The Anti-Public Education Agenda Comes to Alaska…
…And Hardly Anybody Knows It Many of us have heard the stories: new Republican Governors and Tea Party majorities in state legislatures across the country have been targeting public employees and their salaries, pensions, health benefits, etc… Along with this, there has been a major push at another budget-cut target — public school systems. Public Education faces massive cuts in Texas ($4 bil), huge cuts in Wisconsin ($900 mil), more cuts in North Carolina, budget cuts and a removal of the school districts’ tax authority in Pennsylvania (inhibiting individual districts from raising property taxes), and a governor-declared “financial emergency” in…
Governor Sean Parnell and House Forfeit Alaska Sovereignty
By Shannyn Moore I was 8 years old and Frank McMichael was the most curmudgeonly man I’d ever met. He was the first person I’d heard cuss. Oscar the Grouch had Frank McMichael eyebrows. Frank carried a .44 revolver. Instead of a mattress, he slept on stacks of cardboard. At the time, my family was new to setnet fishing. The best memories of my life were on the west side of Cook Inlet — living in a bunkhouse built of cannery crates, with Visqueen windows, an outhouse and a creek. Frank had moved to the west side after World War…
Open Thread: What a 9.0 Earthquake Sounded Like in Alaska plus a Friday Summary of Events
National Oceanic and Aeronautics Organization (NOAA) does regular scientific research all over Alaska but especially in the wildlife and Arctic areas. They frequently use sophisticated underwater recording equipment to gather information on marine mammals: However, on March 11, 2011 off of the coast of the Aleutian Islands, they happened to catch the sound of something very different…the 9.0 Japanese earthquake. The sound underwater was absolutely facinating while at the same time it gave me goosebumps. It’s amazing to me how clearly it can be heard, though I have occasionally heard a rumble or kind of rushing sound just preceding several…
Oyster Roundup! Guns, Money and Cheese…
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Pass the Bree Hey, remember when Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan “favorited” a porn star on Twitter last year? It was quite an entertaining tale, and you can refresh your memory HERE. Little did we know that the story would have a Chapter 2, and become more entertaining still. You see, it turns out that Mayor Sullivan’s favoritest porn star has now shed her porn name, and become (are you sitting down?) one of Charlie Sheen’s two “goddesses.” That’s right boys and girls… Sully’s Bree Olson is now…
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell’s Big Oil Bailout
~Senator Bill Wielechowski explains ACES *ATTENTION BLOGGERS – If you have a blog, and would like to repost this article in its entirety including links, photos, and attribution, please feel free to do so. This is important information, and it’s never easy going against the well-funded falsehoods continually pushed forward by the oil companies. Often, the truth is free and the lies cost a lot of money. So, help yourself and pass it on. You can also post the link in your Facebook page, or post the link in a Tweet. Thanks! By Thomas Dewar and Jeanne Devon “Each…
The Best Bill in Juneau on Moore Up North TONIGHT!
Join us TONIGHT, Thursday, March 3, 2011 for the 52nd taping of Moore Up North with Shannyn Moore, at the world-famous TAPROOT! Taproot is located in the Republic of Spenard at 3300 Spenard Road. It’s Mr. Whitekeys’ old Fly By Night Club! The taping starts promptly 5:30pm. Senator Bill Wielechowski, the best Bill in Juneau, will be Shannyn’s guest for the entire hour! Senator Wielechowski is bringing his outstanding power point presentation/takedown on oil company greed and disengenuous fiscal claims to our fine stage. Do not miss this program. We will have a large projection screen set up for our…
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Synthetic Cannabis
I was in an Anchorage Assembly meeting a few weeks ago, and the question came before the body – Should synthetic cannabinoids be illegal? I had never heard of “synthetic cannabinoids” and thought that this sounded like some kind of manufactured drug that had the same effect as marijuana. After a few questions, I found out that this stuff which looked a lot like cannabis was being marketed as “incense” under the name “Spice,” “K2” and others, and being sold over the counter in Anchorage. The Assembly voted to illegalize the substance and I thought at the time that I should…
Will The AK Liquor Lobby Benefit From Its Investment In The AK Legislature? *UPDATE*
When the word “lobby” is used in Alaska, the first thing that logically springs to mind is Big Oil. However, there is a very powerful lobby which has reigned supreme in this state longer than the oil companies and it revolves around Alaska’s favorite drug-of-choice, alcohol. Why is the alcohol lobby so influential in Alaska? The first picture that comes to mind is that of Alaska’s early Wild West days, including the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Along with these hopeful gold miners came early entrepreneurs and colorful vice-peddlers who discovered a different kind of “gold mining” in the “Land…
Oyster Roundup! Fake Palin, Heckling Cheney & Dirty Valentines
Greetings from CPAC! Former Vice President Dick Cheney got a heck of a greeting at CPAC, the yearly Conservative Political Action Conference where conservatives of all stripes come together to wallow in varying degrees of narrow-mindedness, religious zeal, military might, fiscal conservatism, and social backwardness. There are usually some internal squabbles about things like LGBT rights, and how they do or don’t fit into the conservative platform. But back to Cheney’s greeting. It was spirited and passionate, but not what the former Veep expected. When Rumsfeld’s name was announced, and he took the stage to accept the conferences “Defenders of…