Monday, July 6, 2026
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Stolen valor: Flag disappears from Flattop, but is restored by kids, Rep. Laddie Shaw

Only days after a complaint had been made about the American flag that flies on Flattop Mountain, and after the flag had been refreshed by a small group of intrepid legislators, the new flag went missing.

Several people contacted Must Read Alaska to say the American flag had been stolen, after Reps. Kelly Merrick, Lance Pruitt, Sara Rasmussen, and Laddie Shaw had replaced a tattered Old Glory on Friday.

Shaw got the word this morning about the missing flag and raced to the top of Flattop, some 3,150 feet, to raise a new flag. On the way, he encountered a family with children. He waited for them to catch up with him at the top of Flattop.

“The kids were so disappointed when they got there because they had come to see the flag and it was missing,” Shaw said. “I told them, ‘I’ve got one right here, and if you’ll help me we’ll raise it up.'”

The children and Rep. Shaw then hoisted the new flag together.

Shaw says he has no idea who would have stolen the flag over the weekend, but the concept of stealing an American flag from the popular Anchorage hiking destination mystifies him.

“It’s our flag. It’s a symbol of who we are,” he said. “But you will never beat me with that flag. I buy 52 a year, and I’ll put one up a week if I have to. I buy them by the dozen,” said Shaw, who is a retired Navy SEAL.

Bias showing: Public broadcaster faults an unmasked Rep. Don Young, but ignores bare-faced Alyse

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Alaska Energy Desk reporter Nat Herz, part journalist and part opposition research agent for Alaska Democrats, found it newsy this week that Congressman Don Young, 87, was not wearing a face mask at a recent outdoor fundraiser.

It was an observation Herz had gleaned while trolling online photos of people at fundraisers. It’s what opposition researchers do.

“No one appeared to be wearing a mask, however, in a photo subsequently posted by Young’s campaign that showed dozens of people gathered outside [Mead] Treadwell’s home,” Herz wrote for public broadcasting stations across the state. The event was on the sprawling lawns of the former lieutenant governor’s house in Anchorage.

“The string of in-person events hosted by the Young campaign comes as Anchorage officials warn of a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled in part by people attending private gatherings. The city’s health department issued an alert Friday directing people to wear face coverings and avoid crowds and gatherings.”

Writing about Young not wearing a mask was low-hanging fruit for Young critics, and allowed Herz to remind the party faithful that the congressman once jokingly referred to the Chinese coronavirus as the “beer virus,” something about which his readers apparently needed to be reminded on a regular basis.

Herz, formerly of the Anchorage Daily News, didn’t bother himself with the social media posts of Democratic candidate Alyse Galvin, pictured right next to people, cheek-to-cheek at times — and mask-less. So we found a few recent pics.

Young has had a series of successful fundraisers, the most recent of which was at Little Italy in Anchorage on Monday evening, attended by about 75 Alaskans, including many young voters. All the pizza served was pre-plated and passed out carefully so people wouldn’t be standing over the food. A couple of weeks ago, the campaign brought in a food truck for the event, to prevent people from breathing on each other’s food. The campaign is going to great lengths to ensure a healthy environment.

“But generally, left-leaning independents and Democrats have been more cautious about convening in-person gatherings. Sullivan’s best-funded challenger, independent Al Gross, has limited his fundraisers to online events, as has Young’s leading opponent, independent Alyse Galvin,” wrote Herz.

Of course, neither Gross nor Galvin are doing fundraisers because most of their money is coming through ActBlue, and much of it is out-of-state money from Californians, East Coast liberals, anti-gun groups, and pro-choice groups. ActBlue is the same Democrats’ online fundraising system that raised over $1 billion last year for Democrats. It is also the fundraising mechanism for Black Lives Matter, which is funneling money to Democrats.

The mainstream media has consistently allowed Gross, who is running against Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Galvin to fly by unchallenged with their adopted “independent” label, even though both are endorsed candidates of the Alaska Democratic Party, using the ActBlue software to raise funds, and will appear under the Democrat label in the General Election in November.

Like any good political operative, Herz is hardwired to find fault with the “other side.” All of this is being done under the umbrella of the “Alaska Energy Desk,” which says it covers, wait for it … energy and environmental news. Herz wrote the story for Alaska Public Media, as differentiated from the Alaska Energy Desk.

Made-in-America corporate cowardice

By SUZANNE DOWNING

America’s corporate leaders are displaying an embarrassing richness of cowardice and naivety during the cultural revolution we’ll catalog under the general banners of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. 

Business executives may believe this war on America will not come to their corporate shores. They are wrong. It’s already gunning for them, and no amount of kow-towing will prevent it, because destruction of free markets is one of the main goals of the Left.

Companies funding Black Lives Matter wanted to portray themselves as “pro-people,” but didn’t take the time to step back and examine what the movement really is or how it might evolve. Black Lives Matter admits its socialist revolution is underway.

Here is how these social justice organizations actually evolve: Nonprofits like Black Lives Matter do not seek to work themselves out of a job; they move the goalposts in order to keep their organizations relevant. 

Like any organism, their first priority is to survive as a relevant entity. If they actually cured racism, they’d need to find other employment. The Southern Poverty Law Center is an example of a nonprofit that has expanded its killing field to keep the funding coming in.

The BLM revolution started not with peaceful protest, but with instantaneous rioting and uncivil occupation, fed by the organization itself. This wasn’t a lazy “Occupy Wall Street” camping trip; this was something different. Young people went on a wilding, with young men and women of color beating people of other racial characteristics, mainly white, but also Hispanic. 

They now savage elders, children, youth, drivers, parents, police officers, store clerks and security guards. Much of this is on tape as a documented, nearly undeniable race war ripping through our cities. 

The business community did nothing to support law enforcement during these attacks. Companies did not stand up for anything. Executives cowered in their C suites, metaphorically begging the mob to go elsewhere. They wrote checks to buy cover. They removed faces of African-Americans or Native Americans from their products. They admitted their white privilege.

The revolution of 2020 then moved to the defacing of cultural icons and art, as occurred during the French Revolution and the Maoist Cultural Revolution. We are still in the “destruction of symbols” phase of this movement, and no monument in America is safe now that local and state leaders have shown an unwillingness to defend them. 

Now, World War II monuments to those who fought true fascism and racism are being desecrated. 

Black Lives Matter cannot deny its responsibility in this lawlessness.

But even as the phase of monument destruction has been normalized across the country, the movement is taking on the next target: Christians.

Someone in the BLM movement had to go first against people of faith, and it may as well be Shaun King, since he is an ordained pastor, and his words carry extra weight.

One of the thought leaders of Black Lives Matter, King calls for the destruction of religious icons, the tearing down of any and all statuary, paintings, stained glass, and other depictions of Jesus “and his friends” if they are depicted as “white.” 

“Yes I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been,” King wrote on Twitter. “In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Demark. Tear them down.”

King continued: “white Jesus is a lie” and a “tool of white supremacy” created to help white people use Christianity as a “tool of oppression.”

King then urged the destruction of all “murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends.”

King, a mixed-race Black graduate of Morehouse College, an historically black college in Atlanta, is important as a BLM leader not only because of his wearing of the cloth, but because he is a writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School. That allows him a legitimate platform from where he can direct the actions of the mob.

As one of the intellectual leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement, he is leading the charge against Christianity and the way people worship. He’s already seen that Christians and their churches will not stand up for themselves; they willingly followed government orders to close during the first phase of the pandemic.

King has not been de-platformed by Twitter for calling for this Kristallnacht against his fellow disciples of Christ. 

Black Lives Matter and other radicals in the movement have also been careful to not disavow King because they don’t want to split their movement. They know they must tread with caution here.

But the revolutionaries have now discovered that there is no political will in the states and cities to defend historic monuments, and armed with this knowledge, King has given the dog whistle: Churches are the next target.

Many U.S. companies are now complicit in the destruction of the very system from which their shareholders, employees and society in general benefit. They are unwittingly funding their own demise.

In May, Amazon said it would donate $10 million to racial justice initiatives, including Black Lives Matter.

Microsoft and Intel also added Black Lives Matter to their list of charitable causes, and some of the largest and most well-known companies in America followed suit.

The cowardice and naivety that runs through the major companies is stunning. BLM is not just about defunding the police. This is about your company, or the company you hold stock in, being dismantled. Black Lives Matter is a bent on tearing down all existing social structures so society can be rebuilt in a new, more utopian vision.

Those who were around for the Maoist Cultural Revolution remember that it went on for 10 or more destructive years, destroying all remnants of capitalism and religion, and forcing people into reeducation camps.

Are we heading into a 10-year purge of America as we know it?

Perhaps. The Chinese coronavirus set the perfect stage for a new generation to look toward Marxism as a solution to all of America’s flaws.

Teen unemployment is at a record high. Of 16-to-19-year-old Americans, 30 percent were unemployed in May; the real number of bored, anxious teens is likely higher. Unemployment for 20-24-year-olds is over 23 percent. 

Many of these young people, including those who have been educated by radicalized teachers and professors, are receiving generous unemployment bonus checks, while their state and local governments have laws prohibiting them from being evicted. The incentive for staying unemployed is good money right now and rioting in the streets gives young people a badly needed sense of purpose.

American companies fueling the revolution through their charitable donations, paying the mob to dismantle free enterprise and put in place a socialistic system, have misjudged this anarchy as a civil rights movement.

Welcome to the new reality, corporate cowards. This is a shakedown. The Left has invited you over for dinner and you’re bringing the wine. They just haven’t told you that you are the main course.

Will third time be a charm for Anchorage mask mandate?

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Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zalatel is bringing a last-minute item to Tuesday’s agenda: Mandatory masks for all in Anchorage while in public places such as stores and restaurants.

A similar measure has failed twice, 5-6, in recent weeks. But last week Mayor Ethan Berkowitz indicated he is open to mandating face masks. The mandate proponents just need to flip one vote, and Must Read Alaska has learned they are going after Assemblyman Kameron Perez-Verdia for that vote.

Zaletel has “laid on the table” a resolution calling on Mayor Ethan Berkowitz to mandate masks via his emergency powers, which are granted by the Assembly. It’s not on the agenda but is expected to be raised during the meeting as a last-minute item, circumventing the ability of the public to be made aware or for opponents on the Assembly to gather their opposition arguments.

Take the Must Read Alaska Facebook poll on the face mask mandate here.

Breaking: UA President Johnsen resigns

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A letter from the UA Board of Regents:

Acting President Michelle Rizk and I write to advise you that President Jim Johnsen has resigned as UA System president, a decision that was mutual and made after considerable reflection by the Board. The Board of Regents accepted his resignation this afternoon, authorized me to implement the details of his resignation, and appoint an acting president. President Johnsen will be available to assist with the transition until July 1 when his resignation goes into effect.

Vice President Michelle Rizk will serve as acting president effective immediately and until an interim president is named. That process is still being developed. Many of you know Michelle, who serves as the university’s VP of University Relations, Chief Budget & Strategy Officer, and serves as the system liaison for facilities and land management. During her 22-year UA career, Michelle has served the university in areas including finance, human resources, and as the university’s chief advocate in Juneau. Raised in Alaska, Rizk earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Thank you, Michelle, for agreeing to serve in the acting capacity.

While we understand that a change in leadership can be unsettling, we are confident this decision, though difficult, is the correct one for the university. We ask that all of you throughout the university community recognize that the state and university’s current fiscal situation requires significant change, and that to thrive, UA must come together to address our significant challenges. We must move forward and work together to address these challenges.

In stepping down President Johnsen noted the many challenges as well as the progress made over the past five years.  He also reminded us that there is no institution more important for creating opportunities for Alaskans than the University.

I have long admired Jim’s commitment to UA. During his five years as president he has led the university through unprecedented challenges with integrity, unparalleled effort, and distinction. We appreciate all he has done for UA and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

The Board will appoint an interim president after consulting with the chancellors, governance leaders and other UA stakeholders. The board expects that appointment to occur no later than July 15, and will commence a formal search for UA’s next president later this year.

Thank you for your patience and your dedication to the university. Together we can not only address the challenges facing the university but emerge better prepared to meet Alaska’s higher education needs.

Sincerely,
Sheri Buretta, Michelle Rizk
UA Board of Regents Chair, Acting UA President

Kenai Democrats come out in force for Rep. Gary Knopp

Rep. Gary Knopp is getting no love from the Republicans of District 30, but the Democrats are now waving signs for him in Kenai.

Knopp, a registered Republican, helped install Democrat-dominated House leadership team, saying no House Republican caucus would survive so long as Rep. David Eastman, District 10, was involved.

He was not the only one. Eastman had, during the formation of the House caucus in 2018, remained in an adjacent room and refused to appear with the Republican caucus for photos.

At that point, the Republican majority started fracturing, with Knopp and fellow Republicans Jennifer Johnston, Tammie Wilson, Chuck Kopp, and Steve Thompson joining the Democrats, installing a Democrat Speaker, and divvying up the leadership spots to create a power-sharing team.

Knopp has been asked by his district to return to the Republican fold several times, and recently the district voted once again to censure him and endorse Ron Gillham for House District 30.

Sign-wavers came out for Knopp this weekend, and it turns out, the Kenai Democrats and Alaska Democratic Party took pride in their efforts to boost the recalcitrant lawmaker, who was a registered Democrat for years before he started seeking public office.

A group of others on the Peninsula, put together a “Fire Knopp” rally, and Knopp went over to join them, sending a decidedly mixed message he may not have intended — it looked like the “Fire Knopp” event was bigger than it actually was.

Mayor of Kenai Borough says he’ll take Capt. Cook statue off Mayor Ethan’s hands

The mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough thinks the statue of Captain Cook, which stands at Resolution Park in Anchorage, would look fine in Kenai.

If Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is going to take down the statue of the famous explorer, Kenai Mayor Charlie Pierce says he will find a place for it.

“As Alaskans, we are strong, independent, and resilient,” he said today. “Eradicating history is not a good idea. Captain James Cook played a crucial role in Alaska’s State history, which we have been proud of over the years.  

“A small but loud faction of people demanded the taking down of this statue in Anchorage, and their Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has the consideration ‘under review.'”

If the Anchorage Mayor wants to throw away history to appease the media and a small group of folks, please don’t throw this statue away. The Kenai Penisula Borough will take it. – Mayor Charlie Pierce

The explorer Captain Cook actually never made it to the site of where Anchorage sits today. And he wasn’t the first in the area; as far as anyone knows, a people who became the Dena’ina people had discovered it a thousand years or more before European explorers did. But the Europeans had to cross several oceans to get to what is now Alaska, and that took time and technology. The Dena’ina crossed on a land bridge from the adjacent continent.

Cook’s ship, the Resolution, arrived in what is now called outer Cook Inlet on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. A farmhand’s son from Yorkshire, England, he apprenticed on ships built to carry coal to ports along the English coast. When he was 26, he joined the Royal Navy and, due to a talent for math and science, was able to work his way up to captain. He surveyed the coast of Newfoundland and then commanded expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, finding the continent of Australia, as well as Tahiti, New Zealand, New Guinea, and other places unknown to Europeans.

He also explored Antarctica, and on his third voyage set north to find the Northwest Passage, which was thought to link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean. His best bet was Cook Inlet, but that turned out to be a dead end. Nevertheless, he and his men explored the entire area and his reputation lives on as the greatest explorer in world history.

A group of Anchorage progressives is asking the Municipality of Anchorage to remove Cook’s statue. It might be a polite request or it might be a threat; across the country historic statues are being removed, desecrated, and destroyed by rioters. Pierce said he’d like to have the statue of Captain Cook moved to Kenai, preferably before it’s desecrated in Anchorage.

Masks: Progressives pressing for mandates, and Berkowitz says he is considering it

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FRIDAY’S UNPUBLICIZED MEETING WENT SIDEWAYS FOR ASSEMBLY

Pressure from some quarters is bearing down on Gov. Mike Dunleavy to issue a statewide mandate requiring all Alaskans wear masks when in public places.

Since that seems unlikely, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is considering making it a local “cover your face” order for Alaska’s largest city.

During his Friday update, Berkowitz said that Anchorage is in “Condition Yellow,” and that if more cases of COVID-19 arise, he will consider imposing a mask mandate. It was an “or else” warning to the public. Listen up:

“We have not mandated masking to this point,” Berkowitz said. “I would not like to get to the point where we have to mandate masking, but mandating masking is something that is on the table.”

Although the vast majority of Alaskans do not want a statewide mask mandate, according to a recent Must Read Alaska poll, some members of the Anchorage Assembly are pressing forward. for the local mandate at least.

A local mask mandate in Anchorage has already failed to pass the Assembly twice on a vote of 5-6.

Meg Zalatel and Forrest Dunbar pushed the issue during a special Assembly committee meeting last week, and they brought a handful of doctors to support mandatory face coverings for all Alaskans.

Also speaking at the meeting were Reps. Geran Tarr and Zack Fields, who stated that they support a mask mandate but don’t think they could get the governor to change his mind.

[Read the June 18 order for mandatory masks in California]

Rep. Tarr asked the doctors invited to the meeting if they thought it would be helpful for Tarr and Fields to hold a press conference to demand the governor mandate masks, and the doctors answered that they believe a press conference by the two would be helpful.

“Very helpful,” said Dr. Helen Adams, one of the featured speakers. The doctors said that the science is now very clear that masks reduce the spread of COVID-19, and a lot of misinformation is being spread by opponents of mask mandates.

“If you look at the conversations that are happening in places like social media and even on the news, there’s misrepresentation of what we’re looking for,” said Dr. Monique Love Child, an Anchorage pediatrician.

During the phone-in meeting that was not well-publicized, the public learned of the proceedings and called in with their objections, sometimes interrupting the officials and doctors to get their points across. It was apparent that meeting chairman Felix Rivera was not expecting the public to call in and he had to admonish the callers to stop talking over the experts.

Assembly member Forrest Dunbar was not pleased with the public’s participation:

“Wearing a face covering to slow the spread of a pandemic should be the least political policy choice a community makes in a year. Instead our work session attracted people claiming scientists are inflating fatality numbers and the elderly/vulnerable should fend for themselves,” Dunbar wrote. “Do you want businesses to stay open? Great! Then everyone wear a face covering to slow the spread. Otherwise we are going to be back in lock down.”

On Wednesday, June 24, Alaska House Democrats will hold another meeting on the topic in the House Health and Social Services Committee. The meeting convenes at 9:30 am and is accessible to the public at this link.

‘Into the Wild’ bus removal was long overdue

Finally, the bus made famous in the 1996 book “Into the Wild” has been unceremoniously yanked from the backcountry along the Stampede Trail where it has sat for the past six decades.

The abandoned bus was the site of the 1992 starvation death of 24-year-old Virginian Christopher McCandless. His ordeal was depicted in the book, by Jon Krakauer, and in a 2007 feature film.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and the Alaska Army National Guard collaborated to get the bus out of the wild where, over the years, it has served as a beacon for many trying to retrace McCandless’ footsteps.

There have been scores of rescues and searches and at least two hikers have died trying to cross the Teklanika River near the decrepit, long abandoned bus – Fairbanks Transit Bus 142. It routinely lured adventurers attempting to retrace McCandless’ steps for whatever reason. It was dumped on state land in about 1960 near the boundary of the Denali National Park and Preserve.

McCandless in 1992 could not get back across the river and died of starvation after living for about 114 days at the bus. His death, and the controversy following publication of “Into the Wild,” are not seen by all as a sort of heroic tragedy. It rather is seen as a gritty and not unexpected testament to what happens when you venture into Alaska’s wilds unskilled and unprepared and unaware.

Denali Borough officials have wanted the bus gone because of the deaths and rescues and searches that cost time and money. It was a continuing danger.

The only question we have about the removal is: Why did it take the state so long?