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Alaska May Events from Space

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Following an April which was the coldest on record in many locations (including Fairbanks), May was a month with more record events. Anchorage saw it’s second latest measurable snowfall on May 18th which made the 2012-2013 snow season on record. The record cold also delayed the river breakup, which set the stage for the severe ice jam flooding in Circle and Galena.

The MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the aerial extent of the flooding in Galena from space. Below is the extent of the Yukon River last year on May 27, and the second picture is the widespread flooding behind the ice Jam on May 28th of this year.

Photo Credit: NASA images courtesy LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.



Photo Credit: NASA images courtesy LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.

Above is the Yukon River flooding Galena May 28, 2013.

More information and images can be found HERE.

While erupting volcanoes along the Aleutian Range are not uncommon, there were some views of Pavlof Volcano taken from the International Space Station (ISS) that are worth a look.

Photo Credit: ISSA Crew, NASA

Above is the erupting Pavlof Volcano on May 18, 2013 taken from the ISS. It is located between Sand Point and Cold Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. The Volcano just to the right of Pavlof is Pavlof’s Sister, and is also a volcano.

A summary of the recent Pavlof eruption with a few more ISS photos can be found HERE.

This most recent eruption of Pavlof Volcano was downgraded by the Alaska Volcano Observatory on May 28th as activity subsided.

Nenana Borough and Taxes

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Photo Credit: peptic_ulcer

There is a study being done to provide information about options for a borough in the unincorporated area encompassing Nenana and many villages in the interior. There are four borough options that have been set out as talking points.

The two of them that would involve being annexed into other large boroughs could probably be dismissed because of the lack of services that would be provided, especially the Fairbanks North Star Borough option which would implement a sizable property tax burden on the residents.

The other two options on the table are the “Greater” Nenana Area Borough, which would basically be Nenana, the portion of the Parks Highway that isn’t already in a borough, and the immediately surrounding areas, and the Middle Tanana-Yukon Borough which would be the “Greater” Nenana Area and also a large section of rural Alaska which would include Tanana, Rampart, Minto, and other villages.

Note that it includes the Livengood area north of Fairbanks that is outside the current FNSB boundary. Of those two options, the Middle Tanana-Yukon Borough seems to have the most traction with supporters of a borough forming, because of the possibility of taxing the portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that runs through it. I wanted to point out some items that the proponents of the Borough might want to consider:

You cannot just do a property tax for a specific segment, like industrial uses.

If you implement a property tax, you have to apply it to all residential, commercial and industrial property. There are exemptions that can be applied, up to $50,000 in valuation for residential, a senior exemption, and some others, but you will still have the tax, and you will be taxed on all the non-exempted property.

You will then always face the possibility of having your land taken from you if you can’t pay the tax, as happens every year to property owners in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. There are no exemptions allowed for commercial use, so businesses will be hit hard, and have to pass those taxes onto the consumers if they can (mostly local residents). The only tax allowed on the pipeline is a property tax, so to tax the pipeline, you will have to tax the residents.

The owners of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline have been in court with the taxing boroughs since 2006 on the valuation of the pipeline, disputing that it is worth as much as the State says it is. All the money that has been collected since then is still encumbered, and some portion may need to be paid back when the final court decision has been rendered. To date, the Fairbanks North Star Borough has put out approximately $6 million fighting the legal battle in court.

One other point that applies to both the large and small borough concepts is that a borough has to pay a minimum amount of the funding for their schools. If you have the right industries you may be able to come up with an alternate form of taxation like the Denali Borough did to avoid having property taxes, but you will have to have some kind of tax to pay that minimum amount. This in turn will lower the amount of money that the School District receives from the State, as the current school funding formula penalizes the organized boroughs.

This article has been written to specifically discuss funding issues, but there is also plenty to talk about in regards to planning, land use regulation and the cost of the bureaucracy that will be required. Borough formation is a major decision that should not be taken lightly; hopefully everyone involved will do the necessary research to make good decisions.

The website for the Nenana Borough Study is: www.SheinbergAssociates.com/NenanaStudy.

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Lance Roberts is a Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly member who is also the Alaska Republican Party District 5 Chair.

Alaska is Bringing Common Core Through the Back Door

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Photo Credit: truth in american education

After former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said no to the Race to the Top money it looks like Alaska may end up with the Common Core State Standards anyway.

A reader emailed me to let me know that the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development recently announced that they have joined the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium after adopting new standards. Below is their press release from April 19, 2013:

Alaska Joins Multi-State Assessment Consortium

JUNEAU – Following a recent adoption of new student standards, Alaska has chosen to join the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), a state-led consortium developing assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Because Alaska’s new standards in English/language arts and mathematics have been vetted as college-ready and career-ready, and are sufficiently similar to the Common Core, the SBAC assessments will provide valid and reliable results for Alaska.

“The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” said Alaska Education Commissioner Mike Hanley.

SBAC will produce assessments for implementation by the 2014-2015 school year for grades 3 through 8 and 11. These grades meet the current testing requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. SBAC also will provide formative assessments that may be used during the year to better prepare students and guide teachers in their instruction.

SBAC also will determine the assessment scores that indicate levels of achievement such as advanced, proficient, below proficient, and far below proficient. For the 11th grade assessment, SBAC will work with higher education to define benchmark scores that indicate whether a student is on track to be college-ready, meaning that students should not need remedial courses in English and math in postsecondary institutions.

Students in SBAC states will take year-end assessments on computers in the spring. The assessments will be adaptive, meaning they are individualized to each student by basing questions on the student’s response to previous questions. This method produces a more accurate understanding of each student’s achievement.

As with Alaska’s current standards and assessments, the use of SBAC assessments does not dictate curriculum or teaching methods. Standards and assessments present a goal. School districts retain their authority to decide how to reach this goal.

The Alaska State Board of Education announced they adopted new standards on June 11, 2012, but made no mention of alignment with the Common Core State Standards or how the standards were developed. The state board announced on December 19, 2011 a public comment period for the new standards that would go through May 12, 2012, but again no mention of the Common Core State Standards or how these standards were developed.

As with other states there was not a vote by the Alaska State Legislature.

If you look at Alaska’s math standards you can see they are aligned with the Common Core Math Standards. Now compare the Alaska ELA standards with the Common Core ELA Standards. Yet there is no recognition from the Common Core State Standards Initiative that Alaska has signed an MOU.

I’m curious who authorized them to do this? The larger question is after fighting centralization off why would they give in, and then do it under the radar?

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Originally published at Truth In American Education. Republished in full with permission.

Joe Miller Moves Forward With Senate Bid, Appears on Cavuto (+video)

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Tea party favorite Joe Miller has filed Federal Election Commission papers to challenge incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, one of several sitting Democrats seen as vulnerable by the GOP.

“Support from the grass roots has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are moving forward within those guidelines organizing, fundraising, and coordinating with our volunteer base,” Mr. Miller said in a statement when Politico.com broke the news Tuesday.

Miller is best known for challenging incumbent Republican US Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010. With the backing of national tea party groups and Sarah Palin, he beat Senator Murkowski in the GOP primary by 2,006 votes out of 109,750 cast.

But Murkowski, a moderate Republican, came back to wage a write-in campaign backed by native corporations, political action committees, and some unions, dashing Miller’s hopes and holding onto her seat – the first time in more than 50 years that a US Senate candidate had won a write-in campaign.

Miller did not go down without a fight, however, challenging the election results up the Alaska state court system until a federal judge finally dismissed Miller’s suit and Murkowski was certified as the winner two months later.

Read more from this story HERE.

Waters Continue to Rise in Galena Flooding

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State emergency officials say more than 300 people have been evacuated out of Galena, or left on their own after Yukon River flooding hit the community hard.

Wednesday afternoon, river forecasters with the National Weather Service said chunks of ice along a small portion of the ice jam — which spans about 30 miles — broke free and released some floodwaters.

Pre-Flood:

Photo Credit: NASA


Post-Flood:

Photo Credit: NASA

Read more from this story HERE.

District Chair’s Report on the Alaska Republican Party SCC Homer Meeting

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Photo Credit: Wonderlane

The first piece of action during the Homer SCC meeting was during roll-call when they refused to seat the legally elected chair of District 12 (with the minutes to prove it). The current oligarchy has made up a rule that even empty precinct seats count against a District Committee’s quorum. This not only flies in the face of common sense and ALL historical precedent, but means almost no district in the state can have a legal quorum for their meetings.

This position also goes against the testimony of those who were present when the precincts were eliminated from the rules. Those who had been involved when the rules were revised, pointed out that the only “authorized” precinct seats on the committee were those that were filled. I talked to a number of District Chairmen who have now decided not to try and hold any meetings, since something similar might happen to them. It basically gives the Establishment the ability to shut down any district they want, and keep their money if their account was handled by the State party; in fact, the Treasurer has refused to give the money back to District 12 after they passed a resolution requesting their funds back. Later in the meeting the SCC voted to have the “interim” chair, someone who had lost a prior election to the committee and was appointed by the State chair, completely reorganize District 12, breaking the rules set in place that require the secretary to be in charge of any reorganization.

Next, some special orders were brought up just for this meeting, most of no consequence, but along the lines of secrecy that have been implemented (i.e. no recordings) they even tried to ban photographs. I motioned to remove that restriction and it was removed by the body.

The appeals were then held for Russ Millette and Debbie Brown. In a real display of poor process, the SCC made up rules that new evidence couldn’t be submitted. Nevertheless, the body overrode the chair when it came to Debbie Brown’s appeal, since she hadn’t been given the chance to present evidence before. Both appeals were rejected, though the evidence was overwhelming in their favor, but right and wrong didn’t get to play into it. What we saw was the same drama we’ve seen over the last year since the 2012 State Convention; the moderates stomping on the conservatives without regard for rule by law or the vote of the convention.

One of the sad points that was raised included the fact that Mrs. Brown had found out that the Regional Reps (except for the Fairbanks region) had no proof of being elected. One of those reps, who had lost the election at the convention, was the one who charged Debbie Brown, but three months later he still had no proof of his election. This also echoes a point that was brought up in the District 12 fiasco where someone had appointed themselves precinct leader, and demanded to be part of the District committee and was one of the complainants against the District 12 committee because they wouldn’t just accept his word for it. It really highlighted how the standards of voting have degenerated for our party.

The SCC approved all the committee assignments, but without splitting them up to allow comments. So now, we have the same rules committee that has always excluded all the charges against those on their side of the fence, and has never even bothered to fix the typos in the rules. The only change made was to swap the chairman with someone else in the committee. Note that the last chairman, who is now still a member of the committee, was the one who spoke publicly against the Republican Senate candidate in 2010, and was running the committee that dismissed the charges against himself.

The Vice-Chair was then elected, with the encouraging result of David Eichler, a conservative dentist from North Pole, being elected.

Finally, the SCC voted on the next conventions. One positive result was that Fairbanks was voted to have it for 2016. The negative result was that Juneau was chosen for 2014 (May 1-3). While I enjoyed the 2010 convention there, and the people in Juneau do a good job running events; it is the most expensive venue to have a convention, since you have to fly in and the hotel rates are very high. It was sad that Wasilla was denied after not having a convention there for many years, but many more grassroots conservatives would have made it to Wasilla, so it just couldn’t be allowed to happen. We can only hope that the conservative republicans in the State overcome the obstacles that the moderates have set before them and participate in the 2014 State Convention, not allowing the triumph of evil men.

The next SCC meeting was then set for August 24th in Fairbanks. Immediately after the meeting the Assistant Secretary, who had also been elected by the same group of conservatives as the ousted chairs, resigned.
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Lance Roberts is a Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly member who is also the Alaska Republican Party District 5 Chair.

Alaska’s Revolving Door Justice at Work: Convict Charged in Elderly Couple’s Murder, Infant’s Rape

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Photo Credit: AP/ADNIn 2009, Jerry Andrew Active was charged with multiple felony counts surrounding a sexual assault on an eleven year old girl. With the blessing of Judge Vanessa White, a Murkowski appointee, he pled out his case and received three years to serve for attempted felony sexual abuse of a child. Additionally, he was convicted of felony assault on a child as well as criminal trespass.

Judge White also imposed four years of suspended time on the condition of Active’s compliance with all probation terms, including good behavior.

In Alaska, a defendant is only required to serve two-thirds of his sentence as long as he doesn’t get in trouble while incarcerated. After Active was released in 2012, he managed to violate his probation on multiple occasions. The State of Alaska filed petitions to revoke his probation and a new judge, Gregory Miller, required Active to serve 120 days of his suspended sentence in January. When he violated conditions again, Judge Miller required Active to serve an additional 150 days in March.

Because Active received credit for time served, he was out of jail again this month. And here’s what allegedly happened:

A man who has been charged with killing an elderly Alaska couple and raping their 2-year-old great-granddaughter is a registered sex offender convicted of breaking into a home and assaulting an 11-year-old girl four years ago.

Jerry Andrew Active, 24, was convicted in 2010 of assaulting the girl near Dillingham, Alaska, while her family slept.

Authorities say that on Saturday, Active broke into the apartment home of Touch Chea, 71, and his wife Sorn Sreap, 73, and beat the couple to death. He also raped Sreap, police said.

He was still inside the residence when their grandson, his pregnant wife and son arrived. The grandson, Von Seng, fought Active, but the assailant managed to flee. He was arrested nearby only wearing boxer shorts, authorities said.

“He took the old, the innocent,” Seng told the Anchorage Daily News. “Come face me.”

The Daily Mail reported that the injuries sustained were gruesome:

The two-year-old was taken to hospital for a forensic physical examination, and it was discovered that she had also been physically assaulted.

She was taken to a hospital where she underwent surgery for her injuries.

Investigators were affected by the brutality and the ages of the victims, police department spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

‘They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives,’ Shell said.

Fishermen Found Guilty, Although Court Agrees Subsistence Salmon Fishing is Religious

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Photo Credit: Alaska PublicNearly 50 fishermen were cited for illegal salmon fishing last June. Half of them pled not guilty and have been fighting it in court ever since.

In recent weeks, the fishermen had been waiting to hear a decision on whether they have the religious right to subsistence fish, even during state closures.

The trial resumed May 20 in Bethel and the fishermen packed into the courtroom with some people left standing in the hallway. It was a trial by judge and Judge Bruce Ward, in a gentle voice, said the court found that the state’s need to restrict King salmon supersedes the fishermen’s right to religious practice.

“The court wants all parties to know that this was a very difficult decision to make,” Ward said. “This was not easy.”

The fishermen were challenging the state based on a free exercise clause of the Alaska constitution, arguing that subsistence fishing is a religious practice and that when they fished last summer during closures, they were practicing their religion.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Volcano’s Ash Prompts Flight Cancellations

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Photo Credit: APAn Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash.

Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments at the volcano show continuing tremors.

“Seismically, it’s been pretty steady over the last 12 hours,” geologist Chris Waythomas said late Monday morning.

The abrasive ash has not risen enough to threaten international air traffic passing over the volcano-rich Aleutian arc, Waythomas said. Ash emissions have gone high enough, however, to affect flights of some smaller planes.

Anchorage-based regional carrier Penair has canceled a dozen passenger and cargo flights to several remote communities since Sunday afternoon. The communities include Sand Point, which reported a dusting of ash Sunday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Judge Shafts Joe Miller in FNSB Case

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Photo Credit: KTUUIn yet another dubious move by the Alaska Court System, Judge Stephanie Joannides awarded the news blog Alaska Dispatch an inordinate sum totaling almost 100K in legal fees from the Miller v. FNSB court case. Joe Miller was ordered to pay 85K, this despite the fact that the majority of the fees were billed either before Miller intervened in the case or after they were a relevant party to the case.

The Alaska Dispatch remained party to the case long after the Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reasonably withdrew, and had agreed not to petition the court for legal fees.

To any remotely objective observer, the Dispatch had no legitimate reason to remain party to the case outside of the source material they may have been able to gain through first-hand observation of the Borough depositions, a raw profit motive, or perhaps prurient interest.

In fact, Dispatch attorneys even admitted that they had no reason to be in the case, given that Mr. Miller had filed no action against them. Yet they still sought fees long after the case was decided in their favor, and from actions they had unilaterally undertaken, dating all the way back to Sept. 2010, weeks before Miller intervened in the case.

How is Miller responsible for expenses accrued by the Dispatch’s lawsuit against the Borough before he chose to intervene? Or for the debts accumulated long after they ceased to be a relevant party to the case?

Following is the breakdown of the fee schedule stated in Mr. Miller’s appeal:

“According to Alaska Dispatch’s counsel, he billed 123.1 hours of attorney’s fees from September 9, 2010 through October 19, 2010, when Mr. Miller intervened in this lawsuit; 34.6 hours from October 20, 2010 through October 26, 2010, when Alaska Dispatch obtained its relief; and 291 hours after October 27, 2010, while the cross-claims and third-party claim between Mr. Miller and FNSB/Whitaker were being litigated.”

Equally troubling is how Judge Joannides was assigned to the case in the first place, and subsequent revelations that she had a financial relationship with a Dispatch employee.

Under normal circumstances a judge would be assigned through a random selection process. However, in the FNSB case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court intervened and hand-picked Judge Joannides. This is a very rare move, perhaps unprecedented outside of this particular case.

Moreover, Judge Joannides had rented her basement apartment to an Alaska Dispatch employee, but claimed that the fact was irrelevant to the case. This begs the question of whether it was a random coincidence. Does the Judge have further relationships with other folks at the Dispatch?

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Tom is author of the blog ‘It’s a Kwazy Life: Analyzing the Sanity in Politics That Control Our Lives’ and is also a Construction worker in Anchorage Alaska. This story first appeared at his blog HERE.