text:
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order. Now Reverend Armstrong will come forward and we will have our daily invocation. (Delegates standing as Armstrong comes forward)
ARMSTRONG: Our Heavenly Father, we are mindful of the blessings that we have, of the freedom of our country, for the building of our communities, for the raising of our families. Thou hast made us protectors of the faith of democracy. Lord, give us wisdom in the development of this constitution for the State of Alaska to proceed with Thy wisdom, Thy power and charity. In Christ's name, amen.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
CHIEF CLERK: I would like to be clear on the point. Does the change in the rule apply to attendance roll call also?
PRESIDENT EGAN: No, I would say it that rule does not apply to attendance roll call.
(The Chief Clerk called the roll.)
CHIEF CLERK: Two absent.
PRESIDENT EGAN: We will proceed with the reading of yesterday's journal. Mr. Sundborg?
SUNDBORG:. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the reading of yesterday's journal be dispensed with at this time and that the journal be approved as written.
LONDBORG: Objection.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Sundborg asks unanimous consent. Mr. Londborg objects.
SUNDBORG: I so move.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Sundborg moves.
JOHNSON: I second it.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Johnson seconds the motion that we dispense with the reading of yesterday's journal and that the journal be approved. Mr. Londborg?
LONDBORG: I would like to just find out how many days we go on this way. We should at least have some assurance that the
business yesterday. It would be nice to know just exactly what the business was.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Sundborg.
SUNDBORG: Mr. President, I am sure we are going to have a journal shortly. We are still in the early stages of organizing the secretariat, and it has just been physically impossible as I understand it for a completed journal to be on our desks each morning while the staff is so limited. It has not been filled out yet with all the employees that we are going to have here a bit later, and during this time I would like to ask that the delegates show a little consideration for the secretarial staff by not requiring it to produce a daily journal by the early hour in the morning.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mrs. Hermann.
HERMANN: Mr. President, I am not opposed to dispensing with the reading of it, but I think we should reserve the privilege of approving it when it is on our desk.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection, the Chair will hold that when the journals do appear that any delegates will have the right to bring to the attention any possible errors in the journal of any date prior to the time that it finally shows. Mr. Kilcher?
KILCHER: Before I know how to vote on this motion, I would like to know if the Secretary can give us an estimated time when we will have yesterday's journal available.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Could the Secretary answer this question?
CHIEF CLERK: It's ready. It just has to be reproduced. We have to get some typists. All the journals are all written. I have one copy of it but last night's was not completed, but as soon as we get some typists all that has to be done is the stencils cut and run off. If anyone wants to look at the journal, they are available.
SECRETARY: Mr. President, a typist is now available, it can be reproduced this morning, I am sure.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Do you mean today sometime we will have a copy of yesterday's journal?
CHIEF CLERK: If we adjourn and I can get out of this seat.
NOLAN: It takes quite a few hours on a day like yesterday with the amount of business that went through, it takes quite a few hours afterward so the help would have had to work up to
morning, so you would have to actually wait until later in the day.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Thank you, Mr. Nolan. Is there any other discussion on this motion before us of Mr. Sundborg's? The motion was that the reading of yesterday's journal be dispensed with at this time. Is that your intention, Mr. Sundborg?
UNIDENTIFIED DELEGATE: Did he also ask that it be approved?
SUNDBORG: I will drop that from the unanimous consent request.
LONDBORG: I will withdraw my objection in realizing the impossibility of reading it now considering he drops that part of his motion.
PRESIDENT EGAN: We will consider that part of any motion previously adopted on any other day was also dropped as far as the Chair was concerned. If there is no objection the reading of yesterday's journal is ordered dispensed with at this time. Mr. Secretary, here is a communication.
SECRETARY: Operation Statehood, Anchorage Chapter, Anchorage. Alaska.
"Honorable William Egan, President
Alaska Constitutional Convention
College, Alaska
Dear Mr. President:
"Operation Statehood presents to the Alaska Constitutional Convention, this, the Alaska Flag.
"To members of Operation Statehood, the Constitutional Convention is an historic and solemn occasion, and it is our objective to, through this presentation, take a small and humble part in your deliberations.
"We rest in the knowledge that yours will be a job well done, and we have abiding faith that your labor will assist measureably in bringing to a happy conclusion our long struggle for full citizenship as the 49th State of the United States of America.
/s/Ancil H. Payne
Ancil H. Payne
Operation Statehood"
Operation Statehood, I believe you have the flag. If the Sergeant at Arms could come forward and attach the flag to the standard it would be appreciated at this time.
WHITE: On behalf of Operation Statehood it gives me great pleasure to present this Alaska flag to the Alaska Constitutional Convention.
(The Sergeant at Arms came forward.)
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention may stand at ease. The Convention will come to order. Mr. Sundborg.
SUNDBORG: Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Secretary be instructed to write a letter of appreciation of the Convention to Operation Statehood for the gift of the Alaska flag.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Sundborg asks unanimous consent. You have heard his request. Is there objection? Mr. Johnson?
JOHNSON: No objection. I would like to add to that motion that if Mr. Sundborg has no objection, the communication which we received be spread upon the journal of today's proceedings in its entirety.
SUNDBORG: I accept that amendment.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The request of Mr. Johnson has been added to Mr. Sundborg's unanimous consent request. If there is no objection it is so ordered. Are there reports of standing committees? Mr. Secretary, you may read the communications.
(The Secretary read communications from the President of the University of Alaska calling attention to the fact that the facilities of the infirmary were available to delegates and to the American Association of University Women meeting to be held November 21 at which the women delegates and wives of delegates are to be honored guests, were read. Reminder of the Home Economics Department open house, Thursday, was read.)
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chair would like to at this time bring to the attention of all delegates that the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce is having its no-host dinner tomorrow evening at 7:30 at the Rendezvous. In as much as the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce has put so much effort in attempting to make the hospitality part of our stay here very pleasant, the Chair hopes that every delegate can be there. Mr. Secretary, you might read the communication that was interrupted yesterday.
644 12th & D
Juneau, Alaska
November 3, 1955
The Constitutional Convention
Territory of Alaska
P. 0. Box 4003
College, Alaska
Some years ago the Indians throughout the United States found it necessary to organize in an effort to protect their rights as established by law and treaty. They realized that freedom, even in these United States had to be protected, nurtured and defended against the common enemy of human selfishness.
Thus the National Congress of American Indians came into being and a proclamation was issued by the organization to the People of the United States to further establish a common bond of understanding.
It seems appropriate at this time, on the eve of Alaska's historical moment, to present the same message to the Constitutional Convention assembled at College, Alaska with the thought that it may influence the members of the convention to a greater responsibility in protecting the lives and liberties of all the citizens of the new state of Alaska and any rights that have been established from time immemorial in the relationship between the people who have settled here in Alaska and the aborigines.
We offer you our unconditional friendship and faith in accomplishment to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for all.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Elizabeth Peratrovich
Alaska Representative
and Member of Executive
National Congress of Am-
erican Indians
SECRETARY: The letter includes a copy of the original proclamation.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Is it the wish of the Convention that it will
MARSTON: Mr. President, I move that this communication be made a part of the record.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Marston asks unanimous consent that this communication be made a part of the record. Hearing no objection it is so ordered. Are there reports of standing or select committees? Mr. Barr?
BARR: Mr. President, before we make reports I would like to make the motion that the Secretary be instructed to provide a small bulletin board on which we can post these communications on meetings. We have no way of remembering that phone number for instance or any other information that might be desirable. This is not a part of that motion but as a suggestion, it is kind of hard to put anything on these concrete walls, but I notice there is a wooden frame around that switchboard over there (pointing to fuse box) and if it were hung on that it serves a double purpose and save the delegates from electrocution before this Convention is over. I ask unanimous consent that the Secretary provide a bulletin board.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Barr asks unanimous consent that the Secretary be instructed to provide some sort of bulletin board. Mr. Secretary, had you already made arrangements?
SECRETARY: There is one, placed by the mailbox in the Convention information headquarters. It could easily be arranged to have one here if that is the desire of the Convention.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The desire evidently of the Convention is to have one also established here in Convention Hall. We are down to introduction and first reading of proposals. Are there any proposals to be introduced for first reading at this time? Mr. McLaughlin?
MCLAUGHLIN: Mr. President, I request a three-minute recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection the Convention will stand at recess for three minutes. Hearing no objection the Convention is at recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order. The Convention will revert to the introduction of committee reports. Mr. Johnson?
JOHNSON: Mr. President, in the absence of the chairman of the committee on gavels, I should like to report that we have acquired a gavel which I believe is symbolic of Alaska and certainly as fine a piece of ivory carving that I have ever
old, maybe a little more than that and it was carved about five years ago and is absolutely without flaw. It is an unusual thing in the ordinary mammoth ivory that's found around Alaska so outside of the fact that we have to get a plate and put it on here, I do believe your committee has performed its function and I will now turn over the gavel to you. These were thrown in by the man from whom I obtained it. I bought the gavel however, but he put in these two letter openers which the President may use as he sees fit.
PRESIDENT EGAN: We certainly appreciate your efforts Mr. Johnson.
JOHNSON: Incidentally, it was Mr. Al Retzlaf of U. S. Smelting Refining and Mining Company who carved the gavel. That is a hobby with him. He does not do it as a commercial proposition at all. This particular gavel had been his own and rather a prized possession, and he did finally agree to sell it to the Convention.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection the Chair will instruct the Secretary to write a letter to Mr. Retzlaf expressing the appreciation to Mr. Retzlaf for being able to obtain a gavel of this nature.
JOHNSON: Incidentally, we also will, as quickly as possible, procure a working gavel which will probably be a wooden mallet.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Thank you, Mr. Johnson, and the Chair would like to inform Mrs. Hermann it will possibly be two or three days before we can release her gavel but it will be held under lock and key until that time.
HERMANN: Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Now we have before us the introduction and first reading of proposals. Mr. Robertson?
ROBERTSON: I would like to introduce a proposal entitled, "Courts, Judicial, Tenure, and Juries."
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Robertson desires to introduce a proposal entitled, "Courts, Judicial, Tenure, and Juries." The proposal will be referred to the Committee on Judiciary. The Secretary may read the proposal for the first time.
SECRETARY: "Constitutional Convention of Alaska. Delegate Proposal No. 1. Introduced by R. E. Robertson. COURTS, JUDICIAL, TENURE, AND JURIES."
PRESIDENT EGAN: The proposal is referred to the Committee on Judiciary. Are there other proposals to be submitted at this
or resolutions to be presented? Mr. Sundborg.
SUNDBORG: I would like to move and ask unanimous consent that we amend our rules, Page 13, Rule 35, the second line, strike the words "main question be now put and substitute in lieu thereof the words "previous question be ordered" so that the whole sentence will read "The previous question shall be put by the President in this form, shall the previous question be ordered?"
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Sundborg"asks unanimous consent that the amendment changing the words Shall the main question be now put?" to read "Shall the previous question be ordered?"
MCLAUGHLIN: Objection.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Objection is heard.
JOHNSON: I second the motion.
PRESIDENT EGAN: A second to Mr. Sundborg's motion is heard and the question is before us for discussion. Mrs. Sweeney.
SWEENEY: Mr. President, I was wondering if the first motion would not be to rescind our action on this taken yesterday. We have adopted the rules as a whole and then section by section.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mrs. Sweeney, a proposed amendment to the standing rules takes a two-thirds vote of the assembly. It would not necessarily come that we would have to rescind the action but would take a two-thirds vote to amend any of the rules. The matter is before us for discussion. Is there further discussion? Mr. McLaughlin?
MCLAUGHLIN: Mr. President, my only concern on the matter now is, it appears to be good English, and I am sure the Rules Committee would not confess the whole thing was unnecessary in the first place. If I may inquire -- does the President find it awkward?
PRESIDENT EGAN: The President will have to take that question under advisement.
MCLAUGHLIN: Mr. President, I withdraw my objection under the circumstances.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. McLaughlin withdraws his objection.
V. RIVERS: I object.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The question is, "Shall Mr. Sundborg's
adoption of the amendment signify by saying "aye", all opposed by saying "no". The "ayes" have it and the proposed amendment is ordered adopted. Are there any motions or resolutions to come before the body at this time? Is there any unfinished business? If there is no objection, the Chair at this time would like to ask Mr. Emil Sady to come forward to give a brief explanation as briefly as possible on this proposed chart relative to committee meetings and on various other matters that might aid t!,e delegates in their functions at committee meetings, and to give any other pertinent information that Mr. Sady might think helpful and necessary before the committees start to function. If there is no objection the Chair would ask Mr. Sady
V. FISCHER: Mr. President,
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Victor Fischer.
V. FISCHER: Do we not go into the Committee of the Whole?
PRESIDENT EGAN: That would be the proper procedure, Mr. Fischer.
V. FISCHER: I so move and ask unanimous consent.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Fischer asks unanimous consent that the Convention resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole for the purpose of hearing Mr. Emil Sady. Is there objection? Mr. Barr, would you come forward and take the Chair please? (Mr. Barr came forward and took the Chair.)
(At this time the Committee of the Whole met . The President appointed Mr. Barr to preside. )
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order.
JOHNSON: Mr. President, I ask for a ten-minute recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection, Mr. Johnson asks unanimous consent that the Convention stand at recess for ten minutes. If there is no objection the Convention is at recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order. The Chair would like to announce the telephone number upstairs in the information center at which you might have messages left is 5830, and the Chief Clerk has just informed the Chair that she spoke to the person in charge of the cafeteria upstairs and that about 12:30 would be the best time for the Convention
there is no objection the Chair would like to request that the records show that Mr. Buckalew was present this morning. And on that, Mr. Buckalew, we had a report of one-half of the select committee to purchase a gavel and wonder if you had the other half of the report. The Convention will come to order. Is there any other unfinished business to come before the Convention now? Mr. Johnson?
JOHNSON: Mr. President, regarding the last half of that report, if we may refer back to the committee reports, I have just learned that the working gavel should be here tomorrow and will be furnished by the Fairbanks School District. It will be ready tomorrow.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Thank you for that information. Mr. White?
WHITE: Mr. President, yesterday I gave notice of intention to reconsider a motion but got tied up in intricacies of parliamentary procedure. I object to the back row being roped off. I wonder if it is the intention of that committee to go ahead and rope us off. If so, I would like to move that they cease and desist.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. White has raised the question as to the propriety of roping off the delegates to the Convention. Is there any other discussion? The Chair will open the discussion. Mr. Victor Rivers?
V. RIVERS: I would just like for the record to show at this time to avoid further controversy, that the price of the gavel was satisfactory to the minority half of the committee, Mr. Buckalew.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Thank you for that information. If there is no objection, Mr. White, you might confer with the Chairman of the Committee on Administration as to the roping procedure. Is there any other unfinished business?
COOPER: Mr. President, I would like to inquire -- just immediately after recess I asked the engineer on the recording system if any duplicate tapes had been made yet. He advised me that they had not been. They were awaiting the arrival of equipment coming from the States in which to accomplish the duplication. Now as I recall, the motion was made that the duplicate tapes would be edited. Now am I correct in that?
PRESIDENT EGAN: No.
COOPER: All right then, the duplicates are merely going to be a duplicate of the entire proceedings of the plenary session, is that right?
PRESIDENT EGAN: That is the way in which the motion was adopted.
V. RIVERS: Mr. Chairman, may I say a word on that?
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Victor Rivers.
V. RIVERS: It is going to be my recommendation to the Statehood Committee that from those duplicate tapes we tape certain parts in to certain length programs which will then be furnished to the various radio stations, the parts which may prove interesting to the electorate. So the duplicate tapes, I anticipate will later be used for that purpose so that any of the proceedings that will be of an informative nature and will be adaptable to use on the radio stations and television, may be made available that way. I don't say the Statehood Committee is going to do that but I'm going to recommend and see if we can't do that in our program for advertising and publicizing the Convention and the Constitution.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Collins.
COLLINS: Mr. President, it is a matter of small importance but it seems that each night our different chairs have been scrambled and it is a hard matter in the morning to find your location. I hesitate to take my jackknife and cut my initials on these chairs. I think something might be done to prohibit changing of the seats.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Is it the desire of the delegates that they maintain as their desks the particular desks they are sitting at at the present moment? Then, if there is no objection, the Chair would like to request the Secretary at this time to have the Sergeant at Arms and the messenger working together, identify in some manner, each chair so the seats will be identified in the regular meeting of the Convention. Mr. Coghill?
COGHILL: Mr. President, it was felt it was the intention of the Convention that the Committee on Administration acquire tables and chairs. We have some but we do not have all the tables yet so we felt that we would have to leave the armchair type desk until we acquired the full amount of tables necessary, and then at that time a procedure of assignment would be made.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Then is it your observation, Mr. Coghill, that it might be, so long as you intend to change the seating here, it might not be necessary to go to the trouble of identifying these desks at this time?
COGHILL: Yes.
JOHNSON: I shall object to any change in the seating so far as I am concerned. I like it where I am.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Perhaps anyone with objection could arrange to meet with the Committee on Administration and talk the matter over with that Committee at some time. Mr. Nolan?
NOLAN: Mr. President, all it would take would be a typewritten slip and some Scotch tape to the desk right now.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no serious objection, the seats will be identified until such time as the Convention insists there will be a change made. At this time under unfinished business the Chair would like to state that at this dinner that is to be a no-host dinner to be held under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce tomorrow night, it is necessary that reservations be made. The Chair would like to request that before leaving here today, immediately after a recess, that each delegate who plans to be present tomorrow night at the dinner, leave his or her name with the Chief Clerk so that she might make the proper reservations as quickly as possible. Is there any other unfinished business? Special orders of the day? Any general order of the day? Mr. Victor Fischer?
V. FISCHER: Mr. President, I have a question. What is a special order of the day?
PRESIDENT EGAN: Well, something that may have been held over as a special order of the day by request or if you have something real special that you thought might not be in the category of unfinished business it would be considered as a special order of the day. If there is nothing else to come before the Convention at this time the Chair would entertain a motion for a recess, but the Chair would like to announce that immediately following the next recess we would like to have a meeting of the chairmen of all of the committees of the Convention. Mr. King?
KING: Mr. President, last Saturday we had a paper left here, a newspaper on our desk. That of course was the Colonel Eielsen Memorial edition of the Eielsen Friendly News. It was timely and very well put together, and I am sure a great number of us here appreciated it very much, and I think it would be a nice gesture of the Convention to write a letter to the Commander of the Eielsen Air Force Base in appreciation, and 1 so move.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. King moves and asks unanimous consent that a letter of appreciation be written to the Commander of the Eielsen Air Force Base commending him on the particular edition of the Eielsen Friendly Times of November 11, 1955. Mr. Barr?
BARR: Mr. President, might I amend that so that a copy of the letter also will be addressed to the editor of the paper?
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Barr asks unanimous consent that the particular motion be amended to have a copy of that letter sent to the editor of the paper at Eielsen Air Force Base. Is there objection? Hearing no objection it is so ordered. Do we have anything else to present to the Convention at this time? Mr. Robertson?
ROBERTSON: Mr. President, may I ask if the wives of delegates are invited to attend the dinner at the Chamber of Commerce?
PRESlDENT EGAN: The wives are invited. If there is nothing else to come before the Convention the Chair will accept a motion for a recess.
V. RIVERS: Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent for a recess until 4 o'clock this afternoon.
PRESlDENT EGAN: Mr. Victor Rivers asks unanimous consent that the Convention stand at recess until 4 o'clock this afternoon. Is there objection? Mr. Hellenthal?
HELLENTHAL: I had hoped that following the meeting of the committee heads that some schedule of committee meetings could be arranged, and I can't see any reason for the lateness. Is there maybe a good reason I am not aware of?
V. RlVERS: I will amend that time to any time the body sees fit but I thought it might be a very good time for us previous to recess, to announce committee meetings at this time. I can visualize the first committee meeting of all committees will take about approximately one hour in getting their organization set up. I thought that would allow them enough time to start off.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If we are going to have a general discussion, will someone second Mr. Rivers's motion.
GRAY: I second the motion.
PRESIDENT EGAN: It has been seconded by Mr. Gray, that the Convention stand at recess at 4 o'clock this afternoon and while ordinarily such a motion is not debatable, for a point of information, the Chair will allow it in this case.
HELLENTHAL: We may be putting the cart before the horse, because following this committee meeting I think we will be able to call meetings without conflict and in an organized manner rather than in uncoordinated manner. I would suggest that we meet here again at 1:30 and then make the announcements.
V.RIVERS: I will accept that amendment.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Rivers asks unanimous consent that his
until 1:30 p.m. Is there objection? Mr. Barr?
BARR: I have no objection. I wonder if it has been announced that the best time for going to lunch is 12:30. Is everybody aware of that?
PRESIDENT EGAN: That was announced from the Chair, Mr. Barr, that 12:30 would generally be the best time for the Convention delegates to eat lunch. If there is no objection then, the Convention is at recess until 1:30 p.m.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order. Mr. Johnson?
JOHNSON: Mr. President, may I refer to the order of business of introduction of proposals?
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection, Mr. Johnson will refer to introduction of proposals at this time. The Secretary will read the proposal in its first reading.
SECRETARY: "Constitutional Convention of Alaska. Delegate Proposal No. 2, introduced by Maurice T. Johnson, TO BE INTRODUCED IN BILL OF RIGHTS".
PRESIDENT EGAN: The proposal will be referred to the Committee on Preamble and Bill of Rights.
JOHNSON: Mr. President, I have a resolution which I would like to offer and ask the Clerk to read.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Secretary will proceed with the first reading of the resolution.
SECRETARY: Constitutional Convention of Alaska, November 15,
1955. Resolution: "RESOLVED, that the Alaska Constitutional Convention formally invite the Honorable William Knowland, U. S. Senator from California, to address the Convention sometime during his stay at the University of Alaska.
RESOLVED further, that the invitation of the Convention be issued to Senator Knowland through the President of the Convention."
JOHNSON: Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the rules be suspended, and that this motion be acted upon immediately without committee reference.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Johnson moves and asks unanimous consent that this motion be acted upon immediately without committee
R. RIVERS: I will object just for a point of information. What is it going to cost the Convention?
JOHNSON: I would not think it would cost anything since Senator Knowland is to appear at the University on November 29 at the convocation at which he is to receive an honorary degree, and it just occurred to me, since he is a national figure, that it would be fine for this Convention to have him appear briefly.
R. RIVERS: He is coming anyway? We are just inviting him to address the Convention? I withdraw my objection.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Rivers withdraws his objection. If there is no further objection it is so ordered and the Convention will extend an invitation to Senator William Knowland to address the Convention at some appropriate time during his stay here in Fairbanks.
JOHNSON: Under the suspension of the rules I was simply asking that the matter be acted upon immediately. If that motion was carried then, I now move that the resolution be adopted in order that the record might complete.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chair misunderstood your request, Mr. Johnson. The Chair understood that you meant that in your original request. The Chair has ruled that your original request has been adopted and that an invitation will be extended to Senator William Knowland to address this Convention at some appropriate time during his stay. Mr. Robertson?
ROBERTSON: Mr. President, I want to refer back to introduction of proposals again. I would like to introduce a proposal if I may.
PRESIDENT EGAN: If there is no objection. Hearing no objection, Mr. Robertson, you may present your proposal. The Secretary may read the proposal.
SECRETARY: "Constitutional Convention of Alaska. Proposal No. 3, introduced by R. E. Robertson, TAXATION.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The proposal is ordered referred to the Committee on Finance. Mr. Sundborg.
SUNDBORG: I would just like to make an inquiry here whether these proposals that have come in have been in conformity with our rules as to the matter of brief title. I don't know who can answer that question. Our rules say that each proposal shall carry a brief title. I would assume that as in the case of a bill before the legislature that the title would
be a word like taxation. It should say something about what treatment it would give to the subject of taxation.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chair would hold your point is well taken, Mr. Sundborg and all proposals should have some sort of brief title in order that in its first reading some idea can be obtained to the nature of the proposal. Mr. McCutcheon?
MCCUTCHEON: It would appear to me that the title, "TAXATION" . is a relatively short instrument, the title of "TAXATION" is sufficient. If you were to go into the title, why you would give the whole body of the text or material. I would be inclined to agree with Mr. Robertson's proposal in this particular instance.
PRESIDENT EGAN: In this particular instance, Mr. McCutcheon, but you go along on the premise that each proposal should have something that would adequately describe briefly, the body of the text? The Chair didn't realize that that was such a brief title. Are there other proposals to be introduced at this time? If not, the Convention will proceed with its business. At this time again, the Chairman would like to remind all delegates that in order to attend t[[paragraph]],e dinner to be given by the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce at the Rendezvous tomorrow night it will be necessary that you secure reservations, and it will be necessary that you secure reservations, and that you notify the Chief Clerk as quickly as possible as to your intentions of attending that dinner so she can make the proper reservations in time. At this time the Chair would like to announce that a committee of committee chairmen during the noon hour have arranged a tentative Convention schedule during the sessions of Monday through Saturday. This is the tentative schedule they have set up for presentation to you:
9:00 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. Plenary Session
9:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.
I Rules
II Administration
V Rights
VIII Executive Branch
XIV Resolutions
Now, those five committees are set up to meet on Monday through Saturday, 9:30 - 10:50 a.m. You will note that included in those five committees are two or three committees that at this time won't have too much to do, so your committee of chairmen felt there would be ample time, at least for the time being, to set them up from 9:30 - 10:50. The second group of committee meetings are set up from
III Style
Vl Elections
X Resources
and the next group of committees are set up tentatively to meet from
2:00 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.
VII Legislative Branch
IX Judiciary
XI Finance
and the fourth group of committees are set up to meet from
3:30 p.m. to 4:50 p.m.
IV Ordinance
XII Local Government
XIII Amendment
Now all these committees are set up in such a manner, these groups, that the attendance of any member of those committees at a committee meeting during those times will not interfere with his membership on any other committee that might be meeting, and so while this is a tentative suggestion and possibly won't hold through the entire Convention, the Chair feels that it is so important to get the committee meetings under way that if there is no objection the Chair for the time being, at least, will declare that these will be the official times for those particular committees to meet until further notice. Mr. Victor Rivers.
V. RIVERS: Mr. President, I have no objection except I want to discuss it briefly and to say if we are going to start meeting in plenary session at 9:00 o'clock, and have Committee meetings through the day that that will then foreclose any evening committee meetings because if you are going to work from 9 in the day until 5:00 or 5:30 I don't believe there will be many of us fresh enough to do much after dinner. I thought that one of the work sessions should possibly fall in the evening for some of the committees that will be at certain periods, heavily burdened.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. McLaughlin.
MCLAUGHLIN: Mr. President, first of all, on the explanation, this runs Monday through Saturday, it is tentative. There is nothing in here that is a mandate to Mr. Rivers if he is a chairman, to prohibit Mr. Rivers. from having a meeting either at any time after 4:50 on any week day or having one all day Sunday. These rules were essential to prevent the conflict which was inevitable. It is almost as Dr. Sady said, a mathematical miracle that we can provide that every day of the
say, "We will have a meeting at such and such a time." This is not compelling, it is understandable, upon the Convention but it is compelling upon all other committee chairmen, in a sense that if the chairman of any committee desires, or exercises his right to use the specific hour for the meeting of his committee, it will not be interfered in by any other committee. To me it is obvious, it is not intended to be prohibitive, it is merely prohibitive if Mr. Rivers shall be prevented in the future.
V. RIVERS: Point of order. I object to having my name used and put it in the record. I made a point of discussion only, and I want to say this does not preclude us from meeting at 9 a.m. That was the point I made. After meeting at 9:00 a.m. you might not want an evening meeting.
MCLAUGHLIN: Forgive me.It is merely explanatory, sir. That is not compelling upon the committees, but that is reserved time for each committee.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Victor Fischer.
V. FISCHER: Mr. President, I have an inquiry as to how rigid this schedule is, would it be possible for instance for a committee to meet at a time other than that which is assigned to the committee, even if all members may not be present at that time if the committee chairman feels that otherwise insufficient time is available? For instance, the committee in Group IV might possibly want to meet in the morning, and at that time say they meet during the time assigned to Group II.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Fischer, it would be the Chair's opinion that in a case of that nature, it would then become the committee chairman's duty to attempt to arrange such a thing by finding out just what other committees were meeting at that time and whether there would be a conflict. The Chair can see no reason why as Mr. McLaughlin stated, there is no compelling reason, even then, if there is no conflict, against having a meeting at a different time if necessary so long as it does not conflict with any of the memberships on other committees.
V. FISCHER: Mr. President, my point was that in some cases a committee might possibly want to meet even if there is a conflict, with one or two members maybe absent. Would there be any basic objection to that?
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chair does not feel if the majority of the committee members want to meet that there could be any objection to it if they decided that. Mrs. Hermann?
HERMANN: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Secretary for a point of information in connection with the bus schedule.
free to bring delegates out at 8:30 since it conflicted with the school bus schedule, and I think we ought to take that into consideration before deciding on that 9 o'clock hour.
PRESlDENT EGAN: Mrs. Hermann, that is what the Chairman pointed out to the members of this committee, and then on the other hand the Chairman remembered that he has been coming out on that 8:30 bus every morning and there are usually only three or four people on the entire bus the bus that leaves for the University at 8:30 in the morning is practically empty every morning.
HERMANN: It is a small bus, however, Mr. President. Does it come all the way to this building or stop further down?
PRESIDENT EGAN: It stops in front of the old cafeteria. It probably would not take too much effort to get them to come over here, but that is a point on which we will have to be clear. The Chief Clerk has suggested that perhaps we have overlooked one thing here on the Convention schedule -- that is that between 1:30 and 2 o'clock it might be wise to call an afternoon session in the event there might be resolutions to present or proposals to present or other business to come before the Convention. If there is no objection, then in between the second and third schedules on your sheet we will assume there will be a brief plenary session to begin at 1:30 p.m. each day. Hearing no objection it is so ordered. Is there further business to come before the Convention at this time? Mrs. Sweeney?
SWEENEY: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask one point. These proposals that have been introduced now and assigned to committee -- as I understand it, copies will be distributed among the delegates -- is that right?
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Chair does not recall what the rule says but copies of all proposals it would be assumed, would be available to all the delegates of the Convention.
SWEENEY: Will they be mimeographed so we w111 have copies?
PRESIDENT EGAN: That is the Chair's understanding. Is that correct, Mr. Secretary? Is there any other business.
GRAY: What is the effective time of this schedule as of now or as of tomorrow?
PRESIDENT EGAN: As of now.
GRAY: I think arrangements should be made, if they run a small bus out at 8:30, make arrangements to use the largest bus.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Committee on Administration would do so immediately upon recess, if possible, if they could find out the answer to that question.
COGHILL: Mr. President, could we have a two-minute recess and I ask unanimous consent, to confer with the Secretary on assignment of committee rooms?
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Hellenthal?
HELLENTHAL: A point of information. Mr. Stewart informed me a few minutes ago that there are six rooms upstairs available for the six committees that will meet this afternoon, and when the committees get up there he will show them their rooms.
PRESIDENT EGAN: It will also be possible that every committee can have its committee room in this building if some of those rooms are used by two different committees at different times. In that way the membership of the committees will not have to
run around to some other building. That is a matter that will
have to be resolved between the committee chairmen as to what committees will use a particular room. Mr. Coghill, you asked unanimous consent that the Convention stand at recess for two minutes so you consult about this bus schedule. If there is no objection the Convention will be at recess for two minutes. The Convention is at recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: The Convention will come to order. Is there any other business to come before the Convention at this time? Mr. McNealy?
MCNEALY: I find that committee meetings scheduled here for 2 o'clock there is no conflict; there is no member of the Ordinances Committee on either the Legislative, Judiciary or Finance, at least for this day I would like to announce a meeting of the Ordinances and Transitional Measures after any recess.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. McCutcheon.
MCCUTCHEON: Pursuant to the established periods, the Legislative Committee will meet immediately upon adjournment or recess as the case may be.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. McNealy and Mr. McCutcheon announce meetings of the Committee on Ordinances and Transitional Measures and the Legislative Committee immediately upon recess. Mr. McLaughlin?
MCLAUGHLIN: The Judiciary Committee will meet upstairs in the
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. McLaughlin announces a meeting of his Judiciary Committee upstairs immediately after recess or adjournment. Mr. Nerland?
NERLAND: Mr. President, the Finance Committee will also meet immediately after adjournment upstairs.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Nerland announces a meeting of the Finance Committee immediately upon adjournment. Mr. Coghill.
COGHILL: Mr. President, in accordance with the Convention schedule there will be arrangements for a large bus to leave the Nordale at 8:30 in the morning and to come to the front of the Convention Hall.
PRESIDENT EGAN: You have heard the announcement by Mr. Coghill. Are there any other committee announcements at this time? Mr. Rosswog?
ROSSWOG: A meeting of Local Government Committee at 3:30.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Rosswog announces a meeting of the Local Government Committee at 3:30. Mr. Collins?
COLLINS: The Committee on Amendment will not meet this afternoon. One of our members is absent and we will try to find time sometime tomorrow for organization. If that is agreeable with the majority of.the members here we will postpone until tomorrow.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Collins announces there will be no meeting of the Committee on Amendment this afternoon. Is there any other business to come before the Convention? If not, the Chair will entertain a motion. Mr. Johnson.
JOHNSON: Mr. President, I move that the Convention stand adjourned until tomorrow morning at 9:00 o'clock and ask unanimous consent.
PRESIDENT EGAN: Mr. Johnson moves and asks unanimous consent that the Convention stand adjourned until tomorrow at 9 a.m. Is there objection? Hearing no objection the Convention is adjourned until tomorrow at 9 a.m.


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National Taxpayer Advocate: Help Is Available for Victims of Identity Theft
When identity thieves target taxpayers to obtain improper tax refunds, it causes serious consequences for the victim and for the IRS. The IRS is taking steps to make it more difficult for perpetrators to successfully file falsified returns using others' personal information (prevention) and to make it more costly if caught doing so (deterrence). But as the voice of the taxpayer, my focus is on IRS's victim assistance to those who find themselves impacted by identity theft.
If you are a victim of identity theft and believe your federal tax account has been compromised, please click on this link to learn how to report the incident to the IRS: www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/Individuals/Identity-Theft. If you are experiencing economic harm or you're not satisfied with the assistance provided by the IRS, please contact your Local Taxpayer Advocate (click here for a full list of TAS office locations: www.irs.gov/uac/Contact-a-Local-Taxpayer-Advocate).
The IRS has made some improvements to victim assistance in recent years. For example, victims who substantiate their identity and address will be issued an Identity Protection PIN. This unique number must be used in conjunction with the victim's SSN (or ITIN) in future years; the IRS will delay processing of returns filed without this IP PIN to protect taxpayers from being victimized again.
In the National Taxpayer Advocate's 2013 Annual Report to Congress, I included identity theft again as one of the most serious problems facing taxpayers. Because identity theft is an invasive crime that can have traumatic emotional impact on its victims, I believe the IRS should model its centralized identity theft unit after its innocent spouse unit that assists taxpayers who may have been victims of domestic abuse. Most importantly, there should be one IRS employee assigned to interact with the victim and maintain control of the taxpayer's case (including all peripheral issues stemming from the identity theft). You can read my report on identity theft here and my full Annual Report here.
Nina E. Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, is the voice of the taxpayer before the IRS and Congress.
It has been a traumatic experience as a victim of ID theft. Every effort made to shake off this nightmare is met by a new ID theft plan. FTC should formulate a policy of putting the thieves permanently out of business.
The traumatic emotional impact of ID theft affects the whole family. It takes years to sort it out. It is impossible to measure the limit of the damage.
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Read Our Privacy Act Statement
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC's computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC's Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Britain's biggest solar farm will be built in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire despite "significant concerns" from Natural England, unless Eric Pickles issues an eleventh-hour veto.
Planners at Swindon Borough Council have given permission for a company owned by the council to install 160,000 solar panels at a disused airfield in Wroughton, in a development that will span the size of 96 football pitches.
But the council said it had referred the decision to the Communities Secretary for review because Mr Pickles had made clear he would "take an interest in solar proposals, particularly where there are significant impacts".
A spokesman for the council also acknowledged "sensitivities" related to the council's financial interest in the project.
Natural England opposes the farm on the grounds "it would result in a significant adverse impact on the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)".
It says it believes council planners have disregarded "independent expert opinion, without offering any new evidence or adequate explanation".
Andrew Lord, of the North Wessex Downs AONB, said that the plan was "unprecedented in any nationally protected landscape in the country" and would spoil the views from local landmarks.
But the project developers say that 80 per cent of people who attended a consultation in January supported the plan.
The village of Wroughton, which has about 8,500 inhabitants, has been promised up to £40,000 a year in community benefits for the next 30 years.
Construction of the solar farm is expected to begin immediately if Mr Pickles does not intervene in the next 21 days and will take three to four months to complete.
It will be in line for subsidy payments of about £2.6m a year on top of the market price of electricity if it starts running by April, or £2.3m a year if it starts running after as subsidy levels are due to be cut.
The subsidies will last for 20 years and be paid for through green levies on consumer energy bills.
The Wroughton farm is due to be built on land owned by the Science Museum, which stores 30,000 objects from reserve national collections in old aircraft hangars at the site. The 40MW plant would generate enough electricity to supply the equivalent of 12,000 homes.
In October Mr Pickles issued a statement that "renewable energy does not automatically override environmental protections", noting communities' concerns that "when it comes to developments such as wind turbines and solar farms, insufficient weight is being given to local environmental considerations like landscape, heritage and local amenity".
He then vetoed a planned 24MW solar farm at an airfield in Suffolk that was assessed would cause "limited harm".
Matt Moore, Head of Wroughton Site, Science Museum Group, said: "Solar farms should be sited appropriately and sensitively – this is a great location, it's semi-industrial land, close to a major town."
James Owen, Commercial Director at Swindon Commercial Services Ltd, the subsidiary of the council, said, said: "This project has had outstanding support from the local community throughout, so we are extremely pleased that Swindon Council has authorised its approval."


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In 33 years of filmmaking, director Michael Mann has only made 10 theatrically-released feature-length films. Averaging one every three years (with two long gaps of about six years—we're reaching the end of the second now), his un-prolific nature is perhaps due to meticulous and exhausting research processes and character explorations which often lead to completed screenplays ... only for him to abandon them when he finds something amiss. "I only do films I truly believe in," Michael Mann said in a 1990s interview expressing frustration with his somewhat unproductive pace and yet simultaneously articulating the vital quality that makes him the filmmaker we know today. It's the sort of thing many directors might say, but Mann, more than many others, has the courage of his convictions and the resulting short but blazing filmography to back up his sincerity.
"I don't work 40 hours a week and come home, take [weekends] off and leave my work at the office. I don't know how to live like that," one of the lead detectives says in "L.A. Takedown," Mann's 1989 TV movie that he remade faithfully years later as "Heat." These fixations are as much Mann's words to live by as they are axioms that could conceivably apply to practically every lead character the filmmaker has ever created. In fact, the central male in the films of Michael Mann (and it's always a man) is almost always defined by his code of life. His central preoccupation is often professional obsession, even fanaticism, often at the price of ordinary existence, which is perhaps why so many of his men are ascetic, Zen-like students of their own trade; detached to the point where they are able drop everything if things go south and walk away with only the skills they have worked on. Somehow we never doubt those skills will be enough.
Perhaps this ongoing interest in professional zeal is what attracts Mann so often to stories pitting criminals against those who seek to put them behind bars ("Heat," "Public Enemies," Thief," "Collateral," "Miami Vice" both the TV show—which Mann produced—and the movie). His films frequently suggest that in fact, at the top of their respective games, crooks and cops are not so dissimilar as men: they each live and die by their own codes and they each recognize themselves in the other. There is even a loose honor among between these seeming adversaries, almost a mutual understanding.
But if Mann returns repeatedly to drink from the same thematic well, rarely are the results repetitive or uninspired. His favorite reoccurring motifs—sacrifice, commitment to craft above all things, pre-planned exit strategies, the failure of domestic bliss and what author Nick James calls the "uneasy truce between women and men"—are almost always present, but often he combines these elements with trademark focus and precision in different permutations to yield subtly but undeniably different results. The titular pugilist of "Ali" sacrifices wife after wife for the higher calling of boxing; the detectives of "Miami Vice" live to work; the career criminal of "Collateral" could be a modern day "Le Samouraï"; "The Insider" chronicles the compulsive behavior of two men in search of the truth; while "Manhunter" follows a meticulous cat-and-mouse game in which cat and mouse are evenly matched. These are all focused, professional, tunnel-visioned men but their spheres, and the films they inhabit as as similar but as unique as fingerprints.
With his later-era phase of digital filmmaking, early adopter Mann has somewhat polarized his following in recent years, but even as he's divided audiences, he's still often enraptured us with his laser-focused portraits of men following a professional code of honor with such dedication that it renders them exceptional. Not at all unlike the filmmaker himself.
"The Jericho Mile" (1979, TV movie)
It can be unfair to lump a director's television work in with his theatrical features, especially when it dates from the very start of his career. And at first glance, Michael Mann's full-length fiction debut (his previous credits comprise a documentary, a short, a documentary short and a single episode of the Angie Dickinson-starring "Police Woman" show), "The Jericho Mile," which was produced by ABC, fits this mold. With its boxy aspect ratio, low production values and lack of established stars, it's the kind of film that could now be an embarrassment to a prestige filmmaker of such consummate sophistication as Mann. Except it's really good. Sure, the trappings are creaky, especially as even the DVD transfer (PAL only, we believe) isn't the highest quality (and on YouTube the image is occasionally pixelated to the point of incomprehensibility), and a rather insistent instrumental version of "Sympathy for the Devil" is overused as a leitmotif, but the story is brilliantly resonant and compelling even now, and the casting of actual inmates and the use of the actual Folsom Prison as a location gives it a very Mann-esque feeling of authenticity throughout. It's the surprisingly moving tale of Rain Murphy (Peter Strauss, doing a fine job with a role that in a bigger budget version would have probably gone to Clint Eastwood), a lifer serving out his sentence for murder the only way he knows how—by keeping to himself bar a single interracial friendship, remaining resolutely removed from the ethnic gangs and factions that jostle for power on the inside, and indulging his one hobby and talent: running. In fact, it comes to the attention of the prison authorities that he may be one of the fastest runners in America and could qualify for the Olympic team. What then unfolds builds quietly into something unassumingly epic, a grand yet pessimistic drama (the anti-'Shawshank') about the danger of hope in this hopeless place, and the cruelty of dreams that circumstances will always thwart. Oh and the cautionary tale of ever trusting Brian Dennehy. What could easily turn into an inspirational movie-of-the-week-style drama about overcoming insurmountable odds or some such guff instead becomes a bruisingly melancholic parable about the inherent contradictions of a prison system supposedly dedicated to the ideal of rehabilitation in a wider society that doesn't know or care what that word means. Mann and co-writer Patrick J. Nolan play it as a kind of unfunny cosmic joke: even as Murphy, despite himself, unites the racially divided prison population in support of something noble and decent, the uncaring world outside will always cheat him of his newfound aspirations. To the point that perhaps Murphy was right before, and he never should have hoped in the first place. It's a sad, intelligent, occasionally angry film that highlights issues that, if you minus the jive talk and the hairstyles, remain to this day, and it's an early example of Mann's unsentimental humanism, a trait that is often overlooked in his glossier big-screen outings. [B+]
"Thief" (1981)
It's rare that with a filmmaker's first theatrical feature we get to stare straight at a near-perfect iteration of what he will become, but that's the case with Michael Mann and the terrific "Thief." It's a film that, while wearing its influences on its sleeve (touchstones "Rififi" and "Le Cercle Rouge" are called to mind by the wordless opening heist scene), is its own animal, and went on itself to become so influential that its induction into the Criterion Collection, while certainly welcome, feels long overdue (for a while this elegant, spare, character-driven crime drama was relatively undervalued). This is doubly incomprehensible when you consider that it contains the self-judged best performance from James Caan (what, do you really need us to remind you he was in "The Godfather"?), as well as one of the greatest undersung debut performances ever from 51-year-old Robert Prosky, and a very strong candidate for the single greatest scene that Mann has ever directed: a diner scene that is mirrored by its more famous counterpart in "Heat." In "Thief," however, rather than Pacino and De Niro, the scene features Caan and Tuesday Weld, and delivers, through dialogue that is at the same time transparently performed and heightened beyond strictest realism, everything you need to know about these two complex characters, especially Frank (Caan). And even this early in his career, Mann shows his uncanny knack for creating something epic and tragic and sweepingly dramatic out of details that in other hands could be hammy cliches: witness Frank's pathetic collage, culled from magazines cuttings, that depicts the dream life for which he strives. In anyone else's hands that's the picture of the sailboat the doomed guy's gonna buy when he retires, but Mann and Caan make it something else, something compelling and desperate and lonely and sad. Slickly lit night driving scenes as neon reflections bounce across windscreens (prefiguring "Blade Runner" 's aesthetic by a year; the comparison is especially noticeable in the new Criterion version), an authenticity borne of deep research and a spartan, uncondescending attitude to the audience's intelligence are also precursor Mann trademarks in evidence here, but this is much more than simply a film for completists. With its gory, slo-mo shotgun blasts, late-stage pyrotechnics and a Tangerine Dream score that's either iconic or irritatingly dated, depending on your viewpoint, at the very beginning of the decade "Thief" embodied many of the earmarks of what we now recognize as '80s cinema, even debuting such subsequently familiar faces as Prosky, Dennis Farina and James Belushi. But with its unwavering focus on character, lived-in performances and almost Bressonian interest in the minutiae of procedure—the tools, the craft, the effort—it also entirely transcends its time period to become something very close to a classic. [A]
"The Keep" (1983)
Not so much a skeleton in Mann's closet as a gigantic hulking glowy-eyed smoke monster in his remote Romanian fortress, "The Keep" is inarguably a total shambles, but it is a kind of fascinating shambles. That Mann essayed it at all is seems in retrospect tremendously unlikely, but it's proof that whatever the rest of his filmography suggests, Mann wasn't always laser-focused on being the master of the low-key, pulsating, urban crime drama, and indeed, after the modest success of his theatrical debut "Thief" appears to have looked at this story of Nazis, priests, immortal demon thingies, Romanian peasants and wheelchair-bound Jewish professors of arcana and thought "Hey! Maybe that's my wheelhouse!" The novel of the same name by F. Paul Wilson is reportedly a sweeping epic of real-world historical evil coming into contact with otherworldly evil and perhaps, in its original, reportedly 3 1/2-hour cut, the film would have been that too, but the truncated 96-minute version that got released seems to have been assembled quite arbitrarily with no thought for story coherence or character consistency. And so things happen in a bewildering, unprompted fashion: from one scene to the next people show up in places where decades of film language development suggest they can't already be; characters change from crazy to sane and back again without apparent cause; Eva (the blankly doe-eyed Alberta Watson), the daughter of Dr. Cuza (Ian McKellen), falls into bed with the mysterious glowy-eyed avenging angel Glaeken (Scott Glenn) having known him for about 30 seconds and engages in one of those long writhy sex scenes on which the '80s expended most of its celluloid. (But if the love story did it for you, there's even an alternate ending where they reunite.) It's batshit bonkers and about as far as imaginable from the cool, slick-but-gritty restraint that became Mann's signature, though the set design and some bravura camera moves certainly hint that there's more going on in terms of visual style, than a mere journeyman would bring. And there are flashes of something better—some of the speeches given to the 'good German' (Jurgen Prochnow) or to the evil SS officer played by Gabriel Byrne, actually bring up unusual philosophical questions before we abruptly cut away to something daft. With a Tangerine Dream score on hand to remind us that though the film may be set in 1941, it was made in 1983, and that occasionally feels like an extended Kim Carnes intro, "The Keep" amounts to the one thing that Mann movies can never otherwise be accused of: camp. The director's filmography is short enough that almost every entry has some superlative with which we can sum it up, and this one is no different: it is, by a very, very wide margin Mann's silliest film, though not without its passing, largely wtf?, pleasures. [C]


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Post-Game Notes: USF
Related Links
March 25, 2013
#2 California (82) vs #10 USF (78) - Post Game Notes
California advances to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second time in program history.
California moved it's all-time NCAA Tournament record to 7-8.
California earns the first 30-win season in program history with a 30-3 record.
Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb earned her 55th victory as head coach at California (55-13) - setting a new two-year win total record in program history. She surpasses Joanne Boyle who won 54 games from 2007-09 with identical 27-7 records those two seasons.
California is now 2-0 against South Florida, the last victory coming in the 2008-09 season which coincidentally was California's last Sweet 16 season.
California has now led at the half in 28 of 33 games this season with its (37-32) lead against Fresno State, and the Bears are (27-1) in those games. The Bears did not lead against Duke (trailed, lost), Oregon State at home (trailed, won) or in either game against Colorado (1st Meeting - tied, won; 2nd Meeting - trailed, won).
Lindsay Gottlieb now ties Joanne Boyle for most NCAA Tournament victories in program history at 3. Gottlieb is 3-1 in NCAA Tournament games, the best winning NCAA winning percentage of Cal coaches.
Four Bears hit double figures in the game - Boyd, Brandon, Clarendon, Gray
The first overtime game in California's NCAA Tournament history.
Cal's second overtime game of the season and they improve to 2-0 in those games - the other being a 71-63 win over USC at Haas.
Brittany Boyd
Flirted wih her second consecutive triple-double this week with (12) points, (8) rebounds and (8) assists.
Gennifer Brandon
With her (13) rebounds, is now at (362) for the season to improve upon her own California single-season mark.
Registered her 18th double-double of the season and 33rd of her career with (13) points and (12) rebounds.
Talia Caldwell
With her (5) rebounds, is now at (983) rebounds in her career, making her (16) rebounds shy of becoming the third Golden Bear to hit the 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound mark.
Scored (6) points to move to (1,115) in her career, just (21) shy of passing Leigh Gregory for No. 15 on the California all-time scoring list.
Layshia Clarendon
Scored (27) points - the second-most points by a Cal player in NCAA Tournament play. It falls just shy of Trisha Stafford's 33-point effort against Santa Clara on March 18, 1992.
With her (27) points, is now at (1749) career points, just (17) points shy of passing Jennifer Bennett (1766 points, 1984-87) for fourth on the California all-time scoring list.
Finished one point shy of her season high and two points shy of her career high
Reshanda Gray
Has hit double digits scoring in all four of her career NCAA Tournament games after scoring (14) points Monday night.