On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which comprises major oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced that it would cut oil production by more than 1.16 million barrels per day starting in May. This move will bring the production down to 3.66 million barrels per day, as reported by Reuters. The announcement has had a significant impact on oil prices, causing them to surge on Monday.
Over the past two years, President Joe Biden has used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to tamp down oil price increases. However, he has now depleted it to its lowest level since 1983, with the reserve holding only 371 million barrels today compared to 571 million barrels a year ago. This depletion leaves the administration with limited options to address the expected drop in production by OPEC.
Last year, President Biden had announced his intention to stop selling oil from the SPR and start refilling the tanks. His administration had put out requests for bids for oil from suppliers to restock the emergency reserve when the price dropped to $70 a barrel. However, the plans were eventually canceled, even after oil prices fell into the $60s per barrel range. The administration never awarded any bids to restock the SPR.
The Biden Administration has instead urged OPEC to open its spigots and keep oil prices low, despite supply problems on the world market caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The impact of OPEC’s decision can already be seen, as wholesale gasoline futures rose on Monday. The national average for gasoline at the pump has increased to over $3.50, with regular gas costing $3.79 a gallon in Anchorage at Holiday on Bragaw St.
Earlier this year, Rep. Mary Peltola skipped out on a vote that would force the administration to stop draining the SPR.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has endorsed Brian Flynn’s candidacy for the West Anchorage District 3 seat on the Anchorage Assembly, which is being vacated by Austin Quinn-Davidson.
However, Democrats are advocating for Anna Brawley’s election, despite her potential conflict of interest as an employee of AgnewBeck, a company that has received multiple government contracts through the Assembly.
The voter turnout for the April 4 election has been lower than last year’s election, with only 28,500 ballots received as of Friday afternoon, compared to 33,809 at the same point in time.
To ensure your vote is counted, remember the following guidelines:
– The Anchorage ballot is not a ranked-choice ballot. You may only vote for one candidate.
– If you’re mailing your ballot, be sure to use two first-class stamps.
– If you mail your ballot on Election Day or the day before, request that the postal worker hand-cancel or hand-stamp the envelope with the date.
– Ballots must be postmarked on or before April 4 at 8 pm.
My last two articles about AK Mom’s family have focused primarily on George, her second oldest son with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and autism, who Office of Children’s Servicescontinues to place in inappropriate foster homes.
OCS’s carelessness has led to George being put in highly vulnerable situations trying to get home to his mother, AK Mom.
Moved From a Loving Home into an Abusive Home
This article will focus mostly on his older brother, David, who will turn 18 years old later this year. As you’ll read, OCS seems determined to set David up for failure as an adult before he ages out of the foster system.
David was born with FASD and later diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. AK Mom took him home from the hospital when he was just two days old, adopted him, and loved on him daily for the next 15 years.
A few years after David was born, his biological mom had another son named Damien, also with FASD. Both the biological mom and the Kotzebue tribe wanted AK Mom to adopt Damien so the two half-brothers could be together. OCS was opposed to this, however.
With support from the Native American Rights Fund, the attorneys for the tribe made it possible for AK Mom to adopt Damien in 2011. For the next 10 years both brothers lived happily together in AK Mom’s loving home.
That abruptly changed on April 3, 2021. The last two years in OCS custody has been hell for David. He was quickly separated from Damien and his other siblings. He was taken off his prescribed medications for his disorders. He’s been moved several times from home to home and school to school. In one home David was physically abused. One of his foster parents shoved him, called him a “little s**t,” and offered him marijuana before he was 16 years old.
OCS abuses its power to remove children from homes of love and put them into houses of drugs.
Family Time
OCS limits David’s family time with AK Mom to a maximum of two visits a week, but sometimes it’s only one or even none. On Wednesdays, David is allotted 10-15 minutes to interact with AK Mom via Zoom, provided he doesn’t express any negative feelings about OCS or the miserable situation they’ve put him in.
The Guardian Ad Litem moderating the call will allow David to stay on longer if he wants to say hi to one of his siblings during their allotted time with AK Mom.
On Fridays, David’s family is allowed to meet in person for 1.5 hours with a supervisor present. But that’s only if OCS or the supervisor feel like it. Last week they cancelled the in-person visit a couple hours before it was to occur. OCS has been jerking the family around like this for 2 years.
OCS tells citizens their goal is to work towards family reunification, but their actions prove otherwise.
Sex Education without Parental Consent
Two weeks ago, David didn’t log on for the weekly Zoom call. It was supposed to be a special call because it was also Damien’s 12th birthday. But David decided to skip it because OCS offered him $200 to attend some “life skills” classes offered on the UAA campus instead.
One of those life skills classes turned out to be “Sex Education” with a focus on LGBTQ issues.
David later bragged about getting $200 to take this class, apparently forgetting that some of the money was for two other classes he took called “Resource List Activity” and “Career Inventory”.
All David had to do for each class was sit down and watch a video and afterwards answer three questions. Easy money, but here’s the kicker: The sex education class paid twice as much as the other two classes.
In addition, the compensation for sex education was immediate gratification in the form of a Walmart gift card. Afterwards, OCS took David to Walmart so he could spend his gift card. OCS told David he’d have to wait for his money on the other two classes though. A check would be sent to him in the mail.
No wonder David liked the sex education class so much. Heck, can more of us sign up for this class and get Walmart gift cards?
A puzzling aspect to OCS’ program to teach their views of sex to foster kids like David is that they made no attempt to obtain AK Mom’s parental consent for the class.
House Bill 105, currently pending in the House Education Committee, is supposed to place “matters of personal identification and sexual education directly in the hands of parents at the local level,” according to the sponsor’s statement.
Some readers may counter that HB 105 isn’t a law yet. Technically that is true, but the bill comes directly from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who also oversees OCS. The governor won’t respond to me, so perhaps some readers will want to speculate who’s to blame for this inconsistent policy.
Another consequence of OCS’ bribe was that Damien never got to hear his brother wish him a “Happy Birthday.” OCS has grown accustomed to victimizing Damien. The agency has prevented him from attending the family in-person visits since last August. They’re punishing him for being angry at his family’s separation. OCS’ actions mock their stated objective of family reunification.
OCS trains foster kids to fail?
Some of my sources believe OCS wants foster children to fail as adults. For boys to graduate to prisons and mental hospitals, and girls to deliver babies into the greedy hands of the foster care system. This theory makes a lot of sense when you start thinking about the hundreds of millions of dollars at stake annually and the businesses that have been built on this pipeline of money.
Take David’s education for example. Despite his FASD (which is brutal on math skills), autism, and ADHD, David was doing pretty good in his Christian school before being kidnapped by OCS. For the third quarter ending March 3, 2021, he received scores of 89 in both English and History, and scores of 70 in math and science.
OCS apparently thought so little of these actual life skills that when they kidnapped him on April 3, they did not allow him to return to his Christian school to finish out the quarter, which ended on May 20. Instead, David spent the rest of the fourth quarter being bounced around several different homes where he was abused and offered weed. Could it be that OCS has something against Christian schools too?
The next fall, the OCS enrolled him in an Anchorage public high school and then a month later transferred him to a Mat-su area public high school. That semester his previous B+ in English turned to an F. His B+ in history also turned into an F. His C in science turned into an F. The only substantive class he didn’t fail was math, where he got a D.
The next semester he was transferred to a third school where either he did slightly better, or their standards were lower. He got all D’s except for English where he had a C.
David’s scores for 11th grade are unknown to AK Mom. She’s been trying to find out for months, but OCS won’t tell her. They ignore the parent just like they do the son’s education on subjects that will help him succeed as an adult.
Federal Class Action Lawsuit, Kim Kovol, and MMIW
One source for my articles on David and George has been the Amended Class Action Complaint filed on July 15, 2022, in Federal District Court (Case No. 3:22-cv-00129-JMK.) I urge readers to locate this document online and learn in paragraphs 74-100 how David and his siblings were treated by OCS in just the first year of their kidnapping.
The purpose of this class action lawsuit, brought by four law firms including three in Alaska, is to rescue kids like David, George, and their 3 siblings from OCS abuse. Yet the Dunleavy Administration is trying to dismiss the lawsuit. All of us need to start demanding an answer from the Governor — why is his administration opposed to protecting Alaska’s children?
The acting commissioner in charge of OCS the last nine months has been Kim Kovol. According to her resume, for the two years immediately prior to that Kovol was a special assistant and policy advisor to the governor for a “social services portfolio.” She also “successfully launched the People’s First Initiative,” which among other things “increased supports for youth in foster care.”
These words aren’t supported by her actions. I hope our legislators will start asking some tough questions before the joint session convenes to vote on Kovol’s confirmation as commissioner.
A hearing on Kovol’s confirmation was scheduled for March 21 before the House Committee on Health and Social Services. I felt the stories of David and George, as well as her opposition to the federal class action suit, required a challenge to the claims in her resume. On the morning of the 20th, I sent Kovol an email asking if she’d like to meet with me before the confirmation hearing; she replied no.
My testimony before the Committee focused on these issues. I also questioned if Kovol had played a role in suppressing Thomas Garber’s requested grand jury investigation into the OCS. I brought up the story of Katelynn Shelhamer and held her picture up to the camera.
Katelynn Shelhamer was murdered in Anchorage in 2021, shortly after she turned 18. According to a post from a friend, she had been in OCS custody and sex trafficked since at least 14 years of age. The friend said that after getting out of OCS custody, Katelynn was turning her life around. Was she murdered because she was escaping the vicious cycle and posed a risk to the system? An independent grand jury with a special prosecutor is the only government body in Alaska that can properly investigate this question.
On March 22, I sat in on the House Tribal Affairs Special Committee meeting. The entire session was devoted to missing and murdered indigenous women like Katelynn. One of the invited speakers, Tribal Judge Debra O’Gara, testified that Anchorage is one of the most dangerous places in the nation for indigenous people. She also testified that “foster children are at a high risk of being targeted by traffickers” and that “indigenous people, both men and women and boys and girls, are being targeted at a higher rate than any other race.”
These facts highlight the dangerous environment that OCS has placed David, George, and their siblings into. If you’re unfamiliar with my first two stories about George, its only by the grace of God that he has not become another trafficking statistic.
Kovol was also in attendance at this meeting when Judge O’Gara spoke those words. Afterwards, I again asked Kovol if we could talk, but she said no and walked away. Kovol’s refusal to engage on these critical issues is extremely troubling, especially since OCS is daily exposing AK Mom’s children to these heightened risks. Every legislator should be asking these tough questions of Kovol, especially those in the Senate who have showed no concern over these issues.
Recently the House Judiciary Committee devoted over two weeks of its time focused singularly on how to stop sex and human trafficking in Alaska. What OCS is doing and not doing, as demonstrated in the case of AK Mom’s family and others, must be included in the legislative record.
Plea to Governor Dunleavy
Gov. Dunleavy: Last week you and your wife each met AK Mom at public events. At your Prayer Breakfast she gave your staff a stack of her 24 prayer requests that have been distributed by others around the state and nation this past year. You know the people standing at her side are of excellent character and judging from the wide smile on your face that day, you seemed to think AK Mom is a quality individual also.
Governor, besides Acting Commissioner Kovol, you have the ability to pick up the phone right now and order AK Mom’s children to be returned to her tomorrow. There’s absolutely nothing in your way to impede justice. If you don’t and any innocent blood of her children is shed, it will be on your hands.
Make the call now, Governor.
Allow George to be home in time for his birthday this week and to finally open those presents he’s been waiting two years for. Allow AK Mom to joyfully bake a birthday cake that her family can take to church this Easter Sunday in celebration with their friends there.
I have yet to write about AK Mom’s other two children, Karen and Lawrence, who also have FASD. They share the same biological mother and father, both of whom wanted AK Mom to raise their children and adopt them. Re-unite Karen and Lawrence with the rest of their siblings.
Give AK Mom the support she needs rather than allowing OCS to continue destroying this once remarkable family. You should name her the Alaska Mom of the Year for her remarkable work with these children and standing strong in the face of OCS’ adversity. Let my next story focusing on Karen and Lawrence be about the happiness and safety you’ve returned to their lives.
Governor, on Friday morning when I was reading Psalms 144 in my daily devotions, you came to mind. A Psalm of David — I urge you to read it and find courage to sing a new song to God, to be rescued from right hands that swear false oaths, to enable our sons in their youth to be like well-nurtured plants and our daughters to be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
For the people to not be led into bondage, to hear no cries of protest in our cities’ open spaces. For the people of Alaska to be happy.
Amen.
David Ignell was born and raised in Juneau, where he currently resides. He holds a law degree from University of San Diego and formerly practiced as a licensed attorney in California. He has experience as a volunteer analyst for the California Innocence Project, and is currently a forensic journalist and author of a recent book on the Alaska Grand Jury.
The King County Sheriff’s Office accepted 287 firearms and about 10,000 rounds of ammunition on Saturday, and gave out $36,000 in gift cards to residents turning in these items during the county’s gun buyback event held in Burien.
The event had a budget of $100,000, including up to $40,000 in gift cards.
All of the firearms will be destroyed, including the seven antique guns turned in, the King County Sheriff’s Office said. A number of the long-barrel firearms appeared to be old, with wooden stocks that showed a lot of wear and tear. They may have been inherited hunting rifles and shotguns but didn’t appear to have been maintained by their owners.
The firearms turned in were:
11 AR-15/AK-47
68 Pistols
46 Revolvers
70 Shotguns
75 Rifles (excluding AR-15)
8 Muzzle loading
7 Antiques
2 Other
The guns will be destroyed at a facility in Spokane, the sheriff’s office said.
Firearms turned into King County Sheriff’s Office for gift cards.
Federal Way, a city within King County, had a gun buyback day in February. Police accepted hundreds of guns and gave out $25,000 in gift cards, but ran out of them a half hour before the end of the event.
The city of Seattle and King County both held gun buyback programs years ago. In 2013, 716 firearms were turned in to King County. Seattle Police took in 1,172 firearms in 1992.
The aim of the program is to reduce gun violence. According to the Seattle Times Seattle reported a 19% increase in verified criminal shootings and shots-fired citywide compared to 2021. In 2022, Seattle had 39 fatal shootings, 157 nonfatal shootings, and 543 verified shots-fired reports, compared to 32 fatal shootings, 142 nonfatal shootings, and 446 shots fired reports in 2021. These figures do not include suicides, confirmed self-inflicted shootings, or officer involved shootings. Seattle’s population is 733,919, according to the 2020 Census.
In King County there were 83 fatal shootings, 357 nonfatal shootings, and 1,654 verified shots-fired reports in 2022. King County has a population of 2.269 million.
While the programs take resources from taxpayers that could be used to put more officers on the street, there’s little evidence that they work to reduce gun violence is debatable.
“It’s a waste of resources if the entities that are sponsoring believe that it’s going to have a positive effect on reducing crime,” said Keith Taylor, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which is part of the City University of New York system. “But if the purpose is to provide a means for individuals to get rid of weapons from their households that they don’t want to have anymore, it absolutely is a good option.” He was interviewed by the Pew Charitable Trust on the matter of the efficacy of gun buy-backs reducing crime.
“Taylor, a former assistant commissioner at the New York Police Department, said if people wanted to get rid of unwanted guns, they don’t have to wait for a buyback event; most police departments will allow people to turn in firearms without a reward. But that doesn’t appeal to people who may use their firearms for crimes and a means of earning a living, he said,” the nonprofit reported.
A paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research said the effect of buybacks on crime is so little it’s not even measurable.
“Gun buyback programs (GBPs), which use public funds to purchase civilians’ privately-owned firearms, aim to reduce gun violence. However, next to nothing is known about their effects on firearm-related crime or deaths. Using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System, we find no evidence that GBPs reduce gun crime. Given our estimated null findings, with 95 percent confidence, we can rule out decreases in firearm-related crime of greater than 1.1 percent during the year following a buyback. Using data from the National Vital Statistics System, we also find no evidence that GBPs reduce suicides or homicides where a firearm was involved. These results call into question the efficacy of city gun buyback programs in their current form,” the researchers found. That study can be seen at this link.
An Anchorage judge has dismissed a serious case against Ed Sniffen, who was charged in January 2021 with sexual abuse of a minor in an event that allegedly occurred 30 years earlier.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Ramgren determined that due to the length of time that has passed, there was not enough probable cause to continue the case against Sniffen, who had been a mock trial coach for West Anchorage High School at the time of the alleged incident, involving a student who was a 17-year-old and Sniffen, who was 27 years old.
Sniffen had been with the Alaska Department of Law for many years when he was named acting attorney general following the resignation of Kevin Clarkson, who had been accused of having an inappropriate texting relationship with a state employee.
According to reports, the woman made the accusation against Sniffen not long after he had been named acting attorney general. Some have speculated that this late-coming accusation was a politically motivated action aimed at hurting Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who was the target of an attempted recall at the time.
Sniffen resigned from his position at the State after being contacted about the allegations by the Anchorage Daily News, which has been critical of the Dunleavy Administration for the duration of his time in the Governor’s Office.
Over the past year, members of the Alaska Sno-x Lions Club have been actively involved in providing crucial aid to Ukrainians who are facing danger and displacement due to the ongoing war. Recently, a news camera captured a remarkable sight in Chasiv Yar, near the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast — an aide volunteer wearing an Alaska Sno-x Lions Club arm patch. The Alaskan featured in the video was working to convince residents to move to safety, as can be seen in a German public broadcasting news report available on the YouTube link provided below.
Last April, the Alaska State Sno-x Lions Club began planning a humanitarian mission to Ukraine, aimed at providing essential assistance and transportation to the Polish border. This initiative involved moving families from the jurisdiction of the Lions Club Ukraine to the Lions Club Poland, in collaboration with the Aerial Recovery Group’s efforts to transport other evacuees to Poland. The team successfully executed their plan, providing vital aid to those in need.
Moreover, the Alaska Lions Club members played a critical role in coordinating the shipment of donated items from Alaska to both the Lions Club of Poland and the Lions Club of Ukraine, further bolstering the humanitarian efforts in the region.
Several Alaskans associated with the Alaska Sno-x Lions Club are involved in the humanitarian effort, including Dane Ferguson, Jamie Hamilton and Brody Smith, along with others from outside Alaska who are in Lions Clubs of their own hometowns.
As winter ends and the “fighting season” begins, Russia has taken over the rotating presidency of the United Nation’s Security Council, Ukraine, naturally, is furious about the move. After all, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant against Russia President Vladimir Putin last month. But the United Nations seems helpless in the face of Russia taking over the Security Council. The town of Avdiivka is suffering some of the worse of the shelling in recent days, close to where the Alaskans have been working to get people to safety.
Dane Ferguson, a snowmachine legend from Alaskawho has been in the thick of it in Ukraine for the past year with the Sno-x Lions Club, wrote on Facebook an account of a day in his life of evacuating civilians:
I’d like to start by saying that I strongly dislike social media. Although I recognize it is a necessary evil if I want to bring awareness to the humanitarian side of this conflict in Ukraine.
I’ve been here in Ukraine for about a year now. The few posts that have been made, were all the sugarcoated stories. not today. As I was standing around doing vehicle security, and I was thinking to myself how exactly do I describe this “new normal” to the friends back home. So I pulled out my camera and filmed an average day in the life of the Alaska Lions Club in Ukraine. Using freestyle as an analogy. This day is just a normal backflip. Nothing special. It’s not a highlight reel. It’s just what we do. Although I am really excited to come home and spend time with my family, catch up with my friends and get back to work to earn some money. I am equally disappointed to temporarily be unable to give these folks the option to live, and a chance at a new life.
Having said that. I hope no negative backlash comes from posting this video. It seems a lot of other volunteers and soldiers post their daily actions so…. hey lets give it a try. Here you go.
Allow me to put this video into context. We make two runs into towns like this every day to get elderly, children, and wounded people. On this day, we got a request to evacuate three people from the basement. Once we arrived, the male refused to go and The females changed their minds and were deciding to stay with the man.
As we’re driving into Town and crossing the only bridge that allows a safe access back out of town, grass is on fire on both sides of the road from a white phosphorus munitions being dropped.
My three partners speak Russian and Ukrainian. So I generally stay outside keep an eye on the vehicles, and our surroundings to make sure no unwanted surprises sneak up on us. While two members of our Team were inside trying to convince the family to leave. The big building that is burning was constantly hit with artillery. While I was outside enjoying the sites and smells. The two men you see sitting on the bench. Had come wandering out of the basement of the building to escape the shelling and sat in disbelief as they told us, that was their home being shelled. Of course I had to radio for a translator to come tell me what these guys were saying. She spoke with the men and tried to convince them to evacuate. But they told her that this town is their home, and they don’t know what they would do if they left and they have always lived here. One of the team members got frustrated with a stubborn old people in the basement so he came out of the building. He was a little antsy from the shelling and you can hear him on the radio calling for the fourth member of our team, encouraging her to leave (for safety purposes we try to never stay in one place for too long. Speed is your friend) And it was at that time the grandmother had decided she would leave with us, so we could take her to safety. I did not film the drive out. Because I am the driver, (if I had filmed it. I would never post our routes or critical infrastructure on social media) but we cross back “through”/ by the flames, across the bridge and just like happens every time. The old lady was crying as she left her home and family not knowing if they see each other again. We reassured Lady that we will be back to the basement to check on her family and hopefully reunite them in the future
As I watch this election cycle in the Municipality of Anchorage shape up, I can’t help but draw from my own experiences as a candidate and a former Assemblymember representing Chugiak, Eagle River, and JBER.
I recall going door to door when I was new to politics, and the most frequent question was about my political affiliation. For most voters, this is the foundational question to understand a politician’s perspective, and it serves as a building block of what to expect, how politicians view the world, and how they might make future decisions that will impact our lives and our pocket books.
Candidates who refuse to admit their political ideology reveal the most basic truth. They are intentionally trying to deceive voters and don’t deserve your vote.
The liberal candidate in the Eagle River Assembly race is doing exactly that; he is not truly non-partisan, he has been a liberal Democrat for years, and his name is Jim Arlington.
Jim ran against Anna McKinnon (formerly Fairclough) as a Democrat in 2014 for the State Senate and lost.
I asked Jim his political ideology on my morning radio show on 650 KENIlast week, he refused to be honest about it, danced around the question, and tried to read me a definition from Wikipedia.
He has been a Democrat for years, backed by the Democrat Party, and political donations have flowed into his campaign for Assembly from well-known Democrats and liberals. Let me list a few: Mark Begich, Tom Begich, Forrest Dunbar, Harriet Drummand, Daniel Volland, Anchorage Democrats (clearly Party affiliated), Mark Butler, James Lottsfeldt, Debra Call, Bruce Bothelho, Mike Navarre, and Sam Cotton, as well as multiple union packs and political action committees.
I also pulled his voter registration, and no surprise, the Division of Elections has him listed as a Democrat.
This may break the mold in political circles, but my first measure of a politician is not what someone’s political affiliation is; rather, my first metric for all politicians is are they are honest? If the answer is no, they don’t deserve my vote. Jim has failed on the most basic of measures and deserves neither a vote, nor to represent the community I grew up in.
Fortunately, Chugiak, Eagle River, and JBER have a quality choice in this election.
I strongly recommend Scott Myers to represent Chugiak-Eagle River on the Anchorage Assembly. Scott is a conservative who readily admits he has been a registered Republican since he was 18, and Scott has been active in our community long before he decided to run for political office. Scott is the President of the Southfork Community Council, was on the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for eight years, serves on the Board of Equalization and on the Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals. Public service has been part of Scott’s life for years; it’s not just a campaign slogan, and I appreciate that.
In contrast to his opponent, whose majority of support is coming from Anchorage liberals, Scott’s list of campaign contributors is dominated by well-known Eagle River residents and longtime conservatives. Just to name a few of Scott’s campaign contributions: Jamie Allard, Crystal Kennedy, Amy Demboski, Lora Reinbold, Nick Begich, Tiffany Lund, Elaine Hedden, Brandy Pennington, Adam Galindo, Eva Loken, Elyce Santerre, Matt & Melissa Hickey, Harry & Candy Young, Suzanne Downing, Scott Bailey, Thomas McGee, Trina Johnson, Lucia Nanez, Ric Davidge, Ryan McKee, and Berkley Tilton.
The thing about politics and a small town, the truth always comes out; all you have to do is follow the money and take a glimpse at history; it is right before our eyes.
We have a clear choice. Scott Myers is honest about who he is and what he believes. To me, that is the most important characteristic I look for when a politician asks for my vote. Ballots must be postmarked, or dropped off by 8 pm on April 4 at any of the Municipal drop off locations (drop box in Eagle River is located in front of the Library), here is a link to all drop off locations: Elections Voter Resources (muni.org).
The congressional campaign of Rep. Mary Peltola in 2022 was truly remarkable in many ways. After being out of the political spotlight for years, Peltola emerged as a dark-horse candidate with an unknown brand among 48 names on a special primary ballot.
However, she quickly became the darling of the mainstream media, the Left, and even a few Republicans who were once fans of Congressman Don Young. While Peltola still enjoys a honeymoon period with the media, she has disappointed many Alaskans with her hard-left positions.
Unfortunately, a closer look at Peltola’s campaign donation list from 2022 reveals that she relied on the ActBlue fundraising platform, which is notorious for its use by many Democrat “fundraising mill” operations.
Peltola received thousands of small donations from a relatively small group of Americans who, according to records, appeared to be donating multiple times a day or week to Peltola over the course of less than a year, almost always in very modest amounts that added up over time.
Must Read Alaska has combed through thousands of Federal Election Commission listings of the donations that Rep. Mary Peltola received from outside Alaska through ActBlue during the 2022 election cycle. The donations came from all over the country, including Florida, California, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and elswhere. What’s more, many of the donors were elderly individuals, and most of them were not employed, according to FEC data obtained through ActBlue.
If we take these official records at face value, it appears that many senior citizens are spending their days hitting the “Donate Now” button repeatedly for political causes and candidates. The amounts that each one of these elderly donors are contributing add up to sometimes thousands of dollars a year.
To illustrate, here are a few examples of small-dollar donors (all elderly and from out-of-state) who fall into the “obsessive compulsive” category of frequent donations, where they’ve given to both ActBlue and Peltola, often donating multiple times per day over the course of many months. We are only using their initials and how many discrete donations they made in this 2021-2022 election cycle:
S.K.: 1,551 separate donations G.C.: 5,008 separate donations A.A.L.: 1,916 separate donations J.B.: 1,590 separate donations R.L.: 3,862 separate donations P.C.: 1,520 separate donations B.S.: 2,801 separate donations P.P.: 9,482 separate donations
A snapshot of just one file of a person who donated multiple small amounts to Rep. Mary Peltola in December, after the election.
The pattern of the donations are similar to the type reported by journalist James O’Keefe and private investigator Kyle Corrigan, who separately spoke to a handful of these Americans who were listed as donors through ActBlue, only to learn that the elderly Americans had no idea they had donated the amounts listed by ActBlue and the Federal Election Commission — because they had not made those donations. Instead, it appears that ActBlue may be identifying elderly donors and then pushing dark money donations through their profiles.
This practice, if it is occurring, is known as “smurfing.” Smurfing, also called “structuring,” is how some launder money from a large transaction that is broken up into smaller transactions in order to avoid detection.
Could it be that these elderly contributors are being used as straw donors in a type of smurfing operation?
What O’Keefe and Corrigan found in their door-to-door research were that the donors knew they had made one or two small donations to a Democrat. They were, after all, Democrats. But they were floored to discover that they were credited with donating thousands of dollars.
Here’s an example of a person who has made an extraordinary number of contributions:
H.H. of New Mexico started donating to Mary Peltola on Sept. 15, 2022, and then made donations nearly every other day, including on Sept. 15, 16 (twice), 19, 20, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30 (twice), Oct. 4, 6, 12 (twice), 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24, and following this pattern all the way to Dec. 31 when he made his final donation of the year.
As with the other obsessive-compulsive donors, he is listed as not employed. And as with so many others, he is elderly.
H.H. also was donating with excessive frequency to other causes through ActBlue. In December, 2022, long after the election was over, he made over 85 separate donations to ActBlue, for causes such as the “Let America Vote PAC,” “Stop Republicans,” “Progressive Turnout Project,” “Democratic Victory PAC,” “End Citizens United,” and other groups that use ActBlue for fundraising.
In November, H.H. made over 310 donations to ActBlue; this means he was making 10 donations a day on average. All of them were between $3 and $29.
But in the two-year election cycle of 2021-2022, H.H. made over 2,600 separate donations through Act Blue, an average of over 3.5 donations per day for two years. All of this donors contributions through ActBlue were small.
P.P., a middle-aged woman from Munster, Indiana, also made over 600 donations through ActBlue in December alone, after the election was over. Her total for 2021-2022 was over 9,200 separate donations. Many of the donations are as small as 30 cents. In the 2020 cycle, she also made what would be considered an unlikely number of donations.
Although there is no proof, only circumstantial evidence, that there is a type of donor-laundering operation going on in fundraising mills that are integrated with the ActBlue program, this is the kind of activity that might raise concerns from the FEC, which has been silent on the matter since O’Keefe raised the red flag last week.
A year ago, ActBlue was the subject of a complaint about alleged credit card fraud by a person who said that the political fundraising tool deducted hundreds of small contributions that the man did not authorize.
“The Complaint and Supplemental Complaint also state that ActBlue charged multiple transactions as ‘reoccurring’ when Complainant intended the contributions to be singular transactions.”
The FEC assigned a “low priority” to the complaint because the dollar amount was too low to rise to the level of concern to the commission.
Former Arkansas Gov William “Asa” Hutchinson announced on Sunday that he will run for president of the United States in 2024. The 72-year-old Republican sees himself as offering an alternative for conservatives, as legal issues begin to envelop former President Donald Trump.
Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have already announced their candidacies. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to announce his this month.
Hutchinson said that “the reason is, as I’ve traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country and I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America.”
Hutchinson made the announcement to Jonathan Karl, co-anchor of the “This Week” program, and added that a formal announcement would come later in April.
Hutchinson, an attorney, served as the 46th governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. In 2002 he was appointed by President George W. Bush as Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in January of 2003 and went on to oversee 110,000 federal employees enforcing the security of borders, waterways, transportation, and immigration systems at a time when the country was on high alert against terrorist attacks from abroad.
Prior to his appointment to the Bush cabinet, Hutchinson served as a member of Congress from Arkansas from 1997 to 2001. After he was reelected to this third term, he was appointed administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
He practiced law for many years prior to his political life, and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, becoming the youngest U.S. Attorney in the nation at age 31.
