The Anti-Public Education Agenda Comes to Alaska…
…And Hardly Anybody Knows It Many of us have heard the stories: new Republican Governors and Tea Party majorities in state legislatures across the country have been targeting public employees and their salaries, pensions, health benefits, etc… Along with this, there has been a major push at another budget-cut target — public school systems. Public Education faces massive cuts in Texas ($4 bil), huge cuts in Wisconsin ($900 mil), more cuts in North Carolina, budget cuts and a removal of the school districts’ tax authority in Pennsylvania (inhibiting individual districts from raising property taxes), and a governor-declared “financial emergency” in…
Voices from the Flats: The Anonymous Bloggers on Palin’s “Fishing Philosophy”
We here at Mudflats have great respect for the writers at the wonderful blog “Anonymous Bloggers,” who live and work in Rural Alaska and other locations outside of “Los Anchorage.” I am especially excited when they pool their experience and write a post on one of the most confusing aspects of Alaska life — fishing rules and regulations. Here, Alaska Pi and Ugavic address Palin’s audacity while visiting New Hampshire in pretending that she had a clue about fishing regs and what was good for Alaska. I encourage you to go to the blog and read the original post and…
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…
Open Thread: Peter and the Wolf featuring Shannyn Moore (by LKB)
I promised this for yesterday. Well, it’s a day late and the blog didn’t cooperate, but here it is — the Anchorage Civic Orchestra directed by Phil Munger performing Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” Your narrator is our own Shannyn Moore! Here are a couple of photos I grabbed in the beginning. FYI — Concertmaster Walter Oliveres will be working with the Affetti Orchestra this summer (Morrigan is in it) so I’ll get to enjoy his playing a great deal!
Open Thread: An Afternoon at the Symphony
I had planned to post the video(s) of the absolutely wonderful performance of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” by the Anchorage Civic Orchestra and Shannyn Moore as narrator. However, the download seems to be taking FOR-EVA! (It couldn’t POSSIBLY have anything to do with the video game being played on the other computer…nooooo…) Ya’ll will have to wait until tomorrow for that. However, I have a couple of still photos off of my little Sony-version of a “Flip” (called a “Bloggie”…yeah, I hate the name too…). They aren’t the quality of my Nikon pics but you’ll see those tomorrow as…
Honoring Our Veterans; An Afternoon at the Symphony–Events for Saturday, May 14th
If Friday was any indication, today should be a beautiful, warm day perfect for lawns, gardens, parks, etc…However, when I looked at my Facebook invitations, it seemed that EVERYONE decided to do SOMETHING on May 14th. Since my daughter has her own band practice on Saturdays, I had to narrow my schedule down to several of the events that (to me) stood out the most. Starting at 10:00 am and running until 5:30 pm is the annual “Gathering for Veterans.” It will be held this year at the Curtis Menard Sports Center in Wasilla: The Gathering of Veterans is an…
Open Thread: Baking a cake is not just a good metaphor…
…it’s a tasty way to make money! I made one today for the Service High Football Team cake auction. It’s in the center in the top picture…gingerbread cake with lemon buttercream filling and cream cheese frosting topped with two Danish gingersnaps and candied ginger. Mine was FAR from the fanciest but it did taste yummy! (The buyer shared!) There were some really beautiful ones as you can see. Of course, my secret weapon was to “encourage” (strong-arm) people into bidding on mine. Thanks to Anchorage School Board member Pat Higgins, mine sold for $35.00! Some others even went as high…
Mayor Dan Sullivan — Playground Bully (by LKB)
Remember THAT kid back in grade school? Remember coming to school and sharing the excitement of how you got the remote control car you wanted for Christmas? THAT kid would talk about his brand new remote control F-15 jet…life-sized. Or, you’d very proudly reveal the balsa wood car you’d carved yourself and painted red to run in the local Pinewood Derby while THAT kid would bring out the super-slick car he claimed he made himself but was secretly made by his daddy’s engineering firm. THAT kid was the one the teachers all thought was a wonderful student when he was…
It seems that the pen IS mightier than the sword
Last week, an incident that had been dealt with several weeks ago at South High School came to a head. As written in the Anchorage Daily News: Violent lyrics written by a South High School student about attacking other students resulted in a felony charge of making terroristic threats and a 45-day emergency suspension from school, according to police and the Anchorage School District. The sophomore now faces expulsion from the School District, Superintendent Carol Comeau said Wednesday. I learned about this issue through the ADN article and then through an email conversation with a South High parent who gave…