Page 1651 – Must Read Alaska

Sex. Now that we have your attention…

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October 3, 2016

CAN ALASKA HAVE A RATIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT SEX CRIME PUNISHMENT?

In Alaska law, if there are three years separating two persons under the age of 19 who are engaged in sex, the sentence for the older person could be as harsh if he was a 45-year-old male preying on a 14-year-old female.

Because each illegal sex act has its own sentence, young males straight out of high school having sex with younger females can face a lifetime of prison for something that has been going on between the sexes since…well, forever. A summer of teen sex can have a very high price for the older individual.

Maybe that’s fair. Maybe not. As they do elsewhere, Alaska’s laws governing sexuality change with the era and societal norms. Men, in particular, are held to a standard in 2016 that women are rarely bound to, and more and more men are locked up for longer and longer periods as a result.

Sex crimes and punishment were one of the topics lawmakers tackled with Senate Bill 91, the criminal justice reform bill that passed during the last legislative session. During committee hearings, lawmakers asked what could be done to deal with the very real differences in crimes as they pertain to rape, sexual assault, age differentials, and other matters that happen between sexual beings.

THE JKT AMENDMENT

Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, with the confidence of youth, bravely waded into it during a House Judiciary Committee review of SB 91 in April.

He may have been influenced by the story of a young man with a well-known Sitka last name of Grussendorf, who had drawn a severe sentence for a case stemming from an indictment for having had oral sex and other sexual acts, including penetration, with an underage someone.

This was an 18-year-old man using some very bad judgment and a victim who will probably have a lot to work through during her life. He happened to have some family members who had political connections, but that’s not the crime; in Alaska, just about everyone has access to their legislators.

But the sentencing of Grussendorf may have been the kind of overkill punishment that a young lawmaker would feel inclined to correct for the future.

Kriess-Tomkins brought forward an amendment to SB 91 to have the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission take a fresh look at all sentencing laws for sex crimes.

And it’s about time. Some 800 Alaskans are in prison for some kind of sex crime, ranging from distribution of child pornography to attempted sexual abuse of a minor. The number grows every year, and many of those perpetrators face a lifetime of discrimination for a crime that, to some, seems worse than murder. Can none of them be rehabilitated?

THE MEAT OF THE AMENDMENT

Kreiss-Tomkins proposed that the Commission “appoint a working group to review and analyze sexual offense statutes and report to the legislature if there are circumstances under which victims’ rights, public safety, and the rehabilitation of offenders are better served by changing existing laws; the commission shall deliver the report to the senate secretary and the chief clerk of the house of representatives and notify the legislature that the report is available; the commission may include in the working group people representing a variety of viewpoints who are not members of the commission…”

It’s the kind of move for which, if you’re a Republican in Alaska, and you’re facing election, the media might savage you, as they do.

But reporters never batted an eye over the Kreiss-Tomkins amendment, even though this was a clear attempt to start the discussion of reforming sexual offense laws.

In August, Alaska Dispatch News columnist Shannyn Moore got the long knives out for Rep. Cathy Munoz, R-Juneau, for a simultaneous amendment addressing sentencing for sex crimes, while Moore ignored the fact that Democrat Kreiss-Tomkins actually got an even more sweeping amendment through without opposition.

The Munoz proposed amendment had been withdrawn before it was voted on, after Munoz consulted with a respected advocacy group. The Kreiss-Tomkins amendment, however, was never mentioned by the media or anyone else, for that matter.

As Kreiss-Tomkins explained to the House Judiciary Committee, the minimums associated with second-degree murder, and the minimums associated with various sex acts can result in a murder drawing a less severe sentence than some sex crimes.

Given the lopsidedness, his amendment asked the commission to simply take a good look at sentencing for sex crimes, and report back. The Kreiss-Tomkins amendment was adopted without objection from anyone on the committee and, in fact, seemed to be accepted by Quinlan Steiner, Alaska’s public defender, who was present during the hearing.

LOOKING AT SEX CRIME PUNISHMENT: IT’S A THING

Sex offender laws, like drug laws, have evolved imperfectly over the past decades in response to a need to protect the public and bring justice for victims, and hold people accountable.

Thoughtful observers are questioning whether the treatment of sex offenders, particularly young ones, in America is doing more harm than good. Has society gone too far?

Researcher Nicole Pittman (Soros Open Society Foundation fellow) spent 16 months researching a massively documented Human Rights Watch analysis on the effect of stringent punishment for young sex offenders. What she came away with is a picture of lifetime punishment and sanctions so severe that many perpetrators, after they complete their sentences, can never return to society. There are no jobs for them, they cannot find places to live, and the are forever “reporting in” their locations. Their suicide rates are through the roof.

The average sentence in the U.S. for sexual abuse offenders subject to the mandatory minimum penalty is over 235 months, or 19.5 years. Of the 2,317 sex offenders (sexual abuse or child pornography), more than half were convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty.

Is it time that Alaska takes a fresh look at how these crimes are punished?

Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much, but they seem to agree that sentencing review is due. The ball is now in the court of the criminal justice commission, which will weigh whether the law has balanced on the fulcrum of justice and fairness.

Bright, shiny objects: Events coming up

Suzanne Downing

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October 2, 2016

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screen-shot-2016-09-27-at-8-03-54-am

Dingman gets his due

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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October 2, 2016

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46961084 - hands of woman holding bars in jail — Women in prison are vulnerable to correction officer advances.

THE SORDID HISTORY OF ‘UNDUE FAMILIARITY’

By ART CHANCE

Undue Familiarity: This is a Department of Corrections term for any relationship between DOC staff and an inmate that might impugn the ethics and loyalties of the staff member.

It is most commonly used in reference to sexual relationships between Corrections staff and inmates or probationers, but there have been incidents involving financial and other relationships as well.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the problems became such that they could no longer be ignored or swept under the rug.

In the Gov. Steve Cowper Administration we dealt with those that came to our attention but we didn’t do anything to really go after the problem.

In the Walter J. Hickel Administration, we went after the problem first by changing the policy so that any personal relationship with an inmate was violative.

I spent the next several years in constant disciplinary meetings and grievance arbitrations over charges of undue familiarity with inmates; we won most of them, but the ones we lost were because of management complicity.

As a general matter, if you confronted a male correctional officer with a reasonably substantiated charge that he’d been “unduly familiar” with a female inmate, he’d just sign the resignation that we proffered. I never had a female correctional officer accept the offer to resign; if they’d decided that the inmate was their man, they’d go to the wall over it.

All of the undue familiarity cases I ever lost involved females, and all of them involved complicit management. In a couple of instances the manager was involved with the female officer himself and was compromised in testifying against her.

One that really sticks in my craw even after 20 years is the female correctional officer who took her inmate boy toy to the Rocket Park (Valley of the Moon Park) for a tryst after he’d been released to the halfway house, and then confessed all to a Corrections supervisor.

When I took it to arbitration, the staff and the manager took the stand for the union to first testify that this behavior was something everyone did, and also to attest to what a good officer she was. The offending officer went back to work and last I heard was living with the manager who testified on her behalf.

Another one that really sticks in my craw is a probation officer who took home an inmate who’d been released to probation. When the matter came to me, Corrections management was adamant that they’d given her a direct order that the probationer must leave her home or she would be dismissed.

When I got the manager in front of an arbitrator, the direct order became a wine and candlelight philosophical discussion of the morality of having sex with inmates. For all I know, the manager was entangled romantically with the correctional officer, who remained employed until she completed her stately progress to retirement.

Enter Satch Carlson, columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and English teacher at Bartlett High School in the late 1980s; Carlson drove a late ‘70s Lotus Esprit and had a habit of having “undue familiarity” with 17-year-old girls. The law named after him moved the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18, if the adult is in a position of authority.

Before it was a crime, “undue familiarity” was a matter of people who were getting something that others weren’t. If you were getting it, you got ratted out by someone who wasn’t.

Once it became a crime, if you ratted them out, you were a snitch; that meant the whole criminal code of conduct came into play.

We didn’t make a lot of undue familiarity cases after the Satch Carlson law was passed; nobody would give anybody up.

I don’t have a clue whether I could have won a case against former correctional officer Mike Dingman, and (possibly former) columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News. Dingman was accused of undue familiarity, and he promptly resigned.

(See: Former ADN columnist dinged for ‘prisoner familiarity’)

I have no confidence in Corrections management and haven’t in 20 years. The reality is that “undue familiarity” is a part of the Corrections culture. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Hiland Mountain Correctional Center was more of a State-run brothel than a State correctional institution.

Another reality is that most of the women in Alaska’s prisons are veterans of the drug and sex trade and are really, really good at getting over on weak-minded men who spend too much time locked up with them.

I only had superficial contact with Dingman back in the day and found him to be supercilious; I’m not impressed by student presidents of backwater universities. That said, the charges against him have not been adjudicated. Corrections made a report and apparently there was no response or adjudication.

At most, Dingman losing his certification is a default judgment; that says a lot, but it doesn’t say everything. Correctional officers do walk the toughest beat in Alaska, and sometimes they do things of which they shouldn’t be proud.

Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska. He is the author of the book, Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance, available at Amazon. Recent commentary includes: Union money, lobbying and ‘education.’

Brena’s ‘Our Fair Share’ drum beat

Suzanne Downing

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October 2, 2016

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STICKING IT TO THE JOB CREATORS

On a crisp Saturday morning, a panel of white-haired men sat on the stage of the Wendy Williams Auditorium at University of Alaska Anchorage and answered each other’s questions about the state’s budget problems.

Libertarian-leaning United for Liberty had manage to push its way onto the agenda, with a cameo on the morning panel by Ric Davidge. Davidge was the only voice to express the need for spending cuts at the panel, which was part of a symposium hosted by Alaska Common Ground, a left-tilting organization that masquerades as a neutral public policy group.

Run by hardcore Democrat Cliff Groh, when Common Ground puts on a symposium, rest assured there won’t be a lot of diversity of thought. There was not a lot of diversity anywhere, if we’re perfectly frank, at least in the morning sessions.

Commissioner of Revenue Randall Hoffbeck started off the discussion by proposing the governor’s approach of modest cuts and immodest new revenues, while former Senator Rick Halford argued against cutting the Permanent Fund dividends, and Rep. Paul Seaton poured a cup of his own blend of taxes and Permanent Fund restructuring that would take from the rich and give to the poor.

Halford, we note, recently broke with Gov. Bill Walker on the governor’s unilateral grab of half of every Alaskan’s Permanent Fund dividend. Halford also recently all but declared the Alaska LNG gasline project dead — for now. Once an ally of Walker, he’s returned to the fold of the loyal opposition; he did not seek reappointment to the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation board.

Then there was Robin Brena.

ROBIN ‘SUE THE BASTARDS’ BRENA

Robin Brena is an Anchorage oil and gas attorney who has made a luxurious life for himself by suing energy companies. He has no official role in the Walker Administration, although he chaired the governor’s transition team oil and gas committee. He bought the governor’s law practice for an undislosed amount.

Brena is widely regarded as Gov. Bill Walker’s surrogate voice — in elections and in policy. When Brena’s lips move, the voice you hear is Gov. Walker’s.

Brena’s appearance on the panel today was an acknowledgement that since he is spending tens of thousands of dollars to unseat Republicans during this election cycle (and the last one), what he has to say is very, very important.

He spoke rapidly and repeatedly about how Alaska is not getting “our fair share” of oil proceeds. It was a phrase he made sure he said every time he had the microphone.

Not quite Tourrette-like, it was a mantra like “It’s our oil” that Brena wanted to make sure everyone heard. And so he repeated it.

In fact, he said “our fair share” eight times in the span of the 10 minutes that he possessed the microphone. An astute observer pondered aloud whether he intends to start a citizens’ initiative using that name, since he’s trying to make it stick in the public’s mind.

BRENA CALLS FOR 400 PERCENT TAX HIKE ON OIL

What Brena proposes is that the oil sector should be taxed to make up the entire state budget deficit.

At today’s prices, he’s proposing a 400 percent tax increase.

“We are getting less than our fair share of petroleum revenues,” he said. “Before we go anywhere else [for revenue] we should get it from the oil exported from Alaska…Our historic fair share went from 35 percent in 2012 down to 8 percent. This is unsustainable.”

“Our fair share is $2-3 billion more than we are getting right now,” he continued.

Brena paused briefly in his theme to also promote a state income tax of 15 percent of a payer’s federal tax liability, “so citizens of Alaska pay directly and are more responsive to spending by state government.”

But all the other sources of revenue, he said “don’t get us an additional penny of our fair share of petroleum wealth.”

When his turn came to ask a question of the rest of the panel, Brena persisted with his theme: Did anyone on the panel believe that we should reduce spending, raid the Permanent Fund dividend or levy statewide taxes when we’re not yet “getting our fair share of oil?”

“My question is that we need someone who will stand up for Alaskans and get our fair share of petroleum revenue and not to continue this system,” he said.

The “our fair share” theme is also found in Brena’s latest opinion piece published today by the Alaska Dispatch News.

In it, he proposes completely restructuring oil taxes once again. The last restructuring was with Senate Bill 21, which passed in 2013, was then challenged at the ballot box by Brena and the Democrats. SB 21 was upheld by voters.

Brena now proposes returning to the prior tax structure, which was a job killer:

Increasing the base rate for the major legacy fields and for harvesting the resource.

Eliminating credits (taken as deductions and paid) for all but the most challenged fields.

Eliminating loss carryforwards.

Eliminating the “new oil” definition or reducing it to only the most challenged fields (which would not include Point Thomson).

Increasing progressivity, which is exactly opposite of what voters passed when they approved SB 21 with “No on 1” in 2014.

Increasing the number of state auditors and state lawyers to go after producers for revenue.

Insisting on full financial disclosure by producers operating in Alaska.

SURPRISE! ACES IS BACK

What Brena is proposing is the same things that killed jobs and prosperity for Alaskans before, with the bill known as ACES. That legislation depressed investment in Alaska, and it took SB 21 to bring work back to the oil patch.

Those who wonder what’s next in taxes in Alaska will want to read Brena’s opinion piece in the newspaper, because within it is found the roadmap for legislation that Gov. Walker will likely propose during the next legislative session.

Road to Juneau: Numbers are better than ferry alone

Suzanne Downing

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October 1, 2016

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screen-shot-2016-10-01-at-7-09-35-am — Juneau: The capital that Alaskans can’t afford to visit. / Alaska DOTPF photo

IT’S TIME WE HAVE ACCESS TO STATE CAPITAL

By BRUCE ABEL

Normally I wouldn’t take time to respond to a My Turn in the Juneau Empire, but in this case Rich Moniak’s My Turn on Sept. 25, along with the Alaska Dispatch News article he references, are clearly political push-pieces designed influence Gov. Bill Walker’s decision on constructing the road to Juneau.

While I don’t take issue with Mr. Moniak or anyone else who doesn’t want the road for their own personal reasons, I do take issue with distortion of facts and figures simply to obscure the truth in the court of public opinion.

Mr. Moniak claims the return on investment for the road has a negative cost to benefit ratio. Where was this number ginned up? Over what time period did he calculate the return? Does he understand that a road returns its value in perpetuity?

At best this claim is misleading and a statistical distortion. Currently it costs $299 to place a car on the ferry to Skagway. At $3 a gallon, traveling to Skagway would cost about $15 to get to the Katzehin ferry terminal. A short haul ferry would cost, say, an additional $50. Total savings: $234, or $468 round trip.

I bet these are the numbers that matter to young families. Of all the things one could use as an argument against building the road, this is easily the most ridiculous. The 28 cents (return on investment per dollar spent) he cites is one of those “Bridge to Nowhere” labels some opposition group obvoiusly hopes sticks.

One of the great tragedies in this debate is that pro-road folks are labeled anti-ferry. This is absurd. We all know ferries connecting communities in Southeast Alaska are essential. However, we also know roads are the single biggest efficiency driver; that’s why none of us paddle our kayak to work or take a canoe to pick up the kids after school.

We know roads are the single biggest efficiency driver; that’s why none of us paddle our kayak to work or take a canoe to pick up the kids after school.

Yet Moniak suggests we should stick with a 1950’s infrastructure in perpetuity. Are we to accept that no further progress will ever be acceptable?

Next, let’s address the “cutting the cost of state government” comment. I’m sure it’s an unintentional oversight, but the nearly the entire road is paid for through the federal highway funds, and it is simply waiting the governor’s signature to proceed.

Road construction will provide 300-plus high paying jobs in Juneau, Skagway and Haines over a 10-year period. Businesses and schools all benefit from these jobs, as does every community member who enjoys the benefits of a healthy regional economy. If Gov. Walker had no other reason to proceed in light of the State’s financial woes, this is reason enough.

Juneau has an aging population and struggles to attract young families, living wage jobs, new businesses, tax revenues, healthy schools and affordable housing. Here we have a half-billion-dollar project, funded and ready to proceed, which would help offset the state’s economic woes and make living in northern Southeast Alaska easier for everyone — and we are expected to think this is a bad thing?

Mr. Moniak says the road would cost $5 million more to maintain than the state currently spends maintaining ferries. The fuel savings and revenue from the short haul ferries would significantly offset that figure.

And what about the ever increasing maintenance costs of our aging ferries? With the Taku offline year round, the Malaspina out of service, the Columbia recently off line for emergency repairs and the fast ferries off line for the winter, how can anyone argue that our growing transportation demand can be met, let alone improved with a worn out fleet of mainline ferries that are a half century old?

Finally, Mr. Moniak says, “Walker can avoid a long and expensive path,” referring to the inevitable lawsuits and conveniently ignoring the cost of replacing the current long haul fleet. Really? I guess your message to the governor is it’s high time Alaska hang up the shingle and proclaim, “Alaska is closed for business.”

Gov. Walker has many difficult decisions on his plate, but this shouldn’t be one of them. Building the road will get more people working, allow better access to all ferry service communities, prevent Southeast Alaska from being a further drain on the state and provide much needed infrastructure improvements that will serve all Alaskans forever.

Guest opinion writer Bruce Abel is the owner of Don Abel Building Supply, past president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce and past president of Western Building Material Association.

State argument: Mistakes happen

Suzanne Downing

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September 30, 2016

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ASSISTANT AG LOSES HER COOL

Alaska Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh was feeling peevish.

Judge Andrew Guidi had not yet arrived, so she took advantage of the few minutes she had to unload on the plaintiff’s attorney for Nageak v. Mallott and Bahnke.

It was not yet 8:30 a.m. at Nesbitt Courthouse Room 504, and the square-built attorney in charge of defending the Division of Elections was engaged in domination politics over a seated Tim McKeever.

Paton-Walsh lectured – not in her library voice — about how his asking for documents was inconvenient to her and a waste of time.

McKeever had requested a discovery document this morning for something he felt should have been given to him earlier, and Paton-Walsh was now fuming.

“I have other work to do…” back at her office, she scolded him in front of about a dozen people who had gathered in the Anchorage Superior Court.

McKeever and fellow attorney Stacey Stone responded politely as Paton-Walsh spent more than a minute on a tirade over McKeever’s request.

All they wanted, McKeever and Stone tried to explain, was to see the chain of custody documents for the ballots from District 40, which is the North Slope Borough and Northwest Arctic Borough. And to know who was in the room when ballots were counted.

McKeever and Stone were there to represent Rep. Ben Nageak on Day 4 of his appeal of the irregular voting methods and final certified results of the House primary race, which was a series of missteps, mishaps and miscounts that began on primary day, Aug. 16.

The judge had consented to an expedited trial at the request of Paton-Walsh, who was now bristling with anger over McKeever’s discovery request.

The State’s first witness was Sallie Regan of Juneau, who serves on the State Review Board.

Regan capably responded to the questions posed by Paton-Walsh, as a witness who was well prepared for court. Paton-Walsh staged a bit of courtroom theater by having Regan open ballots from Kivalina and count all seven of them in front of the judge. It was unclear what the purpose of the exercise was, but it filled the time for the State’s side.

When McKeever questioned Regan, however, her testimony was uneven. She didn’t seem to understand his questions, asked for them to be repeated, rested her head on her chin and furrowed her brow. She was not able to answer some questions, and McKeever simply had to move on since she did not seem to understand him.

What became clear in Regan’s testimony is that errors were made in more than half of the precincts in District 40. Some small, some large, but lots and lots of errors. Dean Westlake of Kotzebue beat Rep. Nageak by eight votes, and the trial under way is to determine if a new election should take place in that race due to the extensive problems that have been identified.

McKeever asked Regan if the review board should have counted the 50 extra votes from Shungnak, and she emphatically stated yes, because to not count those votes would have disenfranchised those voters due to an election worker error, which would not be fair.

She did not seem to be concerned that by counting double ballots in Shungnak, the other voters in the District were disenfranchised, as they were only allowed to vote one ballot.

When McKeever asked her if it was common for Alaskans to vote two ballots, Regan said it was, but she was not able to provide any instances in recent years where it had occurred.

The trial continues Monday with closing arguments. A separate Supreme Court trial is scheduled for Oct. 12, and will consolidate election misconduct charges and the recount issues.

Judge Guidi wants the Superior Court trial to wrap up on Monday.

Anchorage: Murder, mayhem

Uncategorized

Suzanne Downing

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September 30, 2016

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Last week, Anchorage resident Paula Zorawski opened the door to her Russian Jack home to see what was going on outside. She was shot in the head.

Zorawski has since died, becoming the 27th murder victim in Anchorage this year.

Nineteen-year-old Alonzo Steward, who had been sought in connection with the shooting, turned himself in and has been charged with second-degree murder.

Earlier, police arrested 18-year-olds Michael Fitzgerald, Savon Berry, and Tommy Hunter Higgs III on assault, robbery, and drug possession charges in relation to the crime.

Anchorage is trending higher for violent crimes, with one murder occurring every 10 days in 2016. More of it looks like gangster crime, The city is three homicides away from a new annual homicide death toll.

According to court documents, the men were after drugs and money, but they ran after they shot Zorawski, who may not have been the intended victim.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has struggled to make good on his campaign promise of “Safe and Secure” Anchorage. Three homicide cases involved two victims each, all occurring on urban trails and all remaining unsolved.

The mayor and Police Chief Chris Tolley struggled to answer basic questions about those killings, and dodged questions about whether there is a serial killer stalking Anchorage, in this KTUU interview.

While he was running for office, Berkowitz said, “This is what happens when you reduce a visible police presence. You’re going to have more crime, more dangerous streets.”

Berkowitz promised a force of at least 400 officers, a 20% increase. He also promised community policing.

But 17 months into his first term, the violent death toll has only risen, and residents are anxious about using the once-popular urban trails.

Berkowitz has blamed former Mayor Dan Sullivan for trimming the police force. But homicide rates were at a 20-year low in 2014 under the Sullivan administration, only rising in 2015, when 16 homicides were recorded.

Juneau Access: Essential infrastructure

Suzanne Downing

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September 30, 2016

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AMHS Ferry Matanuska docked in Ketchikan / Creative Commons photo

GUEST COMMENTARY

By DENNY DEWITT

JUNEAU – In a grocery store here, a sign was posted with this message: “Attention Customers, due to the ferry system breakdown, our normal Monday delivery will be delayed until Wednesday. We are sorry and ask for your understanding.”

It reminded me why we need an integrated transportation plan in Southeast Alaska that includes shuttle ferries and roads. It is critical that the long-term regional transportation plan include greater development of Southeast Alaska’s road system.

Road system development begins with Juneau Access, a project that is funded and is close to EPA approval.

The Alaska Marine Highway System has evolved into a marine transportation system with 11 vessels carrying passengers and freight in Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound and Southwest Alaska.

The ferries serve as essential transportation infrastructure for many of the region’s smaller communities, providing important year-round passenger, vehicle, and freight service. As we can see from the store’s message about lack of inventory, it is being stretched beyond its reasonable expectation.

Ferry ridership generates only about one-third of the revenue necessary to fund the system’s $160 million operating budget. With steadily declining resources to fund the marine highway and other State operations, it is essential that we pursue all opportunities to develop more sustainable regional transportation infrastructure.

Absent that, the long-term sustainability of the ferry system is uncertain, as is its capacity to continue service where it is most needed.

The effort to build a road connecting Juneau to the continental highway system is at a critical juncture. Planning for the first phases of the Juneau road project is in the final stages of the environmental impact statements process.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, in consultation with the Federal Highway Administration, is preparing the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement needed to secure the permits and begin construction.

Juneau is the largest North American community not connected to the continental highway system. Further, current ferry service meets only about 7 percent of the demand for travel in Lynn Canal. It will meet even less of that demand in the future if service is further reduced.

The probability is great that signs like the one I saw in the local store will be more commonplace, along with higher prices, unless there is change to a more integrated transportation plan.

The greatest economic benefit for the northern Southeast region will come from unconstrained highway access to the entire North American road system. The Juneau Access road will enable as much as tenfold increase in travel in and out of Juneau, thus improving access between the Capital City, the Yukon and the rest of Alaska.

Greater freight reliability is just one benefit. Less expensive travel out of Juneau for vacations and recreation is another. More importantly, it will allow for repositioning of ferry assets to better serve smaller communities in Southeast within the State’s coming budget constraints.

Access to Alaska’s capital is critical to sustaining and enhancing the economic well-being of Southeast Alaska.

Denny DeWitt is the Executive Director of First Things First Alaska Foundation, which is is dedicated to preserving the economic viability and future of Alaska through education.

Former ADN columnist dinged for prisoner ‘familiarity’

Suzanne Downing

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September 29, 2016

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Former ADN columnist dinged for prisoner ‘familiarity’

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-7-11-35-pm — *Mike Dingman, profile photo from his Twitter account*

AFTER INVESTIGATION, LOSES LICENSE AND JOB

Former Alaska Dispatch News columnist Mike Dingman is a former something else now too. He’s a former Alaska Department of Corrections correctional officer.

Working at DOC since 2005, Dingman was accused of abandoning his post while on duty, causing or directing staff to falsify information in log books, and having “undue familiarity” with a woman prisoner at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River.

DOC opened an investigation and Dingman quickly resigned and moved to Las Vegas. By that action, he has lost his Alaska Police Standards Council certification and can never serve in law enforcement anywhere in the country.

Dingman, in his description at the end of his ADN column, states he is a “fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late ’90s.”

His latest column was Aug. 30. Two weeks prior, the Alaska Public Standards Council voted unanimously to revoke his certification. And two weeks prior to being officially sanctioned by the public safety community, he wrote a column titled: “GOP has become home to misguided opportunists and zealous lemmings.”

Dingman isn’t the only columnist the Alaska Dispatch has retained who has had run-ins with the law. Shannyn “just a girl from Homer” Moore has her own track record of theft, which led to years of probation and numerous other sanctions.

Dingman this past year was a contributor to two candidates, as shown on Alaska Public Offices Commission reports. He gave Jason Grenn’s campaign $250; Jeff Landfield received $281.

Sex. Now that we have your attention…

CAN ALASKA HAVE A RATIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT SEX CRIME PUNISHMENT?

THE JKT AMENDMENT

THE MEAT OF THE AMENDMENT

LOOKING AT SEX CRIME PUNISHMENT: IT’S A THING

Bright, shiny objects: Events coming up

Dingman gets his due

THE SORDID HISTORY OF ‘UNDUE FAMILIARITY’

Brena’s ‘Our Fair Share’ drum beat

STICKING IT TO THE JOB CREATORS

ROBIN ‘SUE THE BASTARDS’ BRENA

BRENA CALLS FOR 400 PERCENT TAX HIKE ON OIL

SURPRISE! ACES IS BACK

Road to Juneau: Numbers are better than ferry alone

IT’S TIME WE HAVE ACCESS TO STATE CAPITAL

State argument: Mistakes happen

ASSISTANT AG LOSES HER COOL

Anchorage: Murder, mayhem

Juneau Access: Essential infrastructure

GUEST COMMENTARY

Former ADN columnist dinged for prisoner ‘familiarity’

AFTER INVESTIGATION, LOSES LICENSE AND JOB

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