The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – Jail contractor calls for end to free local phone calls In the jailhouse phone business, the usual practice in the United States has been for the company that provides telephones behind bars to pay a “commission” to the government agency that allows it to serve a captive customer base. Fairbanks Daily Miner – Lockheed Martin wins Alaska spaceport contract The state-owned space agency on Friday named Lockheed Martin the winner of a bidding process to reconfigure a launch pad to accommodate larger rockets than what the Kodiak Launch Complex can currently handle. Juneau Empire – South Korean vessel heads to…
Alaskans – Time to Vote!
It’s time to get out and vote, Alaska. Get your voice heard and make sure your ballot gets counted. I highly recommend that you vote early – so that if there is ANYTHING at all wrong – you have time to get it fixed. Please click on the link below for your absentee in person and early voting locations and hours. http://www.elections.alaska.gov/vi_ea_ev_site_genr.php If anyone is having any voting issues or irregularities, let us know.
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – Wasilla mayoral candidate’s war against ‘police state’ includes long-ago urge to ambush Vegas officers Loren Means, a candidate for Wasilla mayor and a current city planning commissioner, once stalked and planned to ambush Las Vegas jail officers, and this summer he told a Wasilla police officer that a head shot was the only way to kill an officer wearing body armor. An email about the Las Vegas incident as well as several encounters with local police surfaced Thursday in a packet Mayor Verne Rupright distributed to the Wasilla City Council. Juneau Empire – Suspicious tree fires puzzle Forest Service…
Zoomed-In Climate Models Help Alaska Communities Plan for Uncertain Future
Special thanks to InsideClimateNews.org for letting us post this excerpt by Amy Nordrum Hunters in the Alaskan village of Wainwright, a community of about 550 Inupiat Eskimos at the lip of the Chukchi Sea, have long harvested bowhead whales from the ocean. Each spring, crews of 15-25 hunters set out in umiaqs—boats made from seal skins and caribou sinew. The hunters usually launch from Point Belcher, where the ice cracks open to expose the water in slivers called “leads.” Then the whalers follow these narrow channels to the sea. They may land whales as long as 55 feet, but a young…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN.com – Archaeologists rush to save ancient Yup’ik treasures threatened by melting permafrost QUINHAGAK — On the eroding Bering Sea coast of far Western Alaska, archaeologists from around the world are unearthing remnants of an ancient Yup’ik village frozen in place for hundreds of years. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – Court agrees to review Alaska Roadless Rule case ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A full federal appeals court will review the decision allowing Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to be exempt from federal restrictions on road-building and timber harvests in “roadless” areas.” NY Times – Shell Submits a Plan for New Exploration of Alaskan…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska Fairbanks News Miner – Pro-Begich super PAC takes on Treadwell JUNEAU, Alaska – A super PAC that supports Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich has a new ad that, for the first time, takes on Republican Senate hopeful Mead Treadwell. Put Alaska First’s ad also features Republican Dan Sullivan, the presumptive front-runner in the race who has been a target of the group for months. Alaska Dispatch News – Nixon took time out from Watergate to plot politics with Young, Coghill Forty years after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace, the secret tapes that proved his role in the Watergate…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – BP settles over Prudhoe Bay spills BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. has reached a proposed $450,000 settlement to resolve federal and state pollution violations in the Greater Prudhoe Bay unit. The settlement covers four oil discharges from BP-operated pipelines from 2007 to 2011. Juneau Empire – Authorities investigating whale, ferry collision KODIAK — Authorities were working Friday to determine if a 25-ton humpback whale died as the result of a collision with the state ferry Kennicott near Kodiak. Scientists believe the whale was alive when it was struck by the vessel. And Kate Wynne, a marine mammal specialist…
Parnell, Miller Fear Children… From Central America
Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell and US Senate Candidate Joe Miller are worried. Is it about the melting ice caps? No. Is it about the sexual assaults in the Alaska National Guard? No. (Clearly Sean’s not worried about that.) Is it about the Pebble Mine? Hell No. It’s about the children, but not just any children. ILLEGAL children coming to Alaska. Here’s a photo example of one of them. Parnell’s social media team posted this to his official page Saturday. “I have seen some alarming reports that the Obama administration is giving illegal aliens one-way tickets to Alaska. We are making contact with…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – Study envisions possible fallout from a Canadian Beaufort oil spill A well blowout, pipeline breach or vessel accident in the Canadian Beaufort Sea could spew spilled oil westward for months, polluting waters off Alaska and soiling habitat used by whales, seals and migrating seabirds, according to a study released Friday by the World Wildlife Fund. Fairbanks Daily Miner – Pro-marijuana legalization group urges opponents not to get all drunk at fundraiser The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol today urged attendees of the anti-legalization group’s Anchorage fundraiser to “exercise caution” because the event is co-hosted by a former…
The Weekend Off – The News You Missed
Alaska ADN (Alaska Dispatch News) – Alaska newspaper gets new name, new mission Some of you will be understandably surprised as you pick up your Sunday newspaper. It looks similar, but the name has changed. The Anchorage Daily News has now become Alaska Dispatch News. Carl Johnson – EPA Proposes Limiting Size, but not Stopping, Pebble Mine The EPA has released a “Proposed Determination” as to how it plans to exercise its authority under the Clean Water Act, Section 404(c), regarding the development of the Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. Le’t be clear – the EPA is not proposing…