Page 5 - Adncom News Today

Print article On a warm spring day in 1980, a friend asked me to come along to the daily laborers’ dispatch at the Fairbanks union hall. We drove downtown, parked on a narrow side street, walked in and sat down in the middle of the room on folding chairs. There were maybe 35 men present, by themselves on chairs or in small groups at tables. They were a diverse lot by race, by age. Befitting a spring day, good humor prevailed. A group of guys at a table were joshing and laughing — or, as m...

The state has not only been complicit in the face of the climate crisis, it has continued to go out of its way to support the extraction of fossil fuels.

The problem is that all of this legalistic talk spills into and infects an inherently political process, turning a mechanism of self-government into an episode of “Perry Mason.”

Tightening Anchorage’s leash law would only create more problems Author: Patrick Sullivan Published February 8 Share on Facebook Print article For decades, thousands of Anchorage residents have regularly exercised their dogs off-leash on municipal multi-use trails. Incidents involving off-leash dogs do occur, but they are rare and probably no more common than conflicts among other user groups (bikers vs. runners, equestrians vs. skijorers, etc.). The proposed changes to the Anchorage le...

Print article The April 6 Anchorage mayoral election quickly approaches. Other than the office of governor, no election in Alaska impacts such a large collective of municipal and tribal government citizens, private business and public service delivery interests. And this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Our city has just closed out a very long, difficult year and faces an uncertain landscape in 2021. I think it is fair to say that between the pandemic, economic havoc, the corresponding ...

The PFD needs a permanent fix this year Author: Tim Benintendi Published February 5 Share on Facebook Print article Effective democracy depends upon citizen engagement — and that, presumably, upon an informed citizenry. I would extend that notion to a citizenry with at least a modest grasp of governmental budgets, the major pillar of governance. Now that the Legislature is in session and we focus on state finances, we should perhaps be mindful of a few notions affecting the budget, the ...

Alaska Energy Authority is committed to our rural neighbors Author: Curtis Thayer Published February 4 Share on Facebook Print article Nowhere in Alaska is the high cost of energy felt more than in rural communities. While all Alaskans endure high energy costs, the impact is especially burdensome on our rural neighbors. For 45 years, the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) has played a significant role in reducing the cost of energy in rural Alaska. AEA is an essential partner with all of rura...

Alaska’s government should act in support of economic recovery Author: Nils Andreassen Share on Facebook Print article The Alaska Conference of Mayors recently adopted a resolution encouraging state action in support of economic recovery. This is an important recognition that, even as Alaska’s community leaders have been actively working to sustain businesses throughout the pandemic, there remains the need for a coordinated effort to build on the financial support provided by federal, s...

Where once the picture would have been blindingly white and male, now it is a vortex of colors mixing and matching and mixing again.

Attorney general saga should make us all very angry Author: Libby Bakalar Lizzo said it best: “Why men great ‘til they gotta be great?” Ruth Botstein and I didn’t get the courtesy of 48 hours’ notice when our “friend” and colleague of a decade-plus, Ed Sniffen, illegally fired us for off-hours, anti-Trump tweeting that offended Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s loyalist agenda. It happened three hours after the governor was sworn into office, and we packed our boxes that very day. I wo...