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Wanted in connection with murder, and now robbery

Suzanne Downing
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2
Wanted in connection with murder, and now robbery

Aarron Settje was already a wanted man. He had five outstanding felony warrants last month and as of Feb. 1,  he has six.

Settje is wanted in connection with the Jan. 13 East Anchorage shooting death of 33-year-old Kortez Brown, who died of a single bullet wound.

Brown fought for his life for 12 hours before bleeding out. The second “person of interest,” Carleton Tarkington, turned himself in. Settje has been on the lam, something that is becoming a way of life for him.

Now the 32-year-old career criminal is wanted for a shoplifting incident that turned into a robbery at Sportsman’s Warehouse on Old Seward Highway.

So is his presumed brother Stephen James Settje, age 27. He goes by the nickname “Penchy,” and sometimes his name is spelled “Stephan.”

On Tuesday, Jan. 30, police say the Settjes went to the sporting goods store, and Aarron took some merchandise, while Stephen waited in the car. The store security personnel confronted Aarron outside the building, and Aarron yelled to his accomplice in a nearby vehicle.

That man was Stephen, police say. He got out of the vehicle and threatened the security guard with a pistol. The two drove off and no one was hurt.

Stephen James Settje

Aarron Settje has had a string of run-ins with the law. In mid-October, he was charged with Class C Felony theft, and earlier that month he was charged with causing fear of injury with a weapon, also a Class C felony, as well as criminal trespass. He has an association with the Soldotna-Kenai communities and may have worked as a laborer at an asphalt company.

On Facebook a few years back, he was joking about how bad his spelling was and revealed too much information about how much dope he smoked:

“Yes yes I had much better things to learn growing up like how to roll a blunt with one hand lol or every combo for every player on mortal combat deadly alliance lol forgot them all thanx to the blunts but shit happends lol.”

Stephen has his own list of priors that go back several years. Add to them “Robbery 1- Armed with Deadly Weapon (Class A Felony), which is what he’s being sought for now.

When caught, both will be run through the risk assessment tool now being used by the courts and corrections system. If they score a 1-9, they’ll be released to await trial. Only if they score a 10 will they need to cool their heels in jail.

With their combined string of reckless disregard for the law, corrections officers could be forgiven for just awarding them a 10 and keeping them away from the rest of Alaskans. But first things first, they are armed and dangerous; do not approach them. Call Police Dispatch at 786-8900 (press “0” to speak with an operator). To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP or online at www.anchoragecrimestoppers.com.

Least approved governor: Walker honeymoon ended

Suzanne Downing
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16

Gov. Bill Walker is the least popular governor running for re-election in the nation, according to a new poll conducted by Morning Consult.

  • Walker’s net approval  is -26 percent.
  • Walker posted the largest net slide in approval of any governor in the fourth quarter. His approval fell 19 points compared to the previous quarter.
  • Walker is the 6th least popular governor overall.
  • Fifty-five percent of registered voters in Alaska disapproved of his work in office
  • Twenty-nine percent of registered voters in Alaska approved.

A LONG HONEYMOON, THEN ABRUPT SLIDE

The early days of the Walker campaign showed a strong resilience, even as the bad news piled on: He proposed taxes, he bashed and trashed oil companies, he fixated on a gasline, took half of Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends, and ignored rising crime. It wasn’t until July of 2017, when voters starting catching on.

Here’s the history:

May – November, 2015

  • Approve 64, Disapprove 21
  • Spread +43

January – May, 2016

  • Approve 62, Disapprove 21
  • Spread +41

May – September, 2016

  • Approve 50, Disapprove 41
  • Spread +9

January – March, 2017

  • Approve 43, Disapprove 53
  • Spread -10

April – July, 2017

  • Approve 42, Disapprove 48
  • Spread -6

July – September, 2017

  • Approve 40, Disapprove 47
  • Spread -7

October – December, 2017

  • Approve 29, Disapprove 55
  • Spread -26

[Read the Morning Consult report here.]

Must Read Alaska asked gubernatorial candidates to comment on the poll results.

Scott Hawkins: It surprises me not one bit that Walker’s approval ratings have plummeted to among the nation’s  lowest. He earned those low ratings by turning the dividend program into a political football and putting forward nonstop tax proposals, rather than get serious about cutting the state’s huge operating budget. This year he introduced an operating budget several hundred million dollars higher than last year.  To say that is politically “tone deaf” is an understatement.  Alaskans are beginning to see that Gov. Walker is leading this state in exactly the wrong direction.”

Mike Dunleavy: “Everyone in Alaska knows who the governor is, and everyone knows what Gov. Walker has done. That’s why his ratings are so low. The people of Alaska are not confused about him. They know he is a totally different guy than the one who campaigned for governor.”

Mike Chenault: Those poll results are not surprising. The governor has ignored or simply forgot his many campaign promises from four years ago and instead has tried to implement a tax and spend agenda, one that I and many Alaskans don’t support. The governor lacks in leadership skills and does not know how to engage not only the Legislature, but the public in trying to promote his goals and plans. Having just a business perspective and background and very little or no other political experience failed in the Sheffield era and is failing in Walker’s administration.

 

 

Parish’s mixed-up math on oil taxes

Suzanne Downing
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3

COMMON CORE + OIL TAXES = FAIL

By ANDREW JENSEN
ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE

Nobody could blame Rep. Justin Parish for loving the sound of his own voice.

The problem is that everything that comes out of the Juneau Democrat’s mouth regarding oil taxes following his baritone “Madam Chair” reveals a depth of knowledge that is shallower than a contact lens case.

Parish was on full, cringe-worthy display at a couple recent hearings of the House Resources Committee, where co-chair Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, is forcing oil industry representatives to hump to Juneau yet again for more hearings on another oil tax bill that’s going nowhere.

If these hearings are good for anything — other than serving as a constant reminder that the state is on track to see its third straight year of production increases on the North Slope — it is to witness the Democrat-led Majority’s utter cluelessness on policy from definitional basics to more complex financial reporting.

First up was Parish questioning Tax Division Director Ken Alper, whom Democrats have relied upon since taking the House majority in 2016 to help craft their seemingly endless series of oil tax increases.

At the Jan. 26 hearing, Alper had an innocuous PowerPoint slide that noted Tarr’s proposal to raise the gross minimum tax from 4 percent to 7 percent is a 75 percent increase.

Parish, who once wrote that “French is the international language of freedom,” decided to wade into the universal language of math.

“We are contemplating increasing the effective rate by 3 percent,” Parish said. “It’s such a curious quirk of language. Because if we were increasing it from 1 percent to 2 percent, you could say we’re increasing the effective tax rate by 100 percent.”

Ken Alper, director Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division

Alper agreed, “Yes, doubling it.”

“Which just, on the face sounds like we’re going up to an effective tax rate of 101 percent,” Parish said. “Which is positively bizarre. I would ask you in the future not to muddle things by saying we’re increasing the effective tax rate by 75 percent when on the face of it you’d think we’re going from a 4 percent gross tax to a 79 percent tax rate, which is also a plain language reading of what you have here.”

The only thing muddled is Parish’s thinking but the problem is his muddled thinking came along with an instruction to Alper to refrain from using math because it accurately portrays the size of the tax increase Tarr is proposing.

Parish wasn’t done yet.

[Read more at Alaska Journal of Commerce]

Will Egan run again? Someone else has filed for his seat

Suzanne Downing
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1
Will Egan run again? Someone else has filed for his seat

Juneau Sen. Dennis Egan has indicated he may not run for his seat this year. On KINY Radio’s Action Line program in January, he put it somewhat cryptically, “I’ll let you know in February when we talk again.”

He’ll be back on Pete Carran’s show on Tuesday. That’s when Juneauites expect some kind of announcement.

But meanwhile, someone has filed for the Senate seat that Egan has held since 2006: Juneau resident Larry Cotter, a nonpartisan.

Larry Cotter

Cotter is the director of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, which is a seafood company that harvests, processes, and markets wild Alaska seafood from the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean in a sustainable manner. He has been involved with the Democratic Party in the past, and chaired a Democratic Party precinct in Juneau. He was also a labor organizer at one point in his career.

Who else might run for the Juneau seat?

Chris Dimond, union representative for the Carpenters Local 1281. But he may be thinking of another seat, perhaps Sam Kito’s District 33 House seat. And Jesse Kiehl, who is an aide to Egan and also serves on the Juneau Assembly, has also coveted the title.

There’s also Beth Kerttula, who recently moved back to Juneau after having left the House in 2014 to accept a fellowship at the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University. She served as Director of the National Oceans Council under President Barack Obama.

This is considered a safe Democrat seat, but of the three who might run for Senate Seat Q, only Kiehl is an actual registered Democrat.

EGAN STEPPED UP TO SERVE IN 2009

In April 2009, Juneau Democrats were in disarray. Sen. Kim Elton had been appointed to the Obama Administration to work in the Department of Interior, and had resigned that March. The Democrats offered one name: Rep. Beth Kerttula.

But Gov. Sarah Palin was having none of it. Kerttula had gone out of her way to trash talk the governor after she had been tapped by presidential candidate John McCain to be his running mate.

Finally, after going through a couple of nominees, Palin appointed Egan as a compromise candidate, and he was confirmed by the Senate Democrats and Juneau Democrats.

Egan had already served as mayor of Juneau, and had been on the Juneau Assembly and the Planning Commission. He was the son of former Gov. Bill Egan, and a lifelong Juneauite. Egan is masterful at developing and keeping relationships around the capital.

He graduated from Radio Operation Engineering School and from the United States Army Radio Communications School. And for much of his professional life he has been the president/general manager of Alaska–Juneau Communications, and has hosted the “Problem Corner” radio show, a Juneau classic.

 

Dunleavy PAC raises serious cash

Suzanne Downing
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Dunleavy PAC raises serious cash

In the first week, “Dunleavy for Alaska” has raised $560,000 in pledged donations.

The group announced its launch last week as an entity that is a separate effort from the Dunleavy campaign itself. It is what is known as an “independent expenditure group” that cannot coordinate with the campaign.

Dunleavy for Alaska may be the largest political action committee to take part in a governor’s race in Alaska, certainly this early in the cycle.

The group also launched its website.

Bob Penney, Josh Pepperd, Bob Griffin, and Francis Dunleavy pledged the cash, and other donors have stepped forward, said Terre Gales, the chair of the group. Francis is Mike Dunleavy’s brother.

The political action committee will roll out ads on Super Bowl Sunday in Fairbanks, Mat-Su and Anchorage. The ads will show during the game, and will also be seen on television during the Winter Olympic Games.

Anchorage-based Porcaro Communications was hired to place the television and radio advertisements.

Mike Dunleavy announced his race for governor and resigned from the Alaska Senate this month to devote his time to his campaign. He is from Wasilla.

Sen. Wilson report to be released today

Suzanne Downing
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Senate Rules Committee will release a report today on the kerfuffle that got Sen. David Wilson into hot water last year.

Wilson was the subject of a blog and mainstream media report accusing him of putting a cell phone between the legs of an aide in the Capitol.

He disputed that and an earlier investigation found that the report was false. All he had been trying to do is to tell an aide that he had every right to be in the hallway, while she had told him to move along, away from the doors of the Speaker’s Chambers, where her boss was holding a secret meeting.

The videotape of the alleged incident in the hallways of the Capitol cleared Wilson, but that videotape has not been made public, per the rules of the Capitol. Only Legislative Affairs personnel, Wilson, and Wilson’s attorney have seen the tape.

While attempting to clear his name, Wilson held a press conference where he suggested that Speaker Bryce Edgmon should step down from his leadership position, because he had failed in his duties to properly handle the matter and had used it to let Wilson “hang.”

[Read: Sen. Wilson wants an apology, and more]

It was that December press conference that became the subject of yet another complaint. The aide and Edgmon accused Wilson of retaliation against the aide because if Edgmon stepped down, he would lose staff members, and that might cost the aide her job.

It seems like an Orwellian stretch, and yet the report of Legislative Affairs Human Resources Director Skiff Lobaugh says that asking for another lawmaker to step down from a leadership position is a threat to the livelihood of staffers who work for the lawmaker.

Aides come and go in the Capitol all the time and frequently move from office to office, as they are the functionaries who provide office support to those who are governing.

Wilson, a freshman senator, wasn’t aware of the arcane rules. He did what any normal person would do if they had been falsely accused and they were trying to clear their name. But in doing so, he dug himself in deeper, at least in the eyes of Human Resources Director Skip Lobaugh.

He has learned the hard way, that in politics, everything is political, aides can be very powerful, and political adversaries are rarely, if ever, charitable.

Fansler has another challenge: Candidate Darren Deacon

Suzanne Downing
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Fansler has another challenge: Candidate Darren Deacon

District 38’s Rep. Zach Fansler is battling accusations of rough sex play that was too rough. A Juneau woman went to the police after she said Fansler got drunk and boxed her in the ear, rupturing her ear drum.

But voters in the sprawling district already have a choice this November.

Darren Deacon of Kalskag has stepped up to run for representative of the rural district that stretches from Crooked Creek in the East to Tooksook Bay in the West and South to Goodnews Bay. Bethel is the hub community. Kalskag is home to 210 Alaskans.

Deacon wrote :

“As a family man and life-long Delta resident, I have learned that we must all help one another, we must fight for those who cannot fend for themselves, and we are all equal in this world.

“If chosen by the people of District 38 to serve them, I will work to bring economic opportunity to our communities; I will fight to protect a full Dividend so that we can have a needed boost to our local economy. I will defend our subsistence rights and work to improve the healthcare of our region and support our search and rescuers and first responder’s super-human efforts to bring us home safely to our families.

“The people of our region are like others who call our great State of Alaska home: kind of heart, resourceful, generous, wise and hard working, always ready to help our neighbors in times of need.

“Recent events in Juneau show that we need a change in leadership , that we deserve a person who will represent them in the state capital with these same great qualities, the same work ethic and kind heart, and an understanding of the challenges that we all face in our daily lives. in doing so we will make our lives better, our communities stronger, and keep with the same great traditions that make us all proud to call this great State of Alaska home.”

NO WORD ON FANSLER RESIGNATION

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon today told reporters in the Capitol that, regardless of the due process to which Rep. Fansler has a right, Edgmon had received credible information from people in the Capitol about the incident, which was reported on Saturday by the Juneau Empire.

“To ask for his resignation: It’s a bold step,” Edgmon told the Capitol Press Corps. “And it’s something that we acted very definitively and very quickly on, because quite frankly our policy towards inappropriate treatment and, certainly, violence towards anyone — much less a woman — is something we just won’t tolerate.”

Rep. Zach Fansler

But Fansler has not shown up around the Capitol since the news broke Saturday. His staff has been reassigned to Rules Chair Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux.

Fansler, who is an attorney, has been huddling with his remaining political allies to determine his next step. He was seen leaving Hangar on the Wharf, a local bar and grill, earlier Tuesday. The media reports he has consulted with a criminal defense lawyer who is doing the speaking for him now; the last quoted comment from his attorney is that Fansler is innocent.

If Fansler quits, he’d be the second Democratic Party freshman to exit within a month. Rep. Dean Westlake, District 40, left Dec. 25 after he was accused of harassing women in Juneau. Criminal charges were never filed.

John Lincoln of Kotzebue, hand-picked by the governor, will be sworn in on Wednesday and assigned to Westlake’s committees.

To date, Fansler has not faced criminal charges, either, but the police report hasn’t been released, which indicates an investigation is underway.

[Read: Fansler: Marching for women by day; smacking them around by night]

[Read: How Fansler got elected, according to Politico]

Walker’s State-of-State fundraising letter to lobbyists

Suzanne Downing
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Walker’s State-of-State fundraising letter to lobbyists
On the occasion of the State of the Union address by President Donald Trump, Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott sent out a fundraising letter to lobbyists, quoting Walker’s own State of the State Address from Jan. 21.
Although it was short and perfunctory, it puts a point on the need to make sure everyone knows that he has raised more money than any other candidate and would look like a lion when the February reports are filed later this month.
Walker’s hasty letter also reveals that his State of the State address, quoted in the illustration that accompanies the letter, was a two-for-one, serving as his 2018 campaign theme launch:
“Dear Alaskans:
1.  We ran to do the job.
2.  We’re getting the job done, Alaska’s future is bright.
3.  To keep Alaska first leadership – not party first – we need your help.
The strength of our reelection campaign will be judged by the money we raise by midnight, February 1st.  Help us make sure the February reports show we have far outpaced other candidates in the depth and reach of our statewide support.
We ask you to stand with us and stand up for Alaska by donating $25, $50, $100, $250 or any amount up to $500 in the next 60 hours.
A 2018 donation will have the most impact if made right here before midnight Thursday.
Together, let’s keep doing what’s right for Alaska.

Honored to serve,

Bill & Byron
P.S. Donation limits reset for 2018.  Even if you donated $500 per candidate in 2017, you can donate up to $500 per candidate again in 2018.  Thank you for your support.”
(The original Walker-Mallott letter had six links in it where people could click to donate, removed from this site so that we don’t violate Alaska Public Offices Commission rules. Readers who have made it this far are welcome to donate to the Must Read Alaska Project at the one link provided below 🙂

Alaska: The State of Misogyn

Suzanne Downing
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1
Alaska: The State of Misogyn

By CRAIG MEDRED
CRAIGMEDRED.NEWS

The first and only woman to win the 1,000-mile, Yukon-Quest International Sled Dog Race, arguably Alaska’s toughest ultramarathon, and a three-time runner-up in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Aliy Zirkle is one tough woman.

And yet she was emotionally shaken to her core after coming under attack on the Yukon River during the 2016 Iditarod.

Why?

Because Zirkle had always lived in the belief that the Iditarod bubble would protect her, always thought her Iditarod fame a safeguard against the violence against women that pervades the 49th state, always trusted that she was an untouchable.

All it took was one nightmarish night on a wilderness river to shatter those beliefs.

Aliy Zirkle

All it took was the fear a man was going to kill her simply because she was a woman to make her recognize the world much of her Alaska sisterhood inhabits.

Today, Zirkle works with the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault to try slow a plague of sexual violence and abuse that is bad everywhere in Alaska and worse in the rural areas.

“….Male perpetrators have a sense of entitlement due to their privileged status as men in our culture,” Judy Gette, a professor at the Matanuska-Susitna College wrote in 2014 after a University of Alaska study revealed that 53 percent of Mat-Su Valley women reported being sexually abused or physically assaulted or both. “This comes across in the form of misogyny: a hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women. Perpetrators of interpersonal violence will make statements supporting their violence in terms of women ‘deserving’ such treatment.”

There appears something of a view among some Alaska men that women, like sled dogs, are on earth to be used.

Changing such a culture is a daunting task as now clearly evidenced by two state lawmakers – one an Alaska Native and one a white – standing accused of sexually assaulting women in the state capital.

Rape capital

That disgraced and now former Rep. Dean Westlake, D-Kiana, and accused Rep. Zach Fansler, D-Bethel, come from Western Alaska only underlines the problems that region faces.

[Read the column at CraigMedred.news]

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