UPDATED: Massive Landslide at Bingham Mine – Is this what Pebble will bring?
UPDATE: Quoted from Dow Jones 4/16/2013 RIO Tinto has asked employees to take vacation or unpaid leave after a massive landslide at its Bingham Canyon mine in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, one of the world’s largest copper producing mines. Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper unit said it has asked for workers to volunteer to take leave because the operation isn’t running at full capacity. “The slip has destroyed the main access decline into the pit, so a new decline will need to be constructed before mining can resume. We have no guidance from Rio on how long this will take, but…
Tongue Depresser in Juneau
Republican fart jokes on the House floor? No prob. But let a Democrat show a little tongue, and the capital screeches to a halt. A crucially important presser was held in the Capitol yesterday. Sure there are bills regarding transportation, energy, oil taxes, finance, education, uteruses… But the Interior Alaska Delegation of the House had some super serious stuff that needed to be dealt with. In the Speaker’s Chambers, belonging at the moment to Mike Chenault, members of the press were gathered – statewide newspapers, TV stations, journals, the Associated Press – all to hear that Rep. Scott Kawasaki stuck…
Pebble Has Rocks in Head
Behold the latest gripe from the Pebble Partnership about the oh-so-restrictive permitting process required to put the largest open pit copper and gold mine on the planet at the headwaters of the planet’s largest wild salmon fishery. The project requires permits for lots of things. It pays to be assured someone knows what they’re doing when they have to build 700 foot tall earthen dams that will last forever in a highly active seismic zone, holding back giant lakes of poison from a thriving fishery. You know, stuff like that. Check out the latest. We know they’d like to compare…
And the Universe Goes On
I sat home on the evening of November 6, enjoying dinner with my wonderful wife, Michelle, watching the returns come back about the results in our 2012 national election. I would take a few bites, then pick up the iPad and skim Salon.com and NYT.com for the latest results, while also flipping over to the tab open to Spaceweather.com. I was watching another set of numbers – the solar wind and the direction of the Bz in the magnetic field. The winds weren’t as high as I would like – only 365 km/sec – but the Bz was 7.7 south;…
Contributors
Jeanne Devon (Founder/Managing Editor) Jeanne Devon is an award-winning blogger, founding editor of The Mudflats, and co-authored the New York Times Best-Seller, Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin (Simon and Schuster, 2011) with former Sarah Palin insider Frank Bailey and award-winning novelist Ken Morris. She also co-authored The Blood of Patriots (BenBella Books, 2017) with undercover FBI informant Bill Fulton. Her new book, Survive and Thrive: How to prepare for any disaster without ammo, camo, or eating your neighbor is available now! Devon was also a contributing author to the book Going Rouge – An American Nightmare,…
Open Thread – Color and Light
I spent last weekend in Seattle for reasons not political. It was sort of a shock to the system. Thanks to the awesome Jim Wright, Carl Johnson, and Linda Kellen Biegel for providing top-notch content while I was away. It allowed me to take a little mental hiatus from the usual things that churn around in my grey matter. Since most of my trip ended up being somewhat of a visual feast, I thought I’d share some of my pictures with you as I settle back in and catch up on the political front. So, the next few open threads…
A Fool’s Errand – Brought to You by Rep. Kyle Johansen
By Carl Johnson While preparing to head off alone into the bowels of the Death Star to disable the tractor beam holding theMillenium Falcon captive, Obi Wan Kenobi rhetorically asked of Han Solo, “Who is more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?” I think of such questions sometimes when my legislators act foolishly. You don’t have to be a lawyer to be a state legislator. You also shouldn’t have to know all the relevant facts in relation to a proposed law in order to sponsor it. But somewhere along the way, someone who knows the law and the…
Voices From The Flats — I Get It, But My Mayor Is Clueless
Post and Photos By Carl Johnson I have lived in two rather large metropolitan areas: the Twin Cities, with its two million people, and Los Angeles, with, well, way too many people. I chose to move to Anchorage eleven years ago not because I was looking for urban, but because I was looking for wild with just the right amount of urban. I have grown in my knowledge over time that I had made the right decision, enjoying many years hiking, biking and Nordic skiing on Anchorage trails, enjoying fishing for salmon in its streams, and enjoying picking berries in…
WAR is Over! (Updated with Roll Call Vote)
23 for and 35 against. House – 16 yea, 23 nay Senate – 7 yea, 12 nay I have to say it. I am proud of my Legislature! Well, I am proud of 35 of them, and that’s saying a lot. Trust me. Here’s the roll call vote, courtesy of the Daily News Miner: Alaska House (Richard Foster, D-Nome, who caucuses with the largely Republican majority, was excused) Yeas – 16 John Cohill, R-North Pole Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Anchorage Anna Fairclough, R-Eagle River Carl Gatto, R-Palmer John Harris, R-Valdez Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage Carl Johnson, R-Anchorage Wes Keller, R-Wasilla Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks…
The Republican Sabotage of the Vote Recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin
By Greg Palast for Truthout Photo of Michigan ballot with bubble. (Image courtesy of Palast Investigative Fund, 2016)Before the Electoral College votes, they should know this. Michigan officials declared in late November that Trump won the state’s count by 10,704 votes. But hold on – a record 75,355 ballots were not counted. The uncounted ballots came mostly from Detroit and Flint, majority-Black cities that vote Democratic. According to the machines that read their ballots, these voters waited in line, sometimes for hours, yet did not choose a president. Really? This week, I drove through a snowstorm to Lansing to hear…