Tag: Alaska

Voters Decide Future of Ranked Choice Voting

The Daily Signal

Voters in Western states and the District of Columbia voted on some form of ranked choice voting or “jungle primaries” that includes ranking the final candidates in the general election.

Voters in Nevada, a battleground state in the presidential race, rejected Question 3, according to Ballotpedia. This was a ballot measure that would have moved the state to a “top five” primary if approved. That means up to five at-large primary candidates would compete in a ranked choice voting general election.

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Alaska Man Arrested for Threatening to Murder Six Supreme Court Justices

Daily Caller News Foundation
Supreme Court Justices

An Alaska man was arrested Wednesday for threatening to murder six Supreme Court justices, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Panos Anastasio sent over 465 messages intended for the justices through the Supreme Court’s website between March 2023 and July 2024, which allegedly became threatening after Jan. 4 and included “violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination via torture, hanging, and firearms,” according to the indictment. Anastasio, who will come before Judge Kyle Reardon Thursday for a detention hearing, has been temporarily detained, according to court records.

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Biden Admin Looks to Open Up 31 Million Acres for Solar After Locking Up Oil, Gas in Huge Swath of Alaska

Daily Caller News Foundation

The Biden administration proposed to open up tens of millions of acres of public lands to solar development on Thursday after cementing restrictions on oil and gas activity across large swaths of Alaska.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rolled out its proposed “Western Solar Plan,” which would put approximately 31 million acres across 11 western states on the table for possible solar development. The agency’s solar plan comes on the heels of its Tuesday announcement that it had finalized protections for 28 million acres of public land in Alaska that will effectively prohibit oil and gas activity on that acreage.

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Department of Interior Shuts Down Millions of Acres of Alaska to All Oil, Gas and Mining Activity

Just the News
Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland

The Interior Department last Friday blocked 28 million acres of federal land in the state of Alaska from any mining or oil and gas development.

Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director for Power The Future, said the decision on D-1 lands removes an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania from resource development, which will have severe energy impact to the nation and the state of Alaska.

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Connecticut Weighs Ranked Choice Voting

The Center Square
People Voting Polling Place

Connecticut’s Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont wants the state to look into scrapping the state’s winner-take-all electoral system for ranked choice voting.

Lamont has created a new bipartisan commission to study a legislative proposal that would allow local governments and political parties in Connecticut the option to use ranked choice voting in caucuses, conventions, primaries and municipal elections.

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Houses Passes Bill to Protect Domestic Oil Production, Protect Iñupiat Community

The Center Square
Alaska North Slope

The U.S. House passed another a bill to advance domestic energy production, this time in response to cries for help from an indigenous community living in the Alaska North Slope.

The bill’s cosponsor, a Democrat from Alaska, did not vote for her own bill. It passed with the support of five Democrats, including two from Texas who are strong supporters of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.

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Biden Admin Announces Massive Restrictions on Alaskan Oil Reserve and Hampers Key Mining Project in One Fell Swoop

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Alaska Petroleum Reserve

The Biden administration moved to block oil and gas activity on millions of acres of Alaskan land and effectively rejected a road project needed to mine large reserves of copper in the state on Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) finalized a plan that will restrict future oil leasing and development on about half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), an area in the state’s north approximately the size of Indiana first designated by former President Warren Harding as an emergency source of fuel for the U.S. Navy, according to Bloomberg News. The DOI also moved to all but shoot down the Ambler Access Project, a previously-approved proposal for a mining company to build a 211-mile long road needed to mine copper reserves potentially worth billions of dollars.

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Biden Admin Reports Over 3 Million Illegal Aliens Cross America’s Borders in Single Year

Admin

For the first time ever, U.S. border agents encountered over 3.2 million illegal aliens on America’s borders in a single fiscal year, a number that is greater than the combined population of Hawaii, Alaska, and Vermont.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CPB, reported Saturday that agents encountered 3,201,144 illegal immigrants at or between ports of entry to the country between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023. (The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October through September.)

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Alaska Sues Biden Admin over Canceled Oil Leases

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Alaska is suing the Biden administration for cancelling oil and gas leases sold in the state under the Trump administration.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) formally filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior on Wednesday, a move which it had promised to make in response to DOI’s September decision to retroactively cancel seven oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The DOI hailed the cancellations as a strong action to protect the environment, but industry groups and political officials slammed the revocations for their questionable legality and effects on the U.S. energy sector.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s 9/11 Alaska Trip Is a Slap in the Face to the Nation

Admin

The Biden Administration has been flying cabinet and subcabinet members to and from Alaska all summer. From Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg to Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, and Health Assistant Sec. Rachel Levine, it’s been an impressive parade of diversity, equity, and inclusion sock puppets who regurgitate the party line.

The Big Guy himself arrives in state on Monday to – oddly enough – commemorate the anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

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States with Weaker Marijuana Laws See More Impaired Driving, Report Finds

The Center Square

A new report found that states with less restrictive marijuana policies have higher incidents of residents driving while high.

The Drug Free America Foundation released a new report showing that states that have legalized or weakened restrictions around high-THC marijuana, either for medical or recreational use, saw 32% more marijuana-impaired driving than states that have not adopted the same policies.

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North Carolina, North Dakota, Among States Phasing Out Income Tax

Just the News

Americans in search of economic freedom and opportunity are flocking to Florida, Tennessee and Texas, and at least part of the attraction is that these three states, along with six others (Alaska, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming and New Hampshire), don’t levy an income tax.

Other states may soon follow.

“There are 10 states that are in the process of moving their personal income tax to zero,” President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist said on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

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Commentary: Ranked-Choice Voting Is Just Another Way of Letting Elites Tilt the System in Their Favor

Admin

Americans want honest, straightforward and fair elections that they can trust. Regardless of whether candidates win or lose, voters deserve far better than the incompetence, mismanagement and multi-week delays in counting votes that we’re seeing in so many states today. So, at a time when trust in elections is at an all-time low, why are some establishment Republicans teaming up with Democrats to push a complex, confusing and painfully slow method of voting in America?

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McConnell Creates New Rift Inside GOP, Earning Censure from Alaska State Party

Just the News

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who caused a stir this summer by questioning the quality of his party’s candidates, has created a new rift inside the GOP by spending millions to defeat Alaska GOP Senate nominee Kelly Tshibaka.

McConnell’s leadership PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has been running attack ads against Tshibaka in an effort to boost moderate incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

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Tennessee’s Skrmetti Among the GOP Attorneys General Pressing NAAG to Return $280 Million

RealClearWire

A dozen Republican state attorneys general are fed up with what they view as the leftward drift and self-dealing of their nonpartisan national association and are asking the organization to change its ways and return roughly $280 million in assets to the states.

The National Association of Attorneys General was created in 1907 as a bipartisan forum for all state and territory attorneys general. Over the last year, several of the group’s Republican members have asserted that NAAG has become a partisan litigation machine that improperly benefits from the many tort settlements it helps to engineer.

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Republican Governor Sues Biden Admin for Refusing to Clean Up Native Americans’ Contaminated Lands

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Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy of Alaska filed a complaint in Alaska’s United States District Court to compel the Department of the Interior (DOI) to take responsibility for hundreds of contaminated areas that the federal government transferred to Alaska Natives.

Dunleavy and the state of Alaska filed the lawsuit in mid-July as a last resort after the DOI allegedly ignored calls to identify and clean up 650 former federal military installations, oil drilling sites and other projects that are contaminating Native Alaskan lands, according to court filings. Despite the Biden administration’s emphasis on securing “environmental justice” for minority communities, the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), nor any other associated federal agency, is taking responsibility, the lawsuit alleges, allowing pollution and toxic waste to creep into natives’ food and water systems.

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Georgia Among the 20 States Freed from Federal Transgender Sports, Bathroom Guidance

The Center Square

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of Tennessee, Georgia, and 18 other states in their effort to block federal guidelines on transgender athletes and school locker rooms.

The lawsuit, brought by Tennessee, challenged guidance from the United States Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would allow athletes who were marked as males on their birth certificates to compete in girls and women’s sports. The federal guidance also would have prohibited student shower and locker room access from being determined by birth gender and provided guidance on required pronoun use.

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It’s Official: Sarah Palin Making Political Comeback by Running for Open Alaska House Seat

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Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, the Alaskan original who made Momma Grizzly Bears a political term of art as governor and then as the GOP’s first female vice presidential candidate, is officially making a political comeback.

Palin, 58, announced Friday night she will run for the open House seat vacated in Alaska by the death of longtime Rep. Don Young.

“Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years,” Palin said in her announcement. “I realize that I have very big shoes to fill, and I plan to honor Rep. Young’s legacy by offering myself up in the name of service to the state he loved and fought for, because I share that passion for Alaska and the United States of America.

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21 States Join Lawsuit to End Federal Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Public Transportation

The Center Square

Twenty-one states have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued mask mandate on public transportation, including on airplanes.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are leading the effort. Moody filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida along with 20 other attorneys general. DeSantis said the mask mandate was misguided and heavy-handed.

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Nationwide, Americans Brace for a Busy Election 2022 Year

RealClearWire

This past week was the last one before the US officially entered a midterm election year. Below are the latest updates.

States

In Alaska, the Lieutenant Governor is not running for reelection. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has said he will endorse the incumbent Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy, so long as Dunleavy does not back incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski.

In Colorado, Mesa County dropped a lawsuit against their County Recorder over an ongoing dispute about attesting to documents. The County Recorder is still facing other investigations.

In Georgia, a review of elections found that only four deceased people voted in the 2020 election.

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Alaska GOP Governor Secures Trump Endorsement Through ‘Non-Endorsement’ of Murkowski Reelection Bid

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Mike Dunleavy and Lisa Murkowski

Former President Trump is issuing a public warning to Republican incumbents and those running for office: Don’t expect my endorsement without your “non-endorsement” of perceived GOP enemies.

He endorsed Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for reelection Thursday night after the incumbent made clear he’d uphold the quid pro quo from Trump two days earlier: not endorsing for reelection Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial related to the Jan. 6 riot.

In a statement intended for Trump that the ex-president published, Dunleavy wrote: “With regard to the other issue, please tell the President he has nothing to worry about.”

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Biden Ditches Alaska Oil Drilling Project That Would’ve Created Thousands of Jobs

Admin

The Biden administration abandoned an oil and gas drilling project in Alaska approved by former President Donald Trump, which it had previously defended.

The Department of the Interior failed to file an appeal to a federal judge’s August decision blocking the multi-billion dollar Willow Project being developed by the Texas-based oil and gas firm ConocoPhillips. Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court of the District of Alaska ruled that the federal government hadn’t adequately reviewed the emissions profile of the project, which she said would ultimately harm the environment and wildlife.

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Commentary: Reject Federal Takeover of Elections – Again

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Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

That is exactly how Americans must feel as they learn that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is trying to ram through another bill orchestrating a federal takeover of elections, despite the previous failed attempt in the Senate.

The bill, H.R. 4, is expected to come up in the House of Representatives this week, and it is stunning in its breadth. In short, Pelosi would give broad, sweeping powers to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to rewrite every state and local election law in the country.

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Biden Gears Up for Renewed Fight Against Oil and Gas

The Center Square

A federal judge has ruled the Biden administration must resume allowing oil and gas leasing on federal land and waters, but the administration is saying it will not go down without a fight.

The Biden administration said it will appeal a court ruling allowing the leases, the latest development in a months-long battle between President Joe Biden and the oil and gas industry, even as gas prices continue to rise.

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Four States to Slash COVID-19 Unemployment Aid Saturday

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Man in gray shirt, standing in a shop

Four states will be cutting pandemic unemployment increases three months early, ending the supplemental $300 in federal aid.

Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, and Mississippi will end pandemic-related unemployment relief on June 12. An additional 21 Republican-led states will slash federal aid before it expires on Sept. 6, according to Business Insider.

Conservatives continue to advocate an end to the increased benefits, saying they are no longer needed now that the pandemic is contained and speculating that the high payouts are discouraging would-be workers from returning.

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13 States Sue Biden Administration, Demand Ability to Cut Taxes

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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey

Thirteen states sued President Joe Biden’s administration over an American Rescue Plan provision prohibiting states from cutting taxes after accepting coronavirus relief funds.

The 13-state coalition argued that the provision included in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package preventing states from cutting taxes if they accept relief from the federal government is unconstitutional. The coalition, led by Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

“Never before has the federal government attempted such a complete takeover of state finances,” Morrisey said in a Wednesday statement. “We cannot stand for such overreach.”

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Trump Administration to Block Controversial Pebble Mine: REPORT

The Associated Press

The Trump administration plans to block a proposed copper and gold mine near the headwaters of a major U.S. salmon fishery in Alaska, six people described as familiar with its plans told Politico on Saturday.

The administration’s rejection of the Pebble Mine project is expected to come after Trump faced pressure to stop it from GOP mega-donor Andy Sabin, Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris and the his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., Politico reported.

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Powerful Quake Jolts Alaska Towns, Produces Small Tsunami

The Associated Press

A powerful earthquake off Alaska’s southern coast jolted coastal communities late Tuesday, and some residents briefly scrambled for higher ground over fears of a tsunami.

There were no immediate reports of damage in the sparsely populated area of the state, and the tsunami warning was canceled after the magnitude 7.8 quake off the Alaska Peninsula produced a wave of a less than a foot.

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Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Deal with Alaskan Tribal Community to Deny Life-Saving Road

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by Tim Pearce   A federal judge vacated a land swap agreement Friday between an Alaskan village and the Department of the Interior because the federal government violated procedural law when making the deal. U.S. District Court of Alaska Judge Sharon Gleason nullified a January 2018 deal that traded roughly 500 acres of federally protected wilderness to the community of King Cove, Alaska, in exchange for one acre to the Interior Department. At the time, Alaskan lawmakers and King Cove residents celebrated the agreement as the end of a four-decade battle. “This is a disappointing case and a disappointing ruling,” GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a statement. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed off on the agreement, trading away some the 315,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in order for King Cove to finish construction on a road between the community and Cold Bay, roughly 30 miles away by land. Gleason sided with several environmental groups that sued the federal government over the deal, alleging Zinke “not only failed to provide the required level of detailed justification for reversing decades of prior findings, he provided no justification at all,” according to the judge’s decision, reported by the Anchorage Daily News. Gleason agreed with the environmentalists,…

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Confusion In Super Close Alaska Primary After 17 Voter Registrations Trace Back To A Single Mobile Home

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by Evie Fordham   A potential investigation hangs over an Alaska State House Republican primary after the race came down to a few votes, but irregularities like 17 voter registrations that trace back to a single mobile home address caught the attention of the Alaska Division of Elections. Incumbent Gabrielle LeDoux leads challenger Aaron Weaver by 113 votes after Tuesday’s election, but at least 26 absentee ballots for LeDoux are classified as “suspect” by the state Division of Elections, reported KTVA. The state Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock is calling for an investigation. LeDoux fell out of favor with her party in 2016 after she abandoned the Republican caucus. The 17 Republican voter registrations linked to a single mobile home are in a section of House District 15 that is home to members of the Chinese Hmong community. A woman who answered the door of the mobile home and identified herself as Laura Chang told KTVA she did not know many of the people who registered to vote using the address. Another mobile home in the same park has 14 registered Republicans according to voter registrations, reported Anchorage Daily News. The irregularities in voter registrations appear to trace back to a single man, Charlie Chang.…

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Alaska Will Be The Centerpiece Of Trump’s Plan For US ‘Energy Dominance’

Tennessee Star Staff

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made it very clear that boosting energy production in Alaska would be a major part of the Trump administration’s plan for U.S. “energy dominance.” “The road to energy dominance goes through the great state of Alaska,” Zinke said in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Zinke…

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