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How the mainstream media sandbagged March for Life

Suzanne Downing
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8
How the mainstream media sandbagged March for Life

(2-minute read) WOMEN’S MARCH RECEIVED FAWNING COVERAGE

The 2019 Women’s March on Saturday received roughly 15 times more television news coverage than Friday’s March for Life, according to the Media Research Center.

The Women’s March’s took place on Saturday despite widespread concerns about anti-Semitism at the organization’s leadership level.

One day before that march, now in its third year, the pro-life March for Life occurred.

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck examined the coverage each event received on the ABC, CBS, and NBC morning and evening newscasts:

Between Wednesday morning and Saturday evening, the Women’s March had 14 minutes and 26 seconds of coverage, and the March for Life received just 58 seconds.

“For the March for Life, ABC and CBS were especially pitiful,” he wrote.

The full story is here.

What coverage there was of the March for Life centered on a now-discredited fictitious account of a young Catholic youth who the media alleged was disrespectful of a Native American man who was drumming and chanting. The media was basing its story largely on Twitter and on the one-sided account of the Native American.

The story went viral and every major mainstream media outlet picked it up. Even conservative commentators like S.E. Cupp bit hard on the hook and ran out the line.

It turned out to be false, but not before some children from Covington Catholic High School were bullied and defamed. There were death threats. Even a boy who wasn’t the one accused of the rude behavior was bullied, in a case of mistaken identity. The reputation damage is incalculable for the institution and the student.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/julie-irwin-zimmerman-i-failed-covington-catholic-test/580897/

The mainstream media still doesn’t get it. But the incident is a caution to good-hearted people everywhere to be extra cautious about what is zipping around the internet. A story like that usually gets halfway around the world before the truth even knows where it set down its shoes. It was shameful.

And it will likely be repeated again and again, with the mainstream media like The Atlantic Monthly, CNN, ABC, NBC, New. York Times, Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times getting a pass, while other not-always-credible news purveyors, such as Alex Jones’ InfoWars, were banned by social media site Facebook and Twitter for stories with far less negative impact.

House members to begin informal hearings

Suzanne Downing
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6
House members to begin informal hearings

(2-minute read) COMMITTEE-FREE EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS TO PROCEED

With no majority caucus in place, some Alaska House of Representatives members are getting antsy. There may be no organization for days to come and they’re hearing from the folks back home that the situation is unacceptable.

But a group of Republican legislators has the answer: They plan to start informal informational meetings, open to all legislators, that allow the members to learn about some of the key elements of the budget and other critical concerns.

They won’t be the formal hearings that take place in committees once the House is organized and the committee memberships are determined. But they’re a start.

In a press conference today, Reps. Dave Talerico, Chuck Kopp, and Tammy Wilson announced the first of the upcoming meetings:

Rep. Wilson (R-North Pole) will hold a meeting on the State’s Revenue Forecast on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 1 pm in the House Finance Room with Department of Revenue Commissioner Bruce Tangeman.

Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard (R-Wasilla) will host a jobs forecast meeting with Labor Commissioner Tamika Ledbetter on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 3 pm in Capitol Room 106, as well as an economic outlook presentation with Dr. Mouhcine Guettabi from UAA’s Institute for Social and Economic Research at 3 pm on Friday, Jan  25, also in Capitol Room 106.

“We open our work this week focusing on Alaska’s 2019 Alaska economic forecast: jobs, industry, healthcare and regional economic outlook,” said Rep. Sullivan-Leonard. “Special emphasis will be given to an assessment of Alaska’s economy and statewide recession forecast and how our caucus can help in moving this agenda forward in the best interest of Alaskans and Alaska’s sustainability.”

Having these different meetings before legislators get the Dunleavy budget on Feb. 13 will allow the newer members of the Legislature to get up to speed on the matters that they’ll be deliberating as they think about the smaller budget they anticipate receiving from the governor.

The House is comprised this year of 25 percent freshman class, many of whom are eager to get to work, but have a steep learning curve on complicated issues. Another concern is that House members expect that the budget presented to them by the Dunleavy Administration will be structured differently than in years past.

Wilson called it a unique opportunity for the entire House to hear presentations that would normally be given in committees that meet at the same time other committees are meeting. Those scheduling conflicts usually prevent legislators from being able to absorb important information from other committees.

The meetings will be open to all, Wilson said, and that means Democrats and Republicans will be working together. An invitation to attend was sent to all members of the House and their respective staffs.

“We’re going to need to immediately pivot to some pretty important things,” Talerico said following the conference. “These informational meetings are being held to make sure we don’t get stuck behind the curve when there’s so much to get done on the budget, economy, public safety improvements, and resource development.”

More member-initiated informational meetings will be announced at a press conference on Wednesday morning, the group said.

STATE OF THE STATE

Rep. Talerico said that the Republicans and Democrats are still in discussion about how to handle the State of the State. It is currently scheduled for 7 pm on Tuesday, as scheduled by the Senate, but it’s unclear if the House will be able to host the event, since there is no permanent Speaker.

Rep. Neal Foster of Nome is Speaker Pro Tem. The House has cancelled its floor session that was scheduled for 11 am Monday.

Voter rolls show Rs are growing, Ds are shrinking

Suzanne Downing
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1
Voter rolls show Rs are growing, Ds are shrinking

ALASKA REPUBLICANS MAINTAIN 2-1 DOMINANCE IN VOTER STRENGTH

In the latest release of data from the Division of Elections, Republican registrations grew, while Alaska Democrat registrations shrank, year over year.

The Division of Elections this month published its latest data on registered voters. Here’s what it shows:

Republicans: 143,726 are registered in January, 2019, up from 141,636 one year ago, a gain of 2,090 voters

Democrats: 75,817 are registered in January, 2019, down from 76,362 one year ago, a loss of 585 voters.

Overall voter registrations: 575,449 total registrations in January, 2019, up from 531,749 in January, 2018, due to automatic registrations, which dumps unregistered people into the undeclared category. A gain of 43,700 voters overall.

Bottom line: Republicans outnumber Democrats in Alaska, 2 to 1. But nonaligned voters exceed both parties combined.

BUCKING A TREND

The Rasmussen Report reports that there are 31 states (plus the District of Columbia) with party registration; in the others, such as Virginia, voters register without reference to party.

In 19 states and the District of Columbia, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans.

In just 12 states, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats.

In aggregate, 40 percent of all voters in party registration states are Democrats, 29 percent are Republicans, and 28 percent are independents, according to Rasmussen Report. The Democrats advantage in the party registration states is about 12 million.

Filing period begins for Anchorage Assembly

Suzanne Downing
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3

(3-minute read) WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW

The filing period for the April 2, 2019 Municipal election began Friday and ends Feb. 1, 2019 at 5 pm.

This will be the first full mail-in-only election that Anchorage will have held since it began using the method in 2017.

In 2017, the election was for Mayor, School Board seats and a hotly contested ballot initiative. In August, 2018, there was a minor mail-in-only election for Assembly Seat D, which was vacated by Tim Steele and was limited to West Anchorage.

This time, however, half of the Assembly is up for election, as well as a third of the School Board.

Although the Municipal Clerk’s Office is closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 21, candidates may send in their declaration of candidacy.

Those seeking information about how to file may have to search long and hard on the municipality’s web site, as the Election Division and Clerk’s Office pages are now difficult to find, after a recent web site remodel. We’ve posted relevant links below:

For Assembly, the seats up for election are:

  • District 2- Seat A – Eagle River/Chugiak. This seat is now held by Gretchen Wehmoff, who was appointed by the Assembly to fill out the term of Amy Demboski, when Demboski joined the Dunleavy Administration.
  • District 3- Seat D – West Anchorage, an area represented by Eric Croft and Austin Quinn-Davidson. Although he filed, Croft is bowing out because he has moved to another district. It’s his seat that is up for election. He is pushing the candidacy of like-minded Kameron Perez-Verdia.
  • District 4- Seat F – Midtown Anchorage, an area represented by Dick Traini and Felix Rivera. Traini is term-limited and cannot run again, for the second time in his career, and it’s his seat that is up for election.
  • District 5-Seat H – East Anchorage, an area represented by Forrest Dunbar and Pete Petersen. It’s Dunbar’s seat that is up for election. He is the chair of the Assembly.
  • District 6- Seat J – South Anchorage, an area represented by John Weddleton and Suzanne LaFrance. It’s Weddleton’s seat that is up for election.
  • The assembly candidate packet is here.

Eight candidates have already filed for Assembly:

District 2- Seat A: (This article has been corrected. No one has filed for this seat at of Jan. 23)

District 3- Seat D: Kameron Perez-Verdia, a Democrat.

District 4- Seat F: Christine Hill, a Republican, with Al Fogle as campaign chair and Julie Tisdale as treasurer. Megan Allison-Zalatel, a no-party candidate, has also filed.

District 5- Seat H: Forrest Dunbar, a Democrat.

Seat J: John Weddleton, no-party candidate.

For School Board, the seats up for election are:

Three candidates have filed so far:

Seat A: Margo Bellamy, a no-party candidate and Warren James Smallwood, a no-party candidate.

Seat B: Starr Marsett, a Democrat.

Board of Supervisors, including Road Service Areas packet can be found at this link:

Boards of Supervisors, including LRSA

Candidates for Municipal office must reside in the municipality of Anchorage, be a qualified voter, and meet other criteria. As for ballot initiatives, the deadline for submitting petition signatures is Jan. 28.

The complete election calendar with deadlines is linked here.

Click here for the Municipal Clerk’s Office, which has more information.

Diversity by the numbers

Suzanne Downing
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3
Diversity by the numbers

LEGISLATURE GETTING MORE VARIED, BUT POWER SHIFTS TO VALLEY

Although Must Read Alaska doesn’t subscribe to Identity Politics Monthly, we love demographics.

It’s worth noting on the eve of Martin Luther King Day that the Alaska Legislature is more diverse than at any point in its history.

By the numbers, (keeping in mind that MRAK didn’t do a DNA test on any of them):

  • African-Americans: 2-Senate (10 percent), 1-House (2.5 percent)
  • Native Alaskans: 2-Senate (10 percent), 4-House (10 percent)
  • Japanese-Americans: 1 Senate (5 percent)
  • Women: 6-Senate (30 percent), 17-House (42.5 percent)
  • Jewish: 1-Senate, 2-House

The first Senate in Alaska in January of 1959, consisted of 19 men and one woman, Irene Ryan. In the House, three women served in that session.

By the 10th Alaska Legislature, in 1977-79, one woman served in the Senate and three served in the House.

Back then, there were only two House members from Eagle River and one from Palmer. Today, two House members serve Eagle River — Reps. Sharon Jackson and Kelly Merrick. Meanwhile, the Mat-Su Valley has grown by leaps and bounds and instead of one representative, there are six — Reps. Mark Neuman, Cathy Tilton, DeLena Johnson, George Rauscher, Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, and David Eastman. Ketchikan has lost representation; it has just one representative, down from the two it had in 1979.

Most of the racial diversity is in the Democrats’ caucus. Although Republicans offered a diverse slate in 2018, in districts that were heavily Democrat, the candidates didn’t do as well with liberal voters.

But the Dunleavy Administration has picked up both Ceezar Martinson and Stanley Wright, Republican African-Americans who ran in Democrat-leaning districts in Anchorage and lost to Caucasian candidates.

Republican voters typically reject identity politics, preferring merit and experience.

Dunleavy appoints 24 to board, commission posts

Suzanne Downing
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0
Dunleavy appoints 24 to board, commission posts

(1-minute read) NAMES DARROL HARGRAVES, TAMMY RANDOLPH TO BOARD OF REGENTS

Gov. Michael Dunleavy announced two dozen appointments on Friday, (some of which have already been reported by Must Read Alaska, while others are news):

State of Alaska Board of Education and Early Development

  • Sally Stockhausen of Ketchikan
  • Bob Griffin of Anchorage
  • Tiffany Scott of Kotzebue (reappointed)

Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority Board of Trustees

  • Joe Riggs of Anchorage
  • Ken McCarty of Eagle River
  • John Sturgeon of Anchorage

Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and Alaska Energy Authority (AEA):

  • Albert Fogle of Anchorage
  • Bill Kendig of Wasilla
  • Julie Sande of Anchorage (and Ketchikan)

Alaska Retirement Management Board

  • Allen Hippler of Anchorage
  • Lorne Bretz of Anchorage

University of Alaska Board of Regents

  • Darrol Hargraves of Wasilla
  • Tammy Randolph of North Pole

State Board of Parole

  • Edie Grunwald of Palmer (designated as Chair of the Board)

Board of Pharmacy

  • Leif Holm of North Pole

Board of Barbers and Hairdressers

  • Jessica Steele of Wasilla

Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

  • Charles Cross of Nome

Alaska Labor Relations Agency

  • Paula Harrison of Anchorage
  • Bob Shefchik of Fairbanks

Alaska State Board of Public Accountancy

  • Karen Smith of Anchorage
  • Wes Tegeler of Wasilla

Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives

  • Dr. Dana Espindola of Eagle River

Board of Agriculture and Conservation

  • John Anderson of Fairbanks

Board of Certified Real Estate Appraisers

  • Ashlee Stetson

 

Total lunar eclipse on Sunday

Suzanne Downing
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0

(1-minute read) SOMETHING BESIDES YOUR I-PHONE WILL GLOW IN THE DARK

Sunday will provide many Alaskans with a peek at a total lunar eclipse. That’s when the shadow of the earth will pass over the full moon, as the earth passes between the sun and the moon.

In Alaska, the eclipse will begin at 5:36 pm, but will not be noticeable at first. The total eclipse will start at approximately 7:41 pm with total darkness at 8:12 pm; the eclipse will end by 8:43. The entire event lasts five hours and 11 minutes. Telescopes and binoculars are helpful in seeing it and allow you to see the changes in the moon’s color as the earth shadow moves across it.

Anchorage weather may get in the way of moon-gazers, although the forecast is for mostly clear weather with a low of 3 degrees. People in Wasilla and north have a better chance of seeing the phenomenon. Being away from ambient lights, and street lights, will help.

Watch this animation of how the eclipse will look from the Fairbanks vantage.

During totality, the full moon will not disappear, but will turn a rusty red color. This lunar eclipse coincides with what is sometimes called the “wolf moon,” which is a name for the January full moon.

Anchorage women sit this march out

Suzanne Downing
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3
Anchorage women sit this march out

(3-minute read) JUNEAU MARCHES SAME DAY AS NATIONAL ORGANIZATION ACCUSED OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Although about 650 women participated in the Women’s March in Juneau on Saturday, Anchorage women didn’t sally forth this year.

Not yet, anyway. Not with the National Women’s March under so much condemnation.

Last year, 3,000 women gathered on the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage for the second Women’s March, an event launched in 2017 to protest President Donald Trump and his ilk.

The protestors, back then wearing “pink pussy hats” decried the racism and bigotry that they blame Trump for bringing to the country.

This year, it’s the national Women’s March organization itself that is being accused of racism and bigotry. And the seething rage at Donald Trump just wasn’t enough to get people out on a bluebird winter day in Anchorage. Where they did rally around the country, few pink hats were to be seen. That was so 2017.

NATIONAL GROUP UNDER FIRE

The national umbrella organization Women’s March leadership is accused of harboring anti-semitic views, and particularly for not decisively denouncing Louis Farrakhan, who has lobbed unmistakably bigoted, racist remarks.

Farrakhan is the leader of the black nationalist hate group Nation of Islam, and is has a long record of hate language against Jews.
He’s also had a welcome mat put out for him by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and even with President Barack Obama.
During a February, 2018 speech in Chicago, Farrakhan said, “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”
He also said, “White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through.”
He later said, “Let me tell you something, when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.”
DOUBLE STANDARD?

Juneau women were possibly not concerned about the national organization’s co-chair Tamika Mallory, who attended the remarks by Farrakhan last year and wrote on Twitter, “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan just stepped to the mic for #SD16DET… I’m super ready for this message! #JUSTICEORELSE #ForTheLoveOfFlint.”

Just this fall, Juneau Democrats ran a campaign of personal destruction against Juneau Republican women for what Democrats said was an anti-semitic flyer against Senate candidate and Democrat Jesse Kiehl.

The flyer said, “If you give him your vote, you may as well give him your wallet,” a clear indication that he is a tax-and-spend liberal.

But that’s not how the Left spun it, and they frothed the issue until it became a top story at KTOO, accusing Republican women of anti-semitism.

Kiehl is Jewish. He never denounced the effort to smear the Republican women, which culminated in one of the women being accosted at a local grocery story, and being called a “racist bitch” by an aggressive and threatening Juneau Democrat.

Even then-Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s chief of staff Claire Richardson got in on the action, and blaming on Facebook a post denouncing the women and demanding an apology.

But that was then.

At Saturday’s Juneau march, Kiehl was in attendance for the march, as were Democrat Reps. Sara Hannan and spite of the fact that the Democratic National Committee and even Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have withdrawn support for the Women’s March as an organization.

Re. Grier Hopkins also attended the Juneau march, but unlike last year, former Rep. Justin Parish, a Juneauite, stayed away. He did not run for his office after getting accused of harassment. Other representatives in the past who attended the Women’s March in 2017 were deposed Rep. Dean Westlake and Rep. Zach Fansler.

Marches also took place in Homer, Ketchikan, Sitka, Fairbanks, and Nome. In all, it appears that about 1,000 women in Alaska participated this year, a precipitous drop from participation in past years.

The Juneau march, as did some others around the West, focused on missing indigenous women, which critics say is a new cause du jour that has emerged over the past year in Alaska, replacing once “crisis” issues like Trump, and sexual assault on women as an injustice to rally around.

Across the nation, the turnout was modest compared to the past two years. In Seattle, where it was dubbed the Womxn’s  March (putting an x over men), some 10,000 attended, compared with 100,000 in the march’s first year.

‘He fell to his knees and I shot him again’

Suzanne Downing
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55
‘He fell to his knees and I shot him again’

WRITE THE PAROLE BOARD: JONATHAN NORTON IS A DANGER TO SOCIETY

BY RALPH SAMUELS
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Oct. 5, 1989. It was a Thursday. It was the day that changed everything. And for parts of me, that day has been going on for 30 years.

Oct. 5, 1989 was the day that my father, my brother-in-law and I found my older brother’s murdered body stuffed into a closet in his south Anchorage home. Duane Samuels had been shot three times.

Autopsy reports advised us that there was “starring” on his skull surrounding the head shot, which means the last thing Duane ever felt was the barrel of a .357 magnum being put to his head.

Duane was a civil engineer who worked for the Corp of Engineers on Shemya Island in the Aleutians. He worked several weeks on, several weeks off.

Jonathan Norton was a disturbed sixteen-year-old Service High School student.  Prior to Oct. 4, he had robbed Duane’s home, as well as several other homes in the neighborhood.  But during his robberies, Norton had failed to find the keys to Duane’s car that was parked in the driveway.  So he returned.

What happened next was not a drug deal gone bad, or someone being on the wrong side of the tracks after midnight. Duane was in his own home near De Armoun Road on Oct. 4 at about 10 am when the doorbell rang.

The interview with Norton conducted by APD detectives painted a grim picture of what happened next.

APD:  Did you know he (Duane) was home?

Norton:  Yes, that’s why I brought the gun.

APD:  What did you do then (after shooting Duane)?

Norton:  He fell to his knees and I shot him again.

APD:  What happened then?

Norton:  He was crawling across the floor towards the closet, and I shot him in the head.

After killing Duane, Norton took Duane’s car, and threw the gun in the woods near Service High School. What he did next shows how truly callous and heartless a person he is.  Norton returned to Duane’s house several times.  The first time, he moved the body into the closet, grabbed a 7-Up from the fridge and left.  The next time he returned to show off my brother’s dead body to his friend David. The next time, Norton returned to the house to steal beer out of Duane’s refrigerator.

Duane Samuels was 29 years old.

Norton murdered Duane on Oct. 4.  We found my brother’s body on October 5, and APD arrested Norton on October 6, driving Duane’s car.

[READ: Ralph Samuels 1995 victim impact statement]

For the better part of the next decade, various lawyers and judges argued about whether or not Norton should be treated as an adult, whether the police erred in not calling his parents prior to the confession and other assorted technical issues (none of which challenged the fact that Norton murdered Duane Samuels). Norton, through his attorneys, attempted to keep my family from attending any of the hearings, claiming that our presence would do nothing to help, but would “inflame the passions of the court.” We won that particular battle and were allowed to attend all proceedings.

During these proceedings, we learned a good deal about Jonathon Norton. Prior to the murder, his parents placed him in a Charter North Behavior Health program due to mental health issues. In his video taped confession, Norton claimed to be very angry the day of the murder due to the fact that Save High School had wanted him to take psychological tests prior to admittance.

Norton stated that “I am sick of taking these tests, I have been doing it my whole life.”

Grand Jury testimony given by a high school acquaintance of Norton’s stated that in the week leading up to the murder, Norton had repeatedly stated that he was going to get the car, and going to kill the guy in order to do it.

After years of legal wrangling, the murder confession was allowed into court, Norton pled guilty and was sentenced to 99 years, the maximum allowed by law. He was given a chance to reduce this by 10 years if he finished a program to receive a GED while in prison (although, I still fail to see how securing a GED will help protect the public from a sociopathic murderer).

Alas, a life sentence is not really a life sentence, even for the most brutal of killers. Jonathan Norton will have his first parole hearing in February 2019. My sister, her husband, my parents and I will travel back in time to Oct. 5, 1989, and relive the gruesome, brutal details of that day all over again.

What violent crime does to families is nothing short of horrific. Parents of murdered children, rape victims and other victims of violence have to learn to live with what happened, but they never truly recover, nor do they forget.

The simplest question, “how many siblings do you have?” takes me back to that life-changing day in 1989. “Two . . . err . . . one . . . uh . . . I have a sister.”  Acquaintances who are simply asking polite questions don’t really want to hear the whole story, and I don’t really want to tell it over and over again.

For a long time after the murder, my father was unable to open the closet in his own home, as it reminded him of how he found his oldest son.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Jonathan Norton has served only the minimum time allowed under his sentence.  His parole hearing is in mid-February.  If you agree with me that the events of Oct. 4/5, 1989, deserve more than the minimum, you can let the Parole Board know your feelings at [email protected] with a copy to Kathy Hanson at the Office of Victims Rights at [email protected].

Your input can truly make a difference.  I believe it is simply not fair to the Samuels family to have the murderer serve only the minimum of his sentence, not to mention the danger to the public if he is released.  And more importantly, it certainly isn’t fair to Duane Samuels.

The story of wasted youth that the Parole Board should concern itself with is the story of the victim: a polite, respectful, hard-working 29-year-old whose life was sadistically and needlessly taken.

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