Alaska US Senate Candidate’s Office Let Child Molester Go Free Who Then Murdered Elderly Couple, Sexually Assaulted Infant

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A candidate for U.S. Senate, Daniel S. Sullivan, ran the legal office that let a criminal out of jail who sexually assaulted a toddler and murdered an elderly couple—just twelve hours after he was released from state prison for a previous rape felony.

Prosecutors say Jerry Andrew Active killed 73-year old Touch Chea and his wife, 71-year old Sorn Sreap, and sexually assaulted their 2-year old great grand-daughter and her 92-year old great, great grandmother in late May.

Active, 24, had previously sexually assaulted an eleven year old girl in Togiak in January of 2009, but was allowed to plead guilty to lesser crimes – and get out of prison sooner – after signing a plea agreement with the Alaska Attorney General’s Office, which was then-run by Daniel Sullivan. He is currently running for U.S. Senate.

A review of Active’s 2009 sexual assault case docket indicates that the Attorney General’s Office agreed to Active’s plea deal during Sullivan’s tenure. Sullivan was AG from June 2009 to December 2010.

“The plea agreement required Active to plead guilty to attempted sexual abuse of a minor, assault in the fourth degree, and criminal trespass in the first degree,” according to a report from Alaska’s Department of Law which was commissioned after international outcry about Active’s release and after Sullivan left office.

Read more about this unfortunate case where Sullivan’s office let child molester go free HERE.

Alaska North Slope Crude Production Rises to Highest Since March, But Down From Last Year

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Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber/flickrOil production in Alaska’s North Slope gained to an eight-month high as producers boosted rates in the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields following seasonal maintenance.

Output climbed 4.1 percent in November from a month earlier to 556,471 barrels a day, the most since March, data posted on Alaska’s Department of Revenue website show. The yield is down 4.5 percent from year-earlier levels, the agency said.

“BP’s North Slope production has returned to normal after a successful turnaround season,” Dawn Patience, a spokeswoman for London-based BP, Alaska’s largest oil producer, said by telephone from Anchorage.

The North Slope, once the largest crude source for the western U.S., has been producing less oil every year since 2002 as output from wells naturally declines and isn’t replaced. The region’s refiners have increasingly depended on oil imports from overseas and shipments from Canada and other U.S. states to counter the shrinking supply, boosting California’s receipts of oil by rail to a seasonal record.

BP has increased output in Alaska after finishing seasonal maintenance in late September, Patience said. The state’s energy producers typically take advantage of warmer weather, lower yield and pipeline shutdowns during the summer to perform routine maintenance in fields.

Read more from this story HERE.

Plane with at Least 10 Onboard Crashes in Western Alaska

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Authorities say there are survivors from a plane carrying at least 10 people that crashed Friday night near the western Alaska village of Saint Marys.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters says “there are survivors and we are working our best to get them help.” She said she had no confirmation of any fatalities.

Peters said she believed the plane carried 10 people but did not have an official count.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Urges Australians to Venture to Arctic Circle for ‘Wintry Version of the Outback’

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Photo Credit: APA total of 36,000 Australian tourists visited Alaska in the summer of 2011 – the year Australia overtook the UK to become the state’s biggest market – and numbers are increasing every year.

Visit Anchorage vice-president for tourism development and sales, David Kasser, said Australians visiting America’s largest and most remote state tended to stay longer than their international counterparts – an average two to three weeks. They also tend to be older and wealthier, making them good spenders.

However, he said Australian tourism was dominated by cruises along the Inside Passage in the state’s southeast, with 96 per cent of visitors travelling there.

In contrast, the second most popular region – south central – attracted just 29 per cent of Australian tourists.

“I like to call the seven-day Inside Passage Cruise the Alaska Starter Cruise,” said Kasser, who was in Australia this week to promote his state.

Read more from this story HERE.

Daily Caller: Why Joe Miller Thinks He Can Win the Race for Alaska’s Senate Seat in 2014

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Joe Miller spent Thursday on Capitol Hill trying to woo prominent national conservatives to his side as he prepares to launch a new campaign for the U.S. Senate in Alaska.

The Republican lawyer and tea party favorite made a pilgrimage to D.C. to meet with a number of top conservative legislators in the House and Senate about the Alaska contest, which is expected to be one of the hottest races in 2014.

“Obviously, we’re looking for their support in our race,” Miller said in a Thursday afternoon interview with The Daily Caller.

He declined to reveal publicly which Republicans he met with on Thursday, though allowed: “They’re all solid conservatives.”

The West Point and Yale Law School graduate pulled off an upset in the 2010 Republican primary, defeating incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. But he ended up losing the general election to Murkowski, who mounted a write-in campaign after her surprising primary loss.

Read more from this story HERE.

In Bold Move, Alaska’s Governor Stands Up to Chamber of Commerce, AFN, and Obama, Says No to Medicaid Expansion

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Photo Credit: AP/Mark ThiessenAlaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) said Friday his state will not expand Medicaid under President Obama’s signature health-care law after a report estimated it would cost the state about $200 million over seven years.

“I believe a costly Medicaid expansion, especially on top of the broken Obamacare system, is a hot mess,” Parnell said at a news conference on Friday. “The bottom line is: Obamacare failed to launch, is failing to deliver on its promises, and remains in disarray. We simply cannot bail out this failed experiment by expanding Medicaid.”

Groups ranging from the Alaska Chamber of Commerce to the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium had pushed Parnell to move toward expanding Medicaid. But Parnell, who is seeking reelection in 2014, won praise from state Republicans, who oppose expansion.

Expanding Medicaid in Alaska would have made about 40,000 residents with an income of 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less eligible for coverage. The federal government would have initially provided 100 percent of the costs of an expansion, dropping to 90 percent by 2020.

But the federal government would have covered more of the costs in Alaska than in other states, because the federal government covers 100 percent of the costs for Native Americans in Alaska, according to the Anchorage Daily News. About 17,000 of the 40,000 who would have been eligible under the expansion are Alaska Natives.

Read more from this story HERE.

Common Core and School Choice

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Photo Credit: James Sarmiento/flickrOur current public education system is a cognitive dissonance writ large. In it we try to prepare our most precious youth for the rigors of global free market competition in an institution that actively suppresses it. How can a noncompetitive socialist education model- where everyone gets a trophy possibly prepare our students for the real world of intense market competition? It can’t.

Let me ask you a question. Would you buy a car that was rated 17th best in the world for quality? Would you buy a new computer or a iPad that was ranked 17th fastest? Would you go into a grocery store and purchase a similarly priced carton of milk that was ranked 17th in quality? Not likely. However, our public schools were recently ranked 17th in the world and taxpayers have no choice but to go with what is currently on the shelf. To borrow a phrase from the health care debate, we have a single payer education system. In state rankings Alaska ranks near the top in education spending but near the bottom in academic performance. Continually throwing more money at the problem only grows the burgeoning bureaucracy and further diffuses educational responsibility and accountability. Change is in the air. However like a lot of change options, one wears a black hat and one wears a white hat.

Two antithetical educational paradigms are competing for ascendancy in the public debate- Common Core and School Choice. The former seeks to homogenize our underperforming schools through imposing common standards and intrusive teacher and student data mining, while the latter seeks just the opposite by giving teachers and parents more latitude in education and interjecting free market competition into public schools.

The elements of Common Core were recently adopted in Alaska in a most circumlocutious way that bypassed the state legislature’s constitutional authority when the governor signed on to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)- a supergoverment group.

The goal of Common Core is to provide common standards in math and English language arts to better prepare students for college and the job market. Its diverse supporters include President Obama, Bill and Melinda Gates and Governor Jeb Bush. On the surface it sounds like a laudable and commendable idea. In practice however politics, sexuality, and political data mining have been woven into it causing widespread teacher and parent revolts and rejection in many states.

Proponents of Common Core state that the standards are just that- they do not represent curriculum. However, if your read the appendices, textbooks are cited in which to meet the standards. These textbooks are purchased on a six-year procurement cycle meaning they will be around for a long time.

Many of the standards have been criticized for being dumbed down and highly dubious. For example in mathematics, if a student adds 2 + 2 and arrives at 5, the answer can still be regarded as correct if the student justifies how they arrived at the answer. In another example, the political redistribution of wealth is used to illustrate the nonpolitical distributive property of algebra. Age inappropriate sexuality or even pornography is said to be at the core of at least three of the approved books. Perhaps the most disturbing feature of Common Core is the Fourth Amendment crushing imposition of Longitudinal Data Systems (LDS) to compile teacher, student, and family data. Students will have no constitutional privacy rights but will have their education information permanently recorded, shared among federal agencies, and sold to outside vendors. Extra-education data will also be recorded such as health, family political affiliation, religious affiliation, and income level. In Alaska, personal data from the PFD database has already been data mined.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, School Choice seeks to remove bureaucratic burdens from teachers and parents and let free market competition continuously improve the quality of education. For instance, if parents were given an educational voucher for each child, they could choose the best school to educate their child. Public schools, charter schools, and private schools would all have to compete for public funds, students, and the best creative teachers. History tells us that the biggest driver of innovation and technology as well as the best reducer of costs is free market competition.

Where do you find the highest performing schools in the English speaking world?- Alberta Canada. They have School Choice specifically written into their constitution. Parents have the freedom to place their children in any school of their choice. Schools compete, standards rise, and costs are lowered. We should have a strong public debate on amending Alaska’s State Constitution to implement School Choice similar to Alberta. After all it makes sense to copy what works instead of doubling down on what doesn’t.

Will the black hat George Orwellian 1984 model prevail in Alaska? Or will the white hat 1776 educational freedom and privacy model prevail? One thing is for certain, they are mutually incompatible. You cannot have freedom without privacy. Common Core involvement in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) coupled with the Alaska P-20W (pre-kindergarten through postsecondary education and workforce) Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) must be immediately banned by the state legislature during this next legislative session or the data mining of teachers, students, and home schoolers will grow unabatedly. Even if School Choice were adopted without banning Common Core, data mining and federal manipulation will extend into virtually any educational form. The death of privacy is the death of freedom.

I believe that all states in America, “are, and of right ought to be, free.” Abdicating the educational responsibility of our state legislature is wrong. As you ponder these thoughts remember that freedom, privacy, and free market competition isn’t just a metaphysical idea held by a few Americans. It was the belief of those who built this nation from the ground up- many of whom’s sons now lie under lonely white crosses as a result of defending these sacred principles. Freedom is America.

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“Daniel Hamm resides in Palmer Alaska. He is an international airline pilot, small business owner, author, and active in local politics.”

Official: Alaska Looking at Equity Stake in Pipeline to Protect its Interests, Advance Project

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Photo Credit: Arthur ChapmanAn Alaska official said Monday the state is looking at taking a multibillion-dollar equity stake in a major natural gas pipeline project as a way to protect its interests and help make the long-hoped-for project a reality.

Natural Resources Commissioner Joe Balash said Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration views a potential equity stake of 20 percent to 30 percent favorably. But he said any level of participation would depend on legislative buy-in and the terms the companies pursuing the project are willing to accept.

Assuming the project costs $45 billion — a figure at the lower end of the range previously announced by the companies — the state would be looking at $9 billion to $13.5 billion for such a stake.

Balash said he’s hoping that range narrows significantly over time as the idea gets more scrutiny.

The option stems from a report commissioned by the state to see how Alaska could protect its royalty interest and ensure it receives the maximum value possible for its natural gas.

Read more from this story HERE.

Survey: Palin Generates Beaucoup Bucks for Alaska Annually, Rivaling Revenue Generated by Sports Franchises

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Unlike the contiguous 48 states, Alaska is not exactly a bastion for professional sports. Yes, a couple of minor league hockey clubs play there but it’s not like people are flocking from out of state to see the Anchorage Aces or Fairbanks Icedogs skate. Sports nuts across this land do make the trek to Green Bay, Wisconsin or the Bronx, New York for a taste of sports history. Since Alaska doesn’t have that card to play, they need other things to attract visitors. Fortunately for The Last Frontier they have a unique woman, who all by herself brings in tourists and big money each and every year.

Certainly the beauty of Alaska alone attracts visitors from all over the globe. The scenery, wildlife, and all around majesty is unparalleled. They come on boats, planes, trains, and cars to get a glimpse of God’s handy work. In recent years, the tourism boom in Alaska grew even greater thanks to a wild card. She is an accomplished state championship basketball player, but you probably know her more for her stint as governor and her run for the vice presidency. Sarah Palin alone brings her home state a fortune, just by being herself.

Palin is a big draw on the speakers circuit. Her TV and radio appearances make her supporters and detractors alike stop and take notice. According to a recent study, that popularity also directly affects the economy of Alaska in a very positive way.

US for Palin conducted a survey, Market Research: Sarah Palin’s Impact on Alaska Tourism. In typical Palin supporter fashion it was a grassroots effort. The project was thrown together by numerous donations from several Palin backers. Many of the contributions were small. They added up however to allow the project to happen and the findings were giant sized.

The survey sampled just under 500 people, most of whom paid a visit to Alaska after Palin was a prominent figure. The false meme that Palin is not popular is blown out of the arctic water throughout the findings.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why Participate in the Republican Party Conventions in 2014?

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyThere have been a lot of discussions lately about the role of the Republican Party in current elections; whether it is worthwhile to be involved, and how to actually accomplish anything within the party when this last year the grassroots conservatives were so blatantly shut out. I’ll weigh in here on the reasons for participation in this next year’s convention cycle, and some pertinent details. There is certainly an argument for non-participation, but someone else will need to make that. First, a little short-term history to catch everyone up to speed.

In 2008, at the Republican State convention, the grassroots recognizing the corruption that was running the party attempted to change leadership unsuccessfully. In 2010, with the usual lower turnout and fervency of an off-presidential election year, the conservatives were also not able to change leadership out. In fact, what those in charge did, sensing the end coming, was to institute the “legacy rule”; where, after the leadership would be voted out, they would get to keep running the show anyway.

In 2012, at the State convention in Anchorage, the grassroots conservatives were finally able to accomplish the goal and elect very conservative individuals to positions of party leadership, in spite of the leaderships disenfranchising, lying, and cheating of delegates. Please note that despite what happened afterwards, this was a victory. It shows that the mindset is changing out there, and that people are realizing the rationality of the conservative point-of-view. This of course was dramatically shown, when the Republican presidential candidate played so hard to the middle-of-the-road, that he lost the election that all thought he would easily win.

What followed after that was the leadership, staying in power because of the legacy rule, broke both National and State rules and refused to help the newly elected leaders, and then used that against them as a basis for a charge of non-performance to kick them out, i.e. set them up for a fall. In the end, those hanging on to their power kicked out both the Chairman and Vice-Chair that were elected, and a District Chair that opposed their corruption, and both the Secretary and Assistant Secretary resigned. In the process, the Old Guard slandered all the conservatives involved just like liberal commenters in local newspapers.

So why participate in the party at all, and the 2014 convention cycle in particular? First, understand that the elected leaders were only able to be kicked out because the moderate/progressive wing of the Republican Party controlled most of the Districts, so therefore the majority of votes on the State Central Committee. If conservatives had been more involved at the District level, then due process and justice could have been enforced. Second, the leaders of the Districts elected at the 2014 District conventions, will be those running the 2016 District conventions and Presidential Preference Polls.

Third, on the State level, the real focus needs to be on the 2016 convention cycle. The State convention was denied to Wasilla this next year and placed in Juneau, even though the 2010 convention had been held there. This was done primarily because Juneau is the most expensive venue for anyone who would want to participate, thereby ensuring a diminishment of grassroots participation. The 2016 convention will be in Fairbanks, which will allow many more to be able to afford to make the trip. There is also bound to be some really conservative candidates that will attract people to participate. The reason that the 2014 convention is important to participate in, is to ensure that unfair rules like those the interim rules the party put in place this last year, will be stopped, and so that rules that require people to be treated justly and fairly will be implemented in hopes that the 2016 convention isn’t run like the 2012 convention was.

An important point for those who want to be involved this year was an interim rule passed by the State Central Committee that requires any participants in District or State conventions have to be registered 90 days ahead of time. Most conventions should be in February through April, but in a hurry to keep the grassroots out, some Districts may run theirs sooner.

In summary, if you recognize that most of the conservative candidates are Republicans (check out the US Senate and Governor’s races) then I hope you see that helping conservatives to regain control of their party can only benefit those candidates. Please make sure of your registration, find out where your District conventions will be held and participate.

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Lance Roberts lives in Fairbanks, and is the current Republican chairman of District 5, and on the Fairbanks North Star Borough assembly. The views in this article are strictly his own and do not represent his District or the Borough assembly.