On Jan. 3, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Proclamation 3269, admitting the territory of Alaska as the 49th and largest state in the union. The signing took place in the Cabinet Room of the White House in the presence of Senators-elect E. L. Bartlett and Ernest Gruening, Representative-elect Ralph J. Rivers, Acting Governor Waino Hendrickson, Michael A. Stepovich, former Governor of Alaska, and Robert Atwood, Publisher of the Anchorage Daily Times. Vice President Richard Nixon and House Speaker Sam Rayburn sat on either side of the president.
The president made these remarks immediately after signing the proclamation:
Gentlemen, I think that all of us recognize this as an historic occasion. Certainly for myself I feel very highly privileged and honored to welcome the forty-ninth State into the Union.
Such a ceremony has not taken place in almost half a century, so at least I have the feeling of self-gratification that I am not just one of a group in this kind of ceremony.
To the State itself, to its people, I extend on behalf of all their sister States, best wishes and hope for prosperity and success. And to each of you gentlemen elected to high office to represent your new State, in both State and Federal offices, my congratulations, my felicitations, and my hope that we will all work together to the benefit of all forty-nine States. Certainly, I pledge to you my cooperation in that effort.
And now, as far as these pens are concerned, I hope there’s one for each of you people who has worked so hard to bring this about.
The new 49-star flag, which would become official on July 4, was unfurled the same day.
Can there be justice for those who have done nothing, but have been brought up on charges anyway?
Most would want to think, yes. Well…I’m here to tell you one story of retribution that could, potentially, change how false accusations are dealt with and settled.
In a time of censorship, insensitivity, selfishness, and extreme intolerance, “deceit” can become the new “truth.” The entertainment industry, media/journalism and political arenas have been blown wide open with career-crushing accusations. Self-awareness and honest reflection are quickly becoming the new platform for restitution, but not resolution.
Here I will focus on what I know: the political arena. With all the valid accusations that have come forth, we, the general public, have completely glossed over the false accusations that have come to the forefront. Why is that? For now, allow me to focus on a specific and particular case that hasn’t had wide-spread media attention as yet.
I am David Wilson, a state senator in Alaska who was recently accused of sexual harassment of a legislative aide by House leadership, a blogger, and a news reporter.
No one registered a formal complaint against me, but that did not stop others from filing baseless accusations, pushing forward without knowing the facts, or doing a proper investigation before labeling me guilty.
In October 2017, a blogger named Jeff Landfield “covered” this story in his new blog and it quickly spread throughout social media and local news programming without any due diligence.
The blog caught the attention of KTVA’s Reporter Liz Raines, who took this matter into her own hands, joining Mr. Landfield. Ms. Raines gave an inaccurate account of what happened as she went on her media campaign to tell her story. As time moved on, however, holes in Ms. Raines’ account began to appear.
A video that surfaced exonerated me. That video has yet to be viewed by the public. However, those who did have the opportunity to view the video saw to it that the charges against me were dropped.
The Bible states that for all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.
Imagine, if you will, my frustrations that dragged on for weeks, knowing that I was innocent the entire time. The lost hours of sleep, the pressures of work and deadlines, along with the loss of focus, should be completely understandable. I am but one case. Yet, there are thousands like mine, where innocent professionals are losing their livelihoods based on verbal accusations without any proof.
This is a fearful time in this society. When the burden of proof is on the defendant, the plaintiff can sit back and watch the disintegration of a human life, based on absolutely nothing.
It doesn’t take much for someone’s life to be turned totally upside down, their reputation ruined, future goals dashed, and families devastated and destroyed. I hope the lesson my case has taught is that you should never take your presumed innocence as a given in the eyes of others.
Someone desperately wanted to end my political career, livelihood, and, ultimately, my life as I knew it.
Maybe what I proved to my accusers in my counter action is that the innocents who stand and fight for their right to be heard will ultimately be the winners.
Harriet Beecher Stowe once said “When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that’s just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stated centuries ago. My plight just may be the perfect example to another under the same pressures today.
Throughout this fight I never forgot those that were important to me. I remained focused on my wife and my family, a difficult thing to do under such duress and pressure.
Criss Jami said “The pressure of adversity is the most powerful sustainer of accountability. It’s as though everything you do is multiplied by 50 in order to surpass those with a head-start. I was never capable of slacking when at the threshold of failure.”
These words ring true in my situation.
When will our society focus again upon the truth? We have laws in place like perjury, making a false statement to police, and obstruction of justice. Do we also need to create laws about bearing false witness and false claims of sexual harassment?
David Wilson is state senator who represents Wasilla, Meadow Lakes, Knik, Big Lake, Point MacKenzie, Goose Bay and North Fairview.
According to data released by ReMax, only five metropolitan areas in the country saw a year-over-year decrease in median prices for homes in 2017.
Anchorage was the worst.
The only Alaska community in the survey, Anchorage led the pack with a -5.3 percent decrease in median home prices.
Alaska’s largest city was followed by Trenton, N.J. -4.2 percent; and Honolulu, -3.4 percent.
Nine metro areas increased year-over-year by double-digit percentages. The largest increases were in San Francisco, +13.8 percent; Cleveland, Ohio, +12.9 percent; Orlando, Fla, +11.6; and Seattle, +11.4 percent.
Not all real estate services report information in the same way. A review of Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Realtor.com found wide variations in Anchorage data.
The Multiple Listing Service of Alaska reports that the average sales price in Anchorage in 2017 is fairly flat: $365,472, down slightly from $366,203 in 2016, and $367,710 in 2015.
Houses stayed on the market for an average of 49 days in 2017, the same as in 2016 and only slightly longer than in 2015.
The average price of a condominium in Anchorage has firmed from $211,536 in 2016 to $212,530, with units staying on the market for an average of 70 days.
Some 1,079 homes are for sale in Anchorage, a figure that appears consistent throughout the various companies reporting such data.
In the past three years, total sales volume for homes in Anchorage has dropped over 6 percent, according to MLS data.
In November, the median price of all 54 metro sales was $227,500, an increase of 1.7 percent over October 2017 and up 3.7 percent from November 2016.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz might have had it right all along: The city is perfectly safe, so long as you don’t go out after midnight or are not involved with the underground drug trade.
Berkowitz said that last September in the glib way he says stuff, and all hell broke loose among the citizens of Anchorage, causing him to take back those words. There had been 34 murders in 2016 and, by the end of 2017, there would be 35 — an all time record.
But maybe he was just being honest.
Thirty-nine-year-old Timothy Smith broke the Berkowitz safety curfew: Smith, who seems to have had no major brushes with the law and who seemed like a fairly happy-go-lucky guy, lasted just a few minutes past midnight on New Years Day, 2018 in Anchorage, before he was shot dead in the middle of downtown Anchorage.
Smith had been out celebrating the new year with a friend, someone described as the love of his life. He’d been riding a mechanical bull in a local nightclub, the Gaslight Lounge. And then, after the clock struck midnight, he was out on the street, where he went down in a hail of bullets near the Avenue Bar at 4th and D Streets.
Police are looking for occupants of a silver Chevy TrailBlazer that was in the area.
According to media reports, Smith was the father of two sons, ages 20 and 17. In 1996, he set the long-jump record for Dimond High School at more than 22 feet, a record that stands today. He was described as a handyman and auto mechanic, and on social media, his friends said that he brought a lot of joy to their lives.
Smith would have turned 40 on Jan. 3. Instead, he was the first homicide victim of 2018 in his hometown, where even the mayor said it’s not safe to be out after midnight.
Last year, the Juneau Police Department launched the “Year of Kindness” initiative to encourage people to commit acts of kindness on a daily basis. The experiment wrapped up with a community party on New Year’s Eve with food, music, and Native dancing.
The Juneau crime rate didn’t drop in 2017, kindness notwithstanding.
This year, the police are instituting a new program: Officers will be wearing body cameras.
The Year of Kindness challenge followed a period when crime had skyrocketed in Juneau. In 2016, there had been a 28 percent jump in property crime. Burglary was up 60 percent.
Crime statistics for 2017 will be released later this month, but in the meantime, Juneau is also coping with a shortage of police officers and an explosion of homelessness and drug abuse.
Five sworn officers of JPD have the body cameras already, which attach magnetically to their uniforms. All officers will be wearing them before the end of the year, according to Police Chief Ed Mercer.
The last Juneau Police Chief, Bryce Johnson, told the Chamber of Commerce in July that property crimes were rising and that SB 91 was to blame for a lot of the problem. SB 91 is the criminal justice reform bill that is widely blamed for the increase in burglaries and thefts.
“If it’s not bolted down or locked up, someone is going to steal it,” he said.
OUR EYEBROW-RAISED COLUMNIST WONDERS ABOUT THE AFL-CIO’S END GAME
By ART CHANCE SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
As I read Charles Wohlforth’s piece in the Anchorage Daily News about Alaska Psychiatric Institute being an unsafe place to work, I felt a twinge of regret to see the passing of my legacy.
The last time communists — excuse me, Democrats — ran State government, Mark Boyer, Gov. Tony Knowles’ first commissioner of Administration, swaggered — or waddled — into our office and announced that he’d campaigned with the unions for the commissioner’s job and had promised them he would fire us all and replace us with people acceptable to the unions.
I said, “Let us know how that turns out” and walked out, but you can only work for people you hate for so long. I put my affairs in order and went to work for the Legislature with Commissioner Boyer’s misery as my main mission.
A few years later Boyer was gone and they hired me back to end the misery and fix the mess they’d made.
I had two charges: End the State’s embarrassing and expensive string of arbitration losses and, in the words of my new commissioner, “Get ASEA out of my buildings and off my back.”
ASEA — the Alaska State Employees Association — in those days was into guerilla theater. Their stock-in-trade was mau-mauing State managers.
Even before Wohlforth, they had ready access to the Democrats’ propaganda organ, the Anchorage Daily News. They would start with something in “The Ear.”
Art Chance
Then there’d be an article posing as news about a “poll” they’d done about how unhappy the employees at the division of widget-making were.
Then, there would be a poll about how terrible those loyal, dedicated employees thought the supervisors and managers of the department of widget making were, and how unfair and uncaring the State was.
Sometimes it would come to singing songs and carrying signs outside the offices of the department of widget-making or even outside the supervisor of widget-making’s house.
Those were the days when the State’s primary labor relations manual became Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”
As Wohlforth’s screed in the ADN last week demonstrates, ASEA is back in the State’s buildings and back on a manager’s back; it’s been almost 20 years, but they’re fully in charge again.
Now, I’m not arguing about that woman’s claim to have been injured at API. To keep body and soul together and pay for college, I once worked in a mental institution. I have a very nice scar above my left eye from the head of a push broom in a pillow case that a recently admitted drunk in detox swung at me.
We carried hypodermic needles with 1200 mg of Thorazine in our shirt pockets; beat the hell out of having to beat hell out of them, or have them beat hell out of you.
It isn’t an easy way to make a living and nobody should do it very long. I stayed at it long enough to become a supervisor. When my new hires first came on they talked about helping people; after a few months they talked about euthanasia.
What I don’t get is why ASEA is doing it. They own the government. Vince Beltrami, president of the AFL-CIO installed the Walker Administration and ASEA’s Jim Duncan is his second in command and largest single source of dues income. ASEA can get anything it wants from the Administration.
The woman at issue has Workers’ Comp and ASEA health insurance. The State almost never controverts Workers’ Comp claims. If there are inordinate safety risks at API, the commissioner of Labor is the former union rep for the union that represents the DOSH investigators. ASEA represents the support staff, and even the supervisors are in an AFL-CIO union.
The department of Health and Social Services at one time had a bad reputation for retaliating against employees who cause trouble, but that pretty much ended when they lost their independent human resources and labor relations authority back in the Murkowski Administration. They have more independence now, but their human resources head is a former State labor relations hand, who knows the law and the game.
So just what is ASEA’s game? They don’t need a grievance procedure or a newspaper article; they have everybody who is anybody in the Administration on speed dial.
Sometimes these things are nothing more than a shakedown: “Give us some money and we’ll leave you alone.” But this doesn’t seem like a good time to be asking the Legislature for a budget increase.
Or, maybe the Walker Administration has reached the point in only three years that it took the Knowles Administration six years to figure out; it is hard to run an organization and stay friends with the unions, especially when they think they own you.
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. He only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s banned from posting on Facebook. 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.
The people you support says a lot about your perspective. Our current Anchorage mayor HOSTED a fundraiser [for] Maria Cantwell— the US Senator who offered an amendment to strip ANWR out of the Tax Bill.
Let that sink in— the mayor of the largest city in Alaska is an ENTHUSIASTIC supporter of one of the most rabidly anti-development members of Congress.
So Mr. Mayor — what’s YOUR plan for the economic recovery of Anchorage and Alaska if you support Alaskans being blocked from accessing our natural resources?
MUST READ ALASKA FACT-CHECKED: Yes, Berkowitz did host a fundraiser for Maria Cantwell, opponent of Alaska ANWR 1002 area development and he allowed his name to be included in support of her.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is arguably the most historic year in modern American history. We’ll be reading and watching videos about the social unrest, the war in Vietnam, and the anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism movement that swept the globe.
Here are just a few of the anniversaries that will be noted by history buffs as the year unfolds. Not noted here is a multitude of other important battles and events in the Vietnam War and the associated growing unrest among American college students, much of which was encouraged by a growing communist movement in America.
JAN. 21: The 50th anniversary of the siege at the Khe Sanh Combat Base, during which the 26th Marine Regiment was encircled by tens of thousands of North Vietnamese fighters. The Marines went through their ammunition and supplies quickly and stayed alive with air drops supported by the U.S. Army and Air Force. In the end, 205 U.S. Marines were killed, 1,668 were wounded and as many as 15,000 enemy fighters were killed. Once the siege ended, 1,600 North Vietnamese bodies were found just outside the base. The seige lasted until July. 11, 1968, when the base was finally closed and evacuated. Read more about this amazing battle at Wikipedia.
JAN. 23: North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, a surveillance ship. This heightened Cold War tensions in the region, coming just 15 years after the Korean War. The Navy ship had been monitoring the North Korean military from the channel between Korea and Japan. The 82 members of the crew who survived being captured were starved and tortured, but were forced to say during a news conference that they were treated kindly. They snuck in comments that showed they were being forced into those statements and extended their middle fingers to show what they really thought. When the North Koreans eventually discovered what the sailors had done, they beat them severely.
JAN. 30: North Vietnam launched what became known as the Tet Offensive. It was the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Some 85,000 North Vietnamese fighters attacked 36 targets in South Vietnam, taking the U.S. and South Vietnamese by surprise. More about this event is written by Mark Bowden (author of Blackhawk Down) in Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.
JAN. 31: Viet Cong attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
MAR. 13: An oil discovery at Prudhoe Bay is confirmed by Humble Oil, (which later became part of Exxon) and Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).
MAR. 16: Mai Lai Massacre, American troops killed Vietnamese civilians in Mai Lai, but the event is not known until November, 1969, and it fuels public sentiment against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
MAR. 18: Congress repeals the “Gold Standard,” the requirement for a gold reserve to back all U.S. currency.
APR. 4: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray was arrested on June 8 for the assassination.
MAY 13: After French Communists and French Socialists formed an electoral alliance in February, Paris riots begin, where more than one million students, Communists and Socialists took to the streets to protest capitalism, American imperialism, and traditional institutions. At one point during the unrest, President Charles de Gaulle fled the country for a few hours.
JUNE 5: Robert Kennedy, who was a candidate for president, was shot and killed by an assassin at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after he had given a campaign address in the ballroom. He underwent brain surgery, but died 26 hours after the attack. He was 42.
AUG. 5-8: The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla. nominates Richard Nixon for President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President. He goes on to defeat Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat, and George Wallace, the Independent.
AUG. 26-29: The Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. President Lyndon B. Johnson had earlier announced he would not run for re-election. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine were nominated for president and vice president.
NOV.6: What became the longest student-led strike in United States history began at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley.
DECEMBER, 1968: Mao Zedong’s brand of communism continued to expand in China with the “Down to the Countryside Movement“. For the next decade, 17 million young “intellectuals” living in cities were ordered to go to the countryside to work in farming collectives. The term “intellectuals” applied to middle school graduates, or “educated” who were sent away from their homes to be “rusticated.”
DEC. 11: After the death of Sen. Bob Bartlett, Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel appointed Ted Stevens to fill his position in the U.S. Senate.
DEC. 24: Apollo 8 was the first manned space craft to orbit the moon. Among the memories of that event were the first photos taken of Earth from deep space, including “Earthrise.” The mission was part of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the book, A Man on the Moon, author Andrew Chaikin said the astronauts received thousands of telegrams after returning, but the one that stood out from the others simply said: “You saved 1968.”
WHAT BIG EVENTS DID WE MISS?
What events of 1968 did you find important in an historical sense? Led Zeppelin’s first American concert? The Gun Control Act of 1968? Your comments and additions are welcome below.
As the final hours close on fundraising for candidates during 2017, gubernatorial candidates, as well as state House and Senate candidates, have been dialing for dollars. It’s tedious work but every little bit helps.
The campaign of Gov. Bill Walker has gone the extra mile, leaning on the credibility of First Lady Donna Walker, who penned this letter to supporters for broadcast on the final day of 2017:
“I have been an eyewitness to the daily leadership Bill Walker and Byron Mallott have provided the state these past three years.
“I’ve witnessed their courage, in the face of an unprecedented deficit, as they made prudent, not popular, decisions to preserve dividend payouts for future generations and reduce state government to the size it was a decade ago.
“I have also witnessed many Alaskans thanking them for saving lives through Medicaid expansion, for working together as no governor or lieutenant governor has done in recent memory, and for appointing a cabinet and judges who are representative of our diverse communities and populations.
“As they seek re-election, I am also witnessing the overwhelming support they are receiving and the donations that are pouring in.
“Tonight at midnight, the final donations will be collected for 2017. Please stand up and be counted as Alaskans unite to make history again and re-elect the only independent governing team in the country – the team that will continue to show courage, leadership, true grit and devoted allegiance to putting Alaskan values first.
“My thanks and best wishes to you in the New Year, ~ Donna”
Word on the street is that fundraising for Walker/Mallott has been robust, particularly his most recent fundraiser at the home of former Gov. Bill Sheffield, where he is said to have raised $80,000. Much of his support is coming from Democrats, unions, and Native health consortium executives whose salaries more than doubled as a result of Medicaid expansion.
Candidates can receive no more than $500 from any individual during the calendar year that ends tonight. On Jan. 1, the cycle starts again, with donations to state campaigns limited to $500 for 2018.
