For years, leftwing media and social media accounts have repeated a lie, that former President Donald Trump said that there were sone “very fine people” who were neo-Nazis and white supremacists at a Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. Some leftist commentators at Must Read Alaska have even made the allegation.
Snopes, a leftist fact-checking website, has declared the rumor false.
“Trump did say there were ‘very fine people on both sides,’ referring to the protesters and the counterprotesters. He said in the same statement he wasn’t talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who he said should be ‘condemned totally,'” Snopes wrote.
The fake Trump’s comments, Snopes said, “spread like wildfire” and were repeated by President Joe Biden in his 2020 campaign.
There is an old saying after an election: “the voters have spoken…and now they must be punished.”
Let’s hope for our neighbors in Anchorage that such a crack doesn’t hold water. The largest city in Alaska rejected balance in its municipal government, opening up City Hall to the fawning supporters of a tax hungry, government creeping assembly majority. So, what urgent matters will Suzanne LaFrance, the incoming Mayor, expect to consider once in office?
For one, bathrooms.
This is not a joke. Indeed, the issue of public sanitation is important, a foundational role of government. However, like most matters that come before our city leaders, the proposed path on almost anything is San Fransisco and Portland rather than Southcentral Alaska.
The same voters who elevated LaFrance to the mayoralty, and passed a slew of bond proposals, made it a decided point to vote down a proposal to fund up to $5 million for modular public bathrooms in the municipality. This wasn’t even close. Nearly two-thirds of the residents who bothered to vote made it a point to say No! to the Anchorage Assembly’s “Portland Loo-style” bathrooms.
If elections have consequences, and the people have spoken (pretty loudly), why is this subject in front of your reading eyes again?
For one, with this Assembly, nothing is settled. Case in point: the alcohol tax. In 2019, a measure to tax beers, ciders, wines, cocktails, and liquor purchases for homeless services was decimated by voters at the ballot box. The reaction from the tax’s supporters at that time, including now-disgraced former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, was to blame misinformation and the alcohol industry’s peddling (never mind the tax had been rejected numerous times over 20 years).
The very next year, in the middle of the Covid lockdowns imposed by Berkowitz and the Assembly, the tax was put back on the ballot, and narrowly passed after some cosmetic changes to where the funds would go. Berkowitz is now gone, but his enablers on the Assembly are largely here, and Anchorage residents are paying taxes they had previously rejected.
That brings us back to bathrooms. A recent story in the newspaper, which retains its perch as the megaphone for the swift set on the left in power, disclosed that a nearly $50,000-dollar contract was issued to survey Anchorage residents on what kind of public toilets they would want.
But the mask slipped a bit on next steps, when an Assembly member was quoted that the incoming mayoral administration would be more supportive of getting funding for this initiative.
The translation is clear: Voters said no to paying for modular public toilets at this time, but no worries, city hall will help us come up with the moneys for this. No further permission needed. And why is it not needed? Because the voters elected a mayor with the powers to do so. So, the voters who said no actually also said yes.
Confused yet?
But it is the second, and bigger issue, that the Anchorage area’s supposed paper of record let the town down.
At no point in the article was one quote found from a public figure, group, or someone who could explain why one of the largest voting margins in the past election went the way it did. That is a disservice on many levels.
The same Assembly member quoted in the Anchorage paper said the big issue seemed to be messaging. Apparently, it was the name “Portland Loo-style,” that sunk the attempt to provide relief to folks on trails and streets. Like the former mayor, it was misinformation and labeling, not the merits apparently.
Anchorage should have an honest discussion about this. Supporters of the bathroom initiative may find out that a lot of folks who voted “No” are in fact sympathetic to the need for clean places to do what all humans must. The Municipality has a world-class trail system, and an active community of runners, cyclists, hikers, photographers, and countless sporting events. The demand is definitely there.
But that is not the issue. And the fact that the big issue is not being discussed, even mentioned in the article, makes it an even bigger issue.
Ask an average person if they will walk on the Coastal Trail with their family, they may very well say yes. Ask them if they will go to Cuddy Park, and the answer will likely be the complete opposite. Is it a coincidence that massive homeless populations make people feel unsafe, and not want their loved ones near the area?
Ask those same average Anchorageites who they think will be the most-frequent users of publicly funded, unattended, modular toilets, and then ask if they are comfortable with their family using them afterwards.
Being concerned about subsidizing closed spaces that can be abused with drug use or other harmful actions, destroying public property, and making it essentially unsafe or unusable for law-abiding members of the public is the issue. It doesn’t take a five-figure survey to understand the discontent. The people of Anchorage are reasonable, charitable Americans. That isn’t an opinion: look at disclosures of donations to charities and the purple voting record of the city. Treating them like adults, and for once listening, and not attempting to ram something down their throats, is not only politically expedient; it is the respectful thing a civil society’s leaders do.
There is still a window for the incoming mayor to defy the aphorism, and not impose suffering on a voting public that asked for balance. Please madam Mayor, do not erase the chance to have balance. Above all, please treat the public with the respect that it showed when voting for you but against specific measures. Today, it is public restrooms. But trust crosses all policy issues. Start building it.
Suzanne Downing is the founder of Must Read Alaska and serves as editor.
Rep. Mary Peltola has been holding “meet and greet” campaign events all over the state, and she is boldly advertising free drinks at all of them. In Fairbanks last week, her campaign headquarters in the center of town posted a sign that read, “FREE BEER!”
A sign a couple of blocks away directs people to the free beer at Mary Peltola’s campaign headquarters.
Peltola’s campaign headquarters is at 514 2nd Ave., just a couple of blocks from where inebriated Alaskans line the sidewalks of downtown Fairbanks and huddle in the doorways of businesses as tourists walk by.
Peltola’s region of Western Alaska is largely dry, with most outlying communities banning alcohol importation and sales, due to the troubles with addiction in Alaska Native communities.
In her hometown of Kwethluk, students marched for sobriety in 2016, to raise awareness about the scourge of alcohol in Alaska Native villages. Their banner said, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
It’s one thing to offer “beverages,” which many event organizers do. But it’s another thing to boldly advertise free alcohol. Some have suggested that what she has done is illegal, citing AS 04.16. 015 which states that offering or delivering, as a marketing device to the general public, free or complimentary drinks, is illegal under AS 04.16. 015.
Nick Begich, running for Congress against Peltola, called her out on social media by saying, “When you can’t run on your record, you’re left with just one option…”
Peltola, however, has played fast and loose with the law. Earlier this year, she had a campaign event at a public school in North Pole during school hours, something that is strictly forbidden by law.
Just last year Tyler Cherry was named communication director for the Department of Interior. But he has just been promoted to associate communications director for the Biden-Harris White House.
Cherry has the usual resume for a Democrat communications director: He was director of rapid response (Twitter warrior) for the Biden-Harris Arizona coordinated campaign in 2020. Before joining the Biden campaign, Cherry was director of public affairs at a Democrat political consulting firm, where he executed strategic communications plans for political campaigns.
He previously worked at the ultra-left Media Matters for America as a campaign associate and researcher. He graduated from UCLA with degree in political science and minors in civic engagement and gender studies.
Cherry lives in Washington, D.C. “with his partner and two exuberant cats,” his biographical description reads at the Department of Interior.
But beyond that, he brings a lot more to the White House in the way of extremist views:
He identifies as nonbinary, while most records at the government refer to him as male.
He has called for defunding police.
“Praying for #Baltimore, but praying even harder for an end to a capitalistic police state motivated by explicit and implicit racial biases,” Cherry wrote in 2015 during race riots.
He compared police to slave patrols.
“Apt time to recall that the modern day police system is a direct evolution of slave patrols and lynch mobs,” he wrote later.
He supports the radical and lawless Black Lives Matter organization.
He opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.)
He refers to Hamas extremists as “resistance.”
He opposes Israel.
Cherry is part of a “queer DJ collective” that pushes LGBTQ politics in DC nightclubs.
The pick of Cherry is curious due to the high profile of the White House and its activities during an election year, particularly one in which President Biden is losing in the polls, and is exhibiting signs of senility.
Rep. Mary Peltola has disputed that characterization of senility, saying Biden is one of the sharpest people she has met in D.C.
Read the story about his radical history at FoxNews.com
For decades, Anchorage residents and local government have discussed the idea of a sales tax to alleviate property taxes. As the cost of living has escalated and property taxes have continued to rise, I have publicly supported a sales tax—but only if it provided dollar-for-dollar relief of property taxes. The most recent sales tax proposal, Project Anchorage, does not aim to do that. Instead, two-thirds of the sales tax revenue would alleviate the property tax burden, while one-third would fund special projects.
At a high level, Project Anchorage seems like a reasonable compromise. The tax is designed to partially relieve property owners and fund new projects. However, this could easily turn into another tax pipeline that increases municipal government spending, much like the alcohol tax has.
During the budget process in 2023, the Anchorage Assembly moved the funding for the Mobile Intervention Team and Mobile Crisis Team from the alcohol tax to the general operations budget. They then used the freed-up alcohol tax funds to finance new programs. This ultimately increased the city budget, placing a greater burden on property taxpayers.
While lowering property taxes would certainly benefit homeowners and potentially make Anchorage more attractive for new residents and businesses, the regressive nature of sales taxes means they disproportionately impact lower-income families. This raises concerns about fairness and equity. Moreover, there is the question of how effectively the additional funds for community projects will be managed. Will these projects truly enhance our quality of life, or will they become yet another way to inflate municipal budgets?
I have seen firsthand the challenges our community faces with high property taxes that make first time homeownership a challenge. While a sales tax is not ideal, its potential benefits in terms of housing affordability and community enhancement make it a worthy consideration. However, the Project Anchorage approach does not relieve property taxes, so I remain skeptical.
Ultimately, Project Anchorage presents a vision for our city that requires careful scrutiny. I encourage everyone to look closely at the details, weigh the pros and cons, and participate in the upcoming discussions. Our collective voice and decision will shape the future of Anchorage.
A leading magazine devoted to science journalism says American homeschoolers are being left behind and that their parents should be investigated and have to pass a background check in order to educate their own children at home.
Scientific American, in its May issue, says “With few states tracking who is being homeschooled and what they are learning, an untold number of U.S. children are at risk of a poor education or even abuse.”
The magazine shows alarm that parents are pulling their children out of government schools at an increasing rate. It says that in 2019, nearly 3% of U.S. children — 1.5 million — were being homeschooled.
“No one knows by how much, and that is part of the problem. Homeschooling is barely tracked or regulated in the U.S. But children deserve a safe and robust education, whether they attend a traditional school or are educated at home,” the magazine argues.
“This number, calculated from a nationwide survey, is surely an undercount because the homeschooling population is notoriously hard to survey, and more children have been homeschooled since the COVID pandemic began. Eleven states do not require parents to inform anyone that they are homeschooling a child, and in most of the country, once a child has exited the traditional schoolroom environment, no one checks to ensure they are receiving an education at all,” Scientific American says.
Alaska has the highest percentage of homeschool students in the nation, with over 15.4% of families homeschooling their children. Alaska is followed by Idaho at 8.9%, Tennessee at 8.5%, and Oklahoma at 8.3%.
The magazine wants government oversight on homeschool families, just in case children are being abused. However, the magazine offers no evidence to support such an overreach by the federal government into families’ lives. Nor does the magazine address the constitutionality of such an action; the Department of Education is a relatively new federal agency, created during the Carter Administration and a growing number of conservatives believe the department should be dismantled due to the quality of public education having declined ever since the department was created and because it is skimming money that could be used for schools.
Scientific American argues that homeschool students aren’t required to take assessments that students who attend government schools take.
“This makes sense, since the individualized learning environment afforded to homeschool students lends itself to more flexible and diverse assessment modalities. While standardized tests might be the most efficient way for teachers to measure the content knowledge of a class of 25 students, a written analysis based on a recent visit to a museum might be a more meaningful demonstration of knowledge for a homeschool student,” says the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
“What doesn’t make sense, however, is the editors’ argument that the practice of exempting homeschool students from taking the same types of assessments as their peers in a classroom setting ‘enables educational neglect that can have long-lasting consequences for a child’s development.’ This is an unscientific logical fallacy with harmful consequences, including misleading the public about the reality of homeschooling. While neglecting a child’s education is certain to have a negative impact on his or her development, exempting a homeschool child from taking standardized assessments is not a form of educational neglect,” the policy group writes, in a pointed critique of the magazine.
Scientific American also smeared Christians in its opinion column, saying that “some Christian homeschooling curricula teach Young Earth Creationism instead of evolution. Other curricula describe slavery as ‘Black immigration’ or extol the virtues of Nazism.”
While it’s true that homeschool learning can be tailored and individualized to reflect a family’s deeply held values, one main reason that more families are choosing it as an option for their children is because during the Covid pandemic, while students were learning at home, parents became concerned about the concepts their children were being taught, especially when those things were in conflict with family values, such as non-scientific gender identity ideology and anti-Christian dogma.
The science magazine, which has been published for 178 years, prescribes federal interventionand monitoring of homeschool families:
“It is clear that homeschooling will continue to lack accountability for outcomes or even basic safety in most states. But federal mandates for reporting and assessment to protect children don’t need to be onerous. For example, homeschool parents could be required to pass an initial background check, as every state requires for all K–12 teachers. Homeschool instructors could be required to submit documents every year to their local school district or to a state agency to show that their children are learning.”
The Anchorage Assembly has launched an online survey, open until July 12, to find out what the public thinks about the need for more public restrooms in Anchorage.
In April, the public soundly defeated the Assembly’s bond proposal to install a series of Portland Loo public restrooms around Anchorage.
Prop. 8, for $5 million in taxpayer funds, would have put up to 10 modular toilet facilities around town. The voters said $500,000 toilets were too much. Voters appear to be concerned that the toilets will be taken over by vagrants and drug abusers, as so many other public facilities have been.
But this is an Assembly that won’t take “no” for an answer.
“We want to learn more why the bond did not pass. Did the bond ask for too much money, did it not provide enough information, or are restrooms simply not a desired amenity in public spaces?” the Assembly asks on its survey website at this link.
The website set up to push the survey gives all kinds of reasons that more public restrooms are needed, including “mental well-being.”
The survey website says people benefit from clean restrooms, stating “Parents of young children can leave home knowing they’ll be able to find a clean bathroom before a request becomes an emergency.”
On the same page, however, the survey website admits that businesses endure costs for “repairing damage from misuse” of their toilets, without acknowledging the same problem will plague unattended public toilets at even greater frequency.
In a study conducted in 2019 with cities that installed Portland Loos, some of serious problems with these facilities were described. These problems, including needle use, prostitution, and general illegal activity, are not included as information the public might want as it visits the Anchorage Assembly’s public survey. The problems include these Portland Loo stories from other cities:
In 2014 the Salt Lake City government, at the behest of members of the Salt Lake City community concerned about health conditions and lack of services in a dilapidated industrial area of the city, installed two Portland Loos. The Loos are close to a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, and a health clinic for people experiencing homelessness. While there are plans to build multi-use facilities, there are at present no residential areas nearby and very few businesses. No sooner were the Loos installed than drug dealers took them over, prohibiting entry to anyone not willing to buy drugs. The Loos also began to be used for prostitution. Toilets were constantly clogged with inappropriate items being flushed down. People were sleeping in the Loos. In 2018 the Utah Highway Patrol ordered that the Portland Loos be shut at night. There is now a full time monitor during the day assigned to clean the Loos as needed and limit use to one person at a time. Since then conditions have improved.
In 2017 Olympia Washington, responding to a call from the community for a restroom for the public, especially people experiencing homelessness, installed a Portland Loo open 24/7 along a sidewalk downtown with heavy foot traffic, and taverns and restaurants, specialty stores, and City Hall nearby. Concurrent with its being installed an adjacent parking lot was converted into a park which was eventually closed down. Before being closed down, the Loo became a congregating area for people using the park (homeless individuals, drug users) to the detriment of the use of the Loo. Since the park was closed down, the situation has improved significantly. There are reports of occasional use for shooting up and people sleeping in them at night.
The final Wednesday edition of Kenai’s Peninsula Clarion will be printed and delivered on Wednesday, June 26, after the parent company, Alabama-based Carpenter Media, decided to trim from two days a week to just one. The newspaper, as so many are, is slowly become an online publication.
“We will publish our last Saturday paper July 6 and deliver readers a weekly paper every Friday following,” the newspaper announced Friday.
One year ago, the Peninsula Clarion and Juneau Empire went from five days week down to two days for their print editions, and, along with Homer News, took the printing work to a firm outside the state.
At the same time, Carpenter Media Group, which acquired Sound Publishing earlier this year, announced it is laying off 62 people in the Northwest, including half of the unionized employees at the Everett Herald. Carpenter owns more than 40 newspapers in Washington and about 200 publications altogether.
Neither the Homer News nor the Juneau Empire have announced similar moves to reducing the print edition. The Empire prints twice a week and Homer prints once.
A well-known Republican and civic activist in Ketchikan has passed.
Susan Stone, who was for a several years the president of the Ketchikan District Republicans, died on Saturday after a long battle with cancer.
She will not be forgotten: The first order of business at the Republican State Central Committee quarterly meeting in the Mat-Su Valley on Saturday was a solemn resolution honoring her service.
Stone was a longtime and well-regarded teacher in Ketchikan. Just this week, the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce named her the Grand Marshal for this year’s Fourth of July parade. The chamber wrote about her in its announcement:
“Susan Stone will lead the procession, symbolizing unity, celebration, and the vibrant spirit of Ketchikan,” the chamber wrote, although the group was certainly aware that Stone was on her deathbed and would not likely make it to July 4, much less to the parade.
“We are delighted to have Susan Stone as our Grand Marshal for this year’s Fourth of July Parade,” wrote Trevor Shaw, president of the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce and a close friend of Stone’s. “Her dedication to the community aligns perfectly with the theme of our event. After decades of influencing our youth and community, we are proud to salute her.”
Stone recently retired after teaching in the Ketchikan school district for 27 years, primarily teaching U.S. history, civics, and American government. She was the commencement speaker for the Class of 2024.
“Through her teaching she has worked to instill pride and love for this great country in all her students. She has strived to not only teach them key facts, dates, and milestones, but also to help history come to life and help them become good citizens as they come of age. She has done this by not just teaching them the Bill of Rights and significant Supreme Court cases, but by bringing their government to them,” the Chamber wrote.
“She developed a mock trial program that included a field trip to the courthouse for every senior class for over a decade. She spearheaded the police ride-along program for American Government students. She connected the students to their legislators, including Rep. Don Young, U.S. Senators Stevens, Murkowski, and Sullivan, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, and many other local officials. When her senior students turn 18 she assists them in getting registered to vote. She works to help them see that the government is accessible and that each of them can make a difference. For nearly three decades she has brought our history and government to life for her students in real and practical ways,” the Chamber continued.
Stone even built a World War I-style trench through the middle of her classroom.
Stone took time off from teaching to raise a family, and during that time was a Girl Scout leader, and Girl Scout Council president. Through her work with the Girl Scouts, she empowered young women to be active, engaged citizens from a very young age. She volunteered in many other youth activities, church activities, and community activities of all sorts.
“If you ask her why she did all these things she would say that it was to keep our community going and make it a better place for her daughters and all of the kids in it. Her energy has always been focused on modeling behavior for the generations to come, to help mold active, engaged citizens,” the Chamber said.
Stone’s students have gone on to serve in local elected office; to be doctors, attorneys, businesspeople, teachers, caregivers. Look around this community, and beyond, “and you will find Mrs. Stone’s former students active and engaged in making their communities better, just as she has worked to do for so many decades. She has poured her heart and soul into her teaching each and every day of her career, including many late nights, weekends, and summers. And for the past few years she has done all of that while fighting a mighty battle against cancer. On top of teaching them to be good citizens, she has taught her students something about what it means to be a warrior, too.”
“Literally thousands of Ketchikan’s graduates know what it means to salute and respect our country because of what they learned in Mrs. Stone’s classroom. What better way to recognize this year’s theme of ‘Ketchikan, We Salute You’ than to honor a member of our community who has fostered a love and honor for our community and our country in generations of young people,” the Chamber wrote.
She was born Susan Bullock and lived in Kodiak as a nine-year-old girl with her parents Evelyn and the Rev. Don Bullock when the 1964 earthquake hit. Stone is the mother of Stacey Stone, who has served as legal counsel for the Alaska Republican Party for many years, and two other grown children.
