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Alaska Democrats double down with sexual identity politics as platform for fundraising

Suzanne Downing
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23
Alaska Democrats double down with sexual identity politics as platform for fundraising

The Alaska Democratic Party has a new fundraising pitch and it involves making sure kids in Alaska can get chemically castrated and surgically mutilated through transgender medical procedures, on demand.

The Democrats sent out their regular email request for funds, with this one focused on the problem of “the amount of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has surged across the country, including right here in Alaska.”

By some measures, Alaska is one of the most gay-friendly states in the nation, says SafeHome.org, per the chart below. This is, perhaps, because of Alaskans’ “live and let live” attitudes. Or it may be because 32% of Alaskan adults are part of the “religious nones,” meaning they have no particular spiritual home, nor guidance from a set of religious doctrines.


This year, the Alaska Democrats say in their fundraising pitch, “Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his allies in the state legislature introduced several anti-LGBTQ+ bills aimed at undermining the rights and dignity of those most vulnerable among us.”

The phrase “most vulnerable among us” is often used by the Left to describe LGBTQ+ people in society, but is never used by the Left to describe unborn humans.

They point out H.B 183, which was offered by Rep. Jamie Allard, a bill designed to protect girl athletes from having boys take over their competitive sports, medals, and scholarships. The bill passed the House with no Democrats supporting girl athletes. It died in the Senate.

House Bill 183, protecting girls in sports, passes out of Education Committee, 4-3

The Democrats are also upset about H.B 338, which would add liabilities to doctors who mutilate children as they remake their appearance to switch genders at a tender age. Children could come back and sue them when they reach adulthood. That bill died in the House.

And the Democrats are mad about H.B. 382, a parents’ rights bill that would “require teachers to alert parents if their child chooses to change their preferred pronouns, violating our student’s privacy, trust, and safety.” The bill died in the House.

“That’s why we’re working to secure a veto-proof majority and stand up for LGBTQ+ rights by promoting inclusive policies that make Alaska safer for everyone. Will you help us fight back and elect pro-LGBTQ+ champions across Alaska by chipping in $10 today?,” the Democrats ask in their fundraising letter, which is signed, “In solidarity.”

Democrats melt down over bill that protects girl athletes, House minority leader threatens speaker

Mat-Su returns some controversial books to school libraries

Suzanne Downing
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Mat-Su returns some controversial books to school libraries

After months of review, the Matanuska-Susitna School District’s Library Citizens Advisory Committee has decided that some books that had been recommended to be pulled from middle school and high school libraries can go back on the shelves.

Since August 2023, committee has been reviewing books that were challenged by community members due to their possible inappropriateness for teens.

The books being re-shelved in the MatSu public middle and high schools are:

Book Title:Author:
The Lovely BonesAlice Sebold
Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini
PersepolisMarjane Satrapi
FlamerMike Curato
SoldPatricia McCormick
Drama Graphic NovelRaina Telgemeier
A Court of Thorns and RosesSarah Maas
Court of Frost and StarlightSarah Maas
Court of Wings RuinSarah Maas
The Perks of Being a WallflowerStephan Chbosky

“With respect to each of the remanded titles above, the School District conducted an internal review and has concluded that none of the works would meet the criminal obscenity standard set forth under Alaska Law. The School District instructed its library staff to return the remanded titles to circulation in both middle schools and high schools,” a memo to parents at one school said.

The books have various passages that are controversial and most of them have been removed from school libraries in other states.

For example, the book, “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” by Sarah Maas, contains sexual descriptions and mild violence, and some argue that this series of novels gets more explicit as it progresses and has domestic violence, emotional, physical, sexual abuse, post traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, graphic violence, and graphic death. In 2023, North Carolina’s library board removed it from the shelves of K-12 libraries because its content is too disturbing for youth.

In the book, “Flamer,” by Mike Curato, there’s a number of LGBTQ+ themes and characters, and the book is sexually explicit at its core, with extensive vulgarity and detailed descriptions of sexual acts. In one section, Curato writs about a scout troop masturbating into a bottle, with one boy daring others to drink the result. But it’s going back on the shelf in MatSu schools.

In “Kite Runner,” a novel by Khaled Hosseini, students as young as the 6th grade will encounter children being raped by older children and adults, and children and women being abused in war-torn Afghanistan. An extremely graphic book, the American Library Association reported that it’s one of the most frequently challenged novels of the 21st century.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Northern Justice Project sued the district in November for removing the books, even though the district had set forth a procedure for review.

Attorney General Treg Taylor provides guidance to librarians regarding obscene material being made available for kids and teens

Savannah Fletcher, an attorney for the Northern Justice Project and candidate for Alaska Senate, represented the plaintiffs and said the district has no right to remove any books from shelves, even temporarily for review.

Out of 600,000 books, just 56 had been removed for review, but it was enough to draw a lawsuit from the Left.

The original list of the removed books can be found here.  

The Matanuska-Susitna School District’s Library Citizens Advisory Committee meets monthly, with the next meeting on June 13. All meetings are open to the public.

Northern Justice Project, ACLU sues Mat-Su schools for putting 56 out of 600,000 books into a review committee

Alaska State Troopers win ‘The Shoot’ trophy in annual international competition with Mounties

Suzanne Downing
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Alaska State Troopers win ‘The Shoot’ trophy in annual international competition with Mounties

Alaska State Troopers defended the prized trophy, winning the 60th annual Troopers vs. Royal Canadian Mounted Police shooting competition and retaining the trophy in Alaska.

The event is known as “The Shoot” and was held this year in Fairbanks with Alaska State Troopers competing in target competition with RCMP from across the Yukon Territory in Canada.

The annual event is focused on camaraderie between the Troopers and Mounties. Its history goes back to 1959 when, right after Alaska became a state, Joe Vachon, then-commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, came up with the competition as a way for Mounties and Troopers to get to know each other better on a personal basis as well as strengthen their working partnership.

It remains the longest standing international shooting competition in the world.

Video: Left’s buzzwords on ‘carbon pollution’ exposed

Suzanne Downing
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10
Video: Left’s buzzwords on ‘carbon pollution’ exposed

Restoration of America has produced a new video exposing the Left’s use of certain buzzwords and made-up terms like “carbon pollution” to claim carbon dioxide is somehow a threat to humans and the environment.

“The language of the Left shifts as fast as the weather,” says the conservative media group founded by entrepreneur Doug Truax .

“In this new video series, we tackle the Left’s top political buzzwords one-by-one to reveal the bias, lies, and truth-twisting by the media.” Watch the video below and leave your comments in the comment section:

Chicagoans indicted for swindling North Pole restaurant out of $128,000

Suzanne Downing
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Chicagoans indicted for swindling North Pole restaurant out of $128,000

An Alaska federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Chicago man and woman with running a scheme to defraud a North Pole restaurant of over $128,000.

From July to August 2022, Jacob Centeno, 39, and Amber Davila, 35, allegedly illegally obtained banking and identification information for the restaurant and restaurant owner by gaining access to their email.

The duo used this information and access to misrepresent themselves as the owner and divert proceeds from the owner’s bank account to a different account registered under a false identity that the defendants had created and had access to.

In total, roughly $128,246 was diverted to the defendants’ fraudulent bank account between Aug. 4 and Aug. 9, 2022.

As part of the scheme, Centeno and Davila allegedly purchased over $41,000 worth of money orders from the fraudulent bank account over the course of multiple days in Chicago.

They are charged with depositing the money orders into their various personal and business accounts in aggregate amounts of less than $10,000. Finally, to further conceal their scheme, they money laundered the funds by withdrawing money from a business account registered in their names and deposited it into their personal accounts.

Centeno and Davila were arrested in Chicago on June 4 and are charged with one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, one count conspiracy to commit money laundering, and eight counts of money laundering.

If convicted, they face a mandatory minimum of two years for aggravated identity theft, which is served consecutive to any other sentence for their alleged crimes. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Passing: Donna Gilbert, Fairbanks tax cap advocate

Suzanne Downing
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6
Passing: Donna Gilbert, Fairbanks tax cap advocate

Donna Gilbert, who was elected to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly and later to the Fairbanks City Council, has died. She was one of the most well-known Fairbanks advocates for the tax cap, and was honored on Monday evening at the Borough Assembly.

Raised in Fairbanks, Gilbert was known for ending her tax cap advocacy voicemails with, “Meet you at the borough building.” She served on borough Assembly from 1989-1992 and then on the city council from 2001-2004.

She formed Interior Taxpayers Association and advocated or passage of the borough tax cap. The group she built is still active today and recently activated to defeat a ballot effort in Fairbanks to blow through the tax cap. She also managed the Ranch Motel until it closed in 2013 and she moved to Leesburg, Florida.

Her sister relayed that Donna died in her sleep; she was 80 years old.

Watch as she advocates for a tax cap in this video from a candidate forum in 2007:

Texas, Montana sue Biden over rule requiring states to pay for ‘gender transition’

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Texas, Montana sue Biden over rule requiring states to pay for ‘gender transition’

By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE

Texas and Montana have sued the Biden administration over another federal rule change it implemented, this time over one that requires states to pay for “gender transition” procedures through their Medicaid programs.

It also requires health-care providers to perform such procedures in states where the practice has been banned, including in Montana and Texas. Their state legislatures passed bills their governors signed into law prohibiting “gender transition” procedures from being performed on minors in their states, among other restrictions.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division. It names U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Melanie Fontes Rainer, the director of the Office of Civil Rights within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as CMMS and HHS, as defendants.

At issue are changes to the HHS’ CMMS rule, “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities,” promulgated last month under Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It requires health-care providers to perform “gender-transition” medical procedures, including on children, or risk losing federal funding.

It also includes multiple definitions and amendments to regulations related to sexual orientation and gender identity. It is slated to become effective 60 days from May 6, when it was published in the Federal Register.

The lawsuit argues, “Section 1557 does not authorize – and has never authorized – the federal government to compel anyone to perform or pay for ‘gender-transition’ procedures.” It also argues the rule change is unlawful, violates the Constitution, and asks the court to “set it aside and issue injunctive relief.”

“The Biden Administration is attempting to exact radical social change by defunding States and healthcare providers across the country who refuse to provide or pay for dangerous and experimental ‘gender-transition’ medical activities,” the complaint states. “Through a sweeping new rule promulgated under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), those who do not conform to the Biden Administration’s gender-ideology regime stand to lose all federal healthcare funds, including Medicaid and Medicare dollars.”

The rule “purports to override and preempt all State laws to the contrary, ensuring that the Biden Administration’s assumption of control over the States’ regulation of health and safety is complete,” the complaint continues. It also notes that the rule “relies on a misapplication of the Affordable Care Act which never authorized HHS or any government agency to compel institutions to perform or pay for these procedures.”

“This is yet another example of Joe Biden trying to sidestep the Constitution and use agency rulemaking to advance unpopular, unlawful, and destructive policies,” Texas Attorney General Paxton said. “We are suing to stop the Biden Administration from withholding federal healthcare funds to force medical professionals to perform these experimental and dangerous procedures.”

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen made similar arguments, adding that “Healthcare providers should not be forced to perform dangerous and life-altering experimental procedures under the threat of losing the federal funding they rely on to keep their doors open. And the states should not be compelled to foot the bill for treatments that are leaving people, even children, with irreversible damage.”

Knudsen, who has led the charge to protect female athletes and students protected under Title IX, also notes that Section 1157 originally banned any federally funded health program from discriminating on grounds prohibited under Title IX.

Title IX, which is part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex.” It states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Over two years ago, Knudsen led a coalition of 15 AGs calling on the U.S. Department of Education to cancel its plan to revise Title IX, The Center Square reported. The administration ignored their request and published its controversial rule change roughly two years later. Montana, Texas and multiple states sued, arguing the rule change was illegal.

Both the DOE and HHS CMMS rule changes equate “sex” discrimination with discrimination based on “gender identity,” a wrong interpretation of federal law, the lawsuits argue.

The HHS CMMS rule “will wreak financial havoc” on states’ medical systems, the AGs argue. States receive billions of dollars in federal health-care aid to administer several welfare programs. The rule imposes “unlawful strings on that aid,” penalizing states that prohibit “gender transition” procedures and health plans from insuring them.

Sen. Sullivan blasts Navy for failing in shipbuilding, and focusing on climate change while China surges

Suzanne Downing
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Sen. Sullivan blasts Navy for failing in shipbuilding, and focusing on climate change while China surges

The U.S. Navy is in the midst of a shipbuilding crisis that will leave the United States outmatched in an increasingly dangerous world if it is not addressed soon, says Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.

“This week, the Senate Armed Services Committee is negotiating the details of the National Defense Authorization Act, legislation that has passed every year since its inception. It is critical that the committee, of which I am a member, address the shipbuilding crisis in this legislation. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle and I have a number of amendments to the NDAA addressing this crisis. Congress must intervene because it has been abundantly clear that President Joe Biden and his secretary of the Navy will not,” Sullivan wrote in the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.

Recently, Sullivan led a Senate delegation to the Indo-Pacific, a place where the U.S. Navy is key to America’s security as well as the security of her allies in Asia, including Taiwan. Freshly back from the trip, Sullivan articulated some key concerns in his column that focused on Navy preparedness.

“The concern over declining American shipbuilding power was front and center. As I spoke with the newly elected Taiwanese president, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s ships were encircling the island democracy,” Sullivan said.

China’s navy is expanding rapidly, Sullivan said, and is on pace to have more than 400 warships by 2027 — just three years from now. That’s the same year that China’s President Xi Jinping has directed his forces to be ready to invade Taiwan.

“Meanwhile, under Biden, the U.S. Navy has shrunk to just 293 ships and is on pace to shrink to 280 in 2027 — what could amount to a dangerous 120-ship deficit compared to the Chinese navy,” he said.

“After years of pressure from Congress, Biden’s Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently completed a review of the devastating state of the Navy’s shipbuilding programs. The results of that review were abysmal: five of the Navy’s major shipbuilding programs — the Columbia-class submarine, the Constellation-class frigate, the Ford-class aircraft carriers, and the Block IV and Block V Virginia-class submarines — are all delayed between one and three years,” Sullivan said.

Instead of doing his job, the Navy secretary has focused on climate change and the so-called “climate crisis,” and his report to Congress did not mention shipbuilding, lethality, or warfighting.

“Likewise, in his strategic guidance that he issued to the Navy and Marine Corps, an important document that lays out the secretary’s vision for our naval force, he mentioned climate change nine times but didn’t once address increasing the size of the U.S. fleet during these dangerous times,” Sullivan said.

“In my 30 years of public service, I’ve never seen U.S. Navy readiness at such a low point. And it’s not just me. This is a widespread, bipartisan concern. Numerous experts have also warned how ill-prepared our Navy is to meet global challenges and to keep us safe, particularly in the vital Indo-Pacific region, which includes my home state, Alaska. Recently, experts from the Congressional Research Service told me that ‘the U.S. Navy is in its worst state for designing, building, maintaining, and crewing ships in over 40 years,'” Sullivan wrote.

Sullivan has made amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act to address this crisis by requiring the Navy to be more predictable with procurement profiles so industry can respond with capital investments and workforce development, increasing the tenure of the admiral in charge of ship design and procurement, and working toward increasing our country’s shipbuilding capacity by identifying viable locations for two additional shipyards west of the Panama Canal. He also has called upon the Navy to turn its attention to fighting readiness, rather than climate change.

Because the Navy secretary is failing in his responsibilities, Congress must step in to fulfill its Article I constitutional responsibility “to provide and maintain a Navy,” wrote Sullivan, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Jury doesn’t buy Hunter Biden’s lies, finds him guilty

Suzanne Downing
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Jury doesn’t buy Hunter Biden’s lies, finds him guilty

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was found guilty by a Delaware jury of making false statements while purchasing a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, and making other false statements regarding information kept by federally licensed firearms dealers.

The charges stem from his use of and alleged addiction to illegal drugs at the time he was buying a Colt Cobra .38-caliber on Oct. 12, 2018, and lying about his drug use on purchasing forms. Federal law bans users of illegal drugs from possessing firearms.

Hunter Biden, now 54, wrote about his drug addiction to crack cocaine in his memoir, but said during his trial that he wasn’t using drugs at the time of the purchase. But evidence presented by the prosecutor in Delaware showed an April 2018 photograph of Hunter with drugs, and text messages from him about using drugs in the days following his firearms purchase.

The jury deliberated for about three hours over two days before the verdict was read on Tuesday. Hunter Biden now faces sentencing and a maximum of 25 years in prison.

The New York Times wrote sympathetically, “The verdict brought an end to an extraordinary trial that made painfully public Mr. Biden’s drug addiction. President Biden has said he would not pardon his son.”

During the trial, FBI agent Erika Jensen testified about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which is had evidence of Hunter Biden’s drug and gun purchase.

The laptop had been discredited by Biden supporters prior to the 2020 election and its existence was suppressed by the mainstream media after the New York Post published a bombshell article about it. Twitter, under its former owners, banned the New York Post‘s Twitter account and shadow-banned all information relating to the laptop in the weeks prior to the presidential elections. Fifty-one former U.S. intelligence officers signed a letter calling the Hunter Biden laptop “Russian disinformation.”

During the trial, things got testy when Hunter Biden’s wife Melissa Cohen-Biden shouted at former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler and called him a “Nazi piece of s—.” Ziegler was part of the Trump team that tried to make public the contents of the laptop as a way derail Joe Biden in the final days leading up to the 2020 election.

Top Republicans demand White House provide communications between Joe, Hunter Biden
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