The July 4 holiday weekend started with what news reports call a “suspicious fire,” which burned a gay pride float meant for the Independence Day parade to nothing but ashes. Luckily, hot on the heels (no pun intended) of the LGBT community’s annual PrideFest week, volunteers built a new float, appropriately called “Phoenix Rising,” which won the parade’s Grand Champion trophy.

No one’s out-and-out called the probable arson a hate crime yet, but it did remind Briefs of what Mayor Dan Sullivan announced when he vetoed last summer’s equal rights ordinance, which would have added sexual orientation to the city’s equal rights clause.

“My review shows that there is clearly a lack of quantifiable evidence necessitating this ordinance,” Sullivan’s statement read. “My review also shows that the vast majority of those who communicated their position on the ordinance are in opposition. As elected officials, we are charged with reflecting the will of the community in our decisions, particularly in the absence of compelling data that would supersede that will.” Personally, Mayor Sullivan, Briefs hopes you don’t need a hell of a lot more compelling data or quantifiable evidence than hate-fueled arson, if this incident is indeed what it appears to be.

In a battle of press releases, the local public relations representative for Remington Hospitality—which manages the Anchorage Sheraton, a hotel currently under boycott by Unite HERE Local 878, the hospitality workers’ union—pulled a Palin and sent out a presser on Friday afternoon of the Fourth of July weekend. The press release announced that the employees “no longer wish to be represented by [the union]… In light of this new development, by law the hotel cannot legally recognize or bargain with the union.”

On Monday, the union fired back, saying “[M]anagement has falsely declared the hotel ‘non-union.’” Four terminated workers have been reinstated to their old jobs, “in order to avoid costly litigation,” according to Remington.

But the union calls Remington’s proclamation it’s no longer a union hotel illegal.

“This is in fact not possible, because the Federal Government has not made such a ruling. Despite management’s protest, the Sheraton Anchorage is still very much a union house,” according to the union’s press release.

Remington recently had a formal complaint filed against it by the National Labor Relations Board, and a hearing is scheduled for August 17. You haven’t heard the last of this.

bjk@anchoragepress.com