Anchorage Cathedral Vandalized

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Photo Credit: Catholic Anchor

Photo Credit: Catholic Anchor

The historic Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage was vandalized on Dec. 2. The Dominican priests who staff the parish found it damaged and in disarray at about 4:30 p.m.

A video of the damage taken by Dominican Father Mark Francis Manzano shows overturned pews, spilt holy water, toppled liturgical furniture, including the archbishop’s presider’s chair and debris scattered throughout the sanctuary. Advent candles and the ambo were also thrown to the floor and a microphone connected to the sound system was ripped out.

On his Facebook page Father Manzano noted that while the damage was considerable, “it could have been much worse.”

“By the grace of God, the tabernacle, the relics, and the ambry were all secured and left untouched,” he observed.

The cathedral will mark its 100th year anniversary next year. It was the first church built in Anchorage and remains a historic landmark, even hosting Pope John Paul II during his 1981 visit to Anchorage.

Father Manzano noted that as the cathedral church for the Anchorage Archdiocese, the downtown parish tries to “intentionally keep our doors open from an hour before the morning Mass until the conclusion of Vespers in the evening.”

“Now we are rethinking our schedule,” he posted. “We are rethinking lots of things now since this is the second vandalism event within one week of each other.”

A week prior vandals damaged one of the priests’ cars, busting a back window. Over the last few years the cathedral has been targeted by vandals who have damaged outdoor statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary as well as a number of saint statues.

In the most recent incident the tabernacle was undamaged and that the Blessed Sacrament was not violated but the altar was stripped.

Police are investigating the incident.

Originally posted on CatholicAnchor.org

Reprinted in-full courtesy of Joel Davidson. Read more from Joel HERE.

Backers of Alaska Gold Mine Win Court Battle with EPA

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

On-again, off-again plans for the world’s largest gold and copper mine could be back on again, after a federal judge in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from its ongoing efforts to bury the project.

Pebble Partnership, the Canadian company behind the project, which would take place near Anchorage, claims the regulatory agency has conspired illegally with opponents of the mine to devise scientific and environmental justifications for blocking it. Salmon fishermen in Washington state and Alaska, Native American groups and environmental organizations have opposed the massive project for several years, and had appeared to have gotten it scuttled prior to Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Russel Holland, in Anchorage.

“We expect the case may take several months to complete,” Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said Tuesday after the U.S. District Court ruling in Anchorage. “This means that, for the first time, EPA’s march to preemptively veto Pebble has been halted.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Library Bans "God Less America" by Fox News' Todd Starnes

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700x357GodLessAmericaI received a Facebook message the other day from one of my readers in Cordova, Alaska.

Kanji Christian had purchased a copy of my new book – God Less America – and he enjoyed the book so much he decided to donate a copy to the public library.

The folks at the library said it would take a while for them to approve the book. A few months later, Kanji dropped by hoping to find his donated copy of “God Less America” on the bookshelf. But the book was nowhere to be found.

Kanji decided to investigate and he soon learned that my book had been rejected by the library.

“She (the librarian) just said that if it didn’t make it in it’s because they check reviews and then decide whether or not it’s something the community would be interested in,” Kanji wrote to me.

Read more from this story HERE.

Researchers: GPS Proves Grizzly Bears Actually Stalk Hunters in the Field

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Photo Credit: USGS

Photo Credit: USGS

Eight Montana grizzly bears have been outfitted with GPS trackers in an ongoing study that could bring some unnerving news to hunters.

The study is aimed at bolstering the theory that grizzlies, which can be as stealthy as they are ferocious, stalk hunters from as close as the length of a football field in order to steal their prey. Already, data has shown at least one grizzly following oblivious elk hunters almost from the moment they left the parking lot, according to the Billings Gazette. Scientists believe the bear may have been following the humans in hopes of getting to a fallen elk before they did. . .

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, started the project over the summer, by tagging the grizzlies in the Grand Teton National Park. Next, the study team asked elk hunters to voluntarily carry some 100 GPS units that track their routes.

In the most clearly detailed example, a group of hunters turned on their GPS devices moments after leaving a parking area at around 6 a.m. When scientists analyzed their movements later and contrasted them with those of a nearby grizzly, it became clear the bear was tailing them.

The bruin stayed downwind of the hunters, at one point coming within 100 yards of them as they moved around a lake. At around noon, the bear bedded down for a nap, but easily picked up the hunters’ trail again when it awoke, according to the report. . . So attuned to the movements of hunters are the bears that scientists believe they may even listen for the sound of gunshots, knowing that they signal a meal to be scavenged. Grizzlies are known scavengers, and officials noted there have been cases of the mighty bruins attacking hunters as they dressed elk in the field.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Begich Concedes to Dan Sullivan in Alaska Senate Race

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Photo Credit: AP / Ted S. Warren

Photo Credit: AP / Ted S. Warren

Democratic Sen. Mark Begich conceded his re-election race on Monday to Republican Dan Sullivan, bringing a delayed conclusion to the Alaska Senate race nearly two weeks after Election Day and almost one week after the Associated Press called the race for Sullivan.

Begich, a first-term U.S. senator and former Anchorage mayor, said he spoke with Sullivan on Monday and “encouraged him to adopt a bipartisan resolve in the Senate.

“Alaska is ill-served by the partisan fights that don’t reflect our state’s unique needs and priorities,” Begich said in a statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Volcanic Eruption Intensifies; Lava Advances in Hawaii

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Photo Credit: LA Times

Photo Credit: LA Times

A volcano in the Alaska Peninsula launched an ash plume 30,000 feet into the air on Saturday morning, while officials in Hawaii say lava continues to advance on a town that has been sitting in the path of a slow-moving molten slide since June.

Mt. Pavlof, which has been erupting since Wednesday, continues to see intense seismic activity, and pilots in the area were reporting ash clouds as high as 30,000 feet above sea level, according to the state’s volcano observatory.

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to impose flight restrictions in the area, according to spokesman Ian Gregor, but the agency did issue several notices to pilots regarding the eruption.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska One of Eight States Facing Double-Digit Premium Hikes In 2015

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Federal and state officials have kept fairly quiet about Obamacare premiums in the days before the health law’s next open enrollment period, but one thing’s for sure: rates are going up this year.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report on all individual market premiums — on and off Obamacare exchanges — found a large range of rate changes, from a drastic 35 percent hike in Colorado to a 22 percent cut, also in Colorado (the state’s Obamacare exchange changed the geographic rating areas this year to cut costs for ski resort towns). Overall, the average rate hike nationwide is 5.6 percent, according to PWC.

First, all that information isn’t set in stone. Most states haven’t compiled final premium information for the Obamacare exchange. Just seven states — Colorado, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont — and Washington, D.C. have made final rate announcements. Of course, the states that did publish final rates had more reason to want the data out there — they had a lower average hike of 3.5 percent.

But the number of big losers is far outweighing the winners. Eight states are facing double-digit rate hikes, while just four states have reported decreases.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska's Senate, Governor Races in Limbo as State Begins Counting More than 53,000 Ballots

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Photo Credit: dmcdevit

Photo Credit: dmcdevit

Alaska will begin counting more than 53,000 absentee and questioned ballots on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the state’s unsettled contests for the Senate and for governor.

Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trailed Republican challenger Dan Sullivan by about 8,100 votes after Election Night. Begich is banking on the uncounted votes after waging an aggressive ground game in rural Alaska.

The outcome of the new round of vote-counting won’t change the balance of the Senate. Republicans gained seven seats in last week’s election, more than enough to grab the Senate majority for the remainder of President Barack Obama’s presidency.

The limbo between Election Night and the outcome of the new count created a vacuum the candidates’ spokesmen sought to fill.

“Every Alaskan deserves to have their vote counted, and past experience indicates that counting these votes will favor Begich and draw this race closer,” Begich’s spokesman, Max Croes, said in an email Monday to The Associated Press.

Read more from this story HERE.

MI Man’s WWII Dog Tag Found in Alaska

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earl-vogelarWhen Mario Gandolfo went for a walk along the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Nome, Alaska on Nov. 4, he was looking for sea glass. But he found something quite different: A World War II military dog tag washed into his hand.

“I was just kind of taken aback,” Gandolfo told 24 Hour News 8 Sunday via Skype.

The dog tag, which is about 70 years old, belonged to an Earl L. Vogelar. It had a Grand Rapids, Mich. address stamped on it.

Gandolfo decided he had to know more about Vogelar and wanted to find his family to give them the ocean-battered piece of metal.

“This was someone’s life in World War II,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska's Election Nightmare

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Photo: Rick Bowmer/AP

Photo: Rick Bowmer/AP

[Thousands of voters have used] Alaska’s first-in-the-nation internet voting system. And according to internet security experts, including the former top cybersecurity official for the Department of Homeland Security, that system is a security nightmare that threatens to put control of the U.S. Congress in the hands of foreign or domestic hackers.

Any registered Alaska voter can obtain an electronic ballot, mark it on their computers using a web-based interface, save the ballot as a PDF, and return it to their county elections department through what the state calls “a dedicated secure data center behind a layer of redundant firewalls under constant physical and application monitoring to ensure the security of the system, voter privacy, and election integrity.”

That sounds great, but even the state acknowledges in an online disclaimer that things could go awry, warning that “when returning the ballot through the secure online voting solution, your are voluntarily waving [sic] your right to a secret ballot and are assuming the risk that a faulty transmission may occur.”

That disclaimer is a pre-emptive admission of failure, says Bruce McConnell, who served until 2013 as the top cybersecurity officer for DHS. “They admit that they are not taking responsibility for the validity of the system,” McConnell told The Intercept. “They’re saying, ‘Your vote may be counted correctly, incorrectly, or may not be counted at all, and we are not taking any responsibility for that.’ That kind of disclaimer would be unacceptable if you saw it on the wall of a polling place.”

In 2012, Alaska became the first state to permit internet balloting for all voters, and no problems were reported during the system’s first deployment. But there weren’t any high-profile races then, and Alaska wasn’t an electoral factor in the presidential race.

Read more from this story HERE.