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Investigation into historic child abuse leads to arrests in Metlakatla

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A five-day investigation into historic child abuse cases within the Metlakatla Indian Community, Alaska’s only Indian reservation, has resulted in multiple arrests and an ongoing investigation, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

The operation, which took place from Feb. 2 through 6, 2025, was conducted by the Alaska Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of several agencies.

Authorities focused on allegations of child physical and sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence against adults. During the investigation, 22 children were interviewed, leading to the arrests of three older men who are now in custody at the Ketchikan Correctional Center.

The individuals arrested include:

  • James Leif Caspersen, 68 – Charged with second- and third-degree assault, fourth-degree assault, and fourth-degree criminal mischief.
  • Byron Hayward, 60 – Charged with third- and fourth-degree assault and third-degree criminal mischief.
  • Harry Olsen, 72 – Charged with second- and third-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Additionally, ABI’s Technical Crimes Unit, in coordination with Task Force Dawnbreaker, investigated multiple cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding child pornography allegedly uploaded from the Metlakatla area between 2021 and 2024. The investigation led to the arrest of Caleb Jametski, 30, who was charged with the distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material. Jametski was remanded to KCC.

Investigators also uncovered reports of additional criminal conduct while in the community, and those investigations remain active. Separate inquiries into alleged Medicaid fraud are also ongoing.

According to the Metlakatla website, the tribe is sovereign.

“The mission of the Metlakatla Indian Community is to improve the lives of our members, and preserve our heritage and culture, through effective self-governance, a commitment to self-sufficiency, and the exercise and strengthening of our tribal sovereignty; we encourage progress while honoring our ancestors, and protecting our land and water for future generations; we promote sustainability by utilizing and respecting our natural resources, developing economic and social opportunities for our members, and implementing efficient and effective systems of governance to enhance our members’ safety, health, and welfare. The Council and tribal executives are dedicated to governing the affairs of the Annette Islands Reserve acting under the authority of our Constitution, ordinances, and policies to fulfill this mission,” the Indian community states.

“The Metlakatla Indian Community, Annette Islands Reserve (AIR), exists by the authority of the Constitution and By-laws of the MIC as approved on August 23, 1944 by the Secretary of Interior and MIC, as an Indian Tribe organized under provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act. AIR is held in trust by the United States for the benefit of MIC, the Secretary of Interior has delegated responsibility to MIC to prescribe rules and regulations governing the use of Annette Island Reserve.”

Although Metlakatlans are protected category of people through a relationship with the federal government, federal agencies were not involved in the roundup of alleged perpetrators.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation extended its gratitude to the U.S. Coast Guard for its crucial support and also acknowledged the cooperation of the Metlakatla Indian Community Executives, Council, and staff. Other agencies assisting in the operation included:

  • Alaska State Troopers
  • Alaska Wildlife Troopers
  • Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General
  • Department of Law Office of Special Prosecutions
  • Alaska Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
  • Tundra Women’s Coalition
  • The Children’s Place
  • WISH (Women in Safe Homes)
  • AWARE (Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies)
  • S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center

Metlakatla, population 1,460, is located on Annette Island. Founded in 1887 by Anglican missionary William Duncan, it has an economy primarily based on tens of millions of dollars in government grants. It also has fishing, tourism, and forestry industries.

Senate passes bill liberalizing law to allow minors to serve alcohol in controlled restaurant settings

Alaskans as young as 16 would be allowed to work in restaurants, and those as young as 18 could serve alcohol if a bill passed Monday by the Alaska Senate becomes law.

Senate Bill 15, the work of sponsor Sen. Kelly Merrick, cleared the Senate on a unanimous 19-0 vote. It now advances to the state House for consideration. It’s legislation very much along the lines of last year’s House Bill 189, which passed both bodies but was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, because it, along with four other bills, passed the Alaska House after the midnight deadline of the last day of season.

The changes SB 15 makes in law include:

  1. Employment of Minors: Allows restaurants, seasonal tourism establishments, and theaters to employ 16–21-year-olds, with supervision requirements for those aged 16–17. Employees aged 18–20 can serve alcohol, except in adult entertainment venues.
  2. Theater Alcohol Sales: Expands the time frame for alcohol sales in theaters and removes intermission-related restrictions.
  3. Access to Licensed Premises: Permits 16+ individuals to be in theaters and large resorts without adult supervision, while those under 16 must have guardian consent.
  4. Warning Signs: Updates required signage at alcohol vendors to include warnings about birth defects and cancer risks related to alcohol use.
  5. Repeals & Clarifications: Eliminates outdated theater license provisions and defines “adult entertainment” to ensure those venues cannot employ minors under the new allowances.

The bill doesn’t allow persons under the age of 21 to work in bars where alcohol is the primary sales product. But it does allow 18-year-olds to serve alcohol to patrons in restaurants, breweries, distilleries, and wineries, while excluding bars and package liquor stores.

Also, minors would not be allowed behind the bar or in other areas where alcohol is present.

Alaska’s minimum age for alcohol consumption was lowered to 19 in 1970 and remained there until the federal government changed the legal drinking age to 21 in 1984 and required states to follow.

Under the proposed law, minors under 21 would still not be able to consume alcohol legally, but they could serve it in restaurant and other settings.

Many injunctions against Trump’s executive orders will be overturned on appeal, legal experts say

Legal experts say many of the injunctions granted by judges against executive orders by President Donald Trump will be overturned on appeal.

Supporters of Trump’s America First agenda shouldn’t panic, they advise, even though federal judges targeting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) work are trying to block Trump from reducing the size and scope of government. The cases will ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court, and this is just how the system of government in America is designed.

“Nobody ever said that our system of checks and balances would make it easy to govern or would make it efficient to govern,” said Alan Dershowitz, attorney and legal analyst. “The design of our system of checks and balances was to create enough power to govern effectively while, at the same time, denying any one part of our government enough power to create a tyranny. So we have to counter our system of checks and balances, and it’s working, even today, as we speak. The president issues executive order after executive order after executive order, and what do the states do? They get their attorneys general to bring a lawsuit.”

State attorneys general then shop around for the best judges to support their legal cases, Dershowitz said on his show, “The Dershow.”

“So you get a single judge for about an hour being able to stop the president from doing something. I say an hour metaphorically. It could be days, but ultimately those issues are brought up to the court of appeals and eventually to the Supreme Court. It will be resolved, and the president will obey, wouldn’t do what Andrew Jackson did, saying, ‘The chief justice made the ruling, now let him enforce it,’” Dershowitz said.

Conservative attorney Kurt Schlichter, who writes for Townhall.com, said the entire court injunction “crisis” is actually an opportunity.

“OK, stop panicking about all the stupid legal decisions from leftist judges that the left is getting from judge shopping in leftist jurisdictions,” he wrote on X/Twitter.

The Trump Administration certainly isn’t being taken by surprise, he said.

“We always knew exactly what they would do. Do not take the fact they [Trump Administration] are not screaming and yelling as them rolling over. They are not rolling over. There’s plenty going on behind the scenes as administration lawyers prepare their papers for the legal fight to come,” Schlichter said.

“Second, since we have to have this fight, this is the time and the battleground to have it. Why? We want it settled right at the beginning of the administration so that we don’t have to deal with this down the road. And we want to fight on these orders because 1) they are manifestly the result of bad faith judge shopping and the opinions themselves are both procedural and 2) they are substantively ridiculous. They are legal jokes,” he said.

The way the legal fights are shaping up is actually an advantage to Trump.

“Wait, you ask, we’re getting decision after decision against us! How can that be good? Because they are leaving the Supreme Court no choice. People want Trump to sound off about this, but he doesn’t need to. What’s left unstated is the fact that he can just not obey these manifestly improper orders. They say it’s a constitutional crisis now, but that becomes a real one when they push Trump too far. He’s not going to submit forever to micromanagement of the executive branch by activist District Court judges in blue cities across America. And Chief Justice Roberts knows it,” he said.

The last thing the Supreme Court wants to do is stake the credibility of the Court by jumping on the grenade that is these decisions against a president.

“There might someday be a fight with a president about something where he is legally in the wrong, but this is not that time. This is not the hill the Supreme Court will die on. Wisely, Trump’s not adding fuel to the fire by threatening to do what it’s very clear he can do, which is disobey. This provides SCOTUS the cover it needs to deal with these upstart district courts without looking like Trump strong-armed it,” he said.

“So relax and let the process go forward. We’re going to win on all these injunctions, and I expect fairly quickly,” Schlichter advised.

The lawyers made their comments just as U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island threatened Trump with criminal contempt charges over his emergency spending freeze.

Murkowski signals she will be a ‘yes’ vote for Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence director

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she will vote to confirm former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii for the director of National Intelligence for President Donald Trump. The Senate confirmation vote is expected later this week.

“While I continue to have concerns about certain positions she has previously taken, I appreciate her commitment to rein in the outsized scope of the agency, while still enabling the ODNI to continue its essential function in upholding national security. As she brings independent thinking and necessary oversight to her new role, I am counting on her to ensure the safety and civil liberties of American citizens remain rigorously protected,” Murkowski wrote.

In response to her commitment made on X, Elon Musk replied, “Awesome.”

Murkowski did not indicate her position on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health.

But Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN she be voting yes for Kennedy, all but assuring his confirmation even if Murkowski votes against him, which appears likely. The Senate is expected to vote to confirm RFK Jr. this week as well.

For any confirmation votes this week, Vice President Vance is not going to be on hand to break a tie, as he is in Europe attending meetings with foreign leaders. He broke the tie vote on Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary after Murkowski voted against Hegseth.

Former Secretary Betsy DeVos says Education Department is beyond fixing, should be dismantled

In a recent op-ed in The Free Press, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos critically assessed the Department of Education’s performance since its establishment in 1979.

“I served as the 11th U.S. secretary of Education. That’s how I know it’s beyond repair,” she wrote, highlighting that despite over $1 trillion in federal funding aimed at bridging the achievement gap between high and low performers, disparities remain as wide as ever, with some measures indicating they have even widened.

DeVos referenced the latest Nation’s Report Card, published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which reveals that in reading and math, most students have fallen further behind compared to previous years. Specifically, seven out of ten American fourth graders are not proficient readers, and six out of ten are behind in math. Notably, the gap between the highest and lowest performers has grown by 10% since 2019.

DeVos emphasized that this trend is not solely a by-product of the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that the lowest-performing eighth-grade readers are significantly worse off than their peers were in 1992, the first year the NAEP was administered.

Citing these persistent challenges, DeVos argued that the Department of Education has failed in its mission and should be dissolved.

Last year, Congress appropriated $80 billion to the department, which, after administrative costs are skimmed at every level of the bureaucracy, only a severely diminished amount reaches actual classrooms. DeVos contended that the department does not run any schools, employ teachers, set academic standards, or curricula, and contributes less than 10% of K–12 public education funding in most states.

Her perspective aligns with recent discussions among many Republican lawmakers and members of the public, as well as President Donald Trump, who have proposed dismantling the Department of Education, arguing that education decisions should be localized.

Read the column by Betsy DeVos at this link.

Democrats elect Eric Croft as state party chair; he is a close ally of Ethan Berkowitz

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Eric Croft, longtime Democrat politico in Alaska, is the new chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, which met in Juneau over the weekend for the party’s quarterly State Central Committee meeting.

Croft most recently served as treasurer for former Rep. Mary Peltola’s failed bid at reelection. He was a state legislator from 1997 to 2006, was elected to the Anchorage Assembly in 2016, and ran for mayor of Anchorage in 2020.

He is the son of the late Chancy Croft, who served in the Alaska House 1969 to 1971 and the Senate from 1971 to 1979. He ran for governor in 1978 but lost to Jay Hammond. Chancy Croft died in 2022.

Eric Croft is a close political ally of former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, who got caught up in a salacious scandal involving a woman news anchor during his second term as mayor. Berkowitz left office early.

At the time, one of the favorite refrains of the Democrats was “believe all women.” But Croft took the side of his buddy, Mayor Berkowitz, and wrote on Facebook: “Ethan Berkowitz shouldn’t have to go through this. There is no basis for any of it. Stay strong my friend.”

Croft, of Anchorage, takes the place of Mike Wenstrup of Fairbanks, who had also been chairman from 2012 to 2016, and who then returned as chairman after Casey Steinau retired from the position and moved out of state. Jessica Cook remains vice chair of the party.

Pedro Gonzalez: Has Alaska hit bottom in education?

By PEDRO GONZALEZ

A new study published by Pink Storage on the best and worst states to study in the United States ranked Alaska the fourth-worst for education overall.

The analysis looked at several metrics, including graduation rates, college dropout rates, student loan debt, number of blue ribbon schools, and absenteeism.  

Alaska tied with Alabama for second place for the lowest graduation rate. It came in third for the highest levels of absenteeism. The state tied with Delaware and Mississippi for the fourth-lowest reading scores in the country.

In August, Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development revealed that most students are not proficient in reading, math, or science. Notably, that came after standards for the statewide assessment were lowered last January.

What’s the problem? It’s not like Alaska doesn’t throw money at the problem. 

According to the Education Data Initiative, K-12 public schools in the Last Frontier spend $22,000 per pupil for a total of $2.88 billion annually. “K-12 schools in Alaska receive the most funding per pupil from the federal government,” the initiative reports.

Overall, Alaska ranks sixth in spending per pupil across the 50 states.

One obvious culprit is the lingering effects of the pandemic or, rather, the measures taken during that time that set children back in terms of educational development. The effects of that still aren’t fully understood or appreciated. Writing in Pediatric Research, a team of pediatricians noted that this period “had significant indirect effects on multiple areas of child development, school readiness, educational attainment, socialization skills, mental health, in addition to risks based on social determinants of health.”

The one bright spot on the education front is in Alaska’s charter schools, which topped a study released by Harvard researchers last year. 

“Alaska stands first in math and third (tied for second) in reading performances,” they found. 

Paul Peterson, director of the program on education policy and governance at Harvard University, told the Senate Education Committee at the time that “Alaska has higher-performing charter school students than Colorado and Massachusetts, who are well known to be strong in this sector.” 

Addressing Alaska’s education woes, at least at the K-12 level, likely starts with understanding why these schools are so successful and building policy around that.

Pedro Gonzalez writes for Must Read Alaska.

Hegseth changes North Carolina base’s name back to Fort Bragg in honor of a World War II hero

While flying from Joint Base Andrews to Stuttgart on Monday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Roland L. Bragg.

The new name pays tribute to Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” said Defense Press Secretary John Ullyot.

Under the presidency of Joe Biden, many names of forts were changed. Fort Bragg was changed to Fort Liberty, because the original Braxton Bragg was a flawed human being and a Confederate Army war hero.

Former Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin renamed Fort Bragg into Fort Liberty in June of 2023, after a 2021 congressional commission had recommended the name be changed. The name-changing frenzy was all in reaction to the death of violence-prone wife-beater and drug abuser George Floyd in 2020, which sparked riots across America’s major cities.

“All this changed in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. Many people protested systemic racism and pointed to Confederate statues and bases as part of that system. Congress established the commission in the National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal 2021. Then-President Donald J. Trump vetoed the legislation because of the presence of the commission, and huge bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress overrode his veto,” the Defense Department said in 2023.

Now, Fort Bragg is named after a mere private who shared the last name of Bragg but who was not in the Civil War.

The cost of renaming the nine forts that underwent the George Floyd process during the Biden Administration was $39 million.

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

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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.