Free Republic

Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young has died, former aides said on Friday. Details were not immediately available. Young, a Republican, had served in Congress since 1973, when he was sworn in after winning a special election. Young was the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, was in his 25th term and running for a 26th. He was his state’s sole member of the House for more than three-fourths of the time Alaska has been a state.

What if Biden is kept in the Oval Office for two years and a day? He has his good days, and those are the days he would be trotted out for the complicit media to see. And then on January 21, 2023 he "resigns". Harris would now have the power of the incumbency in 2024. She would not have any serious challengers. And if she won, she'd have another chance to run for reelection, courtesy of the 22nd Amendment. I have to wonder if this is the plan for the next 12 years. By then, any hopes of restoring our...

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced his resignation at Tuesday night’s assembly meeting. Berkowitz, while not in attendance, announced his resignation through a written statement read by his chief of staff. “It is with profound sadness and humility that I resign as the mayor of the Municipality of Anchorage,” Jason Bockenstedt said on behalf of the mayor, to applause and cheers from those in attendance.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Tuesday evening that Alaska will be fully open for business effective at 8 a.m. Friday as the state simultaneously enters phases 3 and 4 of its reopening plan. Under the third and fourth phases of the plan, all businesses, houses of worship, libraries and museums, and all recreational and sports activities will be open and able to operate at 100 percent capacity.

The director of the Alaska Human Rights Commission resigned Monday, three days after she was suspended for her actions involving a “Black Rifles Matter” sticker on a vehicle in the commission’s Anchorage parking lot. Marti Buscaglia, in a letter to commissioners, said she hoped her resignation would put the issue behind the agency.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified "inappropriate comments" he made to a woman.

Wasserman Schultz delivered where Priebus didn’t. Now the Clinton forces have disowned her on this, their most public of stages, and Wasserman Schultz will be lucky if she can hang on to her congressional seat.

PALMER — The Valley was picked as the location for the signing of several pieces of legislation Thursday. Gov. Sean Parnell, along with Sens. Charlie Huggins (R-Wasilla), Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage) and Mike Dunleavy (R-Mat-Su Valley), were among those present at a signing ceremony at the Matanuska Valley Sportsmen Shooting Range. Included in the signing ceremony: • House Bill 24, which adds Alaska to the list of states with so-called “stand-your-ground” laws; • House Bill 69, which says any federal laws that violate the Second Amendment are unenforceable in Alaska; • House Bill 83, which clarifies that a federal statute, regulation...

About 2 million people in our world call themselves Christians. We are divided into innumerable groupings. However, there is one belief that identifies us all. God was uniquely present in the teacher/prophet Jesus from Nazareth. Almost all Christians believe in some sort of incarnation. In Paul’s words, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” Christians almost universally believe that Jesus was fully human and also fully divine. Put another way, Christians believe there is a Jesus of history and a theological Jesus somehow united in one person. Through history and continuing today, Christians have been much more interested...

In America we treasure our religious freedom. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that government will keep out of the religion business and guarantees religion will be practiced freely without interference by government. “The wall of separation” is revered. Have we misunderstood the meaning of the wall of separation? We all should be reminded that the First Amendment keeps government out of religion, but says nothing about keeping religion out of government. Under our Constitution, religious people and religious institutions are welcome in the halls of government. They are free to bring their religious convictions with them wherever...

The Martin Luther King Jr. monument was dedicated recently in Washington, D.C. I was reminded then that the civil rights movement in America was led not by a politician fulfilling campaign promises nor by a popular evangelist bent on saving souls, but by a highly trained theologian who put his theology into practice with a demand for justice for those who had suffered at the hands of the rich and the powerful. King was a Baptist preacher who took his religion into the arena of racism, economics and social disparity. Hatred caught up with him, and he was killed. Now...

An Anchorage woman is being charged with first-degree murder today after admitting to suffocating her 3-week-old child with a plastic bag, an assistant district attorney says.

Cannot excerpt AP

Merry Christmas, My Friend By James M. Schmidt, a Marine Lance Corporal stationed in Washington, D.C., in 1986 Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone, In a one bedroom house made of plaster & stone. I had come down the chimney, with presents to give and to see just who in this home did live As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see, no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree. No stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand. On the wall hung pictures of a far distant land. With medals and badges,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's order to surge 30,000 troops into Afghanistan presents the US military with a giant logistical challenge as it faces some of the most forbidding terrain in the world. With few paved roads and a vast, rugged landscape, moving soldiers and equipment into Afghanistan "is a bigger challenge than certainly was the case in Iraq," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month. Fulfilling Obama's vow to send troops at the "fastest pace possible," the first units of the buildup are due to arrive within two to three weeks, and the military plans to have all...

Alaskans should care about the national debt and the deficits that keep it growing because if it is mismanaged, Alaska may catch a cold from lower oil prices, reduced tourism and higher interest rates. But neither Alaskans nor other Americans need to fear the national debt as if it were some sort of looming catastrophe threatening us, our children and our grandchildren. Most fear of the national debt is unfounded and more of a threat than the debt itself. Here is why. The national debt will never be paid off and should never be paid off. The notion that the...

“Marriage is a cultural thing.” So began a very good sermon that I recently heard. My mind was set in rapid motion as I considered the raging arguments that are now taking place all over the country. What is marriage? How should we codify marriage in the laws of our land? The discussions become very sticky when our gay friends enter the debate and ask for equal treatment under the law. The exchanges become very heated when a participant demands that we turn to the Bible for answers that will once and for all settle the issues. Many well-meaning people...

NEW YORK – A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started. One of the NYPD's newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden. Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said. The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.

War is hell.” So said Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. By the time Sherman retired from active duty, that saying had become virtually synonymous with his name. Sherman’s contempt for war was well-known throughout most of his career as a soldier. A month after the Civil War ended, when Sherman was at the height of his fame and the pinnacle of his success as a soldier, he wrote to a friend, “I am sick and tired of fighting.” He was not yet finished fighting, however. He spent the next 14 years as commanding general of the United States Army. Those years...

It's a spelling mantra that generations of schoolchildren have learned — "i before e, except after c." But new British government guidance tells teachers not to pass on the rule to students, because there are too many exceptions. The "Support For Spelling" document, which is being sent to thousands of primary schools, says the rule "is not worth teaching" because it doesn't account for words like 'sufficient,' 'veil' and 'their.'