All Archives

NEWS: 3rd Annual Holiday Laptops for Foster Youth Drive - Improving One Life At A Time
December 18, 2012
(ANCHORAGE) – Today Rep. Les Gara and the foster care group, Facing Foster Care In Alaska (FFCA), are launching the third annual Laptops for Foster Youth Holiday Drive. Over the past two years this drive has resulted in approximately 200 matches for youth. “Laptops are crucial to helping youth improve their chances of success in school, and establishing normalcy in very disrupted lives of youth who often have very few material possessions,” said Gara, a former foster youth whose father was killed when he was 6.
Read More →

Note from Rep. Gara: A Blatantly Alarmist E-News: Help A Foster Youth Lead A Good Life
December 3, 2012
I hope this letter finds you well. It finds me well. But it finds hundreds of Alaska’s foster youth needing help if they are to have a chance to fulfill the dreams they are entitled to pursue as Americans and Alaskans. And they need your help. Below is an opinion piece I have run in newspapers. In case you missed it - here’s my “post-election bickering, put politics aside” heart tug.
Read More →

Note from Rep. Gara: Rehabilitating the Truth On Oil Taxes, Avoidable School Cuts, Record UA Foster Youth Enrollment
October 1, 2012
Would You Like Some Facts With Your Hyperbole, Sir? It hasn’t surprised me to hear some of the claims on the oil tax debate this past year. The implication is that those who didn’t support the Governor’s $2 billion giveaway (which allows companies to take our tax dollars and spend them outside Alaska if they wish) are happy with the status quo. Horsepucky. Hey, did you know there is no computer spell check for horsepucky? Well, that’s not important. Anyway, no one in the Legislature voted for the status quo. NO ONE.
Read More →

Note from Rep. Gara: End of Session, Pre “Unspecial Session” Update - The Good, Bad and Ugly.
April 17, 2012
Well, a flurry of bills passed the last 24 hours of the regular legislative session. I’ll give you the highlights and low lights, and a short preview of special session. I’m able to write now that my blood pressure is back to normal. What caused the rise? The few legislators who pride themselves on blocking good legislation out of pure partisanship and animosity. Would anyone outside the Legislature (or Congress where the same stuff is done) really make the state a worse place just because you’re trying to block legislation by an “opponent” – or trying to make your opponent’s election chances worse? It’s a sick part of the legislative process that, I’m happy to say, most legislators don’t tolerate. But the few that do make life, and the state, worse for the rest of us.
Read More →
Page 6 of 7« First...34567