Congressman Don Young will be the featured guest at the Saturday meeting of the Association of Mature American Citizens, Saturday, Nov. 9, at 11 am. at the Palmer Senior Center, 1132 S Chugach Street, Palmer, AK 99645.
AMAC is a conservative’s alternative for AARP, focused on protecting the interests of America’s seniors, fighting taxes, excessive government overreach and calling for accountability at all levels of government. AMAC advocates for the values of faith, family, and freedom.
Friday, Saturday, Nov. 8-9: Military Care Package event at local Harley dealers. Last days to drop off donations.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 9:30 am: Veterans Day run at the Brotherhood Bridge in Juneau, 8K and 1 mile fun run and walk.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 9:30 am: Veterans Day Memorial Shoot at the Juneau Gun Club. Standard PITA 300 Target Shoot 100 Singles 100 Handicap 50 Pair Doubles.
Sunday Nov. 10, 6 pm: Elks Lodge, 1003 Pioneer Road, Fairbanks, has a spaghetti and meatball dinner upstairs in the antler room, open to all vets, active duty and family. There will be a guest speaker.
Sunday, Nov. 10, 1-3 pm: Veterans Day dinner at Grace Lutheran Church, 47585 Ciechanski Road, Kenai.
Sunday, Nov. 10, 3 pm: Veterans Day concert, at the Glenn Massay Theater in Wasilla, with the Matanuska-Susitna Orchestra. Free concert. Details.
Monday, Nov. 11, 10:30 am: The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs will have a Veterans Day Ceremony at the Alaska National Guard Armory, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Monday, Nov. 11, noon: Ceremony at Glenn Massay Theater honroing Mat-Su Valley resident and World War II POW Walt Fergus.
Monday, Nov. 11, 5 pm: Veterans Day Dinner, Elks Lodge No. 420, 9321 Glacier Highway in Juneau.
Monday, Nov. 11, 9:45 am to 11:45 pm: Veterans Appreciation Event at the Alaska Airlines Center, 3550 Providence Drive, Anchorage.
Monday, Nov. 11, 2 – 6 pm. American Legion Post 28, 7001 Brayton Drive, Anchorage. The grill will be fired up and members will be bringing pot luck. It will be a great day to join in fellowship and remembrance. Donations appreciated.
Monday, Nov. 11, 11 am-12:30 pm: Fairbanks Veterans Day at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel & Conference Center, 813 Noble St., Fairbanks. Live music with the US Army Alaska Arctic Warrior Band. Formal Ceremony. Displays, coffee and cake.
Nov. 20, 6-7:30 pm: Veterans Town Hall at the Anchor Point Senior Center.
Nov. 21, 5-6:30 pm: Veterans Town Hall at the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center.
By LARRY WOOD
Gov. Michael Dunleavy has started his comprehensive public safety plan by putting an end to the insanity that was SB91. However, the plan has yet to address the 1,200-pound polar bear in the room, which is the lack of any law enforcement in many villages in the Bush.
It is time that the State get serious about amending the Constitution to allow for elected sheriffs as part of a long term solution.
The U.S. Attorney General has announced a total grant of $42M to be applied to the problem. There has been as of yet no announcement as to how the money will be spent. If it goes to the villages directly, kiss it good-bye.
Without addressing the need to upgrade both the courts and Corrections in the Bush, more police officers will produce more offenders, but there will be no way to process them, or imprison them, given the growing backlog of cases and the closure of Palmer Correctional Center.
It is unlikely that the $42 million would buy enough new police officers to make a difference, given the lack of qualified candidates.
Neither the Alaska State Troopers, Corrections, or the National Guard are able to meet their recruiting quotas, because of the lack of qualified candidates. The integrity of America’s core demographic is rapidly disintegrating.
Over 72 percent of those 17-24 across the country are ineligible for military service due to physical, criminal, and/or education disqualifications.
In Alaska, it is the 17-34-year-old demographic living in the Bush that reflects the systemic failures in our education system, the collapse of the family, and a lack of respect for education and the law. Greater than 99 percent of those ages 17-34 living in the Bush are ineligible for military service due to education and/or criminal record disqualifications.
If you can’t enlist, you certainly cannot hope to become a police officer or corrections officer.
So, how can this $42 million produce any benefit or act to relieve the suffering of those abused? The bodies are simply not there to provide the qualified first responders. And, there is a decided lack of criminal justice infrastructure to support a major increase in law enforcement in the Bush.
The regional Native corporations and the village corporations need to be willing to act to work in concert with the state and federal government to provide the criminal justice and law enforcement facilities, mental health and substance abuse facilities and the training for personnel in the Bush. And, it is time they paid their fair share of the cost of providing those facilities. The onus would also be upon the organized an unorganized boroughs to bear part of the cost of their sheriff’s departments.
In the face of the law enforcement crisis in the Bush, the federal government continues to act to restrict Alaska’s ability to produce revenue from royalties from mineral, timber, and fish and to restrict tourism by maintaining the abuse of our Statehood Compact that is the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act — ANILCA.
Either the federal government cough up sufficient funding, and $42 million is just a drop in this bucket, or the federal government can repeal ANILCA and return the management of federal lands to the state, end any other restrictive land use changes, and let the state have at the process of putting the land to work for the people. In either case, the federal government has a tremendous liability in this issue.
The reality of the Bush is the lack of law enforcement manpower, the lack of qualified applicants, geography, time and distance. The sheriffs and their deputies would need to be more peace officer than police officer, like the old Territorial Police.
Alaska Police Standards Council standards would need to be set aside for the sheriffs departments until time, money, and qualified candidates were forthcoming.
The Department of Corrections might have to ignore APSC standards for Bush positions for the same reason.
The courts would need to get serious about televising court proceedings to allow an offender in any Alaska village, town or city to appear in court. More jails would need to be built with facilities to televise a court proceeding and to house corrections and sheriff’s deputies on their “rounds” between villages. Every court room in the state should have a televised hearing capability.
The sheriff would be elected for a four-year term by the qualified voters of a borough or unorganized borough.
The Village Public Safety Officer program would end, and the VPSOs would become deputies providing a core for future expansion.
An amendment authorizing an elected sheriff’s office would give accountability to the people of the organized and unorganized boroughs in how their law enforcement operated.
The villages would see sheriffs and deputies more than they would the Alaska State Troopers. The deputies would be known to the villagers and sufficiently trained as VPSOs to serve as “frontier” deputies to a sheriff.
The burden in the Bush would be reduced for the Alaska State Troopers.
The fed’s $42 million would either be a good start to a long term solution, or a really good time for a few families in the Bush.
Larry Wood is a 65-year Alaska resident living on Lazy Mountain.
DOESN’T BUY DUNLEAVY ‘FUNDS NOT IN HAND’ ARGUMENT
An Alaska Superior Court judge has upheld the Legislature’s right to appropriate future unknown funds for programs it deems important.
The decision, if it stands, will have a substantial impact on lawmaking and budgeting going forward. Legislators may decide to do extensive forward funding programs during an election year, when a new governor is likely to take office. That governor would not be able to reach back and veto funding made and approved in previous years, and may lose the ability to veto for multiple years.
The issue went to court because the Dunleavy Administration argued that appropriating funds that were not yet in hand is unconstitutional.
But Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally disagreed, writing that “While Alaska’s constitutional framers sought to protect state control over state revenue and to ensure legislative flexibility over the disposition of revenue sources, and to limit certain powers and to avoid certain pitfalls, it is also apparent that the framers did not intend to prevent the state from experimenting and adapting to changing circumstances.”
Scally continued, “Simply put, the forward-funding appropriations here do not constrict the legislature’s power over free disposition of state funds to such a degree that they exceed the legislature’s freedom to experiment and adapt to the changing circumstances and hurdles of the day, particularly in the field of public education.”
Read the entire decision here:
The matter will now go to the Alaska Supreme Court on appeal.
“This decision upends the appropriations process as we know it and could lead to one legislature and governor setting the budget five, six or more years in advance,” said Attorney General Kevin Clarkson. “Although the education funding at issue here was only for one year in advance, following the superior court’s logic, there is really no time limit to speak of on the legislature’s decision to future appropriate, aside from political will. By the superior court’s decision, budgeting five years, six years, even 10 years out is fair game.
“We fundamentally do not believe that is what our constitutional framers envisioned when they discussed an annual budgeting process. This issue is too important not to appeal and get final guidance from the Alaska Supreme Court, so we all know going forward what the rules are.”
In 2018, the Legislature passed an appropriation bill that committed future revenues, not revenues on hand in the State treasury in fiscal year 2019, to pay for education in the future fiscal year 2020.
Clarkson issued a formal Attorney General opinion on May 8, 2019, concluding that the appropriation was unconstitutional and a new appropriation was needed.
The Legislature disagreed and decided not to pass a new appropriation, which left education, in the opinion of the Attorney General, without any constitutional source of funding. The Legislature ultimately sued the governor in order to resolve the dispute.
The Dunleavy Administration has been releasing funds to the education community on a monthly basis under a court-approved stipulation agreed to by both parties.
The current stipulation remains in effect until a final judgment is entered.
QUESTION: DID STORM HANSEN-CAVASOS LIVE INSIDE CITY LIMITS?
Former Homer City Council member Tom Stroozas has filed a formal election contest with Anchorage Superior Court today, challenging the election and seating of Council member Storm Hansen-Cavasos.
The lawsuit claims that Hansen-Cavasos was not an eligible candidate in the Oct. 1, 2019 City Council election because she failed to meet the residency requirement; Homer City Code requires candidates for the City Council to be residents inside city limits for at least one year prior to the date of the election.
Under Homer City Code, a candidate or 10 registered voters are allowed to contest a municipal election. This involves filing a contest with the City of Homer, and seeking judicial review by filing a complaint with the Superior Court.
“Although, I am sure some partisan types will attack me by saying that this lawsuit is just sour grapes, but this is about election integrity and the rule of law,” said Stroozas. “I have already publicly stated that I will not be seeking the seat on the City Council for myself even if the court orders a new election to be held.”
Prior to the certification of the election, Stroozas filed a formal challenge with the city.
[Read: Homer City Council winner faces residency challenge]
Evidence provided with his challenge were numerous documents and sworn statements showing that Hansen-Cavasos was living in a leased house off East End Road, in Fritz Creek up until Aug. 2019.
[Read: Investigation into candidate’s residency done]
Additionally, in April 2019, some six months before the election, Hansen-Cavasos filed a voter registration claiming her address off East End Road as “the residence address where [she] claim[s] residency.” Hansen-Cavasos’ signed the voter registration “under penalty of perjury” affirming the information provided on her registration form was “true and accurate.” Providing false information on a voter registration form is a Class A Misdemeanor under Alaska Statute 15.56.050.
[Read: Homer council seats member whose residency was challenged]
“Alaska statutes create a strong presumption of residency at the address listed in the voter registration that can only be overcome in very limited circumstances that don’t exist in this case,” said Keri-Ann Baker, attorney with the law firm of Reeves Amodio LLC, which is representing Stroozas in the case.
“What is also unique is that this isn’t a case of someone failing to update their voter registration at their new address, but a candidate filing a voter registration and later claiming it contained false information,” Stroozas said.
Hansen-Cavasos didn’t register to vote at an address inside Homer city limits until August 8, 2019, the same day she filed her Declaration of Candidacy. In her candidate declaration, she claimed to having been a resident of the City of Homer since May 2018. Hansen- Cavasos later submitted an affidavit to the election contest claiming to have moved to Homer in June 2018.
In 2019, Hansen-Cavasos also claimed her address off East End Road as her residence on her Permanent Fund dividend application. Stroozas also provided evidence of several text message and social media postings where Hansen-Cavasos refers to her address off East End Road as her “home”, including one text message on July 4, 2019 where Hansen- Cavasos states that she “will be living in town soon.”
“Ms. Cavasos can’t provide a straight answer on why, if she lived in the City like she claims, she has filed multiple documents with the State of Alaska and other government entities listing a false address,” Stroozas said. “And it’s not like this was a one-time offense. Quite simply, she is either filing multiple false documents with the government under risk of criminal penalty or she is lying to the voters – and she needs to answer for that.”
The City of Homer and the Homer City Council are defendents in the case.
With today’s Anchorage Superior Court filing, Stroozas is seeking a declaration from the court that Hansen-Cavasos was not legally qualified to be a candidate in the election and asks that her election invalidated.
The complaint also seeks a restraining order preventing Hansen- Cavasos from remaining seated on the City Council and from performing official acts as a City Council member until the full case can be heard. Stroozas has also requested that the Superior Court hear the case on an expedited schedule.
Stroozas is represented by Keri-Ann Baker and Tom Amodio of the law firm Reeves Amodio LLC.
“These disputes can be politically charged,” said Baker, “but frankly we are simply focused on the law and ultimately, we are confident that once our client has the opportunity to present all the evidence, he will prevail in this case.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Andrew Guidi.
Cassie Lawver, a conservative activist who originally identified the residency problem with Hansen-Cavasos, is taking contributions to pay for the attorneys. She can be reached at caslawver @ gmail.com.
ANCHORAGE JUDGE EXPANDED $500 CONTRIBUTION LIMITS TO PACS
A little-known liberal advocacy group in Washington, D.C. has won an important ruling from an Anchorage judge to limit future contributions to Alaska super PACs and independent expenditure groups.
The limit would be $500 per person, the same limit that state law applies to candidates’ campaigns.
Now, the State of Alaska has challenged the October ruling, asking for a rehearing because some important elements were left out of the case.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge William Morse ruled in favor of “Equal Citizens,” which brought the lawsuit on behalf of three Alaska Democrats against “Interior Voters for John Coghill,” “Working Families of Alaska,” as well as the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
The case stems back to the 2010 “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision, which said that political action groups may accept donations and influence elections through independent groups that do not coordinate with candidates’ campaigns. That ruling held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent money spent for political communications by corporations, nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other private associations.
[Read: Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission]
Such was the case with Interior Voters. It was a group formed by the late Scott Hawkins, founder of the now-disbanded Accountability Project, which Hawkins set up as a pro-economy grassroots activist group after the 2010 Citizens United Ruling.
Interior Voters was registered with the Federal Elections Commission for campaign work for less than a month’s worth of effort leading up to the November, 2016 election; the effort included printed postcards, online digital media, radio and cable television ads, and door-to-door, get-out-the-vote work.
Hawkins died in August of 2019. The chair of the Interior Voters for John Coghill, Kathleen “Mike” Dalton of Fairbanks, died in February. Because both were in failing health in the last year of their lives, no legal defense was mounted on behalf of Interior Voters.
But back in 2016, Hawkins and Dalton had raised funds and sent mailers out in support of their favorite candidate, Republican Sen. John Coghill, and they opposed Democrat Luke Hopkins, the former mayor of Fairbanks. Coghill ended up winning that race.
With The Accountability Project on the rise in Alaska, backing and winning races, the Equal Citizens group took note, and filed a lawsuit.
The other group named in the lawsuit, Working Families of Alaska, was formed in 2011 by Local 341 of the Labor Union. It had worked on behalf of Democrats for many years, having been formed right after the Citizens United ruling came down from the U.S. Supreme Court.
It wasn’t until conservatives in Alaska started making strides with these independent expenditures that it became a problem for the liberal Equal Citizens group, which had ignored the union expenditures for years.
Equal Citizens with its strong Democrat Party and Washington D.C. connections filed on behalf of three Democrats. The litigants hope to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to begin to erode some of the provisions of Citizens United. The Accountability Project made an easy target in a cheap state in which to litigate.
The judge’s ruling orders the Alaska Public Offices Commission to institute a $500 limit per person to a political action committee or independent expenditure group, to align with Alaska’s extremely limiting campaign laws that allow no more than $500 per person given to a candidate during a calendar year. In 2006, voters supported the measure with 73 percent of the vote.
That 2006 law against larger campaign contributions has not been applied to the independent groups — until this judge’s order.
Because the Alaska Public Offices Commission is named as a defendant, the State Department of Law asked for a rehearing of the matter on Monday.
[Read original MRAK story from 2018: Outside group complains about Alaska super-PACs]
The case has the likelihood to go back to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had already ruled that free speech rights extend to these independent groups. But Equal Citizens is looking for another bite of the apple, through the liberal and cheap-to-litigate Alaska Court System.
THE MOOD IN THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT IS FOR A NEW GOVERNOR
The district that had the most people signing the Recall Dunleavy application petition was downtown Juneau, with 3,012 people signing in House District 33. That was followed by University of Alaska stronghold Fairbanks District 4, where 2,709 people signed the petition.
Third highest in signatures was Anchorage south hillside House District 28, with 2,183 putting their name on the list. That district is represented by Rep. Jennifer Johnston, and is dense with University of Alaska professors and employees in the medical field.
But although some districts are nearly as blue as Downtown Juneau, they are not dense, and not as easy to collect signatures in. For example, Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky represents the blue District 38, whose hub community is Bethel. It’s a far-flung region, and signature gatherers just focused on the town.
In the downtown Juneau area, signature gathering was a cakewalk, centering in the beehive neighborhoods around the capital, where last year voters went heavily for Mark Begich for governor, with Precinct 2 voters favoring him with 597 votes to the 111 votes given to Michael Dunleavy.
It’s normal for Juneau: In 2012, the capital city led the state in percentages of those voting for Barack Obama for president. And in 2016, not a single precinct in the capital city had Donald Trump in the lead, and in downtown Juneau only 15 percent of the voters picked Trump.
[Read: Media moguls in Alaska sign recall petition]
Here’s the snapshot of all the House districts from across the state, with how many of their voters signed the recall petition. Under this snapshot is a downloadable spreadsheet with the same information:
Among the approximately 49,000 signers of the initial application for a petition to recall Gov. Michael Dunleavy, several members of the media, including journalists, spouses of journalists, and board members of public broadcasting corporations appear on the list.
Must Read Alaska combed through the list and found reporters, show hosts, and others associated with KTUU, Fairbanks Daily NewsMiner, KTOO, and Alaska Public Media.
The spouse of Anchorage Daily News Editor David Hulen also signed the recall petition, as did several members of the board of directors of Alaska Public Media, including board chair, vice chair, and treasurer. Also, the spouse of the APM general manager has signed the Recall Dunleavy application petition.
No “editorial content” members from the Anchorage Daily News were found on the list during this review.
Readers in Fairbanks, however, will recognize the name of NewsMiner reporter Dorothy Chomicz, who writes about cops and crime for the paper. They’ll also recognize the name of Dermot Cole, longtime contributor to the NewsMiner and other publications, including his own political blog. His brother, Terrence Cole, is also on the list, but his editorial associate Alice Rogoff is not a signer.
In Anchorage, Karen Wuestenfeld, board chair, Alaska Public Media, appears on the list, as does Beth Rose, vice chair, and Pita Benz, treasurer.
KTUU’s Blake Essig shows up as a recall advocate, as does Haley Essig, who is related.
At Juneau’s KTOO public media station, board chair George Reifenstein, vice chair Leslie Longenbaugh and treasurer Melanie Lesh all signed the recall petition, but the staff of the station steered clear.
Several members of the Alaska Court system appear on the list of those wanting to recall the governor. We found no judges during this review except retired judge Carpeneti. Former Gov. Bill Walker Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth‘s name appears — no surprise, since she is an attorney for the recall effort. Along with her, fellow recall attorney and Bill Walker Chief of Staff Scott Kendall signed on.
Some of the other usual names are there: AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami, Alaska Democratic Party Chairwoman Casey Steinau, and retired Judge Walter Carpeneti.
Former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott signed the recall petition, as did Jody Potts of Fairbanks, who works as a Village Public Safety Officer. At the Rasmuson Foundation, Ed and Cathy Rasmuson signed the petition, and are funding the recall, and Rasmuson Foundation President Diane Kaplan is also on the list.
Democrat lawmaker Rep. Harriet Drummond of Anchorage signed it twice, while fellow Democrat Rep. Ivy Spohnholz of Anchorage signed it just once.
CROWD-SOURCING THE RESEARCH
Study the list yourself at this link.
The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency chief who became notorious in Alaska for insulting a jar of Alaskan moose meat given to her as a gift, has been named the president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Gina McCarthy will take over the 3-million member organization, where she will oversee a $151.6 million budget. Her salary and fringe benefit package was not disclosed.
In 2013, McCarthy traveled through Bristol Bay to further develop her plans to block the Pebble project, when she was given a jar of moose meet by the wife of the first chief of the Curyung Tribal Council. The moose meat was the from the first kill of a young boy from the tribe.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal later that year, McCarthy described the meat as something that “could gag a maggot.”
The moose meat was from the first kill of a young boy from Chief Thomas Tilden’s tribe.
Under McCarthy’s administration at the EPA, the agency tried to block the permitting application of the Pebble Project in Western Alaska, by using a provision that prevented the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from issuing any permits for the mine.
The EPA’s actions were later challenged by Pebble, and the agency ultimately settled rather than face Pebble in court. The settlement allowed the Pebble Limited Partnership to apply for a Clean Water Act permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
