Sunday, May 10, 2026
Home Blog Page 325

Mary Peltola’s embrace of transgender politics draws national attention as she faces voters

23

Rep. Mary Peltola, unlike her successor, is still not sure what a woman actually is. Her hesitancy about protecting women and girls has now gained the attention of national media. Peltola was featured in a story at the Daily Wire, which has a readership of hundreds of thousands per day.

“When Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola ran for Congress in 2022, she danced around addressing whether trans-identifying men should be allowed in women’s sports. Fairness is important, she indicated, but she needed to learn more,” the Daily Wire wrote in a report this week.

“I need to better acquaint myself with this issue, which I believe is more complicated than some make it out to be,” Peltola told the Anchorage Daily News in August 2022. “My starting point is that sports should be fair for all students, and we must protect the rights of all students – especially those that are already subject to significant discrimination. I look forward to learning more, and focusing on the many other pressing challenges the U.S. Congress is facing.”

As Peltola faces reelection in November and a strong challenge from Republican Nick Begich, she will likely shy away from her previous social media posts in October that support LGBTQ History Month. But some publications are not allowing her to distance herself from her voting record.

The Daily Wire points to Must Read Alaska’s story about Peltola’s vote in April of 2023 against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023” — legislation prohibiting school athletic programs from allowing boys who identify as girls to play in girls’ sports. The bill, which passed the House of Republicans, would have made it a violation of Title IX for federally-funded education programs to allow men in women’s athletic programs.

The national website quotes Kenai’s Cindy Glassmaker, a mother of three daughters who are involved in school sports: “Alaskans are outraged by Rep. Mary Peltola’s misguided championing of the radical transgender agenda. Peltola’s stance is a slap in the face to every female athlete. We’re not buying this woke nonsense that cancels women’s sports and hands women’s hard-earned rights to biological men.”

Read the Daily Wire story about Peltola’s gender confusion at this link.

“When Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace put forward an amendment to that same legislation, which would have required a study on the effect that men participating in women’s sports has on women, Peltola voted against it,” the Daily Wire wrote.

Peltola then signed on as a co-sponsor of the radical “Equality Act,” to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prevent “discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation,” The bill would allow confused people who identify as another gender into any locker room of their choice.

“The Equality Act would specifically require public women’s facilities, such as women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and shelters, to admit men who identify as transgender women. Critics have pointed out that women who are trying to escape violent men and seek refuge in shelters would then be forced to share living spaces with men who identify as women,” Daily Wire wrote.

“As ‘Must Read Alaska reported at the time, the bill would apply to institutions like Anchorage’s Downtown Hope Center, a faith-based cold-weather shelter where women can seek refuge during the night,” the report said.

She has also come out in support of puberty blockers, which are castrating chemicals that are now being given to children who don’t want to go through puberty for any number of reasons.

“Peltola’s positions may put her out of step with her home state. The Alaska Board of Education voted in August 2023 to block boys who identify as girls from playing on girls’ athletic teams. And the Alaska House of Representatives passed a law in May 2024 banning boys from playing in girls’ sports. The bill then went to the State Senate, where it is expected to die, but the House Republicans who voted for the bill told Alaska Public Media that they were prioritizing the issue at the request of their constituents,” the report continued.

Liberty Broadband, owner of GCI, is in talks to merge with Charter Communications

14

On Tuesday, shares of Liberty Broadband spiked $17 (+28.39%) after the communications company that owns Alaska’s GCI made a counteroffer to Charter Communications’ merger proposal. The shares closed at $76.87 on Tuesday.

The counter offer would give Liberty Broadband investors .29 Charter shares for each share of Liberty they own.

Charter shares moved lower, losing 8.26 (-2.49%), and closing at $323.36.

Liberty currently owns a 26% stake in Charter, which is an internet, mobile phone, and cable provider headquartered in Connecticut.

GCI was Alaska’s first technology startup, beginning in 1979 out of an apartment in Anchorage by company founders Ron Duncan and Bob Walp, who started by rebranding phone cards and ultimately created create a long-distance phone service provider that gave Alaskans more affordable options to communicate across the country.

At that time GCI started, long-distance phone calls cost Alaskans $1 per minute. But after GCI pioneered DAMA satellite communication to deliver in-state long distance, and introduced competitive facilities-based local phone service, costs came down dramatically.

GCI now employs 2,000 Alaskans. It merged with Liberty Broadband in 2020.

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

15

A Canadian public broadcasting station has obtained and released an image said to be the UFO, or unidentified object, shot down by the United States Air Force over Canada’s Yukon Territory on Feb. 11, 2023, during a period when at least one China spy balloon was floating over the United States.

CTVNews.ca. obtained the image by filing a Canadian freedom of information request.

“Heavily redacted documents show how the image was approved for public distribution within days of the headline-grabbing incident, but then held back after a public affairs official expressed concerns that releasing it ‘may create more questions/confusion,'” the station said.

Released through a Canadian freedom of information request, the grainy image appears to be a photocopy of an email printout.

At the time the unidentified object was spotted, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scrambled Canadian jets, and U.S. jets were also scrambled from Alaska, with the U.S. jet succeeding in hitting the object.

“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” Trudeau wrote on Twitter on Feb. 11, 2023. “I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”

“At the time, officials described the Yukon object as a ‘suspected balloon’ that was ‘cylindrical’ in shape. A reported Pentagon memo said it appeared to be a ‘small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,’ the station reported.

“Released as part of the freedom of information request package, an email from a Canadian brigadier-general offered what they described as the ‘best description that we have’ of the Yukon object,” the station said. “Visual – a cylindrical object,” the brigadier-general wrote in a Feb. 11, 2023, email. “Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended from it.”

Fox News says some have concerns about new Arctic ambassador’s ties to Russia, China

23

When the Biden administration nominated Michael Sfraga to be special ambassador to the Arctic, he failed to disclose his deep history with Russia and China, Fox News wrote in a news story.

The Senate voted on Alaskan Michael Sfraga’s confirmation Tuesday, after Sen. Lisa Murkowski continued to push for his confirmation, but with the objection of many Republicans who are worried about his ties to China and Russia, where he has traveled and spoken extensively at conferences over the years.

Sfraga’s nomination by President Joe Biden had been pending for more than a year, while Sen. Murkowski worked hard to get it on the floor. The chairman of the Polar Institute and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, Sfraga is now in charge of leading diplomatic relations between the eight Arctic nations of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. Each of those countries also has its own U.S. ambassador, and Sfraga is an ambassador at large.

 Ambassadors at Large to deal with specific foreign policy issues, rather than nation-to-nation relations.

But his ties to Russia and China led Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to write a letter in 2023 asking the FBI for help in vetting Sfraga, Fox News Digital wrote.

Sfraga “negotiated joint partnerships with Chinese academic institutions tied to defense and intelligence services and spoke glowingly about the two U.S. adversaries in interviews for different publications – all of which he failed to reveal until confronted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff.”  

According to Fox, Sfraga had to update his disclosures three times, claiming he had forgotten to mention his record of trips and collaboration with Chinese and Russian leaders.

Risch had placed a hold on Sfraga’s nomination for months, which prompted Republican infighting, the news story said.

“Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R–Alaska, recommended Sfraga to the Biden administration, and she defended him to the committee. ‘If there is any challenge that you have as a committee, it’s that his expertise in the Arctic is so voluminous,’ she said. ‘It takes a while to wade through all of it.;”

Sfraga was also at the center of creating memorandums of understanding for partnerships between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has been designated a “high threat” due to its high-level defense research and alleged ties to cyberattacks, Fox wrote.

That partnership included access to UAF’s computers, as well as policy and legal reviews on any Arctic region subject, in addition to research and exchange programs, the news story says.

Read the full report at this link.

Although Murkowski pushed hard for his confirmation by the Senate and was overjoyed at the result of Democrats voting for her choice of Arctic ambassador, Sen. Dan Sullivan was in New York City during the vote and thus did not cast a ballot, as he was serving as the Republican representative to the United Nations.

It’s uncertain that Sfraga will remain as ambassador under a Trump Administration, as Murkowski has no pull with her deep adversary, Donald Trump.

Another Anchorage pedestrian jaywalking collision makes 13 in one year, equaling state record

45

While the Anchorage Assembly leftist majority skirts responsibility for its liberal jaywalking ordinance, which went into effect last October, yet another death has occurred on Anchorage streets.

On Tuesday at 3:48 p.m., Anchorage police responded to the area of West Benson Blvd. and Dawson Street for reports of a pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle. That makes three such hits in a week in Anchorage.

Initial indications are that an adult female was crossing Benson Blvd. near Dawson Street when she was struck by a GMC Sierra travelling eastbound on Benson Blvd.

The woman was transported to a local hospital by fire department medics for what were described as life-threatening injuries.

No charges have been filed at this time, police said.

The accident occurred an hour after some Assembly members had a press conference to explain how they will try to get speed limits lowered around Anchorage and install more street lighting in Anchorage to avoid the increase in vehicle-caused deaths of pedestrians.

However, as with many of the other deaths, the accident occurred during the daytime when additional street lighting would have not helped visibility. Benson is one of the busiest streets in Anchorage.

Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel said she was outraged at the lack of outrage in the city over the pedestrian deaths.

“That means in the municipality alone, we are on track to surpass the statewide record for pedestrian deaths, which was 13 in 2022,” Zaletel said. Two hours later that 13th death occurred.

“I am outraged at the lack of outrage in this community,” she said, not taking responsibility for the ordinance that has encourage pedestrians to walk into the roadways, with many drivers reporting numerous close calls with pedestrians who seem to want to tempt fate by making unsafe crossings.

University of Alaska Fairbanks alumnus confirmed as first-ever Arctic Affairs ambassador-at-large

17

Dr. Mike Sfraga, a geographer and University of Alaska Fairbanks alumnus, was confirmed as the United States’ first-ever Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs. Dr. Sfraga’s appointment was championed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who wrote on X earlier today stressing the importance of his confirmation.

Sfraga has held key leadership roles at University of Alaska, including vice chancellor at UAF and associate vice president. He is the founding director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center. He previously served as chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. His decades of experience and expertise in Arctic policy, climate change, and international relations continue to shape critical discussions on the region’s future, the universe.

“Finally, we have officially joined the rest of the Arctic nations at the table after the Senate confirmed the United States’ first Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs. The need for this leadership in the Arctic has become even more urgent as we saw last night the fifth publicly reported incursion by Russian military aircraft in Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone in the last two weeks,” said Sen. Murkowski. “Our new Ambassador will not only help America push back against our adversaries heightened aggression in the Arctic, but will be a critical resource in advocating for economic expansion in this increasingly vital region, committing to do everything in his power to protect American economic and security interests in the Arctic. I congratulate Dr. Michael Sfraga on his confirmation and look forward to the progress he will usher in.”

Environmental protesters to swarm Fairbanks Borough Assembly meeting on Thursday

76

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly meeting on Thursday already has a full agenda, but it just got more complicated. Two environmental action groups are coordinating to bring in a room full of protesters to stage what may be, in fact, a sit-in at the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.

Assembly Presiding Officer Savannah Fletcher may have had advance notice of the protest, because she had already reserved a back-up meeting to finish Thursday’s agenda items, should this meeting be disrupted.

The group Alaskans for Safe Alaska Highways shared a notice that Save Our Domes and Northern Alaska Environmental Center, both of which are opposed to mining in the Interior, are planning to arrive en masse. The groups plan to take over the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, and encouraged others to join them to crowd the room. “[W]e would we would love to have additional support sitting in the Borough chambers with us.”

The borough assembly meeting takes place in the Assembly Chambers, 907 Terminal Street.

The two groups are trying to stop the Manh Chou and Kinross mine projects. They’ve done this in the past, with protests against the Ambler Road. They’ve traveled to Anchorage to protest and brought north protesters from Anchorage to beef up to their numbers. When the group launches an action, it often comes with plenty of signs and banners for media attention.

“Industrial hard rock mining in the Interior is rapidly coming online and many people in the community feel this is incompatible with the areas in which we live and recreate,” the groups said in their notice. “Many of these projects propose to use our public roads to truck mining ore to Ft. Knox, similar to the Manh Choh operation, for years to come.”

The Northern Environmental Center is mostly funded by interest earned from the Glenmede Endowment Fund, which is a $1.5 million environmental-focused endowment that allows the group to lobby, train, and advocate without having to scrape for other funding.

“If the potential outcome wasn’t so harmful to the state of Alaska’s employment and energy future, Thursday’s ENGO actions would be comical. These are the same people who use items made from mined materials and petroleum products in every facet of their lives. They whine about responsible development in Alaska, but dismiss that the alternative to domestic development is empowering Communist China, Russia, OPEC nations and despot dictators who hate everything the U.S. stands for,” said Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director for Power The Future. “Maybe they don’t care about U.S. energy security? Maybe they secretly love the CCP? Their actions show just how out of touch they are with the clear majority of Alaskans.”

In October, the Northern Environmental Center will cohost Antifa-style training for “activists and organizers of all levels and experience.” The two-day non-violent direct action and arts workshop is Oct. 5-6, with trainers from across the state will provide information on the “philosophies of direct action, give tactics and tools to help you start or further develop your campaign, and guide campaign and art development, leading to the positive change we want to see in our communities!”

Sen. Dan Sullivan says Biden fumbled the ball during speech to United Nations by droning on about climate change, not calling out Iran for terrorism

18

In New York City, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan has been meeting with a group of Jewish and foreign leaders at the United Nations, where President Joe Biden delivered his last major foreign policy speech on Tuesday. Sullivan is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and is the Republican representative this week to the United Nations.

Sullivan wrote in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend that this speech was Biden’s opportunity to correct his course of weakness against global despots who are sowing chaos around the world.

“It’s hard to deny that the world is more dangerous today than when he became president. There are many reasons for this, but the single most important course correction Mr. Biden could make is on his Middle East policy,” Sullivan said in the newspaper this weekend. His column is behind the Wall Street Journal paywall at this link.

“In his speech he should call on the U.N. to condemn and impose sanctions on the Iranian terrorist regime for acting as the architect of chaos throughout the Middle East and Ukraine,” Sullivan wrote.

Biden should also denounce the antisemitism that has pervaded the United Nations for decades and call out the organization for insufficiently condemning Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis, Sullivan wrote. The president should demand that the U.N. declare Iran-backed Hamas a terrorist organization and said Biden needs to denounce the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, some of whose employees participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Sullivan said.

Biden did not meet those expectations as he spoke to the hall filled with presidents, premieres, dictators, and despots from around the world. Notably, the leaders of China, North Korea, and Russia did not attend the meeting. Iran’s president did.

Instead, Biden used his time at the podium to deliver his swan song and defend his record. You can watch his speech on the White House Facebook page at this link.

Biden started by defending the Biden-Harris Administration’s disastrous execution of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying, “It was a hard decision, but the right decision. Four American presidents had faced that, but I was determined not to leave it to the fifth. I entered office determined to rebuild my country’s Alliance and partnerships to a level not previously seen.”

Thirteen U.S. military men and women died in that chaotic withdrawal. The August, 2021 attack on American forces was the deadliest for the country in over 10 years and took place days before the Biden-Harris Administration had planned a full withdrawal from the country, which Biden had allowed to be overtaken by the Taliban. The entire operation was an embarrassment to the country and made Biden appear to be weak and inept in his first year as president.

Biden, now nearly 82, then promised the U.N. that America will continue to support Ukraine as it fights against Russian aggression. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt destroy Ukraine and NATO failed.

“He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free. He set out to weaken NATO, but NATO is bigger, stronger, more united than ever before.” Biden said.

The outgoing president said Israel has the right to defend itself.

“Any country, any country, would have the right responsibility to ensure that such an attack could never happen again,” Biden said, a reference to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.

Biden noted that innocent civilians in Gaza are also “going through hell.”

“Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowded in a tent, facing a dire situation. They didn’t ask for this war,” he said, adding that he is “determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region.” He called on Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire, as introduced by his Administration last May.

Biden returned to the theme of climate change repeatedly during his speech.

Biden’s speech was followed on Tuesday by a speech from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran is an international exporter of terrorism and recently was implicated in a cyber attack on former President Donald Trump’s campaign computers, and has supported assassination attempts against Trump.

After the Biden speech ended Sullivan discussed his reaction of Fox News. He said Biden mentioned Iran just twice and climate change six times and showed the exact weakness that has fueled chaos across the globe.

“If that’s not indicative of the misguided policy priorities of the Biden-Harris administration, I don’t know what is,” Sullivan said.

Listen to Sullivan’s reaction in this 7-minute clip of the Faulkner Focus on Fox News:

Muldoon mayhem: Officer shot but expected to survive, standoff suspect taken in unharmed

12

On Monday morning, Anchorage police responded to a reported shooting in a vehicle near Creekside Park at 7122 E. 6th Ave. Two people, a man and a woman, were found with at least one gunshot wound each to their upper body and were taken to the hospital.

Then it got even more interesting. Local schools went into stay-put mode as police searched for the gunman, who was located in the 700-block of Muldoon Road. The man shot at police, and an officer was struck by a bullet in his leg. He was taken to a local hospital and is expected to survive.

For a time, access to Muldoon Elementary School was limited as police blocked the roadway on 6th. Also impacted by the stay-put orders were Bartlett High School and Creekside Elementary. Police staged around the mobile home park and fired nonlethal projectiles at the mobile home where the man was barricaded. A large police presence was augmented by firefighters and medics, as well as an Alaska State Troopers helicopter and drones.

The Anchorage School District reached out to parents on Tuesday and reassured them that it was safe to send their children to schools in the area of the shooting.

Unlike the situation in North Pole last week, where administrators would not allow a parent to pick up his child during a tense conflict of unknown importance somewhere else on the campus of North Pole High School, the Anchorage Police updated the community repeatedly throughout the situation through postings on Facebook.

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance did not offer an immediate public apology to the officer’s family for his sacrifice in the line of duty, unlike in August, when immediately after an officer-involved shooting, LaFrance apologized to the family of the deceased individual, a teenager who had been witnessed threatening people with a knife. LaFrance then said the shooting of the menacing individual should not have happened and said she would launch an investigation into the police.

LaFrance and the Anchorage Assembly’s liberal majority have been highly critical of police in Anchorage for using lethal force to stop violent criminals, which have become an increasing problem in Anchorage.

It is unclear if the pressure from the Anchorage Assembly and the mayor led to the use of less-lethal response in this incident, which may have then led to the officer being shot.