In the history of the Golden Valley Electric Association, few members in the cooperative have done as much to advocate for GVEA transparency and communication as Gary Newman, who is running for re-election to the GVEA board.
Over a period of many years, Newman attended hundreds of monthly GVEA meetings and showed the dedication necessary to educate himself on utility matters. And that was all before he ran for the board and was elected in 2015.
Read MoreWhen the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority releases its long-awaited $250,000 study praising AIDEA, the report will highlight the Red Dog zinc and lead mine as an AIDEA success story.
In November 2022, AIDEA said it wanted a consultant to "document the authority’s impressive economic and investment history” and its “central role” in supporting economic development. It said the report would be done by June 2023.
Red Dog, one of the largest lead and zinc mines in the world, is always mentioned as the ultimate AIDEA success story.
What rarely gets mentioned is whether one of the largest zinc deposits in the world would have been brought into production without a state subsidy, meaning without AIDEA.
Read MoreThis story needs to be told and retold this year so that Alaskans understand exactly how the public process was corrupted to achieve a 67 percent pay increase for legislators and a $31,000 increase for Dunleavy. Legislators have no one to blame but themselves for going along with Dunleavy’s machinations.
Every incumbent will be on the defensive, especially those who will claim they opposed the 67 percent increase but did not make a serious effort to expose the deception that allowed it to happen.
Read MoreIt’s been eight months since Sen. Dan Sullivan announced his hand-picked “council of Alaskans to improve federal judicial selection.”
I said at the time it was nothing but a delaying tactic by Sullivan. And that’s exactly what it has turned out to be.
Sullivan and his office have had absolutely nothing to say about the Dan Sullivan committee to select right-wing judges since it was launched last fall.
The Alaska federal judgeship has been vacant for nearly 2.5 years because of senatorial stalling.
Read MoreThe ham-handed attempt to silence the group that supported Proposition A is dirty politics, an attack on freedom of speech and not something to be tolerated.
It also appears to be a laughable attempt to co-opt the name of Golden Heart Strong and use it for a campaign to con voters in the municipal election this fall when the tax cap is up for renewal.
The people who led the opposition to Proposition A—state employee and assembly candidate Tammie Wilson and assembly member Barbara Haney—need to make it clear that Golden Heart Strong has a right to exist.
Read MoreThe Legislature needs to begin monitoring the APFC and other state corporations as part of the checks and balances essential to preserve or rebuild public trust.
This is not just a task for the trustees, as Gov. Mike Dunleavy has claimed.
The six-member Board of Trustees is clearly divided over how to deal with the behavior of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein, who has been described in leaked emails as inserting herself into corporation operations in ways that are inappropriate for a trustee.
That’s one of the takeaways from the special meeting Wednesday, which included a sharp exchange between Craig Richards and Jason Brune. Richards referred to inappropriate actions by unnamed trustees, while Brune complained that Richards was making “large allegations.”
Read MoreThe Alaska Legislature held its annual joint session to consider confirmation or rejection of people placed on boards and commissions by Gov. Mike Dunleavy since last year, rejecting 3 of 81 appointees.
There were legislative confirmation hearings on many of those up for a vote, but the confirmation process is almost always superficial and cursory.
The Legislature rejected three nominees, Bob Griffin, Mike Porcaro and Mark Sayampanathan. Griffin was on the state school board, Porcaro was on the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and Sayampanathan was on the Worker’s Compensation Board.
Read MoreThe trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation still have time to correct the serious mistake they’ve made on the agenda for the special meeting Wednesday about the leak of documents related to the meddling of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein in fund operations.
Missing from the agenda is any chance for public comment at the special meeting that begins at 8 a.m.
The trustees may claim that there is no need for public comment on a matter of internal security that should be kept confidential.
No one has suggested that any of the leaked emails are fakes. What they show is the most serious leadership crisis in the history of the fund. This must be dealt with in the open.
Read MoreBy ROBIN O’DONOGHUE
Senate Bill 165, sponsored by Sen. Matt Claman, fixes the harm done by Attorney General Treg Taylor last October when he unwisely implemented a corrupt arrangement to benefit only him, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. It simply reads that the Department of Law, including the attorney general, may not represent or advise the governor, the lieutenant governor, or another public officer or former public officer in a matter in which that public officer or former public officer is the subject of a complaint filed under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.
Senate Bill 17 proposes to reset limits to political campaign contributions. Our campaign finance laws are intended to restore the public’s trust in the electoral process and to foster good government. The campaign disclosure law directly limits the influence of contributors on candidates by limiting the size of campaign contributions.
Read MoreThe spokesman for the group opposing Proposition A, which is on the ballot Tuesday in Fairbanks, says that with “the exception of exceptional anti-faith and anti-family propaganda, our local school board has a dismal record of success.”
Josh Church, who represents Tammie Wilson’s “Citizens for Transparent Government,” expressed his views of the Fairbanks schools last year in a piece he wrote for a right-wing Anchorage blog. He said it’s the fault of the community that the schools aren’t doing a better job.
Read MoreThe special election Tuesday in Fairbanks is about saving our schools, the quality of which has everything to do with what kind of future Fairbanks will enjoy or endure.
Read MoreThe House Finance Committee stripped the $300 million blank check from a bond bill Friday for the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
The change, if it survives the rest of the legislative process, means AIDEA would have to come back at a future date with a specific plan on how it would like to use the $300 million.
The decision is a step toward establishing checks and balances with the state-owned development bank, which is controlled by the governor.
Read MoreThe haphazard handling of the Dunleavy administration response to the landmark court ruling on correspondence schools continued Friday with Gov. Mike Dunleavy reversing the position he had taken two days earlier.
“This is literally a disaster, potentially, an emergency because of its magnitude,” he told reporters Wednesday.
It is not literally a disaster. And it is not an emergency. It is a problem that can be solved. It’s hard to do that, however, when the governor and his attorney general are more interested in creating hysteria and getting people angry than in solving the problem.
Read MoreRadio talk show host and adman Mike Porcaro led the “red pen” campaign in 2019 to harass legislators who balked at Dunleavy’s plan for $1.6 billion in budget cuts that would slash every state and local government service.
Porcaro claimed the government could be smaller, with no income tax and no reduction in Permanent Fund Dividends. That was a complete fantasy, of course.
He now says it was just show business.
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has refused to explain how it came up with the $300 million bond plan under review by the Legislature.
It has also refused to explain how it came up with another amendment—one that has yet to be officially added to a bill—that would also allow the corporation to borrow $100 million without bothering with legislative approval, up from the current $25 million.
Read MoreIn his confirmation hearing before the Senate Education Committee Monday, Bob Griffin recycled the misleading conclusions he draws about the quality of education in Alasksa based on the percentage of Alaska students who earn a score of 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement test compared to Florida.
Read MoreMatt Glover, 48, traveled more than 5,000 miles a year by bicycle, rising every morning at 4 a.m. and commuting winter and summer from North Pole to Fairbanks along the shoulder of the Richardson Highway. He worked as a locomotive engineer for the Alaska Railroad.
“He was very conscientious of being visible on his bike with reflective clothing and lights,” Arleen Glover, his mother, wrote to Alaska legislators. “But with all that, he wasn’t safe.”
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority wants approval to borrow $300 million without telling the Legislature or the public where the money would go. Trust us, says AIDEA.
The agency, run by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s former chief of staff, Randy Ruaro, and a board comprised of Dunleavy employees and political supporters, is telling the Legislature to approve the $300 million and stop worrying. AIDEA will pick the right projects, AIDEA says.
Read MoreThe Alaska Permanent Fund is facing the most serious leadership crisis in its history, triggered by the behavior of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein.
The chief investment officer of the fund, Marcus Frampton, took the extraordinary step in January to privately document what he believes are the serious conflicts of interest that Rubenstein has brought to the operation of the fund.
Read MoreBob Griffin, the Dunleavy point man on the state school board, has his Senate confirmation hearing Monday at 3:30 p.m. before the Senate Education Committee.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy nominated Griffin for a second five-year term on the state board. Griffin works as a pilot for Alaska Airlines and his volunteer job is as “senior education research fellow” for the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum, which propagates many of the same ideas as Dunleavy.
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