Dear readers,
We have exciting new content for you in this week’s newsletter! We are working hard to develop audio versions of our articles for easy listening on the go. Today, all subscribers can listen to our first newsletter story read by the author.
Additionally, Natalie Spaulding wants to know your hard-hitting questions for her series “An Honest Conversation,” which will release while she is on maternity leave in the spring. This series will present different arguments surrounding core issues and promote rational dialogue about those issues. What should Natalie write about? Email her at [email protected] to let her know what matters most to you.
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Table of Contents
Essential Discussions
Defending Normalcy: Chloe Cole and Logan Lancing Speak Out Against Queer Ideology at “Never Extinguished” Event
By Natalie Spaulding
This past Friday and Saturday, Alaska Family Council (AFC) invited de-transitioner Chloe Cole and author Logan Lancing to speak about their experience and expertise fighting the inundation of Queer Theory in American culture. AFC provided two opportunities to hear from the normalcy defenders: at a BBQ dinner on Friday in the Valley or over dessert on Saturday in Anchorage.
Candidates for Governor Bernadette Wilson, Nancy Dahlstrom, Shelley Hughes, Treg Taylor, Adam Crum, Matt Heilala, and Edna DeVries attended the event, as well as Dave Donley, who is running for the Anchorage Assembly and State Representatives Julie Coulombe, Jubilee Underwood, Cathy Tilton, and Elexie Moore.
AFC leaders Jim and Kim Minnery and Tim Barto unabashedly centered the four-hour long event on Jesus Christ and biblical principles. The event began and ended with prayer and carried a theme of warrior-like faith throughout. Emphasizing the need for Christians to defend biblical principles during a time of increasing secularization in America, Jim Minnery quoted G.K. Chesterton: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.” Jim then stated: “Love is what puts us in the arena.”
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Alaska Elections
The Hard Truth of Alaska’s 2026 Gubernatorial Election
By Michael Tavoliero
Have Alaskans finally learned the hard truth? Do Alaskans understand that it no longer matters who becomes governor if Juneau’s permanent coalition of legislators, special interests, bureaucrats, and their media echo chamber, still holds the real power?
Under Ranked Choice Voting and a fractured conservative field, we are on track to repeat the same cycle…
Should People of Faith Run for Public Office?
By Paul A. Bauer, Jr.
America was founded on the belief that moral conviction and civic responsibility go hand in hand. People of faith—pastors, ministers, rabbis, and lay leaders alike—have long shaped our communities through service, education, and compassion. But when a pastor or faith leader decides to campaign for elected office, it raises a question as old as democracy itself: Should those called to spiritual leadership also seek political authority?
Alaska Law and Order
Turmoil Over Crime and Immigration: National Guard Quick Reaction Force Addresses Lawmaker Concerns and Bolsters Nationwide Security
By Todd Lindley
In the face of surging crime and protests across U.S. cities in 2025, the National Guard Quick Reaction Force (NGQRF) has proven essential for swift intervention, directly responding to worries voiced by Alaska State Rep. Andrew Gray (D-Anchorage) about its implementation in states like his own.
In a November 14 X post, Rep. Gray highlighted concerns over an October 31 memo mandating Alaska to ready a 350-member NGQRF equipped with non-lethal tools such as batons, tasers, and pepper spray for riot control. He questioned its necessity in riot-free Alaska, transparency in training and supplies, deployment triggers, and risks of misuse on U.S. streets. The memo clarifies the NGQRF focuses on civil disturbance operations with graduated response protocols, monthly readiness reports, and deployment only upon federal or gubernatorial requests, ensuring accountability and preventing overreach…
Education in America
Trump Restructures Federal Education Programs
By Jon Faulkner
Accelerating U.S. educational system reform, the Trump Administration this past Tuesday announced sweeping changes to leadership structures in charge of educational programs. The move shifts education programs out of the U.S. Department of Education and into several new agencies using interagency agreements that do not require congressional action. While these actions accelerate the Trump administration’s commitment to reduce federal control over education, the US Department of Education will retain limited oversight.
According to the Official Announcement from the U.S. Department of Education, the most significant change is the Department of Labor’s new leadership of an interagency agreement…
Alaska Politics
Eaglexit Submits Petition to Local Boundary Commission
By Jon Faulkner
Culminating years of effort and community outreach, on Monday of this week Eaglexit filed its completed petition package to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission for an Informal Technical Review. Eaglexit is the name of the grassroots movement seeking to separate areas around Eagle River from the Municipality of Anchorage. It seeks to incorporate a new, independent, non-unified “home rule” borough identified as Chugach Regional Borough (CRB), to include lands in and around Eagle River, Chugiak, Birchwood, Eklutna, and JBER.
The Boondoggle Behind Affordable Housing
By Larry Talley
Juneau, Alaska could lose seven irreplaceable historic structures on Telephone Hill. Their imminent destruction is not from fire or other natural hazards, but from citizen tax dollars at work. The City and Borough of Juneau have decided to spend $5.5 million to demolish this historic neighborhood, in the forlorn hope that it can be developed as high-density housing.
Among the structures slated for demolition is the Webster House, built in 1882, one of the oldest continuously occupied homes in Alaska.
The Boondoggle Begins…
Fighting for Funding: Democrats Lose Political Leverage Game; the Resulting Wins and Losses for Alaskans
By Natalie Spaulding
America’s longest federal shutdown officially ended upon Trump’s signature of the funding bill titled “Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026” on Wednesday, November 12.
The Schumer shutdown, named for Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who Democrats were counting on to secure the extension of enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, lasted a record-breaking 43 days.
The Five Principles of Eaglexit
By Michael Tavoliero and Catherine Margolin
Eaglexit seeks to incorporate a home-rule borough that restores the proper balance between social power and state power by re-establishing local government as the servant of the people. Beneath every fiscal debate and administrative dispute lies one guiding purpose: return authority from distant bureaucracy to local citizens. Grounded in the Alaska Constitution, Eaglexit recognizes that all governmental power originates in the people and endures legitimately only when it protects their God-given rights and governs by their consent.
Through formation of local government, Eaglexit aims to…
Facts and Figures
Understanding Alaska’s Unique Legislative Structure
Alaska’s Legislature employs an unusual structure that prioritizes bipartisan alliances over traditional party-based majorities. Today’s House and Senate organization:
House Majority Coalition: 14 Democrats, 4 Independents, 2 Republicans
House Minority Caucus: 19 Republicans
Senate Majority Coalition: 9 Democrats, 5 Republicans
Senate Minority Caucus: 6 Republicans
Key Industry Numbers
Alaska Oil: ~$62.1 per barrel
Henry Hub Gas: ~$4.47 per mmBTU
Alaska North Slope Production: ~465,139 barrels per day
Permanent Fund (Principal + Earnings Reserve): ~$85.6 billion
Community Meetings
Who? | What? | When? | Where? |
|---|---|---|---|
State of Alaska | Alaska Police Standards and Council General Meeting | 12/1 @9am | Alaska Bureau of Investigation/ Zoom |
Fairbanks | Regular Assembly Meeting | 12/2 @6pm 12/16 @6pm | Not specified |
North Slope Borough | NSB Assembly Meeting | 12/2 @1pm-6pm | Not specified |
Nome | A) Planning Commission Meeting B) Common Council Regular Meeting C) Port Commission Meeting D) Common Council Regular Meeting | A) 12/2 @7pm B) 12/8 @7pm C) 12/18 @5:30pm D) 12/22 @7pm | Not specified |
Juneau | Assembly Public Works & Facilities Committee Meeting | 12/1 @12pm | Assembly Chambers/ Zoom |
Matanuska Electric | Regular Board of Directors Meeting | 12/8 @4pm | Palmer Headquarters/ Zoom |
Homer Electric | A) HEA Board Meeting B) AEEC Board Meeting | A) 12/9 @12pm B) 12/9 immediately following HEA meeting | Homer Headquarters/ Microsoft Teams |
Golden Valley Electric | Regular Board Meeting | 11/25, time unspecified | GVEA’s Employee/ Board Meeting Room, Fairbanks |
No upcoming meetings found for Anchorage, Bethel, Mat-Su, Sitka, Kodiak, Valdez, Kenai, Seward, Tok, and Chugach Electric.
In Pursuit of Wisdom
It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration… Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing “compassion” for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.
Must Read Alaska Show
We hope to get our podcast back up and running in the near future. Plus, we are continuing to develop our sortable audio-files for easy listening of our stories.
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Thank you for reading! Until next time,
The MRAK Team
A Force for Good