By Shannyn Moore We take the 49th star on our nation’s flag for granted. That was a hard fight, and statehood wasn’t won on the first pass or even the second. The tipping point and fuel came in large part from the “We-don’t-like-being-bossed-around-by-outsiders” attitude of Alaskans. It’s a bit ironic when we look at ourselves [...]

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Google for Pebble? It doesn’t seem possible that a company which has always been known for its progressive leanings, and whose slogan was “don’t be evil” could be supporting a project like The Pebble Mine. The first hint should have been the [...]

By Shannyn Moore As much time as we spend watching movies, it’s easy to believe that actors take jobs because they identify with some part of a film. The wool was ripped from my eyes this week. I’ve watched actor Wes Studi in films for years — “Geronimo,” “Dances with Wolves” and “Avatar,” to name [...]

I was checking out the #nopebble hashtag on Twitter the other day, to see what links or comments had come in addressing what would be the continent’s largest open pit copper and gold mine situated at the headwaters of the world’s largest red salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska. It doesn’t take a fisheries expert [...]

Ah, Paul Jenkins. You may remember him as one of our “odd bedfellows” during the reign of Sarah Palin. Normally, wildly off the mark, Mr. Jenkins was actually spot on about Sarah, and surgically shredded her in the Anchorage Daily News on a regular basis. He did this not because he had suddenly seen the [...]

This Dodge pickup truck that I spotted yesterday was picture worthy. Why? Because it is sporting probably the two most ubiquitous bumper stickers in Alaska. The No Pebble sticker is more recent, and the other (talking about whether to have an all-Alaska gas pipeline route) was more common a few years ago. But as many [...]

The Alaska Supreme Court yesterday delivered some much needed good news. Yesterday in a 3-1 ruling, the court upheld a previous court’s ruling that the residents of the Lake and Peninsula Borough, should be allowed to vote on a ballot initiative in October. The initiative would restrict permitting of any large extraction project that could [...]

I will argue with people about voting. More vehemently if they don’t vote than if they vote for someone different than me. No, candidates aren’t all the same, and it’s a form of freeloading if you don’t vote. If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament. Alaskans have an amazing record of being [...]

~The original Captain Zero Before I go off on some rant about how my forefathers fought the British to birth a country that could VOTE, and how siding with the British to take away the right of Americans to vote should be called treason, I’ll take a deep breath and explain a few things. Since [...]

A great video from Parent Earth about why it’s important to stop the Pebble Mine, and genetically modified salmon.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy In this clip, Rachel Maddow interviews Melissa Harris-Perry, professor of politics at Tulane University about the role of the federal government in assuring safety in the commons – clean air clean water, national security, etc. The Republicans in the House just voted to [...]

Happy Independence Day! Of course, “Alaskan Independence Day” was yesterday, the two year anniversary of the event at Lake Lucille in Wasilla that we like to cal “Quitstock.”  That’s right, Sarah Palin abdicated the governorship and left us in the not-so-capable hands of Captain Zero. We Alaskans were rid of her whether we individually wanted [...]

The past two budgets have included $84 million for a bridge…to somewhere in Alaska. Senators Wielechowski and French have written a letter to the Alaska Railroad with some concerns. ANCHORAGE- Today, Senators Bill Wielechowski and Hollis French are calling on Alaska Railroad officials to ensure steel products made only in America are used to build [...]

This picture is good for the heart in so many ways. For more information on the proposed Pebble Mine project, go to savebristolbay.org Photo of fresh Bristol Bay King Salmon by Jon Corbett