Video: Alaska Bureaucrats 'Physically Attack, Block' Pro-Life Protesters in Juneau

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As reported on Wednesday, public resources have been used by the state government in Juneau to impede the First Amendment rights of pro-life protesters. You can read that story and see that video HERE.

In response to that story, Governor Parnell released a statement that he was “surprised to learn that a Department of Administration employee had been directed to park a State vehicle in front of peacefully assembled demonstrators outside the capitol.” The Governor stated that he had “given direction to the Department to ensure this does not happen in the future unless public safety is at risk or the rule of law violated.” You can read his full statement HERE.

Despite the Governor’s statement, things took a turn for the worse the next day. During this second day of pro-life protests, state vehicles were again brought in to block the protesters’ signs. According to observers, not only did the Capitol Chief of Security and Assistant Chief of Security forcibly take a sign from a protester and move it across the street, their actions took a more ominous turn.

As you will see in the following video, the Assistant Chief of Security forcibly moved a protester from where he was standing, apparently knocking him down and hurting him in the process. The Assistant Chief of Security then forcibly took the camera from one of the protesters and shut it off:

What follows is a narrative of events that Restoring Liberty received from one of the eye-witnesses:

April 2nd 2013

In the afternoon of Tuesday, April 2nd, during a peaceful protest staged by volunteers with CBR Alaska, it was observed that the State of Alaska was using state resources for personal interest by blocking the protest with Department of Administration trucks. The trucks were parked across the street from the capital building, in the “active loading and unloading zone” and in the road congesting traffic, obviously in answer to a command to block the protesters. There were witnesses at the protest who heard the commands being given to the drivers of the trucks. When one of the drivers left his truck there, he looked at the protesters and said “Just doing what I was told, sorry”. The trucks were left in place for at least an hour and a half. Someone observing the situation, Ted Deats, went into the capital and told Senator John Coghill’s office about what was being done. After Senator Coghill’s office called Commissioner Becky Holtberg, the vehicles were removed. Later that day, when we were sitting in our rental van, the same Department of Administration truck drove by, and the driver gestured at us that he was keeping his eye on us.

April 3rd 2013

A few minutes after 11am my wife and I returned to our rental van from the breakfast break during CBR Alaska’s protest in front of the capitol building in Juneau. We noticed that there were two blue vans parked in the No Parking (active loading and unloading) zone across the street from the capital building immediately in front of where the protest signs were being held. At 11:30AM our group redeployed our peaceful protest. When we began to take pictures of the license plates of the vans parked in the no parking zone, idol bureaucrats, who had been standing on the steps of the capital watching us, immediately walked across the street and drove one of the empty vans off.

About 30 minutes later the van came back empty, as before. At this time there was a man, Ted Deats, who was not part of our protest, but who had walked up and was conversing with us and taking pictures. Mr. Deats had realized from the day before what was going on and stood in the “no parking zone”. The driver of the van got out and told him to move. Mr. Deats refused and said he was taking a picture. The driver once again commanded Mr. Deats to move and when his command was again refused, he went into the capital in anger.

At this time, one of the protest participants, Sid Heidersdorf, had taken two of the signs across the street and was standing on the sidewalk on the corner of the street in front of the capital. Two men, Mel Personett (Chief of Security) and Steve Daigle (Assistant Chief of Security), came out of the capital and abruptly grabbed the signs that Mr. Heidersdorf was holding and brought them across the street. Their explanation was that the other side of the street was capital property and could not be used for protesting. They then returned to the capital. Several minutes later, Mr. Personett came back outside and began to explain that one of his men had “jumped the gun” regarding the removal of the signs. He said that it was fine to protest on both sides of the street.

Within a few minutes the driver came out again and started menacing Mr. Deats with the van. He revved the engine and moved to within a few inches of Mr. Deats. The driver told us that he needed to park there to “unload papers and do government work”, however the van was empty. With Mr. Deats still refusing to move, the driver got out and said he was calling the police. Several moments later, Steve Daigle accompanied the driver of the van outside and they once again began menacing Mr. Deats. After some exchange, Steve Daigle physically pushed Mr. Deats out of the way and ended up pulling him to the ground and knocking his knee against the curb. As a witness to the events that had been and were occurring, Haylee Kurka, took video of the above series of events. As she videoed the exchange, Mr. Daigle reached out and grabbed the phone out of her hand and turned off the recorder. He then shoved the phone back at her. At this point, Mr. Deats was seated on the ground, and the driver got out of the seat and started calling him derogatory names.

Juneau police arrived several minutes later and began questioning those who were involved. Most of the exchange is in the video. The officer told Mr. Deats that it was unacceptable to stand in the way and block the loading zone, but also that steps should be taken to explain to the acceptable authorities what had happened. As the officer talked to the protesters, they watched as the driver and other men loaded very small things into the van, attempting to validate their claim that they needed to be in the loading and unloading zone.

Once the police left, things went on as they had been, until the protesters left a short while later to keep a previous commitment. The many pictures and videos were given to Senator Dyson’s office as evidence of what had happened.

Thousands of Out-of-State Voters Found On Alaska's Voter Registry

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photo credit: jkbrooks85

Just two years after Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell gave Alaska’s Division of Elections a clean bill of health, the Associated Press reports that 25,000 of Alaska’s registered voters are also registered to vote in other states. The revelation comes as a result of Alaska’s participation in a 22-State cooperative effort to cross-check voter rolls.

Treadwell blocked an independent investigation of the disputed 2010 election after US Senate Candidate Joe Miller petitioned for an outside review, opting instead for an “internal review” by the same Division of Elections and Department of Law who were alleged to have swept fraud and irregularity under the rug.

Miller’s request was based upon myriad complaints of widespread fraud and corruption from concerned citizens across the state of Alaska.

In an unprecedented move, the Alaska Court System dismissed sworn affidavits from eyewitnesses as unacceptable evidence for discovery, and the Department of Corrections has subsequently refused to disclose the list of felons in their custody during the 2010 election cycle who had committed crimes of moral turpitude, despite FOIA requests for the relevant information.

At least 11,000 of the newly discovered duplicate voters were reported to have more current registrations outside the State of Alaska. It appears that some have voted in multiple states, though Treadwell says it is unclear whether voter fraud was committed.

There is no data available on how many of “Alaska’s registered voters” are on the rolls in the 28 States that did not participate in the study.

Video: Alaska's Department of Administration Interferes With Pro-life Protest; Gov. Parnell Responds

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Today, the Center for Bioethical Reform staged a demonstration in front of the Capitol in Juneau, Alaska. The event, intended to influence public policy by educating legislators about the horrors of abortion, started with little fanfare.

The activists erected large posters of aborted babies across from the capitol steps. At first, it didn’t seem their activities were attracting much attention. But that soon changed.

According to one participant we interviewed today, a line of trucks began to appear, some parking in the middle of the road, the others parking in the loading zone immediately in front of the capitol.

One driver exited his vehicle and apologized, stating he was just doing what he was told to do:

Several hours later, after a legislator’s staff was contacted, the vehicles were abruptly removed.

The governor should immediately investigate who gave the order to use state assets to interfere with this peaceful political protest. The use of state resources in this partisan and anti-First Amendment way is wrong and someone should be held accountable.

UPDATE: Governor Parnell’s office contacted Restoring Liberty today and emailed THIS RESPONSE.

State Legislator Caught Sticking Out His Tongue at Majority Leader

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Liberal Democrat State Representative Scott Kawasaki, never known for his class, was caught yesterday apparently sticking out his tongue at Alaska State House Speaker Mike Chenault:


This followed a number of jokes on the floor – by Republicans and Democrats alike – about “passing gas” and the word “but” in regard to the pending natural gas pipeline bill (House Bill 4).

This juvenile display is yet another indicator of how low the Alaska State Legislature has fallen and why we need even more constitutional conservatives to enter the fray to unseat incumbents in 2014.

3 Feared to be Dead After Alaska State Trooper Helicopter Crash

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Photo Credit: AP

An Alaska State Trooper helicopter carrying a trooper, a pilot for the agency and a rescued snowmobiler crashed in the south-central part of the state, leaving the three aboard feared dead, a spokeswoman said Sunday night.

Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said the aircraft went down Saturday night, the wreckage spotted Sunday, and no survivors have been found.

Peters said that though the three are feared dead, there has been no confirmation of any fatalities. “This is a huge, profound tragedy for us. We can replace the helicopter but we can’t replace what went down with it,” she said. “It’s been a bad day.”

Wreckage of the helicopter burned, but Peters said it was not known how the fire started or how long it lasted.

The trooper helicopter was on a mission to pick up a snowmobiler stranded near Larson Lake 7 miles east of Talkeetna in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hooking Kindergartners on Sex: Planned Parenthood Gets Millions to Use in Alaska and Four Other States (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

While the White House says sequestration has eliminated funds for children touring the White House, President Obama has no problem spending $350 million federal tax dollars for sexual indoctrination programs starting in kindergarten for those same children.

This is not your grandmother’s sex education about how things work and what can go “wrong.” In fact, the exact opposite is the essence of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP): Obamacare funnels $75 million annually into PREP, which must be used exclusively for Planned Parenthood-style “comprehensive” sex ed programs where no type of sex is wrong and the only sexual behavior PP considers “unsafe” is becoming pregnant.

More than one-fourth of the funds ‒ $20 million ‒ has been awarded to a coalition of six Planned Parenthood affiliates, operating under the name Northwest Coalition for Adolescent Health, to implement HHS’s TOP program across Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska at over 50 sites. In Oregon schools, Planned Parenthood is paying children cash incentives to participate.

PP is funded with our tax dollars to market sex to our children in our schools under the guise of sex education, anti-bullying, diversity, and tolerance. Once sexualized, those children then become PP sex customers for contraceptives, STD testing, and abortion.

“A glance at the teacher outline for Lesson 1A, the introductory lesson (page 12 of the linked PowerPoint presentation), shows exactly how abstinence plays out in the sex-encouraging scheme at Planned Parenthood. ‘Abstinence,’ it says, ‘means choosing not to do any sexual activity that carries a risk for pregnancy or STD/HIV,’” says Rita Diller, national director for STOPP.org. “In other words, abstinence has nothing do with abstaining from sex acts. So long as the student avoids STDs and pregnancy, and is comfortable with what he or she is doing, it’s an anything goes.”

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska’s Young May Have Met His Match In Backlash Over Slur, Ethics Probe

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Photo Credit: Marc Lester

Rep. Don Young is a survivor. But he may have met his match. He’s beaten back six years worth of federal investigations, 40 years of unsuccessful Republican challengers, and one of the most expensive and highly criticized earmarks.

But now the 21-term Alaska Republican is facing a freshly launched Ethics investigation and perhaps his biggest hurdle of all: his own mouth.

On Friday, Young came under heavy fire from Republicans and Democrats for using a racial slur to refer to hired laborers who were once employed at his father’s ranch. Young used the term “wetbacks” to describe the laborers.

GOP leaders immediately distanced themselves from the veteran lawmaker, who has not always had a pleasant relationship with his own party, saying that he should apologize without delay.

Young did apologize, twice. But the political heat came less than 10 days after the House Ethics Committee announced it was investigating Young on charges that he may have violated the chamber’s rules.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boehner Blasts Alaska’s Don Young For ‘Wetbacks’ Comment

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Photo Credit: Charles Dharapak

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Friday condemned the use of the term “wetbacks” by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, one of the party’s most senior members of Congress.

Young’s statement, his quick apology, and Boehner’s statement that the remark was “beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” come at a particularly sensitive time for the Republican Party in its relationship with Hispanic voters.

Latinos voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in November, and the GOP is attempting to navigate calls for changes in immigration law, with more party leaders now backing a so-called path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, which is opposed by many conservatives.

Young used the term “wetbacks” in describing Hispanic migrant workers who used to pick tomatoes on his father’s family ranch. He made the comments in an interview released Thursday with an Alaska radio station.

“My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 or 60 wetbacks and — to pick tomatoes,” Young said. “You know, it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Murkowski’s Gay Marriage Views ‘Evolving’

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Photo Credit: U.S. Army Alaska

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday that her views on gay marriage are “evolving” and that she’s reviewing her stance on the issue “very closely.”

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that there is a change afoot in this country in terms of how marriage is viewed,” said Alaska’s senior senator, who has in the past voted to support proposed constitutional amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Murkowski’s comments came following an address to the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce in which she touched on a variety of topics, including sequestration, the Senate’s recently-passed budget and her efforts to end partisan gridlock in Congress.

When asked about same sex marriage — which is currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in two separate cases — Murkowski seemed to indicate a softening on her previous stance.

“I’ve got two young sons who, when I ask them and their friends how they feel about gay marriage, kinda give me one of those looks like, ‘Gosh mom, why are you even asking that question?'” When pressed to come out either for or against gay marriage, Murkwoski said her view is “evolving.”

Read more from this story HERE.

After Repeatedly Refusing to Answer, Alaska’s Sen. Begich Now Embraces Homosexual Marriage

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong

After remaining mum on the subject when asked about it last week, Sen. Mark Begich’s office issued a statement Monday night from the senator supporting marriage equality.

“I believe that same sex couples should be able to marry and should have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other married couple,” the Alaskan senator said in what appears to be his first direct statement on the subject.

“Government should keep out of individuals’ personal lives — if someone wants to marry someone they love, they should be able to. Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy,” he continued.

Although Begich’s office did not respond to an earlier request for comment about his views on marriage equality, the Human Rights Campaign informed BuzzFeed Monday afternoon that Begich’s office had told the LGBT rights organization that Begich supported [it].

Read more from this story HERE.