Balloon clubs are saying they have a couple of missing balloons that they think may have been shot down by the U.S. Air Force.
Late on Friday night, the Department of Defense said it ended its search for an airborne object shot down over the Arctic Sea ice north of Deadhorse, Alaska on Feb. 10. The military also ended its search for airborne object shot down over Lake Huron on Feb. 12. Canadian military called off its search for an item shot down by the U.S. Air Force at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The announcement came a day after a hobby group said it was missing one of its balloons. Aviation Week reported the day before that the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade is missing one of its party-style “pico” (metallic or mylar) balloons that had last pinged on Feb. 10, at about 38,910 feet in altitude off the western coast of Alaska near Hagemeister Island, on the north shore of Bristol Bay near the mouth of Togiak Bay.
In the joint statement released at 10 pm on Friday, the start of a three-day holiday weekend when many newsrooms were running with skeleton crews (including this one), the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command said the agencies had advised the search be called off because the objects were in difficult terrain. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved the Defense agencies’ recommendation.
“Search operations conclude today near Deadhorse, Alaska, and on Lake Huron, as search activities have discovered no debris from airborne objects shot down on” on Feb. 10 and 12 after “a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans” had found no debris.
“The U.S. military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners concluded systematic searches of each area using a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and surface scans, and did not locate debris,” NORAD wrote in a statement released on Facebook, but not on its own website. “The Secretary of Defense concurred with the recommendations.”
Northern Command worked closely with the Alaska National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to position teams to expedite recovery should searches locate debris, the agency said.
“Arctic conditions and sea ice instability informed decisions to conclude search operations in this location,” NORAD said.
As for searching for the object that fell over the Yukon in Canada, the Canadian military said snowfall had probably covered the debris and the search was called off.
On Lake Huron, the Unified Command Group consisting of capabilities from U.S. Coast Guard District 9, the FBI, Canadian Coast Guard, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hare not identified debris from the airborne object after multiple days of surface searches and subsurface scans. That unidentified object is believed by officials to have fallen into the water on the Canadian side of the lake.
According to Aviation Week, all three unidentified objects shot down Feb. 10-12 “match the shapes, altitudes and payloads of the small pico balloons, which can usually be purchased for $12-180 each, depending on the type.”
The balloon shot down over the Yukon may have been an amateur radio pico balloon called K9YO-15, which launched from Independence Grove Forest Preserve in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago, reported Space.com, adding that “K9YO-15 was apparently on its seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days.”
Pico balloons used by hobbyists and scientists are sometimes called a “poor man’s space program.”
Cary Willis of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB), told Space.com that there are about three million amateur radio operators around the globe and the NIBBB is a subset of the group, using pico balloons that travel the globe.
“Our balloons are very small, 32-inch [81 centimeters] diameter, 100-inch [254 cm] circumference, pre-stretched and carry a payload of around 10 grams [0.35 ounces] including the tracker, solar panel and 33-foot [10 meters] antenna wire,” Willis explained to Inside Outer Space.
“Our pico balloon K9YO had been flying for 123 days preparing for the seventh time around the world when it went missing over Canada,” Willis said. “That wasn’t the first time K9YO went missing. After the fifth time around the world in 77 days, K9YO went missing for 30 days, reported on the 106th day over Mongolia and continued the sixth circumnavigation at 112 days.”
Aviation Week contacted a host of government agencies, including the FBI, NORAD, the National Security Council, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for comment about the possibility of pico balloons. The NSC did not respond to repeated requests from the publication. The FBI and OSD did not acknowledge that harmless pico balloons are being considered as possible identities for the mystery objects shot down by the Air Force, the publication said.
Pico balloons can be 3 feet in diameter on the ground before they are launched. As they ascend to altitudes of 20,000-50,000 ft, they expand under pressure. Learn more about pico balloons and the hobbyists who use them in this video:
Meanwhile, pilots have reported the FAA notifying them of a large white ballon between 40,000 and 50,000 feet that was about 600 miles east of the Hawaiian Islands over the weekend. Messages sent on the Aircraft Communications, Addressing and Reporting System show pilots acknowledging the alert, which has a request to report back if they spot any such object. INDOPACOM is reporting, “U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is aware of the reports of a large white balloon by civilian aircraft. We are looking into the reports and have nothing additional at this time.”
Samuel Brinton, a former senior Department of Energy official in the Biden Administration who was arrested late last year for airport baggage theft, was let out from the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility, a medium-security level county jail in Minneapolis, without bail last Wednesday.
Brinton was charged with stealing a woman traveler’s designer luggage worth $2,325 near the baggage claim area at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Sept. 16.
Brinton was dressed in colorful male attire as he strode confidently from the building with his lawyer last Wednesday, unusual for a person who is more often seen in public dressed in flamboyant women’s attire and red lipstick. Brinton views himself as non-binary, meaning he is comfortable as either male or female, or perhaps neither. It is unclear if he was held in the men’s or women’s unit.
Brinton was fired from the Department of Energy in December, where he had been in charge of spent nuclear waste. After his luggage theft arrests in Minneapolis and Las Vegas, he became an embarrassment to the Biden Administration, and was put on administrative leave and eventually fired.
Although his court date was originally Dec. 19, the hearing was postponed at his lawyers’ request. The judge, who referred to the defendant as Mx. Brinton, ordered the alleged luggage thief to not have contact with his victims, according to the Washington Examiner. If convicted, Brinton could face up to five years in federal prison and a $10,000 fine.
A year ago, the Biden Administration lauded Brinton for becoming the first “gender-fluid” person at a high level in the federal government. Brinton had top security clearances, as the person responsible for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, all of which could be weaponized.
By October, he was charged in Hennepin County with felony theft when a woman at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport reported her suitcase missing from baggage claim, a theft that occurred on Sept. 16, and which was caught on airport security video.
Other video shows him taking that into the Intercontinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel.
Later, he was charged with another felony grand larceny charges in Nevada, for a different luggage theft at the Harry Reid International Airport that occurred in July. Authorities were able to track him down after news of the Minneapolis theft became public and investigators reviewed security camera footage, which show a person who looks like Brinton stealing a bag from the Harry Reid airport.
When contacted by police, Brinton eventually admitted taking the bag from the Minneapolis airport. Later he checked the bag onto a flight he took back to Washington, D.C.
Brinton started a group called the Trevor Project, which advised the Anchorage Assembly on passage of an ordinance that makes it illegal for any therapist in Anchorage to try to dissuade a youth client from acting on his or her gay sexual impulses. The Trevor Project’s secret dealings with the Anchorage Assembly have never been fully revealed, as the Assembly and Clerk have redacted the documents heavily, claiming attorney-client privilege, even though there was no contractual arrangement with the Trevor Project.
He also led seminars in sado-macochistic sex.
Sam Brinton also was instrumental in drafting school policies used in several states that instructs played a key role in developing a policy adopted in various states “that instructs school districts to keep ‘”‘unaffirming'”‘ parents in the dark about a potentially suicidal child’s gender identity or sexual orientation, Fox News has since reported.
Brinton still has information about the country’s nuclear disposal systems and could be seen as a danger to national security, but at this point he is only being considered to be a garden-variety thief.
On Monday, a resolution offered by Rep. Josiah Patkotak of Utqiagvik passed the the Alaska House of Representatives in support of oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope of Alaska. The House unanimously passed House Joint Resolution 6, encouraging the federal government and the Biden Administration to approve the Willow project.
Willow could produce as much as 600,000,000 barrels of oil and generate thousands of new jobs with millions of dollars in revenue for the state of Alaska. It is supported by Alaskan Native Leaders, local government, and communities across the North Slope. This project offers more than just economic benefits. It has the potential to provide family-supporting jobs and wages, improve educational opportunities, provide needed infrastructure, and expand services to the region. Additionally, royalties from the project will support the NPRA Grant mitigation fund, which works to support communities closest to oil and gas development.
Patkotak stated: “I thank my colleagues for voting for HJR 6 and for speaking as one in support of the Willow project. The people of the North Slope, long-standing stewards of the NPRA lands, understand better than anyone the need for this incredible economic opportunity. As their representative, it is critical for me to echo the advocacy of my people when it comes to sustaining our way of life.”
“Federal approval of the Willow project would decrease the dependency on foreign oil and strengthen our National Defense by filling our national oil reserves,” added Rep. George Rauscher of Sutton. “Approval of this project needs to happen now. The benefits to the state of Alaska and the country are too great to let this opportunity pass.”
House Speaker Cathy Tilton said, “The Willow Project and others like it are critical to the economic stability of Alaska. These projects allow us to balance budgets and provide for a long-term fiscal plan. They also bring prosperity in the form of good-paying jobs and local economic stimulus. We urge the Biden Administration to heed our Resolution to approve the Willow Project doing what is in the best interest of Alaska and the nation.”
The Alaska delegation in Washington, D.C. has asked the Legislature to pass resolutions to support the project, which is threatened by environmentalists who have hold of the Biden Administration’s Department of the Interior. Earlier this month, regulators gave qualified approval to a scaled down version of the oil and gas project, but Sec. of Interior Deb Haaland said she has serious reservations.
A dispute between the James O’Keefe, who is the founder and chairman of Project Veritas, and the board of the news-gathering organization has ended with O’Keefe leaving.
R.C. Maxwell, a spokesman for Project Veritas, wrote on Twitter that O’Keefe “was removed from his position as CEO by the Project Veritas board.”
Maxwell was the reporter on the sting that hit Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign last summer, in which a campaign worker admitted that ranked choice voting was set up to ensure a Murkowski win.
One of O’Keefe’s most explosive exposés was his interview recently with a Pfizer executive, who admitted on a secretly placed camera recording that the drug company was engaged in “gain of function” research on the Covid virus and that the vaccine made by the company has an effect on women’s menstrual cycles.
Last week, O’Keefe was put on paid leave. According to a supposed internal memo obtained by left-leaning news organizations, O’Keefe had been mean to his staff, with one staffer complaining O’Keefe had become a “power drunk tyrant.”
Another allegedly wrote, “I would describe Project Veritas’ current environment with this saying: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’” The statements, however, are purely hearsay, and many supporters of O’Keefe say the organization will not exist without him.
“There is no Project Veritas without James O’Keefe,” Candace Owens wrote on Twitter. “I say this as a donor to the organization, but more importantly as a colleague who watched him pour everything he had into PV over the years. The money and supporters will follow James.”
BREAKING VIDEO: James O'Keefe addresses Project Veritas staff as he exits from the organization he founded following a high-profile board dispute. "Our mission continues on. I'm not done. The mission will perhaps take on a new name…" pic.twitter.com/0fZov5AXa3
Project Veritas’s board of directors wrote, “Despite what the Corporate Media tries to portray about our organization, know this: We have never been more motivated and dedicated to our mission than now.”
O’Keefe said, “Our mission continues on. I’m not done. The mission will perhaps take on a new name.” And several of the influencers who helped raise money for the mission are, apparently, asking for their money back from the organization, as they feel a personal loyalty to O’Keefe.
Tickets for the first six concerts at this year’s Alaska State Fair went on sale Friday, as the fair announced the first acts in the 2023 AT&T Concert Series.
The acts at the ConocoPhillips Borealis Theatre in the Palmer fairgrounds include:
Saturday, Aug. 19: Turnpike Troubadours: A “gritty country-rock band,” the Turnpike Troubadours debuted in 2005 and reached 3 on Billboard’s Top 10 Independent Albums chart.
Monday, Aug. 21: FOR KING & COUNTRY: The “Christian pop duo,” been awarded four Grammy awards and reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart.
Thursday, Aug. 24: Blues Traveler: The blues-rock band has 14 studio albums, four of which have gone gold, three platinum, and one a six-times platinum.
Friday, Aug. 25: Flogging Molly: The punk-Celtic band just released its seventh full-length album, Anthem, which rose to Top 10 on the Billboard Americana/Folk, Alternative, Independent, and Rock albums charts.
Friday, Sept. 1: Megadeth: A top thrash metal band with over 38 million albums sold worldwide; many metalhead fans in Alaska will search out tickets for this bank.
Monday, Sept. 4: Noah Cyrus: The Nashville-born, Los Angeles singer and songwriter burst on the scene in 2016, was on Billboard’s “21 Under 21” list for three years in a row, and was a Best New Artist Grammy nomination.
Tickets are available at the Fair website, alaskastatefair.org.Concert-goers may purchase concert-only tickets or tickets that include Fair admission at a discounted price, good for any day of the Fair, which runs Aug. 18-Sept. 4.
Essentially, the scheme captures and stores CO2 either in depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs or in forests. Do this, and the feds give you free money, popular in these parts. Not so popular is when the feds change the rules somewhere down the line, not unlike what they’ve done since statehood, not unlike what any pusher does to an addict after he gets you hooked.
Reporting on this has been skeptical, waiting for details. One organization calling itself We are the people of Alaska stood up an anti CO2 capture website and have been banging away on Tom Anderson’s morning radio show for a week.
As with any Next Big Thing, the devil as always is in the details, and as the details are (and will be) in flux, perhaps we ought to mention some big picture considerations.
There is both good news and bad news associated with this proposal. The good news is that it is free money, that several Lower 48 oil producing states (TX, LA, ND, WY, WV) are positioning themselves to participate, and that a decent CO2 capture and sequestration program would position Alaska nicely for future gas to liquids (GTLs) and coal to liquids (CTLs) activities. Finally, the producers are fully supportive as for the most part, they already have most of the injection infrastructure in place.
The bad news is that it is free money. Think of the pusher mentioned earlier. Additionally, it opens the door for remarkable graft and corruption like we have seen in the renewables / green energy world. Sadly, twice elected Alaska congress critter Rep. Mary Peltola appears to be an early adopter, with her husband Gene incorporating to get a piece of the newly baked pie. Think of Paul Pelosi’s stock trades with insider information and you won’t be far off. Additionally, most of us have figured out that the free stuff is the very most expensive stuff of all.
One of the rightful criticisms of this is that it panders to ESG (Environmental, social and governance), a scheme that uses pressure from banks, lending institutions, wall street, investment houses to support investments that are properly woke. Even Governor Dunleavy bragged about Alaska participating in ESG since before it was fashionable. I think ESG’s high point was last year, with significant pushback nationwide. And this is before the states roll out any of the large caliber anti-trust guns on its practitioners. Does the left want to inflict ESG? Absolutely. Will they try? Absolutely. Can they? Nope.
Both pieces of legislation in the House are complex, which worries me, as the more complex legislation is, the more difficult it is to determine what little nuggets of corruption are buried in it. As long as CO2 storage and sequestration do not shut down current or future resource development (think coal and logging), I think we ought to have that discussion. Whether we adopt it or not is another thing entirely, so color me skeptical.
I like that other leading energy producing states are participating. I do not like additional free money into Alaska, as it will be instantly spent. A return to defined benefit pensions for police and fire and more money for education are the current examples. I do not like that Gene Peltola is positioning himself to participate in the insider trading criminal enterprise known as the democrat party, as this is not going to end well for Alaska. He won’t be the only one, I expect.
Still, this is a start. The more discussion, the louder that discussion is, the better. The governor and his staff need to be front and center answering questions, as trust me no longer works when dealing with a government, any government at any level.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
Anchorage School District has a committee that secretly meets to decide if certain pornographic books, which may be thinly disguised as “educational,” should be in the school libraries and available to children.
This district has the power to say what pornographic literature is “appropriate” for students at various age levels. Parents are not needed.
The formal process noted in its Administrative Regulation AR 6144(a)appears well written, but the process itself is secret, hidden from parents and everyone else.
If an individual complains about an obscene book at the school level, the principal and other school personnel decide if it should remain in that school’s library.
But if a person complains about an obscene book that is in several school libraries, then the complaint is heard by the secretive District Controversial Issues Review Committee.
Just who is on this committee? It is heavily weighted in favor of the school district. There are eight school district members, two student members, and three community members.
This is typical of the Anchorage School District, when it comes to committee make-up. It allows the district to say, “See, we had community involvement,” even though the token community committee members are outnumbered by district personnel.
Here’s the kicker: You will never know who the majority of these committee members are, nor will you know how they were selected.
When the former Deputy Superintendent Mark Stock consulted with counsel about this committee, counsel stated that providing names may inhibit the process from occurring.
Is keeping this committee membership secret more important than the public knowing the makeup of the committee?
The district may have understandable concerns about releasing student committee names. But the district seems to have few concerns about providing controversial pornographic books to those same students.
And the school board even shut down a parent when he read from one of the obscene books. The board doesn’t want to hear what is actually in one of these books when children are present.
Here’s the worst part: Minutes of the Controversial Issues Review Committee are not even kept. Should the community be able to know the results of their meetings and the discussion that ensued? Do parents and the public not have the right to know which pornographic books meet the “educational” goal and still contain graphic sexual information? What about the Alaska Open Meetings Act?
The vote of each committee member is also a secret that flies in the face of the district’s own accountability principle: “The District will be open, transparent and accountable to the public.”
The district may be in even deeper trouble than mere transparency problems. Alaska Statute AS 11.61.128, “Electronic Distribution of Indecent Material to Minors” has very specific prohibitions including: “the person knows that the material depicts the following actual or simulated conduct:
(A) sexual penetration;
(B) the lewd touching of a person’s genitals, anus, or female breast;
(C) masturbation;
(D) bestiality;
(E) the lewd exhibition of a person’s genitals, anus, or female breast; or
(F) sexual masochism or sadism; and
(3) the material is harmful to minors.
(b) In this section, it is not a defense that the victim was not actually under 16 years of age.
The superintendent, the school board and other school personnel, especially librarians, may be subject to providing indecent material to minors, a Class C Felony.
A final report from the “anonymous” secret committee is submitted to the person who challenged the material. That report also goes to the superintendent and the school board.
How that report is written and provided to the school board and the complainant without any meeting minutes is unclear.
Author Alex Gino changed his/her mind after publishing George, and wanted the title to be “Melissa’s Story,” but the book was already published, so he/she is encouraging people to use pens to change the cover. Read more about that situation at this link.
The final report is also placed on the district’s controversial concerns website, which is three pages clicks down from the home page.
But first, one must know where to look. Don’t try to find information by putting your request in the ASD home page search bar.
If you try to search for the controversial concerns page on the ASD home page, you will get a blank page. Here it is:
So much for transparency about pornographic books.
After some page clicking and searching on the ASD web site, one can find the controversial concerns information. Here is the secret page, known as Page/19019: https://www.asdk12.org/Page/19019.
One book was challenged as inappropriate for students is “George/Melissa” a novel for middle school readers by Alex Gino.
The initial request for reconsideration was evaluated by an ad hoc committee that consisted of nine ASD employees and no community members.
The parent’s complaint said there were two references to child hormone therapy, two references to gender reassignment surgery, and the confusing use of pronouns throughout the book.
The challenging parent then appealed the decision.
Here was his major concern: “How, specifically, is the notion of a student cutting of their own penis with scissors conveyed via gesture appropriate for an elementary student?”
Here is the committee’s response: “The reference to a scissor gesture in the groin area is not by the main character, but an older sibling.”
The committee would not even use the word “penis” in its rebuttal.
The secret committee disapproved the appeal and said that this book “is not pervasively vulgar” and that, “removal of the book from elementary schools would mean restricting access for the intended audience of the title.”
It should be noted that the book, by its own publisher, Scholastic, is meant for middle school students, but the ASD is placing it in elementary school classrooms and libraries.
What else is the Anchorage School District hiding from parents and the public? We know the district is hiding at least one student’s gender identity from parents. Are there other secret committees that help a child transition to a different gender?
Alaskans in Southcentral dusted off their tuxedos and gowns and traipsed through the deep snow to the Dena’ina Convention Center for the second inaugural ball for Gov. Mike Dunleavy in Anchorage on Saturday evening.
Among legends and luminaries at the event were Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, former Rep. Dick Randolph, former Sen. Willie Hensley, and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, whose husband, Gene Peltola, was one of the inaugural ball sponsors as he continues to launch his consulting company that is trying to get a piece of the carbon credit market in Alaska. Must Read Alaska did not see either of the U.S. senators for Alaska at the event.
Gov. Dunleavy receives a birch basket as a gift from NANA Regional Corp.
Former Miss America Emma Broyles lit up the room with her rendition of the National Anthem, and Gov. Dunleavy presented a $15,000 check from the inaugural committee to Special Olympics in honor of Broyles, who had made her mission to support Special Olympics, and in honor of his former Chief of Staff, the late State Sen. Ben Stevens. The governor talked at length about Stevens and how he didn’t follow in his father U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens’ footsteps, but forged his own pathway, and was a great man in his own right. Dunleavy gave a nod to Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, and hinted that she may be a candidate for governor in 2026.
Rep. Neal Foster talks to fellow ball attendees at the Dunleavy-Dahlstrom Inaugural Ball in Anchorage on Feb. 18.
Must Read Alaska noted the presence of Wasilla Rep. and House Speaker Cathy Tilton, Nome Rep. Neal Foster, CEO of Maniilaq Association Tim and Alisa Gilbert, Bernadette Wilson of Americans for Prosperity, Yolanda Clary, Forrest Wolfe, Jessica Nicole, Matt and Laurie Fagnani; Sarah Erkmann Ward, Lorne and Rina Bretz, former Lt. Gov. Loren and Carolyn Leman, former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, Sen. David and Aleta Wilson; Mayor Dave and Deb Bronson, Attorney General Treg and Jody Taylor, Republican National Committeewoman Cynthia and Ken Henry, Lindsey Williams, Portia Erickson, Sarah Hetemi, former Rep. Sara Rasmussen, Sen. Dan Sullivan State Director Chad Padgett, Jim Egan, Matt Schuckerow, and Art Hackney.
Also, Dunleavy Chief of Staff Tyson Gallagher, Nick and Dharna Begich, Elizabeth Stevens, Dan and Roberta Zipay, Fairbanks Republicans Cheryl Markwood and Seth Church, Anchorage Assemblyman Randy and Heather Sulte, Rick Green (Rydell), Anchorage Republican Women’s Club President Judy and Randy Eledge, former Rep. John Lincoln, Anchorage Assembly candidate Leigh and Jake Sloan, Rep. Dan Saddler, Steve Johnson, Mike Robbins, Jason and Carmela Warfield, and Fairbanks’ Babara Haney.
Although some legislators were not in attendance, many did attend the inaugural ball in Juneau on Jan. 20.
Ice sculpture in the shape of Alaska.
John Binkley, a former state senator and longtime Fairbanks businessman whose son is the majority owner of the Anchorage Daily News, was the emcee. When Dunleavy was introduced and went up to the stage, there were fireworks shooting straight up from pyrotechnic devices. One of them would not shut off, no matter how much the technician pushed the stop button, but Dunleavy busted up the crowd by joking that all that was needed now was a balloon to float into the room.
Alaskans for Honest Elections, working repeal ranked choice voting, had someone moving through the crowd trying to get signatures for the petition which needs 26,000 signatures on it before next year.
Back in December, I wrote an article outlining how Alaska’s unelected judges and attorney generals have repeatedly highjacked grand jury investigations into the Office of Children Services.
My article contained quotes from former State Rep. Tammie Wilson who in 2016 said “OCS has become a protected empire”, and “poor parents are often targeted”. Wilson called it “legal kidnapping” and said, “parents will do anything to get their children back.”
Some readers felt most of this was old news and wasn’t applicable in the Dunleavy administration, which took control of OCS in 2018. They noted Wilson had abruptly quit the Legislature in January 2020 to work for Dunleavy. They believed Wilson had helped straighten out OCS and it was on the right path.
These readers were dead wrong. The situation at OCS has gotten worse in the last six years under Dunleavy. OCS now backs up their kidnapping vans to the homes of respected middle-class families in addition to the poor. Their thirst for new victims appears unquenchable and Wilson appears to be compromised. She knows all about the tragedy you’re about to read yet has been powerless to stop the ongoing trauma. Is your home next?
The problem isn’t isolated to OCS and Dunleavy. Alaska’s judiciary and its legal system bear full responsibility for allowing this tyranny to go unchecked. The backstop of constitutional rights many of you have assumed exists in our state is a fiction. A chummy club of judges, lawyers, guardians ad litem, and expert witnesses make a comfortable living off this legal kidnapping. Their paychecks and prestige appear to take priority above the interests of the children they’re sworn to protect. The professionals dominating our courtrooms fiddle while Alaska burns to the ground.
Consider the gut-wrenching ordeal of a Mat-su Valley family that follows.
OCS’ reckless and willful destruction of this bi-racial family over the last 2 years is an absolute outrage. It would take a book to adequately describe all the trauma OCS has dished out to “AK Mom” and the five children she adopted as infants from 2005 to 2012, all with disabilities. However, I will attempt to encapsulate this ongoing tragedy here in the next 2000 words by focusing on the second child she adopted, “George.”
George was born into this world with cocaine and marijuana in his system. AK Mom, a registered nurse, brought him home from the hospital when he was seven days old. Over the next 13 years George would be diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit disorder, and disruptive behavior disorder. In addition to these setbacks, he is autistic. Obviously, George could be a handful at times. He’s the kind of kid many Alaskans want to ignore, but his condition is a product of our failed drug and rehabilitation policies.
George was one of the lucky FASD kids though. To his adopted mom, George was an absolute blessing and a child to be cherished. AK Mom loved him as though he was her biological son. She attended to all his needs and would defend him to her death. For 13 years she had successfully navigated through all these challenges and George’s future was beginning to show significant promise. In 2019, a medical doctor observed that George was a “remarkable boy” from a “remarkable family guided” by AK Mom.
AK Mom made substantial sacrifices so that George and his siblings could be raised in Christian schools. An experienced educator very familiar with the kids described them as polite and respectful. When given tasks they were good at following directions and helping younger students. The educator acknowledged that some of the kids behaved improperly at times, but AK Mom never made excuses for them. She always cooperated with the school in formulating and carrying out appropriate consequences for any improper conduct. The educator called it a privilege to work with the family.
Similar observations have been consistently made by licensed social workers and behavioral health professionals. A provider to children with developmental disabilities recognized AK Mom as “not only a good mother but an exceptional caregiver.” Another registered nurse said AK Mom has the patience of a saint and is especially well-suited for parenting children with FASD, having become highly educated in appropriate ways to deal with behavioral issues.
AK Mom and her family were very active in their church. One woman, herself a former guardian ad litem, praised the way that AK Mom handled troublesome situations with her children. She recounted how those in the church noticed a remarkable change in George over the last several months the family was together. This woman knew that AK Mom had brought George to a new psychiatrist who used Genomind technology to get him off unnecessary medications while maintaining essential ones. The behavioral changes had been remarkable. She told me George was alert, communicative, and beginning to engage with the church members in a very positive way.
On April 2, 2021, the night before George’s world suddenly fell apart, the family attended a Good Friday cantata at a different church where they were first time visitors. The family had started off the school holiday at a local park and doing trampoline jumping. By chance they had heard about the cantata, and it was George’s idea for the family to cap off a great day together by attending the service.
The Caucasian mom and her 5 Alaska Native children stood out in the crowd of 50 people that night. Today, two years later, people from that church still remember how well behaved the family was before, during, and after the cantata. One person remembers talking with George and how excited he was about his upcoming 14th birthday on Easter Sunday. As George and his family enjoyed the church’s presentation of the Last Supper, they had no idea they too had just eaten their last supper together.
The next afternoon, George’s family was summoned to the Alaska CARES center in Anchorage. While George and his siblings were held in one room, AK Mom was interrogated in another. The interrogation was led by Dr. Barbara Knox, the Medical Director of CARES. Knox sat at one end of the room flanked by two Protective Service Specialists. To their left sat two “navigators” who are supposed to assist families. Behind Knox in a hidden room with a two-way mirror sat two Anchorage Police Officers. At the other end of the room, alone by herself, sat AK Mom.
After a quick round of introductions, Knox did most of the talking. The navigators said nothing. To give readers a sense of what that interrogation felt like, an ADN headline from Nov. 15, 2021 provides a good summation: “Mass exodus at Alaska child abuse clinic as medical director accused of bullying and misdiagnoses.” The story quotes a former forensic nurse at CARES whose position was eliminated in March of 2021 after she registered multiple complaints about Knox. The nurse said, “I am very fearful for anybody who has to bring their kids to Alaska CARES right now.”
George’s family were some of those unfortunate people the forensic nurse feared for. Knox is long gone from CARES, yet AK Mom’s nightmare continues. Significant evidence exists indicating Knox was intentionally duped by the OCS and she was used as a tool to gain control of the five children and intentionally harass AK Mom. The Protected Empire is out to punish people who stand up to them.
The problem with Alaska CARES and its connection to OCS goes much deeper than most people want to publicly admit. The fear is real. None of the sources I’ve spoken to want to be named publicly. Some have expressed fear their children and grandchildren will be targeted by the Protected Empire.
If lawful and well-respected community members can be harnessed by this fear, imagine how easily manipulated those with past blemishes are. This is one of the reasons why a special grand jury investigation into the OCS and the legal system that protects the Empire is imperative.
After six hours of interrogation, Knox told Alaska Mom that they were taking her children away from her. No judge was involved in this decision. The state’s claim against AK Mom was “Medical Abuse”. A fancier phrase the professionals like to use is “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy”. OCS defines MSBP as “unnecessary and harmful or potentially harmful medical care at the instigation of the caregiver.”
Knox then asked AK Mom to go into the adjoining room and help prepare her children mentally to be taken away. When AK Mom told her children what was about to happen, one of George’s brothers curled up on the couch and started crying uncontrollably. George’s 12-year-old sister “Karen”, who wasn’t on any medications asked, “they’re taking us for meds?” When another adult responded “yes”, Karen said, “then I don’t have to go.” OCS took Karen anyway.
Before they were separated, Karen grabbed a paper towel and a marker, drew a heart and then wrote “I love you Mom” and gave it to her mother. Karen, George, and their siblings were then all taken by OCS to the Alaska Native Medical Center where they were held for the next few days. George didn’t get to celebrate his 14th birthday as he had excitedly anticipated on Good Friday. His wrapped presents remained unopened. He never got to taste the birthday cakes his mom had baked for him to share with friends at church and later at home with his loved ones.
But OCS was just getting started with their reckless and senseless infliction of pain on George. OCS and ANMC took him off the medications the psychiatrist using the Genomind technology had prescribed. A nurse who witnessed the resulting carnage described it as awful and horrible.
After a few days inside ANMC, George and his siblings were placed together in an emergency foster home for a few additional days. Then OCS split them up and sent them into separate homes. By April 26 George had been moved by the OCS five times. He had already tried to run home to AK Mom once, walking several miles before he was picked up and returned to OCS.
On May 1, George got in an argument during breakfast at his most recent foster home near Dimond Center and had applesauce thrown on him. He went up to his room, packed his belongings into his duffel bag, and headed out the door towards his mother. He didn’t know how to get there, other than knowing he lived in the valley away from the mountains. He couldn’t cope with his FASD, ADHD, DBD, and autism on his own anymore. Somehow, he had to find his way home.
By 6 pm that evening, George found himself sitting on a bench alongside the southbound lanes of Glenn Highway, just north of the Memorial Plaque outside of JBER. He was tired, hungry, and his rheumatic leg was in extreme pain. Wearing clothes now stained by the dried applesauce, George tried to think of what to do next.
George wasn’t sure how far he’d walked or how much further he had to go. He knew he was in a bad situation. The sun was descending across the sky, and he sensed home was still a long way aways. He bowed his head between his knees.
Google Maps reveals George had walked 20 miles in the past 10 hours. He had at least 35 more miles to travel if he took all the right turns. But sunset was only 4 hours away and he never would have made it.
What George didn’t know was that no one was looking for him. His foster family had not reported to the Anchorage police that he had run away. How George was found in this condition and brought to safety was a complete miracle of God. It’s an amazing and incredible story that will be told some other time.
Today, nearly two years later, the ending to this tragedy has not yet been seen. OCS has moved the children an aggregate of 55 times in the past 22 months. Two more moves are currently being considered. OCS has prevented AK Mom and her other four children from seeing her youngest child, “Damien”, now 11 years old, since Aug. 26, 2022.
Last summer the second youngest child, “Lawrence” was put in the care of an opaque “transport company” for months where he was stored in locked motel rooms in both Fairbanks and Anchorage. Like his older brother George, Lawrence has been diagnosed with FASD, ADHD, DBD, an anxiety disorder, and autism.
Lawrence tried to escape from his second story motel room in Fairbanks by lowering himself with a sheet out a back window. He fell and hurt his ankle and didn’t get far before being returned to the transport company. The Protected Empire has treated Lawrence like a piece of cargo while all the judges and lawyers fiddled on with their sophisticated, reprehensible tunes.
This case represents just the tip of the iceberg of government tyranny in Alaska. Since writing my original story, my inbox has been flooded with several more nightmarish accounts about OCS. Last month, the 2022 Principal of the Year learned the hard way what happened when our Legislature passed HB 172 sponsored by Dunleavy’s office.
Twelve years ago, a resident from the village of Hoonah and his family learned how easy it is for State officials to lock up innocent people and ignore their ethical responsibilities. I have it on excellent authority there are many more innocent people locked away in our prisons.
Our burgeoning state government has become like a leach. No longer able to sustain itself on the flesh and blood of the poor, and recently your PFD, it has turned its attention to the middle class and even the affluent. Beware of expressing your faith publicly like Principal Fulp did.
What has happened to this place that we used to admirably call the Great Land? My sense is it all starts at the top, as documented some 3000 years ago in Ecclesiastes 5:7. History repeats itself.
Alaskans have the power to overcome this tyranny, but only if we have the will. We must quit thinking in terms of Democrat Party this and Republican Party that and become united under the concept of Justice for All. Start calling and emailing the offices of your elective representatives and the Governor.
Grab a picket sign and join sit-ins that are being scheduled throughout the state at government offices and courthouses. Demand independent grand jury investigations and support constitutional amendments that will return elective power to the people over judges and prosecutors. Influence your local city councils and tribes to pass resolutions denouncing this tyranny. Insist that oaths by public officials be taken seriously and criminal sanctions be imposed when willfully violated.
Most importantly, please join me in prayer. Lift your voice so God and those around can hear your plea and join in. Pray for the reunification of AK Mom’s family. Pray for the release of Thomas Jack Jr., from prison back to his loved ones. Pray for Justice for the countless other Alaskan families who have been victimized by OCS and our legal system. Pray that those individuals responsible for each of these State caused tragedies will seek redemption for their souls. Pray that Alaska’s leaders will renew their faith in God and be guided by the following instruction found in Zechariah 8:16-17:
“These are the things you are to do: speak the truth to each other; in your courts, administer justice that is true and conducive to peace; don’t plot harm against each other; and don’t love perjury; for all these things I hate, says God.”
Be sure to lift up George in your prayers – that he will soon reach home and finally unwrap those two year old gifts he’s resolved not to open until then.
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.
