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out of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to News Radio 650 KENI. 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 Monday, February 10th. Current time is 6.06 a.m. It seems like it was a relatively decent weekend. Man, I got a lot accomplished this weekend, Daryl.
i got my taxes done i will tell you i'm just bitter about it to be honest i'm not i'm too embarrassed to even tell you how much i'm gonna have to pay in taxes but i already wrote the check i'm just bitter about it You know, they tax you on the money you earn. Okay. And then you buy a house. And then they tax you on your property of your house. And then you go to the grocery store and you get taxed on your groceries.
On the same money that's already been taxed twice already, right? And then, you know, you've got to go to work, so you've got to put gas in your car, and then they tax you on the gas that you put in your car so you can go to work so they can tax you on the money that you earn. I'm a little irritated about it if you don't, I mean, before you're dead. And then if you die, they want to tax you on the money that you leave your kids. I mean, so the money that's already been taxed five times over.
Then they want to tax you again. And God help you if you invest your tax money already because they're going to tax you on your capital gains too. Well, that's where I was going. You left out that one. I'm like going, don't forget that. And don't forget, there's gas taxes. There's shipping taxes. There's tariffs on our ports. There are so many taxes out there. I swear to God, we probably get three cents off of every dollar we earn.
They tax us on the same damn dollar five times at least. And then they want to know how they can get more from us. You know, I got to tell you, I was so irritated after I wrote my check for my taxes. I texted my dad. My husband, the same thing. I was just like, I was just like, after I list all these taxes that we pay over and over again on the same dollar, I ended the text with, go Doge.
Exactly. And that's part of actually why the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats, whatever you want to call them, the rhinos, are so freaked out about Doge. is he's wiping out all their pocket money. This is all the little money that... All their little slush funds. And their friends, you know, who are going to take care of them later. They're wiping them out. This is the militant little left mafia that they've...
it's inorganically been formed. You know, it's been formed through force of taxation, and then they take your money, and it's not even like... Congress has approved it. I mean this is money that goes into departments on a top level and then they create these little tiny pet programs.
And, you know, I just got to tell you, I'm just loving what I'm seeing, Doge. We'll get into that in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we do that, how was the rest of your weekend? Did you watch the Super Bowl? I did watch the Super Bowl, and I got to say I was... surprised with the turnout of it. I mean, I watch for good games. I don't really have... I'm a Seahawks fan, which means I don't really cheer for that.
many times in the year, and then the Seahawks are out of it. And so then it's just watching the games for good games. This wasn't really a good game. It was so lopsided over to the Eagles side of it that... Well, actually, I walked away by the third quarter. It was just so bad that I went and started doing things in the kitchen where I do have a TV, but it's turned down. That one was way low. And finally, the...
Kansas City got a little bit of life in the fourth quarter, but it was more of like tweaks and gasps, and it was just like, yeah. Well, you know, I thought... I wasn't sure because, you know, I was like, ah, this sounds like it's not really legit to me. I wasn't sure because there was all this speculation on social media that Elon Musk had bought, you know, $40 million worth of ads and he was going to be.
playing doge ads during the Super Bowl. And I was like, this would be a great marketing scheme by the NFL if that were true. I don't know if it happened or not, because I started to watch the Super Bowl, and then I can't stand the caterwauling. Like, the noise, it just, and so I'd put it on mute, and when the commercials would come on, I would take it off mute. And then they lost me at the halftime show. I was like, okay, I can't do this anymore.
I put on Harry Potter. See, that was smart. See, I didn't do the Harry Potter. Like I said, I just left it down low in the back, watered over the kitchen and started doing it in the kitchen because... The one great thing about Super Bowl is no matter how the game turns out, no matter how bad the commercials are,
There's always the food. And I must say, I ate myself into a solid coma yesterday. Of course you did. And I've been paying it for it all night long. So, yes, I had a very good Super Bowl. Nice, nice. Well, I will tell you, I did my taxes during the Super Bowl because I felt like I might as well be productive. So I'm still very bitter about that. But I did them, and I'll mail the check.
I'm going to mail it slow mail, so it takes a long time to get there. So you're going to pay for that, though, right? You're going to pay to put it in the mail? Of course I am. Of course I am. I'm going to pay the government to send them my money. That they took from you that's all there. Exactly. Here's a thought for you. If we're paying for the male, right, wouldn't that be female that we're paying for? So sad. I love that you try. I love that you try. Love it. Love it.
Well, I guess I should do some community announcements this morning before I get too far along. Right now we're sitting 11 degrees in Palmer. It looks like Kenai is checking in a lot warmer at 24. My Anchorage temperature says 15, Daryl. Is that correct? So the weirdest thing, my house temperature said 9. My car temperature said 9. The lakefront sign said 15. I disagree. It's 10. All right. All right. We'll go with Daryl's 10. So, it's relatively mild, though, this morning here in South Central.
As we're looking at public announcements, there's a few around the state. Starting with the Mat-Su Borough, tonight at 5 p.m., the Library Citizens Advisory Committee has their meeting in the Assembly Chambers over there in Palmer in the Borough Building.
The Central Mat-Su Fire Service Area Board of Supervisors has their meeting tonight at 6 p.m. They meet at Central Mat-Su Fire Station Number 61. That's over there off of Swanson Avenue. Also tonight at 6 p.m., the West Lakes Fire Service Area Board of Supervisors Supervisors has their meeting. They meet at the West Lake Fire Department, Station 7-3, over there off of the Parks Highway in Wasilla.
Then tonight, the Big Lake Road Service Area Board of Supervisors has their meeting. They meet at the Big Lake Lions Club. That will be at 630 tonight. The Caswell Lakes Road Service Area Board of Supervisors also has their meeting tonight. They meet at 6.30 at the Sheep Creek Lodge. If you need more information on any of these meetings in the Mat-Su borough, just go to mat-su-gov.us, and you'll be able to find out. the information there
As far as the city of Wasilla goes, tonight there is a city council meeting, and that starts at 6 p.m. It's publicly noticed from 6 to 9 at Wasilla City Hall Council Chambers, 290 East Turning Avenue in Wasilla. As far as the City of Palmer goes, I should also tell you, if you're going to that meeting in the City of West Silla, if you want their agenda, just go to cityofwestsilla.gov.
As far as the city of Palmer goes for today, the library is closed. Just a reminder, there's nothing else on their agenda for today, so pretty quiet in Palmer. Moving down to the municipality of Anchorage, the planning and zoning commission that was scheduled for tonight has been canceled, so that is not happening.
And there are no meetings for the Anchorage Assembly tomorrow night. They do have their regular scheduled meeting, though. So if you want to look at their agenda, just go to munit.org, click on the Assembly tab, and it'll bring you right to their home landing page. As far as the Kenai Peninsula Borough goes, we do have a couple things on the calendar for today. The Resilience and Security Advisory Commission is having their meeting tonight.
It will be their Building Efficiency Subcommittee. This is a Zoom meeting, so if you need the link, just go to kpb.us, and you'll be able to find it there. Oh, this one always takes me a minute. Their acronym, the EPHESA Board Meeting, which is the Eastern Peninsula Highway Emergency Service Area. I'm glad you knew that one. Pull that one right out of the sky. They're having their meeting tonight from 6 to 8. That's via Zoom. If you want more information, just go to the website. Again, kpb.us.
I love it when they publicly announce using acronyms. It drives me crazy. Kenai doesn't usually do that. Anchorage is notorious for it. The Seward-Bear Creek Flood Service Area Board has a work session tonight also from 6 to 7 at the Seward Community Library. So again, if you need any information for these meetings in the Kenai, just go to kpb.us.
As far as the city of Kenai goes tonight, there is a Harbor Commission meeting tonight at 6 p.m. If you need more information on that meeting, all you have to do is go to Kenai.city, and you'll be able to find it there. I'm just taking a glance at their agenda. They do have a telephonic and virtual link, so you don't have to just show up in person. If you want to attend via Zoom, you can. Otherwise, you can just go down to the...
Council chamber is located at 210 Fidalgo Avenue, and you can attend in person. All right, so there you go. For the city of Homer... Skip and sold out, because there's nothing on their calendar. For the city of Homer, today they do have a special city council meeting at 3.30, followed by the council's work session at 4, and they're...
Committee of the Whole F5, and then a regular meeting at 6. So basically, the city council is going to be in session from 3.30 on tonight. If you want to make your way down there, they meet, of course. three different ways you can either call in you can meet virtually via zoom or you can go in person if you want to go in person just go to the cal's council chamber located at 491 east pioneer avenue in homer And if you need the link to Zoom or the phone information,
All you have to do is go to their website, cityofhomer-ak.gov. That really wraps up our community announcements for today. If you have an announcement that you'd like us to plug, we're always happy to do that. Just give us a call, 522-0650. We're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning, and then when we come back, we will get into the headlines of the day.
Looking at the Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Traffic is looking good around the Anchorage Bowl. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway. Roads look to be in pretty good shape out there. So I hope you have a good Monday morning commute. Also, for those of you heading out to Jay Bear, Muldoon Gate is opening.
And that's right, Muldoon Gate is open. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean. This report is sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. For victims of drunk and drug driving, our grief is unique. But you are not alone. 15 on the west side of town. Look for a high near 25 as the sunshine mostly continues. A few clouds coming in this afternoon. I'm meteorologist Tracy Sinclair, Alaska's news source.
NewsRadio 650 KENI. Call now. 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time 620. Well, sad news. Obviously, we lost a plane on the way to Nome last week. All people on board, there were 10 people on board. All of them perished, unfortunately. Mustard, Alaska has the article, the names of those who perished.
gnome crash have been released according to alaska state troopers ntsb and the alaska national guard aircraft and personnel conducted recovery efforts last week at the site of the Bering airplane crash on the ice of Norton Sound near Nome. Bering Air continued light operations last week to serve the needs of those in the far-flung communities of no attack in others.
The bodies have been recovered and brought to Nome where they were positively identified by Alaska state troopers. They will now be transported to the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage for autopsies. Mexican have been notified. Names of the crash victims. 34-year-old Chad Antel of Nome. He was the pilot. 52-year-old Lane Ryan of Wasilla. 58-year-old Donald Erickson of Nome. 30-year-old Andrew Gonzalez of Wasilla.
41-year-old Cameron Harvingston of Anchorage, 46-year-old Roane Baumgartner of Anchorage, 52-year-old J.D. Moncour of Eagle River, 45-year-old Ian Hoffman of Anchorage, 34-year-old...
Talak Kachetag of Unalakleet and 48-year-old Carol Moores of Unalakleet. Very sad situation. You know, I just, it's always sad when, when, when a, disaster like this happens you know you have a plane crash or it just it's so sudden and I can only imagine what the families are going through right now so of course they're they're all in our thoughts and our prayers as as They kind of try to process what has happened. But hopefully, you know.
Hopefully, they'll get to the bottom of what happened. Oftentimes, it's a mechanical failure of some sort, or we'll find out. The NTSB is investigating. Speaking of airlines, the airlines have been in... So in the news a lot lately, I think a lot of times there's probably, we have a lot of airline pilots that actually listen to the show. And my guess is a lot of these things happen we just never hear about. And any time there's hyper-focus on something, it seems like...
especially in the media, it seems like it's happening a lot now all of a sudden. And my guess is it's probably been going on for a long time, whether there's mechanical issues or near misses.
but it's almost like i can't turn on my feed now without listening to you know air traffic and near misses that are happening over and over again in the airline industry But if you think about the thousands and thousands of flights that happen every single day, I mean, the probability of being on an airplane when one goes down is slim. I personally don't really love to travel. It's probably my controlling personality. I'm a good traveler. I just don't like to travel.
I just sleep. You get me on the plane now that they don't have food anymore. It used to be I'd stay up to have the meal and then I'd take my nap. Now it's just literally get on the plane, get myself into my comfort and straight to sleep. Yeah, I just, you know, I don't like sitting still for that long. That's why I have to sleep. Literally, that's why I have to sleep, or I pace the plane, and they don't like that.
Yeah, it drives me crazy. Well, there's an article that came out of the New York Post. It came out yesterday. in a viral video showing Alaska Airlines flight attendant punching a screaming man who attacked a female passenger. This is crazy. So this guy loses his mind, basically, and he grabs the hair of the woman in front of him and was, like, pulling her hair and wouldn't let go.
An Alaska Airlines flight attendant was forced to repeatedly pummel a screaming man experiencing a violent medical episode. That's what they called it. Yeah, BS crazy is what was happening. to free a woman he was attacking.
uh during his medical episode the disturbing footage uploaded to social media shows the male flight attendant aboard flight 221 to portland oregon desperately trying to save a female passenger after the man behind her suddenly grabbed her hair before takeoff from Oakland on February 1st and you could hear somebody screaming in the video like over here you know they're screaming like over here but good on this this male flight attendant like he was beating the snot
of this guy trying to get him to like over here like he literally both hands grabbed her hair and was yanking her hair like the dude right behind can you imagine you're sitting in your and you i gotta be honest with you i would Well, what do you even do? I mean, you're probably you can't even you can't even get up. He's just pummeling you you're stuck in your seat
Crazy. Yeah, that was, I just watched a video for the first time. That was extremely intense. The rabbit punches were very interesting. And then the end shrieking from the person having a medical issue was horrifying.
And so they make zip ties to four, too. Zip tie that sucker to the chair and wait till cops get there. But, you know, good on the male flight attendant. I mean, I got to be honest with you. I mean, he had nothing he could do. He's like, at one point, he's like holding his head back against his. chair, like to kind of keep the guys down. I thought they had tasers.
I don't know. I don't know. If they don't, they should. If not, you know, like the police-style projectile ones, at least the handheld bzzzt you in your seat because it wouldn't have traveled down the hair. The hair wouldn't have conducted it so the lady in front would have been safe. Yeah. I just, that's literally. It was crazy. That's what they call them. You know, every now and then, we're watching over and over, like, these crazy episodes that happen.
that happen on airplanes and I'm like thank goodness I'm just glad I haven't been on any of them like I don't want to be I'm knocking on wood right now I'm not interested in being on I just want everything to be boring and go just as planned But I'm on an airplane. At least I know why the Marzells or Marnells or whatever those Italian guys' names there travel by Learjet. They don't want to be involved in that.
Yeah, right, right, right. I'm sure. I'm sure that's what it is. Alaska Airlines says, our flight attendant's highest responsibility is the safety of guests and crew on board. That's Alaska Airlines, not Alaska itself. Yeah, of course. Well, I know, but the way they wrote that, I read that article. I'm reading that line right along with you, and all of a sudden, I'm like, man, from Alaska. And man, from the horizon. Man, the guy can't even travel forward anymore. Not the horizon. Horizon.
Yeah, I was going to say. So, I mean, I think Alaska Airlines responded appropriately in this instance. And I don't care what the guy's issue is. This is the kind of stuff that... We'll end you up on a no-fly list appropriately, so I think. Oh, my word. I don't even know what to say. Yeah, it was a busy weekend, so I didn't get a chance to watch the Super Bowl. Well, I did. I watched part of it.
But I was bored, so I kept it on mute for most of the time, to be honest with you. And I was not a fan of the halftime show. Like, I've got to be honest with you. I've heard the name. I didn't even know who he was. It's not my thing. You know, it's not my thing at all. Even Kamala, even Miss Kamala Harris used to not like us during her campaign. It was amazing.
Yeah, I was going to say the drama. Do you have that audio clip up by chance of Philly, the Philly mayor? Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I had to laugh because, you know, Philly is known for their... How do we say this? Expensive celebrating after their teams win. um and i had to laugh because this is the philly mayor you know basically begging her community effectively to not act a fool
Go ahead, Daryl. Don't climb light poles or anything else. Please, Philadelphia, I implore you as your mayor, do not climb light poles or anything else. I know this comes up every time we have an outdoor celebration after our Philly teams win, and I get it. But folks, climbing or attempting to climb up a light pole or a bus shelter,
or really any structure for that matter, it can lead to tragedy. We do not want anything to happen to any of you, your friends, or your family members. So for your mayor, please. Just don't climb onto anything, okay? I love that. I'm like, okay, you know you have a problem when your mayor's like this happens every single time. but let's not climb up the light poles let's not climb onto buildings let's not you know basically you know
Riot in the streets. I think we need to call it a Philly. Anytime anybody climbs a light pole, does this Spider-Man up the side of a building, we're just going to call that a Philly. Check them out. They're Philly over there. And, you know, that way everybody knows exactly what it is. But it is true. Those Philly. fans, they have got some of the most serious fandom going on out there. Those are, of all the teams, I consider those some of the craziest.
Never the Cleveland Browns. Wait a minute. Aren't the Eagles, aren't they Crash's team too? As I said, the craziest and most dedicated fans around. Oh, I'm sure Crash, trust me, that game there. Even though they were ahead literally at halftime, 24 to nothing, I know Crash was sitting there going, they better not lose this. They better not lose this. That's right. You don't want to count your chickens before they hatch, so to speak. Well, the Philadelphia Eagles were.
victorious over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 40 to 14 Jalen Hurts that did win Super Bowl MVP so for those that are Eagle fans I'm sure you all were very excited To be honest with you, I didn't care about the Kansas City Chiefs or the Eagles. Either one. I've got to be honest with you. If I had to pick a team, I probably would have gone with the Eagles just because I'm sick of hearing the Kelsey.
Swift. Like, I'm like, I'm over it. Don't want to hear it. Don't care. So I was kind of rooting against the Chiefs simply because I'm sick of hearing about Travis Kelsey, to be honest with you. I'm like, eh. Not my thing. So there you go. But that wraps up our segment in the 630 hour. So we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to get into some of the good stuff. Stay with us.
This is News Radio 650, KENI, Anchorage. A Fairbanks woman is facing charges for allegedly killing her six-year-old son. The Fairbanks Police Department says officers arrested Heather Alexi Saturday on a charge of second-degree murder. Police responded to her home.
Friday after an acquaintance became worried after not hearing from her and entered her apartment to find the child dead. Police found Alexi in Anchorage the next day with her daughter and arrested her. Police say she admitted to inflicting injuries that led to her son's death. Senator Dan Sullivan is introduced Thank you.
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Well, the left is going apoplectic over Doge. Remember, all really Elon is doing is he's looking at government spending. Where did the money go? You know, I saw a really good analogy the other day when I was looking at this. You would think we would be very interested in how the government is spending our money, right? What are you spending it on? Is it for the intended purpose? Is it within the scope of the law?
Instead, they're going absolutely apoplectic because all of a sudden what we're seeing, I mean, they've looked at, like, less than 1% of federal spending, and they're finding all this fraud, waste, and abuse. Elon just posted this on Twitter this morning. The Doge team just discovered that FEMA sent $59 million last week.
to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal immigrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination of the president's executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels
hotels for illegals, a clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds. So again, you have over and over again insiders that are ignoring the president you know this is how USAID actually got in the crosshairs of Doge This is exactly what happened, because the president issued his executive orders, and then they looked to see what departments weren't following those executive orders, and that's how USAID got in the crosshairs of Doge.
Going, hey, what are you guys doing? They were like the biggest offender. One of the biggest offenders. I think they were the biggest offender. Ignoring his, look, the president has the right to direct foreign policy. It's absolutely, positively, that is within the administration's control. And the fact that they're ignoring him, you know, look...
All you're doing is putting a target on yourself. I mean, this is where they're going to have more scrutiny, is the people that are paying attention. Doge cancels funding for Fauci Museum Exhibit. This is coming from Fox News Department of Health. and Human Services canceled over $180 million in contracts overall, it says. including over a 48-hour period, including nearly a $170,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci Museum exhibit.
Are you kidding me right now? There's a quote here from Doge. It says, in the past 48 hours HHS canceled 62 contracts worth $182 million. These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses. None touched any health care program. This included terminating $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum. End quote. I'm flabbergasted and shocked by that. And the funniest thing is when you said...
Anthony Fauci Museum. I don't know why, but I pictured him behind jail bars and it was like you could walk by and look at him and point to the Anthony Fauci Museum. That would never happen because Donald Trump became president. Joe Biden gave Fauci, you know, a pardon. I still don't think those are, to be honest now, I don't think those pardons are legal and viable and they've got to be brought before the Supreme Court because if they are.
legal now hold on give me if they are legal and viable then What the Democrats and the progressives have been threatening was going to happen with Donald Trump, that he was going to become a king, a dictator, a whatever you want to call it. That is what it is, because what he issued those... carte blanche, preemptive. If you've done anything in the past, you're free of it. That is a king. Presidents don't do that. Normal people do not do that.
A king or an emperor feels that he has the godly power to wipe out anything you've done in the past. So if anybody has done it... Here's, for a legal basis, first of all, you have to go back to the Constitution, and the Constitution doesn't say that you can't...
You can't do a pardon based on a time frame or whatever. I think most people in their minds have thought if you're getting pardoned, it's because you've committed a crime and you're basically being absolved of that. But that's the definition of a pardon. So that's what most people think of as a pardon. And, you know, look, unless it's challenged, you're never going to know. But the reality is.
In the Constitution, there's very little limitations on the presidential pardon power. So unless you challenge it, you don't know. But back to this topic about DOGE, and we're talking about it. As you start to look at this and you look at the spending that's uncovered, what they're finding is less than 1% already. of the federal budget that they've looked at and they're finding widespread fraud can you cue up the senator kennedy uh audio for me um so you know
I think this leads to a much bigger conversation. As they jump in with lawfare and they attempt to stop Trump from looking at the spending, which is totally, you want to talk about being unconstitutional. You know, we had a federal judge over the weekend try to block Doge from anything, right? Even the Treasury Secretary. And that's crazy.
insane look here's the thing and I said this before like it is absolutely positively we have three branches of government it is absolutely positively within the executive branches authority to review spending, to not spend money that is illegal, fraudulent, or not for its intended purpose. So if you have money that is being spent outside of the law, it is absolutely within the executive branch's job to stop that spending.
It is just, it is mind-boggling to me when you have, this is just lawfare, and frankly there comes a point where, again, the courts have no enforcement power. I mean, when this is. When this comes down to it, you know, Elon Musk posted on Twitter over the weekend. I still call it Twitter. I know it's X. But it says right here, He said there's some super obvious changes Doge and the Treasury have agreed to make. Now listen to these changes, and tell me if you think this is unreasonable.
require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. So what does that mean? That makes sense. You're spending something. You're going to code it so you know this is on. You know, personnel, this is in line with this appropriation, that appropriation. You code it so you can actually track it and you can query search things, right? That's why you code things in accounting.
He goes on to say all payments must include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. So, again, I make an expenditure. I do this now. I make an expenditure. You put in an accounting code. This is what it's for. And you put a little narrative. Had to buy this for this. You know, whatever it is. The do not pay list entity is known to be fraudulent or people who are dead.
or our probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. So what he's saying is they have this ability right now. But they just leave it blank and they ignore it. So if we are intentionally sending payments to people that are already on our do not pay list, because maybe let's say, huh, it's fraudulent.
Or, huh, maybe they're terrorists. Maybe we should just not pay those people U.S. taxpayer money. I mean, this isn't... that complicated he goes on to say i was told that there are currently over a hundred billion dollars a year of entitlement payments to individuals with no social security number or even a temporary ID number. If this is accurate, this is extremely suspicious. This leads me to Senator Kennedy, who was on the floor last week, and he made this comment. Go ahead, Daryl.
Let me give you an example of how screwed up the data is, Mr. President. This is a strong indicator of what's wrong. The Social Security Administration, if you ask them. will tell you that there are, according to their records, there are 6.5 million Americans living today. in America, who are 112 years of age or older. They say there are 6.5 million Americans who are at least 112 years old or older. Now, I don't know about you, Mr. President, but I don't know anybody who's 112 years old.
You know, he went on in that audio clip to say that he's done the research, and worldwide, at any given time, there may be 40 people that are 112 years old. That's only a little bit of difference. I mean, that's a statistical rounding error. Out of the entire world, you might have 40 people that are 112. But we have right now... In the Social Security system, 6.5 million people they're claiming are 112 or older.
This is clearly fraud. We found Biden's missing voters. Right? This is clearly fraud. And so why is it that people, specifically Democrats, are losing their ever-loving mind that Doge is pointing out the fraud, waste, and abuse? Why are they losing their minds over that? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? So, again, when people don't want you looking at where they're spending your money, I say look harder.
My experience has always shown me when people refuse to give me information, when people try to obscure money, there's usually a reason. And it's usually concerning. And so whenever I get met with resistance, whenever I'm trying to look at money, it always makes me look harder. So that's what Doge is doing right now, is they're reviewing expenditures coming out of the Treasury. They're looking at departments and saying, OK, here's these executive orders that have gone out.
And they're using technology. They're coding. They're using AI to be able to root it out. And they're doing it incredibly fast. Now, here's the thing for Democrats that we all know. And you're going to love this, Daryl. So if Elon Musk is able to come in with teams of software engineers and in very short order be able to identify fraud, fake, people, you know, people that are dead, that are collecting Social Security, where do you think the next place they go?
I'd go DOD myself. No, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking beyond budget. I'm not talking department specific. The next place you go is the voter rolls. Oh, absolutely. The next place you go is the voter rolls.
Once you start going through, because you're writing all this code for expenditures, to be able to find fake Social Security numbers, to be able to find duplicate Social Security numbers, to be able to find dead people that are being paid, the next thing you do is you turn your... attention to the elections and you go start looking for people that are dead that are voting. I mean...
It's pretty obvious, right? You start looking to see how many people were registered to vote at these immigrant shelters. Look, if your address is an immigrant shelter, you're probably not an American citizen, are you? This is why they're going to lose their mind. They're going hard in the paint right now trying to shut Doge down. Because once you crack that lid and you start showing the American people...
all the fraud, waste, and abuse, you can't put the genie back in the box. You know, you can't do it. He can't go back in because now everybody's seen it. All right, we're going to take a quick break. 522-0650 if you'd like to call in. A few clouds coming in this afternoon. I'm meteorologist Tracy Sinclair, Alaska's news source. to the boss, Amy Demfoski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI. Welcome back.
Her time is 6.52. Oh, man, Daryl, I had a good weekend. You know, I'm very sad because my son is moving. What? Yes, he's getting stationed down in Louisiana. Oh, he missed the Super Bowl already. Yeah, well, I don't think he's sad about that. But, yeah, I was going to say, they're moving, so they're selling their house. So somebody wants to be kind of a neighbor to me.
You can go to my Facebook page and you can find, you can find, I shared Riley's house that he's selling, but they're moving, they're going. It's just, you know. It's weird to me. I've been an empty nester for a long time. You know, my kids are in their mid to late 20s. But it has been nice having him. Erin, you know, my daughter-in-law, just, you know, a street away, so to speak. But, yeah, they're moving down to Louisiana, so I guess it'll give me another reason to go in.
you know vacation somewhere else you know my daughter's in utah my son now in louisiana so now i'm one of those alaskan parents that um you know my kids have left the state I'm very sad about it. I mean, Riley's in the military, so I'm not sad about him actually going. He's serving honorably, so I'm glad he's going. But, yeah, it's great to see them kind of do their thing. But we went out to dinner on.
Saturday that night, we went over to Everett's. It was fantastic. Well, it was a well-done meal, so that was nice. Actually, it was medium. Not really well done. But it was great. All right, I'm going to go to the phones, and Jim is with us in just a second. Daryl, can you pick Jim up for me? Daryl, thank you. Hey, Jim, good morning.
Yes, good morning. They're talking about saving money, so they're going to quit making pennies. But they could also save money by not putting, rearranging the quarters, 25-cent pieces. I have one, the original one, well, the original one that had been there for a long time, you know, had George Washington and have a profile of him facing his right. Well, the new ones have a profile of him and he's facing his left.
And on the back of the quarters, some of them have, you know, just somebody, you know, some person, but there's no political statement. But on the newest ones, he has a picture of a woman, and she has a shawl on. And on the shawl, you know, the... putting all kinds of lettering or wording, small sentences, I guess, in her shawl. And on the top of it, by her neck, it says, Mexican-American rights.
On the very bottom, if you look real close, you can see the United States of America. But they could save money by knocking off the art. and especially political art. You bring up a really good point, Jim, in that Trump has directed the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, to stop producing new pennies. According to President Trump, he says that for far too long, the United States has minted pennies, which literally cost us more than two cents.
this is so wasteful i've instructed my secretary of our u.s treasury to stop producing new pennies let's rip the waste out of our great nation's budget even if it's a penny at a time i mean it makes a lot of sense if you think about it if it costs more than two cents to make a penny, why are we making pennies?
I mean, you got to, and this is the whole point with Trump, right? He is rethinking everything. Why are we doing this? And this is kind of what you need with the Elon Musk factor, where he's somebody who comes in and says, why are we doing that? Why are we doing it that way? Is there a more efficient way to do this? You know, first, is it in the scope of government, number one, to do it? Number two, is there a more efficient way to do it?
And number three, is the cost more than the benefit? I mean, these are basic questions that any good manager will ask. Well, how will it affect the 99 cents thing, you know? Yeah, well, maybe you know what they'll do is they'll round up to a dollar. That's it. There you go. Hey, can I jump in with the coins that Jim was talking about there? So when he was talking about them moving things around.
You can say that they've turned their back on God because God used to be in God we trust, used to be in front of the head. Now it's behind it. And now you can't flip a coin for heads and tails. Both sides of a coin, a quarter, are heads. There you go. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. We'll never fully understand what we've asked of our military service members, of their families or their children, asking them to deploy, patrol, stay on watch, on point.
asking them to put themselves in harm's way, to endure it all. But we do understand that it's our turn, our duty, to bring them all the way home. to keep them secure, to have their backs for the rest of their lives. Wounded Warrior Project long-term support programs do whatever it takes to help our most severely ill or injured veterans live independently. At no cost. For life. So that they might stand at ease.
Here's to conversation over dinner out instead of over TV. Here's to places where they remember your name. And here's to the millions of Americans who, every night of the week, Enjoy adult beverages and drive responsibly. Drink responsibly. Drive responsibly. A message brought to you by the American Beverage Institute. Don't forget to join Dr. Bruce Kiesling every Tuesday afternoon at 6.05 for Just a GP on NewsRadio. It's like that we had a nice special sort of moment together.
Of course, they don't all need to be quiet moments to be special. They could be loud moments, goofy moments, sporty moments, dorky moments. Moments where we talk or walk or just hang out. It doesn't really matter. They all count. Because every time dads like us take a moment like that to spend with our kids, well, it's pretty momentous. Sounds like somebody agrees.
So let's take a moment to make a moment today. Call 877-4DAD-411 or visit fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy Demboski Show. Amy Demboski.
628 Mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Our time is 739. I want to thank Bill Stoltz for calling in in the last segment and talking about this. Because broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on KENI. You can catch us on the radio dial. All you have to do is go to 650 AM. That's where we are there. Or if you'd like to stream us, there's multiple ways to do it. You can go to our website, 650keni.iheart.com.
or you can download the iHeartMedia app. You can find us live there, but you can also find the podcast both on our website and on the iHeartMedia app, Spotify, the Amazon app. There's lots of places that you can find the podcast. Every day after the show is over, Daryl goes ahead and uploads it into the magic little box that he has in his office. And bada boom, bada bing, there you are. You can take us with us.
You could take us with you wherever you go. I have to tell you, Daryl, I'm just loving this winning. I love it. You know, as I'm looking at what is happening with Doge, I saw a really good analogy, and I didn't land my plane in the last segment, so we'll get there right now. You know, really what they're doing is DOGE is reviewing federal spending to ensure, number one, it is applicable.
and compliance with law, right? So if the president says we're not doing any more spending on DEI, that means through executive order, the president has said we're not spending on DEI, so that's done. If he says, we can't spend money and send it to terrorist organizations, that's kind of an obvious one. And so as you watch the Democrats in their meltdown, over DEI defunding, over federal money going to foreign organizations, you have to ask yourself, why are they fighting so hard?
Why are they fighting so hard to get us to stop looking? And the best analogy I heard, I don't remember the girl's name. But I saw some lady on TikTok, not TikTok, sorry, I don't have TikTok, on Instagram. I saw some lady on Instagram talking, and she said, this is reminiscent. to a girl who grabs her boyfriend's phone and is looking through his phone at his text messages, and then he flips the script on her, and he's like, you've invaded my privacy. You're doing something wrong.
Not to mention, you know, she finds all the five other chicks that he's, you know, hooking up with. But that's a good analogy. That's why I said this was the best analogy I've seen. So what is happening right now is the Democrats are screaming party foul. Oh, my gosh. I'm so offended. This is so wrong. This is such an invasion of.
privacy, Elon Musk is going to be able to see where we're spending your tax dollars. I mean, at the end of the day, all they're really doing is auditing the financial records of the US government. That should be public for everybody to be able to see, right? I mean, this is nothing top secret here. Not to mention, look, the guy launches space rockets into the universe. I mean, there's no question he already has a top secret clearance. No question. He can't do what he does without having it.
Elon Musk, I'm sure, already has the security clearances to be able to look at what expenditures are coming out of the U.S. Treasury. Come on now. My favorite thing is right now, as you listen to the Democrats, and they're literally saying... Only the people who write the checks should be able to see what's in the checkbook. It's unbelievable. Inappropriate. That is definitely against every accounting principle ever.
Especially when we're talking about federal money. You're talking about taxpayer money. Every single thing you do. I don't care if it's the emails you send. I don't care if it's the checks you're writing. Whatever you're doing in your federal money. employee, guess what? It's public's business. That's it. It's the public's business. If you're using U.S. government resources in your job, guess what? Now, there's...
Obviously, when it comes to national security, there's things that the public's never going to see. We're not talking about intelligence here. We're talking about spending. But I will tell you... You know, that's why they're freaking out. And even if we are talking about intelligence, I'm sure Elon Musk has a top secret clearance anyway.
So what's the problem? The problem is not what Elon Musk is doing. The problem is what they know Elon Musk is going to expose. So here you have the girl in the bathroom looking at her boyfriend's phone. And the boyfriend's screaming, oh, woe is me. Don't talk about what I've done. Just the fact that you found it.
Shame on you. Shame on you for finding it. I mean, I thought that was the best analogy. That is a phenomenal analogy. And I just realized something. So we always are saying winning, right? We're winning. You're winning, right? Yes, yes. No, the Democrats are just putting an H in there because they're whining. We're winning. They're whining. Well, I will say, as we watch this, you're going to see a lot of lawfare. You're going to see them go to judge after judge after judge to try to get...
to try to get them to stop looking. And the reality is, is bring this fight all the way to the Supreme Court. I'm totally fine with it. You know what? Trump, keep doing what you're doing. At the end of the day, what are they going to do? What are they going to do? Now, if the Democrats, no matter what, we already know if the Democrats take control of the House, no matter what Trump does, they're going to impeach him again. We all know this. We all know it.
It's fine. Bring it on. That's why I say at the end of the day, keep doing what you're doing. I don't care what the court says. You have every constitutional right to do it. There is nothing in the Constitution that says the administrative branch, the executive branch, cannot review executive branch spending. That is the most asinine thing I've ever heard in my entire life. The courts can't step in. J.D. Vance made this point.
The courts cannot step in and give the military orders and tell the military how to conduct their operations. The courts can't go to the attorney general and tell the attorney general how to do her job, what to do. how to assign her staff. Neither can the courts go into the executive branch and tell them which of their staff can do what jobs. That is not their role. I would be very confident to defend that in front of the Supreme Court every single day of the week.
I agree with you. I mean, I don't see how they can even make that argument. But everything they're doing is not in good faith anymore. It just literally, they're not doing anything in what we used to call good faith.
Yeah, exactly. So that's why I say this is really, you know, J.D. Vance has a... a post up on x and it says if a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation that would be illegal if a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor that's also illegal judge
aren't allowed to control the executives legitimate power again what are we really talking about when it comes to doge we're talking about an internal review of federal executive branch spending That is Absolutely, positively, 100 percent within the scope of authority of the executive branch. And they cannot expect the president himself to be the one who actually goes through the ledger and flips through it. That is not his.
position he is the one who delegates that to one of his people who then delegates to work with the crew it's all right exactly you know and the other thing that's been getting it now you're getting me on a rant daryl the other thing the other thing that has irritating me. Every single time I hear somebody say, Elon Musk is not elected, you sound like a moron. Yes. Every time I hear you say, okay, was Anthony Fauci elected? No.
He was not. Was Stinkin' Anthony Blinken elected? No, he was not. Was Buttigieg elected? No, he was not. The reality of the situation is... What we're talking about is staffers, right? Every president has them. They're the ones that, to Daryl's point, does the job. You have to hire people to come in and execute your agenda, right?
I want to focus on this. I want to make sure this is done this way. I want to make sure we're taking care of people in Palestine, Ohio. I want to make sure that, you know, XYZ. Whatever the agenda is of the administration, they hire people to do that. You know, was Mayorkas elected? No, he wasn't. And look how many millions of people he effectuated coming into this country that are terrorists, that are criminals, that shouldn't be here.
But did you hear one liberal commentator anywhere in mainstream media scream and cry over Mayorkas' ass? you know, role as Homeland Security and say, oh, he wasn't elected. No, because he was doing what they wanted him to do. But when Elon Musk comes in as basically an advisor, let's be honest.
You know, I still think the best analogy for Doge is, like I said, it's like a border commission. It's like an auditor coming in saying, okay, this is where you're sending, we're doing all this stuff, and this is what I recommend you do. And the president goes, yep, do it.
At the end of the day, he's a staffer. I mean, that's really what it is. It's like a consultant or a staffer. Yeah, no, he wasn't elected. Nobody claimed he was elected. But you know what he is? Effective. Bingo. That's what he is. He's effective, and that's why they're losing their mind, because they know.
The little slush fund is going to dry up. And if they can't take your money forcibly and funnel it to left-wing causes through government spending, then they're going to have to come to you and convince you this is where you want to invest your money. going to say yes to DEI nonsense? No, you're not. Okay, we're going to go ahead and take a break if you'd like to call in 522-0650. We'll be right back.
side of town. Look for a high near 25 as the sunshine mostly continues. A few clouds coming in this afternoon. I'm meteorologist Tracy Sinclair, Alaska's News Source. It's about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week, I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians, people like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I love storytelling and I love you. Listen to Greatest Escapes on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Greatest Escapes to start listening. KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 739. I want to thank Bill Stoltz for calling in in the last segment and talking about this.
A couple of reasons I wanted to call today is we had a little bit of lapse over the weekend. There wasn't a lot of coverage, but there sure was a lot late last week about the casino. In Birchwood, oh yeah. Birchwood, Marnell, happenings in Juneau and accusations against our fire department for being in the bag and being part of this conspiracy. I thought I'd just share what I know and have been confronted with.
Yeah, no, I'd love to. So what we're talking about is the casino in Akalutna and the murmurings we hear. And when you say the fire department, you're talking about the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department. So tell us first off. What involvement at all CVFD has with this whole Eklutna gambling hall that the village of Eklutna has opened? From a city level, municipal level, none. It's real clear everything they're doing is through La France and through the fire chief. I will just say...
I think it was in January. It was about a week before the glorious change in administrations. I showed up at our monthly meeting 5 o'clock on the 13th.
Klutna representatives were sitting in the room. Now, when you say you're meeting, you're talking about the Board of Supervisors for CBFP. Yeah. Right here. It's an elected position that the people... elect three seats staggered every year and we and we are responsible for doing the budget and overall personnel the volunteer fire department yeah so you show up
So you show up for your monthly meeting with the volunteer fire department, the board of supervisors, and this casino group is at your meeting? Yeah, Brenda Hewitt, she's some kind of a flack or a PR person with Native Village of Aklutna. One of the lawyers from Sanofsky Chambers, that's a very prominent law firm that does Alaska Native law and American Indian law, and they've been involved.
for a number of years representing the native village of Aklutna. They had a contract in hand for our chief to sign, and then they made kind of an ambiguous reference to a potential... donation and we stopped him in the track. I said, first of all, I'm very hesitant to have any discussions about you providing money.
because you're only interested in an association with Chugiak to help promote this idea that you've got partners in it, and we don't endorse or oppose any political issues at Chugiak. Mm-hmm. So it was very clear. The chief has told other people that he didn't say a forget word during it, but that's his style. But I was very blunt, as you probably might guess.
They murmured about it for a while, and they were talking about it wasn't really from them. It'd be from the consumers of the gaming that would do a roundup, and I'm not familiar with that. I guess if your ticket says you want $100.32, a lot of people opt not to take the pennies, and that's where their generosity would come from is what people didn't pay.
Oh, I see. So basically, they were coming to you guys as the Board of Supervisors saying, hey, look, we have this contract that we want you to sign that shows that you support our project and we'll give you basically... There could be a donation on the back end of this, wink, wink, if you just sign it. That seems a little unusual. I don't know that I've ever experienced something like that.
We were very unambiguous, very clear, and that was carried by folks like our assistant chief and others. We provide service to anybody in our service area. and any contract would have to be signed with the municipality. Fast forward a little bit, we get a letter from the LaFrance administration, one of their department directors, hectoring and lecturing us about, they got rumor that
We had a, we were going to have a, we didn't get the message until after the meeting started, but it came before. They knew that Oklutna was showing up, but they were heckering us about not having an unannounced meeting. Well, it's hard to announce something. You don't know me that's going to show up at your front doorstep. Right. They already knew about it, so they were having conversations. And then subsequent correspondence has been...
well, we don't really need anything from you. We're dealing directly with the municipality. It seems very shady. This whole Cluna gaming thing seems very shady to me. I mean, you live, for context, people should know. You live just a very short distance away. I mean, what are you, a few hundred years? feet from this thing? You're not very far. A couple hundred yards. I'm across. And Marnell already said they knew where I lived. Of course they did. Yeah.
The accusations made that Aaron Leggett has been making donations for us every year for five years, and Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department is in the bag. Couldn't be further from the truth. We don't take an official position from the fire department, but individually many of us have concerns about process. lack of public involvement. And I think it's probably fair to say nobody likes to have their name bag dragged through the mud saying,
that hard-working volunteers, and I'm talking about them. We're volunteers on the board, too, but please don't besmirch an organization that does nothing but service for free. protects your home and keeps your property taxes lower. I think it's just incredibly inappropriate and it's skullduggerous that they've thrown in that we've been... paid off and bought off and we're working against the citizens and residents that our volunteers work so diligently and selflessly to protect.
Oh, there's no doubt CBFD's reputation is a good one. And the reality is what we've seen out of this gaming casino, whether it's them, you know, trying to build all night long to get under, you know, under the cover of darkness so they can get in. really quick and get established before Trump gets sworn in, or whether they're tactics in Juneau trying to bully legislators. It sounds like the CBFD meeting where they popped in and tried to strong argue.
signing a contract. It kind of tracks with the rest of it. I wouldn't say there was a strong-arming, but it was come up unannounced and there was some type of... similar going on with immunity. I would call it more duplicitous and not in any kind of good faith or with much honesty involved in the whole process.
Seems shady. Yeah, seems very shady to me. I got to be honest. You know, you were in Juneau when they were down there. You ran across them while you saw them while you were down there, didn't you? I was introduced to them. They took no responsibility for any of the behavior that's going on, and it's not them. And it was...
Well, those are the old guys. And then it morphed into, well, that's in the past. We're doing things differently now. I didn't have the same type of... of language and decibel charged and threatening exchange that Representative Allard had when she was speaking up for our community. Yeah, well, this is definitely a topic we're going to track. And now that the governor has stepped in and the state is suing based on the fact that they're exceeding their authority, I think...
I think this is not going to be the end of this conversation for sure. I don't know that this gaming casino will have a long tenure in Birchwood. I would say, first, you're not going to find any relief in the municipality. They've been given the green light, encouragement, and carte blanche. There's one word I wish that would have been in the press statement from Attorney General Treg Traylor was injunction. Oh, yeah, I wish they would have done that. To stop that and...
And there are things that I think I would not expect. The Tugac Volunteer Department doesn't have enforcement powers. Some people have said, well, they're way over capacity. Don't expect anything from Chugiak because they're in the back. First of all, we don't have volunteers with enforcement power. We're under the thumb a lot by the municipality. All the state fire marshals, at least they work for an agency where the governor is suing. Yeah. Well, I think, go ahead.
call the Department of Law at the same time and get these things recorded. But it's not going to be through, I think, everybody locally. The mayor's administration has. There are no rules. Mr. Marnell had said they're on sovereign land. They can do whatever they want. I don't think... It all comes back to that discussion about Indian country. It comes back to reservations. And I'm sorry, but that's not what this is. And they're trying really hard to make it that.
Does that mean if they wanted to bring in underage girls, that's a sovereign land, they can do what they want? I will tell you, there's a lot. I think this is going to be the heart of this discussion about who controls certain types of land will be the heart of what the Attorney General is going after, and I think he's going to win. I mean, there's case precedent on this in the past.
So I think the state is on strong footing on this one. And I think that's exactly why you see the response from Marnell or whatever this is.
these people's names are. I think that's why you're starting to see their response push back so hard because they know they're on shaky territory. Well, Bill, I'm hitting my hard break, so I've got to take a quick break. But thank you for calling in and giving us an update on what actually... transpired at the CVFD meeting and no connection to GAC volunteer department is not it serves the people of our community not not not the mayor or
this uh or this group of um of outsiders yeah i appreciate that thank you for the call this morning bill we're going to take a quick break we'll be right back Turn up your radio. Here's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute. $11 million. Get this, for China. For a cooperative agreement for U.S.-China clean energy and a climate partnership to be carried out in China. They're building coal power plants in China.
They're building five of them this year. Why are we giving China a dime? Why did Fauci and the NIH give them money? You know, to the knowing through the EcoHealth Alliance. $59 million to enable grain and oilseed farmers, including those in marginalized and underserved groups. with special focus on the disadvantaged female farmers in Ukraine? This is madness. Check out the Sean Hannity radio show later today, right here.
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Anchorage. Investigators are analyzing the wreckage of a plane crash that killed 10 people in western Alaska last week. The Anchorage Daily News reports crews succeeded in recovering both the wreckage and the victim's remains from the crash scene on a sheet of sea ice.
The small Cessna went missing during a short flight on Thursday afternoon and was found crashed in the ice one day later. Police in Whittier are searching for a missing kayaker. The Whittier Police Department says the individual was kayaking in the area on Friday when they went missing. And renovations are now complete on the Alaska Airlines lounge at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
saying the lounge officially reopened on Wednesday. The airline has doubled the lounge's capacity from 65 passengers to 140. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. depend on it
Looking at your Alaska Total Traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Traffic is now moving well around the Anchorage Bowl. I am not seeing any major stoppages or slowdowns out there. Roads look to be in good shape, so I hope you're going to have a great commute this morning. And remember, if you're heading on post, Muldoon Gate is... is open again from the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios. I'm Daryl Dean. This report is sponsored by Anchorage Radiation Oncology Center.
Here at Anchorage Radiation Oncology Center, our cancer treatment program treats the whole patient, not just your cancer. We address nutrition, massage, palliative care for anxiety and other issues, in addition to truly state-of-the-art radiation therapy. Visit anchorageradonc.com to learn more.
I'm Jenna Fisher. If you're an employer, you have the power to save lives. The screening time off program and about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week, I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians, people like Ed Helms, Diane. Guerrero and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I love storytelling and I love you. Listen to Greatest Escapes on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Greatest Escapes to start listening. KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time, 739. I want to thank Bill Stoltz for calling in in the last segment and talking about this.
casino drama, this casino showdown that's happening in Birchwood. Every time I talk about it, it gets so worked up. Yeah, you guys couldn't see me here in the studios, but I'm flapping my arms. I look like an Eagles fan after a touchdown. Thank you. Well, you know, like I said, there will be more to come on this. Look, effectively what they've been trying to do, and I've seen this slow creep in Anchorage over the past few years where they're trying to effectively create.
a reservation here in Anchorage. I mean, that's really what they're trying to do. They're trying to create a Klutna land as a reservation. It's not one. That's not one. Look at ANCSA. I mean, look at the deal with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. They're not. The only Indian country, and I'm saying that with quotes, is the Matlakatla. That's the only one. There's no other sovereign...
reservation type land here in Alaska that I know of. But that's exactly what they're trying to claim. And there is case law on this before. There's been other, they're not the first. They're not the first native village that wanted to have a gaming hall, and there is previous precedent on this. So the Attorney General has stepped in and effectively...
asserting the state's rights in this case, and I think you will see this eventually shut down. I think that's what you're going to see happen. Speaking of the state, another topic came up over the weekend. I've been tracking this one a little bit. The Alaska Division of Retirement and Benefits for the state.
has begun working through a website outage that delayed roughly the contributions of 32,000 state employees. So what happened is when we have a PERS-TURS system here in Alaska, that's... retirement system for public employees and you can have so much money withheld from your check and then invested
And typically, say you work for the school district here in Anchorage. So the school district basically holds the money that you say you want to invest. They hold it back from your check, and then they transfer it to the state, and then the state... And that's your retirement account, right? I mean, think like any other 401k. That's basically what we're talking about.
The contributions, though, were delayed because they had a security breach, and it says the origin of the problem was an intrusion into the retirement division servers that occurred on November 4th. leading to the State Office of Information Technology to disconnect the servers from the Internet.
The Department of Administration addressed the compromised servers by expediting a move of retirement information onto remote servers known as the cloud. But when the division attempted to transfer a tool used by most public employees to report
retirement contributions to the state it failed requiring weeks of work by the division to bring the systems back online so effectively what does that mean that means a lot of people's pay was garnished but the money wasn't invested and so they lost a certain amount of investment I would say so he talks about it says contributions for 1600 payrolls coming from dozens of employers around the state
were delayed, affecting the retirement accounts of about 32,000 Alaskans. Since November, employers like the Anchorage School District have been subtracting the retirement contributions from the checks, but of course they've been holding them. And so, you know, there's...
There is an issue. There's an issue there. If you take people's money out of their check and you don't invest it like you're supposed to, it's a potential issue. So the state looks like they are going to compensate. It doesn't specifically say how much here. see but they're going to compensate those employees that were impacted so if you're one of the 32,000 that were impacted it looks like a deal is is in the works um i will tell you my husband retired last year um and he's in the purr system
And he, it took, this is amazing. Think about this, Daryl. So you retire after 25 years serving, and then, you know, okay, I'm retiring in September, right? My husband did get his first retirement check for almost 14 weeks. Wow. It was like 13 and a half weeks. Now, like...
Let's just be honest. I kind of cracked the whip a little bit. I mean, no, I'm just joking. He had a job to go to right away. So he retired, you know, on a Saturday, and on Monday he went to work up on the slope. And so he's working, and he went to work. straight away but imagine if you were just you were really retiring and you had to wait 13 14 weeks for your first paycheck I mean
Three months late? That's a huge chunk right there. Look, I've got to be honest with you. I know this story is all about the public employees and the security breach, and these things can happen. And I'm sure the IT professionals at the state... You did a great job cleaning it up, fixing it, catching it, all that kind of stuff. Well done. And they're going to have to make right, you know, the lack of investment because of this. And they are doing that.
But they've got other issues. They've got to deal with that retirement and benefits. I've got to be honest with you. Making people wait 13, 14 weeks, it's a bit obscene. I've got to be honest with you. You guys have got to work that out. You know, I could see, they'll tell you, you know, oh, you know, it could be 8 to 12 weeks or whatever they tell you. I mean, that to me seems like a long time, but.
i mean come on like three months like it was a little it was a little ridiculous and and they do they i mean they give you like your first check is like an arrears of all of that but if you're somebody who doesn't really have a savings i mean a lot of us you know a lot of people in the world Your pennies are tight these days, right? Food's expensive. Housing's expensive. You know, insurance is expensive. I mean, oh, goodness. I was very grateful that, you know.
i had a job so it was it was fine but i look at some people and i'm like if we weren't prepared for that and we didn't know it would be that long of a wait i mean it was just it was it was a bit much to be honest with you A bit much. Especially with all the raising prices and everything going on out there, it's really hard to calculate what you're going to need. You know, it's just, it can get scary. Especially if you go to buy any eggs right now.
Yeah, well, right. I did buy eggs this week. Oh, my God. I had three bears. Thirteen bucks. That's how much it was. That's not that bad, but you got one of those big flats and everything. I did. I got a big one. A 18-pack here in town at most of the grocery stores, about $11 to $12. I mean, that's just... That's an 18-pack of...
Oh, I got to be honest. I didn't need as many eggs as I got because I got a big flat, you know, out there. But I really needed, I needed the eggs because I was making a pumpkin cake for my friend. And so, so I had to have the eggs and I didn't. have any eggs, so I had to go buy the eggs. So it was a necessity. So now I'm going to try to pawn off half of the container eggs on the in-laws downstairs. Well, before you do egg salad, do also some...
Deviled eggs. Oh, my goodness. You should see the face. Wow. You're literally saying, I don't like deviled eggs. I make them for other people, but I don't like them. I don't like egg salad. So the deviled eggs bring it to your coworkers. I don't really like eggs. I don't really like eggs, to be honest with you. See, I think they're egg-cellent myself. Every time I get them, I'm egg-static.
And now, if I don't go to commercial, these egg jokes are going to keep going. So we're going to go ahead and go to commercial. We have one final segment left, 522-0650 if you'd like to call in. I am not seeing any major stoppages or slowdowns out there. Roads look to be in good shape. TA, a national nonprofit, offers more than 1,000 free online resources for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, students, and administrators.
Visit PCADevZone.org. Starting off this Monday with temperatures in the single digits in East Anchorage and near 15 on the west side of town. Look for a high near 25 as the sunshine mostly continues. Oh, I love it. Is there any charge for this? Is there any charge for this in our use? This is aptly free, and not only that, we're going to have the best homemade cinnamon rolls for free by our beloved Carol Kinley.
So it's just going to be a great, great opportunity. This is all a part of, you know, I've been sharing the task force on this. Yes, through security for a long time. So that's this Saturday from 9 to noon at Palmer Middle School. Yes. Palmer Middle School. Yes. Okay. Sounds great.
Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Senator Hughes. I appreciate it. All right, that does it for us today. I will make sure to plug that announcement again a little later this week, too. Thank you, Senator Hughes, for calling in. Daryl and I will be back with you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning at... At 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless. In the wake of a disaster, there are many people from all backgrounds and all walks of life who need help.
Help is available through FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We're here to provide help to all those who need it. Help. If you or someone you know has been affected by a disaster, call us at 800-621-FEMA. If your home or property has been damaged or destroyed, you've lost your job or income or face other emergency needs. Call the Federal Emergency Management Agency at 800-621-FEMA. FEMA. Help is here. A public service message brought to you by FEMA and the Ad Council.
When news breaks out, we break it to keep you informed. News Radio 650 KENI. Is credit card debt ruining your life? Did you know you have a right to settle that debt for much less than you owe? Debt Blue has helped people just like you resolve. A few clouds coming in this afternoon. I'm meteorologist Tracy Sinclair, Alaska's Newsroom. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on News Radio 650 KENI. Welcome back. I'm going to go straight to the phones.
I'm going to start with Andy. Good morning, sir. Hey, I was going to give some input on why those retirement processing is so slow. This is really statewide issues with many of the technician positions. would it be in the court system, would it be at TRS, or what have you, a lot of those positions are a level 12 position with the state. And due to freezes and different things over the years, those positions...
around $21, $22 an hour. So for a while, they were running with one technician last year. They'd either been promoted or quit. So when you were saying they have to do something about it, part of it is in Juneau. It's really difficult, even though $20 or $21 an hour sounds like a lot of money. In June, they struggle at that wage, and people tend to quit and find something else. There's no incentive to hang on.
No, you make an excellent point. Like I said, when I saw this article about the data breach, like we all can understand stuff like that happens. And, you know, look, I'd rather them be cautious with people's money and not transfer it until they fix it. But it looks like they're making it right.
But I think you're exactly right. And so there's other things that they could think of. Number one, they could move some of those positions out of Juneau, and they can move them into Anchorage if they wanted a bigger employment pool. Or they could allow for them to work other places, too. I mean, but maybe they just need to reclassify them, and maybe they need to pay a little higher wage to get people to fill those spots.
So it's really difficult right now to transfer positions out of Juneau. And I forget at the time we were looking at it with positions that were more like level 16 positions. and we still couldn't find people in Juneau. But it took an act of God, but it was really difficult to move those positions out of Juneau, so they sat vacant. And we were... our department was just having to fly people down to cover Southeast from Anchorage because...
Well, they couldn't tell him. Yeah, I will tell you, my husband said the lady he spoke with was super nice, but that's the reason we never complained. It's because we're like... look, she's going to get to it as fast as she can get to it. But the governor's office really needs to look at this because making people wait, you know, 13, 14 weeks is a long time. It's a long time for a retiree. But, you know, like I said,
your point, if you have one person doing the job that's doing the best that they can, I mean, what are they supposed to do? They just get up every day, show up at work, and process as fast as they can. And they have a pile, like a pile on top of a pile. I can imagine. I can imagine. Well, to me, it's not a dish. It's not a, you know, I'm not trying to dig on the department itself, but I think they.
You know, the details matter, and you've got to have the staff to be able to do the job. And I think this is one of those areas that it highlighted for me going through the experience, recognizing that maybe some more resources need to be focused on this department. Yes, I agree. Thank you for taking my call.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate the input. See, we have the smartest people. I'm telling you, you have people in the know. And Ben did tell me that when he talked to her, he's like, she was really nice. He's like, he clearly could tell, though. She was very, very, very. busy. All right, let's go to Senator Shelley Hughes. Good morning, ma'am. Hey, good morning. I know we're up against the clock, but you know, sometimes these doge efforts in my bill, Sunset Commission bill,
It's not just to find waste, which is primarily what we want to find and get rid of, right? But sometimes it's, you know, the government is supposed to be up for and by the people and serve the people. And sometimes you might need another employer or two. Good conversation. I wanted to let people know that there's a discussion on the Dittman Research survey. It's been out a few weeks, but I'm going to post it on my Senator Shelley Hughes Facebook page because it talks about...
what people want to see with retirement. It talks about income tax. It talks about education. There's really good stuff, and you can see where people stand. But one of the interesting things... was even if there were a pension system reinstated, do people think that should be the default that a new employee would get? And the answer was no.
But people also did not think that going back to the pension system actually made sense. So that's a good little poll to look at to get a sense of what common sense Alaskans think. You know, Dittman's very credible as far as its demographics, and when they do polls so that it's not planted, it's really a true picture of what Alaskans are thinking. So I'll post that. But I am calling you Amy.
Because I want to get the word out. I have a zero budget for this, but I am hosting a food security workshop in two weeks on February 22nd, Saturday morning. at Palmer Junior Middle School from 9 to noon. And I am so excited. We have such a great lineup of local experts who are willing to come share a little bit of knowledge on just a wide myriad of subjects.
We're going to have a guy give a peek, or maybe I should say peep, into his Chicken University course. If you've ever thought of raising chickens, we've got somebody that's going to come and talk about raising bees. different types of gardening, preserving food, which is really a big part of security as well, freeze drying food, which is a delicious new way that's really taken off.
And it's just going to be a great chance for people to network. And, of course, we don't want to sing to the choir. We want the well-seasoned there to share their knowledge. But we really want to see newcomers, newbies that have maybe thought about trying some of these things. And this will give them an opportunity to know who their neighbor is.