- And…They’re Off! The first bill filed in the new GOP-led Senate is to seek approval of the Keystone Oil Pipeline, via the AP. Politico sees the Keystone bill as the piece of legislation that will cause both the Dems and the GOP to go off script.
- Leave it to Sitka to get practical. According to KCAW, Instead of spending money on repaving roads, they’re just tearing them up and replacing them with gravel.
- Gov. Bill Walker will be present to watch Dan Sullivan become U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, according to KTUU and me.
- The Hill reports that today marks the most diverse Congress in our country’s history.
- Loose Lips might sink ships, but the amount of CO2 being produced at all of the parties around the state and D.C. area; it would keep the Titanic afloat. Also, make sure to read about the big Senate majority misstep.
- Speaker John Boehner is pulling out the medium guns to exterminate the Tea Party rebellion that wants to put Rep. Louie Gohmert (R, TX) in his leadership spot. The Hill reports that the “no for Boehner” votes continue to grow. Not so fast! Breaking: Boehner prevails, as most expected.
- The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the City Council voted to revoke future attorney fees for Mayor John Eberhart involving his court case with APOC. The city has already spent $15,866 on Eberhart’s behalf.
- Politico wonders if Rep. Steve Scalise is now too toxic to remain the Majority Whip.
- The AP’s Becky Bohrer has a piece in Military Times regarding Alaska’s new attorney general’s decision to hire a special investigator to delve into the Alaska National Guard sexual assault scandal.
- The New York Times reports that Iowa and New Hampshire are already feeling the greenback-love from 2016 presidential contenders. The contenders so far are PACs aligned with Rand Paul, Hilary Clinton, Rick Perry, and Ted Cruz.
- According to APRN, the Sitka Assembly was supposed to discuss the ongoing difficult financial hospital issues with the CEO Jeff Comer on Friday. Instead, Comer sent a note, saying that he was still shaken up by an attack that he endured earlier that day. Apparently, Comer was attacked and beaten on a hiking trail by a couple who recognized Comer as the hospital CEO. Comer also wrote that he will no longer be living in Alaska. He can continue from Arizona, however, if needed.
- The Washington Post has the GOP’s election problem explained and illustrated within 3 maps!
- KTVA reports on Kriner’s Burgers and Pies issue with the new minimum wage law. Because of the law, the diner will be paying about $1000 more a month in wages by next year. The owner, Andy Kriner, thinks that the state should pass a law that takes tips into account as wages. Many states have provisions for tipped employees. Servers in 19 states only make $2.13 an hour, the article says.
- Former Gov. Jeb Bush finally launched his leadership PAC yesterday via web video in both English and in Spanish. The Hill reports that the PAC is called “Right to Rise” (nice use of alliteration) and it will focus on income inequality and supporting candidates who support conservative principles.
- While commercial marijuana is still in the gray area regarding regulation and policy, at least one delivery service is out shaking its moneymaker, per the Dispatch.
- The Huffington Post has a Pebble Mine 2014 Year in Review.
- The DCCC has continued to wait with bated breath for Rush Limbaugh to deliver on his two-month-old oath to sue them. So far, only crickets have been heard.
- The Ketchikan Daily News has the details for public comment on Coffman Cove timber sales. Act quickly because it closes on Friday.
- The Juneau Empire has the history of former legislator, mayor and civil servant, Sally Smith.
- The USDA has chosen Alaska’s Chugach National Forest as the location to provide the 2015 S. Capitol Christmas Tree.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Ha. John Q must have got his high school education at JDHS…That’s the same ‘math’ they have been trying to use on the Juneau School District Budget for years.
19 and 41? When did we add 10 more states?
@Andy Yeah… I know… it was a stretch. Thanks for all the background.
He started questioning the Hospital’s financials shortly after he arrived in Sitka…. It turns out the Hospital is so far in Debt that a million dollar loan from the city only provided 35 days of operations capitol.
That money did not walk out the back door on it’s own. And that my friend sounds just like the Sitka I know and love…..
Odd that tough guy Obama didn’t threaten to veto Keystone when Landrieu, Begich and Manchin were running for re-election.
That Sitka Hospital CEO story is weird. Really weird.
He submitted his resignation earlier in the week. From his statement read to the Sitka Assembly – “Unfortunately, from the time my wife and I arrived we have endured constant verbal abuse, disrespect, and rudeness from many people. I am tremendously saddened by the treatment my wife and I have received…”
That sure doesn’t sound like Sitka to me. I wonder if there is more to the story? Maybe someone down there has Loose Lips?
Alaskans just voted overwhelmingly for minimum wage. Offsetting tips for restaurant workers only would be a slap in the face not only to Alaskan voters but to the patrons of restaurants who want to reward good service, by giving servers and other workers more, not by subsidizing the owners’ obligation to pay.
Maybe we should pass a law that bonuses given to executives in publicly-held are deducted from their base pay so that shareholders get a larger dividend.
P.s. “Many other states” have a law deducting tips, if many means 19 that means 41, or “many more,” do not. Besides, what ever happened to “we don’t give a damn how they do it Down South!”
Pat,
Your somewhat strange allegorical alluding to the ” South Will Rise Again” doesn’t make sense. If you are attempting to snark at Jeb, the reality is the Bush clan has very deep roots in Massachusetts and Connecticut, which is not southern in my book ( see Mason/Dixon line). The Bush dynasty began with Prescott, a thoroughly Yankee senator.
George Sr. was a silver spooned Yale brahman that went to Texas, being at the right place and time for the post war oil boom. The south, at that time ,was yellow dog democrat, period. Texas was inundated with northerners when the oil embargo crises of the seventies shut down the energy hungry , Yankee industrial complex. This demographic shift helped George Sr. ( R chairman of Harris County – Houston), to elect Regan…. jaws dropped.
A republican prez was unheard of in the deep south, previously the land of Dixiecrats. So George Sr.’s perceived political miracle launched him into the beltway power circle, and his sons followed in his footsteps.
George Jr. and Jeb may have been born in the south, but they are not southerners.
Many a Texan still have hard feelings about Sr. and his term as VP and prez. He abandoned Texas during the oil depression of the eighties, decimating the entire state for years, purportedly caused by Regan/Bush et al attempting to strangle the Russian economy ( ring a bell perhaps??) by lowering the oil prices.
In the mean time, Little George Jr. tried to be a good old boy oilman and failed miserably. So, as all failed private sector folks do, he transitioned to politics , with mixed results ( you fill in the blanks). If we are to believe in the dynasty thing, then lets go back to a monarchy and build some shovel ready castles.
I will be surprised if Jeb ” rises” to anything, and if he does, remember he is a Floridian carpetbagger. It will take several generations of Bush’s to be truly southern, afterall, they wore blue in the war of northern aggression.
Crude – have you had any luck persuading Walker that you need to be out in charge if his gas line effort? If not, why hasn’t he figured out that you have the keys to the kingdom?
While they make me want to puke on my keyboard I hope that Amanda is making great money on the ridiculous thank you and congratulations ads to both the governor and our congress members. Blah, way to brown nose people. Good grief I have seen more substance in a high school yearbook.
Ah,
I just viewed the CNBC report about Obama’s veto; however, they did report he was considering approving the project.
I understand your point regarding the viability of the project; however, if the oil companies only have finite capital will they now want to spend it on this pipeline (a very similar question will face us regarding a certain gas line in Alaska)?
I could ask if you can forecast a future demand for oil that will justify this particular project at this time?
Leave it to Sitka & CCHRC to get practical & save Instead of spending money on repaving roads, they’re just tearing them up and replacing them with gravel & magic >>>
click on the nick^ & watch the video
goog: CCHRC geopolymer
…it’s this kind of innovation that Bill Walker is talking about when he says:
“Low Hanging Fruit”
Disciplined and Timely implementation of Bill Walker’s network of genius
will save Alaska billions maintaining our existing crumbling infrastructure.
This is not “NEW TECHNOLOGY”, this technology is thousands of years old,
but thanks to the insights of CCHRC, Alaska is already priming the pump
to save Alaska from being SOS (stuck on stupid).
“Right to Rise” is a fishy sales pitch coming from a dynasty politician. If Jeb had come up from the bottom and wanted others to have that same opportunnity, it would look different. This just reeks of blind privilege and sheltered naivety.
I do like alliteration and the “Right to Rise” is a clever double entendre as well. It can mean both the right to improve your station and serve as a goal for the right wing rising to power in the white house.
…And, I’m taking it a bit far now, but I think “Right to Rise” also serves as an extrusion or parallax drawing some power from the refrain, “The South will rise again,” a rebel yell muddied by complex undertones of state rights, slavery and privilege.
According to KINY Radio, Next year the National Christmas Tree will come from Chugach National Forest. KINY reports that this will be the first time that a tree from Alaska has had this distinction and I suppose it will be… If it makes it.
KINY overlooked the fact that the Forest Service tried to take one from Tongass in 1995 but it caused so much controversy among the newly unemployed logging communities in Southeast that they ultimately took one from North Carolina.
Yes Lynn, today oil is cheap and recovering heavy oil to pump down that pipe would not make sense. How about forecasting the average price of oil for the life of the proposed pipeline? Bet it makes a lot more sense then… JUST like TAPS did when it was built.
Yes Lynn, today oil is cheap and recovering heavy oil to pump down that pipe would not make sense. How about forecasting the average price of oil for the life of the proposed pipeline? Bet it make a lot more sense then… JUST like TAPS did when it was built.
Well Lynn, apparently you mis-understood Obama… He just issued a Veto threat against the Keystone Pipeline bill.
Finally a bi-partisan effort toward domestic oil production. I understand even Obama may now support the XL Pipeline. However, why not support this, if a large portion of the oil for the Keystone XL pipeline is to originate from the tar sands deposits of Alberta, and that heavy oil is not now economically recoverable?
Public comments on the proposed Coffman Cove timber sales closes Friday.
Obligatory greenie lawsuits are filed on Monday. Rumor has it that this year, green peace, SEACC and Earth Justice will join Trout Unlimited.