The Dunleavy administration signed a $3 million marketing contract with Six-7 Strategies, owned by longtime political operative Kevin Sweeney.
The contract called for getting a website up and running by March 15 at the latest promoting the advantages of Alaska to the world.
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Rep. Nick Begich the Third voted for the so-called “SAVE” act that will disenfranchise thousands of Alaskans from voting by requiring documents that many of them don’t have.
Begich the Third and all Republicans, along with four Democrats, voted to require that people show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. It is a voter suppression plan.
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There was scant attention paid to President Trump’s tariff chaos Wednesday at a two-hour hearing on the Alaska LNG project, though the leaders of two state corporations both claimed that Trump’s support for the gas line helps the project.
Trump’s erratic behavior is the biggest threat to the latest gas pipeline dream, though Alaska’s leaders won’t say so out loud. They also refuse to say that Trump is trying to blackmail Asian leaders into supporting what Sen. Dan Sullivan is calling “America’s Gasline.”
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The federal Department of Homeland Security canceled a $46 million, 10-year grant to the University of Alaska Anchorage Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security notified UAA in all caps that the termination was PAUSED.
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority takes an expansive view of how it can spend state money.
The authority will seek to defend its $50 million gas pipeline backstop deal before the Legislative Budget & Audit Committee today at 5:30 p.m.
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Gov. Mike Dunleavy went on Fox Business last week and said the master plan is to have the 42-inch gas pipeline in place and operating in two-and-a-half years, which would be October 2027.
The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation is making a presentation to the Legislative Budget & Audit Committee today that says the first gas would be flowing to Southcentral in 2031.
Either Dunleavy or AGDC is lying
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The Dunleavy administration believes that Trump’s trade war bullying will get South Korea and other Asian nations to sign long-term binding contracts for many billions to underpin construction of an Alaska LNG pipeline, regardless of the cost.
“I’m telling you these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass,” Trump said at a Republican Congressional Dinner Tuesday night, referring to the calls he is getting about his trade war. “They are, they are dying to make a deal. Please, please sir make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything sir.”
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UPDATED: The Alaska Permanent Fund has shed $3.2 billion of market value so far during the Trump Liberation Day stock market crash, dropping from $81.7 billion to $78.5. billion.
This does not count the numerous other state accounts, including the pension systems, that have tens of billions more invested in stocks. They do not post daily market values, the way the Permanent Fund does
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Gov. Mike Dunleavy refused to answer a question from Fox Business Thursday about whether he was “very much in favor” or if he had “some qualms” about the Trump trade war. The slide next to him said the S&P 500 was down 4.37 percent at that moment, while the Dow was down 3.69 percent. Oil prices were collapsing.
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I am waiting to hear the arguments about how the Trump trade war, which has the backing of Alaska Republicans not named Sen. Lisa Murkowski, will be great for Alaska.
That it will be great for the export of Alaska fish and that Trump’s attempt to blackmail countries in Asia is just what is needed to get the Alaska gas pipeline built.
This, after all, is the Golden Age of Alaska, brought to us by the great and powerful Trump, according to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich 3.
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The Senate bill to close the glaring loophole that enriches billionaire Jeff Hildebrand to the tune of $100 million a year or more moved out of the Senate Resources Committee Wednesday.
The Legislature should have closed the Hilcorp loophole in 2019 when he bought out BP. Since then many hundreds of millions that could have gone to state services, including the Permanent Fund Dividend, went to Hildebrand’s pockets in Texas.
The oil industry propaganda, which is thoughtlessly copied and repeated year after year, never mentions this high-stakes cash flow Outside.
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Tuesday was the perfect day for Randy Ruaro to release the “robust, independent analysis” of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority that was completed more than a year ago and kept secret.
Not because it was April Fools’ Day, but because the Alaska House and Senate held a joint meeting of their state affairs committees.
Legislators should have demanded to see what they received for the $250,000 contract.
Ruaro addressed the topic “What is AIDEA and how does it benefit Alaskans?”
There is no better document to answer that question about benefits than the study prepared for AIDEA and completed more than a year ago by Northern Economics of Anchorage for $250,000.
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The habit of promoters to inflate themselves to the point of bursting with grandiose claims is worrisome, given the half-century history of exploding gas line bubbles.
Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval said his company operates plants in Louisiana and Texas that have not been built yet.
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Sen. Dan Sullivan, during his speech to the Legislature, exaggerated his role in the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act and didn’t mention that he opposed the bill until it was clear that the measure would be approved by the full Senate.
Sullivan, who is running for reelection in 2026, became a born-again champion of the bill after it was approved.
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Alaska politicians are looking at all this and saying once again that a pipeline is closer than ever. What they aren’t saying out loud is that their new confidence is based on the dream that Trump’s blackmail threats will work.
Read MoreAmong the renewable energy projects on an Trump hit list is a $50 million grant to back a major energy storage project in Healy for the Golden Valley Electric Association, the news site Popular Information reports.
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There was a lot of competition, Sullivan’s was one of the dumbest statements from anyone in the U.S. government, with Sullivan claiming the contents of the leaked information about attack plans demonstrated the competence of Team Trump.
Read MoreBarbara Haney did repeat and amplify Suzanne Downing’s lie that the Fairbanks protest was the work of imported characters brought to the Golden Heart City specially for the occasion.
Haney did this in a limited way on Facebook under her own name and more directly on X, formerly known as Twitter, where she does not use her real name but self-identifies as “Steamboat Landing.”
The Fairbanks protest was “protest tourism” and was “paid for by the 50501 fund—the Bernie Bros,” Haney/Steamboat Landing said.
Read MoreMarvin Roberts has won his case against the City of Fairbanks for wrongful conviction. The settlement is $11.5 million.
Here is a press release from his attorney, Fairbanksan Mike Kramer, of the law firm Kramer and Cosgrove.
“I don’t think any amount of money will be enough to justify what I endured as an innocent man in prison,” Roberts was quoted as saying.
“This settlement, however, give me freedom with my life, and most importantly, more time with my daughter and my parents, who supported me throughout the nightmare.”
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The president of the school board and the city mayor complained at length on KFAR Monday about my blog post headlined “Alaska Republicans invent lie that 200 Fairbanks protesters were imported actors.”
In the process, School Board President Melissa Burnett and Mayor David Pruhs misrepresented the contents of that blog post. Now I admit the headline could have been toned down, but nothing in that blog post was inaccurate.
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