With only one of three federal district court judgeships now occupied, the Alaska federal courts face a judicial emergency under the definition used by the nonpartisan administrative office of the federal court system.

A judicial emergency requires specific criteria about excessive case load levels. An emergency is also assumed to exist in “any court with more than one authorized judgeship and only one active judge.”

With the forced resignation of Judge Josh Kindred, the only federal district judge in Alaska is Judge Sharon Gleason.

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Gabrielle Rubenstein announced plans to resign from the Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees Wednesday, but not before providing a key vote in removing Ethan Schutt as chairman and replacing him with Jason Brune.

Former Attorney General Craig Richards referred to it as a “coup.” I have heard from other sources that the trustees had informally agreed in private to make Brune the chair. The vote was 4-2 with Richards and Schutt opposed.

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Truth is the first casualty of war, even in imaginary wars.

I want to deal here today with the 68 alleged executive orders and actions that Sullivan cites in his shock and awe campaign.

On December 8, 2021, in one of the first speeches he gave in Congress about the Biden war on Alaska, Sullivan said multiple times that there were “20 executive orders in eight months” and portrayed these as sanctions or direct attacks on working families.

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Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s analysis on President Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of the 2024 race is cogent and enlightening. If you haven’t done so already, listen to what she said Sunday night.

I am in awe of the discipline and skill required to produce her daily “Letters from an American,” which has more than 1.5 million subscribers. She has her critics, but I know of no one else writing about history and politics with such finesse on the brutal schedule she keeps.

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Moms for Liberty is a nationwide group that circulates lists of books it wants to ban from public school libraries.

The Moms also object to anyone saying that Moms for Liberty want to ban books from public school libraries.

Moms for Liberty want to be able to decide what materials the children of other people should have access to in school.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan acts as if the Trump platform is the greatest political document since the U.S. Constitution, not the written version of an incoherent Trump speech, minus references to Hannibal Lector and imaginary shark attacks on electric boats.

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I see in the Anchorage Daily News that Anchorage legislative candidate Mia Costello is saying she is proud of the Republican platform, which she helped write as a member of the platform committee.

“I think it really hits the high points. I wouldn’t change a word of it. I’m really happy to support it,” said Costello, who is running against Denny Wells in Anchorage.

No one who reads the platform will be fooled into thinking that the leading minds of the GOP have any idea what they are shouting about.

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If the state is going to claim in a lawsuit that it is owed $24.56 billion, then the contract attorneys hired to push this case shouldn’t be admitting in the same lawsuit that the real number might be $24 billion less than that amount.

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The Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees is set to meet July 24 in Fairbanks, a regular quarterly meeting at which decisions will be made and updates presented regarding the policy direction of this vital institution.

But there are only five members of the trustees at this point—two employees of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a former employee of Dunleavy’s, a contract employee of Dunleavy’s and Gabrielle Rubenstein, a political supporter of Dunleavy’s.
The chairman’s position has been vacant since July 1, when Ethan Schutt’s four-year term expired.

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It’s time for Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to be candid with Alaskans about how their flawed political process helped elevate Josh Kindred to a lifetime seat on the federal bench.

They now admit he was the wrong man for the job. They don’t admit that their secrecy and lack of transparency is part of the problem.

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