The World Health Organization will begin using “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox because scientists say that the word monkeypox is “racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities.”
In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name, the organization said. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out.
WHO recommended:
Adoption of the new synonym mpox in English for the disease.
Mpox will become a preferred term, replacing monkeypox, after a transition period of one year. This serves to mitigate the concerns raised by experts about confusion caused by a name change in the midst of a global outbreak. It also gives time to complete the ICD update process and to update WHO publications.
The synonym mpox will be included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) online in the coming days. It will be a part of the official 2023 release of ICD-11, which is the current global standard for health data, clinical documentation and statistical aggregation.
The term “monkeypox” will remain a searchable term in ICD, to match historic information.
Considerations for the recommendations included rationale, scientific appropriateness, extent of current usage, pronounceability, usability in different languages, absence of geographical or zoological references, and the ease of retrieval of historical scientific information, WHO said.
Usually, the ICD updating process can take up to several years. In this case, the process was accelerated, WHO said.
Alaska has seen only five diagnosed cases of monkeypox since the outbreak came to America earlier this year.
Monkeypox does not spread easily between people. Transmission is possible either through skin-to- skin contact with body fluids or monkeypox sores, through direct contact with contaminated items such as bedding or clothing, and through exposure to respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to- face contact. While anyone can get or spread monkeypox, in the current outbreak in the United States, most cases have occurred among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.
Alaska’s two U.S. senators voted in lockstep with Democrats to advance House Resolution 8404, which will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and replace it with the Respect for Marriage Act. The Respect for Marriage Act would make marriage protections for gays and lesbians a federal issue, superseding state laws. Opponents say it does not protect constitutionally granted religious liberties for those who don’t wish to take part in same-sex wedding ceremonies or the events celebrating them, and the law may be used to punish Christians.
Twelve Republican senators voted to invoke cloture, which means to advance the legislation for a vote on Tuesday. The Republicans were Roy Blunt, Missouri; Richard Burr, North Carolina; Shelley Capito, West Virginia; Susan Collins, Maine; Joni Ernst, Iowa; Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming; Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Rob Portman, Ohio; Mitt Romney, Utah; Dan Sullivan, Alaska; Thom Tillis, North Carolina; and Todd Young, Indiana.
All Democrats voted yes and the measure received one vote more than the 60 it needed — Sen. Dan Sullivan’s vote — to move ahead in the legislative process tomorrow.
The Senate vote was held open for nearly 2-1/2 hours to reach the 60 vote threshold needed to advance it. Sen. Todd Young voted yes and was the 60th vote. The clock kept ticking.
Several minutes later, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan arrived on the floor of the Senate and gave a thumbs up. That was the end of the voting on Tuesday. The matter comes up again for a vote on Wednesday.
Sullivan’s office said he arrived last because he was working to get Sens. Young and Lummis to hold out so that a vote would happen on Lee’s amendment. That was what the thumbs up referred to — Sullivan getting the OK from Sen. Chuck Schumer that they would allow the vote; it was previously dead.
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska was the final vote on moving the Respect for Marriage Act forward to the final vote on Tuesday.
The Alliance Defending Freedom and other conservative groups are highly critical of the bill and say it is unconstitutional.
Franklin Graham, who is an evangelical religious leader, called the bill “deceptively named.” He wrote, “It is very disappointing that 12 Republican senators sided with ultra-liberal @SenSchumer and voted for the Respect for Marriage Act which strikes a blow against millions of Americans who believe in and support traditional marriage.”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said “the RFMA’s current language would strip the tax-exempt status from many religious schools, faith-based organizations, and other non-profit entities that hold traditional views of marriage. The Senate must pass the Lee Amendment.”
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said, “All Americans should be honored and no one should be discriminated against—no one. The Respect for Marriage Act isn’t about equality or maintaining the status quo. It is about silencing and disadvantaging people that disagree.”
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said, “What we can expect should this bill become law is more litigation against those institutions and individuals trying to live according to their sincerely held religious beliefs & moral convictions.”
“As soon as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, activists went to work mischaracterizing the ruling,” wrote Greg Baylor for the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Many used the decision—and particularly Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence—to stoke fears that the Court might overturn other precedents, including Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court invented a constitutional ‘right’ to same-sex marriage.
“Using this feigned outrage as a cover, these activists pushed for a federal law called the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill is unnecessary and could have a disastrous effect on religious freedom.“
The Respect for Marriage Act was introduced in July immediately after the high court returned abortion laws to the states, and it is fast-tracked to be passed by the Senate and the House before the House returns to Republican control in January. It had no public hearings or committee hearings in the House, which led to proponents mischaracterizing the bill as a mere codifying of Obergefell v. Hodges.
“After outcry from thousands of religious Americans, faith-based organizations, and churches, a small group of senators offered a substitute version that they claim fixes the bill’s religious liberty problems,” Baylor writes. He says that the fixes do not protect Americans who hold different beliefs.
NPR reports that 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage and that the matter is no longer controversial.
“Same-sex marriage used to be a deeply divisive issue. Now, with polls showing over 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage, Congress is set to move forward with The Respect for Marriage Act,” NPR reported.
The bill is a reaction to the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade.
“I first filed the Respect for Marriage Act over a decade ago. Since then, the fight for marriage equality has seen many highs and lows, but perhaps none more frightening than the current threat posed by Clarence Thomas and this conservative Supreme Court,” said Rep. Nadler. “I, along with my Democratic colleagues, will not be idle bystanders while the constitutional rights and freedoms that underpin our democracy are shredded. Today’s vote was about protecting the children and loving families whose whole lives rely on the constitutional guarantee of marriage equality. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will take up this bipartisan bill without delay and provide much needed stability and certainty for the families that have been shaken to their core by Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs v Jackson.”
Cryptocurrency’s fallen king Sam Bankman-Fried, who ran FTX into bankruptcy and now may be criminally charged for scamming money from investors, not only funded the campaigns of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola, and the Alaska Democratic Party through his direct donations and funneled donations, he was indirectly funding left-leaning news organizations in Alaska, most notably the Anchorage Daily News. And he was funding a news group that defines what “misinformation” is.
“SBF [Sam Bankman-Fried] was heavily involved in Democratic Party politics: In the 2022 election cycle, he was the second most prolific funder of Democratic candidates after George Soros. But he wasn’t just a funder of electoral efforts. He funded both progressive and mainstream media organizations,” writes Robby Soave Reason Magazine.
ProPublica, a nonprofit that pays for reporters to do investigative journalism, paid the salary of reporter Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News in 2019, for participation in “local reporting network initiative.” The amount was $92,256.
This year, the FTX Foundation promised ProPublica $5 million, but has only made good on a third of the grant, leaving the news organization looking to other funders to make up the shortfall in what it has promised to media companies.
“One has to wonder how newsrooms will respond to S.B.F. [Sam Bankman-Fried] going forward. The then-billionaire hired a team of advisers who have been making investments in nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms over the last year, including in Vox, The Intercept, ProPublica, The Law and Justice Journalism Project, an international affairs podcast, and most prominently, Semafor,” wrote at Puck.news, which has been documenting the links between Bankman-Fried, FTX, and various non-profit and for-profit news ventures.
Some of ProPublica’s funding comes from George Soros’ Foundation to Promote an Open Society or other Soros-related charitable foundations. One of the biggest funders of ProPublica is a foundation called Crankstart, which is the family foundation of Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz.
In 2019, the Anchorage Daily News received a grant from ProPublica as one of 14 newsrooms in the Local Reporting Network grant cycle, which was to support “investigative and accountability reporting at the local and regional levels.” CoastAlaska, a nonprofit that runs seven public radio stations in Southeast Alaska, also received a grant of nearly $24,000 from ProPublica that year.
The Anchorage Daily News used the funds to cook up a series of reports on how Gov. Mike Dunleavy had failed the people of rural Alaska by not providing enough law enforcement. Headlines such as “Citizens hide from active shooters as Alaska is slow to deliver on 2019 promise of village Troopers” and other headlines and sub-heads blaming Gov. Dunleavy for the lawlessness in village Alaska were the norm during a two-year timeframe when activists were also trying to recall the governor for other unfounded claims, such as so-called “loyalty pledges” that he supposedly required from executive branch appointees.
The newspaper and ProPublica won a Pulitzer Prize for the series.
Winning Pulitzers for projects that attack conservatives is just the kind of winning endeavor that someone like Sam Bankman-Fried would be interested in funding.
Other news organizations that FTX Foundation was funding included Vox, The Intercept, Semafor, the ProPublica Law and Justice Journalism Project, and a podcast.
One of the grants made by the FTX Foundation’s Future Fund was $500,000 for thePublic Editor Project to “use a combination of human feedback and Machine Learning to label misinformation and reasoning errors in popular news articles.”
In other words, Bankman-Fried was funding the shaping of the narrative in the news by funding liberal news organizations and by deciding what was reasonable and what was misinformation.
Teddy Schleifer, a reporter for Puck, reports that Vox is a “progressive news web site created by liberal bloggers Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias.” Vox Media owns New York magazine. The Intercept received a $3.25 million grant. Semafor, a new journalism site started by Ben Smith, formerly of the New York Times and Buzz Feed, was another liberal news site seeded with Bankman-Fried’s ill-gotten gains.
Robby Soave in Reason speculates that Bankman-Fried was also buying favorable coverage from the media. The link is not direct, but major news organizations have used a light touch in their coverage of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s intentions to reshape the world through his “Effective Altruism” project. After all, Bankman-Fried was also funding Democrats and scammy nonprofits, including one run by his brother that was influencing Covid policy in Washington, D.C.
The FTX charitable endeavor is octopus-like, with many arms and tentacles that supported Sam Bankman-Fried’s interest in climate change, pandemics, predictive technologies, and Democrats. In fact, Bankman-Fried was a major funder of Democratic Party politics; in 2022 he was the second only to George Soros.
“The FTX contagion now appears to be spreading to some of the nonprofits, academics, institutes and think tanks that allied themselves with or received money from the FTX Foundation, which was funded by profits from Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange. The foundation claims to have donated$190 million,” wrote Forbes magazine.
Much of the foundation activities are not traceable or transparent. Bankman-Fried also had foundations that were sloppily run and whose activities are not clear. Some have no websites. Others are not listed with the IRS.
“It’s unclear how much of that money came from the foundation’s main giving vehicle, the Future Fund, which as of September had committed $160 million towards dozens of nonprofits and researchers; some of that money also was invested in companies whose profits would be redistributed to philanthropic causes. Recipients fell under the organization’s ‘areas of interests,’ which spanned artificial intelligence, space governance, combatting biohazards and climate change, but all under the banner of Effective Altruism: a philosophical movement that advocates doing the most good possible,” Forbes wrote.
“Individuals and organizations promised funds from the FTX Foundation are now grappling with the fallout, according to several that spoke with Forbes. One group says that it didn’t receive any funds at all from Future Fund, while another received only part of what had been promised. At least two that did receive money admit to feeling guilty–or even looking to rid themselves of the capital,” the magazine reported.
“Some of the Fund’s largest grantees were Effective Altruist groups with ties to MacAskill and Oxford. MacAskill mentored SBF for years and “nudged” him to take his first trading job at Jane Street Capital back in 2017, according to Sequoia Capital’s now-deleted 14,000-word fluff piece,” according to Forbes. Sequoia Capital, as mentioned much earlier in this story, is the group that invested Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. millions in FTX.
“To date, the Future Fund has given $30 million in grants to organizations that are part of Effective Ventures, a U.K.-based charitable entity chaired by MacAskill, according to the Future Fund’s June update. That includes Longview Philanthropy, a nonprofit started by two Oxford grads that ‘design and execute bespoke giving strategies for major donors,’ which was given $15 million; the Center for Effective Altruism, MacAskill’s main group, which received $13.94 million; and Non-trivial Pursuits, which received $1 million,” Forbes explained in this story.
Samuel Brinton, the gender-bending activist who in 2020 advised Anchorage Assembly members on an ordinance banning “conversion therapy,” is said to be on leave from the Biden Administration while he faces legal problems stemming from his alleged theft of designer luggage from the baggage carousel at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
The State of Minnesota charged Brinton after a woman filed theft charges when her luggage was missing from a carousel in the baggage claim area. The incident happened in September, and has been hushed up by the Energy Department.
Officers reviewed video of the carousel and observed Brinton taking the high-end Vera Bradley brand luggage before removing its owner’s tag, the court filings stated. Investigators then reviewed other video and observed Brinton using the luggage during two other trips to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18 and Oct. 9.
Must Read Alaska has not been able to locate a case number in the Minnesota court system, but the events are reported on several blogs, and now on Fox News.
Brinton was named by President Joe Biden in January to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy.
He is not only a gay activist, but considers himself “gender fluid,” a term for someone who goes back and forth between identifying as a man or woman. He is in charge of all the nuclear waste disposal for the country. Brinton has top-secret Q clearance, allowsaccess to top secret restricted data, formerly restricted data, and national security information.
Brinton, before joining the White House, helped found the Trevor Project, where he started a project called “#50Bills50States” to have conversion therapy banned in every state.
One place he was successful was in Anchorage in 2020. He coordinated with the Anchorage Assembly’s gay members to draft the ban on conversion therapy and the Assembly voted on it in August of 2020, while prohibiting the public from attending its Assembly meetings.
Although Must Read Alaska has attempted to get communication and other documents pertaining to Brinton’s consultations with Anchorage Assembly members, the Assembly has refused the public documents, which involved fake email addresses, a fake person named Tom Sconce, who was likely Assemblyman Chris Constant, the now-defunct Blue Alaskan blog, whose author has gone on to become the communication director for the Alaska Democratic Party, and the Anchorage Press.
Attempts by Anchorage citizen Russell Biggs to get public documents covered by open records laws have led to him filing lawsuits to get the records related to the phony email address and personage of Tom Sconce. The Anchorage Assembly gay members appeared to have used that email address to conduct secret communications during the same time they were preparing to approve the anti-conversion therapy legislation.
Brinton is a flamboyant American male who now goes by the pronoun “they.” Photos of “they” show up in web searches in various cross-species role-playing photos with men who are dressed in leather dog costumes. Brinton, who is also at times a drag queen, is not just openly sexualized, but has sought fame for his roles in promoting bans on conversion therapy.
“Prior to working in government, Brinton was an anti-conversion therapy activist who taught ‘Kink 101’ workshops on college campuses,” according to The National Pulse.
In July, Brinton posted a photo of themself on social media wearing a dress alongside Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine (a four-star admiral and a transgender woman) at the home of the French ambassador to the U.S. during a celebration for Bastille Day.
Rachel L. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Sam Brinton, deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy, Department of Energy, on Bastille Day in France.
The photo of the two official U.S. representatives together in France at a diplomatic event went viral and was roundly mocked by Russian officials.
Less than a year in his official capacity, he has run into serious trouble that may end his high-flying career in nuclear waste and give a whole new meaning to the word “baggage.”
“In October 2022 Brinton was charged with felony theft in Minnesota after allegedly stealing over $2,300 of luggage from the baggage carousel after arriving on an inbound flight. Brinton allegedly arrived without any checked bags but still visited the baggage claim area, removed the Vera Bradley roller bag, and the baggage tag before taking an Uber to Brinton’s hotel. He checked in with that bag and later admitted to police that he lied to them about the alleged theft. Later, Brinton traveled with the bag to Europe and returned to Dulles Airport with the bag. Brinton is on a leave of absence from the Department of Energy at this time,” according to another energy-related blog, Exchange Monitor.
The trial date is said to be Dec. 19. The consequences of a guilty verdict could bring Brinton a five-year sentence and a $10,000 fine.
According to court records, Brinton first denied that he took the bag but has since changed his story. But he has a novel reason:
“DEFENDANT said when they opened the bag at the hotel, they realized it was not theirs,” the court filings say. “DEFENDANT got nervous people would think they stole the bag and did not know what to do. DEFENDANT stated they left the clothes from the bag inside the drawers in the hotel room.”
The court is using the “they” pronoun in reference to just one person: Defendant Sam Brinton.
The Alaska Division of Elections is set to certify the Nov. 8 election on Tuesday. Barring challenges for recounts, that’s the final word about who won in all races — except one unusual race, in which the winner prevailed by over 50%.
The State Review Board, made up of bipartisan teams of voters, has been working today in preparation for tomorrow’s official certification.
There are a couple of close races to watch: In Anchorage House District 11, Julie Coloumbe won 3,671 to Walter Featherly’s 3561 — it’s a 110-vote difference. While it is doubtful that Featherly will ask for a recount, he’s entitled to ask for one. In Anchorage House District 15, Rep. Tom McKay won re-election by four votes — 3,472 to Denny Wells’ 3,468 votes, which may trigger a recount after certification.
Then there’s Rep. David Eastman, who won with over 51.3% of his Wasilla District 27. It would appear certification would be a breeze for a candidate who won outright, without having to go through ranked-choice voting, but it’s not that easy.
A judge in Anchorage has ordered the Division of Elections to not certify Eastman’s win until the trial involving his eligibility to serve, brought by Randall Kowalke and the Northern Justice Project, is settled. That could take weeks and it may bollux the process by which the Alaska House of Representatives organizes with a speaker and committee chairs.
The Republicans have a majority with 21 elected, but if Eastman is unable to be certified as a winner for weeks, and if House Speaker Louise defects again to the Democrats, then House organization appears to rest mainly with a Superior Court judge.
That Eastman trial doesn’t start until Dec. 12 in Palmer, with Anchorage Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna presiding.
The case is whether Eastman’s membership in a group called Oath Keepers, made up of Americans who pledge to defend the constitution to which they have, at some point in their military or law careers sworn an oath, disqualifies Eastman from serving as a legislator. The litigants, who are partisans led by a political activists, say that the Oath Keeper membership is a violation of the Alaska’ Constitution’s “disloyalty clause.”
Oath Keepers as a group have been implicated in the Jan. 6, 2021 disruption of the certification of the Electoral College for the 2020 presidential election. Although Eastman was in Washington, D.C. for the events that included a speech by former President Donald Trump, he never entered the Capitol, as some did.
Since the beginning of civilization, the primary purpose of government has been to protect public safety. The Founders acknowledged this in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, when they wrote of the God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. “To secure these rights,” they wrote, “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Tragically, far too many Americans are living under governments that are failing to secure life and liberty. In many cases, prosecutors, mayors and city councils have abdicated this responsibility entirely. The “defund” movement and reforms that put criminals ahead of victims have caused a predictable rise in violent crime. Murder and car theft are skyrocketing, with no end in sight.
We’ve taken the opposite approach in Alaska, with far different outcomes.
The latest Crime in Alaska Report, based on data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, showed that crime rates fell here for the third year in a row and are now at a 41-year low. As recently as 2017, Alaska’s crime rates were the highest in two decades. The steep decline hasn’t been an accident.
Violent crime dropped 9.7% in Alaska in 2021; property crime declined 17.3%. Crime fell in every category except arson, and that was attributable to one suspect linked to seven incidents.
Our report also reveals that Alaska’s rates of violent crime and rape remain unacceptably high and greater than national averages. We aren’t spiking the football, and we will continue working to drive down these crimes by placing more resources into our departments of public safety, law and corrections.
Alaska tried cutting its public-safety budget in the middle of the last decade. The objective of legislation known as Senate Bill 91 was similar to what we’ve heard from reform advocates in the lower 48 states: to reduce the prison population by essentially decriminalizing “petty” offenses and eliminating bail requirements. The number of state troopers was cut, posts were closed, and the ranks of village public-safety officers who work in remote Alaska communities fell by more than half.
More than property crimes like shoplifting and car theft soared as a result. The violent-crime rate reached a five-year high in 2018. In Anchorage, the state’s largest city, 2017 and 2019 ranked first and second all-time for homicides. As a state senator, I voted against S.B. 91, which was signed into law by my predecessor as governor in 2016. Seven months after taking office in 2019, I signed the repeal of that law.
While many police jurisdictions across the country are struggling to retain and recruit officers, Alaska has graduated two full classes from its two law enforcement academies this year. Our state troopers, village public-safety officers, local law-enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers and many others have contributed to the declining crime rate. They deserve our thanks and support. We won’t demonize or defund them. We will defend our people, and we will defeat those who victimize others.
There’s no greater responsibility of a government or an elected official, and here in Alaska we’re proving we take that job seriously.
Gov. Dunleavy wrote this for the Wall Street Journal, where it first appeared on Nov. 27, 2022.
You can’t make this up. Earlier this month, some dough-faced dork named Sam Bankman-Fried—an MIT grad and son of Stanford law professors—vaporized the GDP of a small country after successfully conning the entire world of so-called educated elites.
All of them. The freaks in Silicon Valley, the freaks on Wall Street, the freaks in Hollywood, and the freaks in Washington. Even (or especially) the journalists who are supposed to be holding everyone accountable. The smartest, most enlightened professional experts and self-appointed moral referees.
Bill Clinton. Tony Blair. The Democratic Party. Larry David. Tom Brady. Fortune magazine. Andrew Ross Sorkin. CNBC. The bald guy from Shark Tank. BlackRock, the $10 trillion investment firm where former Obama aides go to get rich and serve as “Global Head of Sustainable Investing.”
They all vouched for Bankrupt-Fraud and his blockchain stonk machine. Like they vouched for Elizabeth Holmes and her magic blood box. Like they vouched for Michael Avenatti and his bullshit litigation racket. The Lincoln Project. OZY Media. Stacey Abrams.
These are people who demand to be taken seriously. You know the type. You’ve probably heard them ranting about gullible rubes being duped by “misinformation,” or denouncing half the country as irredeemably stupid, unserious, and uncultured.
Shockingly enough, most normal Americans are starting to suspect our elite overlords are full of shit, and the elite overlords are freaking out. This lack of fealty to their expertise is not merely misguided, we are told. It’s an existential crisis imperiling American democracy.
This raises an interesting question: What in the actual f— is wrong with these people?
Bankman-Fried was the next J.P. Morgan. They actually said that. Of course they did. They adored his dorm-room bong-rip attire and corresponding philosophy—”effective altruism”—through which their capitalist sins can be absolved by attending charity galas and buying hideous art at silent auctions. Better yet, they can start a charitable foundation to avoid paying the tax rates they are constantly trying to raise on everyone else. Giving money to Democrats is also encouraged.
Time and time again, the unwashed masses of non-experts have watched the elite overlords get scammed by charismatic frauds, or team up to incinerate multiple Powerball jackpots—or in one case the entire global economy—only to shrug it off as a “whoopsie” and repeat.
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It was a moment of rare unanimity on the Anchorage Assembly: By a 12-0 vote, the Assembly repealed minimum parking mandates, meaning that new construction in much of Anchorage will not have to provide a specific number of parking places.
The ordinance was sponsored by conservative Kevin Cross, and liberals Daniel Volland and Forrest Dunbar.
The trend is being repeated across the country, as a way to encourage businesses to build, and reduce the large parking lots needed under the old requirements. Even Mayor Dave Bronson approved of the move. The ope is that reducing required parking lots spaces will be an economic stimulus and improve the quality of life.
“There is broad consensus … found around the issue of wanting to support housing in Anchorage to address the housing shortage,” Volland said in the work session before last week’s vote. “I think that we have an Assembly committed to doing that.”
“This is going to be a gradual process as people take advantage of it,” Assemblyman Cross said. More people will be encouraged to revitalize older buildings without being penalized by having to provide a specific — and often excessive — amount of parking.
In much of Anchorage, there is a parking glut, a result of outdated ordinances requiring what appears to be unnecessary parking spaces for new construction. It’s true in multi-family and commercial properties, with one in four city-mandated parking spaces sitting empty, even at peak periods.
The Foundation for Economic Education notes that the trend to eliminate parking requirements is happening all over the country, including San Francisco; Lexington, Ken.; and St. Paul, Minn., which have made parking reforms like Anchorage just did. Sand Point, Idaho, a much smaller community, has also eliminated the requirements for a minimum number of parking places back in 2009.
“Parking minimums are a type of urban regulation that require developers to provide a predetermined number of parking spaces for a certain number of residential units or a given developed square footage. These mandates centralize decision making and impose uniformity, rather than leaving parking decisions to developers or property owners who are likely to understand the needs of residents and appreciate how these needs vary across geography and over time,” the foundation explains in this story.
“As such, parking mandates are a great example of an urban regulation that reduces efficiency and unnecessarily increases costs. Parking mandates also compel vehicle‐centric transit in what is—or would otherwise be—urban areas. Because land is expensive, especially in urban and development constrained areas, the costs of parking mandates can be substantial,” the story explains.
“For instance, one paper found that the construction cost of a parking space ranged from $17,000 (aboveground, in Phoenix) to $48,000 (underground, in Honolulu). But even these estimates underestimate the true cost of a parking space by ignoring the cost of land for above ground parking as well as the opportunity cost related to foregone, higher utility development, both above and below ground: in places where parking is required, office, retail, or residential space could be developed instead. For example, in suburban Seattle, parking minimums were estimated to reduce the number of residences in buildings by 13 percent,” FEE reports.
But for Anchorage, the passage of what appears to be very a Libertarian ordinance by a unanimous vote by a legislative boy that leans big-government is a notable achievement in itself.
Readers have been led to believe the Anchorage School District was preparing to close schools due to major budget shortfalls. Instead, two out of the six of the proposed schools are being “repurposed” by the Anchorage School District as pre-kindergarten academies, even though it has no data to prove the effectiveness of such programs.
When questioned about the “proof of concept” on how these pre-k academies will operate, the administration stated it will just develop the concept once it has the program in place.
Most programs have an approved proof of concept prior to being implemented. However, the administration doesn’t seem to think it needs one.
At the Nov. 15 work session, school board member Kelly Lessens asked the vital questions regarding the success of the current pre-k program. She wants data that show the effectiveness of the current program.
“If we want more preschool funding, I am interested in finding a proof of concept. Are our investments positively impacting our students?” Lessens asked.
Only board member Dave Donley showed an interest by seconding the request for information. Other board members remained quiet.
Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt responded to Lessens’ question by stating, “Are you seeking data on ASD pre-k programs?”
Lessens answered yes,
“I would anticipate that it would be slightly difficult to produce, and it would be difficult to discern a causal relationship for a number of reasons,” Bryantt said.
Bryantt noted the district has no data on its pre-k program. He did not explain why it would be “slightly difficult to produce.”
Bryantt also did not explain his reasoning as to why it “would be difficult to discern a causal relationship for a number of reasons.”
Bryantt did offer to provide national research on the effectiveness of pre-k programs. However, member Lessens was more interested specifically in the effectiveness of the ASD pre-k program.
She responded that national data are fine, but she wanted to know what philosophy is dictating the Anchorage pre-k programs. There was no response from the district regarding its program philosophy.
Lessens asked if the pre-k program translates into kids who are more ready for kindergarten and asked if they are succeeding in kindergarten. She was interested in the education outcomes and the value added.
Lessens wanted data to show the Alaska Legislature before the session starts, so the district can get more funding. Member Bellamy said it would take a long time to get the pre-k data.
There is national research available that shows pre-k has little to no impact on student achievement.
The Vanderbilt Study, which consisted of 3,000 low-income pre-k students, showed that at the end of kindergarten the kids who had not gone to the program caught up with the kids who had gone through pre-k.
More importantly, at the end of third grade, the kids who did not go to pre-k were doing better on state tests and had fewer suspensions than the pre-k kids.
Alabama has had the highest quality pre-k system for the last 13 years, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.
Unfortunately, that investment in high quality has not seemed to pay off in NAEP scores. Over the last 13 years Alabama has fallen from 47th to 50th in low-income NAEP 4th grade reading scores. Alaska is the only state that scores lower.
Can the Anchorage School District expect any better than Alabama?
The correct question is: “Will these pre-k 3- and 4-year-old children be able to read better than other children?”
Regardless, the Anchorage School District will go forward with growing its pre-k program. The goal here seems to be grow the program to get more State funding due to the decreased population of children entering schools in Anchorage
The ASD graph below shows that decline:
One can see the quandary the district is in. It wants to maintain its current budget, but the declining birth rate means it will have fewer k-12 students and less funding in the future.
The administration’s solution is to grow unproven pre-k programs and ask the Legislature to fund them. The Legislature needs to have accurate data before it makes a decision.
Member Kelly Lessens should be applauded for her pointed questions. The district needs to respond with data, a proof of concept, and a concept of operations.
Otherwise, it may be saving its funding without helping children to achieve their potential. Any decision should be focused on the children, not the institution.
David Boyle is an education writer for Must Read Alaska.
