies at the local level, while elevating the policy decisions, ideas, and actions happening locally to a national audience. We need to grow sustainable infrastructure to support local reporting that holds a mirror to our democracy and all of its participants.”
“Courier Newsroom is not here to enter a war of who’s right, or who should win. Our mission is about giving people something we can all share: the facts that bind our communities together,” the company explains in benign tones. “Because when local journalism thrives, the truth is what we have in common.”
A columnist from News Guard took note this week and did some digging. In the Washington Post, COURIER was outed as purely a political propaganda machine, masquerading as straight-up news:
“In reality, Courier Newsroom is a clandestine political operation, publishing, among other things, positive stories about moderate Democrats who face difficult reelections in November. Courier’s main backeris Acronym, a liberal dark-money group that has invested heavily in Democratic digital advertising and campaign technology — including Shadow Inc., the tech company behind the app that was supposed to report the results of Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Its failed app aside, Acronym has already laid the groundwork to have an outsize impact on the 2020 elections.”
Courier’s editorial staff is filled with long-time Democrat political operatives, all with ties to progressive causes. The focus of the newsrooms’ efforts will be on local and state politics.
THIRD LEG OF THE STOOL: POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
Courier Newsroom is the reasonable-sounding auntie for McGowan’s empire, But the heart of her efforts is where the real money is. It’s her anti-Trump Super Pac called PACRONYM.
McGowan wrote on Medium last week: “My mission for the next 271 days is to do everything within my power to make absolutely certain Donald Trump is voted out of office.” PACRONYM is where the knives will come out against Republicans in a more overt way.
Who are the investors in PACRONYM? That’s where it gets interesting.
George Soros put in $2.6 million, and Fred Eychaner, a news media mogul, put in $1.5 million (he also gave $25 million to the Clinton Foundation and is a regular donor to Democrat super PACs).
And a number of labor organizations are signed on:
McGowan is building a wrap-around complex that touches many parts of the political lifespan — technology, control of data and information, shaping the news to voters, and brute force attacks against opponents. It’s a bold, risky operation. If not for the spectacular meltdown at the Iowa caucus, the entire venture may have stayed beneath the radar for years.
In one of the more odd advertising campaigns of the 2020 cycle, Senate candidate Al Gross has an ad on Facebook telling people to donate to his campaign and get automatically signed up to win a trip to Alaska — paid for by the campaign.
In other words, Gross is running a game of chance in his fundraising program, a raffle, to be more precise.
The donation platform for entering the Gross raffle is ActBlue, which is the dedicated national Democrat tool for web-based donations. It’s only available to Democrats, and Gross has said in many ways that he wants to “flip the Senate.”
The candidate who is running as the Democrat Party’s chosen candidate either forgot to exclude the Alaska audience from his online ad campaign or didn’t realize how it would appear to the people he seeks to represent in a state that is still fairly red.
Dozens of people passed the word, and with a plethora of homemade food and refreshments, over 80 people turned out for a fundraiser for Sen. Dan Sullivan on Friday night at his new campaign headquarters in Spenard, an Anchorage neighborhood.
Spotted were Sullivan’s former Chief of Staff Joe Balash, Alaska Republican Party National Committeeman Peter Goldberg and his wife Marti Goldberg, National Committeewoman Cynthia Henry and her husband Ken Henry, Anchorage School Board Member Dave Donley and his wife Jamie Donley, former Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch, a few members of the Gov. Mike Dunleavy administration, including Dave Stieren and Rick Green and his wife Susan Green. Also attending was retired Gen. Joe Ralston, who is the former Supreme Allied Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe, and Sheila Cernich, Steve Strait,Teresa Hall,Dave Morgan, Art Hackney, Alaska Republican Party Chairman Glenn Clary,Mike Robbins, Bruce Schulte, former House Rep. Alyce Hanley, Dennis McDonnell, Assembly Candidate Christine Hill, former Sen. Lesil McGuire, Chief of Staff to Sen. Lisa Murkowski Mike Pawlowski,John Hendrix, Americans for Prosperity Alaska Executive Director Ryan McKee, former Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, Les Parker, Yolanda Clary, and Kevin Sweeney. And of course, Julie Sullivan, Sen. Sullivan’s better half and Matt Shuckerow, Sullivan’s campaign manager.
The general manager and the managing editor of the Juneau Empire have given their two-weeks notice, according to sources close to the newspaper.
Robert Monteith, who took over as general manager 13 months ago, and Emily Russo Miller, who started as a reporter and worked her way up to managing editor, will leave this month.
Miller has already found other work in Juneau.
Last month, the newspaper downsized the newsroom, laying off sports reporter Nolan Ainsworth, who has since been hired by KINY radio‘s newsroom. Michael Penn, the photographer who had been at the capital city newspaper for 24 years, was also laid off.
The newsroom is now staffed by four employees — the managing editor, who is the newsroom’s top employee, and three reporters.
As with most newspapers, the Empire has struggled to maintain circulation and profitability, as more and more digital outlets cover news, and as a younger generation grows up without the habit of a print edition arriving in the box each morning.
Beginning June 10, 2019, the Empire ceased printing Monday editions and shuttered the Capital City Weekly.
The newspaper had been owned since 1969 by Morris Communications, and was sold to Gatehouse Communications in 2017. In 2018, Gatehouse sold the newspaper to Sound Publishing, an owner of small newspapers around the Northwest.
Michael Prax, Tom Studler, and Fred Villa are the three Republicans whose names are being forwarded to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for filling the District 3 vacancy that occurred when Rep. Tammie Wilson resigned.
The North Pole area District met and interviewed applicants on Friday, Alaska Republican Party District 3 met to consider applications to fill the State House District 3 vacancy created as a result of the resignation of House Representative Tammie Wilson.
Michael Prax: Former member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, founder of Interior Alaska Conservative Coalition, and longtime political activist since high school, who has worked to elect numerous candidates. Lifelong Interior resident, he comes from the more Libertarian viewpoint.
Thomas Studler: Currently legislative aide to Rep. Dave Talerico. He’s been involved in local party politics and attends many State Central Committee meetings, and been a delegate to state convention.
Fred Villa: Former associate vice president for Workforce Programs at UAF, where he worked for many years.
The names have been forwarded to the governor. Gov. Dunleavy has 30 days from the time Rep. Wilson resigned.
On Jan. 24, Wilson left her House seat to become a policy adviser at the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services. She has been interested in improving operations at the department’s Office of Children’s Services.
