As anticipated, the Alaska Supreme Court has agreed to allow the Recall Dunleavy group to have its question put on a statewide ballot, if the group succeeds in getting signatures on its petition.
The court said in a filing today that “the conclusions of the superior court’s January 14, 2020 order that are challenged in this appeal are AFFIRMED.” And it said a full explanation would come later.
Justice Stowers dissented from the ruling in part, “regarding grounds for recall numbered 3(a) (separation of powers) and 4 (mistaken veto), and I therefore dissent in part.”
The ruling is a victory for the Recall Dunleavy Committee and means they can collect signatures with confidence that their recall question will, in fact, be put before voters. They have reportedly collected 34,900 of the 71,252 signatures needed for a recall vote.
Wednesday night’s Mat-Su School Board meeting was dedicated to hearing from those who oppose the removal of five books from the English curriculum at district high schools, including The Great Gatsby.
Most who testified were from the borough, but notably, the ACLU of Alaska gave prepared testimony opposing the board’s action from a newcomer from New York City.
Triada Stampas, the policy director for the ACLU of Alaska, told the board that the ACLU has a long history of opposing censorship of any kind.
“From books and radio to film, television, and the Internet, we have consistently fought to make sure Americans have the right to say, think, read, and write whatever they want, without fear of reprisal. The First Amendment does not allow the government to get rid of or limit the use of books or ideas because they are controversial, unpopular, or offensive. Opposition to censorship is especially important in our schools, because students do not lose their constitutional rights ‘at the schoolhouse gate,'” Stampas told the board.
Stampas worked for the New York City Food Bank for over 10 years before taking a job in Alaska with the ACLU. She is a Harvard graduate with a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University.
Her testimony, like 90 percent of the other testimony given to the board on Wednesday evening, asked for reinstatement of the following works of fiction: The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, and The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
All of the books have their place in literature, but even liberal literary critics find The Great Gatsby to be lacking in merit.
“The book is short, easy to read, and full of low-hanging symbols, the most famous of which really do hang low over Long Island: the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock; the unblinking eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, that Jazz Age Dr. Zizmor. But the real appeal of the book, one assumes, is what it lets us teach young people about the political, moral, and social fabric of our nation. Which raises the question: To our students, and to ourselves, exactly what kind of Great Gatsby Package are we selling?,” writes Kathryn Schulz in New York Magazine, a liberal publication.
“It is an impressive accomplishment. And yet, apart from the restrained, intelligent, beautifully constructed opening pages and a few stray passages thereafter—a melancholy twilight walk in Manhattan; some billowing curtains settling into place at the closing of a drawing-room door—Gatsbyas a literary creation leaves me cold. Like one of those manicured European parks patrolled on all sides by officious gendarmes, it is pleasant to look at, but you will not find any people inside,” Schulz argued.
“Indeed, The Great Gatsby is less involved with human emotion than any book of comparable fame I can think of. None of its characters are likable. None of them are even dislikable, though nearly all of them are despicable. They function here only as types, walking through the pages of the book like kids in a school play who wear sashes telling the audience what they represent: OLD MONEY, THE AMERICAN DREAM, ORGANIZED CRIME. It is possible, of course, to deny your readers access to the inner lives of your characters and still write a psychologically potent book: I give you Blood Meridian. But to do that, you yourself must understand your characters and conceive of them as human,” she wrote.
“Fitzgerald fails at that, most egregiously where it most matters: in the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. This he constructs out of one part nostalgia, four parts narrative expedience, and zero parts anything else—love, sex, desire, any kind of palpable connection. Fitzgerald himself (who otherwise expressed, to anyone who would listen, a dazzled reverence for his own novel) acknowledged this flaw. Of the great, redemptive romance on which the entire story is supposed to turn, he admitted, “I gave no account (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relations between Gatsby and Daisy.”
Instead of understanding his own characters, Fitzgerald seemed to be preoccupied with “precision-engineering his plot, chiefly, and putting in overtime at the symbol factory,” Shulz said.
But the ACLU of Alaska wants it featured in English classes, because if the school board is opposed to it, then the ACLU will favor it, regardless of its merit.
It’s time to retire The Great Gatsby as a “taught” book in high school. Thousands of other titles are more worthy, and to lean on this one is laziness on the part of educators. (This is a point that the author of this blog tried to make to Mr. Ed Ferguson, high school English literature teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School, many years ago, without success.)
The Mat-Su School Board will continue with testimony two weeks from now, at its next regularly scheduled meeting. Meanwhile, readers should feel free to discuss the merits of The Great Gatsby or any of the other works in question, in the comment section below. There will not be a quiz.
In a short video released just before the weekend, Kenai Peninsula Mayor Charlie Pierce declared all workers “essential” and said the Kenai Peninsula is open for visitors.
He gave a “shout-out” to the people of Alaska. “We’re essential down here. Everyone of us. All of our large businesses, our small businesses, we’re all open,” Pierce said, as he stood by his truck.
“If you want a place to go, you want a beautiful drive, there’s not a prettier drive than going along the Turnagain Arm, and heading south. You get to that sign that says, “Welcome to the Kenai Peninsula, well you are welcome here.”
He went on to remind people to practice what they’ve been taught about social distancing, and hand-washing, but reiterated that Alaskans know how to do that.
Pierce is the first mayor of any Alaska community to get himself on record and to welcome visitors from around the state to get out and enjoy summer with the bold message that “all Alaskan workers are essential.”
The former lieutenant governor of Alaska has died. He was 77. He suffered from a heart attack and passed away today, Must Read Alaska has learned.
Mallott was lieutenant governor after running for governor in 2014, winning the Democrat primary, and then making a deal with Bill Walker — Walker would run as governor and Mallott would be his lieutenant.
That deal was signed off on by the Alaska Democratic Party, and the two went on to win over incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell in the General Election.
Mallott resigned from office in October of 2018 after reports of inappropriate activities emerged during the final weeks leading up to the general election. Commissioner of Health and Social Services Valerie Davidson was hastily sworn in as lieutenant governor and Walker withdrew from contention for re-election, although his name appeared on the ballot.
Mallott had been the mayor of Yakutat, the mayor of Juneau, the president of the Alaska Federation of Natives and the executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund. He had served on the Alaska Airlines board and the board of Sealaska Corporation, for which he served as CEO and board chairman.
The story of how he fell from power is still shrouded in secrecy. Gov. Walker, upon announcing Mallott’s decision to resign, said the story was Mallott’s to tell. It was one that he took to his grave, although there is a young woman somewhere in Alaska who knows the full story.
EARLY YEARS
Mallott was born on April 6, 1943 in Yakutat to J.B. and Emma Mallott. His father was a storekeeper who had a general store in the family home. Mallott spent most of his youth in Yakutat and then graduated from Sheldon Jackson High School, before attending Western Washington State College.
He became mayor of Yakutat at a young age, after the death of his father, who had been mayor. He left college to serve in that role, and then went to work for Gov. Bill Egan. After Egan’s defeat in 1966, Mallott returned to Yakutat and served on the city council. He also served as a special assistant to U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel. Upon Egan’s reelection in 1970, Mallott went to work for him again in a function that was eventually absorbed into the old Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs when the legislature created the department the following year. Mallott became the department’s first commissioner, serving until 1974.
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said that up to 13 weeks of extended benefits will be available to eligible workers receiving regular unemployment insurance benefits beginning the week of May 3, 2020.
Alaska’s insured unemployment rate exceeded the threshold to trigger the extended benefits for at least 13 weeks. Unemployed workers who exhaust their regular UI benefits may be eligible for an additional 8-13 weeks of benefits. The Division of Employment and Training Services will notify potentially eligible workers by mail.
Individuals with remaining balances of regular UI will continue to draw regular benefits until those benefits are exhausted. Upon exhaustion, workers will be able to submit an application for EB to continue their benefit payment.
Individuals wishing to apply for extended benefits should contact their nearest UI Claim Center at (907) 269-4700 in Anchorage, (907) 451-2871 in Fairbanks, (907) 465-5552 in Juneau or toll free at (888) 252-2557 from all other areas.
Call it the “New York City coronavirus.” In Alaska, COVID-19 didn’t originate in Seattle.
A report detailed in theNew York Timessays that 80 percent of the infections of COVID-19 in Alaska are from the strain of the virus that came through New York City.
It’s a different strain than the one that swept through Seattle. According to the report, no case of coronavirus in Alaska have been associated with the Washington state strain.
The coronavirus infection was so widespread in New York by early March, that the city was the primary source of new infections in many parts of the country. Thousands of travelers going to and from the city took the infections across the country before communities and states knew it was there and had started setting social distancing limits.
The findings are drawn from geneticists’ tracking signature mutations of the virus, travel histories of infected people, and models of the outbreak, the newspaper said.
States such as Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, also saw most of their cases come from New York City travelers. Idaho, Ohio, Iowa, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, and Massachusetts were similar to Alaska in having no cases that were part of the Seattle strain.
The damage has already been done. When Must Read Alaska reached John (his name is changed to protect him from government retaliation), he was on a conference call with his partners, trying to figure out how or when to reopen their signature Anchorage restaurant.
Or, more accurately, if they can reopen at all.
The new “Phase 2” regulations, announced by the Dunleavy Administration on Wednesday, were leaving restaurant owners scratching their heads and peering into their now-empty wallets.
The emergency regulations allow restaurants to open at 50 percent capacity, or no more than 50 customers, but the required distancing of tables at 10-feet distances puts a similar cap on the number of customers they can seat. The math isn’t working for a lot of restaurants and the net result is they can’t open — there would not be enough business to staff up the downtown Anchorage dining establishment. They can seat no more people than they could under the old restrictions, John said.
What’s more, the restaurant owner said, the loans from the federal government, known as Paycheck Protection Program loans, only apply to wages and rent. What he needs is to completely restock the pantry with fish, meats and vegetables, dairy and other fresh ingredients that make the restaurant an experience. This is not about throwing pizzas or flipping a previously frozen burger.
When he closed the restaurant under government orders over a month ago, everything had to be thrown away, frozen, or given away. Now, John wondered, who in the restaurant industry will have the money to get the engine of the restaurants going again?
Like other independent restauranteurs, John and his partners were in the middle of deciding if they can reopen in Phase II of the “open” economy in Alaska. Many others he knows won’t, he said. The regulations change too quickly, and the governor could reverse his policy and shut everything down at the drop of a hat. The ability to open at all is now in peril.
Another restaurant owner in Anchorage said she’s terrified of the state government pulling her liquors license if there’s any infraction, no matter how small, of the emergency regulations. She, too, won’t be opening during Phase II, because she’s watched as the state and municipality’s emergency orders changed — sometimes by the hour.
The South Anchorage restaurant owner doesn’t want to risk purchasing the groceries for her establishment, only to be shut down again by the government with just a few hours notice.
An Anchorage man who owns a bouncy-gym for children says his prospects are bleak. He doesn’t know if he’ll make it, and every loan and grant he has applied for has not come through.
In Skagway, a mechanic we’ll call Joe said 100 percent of his work for six months of the year is repairing tour buses. Not a single bus is running, and the town is a ghost town. He doesn’t know if he’ll make it.
Skagway’s Broadway Street has become a ghost town.
Even the Skagway grocery store and hardware store, both considered essential businesses under the shutdown, have lost enormous revenue because the population of Skagway is still under 1,000. It will not grow to three times its winter size this summer as the workforce moves in to manage and serve the million-plus tourists that were expected before the cruise industry collapsed.
Skagway is so empty, with the stores on Broadway still boarded up, you could run down the street naked unwitnessed by a single soul.
Whether the federal funding that is sitting in the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee that has been set aside for businesses will be enough is also in grave doubt. The committee chairman, Rep. Chris Tuck, says he wants the governor to adopt the Tuck plan for putting money out into communities. The committee has sat on the money for over two weeks.
By now, losses at the first restaurant are past $1 million, and the second restaurant is half that. There’s only $290 million in that state pot for business loans, and Tuck wants it all out the door as grants.
However the funds get out the door — by loans or by politically-charged grants — they won’t even begin to cover the losses in the restaurant sector, much less for mechanics, photo studios, bouncy gyms, and hair salons.
Restaurants have been closed for so long now, some of their staff have left the state, while others are actually getting by on unemployment benefits, with the federal $600 bonus having given a boost for some workers who won’t come in to work at at empty restaurant, only to make pocket change in tips. For some, it’s more expensive to drive to work than it is to stay at home and scrape by on unemployment benefits.
What has unfolded is a scenario where these restaurants cannot open because they cannot seat enough customers, and they’ve lost so much money that they can’t pay their past-due bills and buy the food they need. No supplier is going to extend them credit.
“All of us have to pay the vendors that we owed when we closed last month,” John said. “The product has to come out of our own wallets because government funding so far won’t pay for it and it’s the largest expense we have. This is hindering a lot of companies from being able to reopen, because the cost of restarting the car is more than we have in our pockets.”
GAMESMANSHIP? REP. CHRIS TUCK WANTS SPECIAL SESSION
Rep. Chris Tuck, Democrat chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, made a game-day decision on Wednesday and canceled the committee meeting he had scheduled several days prior — it was a meeting in which he was likely to be outvoted on getting federal funding out to Alaska municipalities and businesses.
He had already blocked progress on Friday on things like $290 million for small-business relief, and $586 million for support of local governments.
The response from Republican lawmakers was shock. The Alaska treasury has had the funds and the governor’s plan to get it out to where it belongs for more than two weeks. Businesses are starting to close permanently because the aid is too slow in coming.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday said the funds came to the state on April 20, and he had the plan to distribute them in front of the legislative committee on April 21.
But Tuck wanted a more detailed plan for the business and municipal spending. The Office of Management and Budget gave it to him the next day — April 22.
But last Friday when the committee met, it only acted on the funds that would go to state agencies. The grants and loans to businesses and municipalities are being held up by Tuck, who wants the entire Legislature to convene, possibly to try to politicize the funding. Tuck is demanding that the governor call a special session, although the Legislature is technically still in session until May 21 because it has not gaveled out “sine die.”
Fifteen days have passed since the committee has had the plan.
House Minority Leader Lance Pruitt said the committee’s continued delays on COVID-19 and CARES Act relief funding is unconscionable.
“The laundry list of Alaskan businesses shutting down is growing every day. Governor Dunleavy has laid out a plan to get money into Alaskans’ hands as expeditiously as possible. The Legislative Budget & Audit Committee only needs to approve this distribution to get money to Alaskans immediately.”
“Businesses are shutting down, Alaskans are struggling, we don’t have weeks to figure this out. The RPL process is the fastest way to get relief into the hands of Alaskans,” Pruitt said. “LB&A can accelerate this process; we join other Legislators in calling for swift action.”
The Legislature is currently under the 24-hour rule, allowing LB&A to meet at any time to approve the funding, he said.
“Personal agendas need to be set aside, Alaskans need to know they are the priority. No more delays; approve the money now,” Rep. Lance Pruitt
“We need this money in the hands of these entities now. We’re asking that the Legislature, the LB&A committee, move quickly on this,” Gov. Dunleavy said during a press availability on Wednesday.
Other Republicans observed that this is a “consequence moment.”
“The reason Tuck has control over the funds is because Republicans like Representatives Jennifer Johnston, Gary Knopp, Chuck Kopp, and Louise Stutes, made Tuck powerful. Power is a dangerous thing,” said a legislative aide on condition on anonymity. “Tuck now has the lives of all Alaskans in his hands.”
Tuck represents District 23, Anchorage. Connie Dougherty, a Republican, has filed to oppose him in November.
The entire world of news writers seems to think the Mat-Su School District Board has banned five famous books.
School board members have heard from as far away as New York City about the wrongheadedness of their actions. Of course, they only removed the books from the instructed curriculum, not the school libraries. News organizations as far away as London and as close as the Mat-Su have written about the vote taken on April 22 to exclude books from the high school English curriculum.
Tonight, the board will take up an agenda item placed by two school board members who didn’t favor the removal of the books. Board members Sarah Welton and Kelsey Trimmer want to take public testimony on the following books, and the reasons they are no longer part of taught material:
“Catch-22” – racial slurs, scenes of violence against women.
“The Invisible Man” – language, rape and incest.
“The Things They Carried” — profanity and sexual references.
“The Great Gatsby” — language and sexual references.
In accordance with Board policy and Administrative Regulation 6144, controversial issues may continue to be discussed and addressed in the classroom under certain conditions, says Board Chairman Tom Bergey.
“It is the Superintendent or designee (usually the school principal), who has “the authority to judge whether the [those] conditions are being met,” Bergey said.
The regulation provides the Superintendent or designee authority to approve books not listed on a recommended reading list. Board action on April 22 did not alter this authority, he said.
“The School Board did not ban the books, did not preclude their use by teachers, and did not remove the books from school libraries,” Bergey said.
