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An Anchorage Superior Court judge is considering when and if it is legal for a state legislator to ban a constituent from the lawmaker’s legislative Facebook page. On June 8, Judge Thomas Matthews heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by an Eagle River woman against Sen. Lora Reinbold, an Eagle River Republican. After hearing arguments, Matthews took the case under advisement, with a decision to be issued soon. Bobbie McDow, the plaintiff, is asking for an injunction against Reinbold, plus financial damages and attorney fees. The verdict co...
The Alaska Legislature failed to pass new restrictions on financial donations to candidates for state office. Because a federal court threw out Alaska’s old limits, the Legislature’s failure means candidates may accept unlimited amounts of money from donors inside and outside the state. “It was probably one of the most disappointing nights of my time in the Legislature to not get to see that happen, because it should have happened,” said Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski. Legislative drafters finished work on a critical amendment in the closing...
Months before Alaska’s state elections, the Legislature is set for major turnover. At least 17 of the Legislature’s 60 members will be in a new position or out of office entirely by next January — and that doesn’t count anyone who loses their seat in this fall’s elections. The deadline to file for this year’s legislative elections is June 1, but many candidates have already made up their minds. Because a steep learning curve awaits new legislators, several departing incumbents said the turnover will slow the progress of complicated legislation,...
The commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Revenue was called into a special meeting last month to discuss a problem: The Permanent Fund Dividend Division was under cyberattack. In a short period of time, more than 800,000 attempts were made to get into the division’s systems, which are in charge of paying the annual dividend to Alaskans. The division shut down its computers, the department’s firewalls held, and “no Alaskans’ data was accessed,” said Anna MacKinnon, director of the division. “Our system repelled, as it should, the assault o...
The Alaska House of Representatives voted Saturday to turn an oil-price surge into money for schools, repayment of tax credits the state has owed to oil explorers for years, and $2,600 payments for Alaska residents this fall. The House voted 25-14 to send its state operating budget proposal to the Senate, which is developing its own version. The two budget plans, which set spending for public services starting with the new fiscal year on July 1, will be negotiated into a compromise bill and sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who can accept or reject...
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday that a new map of state Senate districts for Anchorage “constituted an unconstitutional political gerrymander violating equal protection under the Alaska Constitution” and must be redrawn before its use in this year’s statewide election. In a combined summary decision, the court said it is upholding a lower court ruling that instructed the state’s five-person redistricting board to redraw the Senate map or explain why it is impossible to do so. As part of the decision that combined several lawsuits against...
The new election system approved by Alaska voters in 2020 will get an unexpected first test this summer with a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Congressman Don Young, Alaska’s sole member in the U.S. House of Representatives. Alaskans will pick a temporary replacement for Young using a top-four special primary election and a special ranked-choice general election. The prospect is adding a historic extra dimension to what was already expected to be a major year in Alaska politics. Alaska hasn’t had a statewide spe...
State House lawmakers have proposed paying Alaskans almost $1,300 as an “energy relief check” on top of the annual Permanent Fund dividend. As presented by the House Finance Committee on Friday, the two payments would total about $2,500 this year for every eligible Alaskan. The energy relief payment would use some of the state’s unexpectedly high oil revenues to help residents hit by rising fuel prices, record inflation and ongoing financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers in the House majority said in a written statement on Ma...
A former nominee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries and a prominent Cook Inlet commercial fisherman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of unsworn falsification on Feb. 18, ending a six-year legal struggle that saw him accused of multiple counts of Permanent Fund dividend fraud and improperly obtaining resident fishing licenses. Roland Maw, nominated by former Gov. Bill Walker to the Fish Board in 2015 but never appointed, will pay a $500 fine and restitution of $9,582. He had been facing 12 felonies and five misdemeanors. The remaining...
An Alaska judge upheld most of the state’s newly redistricted legislative district map on Feb. 15 but overturned a decision that created two East Anchorage Senate seats linked with more politically conservative Eagle River. The judge also ruled in favor of Skagway, which wants to share a House district with the more cruise ship tourism-oriented downtown Juneau than with the Mendenhall Valley portion of the community. A day after the judge’s ruling, the Alaska Redistricting Board met in executive session and later voted 3-2 to appeal the rul...
A group of four Alaska college students has appealed a state court ruling that upheld a decision by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to drain the state’s $410 million higher-education investment fund. The decision made scholarship programs subject to annual legislative appropriation of state general fund dollars. The students last Friday filed their appeal of the ruling handed down a day earlier by Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman. Unless reversed on appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court, the Alaska Performance Scholarship program and WWAMI, which helps pay t...
The state is accusing the owners of an Anchorage souvenir-making business of consumer fraud, saying in documents filed with Anchorage Superior Court that their “Made in Alaska” products are actually made in the Philippines. Robert Merry, Josephine Merry, Mary Uy and Mark Uy, owners of B. Merry Studio, are facing a civil lawsuit from the state, which is seeking restitution, $25,000 per violation of the state’s consumer protection law, attorney fees, punitive damages, and an order that they stop using the “Made in Alaska” label. B. Merry Stu...
Under questioning from a bipartisan legislative committee on Monday, the chairman of the Alaska Permanent Fund defended the board’s decision to fire former executive director Angela Rodell but declined to answer substantive questions about the reasons for the action. Chairman Craig Richards said the board had years of “trust problems” with Rodell. Citing the confidentiality of board discussions and the possibility of a lawsuit by the ousted director, he refused to answer questions about the source of those problems, and he declined to say w...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer will not run for reelection in 2022, leaving Gov. Mike Dunleavy free to choose a new Republican running mate this year. In an interview Dec. 28, Meyer did not rule out an eventual return to politics, but said he wants to take a break. “It’d be nice to get to sleep in and spend more time with the family,” he said. Dunleavy, who is running for reelection to a second term, said he expects Meyer will use his last year in office to focus on an election-reform bill the governor announced in late December. Under the new elect...
A former co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives, former board president of the Sealaska Corp. and a retired Democratic state legislator died last Friday at his home in Angoon. Albert Kookesh was 72. Kookesh was fighting prostate cancer. Alaska public radio reported that after being treated at a hospital, he made the decision to return to his home village on the coast of Admiralty Island. In remembrances posted online and shared on social media, he was praised for his work with Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation, his efforts t...
Boats and trailers lined the launch ramps, residents thronged the beaches, plastic ducks bobbed in Twin Lakes, and Juneau basked under the sun on a record-breaking weekend. The capital city has had a full week of temperatures at or above 70 degrees, and the weekend brought the warmest days of the year so far. Saturday’s high temperature of 81 degrees beat the old record of 80, set in 2009, and is the hottest day of the year to date. Sunday’s high was 78, beating the 1999 record of 75. Those temperatures were recorded at the airport, Jun...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Everyone has enemies. Cats have dogs. Mice have cats. Dust mites have vacuum cleaners. Seth Irwin has Scotch Tape. For the past few weeks and for a few more Irwin is preserving and protecting some of Alaska’s most precious documents. “Tape is my nemesis,’’ he said. “I spend a lot of time taking tape off of things. Painting conservators work with Monets; paper conservators deal with tape, and staples and rust . all the things office workers might put on documents.’’ Irwin might not be dealing with precious paintings, but...