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March 29, 2024

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No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Audit Committee To Discuss ABT Tax Report

On Sunday, July 15th, the Anchorage Daily News ran a comprehensive story by Richard Mauer. It discussed a determination made by municipal tax assessor Marty McGee regarding accusations that the Anchorage Baptist Temple had violated the law relating to specific tax-exempt properties belonging to the church. Mel Green at Bent Alaska gives us some background: “The issue was first reported in a story broken by Bent Alaska on August 29, 2011, based on court documents in the divorce trial of ABT pastor Jerry Prevo’s son Allen Prevo and Holly Jo Jaggers (who returned to her maiden name after the divorce),…

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Palin Hurls Self Into Spotlight. Again.

First I wrote about her to inform people. Then I wrote about her because she was a hilarious political train wreck. Then I wrote about her because she annoyed me. Then I started writing about her because she really made me mad. Then I ignored her. All of these actions shared the same unfortunate result. She did not go away. Well, she went away from Alaska, this is true. She said she did it for us. She’d be better able to work for Alaska from Outside, she said. Maybe while she’s out there, she can also find the “real killers.”…

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Muni Played Favorites With Ballots (*Update*)

In last week’s installment of the Municipality of Anchorage’s continuing 2012 Election debacle, new Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones made a disturbing find while attempting to (quite literally) clean up the old Municipal Clerk’s mess…141 unaccounted-for ballots. This has led the trusty Election Commission to meet this coming Thursday and review the ballots they missed the first two times around. While all of that has been going on, members of our Recount Observation Team have continued to research and slowly pursue the auditing process the Municipality has refused to provide. …and it’s been free of charge… The latest bombshell was discovered…

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Uncounted Ballots: A New Can Of Worms

I’ll admit it…I’m tired of the Anchorage Municipal Election of 2012. It’s a kind of migraine-inducing, bone-aching, paralysis-producing exhaustion that I’ve rarely experienced. I know that’s how I felt after our team of 10 qualified voters and fabulous volunteer observers worked their butts off on the hand recount. The team “observed” and went above and beyond to report the issues and the craziness that happened during this hand recount. However, they did not stop there. The Team also poured (and continues to pour) time and energy into further investigation of the election issues in general, going way-beyond their “job description”…

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Recount Team Meets with the Anchorage Assembly

(Tonight at the Anchorage Assembly Meeting, the Members will hear and vote upon a Resolution (9.B.7), submitted by Assemblywoman Gray-Jackson and co-sponsored by Harriet Drummond and Patrick Flynn, that is intended to refund the $1,500.00 the Recount Application Group submitted to the Municipality. The money was required by Title 28 in order to request and generate the hand count of 15 precincts. The Resolution was a result of the report and meeting described in the post below. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, votes against it.) The Election Board Counts Precinct 840, Service High On Friday, June…

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Election Recount Worksession With Assembly — Join Us!

The April 3rd Anchorage Municipal Election Recount Group will be meeting with the Anchorage Assembly in a Worksession this Friday to share our findings and recommendations with them.  Per the website: ***************************************** Worksession – Election Recount Issues  From 06/15/12 1:00 PM To 06/15/12 2:00 PM City Hall 632 W 6th Ave Anchorage Alaska Conference Room 830 ***************************************** This is a public meeting, as are all Assembly Meetings and Worksessions. WE HIGHLY ENCOURAGE ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE FUTURE OF ELECTIONS IN ANCHORAGE TO SHOW UP IF YOU CAN! Our Recount Group now includes the 10 original signers plus some…

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Steve Aufrecht’s Interview with Guadalupe Marroquin, Former Anchorage Election Chief

by Linda Kellen Biegel Steve Aufrecht’s blog “What Do I Know” is an often in-depth look at issues dealing with politics, cooking, travel and snippets from everyday life. Yesterday, Steve came up with quite the “get” — he’s the first one who was able to publish an interview with Guadalupe “Lupe” Marroquin, former Deputy Clerk in Charge of Elections for the Municipality. (One of the first things an independent investigator should “investigate” is why the Muni Clerk’s Office never hired a replacement after Lupe left. Instead, the “additional duties” were given to Deputy Clerk Jaqueline Duke, even though there is…

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School Board Candidate Wants to Outsource Orchestra Program? **UPDATE**

By Linda Kellen Biegel Observant earwigs noticed a little story in  last Sunday’s Alaska Ear talking about a rather big boo boo perpetrated by the Municipal Clerk’s Office. That office works with the Anchorage Assembly and directly for the Chair, Debbie Ossiander. (She’s one of the Mayor’s “yes” men/women on the Assembly…the group I’ve nicknamed “Team Sully.”) WHAT’S IN A NAME … The muni clerk’s office is apparently confused about which of Starr Marsett’s names is her first name. Looks like it guessed, and got it wrong — at least on the ballot Ear got: Marsett is a candidate for School Board….

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Minnery Misrepresents One Anchorage Fundraising

by Mel Green (Originally posted at Bent Alaska) Nearly 1,100 Alaskans — about 75% of contributors — have so far donated to One Anchorage, a March 7 press release announced. But it didn’t take long for anti-LGBT leader Jim Minnery to claim that “Outside Gay Rights Funds Bankroll Prop. 5 Supporters,” completely ignoring One Anchorage’s numerous in-state contributors. Minnery, president of the antigay/antitrans Alaska Family Council and chair of its associated 501(c)(4) advocacy organization Alaska Family Action, is also chair of the anti-Proposition 5 group “Protect Your Rights — Vote No on 5.”  Proposition 5, the Anchorage Equal Rights Initiative,…

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…and Baby Makes Three.

Yesterday, I was on the Shannyn Moore Show (1020koan.com) for my weekly segment, Thursdays in the Mud. I’d just come from the press conference held by the One Anchorage campaign which will put basic equal rights for the LGBT community on this spring’s Municipal ballot. It proposes the radical notion that gay and transgendered people should not face legal discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, education and the use of public facilities. During the show, a perennial homophobic caller decided to voice his opinion about “homo encounter relations” and went on a rant about the unnatural nature of gay…

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