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Budget problems? What budget problems? University of Alaska Anchorage opens new Pride Center on campus

Suzanne Downing
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Budget problems? What budget problems? University of Alaska Anchorage opens new Pride Center on campus

The University of Alaska Anchorage has announced its new Pride Center has opened its doors last week. Located in the University Hub on the ground floor of the Student Union, the Pride Center provides programs, services and events for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and two-spirit members of the UAA community. 

Although the budget for the center wasn’t advertised, the Pride Center at least has a staff member, UAA alum Jessi Saiki, who currently serves as one of the engagement and belonging coordinators in Multicultural Student Services, focused on leading Rainbow Initiatives.

Two years ago the university cut bachelor’s degree programs in sociology, hospitality administration, theater, environment and society, as well as master’s degree programs in early childhood special education, and creative writing. The dance minor program was cut. UAA also cut the hockey program, but reinstated it after a fundraising campaign raised more than $3 million for the program.

“Perhaps most importantly, the Pride Center is a visible space for all members of the UAA community to explore gender identity and sexual orientation in a non-judgmental atmosphere,” the University reported.

“When students find a sense of belonging and feel safe, they’re more likely to stay and finish school,” said Sara Caldwell-Kan, director of Multicultural Student Services. “So having this space matters because it will help keep students succeeding. But more than the space, it’s about demonstrating a commitment to queer and trans students. Even if students don’t ever go there, that visibility really does matter when it comes to building trust in the institution.”

“Before the Pride Center, MSS — whose mission is to support all people with marginalized identities — emerged as the de facto LGBTQ space on campus. To make this support more apparent, MSS introduced Rainbow Initiatives as an umbrella for MSS’s LGBTQ-centric efforts. Rainbow Initiatives will now fall under the Pride Center,” the university said.

Work on the Pride Center began in summer 2021 as one of two initiatives recommended by the LGBTQIA2S+ Advisory Committee. Similar to how Rainbow Initiatives sprung from MSS, the advisory committee originated as part of the Campus Climate Committee until the need for a group to focus more specifically on LGBTQ isses became evident, the university continued.

The advisory committee is working on its second recommended initiative: introducing inclusive bathrooms on campus.

“From researching to putting together a proposal and finally opening the space, the time frame we were able to open the Pride Center in really shows that UAA is committed to making inclusive spaces,” said Kim Morton, executive director of student engagement and inclusion. “And with inclusive restrooms, we’ll keep making sure we’re doing everything we can to keep the students that we have and for them to have very positive experiences on campus.”

Journalist says Peltola called Capitol Police on her as congresswoman tried to walk toward a chauffeured SUV

Suzanne Downing
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Journalist says Peltola called Capitol Police on her as congresswoman tried to walk toward a chauffeured SUV

Activist Laura Loomer, who also refers to herself as an investigative journalist, reported on Twitter that Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola called Capitol Police on her, while Loomer tried to ask her why Peltola would not call out Speaker Kevin McCarthy for “defrauding the Native American community.”

“BREAKING: Democrat, Native American Rep. @MaryPeltola just called Capitol Police on me for simply asking her if she thinks @SpeakerMcCarthy and his family should be investigated for defrauding the Native American community!” Loomer reported.

Video shows how the encounter went down. As Rep. Peltola was protectively led by her husband Gene down the hallway of the Cannon Office Building, where her office is located, and out to a waiting chauffeured vehicle, Loomer can be heard asking her questions, to which she smiled and ignored. Gene Peltola, dressed in a matching long gray jacket, kept a firm grasp on Mary Peltola’s arm and pulled her down the hallway, while two Capitol Police ran interference with the persistent Loomer.

Loomer is a former associate of Project Veritas, which is a group that specializes in getting the truth on tape with political figures. She ran for Congress for Florida’s 21st congressional district in the 2020, losing to Democrat Lois Frankel.

Gene Peltola, former Alaska regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, left the BIA in July and set up Peltola Solutions LLC, through which he is said to be working on a new approach to the Ambler Road project to access a state mining district. It appears Gene Peltola is working as an unregistered lobbyist, while his wife is serving in Congress.

The video shows the encounter between Loomis and the Peltola’s:

Peltola won’t join delegation in support of Ambler Road

Alex Gimarc: The lying liars who lied on Ballot Measure 2

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Alex Gimarc: The lying liars who lied on Ballot Measure 2

By ALEX GIMARC

Our friends from Alaskans for Better Elections, sensing a disturbance in the Force, have started an ad campaign on local radio in defense of Ballot Measure 2, the rewrite of state election law passed in 2020. 

The ad campaign is a purely defensive attempt to change the topic from the failure of Ballot Measure 2 (aka Ranked Choice Voting) by telling listeners that not only is the rewrite a smashing success, but Alaskans are overwhelmingly in support of it.  

I suppose that all depends on your perspective, which is where the “lying liars” part comes in.

If you look at their web site, the three big points of success are open primaries, ranked choice voting, and limiting dark money. The dark money piece is the most important, as their entire campaign for passage in 2020, all nicely focus-group-informed, was based on controlling dark money in Alaska elections.  

Note that they are proud of pushing a ballot initiative that did at least three different things, any of which could have been offered and passed individually. Before their self-serving opinion on Ballot Measure 2, the Alaska Supreme Court had regularly and rightfully thrown out any and all ballot initiatives that tried to do (in their opinion) more than one thing. How did the court miss this one?

The problem is that Ballot Measure 2 was carefully and specifically written to only apply to dark money spent in state and local races.  It was not written to control or even place any limit on dark money for candidates for federal office (US Senate, US House, President), or more tellingly, for ballot initiatives. This is why Sen. Mitch McConnell spent some $9 million to purchase Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s loyalty last year. Even Alaskans for Better Elections campaign was almost entirely funded by dark, outside money, as are their continued operations today.

In fact, Ballot Measure 2 had the opposite effect. Rather than controlling dark money, it put it in the driver’s seat, like it was last year. And dark money will continue to drive the campaign bus here in Alaska until Ballot Measure 2 is repealed.

If you remember the campaign, it started out mentioning the jungle primaries and ranked choice voting. Apparently, polling on both of those didn’t go so well, so it quickly and completely shifted to controlling dark money, which was a winner in their internal polling.  Too bad it didn’t do anything of the kind.  

The other failure of Ballot Measure 2 was seen in turnout, which was a miserable 44% in November, the last five off-year elections since 1998 all turned out at least 50% of the voting public. Note that 2018 was 49.8% which rounds up nicely to 50%.

What was the biggest difference in the campaigns over that period? Ranked choice voting and jungle primaries in 2020, which were rejected by the very people Alaskans for Better Elections ads today claim overwhelmingly support it.  

What to do about this? The best way will be for the legislature to take a repeal as Job One this session.  Make the repeal simple.  A three-sentence bill will suffice.

  • Sentence one:  Repeals Ballot Measure 2 completely.
  • Sentence two:  Reverts state election law to how it existed on Nov 1, 2020 (or some date before election day 2020).
  • Sentence three:  This law goes into effect upon signature of the governor.

Anything else will intentionally garbage up the discussion, which is probably another intentional attempt to keep it from passing.

I expect such legislation to pass the House, likely on a bipartisan basis. Our problem will be in the State Senate, which is focused on jacking up education spending and blowing up the state retirement system with a return to Tier One defined benefits.  Clearly, our work is cut out for us.

From here, Alaskans for Better Elections have assumed the Biden position. If their lips are moving, they are lying.

We had our experience with their new system. It didn’t work. Time to return to something we know that works and did work for the entire history of this state.

I really don’t mind trying things. What I do mind is refusing to admit the problem, and in turn refusing to fix it.  Ballot Measure 2 is a problem.  It is time to repeal it. Legislature, you and the governor are now up to bat.

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.

Linda Boyle: The battle for back pay continues for warriors who refused the Covid shots

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Linda Boyle: The battle for back pay continues for warriors who refused the Covid shots

Shortly after I wrote a column for Must Read Alaska that discussed the relationship between Covid, vaccinations, and myocarditis, I had a disturbing phone call from a friend whose son is in the military. 

Linda Boyle: CDC is not shooting straight on vaccine advice

 Her son is an extremely active young man and body builder who recently contracted myocarditis and pericarditis. It was puzzling to her because there was no family history of these diseases. Her son was only 30.  

He was mandated to take the vaccine and he got the first two jabs. He also contracted Covid four times after receiving the two Moderna shots.

When this young man went to the cardiologist, he asked if the vaccine or Covid had anything to do with his heart problem.  He was told “no, neither the jabs nor the Covid virus caused his heart problems.”

This is hard to believe because the CDC states these illnesses can result from Covid. 

Both myocarditis and pericarditis are also in the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as possible complications from the “vaccines”.  

The recent law passed by Congress told the Department of Defense it could no longer mandate the jab. DOD continues to push the jab for all, but released a Jan. 10, 2023 memo stating service members will no longer be separated just because they wouldn’t take the jab.

Secretary of Defense rescinds Covid vaccine order

That’s good news; or does it sound too good to be true?  

When reading the fine print, there is a significant caveat written by the military leaders, who evidently don’t want to give up this fight. 

The memo goes on to state, “commanders may consider a service member’s vaccination status in making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions, including when vaccination is required for travel to, or entry into, a foreign nation.” 

Read about the uphill battle for unvaxxed military members here.   

As a retired military member, I know what that means. The military leadership can use “vaccination status” for determining assignments needed for promotion.  

The military can use this “vaccination status” to determine who is eligible for temporary duty assignments, which are also needed for promotion.  

So, vaccinations cannot be mandated, but the consequences for not getting vaccinated include lost opportunities. This is “friendly persuasion” at its worst.

It is a way to mandate the jab without saying that’s what they are doing.  

What of those military members who have already been separated? There are 8,400 service members who were separated for refusing to get vaccinated. An additional 8,945 soldiers, 10,800 airmen and guardians, 4,172 sailors, and 3,717 marines unsuccessfully sought religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. 

Read about the back pay status in Task and Purpose.

Add to that the 60,000 reserve and guard personnel who were unvaccinated and therefore unable to receive pay and benefits. 

Read about the Army cutting off 60,000 unvaccinated soldiers’ pay and benefits.  

The military is not currently considering back pay for these individuals. 

Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, has introduced a bill that would reinstate troops discharged over the military “vaccine” mandate. It would also protect unvaccinated troops, cadets, and midshipmen from punishment.  

Rep. Roy’s legislation would also reinstate troops discharged over the mandate and return service members to their former rank and pay at the time they were discharged. Finally, it would remove from their official records any reference to adverse actions taken against them based on their refusal to be jabbed.  

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.  For now, a partial victory has been won. 

But sometimes you can win the battle and lose the war.  I hope we win the war too. We owe it to our military and our veterans.

Linda Boyle, DM, MSN, is a member of the Alaska Covid Alliance.

Sen. Ron Johnson convenes panel on C-vax side effects

Alaska Democrats’ executive director pleads guilty to refusing booze test after DUI stop, but other criminal charges dismissed

Suzanne Downing
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Alaska Democrats’ executive director pleads guilty to refusing booze test after DUI stop, but other criminal charges dismissed

Lindsay Kavanaugh, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, pleaded guilty last month to refusing to take a breathalyzer test after she was stopped last summer on suspicion of driving under the influence near Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula in July.

She originally was charged with: Criminal Mischief 5 – Tamper W/ Property; Driving While Under The Influence – Alcohol Or Controlled Substance; and Refusing To Submit To Chemical Test.

On Dec. 13, the prosecutor requested the first two charges to be dismissed, and Kavanaugh pleaded guilty to the third charge. An order to install a device in her car that requires her to take a breath test for alcohol before the car will start was ordered by the judge. Kavanaugh’s attorney was Eric Derleth, of Kenai and Anchorage. As part of the judgment, Kavanaugh was given a $2,000 fine that was reduced to $1,485.

Troopers stopped Lindsay Kavanaugh at 1:20 am on July 2, 2022 for a moving violation south of Soldotna on the Sterling Highway. She was taken to a Trooper post for a breathalyzer, which she refused to take, and she unplugged the equipment, the report says. Must Read Alaska sources said she was also unruly; she ultimately was arrested for fifth-degree criminal mischief and remanded at the Wildwood pretrial facility in Kenai.

Kavanaugh has been the executive director of the party since 2019. She was a senior advisor to then-Sen. Mark Begich from 2009-2014, and served as an aide to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee before moving to Alaska to take over the Alaska Democratic Party post, which had been left empty after Jay Parmley left the state for career opportunities with the Democratic Party in South Carolina.

Lindsay Kavanaugh, director of Alaska Democratic Party, sent to jail after being stopped for DUI near Soldotna

[Read: NC Democratic Party ex-staffer sues over sexual harassment]

Formerly with AK Dems, Jay Parmley back in South Carolina

Ready, set: Petition to repeal Ballot Measure 2 has been approved by Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom

Suzanne Downing
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Ready, set: Petition to repeal Ballot Measure 2 has been approved by Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom

A group of Alaskans seeking to repeal a 2020 Alaska law that created no-party primaries and ranked choice voting has had its application to collect signatures on a petition approved by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.

Alaskans for Honest Elections needs to collect 30,000 signatures, or about 10% of the number of people who voted in the last election, and has until next year to finish gathering signatures. The group plans to collect over 40,000 to make sure enough are qualified. The plan is to have the question on the general election ballot in 2024.

“We want to have a large margin of error. To get involved please email [email protected],” said Alaskans for Honest Elections.

Meanwhile, Alaskans for Better Elections, the group that brought Ballot Measure 2 to Alaska through dark money from national liberal entities, has been running a significant ad campaign to tell Alaskans how much they enjoy ranked choice voting.

Will Ronna McDaniel survive GOP leadership vote on Friday?

Suzanne Downing
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Will Ronna McDaniel survive GOP leadership vote on Friday?

Jan. 27 is the GOP date with destiny, as the Republican National Committee elects a new party chair. The Republican Party’s leadership gathers in Dana Point, Calif. from Jan. 25-27 for its quarterly meeting.

One of the big controversies this week will be whether to continue under the leadership of RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, who took over the helm of the party in 2017. Many activists are unhappy with the party’s results under her leadership.

Two challengers — My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, and California National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon — have put their names on the ballot, which will be decided by secret ballot among the voting members. For Alaska, the GOP Chair Ann Brown, and national committee officers Cynthia Henry and Craig Campbell will have votes, along with 165 other voting members.

McDaniel was last reelected in 2021, even though President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid while she chaired the party the prior year.

McDaniel visited Alaska in 2022 to speak at the Republican Party’s meeting in Fairbanks. She joined the Must Read Alaska Show during her visit.

Now, a significant movement is afoot to replace McDaniel, who is running for her fourth term. Seventy-three percent of Republican voters surveyed by the Trafalgar Group in December said the party should elect new leadership. Just 6% said McDaniel should be reelected, and 21% were not sure.

The poll, conducted for the Convention of States Action, received responses from 1,072 Republicans; 86% of the respondents preferred Dhillon to lead the RNC.

The poll showed that 63 percent of voters think the Republican Party and its congressional leadership were not effective at getting Republicans elected in 2022; 36 percent said the party was effective.

The results of the poll are at this link.

Dana Point, on the Southern California coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, is a Republican stronghold and is also known for great golf, surfing, and whale watching. The voters there have voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential and gubernatorial election.

Ronna McDaniel reelected chair of Republican Party

Under the cushions? More classified documents found at Biden home as probe continues

Suzanne Downing
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Under the cushions? More classified documents found at Biden home as probe continues

Federal officials searched the Wilmington, Delaware mansion of President Joe Biden on Friday and came away with six more items that had classified markings on them, some of them dating back to Biden’s service in the U.S. Senate, and some from the time he was Vice President under President Barack Obama. Biden left the Senate in 2009 and was Vice President from 2009 to 2017.

Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, said in a statement that investigators spent 13 hours in the Biden home in what he described as a consensual agreement to search the premises.

 “Yesterday, DOJ completed a thorough search of all the materials in the President’s Wilmington home. It began at approximately 9:45 AM and concluded at around 10:30 PM and covered all working, living and storage spaces in the home,” Bauer said.

“DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President. DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years,” Bauer said.

Since October, four tranches of about 20 classified government documents have been found in Biden’s Wilmington mansion and in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The Department of Justice has since appointed former U.S. attorney Robert Hur to investigate how the documents got there and whether there were laws broken. President Biden said last week that, “You’re going to find there’s nothing there.”

Of the second set of documents found earlier in his home garage next to his Corvette, Biden told reporters, “By the way, my Corvette’s in a locked garage. So it’s not like they were sitting out in the street.”

More classified documents in Biden’s personal possession, next to his Corvette, as pressure builds on president

Dr. Ryan Cole, pioneer in early Covid treatment, now threatened by Washington state over medical license

Suzanne Downing
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Dr. Ryan Cole, pioneer in early Covid treatment, now threatened by Washington state over medical license

An Idaho doctor who came to Anchorage with a group of other physicians in 2021 to talk about early treatment protocols for Covid-19 is now being threatened by the State of Washington, which has taken the first steps to pulling his license to practice in Washington.

Dr. Ryan Cole lives in Boise, Idaho and is a licensed pathologist who advocates against Covid vaccines, and favors of early treatment protocols for Covid, and the use of ivermectin. He was part of the Alaska Early Treatment Alliance lineup of doctors who spoke to over 1,200 interested Alaskans in October, 2021. The event was sponsored by the Alaska Covid Alliance and featured other physicians who do not toe the line on Covid, such as Dr. Robert Malone, who was banned from Twitter under that company’s previous management for espousing objections to the Covid policies being pushed by the government. Malone was one of the inventors of the mRNA vaccine technology used in the Covid vaccines that are generally in use today.

Covid Early Treatment Summit draws over 1,200 in Anchorage to hear the call for courage, medical freedom

For over six months, a licensing oversight board in the State of Washington has been considering disciplinary action against Dr. Cole, and now, the Washington Medical Commission has officially accused Cole of making misleading statements about Covid-19 and treating patients “beneath the standard of care.”

Cole is on the Ada County, Idaho Central District Board of Health. He is licensed as a physician and surgeon in the state of Washington. In 2021, a group of doctors filed complaints with the Washington Medical Commission, which now says that enforcement action is pending against Cole.

“The statement of charges alleges that Dr. Cole made numerous false and misleading statements related to COVID-19 and treated patients with COVID-19 or seeking to prevent getting COVID-19 in a manner that was beneath the standard of care,” the commission said on its website.

Doctors in Alaska made similar accusations against Alaska doctors who dared to question the party line on Covid.

From A to Z: Doctors who signed letter demanding medical board sanctions on pioneering physicians revealed

Cole is accused of making statements in public that the Washington Medical Commission believes are false concerning the use of ivermectin to treat Covid, the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of masks, and what the the commission says were statements that were “harmful and dangerous to individual patients, generated mistrust in the medical profession and in public health, and had a widespread negative impact on the health and well-being of our communities.”

The commission also accuses Cole of presenting himself as a “highly trained physician.” Among statements the commission attributes to Dr. Cole, which the commission believes are false and dangerous to public heath:

  • Covid is a completely survivable virus for most people that are not in elderly, high-risk categories
  • Children survive Covid at 100%
  • Asymptomatic spread of Covid is infinitesimally small
  • Ivermectin is a known antiviral medication
  • Ivermectin decreased Covid death by 68-90% and acquisition by 86-88%
  • 100% of world ivermectin trials have shown benefit
  • The Covid vaccination is “an experimental biological gene therapy immune-modulatory invention” and “a fake vaccine … the clot shot, needle rape.=”
  • mRNA trials in mammals have led to autoimmune disease
  • 50% of health care workers are not getting the Covid-19 vaccination
  • The Covid vaccine has cause more deaths than Covid and has killed children
  • The Covid vaccination only reduced the risk of getting Covid by 1%
  • Natural immunity against Covid is better than the vaccine
  • The Covid vaccine has a spike protein that is a toxin that crosses the blood brain barrier
  • The vaccination can cause cancer and infertility
statement-of-charges-against-dr-ryan-coleDownload

The commission also says Cole was providing negligent care to four patients to prevent or treat Covid-19 infections by prescribing “medications that are not indicated for a COVID-19 infection.” The commission says Cole didn’t properly document justification for using ivermectin or perform a physical exam of the patients. The commission accuses him of not obtaining “appropriate informed consent” from his patients to use ivermectin.

Prominent cutting edge doctors come to Anchorage for early-treatment summit

Cole has been hounded by the State of Washington, where he has been licensed to practice since 2007. Medical boards in others states received complaints about him but the Idaho Board of Medicine did not pursue an investigation over his publicly expressed opinions on Covid, and other states where complaints were lodged also took no action. Only Washington State has decided to try to pull his license to practice.

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Alaska State medical board won’t punish doctors using Ivermectin to treat Covid
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