Judge Rules Against Redistricting Board and Keeps Cases in Fairbanks

Chris Eshleman at the Fairbanks News-Miner reports that Judge McConahy ruled the court challenges to the Alaska Redistricting Board's redistricting plan will be heard in Fairbanks in January.

The board's attorney, Michael White, sounded fairly confident at last Monday's meeting that the case would be consolidated (the two Fairbanks challenges and the Petersburg challenge) and was hoping the trial would be in Anchorage.  When I talked to him after the meeting Monday he said he was hoping a decision to move to Anchorage would come before the Friday hearing in Fairbanks.  In the memo to the board on the lawsuits he concluded with:

We recently filed a Motion to Consolidate and Change Venue of City of Petersburg, et al. v. State of Alaska, Alaska Redistricting Board, to move the case to Anchorage.  The Petersburg plaintiffs do not oppose this motion.  Plaintiffs in both Fairbanks cases oppose changing venue to Anchorage.  The motion also requests the court consolidate the Fairbanks proceedings with the Petersburg case in Anchorage.  We asked for expedited consolidation of this motion requesting a decision by Thursday, July 21.  [bold emphasis added]

But based on the FNM article, the judge is going to hear the case in Fairbanks in January.

A judge said this morning he’ll consolidate challenges to state redistricting plans and plans to hold a January trial in Fairbanks.

Three parties, including the Fairbanks North Star Borough, are suing over the Alaska Redistricting Board’s map of tentative state House and Senate districts.

Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy met today for the first time with attorneys for all three parties. The state, after any appeals to the Alaska Supreme Court, will need final jurisdictional maps in place by early summer to guide residents interested in running for public office.

Clearly, having the case in Fairbanks gives the Fairbanks plaintiffs home court advantage.  That doesn't change the legal basis of the challenge, but it does have an impact.  Board attorney White, for example, will have to either commute by air to Fairbanks or stay there in a hotel or with friends. He won't be able to drop into his office as easily.  The Petersburg plaintiffs will have an even further commute.  But according to the Eshleman piece, the court will accommodate them:

McConahy said the trial will travel to Petersburg for witness testimony before returning to Fairbanks.

But, the attorneys still need to go to Fairbanks to keep up on all the details. And Fairbanks residents will be able to attend the trial. 

Having a Fairbanks jury that understands the neighborhoods involved does mean that the deliberations will be made by well informed jurors which would not be the case in Anchorage.  As much as I listened and watched, I simply could not absorb what was said about Fairbanks the way I could about what was said about Anchorage.  It's just the way the human brain works.

In fact, only one board member was from Fairbanks (none were from Anchorage).  Bill [Jim] Holm is a former Republican legislator who lost his 2006 reelection bid to Democratic representative Scott Kawazaki.  For both the draft plan and the final plan, Holm was the one who prepared the Fairbanks plans (outside of the public meeting) which was then presented to the board who made no substantative changes.  Already in the draft plan, Holm had cut off the communities of Ester and Goldstream.  I already knew that Ester (nicknamed the Ester Republic*) was considered a liberal bastion and from the discussions it sounds like Goldstream may lean left of the rest of Fairbanks too.

HTML Tables *From the blog Ester Republic: "Ester earned its moniker when a former Fairbanks North Star Borough assemblyman, Joe Ryan, proposed that downvillage Ester be zoned for mining only, as opposed to the General Use zoning still current. While it is true that there are many mines in the area (three right in the village and one nearby), there are also other endeavors (such as residences, bars, rentals, artists' studios, etc.), so Ester showed up en masse to the pertinent borough assembly meeting and told Mr. Ryan and his compatriots just what they thought he could do with his idea. The measure failed, Mr. Ryan got annoyed and, in a letter to the editor, accused Esteroids of living in the People's Republic of Ester. Ester generally (and the capitalists in particular) thought this was pretty funny, and took to referring to their village by this new title. The name stuck, and Ryan became known, in the village at least, as the Father of the Republic. (So now you have an idea of what Ester humor is like.) He was later invited to judge the 4th of July Parade one year, but, alas, declined."

In the final plan, Ester and Goldstream were still amputated from the rest of Fairbanks and put into a district (38) that stretches out to the Aleutians, creating a district that combines surban Fairbanks residents who live a short drive from shopping malls and the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus,  to Native villages off the road system, like Hooper Bay, where people use 'honey buckets' instead of sewers.  Below is a video tape made by local resident Jacqueline Agnew in 2004 and 2005 showing the how they empty the honey buckets and offering a tour of Hooper Bay.



In the video, she discusses a future water and wastewater system, so I checked online to see if it is complete. I found this state budget item. You can see the yourself it's not scheduled for completion until 2016.  And this is a only budget request.  Let me check if it was funded.


I checked the FY 2011 budget and the only item listed for Hooper Bay was for Boat Harbor and Barge Loading Reconnaissance for $300,000.   The FY 2012 budget doesn't seem to have it either.  Just more Boat Harbor funding for Hooper Bay. Since I had a video for Hooper Bay, I decided to see what I could find on Ester.  This is audio over slides of the Fourth of July parade in 2009.



I believe that we humans have a lot more in common with other human beings who live in different cultures than we generally think.  Surely living in a remote Thai province for two years helped me come to this conclusion.  And as I look at the videos, while it is clear that residents of Ester and Hooper Bay live in very different worlds and have very different needs from their legislators, they also have some very human similarities.  But the state constitution says the districts should be socio-economically integrated and clearly that is not the case here. The question before the court will be whether there was any way to follow the Voting rights Act  which requires keeping the nine Native districts without creating a district that is so clearly in violation of the Alaska Constitution. I guess I should also note that while it appears district 38 is the focus of the Fairbanks' challenges there are other issues and, of course, Petersburg's challenge is totally different.

It's way too nice out to blog

So, that's it for now.

"Healing Qualities of the Flute"

I was listening to Earthsongs on KNBA just now and a Native American flute players Aaron White and Anthony Wakeman were asked about whether they thought that his flute helped people with spiritual healing.  He said that people had told him it did - he mentioned a therapist he knew of who played the flute as part of the healing.  (I found this video of them on Youtube.)




And I thought:  We all know that music can change our mood, radically.  Why has modern medicine focused so much on physically putting things into our body and neglected the mood altering qualities of music.  If music can change our mood, surely there is potential for other healing changes.  This is acknowledged.  At Providence here in Anchorage they have a harpist who plays for patients in their rooms.

I know that there have been studies, say, that show that patients in hospital rooms with windows facing trees heal faster.  But this approach is basically the fringe element of medicine and doctors mainly heal by putting chemicals into our bodies.

image from Sage Press

There's already a journal called Music and Medicine.   (Click on the image to go to the July 2011 table of contents.)



What if there was an institute with a $2 billion endowment to study the healing qualities of music?

Two billion you say?  Wikipedia says there are 1210 billionaires in the world today.  The top 20 from the Forbes list of billionaires have a total net worth of $641 Billion.

That's 20 people, who own $600 billion more than the Alaska Permanent Fund ($41.5 billion as of May 31, 2011).  So, $2 billion isn't that much if only 20 people in the world have $641 billion.

Talking Back to Racism: What They Did v. What They Are Conversations

A friend showed me this video last night at the Healing Racism in Anchorage steering committee meeting.  Talking about race is usually hard in our society.  In the video Ill Doctrine says you should focus on what the people did, not what they are. 

But the presentation is what makes it so worth watching.

Invest three minutes of your time.  Too long?  Just watch the first 30 seconds, you can spare that.  But see for yourself, it's like potato chips, you can't just watch a few seconds.





Video Tip: It's easier to learn from mistakes than from perfection and this film illustrates the importance of your background. I'd point out to future film makers something to pay attention to when you're doing a film like this.

He didn't do it all in one breath. There are lots of cuts where they edited different versions together. Nothing wrong with that. This would be hard to do well in just one take. But when you do that, try to get a neutral background. If they hadn't gotten the door on the left in the background, it would be a better film.  But, professionals keep telling me that you can overcome video problems if you have good audio which this video does.  And the foreground is done well.  Only strange people like me watch the background.

Race Conversation Dilemma:  At about 1:47, he says, "Just think how a politician or celebrity gets caught out.  It always starts out as a what they did conversation, but . . . they start doing judo flips and change it into a what they are conversation."

He doesn't tell us how to counter that manoeuvre.  Maybe one could say, I never questioned your character, I questioned your behavior, and that's on the record.  You're the one whose changing this to your character.  But that's a bit lame.  Any other thoughts out there?

Where's this? Please Don't Decorate the Caribou

I did a 'where's this' post a couple of times, thinking I'd make it a regular feature.  But I haven't.  I do have a backlog of stuff - the Alaska summer is competing with this computer for my attention - and I'm not sure where else this picture fits. 

So, where's this?

Redistricting Board Meets (Mostly in Executive Session)

They met for 25 minutes then went into executive session for nearly two hours.  Then they had a short closing.  Here are the highlights as I saw them.  My draft (very draft; read with caution) notes are below.

l-r  White, Torgerson*, Bickford, Brody*, Holm*, Ellis  *board members

1.  Pre-clearance Report Time table: 

Attorney White said he was hoping to get the pre-clearance report done and to the Department of Justice in 7-10 days.  There's lots of back up information to include such as all the emails of board members, all the public testimony and emails and letters, and they have todocument all they did.

2.  Final report from consultant Lisa Handley not in yet. 

White was very gracious when asked about whether the consultant's report was in yet.  Most of it we've heard in public testimony, he said.  But the actual report isn't in yet and he said something like, "She's not a board member.  She has lots of other clients."  But he also said he needs to see her report before he can finish his, which he wants to get done in 7-10 days. 

3.  The Court Challenges

There are three challenges - two from Fairbanks and one from Petersburg.  The Fairbanks challengers want their case heard in Fairbanks.  Not Juneau.  Not Anchorage.  The Petersburg people are content to have the three cases joined and heard in Anchorage. 
White's petitioned to have them consolidated and moved to Anchorage.  As of today, there's a date in Judge Michael P. Mc Conahy's courtroom this Friday at 8:30am in Fairbanks.  White's hoping a new judge in Anchorage will be assigned before that. 


4.  New Intern Drew and a Transcriber.  They've recorded all their meetings and the transcription services they used have had trouble figuring out who was talking so they still don't have the transcripts back.   And they need them for the report that is due, soon.  Today there was a transcriber in the meeting. 

5.  Attorney Advises Clients.  Attorney White advised his clients (the Board) to say nothing about the litigation and send the press to him.  He wants to be sure he knows everything they might have said publicly.


Below are my rough notes:

Redistricting Board  July 17, 2011

10:03 open
Torgerson: Agenda approved
Directors Report-
Bickford:  -new intern - Drew
I’m the public information officer, we’ve had about 7 requests and worked closely with Michael on those.  Cleared on that no pending requests.

Budget update
p. 3 of the binder
FY 2012 projection
FY 2011 summary when all bills paid
FY 2012 - what we have in the bank now going into FY
Money projected for travel,
One or two board meetings by end of year
Possible trip to DC
Torgerson coming to office once a month
Costs once litigation starts.

$100K still in Michael White’s contract, may need amendment
Lisa Handley contract seems ok.
Big bill from here on out will be legal bill.

Next item:  Update on Fred’s Contract with City Gate software, may need to reinstate if board needs to come back and draw next year.  We still have access to software, but limited support service compared to past.

l-r Board Members Greene, McConnochie, Torgerson

Transcripts:  We have live transcripts writer today, we had trouble with transcripts in past.  This will be much faster.  All public hearing transcripts completed.
Computer matrix court reporting is working on ?? meetings??.
Public reading file has been updated.
Appendix to this report includes documents.
Public copy available here and online.
Board’s record - we spent our time last month - archiving and building up the record.  Some we’ve been doing all along, got the rest done.  For Michael - required by the court that the board turn over its copy of the record.
You may notice that your email data bases have been cleared.  Had to archive your old emails and turn them in.  When we archived them, it took them out of your mailboxes, but you can have them if you like.

Review of litigation from Michael.  To the extent that we need to inform you we’ll send out stuff day to day.  Busy month, lot of housekeeping items.

Litigation Report [Get a pdf copy of the report here.]

White:  Deadline July 15.  We have received 3.  City of Petersburg and three individuals, assuming qualified voters.  Two from Fairbanks.  We’ll talk about how I feel about the merits in Executive Session.

1.  North Slope Fairbanks Borough and Timothy Beck - challenging house districts 37 and 38 and Senate districts A,C, and S.  Geographic proportionality.  Although Fairbanks. . . compact and socio-integration effectiveness of 38.  Acknowledge VRA and say not required by VRA and thus shouldn’t have trumped.  Rep. by in-house counsel. [You can read the court challenges on this previous post.]

2.  Riley and Dearborn, represented by Michael Walleri.  Same challenges, plus a few more proportionality issue and for Fairbanks as well.  Should have been completely different, so one of the house seats should have  been entirely in city of Fairbanks

3.  Petersburg, represented by Tom Klinkner, geographic proportionality.  Say 32 not socio-economically integrated.

We’ve asked Juneau court to consolidate and transfer to Anchorage.  That motion should be resolved this week.  Originally assigned to Judge Randy Olsen but ??? by plaintiffs and reassigned.


Petersburg case assigned to ??? in Juneau.

Confident they will be consolidated.  Where?  Not sure.  I argued not fair for Juneau folks to go to Anchorage or Fairbanks to go to Juneau.  Anchorage in the middle.

If rules are followed we should have a scheduled (scheduling?) conference by the 10th.

Procedural stuff questions, I’ll save my views for executive session.

Juneau doesn’t accept fax filings over 5 pages.  We mailed it Friday, more than 5 pages.  Hopefully, judges will just talk.  Petersburg case is stipulated to consolidate, but Fairbanks people would not. 

Preclearance - I’d say about 80% done.  Bottom line, we’re on schedule.  None of the lawsuits raise VRA claims, don’t say retrogressive.  Only FBNS borough only one to mention and said we shouldn’t have relied so much on them. 
Most stuff, writing is done.  Oe section we need to work on to have final report.   Then finalize.  File by Friday of this week or early part of next week.
Will talk about implications in ES

Board transcripts hold us up?
White:  don’t have them in, holding us up.  Some stuff only Eric can do.  He and DOJ speak the same language.  Large amount of info that goes.  My inclination to be overinclusive than underinclusive.  I think filed in next 7-10 days.  Then can go back to DOJ.   60 day clock starts once we submit.   Want all data is submitted electronically.  Megabytes and megabytes of information. 
Don’t wnat glitch with electronic filing. 

Torgerson:  I understand Lisa Handley recommends we come back and talk
Bickford:  No guarantee they will talk to us.  Assumption is that they would meet with us, but we’ll request it. 
Torgerson: We make request why we want to do it?
White:  Yes
Torgerson: Requested that only Marie and I go back, keep it small.
White:  No benefit to have the whole board.  Having Ms. Greene ...Native community…
Bickford:  Touch on Lisa’s report and where we are.  Most public records requests asked for that report.
White:  80-90% already discussed, just a matter of . . . she’s not a board member, has other clients, given us some drafts, not all clear, asked for more info, asked for more and should have in final days.  Some records requests for it, we will produce it and provide her report and whole preclearance report.  Nothing privliged once it is finalized.
Torgerson:  No action required by board.  We just receive her report.   Already authorized Taylor to sign off.
White:  Don’t need to meet again as a board.  Just waiting gathering of materials and portion on effect on Native districts I’m still working on, need Lisa’s report to finish mine. 
Confident in 7-10 days.
Bickford:  Once file DOJ has 60 days to respond, expect in 40-60 days.
White:  Want to make sure we have everything there first, rather than have them come back and ask for things, and restart the clock.
Brody:  I’d like a prebriefing before you file.  I’d like to understand it before it goes out.
White:  I’ll have a draft in ES and point out litigation issues. 

10:26 go into Executive Session


12:39 back on record after Ex. Session

Exec Section to discuss state litigation and preclearnance
White:  Instruction for the board:  Publicly tell board we are now in litigation, therefore questions from the press should be sent to counsel and not discussed outside the board room.  We have nothing to hide, but common advice I give all my clients.  I suspect all of you will deposed and my job will be easier if you haven’t publicly said something that I don’t know about.  General comments - we think it is constitutional”  then refer people to me.

Nothing further.

Board member comments:
Holm:  no
Brody:  After your lecture, I guess not.  Keep in touch, keep us informed so we aren’t caught unawares.
White:  We’ll provide a weekly update.  We just got a notice in that the two Fairbanks assigned to Michael P. Mc Conahy.  8:30am in Fairbanks   whether he remains, yet to be seen.  Fairbanks plaintiffs opposed that.  We should have a decision before Friday when we have a conference.  WE’ll give you plenty of notice if something required of you.  Don’t expect depostions before SEptember.  Plenty of notice.  Can’t delay until January because of expedited nature. 
Torgerson:  Thank everybody.  Next meeting, maybe teleconference for legal update, let Michael and Taylor control that. 

Adjourn.  12:46pm

After the Default, Do the Chinese Get to Buy NASA?

And how about rich European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and South African hunters putting in an offer to buy the federal lands in Alaska for a private hunting reserve?  Or maybe the oil companies can buy instead of lease the federal oil reserves?



A game of chicken is going on in Congress, but how many of us understand what is really happening and really at stake?  I've been reading online for hours trying to make a list of consequences of a default.

It's not easy.  Financial collapse isn't as visually dramatic as the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.  It happens in slow motion.  And there are lots of different ways it could play out.

I've got lots of notes, but I'm not ready to try to outline what I think is happening.  But I offer a challenge to gain some perspective on our national debt which I found responding to Ropi's comments on an earlier post on the debt limit showdown in Congress.

The CIA has a list of national indebtedness as a percentage of GDP.  I went there to check Ropi's equating the US and Portugal in this area.    Just for the fun of it, can you match the following the rankings and % of GDP from the table to the list of countries below? 

(Smart folks will see that two of the columns are really easy to match.  The third is harder. Those of you who can't understand the table probably should be humble in your opinions about the debt ceiling and solutions for it.)

Rank	Country	% of GDP
1		225.8
9		102.4
19		78.8
34		41.5
37		58.3
45		58.9
65		55.9
113		41.5
116		17.5
123		16.2
132		3.3

HTML Tables

a. USA    b.  China  c.  Germany   d.  Singapore   e.  Iran  
f.  Japan  g.  India   h.  Libya    i.  world   j.   Mexico   k.  Russia


You can check your answers against the CIA chart here.

I think you can see (after checking with the CIA chart) that just looking at the % doesn't tell us what makes a stable economy.  Nor a country we want to emulate.

(And, of course, the CIA numbers can only be estimates.  Countries calculate % of GDP (if they calculate it all) using different criteria and some (many?) don't publish any data, so the CIA has to guess through other means.)

Alaska International Film Awards - And The Winners Aren't . . .

The Alaska International Film Festival changed its name to 'Film Awards' last year.  I and others had raised questions about a festival that had no actual screenings or . . . 'festival.'

There is a real film festival in Alaska - the Anchorage International Film Festival and I have compared the two events here.  [July 18:  I've corrected this link]

Essentially, the Alaska (not Anchorage) International Film Awards (not Festival) solicits films in the summer, with the first submission deadline in September in a whole myriad of categories and their website says that winners will be announced on July 15 of the following year.   That gives them plenty of time to have lots of people submit films and entry fees.

Last year, I contacted some of the winners and learned that, yes they had won, and to get their trophies they had to pay another fee that varied in price.

Today is July 16 and this is what they have on their website under awards.  The names of the awards, but not the winners.

Click to enlarge

I took a screen shot so you could see today's date (July 16, 2011) in the upper right corner and the awards page of their website.  Actually, now it's the 17th as I get ready to post, but still no winners announced yet.

Since May 15th was the last submission deadline, and since they didn't have to do any work to set up a festival and show the films, they've had two full months to figure out the winners and post them on their website by the July 15, 2011 deadline.  But they didn't.

If anyone submitted a film to the Alaska (not Anchorage) International Film Awards (not Festival) this year, please let me know if you have been notified that you won or didn't win.  You can leave a comment or you can email me.

[UPDATE Aug 4:  Sometime while we were gone, the Awards folks posted this year's 'winners.'  I don't mean to in any way make light of those whose films got awards.  I'm sure that many of the films are truly excellent.  And I've heard from two people who got letters saying they did NOT win an award.  So, not everyone who submitted got an award.  However, the list is pretty long.  I counted 81 different awards.  (In contrast, the Sundance Film Festival seems to have just given out about 40 awards.)  And a couple folks who contacted me and said they won, were told they had to buy their own trophies.

I don't know the answer to John's comment.  Contacting Without A Box can't hurt.  You can also post comments here and in the Without A Box forums to warn others that if they win, they probably will have to pay for their trophies.]

Thai Gender Stories in the News

From Thai Visa, a website mainly aimed at ex-pats living in Thailand, I get regular reports of what's happening in Thailand.  There were a couple of gender-related stories - one showing progress and one showing some regression.   Below are excerpts and the headlines link to the rest of the stories.

Monks teach maleness to Thai 'ladyboys'
Feature - by Janesara Fugal

CHIANG KHONG, July 16, 2011 (AFP) - The 15-year-old aspiring "ladyboy" delicately applied a puff of talcum powder to his nose -- an act of rebellion at the Thai Buddhist temple where he is learning to "be a man".

"They have rules here that novice monks cannot use powder, make-up, or perfume, cannot run around and be girlish," said Pipop Thanajindawong, who was sent to Wat Kreung Tai Wittaya, in Chiang Khong on the Thai-Laos border, to tame his more feminine traits.

But the monks running the temple's programme to teach masculinity to boys who are "katoeys", the Thai term for transsexuals or ladyboys, have their controversial work cut out.

"Sometimes we give them money to buy snacks but he saved it up to buy mascara," headteacher Phra Pitsanu Witcharato said of Pipop. . .

. . . [Phra Pitsanu] told AFP that he hopes the teaching methods will be rolled out to other temple schools to "solve the deviant behavior in novices".

It is an attitude that enrages gay rights and diversity campaigner Natee Teerarojanapong, who said trying to alter the boys' sense of gender and sexuality was "extremely dangerous".

"These kids will become self-hating because they have been taught by respected monks that being gay is bad. That is terrible for them. They will never live happily," he told AFP.

Gay and katoey culture is visible and widely tolerated in Thailand, which has one of the largest transsexual populations in the world, and Natee said the temple's programme is "very out of date".  .  .

Female bodyguards for Thailand's next prime minister
By Budsarakham Sinlapalavan
Peeradej Tanruangporn
The Nation
 

When Yingluck Shinawatra takes up her post as leader of the new government, Thailand won't just have a female prime minister. Her bodyguards, too, are likely to be drawn from the fairer sex.

"Female bodyguards are able to remain closer to female VIPs," said Pol Lt-Colonel Korakarn Arunplod, who is among the first generation of female bodyguards in Thailand.

Korakarn started her career as a bodyguard in 1995. Among the VIPs she has taken care of are Hillary Rodham Clinton, Empress Michiko of Japan and members of the Thai Royal Family.

She suggested that PM-elect Yingluck should have both male and female bodyguards. Beyond issues of security, having bodyguards of both sexes would create the best image.

And there are more practical concerns: "It is not appropriate for male bodyguards to enter private spaces such as women's bathrooms." She added that women were better at coordinating than men, though men were generally stronger. . .


  . . . To become a bodyguard, the officers of the BPPB must be trained to protect very important persons (VIPs), he said. In addition to the usual police training, which includes guns, driving and parachuting, VIP protection training also teaches crowd-control tactics and techniques for remaining close and attending to the VIP.

Because the task is very physically demanding, requiring the person to be constantly vigilant and sometimes miss sleep, the team consists only of women aged 20 to 35, Prayoon said . .  .

Last Minute Salmon BBQ With Friends

At the last minute we ended up with friends enjoying the lovely evening eating salmon on their deck.  Pretty simple.  Just good talk, good food, good friends. 

As we were eating dessert a young woman, barefoot, in wet shorts and T-shirt asked the direction of the Peanut Farm.  She'd been kayaking Campbell Creek and overturned and told the others she'd meet them at the Peanut Farm where the car was.  As the temperature was cooling (it was about 10pm by then) our host drove her to her destination.

With sweepers here and there, the creek is not as benign as it looks. 

Mini adventures.

Then we biked home.