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523 days — and counting — since dead people voted

THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

Good heavens! Has it really been 523 long days since dead people – yes, that’s right, dead people – lined up to cast ballots in the House District 15 GOP primary election in 2018? How time flies.

If you will recall those thrilling days of yesteryear, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, a staunch Republicrat and the District 15 incumbent, was facing a challenge from political unknown Aaron Weaver.

Election officials discovered seven absentee ballot applications — seven — from dead people, not to mention absentee votes cast in the names of at least two very much alive people who said they had not voted. Twenty-six ballots were yanked because of residency or legitimacy questions. All the ballots with residency or legitimacy questions, it is worth noting, were for LeDoux.

Despite all that, elections officials – apparently mistaking House District 15 for a Chicago ward – inexplicably certified the election and no official, as far as we know, has asked anything about the dead’s penchant for voting. That, mind you, despite Lt. Gov Kevin Meyer in December 2018 calling for an audit of the election system after “irregularities” in primary elections. Mum, apparently, is the word.

LeDoux, at the time of the primary not a favorite of the GOP after joining with Democrats to help hand them a majority in 2017 – and netting a powerful legislative post as a reward – went on to win the District 15 election. And then she defeated write-in candidate, Jake Sloan, a contractor, in the general election.

She worked with her new Democrat friends until she broke with them last year over paying Alaskans a full Permanent Fund dividend.

Well, now she has hooked up with the Democrat-led House majority again, and was given seats on the Joint Armed Services Committee and Judiciary Committee the other day for her trouble – and over the objections of 15 House members. She also was restored “points” allowing her to hire an extra staff, MustReadAlaska.com reports.

If nothing else, LeDoux has shown herself to be a survivor. It is no wonder dead people like her.

Most of the election weirdness in 2018 came from one Muldoon trailer park where some of Anchorage’s Hmong live. Lots of people appeared to be voting there, but showing the addresses of only a few trailers. When reporters asked why that was, folks there told them, “Ask Gabrielle.”

LeDoux reportedly paid one Charlie J. Chang, of Fresno, Calif., $10,000 to deliver votes from the Hmong community. What Chang, supposedly a translator and political strategist, did remains a question even now.

As questions about the election surfaced, LeDoux reported Chang dead in California a day or two after the primary.

None of that apparently sparked any interest among the powers that be. Officialdom just does not seem interested in dead people trying to vote or other “irregularities.”

Strange, don’t you think? 523 days and counting.

Last flight out? Hundreds of evacuating Americans from Wuhan scheduled here

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The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assisting with the repatriation of U.S. citizens living in Wuhan City back to the United States.

Approximately 240 U.S. citizens (including U.S. Consulate staff and families) are scheduled to fly from Wuhan back to the United States this week.  The airplane will make a refueling stop at the Ted Stevens International Airport’s North Terminal. This terminal is currently not open to the public.

“Given Alaska’s proximity to Asia, we have been asked to assist our federal partners in this effort to facilitate travel out of China back to the United States to bring these U.S. citizens home,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “The State of Alaska, in combination with our local, federal and Tribal partners have been working closely to ensure the health and safety of all Alaskans while assisting with this request.” 

Prior to departure from Wuhan, all passengers and flight crew will undergo health screenings by Chinese health officials and U.S. health officials. Anyone with signs or symptoms of illness will not be allowed to board the aircraft.

All passengers will continue to be monitored numerous times during the flight. Additionally, during the refueling stop, all passengers will be rescreened by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Anchorage Quarantine Station personnel. Any passengers who become ill en route will be further evaluated.  

“We are thankful to our local, Tribal and federal partners for their strong coordination in this effort to help these U.S. citizens return home during this rapidly progressing outbreak,” said DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) continues to monitor the ongoing outbreak of a novel coronavirus (“2019-nCoV”) that was first detected in Wuhan City, China in late December 2019. As of Jan. 26, 2020, the World Health Organization is reporting 2,014 cases and 56 deaths associated with the outbreak. 

Legislative finance pick is starting at $225,000

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Pat Pitney, hired as Legislative Finance director by the Alaska Legislature, starts off with a salary that is roughly what the departing director, David Teal, was making after 20 years — $225,000, including benefits.

She is making in the neighborhood of what former Office of Management and Budget Director Donna Arduin was paid by the Dunleavy Administration. That was the same salary Pitney was paid when she worked as OMB director for Gov. Bill Walker.

She is at a Range 28 R, which makes her one of the highest-paid workers in the State of Alaska payroll.

Pitney was chosen over other applicants by the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee.

Pitney was the author of the failed “Walker payroll tax,” which never got off the ground with the largely tax-averse Legislature. She and Walker presented a budget to the Legislature in November of 2018, that they declared was “balanced.”

[Read: Walker presents final budget to Chamber of Commerce.]

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s team came on board, and said it was anything but balanced, and that it would require massive cuts to balance. In the end, the governor was bargained down on those cuts, and the next budget is still $1.5 billion short of funds to balance with incoming revenues.

Pitney, a highly political pick, is still engaged with the Walker Administration; she was photographed on social media this weekend at a going away party for the Walkers, who are relocating to Boston so that Walker can teach a class at Harvard University.

Pat Pitney, tall person on the left, is the new legislative finance director replacing David Teal, who retired.

The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee is made up of six Democrats and six Republicans, even though Republicans outnumber Democrats, 3 to 2 in the Legislature. The Senate has 13 Republicans, 7 Democrats, and the House has 23 Republicans, and 17 Democrats/undeclareds.

Port of Entry? Wuhan-Alaska cargo carriers arrive twice weekly from hot zone

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport is among the top five cargo hubs in the world, with wide-body freighters stopping for fuel here before they lumber to the Lower 48 or back to Asia, making it a possibly underestimated entry point of entry for the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China.

The coronavirus, sometimes called the Wuhan virus, has spread quickly; five cases have been confirmed in the U.S. in as many days. It is being considered responsible for at least 56 deaths in China since being identified in Wuhan on Dec. 1. The Chinese government announced the virus Dec 31. Numerous conspiracy theories have developed linking biological warfare labs in Wuhan with the spread of the virus.

[Read: Wuhan has two covert biological weapons labs]

Flights directly from Wuhan to Anchorage arrive at least twice a week. The next one arrives on Monday as Asiana Air makes its usual pit stop. The crew of Asiana stays overnight in Anchorage, as pilots are swapped out and the carrier continues on to Chicago, loaded with merchandise for America.

Hundreds of cargo jets come and go through Anchorage weekly on the way to other mainland destinations. Many are FedEx and UPS flights, and Cathay Air, Korea Air, and they come through from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kwong Chow, Wuhan, and other manufacturing hubs in the Far East.

Anchorage is the busiest cargo pit stop in the world that no cargo stays at or originates from. In terms of overall tonnage, Anchorage is only behind Hong Kong, Memphis, Shanghai and Incheon.

Sen. Dan Sullivan made a statement this week, reminding Alaskans that the chance of acquiring the virus from a package is almost zero. But actually, the crews of these cargo planes are not without risk. Some of the carriers, such as Atlas, FedEx, and UPS are sending out bulletins to remind pilots to wash their hands and consider wearing masks in China, and to also consider staying away from highly populated locations, such as malls or markets.

Greater Anchorage and Mat-Su is the base for between 300-500 pilots, many who come and go from China or other points in Asia on a daily basis. They fly for FedEx and UPS, and Atlas. Some pilots may go back and forth to China three times in a two-week period. Pilots for Alaska or Delta, fly between Anchorage and Hawaii, which is a major destination for tourists from Asia.

Must Read Alaska interviewed a cargo pilot who flies that route between Hong Kong or Shanghai and Anchorage, and who flies from Anchorage cargo hubs in the Lower 48, before returning home to Southcentral Alaska.

He said that while in China, pilots stay in hotels for between 24 hours and four days. Sometimes they are stuck there when typhoons come through and planes cannot fly.

During their stays, pilots leave their hotel rooms, mingle with the population as they go to restaurants for meals, and interact with loaders and freight managers, all of whom are also exposed to whatever pathogens are floating through the air in their commutes, stores, and neighborhoods.

“It’s the kind of thing that can keep you up at night,” the pilot said. With the speed of commerce, and having people move around the globe so quickly, the spread of the Wuhan virus is not only a heath concern, but a worry for commerce and the jobs associated with it.

One in every 10 jobs in Anchorage is a result of activity associated with the Ted Stevens International Airport. Flights from the Far East use the North Terminal, and a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assigned to Anchorage and is monitoring the North Terminal. No word whether any extra measures have been taken to monitor the health of the crews as they disembark from what is currently the hot zone for the coronavirus.

The coronavirus appears to be contagious as much as two weeks before symptoms appear, according to the Chinese government.

Most of the original cases of the virus were in people exposed to a seafood market in Wuhan that also has other wild meats for sale, such as bats and snakes. Some genetic science indicates the outbreak was traced to fruit bats, which gives it a commonality with the SARS virus outbreak in 2003 that killed 740 people and sickened thousands. SARS was also known as the avian flu or bird flu.

While Anchorage has direct flights from Wuhan, very few humans are coming on those planes from Asia at this time of year.

Tourism season will bring more through the airport and on cruise ships, which will create challenges at the Ted Stevens International Airport and port cities in Southeast Alaska. The first cruise ship arrives in Alaska in late April, docking in Juneau on April 24.

Industry experts estimate more than 10,000 Chinese tourists will visit Alaska this year.

Pirate, now in Northern California, faces headwinds as public is up in arms

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A heavily tattooed sexual predator who calls himself Pirate, having left Fairbanks on Christmas Eve and appeared in Redding, Calif. now has that community up in arms.

Social media groups (“Redding Pirate Tracker”) and news reporters have been sounding the alarm, and one television news story focused on how the news of his arrival in Northern California may trigger anxiety in victims of sexual violence.

He told reporters he just wants to collect his government disability check and then he’ll move along; he made the same statement in Fairbanks.

Pirate, aka Raven, has no small history of rape and assault accusations, along with other violent and nonviolent crimes.

[Read: Pirate is back in Fairbanks, and some are concerned]

In 2015, a woman flew to Fairbanks to join Pirate, who took her to his rough cabin in Manley, where he subjected her to torture and rape over a five-week period.

According to court documents, Pirate beat, kicked, and bit her daily, cut her with a knife and duct-taped her to him at night so she could not escape. He tied a rope around her neck and tethered the other end to the rafter during the day.

After weeks of torture and rape, the woman was able to call for help and was rescued by a helicopter on Nov. 8, 2015. She later died of unrelated causes.

DNA from that case helped authorities arrest Pirate for a previous unsolved rape case from 2004 in Nevada. He was extradited from Alaska to Las Vegas in 2016, but pleaded down the charges to a single count of “sexually motivated coercion.”

Redding citizens have a special reason to be concerned. On Feb. 5, 2004, Pirate broke into a hotel room, where he beat a woman with a belt and raped her. He wasn’t arrested for that crime until 2010, and he served four years in prison.

Born Daniel Selovich, he legally changed his name to Pirate in 2013. He’s been transient for years, living in the drug world of the urban homeless camps across the west and in Florida.

Police stopped him while he was panhandling on the street to see who they were dealing with.

Redding police search Pirate on a city street.

Then, police issued a warning for people to not harass the man in any way but to treat Pirate “like every other man you see on the street.”

“Don’t try to grab him or attack him if you see Pirate out and about,” Redding police Sgt. Todd Cogle told a reporter. “I live here and I have loved ones here as well. I know it’s worrying to know that he is on the streets but he is a free man. You have to treat him like every other man you see on the street.”

The Redding Police Department has received at least six calls from fearful citizens. But Pirate is not currently wanted for any crimes.

[Read: Sexual Predator is free and living in Northern California]

Pirate caused fear when he arrived in Fairbanks in early December, 2019, just before the intense cold season set in. He was living in the woods, but spending his days at a McDonald’s restaurant, posting on Facebook, and trying to reestablish himself in Alaska.

[Department of Law says it can’t reopen ‘Pirate’ rape case]

Pirate ended up at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital in mid-December, but the details of his stay are protected by law. He left the hospital, and then left the state on Dec. 24. By then, the temperature in Fairbanks was bitter cold.

The Fairbanks Facebook group that was tracking him, which grew to nearly 4,800 members in the three weeks since Pirate had been sighted, went dormant.

Dr. Patricia Bay, a psychologist in the Redding area, said the intense coverage and awareness on social media can scare victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and make them feel vulnerable. But it’s also a wake-up call for them to remain vigilant. Bay, in this televised interview, advises victims to stay strong by being aware of their surroundings:

Loren Jones is new chair of Marijuana Control Board

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Juneau’s Loren Jones was elected as the chairman of the Marijuana Control Board at its meeting in Juneau this week. He replaces outgoing chairman Mark Springer, who was replaced by Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier this month.

Jones is retired from the State of Alaska. He has served eight years on Juneau Assembly, and is in his third term. Jones is an original member of the Marijuana Control Board.

During its meeting in Juneau, the board approved two new licenses for on-site consumption of marijuana by retailers, one in Ketchikan and one in Fairbanks. The Marijuana Control Board is a regulatory and quasi-judicial agency that controls cultivation, manufacture and sale of marijuana in the state.

On a vote of 3 to 2, the board approved applications by GoodSinse LLC in Fairbanks and Cannabis Corner, in Ketchikan.

Alaska’s onsite consumption regulations took effect in 2019 and require the smoking area be separated from the rest of the area by a secure door and that they have a separate ventilation system. They can also be outdoors. Companies offering onsite consumption need to have smoke-free areas for employees, where they can monitor consumption without being affected by secondhand smoke.

Facts, not myths needed when it comes to cruise ships

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By WIN GRUENING

Community discussions about cruise tourism impacts are most credible when focused on facts and solutions. They need to remain positive and avoid demonizing the industry.  

After all, the “tourism industry,” so often maligned on social media and in newspaper opinion pages, is made up of hundreds of large and small businesses, predominantly local.  These are businesses with employees that earn a living here and support our economy – making Juneau a better place for all to live.

Yes, there are impacts that need to be addressed. But characterizing tourists as “invaders” and many of Juneau’s small businesses as “greedy” doesn’t promote an environment where realistic solutions can be crafted.  

Nobody, in the industry or not, favors totally “unrestricted tourism” as cruise critics would have you believe.  Despite assertions 20 years ago that further tourism growth in Juneau was unsustainable, actual resident complaints have substantially decreased.  The reason for that is because the industry was willing to regulate itself and impose guidelines that reduced impacts to residents. 

Juneau’s Tourism Best Management Practices (TBMP) are continually being monitored, adjusted and remain in place today.  In fact, it’s become a model for other cruise ports – especially in SE Alaska – where other communities are considering establishing similar programs. 

Suggestions that “there is nothing to stop the cruise ship companies from coming with any volume they want” don’t make sense.  Juneau’s port infrastructure limitations (dock length, number of docks) and geographical constraintsimpose de-facto limits on the size and number of additional cruise ships.  Any company permitting a new dock would need to demonstrate mitigation of passenger impacts.

While citizen testimony is useful in identifying areas for improvement, the most important role of the Mayor’s Visitor Industry Task Force (VITF) is to gather factual information to help guide future decisions.  

When misstatements of fact are made during public meetings, in newspaper reporting and opinion pages, the VITF should be the first to provide correction and clarification.

As an example, there is a persistent myth concerning the collection of sales taxes on tours sold onboard cruise ships.  Comments regularly suggest that these sales are not taxed.  According to the CBJ Sales Tax Office, regardless of where and when a tour is sold, businesses providing tours in Juneau, with limited exceptions, are required to report their associated revenue and remit sales tax.

Another often repeated refrain is that tourists are “overloading” community resources and “crowding out” residents. I wonder if the city-owned Bartlett Hospital sees it that way. Last year, they received over $10 million in revenue from visitors (mostly cruise passengers) that helped support their operation.

Ditto with Juneau electric utility users benefitting from existing cruise ship purchases of shore power.

These misconceptions, along with others, promote a narrative that cruise visitors are not “paying their way” – which is simply not the case.

The VITF might also consider what numbers should be tracked.  Currently, our method of measuring cruise visitors to Juneau is count every cruise ship visit during the 5-month season, multiply that by the ship capacity and then use that number to gauge annual visitation. 

This is a simplistic and misleading method to use when managing cruise passenger impacts.  Vessels aren’t always at full capacity.  Some passengers never leave the ship.  Only a small percentage of crew are allowed onshore.  Ships arrive and leave at different times. The real number that needs to be managed is the flow of visitors throughout the day based on ships actually in port – not an inflated total annual visitation number on which an arbitrary cap is imposed.

Estimates of actual cruise visitors ashore in Juneau during parts of some days may top 11,000, but associated impacts are spread over 32,000 residents. Our neighboring towns of Hoonah and Skagway have estimated visitor ratios that are 30+ times that.

These impacts can be managed.  But telling the industry they are no longer welcome or creating another government agency to monitor complaints isn’t the answer.

We will never totally eliminate all impacts to all residents.  For most of us, this is the trade-off we make in order to sustain a vital component of our economy that provides so much to our community.

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.

Rep. Adam Schiff quotes: ‘Your head will be on a pike’

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Adam Schiff, House manager for the impeachment prosecution of President Donald Trump, has said some wild and crazy things this week.

Here are some of the choice quotes he has made as he has tried to convince Senate Republicans to convict the president and remove him from office:

“CBS News report that a Trump confidant said that GOP senators were warned ‘… vote against the president and your head will be on a pike,'” Schiff argued in front of the Senate.

(U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters she thought he had been doing pretty well with his oratory until then, but that the “head on a pike” comment was unnecessary.)

“The President’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won,” Schiff said earlier this week. This was an entirely new reason for wanting to impeach him — because you cannot trust U.S. elections,” Schiff warned this week.

Did he really say that we cannot trust our elections? Yes, he actually did.

And then there are these gems:

“You know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country. You can trust that he will do what’s right for Donald Trump. He’ll do it now. He’ll do it for the next several months. He’ll do it in the election if he’s allowed to. This is why, if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Because right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise we are lost.”

“Is there really any doubt about this? I mean, do we really have any doubt about the facts here? Does anybody really question whether the president is capable of what he’s charged with? No one is really making the argument Donald Trump would never do such a thing … because, of course, we know that he would.”

“So I ask you, I implore you, give America a fair trial. Give America a fair trial. She’s worth it. Thank you.”

Because you would not want your head on a pike, evidently.

The Senate is adjourned until Saturday morning at 10 am, when the president’s defense will present their case for three days. Sunday the Senate will not be in session.

Rep. Tammie Wilson resigns

Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole has resigned from the House of Representatives.

Wilson made the announcement this afternoon on the House floor, saying that she has taken a job and would need to leave the Legislature to work at the Office of Children’s Services.

She serves House District 3, a conservative part of the state in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Rep. Steve Thompson of Fairbanks was among several representatives who lauded her: “Tammie you are going to be missed in this building, you really are going to be missed in this chamber. You’ve always worked for Fairbanks. You’ve always made sure everything is better for Alaska. You work harder than anyone in this building.”

Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage said, “No matter who it is or what happen caucus you were in at the time, Tammie always told it like it was. I don’t know what you’re going to do at OCS but it can’t help but be a better organization with you there.”

Wilson said that after 10 years of serving in the Legislature and focusing on children in Alaska in terms of policy, “I’m going to give 100 percent of what I have to make sure that we have better families, children are able to grow up where they need to, and when families just hit a bump in the road, we’re able to say, ‘Hey, we’re your community, and we’re going to help you through those spots.”

“I don’t think we need more legislation, I think we need to fix the problem, follow the policies and procedures,” she said.

Her departure will allow Gov. Mike Dunleavy to appoint his third legislator. He appointed Rep. Sharon Jackson and Sen. Josh Revak in 2019. Both of them will have to run for their seats this year.

Whomever Dunleavy appoints to the North Pole seat will need to be confirmed by House Republicans. And then that person will have to run for the seat this year.