The Federal Bureau of Investigation raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence has led to a drop in trust for the law enforcement agency, a new poll shows.
Convention of States Action, along with the Trafalgar group, released the poll Thursday, which showed a large segment of Americans say the raid has lessened their confidence in federal law enforcement and that they question the motives for the raid.
The poll found that “46.2 percent of American voters say the Department of Justice and the FBI are too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted” while about the same percentage of those surveyed say the opposite.
Republicans are much less trusting of the agencies. Notably, though, many independent voters have lost confidence in the federal agencies.
The poll found “47.9 percent of Independent voters say the Department of Justice and the FBI are too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted” while “43.7 percent say they are to be respected for their pursuit of justice and law and order, and 8.4 percent are not sure.”
The survey also reports that “48.7 percent of American voters believe the FBI and Department of Justice are not telling the truth about their reasons for conducting the raid on President Donald Trump’s home.”
Again, half of independents are skeptical, with 50% saying the DOJ investigation into Trump “is only intended to prevent him from running for office in 2024.”
The pollsters surveyed more than 1,000 likely midterm election voters from August 19th through Aug. 23.
Casey Harper is a Senior Reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today.
Post Covid-19, the the way people view education has changed significantly. Many parents faced schooling their kids at home for the first time ever. Some decided that homeschooling wasn’t as intimidating as they thought and they never looked back. Here in Alaska, homeschooling has risen to almost 40 percent.
Back when homeschooling was more of a fringe phenomenon, it evoked images of long-skirted women, minivans, and swarms of kids with little to no social awareness. There were three choices: 1. Public school 2. Private school 3. Homeschool. Because it was the easiest and most economical for busy working families, most people chose public school.
These days schooling is being reimagined and re-engineered by people who know the students best: their parents. Parents (and even grandparents) with degrees and skills are stepping up to the plate to solve the educational crisis. They are looking beyond their own families and serving the needs of the community. One semester before Covid I decided that my kids did better with a “classroom” of more than just immediate family, so I opened up my home for a “micro-school.” Only I didn’t call it that at the time. I just called it helping teach other homeschooled kids two days a week.
Little did I know what a lifeline that little gathering would be to our kids and the kids who came. It was a small enough group that through Covid, we stayed healthy and they never missed a beat either in their studies or in their social lives. The world seemed to be crashing down, but our little micro school provided a safe place for these kids to learn and grow.
This year, my kids’ needs are changing. I have crossed the threshold into being a Mom of Middle/High Schoolers. Now they need a bit wider space to grow and spread their wings and new social experiences. I imagined what I would want in a resource for me and my family and I created it for others. Calling it “The Green Room,” I gathered four other teachers who are passionate about their disciplines and equipped to teach. We found a space to meet and together we are looking forward to cultivating a community where parents are in charge and teachers are there to serve.
As I’ve been in connection with other homeschool parents, I have found that there is a plethora of ways that people provide education. On one end of the continuum you have full time public school and at the other end you have full time independent homeschool. In between you have co-ops, hybrid schooling and more. Even in different seasons of life, parents and students have different needs. It is a new frontier of education as I have watched as many of my friends have stepped up to use their talents in creative ways to find workable solutions.
We may not all be doing it the same way. We are not always homeschoolers, public schoolers or private schoolers. We need a new term for those of us out exploring on the educational frontier: we are Choice Schoolers. Choice Schooling is a philosophy of education that understands there are many right ways to educate a child. Choice Schooling is the belief that parents should make the ultimate decisions on how they want to educate their children — and not anyone else.
It’s understandable to be frustrated with the system as it is. As both a parent and former public school teacher, I know very well that the system is flawed. That is why I left the traditional system so early in my career. You may choose to leave the system, and that can be a good choice. You may be a teacher, student, or parent who chooses to stay, and that can be a good choice too. Choice Schoolers do not presume to act as judge and jury for the decisions parents make. Instead they support them along the way.
We are all doing the best that we can. For better or for worse, these are all our community public and private schools. Since the advent of public education or “government run schools” as some prefer to say, the mantra has been that public education is to remain both “free and appropriate.” The dilemma is this: who gets to decide what is free and what is appropriate?
The answer for Choice Schoolers? The parents. We fight for every parent’s option to choose. Whether the choice be at the micro level, like parents who want to opt out of a public school class they deem “inappropriate.” Choice can also be at the macro level: when their child’s needs can’t be met in the traditional environment and they need an entirely different schooling experience.
As school choice becomes more and more of a reality in other US states, it has caused some fear to arise from both left and right. The fear coming from the right is that anything the government funds it will control. That fear is founded. As we know, anything unchecked in government hands can become a problem. If we are not vigilant enough to keep our eyes wide open and our fingers steadily on the pulse of what is going on with our kids, that fear could manifest as reality.
But fear should not be a driving force in all our decisions moving forward. Rarely do we make our most forward thinking decisions from a place of fear. Maybe the Department of Education does need to be entirely demolished and reconstructed. If that’s what it takes to bring reform, so be it. But in the meantime, let’s not condemn families who choose to participate in public education, or who make different decisions for their families. Let’s advocate for more freedom for them and for everyone, not less. You may not feel comfortable with taking funds for your child’s education because of your concerns about government control, but will you fight for the freedom of those who do?
All over Alaska, parents have been accessing educational resources and using them where they can. And those resources are doing a whole lot of good. So far, no one is controlling the way that I educate my children, and I refuse to let them. When we talk about government control gone awry, we need to realize that government only has as much control as “we the people” allow it. Will the entrenched “system” try to wrestle control from parents as they become empowered? Probably so. But will they be successful? That is up to you and me.
These are your schools every bit as much as they belong to your political opponents. You may fiercely distance yourself from the philosophy and objectives of the local public school, but it is still your local school. The laws around education came from your elected officials. It’s shortsighted to believe that this is only about you and your family. It’s about us and our communities, our state and nation. Distancing won’t make it go away, but engaging can make a difference. When it comes to education, stay engaged, fight for educational liberty, and be part of the solution.
A national group called “Out at the Fair” has targeted the Alaska State Fair for one of its nine state fairs around the country for gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identifying people to converge on en masse.
The Out at the Fair day is Saturday at the fairgrounds in Palmer, with LGBTQ+ people coming from all over the country to participate. The group targets between 8 and 10 fairs around the country every year for these events, with the Alaska State Fair on the list for the first time.
Alaskans attending the fair on Saturday can expect to see drag queens and lots of rainbow garb among the crowds. Many of the participants will be attending the LeAnn Rimes concert Saturday night. But first, the photo shoot for the group takes place.
“Our first festival always starts as a group photo because visibility as a community is very important. Join us Saturday, August 27, 2022, at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, Alaska. Join us at 4:00pm (SHARP) at the ‘I in Fair’ sign for our 1st group photo!” the organization’s website says.
One of the sponsors of the event is Identity Inc., which wrote that it is family friendly, and “Show us your PRIDE Alaska by wearing something rainbow or ordering your ‘OATF Merch’ today and with your help, we will return to the Alaska State Fair in 2023.”
Alaska Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka on Friday called on Sen. Lisa Murkowski to agree to five debates before the Nov. 8, 2022 general election.
Tshibaka proposes that the debates could be hosted by media outlets or public interest groups in different regions of the state, or separated into debates about specific topics, like energy policy or standing up to the harmful Biden administration. The Tshibaka campaign also encouraged news organizations and civic groups to formulate plans for debates and invite the candidates.
Tshibaka issued the following statement:
“Alaskans deserve to know if their senator is going to stand up to the disastrous Biden administration, and they deserve to see the candidates standing shoulder to shoulder, explaining their records and positions. There are 74 days between now and Election Day, surely Senator Murkowski can find time on her schedule for these five debates for the voters of Alaska. After 21 years in the Senate, Lisa Murkowski has become much more liberal and voters deserve the chance to evaluate that for themselves. Energy jobs, gas prices, and inflation are tops in voters’ minds, and they want to know why Murkowski has enabled the Biden administration every step along the way. This campaign is a job interview with the people of Alaska, and it’s the responsibility of all candidates to show up. I look forward to agreeing to a full schedule of debates very soon.”
Election integrity is the cornerstone of nations, states, and communities that truly represent the will of their people. Alaskans must believe in the election process to trust that the outcomes are fair. Unfortunately, private actors took advantage of the chaos of the 2020 presidential election to transfer enormous quantities of money to election offices.
Some of that money made it to Alaska.
The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) is a Democrat-led nonprofit with major donors including Google and Facebook. In 2020, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wife, donated $350 million to CTCL, which in turn distributed funds to more than 2,500 election offices nationwide.
Although the program has been suspended for future elections, a detailed look at how that money, coined “Zuckerbucks,” was spent in 2020 illustrates the danger.
Advertised under the guise of “COVID-19 response grants,” less thanone percent of grant funding nationwide went toward “personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff, poll workers, or voters.” Most alarming is the substantial funding going toward “vote-by-mail/absentee voting equipment or supplies” and “nonpartisan voter education.”
The media fawned over the Mark and Chan Zuckerberg initiative, crediting the millions dumped into U.S. election offices with saving the 2020 election. NPR proclaimed “How Private Money From Facebook’s CEO Saved the 2020 Election.” Imagine the uproar and hysteria if, for instance, Charles Koch had donated the $350 million instead of Mark Zuckerberg. The corresponding NPR report in this farcical reality would surely have been sprinkled with dire warnings about the future of our democracy and accusations of malicious conservative influence.
Such warnings are more appropriate than the fawning. The Wall Street Journaleditorial board described one case that demonstrates the improbability of a private organization’s funding “nonpartisan voter education.” Green Bay, Wisconsin, received $1.2 million from CTCL, which made available to the city a consultation with the Brennan Center for “post-election audits” and “cybersecurity.” Noting the Brennan Center’s partisan disposition, the Journal asked, “What if conservatives underwrote ‘voter outreach’ by town clerks, while sending in experts from the Heritage Foundation?”
Using private funds and accepting partisan help, whether from Mark Zuckerberg or Charles Koch, is clearly inappropriate for election officials, even if well within the First Amendment rights of the donors.
The evidence suggests that Zuckerbuck grants unduly influenced Democrat jurisdictions. Several CTCL founders worked for the New Organizing Institute, a progressive 501(c)(4) organization that trains progressive organizers in digital strategy and data management. Aside from the employment history of its founders, however, grant dollars were disproportionately awarded in several states to Democrat jurisdictions.
According to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), in Pennsylvania, counties won by Biden received nearly $5.00 per registered voter, while counties won by Trump received only $1.13. This funding appears to have substantially raised voter turnout among Democrats compared with both the 2016 elections and jurisdictions that did not receive any Zuckerbucks. A similar distribution ($7.13 for Biden counties versus $1.91 for Trump counties) in Georgiamay actually have influenced the outcome: Counties that did not receive a grant didn’t show much leftward shift, but Zuckerbuck counties swung, on average, 2.3 percent toward Biden, which accounts for the state’s overall move toward the Democrat.
CTCL stood ready with suggested consultants and organizations, most left-leaning, some of whom offered to assist with tasks and asked for information properly reserved for official elections staff. Experts from groups such as Power the Polls, Mikva Challenge, the Brennan Center, the Center for Civic Design, the Elections Group, Digital Response, and the National Vote at Home Institute lent, or at least offered, their assistance to official election offices. The Wisconsin activist from the National Vote at Home Institute even had the gall to ask to see and record the Milwaukee Election Commission’s election management system, which includes the poll books.
In Alaska, the Denali and Haines Boroughs received $25,000 eachfrom CTCL “to support the safe administration of public elections during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The grant application and final grant reports were collected through public records requests to each borough.
The Denali Borough reported spending almost $12,000, or 47% of the grant amount, on “vote-by-mail/absentee voting equipment or supplies,” while only $4,500, or 18%, went to PPE. A $25,000 grant may not seem like much when it comes to government, but in this case, it was two-thirds more than the borough’s $15,000 one-year election budget established for 2020.
The Haines Borough reported spending only $250 on PPE, or 1%, and $3,730, or 10%, on “vote-by-mail/absentee voting equipment or supplies.” The majority of the Haines Borough grant purchased new ballot boxes and handicap ballot booths. For perspective, the Haines Borough’s one-year budget for 2020 was originally $4,368.
If it is true that election offices have insufficient funds, having private actors underwrite official election business is not the solution. Even with squeaky-clean motives, private money sows distrust in the election process and damages the integrity of elections. When motives are less than honest, the cash weighs like a thumb on the scale and can tip outcomes in favor of the preferences of whatever organization is sponsoring your local elections.
In fact, recent polling shows that 85% of all Alaska voters “oppose allowing government offices that oversee elections to accept funding for their operations from private individuals and special interest groups. … No other [election integrity] issue polled had such profound and widespread agreement across all political parties. Keeping Alaska elections protected for Alaskans is clearly not a partisan issue.”
Ensuring election integrity and restoring the confidence of voters cannot be an afterthought. Alaska must take further steps to protect the state’s election integrity and restore voters’ confidence.
Here is the full version of the affidavit that the FBI presented to get a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, the home of former President Donald Trump’s Florida. The search was conducted to attempt to retrieve documents the government believes were classified and that were removed and stored at Mar-a-Lago by Trump or his surrogates at the end of his presidency. Portions are redacted, according to officials, to protect the human sources who provided the information and the names of the investigators:
The popular mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough is resigning from that position so he can travel the state and continue campaigning for governor. Charlie Pierce broke the news on the Must Read Alaska Show with John Quick, host and producer.
He said if he made the top four for the November ballot, he plan always had been to resign.
He has been a mayor who has not raised taxes, but lowered them, and the borough has more reserves now than when he took office. Schools have been funded to the cap for the last three years without raising taxes or the mil rate. Pierce first came into office in 2017, and was six years on the Assembly.
As a Republican running for governor in the primary, he got 6.70% of the vote on the Aug. 16 ballot, enough to place him in the final four for the ranked choice election in November.
Another tranche of special general election ballots has been counted, raising temporary congressional candidate Mary Peltola to 70,730 total votes, or 39.25%. This puts her 8 points ahead of Sarah Palin, who has 56,246 votes, or 31.21%.
Peltola, a generic Democrat with a D rating from the NRA, came out of nowhere in this race, rocketing from 10% of the vote in June’s special primary to 39.25% on Aug. 16. And she, the Bethel Yup’ik grandmother with few campaign dollars, is beating the most famous person in Alaska history, who appears to be capped at 31% of the vote. While voters have had an opportunity to mark a ballot for Palin three times this year, she has not been able to move the needle more than four points from the June 11 special primary, when she garnered 27% of the vote.
Nick Begich, who was at 19% for the special primary, has moved the needle to 28%, shrinking the difference between him and Palin from 8% down to 3%. But he remains in third place, where he will be the first to be eliminated in ranked choice counting on Aug. 31.
To win outright with the ballots counted so far, a candidate would have to have 90,098 votes. That ballot universe will shrink when any voter who only picked Begich, and chose no other candidate for second place, sees his ballot exhausted.
For Palin to win at this point in the ranked choice scenario, she would have to close the 8% gap between herself and Peltola, and then get another 11% for a total of more than 19% increase from where she sits now to reach the 50+1 goal.
Palin needs roughly 28,124 more votes to win. Those votes would likely come mostly from Begich voters who marked her second. Based on polling, however, 70% of Begich voters have a negative opinion of Palin.
Peltola, however, needs as few as 19,368 of those second Begich votes to win if every ballot counted so far stays in play (this is unlikely, since the ballot universe shrinks when a ballot has no second choice).
Polls show that between 20-30% of the voters in the special general bullet voted, which means they only voted for one candidate. That indicates the number of Begich ballots that will be exhausted will be 20-30%.
This rough (and dynamic) calculation is based on the current 180,194 people voting; a few more ballots will dribble in over the next few days, but it appears that the ratios are not changing much at this point.
Turnout has been heavy for this election, second only to the 2014 primary, when there were 193,400 votes — a 38% turnout. This year has the second-highest turnout in recent memory, even though it’s only at 30.7% due to the fact that so many people have been automatically registered to vote through the Permanent Fund dividend application automatic registration process, which drives up the voter numbers and drives down the percentage of actual interested voters.
Five precincts are still missing; they are in the rural districts and there’s no word as to where those votes are and whether there is a chain of custody established for them.
The final vote count is on Aug. 31, when all the ballots must have been received by Division of Elections. Then, the Division will eliminate Begich from the calculation and take all the second votes from those ballots and distribute them to what voters had indicated: Palin, Peltola, or nobody. The winning candidate is the one who reaches 50+1 of the ballots that have a second choice.
The Division of Elections will announce more ballot counts on Friday in the afternoon.
Sometime overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the Mat-Su Republican Women’s booth at the Alaska State Fair was vandalized. Someone destroyed one of the running lights on the trailer and put several random dents and large scratches down one side. The vandal also tore down the board that had names of veterans and ribbons on it and left it face down on the ground.
The booth is one of the many that are at the fair every year, and the women and men who volunteer at the booth hold an annual gun raffle as part of the festivities. Volunteers said it appeared someone took the sign for the gun raffle, which was attached to a concrete block, and used it as a battering device. Other than the broken running light, the rest of the damage was mainly cosmetic.
Mat-Su Republican Women’s Club was established in 1947, when the Territory of Alaska was still largely run by Democrats.
