Here’s the easiest $1.4 million the Alaska Legislature can save in the next month.
Any agency that wants to give $1.4 million to former Dunleavy cheerleader Dave Stieren for a publicity campaign deserves to have $1.4 million removed from its budget.
The agency in question is the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which decided to spend $1.4 million on publicity over the next two years without any discussion or debate.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan has claimed on many occasions in the past that, compared to Obama and Biden, Trump “has a history of actions that are significantly harder on Putin — and the other dictators around the world.”
Sullivan keeps making this claim even though Trump has shown over and over again that he sides with Putin in the war against Ukraine.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy, who claimed a month ago that Donald Trump’s war in Iran is a “strategic master stroke,” is now saying that although gas prices are way up because of the master stroke, the good news is that there is a lot of high-priced fuel for people who can afford it.
Read MoreLinden Staciokas, who has died at 74, worked for years in her professional life to improve the lives of thousands of children in Alaska.
She also had a large following among gardeners and those who never got their hands dirty but liked to read all about it. She shared the mysteries of growing in columns that ostensibly dealt with the specifics of nurturing plants, but always included bits of her personality and humor in the mixture.
Read MoreThere are many ways to look at the energy problems facing the Golden Valley Electric Association, an urgent matter because of the disappearance of relatively cheap gas-fired power from Southcentral via the Intertie. This column by Gwen Holdmann, reprinted from the Alaska Beacon, features her take on how and why GVEA is in this situation. We haven’t seen the leadership we need from the state to help find solutions. Telling everyone that the gas line is coming is not the answer.
Read MoreHouse Republicans marked the end of their latest recess by praising themselves for passing the One Big Beautiful Bill act last summer.
But they refused to call the One Big Beautiful Bill act by the name they gave it a year ago, when they thought the beautiful bill name was a brilliant public relations gimmick.
Read MoreBegich the Third, who is running for reelection, has failed to tell Alaskans why joining an anti-Islam collection of Congressmen has become a priority for him. He doesn’t list his membership in the “Sharia-Free America Caucus” on his website, but the group identifies him as a full-fledged member.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan was appalled at how much it had cost him to fill up his pickup truck with gas in Anchorage, blaming the president of the United States for skyrocketing fuel prices that were crushing people across the country.
“Had it been fully empty it would have been $142 to fill up the tank of one truck. In America. Devastating to working families, but nobody’s being fooled. Nobody’s being fooled,” said Sullivan, appearing with other Republicans who were equally outraged at the price of gasoline.
Read MoreBernadette Wilson’s claim that she will get the Legislature to approve a $1.5 billion deficit to pay $2.4 billion in dividends by vetoing “everything out of that damn budget until they figure out how they’re going to pay out your Permanent Fund Dividend,” shows that she doesn’t know the first thing about the Legislature, the budget or the demand for state services in Alaska.
Her stock answer on the PFD is to throw out extraneous questions combined with pure gibberish, never pausing, never stopping, never getting to the point and always dancing around the topic.
Read MoreThe House voted Friday to propose spending about $1 billion on the Permanent Fund Dividend this year, rejecting a Republican plan to spend $2.4 billion, which would have created a $1.4 billion deficit.
The plan proposes a $1,500 Permanent Fund dividend, but it will likely to trimmed to $1,000 or $1,100 in the Senate.
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