Page 9 – Must Read Alaska

Expansion of 2025 U.S. Critical Minerals List Spotlights Alaska’s Untapped Riches

The 907

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November 11, 2025

Expansion of 2025 U.S. Critical Minerals List Spotlights Alaska’s Untapped Riches

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s release of the final 2025 Critical Minerals List on November 7th, has expanded to 60 essential resources, adding 10 new entries—boron, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon, silver, and uranium—amid escalating concerns over supply chain vulnerabilities. This update, based on U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) modeling of over 1,200 trade disruption scenarios, underscores America’s heavy reliance on imports: fully foreign-dependent for 12 minerals and over 50% for 29 others, with China dominating production of 30.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has previously emphasized the state’s role in energy dominance stating, “Alaska is rich in critical minerals including graphite, lithium, tin, tungsten, rare earth elements and platinum-group elements—essential to everyday products Americans demand.

The move signals a strategic pivot to fortify domestic production, backed by nearly $1 billion in proposed federal funding for mining, processing, and manufacturing innovations. The administration is also fast-tracking permits for 10 key projects targeting copper, antimony, and lithium, while forging Indo-Pacific alliances to diversify global sourcing and counter non-allied risks.

The expanded 2025 Critical Minerals List will boost U.S. supply chains, cut foreign reliance and power our future! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/aKkcyHRlcM
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) November 8, 2025

Alaska emerges as a key player in this national effort, boasting vast reserves of 49 out of 50 critical minerals, including rare earth elements, graphite, lithium, tin, tungsten, platinum-group elements, cobalt, nickel, and the newly listed copper and zinc. The state’s mineral industry generated $4.51 billion in 2022 production alone, with USGS assessments highlighting high-potential deposits in placer tailings and alkaline igneous rocks. At the Greens Creek mine, recoverable metals in tailings are valued at $2.8 billion, primarily gold and silver but rich in critical byproducts. Globally, Alaska holds 12% of copper resources, 7% of zinc and silver, and 16% of molybdenum, positioning it to slash U.S. import dependence.

Industry leaders hail the list as a catalyst for exploration. As demand surges for renewables and defense tech, Alaska’s resources could redefine multiple sectors of the US economy—provided permitting and infrastructure keep pace.

Alaska Supreme Court Advances Judicial Conduct Code Overhaul

Politics

Todd M Lindley

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November 11, 2025

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Alaska Supreme Court Advances Judicial Conduct Code Overhaul

On September 18, 2025, the Alaska Supreme Court issued Order No. 8064, Eleventh Amendment, appointing a special committee to revise the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, last updated in 1998. Led by Retired Senior Justice Daniel E. Winfree, the committee has proposed a modernized Code aligning with the American Bar Association’s 2007 Model Code while addressing Alaska’s unique judicial needs. The revised Code, now open for public comment until November 20, 2025, introduces clearer rules and enhanced accountability for judges, aiming to boost public trust in the judiciary.

The proposed Code restructures the existing Canons into four Articles focusing on judicial independence, impartiality, competence, and ethical extrajudicial conduct.

Specific Changes for Alaska

The revised Code includes several provisions tailored to Alaska’s unique judicial context, departing from or supplementing the ABA Model Code as detailed in the Rule Comments:

Disqualification (Rule 2.11): Incorporates AS 22.20.020, mandating disqualification for personal bias, involvement of close relatives, campaign contributions over $150 from parties, public statements prejudging cases, or prior roles as a lawyer, witness, or judge in the matter; includes waiver options.
Senior Judges (Administrative Rule 23 revisions): Clarifies application to senior judges, with enhanced disqualification requirements.
Workplace and Community Standards: New rules like 1.3 (Abuse of Judicial Office), 2.12 (Supervisory Duties), and 2.15 (Responding to Judicial Misconduct) align with Alaska Court System policies (e.g., Healthy Workplace Policy and Commitment to Civility). Rule 2.7 emphasizes community size in disclosure and disqualification decisions, relevant for Alaska’s smaller jurisdictions. These ensure the Code addresses local issues like judicial conduct in remote areas and workplace harassment.

The draft Code, comparison documents, and a cross-reference table are available at https://courts.alaska.gov/rules/index.htm#cjc. Public comments can be submitted to [email protected] or mailed to the Alaska Court System in Anchorage. The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct will discuss the proposal on November 14, 2025, from 9:30–11:00 a.m. AKST, with public comments from 10:40–11:00 a.m., accessible via Zoom or in Anchorage (details at acjc.alaska.gov).

The Definition of Insanity and the Gelding of Conservative Leadership Part 1

Columns

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

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November 10, 2025

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The Definition of Insanity and the Gelding of Conservative Leadership Part 1

By Michael Tavoliero

We have lived the definition of insanity in Alaska politics. Again and again, conservatives send a governor to Juneau to protect the PFD, rebuild the economy, and shrink government and every time, that governor walks into a political Lindemann shredder built to pulverize an agenda before it can even start. The mandate is real. The votes are real. The chokehold is real.

This is not because the people changed their minds.

It is because a conservative public executive entering office is without the legislative and institutional power needed to implement the agenda the voters elected them to pursue.

This is the story of how the Dunleavy and Bronson administrations were gelded, not defeated, at the ballot box but neutered in office by a system designed to restrain any executive who threatens the entrenched order.

The lesson is not limited to Alaska.

The first Trump administration is the national version of the same phenomenon.

The Meaning of Gelding in Politics

In horsemanship, a gelding is a male horse castrated to make it easier to control. It is calmer, manageable, and less resistant.

In politics, a gelded executive meets three criteria: 1) he holds office but not authority, 2) he retains the title but not the power, and 3) his mandates become symbolic rather than operative.

The individual remains the “leader” in name, but the system ensures no leadership.

How This Happened

When Donald Trump entered office in 2017, he carried a clear mandate to reduce bureaucracy, secure the border, and reverse the policy trajectory of prior administrations. But he immediately discovered a truth that had nothing to do with elections and everything to do with institutional power: the permanent federal bureaucracy governs itself. Career officials, agency lawyers, regulatory commissions, and intelligence bureaucracies operate as a continuous government whose priorities persist regardless of who is elected.

Trump soon found that a president does not command the federal government; he inherits it. Cabinet agencies slow-walked or reinterpreted his directives. Senior staff tried to moderate his agenda rather than execute it. Congressional leaders avoided delivering on core promises such as border reform and structural spending cuts. At the same time, internal leaks, investigations, and impeachment proceedings diverted governing energy into defending legitimacy rather than exercising authority.

The effect was not electoral defeat but containment in office. The administrative state ensured that the title of power remained with the presidency, while the practical exercise of power remained with the bureaucracy. Policy was delayed or diluted. Personnel who opposed the president’s agenda were protected by civil service rules. Legislative coalitions served to limit reform, not advance it.

Trump was not prevented from governing because the public withdrew support. He was prevented from governing because the system is designed to absorb and neutralize any executive who attempts to govern outside its established boundaries. He held the office, but the bureaucracy held the authority.

Governor Mike Dunleavy’s administration collapsed when a coalition of Democrats, moderate Republicans, public-sector unions, Permanent Fund lobbyists, state-funded advocacy networks and the mainstream media not only blocked spending reforms and halted departmental restructuring but also launched a coordinated recall effort for the purpose of snipping the executive will itself. The recall was not about misconduct; it was a political warning shot designed to discipline the governor into submission. Its message was unmistakable: if you govern according to the mandate the voters gave you, we will remove you. Facing the combined force of the bureaucratic class, the corporate beneficiaries of state spending, and legislative coalitions, Dunleavy was pressed into mutilating the statutory PFD, scaling back reform, and adopting a posture of negotiated survival rather than principled leadership.

In other words, he was gelded not by defeat, but by the threat of punishment for winning.

Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration similarly crumbled when the Anchorage Assembly used procedural authority, emergency powers, union control, and the municipal bureaucracy to reverse executive decisions and nullify the mayor’s policy agenda on day one of his oath of office.

The message from the political establishment was clear: elections may change the figurehead, but policy remains in the hands of the bureaucracy and coalition legislature.

For Trump the next 4 years of lawfare prosecution ironically allowed him to develop a code and policy, which changed the balance of executive prowess.

What follows is the Warrior Code and Operational Plan of a Second Trump Administration, written specifically to illustrate how Alaska conservatives must restructure power, personnel, and institutional alignment so that the next Alaskan governor is not gelded again.

The Warrior Code of a Second Trump Administration

A Model for Alaska’s Path to Restore Self-Government

The first Trump administration exposed the truth: Winning an election is not the same as winning power.

The bureaucracy, legislative coalitions, executive agencies, and embedded career officials operate as a parallel government; one that continues regardless of who the people elect.

Therefore, the warrior code of a second Trump presidency is not about fighting louder but about governing differently.

The lesson of the second Trump administration is simple: reform does not happen by persuasion alone; it happens by control of the machinery that carries out policy.

Personnel is Policy.

The administration made workforce structure the first battlefield. By reinstating and updating Schedule F, it moved policy-shaping roles into classifications where employees could be replaced if they obstructed the elected agenda. Hiring freezes, targeted eliminations, and the removal of DEI offices signaled that government employment exists to execute policy, not defy it.

Authority Must Be Centralized Before It Can Be Delegated.

The administration reinforced the unitary executive doctrine by requiring agencies, including many nominally “independent”, to align their rulemaking and legal interpretations with presidential direction. The goal was to collapse internal veto points and make accountability traceable to the President, rather than diffused across bureaucracy.

The Bureaucracy Must Be Reorganized, Not Challenged.

Rather than fight the administrative state on its terms, the administration began restructuring it: reclassifying positions, relocating federal functions out of Washington, and merging or eliminating programs that did not serve constitutional roles. Reform was pursued through executive directives, the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) rulemaking, and structural adjustment, not speeches.

Legislature: Incentives, Not Pleas, Drive Alignment.

To pass major policy, the administration adopted a centralize-then-negotiate strategy: set the policy baseline by executive action and then force Congress to take public, high-visibility votes. Endorsements and campaign support favored those who aligned; primary challenges and withheld resources signaled cost to defectors.

The takeaway: Reform requires reordering power, staff, authority, structure, and legislative incentives, not merely arguing for it. No agenda survives when implemented by those who oppose it.

Transition to Part II

And this is where Alaska stands.

We keep electing leaders who promise reform, but we send them into a government, an “Invasion of The Body Snatchers” script, whose structure is designed to absorb and neutralize them.

If Alaska wants real change, on the PFD, on Medicaid expansion, on education reform, on resource and energy development, we cannot simply elect a governor. We have done that. How did it work?

We must rebuild the governing majority, restructure the bureaucracy, and re-align incentives so the elected mandate can actually be carried out.

Keep a look out for Part 2: A Model for Alaska’s Path to Restore Self-Government begins there.

Keith Dobson: AI Datacenters in Alaska – A New Frontier for Economic Growth

Columns

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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November 10, 2025

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Keith Dobson: AI Datacenters in Alaska – A New Frontier for Economic Growth

By KEITH DOBSON

Alaska’s Digital Opportunity

Alaska’s economy has long depended on extracting resources and tourism, with over 90% of our food arriving by barge and truck from thousands of miles away—a precarious balance leaving communities vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles.

What if Alaska could develop a tech sector reaching beyond Anchorage into rural communities? What if our cold climate, abundant energy, and strategic location between Asia and North America became advantages in the AI revolution? This is already happening. In Cordova, a small AI datacenter is online, expected to create high-paying jobs, reduce energy bills, and advance technology education.

Understanding AI Datacenters

Artificial intelligence requires massive computing power to process enormous amounts of data, learn patterns, and make predictions. Whether diagnosing diseases, optimizing shipping routes, or translating languages, AI does real work requiring significant computational resources.

Datacenters are warehouses filled with powerful computers working 24/7 to process this information. AI datacenters specifically use specialized chips called GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) designed for the intense mathematical calculations AI demands.

When people think “datacenter,” they imagine football-field-sized buildings consuming electricity for a small city. Those are hyperscale facilities run by companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. But there’s another category perfect for Alaska: micro-datacenters, consuming 250 kilowatts to 1 megawatt—roughly equivalent to 200-800 homes. These can fit into existing buildings like closed schools or underutilized government facilities, requiring renovation rather than new construction.

Alaska’s Competitive Advantages

Natural Cooling

Cooling costs represent 10-40% of datacenter operational expenses. Alaska’s climate provides natural cooling most of the year. In Fairbanks at -40°F, you’re not paying for air conditioning—you simply open the door (so to speak). Even in summer, our temperatures offer fundamental economic advantages over most locations.

Strategic Geography

Looking at a globe, Alaska sits between Asia and North America with fiber optic connections in multiple directions. As Asian economies boom and AI demand grows, Alaska could serve as a strategic hub—a bridge between East and West. Iceland leveraged similar advantages years ago, hosting major datacenters despite being a tiny island nation. Alaska has even more diverse energy sources and better positioning for the Asia-Pacific market.

Energy Resources

Alaska offers surprising energy diversity: hydroelectric power in Southeast communities like Juneau and Sitka, geothermal potential along the Ring of Fire, world-class wind resources in coastal areas, and excess generation capacity sitting idle in many communities. Companies like Greensparc build their model around finding communities with excess power and deploying datacenters that generate revenue while helping reduce electricity rates by sharing infrastructure costs.

Essential Requirements

Communities exploring micro-datacenters need four key ingredients:

Reliable Power: 250kW to 1MW of consistent electricity, 24/7/365. This is like adding a medium-sized commercial building to the grid—significant but manageable for most established communities.

Fiber Connectivity: Major carriers including GCI, MTA, ACS, Quintillion, and Far North Fiber serve Alaska. Connected communities span from Southeast (Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Cordova) to Southcentral (Seward, Kenai, Homer, Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla) to Interior (Fairbanks) to the Arctic Coast (Utqiagvik and beyond).

Physical Space: Existing buildings work fine—closed schools, vacant warehouses, unused government facilities. Spaces need security, climate control, maintenance access, and power/fiber connections. Many companies offer pre-built modular units for relatively quick installation.

Skilled Workforce: A micro-datacenter needs 2-10 people with electrical knowledge, HVAC skills, IT basics, and security expertise. If your community maintains a power plant, water treatment facility, or modern school, you have baseline skills needed. Specialized AI work happens remotely. This creates good-paying technical jobs for reliable, technically-minded locals.

The Heat Opportunity

Datacenters generate tremendous heat, typically wasted by blowing it into the atmosphere. In Alaska, where food security concerns run deep and growing seasons are short, this “waste” heat becomes incredibly valuable.

Imagine a datacenter next to a greenhouse. Hot air and water from cooling computers keeps the greenhouse warm year-round, growing tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs in January. A community importing 90% of its food now grows its own, creating jobs, improving food security, and reducing shipping costs and environmental impact.

Other possibilities include fish hatcheries for Alaska’s critical fishing industry, lumber drying operations, district heating for municipal buildings, aquaculture facilities, and recreation centers with year-round swimming pools. The datacenter transforms from a technology project into an integrated community asset.

Economic Benefits

Direct Employment: A 250kW facility employs 2-5 full-time workers; a 1MW facility needs 5-10. These are year-round positions paying $60,000-$120,000+ in communities where good jobs are scarce—stable careers supporting families without forcing young people to leave for Anchorage or the Lower 48.

Infrastructure Benefits: Adding a large, stable customer to the power grid can reduce rates for everyone by spreading fixed costs across more kilowatt-hours sold. In communities with prohibitively high electricity costs, this makes real differences for residents and businesses.

Training and Education: Datacenters create educational opportunities, showing students that technology careers are realistic options and providing immediate local application for technical training programs.

Native Corporation Partnerships: Alaska Native Regional and village corporations are natural partners, providing land or buildings, co-investing in development, employing shareholders, and ensuring economic benefits flow to historically underserved communities.

Real Challenges

Alaska doesn’t need another overpromised economic scheme. Challenges include high electricity costs (requiring targeting communities with excess capacity or low-cost generation), incomplete fiber infrastructure and redundancy, the valid criticism that datacenters create relatively few jobs, and ensuring community fit and readiness. Success requires community engagement and leadership from local decision-makers—tribal councils, Native corporations, city councils, borough assemblies, and business leaders. This must be a community choice, not something imposed from outside.

Communities with Opportunity

Based on existing infrastructure, several Alaska communities are well-positioned: Southeast communities like Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Cordova have strong hydro power and fiber; Southcentral’s Palmer/Wasilla corridor offers road access and agricultural integration potential; Fairbanks provides university partnerships and technical workforce; and Utqiagvik offers extreme cold climate advantages and Arctic research opportunities.

Looking Forward

Alaska has built prosperity on bold vision: the gold rush, oil pipeline, and fishing industry. The datacenter opportunity follows this tradition. Our cold climate, strategic location, and energy resources position us to participate in the digital revolution.

Micro-datacenters won’t work everywhere or solve all challenges. But for communities with the right infrastructure and vision, they offer opportunities to create technical jobs, use excess energy productively, improve food security, upgrade infrastructure, partner with Native corporations, and diversify beyond boom-and-bust extraction.

The technology is proven. Companies are already investing. The question is whether Alaska communities will seize this opportunity—a chance to write Alaska’s future with fiber optics, AI, and year-round tomatoes grown with datacenter heat.

We’ve thrived on the edge of the world before. We can do it again.

Keith Dobson is an Alaska-based IT leader with nearly 40 years in consulting, engineering, sales and management. At INVITE Networks, he advances responsible AI to strengthen private and public services. A Big Lake resident and active volunteer, Keith focuses on helping Alaska communities use technology for practical solutions delivering better outcomes for all Alaskans.

Germany’s Costly Energy Transition: A Stark Warning for Alaska

Columns

Todd M Lindley

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November 10, 2025

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Germany’s Costly Energy Transition: A Stark Warning for Alaska

As Alaska grapples with high diesel costs in remote villages and eyes solar power to diversify its oil-dependent economy, experts are urging caution by pointing to Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) as a multi-billion-dollar cautionary tale. A 2015 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report once touted Germany’s solar success as a benchmark for Alaska, highlighting comparable insolation levels to argue for viability despite harsh latitudes. But a decade later, Germany’s transition has ballooned into a multi-trillion-euro burden, raising alarms for cash-strapped Alaska.

While similarities exist—both face low sunlight and fossil fuel reliance—differences underscore the risks. Alaska’s seasonal solar variability, snow losses, and logistical hurdles inflate PV costs 2–4 times U.S. averages, mirroring Germany’s grid bottlenecks and subsidy traps. Germany’s installed capacity has surged to over 112 GW, but at what price? Forecasts now peg total transition costs at up to 5.4 trillion euros by 2049, including 440 billion euros for grid upgrades and 2.8 billion euros in annual “redispatch” payments to idle renewables. High electricity prices—double U.S. rates—have sparked de-industrialization, companies leaving, and public backlash, with household bills doubling and GDP growth lagging 0.5–1% annually.

The DOE’s assumptions amplify the warning: It relied on outdated insolation data (1980s-era), optimistic LCOE estimates (40–129 cents/kWh for solar vs. diesel), federal incentives like 30% tax credits, and low-penetration integration ignoring storage needs or seasonal mismatches. These overlook non-fuel diesel costs, full grid upgrades, and subsidy distortions like Alaska’s Power Cost Equalization program, which could erode incentives. Germany’s experience shows how such assumptions underestimated locked-in subsidies (16 billion euros in 2024 alone) and economic drags, leading to “buyer’s remorse.”

For Alaska, whose $50 billion GDP hinges on oil, mimicking this could hike utility rates roughly 20–50% short-term to include infrastructure costs for integration and exacerbate budget strains amid low oil prices. “With the current policy, the energy transition cannot succeed. It risks driving energy-intensive industries abroad while weakening Germany’s economic base,” warned DIHK President Peter Adrian.

Renewable advocates say Alaska’s vast potential remains untapped at just 33 MW installed, but without reevaluating assumptions, the transition could mirror Germany’s pitfalls rather than its promises. The irony of the German energy transition is that instead of reversing course to reliable and affordable power sources, policy makers are doubling down on research for ways to reduce the cost of the transition to mitigate their contribution to global climate change. In the end, the citizens are sacrificed to the quest for climate neutrality.

Youth as Bridge Builders: Echoing Pope Leo XIV’s Call in Alaska

The Social

Todd M Lindley

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November 9, 2025

7

Youth as Bridge Builders: Echoing Pope Leo XIV’s Call in Alaska

In a world fractured by division—political, social, and even geographical—Pope Leo XIV’s recent messages to young people offer a beacon of hope and action. Speaking via video to youth gathered in Košice, Slovakia, on November 8, 2025, the Pope urged them to become “witnesses of communion, builders of bridges and sowers of trust” in a landscape marred by suspicion. This call resonates deeply when viewed through the lens of his broader message for the 40th World Youth Day, themed “You also are my witnesses, because you have been with me” (Jn 15:27). Here, the Pontiff doesn’t just inspire; he commissions the young to evangelize amid adversity, a mandate that finds urgent application in the remote Alaskan wilderness, where the Dominican Mission labors to bring Christ’s light to isolated souls.

Alaska’s vast, unforgiving terrain embodies the very divisions the Pope decries. Stretching from the icy expanses of Utqiagvik to the windswept Aleutians, this “Last Frontier” isolates communities like no other place in America. Native Yupik and Inupiaq peoples endure months of perpetual darkness, exorbitant living costs, and a priest shortage that leaves villages without the sacraments for extended periods. The Dominican Mission, spearheaded by friars from the Western Dominican Province, confronts this challenge with over 65 annual trips to 20 settlements, celebrating Mass and offering counsel in places where roads don’t exist and flights are the only lifeline. Yet, this work isn’t just logistical; it’s a profound act of bridge-building, mirroring the Pope’s vision of youth stepping into the breach.

Drawing from John 15:27, Pope Leo XIV reminds us that true witness stems from intimacy with Christ: “You also are my witnesses, because you have been with me.” This isn’t abstract theology—it’s a blueprint for action in harsh environments like Alaska, where evangelization means traversing frozen tundras to affirm God’s presence. The Pope elaborates, invoking John 1:7: “He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” Just as John the Baptist humbly pointed to Christ, the Dominican friars direct isolated Alaskans to the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:36), fostering faith where despair could easily take root. In Alaska, this testimony combats not just physical isolation but spiritual darkness, where the “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

The Pope’s message challenges the youth to embrace this role. He warns of rejection, quoting John 15:20: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you,” yet counters with hope: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). Imagine the next generation of Catholics, inspired by World Youth Day, joining these efforts: volunteering for mission trips, using digital tools to connect remote villages, or developing new avenues for support. The Dominican initiative, while priest-led, provides a model for youthful energy to amplify its reach, turning isolation into communion.

Critics might dismiss such calls as idealistic in a secular age, where the younger generation grapple with climate anxiety, social media echo chambers, and economic pressures. But adventure awaits in combining the frontier spirit with the desire to be a missionary like that of the apostles. Not unlike the mission’s history, building on Jesuit dog-sled evangelists, shows how faith adapts to extremes— a model for today’s pilgrims— young people become beloved disciples, their lives a testimony that salvation is near, even in the wilderness.

Ultimately, Pope Leo XIV’s messages aren’t mere platitudes; they’re a rallying cry for evangelization in forgotten corners like Alaska. As bridges collapse under division’s weight, the next generation must rebuild them with Christ’s light. Becoming part of Mission Alaska honors this. In the words of the Pontiff, “Be witnesses of this joy!” Let Alaska’s frozen frontiers become fertile ground for a new generation of bridge builders, proving that no place is too remote for God’s embrace.

New Leads Emerge in Unsolved January 6 Pipe Bomber Case

Politics

Todd M Lindley

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November 9, 2025

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New Leads Emerge in Unsolved January 6 Pipe Bomber Case

Nearly five years after pipe bombs were planted near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters, a controversial investigative report has reignited scrutiny over the unsolved case, alleging a former U.S. Capitol Police officer as the perpetrator. The devices, discovered on January 6, 2021, amid the Capitol riot, diverted law enforcement resources during a critical moment as Congress certified the 2020 election results.

Surveillance footage shows the suspect, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and face mask, placing the first bomb around 7:54 p.m. on January 5 near a bench outside the DNC. The second device was planted at approximately 8:16 p.m. in an alley near the RNC. The bombs, described by the FBI as viable threats intended to harm civilians, were found between 12:40 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. the next day, just as the Capitol breach unfolded. Allegations suggest the suspect may have replaced a malfunctioning device early on January 6, based on analysis of alternative sites near the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.

Blaze Media’s report, by investigative journalist Steve Baker, claims Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, a 5’7″ former Capitol Police officer with a slight limp from a 2015 soccer injury, matches the suspect with a high degree of certainty via gait analysis. Kerkhoff, who served in the Civil Disturbance Unit and later joined CIA security, has not been charged, and authorities have not confirmed the findings.

Speculation on motive centers on creating a distraction to frame Trump supporters as extremists, potentially as a government hoax tied to election narratives.

If convicted, justice could involve terrorism charges, probes into accomplices, and agency accountability, with the FBI’s $500,000 reward emphasizing urgency. A confirmation might dismantle the “insurrection” storyline, exposing potential federal involvement and prompting election-related reinvestigations. The FBI’s investigation remains active, with recent footage releases yielding no breakthroughs.

A Subtle Revolution: Anchorage School District Places “We Do Not Endorse” Disclaimer on U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence

The 907

Natalie Spaulding

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November 8, 2025

85

A Subtle Revolution: Anchorage School District Places “We Do Not Endorse” Disclaimer on U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence

Editor’s Note: This story was updated 11/10/2025 to reflect that Kathrine Hardy’s friend (not daughter) discovered the disclaimer pasted on the pamphlet of American founding documents.

What does it mean when a government-funded institution refuses to endorse our country’s Supreme Law of the Land and the documents forming the basis of our national identity? Not only did Anchorage School District refuse to endorse the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence but took pains to sticker an “Anchorage School District does not endorse the materials or viewpoints expressed in them” disclaimer on the documents. Such a blatant attack on our most foundational documents which detail America’s most dearly held values and shapes the American identity requires explanation.

Which viewpoints contained in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence does ASD take umbrage with? As one of our most powerful societal institutions, American public education represents America’s principles and has a sacred duty to train future generations in those values.

MRAK was informed of ASD’s anti-American disclaimer by Kathrine Hardy, whose friend discovered the disclaimer pasted on a pamphlet of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence sent home with school kids.

Kathrine’s friend shared the following post on Facebook:
Today my daughter brought home a pamphlet with the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. On the back was a sticker saying that the Anchorage School District “does not endorse the materials or viewpoints expressed in them.”

I was honestly stunned. These aren’t controversial documents, they are the foundation of our country and what our students are supposed to be learning about. Why would a school need to distance itself from the very principles we are built on?

I fully support transparency in education and just want to understand this policy better. Parents deserve clarity. If outside materials are being sent home, especially involving American founding documents, the messaging should be thoughtful and not confusing to families.

I’ll be asking the district for an explanation.

ASD must answer for this action. ASD staff spent American taxpayer money to print the stickers and apply the disclaimer to America’s founding documents. Why?

Kathrine Hardy has also informed staunch Constitution-defender Hillsdale College of the situation. She stated in an email to MRAK: “These are our founding documents, and this needs to be shared.”

Alaska’s Permanent Fund: The Great Debate Part VII

Columns

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

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November 7, 2025

6

Alaska’s Permanent Fund: The Great Debate Part VII

The People of Alaska vs. The Legislature

Part VII: The People’s Constitutional Covenant and the Quieting of Title

By Michael Tavoliero

The Alaska Constitution begins with a simple but foundational truth: all political power is inherent in the people. Government exists only because the people consent to it, and it remains legitimate only so long as it protects the rights that precede it. These rights, the ability to think, choose, act, work, and build a life, come not from the State, but are God-given. The Constitution does not grant them; it recognizes them.

From this foundational principle flows Alaska’s unique system of natural resource ownership. Article VIII establishes that Alaska’s land, waters, and resource wealth are held in public trust. The State is the trustee; the people are the beneficiaries. The Permanent Fund, and the earnings it generates, are therefore not state property in the private sense; they are public inheritance, held and managed for the maximum benefit of the people.

The Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) arose as the practical means by which the trust obligation is fulfilled. When the state created the PFD in 1980 and began distribution in 1982, it did so on the clear understanding that the people were not passive recipients, but beneficial owners entitled to share directly in their commonwealth. For more than forty years, the State has repeated that recognition annually, publicly, and without interruption. Through this long practice, the people’s relationship to the PFD has taken on the character of possessory right. It is a right confirmed by participation, continuity, and reliance.

A Covenant Formed Through Practice and Trust

A covenant is more than a promise. It is a mutual obligation that gains strength through continuity and trust. The PFD has become exactly that. Four decades of open and repeated practice have woven the dividend into the fabric of civic life. The PFD is a component of family budgets, local economies, school clothing and heating oil, savings and debt payments, investments and stability. The people built their expectations not on speculation, but on the State’s own unwavering conduct.

In Alaska law, this matters. Courts recognize that when people rely on consistent and affirmative government action, the State cannot reverse its position without causing injustice. This principle is known as equitable estoppel. The Alaska Supreme Court has applied it to government conduct where:

The government has made a clear and repeated representation,

People have relied on it in good faith,

That reliance was reasonable, and

Harm would result if the government were allowed to repudiate it.

Every year since 1982, the State has affirmed the PFD. Every family, every household, every child who has grown up in Alaska has relied on it. To now treat the PFD as a mere fiscal option instead of a recognized civic share breaks the covenant the State, itself, established.

The shift to the Percent of Market Value (POMV) draw was not a reform of the Permanent Fund itself, nor was it a constitutional amendment. It was a budgetary device adopted by a legislature which allowed elected officials to relabel the people’s share as a revenue source for government, reframing a trust distribution as discretionary spending. In doing so, the State reversed its own decades-long acknowledgment that the people are beneficiaries, not dependents. The device did not change the nature of the right; it merely moved the line on paper while leaving the constitutional obligation unaltered.

To allow the POMV to justify withholding the dividend is to treat mismanagement as authority and to confuse temporary fiscal convenience with rightful ownership. The covenant has already been lived. The people’s share has already been possessed. The right stands whether the legislature balances its books or not.

Practice Matures into Right

Alaska’s legal history reinforces this idea: longstanding and unchallenged practice carries legal weight.

In Ravin v. State (1975), the Alaska Supreme Court held that the right to privacy in the home was not given by government but recognized because Alaskans had long exercised it.

In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the U.S. Supreme Court held that parental authority over education was a fundamental liberty because it had been continuously exercised and socially affirmed.

In Sturgeon v. Frost (2016, 2019), the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Alaska’s sovereign possession over its navigable waters because the State had openly and continuously exercised that authority.

These cases share one principle: rights openly lived and broadly recognized become rights the State must respect.

The PFD is no different. For more than forty years, Alaskans have received it openly, continuously, publicly, and with the State’s affirmation. This is the very pattern by which a civil right becomes established in constitutional practice.

Quantifying the Right: The Importance of the Formula

A right must have a boundary to be secure. For a possessory right, that boundary is the formula; the method that determines the amount of the dividend. The original PFD formula was not dependent on annual legislative discretion. It did not say, “if convenient.” It operated automatically once earnings were realized.

A right that can be withheld at will is not a right; it is a dependency. A share that can be diluted without consent is not ownership; it is allowance.

Thus, to preserve the people’s beneficial interest, the formula must be restored and protected. This is the constitutional equivalent of marking the boundary line around property already possessed. It is not to gain something new, but to secure what has long been held.

Quieting Title in the People’s Name

In property law, a quiet title action is used to formally confirm ownership after long, uncontested possession. It does not create the right; it recognizes and protects a right that already exists. The court declares:

This belongs to the one who has held it in fact.

The PFD has reached that stage. The people have held their share of the Permanent Fund’s earnings in fact, continuously, openly, and with the State’s acknowledgment, for over forty years. The right has matured. It has passed the threshold of mere policy and entered the realm of civic title.

To “quiet title” to the PFD is to recognize the people’s long-held beneficial ownership interest and protect it from future political erosion. It is not radical. It is restorative.

Conclusion: The Covenant Stands

The PFD was never meant to be a temporary program or a discretionary subsidy. It was designed, and practiced, as a continuing share in the commonwealth, rooted in the Constitution’s command that resources be managed for the maximum benefit of the people.

For over four decades, Alaskans have possessed that share in practice, in reliance, and in mutual trust. That possession has matured into a civic right, one confirmed by the State itself through its consistent conduct.

To secure that right, now, is not to invent or grant anything. It is simply to recognize and protect what already belongs to the people.

Check out previous articles in The Great Debate: The People of Alaska vs the Legislature:

Part I: Inflation-Proofing: Where’s the Problem?

Part II: Follow the Money

Part III: The 49 Forward Plan Takes the Permanent Fund Backwards

Part IV: The PFD and the Search for Wisdom

Part V: Ghost Busting: Dispelling Anti-PFD Phantoms

Part VI: The People’s Possession: Alaska’s Ownership of the Permanent Fund Dividend

Germany’s Costly Energy Transition: A Stark Warning for Alaska

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