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Al Gore says continental freeze part of global warming?

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CHECK OUT THE MAP FROM 1985

The most prominent living advocate of human-caused climate change, Al Gore, says that the deep freeze experienced by the continental United States is exactly the kind of weather event one can expect with global warming.

“It’s bitter cold in parts of the US, but climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann explains that’s exactly what we should expect from the climate crisis,” Gore wrote on Twitter. He linked his message to one of his nonprofit group’s articles: 

He’s hoping Americans have a short memory and confuse “weather” with “climate.”

THE DEEP FREEZE OF 1985

One of the most frigid Arctic weather events of the 20th century occurred Jan. 18-22, 1985. Every state east of the Rocky Mountains was affected by extreme cold, including new state records established: -34 degrees at Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, -19 degrees at Caesar’s Head, South Carolina; and -30 degrees at Mountain Lake, Virginia.

Some 165 deaths were attributed to the cold spell and the inauguration parade for President Ronald Reagan’s second term in office had to be cancelled due to a wind chill factor in Washington, D.C. of -10 degrees.

In Florida, the state’s citrus industry suffering $2.5 billion in losses, according to reports. Homes burned through the electrical supply and water pipes burst across the South, while firefighters couldn’t put out fires due to the water freezing in their hoses.

Meanwhile, in January, 1985, Anchorage enjoyed balmy weather, with a high of 41 degrees and a mean temperature of 36 as a high and 15 as a low.

Quote of the Day: Sullivan on marijuana enforcement

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“Although I did not support the 2014 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, it strongly passed and I passionately believe in democracy and the principles of states’ rights. For these reasons, I have worked with federal officials and Alaskans to try to address a number of areas where our state and federal marijuana laws are in conflict.” – Senator Dan Sullivan.

“Today’s action by the Department of Justice — which contradicts previous statements by the President that this is an issue best left to the states, and adds new confusion and uncertainty for numerous states and communities — could be the impetus necessary for Congress to find a permanent legislative solution for states that have chosen to regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana. As we move forward, I will be examining new and existing legislative proposals and working to ensure the rights of Alaskans and the State of Alaska are protected,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan’s statement followed a Justice Department memo on federal marijuana enforcement policy.

The Justice Department memoradum is here.

 

Gabby LeDoux: Take the training, or your staff is fired

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Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux is mandating sexual harassment training for all legislators in the House of Representatives.

Or else.

In a letter to Rep. Tammie Wilson, Rules Chair LeDoux said that any legislator who refuses sexual harassment training will lose their staff members.

The training will be made mandatory through the existing ethics statute, LeDoux said. The Ethics Committee will meet next week to discuss the training measure.

But their decision makes no difference to her mandate, she said.

“Moreover, regardless of the Ethics Committee decision, as the hiring authority for session I want all legislative staff to have a safe working environment. In order to help establish this environment, all supervisors, including legislators, must be trained in harassment and discrimination prevention.

“ I would not feel comfortable in the current environment allowing any employees to work in an environment where their supervisor is not trained. Therefore, any legislator that is unwilling to attend the training will have their staff authorizations rescinded,” LeDoux wrote.

LeDoux did not address her own role, nor the role of House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, Majority Leader Chris Tuck, and Rep. Scott Kawasaki in covering up a complaint made last March by one of Kawasaki’s legislative aides.

Speaker Bryce Edgmon, Rep. Scott Kawasaki, and House Majority Leader Chris Tuck.

Olivia Garrett made the complaint in writing about Rep. Dean Westlake a year ago in March, but House leadership took no action for many months, until Garrett took the matter public in December.

[Read: Westlake’s woman problem grows]

After receiving no action on her complaint, Garrett made public her letter and said that Majority Leader Tuck had coached her on the proper wording for the complaint, which accused Westlake of inappropriately speaking to her and grabbing her butt in public.

Grabbing her butt would be a criminal offense.

[Read: Did Edgmon and Tuck conspire to cover up?]

Westlake has since resigned, effective Christmas Day, and Jan. 4 is the deadline for applicants who wish to serve out his term to get their resumes into the Democrats. The vetting of those applicants will be closely watched.

WAS IT A COVER-UP?

Presumably, the new training will hold legislators accountable for reporting incidences of sexual harassment, but at this stage, the Legislature’s harassment policy has not yet been updated, as it is still being reviewed by a special legislative task force. The training would be relying on old rules.

As a member of House leadership, LeDoux is in charge of all staff during session. Any complaints of harassment of staff would have rightfully been brought to her attention by Rep. Tuck and Speaker Edgmon. That’s one of the key jobs of the Rules chair. It appears that LeDoux may have looked the other way when sexual harassment occurred on her watch.

LeDoux, Edgmon, Tuck and Kawasaki have remained tight-lipped and have not issued an apology to the women who were harassed by Westlake after the original complaint was made.

But Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard has asked for an independent investigation into how the complaint from Olivia Garrett was handled so badly.

[Read: Sullivan-Leonard: Independent investigation needed]

LEDOUX LANGUAGE POLICE

In March, while the sexual harassment scandal was being buried, LeDoux took action on other matters. She cautioned legislators that they could not use the term “slush fund” or “bureaucrats” when discussing budget cuts. Apparently, on Ledoux’s watch, the language police were on duty last year even if the anti-harassment enforcers were in hiatus.

[Read: Censored: Republicans forbidden from saying “slush fund” on House floor]

Bill McAllister: April, 1956 – December, 2017

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Bill McAllister, the former communication director and press secretary for former Gov. Sarah Palin, died on Dec. 15, 2017 in Anchorage. For several years, his health had been deteriorating and he had been unable to work for the past two years.

McAllister was a journalist who worked alongside many others in the state, including Suzanne Downing, editor of this news site, who hired him in 1999, and felt lucky to have done so.

He was one of the most accomplished journalists I’ve had the privilege of working with in Alaska, and raised the bar for his colleagues at the Juneau Empire.

“He was fair, he was no-nonsense and he was a true professional, and we are saddened for his family and their loss,” said former Empire Publisher John Winters.

Like many journalists in the small world of Alaska, McAllister went back and forth through the door of being a news reporter to working as a press secretary and back to news reporting.

“As our friend, and my former spokesman in the Governor’s Office, my family and I knew him as such a good man! Always so proud of his family; always working tirelessly in various capacities in journalism; always gracious with his calm, cool, collected demeanor. Bill was such a good example and influence. It was a pleasure working with him. My family and I have the utmost respect for Bill and his memory. God bless his family,” Gov. Palin wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

[Read: Bill McAllister’s long strange year]

He started his career in journalism in Minnesota after graduating from Hamline University in St. Paul. McAllister covered both politics and rock and roll while writing for the St. Cloud Times. He was also a music critic for Gannett News Service, and covered the opening night of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” tour.

After working at the St. Paul Legal Ledger, he moved to Juneau and wrote for the Juneau Empire for three years, then worked for KTOO TV and radio, hosted “Alaska One” for public television, and was the Capitol bureau chief for KTUU.

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took office, she offered him the position of press secretary and director of communications. Then, fate took a turn and she became the nominee for vice president. McAllister was thrust onto the national scene as he navigated the media frenzy that followed.

After one tumultuous year that involved both presidential politics and his own brush with death, he moved over to the Department of Law, and worked for Attorney General Dan Sullivan (now Alaska’s U.S. senator) and then returned to news in 2011, working for KTVA.

McAllister was deeply conservative. But he was respected by liberals in the news media for his seriousness and the quality of his work.

In 2010, Alaska Public Radio’s Steve Heimel wrote on LinkedIn, “Bill knows how to get to the point. He has a good command of the language and is able to deconstruct officialese. He has a nose for news.”

Former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell wrote about McAllister on LinkedIn: ” Bill McAllister has distinguished himself in what might be called a trial by fire. He was a well-known and respected reporter for Alaska’s top news station, the NBC affiliate here. He was spokesperson for Sarah Palin at the time the Alaska Governor became the nominee for vice president, and continued as her spokesman after the election. He served with distinction as spokesman for our high-profile Attorney General as Alaska, under its new Governor Sean Parnell, ramped up its challenges to the federal government.

All in all, Bill has shown he can keep cool in a firestorm, work to simplify the complicated, warn of troubled waters ahead, and do his job without making himself the issue — not easy.”

He was also involved in community theater, having founded a theater in Minnesota, and acted in productions in Anchorage with Cyranos and Anchorage Community Theatre.

McAllister had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2008, and had many subsequent health challenges, and by 2015 was using a wheelchair.

 

Survivors include his parents William A. And Mary M. McAllister of St. Louis, Mo., his birth mother Michelle Emery Newton of San Diego, Calif., and children August, Grace, and Saga.

There was no public service but memorials are suggested to Brother Francis Shelter in Anchorage, or to a crisis pregnancy center of the donor’s choice.

[Read Bill McAllister’s full obituary here.]

Bonus: Alaska Air awards $1,000 to 22,000 workers

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TAX CUT CREDITED

Alaska Air Group will give $1,000 bonuses to its 22,000 workers, including those at Virgin America, Horizon Air, and McGee Air Services.

The decision was announced Thursday and comes after Congress approved the Trump Administration’s corporate tax cut, and also comes in advance of the company’s announcement of its fourth quarter and full year 2017 financial results, expected on Jan. 25.

Employees of the company will receive the bonus in addition to their annual performance bonus, which is paid every January and is often more than $1,000. Corporate executives will not receive the bonus.

Other airlines have given the same level of bonuses to workers: Jet Blue, Southwest, and American Airlines.

Based in Seattle, Alaska Airlines is the fifth-largest U.S. airline based on passenger traffic and is the dominant carrier in the Northwest and Alaska, moving more passengers between Alaska and the Lower 48 than any other airline.

Valley political pieces start to move

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With Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla rejoining the race for governor, the political players in the Mat-Su are starting to rustle.

Pam Goode

Pam Goode of Delta Junction filed for the primary first, but didn’t indicate whether she will challenge Rep. George Rauscher or go for Dunleavy’s Senate seat.

She recently rejoined the ranks of the Republican Party after having been associated with the Alaska Constitution Party for several years.

Goode ran against Rauscher for House District 9 in 2016 and took 37.18 percent of the vote in the general election as a member of the Constitution Party. In 2014 she ran against Jim Colver for the House District 9 seat and took 27 percent of the general election vote as a CP. This makes her an experienced campaigner in the district, and she has conservative credentials.

The first to file for Dunleavy’s Senate seat is Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Randall Kowalke, who represents the District 7 area of the borough, encompassing Meadow Lakes west, and the northern area of the Borough up to the Denali Highway including Trapper Creek, Talkeetna, Willow, and Sheep Mountain Areas.

Randall Kowalke

Kowalke won his seat on the Assembly by a slim margin in 2015 against Doyle Holmes. He and Holmes have some bad blood between them that stemmed from a lawsuit a few years ago, and some speculate that Holmes could try to foil him by filing against him. Kowalke sees himself as a moderate conservative.

David Eastman and George Rauscher

Rep. David Eastman, District 10, and Rep. George Rauscher, District 9, have eyed the Dunleavy seat, but neither has indicated whether he’ll make a move. Both are conservative Republicans who have not agreed with the way the governor has proceeded by cutting Permanent Fund dividends in half.

If Rauscher jumps in, Pam Goode may decide to run for his seat, which would then be an open seat. The man who Rauscher beat in the 2016 primary, Jim Colver, might also jump in to regain his seat.

And if Eastman jumps in and runs for Senate, it’s just as likely that Randall Kowalke will consider running for the House seat Eastman would vacate.

Liberal poll shows Walker in trouble in three-way

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The Lottsfeldt Strategies leaked a poll in recent days that shows Gov. Bill Walker has a high hill to climb with the Alaska voter.

In a contest between Walker, Republican John Binkley, and Democrat Mark Begich, only 10 percent of participants were strongly in favor of Walker, while 19 percent said they strongly favored Binkley (who is not a declared candidate), and 16 percent were strongly for Begich, (also undeclared).

Patinkin is a survey firm out of Portland that provides research mainly for liberal organizations. Jim Lottsfeldt, the principal of Lottsfeldt Strategies, would be the type of client that Patinkin would accept. PRS also did work to create the Permanent Fund automatic voter registration messaging that helped convince voters to pass the ballot measure in 2016.

The company also checked the pulse of the Republican side of the ballot to see who is gaining traction. Under that question, Binkley still does well, according to the data that has been released, while Mike Dunleavy and Scott Hawkins follow at a distance, and Charlie Huggins and Mike Chenault are in the back of the pack.

 

Here’s what the governor’s race breakdown looks like in the Patinkin Poll:

Among a wider sample of Republican candidates, Binkley still had the advantage as of mid-December, keeping in mind that Dunleavy had not re-entered the race and so the results are likely skewed:

The Patinkin poll was leaked two weeks ago, but why it was leaked is a mystery. It’s possible that Lottsfeldt is working with his usual client Mark Begich to test the waters. But Begich often uses Harstad Strategies out of Colorado for his polling. It’s equally possible that Lottsfeldt is trying to talk Begich into running by leaking the poll and seeing what kind of support gets generated.

It’s a political year, so anything is possible, and things are often not what they seem.

 

Dunleavy hires campaign team: Brett Huber, Amanda Price

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Sen. Mike Dunleavy announced the appointment of key staff to his 2018 gubernatorial campaign: Brett Huber as campaign manager, and Amanda Price as deputy campaign manager.

“Together, they bring a powerhouse of talent, connections, and political savvy to our growing organization,” Dunleavy said.

Brett Huber has extensive experience in business management, public policy, and grass roots organization. He was chief of staff to former Sen. Rick Halford of Chugiak and the Senate Resources Committee.

He was chief of staff for Sen. Lesil McGuire of Anchorage and the Senate Rules Committee, chief of staff for Sen. Dunleavy, and policy advisor to Sen. Pete Kelly of Fairbanks.

Huber also brings to the campaign his in-depth knowledge of natural resource policy and fish and game management.  He previously worked as Executive Director of the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, and as a Program Director for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  Huber is past President of the Alaska Outdoor Council and AOC Political Action Committee.  He also served as Chairman of the Public Advisory Committee for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

Amanda Price brings to the campaign nearly two decades of experience in government affairs and organizational management.  She most recently served as senior advisor to Gov. Bill Walker on issues of violent crime prevention, intervention, and response, and policy with a particular focus on the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Price served as the executive director of the non-profit Standing Together Against Rape (STAR), the only statewide agency serving victims of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse.  She has been an active community leader holding many roles including serving as the Finance Committee Chair and Legislative Committee Member for the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Price was also appointed to the Municipality of Anchorage Housing and Neighborhood Development Commission.

“Amanda Price’s expertise in strategic organization, planning, and fiscal responsibility will be crucial as our campaign builds momentum,” said Dunleavy. “Even more important is her deep knowledge of the public safety challenges facing our state, her knowledge of the resources available to our state, the gaps in service that exist, and immediate steps that can be taken to protect Alaskans.”

District 40: Will it be the Year of the Woman?

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OR WILL EUGENE SMITH BE WALKER’S CHOICE?

Thursday is the final day for applicants to get their resumes in for the House District 40 vacancy.

So far, we know with certainty that Sandy Shroyer-Beaver of Kotzebue has applied. Shroyer-Beaver is a member of the Kotzebue City Council. She let her intent be known on Facebook in December.

But Must Read Alaska is also learning that Ben Nageak, of Barrow, is putting his name in for consideration. The former representative for District 40 lost the seat to Dean Westlake in 2016 by just eight votes, after the Alaska Democratic Party came after him with all guns blazing. Nageak had joined the Republican-led majority in the House and was chair of the Natural Resources Committee. That offended Democrats and they “primaried” him with Dean Westlake, a known sexual harasser.

Westlake’s resignation was official on Dec. 25. He had been accused of sexual harassment while serving in the Legislature over this past year.

[Read: Did Edgmon and Tuck conspire to cover up Westlake complaint?]

In addition to those two names, the former mayor of the city of Kotzebue Eugene Smith has resurfaced.

Smith is the former chief of staff to the mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough.  He is associated with Gov. Bill Walker through John Baker, who is a close ally of Walker’s and whose family runs successful companies in the region.

But questions about both Smith and Baker were raised at a December, 2016 retreat of the Northwest Arctic Borough because of a controversial school construction project for Kivalina, in which Baker’s company proposed that it receive a no-bid contract with a 20 percent management fee attached to it, which they later re-proposed at 12 percent. The overall project was worth about $60 million. The management fee seemed extraordinarily high in either case. Shortly after the third of three meetings on the proposed contract, Smith was let go from his position in the borough.

The meeting was reported on by KTUU.

“The meeting revealed a sharp division – at least at the time – between the mayor’s administration and the school district when Richards called for a vote on a proposal to award a construction manager project for construction of a new Kivalina school.

“It was the third time in a month that the Assembly had been asked to consider the proposal. Previous resolutions specified Remote Solutions, a company owned by Iditarod mushers John Baker and Katherine Keith, as a recipient of the no-bid contract. An attorney for the school district wrote that the proposal might violate a state law that requires competitive bidding on such projects, while district officials argued they could perform the same work for less money.

“This decision should not be made in Seattle, Washington,” school district director of property services Craig McConnell testified at the Dec. 16 meeting. “It should be made here in our region. So people can speak in person.”

“Savok said the location of the meeting was a matter of common-sense timing and convenience.

“I don’t think there was any withholding of public involvement in any way, shape or form,” he said. “The meeting just happened to coincide where all Assembly members were present.”

Baker’s company, Remote Solutions, won the bid. And since Baker is pulling for Eugene Smith, some people in the borough say it is a foregone conclusion that Walker will pick Smith.

Will the governor go with the Baker recommendation?

Will this be the Year of the Woman for the Northwest Arctic Borough and Sandy Shroyer-Beaver?

Or will Nageak, the man who lost the seat when the Division of Elections allowed people in some communities to vote two ballots, be appointed to finish the term of Dean Westlake? That would seem to be the choice the best respects the will of the voters, but it may not advance the Walker-Mallott political agenda.

The final answer may be none of the above, but we will know within a few days.

[Read: The election of a predator]