Alaska Republican Party Chairman Glenn Clary and Ivanka Trump were spotted in the Kansas City International Airport exchanging pleasantries today. A quick-thinking Must Read Alaska reader sent the photo.
Clary said he was sharing encouragement with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and said he looks forward to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte next year, and that the Alaska Republican Party stands behind the president.
U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan announced that Greg Bringhurst has been hired as his Fairbanks regional director and rural advisor.
Bringhurst will replace Leslie Hajdukovich, who served in this position for the last four and a half years.
“I was so thankful to have Leslie representing the office in Fairbanks. Together with our fantastic constituent relations representative Lisa Harbo, Leslie provided excellent service to Interior residents and was a joy to work with. We are excited to bring Greg on board to maintain this high level of service,” Sullivan said in a statement. “His demonstrated leadership and the expertise he’s gained through his previous experiences serving our state make him a welcome addition to our team. I am confident his experience and strong relationships in the community will be a major asset in serving Alaskans in the Interior.”
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Bringhurst was most recently the director of public policy and government affairs at Cook Inlet Housing Authority. He has also worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in Washington, D.C., as a legislative aide in the Alaska Legislature, and for the Tanana Chiefs Conference.
He was a 2014 Republican candidate for District 1 Fairbanks in the Alaska House of Representatives. Scott Kawasaki won that seat for the Democrats.
Bringhurst has been an active volunteer with many organizations in the Interior and is a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen took to social media to review the Board of Regents’ discussion with the accrediting agency and actions the Board took at its meeting Monday. He reflects on how UA unity that he built during the budget debate, has now fractured and addresses lessons learned:
The Alaska Department of Law can’t seem to make up its mind on whether the 49th state should favor or oppose the opening of a Native-owned casino near Anchorage, but city Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is down with the idea and has been for a long time.
“The Municipality of Anchorage supports the (Native Village of Eklutna’s) goals of economic determination and believes both the tribe and the surrounding community will benefit from the jobs and related economic development the project will bring,” he wrote the U.S. Department of the Interior in January of last year.
His endorsement at the time went unreported and has for some reason never made the news.
In January of last year, Interior was considering whether a Native allotment near Birchwood belonging to Olga Ondola qualified as “Indian Lands” per the terms of the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act.
Six months after getting Berkowtiz’s letter, the Department of Interior ruled the parcel was not “Indian Land,” stymying the plans of the Village of Eklutna, which had contracted to lease the land from Ondola in hopes of opening a casino-style gaming business near the busy Glenn Highway between Anchorage, the state’s largest city, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the largest city’s biggest bedroom community.
The tribe is now suing Interior in hopes of overturning the decision.
Casino-style gambling is illegal in the 49th state. An “Indian Land” or “Indian Country” designation for the Ondola property would, however, sidestep state restrictions by creating a mini-nation within the state with powers to govern itself free from some state laws.
By GORDON WYSONG
The Democrats don’t have lousy Presidential nominee candidates merely because the good ones were keeping their powder dry.
A Black Swan candidate of 2008 is appreciably responsible for it, and no one seemed to notice. When Sarah Palin became the focus of the hopes of committed conservatives, the swamp did everything in its power to destroy her. Venal Republican operatives were so beset with personal jealousy, they were willing to crash the ship on the rocks to ensure against her ascendancy.
They won their battle, sadly. But, a single line — just one — provided the foundation for conservatives. Mrs. Palin told America “Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick!”
In one succinct line she captured the commitment and determination of conservatives seeking to protect something they love.
Fast forward a year, and those same conservatives saw Obama trying to destroy that which they love and without hesitation, these conservatives jumped into a new political movement.
Bolstered by their belief that Sarah Palin was an everyday somebody like them, and infuriated by her maltreatment, they populated the ranks of the Tea Party. They were determined to protect America. Within months, they were activists.
The annual Arctic Circle Assembly, this year in Reykjavík, Iceland, has brought several familiar big-name Alaskans from over the pole, including Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and his wife Mara Kimmel, who is attending as a representative of the Anchorage Museum.
They were on a panel today about creating welcoming cities: “Stronger Together: Inclusive, Resilient and Connected Northern Cities.”
Also on the panel was Anchorage Museum Indigenous Curator of History and Culture Aaron Leggett.
Mara Kimmel, Anchorage’s First Lady, is the deputy director of strategy, research, and scholarship at the city-owned museum.
Also attending the conference, which ends Oct. 12, is former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, (pictured above) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both of whom were speakers on the Thursday programs.
Former owner of the Anchorage Daily News/Alaska Dispatch Alice Rogoff appeared on a panel concerning the media. She was joined by Elizabeth Arnold, a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Journalism, Mark Trahant, and former Atwood Fellow at UAA and editor of Indian Country Today. Rogoff also chaired the panel on “Paving the Polar Silk Road, China, Russia, Japan, Korea.”
On Friday, Mayor Berkowitz will speak on the topic of “Setting the Arctic Agenda from a U.S. City Perspective.” Treadwell will chair a panel of governors to include Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, H.E. Roman Kopin, governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia and Maria Derunova, deputy governor of Murmansk Oblast, Russia.
Sen. Murkowski met with representatives from different Arctic nations.
The Anchorage Museum also sent curator Bodil Kjelstrup to take part in a break-out session: “What are we Learning about Art as an Instrument of Circumpolar Change and Innovation? The Accumulating Experience of the SEED Lab Experiment.”
In an adjustment to the Anchorage plastic bag ban ordinance, the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night added to the types of businesses that are exempt from the ban.
Those carve-out exemptions are for restaurants and temporary vendors, such as farmers market or craft bazaar vendors. They are completely exempt from the plastic bag ban and do not need to charge for bags, unlike other retailers.
For the rest of merchants, however, they are still required to charge for paper bags, in spite of opposition from some store owners on Tuesday, who said it’s not the government’s role to require merchants to charge for anything and it’s causing customers to have bad feelings toward the stores, which have no choice but to charge.
The rationale given by Assembly member Chris Constant for the fast-food-and-vendor exemption is that it’s a hassle for those temporary merchants to have to charge separately for bags.
The bag ban was passed by the Assembly in 2018, but implementation was delayed until Sept. 15, 2019. The liberal majority on the Assembly is trying to change the public’s behavior by encouraging people to take their own bags into stores with them.
The ban seems to have changed behavior, but not just in the ways expected: Merchants and consumers report to Must Read Alaska that since the bag ban was implemented, buying habits have changed. Sales are down and shoplifting is up.
HIS/HER MOM SUFFERS FROM ‘ADDITION‘
The Hill reported on Twitter today that the beloved children’s show on PBS would have a new twist: A character in the show will reveal his mom suffers from addition. Or addiction, depending on the headline.
Either way, plenty of Alaskans will sympathize. For the third year, fewer than half of Alaska public school students showed proficiency on standardized tests for math, English, and science. And as for opioid addiction, it was declared a statewide disaster for Alaska in 2017 by Gov. Bill Walker; the highest number of opioid-related deaths identified in one year was 108 in 2017, of which 100 (93 percent) were due to overdose.
The Hill was quick to correct its headline on Twitter after the mistake was noted by Twitter pundits. The story about the show’s new opioid angle is at this link.
Gov. Michael Dunleavy has asked the Department of Transportation to postpone the Glenn Highway lighting curfew until additional data can be gathered on the three other highways under lighting curfew (Minnesota Drive, C Street and the Sterling Highway).
[Read: Alaska Life Hack: Glenn Highway gets lighting curfew]
The department will re-evaluate once the additional data is gathered to see if the state can move forward with a lighting curfew, or explore other options, including a future conversion to LED lights.
The curfew had been set for a 34-mile stretch, where lights were going to be out from 1 – 4 am every morning.
Instead, the department will continue to look for ways to save state funding in order to provide a comprehensive snow and ice removal effort throughout southcentral Alaska.
Sen. Shelley Hughes thanked DOT for keeping the roads safe: “The Mat-Su delegation is pleased to hear from the Governor that he and the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation have decided to keep the Glenn Highway lights on between 1am and 4am this winter to improve the safety of this 34-mile stretch. DOT will be working to find cost savings elsewhere – on items that don’t impact safety. We look forward to continued partnership with the administration and the department to keep Alaska’s roads safe during this winter season. We appreciate all the DOT employees who work hard every day on behalf of Alaskans. Drive safely, everyone!”
