Must Read Alaska is running a poll on Facebook asking people if they think that senators running for president should recuse themselves from voting on the articles of impeachment sent over from the House of Representatives. You can take part in the poll at this link:
Anchorage election season is off to the races on Friday
Those interested in serving on the Anchorage Assembly or on the Anchorage School Board can file for office with the Anchorage Election Division today through Jan. 31. The election begins when ballots are mailed out to known Anchorage voters on March 17, and ends on April 7.
Seats that are in this election are for three-year terms:
- Seat B, Downtown Anchorage
- Seat C, Eagle River/Chugiak
- Seat E, West Anchorage
- Seat G, Midtown Anchorage
- Seat I, East Anchorage
- Seat K, South Anchorage
- School Board Seats C and D
- Service Area Boards of Supervisors, multiple seats on various boards
A candidate for municipal office must be …
- a resident of the Municipality of Anchorage, and
- a qualified voter of the Municipality of Anchorage and the State of Alaska,
- qualified through other criteria.
There are specific steps candidates must take in order to appear on the Regular Municipal Election ballot. Detailed instructions are in the filing packets for each office:
- Candidates for Anchorage Assembly Seats – Filing Packet
- Candidates for Anchorage School Board Seats – Filing Packet
- Candidates for Boards of Supervisors, including LRSA Seats – Filing Packet
- More information and other requirements are at this link.
Questions about the election may be directed to MOA Elections by calling the Voter Hotline at 907-243-VOTE(8683), emailing [email protected], or visiting muni.org/elections.
Outside dough spilled to screw up Alaska’s elections
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET
Who knew there could be so much dough in trying to persuade Alaskans to screw up a fairly straight-forward election system?
Alaskans for Better Elections is pushing a 25-page ballot initiative that would, if it wins a spot on the ballot and voters eventually approve, make transformational changes to the state’s election machinery – none of them good.
It wants to institute ranked-choice voting, open or “jungle” primaries and limit campaign contributions. Additionally, candidates no longer would have to disclose a political affiliation when their names go onto the ballot.
The initiative would do all that – and destroy political parties – without the first hint of legislative input, review or debate. It is sponsored by former independent state Rep. Jason Grenn, Bonnie L. Jack, and former Gov. Tony Knowles’ attorney general, Bruce Botelho.
Well, make no mistake, trying to make those kinds of changes – changes aimed at getting more Democrats and centrists elected – costs money. Luckily for the initiative group, getting Outside money and help has not been a problem.
Its fourth-quarter Alaska Public Offices Commission campaign disclosure report, filed Tuesday, shows the effort has taken in at least $619,590, the vast majority of it from Outside groups – with $600,000 alone coming from Denver-based Unite America, formerly the Centrist Project. United America endorsed former Gov. Bill Walker’s failed re-election bid.
In a 10-day APOC report, filed Dec. 3, 2019, the group showed a debt of $315,000 to a Dallas-base political consulting firm, Advanced MicroTargeting, for signature-gathering.
Backers of the proposed ballot initiative Jan. 9 turned in more than 41,068 signatures in a bid to qualify the measure for this year’s ballot. It needed only about 28,000.
Alaska state law holds payment to signature-takers, or petition circulators, as they are called, to no more than $1 a signature, plus a small amount for meals and such when they travel more than 100 miles from home.
That means the circulators should be paid in the neighborhood of $41,068, leaving about $275,000 for Advanced MicroTargeting. That means every signature cost $7.67.
The late Washington Post political columnist, David Broder, was no champion of initiatives. He said they were a way for demagogues and charlatans to get around the legislative process to further their own ends; a way to have laws without government. One of the things he lamented in is book, “Democracy Derailed” was that grassroots campaigns too often are turned into a lucrative political industry – and anything but citizen-driven.
The money involved in the Alaskans for Better Elections initiative is a case in point. It is Outside money, from only a few sources, aimed at furthering an Outside group’s political interests.
How is any of that good for Alaska?
Must watch video: Drone footage of battling the Willow Creek ice dam
Workers cleared a channel on Willow Creek on Jan. 9, the second day of battling an ice dam that has caused flooding of some homes in the area. Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Terry Nolan narrates the work being done on this short explanatory video:
Borough contractors improved the flow on Willow Creek using an excavator and grader. Deneki Meadows Bridge and homes in that area are now reachable, although sudden warming could soften the road surface and four-wheel vehicles are advised.
Last week, the contractors continued dislodging ice under the bridge, with extreme low temperatures contributing to equipment malfunctions, which slowed the work, the Borough reported. Local heating fuel providers successfully used the roadway and bridge to deliver fuel to residents.
Noteworthy in the video is that the drone used to shoot the aerial footage held up in the sub-zero temperatures.
Fairbanks News-Miner lays off staff, seeks nonprofit status as path for survival
WILL FOUNDATIONS START MASSAGING NEWS COVERAGE?
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has laid off four of its 55 employees, more than 7 percent of its entire staff.
The newspaper is owned by a nonprofit foundation but is operated as a business that supports itself with subscriptions and advertising. But times are tough in the newspaper industry.
Now, the Helen E. Snedden Foundation, which has owned the News-Miner since 2016, is gearing up to apply to the IRS for nonprofit status for the newspaper, so it can accept donations directly and apply for grants.
This month, the Juneau Empire laid off two people from its news staff — the staff photographer and the sports reporter. The news staff is down to four from a high of 20 or more in the 1990s. Last year, it stopped printing on Mondays and shuttered the Capital City Weekly, which it owns, because it was competing with the daily paper.
The Homer Tribune folded last year, leaving that community with one weekly newspaper.
But the News-Miner may survive under its new nonprofit model with the help of major grants.
“Community support could eventually come through an additional means. The company will be applying to the Internal Revenue Service this year to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation as a community asset, which could open the possibility of receiving grants and other types of financial support,” the News-Miner wrote to its readers.
According to the Pew Research Center, total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2018 was 28.6 million for weekday and 30.8 million for Sunday, down 8 percent and 9 percent respectively, from 2017.
Weekday print circulation decreased 12 percent and Sunday print circulation decreased 13 percent in one year.
With that trend having continued and no relief in sight, last year the Salt Lake City Tribune became the largest newspaper yet to seek 501(c)(3) status, a request that was approved by the IRS in October.
The Tampa Bay Times has been owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute, and the Philadelphia Inquirer is owned by the Lenfest Institute. Like the News-Miner, they have remained for-profit entities owned by Foundations.
Nonprofit foundations are also driving the news narrative. A series on crime and lawlessness in Alaska is now in its second year at the Anchorage Daily News, with funding from ProPublica, which itself receives a large portion of its support from the Sandler Foundation. The Sandler Foundation supports numerous liberal political causes, including the Center for American Progress, which is pushing the impeachment narrative, and anti-Trump/anti-oil messaging. ProPublica does not fit the mold of a more neutral news organization, such as Associated Press or Reuters.
The role of foundations in influencing news coverage has some journalists skeptical of the strings that are attached. But their very jobs increasingly depend on the kindness of strangers: Journalism philanthropy has nearly quadrupled since 2009, according to Nieman Labs. The Institute for Nonprofit News reported that 43 percent of its members’ revenue now comes from foundations.
Brooks Range Petroleum gets new lease on life from AIDEA
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority Board of directors approved a resolution allowing the agency to modify terms of its loans related to development of the Southern Miluveach Unit (known as the Mustang Field).
The loan modifications come with a $60 million investment commitment from Brooks Range Petroleum Corporation (Brooks Range) shareholders in the USA, Asia, and Western Europe.
Brooks Range Petroleum has been in default since October.
The 2020 commitment into the Alaska company is intended to bring the Mustang Field into sustained production, and begin repaying creditors while putting Alaskans to work.
The company has a long list of creditors with familiar names in the Alaska oil patch, including Doyon Remote Facilities and Services, Fairweather LLC, Nana Construction, North Slope Borough, and Little Red Services, among dozens of other Alaska-centric businesses. The list includes large companies, such as ExxonMobil, as well as small ones, such as the Alaska Legislative Digest, owned by Tim and Mike Bradner, and Petroleum News.
AIDEA consented to the sale of certain oil field equipment and other assets that are not essential to the Mustang Field, with proceeds to be applied to past-due Brooks Range payables. Most of these payables are owed to the Alaska companies, but the total amount owed to companies exceeds $17 million.
If certain financial benchmarks are met, including establishing a debt service reserve fund and hitting specified oil production targets, AIDEA will allocate additional funds through a mid-year line of credit that can only be used for drilling additional wells necessary to meet state lease requirements, the agency wrote.
“The AIDEA mission to advance economic development and create job opportunities can sometimes run into delays, disappointments, and missed production deadlines,” said AIDEA Board Chairman Dana Pruhs. “Brooks Range startup problems and the oil tax credits veto three years ago, along with other factors, created the largest workout situation at AIDEA as identified by the Dunleavy transition team in early 2019.
“With the increasingly favorable state business climate, together with oil price and tax stability, Brooks Range owners and creditors took another look at Mustang. So here we go, and I hope the equity holders can obtain a buy-in from the entire list of creditors,” Pruhs concluded.
AIDEA took a $10.5 million allowance from earnings for Fiscal Year 2019 when Brooks Range failed to meet targets. Other creditors are agreeing to workouts with similar rationales, but thus far not every creditor has come on board, AIDEA acknowledged in its press release. AIDEA and equity holders generally concur that final agreement on these matters is needed by the end of January 2020.
“I want to thank the AIDEA Board and Governor Dunleavy for assigning a high priority to fixing this problem,” said Brooks Range CEO Majid Jourabchi. “Brooks Range and our contractors on the North Slope are completely aligned in what needs to be done, and the urgency to have it be so.”
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is a public corporation of the state whose purpose is to promote, develop and advance the general prosperity and economic welfare of the people of Alaska.
Change of command as Troopers get new director
After 30 years of service to the State of Alaska, Col. Barry Wilson has hung up his Stetson. Department of Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price announced Col. Bryan W. Barlow as the incoming director for the Alaska State Troopers.
During his distinguished career, there was little Col. Wilson hadn’t touched in the Division of Alaska State Troopers. He served Alaskans in many assignments to include working patrol, conducting investigations, coordinating search-and-rescues, and mentoring other troopers throughout the department. As director for the past year, Col. Wilson was instrumental in improving morale, expanding training and staunchly advocating for the Division as a whole, according to the press release from the Department of Public Safety.
Col. Barlow is a lifelong Alaskan who began his career with the Alaska State Troopers in March 1999. He patrolled in Fairbanks, Ninilchik, Ketchikan, and Girdwood as well as Interior villages. Over the years, Col. Barlow supervised various units within AST, including the Criminal Intelligence Unit, DPS Recruitment, Office of Professional Standards, and the DPS Aircraft Section. He also held the duties of Department Pilot, Special Emergency Reaction Team member, Firearms Instructor, Crisis Negotiator, and Ethics Instructor. In October 2017, Col. Barlow joined the AST Director’s Office as a Major, the department wrote.
“I want to thank Colonel Wilson for his dedicated service to all Alaskans,” said Commissioner Price. “It was an honor to have Col. Wilson on my team. I also want to thank Col. Barlow for accepting to take the helm of the Alaska State Troopers and all the responsibilities that come with the job.”
The one thing schools must do first: Teach kids to read
THE REST OF EDUCATION SPENDING WILL THEN GO FARTHER
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has called for accountability in education since before bhe began running for governor in 2018.
As a former teacher and lifelong educator, he pointed out that the State of Alaska spends far more money per student than almost every other state in America, but students in Alaska are at the bottom in terms of standardized test scores. Alaska’s education budget is $1.5 billion per year.
The governor’s Alaska Reads Act is meant to address the one skill that will help students the most: Reading. Currently, fewer than four in ten elementary school children are reading at the expected grade level.
By focusing on reading, including sending reading professionals to schools to work with students and teachers, Dunleavy hopes to make his mark on that accountability problem that schools have.
Must Read Alaska reached Commissioner of Education and Early Childhood Development Dr. Michael Johnson, who said he wasn’t sure what the cost of the program would be, but that “there will be a modest fiscal note.” Some of the aspects of the reading focus can come from using existing resources and redirecting them toward reading.
“They key thing to remember is that whatever the cost, it has a multiplier effect throughout a child’s education. The $1.5 billion we spend on education across the state will be more effective if we address the basic foundation of reading,” Johnson said. “This is true throughout all the grades and even into our university system. The dollars we spend will be worth it when we have children reading at grade level.”
The University of Alaska system has found that 74 percent of high school graduates who attend one of the state universities are having to take at least one remedial class.
Alaska schools were not always like this. In the 1970s, students graduating from Alaska high schools were among the top in the nation. Today, they wallow at the bottom in terms of those national test scores, such as the SAT, (there are schools in Alaska where that is clearly not the case).
The key points of the Alaska Reads Act are:
- Statewide teacher training on reading instruction and job-embedded training through State Department of Education reading specialists.
- Focusing existing state and federal funds on reading.
- Early literacy screening tool.
- Timely parent notification.
- Individual reading plans.
- Monitored student progress.
- Home reading strategies and/or programs.
- Interventions.
- Appropriate grade-level progression for students severely below grade level.
- Multiple pathways to demonstrate reading proficiency.
- Good cause exemptions.
Details of how the Department of Education plans to achieve these goals include:
- Prioritize early reading in all elementary schools, including K–12 schools.
- Adopt and implement effective reading programs and materials.
- Incentivize districts to adopt and implement effective curriculum and teaching strategies.
- Adopt 60- or 90-minute reading blocks in grades K–3 in all districts.
- Encourage district review of different K–3 models, including movement through individual grades.
- Create and disseminate materials for parents and community members on how they can support the development of their children’s reading skills.
- Provide consistent, ongoing professional development for educators and community members on the effective use of adopted reading curricula.
- Implement effective early screeners in K-3.
- Train teachers on state standards and on how to align instruction to these standards.
- Assist school leaders in using data and classroom walkthroughs to ensure implementation of aligned curricula.
- Use valid and reliable formative assessments to monitor students’ progress.
- Identify and implement effective interventions for struggling readers.
- Inform and train educators, parents, and community members on how to understand reading data and on how it can be used to support students in their reading skills attainment.
- Establish voluntary district reporting to the state on K–3 reading measures.
Al Gross sets up campaign HQ, staffs up in Fairbanks
The doctor running for U.S. Senate has decided to make Fairbanks the base for his campaign headquarters. It’s an area of the state where he is least well known and it is home turf for incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and his wife, Julie Fate-Sullivan, who was born and raised there.
Gross, from Juneau and Petersburg, already has a home in Petersburg and Anchorage, both of which he can use for regional headquarters.
He is beefing up his staff, too. He named Mindy O’Neall, a Fairbanks North Star Borough assembly member, as his campaign’s political coordinator.
That’s not to be mistaken for a campaign manager. Gross’ actual campaign manager David Keith, who has been on campaign payroll since July, is from out of state, but in his last job he developed a reputation for unprofessional conduct at the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
[Read: Progressive Caucus hires first director]
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Keith frequently used crude language and derogatory terms to describe women and gay people.
[Read: Progressive Caucus staffer accused]
“Seven sources, including some former Bryce staffers, told the Journal Sentinel that Keith routinely made inappropriate sexual comments to and about female staffers and volunteers, used crude language and had angry outbursts — at times yelling and throwing things at his subordinates.
“In one incident last year, sources said Keith screamed at staff and threw a water bottle during a meeting after learning some campaign workers left before 9 p.m., which is the time Bryce campaign staffers were required to stay to make fundraising calls,” the newspaper wrote, adding that he used crude and derogatory words to describe women and gay people, and threatened to punish staff who didn’t obey his orders, sources said. Several recalled him telling them, ‘If you cross me, I’ll destroy your career.'”
Keith will meet his match in O’Neall, who is an avowed leftist and union organizer for Laborers’ Local 942. O’Neall is a registered Democrat and has enough Laborers behind her to keep Keith, who has been on the payroll since July, in line.
And Keith will also have to contend with the likes of Gross’ senior campaign advisor, former Sen. Johnny Ellis, an aging Democrat who knows where all the bodies are buried in the state. Ellis won’t take kindly to anti-gay slurs.
Gross said last year that his campaign staff would be unionized, but has made no further announcement about the union the three are in.
Gross, running on the issue of universal health care and whatever else pops into his mind, has the support of the Alaska Democratic Party. At the same time, he is trying hard to convince voters that he is independent, yet he will appear on the Democrats’ primary ballot and is funded with national Democrat money. He is opposed to building a wall on the southern border with Mexico, and blames Sen. Dan Sullivan for the drop in Alaska’s population over the past three years.
Candidate Gross, and his three staffers — Keith, O’Neall, and Ellis — are also politically opposed to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, as all four signed the recall petition. It appears Keith’s name wasn’t counted, however, because he wasn’t an Alaska voter.
The actual location for the Gross for Senate headquarters hasn’t been announced, but it appears to be shaping up as a lively place to work.