Contributors
Jeanne Devon (Founder and Managing Editor)
Jeanne Devon is an award-winning blogger, founding editor of The Mudflats, and repeat winner of the Bloggers Choice Award for Best Political Blog. She has appeared on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, and Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post, 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. Devon is also a contributing author to the book Going Rouge – An American Nightmare, compiled by the editors of The Nation Magazine. Her articles have been picked up by The Associated Press, linked from The Washington Post and Daily Kos, and Devon has appeared on numerous radio programs including The Mike Molloy Show with Brad Friedman, Left Coast Radio, and The Nicole Sandler Show.
Devon won an Alaska Press Club Award for her piece Chuitna and the Curse of Coal, an Anchorage Press Picks award for Best Blog, and Cook Inlet Keeper’s “Muckraker of the Year” award.
She appears on The Shannyn Moore Show‘s weekly “Thursdays in the Mud” segment on KOAN 1020 in Anchorage every Thursday at 8pm local time (9pm Pacific/midnight East Coast).
Shannyn Moore (Contributing Editor)
Shannyn Moore is an award winning broadcaster, political commentator, and blogger based in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2009, Shannyn was awarded Buzzflash’s Wings of Justice award for standing up to legal threats from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and she received the top honor at Netroots Nation, The Steve Gilliard Journalism Grant of Merit. She has been a guest on shows hosted by Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Ron Reagan and numerous other radio programs. During the critical Fall 2008 national election campaign, she was featured on the Palinoscopy Report on the Air America’s This is America with Jon Elliott. She has also appeared on numerous television programs including Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, CBC’s Today hosted by Nancy Wilson, FOX and Friends, Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Shannyn is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. She can be heard on her daily talk radio show in Alaska on KOAN 1020AM Anchorage and KXLJ 1330AM Juneau from 6-9pm Alaska time. Her weekly television show, Moore Up North, is broadcast every Saturday at 4pm statewide on KYES Channel 5. Shannyn was a contributing author to the 2009 book on Sarah Palin titled Going Rouge. She also has a weekly opinion column in The Anchorage Daily News.
Linda Kellen Biegel (Contributing Editor)
Linda Kellen Biegel came to Alaska in 1984 with a BA in Communications (PR & Journalism) from University of Dayton in Ohio. After finding sobriety, Linda experienced the Alaska lifestyle through a series of diverse jobs ranging from counselor at a runaway shelter to security at a Correctional Halfway House to Alaska Wilderness Gourmet jelly/jam maker using Alaska wild berries. She eventually spent almost 20 years working for Construction/Engineering outfits from the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay to the FAA to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working for the Federal Government for 15-years. Her Blue Oasis blog was chosen to represent Alaska in the DNCC State Blogger Pool at the Denver Convention. On August 29th, one day after Barack Obama’s inspiring speech at Invesco Field, her life as well as the lives of all Alaska bloggers took a bizarre turn when Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain’s VP running mate. As a result, she either assisted or was interviewed by media from the UK, Italy, Australia and Germany as well as national media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ABC Good Morning America’s Kate Snow, National Journal, Dallas Morning News, LA Times, and NPR.
Linda is wife to computer programmer Josh and mother to Morrigan. Her family especially enjoys their summers in Alaska where Linda spends her time gardening, and she joins her extended family in subsistence set-net fishing for Sockeye salmon as well as halibut fishing/whalewatching in the family’s homemade aluminum boat, “The Neverdone” (when it’s working). She resides in Anchorage, Alaska.
Contributors:
Thomas Dewar – Webmaster, Art Direction & Design. He has been a communications strategist on labor and political campaigns from Alaska and California to Florida, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin.
Zach Roberts – Investigations/Photo Editor. Currently collaborating with BBC journalist Greg Palast, Roberts has researched and co-produced several of his BBC/Democracy Now! investigations which are on DVD, including The Election Files and Big Easy to Big Empty. He edited Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s investigative comic “Steal Back Your Vote!”—which is available as a free download at www.StealBackYourVote.org, and is the creator of the upcoming film The Rogue Candidate.
Jim Wright – A retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer who consults for the military in Alaska, where he spends most of his free time in his woodshop or fishing, Wright is also the owner of the blog Stonekettle Station.
Ken Morris – Following a successful career on Wall Street, Morris became an outspoken critic of aspects of the financial system, including the New York Stock Exchange. He is a frequent media contributor on political criticism and financial reform. He is the author of the award-winning novels Man in the Middle and The Deadly Trade. He is also co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin. Ken lives in California with his wife and four sons. You can learn more about Ken at his website.
Bill Sherwonit – A freelance nature writer since 1992, Sherwonit’s most recent book, Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness, is now available here. For nearly a quarter-century, Bill has written extensively about wild lands and wildlife. Though he continues to journey into the wilderness each year, he has also paid increasing attention to the wild nature of his home landscape: Anchorage. He is the author of 12 books about Alaska, including three books about Denali, two about the Iditarod, and others about the Brooks Range and the necessity of wilderness, his evolving relationship with wild nature, Alaska’s bears and state parks.
Rick Steiner – A former University of Alaska professor and Marine Conservation Specialist, Steiner served as statewide conservation specialist from 1996–2010 (Anchorage), and marine advisor for Prince William Sound 1983–1996 (Cordova) and arctic Alaska 1980–1983 (Kotzebue). With a background in commercial fisheries, international conservation consulting, and oil/environment work, Steiner was involved in all aspects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Today, he conducts the Oasis Earth project—a global consultancy working with NGOs, governments, industry, and civil society to speed the transition to an environmentally sustainable society.
Brad Friedman – A Los Angeles-based investigative journalist, blogger, political commentator, broadcaster, author, Commonweal Institute Fellow and publisher and executive editor of The Brad Blog, Friedman is the regular fill-in host for the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show. He is the producer and co-host of the nationally syndicated “Green News Report”, a regular 6-minute radio feature heard on stations and podcasts across the country, with his partner and co-host Desi Doyen.
Jason Leopold – Deputy Managing Editor of truthout.org, Leopold was the former Los Angeles bureau chief of Dow Jones Newswires, where he spent two years covering the energy crisis and the Enron bankruptcy.
Ship Bright – is a conservation entrepreneur whose experience in the private, public [both state and federal], and nonprofit/non-governmental organization [NGO] sectors gives him a unique multi-angled perspective on economic and environmental issues that we face today. Ship is a Fulbright Scholar who is presently teaching Social Entrepreneurism at Charles University and University of Economics, Prague in the Czech Republic. He is presently on staff with Audubon Alaska as their Development Director. He is also the Principal of BrightNGOsolutions offering consulting services to Philanthropists who desire to leverage their philanthropic dollars for the greater good as well as to nonprofit/NGO organizations on board development, mission focus, strategic planning, and fundraising.
Elstun Lauesen – Elstun W. Lauesen. Lifelong Alaskan. He is of Scandinavian and Native American Heritage. Elstun was raised in Fairbanks/North Pole area. Elstun attended University of Alaska, Alaska Methodist University, and Harvard College. Elstun is a certified financial packager and runs an economic development consultancy specializing in rural and tribal development. The Small Business Administration, the American Economic Development Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce have recognized Elstun’s professional work in the field of economic development for its innovation and creativity. Elstun is a political writer and his opinions are often published in Alaskan newspapers and political blogs.
Michelle (Macuar) Sparck grew up in Bethel, Alaska and is a member of the Qissunamiut Tribe of Chevak. While attending the American University in Washington, D.C., Michelle worked for the Alaska Delegation on Alaska Resource and social service issues. With Senate and House experience, Michelle returned home to work for the Association of Village Council Presidents and a number of regional and statewide tribal organizations throughout the years. Years after first winning a series of seed money from the Alaska Federation of Natives Alaska Marketplace competition modeled after a World Bank program to spark entrepreneurial ideas in developing nations, or in this case, off-the-grid Alaska, Michelle, along with her triplet sisters Cika and Amy, are utilizing traditional gathering knowledge to produce a high-end skin careline, cosmetics and toiletries. Her Alaska Native family owned and operated company and her own personal advocacy attempts to bring about innovative economic development in harmony with the Yupik / Cupik traditional way of life.
Heather DuBois Bourenane – The Mudflats’ Wisconsin Bureau Chief has her hands full reporting on the Badger State. She writes the blog Monologues of Dissent.
Carl Johnson – Johnson specializes in stock and fine art nature, landscape and wildlife images from Alaska and the American West.. He is a freelance nature photographer and writer based out of Anchorage, Alaska, and is rapidly developing an extensive catalogue of wild places, including the most extensive photo library of America’s wildest national park, Gates of the Arctic. You can find his photography and blog at CarlJohnsonPhoto.com.
Wickersham’s Conscience - WC is the pseudonym of an unsuccessfully retired Alaska lawyer, birder and nature photographer. WC’s blog is HERE.






















Just started following The Mudflats on FB…very impressed! Makes me want to make the journey from Norfolk, VA up to Upper Left Corner.
Thanks for doing what you’re doing…Rock On!
Dana
Lower 48