The Dunleavy Administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the First Amendment rights of state employees, calling for greater protection of free speech rights within the workplace, as it pertains to forced dues to unions that use the money for political campaigns.
Attorney General Treg Taylor is spearheading this effort, citing concerns over current Alaska law’s compliance with the landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31. This ruling established that states cannot compel public employees to financially support union speech with which they disagree.
According to the state’s legal filing, Alaska state law appears to contradict the principles outlined in Janus by mandating the State to forcibly take union dues from employees’ paychecks based solely on written authorizations received from the union.
The automatic deduction from workers’ paycheck raises questions about employees’ awareness of their rights and whether they have knowingly consented to such deductions. Furthermore, the state is required to continue these deductions even after an employee requests a cessation.
“Across the country, states will deduct dues simply because the union asserts that it has the employees’ authorization,” Taylor said.
Instances of unions compelling non-consenting employees to contribute dues have emerged since the Janus ruling. For example, in one case, over 5,000 individuals in the State of Washington were forced to pay dues despite explicit objections to union membership.
“Before we take any money from the paychecks of state employees, we need to ensure that the employees were properly advised of their rights and consented to the deduction,” Dunleavy said. “And if employees disagree with union speech, they need to be given an opportunity to opt out. Our payroll system does not adequately protect the constitutional rights of our employees and changes must be made.”
This move by the State of Alaska to seek Supreme Court intervention marks another chapter in the ongoing debate surrounding the rights of state employees and the application of Janus principles.
Russian authorities have not yet confirmed whether the mercenary leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, was on a private jet that crashed on Wednesday. The warlord is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list.
“In the Tver region, near the village of Kuzhenkino, a private Embraer Legacy aircraft crashed while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members. According to preliminary information, all on board were killed. EMERCOM of Russia is conducting search operations,” according to Russia’s emergencies ministry.
Yevgeny V. Prigozhin
In June, the leader of the Wagner Group rebellion cut a deal with President Vladimir Putin and said he would exile himself to neighboring Belarus. This deal was made after his fighters came within 120 miles of Moscow in a mutiny launched against the Russian military after the Wagner Group suffered from friendly fire from Russian forces. The Wagner Group was supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
But the warlord was later reportedly spotted in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.
According to reports out of Moscow this morning, eight bodies were recovered from the crash site near the village of Kuzhenkino.
Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsia said Prigozhin’s name was on the manifest, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported on social media.
Prigozhin was a close confidant of Putin until he launched the rebellion. Starting out as a hot dog seller and developing a deeply notorious reputation, he is sometimes called Prigozhin “Putin’s chef,” as he has owned restaurants and catering firms that provided meals for the Kremlin.
He is on the FBI “most wanted list” for attempting to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
The FBI claims Prigozhin oversaw an electoral interference operation by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm,” which he funded and which spread misinformation via social media.
He is accused by the FBI of a “conspiracy to defraud the US by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions” of the Federal Election Commission, the United States Department of Justice, and the United States Department of State,” according to the FBI, which offers $250,000 for information that might lead to his arrest.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced today the appointment of Jason Brune to the public seat on the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board of Trustees.
Brune served on the APFC board when he was commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, a position he held for four and a half years before resigning earlier this month to return to the private sector.
Brune steps into the role vacated by outgoing trustee Steve Rieger. His four-term tenure on the APFC board of trustees commences immediately. It is a volunteer position.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy endorsed Donald Trump for president, it was reported by Politico today.
“Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is endorsing Donald Trump, giving the former president the support of a governor whose state is expected to hold its nominating contest on the all-important ‘Super Tuesday’ primary date,” the publication reported.
“The endorsement comes as Trump expands his broad lead in support from Republican governors and federal lawmakers over his rivals in the GOP presidential primary. With Dunleavy’s backing, Trump has earned the support of three of the five Republican governors who have endorsed in the race. Trump has also received the support of over 80 members of Congress, more than 16 times the amount of his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis,” Politico reported.
The Republican debate on Wednesday will feature eight candidate, but Trump will not be one of them. He has chosen to put together a competing event with Tucker Carlson, to be broadcast on Twitter at approximately the same time as the debate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will all be on the debate stage.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says he met all the criteria for being included in the debate, but was not included on the list. Neither was Larry Elder, who also claims to have met the minimum fundraising and polling threshold.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan expressed his satisfaction today over a decision made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to not list the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.
The announcement comes after Sen. Sullivan wrote to USFWS Director Martha Williams, voicing his strong opposition to the potential listing.
The potential listing of the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species had raised concerns among community leaders and experts associated with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It was widely feared that such a listing could have a detrimental impact on the local economy and community interests.
The February 2022 gray wolves in much of the Lower 48 western states were put back on the endangered list by a U.S. District Court judge, in response to actions by environmental groups objecting to their removal from the list.
“I want to commend the Fish & Wildlife Service for listening to Alaskans and abiding by the clear science in their decision not to list the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species,” Sen. Sullivan said. “This decision is a victory for science-based decision-making and local consultation, and a defeat for the Lower 48 radical environmental groups and their relentless war against our state and opportunities for our people. I wish more decisions coming from the Biden Interior Department prioritized science over politics and heeded the voices of people who actually feel the impacts of these decisions. Alaskans, like all Americans, deserve the right to access their lands and have jobs and economic opportunities,” the senator said.
Alexander Archipelago wolf is a subspecies of North American gray wolf. Found in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia’s coastal mainland and larger island complexes, the wolf is smaller and darker in color than wolves on the mainland. The Fish and Wildlife Service received a request from environmental groups to list it as endangered.
To determine if listing was warranted, the agency conducted a species status assessment using the best available Western science and traditional ecological knowledge of Southeast Alaska Indigenous peoples,” the agency said.
“The extensive review process found that Alexander Archipelago wolf is not currently endangered throughout its range, nor likely to become so within the foreseeable future,” the agency said.
However, leading up to the push to try to get it listed, Scientific American boldly wrote in 2015 that the subspecies of wolf was nearing extinction, in a story headlined, “Alaska’s Rare Alexander Archipelago Wolves Nearly Wiped Out in 1 Year.”
“These are dire times for one of the world’s rarest wolf subspecies. Over the past year one of the most important populations* of Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago wolves (Canis lupus ligoni) has plummeted from 221 to as low as 60, according to data released last week. As a result, conservation groups—which have sought to protect the rare wolves under the Endangered Species Act for years—are now calling for emergency steps to preserve the few wolves that remain,” the science magazine wrote in a story that seems to have been placed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a group keen to put the wolf on the endangered list.
“Named after the southeastern Alaskan island chain, Alexander Archipelago wolves are smaller and lighter than other North American wolves, from which they have been isolated for millennia. They rely almost exclusively on a single prey species, Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis), although the wolves have been known to eat salmon a few months out of the year. Both the wolves and the deer have suffered over the past few decades as logging has eroded their island habitats,” the science-themed magazine wrote.
“Unfortunately for both species, the humans living and working on Prince of Wales Island and other remote islands also like to hunt deer. ‘I think the big problem is that some hunters see wolves as competitors for deer,’ says Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity. ‘Because old-growth logging has reduced habitat for Sitka black-tailed deer, wolves and humans are competing for fewer deer,'” Scientific American said.
The big push is on: Parents are being told to get their children vaccinated for Covid.
While not opposed to vaccinations, I believe every parent or guardian should make the best decision for their children based on the science. Most parents diligently look to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or their family doctor for recommendations. These are not bad sources, but they are not the only place to look.
Chart above shows cases by age, deaths by age of Covid in Alaska.
Note in the chart above that those under 20 years of age (orange) had 25% of the Covid cases.
But the middle chart shows less than 1% of those who died with Covid were under 20. Of those who died, no mention of comorbidities is included. A comorbidity is usually a long-term or chronic disease or condition that can complicate another serious illness. We also don’t know if those who contracted Covid had been “vaccinated” for Covid.
In a review by scientists led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute concerning covid “vaccines,” the authors stated natural immunity is pretty common in younger populations, due to the virus being around (albeit mutating) for the last two years. Therefore, the benefit for healthy children to receive this MRNA injection may be minimal.
The CDC announced that a new booster dose will be released by the third week in September or early October.
That booster, the CDC said, will assist with coverage for the new mutation called ERIS, despite the fact the Covid variant has already mutated. The experts think it’s close enough that “it should” give protection.
The government is looking at possibly giving itEmergency Use Authorization even though President Joe Biden declared the Covid Emergency over in May 2023.
Once you have the information concerning the benefits of the MRNA injection, you must look at the potential side effects from the injection. Is the “cure” more harmful than the disease?
It would seem so, especially for children. Healthy children have minimal risk of getting the disease and getting any complications from it. The experts only “think” might be effective against the virus that has already mutated.
This is not science. And some of the really harmful side effects from the jab are myocarditis and pericarditis, especially in young males. Myocarditis means inflammation of the heart and pericarditis is an inflammation in the sac surrounding the heart. These conditions can lead to long-term complications and death.
According to Dr. Meryl Nass, internal medicine physician, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CDC knew about the myocarditis safety issues as early as February 2021, but “hid it until they got the vaccine authorized for 12-15-year-olds in May 2021.” And then they kept pushing the vaccine on these highest-risk groups.”
But it is difficult for one to find this information that the government wants to hide. In their “medical misinformation policy” YouTube has defined what it doesn’t want you to know. Any information that “contradicts local health authorities” or the World Health Organization must be kept off their pages, and this includes prevention misinformation, treatment misinformation, and denial information.
Big Pharma has hidden side-effect information until it has been forced to disclose the information.
If you have all the information and good science to back it up, you as individuals and as parents can figure things out for yourselves and make the best decision for yourself and your children. There are resources out there for you like the Childrens’ Health Defense and Frontline Doctors.
Please stay educated. Ask questions. Do not be fooled or manipulated. Your children’s lives depend on you.
Linda Boyle, RN, MSN, DM, was formerly the chief nurse for the 3rd Medical Group, JBER, and was the interim director of the Alaska VA. Most recently, she served as Director for Central Alabama VA Healthcare System. She is the director of the Alaska Covid Alliance.
Key officials from the White House and the Department of the Interior convened in Anchorage with the Alaska Federation of Natives on Monday to discuss infrastructure development initiatives in the state.
The high-profile meeting included Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden and White House Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator, Mitch Landrieu, Department of Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau, and other senior officials. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski participated in the discussions.
It’s unclear if the State of Alaska was invited to attend, but no members of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities were listed as part of the AFN meeting, which included:
Mitch Landrieu, White House Senior Advisor to President Biden; Ryan F. Berni, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Infrastructure Implementation; Maya N. Humes, Senior Communications Advisor; Tommy Beaudreau, Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary; Mackenzie Landa, DOI Advisor to the Deputy Secretary; Raina Thiele, DOI Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Alaska Affairs and Strategic Priorities; Katherine Pustay Currie, DOI Deputy Infrastructure Coordinator; Sally Tucker, Senior Advisor, DOI Infrastructure Communications; Julie Kitka, President, AFN; Ana Hoffman, Co-Chair AFN; Joe Nelson, Co-Chair AFN; Ben Mallott, Vice President of External Affairs, AFN and Sealaska Corporation President; Nicole Borromeo, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, AFN; Nikki Stoops, Special Assistant to the President, AFN; Michelle Anderson, President, Ahtna, Inc., and AFN Board Member; Vivian Korthuis, President, AVCP and AFN Board Member; Nathan McCowan, CEO, St. George Tanaq Corporation and AFN Board Member; Sheri Buretta, President, Chugach Regional Corporation and AFN Board Member; Andy Stemp, Chief Financial Officer, Arctic Slope Native Association; and Tom Panamaroff, Koniag and AFN Board Member; Pat Pitney, President, University of Alaska; Garrett Boyle, Federal Co-Chair, Denali Commission; Daniel M. White, Chancellor, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski.
Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and Doyon, two of the largest Alaska Native Corporations, were also apparently not part of this meeting. They have withdrawn from AFN. State of Alaska officials were not invited, as the White House continues to develop a government-to-government relationship with tribes that cuts out the any state-level entity.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has $5.2 billion in funding earmarked for Alaska across 934 infrastructure projects, which was the main topic of the AFN meeting. These funds are typically sent through state budgets and the projects are executed by the states themselves. Therefore, the largest state stakeholder being absent was noted by some Alaskans.
The entire parade of federal officials is unusual: Alaska has never in its history seen so many cabinet-level appointees as it has had this summer, and many are asking “Why all the attention, when the federal government seems intent on shutting Alaska’s economy down?”
In fact, so many Biden surrogates have been to Alaska, it’s hard to keep track of them all. This week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland joins the list, touring rural communities with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and an entourage.
Murkowski has also been unusually visible and active, moving through many Alaska communities throughout August recess. Her staff nearly every day posts one or more videos or photos showcasing her visits on social media, a robust public relations campaign for her office. In reality, Sullivan has been more present in communities but has not been as active in publicizing his visits on social media.
Unlike Rep. Mary Peltola, who has been invisible in August over the recess, Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan have been with Alaskans all over the state at an exhausting pace.
Update: Peltola has shown up for press conference photos at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage on Tuesday.
Rep. Mary Peltola at the Alaska Native Heritage Center with members of the Biden Cabinet on Tuesday.
On Monday, Sullivan was a speaker at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration port facility in Ketchikan, as the community welcomes the return of the NOAA ship Fairweather, which is home-ported in Ketchikan but has been in Oregon due to the disrepair of the dock in Ketchikan, a repair project that Sen. Sullivan has championed getting finished since he joined to the Senate in 2015.
Earlier this month, Sullivan brought Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Kotzebue and he and Sullivan visited seven communities in three days, including Kobuk, Shungnak, and Kiana, Huslia, Hughes, and Allakaket.
Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks during the ceremony reopening the NOAA port facility in Ketchikan on a sunny August day.
The stream of federal visits to Alaska all started with a visit from First Lady Jill Biden to Bethel in May and continues this week with Attorney General Garland, Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Susie Feliz, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Dr. Richard Spinrad.
Along with the cabinet-level officials, they bring with them entire entourages of functionaries who have struggled to find hotel rooms and cars during the height of Alaska’s tourist season.
Rep. Mary Peltola promoted a charitable fundraising fishing tournament immediately following the Kenai Classic, and has attached her name to it as a host.
For years, a fishing event for children has been known as the Lu Young Fund Fishing Event, named for the late wife of the late Congressman Don Young.
But Peltola, who replaced Young in Congress, is skirting and perhaps has broken campaign laws by using the fishing event to promote her campaign for reelection. She sent the invitation out from her campaign email account to official government accounts across D.C. and Alaska, that shows her as the honorary host. There is no disclaimer on the flyer.
Because of that, it means she is receiving a campaign benefit from a nonprofit organization, the Lu Young Children’s Fund.
The invitation landed in official accounts in Congress and in the accounts of staff and legislators in Alaska before August recess. That’s a violation on many levels, both state and federal.
If she is representing herself as an official in Congress at the event, Peltola can’t send out the invitation from her campaign account to official congressional emails. If she intended it to be a campaign function, she has forgotten to disclose that with the required verbiage.
“The Lu Young Children’s Fund Fishing Event will be held in Seward, Alaska August 25, 26, 27, 2023, and we hope that you will join our Honorary Guest Congresswoman Mary Sattler Peltola for some of the best fishing and most breathtaking scenery in the world,” the invitation says. “A registration form is enclosed, along with a short list of important details. Please register today to save your place, since the event is limited to 30 participants and the spots fill quickly.” The invitation was signed by a deputy campaign manager.
“Invitational participants will enjoy fishing for salmon and halibut in beautiful Resurrection Bay and the waters of Seward. Your participation fee includes 3 days of charter fishing, breakfast and lunch each day, a gourmet dinner, fishing license, fish processing and shipping. The fish you catch will be flash frozen and shipped to you anywhere within the United States.”
The note that accompanied the invitation came from Elisa Rios, deputy campaign manager.
The Lu Young fishing event has now been turned into a political event for Rep. Peltola in violation of Federal Election Commission laws.
An Alaska Airlines jet landing at the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif. suffered heavy damage late Sunday night in the middle of Hurricane Hilary’s simultaneous arrival in Southern California.
Flight 1288 from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was operated with a Boeing 737-800, which “experienced an issue soon after landing … and was unable to taxi to the gate due to an issue with its landing gear.”
Alaska Airlines 737-800 on the taxiway of the John Wayne Airport after a hard landing on Sunday night.
Six crew and 106 passengers were onboard, but there were no injuries reported.
A passenger posted video of the hard landing, which shows sparks flying past the window. Other photos were posted on social media that showed the port side engine resting on the taxiway, shown in the photos above.
The jet’s tail number is N516AS. It has been flown for Alaska Airlines since the company bought it in December 2008.
“Photos posted on social media by the Orange County Fire Authority indicate the MLG [main landing gear] mount broke through the upper wing skin,” according to the Aviation Safety Network website.
