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Equity: California will charge for electricity based on income

Suzanne Downing
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36
Equity: California will charge for electricity based on income

As California phases out the use of natural gas, the state government is implementing a significant change to the way electricity bills are calculated, linking them to individuals’ income levels. A law enacted last year summer mandates the California Public Utilities Commission move to a pricing structure that includes a scale based on earnings.

Residents of California now pay for their electricity based on consumption, as well as add ons for grid upgrades, grid failures, wildfire, litigation settlements, and aid provided to low-income customers. These costs are integrated into the per-kilowatt-hour rate.

With the new system, an “income-graduated fixed charges” will be part of the calculation.

California is also implementing new laws banning natural gas in homes. As early as 2027, the state will ban the use of gas-powered water heaters, followed by a ban on gas furnaces in 2029.

These regulations were set in motion as part of California’s comprehensive strategy to combat climate change and reduce pollution. By 2030, no gas-fired furnaces or water heaters will be sold in the state.

In 2019, Berkeley, Calif. passed a ban on gas cooking stoves.

This spring, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals court overturned that ban and said that such a ban violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which states that only the federal government has authority to set energy-efficiency standards for appliances.

Last week, the Berkeley city attorney requested an “en banc” rehearing, which would convene 11 new judges in the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case. Meanwhile, the natural gas stove ban remains in effect in Berkeley.

Oregon Democrats turn over illegal FTX funds to feds, but Alaska Democrats give them to crypto crooks

Suzanne Downing
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16
Oregon Democrats turn over illegal FTX funds to feds, but Alaska Democrats give them to crypto crooks

The Democratic Party of Oregon will send $500,000 to the U.S. Marshals Service. No, they aren’t buying the U.S. Marshals Service. These are funds that had been donated to the party by an executive of the crytocurrency scam called FTX. The Department of Justice has been trying to claw back all the donations made by executives associated with the massive international scam.

The Oregon Democrats had been fined a minor $15,000 for wrongly reporting the source of the donation last year, and Oregon Republicans said the $500,000 needed to be turned over to the bankruptcy court.

Oregon Democratic Party also handed over a $7,100 donation from FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, at the request from the Department of Justice, AP reported.

The $500,000 came from Nishad Singh, a FTX executive who pleaded guilty in February to federal criminal fraud charges.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried is out of jail on $250 million bail, one of the largest criminal bails set in U.S. history. His parents’ home in Palo Alto, Calif. was put up as bond to ensure he doesn’t flee the country.

Bankman-Fried was one of the biggest donors to Democrats and their woke causes across the country before his empire crashed down around him, sending FTX on a track to bankruptcy. There were several others in the company who made millions of dollars in political contributions.

Alaska Democrats were beneficiaries. Bankman-Fried donated $9,756 to the Alaska Democratic Party in 2022. The party, without announcing it, refunded the money to Bankman-Fried in January, rather than returning it to bankruptcy court to make victims whole. This may be looked at with suspicion by the Justice Department, as it can be seen as an illegal transfer while bankruptcy proceedings are in process.

FTX scandal: Sam Bankman-Fried ran crypto exchange like a ‘personal fiefdom,’ and assets are ‘stolen or missing’

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was also a beneficiary of Bankman-Fried’s political largesse. Late last year, she donated that the equivalent of her contribution to a nonprofit associated with members of her own family.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, in 2019. He gave away hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars to Democrat candidates and causes. By the end of 2022, he was in jail for essentially stealing money from thousands of cryptocurrency pioneer investors, laundering it through a sub-company called Alameda Research, and giving it to political entities on the Left, likely influencing the outcome of 2022 elections, and possibly the control of the U.S. Senate because the of the sheer size of the resources he made available to Democrats.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty and has tried to have the case thrown out. But U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set a trial date for Oct. 2. It’s not unusual, however, for trial dates to get pushed forward, and observers expect this one, which is extremely high profile, will not be heard in October.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski received max campaign funding from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, who ripped off investors to support Democrats in office
Six degrees of separation: FTX scam-man Bankman-Fried to go before judge with curious link to Alaska
Web of leftist election influence: FTX connected to Data for Progress, Biden’s pick of Sec. Haaland for Interior, and to a flip-Alaska-blue project
Crypto-con Sam Bankman-Fried arrested on the eve of his testimony before congressional committee
Will FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried’s donations to Republicans ever be revealed? Group files complaint with FEC
Victor Davis Hanson: Two antithetical billionaires
Listicle: Which Outsiders are the biggest funders of the Alaska Democratic Party? George Soros, Bankman-Fried, LinkedIn

Alaska GOP unanimous on need for special prosecutor to investigate abuses by FBI, Justice Department

Suzanne Downing
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31
Alaska GOP unanimous on need for special prosecutor to investigate abuses by FBI, Justice Department

The Alaska Republican Party officers meeting in Soldotna on Saturday were unanimous in passing a resolution in favor of a special prosecutor being appointed to investigate political abuses by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department, and the White House.

Some of the instances of weaponization of the justice system that are highlighted by the resolution include:

  • After a private meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Department of
    Justice (DOJ) US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General asked FBI
    Director James Comey to downplay an investigation into then presidential
    candidate Hillary Clinton’s improper storage of classified documents on her private
    email server,
  • The FBI allegedly subsequently attempted to influence the 2016 presidential
    election by concluding that candidate Hillary Clinton had not violated federal law
    when, in actuality, the FBI had found nearly 100 emails on her private email server
    that were, or should have been, classified as “Secret” or “Top Secret,”
  • The FBI allegedly conducted illegal surveillance of Republican political candidates
    and campaigns under Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrants
    based on false, misleading, unverified, or incomplete information,
  • The FBI allegedly suppressed freedom of speech by conservatives on social
    media,
  • The FBI allegedly withheld information from congress and suppressed information
    and evidence of potential influence peddling by members of the executive branch,
  • FBI leadership reportedly retaliated against whistleblowers within the agency,
  • The FBI Director refused to cooperate with congress by attempting to withhold
    unclassified information pertaining to potential money-laundering activities by
    member(s) of the executive branch and family members,
  • The DOJ allegedly removed an IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and his
  • entire team from a “high profile, controversial on-going investigation” concerning Hunter Biden,
  • The FBI “violated federal whistleblower protection laws and abused it’s own security clearance review process to hamstring the brave agents who exercised their right to make protected disclosures to Congress or who dared to question agency leadership,”
  • Special Counsel Durham’s May 23, 2023 Report concluded the FBI should neve have initiated an investigation over “Russian Collusion” and stated that the FBI “failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report,”
  • The Durham report further concluded by stating that the DOJ and FBI acted without “appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power.”

In each instance cited, the FBI systematically failed to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions against Democrat candidates while pursuing investigations against Republican candidates, and it appears the FBI is being politically weaponized in favor of Democrats and
against Republicans, thereby undermining trust by the American people that the federal
government performs its law enforcement duties with fairness and political neutrality, the resolution said.

The meeting was a quarterly gathering of the officers of the Alaska Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

Breaking: Port of Seattle shut down by longshoremen

Suzanne Downing
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47
Breaking: Port of Seattle shut down by longshoremen

It may be time to stock up. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down cargo operations at the Port of Seattle on Saturday, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

PMA said on Twitter that work slowdowns Friday directed by ILWU officials have brought ground operations to a halt, resulting in longshore workers being sent home.

“Coordinated and disruptive work actions led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have shut down cargo operations at the Port of Seattle,” PMA wrote on Saturday.

The Port of Seattle is a powerhouse in the economy of the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska’s economy is existentially tied to it. Roughly 80% of the goods coming to Alaska pass through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

The work stoppage, not yet characterized as a strike, follows similar slowdowns last week at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland.

Longshoremen up and down the West Coast have been working without a contract since last July.

Democrat State Senate Education chair says regulation protecting girls in school sports is ‘terrorism’

Suzanne Downing
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48
Democrat State Senate Education chair says regulation protecting girls in school sports is ‘terrorism’

Sen. Loki Tobin of Anchorage is leading the charge against gender-specific bathrooms in the schools in Alaska.

In response to the Alaska State Board of Education voting to address through regulation the leftist push for transgenders taking over girls’ high school sports, Tobin, a Democrat, likened it to terrorism.

“The way this kind of terrorism works is that it not only punishes expression, condemns identities…it’s like burning a cross on someone’s lawn: It’s an attempt to frighten people into compliance and submission,” she wrote.

The board is setting a 30-day public comment period for a proposed regulation that would preserve girls’ teams in high schools across the state from being taken over by boys who describe themselves as transgender girls.

Twenty-one states across the nation have passed laws that are similar to the one being proposed by the Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development. Bills in the Alaska House and Senate have failed to move forward in the Legislature, as they are being blocked by Democrat members like Sen. Tobin, and some Republicans who see themselves as champions against what Tobin calls terrorism.

In Soldotna, public turns out to support girls’ sports at State Board of Education meeting

Thought police: Alaska Democrats support Rep. Gray’s movement to censure those not ‘compassionate’ enough

Suzanne Downing
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31
Thought police: Alaska Democrats support Rep. Gray’s movement to censure those not ‘compassionate’ enough

The Alaska Democratic Party is avoiding talking about foreign policy, taxation, the debt ceiling, overburdensome regulations that harm the economy, or even the need for better educational outcomes.

Instead, the Democrats on the Last Frontier have turned into a sort of self-help group. The party is placing an emphasis on soft qualities of empathy, pride, truth, and other wholesome attributes, most of which can’t be measured.

The emotional-based campaign started with “pride” for “Pride Month,” and then switched to “empathy,” and lauded State Rep. Andrew Gray of Anchorage for censuring someone who was not compassionate enough. Gray is leading the censuring movement, they said.

In other words, the Democrats want elected officials to use their positions to officially censure people who don’t agree with them or who don’t show enough compassion.

Gray admitted in committee last year that he encouraged someone to lie on his military application. For the second Democrat attribute being highlighted, this would be a problem. Lying on a military application is a felony.

Conduct unbecoming: Rep. Andrew Gray encouraged military applicant to commit felony

For the “truth” theme, the Democrats instead put the spotlight on Rep. Andy Josephson, who during his last campaign, told a whopper when he published an endorsement that supposedly came from the Anchorage Police Department. Police departments are not allowed to endorse candidates, but that didn’t stop Josephson, and his campaigning won him a Must Read Alaska “pants on fire” award.

Pants on fire: Andy Josephson says police and fire departments endorse him; Henslee calls him out on lie

American refusal: A fraction of gun owners registered pistol stabilizing braces with ATF by May 31 deadline

Suzanne Downing
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52
American refusal: A fraction of gun owners registered pistol stabilizing braces with ATF by May 31 deadline

Pistol owners across America have mostly ignored the May 31 deadline arbitrarily set by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for registering their pistol-brace-equipped firearms.

The Biden Administration says there are three to seven million such pistol-brace-equipped firearms, but gun groups say the number is far higher — as high as 40 million. These devices are widely purchased and can be manufactured with 3-D printers.

The Reload, a website devoted to firearm news, says “more than 90 percent of the guns equipped with pistol braces remain unregistered despite the risk of potential federal felony charges.”

The new regulation involves devices that help stabilize guns for better accuracy. The agency has put these stabilizers into the same category as other guns, like machine guns, which it regulates and taxes under the National Firearms Act of 1934.

The ATF says it had received just over 250,000 applications for registration during the four-month grace period, after the rule was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 13. Those who have not registered their stabilizers can now be charged criminally under the National Firearms Act.

During the four-month grace period, the Biden Administration waived the tax requirement for registration to give gun owners an opportunity to bring their firearms into compliance without facing any immediate penalties.

On May 31, ATF wrote on Facebook that owners of stabilizing braces must remove the short barrel and instead attach a 16-inch or longer rifled barrel to the firearm, or permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” such that it cannot be reattached. Alternately they can turn the firearm into the ATF or destroy the firearm.

Body of Sitka fishing charter captain retrieved after 11 days

Suzanne Downing
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11
Body of Sitka fishing charter captain retrieved after 11 days

The body of Morgan Robidou, the captain of a fishing charter boat that sank off of Low Island near Sitka, has been recovered. Robidou, who was 32 and from Sitka, was found in the Low Island area, Alaska State Troopers said, 11 days after the Awakin charter fishing boat incident that killed all onboard.

The bodies of Maury Agcaoili, 57, and his wife, Danielle Agcaoili, 53, both of Hawaii; and Danielle’s sister Brandi Tyau, 56, of Canoga Park, Calif., were recovered earlier. Passenger Robert Solis, 61, is still unaccounted for.

Robidou was a local in Sitka and was a talented metal sculptor, when not fishing. Covenant Church in Lake Havasu, Arizona remembered him with these words: “We remember Morgan as a wonderful, kind, gifted young man who always had a gentle smile on his face. We remember his joy in choosing to be baptized last April. Please keep his family in your prayers.”

The boat has been been towed to Sitka and the investigation continues.

Legislative Ethics committee meets Monday in Anchorage

Suzanne Downing
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15
Legislative Ethics committee meets Monday in Anchorage

The Alaska Legislature’s Select Committee on Legislative Ethics meets Monday at 10 am in the Anchorage Legislative Information Offices, at the corner of Benson Blvd. and Minnesota Drive in Anchorage (Wells Fargo Building).

On the agenda are two House complaints to be taken up in executive session, which is behind closed doors.

The meeting, except for executive session (which will be almost all of the meeting), will be teleconferenced. The call-in numbers are:

Anchorage Only: 907-563-9085. Juneau Only: 907-586-9085. Outside Anchorage or Juneau: 1-844-586-9085

Ethics complaints are kept private so that they don’t become politicized, so there’s no documentation about what the complaints are about. If media reports are made about the specific complaints before they are adjudicated, the complaints are typically dismissed as having been weaponized.

The committee meets on an as-needed basis to administer the Legislative Ethics Act, AS 24.60. The requirements and prohibitions in the Legislative Ethics Act apply to legislators, most employees of the legislative branch, and the public members of the Ethics Committee. The committee has no jurisdiction over those who work in the Executive Branch of the State of Alaska.

The committee is made up of Republican Sen. Gary Stevens, the president of the Senate; Democrat Sen. Loki Tobin (she/her) of Anchorage; Republican Rep. DeLena Johnson of Palmer; and Democrat Rep. Sara Hannan of Juneau. Of the legislators on the committee, Johnson is the only solid Republican, as Stevens is the majority leader of a caucus dominated by Democrats.

Public members of the committee are committee Chairman Dennis “Skip” Cook, an attorney from Fairbanks; Joyce Anderson of Anchorage; Deb Fancher of Anchorage; Gerald McBeath of Fairbanks; and H. Connor Thomas, a Nome attorney who is a registered Democrat. Besides the Democrat, the other public members are registered nonpartisans.

The Ethics Committee is staffed by Administrator Jerry Anderson and Administrative Assistant Jacqueline Yeagle.

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