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Gun sales soar as Democrats make gains

Suzanne Downing
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7
Gun sales soar as Democrats make gains

THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

If you think Americans trust their government when it comes to guns, think again. Gun sales soared at a record pace in April, for a second straight month.

Growing concerns about possible unrest stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and the prospect of Democrats fielding candidates who have vowed to impose draconian anti-gun measures, including forced “buy-backs,” are among the forces driving the sales. Americans want to get theirs now, while they still can, and they are doing it in droves.

National Instant Criminal Background Check requests in April, the FBI says, hit a record 2,911,128 – 576,879 more than in April 2019.

NICS background checks in March totaled 3,740,688, the most ever, the FBI says. They were up 1,095,837 over April 2019.

Democrats, it turns out, are this nation’s best firearms sales force.

Google knows where you were during stay-home order

Suzanne Downing
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24
Google knows where you were during stay-home order

DATA SHOWS JUNEAU WAS MOST COMPLIANT WITH MANDATES

Google has been analyzing data from around the country to see how social distancing and stay-home orders are working out between late March and early May.

Alaska’s major communities provide enough data to show how visits and time spent at different geo-located places changed compared to a baseline before the state shutdown mandates.

“We calculate these changes using the same kind of aggregated and anonymized data used to show popular times for places in Google Maps,” the company said. In other words, it’s not tracking you specifically, but batching the data, according to Google.

Some of the interesting results from the collection of Alaskans’ locations shows that Juneau was overall the most compliant with the stay-home mandates, with a more than 50 percent drop in visits to retail and recreation.

As for working at the office, 31 percent of Juneau workers were not in their cubicles: Many State workers were staying home, in spite of the statements made in a lawsuit by ASFCME CEO Jake Metcalfe.

Judge denies state employee union’s request for instant restraining order

Ketchikan, an early hot spot of COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, was also solidly adhering to the stay-home orders.

On the other end of the scale, Kenai residents were the least likely to stay home, followed by the Mat-Su.

View the entire report for all Alaska communities where the tracking is taking place at this link.

Anchorage:

  • Retail and recreation: -20%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: +9%
  • Workplace: -29%

Fairbanks:

  • Retail and recreation: -13%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: +4
  • Workplace: -17%

Juneau:

  • Retail and recreation: -52%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: -24%
  • Workplace: -31%

Kenai:

  • Retail and recreation: +6%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: +27%
  • Workplace: -16%

Ketchikan:

  • Retail and recreation: -32%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: -38%
  • Workplace: -24%

Mat-Su:

  • Retail and recreation: +2%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: +17%
  • Workplace: -19%

The tracking reports were developed to be helpful “while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and protecting people’s privacy. No personally identifiable information, like an individual’s location, contacts or movement, is made available at any point,” Google said.

Nationwide, the average variance off of the baseline looks like:

  • Retail and recreation: -34%
  • Grocery and pharmacy: -4%
  • Workplace: -29%

The reports are created with aggregated, anonymized sets of data from users who enabled the “Location History” setting on their smart phone, which is usually off by default. People who have “Location History” turned on can turn it off at any time from theirGoogle Account and can delete Location History data directly from their Timeline, the company said.

To get the latest report, visit this link.

Juneau winning census count while Wasilla shuns the task

Suzanne Downing
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27

PEOPLE MOVED TO MAT-SU, BUT POWER WILL SHIFT VIA CENSUS

Juneau is the top city in Alaska so far for responding to the U.S. Census, ensuring that as redistricting goes ahead next year, the Democrat stronghold will retain as much power as possible, while Wasilla may give up some of its power.

That’s because Wasilla is doing the worst of the major communities in terms of its response to the census — only 44 percent of Wasilla households have responded so far, compared with nearly 58 percent of Juneauites.

In fact, liberal Juneau and increasingly liberal-voting Anchorage are doing the best in the race to be counted. Both areas of the state have actually lost population, while Wasilla, Palmer and the rest of the Mat-Su have gained households in recent years.

But the federal government won’t know that has occurred if Valley residents choose not to participate in the count.

The U.S. Census dashboard allows visitors to patrol the progress of the decennial count of Americans.

The top community in the country for Census response is North River, North Dakota, with a 100 percent response, while Coffman Cove, Alaska is at the bottom of communities, with only a 1 percent response rate. The Aleutians and Northwest Arctic are below 5 percent, according to information on the dashboard.

To date, fewer than 39 percent of Alaskans have responded, which means towns like Juneau and Sitka could retain distinct political advantages over those such as Ketchikan to the south, which currently has a mere 44 percent response rate, and rural communities, which are proving hard to count, as they have been in censuses past.

J.C. Penney to shutter 200 stores in bankruptcy

Suzanne Downing
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6
J.C. Penney to shutter 200 stores in bankruptcy

HASN’T SAID IF ANCHORAGE STORES AMONG THOSE TO CLOSE

J.C. Penney will file for bankruptcy next week and start closing approximately 200 of it stores.

Recently, Neiman Marcus and J.Crew filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows businesses to stiff some creditors.

Penney is the remaining anchor store in the Fifth Avenue Mall in Anchorage, after Nordstrom closed last year.

The company did not say if Anchorage’s store would be among the 200 that will be shuttered, but with downtown Anchorage’s economy struggling under various economic perils, it appears likely. Nordstrom last year decided to not renew its lease with the Municipality of Anchorage, which owns that property.

The Anchorage store has been closed temporarily, under state and municipal mandates that shuttered hundreds of businesses in March and April.

Penney, which opened 118 years ago, has about 850 stores and is based in Texas.

Alaskans pitched in, saved Ammo-Can Coffee. Now, tonight is ‘open mic’

Suzanne Downing
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17
Alaskans pitched in, saved Ammo-Can Coffee. Now, tonight is ‘open mic’

MUST READ ALASKA READERS RAISED $8,000 TO KEEP IT OPEN

Ammo-Can Coffee shop in Soldotna has been able able to weather the COVID-19 shut-down storm, thanks to hundreds of Alaskans who pitched in to help the Floyd family business.

Tonight, (Saturday, May 9), will be the first jam and open-mic session since the shutdown. It starts at 7 pm, and the business is now open regular hours, with regular table service 6 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, and 7:30 am to 11 pm on Saturdays. The coffee shop is located at 35559 Kenai Spur Hwy.

“We’re open, we’re having folks sign in at the door to comply with the ‘reservation required’ mandate, and we’ve got all the hand sanitizer that was sent to us from all over Alaska,” Jason Floyd said.

He added that Ammo-Can is following the state mandates and hopes people will turn out for music night because it’s summer on the Kenai Peninsula, and Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce has declared every business, large and small, open and “essential.” Businesses are ready to return to some semblance of normal, he said.

Kenai Borough Mayor Pierce: ‘All workers essential, Kenai Peninsula welcomes you’

Last month, Must Read Alaska readers pitched in during a GoFundMe.com campaign to help save the coffee shop from having to close after state mandates shuttered all restaurants, except for take out, and then said they could only open if they had hand sanitizer at the door.

That was when hand sanitizer could not be purchased in small communities in Alaska, leading Jason Floyd to wonder if he would be able to stay in business. For businesses like his on the Kenai Peninsula, summer is the season to make enough to stretch through the long, quiet winters.

Too much of a good thing? AmmoCan Coffee drenched in hand sanitizer donations

But with the $8,300 raised by the GoFundMe campaign, the Floyds were able to get caught up on their shop’s rent and other bills. They also welcomed the delivery of dozens of bottles of hand sanitizer from friends and well-wishers, including Ken McCarty of Chugiak, who flew a supply in for the coffee shop all the way from the Birchwood Airport north of Anchorage, shown in the story above.

Still, the state economy is on its knees, and business at the coffee shop is not exactly buzzing yet. It’s going to take a while for all businesses in Alaska to regain their footing, and it’s a process that might take years for some.

The Save Ammo-Can Coffee GoFundMe campaign will close in three days. All of the funds that have been sent for the Floyds have been remitted, except for $100, which will be mailed along with any final donations made between now and Tuesday.

How government mandates have brought one Alaska business to brink of disaster

Jason Floyd said that people can also help by giving Ammo-Can Coffee and other small businesses by giving a favorable review on TripAdviser if they like the products and service they get. Every gesture, big and small, has made a difference to his family’s future, he said.

Death by COVID — or not?

Suzanne Downing
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39
Death by COVID — or not?

ARE ALASKA DEATHS MISREPORTED? REP. VANCE WANTS ANSWERS

When Donald VanBuren died at South Peninsula Hospital, his death was listed as a COVID-19 death.

It turns out, the neighbors in Anchor Point knew better: The 90-year-old was dying with a body riddled with cancer and kidney failure. And yet, a test for COVID-19 came back positive, and so COVID-19 it is, at least on his death certificate.

VanBuren lived among a small settlement of homes down a dead-end road in Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula, and his neighbors kept an eye on him and helped him as much as he would allow, which wasn’t much. He had hardly any interaction with people recently, except a caregiver, who has tested negative for the coronavirus, according to sources.

To the neighbors’ knowledge, he has no family in the state, and mainly he just kept to himself as cancer took its toll. It appears he has distant relatives in other states, and once owned a business called Anchor Point Supply, but he’s been sick for some time and living alone.

Rep. Sarah Vance has called for an inquiry as to why VanBuren’s passing was listed as a COVID-19 death, when everyone in the area knew he was dying, and his only coronavirus symptom was “fatigue.” Neighbors say he was fatigued with cancer and kidney failure and plain-old “old age.”

Vance says that with no family around to raise questions, and with medical privacy laws as they are, the community is left to wonder what happened that made this death uniquely COVID, since he doesn’t seem to have contracted it from anyone.

Vance has written to the State’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink to ask for answers about the true cause of VanBuren’s death.

“What is the difference between dying with COVID-19 and dying of/from COVID-19?” Vance asked Zink in her letter. “What guidelines do physicians have in attributing the cause of death to COVID-19?”

She also wants to know if Alaska’s hospitals are being financially rewarded for reporting deaths attributed to the coronavirus, and what the state’s role is in confirming the information.

The matter came to light on Facebook, when a woman who lives nearby wrote that VanBuren had been dying of cancer and that she believes the death has been wrongly reported as a COVID-19 death.

“Just want this to be clear. I know this for a fact. It is not hearsay,” the neighbor wrote. “They tested him at the hospital, even though he had no symptoms, and he tested positive. But he died due to cancer and kidney failure.”

VanBuren was the 10th Alaskan to die whose death was attributed to COVID-19. Two of those deaths occurred while Alaskans were out of state, and the other eight died in Alaska. But if one of those deaths is not truly from COVID-19, it would be a reporting inaccuracy rate of 12.5 percent, something Rep. Vance believes deserves closer scrutiny.

Across the country, questions have been asked, but few answers have been satisfactory about why some people who are dying, and yet test positive for COVID-19, are listed as deaths from the coronavirus.

The federal guidance for those filling out death certificates specifies:  “COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to the death.” 

Have they no shame?

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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27
Have they no shame?

By ART CHANCE

I had to get married to get my checkbook balanced, but I knew enough about the Executive Budget Act and State budgeting processes to ask questions and call BS.

My knowledge is dated, but my experience in dealing with the State is that dated knowledge is better because these days the State mostly runs on the “this is how we’ve always done it, principle.” Few seem to know or care whether or not that way is legal.

I’ve never believed that going to Legislative Budget and Audit for disbursement of the CARES Act subsidy money was appropriate.

I always viewed the Revised Program – Legislation or RP-L process as a way to move money between existing appropriations, not a way to make appropriations.

Maybe somebody is thinking my way, in that LB&A moved to act on CARES money to existing appropriations to State agencies. But now Rep. Chris Tuck wants a special session to consider the distribution to other entities.

Or maybe it is something very sinister.

First, a special session isn’t necessary because the Legislature is in Session already. That said, if they’re thinking clearly, the Legislature could adjourn and either move itself to special session or have the governor call a special session, in such a way that only a clearly delineated subject can be considered by the Legislature.

Relations between the governor and the legislative majorities are so bad that it is unlikely they would give the governor the opportunity to call the session. Therefore, if there is to be a special session, the Legislature will call itself into session and the agenda will be CARES Act allocation and, maybe, veto overrides. They’ll probably throw the vetoes in so there can be some horse-trading with the governor over where the CARES Act money goes.

That brings us to the sinister scenario. The legislative majorities are the chattel properties of the public employee union racket, the education racket, and the healthcare racket.

A session about CARES Act money is going to be about whether the money goes to local government and small business or whether the money goes to the rackets that own the Legislature.

This legislative leadership really doesn’t care about the People of Alaska. They care about making sure that every dime of available revenue goes to the union racket, the education racket, and the publicly funded healthcare racket.

You who are not in that exclusive club can just go bankrupt and die. They really don’t care. They really have no shame.

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. 

Health care reimagined: Path to free market solution

Suzanne Downing
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0
Health care reimagined: Path to free market solution

Join Americans for Prosperity Health Policy Analyst, Charlie Katebi, and American Enterprise Institute Economist, Dr. Benedic Ippolito for a town hall healthcare discussion where they will take a look at healthcare through a re-imagined lens — the free market solutions. The event will take place via teleconference on May 13, at 12 pm.

Charlie Katebi

Charlie Katebi was a state government relations manager at The Heartland Institute from 2017 to 2019. His role included interacting with elected officials and staff, legislation tracking, and research and writing on various issues. Primarily he was responsible for proactively reaching out to lawmakers and allies in a dozen states to build Heartland’s presence as well as being another health care expert on staff.

Before joining Heartland, Charlie was a health care policy analyst at the Wyoming Liberty Group and also interned at the American Action Forum, FreedomWorks, and the Reason Foundation on issues ranging from regulatory policy to pension reform. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia.

Benedic Ippolito is a resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where his research focuses on public finance and health economics. He studies health care financing, the pharmaceutical market and its regulations, and the effect of health care costs on the personal finances of Americans.

Dr. Benedic Ippolito

Dr. Ippolito has been published in a variety of leading peer-reviewed academic and policy journals. These include the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Health Affairs, Tax Notes, and the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Tax Policy and the Economy. He also regularly writes for broader audiences, and his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Health Affairs Blog, and STAT, among others. He has also testified before Congress.

Ippolito has a PhD and an MS in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA in economics and mathematics from Emory University.

Sign up for the Zoom town hall here.

COVID-19 update: Three today, none yesterday

Suzanne Downing
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15
COVID-19 update: Three today, none yesterday

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services today announced three new cases of COVID-19 in Anchorage. This brings the total case count to 377. There were no cases reported on Thursday in Alaska.

The three cases reflect data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on May 7 that were posted on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub. 

Of the new cases, all three are female. One is aged 20-29; one is aged 60-69 and one is aged 70-79.

There have been a total of 38 hospitalizations and 10 deaths with no new hospitalizations or deaths reported yesterday.

Recovered cases now total 305, including 14 new recovered cases recorded yesterday. A total of 25,473 tests have been conducted. There are 10 deaths associated with COVID-19 in Alaska, although two of them were Alaskans who died out of state, and at least one of them may have been an elderly man already dying of cancer, according to a neighbor:

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