Thursday, July 30, 2026
Home Blog Page 296

Senate DOGE report shows thousands of ‘bubble- bath bureaucrats’ never show up at physical office

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chair the Senate’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Caucus, publicized a new report that shows that as little as 6% of federal employees work in a federal office full time. Nearly one-third of non-military federal workers never show up at an office but are teleworking from home.

Before the Covid pandemic, the number of teleworking federal workers was about 3%, the report shows.

“Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time. Members of President Biden’s own cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable,” the report says in the introduction. “Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90 percent of those are. Some come to the office as infrequently as once a week. The Biden administration redacted the locations of over 281,000 rank-and-file federal employees.”

DOGE is an initiative of the incoming Trump Administration, led by entrepreneurs Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, with the intention of ferreting out government waste, fraud and abuse.

“If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!” posted Musk on X, the social media site of which he is majority owner. “Almost no one.”

With federal office space at about 12%, the cost of heating and maintaining these empty buildings is a significant waste.

In the Senate, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is a member of the DOGE Caucus.

“Excited to be an original member of the Senate @DOGE Caucus. One big issue I’m focused on in the caucus is permitting reform and litigation abuse that makes it impossible to build things in America – roads, bridges, ports, gold mines. This issue unites so many. There is no reason it should take nearly 8 years to permit a bridge, up to 19 years to permit a road, and 20 years to permit a gold mine in Alaska, all while costing millions in fees just to meet the permitting requirements. No other country does this!” Sullivan said on X.

The Senate DOGE report said, in part:

  • Ninety percent of federal employees telework;
    • Pre-COVID this number was 3%;
    • Just 6% of workers report in-person on a full-time basis;
    • Nearly 33% of federal employees are entirely remote;
  • Depending on the agency, 23-68% of surveyed teleworking bureaucrats are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay;
    • Some employees lived more than 2,000 miles from their office;
  • Not a single headquarters of a major agency in Washington is even half-full;
    • Average occupancy is just 12%;
    • Maintaining and leasing government office buildings costs more than $8 billion every year; and
    • Another $7.7 billion is spent on the energy to keep the buildings running.

Click here to view the full report and here to view a summary.

Todd Lindley: Promises of the past and doing the little things with big love and faith

By TODD LINDLEY

We are living in a time of great turmoil. There is the ongoing Ukrainian proxy war with Russia, a Middle East conflict resurfacing with Israel and Iran at the center, the continuous high-level cyber incursions on critical infrastructure and personal data, assassination attempts on our president-elect, and a culture that is hostile toward the family unit. 

Every generation faces life-threatening challenges, but today’s are different. Today’s challenges transcend cultural and geographic borders and undermine humanity’s common bonds. They risk the lives of generations to come and threaten change from which mankind may never recover.

What is this generation to do with so many existential threats adding to the weight of an already exhausted population? If we can manage to learn from history, it provides wisdom and solutions for how to navigate these modern-day crises. 

This wisdom has lasted thousands of years, through famine and world war, and has been embraced by more human beings than any other single prescription throughout human history. Imagine a solution shared by Natives and Whites—indeed every race—a global formula for peace that transcends all of our other differences.  

It was the summer of 1929 in the little town of Tuy, Spain. A humble nun was praying in a convent when she received a message from Heaven asking her to fulfill a request from 1917. With great obedience and effort, she passed this message to the bishops of the land, including the Pope, with this simple request: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart … I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. If they heed My request, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.” 

Since then, we have yet to see the fulfillment of this request. So, what can we do? 

We may not be able to consecrate Russia, but we can pray that our leaders are moved to take action conducive to this wish. We can spread this message and draw others closer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Mother of God. Jesus has given us His Mother for a moment such as this to bring all of Her children back to Her Son. For those who fear this diverts our focus from Jesus, let me offer a response in Her own words: “Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye!” We only need to open our hearts, even if slightly, to the grace She wants to give us. 

We are called to be saints. In this Last Frontier, Alaskans have a great opportunity to rekindle what it means to be a missionary and to bring hope in this time of existential despair. So much of our time and culture has been wrapped up in the politics of the day, and as citizens in this constitutional republic, it is our duty to stand for a post for liberty either through our elected officers or by our vote. We can even find in the Bible that our leaders are “. . . not a terror to the good work, but to the evil . . . for they are God’s ministers for us, for good.” Pray for our leaders. The power of prayer for our soul and the souls around us depends on this grace for strength. The enemy knows this and targets people in power to achieve an outcome that pushes souls into darkness and toward Hell. 

Many great saints were missionaries. As the sun sets on the Last Frontier, baptized Christians can bring the light of Christ to their communities. Just like the missionaries of the past who relied on the grace of the Mother of God, so can we. Some went the great way, giving the ultimate sacrifice of their lives to bring people back to the foot of the Cross. Others went the little way by offering every little thing in love to others—such was the way of our patron saint, patron of missionaries, and Queen of Alaska, St. Therese of Lisieux. Our mission is simple: doing little things with big love and faith that can convert a soul; then we will “see the great wonders of the Lord which He will do this day!” 

Todd Lindley is vice chairman of the board of Alaska Gold Communications, parent company of Must Read Alaska.

Bathroom insurrection? Video of trans activists storming Capitol women’s restroom

Fifteen transgender-supporting activists who took over a women’s bathroom in the Cannon Office Building were arrested on Thursday at the Capitol.

The activists, organized by Gender Liberation Movement, occupied a bathroom across from Speaker Mike Johnson’s office and chanted “Bathroom bigotry’s got to go!” and other slogans.

They videoed themselves dancing and prancing in the women’s bathroom in defiance of Johnson’s recent ban on men using women’s bathrooms and locker rooms in Capitol buildings. Among those arrested were Chelsea Manning, the male-to-female transgender former U.S. Army soldier who was once charged with 22 offenses, of which he was convicted and served time for aiding an enemy.

Johnson’s policy is that “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings (like restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms) are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex.”

The policy was in response to members being concerned that incoming member Sarah McBride of Delaware will be soon sworn in as a Delaware congressman. McBride is a transgender who identifies and appears to be a woman, the first openly trans to serve in Congress.

Gender Liberation Movement posted in a statement  saying “This bathroom sit-in sets an example of the righteous defiance and solidarity needed under a second Trump administration. Cis, trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming folks will have to defend, protect, and fight alongside each other. For this action, cis and trans women demanded an end to bathroom bigotry and preservation of our shared spaces while cis and trans men blocked and protected the entrance to the bathroom. Survivors of sexual violence also demanded that anti-trans bigots stop spreading disinformation about trans people who are disproportionately the victims of violence not perpetrators of it.”

It’s unclear why the transgender activists took over a women’s bathroom, rather than a men’s bathroom.

Sen. Cruz appeals to Supreme Court to deny Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gunmakers

By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE

 U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading a bicameral appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting it to uphold American sovereignty in a $10 billion lawsuit brought by Mexico blaming U.S. gun manufacturers for cartel gun violence in Mexico.

The appeal was made in concert with a similar one by a coalition of 28 state attorneys general, including Alaska’s Attorney General Treg Taylor.

At issue is a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers arguing they are responsible for Mexican cartel crime in Mexico. A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. Mexico then appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last year that its claim fell within an exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.

When the case was before the First Circuit, Cruz led a bicameral appeal, filing an amicus brief with three U.S. senators and 35 U.S. House members. Like the AGs, they argued the PLCAA protects businesses that sell firearms from being held liable for harm caused by criminals who abuse them. Mexico argues an exception in the law enables it to hold liable American gun manufacturers and distributors for cartel gun crime.

But “Mexico’s arguments in this lawsuit don’t hold water, which is why the suit was thrown out in the district court,” Cruz argued in the First Circuit brief. “In sum, what the government of Mexico is trying to do is impose its own interpretation of American law on American businesses. This demonstrates a disregard for our Constitution and in particular, our Second Amendment. They’re also ignoring the fact that Congress has exercised its authority by passing the law in question here, the … PLCAA, and the fact that the United States is a sovereign nation.”

After the First Circuit ruled in favor of Mexico, 27 AGs, led by Montana, appealed in June to the Supreme Court to throw out the case. Cruz also led 10 senators and 14 House members in another amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court requesting it to grant certiorari.

On Tuesday, Cruz led another coalition of 16 U.S. senators and 22 House members, petitioning the Supreme Court again.

Mexico’s lawsuit “seeks to trample on our Constitution,” Cruz said. “I look forward to the Supreme Court ending this madness, putting an end to Mexico’s assault on our Second Amendment, and sending a clear message that American sovereignty will not be eroded by any country.”

The lawsuit has unified a large group of people “as almost as never before,” said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, who is leading the U.S. House coalition. “This is a landmark legal question and weighs whether to allow foreign governments to violate American sovereignty, bankrupt our firearms industry with lawfare, and undermine our Second Amendment rights. Today, we reaffirm our commitment to our constitutional freedoms. Our cause will prevail.”

“Mexico’s lawsuit is an affront to the sovereignty of the United States of America,” the brief states. “It has no place in federal court, and it attempts to coerce American courts to subvert the policy determinations of the political branches of the U.S. Government. A nation’s authority on its own soil is virtually absolute. Congress exercised that authority in passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. … Mexico’s suit disregards those legal principles, trying to impose its own foreign view of liability protection law and the right to bear arms on the American people.

“Mexico’s suit attempts to impose the laws of that foreign nation upon the citizens and companies of this nation. This is ironic, given that Mexico’s Constitution also provides its citizens the right to possess firearms in their residences for self-defense. But that nominal right is a pale shadow of its American counterpart, subject to severe restrictions, coupled with the fact that there is only a single gun store in Mexico. That nation’s laws and tradition of the right to own firearms bear little resemblance to that of our own.”

They also note that the district court “properly rejected Mexico’s arguments that because its alleged injuries occurred outside the United States and because it is a foreign-sovereign plaintiff, PLCAA was categorically inapplicable to this lawsuit.”

In August, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston again dismissed the case, this time against six of eight U.S. companies named in the lawsuit. He ruled Mexico didn’t provide concrete evidence to prove that their operations in Massachusetts had any connection to cartel gun violence in Mexico.

In October, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the case.

Judicial conduct commission meets

4

The Alaska Commission Judicial Conduct will hold its quarterly meeting Friday, Dec. 6, at the commission’s office and by Zoom, with public participation available only via Zoom. The public session will begin at 9:30 a.m., subject to change, with closed session to follow.

The public session addresses the commission’s budget, educational activities, advisory opinions, and general administrative issues. The public session does not address any specific complaints against judges, which are handled in private.

While there will be a set amount of time for the public to address the commission, anyone wishing to speak at this meeting is requested to notify our office no later than 30 minutes before the start of the meeting to schedule. Speakers should tailor their remarks to public matters related to the commission’s function, the announcement said.

If you wish to appear, or have questions about Commission meetings, you may contact Commission Staff at [email protected] or (907) 272-1033.

The Alaska Bar Association recently sought nominations for two seats on the Commission on Judicial Conduct: one in the combined 2nd and 4th Judicial Districts and one in the 3rd Judicial District.  Nominations were sought from Nov. 4 through 25th.  Only one candidate ran for each vacant position and as a result, no advisory poll is needed. The following are candidates:

2nd/4th Judicial Districts: William R. Satterberg

3rd Judicial District: Donald W. McClintock III

Anchorage School District mystifies parents with garbled messages about weather closures

The Anchorage School District went to remote learning on Thursday after freezing rain on pavement made roads dangerous for students, parents, and others.

But the school district sent an email about it to parents on Thursday, the text of which was unintelligible. Instead of being in English, it was in Lorem Ipsum, which is a type of filler text that made no sense at all:

Later, the district apologized, after parents were stunned by what was clearly unclear and reached out for explanation.

“Due to deteriorating road conditions, we are shifting from 2-hour delay start to a remote learning day. Also, all after school activities and community rentals are cancelled for today. Girdwood K-8 will have in-person learning and no bus transportation. Apologies for the previous update on email. There was a technical glitch. Again apologies for the confusion,” the district wrote on its Facebook page.

Lorem ipsum is dummy text used as a placeholder. It is derived from Latin, but not intended to be readable or convey anything relevant.

By the numbers: Evidence starting to show military confidence and recruitments rose after Trump win

Anecdotal evidence that Americans have more confidence in the military now that Donald Trump has been elected is being supported by data.

Must Read Alaska interviewed a young man from the Mat-Su Valley this week who said that he and two of his friends enlisted in the military right after Trump was elected. The young men, right out of high school, had been waiting to see what kind of American would be commander-in-chief before they made the decision to join. The Trump win gave them confidence America would be heading in the right direction and leadership would have their backs.

The three young Alaskans may be part of a greater trend in confidence in the military growing once again, after four years of decline. Those numbers won’t be known until the military releases its next recruitment report.

Indeed, American public’s opinion of the military is turning around, according to the annual defense survey from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

This year, confidence in the military grew from 46% last year to 51% immediately after Trump’s victory, according to the survey that went into the field immediately after the election on Nov. 5.

During the Biden Administration, the military has fallen short of its recruiting goals, although the Army improved slightly over 2023.

In 2023, for example, military recruitment it fell short by 41,000, with the Army, Navy, and Air Force all missing their targets. The Marine Corps and Space Force were the two branches that met their recruitment goals. The military started 2024 at a record low in military recruitment, and the smallest active duty force since 1940.

“Year after year, this survey shows continued, unwavering support for peace through strength,” said Roger Zakheim, Director of the Ronald Reagan Institute. “Trust and confidence in the military is rebounding after hitting a low in recent years, and Americans support increased defense spending to build a military able to deter and defeat adversaries in multiple theaters.”

The latest survey details American opinions on international engagement.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed, including 61% of Trump voters, believe the United States should be more engaged and take the lead on the world stage, a 15-point increase from last year, the institute found.

Other key takeaways from the Ronald Reagan Defense Institute survey include:

  • A supermajority of Americans wants the United States to spend more on national defense. Seventy-nine percent of respondents want the United States to spend more on the military, including nearly nine out of ten (89%) Trump voters.
  • Trust in the U.S. military is rebounding, with 51% of respondents reporting a great deal of confidence, up 5% from last year.
  • This number is still nearly 20 points lower than in 2018, when 70% of respondents reported high confidence in the
    military, during the Trump Administration.
  • A majority of respondents (61%) believe the United States military should be large enough to win two simultaneous wars at once.
  • Half of Americans (49%) believe China poses the greatest threat to the United States, and 25% believe Russia poses
    the greatest threat. Only 52% of respondents think the U.S. military would win a war against China, while 64% believe the United States would win a war against Russia.
  • Americans still favor sending military aid to Ukraine but want a negotiated end to the war. Fifty-five percent of Americans believe the United States should send weapons to Ukraine, a slight decline from recent years. There are major partisan
    differences on this issue, with 74% of Harris voters supporting sending aid and only 42% of Trump voters.
  • A bipartisan majority (59%) supports Ukraine negotiating for peace, even if it requires conceding some territory to Russia.
  • In the Middle East, freeing American hostages is a top priority.
  • A majority (61%) wants freeing Americans held hostage by Hamas to be a top priority in the Middle East.
  • A majority (54%) also supports the United States providing military aid to Israel, including 67% of Trump voters and 46% of Harris voters.

The survey was conducted Nov. 8-14 by Beach Research and Shaw & Company Research. The sample size was 2,510, including 1,008 telephone interviews and 1,502 online surveys. The Institute conducts a similar survey after every election to gauge public opinion on matters of national security.

There are still major hurdles to rebuilding the military. One of them is that only 23% of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 qualify physically, in part because a growing number of young people are sedentary, obese, and have associated health issues that make them unable to meet the physical fitness requirements.

Additionally, the population in general is shrinking and there are fewer young people than in the past, due to smaller families. Many young people now don’t know anyone in their immediate family who has served, which decreases their exposure to military life.

Dig deeper into the survey results at this Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute link.

According to the Army recent recruitment report for 2024, the branch met its regular Army recruitment goal for 2024, but missed badly in its recruitment for the Army Reserve:

Regular Army (RA):  55,150 (100.27% of 55,000 goal) 
Army Reserve (AR): 10,669 (72.8% of 14,650 goal)  

Special Operations Recruiting BN: 3,735 (77% of 4,851 mission)
Warrant Officers: 1,610 (99.5% of 1,618 mission)
Medical Mission: 1,376 (100.7% of 1,367 mission)
Chaplains: 286 (105.9% of 270 mission)

Demographics
Male:     RA  81.9%    AR 66.5[JR1] [JR2] % 
Female:     RA  18.1%    AR 33.5% 
Caucasian:     RA 40.5% AR 28.8% 
African American:     RA 25.8%    AR 28.6% 
Hispanic:     RA 26.1%    AR 32.1% 
Asian/Pacific Islander:     RA   6.6%   AR 9.9% 
Native American:     RA 1.0%    AR 0.6%

Dunleavy picks new Supreme Court justice, but leaves the announcement to the Judicial Council

Given three names to choose from by the Alaska Bar Association-controlled Alaska Judicial Commission, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has chosen Fairbanks attorney Aimee Anderson Oravec to be the next judge on the Alaska Supreme Court.

The Alaska Judicial Council, which screens the applicants and forwards the finalists to the governor, made the announcement on Facebook, but the governor himself has made no official statement or published his decision, which gives the appearance that he is distancing himself from the decision. He had 45 days to make a decision once he received the three names from the Judicial Council.

No men applied for the role. Oravec was one of seven women who applied to fill the seat of retiring member Chief Justice Peter Maassen, who faces mandatory retirement in 2025.

Oravec arrived in Alaska in 1999 and has practiced law in Fairbanks and Anchorage for over about 26 years, currently as the top attorney for Doyon Utilities.

Last week, the court chose Justice Susan Carney to serve as chief justice for the next three-year term. With Oravec joining the court, it will be a majority woman Supreme Court made up of Oravec, Carney, Jennifer Henderson, Dario Borghesan, and Jude Pate. Barring some unusual circumstance, Oravec will be Dunleavy’s last appointment to the Alaska Supreme Court, as none of the five face mandatory retirement for many years.

This is Dunleavy’s fourth appointment to the five-member court, but his and all governors’ options are always limited by the constitutional role of the Alaska Judicial Council, which is dominated by liberal lawyers of the Alaska Bar Association, a professional group. The stranglehold the ABA has on the process is the main reason why the Alaska Supreme Court leans left.

The Alaska Supreme Court justice who has served longest in this era is Chief Justice Maassen, who was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell in 2012.

Justice Carney, who will be the second female chief justice after Dana Fabe, who retired in 2016, is left-leaning. She is pro-abortion and she helped decide that the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend is just another appropriation by the Legislature, rather than an actual dividend for Alaskans to share in the oil wealth. She was appointed by Gov. Bill Walker, who was the governor who broke the Permanent Fund dividend formula and had that decision upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court.

Supreme Court weighs Tennessee’s state ban on chemo, surgical gender jerry-rigging of kids’ bodies

By KIM JARRETT | THE CENTER SQUARE

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday began weighing its role in determining whether a Tennessee law banning medication to treat gender dysphoria for minors violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

The court heard oral arguments on the law passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2023 and signed by Gov. Bill Lee. The state is one of at least 26 with similar restrictions or bans and the first to have litigation against it reach the nation’s highest court.

The high court is split 6-3 with conservatives in the majority.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and others argue the law violates the 14th Amendment. Tennessee law allows puberty blockers and hormone treatments for purposes other than treatment on minors.

The question before the court is what is its role, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

“If the constitution doesn’t take sides, if there’s strong, forceful, scientific policy arguments on both sides in a situation like this, why isn’t best to leave it to the democratic process?” Kavanaugh said.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden Administration, said she understood the state’s need to regulate and take into concerns about adolescent health.

“But when you look at how this law actually operates, what it is doing is denying individual plaintiffs the ability to access medications on the basis of their sex,” Prelogar said. “And that doesn’t mean that the states are disabled from taking into account the actual biological differences between males and females, but that has to be channeled to the highest scrutiny stage. And I think that there would be a real danger in this court saying, looking ahead essentially saying there might be benign justifications or we think states should have some ability in this regard to overlook the … sex classification in this statute.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said it should be up to the General Assembly.

“Tennessee’s General Assembly reviewed the medical evidence, as well as the evidence-based decisions of European countries that restricted these procedures, and ultimately passed this bipartisan law prohibiting irreversible medical interventions,” Skrmetti said in a statement after oral arguments ended. “The plaintiffs in this case are asking the court to take the power to regulate the practice of medicine away from the people’s elected representatives and vest it in unaccountable judges.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor struck back against claims by Tennessee Solicitor General Michael Rice that the law is not tied to sex and that the treatments could cause harm to minors.

“There is always going to be a percentage of the population under any medical treatment that is going to suffer harm,” Sotomayor said. “So the question in my mind is not do policymakers decide whether one person’s life is more valuable than the millions of others who get relief from this treatment, the question is can you stop one sex from the other.”

Justice Samuel Alito referred to the United Kingdom and Sweden, which have instituted bans on puberty blockers in some situations.

“I, of course acknowledge, Justice Alito, that there is a lot of debate happening here and abroad about the proper model of deliver of this care and exactly when adolescents should receive it and how to identify the adolescents for whom it would be helpful,” Prelogar said. “But I stand by that there is a consensus that these treatments can be medically necessary for some adolescents and that shouldn’t matter what source you look at.”

Prelogar said the court could issue a narrow ruling, pointing the court to a West Virginia law that bans gender-affirming care for minors unless there is a suicide risk.

The decision from the court is not expected before summer.