In My Cottage Garden — Happy Earth Day!
By Linda Kellen Biegel How are you celebrating? My Earth Day celebration involves the fact that the snow is gone off of the raised beds! Of course, we can see exactly how trashy we left the place before the snow flew (note the unrolled hose). I haven’t quite ventured out there yet because it’s a total swamp at the moment (you can see a little standing water in the picture). Luckily, this is the south side of the yard which dries up much faster. I’m dying to do get out there and do something, but there isn’t much need at…
Parnell Nominee to Board of Game Rejected by Legislature
Nominee to Alaska’s Board of Game, Lynn Keogh, was rejected Tuesday by the Legislature. He had the support of Governor Sean Parnell, and of the powerful Alaska Outdoor Council hunting lobby. He needed 31 votes to retain his appointment. He got 29. As reported earlier in the week, an email obtained by The Mudflats showed Republican Party Chair Randy Ruedrich forwarding an email from Rod Arno of the Alaska Outdoor Council threatening legislators with strong-arm tactics if they didn’t approve Keogh’s appointment to the Board of Game. From: Randy Ruedrich <[email protected]> Date: March 30, 2012 8:09:07 AM AKDT To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> Subject: Anti’s go…
Is Alaskan Agriculture Ready to Feed Our School Children?
by Linda Kellen Biegel Tim Meyers stands at the front of room 306 at the UAA/APU Consortium Library. He’s the next guest presenter for the session: Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Alaska at the Alaska Botanical Garden’s Spring Conference. The title of the Conference is “Extend the Season, Expand Your Mind” in honor of guest gpeaker, former TV gardener and 40-year organic farming rock star, Eliot Coleman. But if Coleman is a national star, Tim Meyers is the hometown hero. Meyers’ cold-weather farming is being studied by the University of Alaska, who have provided him with interns to train in his…
A Meditation on the Future of Alaska, in 10 Precepts
By Elstun Lauesen Ring the Bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in — Leonard Cohen, “Anthem” Alaskans seem frozen in place. After a promising beginning 54 years ago, we established a solid foundation for our state. Now, after a pipeline and a new demographic of Lower 48 immigrants we are in the second semester of our first century and we feel lost. Where do we go from here? I think we are high centered on some barriers to self-knowledge. The Oracle of Delphi said to ‘know…
APOC Ruling Assigns Large Penalty to Bob Griffin for Multiple Campaign Violations
by Linda Kellen Biegel Last week, I listened-in on an Alaska Public Offices Commission hearing regarding an old friend of ours here at Mudflats, Mr. Bob Griffin. You remember Bob: — In April 2011, he ran on his status as a veteran and a pilot in order to win a seat the Anchorage School Board (he lost), in a campaign best-known for the accusations of illegal yard signs. He was also one of Mayor Sullivan’s chosen-ones in that campaign, receiving donations from the both the Mayor and his wife. — In May 2011, Mr. Griffin showed some questionable judgement through…
Sean Parnell Attends a Class in Propaganda 101
~Frank Luntz, GOP Minister of Propaganda By Shannyn Moore While most Alaskans were suffering through another cold, dark week, Gov. Sean Parnell was hard at work — on another junket, this time to the Republican Governor’s Association meeting in Florida. Odd — no palm tree beach shots on the state website. In fact, no official mention of the trip at all — just one picture on his Facebook page saying the governor participated in a “panel discussion on energy issues.” One of the presenters at the governors’ conference was Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist whose specialty is “testing…
Corrupt Bastard Doesn’t Like Being Corrupt Bastard – Sues
Just when you thought it was over… Convicted Corrupt Bastard Vic Kohring, doesn’t much like being called a corrupt bastard. So, he’s is suing fellow corrupt Bastard Bill Allen, federal informant and former CEO of oil services company VECO for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and damage to his business and personal reputations. He has also named CH2M Hill, the company that purchased VECO in the suit. Vic Kohring, as you may recall, is the former Republican legislator from Wasilla who pleaded guilty during his October 21 retrial for accepting bribes to keep oil taxes low in Alaska. The…
Mourning Joe
I wrote this last winter but didn’t post it then. Sadly, it still stands. By Shannyn Moore It’s hard to describe how surreal it was to meet the man who wrote a book I grew up with. I remember the cover. Joe McGinniss had written one of the best books about Alaska, though controversial in the late 70’s, but if Alaska is anything, it’s controversial. I guess I thought he was just a guy who probably lived up the Anchor River from our cabin, why would anyone write about Alaska unless they didn’t have anything better to write about. Then…
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…
Mystery of Orange Arctic Goo Solved! Again! Sort of.
[photo from NOAA] Those of you who have been breathlessly awaiting reports on the orange goo that washed up on the shores of the northwestern eskimo village of Kivalina, Alaska will be interested to hear the latest report, and that the mystery is closer to being solved. I deliberately didn’t say you’ll be “happy” to hear the report, because frankly, the latest scenario is creepier than the last one. At first, no one had any idea what the stuff was. All they knew was that nobody ever had seen anything like it in Kivalina or anywhere else. All they knew…