The Golden Lion, purchased by the Municipality of Anchorage under former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz for use as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, is now officially being used to house people who otherwise might be homeless. The first residents moved in this week.
Along with the GuestHouse Inn and Suites in Fairview, the Lakeshore Inn & Suites, the Barratt Inn, and Sockeye Inn in Spenard, and the Golden Lion in midtown is part of the constellation to house the increasing number of people who can’t find other suitable housing in Anchorage.
Karluk Manor was the first to pioneer the “housing first” concept for chronic inebriates. Opened in 2011 and run by RuralCAP, it became the blueprint for turning hotels into housing for the indigent. The organization also manages 325 East 3rd, Safe Harbor Muldoon, and Sitka Place at 1905 E. 4th Ave.
Twelve years later in 2023, there are over five hotels with more than 400 units of a similar nature in Anchorage for those who have run through their other options.
The rules at each hotel-style location are different. For former hotel Karluk Manor, the understanding is that people admitted there are ongoing chronic inebriates or street alcoholics. The residents are allowed to drink in their units.
At the Golden Lion, clients have nearly full control over their own modest hotel rooms, which come with a microwave oven, bed, bathroom, a couple of chairs, big-screen television, and desk.
In fact, the rental agreement states that the management company recognizes that “drug and alcohol use is part of the world in which we live and wishes to minimize the harmful effects of drug use on each individual and the community. Henning, Inc. does not condone or condemn drug or alcohol use; however, the use of these is strictly prohibited on the premises of the Golden Lion Hotel.”
Premises is loosely defined in the agreement, which goes on to acknowledge that residents must make their own choices about their substance abuse.
“We aim to create an environment where individuals can openly discuss substance use without fear of judgment and navigate their own personal path of choices. This includes discussing one’s choices regarding substance use and supporting one’s ability to make decisions regarding their own substance use goals (active use, recovery, abstinence, etc.). The staff of Henning is responsible for engaging residents in conversations about their use of drugs, alcohol, and prescription medications, addressing the effects of substances on the resident’s life and the community,” the contract states.
The agreement says people can’t be using drugs and alcohol in the lobby, hallways or western parking lot of this taxpayer-owned and funded building, but is silent about use in the rooms themselves, nor what kind of partying may go on in the alley behind the building, which is now listed on Google maps as the Municipality of Anchorage Homeless Shelter. The hotel alley backs up to a residential neighborhood, Geneva Woods.
In other words, the Golden Lion housing concept started out as a drug and alcohol rehab center under Mayor Berkowitz, but is now a homeless hotel where drugs and alcohol will be permitted, so long as it’s not observed by management.
If anything happens, the management company must give 24-hours notice before it can enter.
Dr. Ben Carson, who was a candidate for president in 2016 and later became the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Donald Trump, will keynote an event for the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club on Aug. 22.
Club President Judy Eledge sent out a “save the date” notice to her membership on Saturday.
Carson is a neurosurgeon who performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins whose heads were attached to each other. In 1987, when the operation was undertaken, Carson led a team of 70 surgical professionals, and the entire operation took 22 hours.
Carson later became known for his groundbreaking work on the brains of those who have severe epilepsy.
In 2016, when Carson was among the earlier Republican candidates to file for president, he was the first to sign up to participate in the Alaska Republican Party’s Presidential Preference Poll, which is the state party’s caucus-by-ballot method for determining who it will support for president.
“ARWC is very excited to bring an American of this caliber to Anchorage. I want to make sure people know it is a fundraiser, and that ARWC gives everything it makes to supporting conservative candidates. I especially want to thank the board of ARWC — they work so hard to make memorable events like this happen,” Eledge said.
The details of the event will be announced shortly, Eledge said.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the rich “are different from you and me.” Ernest Hemingway supposedly responded, “Yes, they have more money.” They also appear to have their own justice system.
Crypto currency pioneer Sam Bankman-Fried, 31, has had yet another felony charge against him dropped; The Department of Justice has now dismissed six of the original charges against the Democrat super donor. That brings it to six felony charges dropped.
Once considered the king of crypto currency trading who founded of the exchange FTX, Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including stealing from investors and directing FTX customer deposits to fund his extravagant lifestyle and to buy influence among elected officials.
On Thursday, the Bahamas said it would not pursue one of the charges it had against him, which had to do with violation of campaign laws. The U.S. indictment item was not listed properly on prosecution documents when Bankman-Fried was extradited back to the Untied States.
The Department of Justice, with what was the simplest charge to prove, had not notified the Bahamas of that particular charge prior to extradition, creating a loophole for the defendant. The treaty between the countries requires the extraditing country to be notified of the charge.
It’s unclear why the Justice Department is not pursuing that charge separately.
Bankman-Fried still faces seven counts of conspiring to defraud customers and five charges for foreign bribery conspiracy and bank fraud conspiracy.
The financier of Democratic Party interests around the country, including Alaska, has been under house arrest at his parent’s Palo Alto, Calif. home since December. His bail is set at $250 million and his parents put their home up as collateral to keep him out of jail, since he has supposedly been made penniless by his thieving ways.
SBF was last year the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party, and gave $5.2 million to the reelection efforts for President Joe Biden.
The trading analytics group Unusual Whales said, “Campaign finance charges on Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX have been dropped. This is unusual. He gave millions to politicians. And there wasn’t a list of who which politicians and groups he gave money to. Until now.”
The group published a graphics this week showing both the Alaska Democratic Party and Sen. Murkowski on the list of beneficiaries of the influence peddling scheme:
In an exclusive story published in People magazine on Friday, President Joe Biden finally addressed the question about why he would not acknowledge his seventh grandchild, Navy Joan Roberts. The statement comes after a month of speculation surrounding why the little girl appeared to be excluded from the President’s tightly-knit family circle and why the Administration will not provide Secret Service protection for the child, as the other six grandchildren are given.
Navy Roberts is the daughter of Hunter Biden, the President’s son, and Lunden Roberts, who filed a paternity lawsuit against Hunter back in 2019. Hunter now pays child support after resolving the legal conditions.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” President Biden was quoted in the People magazine article. He said that the matter is purely a family issue and not a political one. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy,” he added.
Last week, the watchdog group Judicial Watch took legal action by filing a lawsuit to obtain documents related to the Secret Service’s decision to deny protection for Navy Roberts, who had not been publicly recognized by the President until now. Despite at least one documented threat, the Secret Service has still not provided security for Navy or her mother.
Photo: From Lynden Roberts’ social mediaof herself and Navy touring the U.S. Capitol.
Eighty-three House Republicans voted against a measure that would have required commercial airlines receiving federal money to reinstate pilots who were fired for not complying with a federal Covid-19 vaccine mandate since ruled illegal.
Among them were eight Republicans who opposed the measure from Texas, a state that has consistently fought federal mandates. A federal judge in Texas was the first to rule the Biden administration’s federal vaccine mandate was illegal, blocking it in January 2022. The case went to the Supreme Court, which also ruled against the mandate.
As Congress has debated the effectiveness of federal mandates this week, it’s also considered amendments to the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, which reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and promotes hiring more pilots and air traffic controllers during a national shortage. It also bans the FAA from mandating that passengers be required to wear masks or get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to fly.
U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois, filed an amendment to the bill designed to reinstate pilots who were fired for not complying with the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate. It required commercial airlines receiving federal money and engaged in federal contracts that terminated pilots under the federal Covid-19 vaccine mandate to offer to reinstate them.
The amendment failed by a vote of 294-141; 83 Republicans voted with all Democrats to defeat it.
While many Texas Republican leaders have stood apart from those in blue states opposing mandates, and the Republican-controlled Texas legislature banned local governments from imposing vaccine and mask mandates, eight of 25 Republicans in Texas’ Congressional delegation opposed Miller’s amendment.
All 13 Texas Democrats voted against it. Joining them were seven Republicans voting no: Reps. Jodey Arrington, John Carter, Monica De La Cruz, Jake Ellzey, Tony Gonzales, Michael McCaul, and Randy Weber. Rep. Kay Granger voted “not present.”
Miller tweeted that she filed the amendment “to reinstate the pilots who were fired by the illegal & unconstitutional Covid vax mandate. We have a pilot shortage because of the chaos Biden caused with his vax mandates. I will never stop fighting the Swamp on this!”
U.S. airlines had hoped to add 13,000 pilots last year while the mandate was still being challenged in court. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said at the time, “The pilot shortage for the industry is real and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plan because there simply aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the next five plus years.”
This year, the gap between supply and demand for U.S. pilots increased to 17,000 unfilled positions, or 15% of the workforce, The Berkshire Eaglereported. “Nearly 50 percent of the commercial airline workforce will retire in the next 15 years,” it reports. “Unless things change, prospects are dim that supply and demand for this vital workforce can come back into balance any time soon.”
The three largest airline pilot unions in the country have expressed concerns about a reauthorization of Federal Aviation Administration Act, which has provisions changing training standards and raising the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots from 65 to 67. The use of certain types of simulator training time would count as flight hours for first officers.
In an open letter to President Joe Biden and Congress, Allied Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said that such changes could compromise safety standards in the aviation industry.
“Today’s requirements are the product of the collaborative efforts of the FAA and a cross-section of aviation industry subject-matter experts that have served the airline industry and the traveling public well for more than a decade and should not be relaxed. Similarly, the current 65 mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots is supported by data and conforms with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. Those advocating for raising the retirement age have not produced sufficient data relating to the safety implications of such a change,” the letter said.
The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Garret Graves (R-LA), and Aviation Subcommittee Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-TN).
The sponsors of the bill says it does several important things, including streamlining the regulatory process and improving training standards.
But the unions say that there is no actual pilot shortage and that the plan to create short-term “certificates” that churn out pilot certificates rather than creating the best possible pilot is shortsighted.
“Some lawmakers are interested in increasing the pilot retirement age from 65 to 67 to solve the fake pilot shortage. This so-called ‘fix’ would not increase pilot numbers, nor would it address flight delays and cancellations. It would, however, introduce additional risks into the system,” the Air Line Pilots Association letter said.
However, the list of those organizations supporting the bill is long. Air clubs supporting the bill include the Alaska Airmen’s Association, representing 2,000 members in a state that has more licensed pilots per capita than any other state.
The last FAA reauthorization was passed in 2018 and lasted five years. Congress must pass a new reauthorization bill before the current law expires on Sept. 30.
The Senate is working on its own version of an FAA reauthorization bill but both the House and Senate are in recess until after Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5, as members head back to their districts for August.
With just a month before school starts, families who have children enrolled in some charter correspondence programs and private schools were shocked to learn that the Anchorage School District is clawing back their financial allotment for students.
Alaska’s Correspondence School Allotment Program allows eligible families to be reimbursed up to $4,500 per student enrolled in classes at the private school of their choice.
In the past, a student could be enrolled at Family Partnership Charter School, and dual enrolled at a private school, such as Montessori. Families would be able to use their “funding follows the child” allotments to pay for some of the costs of educating their children outside the Anchorage School District’s standard system.
Then, earlier this year the Anchorage School Board stripped Family Partnership Charter School of its charter, even though it is the most well-attended charter school in the state and has the highest educational outcomes of any school in the district, owing to its unique structure. The vote was 6-1, with Board Member Dave Donley the only one opposing the takeover of Family Partnership.
At the time, Jharrett Bryantt, the superintendent of the Anchorage School District said that parents would not see much change, even as the charter school was consumed by the district and would lose its independence.
The school board also made promises to the parents attending meetings that the funds dedicated for Family Partnership Charter School would stay with the school, and not be swept into the district’s other fund pools, even as it came under the district’s supervision and command structure.
The superintendent said it was time to earn the trust of the families whose children were enrolled through the Family Partnership Charter School.
“It is time to pivot our focus to supporting the Family Partnership communities, and earn the trust of all families to choose the wonderful opportunities that Family Partnership offers. It’s time for us to begin the healing process, and that won’t happen overnight,” Superintendent Bryantt said in a public meeting in April that was attended by many concerned parents.
But according to a new memo from the district, that was then.
Now, the school district is saying that if a student is dual enrolled at a place like Family Partnership, Frontier Charter School, or AK Choice Charter School, and full time at a private school, they will receive no allotment.
For some faith-based schools, the curriculum that involves faith is separated out, while in others, the faith-based portions are infused throughout the curriculum. But parents in those programs were always allowed to bank their allotment (public money from local, state, and federal taxes) and use it for either extra-curricular enrichment such as hockey, or for a high school program where the classes involving faith are separated from other classes. Parents with children at Grace Christian were banking the funds so that as their students moved into high school, they would have those funds to pay for classes.
This is a “funding follows the child” approach that made Family Partnership unique in its excellent education outcomes.
But it’s not just religious-based schools. The parents cannot use any of their allotment for any full-time private school education, according to the district.
On June 25, the principal of Family Partnership wrote to parents, saying:
“I am writing to inform you of a recent clarification regarding the use of homeschool allotments for private school classes. Please see the attached memo for clarification. In short, full-time private school students are ‘not permitted to use their allotment to pay any portion of the private tuition or to supplement the student’s private school education.’ This means that full-time private school students will not be provided with an allotment. Part-time private school students may use ‘half or less’ of their allotment for non-sectarian private school courses. Thank you for understanding.”
The attack on private education by the Anchorage School District comes at a time when private school enrollment is going up, and the enrollment in traditional Anchorage public schools is dropping. Parents have voted with their feet to remove children from low-performing school environments that are controlled by the National Education Association and are pushing gender ideology, and critical race theory on their children.
The new memo from Director of Charter Schools Dr. Jason Hlasny to all the correspondence schools in the district explains the district’s interpretation of the Alaska Constitution. Under the district’s interpretation, the parents of the correspondence school students can continue to “buy” courses from private schools, but cannot be enrolled more than half time.
“The purpose of this memo is to clarify district and administrative procedure consistent with the Alaska Constitution, Alaska Statute, and the July 2022 Deputy Attorney General guidance as it relates to the appropriate implementation and use of student allotments and private school education.
“Under Alaska law, correspondence schools receive funding through the local school district in which they reside. In turn, correspondence schools usually allocate an allotment of funds for each student, which the student can spend for certain materials to fulfill a student’s individual learning plan.
“The Alaska Constitution provides: ‘No money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.’ The Alaska Legislature has provided that student allotments for correspondence students may not be used for sectarian services or materials. Alaska law requires each school district to ensure that allotment monies are not used in a manner that violates Alaska law.
“The following are uses of allotments not permitted by the Anchorage School District:
“Student is enrolled as a full-time student at a private school and the student’s allotment is not permitted to be used to pay any portion of the private tuition or to supplement the student’s private school education.
“More than half of a correspondence student’s allotment is not permitted to be used to pay for private school tuition, materials, and fees for non-sectarian classes.
“Any portion of the allotment is not permitted to be used to pay for sectarian courses or materials.
“The following are uses of allotments permitted by the Anchorage School District:
“Student is enrolled in a public correspondence school and half or less of the student’s allotment is permitted to be used to pay for part-time enrollment to take nonsectarian courses at a private school.
“Student is enrolled in a public correspondence school and the student’s allotment is permitted to be used to pay for extracurricular activities such as swimming lessons, attendance at music or drama performances, or participation in athletic competitions.”
The Alaska Policy Forum will hold a webinar on Monday to help people learn about some of the options Anchorage families have outside of the district. Register here to join the webinar.
Danielle Runyan, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, provided revealing testimony to a House select subcommittee on Thursday, exposing stark differences in Covid-19 vaccine mandates between the U.S. military and other Executive Branch-level entities.
Despite the recent 2023 National Defense Authorization Act language requiring the Department of Defense to revoke the vaccine requirement, national security remains in jeopardy as military service members grapple with the aftermath of the mandates, she said.
Runyan underscored how military vaccine mandates outlasted those in other government sectors. Service members who lawfully objected to the vaccination faced illegal treatment, contributing to an ongoing threat to national security.
Following the World Health Organization’s declaration of the Covid-19 outbreak as a public health emergency in January 2020, vaccines were available by December of the same year. Initial expectations posited that herd immunity could be achieved if 75% to 80% of Americans received the vaccine.
However, by May 2021, experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the president’s top Covid adviser, conceded that herd immunity was not attainable.
With a shift from the herd immunity approach, the Executive Branch began incentivizing vaccination with tax credits for employers offering vaccine-related paid leave.
By mid-2021, supply of the vaccine surpassed demand due to various factors including public skepticism. As a result, creative public health efforts emerged to increase vaccination rates.
Concerns escalated in June 2021 when a study found higher than expected rates of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, in U.S. service members following vaccination.
All participants in the study were previously healthy, physically fit males who developed the condition within four days of receiving the vaccine.
In contrast to these findings, President Joe Biden guaranteed complete protection from infection, sickness, and death from the virus for those vaccinated. This claim was later challenged, as increasing occurrences of “breakthrough” infections were reported and the implications of the delta variant remained unclear.
In July 2021, vaccination mandates were issued for federal employees, federal contractors, and military service members.
Despite growing evidence suggesting vaccinated individuals could still transmit Covid-19, these mandates continued to be enforced, significantly affecting the American workforce.
Despite eventual rescission of the mandates due to constitutional, statutory, financial, and other harms inflicted upon citizens, service members, and businesses, the military mandate remained.
An estimated 1.4 million active-duty and reserve service members were subject to the mandate, including members of the National Guard.
Runyan’s testimony offers a crucial glimpse into the sustained impacts of the military vaccine mandates, igniting concerns over national security and highlighting the need for further investigation into the management and outcomes of these mandates.
The U.S. Navy and the Department of the Air Force issued stringent Covid-19 vaccine mandates in 2021, with severe repercussions for service members who refused vaccination on religious grounds.
The Navy issued “Trident Order #12 – Mandatory Vaccination for COVID-19” on Sept. 24, 2021, declaring all SEALs and Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewmen (SWCCs) who sought a religious exemption “non-deployable.”
The Chief of Naval Operations issued NAVADMIN 225/21 on Oct. 13, 2021, stating that members refusing the vaccine, absent a pending or approved exemption, shall be processed for administrative separation.
It also threatened to recoup training costs, bonuses, and special and incentive pays from unvaccinated service members. This potentially crippling financial penalty, which was not forward-looking but targeted past expenditures, could exceed $1 million per Special Operations service member, Danielle Runyan testified.
Following these orders, the Navy issued NAVADMIN 256/21 on Nov. 15, 2021, stipulating that service members whose vaccination exemption request was denied had to receive the Covid-19 vaccine within five days. Refusal could lead to immediate separation processing, adverse performance evaluations, denial of promotion, and possible loss of Veterans Affairs benefits.
The discriminatory policies led to Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden, a lawsuit brought by First Liberty Institute and Hacker Stephens on behalf of 35 religious service members, alleging violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the First Amendment. The court found in favor of the plaintiffs on Jan. 3, 2022, concluding that the vaccine mandate substantially burdened their religious beliefs and failed strict scrutiny.
Similar circumstances led to the filing of Doster v. Kendall, a class action lawsuit citing discriminatory treatment by the Department of the Air Force against service members requesting religious exemptions from the vaccine requirements.
On Sept. 9, 2021, President Biden issued EO 14042, which impacted over 5,138 government contractors in the US. Biden required that federal contracts include a clause stating that contractors must comply with all guidance published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force regarding Covid-19 vaccinations.
However, on Dec. 7, 2021, the U.S. District for the Southern District of Georgia issued an injunction against the order, determining that it went beyond promoting efficiency and economy in procurement and contracting and instead acted as a public health regulation. This development maintained the status quo, allowing entities to encourage vaccination without mandating it.
These controversial mandates have significantly impacted the U.S. military and federal contractors, inciting legal action and drawing scrutiny to the balance between public health needs and individual rights, Runyan told the House Committee.
“Considering a total of 19,460 service members remained unvaccinated as of October 4, 2022, this means we could lose millions in training costs, and hundreds of thousands of years of invaluable institutional knowledge,” Runyan said. “At a time when young Americans have no desire to join the military and military members are telling their children not to join the military, we should consider this a significant national security crisis.”
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, who is a medical doctor, told the committee of a friend in the Department of Defense who was negatively impacted by the mandate.
“Further, not only did these mandates damage Americans’ trust in public health and in vaccines and cause people to lose their jobs, they also negatively affected our military. A good friend of mine, a physician no less, battling breast cancer was unfairly harmed by the Department of Defense’s vaccine mandate. Her oncologist advised against the vaccine for medical concerns.”
The woman asked for an exemption but was denied. She still refused.
The review board voted to retain her in the Navy, they also “substantiated that she committed misconduct for refusing the vaccine,” Wenstrup said.
U.S. military branches, which are not meeting recruitment goals, can look to the vaccine mandate for one of the reasons, he said.
“Besides what may be right or wrong in this case, our military recruitment and retention has been negatively affected,” Wenstrup said.
Another witness to the committee said the public trust has been badly damaged by the Covid vaccine mandates.
“Our analysis strongly suggests that mandatory Covid-19 vaccine policies have had damaging effects on public trust, vaccine confidence, political polarization, human rights, inequities and social wellbeing. We question the effectiveness and consequences of coercive vaccination policy in pandemic response and urge the public health community and policymakers to return to non-discriminatory, trust- based public health approaches,” said Kevin Bardosh, affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington. His testimony can be seen here.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4366, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024.
The measure was approved with a vote of 219 to 211, with every Democrat voting against the bill, including Alaska’s Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola.
The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act includes a total of $317.441 billion in funding for the Department of Defense (Military Construction and Family Housing), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and related agencies.
Of the total, $155.701 billion is provided as discretionary funding, and $161.740 billion is provided for mandatory programs.
Some $17.5 billion is for Department of Defense military construction projects, which is nearly $800 million above President Biden’s budget request.
The bill fully funds the Department of Veterans Affairs for Fiscal Year 2024 by appropriating $137.755 billion in discretionary funding in addition to the $20.268 billion included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund.
Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund also has funding for the Honoring Our PACT Act, which extends health coverage for veterans exposed to burn pit smoke and other environmental hazards that caused cancers and other illnesses during while they were serving our country.
Earlier this month, Peltola voted against the National Defense Authorization Act because it did not provide enough money for abortions and transgender surgeries.
Peltola is running for reelection in 2024, and has been challenged by Republican Nick Begich, who has come out strongly in favor of national defense and military families.
“Alaska has more military veterans per capita than any other state in the nation. It’s critical that our sole representative in the House show up and deliver on the promises made for those who have chosen to serve our country,” Begich said.
“Mary Peltola’s betrayal of veterans and active duty troops may be her worst betrayal of Alaskans yet. Peltola votes the extreme Democrat party line even when that means targeting the health care and benefits veterans earned serving our country in uniform — or blocking pay raises for active duty troops,” said NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen.
