Oyster Roundup! Whales, FROGs, and Alligator Shirts.
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Here’s a plate of slurpable stories to start your week. Source links are in the title. Start shucking! Pay Up, Joe An Alaska judge on Friday ordered that failed U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller pay more than $17,300 in legal costs incurred by the state in fighting Miller’s challenge to last year’s election. Don’t even get me started. OK, I’ll start. First the disclaimer – I didn’t vote for Joe, would never vote for him, am ideologically opposed to his political philosophy, and have written extensively…
Oyster Roundup!
Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more… Palin Quits for Jury Duty? She’ll quit on Republican women’s groups, she’ll quit on pro-life fundraisers, she’ll quit on CPAC, she’ll quit on four colleges, she’ll quit on the great state of Alaksa. Frank Bailey said that trying to get Sarah Palin to commit to anything was like “nailing Jell-O to a tree.” So I found it interesting that her sudden affinity for commitment was for something that everyone else tries to get out of – jury duty. Considering that jury duty comes with a couple…
Open Thread – No Pebble Mine
This picture is good for the heart in so many ways. For more information on the proposed Pebble Mine project, go to savebristolbay.org Photo of fresh Bristol Bay King Salmon by Jon Corbett
May Day in Madison -Sí, se puede! From the Perspective of a Second Generation Italian American.
by Patrick DePula It’s been a cold spring here in Madison. Just about every rally I’ve been a part of, it seems to have been freezing, snowing and/or raining. Surprisingly, the weather looked promising for the May Day, or International Workers Day, rally that would begin with speakers in Brittingham Park, involve a March to the State Capitol, and end with additional speakers on the Capitol steps. Seemed like a great day to load my son Sal into the bike trailer and set out on a bit of an adventure. Before leaving the house, I decided to wear my Italian National…
Voices from the Flats – The BP Gulf Disaster Taught Us Lessons We Already Knew
By Hal Shepherd, Acting Executive Director, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society Homer, Alaska The BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year should serve as a stark reminder to Alaskans just how vulnerable our fisheries and the families they support are to spilled oil. Alaska is no stranger to such events. Cook Inlet, which supports one of the state’s premier commercial and sport fishing economies, is a clear example of what we have to lose if an uncontrollable well blowout occurs here. Such an incident is not so difficult to imagine. Right now, two independent oil companies, Houston-based Escopeta…
Voices from the Flats – Earth Day
Earth Day – time to invest in sustainable future By Rick Steiner ———————- Today is Earth Day: a good time to assess the condition of our life-sustaining home planet. On this, there is both good and bad news. The bad news is that the global environment continues to deteriorate. For decades, our “ecological footprint” – the environmental impact of the global economy – has exceeded what the Earth can sustainably provide, now by over 50%, and our ecological debt is growing. Today more than a billion people are malnourished, thousands of children will die from preventable causes, and we will…
Open Thread – Earth Day
There’s a perspective you don’t see very often, with a Northern view on things. Happy Earth Day one and all. Lately it seems that the Earth needs all the good will it can get. In this little corner of the planet, the wind is howling, and snowflakes are making a horizontal trajectory across my window. Just yesterday it felt like spring was in the air, but here in Alaska April is a month of trickery and delayed expectations. Later today we’ll have a guest post for Earth Day from one of our favorite Voices from the Flats contributors, Rick Steiner,…
Exxon Denies Long Term Environmental Damage to Prince William Sound – A Day in Court
~Oil sheen from the Exxon Valdez spill fills a footprint on the beach 21 years later in July of 2010 Tomorrow will be a historic day. After 22 years, the final word will be had on the long-term environmental damage from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Last summer, I traveled to Knight Island in Prince William Sound. The point of landing was “Diesel Beach.” As you can imagine, this is a post-1989 name. You can read my post Walking With the Ghost of Exxon HERE. The long-term impact on Prince William Sound has been significant. With resident orca populations expected…
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…
EPA to Review Proposed Pebble Mine Project. Thanks, Feds! (we think…)
“We don’t need no stinkin’ feds telling us what to do!” Ah, the mantra of the 49th state. It’s true that there are many great points to support local governance. Communities themselves are often the best at determining what the needs of their residents are – especially in areas that don’t fit the “norm” of the country. In towns with no indoor plumbing, fuel at more than $10 a gallon, and communities where schools can be hundreds of miles apart, it’s understandable that Alaskans find it difficult sometimes to “go with the flow” and let those bureaucrats in DC legislate…