The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host, not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KPNR. Amy Demboski, the show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650, KENI. Good morning. It is Thursday, March 6th, current time, 6.06 a.m. I have to tell you, I apologize to everyone in advance. I jinxed everybody. Because I started talking about taking my snow tires off yesterday.
I'm still taking them off, Daryl. It's happening. That is my husband's. That is on the honeydew list for the next couple weeks. They're coming off. So that's just hilarious because just so you know. In Anchorage, all we've had is rain. It's 34 to 36 degrees. It's wet. It's that. But I looked at my cameras for Palmer. Oh, yeah. There is snow in Palmer. I'm not happy about it. I'm a little irritated, to be honest with you. I'm not happy about it. But what can you say?
I mean, you know, the effort is futile, as they say. Nice little Borg reference. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. Yeah, but, you know, as I'm looking at it. No, the high is above freezing today. There is no chance. Right now it's 32.2 degrees at my house. It ain't going to stick. Oh, no, it's melting everywhere on the cameras. Like I said, you can see it melting.
But that doesn't mean that it didn't snow. You guys probably got an inch and a half, two inches out there. I'm very irritated right now. But the high today is going to be 39. So, like I said. By lunchtime, it's all going to be gone, so I'm really not worried about it. Guys, doing snow removal, take a coffee break. By the time your coffee warms up and you get, you know, get through your first...
First cup, it's going to be melted. Guys, don't listen to her plow, plow, plow, plow. You know the deal. It'll be fine. And for those of you who bought snowblowers last year at the end of season, thinking this year was going to be another one of those six to eight foot snow years. Get out there and use it, man. At least get at least two uses on it. Not a chance. Not a chance. Look, just pretend it didn't happen, and by the time you come home from work, it'll all be gone.
Oh, my word. How was your morning, Daryl? You know, actually, it's been pretty good. Last night was super warm and really windy. I know you guys just had snow out there. It probably wasn't windy. Really windy. So that kind of kept me having to look around outside because I kept hearing noises and make sure that everything was secure. But this morning, I walked out.
Car was covered in water. I was happy. Roads are in great shape here in Anchorage, just like I said, sloppy and wet. But all the way up to the flats, basically to the Knick River Bridge, there's snow. And then it goes back to just being springtime in Alaska. Springtime in Alaska. Yeah, I'm looking at my cameras right now, and I'm not happy with what I see. I'm going to stop. Do you have to get out the snow blower? Not a chance. Not a chance. Not a chance. Not doing it. Not doing it.
Not a chance. You know, I'm totally fine with the little snow in Alaska. I'm Alaskan. I'm totally cool with it. It doesn't bother me not one bit. It's going to be a great day. What's Bruce think about it? It's going to be sensational. Oh, he's already been out, had his breakfast, and he's sleeping next to me, so he doesn't even care.
He probably wandered around out there going, huh, it's this stuff again, okay. Yeah, exactly. You know, he's a lab. In the morning, he's very mission-focused on getting his food. He's very mission-focused. He goes out, he does his business, he doesn't deal. He runs inside, sits down and waits for his food. Sounds just like me. Right, right, right. Well, I suppose I should do some community announcements, shall I? Okay. I think so. We'll do it.
Let's start with the Matsuburo. There is a planning board meeting tonight. Well, this afternoon at 1 o'clock. You can participate telephonically if you'd like. They have a phone number. Or... You can attend in person. It's going to be in the Assembly Chambers, 350 East Dahlia Avenue in Palmer. If you need more information, just go to matsugov.us. There's a Meadow Lakes Road Service Area Board of Supervisors meeting.
Today at 2 p.m. at the West Lakes Fire Station, that's Station 7-1 off Pittman Road. And last but not least, the Susitna Community Council has a meeting, and their meeting's at 7 p.m. And that will be at the Upper Susitna Community and Senior Center off of Helena Drive in Talkeetna. If you need more information on any of these meetings in the Matsu borough, just go to matsugov.us.
I took a peek at Wasilla and Palmer's calendars, and I did not see anything for public meetings today. So we're just going to skip over those. But we will go into the Municipality of Anchorage. We have a Budget Advisory Commission special meeting today. That's going to be Thursday, March 6th at 1130. Note there is a location change. It's going to be in the 1901 Braga Suite. Street, Suite 199. Again, that's going to be 1901 Braga Street, Suite 199, Anchorage.
It says park and enter the building on the south side. So hopefully that's helpful to you. If you want more information including their agenda, you can go to their website. Go to muni.org. And then if you click on the Mayor's tab and then Events tab, it brings you to Boards and Commissions. There's also a Municipal Airport Advisory Board meeting today.
At noon, that's going to be over there at the Anchorage Fire Training Center, 1140 Airport Heights Road, Building C, Room 9. So it's right behind the old fire station there. off of Airport Heights. And then that does it for boards and commissions for today. As far as the Anchorage Assembly goes,
I didn't see a lot on their calendar. I'm going to pop up their whole calendar here for a second just to make sure I'm not missing anything. I saw two meetings on their calendar for today, but I'm just double checking, making sure. I'm glad I did because there is an extra one.
That wasn't showing up on the first screen. Here we go. Updated Community and Economic Development Committee meeting. That's going to be at 9 a.m. today over there at Elmore Road at the Permit Center. So 4700 Elmore Road. That's at 9 a.m. today. Also today at 11.50, there's a legislative committee meeting at City Hall Conference Room 155. And at 1 o'clock today, there's another work session on the Girdwood Comprehensive Plan. That'll be at City Hall and Conference Room 155.
If you need more information on the Anchorage Assembly's meetings, all you have to do is go to muni.org, click on the Assembly tab, and it brings you to their home landing page. From there, you'll be able to find their agendas for all their work sessions and all that good stuff. So that does it for the Anchorage Assembly.
And I'm just trying to make sure I'm not missing anything. For the Kenai Peninsula Borough, I didn't see anything on their calendar for today. The only other meeting that I see for today is actually the city of Kenai. They have a Parks and Rec Commission meeting. Tonight at 6 p.m., that, of course, will be at City Hall Council Chambers, located at 210 Fidalgo Avenue in Kenai.
If you'd like more information, all you have to do is go to Kenai.city and then go to their calendar and just click the links through, and it'll bring you to all kinds of information, including their agenda. There's nothing on the calendar today for... for the city of Soldotno or the city of Homer. So we'll just skip over those. I have been letting everybody know that Congressman Begich is going to be...
in Alaska, and he is going to be out here in the Matsu on March 15th. He is the keynote speaker for the Valley Republican Women's Club of Alaska. for their Lincoln Day Dinner. It's going to be held at 6.30 p.m. at Settlers Bay Lodge. It's going to be sensational. The menu... They're going to have prime rib. They're going to have chicken marsala. They'll have veggies and potatoes. And, of course, they'll have desserts there. They have a wall of guns, which I'm very excited about.
They have some special auction items. They're going to have a live auction, silent auction, so there's tons of stuff. And actually, yesterday, have you ever seen or been to Cake Studio? I have heard of Cake Studio, but I've never actually been there. Wait, is that the one here in the mall? They have one in the Diamond Center Mall. They have one in the Fifth Avenue Mall. I take it back. I have been in there because I...
So good. I was lured in by the cakes looking through the window, so I had to wander along, and I was very good. I drooled in my own hand. I made sure it got on nothing else. But yeah, those looked good. So I'm obviously a member of the Valley Republican Women's Club, so I'm helping do my little part as they're pulling all this together. So one of them will be like a dessert dash where people run up to the front and grab a dessert.
I ordered yesterday eight cakes from Cake Studio. And, like, it was about a month ago. We had people in the office that had birthdays. And so I ended up ordering three different cakes. from them and one of the the carrot cake we gave away the uh the resident who had their birthday and i got yeah they got a carrot cake they said it was the best carrot cake they've ever had in their life i love carrot cake so i didn't get a piece of that one but i had a piece of the pink champagne cake
Okay, that I've not had. And it was really good. They replaced water with champagne so the alcohol cooks out, you know, but it had just such a nice, mild flavor. It was delicious. So I will tell you. So I've purchased eight cakes from Cake Studio. So I'm telling you, these desserts are going to be off the hook. I'm glad you spread it out over time because literally when you first said that, I thought you liked...
bought eight cakes at once, and I'm thinking to myself, I don't even do that. Well, yesterday I did buy eight cakes, but those eight cakes are for the Lincoln Day dinner. See? So I'm doing my part. I'm bringing them, but I'm telling you. I like the way you linking them in. I need to drumroll myself. Like, I need a little...
you know, symbol or something that I can click when you make a good dad joke. No, the Lincoln Day Dinner, though, it's going to be fun. It's going to be a lot of fun. So if you'd like to get tickets, you can go online to VRWAK.com. Again, the 2025 Lincoln Day Dinner. dinner.
is going to be March 15, 2025 at 6.30 p.m. at Settlers Bay Lodge out here in the Valley. Congressman Nick Begich III will be the keynote speaker. This is a great opportunity. Look, Mike Schauer is going to be the keynote speaker.
the MC there will be a lot of elected officials there I am sure but it's a great opportunity to get together and hear directly from people that are representing us and in this case it'll be our newest congressman so I've been encouraging people to go and get tickets i actually bought a table and i am giving away tickets to the table um so people look you want a free ticket i mean these I will say, it is a semi-formal event, so dust off your Sunday vest.
And it will be a great event. But this is an opportunity for us just to get together and listen to our congressmen and talk with each other. So a little bit later in the show today, I will be giving away tickets to the link. a day dinner. So this is not an iHeartMedia giveaway. This is just an Amy wants to invite her listeners to come out and hear from their congressmen directly.
A little bit later in the show, I'll let you know when to call in. And I have to take your name and phone number because, you know, we need it to know who's coming. So I will be doing that a little bit later in the show. But if you want to buy your own tickets. You're more than welcome to. I encourage you to do so. Just go to VRWAK.com. All right, we're going to go ahead and take our first break in the morning. When we come back, we will start getting into the headlines of the day. Stay with us.
Mornings on News Radio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 623. On this Thursday morning, well, I will tell you, Donald Trump is being reported. Donald Trump had a very lengthy phone call yesterday with Trudeau of Canada. And Trudeau was basically asking what can be done about these tariffs. And Donald Trump said stop the flow of fentanyl into our country. And he's like, well, it's gotten better. But Donald Trump said not good enough. Not good enough.
Better is not what he asked for. He asked for you to send all this stuff to the border, do this, this, and this, and we'll be good. Yeah, I think what he's looking for is to ensure that this isn't like just a temporary, oh, look, we're doing a few things like ruffle around the edges. No, we're actually taking care of it. And look, I got to be honest with you.
I think Donald Trump is doing a great job so far. I think he's doing a great job. So we'll see. It's going to look. The Democrats are, no matter what he does. I think he's right. He could probably cure cancer. And at the end of the day, they'd still say orange man bad. So we just have to put them on disregard and just move forward. And I think that's exactly what Trump's doing. So good on him. And, you know, we'll see. I had heard, I think he.
has a call today or tomorrow with I think today with the Mexican president we you know so he's obviously I mean, they're obviously working it, but he's serious about getting America economically stable again. not only stable, but prosperous and dominant. So it's very exciting to see what's going to happen. But it is not, look, we had four years of Biden and the Democrats trying to effectively
destroy certain institutions and frameworks of this country in order to solidify their political power, it is going to take them a little bit of time to fix it all. I mean, that's the reality. You know, in his state, well, a lot Everybody keeps calling it a State of the Union speech. It technically was not a State of the Union. It was technically a joint session of Congress. But in his speech earlier this week, I've been saying all the time, when they talk about how many...
How many illegal aliens have crossed into the country over the Joe Biden's tenure? You know, they would give you numbers from 10 million, you'd hear 15 million. And I was like, I bet you it's higher than that. I don't know if you noticed, Darrell, but during his speech, Donald Trump said 21 million. I caught that, but I wasn't sure how he was adding them all together.
Yeah, I don't know, but I would think he's the president. He probably knows better than I. Oh, yeah. And my gut told me it was a lot higher than 10 or 15 million. Well, actually, I thought you were saying 17 like a year ago.
I was. I was. I was like, there's just no way. I just did not believe there was... it was 10 million i just from the staggering numbers that you saw it had to be more and that's when you sit back and you think how many of those people are terrorists because you know they're in there even how many of them are how many
Yeah, how many of them are Chinese military? You know they're in there. How many of them are, you know, Russian? You know they're in there. Wagner Group was the one that came to my mind. It's like, yeah, how many Wagner Groups rolled in? You know they're in there. So that's why I say there's no question with numbers like that, unvetted people, people that have just been released into the country, when you see on the route to the U.S. border,
When you see on the route to the U.S. border, there's like a dump for your passports to get rid of all your documentation, that can't be for a good reason. I'm just throwing it out there. It can't be for a good reason. Good Lord. All right, let's go to the phones, and Mr. Randy is with us. Good morning, sir. Randy, are you on mute? There you are. I got you. Okay.
Got me. Okay. Good morning, Mr. Sunshine and Daryl. I'm really interested in what you have to say. And I'm glad it kind of showed because it allowed me to start my seedlings. playing my seeds with whatever a few weeks later. Anyway, going with the joke and we'll proceed with the show. Okay. What is the nose favorite sport? What is a nose favorite sport? Hmm. I don't know this one. Give me the punchline. What is it? Anything but running.
That is a good one. I like it, Randy. All right, I'm going to have to wake up a little, and I will think of a joke, and I will tell a joke later in the show. I promise. I'll come up with one. I actually wrote down, like, three of them yesterday. but I left it out on my kitchen counter so during the commercial break I will run out and get it I promise I love that yeah that's a great one Randy thank you so much for the call this morning bye
Bye-bye. All right. Well, I have to tell you, I just love this show. I will tell you, I love the people that I get to talk to. I love the jokes. I have to tell you, I get excited every time somebody calls in with a joke. Because you know what? We deal with a lot of heavy issues. And with those heavy issues, I know there needs to be a little bit of counterbalance and levity in life. We will see. We will see. You know, I don't know if you saw this
This article that came out yesterday, very sad news, actually, here in Girdwood. But did you see the news about the hell of skiers in Girdwood? I did. That was, yes. Backcountry Alaska is dangerous. It is very dangerous. I saw it up on Alaska Public Media, I think, in Mustard, Alaska. Suzanne has the article here in Mustard. Three hell skiers fear dead in avalanche south of Girdwood.
On Tuesday, guides from a commercial heliskiing operation immediately used avalanche beacons in an attempt to locate three people. They zeroed in an area near West Fork of 20 Mile River in Girdwood. It's estimated the snow bearing the skiers was about 100 feet deep. Limited daylight, deep snow, and avalanche danger prevented guides from recovering the skiers. three skiers on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Alaska State Troopers told Mustry Alaska they are assessing the situation from their air.
But they say the weather has not been cooperative for recovery efforts. They will continue to evaluate the possibility of safely resuming recovery efforts and will likely do so if weather improves. According to the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, in recent days they described avalanche danger where the skiers were buried as considerable with human-triggered avalanches likely.
So since 2020, 11 people have been killed by avalanches in Alaska. Look, avalanches are no joke. No joke. I mean, the only one I've ever actually... The only one I've actually seen up close and personal was the one up on Highland. And it was like, it was awe-inspiring. It was...
tumbling when I drove up on that avalanche and you're standing next to that wall, you know, and it's not even in the deepest part of it, and it looks like you're looking up at a skyscraper. I mean, it was impressive. I mean, there was no doubt about it. So I can only imagine. You know, of course, our hearts and prayers go out to the victims' families. And, you know, I don't know that they've – I haven't seen that they've released names yet. But –
No matter who it is, it's just a very tragic and sad thing. And it's just a reminder, as Daryl said, Alaska is especially... In the backcountry, many places are avalanche country. It's very dangerous. If you have never had avalanche training, I recommend you do so. I recommend you have the right gear. And you're very conscientious about this time of year, especially as it gets really warm. And just be prepared and be knowledgeable and make sure you have a team with you that knows what to do.
emergency situation like that and sometimes it's frankly in God's hands sometimes you just there's nothing you can do and so of course it's just a very sad story coming out of Girdwood and again our hearts and prayers go out to all those impacted ahead and take a quick break if you'd like to call in be part of the show 522-0650 Reach out to Amy now, 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy DeBoski on NewsRadio 650, KENI.
Well, Daryl, I don't know if you got a chance to go over to the Wildemars Theater last night and tell the assembly how excited you are. On how they might be taxing you, giving you a sales tax, you know, in the upcoming future. No, it's Project Anchorage. No, no, no, no, no. Project Spend the Tax Money. This is to make Anchorage so much money.
more we want to draw people to anchorage and you know the number one way we can draw people into an area is to tax them that is right there is no greater way to get people to come to your area than to tax them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I keep telling people, I mean, this is basic, this is basic, basic. I don't know, I want to say the word economics, but let's say basic tax policy. If you want less of something, you tax it more. Bingo. I mean, it's really not complicated.
It's really not. Well, Anchorage has a town hall. You know, they had one last night talking about the proposal for the Assembly's news 3% sales tax. If you missed it, don't worry. You'll have another opportunity to go on Saturday because, you know, that's what you want to do with your Saturday. But it says town hall number two. This is coming from Astrid, Alaska. is being hosted by Felix Rivera and Randy Sold. They are talking about, you know, their proposal. Like, if you get a...
3% sales tax, where should the money go is basically the question. It's going to be in the community room of the Mountain View Library on Saturday, March 8th at 4 p.m. So, of course, the Mountain View Library is located at 120 Burgaw Street. So, if approved by two-thirds of a vote of the assembly, the ordinance would send the sales tax question to municipal voters.
The Project Anchorage is an initiative developed by the Anchorage Economic Development Authority that proposes to enact a temporary 3% sales tax that proponents say will give property tax relief and fund the development of local projects. Picked by the Marxist-dominated Anchorage Assembly. This coming out of Must Read Alaska. Oh, okay. Man, she didn't pull no punches on that one.
So there you have it. So if you didn't get a chance to weigh in last night, you can go on Monday. Or not Monday. Go on Saturday. Saturday to the Mountain View Library at 4 o'clock. And just so you know, if you weighed in previously on one of the first...
first six versions of this bill or assembly resolution that they're trying to do. This is a new one. I won't say a whole new one, but it's been revamped, repackaged, and re-put together. That's why they're holding these meetings again, because, you know, nobody could agree.
that the other ones were worthy. So they're like, well, okay, let's chop a piece out of this. And they put together another Frankenstein tax package. They're going to put it to you. I didn't realize it was over at the Mountain View Library. That really is, A, going to put a hitch into... Who shows up? Because normally everything's over at the one theater over there. But the other thing that's going to be interesting is if it's on Saturday...
The left has a huge amount of protests scheduled for Saturday. I mean, they've got protests everywhere on Saturday. And I think that's part of the reason they might have moved it out of the downtown area. Well, there you have it. You know, I think it's fascinating to me that they didn't put the question on the ballot, the regular ballot. Right. You know, look, when you throw stuff to a special election, usually you have a much lower voter turnout, which means...
You're probably going to get your way. We'll see. We'll see. Well, there is an Anchorage Municipal Election coming up. It's going to be on April 1st. Ballots should go out here in the next couple of weeks. I'm hearing the 14th, I think, is when the ballots are going to start. going out.
But I'm going to give you a run-through of what seats are up here. So we have half the assembly up and a couple school board seats. So Anchorage Assembly candidates, District 1, which is North Anchorage. Right now it's a seat currently held by Daniel Voland. challenged by Daniel George and Nick Danger is also on the ballot. Daniel George
Totally my favorite in that race. District 2, Chugack Eagle River, Jay Baer. That is a seat that is currently held by Mark Littlefield, who is not running for re-election. And in that one, you heard from Jared Gerker yesterday. He is my preferred candidate in that race. And then he has two challengers, a guy named Kyle Walker and David Littleton, which we'll get into.
into that a little bit more in detail in coming days, I'm sure. District 3, West Anchorage. Daryl, this is your district. Currently, the seat is held by Cameron Perez-Verdia. Oh, yeah. And he's being challenged by Jonathan Duckworth and Amy Steen. And Daryl got an awesome little flyer yesterday. He informed me of all kinds of new stuff that I didn't know. Like, I didn't know that Cameron Perez-Verdia was a moderate.
If you look at this flyer that he sent me, he sure did. And this is why I immediately put it in my bag to come to work. Because I started reading down it and went, is this the same guy? Is this Sleepy Perez? No way. Yeah, it's... Let's just say the smoke is blowing around Spina right now. Well, yeah, they're all super excited, super excited about that ballot. So that's District 3, West Anchorage. District 4, Midtown, you have Aaron Baldwin Day.
and Don Smith that are running in that district. District 5, East Anchorage, Angela Frank, John Stiegel, and Yarrow Silvers. District 6, South Anchorage, Girdwood, Turning an Arm. You have Darren, Colbrey, and... Keith McCormick. Now for the Anchorage School Board, we have two seats up, seat A and seat B. Seat A, Margo Bellamy is the incumbent, and she's being challenged by Alexander Rosales.
And then seat B, Kelly Lessons is the incumbent in that seat, and she's being challenged by Mark Anthony Cox. My general strategy with the Anchorage School Board is always, unless it's Dave Donnelly,
Always vote against Ian Covent. And we are speaking just for Dave Donnelly. We are not speaking for anyone else or ourselves. Actually, we're not speaking for Dave. We're speaking only for ourselves. We're always speaking. Yeah, he never speaks for the Anchorage School Board. He's only speaking for himself. That's what he always says. That's his required statement. But so, Ingrid School Board candidates, again, seat A, you have Alexander Rosales, and he's taken on Margo Bellamy. And, like, look.
I'm going to reach out to him, I think, because he's starting to make some noise, shall we say, and getting some reporting. Look, the left is starting to target him, which tells me I probably like him. Yeah, it's one of those, they definitely have taken their eyeball on him. And it sounds like they're worried a little bit about Margo in there. So, let people know. So, we'll see. Of course, then, you know, as we look at the...
The rest of the ballot for Anchorage. Sorry, I just got the hiccups. I'll speak every time you hick. Yeah, as we look at the rest, I'm trying to hold it in. As we look at the rest of the ballot for Anchorage, what we see is we're going to see a lot of bond propositions, but you also will have a number of road service area, limited service area boards and supervisors. You'll see that on there, whether it is...
Road service, or I don't think I see any for fire service area this time, but we have a ton. Well, we have one, Chugac. Bill Stoltz is up, CC. He's running unopposed, though, for the Chugac Fire Service Area Board. Fifteen propositions. 15, I knew there was a lot. Daryl got his League of Women voter pamphlet in the mail yesterday. So, yeah, so it's like, yeah, they're going to, look, they're going to want to spend your money. That's basically what that is.
It will be a pretty hefty ballot as far as... bonds go and ballot propositions go. But it will be one, like I said, in the next couple of weeks, keep an eye out for your mailbox because you will start seeing a lot of flyers come your way for your district. for candidates, but you'll also see your ballot coming in the mail in the next couple of weeks. I just saw something that shocked me, Amy. As I'm looking through this, it is bonded indebtedness.
And they say the current general obligation bonded indebtedness of the municipality of Anchorage, including authorized but unissued bonds as of December 31st, $1,029,827,000? That doesn't actually surprise me. That doesn't surprise me. Ouch. Okay. Ouch. That's a lot. I mean, I wasn't... I didn't... You know, I was thinking you would be close to a billion, but I didn't know that you would have actually breached that already.
There you go, Daryl. Well, Daryl's ready for today's show because Daryl has a spending cap on. You know what that means. Whenever Daryl wears a spending cap, that means Senator James Kaufman's going to be joining the show. He is obviously a senator that represents the... lower hillside kind of area. He's down in Juneau. So in the next hour, we're going to be talking to him, getting an update from Juneau. We're trying to do this check-in with legislators more and more.
and kind of get a pulse on what is going on in Juneau. So we'll get to hear from Senator Kaufman here in just a few minutes. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show. The number is 522-0650. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI.
Welcome back. Well, I took a gander around temperatures around the state, and I will tell you, Daryl, I'm just double-checking them right now. Palmer still at 32.2, Kenai 33, Big Lake 32, Fairbanks 17. And you said Anchorage was about 32? 32. Actually, my thing on the wall here says 34 degrees. Oh, you guys are warming up already. It's like a heat wave.
Heat wave. I've got to tell you, it's a pretty nice day. Yes, out in Palmer, it was snowing this morning, but it's not going to stick. The high today is supposed to be 39, 40, somewhere in there, so it's not going to stick. All right, let's go to the phones, and Jeremy is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. How's it going? Oh, fantastic. I've got to tell you, it's a great day to be an American. Yeah, it's a great day to be an American almost. Yes, sir.
Democrats trying to zero everything, you know. But I just like waking up in the morning and hearing your voice. But I've been calling it for years, Amy. I said, well, once they start taking this permanent fund dividend, then they're going to contact you. Yeah. What they really want is to break into the corpus. Yeah, I got to tell you, look what they did to Social Security. You know, when you start looking at a big pot of money...
And then you introduce politicians to the mix. It's very difficult for them to exercise self-control. And I will say this. I don't think we have a revenue problem. I think we have a spending problem. Yeah. They've been doing this for years now, and I've been seeing it coming on for about the last... 10 years or so, I said, these people are spinning themselves into oblivion.
You're right, and I will tell you, you were right on the money because, and there comes to a point where it just gets ridiculous. We do not have that big of a population here in Alaska. And then if you look at the population, you know, basically... You know, if you have a population of 700 and, say, 25,000 people, maybe 450,000 of those people are working. And of those 450,000 that are working, I mean, you'll probably have a good percentage of them.
say even 60% of them maybe make over $100,000, maybe. And so you look at it, so the population that you can actually tax just shrinks. It's not that big. How many more people are going to move out of the state over this financial dilemma? Yeah, I think that financial dilemma is self-created. When everybody leaves, who are they going to attack? Yeah. That's a good point. Look, the level of spending is not sustainable. Good point. Yeah, they're going to get their state park after all, eventually.
Keep up these practices. Anyway, thanks for having me on, Amy. Well, thanks for calling. All right, you too, sir. Thank you so much for calling. I appreciate that. See that? We have a caller from Saldana that calls in, listens regularly. That's what I'm saying. It's so much fun to listen to folks because we have lots of Anchorage folks, lots of Matu folks, lots of Kenai.
You know, it's really a lot of fun. I like them down there. All the way down to Homer. We love all the listeners down there and the school board members, too. We absolutely do. You know, Daryl, I will say, as we watch what unfolds on a national level,
Of course, we cover that, but it certainly impacts what happens here on the state level, and those state-level politics are important. I was looking at an article on MSN the other day, and it's actually being... repeated on MSN but it was originally from KTUU.
After Trump's development promise, because Trump's been very focused on Alaska, and he's been saying, drill, baby, drill, and he's been focusing on how to re-energize the economy. One of the ways that you bring inflation down is you bring energy costs down.
When you bring energy costs down, we talk about the cost of business, right? And if you think of business as kind of like a three-legged stool, you have three things that you have to control when it comes to bringing business or attracting business to your company. country, to your state, whatever. First thing is energy costs. If you have high energy costs, it's very hard to attract business. So you have to have low energy costs. You have to have a competent work pool.
right you have to be able you can't put it somewhere where there's no people because you got to have workers right and then you're carrying costs your cost of bringing some your product to the market those are three key things you have to have whenever we're talking about economic development
So it's energy, it's workers, and it's carrying costs, right? Bringing your stuff to market. So energy is so key in all of this. And Trump recognizes that. And he recognizes the wealth and the geopolitical opportunity we have. to not only strengthen our nation, but become dominant with using Alaska. And I think that's part of the reason why he talks about Alaska so much.
And KT, you had a good article up. After Trump's development promise, Alaska geologists say the state has 49 of 50 critical minerals. So this is coming out of Fairbanks. It says one day after President Donald Trump announced to a joint session of Congress he would take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the U.S.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources geologist said Alaska has almost all of the critical minerals currently defined that could be extracted as part of the mining process. There's 50 critical minerals as defined by the USGS. in 2022, according to state geologist David Sigogamala. I'm killing his name. Dr. David, I'm just going to call you Dr. David.
He says we have 49 of those minerals, potentially, that we could be mined here in Alaska. End quote. Of those 49 minerals, three of them, zinc, germanium, and graphite, are Alaska's most commonly extracted minerals. minerals, which Dr. David explained are minerals or materials that we can't just do without in modern society. He's right.
I think what you're going to see is Alaska is going to play a very strategic role, not only in Trump's plans to get the energy costs down, but for national security reasons. Because, again, if we are relying on China... For rare earth minerals, we're probably not in a safe type of position. You have to be able to be independent as much as possible. And so I think this is good news for Alaska.
with an administration that is so heavily focused on national security and energy dominance. I think at the end of the day, it's just a win-win for Alaska. So this is great news. All right, well, stay with us. We're going to take a break real quick. When we come back, we expect a call from Senator James Kaufman. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media or its employees. Thank you for listening to News Radio 650 KENI.
Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. hour two of the Amy Bosky show broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. And if you listen to us on the radio, you can catch us at 6.50 a.m. If you listen to us online, you can go to our website, 650keni.iheart.com. Of course, you can also download the iHeart Media app.
And when you download that iHeartMedia app, they've got a new feature on there. It is called the dashboard. It's a way for you to literally be able to preset all your podcasts and favorite things to listen to. It makes it so much simpler instead of searching each time for it or anything.
it automatically loads it for you. Check out that dashboard setup. I love it. So there's lots of ways you can listen, whether you're listening live or you're listening to our podcast. You can find our podcast on the iHeartMedia app. You can find it on our website, 650KNI.iHeart.com.
You can find it on Spotify, the Amazon app. There's so many places you can find us now. We appreciate everybody who listens, everybody who calls, everybody who participates. This is a lot of fun for me to do, and it's just truly a pleasure to be able to talk about issues that Alaska. Alaskans care about with Alaskans. Speaking about another Alaskan that I always enjoy talking to, Senator James Kaufman now joins the show. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. Thanks for having me.
Well, it's great to hear your voice. I've got to tell you, you're one of my favorite senators to talk to because I feel like you were Doge before Doge. You know, I've got to be honest with you. conversations about your spending cap. We had a lot of discussions about, you know, funds and money, buckets of money that maybe were just sitting there not being spent. I mean, I feel like you were ahead of the curve a little bit here well it's funny uh i ran in 2020 my first race and
Of all the things that people are focusing on, I just kept talking about government efficiency, what we could do better, deliver more value with the money we spend, and maybe spend a little less. And it's funny how things come around. It's become the topic of the day. I'm thrilled. I'm glad to have more friends.
I got to tell you, I always laugh because us wonky financial types, this is the thing that gets us excited because we know, like, look, Senator Kaufman, I know there's always discussions in Juneau about spending more money about raising more taxes but I have that I have that sneaking suspicion you you kind of align with me in that you know maybe instead of first going with a handout to the people saying let's raise your
taxes let's make sure we're being efficient with what we have first right well and there's a lot of reasons why i put a spending cap forth but the other is because it's just an obvious wall to anyone who wants to talk to me about New revenue, I'm doing air quotes around revenue, it usually means taxes, not new production. And I said, not without a cap. So if you want to get these horses out of the barn, let's get a saddle and a bridle on them first.
And that generally slows down the discussion. And, you know, they have to talk about some big controls before they talk about even small increases. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. As we launch, you guys are now well in the thick of this legislative session. How is it going this session in Juneau? What are you seeing? What's being talked about in the hallways?
I'd say, you know, we go through these revolving meetings that we have as all the folks come down. You know, the hallways are filled with people. and there's clumps of them standing in the hallways, and they're going from office to office. And many of them, most of them I'll say, are there to say what type of financing they need for.
their program or a capital project. I have to tell you, to me, most of it is not frivolous. People are talking about real needs. I mean, you have needs that are just... They really grab you in the heartstrings, you know, taking care of kids, old folks, and there's a lot of good groups trying to do good work. But what I'm telling all of them is, you know, you'll have to be...
You'll be lucky if we get out of here with status quo funding for what you want because there's a lot of big ticket items that people are pushing and revenue is down. Just, you know, this is not the time where everyone's going to get what they want. And some people, unfortunately, you know, be a little disappointed. The state has a lot of needs.
But we have to be more efficient at delivering the services that support the people that need those services. And that's the thing that I've always been pushing is not necessarily let, you know, let's shred government or tear it down. I want to improve it.
You know, Senator Kaufman, as I'm listening to you speak, I mean, two things are coming to my mind. The first is, you know, I've been listening to a lot of conversations that are coming out of the legislature this year, and we see a couple of very big spending packages that are being pushed.
education and one being a defined benefit plan. I'm not really seeing how people are saying we're going to pay for that. But the other thing that is coming to mind is the opportunity we have with this new administration on a federal level. the President's fixation with Alaska's opportunities. On those two fronts, can you talk to us a little bit about your thoughts on, number one, you know, new spending in some of these areas, and number two, what opportunities?
Sure. Well, I would say on the subject of education spending, there's a consensus in the building that we want to make a deal. There has been flat funding, and inflation has done a job of producing an effective cut over time. But along with that, there's folks that want certain policies that they feel will help improve the delivery of education. So I just kind of refer to them that there's the funding hawks and there's the policy hawks. There's been a good battle going on.
But we're going to get to a deal that's acceptable for both sides and is sustainable in terms of making it past the governor, not getting vetoed, and not getting the veto being overridden in the legislature. The people that want these things need to work together to bring it, and it is an opportunity. I think of much of our state sort of like an old car that we've driven the heck out of, and it's...
It's inefficient, it burns a lot of gas, it leaks some oil, and it breaks down every once in a while, but it's the car we've got. And so what I'm advocating is that, you know, we have a... Let's act like a good mechanic and try and keep this thing going, even improve it a bit until we can work our way into something much better. So sometimes we have to deal with putting some funding into something that hasn't been working that well.
But increasingly, we have to work with the repairs that go along with that to make sure that the dang thing actually gets us where we need to go. So that's the great debate on education. There's consensus. for a deal if we can get to the right balance of policy and some funding. But I don't believe it'll be the higher numbers that people are looking for because we just don't have the money.
Every dollar that we put to education is a dollar that we're not putting towards foster kids or the pioneer homes. There's just a long list of legitimate needs. that we need to address. And so everybody's going to have to just settle down, come to a good policy decision, and something hopefully that all the interested parties can live with. That's not necessarily been how...
Things have been going in the House. There's a lot of discord over the way that the education bill, HB 69, was done, and that's not the way to do it. You need to win friends with contentious legislation and work to a compromise. Otherwise, you've got something that's just going to blow up right towards the end when you think you have a solution. So on the subject of energy on the gas line, this is what I've been telling folks for a long time.
The gas line by itself is expensive. It's an incredible thing to take on. Not necessarily economic if you don't have kind of the anchor tenants. that sign up to it and say, hey, we're in it with you, and we're in it for geopolitical reasons, not just pure gas supply issues, but we're in it for the geopolitical concerns.
And that's what's happening now. You're getting the convergence, thanks to President Trump and thanks to other things that have happened in the world, where people are looking at... a solid gas supply that's adjacent to the region that wants the gas. So we're talking Asia. And the... It's better to have that source of supply than one that's in the hands or can more easily be controlled by China.
I think that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Senator Kaufman, is there any chance we can hold you for another segment? Do you have time this morning? Absolutely. Love to.
All right, wonderful. We're talking to Senator James Kaufman. We're going to take a quick commercial break, but when we come back, I really want to start asking him what he's working on this year. I know he's very busy. I think he's sitting on Senate Finance. So we'll get into some of the details of some of the legislation. he's really paying attention to. If you'd like to call in and ask any questions, number is 522-0650. We'll be right back.
Local and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy DeFosky on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-522-0650. Welcome back, Current Time 720. We're speaking with Senator James Kaufman. He represents KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 739. Well, you know, Daryl, I parse words and I listen very closely when legislators talk. And I'm liking what I'm hearing out of Senator Kaufman. Because, you know, as I think about...
As I think about some of the proposals that are being offered and what the president is trying to accomplish on a national level, I think we have such an opportunity here in Alaska.
And I get really concerned when we have a legislature that is very erratic. Because for big business developers, people that are coming into the state with hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars of potential investment and or, you know, the ability for jobs, the ability for really long-term growth and stability for our state. That erraticness that you see in the legislature sometimes, it can deter investment.
Because if people look and say, look, I can go to Texas or I can go to North Dakota or I can go, you know, to Pennsylvania or wherever they're going to. And they have a very stable legislative, you know, structure where they don't. have to worry about every other year the tax structure changing and i'm speaking specifically now about oil and gas
What I see Alaska doing is basically, yet again, letting this wonderful opportunity slip through our fingers. And I don't want to see that. And there was a couple things he said. that would indicate to me him and I are thinking the same.
One thing he said is not all oil is equal. And if you listen to what he actually said in the conversation, he was talking about, well, some people that are doing developments on federal... land they could write that off and so what we're actually getting is a lower a lower take on that oil coming off those federal lands than on state lands. So what he did without saying it was he made a comparison between Hillcorp and some of the bigs, like Hanako, for example.
So if we talk about Willow Project and we talk about Conoco's investments, Conoco is a C Corp. So they can write off a whole bunch of their investment straight out of the back. Hellcorp cannot do that. Hellcorp is an S-corp. So not all oil is the same. Timmy tells me, like, he knows the difference. Look, he spent his career in this field. He understands the nuances of this. So I like the fact that he recognizes the reality of the development in arena that they're in.
caught my attention very closely. The other thing he said, and I wrote it down as soon as he said it, is we can't have instability. Again, he's talking about that consistent You know, people, if we're going to attract investment to this state, they have to rely that when we make a deal with them and we solicit them and we get them to come into the state and they're willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. and give Alaskans jobs and bring our resources to the market.
They have to be able to trust when we make a deal with them, we mean it. And so those two little key phrases that he said, not all oil is equal and you can't have instability, it tells me like. We are in line. We are in line. All right, I said I would do it, and I'm going to do it now. So I still have a couple of tickets left for the Valley Republican Women's Club Lincoln Day Dinner, which is going to be March 15th.
at 6.30 p.m. out at Settlers Bay Lodge. Tickets are $125 a piece. So this is Amy putting her money where her mouth is. I truly believe it's important for every Alaskan to have the opportunity to meet with their legislators to talk to people to hear directly from them and Congressman Nick Begich is going to be the keynote speaker and for me I really wanted my listeners to have a chance
to go and listen to him. It's going to be a great event. I'm paying for it. So if you want to come, I have a couple tickets left. If you're interested and you want to go, only if you can make it. Again, it's going to be next Saturday. the 15th, 6.30 p.m. at Settlers Bay Lodge.
All you have to do is call in right now, give Daryl your name and your phone number, and I will call you and let you know who's on my table. So far, I will tell you. I'm going to give you a list of names so far because already some of our callers I have made the list. So Roland, I have you down. Rob, I have you down. Lauren and Rena and Joe and Susan. So I do have a couple tickets left. So if you're interested. and you want to go to the Lincoln Day Dinner for the Valley Republican Women's Club,
and you want to, you know, peruse with some of the other Amy Domboski Show listeners, all you have to do is give us a call, 522-0650, and we will get your name and number. And then, again, I'm trying to fill up my table, so if you'd like to attend, I'm happy to give you a seat at the table. It is crazy. Exactly. Amy Nimbossi is going to give you a seat at the table. How much are those again? They're $125 a piece. Thank you.
Yeah, they are. Look, but I've got to be honest with you. You're going to get prime rib. You're going to get a killer spring salad mix. You're going to get, there's chicken marsala. There's potato. There's going to be an awesome dessert dash. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. They're going to have wall of guns. They're going to have a silent auction. We're going to have a live auction. And, again,
Our brand-new congressman, Nick Begich III, is the keynote speaker. And I really wanted my listeners to have a chance to go. And so this is just something I'm doing. I'm paying for it. And I would love for you to be able to attend. So, again, I have a limited number of tickets, but, of course, you know, I work in radio and for a nonprofit now, so it's not like I'm rich.
I'm happy to donate them. So that's what I'm doing. Again, 522-0650. If you're interested, if you want to get on the list, just give us a call. And, again, I won't be able to give everybody a ticket, but I will go down the list just to make sure that everybody who... can attend, everybody who wants to be on the list that can attend can actually make it, and then we'll solidify the tickets. All right, Daryl, I just lost all my names on my screen, so can you tell me who's on line one? Carl.
Oh, it's Carl. Okay. Let's do this. Let's take a quick break, and then when I come back, I'm going to go straight to the phones. All right. We'll be right back. Looking at the Alaska total traffic cameras on the... Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KNI. Welcome back. We're going to go straight to the phones. And Carl is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. Thank you. I have a whole bunch of stuff from Trump firing federal employees.
But one thing about the Alaska sales tax and any of them considering it, I thought about that. And, you know, I'm older, I'm retired. And I have everything that I need. I have all the pots and pans, the sheets, the blankets, the furniture, everything. So I don't have to go out and buy it. And what I buy, my needs are very small, and I don't have to pay that much sales tax. But the young, growing family, my grandkids, my great-grandkids.
They have to accumulate all this. They're buying all the sheets and blankets, the cookware, the furniture, everything. They're going to pay through the nose for a sales tax. And those are the people that are going to get hit the hardest. That's true. I mean, there's no doubt about it. That is absolutely true. And this is why I ask legislators the question. As we're talking about new spending and increased spending, where's the money going?
going to come from yeah you know and young families just growing someone just started out a job they're getting low pay to begin with and then they have to pay sales tax on top of that Originally, I'm from Pennsylvania, and I can tell you that they have a sales tax there. It started out low, and then every couple of years or so, it increased to, I think it's up to about 7% or 8% now. So the young family, they're really going to take a hard hit with the sales tax.
There's no doubt. Look, and here's the thing. In this economy at this time, no matter what taxes you introduce, it is going to hit people's pocketbooks. If they are introducing new corporate taxes, those corporations are going to... pass on the increased cost to their consumers, right? So that's going to happen. And the reality is how do we get the cost down of things is we make ourselves, look, if you draw
drive down the cost of energy, the only way you do that is by increasing production. That is a good thing. It's cheaper to heat our homes, but it also means stability on the energy market, and it means the ability to attract new businesses. which means jobs to Alaska. So I think, you know, it is not an easy thing, and I think when legislators go straight to a tax, honestly, I think it's lazy. I think they're not doing the hard work of sharpening their pencil, making sure the programs that...
Their already funding are effective and cost-effective to taxpayers and to residents. So, Carl, I think you make an excellent point. I appreciate you calling in this morning, sir. Thank you. If you're in Anchorage, I'd like to meet you so you can put a... face to the name oh absolutely hey why don't you stay on hold if you don't mind stand on hold i'm going to get daryl to write down your cell phone number so we can connect okay okay sounds good thank you all right
Thank you, sir. I appreciate you. Amy, just real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Could you run down who you've already got tickets for and the address? I will. So what we're going to do, I'm going to call everybody that's going to get a ticket for me. And I have a feeling I'm going to. Don't tell my husband. I think I'm going to buy another table. But I have Roland. I have Rob. I have Lauren, Rena, Joe, and Susan. And now this morning, I'm going to give Sean a call.
As soon as we get done the show here today, I'll give Randy a call and Eric. I got all your names and numbers. So we are going down the list. Again, I think it's really important. for me to practice what i preach and i think it's very important for people to have the opportunity to hear directly from their elected officials and in this case the valley republican women's club of alaska is holding a lincoln day dinner on saturday march
15th at 6.30 p.m. at Settlers Bay Lodge. Now it's going to have a killer menu. It's going to be a beautiful event. It's semi-formal, so just bring your, you know, wear your Sunday best. But it's going to be a great event. You'll have an opportunity to hear from Congressman Begich himself. He will be there in person. He is the keynote speaker. And Senator Schauer is the emcee. So it's going to be a great night. I will be there.
I'm actually a member of the Valley Republican Women's Club, so I am going to be working that event. I'm going to be helping them pull it off, but it's going to be a great event. All right, let's go to the phones. And Dawn, good morning, sir. Good morning. So right now we've got about a half a million barrels of kudo going through the pipeline, and we get a PFD on that. I was wondering if there's anybody that has an idea of the size of the gas pipeline.
And what kind of percentage would we get of that for an added PFD? Well, you know, I know these studies have been done. I would say I think ADA is at the front. I'm trying to think of the, I'm going to have to think about this, Rob, because right off the top of my head, I'm just, it's escaping me. But there is a website.
site out there, I know for the state of Alaska that talks about the Alaska LNG project and what it could potentially yield, I will get that information. And in coming days or weeks, I'll make sure to share it. I know there's information out there on that, but that's a good question. And here's the thing. The more we can produce, the more resiliency that we have, and the more opportunity we have to not only grow our economy, but keep these politicians out of our pockets. Come on now.
Yeah, and I'm not trying to be greedy. It's just a curiosity question. No, no, it's a great question. And I don't think you're trying to be greedy at all. I just think that, I think you're on the right track here. I mean, it creates resiliency and it creates stability. if we're able to produce. So I think it's a great question. Don, thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it.
All right, bye-bye, sir. See, we have the smartest callers. I've got to tell you, I'm sorry to those who I wasn't able to get to. We're just hitting our hard break here. We're running into the end of the show. For those that I named, I'm going to call everybody. My goal is to try to call everybody today. solidify how many actual tickets I need to make sure that I have because I really think it's going to be a great event and I'm glad people want to go with us.
All right. Again, if you want to get your tickets, just go to VRWAK.com and you'll be able to get them for the Lincoln Day Dinner. That does it for Daryl and I for today. We will be back with you tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless. Are you struggling with your mortgage payments? Call 888-995-HOPE to talk one-on-one with a housing expert about your options or visit makinghomeaffordable.gov.
Brought to you by the U.S. Treasury, HUD, and the Ad Council. Hey, it's big. Rob Schmidt.