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By ART CHANCE

Sarah Palin has been at war with all-things-Republican since the turn of the century beginning with attempts, mostly by proxy, to wrest control of the Republican Party away from then-party Chairman Randy Ruederich.

Palin made her move into state-level politics in 2002 with a second-place finish to Loren Leman in the Republican Primary for lieutenant governor.Frank Murkowskis successful run for governor meant that his long-held U.S. Senate seat would be open; under the law in effect at the time he could appoint his successor.

At this stage of her career, Palin had a resume that would look fairly impressive for a Mat-Su Valley state House seat.Shed been on the Wasilla City Council and had been a two-term mayor of Wasilla, where shed had a government about the size of a suburban real estate office, and for which she had a city manager to do all the detail work.She threw her hat in the ring for appointment to the U.S. Senate, and she did so vociferously.There were others who may have received some consideration, but the choice seemed to come back to Sarah Palin or businessman and former State Sen. John Binkley.

I think it is a fair assessment that the contrarian wing of Republican/conservative voters largely supported Palin and the Republican/conservative voters who had an inkling how government worked supported Binkley, though some did so reluctantly.

The new governor had two bad choices, so he made a worse one: He appointed his daughter, Lisa, whose resume was little if any more impressive than Sarahs.His administration was doomed the day he did that. I know; I was there.

Gov. Murkowski tried to placate Palin with one of the best patronage jobs in state government under the governors direct appointment authority a commissioner at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, at the time the highest paid job in the Executive Branch that didnt require some sort of professional credential.It actually paid more than the governor or any real commissioner was paid.

Sarah wasnt placated.To make it worse, her old bte noir, Randy Ruedrich, was also appointed an AOGCC Commissioner, so they worked together.This didnt end well.Her appointment went over so poorly that the Legislature passed legislation establishing qualifications for AOGCC commissioners, a bill known in the Capitol as The No More Sarah Palins Law.And the Legislature also took away the governors senatorial appointment authority.Now, when an Alaska U.S. senator resigns or dies in office, we elect rather than appoint the temporary placeholder.

AOGCC is administratively attached to the Department of Administration, where my Division of Labor Relations was located, so I spent a lot of my Monday in staff meetings with Palin.Its fair to say that those of us who had real jobs and real responsibilities werent nearly as impressed with her as she was of herself.

It didnt take long for the trouble to begin: Palin started complaining that Ruedrich was doing Republican Party business on state time. Id had a couple of issues with Ruedrich about such things and Ruedrich was prone to pronounce the relevant state laws and rules as stupid.I wasnt reticent to tell him that those laws were because of people like him.Ruedrich got a stern talking to or two and the kerfuffle seemed to have played out.

Some time later I was summoned to the commissioners office and into a meeting with our deputies and the governors special assistant assigned to Administration. The special assistant told us that Palin had written the governor with her complaints and said that she had brought them to the commissioner of Administration, who had done nothing.I dont think the Governors Office believed it any more than we did, but we were told to fix it.One of the deputies and I adjourn to my office to try to figure out how to fix it.

For those of you who think you know about this from reading Going Rogue, almost nothing in Palins account is true.That said, I wont call her a liar because I know her well enough to know that she believes whatever falls out of her mouth is true.

I suggested that we order her to Juneau for an investigatory interview.The deputy replied that she wouldnt come to Juneau.I said, Good. Order her to Juneau and if she wont come, just fire her.He said, Shes Sarah Palin.I said, OK, we treat them like classified, unionized employees and do the whole due-process drill.

I generated the notice memos to them; Ruedrich as the object of the investigation and Palin as a material witness.We set a meeting with each of them the following Monday in Anchorage.We instructed Ruedrich that he wasnt to discuss the matter with anyone except as necessary to prepare his defense and, since she wasnt accused of anything, we instructed Palin that she wasnt to discuss it at all.Those memos were designed to raise the hairs on the necks of state employees, but I dont think they had much effect on either of them.

The deputy showed up to meet with Palin, who acted surprised: Oh, I should have called you; Randy and I had a good talk and worked it all out.

There went a thousand bucks or so of the states money for a useless trip to Anchorage and we no longer had a complaint.So, maybe peace would descend on the land.It lasted a little while then the news exploded that Palin had resigned because we didnt deal with her ethics complaints against Ruedrich.Palin immediately became the Anchorage Daily News and every Democrats favorite Republican.Then the voters foolishly elected her governor.

Palin became the best governor the Democrats ever had since Bill Egan in the 1960s.In her two years as governor, the General Fund expenditures soared from $6.7 Billion to $9.3 Billion.She worked with the Democrats to get one of their fondest hopes of the oil era: a revenue scheme based on oil revenue rather than oil production. Its known as ACES Alaskas Clear and Equitable Share.

Those of us who had been around since the beginning understood that the state could never pay and supervise lawyers, accountants, and auditors who could go toe to toe with the oil companies, so we established a taxation and royalty scheme based on simply counting barrels of oil.Even so, we were in constant litigation with them.The complex ACES tax scheme put a lot of money in the State treasury but it has never been audited, and probably couldnt be.

In the waning days of Murkowskis term, his Administration negotiated a deal for a natural gas line with the producers.Malcontents in the Department of Natural Resources leaked the details to Pravda, excuse me, the Anchorage Daily News, before it could be announced and ADN/Democrat opposition killed the plan.

When she became governor, Palin sought out the malcontents from the Murkowski Administration and brought them into her Administration.The DNR malcontents, some with TransCanada ties, made a deal with TransCanada, which gave them a half-billion dollars of Alaskas money for starting a gas line, and for which we have seen nothing.In the ensuing years nobody has shown any interest as to where the money went.

I was a front page writer on the Red State political blog back in 2008.The Red State management were big Palin propaganda fans.I said shed never propose a budget cut and that her Ethics Act problems were of her own making.If youre doing something privately, you go to the states ethics attorney, tell them what you want to do, and if the attorney clears it, the state defends you against ethics complaints.The only logical reason for Palin not going to the ethics attorney is she didnt want to tell the Department of Law what she was doing.That got me banned from Red State; people who really like Palin really like her and facts and reason have no impact on them.Palin quit and her defenders havent had much to say.

Fast forward a little more than a decade: Palin is rich, single, trim, has had a bit of work done, and is letting herself be seen tete a tete at dinner in fancy New York restaurants with a former National Hockey League player.I thought shed never put herself before a hostile press again. There some interesting allegations in Joe McGinniss book, The Rogue, but maybe she thinks memories have faded or nobody cares.

Palin has the money and name recognition to win the late Congressman Don Youngs seat.Shell leave every other Republican bruised, bleeding, and broke.The communists, excuse me, Democrats will pour money into Alaska to defeat her and that will spill over into the other races.We face for the first time since 1973 having a Democrat U.S. Representative, as a result.

We may well have a Democrat/fake independent governor, too, with Bill Walker. And the one person Palin hates most, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, may well survive.

Palin has had a good run as the home wrecker of Alaska Republican politics.

And, before one of the trolls brings it up, she didnt fire me.I retired June 30, 2006, long before she was even the nominee.I must confess she made me a good bit of money; when she did some really stupid things with the unions, they knew who to call.I named the new drives on my boat Sarah.Giddy-up Sarah!

Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,available at Amazon.

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Art Chance: Palin is finishing what she started, as every Democrat's favorite Republican - Must Read Alaska

More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress are expected to speak out on Wednesday against a potential agreement that would see the U.S. and Iran return to a nuclear deal, in which Iran accepts limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The 15 House Members will raise concerns about the looming Iran deal in a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, according to a media advisory.

The conference is being organized by Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat from New Jersey who serves as co-chair of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, and Elaine Luria, a second-term Democrat from Virginia. Both were elected to Congress after the implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal, and expressed support for new sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump after the U.S. withdrawal from that deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. Wednesdays gathering follows a letter Gottheimer and Luria spearheaded last month, which 12 Democrats signed onto, urging the administration to address their concerns about the deal.

Image by Getty Images

Rep. Grace Meng from New York, the first Democrat to announce her opposition to the deal in 2015, is among the speakers at the event.

As a presidential candidate and since his election, President Joe Biden has said he wants to see the resurrection of the nuclear deal. Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state who served as lead negotiator on the deal for the Obama administration in 2015, said during her confirmation hearing last year that the administration is clear-eyed about its goals, and mindful of Irans continued progress on its nuclear program.

But recent reports that the administration is considering giving in to Irans demand to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Departments Foreign Terrorist Organization list have caused alarm in Israel and among Democrats.

Ritchie Torres, a first-term Democrat representing the South Bronx, suggested in a brief conversation broadcast Tuesday with the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee that a majority in both the House and the Senate would oppose an agreement if brought to a vote. I suspect there would be bipartisan opposition, he said.

The Jewish American community was divided over the issue in 2015. A survey conducted by the Jewish Journal at the time showed that 49% of American Jews supported the nuclear deal with Iran while 31% were opposed. Congress rejected the deal in the House by a 269-162 margin and in the Senate by a 56-42 majority but it wasnt enough to override a promised veto by former President Barack Obama.

Torres said that he objects to sanctions relief because the agreement under discussion would slow but not dismantle Irans nuclear program.

He also maintained on the call, streamed on AIPACs smartphone app, that a deal between Washington and Tehran that lacks bipartisan support would undermine the credibility of the U.S. I worry about an endless cycle of a Democratic president renegotiating the Iran deal, followed by a Republican president who withdraws from it, Torres said. We should have an agreement that can stand the test of time.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the deal under discussion in Washington shorter and weaker than the 2015 pact.

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Democratic members of Congress will gather to denounce Iran deal under negotiation - Forward

Joe Biden will next month end a controversial pandemic-related expulsion policy that effectively closed Americas asylum system at its border with Mexico, it was announced on Friday.

The decision to lift the Title 42 public health order, which will take effect on 23 May, is seen as long overdue by immigration advocates who regard the order as inhumane. But it was seized on by Republicans and some electorally vulnerable Democrats, who warned of chaos at the border.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued Title 42 in March 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak, said it was no longer needed.

After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight Covid-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the CDC director has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary, the CDC said.

Since Title 42 went into effect under Donald Trump, migrants have been expelled more than 1.7m times. Biden kept Title 42 after taking office in January 2021 despite campaign promises to reverse Trumps immigration policies.

Many Democrats, medical experts and the UN have condemned Title 42, arguing it expels migrants to danger in Mexico and that scientific evidence does not support its goal of limiting virus spread. They welcomed Fridays announcement.

Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said: This is a momentous day for immigrant rights activists and immigrants and refugees everywhere. Title 42 was a cruel and discriminatory policy that circumvented US law, preventing people from accessing protections established by Congress.

Today is the product of years of advocacy from both inside and outside Congress. Im thrilled to see the Biden administration do the right and moral thing by ending this extremely harmful, xenophobic and shortsighted policy that disproportionately impacted Black and brown migrants.

Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri, who has urged Biden to review the disparate treatment of Black migrants under Title 42, said: This racist, inhumane relic from the Trump era has been devastating for migrants fleeing persecution, war, poverty, climate catastrophe and violence in their home countries and who have been forced to seek asylum in the United States.

It is a legal right and our moral obligation to open our doors to asylum seekers.

Campaigners expressed frustration that Title 42 would not be rescinded until 23 May.

Eleanor Acer, senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First, said: The Biden administration and the CDC have rightly decided to terminate this Trump policy a policy we have spent two years opposing due to the horrific human rights abuses it inflicts on people seeking asylum, and we urge a swift end to this humanitarian travesty.

Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of state-level advocacy organisations, said: The Biden administrations decision to stop using Title 42 is a victory for human rights and for recognising the dignity of asylum seekers and others seeking refuge.

However, every day this policy remains in effect endangers highly vulnerable individuals facing persecution or violence in their home countries.

Asked why Title 42 could not be revoked immediately, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said doing so required an interagency process and attention to Covid protocols.

It was always going to be important to have an implementation period and the timeline reflects that, she said.

Homeland security officials said earlier this week about 7,100 migrants were coming to the border daily after an average of about 5,900 a day in February on pace to match or exceed highs from last year and other peak periods.

They also said they were prepared for an increase once Title 42 was rescinded and were planning for as many as 18,000 arrivals daily an increase likely to be weaponised by Republicans ahead of Novembers midterm elections.

Trump has used recent rallies to draw a comparison with Ukraine, suggesting America is suffering a violent invasion.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, said: Bidens border crisis is worse than ever but the president has decided to eliminate yet another vital tool: Title 42. This decision is wrong and will invite a lawless surge of illegal border crossings to enrich human traffickers and overwhelm border patrol.

This will inflict suffering, pain and tragedy throughout our country. Make no mistake, the president will own the calamity his policies have created.

Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate homeland security appropriations subcommittee, said: Through policy decision after policy decision, President Biden has created a crisis that is about to balloon into a full blown catastrophe.

Our facilities are already well over capacity, and without Title 42 authority, the crisis on our southern border will become even worse. Our immigration system is not designed for persistent irregular mass migration that will result from this poorly thought out decision.

The conservative Democrat Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, described a frightening decision, adding: Title 42 has been an essential tool in combating the spread of Covid-19 and controlling the influx of migrants at our southern border. We are already facing an unprecedented increase in migrants this year.

Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona who faces a tough re-election fight, said: This is a crisis and in my estimation, because of a lack of planning from the administration, its about to get worse.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists it will be ready. Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, said: We will increase personnel and resources as needed and have already redeployed more than 600 law enforcement officers to the border.

We are referring smugglers and certain border crossers for criminal prosecution. Over the next two months, we are putting in place additional, appropriate Covid-19 protocols, including ramping up our vaccination program.

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Biden ends Trump-era asylum curbs amid border-region Democrat backlash - The Guardian

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While the Democratic Party's increasingly leftward shift does not go far enough for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, former Democrats are sharing a different story of how the party has changed so much that they decided to run for office as Republicans.

On "Fox & Friends" Thursday, a panel of former Democrats -- John Lee, Harriet Holman and Mick Bates addressed AOC's latest advice for the party to move even further left ahead of November's midterms.

AOC BECOMES 5TH HOUSE DEMOCRAT TO CALL ON CLARENCE THOMAS TO RESIGN OR BE IMPEACHED OVER WIFE'S JAN. 6 TEXTS

"Her full support for socialism is not going to work for the American people," Holman, a council member in Dorchester County, S.C., told host Steve Doocy.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a rally for immigration provisions to be included in the Build Back Better Act outside the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 7, 2021 in Washington. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"She is actually hurting the Democratic Party. I think Americans are starving for hope right now. We, the Republicans, are focusing on individuals and what their issues are we want to make life better for individuals," she added.

North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee said he believes AOC is eager to ready Americans to suffer more for the "values she espouses."

"I think this country is going in exactly the wrong direction. I think anyone that looks at [AOC] as the spokesman for the Democratic Party should really consider what party they belong to and maybe think about exiting it right now," he said.

Bates, an Australian-American serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates chimed in, saying, "the further the Democratic Party goes left, the more it drives moderate conservative Democrats to become independents or Republicans."

"I think AOC is right. They are in trouble; they're very right to be worried. But they're worried for the wrong reasons."

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Each guest said the Democratic Party's "extremism" compelled them to join the GOP and Holman particularly noted her pro-life and pro-law enforcement values as factors in making the change.

"The Republican Party is the party to be in right now," she said.

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Democrat-turned-GOP candidates slam AOC's call for party to move left: 'They are in trouble' - Fox News

Mob hitman Dominic Taddeo has been on the run before and he was exceptionally good at staying hidden then.

"He was in the windfor a long time," said retired FBI agent William Dillon, who was involved in a two-year-hunt for Taddeo in the late 1980s. "He was incredibly adept at staying very, very under the radar."

And now, only a year from a scheduled release from prison for racketeering crimes that included three homicides, Taddeo has disappeared again. On Monday, he escaped from a halfway house program overseen by the Bureau of Prisons in Florida.

On the run: Notorious Rochester mob hitman Dominic Taddeo escapes federal custody

He had been transferred there for programs to help him prepare for his scheduled 2023 re-entry into society.

"He could be hard to find," Dillon said.

Officials with the Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Taddeo, 64, was recently moved to the re-entry facility. Records show that Taddeo was scheduled for a medical appointment on Monday, March 28, and did not return.

Taddeo "was placed on escape status" on Monday, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

An official at the Orlando re-entry program declined to comment Friday, saying, "We can't say anything about that case."

The Bureau of Prisons alerted the U.S. Marshals Service to Taddeo's escape, and Marshals on Friday were searching for Taddeo in Florida while also keeping an eye on a possible Rochester return.

Taddeo in 1987 was on $25,000 bail, facing federal weapons charges, when he disappeared the first time. He was not found for two more years.

Taddeo became the focus of a national manhunt, and moved to different locations across the country, assuming two dozen aliaseswhile avoiding police. Law enforcement eventually learned of a payphone in Rochester at which Taddeo called local individuals, and police placed a tap on the phone as they surveilled people taking calls there.

Eventually, Taddeo made a call at which he arranged a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. He was arrested there.

"Small, balding, and looking hardly like the mob hitman who investigators say gunned down three underground figures, Dominic Taddeo returned to federal court in shackles yesterday, two years after he skipped bail," the Democrat and Chronicle wrote in 1989 of Taddeo's return to court.

Taddeoshed 75 pounds and grew a beard during his two years on the run, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

According to law enforcement and organized crime figures interviewed in the past by the Democrat and Chronicle, Taddeo had no allies in local mob battles. Instead, he was simply a mercenary for hire.

Bulgy and bespectacled, Taddeo was not a Hollywood version of a contract killer.

"You would never in a million years think this guy could be lethal," said a local man who was with Taddeo for an hour at the federal court house during Taddeo's court appearances. "It's like you're talking to Bugsy Siegel but he looks like a nebbish.

"I'm dumbfounded that the (expletive) continues to confound the jailers."

The Democrat and Chronicle was able to confirm that the individual, who asked not to be named, did meet with Taddeo. But, like some others contacted by the Democrat and Chronicle Friday, there was a hesitancy to discuss Taddeo openlynow that Taddeo has escaped.

In fact, two years ago, an organized crime figure from out of the area reached out to the Democrat and Chronicle about Taddeo's imprisonment. There were rumors they were wrong that Taddeo was then free and the former mobster was concerned that Taddeo might come gunning for him.

Two bombings, one murder, five trials: The forgotten history of a Rochester bakery

As a hit man, Taddeo had a mixed record. He twice attempted to kill mob captain Thomas Marotta, but failed both times. One of his victims wasGerald Pelusio, but in that case Taddeo fatally shot the wrong family member.

His other two victims wereNicholas Mastrodonato and Dino Tortatice.

Rochester mob consigliereRene Piccarreto hired Taddeo for the assassinations at a time when local organized crime figures were largely fighting amongthemselves for power. Taddeo was largely unknown, andPiccarreto was successful at keeping the identity secret for years.

"Even as the shootings were going on, people still wondered (who the killer was)," said retired FBI agent Dillon. "We weren't able to develop anybody for the longest period of time."

In 1992 Taddeo pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes, including the homicides. He was scheduled to be released in February 2023.

In 2020, Taddeo made an appeal for compassionate release, saying he suffered from health conditions that could be a "death sentence" because of the coronavirus. He said he suffered from hypertension, partial blindness, obesity, and anemia. A judge denied his bid for release.

Prison records show that Taddeo had numerous disciplinary issues his early years in prison, including "setting a fire" and conducting a "gambling pool" and "possessing intoxicants."

But, since the late-1990s, his record appears exemplary except for a 2010 citation for "possessing an unauthorized item."

Bureau of Prisons records from 2020 recommended that Taddeo be part of a year-long re-entry preparation program. If released in 2023, he told prison officials, he planned to live with his mother in Daytona Beach and get a job.

Among the re-entry program plans were to offer "life lessons" about returning to society.

Taddeo entered the year-long program on Feb. 22.

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1.

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'He could be hard to find': Escaped mob hitman Dominic Taddeo has been on the run before - Democrat & Chronicle