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Democrats block seating of black woman veteran in House

Suzanne Downing
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19
Democrats block seating of black woman veteran in House

TUCK AND TARR LEAD CHARGE AGAINST AMERICAN HERO

House Democrats today objected to the swearing in of the first African-American military hero in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Sharon Jackson, who served in the U.S. Army, and was also a military and veterans liaison to U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, was rebuked by the House Democrats, with Rep. Chris Tuck and Geran Tarr leading the charge to block her from being seated in the Alaska House.

Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer presided over the first two hours of the House. During much of the time, the chambers was in an at-ease, and members gathered to discuss procedures.

Democrats claim that Lt. Gov. Meyer doesn’t have the authority to swear in Jackson. That job, they say, goes to the Speaker Pro Tem, whom the Democrats and Republicans must elect.

But there’s nothing in Alaska Statute about swearing in. The swearing in ceremony is a formality, not addressed in Alaska law.

Democrats don’t want Jackson to be able to vote. They know they cannot win but seeking to create a bargaining chip to force their choice for Speaker Pro Tem.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy nominated Jackson to fill the vacant Alaska House of Representatives seat for the 13th District, Eagle River.

The statutes that are relevant to Jackson are:

15.40.320, which talks about how once there is a vacancy how someone is appointed. It says the governor has 30 days to appoint someone of same party and same district who vacated the office.

15.40.330, which refers to the confirmation of the appointment. The only legislators who have a role in the process are the members of the body of the same party as that who nominated the person.

That means the Republicans. Tuck, Tarr and the Democrats have zero statutory authority or role under the law.

14.40.340, which refers to the date of office of appointee. If the appointment is subject to confirmation, which this one is (by House Republicans), the term shall begin on the date when the appointment was confirmed.

That day is today.

In the Capitol, Republicans were heard asking, “Can you imagine the uproar if our side had blocked the seating of an African-American Democrat?”

Meyer recessed so that he could get the rest of the members signed in on the first day, largely a ceremonial process, and it allows for a cooling off period.

National Weather Service: Midwest storm to cause random loops

Suzanne Downing
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3

(45-second read) PACKAGES GOING TO ATTU? REALLY?

Another major snowstorm is on its way to the Plains and Midwest this weekend, and the National Weather Service in Kansas City says it will affect not only travel across the country but will add miles and miles of flight for packages going to Alaska.

According to the National Weather Service, a package leaving Kansas City will have to travel 9,624 and perform a random loop over the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, before landing in Attu.

The NWS says that the route above is the one that could likely be taken along the weather pattern to avoid the storm, and “a lot can happen along that journey to alter the end result.”

Attu, population 20, is the farthest island in the Aleutian Chain and there is no known UPS facility in Attu, although there is one in Kansas. Normally, a flight leaving Kansas City would travel 2,774 miles to Anchorage.

Must Read Alaska spoke with a Fed Ex pilot who could not figure out the map, and surmised that the National Weather Service may understand weather but flying packages to Alaska? Not so much.

Is it fake news or just a Weather Service social media intern with too much time on his hands?

 

Edie Grunwald to chair Parole Board

Suzanne Downing
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13

Gov. Michael Dunleavy has named Edie Grunwald as the incoming chair of the Alaska Parole Board, Must Read Alaska has learned.

Grunwald ran for lieutenant governor in 2018, and she is well-known across Alaska for her indomitable spirit, optimism in the face of adversity, and frank style of communication.

In a six-way primary, she came in second to Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, winning over 18,000 votes to Meyer’s 23,838.

She’s also well-known as the mother of a slain teen.

David Grunwald was a clean-cut 16-year-old when he was bludgeoned and shot. His body was found two and a half weeks later along the Knik River, outside of Palmer, where one of the murderers dumped it in November, 2016.

MILITARY EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Grunwald spent 31 years in the military, starting out as an Air Force aircraft mechanic, earning a commission, and then retiring as a colonel.

She earned two master’s degrees in Business Organizational Management, and Strategy, National Security and Military. She also earned a Senior Human Resources certification and is a USCCA Firearms Instructor.

SON’S MURDERERS GOING THROUGH JUSTICE SYSTEM 

But for the past two-plus years, Grunwald and her husband Ben Grunwald have often been found in a courtroom in Palmer, attending every emotional hearing for the six young men accused of their son’s death, listening to the testimony and offering victims statements. She has met with the parole officers for the pre-sentencing report, and taken calls from the media at every twist in the journey. As a parent, she has been through the legal system in dogged pursuit of justice for David.

The sentencing for the first person to be convicted, Erick Almandinger, is set for March 20, 2019. Almandinger was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, assault, and other charges. It was his gun that was used to beat Grunwald senseless, and then Almandinger was the one who drove Grunwald in Grunwald’s 1995 Ford Bronco to the Knik River location, and shot him once in the head. Then, he set the Bronco on fire.

Almandinger’s co-defendant Dominic Johnson was also found guilty by a Palmer jury on Dec. 27.

Others accused in the incident are Brad Renfro and Austin Barrett. A fifth young man, Devin Peterson, 19,  pleaded guilty last year to evidence tampering and hindering prosecution, but not murder.

Grunwald replaces Lonzo Henderson, who served as chair for several years. Her term will start on March 1.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Feds send earthquake disaster relief: $4.5 million to Labor Department

Suzanne Downing
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0
Feds send earthquake disaster relief: $4.5 million to Labor Department

FUNDS FOR EARTHQUAKE CLEANUP

The U.S. Department of Labor awarded up to $4.5 million in disaster funding to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development for temporary jobs to assist with cleanup, repair and reconstruction of public structures and facilities damaged by the Nov. 30 earthquake in Southcentral Alaska.

Disaster Dislocated Worker funds are discretionary grants the U.S. Secretary of Labor awards under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

The money will provide temporary jobs in cleanup, recovery and humanitarian efforts. Additionally, funds may be used to provide training and support services to workers who lost their jobs due to the disaster.

“It is critical that we focus on rebuilding our public infrastructure,” said Labor Commissioner Dr. Tamika Ledbetter. “This funding supports our commitment to invest in employment opportunities for rebuilding our public facilities, roads and schools, and provides opportunities for workers to gain transferrable skills, making it possible to move into permanent, self-sustaining employment. These efforts support our community as they recover and become even better prepared for the future.”

The department will coordinate grant funds with local staffing agencies and contractors to employ temporary workers for cleanup and repair at public and private nonprofit facilities. Due to extreme temperatures in winter, cleanup and restoration will likely be significantly higher in the spring and summer as weather permits.

If you have lost a job due to the earthquake, contact the Midtown Job Center at (907) 269-4759 or the Mat-Su Job Center at (907) 352-2500.

The job centers provide diverse assistance including enhanced career services, support services, work-based learning opportunities, training that leads to industry recognized credentials and direct employment referrals.

Census is a year from now, and it starts in Toksook Bay

Suzanne Downing
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0
Census is a year from now, and it starts in Toksook Bay

(1.5-minute read) THE BIG COUNT WILL ADD JOBS TO ALASKA’S GIG ECONOMY

The U.S. Constitution requires a counting of the population every 10 years to realign congressional representation. The next federal decennial Census will be taken in 2020, and it starts a year from this week in Toksook Bay.

Past communities that opened the national Census season were Noorvik in 2010 and Unalakleet in 2000 and 1990.

If you’re looking for a job, there will be a lot of these census gigs, and some of those are work-from-home jobs, while others are in the field. Some can last for several weeks, plus weeks of training.

Jobs include field representatives, who go from door to door with tablets, and at-home field representatives, who conduct census calls while in their sweat pants at the kitchen table.

Some of these jobs in Alaska will start later this year, after fishing season, due to training. But because of the federal government’s partial shutdown, those interested might have to wait a few days for the Los Angeles office to get up and running.

The census not only determines how many representatives each state gets in Congress, it’s used to redraw district boundaries.

[Information for Census jobs can be found at this link to U.S. Census Office in Los Angeles]

With Alaska’s high unemployment of 7.1 percent, the work is welcome by hundreds of families and individual Alaskans. Most of the urban areas are counted by phone, but in rural areas, it is difficult to get an accurate count because people come and go in villages, so often local field staff is employed.

BETHEL DEADLINE

The U.S. Census has a job in Bethel for a partnership specialist (tribal.) Posted last week, the closing date is Jan. 30. The salary range is $45,900 to $105,847 per year.

The Bethel area encompasses Toksook, one of three villages located on Nelson Island, 115 miles northwest of Bethel, an area inhabited by Yup’ik Eskimos for thousands of years. The City of Toksook was incorporated in 1972.

In 2010, the Toksook census showed 590 residents. Today, about 638 residents are estimated to live there.

Details on the Bethel job are here.

Sen. Sullivan won’t take pay during shutdown

Suzanne Downing
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4
Sen. Sullivan won’t take pay during shutdown

Sen. Dan Sullivan said he will refuse his paycheck during the partial government shutdown.

“Many Alaskans have asked me if I will be receiving a paycheck during the partial federal government shutdown,” he said in a statement Friday. “My answer is that I will not. I have instructed the Secretary of the U.S. Senate to withhold my pay until other federal workers get paid. I know this situation is tough for federal workers and their families and I’m hoping that a solution is reached soon.”

In the meantime, he said, Congress had passed a bill to ensure federal workers receive their paychecks retroactively. Sullivan said he supported the bill and will keep working with federal agencies to try to minimize the impact of the shutdown on Alaskans.

Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of federal workforce that has been impacted by the shutdown. Many agencies are open and functioning due to appropriations, but some, like the Department of Interior, are in shutdown status.

A handful of other members of Congress have said they will donate their salaries or have them withheld, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Max Rose, D-NY, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Haw., Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

The partial government shutdown is now the longest one in U.S. history.

The Senate convenes at 3 pm on Monday.

 

State population slips for second year

Suzanne Downing
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1
State population slips for second year

(1.5-minute read) 2,386 PEOPLE LEFT ANCHORAGE LAST YEAR

For the second year in a row, Alaska’ population has slumped. Some 1,608 people left the state in 2018, according to new numbers from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

But the trend is flattening. The previous year, 7,577 Alaskans packed up and hit the road for somewhere else.

Anchorage lost the most, with a drop of 2,386 city residents. The previous year, 4,821 people had parted ways with the state’s biggest (and only) metropolis.

According to Anchorage School District charts, the Anchorage schools lost 1,556 students between the fall of 2016 and the fall of 2018.

Some of the people exiting Anchorage moved to the Mat-Su Borough, the only area of the state experiencing noticeable growth, adding nearly 2,000 residents in 2017 and 2018 combined.

As of July, 2018, Alaska’s total population was 736,239, down from the peak of 739,676 in 2016.

Net migration— people moving in minus people moving out of state — accounted for a loss of 7,577 people between 2017 and 2018, while natural increase, or births minus deaths, added 5,969 people. All six regions of the state showed net migration losses.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough grew, gaining 1,355 people.

But Yakutat lost the most people proportionally, at 3.7 percent last year and 2.8 percent the year before. Lake and Peninsula Borough’s population shrunk 3.6 percent and Prince of Wales Island’s population dropped 2.4 percent.

Alaska’s under-18 and 18-to-64-year-old populations each declined 0.9 percent, but the 65-and-older cohort grew more than 5 percent.

The Kusilvak Census Area (formerly known as Wade Hampton Census Area) median age was 24.1. Haines Borough’s median age was the state’s older at nearly 49.

The Department of Labor Research and Analysis Section website has more detail.

Barrow judge retires after being hit by truck, disabled

Suzanne Downing
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1

(2-minute read) DUNLEAVY TO NAME NEW JUDGE  FOR UTQIAGVIK

Barrow Superior Court Judge Angela Greene didn’t stand for retention last year. It has been a harsh two years for her health-wise, and now she will be leaving the bench altogether.

Greene appeared to have suffered a mini stroke while she was presiding over a case in Kotzebue in September, 2016, just two years into her time as a judge. Presiding Judge Paul Roetman took her to the hospital, and she eventually ended up at the Cleveland Clinic in October of 2016.

The event was serious enough that the Alaska Judicial Conduct Commission investigated whether she was able to continue as a judge. But after receiving a letter from her physicians that was not conclusive, the commission didn’t pursue calling for her retirement.

But then, after returning to work, the judge was hit by a large water delivery truck in Utqiagvik (also known as Barrow) in December of 2017. She was rendered unconscious, and ended up with lingering cognitive difficulties.

Chief Justice Stowers asked the judicial conduct commission to determine if Greene could continue as a judge, and the commission found that she “suffers from a disability that seriously interferes with the performance of judicial duties and that is or may become permanent.”

Judge Greene did not oppose the findings, but the recommendation from the commission needed to go to the Alaska Supreme Court for an actual decision. The Supreme Court specifically noted that her retirement was not due to judicial misconduct.

Greene had replaced Judge Michael Jeffrey, who retired in 2014. She was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell, after working as the supervising public defender for the Alaska Public Defender Agency for Nome and Kotzebue. She had also worked as a public defender in Bethel and Barrow and was a  volunteer with the Lion’s Club in Bethel, Arctic Outreach Programs with the U.S. Coast Guard, and local food bank programs. She had been on archaeological digs all over the world.

Greene received a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and a juris doctorate from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She spend years in Bush Alaska as a public defender, traveling from Savoonga to Kaktovik and numerous other communities.

Greene will leave office on Feb. 4, 2019, having served four years and one month of service as a judge.

The Alaska Judicial Council opened the position in October. The council will recommend two or three names to the governor.

Currently, David L. Roghair, Dianne Thoben, and Nelson Traverso are the applicants who will be interviewed for the sole superior court position in Utqiagvik.

That court last year had 343 cases filed, including 88 felony cases, 63 child-in-need-of-aid cases, 25 delinquency cases, 37 domestic relations cases, 79 general civil cases and 51 probate matters. The Utqiagvik judge hears both criminal and civil matters and earns $239,724 a year.

Roghair is a magistrate judge in Utqiagvik, Thoben is an public defender in Palmer, and Traverso is in private practice in Fairbanks.

The scoring for the three from the Alaska Judicial Council can be found here.

Gene Therriault out at Alaska Gasline Development Corp.

Suzanne Downing
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2

ALSO GONE, CHIEF OF ALASKA ENERGY AUTHORITY

The government relations director at the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation has been released by the corporation.

Former North Pole legislator Gene Therriault had been hired by former AGDC President Keith Meyer, who was fired on Thursday.

AGDC hired Therriault to assist in government relations under a shared services agreement with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, where Therriault worked on the Interior Energy Project, which is now under local control  in Fairbanks.

The primary contract with Therriault was through AGDC. With that ended, it appears that his AIDEA contract also ends.

Therriault was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1992 at the age of 32. He served in the House for 17 years and was co-chair of the House Finance Committee for two terms and was Senate President for one term.

Therriault was briefly a senior policy advisor on in-state energy in the governor’s office under Gov. Sean Parnell.

Janet Reiser also was released from running the Alaska Energy Authority. Reiser is the former chair of the board of Chugach Electric Association, Inc.

On Wednesday, Al Fogle was added to the AEA board of directors to a term that expires in June of 2020. Fogle ran for House Seat 26 unsuccessfully and was recently hired as the Vice President of the Alaska Chamber of Commerce.

Also new to the board were these appointments:

  • Julie Sande of Ketchikan, owner of Marble Construction, White Rock Development, White Rock Holdings, Hump Island Oyster Co., and Marble Seafoods.
  • Bill Kendig, who is a real estate professional, with 20 years on the Knik-Fairview Community Council and three years on the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission. He is on the the Board of Directors for Matanuska Electric Association.
  • Julie Anderson, the commissioner of the Department of Commerce.

The AEA board is the same board that oversees the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

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