Part of the DOT maintenance plan in Alaska is that “callers/complainers are directed back to their legislators to advocate for additional funding for maintenance.” The callers should be directed to Dunleavy, not to legislators.
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The Fairbanks borough assembly, which had refused to certify the Two Rivers election creating a service area—after a crowd packed the room Thursday to complain—reversed itself and approved the election 5-3 Friday. The assembly would have lost this case in court, a certainty that the right-wing majority refused to accept.
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The borough assembly set a terrible precedent Thursday by rejecting the results of a local election, claiming it was because an error appeared in a story in the Daily News-Miner regarding the effort to start a fire service area in Two Rivers. The newspaper error is a cover story. The assembly overturned the election because a crowd showed up to complain about the election results.
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Missing from the budget are key items such as an increase in the state education formula to deal with inflation, that would add hundreds of millions to the deficit. Dunleavy was more than a little irritated and defensive when public radio reporter Wesley Early asked him about why he didn’t propose an increase in education funding to offset inflation.
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I recommend the letter to the editor in the Daily News-Miner today by Assembly member Savannah Fletcher, who has been removed from a seat on the local transportation planning committee by right-winger Aaron Lojewski, the new presiding officer of the assembly.
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Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s constant repetition of the claim about saving billions—which sounded like a chant to the gods that control oil prices—did not make it more true. It was all based on guesswork made last spring and summer when oil was selling for more than $100 a barrel, but he didn’t dare admit that even though there were clear signs in October that he was wrong.
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The rain came last month and the weeping winter birch trees followed. Soon, perhaps even now, we will stop kidding ourselves about what is “seasonable” in Fairbanks, where no longer is the cold guaranteed.
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About 20 minutes into the 15-kilometer Frank Soos memorial ski race Saturday, I found myself abandoned.
That happens when you go a lot slower than everybody else.
Being alone for the next hour or so gave me the chance to think about Frank, who told me he sometimes used his time alone on skis to find the exact words or images he needed to improve whatever writing project was waiting at home.
Read MoreSen. Mike Shower takes a graphic of misleading headlines that began with an online conspiracy group and uses it to confirm what he thinks he already knows about climate change.
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On Wednesday, Aaron Lojewski replaced Kevin McKinley with Terry Chapin, one of the former members of the assembly climate action committee who had been summarily dismissed by Lojewski in November for no good reason.
Chapin is an internationally recognized scientist and author from Fairbanks who will be an asset to the new committee, no matter what shape its final report takes. He is a even-tempered person with plenty of patience and is an expert in this area.
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