Heavy snow in Anchorage has sent some large cargo flights further north, to Latitude 64, giving Fairbanks residents a rare sight. The Fairbanks International Airport welcomed a few heavies to stop in their way to and from Asia and the Lower 48 and even made a seasonal song out of the occasion:
Oh the weather down south is frightful,
Anchorage runway is not delightful.
And when they have nowhere to go,
We’ll take more, we’ll take more, we’ll take more!
A snowstorm in Southcentral has brought up to 22 inches of snow to Anchorage, included over 12.2 inches at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, and more than 22 inches on the Hillside. A report from Eagle River showed 14 inches of snow. Up to two more inches is expected today, with up to four inches in East Anchorage. A flood watch is in effect as some areas will see snow turning into rain.
As nightfall comes to Southcentral, rain on top of snow may turn in to a glaze of ice as temperatures drop again, and travelers can expect more difficulties in Southcentral for the next few days, as it will take time to clear roads and runways.
West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, one of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s strongest allies in the U.S. Senate, will not run for reelection in 2024. The deeply Republican state will most likely elect a Republican to the seat next year, adding one more voice to the conservative side of the aisle. The current balance is 51 Democrat, 49 Republican.
Manchin has been, in a view shared by many observers, the Democrats’ version of Sen. Murkowski. While Murkowski is nearly a Democrat in many of her votes and has been known as the definition of “Republican in Name Only,” Manchin has been nearly a Republican, supporting oil and gas in Alaska, much to the frustration of his party. Both are unreliable votes for their respective teams, but are best of friends in the Senate.
But Manchin may not be done. On social media on Thursday he said he would begin to travel the country and “see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle.” Manchin may be working on a run for president in a third-party. He has been aligned with the No Labels Party.
Democrats have 23 seats on the ballot in 2024, many in red-leaning states, such as Ohio and Montana. They face a difficult challenge keeping control of the Senate after next year’s election.
US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason has dismissed two environmental lawsuits challenging the Biden Administration approval of the Willow project in the corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The litigants, one of which is a group that has no actual legal standing in Alaska or with the federal government, had sued because they said the Biden Administration didn’t taken greenhouse gas emissions from Willow into consideration, and that the project would contribute to climate change. The groups said that the project might damage environment important to polar bears and other animals of the Arctic.
The decision will probably be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court.
The Bureau of Land Management had approved three drilling sites for a total of up to 199 wells that could produce 180,000 barrels of oil a day during peak production.
Elections offices in four Washington counties were closed as a precaution Wednesday after they received envelopes containing unknown powdery substances, reported the Secretary of State’s Office.
The suspicious envelopes were received in King, Pierce, Skagit and Spokane counties. The discoveries disrupted ballot counting by workers following Tuesday’s general election in Washington.
In Spokane, police said the substance tested positive as fentanyl, a potentially deadly synthetic opioid. The Seattle Times reported that an envelope containing fentanyl had been sent to the King County elections office.
Local, state, and federal authorities are investigating the incidents.
Calling them “acts of terrorism,” Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said the incidents illustrate the need to take seriously the threats that elections workers face in administering Washington’s democratic process.
“The safety of staff and observers is paramount as elections workers across the state open envelopes and count each voter’s ballot,” said Hobbs. “These incidents underscore the critical need for stronger protections for all election workers. Democracy rests upon free and fair elections. These incidents are acts of terrorism to threaten our elections.”
Spokane police said they were notified around 10 a.m. of a white powdery substance discovered at the county elections office. The department’s Explosive Disposal Unit and the Spokane Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Team responded and retrieved the substance, which tested positive for fentanyl but negative for chemical/biological agents, explosive compounds, or other controlled substances.
“SPD is working with state and federal partners on this ongoing investigation. Similar incidents have occurred at other election offices across the state today,” the police department reported.
During Washington’s Aug. 1 primary, King County and Okanogan County election officials received suspicious substances in envelopes, said the Secretary of State’s Office.
The envelope and letter received by King County Elections were turned over to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which performed an analysis that detected trace amounts of fentanyl. The substance found in the Okanogan County envelope was determined to be unharmful.
Over 100 congressional staffers who work for Democrats protested in front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, calling for Israel to halt its bombing of Gaza City, where Hamas terrorists have imprisoned 240 Jewish hostages. The staff members wore masks and laid flowers for the fallen terrorists and others who have died in the Hamas-Israel war. A handful of them read statements. Others held signs calling for a ceasefire in Israel.
Israel’s response to a deadly surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 has been wholehearted and devastating to Gaza City, which is now, according to satellite footage, more than one-quarter destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces artillery response.
Estimates are that over 9,000 Gaza residents, nearly all Palestinians, have died in the war, which rages on. Some Israeli fighters have also died during the war, and the body count on each side is far from certain. The original Hamas attack took the lives of 1,400 Israelis.
The staffers, however, were waging their own wars — against their bosses.
“Most of our bosses on Capitol Hill are not listening to the people they represent,” said one mutinous staffer. “We demand our leaders speak up, call for a cease-fire, a release of all hostages, and an immediate de-escalation now.”
Some of the congressional staffers who participated may have had the blessing of their congressional member. A separate photo from Wednesday shows a group of the most radical members of Congress, inlacing Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Pramila Jayapal, without masks, standing in apparent solidarity.
But it’s unusual for a staffer or bureaucrats to insert themselves into an active and dynamic political situation, rather than what has always been viewed as a 24-7 job of supporting the representative.
The sit-in staffers were, in fact, disrupting diplomatic efforts, and elevating their own political views into the news cycle.
Congress has the power of the declaration of war, and to have congressional staffers pre-empt their own members by trying to steer the deliberative process in a public leveraging may have been a first in congressional history.
“Being a (good) congressional staffer comes with sacrifices. One of the biggest being: keeping your own political views to yourself and supporting your boss 100% of the time. You have no right to use your boss’ position to elevate your own political views. Nobody voted for you. If I was a member of Congress and found out one of my staffers was participating in a ‘staffer walk out’ they could keep on walking to another job,” said one former Hill employee.
Another said, “Nobody has a bigger ego than congressional staffers. Instead of desperately trying to make everything about them… they could literally just go back inside and convince their bosses to support a ceasefire. Like… they have direct access to elected officials.” They can already influence policy in a way that few other Americans can.
There are also consideration of the ethical violations, if any of the mutiny was organized or carried out on official time, or if taxpayers paid for any of the signage or materials used to stage the event.
More than 60% of the staff members of the House of Representatives are under the age of 35, according to the Federal Managers Association. The congressional offices, indeed Congress itself is being run by these individuals, who were raised and educated in increasingly radicalized schools of America that infuse them with the Maoist theoryof “continuous revolution.”
If there was one good thing that came out of the Covid “pandemic,” it was that parents became aware of what their children were being taught in our public schools. They also knew that their children were not benefitting from remote learning by the school districts.
Parents were basically left to their own devices when school doors were closed and kids were shut out. Students fell way behind academically.
The masking of students and “social distancing” left emotional scars on the kids and impacted their mental health.
Parents were disappointed, disgusted, and just plain angry when they noticed that the public schools were pushing inappropriate sex education down to the lower grade elementary school children, hiding gender identity/transgenderism from parents, allowing access to pornographic books to elementary kids, and pushing political philosophies in the classroom.
Consequently, parents have become more actively engaged in what their children are learning, and many have taken on the teaching task themselves.
The Washington Post recently published an article titled, “Homeschooling is the Fastest-Growing Form of Education,” in which it cited that homeschooling surged by 45% from the school years 2017-18 to 2022-23.
But the Washington Post only looked at data from 32 states and the District of Columbia.
It did not look at data from Alaska where homeschooling has flourished for decades.
Since the pandemic, the number of students grew from 12,503 to a whopping 18,972 in Alaska’s 12 largest homeschool programs.
This is an increase of 52% from the pre-pandemic school year (2019-20) to the 2021-22 school year. The total for the same schools for school year 2022-23 is 18,561 students, an increase of 48% over the same number of students in the home school program pre-pandemic.
The Legislature broadened the homeschool (correspondence) program in 1974. In 2014 lawmakers enhanced the program by allowing parents to choose non-public schools and be reimbursed for certain courses. They could not use state money for any sectarian (religious) courses.
A parent/guardian may purchase nonsectarian services/materials from a public, private, or religious organization with a student allotment, if they are consistent with the student’s Individual Learning Plan.
The current law requires an Individual Learning Plan for each student that is developed by a certified teacher, parent, and student. Student progress is monitored by the teacher through the plan. So, it is a contract between the student, teacher, and parent.
The Individual Learning Plan can be tailored to the student’s needs, unlike a traditional school which is unable to meet each individual student’s needs.
The State does fund correspondence students to a maximum of $4,851, which is 90% of the usual student allotment. So, a correspondence student is worth only 90% of a traditional student, by law and by budgeting.
The parent does not receive the entire allotment. Some of the allotment goes to administering the program. In the case of the Family Partnership Correspondence School, the parent could receive a maximum of $4,500; in the MatSu Central Correspondence program the parent could receive a maximum of $3,000. Parents need to be aware of the administrative overhead costs before enrolling their children in any correspondence program.
Remember, Alaska law gives parents the right to direct the education of their child (AS 14.03.016).
Alaska has a flourishing and comprehensive homeschool program—correspondence schools. There are 34 correspondence schools in Alaska, which can be found here.
Here are some of the largest correspondence schools (homeschools) and their student populations:
School
Student Population
Grades
IDEA
7,321
PK12
Raven
3,099
PK12
MatSu Central
2,145
K12
Cyberlynx
1,538
PK12
Family Partnership
1,234
K12
Denali Peak
879
PK12
Twindly Bridge
563
K12
Note that Family Partnership Charter School was the school that recently lost its charter from the Anchorage School Board. As a result, parents have removed more than 600 students from the school, which is now under the control of the district. Some have placed their students in Frontier Charter School (correspondence) and the MatSu Central correspondence school.
Homeschooling parents save the State loads of money because their children don’t need bus transportation, large and expensive-to-maintain buildings, meals, large bureaucracies, and large salaries and benefits. Here is a list of the per student costs for some correspondence schools:
School
Per Student Cost
IDEA
$4,512
Cyberlynx
$5,910
Denali Peak
$5,006
Family Partnership
$10,446
Raven
$6,168
Twindly Bridge
$9,942
MatSu Central
$7,975
Note that the State’s overall per student cost is $18,300, per the US Census. This number includes local and federal funding as well as State funding.
And the correspondent students are only entitled to State funding, no local funding nor Federal funding. Some districts do provide local funding to correspondence schools.
It is very difficult to compare a correspondence school’s state test scores to the more traditional K12 schools because parents can opt their students out of standardized tests in Alaska. For example, in the MatSu Central correspondence program only 8 of 1,194 students took the State’s AK STAR standardized tests, less than 0.67%. In contrast, 79% of the students in the MatSu District took the AK STAR tests.
Parents know what fits their children best when it comes to learning styles. Parents are also sick of the traditional school wanting to take away parental rights and “educate” their children in all sorts of social issues instead of the three Rs.
So, if you are intimidated by homeschooling and don’t know where to turn, here is a link to a source of information for parents who are thinking about choosing a homeschool option for their child. It provides a list of many homeschool support groups that can really help you navigate the homeschool options/paths for your child.
If you don’t want your child bullied at school, try homeschooling.
If you don’t want your child to have access to pornographic books in school, try homeschooling.
If you don’t want your child to have to share a bathroom or locker room with a student of the opposite sex, try homeschooling.
If you fear for the safety of your child, try homeschooling.
You, the parent and not the State of Alaska, are responsible for your child’s education and welfare.
David Boyle is the Must Read Alaska education writer.
Several Alaska Native leaders from the North Slope traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, but she once again has refused to meet with them.
As Haaland did when asked by North Slope Natives to meet with them during the Alaska Federation of Natives meeting in October in Anchorage, the secretary once again blew off the people of the North Slope, who want her to consult with them before making a final decision on oil development in ANWR.
This is the eighth time Haaland has turned down a meeting with these Alaska Natives, who are in favor of responsible oil development.
Among those traveling were representatives from Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, the Inuit Community of Arctic Slope, and North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak.
Haaland instead flew off to speak at the Western Governors Association about the importance of listening to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Monday was the deadline for comment on the Interior Department’s draft environmental impact statement, and the department refused to extend the deadline to hear from those Natives on the North Slope who are in favor of oil.
At a press conference with Alaska’s senators, Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, said, “The federal government continues to make decisions about our ancestral homelands, now in the name of environmental justice, with little to no regard for the voices of our people.”
On Wednesday, the group was allowed to meet with Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, with Rep. Mary Peltola attending the meeting with them.
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska even put in a plea to Haaland, sending her numerous text messages requesting a meeting with the Alaska Native leaders. He never heard back. Finally, after he send her a message saying, “I expect the courtesy of a response,” the secretary told him to coordinate with her staff, but made no commitment to meet.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, by its own admission, neglected at least one critical investigation into horrific child sexual exploitation, while diverting agency resources toward investigating those thought to be involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol.
An example of FBI misdirecting its resources is the disturbing case of an Alaska man, Brogan T. Welsh, who allegedly distributed child pornography and expressed disgusting fantasies online about anally raping male children.
The FBI had Welsh in its sights and was set to bring charges against him. Even one week before Jan. 6, 2021, the man they believe is Welsh was trying to get a sex date with a prepubescent boy online.
But the FBI but dropped the case on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the FBI’s Statement of Facts to the court. It had more important things to investigate – Trump supporters.
How many other cases of equal or greater severity have been dropped by the FBI in favor of targeting politically active Americans?
The alarming nearly three-year delay in arresting Welsh raises concerns about the FBI’s priorities and whether it is really dedicated to protecting vulnerable children from heinous sexual predators.
Welsh was finally indicted in late October in the District of Columbia on charges of distributing child pornography. Other charges may be developed as his activities are uncovered.
The arrest itself occurred a few days later in Anchorage. From the time the FBI dropped the case in 2021 until just two weeks ago, Welsh likely continued to be part of online exploitation of children.
This isn’t just a kinky proclivity of a hyper-sexualized adult man. Before his case was forgotten about by the FBI, Welsh had contacted someone on a kiddie-porn internet platform. He apparently believed the man to be the father of a minor child, and Welsh expressed a desire to travel to the District of Columbia to sexually abuse the purported child. The description of what he wanted to do to the child is graphic — it was unadulterated rape.
That man turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. The evidence against Welsh was substantial, including IP addresses, online identities, explicit images, and videos depicting the sexual abuse of prepubescent boys. In text messages, Welsh was recorded telling the FBI undercover officer how much he wanted to rape the man’s son. It is unimaginable that such a case would be put on hold. But it was.
After the FBI lost interest in Welsh on Jan. 6, 2021, it wasn’t until August 2023 that the FBI stumbled upon Welsh’s file, and it only did so because it was investigating another unrelated case.
This disturbing incident highlights a concerning pattern of the FBI diverting resources away from vital cases to pursue politically motivated agendas.
In the months following Jan. 6, 2021, innocent Alaskans, including Paul and Marilyn Hueper of Homer, were targeted by the FBI. Agents came bursting through the front door of the couple’s home on April 28, 2021, saying they were searching for then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop. Investigators left with a pocket-size copy of the U.S. Constitution that the agency took into evidence, thinking it added credence to their case, but the laptop was nowhere to be found in Alaska because this turned out to be a case of badly mistaken identity.
Anchorage activist Jay McDonald was also subjected to a harassing interrogation from the FBI because the agency had opened up a tip line and a political operative from the Democratic side submitted McDonald’s name as someone who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The records show, however, that McDonald was in Alaska that day. It was a case of political warfare, and the FBI was a useful pawn, while McDonald rightfully feared for his family’s safety.
These instances of mistaken identity and political harassment demonstrate how valuable FBI resources were misallocated while perverts ran wild.
During Welsh’s ultimate arrest, the FBI said it found incriminating evidence in his Anchorage room, “Including sex toys that are very small in size and apparently consistent with the body size of an approximate 10-year-old boy, including: a silicon ring, apparently of the type commonly referred to as a ‘cock ring;’ a bag of ‘sensory finger rings’ which are apparently devices for manual sexual stimulation; a very small dildo consistent in size with anal penetration; and the following clothing consistent with a 10-year-old boy and too small for an adult person of WELSH’s size: two pairs of underwear; and one pajama bottom.”
The investigation revealed that a 10-year-old boy was, in fact, residing at the residence with Welsh.
“On January 6, 2021, FBI, Washington Field Office, this investigation was halted due to events that occurred at the United States Capitol Building that day,” the Statement of Facts said.
How long might this case have been ignored if it had not stumbled on it again?
This is a job for the Chairman James Comer of the Congressional Oversight and Accountability Committee, who should review the Statement of Facts of this case and subpoena the FBI Director Christopher Wray and his subordinates to answer the question: How many other Brogan Welshes are still out there committing crimes, while the FBI conducts manhunts relating to Jan. 6?
The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of U.S. v. Rahimi on Tuesday morning, delving into the complex issue of what constitutes “dangerousness,” and how it pertains to Second Amendment protections.
The question before the Court revolves around whether a person subject to domestic-violence restraining orders should be barred from possessing firearms under federal law.
Throughout the arguments, the Justices showed interest in the history of domestic violence in the United States and the specific terms of the federal gun ban for those under restraining orders.
However, the discussion repeatedly circled back to the fundamental query of what specific conduct might cancel a person’s Second Amendment rights to possess firearms.
A majority of the Court appeared inclined to uphold the federal law in question. That could mean a reversal of a lower court ruling that found the law to be a violation of the Second Amendment, citing last year’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was particularly interested in this concept of “dangerousness.” She pondered out loud, “Could I just say that it’s ‘dangerousness’? Let’s say that I agree with you that when you look back at surety laws and affray laws, etc., it shows that the legislature can make judgments to disarm people consistent with the Second Amendment based on dangerousness. Why can’t I just say that?”
Similar questions were posed by others on the bench, which could signal the court will sharpen up its earlier Bruen decision relating to a New York law that said people have to show “proper cause” for wanting a firearms license.
he question is now whether the government can disarm a citizen who is deemed dangerous, or if it could do so using other criteria it drums up in the future. The ramification for setting a “dangerousness” standard could have unintended consequences in the law, such as: Can non-violent felons own guns?
