Coghill Breaks Crayons Over Mandatory Release
It’s always fun when committee meetings become not mind-numbingly dull. For every bazillion hours that make you wish you were watching paint dry, there’s a precious moment of drama. And if you’re lucky, you even get crayon-breaking and a tantrum. Behold today’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, and its Chair, Senator John Coghill (R-North Pole). The omnibus crime bill (SB91) was passed a couple years ago, and since then all the inevitable bugs and problems found in a gigantic bill are being worked out. SB150 is one of those mechanisms meant to deal with the pre-trial portion of the bill. One…
The Bible, False Prophets and Pete Kelly
Happy Easter to all those who celebrate this day. Polls show Alaska is one of the least religious states in the nation. That’s probably true for organized religion but I suspect most Alaskans are pretty spiritual people. It’s hard not to stand at the top of a mountain, in the middle of the wilderness or at the base of a glacier in Alaska and not believe in some higher force. When Sunday morning rolls around and my partner says, “You wanna go to church?” I will be on the boat halibut fishing pretty soon. If I were to generalize, I’d…
The Pete Kelly Lisa Murkowski Surreality Show
State Sen. Pete Kelly, a Republican from Fairbanks, has introduced a bill to allow University of Alaska students to carry guns on campuses and into dorms. That’s public policy even more harebrained than putting pregnancy tests into bar bathrooms. Did Pete go to college? Did he live in a dorm? If so, he apparently didn’t notice that dorms aren’t exactly hothouses of good judgment. Adding firearms just increases the opportunity for adolescent bad judgment to become truly tragic. I sure wouldn’t send my kid to live in a dorm populated with gun-toting teenagers. I haven’t figured out what Kelly does…
Alaska Lemming Caucus Over the Edge
This has been a difficult week for many Alaskans. So much uncertainty as 10,000 pink slips go to our friends and neighbors working for the state. Fairbanks Sen. Pete Kelly argues they aren’t pink slips, because there’s an “if” in them, as in “You’re not laid off if a handful of senators get their poop together.” Of course, we know there’s no chance Pete and his collaborators will get their poop together. Instead of pink slips, people online are calling them “Pete slips.” Our current legislative crisis is the handiwork of a small cabal of senators who refuse to compromise their misguided ideology. The…
Sen. Kelly Gets His Way – Pregnancy Tests in Bars
Yes, Alaska Senator Pete Kelly is getting his way. As the Anchorage Daily News reported back in March, Pete Kelly of Fairbanks wanted to distribute pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms. In case you forgot watch the video below for a reminder – The pregnancy test questions start at about 1 min into the video. Q. The idea is to make pregnancy tests available for free? A. You grab one. Literally, you can go into the bathroom at the bar and test. So if you’re drinking, you’re out at the big birthday celebration and you’re like, ‘Gee, I wonder if I …?’…
The Best Bill in Juneau
During the hearings, and vote on SB21, (the governor’s oil tax plan to give billions to oil companies in exchange for absolutely no promise of anything) did you find yourself wondering why Sen. Peter Micciche who works for Conoco Phillips was allowed to vote to give his boss a windfall? Or why Sen. Kevin Meyer who also works for ConocoPhillips was allowed to do the same? And then there’s Rep. Mike Hawker whose wife works for the oil industry. Before critical votes, you’ll hear a legislator like Micciche and Meyer pipe up and say they’d like to abstain from the…
BREAKING: AK Lawmaker- No Room for Transparency
Alaska Senator Pete Kelly (R), Co-Chair of the Finance Committee, has a space problem. Alaska has a transparency problem. While Republicans in the Senate are stripping bills from certain oversight committees, that doesn’t seem like enough. Now Senator Pet Kelly just wants a hiding spot. In a memo sent to lawmakers on February 14, Kelly announced Alaska’s business, because of lack of room, would be holding meetings in the private offices of lawmakers. I know! I was hoping for flowers and got a hacked up version of Democracy. He wrote: “Due to the hectic Nature of the 90 day session,…
Meet Pete Kelly. Whoa.
One of the races to watch in this cycle involves the stalwart, awesome Joe Paskvan, whom you may remember sitting at the end of the table in the Resources Committee meeting last session taking no guff from the administration, and helping to keep Alaska from hemorrhaging $2 billion dollars a year from our coffers to Texas and London. He’s running a close race with Pete Kelly (R) up in Fairbanks. This is not what Pete Kelly looks like when you see him on the street right now. This is what Pete Kelly would look like on the inside, if you…
Dismantling Alaska Bipartisanship
Alaska Family Action, the political arm of the Alaska Family Council, recently welcomed Governor Sean Parnell to a fundraiser. The event brought together social conservatives who seek to add their voices to those supporting the governor’s oil tax plan. With the specific goal of destroying the State Senate’s bipartisan coalition next month, the organization is banking on a new fundraising strategy and new access to personal data about voters to fuel its “Reclaiming Juneau Initiative” in November. Jim Minnery addressed the event’s roughly 25 attendees, explaining that his Alaska Family Council became frustrated by the political limitations it encountered via…