Page 1617 – Must Read Alaska

Democrats destroying the village to save it

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June 22, 2017

ANDREW JENSEN
ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE

Democrats in Juneau deserve credit for at least one thing: what they lack in good ideas they more than make up for in chutzpah.

Now 10 days from a government shutdown at the time of this writing, the legislative session has become a monkey fight inside a clown car driving into a dumpster fire.

The House Majority threw a tantrum last week after Gov. Bill Walker took away their income tax woobie in his proposed compromise to end the standoff with the Senate by passing an 11th hour budget funded entirely with the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve including a $2,200 dividend check that will cost the state more than $1.3 billion on top of its $2.7 billion deficit.

Like a child who cleans their room by stuffing all the toys and dirty laundry into a closet, House Majority leaders then proceeded to claim that they had done their job by passing a budget and asked for a cookie.

House Republicans aren’t completely blameless in this mess, either. Half their caucus, including their leader Charisse Millett, voted for the budget-busting PFD. Perhaps she could better spend her time trying to figure out what her principles are rather than combing Gavel to Gavel footage looking for reporters goofing off in the gallery while her members make ridiculous analogies to Pearl Harbor, Ho Chi Minh and Vladimir Putin.

Some soul-searching is probably required when you’re on the wrong side of a vote by Les Gara.

Is being a conservative Christian mean you’re part of a hate group?

Suzanne Downing

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June 22, 2017

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GUIDESTAR SEEMS TO THINK SO

Visit the Family Research Council’s blog this week and you’ll find an article titled, “Ten Things Every New Father Should Know,” a touching essay by a writer experiencing Fathers Day as a new dad of a six-month-old.

The council is a nonprofit organization recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as such, and is unabashedly conservative Christian and family focused, promoting traditional values of strong marriages between men and women as the foundation for a strong society. The mission statement is “FRC advances faith, family and freedom in government and culture from a Christian worldview.”

That mission statement is no longer a statement of faith, but a statement of hate, according to Guidestar, the nonprofit tracker that manages a database of all nonprofits, their financials, their programs, and their reports to the Internal Revenue Service.

Guidestar, a nonprofit itself, bills itself as the largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. It is the self-styled gatekeeper of the nonprofit sector. Organizations big and small live and die by a Guidestar rating. So when the site puts a warning flag on a nonprofit, such a designation cannot be ignored.

But now Guidestar has adopted standards set by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and has decided to put a “scarlet letter” over its listing of the Family Research Council and other groups like it. The pro-marriage group is now considered the equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s on the “hate group” watch list.

The warning banner has also been placed over Guidestar’s information for at least two Jewish nonprofits and some other groups that may or may not be religious in nature. These include the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the American College of Pediatricians, the National Task Force for Therapy Equality, the American Family Association, the London Center for Policy Research, and the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness.

However, no warning banner exists above the listing for the Council on American and Islamic Relations — CAIR. That group’s mission is “to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.”

In 2014, the United Arab Emirates placed CAIR on its list of terrorist groups, along with al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, al Shabab and Boko Haram. CAIR may or may not be related to groups that fund terror; there is disagreement in the public arena about its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, “all hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”

Among the groups listed as hate groups is Act for America, founded by Brigitte Gabriel, a terrorism expert who has first-hand experience as a child victim of Islamic-inspired terrorism. She is a lecturer and author who has advised the Trump Administration, the United Nations, British Parliament, the Pentagon, Joint Forces Staff College, US Special Operations Command, US Asymmetric Warfare group, the FBI, and others. She is a Christian who warns people about Islam and terrorism.

The David Horowitz Foundation is also now listed as a hate group by Guidestar. Horowitz is the founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (formerly the Center for the Study of Popular Culture). He is a rational conservative, but he takes no intellectual prisoners.

GuideStar’s president and CEO, Jacob Harold, told the Associated Press that his organization defends the use of the hate group listing and said the warning labels are in response to a recent increase of “hateful rhetoric” in the U.S.

Look for the influence and credibility of GuideStar to wane if they persist with an increasingly partisan and biased rating system.

INCOMING TO ALASKA: FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL CRUISE

Family Research Council’s political action committee endorsed Joe Miller for Senate in 2016, when he ran as a Libertarian in Alaska, supplanting Cean Stevens at the last minute. Alaska former Governor Sarah Palin spoke at the organization’s Values Voter Summit in 2014. The group has been a recent critic of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s stances on abortion and the public funding of Planned Parenthood.

The council and some of its supporters will be on its first-ever fundraising cruise to Alaska July 29 – Aug. 5 with the organization’s president Tony Perkins.

Interior starts regulation-unwinding process

Suzanne Downing

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June 22, 2017

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Photo of a bald eagle in Ketchikan. — *Bald Eagle in the Ketchikan rain. (Antti T. Nissinen photo, Creative Commons license via Flickr.)*

The Department of the Interior today announced an initiative to involve the public in uncovering and reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens.

The initiative is in response to Executive Order 13777, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” signed by President Donald Trump in February.

The department will be taking recommendations through a link at www.regulations.gov.

Interior is asking the public to comment on how they are affected by specific federal regulations and which Interior regulations are ripe for repeal, replacement, or modification.

The department singled out certain attributes that would lead to reform, including regulations that:

Eliminate jobs, or inhibit job creation;
Are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective;
Impose costs that exceed benefits;
Create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and policies;
Rely, in part or in whole, on data or methods that are not publicly available or insufficiently transparent to meet the standard for reproducibility; or
Derive from or implement E.O.s or other Presidential directives that have been subsequently rescinded or substantially modified.

The Interior Department has jursdiction over the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, National Park Service, Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies where thousands of regulations are applied.

For more information on Interior’s regulatory reform efforts, visit www.doi.gov/regulatory-reform/implement.

Citizens may offer ideas to reduce unnecessary regulations by:

Going to www.regulations.gov and following the online directions to submit your comments to Docket ID No. DOI-2017-0003.
Sending your comments by mail to Mark Lawyer, Office of the Executive Secretariat, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1859 C Street, NW, Mail Stop 7328, Washington, DC 20240.

Sen. Sullivan chairing marine debris hearing

Suzanne Downing

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June 21, 2017

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Photo of volunteers removing debris from beach in Alaska. — In June of 2013 a group of educators, scientists, and artists removed 8,000 pounds of debris from Hallo Bay in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Because there was no place to dispose of it locally, the debris had to be taken from beaches in Zodiac inflatable skiffs, and ultimately transported to Seward, Alaska, some 220 miles away.

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, will convene a hearing on Thursday to explore the effects of marine debris and the efforts being made to clean it up in the oceans and Great Lakes. The hearing starts at 10 am, Eastern Time.

Sullivan’s subcommittee will explore solutions to the ever-increasing volumes of debris floating up on shorelines in the Pacific. Invited speakers include David Balton, deputy assistant secretary for Oceans and Fisheries, U.S. Department of State, and Nancy Wallace, director of the Marine Debris Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Alaska’s marine debris problem is compounded by its extensive remote coastline, which is longer than the rest of the United States’ coastline combined. The government estimates more than 250,000 tons of debris is floating on the oceans’ surface and 11,000 tons of debris enter the Great Lakes every year.

NOAA is addressing marine debris in Alaska with 20 projects and has removed about 450 tons of debris from shorelines, some of it tracing back to the tsunami resulting from the earthquake that struck Japan in 2011. The agency is also surveying the cleanup work to create baseline information to better track re-accumulated debris.

In March, Sen. Sullivan introduced Senate Bill 756, the “Save Our Seas Act,” with bipartisan sponsorship from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Cory Booker (D-NJ). Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also co-sponsored the bill. Thursday’s hearing is in advance of the expected smooth sailing of the the SOS Act through the Senate.

The SOS Act:

Gives authority to the NOAA Administrator to declare severe marine debris events and authorize funds to assist with cleanup and response. The governor of the affected state may request the NOAA Administrator make a declaration.
Reauthorizes NOAA’s Marine Debris Program through FY2022.

A live video of the hearing will be available at www.commerce.senate.gov.

What went down in Georgia? Biased polling, reporting

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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June 21, 2017

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Photo of Karen Handel — *Rep.-elect Karen Handel will represent Georgia’s 6th District after beating a well-funded Democrat.*

Karen Handel won Georgia’s 6th District, even though just weeks ago polls said that opponent Jon Ossoff, who held the hopes and aspirations of Democrats everywhere, was heading for the win. He was the rising liberal star.

A poll published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had Ossoff leading Handel 51-44 in late May, and reported he had “… a large advantage in the June 20 runoff.”

The AJC, a newspaper that famously leans left, went on:

“Ossoff led Handel among women by 6 points, comparable to other recent polls in the nationally watched race. But it also showed him with nearly a double-digit lead among male voters,” the Constitution reported.

“The upset-minded Democrat is trouncing Handel among voters who identify themselves as independents, a crucial voting bloc in the conservative-leaning district. Republicans have long relied on self-described independents to vote for the GOP in Georgia,” the newspaper opined.

Yesterday, the AJC kept up the background drumbeat for Ossoff: “Ossoff’s campaign has long-held that it has the edge in voter enthusiasm – a more committed base of voters who will flock to the polls regardless to support him.” The writer was addressing whether rainy weather might keep Democrats home, as southern lore predicts it does.

On June 1, another poll released by WSB-TV/Landmark Communications, showed that 49.1 percent of voters favored Ossoff, and 47.6 percent favored Handel. Landmark polls suggested an even closer race by June 18, showing the candidates only one point apart, well within the margin of error.

“We’re looking at a dead heat,” Landmark President Mark Rountree told WSB-TV.

On May 23, Salon had Ossoff with a comfortable seven point lead. Democratic pollster John Anzalone said Ossoff was in a strong position, and Ossoff himself chirped, “This is what momentum looks like.”

Even on Election night, the media could not comprehend what was happening. Politico published a graphic that had the results reversed, with Ossoff winning and Handel losing. The publication later corrected it.

It is a district that trends liberal, to be sure. And yet, the Republican won, 52.7 to 47.3 percent.

There’s no denying the election in Georgia was the hill Democrat strategists chose to die on as their referendum on President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Would the jittery supporters of the president come through for him? They would. Just as they did in April, when an open seat special election in Kansas was won by Ron Estes, the Republican candidate who survived a tough challenge from Democrat James Thompson in what is known as a conservative district.

DEMORALIZING?

The Left had also made Georgia’s 6th the most expensive race in U.S. House history. The open seat was the focus for the “Resist” movement across the country. For one shining moment, all eyes were on suburban Atlanta.

For her part, Representative-elect Handel is making history as the first Republican woman to be elected to Congress from Georgia. After being battered by $30 million in negative campaigning by Ossoff, she graciously said that she would represent all her constituents, including those who voted for Ossoff.

Earlier this month, her home and her neighbors’ homes were targeted with threatening letters and packages containing white powders. At about the same time, it was discovered that Ossoff doesn’t even live in the district that he was running to serve, and would not be able to vote for himself.

Democrats will turn their focus back to the president, who gives them ample opportunity to attack. These relentless attacks compound and create fatigue with voters. As we brace for the 2018 election cycle, the Indivisible Project and the Democratic Party will regroup and look for a new way to connect with voters. Because if they can’t win the Georgia 6th, even with obscene levels of campaign spending, they’re in trouble.

Down & out in AK: Dispatch’s ‘challenging times’

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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June 20, 2017

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Down & out in AK: Dispatch’s ‘challenging times’

DISPATCH SHRINKING SIZE AND STAFF

By CRAIG MEDRED
CRAIGMEDRED.NEWS

Yet more trouble appears on the horizon for the already troubled business of journalism in Alaska.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that yet more downsizing is coming at the Alaska Dispatch News – the state’s biggest, brawniest and, by sheer force of numbers, best news organization.

And Monday came a “Reader Survey” tucked away on page A-4 of the Alaska’s largest newspaper asking readers in little-bitty type to tell editors “what you absolutely can’t live without in (a) newspaper…with no choice but to produce a leaner print paper.”

If your answer to the question of what you can’t live without is “a Saturday newspaper,” forget about that. News publisher Alice Rogoff, who bought the Anchorage Daily News from the California-based McClatchy Company for $34 million in April 2014 in a good-faith effort to help save Alaska journalism, announced the death of the Saturday edition at the start of the year.

It appears other editions could now be on the chopping block.

“…As advertising and subscription revenue move online,” Monday’s “dear-valued-reader” message said, “it is necessary to scale our print product accordingly.”

The appeal was slightly odd that in this the Internet Age it required readers to rip out the ad and mail it back or deliver it to the Dispatch News office, and in that the tiny type in the request was sure to be hard to read for many regular newspaper subscribers who now skew heavily toward the geriatric set.

When the Pew Research Center for Journalism & Media last polled in 2015, 50 percent of those over 65 said they’d read a newspaper a day before and more than a third (38 percent) in the 55- to 64-age bracket were still regular readers.

Beyond that, the percentages quickly plummeted to 16 percent for people ages 18 to 24. Forty-two percent of the latter were regular newspaper readers when Pew started polling in 1999.

[Read more at craigmedred.news]

[Read: The summer of Alice Rogoff’s discontent]

Briefs: Who is behind the ads aimed at Lisa Murkowski?

Suzanne Downing

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June 20, 2017

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Here is a collection of new briefs from around the state:

SEN. MURKOWSKI TARGETED BY ADS, CAMPAIGNS: An organization called the Community Catalyst Action Fund (CCAF), which focuses on universal health care and protecting Obamacare, is targeting Sens. Lisa Murkowski-Alaska, Jeff Flake-Ariz., Susan Collins-Maine, Dean Heller-Nev. and Shelley Moore Capito-W.Va. with a media blitz urging them to vote no on the reform of the Affordable Care Act.

*Screen shot of the advertisement targeting Sen. Lisa Murkowski on the upcoming vote to reform Obamacare.*

In addition to CCAF, the Indivisible Project is also getting involved with targeting Murkowski, providing a website to encourage citizens to call lawmakers, and providing scripts for them.

However, the most active group is the CCAF, which is supported in part by The Atlantic Philanthropies and focuses on organizing citizens and training them to ask candidates pointed questions about their opinion of Obamacare.

The group seeks to shape the narrative of the debate over health care reform. The ad campaign started Monday and the group plans to spend $1.5 million on trying to convince the targeted lawmakers to vote no on the Republican-sponsored bill to replace Obamacare. CCAF appears to believe that the five senators they are targeting with the ads — including Sen. Murkowski — may be susceptible to left-wing pressure.

WHO IS CCAF?

CCAF is a left-wing organization run by experienced Democrat operatives. Board members include the Chairman Karen Hicks, of the Civix Strategy Group, who describes herself as having designed and run national and state based campaigns “that combine a winning strategy with a plan to build lasting power through leadership and skill development.”

*Karen Hicks, chair of CCAF, which is targeting Lisa Murkowski to vote no on Obamacare reform.*

Hicks has run and held leadership positions on presidential, statewide and local campaigns. In 2008, she served as a senior advisor to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton with a focus on the early nominating states as Clinton ran for president.

In 2004, Hicks was the field director for the John Kerry Campaign and oversaw the campaign’s $80 million grassroots mobilization effort in the battleground states.

She is vice chair for NARAL Pro Choice New Hampshire.

Also serving on CCAF’s board is Dan McGrath, executive director of Take Action Minnesota. He worked for Progressive Minnesota, as a canvasser and community and political organizer, and became the group’s executive director. He also has a labor organizing background with Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Robert Restuccia is the Fund’s executive director. He is an assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health and was with the organization Health Care for All for over a decade. That group has allied with the Indivisible Project with the “TrumpCare Ten” initiative to target Alaska and nine other states, by pushing scripts out to citizens and providing support for calling senators.

CANNABIS CAFES: The Alaska Marijuana Control Board is looking at options for on-site cannabis use in businesses, such as marijuana cafes. The board meets July 11-14 in Fairbanks.

The control board shelved the project in February, but is once again trying to put sideboards on what would essentially be marijuana taverns.

CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS SOLD: Kyle Clayton, a reporter at the Chilkat Valley News, has bought the paper from owner Tom Morphet. Clayton has reported for the Petersburg Pilot and elsewhere.

A special election to recall Haines Borough Assembly members Morphet, Heather Lende, Tresham Gregg is scheduled for Aug. 15. Citizen Don Turner Jr. alleges that Morphet and Lende were pressuring the police department to provide a police blotter to the Chilkat Valley News newspaper, which Morphet owned and for which Lende wrote. The newspaper is a for-profit business, creating a possible conflict of interest since Morphet had a financial stake in providing readers police news.

Morphet owned the newspaper since 2012, and is staying on to help with the transition. He put the paper up for sale several months ago.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT: Four members of an Ohio family who may be on the Kenai Peninsula now are sought by Ohio authorities in connection with a mass murder.

Photos of George Wagner IV, Edward “Jake” Wagner, George “Billy” Wagner, III, Angela Wagner — *George Wagner IV, Edward “Jake” Wagner, George “Billy” Wagner, III, Angela Wagner*

An execution-style killing of eight members of a family in Pike County, Ohio happened in April of 2016. George “Billy” Wagner, III, 46, Angela Wagner, 46, George Wagner IV, 25, and Edward “Jake” Wagner, 24, are wanted for questioning. Investigators speculate the killings may have been related to marijuana-growing operations, but a child custody dispute may also have been the motive.

The Dayton Daily News reports investigators learned of the family’s location from Pastor Kelly Cinereski of Resurrection Bay Baptist Church in Seward, who said the family attended his son’s church in Kenai on Sunday.

The summer of Alice Rogoff’s discontent

Suzanne Downing

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June 20, 2017

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*A contract on a bar napkin, signed by Alice Rogoff.*

It may be a rough summer in the Alice Rogoff household. At the very least, it will be a different summer than the one she had in 2015, when President Barack Obama came to dinner to her Campbell Lake home.

Life is tumultuous in and around the empire of the woman who advised Gov. Bill Walker on the merits of borrowing against the Alaska Permanent Fund and other state funds.

She advised using the Fund as collateral, investing the borrowed money at a higher rate, and spinning off profits for Alaska: “…by prudently using financial leverage to restructure our wealth, we can double the Alaska Permanent Fund and other state cash assets every 10 or 12 years.”

Rogoff’s husband, billionaire David Rubenstein, manages a small portion of the Permanent Fund through his Carlyle Group investment company, so that leveraging plan would work well for her and her share of the family fortune.

[Read: What is this Washington insider and billionaire’s wife doing in Alaska?]

This summer, Rogoff faces several big personal and professional challenges:

CRASHGATE: July 3 will be the one-year anniversary since Rogoff, owner of the Alaska Dispatch News, clipped a tree and crash-landed her float plane into the waters of Halibut Cove, and had to swim from the wreckage.

The National Transportation Safety Board report on that incident should be out soon. It is undergoing internal review and editing, we are told by the NTSB.

*Alice Rogoff swims to a rescuer after crash landing her float plane in Halibut Cove in 2016.*

Reports from the agency normally take 12-18 months to be released.

Rogoff retained her pilot’s license for land, but not for water. She left the scene and the public has not had a full accounting of her whereabouts for several days after the accident.

HOPFINGER SUIT: On July 11, Rogoff will be in court — or her lawyers will, at least. They’ll face off against her former business partner and founder of the Alaska Dispatch, Tony Hopfinger, who is also the former husband and partner of Amanda Coyne, now a senior adviser to Sen. Dan Sullivan. Coyne was part of the original Dispatch digital startup.

Hopfinger and Rogoff were partners in the Dispatch, but when the relationship soured, Tony moved on, with a paper napkin promise from her that she would pay him $1 million for his share over the course of 10 years. That didn’t happen.

[Read: Dipatch founder sues current owner Rogoff]

Last year in July, Hopfinger sued because Rogoff stopped payments after the first installment. There appears to be $900,000 outstanding in debt owed, according to a bar napkin upon which their contract was scribbled, just 10 days after she had purchased the newspaper from McClatchy. There may be legal fees and other damages — all that is under discussion in court.

WIRED FOR LITIGATION: Hopfinger is not the only one waiting for payment. M&M Wiring has brought a claim against a company that involves the Dispatch allegedly not paying a nearly $459,000 bill for work done on a building Rogoff leased for her new printing press.

Rogoff purchased the new press 18 months ago but has yet to make operational and it may need a lot more money than she has on hand.

Last year, the Dispatch leased the building from Arctic Partners LLC. Rogoff planned to move her entire newspaper operations there, including the reporting, marketing and administration, we are told by sources close to the newspaper.

The nondescript building at 5900 Arctic Blvd. needed extensive upgrades to become a functioning newspaper plant and offices, including major enhancements to the electrical system.

The Dispatch contracted with M&M Wiring to do that electrical work, the scope of which grew over time beyond the original work order, according to the complaint filed with in Anchorage Superior Court.

Ed McCoy, an employee of the Dispatch (known as Santa Claus by those who work with him), acted as the representative for both the newspaper and for Arctic Partners in getting the work done, the complaint says. At some point, McCoy was no longer the point of contact, but Adam Cook, one of Rogoff’s lawyers, was.

“Mr. Cook seems to have assumed the role of Dispatch’s project manager for the Project since he was directing the sequencing of contractor work, evaluating contractor bids, evaluating the project budget and directing contractors, including M&M…” the complaint says.

On Dec. 29, 2016, the Dispatch terminated M&M from the project entirely, the complaint claims.

It also claims that Arctic Partners LLC was aware that M&M wasn’t being paid for the work it was doing to get the building ready for the Dispatch.

With the electrical work halted, the final bill was about $958,800, some of which was paid. Nearly half — $454,479 — is said to still be owed, according to the claim. Plus 10 percent interest, which was part of the contract signed by McCoy.

As a way to get its money, M&M put a lien on the building. That case has now been assigned a judge, Eric A. Aarseth. Calls to M&M’s attorney went unreturned.

Meanwhile, Alice had taken possession of the press and installed it on concrete that may not have been strong enough to support the weight and vibration of a major press operation. City permits indicate that there was a problem with the concrete and work over the winter slowed to a crawl.

Reinforcement of that concrete may require the press to be removed from the building, according to newspaper veterans.

With the new building not operational, Rogoff is still leasing printing press space from GCI, to whom she sold the previous ADN building. Her main newspaper office is on C Street in Midtown Anchorage.

WHERE IS IT ALL GOING? Newspaper observers wonder if the Dispatch is worth a fraction of the $33 million Rogoff is believed to have paid McClatchy on April 8, 2014.

After all, she doesn’t own the real estate. She has a press at GCI’s building in Airport Heights. She has another nonfunctional press possibly resting on inadequate concrete in an industrial building that is still substandard. That building is tangled in a lawsuit. A contractor says she owes nearly half a million dollars. A former business partner will see her in court in three weeks over $900,000 he says is due.

In the summer of 2015, the menu at the Rogoff table was fit for a president: Cold-smoked king salmon lox, razor clams, Mat-Su lettuce, Koyukuk moose hunted by Alice, and berries picked by Alice.

This summer, there are no convoys of black government limousines driving to the Rogoff mansion. There are no Secret Service agents leaning on shiny cars or a dashing president seated for photos in the cockpit of her private plane at her Campbell Lake dock.

Her floatplane is totalled. Her float plane license surrendered. Her newspaper is an Alaska-sized headache that to all outward appearances is bleeding cash.

The summer of 2017 will be about how to satisfy contractors and landlords, whether she has to pay her former business partner, and whether she can keep Alaska’s largest newspaper running during one of the worst economic downturns in Alaska history.

There is irony in the fact that the anti-growth, anti-industry policies her newspaper promotes are contributing to its economic headwinds. We imagine that is probably lost on her.

Monday newsletter: Wild Goose edition

Suzanne Downing

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June 19, 2017

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What, you’re not subscribed to our Monday newsletter? Head over to the righthand side of the page and sign up. Here’s some of what subscribers got in their in boxes this morning:

GOOD MORNING FROM SOMEWHERE IN ALASKA … Welcome to the summer haircut edition of Must Read Alaska, where we have not yet been to see the highly anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic “All Eyez On Me” … We’ll wait for the book … China has blocked internet searches for “Kim Fatty the Third”, a popular term that is used in China for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un … The Supreme Court has said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted unconstitutionally when it denied a rock band named “The Slants” a trademark for their name, which the government found offensive … But first…

FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND: Each week we bring you conservative content and curation you won’t find elsewhere. Our subscribers include 10,000 Alaskans and growing. We can’t do it without you. Thanks to those who support this work to bring conservative perspectives to Alaska current events.

WILD GOOSE 1: Those of us who grew up in Juneau in a certain era remember the motor vessel Wild Goose, John Wayne’s 136-foot yacht that would slip into Auke Bay unannounced during the summer. The yacht was a converted World War II mine-sweeper and was sister ship to Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso.

We kids wondered … maybe John Wayne was aboard, but it was equally possible, (and knowable to a select few) that Frank Sinatra had chartered the boat. Float planes would come and go and pull up to the yacht, which swung at anchor with the tides, and unload some movie legend or another.

Vanity Fair this month publishes some rare old photos of The Duke and the boat he spent the better part of 17 years on.

WILD GOOSE 2: It may not be John Wayne’s yacht, but one “wild goose chase” idea to ponder: By mere coincidence you could talk to a State employee by the name of “John Wynne” about buying the M/V Taku, another historic vessel from Southeast Alaska’s yesteryear.

The State of Alaska couldn’t attract a buyer for the $1.5 million asking price, so you can now steal it for $700,000. Or less. Make an offer.

For 50 years, the Taku plied the waters of Southeast Alaska, but the 352-foot ferry is too expensive to keep up and has been idle for two years.

Built in 1963, the ship ran aground in 1970, poking into a small island in British Columbia. With its bow stuck in the trees, and passengers waiting for a ride from a BC ferry, the bartender served up a special drink called “Taku on the Rocks.”

The deadline for receiving bids was May 31. No word from DOT as to whether someone has ponied up the cash for a piece of Alaska maritime history.

STANDBY FOR FIGHTER SCRAMBLES: Over the weekend, Russia amped up tensions with the U.S. by promising to shoot down U.S. aircraft over Syria. With both air forces on high alert, look for Russia to flex its muscle in the Arctic as well. That Trump-Russia collusion thing is looking increasingly laughable.

GASLINE OPEN SEASON STARTS: AGDC’s open season to reserve capacity in the Alaska LNG pipeline project started Thursday and runs through August. It’s the courting phase for a summer romance with a Walker Go-It-Alone (WA-GIA) project that few Alaskans think is viable. More here.

Lest we forget, the gasline project also had a 90-day open season in 2010 … and another in 2012 … The line forms on the left.

GASLINES ARE FOR GIRLS? In April, Gov. Bill Walker made a pitch to China’s President Xi, “sovereign-to-sovereign,” to try to get him interested in investing in the Alaska LNG project. With all other partners having pulled out, Walker is now looking to despotic governments to invest.

Now this week, First Lady Donna Walker and her three daughters are being wined and dined in China at the expense of the Chinese government. Charm offensive.

CHINA ISN’T FOR SISSIES: China’s billionaires have an odd way of turning up “disappeared” or dead. The L.A. Times has a list of the missing.

TOO MUCH GAS: The boom in liquefied natural gas facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast is outpacing the market, says the Houston Chronicle. Energy companies are building or have proposed so many export terminals that they can’t all be successful, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. If all were built, LNG capacity could quadruple current production. “The numbers proposed far exceed what the world realistically needs,” said Alex Munton, Wood Mackenzie’s principal analyst of LNG in the Americas. (h/t Larry Persily.)

IF IT PLEASES THE COURT: Oral arguments in the case of Bill Wielechowski, Clem Tillion, and Rick Halford against the Walker Administration are scheduled for 1:30 pm on Tuesday, June 20 at the Boney Courthouse on K Street.

The three are suing the governor for vetoing half of Permanent Fund dividend appropriation last year. He hasn’t spent it but has left it in reserve to be part of a fiscal solution — one that is having trouble getting through the Legislature. His move infuriated some Alaskans but many others shrugged.

Walker is used to being on the other side of the lawsuit, having made his career suing the State of Alaska and various oil producer over various grievances. Now he has an entire Dept. of Law to defend against two Republicans and a Democrat, not to mention the court of public opinion. Weird times.

Protests will start at noon in front of the courthouse, we’re told. It’s case number S16558. Read our “This is awkward” explainer about it.

If the three challengers lose in court, Clem Tillion says that he’s already raising money for a voter referendum.

CRAY-TOWN BUDGET: The House Majority, with Democrats in charge, passed the most reckless budget they could come up with last week, drained over one-third of the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account to fund a bloated, $12.1 billion budget, the second-largest budget in Alaska history. And they did so with a straight face.

Gov. Bill Walker had to call another special session because the Democrats-in-charge budget had created an automatic government shutdown by not passing an “effective date.” They then held a press conference where they were caught lying about their budget. Even the reporters in the room seemed a bit skeptical.

Here’s how it went down:

Democrats pass budget that would shut down government

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: We recall the letter last May that Reps. Gabrielle LeDoux, Louise Stutes, Paul Seaton, Bryce Edgmon, Jim Colver, and Neal Foster sent to then-Speaker Mike Chenault, in which they stated they could not use the Earnings Reserve Fund to fund government:

“We feel that resorting to Permanent Fund earnings so suddenly as part of a solution to the impasse will sow grave confusion and mistrust among Alaskans,” the letter said. “Furthermore, we strongly believe that major actions having to do with the Permanent Fund, such as this, should go before the voters.”

That was so last year.

BEGICH SIGHTING: Just before all the chaos broke loose from the House Democrats, Mark Begich was spotted in Juneau. Mere coincidence?

HOMER: The council members who faced recall last Tuesday retained their seats by a comfortable margin of over 56 percent of the voters. The turnout was record-setting 42 percent. Lessons learned? It is hard to unseat a lawmaker — local, radical, or otherwise — in a special recall election.

The recall group, Heartbeat of Homer, kept it clean, stuck to the high road, and allowed the facts to speak for themselves. They discovered a lot about their community and about the election process. As one said, “We’re just getting started.”

JUNEAU MINING: City Manager Rorie Watt wrote that it’s wrong to open up the 1989 mining ordinance for review and in a memo advised the Juneau City and Borough Assembly against it, saying:

“The city should provide a large amount of education for members of the public so they can further understand the intricacies of possibly reopening the AJ Mine.”

“To be perfectly frank, a change now to our existing mining ordinance may not be durable. Several (if not many) Assemblies would have an opportunity to make subsequent changes.”

The Assembly didn’t buy it and voted 6-3 to take a look at the mining ordinance. Read Win Gruening’s discussion of the controversy that has just begun.

DRAINING THE SWAMP IS NOT THAT SIMPLE: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is reassigning dozens of top career officials, reports the Washington Post. The shakeup could involve as many as 50 bureaucrats.

However, getting rid of bad actors in the permanent bureaucracy is not that easy. The Senior Executive Service is a “swamp classification” created in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act. You can’t fire these guys, even when they steer contracts to their buddies.

WHO WILL HEAD BIA? We are hearing Jerry Ward of Alaska has a shot at the job of running the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but word is he would rather stay home in Alaska. Will he be tempted?

LEFTIST VIGILANTES: Here is a flyer showing up on bulletin boards in downtown Juneau, which indicates some Democrats are indeed unhinged.

VIOLENCE BY THE LEFT ON THE RISE: The Alt-Left is committing more acts of terror, say experts.

MRAK BLOG DITCHES GOOGLE ADSENSE: Readers of Must Read Alaska, the daily news and commentary site, kept seeing ads pop up for Democrat candidates, such as Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is battling Republican Karen Handel in Georgia’s Sixth District’s special election Tuesday.

This unwelcome surprise happened before with Tom Begich ads, and it’s annoying to readers, especially those on mobile devices.

We are disabling the Google service that pushes random ad content onto the blog. We’re hoping donors will make up the difference. This summer we’ll sell some more ads and keep on keeping on.

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THANK YOUS ARE IN ORDER: Must Read Alaska strikes a balance for conservatives like you in Alaska. Thank you to everyone who has donated to the cause this week:

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Continue

Democrats destroying the village to save it

Is being a conservative Christian mean you’re part of a hate group?

Interior starts regulation-unwinding process

Sen. Sullivan chairing marine debris hearing

What went down in Georgia? Biased polling, reporting

Down & out in AK: Dispatch’s ‘challenging times’

Briefs: Who is behind the ads aimed at Lisa Murkowski?

The summer of Alice Rogoff’s discontent

Monday newsletter: Wild Goose edition

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