- The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner covered the final day of hearings on the proposed Amber road project. Opposition is building and was vocal at yesterday’s meeting.
- KTOO has an in-depth feature on how whistle-blowers and victims in the Alaska National Guard sex abuse scandal went unheard.
- The Department of Health and Social Services has created and filled a new position to help the state reach its goal of expanding Medicaid. APRN announced the “lucky” person to steer this behemoth challenge is Chris Ashenbrenner.
- RealityCheck.org wonders if Gov. Walker can overcome GOP opposition to successfully expand Medicaid.
- The story-breaking machine Becky Bohrer broke the story about how the federal natural gas pipeline coordinator’s office is scheduled to close due to budget redistribution.
- Austin Baird of KTUU compiled Facebook and Twitter posts on post-November 4th lives of Gov. Walker and former Gov. Parnell and wonders who really won that day.
- Meet the relatively unknown strength behind Gov. Walker’s success: First Lady Donna Walker.
- In a statement, ConocoPhillips’ CEO reassured Alaskans that although the company was scaling back elsewhere due to low oil prices, Alaska wouldn’t be affected.
- The New York Times speculates on how a diplomatic relationship with Cuba will affect Florida’s political landscape.
- It’s not all cigars and mojitos regarding Cuba. Politico reports that Republicans are putting together a course of action to stop the diplomatic relationship that has only just begun.
- Rand Paul is once again displaying courage by bucking his party’s opposition over normalizing relations with Cuba, saying it’s “probably a good idea.”
- The Hill thinks that the sudden news on Cuba is just what Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been searching for to steal not only the lime light, but thunder from Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential aspirations.
- Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-KY) has issued an ultimatum to Sen. Rand Paul: If Paul attempts to run for both the Senate and president in 2016 then she will challenge him. The Huffington Post explains why Kentucky’s law is on her side.
- Welcome to another round of Winners & Losers, the 113th Congressional edition brought to you by The Hill.
- Rep. Geran Tarr (D-ANC) will once again sponsor a bill called Erin’s Law in the upcoming legislative session after failing last time around to get it to become law, per the Alaska Commons.
- The Kenai Community Cannabis Coalition’s town hall was full of active conversation about how marijuana can and will impact their community. The Peninsula Clarion covered the meeting with not one, but two articles.
- According to the Seward City News, the Alaska Railroad Corp. got $2.5 million from the U.S. DOT to study expanding Seward’s marine terminal. ARRC is going to put $500k of its own money into the study.
- The Sitka Sentinel reports that Sitka’s school budget faces a $500k loss.
- The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released the Arctic Report Card for 2014. The gist of the report confirms that the Arctic is warming at twice the global rate.
- The Juneau Empire reports that the superintendent of Juneau’s school district addressed the controversial $11,000 earmark for media training for coaches, principals and administrators at the school board meeting last night.
- Now that Gov. Walker’s preliminary budget has been released, Juneau’s Assembly Finance Committee took a scalpel to their funding requests for the state and successfully narrowed it down to five projects. The Juneau Empire has the details on what these projects are and why they are important to our capital’s economy.
- Canadians are just learning what the phrase, “nobody messes with American steel,” really means as it is trying to build Alaska’s newest ferry. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has details.
- The Saudi Oil Minister denied that “political objectives” is a reason behind his country’s moves that have sunk crude prices down 50% of where they were in June, according to AFP.
- APRN knows that at the top of Gov. Walker’s federal wish list is not world peace, but the opening of ANWR. He is governor and not a beauty pageant contestant after all.
- Jonathan Topaz with Politico crunched the numbers and discovered that the 113th Congress was in fact, officially the worst.
- The Washington Post has 14 awkward photos of world leaders that perfectly sums up the weirdness that has been 2014.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
He certainly should have taken a far stronger position. To start with he could have publicly asked the president to retrieve our property and out citizens, either ignored Canadian ambassador or publicly sent him away, demanded that their warship (it was not Canadian coast guard by the way) leave our port or or risk being impounded.
For the long term he should have ensured that no Alaska ferry ever made a port call in Canada again.
Were you hoping Governor Knowles deployed the AK Guard to Canadian waters?
One has to wonder, in this time of economic belt tightening, why are we even maintaining a port call in Prince Rupert? We have few friends there and damn sure owe no favors there.
That Alaska Marine Highway stop in Prince Rupert has long been problematic. In July 1997 the Canadians blockaded the M/V Malispina complete with a ship load of passengers and freight in the port of Prince Rupert in an attempt to hold it as a pawn in negotiations over an international Salmon Treaty (yep, that’s right, our commercial salmon interests are not managed by Alaska…)
At any rate, the Canadians unlawfully detained the ship, the freight and the passengers for three days. (Then) Governor Knowles did not have the stones to do anything about this except wring his hands and in the days following personally greeting a Canadian Warship that arrived at the port of Juneau carrying a Canadian ambassador.