Former Anchorage Assembly woman Elvi Gray-Jackson has filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission for statewide office. She hit her term limit on the Assembly last year.
Elvi is a reliable Democrat. Is she planning a run for House, since Rep. Harriet Drummond has health issues and is on a cane most days.
Or will she run for Senate? Sen. Berta Gardner’s father passed away, and she is said to be re-evaluating family life vs. public life. Berta is usually one of the first to file, and takes campaigning seriously. She is one of the top Democrat fundraisers and yet has not filed for re-election, which raises a question about whether she has other plans.
The Democrats do a good job of coordinating these things.
Readers may remember Elvi as the Assemblywoman who sought to make it illegal for people to park their campers overnight in parking lots belonging to companies like Cabela’s or Walmart. She abandoned the idea after getting some serious blowback from the public.
Jason Grenn, a nominal Indie who caucuses with Democrats, filed his letter of intent on Monday.
He’s said to be driving Lyft when not legislating others out of a job. Word is he only picks up passengers from his political neighborhood — District 22.
According to his ethics legislation, shouldn’t this disqualify him from voting on anything that relates to his work zone — District 22?
Other Democrats who filed letters of intent last week: Ethan Berkowitz filed for Mayor for the April 3 municipal election, which clarifies he won’t be running for Congress.
Berkeley-bred Gabrielle LeDoux, who is still (improbably) claims to be a Republican, filed for her District 15 House seat, and then she went rafting somewhere in the West — perhaps the Grand Canyon — with Rep. Matt Claman as her guide.
Word is there is a likely primary opponent, but LeDoux, who moved to Muldoon to run for the seat, is a fierce campaigner and she has her own political action committee, where she soaks lobbyists for money that can help her.
For 24 years, North Korea vowed to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for aid packages, and yet it carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday. The politics of appeasement may not be the way forward.
Is North Korea at risk of an environmental disaster? It has detonated nuclear weapons five times under the same mountain. Scientists in China worry the mountain will implode, and radiation will escape and drift across the border.
Our site this week for all things North Korea is 38north.org
Not to be outdone, Alaska has reported 30,580 30,672 earthquakes this year.
While we’re on the topic, check out the footage of the nuclear detonation at Amchitka, Alaska in 1971. It rattled the china, and then some.
GOV. WALKER CALLS FOR A NAVY BASE
Other leaders are calling for more missile defense, which would include beefing up those in Alaska, where we have a strategic advantage. Many are calling for more diplomacy, as well, and help from China.
Gov. Walker, however, is calling for a Navy base to be built in the 49th state. He did so in a statement that was sent to the media but not posted on his web site.
A Navy base in Alaska is not exactly a national priority, and is even lower on the list than our need for more ice breakers and Coast Guard presence.
Strong missile defense would seem the most important strategy.
Sen. Dan Sullivan has spent the past two years working hard to keep the Army’s 4-25 unit at JBER. We haven’t heard of our delegation advocating for a Navy base, but it doesn’t appear that Walker consulted with them before releasing his statement.
“Such a base would also provide key support for collaborative exercises and training with the maritime forces of our allies,” Walker said.
As one Washington-based expert put it, “Walker seems out of touch when he repeats the call for building a Navy base, but that’s his go-to stance.”
Walker’s statement in full:
Governor Walker’s Statement on Latest North Korea Development
September 3, 2017 ANCHORAGE —Governor Bill Walker today released this statement on the latest news of North Korean activity:
“North Korea has just completed its sixth test of a nuclear weapon, which may be its most powerful one yet. It has done so after recent apparently successful tests of long-range missiles. I am committed to doing everything in my power to keep Alaskans and all Americans safe from the growing threats of this rogue nation or others in the Pacific region bent on developing weapons of mass destruction.
“Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He has called for ‘a comprehensive strategy that not only places an emphasis on deterrence but also empowers our allies and partners in the region, who must do far more to confront this threat.’ A navy base in Alaska can be a key part of this strategy.
“Our location provides the quickest access to Asia for any base which would also be under the protective umbrella of the missile defense unit at Fort Greely which protects most of North America. This combination assures a powerful force for military deterrence will remain available to our Commander-in-Chief even if North Korea or another rogue nation were to launch a missile attack. Such a base would also provide key support for collaborative exercises and training with the maritime forces of our allies.
“As made clear during World War II, Alaskans understand what it means to be on the frontline of defending this nation. Alaskans also understand what it means to be attacked on U.S. soil by a foreign nation. The time is now to make our lands safer for today and for future generations.” -Governor Bill Walker
OUR SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR REFLECTS ON THE LACK OF SKILLED WORKERS IN ALASKA
By ART CHANCE SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
I spent much of my adult life across bargaining tables and in hearing rooms arguing with unions over wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment.
The unions, some of them anyway, like to accuse me of being anti-union, but I’m not anti-union, when they are in their role of representing employees in matters of wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment. After all, I grew up in the South and I’ve seen how employers will behave in a friendly legal environment and with a labor surplus. I wouldn’t want to be an hourly worker non-union, even in Alaska.
Art Chance
I am, however, very anti-union when they assume the role of a Socialist workers’ party with the right to compel political contributions.
Today much of America’s unskilled and semi-skilled workforce would love to have an 8-hour day rather than the four- or six-hour day and two jobs to which Obamacare has sentenced them.
This Labor Day is a good time to think about the deteriorating Alaska workforce and working conditions.
Every time Pomp and Circumstance gets played, Alaska gets a bit dumber. Our best and brightest go Outside to college and the only ones who come back for more than a visit are those with a family situation they can step into.
We are graduating kids who are at best semi-literate and who have zero work skills. Throw in the amount of drug use and we’re producing a workforce that lacks fundamental work habits and skills, and because of drug use cannot be employed in any safety sensitive job.
Employers willing to put up with the low quality workforce can hire at the minimum wage and those with some concern for Workers’ Compensation costs can pay a dollar or two more and require drug testing. You cannot live on the minimum wage or even a dollar or two more anywhere in Alaska except in your parents’ house or piled in with a bunch of others similarly situated in an apartment in a bad part of town.
And, no, the answer isn’t to raise the minimum wage.
At this time of celebrating those who labor, we should be concerned that the last time labor force participation rate in the US was so low — in the early Seventies — a large number of women began to enter the workforce.
I’ve never looked at Alaska specific workforce participation rates, but it must be abysmal Statewide and disastrous in rural Alaska. And it isn’t going to get any better unless we take steps to produce a more skilled workforce.
If you’re a entry level or low/semi-skill worker, only your personal pride causes you to take the jobs that are available to you in the private sector. If you can’t get an entry-level government job, and the competition is intense, you’re better off on welfare than working two or three lousy jobs to try to support yourself.
Frankly, if you go to college and come out with some general studies/liberal arts degree, you’re still an entry level or low/semi-skilled applicant and they’re a dime a dozen, though the degree might give you a little advantage in getting a government job.
There really isn’t much to celebrate about labor in Alaska unless you are a high-skill worker or have a unionized government job. The unions, particularly the building trades unions that were once the most powerful force in Alaska politics, have all but abandoned doing anything other than protecting their niche. They should be desperately concerned about their diminishing ability to send a qualified employee when one of the few remaining unionized employers calls the hall.
Young people are trying to enter the workforce with no skills and no clue as to what is expected from an employee. Just as the University of Alaska has to provide remedial courses before Alaska graduates can even take college level classes, themselves dumbed down already, the unions that have apprenticeship programs have to teach their apprentices what work is before they can teach them the skills of their trade.
They need to help do something about it, but so far they seem content with the status quo and are allied with the teachers’ unions in maintaining that status quo.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s banned from posting on Facebook. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite Administration” to describe a governor who is both a Republican and a Democrat, but neither. This was a grave insult to hermaphrodites but he has not apologized.
Looking for your Monday morning Must Read Alaska newsletter in your inbox? Ah, shucks: It’s a day off and we’re with family, but your newsletter will arrive on Tuesday this week and you won’t be disappointed.
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The first day of September came and went with nary a peep out of the office of Alaska Gov. Bill Walker as to the fate of his beloved Alaska natural gas pipeline. The anniversary would be hardly worth noting but for what Walker said at the end of August 2016.
It was then he drew a line in the sand and went out of his way to publicize it in the pages of the Alaska Dispatch News owned by friend and supporter Alice Rogoff. September 1 was to have been the drop-dead date for Walker’s LNG-export project if no buyers for gas signed on.
“Walker sought the interview after weeks of seemingly bad news about the gas line, including reluctance by the producers to move ahead with the current project and a consultant report saying the gas line wasn’t competitive with other projects around the world,” reporter Alex DeMarban wrote in the story.
“(Walker) said the state will have an answer within one year whether the project can move forward — or not. If the interest is not there, the state backs off.
“‘If the market says, ‘You know what, you should have been here 10 years ago, or 20 years ago and we would have signed up and we’re not interested, (then) that’s it,’ (Walker) said.”
The answer the state had received from buyers as of Friday was “thanks for the offer” and silence. Despite the lack of firm commitments, however, cash-strapped Alaska is on schedule to spend about $100 million on the project this year and next.
In July, agents from the San Francisco and Los Angeles Offices of the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau swooped in on Anchorage Baptist Temple using sophisticated investigatory techniques, such as perhaps a car radio.
They confirmed that radio signals on 99.9 FM “were emanating from your church located at 6401 E. Northern Lights Blvd. in Anchorage, Alaska.
“The Commission’s records show that no license was issued for operation of a broadcast station at this location on 99.9 MHz in Anchorage, Alaska.”
Evidently the signal went just too far. Such as, as far as the street.
“The field strength of the signal on frequency 99.9 MHz exceeded the maximum permitted level of 250 microvolts per meter (μV/m) at 3 meters for non-licensed devices. Thus, this station was operating in violation of Section 301 of the Act.4”
The FCC issued a warning on Aug. 28: “You are hereby warned that operation of radio transmitting equipment without a valid radio station authorization constitutes a violation of the Federal laws cited above and could subject the operator to severe penalties, including, but not limited to, substantial monetary fines, in rem arrest action against the offending radio equipment, and criminal sanctions including imprisonment.
The FCC went with all caps: “UNLICENSED OPERATION OF THIS RADIO STATION MUST NOT RESUME.”
The trip made by federal agents coincided with the silver salmon run in Southcentral Alaska. No word on whether the agents caught any fish along with the Christian pirates.
The Alaska National Guard has responded to the call and is actively engaged in rescue and recovery following Hurricane Harvey.
A 16-person team from the Alaska and California Air National Guard continue to provide support to the city of Vidor, Texas. As water levels begin to fall the mission has shifted focus to identifying the emergency and critical needs of the community.
Teams from the Alaska’s 212th Rescue Squadron and California’s 129th Rescue Wing were going door-to-door to conduct health and welfare checks and gather information on critical items. They also are providing paramedic care if needed. Teams were also operating out of the Orange County Emergency District Number 1 Fire Station responding to emergency medical calls.
Belinda O’Neal Dresel, public affairs staff sergeant, Alaska National Guard, and videographer.
On the civilian side, Anchorage resident Renata Hoskins and three others from Alaska have been deployed as Red Cross volunteers to Texas this week providing help in response to Hurricane Harvey devastation.
Renata Hoskins, Red Cross volunteer
Hoskins is a finance and statistical information specialist. Her role will be to gather and track information to make sure materials are where they need to be. It’s her first deployment as a Red Cross volunteer. Hoskins is better known in Alaska for her dog and puppy rescue work.
Must Read Alaska is reporting from “somewhere in Texas” this weekend on family duty.
WANT TO HELP? Houston’s worst-ever flood is going to get worst-er. Stay away for the next few weeks, unless you’re with an aid organization. Updates from The Houston Chronicle.
To help the victims of Hurricane Harvey, text HARVEY to 90999 to give $10 to the Red Cross. Or visit RedCross.org to give any other amount. Red Cross provides emergency aid.
Samaritan’s Purse is moving into Houston as conditions allow. Donate here. Samaritan’s Purse provides disaster relief to those in immediate physical need. It is a Must Read Alaska-recommended organization.
To use your skills as a volunteer, visit National Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster, NVOAD.org. This is the gold standard for disaster volunteering.
BUZZ KILL 1: Well, this is not good. We’re ranked 50th for economic investment, according to a U.S. News story. While the rest of the country has come out of the Great Recession, Alaska has headed the opposite direction. But Must Read Alaska readers already knew that.
BUZZ KILL II: Some good reporting by the Alaska Dispatch News doesn’t sugarcoat the poor educational outcomes in Alaska schools. Short version: More than 60 percent of Alaska’s public school students who took this year’s statewide standardized tests failed to meet grade-level academic standards in English language and math. This, in spite of the fact that Alaska public schools are among the highest funded in the nation. See Buzz Kill 1 for the predictable outcome.
YOUR LABOR DAY DATA: Anchorage has gained 800 jobs this year, which is a .4 percent increase, and Fairbanks has lost 600 jobs, a 1.5 percent decrease, year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Anchorage building permits increased 4 percent over last year.
OUR SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR SENDS SENATOR BACK FOR ACTING LESSONS
By ART CHANCE SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
Sen. Bill Wielechowski’s dog and pony show is over: The Alaska Supreme Court slapped him around a bit in his lawsuit against Gov. Bill Walker for his veto of $666.4 million from Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends.
That loss was predictable because the whole thing was just playing for the people in the cheap seats. He never had a real chance.
I started writing this after the decision, and then let it simmer while I absorbed comments in Pravda and social media; it got dumber by the minute leading me to believe that Alaska’s primary problem is not revenue, it is ignorance; most Alaskans simply do not know enough about our civic affairs to participate intelligently in our government.
Wielechowski’s suit was just a play for the poor and the stupid.
I know him, dealt with him as a union rep; I don’t like him, and he’s far from the sharpest stick in the stack, but he isn’t dumb enough to think this lawsuit was anything other than a dog and pony show.
The only thing I can figure is that he thought he could keep this going into the election season; maybe he thought he could be the hero of the poor or maybe he thought he’d just keep the game going.
I don’t really think he was dumb enough to think he could win this case; you’d have to be really dumb to think that.
Somebody can enlighten me, but I can’t think of a single case in Alaska history in which the Alaska Supreme Court held that some statutory enactment was “self-appropriating;” that the existence of a statutory program obligated the State to fund that program even if the Legislature didn’t appropriate funds.
Since Wielechowski is owned, a made man, by the unions, he of all people should understand this.
It has been the union complaint since the Public Employment Relations Act was enacted in 1972 that the Legislature had appropriation authority over the monetary terms of a labor agreement with the State. That meant that the union had to own both the Governor and the Legislature to get a sweetheart deal.
The unions didn’t like that and have fought it ever since.
The essence of this is that no public funds can be disbursed except pursuant to an appropriation by the Legislature.
While the dividend enabling language says how the funds are to be apportioned, they must still be appropriated by the Legislature in order for the Executive Branch to disburse the funds.
Therefore, if there is a legislative appropriation, the Governor has the authority to line item veto some or all of that appropriation. That is all the Alaska Supreme Court said: The dividend is the same as any other appropriation.
Walker’s veto is a political issue, not a legal issue. He had every legal right to do it.
Now he can find out if it was the right political position. As for Wielechowski, he’s just a scammer preying on the “aginners,” the poor and the stupid.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s banned from posting on Facebook. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite Administration” to describe a governor who is both a Republican and a Democrat, but neither. This was a grave insult to hermaphrodites but he has not apologized.
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, Iceland President Ólafur Grímsson, and Alaska Dispatch Publisher Alice Rogoff, at the Arctic Circle Singapore Forum on Nov.12, 2015.
By CRAIG MEDRED CRAIGMEDRED.NEWS
On the outside, all looks fine for Alaska’s largest news organization. The website ADN.com keeps on keeping on. The commenters still gravitate there en masse to call each other names. The Alaska Dispatch News newspapers still plop down in thousands of Anchorage driveways every morning, and some employees tell their friends that all will be good from here on out thanks to the Binkley family of Fairbanks.
But behind the scenes, the story of the collapse of Alice Rogoff’s would-be media empire just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
The court trustee has suggested the company of which Rogoff is now the owner-in-name only is such a train wreck that it might not be salvageable via a Chapter 11 reorganization and should be moved into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Rogoff, who bought the newspaper and website from The McClatchy Company of California for $34 million about three years ago, has filed with the court as a creditor claiming that Alaska Dispatch News LLC, the limited liability corporation she set up to run the newspaper, owes her $8 million. For what isn’t clear.
Editor David Hulen, Rogoff’s right-hand man, appears to have lived up to what he once described as his greatest skill: “survivor.” Bankruptcy records reveal that he cut a deal that requires anyone buying the company pick up his contract. Other news employees are unlikley to make out nearly as well.
And the Dispatch News’ summary of assets for the bankruptcy court defines what might be its most valuable product at the moment – ADN.com, the elephant in the jungle of Alaska news – as worth nothing.
