BREAKING: Bell Sued By Longtime Employee
BREAKING West Anchorage State Senate Candidate Bob Bell (R), who is running against incumbent Hollis French (D), is being sued by a former employee of his engineering firm F.R. Bell & Associates, Inc. Edward Biggs of Wasilla is seeking restitution for discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Alaska Workers’ Compansation Act; interference with his rights under the Family Medical Leave Act; disability discrimination; breach of contract, destruction of evidence, and wrongful retaliatory discharge. Bell was recently fined by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) for campaign disclosure violations relating to F.R. Bell and Associates. The campaign revelations also…
The Revenge of the Party Planner
11 days until the election, and the hilarious drama is flying. The mayor’s (errr) “Party Planner” has been a busy bee this campaign season. She’s been seen at the event coordinating the merger of church and state that gloated about data mining Alaskans’ private information, she showed up clad in classy faux leopard with “too crazy even for the Republicans” Judy Eledge as her date for a candidate forum, staffed Cathy Giessel at the Running debate, and now this… Petulantly clicking on her 7 inch heels, she stomped up to Senator Hollis French at a recent candidate forum, stuck out…
Bob Bell’s Oily Non-Disclosure
Oh, my. Remember Bob Bell? The muskox poachin’, campaign finance violatin’ State Senate candidate running against Hollis French? Well, he decided a while back that he was above the financial disclosure laws that applied to all those other candidates. And then a citizen complaint was filed against him with the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC). And APOC gave him the bad news that yes, the law actually applied to him, no matter how super-special he thinks he is. So, what’s he doing now? Stonewalling. Yes, Mr. Bell continues to violate Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) disclosure laws by failing to…
The Mudflats Calls Senate District I
There’s an alphabet soup of newly drawn Senate districts out there, but with 84 days until the polls close, and 0% of precincts reporting in, The Mudflats is prepared to call the election in Senate District I, for the beloved and awesome Democratic candidate Johnny Ellis. His opponent, Republican Paul Kendall (also known by his talk radio call-in alias “Will Free”) believes in Hydrogen energy, and women not working outside the home. It’s a devastating political duo of philosophies, which puts Mr. Kendall simultaneously in both the 22nd and 17th centuries. But for some reason, it doesn’t seem to be…
Foreign Interests Attack Alaska’s Voice
Here it comes. We knew it would happen. Because it always does. This time, the Alaska citizens’ initiative that’s in the cross-hairs of multinational corporations is the August 28th Ballot Prop #2, which would bring back Alaskans’ ability to have input into decisions made regarding management of our coastline. Local input. Kind of a no-brainer. Coastal Zone management worked fine for decades, but recently the Parnell administration and big moneyed interests let it go… Now, we have no say, even though we have more coastline than the rest of the nation combined. It’s all up to the feds. Makes no…
Crude Awakening – Intro and Discussion for Your Reading Pleasure
I had great fun hosting Firedoglake’s book salon yesterday. Authors Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger were there to answer questions about their new book/stocking stuffer Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, below is my introduction with a link to the conversation at Firedoglake at the bottom. Enjoy! ************************* “Only in Alaska.” We hear that said up here in the Last Frontier all the time. In the case of the rise of Sarah Palin, the fall of Bill Allen and the larger-than-life legacy of Ted Stevens, it is…
Almost a Year Later, APOC Will Render a Verdict on Rep. Bill Thomas
By Linda Kellen Biegel Mudflatters, think wayyyyyy, wayyyyyy back to October of 2010 and you might remember Representative William Thomas, Jr., a Republican legislator from the beautiful little town of Haines, Alaska. Representative Thomas is not someone who generally comes to my attention way over here in Anchorage. However, in September of 2010 while Rep. Thomas was running a reelection campaign, I was alerted to some very strange discrepancies regarding some regular ads running in Haines’s only newspaper, The Chilkat Valley News. After doing much research, I filed a complaint with Alaska Public Offices Commission on October 13th: The…
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…