Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENR. Amy Demboski, the show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on News Radio 650, KENI. Good morning on this Monday morning. It is March 17th. I'm wearing my green today, Daryl. Happy St. Patty's Day. It's St. Patty's Day today there. Oh, it's a fabulous thing to hear.
Oh, God. Please don't tell me you're doing an accent. The whole show. The whole show. Can't do it. Can't do it. I'm going to hit the mute button. It's happening. How was your weekend? How was your weekend? Oh, you hit the mute button. Now I'm back again. They didn't believe you, but yes, she did. She muted me right out there. Can you believe that? You know, my weekend, other than the snow, snow and...
More snow was pretty good. I did a boiled up pot roast, a couple other fun things to eat. So, you know. And boiled up pot roast. Love it. You know, I have to tell you, you know. I'm not a big corned beef and cabbage person, believe it or not. Yeah, it's not really my thing, but, you know, you know. It'll be a great day. I know the Senior Center will be packed because whenever we have some of these traditional type of meals, chicken fried steak's always a big day, too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
When we have chicken fried steak, it's always a big day. With gravy and potatoes. Yeah, today's corned beef and cabbage with carrots and potatoes, seasoned squash, dry bread. And if you don't want that, you can have a chicken salad sandwich. Rye bread? Yeah. Where's the Irish soda bread?
I don't know. I'll have to talk to Kat about that one. You know, our food services director. You might need to bring your own little loaf of that there. That's a part of it there, that little gritty bread in your mouth. Yeah, yeah, there you go. So for those that are in the Chigaki-Go River area or, you know, people who want to drive to it, the Chigaki-Go River Senior Center always has free lunch for seniors. You can always make a donation, and donations are always encouraged.
Oh, Daryl has his shirt on. uh i gotta i gotta describe this so daryl has this little tiny leprechaun body and then it's like open at the head so it looks like he has a little leprechaun body on his stomach it's hilarious It's me little everyone. That's why I was talking with me accent. You didn't know it, but I was a con myself.
Oh, Daryl. This is going to be a long show. Long show. I can already feel it. Well, I went to the Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. It was... packed it was a very it was a very good event we'll get into that and what happened there in just a little bit but it was a lot of fun to see a lot of my friends out there a lot of our listeners were there lots of people came out and said hi to me
So that was a lot of fun. I want to say good morning to my neighbor, Nancy, who I got to meet in person finally. I've seen her lots of times in the neighborhood. I just finally got a chance to talk to her. So good morning, Nancy. It is actually relatively chilly outside, but we are going to have a warming trend over the next three days. So right now in my house, it's 18 degrees.
You know, and I would say that we were chilly, but because it's St. Patrick's Day, I'm going to say we're Irish stew, and it's 18 degrees here in Anchorage. Oh, that's what I should make for dinner tonight is Irish stew. Oh, Irish stew is so good. So yummy. Yeah, so yummy. Yeah, Palmer, so what did you say? Your temperature is an increase. We're hovering right about 18 in here. So you're tied with Palmer then.
at 19 big lake 19 fairbanks gets the winner winner chicken dinner they're at negative seven right now but it's pretty up there yeah exactly i was not happy yesterday when i saw all the snow in my yard But I'm very confident it's going to be gone by midweek. So you looked ahead at the forecast, too, then? Yeah, I was going to say, over the next three days, we're going to have a warming trend.
Let not your heart be troubled. Yeah, it's going to melt really fast. But, you know, Mother Nature is holding on because I keep saying I'm going to change over my snow tires. You know, they're just holding on. The high today is only supposed to be 28, but tomorrow the high is 39. Yeah, it shoots back up again. And then Wednesday, the high of 40.
By Thursday, up to 42. You see what I'm saying? It's not going to stick. You know, I just realized I've noticed a trend in the weather. Whenever we get to a Tuesday... That's every other Tuesday. The temperature jumps by at least 10 to 15 degrees. A lot of hot air out there. And I don't think that might be because of assembly. A lot of hot air. Yeah.
A lot of hot air out there, no doubt about it. Well, let's get into it. Let's get into some of our public announcements for today. There are a number of meetings that are happening or starting to gear up around South Central this week.
Starting with the Matzoo Borough, the only thing we have on the calendar today is there's a planning commission meeting tonight at 6 p.m. That will be over there in the assembly chambers at the Borough Building, 350 East Dahlia Avenue in Palmer. If you want to look at the agenda, just go to matzugug.us. and you'll be able to find it from there. Under public meetings, you should be able to click on any meeting you're interested in and find how to connect and how to attend that meeting.
That's really it for the mat, too, for today. I double-checked Palmer Whistle. I didn't see anything on their calendar today. So we're going to switch on over to... The municipality of Anchorage, and for today it's pretty light. The only thing we have on the calendar for today for the municipality of Anchorage. is we have a hand-commissioned work session on the 2024 annual report. Their meeting is going to start at 10 o'clock this morning over the Anchorage Health Department.
On the fourth floor in the conference room, that's 825 L Street, just in case you want to go there. And for the Anchorage Assembly, there's nothing on their calendar for today, but they do have a regular scheduled meeting tomorrow. That, of course, their agenda's up. So if you want more information, just go to muni.org, click on the Assembly tab, and you'll be able to find their agenda.
they're going to be working on tomorrow. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the show. What else do we have going here? What else do we have? School, back in session. School, yep, spring break is over. Spring break is over.
So, you know, that's the telltale sign the school year is almost over. Once you get on the other side of spring break, it seems like it goes really, really fast. As I'm looking down on the Kenai Peninsula borough, We have a, hang on, Eastern Peninsula Highway Emergency Service Area Board Meeting from 6 to 8 tonight. It looks like it's going to be a Zoom meeting. So they do have a Zoom link there. So if you want more information, just go to kpb.us and you'll be able to find it.
And then there's a Seward-Bear Creek Flood Service Area Board work session tonight from 6 to 7 as well. That'll be at the Seward Community Library. If you need more information... including the agenda for either of these meetings, just again go to kpb.us. All right, and then last but not least, as I was looking at the city of Kenai and the city of Saldana, I didn't see anything on their calendar for today, but we do have a city council work session in Homer today starting at 5 p.m. Thank you.
And if you want more information on that, of course, just go to their website, cityofhomer-ak.gov. Again, the meeting tonight at 5 p.m. is going to be at Cal's Council Chamber located at Homer City Hall, 491 East Pine. near Avenue. You can also attend by phone or Zoom. If you want to attend virtually, you can certainly do that. You just need to go to their website, cityofhomer-ak.gov, and you'll be able to
Find the information there to attend telephonically or via Zoom, should that be your choice. All right. Well, that really does it for our community announcements for this morning. If you know of a meeting that's going on or something fun that's going on. All you have to do is give us a call. We'd be happy to plug it. The number is 522-0650. We're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning. When we come back, we will get into the headlines of the day.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway and light traffic around the Anchorage Bowl. There has been snow all over the road, so be careful. They are slippery out there. Give yourself plenty of time to get to work this morning and give yourself plenty of room between. You and the cars around you, don't forget to brush off the vehicles. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean.
This report is sponsored by Positive Coaching Alliance. Got issues with youth or high schools in Pandora? And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business at iHeartAdvertising.com.
Some light snow showers still possible this morning. Otherwise, expect dry conditions. We'll hold on to mostly cloudy to overcast skies throughout the day with slightly cooler weather as we only manage to top out in the mid to upper 20s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm Meteorologist. Aaron Morrison. Amy Demboski. 6 to 8 mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now. 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time is 618 on this Monday morning. Hopefully everybody had a great weekend.
So the Lincoln Day dinner out at the Mat-Su at Settlers Bay was a smashing success. I saw a number of our callers there. A number of our listeners got a chance to stop and visit. I was very busy because I was actually, I'm a member of the Mat-Su Valley Republican. Women's Club, so we were the ones hosting it.
So they, like, cracked the whip and put me to work, I've got to tell you. And so I was busy most of the night working. But I did get a chance to say hi to lots of people. And it was a lot of fun. I had to chuckle, though. Because, okay, think about the Matsu. I mean, we're saying deep red. Like, deep red. Right. So in the in the entire match, you know, I don't know. There was a point where there was only one elected Democrat like actually declared Democrat on.
anywhere right now we have a number of those that run as republicans or pretend they're independents you know there's a few of them handful but i would bet you less than five in the whole and i'm talking i'm talking the whole map right there's just not i mean republicans have a very strong hold on the mat too hence the reason in some of these big statewide races that are coming up you will see a lot of courting of the mat too because that is
your base for Republicans. You're not going to win a statewide race without the Mat-Su. You've got to solidify all these groups in the Mat-Su if you're a Republican to be able to be competitive statewide. It's always interesting because we see these protests sometimes in Anchorage, but I had to laugh because they attempted a little bit of a protest.
at the Settlers Bay. And I laugh because I'm like, what are you protesting for Nick Begich? Like, really? Like, he's done nothing but good stuff. Like, he's been... Man, he's just been smoking it. He has been doing fantastic down in D.C., right? He's hit the ground running. He's working. He's passing legislation. I mean, he's actually, for a freshman, he's been doing a fantastic job.
and so what you know but again you're going to get a few people that organize generally speaking and i've been told by many a lot of people were not even from the matzo but you know there was i don't know handful of people 20 people maybe there wasn't very many but Suzanne has the story up. She says, pro-slavery much? Democrats protest Lincoln Gala in the Mat-Su. I don't know that that's a good look for them. I mean, have they not thought this through? It's a Lincoln Day dinner.
They don't care anymore. It just goes to show. It says the dinners held every year to honor the first Republican and to raise money to elect Republicans in Alaska. Protesters brought with them an angry chicken costume. That was won by one of the protesters. The group chanted. The tired, hey, hey, ho, ho, this is what democracy looks like. Chants that are being repeated around the country as Democrats follow the instructions of Representative Hakeem Jeffries to take their fight to the streets.
The event which focused on protesting the Republicans ending the fraud, waste, and abuse in government was very on brand for the Democrat Party. I kept joking because I was too busy. I couldn't go out there. I've got to tell you, Daryl, I was so close. I was so close. I kept saying, I'm like, man, if I had to, because I was so busy.
I wanted to door dash a big bucket of KFC and go stand by the chicken and just eat the KFC just next to the chicken. See, and my first thought was is if you guys would run out of chicken Marsala. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's you know You see this kind of stuff. And I laughed because I was talking to my husband about it after because he was there too. And he's like, yeah, only in Alaska. And if you looked at the people that were protesting, the vast majority of them were older.
Right. Angry. And as soon as it stops snowing, so they were there about an hour, and they were just, like, on the side of the road there. And when it started snowing, they left. So, you know, protests on whether... Weather permitting, I suppose. And, you know.
Apparently they were actually kind of polite at point because they had a little blow horn that they were yelling into. And apparently they told the manager or somebody, if we're too loud and it's disturbing your guests inside, just let us know and we'll quiet down. Well, at least that was nice of them. I know. The pictures, they looked really angry. I mean, the ones that I was looking at, I was just like, wow. They did.
They did, and I think the crowd may have settled down a little bit because the troopers came for a little bit, and they were just there as a presence, I think. But, you know, at the end of the day, I just don't get worked up over protests. Like, I'm like, eh, okay.
Like, it didn't affect me one iota inside. Like, I didn't even go outside and look. Like, because I didn't, first of all, didn't care. But second of all, I was busy. I was doing other stuff. Nobody flashed a wall of guns at them or anything? They did not. When they brought in the wall of guns, they did. through the back door so they didn't have to walk through the crowd with and like when i say crowd i mean they're 20 people to me i'm like
It's kind of a sad protest, to be honest. I don't know. For a Democratic protest in the Valley, that's like one of the biggest I've heard. It may be. It may be. It may be. It says the protest was organized by Stand Up Alaska, a radical leftist collective whose president... President was also the chair of the committee that attempted to recall Governor Dunleavy.
So they've been doing protests everywhere. Stand Up Alaska has been, you haven't seen it being out in the valley, but they've been pretty much twice a week, every week for the last month now, holding staging little protests all over Anchorage, different offices. Lisa Murkowski, Senator Stephen's offices. Wow, I went to Senator Sullivan's offices. A little flash to the pass there. And stuff like that. They've been going around and making marches between the federal buildings.
Asuka is just, they're trying to get their teeth cut, basically. Oh, well, you know, they're warming up for 2026, I suppose. I think that's what's happening. You know, it's getting interesting. You know, we'll wait and see what happens. But, you know, people are starting to jackie for position to run for governor.
So that's interesting. We're starting to see different seats where people are talking about who might be running in this seat, who might not be running for re-election. Those are always interesting conversations. starting to happen behind the scenes it's going to be for it's going to make for an interesting you know election year in 2026 so of course we will uh we will be covering all those but you know talking about uh
Talking about the Democrats, and you mentioned Lisa Murkowski. So first of all, let's just start with the government didn't shut down. See, the sky wasn't falling. We didn't have a chicken little moment. The world didn't end last week. A number of Democrats across the aisle, 10 actually, crossed the aisle and voted with Republicans to fund the government. But, you know, it was interesting on one of the amendments, Lisa Murkowski voted with the Democrats to defund Doge. Of course she did.
Of course she did. I've got to be honest with you. Lisa Murkowski, there's zero reason she should be a registered Republican right now. Zero reason. Somebody call and make the argument to me that Lisa Murkowski is a Republican. I want to hear the other side. I love somebody who plays the devil's advocate. How is Lisa Murkowski a Republican? That is my question of the day.
via this article in Mustard, Alaska, has criticized the Trump administration for trying to streamline government and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. On Friday, she voted with Democrats to defund the Department of Government Efficiency, which is headed up by Elon Musk. behalf of the president On an amendment to a bill, Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen moved Senate Amendment 1272 to H.R. 1968. The amendment would, quote, prohibit the use of appropriated amounts by Doge, end quote.
Murkowski voted with the Democrats to defund the efficiency initiative, but the amendment failed 52 to 48. All other Republicans voted against the amendment, even Susan Collins of Maine and McConnell of Kentucky. And that's what's unbelievable. See, this is the problem with Democrats, and I'm putting Lisa Murkowski in this bucket. The problem is, now you're having to argue against common sense, right? Who in the world would vote against...
eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse. And the, again, basically think of DOGE as, you could think of it as a department if you want, but it's built in with a sunset on it. So it's time specific. Hey, we're going to go forward for the next, you know, two years, whatever the timeline is. I don't remember what it is for Doge, but it's a short time window. And this amount of time.
Our focus is specifically to cut fraud, waste, and abuse and to make government efficient. That is their very specific, very specific mandate. How can you argue against that? Well, if you're earning money from it on the side or have somebody who supports you is... That would be why you would probably say, yeah, you know, we don't want to do that. You know, I look at it and I think, how in the world do you possibly argue against that? You know, it's just like...
Democrats taking the side of fighting not to protect girls sports, right? When Democrats are arguing that, no, I'm going to force you. To have your teenage daughter undress in front of a boy with a ding-a-ling in the girls' locker room, that is not a good position.
for Democrats to have to take. I mean, they're arguing common sense and over 70% of the country thinks that's ludicrous. But that's the position they're choosing to argue. So again, If you always want to be on the wrong side, clearly the Democrats are excelling in that. And with Lisa, she couches her argument. I love the way she couches, that she supports the cleaning up and the idea. Clearly not. What she does, but it's got to be done through the proper channels and the proper perception.
There's no such thing. What they've had in effect for 40 years. Look how well they work. Yeah, exactly. There's no such thing. Look, this is not a new concept. Bill Clinton on the record stated he wanted to fight fraud, waste, and abuse. They all had the same idea, right? But the difference being is they didn't get the job done.
The difference being is, you know, this is what happens with the bureaucracy. And I'm not even criticizing Obama and Clinton. I'm just saying this is the belly of the beast. This is what happens. When the beast itself, the bureaucracy itself is in charge. charge of trimming fraud, waste, and abuse. You know what they do? They do the same thing in Juneau.
They trim around the edges. They trim around the edges. That's why you need somebody like Elon Musk that comes in and is a change agent. He's not there long term. He doesn't want to become part of the system for the next 30 years. He is there for a specific purpose and a specific mission. He comes in, he executes, and he leaves. That's why this is effective, and the previous efforts were not.
I don't care what administration it was under. But again, we come back to this. Orange man bad. Anything orange man does, Lisa Murkowski is likely going to oppose it. That's what it comes down to. orange man bad if it's donald trump's idea i can't support it even if it's common sense i can't support it oh
God help us if we close our border and keep out terrorists. Nope, can't do that. We've got to fight to keep the border open. God help us if we eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse, and we actually stop funding that's being funneled to terrorists and radical groups. Nope. Can't do that. Donald Trump's idea, orange man bad. I mean, this is one more example. I mean, to be on the side of having to argue, having to argue that we can't cut fraud, waste, and abuse.
No, this is bad because Donald Trump's bringing it up. I mean, I've got to tell you, this is not a winning argument. This is not a winning position for Lisa Murkowski. So, again, I will leave the phone lines open all day. We'll see if we get anybody that calls in. To explain to me how Lisa Murkowski is really a Republican, how she shouldn't instead be really registered as a Democrat. Come on.
Well, I want to hear this argument. I feel like I could be missing something, Daryl. I'm just not sure. I could be. It might happen. It might be covered in snow. That's it. Yeah, that's it. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in 522-0650.
This is News Radio 650, KE&I, Anchorage. The skeleton of a fin whale that washed up in Anchorage is headed to a museum in Wasilla. The Anchorage Daily News reports the 47-foot whale that washed ashore in November will go to the Museum of Alaska. in Wasilla.
Officials in Anchorage are preparing for the possibility of an eruption at the Mount Spur volcano. The Anchorage Office of Emergency Management says the city has been meeting since December with the National Weather Service and the Alaska Volcano Observatory as part of a South Central Volcano Working Group.
to prepare for an eruption. And Jesse Holmes is the winner of the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. When it's hard and tough out there, I just think about, you know, all these people that are so excited and pulling for me. If I died tomorrow, I'd just die the happiest man. Holmes crossed the finish line early Friday morning in Nome in first place with 10 dogs after a race that lasted a little over 10 and a half days. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. News Radio 650. KE&I. Depend on it.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway and light traffic around the Anchorage Bowl. There has been snow all over the road, so be careful. They are slippery out there. Give yourself plenty of time to get to work this morning and give yourself plenty of room between.
You and the cars around you, don't forget to brush off the vehicles. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean. This report is sponsored by iHeartAdvertising.com. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts, then add supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy DeBosky on NewsRadio 650. KENI.
Welcome back. Current Time 637. Well, you know, we have listeners everywhere. We have people in law enforcement, fire departments, the airport. We have people everywhere that listen to us. And one of my friends texted me. Just walk by. Murkowski at the Anchorage International Airport. They were so close to saying, hey, you should turn into Amy Dabowski's show this morning. Please call in. I mean, come on. Yeah, yeah. So I kind of chuckle, but I'm like, you know, I got to be honest with you.
I still am waiting to figure out why it's a bad thing to get rid of fraud, waste, and abuse. I don't think that's a winning argument to have. All right, let's go to the phones. And Mike is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. My comments about Democrats are not meant to mean that I don't think Republicans have a hand in some of this. grift and graft as well. But the point is that the Democrats are just so much better at it. So here's the thing. When you say that Clinton or Obama
say that they want to rid us of fraud, waste, and abuse. That's all talk. That's all saying something that sounds good. so that they can look good, so that they can get elected again, or so that they can garner support. That's the difference between them and Trump, or probably Republicans as well. The point is... The Democrats have been using the USAID and other organizations to fund all of their social causes.
they've been kicking back money to the news outlets like the New York Times and, you know, Politico. Yeah, okay. And then those outlets... spew their propaganda back. Trump's a Russian agent. He's a tool of Putin and all that. They fund, they kick money back to gun control groups. And our own taxpayer money fuels the fight against our gun rights. Meanwhile, we have to contribute money out of our pockets to fight it. You're exactly right.
You are exactly right. You are 100% spot on. No, you're exactly right. And that's why they're going apoplectic. Look, the reason you will see politicians lose their mind is you attack one of two things. You attack their power or you attack their money. When you come after politicians and you basically neutralize them by taking away power or money, that's when they'll lose their mind. Why else would you fight so hard to take a position?
to say, no, no, we can't cause this fraud, waste and abuse. It's because, exactly to your point, it is funding their efforts. That's correct, as well as all the money that they kick back that also goes to the teachers' unions and things that we haven't even heard of yet. I haven't been on the Doge website, but I'm sure it's horrifying. When Stacey Abrams gets $2 billion on Biden's way out the door, that's an indicator of the, it's not grift even, it's not graft.
It's theft of the public treasury for their own political purposes. Yeah, you're exactly right. You know, on the DOGE website, if you want to go to it, it's doge.gov. At the very top of it today, they have a 2008 audit report. That's right, it's a 2008 audit report. And they said, here's the Inspector General's reporting this problem in 2008. The good news is now it's being actively fixed. So they talk about even things that the Inspector General found from
Almost 20 years ago, and it was nothing ever happened. And now Doge is going back to these old audit reports. I mean, it's like a path for them. It's easy. It's easy pickings. They're able to track things. Go back to elder reports, get ideas, and say, okay, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's fix it. And that's what people are losing their minds over. And you made the great point as you started to talk this morning. You know, whether Obama or Clinton or anybody,
else has advocated for this in the past. It was all words to sound good. They didn't actually do it. And now DOGE is actually doing it, and that's the difference. Yeah, that's correct, Amy. Well, thank you very much. I'll get off and give somebody else a chance. All right, Mike, thank you so much for your call this morning. I appreciate it. Well, I don't know if you've seen it, but this is a local Minneapolis Fox station. Fox 9 has an article up. This is funny, Daryl. This is funny.
Minnesota lawmakers want to define Trump derangement syndrome as a mental illness. And it is. Oh, my word. It says Republican lawmakers. Oh, my. Oh, I just got to pop up. I got a pop-up. All right, so I got to get out of that story. But Minnesota lawmakers have introduced a bill to classify Trump derangement syndrome as a mental illness.
and I think it's partly right look again we see it all the time when you see people over and over again that jump in and what do they do and just because don't Donald Trump comes up with the idea They immediately say they just oppose it just because it's coming from Donald Trump. That's effectively what Trump derangement syndrome is, and I think they're right.
Well, I was going to say, it's more than just that. Even if somebody else does have that idea, as soon as Trump looks at it and starts to espouse it, boom, it has now become a bad idea because it has been across his lips. Yeah, exactly. So it says Republican lawmakers in Minnesota want the state to add Trump derangement syndrome to its definition of mental illnesses. The bill is set to be introduced today by five Republicans in Minnesota.
in the Senate. The bill proposes changing the state's definition of mental illness to include specifically, quote, Trump derangement syndrome, end quote. It defines the syndrome as, quote, acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons.
that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump's behavior, end quote. They're doing pretty good on that. I mean, you've got to admit. I've got to be. This is like trolling to the next level. I don't even know. I would have never thought of this. But it goes on.
The Minnesota DFL issued a statement on Monday responding to the statement. It reads, this is why Minnesota Republicans have lost every state election in recent memory. Every time they get an opportunity to try and improve Minnesotans' lives. They instead double down on the agenda that caters to their party's most extreme right-wing activists. So the Democrats of Minnesota, you know, don't find it funny. That's the takeaway. No ha-ha. No ha-ha. Ha-ha.
I would say he-he, but they don't know the difference between a he and a she. So the Democrats there don't even think there maybe is a mini-ha-ha in that? Oh, my gosh. It's so funny. It's so funny. I can't even with this one. um but you know do i think it'll pass the minnesota senate i do not uh republicans in minnesota are definitely in the minority but it it highlights the ridiculousness of what we're talking about which is again
We have friends on both sides, and I think Mike said it well. There's definitely grifters on both sides. But when we talk about legislation, There's good ideas and bad ideas from both sides so you can have you can have a great idea frankly coming from the left side Sometimes it happens even even a blind squirrel can find a nut But also with Republicans. Sometimes you can have a great Republican that just is wayward.
They're not a great idea. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But anyway, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, 522-0650.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway and light traffic around the Anchorage Bowl. There has been snow all over the road, so be careful. They are slippery out there. Give yourself plenty of time to get to work this morning and give yourself plenty of room between. You and the cars around you, don't forget to brush off the vehicles. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean.
This report is sponsored by iHeartAdvertising.com. Run a business and not thinking about radio? Think again. Managed to top out in the mid to upper 20s. For Alaska's weather source, meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Now back. to the boss, Amy Demfoski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI. welcome back well lots of big news that is popping all over
The SpaceX crew has successfully docked with the International Space Station. He goes on to describe the good things that Yun has done on the Matt Subaru assembly, which, frankly, there are many. He was a great assembly member. But again, even good people can sometimes, you know, present bad legislation, let's be honest. So, again, the Matthewboro Assembly still needs to hear from you. They'll be taking up the issue tomorrow night, so I still suggest that you go and voice your opinion.
as to whether they should or shouldn't weigh in on this tax and how they should weigh in, if you have an opinion of such. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. The following is an important safety message and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENR. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back.
Hour 2 of the Amy Domboski Show broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 a.m. You can also catch us on our website, 650keni.iheart.com, or you can download the podcast. from that website or the iHeartMedia app.
And I'll tell you what, if you're on that iHeartMedia app, you're a smart person because you get access to all kinds of radio stations, shows, and also podcasts, including Amy Demboski's podcast. And they've got a great new feature called the preset feature, which literally lets you...
Just put the buttons on the top of your app right there for your favorite things. And one click, and you've got it going. You don't have to search through. Look for the newest ones. Just click in there. And, yeah, the podcast works really great, and so does the live streaming.
We love it. Love it. We'll talk about something else that worked really great. It was the Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday night. I got to see lots of friends, and one of the guys I saw is joining us now. Good morning, Bruce. Hey, morning, Amy. Morning, Daryl. Yeah, I wanted to call in about that dinner and a couple other topics, but how about that dinner? That was great, right?
It was fantastic. It was packed. I think it was very successful. It was a great event. It was great seeing everybody. It was great seeing Nick Baggage. Yeah, it was great seeing him. And what I love about Nick is that not only does he motivate and rally together Republicans, he motivates the Democrats to come out and protest. So that was pretty nice. Yeah, exactly.
The reason why I'm calling in, did you see that awesome video that the Trump administration put out about those illegal aliens from Venezuela that they deported? Yes, I did. Trendelagua gang members, they did. El Salvador took them in, and then after the plane had already left, El Salvador had taken them. A judge Saturday night said, no, no, no, no, you can't. You can't do that. And it's like, oh, too late. Already done.
Yeah, he told them too late. But it goes to a bigger problem that we're seeing. And I think we see it at all levels, whether it's local, state or federal. What is with these activist judges? We have a federal judge. A little judge in D.C. that said this is illegal and bring them back. Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, but these activist judges, and we can even look at our judges here in this state.
We've got to start getting rid of these people. There's got to be repercussions for people that are activists, and that's what these judges are doing. And whether it's the deporting of these illegal aliens or rescuing the astronauts in space. It came down to one simple thing. All we needed was a real president.
Yeah, well, that's exactly right. The laws were already on the books, so there's no doubt you could do it. I mean, no doubt. So, you know, look, they're talking about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Trump invoking that. to expel people that are basically national security threats. And it can be done. It's clearly within his authority. And, you know, at the end of the day, I think that you'll see the Supreme Court come in and smack down these judges, but it's a process.
Right. And, you know, now these judges, activist judges, the thought of a small, you know, judge in podunk. wherever that they're able to shop around and get a judge to issue an order to completely stop the government. Stop the government from stopping to spend money, stop the government from stopping to cut fraud, waste, and abuse, stopping the government from expelling.
terrorists from our country I mean it's ludicrous to your point it's absolutely ludicrous yeah and remember these are supposed to be three co-equal branches of government If the president is doing something illegal, there's a process for that, and it's impeachment. Not a frivolous impeachment, but a real impeachment. You can't have judges dictating to the president what to do, just like the president shouldn't be dictating to the judges what to do.
And one other point I want to make about these legal and illegal aliens, right? Disclaimer, I work for CBP. And you get these Democrats are actually advocating for these violent criminals for them to stay, which is totally ludicrous.
You know, I've had to stamp in people that have waited years and jumped through many loopholes to come to this country legally and to live here. And, you know, when I get to... process their paperwork and i get to finalize it with that stamp and i tell them welcome home the tears that are shed and how grateful they are i'm sorry these illegal aliens have not put in the same time and work
You people that are advocating for these illegal aliens, you're on the wrong side of history. Yep, yep, yeah, I think you're exactly right. I couldn't have said it any better, Bruce. I appreciate the call. Thank you for calling this morning. All right, you have a good day, and thanks for that gift at the party. You guys have a good day, all right? You're welcome. All right, bye-bye.
All right, we're going to go to Representative Kevin McCabe. I'm going to win this battle. I have been begging for Mondays with McCabe, and look at that. We have him yet again this week. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. How are you? I am fantastic now. You made my day. So, Representative McCabe, how was your weekend? I saw your lovely wife at the Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday.
Yeah, she had a great time. She said it was a lot of fun and really well organized. Funny thing is she didn't even mention the protesters. Yeah, it was a non-issue, really. Yeah, yeah. Well, how's Juno? What are you expecting in Juno this week? Well, you know, I want to talk a little bit about this SB92 thing. So there's a...
I have a theory. I have a theory that the reason that Senator Young, in full disclosure, I have not talked to him at all, about this bill and what happened, but there's a reason everybody's running away from it pretty quickly, and I think it's because the Democrats are going to try to stuff either an income tax or a per barrel tax credit into it.
That's how they think they're going to fund education. They're going to come to us and say, well, you said you wanted a way to fund education, so here's part of it. We're going to do this. We're going to make Hillcorp fund our entire education increase, our $1,000 BSA, and we're going to take some of the PFD, if not all of the PFD, to do it. And, oh, by the way,
If you want any PFD at all, Republicans, you're going to have to give us your three-quarter vote to get into the CBR. So a lot of leveraging coming up, I suspect, just from kind of watching this. I think Alaskans need to know that. I'm tired of the backroom deals. I'm tired of the backroom deals that happened with the education funding, and I'm tired of watching this. This is going to be horrible.
SB 92 is terrible. We already went through this with ACEs. There's a really good conversation on Senator Wolakowski's ex from yesterday morning where he's trying to defend... this tax, the S-corp loop closing. And he's trying to defend it, saying, well, he's supposed to follow the Constitution for the maximum benefit for Alaskans. and he's trying to get that out of taxing Hillcorp by closing this S-corp loop. And that might be true until you look at ACES.
from more than a decade ago and see how bad that hurt us, how it drove oil companies away from Alaskans. So how is that the maximum benefit for Alaskans? It's not. And to your point, Look, you can put 100% tax on oil and gas and say, look, I'm getting the maximum benefit. But if you drive all the oil and gas companies out of Alaska and we stop pulling oil out of the ground, are we really getting the maximum benefit?
for all Alaskans? Probably not. That's right. And, you know, if you really look at it, there are... How do you do it for one LLC that is... Say you want to do it for all LLCs, or say you want to do it for one LLC like Kilcorp. How do you do it for one without doing it for all? I guess that's my point. Yeah, they're going to put a $5 million thing in there saying any LLC, oil.
LLC above or S Corp above $5 million has to pay this tax, and maybe any below between $1 million and $5 million has to pay a smaller tax. under one million in profits pays no tax. You know, I get that they're going to do all this graduated stuff, but... You know, at the end of the day, I've said it a dozen times, we invited Hillcorp up here a decade ago, after ACES, frankly, kind of drove us into the limited production world.
And we invited Hillcorp up here to help us with production in Cook Inlet and on the North Slope. And we knew they were an S-Corp. We absolutely knew it. And now all of a sudden it's a huge problem for some. I think it's dirty pool, and I think it's exactly why resource development companies don't want to come to Alaska, or they require huge... guarantees from us such as loan guarantees or backstop funding or all this kind of stuff because they know Alaska is risky.
because of the way we treat them with our taxes. Yeah, you've just hit on something that I think there's, for me, there was two big concerns that I had. Number one, It feels like when you are trying to entice an oil and gas company to come to Alaska and develop in Alaska where it is very difficult at times. It's very isolated. The infrastructure required to actually be protected.
of up here they're going to be investing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in order to do business up here and then the legislature it's so you know it's not consistent they don't know that they're going to have a stable tax structure
So that's concerning. But then you look at the federal level and you say, okay, look at what Trump is trying to do. And he's trying to give Alaska the center stage. And are we going to mess up this opportunity? Because it seems like we're sending a mix. message from what the federal government is now sending so those were two of my big my big concerns and I felt like SB 91 frankly threw a monkey wrench into what they're trying to accomplish at a national level
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And you know, the other thing we need to look at is, you know, we're pretty proud of our oil, but it's not the greatest oil in the world due to transportation costs, and it's not the light, sweet crude that comes from the Permian Basin. So we pretty much supply about 4% of the country's oil, and it's not great. It goes down to the West Coast, and it's a pretty restricted market from there.
We are acting like our oil is the best thing in the world. There's 2.7 billion barrels of reserve or something like that. There's a huge reserve that Hillcorp's sitting on.
And if we make it too difficult for them to develop this, they're just going to continue to sit on it until the oil prices rise. Frankly, West Texas, WTI and... in the Permian Basin and Dubai and some of the other places have better oil than us, and it's easier to transport, easier to get out of the ground, and most importantly, easier to refine.
And here we are real proud of ourselves saying, well, we're just going to charge you taxes. Well, why in the world would any businessman continue to develop and to invest in developing in Alaska? In that case, why not just sit on it? The smart play is just to sit on your oil.
Yeah, well, I've got to tell you, and you highlight another really good point. I mean, this is a global industry, and we are not the only game in town. You know, if they can go places where they can get easier access to oil. easier to refine, lower carrying costs to bring it to market. I mean, we have to compete. And raising taxes, I just don't think, is the right message. I mean, I go back to the same thing. If you want less of something, tax it more.
I mean, that's generally the rule of thumb. So I don't know that that was the right message to send. But the game is not over because once you as a legislator introduce legislation like this, as you rightly pointed out, now they can use it as a vehicle. for other things, and that's something that nobody else is really talking about yet. Right. And, you know, this might be a first where somebody wants to get off of his bill and basically pull the bill out of the Senate.
and he's not allowed to. The deal was obviously struck, and once again, full disclosure, I have not talked to anybody about it. This is just looking at things from a... sort of an outsider perspective, but it seems to me that a deal was struck, and he was allowed to pull his name off of there, and it went right to resources as long as the bill stayed in the place. So there's something else coming. And it'll be interesting to watch and see what they try to put into that bill in Senate resources.
Well, we will keep our eyes on it for sure. Representative McCabe, as always, enlightening conversation. Thank you for calling in this morning. Thanks, Amy, and I urge anyone who's interested to watch the Senate Resources hearings and make sure you send in your emails or call in. when public testimony is up and give them your ideas, good or bad. We need ideas. We need people's input all the time. Absolutely. Thank you so much this morning, sir. Have a great week in Juneau.
You bet, Amy. Talk to you later. Thanks. All right. Bye-bye. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Looking at those Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Steady traffic. Everyone slightly. When these pieces of legislation do get introduced, this is what you have to realize. When we call it Christmas treeing in legislation, what we're talking about.
is things getting added into it, right? So you have a bill about... you know oil and gas tax well now it's a tax bill so can they add into it an income tax too are they going to add into other types of taxes this is what you have to watch for is it going to stop with just this one very narrow it's never gonna stop and so that's what that's what he's talking about when there's a game afoot
Make no mistake about it. There's a game afoot. And when they pass legislation in the House that says they're going to increase the base student allocation, so that's the per pupil cost by $1,000 per student. Look, this one tax on Hillcorp alone isn't going to foot that bill. And don't forget, not only...
Do they not have the money to pay for that bill? But the Democrats in the legislature are also pushing to go back to a retirement system that's $6 billion in the hole. You know, a defined benefits retirement system. they want to go back to. They don't have the money to pay for that. And these are their two biggest priorities this year. So they have two huge bills with huge fiscal notes and no way to pay for it.
So common sense tells you there's only one way to do it. It's either to cut somewhere else, which we all know they are not going to do, or to tax the bejesus out of all of us. Right? So if they raise taxes on oil and gas, what do you think that's going to do to jobs here in Alaska? Those oil and gas companies are going to be like, maybe it's more productive for us to develop over here instead.
Right? That's what's going to happen. And then they're going to turn around and be like, oh, that's not enough. We need to get more money out of people. So, of course, they're going to go to your PFD. That's what they're going to do. They try to say they're not, but that's exactly what they're going to do. They've done it for the last few years.
And then that's not going to be enough. I'm telling you right now, when you look at the numbers, how much they want to spend, those two buckets of money are still not enough. Then they're going to come for an income tax. That's it. This is how these people operate.
And so you have to recognize what we're dealing with. And so I will tell you, I will tell you, I don't trust any of them when it comes to tax policy on the resources committee. When I start looking at the Senate resources and seeing who's in charge, Really? Kathy Giesel and Bill Wilikowski? Are those two people you're going to trust? I don't think so. I don't think so. All right, let's go to the phones. And Randy is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning. Yes, happy St. Patrick's Day.
Hey, same to you. It was good seeing you and your lovely bride on Saturday night. And likewise, I had a great time. I got the set right next to the center, and he was great. But I'll tell you, that Fairbanks group, they really know how to party. Yeah, they do. Oh, no, it was great. It was a great event, and there was lots of people there. I mean, we had people there from Fairbanks, from the Kenai. I saw Ben Carpenter and his wife Amy came up.
We had people from, there was somebody up from Juneau. There was somebody here from Seattle. And there was a lot of people from around the state that came to the Mat-Su on Saturday night. So it was great listening to everybody. or getting a chance to talk to everybody and listening to Nick. He was the keynote speaker. I thought he had a great message, and he kind of gave us an update from D.C. So it was a good event. It was a really good event, I thought.
Kevin McCain gave me something. Well, I was a senior partner of LAC Consulting, and we... So did I LSE out of China, Wyoming. My team flew all over the United States. Sometimes up here, but most times we flew 48, you know. But anyway, we have to, you know, as a company, you have to look at everything and be able to make you bills and pay you bills. You just can't put money.
And 2009 was so hard for us as a company because we had to deal with the projects we had online and the contracts we already bidded out. And it was going to pay. But I'll tell you. You have to watch changing the rules because you got a helicopter and say, okay, we can just sell out and go like BP. You have to remember when BP left.
We couldn't get anybody to take up their leases and come and take over. You know, Senator Sullivan at the time was the DNR commissioner, and he went, and he actually went to Houston, and he went pounding the pavement to try. to find a company to come up here and he talked hillcorp into it and they came up and they not only took over the bp fields but they made them more productive they're actually producing more um oil than bp was producing at the time so not only are they
investing, but they're aggressively going after the oil and gas here in Alaska. I think that's a good thing for Alaska. Again, what I worry about is we're sending mixed messages to these companies. an unstable environment to do business in, that's not a good look. And when they make the argument that this is just a loophole and they're leveling the playing field, it's not true.
The S Corps may be able to have a little bit less tax here, but they don't get the same write-offs as the C Corps do. So as the big companies go to develop on federal land, they get to deduct their investment. from their taxes Hillcorp doesn't get to do that and so you know it's it's really apples and oranges at the same that when you're looking at tax policy you can't look at just this one line on the spreadsheet you got
step back and look at the whole thing to get the accurate picture to see if you really are leveling the playing field or you're not and i think that's i think that's the miss in this legislation but you know tomorrow night randy you'll have an opportunity to testify in front of the mat super assembly because now they have this resolution that originally it was to support SB 92 and now Ron Bernier is saying he's going to oppose SB 92 but I still think it's really important for the assembly
to hear from constituents what the impact potentially could be to alaskans if uh if you know sb 92 were to were to pass yes i'll be there all right You too, sir. Thank you so much for calling in. I appreciate it. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Then when we come back, we will go straight to your calls, 522-0650. Turn up your radio. Here's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute.
We have one guy appeared to be protesting against Elon Musk. Well, this idiot accidentally apparently lit himself on fire while trying to vandalize. the electric vehicle charging stations, according to South Carolina police. The incident unfolded last Friday at the Tesla charging stations in North Charleston.
The man wrote free Ukraine as well as another message against President Trump with an expletive included. According to a report from the North Charleston Police Department, police said the man had ignited some material that was stuffed into beer bottles and threw at the stations and witnesses told police that he lit himself on fire by accident and then fled the scene. What a genius. Check out the Sean Hannity radio show later today, right here.
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This is News Radio 650, KENI, Anchorage. One man is facing charges in connection to a hit and run that left a pedestrian injured in Anchorage. Police arrested 32-year-old Anthony Roberts on charges of first-degree assault, leaving the scene and tampering with physical evidence for the...
a crash Friday afternoon on Muldoon Road near Dubin Avenue. Members of the Iron Dog community are mourning the loss of one of their own. Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for a memorial for racer Sky Wrench. Wrench went missing earlier this month after his ATV crashed through some river
eyes and former reality tv star jesse holmes is the winner of the 2025 iditarod trail sled dog race i'm beyond excited you know about this and i'm beyond grateful for all the support holmes crossed the finish line early friday morning in Nome in first place with 10 dogs after a race that lasted a little over 10 and a half days. Holmes was a regular on the reality show Life Before Zero, which follows subsistence hunters in The Last Frontier. That's the latest. I'm John Fink.
This is News Radio 650, KENI, Anchorage. Looking at those Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to News Radio 650 KENI. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on News Radio 650 KENI.
Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy DeBosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 a.m. You can also catch us on our website. 650keni.iheart.com, or you can download the podcast from that website or the iHeart Media app.
And I'll tell you what, if you're on that iHeartMedia app, you're a smart person because you get access to all kinds of radio stations, shows, and also podcasts, including Amy Domboski's podcast. And they've got a great new feature called the preset feature, which literally lets you...
just put the buttons on the top of your app right there for your favorite things and one click and you've got it going you don't have to search through look for the newest ones just click in there and it'll yeah the podcast works really great and so does the live streaming We love it. Love it. We'll talk about something else that works really great. It was the Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday night. I got to see lots of friends, and one of the guys I saw is joining us now. Good morning, Bruce.
Hey, morning, Amy. Morning, Daryl. Yeah, I wanted to call in about that dinner and a couple other topics, but how about that dinner? That was great, right? It was fantastic. It was packed. I think it was very successful. It was a great event. It was great seeing everybody. It was great seeing big baggage.
Yeah, it was great seeing him. And what I love about Nick is that not only does he motivate and rally together Republicans, he motivates the Democrats to come out and protest. So that was pretty nice. Yeah, exactly. The reason why I'm calling in, did you see that awesome video that the Trump administration put out about those illegal aliens from Venezuela that they deported?
Yes, I did. Trendelagua gang members, they did. El Salvador took them in, and then after the plane had already left, El Salvador had taken them. A judge Saturday night said, no, no, no, no, you can't. You can't do that. And it's like, oh, too late, already done. Yeah, he told them too late. But it goes to a bigger problem that we're seeing, and I think we see it at all levels, whether it's local, state, or federal.
What is with these activist judges? We have a federal judge, a little judge in D.C. that said this is illegal and bring them back. Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, but these activist judges, and we can even look at our judges here in this state. We've got to start getting rid of these people. There's got to be repercussions for people that are activists, and that's what these judges are doing. And whether it's the deporting of these illegal aliens or the...
rescuing the astronauts in space, it came down to one simple thing. All we needed was a real president. Yeah, well, that's exactly right. The laws were already on the books, so there's no doubt you could do it. I mean, no doubt. So, you know, look, they're talking about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Trump invoking that.
to expel people that are basically national security threats. And it can be done clearly within his authority. And, you know, at the end of the day, I think that you'll see the Supreme Court come in and smack down these judges, but it's a process. right and um you know now these judges activist judges the thought of a a small you know judge in podunk
wherever, that they're able to shop around and get a judge to issue an order to completely stop the government. Stop the government from stopping to spend money. Stop the government from stopping to cut fraud, waste, and abuse. Stopping the government from expelling. terrorists from our country i mean it's ludicrous you to your point it's absolutely ludicrous yeah and remember these are supposed to be three co-equal branches of government
If the president is doing something illegal, there's a process for that, and it's impeachment. Not a frivolous impeachment, but a real impeachment. You can't have judges dictating to the president what to do, just like the president shouldn't be dictating to the judges what to do.
And one other point I want to make about these legal and illegal aliens, right? Disclaimer, I work for CBP. And you get these Democrats are actually advocating for these violent criminals for them to stay, which is totally ludicrous.
You know, I've had to stamp in people that have waited years and jumped through many loopholes to come to this country legally and to live here. And, you know, when I get to... process their paperwork and i get to finalize it with that stamp and i tell them welcome home the tears that are shed and how grateful they are i'm sorry these illegal aliens have not put in the same time and work
You people that are advocating for these illegal aliens, you're on the wrong side of history. Yep, yep, yeah, I think you're exactly right. I couldn't have said it any better, Bruce. I appreciate the call. Thank you for calling this morning. All right, you have a good day, and thanks for that gift at the party. You guys have a good day, all right? You're welcome. All right, bye-bye.
All right, we're going to go to Representative Kevin McCabe. I'm going to win this battle. I have been begging for Mondays with McCabe, and look at that. We have him yet again this week. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy. How are you? I am fantastic now. You made my day. So, Representative McCabe, how was your weekend? I saw your lovely wife at the Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday.
Yeah, she had a great time. She said it was a lot of fun and really well organized. Funny thing is she didn't even mention the protesters to me. Yeah, it was a non-issue, really. Yeah, yeah. Well, how's Juno? What are you expecting in Juno this week? Well, you know, I want to talk a little bit about this SB92 thing. So there's a...
I have a theory. I have a theory that the reason that Senator Young, in full disclosure, I have not talked to him at all, about this bill and what happened, but there's a reason everybody's running away from it pretty quickly, and I think it's because the Democrats are going to try to stuff either an income tax or a per barrel tax credit into it.
That's how they think they're going to fund education. They're going to come to us and say, well, you said you wanted a way to fund education, so here's part of it. We're going to do this. We're going to make Hillcorp fund our entire education increase, our $1,000 BSA, and we're going to take some of the PFD, if not all of the PFD, to do it. And, oh, by the way,
If you want any PFD at all, Republicans, you're going to have to give us your three-quarter vote to get into the CBR. So a lot of leveraging coming up, I suspect, just from kind of watching this. I think Alaskans need to know that. I'm tired of the backroom deals. I'm tired of the backroom deals that happened with the education funding, and I'm tired of watching this. This is going to be horrible.
SB 92 is terrible. We already went through this with ACEs. There's a really good conversation on Senator Wolakowski's ex from yesterday morning where he's trying to defend... this tax, the S-Corp loop closing. And he's trying to defend it, saying, well, he's supposed to follow the Constitution for the maximum benefit for Alaskans. and he's trying to get that out of taxing Hillcorp by closing this S-corp loop. And that might be true until you look at ACES.
from more than a decade ago and see how bad that hurt us, how it drove oil companies away from Alaskans. So how is that the maximum benefit for Alaskans? It's not. And to your point, Look, you can put a hundred percent tax on oil and gas and say, look, I'm getting the maximum benefit. But if you drive all the oil and gas companies out of Alaska and we stop pulling oil out of the ground, are we really getting the maximum benefit?
for all Alaskans? Probably not. That's right. And, you know, if you really look at it, there are... How do you do it for one LLC that is... Say you want to do it for all LLCs, or say you want to do it for one LLC like Kilcorp. How do you do it for one without doing it for all? I guess that's my point. And, yeah, they're going to put a $5 million thing in there saying any LLC, oil.
LLC above or S Corp above $5 million has to pay this tax, and maybe any below between $1 million and $5 million has to pay a smaller tax. under one million in profits pays no tax. You know, I get that they're going to do all this graduated stuff, but... You know, at the end of the day, I've said it a dozen times, we invited Hillcorp up here a decade ago, after ACES, frankly, kind of drove us into the limited production world.
And we invited Hillcorp up here to help us with production in Cook Inlet and on the North Slope. And we knew they were an S-Corp. We absolutely knew it. And now all of a sudden it's a huge problem for some. I think it's dirty pool, and I think it's exactly why resource development companies don't want to come to Alaska, or they require huge... guarantees from us such as loan guarantees or backstop funding or all this kind of stuff because they know Alaska is risky.
because of the way we treat them with our taxes. Yeah, you've just hit on something that I think there's, for me, there was two big concerns that I had. Number one, It feels like when you are trying to entice an oil and gas company to come to Alaska and develop in Alaska where it is very difficult at times. It's very isolated. The infrastructure required to actually be protected.
of up here they're going to be investing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in order to do business up here and then the legislature it's so you know it's not consistent they don't know that they're going to have a stable tax structure
So that's concerning. But then you look at the federal level and you say, okay, look at what Trump is trying to do. And he's trying to give Alaska the center stage. And are we going to mess up this opportunity? Because it seems like we're sending a mix. message from what the federal government is now sending so those were two of my big my big concerns and I felt like SB 91 frankly threw a monkey wrench into what they're trying to accomplish at a national level
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And you know, the other thing we need to look at is, you know, we're pretty proud of our oil, but it's not the greatest oil in the world due to transportation costs, and it's not the light, sweet crude that comes from the Permian Basin. So we pretty much supply about 4% of the country's oil, and it's not great. It goes down to the West Coast, and it's a pretty restricted market from there.
We are acting like our oil is the best thing in the world. There's 2.7 billion barrels of reserve or something like that. There's a huge reserve that Hillcorp's sitting on.
And if we make it too difficult for them to develop this, they're just going to continue to sit on it until the oil prices rise. Frankly, West Texas, WTI and... in the Permian Basin and Dubai and some of the other places have better oil than us and it's easier to transport, easier to get out of the ground, and most importantly, easier to refine.
And here we are, real proud of ourselves, saying, well, we're just going to charge you taxes. Why in the world would any businessman continue to develop and invest in developing in Alaska? In that case, why not just sit on it? The smart play is just to sit on your oil. Yeah, well, I've got to tell you, and you highlight another really good point. I mean, this is a global industry, and we are not the only game in town. You know, if they can go places where they can get easier access to oil.
easier to refine, lower carrying costs to bring it to market. I mean, we have to compete. And raising taxes, I just don't think, is the right message. I mean, I go back to the same thing. If you want less of something, tax it more. I mean, that's generally the rule of thumb. So I don't know that that was the right message to send. But the game is not over because once you as a legislator introduce legislation like this, as you rightly pointed out, now they can use it as a vehicle.
for other things, and that's something that nobody else is really talking about yet. Right. And, you know, this might be a first where somebody wants to get off of his bill and basically pull the bill out of the Senate. And he's not allowed to. And, you know, so he can, you know, the deal was obviously struck. And once again, full disclosure, I have not talked to anybody about it. This is just looking at things from a
sort of an outsider perspective. But it seems to me that a deal was struck, and he was allowed to pull his name off of there, and it went right to resources as long as the bill stayed in the place. So there's something else coming. and it'll be interesting to watch and see what they try to put into that bill in Senate resources. Well, we will keep our eyes on it for sure. Representative McCabe, as always, enlightening conversation. Thank you for calling in this morning.
Thanks, Amy, and I urge anyone who's interested to watch the Senate resources hearings and make sure you send in your emails or call in. When public testimony is up, give them your ideas, good or bad. We need ideas. We need people's input all the time. Absolutely. Thank you so much this morning, sir. Have a great week in Juneau. You bet, Amy. Talk to you later. Thanks. All right. Bye-bye. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Looking at those Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Steady traffic. Cooler weather as we only managed to top out in the mid to upper 20s. For Alaska's weather source, a meteorologist. Aaron Morrison. You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-522. You know, as I was listening to Representative McCabe,
It should strike fear in everyone slightly. When these pieces of legislation do get introduced, this is what you have to realize. When we call it Christmas dream in legislation, what we're talking about is things getting...
added into it, right? So you have a bill about you know oil and gas tax well now it's a tax bill so can they add into it an income tax too are they going to add into other types of taxes this is what you have to watch for is it going to stop with just this one very narrow it's never gonna stop and so that's what that's what he's talking about when there's a game afoot
Make no mistake about it. There's a game afoot. And when they pass legislation in the House that says they're going to increase the base student allocation, so that's the per pupil cost by $1,000 per student. look this one tax on hillcorp alone isn't going to foot that bill and don't forget not only
Do they not have the money to pay for that bill? But the Democrats in the legislature are also pushing to go back to a retirement system that's $6 billion in the hole. You know, a defined benefits retirement system. they want to go back to. They don't have the money to pay for that. And these are their two biggest priorities this year. So they have two huge bills with huge fiscal notes and no way to pay for it.
So common sense tells you there's only one way to do it. It's either to cut somewhere else, which we all know they are not going to do, or to tax the bejesus out of all of us. Right? So if they raise taxes on oil and gas, what do you think that's going to do to jobs here in Alaska? Those oil and gas companies are going to be like, maybe it's more productive for us to develop over here instead.
Right? That's what's going to happen. And then they're going to turn around and be like, oh, that's not enough. We need to get more money out of people. So, of course, they're going to go to your PFD. That's what they're going to do. They try to say they're not, but that's exactly what they're going to do. They've done it for the last few years.
And then that's not going to be enough. I'm telling you right now, when you look at the numbers, how much they want to spend, those two buckets of money are still not enough. Then they're going to come for an income tax. That's it. This is how these people operate.
And so you have to recognize what we're dealing with. And so I will tell you, I will tell you, I don't trust any of them when it comes to tax policy on the Resources Committee. When I start looking at the Senate resources and seeing who's in charge, Really? Kathy Giesel and Bill Wilikowski? Are those two people you're going to trust? I don't think so. I don't think so. All right, let's go to the phones. And Randy is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning. Yes, happy St. Patrick's Day.
Hey, same to you. It was good seeing you and your lovely bride on Saturday night. And likewise, I had a great time. I got the set right next to the center, and he was great. But I'll tell you, that Fairbanks group, they really know how to party. Yeah, they do. Oh, no, it was great. It was a great event, and there was lots of people there. I mean, we had people there from Fairbanks, from the Kenai. I saw Ben Carpenter and his wife Amy came up.
We had people from, there was somebody up from Juneau. There was somebody here from Seattle. And there was a lot of people from around the state that came to the Mat-Su on Saturday night. So it was great listening to everybody. getting a chance to talk to everybody and listening to Nick. He was the keynote speaker. I thought he had a great message, and he kind of gave us an update from D.C. So it was a good event. It was a really good event, I thought.
Kevin McCain gave me something. Well, I was a senior partner of LAC Consulting, and we... My team flew all over the United States. Sometimes up here, but most times we flew 48, you know. But anyway, we have to, you know, as a company, you have to look at everything and be able to make you bills and pay you bills. You just can't put money.
And 2009 was so hard for us as a company because we had to deal with the projects we had online and the contracts we already bidded out. And it was going to pay. But I'll tell you. You have to watch changing the rules because you got a helicopter and say, okay, we can just sell out and go like BP. You have to remember when BP left.
We couldn't get anybody to take up their leases and come and take over. You know, Senator Sullivan at the time was the DNR commissioner, and he went, and he actually went to Houston, and he went pounding the pavement to try. to find a company to come up here and he talked hillcorp into it and they came up and they not only took over the bp fields but they made them more productive they're actually producing more um oil than bp was producing at the time so not only are they
investing, but they're aggressively going after the oil and gas here in Alaska. I think that's a good thing for Alaska. And again, what I worry about is we're sending mixed messages to these companies. an unstable environment to do business in, that's not a good look. And when they make the argument that this is just a loophole and they're leveling the playing field, it's not true.
The S Corps may be able to have a little bit less tax here, but they don't get the same write-offs as the C Corps do. So as the big companies go to develop on federal land, they get to deduct their investment. from their taxes Hillcorp doesn't get to do that and so you know it's it's really apples and oranges at the same that when you're looking at tax policy you can't look at just this one line on the spreadsheet you got
step back and look at the whole thing to get the accurate picture to see if you really are leveling the playing field or you're not and i think that's i think that's the miss in this legislation but you know tomorrow night randy you'll have an opportunity to testify in front of the mat super Assembly because now they have this resolution that originally it was to support SB 92 and now Ron Bernier is saying he's going to oppose SB 92 but I still think it's really important for the Assembly
to hear from constituents what the impact potentially could be to Alaskans if, you know, SB 92 were to pass. Yes, I'll be there. All right. You too, sir. Thank you so much for calling in. I appreciate it. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Then when we come back, we will go straight to your calls, 522-0650. Turn up your radio. Here's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute.
We have one guy appeared to be protesting against Elon Musk. Well, this idiot accidentally apparently lit himself on fire while trying to vandalize. the electric vehicle charging stations, according to South Carolina police. The incident unfolded last Friday at the Tesla charging stations in North Charleston. The man wrote Free Ukraine as well as another message against President Trump with an expletive included.
According to a report from the North Charleston Police Department, police said the man had ignited some material that was stuffed into beer bottles and threw him at the stations. And witnesses told police that he lit himself on fire by accident and then fled the scene. What a genius. Check out the Sean Hannity radio show later today, right here.
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This is News Radio 650, KENI, Anchorage. One man is facing charges in connection to a hit-and-run that left a pedestrian injured in Anchorage. Police arrested 32-year-old Anthony Roberts on charges of first-degree assault, leaving the scene and tampering with physical evidence for...
the crash Friday afternoon on Muldoon Road near Dubin Avenue. Members of the Iron Dog community are mourning the loss of one of their own. Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for a memorial for racer Sky Wrench. Wrench went missing earlier this month after his ATV crashed through some river
And former reality TV star Jesse Holmes is the winner of the 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. I'm beyond excited, you know, about this and I'm beyond grateful for all the support. Holmes crossed the finish line early Friday morning. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. This is News Radio 650. KENI Anchorage. Look at those Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. KENI. Call now. 907-522-0650.
Welcome back. Current Time 738 on this Monday morning. Happy St. Patty's Day to everyone. It is March 17th. We're going to go straight to the phones and Marvin is with us. Good morning, sir. Yeah, good morning, Amy. I'm looking at my Anchorage ballot here, and the only one that I've got a little bit of, I'm looking for some insight in. I've read their bios. C.J. McCormick and Colbrey. From reading them, I'm kind of favoring McCormick, but do you know anything about them?
Yeah, let me pull up this candidates list. Hang on one second. I'm just getting to my website here because I think that's the race Bob Griffin called in and recommended for us in that particular race. Yep. Bob Griffin, who I trust implicitly, he lives in South Anchorage. He is going for Keith McCormick. So he had met with the guy, talked to the guy. He really liked him. So I think, you know,
I would trust Bob's judgment on that one personally. So District 6, South Anchorage, Girdwood, Turnagin-Arm, that's who I would vote for. Absolutely. If Bob Griffin says this, I'm in. I'm the same as you. I trust his judgment. I'm impressed with Bob. He does an awesome job.
research on the school district so thank you exactly you're welcome sir thank you so much for the call mervyn all right let's go to uh diane good morning ma'am good morning this is diane and i'm talking as a private person all right not representing anybody what's going on on the on the peninsula oh we got we got a lot going on but i have a short amount of time right now What I was wondering is the legislator people who vote for anything that is financially unstable, that they forfeit...
Any funding that they would get from the state for the rest of their lives, that would be the PST, any money for going to the legislature and all that other stuff, they forfeit it if they come up with. vote for just the ones that vote for it for a financial disaster for the state you know I gotta tell you you know there are real consequences to their actions and
When you look at some of the proposals that they're proposing, like we were just talking about just two bills, just two, just their education bill this year and their return to the defined benefit plan. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And we're talking. No financial way to pay for it. I mean, this is unbelievable that they would even get this far without any, you know, funding source. It's crazy to me. And that tells me, just like Representative McCabe,
you know, commented on, the fact is they're setting this up on purpose to leverage against the PFD. But the PFD alone is not going to pay for it. So they're going to force legislators to say, want any pfd basically you have to vote for it and i just it's not a good look no it isn't and it's it's cruel and all this stuff people cannot we need to have a financial test to run for office. If you can't figure out how to do the finances, you shouldn't be voting on it.
I agree. I mean, they should be able to balance a checkbook. You know, obviously, you can't spend more than you have. It's pretty basic, wouldn't you say? It's an IQ test right now. We're just finding who the stupid people are. I couldn't have said it any better, Diane. Thank you for your call this morning. We will keep you updated as Juno shenanigans continue. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. You have a nice day. All right. You too, ma'am. Bye-bye.
All right, so I do want to go back. I want to go back and recap some of the Anchorage Assembly seats and the school board seats that you're going to see on your ballot. So Anchorage voters, you've probably received your ballot in the mail at this point, have you not? Oh yeah, I got mine in the mail.
Yep, you should have got it last week. So we do have half the assembly that's up. You have a couple school board seats, and you have a ton of bond propositions. So let's start. District 1, North Anchorage, your candidates are Daniel Volan, Nick Danger, and... and Daniel George. If I was voting in that race, I would vote Daniel George every single day of the week and twice on Sunday if I could.
But Daniel George, in my view, is the best candidate in that seat. District 2, Chugiak, Eagle River, Jay Bear, very easy. Jared Gerker, all the way. I mean, full disclosure, I've worked with Jared multiple times. Jared's a great guy. I know him. I trust him. And I don't say that lightly. So that's who I would vote for in District 2. District 3, West Anchorage. I'm going to throw this one. up to you, Darrell, because this is your seat.
District 3, West Anchorage, we have Cameron Perez-Verdia, Jonathan Duckworth, or Amy Steen. So I've been trying to look into this. So far, Duckworth and Steen have not shown up at any events or answered any of the question. out there and from what I can see they have not
done any fundraising. They haven't filed any APOC reports, anything like that. So that makes me a little bit hesitant. The one gentleman, Duckworth, is a business owner here in Anchorage. And I thought about stopping by one of his places of business just so you know.
least see if he's there and get a talking to and then that leaves Cameron and believe it or not I watched at least part of it I'm gonna finish watching it a interview with Cameron the other day he actually said a few things that made sense which scared me but in general
There's still no way I can ever possibly vote for that guy. I just can't do it. I mean, he's a nice enough guy. Like I said, I've learned a lot more about him lately in the last week to where it's like, okay, he's not a bad person. And he's actually got some... some decent ideas, they just don't seem to come out.
on the assembly so right now he talks a good game i remember sitting down talking with him where he was trying to convince me he was he was like moderate to almost conservative and i was like That is not how he votes at all.
Oh, well, that's interesting. Well, keep us posted as you do your recon in West Anchorage District 3. That'll be interesting to see what you come up with. Yeah, because that one there, like I said, I've been running into brick walls, so finally I looked up where the one guy whose businesses are, and I'm like, all right, I'm going to hunt those down.
Find them, find them. Yep. Okay, well, we have District 4, which is Midtown. We have Aaron Baldwin Day and Don Smith. I would vote Don Smith. He is the father of the tax cap in Anchorage. He's a conservative. That's who I would vote for. In District 5, East Anchorage, we have Yarrow Silvers, who is the hardest left of left.
And then you have John Stiegel and Angela Frank. I don't know which one of those two would be better, but I can tell you this. There's no way I would vote for Yarrow Silvers. My guess is, I mean, the reality is she's probably going to win that race, to be honest, because she has all the Democrats.
backing oh yeah um but john steele and angela frank would be who i would be really looking into there and of course we just mentioned district six south anchorage girdwood and turnigan arm keith mccormick um is the one that i'm getting recommendations from from people that trust so that's who i would vote for in that race when it comes to the anchorage school board my rule is this vote against the incumbents
You have a school board seat A. Margo Bellamy is the incumbent. And then you have a challenger, Alexander Rosales. And then seat B, you have Kelly Lessons, who is the incumbent. And then you have Mark Anthony Cox. So I would vote Rosales. Allison Cox for the school board. And then, of course, you're going to have lots of service area boards. Those are road service area, fire service area, et cetera, for candidates. And then you're going to have a variety of bond propositions.
Do take your time to read your ballot. There's a lot of money that they would like to spend of yours. So you're going to want to watch. Look at all those bond propositions. All right. If you need more information, you can go.
to muni.org at the home page just click on the elections tab and they have a whole bunch of information about the bond propositions and the candidates there so you'll be able to find it through their home landing page we're going to go ahead and take our final break of the morning If you'd like to call in, be part of the show, 522-0650. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Steady traffic now around the Anchorage Bowl.
Insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Well, I want to go back to a topic that Bruce brought up because there was a good article in Breitbart that kind of... distilled the argument around these Trendeo Agua gang members that were being deported. White House, Trendy Aragua aliens were already removed when D.C. judge ordered block on deportation. So on Sunday, the White House put out a statement relating to the issue.
What happened Saturday night? A judge stepped in in the local district court for D.C. and said, no, the president can't deport these illegals. And it had already been done. I mean, that's really what it was. Chief Judge James Bossard of the U.S. District Court for District of Columbia issued a ruling Saturday night to block the deportations of suspected illegal alien gang members. the Trump administration after the president invoked the 1798 Aliens Enemies Act. However, Salvadorian president
already announced Sunday morning that 238 suspected gang members and 23 suspected MS-13 gang members had arrived in El Salvador. We all saw the video of them getting off the planes, or many of us did. It's on social media everywhere. In a statement to Breitbart News, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said the administration did not refuse to comply with the order, which she says carries no lawful basis. The administration, here's a quote,
The administration did not refuse to comply with the court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TDA aliens had already been removed from the U.S. territory. The written order and administration's actions do not conflict. End quote.
She goes on to say, moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear, federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the president's conduct of foreign affairs. His authorities under the Aliens Enemies Act and his core article. two powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from the U.S. soil and repeal a declared invasion. A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists.
who were physically expelled from U.S. soil, end quote. She's right. This is what Bruce was talking about when he talks about equal branches of government. It is very clear.
that the president has the constitutional authority, and he has the authority vested in him by congressional action to repel a foreign invasion, to kick out... terrorist from this country like he clearly has that authority Right and so that's what she's saying and at the end of the day This is what we're seeing the lawfare across the country where they will go judge shopping and they will find a single district court judge They will find a single federal judge that will step in
and say, no, no, no, you can't spend money this way, or no, no, no, no, you can't stop. the spending of money. Or no, no, no, no. You can't send out these foreign invaders. That's what they're trying to do. And ultimately, when this gets up to the Supreme Court, what you're going to see the Supreme Court do is basically validate the powers that we all know the president already has.
That's just going to happen. I think they also, because you have three branches, somebody needs to get in there and stop this... activist judge thing. I mean, literally, as you said, they're judge-shopping them for the smallest, narrowest thing, and then throwing a wrench into complete, giant federal programs. Well, and what really, realistically, I mean, the Supreme Court needs to come down with a...
strong ruling saying that judges don't have this authority, right? They need to do that. The other action you could take is congressional action, but the reality is you're not going to get past the filibuster in the Senate because you need to get 60 votes to do it. It's political at this point. But, you know, I just go back to this, and I've said this many times, and people cringe when I say it, but it's true. Frankly, the judiciary has no enforcement ability.
Oh, what is Amy Bean by that? Who is the law enforcement branch? It's the administration. right it's the administration so again bruce is 100 right when he says the only like if the president is actually violating the law there's a process for that it's called impeachment a legitimate impeachment that says the president is violating
hit the law and doing something. And the fact of the matter is, in this situation, the law is on President Trump's side. The law is very clear. This is the authority of the President of the United States. It's not the authority of Congress. It's not the authority of the judiciary. The judiciary cannot direct aircraft and where it goes or who's in it. That's not their role.
And if there's terrorists or an illegal invasion happening, the president has the authority to repel an invasion. It is very clear it's in black and white. It is his authority. So at the end of the day, Trump wins this one. I think he's going to continue to win this one, but make no mistake about it. We're going to see activists, judges all over the place. And at the end of the day, I think what's going to squash this is for the Supreme Court to step in.
But you have to have those cases become ripe, and they have to make their way to the Supreme Court before the Supreme Court will weigh in. But I do think it's going to happen. It's just going to take time for it to happen. All right. Well, that does it for Daryl and I today. Hopefully, everybody has a happy St. Patty's Day. Stay tuned. On deck is Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, followed by Sean Hannity at 11. And, of course, the
Great. Mike Piccaro is live and local from 4 to 6 every weekday afternoon. Daryl and I will be back with you tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless.