The opinions expressed on the show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650. Amen. 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, March 24th. Oh, my goodness. It's 6.06 a.m. Daryl, I got to tell you, it's one of those mornings. I'm ready for it to be Friday.
It's funny you say that. I am right there with you. This was one of those, really? Yep, it's Monday mornings. It is really Monday morning. You know, I'm looking around. Temperatures are pretty nice. I mean, they're not bad. Right now, I'm sitting right at 30 degrees here in Palmer. That's nice of you. We're at 25, and it got down to like 21 last night here in Anchorage.
Well, as people are about to curse me or go just shake their heads because I do it. See, I wash the car and it snows or something, right? Yesterday, my husband put on my summer tires.
I'm ready for it. He's going back to the slope. What can I say? I'm like you gotta do it. He laughs. He's like he comes back from the slope and he had like two different people say hey i hear you're changing name his tires while you're back this hit she's like what what he learns about it because i talk about it i talk about it on the air you know
But I just, I'm ready for spring. I've been ready for, it's officially spring. So I feel like it's time. I feel like it's time. So bring it on. But the high temps, I was looking at the high temps tomorrow for Big Lakes 48. So what did you get up to over the weekend, just out of curiosity? Oh, you know, I don't know, but I'm sure we hit 50. See, I watched in Spenard. We hovered at 48, and then it started back down again.
So it was like we never quite hit 50, but oh, it was so close. And when you were outside, it felt like 50. I mean, that's why I had to come inside and actually look going, man, what is the temperature? It's like, oh. I know. It definitely did. I didn't look, so I'm not 100% sure, but it felt like it was hitting 50. The actual sunshine had warmth behind it. It was like, oh.
Yeah, exactly. I'm looking at the temperatures right now. And as we're kind of looking around, Fairbanks this week is going to hit 40. So, I mean, right now Fairbanks is sitting at 11, Big League 25, Kenai 25. Kenai's high today is 40. But, you know, I will say as I'm looking at Palmer. Let me just get back into my screen here. Palmer's high today is supposed to be 46. Tomorrow, 48. Wednesday, 47. The whole trend this week is mid-40s.
So that's what I say. I'm very confident in my decision to get my tires changed. I'm glad you're confident. Did you say the trend day or the trend? The trend. Okay, okay. I just got a little confused there. The trend day have been on airplanes. Freaking all the liberals out. But, no, it looks like it's going to be a decent week because I'm looking at the weather forecast for the rest of the week. It looks like it's going to be it.
Not too bad week. I mean, I'm looking, you know, mid to high 40s all week here in Palmer. So, I'm pretty happy about that. I'm not sad. Let's put it that way. I'm not sad at all. All right. Well, I suppose I should do some announcements. We have a few. We don't have a ton, but we have a few.
We'll start with the Matsu Borough. Today in the Matsu Borough at 6 p.m., there's a Parks, Rec, and Trails Advisory Board meeting. It's going to be in the lower-level meeting room of the borough building. There is a team's ID, so if you want to... stream it, you can do that too. If you need more information, just go to matsugov.us and you'll be able to find it there. In the city of Wasilla today, there is a city council meeting. It's publicly noticed from 6 to 9.
at the Wasilla City Hall Council Chambers, which of course is located at 290 East Turning Avenue in Wasilla. If you need more information, including their agenda, just go to cityofwasilla.gov and you'll be able to... You'll be able to find it there. I didn't see anything on the calendar today for Palmer. So moving over to the municipality of Anchorage. We have a couple of boards and commissions today.
At 6 p.m. tonight, there's a Transportation Commission meeting. That's going to be in the Assembly Chambers over there at the LUSAC Library. And then for my Eagle River or Chidiak folks, there's a subversive meeting.
So the Chugiak-Birchwood-Eagle River Rural Road Service Area. That's quite the acronym. But their road board has a meeting. Tonight they're going to be meeting at the Harry... harry mcdonald center so this is a new meeting location this is not where they typically have met in the past so tonight 6 30 subversa meeting at the mac center in Eagle River. If you need more information, you can go to muni.org, click on the Mayor's tab, and then click on the Events tab, and it'll bring you right in.
That's it for boards and commissions and for the Municipality of Anchorage. The Anchorage Assembly doesn't have anything today but seven days, 17 hours and 48 minutes. Until their election. It's happening. Everybody got their ballots in the mail. So you should be. I've been getting questions over the weekend. Who should I vote for here? Daryl, the number one question is your district. People want to know. to vote for. All I know is you don't vote for the incumbent. There we go.
People are like, ooh, it's a toss-up between Duckworth and Steen. I think it's Amy's name. I think that's her name. So, you know, I think people are tending towards Duckworth. There are two candidates that people don't know a whole lot about, to be honest with you. But District 3 is probably the trickiest district because...
You have Cameron Perez-Verdia versus two incumbents that people don't really know. But I'm with you. Just don't vote for the incumbent. Let's not put Sleepy back in, okay? Yeah, right. But today, let's just see. The Anchorage Vote Center, they will start opening tomorrow. Tomorrow's the day. So weekdays, March 25th through the 31st. will be open from 9 to 6. So if you want to go down and cast your ballot in person down there at Ship Creek location, you could do that.
Or you could drop your ballot off, I should say, in that location. Or if you didn't get a ballot, you can also go down there. What are you laughing at? Well, you said to go cast our ballot at Ship Creek. And I'm thinking to myself, that's probably about as effective as voting is. I didn't even realize I said it. I just saw the look on your face. I'm like, I didn't do that on purpose. I really didn't. I really didn't. I amuse myself with other people's words.
Yeah, exactly. So here we have it. So again, the Anchorage Vote Center hours will be March 25th through... The 31st, and actually they don't even have the Ship Creek location on here. They have City Hall. It will be 9 to 6, starting 9-6. And then they have the Lusak Library in Eagle River Town Center.
Those are the three locations. They don't even have Ship Creek listed on here anymore. Wow, you can't even go down to the actual election office and do it. Yeah, so there you go. So if you need more information on where you can cast your ballot, there's secure drop boxes all over town. to know where you can drop it off in person you could do that just go to muni.org click on the election tab and you'll be able to find it from there
Or you can, of course, put it in the mail. And typically speaking, with the ballots, usually you need two stamps. They usually will deliver it no matter what. And then the municipality. And so pick it up the tab. But I would never want to steer you that way just in case it got returned to you. Or just a drop box. No stamps needed. That's right. So you can do either drop it off at one of the vote centers.
You can go to the secure drop boxes, or you can put a couple stamps on it and throw it in the mail. Either way. All right, that does it for the municipality of Anchorage. For the Kenai Peninsula Borough, we do have a couple. meetings going on today there is an Eastern Peninsula Highway Emergency Service Area Board meeting today from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight It looks like they have a Zoom link for that. So if you want more information, just go to kpb.us.
Then there's also a North Peninsula Recreation Service Area Board meeting tonight from 6 to 8 at Nekiski's Pool. And last but not least, for the Canine Peninsula Borough, there's a planning commission meeting tonight from 730 to 930. This will be at the... at the City Hall there at 144 North Binkley Street in Sildatna. So if you need more information on any of these meetings in the Kenai, just go to kpb.us.
And last but not least, we're skipping over City of Kenai and Soledotna, rather, because neither one of them have meetings today. But there is a city council. work session today at 4 p.m. in Homer, followed by a city council committee meeting of the whole, and then the regular city council meetings at 6 p.m. tonight for Homer. If you need more information, just go to City of Homer. As always, the meetings are going to be held at the Cal's Council Chamber located at Homer City Hall 491.
East Pioneer Avenue. You can also attend via Zoom or a phone. So there's lots of ways to participate in Homer. Again, if you have questions, just go to their website. That really does it for our public announcements for today.
If you have an announcement, something I missed or something that you know that's coming up that could be fun, it doesn't have to be a public meeting. It could be something just cool that's coming up. We're always happy to plug it. All you have to do is give us a call. Number of call, 522-0650. We're going to go ahead and take our first break. morning we'll be right back
Looking at your Alaska Total Traffic cameras on this Monday morning. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway. I'm not seeing any stoppages or slowdowns. Now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. We're in time 621 on this Monday morning. I'm going to go straight to the phones here, and Gary is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning. My word of the day is insidious. Okay. The reason I picked that word is because Anchorage is having an election. I'd like you to consider these things.
and it's about the homeless. Have you noticed every time they raise how much money they need for the homeless that the death rate goes up because we have more homeless? Look, they've been propping up a homeless complex for a long time. I just, look. It's like expanding welfare. If you do for people and people don't have to do for themselves, you're going to get more of it.
And when it comes to homelessness, look, I'm all about helping your neighbor and giving people the opportunity to help themselves. But the reality is you can buy all the hotels you want. You're going to end up having to buy more. more hotels, you're going to have to end up building more hotels, whatever. I mean... The homelessness in Anchorage, I believe, has grown significantly. You know, 20 years ago, yeah, you'd go down towards Beans Cafe or Brother Francis' shelter and you'd see something.
in the downtown area, but now it's exploded. They've literally multiplied it all over town. I mean, you can't walk through Spenard without, or drive through Spenard without seeing it. I mean, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And that's what insidious, that's how insidious it is. And so consider this. They're buying all these hotels, and then they're turning them over to 503 seats. They're taking that.
off the property tax rolls. Yeah. And so everything they're taking off, think of all the buildings are... The local government has bought, you know, the cop shop downtown, all these buildings, everything, especially for the homeless. How are they getting past the tax cap?
Well, here's the thing about tax cap. For the municipality of Anchorage, the tax cap, in part, there's about five components to it. But you have to remember the most important thing is it's predicated on how much money was collected last year. So if they take out a big nonprofit building or whatever, that doesn't mean the tax cap goes down. That just means that tax potentially could be shifted to others because now they have more taxing capacity.
that taxing capacity, I should say, would be supplanted by others paying the taxes. I mean, that's effectively what you're going to see happen. Right. Well, Amy, you know, my wife and I, Julie, we... decided where we're going to settle when we retire. And so 25 years ago, we built a house together. I mean, we literally owner built a house.
And this was going to be our forever house. It was a beautiful house up on the hillside. And then I retired. And then I started looking at the politics, and I'm going like, we've got to sell. We've got to sell. If we don't sell on our retirement budget, we're going to have cops at the door taking our house. And we saved as soon as I sold the house.
We saved $60,000 a year between mortgage payments. My tax payment was $10,000 a year, and it just goes on. Utilities and all those things have gone up. So I'm going like, how can people possibly afford it? And when you look at this homeless stuff, it's like they're destroying the city. That's the insidious part.
And you look at all the other bureaucracies. They're building a bureaucracy. That's what the homeless is all about, another bureaucracy. And if you look at all the other ones like Medicaid and welfare and all these things. Because of the way they're treating this homeless issue, it's making all those expenses go up. That's true. That's true. It's a death rate.
Yeah, I will tell you, it's a sad situation all the way around. Because at the end of the day, I think there's a lot of people out there that would like to see these people get help, right? There's some people that don't want help. And I always say when we talk about homelessness, there's...
like this continuum, right? There's people that have mental... clear mental health issues there's people that have drug addiction and alcohol issues and then there's there's there's people that are just down on their luck you know people you know i i have a friend who while he was testing for the troopers for three
months he was homeless and he basically camped and you know he went to a campground and he camped for you know three months and while he was testing with the troopers and then he ended up getting hired and became so there are people that are just you know down on their luck or, you know, whatever. And then there's people that choose to be homeless. And so, you know, it's really sad when you look at the homeless population because, quite frankly, oftentimes...
they get victimized probably at higher rates than the average person in the population. So I think it's, you know, it's sad to see the whole thing. And again, if you're not directing people towards services like... mental health care or addiction services, if we're just giving them, you know, three hots and a cot, basically, I mean, are you really going to change the behavior? Probably not. Amy, it's a simple solution.
It's very, very simple. Enforce the law. We have a land bank bureaucracy called Alaska Mental Health. They should be providing these people the programs they need, take them off the street, and if they keep going back, they go to jail. Well, you have to remember, it's... Yeah, you have to remember it's...
It's a challenge when, number one, the Anchorage Assembly is a supermajority on the left who doesn't believe the same way you believe, right? They're just going to keep throwing more money at it. And until the Anchorage voters make a difference. make a change, you're going to keep getting more of the same. I mean, that's what we're seeing over the last few years over and over again. Amy, the problem is Democrats never invest their own money.
They force the conservatives to pay their money. And when they have to pay through rising taxes, we face three economical collapses, the conservatives. And we all made our way through that. The Democrats, they faced three economic collapses, and they got 4% and 5% raises. So their taxes are being paid by us, and they just won't put their money into it. My opinion is if you believe in that...
Go knock yourself out, but don't force me to pay for your ideas. I don't make you pay for my ideas. I go out there and challenge myself. Like the policeman you said, I admire that man. To go and camp out because he knows, I mean, he's searching for a job and he wants to be a trooper. That guy is a saint, in my opinion. Fantastic guy.
Fantastic, but that's my point is, you know, you have this whole continuing of people that, you know, he found a legal way to do it, and, you know, he made his life, and he's got a great life now. Well, Gary, as always, very interesting. conversation thank you for calling this morning I appreciate it we're gonna go ahead and take a quick break when we come back we will get into the headlines of the day stay with us
Reach out to Amy now. 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650. KENI. Good morning. It is 635. For a year. And their weight. Sponsor a child with compassion today. Just text the word radio to 83393. It's a cool start to your Monday. We're going to see mostly sunny too. Partly cloudy skies throughout the day with those temperatures continuing to stay on the warm side. Upper 30s and...
lower 40s look likely will stay near 40 through the week. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Now, back to the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on NewsRadio 650, KENI. Welcome back, current time 650 on this Monday morning. Well, I have to tell you, I mean, Trump, man. He is everywhere. Everywhere. It's such a stark difference from, you know, Dementia Joe. I mean, just such a stark difference. He was at the NCAA wrestling championship.
the weekend and you know being greeted to a thunderous applause as he walks in this the you know as he walks in the arena It's just so different. But you realize he's tapping into, you know, this is a reason, in part, why you see young men and young people gravitating towards Trump, especially men. It's because...
They're going to the right places. They're doing the right things. They have the right message. Finally, after years and years, young men are not being told that they're the problem. They're being celebrated. And I think... Yep, exactly. They're toxic masculinity. I mean, I've got to be honest with you. If there's a place that you're going to be celebrating masculinity, it's when he goes to college football games, when he goes to wrestling tournaments.
when he goes to nascar i'm just throwing it out there i mean you know he's he's reassuring people Because you're a man, you're not bad. There's nothing wrong with celebrating a little bit of masculinity. I've got to be honest with you. I'm so glad I grew up in the era I grew up in. Like, I'm a Gen Xer. There's so many Gen X jokes we could come up with right now. But I'm a Gen Xer, and I will tell you, my generation, you know, we're a little rough and tumble, I would say.
I don't think these Gen Z's, man, I don't know. Hopefully they come back around, but I don't know what it is, Daryl, but... That whole beta male thing, I just can't. I can't. I'm trying to think of his name and I lost it. Man who came up with the theory of evolution. Oh, Darwin? Charles Darwin? Gen Z or that generation that we've got that issue with.
They're Darwin Award winners is basically what they are. They're taking themselves right on out of it with everything. No, a man can give birth. Okay, your generation's going to be shrinking. Bless their hearts. Bless their hearts. I wouldn't use that term. Oh, my goodness. But it was a pretty sensational. I've seen the stories about it and watched the last.
No, I didn't listen to it live. I mean, I watched the video clips. Yeah, I saw the video clips. You got to hear some of this stuff. I mean, that was my first thought was is Biden walks into an event and it's like a local. Artist has showed up, and you know, there's a couple of smatters of this. Oh, there he is. Okay, whatever. And then Trump walks in, and it's literally Rockstar Stadium. That place rocked. USA started to be chanting. The patriotism that's kicked in is incredible.
And you know what I found really funny about this is if you listen to mainstream media, Trump's down in the polls. You know, the American people are so angry with him. And then you've got all these empty seat town halls. Look at how many people hate Trump. Trump. Look at all these 300 people are out there. And then you look at 60,000 in a stadium that are roaring. And the thing of it is, he's in the middle of Philadelphia. Exactly.
So I look at it and I'm like, you know, so President Trump has the article up. As President Donald Trump entered the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the NCAA Wrestling Championship, he was greeted with thunderous applause. chance of USA USA coming from the crowd um you know it's it's pretty it's pretty awesome to see the president you know Elon Musk was there too which it sounds like he got a warm reception too
But my point is, you know, it looked like it was a great match. And Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio was there as well. So it looked like it was a great event. But the reality is, is Trump and crew are tapping into the patriotic pro-America majority of this country. And they're not, just because they won the election, they're not just turning around and saying that's it. They're really keeping in touch with people. And I think it's a great thing to see, especially for conservatives.
Republican Party because look Trump recognizes the importance of midterms he recognizes look at the law fair he's look it doesn't matter what Trump does If they lose the House, which we only have by a couple vote majority, if they lose the House, Trump's going to be impeached again. No question about it. They will impeach him again. He'll sneeze. You know, he'll look at somebody the wrong way. Yeah, they'll impeach him again. Just because he won the election, they'll impeach him, right?
So he knows what's at stake. They have to keep the pedal to the metal, so to speak, for the next two years and treat it like it's an ongoing campaign, frankly. That's what he has to do. you're seeing though is trump in pennsylvania a lot i think pennsylvania is one of those states i mean very interesting you know i watch i read a study
Yesterday, it wasn't a study, it was a poll, sorry. I read a poll yesterday where they're talking about the California governor's race. Right now, they're talking about basic polling in California. You know, take this for what it's worth. But they're saying basic polling in California right now shows almost an even 50-50 split Republican-Democrat for the next governor of California.
I mean, that would be cataclysmic if you could actually shift California back to the right. Cataclysmic. But look, we'll see what happens. We'll see who they put up for governor of California. You never know. You never know. But there's definitely a nationwide switch that's happened. All you have to do is give Democrats power for a while and people realize how good it used to be. I'm just saying. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in 522-0650.
A cancer diagnosis is becoming more and more common, but so too are your options to fight cancer and win. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful morning drive radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to our time 706. This is Hour 2 of the Amy Dobosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. Right here from Palmer. I'm in Palmer. Daryl's in Anchorage. Between the two of us, we have a good swath.
of the population covered a little geography there i like the word swath that's a good word Yeah, yeah, a little swath. But you can listen to us live every weekday morning on 6.50 a.m. if you're listening to the radio. Or you can stream us live online. 650keni.iheart.com. Or you can just download the iHeart Media app. And everybody loves that iHeart Media app.
It's got literally every radio station you can think of on it. You also can create your own lists of songs to play and music like that. And then, of course, there's the podcast you can get a hold of, and it makes it all tied together simply and easily.
With the preset buttons right at the top. You put in, click in what you want right there as your quick and easy go-tos. Click on them. Amy Domboski show will show up. Amy Domboski's podcast. Love it. The Picaro Show. Any of them will show up on those preset buttons. Love it. Ooh, I got my sweet and spicy tea going on right now, Daryl. It's very good.
No, it's like an orange cinnamon. I don't even know. I like orange cheese. Delicious, delicious. All right, well, I don't know. I got to be honest with you. The trolling level of the Trump administration is like at epic. proportions here. It's like sensational. So you may have seen the order that came out. A judge has basically come out and ruled that the Trump administration can't ban transgender people from being in the military. So Fox News article has a couple.
articles up. Pentagon to appeal judges' decision blocking transgender ban. Anybody who's ever spent five minutes in the military realizes when you have serious mental health issues, which clearly gender dysphoria is one of them. and you're not deployable, that's a problem, right? That's a problem for military readiness if you're not deployable.
And with all their treatments and all their medicine and all these different things and surgeries that they have done, clearly that's going to be an issue, not only for how much it's going to cost, but they're not going to be deployable. So it makes a lot of sense. from a military perspective, why you would not have certain people in the military.
So it says the Pentagon will appeal the federal judge's decision to block the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegsteth. The Biden-appointed Washington, D.C. judge, Anna Reyes, ruled the ban unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of sex, saying it was soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Okay, first of all...
It's not sex discrimination. That would be if you're banning females from being in the military. There's no such ban in place. Or if you're saying, I'm going to ban men because they're men. I mean, the reality is for mental health reasons.
there's a lot of people that cannot serve in the military if you're on certain types of medications you can't serve in the military if you know there used to be a time I don't know if it's still a thing but there used to be a time if you had flat feet right it was an issue So the reality is this is a deployment issue. This is a military readiness issue, and I just don't know. This one, I've got to be honest with you, but turn it to Pete Hegseth.
And I've got to be honest with you. So on X, he pops up a post and he retweets basically. a Washington Times article about the judge, and this is what he says. Since, quote, judge, end quote, Rias, is now a top military planner, she slash they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute high-value target raids. After that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train her Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare. Boom. That's right. Boom.
I've got to be honest with you. I've got to be honest with you. I just look at this and I just kind of chuckle because, you know, there comes a point, again, you have a judge that ordered a military plane, basically. I'm calling it a military plane because we just don't really know. The plane that was expelling terrorists from the U.S. And I say terrorists because they were designated as a foreign terrorist group, right? Trendelagua, the cartel, the gang from south of the border.
They were designated foreign terrorists, and so they were expelled from the country. And in midair, over international airspace, a judge tried to order the plane to come back. Mmm, sorry. No. You don't get to order military aircraft or any type of national defense. You don't get to do that.
And then I look at this judge, and now there's, I mean, really what we're talking about is military readiness. And what you don't see anywhere in her order, she, they, I don't think, understands military readiness. Just throw it out there, Daryl. Well, I guarantee she doesn't.
I mean, there's a reason why, I mean, you know, you have to be deployable at some point. And when people have severe mental health issues, I'm sorry, you're probably not fit to serve in the military. And also, I mean, just as a... look into that those same people generally have and will throw a hissy fit if you misgender them or any of these quote minor and i mean minor um what would be issues for them i mean they literally can throw a fit
In the field, I'm sorry. I would be terrified to have somebody like that and worried about them snapping on me. I don't know where they're going to go. Oh, wait, I just called you. Yo, Jim, get your bleep up there. And I dead named you. And now you're coming at me. Yeah. Yeah. You know, look, this is the problem when you have people that don't know anything about the military. And this is the problem you have when you have the wokeness that has, you know, really infested.
and it was being forced down by the top, right? Because, look, any of us who have served in the military know that it's... It's ultra-masculine. Let's put it that way. And it's pretty standard to be in that environment to understand, you know, the mission is the mission. And it's not about your feelings. I'm not a soldier. of one, I'm there to get the mission done and be part of a team, right? And so...
I don't know. When she starts seeing the wokeness and really start to infiltrate the military, it really hampers military readiness and effectiveness. And that's what Hegseth is trying to counter, is the years of the wussification, frankly, from the top down. Can we call him Leonidas, Hank says, and go back to, we are Sparta. Well, you know, I'm very excited. I'm going to go ahead and take a little bit of an early break because we do have.
a school board candidate calling in and it's somebody that I've been encouraging people to vote for so we will be talking to Mark Anthony Cox in just a second we're going to take a quick break we'll be right back You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy DeVosky on NewsRadio 650-KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-5220. 650. Welcome back. Current Time 717 on this Monday morning.
Joining the show now, his ears may have been burning because I was talking about him. He is a school board candidate running for the Anchorage School Board, Mr. Mark Anthony Cox. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Amy and all of Anchorage. Gosh, we meet again.
I know. It's been a long time since you and I have spoken, but I was glad to see you running again for the school board this time. You know, if we may, I'd like to start at the beginning because there are some people that are just going to be getting to know you. us a little bit about yourself? Well, I started this journey five years ago when I was 24 years old, and I had a desire to be a representative in the school board. I mean, I went through ASP myself.
I even went to UAA. I did military service as a medic. Even went green to gold. And my heart has been stuck here in Anchorage because I've lived here for more than half of my life. I came in like a military dependent like everyone else, very reluctant. As soon as I got off the plane, my nose was bleeding because of how cold it was. But who knew that I would, you know, become a father.
a husband, three kids later, and just have a beautiful life here. But, you know, the mission is still the same. What I saw at 24, and today's my birthday. Oh, happy birthday! Thank you. Entering into my year of 30, the mission is still the same. We need higher quality education. We need some common sense on the board. And we have to make tough decisions earlier as opposed to now we're at the point.
It almost feels like disciplinary action for the city of Anchorage just because of our inability to make those tough decisions. You know, you have kids, and you went through the Anchorage School District. Same with me. And you see the outcomes, and you see what's happening.
You know, do you get frustrated? Is that really what started to drive you to get involved was the fact that you saw, hey, this is what my kids are going to go through and we've got to do something. Is that really one of the driving forces for you? I feel like I'm quite the paradigm shifter in the politics of Anchorage.
I come in with a solution, multiple solutions, and it's got bipartisan support. Even when I don't win the races that I've ran, I'm able to see the things that I've talked about on the election trail get implemented. by whoever's on the board at the time. So my thing is I just have so many ideas to give. Whether it's me or the people who are on that board, I just want to see it get done. And I believe the whole city of Anchors wants the same thing, too.
I think so. I think when you start talking about kids, people want to see outcomes where kids can read, they can do math, and they're set up for success when they leave 12th grade. That's what I think most parents want to see. As you think about this particular race, why this race? Why now? Well, with this race, it's somewhat of a...
An apex of momentum. I mean, for years now, we've stayed with integrity. We've fought all the battles. We've gone through decision-making pre-COVID, post-COVID, post-financial deficits. post-LGBTQ+, plus DEI initiatives, and I haven't wavered as a candidate. And I just believe the people of Anchorage has watched me go through these races.
still being the same person, but implementing better strategies, learning how to communicate better. And now we're at the point now where it's just so much support. Yeah, well, I've had a lot of friends reaching out to me and saying, hey, you know, you've got to make sure that you're supporting Mark Anthony Cox. And I thought, well, that's a no-brainer when I look at that race. You know, let me ask you this.
know we have parents out there that are listening and through COVID through some of the different debates that we've seen relating to you know material that are taught in schools or the role of parents in schools what do you think the role of the parent is when it comes to the Anchorage School District, or what do you think it should be? I'm going to give you the best answer I have, which is being in public education, we have parents who are engaged.
And that is the best version of... parent inclusion that we could possibly have, which is parents being at every aspect of the education, teachers being willing to share curriculum bullet points, not specifics per se. but bullet points, being able to share what books will be read, sharing what's happening with their student, whether it be even the things where we have guidelines where if something happens with the student.
then the school doesn't have to tell you what's happening unless you ask. So my whole thing is... Engaged parents want to be involved, and this is the best thing. I mean, this is kind of a charter school model anyway, is when you increase the amount of engagement a parent has in education, the child yields better results because there's that community bias.
But being in public education, we have parents who advocate or give away that authority to the school. And it could be because they're busy. It could just be because they're disengaged. Whatever the reason is, now we have these students, and the mission is still the same.
We need to provide them a high-quality education that prepares them for life after school. So now we are focusing on the representatives, whether they be on the school board, dealing with the best interests of the child based on... I would say norms of parenting, but the same thing of administrators, whether they be principals or vice principals, and the same thing of our staff, which is the teachers and the support staff.
Everyone needs to be a pure representation of what it takes in order to give a child the highest quality education to prepare them for life after school. If we have that... and leadership is correct and from the top down we have that approach, then it wouldn't matter if a child has the parental engagement that is the most preferred or, like I said, public education, even for the parents that aren't. we can still have that child in the right environment.
You know, you mentioned charter schools, and, you know, we've had Dr. Bishop on the show before to talk about, you know, some of the successes we've seen in charter schools in Alaska. What is your position or what are your thoughts on charter schools? Oh, man. Well, I'll say my most unintentionally controversial thought was after the, I think, March 4th meeting for Anchorage School Board.
I had given my comment, you know, not only are we on election trail, and I understand, you know, people are looking for my opinion, but I gave my comment on a decision that was made on Rookie Shul, and little did I know it would turn into this big old thing, but... The basis of my comment was the board has been lacking with objective analysis when it comes to
its decisions. They're subjective, you know, based on feelings, maybe emotions, things that we may not find a source for, but then there's objective, data-driven results, you know, things that we can find sources for, especially if they're credible. And... My big thing with charter schools is, objectively, they are doing better than our neighborhood schools. So therefore, because we can assume that we kind of have a failed model based off of results and proficiency,
I would see us leasing more of our building, leasing more of our classrooms to these charter schools because, A, they need that space anyway. Most of them are growing beyond because... Parents are taking their students. We have a declining student population. But where are they going? Well, they're either going to programs outside of ASD, but a majority of them are still going to programs that are offered within ASD, which is the charter school programs.
I want to see that grow. I want to see the process streamlined for other community members to make their charter schools. And I also want to see them continue operating under budget instead of us. We have spent so much money being the ones that create curriculum and the ones that implement it and the ones that maintain the building and the ones that maintain everything around it, and we just can't afford it.
So I just believe now we're at this turn where we're going to have to make the tough decision of would it be better for us just to be landlords and transportation specialists and just political representatives for the school district? Or do we really want to continue in this model of we need as much money as possible to serve a declining student population because we're not really good at our job? You know, that makes a lot of sense.
And I will say I love data-driven answers when people start saying what's working. If we have what's working, maybe we should have more of it. I've been arguing this about charter schools for a while now, so it makes a lot of sense to me.
Well, Mark Anthony Cox, he is running for school board for the Anchorage School District. If people want to get in touch with you, maybe they want to follow up and ask you questions or get to know you a little better, where's the best place for them to do that or how do they do that?
Oh, man, there's so many places. This time around, I've created YouTube called Mark Anthony Cox for Anchorage. Check that out and see just all the minutes and hours of material that I've been able to give full detailed answers. When it comes to our website, it's CharlieOscarXRay4AlphaSierraDelta.com or Cox4ASD.com. And then same thing for Facebook, Mark Anthony Cox for Anchorage. I've taken the time to even do an ex-profile, same Mark Anthony Cox, or I think it's MAC number four ASD.
There's a lot of places to reach out, and I've made sure to be a candidate that gives you substance and not just a bunch of fluff on the campaign trail. Well, we appreciate it. I wish you the very best of luck in your race. The ballots are already out there. You're running for school board seat B, so this is for the Anchorage School Board. I wish you the very best of luck.
I've watched you now kind of step into this political ring, and I really think you have a great future ahead of you. I think you're somebody who has a lot of common sense, so I appreciate the fact that you're willing to run. I thank you for your support over the years. I would say the majority of your listeners also support us, too, so I thank you, City of Anchorage. You can vote in person from March 25th to April 1st at select locations.
If you're in Eagle River, you're going to go down to the library. If you're downtown, you'll go to City Hall. If you're near Midtown, you'll go to the Lusak Library. And yeah, if you have your mail-in ballot... April 1st, it's Dubai. Make sure you put two stamps on it if you're going to mail it yourself or drop it in a drop box wherever you see one. Perfect. All right. Best of luck in the election. I wish you the very, very best.
Thank you. You're welcome. All right, you too. All right, that's Mark Anthony Cox. He is running for the Anchorage School Board, seat B. If you want more information, you can find him. He's all over the place. He has multiple social media accounts. Also check out, like you said, he has lots of content on YouTube. So hopefully you'll get a chance to get to know him as well. We're going to go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Amy Demboski, 628 Mornings on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back, Current Time 735. I'm going to go straight to the phones, and Larry is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Senator Domboski. Striking the fear in the hearts of liberals everywhere. I just wanted to say two things. Mark Anthony Cox is the clear choice in that race, and I wanted to put in a good...
Word for Daniel George. I've had business dealings with him in real estate. He's a very steady guy. He's a problem solver. Very, very good choice for... district one yeah i couldn't agree more i mean i i've known daniel for quite a few years now. And without question, he is a problem solver. I remember working with him on an issue. He was the Mountain View Community Council.
President and they were dealing with you know basically a downtown district plan and The plan that they put together was since it was really a lot of work And I watched him just kind of work through those issues down there and he just did a really good job. And like I said, he knows his district very well. I'm sensing that Daniel Volan might be getting a little nervous because somebody just texted me a picture of an endorsement he just got from Mary Peltola. I mean...
Daniel Bolin, not Daniel George. You know, and I laughed. I'm like, oh, he's pulling out the Peltola guns, huh? He must be a little nervous. Daniel George, in my view, 100% heads and shoulders above the rest in District 1. That's who I would vote for every year. Yeah, he's a steady character, good person, good businessman, problem solver. Daniel George all the way, and again, Mark Anthony Cox has got to be the only reasonable choice in his...
School board race. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. All right, thanks for the call, Larry. I appreciate it. Well, you know, Daryl, yesterday was the 250th anniversary of some very, very, very... How do we say this? Immortal words. Liberty or death. That's right. I have a PJ Media article up. They did a really good job in writing this. It says, liberty or death, that was the stark choice that Patrick Henry proposed to his fellow Virginia delegates.
and 50 years ago yesterday. You've got to hit your button. That makes me feel so old knowing that. Yeah, it was a challenge the founding fathers and the Revolutionary Army accepted, and thus a new nation was born. How remarkable that it has been two and a half centuries since a small group of farmers, shopkeepers, politicians, mariners, and...
slaves banded together in a ragtag army to take on the world's most powerful empire on behalf of liberty. The revolution was years in the making, but electrifying speeches from fiery patriots Orators in the months leading up to the Lexington and Concord spurred the political conflict to a military crisis, and not one of these speeches is as famous as was delivered by Patrick Henry on March 23, 1776.
in St. John's Church. I'll give you a couple little excerpts from it. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at... at the price of chains and slavery henry asked the delegates the second virginia convention was meeting in the richmond church since virginia's royal governor lord dunmore gave instructions
Otherwise, it goes on to say, not everyone at the convention was convinced that war was the answer, of course, but the speech has gone down in the annals of history. It goes on to say,
The questing before the House is one of awful momentum to this country. For my own part, I consider it nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery. Henry bluntly stated, he left no gray area no room for compromise what whatsoever borrowing from biblical language henry said are we disposed to be of the number of those who have eyes see not
and having ears hear not the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation, I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
You know, people just don't speak like that anymore. I mean, with all the passion and all the... vigor that he had they truly the founding fathers those that really chose to stand for a new nation i just i just almost can't even imagine this you know what they were what they were the quest that they were about to embark on you know at the time Great Britain was truly the greatest biggest empire there was and here you have a bunch of farmers
shopkeepers, you know, people saying, you know, if not us, then who? And I think about that. So it goes on to say Henry had at least no illusions. He goes on to say, If we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, in which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight, he cried.
He goes on to the immortal words, which everybody probably remembers to some degree. We learned them in school. Gentlemen may cry, peace. Peace, but there is no peace.
the war is actually begun the next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms our brethren are already in the field why stand here idle what is that gentlemen wish what would they have is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery forbid it almighty god i know what course others may take but as for me Give me liberty or give me death. Oh, such a famous quote right there.
Yeah, I was going to say I was sad that March 23rd hit on a Sunday, but I thought I can't let it go without acknowledging it because it is one of the most immortal speeches. I mean, people think about famous American speeches. And at the time, right, you think about it, the nation hadn't even been formed yet, right? But you look at it and you think, a pivotal moment, no question, in the birth of a nation.
And people think about riveting speeches over the years. And they think of Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address. You know, you think about multiple speeches. In modern times, I think Reagan's tear down this wall speech is one that people think about. But I think sometimes we have to go back a little further to remember the sacrifices that many made before they recognized the evil.
Oh, my dog's barking. He's dreaming. They recognize the sacrifice that potentially could be made because, again, you have to remember, if the patriots that founded this country would have lost, they would have lost their lives they would have lost everything oh yeah and you know the sacrifice like that is i think to be remembered to be commemorated and to be acknowledged because
You know, you think about today, you think about the wars that we're in all over the globe. You think about the internal struggles that we're going through right now. And I still believe there's patriots like that out here. I just do. I absolutely believe it. I don't think the American spirit has died. I think we get stuck in the realm of... social media and everyday news. You know, we're getting inundated with news. But when the rubber meets the road,
I'd still rather be an American than be anyone else. 188% on that one. Yeah, no doubt about it. All right, let's go ahead and take a quick break. It'll be the last break of the show. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show. The number's 522-0650. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras for this Monday morning. Traffic's moving well around the Anchorage Bowl. Not seeing any major stoppages or slowdowns out there.
Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Current time is 748. We're going to go straight to the phones, and Jim is with us. Good morning, sir. Yes, good morning. I just want to say that if you're an American citizen or a naturalized citizen,
Of course, you consider yourself very lucky because all the people in the rest of the world don't have the options we have. Now, of course, you may need some money for a lawyer, but you can do what you want to do here. Other countries, you don't get to do what you want to do. I don't care where it is, even in England. Yeah, you don't know. Oh, yeah. I mean, look at the, yeah.
I think you're absolutely right. If you look at Europe right now, I mean, look at people are getting thrown into jail in England for their Facebook posts, even not even commenting on one, sharing a Facebook post that might offend somebody can get you thrown. into jail. I mean, that's crazy. You know, I'm thinking what happened, I think, to our people in this country is that at adolescence they started using drugs and they arrested their development.
And then, well, they either quit using them or for whatever reason they're using them less, but they're in the adolescent stage, and they're thinking, and everything they do is in the adolescent stage and not in a mature adult. So I think that's why you come up with these to be... decisions they make you know well i will tell you as a military kid growing up i had the opportunity to live overseas and then when i was in the air force i was stationed in at lakenheath in england
And I will say, you know, I recognize from a very young age how lucky I was to be an American. I remember my dad was at Clark Air Force Base. Many of you out there know Clark. It's in the Philippines. And I remember as a young kid. just seeing, you know, poverty when we went off base and then you go on base and it was beautifully manicured lawns and we had Burger King and air conditioning and I just remembered how special it was and how lucky I was to be an American.
And that's always stuck with me. I think one of the best experiences I had growing up was being a military kid who... primarily lived overseas until I was in junior high. And I feel very lucky. I'm just like you, Jim. I think we're very, very lucky to be Americans. Thank you for your call this morning. Yes, sir. Thanks.
All right, bye-bye. Yeah, I will tell you, Daryl, I'm going to switch gears a little bit just because I have to cover this story because it is just one of those ones I'm just kind of shaking my head. I grabbed this Daily Wire story, and I thought, Why hasn't this been done all along? Well, obviously we know the answer to that. But now there's an article this morning in the Daily Wire. It says IRS may help ICE track down illegal aliens for deportation.
Really? Really? Just now, IRS might help ICE. help help deport illegal immigrants okay the IRS may soon use its taxpayer database to help immigration and customs enforcement locate illegal aliens for deportation the tax agency is close to an agreement with ice for a to cross-check key information on aliens with taxpayer database such as a home address.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, would not have direct access to the IRS system, but would be able to verify your information with IRS agents, according to the New York Times. In this article, they go on to talk about how some of the IRS agents are are being reassigned to basically assist DHS in some of their investigations. This is like one of those common sense things. This is the clear...
issue when you have an agency or a government that's too big and they don't crosstalk. It drives me crazy when one department isn't talking to the other. If you have illegal people in this country There's no question the IRS should be tipping off, hey, you know, hey, over here, you know, Juan.
This guy over here, he stole this lady's social security number. He doesn't have a social security number, whatever. He's probably in this country illegally, right? And I'm sure people will freak out because I just used Juan as an example. But, you know, it'll be okay. But then, of course, the reality. I was over there laughing. I want to say it's from Juan to 51.
I think there's a lot more than 51. Well, that's just under one Social Security number. Yeah, right, right. But the reality is, is why wasn't the IRS assisting Department of Homeland Security previously? Because they didn't want to. They clearly didn't want to. The reality is this has all been by design. Flooding the country with millions and millions and millions of foreigners is all a political design by the left. That's what it is.
political design to change the congressional map, right? That's really what this is. So, of course, I mean, it's common sense to you and I where we're like, Why aren't departments sharing information? They should be sharing information. We have the same issue in law enforcement, right? Common sense, we've seen example after example where local law enforcement refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement. And then generally...
There's bad results, right? Somebody gets released. Somebody gets raped. Somebody gets murdered. You know, rather than when they know there's an ICE detainer, rather than handing them over to ICE, they just open the door and be like, go ahead and walk out there. You know, it's crazy to me. It's crazy. But they do it because that's the result they want. I mean, they have a bigger purpose. And when we finally admit to ourselves what we know that bigger purpose is, it's political.
It's all about power. That's what it is. When we acknowledge it, then we can deal with it. And I think that's what you see the Trump administration doing, where you're starting to get departments crosstalking, and they're using the resources of the federal government and the information they already have.
to be more effective in their capabilities. But I will tell you this, this is part of the reason why the continuing resolution was important to pass, because you need to get more resources into Homeland Security in order, I mean, it is not an easy task, deporting 20 million people. that came in here illegally under the Biden administration. It's not an easy task. I mean, and so...
Yet you have to be able to invest in those, but you have to be able to leverage the technology you have and the data that you have in order to be more effective to do that. I mean, you know, the Biden administration. frankly, may have been very successful in remaking the country, if not for the better.
It's going to take a Herculean effort, and not just in this Trump administration. It's going to be hopefully in the next Republican presidential administration right after Trump. I mean, it's going to take you a number of years to fix this. That's my opinion. You look confused. No, I've got in my head, Hercules, Hercules, Hercules. You said that, and I just immediately, that came to my mind, and I was lost in that.
Oh, but, you know, you've got to rack up the wins one at a time. Suzanne has an article up, too. Texas Attorney General defeats Biden rule forcing gender identity policies on foster parents. That's right. The Biden administration... had a rule that they wouldn't allow foster kids to be placed if you didn't affirm the whole self-professed identity of the child or if you didn't agree with those policies.
Anyways, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton successfully blocked the Biden administration rule that mandated the use of gender identity ideologues. ideologies in the foster care placement. So that was a win. So you've got to celebrate the wins where you see them. But, I mean, these people, whether it's the judge that says trainees can work in the military.
I mean, I've got to be honest with you. If you're not deployable, you're not deployable. And if you have serious mental health issues, you probably shouldn't be in the military. I'm just throwing it out there. And if you're not deployable, you're not deployable. I'm not going to touch that one, Daryl. I don't want to touch it anyway, but I'm just throwing it out there. Oh, we are going off the rails today.
My goodness. All right. Well, if you're an Anchorage voter, don't forget to get your ballots in. They have to be postmarked by April 1st by 8 p.m. or you have to have them dropped off. in one of those drop boxes or one of the voting locations by 8 p.m. on April 1st. Don't forget to fill in your oval if you have questions. We're always happy to tell you what we know about those ballots.
You should have it in front of you. If you didn't get your ballot, you'll want to call the clerk's office or you can go to one of those in-person voting locations starting tomorrow, actually. All right, that does it for us for today. Daryl and I will be back with you tomorrow morning. Up next, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, followed by Sean Hannity at 11, and, of course, the great Mike Piccaro from 4 to 6 this afternoon. We will see you tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Until then. Stay safe. God bless.