State of Alaska Supports Pebble Partnership’s Attempt to Silence Alaskans
~The original Captain Zero Before I go off on some rant about how my forefathers fought the British to birth a country that could VOTE, and how siding with the British to take away the right of Americans to vote should be called treason, I’ll take a deep breath and explain a few things. Since one has been filed on your behalf, Alaska, you may want to know what an amicus brief is. Commonly known as a “friend of the court” brief. An amicus brief provides individuals or organizations (such as government agencies or disability organizations) without a direct stake…
Open Thread: Preparing for Setnetting!
Here’s a picture from several years ago of our campsite where we were setnetting during the annual personal use fishery. I’m looking forward to being there in just a couple of days! Setnetting at the Kasilof is already going on and in the Alaska tradition, we have a number of families sharing the nets and the campsite so we’ll be taking our turn soon. I apologize if the blog is a little sparse right now, but I anticipate a flood of Netroots posts, probably when Shannyn and Jeanne get a moment to breathe or get back this weekend! I’ll have…
Why Is Twice-Failed School Board Candidate Bob Griffin Following School Busses?
By Linda Kellen Biegel No, this is not a joke. Bob Griffin, Mayor Sullivan’s candidate for School Board (including personal donations from the Mayor and his wife) even had an encounter with the Anchorage Police School Resource Officers over the whole thing. From a recording of the May 23rd School Board Meeting: Don Smith: The other thing…I understand there was some kind of a school bus study being done by an independent group… Carol Comeau: Do you want me to tell you the story? Don Smith: I’m curious where it’s at now because I’ve been hearing stories that indicate the…
“Superintendent” Sullivan’s Education Summit — What is the Goal?
In a previous post on the “Anti-Public Education Agenda”, we discussed how corporations and right-wing radicals were driving the “school choice” and education reform movements nationally and statewide. However, no one has played politics in this arena quite the way that Mayor Dan Sullivan has here in Anchorage: — Since the early days of his Mayorship, Dan Sullivan began waging an all-out war against public employees …especially those who are unionized. — Throughout his term, Sullivan has continued a pattern of putting hand-picked highly-partisan candidates in major appointments and to outwardly support them in supposed non-partisan races against people who…
Locked Up or Locked Out?
Want to see the Arctic Ocean? Just start driving the Haul Road north of Fairbanks. You’ll pass through miles and miles of rugged, beautiful, unfenced land. The road is rough and there aren’t many amenities like gas stations, toilets or cell service. And before you make it to the ocean, there’s one other complication: the security gates. The gates belong to the oil companies. In the past few years, all of us have spent more than a billion dollars to “beef up” the road, which is owned and maintained by the State of Alaska and considered a “road to resources.”…
Mark Halperin Slurps-up Sarah’s Spoon-fed Spin
By Linda Kellen Biegel I watched a piece last night on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” that was good overall. It was about Palin’s bus-to-nowhere tour: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy I was pleased that O’Donnell pointed out the potential illegalities involved in using her SarahPAC money, regulated by the Federal Election Committee, on a “family vacation” rather than on a campaign. At one point, he even mentions that the media doesn’t report on such things because frankly they generally don’t understand them. That statement proved to be ironic. O’Donnell then…
Open Thread: Rescued Dogs from Montana Creek Ready for Adoption (by LKB)
I went into Petco yesterday to buy food for our Sheltie and saw several dogs wearing “adopt me” signs (like “Baron” below). It turns out that Alaska Dog and Puppy Rescue were there with a few of the animals available for adoption. Baron was a sweet dog but very shy and the folks from the Rescue explained he was one of the over 150 starving huskies removed from a Montana Creek kennel (near Talkeetna) this past January: Alaska State Troopers arrived Monday evening at the Montana Creek home of 53-year-old Frank Rich of Willow, near Mile 92 of the Parks…
Norway’s Lessons Are Alaska’s To Learn
Alaskans are a bunch of people who want to be around a bunch of people who don’t want to be around a bunch of people. By Shannyn Moore I once saw a bush pilot restart his plane with the gum wrapper off a piece of Big Red. I asked him if it would work. He smiled and said, “It’ll get me to where I can get what I need.” That seems to be a prevailing philosophy here. Tyvek is not siding, but it’ll keep the wind out. In May a delegation of Alaska lawmakers will head to Norway. The intellectually…
Liberally Loving Alaska
Last week a woman called my radio station. She squealed at my producer, “Who is this woman? She sounds like a LIBERAL!” There is a good reason I sound like a liberal: I am. And the caller would be surprised to learn that this puts me right in step with the history and the foundation of our state. So much of what I believe stems from equality granted by our constitution. It was written by more Democrats than Republicans yet delegates debated in a spirit of nonpartisanship. One delegate said, “we chose to put the good of Alaska ahead of…
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell Endangers Children’s Health for Political Posturing
Alaska is a land of extremes, both good and bad. We have the most coastline, the most islands, the best fishing, the most park land, and I can confidently say the most natural wild beauty of any state in the nation. On the flip side, we have the most earthquakes, the most infant botulism, the most alcoholism, the most mosquitoes, and the worst rate of chlamydia of any state. We’re second in the nation for gonorrhea. ~Chlamydia The state has been first or second in reported rates of chlamydia every year since 2000, state public health officials said. Alaska’s rate…