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What happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence?

By MICHAEL W SMITH

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: ‘For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.’”

Refresher course: Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Man shot by Anchorage police identified as Tok resident Sean Burke

A man identified as Sean M. Burke, who had a rough history with the law, was fatally shot by police early on the morning of July 2, following an encounter on a Glenn Highway exit ramp.

Burke was armed with a rifle and had approached officers at the scene, prompting one of them to open fire in self-defense. The incident occurred while the officers were responding to a shots-fired call in the area.

The confrontation unfolded at approximately 5:39 am when two mid-shift patrol officers noticed a blue SUV pulled over on the outbound Glenn Highway exit ramp leading to the South Birchwood exit.

Upon approaching the vehicle, they encountered Burke, who was standing outside the SUV with the rear hatch open, holding a rifle. The suspect then advanced towards the officers, his rifle in hand.

One of the officers discharged his firearm, striking Burke at least once in the upper body. During the course of administering first aid efforts to Burke, authorities discovered a handgun on Burke’s person. He was transported to a nearby hospital by AFD medics but was pronounced dead a short time later. None of the officers involved sustained any injuries during the incident.

The motive behind Burke’s actions and any connection to the earlier shots-fired call remain unknown. As part of the standard protocol, the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions will conduct a review of the officer’s use of force to determine its justification.

Burke, of Tok, had been in trouble many times, most recently in June of 2022 for driving under the influence and having a weapon on him while intoxicated, as well as violating conditions of his release for previous charges.

In that instance, several people had called Troopers to report a Ford Explorer had swerved and nearly caused several head-on collisions on the Tok Cutoff. When Troopers came upon the Explorer, they had found Burke slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious and unresponsive, with his foot on the brake but the vehicle still in gear. In that encounter, Troopers placed the Explorer in “park” and woke up Burke, who was placed under arrest.

Old Harbor crash: three survive, two perish on Kodiak Island

Tthe U.S. Coast Guard deployed a rescue operation Sunday after receiving a report of a plane crash involving five individuals.

The incident occurred approximately three miles north of Old Harbor in Kodiak. Two people were reported dead, while three survivors were rescued and transported to medical facilities for urgent care.

The Coast Guard Seventeenth District command center watchstanders were alerted to the situation through a search and rescue satellite-aided tracking system at around 3:30 p.m. The distress signal originated from a Vertigo Air Taxi Piper Cherokee single-engine aircraft. Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Anchorage command center assumed the role of search and rescue mission coordinators.

At 3:49 p.m., a Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew was diverted to the scene. The helicopter arrived at the crash site at 4:57 p.m. and hoisted two survivors to safety. The two survivors were reported to be in stable condition but had sustained injuries, and were taken to the Kodiak airport to be flown to Anchorage for medical care.

The Coast Guard helicopter crew promptly returned to the crash site and rescued another person who was said to be in critical condition. That individual was also transported to Kodiak Airport for transfer to Anchorage.

Two individuals did not survive the crash.

Erik Patterson, Operations Unit of Sector Anchorage, expressed his condolences: “Our hearts go out to these five individuals and the family and friends who are affected. I thank our aircrew, the good Samaritans, and the Alaska State Troopers for their quick response to this incident.”

The NTSB has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the plane crash.

Old Harbor is a village of about 200 people. The weather in the area is typically foggy. Today’s visibility is only a few hundred feet.

Supreme Court to hear case involving Second Amendment, domestic violence, and a punk with a past

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a gun-rights case involving a Texas man who is challenging a federal ban on the possession of firearms by those who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders.

The Biden Administration appealed the case, called United States v. Rahimi, after a federal appeals court invalidated the ban earlier this year.

Zackey Rahimi assaulted his ex-girlfriend in a Texas parking lot in 2019 and warned her that he would shoot her if she said anything about it to anyone. She did say something.

In February of 2020 a Texas state court issued a domestic violence restraining order against Rahimi, which by default prevented him from possessing firearms. He was warned by the judge that violating the order would be a federal felony.

Rahimi is not a sympathetic plaintiff in this constitutional case and was not exactly a responsible gun owner. He was a danger to the public and those closest to him. After the restraining order in February of 2020, he was involved in five known shootings. He also violated the restraint order by going to his ex-girlfriend’s house in the middle of the night.

“Zackey Rahimi was involved in five shootings in and around Arlington, Texas, between December 2020 and January 2021, including shooting into the residence of an individual to whom he had sold narcotics; shooting at another driver after a wreck, fleeing, returning in a different vehicle, and shooting again at the other driver’s car; shooting at a constable’s car; and shooting into the air after his friend’s credit card was declined at Whataburger (I am not making that last one up). Arlington police identified Rahimi as a suspect in the shootings and executed a warrant on his home, where they found a rifle and a pistol. Rahimi was at that time under a Texas state court civil protective order for an allegation of assault family violence, the terms of which expressly prohibited him from the possession of a firearm, which is (or was) a federal crime,” writes the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

When the police executed a search warrant at his home, they found a handgun, a rifle, ammunition, and a copy of the restraining order. Rahimi, who was also a known drug dealer, peddling marijuna and occasionally cocaine. He was subsequently charged with violating the federal ban on firearm possession by individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to over six years in prison, and three years of supervised parole. Then he challenged the constitutionality of the ban on his ability to own or possess a firearm.

At first, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Rahimi’s conviction. But in 2022, the Supreme Court struck down a decision in New York State relating to the state’s handgun-licensing laws. That is when the 5th Circuit decided Rahimi retained his Second Amendment right to bear arms, because federal government did not demonstrate that the ban aligned with the historical tradition of firearm regulation decided in the New York case.

“The Government fails to demonstrate that § 922(g)(8) ‘s restriction of the Second Amendment right fits within our Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The Government’s proffered analogues falter under one or both of the metrics the Supreme Court articulated in Bruen as the baseline for measuring ‘relevantly similar’ analogues: ‘how and why the regulations burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to armed self-defense,’” Judge Cory T. Wilson wrote in United States v. Rahimi. “As a result, § 922(g)(8) falls outside the class of firearm regulations countenanced by the Second Amendment.”

“…the early ‘going armed’ laws that led to weapons forfeiture are not relevantly similar to § 922(g)(8). First, those laws only disarmed an offender after criminal proceedings and conviction. By contrast, § 922(g)(8) disarms people who have merely been civilly adjudicated to be a threat to another person. Moreover, the ‘going armed’ laws, like the ‘dangerousness’ laws discussed above, appear to have been aimed at curbing terroristic or riotous behavior, i.e., disarming those who had been adjudicated to be a threat to society generally, rather than to identified individuals,” Wilson wrote.

Even surety laws, requiring the posting of a bond by the offender, did not quite fit the case, the court said.

“The surety laws required only a civil proceeding, not a criminal conviction. The ‘credible threat’ finding required to trigger § 922(g)(8) ‘s prohibition on possession of weapons echoes the showing that was required to justify posting of surety to avoid forfeiture. But that is where the analogy breaks down: As the Government acknowledges, historical surety laws did not prohibit public carry, much less possession of weapons, so long as the offender posted surety.”

The 5th Circuit said that the prohibition against gun possession, simply because of a domestic violence restraining order, is inconsistent with the New York case (Heller, Bruen) and the Second Amendment; and that it treats the Second Amendment differently than other individual rights that are guarantees. In addition, the federal law has no limiting principles.

The Biden administration petitioned the Supreme Court for a review. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar noted that disarming individuals who pose a threat to others has long been a government practice and that that allowing the 5th Circuit’s decision to stand will have severe consequences for domestic violence victims.

Meanwhile, Rahimi is in jail on other charges relating to his instances of bad behavior with a gun.

Juneau to host transgender town hall this fall and is developing LGBTQ laws for businesses

Juneau is embracing transgenderism at a whole new level. In September, the capital city will host a town hall on transgenderism.

The item was on the May 16 agenda of the Juneau Human Rights Commission. It’s not clear where the town hall will be held.

“Our Transgender Town Hall will be held on September 28, 2023 from 6:30-8:00 pm. The Mendenhall Valley Public Library only books 8-weeks ahead. Mary found out that the Egan Library is an option but we need to submit a request and they approve based on alignment with the UAS mission” say the minutes from that meeting.

The Juneau Human Rights Commission had cancelled the transgender town hall that it planned for January of 2022, without explanation. The matter was put on hold last year and brought up again in January with renewed vigor.

In addition, the Juneau Human Rights Commission is asking the Assembly to pass a resolution it has drafted requiring the city to only sign contracts with businesses that have a non-discrimination policy expressly covering sexual orientation and gender identity.

The resolution also states that Juneau will be required to recruit LBGTQ workers for city employment.

Bidenomics: Global Federal Credit Union is among many financial institutions laying off lending staff

Global Federal Credit Union has laid off 78 Alaska workers, a result of economic policies from Washington that has created higher interest rates and slowed down borrowing. It’s not because customers quit the credit union after it went “global.” It’s because of trickle down economics and because elections have consequences.

Luckily for those workers, the job availability rate in Alaska is still high. There were over  27,000 job openings in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

The credit union, a member-owned cooperative with more than 5,500 sites available to members in the shared-branch network in all 50 states, has laid off 187 people companywide in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, and Washington. The jobs were primarily in the lending departments.

Headquartered in Anchorage, Global changed its name from Alaska USA Federal Credit Union this year. It is the 17th in the country for asset size, and among the largest credit unions by membership. Global Credit Union has nearly $12 billion in assets.

The credit union system remains well-capitalized and on a solid footing, according to the National Credit Union Administration, created by Congress to monitor, regulate, charter, and supervise federal credit unions. Deposits are insured, just as they are at banks.

But the banking and financial sector in general is suffering from Bidemonics — the policies of the Biden Administration that have driven borrowing rates higher and caused consumers to react by not taking out loans.

A few of the other institutions that have laid off workers this year:

Goldman Sachs Group, headquartered in New York, cut 125 jobs. Announced in February, the layoffs took place in June around the globe, including some in investment banking.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Asia cut 20 investment-banking jobs in Asia as deals fell through, according to Bloomberg.

First Republic Bank, which collapsed earlier this year, was bought by JPMorgan Chase, which notified about 1,000 of the employees that they were being let go.

Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., cut 1,000 jobs in April and plans more this year, to control costs. Bank of America will also cut less than 200 jobs in its investment bank, according to American Banker.

PacWest Bancorp laid off around 200 employees at subsidiary Civic Financial Services, a residential real estate company it bought during the house-buying boom of 2021.

PenFed Credit Union, the third-largest credit union, cut 569 jobs earlier this year. That was 14% of its workforce, a result of the falling loan business coming from high interest rates.

Alaska and 10 other states tells EPA ‘see you in court’ over wood stoves

The State of Alaska and 10 other states and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency on Friday delivered a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of its failure to enforce wood stove emission standards.

The federal agency is, through its own reckless actions, creating a danger to communities heavily reliant on wood for warmth, the states argue. They want the federal government to live up to the standards it sets for communities.

The communities of Fairbanks and North Pole experience some of the coldest winters in the United States. Many residents heavily depend on wood stoves to keep their homes warm. Atmospheric inversions in the winter cause smoke to settle and the air quality to become severe at times.

The EPA programs that try to get people to trade in older stoves and other wood-burning appliances haven’t necessarily improved air quality, the states argue, because the new stoves don’t meet EPA standards either. Thus, states wonder what the point is in changing out old stoves for new ones.

“If newer wood heaters do not meet cleaner standards, then programs to change out old wood heaters may provide little health benefits at significant public cost,” the states said.

The notice of intent warns the EPA to either address the issues with its nonsensical wood stove certification program or face litigation.

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor highlighted the need to protect people in the Interior.

“On the one hand, the EPA is threatening to disapprove the State’s air quality plan for Fairbanks, yet on the other, EPA ignores its own rules that directly impact air emissions by wood stoves,” Taylor said.

The EPA’s own Office of Inspector General previously released a report that exposed systemic failures in the agency’s administration of its wood stove rules.

“The State’s plan, which the EPA proposes to disapprove, incorporates numerous efforts to decrease the impact of wood smoke on air quality,” explained Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Jason Brune.

He criticized the EPA’s obsession with elements of the State Implementation Plan that the federal government wants changed, but in such a way that it would offer minimal environmental benefit or impose excessive financial burdens on utility ratepayers. Brune sees the lawsuit as a means for Alaska to ensure that the EPA adheres to the same standards it expects from the state.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been conducting a study of Fairbanks’ winter air over the past four years. The study found that during inversions, smoke is trapped at an altitude of 100 feet. When the inversions occur, an air alert is called, and people living in the “non-attainment area” who do not have a “No Other Adequate Source of Heat (NOASH)” permit must stop using wood-burning or pellet stoves and shift to their other forms of heat that emit less particulates than wood heat.

“These alerts, along with burning dry wood, replacement with better stoves or conversion to less-polluting oil or gas, are probably the reason we have cut peak pollution PM2.5 concentrations in half in the last decade,” the university study reported.

Read more about the Fairbanks Winter Air Study at UAF at this link.

Chugach Electric asks for 6% rate hike

Chugach Electric Association, the newly formed monopoly resulting from the merger of the two Anchorage electric utilities, is seeking approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to raise its base rates.

The electric utility has proposed an increase of nearly 6% for the majority of its customers, encompassing areas that includes more than 40% of the state’s population: Anchorage, Girdwood, Whittier, Hope, and Tyonek on the western shore of Cook Inlet.

The rate hike would be implemented in two steps. Starting from Sept. 1 of this year, customers would see a 3.6% increase, followed by the remaining 2.3% increase in September 2024.

This move may disappoint voters who voted for the purchase of Municipal Light & Power by Chugach in 2018, and who were promised stable power bills after the merger on Oct. 30, 2020.

Chugach Electric, which paid $1 billion for ML&P, has cited several cost drivers, including inflation, supply chain disruptions, declining electricity sales, and increased investment by consumers in energy-saving devices, as reasons for the rate increase. It has also said this rate increase is just a normal result of the merger.

For an average monthly bill of $100, this would result in an additional cost of about $6. Chugach Electric last raised its base rates in May 2020, when it implemented a 1.1% increase, blaming the Covid pandemic for the need for revenue.

The new proposal, just 36 months from the last increase, comes as a blow to customers who were led to believe that the merger would bring about efficiencies that would keep costs stable.

The increase in power bills by 6% adds to the also quickly rising price of rentals in Anchorage. As of June 2023, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Anchorageis $1,350, 35% increase over the previous year. Rent.com says a 2-bedroom apartment in Anchorage averages over $1,900, a 54% increase over the year before.

The decision to increase rates will trigger a 30-day comment period, providing an opportunity for the public to voice their opinions to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.