Parnell Pees in the Pool
The critical vote on a controversial bill involving the dumping of cruise ship waste in Alaska waters has been put off until next week. This is good news. Your outrage, and contacts with your legislators are having an impact. The cruise ship dumping legislation favored by Governor Sean Parnell would kill key provisions of a 2006 citizen’s initiative, voted in by the people, that required cruise ships to meet clean water standards at the point of discharge by the 2016 cruise season, instead of allowing them to release sewage, heavy metals, and other waste into “mixing zones.” Mixing zones are…
Governor Sean Parnell Supports Destruction of Thriving Salmon Habitat for Coal
Mudflats readers will remember coverage over the last year of the issue of the “Unsuitable Lands Petition” that Cook Inletkeeper and the Chuitna Citizens Coalition submitted to the state. Basically, what this petition did was to put forth the idea that certain areas are just plain unsuitable for coal strip mining – specifically the areas directly on either side of the Chuit River (above), and its tributaries that were deemed “important salmon habitat” for Cook Inlet. The petition, if successful, would ensure that a narrow ribbon of land – 50 feet on either side of tributaries, and 100 feet on…
Something’s Fishy in Senator Murkowski’s Office
In the light of Anthony Weiner resigning over a personal problem affecting his professional life, it would seem that someone actually guilty of a professional misdeed affecting her professional life might be called to account. If Mark Begich had been faced with the situation Lisa Murkowski was faced with this week, we’d likely hear the monkeys howling for his resignation. It’s not uncommon for me to get an email or phone call from someone punctuated with “Have I got a story for you!” December 2008 was no different. I was resting up after a particularly busy and historic election year….