By Elstun Lauesen Ring the Bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in — Leonard Cohen, “Anthem” Alaskans seem frozen in place. After a promising beginning 54 years ago, we established a solid foundation for our state. Now, after a pipeline and [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel Last week, I listened-in on an Alaska Public Offices Commission hearing regarding an old friend of ours here at Mudflats, Mr. Bob Griffin. You remember Bob: – In April 2011, he ran on his status as a veteran and a pilot in order to win a seat the Anchorage School Board [...]

~Frank Luntz, GOP Minister of Propaganda     By Shannyn Moore While most Alaskans were suffering through another cold, dark week, Gov. Sean Parnell was hard at work — on another junket, this time to the Republican Governor’s Association meeting in Florida. Odd — no palm tree beach shots on the state website. In fact, [...]

Just when you thought it was over… Convicted Corrupt Bastard Vic Kohring, doesn’t much like being called a corrupt bastard. So, he’s is suing fellow corrupt Bastard Bill Allen, federal informant and former CEO of oil services company VECO for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and damage to his business and personal reputations. He [...]

I wrote this last winter but didn’t post it then. Sadly, it still stands. By Shannyn Moore It’s hard to describe how surreal it was to meet the man who wrote a book I grew up with. I remember the cover. Joe McGinniss had written one of the best books about Alaska, though controversial in [...]

By Linda Kellen Biegel   Mudflatters, think wayyyyyy, wayyyyyy back to October of 2010 and you might remember Representative William Thomas, Jr., a Republican legislator from the beautiful little town of Haines, Alaska. Representative Thomas is not someone who generally comes to my attention way over here in Anchorage. However, in September of 2010 while [...]

[photo from NOAA] Those of you who have been breathlessly awaiting reports on the orange goo that washed up on the shores of the northwestern eskimo village of Kivalina, Alaska will be interested to hear the latest report, and that the mystery is closer to being solved. I deliberately didn’t say you’ll be “happy” to [...]

~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 [...]

Here’s a picture from several years ago of our campsite where we were setnetting during the annual personal use fishery. I’m looking forward to being there in just a couple of days! Setnetting at the Kasilof is already going on and in the Alaska tradition, we have a number of families sharing the nets and [...]

By Linda Kellen Biegel No, this is not a joke. Bob Griffin, Mayor Sullivan’s candidate for School Board (including personal donations from the Mayor and his wife) even had an encounter with the Anchorage Police School Resource Officers over the whole thing. From a recording of the May 23rd School Board Meeting: Don Smith: The [...]

In a previous post on the “Anti-Public Education Agenda”, we discussed how corporations and right-wing radicals were driving the “school choice” and education reform movements nationally and statewide. However, no one has played politics in this arena quite the way that Mayor Dan Sullivan has here in Anchorage: – Since the early days of his [...]

Want to see the Arctic Ocean? Just start driving the Haul Road north of Fairbanks. You’ll pass through miles and miles of rugged, beautiful, unfenced land. The road is rough and there aren’t many amenities like gas stations, toilets or cell service. And before you make it to the ocean, there’s one other complication: the [...]

  By Linda Kellen Biegel I watched a piece last night on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” that was good overall. It was about Palin’s bus-to-nowhere tour: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy I was pleased that O’Donnell pointed out the potential illegalities involved in using her SarahPAC [...]

I went into Petco yesterday to buy food for our Sheltie and saw several dogs wearing “adopt me” signs (like “Baron” below). It turns out that Alaska Dog and Puppy Rescue were there with a few of the animals available for adoption. Baron was a sweet dog but very shy and the folks from the [...]

Alaskans are a bunch of people who want to be around a bunch of people who don’t want to be around a bunch of people. By Shannyn Moore I once saw a bush pilot restart his plane with the gum wrapper off a piece of Big Red. I asked him if it would work. He [...]