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The Alaska Stalker – May 28, 2022

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3 years ago

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The Alaska Stalker – May 28, 2022


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Welcome to this version of the Alaska Stalker, a lighthearted spherical up of the perfect and worst of Alaska’s social media panorama.

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Is it simply me, or has the final couple of weeks been exhausting? The tip of session drama on high of the ultimate redistricting maps was A LOT to absorb.  Add an absolute barrage of final minute filings and people saying they’re not working once more — I can hardly sustain. June 1st is in simply 4 days. Maintain on to your hats, of us!

 

Particular Stalker reminder: with all the brand new faces working for workplace this election season, in the event you see one thing Stalker worthy please don’t overlook to ship it my method. I don’t see all the pieces, and with a lot turnover I’m going to wish just a little assist from my readers. Ship in sizzling suggestions, screencaps, overheards, and noticed ins to [email protected] As at all times, thanks for studying!

***
There’s little question Rep. Mike Cronk isn’t the one legislator taking time for some severe publish session relaxation and rest.

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I do love an excellent airport household homecoming.

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DOC

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I bear in mind the start of session when these infants had been nonetheless leeeettle squishes. Rep. Andi Story is fortunate certainly.

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Onerous to imagine half these faces won’t be right here subsequent yr. ?

***

Cheers to those that have been right here earlier than, and people to come back.


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Being an elected official isn’t straightforward. I don’t say it sufficient – thanks to everybody who has served. Additionally, I hope Rep. Spohnholz acquired her pic.

***
Talking of Ivy, I can’t imagine I missed this blatant foreshadowing of her resolution to not search re-election.

***

I’m damaged up over among the of us who’ve determined to not run once more. Rep. Sara Rasmussen’s motivational quotes, absolutely the reward of Sen. Lora Reinbold, and gem after gem posted by Sen. Peter Micciche… (I imply, simply take a look at him, publicly sharing ice cream along with his canine ?) What’s a Stalker to do with out them?!


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Like I discussed on the Alaska Stalker Fb web page, when God closes a door He at all times opens a window. ?

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New yr, new run for greater workplace. I’ve to say, I’m digging senate candidate Dunbar’s latest, extra dignified Carhartt jacket. ?

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Whereas I’m going to overlook so many present legislators subsequent yr, I’m thrilled with a number of new prospects. However, let’s be trustworthy, it’s all about Alyse. That shirt!!!

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Lyn Franks can also be a Stalker fav. ??

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Former staffer – and there are a a number of others working, too – Genevieve Mina filed for State Home in East Anchorage. Siya has a improbable Twitter account and I’m wanting ahead to the marketing campaign. Two phrases: well being care. ✊

***
Can somebody please examine in with Rep. Prax and ensure Barbara sees this meme? IT IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! ???

***
The large information of the week was alleged to be that Dunleavy lastly discovered somebody introduced his working mate. Former Corrections Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom is formally on the ticket. I don’t have lots to say besides Nancy, lady, you TALL. REALLY TALL.

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Adam Wool

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In the meantime candidate Christopher Kurka’s over right here reminding of us to comply with his marketing campaign on Gab. ? Chris, please, simply finish this now.

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??? Regardless of horrible pretend RUMORS please let the Alaska Stalker set the file straight: “AMMO-CAN COFFEE SUPPORTS AND ENDORSES CHRISTOPHER KURKA FOR GOVERNOR OF ALASKA and PAUL HUEPER FOR LT. GOVERNOR of ALASKA.”

***

I grabbed this display cap the opposite day considering I might return and get a greater one. Alas, Sen. Bathe’s remark has disappeared. Did Bathe delete his remark? Or did the Walker marketing campaign suppress it? Walker has been getting a bit block glad as of late, so I can solely assume it’s the latter. 60 feedback on that publish, but I can solely see 10. Appears kinda shady to publish a photograph and op-ed of somebody in a damaging context after which block their reply.

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A minimum of gubernatorial candidate Charlie Pierce has the decency to reply to imply feedback “privately.”

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This week’s gubernatorial candidate social media winner is, surprisingly, Les Gara! Whereas I’m nonetheless ready for images of the 4 moose second, I’m glad to listen to Les gave the moose the proper of method like all good Alaskan ought to. Can’t watch for his subsequent social media screw up tho… ???

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Oh, that’s proper, now we have a particular election for our sole U.S. Home seat in lower than two weeks. ?
Candidate Chris Fixed is able to symbolize all Alaskans. All Alaskans like rando Alaskan Forrest “votes lock step with me on the Meeting” Dunbar. LOL!

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Like a lot of you, I additionally don’t perceive precisely who Andrew Halcro is concentrating on along with his marketing campaign advertisements. However utilizing Winnie the Poo in a marketing campaign advert the second he goes public area is 100% fiscally conservative. ?

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Congressional candidate Jeff Lowenfels missed out on some excessive stage earned media not replying to native celeb Libby “David Sedaris is aware of her by identify” Bakalar.

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I used to get emails from plain outdated Josh Revak. I now get emails from Purple Coronary heart Recipient Josh Revak. His marketing campaign should be going nice!

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My favourite mailer this week is from the Tara Sweeny PAC, T.A.R.A. (True Alaska Illustration Alliance. Actually.) “Dan Sullivan mentioned one thing good about me in 2018” is sort of as cringe as Al Gross’ radio advert the place he touts that his dad was former Governor Jay Hammond’s legal professional normal. NO ONE CARES!!!

***
With all the pieces occurring it’s arduous for me to recollect to take a look at Sarah Palin’s Insta tales day by day. That’s the place the gold is. I used to be glad Sarah shared this publish from the one Palin I’ve ever voted for: Bristol Palin (on Dancing with the Stars, natch). She was robbed of that Mirror Ball. ?

***
How is the primary ever open major mail in election going? High-quality. Completely fantastic. DO NOT LOOK AT THIS DANGEROUS DISINFORMATION being shared by Elstun Lauesen and preferred by an elected official. Zuckerburg must shut this down ASAP.

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I’ve no phrases. This poster has sufficient of these crammed on it for everybody.

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Who is that this Roland Reagan character? ?

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No, Laddie, say it ain’t so! And on Memorial Day weekend.Flag: United States on Google Android 12L

          

***
Then there’s South Anchorage Home candidate Jennifer Sonne. Sonne has blocked the Alaska Stalker on her social media and made her tweets protected after telling me I used to be a traitor in opposition to girls and to go f*&okay myself. My crime? Poking enjoyable at her for sporting a Carhartt jacket when she filed to run for workplace. She just lately shared this tweet along with her followers.

***
After the Landmine posted it, somebody might have despatched it to the McKenna Brothers. ? Whoops. The remainder is historical past. When Bob Lester posts your Ls, you’re going viral. That remark from Rep. Rasmussen tho…


***
As anticipated, many people on Twitter got here to Sonne’s protection. Why are you so obsessed along with her? It’s only a joke! It’s social media, who cares? Good factors. Besides all of them cared immensely when it was Judy Eledge’s social media and he or she was working for… checks notes… the lowly workplace of Anchorage College Board. Judy’s posts had been even coated by Alaska Public Media, ADN and KTUU. For the file: each the Landmine and Alaska Stalker posted about Judy Eledge’s Fb posts. As a result of it was newsworthy! As for Jennifer Sonne’s posts about vandalism of personal and municipal property, saying she’s a closet Marxist, writing how not listening to any white man’s opinion is a “lifestyle” and plenty of, many extra controversial tweets has been met with ???. Why is that? ?

***
It will get higher worse. All these folks calling the Landmine sexist and a misogynist for publishing could also be a member of our legislature subsequent yr? Effectively, simply take a look for your self. Subsequent time they name Jeff one thing, bear in mind, it’s simply projection.

***
Warning, this subsequent one is really vile.

 

***

As for Jennifer Sonne, she appears utterly fantastic as an IINO (Unbiased in identify solely) going door-to-door making an attempt to win over conservative constituents who voted for “Daddy” Dave Bronson whereas concurrently mocking them and threatening to slash their tires in personal. Fascinating technique.

***
Noticed whereas manning my child’s lemonade stand: People for Prosperity lit dropping for Nick Begich. No, I didn’t ask them about Roland.
***

Noticed at Quick Eddie’s in Tok:
Reps. Wool, Cronk, Josephson, Ed Flanigan, Cindy Spanyers, and Mayor Charlie Pierce. Three completely different tables however all pleasant salutations.

***

The Alaska Stalker was born and raised in Alaska. She lives bear free in South Anchorage along with her husband and three youngsters 5 and beneath. She shouldn’t be Jeff Landfield.





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Alaska

Strong winds destroy deer shelter at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Published

2 hours ago

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January 9, 2025

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Strong winds destroy deer shelter at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Strong winds in the Portage area on Monday destroyed a shelter building at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center that was used to house Sitka deer. The conservation center says 80 mph winds swept through Portage Valley.

The conservation center says no animals were injured, but they are quickly raising money to rebuild. Their goal is $30,000, and as of Thursday morning, they have already fundraised over $26,000.

Sales & Marketing Director Nicole Geils said, “The shelter was in their habitat. It was essential for providing them a safe Haven during harsh weather. It’s a really useful area for when we’re feeding and doing enrichment with the deer and it’s also a safe space for recovery after medical procedures when needed.”

Executive Director Sarah Howard described how she learned about the damage.

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“We had a staff member that radioed, ‘The shelter’s gone!’ And a couple of us were at least able to make a little light of the situation. Like, did it go to Oz? And thankfully, it didn’t go too far, and the deer were okay,” Howard said.

The conservation center is still accepting donations through their website.

Strong winds destroy deer shelter at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center(Courtesy Nicole Geils)
Strong winds destroy deer shelter at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
Strong winds destroy deer shelter at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center(Courtesy Nicole Geils)

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.



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Alaska

After school funding dispute, 4 Alaska districts move on without federally promised money

Published

10 hours ago

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January 9, 2025

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After school funding dispute, 4 Alaska districts move on without federally promised money


Until last month, the U.S. Department of Education said Alaska underfunded four of its largest school districts by $17.5 million. As a result of a recent agreement, the schools in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Kenai Peninsula Borough won’t directly receive any of that money.

However, two of the districts said they weren’t counting on receiving the money as they planned their current budgets, while the other districts either didn’t respond or declined to comment.

The $17.5 million is part of COVID-era pandemic funding, and until last month, how Alaska distributed that funding was at the heart of a years-long dispute between federal and state officials, and whether it was spent fairly.

The state repeatedly defended their school spending plan, while the federal government asserted the state failed to comply with guidelines and reduced spending on these districts with high-need or high-poverty areas, and withheld the sum they said was owed.

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Federal officials said the state reduced spending to the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage school districts by up to $11.89 million in the 2021 to 2022 school year, and all four districts by $5.56 million the following year.

Kenai Superintendent Clayton Holland said the district never budgeted for this particular federal COVID funding, as they were aware of the dispute.

“Had it gone through, we would have welcomed it, as we are facing a potential deficit of $17 million for next year” and have nearly exhausted the balance of funding the district can spend without restrictions, Holland said.

Anchorage School District officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The dispute came to an end on Dec. 20,  when the federal department told the state it was releasing the funding, citing a review of the state’s one-time funding boosts in the last two budgets, and considered the matter closed.

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Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop led the state’s defense effort, including appealing the penalty, and applauded the move by the federal Department of Education. She said the state always followed the state law governing school funding.

“The department said, ‘We don’t agree with your formula, you should have given these guys more.’ And we said, ‘No, no, no. Only our Legislature can make the law about our formula. That’s why we stood behind it,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

The dispute centered around what was known as a “maintenance of equity” provision of a federal COVID aid law, which banned states from dropping per-pupil spending during the pandemic. Bishop said that decreases in funding in the four districts were due to drops in enrollment, according to the state’s spending formula.

Bishop defended the formula as equitable, noting that it factors in geographic area, local tax bases, and other issues. “I just felt strongly that there’s no way that they can say that we’re inequitable, because there are third-party assessments and research that has been done that Alaska actually has one of the most equitable formulas,” she said.

“Our funding formula is a state entity. Our districts are funded according to that,” Bishop said. “And so basically, they [U.S. Department of Education] argued that the distribution of funds from the state funding formula, the state’s own money, right, nothing to do with the Feds, was inequitable.

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“So they picked these districts to say, ‘You need to give them more.’ And we’re saying, ‘No, you don’t have a right to say that. We spent your money, how you said, but only the state Legislature can say’” how to spend state money, she said.

She said the state felt confident about their spending plan for American Rescue Plan Act funding.

In addition to temporarily withholding the funding, the federal government further penalized Alaska by designating it a “high risk” grantee.

Federal and state officials went back and forth on compliance, with the state doubling down, defending their school spending. By May, the state had racked up another $1 million in frozen federal funds.

Bishop said despite the holds from the feds, they continued to award the funds to districts.

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“We felt as though we would prevail. So we never wanted to harm school districts who were appropriated those funds the way that they were supposed to,” she said. School districts followed the dispute closely.

Juneau School District’ Superintendent Frank Hauser said the district did not expect or budget for the funds.

“JSD was slated only to receive approximately $90,000 of the “maintenance of equity” funds, much less than Kenai, Fairbanks, or Anchorage,” he said in an email. “JSD will not receive that money now; however, we had not anticipated receiving it and had not included it in our budget projection.”

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District declined to comment on the issue. A spokesperson said the district administration is awaiting clarification from the state education department.

On Monday, the administration announced a recommended consolidation plan for five elementary schools to be closed, citing a $16 million deficit for next year. A final vote on whether to close the schools is set for early February.

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Now the state is in the process of applying for reimbursements from the federal Department of Education, and expects to receive that full $17.5 million award, Bishop said. If districts have outstanding pandemic-related expenses, she said those can be submitted to the state, and will be reimbursed according to the state’s COVID-19 funding guidelines. “We’ll process that, and then we’ll go to the Feds and get that money back,” she said.

In December, Gov. Mike Dunleavy applauded the federal announcement, calling the dispute “a tremendous waste of time,” in a prepared statement. He repeated his support for President-elect Donald Trump’s calls to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

“On the bright side, this saga is a wonderful case study of the U.S. Department of Education’s abuse of power and serves as further evidence for why I support the concept of eliminating it,” he said.

Dunleavy linked to a social media post he made on X, which read, in part, that eliminating the department “would restore local control of education back to the states, reduce bureaucratic inefficiency and reduce cost. Long overdue.”

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Education Committee, pointed to the timing for the outgoing Biden administration and federal leaders’ desire to release funding to Alaska schools.

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“It’s very clear that if the presidential election had ended in a different result, we would not be having this conversation,” she said. “Instead, they would be continuing to work with the department to find a more elegant, a more clean solution.”

She said the federal letter announcing the end to the long dispute doesn’t mean the issue of equity was resolved.

“I think their letter to the Department of Education and Early Development here in Alaska was very clear that Alaska never did fully comply with the guidelines, but instead, due to a want and a fervent hope that the resources would get into the schools and into the communities that so desperately needed them, that they would choose to not pursue further compliance measures,” she said.

Last year, the Legislature passed a budget with $11.89 million included for the state to comply with the federal requirements, but that funding was vetoed by Dunleavy, who defended the state’s position, saying the “need for funds is indeterminate.”

The budget did include a one-time funding boost to all districts, but Tobin said the annual school aid debate left districts in limbo for future budget planning.

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“We can see how this has cost school districts, how it has created instability, how it has resulted in a system that is unpredictable for funding streams for our schools,” Tobin said.

Kenai Superintendent Holland expressed hope that school funding would be prioritized by elected officials this year.

“The bigger issue for us, and for all Alaskan school districts, is what our legislators and governor will decide regarding education funding in the upcoming legislative session,” Holland said.



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Alaska

Alaska's population increases from 2023 to 2024

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18 hours ago

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January 9, 2025

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Alaska's population increases from 2023 to 2024


The state of Alaska saw an increase in population of 0.31% from 2023 to 2024, despite more people leaving the state than entering it.
The increase is attributed to births outpacing both deaths and outward migration, according to new data from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Based on Census Data from 2020 and state data, the population is estimated to have increased to 741,147 people



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