The Alaska Highway washed out north of Fort Nelson at Contact Creek on Friday and remains closed to traffic in both directions.
The Yukon government tweeted photos of the damage, which happened in British Columbia between Liard Hot Springs and Watson Lake.
The highway, also called the Alcan, is the route between the Lower 48 and Alaska. Drive BC indicates there is no available detour. The Stewart- Cassier Highway is an inconvenient and lengthy alternative.
President Joe Biden announced that women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor for “individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
Rapinoe, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s World Cup champion “is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights,” the White House said. More famously, she has repeatedly kneeled in protest during the playing of the National Anthem.
“President Biden has long said that America can be defined by one word: possibilities. These seventeen Americans demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation – hard work, perseverance, and faith,” the statement continued. “They have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities – and across the world – while blazing trails for generations to come.”
Another controversial pick for the medal is late AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who took the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate himself in his role in the 1996 Teamster election, which was tainted with corruption.
Trumka in 2010 in Anchorage said that there was something “just not right” with former Gov. Sarah Palin.
Trumka said Palin would “go down in history like McCarthy,” a reference to Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
“Palinism will become an ugly word,” Trumka said at an AFL-CIO convention in Anchorage. “Who is this woman, anyway? What happened to her?
“She used to have a job, your governor. You knew her. Or thought you did. I know I thought I did. She seemed like a decent person, an outdoorswoman. Her husband’s a steelworker. She seemed to take some OK stands for working families. And then things got weird. After she tied herself to John McCain and they lost, she blew off Alaska. I guess she figured she’d trade up … shoot for a national stage. Alaska was too far from the Fox TV spotlight,” Trumka said in Anchorage.
“Instead, she’s hanging out on cable TV, almost a parody of herself, coming out with conspiracy theories about Obama and his ‘death panels.’ … Talking about ‘the real America.’ Talking about building schools in ‘our neighboring country of Afghanistan.’ Writing speech notes to herself on her hands. Sometimes — about Sarah Palin — you just have to laugh. … But it’s not really funny,” he said.
He also attacked those who supported Palin: “To me, it just doesn’t seem OK to go where she’s going. It sits wrong with me. … The ‘Mama Grizzlies,’ Sarah Palin says, just sense when something’s not right. Well … I wonder if those ‘Mama Grizzlies’ can sense something’s just not right with her.”
He then blamed “Palin’s crazy magnet” for pulling Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the right.
The National Right to Work Foundation issued a fact sheet about Trumka’s history with violent strikes.
“As president of the United Mine Workers (UMW) union, Trumka led multiple violent strikes. Trumka’s fiery rhetoric often appeared to condone militancy and violence, especially against workers who dared to continue to provide for their families by working during a strike. As a Virginia judge ruled in 1989, ‘violent activities are being organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union,'” NRTW wrote.
“Take the murder of Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, who was shot in the back of the head and killed while leaving a worksite in 1993. Trumka and other UMW officials were charged in a $27 million wrongful death suit by Eddie York’s widow. After fighting the suit intensely for four years, UMW lawyers settled suddenly in 1997 — just two days after the judge in the case ruled evidence in the criminal trial would be admitted.
“Later, as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Trumka pleaded the Fifth Amendment before Congress and a court-appointed election monitor over his role in an illegal fundraising scheme to benefit the Teamsters president Ron Carey’s re-election. Trumka has remained in his position ever since despite an AFL-CIO rule (adopted in 1957) which held that union officials who plead the Fifth have “no right to continue to hold office” in the union umbrella organization,” the group wrote.
Read more about Trumka’s history of condoning union violence and corruption in the Foundation’s Fact Sheet.
The others being awarded the medal, as described by the White House, are:
Simone Biles
Simone Biles is the most decorated American gymnast in history, with a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. Biles is also a prominent advocate for athletes’ mental health and safety, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault.
Sister Simone Campbell
Sister Simone Campbellis a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is also a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform, and healthcare policy.
Julieta García
Dr. Julieta García is the former president of The University of Texas at Brownsville, where she was named one of Time magazine’s best college presidents. Dr. García was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.
Gabrielle Giffords
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate, serving first in the Arizona legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. A survivor of gun violence, she co-founded Giffords, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention.
Fred Gray
Fred Gray was one of the first black members of the Alabama State legislature since Reconstruction. As an attorney, he represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, who called him “the chief counsel for the protest movement.”
Steve Jobs (posthumous)
Steve Jobs (d. 2011) was the co-founder, chief executive, and chair of Apple, Inc., CEO of Pixar and held a leading role at the Walt Disney Company. His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.
Father Alexander Karloutsos
Father Alexander Karloutsos is the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. After over 50 years as a priest, providing counsel to several U.S. presidents, he was named by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Khizr Khan
Khizr Khanis a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center. He is a prominent advocate for the rule of law and religious freedom and served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom under President Biden.
Sandra Lindsay
Sandra Lindsayis a New York critical care nurse who served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. She was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and is a prominent advocate for vaccines and mental health for health care workers.
John McCain (posthumous)
John McCain (d. 2018) was a public servant who was awarded a Purple Heart with one gold star for his service in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He also served the people of Arizona for decades in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee for president in 2008.
Diane Nash
Diane Nash is a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20th century. Nash worked closely with Martin Luther King, who described her as the “driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.”
Alan Simpson
Alan Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming for 18 years. During his public service, he has been a prominent advocate on issues including campaign finance reform, responsible governance, and marriage equality.
Wilma Vaught
Brigadier General Wilma Vaughtis one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military, repeatedly breaking gender barriers as she rose through the ranks. When she retired in 1985, she was one of only seven women generals in the Armed Forces.
Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington is an actor, director, and producer who has won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, and the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also served as National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.
Raúl Yzaguirre
Raúl Yzaguirre is a civil rights advocate who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for thirty years. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama.
The FiveThirtyEight website ran simulations on the Alaska election for governor and found that a Republican is favored to win 71 times in every 100 simulations.
A Democrat is favored to win in just 12 times of every 100 simulations.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has the best chance in the simulations, winning 69 in 100 times.
Bill Walker, the former Democrat-backed governor who is running as a nonpartisan candidate, wins 17 of 100 simulations. Les Gara, a Democrat candidate for governor, wins 12 of every 100 simulations. Republican Chris Kurka wins 2 of every 100 simulations. The organization did not appear to run a simulation on Republican candidate Charlie Pierce.
“This is FiveThirtyEight’s best guess as to who the nominee will be, based on an analysis of incumbency, polls, fundraising, previous experience and endorsements. The candidate listed may change based on primary results or other factors,” the website reports.
A May poll by Lake Research Partners showed Dunleavy winning with 40%, to Gara’s 18% and Walker’s 12%, with Pierce following at 5% and no mention of Kurka. The poll did not take into consideration the ranked choice voting system that has been adopted in Alaska’s general elections, after the passage of the 2020 Ballot Measure 2.
FiveThirtyEight, run by founder and editor Nate Silver, focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports.
The executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party was taken to jail early Saturday morning after being pulled over for driving while under the influence, becoming unruly and unplugging Alaska State Trooper breathalyzer equipment.
Troopers stopped Lindsay Kavanaugh at 1:20 am 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 South Carolina.
[Read: NC Democratic Party ex-staffer sues over sexual harassment]
The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan crew rescued four mariners after their boat capsized in Glacier Bay National Park on Friday.
At 12:04 p.m., watchstanders at the Sector Juneau command center received a distress alert in the vicinity of Muir Inlet from a digital selective calling device registered to Cats N Dawgs, a 66-foot privately owned pleasure craft, based in Seattle.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka diverted from training nearby and arrived on scene less than an hour later, at approximately 12:59 p.m. to find the vessel taking on water with a severe list. A good Samaritan vessel Alaskan Hunter was also on scene attempting to assist those aboard the sinking vessel.
Shortly after the Jayhawk crew arrived on scene, Cats N Dawgs sank in 150 feet of water 300 feet from shore.
Alaskan Hunter recovered all four survivors, two adults and two teenagers, from the vessel and transported them to shore where the Jayhawk crew conducted a passenger exchange. The survivors were then transferred to awaiting EMS at 2:08 p.m. in Juneau. No injuries were reported and the survivors are reportedly in stable condition.
“Mariners all over the world, but especially in Alaska, will often drop everything to help out a fellow mariner in need. We saw this today from the Alaskan Hunter,” said Lt. Cmdr. Preston Strobel, command duty office, Sector Juneau command center. “This could have been a devastating start to the holiday weekend.”
The cause of the incident is under investigation. The Coast Guard and National Parks Service are working with the vessel owner to establish a salvage plan.
On scene weather was air temperature of 57 degrees, 1-foot seas, and 3-mph winds.
The yacht had left Seattle and made its way up the Inside Passage, with stops in British Columbia, Petersburg, Juneau, and Glacier Bay.
The Notes from the Trail series continues. Look for all the candidates at one parade or another this weekend. It will be hot from Fairbanks to Ketchikan, and those who forget their sunscreen will have to face the music in the mirror later.
The fundraisers are going strong in July, and there are plenty more where those came from. Above, a photo of Nick Begich, running for Congress, with Carlos Gomez, father of Scotty Gomez, at Bell’s Nursery, where Nick was having a fundraiser on Wednesday.
Peltola coming on strong: New events coming up next week include a fundraising party for Democrat Mary Peltola for Congress, which features many Democrats who previously supported Chris Constant, the Anchorage Assemblyman who received just 3.86% of the vote during the special primary election. Now, the Democrats have all moved to Camp Peltola.
The obvious in-your-face irony of the fundraiser is the address — it’s being held at Mark Begich-Deborah Bonito’s house. Mark is the uncle of Republican Nick Begich, who is running against Peltola and Sarah Palin for the congressional seat.
Even more curious is that on the list of co-hosts is Alice Rogoff, the former owner of the Anchorage Daily News, aka Alaska Dispatch. She is the publisher who all-but installed Bill Walker as governor in 2014.
Rogoff is still a registered voter in Alaska, although she did not vote in the state after 2020, and has sold her North Pointe Circle mansion in Anchorage.
Also on the list of co-hosts is former Gov. Tony and Susan Knowles, and Veronica Slajer, wife of DC lobbyist Jack Ferguson, who first supported Josh Revak for Congress. This is most certainly a high-roller event:
Andrew Gray: Speaking of Democrats, Andrew Timothy Gray, running for Alaska House of Representatives, recorded himself at his recent fundraiser and set it to music in this oddly entertaining campaign ad, in which we can see Anchorage School Board member Kelly Lessens listening intently to his dramatic presentation:
In addition to Gray in the race for House Seat 20 (under new numbering system), Republicans Jordan Harary and Paul Bauer are on the ballot. Gray has the support of the Alaska Democratic Party.
Jamie Allard: The same night as the Mary Peltola fundraiser, Alaska’s Jamie Allard has a fundraiser for her campaign for House District 23, happening at Chepo’s in Eagle River:
On July 6, Nick Begich for Congress will be in Kenai for a fundraiser at Paradiso’s Pizza.
The polling analyst Nate Silver, who runs the FiveThirtyEight.com website, is projecting winners for all the House and Senate seats. For Alaska, he predicts that Nick Begich will win, as he wins in 70% of the simulations that the company ran using ranked choice voting. Mary Peltola gets 13% of the simulations, and Sarah Palin wins 10% of the simulations.
Silvers is also predicting that U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has a smooth path to victory. In 100 simulations, she wins, 85 times, with Kelly Tshibaka winning 11 times and Edgar Blatchford winning 5 times. No sign of Democrat Pat Chesbro.
Bill Walker brings in Obama team: Bill Walkers’ campaign for governor launched an ad this weekend on the theme of “Mike Dunleavy has driven Alaska into the ditch.” Walker-Drygas’ new ad firm is GMMB, the huge national firm that did President Barack Obama’s campaign. And Joe Biden’s. And Kamala Harris’. And Bill Clinton’s. And Gretchen Whitmer for Governor of Michigan. And Charlie Crist for Congress, Florida. You get the drift.
The United States is seeing the monkeypox virus surging. At the beginning of the week, the number of known cases in the United States was 209. But as of the end of Pride Month, June 30, the Centers for Disease Control reported 396 cases in 30 states, or 60% of all states reporting at least one case. Puerto Rico, a territory, also has a documented case.
To date, no known cases of monkeypox have been identified in Alaska, but the virus is being spread primary in the sexually active community of men having sex with other men and it appears that the virus will make its way north eventually. It has been diagnosed in Hawaii.
The CDC said it will make vaccine available to men who have sex with men who have had multiple recent partners. When vaccine supplies are better, the advice may change, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
“As soon as we have more vaccines available, we will of course continue to expand from a post-exposure prophylaxis strategy ideally to a pre-exposure prophylaxis strategy,” Walensky said. “I do think it would be wise to address that expansion at a time when we have more vaccine so we can really follow where the outbreak is densest.”
Right now, the outbreak is spreading in California and New York, with Illinois and Florida also seeing double-digit cases. The “big three” Democratic stronghold states are California, New York and Illinois. The outbreak started in coastal states where Democrats are mainly in control and is working its way into the “flyover states” of the Midwest, as well as into the Bible Belt South.
In Europe, the case count has tripled. The head of the World Health Organization’s Europe division warned Friday that monkeypox cases in the region have tripled in two weeks. Europe and the United Kingdom are hot spots, but in known sex tourism centers such as Thailand, there have been no reported cases.
In the United States, the contagion has taken off at a greater rate than in Europe. Four weeks ago, there were 9 reported cases in seven states. Today’s count of 296 is an over 4,000% increase from what it was at the end of May.
Monkeypox is not as highly contagious as Covid-19 and a different kind of health response is called for. It is primarily spread through intimate contact with an infected person or animal, or to a lesser degree may be spread through contaminated surfaces or respiratory droplets. The current outbreak of 5,323 cases in 52 countries is still mainly in populations of men who have sex with men.
The latest from the CDC is at this link.
A group of pro-abortion protesters marched again outside conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s home Thursday evening, chanting expletives and waving various pro-abortion signs. The group is largely the work of Our Rights DC, which has been organizing protests outside the homes of the five Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The group was about 20 in number outside the justice’s home in Falls Church, Virginia. Coney-Barrett has minor-age children in the home, including two who are under 10 years old. A similar protest is planned for Friday night in front of the home of Justice Clarence Thomas, and a national “day of action” is planned by the group for Monday, Independence Day.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, various protests of the decision are still popping up. In Fairbanks, Juneau, and Anchorage, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates West will host protests on July 9, the same day that President Donald Trump will be in Anchorage for a rally for U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, U.S. House candidate Sarah Palin, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
President Joe Biden, while on an overseas visit to Spain for the NATO summit, attacked the U.S. Supreme Court: “The one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Biden told reporters in Madrid. He was planning a teleconference meeting with pro-abortion governors on Friday and said he supports putting federal abortion rights into law by any means necessary.
While Biden is in the “any means necessary” mode, pro-abortion protesters are too, and have been repeatedly publishing the home addresses of the five justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade so that they can be targeted by pro-abortion demonstrations.
A bat found in Douglas, out in the daytime and acting abnormally, tested positive for rabies but there has been no exposure to people from this bat, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen tested the bat Wednesday. Beckmen, leader of the ADF&G Wildlife Health and Disease Surveillance Program, routinely conducts disease testing including rabies on six to 10 bats each year. In more than 45 years of rabies testing in Alaska, about 200 bats have been examined. This case of rabies is just the sixth bat to test positive. All six rabid bats were found in Southeast Alaska, and were either dead or euthanized for exhibiting abnormal behavior.
“This is the first time a bat on Douglas Island or in the Juneau area has tested positive but that doesn’t mean we expect more cases,” Beckmen said. “This detection in a different location just highlights that the risk of bat rabies is always present in southeast Alaska, and it’s crucial that people keep their pet’s rabies vaccinations current.”
Beckmen tests bats for a variety of diseases, including white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed millions of bats in the Eastern U.S.; the disease has not been detected in bats in Alaska. Beckmen sent a brain sample from the rabid bat to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation and to determine the rabies virus variant.
State wildlife biologist Roy Churchwell, based in Douglas, said the bat was found during the daytime Sunday crawling on the grass outside an apartment building in the town of Douglas, which is on Douglas Island and is part of the City and Borough of Juneau.
“Sometimes a healthy bat may become disoriented and will be seen in the daytime, but will fly off and find cover,” he said. Juneau Police Department Animal Control and Protection was notified, as was Churchwell. The person who found the bat pushed it into an open box without touching it and left it outside overnight; the bat did not leave and Churchwell collected it Monday morning. It was euthanized and sent to Beckmen, who is based in Fairbanks.
Karen Blejwas, a wildlife biologist and bat researcher in Juneau, identified the bat as a silver-haired bat.
“Silver-haired bats are not as common in the Juneau area as little brown bats, but they are present,” she said. About six different bat species can be found in Southeast, including long- eared bats and California myotis. The little brown bat is the most common and widespread bat in Alaska and the only species found north of Southeast Alaska.
The last bat to test positive for rabies in Alaska was found dead in 2015 at Point Couverden, about 25 miles west of Juneau.
Many cases of rabies occur each year among arctic and red foxes in northern and western coastal of Alaska. Dogs and other mammals are sometimes infected and unvaccinated dogs attacked by foxes become the greatest risk for rabies exposure to Alaskans. Anyone who is bitten by a wild animal should wash the wound and call a health care provider.
Beckmen said if a bat is acting sick or abnormal or is out in daytime, don’t handle it with bare hands, and contact the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Anyone who may have been bitten or scratched by a bat, including someone who may have been asleep in a room with a bat and potentially had contact, should contact a health care provider immediately to be evaluated. If you find a bat in your home and no one has been in contact with it you can visit the ADF&G website and learn how to safely release it and report your observation. A list of contacts for area offices and more information on bats can be found by visiting adfg.alaska.gov and searching on “Living with Bats.”
