By Shannyn Moore I’ve never wanted to sit on a sidewalk so badly in my life. This week, seven members of the Anchorage Assembly voted for Mayor Dan Sullivan’s ordinance to create sidewalk sitting hours and rules. Ernie Hall, who has talked about being independent of the mayor, once again, with his vote, proved he [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel (Homeless Anchorage protestor John Martin and his faithful friend) On the same day that the world is outraged by the pepper-spraying of peaceful UC Davis protestors, Newt Gingrich still manages to capture the attention of the media. Friday, his announcement of “extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty [...]

After the excessive and brutal use of force by officers on the campus of UC Davis, photoshop gurus from around the web have been busy at work putting the image of Lt. John Pike (the pepper spraying cop) into images where he pepper sprays all manner of other harmless and benevolent people and critters and [...]

Here is the next installment of Greg Palast’s new book Vulture’s Picnic. He has allowed The Mudflats to bring you Chapter 7 – My Home is Now a Strange Place in its entirety. This is an exclusive excerpt, just for Mudflatters. I find it absolutely riveting. If you need to catch up, here are links [...]

  [This is the third installment of Chapter 7, My Home is Now a Strange Place from Greg Palast's Vulture's Picnic. Many thanks to Mr. Palast for providing The Mudflats with an exclusive of this story that is so critical to the state of Alaska, and reveals so much about the corporate interests that still [...]

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Enjoy today’s dose of random stuff on the half-shell! Links in the titles. Brrrrrricane Makes Landfall The Bering Sea megastorm that made landfall yesterday on the West Coast of Alaska did damage to buildings, caused massive erosion in some areas, and flooding [...]

[NOAA Satellite image of massive Bering Sea Storm] For those following the megastorm that made landfall in Western Alaska last night, check out the #akstorm hashtag on Twitter. There are at least a few folks out there who are tweeting the latest information from the ground, which is being picked up by news organizations, and [...]

Friday afternoon, the offices of the AFL-CIO in Anchorage were hopping. Look at the sinister faces of all those “union thugs.” That’s one thing I’ve never understood. How can any Alaskan, in a state with the second-highest union density in the country, think of unions as “thuggery.” Union men and women are your neighbors, your [...]

The Mudflats’ New York Bureau Chief, Zach Roberts, has been doing an outstanding  job covering the movement known as Occupy Wall Street. He has been our boots on the ground since the protests began, recently putting himself in harm’s way to expose the latest happenings. We’ve posted his photos before, but his current shots, and [...]

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! [The Walrus and the Carptenter, Lewis Carroll] A half dozen on the half shell. Slurp ‘em up! (Links in the titles) Rick Perry, Evangelical Economist Rick Perry thinks that God crashed the economy on purpose to teach us a lesson and return [...]

A rape kit is a forensic evidence kit, and is used to collect any physical evidence that may have been left behind by the rapist. It involves having the victim report to a medical facility as soon after the crime as possible, where samples are taken of hair, blood, fingernail scrapings, vaginal swabs and other [...]

Yes, you can still fight City Hall! The latest news from Rosemary Shinohara at the Anchorage Daily News is that Mayor Dan Sullivan has requested a “postponement” of consideration on the new sidewalk etiquette ordinance: The administration asked that it be referred to the city’s Public Safety Commission, said Ossiander. A public hearing on the [...]

  By Linda Kellen Biegel Here at The Mudflats we did a post not long ago about an incident discussed during an Anchorage School Board Meeting. It seems that Bob Griffin, a twice-failed candidate for the school board, was pulled over by the police. Here is the explanation in the words of School Superintendent Carol [...]

Synthetic cannabinoids, originally intended to mimic the effects of medical marijuana, have now been criminalized in Alaska with House Bill 7, signed by Governor Sean Parnell. The bill will take effect on July 7.  These products have been changed from Schedule 2A to Schedule 3A controlled substances. Alaskans caught possessing less than 12 grams of [...]

Alaska is a land of extremes, both good and bad. We have the most coastline, the most islands, the best fishing, the most park land, and I can confidently say the most natural wild beauty of any state in the nation. On the flip side, we have the most earthquakes, the most infant botulism, the [...]