The Michael Bloomberg for President road show came to Anchorage a few weeks ago. For a mere million-dollar donation to the Anchorage Museum, Bloomber...
700 Cops in Anchorage?
Interesting what goes on when the wheels of local government grind on and nobody pays attention. In his October 2019 State of the City address, Mayor...
Benches and Business Licenses in the State Capitol
I made a Pilgrimage to Juneau for a few days in early February, conducting some business with the legislature, visiting some acquaintance and making t...
Egan Center Solar Panels and Snow
Must Read Alaska ran a piece in January about snow-covered solar panels on top of the Egan Center downtown. The problem is that snow-covered solar pa...
Payback?
I generally stay out of the legislative majority / minority organizational festivities at the beginning of each session as the results are generally i...
Further Analysis of Fishing Licenses and Permits
There were a few more interesting things that fell out of my analysis of the 2018 lists of sport fish licenses, personal use (dipnet) permits, and com...
Analysis of Fishing Licenses and Permit Holders
One of my continuing science projects has been to demonstrate how much our commercial fishermen are punching above their weight in the political wars,...
Hate Crimes or Hoaxes on the Peninsula?
Just in time to celebrate the holiday season comes the shocking, shocking, I say, story of a LGBTQWTF activist on the Kenai Peninsula getting assaulte...
The Return of the Anchorage Scofflaw
One of the things I enjoy looking for are indicators, small words, actions or other things that point to something larger afoot. The most recent of th...
Even Parasites Don’t Generally Kill Their Hosts
The idea of this column came to me mid-November with a pair of dueling columns in the ADN on the Alaska’s Fair Share ballot initiative. Former State ...
The Anchorage Assembly and the Eklutna Casino
What a fun weekend, as news breaks that the Anchorage Assembly is poised to embrace government to government relations with the Eklutna Tribe. The veh...
What I Saw at the District 23 and 24 Joint Meeting
Republicans from House District 23 and 24 held a joint meeting at the Asia Garden Restaurant from 1800 – 2000 on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2019. There were abo...
Libby’s Battlespace Preparation in the State Courts
Battlespace Preparation is a military term that describes the activities necessary in likely or potential areas of employment to train and prepare for...
Better Elections (for Democrats)
Three of the bigger tools in Alaska politics, Jason Grenn, Bonnie Jack and Bruce Botelho are the front people for a ballot initiative entitled Alaska’...
Questions on the ML&P Sale to Chugach
There were a few articles on the Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) sale to Chugach Electric (CEA) in October that prompted several questions. Ther...
Run Forest, Run. Not.
The first of what is expected to be several Anchorage Assembly members announced his candidacy for Mayor on Oct. 7. Erstwhile democrat Forrest Dunbar...
Revisiting the Anchorage Plastic Bag Ban
The democrat dominated Anchorage Assembly earlier this year passed a ban on plastic bags in local stores. Rationale for the ban was trash in the ocea...
The Senate Majority and the Earnings Reserve
Like most of us, I was moderately surprised when Senate Republicans rejected Representative Laddie Shaw’s nomination to replace the sadly departed Chr...
Lisa Murkowski’s Excellent Adventure
When Alaska’s senior US Senator sticks to business, energy and Alaska issues, she does very well. When she wanders off into other topics, things get ...
Janus and the Dunleavy Recall
I have a theory about what is behind the Dunleavy recall. At one level, the rationale is pretty simple, especially given the failure of democrats and...
Chuck Kopp and Mining
My representative, Smilin’ Chuck Kopp wrote an article late last week touting all the good things that mining brings to Alaska. And in that he is rig...
BP Leaves Alaska
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a week after Robin Brena and his group of democrat malcontents announced their latest assault on the oil and n...
Headlines
Quite the smarmy little headline out of the Binkley-owned Anchorage Daily News last week: “Republicans nominate 3 men to fill vacant Alaska Senate sea...
Travel Vetoes and the North American Model
When you get into the line item veto business, it is a good idea to at least consider the implications of those vetoes. Take Governor Dunleavy’s 50% ...
Dunleavy Vetoes and PFD Math
It has been quite a ride over the last month with the annual budget wars. The legislature managed to pass Bill Walker’s final budget as their solutio...
Fish Alaska Magazine and Pebble
As an (admittedly poor) fly fisherman, I am out on the lakes and streams of southcentral Alaska from breakup to freeze-up, with varying levels of succ...
The Californification of Anchorage
I ran across an article in PJ Media a couple weeks ago entitled “Ten Plagues of California Are Turning the Golden State into a Third-World Hell Hole.”...
Bearproof Trash Containers – a Bad Idea Whose Time has Come
Perhaps two decades ago, Hillside Assembly member Janice Shamberg floated an ordinance intended to do something about unpleasant bear-human interactio...
Cell Phones and School Zones in Anchorage – Law Enforcement for Profit
22 years ago, I had the pleasure of carrying a ballot initiative to the voters of Anchorage that rolled back Mark Begich’s photo radar, his and the As...
The Anchorage Climate Action Plan
On Tuesday, May 21, the Anchorage Assembly took up the Anchorage Climate Action Plan. The plan as all anti-development screeds is heavy on micromanag...
$557 Million
As the legislature moves toward the seemingly endless argument on budgets, budget cuts, additional revenues, and the ever-popular size of the PFD disc...
A Response to Chris Birch – The Right Sized PFD
My good friend Chris Birch wrote an op-ed in the ADN last week entitled “A Dividend Alaska Can Afford.” It detailed three options to close the $1.2 b...
The Ivy Spohnholz #MeToo Hand Grenade
It has been 10 days since Representative Ivy Spohnholz (D, Dist 16) pulled the pin and threw a live grenade into the floor debate on the nomination of...
The Anchorage Climate Action Plan
Suzanne Downing in Must Read Alaska linked to the newly released Anchorage Climate Action Plan. It is a mere 89 pages long and contains every single ...
Another Assault on Property Rights by the Anchorage Assembly
It has been said that the road to a Very Hot Place is paved with good intentions, though in this case I doubt the good intention. Tuesday night, 3/05...
Will Gainsharing Come to Alaska?
Had the pleasure of spending a while early this week discussing energy with Rep. Josh Revak and his aide Forrest McDonald. During the discussion, the...
Lisa Murkowski Discovers National Emergencies
Alaska’s senior US Senator looked upon President Trump’s National Emergency designation on the invasion from Mexico and Central America reaching the s...
The Music Man and Public Education
Anyone remember the 1962 musical The Music Man? It provided a lot of rousing music for kids in band. But there were a couple deeper stories. https:...
Lisa Dusts off the ERA
“Some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” – Paraphrase of Bertrand Russell, 1959, misattributed to George Orwell. Today...
Law Enforcement for Fun and Profit
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of...
Welcome to Anchorage Island
We learned a lot during and after the M7.0 earthquake a few weeks ago on 11/30. Among the Good News was no loss of life. The bad news was that there...
A New Alcohol Tax for Anchorage?
Mayor Berkowitz and at least three current members of the Anchorage Assembly. Dick Traini, Felix, Rivera and the ever reliable Eric Croft all want a n...
Mark Begich for Governor?
Uh, no. And it’s not for the reasons that you would expect: Big government; big spending; gun grabbing; Medicaid expansion; big taxes, anti-developme...
NEA Fails, but Teachers Should Give Dunleavy an A Grade
While driving home to Willow last Friday, the radio news story that Governor Walker suspended his campaign was interrupted by an ad paid for by Unite ...
The Unite Alaska Bree’s Law Ad
First nasty ad out of the Begich – union hopper following the self-immolation of the Walker – Mallott ticket is a little ditty accusing Republican Mik...
Hacking the Election for Alaska Governor
It is not just the Hillary campaign or the Russians who are mucking around in elections these days. Two of the gubernatorial candidates, Bill Walker ...
Lisa’s Vote on Kavanaugh
I wanted to wait a week before commenting on Alaska’s senior US Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R) vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Su...
$3,733
Such a magical number. It is the dollar amount Bill Walker and his democrat, indy, and Musk Ox majority in the House and minority in the Senate belie...
Lisa and the FBI
Lisa Murkowski finally got herself involved in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight Friday with a demand for a seventh FIB background check into sex...
Climate Change and the Alaska Governor
Bill Walker and Mark Begich are in terminal pander mode in their run for governor, telling who they think their constituents are whatever they think t...
Stand for Salmon – The Campaign So Far
The Stand for Salmon guys started running their ads on local radio last week and have nicely defined at least what they think they are all about. Hin...
Judge Kavanaugh and Subsistence
Every now and then you come across a story that makes you laugh, even if it is with a bit of schadenfreude. This comes out of Must Read Alaska, where ...
Weaponizing the State Bureaucracy
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign? R...
Why are Anchorage Police and Fire Unions Endorsing Republicans?
Over the last decade or so public employee unions here in Anchorage have been big participants in local elections, with the Police and Fire unions bei...
Bill Walker’s Friday Meeting With Kenai Commercial Fishermen
The statewide rolling pander tour that is the Bill Walker reelection campaign took its show on the road to Kenai last Friday to listen to a roomful of...
Energy Options For The Next Governor
I’ve written about energy in Alaska at some level for at least a decade. In the context of the ongoing race for Alaska governor, what do we make of t...
The Plastic Bag Ban Jihad Reaches Anchorage
Oh goodie, yet more virtue signaling from our friends on the left, this time a proposed plastic bag ban here in Anchorage. Wasilla and Palmer City Cou...
What Do You Have to Lose?
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, black voters swung their support almost exclusively to democrat candidates in political campaigns. ...
A Racial Test for Mining?
Here’s a fun thought on the heels of news that CIRI is dusting off a gold claim in Lake Clark National Park and thinking about mining it. Have we est...
Public Education and Community Bands
In the latter part of the 19th Century, entertainment was done locally. Usually this was done with some combination of community bands, orchestras, a...
Best Candidate for House District 22 in Anchorage?
House District 22 is shaping up to be a real interesting race. There are four candidates. Two Republicans – Liz Vazquez and Sara Rasmussen, one demo...
A Partial Resolution to the Chugach Board Member Issue
The Chugach Board of Directors held a special board meeting Monday 5/21 to address and perhaps resolve the residence issues with Board Chairman Bettin...
The Next Republicans to Organize With House Democrats?
One of the frustrating things we conservatives put up with are electing our candidates to the legislature, giving them a majority, and having them org...
A Second Chugach Board Member May Be Ineligible
Before recounting the festivities of the last two weeks, a correction to my original piece is in order: I stated the following in my first piece: “Dir...
The Chugach Board Chair May Be Serving Illegally
Why is it that democrats and their supporters are singularly unable to actually read the rules and follow them? Latest example comes courtesy of the C...
$5,000 for Child Care
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a week after Anchorage voters approved all bonds floated during the last Municipal election, Assembly members ...
Some thoughts and observations on Stand for Salmon
Favorite Son and I made our annual trip to the Great Alaska Sportsman Show Friday afternoon. I enjoy looking at the toys and vising with old friends ...
Bill Walker’s Million Dollar Traffic Jam
Sarah Palin turned the Knik Arm Bridge into a political football a decade ago foolishly, stupidly grandstanding about a Bridge to Nowhere after Ted St...
Persuasion – Yet another vital political skill
I generally write to figure things out, how they work, and most importantly, why. Sometimes it works better than others, particularly on things that ...
Time to buy out commfish limited entry permits?
My favorite writer on the Cook Inlet salmon wars is Craid Medred. He posted a piece early February on the continuing problem of commercial fishing an...
You’re Insane, So I Get to Steal Your Guns
The always reliable democrat Geran Tarr and her fellow gun grabbers Harriet Drummond and Ivy Sponholtz dusted off a bill Tarr wrote last year after a ...
Net Neutrality Comes to Alaska
So the House majority and democrats in the Alaska senate want to get themselves into the internet regulation business, this time by forcing net neutra...
HB 287 – Let’s Forward Fund Education. Not.
The House majority is up to its usual tricks again, this time end-running the budget process by trying to appropriate the Constitutional Budget Reserv...
MatSu Wood Stoves and the EPA
Life is all about choices, and at times, my fellow Alaskans choose poorly; very poorly. In early February, the local fish wrapper ran a story about th...
Plastic Bag Bans – A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come
Oh goodie, yet more virtue signaling from our friends on the left, this time bans (Wasilla) and proposed taxes (Rep. Andy Josephson (D, 17)) on plasti...