Page 1563 – Must Read Alaska

Real ID: Real problem or overblown concern?

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May 28, 2017

By WIN GRUENING, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

In the waning hours of the 30th Legislature, House Bill 16 passed, allowing Alaska’s participation in the Federal REAL ID program. This action reversed almost a decade of near-unanimous legislative opposition.

On its face, the legislation seemed simple. It brings Alaska in compliance with federal requirements for a more secure and reliable identification system for individuals. But the debate around this bill, as in the 10 years preceding it, revolved around privacy concerns and the use of a national database.

For those who haven’t followed this controversy, a little history:

REAL ID was adopted by Congress in 2005 to tighten state identification card requirements after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. Yet resistance to the law delayed its complete implementation for years as states sought and received multiple extension waivers.

In fact, Alaska passed legislation in 2008 barring state expenditures to implement REAL ID. However, the approaching deadline for final compliance forced the Legislature to act. Otherwise, Alaskans eventually wouldn’t have been able to use their Alaska drivers licenses for identification to access many military and government facilities or TSA checkpoints for boarding commercial aircraft.

In the days leading up to HB 16’s final passage, opponents of REAL ID decried the loss of privacy that would surely result. Rep. Chris Tuck, the Democrat House Majority Leader, publicly implored Governor Walker to “withdraw his legislation and instead sue the federal government to defend our state.”

It’s hard to understand what all the gnashing of teeth is about. In their rush to neutralize this legislation, detractors apparently didn’t bother to listen to testimony by the Department of Administration that under REAL ID very little will change.

An ACLU spokesperson went so far as to accuse the Division of Motor Vehicles of “engaging in troubling and unauthorized activity in advance of REAL ID.” This was partly referencing the routine scanning of the two forms of identification provided by applicants for drivers licenses and the digital archival of photos and application data.

However, as explained by the Department of Administration, this has been the procedure for years – mandated when DMV was directed by statute to go “paperless” – and is just an extension of best practices to improve efficiency. It also allows DMV to quickly issue duplicate cards when necessary as well as offer online renewals. More importantly, it aids in internal auditing and assists law enforcement agencies during criminal investigations.

Several years ago, DMV also began issuing newer, more secure driver licenses to make forgeries more difficult and combat identity theft. After all, apart from REAL ID, what good is an ADL if allowed to become insecure and unreliable and ultimately no longer acceptable as a universal form of identification?

The one change the public may notice under REAL ID is the requirement for DMV to verify the authenticity of source documents used to establish identity. Currently, such documents are accepted at face value. Under Alaska’s new law, applicants will choose either a “non-compliant” or a “REAL ID compliant” ID or driver license.

If non-compliant, their source documents won’t be verified but, either way, will continue to be scanned and entered into the DMV database.

Holders of “non-compliant IDs” should be aware, however, they’ll need to carry alternative approved identification (such as a passport) to access TSA checkpoints and some government facilities in the future.

But most opposition to REAL ID stems from the misperception that scanned personal information (such as birth certificates or passports as well as photos and license information) is being dumped into an insecure database and indiscriminately shared with other states.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Although Alaska currently exchanges limited information with other states to prevent duplicate or fraudulent licenses, REAL ID will not create a “central national database” where all Alaska DMV personal information will reside.

Sharing is facilitated by our participation in AAMVA, a nationwide tax-exempt organization of 50 state DMVs that serves as a national clearinghouse for vehicle administration, law enforcement, and highway safety. The organization was created in 1933 and has been vetted by the Department of Homeland Security to create a secure “electronic bridge” allowing state-to-state sharing of information.

The only information contained in AAMVA’s encrypted database is each person’s name, date of birth, driver’s license number, and the last five digits of their Social Security number.

This is less information than Alaskans provide to the IRS or Social Security Administration. It’s less information than we provide to the Alaska Division of Elections (which is shared with a national database).

Ironically, it is less personal information than many Alaskans voluntarily post on Facebook pages.

It will always be a difficult task to balance the competing goals of our right to privacy and the government’s responsibility to identify and catch bad guys. But the Legislature got it right this time.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

No slappy face allowed: Conservative discontent with media deepens

Suzanne Downing

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May 26, 2017

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Reporter Christiane Amanpour gives a speech in November as she receives an award. She called Donald Trump an “existential threat” to journalists. (Screenshot from Committee to Protect Journalists.)

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW YOU LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

The unhappiness with those who report the news is making the news — again.

With the win of Greg Gianforte for U.S. House in Montana, the congressman-elect took the occasion to express regret for manhandling a reporter who had pushed into a private interview, shoved a mic in his face, and started asking him questions just a few days before the election.

The reporter got body-slammed by the candidate when he wouldn’t leave. It was unfortunate.

Last night after his win, Gianforte apologized.

There were two sides to that dustup, but one remedial lesson Gianforte learned was this: Keep your hands off of your media opponents. And yes, if you’re a Republican, the reporter instinctively doesn’t like you. He or she is probably aligned with your opponents. To think otherwise is to participate in a charade.

In Alaska’s Capitol, Rep. David Wilson, a Wasilla Republican, gave what he considered a playful slap on the face to reporter Nat Herz, who wasn’t so sure it was playful. Herz reported the incident to the police.

Wilson later had a sit-down talk ~~apologized for playing slappy face~~ with Herz. He ~~was~~ would be right to apologize. [Edited May 26 to reflect no apology was made.]

In Iowa, Rep. Rod Blum abruptly ended a TV interview after the reporter asked him why he only allowed people from his district to attend his town halls.

Blum said he was trying to keep his town halls from becoming magnets for disrupters from Chicago or elsewhere who wanted to make a spectacle. When asked if he’d take contributions from outside his district, he ripped off his mic and said, “This is ridiculous.” He didn’t slap, he simply walked out. Good move, Rep. Blum.

Town halls, as conservatives know, have become the rallying cry of the Leftist “Indivisible America” movement that emerged to opposed President Donald Trump. They now demand town halls, even though they never demanded them when Obama was in office. Town halls are part of their opposition playbook, a place where lawmakers can get badgered, filmed, and hounded by a well-organized Left. If politicians don’t show up for them, they’ll suffer consequences in the media, regardless.

THE CASE OF MELANIE PLENDA: WHY MISTRUST OF THE MEDIA IS GROWING

The Associated Press hired a freelancer-activist who on Facebook had blurted out her opposition to Donald Trump a few months prior.

Melanie Plenda was contracted by AP to cover a private, closed-to-press gathering where senior White House official Kellyanne Conway was the guest speaker.

The freelancer-activist entered the gathering without a ticket or media badge and did not reveal herself as a reporter. She just “blended.”

Later, Breitbart News outed her as an activist, who had posted this screed on Nov. 10, 2016:

AP eventually terminated Plenda for violating its editorial standards and filed some corrections on her report of the event, but denied that she had done anything wrong by entering a private political event while essentially under cover.

CONSERVATIVES FEELING THE HEAT

There is a pattern here. Republican lawmakers feel under attack by reporters, and Republicans are venting their anger at those reporters, some more appropriately than others.

Democrat lawmakers, on the other hand, are not angry, and are not hitting reporters. They are not storming out of interviews. Why should they?

The reason is obvious: The reporting class and Democrats have become one and the same, and everyone on the right side of the political fulcrum knows it.

In any given newsroom in America, you will be extremely hard-pressed to find one single, conservative-leaning reporter: A writer who naturally lists toward smaller government and less regulation, traditional family integrity, and nonviolence against unborn children. A reporter who actually votes for conservative candidates? They are rare as a Republican at an Occupy Wall Street meeting.

As a former newspaper editor, I recall hiring all types of reporters, and most of them leaned left. I looked for those who didn’t have degrees in journalism or political science, but who had history or english degrees. The best reporter I ever hired had a degree in Mandarin Chinese. And there was one who had learned his trade in the Coast Guard who came close to reporting from the middle. I felt it was best to hire for attitude and train for skill.

But today’s reporting class has joined the secret handshake of the left-leaning newsroom. They are in lockstep: Donald Trump must be destroyed.

The Washington Press Corps, for example, is furious that the Trump Administration isn’t going along with their usual modus operandi, that deference is not shown to the proper reporters, that White House press conferences now include media that the press corp doesn’t deem worthy.

The mainstream media (yes, an overused phrase) is seething that alternative news organizations are getting traction. The mainstream reporters skew even further to make a point.

WHO THE HECK IS UNICORN RIOT?

The Committee to Protect Journalists recently wrote to the North Dakota state attorney to complain that journalists had been arrested while covering the Standing Rock demonstration protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline:

“CPJ has documented at least 10 journalists still facing charges in relation to the protests, including nine in Morton County. Two of the journalists–Christopher Schiano and Nicholas Georgiades, from the nonprofit media collective Unicorn Riot–face trial on misdemeanor criminal trespass charges today and tomorrow respectively. Police arrested them September 13 while Schiano and Georgiades were filming protesters who had locked themselves to construction equipment. In a video of the arrest, one of the journalists can be heard saying, “I’m press, sir. I’m press.”

Unicorn Riot is indistinguishable from the “Occupy” movement that they cover. But they ride under the banner of “press” because they are documenting their fellow protestors. The group is an example of the rapidly changing media landscape that includes far left (alternative left) and far right coverage (“alt-right”).

AMANPOUR SAYS TRUMP IS EXISTENTIAL THREAT

Christiane Amanpour, a celebrity-level international journalist for CNN, explained it from their side of the notebook while receiving the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists “for her extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom” on Nov. 22, 2016. In her acceptance speech she said, in part:

I never in a million years thought I would be up here on stage appealing for the freedom and safety of American journalists at home.

Ladies and gentlemen, I added the bits from candidate Trump as a reminder of the peril we face.

I actually hoped that once president-elect, all that would change, and I still do.

But I was chilled when the first tweet after the election was about “professional protesters incited by the media.”

He walked back the part about the protesters but not the part about the media.

…This is how it goes with authoritarians like Sisi, Erdoğan, Putin, the Ayatollahs, Duterte, et al.

There, she said it: President Trump is in the same class as Tayyip Ergodan, Vladimir Putin and the Ayatollahs. Amanpour delegitimized Trump’s win in November and described him as an “existential threat to journalists” and to the world as we know it.

Trump, as has been reported widely, calls the mainstream media an “enemy of the people.”

This is a standoff of inflammatory words. But it cannot end in violence. In America, if we are to survive as a republic, we must allow ideas to compete.

Yes, the conservatives in America are being beaten down by the media, but they are winning the contest of ideas with the voters. Since Trump was elected, conservatives are still winning special elections, such as the congressional seat won handily by Gianforte in Montana. This, in spite of news coverage increasingly biased against them.

What Amanpour misses, as she reports from her overpaid celebrity bubble, is that it’s not some brownshirt that is unhappy with mainstream journalists — it’s the regular working American.

THE ERA OF ALTERNATIVES

The rise of the alternative media is a result of the infliction that the morning newspaper and the evening newscast has become to many Americans. The public’s anger is real, and technology has given them some hope and some relief.

Whether it’s Unicorn Riot or Breitbart, the alternative media is a growing force. In years ahead, it will be increasingly hard to sort the media from the movement it represents as they will continue to blend. Everyone with a blog will self-identify as members of the “press,” as Unicorn Riot does. The First Amendment protects that, and yeah, good for the First Amendment. But let’s not be confused about what is really going on as the mainstream media tacks ever-harder to the left.

Conservative leaders would be well-advised to invest in refresher training for themselves and their staff members, so they can cope and communicate in the new media environment. Sharper messages and grace under fire will help conservatives continue to win elections, which will frustrate reporters even more.

Semi-secret election meeting crashed by Republican activist

Suzanne Downing

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May 26, 2017

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*Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, far left, convened a working group to work on election issues. The odds favored Democrats, if attendance is any measure. (Claire Richardson photo)*

The Lieutenant Governor’s Office held an “ad-hoc” meeting to give a group of invited guests an overview of Alaska’s election system on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

But the information on the meeting was cryptic, and the invited guests were not revealed.

Several groups and consultants were represented, as shown in the photo posted on Facebook by the lieutenant governor: Joelle Hall, former executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party and current operations director of the AFL-CIO; David Becker, president of the Center for Election Innovation and Research; a representative from Tanana Chief’s Conference; and staff members of the Division of Elections.

Also present were progressive John Lindback, a Portland, Ore.-based election consultant and former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, and Bruce Botelho, a well-known Alaska Democratic Party operative who led his party to victory by reorganizing the race for governor in 2014, bringing in the governorship of Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

The room was rounded out by Barbara Jones, Anchorage Municipal Clerk, and Joyce Anderson of the League of Women Voters. An attorney from the Attorney General’s office flanked Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott as he opened the meeting. Mallott did not return for the second day, however.

Not on the guest list: Anyone close to the Alaska Republican Party, other than Sen. Gary Stevens of Kodiak, who is a registered Republican and may have been the only Republican in official attendance.

In fairness, no representative from any other political party was present, although a case might be made that there were plenty of Democrat surrogates in the room, including Claire Richardson, the lieutenant governor’s chief of staff, and Josie Behnke, director of the Division of Elections.

Two meetings, covering 9.5 hours over two days, is a long stretch for merely an update of the election system, so Must Read Alaska sent a note to Richardson to ask for the list of invitees, the attendees, the agenda, and the notes from the meeting. We have not heard back.

Just one person attended who was not invited, but surprised the lieutenant governor with his presence: Randy Ruedrich, former chairman of the Alaska Republican Party who is also an alumni of the Alaska redistricting process.

Ruedrich is, among other things, an expert on elections in Alaska. He was allowed to observed from the chairs along the wall. He would not say how he learned of the meeting, which had been tucked into the “public notices” section of the State’s website.

According to what MRAK has learned, the meeting focused on topics like moving to mail-in ballots, as Anchorage is doing, and ways to save money during future elections. Ruedrich, himself notoriously cryptic, said he’d get back to us on that.

Until the lieutenant governor responds to our public records request, that is all that is known about what took place between more than 20 people over the course of 9.5 hours on the topic of our next general election: There was a meeting. A lot of Democrats were there. No one knew about it. There was one invited Republican in the room among the 20 or so. And also the uninvited but formidable force known as Randy Ruedrich.

What pink slips? House Resources holding climate change hearing

Suzanne Downing

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May 25, 2017

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*Rep. Andy Josephson and Rep. Geran Tarr co-chair the House Resources Committee and are holding a hearing on their bill to establish a climate change commission in the Office of the Governor.*

NEED A SLUSH FUND? CREATE A COMMISSION

There may be a fiscal crisis in the State of Alaska, but that’s not stopping House Democrats from doing what Democrats like to do: add new agencies and even more taxes to fund them.

Next Wednesday, the day before pink slips are sent to thousands of State of Alaska employees, the House Natural Resources Committee, led by Reps. Geran Tarr and Andy Josephson, will hold a hearing on one of their favorite projects: Creating a commission on climate change within the Office of the Governor.

The cost for such a commission would be paid for with a tax of 1 cent on every barrel of oil through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

That equates to $5,000 a day, or $1.825 million per year, at current production levels.

The Tarr-Josephson bill, HB 173, establishing the Alaska Climate Change Response Commission, will be heard at 1 pm, May 31 in Room 124 of the Capitol. It will be teleconferenced.

By then, the Legislature will have blown through 14 days of a special session called by the governor to pass a budget and create a funding plan for that budget.

Neither of those tasks have been completed, and the Legislature has basically disassembled for the long Memorial Day weekend.

Both Tarr and Josephson have been assigned to the House Democrats’ side of the conference committee on HB 111, which seeks to change taxes and tax credits on barrels of oil. It’s a critical piece of legislation that has had versions pass both the House and Senate. Neither Tarr nor Josephson has agreed to meet in conference committee on that legislation until after Memorial Day.

Tarr and Josephson’s plan to use special session time on their commission bill drew swift rebuke from Sen. Cathy Giessel, who chairs the Senate Resources Committee.

“Alaska is in a recession. Our economy is hampered by our government’s unstable public finances. While multi-billion dollar questions await answers, the State House decided today was a good time to advance an environmentalist agenda.”

Her vice-chair, Sen. John Coghill of North Pole, echoed the sentiment.

MAJOR COMMISSION, MINOR EXPECTATIONS

The Climate Change Commission would be made up of 15 members, including five state commissioners and nine elected municipal officials from around the state. An executive director would be hired to advance the commission’s agenda, and the primary work product of the commission would be to seek grants, aid, and other financing to assist rural communities.

The commission would become part of the Governor’s Office. It would apply for grants for agencies and tribes.

“The federal government has spent about $38 billion on climate change, directly and through aid, since 2003. Globally, public and private entities spend about $392 billion per year on climate change financing. Alaska is missing out on these opportunities due to a lack of a dedicated office, an assistance program, or governmental spending on the upfront costs of securing climate change aid,” Tarr and Josephson said in their sponsor statement.

Beyond grant writing, the commission would monitor climate change, consult with experts, publish reports, coordinate with the University of Alaska, advance green technology, reach out to non-profits and rural communities, and seek out ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the public and private sectors, the sponsors say.

It will develop a program to distribute money from a climate change response fund that it will amass, according to Tarr and Josephson.

But the kicker is how the commission would be funded. A new tax on oil would be created. Called a surcharge, this one-cent tax would be added onto the tax already dedicated to the Spill Prevention and Response Fund, which has received $2 million per year over the past four years.

The Climate Change Response Fund will have a limit of $50 million after which the surcharge will not be collected, the sponsors say.

How that $50 million would be spent is not specified, but it appears to be a type of slush fund that the Governor’s Office would use to send people to conferences and travel around the state, with no deliverables required. The 15 commissioners would earn per diem and travel, but would not otherwise receive compensation.

The bill is supported by dozens of established environmental groups and new protest groups that have formed in response to the electoral losses of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Those groups include Indivisible Alaska, Alaskans Stronger Together, March on Fairbanks, Our Revolution Alaska, and Take Action Skagway.

The support documents for the bill include no information on what the carbon footprint of the commission itself would be, for its offices and well-funded airline travel budget, should it pass both House and Senate.

Sticker shock: The insurance costs Obama didn’t want you to see

Suzanne Downing

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May 25, 2017

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Sticker shock: The insurance costs Obama didn’t want you to see

Alaskans saw their health insurance rates triple under Obamacare. They pay more than twice the national average for insurance on the government’s health insurance marketplace.

After years of offering incomplete and misleading information on the true costs to consumers of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report this week showing that Americans using the government’s marketplace pay nearly $3,000 more in annual premiums now than they did before President Obama signed his signature legislation into law.

It’s not as though they have a choice — the law mandates they buy insurance.

Alaskans are the outliers in the report in terms high premiums, but the report shows costs rising in most states.

In 2013, Alaskans paid an average of $344 for individual health insurance. Now, they pay $1,041, or nearly $700 more per month. The national average is $476.

The HHS survey did a deep dive into the true costs of the government mandate by looking at 39 states that use the federally run health insurance marketplace. All states using the marketplace have seen costs rise, and the average increase is more than double what it was in 2013. The highest premium increase wasn’t Alaska, however, but Alabama, with premiums rising 222 percent. But Alaska is still the highest cost insurance market by far.

President Obama promised that the Affordable Care Act would drive rates down.

“So when you hear about the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — and I don’t mind the name because I really do care. That’s why we passed it. You should know that once we have fully implemented, you’re going to be able to buy insurance through a pool so that you can get the same good rates as a group that if you’re an employee at a big company you can get right now — which means your premiums will go down,” Obama said after signing Obamacare into law.

Obamacare passed on strictly a party-line vote in a Democrat-controlled Congress using “budget reconciliation” sleight-of-hand to overcome a Senate filibuster. Now, as Republicans try to figure out how to unwind problems of affordability, access, and fairness, public opinion is mixed.

Some 54 percent of Americans disapprove of Obamacare, with 44 percent approving, according to a Pew Research Center national survey done just a year ago.

But an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey reports a different view in February of 2017.

When asked the question in a different way, more people supported Obamacare. This poll asked whether Barack Obama’s health care plan was a good or bad idea. With that question, 45 percent responded that it’s a good idea, and 41 percent said it’s a bad idea.

The change in opinion may not be a result of better or more affordable care. In fact, competition has declined dramatically.

While Obama claimed that the use of emergency rooms would decrease if people had health insurance, the opposite has occured, according to HHS Director Tom Price.

By law, emergency rooms cannot turn patients away, and they have been used by the poor and uninsured as a primary health care provider as well as a provider of last resort, even for minor conditions that could be handled more inexpensively through a doctor’s office.

A 2015 survey of more than 2,000 emergency-room doctors showed that 75 percent of doctors reporting increased usage since Obamacare went into effect.

Why? Medicaid patients aren’t being seen by doctors because government reimbursements are too low. They go to emergency rooms to get their care, just like they did before.

WHAT’S IN THE NEW AHCA PLAN?

President Donald Trump identified Obamacare as one of his top domestic priorities, and the House has recently passed the American Health Care Act, which now faces Senate scrutiny and, almost certainly, big changes.

The AHCA, as currently written, repeals the mandates for purchasing insurance, and makes significant other changes, but retains the current health insurance marketplace system, open enrollment time periods, and special enrollment periods.

The current version of the law also creates state patient and stability funds, to help states provide financial help to high-risk individuals, similar to what the Alaska Legislature did last year when it dedicated $55 million to help contain skyrocketing Obamacare costs in Alaska.

AHCA changes the premium tax credits and applies credits to coverage sold outside of exchanges, as well as to catastrophic policies. In 2020, the tax credits are adjusted for age, and phased out at income levels between $75,000 and $115,000. This part of AHCA is in contention, since it hurts the middle class the most.

The new law changes the Medicaid expansion structure into block grants for states, which could adversely affect Alaskan adults who are in the Medicaid expansion pool of working-age Alaskans. And, depending on how the block grant program is structured, it could result in sharply higher Medicaid budgets for high cost states like Alaska.

In 2015, Gov. Bill Walker used his executive power to expand Medicaid to what he said would be 40,000 additional Alaskans. But fewer than 25,000 Alaskans enrolled in the expansion.

Walker was the last governor to sign onto Obama’s Medicaid expansion, which covers adults who earn up to 38 percent more than the federally recognized poverty level. Thirty-one states expanded Medicaid during the Obama presidency.

So, while many Americans think that Obama’s intentions were good in theory, most are aware that the massive program was so badly designed that its goal of reducing costs has completely backfired, with the middle class left holding the bag. Nowhere is this more the case than in Alaska.

The long arm of federal overreach catches renown ornithologist

Suzanne Downing

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May 25, 2017

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ALASKAN RUNS AFOWL OF FEDERAL AGENCY

In 2008, Henry Springer was an Alaskan of epic proportions in the scientific and engineering worlds. The University of Alaska Board of Regents and the University of Alaska Museum of the North honored the longtime Alaskan — not as the engineer, former legislator, or construction industry leader, or even as a Board of Game member.

They hailed his work as an accomplished ornithologist.

They loved him so much, in fact, that they named the University of Alaska Fairbanks museum’s ornithology lab after him: The Henry Springer Ornithology Lab, as it’s known today.

Less than 10 years later, Springer is no longer lionized. He has accepted a plea on multiple charges of alleged smuggling.

Smuggling dead birds, of all things. Felonies.

The list of offenses involves 48 bird specimens that he possessed in violation of the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. Springer has over 6,000 specimens in his collection, which has taken a lifetime to amass.

According to the search warrant, Springer had purchased the 48 birds on eBay, using the university’s federal permit. He also imported specimens from Peru, the feds said. Because of the plea deal, the public will never know which of the charges were legitimate, or if Springer was just being picked on by federal agents with too much time on their hands.

STORIED CAREER

Born in West Germany, Springer came to America first as an exchange student to Pennsylvania, and then came for good, and moved to the “wilds of Alaska” before statehood in 1959. He was just 23.

His career included being commissioner for the Alaska Department of Transportation, where his photo hangs on the wall in Juneau. He was also elected to the Alaska House of Representatives for Nome, serving one term in the late 80s. He became president of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, representing the commercial builders of Alaska.

But those were career achievements. For his avocation, Springer was a self-taught ornithologist, who for more than four decades worked with the UAF museum’s ornithology department — giving of his time, talent, and treasure to add to its bird specimen collection. It’s become one of the top collections in the world, due in no small part to his efforts.

Springer was a hunter, taxidermist, carver, and artist — an old-school Alaskan with authentic credentials.

A decade ago, the museum’s bird curator Kevin Winker described Springer as “a classic 19th century naturalist” who was not only a talented taxidermist but an expert on international permitting for the transportation of bird specimens. He was a member of the American Ornithologists Union, the Wilson Society, the Cooper Society and the Audubon Society.

During the dedication ceremony for the museum lab’s renaming, Springer donated four more specimens: A passenger pigeon, which has been extinct for more than 100 years, a Socorro dove, now only found in zoos, a mourning dove, and an eared dove.

*Depiction of a pigeon shoot northern Louisiana, (Smith Bennett, 1875)*

“It’s almost impossible for a collection like ours to add historically important research material without contributions like Henry’s,” Winker said. “The value to science and education is huge.”

Flash forward to 2014, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained a 41-page search warrant application to investigate whether Springer was using the museum’s permits to illegally smuggle bird specimens for his extensive private collection, which was said to have 6,000 birds. Fish and Wildlife alleged he bought 48 specimens in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

During his arraignment last August, Springer pleaded not guilty on all 20 of the ultimate charges that the Federal government had on him. The trial was to take place in district court in Gainesville, Florida, and he’s already had to start showing up for pre-trial proceedings.

Now, three years later, Springer is 80 years old and not willing to fight a long list of charges. He is copping a plea. Yes, it’s possible that during his lifetime of collecting there might be a technical violation, but to him it is not worth spending the rest of his life fighting it.

After lots of soul searching, Springer decided it just wasn’t worth it to fight any more. He decided to take the plea bargain being offered instead of going through what would be a costly trial.

Did he cut some corners in service of the old-Alaska school of getting important things done? Things that matter to people and also to nature? Things that he has accomplished his entire life? Perhaps. We don’t know. And once the judge accepts the deal, we may never know.

The prosecution offered to drop most of the charges and limit it to three counts that he would plead guilty to: In connection to imported birds he would be guilty of conspiracy, violation of the Lacey and Migratory Bird Acts, smuggling and import violations.

When the deal is done, Henry Springer will be a convicted felon. He’ll probably avoid jail time, and he’ll have to give over the birds in question. And he’ll have a probation officer for a while.

Of course, this is all up to a judge in Florida. The next phase has plenty of peril for Springer, because an officer of the court will interview him, before making a recommendation to the Florida judge. Springer will have to appear in Gainesville for sentencing. The judge has the final say. He could, technically, go to jail.

Why would Springer accept such a harsh deal? It is a question of money. He knows if he goes to trial it will cost him as much as $100,000 to fight for his reputation. With so many charges against him, it’s pretty certain a jury would find him guilty of something — and he’d still be a felon in the end.

He also has his family to think about, and his health. He’s fought cancer during the past few years, even while fighting these accusations, and he wants to make sure his wife, who is much younger than him, is taken care of should he die first.

It all comes down to interpretation of the laws — and laws and interpretations of them change. Also, there’s the question of prosecutorial discretion unique to the jurisdiction of the regional U.S. attorney. It is a politically driven calculation, especially in the current era.

Although Springer stands firm that nothing he did was for his own personal gain, he also knows that with the complexity and variability of international and national laws, regulations, and the whims of bureaucrats, a person can make mistakes. He just wants it all behind him.

PARALLELS TO THE GIBSON GUITAR FACTORY RAID

The Springer case brings to mind the raid on Gibson Guitars by a paramilitary wing of U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

Federal agents, with automatic weapons on their hips, entered the company’s Nashville plant in 2009 to look for hardwood that the guitar maker had allegedly brought into the country.

*The Gibson Guitar plant is raided by armed federal Fish and Wildlife Service officers.*

The Department of Justice said that using rosewood from India to manufacture guitars is illegal according to India’s laws, unless it’s finished by Indian workers.

The U.S. agency was enforcing its interpretation of laws of other countries, India in this case.

The federal government executed four search warrants and seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars.

Gibson maintains that the wood seized was verified as legal “FSC Controlled Wood,” from a certified supplier in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council. It was not illegally harvested or imported, the company said.

Gibson, with its reputation on the line, vowed to fight the charges. But even they succumbed, settled for $250,000, a $50,000 payoff to an environmentalist groups, and more than $2 million in legal fees. And who is to say what the untold cost to the company was for not only the shut down during the raid, but the damage to the corporate brand.

If a strong company like Gibson had to settle against the heavy boot of the feds, how could Henry Springer have stood a chance?

A LIFETIME OF ADVENTURE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT

Henry Springer, who is but one man who was on a mission to build the UAF museum’s ornithology collection, can’t fight the government at his age and in his health. Instead, he’ll settle for a felony, if it means he can work on restoring his health again.

But those who know Springer will always know him as much more than this dust-up with the federal government.

Back during the pipeline era, the State of Alaska tasked Springer with supervising the pipe hauling and distribution for all the pipe that made up the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

Before that, he was in charge of building much of the infrastructure Alaskans still use today, including the bridges at Hurricane Gulch and the Nenana Canyon on the Parks Highway.

More of his incredible life and times were documented here by Alaska business writer Shehla Anjum. It is worth a read, as Alaskans consider whether the University Museum should peel his name off the lab door, or leave it there as a warning to others about how perilous the scientific field can be in an era of zealous federal authority.

Straight Outta Juneau: Won’t back down on income tax

Suzanne Downing

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May 24, 2017

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Straight Outta Juneau: Won’t back down on income tax

Photo of Alaska House Democrats with their arms folded, looking at camera. — Special Session: The taxing House Democrat-led majority posted this photo this week to show their determination to stand tall for taxing working Alaskans. Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage was missing.

‘WE WON’T LEAVE UNTIL WE TAX YOU’:

One week from tomorrow, pink slips will go out to 20,000 or more state employees. They are being told by the Governor and the House Democrat-led majority, that unless Republicans cave on income taxes, they’ll take this budget to the brink.

The Democrats’ strategy is to prevent passage of the state budget for 2018 unless they get an income tax to skim as much as $700 million from working Alaskans.

Rep. Chris Birch, a Republican from South Anchorage, posted on his Facebook page earlier today: “Disappointed that the House Democratic Majority has made up their collective mind to send out pink slips to state employees next Thursday, June 1st. By slow rolling the budget and conference committees, killing time on non-fiscal issues, and insisting on a job killing income tax on Alaskans, House Majority Democrats are purposefully running out the clock.”

Birch was referring to the newest bill in town, HB 159, which the governor introduced as part of the Special Session, and which has nothing to do with the fiscal crisis. At 30 pages, it is a bill that would create databases for opioid prescriptions and licenses. Although opioid use is a serious problem in Alaska and the rest of the country, Birch expressed doubt that it should be at the top of the list for special session at a time when the Legislature’s only duty is to pass a budget.

“Given the crushing impact addictions have had on our families, friends, neighbors and Alaskans I welcome the debate but would have preferred first engaging this subject last January,” Birch wrote.

At the end of the first week of special session, little work has been done in Juneau on either an operating budget, or much of anything else. Most Republican lawmakers have returned to their districts because no meetings are scheduled, and those legislators who stay, such as Justin Parish of Juneau, are getting $250 a day in per diem. For guys like Parish, this is the dream job of a lifetime. Last year, salary and per diem gave lawmakers between $10,590 and $11,610 per month during session.

The word throughout the political circles are that no work will be scheduled until after Memorial Day. That will leave lawmakers with about 15 days to finish, or the governor can and probably will call a second special session.

June 1, however, will most likely come and go with no budget passed, since House Democrats and the governor are insisting on an income tax and no meaningful budget cuts — in fact, the House budget is $200 million larger than the one the governor proposed back in December. And Senate Republicans have said that the income tax is their Hamburger Hill: They’ll defend it no matter what the personal or political cost to them.

That means pink slips go out on June 1. And, as Must Read Alaska Senior Contributor Art Chance has written on these pages, without a passed-and-signed budget, State government ceases to exist on July 1.

Budgets, taxes, and other addictions

Suzanne Downing

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May 24, 2017

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If it seems quiet this week in legislative news, that’s because the focus is on negotiations taking place in conference committees on several of the items on Gov. Bill Walker’s call for special session.

Conference committees are where legislators hammer out differences between the versions of bills passed by the House and Senate. Here is the list so far:

HB 57 – Operating Budget

HB 59 – Mental Health Budget

SB 26 – Permanent Fund restructuring (use of earnings to pay for government, and set amount for dividends)

HB 111 – Oil tax credits, was changed by the Senate to end the program altogether, and this will need to be worked out in conference committee.

HB 60 or SB 25 – Motor fuel tax, still undergoing committee work.

HB 159 or SB 79 Opioid legislation, HB 159 passed the House on May 22 and now returns to the Senate.

Income tax? – The governor has asked for a broad-based tax on his call for Special Session, but has not offered one.

On Tuesday, the House Democrat-led leadership appointed Reps. Geran Tarr and Andy Josephson, both Anchorage Democrats, to represent the majority on the HB 111 conference committee. The Republican House minority will be represented by Rep. Dave Talerico of Healy.

Senate President Pete Kelly is expected to appoint three Senate members to the HB 111 conference committee but the committee isn’t expected to meet until after Memorial Day weekend.

ANOTHER TAX COMING? Gov. Walker insisted it’s either an income tax or an income tax. His first tax, offered last year, would have raised $200 million a year, but would have required hiring up to 60 new revenue officers. His latest tax, HB 115, would have garnished closer to $700 million from wage earners. The fiscal note for funding tax collectors on that bill, which involves a complicated system of tax brackets, is unclear as it was voted down by the Senate.

Walker, for two years, has pursued an income tax, but has met with resistance. But this year there was a hitch — he didn’t offer an income tax under his own name. Not even for Special Session.

After all, that’s what Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer is for.

Walker also predicted, through Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck, that pipeline throughput oil will drop 12 percent next year. Yes, those were bad numbers, he admitted…”stale numbers.”

Then Commissioner Hoffbeck mysteriously found a spare $111 million in an oil production estimate. No word on where or how he found it, but that’s about half of what Walker’s first income tax bill would have provided.

Walker told Alaskans it’s math — workers need an income tax because of “the math.”

We did the math: 34 legislators are on record as disagreeing with the governor on income taxes. That 56 percent of legislators is on track with the Alaska Chamber of Commerce poll that found 58 percent of Alaskans feel the same way.

Is an income tax dead? In the infamous words of Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, “If the Senate thinks they’re going to get out of here with just a POMV [Permanent Fund restructure], they’ve got another think coming.”

But in the infamous words of Sen. President Pete Kelly: “The only thing standing between Alaskans and an income tax is the Alaska Senate.”

ADDICTED TO TAXES? Alaska is one of seven states without an income tax. Connecticut started its income tax at 4 percent, but converted to six brackets of 3% to 6.7%. Now, the Nutmeg State has a bigger budget gap than ever, with the worst fiscal shape in the nation. Add to that this problem: The wealthy people are leaving. Will they raise taxes again? Alaskans should take heed.

Homer recall election goes forward, says judge

Suzanne Downing

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May 24, 2017

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*Homer City Council members facing recall: Donna Aderhold, Catriona Reynolds, David Lewis.*

The recall election in Homer, Alaska may proceed, according to an Anchorage Superior Court judge.

The lawsuit by three Homer City Council members, who sought to avoid facing voters in a special recall election, came before the court on Monday.

By Tuesday, Judge Erin Marston had filed his ruling: The three city council members who claimed that a recall election would violate their “free speech rights” were sent back to Homer to face the music with the voters.

Not to go all constitutional on you, but the voter-centric language in this ruling is worth a good look.

“The statute provides the electorate with the ability to recall elected officials for cause, but requiring ‘misconduct in office’ to be criminal conduct overly limits the statute and would deny the voters’ right to effectively seek recall of their elected officials. It would also not be a ‘liberal construction’ of the statute,” Marston wrote. He meant liberal with a small “l”.

“Plaintiffs also argue [that] the petitions reference ‘unfitness’ and unfitness is not grounds to recall a municipal official. However, this interpretation ignores the language of the recall as a whole as well as the intent of the petitions. ‘Unfit’ versus ‘committed misconduct in office’ is not decisive here. Misconduct is referenced in the recall petitions. To reject the petitions for this small distinction would be to ignore the Supreme Court’s direction to liberally construe the statute and not to create ‘artificial pleading barriers.’

“Plaintiffs claim the certification of these recall petitions is an impermissible restriction on their Constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression. Defendant and Intervenor argue that certification of the petitions does not constitute state action for First Amendment purposes. Alternatively, they argue that these protections do not protect Plaintiffs from the regular functioning political process,” the judge continued.

Judge Marston was not buying it. “Here the City of Homer Clerk is administratively doing what she was legally required to do by the recall statutes,” he wrote.

“These are not recall petitions drafted by the City of Homer; they were prepared and filed by private citizens exercising their rights under AS 29.26.250. First Amendment protections against abridgement of speech by the federal or state government do not apply to actions by private citizens. The City of Homer did nothing to suppress speech.

“It is not what the Alaska Constitution and statutes contemplated and it is an unreasonable interpretation of the law”. – Judge Erin Marston

“To conclude that anytime a recall petition is based in part or in whole on what a politician said is protected by the First Amendment would be to eviscerate the recall statute to such an extent that the populace would almost never be able to seek recall of any of their elected officials. It is not what the Alaska Constitution and statutes contemplated and it is an unreasonable interpretation of the law. The recall statutes contemplate a political process initiated by the voters. Elected officials cannot exempt themselves from the process by claiming First Amendment protections.”

The American Civil Liberties Union attorney, Eric Glass, represented the three council members.

“It’s important to remember that, in Alaska, elected officials cannot be subjected to recall simply for a political disagreement but instead can only be subjected for recall for cause,” he argued during Monday’s trial. He did not, evidently, convince the judge that the ACLU should be the determiner of what “cause” is.

That right there was the crux of the matter. Do voters determine misconduct and unfitness for office, or do ACLU and their attorneys make those distinctions?

*Kesha Etzwiler, Jill Hockema, and Sarah Vance, and about 10 other Homer citizens attended the hearing in Anchorage on Monday. They support the recall election.*

The recall effort started after the three worked privately to craft an official city resolution that was “anti-Trump Administration” in nature, and was attempting to have Homer designated a “sanctuary city” that would shelter illegal immigrants. A later draft of that resolution was voted down by the council, even though it had been watered down to be an affirmation of Homer as a welcoming city to all.

The recall alleges the three council members are unfit for office. It also alleges misconduct, claiming damage was done when the draft of the resolution about “inclusivity” was made public.

[Read: Smoking gun: Homer council members intended to create sanctuary city]

[Read: Homer city council to considered softened language after blowback]

Real ID: Real problem or overblown concern?

No slappy face allowed: Conservative discontent with media deepens

Semi-secret election meeting crashed by Republican activist

What pink slips? House Resources holding climate change hearing

Sticker shock: The insurance costs Obama didn’t want you to see

The long arm of federal overreach catches renown ornithologist

Straight Outta Juneau: Won’t back down on income tax

Budgets, taxes, and other addictions

Homer recall election goes forward, says judge

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