Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - An Anchorage Superior Court judge has ruled that the State of Alaska breached its collective bargaining with the Alaska State Employees Association, violated the separation of powers provision in the constitution, and the Public Employee Relations and Administrative Procedures Acts.
Judge Gregory Miller ordered a permanent injunction for the state s attempted interference with ASEA membership and union administration. The dispute centered over the collection of dues by the union and those employees who chose to opt-out of paying dues.
The judge also ordered to the state to pay the union more than $186,000 in damages.
Union Executive Director Jake Metcalfe said in a release issued by his office that he is pleased with the court ruling. He said the Governor took a radical and unsupported legal action that hurt all state employees and wasted state resources, time, and attention from other more important issues.
Anchorage House election decided by 11 votes heads to Alaska Supreme Court
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Print article Anchorage Superior Court Judge Josie Garton said Tuesday that she found no flaws with the way the Alaska Division of Elections counted votes in the close legislative race between incumbent state Rep. Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage and Democratic challenger Liz Snyder. In a separate order, she also concluded that Pruitt’s attorneys failed to demonstrate that a late polling place change altered the result of the election. Snyder defeated Pruitt by 11 votes in the final, recounted result, but Pruitt launched a pair of legal challenges that dispute both the final vote count and the way the election was conducted. In both cases, Garton confirmed Snyder’s victory.
In North Pole, Alaska, Santa Claus is a bastion of blue on a city council as red as Rudolph’s nose Published December 15, 2020
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Print article First things first: Yes, Santa Claus is his legal name. It’s on his government identification, and the mail that arrives at his apartment. A long time ago, he was called Thomas O’Connor. He doesn’t answer to that name anymore. If someone shouted it in the North Pole Safeway, “I wouldn’t even turn my head,” he says.
This Santa Claus is a 73-year-old medical-marijuana-using, Bernie-supporting vegetarian monk who lives at the poverty line, does not drive and thinks truth be told that Christmas is a “crass commercial secular spectacle.”
Judge denies immediate action in lawsuit accusing Anchorage Assembly of open meetings violations
Print article A state judge on Friday denied a request to pause the effect of all legislation passed by the Anchorage Assembly during an August closure to in-person participation related to COVID-19. The ruling came in a lawsuit against the Municipality of Anchorage that alleges the closure violated open meetings law. The plaintiff in the case, a group called Alaskans for Open Meetings, argued last week that Anchorage Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir should rule that all legislation passed by the Assembly during the monthlong shutdown should be voided, as it was passed without in-person participation. Members of the public were instead allowed to testify via phone or email, and the meetings were streamed and broadcast on TV.