Alaska officials are investigating racist jokes about US president-elect Barack Obama that have been circulating on state government e-mail accounts.
One of the five e-mails obtained by The Associated Press (AP) asks about the outcome of the Democrat’s victory after all the time and money invested and concludes: “Another black family living in government housing!”
State officials were unaware of the e-mails until asked about them by AP.
‘EMBARRASSING’
Three of the racist messages were confirmed by the state’s information technology division after an electronic search of the government’s e-mail system, Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer said on Wednesday.
“It’s embarrassing to the state,” she said.
Kreitzer said she had alerted the office of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin — the failed Republican vice presidential candidate — about the e-mails.
Bill McAllister, Palin’s spokesman, said in an e-mail that the matter concerned individual actions taken by a handful of state employees among thousands.
“My understanding is that the Department of Administration is following up on this with the individuals who took action to forward the offensive e-mails,” he said. “This is, of course, a confidential personnel and disciplinary matter that has nothing to do with the governor’s office.”
The Reverend Alonzo Patterson, state chairman of the Alaska Black Leadership Conference, encouraged Palin to address the e-mails.
“They’re doing that in a state setting,” he said. “She should condemn it.”
Officials were not releasing the names or positions of workers involved.
FORWARDED
It appears the original e-mails were sent to state employees from outside the state system, but some state employees forwarded them.
It was not immediately clear how many workers were involved in forwarding the e-mails.
The personnel files of state workers who circulated the jokes will be examined for a pattern of similar behavior, Kreitzer said.
Discipline will be determined by past behaviors and could range from diversity training to letters of reprimand, she said.
The state was investigating whether the two other e-mails given to AP also were in the state system, Kreitzer said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not