Page 1534 – Must Read Alaska

Murder suspect Nicole Diaz in custody

The 907

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June 25, 2018

On Saturday, Anchorage Police stopped a vehicle at Raspberry Road and Minnesota Blvd., only to discover that one of the occupants was a woman wanted in the murder of Craig Berumen in 2017.

32-year-old Nicole Diaz was taken into custody and housed at the Anchorage jail. Two others who are suspects in that murder are already in custody.

Diaz had been on the run since the March 8, 2017 death of Berumen, who police found hanging halfway out of an SUV in the McDonald’s parking lot in Spenard. Diaz had also absconded from probation and had a warrant for her arrest for felony failure to appear, which related to a separate incident of Theft II and misconduct involving a weapon.

On June 6, Anchorage police announced they had a warrant for her arrest in the Berumen murder.

The charges are felonies — Murder 1, Murder 2, and Robbery 1, which includes use of a deadly weapon.

[Read: This woman on the loose, wanted in this man’s death]

Walker, Mallott deceptive on Permanent Fund earnings changes

Columns

Suzanne Downing

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June 25, 2018

1

By TUCKERMAN BABCOCK
CHAIRMAN, ALASKA Republican Party

A more deceptive article could hardly be written than Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s recent op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Permanent Fund earnings changes.

Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Mallott are experienced politicians who seem to be doing their level best to argue “blue is red” and “night is day.”

A prime example: They say the “biggest risks to the fund would be ad hoc withdrawals, and the temptation to let short-term political priorities overwhelm concerns for the fund’s long-term health.”

They ought to know.

It was Gov. Walker who was the first ever to arbitrarily veto part of the Permanent Fund dividend, deciding all by himself what Alaskans’s dividend amount would be. He didn’t have a plan to do anything with the sum he vetoed; he just let the money sit in the earnings reserve of the Alaska Permanent Fund.

That is the definition of an “ad hoc” approach.

During the next two years, he pushed for arbitrary cuts to the traditional dividend formulation. We all witnessed first this number and then that number being debated willy-nilly, as if picked from a hat. All in all, his “ad hoc” vetoes and cuts to the dividend cost each Alaskan — every man, woman and child — about $3,375.

A second example: Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Mallott claim they have to cut your dividend to save it. Really.
Where does your dividend come from? There are two pots of money. One is designed to be completely off limits to a grasping governor: the constitutionally protected principal of the Permanent Fund.

The other pot of permanent fund money is the earnings reserve account. This account includes all the realized earnings of the constitutionally protected principal of the permanent fund and the earnings from funds in the earnings reserve account managed by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

The dividend is traditionally calculated by law — no funny business allowed, no “ad hoc” PFDs.
The money available for the PFD was determined by a formula in law. Half that amount is set aside for our PFDs, and half for government spending or saving.

There is no threat to perpetual funding of the dividend under the traditional law. Money to pay the dividend is always available because it comes directly from the earnings of the constitutionally protected principal of the Permanent Fund.

There is one exception, one real threat to the PFD: The governor and the Legislature have the appropriation power to take some, most or all of the fund earnings and spend them on more government.

The governor and his running mate use hyper-political misdirection as they describe themselves as “not career politicians” and just a “carpenter” and a “fisherman.” Truth matters, and that is less than the truth. Both men have a very long public policy resumes, as most career politicians do.

Both men are multi-millionaires. Their primary careers are as a lawyer and as a CEO of a large corporation. Someone should tell their very young political operative, John-Henry Heckendorn, that we are a small state and we know each other fairly well. Peddling political jargon that may sound good in a focus group actually sounds hollow and fake in the real world.

I do not in any way mean to denigrate the accomplishments or success of Bill Walker as a carpenter (or as millionaire lawyer), nor do I criticize Byron Mallott for his experience as a fisherman (or as CEO of a large and powerful corporation). I do criticize them for letting their political handler try to paint a false political picture of who they really are. They are cagey and sharp politicians who have finally managed to get their hands on some of the money that previously – by law and tradition – had been dedicated to the owners of the oil and gas resource on state land: individual Alaskans.

Politicians have always had access to half the earnings from the Permanent Fund accounts, but apparently having half of the Permanent Fund earnings was not enough. They wanted more, and now they have it.

And what happened to the state budget the very first year Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott could spend some of the dividend on government?

Did they reduce spending? Did they finally balance the budget?

Not at all. They increased – yes, increased – state spending. They just cannot help themselves.

We know where Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Mallott stand. Where does the Alaska Republican Party stand?

We are open to new ideas. We are not necessarily opposed to restructuring the use of the earnings for the Permanent Fund. New ideas are not all bad. There are many options for protecting the dividend and for funding government from existing resources (no new taxes) and many opportunities to decrease (not increase) state spending. We support the dialogue and examination of new ways of managing the earnings of the permanent fund, such as a percent-of-market-value approach.

But when it comes to changes to how we manage the earnings of the Permanent Fund, the Alaska Republican Party believes no change can long survive without, at a minimum, an advisory vote of the people.

Changes not subject to a vote of the people will never be part of a stable, long-term fiscal solution. Top-down changes will remain a political football pitting Alaskans against Alaskans while at the same time providing a terrible distraction from the many other issues facing Alaska.

Unless the people are on board, the foundation of any changes to the dividend are built on sand.

Tuckerman Babcock is chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.

A legend has landed: Defense Secretary Mattis arrives in Alaska

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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June 24, 2018

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A legend has landed: Defense Secretary Mattis arrives in Alaska

(General Mattis and Sen. Sullivan at Eielson AFB)

Secretary of Defense James Mattis is in Alaska tonight, having arrived with Sen. Dan Sullivan to tour some of America’s most strategic defense sites, such as Eielson Air Force Base, Joint Alaska Pacific Range Complex (JPARC), and Fort Greely, where the country’s top missile defense system is located.

JPARC is one of the world’s largest training complexes, with some 65,000 square miles of air space.

The Associated Press was the first to leak Mattis’ visit, but earlier this summer, Sullivan said he was working on getting Mattis to the state this year. It comes during a planned trip to Asia, but appears to be much more than a refueling stop, as there are meetings planned through Monday.

This is the Defense secretary’s first trip to Alaska in his current role as the nation’s chief executive of the Department of Defense, with authority over the U.S. military that is second only to that of the President and Congress.

Mattis’ visit came out of a direct request by Sen. Sullivan to give the general an opportunity to see firsthand Alaska’s military infrastructure, particularly in the Interior. Sullivan is also a Marine.

Mattis is a military icon and arguably the most famous living Marine, who is sometimes called “Mad Dog Mattis,” or “the Warrior Monk.” He is a wealth of military knowledge, having devoted his entire career to the U.S. Marines and he has one of the largest personal libraries of an active-duty military officer ever known in the modern world.

One of his often-quoted sayings is, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

[Read Foreign Policy Magazine: Sec. of Defense Mattis discusses his favorite books, and why]

The decimation of the Islamic State, a terror group known as ISIS, is one of his most noted accomplishments in his short tenure as Defense Secretary. Just two years after Trump became president, Isis controls no territory. “While Iraq has liberated all of its territory once captured and held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the U.S.-led military campaign against the rogue organization continues in Syria,” Mattis said at a meeting of the defeat-ISIS coalition at NATO headquarters in Brussels earlier this month, where he gave all the credit to Iraq. But, in fact, his ordering of airstrikes on ISIS refueling operations has broken up terror operations throughout the Middle East, and disincentivized young men from signing on as truck drivers for ISIS.

After doing a familiarization visit to Alaska military bases with Sullivan, Mattis will be on his way to Asia, where he plans high-level talks with the Chinese. Topics will include the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, including China’s role in the mission.

Democrats fracturing: Begich or Walker?

Suzanne Downing

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June 24, 2018

1

$Democrats fracturing: Begich or Walker?$

ALASKA NATIVE VOTE IS UP FOR GRABS — RIGHT NOW WALKER SHOWS WELL

The Alaska Democratic Party is suffering from a fracture between Alaska Natives with a lingering loyalty to former Sen. Mark Begich, the Democrat, and those already committed to Gov. Bill Walker, the no-party candidate. Both men have Alaska Native running mates.

Walker has a fundraiser for himself with Alaska Native leaders on June 28. The campaign party takes place in the comfortable Sand Lake neighborhood in Anchorage, and the host list shows solid support in the Native community for the Walker/Mallott ticket, in spite of the fact that Begich has long been a favorite with the largely Democrat-voting Native population.

In 2014, Begich ran “an expensive, sophisticated political field operation that reaches into tiny villages along rivers and in mountain ranges throughout the vast Last Frontier. The Begich ground game is on a scale far beyond anything that has been tried here before,” according to the Washington Post, which covered the race extensively that year.

But that was 2014.

The list of co-hosts who are sponsoring this week’s Walker-Mallott-Native Alaska Issues fundraiser show Native leaders clearly still onboard:

Georgianna Lincoln, Chris Cooke, Aaron Schutt, Anthony Mallott, Barbara Donatelli, Gabe Kompkoff, Gail Schubert, Jason Metrokin, Rex Rock, Shauna Hegna, Adrian Lecornu, Ana Hoffman, Andy Teuber, April Ferguson, Crawford Patkotak, Even Peter, Greg Razo, Jody Potts, John Baker, Julie Roberts Hyslop, Liz Medicine Crow, Melanie Bahnke, Melissa Borton, Nancy Barnes, Ralph Anderson, Reggie Joule, Richard Peterson, Sheri Buretta, Steve Ivano, Tim Towarak, Victor Joseph, Vivian Korthuis, and Will Mayo.

According to Must Read Alaska’s research, least 15 people on the list are registered Democrats, and many with deep connections to the Alaska Native community, including leaders of Alaska Native regional corporations and village corporations.

The upcoming Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention, Oct. 18-20 in Anchorage, will test the Native community’s resolve to stay with or leave the governor. AFN endorsed Walker/Mallott in 2014. Will the powerful AFN endorse the ticket this year?

The Alaska Democratic Party establishment has gone a different way with a different message. It’s all-in on Begich this year, and it is beginning to differentiate between the solid Democrat it now supports (Begich) and the wishy-washy hybrid ticket it cobbled together in 2014.

A clip from a social media account run by the party indicates that the party is supporting Begich in part because of his LGBTQ platform:

The LGBTQ platform is not yet a central concern of Alaska Native organizations and although Walker/Mallott had a booth at the Pride festival, they did not attend, nor march in the parade, as Begich did. But it’s certainly an important element to the Alaska Democratic Party — important enough to tie Begich to their wagon to court voter enthusiasm.

A recent Walker poll gives the governor reason to gain confidence, showing him doing well in a three-way race with Begich and Mike Dunleavy, the presumed Republican frontrunner: Walker 39, Dunleavy 34, Begich 25.

But in Begich’s favor is that he will appear on the Aug. 21 primary ballot, and chances are a lot of Natives will vote that ballot. A vote for him in August could translate to a vote for him in November. Walker, without a party, is going straight to the November ballot, where Democrat voters will have to decide whether to stay with their August pick, or switch to the no-party Walker.

Which way will Alaska Natives go? For now, it appears Walker’s head start against Begich is holding, and in the Native community he still has a loyal following.

He can thank his Democrat running mate, Byron Mallott, for much of that loyalty.

The ‘temporary exempt’ scam: Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager

Columns

Suzanne Downing

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June 24, 2018

5

The ‘temporary exempt’ scam: Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager

BY ART CHANCE
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

Must Read Alaska recently reported about somebody’s boy toy being hired to enlighten Alaska state employees as their Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager with the State of Alaska, for $95,000 plus benefits, which is about $140,000 total cost to the people of Alaska. The young man from Marquette, Michigan showed up in May as a “temporary exempt” employee, a position signed off on by the governor’s Chief of Staff Scott Kendall.

So let’s talk about temporary exempt appointments to State service.

A temporary exempt appointment such as the “Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager” is authorized by AS 39. 25. 110(9), a subsection of the State Personnel Act that defines the Exempt Service in Section 110.

[Read: State’s ‘change agent’ has best temp job ever: ‘Drive awareness.’]

It goes back before my time and may go all the way back to the enactment of the State Personnel Act right after Statehood. The State has three services of employees:

Classified: The classified, merit system employees who must be hired to a job classification, paid on the State’s statutory pay system or pursuant to a union contract, and who must be competitively recruited and appointed.

If you’re far enough up the food chain you can cheat it and beat it and give your bed warmer a job, but it is hard, and if you get caught, there might be consequences; it is a crime.

Partially Exempt: The partially exempt service is mostly the true political appointees. They theoretically have to meet minimum qualifications and have a class specification and duties set out in a position description.

That is honored mostly in the breach. The reality is that the real qualification for a partially exempt employee is, “knows the commissioner.”

These are division directors, special assistants to commissioners, assistant attorneys general and the like. They don’t quite serve “at the pleasure” because our Supreme Court sometimes steps in and stops Republican governors from firing Democrat appointees, but they’re about as close as you get in State employment to “at will” employees.

Exempt: The exempt service means State appointments that don’t have to comply with the State Personnel Act at all. The nominal reason is that these are jobs that aren’t susceptible to normal competitive recruiting and can’t be recruited with pay from the State’s statutory pay plan or a union contract.

There is a list of them in AS 39.25.110 and most of them are reasonable; you can’t hire the head psychiatrist at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute at a State range, so you have to be free to negotiate a salary.

But wait! There’s one more: Then there are 110(9) Exempts. A 110(9) Exempt, which is the appointment our “Innovation Stakeholder” boy toy has, is supposed to be someone who is appointed by the governor for some “temporary and special inquiry,” blue ribbon committee members and the like. That is what it is meant for.

Because they’re temporary, 110(9) Exempts don’t get PERS or regular State leave, health insurance or other State benefits.

In the old days, there were temporary exempt appointments now and again if the governor wanted something special looked into, but it wasn’t a common occurrence.

Then came the Gov. Tony Knowles Administration, and Knowles’ director of Personnel had a revelation that some temporary exempt employees weren’t really temporary. Because they weren’t really temporary, they were entitled to PERS and all the other benefits that obtain to regular State employees.

The director of Personnel articulated this revelation in an e-mail to personnel people and the Administrative Services directors.

I saw a copy once, but by the time I became a director in 2003 nobody would admit to having a copy.

Nevertheless, the floodgates opened and almost everybody who was anybody in the ranks of hiring managers had a friend or bedmate in a “temporary exempt” position with no real job duties and a salary that the Governor’s Office would agree to.

When we were the directors of personnel and labor relations in Murkowski, Dianne Corso and I tried to make a bit of a stink about it but it quickly became apparent that so many had their hooves in this trough that nobody was going to do anything to stop it.

It is a good game: Do what you want, get paid what you want. The only thing remarkable about this latest one is that he settled for $95,000; you really aren’t anybody in this club if you’re making less than $100,000.

I tried to poke the snakes about it when I represented the correctional officers in their attempt to bargain retirement benefits, because paying temporary exempt employees a retirement benefit is patently illegal and runs up the State’s liability.

The State’s response was to stop documenting the statutory authority for an exempt appointment so they could answer a PRA request by saying they didn’t have the information requested. How convenient.

It is a blatantly illegal scam and when combined with the equally illegal “exception pay” that so many employees, especially exempts and appointees, get, it is simply daylight robbery from the State Treasury.

So, if you served a term or two on a school board or municipal assembly with a $50 or $100 dollar a meeting stipend back in the 1970s, that was reported as Tier I Public Employee Retirement System income.

All you have to do is find a friend with hiring authority to give you a temporary exempt appointment at $100,000 or more, and instead of your PERS retirement being based on your municipal assembly stipend, your new “high three” is based on your $100,000+ “temporary exempt” salary. Even if you never made any meaningful contribution to PERS.

What a country!

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. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite administration” to describe a governor who is simultaneously a Republican and a Democrat. This was a grave insult to hermaphrodites, but he has not apologized.

Heads roll in Berkowitz Administration

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2018

7

SIX EXECUTIVES PLUS FIRE CHIEF TURN OVER SUDDENLY

The Berkowitz administration is in leadership chaos, after the resignations of at least five department heads in recent days, including the Director of Payroll, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Public Works, and Information Technology. The job of Municipal Property Assessor is also turning over and the fire chief just quit.

In Health and Human Services, three high-level people have been forced out, according to sources.

In Payroll, a division of Finance, Cindy Becker has left her position as Payroll director, and Renee Behrendt is acting in that role.

In Information Technology, Chief Information Officer Zal Parakh is “in transition and looking for a new position in Anchorage or Minneapolis. In May, I ended a few years of formal Public Service to the citizens of Anchorage as the Municipality of Anchorage CIO/IT Director.” He had been hired by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz in January of 2016.

In Parakh’s place is Sioux-z Humphrey Marshall, who is now listed as director of the division, which has been moved into the Mayor’s Office. She was the Innovation Team program manager previously for the Muni.

On June 12, Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced two other changes: Jamie Acton is Director of the Public Transportation Department and Natasha Pineda is the new Director of the Department of Health and Human Service.

Acton has been with the Muni since 2005, first as a recreation programmer for Parks and Recreation and later as mobility planner for the Public Transportation Department, and she served as a senior transportation planner for the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions, where she was responsible for transportation planning and is the lead for all public involvement efforts. She will become Director of the department on July 2.

The acting director of Transportation is Bart Rudolph. Abul Hassan had served as Transportation director since July, 2016. Before that, he was superintendent of operations at People Mover for the Muni.

Natasha Pineda, the new director of HHS, was the deputy health official with the Alaska Department for Administration. Prior to working for the State, Pineda worked for the Muni as the community and family services division manager at HHS. Pineda also served as a program officer for the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, as a program coordinator for the SOA’s Division of Behavioral Health. She will take over as Director of DHHS on July 9.

Pineda replaces Melinda Freemon, who has been in the health field for more than 25 years and who was the executive director of the Clitheroe Center Drug and Alcohol Treatment program and Supportive Housing Division Director for the Rural Alaska Community Action Program.

City Property Assessor Bryant Robbins is also gone, and his job is being advertised. The Fire Department has a new chief, Jodie Ettrick.

She replaced Denis LeBlanc, who retired last month after less than three years on the job.

“Employees are in shock,” said one source familiar with the dismissal of three from the Health and Human Services department.

Recently, a report revealed massive cost overruns relating to the Muni’s computer and Human Resources computations, which has led to possibly over a million in penalties for miscalculated pay and benefits.

[Read: Anchorage computer flaws cost millions]

Berkowitz was recently reelected to his second term in office and will be sworn in July 1.

(Check back: This story will be updated with information as it becomes available).

Treadwell ramps campaign up with video

The Social

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2018

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The Treadwell for Alaska campaign launched its first campaign video today on social media. In it, the candidate starts out by saying, “I hear you’re looking for a new governor.”

Treadwell touts his business and government experience, and covers the needed topics of the economy, opioids, the Permanent Fund dividend, and a gasline. Here’s the ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=X1X3zPEHvnM&feature=youtu.be

Bad boys: Anchorage Police collecting the whole set

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2018

2

Bad boys: Anchorage Police collecting the whole set

(Note: All photos from social media)

OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN

Over two days this week, Anchorage Police Department kicked off Operation Midnight Sun with federal, state, and local partners focused on a crime suppression sweep of violent offenders. This is an on-going operation.

Around 100 uniformed and undercover officers, including aerial support from Alaska State Trooper Help 3, split into eight teams and conducted a variety of crime suppression activities all over Anchorage. Since Monday, dozens of arrests were made and 400 grams of drugs were seized.

A summary of the arrests, per Anchorage Police Department:

Felony Arrests/Charges (includes warrants): 58
Misdemeanor Arrests/Charges (includes warrants): 25
Stolen Vehicles Recovered: 5
Heroin: 230 grams
Methamphetamine: 140 grams
Mushrooms: 30 grams
Guns Recovered: 19, several of which were stolen
Cash: $3,720

Arrests included:

Orlando Holder, 32, arrested on June 18 in the area of Bragaw Street and Thompson Avenue. He was wanted on a felony warrant for Murder 2, Manslaughter and Misconduct involving a Weapon. APD Case: 18-23866

[Read: Police have Orlando Holder, suspected shooter]

Versace Armani Sperl, 20, arrested on June 19 during a traffic stop in the area of Muldoon Road and Northern Lights Blvd. He was wanted on a felony warrant for Assault 3. On June 10, police say Perl threw rocks at his ex-girlfriend after a disagreement about their relationship. The woman tried to evade the rocks but was hit more than once, the police report said. In the June 19 traffic stop, the driver, a male juvenile, was also arrested on a misdemeanor, no bail warrant. APD Case: 18-24466

Jeffery Painter, 37, was arrested on June 19 for dealing drugs in the area of 5^th Avenue and Gambell Street. Officers seized 6.23 grams of methamphetamine, 2.27 grams of heroin and 1 stolen handgun. He faces multiple charges of Misconduct Involving a Weapon 2, Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance 2, Felon in Possession and Theft 2. APD Case: 18-24585

Zachary Russi, 20, arrested on June 19 during a traffic stop in the Northway Mall area. Russi fled in the direction of the trailer park across from the mall. He was located with the assistance of the K9 Unit and AST’s Helo 3. He had two outstanding warrants for Burglary and Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. APD Case: 18-24593

Nyajal Borjung, 19, was arrested on June 19 on an outstanding warrant for Engage In Riot. She was located in the 7700 block of DeBarr Road. APD Case: 18-24617

James Sullivan, 53, was arrested on June 19 in the 100 block of Bragaw Street. He was wanted on an outstanding warrant for Misconduct Involving a Weapon. APD Case: 18-24639

Allen Ala, 18, was arrested on June 19 after Dispatch received a report of a stolen vehicle in the area of North Bunn Street and Thompson Avenue, in the Mountain View neighborhood. Officers, with the assistance of Helo 3, located Ala driving a grey Chevrolet Blazer in the 400 block of Pine Street. He was taken into custody, questioned by detectives, arrested and transported to jail. He faces multiple charges including Vehicle Theft 1, Theft 2 and Violations of Condition of Release. APD Case: 18-24549

Andrew Baugh, 49, arrested on June 19 in the area of 15^th Avenue and Eyak Drive. Baugh was inside a silver Ford Pickup in the parking lot of an apartment building. Officers discovered an adult female performing oral sex on Baugh. He faces a charge of Soliciting Prostitution. APD Case: 18-24642

Dominik Spivey, 20, and Nigel Ivory, 22, arrested on June 19 during a traffic stop in the 5600 block of Debarr Road. Spivey was wanted on two felony assault warrants and one felony drug warrant. Spivey and Ivory fled on foot and were later captured with the assistance of the K9 Unit. Inside the silver Ford Explorer Ivory was driving, officers found multiple handguns. Both face additional charges including Misconduct Involving a Weapon and Resisting Arrest. APD Case: 18-24641

Brandon Balaoro, 23, was arrested on 6/19 in the 6900 block of Trafford Drive. He was wanted on an outstanding warrant for Misconduct Involving a Weapon. APD Case: 18-24764

Christopher Gowen, 44, and Sonja Burke, 33, were arrested on June 19 after a traffic stop in the Fred Meyer parking lot on Northern Lights. Gowen and Burke face a charge of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. Burke also had two outstanding felony warrants. Officers also seized 14 grams of heroin and 20 grams of meth. APD Case: 18-24635

In November, Gowen was one of eight people indicted in a major heroin and meth trafficking ring that police had spent nearly two years investigating.

Mary Weatherman, 37, was arrested on June 19 after attempting to sell drugs to an undercover officer at the Twin Dragon. She faces charges of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. Officers seized 1.75 grams of heroin. APD Case: 18-24647

Four male juveniles were arrested on June 20 near the Kincaid Chalet after fleeing from a stolen vehicle. At 7:13 a.m., on 6/19, APD took a report of a 2015 red Ford Escape being stolen from a residence on the 1800-block of Cindylee Lane. The vehicle was parked with a spare key inside when it was taken. At 8:53 a.m., Police Dispatch received a call that someone had fallen off a car while it was moving in the parking lot of the Dimond Center.

Officers responded and were able to determine from surveillance footage that a pedestrian met people in a vehicle in the parking lot. The pedestrian was speaking with one of the passengers in the vehicle through the open right rear window. It appeared the driver tried to drive off multiple times and the pedestrian was preventing it. Eventually the driver began to drive way and the pedestrian grabbed onto the side and the roof of the vehicle. The driver traveled through the parking lot at a high rate of speed when the pedestrian flew off and landed in the middle of the roadway (near the bus stop on the west side of the mall) with a head injury.

The vehicle involved was the one reported as stolen the day before. The pedestrian was transported to the hospital. Several hours later, at 10:17 p.m., Police Dispatch received a call from a citizen who stated they stopped to check on a vehicle that was parked near the Kincaid Chalet at Little Campbell Lake on Raspberry Road. The occupants ran on foot when the citizen approached them. A computer check by Dispatch revealed the vehicle was the stolen Escape.

All four suspects, who are juveniles, were located by police in the woods at the Raspberry Road trailhead and taken into custody. Criminal charges for all four were forwarded to the Department of Juvenile Justice. APD Case 18-24498 and 18-24688

Donovan Dennis, 27, was arrested on June 20 after a traffic stop in the area of 32^nd Avenue and Boniface Parkway. He was wanted on two outstanding warrants for parole violations. APD Case: 18-24729

Jeffery Painter, 37, was arrested on June 20 after being spotted in a stolen vehicle at Fred Meyer on Dimond Boulevard. The officer followed the Subaru until backup officers could arrive. The vehicle was followed to Lowe’s on Old Seward where the suspect backed up into a parking space. Several patrol vehicles surrounded the vehicle; the driver jumped out and ran. Officers gave chase and captured the suspect near the Steam Dot on O’Malley Center Drive. He faces multiple charges of Vehicle Theft I and Theft II. APD Case 18-24732

Tara Ginn, 34, and Robert Price-Schruefer, 33, were arrested on June 20 during a traffic stop in the 400 block of Gambell Street. Schruefer had two outstanding felony warrants for probation violation on charges of Forgery, Misconduct Involving a Weapon and Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. He had been wanted since March. He was found to be in possession of brass knuckles, $280 of counterfeit $20 bills, five credit/debit cards that didn’t belong to him and .10 grams of heroin. He faces additional charges of Forgery 1, Misconduct Involving a Weapon, Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance and Theft 2. Ginn faces a charge of Misconduct Involving a Weapon after officers found a loaded .357 revolver. Officers also seized 9 grams of heroin, a digital scale and .52 grams of methamphetamine. APD Case: 18-24756

Terence Anthony, 52, was arrested on June 20 during a probation check in the 1700 block of Russian Jack Drive. Anthony was found to be in possession of a handgun inside his apartment. Officers also seized 124.7 grams of heroin and $1,720 cash. He faces charges of Misconduct Involving a Weapon and Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. APD Case: 18-24765

Andrew Swaney, 45, was arrested on June 20 after a report of a suspicious person in the area of 11^th Avenue and Cordova Street. After officers made contact with Swaney, they ran a background check and discovered he was wanted for multiple felony warrants including Domestic Violence and Theft. APD Case: 18-24787

Brandon Cockburn, 39, arrested on June 20 after leaving the scene of a collision at the intersection of Cordova Street and 6^th Avenue. Cockburn was driving a 2002 Dodge Caravan northbound on Cordova Street and ran a red light. He was struck by a 2000 Honda motorcycle eastbound on 6^th Avenue. Cockburn was located and faces multiple charges including Assault 2, Driving without a driver’s license, Driving without Insurance and Leaving the Scene of a Collision. APD Case: 18-24772

Earlier this month, Cockburn was facing multiple charges including Distribution of Child Pornography. APD Case: 17-8688

Those partners include Alaska State Troopers (AST), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Marshals, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), United States Postal Inspection Service, Anchorage District Attorney and the United States Attorney.

General election ballot: Another day, another version

Top News

Suzanne Downing

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June 22, 2018

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General election ballot: Another day, another version

DIVISION OF ELECTIONS TRYING TO MAKE IT CLEAR, FAIR

Division of Elections Director Josie Bahnke has a challenge on her hands this summer: Design honest and transparent Primary and General Election ballots that make it clear to voters how each candidate got his or her name on the ballot, as it pertains to the Democrats.

With so many people running as “don’t ask, don’t tell” candidates the Democrat Primary or via petition in the General, it’s not easy to give voters a straight explanation of how the candidates were vetted: Did they go through a primary, or just get 100 or so signatures on a petition to run in the General?

The Division of Elections issued a new draft for the General Election ballot today, possibly moving closer to following a judge’s orders to make the ballot clear. Judge Phillip Pallenburg ordered the division last fall to not follow the Alaska Democratic Party’s plan for their ballot, because it was dishonest with voters.

[Read May’s story: Ballot of the ballot: Sample ballot language released]

Here is what the new General Election ballot looks like, with Democrats having extra letters by their names to indicate what party, if any, they belong to. In this latest version, unlike previous versions, Republicans do not have extra letters by their names:

Normally, it’s simple: Recognized parties in Alaska are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Alaskan Independence Party.

A recognized political party “is an organized group of voters whose candidate for governor received at least three percent of the total votes cast in the preceding general election or whose number of registered voters is equal to at least three percent of the total votes cast for governor.”

HOW IT BECAME COMPLICATED

But there’s Gov. Walker — the simple carpenter who keeps changing parties and affiliations. In 2014 he was a Republican, and then became an undeclared.

[Read: Assimilation is complete: Walker to run in Democrats’ primary]

By 2018, he said he would remain an undeclared but would run on the Democrats’ Primary ballot.

But a month later, he decided to be a petition candidate on the General Election ballot. He calls it the “Unity” ticket, or labels himself an “Independent.”

The Division of Elections plans to call Walker and his running mate Byron Mallott “No-Party Candidates.”

The Division of Elections current draft is still under review, but must consider these anomalies:

P.J. Simon, District 1 House, an undeclared candidate going to the General Election ballot via petition. At this time, the Division will list Simon as a “No-Party Candidate.”
Tim Lamkin, District 4 House, a nonpartisan candidate going to the General Election ballot via petition. At this time, the Division will list Lamkin as a “No-Party Candidate.”
James Squyres, District 9 House, a Republican-registered candidate going to the General Election ballot via petition, and avoiding the Republican Primary. Squyres will be listed as a “No-Party Candidate.”
Stephany Jeffers, District 12, an undeclared running in the Democrats primary, who will advance to the General Election and appear with a U next to her name, but as the Democratic Party nominee.

[Read: Supreme Court affirms Democrats’ right to their primary]

Democrats secured the right to allow registered undeclareds, nonpartisans and Democrats to run in their primary in April.

According to Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, it is reasonable to accommodate that approach by identifying those Democratic Primary candidates as N, U, or D in the Democratic primary. But when it comes to the General, those candidates are now Democratic nominees — no more and no less.

“In the General Election, the law only requires incontrovertible information — which party are you the nominee of, or did you arrive as a petition (no party) candidate?” Babcock said. “It is not relevant in the General Election to further try to share an individual voter registration because it has a nothing to do with how they got to the General Election ballot. Voter registration can change daily and any registration information on the General Election ballot is potentially incorrect and confusing.”

The Division of Elections currently has been through a couple of iterations of how they were going to handle this confusion. An earlier draft of the ballot had a letter by each candidate’s name, regardless of the party, shown here:

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