A large Palestinian flag flying from a luxury home on the Anchorage Hillside has raised eyebrows after local news outlet the Alaska Landmine identified the homeowner as Osama Abaza, a University of Alaska Anchorage professor who was born in Nablus on the West Bank and has deep ties to Palestinian academia.
Abaza, who teaches civil engineering at UAA, is a longtime figure in the civil engineering academic community both in Anchorage and in the West Bank. Before moving to Alaska at least 16 years ago, he held several high-level roles at An-Najah National University in the West Bank, serving as graduate coordinator for the transportation engineering department in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and as vice president for administrative affairs from 1999 to 2002. His career at An-Najah dates back to the 1980s, when he chaired the civil engineering department.
The massive flag, prominently displayed outside his Anchorage residence, is visible from a distance.
It’s unclear what the flag represents to Abaza. Several Palestinian organizations have been designated as terrorist groups by countries and international bodies due to their involvement in politically motivated violence. These designations do not apply to the Palestinian people as a whole, but to specific entities that represent many of them. Key terror groups include the Palestinian government, Hamas.
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, Canada, Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, among others, due to its history of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and other violent acts targeting Israeli civilians and military personnel. The October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed nearly 1,200 people and involved hostage-taking, was widely condemned as a terrorist act attributed to Hamas.
Hamas’s 1988 charter called for the destruction of Israel, though a 2017 document moderated some language while still rejecting Israel’s legitimacy.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a smaller, Iran-backed group focused on armed resistance against Israel. PIJ has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, EU, Canada, and others for its rocket attacks and suicide bombings, particularly during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Marxist-Leninist group involved in terrorist attacks since the 1960s, including aircraft hijackings and bombings. It is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, EU, Canada, and others.
Other groups include the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, and the Abu Nidal Organization, which are designated as terrorist groups by various countries for historical acts of violence, including hijackings, bombings, and assassinations.
Abaza is living in the United States, where the First Amendment protects even controversial forms of expression, including the flying of a foreign flag. The First Amendment protects unpopular speech and political dissent, and even protects symbols of anti-semitism, such as the Palestinian flag has become.
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) June 29, 2025
An-Najah National University, where Abaza spent much of his career, has in the past drawn scrutiny from international observers for its campus climate and political affiliations.
The Anchorage display comes at a time when the Palestinian flag represents Palestinian national resistance to some people, while for others, it evokes images of extremism and anti-Israel ideology and violent anti-semitism.
A newly formed advocacy group that appears to be just one man with a penchant for social media is calling on Americans to sit out this year’s Fourth of July celebrations.
The “group,” The People’s Union USA, is urging supporters to forgo parades, fireworks, and flag-waving in what it describes as an “economic blackout” in protest of recent political and corporate developments, and especially in light of President Donald Trump regaining the White House.
The organization, founded in February by Chicago-based activist and meditation guide John Schwarz, who goes by the name “TheOneCalledJai” online, has framed the boycott as a response to a series of grievances, including recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by major corporations, imagined suppression of street protests, and the policies enacted under the Trump Administration.
Schwarz is a bit of a cult figure and there’s little evidence that there is actually a group behind him. Although he says chapters are popping up all over the country, there only seems to be one chapter besides his Chicago headquarters, and it’s in Portland, Ore.
He is also calling for a month-long boycott of major retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and Home Depot — companies he has repeatedly targeted in past 2025 campaigns.
Schwarz’ People’s Union USA advocates economic resistance as a tool to combat what it calls “corporate greed, political corruption, and social injustice.” His rise has been rapid, largely fueled by Schwarz’s robust social media presence on Instagram and TikTok, where he has accumulated over 600,000 followers. The group raised $119,000 through GoFundMe by March to support its operations and has received public endorsements from celebrities such as Bette Midler and Stephen King. It may have funding from Hollywood stars, in addition to the GoFundMe
The July 4th boycott is the latest in a series of coordinated efforts by the People’s Union. Recent actions have included:
May 20–26: second Walmart boycott
June 3–9: Target boycott
June 24–30: McDonald’s boycott
All of July: Amazon, Starbucks, Home Depot boycotts
Instead of participating in national celebrations, The People’s Union USA wants Americans to eschew what it calls “performative patriotism.”
Meanwhile, the “No Kings” coalition — an alliance of groups including Indivisible, the ACLU, and the Service Employees International Union — is planning a major national protest on July 17 titled “Good Trouble Lives On.”
The event commemorates the fifth anniversary of the death of Congressman John Lewis and aims to mobilize mass demonstrations against what organizers describe as attacks on democracy and civil rights.
The group is hoping to attract more black Americans to its cause. Previously, the No Kings movement has been almost exclusively white and remarkably elderly.
No Kings leaders continue to focus on long-term movement-building efforts such as:
One Million Rising: A leadership training campaign launched June 18 aiming to equip one million Americans to organize local, anti-Trump efforts.
Targeted Economic Pressure: Ongoing boycotts of companies like Tesla and calls to pressure its partners—including a “Musk Must Fall” protest staged on June 28, which was Elon Musk’s 54th birthday.
Grassroots Infrastructure: Community organizing, town halls, and candidate recruitment efforts driven by the 3.5% theory, which ways that just 3.5% of a population in sustained nonviolent protest can spark systemic political change.
As of this writing, there’s no indication that Alaskans will be sitting out the Fourth of July, with the exception of those who already skip the holiday for their own reasons.
Anchorage Assembly’s move toward “reimagining public safety” is being launched as the governing body for 40% of the population of the state authorized a task force aimed at reviving the former Public Safety Advisory Commission, but with a new mission.
While the effort is being promoted as a way to enhance community involvement in public safety decisions, it is actually part of a broader national trend toward replacing traditional policing with ideologically driven alternatives rooted in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement. The goal is not law enforcement, so much as good relationships with criminals.
The task force was authorized under AR 2025-111, a resolution sponsored by Assembly Vice Chair Anna Brawley and Assembly Members Kameron Perez-Verdia, and Felix Rivera. The resolution calls for a diverse group of stakeholders, including law enforcement, municipal departments, school district representatives, and community organizations, to participate in developing recommendations for a new advisory commission. Political consultant Denali Daniels + Associates will be paid to facilitate.
Assembly Member Felix Rivera, a Democrat who first moved to Anchorage to work for former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, will help lead the task force. He said the goal is to create a more inclusive conversation around public safety.
“It’s essential that the community helps shape the future of public safety in Anchorage,” Rivera said. The term “community” has variable meanings in the leftist political vocabulary.
The nationwide “reimagining public safety” movement gained traction in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in 2020, after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer who was subduing a violent and drugged criminal ended up being arrested, tried, and convicted for the man’s death. Chauvin is serving a 22-year federal sentence, even though subsequent evidence shows that George Floyd died from drugs, a fact still being disputed by Black Lives Matter agitators.
The reimagined police movement prioritizes reducing police involvement in many areas of public life and redirecting resources to alternative responses such as mental health professionals, social workers, and community mediators. There’s less focus on stopping crime or arresting criminals.
Supporters of the “reimagining” say it’s the police department’s job to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty, mental illness, and trauma, and that police must work to build trust between “marginalized communities” and public institutions.
This approach has led to dangerous gaps in enforcement, lower police morale, and less accountability in cities where similar reforms have been tried, such as San Francisco and Oakland. In Anchorage, where crime, drug use, and chronic vagrancy have grown to crisis levels, the task force’s probable “soft on crime” recommendations may further weaken already strained public safety systems.
The Assembly’s resolution aligns with key principles of the equity-driven model: Reducing police roles in non-violent incidents, emphasizing community-centered engagement, and investing in social services instead of law enforcement infrastructure.
Anchorage’s previous Public Safety Advisory Commission was dissolved in part due to its limited influence and unclear mandate. Rather than strengthening law enforcement oversight through improved structures, the Assembly’s new approach appears to seek a fundamentally different model, one centered on non-police voices and restorative justice frameworks, in line with the broader national campaign by Democrats to replace traditional public safety institutions with ideologically motivated alternatives.
The Alaska Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the Division of Elections’ handling of a 2024 ballot initiative that sought to repeal the state’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system—months after voters narrowly rejected the measure at the polls. The full opinion can be read here.
The legal challenge, brought by Alaska residents La quen náay Elizabeth Medicine Crow, Amber Lee, and Kevin McGee, alleged that the Division of Elections improperly certified initiative 22AKHE for the ballot by allowing its sponsors to correct errors in signature booklets after the statutory filing deadline.
The repeal initiative, sponsored by Art Mathias, Phil Izon, and Jamie Donley, aimed to overturn Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, which was adopted by voters in 2020 and first used in 2022.
Represented by attorneys Scott Kendall (who was the primary author of ranked-choice voting in Alaska,) Jahna Lindemuth (attorney general under Gov. Bill Walker,) Samuel G. Gottstein, and C. Maeve Kendall of Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth in Anchorage, the law-fare challengers, hoping to stop the petition from success, argued that the Division violated Alaska statutes and regulations by accepting post-deadline corrections to circulator certifications. They cited issues such as an expired notary commission having been used on a petition and claimed the Division’s actions undermined the integrity of the initiative process.
In an earlier ruling, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin had granted summary judgment in favor of the Division of Elections and the petition sponsors, holding that Alaska Statute 15.45.130 allows corrections to circulator certifications during the Division’s 60-day review period, as long as those corrections are made before signatures are counted.
The court also found that the Division’s actions did not violate regulatory requirements. It concluded that the certification issues identified by the challengers did not qualify as “patent defects,” meaning they were not clearly detectable during the initial review. Furthermore, the court ruled that the “single instrument” requirement for petition booklets did not bar corrections to individual pages. A mistake on one line in the petition should not invalidate the entire booklet.
Following a bench trial, some signatures and booklets were disqualified due to procedural errors, but the court found that enough valid signatures remained to keep the initiative on the ballot.
Initiative 22AKHE went before voters in November, 2024 and was narrowly defeated — by 743 votes. The repeal group was outspent and tied up fighting the lawsuit in court, or would likely have won. The group supporting the repeal of ranked-choice voting (Yes on 2 campaign) was outspent by the opposition (No on 2 campaign) by a margin of approximately 100 to 1. The Yes on 2 campaign raised around $489,000, while the No on 2 campaign raised nearly $14 million, nearly all from Outside dark money groups and wealthy out-of-state Democrats.
The challengers then appealed the Superior Court’s summary judgment decision to the Alaska Supreme Court. In its June 27 ruling, the high court unanimously affirmed the lower court’s interpretation of the relevant statutes and regulations. The justices agreed that the Division had acted lawfully in accepting certification corrections within the 60-day review window and confirmed that the initiative was properly placed on the ballot.
“The Court agreed with our statutory interpretation arguments about correcting petition booklet certificates after the petition is filed but before the review is complete. The Division of Elections administers elections with the highest level of professional integrity and fairness. I’m happy to see that reflected in this important court ruling,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor.
The decision concludes a prolonged legal battle over the petition process and reaffirms the Division of Elections’ discretion in administering Alaska’s direct democracy procedures. Although the repeal effort was unsuccessful at the ballot box, the court’s ruling ensures that the process by which it reached voters will stand as a precedent for future citizen-led initiatives.
Another repeal effort is already under way, collecting signatures to submit to the Division of Elections and take the matter to the people for a vote once again on whether to return to normal voting in Alaska.
A joint hearing of the Alaska Republican Party’s House Districts 7 and 8 (Kenai Peninsula Senate Seat D) will convene on Thursday, July 3, at 5 p.m. at Paradiso’s Restaurant in Kenai to consider a formal request to censure State Sen. Jesse Bjorkman.
The hearing stems from a complaint formally filed in May by six registered Republican constituents — three from each district within Senate District D, which Bjorkman represents. The complaint alleges Bjorkman has violated party principles and rules outlined in Article VII of the Alaska Republican Party’s bylaws, and it calls for censure under those provisions.
The complaint was approved by the officers of both Districts 7 and 8 and hand-delivered to Senator Bjorkman on June 17 by District 7 Chairman Jim Reveal, along with an invitation to attend the July 3 hearing to defend his actions.
As of this writing, Bjorkman has not responded to the invitation.
At the hearing, district officers will consider three main charges against Bjorkman:
Deviation from the Republican Platform: The complaint asserts that Bjorkman voted in favor of legislation inconsistent with the Alaska Republican Party’s principles, citing as an example his support of House Bill 57. The bill, nicknamed the “Big Brother Bill,” drew criticism from within the party for perceived government overreach and infringement on parental rights.
Formation of a Non-Republican Majority Caucus: The complainants allege that Bjorkman joined a legislative majority led by non-Republicans, with 5 of its 14 members registered as Republicans, falling afoul of party rules that discourage Republican officials from joining coalitions dominated by non-Republicans.
Conduct Allegedly Bringing Dishonor to the Party: The complaint further alleges that Bjorkman has made false and misleading public statements, including mischaracterizations of his legislative partnerships.
Under ARP rules, a censure for non-statewide elected officials like Sen. Bjorkman requires a two-thirds vote by each of the affected district committees. Alternatively, a majority of organized districts may also vote to censure under statewide procedures. Sanctions may include ineligibility for party endorsement, recruitment of challengers, and prohibition from participating in party events.
The hearing will be open to the public unless moved into executive session with Bjorkman’s consent. Voting is limited to district officers and precinct leaders of Districts 7 and 8.
A meeting schedule is expected to be released over the weekend.
Bjorkman, elected to the Alaska Senate in 2022, replaced retiring Sen. Peter Micciche. Bjorkman has frequently drawn criticism from members the party for his Democrat positions and for caucusing with the Democrats in violation of the Republican platform.
The outcome of the hearing may have long-term political implications for Bjorkman, but his current term doesn’t end until 2029.
On the Senate floor Friday evening, all eyes were on Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who emerged as a pivotal vote on the “Big Beautiful Bill,” holding out for hours before ultimately casting a decisive “Aye” that helped advance the Republican-led measure by the slimmest possible margin.
The Senate convened at 10 am Alaska time to begin a day of deliberations and voting on the controversial domestic policy package, which includes a sweeping array of tax, spending, and regulatory provisions. By 5 pm, the vote had been open for over an hour, and the count stood at 50 against and 46 in favor of the bill. All Democrats had voted “No,” joined by Republican Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Sen. Murkowski had yet to vote.
Murkowski remained in her seat during the high-stakes proceedings, at one point engaged in a long conversation with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Her presence and silence loomed large in the chamber — she was, it seemed in that moment, in the rare position to either doom or deliver the bill’s path forward. The tension in the chamber was palpable.
At approximately 5:20 pm, Murkowski stood and made her way to the well of the Senate. She spoke briefly with the clerk, who then recorded her vote as “Aye,” nudging the tally to 47 in favor and 50 against. Her vote did not secure passage on its own, but it signaled to Senate watchers that the Republican leadership still had a chance to clinch the win, but only if the three remaining GOP senators could be brought on board.
Those three senators — Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Rick Scott of Florida — had not been on the floor during the early stages of the vote. Sources indicated they were involved in negotiations with the Trump administration, which had been working to secure final votes behind closed doors. Murkowski was not part of those negotiations, suggesting her support had been determined separately from the ongoing deal-making.
Roughly an hour after Murkowski’s vote, all three of the remaining Republican holdouts filed into the chamber and voted “Aye.” That brought the total to 50–50, setting the stage for Vice President J.D. Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote. He was sitting nearby ready to act.
Then Sen. Ron Johnson flipped his vote from “No” back to “Aye.” and the motion to proceed passed 51-49. Only Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. Rand Paul were “No” votes on the Republican side.
The New York Times later reported that Murkowski’s support was won through “lavish” policy concessions to Alaskans written into the bill, but the story is more complicated. She did, however, win concessions in the SNAP program and Medicaid.
With the procedural hurdle now cleared, the Senate is expected to begin formal debate and amendment consideration on the bill. Murkowski’s vote to proceed to the main vote does not guarantee that she will support the bill.
When the Soviet Union allowed a few Soviet Jews to emigrate after the 1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East, expectations of freer Jewish emigration to Israel became a real possibility.
But they were soon shattered as the 1972 Soviet emigration head tax made emigration very expensive and cumbersome. To emigrate from the Soviet Union, Soviet Jews had to pay a large sum of money for their schooling, including college education, that constitutionally was free in the Soviet Union to all citizens.
In May of 1972, President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger negotiated with the Soviet authorities for the abolishment of the head tax just before the introduction of the Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act in the United States Congress.
The amendment intended to improve US trade relations with non-market economy countries (mostly Socialist countries with a planned and command economy) that restricted the freedom of Jewish emigration. The amendment was contained in the Trade Act of 1974 which passed Congress and was signed by President Gerald Ford into law on Jan. 3, 1975. I exited the Soviet Union on March 16, 1977 — a day to remember!
Indeed, because of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s diplomacy, legal emigration from the Soviet Union became a reality for the first time since the eruption of the Socialist October Revolution of 1917.
Nevertheless, opportunities for Soviet Jews to emigrate were still restricted by the Soviet authorities and troublesome for many Jews, especially for those who had access to military and intelligence information at their workplace. Most applicants for emigration would be fired from their jobs or expelled from universities, then wait in uncertainty for several months until permission to leave the country was granted by Soviet authorities—a nerve-wracking experience.
The Soviet government also mandated a restriction on the amount of assets that could be taken from the country by emigrants. Each emigrant could exchange only 90 rubles for 120.00 dollars (Russian currency was not convertible until 1991), and was allowed to take 200 grams of silver, one golden ring, one golden chain, one camera, one fur coat and hat, and almost everything else in a limited number. All these personal possessions, however, had to be stuffed and carried in two pieces of luggage and one personal bag — like today’s airplane travel limits.
Some Russian families had accumulated substantial personal property over their lifetime. So, they were converting their possessions into liquid assets (mostly diamonds and antiques), hoping to smuggle those treasures out of the country. Subsequently, many were caught by the customs’ agents at the border’s checkpoint, with a confiscation of the smuggled items and harsh penalties. But a few had better luck. For them, the risk was worth taking.
Leonid Reff, eventually my roommate and friend during the immigration vetting process in Italy prior to entering immigration-seeking countries, had a brilliant idea — to construct a sable fur coat of the enormous size 64. “If I am permitted to take one fur coat, then it will be a huge one,” he kept repeating with pride of his creative solution to the problem.
Leonid was in his late 30s, with a well-proportioned complexion, 5′ 10″ tall, and he was an emotionally balanced individual from Kharkov, an industrial city in northeast Ukraine. In Kharkov, he was a photographer — a lucrative and money-making profession in the former Soviet Union. So, Leonid had total assets of about 50,000 rubles, a large amount of money for the average Soviet at that time; and he had to find a creative way to convert his assets into valuable goods, to be sold later somewhere in the West to get his assets back in this unusual financial transaction.
Leonid managed to purchase premium-quality sable pelts, hired a skillful tailor and instructed him to construct a fur coat of the gigantic size with all required features—pockets, sleeves, color, etc. Fashion was not under consideration. The tailor was generously rewarded for his services and the coat was completed prior to Leonid’s departure from the Soviet Union. The coat was huge, so Leonid also had to construct a large duffel bag to fit the coat in it.
Both Leonid and his coat successfully left the country in Spring of 1977 and several weeks later arrived in Ostia di Lido, Italy, where he shared an apartment with me at Via di la Sirena 23, apt. 7. Most Jewish immigrants (except for those who petitioned to immigrate to Israel) first arrived and were lodged in Vienna, Austria for several weeks. From there, they were transported by train to Rome and Ostia di Lido, Italy. In Italy, emigrants were vetted by the authorities and then waited for permission to pursue their next destination to immigrant-seeking countries—mostly the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and West Germany.
Chicago was Leonid’s ultimate dream. “I will sell my sable fur pelts in Chicago and with its proceeds open a photography business,” Leonid proudly planned.
About three months from our arrival to Italy, Leonid’s appointments were scheduled with the US Embassy counselor and with the representative from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit organization for sponsoring political refugees to immigrant-seeking countries. Leonid was full of excitement and hope. “What possibly can go wrong?” he speculated. But it did.
That day, Leonid came from the appointments with American authorities painfully silent, with a pale face and in distress. “They denied me an entrance to the United States,” he revealed to me with a shaking voice. “They don’t allow communist party members a residency in America!” he cried out.
I was surprised and shocked by this revelation. “What? Leo, are you a communist?“ I questioned him with my eyes wide open. “Leo, why? You are a photographer!” I demanded a definitive answer. “Yes, I am,” he confirmed.“ But photography was a shady business in Kharkov. I used my Communist Party ID as a cover, so I would not be suspected of wrongdoing,” he explained.
“Alright, but so what if you are a former member of the Communist Party?” I questioned him calmly. “Well, evidently, there is a law in the United States that forbids communists from other countries from permanent residency in America. They told me it goes back to 1953 or 1954, some kind of Senator McCarthy’s law,” Leo explained, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Leo, but what is going to happen to you now?” I asked him empathically. “You know, we are in limbo here. We are nobody in Italy!” I gave Leo a look of pained concern for his situation.
“Well, they reassigned me for immigration to Perth, Australia,” Leo answered. “I was told that Australia does not accept immigrants with a history of tuberculosis, mental illness, and some other things. Apparently, in Australia they don’t care much about communists,” continued Leo. “But now I must get rid of the fur coat before my departure from Italy to Australia. There is no need for a sable coat in the Australian desert,” contemplated Leo with a smirk smile.
The next day we were at the tailor’s sewing shop located around the corner from our apartment on Via di la Sirena. Residents of Ostia di Lido were aware that the Russian immigrants needed to liquidate their possessions at any cost prior to departure from Italy, and they would take advantage of the immigrants’ desperation.
The tailor was a small, stocky, middle-aged Sicilian-looking man with quick gestures. He smelled a deal when he saw us entering the shop with a huge duffel bag. Leo unwrapped the coat and in broken Italian questioned, “Quanto pagherai?”(How much will you pay?) The tailor carefully examined the coat, looked straight at Leo’s eyes, mumbled something in Italian, simultaneously waving his arms in all directions of the compass, and then scribbled on the piece of paper—$500.00.
Leo stared blankly at the tailor, then his eyes opened wide, and his mouth became an O shape. He slightly leaned toward the tailor and yelled in Russian, “I will burn this bloody coat in your shop before I sell it to you. I paid 40,000 rubles for it and you are offering me $500.00. You slimy spaghetti!” The tailor did not speak Russian, but he understood that Leo’s yelling meant— “No deal!”
Several months later, Leo was granted permission to immigrate to Perth, Australia. He was my roommate in Ostia di Lido for nearly nine months and, ultimately, we became trusted friends, sharing with each other our plans, hopes, dreams, worries and aspirations.
About two months after Leo’s departure to Australia, I received permission to immigrate to the United States. In America, unfortunately, I lost contact with Leo. Today, I only hope that his immigration to Australia was a great success, and the sable fur coat found its home with deserved owners.
Leo, wherever you or yours are now. Give me a call. Let’s chat!
Note: The Communist Control Act of 1954, enacted on August 24, 1954, was a United States federal law that aimed to outlaw the Communist Party USA and related organizations. It declared the Communist Party a tool of a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government and denied it the rights and privileges afforded to legal political parties. The act also prohibited members of Communist organizations from holding certain representative capacities and created a new category of “Communist-infiltrated organizations.”
Accordingly, members of the Communist Party after the Act of 1954 are not allowed to immigrate to the United States and become the US permanent residents. Violators of this Act are subjects for deportation from the United States.
Alexander Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and enrolled in the Ph.D. program in anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also lecturer in the Russian Center. In the USSR, he was a social studies teacher for three years and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He then settled first in Sitka in 1985 and then in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education and Yukon-Koyukuk School District from 1988 to 2006; and Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center from 1990 to 2022. From 2006 to 2010, Alexander Dolitsky served as a Delegate of the Russian Federation in the United States for the Russian Compatriots program. He has done 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky was a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, and Clipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. He was a Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. Dolitsky has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka, Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia, Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers in Alaska, Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II, Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East, Living Wisdom of the Russian Far East: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska, and Pipeline to Russia: The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in World War II.
The annual recovery mission at the site of one of the deadliest military aviation accidents in Alaska’s history continued this June, more than 72 years after the crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster II into Mount Gannett. to date 49 of the 52 who perished in that crash have had their remains recovered.
On Nov. 22, 1952, a massive transport aircraft known as “Old Shaky” was flying from McChord Air Force Base in Washington state to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage when it crashed into the 9,629-foot mountain in the Chugach Range.
The plane was carrying 11 crew members and 41 passengers, including service members from the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. All 52 were killed.
Flying at night and navigating through severe weather with strong winds and heavy cloud cover, the aircraft was off course when it hit the mountain at full speed. A Northwest Orient Airlines pilot reported receiving a final message from the C-124’s pilot: “As long as we have to land, we might as well land here.” The wreckage was quickly buried by snow and avalanches triggered by the impact.
Initial search and rescue operations involved 32 military aircraft and four Coast Guard vessels. On Nov. 28, 1952, Terris Moore of the Fairbanks Civil Air Patrol and Lt. Thomas Sullivan of the 10th Air Rescue Squadron spotted the tail section of the aircraft at about 8,100 feet on what they recorded as Surprise Glacier, south of Mount Gannett. Recovery was deemed impossible due to dangerous conditions and deep snow. The mission was called off within a week, and the wreckage became entombed in the ice.
For decades, the crash site remained hidden within the shifting ice of Colony Glacier, which carried the wreckage some 12 to 14 miles over the years toward Lake George. Some of the wreckage emerged and was discovered on June 9, 2012, when a UH-60 Black Hawk crew from the Alaska National Guard spotted a yellow life raft during a training mission. Investigators confirmed the raft and other debris were from the lost C-124.
Since 2012, Operation Colony Glacier has taken place each summer, with teams from Alaskan Command, Alaska National Guard, U.S. Army Alaska, the 11th Airborne Division, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System working to recover human remains and personal effects.
The effort is timed for early summer when conditions on the glacier are most stable and before the ice carries wreckage farther downstream or into crevasses.
Items recovered have included personal belongings such as shoes, a flight suit, chess pieces, a 1944 map, 3-cent postage stamps, a Buddha figurine, a 1952 Mass schedule, and a camera.
By 2021, teams had recovered over 460 bags of human remains and nearly 100 bags of personal effects. Glacier movement, estimated at 200 to 300 meters per year, continues to uncover and endanger the remaining material.
By 2019, 40 of the 52 victims had been identified using DNA analysis conducted at Dover Air Force Base. Among those identified were Air Force Staff Sgt. Eugene Costley in 2018, and four other airmen in 2016: Capt. Kenneth Duvall, 2nd Lt. Robert Moon, and Airmen 2nd Class Thomas Condon and Conrad Sprague.
As of June 2025, 49 of the 52 have been positively identified.
Air Force Col. Kevin Heath, Alaskan Command Director of Operations and Col. Jason White, 611th Air Operations Center, deputy commander, follow Capt. Travis Lockwood, Operation Colony Glacier ground commander, during a tour of Colony Glacier, in Alaska, June 12, 2025. Photo credit-Senior Airman Quatasia Carter
This summer’s mission continued the tradition of careful recovery, carried out by personnel from Alaskan Command, the 11th Airborne Division, Alaska National Guard, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, US Army Alaska, the 673rd Air Base Wing, the 3rd Wing, and Detachment 1 of the 66th Training Squadron.
On June 12, US Air Force Col. Kevin Heath, Director of Operations at Alaskan Command, and Col. Jason White, deputy commander of the 611th Air Operations Center, toured the Colony Glacier site with Capt. Travis Lockwood, Operation Colony Glacier’s ground commander.
Operation Colony Glacier continues to serve as a testament to the military’s enduring commitment to account for its fallen, bringing long-awaited closure to families and honoring those who perished in service.
As Senate Republicans advance their sweeping domestic policy package, dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski has emerged in her usual role of hostage-taker, leveraging her position to carve out significant concessions for Alaska.
Among the most consequential are a series of exemptions and grants tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), aimed at shielding low-income Alaskans from proposed federal cuts to the food program. SNAP benefits are also known as food stamps, a government subsidy program that allows lower-income Americans free access to food on a sliding scale.
The initial draft of the bill called for states to shoulder a bigger share of SNAP funding, which could have cost Alaska billions in federal assistance.
Under the revised language, Alaska is exempt from those cost-sharing provisions, preserving the state’s current level of federal SNAP support.
The exemption was considered critical by Murkowski, who warned her fellow Republicans that the cost-sharing mandate would devastate a state already struggling with food insecurity, rural isolation, and some of the highest grocery prices in the nation.
Congressman Chip Roy of Texas noted that 60% of Alaska SNAP payments are overpayments. “So instead of fixing the problem and paying their fair share, the Alaska Senators are demanding the taxpayers from other states give them a special grant.”
The bill’s expansion of work requirements for SNAP recipients, raising the age threshold to 64 and including parents of school-age children, will not apply to Alaska.
This carve-out follows weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, during which Murkowski and fellow Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan lobbied Senate leadership for state-specific exemptions.
To offset any residual fiscal pressure from the SNAP overhaul, Senate GOP leaders introduced new Alaska-targeted SNAP grants.
These grants, which were not included in earlier drafts, are designed to bolster food security infrastructure and delivery in remote communities.
The grants reportedly materialized after sustained pressure from Alaska’s delegation, who emphasized the state’s unique logistical and demographic challenges in providing food aid.
The bill also includes a 25% increase in federal Medicaid matching funds for Alaska, far above what most states receive, along with tax relief for commercial fishers in Western Alaska, tax breaks for whaling captains, and higher Medicare reimbursement rates for select rural healthcare providers.
Murkowski’s role in shaping the final text has drawn both praise and skepticism, as she routinely engages in holding out for concessions from a narrowly divided Senate, where Republicans need her vote.
Murkowski has not formally endorsed the final bill. In a statement, she said she is continuing to review the legislative text and all associated impacts, and has not committed to a yes vote, despite the favorable revisions.
