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:
A Washington bill that would allow youth shelters, host homes, and state agencies to not report runaway youths seeking abortions or irreversible gender surgeries has cleared the Legislature.
SB 5599 initially passed in both chambers, but was sent back to the Senate for concurrence with several House amendments, receiving an 29-20 vote on April 19.
The bill has sparked strong controversy for what critics say is a direct assault on parental rights and due process due to how it adds a new reason to not report runaway minors to their parents or legal guardians that does not involve neglect or abuse.
While bill sponsor Sen. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, says the proposal “it is simply about housing an emergency shelter for young people who are unsheltered in our state,” it tacks on another “compelling reason” for shelters and host homes to not alert parents or legal guardians of their child’s whereabouts as otherwise required.
An existing state statute allows them not to do so if there are “circumstances that indicate that notifying the parent or legal guardian will subject the minor to abuse or neglect,” both of which are classified as crimes.
SB 5599 adds “when a minor is seeking or receiving protected health care services” to the compelling reasons to not notify parents that their runaway child is at the shelter or host home.
There already exists a state definition of “gender affirming care” that includes but is not limited to the following procedures:
Breast augmentation
Chemical peel
Dermabrasion
Facial feminization surgeries
Face lift
Facial masculinization surgeries
Forehead brow lift
Genital modification
Hairline modification
Hair removal by electrolysis or laser
Hysterectomy
Lip enhancement
Reduction thyroid chondroplasty (chondrolaryngoplasty or tracheal shave)
Rhinoplasty
Skin resurfacing
Liposuction
Mastectomy
Penile implant
Voice modification
Under existing state law, minors can get abortions or irreversible gender surgeries without parental notification.
One of the House amendments requires that the Department of Children, Youth, and Families offer the runaway minor services that include “accomplish a reunification of the family.” Another amendment requires a state agency collect data on the number of unsheltered homeless youth in the state.
Senate Republicans rejected the bill due to what Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, described as “issues with the parents not being a part of this, the family members as well.”
Conservative Ladies of Washington President Julie Barrett described it in a tweet as “state sanctioned kidnapping,” saying it would allow “the state taking your kids with no wrongdoing on your part.” The bill does not state when and if the parents or legal guardians must be eventually notified of their child’s whereabouts.
SB 5599 will now be sent to Gov. Jay Inslee for signing. The bill takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns.
I am Ted Leonard. I am running for one of the two at-large seats for the Matanuska Electric Association, MEA Board covering Chugiak, Eagle River and Mat-Su.
My wife Colleen Sullivan-Leonard and I are long -time residents of the Mat-Su, with many years of experience in public service, both at the local and state level. My experience has been in finance and in financing utility projects across Alaska. That experience makes me an ideal candidate for the MEA board.
I am supported and endorsed by neighbors, veterans, Mat-Su Home Builders, local and state elected officials as well as Mat-Su Republican Region 2 Council and Eagle River District 23. They have faith that my work will be toward an open and transparent utility governance and will seek ways to bring safe, affordable, and reliable power to our MEA ratepayers.
MEA has been good stewards in how they manage and provide power to our residents. Currently MEA power is generated through base load power sources consisting of approximately 84% gas and 16% hydro.
Issues of renewable energy sources (green new deal) is that they don’t pan out. When you turn on your light switch at home you want immediate results even during peak use during cold winter months. Integrating Renewables into the system will be difficult since they are intermittent power sources by nature. The highest cost power on grid is the Fire Island Wind Farm. The Fire Island Wind Farm is a failed system that is better at killing birds then providing reliable power.
Presently utilities across the Railbelt are working together through the Bradley Project Management Committee to extend infrastructure from Bradley Lake hydro facility to expand capacity of power. It is important to support their efforts to ensure future redundancy and resilience for power sources for MEA and other utilities.
With many issues facing MEA and future power needs for Chugiak, Eagle River and Mat-Su, it is important to have knowledgeable, dedicated board members to help MEA in their continued work for safe, reliable and affordable power. I am in this race to do that.
Remember, every vote counts, especially in utility board races. If you haven’t mailed in your ballot yet, which is to be received by April 24 at 5 pm, then get online mea.smarthub.coop and use the Smarthub to vote. It’s fast and easy.
These seats are too important to have outside liberal woke groups decide the direction of MEA in this critical time. Get out the vote and vote for me, Ted Leonard for the MEA Board. Thanks for your time and support.
Ted Leonard is a candidate for the board of Matanuska Electric Association.
After the Washington Legislature passed a a ban on dozens of types of rifles on Wednesday, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy had an immediate message to residents in the Evergreen State: Move on up to the Last Frontier.
“For all those great citizens of the State of Washington who value the 2nd amendment (actually all of the Constitution) think about moving to the great state of Alaska,” Dunleavy wrote on Twitter.
The Washington gun ban includes more than 50 gun models, including AR-15s, AK-47s, and others that reload automatically after each bullet is fired. It prohibits their future sale, distribution, manufacture, and importation, with rare exemptions that are limited to sales to law enforcement and the military in Washington.
Once signed by Gov. Inslee, the law will go into effect immediately. Inslee, a long-time advocate for such a ban, expressed his support for the bill when the measure passed the state House in March. In 1994, when he was in the U.S. House, he voted for a similar federal ban.
Rep. Mary Peltola voted in lockstep with House Democrats against a House Resolution that passed Thursday to amend Title IX legislation and ban males who playact at being female athletes from female competition categories in K-12 schools and colleges that receive federal funding.
Not a single Democrat voted to defend women’s sports, but the bill passed the Republican-led House, 219 to 203.
It now goes to the Senate, where the Washington Post has declared it “dead on arrival” due to the Senate being controlled by Democrats.
TheHouse bill, sponsored by Rep. Greg Steub of Florida, is simple: It clarifies that when it comes to the 1972 Title IX legislation, “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
It allows chemically or surgically neo-gendered men to train in or practice with a female athletic program, “so long as no female is deprived of a roster spot on a team or sport, opportunity to participate in a practice or competition, scholarship, admission to an educational institution, or any other benefit that accompanies participating in the athletic program or activity.’’
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said, “As a woman who is pro-LGBTQ, I don’t care how you dress. I don’t care what pronoun you take. I don’t care if you change your gender. But we ought to protect biological women and girls in their athletics.”
But Rep. Peltola of Alaska, who is a member of the “Equality Caucus,” posted immediately on Twitter that her vote was to prevent bullying.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I don’t believe in bullying. That’s exactly what H.R. 734 amounts to, and I remain firmly opposed to it,” Peltola wrote.
The Equality Caucus, which represents the interests of LGBTQ+ Americans, wrote nothing about bullying but instead explained, “LGBTQI+ kids deserve access to the same opportunities—including participating in school sports—as their peers. H.R. 734 would deprive trans & intersex kids of opportunities to be part of their school community, learn sportsmanship & challenge themselves.”
Title IX (pronounced Title Nine), which was championed by the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, brought a more level playing field to girls and women in school sports. Under this new House clarification, any school hosting female athletic programs and who receive federal funding must not allow males to complete in the female categories, or they will risk their federal funding.
H.R. 734, The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, where U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) introduced the companion legislation, Senate Bill 613, with 26 cosponsors: Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Tedd Budd of North Carolina, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Mike Braun of Indiana, Rick Scott of Florida, James Risch of Idaho, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Marco Rubio of Florida, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Steve Daines of Montana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mark Waye Mullin of Oklahoma, Lindey Graham of South Carolina, Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, J.D. Vance of Ohio, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
The president has vowed to veto protection of female athletics should either of these bills make it to his desk.
The Federal Election Commission owes Americans an explanation.
In late March, muckraking journalist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group(OMG) knocked on the doors of a few older and unemployed Americans, to ask them about their campaign donations, which were nothing less than extraordinary: Some were donating thousands of times, adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
O’Keefe videotaped their reactions as they learned their names were possibly being used by the fundraising company called ActBlue to create plausible paper trail for donations to various Democrat political campaigns and causes. The people O’Keefe interviewed were stunned.
He spoke with one woman from Maryland who allegedly contributed $18,000 to Act Blue through over 1,000 individual contributions.
The woman appeared puzzled when she learned FEC records show she was donating constantly. She said she doesn’t have the means to be that generous: “I wish I could have donated $18,000,” she said on camera.
Love him or hate him, O’Keefe is onto something: The ActBlue fundraising platform may scrape names from a single or several donations people make and then attribute other, continuous donations to them.
Although it’s painstaking work, you, too, can discover this odd donor pattern if you look through the FEC database. But the FEC apparently never saw anything untoward about obsessive-compulsive political donations by unemployed older Americans.
O’Keefe’s investigation was replicated by private investigator Kyle Corrigan of Brightline Investigations in Wisconsin. He interviewed a gentleman who had no clue he had been credited with 11,000 donations over seven years by ActBlue. He said he may have donated once a month, but that was it.
Must Read Alaskacombed through the ActBlue contributions to Alaska Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola for the 2022 cycle and found the same curious pattern of multiple older unemployed people in several non-Alaska states donating numerous times in small amounts, day after day.
It defied logic. In the short campaign season from the special election primary in August, a few donors made donations nearly every day to Peltola’s campaign — mainly in $10 or $25 amounts.
One New Mexico man donated to ActBlue at least 310 times in November of 2022, Must Read Alaska discovered – over 10 donations a day. That same person donated to Peltola’s campaign through ActBlue almost every other day starting in Sept. 15, 2022, and sometimes twice a day.
A review of Rep. Peltola’s 2023 first-quarter campaign earnings at the FEC turns up the same pattern from some of the same unemployed Americans who appear to have given compulsively to her campaign last year.
Why would unemployed elderly donors sit at a computer and make $10 or $25 donations every day to an unknown Democrat candidate in a red state like Alaska?
After the O’Keefe story broke on March 28, however, the FEC was silent as a graveyard.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson immediately asked for answers. He could get nothing. Last week The Daily Caller News Foundationpublished a letter sent by Sen. Johnson to the FEC, asking why his March request for an explanation of the ActBlue fundraising mill is not being treated expeditiously. The FEC had first promised it would provide him a briefing, then said it would not. The agency said it would provide an explanation for why it will not brief the senator, but then gave Johnson the cold shoulder.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio also demanded answers.
“Two weeks ago, alarming reports emerged of fraudulent donations being reported to the FEC by ActBlue,” Rubio wrote to the FEC. “These reports indicate that numerous individuals, including senior citizens, have purportedly donated to ActBlue thousands of times a year. However, according to recent investigative reports, many of these individuals had no idea that their names and addresses were being used to give thousands of dollars in political donations, with most of these ‘donations’ going to ActBlue.”
Not only is the election accountability agency dragging its heels, but legacy media has ignored the revelation that ActBlue might have a little money-laundering issue.
Editors and reporters don’t like to admit that O’Keefe has discovered some uncomfortable information about the candidates and causes that they typically protect. O’Keefe uses brazen tactics that the Left has perfected – and he’s using those tactics on leftists themselves. What’s more, O’Keefe is not at all friendly to the mainstream media, so he’s ignored. They hope he’ll just go away.
For its part, ActBlue has not made any public statement about the straw donor allegation.
The trifecta of silence is deafening. Like the cops from “Men in Black,” we have a federal agency, the media, and the company itself saying, “Move along, nothing to see here.”
The well-oiled components of the Democrat narrative find nothing odd about an elderly unemployed American supposedly donating $230,000 in 31,000 separate contributions to ActBlue over three years. Nothing odd at all, right?
The Alaska House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 3, urging Congress to pass the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act or a similar bill.
The resolution requests that Congress pass legislation allowing individuals with valid concealed carry permits from one state to lawfully carry a concealed firearm in another state to the same degree that an individual with a valid permit from that state can do so.
Citing the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to bear arms, as well as the history of the U.S. Supreme Court in safeguarding this right, the resolution leans on the Constitution of the State of Alaska, which guarantees the individual right to keep and bear arms without denial or infringement by the state or its political subdivisions.
Currently, the State of Alaska has concealed carry reciprocity with 38 states. The resolution notes that other states that issue concealed carry permits often require applicants to submit fingerprints, pass a criminal background check, complete a handgun competency course, and demonstrate their ability and knowledge of firearm operation and responsibilities.
“We believe that law-abiding citizens who are legally allowed to carry concealed firearms in their home state should be allowed to do so in other states that recognize the right to bear arms,” said Representative George Rauscher (R-Sutton), the bill’s sponsor. “This resolution is an important step in protecting the rights of gun owners and ensuring that their rights are recognized and respected across state lines.”
Copies of the resolution will be sent to President Joseph R. Biden, Vice President Kamala D. Harris, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.
