- President Obama is between a rock and a hard place, by his own doing. The Washington Post explains that he intends to announce executive action on immigration this week, but a poll by USA Today and Princeton Survey Research shows only 42% approval for such a move while Post exit polls show 57% of those polled want reform. It seems there is support for the issue, but not for the tactic Obama has publically hinted at utilizing.
- The Alaska Division of Election’s latest on the 2014 midterm ballot counts.
- Now that the Senate and the House are completely locked and loaded for a GOP powerfest, Politico reports that the Republican leadership is getting creative in how they are going to avert financial cliffs and redirect party anger toward the president. Somebody’s been reading their history books and realized that the country doesn’t like a Party of “No”.
- Meet the Alaska State House freshman of the 29th Legislature.
- The GOP has their Tea Party and now it seems the Democratic Party might soon have their own version thanks to the unifying hatred (collective sensing of blood in the water) of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). The Washington Post covered a recent protest by party purists outside of Landrieu’s home where the overall message to other Democratic candidates and representatives: “Be Pure or Be Afraid.”
- The Fairbanks News Miner reports that the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District is revisiting the process in which principals handle serious student misconduct to make it more unifying across the school district. Also in school board news, the Dispatch’s Tegan Hanlon explains the Anchorage School District’s unique challenge: how to best spend a short-term $22 million dollar surplus while balancing the deep long-term budget cuts by the state Legislature.
- The New York Times thinks the government is a ticking time bomb with all three branches of government colliding during the winter.
- Anchorage Assembly member Amy Demboski’s latest move to increase her mayoral candidacy bonafides is to propose that Anchorage opt out of commercial marijuana. While this move might shore up some of the more nanny-state conservatives, it might end up hurting her in the long run. For one, no matter how much she objects, the measure won in Anchorage by more than 2 percentage points. Last I heard, overregulation is the GOP’s bete noire. But worse, people are going to be smoking it in Anchorage, but won’t get any of the economic benefits of it. That’ll all go to the Valley, where they are no-doubt giggling at Anchorage.
- The Hill explains why the Democrats weren’t feeling the love from Asian voters this election cycle.
- The LA Times article about a recent scientific study that discovered 40% decline in polar bear populations in Alaska and western Canada is gaining traction.
- The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation released its first draft proposal to reduce air pollution in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The Fairbanks News Miner explains that the current draft outlines a course that will take more than four years to meet federal clean air standards. This might not be soon enough to satisfy the feds, but it’s probably the most realistic timeline on the table.
- America, meet Ray Lujan of New Mexico. He is the new chair of the DCCC.
- It appears that the Keystone XL oil pipeline is one vote shy of the needed supermajority in the Senate to move the bill forward. Some U.S. Senators, like Sen. Angus King (I-ME) are playing coy and simply telling The Hill, “Wait till they get to the Ks.”
- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly is meeting tonight to tackle the permitting process of power plants, per the Frontiersman.
- The Peninsula Clarion has announced that Halliburton bought Baker Hughes yesterday for about $34.6 billion (yes, billion). Baker Hughes is a known player in the oil and gas field with a growing specialization in fracking with more than 200 employees in Alaska alone.
- Does the Bourbon industry have something to teach the oil industry? Neil Irwin with the New York Times thinks so, but then again, anything involving two of my favorite topics is a fun read.
“…while balancing the deep long-term budget cuts by the state Legislature.”
What cuts would those be? State government cutting education funding is one of the most widely spread myths out there. Even Rep Gara is somewhat careful when he talks about education funding — the State hasn’t cut anything as far as I’ve seen. There are lots of people out there who want the State to pick up the slack for other cuts that have been made (feds) or unwise budgeting decisions by districts when using temporary funds. This little blip in ASD is not likely going to help their cause.