After a five-day trial, a Palmer jury found 72-year-old John Irwin Barton, a registered Democrat from Wasilla, guilty of one count of perjury and two counts of voter misconduct in the first degree for offenses relating to the 2022 Matanuska-Susitna Borough election.
During the trial, prosecutors showed Barton, who is a former art instructor at Mat-Su College, had gone to two different polling places during the election and requested and received ballots for the same election.
At both places, Barton signed that, under penalty of perjury, “I have not and will not vote in any other manner in this election.” Borough elections officials discovered that Barton had received two ballots in the same election and reported the incident to the Alaska State Troopers, wrote the Department of Law.
In another voter misconduct case, former Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage, who is charged with numerous counts of felony-level voter registration fraud relating to trying to get herself reelected, has had her trial postponed yet again until November, while Barton’s case was quickly moved ahead. After being postponed up to four times, LeDoux’s trial almost proceeded in July, but then was postponed again for another several months, without adequate explanation to the public, other than that the prosecution had some new evidence against her. LeDoux’s former legislative aide has already signed a plea agreement that includes being willing to testify against her.
Like Barton, LeDoux was also a Democrat, but she switched parties in order to run in a conservative district in Anchorage.
Meanwhile, justice for Barton has been apace and sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6, in Palmer in front of Superior Court Judge John Cagle, unless Barton appeals. He has been assigned a public defender. Barton faces a sentencing range of one to three years to serve on the perjury conviction and up to two years on each of the two voter misconduct convictions.
The Biden Administration and European allies have completed a prisoner swap with Russia, in which American and other journalists and political prisoners who have been held by Russia were exchanged for a Russian assassin and several spies who were held in different countries.
Under the deal, Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned since 2023 on espionage charges; he is perhaps the most famous of the prisoners because of the amount of attention reporters gave his imprisonment.
Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive who has been behind bars since 2018, was also part of the prisoner swap. Whelan is a Canadian-born former United States Marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian passports. He was discharged from the Marines in 2008 for bad conduct after being convicted of various counts related to larceny and he was arrested in Russia in December of 2018, where he was accused of being a spy.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is a columnist at The Washington Post, was part of the swap. He was detained in 2022 for criticizing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Also released was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, convicted in July of spreading lies about the Russian military. Ilya Yashin, a critic of Russia’s war on Ukraine, was another type of prisoner released.
Three of the released prisoners to the U.S. were U.S. citizens, while one has a green card.
When asked by journalists at the White House what he had to say to President Trump’s comments that he would have gotten the prisoners out without giving up anything, Biden responded, “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”
However, two of the three prisoners were not imprisoned when Trump was president. Only Whelan was jailed by Russia during the middle of the Trump Administration, a fact ignored by American reporters.
As for Russia, it got back prisoners from around Europe, including convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany in 2021 for killing someone in a Berlin park in 2019. The murder was supposedly ordered by the Kremlin and Krasikov was a priority return for Russia President Vladimir Putin.
Russia also got back spies that were imprisoned in Slovenia. Norway, and Poland, and computer hacker Roman Seleznev, the son of a powerful Russian lawmaker.
Algerian man Imane Khelif has beat Italy’s Angela Carini in a welterweight round of Olympic women’s boxing and will advance. It took just 46 seconds for Carini, of Naples, Italy, to give up the match after taking a couple of heavy blows to her head.
The International Olympics Committee has decided to allow men who have X and Y chromosomes to box women. On Friday, a male boxer from Taiwan will be pitted against a woman from Uzbekistan. Yu-Ting will box in the Women’s 57kg division on Aug. 2, 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. His opponent is Sitora Turdibekova, a woman.
After the less-than-a-minute match, Carini was clearly traumatized, and was seen crying in the boxing ring.
Khelif will fight again on Saturday against an as-of-yet undetermined opponent.
The Olympic women’s division boxing match that saw a man from Algeria make quick work of a match against a woman boxer from Italy on Thursday has received no reaction from either President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska has had no comment about the invasion of men into the boxing ring previously reserved for women.
But Donald Trump said today that if elected, he’ll work to ensure men don’t take over women’s sports. Elon Musk wrote “good” to that remark.
And Alaska congressional candidate Nick Begich wrote his reaction to the match as well: ” ‘Trans women’ are not women; they’re men all the way down to their DNA. No amount of clothing, hormone therapy, or body modification will ever change that biological fact. These people need to stay out of women’s sports.”
The man who put two punches into the face of the Italian boxer has XY male chromosomes, but the Olympic International Committee has allowed men such as him to box against world-class amateur women boxers.
“I am heartbroken,” Carini told reporters. “I went to the ring to honor my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior, but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.”
Enough of the gender insanity and the pandering to avoid hurting someone’s precious feelings.
The Olympics just allowed a biological man, Imane Khelif, to pummel Italian Olympian Angela Carini.
She lasted 46 seconds because to how painful it was:
The next match that pits an actual man against a woman athlete at the Olympics in Paris will be on Friday, when a Taiwanese male boxer will take on a female boxer from Uzbekistan.
A side group backing Rep. Mary Peltola that calls itself “Vote Alaska Before Party” is coming out of the closet: It’s all Democrats.
The group reveals a much bigger expenditure than the last report to the Federal Elections Commission leading up to the primary. To date, the group, headed by Alaska Democrat operative Jim Lottsfeldt, will now spend almost $834,000 opposing Nick Begich, Nancy Dahlstrom, and Gerald Heikes — all before the Aug. 20 primary.
The filing at the Federal Elections Commission shows the Peltola campaign is in more trouble than the campaign earlier predicted, because this filing shows that money has been pulled forward in time. It was money the group intended to spend after the primary.
“Vote Alaska Before Party” is a front group for the Democratic National Campaign Committee. The House “Majority PAC,” which is for Democrats, is its largest funder. The year-to-date expenditures of $834,000 is a lot of money to spend in the Alaska media market, which is small compared to almost all other states.
The group doing the work for “Vote Alaska Before Party” is Waterfront Strategies, which is a group with links to George Soros.
According to Influence Watch, Waterfront Strategies is an advertising purchasing firm formed by principals of the powerhouse Democratic political consulting firm Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, and Burns (GMMB Consulting). Waterfront typically works in conjunction with GMMB, placing media buys for political action committees (PACs), while GMMB works directly for political candidates and committees.
Jim Margolis was a top campaign consultant for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“Since its first election cycle on record in 2012, Waterfront Strategies has become the top vendor for Democratic PACs, labor unions, and left-of-center nonprofits, spending $206,003,697 in the 2018 election cycle. 1Senate Majority PAC, House Majority PAC, Women Vote!,League of Conservation Voters, NextGen Climate Action, and the government worker labor union AFSCME are among Waterfront Strategies’ top clients,” the watchdog group says.
A nonprofit that represents landowners on the south Anchorage hillside won a $200,000 grant from the Alaska Legislature to use for fire mitigation work in the area of town most prone to wildfire. It’s also an area of town that provides massive amounts of property taxes to the municipality, all of which could be erased if fire swept through the area.
HALO, the Hillside Home and Landowners Organization, had received the grant through the Municipality of Anchorage, which serves as the fiduciary middleman.
But at Tuesday night’s meeting, it became clear that several on the Assembly are hostile toward HALO, and so voted to postpone releasing the money.
After the city scrapes its 10% fee, HALO would actually only get $180,000 to coordinate activities with volunteers, nonprofit groups, veterans groups, contractors, and the Anchorage Fire Department to make the area safer.
One of the projects involves taking down fallen trees across a trail that children use to get to school, providing better access for the children and removing some of the possible dry fuel for wildfires. The wood would be bucked up into burnable lengths for use by homeowners who use wood for heat. That and other projects are being coordinated with the Anchorage Fire Department.
The $180,000 is one of the most modest grants the Anchorage Assembly usually approves. But Assemblyman Daniel Volland said it’s “a lot of money.” He doesn’t really “get” HALO or he doesn’t like the group, so he doesn’t want it to get the state grant.
“To me they sort of function as a collective community council, maybe community council+ that represents several of the LSRAs [limited road service areas] in South Anchorage. … It’s a lot of money, $180,000 and I guess my main question is why wouldn’t the money not be going to the fire department for elsewhere in the municipality to execute and steward the projects, but working with HALO in consultation,” Volland said, suggesting that the municipality steal the grant from the nonprofit.
Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel said that HALO should not be in the fire mitigation business, anyway. If it’s a new line of business, she just didn’t know about it.
“I really don’t get the intersection with HALO. I’m actually not comfortable with it,” Zaletel said, adding she would be a no vote.
HALO has been working for at least four years on wildfire mitigation issues and planning, especially after some large wildfires broke out in Anchorage in 2019.
In the end, the Assembly majority delayed awarding the pass-through grant from the State at least until the next meeting in mid-August, creating another two-week delay for HALO, which may result in not being able to get the work it has planned done this summer. Summers are typically shorter on the hillside and the delay may ultimately mean the group ends up forfeiting the grant if the Anchorage Assembly digs in its heels.
Although this is a State grant to a nonprofit in Anchorage, with the Municipality as the pass-through, the comments from Volland, Zaletel, and Assembly Chairman Chris Constant indicated that since the grant is to a group they consider represents a wealthier segment of the city, the Anchorage Assembly going to be obstructionist.
The Assembly routinely awards grants to nonprofits in much greater amounts, but Assemblyman Constant said it doesn’t typically direct money to community councils.
Yet HALO is a nonprofit, not a community council. On its own, it applied for, and won the award from the State; funding was shepherded by Rep. Julie Coulombe and Sen. James Kaufman, who both represent the area.
At no time during the Assembly discussion did Mayor Suzanne LaFrance ask to be heard in order to either defend the grant or point out why it should not be awarded. Her city manager Bill Falsey was unhelpful and the Anchorage Fire Chief Doug Schrage dodged the question about whether he was supportive of the grant.
The entire section of the meeting devoted to denying HALO the state grant it was duly awarded can be seen here:
As President Joe Biden winds down his term in office, irreversible decisions may come fast and furious. On Wednesday, the Department of Defense cut deals with the three top terrorists who were behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, an event seared into the memories of many.
Three of the terrorists are being held at a U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, on the coast of Cuba. They are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused principal mastermind of the al Qaeda attacks, along with two alleged co-conspirators: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi. The three terrorists will be spared from the death penalty, according to the deal made by the Biden Administration.
The Office of Military Commissions is prosecuting the case against men involved in the worst terrorist attack on the United States in its history.
In exchange for removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three Accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” said a letter signed by chief prosecutor Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh.
The Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, has entered into pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case. The specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.
“The three accused, along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, were initially charged jointly and arraigned on June 5, 2008, and then were again charged jointly and arraigned a second time on May 5, 2012, in connection with their alleged roles in the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States,” the Biden Administration said.
Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska endorsed Joe Biden’s reelection but has remained silent on Kamala Harris, who was part of a Democrat Party coup that overthrew Biden from the ticket and installed Harris as the presumptive nominee.
Biden has largely disappeared from public life since he announced he will not be the Democrats’ nominee. Harris has taken over much of the media frenzy, as the mainstream media reporters prop up her campaign for president with round-the-clock coverage. Harris, a former San Francisco prosecutor, has a long record of being soft on crime, advocating for defunding the police, and being timid when it came to tough cases brought before her.
A federal appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration can’t implement its Title IX rules in an additional four states, bringing the total number of statewide injunctions to 26.
With a recent block awarded in Oklahoma on Wednesday and then an emergency appeal granted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, over half of the United States will be exempt from the Thursday deadline.
The new Biden administration rules add gender identity to prohibitions on sexual discrimination in Title IX, including requiring schools to allow students to use a bathroom and locker room that aligns with their gender identity.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are the latest states where the Department of Education cannot implement the updated rules that expanded federal sex discrimination protections to cover gender identity and pregnancy.
“The Department is enjoined from enforcing the final rule adopted on April 29, 2024, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance…pending further order of this Court,” the court’s order reads.
The other 21 states where the Biden administration has been prohibited from implementing its rule expanding the definition of sex discrimination to include gender are Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
After the rule’s final implementation in April, the Biden administration was challenged by a spate of lawsuits from states, organizations and individuals arguing the rule was unconstitutional.
In the case led by Alabama, a lower court ruled against issuing a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, leading the coalition of states and organizations to file an appeal late into the evening. They asked the appellate court to issue an emergency block on the rule, citing its effects on students and schools.
“The Title IX rule not only immediately jeopardizes the rights and safety of students,” the request for an injunction reads. “But it also requires schools to digest the rest of the 423-page rule, update their policies, retrain their employees, figure out how to reconcile contrary state laws, and more. And the rule’s effective date is hours away.”
Two men boxers who were disqualified from competing with women at a global boxing event last year after a chromosome test showed they were men, are about to fight women at the Paris Olympics in the women’s division.
Footage of boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria, who was banned from the Women’s World Box Championships in 2023, and Lin You-Ting, of Taiwan also disqualified in 2023 because he has both X and Y chromosomes, are being allowed to fight women boxers.
Khelif will box Italy’s Angela Carini in the Women’s Welterweight 66kg division on Aug. 1 at 6:20 a.m. Eastern time.
Yu-Ting will box in the Women’s 57kg division on Aug. 2, 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. His opponent is Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova, a woman.
The International Olympic Committee decided both men can participate, on the grounds that they have fulfilled eligibility have female passports.
A video of Khelif in a match with a Mexican boxer has been making the rounds on X/Twitter. In it, it’s clear the Mexican woman boxer is severely outmatched:
?Beating women is now a spectator sport
We have never been more aware as a society of male violence against women
— Katherine Deves Morgan ??? (@deves_katherine) July 30, 2024
Some have made it clear that Khelif is not exactly transgender but is intersex, having both male and female traits present from birth, a very rare condition. Khelif has competed in women’s events but last year was excluded from the World Boxing Championship due to having both X and Y chromosomes, which makes him male. Khelif was allowed to box as a woman in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 because the testing of his hormones met the parameters set by the International Olympics Committee. Yu-Ting is also intersex, according to some accounts, but is a biological male.
