Republican Sharon Jackson, who was on the staff of Sen. Dan Sullivan until earlier this month, has filed for the office of lieutenant governor.
Jackson has been involved with political organizing for years, and is the president of a Republican women’s club in Anchorage, the Republican Women of Anchorage, (although she will likely have to resign that post, as club rules often don’t permit officers to be active candidates.) Her club’s goal is to “diversify and grow our party and most of all give our Independents and Undeclared a reason to return.” Diversifying the Republican Party has been a long-held goal of Jackson.
Jackson was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Alaska, one of 11 delegates from the state who were bound by party rules to support Donald Trump.
She worked for National Write Your Congressman and the National Federation of Independent Businesses in the past, and is a military veteran of the U.S. Army.
For Sullivan, she served constituents from the Anchorage office of the senator, and worked extensively on behalf of veterans services. This is her first run for public office.
QUINTILLION’S TIES RAN THROUGH GOV. WALKER’S OFFICE
A company that has laid fiber optic cable along the ocean bottom from Nome to Deadhorse now has its former chief executive officer arrested and charged with defrauding investment companies.
Quintillion already faced a lawsuit by ACS Cable Systems LLC, which filed complaints in December about how Quintillion had fraudulently or negligently induced ACS into executing a contract.
That lawsuit has now led to federal charges against former CEO Elizabeth Pierce.
The original lawsuit said that Quintillion advised ACS that Pierce did not have the authority to execute an agreement, and that the two companies had different copies of the agreement. Quintillion’s version of the subsea agreement did not include resale rights. One of the documents was forged, the company said.
Evidently, ACS wasn’t the only one that was upset about the deals with Quintillion. Pierce has surrendered to authorities in New York and been charged.
On Aug. 8, 2016, Gov. Bill Walker appeared in Dutch Harbor to review the work being done by Quintillion as it completed the Alaska portion of the cable project. Walker declared it a win for Alaska.
“Alaska is changing,” he told KUAC radio. “Alaska is changing because the Arctic is opening up. So to be able to have this opportunity for Alaska — the connectivity with the rest of the world with the high-speed internet this is going to provide — it’s pretty exciting.”
Two days later, at the board meeting for the Alaska Industrial and Development Export Authority, who should show up but the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Marcia Davis, sitting alongside Quintillion’s Elizabeth Pierce.
Marcia Davis
At the end of that meeting, the board went into executive session to discuss the financing of telecommunications in Alaska.
Marcia Davis, it’s known, steered an investment by Calista Corporation to Quintillion when she was Calista’s general counsel.
Must Read Alaska wrote last year, “If AIDEA is getting ready to make a decision about financing a portion of this project, then the public will want to know a lot more about it because it’s an unusual piece of investment with an uncertain outcome… Word is that Quintillion needs an answer right away from AIDEA, and that in itself might signal it’s best to slow down.”
Not long after, Pierce was quickly removed from her post and replaced.
“To realize her plan to build a fiber optic system that would service Alaska and connect it to the lower 48 states, Elizabeth Ann Pierce allegedly convinced two investment companies that she had secured signed contracts that would supposedly generate hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed future revenue from the system. As it turned out, those sales agreements were worthless because the customers had not signed them. Instead, as alleged, Pierce had forged counterparty signatures on contract after contract. As a result of Pierce’s deception, the investment companies were left with a system that is worth far less than Pierce had led them to believe.”
“It’s important for stakeholders to maintain a certain level of awareness into how their investments are being managed. In this case, thanks to a customer who was paying close attention to their invoices and noticed something was up, Pierce’s alleged scheme began to fall apart. The false agreements she tried to pass off as legitimate didn’t add up. In the end, her alleged crime was discovered. Today’s charges highlight our commitment to detecting financial crimes of all kinds, and protecting those victims who invest their hard-earned money with those looking to make an easy profit,” Assistant Director William F. Sweeney said.
According to the allegations contained in the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan Federal Court:
“PIERCE was the chief executive officer of a telecommunications company based in Anchorage, Alaska (the “Fiber Optic Company”), that built, operates, and markets a high-speed fiber optic cable system. The system consists of three segments: a subsea segment that spans the Alaskan Arctic; a terrestrial segment that runs north to south along the Dalton Highway; and a land-based network of pre-existing fibers that connects the subsea and terrestrial segments that the Fiber Optic Company wholly or jointly owns or controls with another telecommunications company. The Fiber Optic System is connected to the lower 48 states through other existing networks.
Between May 2015, and July 2017, PIERCE engaged in a scheme to induce two investment companies to invest more than $250 million in the Fiber Optic System by providing them with forged broadband capacity sales contracts (the “Fake Revenue Agreements”). Under the Fake Revenue Agreements, the customers – other telecommunications companies that resell capacity to end users such as businesses and households – appeared to have made binding commitments to purchase specific wholesale quantities of bandwidth from the Fiber Optic Company at specific prices. The cumulative value of the Fake Revenue Agreements was more than $24 million during the first year of the subsea segment’s operation, approximately $10 million during the first year of the terrestrial segment’s operation, and approximately $1 billion over the life of the Agreements. In fact, the Fake Revenue Agreements were completely worthless because PIERCE had forged the counterparties’ signatures.
Certain of the Fake Revenue Agreements never existed at all, while others were false versions of genuine revenue agreements that were more favorable to the Fiber Optic Company than the genuine agreements. For example, under one of the Fake Revenue Agreements, the customer supposedly agreed to buy increasingly more gigabits per second of capacity over a period of 20 years from the Fiber Optic Company. That contract, if genuine, would have assured the Fiber Optic Company of hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. In reality, negotiations over that deal ended unsuccessfully, and PIERCE never disclosed that fact to the investors. Under another Fake Revenue Agreement, the customer had purportedly agreed to buy a fixed, predetermined amount of capacity regardless of subsequent market conditions. In actuality, that customer was not obligated to buy any capacity.
PIERCE’s scheme began unraveling when a customer disputed invoices that it received from the Fiber Optic Company pursuant to one of the Fake Revenue Agreements. Shortly thereafter, PIERCE abruptly resigned from the Fiber Optic Company.”
* * *
Pierce of Anchorage is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.
Quintillion is owned by a Ukranian oligarch, Len Blavatnik. Here is Must Read Alaska’s original story from Aug. 2016, which raised questions about the entire business model and the governor’s involvement:
The NEA-Alaska Board of Directors passed a resolution Tuesday opposing efforts to arm public school teachers.
The vote endorsed a resolution on school safety that focused on funding, the reduction of class sizes to allow more interaction between teachers and students, more counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, paraprofessionals, and support personnel to help address students in crisis, and greater academic and extracurricular activities for students.
The board resolution also said more funding is needed to “provide the necessary personnel, equipment, facility improvements, and training to ensure student safety.”
It also supports greater restrictions and regulations in regards to the sale and possession of “automatic and semiautomatic assault or military grade weapons, and high capacity magazines.”
“Be it further resolved that NEA-Alaska strongly opposes efforts to arm public school” the resolution ends.
And yes, the resolution simply ends in an incomplete sentence, with no grammatical object.
The Parkland, Florida school shooting took place in a high school with a student-teacher ratio of 23 to 1. Florida spends $8,880 per student.
Alaska’s student teacher ratio is 16.6 to 1 and funding for education funding exceeds $20,000 per pupil.
TEACHING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE INSTEAD?
While the NEA is not supporting teachers with sidearms, at least one teacher in the Anchorage Public School district has a side gig teaching civil disobedience and how to get arrested.
A notice from “The Poor Peoples Campaign and Moral Movement” says Anchorage is going to be hit with a nonviolence protest on May 13, and is looking for volunteers who will “Be an assistant to persons being arrested,” and “POSSIBLY Being arrested (NOT REQUIRED) and not all actions will have arrests.”
Soren Wuerth, who teaches at Dimond High School, will be teaching the segment and help people prepare to run protests, assist with social media campaigns, be a protestor at least one “action” per week.
Wuerth, who describes himself as an educator, activist, and writer, was among the teachers who marched with students during the “March for Our Lives” student walkout in March.
The notice that was sent about the civil disobedience training that he will teach said that Jennifer Flynn Walker a trainer from Center for Popular Democracy -Director of Mobilization and Advocacy for CPD will also be a trainer and that actions they plan include congressional and senatorial offices.
Will Wuerth be advising his students to participate? Those interested in applying can fill out the application here:
The notification about this training includes this disclaimer, indicating they won’t be accepted just anyone:
“You will be notified when we get your application. And notified again when you are accepted. We will have a few other classes – and if requested willing to travel to other parts of Alaska. This class will assist you with what a protest is and how to do that job.
Level One protest – NO ARRESTS PLANNED
Level TWO protest – Planning arrests. and going to be working with the police department on the PEACEFUL plan ahead of time.
LEVEL THREE – ARRESTS highly likely. no pre plan w law enforcement.”
The results of national student test scores are out, and it was not a good report card for Alaska.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, testing of fourth-graders and eighth-graders, show that Alaska’s students have slipped in both math and reading. Again.
Alaska, long at the bottom in school performance, has slipped further since 2015, the last time the test was administered.
Fourth-grade students were below average in both reading and math. Alaska fourth grade students slipped six points in their math scores, the worst drop in the country. A sample chart of Alaska compared to the rest of the country is shown here:
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the only national test of what students know and can do. The federal government requires state participation in NAEP reading and mathematics assessments in grades 4 and 8 every other year to establish the common measure of student achievement. Only statewide results are reported.
DEMOCRATS WANT MORE FOR EDUCATION
Although Alaska spends more per student than any other state except New York, Rep. Les Gara and 10 other House Democrats say it’s not enough. They propose raising the base per-student spending.
Rep. Les Gara
HB 339 would add $100 per student per year to the education budget, a $25 million increase that would be added to the budget that the House already passed and sent over to the Senate.
The current budget that is under consideration offers flat funding for K-12 education in Alaska.
Proponents of the additional funding say that student enrollment is up and flat funding represents a decrease.
But in fact, in most parts of Alaska, student enrollment is down. Anchorage has lost over 715 students — the equivalent of two elementary schools.
A hearing on HB 339 is scheduled for 1:30 pm Wednesday in House Finance Committee.
The House vote on Kenni Linden is shown above, but the Senate vote is not shown because in joint session it is an audible vote.
The Alaska Legislature, confirming nominees by the governor to various boards, commissions, and Cabinet seats, blocked Kenni Linden from being named to the Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives today. The vote was expected, since Linden is a former staff member of Planned Parenthood who had applied to bring her wisdom and oversight to midwifery in Alaska.
Among those who voted against her nomination were two surprises: Rep Gabrielle LeDoux and Rep. Jason Grenn. Both are facing elections in swing districts and both are affiliated with Democrats on the vast majority of votes.
Alaska Right to Life was among those who opposed the Palmer mother’s nomination.
JUDGE RALPH R. BEISTLINE, Senior U.S. District Judge: “Before the Court at Docket 219 is the Government’s motion for issuance of a seizure warrant for repossession of a neon palm tree removed from the Paradise Inn, which property previously was legally forfeited to the United States in accordance with this Court’s order at Docket 217. Bernadette Wilson, d/b/a Denali Disposal, Inc., has opposed the motion. A hearing was held on February 26, 2018.
“At issue is a 22′ tall and 7′ wide, metal-framed, double-sided, neon palm tree (hereinafter “Palm Tree”).”
The federal government has changed its mind: The old neon palm tree sign from the Paradise Inn, now demolished, has value.
Bernadette Wilson, owner of Denali Disposal, was ordered by Judge Ralph Beistline, to tell the government where the palm tree. Wilson rescued the palm tree sign during the clean up of the old disreputable property, which was seized by the federal government after the owner was caught selling meth.
Palm Tree might be a sign that would fit right in in Florida, but in Alaska it was a curiosity and when Wilson told the feds the sign had value and should not be thrown out, the government agreed with her and let her have the sign. The head of forfeiture for the U.S. Marshal told her he considered it a liability.
Now, the federal government says the sign belongs to the feds.
JUDGE BEISTLINE: “Earlier, after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings in this matter, Denali Disposal was contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service to clear away garbage and debris from the forfeited property in order to allow the United States to sell the property.”
Wilson got a truck and crew and carefully removed the sign, at her own expense. They carefully removed the sign and treated it with TLC, and took it to a place for safekeeping. Wilson was going to engaged the community in deciding what the best place for the sign was: A museum? Auctioned for a good cause? Whatever it was, she’d put the artifact somewhere for safekeeping and finished cleaning the old site up.
The Palm Tree is removed by Denali Debris after the federal government declared it debris.
JUDGE BEISTLINE: “The current dispute arises from Denali Disposal removing and retaining the Palm Tree, after being mistakenly instructed that it was debris by the Marshals’ coordinating representative.
“As an initial matter, the Court will address the status of the Palm Tree on the property, as the parties disagree whether or not it was a fixture. Having reviewed the three factors under Alaska law for determining whether an item is a fixture, the Court finds that the Palm Tree was indeed a fixture, if not an attachment, to the Paradise Inn property. Therefore, it is forfeited property of the United States under this Court’s Final Order of Forfeiture at Docket 217.”
Wilson says the government clearly told her she could take the sign and that it was not a mistake but that she has a long trail of text messages from government officials telling her to take the sign, text messages that go all the way to the very moment she and her crew were on site and ready to remove it. The feds have simply changed their minds, she said.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT TAKETH AWAY
JUDGE BEISTLINE: “As the Palm Tree initially was the Government’s property by forfeiture, Denali Disposal’s ownership claim lies with the verbal instructions from the U.S. Marshals’ representative, Shawn Chapman, to dispose of the Palm Tree. Denali Disposal argues that, as the Asset Forfeiture Coordinator for the District of Alaska and the U.S. Marshals’ representative at the Paradise Inn property, Mr. Chapman had ostensible authority to act on the Government’s behalf.
“Mr. Chapman’s designation of the Palm Tree as debris needing disposal, according to Denali Disposal, terminated any ownership interest the Government had in the Palm Tree.
“In essence, Ms. Wilson suggests that the Palm Tree was abandoned garbage that Denali Disposal then reclaimed.”
Wilson is a lifelong Alaskan and the niece of the late Gov. Wally and Ermalee Lee Hickel. She doesn’t dispute that she thought the sign had value. In fact, she says she had repeated conversations with government agents about the historic value of the sign, but was told repeatedly the government had no interest in it.
JUDGE BEISTLINE: “The Court takes issue with Denali Disposal’s ownership claim in three ways. First, Denali Disposal did not actually dispose of the Palm Tree as instructed by Mr. Chapman. Instead, the sign was removed from the Paradise Inn property over two weeks after the U.S. Marshals Service indicates that Denali Disposal’s debris removal was completed, and it apparently was taken directly into Denali Disposal’s possession.
“Second, Denali Disposal was aware that the sign had actual value and was not merely debris. Not only did Denali Disposal have actual knowledge of the Government’s intent to sell the Palm Tree nearly a week before its removal, but, as discussed previously, Denali Disposal had the sign secured, transported, and placed in storage. This all indicates that the Palm Tree was at no time treated as “debris” by Denali Disposal.
“Finally, federal law requires that the forfeited property be auctioned or sold, and therefore it cannot be given away by anyone with either ostensible or even actual authority.
“Allowing a governmental representative to circumvent this requirement by designating an item of value as “debris” and effectively giving it away to a vendor, such as Denali Disposal, would be ripe for abuse and fraud. Forfeited property either is worthless garbage that is actually disposed of, or is valuable property to be sold or auctioned. There appears to be no alternative that allows for a third party to take ownership of government property by virtue of its fortuitous position as a vendor for the Government.
“The Court recognizes that this situation might be different if Denali Disposal actually had disposed of the Palm Tree before being notified of the error by the Government. Were that the case, this entire matter may well have been treated differently. But here, the Palm Tree was secured, transported, and kept in storage, and is available for return to the Government.”
In other words, Palm Tree isn’t trash, because Denali Disposal did not treat it like trash.
Wilson was right, the government was wrong, and now the government wants its neon artifact.
WILL SHE BACK DOWN?
Yet, reasonable people might ask what action the federal government would take against Denali Disposal if the company had, in fact, demolished the sign and hauled it away as debris. Might Wilson be thrown in jail for destruction of government property?
Wilson, who once had a popular Anchorage talk show that featured the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ song “Won’t Back Down,” considers the whole thing to be Orwellian, where the feds are trying to seize something that it called trash, said she is pondering whether she should appeal the decision.
But meanwhile, Palm Tree is in an undisclosed location.
Theft is on the rise in Alaska. And theft in politics is a well-established tradition.
This time, it’s Gov. Walker’s sign crew that apparently lifted a campaign sign belonging to Nelson Godoy, who ran for mayor in the April 3 election, and then put the sign back up — with a Walker-Mallott sign fastened on them.
When Godoy went to take his signs down on April 6, he notice one was missing on C Street at the triangle with A Street, a prominent and coveted location. The sign was just gone.
But the next day, a sign was back in the same spot, with a frame that looked like his, only the 4×8 sign said Walker Mallott.
Godoy went in for a closer look, only to discover that someone had screwed the Walker Mallott sign right over his, and used his frame.
He videotaped the proof, and after getting no response from the mainstream media, posted on Facebook the video that showed the handiwork of whomever cannibalized his sign.
Godoy said he contacted the Division of Elections office, who told him to report it to police as a crime. He contacted the Walker campaign office, but got no response.
He contacted KTUU and was interviewed about it on Sunday, but the piece never ran. However, not long after his interview, someone called him claiming to be Gov. Walker, and apologizing for the aggressiveness of his sign crew.
Was there a phone call between the KTUU reporting staff and its former political reporter Austin Baird, who is now the governor’s press secretary?
Godoy isn’t even sure it was Walker who called to apologize, but Must Read Alaska called the number provided by Godoy and it went to Bill Walker’s cell phone voice mail system.
Godoy, who is a Democrat and past supporter of Democrats such as former Gov. Tony Knowles and former Sen. Johnny Ellis, said he has nothing against the governor, “but why didn’t they use Rebecca Logan’s or Ethan Berkowitz’ frames? They should respect us.”
Yes, he said, he realizes he was a minor candidate during the election, but he doesn’t think that means his signs are up for grabs by the state’s most powerful politician.
The longtime Anchorage resident, who as an American citizens hails originally from Guatemala, said people have contacted him to say that a crew with a truck of Walker signs had taken other Godoy signs from around town, but he doesn’t have any video proof of that.
The governor’s brother is in charge of the Walker-Mallott sign effort. The governor’s daughter Lindsay Hobson is running his campaign. It’s apparent the Walker family is rallying to get their most famous family member reelected. If the sign caper is any indication, they intend to run fast and loose with the law.
President Donald Trump today nominated Alaskan attorney Jonathan Katchen for judge in the U.S. District Court for Alaska.
“I am so happy for him,” said former Gov. Sean Parnell, who got to know him when Katchen was working for Attorney General Dan Sullivan (now U.S. Senator Sullivan) in the Department of Law.
“He is an extremely competent attorney that I have been honored to work with on behalf of the State. He will make a great jurist,” Parnell said, recalling how Katchen worked with Sullivan closely to resolve the long-standing Point Thomson dispute with Exxon. That dispute had continued through the governorships of Frank Murkowski, Sarah Palin and into Parnell’s term, when finally the two parties came to an agreement.
The agreement led to the development of a rich area of hydrocarbons adjacent to Prudhoe Bay, and is now contributing 10,000 barrels of product to the Trans Alaska Pipeline every day.
Sullivan and Katchen were the lead negotiators on that settlement, a major victory for the Alaska economy. The final agreement was signed when Sullivan became the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources and Michael Geraghty became Attorney General.
“I congratulate Jon Katchen on being nominated to serve on the federal bench for the District of Alaska. Jon and I worked closely together for more than three years at both the Alaska Department of Law and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. I witnessed firsthand his commitment and ability to resolve complex legal matters with profound legal implications for our state. Jon will make an exceptional jurist who will faithfully apply the law and uphold the Constitution.” – Sen. Dan Sullivan
SIDEBAR: GOV. WALKER FILED SUED OVER POINT THOMSON AGREEMENT
Gov. Bill Walker was a leading opponent of the agreement and sued the State over it several years ago.
His suit was still pending when he became governor, and he didn’t drop the lawsuit until pressured by the then-Republican led House majority, which sent him a letter asking that he either drop or resolve the matter in some way, since as the new governor he was suing himself. He finally asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
KATCHEN CLERKED FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SISTER
Katchen’s legal history includes working for Parnell, Sullivan, and clerking for President Donald Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who is retired now from the Third Circuit.
He is in private practice in Anchorage at the office of Holland & Hart, where he focuses on oil and gas law after working for five years at Crowell & Moring LLP, another large law firm.
Katchen has represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal District Court of Alaska, the Alaska Supreme Court, the Alaska Superior Court, the Office of Administrative Hearings, and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. He has also testified before the Alaska Legislature.
For the State of Alaska, he served as senior counsel to Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan; and special assistant to then-Attorney General Sullivan.
He earned his J.D. at the prestigious University of California Hastings College of Law, and has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Boston College.
Katchen was among Trump’s twelfth wave of judicial nominees, twelfth wave of United States Attorneys, and sixth wave of United States Marshal appointments.
WILL ADMINISTRATORS SUPPORT THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS?
Pro-life students at Service High School in Anchorage say they will walk out of school at 10 am on Wednesday, “to protest the injustice of abortion, to call for support for student mothers, and to oppose the targeting of preborn babies by Planned Parenthood.”
The students will join others from across the country in a student-initiated walkout to exercise their First Amendment rights. It’s not known how many students plan to participate.
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings on Feb. 14, school districts across the country allowed students to protest gun violence without facing disciplinary sanctions. In Anchorage, students at West and Service High Schools walked out of classes to commemorate the students who perished in the massacre and to advocate for stricter gun laws. Hundreds took part across Alaska.
School districts in Alaska supported the student walkouts in March, and the governor and lieutenant governor gave official support to the walk out by attending it in Juneau.
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Gov. Bill Walker sanctioned the student walkout in March by attending it. Will government officials sanction a walkout in protest of abortion?
But some citizens ask if districts have set a difficult precedent, which may be tested by other walkouts.
Another anti-gun-related national student walkout is planned for Friday, April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine, Colorado school shooting. The event has support from the national “Indivisible” group that has fomented unrest across the country around liberal causes. The group was formed to disrupt the Trump presidency.
The pro-life event on Wednesday is also student-driven, but is likely to be more modest than the national protests against Second Amendment gun rights. The pro-life walkout started in Sacramento, Calif. after a high school history teacher was suspended for suggesting that administrators would have a different standard for tolerating a pro-life walkout than the gun violence walkout.
“I just want to spread awareness about the cruel things that are happening in Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, the cruel murder of these children who have done nothing wrong,” said Brandon Gillespie, the student who organized the Sacramento walkout.
Missing from the halls of today’s high schools is one fourth of this generation. And to make matters worse, so much tax money is wasted on the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood alone receives more than half-a-billion a year in taxpayer subsidies. – Students for Life of America.
On Wednesday, participants will speak against the violence of abortion, “to remember those we are missing, to pledge to help pregnant and parenting students, and to demand that our elected officials defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.”
Planned Parenthood performed an abortion every 98 seconds in 2016, according Live Action, a pro-life group, but in Anchorage, Planned Parenthood is part of the curriculum in the schools, where the group gets early access to students to familiarize them with all their services, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy testing.
Students interested in learning about resources available to host a #prolifewalkout at their school can go to prolifewalkout.org to be connected to Students for Life of America, which supports the student-lead effort with sample promotional flyers, press releases, and legal advice about first amendment rights, according to a spokesman for the group.
