Alaska
Alaska Democrat in Toss-Up Race Voted Against Parental Rights Bill While Taking Thousands from Anti-Parent Teachers Unions
A member of Congress from Alaska voted against a bill allowing parents to access the curriculum at their children’s school while accepting thousands from groups that support schools hiding gender identity from parents.
Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola voted against the Parents Bill of Rights Act in March 2023, which would have required schools to allow parents to inspect curriculum and library books; to obtain parental consent before letting a child socially transition at school; and to inform parents of violent activity at school.
Aimed at protecting the right of parents to guide their children’s education, the Parents Bill of Rights passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 24 on a 213-208 party-line vote. Peltola was one of the 208 Democrats who voted against parental transparency in education.
Peltola has received more than $40,000 from far-left groups’ political arms that support schools socially transitioning kids and giving kids access to sexually explicit library books, like the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, and Human Rights Campaign.
Since 2022, Peltola has accepted $20,000 from the PAC of the far-left National Education Association, which also opposed the Parents Bill of Rights. The NEA, America’s largest teachers’ union, recommended that teachers assign “Gender Queer” as summer reading even though the comic book style novel graphically depicts gay sex.
Peltola has received $15,000 from the American Federation of Teachers’s AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education since 2022. AFT President Randi Weingarten said the Parents Bill of Rights “would require schools to divert their limited resources from teaching, censor education, ban books, and harm children who are just trying to be themselves and live their lives in peace.”
The Alaska Democrat also has taken $6,000 from the Human Rights Campaign Fund. The Human Rights Campaign supports irreversible transgender medical interventions for children and peddles the lie that children are less likely to commit suicide if they transition.
The Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools Program trains elementary school teachers on “creating LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive schools.”
Last summer, Peltola took to X to urge followers to donate to Identity, which helps children get sterilizing hormone treatments and irreversible transgender surgeries.
“Many people feel alienated from their bodies during puberty under the best of circumstances, and for children who are trans* and aware of their sex incongruence, being forced to undergo puberty and have their bodies change into the wrong sex is devastating,” Identity’s website says, promoting puberty blockers for children.
Peltola became the representative of Alaska’s singular congressional district after beating former Gov. Sarah Palin and small business owner Nick Begich in a ranked-choice voting election in 2022.
She will face Begich again in November.
The Alaska congressional race could determine whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress in 2025. Peltola’s race is a key toss-up election, according to the Center for Politics.
Begich told The Daily Signal that his opponent, Peltola, is on board with the Biden-Harris administration’s plans to push gender ideology into the classroom, “forcing teachers to push concepts that are neither rooted in science nor basic logic.”
“Parents trust the school system to educate and protect children while at school, not indoctrinate them in the latest leftwing political fads,” Begich said. “Congresswoman Peltola has been part and parcel with this agenda, voting against the Parents Bill of Rights and even encouraging Alaskans to donate to organizations that support so-called ‘gender transitions’ for children.”
“Parents should have a right to access their children’s curriculum, receive full transparency from the school system, and continue to be the ones responsible for raising their children,” Begich added.
Cindy Glassmaker, an Alaska mother of three girls,was disappointed in her congresswoman’s vote against the Parents Bill of Rights.
“To me, being a parent means having a say in decisions that affect our children until they reach 18,” Glassmaker told The Daily Signal. “I believe our congresswoman should be advocating for greater parental involvement, fostering a partnership between parents and schools to prioritize the well-being of our students.
“I am outraged that she accepted significant donations from anti-parent groups that support schools keeping gender identity issues hidden from parents,” Glassmaker continued.
Peltola told Anchorage Daily News she voted against the Parents Bill of Rights to protect students’ “right to privacy.” The bill prohibits schools from hiding student gender identity from the parents.
“The reason I did not vote for this particular bill, is because I feel like students should have some right to privacy,” Peltola said in 2023. “And I think they should have a right to feel safe at school.”
Peltola did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about her position on parental rights.
Alaska mother and Anchorage Moms for Liberty Chair Gabby Ide told The Daily Signal she feels Peltola doesn’t stand up for her rights as a parent.
“Mary Peltola isn’t looking out for Alaska’s families,” Ide said. “She voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023. She co-sponsored the Equality Act, which would allow males in female locker rooms and bathrooms. When she does vote, she appears totally out of touch with parents’ desire for accountability in education results and our fundamental right to direct the upbringing of our children.”
If you are going to contact the police and rat on someone for expressing their interest in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to you, maybe it is not the best idea to have the same material on your own devices. Or to further consent to a search so law enforcement can gather more information. But that is allegedly what one Alaska man did. It landed him in police custody.
404 Media reported earlier this week on the man, Anthaney O’Connor, who ended up getting himself arrested after a police search of his devices allegedly revealed AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
From 404:
According to newly filed charging documents, Anthaney O’Connor, reached out to law enforcement in August to alert them to an unidentified airman who shared child sexual abuse (CSAM) material with O’Connor. While investigating the crime, and with O’Connor’s consent, federal authorities searched his phone for additional information. A review of the electronics revealed that O’Connor allegedly offered to make virtual reality CSAM for the airman, according to the criminal complaint.
According to police, the unidentified airman shared with O’Connor an image he took of a child in a grocery store, and the two discussed how they could superimpose the minor into an explicit virtual reality world.
Law enforcement claims to have found at least six explicit, AI-generated CSAM images on O’Connor’s devices, which he said had been intentionally downloaded, along with several “real” ones that had been unintentionally mixed in. Through a search of O’Connor’s home, law enforcement uncovered a computer along with multiple hard drives hidden in a vent of the home; a review of the computer allegedly revealed a 41-second video of child rape.
In an interview with authorities, O’Connor said he regularly reported CSAM to internet service providers “but still was sexually gratified from the images and videos.” It is unclear why he decided to report the airman to law enforcement. Maybe he had a guilty conscience or maybe he truly believed his AI CSAM didn’t break the law.
AI image generators are typically trained using real photos; meaning pictures of children “generated” by AI are fundamentally based on real images. There is no way to separate the two. AI-based CSAM is not a victimless crime in that sense.
The first such arrest of someone for possessing AI-generated CSAM occurred just back in May when the FBI arrested a man for using Stable Diffusion to create “thousands of realistic images of prepubescent minors.”
Proponents of AI will say that it has always been possible to create explicit images of minors using Photoshop, but AI tools make it exponentially easier for anyone to do it. A recent report found that one in six Congresswomen have been targeted by AI-generated deepfake porn. Many products have guardrails to prevent the worst uses, similar to the way that printers do not allow photocopying of currency. Implementing hurdles at least prevents some of this behavior.
Alaska
Alaska agencies seized 317 pounds of drugs at Anchorage airport this year, nearly doubling 2023 • Alaska Beacon
Alaska officials seized more than 317 pounds of illegal drugs at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in 2024, about a third of which was fentanyl, a synthetic narcotic responsible for an epidemic of overdose deaths, law enforcement authorities said Thursday.
The volume of dangerous drugs seized at the airport complex this year, 143,911 grams, was nearly twice the amount confiscated in 2023, continuing a trend of increasing volumes of drugs intercepted there in recent years.
The volume of fentanyl seized this year amounted to 23 million potentially fatal doses, authorities said. Other drugs seized included cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, said Austin McDaniel, spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers.
The seizures were conducted by 22 different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are partners in Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Initiative, or HIDTA. The drugs were found in various airport operations, including cargo, parcel, mail and passenger-carry, the troopers said. The total also includes drugs intercepted at Merrill Field, the smaller airport operated by the Municipality of Anchorage, McDaniel said.
The volume of drugs seized at the Anchorage airport is generally a little over half of the statewide total, McDaniel said.
Anchorage’s international airport is one of the world’s busiest air cargo hubs. In 2023, it ranked fourth globally in the volume of cargo handled. The total cargo volume passing through Anchorage in 2023 was 3.4 million metric tons, placing the Alaska airport behind Hong Kong, Memphis and Shanghai, according to the trade organization Airports Council International.
The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program was created by Congress in 1988. The statewide Alaska initiative started in 2018 and is funded by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, the troopers said.
Through that initiative, Alaska State Troopers and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have stepped up identification and interception of drugs going through the mail. The troopers, officers with the Anchorage Airport Police and Fire Department and other agencies have increased their work at airport passenger terminals. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska has also boosted its efforts to process search warrants targeting parcels sent through the mail, the troopers said.
“In 2024, our office assigned multiple attorneys to handle search warrants for U.S. Postal Service parcels suspected of containing illicit substances, quadrupling the number of search warrants processed compared to last year. Because of this prioritization and our strong partnership with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alaska State Troopers, parcel drug seizures have increased, preventing large quantities of dangerous drugs from reaching our communities,” S. Lane Tucker, U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a statement released by the troopers.
“Alaska’s local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are committed to doing our part to address the high rate of drug trafficking and overdose incidents occurring across our great state,” Alaska State Trooper Col. Maurice Hughes said in the statement.
Alaska has been particularly hard-hit by the national fentanyl epidemic, bucking the national trend of decreasing overdose deaths.
Alaska last year had a record number of drug overdose deaths, the majority of which were connected to fentanyl. Fatal overdoses jumped by 44.5% from 2022 to 2023, with 357 recorded – with more than half involving fentanyl, according to the state Department of Health. It was, by far, the biggest increase of all states.
In contrast, overdose deaths nationwide declined by 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fatal overdose totals continued to increase in Alaska through the first half of 2024, according to the latest data available, which totals deaths for the 12 months that ended in July.
Alaska had 405 reported overdose deaths for that 12-month period, a 40.63% increase over the total for the previous 12-month period, according to the CDC’s preliminary figures. Alaska’s rate of increase was the highest in the nation for the period, and Alaska was one of only three states in which reported overdose deaths increased during that 12-month period, according to the CDC. Nevada and Utah were the only other states with reported increases in overdose deaths, according to the data.
Nationally, the number of reported overdose deaths declined by 19.3% from July 2023 to July 2024, according to the CDC’s preliminary data.
Of Alaska’s reported overdose deaths from July 2023 to June 2024, 338 involved opioids, according to the Alaska Department of Health.
The high death toll in Alaska has spurred action beyond law enforcement. The Alaska Department of Health has partnered with other entities to boost prevention education, and a new state law requires schools to be supplied with overdose-reversal kits.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) – Fort Wainwright opened a new $40 million aquatic center Thursday, which leaders say is intended to improve base quality of life.
“They can come in and do their physical fitness in the mornings, and they can come here and enjoy our beautiful pool with their families and friends during their recreation time. So it’s just like it’s just it gives them something to do in the long dark days during the winter here, and I believe it’s going to be greatly appreciated by the soldiers and our family here,” Ft. Wainwright Business & Recreation Chief Larry Watson said.
Families, soldiers, and political officials gathered at the new center on base to hear remarks from U.S. Army Garrison Alaska Fort Wainwright Garrison Commander Col. Jason Cole.
According to Cole, planning for the nearly 30,000-square-foot facility began in 2019.
Now open, the aquatic center offers lap swimming, a party room, and lessons, among other amenities.
Services at the aquatics center are free for active-duty military and children up to three years old.
Currently, lap swimming will be available from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday. Weekdays will also see open recreation swim from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Weekend hours will be noon to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Access to the base is required for entry. More information about the center can be found here.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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