The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants pet owners to keep their dogs and cats at least six feet from other pets or humans.
This is after a small number of family pets have become infected with COVID-19 coronavirus.
The CDC says pets should not interact with other pets or people from outside the household, and dogs should be kept on a leash, while cats should be kept indoors during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
CDC guidelines also say dog owners should avoid dog parks or other public places where people and dogs gather.
In 2013, the Municipality of Anchorage estimated that there were 75,000 dogs in the Anchorage-Chugiak-Eagle River area.
Leslie Becker, a Ketchikan School Board member and former Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce executive director announced her run for Alaska State House for District 36. The district is currently served by Rep. Daniel Ortiz, a legislator who does not belong to a political party but who caucuses with the Democrats.
“Alaska is facing a serious budget crisis and without the immediate structuralchanges necessary to achieve a sustainable budget, the economic viability of Alaska will be at risk, ” Becker said.
“The mismanagement of Alaska’s resources has squandered billions in State savings, led to cuts in essential services, such as the Alaska Marine Highway system and resulted in the virtual elimination of the PFD paid to Alaskans. I am motivated to run as your State House District 36th, representative to end the tax disparity imposed upon our communities, to prevent service shifting from the State that will increase local taxes, to protect the PFD and to assure that a sustainable budget includes a “Shared Sacrifice” from all Alaskans,” she wrote in her announcement.
The Legislature has failed Alaska and District 36th for many years, Becker said. She is running as a Republican in what has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. Ortiz has been an odd fit for the district as an undeclared, but was a popular public school teacher who is well known in Ketchikan.
Becker and her husband, Dr. Steven Becker, moved to Ketchikan in 2016. She had a 35-year career as a healthcare executive, working with hospitals, corporations, and multi-million-dollar budgets.
Four cases of COVID-19 coronavirus were diagnosed in the 24-hour period that ended at midnight on Tuesday. The four new cases were in Anchorage.
There were no new hospitalizations or deaths reported; those still stand at 36 and 9 respectively, of the 355 cases that have been diagnosed among Alaskans. There are currently 16 people hospitalized in Alaska with the illness.
To date, 240 Alaskans have recovered from the coronavirus that started human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, China and made its way across the world, infecting Americans in January.
19,119 Alaskans have undergone swab testing for the Wuhan coronavirus, which works out to more than 1-1/3 of every 50 Alaskans.
The total count of all cases that were ever diagnosed among Alaskans is as follows:
It’s been nine days since briefs and responses requested by the Alaska Supreme Court were duly filed in the case that will decide whether the Recall Dunleavy Committee has sufficient grounds to have citizens go through a recall election. A decision will likely come this week.
The Supreme Court justices had asked both the Department of Law and Recall Dunleavy to further explain their positions on whether a governor’s veto is a violation of the “separation of powers.” In the Supreme Court’s hearing of the matter on March 25, it was clear that the justices questioned this particular grounds for recall, because the separation of powers is a principle, rather than a law. Since it is a key argument of the Recall Dunleavy Committee’s recall petition, the justices have asked each side to argue their positions in additional briefs.
The third ground for recall, which is in question is: “Governor Dunleavy violated separation-of-powers by improperly using the line- item veto to attack the judiciary and the rule of law.”
The justices asked both sides to address the the historical basis of state constitutional provisions, and particularly the Alaska Constitution, Article II, section 15, regarding a governor’s discretionary authority to veto items in appropriation bills, as well as a requirement that the governor provide a statement of his or her reasoning for vetoing items; the constitutional limits, if any, that exist on a governor’s exercise of the authority to veto appropriations; and the legal framework the justices should use for determining whether the third ground for recall is “legally sufficient” as required by case law.
“How should the governor’s statement of his objections inform the analysis? Can the statement of objections itself demonstrate an “’improper’ use of the governor’s veto authority sufficient to support recall? Is an ‘improper’ use of the governor’s veto authority a violation of the separation of powers doctrine? As used in the recall petition, is ‘separation of powers’ a law — which the governor either violated or did not violate — or is it shorthand for something else? How should voters interpret the phrases ‘separation of powers’ and ‘the rule of law”’?
In its response, the Recall Dunleavy Committee admitted there is little, if any, case law to support their claim.
The legal briefs and responses are now on file with the high court. Among them are these, which readers may explore and analyze:
Meanwhile, the Recall Dunleavy Committee has not been able to make adequate progress on its signature gathering on the recall petition itself, and appears stuck at 30,200 signatures since March 23. The group needs 71,252 valid signatures to force an election do-over, which would put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of the state.
The Supreme Court had allowed the group to proceed with signature gathering even though the court had not heard the case or decided its merits, and it now appears that at least one of the items on the petition may be thrown out. That could open up the petition to a lawsuit, because the question on the ballot would be substantially different from what was on the petition that people signed.
The Recall Committee plowed forward this week with a letter from three doctors who stated that cuts to the Health and Social Services budget of the state had left the state unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and that the cuts led to a rise in cases.
The letter, signed by an abortion doctor, a Native medical center doctor, and an internist, allege that Gov. Dunleavy is responsible for the continuing rise of COVID-19 castes in Alaska.
“You don’t need to be a medical professional to understand that COVID-19 has a firm foothold in Alaska and our hospitals and clinics are now on the front lines. As physicians bracing for this emerging crisis, we write to remind you that Governor Dunleavy’s fiscal policies have been no friend to healthcare in our state. With our recklessly under-funded healthcare system facing a global pandemic, it has never been more important to have a leader with the well-being of all Alaskans in mind.”
Alaska, in actuality, has the fewest number of cases of COVID-19 in the nation.
The American Civil Liberties Union tried to muscle its way into this court proceeding this month, saying that it wanted to file an amicus brief on behalf of the Recall Dunleavy Committee’s position.
The ACLU said that because it has a separate pending lawsuit in Superior Court over the legality of the governor’s vetoes, it has an interest in the outcome of the Recall Dunleavy case. That ACLU request was denied by the Supreme Court.
Only a few restaurants dared open this week in Anchorage for sit down service. And not many stores are open yet, although they can legally open.
Must Read Alaska readers ventured out to see if they could sit down in a restaurant, rather than order take-out food. Under the previous coronavirus health mandate, restaurants were forbidden from offering a table to patrons — you had to take your food with you at the few dining establishments that were prepared to shift to an all-to-go dining experience.
One airline employee relayed her dining safari in downtown Anchorage. After trying without luck to eat at Lucky Wishbone or the Glacier Brewhouse, she found that Simon & Seaforts was open, and she was easily able to make a reservation to eat in the bar area. There were about a dozen patrons, she said, and the waiter wore a mask. What’s more, the chef even made a special dish of halibut and slaw, something that is not normally on the menu.
Another MRAK reader said she and her husband “dined out” at Arctic Roadrunner, eating at the outdoor tables. “Lunch at Arctic Roadrunner was delicious as always with the perfect weather for our table by the creek!” she wrote. “We ordered our food with a plexiglass piece mounted in a wooden frame with a space underneath for the cash (because they don’t accept cards to go through).”
Bernadette Wilson, one of the organizers of the “Open Alaska” rally last week, wandered into the Dimond Mall to see if she could replace a broken butter dish. No such luck. While the mall was open, all the stores were closed, as her video shows:
The Dimond Mall may be open, but your money is no good there. Nothing was open on Tuesday.
Wilson said she talked to one store owner who said that the mandates are confusing and changing, and the company did not want to risk running afoul of the government.
Pete Erickson couldn’t figure out who all those people were on the beach. As he steered his tug and barge through the Wrangell Narrows leaving Petersburg, where he was born and raised, he only expected to see his daughter and his grandson waving him by.
Erickson had just finished his 14-day quarantine after coming down with the COVID-19 coronavirus, which he evidently caught while visiting his father in the hospital in the Seattle area.
His dad, Pete Sr., was the first Alaskan to die of the coronavirus; he passed on March 16 at a hospital in Federal Way, Wash., where he had gone for care for other serious health conditions.
Erickson and his wife Kris had spent a lot of time with the 76-year-old Petersburg patriarch while he was hospitalized. And as one might expect, Erickson picked up the bug, while his wife, who had spent even more time with Pete Sr. managed to escape infection.
Pete Erickson Jr. visiting his father in the hospital in Seattle.
Erickson, who was born and raised in Petersburg, had mild symptoms after his father’s passing, and spent his two weeks of quarantine chopping wood, clearing brush, and shoveling horse manure at his island ranch in Washington. After his COVID-19 tests came back clear, was finally back on his usual tug run, moving barges full of shipping containers of food and other goods from the Port of Seattle to Ketchikan, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, and Skagway.
In the wheelhouse on Sunday, he grabbed his binoculars. He could hear horns blaring, and sirens wailing. He could see people waving flags and their hands in the air. The town of Petersburg had come out to say hello to Erickson as he was making his first post-COVID tug-and-barge run.
People wave from the shore as the Western Titan motors north from Petersburg.
“I have deal with my daughter that she and my grandson drive to the north end of town and wave and watch me go by. But on Sunday, I could see all these people on the beach, and cars, and flags and umbrellas. Police cars and a State Trooper truck. I could hear them yelling, honking horns, and the police cars hitting their sirens and flashing their lights. And then all of a sudden I was getting Facebook messages and text messages from people — ‘Love you, Buddy,'” he said, while in Juneau on Tuesday on his return trip to Seattle.
Petersburg residents wave a Swedish and an American flag as Pete Erickson Jr. steered his tug and barge north to Juneau.
Erickson, a muscular Swede of a man, said it made him cry to see everyone showing him such support after having lost his father and at the same time contracting a scary virus the past month.
“Petersburg will always be my home — I was born and raised there and lived there for 48 years,” he said. By now, he was taking some time getting the story out.
The Western Titan made its way north to Juneau, Haines, and finally to Skagway, where another impromptu group had assembled on the dock as a thank-you rally for the crew of the tug and the dedication they have to bringing freight to the small town at the head of Lynn Canal.
The town of Skagway turns out to welcome the crew of the Western Titan, and to show their appreciation for the workers who keep the town supplied.
Once again, Erickson was surprised by the small-town, “old Alaska” gesture. He brings freight routinely to these towns in Southeast Alaska, and never before had anyone made a big deal out of it. It’s a normal weekly occurrence.
“At first, I thought maybe the fire department was doing a drill on the docks, but then there was an American flag and a Swedish flag, and I put it all together,” Erickson said.
It was the work of his aunt Kathy (Erickson) Hosford, who with her husband Fred Hosford runs the Chilkoot Trail Outpost lodge in Dyea. She and a couple of friends had hatched a plan to show appreciation to the entire tug crew, not just her nephew. And the town responded to the call to come to the dock and lean on their horns.
“Even people who could not make it to the docks were outside banging pots and pans together,” Hosford said. She added that it was a way to show the people who are working through the pandemic that they are truly appreciated by the people of Alaska.
Six new Alaska cases of COVID-19 coronavirus were diagnosed in the 24-hour period that ended at midnight on Monday.
There were no new hospitalizations or deaths reported; those still stand at 37 and 9 respectively of the 351 cases that have been diagnosed among Alaskans. There are currently 16 people hospitalized in Alaska with the illness.
The six new cases were in Anchorage (4), Petersburg (1), and Fairbanks (1)
To date, 228 Alaskans have recovered from the coronavirus that started human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, China and made its way across the world, infecting Americans in January.
17,089 Alaskans have undergone swab testing for the Wuhan coronavirus, which works out to more than one in every 50 Alaskans.
The total count of all cases that were ever diagnosed among Alaskans is as follows:
When the chairman of Tyson Food tells America “the food supply chain in breaking” after multiple meat processing plants across the country are shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic, it is time to pay attention.
Alaskans should be paying even more attention than most during the ongoing crisis. We find ourselves at the end of a very, very long supply chain.
At one point, some time ago, food security in Alaska was a big deal. Former Gov. Sean Parnell in 2013 set up the Alaska Food Resource Working Group, composed of eight state agency commissioners. It was to recommend policies to increase the purchase and consumption of local wild seafood and farm products and encourage collaboration among fisheries, consumers, Alaska farmers, state and tribal entities, and consumers.
Parnell’s goal was to make Alaska more self-reliant when it comes to food, and more prepared for a major earthquake or other disaster. He wanted to build warehouses to hold enough emergency food in Anchorage and Fairbanks to feed 40,000 people for up to a week after an earthquake or other disaster.
There was a statewide assessment – “Building Food Security in Alaska” – town halls and much talk in some circles. All that has gotten less attention in the years since, and, worse, Alaska has become even less self-reliant. Over the years it has lost its state-run dairy, its meat packing plant and much of its agricultural base. We are ever more dependent on that very long supply chain for our food.
Nowadays, the Alaska Food Policy Council is working toward a “more secure, more self-reliant” food system in the state. State government, despite its economic woes, should step up, too, and make the food system a top priority.
Agriculture should be encouraged with the end goal of having Alaska able to stand on its own for crucial food supplies.
In the Parnell administration, the governor’s Food Resource Working Group was nearly a Cabinet-level effort, giving it the visibility and clout needed to accomplish something.
The effort in the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy should be at least that important – especially now. A hungry Alaskan, after all, is a grumpy Alaskan.
Those of us who know anything of Weimar Germany know it from the play and movie, “Cabaret.” Some who know a bit about music know that the 1950s hit, “Mack the Knife” was originally German and from the Weimar period. Both are a pretty good look at the cultural nihilism the rest of the West perceived in Weimar Germany. But there is more to the story.
Early 20th century Germany was the most technologically and culturally advanced nation in the world. German was the language of science and technology.
In contrast, the British were crass merchants and we Americans were crude tradesmen and farmers. At least that is the way the Germans saw it, and you can’t say they were totally wrong.
Art Chance
Socialism wasn’t invented by Bernie Sanders supporters in the 2000s; it was alive and well in Europe and America in the late 19th Century. The Kaiser’s Germany had a social welfare system that much of the world would envy today.
After Germany’s surrender in WWI and the Kaiser’s abdication, a constitutional republic was established, which today we call the Weimar Republic, the Germany of the 1920s and early ’30s; the time of “Cabaret.”
Germany was not decisively militarily defeated in the First World War, but it was decisively economically defeated, primarily by the British blockade of Germany. After the war’s end, Germany turned sharply to socialism and it had a major communist presence that thought the socialism wasn’t enough.
The policies that the U.S. Left was orgasmic about in the early days of Obama quickly became the legal and social regime in Weimar Germany:
German industry was mandated to become unionized.
Labor disputes were decided by arbitration not by the economic combat of strikes and lockouts.
Medical care was state-funded and universal.
Education was compulsory and state-funded.
German law was positivist written law, not the common law judgment of often elected judges.
It was the “workers’ paradise” of which the Left dreamed.
But hanging over the head of the Weimar Republic was the immense burden of the war reparations imposed by the treaty ending WWI.
Germany resolved to inflate their way out of the reparations. Those of us old enough to have had a History course remember the pictures of Germans taking money to the market in a wheelbarrow. But, the Germans made it work for most of a decade. Their scheme of state-mandated interest arbitration of labor agreements made them able to keep labor rates equal to the inflation.
We saw this in much of the Alaska economy in the pipeline construction era; the cost of living skyrocketed, but the wages skyrocketed with it.
It all came crashing down in Germany with the Great Depression, and the end of that wasn’t happy for maybe 60 million people.
We aren’t there yet, and we should really try not to get there.
At the federal level we’re doing exactly what the Weimar Republic did; we’re inflating our way out of the defeat. Whether Red China did it by accident or design, they took the U.S. out of the lead in the competition for world economic leadership. Now we’re inflating our economy to try to win an economic war with the Chinese.
What we have to balance is the measures necessary to protect us from the virus or from the propaganda about the virus, and the measures that will produce serious civil unrest. After all, civil unrest is what brought on the collapse of the Weimar Republic.
In 1928, Germany could have remained a democratic republic, accepted the national socialism of the NSDAP, the Nazis, or become communist and allied with the newly formed USSR. The Nazis defeated the communists in the streets and the social democrats simply didn’t have it in them to resist; a lot of people died.
We are a lot more economically powerful in the world than was Germany in the early 20th Century, but it is an open question whether we can just muscle our way through this.
Right now, our civil unrest is peaceful, but as we get further into people having no livelihood, that peace isn’t assured. We have to get back to work.
I’m sorry if the Democrats can’t keep this going long enough to have a mail-in-only ballot election that they can steal, but I really don’t want a revolution. I have more than a few limbs chopped off my family tree over the last almost 400 years because of revolutions.
Western civilization survived the Bubonic Plague that killed as much as 50 percent of the European population. America survived cholera, smallpox, yellow fever and many other epidemics. People voted in person during the Spanish Flu. I remember the terror of polio before the Salk vaccine.
Life went on. We need to get on with it.
To respond to what is mostly a Democrat/media gaslighting operation, we have printed trillions of dollars and completely strangled the once-booming U.S. economy. The Democrats have accomplished their political objective of taking away President Trump’s economic accomplishments restoring the economy from the Obama malaise. Our great-grandchildren will be paying for the debt and all of us will suffer from the loss of purchasing power from the inflation. If gold reaches $2,000/oz. next year, it won’t be because gold got more valuable, it will be because the dollar became less valuable.
It may be necessary to continue the traditional practice of quarantining those afflicted and those most vulnerable, but the healthy need to be released from house arrest and America needs to go back to work or there won’t be any work to go back to for decades. The New Deal and federal spending didn’t end the Great Depression, but the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan did. There are people out there who would like another Pearl Harbor-like attack on the U.S.; China isn’t building assault carriers and Iran isn’t building ICBMs for no reason.
To the extent that federal deficit spending is a remedy at all, it is a very temporary remedy that must be paid for over generations.
Here in Alaska, we have the luxury of having substantial reserves. The State government has money in mattresses and coffee cans that they call “designated general funds.”
They also have all sorts of “trust’ funds and investments in unexpended Capital funds, though those may be dwindling. Our primary asset is the earnings reserve of the Permanent Fund.
Some people who’ve been elected to represent us should turn their brains on and forget what their owners/contributors are demanding. Some of them should wear jackets like NASCAR drivers that have the logos of all their sponsors on them.
We have money to get Alaska through this, a luxury most states don’t have. Now all we need are elected and appointed officials with the IQ and the integrity to serve the people of Alaska rather than just serve their sponsors.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon.
