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Busted: National Park Service waves white flag, admits directing role in Denali drama
Still no apology from NPS for smearing construction workers and independent journalists as liars
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Primary numbers: Fun facts about the filings at the Division of Elections
Who had more candidates — Republicans, Democrats, or no-partiers? A listicle that includes which candidates signed the Recall Dunleavy petition in 2019.
Alaska’s August ballot picks will look just like November’s picks in almost all state races, due to open primaries
With most races having fewer than four people, the open primary simply sets up Groundhog Day for the General Election
Republican Lucy Bauer enters race for S. Anchorage’s House District 9
She has support in high places. But there are other Rs in this race.
Brune for the win: Barrow or Utqiagvik???
Permanent Fund Board meeting highlights: Keeping Anchorage office
During last week’s Permanent Fund Board of Trustees meeting in Utqiagvik, the trustees voted 4-2 to keep the Anchorage office open. Some state legislators want it shut down, after it has been opened for about a year. The office in Anchorage is an effort to keep staff; too many of APFC’s qualified applicants do not want to move to Juneau. It’s a Juneau problem.
The governor will have the final say, after the Alaska Legislature starved the budget item for the Anchorage office of the $80 billion investment fund by awarding it only $100.
Also, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to hire a law firm to investigate who leaked the emails to the Alaska Landmine that may have showed how staff of the Fund were concerned that trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein was engaging in self-dealing and bullying of the staff to do business with companies with ties to her powerful father. The law firm will look at the past six years of interactions between the trustees and investment staff.
Must Read Alaska has a public records request in for just a few weeks of communications, but has been put on the backburner by the APFC and, if there is now an investigation, we suspect that they will not give over any material to Must Read Alaska and use the “active investigation” as the rationale. What are they hiding?
Poll: MRAK readers overwhelmingly believed construction workers
So what did people really think about that National Park Service damage control efforts? Meh…they didn’t believe it. Not even a little.
Flag flap: Feds say it was a ‘noise complaint’ about flag that led to demand for removal of American flags from trucks on Park Road
Federal Highway Administration story completely contradicted the Park Service. And so it unravels …
National Park Service changes story on who ordered the American flag removal in Denali. (Tip: It wasn’t Superintendent Brooke Merrell)
Finally the Park Service does a 180 and changes its story to reflect what the workers had said all along.
(And just a nod to all those haters who said it was a fake story and that it “never happened.” Thanks for playing.)
Department of Interior Sec. Haaland raises ‘pride flag’ over federal property in advance of Pride Month
Meanwhile, all over national parks and monuments of America, Pride flags are being flown and are flapping in the wind.
Pride goeth
The White House changed its Facebook cover to Pride Month theme, and the laughs and frownie faces were far more than the thumbs-up likes on it, but if you’ll notice: there are no “hearts,” no loves at all for this White House parade of sexual preference. Americans are generally not amused by their overseers.
Trump conviction reactions from Alaskans: Republicans call it a travesty, Democrats silent
No word from “Mum’s-the-Word” Peltola on the historic conviction of the former president?
Sen. Joe Manchin officially drops from Democrat party; will Murkowski follow suit and lose the GOP?
This is not exactly a surprise, as he is retiring from the Senate. But what’s Murkowski’s move?
Tim Barto: Play ball!!! But without Fairbanks … again
Barto, resident MRAK baseball expert, explains why we can’t have nice things.
Juneau to cap cruise visitors?
The agreement with cruise companies means that in 2026, Juneau will cap cruise ship visitors at 16,000 for Sunday through Friday, and 12,000 on “cruise-free” Saturdays. The Assembly signed off on it earlier and the cruise companies agreed last week.
That means that the ships will divert to places like Hoonah, which will have a boom in tourism, but not Sitka, which has an anti-cruise approach, and Haines is neither here nor there, always trying to figure out if it’s pro-tourism or anti-everything.
Last year there were 1.6 million cruise passengers wandering Juneau and this year and next are looking the same. The agreement pretty much caps it at 1.6 million.
Without comment
Question of the week
This day in history
June 3, 1989, the Chinese government called in the military to put down a pro-democracy demonstration carried out by more than 100,000 people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
Barbara Richters of National Literacy Institute, talks about declining literacy in America on this don’t-miss episode of STAND podcast
Scott Kendall at the mic on the Must Read Alaska Show, talking about ranked-choice voting
Columns
Ken Koelsch: Close, but no cigar
The City and Borough of Juneau has made no significant effort to relieve the tax burden on Juneau property owners. Question has to be asked: Who really owns the property? Property owners seem to just be “renting” from the government.
Joe Biden’s dangerous natural gas game
If the devil is in the details, the Biden bureaucracy is hell on earth.
Rick Whitbeck: More Arabella dark money slithers into Alaska with ‘New Energy Alaska’
Everywhere you look in Alaska, Arabella Advisors has infused the Left with funds to fight our economy, jobs, and future. And it is all with such an innocuous approach, such as the “New Energy Alaska” group.
Tim Barto: Why the Alaska House vote to save girls’ sports matters
It’s a huge deal that the House passed it, but not the Senate.
Win Gruening: Smearing Juneau school board members and superintendent is vindictive
A school consolidation plan announced by the Juneau School District has drawn fire from a dissident group calling themselves Community Advocates for Responsible Education. They are sponsoring petitions to recall two JSD Board members and mounting a full-blown campaign blitz urging the board to reverse its decision to merge Juneau’s two high schools.
Nick Begich: It’s Peltola vs. Alaska on ANWR and NPRA
Mary casts one vote after another against Alaska’s economic future.
David Williams: Are EVs the most subsidized product in America?
A look at the numerous subsidies along the way to a rich person’s second or third vehicle.
Alaska oil: $84.21
Henry Hub gas: $2.59
Alaska North Slope Production: 466,621
Permanent Fund (principal and earnings reserve): $80,158,200,000
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