The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN.com – Disbelieved Fairbanks Four alibis show how anti-Native bias taints justice Eileen Whitmer knew Marvin Roberts wasn’t guilty of murder in 1997, because when the Fairbanks Four were supposedly on a rampage killing teenager John Hartman, Roberts was sitting at a table with her at a wedding reception. CNET – Oculus creator Palmer Luckey flies to Alaska to deliver first Rift VR headset to customer You order the Next Big Tech Gadget and lo and behold, the creator of the gizmo materializes at your office to hand you the device. Sounds like something out of virtual reality, right? Nope….
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – Alaska cannabis prohibition ends Tuesday; if you’re celebrating, do so responsibly Ballot Measure 2 will become effective on Tuesday, and many Alaskans are wondering what will change on that date. The simple answer is: Everything, and not much at all. Fairbanks News Miner – Alaska State Troopers working out details for marijuana enforcement Marijuana becomes legal in two days, but where it will be allowed to be used remains a bit hazy. Public consumption of pot remains prohibited, but local leaders continue to debate the definition of public place. The Atlantic – Cold, Dark, and Happy: Alaska Is the New Leader…
News Junkie: An Excerpt
The epic tale of addiction, News Junkie, by friend and occasional contributor to The Mudflats, Jason Leopold, has been reissued. The book looks behind the scenes into the life of one of the best living investigative journalist on the trail, and his double addiction to cocaine, and journalism. News Junkie brings you along for investigations of Enron, Karl Rove and many more. It’s one of my favorite books on journalism, and should be mandatory reading for anyone going into the field. Leopold, who now writes for Vice Magazine, and Al Jazeera on the NSA, Guantanamo, and other issues, has been called a ‘FOIA (Freedom of…
Palin: Waterboarding is Baptism for Terrorists
It was reported a couple weeks ago that Sarah Palin, speculating on the whereabouts of the still-missing Malaysia Airlines plane, said it had “flown straight to heaven.” It turned out she hadn’t said that at all. The quote was part of an article written on one of the infamous news satire websites that continually dupe unsuspecting users of the internets. The good ones hit so close to the mark, it’s hard to tell. A couple days ago, Sarah Palin was quoted speaking on the United States’ CIA torture program saying, “If I was in charge, they’d know that water boarding…
Employees Say BP’s Ombudsman’s Office Neglected Their Safety, Retaliation Concerns
By Jason Leopold [Jason Leopold is the Deputy Managing Editor at Truthout where this article is cross-posted. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, News Junkie, a memoir. Visit newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. ] Over the past year, BP’s office of the ombudsman has been presented with dozens of safety concerns and evidence that would appear to support claims of widespread retaliation against employees who work for Acuren, one of the beleaguered oil company’s contractors on Alaska’s North Slope. But the watchdog has failed to investigate the allegations and in some instances has prematurely closed cases without conducting a thorough…
Documents, Employees Reveal BP’s Alaska Oilfield Plagued By Major Safety Issues
Jason Leopold has written an amazing piece on BP and how they handle safety in Alaska. Here is the article in full, which is cross-posted from Truthout. By Jason Leopold Nearly 5,000 miles from the oil-spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and its culture of cost-cutting are contributing to another environmental mess. According to internal BP documents obtained by Truthout, and after interviewing more than a dozen employees over the past month, the Prudhoe Bay oil field, in a remote corner of North America on Alaska’s north shore, is in danger. After two serious oil spills and other mishaps,…