A serious weather event. News radios. This is the morning. Good morning! On this pre-Friday. Haha, you got my meme this morning. I know. Gerald cracks me up. He sends me this meme this morning. uh saying you know basically uh some people call it thursday i call it pre-friday i agree completely I love it. No, it was Friday Eve, wasn't it? But, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, same, same. It is Thursday. Today is May 22nd. Current time is 6.06 a.m. I will tell you, Daryl.
I don't know what it was today. It was a hard time for me to get up this morning. Every day this week, I have been sending you my show prep after 10 o'clock. I'm so sorry about that. I think that one came in almost 1 o'clock in the morning the other day. It was literally like I woke up thinking something was important had happened or dangerous, and I'm just like, what's with?
Oh. Okay. Oh, no, no, it's okay, because I ended up then sitting there reading your show at 1 o'clock in the morning going, okay. Okay. And I agreed this morning, did not want to get up. I actually hit my snooze button, which then sent me into a panic because for some reason my snooze is normally seven minutes. I just have a single seven minute snooze. Uh-huh.
And it gave me 22 minutes on a snooze. 22 minutes? 22 minutes. When it went off the second time, I literally, like I said, I was in a panic. I jumped and ran. Which is why I look like I do. It's always entertaining if Daryl's late because Daryl does not like to be late. And if he is running in, like, literally, like, running in just in time to hit the button, you know, I just don't stress about it, Daryl, because I figure, you know...
I mean, 99.99% of the time, there's no issue. We get on the air, no problem. If something comes up, it comes up. I mean, it'll all work out. So today, I actually wasn't late here. I just was late getting into my pattern. I literally jumped my whole pattern.
Your schedule was off. Yeah, that's why I had the liquid energy drink instead of coffee this morning. It was like, yep, don't have time for that. Just grab one of those orange things and went that route. So you're going to have a little bit of a hyper, Daryl, because of that. I get you, brother. I get you. It's all right. It's all right. Well, you know, I made it. I mean, my commute wasn't that long. I just walked across the living room. It was good.
Now, I've got a question for you. Have you got a Roomba for inside the house yet? No. Uh-uh. You should get one so that George is not, you know, lonely he can have somebody to aspire to, that cute little inside thing, you know. I gotta tell you, George is just killing it, man. People, you know, I had somebody text me yesterday saying, hey, how's George working out?
Perfect. So far, no issue. And no issue. So we'll see. We'll see. You know, he's been going for a couple weeks now. And, you know, it's so funny. I get up in the morning. I look out. There he is. Just zipping across the lawn. I come home from work. Zipping.
You've been across the lawn. You need to make one of those informational signs, kind of like when you go out to the bird watching areas and it shows you a picture of the bird and then tells you a little bit about it. Oh, that's funny. A George watching sign out there so that when people see it, you can identify, this is George, this is where it comes from, this is how he works. That is really funny.
funny. You know, I think about it because there's that couple that there's people not too far from us. They have a couple little donkeys. And they have a little sign and it says, you know, this is so-and-so and so-and-so names. Like Cricket and something else. I don't remember what it is. But yeah, and they have this little sign out there. It's really funny. Do it with George, man. I think people would really be stopping looking like...
Oh, here's the explanation. The other thing is you need to have a camera pointed down that way so you can watch people watch George get their reactions and stuff. Well, you know, I will tell you the first week he was out there, it was very entertaining. Very entertaining. Because everybody was stopping to look. And he's just been out there just, and we had a lawn service that kind of works through this area.
They stopped and my husband said for like five minutes. They just sat there watching it. Just looking at it. Watching the future of their job. I know. Sorry about that. Automation. Now he's doing pretty good. He's on the lawn now. So as he goes, and my little robot lawnmower starts going across the lawn now, you know, the flowers that are out there and, you know, the rock or whatever, the rocks, you know, and stuff. Now he just, you can see him go up to it.
And he doesn't bump into it now because he's learned. Now he just goes up and then he just kind of turns and goes around it and does his thing. Technology, man. So what you're saying is you can now look across your yard and see whether there was anything out there because there will be little growth spurts. There will be like little moles in your yard. No, there's long grass over there. Go clear something out from there. George, George, come back over here. Look.
See, it's okay. He's been doing good. I'm telling you, he's been doing good. So, you know, I'll give you my analysis at the end of summer. You know, it's only been a couple weeks. So, so far, so far, so good. You know what just came to my mind? What? Georgia the Jungle. Ah, there you go. George, George, George out of the jungle. If the lawn gets too long, and then George, watch out for that tree. That's it. That's it. That's perfect. That's a perfect, uh, that's a perfect song for George.
Oh my goodness. Well, I suppose I should do some public announcements. There's not very many. As we roll into the Memorial Day weekend, what we're seeing is most governments have cleared their schedules. There are still a few meetings that are scheduled. going into the weekend, so let's get into it. But again, most of them have very light schedules and don't have very much until after the holiday weekend. Here we go. Starting with the Matsuburo.
All I have on the Matthew Burroughs calendar is a Glacier View Community Council meeting today, 6.30 p.m. It's going to be at Glacier View School. That's it through the Memorial Day weekend. So that will be the only one. I want to remind you, if you live in the Matsu borough, you have until the end of the month to go online and apply for your landfill coupon, should you want one.
So instead of getting it mailed in the mail, they don't do that anymore, having one day where it's just open to everybody, what they do is you go online and it's one per household. You can get, you just go to the Matsuboros website, matsugov.us. They'll ask you for your name, your address, and your email address, one per household. Then they'll email you a $25 landfill coupon. It's really easy, but you have to apply by the end of the month, and then the coupon is good for a year.
So whenever you get around to cleaning up your yard or doing whatever you're doing, You have a year to use that $25 landfill coupon. All right, so that's it for the announcements for the Matsuborough. Again, their website, matsugov.us, that's where you can track their public announcements, and that's where you can also find your landfill coupon application.
Super, super easy. It took me like 60 seconds to do it. It was super easy. All right, moving on. There was no announcements for the city of Wasilla. They're not going to have anything going on until after the holiday weekend again. All these local governments are going to be closed on Memorial Day, so Monday is a holiday, so you won't be seeing that. But if you want to track the city of Wasilla's website, just go to cityofwasilla.gov.
Just a reminder, they have opened up their float registration for their July 4th parade. So you can go online now and you can sign up. and register to enter a float in the July 4th parade, should you want to. I want to enter a blueberry float. I love root bear floats, but I want to enter a blueberry float this year. Yeah. That could be fun. I don't even know. I mean, it could be. I mean... You gotta just go with it, Gerald.
Well, for me, it'd be really easy. I'd just put on an outfit that's bright blue, and I'm already round like a blueberry, so I can just wander along. No, you're not. He's swimming, you guys. He is not. Moving on to the city of Palmer. Palmer doesn't have any meetings scheduled. They only have their own official results up that I read to you yesterday. They are not going to post results in the recall election of Mayor Steve Carrington until Friday afternoon.
So they have their public Canvas board count going on today and tomorrow. Right now, there is a two vote difference. The yes's are at 99, the no's are at 97, but we have only 196 votes counted out of the 389 ballots issued. Again, that's a very low turnout for Palmer, too. That's only 8% right now. So we'll see. Sounds like a lot of people weren't worried about who was going to be married.
That's what it sounds like. There's total registered voters in these two precincts, 5,068. So, I mean, in a recall election for the mayor, you only get 8% to show up and say yes or no. That's sad. I think part of it, though, is overload. Palmer's had some issues over the last two years. Recalls, removals, I mean, a lot of them when it comes right down to it. I'm just telling you right now, the voters of Palmer don't take any nonsense.
And the last time they had a recall election, I think they replaced like three people. Yeah, three of them. I mean, they pulled them out. I mean, they're like, follow the law, follow the rules. If you don't, you will be removed. Done. And I will say, good for them. I mean, look, I'm a rule follower, and it has been to my detriment at times, but I would do it all over again. I mean, this is what we see. In politics, here's the thing. All you have is your word.
At the end of the day, that's what you have. And if you do anything to lose that credibility, especially with the voters, you're done. You're done. So we'll see what turns out in this Palmer recall election for the mayor. But right now it's very close. I mean, it's two votes different with about 200 votes to count.
We'll see. We'll see. It could go either way. But we probably won't be able to give you an update on that until obviously we come back from Memorial Day weekend because they won't put out the results until Friday afternoon. But you can track them yourself. Just go to palmerak.org.
And right across the top, they have a header that says unofficial election results. Just click on it. And as I said, as they do the canvas, now they're going to get into the, they've only counted the votes that happened. that happened on Election Day, then they're going to get into the early vote.
So they're going to start counting those today and tomorrow. And part of that process is verifying that the people voted were supposed to vote, blah, blah, blah, verifying signatures, all that kind of stuff. So that's what they're going to do today and tomorrow. And they do expect Friday afternoon, so tomorrow afternoon, to put out the results. So we'll continue to watch that. But again, palmerak.org is where you go to get those results.
Alright, moving on to the Municipality of Anchorage. Today for the 22nd, the Heritage Land Bank Advisory Committee has... a meeting at 1.30 today. It's a hybrid meeting, so they have an online link. If you need that, go to muni.org. That's M-U-N-I, muni.org. Click on the Mayor's tab, and then click on the Events tab. The Historic Preservation Commission also has a meeting today at 2 p.m. at the Alaska Native Heritage Center which is located at 8800 Heritage Center Drive.
The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission has a special meeting today that's going to be at 4.30. It says the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission special meeting will be held. in the Equal Rights Commission Conference Room from 430 to 530. That's at City Hall. So all you have to do is go down to City Hall. It's on the first floor, I think. So the security guard will tell you, don't worry.
And last but not least, the Americans with Disabilities Act Advisory Commission has a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. It's in person and on teams. It's going to be in the same location, the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission office. which is, it is actually suite 110. This one has it. So it's down on the first floor there. So easy peasy to access. Those are the only meetings for the municipality of Anchorage.
As I looked in the Kenai, both in the borough and the city, Sultana and Homer, all of those guys are clear. through the Memorial Day weekend. So, like I said, everybody's pretty much in holiday zone. Starting, starting to, sometimes starting today. Mostly starting tomorrow. So it's really quiet for local governments through the holiday weekend. So again...
And remember, if you go out, be fire wise. If you start a campfire, make sure you put it out all the way before you leave it. Don't leave it unattended. Make sure you have a water source. The one thing we don't want to do next week is when we come back talk about a huge wildfire. So please be smart. Make good choices, as my grandmother would say.
All right, we're going to go ahead and take our first break of the morning. If you'd like to call in and be part of the show, 522-0650. Looking at the Alaska total traffic cameras on this Thursday morning. Currently light traffic inbound on the Glen Highway.
No stoppages or slowdowns out there that I can see in town. Traffic's moving well. If you see traffic... Sunny conditions expected for your Thursday with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. We'll see even warmer conditions for Memorial Day weekend as temperatures make a run near 60. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist. 624. Well, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill. Listen to this vote. 215 to 214. One vote. One vote.
So that's good. You're going to see that all over the news today. So we'll continue to watch. But there's been big, big news on the federal level. Oh, my stutter almost came out. Did you see that? It almost happened. It almost happened. But, uh, it's been a lot. Did you see Trump with a South African president? Oh, did I ever? I was so tickled pink. I mean, Trump... Trump! Trump is Trump!
And you can see he ain't playing this year when it comes back to the second term. Like, he wasn't playing. The South African president comes to the Oval Office. I don't know. I think this kind of was about as awkward as the whole Zelensky meeting. But the South African president was a little smarter than Zelensky, but when he came in and started to deny the genocide that was happening in South Africa, Trump rolls out a TV and plays a montage.
of all the public officials, the leaders in South Africa, huge rallies, basically saying kill the whites, you know, and take their land. And I gotta tell you, it was one of those moments. It was painful to watch. because you see it and you're like, there's no denying it. What are you going to say to that when you're the president of South Africa and you have all these elected leaders and party officials and all these people going around and it's happening and then he's showing.
lines and lines of cars that are lined up, you know, to pay homage to, you know, like a thousand different South African, white South African farmers and their families that had been slaughtered. There's not much you can say about that, but I will tell you, Trump ain't playing. It's interesting to see... The national, international diplomacy that has happened. This is the first time we're getting to see it.
You know, live. We're getting to see it on center stage. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that they've talked about and they've done for years that is behind the scenes. I don't know that anybody's rolled out a TV to put it in somebody's face and be like, look, here, here, right here. This is what we're talking about. And he had paper after paper. Look, these white people killed. Look, these ones killed. Look, these ones killed. He just kept going.
And, you know, the South African president, all these TV cameras are in front of him. I mean, but this is how Trump is doing it. He is showing people he ain't screwing around. Like, he is going to back up what he's saying and he is going to put it in their face and be like, you know, you guys got a problem. What are you going to do about it? It was, I gotta tell ya!
I think a lot of people are watching and very fascinating with this because they've just never seen international diplomacy done in front of the TV cameras. Trump can't rely on the media to accurately report anything, but it makes it so people can't spin either. And that's what I was going to say as I'm listening to you.
First off, that president, the South African president, the very first thing he said when he came in there was, there is no genocide, we are not killing, the white farmers aren't being killed, it is not national policy. And then Trump says, oh, and like you said, Rather than just using words, which everybody then skews them, he brought out actual video and actual documentation to the president himself. That man's face when he started to watch it was just like, uh, uh, uh.
He claimed he had never seen it. Do you believe that for one second? Come on! So now we've got him on tape. They can't, again, argue with it. And then, think about this. In all of Biden's four years, He doesn't even matter. the amount of time Trump spends on the television in one day. And I mean literally in front of it. Everything Trump has done has been on TV almost every single day. It is the most transparent president we've seen in history, and that's not an exaggeration.
I mean, you can go back to Obama, you can go back to Bush, you can go back to the other Bush, you can go back to Clinton, you can go back to any of the... We have never seen a president. in this country. ever be so accessible to the media. Ever. This is a daily occurrence. He will sit there and riff and do a 20-minute press conference as he was walking down a hallway and there's a couple of reporters there. He'll just stop and answer questions. This is unprecedented. As opposed to...
Asking a question three weeks later a written answer comes to you which is written in a possibly autosign I don't know but with Trump like I said what we actually need to do and I think this is kind of what he's doing is this By getting all of this constant coverage,
You can't edit it down like they do. You can't do the blips. They can't keep up. We can almost use a Trump TV, in other words, 24, not 24-7, but when he's working, there should be a camera constantly on so that no matter what else happens, go back to the tape. And this is exactly right. He's bypassing the media and their ability to spin it because there's so much and they've let in so many independent journalists. They can't edit it because it's so much.
It's so prevalent. And this is what you get when you get a guy who's very used to reality TV and he's not afraid of the cameras and he's just going to be Trump. He learned his lesson the last time. Come on. Exactly. I'm looking at the article. The Daily Caller has an article about this South African president meeting with him. And he says, President Donald Trump forced the president of the Republic of South Africa to watch videos of the country's leaders.
calling for the genocide of white farmers during a meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday. And again, as Daryl said, this is after he said, oh no, there isn't, it's not happening. And Trump's like, okay, like, here, right here. And he's like, lower the lights. Bring in the TV. Let's watch it together. South African President Cyril Rampoza.
visited Trump for a bilateral meeting as well as a private lunch. In the middle of their public conversation, Trump ordered his staff to dim the lights and play the videos of genocide in South Africa for attendees of the meeting. The video montage shows different clips of political leaders from the minority party in South Africa calling for the killing of Boers. The term used means farmers and refers to white South Africans and supporters chanting along.
Another clip showed what Trump said were the thousand burial sites of the deceased white farmers in South Africa and their families lining up to pay their respects. For most of the footage, Reposa faced forward and glanced at Trump instead of looking at the screen, which was to his right. I mean, here's the reality. And he's like, oh, I've not seen that before. I mean, he made some kind of comment like that. And I was like, well...
You know, here you go. Now you know what's going on in your own country. And people, you know, some reporters say, well, what should he do about it? And Trump's like, I don't know what he should do about it, but it's really bad. He should do something.
And so there you have the president not telling another president how to manage affairs in his own countries, but saying, look, you have a problem and we're not going to ignore genocide in your country. We're going to call it out for the whole world to see.
and he did it to his face, and he did it in front of all the media cameras. And, you know, frankly, when you're dealing with somebody who's dishonest, because when he walks in the door and he says it's not happening, and there's too much documentation, For us t-t-t deny it.
Trump's like, I'm just going to tell you to your face, it's happening. And here's the proof it's happening. Now what do you have to say about it? Oh, I didn't know? Well, so he says, I didn't know. Then he also goes on to the platitudes of, well you know that is some of the
the major groups out there you know we have to let everybody have their speech because we're a democratic country and that's just these little fraction ones over there but they're in your parliament they're shouting this in the parliament they're having stadiums filled with kill the boars you know it's like yeah
That's you accepting it. And there's a difference between, well, here's the thing. Look, I think calling for genocide is bad, but the fact that it's actually happening, it's more than just speech. Right. So if I can show you a hundred farmers that have been killed that are white and their property has been taken, I would say you have a problem. And the issue in South Africa is more than 100. So I would say you have a major problem. And they're being targeted specifically because they're white.
And, you know, so, again, problem. It would make no difference to me if they're being targeted because they're black and they're being targeted because they're Jewish. They're being targeted because they're Christian. Whatever reason they're being targeted. If a specific group is being targeted and killed and their property being taken, I would say that's a problem. It's a human rights issue, and everybody should be concerned about it. Just me. Just my thought.
All right, let's go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we will take your calls, 522-0650. Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case is telling reporters a suspect fatally shot by police had a gun in his lap.
During a news conference Wednesday morning, Case showed an image he described as not real clear from police worn body camera footage. Case said video shows Utuwa Ala'ilua's hands raised in the driver's seat in the car, but when Ala'ilua lowered his left hand, Officer Carter Mays fired the fatal shot. The State Office of Special Prosecution
is investigating to determine whether or not the shooting was justified. The city of Whittier is celebrating a first as cruise ship season gets underway. Alaska's news source reports Whittier welcomed three cruise ships to port yesterday. It's the first time the city has had three cruise ships in port at the same time. and firefighters in Anchorage are offering free car seat checkups today. Residents can stop by the Anchorage Fire Training Center between 2 and 4 p.m. today for a free checkup.
The Alaska Child Passenger Safety Coalition says an inspection of over 1,500 car seats last year showed 84% were installed incorrectly. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. News Radio 650. KE&I. Depend on it. Look at the Alaska total traffic cameras on this Thursday. Alaska, and I genuinely think that was the first time I've ever felt myself kind of like slipping mentally. I think Alaska does weird things to people. If you're interested in hearing anonymous callers like this,
tell stories from their lives, check out my podcast, Therapy Gecko. You can listen to Therapy Gecko on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Therapy Gecko and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today. Reach out to Amy. 907. 2-0-6. Welcome back, current time, 639. All right, let's go to the phones, and Randy is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, young lady and girl.
It's kind of a joke. All right, go for it. And I got a boy. Okay, the joke is, what sport can you use a life jacket, a paddle, and yarn? A life? What sport? Do you use a life jacket, a paddle, and yarn? Yes. I don't know what one. White Water Crafty. White Water Crafty. Oh, that's dizzy. That's dizzy. Alright, Randy, I have one for you today. I came prepared. Okay, here it goes. What did the sushi say to the bee? What's up? ¡Adiós!
I cracked myself off. I'm so, I know, I don't get out much. This is all you get. I'm telling you, it's before seven. I don't know what else to do. Okay. Alright, what was your guessing? As, uh, the, um, Magic, uh, uh, Night Park, Magic Little Hawk in Palmer will be open, uh, tomorrow. starting season, and you have to use the new online booking to do reservations, which is far superior to what we used to have. Is this the Batonisca River Park over there by the graveyard?
Correct. If you've never been to that park, ladies and gentlemen, that is a phenomenal park. The trails that are in there are beautiful. If you mountain bike, if you hike, anything, they are gorgeous back in there. Nice. So if you want to reserve your spot, if you want to do anything, you have to do it online now. Which, I mean, that's super convenient, actually. That's great. All right, well, you're at a boy. We started with a joke. We got a PSA. Now you said you had an at-a-boy.
I watched, most of the night, watching the, uh, the buddy, he voted for. And he was one of the good guys who voted for Pastor Trump's great and beautiful bill. You know, look, that vote was so close, 215 to 214, so every single vote mattered. So, you know, look, I've been saying this all along. They have got to get those 2017 tax cuts put in permit because they were due to expire this year. If they don't do that, you're going to see a huge tax hike, which would be bad for the economy.
I'm really glad to see this bill move forward. Okay. Yeah, great. Randy, thank you so much. Have a great day. All right. Well, I have to tell you, yesterday I was very, very pleased. So I went back and listened to Mike Procaro's show on podcast. I was able to listen to a part of it anyway. And Mike, I'm just telling you, like, home run, home run. So Mike Percaro is on the same channel as us if, you know, you're living under a rock and you don't know.
And he's on from 4 to 6 in the afternoons. And he's doing his show, doing his thing. And a representative from Juneau, Julie Cologne, called in. Happens to be his representative. Yep. called into the show and like he just gave it to her like he's just like you know what he told her flat out like over the radio to your face. But he said, he's like, I'm incredibly disappointed in you and your vote. I mean, he just let her rip.
And, you know, it was really funny because you can say stuff to people and still be respectful. And I try to do that even when I disagree with somebody. I want to let them get their point out. You know, I'm pretty competitive, so I may try to dissect your point a little bit, but I'm going to let you get your point out because I think
The listeners are smart enough to make up their own minds. I don't have to beat you over the head and bully you and berate you. I mean, I'm going to let you speak. And I recognize. reasonable, rational people can have different perspectives on an issue. I recognize that. It was very fascinating to me. We have a couple audio clips we're going to play here. Are you ready for clip one, Darrell? I've got clip one just about ready. Yeah, so...
Um, you know, so Mike calls, Mike, uh, Mike's doing his show last night. Julie Colon calls into his show. And he tells her flat out, you know, I'm not happy with your vote. I'm disappointed. And this was her initial response. Here's Julie Klum. Exactly. Could we get some of the policies? that could move the needle And some people thought their policies could do that, and some...
People thought they wouldn't do that and obviously the governor didn't feel like they were strong enough and he did what he did. some stuff that I really it was hard for me like last two years with the carbon bills that he wanted i backed him up on that i wasn't comfortable doing that there's many many things that i've done to support our governor and i've tried to work with him on this and there's been you know this is a very contentious issue
and everybody has different perspectives. But I think, like I said, when I originally passed, the bell was that the cell phone policy and the class capsizes and we know for sure will improve learning outcomes but they Maybe not everybody agrees with me. I think that there's proof that that's going to help. It also has his charter school language in it. Not all of it.
But parts of it. And I think there's just maybe some disagreement on what's in there that maybe it's not enough. I mean, one thing that a lot of people don't talk about is there's an increase in the factor for for low tech. And there's, you know, career technical education is super important. So I felt like it was strong to... push it forward. Not everybody agrees with me and I'm, you know, I don't, I don't like disappointing you and other people.
But at some point, there's got to be times where I have to make what I feel like is good decisions. because I felt like the policies were We're strong. And especially for... Republicans have been in the minority... And so this is way more policy than we had in SB 140 last year, which is why I sustained the veto last year. But I'm not interested in being friends with the Democrats, and I'm not interested.
and making the governor mad. That is not something I've taken lightly, but I feel like these were strong enough to take a stand on making a difference. Okay, so now this whole interview is about nine minutes, so I obviously can't play the whole thing. I pulled out two audio clips that if I have time, I'll play today. So there's the first one.
And this is what's so remarkable to me, Daryl, because I actually read the bill to people yesterday, the day before, whatever it was. So I went through, and as she's talking, like, I'm taking notes. The cell phone, you know, she's talking about all the policy in this bill. We've read it to you. There's no firm policy. There's suggestions. You know, each school district shall establish and make available to the public a target average class size policy for each grade level.
And then it goes on and says, target average class sizes for pre-kindergarten through grade 6 may not exceed May 23. And the target average class size for grade 6 12, you know, through grade 12 may not exceed, you know, 30. This may, may, may, may, may. You know, but then when it gets to cell phone policies, Each school district, you know, can institute a cell phone policy if they do this or if they do that or if they do this. The language is so squishy. It is not a mandate.
So again, it's a suggestion. And as I look at every single one of the things she says, you know, the charter school language, you know, she tries to say, oh, the governor's charter school language is in there. Bravo, Sierra. Come on now. There's no new authorizers for charter schools in there. Stop conflating. Look, what you're saying now is people now, when they want to apply for a charter school, they can do it all year long. But it's the same authorizer.
Do you think the Anchorage School District is going to do anything different just because they can accept the application in July instead of November? I mean, it's going to be the same process. And then if there's an appeal, the decision has to be made in 45 days instead of 90 days. But the same people are deciding the appeal. Again, so when we have these conversations, there's only two choices in my mind.
Either they're gaslighting you and they think you're stupid and you haven't read the bill, or you haven't listened to people analyze the bill, or they genuinely... I'm trying to be nice. I'm trying to be nice. Or they generally don't.
They don't understand the bill themselves. It's one or the other. It's either they think you're stupid or they're stupid. I don't know what it is. I mean, I was trying not to say it, but I just couldn't do it there. I mean, it's one of the other. Like, do you honestly believe? I mean, do they honestly believe Mrs. Layden was such great policy? Or do they not see, do they not see...
That is full of holes and it's suggestive. It's not mandated. I've got an example, but when we come back from break, I'll give you my example on what it is. Let's go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. Looking at those Alaska total traffic cameras for this Thursday morning. Still steady traffic around Anchorage. Well, only real slowdown I'm currently seeing is on Lake Otis Parkway as it crosses Tudor Road. A bit of a slouching a lion.
Got issues with youth or high school sports? Positive Coaching Alliance can help. PCA, a national non-profit, offers more than a thousand free online resources for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, students, and administrators. Visit PCADevZone.org. Partly cloudy to partly sunny conditions expected for your Thursday with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. We'll see even warmer conditions for Memorial Day weekend as temperatures make a run near 60.
For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Air Morse. Welcome back. Current time is 6.54. We're going to go straight to the phones and Roy is with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning. And joke of the day, Alaska legislature. No punchline needed. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. Our leadership needs to come from the governor's mansion. After his first term, he knew he couldn't run again.
He should have been line item vetoing a whole bunch of things. The legislature has given him almost nothing he has requested, although he is our governor. And our Republican Republican representatives who... voted to override the veto, well, that's a whole different story. The representative here in Homer, Anchor Point area, She got a nice little note that morning saying, hey, vote on all the vetoes. And she did. But he needs to start line item vetoing this stuff.
Because he did, and they just keep walking all over him. That's where our leadership comes from. You know, I got to tell you, what we saw, the minority leader in the House, and clearly a lot of the Republicans in the House, every Republican in Anchorage, so there's 20-some-odd of them, except for Jamie Allard. They all voted to override the governor. What does that tell you? The Republicans.
And you look at it, and then you hear their weak-kneed answer for, well, you know, there's all this, look, we have dissected the policy. The policy that's in there is a suggestion. It's not a mandate. And so if they tell you anything else, either they're gaslighting you or they don't understand it themselves. And so I think you're right. I mean, I think what we see here is a true lack of respect for the governor, a true lack of fear of, you know, it's just...
It's embarrassing on every level. The leadership this year in the legislature has been pathetic. The leadership, the governor has, they're clearly not worried about you know, ticking the governor off. They look at it and they're like, yeah, he has one session left. That's it. He's turned out. I mean, and there's no leadership from the Republican Party. I mean, I think there is a reckoning coming. right now. We got about 10 seconds. Let's go!
I love hearing from our friends in Anchor Point. Thank you so much for calling in. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Time to play. One big bill. Continuing deportations of illegals. The bond for CCC. Biden's decline while in office. A serious weather event. News Radio 650 KENI.
show broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 KENI. You can catch us on the radio at 650 a.m. or you can stream us And that's where you can also find our podcast on our website, 650KNI.iheart.com. Or you can do Daryl's very favorite weapon, which is the iHeartMedia app. I mean, the iHeartMedia app is like one of the most awesome apps out there. Literally, it's a jukebox in your hand. It's a news station in your hand.
It's a do-it-yourself station in your hand. I listened to a do-it-yourself podcast the other day. I kind of got trapped into that. It was an accidental button push because I didn't use my preset buttons on the app. I was trying to pick one and I got a do-it-yourselfer and then I was too lazy to...
Click it off. But it's a great app. The iHeart Media app brings you podcasts, brings you news, brings you music, just about anything you want. Preset buttons to make it simple to use. And the most important thing, it's free. I love free. Free is good. Free is good. You know, Daryl, I want to go back and talk about... I played an audio clip from Mike's show yesterday. Julie Colombe, she's a representative from the South Anchorage area.
I played a clip. She called into his show, and he started by just telling her how disappointed he was in her and her vote. He was not happy about it, and he told her. And, you know, I wanted to play her response. Again, it's about a nine-minute interview, so I recommend it. If you want to hear the whole thing, to go back just to, you can go to the iHeartMedia app. You can go to our website. Just look for Mike Porcaro's show.
And then you can hear it. She called in about 5.30ish. It's absolutely worth listening to. Yeah, and I thought it was worth listening to. And as you listen to it, and what struck me of it was she was talking about How much policy was in it? Well, clearly she didn't listen to the show a couple days earlier because we went through the actual bill.
And every single thing she was talking about, we showed how the policy was a suggestion and was not a mandate. So when you read legislation and it says you shall do this, that means you have to. But then when it says you may do this, you may do that, they may not do this, that is not a mandate. In legislation, the big deal is the word shall versus the word may. May is not binding. May is not binding.
And then when you talk about it, so she talked about the cell phones. Again, what does this bill actually do? HB 57, do not be fooled. HB 57 is a massive spending bill on education. It increases the base student allocation. from $5,960 per student to $6,660 per student. So it's a massive increase. With no accountability. and no real educational policy reforms to actually improve a student outcome. That's just a fact.
When you read the bill, they talk about cell phones. Okay, that's optional. It says school districts. you know, shall adopt their own cell phone policy. It doesn't say what it has to say. It just says that they'll adopt their own policy. Okay. And then when you start talking about class sizes, well, I've already demonstrated to you the difference between shall and may.
Alright, so school districts will adopt their own targeted class sizes, but it doesn't say what that has to be. It doesn't push down what it has to be. And then she starts talking about charter school language. Well, again, it doesn't add any new charter school authorizers. All it does is say that the people currently authorizing charter schools, they have to accept the application all year long.
It doesn't mean they have to authorize more. It doesn't mean that there's another way to get them authorized. And if there's an appeal on an application, okay, so the appeal has to be decided in 45 days instead of 90. None of these things. are designed to add more. None of these things will have the result of adding more charter schools. I mean, I'm not saying there won't be any new charter schools, but what I'm saying is you have the same authorizers that are beholden to the NEA.
And again, it's just frustrating as I'll get out. Gerald, you had a really good point, though, because we were talking about this last night. You know, when she talks about, I kind of chuckled when she started, when she added in the vocational technical education funding. This is where my pet peeve comes in.
I've had a problem with these multipliers that they use on the BSA since I learned about them because they're just not right. They take the homeschoolers and they multiply however many homeschoolers there are by .9. So not even a whole person. They actually cut back. on the money they're giving to the homeschoolers. And then they turn around and they go to the special needs kids. And they times 13 on that one. That's big. That's at $6,660. That's like $83,000 per student that gets those.
And then we come to this wonderful one where they got us a great deal, you guys. They increased our funding for the vocational technical one. Now, the funding for it used to be times 1.015. So that's 1,500. That's 0.015. They raised it to 1.8%. 023. That's eight thousandths they raised it. So, on a whole BSA, that actually brings it up.
$53 for the vocational technical ones. You know what, guys? You got played. This is what you call got played. Everything you are touting that we got this, we got that, we're so great. They're laughing because they're like, they didn't really get it. Look, we gave them a .008. percentage increase there. That's nothing. Nothing. And I think the point on the vocational technical education, it's the same with reading grants.
So what they've done in this massive spending bill is they've taken $2,800 out of every person's permanent fund dividend. And then they added in these little carrots like, hey, if you teach kids to read, then we'll give you an extra, you know, It's so much dollars. It's like 450 bucks, right? I'm trying to remember. Yeah, it's 450. Yeah, and so it's like an extra 450 dollars if you do your job and actually teach kids straight or actually just show some improvement.
And with this whole vocational technical, oh, you know what, let's expand and give some more for vocational technical. But they're predicating it on a new digital online tax. So they're taking $2,800 out of everybody's pocket per person. to fund a spending bill. And then on top of it,
They're saying, oh, but look at all these great things that we got based on a brand new online tax that we're going to take from your left pocket and your right pocket. And, oh, by the way, that online tax is more than likely going to be vetoed by the governor. They're not going to have the votes to uphold the veto. They are going to have the votes to uphold the veto, I think, on that one.
And so then you're not getting anything that you're touting right now as a win. You know, it's unbelievable to me. You know, I just get to the point where I sit back and I think these people, man. I have one more clip I wanted to play from Julie Colombe's interview yesterday with Mike Porcaro. Because here we have, you know, again, I very easily can dissect each one of their arguments about all the great policy that's in this. It's not there. It's not there.
So what it is is a spending bill. That's what it is. Let's just call a spade a spade. It's a spending bill. But here she is on Mike Procaro last night. This is the takeaway. I mean, I understand. I did not take this lightly at all. But if you look at how many Republicans voted to override, it's a sign that something is off because I've sustained two vetoes so far. for the governor last year and this year. It was...
Funding with no policy. The last veto override or veto we sustained was just about a month ago. It was just big money and no policy. And so I think where the difference is is The policy piece of it, because even when we passed the original bill, I had talked to you about it, and there was a lot of discussions about why people were voting for it. And it just really is, I guess, just a disagreement on whether those policies are good or not.
Again, okay so this is part of why I wanted to play that audio clip. She starts talking about, look at how many R's voted to override, so clearly there's an issue there. Yeah, the issue... Because you guys are all a bunch of panty wastes. You guys are all a bunch of wusses. I mean, did you read the bill? I mean, the problem is leadership. The minority leader in the House Republican caucus voted against the governor's veto. Voted to override the governor.
So, yeah, you're right. It does highlight our problem, but you're the problem. It's amazing that they don't, because literally, look back at our Congress. That would be like the Speaker of the House going against President Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill. I would not do it! But no, for some reason they felt... This is the right way to go. And here's the thing. This is what I know happens in caucus. I know this. I've had multiple, multiple, multiple people tell me.
the conversations that have happened. And you know what they started with? We just got to all cover for each other. You know, that way we can cover for each other for the 2026 election. That way we can neutralize the NEA. I mean, this is what it was. So what I see when we start talking about this and then she starts talking about, you know, in the past, you know, I voted to uphold the governor's veto because it was just a spending bill with no policy.
What do you think you just did? You just, again, this was a spending bill with no substantive policy. This is a spending bill. I've dissected it. Nothing in here is a mandate. It's not a mandate that's going to improve educational outcomes. So you did, I mean, you make the argument, I'm going to uphold vetoes that are just spending bills with no policy. And you can argue, well, there's policy in there, but we've read the policy. None of it's a mandate.
It's, well, school districts could do this. You know, they should set a target class size, and it can be up to this, but it doesn't mandate that it is. So again, you know, it comes down to two buckets for me. Either they think we're stupid or they don't know what they've had. But I think they do. I think they do. They got played. They got absolutely played. And I think at the end of the day, they made a choice to try to cover their own tails, their own backsides in the next election.
And, you know, here's the thing. The NEA is never going to be your friend. They're never going to be your friend. If you're a Republican, here's the reality. The only way they're going to be your friend is if you're a Jesse Bjorkman. Right? If you carry their water and you're an absolute shill for them, like a Kelly Merrick, that's the only way they're going to be your friend.
Otherwise, if you're a Republican and you're from Anchor Point, if you're a Republican and you're from Kenai, if you're a Republican and you're from Wasilla, and you go and you knock on doors, and you take people's money, and you accept their vote, and you tell them that you're a fiscal conservative, voters expect you to act like it. And you know what? Voters see clearly what you just did. So the damage you have done
I don't know. Some of these people will not recover from it. They will not recover from it. And you know what? They've deserved it. They have earned what is coming. When they lose in the next election or they get challengers and they're going to have to go out and defend their vote, you've earned it. So when you tell us, well, look at all the Republicans that voted against us, clearly it shows there's a problem. Yeah, you're the problem. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Welcome back, Current Time 723. Well, we're going to digress for just a minute because we have another issue going on that we want to make sure people are aware of. You do have a Chugach Electric board election that is happening. And any time we have candidates running for utility boards, they never get enough air time. People just don't know who they are or when the elections are happening. And they're super important because this will directly affect your utility bill.
So every month when you get the opportunity to pay your utility company, Remember, you have a choice. Whether it's out here at MEA or whether it's at Chugach Electric in Anchorage, you have a choice of who's running. And joining the show now is Bernie Smith. Bernie is running for the Chugach Electric Board. Good morning, Bernie. Good morning, Amy. It's great to hear from you, and I really appreciate you giving me a chance to speak to your listeners.
Well, we love having you, and Bernie, let's just jump right into it. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're running for the board? Sure. I'm running for the Chugacha Electric Board to bring my decade and experience. of Alaska Electric Utilities. I served as a commissioner, a manager of engineering for the regulatory commission of Alaska. I was a project manager for Alaska Energy Authority, and my background was over a regulatory site.
an engineer and a project manager makes me a strong and fair candidate for the board. Yeah, it sounds like, you know, with your years of experience, now, our listeners will be curious, you know, What's your philosophy when it comes to energy and when it comes to board policy? Where are you going to go? Are you going to drive us towards all this green new energy, or are you going to take a different approach? Well, my...
Focus is going to be on basically three things. One is upgrading our transmission grid to make it more reliable. and so that we can get power to our members' homes and businesses at an affordable and reasonable rate. And then we need to stabilize our fuel system. We need both a smart plan for short-term and long-term fuel. fuel system, which is our natural gas. Natural gases are stable to run our generators. We have to have a stable fuel source to run our natural gas.
And third is integrating the renewables. Yes, we are going to have some renewables, but the renewables have to be cost-efficient and effective and not have a negative effect. on the cost to our ratepayers. So that's my three main points right now.
Well, you know, I love the fact that you talked about natural gas and you said two things that really I keyed in on is when we talk about renewables, they have to be cost efficient and effective because I've seen this when we talk about Fire Island or some of the other things. You know, I remember when we had MLRP and touring it and what you saw is sometimes this renewable energy is not always reliable and sometimes it's a lot more expensive than natural gas.
That's true. It is more expensive, although I will give credit to some of the renewables are starting to fall down on price in the last 10 years. They have a hard time competing with natural gas. Now we know that in the short term, Uh, Chugach is going to be losing their, uh, long-term contract with Hill Corps, who supplies, uh, about 40%.
percent of the natural gas to chew gas so the price will come in Because unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, we will be having to import natural gas on an interim basis until we finally get some Cook Inlet gas being drilled, hopefully by fury. and Hillcourt will continue drilling gas. But until that time, Cougats cannot afford to not have a long-term contract or a contract to... a long-term supply of natural gas because that's what runs our generators.
So until their contract with Hillcorp ends in 2028, and we can't wait to 2028. We need to get it going now. So I support Trugach. MARATHON AND HARVEST WHICH IS AN AFFILIATE OF of Healcor to try to have the Nikiski plant, which I used to work for Tesoro back in the days, so I know quite a bit about it, and to convert it into an import on a temporary basis so that we can have a firm supply of natural gas.
Well, you know, I think a lot of people are hearing what you're saying and saying, this guy sounds pretty rational. He seems pretty reasonable. If people want to learn more about you, Bernie, what's the best way for them to do that? Well, you can go on the Chugash website and go to elections, and there I have my candidate statement, and then on Facebook, and Instagram. Indeed, I also have a page that you can just click on there. But, you know, I've been involved, like I said,
with Shugach since I became a member. I used to be a member of MONP. for five years, and I was on the board as an interim director that the directors voted me into for four months. I've been on the bylaws committee, still am, and I was also on the member advisory committee. So I have a lot of experience. And for that matter, when I lived in Eagle River, I was on the MEA advisory membership committee. So I've been involved with electric utilities for a long time.
And the election right now is... going on, you just go to the Chugats page and type in your member number and your password that you should have received. And it goes until May the 30th, which is really getting a short time. Unfortunately, right now, I'm running against a very big political machine. that has a lot of supporters, you know, from Reed. and Alaska Energy and the IBAW, and I don't have that kind of money to, you know, compensate with those people. So I'm doing these talk radio shows.
to get my word out. I met with Bill Stokes, who is a very longtime friend of mine up in Shugach. And he said, you know, you ought to get on Amy's show. And so here I am, Amy. Wow, I appreciate it. I appreciate that. Well, all you have to tell me is REAP and the Alaska Center-type folks are pushing for a different candidate, and you've said enough to me. I think you're definitely the choice in this race, no doubt about it.
Bernie Smith, he also has a website. I'm looking at your website right now. It's a great website, Bernie. It has a lot of information in there about you and some of what you've done. I think if you get on the Chugach Electric Board, I think you do a very good job. I appreciate you calling in this morning. Well, the most important thing I'd like to say, I will ask in the best interest for our members. and I will listen to him, and I will try to keep our rights as low as possible.
And I will be a board member for all our members, not just for special interest groups. So I'm hoping that your listeners will contact me on my Facebook page or my website. and say, hey, I will vote for you because I would really appreciate it and I need all the help I can get right now. Absolutely, sir. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day. All right. Thank you so much. That's Bernie Smith. He is running for the True Catch Electric Board again.
You can go online right now. Go to Chugach Electric. You can go online. You have your member number. You have your little code. You can go in and vote. Voting is until the end of the month, so time is short. You really do have to get in. Again, that's Bernie Smith. If you want to go to his website, berniefortchugachelectric.com.
Or you can go to the Chugach Electric website, and they'll give you information about the candidates there, too. You can learn more about him there. Again, thank you, Bernie, for calling in. I really appreciate it. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Where's the soul searching for the lies about the Russia hoax? Where's the soul searching about FISA abuse? Where's the soul searching about the valuation of Mar-a-Lago? Where's the soul searching...
about the double standard in terms of top secret and classified information. There's a lot more soul searching that needs to take place here by the media. But the problem is it's too late. It's over for them. If you want to be successful, and I don't care what platform you're on, I don't care if you're a podcaster, a radio host, a TV host, you better tell your audience the truth and stop lying to them.
The legacy media will never regain people's trust. Check out the Sean Hannity Radio Show later today. Right here.
Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok Pure talk my wireless company a veteran owned company believes every man every woman who has faithfully served this country deserves to proudly fly an American flag that was made in America And that's why Pure Talk is on a mission to give an allegiance flag, the highest quality American flag made in Charleston, South Carolina, to 1,000 veterans in time for these patriotic holidays.
Just switch your cell phone service to Pure Talk, do it this month, and a portion of every cell will go to provide these high-quality flags hand-sewn to the deserving vets. Now, with plans starting at just $25 a month for unlimited talk and text and plenty of data, you can enjoy America's most dependable 5G network all while cutting your cell phone bill in half. Average family saves over $1,000 a year.
You just dial pound 250, say the keyword save now. PureTalk's customer service will make the switch. Pound 250, keyword save now, support our veterans, and switch to America's wireless company, PureTalk. New details are coming to light regarding a pair of American F-16 fighter jets parked in the remote Alaskan community of St. Paul.
The US Air Force says the jets were forced to make an emergency landing on the island after one of the jets suffered an engine malfunction. The jets were on their way from South Korea's Kunsan K-8 Air Base to Ilsan Air Force Base in Fairbanks to support upcoming exercises when the incident happened. A little over half the ballots issued in the recall election of Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington have been tallied. Unofficial numbers show 99 votes in favor of the recall with 97 votes against.
According to the city clerk's office, preliminary election results are expected to be updated late afternoon on Friday. And Highland Mountain Correctional Center's annual inmate plant sale is underway in Eagle River. Customers lined up early Tuesday morning for the first day of the sale, which features plants grown by female inmates in the Highland greenhouse. The sale runs through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. This is News Radio 650. KENI Anchorage.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras. I think that was the first time I've ever felt myself kind of like slipping mentally. I think Alaska does weird things to people. If you're interested in hearing anonymous callers like this. tell stories from their lives, check out my podcast, Therapy Gecko. You can listen to Therapy Gecko on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Therapy Gecko and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.
Mornings on News Welcome back, current time. It is 7.40. We're going to go straight to the phones, and Amanda is with us. Good morning, Amanda. Good morning, Amy. We just had our last day of school. Teacher life is looking great. Fantastic. You survived another one. Yeah. You know, my student, I was so proud of them.
this semester. They did amazing. Just something clicked. They had just great collaboration, creativity. So, you know, they're the next generation. I really feel like they're going to solve so many of these problems that we have. But yeah, today I just wanted to bring up something I've been concerned about the past week. I mean, with all the drama, right, with HB27 and just my disappointment.
I realize that bigger question, and it's really, I'm concerned with the arts organizations and the arts private instructors that depend on Alaskans' PFC surplus that they're going to suffer. Yeah, I think you're going to see a downward impact.
Let me just ask you a basic question, and I think I know what you're going to say, but let me ask you. When you think about the permanent fund dividend and the potential of every single Alaskan getting $3,800 and now it's cut down to $1,000, who do you think would spend the money? and have more of an impact on the government's spending or people in their individual lives.
Of course, the individual, I mean, it's not only more efficient, right? Like it doesn't have to go through bureaucratic processors to be spent. When I receive an arts grant, it goes through a bunch of staffing before the money actually comes to me as artists or other organizations get it from the government. But what's so amazing about Pick, Click, Give...
There's administrative shouldn't be, but so many of those people who don't really need that PFD to pay their basic needs, they give that to arts organizations. So basically every legislature who voted for HB 57 is saying, and without funding connected, is saying that we don't want this money to go how you think it should go for the art. for different things for all those nonprofits that depend on ClickGo. Yeah, that's a really good point. You know, I agree with you completely.
You have survived another school session. We made it through another legislative session. Now it's time to regroup and plan for the next one. I hope you get some time and some rest and reprieve. I am so thankful there are teachers like you out there. Thank you for all you do, truly. Thank you. I'm thankful for you, too. Have a good day.
All right, you too. All right, that is our friend Amanda. She is a teacher, and we so appreciate her weighing in. All right, let's go to our other friend, the school board member in Anchorage, Dave Donnelly. Good morning, Dave. Good morning, Amy. Say, Amy, you know, all over America, the most successful new reading reform laws adopted by states are mandating retention of students who are not reading by third grade.
It sets a bar, and districts work really hard to achieve that. Now, retention is what we used to call flunking, being held back to repeat a grade. So the terminology now is retention versus advancement. It was like almost 30 years ago the Anchorage School District adopted a policy that no student would be retained. Nobody flies. That's crazy! That's crazy! That's crazy!
But Amy, before I go any further, I've got to say that I'm speaking only for myself and not for the Anchorage School Board or the Anchorage School District. This is just Dave Donnelly talking to you now. Absolutely. So we had this crazy policy. And what happened during that time, which we also adopted a mandatory common core policy at that time, too. Around that time, the testing was that they were 60% in that realm of proficient in reading and math.
So where are we at now? Well, it fell over that period of time dramatically, over 20 points, and the testing was showing around the 40% proficiency. I got elected to the board, and one of the first things I did was champion repealing that requirement, changing from nobody flunk, to a standard that what is in the best interest of that particular student. Is that particular student going to progress and be benefited more by having to repeat a grade or by moving forward?
And so that policy went into a place about six years ago. Now there's a proposal before the board that will effectively gut that policy and go back to the old way that failed the Anchorage School District for almost 30 years.
That's crazy. That's Memo 158. It was on the non-action calendar at our last meeting this week, Tuesday night. And it would say that The school board recognizes that research indicates that very few children benefit from being retained during the elementary and middle grades. That effectively guts the neutrality of what's in the best interest of the child because the school board is now saying it's never going to be, you know, very few children are going to benefit from that.
It's a giant leap backwards, and I'm really concerned about Yeah, you should be. We should all be concerned about it because here's this common sense. How do you advance students on when they haven't learned the basics? School is like a building block. And if you don't have a strong foundation, the whole building could collapse. I mean, the reality is...
I mean they're setting students up for failure if they're not making sure that they can do the basics before they put them forward to the next grade. I mean this is common sense. You are not serving our students if you just advance them every year for 12 to 13 years of their career at the ASD and to the point where we're graduating students that aren't proficient in math and English.
And the university professors are warning us that. They're saying, you're sending kids to the university and they're not ready to handle my basic university level English class. They're not ready for my basic university math class because of automatic. progression and a lack of any accountability.
Yeah, no, I think you're exactly right. And what you're saying makes sense to me. It's shocking to me when I see the outcomes that are coming out of the Anchorage School District, why it is so hard to push. school board members to actually implement meaningful policy changes. It's like we're happy with the status quo. I don't understand it. Well, I'm really concerned about this. And I know it's just one sentence in a board policy out of thousands of sentences.
But it's very meaningful, Amy, and it just seems to be a giant leap back to what failed, why we were failing for 20 years. You know, the most recent proficiency scores, NAP scores, the proficiency fell last year by 1% across the board. and down to 35% in math and reading. And this is just going to make it worse. And I know that the educational industrial complex does not like retention. They hate retention because it's a sign of failure.
They've failed that student, so they don't want that. They don't like accountability either. So I'll just say it. I mean, the reality is the more money we throw at the education complex, Here in Alaska, the worse our results are getting, And it comes down to we have to have meaningful change. I mean, look at school districts like the MADS do. Their scores are starting to go up.
We should be looking at them and saying, what are they doing right? We should look at states like Florida. We should look at states like Mississippi and say, okay, wait a second, some of the poorest states like Mississippi is doing exceptionally better than Alaska why is that I mean these are common sense questions to ask
But I've got to be honest with you. I think a lot of Alaskans are getting fed up with lazy politicians who refuse to do the hard work. Instead, it's like we're just rubber stamping the NEA, just throwing money at it. And it's getting frustrating, Dave. Well, unlike Florida and Mississippi, which are phenomenally successful in bringing up their rating scores The Alaska Reads Act is not a mandatory retention law, but it does encourage and provide for retention.
if it's appropriate. Which is reasonable. It's reasonable. There just wasn't the most for it. Well, back to your policy. Memo 158 is the memo you're talking about. I only have about 30 seconds, but if people want to help, what can they do to help? They should contact board members or come and testify at the next meeting where this is actually going to be voted on and say, we don't want to go back to what failed in the past.
We need a neutral policy that is based on what is the best interest for that individual student and not some presumptive in policy that says very few children will benefit from it. Yeah, I appreciate that so much, Dave. You know, thank you for highlighting this. I haven't heard anybody else talking about it, so this is an important topic.
Thank you so much for calling in. I appreciate it. All right, that's Dave Donnelly. He was calling on behalf of himself as an individual, but he is an Anchorage School Board member. And he is the lone voice of common sense, I believe, on the Anchorage School Board. But we appreciate the fact that he's willing to jump in the fight
and highlight these issues. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Get early spring savings at neighbors windows and doors. Get triple panel side windows for the window or door. Alaska is an amazing place full of natural since 2003. For healthy and radiant skin, visit Dermalaska.com. Welcome back to live, local, and in- $7.53 Well, you know, we talked a lot.
During this show, I want to do a little recap when we came on the air today because Julie Coulomb called into my Piccolo show last night. And look, I don't mind that they don't call into my show always because I know they know they're going to get a little bit of pushback. I mean, the reality is I expect Republicans to act like Republicans.
And I love it when they call into Mike's show because I'll just pull the audio from his show. And he did a phenomenal job yesterday with her. Like, he didn't pull any punches. But, you know, there is something that is systemic in what is going on here. And what you're seeing is the results of ranked choice voting. What you're seeing is Republicans that don't feel accountable because we have a weak party. The leadership of the party, I mean, come on, you could push them over with a feather.
I mean, the governor, you know, he's doing the governor's thing, but Denlevy has never been an extrovert. He's always been a little bit of an introvert. And so the Republicans in the House clearly don't respect him. But what you're really seeing, Daryl, and this is the part that a lot of people don't see, is, I mean, this has been, Mia Costello has been the worst minority leader I have ever seen.
She has no backbone. She lies. You can't trust her. And look, I'm not saying that because I like it. I actually would have considered myself friends with Mia Costello up to about a month ago. Not anymore. Because once you lie to me, I'm done with you. And she and Justin Ruffridge and Jeremy Bynum, the whole little crew, Will Stapp, these guys are pushing the Republican caucus to the moderate, right? So when you see people...
Like Dan Sadler, when you see people like Julie Colon, when you see people like this, you know, overriding the governor's veto. You realize there's a systemic leadership issue going on here from the governor to the party chair to the house minority leader. Like, we have an absolute void of leadership going on here. And the Republican Party, it's time to step up and clean house. Literally. I mean the Alaska legislature. It's time to clean house.
You've got to do it. There's going to be lots of movement. And I will say this. There are some people that voted no that I know for a fact. It's their constituents and it's the public pressure that pushed them to a no because they were yeses. This is a reality. This is a fact.
So all those calls that you made, whether it was in Palmer to Delaina Johnson or whether it was in Homer to Sarah Vance, or whether it was to any points in between, the pressure to get these people to uphold a Republican governor's veto, we had to work that hard to get them to do what they should have been doing from the beginning. I say this all the time. I am so thankful Kathy Tilton is my representative. I never have to worry how she's going to vote.
I don't even have to worry about it. But when we have to work this hard to get our representatives to do what they told us they would do from the beginning, it is incredibly frustrating. But here's the point. We have two choices in life. You hear me say it all the time. You can either lay down and take it, or you can stand up and push back. I choose to stand up and push back. Failure is not an option. We live in the greatest country
We live in the greatest state. And at the end of the day, we have a presence. pro-Alaska, we can't afford to let these legislators screw it up for us. We have to get involved. And that means contact your legislator, send them a text, send
message, make sure that they're doing the job they told you they were going to do when they asked for your vote. It's not unreasonable. And you know what? If they don't like, they get a little public pushback. Well, maybe you should toe up and do what you say you were going to do.
And if you can't take it, look, here's the thing, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. You shouldn't be in politics then. I always say it, I used to say it a lot more than I say it now, but at the end of the day, If you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat. Everybody have a great day Tomorrow morning at 6am. Good night. God bless. This report is sponsored by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation has been at the forefront