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March 19, 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

We found Dallas Seavey! Welcome to the 2019 Finnmarksløpet!

The Finnmarksløpet dog sled race is the longest and northernmost dog sled race in Europe. It takes place in the Finnmark, the northernmost region of Norway, and traverses birch forest, river valleys, and northern fjords from Alta to the Russian border and back. The Finnmarksløpet was established in 1981 by the Alta Trekkhundklubb (Dog Sledding Association of Alta) as a 226 km (140 mile) long race. It was later extended to 1,000 km (621 miles) in 1993, and then to its current distance of 1,200 km (746 miles). In addition to the 1,200 km-long race, there is a 500 km…

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Anchorage Bans Plastic Bags

It’s been a process, let’s just say, as these things normally are. Should we ban those hideous one-use plastic grocery bags that end up clogging storm drains, wreaking havoc with water treatment facilities, getting stuck in trees and bushes, blowing across the road, and ending up in waterways and the ocean where they break down into the dreaded “microplastic” particles that get into the fish, and eventually us? Or should we just ban the really thin ones but not the medium ones or the thick ones? Or should we ban the thin, AND the medium? And on the public testimony…

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“Am I Being Detained?” Visu.News Interviews Jeanne Devon on Sovereign Citizens

This week on the Visu.News podcast I chat with long time friend and colleague Jeanne Devon. She’s the editor and founder of TheMudflats.net – if you read anything about Sarah Palin back in 2008, it’s likely a story that she wrote and then was picked up by the networks. This week she’s on to talk “sovereign citizens” (the Waffle House shooter likely was one) and the new book she co-wrote with former undercover FBI operative Bill Fulton, who is now a Visu.News regular. That book is, of course, The Blood of Patriots – now available everywhere fine books are sold. As I…

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Happy Birthday to the father of Alaska statehood & why Trump would hate him

Happy birthday to the father of Alaska statehood… and here’s why Trump would hate him. The list is long. When you think of Alaska, you probably think the reddest of the red – half-term governor Sarah Palin, almost-US-Senator Joe Miller, and the longest serving member of the House of Representatives (which I still cannot explain to anyone who asks) Don Young. But I like to remember when we had someone else with different ideas at the helm. He was the 7th Territorial Governor, and one of the two first U.S. Senators from the brand new state of Alaska – Ernest…

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Court Delivers Double-Whammy Over Pebble

Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court issued two decisions that will have far-reaching impacts about how the Department of Natural Resources conducts business in hard rock mineral exploration, and the ability of the State and others to chill opposition. While the two cases involved the Pebble Prospect exploration, neither will impact the development of that mine. Background In 1988, Teck Cominco drilled the first exploration wells in what would become the 360 square-mile Pebble Prospect. By 2010, ownership of the Pebble claims would change hands from Teck Cominco to Northern Dynasty Minerals to the Pebble Limited Partnership. Collectively, those entities would…

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Palin for President? Oh please, oh please, oh please…

Like a bear being wakened from a long winter’s nap, so have I been roused from another project to return to these pages. Was it the warm southern breezes and the promise of a new spring that brought me out of my cave and into the sunlight? No, it was not. It was more like the sound of screeching aluminum right before it succumbs to metal fatigue… kind of a high-pitched squeal that hits you right where the base of the skull connects with the spine. I refer, of course, to Sarah Palin making an announcement. According to The Washington…

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Mudflats is Anchorage Press Picks Best Blog!

Thanks, Alaska! We’re busting our little political buttons over here because you voted us Best Blog for the 2014 Anchorage Press Picks! We are humbled, and pretty darn stoked! From The Mudflats’ hardscrabble beginnings, we’ve evolved with the help of many awesome people. Huge thanks my fellow contributing editors Shannyn Moore and Linda Kellen Biegel; photo editor and contributor Zach Roberts; and Webmaster/Art Design guru Thomas Dewar. Thanks also to “WC” who feathers our nest with his amazing feature Bird of the Week, and of course, Brian the Moose our official moosecot and hobnobber. The contributors team is large, and far-flung….

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Encounters with Alaska’s Wildlife

By Bill Sherwonit Given my love for essays (both writing and reading them), it’s a special delight to have a collection of my pieces published this fall by Alaska Northwest Books. Animal Stories: Encounters with Alaska’s Wildlife includes thirty-four essays, written over two decades’ time. One of the joys of doing the book was to re-read scores of the essays I’ve written across the years and to find that a good number of them still “hold up” (at least as judged by me and the editors). To give a sense of the book’s scope and intent, I’ll here borrow from…

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Alaska Celebrates Marriage Equality

Tonight a jubilant crowd gathered at Mad Myrna’s in downtown Anchorage to celebrate a judge’s ruling that declared Alaska’s current restrictive marriage laws unconstitutional both on the grounds of equal protection, and due process. It felt historic and happy, and long overdue. There was lots of smiling, and love, and laugher, and cake with rainbow sprinkles. Monday morning, Courtney Lamb and Stephanie Pearson, litigants in the case, will apply for a marriage license in Anchorage. It was a good day for equality, personal liberty, and constitutional justice. Congratulations to us all.

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Awkward Kid Explains Oil Taxes

Totally confused by Prop 1 on Tuesday’s ballot, or just want to see an awkward kid totally own the oil companies. Either way, here’s a coffee break treat! We love this kid. And this video (especially the sign part). The oil companies have spent millions of dollars to confuse you, and make you think it’s all just sooooo complicated. It’s actually not that hard to figure this whole thing out. This kid sure did. The numbers are close, Alaskans. And to keep from sending our treasury to big fancy glass offices in Houston, and London, we need to do one…

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