Page 1620 – Must Read Alaska

Approval ratings: Murkowski, Sullivan even in eyes of voters

Politics

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October 31, 2017

There’s not a senator in America whose constituents are so approving as those of self-professed Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

In the Green Mountain State, 71 percent of those polled by Morning Consult approve of Sanders’s performance.

Alaska’s Sens. Lisa Murkowsi and Dan Sullivan both received approval ratings of 49 percent, about in the middle of the pack and slightly above average.

In the more-conservative state of Alaska, Murkowski’s disapproval rating edged up to 38 percent, while Sullivan’s was 32 percent. The margin of error was calculated at 5 percent in this poll.

Murkowski’s approval has sagged by 6 percent since the last Morning Consult poll in July, when 55 percent of respondents said they approved and 37 percent disapproved.

The average senator approval rating is 47 percent in the third quarter poll.

Updated: Walker creates climate change team

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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October 30, 2017

15

ADOPTING PARIS AGREEMENT BY DECREE

Gov. Bill Walker this morning signed an administrative order this week establishing the Alaska Climate Change Strategy and the Climate Action for Alaska Leadership Team (Leadership Team), which will be charged with taking actions to address climate change.

The State will engage with national and international partners to support the goals of the United Nations 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goal #13, “Climate Action.”

This fall, Walker hired a top climate change adviser who is commuting to work from Seattle to Juneau by jet to serve in his cabinet. Nikoosh Carlo will be the cabinet’s point person for the climate change team.

[Read: Governor hires climate change adviser]

[Link: Administrative order as signed]

According to the draft order obtained by Must Read Alaska, the Alaska Climate Change Strategy “should encourage community input and collaborate with local and regional governments, indigenous organizations, private sector entities, nonprofit organizations, and educational and academic institutions. Climate solutions should provide equitable support to communities impacted most by climate change. In addition, State leadership should ensure that Alaskan communities and businesses have the support necessary to benefit from the educational and economic opportunities created by the global response to climate change.”

The leadership team will address:

• Mitigation: Actions to reduce, sequester, and offset greenhouse gas emissions to decrease our carbon footprint.

• Adaptation: Actions to evaluate risks and adopt measures to address or reduce the vulnerability of Alaska’s citizens, environment, and infrastructure to climate change impacts.

• Research: Actions to support and bolster monitoring, observing, modeling, scientific analysis, data sharing, planning, innovation, and public outreach and education related to climate change and mitigation and adaptation strategies.

• Response: Actions to plan and train for timely and robust responses to protect and address near-term threats to Alaska’s communities and regions from current consequences and impacts of climate change, including, but not limited to, ocean acidification, coastal erosion, storm impacts, oil and other toxic spills, and infrastructure damage.

Further, the Leadership Team may consider these and other themes in the context of climate change:

Renewable energy and energy efficiency
Social, health, and economic assessment
Economic opportunity and technological innovation
Infrastructure and the built environment
Increasing collaboration and information sharing

Risk communication and planning
Human capacity building
Community engagement and resilience
Emergency response and immediate action

The Leadership Team shall identify measures to attract financial and human resources to the state, the University of Alaska, nonprofit organizations, and other organizations working to address climate change in Alaska with the aim to meet and expand the goals of this strategy.

The Team will present Walker a preliminary plan of action before Sept. 1, 2018 and an annual report in subsequent years.

The order directs State agencies to “prioritize, develop, implement and recommend actions that further the purpose of this Order including regulatory and statutory changes as may be timely and appropriate.”

The team will be made up of 15 public members, as well as a representative from the University of Alaska, a representative from the Alaska Energy Authority, and the Commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development and the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation; each commissioner may designate a representative. The Governor may appoint commissioners of other departments as members of the Leadership Team.

The Leadership Team will meet at the call of the Governor or the chair, as may be required. The chair may invite non-members, create and dissolve committees of non-member subject matter experts, and otherwise facilitate the work of the Leadership Team.

The governor’s administrative order repeals Gov. Sarah Palin’s Climate Change subcabinet as detailed in Administrative Order 238.

The governor signed the order in Juneau this morning at an unpublicized press conference.

Quote of the day: Pete Kelly tough on crime, taxes

The Social

Suzanne Downing

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October 30, 2017

0

“The Senate will stand with the Governor as he searches for answers to the crime wave. However, it is inappropriate to link crime to his persistent desire to tax working Alaskans.”

– Alaska Sen. President Pete Kelly, responding to Governor Bill Walker using his crime crisis press conference to push for a payroll tax, per SB 4001.

[Read: Walker gets the message: Crime a top priority now]

Walker gets the message: Crime is top priority now

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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October 30, 2017

8

In late 2014, as Gov. Bill Walker was taking office, he assembled his transition team to help develop his list of priorities. It was chaired by Rick Halford and Ana Hoffman, and the document produced for the governor by the transition team is an inch thick. It touches on nearly every topic in Alaska.

Eight pages of the 176-page report were devoted to public safety. Half of that was about beefing up communications and infrastructure capabilities for the general safety of the public, and working on “smart justice” to take justice in a new direction.

“There is a misperception that “smart on crime” means being ‘soft on crime.’There is general widespread ignorance of the large cost savings available for justice reform.” – Walker/Mallott Transition Team Report, November, 2014

The rest of the transition team report covered in great depth tribal sovereignty, tribe-to-state intergovernmental relations, reestablishing coastal zone management, implementing the United Nations Millennium Agreement, revenue sharing with tribes, subsistence, Arctic engagement, fiscal plans, fisheries, reforming Corrections, Medicaid, economic development. And a gasline. The gasline would be the focus, the plan acknowledged.

Weeks later, in his first State of the State Address of 2015, Gov. Walker said nothing of public safety.

At his Sustainability Conference in Fairbanks in June of 2015, Public Safety was not a priority for his room of advisers.

Today, Gov. Walker held a press conference to outline new steps for public safety, which he admits has spiraled into a crisis on his watch. Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, almost always by his side, was missing, but Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, and Commissioners Valerie Davidson (HHS), Dean Williams (Corrections), and Walt Monegan (Public Safety) all spoke.

Walker’s public safety action plan shows his intent to study, evaluate, and explore various remedies for crime, but the plan is short on actual targets, milestones or timelines that would be measurable by the public, other than increasing the number of treatment beds for addicts.

But at least as his first term enters its final year, Walker now understands public safety as a priority.

Walker Public Safety Action Plan: Summary October 30, 2017

To address the trend of increasing crime in Alaska, Governor Walker tasked the State’s public safety agencies with evaluating the causes of the rise in crime and developing a concrete action plan. While public safety is a complex and evolving challenge, the Public Safety Action Plan focuses efforts in four main areas: fairness and efficiency in the criminal justice system, addressing the resource needs of Alaska’s public safety agencies, improving the system for addressing mental health and substance abuse issues, and addressing the immediate challenges of the opioid epidemic and drug trafficking.

To improve outcomes in the criminal justice system, public safety agencies will:

Continue to evaluate the impacts of criminal justice reform legislation passed in 2016;
Work to pass Senate Bill 54 (2017);
Begin reviewing clemency applications; and
Evaluate law governing exoneration and expungement for potential changes.

To identify public safety resource needs, public safety agencies will:

Use existing resources more efficiently by developing tools to better share data among stateagencies and taking other steps to improve interagency sharing and collaboration;
Leverage technology to increase agencies’ capacity and improve communications, including creating a statewide domestic violence and sexual assault hotline and adding telecommunication resources in rural jails;
Increase local capacity to contribute to public safety, including strengthening the VPSO program, expanding options for tribal courts to provide civil remedies for certain state law violations, and stepping up efforts to educate local law enforcement officers about evidentiary standards; and
Request additional resources, such as more troopers and prosecutors.

To improve access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, public safety agencies will:

Work to increase the space available at treatment facilities and explore ways to improve process and avoid unnecessary delays in getting people needed treatment;
Evaluate and develop a long-term strategy for Title 47 holds; and
Explore legislative options to improve processes for criminal cases involving mental health and competency concerns.

To address the opioid epidemic and drug trafficking, state agencies will:

Implement the Strategic Plan for Responding to the Opioid Epidemic;
Commit more resources to combating drug trafficking, including prosecutors and drug dogs;
Seek additional funding and capacity through federal partnerships; and
Propose legislation to enable law enforcement to respond more effectively to the threats posed by drug trafficking.

That time when Rep. Don Young pulled a 10-inch knife

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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October 29, 2017

1

That time when Rep. Don Young pulled a 10-inch knife

THE LEGEND LIVES ON – ‘MOSTLY TRUE,’ YOUNG SAYS

The story has been told before in Alaska political circles, to great effect, but now it’s out there in the big wide world of Politico — Rep. Don Young once pulled a knife on House Speaker John Boehner.

Yes, he did. You had to have been there, however.

In a long-form story that reads like a novella, Politico writer Tim Alberta gave the former House Speaker the mic — and then wrote the biggest political kiss-and-tell of the year. Boehner named names and dropped F bombs. It’s like reading a script from House of Cards, with Francis Underwood peeling back the layers on everything from earmarks to Obamacare.

And then it came time for Alberta to tell the story about Don Young:

“The funding of pet projects in lawmakers’ districts helped leadership to keep members in line, but fueled a culture of venality and waste; boondoggles like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ a 2005 project calling for a $223 million earmark to construct a bridge to a remote, sparsely populated Alaska island, became symbols of congressional excess. Boehner never accepted an earmark in Congress—and he enjoyed railing against those who did. His heckling once provoked Don Young, an Alaskan himself, to pin Boehner against a wall inside the House chamber and hold a 10-inch knife to his throat. Boehner says he stared Young in the eyes and said, ‘Fuck you.’ (Young says this account is “mostly true,” but notes that the two became good friends, with Boehner later serving as his best man.)

We reached Young for a response, and here’s what he told us he had told Politico, but the quote evidently ended up on the cutting room floor:

“That’s mostly a true story, but it’s also one of those tall tales from the House floor. This was some of the friendly back and forth banter John and I had over a few decades, but it was never anything serious. Had it been, I’m sure you would’ve heard about it long before now. John actually loves this story, I’ve heard him tell it multiple times — once at my wedding in 2015 as my best man. Each and every time, that knife gets a little bigger and gets a little bit closer. One thing is true, the story always ends with an ‘F’ you,” Young said.

Full of quotes and disses about everyone from Harry Reid and Barack Obama to Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, it is filled with gravelly expletives and inside baseball that only political junkies will muscle through.

For those with too much time on their hands, the entire story is linked here.

Juneau soldier dies in Afghanistan, flags lowered

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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October 29, 2017

1

FROM STARS AND STRIPES

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Pentagon has identified the U.S. soldier killed in a helicopter accident in eastern Afghanistan on Friday as Chief Warrant Officer Jacob M. Sims, a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

Sims, 36, of Juneau, Alaska, was assigned to 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

The helicopter was transporting troops for a night raid in Logar province when it hit a tree, forcing an emergency landing, Salim Saleh, the provincial governor’s spokesman, told Stars and Stripes.

The U.S. military said six other U.S. crew members were injured in the incident and sent for medial treatment. Saleh said one Afghan servicemember was also wounded.

The joint raid with Afghan forces was part of a broader operation to clear the Taliban from parts of Logar, Saleh said.

The militants, who are believed to control about half of the province, said they shot down the helicopter in the volatile Kharwar district, killing dozens of Americans — a claim NATO refuted.

“We can confirm the crash was not the result of enemy action,” NATO’s Resolute Support mission said in a statement. “We have full accountability for all personnel and the crash site has been secured.”

Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch offered his condolences: “We were shocked and saddened by the news of the loss of Jacob M. Sims in Afghanistan. The heartfelt sympathies of Juneau go out to the Sims family and friends.”

The death brings the total number of U.S. servicemembers killed in Afghanistan this year to 12. More than 2,400 have been killed since the war began 16 years ago.

NATO said an investigation into the incident had been launched.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our comrade,” Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said. “On behalf of all of Resolute Support, our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of our fallen comrade and those injured in this unfortunate event.”

Governor Bill Walker today ordered that United States and Alaska flags be immediately lowered to half-staff in honor of Sims.

“Chief Warrant Officer Sims and his family made the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us,” Governor Walker said. “Byron, Toni, Donna and I are holding his parents, his wife and his children in our daily prayers. While our state and our country lost a dedicated soldier, they lost their son, husband and father. Our military servicemembers put themselves on the line in defense of the values we hold dear. We owe them a debt of gratitude.”

Flags should return to full staff at sunset on Thursday, November 2.

THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER

Chief Warrant Officer Two Jacob Michael Sims was born in the state of Oklahoma on Aug. 13, 1981.

He enlisted in the Army on Aug. 12, 1999. Upon completing basic training and advanced individual training, CW2 Sims was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C. as a Combat Engineer.

After successful selection and completion of Warrant Officer Flight Training, CW2 Sims was assigned to Fort Wainwright, Alaska as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

CW2 Sims volunteered to serve in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) and graduated Officer Green Platoon in April of 2014. CW2 Sims was assigned to Alpha Company 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. CW2 Sims served as a Fully Mission Qualified MH-47G Pilot-in-Command and Company Aviation Safety Officer.

CW2 Sims was a veteran of Operation JOINT GUARDIAN in Kosovo, numerous tours in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM in Iraq, and Operations ENDURING FREEDOM, FREEDOM’S SENTINEL, and RESOLUTE SUPPORT MISSION in Afghanistan.

His military education includes the Basic Training Course, Advanced Individual Training Course, Basic Airborne Course, Basic Leader’s Course, Air Assault Course, Jump Master Course, Advanced Leader’s Course, Warrant Officer Flight Training, UH-60 Qualification Course, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (High Risk) Course, CH-47D Qualification Course, Officer Green Platoon, Combatives Level 1 Training Course, MH-47G Qualification Course, Aviation Safety Officer Course, and the Aviation Warrant Officer Advanced Course.

CW2 Jacob Sims’ awards and decorations include the Air Medal (with Combat Device), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Achievement Medal (with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters), Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Meritorious Unit Citation (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters) Army Good Conduct Medal (4th Award), National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (with 1 Bronze CampaignStar), Iraqi Campaign Medal (with 2 Bronze CampaignStars), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (2nd Award), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal (3rd Award), Air Assault Badge, Senior Parachutist Badge, Sapper Tab, Basic Aviator Badge, and the Combat Action Badge.

“On behalf of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment I would like to extend my most sincere condolences to the family of CW2 Jacob Sims. Jacob lived by a creed that few understand and even fewer embody. He will not be forgotten and his legacy will endure through his family, friends, and fellow Nightstalkers. You have our unwavering support, and always have a welcome place among the Night Stalker family,” SAID Colonel Philip Ryan, Commander, 160th SOAR (A).

Quote of the day: Sunday best from Trey Gowdy

The Social

Suzanne Downing

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October 29, 2017

0

“It is kind of ironic that the people in charge of investigating the law and executing the law would violate the law. Make no mistake, disclosing grand jury material is a violation of the law. So, as a former prosecutor, I’m disappointed that you and I are having the conversation because somebody violated their oath of secrecy.”

– House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, speaking about Special Counsel Robert Mueller having leaked information to the media concerning grand jury charges filed in the investigation into Russia’s influence in the the 2016 presidential election. Gowdy was speaking with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

Mueller is a close friend of the now-dismissed FBI Director, James Comey, and has a team of lawyers with financial ties to Democratic candidates.

Quote of the day: In Anchorage, ‘I’m always carrying’

The Social

Suzanne Downing

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October 28, 2017

0

“I don’t even question whether or not I should be armed when I’m walking my dogs now. I’m always carrying.”

— Anchorage resident testifying on Saturday by phone to the House Judiciary Committee on Senate Bill 54 and the need for criminal justice reform.

House Finance will meet earlier on Monday to deliberate SB 54, starting at 1 pm, but will take public testimony in the evening from 5-9 pm. Watch and listen here:

http://akleg.gov/#tab5

Give your crime-related testimony by calling 907-465-4648 to obtain the number or send testimony to [email protected].

SB 54 increases some penalties for crimes that under SB 91 have possibly led to a wave of thefts across Alaska. The bill was passed by the Senate in April, but House Democrats sat on it and never held a single hearing until the governor called them into special session to do so on Oct. 23.

The best opinion piece you’ll read all week

Columns

Suzanne Downing

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October 28, 2017

4

The best opinion piece you’ll read all week

Now for some good news. Andrew Jensen, editor of the Alaska Journal of Commerce, shared his thoughts on the success of SB 21, the oil tax reform that took the place of ACES in 2013, and was ratified by voters in a 2014 referendum.

‘GAME OVER FOR WILECHOWSKI’

If Sen. Bill Wielechowski is true to his word, we’ve heard the last from him about changing Alaska’s oil taxes.

Back on June 10, 2014, Wielechowski and now-former Sen. Hollis French (who Gov. Bill Walker appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission last year) issued a “very simple challenge.”

“If SB 21 produces new oil, even ONE additional barrel, and this production results in increased revenue to the state, even ONE more dollar we will drop our support for revising oil taxes,” Wielechowski said.

The legislation proposed by Wielechowski and French called for the previous system known as ACES to be retroactively implemented in 2019 “if there is not one new barrel of oil produced compared to the 2013 TransAlaska Pipeline moving average of 531,000 (approx.) and total oil revenues from 2014 to 2018 are not any greater under SB 21 than they would have been under ACES.”

Whoops.

On Oct. 25 in Juneau, state Revenue Department officials released a revised production forecast for the current fiscal year of 533,000 barrels per day.

That’s 1,999 barrels more than needed under Wielechowski’s and French’s challenge and by the time the fiscal year ends next June 30 it could be plenty more.

We’ve yet to reach the peak production months on the North Slope, yet in September the daily rate was 512,000 barrels per day compared to 474,000 per day in September 2016.

So far in October, the daily production is 537,000 barrels per day compared to 525,000 per day in the same month last year.

This puts the North Slope on track for its third straight year of production increases in the four full fiscal years that Senate Bill 21 has been in place despite the fact prices have cratered from about $112 per barrel when it passed to as low as $26 per barrel in January 2016.

Meeting the revenue half of the Wielechowski-French challenge is even more of a layup.

Nobody, not even the Democrats, disputes that SB 21 has collected more production tax revenue than ACES would have at the prices from 2014-18. ACES would have collected zero production taxes at prices less than $63 per barrel, which we haven’t seen since the first quarter of 2015. The revised price forecast doesn’t expect prices to cross the $63 threshold until 2020.

That represents hundreds of millions more in revenue under SB 21 versus ACES.

Game over.

Early indications are Wielechowski has either forgotten about the gauntlet he and his former Democrat colleague laid down or doesn’t intend to abide by it.

He was tweeting the day after about how we haven’t reached former Gov. Sean Parnell’s goal of 1 million barrels per day and then turned his attention to the difference in production tax revenue versus the entirely separate subject of oil tax credits.

Approval ratings: Murkowski, Sullivan even in eyes of voters

Updated: Walker creates climate change team

Walker gets the message: Crime is top priority now

That time when Rep. Don Young pulled a 10-inch knife

Juneau soldier dies in Afghanistan, flags lowered

The best opinion piece you’ll read all week

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