by Mel Green (Originally posted at Bent Alaska) Nearly 1,100 Alaskans — about 75% of contributors — have so far donated to One Anchorage, a March 7 press release announced. But it didn’t take long for anti-LGBT leader Jim Minnery to claim that “Outside Gay Rights Funds Bankroll Prop. 5 Supporters,” completely ignoring One Anchorage’s [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel Tim Meyers stands at the front of room 306 at the UAA/APU Consortium Library. He’s the next guest presenter for the session: Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Alaska at the Alaska Botanical Garden’s Spring Conference. The title of the Conference is “Extend the Season, Expand Your Mind” in honor of guest gpeaker, [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel Thanks to the help of friends here on Mudflats, I was able to attend yesterday’s Alaska Botanical Garden 6th Annual Spring Garden Conference with the theme “Extend the Season, Expand Your Mind.”. It was an absolutely wonderful experience; my brain is overflowing with what I’ve learned and I only wish I [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel On Thursday, I attended what is arguably the best forum for Municipal candidates in Anchorage — the Home And Land Owners (HALO) Candidate Forum at O’Malley’s on the Green, a restaurant on the Anchorage Golf Course. (Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston) HALO usually manages to draw every candidate from the Anchorage School District [...]

(Note from Linda: On February 21st, I wrote a post asking if the Education Summit Community Dialogues seemed to reflect an agenda by the Mayor. I also promised to write a follow-up post giving my opinion. I changed my mind when we received the attached article, printed in its entirety below. Roger Elconin’s piece is [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel It’s March…there are hundreds of inches of snow outside and it continues to pile up. Those of us who are in a gardening frame of mind are devouring seed catalogues and ordering the plants we want to grow this year. Traditionally, garden planning is done with a pencil and a piece [...]

Downtown Anchorage was full of energy and excitement Saturday – like no other day of the year. Today was the start of Iditarod XL – not extra large, Iditarod 40. The day began with a heavy snowfall as the first mushers headed down historic 4th Avenue. Of course, the real start (called the re-start) of [...]

  By Carl Johnson A project to tell the Bristol Bay story What is it about the Bristol Bay region, its history and its people that has led to such an opposition to development of the Pebble Mine?  For most people, the answer to this question is spread out among a tangling web of websites, [...]

By Carl Johnson An overview of the issues Part three of a four-part blog post entitled “Where Water is Gold: Bristol Bay and the Pebble Mine” The Bristol Bay Native Corporation, the regional corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to serve the Native residents of the region, has adopted a proposal in [...]

Governor (and former ConocoPhillips lobbyist) Sean Parnell has issued an Action Alert (!) to Alaskans asking them to weigh in against Senate Bill 192, before the bill has even had any public debate. What could be so terrible about SB 192, that a sitting governor should weigh in so forcefully you may wonder? This bill [...]

By Shannyn Moore Someone once said to me, “Shannyn, you expect people to be good and are constantly surprised. I expect people to be bad and am rarely shocked.” I’m not a cynic. Not yet, but I am getting outrage fatigue. The crazy just keeps coming. Sadly, there isn’t just one source. Syria is a [...]

**Sad update** Punkin passed away earlier today from internal injuries sustained during the attack. Lots of tears from Morrigan and I, and comforting licks from Derek at our house. Paula is taking more time off.** by Linda Kellen Biegel I posted this Sunday evening on my Facebook after getting off the phone with my still-shaky [...]

By Carl Johnson Along came a Pebble Thirty-two years after the Alaska Constitutional Convention concluded, Teck Cominco, a Canadian mining company, using the name Cominco Alaska Exploration, filed its first Alaska Placer Mining Application, a document filed with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to receive permission to, among other things, conduct exploratory drilling on mineral [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel (As spring and summer draw closer, it looks like a gardening post may develop into a regular Sunday installment on The Mudflats. I hope all the gardeners and garden admirers out there will enthusiastically participate! The comments are for all-things-garden-related.) It’s getting much lighter up here now, yet still the snow [...]

By Carl Johnson Part I: Setting the Stage The Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska is rich with seven river systems that provide incredible habitat to a variety of wildlife and fish, notably salmon.  But people in the region fear the development of a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of two of [...]