Striking back, the National Rifle Association has sued San Francisco over the city and county’s declaration that the Second Amendment organization is a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, after last week the city and county of San Francisco and its Board of Supervisors designated the NRA a domestic terrorist organization.
The NRA lawsuit says the city is discriminating against people “based on the viewpoint of their political speech.”
This, according to the lawsuit, is an attempt to curb the NRA’s free speech rights, and is a way to blacklist anyone in the city who is associated with the NRA through membership. The resolution also encourages other city and county governments and the federal government to also blacklist the NRA as a terrorist organization.
The lawsuit asks the court to “to instruct elected officials that freedom of speech means you cannot silence or punish those with whom you disagree.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has not signed yet signed the resolution, but it would take effect within 10 days if she doesn’t sign it or veto it.
Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA, said that the organization’s 5 million members are not terrorists. After gun rights are attacked, the NRA usually sees a spike in membership.
The NRA annual report distributed earlier this year showed that dues went from $128,209,303 in 2017 to $170,391,374 in 2018, a 33 percent increase year over year. During the same period contributions rose from $132,879,299 to $165,075,288 for an increase of 24 percent.
Former Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Randall Kowalke, a Republican challenger for Rep. David Eastman, says he’s in favor of recalling Gov. Michael Dunleavy, because the candidate Dunleavy is not the same as the governor Dunleavy.
Kowalke, who lives in Willow, took to social media to disclose his opinion (and to save Must Read Alaska some time, evidently). He’s taking on Eastman in House District 10 likely because he sees himself as an anti-Dunleavy Republican, while Eastman is more in line with the governor on issues such as spending and the Constitution.
Kowalke wrote, “Let the doxxing begin.” Doxxing is publishing private or identifying information about a person on the Internet, typically with malicious intent, according to Wikipedia.
Anyone who has been through a divorce knows this: It’s a death in the family. It’s a painful death, and when children are involved, it’s a death for them, too.
When there are children, the death just keeps happening throughout their lives as they try to navigate the birthdays, the holidays, and the other big moments, creating an emotional state of grieving that seems to last a lifetime. Because kids want their parents together — they just do.
But in politics, divorce is fair game. It’s a moral flaw. It’s fodder, and there is no escaping it. Especially if your last name is Palin; there’s nothing like Palin to sell clicks on a website, and try as we may, even Must Read Alaska cannot avert its eyes from the news of this pending divorce.
What Todd and Sarah Palin have been through in their marriage, no one really knows. They’ve had good times, rocky times, and tragedy, much played out in the public eye and some of it of their own making. As with almost all couples, what the world sees and what the world thinks it knows is not the whole story. Not even close.
Craig Medred broke the story on his news site CraigMedred.news. He updated it hours later with information that indicated a court clerk may have fudged a bit by allowing the Palin divorce to be filed by their initials only, while the rest of the divorcing public must file using their full names. That is a small sin, perhaps, but annoying to everyday Alaskans who tsk at such privilege. Rules should be applied evenly and Alaska royalty should not get special treatment. Their lawyer should have advised them better.
Todd filed on a Friday, hoping perhaps to stay out of the limelight. No such luck. Sarah Palin is the favorite punching bag for the liberal media, and she gives it back in spades, typically. She seems to have thrived on the battle with the “lame stream media,” as she has been known to call it.
Living in the spotlight is hard on a marriage, and harder on a divorce. If they get it right, they’ll remain friends, and they are the type of people who can get it right, even while breaking up the camp and going separate ways.
For now, the real sin committed is by those who throw stones at a marriage that has fascinated the world, a marriage that has simply ended sadly. The sin is committed by those who drag the children into it and use them as a battering ram against their parents.
In the beginning, the two were high school sweethearts who eloped in August of 1988 after Sarah finished college and had started a career in sports reporting. The first of their five children was born the following April. She ran for city council of Wasilla, and started a political career that eventually led to a nomination for the vice presidency of the United States. Todd was seemingly always Todd, the sportsman, the businessman, the steady husband coping with the churn of fame and fortune of his wife, who was governor, television star, author, and icon.
In the end, the years and the realities of All Things Palin wore down the love.
The end of the marriage isn’t the end, however. The couple has children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, parents, sisters, and brothers. These are ties that bind forever, especially around holidays, birthdays, and those big life events, such as birth and death.
You never know … Todd and Sarah could get back together someday. Couples do. But for now, there’s been a death in the family, and plenty of heartache to go around, and some voyeuristic handwringing: Even the beautiful people, it turns out, don’t really live charmed lives.
As for the news cycle, there’s the 24 hours when this is grist for the mill, and then we’ll all be off to another piece of salacious fascination — until the Palins do something else that captures us once again. Because we cannot get enough of them, can we?
The City of Juneau this morning was outbid for the Juneau “Subport” property, a section of valuable waterfront along Egan Drive in downtown Juneau. The winning bid was $20 million from Norwegian Cruise Lines during the bid opening this morning by the Alaska Mental Health Trust land office.
The property is located approximately across from the Prospector Hotel, now owned by Ramada Inn.
The 2.9 acre waterfront Subport parcel will stretch out Juneau’s visitor industry corridor and take the pressure off of the core of downtown. It’s also located far from the bar scene, and would allow Norwegian to develop its own tourism orbit and likely increase the visitors to the new Alaska State Museum nearby.
Because the property isn’t staying in government ownership, it will also be a significant source of property tax revenue for the Capital City, as much as $200,000 in property taxes per year, according to some estimates.
The other bids came in well below Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. – $13,000,000
Godspeed, Inc. – $12,800,000
Survey Point Holdings, Inc. – $5,265,000
The City and Borough of Juneau – $4,250,049
In Juneau, such undeveloped waterfront property that has the capacity to handle a cruise ship dock, close to downtown, represents a tremendous development opportunity.
The sale was handled by the Trust Land Office, an office within the Department of Natural Resources that manages land assets owned by the Trust.
Revenue generated from the Subport sale will go into the Mental Health Trust Fund, which is like a Permanent Fund for the Mental Health services in the state. Earnings from the Trust Fund allow the Trust to pay for programs that support Trust beneficiaries across the state. These include Alaskans who experience mental illness, developmental disabilities, substance related disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, and traumatic brain injuries.
The Trust could get as much as $850,000 a year off of the investments from the $20 million, Must Read Alaska estimates.
“The apparent proceeds of the Subport sale will go a long way in serving Trust beneficiaries,” said Wyn Menefee, Trust Land Office Executive Director. “We knew this parcel represented an opportunity to monetize an unique and valuable Trust land asset, and are pleased that our process to determine how and when to sell the Subport has apparently resulted in significant proceeds that will support the work of the Trust today and well into the future.”
Following today’s opening of the sealed bids, the apparent high bidder has 15 business days to make a deposit of 10% of the sale price and complete a purchase and sale agreement with the Trust Land Office.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers reported a bear attack Friday evening in the Eureka Summit area near Gunsight Mountain.
Two hunters were looking for moose when they happened upon a grizzly sow with two large cubs. The sow attacked one of the hunters, causing serious injuries to his head, torso, and legs, but the second hunter had the presence of mind — and the skill — to drop the grizzly with a kill shot through her chest. Both hunters are described as being in their mid-20s.
Glenn and Samantha Marlin were not far from where the incident occurred and wrote about it on Facebook. Glenn reflected on the lesson of picking a good hunting partner, one that you can trust to not panic.
Here’s a lightly edited version of Glenn Marlin’s account:
HUNTING BUDDY THOUGHTS
I was a part of the first aid and recovery effort for last night’s bear mauling in Eureka.
I’ve been processing all that happened and how the attack went down. Both hunters were 25-28 years old, in fantastic shape and experienced hunters. They did nothing to bring it on themselves. Right place, bad timing.
My thoughts about the guy who saved his buddy: They weren’t walking so close that he could have been attacked too. He had to suddenly process what was going on. Decide fight or flight. Load a round, run up to the ground battle, and correctly place a shot that not only kills her, but does not shoot his buddy.
All the while, she had cubs close by that were nearly her size and she measured 7 feet.
He had to now get himself and injured and barely ambulatory friend back to their wheelers about 1/3 mile away. Get him on his wheeler and bog their way out. Injured hunter has a rollover along the way and he has to right it. He had the smarts to recognize when he had signal and called to his parent’s cabin to arrange immediate help on the trail as they came back.
I met the injured hunter on the trail and he was was operating on pure adrenaline. By the time we get to my cabin and off his wheeler, the pain kicked in. Luckily there was also a nurse and EMT also at their cabin who met up with us. From there we got the helicopter called and we got him to the landing zone at his cabin about 2 miles away.
Today we recovered his rifle and the bear. Big reality check for me and got me thinking about his hunting buddy who saved his life.
What do you expect from those you hunt with?Are those expectations assumed or discussed?Are you that kind of partner?
HUNTER MEDEVACED TO PROVIDENCE
Samantha Larsen Marlin also wrote about the experience on her Facebook page:
“We were able to drive our truck up the ATV trail to load the injured hunter and transport to a cabin that could be accessed by life flight, which happened to be the cabin he was staying at,” she wrote. She said a nurse and medic were able to provide first aid before a helicopter took the hunter to Anchorage.
Glenn Marlin, who is a State Farm agent at Glenn Marlin State Farm in Wasilla, later wrote that the experience was enough for him to buy a life flight insurance policy for his family. “At $125 per year and 3 people covered, it’s a no brainer,” he said.
In September of 2018, Alaska was home to 97,301 residents enrolled in Medicare, the health care program that serves residents ages 65 and above.
Today, Alaska has just tipped over the 100,000 mark, a threshold it’s never reached before. The state’s population is getting older as Baby Boomers cross over into senior citizen status, and seniors try to stay in the state for as long as they can.
Medicare beneficiaries now make up 14 percent of the state’s total population, just under the rest of the U.S., where they make up 15 percent.
Today, one in nearly seven Alaskans is enrolled in the health care program that was created by President Johnson in 1965 for those over the age of 65.
The population of Alaska more than doubled in last 40 years, increasing at more than four times the rate of the rest of the country. In 2010, Alaska was home to 55,000 senior citizens. In nine years, that number has nearly doubled.
2019 is shaping up to be the ninth year in a row that Alaska has had the fastest growing population of those over 65.
Most people become eligible for Medicare when they turn 65, and most who turn 65 are forced to enroll in the program or pay a hefty penalty to the federal government. For many, it’s not a free program — elders have to pay a premium to the federal government and it often comes out of their Social Security check. It can cost them $135 a month for Part B Medicare, which pays for doctor’s services and outpatient care. Recipients have typically also paid into Medicare for most of their working lives.
Medicare coverage is also available to people who are disabled. In Alaska, 14 percent are eligible as a result of a disability or permanent kidney failure.
As for communities with the most Medicare enrollees, Anchorage is the largest, with more than 38,495 enrolled as of July, 2018, an increase of 1,556 from the prior year. Fairbanks North Star Borough is down by 139 Medicare enrollees since last year. The Mat-Su went from 13,986 Medicare enrollees to 14,665 in the past year.
According to the Institute on Aging, America’s 65-and-over population will nearly double over the next three decades, from 48 million to 88 million by 2050.
A controversy is brewing about a female member of the swim team for Dimond High School who was disqualified at a swimming and diving meet between Dimond and Chugiak High Schools on Friday. The girl was having a wardrobe violation, or a malfunction, or perhaps she simply wasn’t wearing her swimsuit properly. The coaches said she could not compete.
There are rules about bathing suits in high school swim programs, and they govern standards of “propriety” including modesty and decency.
According to one account, the girl is a large swimmer with a curvy body and she was wearing her suit without prohibited modifications. She was disqualified because of her shape, which is shapely, and possibly because of her race.
According to another account, the girl was wearing her suit in a way to purposely to show more skin.
Not so, writes Lauren Logan, who opened up the Pandora’s box when she criticized the disqualification on the publishing platform Medium and suggested the girl swimmer was being subject to racism, sexism, and a bit of fat shaming.
But Angel Mock, a former swim coach familiar with the situation, had a different view: “I have personally witnessed this swimmer’s suit and can say that it is not being worn in the intended manner. USA swimming has put guidelines in place for us to follow involving coverage of swim suits, and these guidelines have been ignored.”
Special edition of the Almanac with a listing of September-November conferences around the state:
9/14:Alaska Democratic Party Fall Gala, in Anchorage, 6-9 pm, Sheraton Hotel. Rep. Ivy Spohnholz is the mistress of ceremonies. More info here.
9/18-20:Alaska School Safety Summit at the Egan Center in Anchorage. Information here.
9/19-21: Alaska Nurse Practitioner Association annual conference at the Hilton Hotel, Anchorage.
9/20-21:Alaska Republican Party State Central Committee Fall Meeting in Fairbanks at La Quinta Hotel. More information here.
9/21: Bartlett Democratic Club annual banquet and awards at Anchorage Senior Activity Center.
9/21:Anchorage Pirate and Pub Crawl, downtown.
9/23-25: Northwest Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives annual conference at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks. More information here.
9/23-27:Alaska Fire Conference in Ketchikan. More info here.
9/23-27:International Association of Women Police meets at the Dena’ina Center, Anchorage. Information here.
9/25-27:National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter meets in Juneau on the theme of “nurtured hearts nurture hearts.” More information here.
9/25-28:Museums Alaska Annual Conference with Alaska Historical Society, at the Best Western Kodiak Inn and Convention Center. Theme is “critical conversations: Diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion.” More information here.
9/26-28:Alaska Council of School Administrators meet in at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks. Information here.
9/30-10/4:Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators meet in Juneau at Centennial Hall. More details here.
10/7-10:Alaska Travel Industry Association meets at Centennial Hall in Juneau. The theme is “Legend of Alaska.” Get details here.
10/10-12:American Institute of Architects Alaska third annual conference meets on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Anchorage Museum. The evening of 10/12, they’ll be at the Hilton Hotel for the AIA annual design awards. Seewww.aiaalaskaconference.com/for details.
10/11-12:Alaska Pediatric Association meets at the Hotel Captain Cook. More info here.
10/12-13: Alaska Physical Therapy Association meets at Alyeska Resort for their fall conference. Details.
10/17-19:Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Convention in Fairbanks. Information here.
10/19-25: Alaska Occupational Safety Summit at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. Information is here.
10/23-24:Alaska Telecom Association Tech Showcase and trade show, Hilton Hotel in Anchorage. Details.
10/28-30:Alaska Chamber of Commerce Fall Forum at the Alyeska Hotel in Girdwood. Sign up here.
10/26-28:Alaska Principals Annual Conference at the Hilton Hotel in Anchorage. Register here.
10/31-11/3:Sitka Whalefest at the Sitka Sound Science Center. Details.
11/3-9: Alaska Miners Association Conference at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. Sign up here.
11/6-9: Associated General Contractors annual conference at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. More info here.
Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre makes another sortie from the Workers’ Paradise to the bourgeois hinterlands of Anchorage this week with a presentation of Steve Martin’s adaptation of “The Underpants” at the Sydney Laurence Theater at the PAC.
I’ve had a long and schizophrenic relationship with Perseverance Theatre going back to the mid-Nineties when I was the Juneau Empire’s theater critic.
It’s fair to say that I’ve almost always appreciated their performances and quite often disliked their plays.
First, a bit of background about; yes Steve Martin, the playwright, is that same “wild and crazy guy” of Saturday Night Live fame. Though it is little known outside artsy circles, Martin is a very successful award-winning writer, playwright, and dramatic actor.
Art Chance
Martin’s deconstructionist comedic style is perfectly in keeping with the Wilhelmine German origins of Carl Sternheim’s original play from 1910. Deconstruction and post-modernism have their roots in late-19thand early-20thCentury Germany.
Continuing the schizophrenic theme, belle époque Germany was riven by social dislocations. Germany had been an autocratic almost feudal agricultural society at mid-century. By the early 20th Century, only 30 percent of its population was engaged in agriculture, the cities dominated cultural and civic life, and it had surpassed England as the World’s leading industrial power.
The majority political party in the German Parliament was the Socialists and Wilhelmine and Wiemar Germany had a level of socialism and central government power that today’s US socialists can only imagine.
That said, the church and the traditional aristocracy were still very powerful and influential as witnessed by the fact that the Kaiser’s censors forced Steinheim to change the name of his play from “The Underpants” to “The Trousers.” In Wilhemine Germany the culture war took place largely in the arts. In Wiemar Germany the culture war took place in the streets. The few who know a little history know the result.
The New York Times said “The Underpants” was “laugh out loud funny.” If you read the NYT or the Anchorage Daily News, it is laugh out loud funny. If you don’t, you realize that if you laugh, you’re laughing at yourself.
Perseverance Theatre has never met a traditional value or figure that they didn’t want to make fun of; their idea of good fun and good art is to make St. Joan of Arc into a foul-mouthed lesbian barmaid.
The Underpants isn’t that extreme, but it has a go at just about every traditional role and institution. The overarching theme is a mostly-by-double-entendre attack on traditional sexual mores and gender roles. As usual, men get the worst of it, but the women aren’t spared. There are plenty of jabs at religion, government. Of course, we must have a few jabs about how anti-intellectual traditional men are.
In keeping with the deconstructionist approach, there aren’t really any likeable characters. Gertrude, the busy-body upstairs neighbor, played by Shadow Meienberg, comes closest. She encourages Louise Maske (Kelly Gibson) to adultery but redeems herself when she foregoes the opportunity for an adulterous romp with Louise’s husband, the insufferable Theo Maske (J. David Dahl).
There really isn’t a protagonist or anything like a hero in the story, but most of the play revolves around the interaction between Frank Versaci (Ben Brown) and Louise Maske. Frank witnessed Louise’s “wardrobe malfunction” and lost his mind over her as the result.
Ben does a superb job as the fey, foppish, wannabe poet and philosopher lecherously pursuing Louise.
Louise, dismissively referred to by Theo as a “little housewife,” is a ditz in the best Edith Bunker tradition. An adulterous fling with Frank fascinates her, but interestingly, it is Frank who abandons the quest for her virtue.
Tai Yen Kim’s Benjamin Cohen makes today’s pajama boys look like models of masculinity and his interactions with Theo give the vehicle for showing some good, traditional German anti-Semitism, which was in fact a real thing in Wilhemine Germany. Charles Cardwell’s Klinglehof, albeit a minor character, is used to make traditional attitudes look silly and weak in the face of onrushing modernity.
In sum, “The Underpants” is well acted and well staged as one can almost always expect from Perseverance. The themes from 1910 still reverberate over a century later. You’ll either like the play itself or you won’t. The snarky, pseudo-intellectual humor will appeal to sophomores of all ages. The adults among us have just learned to observe and grade adolescent snark whether we find it in art or politics.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He was once described by KTUU as the epitome of “toxic masculinity.”
