AIDEA launches ANWR leases with no business plan, just a political prayer

The board of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is treating the decision to spend about $17 million this year on oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a political vision, not a business decision.

Dermot ColeJanuary 17, 2021 Comments

Dunleavy wants spending limit, but refuses to say what services he wants to cut

Everybody loves a state spending limit, as long as there is no discussion of cutting road maintenance, education, dividends, public safety, grants to local governments, emergency services, airports, ferries, courts, health care or anything else.

Dermot ColeJanuary 16, 2021 Comments

Trump administration approves doomed regulation to force banks to make Arctic oil loans

The Trump rule mandating that the biggest national banks have to make loans for Arctic oil exploration is likely to survive as long in the Biden administration as the White House stockpile of MAGA hats.

Dermot ColeJanuary 15, 2021 Comments

Don Young, who claimed voting by proxy was unconstitutional, votes by proxy

The proxy vote that Rep. Don Young made while missing from Congress, opposing Trump’s impeachment, is illegal and a sham, according to a bold statement from Don Young circa June, 2020, who said he would never vote that way. A big reversal for Rep. Beer Virus.

Dermot ColeJanuary 14, 2021 Comments

Weak disclosure regulation allows state officials to pretend they don't know how much spouses make

A key requirement in the state financial disclosure law can be ignored if a public official gets his or her spouse to write a letter claiming the public official doesn’t have any idea how much the spouse makes.

Dermot ColeJanuary 12, 2021 Comments

Dunleavy should reveal what secret agreement he made with Pebble Mine

The Pebble appeal is probably already dead with the Biden administration. But Dunleavy will want to go to court on this, especially if he gets the $4 million he has asked from the Legislature for the elite statehood strike force of Outside contract lawyers.

Dermot ColeJanuary 11, 2021 Comments

Inciter-in-chief needs to be removed now; Sullivan still doesn't get it

Sen. Dan Sullivan now says his fervent wish from way back was for Trump to accept the election results. But Sullivan waited to express this fervent wish until a day after the Trump terrorists stormed the Capitol, which leads me to conclude that it wasn’t his fervent wish until it was too late.

Dermot ColeJanuary 10, 2021 Comments

Grandstanding senator wants $1,000 fine for local government officials who meet in secret, but not legislators

Sen. Mia Costello, a world-class opponent of the evils of Big Government, wants local government officials to face fines of up to $1,000 for attending illegal secret meetings.

Dermot ColeJanuary 8, 2021 Comments

Trying to sell giant dividend, Dunleavy repeats multi-billion-dollar earnings lie

The Dunleavy $6.3 billion withdrawal plan would reduce the long-term earning power of the Permanent Fund and expand future deficits by about $160 million a year. A sustainable withdrawal would be about $3 billion.

Dermot ColeJanuary 7, 2021 Comments

Murkowski, Sullivan helped Trump coup attempt with four years of political cowardice

Sullivan and Murkowski have encouraged the Trump coup and the Republican terrorists, but they won’t take any responsibility for their political cowardice.

Dermot ColeJanuary 6, 2021 Comments