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.
Alaska Representative Mary Peltola on Wednesday voted against dismissing an anti-police local ordinance in Washington D.C., drawing criticism from law enforcement and conservative groups.
The House resolution, which passed 229-189, was to disapprove of the D.C. Council’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act, which was enacted on a temporary basis after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Only the hardest of the hard left in the House voted against the resolution, including Peltola.
The D.C. Council’s local ordinance had put a target on the backs of police, and by law Congress and the President have the authority to overturn things like that in the District of Columbia, because it is not a state. The House took the first step today.
Peltola, however, backed the extreme Washington D.C. plan that gives more power to anti-police activists and subjects individual police officers to career-ending harassment by protestors who bring specious complaints.
The D.C. measure has provisions that to fast-track the firing of officers for misconduct, prohibit the hiring of officers with prior misconduct, establish civilian oversight of police, and require the release of the names and body-worn camera recordings of officers involved in officer-involved deaths or serious use of force incidents. The D.C. Council also aimed to release the disciplinary records of officers, prohibit chokeholds or other airway restraints.
Peltola’s vote against the bill has been characterized as “anti-police” by critics, who point out that she is prioritizing criminals once again over law enforcement officers.
Fourteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the disapproval resolution that would block the D.C. Council. They were Reps. Nikki Budzinski (Ill.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (N.C.), Jared Golden (Maine), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Susie Lee (Nevada), Wiley Nickel (N.C.), Jimmy Panetta (Calif.), Chris Pappas (N.H.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Pat Ryan (N.Y.), Kim Schrier (Wash.) and Eric Sorensen (Ill.). These Democrats recognize that it’s hard enough to hire police officers these days without putting their every action under the microscope in such a way that it can ruin their careers.
President Joe Biden has said he will veto the action if it reaches his desk. Its fate in the Senate is currently unknown, but it could pass.
The vote comes after Peltola’s previous vote in favor of reduced penalties for violent criminals in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, a position that has drawn criticism from victim advocates and law-and-order lawmakers.
“Mary Peltola’s shameful anti-police vote shows our law enforcement that she doesn’t have their back. Peltola clearly cares more about coddling criminals than keeping Alaskans safe,” said NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen.
I, like you, would love to live a world that is free of hate, bigotry, violence, and oppression. It is a vision of what Thomas Sowell calls “cosmic justice.” It is what adherents to religion take hope in that their God or beliefs will lead them to. It is that sense of the way things should be.
It is normal for human beings to seek cosmic justice that satisfies the soul in addition to the rule of law. However, when government gets in the business of enforcing cosmic justice, things can go terribly wrong.
On Tuesday night the Anchorage Assembly introduced and passed a resolution the members believe will promote “civil discourse.” Let’s look at a few of some of the loaded terms that are peppered throughout the document. You may read it in its entirety here.
Hate speech most often refers to any speech that disparages a social group or member of that group. Hate is attached to a person’s inner motive. One could wonder why we don’t use the term “disparaging speech.” Even though the term “disparaging” is subjective, it does a better job of pointing to the actual speech of the person rather than inserting itself into the person’s inner workings.
The term “hate” elevates the severity of the offender and effectively labels a person a “hater.” When the state of someone’s inner motives is being judged not by the speaker, but by the hearers, whoever has the most power gets to decide that person’s label. When we begin judging hate, we elevate ourselves as a judge and jury to shame the “offender.”
Assembly Member Meg Zaletel wanted to make it clear that this is not a law with teeth. It is merely a “resolution.” So, is not yet about creating legal consequences.
Instead, it is an effort to shame those who do not internally ascribe to the values or loaded language held within. Once legislators shift from a focus on the concrete actions of constituents into judging our heart motives and values, our relationship with our government lacks protective boundaries.
Extremist: Whether or not someone is deemed extreme is subjectively based upon the opinions of the rest of the general population. What was labeled “extreme” in 1950 could be (and is often) commonplace today. The label of “extremism” is always based on the norms of the society around us— a moving target.
Was it extreme of Rosa Parks to refuse to be seated where people of color had been accustomed to sitting? It was extreme for that time, which was why she became famous for it. But most of us agree that we are thankful for her “extremist” stance.
Once upon a time, our country’s elected officials tried to stamp out “extremist” communists through McCarthyism. It was not our proudest moment as a nation— not one I’d care to repeat.
Conspiracy Theories can be a problem and can sometimes spread more fear than necessary. However, some conspiracies are more than theories— they become true. The right to pursue a conspiracy theory is worth any risk it there may be to be deceived by it. It’s the right (and sometimes even duty) of any journalist to pursue conspiracies that have evidence attached, to find out whether or not they are justified.
Corruption in the Nixon administration, for example, was a conspiracy until it was found to be true. Calling something a conspiracy seeks to de-legitimize it. It is for each thinking adult to judge for ourselves.
Misinformation is simply defined as false information. The problem comes when the government or government officials become the gatekeepers for what is true and what is false. That is why we have freedom of the press.
We cannot rely on the people with the power to be the sole arbiters of truth. In fact, the people with the power have a greater incentive to obscure the truth when much can be lost as a result of truth coming to the surface. We cannot stamp out “misinformation” without also forfeiting our freedom to think for ourselves. While it may be true that without “misinformation” we could enjoy a much more obedient population like communist China, it is not a goal most of us Anchorage residents aspire to.
This resolution pays lip service to “freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the free exercise of religion.” In the same breath, it expresses to the political minority of Anchorage that those with differing political views are not welcome here.
It ends with an impassioned plea for Anchorage residents to “join us by adopting these values into their own lives, calling attention to these harms, denouncing hate and extremism, and committing to the resolution of political disputes through and active peaceful civil discourse…”
Yes, peaceful civil discourse is what we want, but this resolution creates more of an obstacle to civil discourse than a bridge.
The language elevates the Assembly to arbiters of cosmic justice—not in the job description of Anchorage Assembly members, last I checked. Their job as civil servants is to help do things like keep our streets clean, manage a reasonable budget, and maintain public safety.
We plead with the Anchorage Assembly majority to stop the lectures, stop the sermons, and stop the condescension. It’s not helping. The cherry on top of the night, which Assemblyman Kevin Cross so aptly spoke to, was the fact that while discussing a resolution to encourage civil discourse, the Assembly majority allowed ZERO public discourse.
I hope you respond with your own personal resolution to not be discouraged or deterred, but to step up to amplify your voice in Anchorage like never before. Write public testimony, speak at public meetings, write letters to editors, and use your freedom of speech peaceably but firmly before you turn around and discover that it has vanished.
