The opinions expressed on the show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 615. Amy Temposki. 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 Friday, March 28th, 2025. Golly gee. I don't know where the time is going, but it's basically April.
There's a black hole out there somewhere that's just filling up all the time. Oh, my goodness gracious. It is one of those weeks, one of those weeks. I have, like, nothing went as planned this week. That means it was a good week. Some of those are the best weeks, I've got to be honest with you. Exactly. You know, some of them are the best weeks, but it is relatively mild. I'm looking at my weather station right now, and...
It keeps fluctuating between 28.9 and 29.2. So we'll just call it 29 degrees. We'll just shoot down the middle. 29 degrees right now in Palmer. Kenai's checking in at 28. Big Lake, 29. Fairbank, 7. But the height today is going to be the mid to upper 40s. In fairness. I mean.
Not in Fairbanks, but I mean down here in South Central. Okay, I was going to say, we're riding, I actually got to beat for once, 31 degrees here in Anchorage. It's hovering right between 31, I've seen some that said 33, so if you see water or what you think is water on the road, it's probably... ice at this time in the morning, just FYI. Yes. So be careful. As I'm looking at Fairbanks, today's high is going to be 25 up there.
So we haven't quite, they're not breaching right now at this moment today for anyway. Today they're not going to breach freezing. But, you know, I will tell you, as I'm looking around at the weather for everybody else, especially around here. It's going to hover for the highs this weekend. I'm looking at Big Lake right now. Today's high in Big Lake, 45. But by Sunday and Monday, it's 48, 49. So don't be surprised at all if it breaches 50 again.
And with those temperatures that high, may I suggest people, don't go out on the lakes anymore, particularly with your vehicles. It's that time of the year. I know it seems it's early, but we've had a lot of warm weather just for safety's sake. Let's... Let's lay off the lakes. You know, all of our friends in Big Lake knows there's always that guy. Every year it seems like there's that one guy that goes through the lake in Big Lake. And I wouldn't want to be that guy.
But it seems like every year there seems like there's at least one. There's one. There's always one, you know, Daryl. Always one. Always. And there's always soft spots out there. I know anybody who's been around a long time on the lakes, there will be spots where the lake is frozen three feet.
Thick in some spots. In other spots, it's eight inches. Why? Because of current and, you know, warm water springs. Now's the time of the year. That's where those guys, they drive across one of those and go bloop. Yeah, I've always had a thing about, I don't like snow machining on rivers and lakes. I mean, you do it in the wintertime, you know, you go across them, but...
I don't like it. If it's dead of winter and it's January, okay, I have no issue going across the lake. All right, you'll do it. But I do not like rivers at all. I don't like it. I'll write it with you. It makes me nervous. I don't like it. But, you know, what are you going to do? It's been a while since I've been out snow machining. You know, I got to tell you, it's been a while. It's been a while.
I always enjoy it, but I always find excuses to work instead of play, so I need to fix that. I need to fix that, Daryl. You know what the second best thing about snow machining is? What? Cooking things on your muffler. I've never done that. What? Never done it. You're kidding. Oh my gosh. So next time you go snow machining, make sure you're... So there's two ways you can do it. A, just tinfoil.
Us cheap people, that's what we do, and just kind of bunge you to it. Or they make little aluminum boxes or metal boxes that you strap onto your exhaust inside the cowl, and you put your hot dogs or whatever meat you want in there. You jam right along. Wouldn't it taste like exhaust? No, not at all. Not at all. I'll put it on the side of it in there.
I was going to say, you know, when I snow machine and you get done for the day and stuff, it's like, okay, I'm a girl with a lot of hair. But a lot of times, like, you can smell the exhaust in your hair. I mean, I wouldn't want to put my food next to that. That's because your exhaust is blowing right.
here at you. This is actually in front of it. It's on the actual pipe itself, so it doesn't get any exhaust on it. You're not convincing me. If I'm hungry, I'll have a granola bar if I'm not snowmachining. I was like, if you're a hunter, you get a couple of ptarmigan or a rabbit, you slap them right up in that bad boy and ride for about two or three miles. Yeah, open it up. No, thank you. You can smell it as you ride. It's so good.
No, thank you. I'll leave Mr. Little Bunny going. I mean, I've never, I can't even remember a time where I was out snowmachining and I got hungry. I mean, I do. Of course, I'm a garbage can. I eat just about anything that's thrown in front of me. How is it we can turn every single conversation into food? i mean we're talking about snow machining and somehow we turned it into a conversation about food like we excel at this i don't know how we do it but we excel i'm telling you you're
I'm like Daryl in a dress. I don't know how. He hasn't convinced me about muffler cooking, but we'll work on it. All right, well, I only have one public announcement today, Daryl, just one and only one, because I looked at everybody's things, and Monday is Seward's Day. Correct. So we have to remember that. I mean, we are still on the air because.
we're on a national radio station, you know, network. And iHeart Media, we haven't convinced them to acknowledge Stewart's Day as a national holiday. Not yet. So, not yet. So, Daryl and I will still be here with you on Monday morning. But it is a state holiday. So most state facilities are closed. So a lot of local governments, you'll see notices on their pages that their buildings are closed on Monday.
because Monday is a holiday. So I think a lot of people are taking long weekends, because I haven't seen any. I mean, I went through all my websites that I typically go through. Not one public meeting for today that is noticed. Oh, FYI, the secret meeting that we didn't know what it was, I shouldn't say secret meeting, the recently announced special meeting, it is about the school board budget or about the school budget. It's all budgetary.
Oh, of course. This is where they'll take the opportunity to poke judo in the eye. That's what they'll do, and they'll advocate, and they'll try to dissuade the governor from vetoes. That's what they're going to do. Oh, the world is going to end because we're not getting a pay raise. So if you don't give us a pay raise, we're going to cut all sports. That's what they're going to do.
That's actually exactly what's listed on there, basically, is what they've got to get out of there. We're going to cut all sports because the governor is not giving us a $1,000 raise or a $1,400 raise in the BSA or whatever the number is that they kind of come down to. figured out a solution for getting our school scores up.
We tie in the paychecks of all the teachers and administrators – well, not the teachers. The administrators and Juno, all the elected officials, they get their pay scale set by – Juniors or sophomores in high school. No, no. The actual juniors or sophomores in high school have to do the math for their paychecks.
Well, I was thinking if we tie it to the NAEP scores and performance base of our children, then maybe they'd take more of an interest in actually performing for the children rather than performing for the NEA. I'm just throwing it. For that one, though, I'm telling you, they would just change the levels. Oh, no, a 20 is passing. But if you actually make it to where the kids have to do math...
And it affects their paycheck? Think about that. No, these kids need to learn math. No, no, they need it. Well, I was going to say, I hold out very little hope for folks in Juneau. But we'll see. We'll see. Time will tell. Life dreams. Life dreams. It could happen.
It can happen. All right. Well, the only public announcement I have for today is for the city of Palmer. They have a vacancy on their city council. So there's one city council seat that's vacant. The mayor is going to be appointing a qualified person to fill the position until the... candidate is elected on October 7, 2025. So they will be having an election in October, but until that time, so over the summer until the fall, they will appoint somebody to that seat.
You must be a registered voter in the state of Alaska. You must have resided within the city of Palmer city limits for at least one year preceding the date of filing for office. So if you are interested, it says right here, the duties is to attend two council meetings per month and periodically other special meetings as scheduled.
participate in intergovernmental relations set city policy and approve the city budget the deadline to apply is no later than noon on thursday april 10th So if you have questions, my recommendation to you is to call the clerk's office. at 907-761-1301. If you do that, they'll answer any questions you have. If you want to apply, the application's right on the website. Just go to palmerak.org.
and after you go to that website there's a big red banner right on the top just click on that banner right on the top And then it'll bring you to the information that we're talking about, including the appointment application. And again, you're going to have until noon on April 10th, so not very much time. And then the mayor will review the applications. And then he will select who's going to fill that seat. So there you go. That's my public announcement for today. I feel like that's enough.
I feel like that's enough, Daryl. All right, well, this is Freeform Friday. And I know we've had a couple of spicy shows. And whenever the shows get super, super spicy, what we notice is people just tend to listen. But I will tell you, my phone for two days has been blowing up. has been crazy. People have been very
animated, shall we say, about some of the issues that are going on. But today is Freeform Friday, so it's my opportunity to hear from you. I love this. This is my favorite day of the week because I love it when people call in and just share what they're thinking about.
If you want to call in, be part of the show, 522-0650. We could talk about anything we talked about earlier this week or if you have some other topics that you want to talk about that maybe we didn't cover or local issues, whether it's something to do this week. Weekend or whatnot. We're always happy to cover that. We're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning. When we come back, we will get into it. And we will probably cover some headlines, too. So stay with us.
Amy Demboski, 628 Mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time 621. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show. 522-0650. You know, I see some of these headlines sometimes and I just kind of chuckle. And I think. Yeah, I mean, it was completely set up. I mean, the headline today, I'm looking at this headline on KTUU. So it says Anchorage Town Hall was well attended aside from elected officials.
Well, it wasn't, you know what it was. Let's be honest. It was a Democrat union, you know, slash activist. I had an ambush that was set up for Nick Begich and Dan Sullivan. So they decide, so the lefties decide they're going to have an event and invite 500, 600 people, whatever it was.
And from their side, and they're going to invite what they keep calling Chicken Nick and Dormat Dan. That's what they keep calling them, right? And I'm definitely going to go to an event where people start with that. Why would I do that? Why would I go there? I mean, it was hosted by 907 Initiative. I mean, come on, Aubrey Weber, come on. We already know you're a hardcore lefty. This is a group of the left that is, they try to tell everybody they're a public advocacy group. They're a left group.
pushing left-wing causes and attacking conservatives. With hundreds of thousands of dollars of money from the George Soros groups, I looked at their finances the other day and finally saw what they've got. And, yeah, they received in the last two years, like, over $800,000 from left-wing groups. I mean, that's a lot of money in this state. Well, exactly. So when we have what we call a town hall, town halls are generally hosted by the elected officials. So, for example.
You know, you have legislators that will host a town hall. Usually you'll see, coming back from Juneau, you'll see your state senator. You'll see, like, your house rep. Both of them. Typically, you'll see them hill-dined. I think April 5th, there's an Anchorage town hall with the Anchorage legislators, and usually they hold those at the Lusak Library. But I think I saw a flyer a couple days saying it was April 5th. So the legislators will come back and they will host it.
And they structure it. And typically everybody will get, if you want to come up to the microphone and talk, you get like a minute or three minutes or whatever it is. And they will, you know, listen to people testify. And sometimes, you know, town halls, I've seen them where. The legislator, they'll go down the line and they'll each give their little update. Okay, this is what I'm working on. These are the things that we're dealing with. And they'll give you their opinion about Juneau.
That's what will typically happen. But not usually. Typically, a hard left or even a hard right group typically don't host their own.
I'm going to have a town hall. And then the headline when the opposing parties... uh representative doesn't show up is not usually town hall except for the elected officials i mean i mean it's just a bit just disingenuous i mean come on channel two you're better not like give me a break disingenuous and all So literally, so I mean, I saw the pictures of it and the people that were there and I listened to chunks of it and stuff like that.
This literally was all people who, A, did not vote for Trump and cannot stand – they're all Trump derangement people. Also, they would not have voted for Sullivan, okay, can almost guarantee that, or for Bench. So they're all literally – They want to be heard and they want to scream at them about Trump. All they wanted to do was scream at them about Trump. That's it. Chants in the crowd. What do we want? Justice.
When do we want it now? I mean, I've never been to a town hall where people are chanting. That's just not like the typical decorum of a town hall. And so, again, you know, if they would have said, you know, 907 initiatives hold... town hall that would have that would have been an appropriate headline but when it's Anchorage Town Hall was well attended aside from elected officials well
Were they ever going to attend? What was on their calendar for that week? Were they even back? I mean, you know, I just look at it, and I'm just like, give me a break. I mean, but this is what we deal with with the media. The public media is... Let's just see. It is what it is. You just have to accept it. But, again, any time you see 907 Initiative, just know it's a hard left group. I mean, that's what it is.
So there you have it. There you have it. But I saw it, and I just kind of shook my head. I was like, okay, I'm not really all that worried about it. A couple other headlines that I did like to see, though. I will tell you. We see in vice presidents. I'm sure you've noticed this. The last couple of days, I got to be honest. I was talking about speech, but I got to be honest with you. The last couple of days, you know, I just kind of sit back and I smile when we have.
Like, a vice president who has more than one firing neuron, who actually can string a sentence together, and then I've got to be honest with you, goes to Quantico. suits up with the Marines, goes to the firing range, two shots, takes a head shot, takes a chest center mass shot. I'm like, I gotta be honest with you. And my American pride is just like pulsating. I'm like, yeah, baby.
Get her. Get some. Get some. When he went in to have lunch with him, it was awesome. I mean, like I said, I watched his speech to him. Yeah. It was funny. It was direct. Yeah. Literally, he knew the core workings. of the common man. He wasn't talking with the officers. He was down there with the E-4s, and he literally knew the secret stuff, the little in things. He had those guys chuckling, joking. He was fantastic. Vice President J.D. Vance.
Prove the saying, once a Marine, always a Marine. According to Breitbart, during a visit to Quantico, Virginia on Wednesday, He gave remarks to about 750 Marines gathered to greet him. He served chow at the mess hall, ate lunch with a small group of them, and then tested out some new weapons at the range. Vance got to test out the M27 556 Infantry Assault Rifle, which all Marines have to qualify with yearly. He also tried out the M107 50 Cal Sniper Rifle.
and the m240b machine gun he also tested out a drone system and fired an m101-105 howitzer I'm like, this is awesome. During his remarks, he spoke about Trump administration's goal for the military, getting rid of diversity quotas and rebuilding the nation's ability to produce cutting-edge military equipment again. He goes on by saying, under President Trump's leadership, we believe in a very simple principle.
Principle. We don't care who you are, where you came from. We don't care what skin color you are. We care about excellence and we care about patriotism. Good for him. So I will tell you, this is what every military member wants to see. You want to see an awesome commander-in-chief that understands your job, and you want to see a vice president.
Who was one of you? And with J.D. Vance, the possibility of him stepping up to president, that is then a commander in chief who's actually been boots on the ground. But what I found really fun and entertaining was if you look at what J.D. Vance is wearing. He looks proper in a military outfit. It's not a full uniform, but it's military garb.
Do you remember Zelensky appearing at the White House in his, quote, military garb? I've got to be honest with you. Every time I see Zelensky, all I can picture him in is that stupid little leotard thing he was wearing and shaking his jaw. junk all over the place like a little
prancing around like a little fairy. I know exactly what you're talking about. That's all I can imagine. That's all I can imagine. I've seen him do his little, like, dance thing, and I'm like, oh. I mean, Zelensky is an actor. That's what he is, right? And that's what he looks like, like I said. Literally.
He's acting a part. Where you get somebody like J.D. Vance, and unlike Tim Walz, who couldn't actually figure out how to work his shotgun, J.D. Vance gets down, and he's sending him downrange, and he's on target. And it's like... Look, I got to be honest with you. If you're in it, if you're in it, who would you rather have? on your flank. Would you rather have Tim Walz in his orange little getup who can't figure out, you know, how to work a shotgun, or would you rather have JD Vance?
former marine who's like goes to the gun range and puts him right on target i'm just saying for some reason i don't know what it is but for some reason Even the female Republicans are the ones that are typically out there doing it. I mean, look at Kristi Noem when she goes duck hunting, right? Or when she goes pheasant hunting. It's like, bam, bam, bam. I mean, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying, if I'm going to war, I'm probably not going to pick the dude, you know, that's wearing the vagina hat. I'm probably not going to pick the dude that has a t-shirt that says I'm with her. I'm probably going to pick the dude that has a t-shirt that says Semper Fi. Just saying. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with your calls. 522-0650. Reach out to Amy now. 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Demfoski on NewsRadio 650. KENI.
The moment has arrived. The birthday boy is joining my show. And it is my favorite part of the show. Because Eric... is joining the show good morning sir happy birthday oh thank you amy Well, how does it feel to be 35? No, I'm just kidding. Oh, geez, only to be that again. Oh, my gosh. Well, do you have any birthday plans? You know, what are you guys going to do? Are you going to at least have a...
Good dinner or something? Oh, yeah. I think, you know, we've been for about the last, well, my wife and I have been together for about 30 years now. So we've sort of a tradition. And her birthday is. Let's see. Her birthday is Sunday. So I'm just two days older than she is. So for years and years and years, we've had this Benihana's tradition.
Oh, that's cool. For at least one of our birthdays. You know, we've done it when we lived in Houston and in Minnesota. Every place we live, if there's a Benihana's week. We go out. Well, you guys, you guys, you're downtown, so you're not too far. No, no, actually, yeah, I could walk to any house if I wanted to easily, yeah.
Perfect. Perfect. Well, happy birthday to you and your wife on Sunday. Thank you so much. Hey, so I wanted to tell you, so earlier this week, and I know you've mentioned it a couple times on the radio. you know, that it was sort of one of your ranting and raving days. Yeah, yeah. That was wonderful. You had a little bit of that Mark Levin going on.
Oh, excellent comparison. Excellent. I'm nowhere near as good as Mark Levin, but he is one of my favorites. Yeah. And wasn't that J.D. Vance thing just great? Oh, I've got to tell you, every former military, current military member, I mean, every American, when you see that, doesn't it just fill your heart with pride? It really does, and he certainly looked the part, as opposed to...
I remember years ago. Remember the Mike Dukakis picture of the tank and the oversight? Oh, my gosh. I forgot about that. You know, every now and then, every now and then, things pop into my mind. When you bring up, I don't know what it is, but, you know, I kind of was juxtaposing, because it just recently happened, you know, Tim Waltz versus J.D. Vance with a gun.
their hand, and the picture couldn't be more different. Oh, I know. Yeah, that's incredible. And then you mentioned Christy Noem. Yeah, I love Christy. You know, she could be... She could be dressed wrapped up like a mummy and still look good. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. I'm like, there's just something different in the water in some of these circles. I've got to be honest with you. Oh, I know, yeah, I know. But obviously it's Friday, so I have to leave you with a joke.
We've got to have it. All right. So why don't anteaters ever get sick? Ooh, why don't anteaters ever get sick? I don't know why. Because they're full of little antibodies. That's cute. That's very cute. I love that one. I'm going to write that one down because I'm going to tell that one today. Oh, you know what? I mentioned Christy Gnomes. wrapped up like a mummy. What kind of music do mummies listen to? Oh, I got this one. I got this one.
Yeah. Rap music. Rap music. You got it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Wait. I have one for you. I actually wrote this down hoping you would call. Okay. This may not be one of my best, but it's cute. Okay. This is kid friendly. What did the nut say when chasing the other nut? I'm going to say something like you cracked me up or something. I don't know. I'm going to catch you.
Okay, that was pretty good, Amy. That was pretty good. That was good. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't get paid a lot, but there you go. You get what you pay for. Well, thank you so much, Amy, or shall I call you Mark?
Yeah, there you go. I love it. That's a badge of honor. Thank you, sir. And I hope you guys have a great birthday weekend. Thank you, Amy. All right. You guys have a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye. Absolutely. You too. Bye-bye. All right. Let's go to John. Good morning, sir. Oh, good morning, Amy. A dirty dad joke? Oh, as long as there's no cuss words, go for it. A white horse fell in a mud puddle. A white horse fell in a mud puddle. Yeah.
That's a dirty joke, man. That's about as old as I can remember. I've never heard that one. Oh my goodness. Look at that. Now we're on a roll, sir. Now we're on a roll. I love the joke. All right. What's on your mind today? Well, kind of a joke. Okay. Reverse transgender. When I was in high school, I beat Bruce Jenner's pole vaulting record. Did you really? Yeah, and I went on to win state and be on scholarship.
Busted my ankle, so all that went away, but that's not important now. And then Bruce became whatever, Caitlin or whatever, and my bragging rights went away. Yeah, what can you do? Oh, you beat a girl. Oh, my gosh. But my mother, other mother, other. Most important thing was government fraud and abuse. I played air traffic for 25 years, and honestly, you could remove at least...
90% of the management, and it would make no difference because they don't do anything. You know, it's interesting because when you start looking at government... You know, when they're top heavy, especially with management, you know, you have to go back to the basics and say, who's actually doing the job? What are they doing? And then when you do that, then you look at other departments and you say, do we have redundancies where other departments...
are doing similar things. Can you combine them? Can you reduce them? Can you eliminate some of the redundancies? I will tell you right here on the state level, when the governor took over, We eliminated an entire department at the Department of Corrections because it was redundant of what the troopers were doing and it was redundant of what HR was doing. It was absolutely unnecessary. And so it didn't change the mission at all of what.
DOC was doing. They were not in the correction facilities. They were not actually monitoring inmates. I mean, it was a complete redundancy of bureaucracy. So to your point, there's a lot of this fraud, waste, and abuse, and we will put that in the waste category that could absolutely be taken out and probably give employees less of headaches, to be honest. Oh, truly, yeah.
Yeah, that's a really good point. The Department of Education on the Fed level, what exactly do they do? They're a pass-through, right? And we know what happens with pass-throughs. Pass-throughs skim off money. and then they give it to somebody else to do something, right? They're not actually doing it. To your point about some managers, right, they're not actually doing the job. You know, if you look at the statistics, it's very interesting. If you look at the statistics,
when the Department of Education was established. Since the Department of Education was established, education results have actually gone dramatically down. When the U.S. was number one in the world, before they were in educational outcomes for kids, when we were number one in the world, and then all of a sudden you push in this huge bureaucracy, and now we're like down in the 40s.
You know, we're not even in the top ten in the world anymore. So I would say they've done more harm than good. Huh? Normally. But if you look, the FAA has got like 50,000 people working for it. And they're like anywhere between 11,000 and 12,000 air traffic controllers. What do those other people do?
Great question. I wish I could answer it, but great question. And these are the things I think that DOGE and, frankly, the cabinet members, each department head, is now asking those same questions. What do you do? Is there a redundancy? Do we need you to do it? Is this your role? Are you effective at doing it? I mean, these are all good questions. Well, more power to Elon Musk. Even though I was going to enter John Hannity's sweepstakes to get a Tesla, but now I'm afraid to.
Well, I will tell you, you know, I told my husband this the other day. I never really wanted an electric car. I would be afraid to park it in my house. Like, I'd be afraid it would burn my house down or something. Because you see these stories about these cars that catch on fire. They're very... difficult fires to put out. But I will tell you, the only time I've ever had an inkling to actually get a Tesla is when I see what he's going through. It kind of makes me want to get one now.
Well, it was only because it would be free, and don't buy a Kia either. Yeah, I know Kias. Yeah, they light up on their own. No, thank you. No, he is for me. I'm typically a Chevy girl, to be honest with you. I have a Ford and a Chevy, but my husband has a Dodge. Not my thing. You know, I typically tend to stick to the Chevy brand. I just want to say most Tesla owners believe in Nokia now also.
Yeah. And no Kia, my car. That's right. Good job, Daryl. Good job. Well, John, thank you for calling in this morning. Great conversation. I appreciate it so much. All right. Thank you. All right, have a great weekend, sir. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show, 522-0650. Looking at your love. Now, back. To the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI. Welcome back.
Current time, 6.52. Well, a big reminder if you haven't done it yet. The filing period for the PFD is Monday, and Monday is a state holiday. So a little encouragement to get it done today if you need help especially. filing application will be available through March 31st at 11.59 p.m. So you can file online through your MyAlaska account. The PFD offices, even though it's a state holiday, they are going to be open on Monday from 9...
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the phone queue will not be open. So if you have an issue, if you have a problem, something happens, and you can't file your PFD, I would not wait until Monday. PFD today if you haven't done it yet again Monday March 31st At 1159 is going to be the cutoff period online. You can still go to the offices today. They're open Monday through Friday from 10 to 4.
And then they will be open on Monday from 9 to 4. But, again, the phone queue won't be, so you won't be able to call for help. Usually you just go into your My Alaska account, and then you can apply online there. But if you're somebody who...
likes to do it in person or you need to do it in person because you have a circumstance, I recommend that you do that now and don't wait because the lines are going to be ridiculous. They're always ridiculous on the last day. So I do recommend do that if you need more information you can go to pfd.alaska.gov again that's pfd.alaska.gov
And that will be helpful, hopefully, to you. Coming up after the top of the hour here, Senator Rob Myers is going to be calling in. So we'll get an update from him from the state senate and see what's happening in Juneau. date from him so that'll be great to talk to him you know there's a story daryl i've been holding on to for like a week and a half and i've been wanting to get to it because it's fantastic let it go let it go
Breitbart had this article up last week. UFC legend Conor McGregor announced his run for president of Ireland. Former UFC champion Conor McGregor announced on Thursday that he intends to... run for Ireland's presidency, and he's making immigration one of his top issues. He posted on X, quote, Ireland must fully implement the EU migration pact. by June 12, 2026. So between now and 12 June 2026, several pieces of legislation have passed by both houses.
and then signed by the president, he added, who else will stand up to the government and oppose this bill? Any other presidential candidate they attempt to put forward. We'll be of no resistance to them. I will, he exclaimed. So again, you know, look, Europe, we're seeing this all over the place. They're being overrun. Their actual native populations are completely being overrun, frankly, by immigrants.
A lot of these Muslim countries. And what you're seeing is a total change in culture. They're not coming in to assimilate. And they're taking over. And a lot of people are really having an issue. And, like, you're starting to see these pushback by some of these different people. This will make for a very interesting conversation. He has a quote in here. He says,
government has long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland, and it's high time that America is made aware of what's going on. So he's highlighting, like, not all of us are okay with this nonsense, and I'm...
I, for one, think this is going to be a very interesting conversation that takes place in Ireland. Oh, absolutely. I mean, well, you've got Roseanne, who's over there also right now, so that's going to add a little bit of torment to it. But, like you said, all these nations over there... they are literally losing their population that's indigenous to the area. Look, look at Switzerland, right? I mean, it is happening all over the place. And he says, you know, all citizens of Ireland...
and have a voice and a choice of their future. God bless our people. There we go. Good for him. Good for him. So that'll be an interesting race to watch. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, Senator Rob Myers, you're not going to want to miss it. Stay with us. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to the Saturday. Second hour of the Amy Dobosky show broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. And yes, we will be here on Monday morning. Yes, it is a state holiday, but it's not an iHeartMedia holiday.
Daryl and I will be here with you on Monday morning at 6 a.m. Joining us now, Senator Rob Myers from the beautiful city of North Pole. Good morning, Senator Myers. Good morning, Amy. How are you doing? I am doing very well. I have to tell you, I don't envy your job. Well, I would say your real job, you're actually a truck driver up on the North Slope, aren't you?
I am. It's interesting. We were just talking about this a little bit yesterday. In the 20-member Senate, you've got three of us that have jobs outside of the legislature. It's my shower. and Rob Young. And everybody else is either retired or works for the government in some way or another. Well, I have to tell you, I have always had a lot of respect for you because I remember when you ran, and to me it was just common sense.
coming to juneau and and we need more of that to be honest and as i look around and i see see what's going on you know I just sit back and I wonder, do the people in Juneau actually know what's going on with the economy? Because some of the legislation that's proposed, my question always comes back to how are they going to pay for it? What is your assessment of the discussions that are happening?
You know, so this is my fifth year down here, and, you know, this is one of the things that still amazes me, is that we talk about the actual economy. you know, the private sector portion of the economy, very little down here. You know, here's what I liken it to is the problem is, you know, whatever your job is.
Whatever company you work for, you probably pay attention to that industry that that company is in. You may not be management or anything like that where you can have any sort of effect on things, but you pay attention to it because that's where your livelihood comes from.
Down here in Juneau, we pay attention to where our livelihood comes from. So we get down here at the beginning of the year, every year, whether things are going great or things are going horrible. One of the first things we do is we have hearings in the finance committees. on oil prices and where we think things are going there because we get a fair amount of our money from that. And then what started more recently is we have hearings on...
The Permanent Fund and the Permanent Fund Corporation and how management is doing there because, again, that's part of a good chunk of where our money is coming from now. I think some people are still missing this. use more money for state government from the permanent fund than we do from oil in this state. And, you know, so this is where our money comes from. And so this is where we pay attention to.
But do we hold hearings on the rest of the economy? No, we don't. And, you know, a large part of the reason why is because the state doesn't make any money off of it. So why do we care? You know, that's an amazing analogy because... You know, I heard last night I was driving home and I happened to get in my car and I heard Senator Schauer talking to Mike Piccaro in the afternoon. And, you know, he was talking about something that I don't hear a lot of people talking about, which is...
actual private sector economic growth. I love the fact that you guys are starting to like, you guys have that in mind because it really does affect your everyday life. Yeah, it really does. You know, I drive a truck, Mike Schauer flies airplanes, Rob Yunt builds houses. And so, you know, we care about what happens in the rest of the economy. And we recognize that for most Alaskans.
That is the economy. That is what they care about because that's who they work for is a private sector employer. It's not directly connected to government. And unfortunately, when we talk about economic growth down here, Really, I think what it's code for in a lot of ways is effectively buying votes with our budget. You know, we take our budget and so much of it ends up in the hands of...
somebody for a job. Not even necessarily straight government workers. There's the guys in the office that are state employees. There's the city municipal employees that have pulled in some money from the government. But, you know, there's so many other people that depend on government for a paycheck. You know, we talk about Medicaid a lot.
Yeah, we can talk some about the beneficiaries of it, but you know who's one of the biggest beneficiaries we don't talk about? It's the doctors, the hospitals, the providers that make money off of Medicaid. And, you know... so many of them come down here and lobby us on Medicaid because that's how they make their money. And so when we talk about the economy down here in...
Juneau, unfortunately, what we're talking about is how much of our economy can we support with government dollars to then hopefully get those people to vote for me next election. You know, that is so sad because, you know, as I'm looking at, I'm thinking about, as you're talking, I'm thinking about the vast resources and potential Alaska has, not only from a strategic location to serve, you know, the Pacific Rim.
really but then we think about just the amount of resources and the wealth in this state if only we tapped into it and then I think about our federal delegation and I think about the president and the president highlighting Alaska In his state, you know, basically joint address to Congress, as he's addressing the nation, he's talking about Alaska resource development. He's talking about the things we can do. And as I'm listening to you talk, I'm thinking,
One of the greatest ways to bring wealth to Alaskans is to expand our economy and our opportunities here in Alaska. It's not to expand the government, in my opinion.
No, that is 100% accurate. But one of the problems that we run into is the way that this state was set up. So many of those resources are in the hands of either... the federal government or the state government that yeah you can go out there and extract those resources you can you can cut down timber you can uh you know you can drill for oil you can mine for gold or something or something else you know we just had a
a presentation in Senate resources a couple of days ago on critical minerals. But, you know, and those can be huge for Alaska. But one of the problems that we're going to run into is because The vast majority of that is on government land, either federal or state. That means that the feds or the state end up being the beneficiaries of a lot of that wealth. And, you know, what are the things that we've got to...
fix here in our state is we need to make sure that that wealth gets into the hands of individuals and into the private sector because that's how you grow. That's how you diversify. That's how... you make a long-term economy and get us out of this boom-bust cycle that we've been in for, you know, 100 years now.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And as we start to talk about these discussions, you know, I'm going to take a quick break. But when we come back on the other side of the break, I'd love to ask you about the PFD. Because you mentioned oil attack, you know, how much the price per barrel.
is going to be and focusing in on that and you talked about the permanent fund dividend and one question that always comes up every legislative session since Bill Walker vetoed the PFD it is always this fight over the PFD and people always kind of
they're starting to ask me, well, how much do you think our PFD is going to be this year? And I'm like, well, I think there's a long ways to go yet because the battles in Juneau are usually pretty staunch when it comes to this. So I'd love to kind of get your perspective on it. on what people can expect or how the conversations maybe you expect them to develop. That would be a good place to start. We're talking with Senator Rob Myers. 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 Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-522-0222. Welcome back. Current time, 719. We're talking with Senator Rob Myers. He represents District Q, which is... In the northern area, Senator Myers, what does your district encompass? I know you're from North Pole, but what does your district encompass?
So, District is basically the eastern part of the Fairbanks Borough. I don't have any of the city. I don't have any of Fort Wainwright, but I get about half of Badger Road. I get... Farmer's Loop, Alachina Hot Springs Road. I go out towards Fox and Fort Knox, and then I go all the way down the Rich Highway to the edge of the borough. So I get Ielson Air Force Base. I get Harding Lake, Birch Lake, those areas.
Oh, yeah, pretty big district. Well, we appreciate you calling in. We know we have a number of listeners that listen to us from the Fairbanks area. So I'm guessing some of them might be some of your constituents. break we had a caller call in and ask the question because we were talking about economic growth and her question was
Have you seen or heard any conversations about the governor trying to potentially entice some of these manufacturing jobs that Trump's trying to bring back to the country? Have you heard about any of those potentially coming to Alaska? Not direct manufacturing. I've heard just a little bit here and there, but it's primarily connected to the resource industry. So, for example, I know that there's some talks going on to put a new sawmill in down in Neenana.
You know, now, whether or not you want to call that manufacturing, I don't know. It kind of sits on the border between, you know, resource development and manufacturing. But, you know, anything that we can do to value add to our products. is going to be huge over just pulling it out of the ground and shipping it out. So that's always a step in the right direction. But most of what I hear about manufacturing talks about those types of issues.
The thing that's going to get in the way of manufacturing here in Alaska is our energy costs, and we've got to get those down. Once that happens, we can talk about manufacturing and things like that. Exactly. Okay, well, back to my question I teed up before the break. You know, the number one question I start to get this time of year, you know, as the legislature really starts to get into their budget and they want to spend a whole lot of money, it seems like the PFD has become the...
biggest tug of war there is and people are starting to ask you know what's going to happen with the PFD and I always say you don't know until it's over but what are your thoughts or how do you answer a question like that So, I mean, that's a tough spot right now. It's been very interesting to watch the House and Senate majorities this year and their opinions on it.
You know, I think, you know, both majorities don't mind, you know, cutting into what should have been the PFD to pay for government. But even now, the deficit is so large or spending has gotten so bad. And, of course, you know, they want to expand it. that even they are starting to balk a little bit about what it would take to cut from the PFD in order to pay for everything. So the statutory PFD this year should be...
Something in the neighborhood of $3,800. We don't know for sure yet because you've got to wait until July 1st and the fiscal year is over. But it should have been about $3,800. But instead... You know, we're doing this whole 75-25 thing, and then knocks it down to, I think, about 14-20, give or take.
And then they're talking about knocking it down further because even at a 75-25 PFD, that still leaves us somewhere around a half a billion dollars in the hole. And then there's the whole education increase and stuff that they want to do too. So now some folks are saying, oh, well, if you knock it down to a $1,000 PFD and then you institute a couple new taxes and –
You know, some new oil taxes and this, you know, online business tax they're talking about. Oh, well, that gets you there and that balances the budget. And then some other folks are saying, no, we don't want any taxes. And, you know, if cutting the PFD is the only way to go, then...
That's going to put the PFD at something like, I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $600. And some folks look at those numbers and say, if I pay out a $600 PFD, I'm going to lose my election because why the heck is... the state doing well um and and in this economy when when you know things are actually finally starting to pick up a little bit on the slope and um
And I'm going to hand out a $600 PFD? No, that's going to freak a lot of people out, especially out in the bush and some of the other areas of the state that aren't doing so well economically. Yeah, I will tell you, it's fascinating when we start to hear these numbers and we start to hear the conversation because what you're doing for people is you're correlating for us.
a direct cause and effect, right? As they increase spending, whether it's on education, defined benefits, whatever program, pick your program, as we increase spending, the money has to come from somewhere. we have seen over the past many years, the easiest place for them to pull it from is the permanent fund, the permanent fund dividend, I should say. So it is a conversation that we will continue to monitor. I want to, since I have you on the phone,
And I want to ask you about a couple other things because we don't get a chance to talk about individual legislation. But you have a couple pieces of legislation. One that caught my attention, an infant safety bill. Can you explain to us what this is and what it's intended?
Yeah, so this is part of what we already have in statute called a safe surrender law. Basically, that means if you've got an infant, which we define in law as 21 days and younger, that you don't feel you can care for, you can safely surrender that infant to a police officer, a firefighter, a doctor, a nurse, an EMT, somebody that you think is going to care for that infant.
And that was put in about 2008. It's been used about eight or nine times. You know, we're trying to save lives here. The problem is that we've still had a few instances over the years where we found Children on the side of the road, you know, in cardboard boxes. You know, we had one up in Fairbanks on New Year's Eve about three years ago. It was, you know, it was about zero outside with about a 10 below wind chill, and somebody left a baby on the side of the road in a cardboard box.
Fortunately, that baby was found, and he survived. There were two more in Anchorage. There was one in downtown Anchorage about two years ago, and there was one in Eagle River about ten years ago. Both those babies passed. And, you know, you never know. anybody's individual motivation, but kind of anecdotally what we hear around the country is some people are so afraid and so full of shame that they don't want to see a person to surrender their infant.
And so what this would do is it would allow for safe surrender through a device that you install in the wall at a hospital or a fire station, somewhere like that. and it would be climate controlled, and it would automatically trigger a 911 call, and we could save that baby's life. And, you know, hopefully this is another tool in the toolbox for us.
Well, you know, I think these safe surrender mechanisms have definitely saved lives over the years. And like you said, you've highlighted examples right here in Alaska that they've actually happened. And one of them actually... And Fairbanks had a good result at the end, but it could have turned very differently, especially Fairbanks in the winter. I mean, that's just...
That just took my breath away when you said it. You know, so these types of things, it's actually, you know, a solution to a problem that we've seen here in Alaska. So I'm glad to see you taking that up. Now, what is your occupational license reform bill?
What is this bill that you're talking that you've introduced? So, you know, we were talking in the first segment that we don't care a whole lot about the economy in the legislature, unfortunately. Well, I do because, you know, the economy is where I make my money. And, you know, we see huge workforce challenges. You can't get enough people to come to work, right? Well, what's one of the barriers to getting people into work? Well, it's occupational licensing.
country about a quarter of the jobs in this country require you to get a license from the state government we've got uh what are we up to about 124 or so licenses in this state uh that you have to get from the government to do your job And we've added about 30 of those just since 2010. So, you know, we're putting up more barriers to work. And so what this bill would do, it's called the Sunrise Bill.
And it would say, okay, legislature, before you institute a new license, you're going to commission a report from this group that's going to be Non-political, non-partisan, it's going to get buried down in the Department of Commerce with some experts to say, all right, is this actually even a problem? Does this occupation even need a license?
Can we go a different route? Can we look at getting third-party certification? Can we look at just doing a registration program? Can we strengthen our fraud statutes? Something like that, as opposed to making a full-on license. There's about 15 other states that do this, and what they have discovered is that when states do this, they tend to, one, have fewer occupational licenses, and two, the licenses they do have tend to get easier to get.
in an era when it's so hard to find enough people to work, let's remove some of those barriers. Let's make it easier for people to get to work, not harder. Well, I started by saying that one of the things I was so excited about seeing you go to Juneau is you seem like you have a lot of common sense. And having that as part of the conversation in Juneau is I can only see that as a positive. And this seems to me like.
common sense legislation. And again, I mean, if we're talking about the private sector economy, I think the only way we are actually going to become really stable is you can't be too heavy in one industry or the other. the government industry is growing and so somebody who's thinking about the private sector and the economy and the one the economy that most of us work within the fact that you're making it
You know, a little simpler for people to get to work, a little easier to attract people to work in Alaska, I think is a good thing. Senator Meyer, thank you so much for calling in this morning. We appreciate your time, sir. Always good to talk to you, Amy. We'll see you again soon. All right. That's Senator Rob Meyer. He represents District Q from the North Pole Fairbanks area. We want to thank him for calling in this morning. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with your calls.
Amy Demboski, 628 Mornings on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back, Current Time 738. I'm going to go straight to the phones, and Mary is with us. Good morning, Mary. Good morning. My question is this. Is our governor doing anything, anything at all to get our government? lands given back to the state. With all this reassuring that's going to be happening, is he out there trying to do anything about getting some of that business there? And you could use...
Lower the cost, I guess, is what I was getting at, of companies coming up here. and opening factories or doing something so that we can get all of our people working if they want to work. You know, I will tell you, there's a couple different things. There are a couple different suits that I know the Attorney General has filed, I should say. There was one on...
There was one that was released in February where the Attorney General is challenging state jurisdiction over native allotments. So that was one where they're trying to get state control back. But there was another one. where they've been trying to sue and take back some state authority from the Federals and multiple other issues. A lot of it has to do with resource development that I can think of. When it comes to manufacturing specifically,
The thing I've heard the governor actually talk about is bringing data centers to Alaska. Data centers, you know, with the rise of AI, they need a cool type of climate. They need a lot of land. One of the things I think Senator Myers hit right on the head, in order to have large scale manufacturing in Alaska, you have to bring down energy costs. Because otherwise we would not be competitive with the lower 48. So you have to be able to.
bring the energy costs down, which means develop our energy resources. And then once you can bring the energy costs back, two other things that you're going to need to be successful in manufacturing is you're going to need to have the workforce to be able to run them.
the plants, whatever you're manufacturing. But the third thing is your carrying costs, the cost it takes to get your product to market. Now, we're in a really good strategic location for the Pacific Rim, so to supply Asia, basically. So those are good opportunities for Alaska. But if you don't get the energy costs under control, you're never going to see large-scale manufacturing in Alaska. Shad, isn't it?
i know i know this is when i was at commerce this was one of the big things that we were we were really working on you know and that's why As we start having these conversations and you see what Trump is doing on the national level, you say, let's get in on that. And I think Trump is focusing in correctly on Alaska's energy and resources that we have. Because if you start bringing those...
to market number one you're going to start bringing down the energy costs not only in state but you're going to be shoring up our national security dependency on other nations for those resources so I think it's Yeah, I think Trump is right on with this one.
If we want to be competitive in manufacturing, you've got to deal with the energy first. And then once you deal with the energy, then, you know, we can start talking about workforce, supplying workforce. And I think the third, the carrying cost will come. I think you just look at where your market is and where you can strategically give those resources at the lowest cost to get it to those markets. And I think you have real opportunities, especially with Korea, with Japan.
I do think you have opportunities there. So we'll see what happens. I'm just really hopeful the Alaska legislature doesn't squander this opportunity that Donald Trump is bringing to our state. I hope and pray that you're right. Well, thank you very kindly. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate the call this morning. All right, let's go to Jed. Good morning, sir. Good morning. I live in beautiful downtown Mountain View.
And Daniel George, once upon a time, Taylor Street, which I live on, is a very, very, very busy street. It actually has one of those green federal... directions to go to Taylor Street. And people speed, the posted speed limit is 20 miles an hour.
When people speed and they go 35, 40 miles an hour, they often go through stop signs. When Daniel Ward was on the Mountain View Community Council... I brought forth to him at a community council that we needed speed bumps to slow people down so that no kids get hurt. You know, there's a lot of kids that go to school here and these people that drive way too fast. Well, anyway, Daniel George helped.
get that happening, and we do have a speed bump. We need one more, but we got one speed bump thanks to Daniel George. Daniel George also headed up... The Mountain View cleanup. For years and years and years, he has dedicated himself to making Mountain View a better place to live. And furthermore... He was a legislative aide in Juneau, and he also worked for Congressman Don Young. Daniel George is really qualified.
to be on the Anchorage Assembly, and I hope everybody votes for Daniel George because he is one heck of a really good guy. Well, I've got to tell you, Jed, your experience with Daniel over the years, and I say it that way because he's not somebody who just showed up from the lower 48 and decided he was going to be on the assembly. He's actually been really involved in your community.
for a long time I I've known him for a number of years and when I was on the Assembly he was the president of the Mountain View Community Council and I remember working with him with issues relating to your district and he's solution oriented and you could tell he really was involved in the community and for me that makes a difference and I think
Look, I couldn't give a better testimonial than you did because you've seen it. You had an issue. He helped you solve it. I think he would be a great asset as your representative on the Anchorage Assembly. I just say one more thing. Yes, sir. We have a huge problem with Davis Park and the snow dump. and the homeless camps there that need to be abated. It's a cesspool of garbage. It's a cesspool of drugs and alcohol abuse.
And Davis Park is supposed to be a park, not a place where, anyway, I believe Daniel George will get that abated. Encourage the mayor and the police department and the various departments of the city to get active and get that thing cleaned up. Summer is coming. The softball fields, the soccer fields on Davis Park, we need that cleaned up really, really bad. And so far, that fellow named Volwin, he hasn't done anything about it.
And I'm really upset about that. And I just think that Daniel George is the guy, and he should be elected. I encourage everybody to vote for Daniel George. I couldn't have said it any better. I absolutely agree with you on all points there, sir. Thank you for calling in and letting us know about your district and your recommendation for Daniel George. Thank you for the call this morning.
Have a good day. Goodbye. All right. You too, sir. Bye-bye. All right. We're going to take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, be part of the show. 522-0650. Looking at your last. Welcome back to live local and insightful morning drive radio. on News Radio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Current time, 751. We're going to go ahead and go to the phones, and Bill is with us. Good morning, sir.
Hey, good morning. This is Bill from Chugiac. I'll spend five seconds on the least important. I'm on the fire service board, unopposed for re-election. So if you're Powder Ridge North, you're in the Chugiac fire service area. That's right. That's an easy vote. That's an easy vote. All day long, Bill Stoltz. It's my third time running, and I served about a year as a pointe. This is the first time I've ever mentioned it, or this is my first advertising for that ever.
I love it. I love it. That's an easy vote. Every day, an easy vote. Well, have you filled in your Anchorage ballot yet? No, I don't, and I'm going to ask a favor of Garrett Gerker, because I'm going to probably see him today. I'm going to ask him if he'll drop it off for me so he knows that I voted. There you go. There you go. Well, I will tell you. Yeah, I was going to say, that's an easy race in Eagle River for me. I would vote Jared Gerker every day of the week.
I want to say that the race is coincidental that another person called up about Donald George, because I was going to call up because there was a Landfield story, and it wasn't Landfield's text of the story, but a commenter. that accused him of being one of the crafters or architects as a legislative aide of Senate Bill 91, the pro-crime bill. I can tell you, I was one of two votes in the Senate, and Daniel was my legislative aide, and he was...
Anything but a proponent of that bill. He was one of a steady aid who was very knowledgeable and helped me unsuccessfully try to kill that bill. The tactics people are using are just beyond the pale. I'm calling Daniel George up, a pro-crime, pro-Senate Bill 91 person. And I can tell you, just anecdotally, I was only one of two votes in the Senate when that first bill passed, and he was by my side helping me try to kill it.
Yeah, well, I will tell you, he is a gem, and you know him better than I do because you guys work together, but easy. I think when we look back and... and listen to jed's testimonial about him i think that's absolutely reflective of daniel george he's a hard worker he knows the district he's a good person and you you know
I would vote for him if I was in that district without question. Bill, I appreciate the plug this morning. I've got to close on with one thing. No other person running for the Assembly, no incumbent, has impacted me as much as... is Daniel Volland in a negative way. Probably about two months ago, I had to pull over and catch, just collect myself after in pitch dark.
a person ran right in front of my car and how I didn't kill them, I don't know. And Daniel Volland is the guy who thinks it's a good idea to encourage jaywalking. Yeah, well, I mean, that's a heart-pounding moment, I'm sure. So I can honestly say no candidate has, even getting a big tax bill isn't as impactful as almost killing somebody who runs...
in the pitch dark and dark clothes right in front of you because they've been enabled, encouraged by an assemblyman. And I'm not being hyperbolic. That's exactly what happened.
That's just shameful. I mean, this whole idea of the Anchorage Assembly that people have every right to be in the road as cars do is stupid. I mean, there's no other word for it. It's just ridiculous. And so, again, if we send good people to... make laws we will get some rational laws but if we send people that have this demented sense of reality I mean look we're going to get crazy laws like that I'm glad it turned out okay Bill thank you for the call this morning I appreciate it
Thank you very much. All right, bye-bye. All right, I'm going to see if I can squeeze Buck in. Buck, I have about a minute and a half left. Go ahead, sir. Yeah, about building manufacturing factories in Alaska.
I mean, other than niche stuff and inside Alaska, it's not going to work, and it's because of the Jones Act. In fact, our representatives actually cared about us. Instead of that, Matthew and Trump, they should be trying to remove that one. And I'm not talking about the life jackets and the lifeboats. I'm talking about where U.S.-made ships have to go from U.S. port to U.S. port. It's killing Alaska. We can't compete. I agree. And I also think it's funny.
There's only one road north and south. We've got less roads in any other state, even though we're the largest. And they're going to tear up the bridge right when the volcano is going to go off. And it shows how weak we are. You know, Buck, common sense and rationality isn't always present in politics. You make excellent points, sir. Thank you for your call this morning. You know, he makes a great point about the Jones Act. This is one of the issues that Commerce, it was one of...
our priorities when I was at Commerce was trying to get the Jones Act repealed. Again, it's known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. It's a federal statute that requires goods transported between U.S. to be carried on vessels that are owned and operated by US citizens and permanent residents. You know, the reality is it's an impediment we put on ourselves that makes it more difficult for us to be competitive on a global market. And I think I think Buck has just.
hit the nail on the head with that one. Well, I'm sorry I ran out of time for those who were in queue. Unfortunately, we're hitting the end of the hour here. Don't forget, if you haven't filed for your Alaska PFD, the deadline is Monday, and Monday is a holiday. So I would recommend that you do it today. So if you have any issues, you'll have staff there able to call and ask questions too.
But, again, if you have any questions, if you have any concerns, you can just go to the pfd.alaska.gov, and you'll be able to find the information there. All right, that does it for Daryl and I today. We will be back with you on Monday morning. Yes, it's a holiday, but we will be here. see you on Monday morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless.