The venerable Merriam-Webster Dictionary has added a new definition to the pronoun “They.” It now not only describes groups of people, but also a singular person when that person does not identify as just a male or female.
They is “…used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary…” the definition says.
Dennis Prager University tackled this topic in “Control the Words, Control the Culture” worth your 4.46 minutes of time:
Barrett Fletcher, wearing a metal colander on his head, opened the Kenai Peninsula Assembly meeting on Tuesday with a tongue-and-cheek prayer, full of meatball and noodle puns, as the official invocation.
“We are gathered here to do the business of our Kenai Peninsula Borough. We make the rules of behavior and property, levy taxes and determine how to disperse them wisely, fund education, waste management, law enforcement, transportation, and health. All in an attempt to settle disputes.
“A few of the assembly members seem to feel that they can’t do this work without being overseen by a higher authority.”
“So, I’m called to invoke the power of the true creator of the universe, the drunken tollerator of all lesser and more recent gods, and maintainer of gravity here on earth. May the great Flying Spaghetti Monster rouse himself from his stupor and let his noodly appendages ground each assembly member in their seats.
“May he help them to easily acquit each of these tasks, avoiding any pettiness and irrelevant disagreement. May he provide each of them satisfaction in the perception of accomplishment and an ample supply of their favorite beverage at the end of this meeting.“
He closed his remarks with the word, “Ramen.”
The Kenai Borough Assembly was sued by members of a Satanic organization for limiting invocations to traditional churches with an actual presence on the Kenai Peninsula. Iris Fontana and the ACLU defended her right to give an invocation in the name of Satan, which she has done, ending her prayers with the phrase, “Hail, Satan,” while members of the audience and the borough assembly either sat uncomfortably or walked out.
Since the court ruled in favor of Fontana and the ACLU, other nontraditional groups have signed up to give the invocation, which includes the “Pastafarian” Fletcher.
Mayor Charlie Pierce arrived at the meeting after the invocation was finished on Tuesday, and walked passed Fletcher as he left, still wearing the colander.
The Assembly has made the determination to continue the invocation policy, in spite of the fact that event has become a farce. Some assembly members are trying to make a point that there is no higher order.
The Alaska Center for the Environment is doing the organizational work in Alaska to help students leave classes on Friday to take part in a global student strike for the climate change agenda.
The student strike has been endorsed by New York City, where the city leaders said 1.1 million students can skip school for the protest without facing a penalty. In Seattle, students will be marked “unexcused,” while in Portland, students will be marked “excused.”
Students in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Sitka, Palmer, and Juneau are planning to take part, Must Read Alaska has learned.
On May 3, Juneau students held a strike in conjunction with another global student strike over climate and about 100 of them skipped classes and went to the Capitol with painted signs demanding the Green New Deal.
KIDS IN COURT, SUING STATE OF ALASKA FOR VIOLATING CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
The 16 young Alaskans who are suing the state of Alaska for violating their constitutional rights by “knowingly contributing to climate change” will be in court on Oct. 9 at 1:30 pm for a hearing before the Alaska Supreme Court. They are challenging a Superior Court’s decision against them. The ruling said the youth had not identified a specific state policy that contributes to climate change.
The youth are saying they did identify a policy — the State’s Energy Policy, that contains references to fossil fuels. The State’s implementation of that policy causes climate change, the youth are saying, and that is a violation of their constitutional rights.
That hearing takes place at the Boney Courthouse, 303 K Street in Anchorage.
JACK ANTHONY TO AEROSPACE BOARD
Gov. Michael Dunleavy today announced his appointees to the Alaska Railroad Corporation Board and the Alaska Aerospace Corporation Board.
Craig Campbell takes the seat designated for a business owner/ manager on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Railroad Corporation, effective Sept. 11 through Oct. 3, then reappointed Oct. 3, 2019 through Oct. 3, 2024. This seat was most recently held by Jon Cook, who is an open supporter of the campaign to recall the governor. Dunleavy dismissed Cook from the board in August.
Campbell was the 10th lieutenant governor of Alaska, and has an extensive background in both the public and private sector, with 35 years of aerospace experience in the United States Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard, culminating as the Adjutant General, Alaska National Guard, retiring in 2009 at the rank of Lieutenant General when he became lieutenant governor. Campbell has over 15 years of aviation consulting experience, both in the United States and internationally. He was president and chief executive officer for Alaska Aerospace for seven years, and is President for Aurora Launch Services.
Dunleavy appointed retired Colonel John “Jack” Anthony to the Aerospace Industry seat on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, effective Sept. 11, 2019 through July 1, 2022.
Col. Jack Anthony (retired) has nearly 41 years of space research, engineering, operations, leadership, program management, and education experience during his career. He has 26 years of service in the US Air Force, retiring as a colonel. His experience includes working with the National Reconnaissance Office and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He currently supports the National Space Defense Center as a part-time advisor and serves on the Aurora Launch Services Board of Directors.
Born and raised in Alaska, Samantha Cherot has been named Alaska Public Defender, filling the position vacated in April by Quinlan Steiner.
Cherot was selected from a list of three applicants provided to the Governor by the Alaska Judicial Council on Aug. 20, and will serve a term of four years. She must be confirmed by the Alaska Legislature.
“All three individuals put forward by the Council were highly qualified, but Samantha Cherot stood out as someone with the presence, skill set, and experience to excel in this position,” said Governor Dunleavy. “Not only was I impressed by her commitment to public service, but her focus and approach towards caseload management and prioritization. I congratulate Ms. Cherot on assuming the role of Public Defender and wish her all the best.”
Samantha Cherot has been an Alaska resident for 32 years, and has practiced law for nearly 12 years. She graduated from California Western School of Law in 2007, and most recently worked as an assistant public defender in Anchorage.
[Read Samantha Cherot’s biographical statement that accompanied her application.]
Eligible Alaskans expect to see their Permanent Fund dividends deposited in their bank accounts the first week of October.
The definition of “eligible Alaskans” are those who filed for their PFDs before March 30, and who were in Alaska for at least 180 days of 2018, who were not absent for more than 90 days at a stretch, and who meet other criteria.
One guy who didn’t meet the criteria, but who filed for PFDs for several years will be facing the biggest Permanent Fund dividend fraud and theft trial in Alaska history in late October.
Roland Maw, who was Gov. Bill Walker’s appointee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, has a trial date set for Oct. 28 in Juneau Superior Court.
After months of status hearings, trial calls, and pretrial conferences, the criminal case against Maw starts anew on Oct. 2 with a pretrial conference and discovery hearing.
A second pre-trial conference will follow on Oct. 21, and then the jury trial starts, with Judge Amy Mead, a Walker appointee, presiding in Courtroom D.
Unless Maw’s lawyer is able to get another delay, that is.
Maw, the former executive director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, was supposed to stand trial in February, and again in May. But a series of motions made by his attorney hung up the trial.
As Walker’s Board of Fisheries nominee, Maw received a chilly reception from the Legislature. He was a nonstarter.
When Maw applied for the job of Commissioner of Fish and Game under Walker, he didn’t even get an interview for the job by the Joint Board of Fish and Game, which is the body that recommends to the governor a list of candidates for that job.
In 2016, Maw was charged with 12 felony counts of theft and unsworn falsification after prosecutors said he applied for and received Permanent Fund dividends while he was out of Alaska for over 90 consecutive days, for the years 2009 to 2014, without reporting those absences on his dividend application.
One of his defenses is that the PFD application is unclear as to whether the 90-day absence is consecutive or total number of days.
[Read Maw’s motion to dismiss here.]
His other defense angle appears to be that the courts have no evidence to show he was actually the one pushing the keys on the keyboard as travel reservations and Montana resident hunting and fishing licenses were purchased in his name. He has been convicted in Montana for purchasing in-state licenses when not a resident.
“Mr. Maw does not necessarily assert that he is not the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct that is represented in every single exhibit,” his attorney Nicholas Polasky wrote in a court brief. “However, Mr Maw does not agree that he is the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct in some of the exhibits.”
If he wasn’t a resident in Montana — and he pleaded no contest to the seven Montana charges pertaining to that residency assertion on his hunting and fishing licenses –and he wasn’t a resident by Alaska standards as it pertains to the Permanent Fund dividend, is Roland Maw a man without a state?
BY PAULETTE SIMPSON
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
Juneau is a jewel of a town.
With just 31,000 residents, it’s also our country’s fifth smallest capital city in terms of population. I would argue that small really is beautiful and by embracing that smallness, we can keep Juneau affordable and livable well into the future.
For over a year, proponents of a new performing arts center (JACC) have mounted a promotional campaign to convince Juneau voters to help pay for construction of an oversized 44,500-square-foot, two-story, $26 million facility. (For perspective, Centennial Hall is 19,680 square feet.)
Some supporters signed on early when the original concept was somewhat more modest and no public funding was anticipated. After plans ballooned and the cost exploded, many community members began questioning the scale and price tag of a project that now demands our tax dollars.
Promoters seem to suggest that the arts in Juneau are in a state of emergency. Yet somehow, as a JACC zealot tells us, the Western States Arts Foundation ranks Juneau as one of the country’s top 10 small cities for creative vitality and vibrancy.
We’ve been admonished that “Juneau is the only capital city in the country without a performing arts center.”
Well, we’re also the only capital city in the country without road access — unlike Santa Fe, New Mexico, a capital city which some suggest should be our model.
Santa Fe (population 84,000) is located within an hour’s drive of Albuquerque (population 560,000) and in comfortable driving distance of numerous communities in the four states bordering New Mexico. That makes it relatively easy and inexpensive for visitors to access and support its cultural resources.
But Juneau could be the Native art capital of the Northwest if only we had a $26 million performing arts center?
I would submit that Juneau has a world-class Native arts presence on display at both the Walter Soboleff cultural and research center, and especially in the galleries of the Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff Library, Archives and Museum Building.
Perhaps more correctly, Juneau could be (and have) just about anything we wanted if we only had a road — and a growing population. But we don’t have either.
The arguments for a 44,500-square-foot JACC deny the stark reality of the state budget and Juneau’s demographics.
Here’s an inconvenient metric to ponder: According to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, in 1998-1999, Juneau’s K-12 school enrollment totaled 5,740. By the 2018-2019 school year, K-12 enrollment had dropped to 4,567.
A 44,500-square-foot JACC will require an ever-expanding universe of patrons to meet the revenue projections proponents claim are possible. How will they manage expenses without undercutting the competition and diminishing the rental income streams of smaller venues?
What’s sorely missing from this conversation is a sense of proportion and a measure of modesty. That old-fashioned virtue shows up in another capital city.
About equal in population to Juneau is Helena, Montana. Helena is also a highly cultured community with a history as a regional center for the performing arts.
In 1976 Helena’s municipal offices moved from the (1919) Algeria Shrine Temple to the renovated (1904) federal building, and the Algeria Shrine was converted to a convention/civic center akin to Juneau’s Centennial Hall.
Then, in 1991, Helena transformed its (1894) Lewis and Clark County Jail into a performing arts center, and named it for actress Myrna Loy, who grew up down the street. The community raised the funds to renovate the historic downtown structure into a state-of-the-art venue for concerts, films, art exhibits, and arts education experiences. Known as one of the most vibrant small arts organizations in the rural West, the Myrna Loy is a fully equipped facility with an auditorium, theatre and gallery. And it’s about 7,500 square feet.
Helena embraced its “smallness” and with creativity, but not puffery, re-imagined and re-purposed existing buildings.
Not Juneau.
Rather than propose a less ambitious project, or attempt the hard work of an innovative remodel or inspired addition to Centennial Hall, our glitterati demanded big and brand new. City leaders swooned and got in line.
Perhaps we’re not that creative after all.
I’m voting “no” on Proposition 3.
Paulette Simpson resides in Douglas, Alaska.
Sarah Palin has hired Alaska lawyer Lori Colbert, and husband Todd Palin has hired Alaska layer Kimberlee Colbo, as they move forward in their divorce proceedings.
Colbert is a lifelong Alaskan who graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a degree in political science, and earned her law degree at Willamette University College of Law. She has practiced law in Alaska for more than 20 years. Family law is one of her specialties.
Colbo graduated from the University of Washington School of Law and represents clients in matters involving all aspects of insurance defense, including bad faith and coverage, manufacturers and retailers in product liability. She represents individuals involved in divorces and child custody disputes.
The case has been classified confidential, which means access to case files are limited to Sarah and Todd Palin, their attorneys, and court personnel. It’s a very rare situation but there is a minor involved, and the judge may have decided to protect the child from the adverse experience of the media circus.
HER DAD, REP. HALE BOGGS, DIED IN ALASKA CRASH WITH BEGICH
Famed journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has died from complications related to breast cancer. She was 75.
Roberts was the daughter of Congressman Hale Boggs of New Orleans, Louisiana, who along with Congressman Nick Begich of Alaska disappeared when their plane went missing in Alaska on Oct. 16, 1972. The plane was never found.
The two had been traveling from Anchorage to Juneau on congressional business.
She was for many years a voice on NPR, won three Emmys and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend.”
Begich’s grandson, Nick Begich III of Chugiak, recalled meeting her at her home in Washington, D.C.
“She was a gracious host and sharp, intelligent, and every word was spoken with intention,” Nick Begich III said.
Terry Moran, a national correspondent for ABC, described her as: “Brilliant. Brave. Kind. Hilarious. A fierce patriot. And one of the best human beings I have ever known.”
Political reporting was in her DNA — her father was Democratic majority leader in the U.S. House. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, joined the House of Representatives, serving from March 20, 1973 to Jan. 3, 1991. Her older brother Thomas was a wheeling and dealing lobbyist who was credited with pioneering the hiring former members of Congress to lobbying positions.