The Alaska Supreme Court on Friday issued a 144-page explanation for its 2022 ruling, which declared that the newly drawn political boundaries in Alaska were politically gerrymandered by the Alaska Redistricting Board in favor of a particular party.
The court emphasized that such partisan gerrymandering goes against the equal protection clause of the Alaska Constitution.
However, the decision has effectively made the court the new redistricting board, as it now has granted itself the authority to be the final arbiter on what can be gerrymandered. There is little need for a redistricting board in the future, since every decision will be argued through the lens of partisan gerrymandering.
One concern raised by critics is that the justices, who are appointed through a highly partisan process and are associated with the liberal Alaska Bar Association, now have an excessive amount of power in the redistricting process.
The court’s previous denial of the Redistricting Board’s plan to grant Eagle River two Senate seats, resulting in a temporary map with only one Senate seat for Eagle River, has been a point of contention. The court, in fact, sided with Democrat partisans in most instances where there was debate.
The consequences of the Supreme Court gerrymandering can be seen in the election results. Alaska is a state where Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats (141,000 to 74,000), and in the statewide election Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a conservative candidate, won handily in 2022, with over 51% of the vote. President Donald Trump also won easily statewide in 2020.
But in 2022, the Supreme Court’s redistricting maps resulted in a disproportionate Democrat Party representation in the House, with 21 Republicans and 16 Democrats elected, and a narrow balance in the Senate, with an 11-9 split between Republicans and Democrats — just one senator away from a 50-50 split.
Adding to the controversy, two of the five justices who made the decision are not subject to retention by the public as they are technically retired due to age but are allowed to serve anyway. Critics argue that this goes against the constitutional intent on age limits and that the justices are setting their own rules and serving past the constitutional limit.
In response to the court’s ruling, the Alaska Redistricting Board has been given 90 days to appear in Superior Court to defend its rejected redistricting map. If the board fails to do so, the Supreme Court will declare its own gerrymandered map as the law of the land.
The issue of redistricting and the role of the Alaska Supreme Court in the process continue to be contentious and raise concerns about fairness and impartiality.
Parents were notified on Tuesday that students at the Eagle River High School would be participating in “Inclusiveness Training” on Friday. The description said that the training was about racism and culture and to ensure that “each student feels safe and valued at our school.” It seemed innocuous enough.
But a video shown to the students struck many parents as propaganda and made them wonder what else was being taught during the racism training. They said appeared more like indoctrination into Critical Race Theory, a pedagogy that teaches thatrace is a social construct, and that racism is not just individual bias or prejudice, but is embedded in every aspect of America.
And that is certainly what the kids in the training video were saying. The video concerning parents was a CBS documentary, “Are the Kids All Right? Racism.” It was mandatory training for the entire school.
CBS describes the video as “A racial reckoning is happening in America, but the voices of kids and teens are often missing from that conversation.” In the video, teens are asked to describe their own views and experiences with being victims of racism. Every one of them described themselves in victim terms.
One parent said, “There was political agenda clearly with an anti-Trump narrative deployed in this training.”
For example, the video used powerful music to dramatize points the youth were making, and then cut to a CBS news clip describing about how former President Trump signed an executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries (17.18 minute mark on the video.)
That news clip did not mention that the ban was temporary and was in response to terrorism. Or that it included non-Muslim countries, such as Venezuela and North Korea. The clip did not include that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Trump’s right to enact a temporary order for national security reasons.
The news clip also did not mention that Trump signed the order also because the countries in question were not properly documenting their travelers, and the United States had lost confidence in the seven nations’ security protocols.
The documentary did not mention that President Joe Biden chose to keep the travel ban in place for North Korea. In all, it was simply an attack on Donald Trump, without context.
“I know that I still get privileges because I look white,” one of the documentary’s child interviewees said, expressing a sense of guilt by association of color. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘is it my fault? But it’s not.”
Another teen, African-American, rapped an anti-police narrative on the theme of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police. The resulting rap may reasonably be interpreted as a message that police officers are racist, inferring that all police are white.
In subsequent vignettes in the documentary, minority children talk about how caucasians are racist. This theme is the main lessons of Critical Race Theory.
There are five components of Critical Race Theory, and the video shown during what can be seen as a campus-wide CRT training hit all five components: (1) the notion that racism is ordinary and not aberrational; (2) the idea of an interest convergence; (3) the social construction of race; (4) the idea of storytelling and counter-storytelling; and (5) the notion that whites have actually been recipients of civil rights legislation.
In another segment of the propaganda series, “Gender,” CBS says that “For an unprecedented number of young people in Gen Z, gender is a social construct that needs dismantling.”
Watch the CRT video used in the training at YouTube:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday stopped a federal judge’s ruling in Texas that had banned the use of an abortion chemical that is widely used to induce the death of the unborn.
The federal judge in Texas had ruled the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill invalid, although it has been in wide use since 2000. The high court said the chemical abortion pill may still be used while the appeal process moves forward. The arguments over mifepristone will be heard next month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Alliance Defending Freedom is arguing that the dug was approved only after the FDA decided to remove the safeguards around it and allowed it to be delivered through the mail. ADF says the FDA “chose politics over science.”
The decision was seen as a victory for pro-abortionists. President Joe Biden issued an immediate statement:
“As a result of the Supreme Court’s stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this fight in the courts,” Biden said. Although a Catholic, Biden is a supporter of ending life after conception.
Alaska has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the nation. Women can get a prescription for abortion pills through a Telehealth appointment, and then get the pills delivered through the mail.
Erin Brockovich is one of the highlights of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference on May 22-24.
Brockovich is an environmental activist who helped bring a lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Company over groundwater contamination in the small desert community of Hinkley, California. The water contamination included chromium‑6, a highly toxic chemical used in heavy industry. Her story was made into a movie, in which actress Julia Roberts played Brockovich.
Other featured speakers include Daniel Yergin, vice chairman, S&P Global, and author of “The Prize” and “The Quest;” Kip Tom, former U.S. Ambassador, United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture; Rahm Emmanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan; John Eichelberger, research professor, Alaska Center for Energy & Power, UAF; George Potts, head of Climate Principal Investments at Hartree Partners; Michael Sachs, managing director, Goldman Sachs; Curtis Thayer, executive director of Alaska Energy Authority; Michael Valore, senior director, advanced reactors at Westinghouse Electric Company; Richard Voorbert, president, North America for Siemens Energy; and Erin Whitney, director of Arctic Energy Office, U.S. Department of Energy. View all the speakers at this link.
The 2023 conference will explore the future of energy in Alaska and around the world, the intersection of geopolitical upheaval with food and energy security, the latest advancements in renewable power, transmission, and storage, and more. The agenda is at this link.
On Friday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy unveiled legislation aimed at addressing the opioid addiction crisis in Alaska. His bill introduces two state funds: the Opioid Settlement Investment Fund and the Opioid Remediation Fund.
With approximately $53 million already secured from opioid lawsuits and an anticipated $30 million in settlements, Senate Bill 133 enables the state to separate these funds for opioid remediation efforts and with the earnings generate ongoing revenue for long-term solutions.
The Opioid Settlement Investment Fund is designed to accumulate and leverage funds received from current and anticipated opioid settlement agreements, providing a sustainable and long-term supply of resources to address the impacts and prevent further continuation of the opioid epidemic.
The Alaska Department of Revenue would be responsible for investing funds received from settlement agreements, while allowing for annual appropriations from the fund to support opioid addiction remediation efforts in the state, utilizing a percent-of-market-value approach to ensure ongoing support for future generations. It would be similar to how the POMV approach is used to calculate state spending allowed from the Permanent Fund.
The Opioid Remediation Fund will grant authority to the Alaska Department of Health to utilize funds from that fund without additional legislative appropriation, specifically for opioid addiction treatment, recovery, remediation, and education. The fund will primarily be funded by appropriations from the other remediation fund, as determined by the Alaska Legislature.
Dunleavy expressed optimism that these two funds would provide sustainable and long-term solutions to combat opioid addiction in Alaska, benefiting all Alaskans, both present and future.
“Opioid addiction is a generational problem,” Dunleavy said. “Through this bill, we are empowering ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren for success in remediating opioid addiction in the state. Providing sustainable, long-term funding will ensure the money the state receives from the opioid settlement agreements used to benefit all Alaskans, present and future.”
The fire crackling under the House of Representatives’ Hunter Biden laptop investigation saw more logs thrown on the embers this week.
Michael Morell, a former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, exposed the involvement of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden campaign in suppressing a news story about the now-president’s wayward son Hunter Biden.
Morell testified in House Judiciary Committee that that Blinken, who was a senior advisor to the Biden campaign during the 2020 election, was responsible for organizing a letter signed by 51 U.S. intelligence officials that discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The letter falsely implied that the reporting by the New York Post about Hunter Biden was Russian disinformation. It was used to silence the story until after the election. Recent revelations show that federal law enforcement pressured social media companies to censor the story based on this false claim by officials and former officials.
Twitter, under the old management system of Jack Dorsey, cancelled the Twitter account of the New York Post after it broke the story about what was on the laptop and how it linked to Joe Biden.
Mainstream media continues to run cover for the government fingerprints all over Twitter in the 2020 election. NPR calls the decision to block the Post a “short-lived decision.”
Recently, NPR divorced itself from the Twitter platform after a label was put on its account advising the public that NPR is essentially state-sponsored news.
This is not the only committee investigating the Biden-Hunter Biden connection. Earlier this year, a House Oversight Committee hearing went on for more than six hours, with newly-in-power Republicans accusing the social media company of colluding with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Biden campaign to censor the Hunter Biden story.
During that hearing, Yoel Roth, the former executive of trust and safety at Twitter, denied any government involvement in the decision to censor the New York Post. The White House called that hearing “a bizarre political stunt,” and said that Republicans were trying to re-litigate the 2020 election.
In response to this new testimony, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, both of Ohio, are demanding documents and communications from Secretary of State Blinken.
The revelation raises serious concerns about the integrity of the Biden campaign and the actions of high-ranking officials deep within the U.S. government intelligence circles to suppress information during a critical election period.
On Oct. 14, 2020, the New York Post published a report detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father, now-President Joe Biden, for personal gain with the apparent awareness of President Biden.
The article reported on several emails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that he had abandoned in a Delaware computer shop. The contents of the emails cast doubt on President Biden’s previous denials of speaking to his son about his international business dealings.
Within five days of the article being published, on Oct. 19, 2020, 51 former intelligence officials released a public statement attempting to discredit the contents of the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden, stating that the story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Legacy news organizations immediately ran with the statement, with Politico publishing a story with the conclusive headline, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former officials say.”
During the final presidential debate on October 22, then-Vice President Biden cited the public statement to rebut President Trump’s criticism of the Biden family business dealings.
The two committees recently conducted a transcribed interview with Morell, a former Deputy Director of the CIA and one of the 51 signatories of the public statement.
In the interview, Morell testified that on or around Oct. 17, 2020, Blinken reached out to him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story. According to Morell, it set in motion events that led to the issuance of the public statement.
That same day, Oct. 17, Blinken emailed Morell an article published in USA Today alleging that the FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a “disinformation campaign.” The very bottom of the email he sent to Morell included the signature block of Andrew Bates, then-director of rapid response for the Biden campaign.
Morell testified that his communication with Blinken was one of a few communications he had with the Biden campaign, explaining that he also received a call from Steve Ricchetti, Chairman of the Biden campaign, following the October 22 debate to thank him for writing the statement.
Morell also explained that the Biden campaign helped to strategize about the public release of the statement. Morell further explained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election, Jordan’s office said.
“Based on Morell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election,” the committee report said. “Although the statement’s signatories have an unquestioned right to free speech and free association—which we do not dispute—their reference to their national security credentials lent weight to the story and suggested access to specialized information unavailable to other Americans. This concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy.”
Read the full letter to Secretary Blinken, including transcripts of the interview with Morrell, here.
The political group Alaska Black Caucus, which has been funded in large part with taxpayer Covid-19 relief funds, is suing the Anchorage Police Department because it has not implemented body camera policies for police officers.
The Alaska Black Caucus received a$1.15 million federal grant in 2021, ostensibly to encourage blacks in Alaska to get Covid vaccines and to help gauge the health of black Alaskans.
The group also received a 437,000 Covid grant from the Anchorage Assembly so it could buy a building to house its organization.
The Northern Justice Project, which also filed the unsuccessful lawsuit against Rep. David Eastmanin Alaska Superior Court, filed the claim against the municipality, saying it has not fulfilled the wishes of the public, which voted in 2021 to fund body cameras for police. That measure was a part of a property tax question that included the funding of various technology upgrades for the police department, including body and car cameras for police officers.
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday he is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
The 70-year-old, who attempted to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom of California through a recall process, unveiled his news on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Elder has been the subject of racist slurs by the Left. Rolling Stone magazine headlined its story, ” Larry Elder, Failed GOP Gubernatorial Candidate…” Wikipedia describes him as a “right-wing political commentator,” although he has a law degree, has written numerous books, and is a longtime columnist.
Elder, who was the leading candidate to replace California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom if he had lost his recall election, said he has long been smeared by the left – including the Los Angeles Times, which in 2021, when he was the leading candidate to replace Newsom, featured a column in which he was called the “Black face of White supremacy.” It also wrote, “Larry Elder’s fans prove he’s a face of white supremacy.”
“One other L.A. Times columnist referred to my views as White supremacist – because I am pro-life, because I don’t buy the notion that America is systemically racist, because I want secure borders, because I want us to be energy-independent instead of energy-dependent; because I know that our urban schools are a disaster,” he told Carlson.
“I feel I have a moral, a religious and a patriotic duty to give back to a country that’s been so good to my family and to me. And that is why I’m doing this,” he said.
“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Elder joins a Republican field that already has former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Also believed to be a likely contender is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appears to be gearing up for a run.
On the Democrat side, President Joe Biden is hinting he will be ready to announce his bid for reelection this month, and Robert Kennedy Jr. has announced he’ll challenge Biden, as has New Age spiritualist Marianne Williamson.
Photo: Larry Elder speaking at the Libertarian 2016 FreedomFest at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. By Gage Skidmore.
Bills that are in Alaska legislative committees on Friday and subject to public testimony are as follows. Contact your local LIOfor more information, or call 907-465-4648:
