Can you say “Boondoggle?” Can you say “Dead Wild Salmon” or “Corporate Influence in Alaska politics”? Well, you might have to learn, or start speaking out. On the bright side, we can all say “Support our Troops” - and at the end of this newsletter you’ll see a great volunteer opportunity to do just that.
Read More →Press conference highlights divergence between corporate and Alaskan interests
Today, Senator Bill Wielechowski and Representative Les Gara (both D-Anchorage) urged Alaskans to be mindful of the difference between what’s good for large, Outside corporations and what’s good for Alaskans and Alaskan businesses. They also denounced the sometimes heavy-handed tactics used by Outside corporations to influence policy in the Alaska Legislature.
Read More →PDF of the letter to Dan Fauske from Senator Johnny Ellis and Representative Les Gara
Read More →Here’s some good news and bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first-because, well, it’s not that bad. Don’t jump before you get to the good news. Ooh. That’s a bad sentence. Don’t jump at all, even after you get to the good news. That’s better.
Oh, and thanks to at least two of you for voting to make me an Anchorage Press Pick as Anchorage’s “Favorite Legislator”. Maybe even more than two of you sent in votes? I’ve been trading this award with Mike Doogan, I think, um, because most of those Anchorage Press newspaper racks are in our districts?
Read More →Most glass recycling was suspended at the beginning of 2009. I was happy to learn (thanks to my aide Rose Foley) that Target stores are collecting glass in Anchorage! The store has collection containers located along the side of their buildings next to the dumpsters at both the South Anchorage and Muldoon locations. While glass recycling efforts stopped because of the excessive cost of shipping heavy glass from Anchorage to the Lower 48, Target is able to use empty space on barge container bins that deliver their goods to Anchorage, but would otherwise leave Anchorage nearly empty. They back-haul the glass to their sorting center in Oregon. We weren’t able to find any other glass recycling options in Anchorage, so let us know if there are others we missed.
Read More →Today, Democratic Representatives Les Gara (Anchorage) and Bob Miller (Fairbanks) released the following statements welcoming comments by the U.S. Department of the Interior in support of new leases in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A) and of allowing ConocoPhillips to move forward with its plans to build a bridge across the Colville River to access the area.
“I’m encouraged to have a federal agency supporting our efforts to push development in NPR-A, and I hope to see Conoco’s bridge move forward soon,” said Rep. Gara. “We need the oil development and Conoco has said they’re ready to go.”
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