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City manager warns employees of ‘First Amendment auditors’ in the building

Suzanne Downing
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19
City manager warns employees of ‘First Amendment auditors’ in the building

The Anchorage city government is bracing for potential encounters with self-proclaimed “First Amendment auditors” who have been reported visiting City Hall and may target other municipal buildings.

In response, City Manager Rebecca Pearson has issued a memo to all municipal employees, advising them on how to handle interactions with these individuals.

First Amendment auditors are activists who film public officials in government buildings to test their compliance with constitutional rights, often livestreaming their interactions or posting them online.

While the practice is legal in publicly accessible areas, it has raised concerns among employees about safety, interference with municipal operations, and the potential exposure of sensitive information.

The memo, which was distributed this week, emphasizes the importance of remaining calm when interacting with auditors. “The most important piece of advice is to stay calm; they are seeking content that will get clicks, and we municipal employees are not all that interesting unless we get upset,” the memo states.

Employees are instructed not to argue or engage with the auditors’ arguments. Instead, they are given specific guidelines based on the location and behavior of the individuals filming.

For non-public areas, such as offices with no public-facing functions, employees are being advised to inform the auditors that they are in a restricted area and ask them to leave. If the individuals do not comply, security and a supervisor should be notified immediately.

For public-facing areas, such as customer service counters, employees are encouraged to determine if the auditors have a legitimate service request. If not, staff members are advised to politely disengage and return to their duties.

“If they cannot identify a legitimate service need, say ‘As I’m unable to assist you today, I’m going to [help the next person in line/get back to work/step away from this desk],’” the memo suggests.

Should an auditor escalate his behavior by taunting, shouting, physically intimidating employees, or blocking public access, security should be called to remove the person, the memo says. Employees are also being instructed to notify their supervisors and document any incidents for review by the Municipal Attorney’s Office.

City employees with additional concerns are being encouraged to reach out to the City Manager’s office for further guidance.

Alaska Senate president caught in a lie about class sizes

Suzanne Downing
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22
Alaska Senate president caught in a lie about class sizes

Senate President Gary Stevens of Kodiak said last week that years of “flat funding and high inflation has pushed our public education system into crisis.”

A leader in the group of legislators advocating for vast amounts of new formula funding to pay teachers at Alaska public schools, Stevens was responding to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education funding and reform package, which was released last week along with House Bill 76 and Senate Bill 82.

“Currently, teachers have many classrooms above 40 students which decreases their individual impact on students, schools are closing because of financial distress, and families are leaving this state because of the lack of opportunities and stability,” Stevens said.

Read Sen. Stevens’ statement here.

Schools are closing because people are not having kids in many communities, such as Anchorage and Juneau, and there isn’t a need for so many schools anymore.

According to the Alaska Department of Labor, the outmigration in Alaska is actually lower in 2023 than the 10-year and 20-year averages. People are leaving at a lower rate, but the outmigration trend is not being matched by new arrivals, something that is not due to education, but lack of economic opportunity.

Forty students per teacher is a provably false, and Stevens, as a life-long educator, knows it. There are few, if any schools in Alaska with classes that have 40 or more students in them.

Data suggests that the average class size in Alaska’s high schools is around 18-20 students. The only classes in Alaska that might have more than 40 students may be Anchorage physical education, band, student government, or choir classes.

Anecdotally, there was a robotics teacher in Anchorage who needed more students so put out the call to get more, and more than 40 signed up. That is the number that the Anchorage Teachers Association (NEA) is using when they are bargaining for more money.

The House and Senate have agreed to a working group negotiation with the governor to see if there is a place they can agree on when it comes to education funding and accountability.

Here are the actual teacher-student ratios from around Alaska, with Anchorage averaging higher due to having correspondence and homeschool programs, where one teacher is assigned to many non-campus students who are learning at home.

student teacher ratioDownload
David Boyle: Gov. Dunleavy believes good policy precedes funding for education industry

Spy balloon payload may have contained US-made technology: Report

Suzanne Downing
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12
Spy balloon payload may have contained US-made technology: Report

A classified investigation has revealed that the Chinese spy balloon, which traversed U.S. airspace before being shot down in February 2023, was secretly equipped with American-made technology from at least five different American firms, potentially aiding Beijing in its surveillance efforts, according to an exclusive report by Newsweek.

See the Must Read Alaska story from Feb. 2, 2023 at this link: https://mustreadalaska.com/spy-balloon/

The Newsweek report comes exactly one year after another alleged spy balloon was shot down just north of Prudhoe Bay. That event occurred Feb. 10, 2023.

The earlier balloon, which first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, crossed a portion of Canada and then hovered over the mainland of the United States before drifting east. It was destroyed by a military jet off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, 2023.

According to the two sources where were described as having direct knowledge of the investigation, the recovered debris contained components manufactured in the United States—technology that may have been used to spy on unsuspecting Americans.

Defense says Chinese spy balloon is over center of country

The discovery raises serious national security concerns, as it suggests that Beijing may have exploited American technology to conduct espionage. Officials have not disclosed specific details about the technology found, but its presence on a foreign surveillance platform has intensified scrutiny over how sensitive components may have fallen into adversarial hands.

This revelation adds another layer of complexity to strained U.S.-China relations, with lawmakers demanding greater oversight of supply chains to prevent further security breaches. The Biden administration has yet to comment on the latest findings, but intelligence agencies are reportedly working to assess the full extent of the balloon’s capabilities and potential data collection.

This incident was one of several suspected surveillance operations by China in recent years. The discovery of U.S. technology on the balloon may prompt further regulatory measures to prevent American-made components from being used in foreign intelligence activities.

According to Newsweek, the tech payload equipped the balloon to survey and take photographs and collect other intelligence data, Newsweek‘s sources said, speaking anonymously. But there was more.

“The balloon might also have been carrying launchable gliders that could collect more detailed data, since it had empty storage bays, they said. Chinese scientists have developed gliders to be used with such balloons, according to aerospace research papers reviewed by Newsweek,” the publication wrote.

Image released of UFO shot down over Yukon Territory in February of 2023

“The 75-page analysis of the parts recovered from the spy balloon and from what appeared to be two other balloons whose parts were collected elsewhere was carried out by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio where a Foreign Materiel Exploitation Squadron examines foreign technical equipment, the sources said. Newsweek did not review the analysis itself,” Newsweek wrote.

Now that the news has been leaked, the Pentagon is expected to provide further updates.

Report: Another UFO over the Arctic last February?
Sullivan says Arctic Warriors scrambled jets in Alaska and could have shot down the CCP balloon, if allowed

Trump gives David Rubenstein the hook from Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

Suzanne Downing
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17
Trump gives David Rubenstein the hook from Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

David Rubenstein, former husband of the most recent owner of the Anchorage Daily News, has been chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 14 years.

President Donald Trump says he’s replacing Rubenstein — with himself.

Trump is also replacing other board members, although it’s unclear which ones. He wants the Kennedy Center to reflect a different vision.

“I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” he said. “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”

Rubenstein came into prominence in politics as an aide to former President Jimmy Carter.

He devised a way to squeeze money out of Native Corporations after they were created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. It was a tax loophole — selling net operating losses — and Rubenstein’s method became known as the Great Eskimo Tax Scam.

After making millions of dollars, he started the Carlyle Group, a private equity investment firm, and became one of the wealthiest men in the world.

The Caryle Group is a leader in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) investing. Founder Rubenstein remains one of the most influential men in Washington, D.C., but his ties to Alaska go farther than the Great Eskimo Tax Scam. For a while, the Carlyle Group managed a small portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund.

In 2009, David’s then-wife, Alice Rogoff, purchased the start-up news website the Alaska Dispatch, and later she bought the Anchorage Daily News for $34 million and combined the two publications, before driving the entire enterprise into bankruptcy court in 2017, about the time she and David divorced.

Their daughter, Gabrielle Rubenstein, was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to serve on the board of the Alaska Permanent Fund. She left the board last year after news got out that she was seen to be meddling in the day-to-day business of the Permanent Fund, reaching her hand into specific decision making by the professional staff — not an appropriate thing for a board member.

Before former President Joe Biden left office, he awarded David Rubenstein the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Breaking: Rubenstein out at Permanent Fund Board
Gabrielle Rubenstein’s Permanent Fund turf-war makes the news at Financial Times

Biden to award Medal of Freedom to George Soros, Hillary Clinton, David Rubenstein

Anchorage Assembly wants to extend criminal liability to guardian if a student brings weapon to school

Suzanne Downing
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42
Anchorage Assembly wants to extend criminal liability to guardian if a student brings weapon to school

At the Anchorage Assembly meeting on Tuesday, the Assembly will consider a proposed ordinance that would expand liability to parents, foster parents, and guardians of minors who bring deadly weapons to school grounds or to school functions. The law might even be applied to babysitters or friends who are taking care of a child while parents are out of town.

The ordinance is being offered by Assemblywoman Karen Bronga, who seeks to amend Anchorage Municipal Code Section 8.25.060

  1. According to the proposed ordinance, in 2023 5.6% of Alaska students and 3.5% of Anchorage students reported having carried a weapon to school on at least one day in the 30 previous 15  days.

The ordinance explains that any deadly weapon that a child has on school grounds will lead to the prosecution of the parent or guardian, if the parent or guardian had the weapon in their possession originally and didn’t secure it or store it properly, but stored the weapon “in a criminally negligent manner.”

This could apply to an elderly grandparent who is raising children due to some type of family dysfunction or tragedy. A knife taken from a kitchen drawer or a nail gun taken from the garage of that grandparent could qualify, and the grandparent or guardian could be charged as though he or she had brought the knife on campus.

The same could hold true for a boxcutter, hatchet, or other item that could be seen as a deadly weapon.

The ordinance raises constitutional and legal questions.

The Alaska Constitution says, “The individual right to keep and bear arms shall not be denied or infringed by the state or political subdivision of the State.” The Bronga ordinance appears to violate the Constitution by infringing on constitutional rights.

There is also state law that says no political subdivision can have a more restrictive law on firearms than the state itself has in law.

AS 29.35.145 Regulation of firearms and knives says “The authority to regulate firearms and knives is reserved to the state, and, except as specifically provided by statute, a municipality may not enact or enforce an ordinance regulating the possession, ownership, sale, transfer, use, carrying, transportation, licensing, taxation, or registration of firearms or knives, unless explicitly allowed by state law.”

There are very few exceptions to this state statute. Municipalities can enact ordinances that are identical to state law and carry the same penalties as those established by the state, but cannot make the local ordinances more restrictive. Ordinances cannot infringe upon the right to bear arms as guaranteed by the Alaska Constitution.

It’s unclear how Bronga was able to get the Assembly’s legal staff to sign off on an unconstitutional provision that would most certainly draw a legal challenge.

Paying youth members

The Assembly also will vote on making the youth members on the Assembly into paid positions.

Chairman Chris Constant offered the resolution that will pay youth representatives $2,000 each. There are three youth representatives, for a total of $6,000 to be expended.

Youth voter registration drive

The youth members on the Assembly will also ask the Assembly to request that the Anchorage School District hold a voter registration drive to encourage participation in regular municipal elections, which occur in early April. Voter registration drives are uncommon in Alaska since more than 116% of the population is already registered to vote, due to things like automatic registration with Permanent Fund dividend applications and drivers license applications. The effort to register more youth may be seen as yet another distraction from the school district’s core mission of teaching, which it is failing at, by every measure.

The Anchorage Assembly meets on the ground floor of the Loussac Library on 36th Ave., with the meeting starting at 5 p.m. and lasting typically until about 11 p.m.

The agenda can be read here.

Trump starts unwinding Biden regulations that infringe on Second Amendment rights of Americans
Biden dismantles Second Amendment with ‘rule’ based on an anti-gun bill Murkowski voted for

Trump says no more pennies from the U.S. Mint

Suzanne Downing
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65
Trump says no more pennies from the U.S. Mint

President Donald Trump on Sunday said that the penny is a waste of government time and … er … money.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he wrote on his social media account.

It’s estimated that it costs the U.S. Mint 3.07 cents to produce one penny — more than three times its face value. According to JM Bullion, the U.S. Mint lost $179 million in 2023 due to penny production.

The debate over whether to continue minting the penny has gone on for years. In production since 1793, it’s kept in circulation due to its sentimental value, not its actual value.

Read the history of the penny at this U.S. Mint link.

Many medical providers end practice of child sexual mutilation procedures after Trump executive order

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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23
Many medical providers end practice of child sexual mutilation procedures after Trump executive order

By TJ MARTINELL | THE CENTER SQUARE

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting “transgender” procedures on youth, including puberty blockers and surgeries such as mastectomies and penile reconstruction. In response, many medical providers including some of the top in the nation for performing them have announced they will comply with the EO.

The EO states that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

Last year, nonprofit Do No Harm unveiled a database reporting that between 2019-2023, there were 13,000 gender reassignment procedures performed throughout the nation on minors; those procedures included both surgeries and prescriptions. Among the top states in the nation for those procedures was Ohio, which has since enacted legislation banning such procedures.

The Center Square reached out to more than two dozen medical providers throughout the country based on data provided by Do No Harm regarding their total billing, prescriptions, and surgeries performed, asking them how they planned to respond to Trump’s EO.

UW Medicine stated in an email that it was “committed to supporting the clinical care needs and well-being of all our patients, as well as complying with state and federal law. We are currently in compliance and are also continuing to provide our full spectrum of services.”

Seattle Children’s Hospital ranked among the top in the nation for puberty blocker prescriptions; though it did not respond to request for comment, there have been reports that it has suspended those services, and its webpage for gender affirmation surgery has since been removed.

Here come the lawsuits: Washington’s AG sues to undo Trump’s ban on child sexual mutilation

MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital located in Tacoma wrote in an email that while it does not perform gender-affirming surgeries, “we are aware of the executive order that calls for an end to gender-affirming medical treatments for children and adolescents under 19 and are continuing to monitor the situation. Executive orders are directives to federal agencies on how they will operate. Much of what’s been issued has not yet become rules for us to evaluate.”

D.C.-based Children’s National Hospital released a statement that it will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy, noting that prior to the EO it did not perform gender affirming surgeries.

Coolie Dickinson Hospital based out of Massachusetts wrote in an email that it “is reviewing to see what, if any, actual impact the executive orders might have and would follow up, if there is any impact. In the meantime, the care we provide to our community continues as normal at this time.”

University of Michigan Health stated that its “teams are assessing the potential impact of this executive order on our healthcare services and the communities we serve. Our priority remains delivering high-quality, accessible care to our patients while ensuring compliance with the law.”

Another medical provider to cease gender transition services for anyone under 19 is VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond, Virginia, which wrote in a statement that it was “in response to an Executive Order issued by the White House on January 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on January 30, 2025. Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care and all other health care needs.”

UCSF’s Gender Affirming Care in San Francisco has also ended services for patients under 19, a policy also adopted by Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York simply wrote in an email that “we will keep you posted once we have an update on this matter.”

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia both said they were reviewing their services.

Several hospitals and hospital systems who performed these procedures on minors did not respond to The Center Square’s requests for comment on the executive order. The Center Square will continue to seek clarification  on whether they plan to comply with the order.

Trump says he will outlaw child sexual mutilation in America

Who won the Kuskokwim 300?

Suzanne Downing
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1
Who won the Kuskokwim 300?

It’s the Super Bowl of mushing in Western Alaska … and we have a winner.

Bethel musher Pete Kaiser has won his ninth Kuskokwim 300 title, sledding into Bethel at 1:57 a.m. on Sunday. Only legendary musher Jeff King has the distinction of that many wins of the K300.

Kaiser was followed in by Big Lake musher Riley Dyche, who crossed the finish line about 18 minutes later.

View the race map here.

The race start time was moved up by seven hours to start on Saturday afternoon due to an expected warm front moving in, which could make conditions more challenging as racers went from Bethel to Aniak and back.

Kaiser gets about $30,000 of the $200,000 purse, which is all raised locally through pull-tabs and other donations, as well as merchandise. Because it does not depend as much on national sponsors, like the Iditarod Sled Dog Race does, it is a stable regional race. Many of the race’s sponsors are Alaska businesses.

The K300 is one of the qualifiers for the more internationally known Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which starts in 21 days.

Here’s the leaderboard as of 9 a.m. on Sunday:

State Senate rejects pay raises for top state officials

Suzanne Downing
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12
State Senate rejects pay raises for top state officials

The Alaska Senate has voted unanimously against a proposal from a state commission that would have linked legislative and executive branch salaries to an inflation index. The Senate, by passing Senate Bill 87, will keep salaries stagnant for the political class of state employees.

SB 87 rejects recommendations made by the State Officers Compensation Commission. The commission had proposed automatic salary adjustments every two years, tied to the Anchorage Consumer Price Index, beginning after the 2026 state election. Salaries could go up, or even down, depending on the CPI.

SB 87 will be considered in the House, where it is also expected to be passed, putting a knife in the salary proposal for at least another two years.

Currently, Alaska legislators earn an annual salary of $84,000, as well as per diem payments of about $37,000 for most members, except for the three who reside in Juneau. The governor is paid $176,000, the lieutenant governor earns around $140,000, and department commissioners are paid approximately $168,000. Executive branch salaries have remained the same since 2011.

The salary commission was attempting to insulate politically sensitive positions from political winds of the day.

Past commission proposals have met varying fates. In 2009 and 2011, legislative inaction allowed salary increases for legislators, department heads, the governor, and the lieutenant governor to take effect. However, the Legislature rejected executive salary increases recommended in 2014. A 2016 policy permitting deputy commissioners to retain higher salaries upon promotion was implemented, but no changes were proposed in 2020.

In 2021 and 2022, the commission conducted multiple reviews and found that salaries had not kept pace with inflation, emphasizing the need for adjustments. Nonetheless, the Legislature remains hesitant to approve automatic raises, citing concerns over fiscal responsibility and political optics amid ongoing budget challenges.

If the House votes in favor of SB 87, salaries will remain unchanged.

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