The state health department has ended contracts with a medical information company that provided essential information for targeting waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, saying the contracts were not cost effective.
Read MoreWhile Dunleavy refused to inform Alaskans about the details of his June 26 meeting with President Trump, he did tell the Pebble Mine promoters that he had received a promise from Trump to get the EPA out of the way, giving the company what it wanted.
Read MoreIf there is a reason to spend more money promoting development, it should not go to the duplicative DDT, but to the Alaska Regional Development Organizations that have been doing this work for many years. Some of them are struggling. The state stopped grants to them three years ago.
Read MoreThe 2020 Dunleavy plan for conversation will never lead to a miraculous moment when Alaskans speak with a unified voice about state services, taxes, the Permanent Fund Dividend or anything else.
Read MoreRather than say, “We screwed up,” the administration emitted an impenetrable bureaucratic fog, thicker than ice fog at 50 below, to obscure the reasons why it approved $100 per month in benefit cuts and then canceled the decision in little more than a week.
Read MoreWhile the Dunleavy administration appears to be trying to keep operational details about the development team quiet—the money for Penney’s contract was laundered through a state agency—the governor says the Alaska Development Team is one of his major accomplishments.
Read MoreI have heard directly from hundreds of readers across Alaska, as well as from some in the Lower 48, and want to thank you for your continued support and encouragement, even from those who disagree with my interpretation of events.
Read More
The promoters of the Pebble Mine sent a draft letter to Dunleavy, asking that he contact a potential investor who might be scared off by a letter from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Weeks later, the governor’s spokesman said he did not know how the NRDC letter came to Dunleavy’s attention.
Dunleavy likes to say he supports the Pebble process, not necessarily the mine. That would come as a big surprise to the mine proponents, who see him as the tallest member of the pro-Pebble team.
Read MoreThe contract should not be awarded. If the state wants to pursue this case, it should do so with state lawyers already on the payroll who do no charge the Alaska discount of $600 an hour.
Read MoreDunleavy would never give this synopsis of what he claims happened in Alaska after the 2014 oil price crash to an informed audience in Alaska as it would be immediately recognized as a lie.
Read MoreThe winter sun doesn’t attract the glory of summer’s all-night show, but the nature of the low-angled December light—tinting the landscape with a soft glow—is a case of quality instead of quantity.
Read MoreThe Dunleavy administration is trying again to shut down the Havemeister family dairy farm near Palmer by ending the state inspection program required to sell milk on the commercial market. It’s still a bad idea.
Read MoreDunleavy’s budget envisions a deficit in the fiscal year that starts next July of about $170,000 an hour, which is $4 million per day, about $120 million a month and about $1.5 billion a year. By October 2021, all savings except the Permanent Fund would be gone.
Read MoreAfter vetoing adult dental coverage for Medicaid recipients in June and again in August—rejecting the near universal testimony from health care experts—Gov. Mike Dunleavy has now signed off on a plan to resurrect coverage in January.
Read MoreUnder the latest plan, the team would be funded by $2.8 million to be withdrawn from a state loan fund for aviation equipment, a fund managed by the commerce department that is soon to be shut down.
Read MoreThe Dunleavy administration has offered an unbelievable account about the sequence of events and the timing of the decision to cut benefits for the poor, blind, disabled or old, followed by the reversal of that plan after the public began to learn about it.
Read MoreThis seems to be a bit of wishful thinking on the part of DEC Commissioner Jason Brune, who told the Resource Development Council in March that eliminating the Ocean Ranger program was “near and dear to my heart.” The Legislature refused to give him his heart’s desire.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy introduced a reckless budget Wednesday afternoon in Juneau, one that would leave the state with no savings except the Permanent Fund by October 2021, then he ducked out of his own press conference.
Read MoreThe Legislature took a sensible position and ignored Attorney General Kevin Clarkson on school funding. Clarkson’s losing streak is intact.
Read More