Alaska Airlines is suspending its usual cancellation fees through March 12, in response to the COVID-19 virus and concerns travelers may have over their flight plans.
“Every day seems to bring new developments related to the coronavirus, and the uncertainty of the disease is unsettling. Our hearts go out to those around the world who’ve been impacted by the virus,” the company announced on its website. The policy applies to all fares, including the “Saver” fares that are normally not refundable.
“Starting today, Feb. 27, through March 12, 2020, we’ll suspend change and cancellation fees for new flight bookings for our guests who later decide not to travel because of concerns related to the virus,” Alaska Airlines said.
For flights booked prior to March 12, if you decide to change or cancel your trip, the company will give you full travel credit to fly for up to one year from the issuance of the credit. Fare differences apply. Visit alaskair.com for further details.
In addition, the airlines says it has updated some of its onboard procedures including avoiding having cups and bottles touch each other between passengers, and evaluating its deep cleaning procedures with input from the CDC.
Alaska’s State public health laboratories now have the ability to test for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
The new capacity is made possible by test kits provided to states by the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention to allow for rapid COVID-19 testing.
If a hospital or a health care provider suspects that a patient has novel coronavirus based on the CDC guidance, they should contact the Section of Epidemiology within the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. If DHSS epidemiologists determine that testing for COVID-19 is warranted, they will provide guidance on how to test and ship samples to the labs.
State public health labs in Anchorage and Fairbanks are able to test for COVID-19. Under most circumstances, initial test results should be available within 4-6 hours of specimen arrival at the laboratory. Personal health information will remain confidential, but the public will be notified if Alaska has a positive case of novel coronavirus.
“Alaska has had no cases of COVID-19 as yet,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Zink. “We’re grateful that we now have the capacity to conduct these tests in state, before any testing needed to be done.”
Providers can reach the Section of Epidemiology by calling (907) 269-8000 or (800) 478-0084 after hours.
The World Health Organization has now raised the risk assessment from high to “very high” for the virus.
Medical anti-viral masks have been out of stock in Anchorage pharmacies for three weeks. But overnight, the supply of hand-sanitizer gel in Anchorage has vanished from local shelves.
A survey of five chain stores in Anchorage came up with just one 2-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer. Store clerks said that over the past 24 hours their hand sanitizer inventory has been wiped out. They did not know when they were going to get more of the alcohol-based gel. Several drug stores still have a good supply of straight rubbing alcohol, however.
Several shoppers on Thursday were stocking up on sanitizers at the Dimond Blvd. Costco. By Friday morning, the half-gallon hand sanitizers were sold out.
The disappearance of the hand sanitizer product may be a result of a worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, a particularly infectious flu-like illness that was first identified in Wuhan, China.
Some hand sanitizer products are still available online at Amazon, but supplies appear low, and notifications that the product can’t be shipped to Alaska are common, due to the ethanol or alcohol content, a shipping hazard.
One of the side benefits to Alaskans becoming more vigilant about the potential arrival of the virus in the state is that the level of regular influenza is dropping:
The group calling itself Keep Dunleavy launched its website today. The group is in response to an effort by former Gov. Bill Walker employees to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Dunleavy was elected with over 51 percent of the vote in 2018 in a three-way race that included Former Gov. Bill Walker and former Sen. Mark Begich. Shortly after he took office, two members of the Walker team led the effort to recall the governor, purchasing the recalldunleavy.org domain name in February of 2019. Since then, the efforts of former Walker Chief of Staff Scott Kendall and former Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth have been funded largely with public employee dues through the Alaska State Employees Association and AFL-CIO.
The Keep Dunleavy group is chaired by Cynthia Henry, who is also the national committeewoman for the Alaska Republican Party.
“If people will log on and make any amount of a contribution, they will help us get the word out and show our strength through people who support the governor,” Henry said. “We’re already getting lots of calls and comments.”
Stand Tall With Mike, the initial group that formed to fight the court case, is merging with Keep Dunleavy, Henry said.
The Recall Dunleavy Committee rented the biggest venues in three Alaska communities for a statewide kickoff this weekend for signature-gathering on the petition booklets the court allowed them to use.
The group says it is hosting 49 kickoff events around the state, but the biggest by far will be at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, and Centennial Hall in Juneau, where people can sign petitions this weekend and grab some bumper stickers and other swag. The kickoff will be an event designed for maximum media exposure.
The group needs over 71,000 signatures to put the recall of Gov. Mike Dunleavy on a ballot, something which the primary organizers — former Gov. Walker employees Scott Kendall and Jahna Lindemuth — hope to do by July in a special election.
The ability to rent the biggest venues in the state shows that the group is well funded; it has had paid staff for over nine months.
But because the final Supreme Court decision hasn’t been issued on the actual validity of the recall, there is no way to discover who the major funders are at this point. These funders do not need to be reported to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
However, Must Read Alaska has learned that the Alaska State Employee Association and the AFL-CIO have stepped forward with a “blank check” to support the recall committee’s court costs, which are said to be approaching six figures. Other costs are being handled by private donations. One of the lead treasurers for the effort is Joelle Hall of the AFL-CIO.
The final court decision will be on or about March 25, after which the recall effort is considered a “real campaign,” and the usual finance reporting must begin.
On the campus of UAA, students report that paid recall signature gatherers are telling passersby that they should sign the petition because the governor is trying to take people’s Permanent Fund dividends.
Defending the traditional PFD was, of course, one of the governor’s key campaign issues, and he has long defended the statutory calculation for the dividend. He requested the Legislature allow the people of Alaska to vote on what the formula should be, and put it into the State Constitution so it is no longer a political football, a request that has been denied.
Recall Dunleavy Committee has just passed its first anniversary. The group, led by Kendall and Lindemuth, purchased its domain name a year ago Feb. 18 — just 11 weeks after the governor was sworn into office.
KEEP DUNLEAVY HIRES CAMPAIGN MANAGER
On the other side, the Keep Dunleavy group was organized after the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the recall group would be able to collect signatures even without a final ruling on the legitimacy of the recall.
Cynthia Henry of Fairbanks chairs that group, and Kelly Goode is the campaign manager. Goode is the former deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections.
Fundraising has picked up for Keep Dunleavy, since it was announced, according to MRAK sources. Sources say millions of dollars will need to be spent defending the governor, who took office 14 months ago.
In addition to that group, there’s the Stand Tall With Mike group that has been primarily involved with the court case, trying to convince the court that the justifications given by Recall Dunleavy cheapen the concept of elections and of the recall process itself.
The group had two lawyers fighting the ballot initiative, but the only remaining lawyers now involved are with the Department of Law. The Stand Tall group decided to save its money for the campaign side after it became evident the Alaska Supreme Court was going to allow the recall to go to the ballot. The formal decision is still weeks away, but most political observers now see that as a formality.
LEAKED POLL
Democrat pollster Ivan Moore leaked polling results from December, which showed the Dunleavy recall in a dead heat with voters. Moore sampled 694 registered voters statewide, and the poll, he says, has a margin of error of 3.8 percent:
Yes, do recall – 48.4%
No, don’t recall – 47.6%
Not sure – 4.0%
Moore says it is not actually a dead heat but a .8 percent lead to “yes.” He is encouraged by that number.
However, Moore is also the pollster who had Alyse Galvin in a statistical dead heat with Congressman Don Young in 2018, but in the end, Young won over Galvin, 53.3-46.7. Moore also predicted that Ethan Berkowitz would win over Don Young in 2008 — by a 9-point margin.
He’s 23 years old and he’s going big — up against an expert campaigner and veteran of the Legislature.
David Nelson today announced his run for the Alaska House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux in the Republican Primary for District 15.
If he wins, Nelson will be the youngest legislator in Alaska.
During their annual meeting on Feb. 17, District 15 Republicans adopted a resolution withdrawing support from LeDoux, who has held the seat since 2012. Part of that resolution was that the district would recruit a new candidate to run against LeDoux. Nelson is the result of that vetting process.
The district resolution will be forwarded to the party’s state convention in April for the consideration of the entire party. Two years ago, LeDoux was sanctioned similarly, but won her reelection in the district she has represented since 2012.
Nelson, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, works for a military contractor with the Missile Defense Agency on Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, and is the former District Executive for the Great Alaska Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is an officer in the Army National Guard and was state director for Students for Rubio in 2016.
Nelson announced his candidacy on the Dan Fagan Show on KENI radio. His Facebook page was created today and he will file with the Alaska Public Offices Commission this afternoon.
“My neighbors and I have had enough of the never-ending mess in Juneau,” he said. “It’s time to elect new people in the Legislature who will crack down on crime, stop playing politics with our Permanent Fund dividend, reject reckless and wasteful new tax plans, and get their work done on time without resorting to costly, lengthy and pointless special sessions.”
His community involvement is substantial for a young candidate: He’s president-elect of the Anchorage Midtown Rotary Club, is a leader in the Northeast Community Council Safety Patrol, and was appointed to the Alaska Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee.
LeDoux in 2015 was a member of a breakaway group of Republicans that called themselves the Musk Ox Coalition. That group was responsible for the House Republicans losing control to the Democrats in 2016, which ended 20 years of Republican control.
In 2019, she left the Democrat-led majority but did not rejoin the Republican minority.
The Year Start Reports are in, and nearly $1 million has been logged into the Alaska Public Offices Commission portal for the legislative seats up for election this year.
The Year Start Report, due Feb. 18, details what candidates had on hand at the beginning of the year through Feb. 1, and it’s all in the interest of transparency in campaign finances.
The larger campaign bank accounts, with the exception of candidate Liz Snyder, belong to incumbents; only six of the 21 heavy-hitters are Democrats. For the top three, Republican Sen. Natasha Von Imhof tops the list with over $82,662, followed by Sen. Josh Revak at $55,000, and Rep. Sara Rasmussen at $45,560. For all three, they are finishing their first terms in office and this will be their first reelection campaign:
Senate
Sen. Natasha Von Imhof, Republican, District L: $82,662
Sen. Josh Revak, Republican, District M: $55,000
Sen. Tom Begich, Democrat, District J: $35,223
Sen. Cathy Giessel, Republican, District N: $30,786 (updated Feb. 26)
Sen. Shelley Hughes, Republican, District F: $22,661
Sen. John Coghill, Republican, District B: $19,275
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, Democrat, District H: $16,661
House of Representatives
Rep. Sara Rasmussen, Republican, District 22: $45,560
Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, Republican, District 15: $44,899
Liz Snyder, Democrat challenger for District 27: $86,472; (incumbent Rep. Lance Pruitt has not yet filed for reelection.)
Rep. Mell Gillis, Republican, District 25: $47,165
Rep. Matt Claman, Democrat, District 21: $41,777
Rep. Kelly Merrick, Republican, District 14: $30,137
Rep. Laddie Shaw, Republican, District 26: $28,587
Rep. Chuck Kopp, Republican, District 24: $27,728
Rep. Sarah Vance, Republican, District 31: $24,895
Rep. Sharon Jackson, Republican, District 13: $21,255
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss:-Tomkins, Democrat, District 35: $21,058
Rep. Jennifer Johnston, Republican, District 28: $19,716
The Alaska House of Representatives passed a supplemental budget that would pay for the response to the wildfires of 2019, federal program healthcare costs the state is on the hook for, and Alaska Marine Highway System costs that resulted, in part, from shortfalls caused by a strike of ferry workers during the high season.
The $526.2 million bill has $298,6 million of State funding and balance is federal funding. It passed 35-2, with Rep. David Eastman and Mark Neuman voting against it.
The vote came after a raucous session in which Rep. David Eastman of Wasilla was admonished by House Speaker Bryce Edgmon to cease his disruptions to the proceedings or risk being thrown out — it was unclear if he meant thrown out of the House Chambers or expelled from the Legislature altogether, although several staff members were seen thumbing Mason’s Manual. During an at-ease, the House minority Republicans met briefly to discuss Eastman’s behavior and it was unclear if there were enough votes to throw him out of the minority caucus.
After the session ended, discussions continued as to the fate of Eastman, who had apparently worn on every last nerve of some of his fellow legislators. Those talks are underway in the Capitol.
$120 million of State funds and $143.4 million of federal funds for Medicaid.
$110.5 million for wildfires.
$8.6 million for Adult Public Assistance, welfare payments previously vetoed by the governor.
$8.3 million to restore the Adult Preventive Dental Program, also vetoed by the governor last year.
$7.1 million for the Alaska Marine Highway System. This is in addition to the $12.5 million requested by the governor.
$6.7 million for the Department of Public Safety to address a shortfall within the Alaska State Troopers and Alaska Wildlife Troopers due to a lower than expected vacancy rate.
$6 million to help the Alaska Psychiatric Institute increase its capacity.
$3 million to address the severe damage caused in Anchorage, Kenai, and Mat-Su by the December 2018 earthquake.
$150,000 to re-open the District Attorney’s Office in Utqiagvik.
A new bill offered by Fairbanks Democrat Rep. Adam Wool would take even more of Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends and give it to the University of Alaska, K-12 education, capital projects, and more.
Under HB 300, the annual draw on the Permanent Fund Earning Reserve account would be first allocated to state programs, and what remained would be split 50/50 between the General Fund and the Permanent Fund dividend. That means the dividend would be about $700 this year, according to Wool’s formula.
The bill takes the 5.25 percent of market value from the Permanent Fund Earning Reserve account, and routes it to various state funding pools:
40 percent would go for k-12 education.
10 percent would be for the University of Alaska
10 percent would go into capital projects.
10 percent would go back to communities through the community assistance fund.
That would consume 70 percent of what is available from the POMV draw, and leave 30 percent to work with.
Half of that 30 percent would be used for Permanent Fund dividends, and the other half would be allocated to the General Fund.
“This plan allows a dividend that is sustainable while also addressing the needs of our communities,” Wool said. “Businesses, public servants, municipal governments and Alaskans all deserve stability. By protecting the Permanent Fund, committing funding to essential services, and directing funds to capital projects and communities, we can now focus on building Alaska’s future.
The bill has been referred to House Finance Committee.
