Brian Endle, running for Mat-Su Borough Assembly in the Nov. 5 election, has just landed a huge endorsement — Gov. Michael Dunleavy.
Endle is running for Assembly District 1 in a crowded field that includes:
BUSH, J. Bruce – Republican, who previously served District 1 on Assembly.
ENDLE, Brian – Republican, Region 2 Alaska Republicans and Alaska Republican Assembly have endorsed Endle.
HALE, Tim – Undeclared affiliation, but endorsed by the Democratic Party, and three union PACS, with $500-$1,000 each. Hale has raised $22,000 to Brian Endle’s $10,000. (APOC report linked here). Hale’s donors include Casey Steinau, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party, and Al Gross, the Democratic Party’s choice for U.S. Senate. This indicates the Democrats are serious about taking this seat.
MILLER, Ryan – Republican.
Dunleavy said in his endorsement: “Unlike some candidates who disguise themselves as ‘conservative’ only to change stripes once in office, I know Brian Endle to be a solid conservative who has the courage of his convictions and can be counted on under pressure.”
Endle ran for the seat in 2016, but Jim Sykes, one of the founders of the Green Party in Alaska, won as the incumbent. He’s term-limited now.
This marks the first time Dunleavy has endorsed a local candidate since he won as governor last November.
The normalization of cross-dressing, and the teaching of “gender-fluidity” is returning to the Loussac Public Library on Saturday, Oct. 19, when drag queens will greet children and help them get comfortable with men dressed as burlesque women, reading books to them about princess boys. All sponsored by Anchorage taxpayers, of course.
“Come dressed in your fanciest and most fabulous clothes! Or your scariest and spookiest costume. Join fabulous drag queens and kings for stories and songs. Come celebrate reading, creativity, and being the best you! Co -sponsored by Identity, Inc.” the notice for the event reads.
Drag Queen Story Hour is a national organization and movement to teach children about gender fluidity, or the concept that you can be whatever gender you want to be. At events in other parts of the country, the drag queens help children choose their own drag names, circle their “pronouns,” and other “dragtivities.”
Later on Saturday, there will be a separate drag queen story hour event for teens 13 and older and adults of all ages, who can party together in gender-bending costumes. And while costumes are encouraged, the library asks that they be “public appropriate.”
“By popular request we’ve added a second Drag Storytime to our schedule! This time we welcome TEENS AND ADULTS to come listen to a great story read by our local drag kings and queens. Content will be geared to this more mature audience. Costumes and dress up encouraged – please be public appropriate.”http://bit.ly/APLteendragstorytime
A 38-year-old man from Wenatchee has been identified as the passenger who died when PenAir Flight 3296 from Anchorage ran off the end of the runway in Unalaska on Thursday at about 5:41 pm, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
The plane was on its second approach as it attempted to land, coming to rest on some jetty rocks at the edge of Captain’s Bay. Although the aircraft didn’t catch fire, either a propeller or debris came through the port side and killed passenger David Allan Oltman. He is the husband of a teacher in Wenatchee and he is a father.
The Unalaska airport runway is not damaged, and will be reopened as soon as the PenAir plane is pulled off the rocks at the end of the runway.
The State of Alaska owns the Unalaska Airport, along with about 240 other airports in Alaska.
The FAA cameras at the airport that point toward the runway have not been operational for at least 24 hours. That will be one of the many data points that investigators look at when they begin to survey the accident. The National Transportation and Safety Board is sending nine people to the scene.
The runway was not damaged and will be open as soon as the plane is removed, the City of Unalaska reports, and the road at the end of the runway will also open soon.
It is with deep sorrow that we have confirmed that one of our critically injured passengers from PenAir Flight 3296 passed away last night.
“On behalf of PenAir, Ravn Air Group and all our employees throughout the company, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and loved ones of our passenger who passed away,” said Dave Pflieger, President RavnAir Group.
Our entire team is devastated by this tragic incident. The thoughts of all 1,300 of our employees are with those who were hurt or affected.
(Randy Batten photo from social media). Original story:
Dan Brouillette, the deputy Energy Secretary, is President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Brouillette visited Alaska in August with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who showed him operations on the North Slope, and toured remote villages working to reduce their cost of energy.
“This was a great opportunity for Dan to visit more of Alaska, to see firsthand how we contribute to our nation’s energy security, and to learn about the innovation taking place throughout our state,” Sen. Murkowski said at the time.
“I thank the Deputy Secretary for making the trip, for spending so much time here, and for everything he and his team are doing to form a strong partnership between the Department and Alaska. This was a truly wonderful couple of days that we appreciate and will build on,” she said in August.
During the visit, Murkowski and Brouillette visited Kwigillingok and Kongiganak, rural villages in western Alaska that are transitioning their microgrids off diesel to more affordable and sustainable energy.
With abundantly available wind energy, Kwigillingok is now not using diesel for at least one-third of the year, while Kongiganak’s wind penetration for the electrical grid is between 30 and 40 percent.
Both villages also have battery storage to use excess wind energy to power thermal heaters, further reducing diesel consumption and local heating costs. Brouillette was able to see that first hand.
While in Alaska, Brouillette participated in the Alaska Federation of Natives’ roundtable at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a panel that focused on “Northernmost Border Security.” The roundtable included policy discussions about how diminishing sea ice in the Arctic is providing greater access to the region and its resources.
Trump announced his decision this morning, thanking Perry for “the outstanding job he has done.”
“At the same time, I am pleased to nominate Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette to be the new Secretary of Energy. Dan’s experience in the sector is unparalleled. A total professional, I have no doubt that Dan will do a great job!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The choice of Brouillette means the “energy dominance” agenda set by the Secretary Perry during his tenure will likely stay on track without a hiccup. Under Trump, oil, gas, and coal have been the core of the Make America Great Again agenda.
Brouillette, 58, was a vice president of Ford Motor Company, where he led the automaker’s domestic policy teams and served on its North American Operating Committee.
He was chief of staff to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs from 2001 to 2003. In addition, he is a former state energy regulator, having served as a member of the Louisiana State Mineral and Energy Board from 2013 to 2016.
Brouillette is a U.S. Army veteran and has been married for 28 years. He and his wife have nine children.
Brian Steven Smith, 48, had been in custody since Oct. 8 for the gruesome murder of Kathleen Henry, an Alaska Native woman. He has pled not guilty to charges associated with that crime.
But oddly, he has confessed to a second murder.
Anchorage police announced Thursday that Smith is also the man who killed 53-year-old Veronica Rosaline Abouchuk, whose body was dumped at Mile 4.5 of the Old Glenn Highway in 2018, and was found in April of this year, a bullet hole in her skull.
Police had put out a Nixle alert for Abouchuk in July of 2019, saying her family had not seen her since July of 2018. “Abouchuk is homeless … and was last seen at Bean’s Café in October 2018. Family’s efforts to locate Abouchuk have been unsuccessful,” the Nixle report said.
Investigators drew the confession from Smith while interrogating him for the murder of Henry, the 30-year-old Native woman from Eek, whom police say Smith brutally beat and killed on Sept. 4, all while filming and photographing his carnage. Henry’s body was dumped near Mile 108 Seward Highway, south of Anchorage.
The digital card that was turned into authorities had 12 video and 39 photo images on it documenting Henry’s death. Police are saying it was found “on the street” by someone. The digital card was labeled “homicide at midtown Marriott” in Anchorage. The person who “found the digital card on the street” in Fairview took it to police on Sept. 30, according to the official account.
Police knew they had a killer, and they knew there was a dead woman out there somewhere. But where?
Henry’s body showed up on Oct. 2 near the Rainbow Trailhead along Seward Highway south of Anchorage. She had been sexually assaulted and was battered, like the one documented on the digital card turned in two days earlier.
The photos and videos show Henry fighting for her life and Smith could be seen stomping her throat and strangling her, laughing, screaming, and torturing her, according to officials.
But police knew that voice on the video tape. They recognized Smith and his distinctive South African accent because they were already investigating him for something else — something they haven’t yet revealed, yet something that involves his recognizable accent.
It could be his racist rants on Facebook that had drawn the attention of authorities. Smith, if his social media posts are any indication, has white supremacist leanings and an axe to grind against black South Africans and other persons of color.
Or detectives may have already suspected him in connection with other victims. At age 48, Smith is old enough to have a trail of bodies behind him from here to his homeland in South Africa. Rarely does a killer begin his gruesome beatings and killings in his mid-40s. There’s often a pattern of behavior.
Anchorage’s most notorious serial killer was Robert Hansen, a monster who preyed on and killed at least 17 women from 1971 to 1983. Police suspect there were more than 30 victims. Hansen, now known as the “Butcher Baker,” died in prison in 2014.
Israel Keyes was another serial killer who made his way to Alaska and used it as his base. He killed himself in prison in 2012, after a long career of rapes, kidnapping, arson, and murder across the United States. His last known victim was 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, a barista at a drive-through coffee stand in midtown Anchorage.
There are exceptions to the pattern theory. This summer in Anchorage, a teenager was killed by her alleged friends at the request of a 21-year-old man from out of state. None of the young perpetrators has yet been implicated in other murders.
Brian Smith’s past movements in South Africa and the United States have drawn the attention of Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization. The FBI is also providing assistance, and usually that means they’re alert to the possibility there could be victims in other states.
Smith, born near Queenstown, South Africa, immigrated to the U.S., married a former immigration officer, and became a citizen in September.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on Oct. 7. He was taken into custody at Ted Stevens International Airport on Oct. 8, as he returned from a trip Outside. Smith pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the Henry murder. He’ll be arraigned on the Abouchuk murder separately.
Both deceased women were known to work in the prostitution field, a dangerous line of work that predators use to find their next victims.
Congressman Don Young showed a tender side of himself on Thursday that sometimes Alaskans don’t see beneath his frontiersman exterior.
Young wrote on Facebook about his colleague, Congressman Elijah Cummings, who died at the age of 68:
“Early this morning we lost my dear friend, Congressman Elijah Cummings. Elijah was a good man, a strong advocate for his constituents, and he loved this institution and this country. Today the halls of Congress are emptier without him. May God bless him and his family,” Young wrote.
Young is very popular among members of the Congressional Black Caucus and has cordial relationships across the aisle with Democrats, even with those who have voted against Alaska’s interests, as Cummings has time and again.
Cummings, from Baltimore, Maryland, and Young, from Fort Yukon, Alaska, couldn’t be more different: Young is pro-Second Amendment, while Cummings was anti-gun. Young made sure that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge passed the House of Representatives several times (before also passing the Senate and being signed by a president). But Cummings voted against opening ANWR. Cummings also voted against the authorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
But there were things they agreed on in the 23 years that they served together in Congress.
In January, Young and Cummings introduced the Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Act — H.R. 1316 — to re-establish a National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations. The council has been on-again, off-again through the past few presidents. When active, it allows federal officials and labor officials to get together and talk through labor issues on a regular basis. And in April, when Cummings introduced H.R.2004, to ensure federal benefits for federal workers during shutdowns, Young signed on as a cosponsor.
Several commenters on Facebook disapproved of Young’s kind words and said Cummings didn’t deserve such praise because he fought for everything that seems counter to most Alaskans’ interests.
Cummings was born into a family of sharecroppers and became a civil rights leader, starting his fight for civil rights at age 11, when he was beat up by a mob of whites for trying to integrate a public swimming pool. He was placed into special education classes for slow learners, but credited four white teachers for pulling him out of those classes and convincing him he could learn. He went on to graduate from Howard University, and from the University of Maryland School of Law. He passed the Maryland Bar exam and practiced law for 19 years before running first for State House, and later for Congress.
Most of his constituents in Maryland’s 7th District are African-American and he has hero status in his district.
At the time of his death, he chaired one of the committees pursuing impeachment of President Donald Trump, the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He took over the committee in January; the previous chair was Republican Trey Gowdy. That committee will now be chaired by Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney, of New York.
As for what happens next in the mourning of Cummings, flags have been lowered and because he died in office, his body will likely rest in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved for some of the nation’s most eminent citizens.
EXCERPTS FROM GOV. DUNLEAVY’S ADDRESS, WHICH DELEGATES WERE NOT ABLE TO HEAR OVER THE PROTESTERS
Gov. Michael Dunleavy was allotted 15 minutes on Thursday to address the delegates at the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention in Fairbanks. He knew there would be protests, but he came anyway. The protesters came too, and jeered him openly during his remarks to the point where his words were drowned out. Here are some of his key points:
We must insist on better outcomes
“Increased funding, without demanding better outcomes, has not and will not improve the lives of Alaskans. We know things can be better and we must insist upon better outcomes. We must insist our children, women, and elders are safe. We must insist all Alaskans have better economic opportunities. And we must insist on better educational outcomes for our children.”
Processing backlogged sexual assault kits
“All backlogged sexual assault kits, including those collected decades ago, are scheduled to be processed no later than September 2021. A prosecutor and an investigator dedicated to cold cases have been hired to bring justice to families related to the previously unprocessed sexual assault kits.”
Troopers in rural Alaska
“In the last ten months, DPS has focused on increasing the number of Troopers in rural Alaska – More Troopers were hired in 2019 than in any year in the past decade… DPS will continue to aggressively work to increase the number of Troopers statewide with a focus on rural Alaska. We expect to hire 35 new Troopers in 2020 to fill the positions mentioned above.”
Continued support of the VPSO program
“We will also continue to support the VPSO program. We will have funding available in the budget to fund every vacant position that an employer needs to fill in the VPSO program, and we will continue to work with stakeholder groups to continually improve our public safety outcomes in rural Alaska. If there are recruits for the VPSO program, we will provide the funding to support those positions.”
Make tribal compacting for education a reality
“Families and local communities need to be directly involved, making educational decisions for children that are tribal members. My administration will be introducing a bill this coming legislative session that will make tribal compacting for education a reality. I look forward to working with tribes and lawmakers to craft legislation to put tribal compacting into law.”
Ensure the long-term protection of Power Cost Equalization
“Although the budget we put forward last year did in fact have funds appropriated for PCE, a legitimate concern was raised about the long-term protection of the PCE endowment. As a result, I am committed to working with Senator Hoffman, Representative Lincoln and other lawmakers to ensure the long-term protection of the PCE fund so that affordable electricity for rural Alaska is never in doubt.”
Commitment to work with all Alaskans in moving Alaska forward
“…over the past 10 months I have heard from many Alaskans from all over the state regarding the budget, programs, services, and the future of our great state. I want you to know that I have not just heard what you have had to say, but have appreciated the direct and at times difficult discussions that you have brought forth. There is no doubt that we still have difficult decisions ahead of us. But together we can solve these difficult issues confronting us. As your Governor, I am committed to incorporating your thoughts, advice, and counsel as we head into the next legislative session. I truly wish to work with you, and all Alaskans, to move this great state forward.”
Update: 9 am: One passenger has died in this crash, while nine others were injured. One person was medevaced to Seattle. According to Unalaska officials, the plane went off the runway after missing its first attempt at landing. The passenger’s name has not yet been released, but the death is believed to be from traumatic injuries caused by the crash.
The National Transportation and Safety Board has nine investigators enroute.
Unalaska Police, Fire and EMS personnel and other emergency responders arrived within five minutes of the event, which the city’s Public Safety Department said occurred about 5:45. Earlier reports set the time at 6 pm.
“Unalaska units set up incident command with state assets to manage the incident and assess life and safety issues. Once all safety concerns were identified and mitigated, EMS personnel extracted one patient from the aircraft and completed the evacuation of the remaining passengers. All 39 passengers and crew were accounted for.
“The Unalaska Fire Department transported seven patients to the Iliuliuk Clinic and four other patients were brought to the clinic by personal vehicle. Patient injuries ranged from minor to critical. Of the patients transported to the clinic, one was medevaced to Anchorage, and one died of traumatic injuries suffered in the crash. Next of kin has been notified.
“Law enforcement has secured the scene pending arrival of NTSB investigators, which may arrive as early as today. The runway and vehicle traffic through the area is shut down until further notice.”
Update 10:15 pm:
Alaska Airlines has established a toll-free hotline for anyone who believes they may have a family member or friend onboard. The telephone number, accessible from the United States and Canada, is 1-888-283-2153. A telephone number that’s accessible from Mexico is 001-877-542-6973.
PenAir Flight 3296 marketed by Alaska Airlines from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor, Alaska was involved in an incident during landing at 5:40 p.m. local time today.
There are 39 passengers and three crew members onboard. We’re still gathering information about the welfare of those onboard and the incident itself.
PenAir operates the Anchorage-Dutch Harbor service for Alaska with a Saab 2000 aircraft.
Flight 3296 departed Anchorage at 3:15 p.m. local time. As many as 10 individuals may be injured; people are off the plane and being cared for.
Original story:
A commercial aircraft was off the runway with its nose in the water at the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor Airport this evening. The incident occurred at about 6 pm. Alaska Department of Transportation Airport Rescue and Fire is responding. The airport is currently closed.
Early reports indicate that a high school swim team from Cordova was onboard. (Photo credit Patrick Crandall, from social media.)
Last December, Pen Air was purchased by Ravn. It appears this plane is a Pen Air Saab 2000-17. Pen Air in 2017 brought the Saab 2000s into its fleet. It was the first airline to use the plane on commercial routes.
This plane was manufactured in 1995, and has a turbo-prop engine.
The airport at Dutch Harbor/Unalaska has a runway that is less than 4,000 feet long, too short for Boeing 737s. PenAir operates flights to the Tom Madsen Airport on behalf of Alaska Airlines. The airport is owned by the Alaska Department of Transportation.
