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New budget director at State: Juneauite Neil Steininger

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy today named Neil Steininger as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Steininger’s appointment is effective Tuesday, Jan. 21.

A lifelong Alaskan, the 35-year-old Steininger earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Nevada, Reno. Steininger has held various roles at OMB through the past 5 years, serving as Budget Analyst, Chief Budget Analyst, and most recently as the Administrative Services Director for the Department of Education and Early Development.

His state experience includes the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities and the Permanent Fund Dividend Division, he previously worked in the private sector as an analyst.  

Acting Director Amanda Holland will continue with OMB to ensure a smooth transition.

Republicans head toward district, state conventions

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Republicans in Alaska will have the opportunity to take part in district conventions, where they can try to become delegates to the Alaska Republican Party State Convention in April, and have a chance to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C, August 24 – 27, for the nomination of President Donald Trump.

It all starts at the district convention level, however. The list of district conventions starting with the first on the calendar, Feb. 8:

District 28 Convention

February 8 @ 8:00 am – 3:00 pm. Location: Rabbit Creek Church Fee: $30

District 32 Convention

February 8 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Kodiak Harbormaster’s Meeting Room, 403 Marine Way, Kodiak Fee: TBD

Districts 25 & 26 Convention

February 8 @ 4:30 pm – 7:30 pm. Time: 4:30 – 7:30PM Location: 12100 Coffee & Communitas, Anchorage Fee: TBD

District 35 Convention

February 10 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm. Time: 5:30PM Location: Harrigan Centenntial Hall, Room 5 Fee: $20

District 30 Convention

February 15 @ 9:00 am – 3:00 pm Location: Kenai Visitor & Cultural Center Fee: $25 (ages 18-25)  $50 (ages 26+)

District 40 Convention

February 15 @ 9:30 am – 3:00 pm. Location: Email District 40 Chairman Rich Thorne for call-in information at: [email protected] Fee: TBD

District 10 Convention

February 15 @ 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Location: Willow Community Center Circle, Willow, AK Fee: $15

Districts 18-22 Convention

February 15 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Location: Church of the Nazarene, Anchorage, AK Fee: $25

District 20 Convention

February 15 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Location: Church of the Nazarene, Anchorage Fee: $25

Districts 15, 16, & 27 Convention

February 17 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Location: Anchorage Baptist Temple – VIP Room Fee: $25

District 29 Convention

February 21 @ 5-9 pm, Location: 36325 Stinson Circle, Sterling, AK. Fee: $35

District 11 Convention

February 22 @ 8:00 am – 2:00 pm. Location: Palmer Ale House Fee: $50

Districts 13 & 14 Convention

February 22 @ 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Location: Harry J McDonald Memorial Center Fee: $35

District 36 Convention

February 22 @ 9:00 am – 2:00 pm. Location: The Landing Hotel Fee: $20

District 11 Convention

February 22 @ 8:00 am – 2:00 pm. Location: Palmer Ale House Fee: $50

Districts 13 & 14 Convention

February 22 @ 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Location: Harry J McDonald Memorial Center Fee: $35

District 36 Convention

February 22 @ 9:00 am – 2:00 pm. Location: The Landing Hotel Fee: $20

District 12 Convention

February 22 @ 9:30 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Alaska Race Way, 5599 S Race Way, Palmer, AK Fee: $25

District 9 Convention

February 22 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. Tolsona Road House, Mile 170 Glennallen Hwy, Glennallen. Fee: $25

District 17 Convention

February 22 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Location: Spring Hill Suites, Anchorage, AK Fee: $15

Districts 7 & 8 Convention

February 22 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Time: 1:00 – 4:00PM Location: Menard Sports Center, Wasilla Fee: $25

Districts 23 & 24 Convention

February 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Location: Dimond Center Hotel, Anchorage Fee: $25

Districts 33 & 34 Convention

February 24 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Location: Parkshore Clubhouse, Juneau, AK Fee: $25

District 1 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church Fee: $20

District 2 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church, Fairbanks, AK Fee: $20

District 3 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church, Fairbanks, AK Fee: $20

District 4 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church Fairbanks, AK Fee: $20

District 5 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church, Fairbanks, AK Fee: $20

District 6 Convention

February 29 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Location: Journey Christian Church, Fairbanks, AK Fee: $20

District 31 Convention

February 29 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Location: Ninilchik Tribal Community Center Fee: $20

District 37 Convention

February 29 @ 11:00 am – 3:00 pm. Location: Bristol Inn Conference Room, Dillingham, AK Fee: $20

2020 State Convention

April 2 – April 4. Loction: Juneau. Details here.

Democrats and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

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By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO

The Democratic Party has for a long time said and done the same things over and over:

  • Accuse conservatives of racism.
  • Grow government to solve every problem, whether drug abuse, homelessness, immigration, health care, or whatever.
  • Invent social issues to hide behind so they don’t have to address real problems.  
  • Create a “bad guy” to blame for the country’s problems and bring in punitive measures to punish the bad guy, take his stuff, and redistribute it to the masses, taking a nice cut as a payment for their efforts.

The results? Democrats have become a party devoid of character and anything resembling American values.

Just look at the current Democrat lineup of presidential candidates. There is literally nobody on that stage who can be trusted as commander-in-chief.  

Elizabeth Warren?  A pathological liar who pretended to be Native American to get special treatment at Harvard.  

Bernie Sanders? He may have been a popular mayor in his little town of 30,000 people in Burlington, Vermont, but he has revealed himself as a Marxist now, promising anything and everything to the general populace for votes.  

Michael Bloomberg? The dumbest man in the whole lineup. Mister “Ban Big Gulp-size sugary sodas.”

In a way, the Democratic Party has become the leading edge of the deterioration of character in the United States. The values of this country used to be centered around self-determination, a can-do attitude, the ability for anyone, regardless of race, religion, color or economic background, to become successful and even wealthy. The nuclear family was the backbone driving our success. Parents stayed married even if it was only for the children. Unmarried mothers were much more rare and sex before marriage was frowned upon.

This country has been the source of wealth and prosperity, a beacon of freedom, and a shining light that beckoned oppressed people from all over the world. People who arrived here sacrificed themselves, labored in unskilled job,s and endured real racism and discrimination in order to provide a meaningful life for their children because of their unshakable belief in these values.

Yet what do the Democrats (now Socialists) promise?  Just the opposite:

  • Have a problem? Government should step in and fix it.
  • See someone in need? Government should help them, not the individual.
  • See a homeless person? Government needs to fix homelessness.
  • Health insurance issues? First break the private market. Then, Medicare for all.
  • Single parent? Establish a system of free money and subsidized housing. Do not encourage them to enter the workplace, get educated or eventually support themselves. Make it generational.
  • Signed on some student loans and now you’re regretting it? Government should forgive all of that debt. So unfair.

It goes on.

Why do I call this the Second Law of Thermodynamics?  This law states that over time, order devolves into chaos, or entropy. 

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; the total quantity of energy in the universe stays the same.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is about the quality of energy. It states that as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted.  In other words, all processes result in an increase in entropy, or disorder.  

A tree falls to the ground and decays. Order to disorder. A person dies and the body decays. Order to Disorder.  A country is built on the strength and independence of the individual, then devolves to weakness and total dependence on an ever more dominating and controlling government.  Order to Disorder.  A government begins as a lean, efficient entity, and becomes overwhelmingly chaotic, contradictory and controlling of a weaker, dependent individual. Order to Disorder.  A strong and independent population devolves into a weak, dependent and entitled populace. Order to Disorder.

Conservatives are fighting this trend and calling for a restoration of those original values of belief in the individual and small, efficient government.  

Are we too late?  Has the United States fallen prey to the momentum of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?  Are we cascading down a slope, going faster and faster into true chaos?

Take a look at the character of people today. The Democratic Party, by pandering to the worst attributes in people, have not only created a whole society of weak, dependent, selfish and helpless people.  They themselves become the elitist overlords of those people, pretending to believe the lies that spew from their mouths. Not one Democrat candidate has a viable solution for any of our problems beyond bigger government. Government will solve everything; the individual is not only unable, the individual should actually not be allowed to fix problems.  The individual should stand aside while government dashes in to help.

But government doesn’t help because government created many of these problems. The talk is big, the walk is non-existent.

Our Democrat-run cities (pretty much the majority of large American cities today) are becoming wastelands of homelessness, human feces, drug addiction. The taxpayers, independent businesses, and tourists are being driven out, leaving only despair.  

The solution? According to the bureaucrats in charge, even more government and higher taxes. But that’s what got us to this point in the first place.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. The Democrats have become that definition, and woe to anyone who points out the truth or brings in an actual solution that doesn’t involve government.  

Michael Tavoliero is a realtor at Core Real Estate Group in Eagle River, is active in the Alaska Republican Party and chairs Eaglexit.

For weeks, Anchorage Muni solar panels covered in snow

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The Municipality of Anchorage spent hundreds of thousands of dollars installing solar panels on the roof of the Egan Center on 5th Street in downtown Anchorage.

But for weeks, they have been covered in snow, rendering them inoperable.

The panels were installed in 2019 as part of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’ Climate Action Plan at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $200,000. The panels are expected to pay for themselves in energy cost savings in about 7.5 years and save the city 9 percent of the electricity the Egan Center uses every year.

But since at least Jan. 1 the panels have been covered in snow, and no attempt has been made to blow or rake the snow from them. Of course, that represents only five percent of the year, but winter is far from over.

According to the Energy Sage blog, it’s a common myth is that solar panels do not work during winter.

“Interestingly, the cold temperature will typically improve solar panel output. The white snow can also reflect light and help improve PV performance. Winter will only hurt solar production if the panels are covered with snow.”

Installed panels are supposed to shed the snow, as they are at an angle. But that’s clearly not working on the Egan Center Building.

[Read: Anchorage Climate Change Plan adopted in May, 2019]

The lecturing vagina defined the 2020 Women’s March

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The theme this year for the protesting women seemed to be a do-over of the well-worn concept of “The Angry Vagina.”

The 2020 Women’s March took place Saturday, Jan. 18 in select cities across the nation, including Anchorage and Juneau, and it came with all manner of references to angry women, vengeful vaginas, and warnings that “You have not seen nasty yet! Grab ’em by the November Election!”

About 100 women, men, and children attended the Juneau rally at the Capitol, down from the over 900 people who marched in Juneau in 2017. A few dozen attended the Anchorage rally in the 3-degree temperature.

In addition to the sign in Juneau referring to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vagina needing to vote like a vagina, scroll through some of the more colorful photos from social media that caught our eye from around the country:

Virginia bill revokes gun permit reciprocity with Alaska and 24 other states

Virginia may be “for lovers,” as the state motto goes, but not for lovers of the Second Amendment anymore.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is preparing to no longer recognize gun permits from Alaska and 24 other states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

A bill introduced this month in the Virginia’s General Assembly would strike those reciprocity agreements with states that don’t meet the stricter standards that the Democrat-run state is rapidly adopting.

Alaskans who work for the federal government and who move to Washington, D.C. for their jobs, need to sell their guns in Alaska before they leave, if they plan to live in D.C. or now also Virginia, if this bill passes. Many guns owned by Alaskans are already illegal in the Eastern Seaboard states.

HB 569 reads as follows:

Out-of-state concealed handgun permits; reciprocity. Reinstates the prior law providing that the holder of an out-of-state concealed handgun permit who is at least 21 years of age is authorized to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia if the other state (i) has a 24-hour-a-day means of verification of the validity of the permits issued in that state and (ii) has requirements and qualifications that are adequate to prevent possession of a permit by persons who would be denied a permit in Virginia. Under current law, the holder of an out-of-state concealed handgun permit who is at least 21 years of age is authorized to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia if (a) the other state has a means of verification of the validity of the permits issued in that state, accessible 24 hours a day, if available; (b) the person carries a government-issued photo identification and displays it upon demand of a law-enforcement officer; and (c) the person has not previously had a Virginia concealed handgun permit revoked. The bill states that the Attorney General shall (1) determine whether states meet the requirements and qualifications of the bill, (2) maintain a registry of such states, and (3) make the registry available to law-enforcement officers for investigative purposes. The bill further requires the Attorney General to review the determinations of whether states meet the requirements and qualifications of the bill and update the registry accordingly every two years. The bill removes the requirement for the Superintendent of State Police to enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition with other states that require an agreement to be in place before the state will recognize a Virginia concealed handgun permit as valid in the state and provides that the Attorney General may enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition with any state qualifying for recognition. The bill also reinstates the recognition of certain Maryland concealed handgun permits and eliminates the requirement that the Superintendent of State Police enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition of concealed handgun permits or licenses with other states where agreements were in existence on December 1, 2015.

HB 569 is one of a handful of anti-gun bills moving quickly through the newly sworn in Democrat-dominated Legislature in Virginia.

As a “Second Amendment Sanctuary City” movement sweeps across Virginia, thousands of protesters are set to converge on the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Monday to protest the plans to pass some of the strictest gun control measures in the nation. The state’s capital city is bracing for counter demonstrations from Antifa groups, and infiltration from white supremacist groups. Road closures and heavy police presence are expected across the city.

“Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia,” President Donald Trump tweeted this week. “That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away. Republicans will win Virginia in 2020. Thank you Dems!”

Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency and issued a ban on all weapons, including firearms, on the grounds of the Capitol, and asked the Federal Aviation Administration to put in place a temporary flight restrictions for Richmond on Monday, when it will be illegal to fly planes or drones above the city. The governor has said he is concerned about the use of weaponized drones.

Critics say that just as free speech doesn’t stop at state lines, neither should Second Amendment rights be confined to the state in which a person lives. The irony in this law is that many of the people who originated the Second Amendment were Virginians.

“Delegate Helmer would sacrifice their civil rights to make the already complex patchwork of state gun laws as confusing as rush hour traffic headed through Washington D.C.,” wrote Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The Monday gun rally coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is a state holiday and is often a time of reflection, when civil rights groups rally in the state’s capital city.

In advance, three members of an alleged white supremacist group were arrested by the FBI on Thursday on gun charges, amid fears they were planning to attend the Richmond rally and incite violence.

[Read: Alaska’s firearm reciprocity laws]

‘Pirate’ has left Fairbanks

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Update: Confirmed — Pirate has been photographed in Redding, California, panhandling at an intersection.

In early December, a man named Pirate reappeared in Fairbanks and caused alarm: He’d been accused of brutal rape and sexual assault in cases in other states, as well as Alaska, and now he was a vagrant, without a place to live and with no visible means of support. What could possibly go wrong? People warned each other to lock their doors.

Pirate, who had legally changed his name in 2013 from Daniel Lloyd Selovich, was hard to miss, with a face covered in Polynesian-style tattoos and a mouth that is missing teeth. The community of Fairbanks became concerned, even fearful, and a Facebook group was started to track his every movement. After all, in the dead of winter, it was as though a boogyman had descended upon the northern community — a man with a face designed to scare and a rap sheet to match.

Now, he has evidently left the state; he was last seen boarding a plane for Seattle on Dec. 24, 2019.

He had been escorted Fairbanks Memorial Hospital by security guards earlier that day after an extended stay, witnesses said.

Pirate had been charged in the kidnapping and extended raping of a woman in a cabin near Manley Hot Springs over a period of five weeks in the fall of 2015. Those charges were dropped in 2016 after the woman died of unrelated causes.

Pirate was extradited from Alaska to Nevada in 2016, where authorities had connected him via DNA to a Las Vegas rape 12 years earlier. In 2018 he pleaded guilty to sexually motivated coercion and was sentenced to serve up to five years, but was given credit for 645 days served.

He had also been convicted of rape in California in 2004. A string of arrests from Florida to Missouri included everything from vagrancy, panhandling, forgery, burglary, and vandalism.

In early December, he was hanging around inside a McDonald’s restaurant in Fairbanks, and telling people he was living in the woods near the University of Fairbanks. And then, poof, he disappeared, and rumors surfaced that he had been admitted to the hospital.

With Pirate back in the state, the Fairbanks District Attorney’s office reviewed whether it could reopen the dismissed case against him for rape and kidnapping.

Ultimately, the State decided it could not pursue those charges from 2015 for the same reasons they were dismissed in the first place after the death of the victim. There was simply no way to cross examine the victim, which would have led to an unfair trial.

“The Department of Law has completed its review of the evidence and concluded the dismissal of the 2015 case, while extremely frustrating, was appropriate under the law,” the department wrote in a press release on Dec. 12.

In Fairbanks, some say they think Pirate headed back to Las Vegas, while others say they heard he was heading to Oregon. The Facebook page that was tracking him was put into warm storage, with administrators stating they would be ready to restart the page if Pirate ever appears in Fairbanks again.

Daylight comes back to Utqiagvik next week

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Utqiagvik, the northernmost community in America, is just days away from sunrise. The sun will rise at 1:09 pm on Jan. 23, skimming the horizon for about an hour before setting at 2:09 pm. Solar noon is at 1:38 pm.

The community has not had sunlight since Nov. 18, 2019, but the twilight is gaining momentum this week.

On Jan. 24, the second day of daylight in 2020, the town will gain 37 minutes more than it had the day before, and by the end of January will have gone from zero to 147 minutes of daylight in just nine days.

(The photo above was from the FAA webcam in Utqiagvik, facing south today.)

University Regents bump tuition by 5 percent

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Students enrolled at the University of Alaska System will see their tuition raised by 5 percent in 2021, a trend that continues the increases that have occurred annually for several years.

At the same time, the University of Alaska Board of Regents directed President Jim Johnsen to allot $1.5 million as financial aid to be distributed proportionally across the three campuses, in an effort to mitigate those increases for lower-income students.

The regents are meeting all day in Anchorage today on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. Budgets are at the top of the agenda.

The discussion on the tuition increase lasted until midday, and included, at one point, an amendment to only raise tuition by 2 percent. That failed, while the 5 percent tuition passed with six regents in favor, and five opposed.

The UA system’s tuition is still well below the average of other universities in the western states.

The system is having to absorb over $70 million in budget reductions across a three-year timeframe, an agreement made and signed by President Johnsen, the former chair of the Board of Regents, and the governor.

The current tuition structure at University of Alaska Anchorage:

Using that tuition chart, a resident would pay $11.15 more per credit, or about $33.45 more per three-credit course. A 12-credit load will cost students about $134.00 more in 2021 than it does now at the Anchorage campus.