U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has named John Kuhn as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, effective Dec. 26, 2021.
Kuhn recently served with the Executive Office for United States Attorneys since 2018 in various roles, including National Heroin and Opioid Coordinator, National Controlled Substances Coordinator, and Acting Assistant Director in the Office of Legal Programs.
He had served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky for nearly three years, from December 2014 to September 2017. During his tenure, Kuhn was engaged in combatting the opioid crisis, developing a number of effective initiatives and programs. Before he became U.S. Attorney, Kuhn served for more than four years as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, supervising the Criminal, Civil, Appellate, and Administrative Divisions of the Office.
The Trump Administration replaced Kuhn as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky in 2017. The positions are politically appointed and usually change with each president.
Kuhn has more than 31 years of legal experience and 24 years with the Department of Justice. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the Western District of Kentucky U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted narcotics, violent crime, and white-collar offenses. In addition to his extensive trial work, Kuhn argued appeals before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and served as a hearing officer in Washington, D.C. and New York City for the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund, a federal program established for victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Mr. Kuhn graduated cum laude from the University of Louisville School of Law and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky.
Kuhn was quoted as saying, “I’m honored to serve as the United States Attorney in the great state of Alaska. The dedicated prosecutors and staff in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska are some of the best in the nation, and together we will continue to fulfill our mission, protecting the people of Alaska and the interests of the United States.”
He replaces former Acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Wilson, who served in that role since March 1, 2021, when Biden accepted the resignation of former U.S. District of Alaska Attorney Bryan Douglas Schroder in the early weeks of Biden’s Administration. Wilson has returned to his role as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney, where he has served since November 2017.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a disaster emergency in the following boroughs and areas of the state impacted by severe winter storms, extreme winds, and extreme cold temperatures:
Delta/Greely REAA, and Copper River REAA
Fairbanks North Star Borough, including Nenana
Denali Borough
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
“At one point over the weekend, some 20,000 households in the Mat-Su lost power and were in the dark. Severe wind gusts have torn apart buildings, flipped semis on highways, and left thousands of homeowners concerned over freezing pipes,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “We declared a disaster emergency in the Boroughs and areas that are impacted by the wind storm. Alaskans, now is the time to check in with your neighbors and try to stay off the roads if possible. We have received reports that there are still layers of ice on the roads in Fairbanks, debris is flying across highways in the Valley, and the wind has blown roofs off. I am always impressed with the ability Alaskans have to step up and help one another. We are devoting State resources to helping our vulnerable communities.”
The declaration activates the State Public Assistance and Individual Assistance program, which provides timely assistance to individuals or families to meet disaster-related necessary expenses and serious needs. More information on how to apply for the disaster assistance will be posted soon.
The Mat-Su Borough and American Red Cross have established shelters at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla and the Mat-Su Senior Services Center in Palmer. The State Emergency Operations Center is activated and coordinating with affected jurisdictions. At this time, no emergency assistance has been requested in Mat-Su, and in Fairbanks, a contingent of National Guard soldiers and airmen are activated to assist the Borough with any transportation needs.
If individuals or families have an emergency, the governor advised them to call 9-1-1. Visit the Mat-Su Borough website at https://ready.matsugov.us/pages/severe-weather to view where they are posting information about the storm, shelter locations and other updates.
The Matanuska Electric Association website at https://www.mea.coop/power-outages has a real-time power outage map and details on reporting an outage.
Women have long struggled to be equal members of society with men. For over 100 years, American women advocated for, and successfully secured legal protections for an equal opportunity to compete in what was a male dominated world.
Women now face a direct threat to their hard-fought achievements by the current politically vogue movement to establish transgenders as equals to men and women.
Let me be clear, this elevation of transgender protections constructs a new barrier for women and creates an environment where biological women will be denied opportunities.
Some reading this piece will vehemently disagree with my analysis and resort to an intellectually lazy name-calling behavior. Let’s get that out of the way up front: I’ll be called a homophobe, misogynist, sexist, transphobic, racist, terrorist, white supremacists, and God-knows what other politically nasty terms they can find.
Of course, they are wrong. I will present a fact-based, science-supported position that is contrary to their political objective. Oh well, be that as it may, here is the ugly truth about transgender “equity.”
There is an absolute difference between biological men and women. When a person is born, their chromosome make-up establishes their sex. XY is male. XX is female. That’s a fact.
Society has generally agreed that gender, defined as “an internal or external expression of the way a person feels,” is also part of our make-up. Most of the time a person’s biological sex is the same as the person’s gender. Sometimes it is not. Some people can be born anatomically as one sex and identify more with the opposite sex. It’s called gender dysphoria.
Today, the great debate is whether the law should protect a person based on their biological sex or their gender identity. The trend in the U.S. is toward trying to equally protect both. That can’t be done and conflicts arise which has proven harmful to protecting a biological women’s right to equal opportunity. In the end, making gender identity a protected class emasculates women’s attainments towards true equality.
This is not about who uses a bathroom, or what a person may do with their willing partner in private. It’s about recognizing the difference between feelings and physical characteristics, protecting the achievements in women’s rights, and creating a society where women have every opportunity to succeed.
There are plenty of recent examples where transgender women have blown away biological women in sports competition. Transgender Rachael McKinnon recently won the Master Track Cycling World Championship in the female 35-39 category; transgender Lia Thomas from the University of Pennsylvania is smashing female swimming records in almost every category; and New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympics.
Explaining why this is happening isn’t rocket science.
There are physical differences that give males a distinct strength advantage over females. Men have larger lungs and hearts, which provide greater physical strength and endurance. A jogging man uses about 50% lung capacity, while a woman uses about 70% lung capacity. Men have greater upper body muscular strength and are typically around 30% physically stronger than women. Men generally have a leaner body fat percentage than women.
Need I go on?
Despite transgender women taking female hormone estrogen and testosterone-blockers, it does not change lung capacity, heart size, upper body strength, endurance, or other physical features that give men the advantage. How does this provide a fair competitive environment for females when men have a physical advantage over women in competitive sports?
But the issue is deeper than simply body strength in sports. Is a transgender woman actually a woman? Taking away the political agendas and emotional arguments, a transgender woman is still a man. Despite estrogen induced breast enhancements, long hair, make-up, shaving all body hair, and other actions to change a person’s appearance, the physical person is still either a XX or XY. Estrogen and testosterone-blocker treatments only block and/or alter the composition of the person. In many cases transgender women retain the male genitalia and do not undergo sex reassignment surgery.
A 2015 study found that nearly two-thirds of transgender women remained sexually attracted to women after their transition. These would not be lesbian feelings because a majority of transgender women sexually perform as men. Research has discovered that many transgenders retain their biological sex drive. Are you confused yet? That said, it does not dimmish the fact that some people have very distinct emotional feelings which are opposite from their biological sex.
The inequality against women also extends into the historically male dominated business world. Over the past few decades advancements have been made to open executive business leadership and director positions to qualified women. If women are competing for senior level business positions against transgender women and a transgender woman is selected, was a woman really elevated in the male dominated business world? I’ll leave that for you to ponder.
Both women and transgender women may join the military but the U.S. has never required women to register for the draft. If women do not have to register for the draft, does that exempt transgender women from registering? I grew up during the Vietnam War era, where draft dodging was a national sport. Yeah, I had friends that went to Canada to avoid being drafted. I guess now a male who wants to dodge the draft, simply can identify as a transgender woman to avoid registering for the Selective Service. This is the Pandora’s box that is opened when common sense is thrown out the window and society tries to accommodate every persons desire, even for groups that account for less than one percent of our nation’s population.
There is currently strong public resistance to recognizing gender identity as a protected class equal to a person’s biological sex. Yet our elected officials are hell-bent on forcing a societal change that is not science based but is based on “feelings.” The Biden Administration intends to expand Title IX protections to cover transgender students in schools that accept federal funding. If successful, the intent is to expand this requirement to other programs that accept federal funding.
Congress is considering the “Fairness for All Act” to codify gender identity as a protected class. This is bad, really bad. The glass ceiling restricted women from achieving equality with men. Actions like the “Fairness for All Act” will make it harder for women to break through the glass ceiling. We should remind our congressional delegation that portion of the bill is not something Alaskans expect them to support.
It’s time to bring back some sanity. Women have every right to expect their elected officials to provide opportunities for advancement equal to that provided to men. Instead, they are now getting politicians who are hardening the glass ceiling, presenting another obstacle to equal opportunities.
Transgenders should be treated with respect, but the determining factor in equal rights must be made on a biological basis. You are either a man or women, as determined at birth, and that is what our laws should use to provide women greater opportunities to excel in the future. Period!
Craig Campbell is the former lieutenant governor and former Anchorage Assemblyman who has recently returned to assisting the Alaska Aerospace Program, where he was CEO from 2012 through 2019.
A book displayed in the children’s library at the Loussac Library in Anchorage supports the gender-confusion agenda now being pushed by the far Left.
“Jack (not Jackie)” is the story of a little girl who likes bugs, not fairytales, and therefore wants to be “Jack.”
In this heartwarming picture book, a big sister realizes that her little sister, Jackie, doesn’t like dresses or fairies-she likes ties and bugs! Will she and her family be able to accept that Jackie identifies more as “Jack.”
From the pages of the children’s book, “Jack (not Jackie)”
“…as Jackie grows, she doesn’t want to play those games. She wants to play with mud and be a super bug! Jackie also doesn’t like dresses or her long hair, and she would rather be called Jack,” says the Amazon review, which notes that “Readers will love this sweet story about change and acceptance. This book is published in partnership with GLAAD to accelerate LGBTQ inclusivity and acceptance.
The book is also listed as a quality book for children by the Feminist Books for Kids website, which has a list of “15 Trans and Non-Binary Books for Kids.”
The book is rated Kindergarten through Grade 3 by a review in School Library Journal, which writes, “Told in clear prose with no hint of sentimentality, this timely picture book addresses gender identity in a way that allows children to understand the differences on the outside while remembering what is on the inside is what counts. Vividly illustrated pages with astute details will capture the audience’s attention and invite closer appreciation of their wordless support of the narration. The author includes a note in the back as well as an appendix of further resources, including books, articles, online resources, and picture books on the subject of children’s gender identity. VERDICT A can’t-miss addition to any collection that is looking to offer more inclusive resources.”
The Alaska Department of Transportation released video footage of the avalanche that buried Thane Road on Jan. 2, 2022, cutting off road and power to residents south of Juneau.
DOT was able to clear enough of the road by Monday to get power crews through to begin restoring electricity to the neighborhood, which hugs the side of Gastineau Channel.
Avalanches are regular features of Thane Road, but usually the DOT blasts the avalanche chute to clear the hazard, and then removes the snow from the roadway. Sometimes the avalanches reach the Gastineau Channel, as it did on Sunday.
The wind that has pinned the Mat-Su Borough down for the past three days has resulted in extensive damage to homes, businesses, roads, power, and planes. The borough has declared an emergency disaster.
Mike Brown, borough manager, announced the the disaster declaration at a press conference midday and requested the governor declare a disaster emergency and release resources to respond.
Schools are closed and the borough has advised residents to shelter in place for the duration of the storm. Brown described broken pipes and sustained loss of power to hones across the borough.
Two shelters are open — in Wasilla at the Menard Sports Complex and in Palmer at the MatSu Senior Services Center. Both are staffed by the Red Cross.
Stephan Hinman photo
Dr. Randy Traini, superintendent of the MatSu Borough School District said that while all facilities are in relatively good shape with regard to water, heat, and structure, getting students safely to the schools is an issue. The parking lots are not safe and students can’t be left to wait at bus stops. He will make an announcement on Tuesday as to whether school will be in session on Wednesday.
Trooper asked the public to travel only if necessary across the Mat-Su Valley, making a special warning about high-profile vehicles and trailers. “Please only travel if absolutely necessary,” Troopers wrote. DOT said it is working to remove drifting snow across state highways and trees from roads and are bringing in extra electricians to assist on signals, but that they can’t use bucket trucks until wind speed lowers.
The National Weather Service described the wind event as a Bora, when cold temperatures in arctic areas roar down the valleys toward warmer temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska. This cold front came down from the Yukon and has brought wind chills to -35. Gusts have been clocked at 88 mph at the Palmer Airport.
Minor injuries have been reported, Brown said, including injuries from shattered glass at a restaurant.
This is the fourth longest Bora wind event in Palmer-Wasilla, at 48 hours, comparable to 1979, when sustained winds continued for 51 hours and gusts were clocked at 79 mph at the Palmer Airport.
Posted on the Palmer Alaska Buzz Facebook page, this preserved copy of the front page of the Frontiersman on Feb. 14, 1979.
On Saturday 10,000 were out of power, a number that grew to 22,000 at times on Sunday. Right now, about 16,000 are without power, MEA said, and the power line crews are in a game of whack-a-mole — as they fix one area, another area goes down. Lineman have been working 16 hours straight, said Jennifer Castro of MEA. Crews are coming in from Anchorage and Fairbanks and other areas to assist.
Some people may be without power for the week, MEA advises.
On Jan. 7 the Supreme Court will hear challenges to two vaccine mandates ordered by the Biden administration. It looks as though the court is at last ready to intervene on behalf of basic American liberty. This is a decision that is long overdue, but it will be welcomed by American patriots.
If these mandates are overturned, it will be because there is a new “Thomas Majority” on the court. It includes Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. These five conservatives, acting together, can get the court back to what it was meant to be, and was for the first 150 years of its existence.
Hopefully, the vaccine mandate cases are a harbinger of things to come. Constitutional conservatives across the country eagerly look forward to a series of decisions in 2022, and many more in the years ahead. In June the Court is poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade (1973). Affirmative Action is before the court in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard. In New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the right to concealed carry will be addressed. AHA v. Becerra should give us a review of “Chevron deference,” which was adopted in 1984, and has led to the explosive growth and power of the administrative state.
Roe v. Wade is one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, right up there with Plessy v. Ferguson (1894), which authorized legally sanctioned racial discrimination. It wasn’t as bad as Dred Scott, which led to the Civil War, but it has denied the people of this country their right to decide abortion policy. On that subject, the court writes all the rules, and the people have nothing to say about it.
There is no right to an abortion in the U.S. Constitution. They just made it up. This has been a constitutional travesty from the day it was decided. It took the court 58 years to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. So much for the “sacred principle” of stare decisis. When Roe is overturned in June, it will be 49 years old.
Affirmative action may be well intended, but it’s still racial discrimination. In Harvard’s case Asian-Americans are the principle victims. I fully expect Justice Thomas to write the opinion declaring such discrimination unconstitutional. As a proud, highly intelligent black man, Thomas is viscerally opposed to being treated as if he is incapable of making it on his own. This is an opinion that will be a joy to read.
Practically speaking, you can’t get a concealed carry permit in New York. Does this violate the 2nd Amendment’s guarantee of ” . . . the right of the people to keep and bear Arms . . .”? Emphasis on bear. That’s the question before the court in NYR&PA v. Bruen. There is an excellent chance that the Thomas Majority will rule that there is a right to “bear”, or carry, arms. After all, it’s specifically guaranteed in the language of the Bill of Rights. If so, this case will be the most important advance in 2nd Amendment law since District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).
This country and this economy are practically strangling in over-regulation. The administrative state is a constitutional abomination. Overturning Chevron deference will be the first step in reining in this bureaucratic monster. AHA v. Becerra is the perfect case to start rolling back burdensome regulations.
Justice Kavanaugh’s vote will be critical in all of these cases, in some of them the deciding one. But he wouldn’t be on the court if it was up to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. She never really made clear why she opposed him. In the end, she mumbled something about judicial temperament, but that was just a weak excuse.
In fact, Murkowski expects Kavanaugh to be the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Murkowski is a pro-abortion extremist. She doesn’t believe in any restrictions, of any kind, on a woman’s right to end the life of an unborn child she carries. This is her most sacred principle. If she had her way, Brett Kavanaugh wouldn’t be on the court because of it.
Because Alaska now has a jungle primary, and ranked choice voting, Murkowski doesn’t think she’ll pay a political price for her opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination. She will make it on the ballot in November, and expects to achieve a majority as the second choice of Democratic voters. Her conservative opponent, Kelly Tshibaka, has chosen to run as proud Trump Republican, so Alaska Democrats will never support her.
In large part, expect Murkowski to try to turn her reelection into a referendum on Trump. His behavior on and after Jan. 6 will be fully exposed in the upcoming public hearings of the House Select Committee. If voting for Murkowski is a way to repudiate Trump, she’ll wind up getting votes from more than just Democrats.
The irony of ironies will be that if Alaskans have to endure six more years of Murkowski, we’ll have Trump to thank for it.
Fritz Pettyjohn was admitted to the Alaska Bar Association in 1974, and has been looking forward to the overturn of Roe v .Wade ever since.
Dan Fagan, a popular conservative talk show host, returns to the airwaves on Tuesday, Jan. 4, after more than two weeks of sick leave.
Fagan has been released from then hospital and said he is feeling well again. His heart started failing shortly after he had his second Covid vaccine on Aug. 12, he said, but he ignored the symptoms until two weeks ago, when he couldn’t breathe well enough to do the show. He called for an ambulance. After tests, doctors determined that his heart and other organs are healthy, but there was a buildup of fluid on the outside of the tissue around his lungs.
Fagan said that at one point he was close to death. He doesn’t know if the condition he suffered is a result of the vaccine but said it’s a “huge coincidence” that it started a week after the second Covid shot. However, he acknowledged that he had not been taking good care of his health, was overweight, and needed to exercise more. He said with better health habits, his heart should be able to repair the damage; there was no evidence of a heart attack, but his heart was not pumping properly.
Since then, he has lost weight, been exercising regularly and is eating healthy, he said, adding that he expects to live for many years.
Fagan, a conservative icon in Alaska who pioneered a now-retired conservative news blog, The Alaska Standard, and now broadcasts his morning show from New Orleans, can be heard on 650 KENI between 5:30 and 8 am weekdays; his is the highest-rated morning drive time radio show in Alaska.
The New Year is coming in like a lion. Hurricane-force wind howling through the Mat-Su Valley has flipped planes at the Palmer Municipal Airport, toppled trees, and taken the roofs off of buildings as the new year begins. Schools are closed in the Mat-Su Valley due to the wind and damage. City of Wasilla offices are closed, including the Wasilla Police Department’s administrative office.
Winds at the Palmer Airport clocked 81 mph at one point, with blowing snow and debris.
Wasilla Police have asked people to shelter in place. On Facebook, the department pleaded for help from the public to stay off roads and stay home “unless absolutely necessary.” Heavy winds are expected to last until Monday evening.
Wind damage at the KFC-A&W building in Wasilla.
The KFC-A&W building on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway was heavily damaged by wind starting at about 7 pm Sunday, and debris is blowing throughout the valley, hitting and damaging vehicles and buildings. Many homes and businesses are without power, as the temperature is in the single digits. On Facebook, Wasilla Police warned:
“AVOID THE AREA OF KFC MEANS AVOID THE AREA.”
“Stop trying to get close to take pictures. Our officers vehicles are being hit with debris trying to keep people out of the way. Seriously. GO home and stay there. AVOID KFC AND FRED MEYER KFC/A&W has suffered a catastrophic collapse. Please avoid the area due to flying debris and emergency vehicles. There have been multiple reports of debris (not just from KFC) hitting and damaging vehicles. STAY HOME. The borough has advised a shelter in place. The NWS has extended the wind warning to 6pm tomorrow. All City of Wasilla administrative offices are closed tomorrow (including the WPD admin office). Seriously folks, stay home unless absolutely necessary.”
The power is out for thousands who are staying home. In Wasilla, 44 percent of the city is out of power, and in Palmer proper, 52 percent lack power. Palmer Fishhook and Sutton homes are about 99.5 percent out of power. The MEA power outage map is here.
Meanwhile, in Juneau, Thane Road is closed due to a major avalanche after an epic snowstorm brought as much as 16 inches of snow at sea level over the weekend, combined with “Taku winds” of 35 to 45 mph with gusts up to 70 mph. Power is out in Thane, a neighborhood south of the town center. AEL&P said that line workers can’t access the lines by road, due to the avalanche that went all the way into Gastineau Channel and will attempt to fly in a crew in the morning on Monday, but advised that “Customers affected should be prepared for an extended outage.”
Sugar Fegley posted a photo on Facebook of the avalanche covering the road on Sunday.
Thane Road covered by avalanche as seen from Douglas Island. Credit: Sugar Fegley, Facebook.
AVOID KFC AND FRED MEYER
