Tuesday, July 29, 2025
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Breaking: Feds indict Trump

The Department of Justice has filed seven counts against former President Donald Trump, a move that will surely divide Americans into factions in advance of the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is a declared candidate.

The charges include conspiracy to obstruct and willful retention of documents that were found when the FBI raided his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he had stored documents the Justice Department said were classified.

“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 pm. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote on social media Thursday evening.

“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN. THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote on TruthSocial, the social media site he owns.

In a video on TruthSocial, he reminded viewers that he not only received more votes than any sitting president in history in 2020, but that he is now leading in the polls for president for 2024, which makes this a case of election interference. He called it “lawfare,” which refers to warfare conducted by legal proceedings.

Watch Trump’s video response here.

The Department of Justice has not issued a news release about the matter as of this writing.

This is the second time Trump has been indicted, but this is his first federal indictment. Although classified documents have been found at President Joe Biden’s offices and in his garage, no such similar indictment has been issued.

In the first indictment, the case against him has to do with supposed hush money paid to a sex worker, Stormy Daniels, during his 2016 campaign for president.

Hillary Clinton was found to be in possession of classified materials, and was using a personal email address to have classified information sent to her, but no such indictment was ever filed against her. Her excuse was that there were no classified markings on the emails sent to her that were on her private server, in the bathroom of her home. But an investigation showed that over 100 documents in her possession contained classified information.

Passing: Evangelist Pat Robertson, who won Alaska’s Republican presidential preference vote in 1988

Pat Robertson, a popular televangelist who founded “The 700 Club” as he grew a tiny Virginia television station into the Christian Broadcasting Network, died Thursday at age 93.

Robertson, who ran for president in 1988, was a Southern Baptist minister who advocated for conservative Christians and was influential in Republican politics, particularly as the founder and leader of the Christian Coalition of America.

In the 1988 presidential caucus vote run by the Alaska Republican Party, Robertson won the vote with nearly double the number of votes given to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. Robertson took 47%, with Bush getting 24% and Sen. Bob Dole coming in third with 20%.

Many of his statements are highly controversial to the liberal media and Democrats, but some of the statements were prophetic. For example, in 1992 he wrote, “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

He held many traditional Southern Baptist ideas, such as men being the head of households, homosexuality being a sin, and more.

The Christian Broadcasting Network announced his death today. Almost immediately, the leftist Alaska social media account known as The Mudflats danced on his grave: “They keep calling him a ‘trailblazer.’ The trail he’s on *now* is blazing, all right.”

But blaze a trail in Christian outreach, he did: According to Robertson’s website, CBN is one of the largest Christian broadcasting group in the world, with programs in 200 countries and 70 different languages. “The 700 Club” is a project Robertson started in 1996. He retired from the show in 2021, when he turned 91.

He was also the founder of International Family Entertainment Inc., Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, American Center for Law and Justice, The Flying Hospital, Inc., and other organizations and broadcast entities.

Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson was born on March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, to A. Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father served for 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Read his biography at his website at this link.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Downing: When Pride Month ends, the Marxist Continuous Revolution will look for a new cause

By SUZANNE DOWNING

The question of whether universities practice institutional racism is not merely hypothetical; the jury of public opinion knows full well that it occurs under the protection of Affirmative Action law. 

This issue finds itself at the center of one of the most contentious U.S. Supreme Court decisions set to be announced this month. The justices are currently deliberating whether race can factor into the university admissions process as they wrap up their caseload for the summer.

Whatever the decision, it’s bound to make waves. Just as with the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in June 2022, any ruling that appears to weaken Affirmative Action policies, often championed by left-wing factions, could spark fierce backlash. 

This could potentially lead to another summer marked by social unrest, with defenders of race-based admissions pulling out the long knives for the Supreme Court, calling it inherently racist.

Advocates of the Marxist theory of Continuous Revolution know a decision like this one could serve as the perfect rallying cry for their cause, demonstrating their view that the court itself needs a revolutionary overhaul. They will argue for packing the court with another justice. They may use the decision to hound Justice Clarence Thomas, who is one of the greatest civil rights advocates on the court, and the oldest member, one who they hope to retire under pressure.

At the core of this issue are affirmative action programs at the publicly funded University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University, which have been accused of implementing racially biased admissions criteria that discriminate against individuals of Asian descent.

As both institutions receive taxpayer funding, they fall under the jurisdiction of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures equal protection under the law.

These cases were initially brought to the fore last October by the emerging organization, Students for Fair Admissions, which sued both institutions of higher learning, challenging the prevailing academic admissions system.

The plaintiffs allege UNC practiced discrimination against both Asian and white applicants. Meanwhile, they claim that Harvard admissions officers rated applicants of Asian heritage lower on personality qualities such as having a “positive personality,” likability, kindness, and enjoying wide respect among their peers.

This discrimination allegation emerges from the review of 160,000 student records, which found Asian-American students outperform other racial and ethnic groups in areas such as test scores, grades, and even extracurricular activities. But was the subjective “personality” profile that, Students for Fair Admissions argue, reduced their chances of getting into an elite school.

Despite Asian-Americans representing the fastest-growing major racial and ethnic group in the U.S., their enrollment at Harvard remains basically capped. This, despite the Asian-American population nearly tripling over the past 30 years and their representation in the U.S. population increasing by over 200%, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

A review of Harvard admissions revealed that without these subjective “personality” factors, the student body would be comprised of 43% Asian-Americans. When compared to the population growth as a whole, and when seen through the lense of the non-race-based admission practices of Cal Poly Tech, this suggests that Harvard may be suppressing Asian-American enrollment by at least 20%.

A district court initially ruled in favor of Harvard, a decision later concurred by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The case was then combined with UNC’s for Supreme Court consideration.

Affirmative Action is like a bad penny — it keeps showing up. In a 2016 decision, the high court upheld the affirmative action program at the University of Texas at Austin in a 4-3 vote. The lead author of the decision, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, has since retired, but Justice Clarence Thomas, who dissented in the case, remains.

It’s now 2023, and we find ourselves with a court that is arguably more aligned with the U.S. Constitution. 

Yet, the Supreme Court has its public relations challenges. Its decision to send the abortion question back to the states was subjected to leftist and mainstream media disinformation that characterized it as a “ban on abortion,” when it was merely a return to the constitutional principle of the 10thAmendment: “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The media and Democrats – but I repeat myself – masterfully used the abortion decision to score political points in races stretching from school boards all the way to the halls of Congress in 2022. Women, in particular, were unhappy with the court’s decision, as interpreted for them by the moguls of Marxism who target them and lit a fire under the pro-abortion feminist faction. 

However, American universities also face dwindling public support. They are seen as increasingly costly producers of ideologically slanted graduates, with the public growing more skeptical about the value of a college degree. There’s a legitimate understanding that these institutions cater to the elites running government and nonprofits, all the while disregarding the concerns of the very taxpayers who fund them.

After Pride Month concludes — and that will happen in three weeks — the new Marxist Continuous Revolution of 2023-24 will need a new cause, and may return to the well of “America is racist and the Supreme Court is the most racist of all.”

Suzanne Downing is the publisher of Must Read Alaska.

Alaska Division of Elections will continuously evaluate membership in ERIC, with no final decision to stay

No final decision and no decision final: The Alaska Division of Elections is evaluating its membership in the ERIC database system, which is the Electronic Registration Information Center that helps states keep their voter rolls accurate.

Nine of 33 member states have dropped out of ERIC membership because of concerns about the organization’s partisan origins, current political biases, connections with leftist groups, and various data policies that appear to favor Democrats.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, which gets funding from George Soros, was party to the creation of ERIC with an initial grant, but has no official role with the organization currently. Yet suspicions remain. Pew Charitable Trusts has given grants to several states — including Alaska under former Gov. Bill Walker — to take part in ERIC.

Earlier this year, three more states — MissouriFlorida and West Virginia — left ERIC. Then Ohio and Iowa left at the same time. Recently, the Texas legislature passed a bill to withdraw from ERIC. That bill has passed both the House and Senate.

That leaves only 24 states and the District of Columbia that will be part of the ERIC information-sharing system by this fall.

“As Secretary of State, I have an obligation to protect the personal information of Florida’s citizens, which the ERIC agreement requires us to share,” said Florida Secretary of State, Cord Byrd, when Florida withdrew on March 6. “Florida has tried to back reforms to increase protections, but these protections were refused. Therefore, we have lost confidence in ERIC.”

“I cannot justify the use of Ohio’s tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote in his letter explaining the separation from ERIC.

Alaska officials, however, are continuously weighing the value of staying, because the information is still valuable to law enforcement officers who are investigating voter fraud, officials said. But these officials are keenly aware that as fewer states participate, the value diminishes.

The dues to belong may be also higher with fewer participants.

The remaining members of ERIC are:

Alaska
Arizona
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia
Illinois
(Iowa leaves June 2023)
Kentucky
Maine
Massachusetts
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
(Ohio leaves June 2023)
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
(Texas has voted to leave, date uncertain)
Utah
Vermont
(Virginia leaves August 2023)
Washington
Wisconsin

District of Columbia

Win Gruening: Change in capital city leadership brings opportunity

By WIN GRUENING

With current and projected turnover in city leadership, Juneau citizens might consider new ways to meet the challenges facing their community.

Understanding how these challenges affect Alaskans’ perception of Juneau as the state capital is important. Juneau is a multi-faceted city shaped by tourism, mining, recreation, and a lively arts and culture community.  But its core identity as Alaska’s capital city is foremost in people’s minds.

Juneau City Manager Rorie Watt recently announced his retirement effective Sept. 30. CBJ Treasurer Angie Flick was recently selected to replace outgoing City Finance Director Jeff Rogers on June 30.  After a nationwide search, Fred Hauser was hired to replace retiring Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss on July 1.

While I haven’t always agreed with their policy choices, it’s not helpful to critique out-going  holders of these jobs.  Serving in high-visibility leadership positions is rarely easy and usually a thankless job. All deserve credit for their public service and dedication to the city and school district.  

But, anytime leadership changes, there is an opportunity to re-examine best practices, priorities, and goals.

During my 25-plus years as a member of the Alaska Committee, an organization dedicated to improving and enhancing Juneau as Alaska’s Capital City, I have seen a lot of positive changes. But there seems to be a diminishing public awareness of how local actions affect statewide opinions of Juneau as a capital city.

While our economy is finally emerging from a pandemic with schools back in session and the future looks brighter, many challenges remain.

At the top of the list of challenges facing Juneau city leaders will be:

  • making Juneau a more affordable place to live
  • improving student achievement and educational choices in Juneau schools 
  • as a by-product, making Juneau a better and more welcoming capital city.

These challenges deserve equal attention. They are largely not “money” problems. If they were, we would have solved them long ago. 

Affordability and availability of housing is a multi-layered issue. It’s more than just making more land available, subsidizing projects, or hiring a housing director. Bureaucratic processes, over-regulation, restrictive zoning and a “not-in-my-backyard attitude” can stymie even the best of projects.

Property taxes are also having a dramatic impact on housing affordability.  With a 20% increase in Juneau property assessments over several years without a corresponding reduction in the millage rate, property owners and renters have been negatively impacted. Legislators and private employers are struggling to find housing for their staff.  

The Juneau Community Foundation recently purchased and donated to the State a former office building next to the Capitol which will be turned into 33 apartments for legislative housing.  This is just another example of generous donations by the city and other Juneau organizations that have improved the Capitol complex over the years.  However, while this latest gift will be helpful, it will do little to lower the overall cost of living in the community.

There’s no reason affordability, education, and capital city goals cannot be complementary, or even work in tandem.   For example, there is a continuing shortage of workers in Juneau.  School and private sector partnerships can help cultivate employment interests, good work habits, and customer service skills critical to being a good host city.

Student proficiency in math, science, and language arts should remain a primary focus.  But not everyone is cut out for a college degree. Can we better prepare students for our specific local workforce?  Can we partner with the tourism, mining, and retail industries to grow bookkeepers, boat captains, pilots, mining technicians and diesel mechanics?

If educational improvements are only seen through the lens of more funding, conflict will continue. As school populations decline, it’s clearly evident that school building consolidations are necessary and must be considered.

I hope that in the process of interviewing prospective candidates for the superintendent position, our school district clearly articulated its facility and enrollment challenges.  In years past, many legislators chose to bring their families to Juneau and enroll them in our schools during legislative session.  That’s a worthy goal for our school district to consider – a “big picture” capital city perspective. 

Juneau’s cost of living and the quality of our schools have an outsized influence on whether people choose to live here, work here, or stay here.  If they don’t, we suffer economically, employee recruitment issues will increase, and state and federal government offices will be more likely to move.  More significantly, Juneau will be perceived as a poor steward of Alaska’s capital.

Will city leaders accept and promote our capital city’s larger responsibility to all Alaskans and the notion that nothing is “off the table” when considering how best to move forward?

After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.

Win Gruening: Juneau spending up, taxes up, population flat

Trump denies reports he is on verge of being federally indicted

Former President Donald Trump dismissed reports in the mainstream media on Wednesday that federal prosecutors had notified him about an impending indictment in the ongoing Justice Department investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Taking to his social media platform, TruthSocial, Trump asserted his innocence and said he had done nothing wrong.

“No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong.” He further expressed his belief that he has been a target of a weaponized Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump listed various episodes from his presidency, including the Russia investigation, the Mueller Report, and the Ukraine phone call, which he referred to as “SCAMS & WITCH HUNTS.”

The New York Times and other outlets had earlier reported that reliable sources confirmed federal prosecutors had officially informed Trump’s legal team that he is a target of another investigation into his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

The notification, which reportedly came from the office of special counsel Jack Smith, is considered a significant development in the investigation and indicates an increasing likelihood of criminal charges being brought against the former president.

The specific timing of when Trump’s legal team received the notification regarding his status as a target in the special counsel’s inquiry remained undisclosed.

Biden bribery brief: FBI will allow Oversight Committee access

House Republicans in the Oversight Committee have decided against holding a vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress, but they are not letting up in their investigation into corruption in and around President Joe Biden and his family.

The decision came as the Oversight Committee, scheduled to meet Thursday, received an offer from the FBI that would allow all committee members to review a document from 2020, which is at the core of the investigation. It’s a document that for weeks the agency has refused to say even exists.

Committee Chair James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky made the announcement late Wednesday.

“After weeks of refusing to even admit the FD-1023 record exists, the FBI has caved and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Comer said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released its prepared resolution and accompanying report recommending that the House of Representatives find FBI Director Wray in contempt of Congress during its Thursday morning meeting.

“We have been clear that the FBI must produce the unclassified FD-1023 record to the custody of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. To date, the FBI has refused to comply with our lawfully issued subpoena and even refused to admit the record’s existence up until a week ago. Once Director Wray confirmed the record’s existence, the FBI started their coverup by leaking a false narrative to the media. The case is not closed as the White House, Democrats, and the FBI would have the American people believe. The FBI created this record based on information from a credible informant who has worked with the FBI for over a decade and paid six figures. The informant had first-hand conversations with the foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Biden. And now, Attorney General Barr has confirmed that the record was given to the U.S. Attorney in Delaware for the purpose of that investigation,” said Chairman Comer. “Americans have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability. The Oversight Committee must follow the facts for the American people and ensure the federal government is held accountable.”

Committee members will be able to view the document in a “secure location,” according to sources. The FBI will allow Comer and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, to review two additional documents in question.

Governor names Jerry Moses as new DC director for Alaska

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the appointment of Jerry Moses as the director of the State of Alaska’s Washington DC Office. In this role, Moses is responsible for representing Alaska’s interests by working closely with federal agencies and members of Congress.

The position of DC director has been vacant for months. Former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes left in March. Before that, the role was held by Kip Knudson, who retired last year. The governor has been recruiting and interviewing for the new director.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Jerry Moses to this administration. I know that Jerry’s knowledge and experience will prove to be an invaluable asset for Alaska in our nation’s capital,” Dunleavy said.

Moses brings to the role 15 years of working in Washington DC. Prior to joining the Dunleavy Administration, he served as the vice president of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Moses also held the position of senior counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, where he worked on critical issues affecting Native American communities.

Born at Mt. Edgecumbe, Sitka, and raised in Fairbanks, Moses has deep roots in Alaska. He is a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he earned his undergraduate degree. Moses earned a law degree from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard University TH Chang School of Public Health. He started his new job this week.

The eco-extremists keep guessing, and keep getting it wrong

By RICK WHITBECK | POWER THE FUTURE

It’s almost become comical.

Washington Post story this week bemoaned the end of permanent ice in the Arctic’s oceans, noting that the original estimate of 2050 was likely to be sped up to somewhere around 2035.

Anyone who has followed this guessing game knows it is nothing other than a fear-over-facts narrative by the climate cult; designed to sustain income streams for the various eco groups and clicks for mainstream media outlets who amplify every Chicken Little cry of pending disaster.

In 2013, an excellent article in Forbes outlined the numerous times climate ‘experts’ predicted the end of year-round Arctic ice. Guesses of ice-free periods starting in the mid-2010s didn’t come true, nor did the Guardian’s commentary from 2012, pinpointing 2015 as the year of final demise.

More recently, alarmists have been all over the map with their predictions: 2022 (which, obviously, was a big miss) from a 2018 study authored by a Harvard professor and his team; 2032 from a 2016 study, 2035 in the Post and plenty of other outlets, and 2050 from numerous climate doomsayers. 

If the doom-and-gloom crowd can’t get ice levels correct, how do they expect anyone to believe their larger arguments around the ‘climate crisis’, global warming, sea-level rise and global extinction?

Reminder: We said “almost comical.” Their misses would be comical if it wasn’t for the damage the climate cult does to America’s energy economy, our national security and our standing among the world’s power structure. 

That’s why Power The Future will continue to fight, and we appreciate you joining us.

Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs and opportunities. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @PTFAlaska.