The Legislature hasn’t done much in 2021 or 2022 to really examine the weaknesses in oil tax law and fix them. Now that oil is close to $90 a barrel and the state is paying the maximum in oil tax credits to the oil companies, this failure is striking.
Read MoreIt was a publicity stunt, one that allowed Dunleavy to claim in his publicity campaign that 17 new Trooper positions are in his budget, including 10 Troopers for Palmer and Wasilla. Until $5 million is added to the budget, the positions are imaginary.
Read MoreWhat Dunleavy and James Cockrell, the public safety commissioner, didn’t reveal in the press release, printed as an opinion column, was that the proposed Dunleavy budget includes no money to hire the 14 Troopers and 3 wildlife safety officers they announced.
Read More“Look at the photo he posted for the occasion. To a normie, it appears that David is frowning in disapproval at the monstrousness of The Führer’s words – at worst, it might look like he’s a politician trying to score a tacky photo op at one of America’s most somber memorial spaces. But to his fellow neo-fascists, he is standing at attention and paying respectful homage to Hitler. Normal people don’t take selfies in front of Hitler quotes,” writes Edward ReBrook, an attorney who was a classmate of Rep. David Eastman at West Point.
Read MoreSen. Mike Shower and his right-wing allies have probably talked to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the obstacle-in-chief, who wants unlimited campaign contributions and is trying to keep the campaign finance law broken throughout the 2022 race for governor.
Read MoreThe Alaska House coalition is considering a move to strip Eastman of his committee assignments. But that is not enough. The Legislature needs to implement the Disqualification for Disloyalty provision of the Alaska Constitution.
Read MoreThe speed and attention given to this by the attorney general’s office and the disclosure that the governor’s office knew in advance that the personnel file would be released Jan. 12. are prime topics for investigation by the Legislative Budget & Audit committee regarding the political aspects of Rodell’s firing.
Read MoreThe committee unanimously approved a contract of up to $100,000 with a law firm to investigate Rodell’s firing. This is a sensible and logical step, given the refusal of Gov. Mike Dunleavy to give a candid explanation about the role of his administration in removing Rodell.
Read MoreJust in time for his reelection campaign, candidate Mike Dunleavy has had a change of heart about the merits of the WWAMI program that has trained Alaska doctors for 50 years. He no longer says it is ineffective or that it shows “diminishing returns.” He wants to increase spending on it by $1.6 million a year.
Read MoreIn his State of the State speech Tuesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy touched briefly on the history of oil production guesswork in Alaska and quoted a misleading statistic.
Read MoreUnder Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is taking the laughable position that is has no role in transportation planning regarding the long-term impact of the proposal to use public highways as mining access roads for many years, perhaps decades to come.
Read MoreDunleavy didn’t have the guts to tell right-wing zealots that Dr. Anne Zink, who is more popular than he is, has been doing a good job. Now he doesn’t have the guts to tell the truth about what happened last Saturday.
Read MoreDunleavy didn’t bother to mention that Alaska doctors, nurses and support staff have been doing the best they can during the pandemic. A competent governor would have said that, even at the risk of offending the mature mob of Mat-Su citizens.
Read MoreOn Monday Dunleavy ducked a legitimate question from Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News about why the state released Angela Rodell’s personnel file, but refused to release much of anything about Kevin Clarkson, the former attorney general who lost his job over allegations of sexual harassment.
Read MoreWhile there are some negative comments in the evaluations contained in the file, there are also positive remarks by some permanent fund employees portraying her as the boss of the year.
Read MoreA big reason for the “robust returns” is that the company will be using public highways nearly all of the way and doesn’t have to worry about paying for road maintenance, bridge repairs or the impact on other drivers using the highways. Those are real costs, which will be borne by the public, not by the shareholders of Kinross and its joint venture partner Contango ORE.
Read MoreTraveling winter or summer on the Richardson Highway from Tok to Fairbanks and the Steese Highway from Fairbanks to Cleary Summit would become far more dangerous and inconvenient under the Kinross plan to transform it into a 250-mile industrial route for heavy truck traffic, hauling 10 million pounds of rock every day of the year.
Read MoreWhat is becoming increasing clear is that Dunleavy was lying or playing a deceptive word game when he claimed to know nothing about the removal of Angela Rodell from the Permanent Fund, one of the most important jobs in state government.
Read MoreThe Rev. Kelly Tshibaka is willing to echo Trump’s lie in the pursuit of personal power, one of many reasons she is unfit to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
Read MoreIt should have been a simple process to add supplemental sex education materials, but hysteria triumphed and the Fairbanks school board walked away in fear.
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