Two visitors from Toronto who were eating breakfast at Snow City Cafe in Anchorage on Friday, Barb Goddard and Heather Ayers, confessed that they had been unaware until then that Obama had stopped in at the restaurant.
That changed when server Cindy Kim circulated the large crowd at the entrance to pass around samples of the type of sticky buns that Obama bought on Monday. Goddard and Ayers learned the backstory and they indulged. “Better than anything in Canada,” Goddard proclaimed.
“Herschell Becker acknowledged that it was a big risk to offer a bribe to the Air Force official, but that he would do it again because it cost him $60,000 to repair the problems and he would have much rather have given the Air Force official $10,000,” it said. “The Beckers also mentioned that they were bidding on other jobs in Alaska and would like to win the business.”
Herschell Becker acknowledged that the fiber optic cables installed by the company would not pass a testing requirement. The Beckers described the additional money they would have to pay to stay in Alaska longer than planned. Herschell Becker then offered the Air Force official $5,000 to accept the company’s installation work. He agreed, the release said.
“Jack Becker also told the Air Force official that he knew there was more work coming up next summer and that ADA Station Communication was going to try to bid that too, so things could get better down the road,” the release said.
On Aug. 28, Herschell Becker texted the Air Force official that his brother would be “getting with him today,” the release said. He said if the Air Force official could put in a good word about the company, “it would be well worth his while," according to the release.
That day, an employee at ADA Station Communication wired $5,000 cash to Jack Becker from a Walmart in Crossville. Becker hand-delivered the money to the Air Force official, the release said.
In March 2015, federal prosecutors charged Herschell Becker and ADA Station Communication Inc. with three counts of bribery of a public official. John Becker was charged with two counts of bribery of a public official.
The Beckers and the company are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6 and Nov. 10 in Anchorage.
The brothers could face up to 15 years in prison, three years’ supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count. The maximum penalty for ADA Station Communication is up to five years’ probation and a fine of up either $500,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater.
The new reports come at a time of intense scrutiny for Alaska's prison system. Gov. Bill Walker in August announced a review of prison policies and safety measures after a string of inmate deaths.
Regula, 90, spent 36 years in Congress and retired in 2009. He is miffed about McKinley’s sudden downfall, complaining to reporters that this is an Obama stunt to placate a small number of people in Alaska.
"I don't think he has the authority to do that. I think it's a cheap shot by the president to make a certain group of people in Alaska happy,” Regula told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
This week he told a reporter he’s worried that Obama might change the name of the Ohio River to the “United States River.” Someone should tell him to stop worrying.
He said it was “my prerogative” to stop the McKinley change. This confession undercuts the complaints from offended Ohioans who claim Obama is working to circumvent the will of Congress and destroy America.
As for McKinley, residents of Ohio should take solace in knowing that the name will remain on the maps of Alaska. I visited Dillingham -- a small, vibrant coastal city that sits on Nushagak Bay, at the heart of the Bristol Bay salmon-fishing district. I had the opportunity to stand on a beach and watch subsistence fisherman pull their catches up out of the water. If you’ve eaten wild salmon, there’s a good chance it came from here -- and having sampled some pretty outstanding salmon jerky, I can attest that it’s delicious.
It was fascinating to see fishing skill that has been built up over hundreds of years at work -- and a reminder that the beautiful waters of this region have come to house a massive economic engine. The region provides 40 percent of America’s wild-caught seafood, and helps support a $2 billion commercial fishing industry whose jobs extend beyond Alaska’s borders. That’s why we took action last December to shut off oil and gas exploration in this area indefinitely — and why I’ll continue to support efforts to protect this community as long as I’m President.
At Dillingham Middle School, I got to watch (and dance with) a group of young people performing a traditional Yup’ik dance -- a cultural tradition which spans millennia. And I rode with Robin, a lifelong Dillingham resident, who described to me how the frozen tundra of his youth has transformed into scrub forest in just a few decades as a result of a warming climate.
From there, it was on to Kotzebue -- a town of about 3,000 26 miles above the Arctic Circle. The town’s main roadways, the community’s blood line, runs right above the Kotzebue Sound, making it very vulnerable to coastal erosion and the intense arctic storms that can raise the water levels much higher than normal high tides. After speaking to folks at the local high school, I got a chance to take a look at the Kotzebue Shore Avenue Project -- made of thousands of feet of roadway, sheet pile, and armor stone -- which has protected the roadway and was paid for, in part, with federal transportation funds. It’s a reminder of exactly why we fight so hard for infrastructure spending. It’s for communities like these.
The Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, an authoritative source on such things, cites 11 waterways known as McKinley Creek in Alaska, along with the McKinley River, the McKinley Bar and the McKinley Peak, the latter name reported in 1914 for a 2,351-foot summit in the Chugach Mountains. At least some of those honor the late president who was known as the
Christensen says this was the first predator activity around the reindeer pen, which is built in the middle of town. “We felt as if they were pretty safe, because there was a lot of activity and people watching them,” says Christensen, “but this happened in the early morning hours, and it was unexpected.”
Of the 29 reindeer that survived the trip from Stebbins/St. Michael’s to Port Heiden in early July, 14 now remain. The village originally planned to raise around 60 deer to re-establish the practice of reindeer herding in the area.
Despite the incident, Christensen says the village is still excited for the future of the reindeer farm. They’ve installed electric fencing to protect against predators, and will be keeping a closer watch during dark hours.
The village is also searching for more reindeer to rebuild the herd, as well as financial resources to support it. Its sleek, modern website invites users to sponsor a deer, becoming a reindeer “friend/cousin,” “auntie/uncle,” “grandpa/grandma,” or “mother/father.”
Christensen says the 14 remaining deer are becoming more habituated by the day. Resident Dmitri Christensen has taken over the daily care of the animals, which are now tame enough to be moved in and out of the pen daily to graze.
“They absolutely adore him. They follow him around,” says Adrianne Christensen. “The ones we have left are very, very spoiled and happy deer.”
The reindeer project is just one piece of the village’s larger goal: to bring food security to the people of Port Heiden.
“Every community on the Alaska Peninsula used to be self-sustaining … and now we’re not,” says Christensen. “And we’re hoping to change that. We’re hoping that in the case of an emergency, we can still eat.”
Over the next year, in addition to reindeer herding, the village plans to raise chickens for both meat and eggs, grow a community garden, and release rehabilitated moose calves into the surrounding lands.
Last Thursday, yet another husbandry experiment commenced when three pigs arrived in Port Heiden. A post to the village’s Facebook page cheerfully invited residents to stop by and visit the animals and to bring them treats of fruit or vegetable scraps. Like most of the village’s food initiatives, it appears the pigs will be both a learning experience and a collective responsibility.
“We’re going to try our hand at keeping pigs,” says Christensen. “We’re all in charge of taking care of all the animals.” Piksik LLC, an Alaska film and commercial production company with five full-time employees, will close at the end of September.
Piksik President Robin Kornfield said the closure would also shutter Alaska House Media, a recent collaboration between Piksik and local NBC affiliate KTUU.
Created in 2011, Piksik is wholly owned by the Alaska Native regional corporation NANA. It joined forces with KTUU and its parent company Schurz Communications last February to form Alaska House Media, but the partnership never produced a feature film or television show.
Piksik said its business model relied on work brought to the state by the Alaska Film Production Tax Credit Program. The program offered tax credits to the film industry for work done in state. Productions could then sell the credits to other companies – offsetting the cost of shooting in Alaska.
Facing criticism from opponents who said the program mainly subsidized out-of-state workers -- at a time when legislators were facing a projected $3.5 billion deficit in the state budget -- the program was canceled by a bill that easily passed the Alaska Legislature and was signed by Gov. Bill Walker in June.
"The premise under which we formed the company is that Alaska would become a destination for producing full feature films," Kornfield said. "That’s really the thing that will build an opportunity for