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March 29, 2024

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No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Legislature Takes Dump on Alaska

Despite massive public outcry, and good efforts by Democratic lawmakers, the legislature has voted to pass a bill that will loosen restrictions on the cruise industry, and lower water quality standards for coastal waters. HB80 now heads to the Governor’s desk. None of the Democratic amendments which would have required dumping at least 3 miles offshore, not next to marine parks or game refuges, public notification of the location of dump sites, and water monitoring passed. The bill was voted through as it was, and zipped through the senate with a vote of 16-4. The yes votes included Democratic Senator…

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Parnell Pees in the Pool

The critical vote on a controversial bill involving the dumping of cruise ship waste in Alaska waters has been put off until next week. This is good news. Your outrage, and contacts with your legislators are having an impact. The cruise ship dumping legislation favored by Governor Sean Parnell would kill key provisions of a 2006 citizen’s initiative, voted in by the people, that required cruise ships to meet clean water standards at the point of discharge by the 2016 cruise season, instead of allowing them to release sewage, heavy metals, and other waste into “mixing zones.” Mixing zones are…

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Alaskans Gone Wild – Say No to Frankenfish!

(Insert Jaws theme here) The Frankenfish is coming!  Unless we all speak up… The push to introduce a genetically-modified, farmed Atlantic-Pacific-Salmon-Eel hybrid into the marketplace continues, but we have time to stop it. Alaska’s entire congressional delegation is all on our side on this one, so no excuse to call it a “partisan political issue.” This is about Alaska’s greatest sustainable treasure, our wild and wonderful salmon. The FDA has already issued a draft Environmental Assessment with a finding that genetically modified Atlantic salmon caused no significant environmental impact. Really? Sorry, FDA. Alaskans are smarter than that. We know that contamination…

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Gov Kills Palin’s Climate Change Sub-Cabinet

Here’s another reason why Sarah Palin was a better governor than Sean Parnell. (SPOILER ALERT: He killed an entire sub-cabinet, and never bothered to tell the public) Remember that special group Palin created to address the warming of Alaska due to climate change, and the threats this poses to Alaska’s coastal communities? It’s easy to forget, but it was 2007 when the Palin administration created that group, after she expressed her concern over the unwelcome changes that global warming was bringing to the state. They even had an “Immediate Action Plan” for the most at-risk from sea level rise, loss…

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Parnell Dumps Citizens’ Initiative Overboard

This just in from the Alaska Democratic Party. Republicans overthrowing the will of the people to serve their own self-interest and that of their corporate donors? I’m shocked. Shocked, I say. Today House Republicans passed Gov. Parnell’s bill to allow discharge of sewage and untreated wastewater in Alaska waters, repealing a provision of the 2006 citizen initiative that protected Alaskans’ health and state fisheries. Parnell’s bill would allow the release approximately 1,064,448,000 gallons of sewage and wastewater into Alaska state waters every year. Republicans rejected Democratic amendments which would have required disclosure of the location of sewage discharges and protected…

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These Bears – Not So Sweet

Everyone knows this bear. Probably after Winnie the Pooh and Yogi, it’s the most recognizable bear on the planet. Heck, outside of the US it’s probably THE most recognized bear on the planet. It’s also likely the only reason many school kids even know what a polar bear is (but let’s not get distracted by the terrible state of our k-12 schools in America). This is about looking at this bear in a different way. As a former die-hard Coca-Cola drinker, I’d look forward to these commercials as a kid. They meant Christmas was approaching. Suddenly, glass bottles would appear in…

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EXCLUSIVE: FBI Militia Informant Tells All

Bill Fulton, undercover FBI informant in the “Alaska Militia Trial,” gave a lengthy interview to The Mudflats about his role in the case, and his controversial life in Anchorage before it was revealed. In this article, he shares his candid opinion about local Anchorage media, national progressive media, Joe Miller, and what they got wrong. Yours truly didn’t even escape entirely unscathed. Bill Fulton came to Alaska, the biggest small town in the world, and became instantly “known.” He owned a shop in Anchorage that was utterly unforgettable. A military supply store, which doubled as offices for a security company,…

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Crowdsourcing Success

Banking is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can get. But we reversed the basic principle of banking, saying that if you have absolutely nothing, you are our most prominent client. – Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank. In the 1970’s, a newly independent nation was in the grips of economic and institutional crisis. An economist returned to his native country and became an Economics Professor in Bangladesh. He witnessed rampant poverty and desperation, and noted cruel private lending conditions. Two-thirds of the world’s population is deprived of services available from financial institutions, and bankers told…

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Open Thread – INM Rally

IDLE NO MORE RALLY & GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION Friday • January 11 • 12 PM Noon Anchorage Town Square

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Shell: The Reckoning

Like any large corporation these days, Shell is making use of social media to spin its damage control about the Kulluk grounding. Whether the company’s aren’t-we-swell message is getting traction is open to debate. More important than getting an earful on its Facebook page is the legal/legislative reckoning the company is about to face. US Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), the United States Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior, and the US House of Representatives are all launching investigations into the matter. Phil Munger over at Progressive Alaska has a nice overview of each of these inquiries. Given the PR…

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