Retired University of Alaska Anchorage economist Gunnar Knapp says it better than I have in a great column published by the Anchorage Daily News—the main job of Alaska’s Congressional delegation at the moment is not the time-honored practice of getting as much money as possible and promoting resource development.

He wrote this before the news broke about Tom Homan and the $50,000 bag of cash or the accidental message from Donald Trump ordering his attorney general to prosecute Trump’s political enemies.

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Patrick Roach, 49, is running against Barbara Haney for a seat on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly.

Roach, who has lived in Alaska for 30 years, is a former teacher who became a lawyer 7 years ago and works as a public defender.

With him on the assembly, I expect that we will not have to endure a repeat of Haney’s arguments this year that the borough should close the Carlson Center.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan had endless complaints about the U.S. treatment of Ukraine during the Biden administration. But he has never complained in public about President Trump’s refusal to challenge Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

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The terrible appearance of having a political employee of President Trump also serve as an “independent” official setting monetary policy bothered Sen. Lisa Murkowski enough that she was the only GOP senator to oppose the confirmation of Stephen Miran as a Federal Reserve governor.

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The battle continues over whether long-time Alaska Attorney John Wood will fill a seat on the Alaska Judicial Council reserved under the Alaska Constitution for non-attorneys only.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed Wood, 79, to a six-year term on the council as a non-attorney, even though Wood has been an attorney since 1972.

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who learned about the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month, agrees with Trump that “BLS is broken and needs to be fixed.”

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Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan claim the Jeffrey Epstein amendment they helped kill Wednesday was a Democratic stunt and they prefer the Republican plan to have Congress prepare a report on Epstein. But that bill may not even come up for a vote.

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Murkowski was the last senator to vote, which made it 51-49 to table an amendment that would have forced the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files that senators of both parties say they want to be released.

She cast the deciding vote as the move to table the amendment would have failed 50-50 had she voted to take up the matter. You can also argue that each of the 50 other Republicans, including Sullivan, cast the deciding vote for secrecy.

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says Trump will be able to tell the Japanese to pay for the Alaska pipeline, regardless of how much it costs.

“Alaska pipeline, scale, $50 billion, $100 billion, Donald Trump wants to unleash the Alaska pipelines. The Japanese will finance it. And it’s great for America. It’s fantastic,” Lutnick told Bloomberg.

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Billionaire Howard Lutnick claims the Trump trade deal with Japan will allow the president to order the Japanese government to pay for the Alaska gas pipeline. And Japan will do it, according to Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary.

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