Monday, October 12, 2026
Home Blog Page 1507

MRAK Almanac: The ‘sleep when we die’ edition

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
-
1
MRAK Almanac: The ‘sleep when we die’ edition

PRODUCED BY KOBE RIZK

The MRAK Almanac is your place for political, cultural, and civic events, events where you’ll meet political leaders or, if you are interested in getting to know your state, these are great places to meet conservative- and moderate-leaning Alaskans.

Summer solstice has arrived. The longest day of the year, and the sun will rise higher in the sky than it will any other day of 2019. It’s all downhill from here. (BLM photo of midnight sun from Eagle Summit, Steese National Conservation Area. It’s the highest point on the highway and you can see the midnight sun there, even though you are not at the Arctic Circle).

Ketchikan will clock in with 17 hours and 27 minutes of sunshine.

Juneau will receive 18 hours and 16 minutes of official daylight.

Kenai will bask in 19 hours and 5 minutes.

Anchorage will see 19 hours and 21 minutes.

Fairbanks will enjoy sun for 21 hours and 50 minutes.

Since the beginning of May, the sun in the northernmost Alaska town of Utqiagvik will be up all day, not setting again until the beginning of August.

6/20-6/23: The International Food Blogger Conference is ongoing in Alaska’s capital city of Juneau. Over 250 food bloggers, techies, and culinary enthusiasts of all stripes will assemble at this unique gustatory gathering. Read about the conference here.

6/20-6/23: Seldovia will celebrate the occasion at the 20th Annual Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival. The festival will include live music all weekend and many vendors and performances on Main Street downtown. Visit the Facebook page here for the full schedule.

 6/21: Alaska Goldpanners play the 114th Midnight Sun Baseball Game at Growden Park in Fairbanks. Tickets are $25 and first pitch is at 10 pm.

 6/21: Deadline to submit items for consideration by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board at their July 9 meeting in Fairbanks. Further information here.

 6/21: Deadline to submit applications and other items to be considered by the Alaska Marijuana Control Board at their July 10-12 meeting in Fairbanks. More info here.

 6/21: The State Medical Review Committee will hold a public meeting in Anchorage beginning at 10 am. The role of this committee is to review the cost and necessity of medical services provided under the Worker’s Compensation Act. Find the agenda here.

6/21: Solstice Cemetery Tour of the Anchorage Cemetery. Learn history through the lives of 10 notable Alaskans buried in the Memorial Park with graveside presentations about colorful pioneers, local business people, elected officials, activists, artists and admirable community leaders. Meet at 6 pm at the John Bagoy gate, 7th Avenue and Cordova Street.  The tour is free and is conducted rain or shine.

 6/21: Midnight Sun Open Market at the Mat-Su Resort in Wasilla. There will be live music, BBQ, and a beer garden—admission is free. Begins at noon with live music starting at 7 pm. Read more here.

 6/21: Music in the Park at Wonderland Park in Wasilla beginning at 6 pm. In addition to live music, there will be food vendors, prizes, and fun for all ages. Visit this link for details.

 6/21: Interior Alaska GOP will host their weekly luncheon at Denny’s in Fairbanks. Lunch begins at 11:30 am. The guest of honor this week is North Pole Representative Tammie Wilson. Should be interesting.

 6/21: Summer Solstice Outdoor Dance celebration at the Noyes Pavilion in Juneau. No prior dancing experience expected. Begins at 7 pm. Read more here.

 6/21: Interested in being a State Trooper? There will be a written test in Fairbanks for the spring 2020 Alaska State Trooper Academy. All testers must register in advance here.

 6/22: 12th annual Iron Pour Art Fest at the Alaska Transportation Museum in Wasilla starting at 10 am. This event features blacksmithing, glass blowing, food, and fun for the kids.

 6/22: Lace up for the 37th annual Midnight Sun Run in Fairbanks. The 10K begins at 10 pm at UAF and winds through several Fairbanks neighborhoods, eventually ending in Pioneer Park. Costumes are never required, but always entertaining. Register here.

6/22: Sealaska Shareholders Annual Meeting in Anchorage. Details here.

 6/22: Join the Kenai community at the Diamond M Ranch Solstice Music Festival at Matti’s Farm. Come out and enjoy many live musicians including Meghan Linsey (“The Voice”) and The Pepper Shakers. Starts at 11:30 am. Tickets required. For more info, visit the Facebook link here.

6/22: Zoolstice celebration at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. There will also be a blood drive, and of course live music. Details here.

 6/22: Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon (and half-marathon) sponsored by ConocoPhillips Alaska. Register for the race here.

 6/22: Annual Solstice Brewfest at 49th State Brewing in Healy. Hundreds of campers and RV’s will descend upon the small community of Healy to celebrate this annual tradition, complete with live music and a sprawling block party. Read more here.

 6/22: Downtown Anchorage Summer Solstice Festival and Hero Games from noon to 6 pm. Grab your shades or sunhat and take a stroll through beautiful downtown while enjoying axe throwing competitions, an APD cruiser demo, a Harley-Davidson showcase, and so much more. View the full lineup here. 

 6/22: Dragonfly Day at Tanana Lakes in Fairbanks. This family friendly event open to all ages will offer nature walks aimed at catching and identifying native dragonflies. Nets provided. Begins at 11 am, read more here.

 6/23: Midnight Sun Festival in downtown Fairbanks, starting at noon. This annual event will feature 45 live performances and over 200 food and craft vendors lining the streets. It’s Alaska’s largest single-day event, with up to 30,000 residents expected to attend this year. Details here.

 6/21-6/23: First ever Seward Seabird Festival in celebration of the arrival of Alaska’s many species of seabirds, some coming all the way from the South Pole. There will be birding competitions, food and vendors, and plenty of fun for the whole family. See the detailed schedule at this link.

Plan to grill out? It’s always smart to brush up on your BBQ food safety knowledge, courtesy of the CDC. Visit this link.

Alaska History Archive:

June 20, 1940: 79 years ago—a Pan American Airlines flight left Fairbanks en route to Seattle with a special mission: to initiate the first ever next-day mail delivery from interior Alaska to the lower 48.

June 21, 1890: 129 years ago—President Benjamin Harrison dedicated the Sitka National Historical Park. The land was the site of the famed 1804 Russian-Tlingit Battle as well home to historically important totem poles. It was the first federally designated park in all of Alaska, and remains a favorite attraction in Sitka to this day.

June 21, 1906: 114 years ago—The first ever Midnight Sun Baseball Game was held in Fairbanks under the Midnight Sun, a tradition that lasts to this day. No artificial light was used, and the first game began at midnight sharp (today’s game starts a bit earlier, at 10 pm).

June 22, 1912: 107 years ago—The first full-time mayor of Anchorage George Byer was born. Byer served as Mayor of Anchorage from 1959 to 1961, and was instrumental in achieving the All-American City Award (not once, but twice) for Alaska’s largest city.

Victim of homicide: Chris Lebert

Suzanne Downing
-
20
Victim of homicide: Chris Lebert

The man found dead in the road on Minnesota Drive on Tuesday in Anchorage has been identified as Christopher Lebert, age 36.

His death has been ruled a homicide, but police have not revealed how he was killed. They have said, however, that his motorcycle had been dragged for a half a mile by a stolen 2004 grey-black Chevy Tahoe, which was later found abandoned in the Turnagain neighborhood next to Lynn-Ary Park. The incident occurred just before midnight.

Lebert is known to the criminal justice system. In 2018 he was charged with a Class B felony for making/distributing controlled schedule 1 drug. Typically that would be heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine. That charge was dismissed but he pled guilty to giving false information to an officer.

He had other crimes on his record, including being found guilty of shoplifting and forgery. He also had some evictions.

Two years ago, a woman on Facebook accused him of stealing her purse at Walmart, and trying to register a truck in her name. Lebert was originally from Miami, Fla. and had worked as a hunting guide in Stony River in 2012.

[Read: Hit and run now considered a homicide on Minnesota]

Why no capital budget yet? Failure of Democrat-led Majority, or Republican Minority?

Suzanne Downing
-
21
Why no capital budget yet? Failure of Democrat-led Majority, or Republican Minority?

WHAT REP. SPOHNHOLZ SAID

Rep. Ivy Spohnholz would have you believe that the 2020 capital budget failed because House Republican minority members voted against it. And because of that, drug addicts are going untreated. Here’s her take:

Spohnholz tells a partial truth: House Republican Minority members said no to breaking into the Constitutional Budget Reserve for a capital budget they had no time to discuss.

The House Majority needed those votes, but had treated Republican Minority members so poorly over the winter, they could not muster support to bust into the CBR, which has just $1.77 billion.

But for Spohnholz, it’s all about addiction treatment, specifically $10 million in matching grants for the construction of new addiction treatment centers statewide.

In the end, politics is about human interaction, and successful politicians, such as President Ronald Reagan, achieved their goals by treating others well.

The failure of the House Majority to produce a capital budget could be, in part, because of how Spohnholz and her majority members behaved over these many months. They took 30 days to organize their majority, peeling off Republicans to join them. Republicans such as Rep. Tammie Wilson, of North Pole, who negotiated a seat for herself at the table in the majority led by Democrat Bryce Edgmon, who agreed to reregister as an Undeclared, giving Republicans cover as they came over.

WHAT REP. WILSON SAID

Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole, who co-chairs House Finance, was in charge of getting the capital budget over the finish line. She is on the record saying she joined the Majority to help Gov. Michael Dunleavy advance his goals.

Gov. Dunleavy presented a fully funded capital budget in mid-February. But Wilson sat on it until Day 147. That’s 121 days of regular session and 26 days of the 30-day special session that was called to get the capital budget done, as well as legislation to fund the Permanent Fund dividend.

Then, with just three days before the end of the first Special Session, Wilson introduced it into the Finance Committee with some striking changes that none of the members had ever seen. She never consulted with Senate Finance about her changes — they were as surprised as anyone.

What Wilson did was in the weeds for most Alaskans, but those political insiders were scratching their heads: Was Wilson trying to kill the capital budget? Was this a poison pill?

Wilson funded the fiscal note on the criminal justice reform package with Power Cost Equalization Fund monies, which were supposed to be spent to help lower the cost of power in rural Alaska. Her capital budget uses that money to reopen the Palmer Correctional Center.

Wilson funded a large portion of the capital budget with the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund, which requires a three-quarters vote — a vote that she was not able to coax out of a Republican minority caucus that she had deeply offended, bullied, and berated over the months since she had joined the Democrat-led majority.

Was Wilson doing what she said she would do, which was to help the governor with his agenda? The jury is still out, but the Republican Minority seems to think not.

The Wilson version of the capital budget was sprung on House Finance, rushed through with little discussion allowed, and hit the House Floor at lightning speed.

It passed with the votes of the Democrat-led Majority, but the funding mechanism — the Constitutional Budget Reserve, did not pass. House Republicans were not in the mood to help Wilson with the earmarks she had slid into the capital budget in place of projects the governor had requested for Senate District E — the Mat-Su.

And so, there they ended, and gaveled out without a capital budget.

WHAT SPEAKER EDGMON SAID

According to Speaker Edgmon, the Republicans are hamstringing the private sector at the height of the construction season. But budget experts know that the capital budget, in the main, is not for this summer, but next summer — it is needed this summer only to secure the billions in federal matching money for projects in the pipeline. Is Edgmon lying or does he just not know?

The governor can add this undone task of the capital budget to the next special session, once the Legislature funds the Permanent Fund dividend. That session convenes July 8 in Wasilla.

The capital budget doesn’t really get to be a problem until the end of July. Those who say otherwise are looking for a political angle.

THE BLAME-SHIFTING

The capital budget has, in fact, been passed by the House and Senate. What hasn’t been passed is a mechanism to fund it. And yet, it has been transmitted to the governor for his signature. He will have to veto it, because he cannot add money back to a bill. What happened is the House put forth a spending plan that it could not fund.

Who bears the blame for this “no capital budget”? Spohnholz, Edgmon, and Wilson say it is 15 Republicans.

The governor did his work. The Senate did its work. The House Democrat-led Majority? Rep. Tammie Wilson? Do they bear responsibility? Add your thoughts in the comment section.

Pioneer Home rate increases? Public comment deadline approaches

Suzanne Downing
-
5
Pioneer Home rate increases? Public comment deadline approaches

2-MINUTE READ

June 28 is the deadline for public comment on planned increases in rates at the state-operated Pioneer Homes, those Alaska-centric assisted living facilities where 450 older Alaskans call home.

The proposed rate increase comes as a result of an expected decrease in government subsidies, as proposed by the Dunleavy Administration.

The Alaska Pioneers Homes have been a budget worry for years. Because of fiscal constraints, the homes aren’t planning to close, a move threatened by the Walker Administration when faced with revenue shortfalls in 2017. Walker sent out letters that year to Pioneer Home workers describing the closures that would happen within months. It never happened, however, because it was all part of Walker’s orchestrated budget theatrics and his attempts to “stick it to” Sen. Peter Micciche, who had proposed a 20 percent reduction in subsidies.

[Read: Gov. Walker threatens to close Pioneer Homes]

But the state is still subsidizing the facilities to the tune of $30 million, and costs are rising.

Rates would increase between 40 and 140 percent to bring the rates closer to what it costs to provide services to the small and somewhat fortunate segment of Alaskan elders. Few Alaskans can even get in the homes, the waiting list is so long.

Statewide, there are over 6,281 Alaskans who are older than 85. Pioneer Homes take care of 7 percent of that elder population, with an average age of 87 at the homes.

As of July 1, 2018, 215 applicants were on an “active wait list” for a place in a Pioneer Home. That means they need a bed there right now. Another 5,135 individuals had filed 11,664 inactive waitlist applications, which helps hold their place in line for when they are ready. The date of a person’s application determines their order of admission into the Pioneer Home system.

The Department of Health and Social Services has proposed adding two more service tiers to the three already in the Pioneer Homes’ pricing structure, which is governed by regulation.

Those in the lowest tier, who receive housing, food, emergency help, and socializing events, currently pay $2,588 a month. That will rise to $3,623 a month, or $43,476 per year, under the proposed rate structure.

For those in the highest level of care, which generally is for a person with an intense amount of needs, the current rate of $6,795 per month would be increased to $15,000 per month. The tiers between those two would range from $6,569 to $13,333 per month.

Must Read Alaska has learned that there are no residents in the homes now that would be in the $15,000 range.

[Check out Must Read Alaska’s “Deadlines” feature, where you can find more public comment deadlines.]

The Administration says no resident of any of the six Pioneer Homes will be kicked out for inability to pay. The Department of Health and Social Services is working to restructure the homes to allow them to collect federal funds through Medicaid and other programs. Currently, only a fraction of the cost of the Pioneer Homes operations are funded federally.

The rules that apply to Pioneer Homes financial aid can be found at this link.

[Read the 2018 Pioneer Homes annual report here]

The original intent of the Sitka Pioneers Home was to create a place for aging indigent men who came to Alaska as fishermen, pioneers, and homesteaders.

Over time, during the years when Alaska was flush with oil money, the one campus grew to six. But, as in its early years, the vast majority of Pioneer Home residents are Caucasian; minorities comprise 12 percent of the population. Native health care corporations have established tribal-based long-term care units around the state for their members, who often prefer to stay closer to home.

[Read the proposed rate change and submit your opinion at this link]

A rational solution for the dividend program

Suzanne Downing
-
36
A rational solution for the dividend program

By TOM WILLIAMS
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

To solve the deadlock over the 2019 Permanent Fund dividend amount and the FY 2020 state education budget, the Legislature and the governor should agree to legislation during the upcoming second special session that would do four things:

  1. Modify the criteria for a Permanent Fund dividend, limiting payments to only adult Alaskan residents who are U.S. citizens eligible to vote in Alaska who have not been absent from Alaska for more than 90 days in the prior calendar year;
  2. Multiply the calculation formula for the dividend by a factor of 72 percent, the percentage of 2017 eligible applicants who would meet the new eligibility criteria;
  3. Appropriate the amount calculated under the revised eligibility formula to those 2019 applicants who qualify under the revised formula; and
  4. Repeal the “forward funding” appropriation for the 2020 education budget enacted during the 2018 legislative session and replace it with a current appropriation for the 2020 education budget from the earnings reserve account of the Permanent Fund.

This solution would:

  1. Return the dividend amount to the current statutory calculation for eligible Alaskan voters who were present in Alaska for at least three-quarters of the eligibility year, providing eligible Alaskans a “full’ dividend consistent with the original PFD program;
  2. Retain a significant vested interest for voters to protect the Permanent Fund from being raided by our politicians, an original intent of the PFD program;
  3. Avoid sending money to people who spend a significant amount of time outside of Alaska, regardless of the reason, thereby improving the likelihood that most PFD payments will be spent in the Alaskan economy where they will have the most local impact;
  4. Significantly reduce the cost of administering the PFD program;
  5. Direct the amount of the PFD’s that would have been otherwise paid to children toward the cost of their education, or other child related programs, and thereby avoid paying dividends to children while using other scarce funds to pay for their education; and
  6. Avoid a costly and time-consuming court battle over the question of forward funding programs like the education budget, while adequately funding the 2020 education budget.

So how much money paid for children’s dividends could be re-directed to their education or other children services?  Using the most recent information published by the PFD division in their 2017 Annual Report, 175,207 children were eligible for a 2017 PFD, resulting in a payout of just under $193 million at the $1,100 reduced amount.

If the $2,389 statutory amount had been paid in 2017, over $418 million would have been paid to children.  Those funds could have been directed toward funding the education budget, school bond debt reimbursement or other children’s programs.

This solution strikes a rational balance between the need for the PFD program and the need to use earnings from the Permanent Fund to help fund basic government services.

Tom Williams of Juneau is a 42-year resident of Alaska. He’s worked for aviation-related companies for the past 19 years, was director of two Department of Revenue divisions, including the Permanent Fund Dividend Division, and served on the staff of the Senate Finance and Legislative Budget and Audit committees.

Hit and run now considered homicide

Suzanne Downing
-
1
Hit and run now considered homicide

A hit-and-run resulting in a dead man and his downed motorcycle in the southbound lane of Minnesota Parkway at 15th Avenue is now being investigated as a homicide. Police aren’t saying much, but are asking the public for help.

In the original investigation, police said a stolen 2004 Chevy Tahoe was chasing a white and green motorcycle. The driver of the motorcycle was found dead on on the Minnesota Parkway, and the suspect vehicle continued south and exited at Hillcrest Drive. The Tahoe was later found abandoned in the Turnagain area near Lynn Ary Park. Police say the vehicle had been stolen from the Port of Anchorage on Tuesday night.

Detectives are asking witnesses to come forward with any information and are looking for surveillance video from these places and times:

  1. Port of Alaska on Tuesday between 6:30 p.m. and midnight.
  2. Area of Minnesota Parkway/L Street/15th Avenue on Tuesday between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
  3. Turnagain area near Lynn-Ary Park between Wednesday morning midnight and 12:30 a.m.

A traffic camera shows the Tahoe dragging the motorcycle for a distance.

Anyone with information, including surveillance video, should call Dispatch at 311, or to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 907-561-STOP.

By MustReadAlaska‘s count, this makes the 19th homicide in Anchorage this year.

Ambition above the law: Quintillion former CEO sentenced to five years

Suzanne Downing
-
6

The former CEO of Quintillion, a fiber optics cable company in Alaska, has been sentenced in a New York federal court to 5 years in prison for defrauding investors in New York of more than $270 million. The company reported her behavior to federal authorities after discovering a pattern of fraud in 2017.

Elizabeth Ann Pierce had pled guilty earlier this year before the same federal judge who imposed the sentence today.

[Read Quintillion’s Interim CEO describe how the company has been recovering from the Pierce fraud]

“Elizabeth Ann Pierce, the then-CEO of Quintillion, placed her ambition above the law.  In order to raise over $270 million to build a fiber optic cable system in northern Alaska, she repeatedly lied to her investors and forged the signatures of her customers’ executives on fake revenue contracts.  When her scheme started to unravel, she tried to delay exposure with yet more lies and forged documents.  She will now serve five years in prison for her crime,” according to a statement made by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman.

[Read: High crime: Quintillion executive now charged with wire fraud]

Pierce was, until the summer of 2017, the chief executive office of Quintillion, which built, operates, and markets a high-speed fiber optic cable system known as the “Quintillion System,” which includes a subsea fiber optic cable under the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, and a land segment running north to south along the Dalton Highway. The two systems are connected to a land-based network, and the system is now connected to the Lower 48 through other existing networks.

Between May of 2015 and July of 2017, she induced two New York-based investment companies to provide more than $270 million of construction money the Quintillion System. She convinced the companies by providing them with eight forged broadband capacity sales contracts and related order forms under which Quintillion would obtain guaranteed revenue once the Quintillion System was built. The court calls these “fake revenue agreements.”

Under the fake revenue agreements, four telecommunications services companies made binding commitments to purchase specific wholesale quantities of capacity from Quintillion at specified prices.

The cumulative value of the fake revenue agreements was approximately $1 billion over the life of the agreements, which had been forged.

While some of the fake agreements never existed, others were falsified versions of genuine revenue agreements.

Pierce fabricated the terms of the false versions of the agreements to make them more favorable to Quintillion and, therefore, more appealing to investors than the genuine agreements.

For example, under one of the fake agreements, the customer purportedly agreed to buy from Quintillion increasing quantities of gigabits per second of capacity over a period of 20 years.

That agreement, if genuine, would have assured Quintillion hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue.

In reality, negotiations over that deal had ended unsuccessfully, a fact that Pierce never disclosed to the investors.

Under another fake agreement, the customer purportedly agreed to buy a fixed, predetermined amount of capacity from Quintillion regardless of subsequent market conditions. In reality, that customer was not obligated to buy any capacity.

Pierce forged the agreements, and then went back to the companies and tried to negotiate agreements identical to the ones she had forged. She was generally unsuccessful. When Quintillion and the investment companies ultimately caught onto the fraud in mid-2017, they learned that the real contracts would generate only a fraction of the anticipated guaranteed revenue of the fake, forged agreements.

Pierce also swindled two individual investors out of a total of $365,000 by leading them to believe that they would acquire ownership interests in Quintillion when, in fact, she used half of one victim’s money and all of the other victim’s investment for her own personal benefit. These individuals have received no shares and none of their money back from PIERCE.

After the terrestrial system was built, Pierce attempted to prevent the discovery of the fake agreements by accelerating the timing of incoming payments under genuine agreements to make those payments appear to be based on the fake agreements.

She also sought to prevent Quintillion from invoicing one of the customers that had no real contract with Quintillion by fabricating email correspondence that gave the impression she was terminating a contractual relationship, when in fact no such relationship existed.

One of the customers of Quintillion disputed an invoice it received from Quintillion, and the unraveling of her scheme began. Pierce resigned and Quintillion reported its former CEO’s conduct to the Department of Justice.

Pierce, now age 55, lives in Austin, Texas. She’ll serve five years in prison, and three years of supervised release, and she has been ordered to forfeit $896,000 and all of her interest in Quintillion and property she owns in Texas.

Pierce is still subject to a yet-to-be determined restitution order to her victims.

[Read: Who is Leonard Blavatnik and why is Gov. Walker helping him out?]

They did what?

Suzanne Downing
-
1

So, with lawmakers ignoring a law they passed cutting off their $302-a-day per diem if they failed to pass a budget in 121 days, it will be revealing to see who applies for the pay.

The optics of some legislators pushing to cut the Permanent Fund’s statutorily calculated dividend of about $3,000 for each Alaskan while not passing a budget in the regular session and then ignoring the law to take per diem payments for the ensuing special session apparently is lost on our betters.

It took the Legislature’s 14-member Legislative Council, the Juneau Empire reports, only four hours and nine minutes after the Legislature adjourned its special session to vote 12-2 to approve the payments.

The law cutting off the per diem, House Bill 44, was passed only last year after Outside interests started an Alaska Governmental Accountability Act initiative petition. The proposed law supposedly was aimed at things such as curbing lawmakers’ conflicts of interests and contacts with lobbyists. For good measure, and we suspect to make it more salable to Alaskans, it would have made per diem contingent on lawmakers passing a fully funded budget during the 121-day regular session.

Legislators passed mirroring legislation to head off the initiative, even including the ban on per diem payments.

If all 57 lawmakers who do not live in Juneau were to claim the $302 daily per diem for the special session it took to pass a budget, the tab would be more than $450,000.

Read the rest of this editorial at Anchorage Daily Planet:

http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/159892/interesting-indeed/

 

Satanic invocation opens Kenai Assembly meeting

Suzanne Downing
-
42
Satanic invocation opens Kenai Assembly meeting

For the second time in three years, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting has been opened with an invocation from satanist Iris Fontana, representing the Satanic Temple.

After the borough lost in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of three non-Christians, it must allow just about anyone to give an invocation.

This was Fontana’s second trip to the microphone to invoke the name of Satan over the local deliberating body. During her 2016 invocation, Fontana closed her remarks with “It is done. Hail Satan.” That was the phrase that changed the borough policy, an action that resulted in a lawsuit. The entire controversy has made national news.

The current invocation policy is here.

This time, a few in the room walked out before the invocation, including Assembly members Norm Blakeley and Paul Fischer, Chief of Staff James Baisden. Mayor Charlie Pierce showed up late. Several audience members walked out. As before, Fontana closed her invocation with “It is done. Hail Satan.”

Local media posted a photo of Mayor Pierce with his head bowed, but in fact, he was not in the room.

Listen to Fontana’s invocation here.

Later, during the public comment section of the meeting, Nikiski residents Michele Hartline and Paul Huber offered Christian prayers as their comments. A protest outside attracted about 25 Christians who objected to Satan being offered a seat at the proverbial table.

The July 2 meeting will be opened by Greg Anderson, who warned that his message would also be challenging. In September, Barrett Fletcher, of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, will offer an invocation.

Earlier this year, Carrie Hansen, member of a local atheist group, offered the invocation.

1...1,5061,5071,508...1,829Page 1,507 of 1,829

About us

Must Read Alaska is news of people, politics, policy, culture, and happenings in Alaska.

Contact
200 W 34th Ave. #220,
Anchorage, AK 99503

Op-Ed/Article:
[email protected]

Subscription: [email protected]

Podcast:
[email protected]
Subscribe to Support Freedom and Truth

The latest

Justice Department removes bureaucratic barriers to gun ownership after court ruling

This Just In 1
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)...

Alaska Republican Party election guidance: rank the Republicans, repeal RCV, SHOW UP

Politics 5
In a letter to Alaskans, sent on Saturday, October...

The Good “Sam” Club

Faith Watch 1
Are you a member? Have you ever been put...

© Must Read Alaska