If you see or hear a claim that the Alaska Permanent Fund ended the fiscal year June 30 with a $428.3 million shortfall—and you might—don’t jump to conclusions.
This is more about the antiquated structure of the $80 billion fund than it is about recent performance. For nearly a quarter-century, the advice from financial experts has been clear—the fund needs a modern structure that provides more flexibility in dealing with tens of billions in global assets.
Read MoreThe Alaska Legislature approved a bill this year that, among many other things, will make it harder for Gov. Mike Dunleavy to appoint unqualified people to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
But Dunleavy has yet to sign the measure, House Bill 307, and one of the five commissioner jobs is vacant, so we’ll see if another unqualifed person is appointed.
Read MoreWith only one of three federal district court judgeships now occupied, the Alaska federal courts face a judicial emergency under the definition used by the nonpartisan administrative office of the federal court system.
A judicial emergency requires specific criteria about excessive case load levels. An emergency is also assumed to exist in “any court with more than one authorized judgeship and only one active judge.”
With the forced resignation of Judge Josh Kindred, the only federal district judge in Alaska is Judge Sharon Gleason.
Read MoreGabrielle Rubenstein announced plans to resign from the Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees Wednesday, but not before providing a key vote in removing Ethan Schutt as chairman and replacing him with Jason Brune.
Former Attorney General Craig Richards referred to it as a “coup.” I have heard from other sources that the trustees had informally agreed in private to make Brune the chair. The vote was 4-2 with Richards and Schutt opposed.
Read MoreTruth is the first casualty of war, even in imaginary wars.
I want to deal here today with the 68 alleged executive orders and actions that Sullivan cites in his shock and awe campaign.
On December 8, 2021, in one of the first speeches he gave in Congress about the Biden war on Alaska, Sullivan said multiple times that there were “20 executive orders in eight months” and portrayed these as sanctions or direct attacks on working families.
Read MoreHistorian Heather Cox Richardson’s analysis on President Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of the 2024 race is cogent and enlightening. If you haven’t done so already, listen to what she said Sunday night.
I am in awe of the discipline and skill required to produce her daily “Letters from an American,” which has more than 1.5 million subscribers. She has her critics, but I know of no one else writing about history and politics with such finesse on the brutal schedule she keeps.
Read MoreMoms for Liberty is a nationwide group that circulates lists of books it wants to ban from public school libraries.
The Moms also object to anyone saying that Moms for Liberty want to ban books from public school libraries.
Moms for Liberty want to be able to decide what materials the children of other people should have access to in school.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan acts as if the Trump platform is the greatest political document since the U.S. Constitution, not the written version of an incoherent Trump speech, minus references to Hannibal Lector and imaginary shark attacks on electric boats.
Read MoreI see in the Anchorage Daily News that Anchorage legislative candidate Mia Costello is saying she is proud of the Republican platform, which she helped write as a member of the platform committee.
“I think it really hits the high points. I wouldn’t change a word of it. I’m really happy to support it,” said Costello, who is running against Denny Wells in Anchorage.
No one who reads the platform will be fooled into thinking that the leading minds of the GOP have any idea what they are shouting about.
Read MoreIf the state is going to claim in a lawsuit that it is owed $24.56 billion, then the contract attorneys hired to push this case shouldn’t be admitting in the same lawsuit that the real number might be $24 billion less than that amount.
Read MoreThe Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees is set to meet July 24 in Fairbanks, a regular quarterly meeting at which decisions will be made and updates presented regarding the policy direction of this vital institution.
But there are only five members of the trustees at this point—two employees of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a former employee of Dunleavy’s, a contract employee of Dunleavy’s and Gabrielle Rubenstein, a political supporter of Dunleavy’s.
The chairman’s position has been vacant since July 1, when Ethan Schutt’s four-year term expired.
It’s time for Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to be candid with Alaskans about how their flawed political process helped elevate Josh Kindred to a lifetime seat on the federal bench.
They now admit he was the wrong man for the job. They don’t admit that their secrecy and lack of transparency is part of the problem.
Read MoreAfter Kindred’s forced resignation, Sullivan said he will continue to work with his personal judicial council “for appointment of federal judges who understand Alaska’s unique role in our federal system. This is crucially important for our state. Federal judges have lifetime tenure—their decisions will positively or negatively impact Alaskans for decades.”
Sullivan and Murkowski boosted Kindred into a lifetime job with little public review. Their public statements this week overflowed with regret about Kindred. They said they were outraged, etc.
That’s not even close to the response this case demands.
They should learn from this debacle and their part in it. They should make the selection of federal judges a more transparent process—which would include public hearings on potential nominees and an end to the secrecy of the Dan Sullivan Alaska Federal Judicial Council.
Read MoreI spent several days traveling and away from the blog.
I want to update you on some things.
In response to reader requests, I have changed the subject line in emails sent to everyone on my mailing list to reflect the topic of the day and not just the name of this blog.
It appears, however, that this change is in some cases directing my missives out of regular inboxes and into other categories, namely “promotions.” This has happened to some readers using gmail. Please check your spam folder to see if my emails have landed there.
Read MoreAmbler Metals LLC promotes itself as an “Alaskan company with offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks.”
It is an Alaska company in the sense that it has registered with the state of Alaska as a “Foreign Limited Liability Company,” which means it is not what anyone in Alaska would consider an Alaska company.
Read MoreEthan Schutt’s term on the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation board of trustees, one of the most important positions in Alaska, expired Monday.
There’s been no word from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s publicity office about whether he has reappointed Schutt or replaced him.
Read More“The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” wrote Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” she said.
Read MoreThe most likely step now is a challenge of one or more of the school districts that are allowing public allotment money to be used to pay for private school tuition. The districts in Fairbanks, the Denali Borough and Mat-Su are among those allowing this to happen. The Alaska Supreme Court said it believes the Dunleavy administration argues that this practice is against the law.
Nothing in the Supreme Court ruling Friday can be read as an endorsement of spending public funds for private school tuition. In fact, the opposite is the case.
Read MoreThe conflict of interest demonstrated by the action and inaction of the attorney general may have led to the indefensible claim by the attorney general—that an allegation of unconstitutional spending by school districts is none of his business.
The statute the state is trying to defend came under scrutiny after the attorney general’s family publicized its plan for tuition reimbursement. “Thanks to Dunleavy’s 2014 statute, private schools have been added to the list of allowable vendors for parents,” wrote Jodi Taylor, wife of the AG and a leader of the Alaska Policy Forum.
Read MoreJust one more blog post, for the moment, on the school funding appeal to be heard by the Alaska Supreme Court Thursday at 10 a.m. Gavel to Gavel plans to cover it live.
But home school parents who intervened in the case—represented by the Institute for Justice in Texas and Virginia, and former Attorney General Craig Richards—claim they have a right to receive public funds to pay tuition at private schools.
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