John Espindola, whose 2023 appointment to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska led to a new law this year making it harder for the governor to put unqualified people on the commission, is now the chairman of the RCA.
In a meeting Wednesday, the other commissioners elected Espindola, the former personal assistant to Dunleavy, to preside over the commission.
There is already one vacancy on the five-member commission. There will soon be two.
Read MoreThe Ketchikan dog survival story is a good one.
A week after the Ketchikan landslide that killed city employee Sean Griffin and injured three others, state geologist Travis Watkins heard whimpering in the wreckage of a house that had been pushed 47 feet.
James Montiver was able to escape the building after the slide, but Bill Montiver was trapped and later rescued.
Read MoreI suspect that some people in Minto, the 150-person village northwest of Fairbanks, don’t know what is being done in their names by Minto Money, which makes small loans at interest rates of more than 700 percent on the internet.
Minto Money says it does not do business in Alaska, is not subject to state laws that limit interest rates and does not have to be licensed in any state.
It is allegedly organized under the laws of the Native Village of Minto and headquartered at “205 Lakeview Drive, Suite 7, Minto, Alaska.”
As one of numerous lawsuits against Minto Money says, there is a tribal building at that address with no suites or numbers, so it is an unlikely site for e-commerce.
Read MoreThe federal highway department annually marks the end of August with a redistribution of billions in transportation dollars that states haven’t obligated.
It does this through a competitive process in which states must have plans in place to obligate the money for approved projects before the end of the fiscal year September 30.
Alaska came up short in the competition this year, with a $19 million share, down from $108 million last year and $87 million two years ago.
Read MoreAG Tregarrick Taylor refused in February to join the lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, eight other states and the District of Columbia against the proposed $24.6 billion Kroger merger. There is no reason to swallow his claim that prices at Fred Meyer will drop if 18 Alaska Safeway and Carrs stores are sold off to an East Coast company with no Alaska ties that will have a hard time competing in Alaska.
Read MoreDuring an extended whine two years ago, Sen. Dan Sullivan attacked President Joe Biden for using two Marines as political props for a speech in Philadelphia in which Biden said: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.”
Read MoreThe mess created by problems with the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan has had its first clear financial consequence—the state stands to lose tens of millions in federal funds because it didn’t have the paperwork in order for projects to spend it on.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy has yet to fill the vacancy on the Alaska Permanent Fund board created by the resignation of Gabrielle Rubenstein, which followed disclosures about her questionable dealings with the staff of the corporation.
Ten people have applied this year to serve as trustees.
Read MoreNick Begich’s biggest holdings are in three limited liabilities companies and one limited partnership that he says are worth in total between $4 million and $20 million—FarShore Partners LLC, FarShore Ventures II LLC, FarShore Ventures III LLC and Listen Ventures III, LP.
In 2023, he said he received no income from those companies.
His largest other asset is his share of a Begich family business owned mainly by his dad that has long promoted conspiracy theories and peddled pseudoscience.
Read MoreNick Begich the Third, who finished second in the primary election for Congress, has adopted the Sen. Dan Sullivan canard that the Biden “administration has crippled our economy by restricting resource development and has now issued 66 executive orders specifically targeting Alaska.”
This is part and parcel of the lie that there is an “unprecedented war on Alaska,” a long-running Republican fantasy.
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