Alaska's marijuana industry finally pays more than a million dollars in monthly tax revenue.

Courtesy of ADN: 

In January, for the first time since legal sales began, Alaska's commercial cannabis growers paid more than $1 million in state taxes, according to officials. 

Eighty-one marijuana cultivators paid $1,040,512 in taxes during the first month of 2018, said Kelly Mazzei, excise tax supervisor at the Alaska Department of Revenue. 

Alaska marijuana growers pay the state tax of $50 per ounce of cannabis bud, and $15 an ounce for other parts of the plant, like the trimmings of leaves and stems. 

A total of 1,061 pounds of marijuana, and 797 of trim, were sold wholesale in January.

This may only be of interest to those of us living up here in the Last Frontier, but I have been predicting for awhile that the pot industry would start to be a real source of revenue for the state and I am glad to see that is finally happening.

It of course will never replace the oil tax revenue, but it is at least one tax source that will not be undermined by the switch to renewable resources.

Which by the way could be yet another profitable source of tax revenue if lawmakers would pull their lips of the asses of oil barons long enough to notice.

We are way behind in finding revenue sources outside of the oil industry, and it is going to get ugly up here if we do not become more proactive.

Don Young is now the longest serving Congressman in America, to the Alaska people's everlasting shame.

Courtesy of ADN: 

U.S. Rep. Don Young has become the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives with the resignation Tuesday of Rep. John Conyers of Michigan amid harassment claims. 

Young was first elected in an Alaska special election in 1973 — the year Secretariat won horse racing's Triple Crown and the movie "The Exorcist" was released. 

Young was also named Monday to the House-Senate conference committee charged with resolving the differences between the federal tax overhaul plans passed by each chamber.

Alaskans discovered a long time ago that the secret to keeping federal money flowing into the state was to keep legislators in office for decades while they gained seniority and influence.

That is why they rarely vote a sitting Senator or Congressman out of office.

Unfortunately the trade off has been that truly corrupt, and despicable, folks have long represented us in Washington, and no matter what they do they know they will always be returned to office.

The fact is that Young will likely remain our lone Congressman until his health fades, or death comes a knockin'.

And don't even consider the idea that a sex scandal will take him down.

Young represents the state with the most rapes and sexual assaults per capita.

If anything he would only seem to more closely represent his constituents.

The most common victim of sexual assault in Alaska is a 14 year old girl.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

Alaska's sex crime victims mainly are young — just children, really. They most often are targeted in someone's home. And they usually know their attacker. 

A new state report provides a detailed and disturbing snapshot of serious sex crimes in Alaska. It's the second year the state Department of Public Safety has produced an analysis of felony sex offenses, an effort that took many more years to bring together, according to Walt Monegan, public safety commissioner. 

Reports of felony sex offenses – which include rape, sex abuse of children, child pornography and sex with incapacitated individuals — rose 14 percent from 2015 to 2016, the new document says. The data is based on initial reports to law enforcement.

Here were the other findings of the report:

- More than half of the victims – 54 percent – are Alaska Native, far bigger than the overall 20 percent share of the population that is Alaska Native. 

 — Alaska Native girls and women are the most at risk of being sexually assaulted or abused in almost every part of Alaska. Only in Southcentral with Anchorage excluded – an area that includes the Kenai Peninsula and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough — are white people the most often victimized. 

— The problem of sex assault and abuse is magnified in Western Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands, Bethel, Kotzebue, Nome, Dillingham and surrounding villages. The rate of sexual offenses in that region is 446 incidents per 100,000 people compared to 262 per 100,000 in Anchorage and 66 in Southcentral, the report said. 

 — While the most common victim is a 14-year-old girl, the most common suspect is a 19-year-old male. But in the cases of the youngest victims, from infants up to 10-year-olds, suspects are young too, most often just 14 years old, the report said. For victims age 18 on up, the suspects are older too, most commonly 31. 

— When the victim is male, it's most often a young boy just 5 years old, the report said. 

— Some 47 percent of suspects are Alaska Native. About one-third are white. Some 97 percent are male. Suspects and victims tend to be the same race, except for black suspects, whose victims most often are white, the analysis found. 

— Almost all the victims and suspects knew each other. Just 4 percent of the attackers were strangers, and for the youngest children, only 1 percent were targeted by someone unknown, the analysis found. Most suspects were acquaintances. Some were relatives. A few were boyfriends or girlfriends. In five instances, the suspect was the baby sitter. 

— Almost three-quarters of reported sex offenses happened in a residence, the report said. Others occurred on tribal lands and in woods, in motels or at school and college, in bars and alleys, jails and parks. One was reported in a grocery store and one in a church. 

 — Some 15 percent of sex offenses involved weapons, mainly fists and feet. Guns and knives were reported in just seven incidents.

Alaska is a beautiful place to live by almost any standard, but we have a deep vein of ugliness that runs through our state, and sadly it just seems to get uglier all of the time.

Politicians promise to do something, but nothing ever seems to change.

When we elected our first female governor I allowed myself to imagine that things like sexual abuse and pedophilia would surely be one of her foremost concerns, after all wouldn't a woman be far more sensitive to those victims than a man?

But sadly she actually may have done the very least to address this problem, and it's a problem that seems to have no end in sight.

Melania Trump came to Alaska?

Courtesy of ADN: 

First lady Melania Trump landed Friday morning at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for a jet refueling stop that coincided with a military celebration. 

A security-screened crowd packed into Arctic Oasis Community Center, which serves the base as a family gym, indoor playground, hair salon, arcade and more. Trump arrived with a traveling team that included step son-in-law Jared Kushner on an Air Force jet from Beijing on their way back to Washington, D.C., after touring Asia with President Donald Trump.

The first lady spent less than an hour at a preplanned event to celebrate families of active-duty members that included arts and crafts, stories and games. It occurred on the observed holiday for Veterans Day, which falls on Saturday this year. Kushner stopped in as well, but was not front and center the way Melania Trump was. 

"JBER Welcomes The First Lady," said a hand-painted red banner decorated with stars taped to the lockers. 

People held their phones over their heads and crushed up against barricades to document the moment. Some were trying for good shots of their children, handpicked to show the first lady activities including making rainbows in jars and creating decorative fish from plastic jewels and CDs. Retired military people came and active duty ones too.

Of course they were handpicked. Can't have any of those nasty kids of liberal parents getting close to the First Hostage.

I wonder if Melania felt at home here in our frigid little state?

After all this is a state fairly bulging with sexual abuse victims, and she is married to most famous abuser on the planet.

P.S. By the way I think the reason I did not know this earlier, is that our local news has turned to shit and I have been boycotting it for several years now.

In his desperate need to undo everything that Obama accomplished Donald Trump even wanted to change the name of North America's highest mountain, which happens to be in Alaska.

This was from a story in Alaska Dispatch published two ago about Senator Dan Sullivan's appearance at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention.

During that appearance Sullivan shared this anecdote:  

He described an hour-plus meeting that he and Sen. Lisa Murkowski had a few months back with Trump and Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke in the Oval Office. 

"We had maps and we were talking all about Alaska issues. So many issues. Our fisheries. Whaling, the culture of whaling in Alaska. The economy. The military," Sullivan said. 

They brought up Obama administration actions that they said hurt Alaska, such as a block on the King Cove-Cold Bay road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Sullivan said. 

On each one, Trump asked Zinke: "Can we change that and help Alaska?" 

Trump thought of one on his own. Wasn't the name of a big mountain in Alaska changed by executive order? he asked, referring to Denali, the former Mount McKinley named for the president from Ohio. 

"Lisa — Sen. Murkowski — and I jumped over the desk. We said no, no!" said Sullivan, who is originally from Ohio. 

Why? Trump asked. 

"The Alaska Native people named that mountain over 10,000 years ago," Sullivan said he told him. "Denali, that was the name."

Not that we needed it, but this is just more proof that Trump's presidency is almost exclusively defined by his desire to undo every single thing that President Obama accomplished during his eight years in office.

By  the way you can bet big money that if Murkowski and Sullivan had not seen their political future pass before their eyes at the prospect of being blamed for the renaming of Denali, that Trump would already have written that executive order and christened it "Trump Mountain."

Alaska Dispatch files for bankruptcy and falls into teabagger hands, essentially at the same time.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Alaska's largest newspaper filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Saturday evening and new owners — an Alaska family that made its fortune hauling freight and tourists on the Yukon River and its tributaries, and a company that owns rural newspapers in the state — have been lined up. 

In a prepared statement Saturday, Alaska Dispatch News LLC owner Alice Rogoff, who also has served as publisher, said it was a "truly bittersweet" moment for her, though she is relieved the newspaper will live on under new ownership. Her four-paragraph prepared statement didn't name the new owners, though the group interested in buying the paper issued a statement Saturday. 

"We've worked hard to help illuminate the issues of our day and provide a platform for points of view from across Alaska," Rogoff said Saturday. "Yet like newspapers everywhere, the struggle to make ends meet financially eventually caught up with us. I simply ran out of my ability to subsidize this great news product. Financial realities can't be wished away."

I have not really been paying a whole lot of attention to the Dispatch these days so I have mixed feelings about this.

What I am not so mixed about is who the paper is being sold to.

The potential buyers, working together, are a company composed of siblings Ryan Binkley, Wade Binkley, James Binkley and Kai Binkley Sims, as well as Alaska Media LLC, which owns three rural Alaska newspapers. The group is led by Ryan Binkley and Alaska Media owner Jason Evans, according to a statement the group issued Saturday. Former Anchorage Daily News publisher Jerry Grilly, who retired as president and CEO of the Denver Post in 2012, is a consultant to the group, Ryan Binkley said.

These Binkley siblings are the children of former state senator John Binkley, a hard core teabagger who ran interference for Sarah Palin during the Troopergate fiasco.

Okay so people will likely say that just because the dad is a Right Wing douchebag does not mean that the kids have the same political outlook.

Sure, but this buy out is costing millions, and I am fairly certain that big daddy still controls the purse strings. Especially for s purchase this large.

Add to that the fact that Papa Binkley is seriously talking about running for governor of Alaska, and suddenly this seems like a Trumpian move to establish a propaganda outlet for Right Wing views and positive coverage of a preferred candidate.

Or hey, maybe I'm wrong and this is completely on the up and up.

(P.S. I'm not wrong.)

Donald Trump's attacks on Lisa Murkowski have failed, making her a political hero instead.

Murkowski being welcomed back to Alaska. https://t.co/cXYawEtZW5 pic.twitter.com/9WcfwfeLYP

— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 30, 2017

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

If there's anything Alaskans don't like, it's having Alaska threatened by Washington, D.C. That's why Sen. Lisa Murkowski came out of this historic political week with unique new stature and why Sen. Dan Sullivan hurt himself badly. 

On Wednesday, Sullivan told an Alaska Dispatch News reporter that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had delivered a threat against Alaska energy development if Murkowski wouldn't reverse her opposition to the Republicans' repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Sullivan was the third link in a chain of incredible political ineptitude leading from President Donald Trump through Zinke.

Sullivan not only revealed the threat — really dumb — but seemed to take it seriously and, if media reports are accurate, pushed Murkowski to capitulate. 

I have no doubt Murkowski was as furious as has been reported. But she didn't blab. She simply froze Interior nominations at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee she chairs — the committee that oversees Zinke's department.

Murkowski came out looking like a steel-spined hero, bucking Washington threats against Alaska to do what was right. I suspect even her conservative Alaska critics got a tingle from the spectacle, if they aren't Republican Central Committee members. 

Sullivan came out looking like a pipsqueak.

This is how one Republican consultant described the idea of attacking Lisa Murkowski and the people of Alaska:  

“Let me tell you what little bit I know about Alaska and Lisa. When you go to attack those people, you better take two sandwiches because she’ll eat the first one for lunch and maybe give you the second one back.”

That is essentially what I said right after Trump's Interior Secretary delivered his ham handed threat:  

If Donald Trump thinks that he can make Alaskans turn on one of their own by threatening our economy he has another think coming. 

We may not all agree with each other politically, but if an out of stater attacks one of our own, they are going to witness a circling of the wagons like they have never seen before. 

We live in one of the harshest climates on the planet, and are constantly surrounded by predators that will kill us just as soon as look at us, so if that corpulent orange POS thinks that Alaskans cave to threats than he knows nothing about us as a people.

I stand by that.

All that Trump has done is ensure that Lisa Murkowski remains a Senator for Alaska until she, on her own, decides that she no longer wants the job.

Back in 2010 when Murkowski won a write in vote and defeated both the Republican and Democratic candidates I said that she would be almost impossible to defeat in the next election cycle.

The only thing I would change about that statement is to remove the word "almost."

The one characteristic that Alaskans prize above all others is toughness.

Lisa Murkowski stood up against virtually the entire Republican party and a president who is well know for bullying and abusing women.

That is the kind of powerful image that you cannot buy, and the kind of image that intimidates political challengers and energizes voters.

On the other hand, when it comes to Dan Sullivan I do believe I smell blood in the water.

In response to Lisa Murkowski's no vote on Trumpcare, the Administration threatens Alaska. Update!

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

Early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to express displeasure with Murkowski's vote. By that afternoon, each of Alaska's two Republican senators had received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy. 

The response follows Trump's no-holds-barred style of governing, even when it comes to his own party. It is his first strike of retaliation against Murkowski, however, despite her tendency to stray from the party line and the president's priorities. 

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a "troubling message." 

"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," Sullivan said. 

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear," Sullivan said. The Interior secretary also contacted Murkowski, he said.

Oh you fucking stepped in it now.

If Donald Trump thinks that he can make Alaskans turn on one of their own by threatening our economy he has another think coming.

We may not all agree with each other politically, but if an out of stater attacks one of our own, they are going to witness a circling of the wagons like they have never seen before.

We live in one of the harshest climates on the planet, and are constantly surrounded by predators that will kill us just as soon as look at us, so if that corpulent orange POS thinks that Alaskans cave to threats than he knows nothing about us as a people.

And by the way if Lisa Murkowski's no vote on Trumpcare keeps his administration from inflicting their economic plans on us, I might even erect a statue to her in my backyard.

The very LAST thing I want is for the guy who has almost as even more bankruptcies than ex-wives, to "help" Alaska economically.

Yes, yes I know, Lisa Murkowski is a political animal who probably made her decions based on careful political calculations, but at least she is actually one of us.

Dan Sullivan on the other hand is a carpetbagger bought and paid for by the Koch brothers who does not give a shit about Alaskans, and is only interested in furthering his own career and lining his own pockets.

So of COURSE he is going to vote along with Donald Trump and support Donald Trump policies.

Look if we get a good Democrat to run against her I will likely vote against her in the next election cycle, but if I have to choose sides between my Senator and that shitgibbon in the White House, I will stand with Lisa Murkowski every time.

Update: Lisa retaliates.

DELAYED: Hearing to confirm a series of nominees to Zinke's Interior. Murkowski also controls Interior $$ via approps subcom chair

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) July 27, 2017

Interior nomination hearing delayed "due to uncertainty of the Senate schedule," per committee spokesperson #Murkowski

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) July 27, 2017

Have to remember that Lisa Murkowski learned at the feet of her father Frank, and a guy named Ted Stevens.

I was not a fan of either one, but when it came to playing political hardball those guys had very few equals.
 

Holy crap! Now they're coming right into our houses!

Sure, he looks adorable. But then all of the screaming and flesh tearing starts.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Eleven-year-old Zach Landis will never forget the sound of a black bear bursting through the double-paned window of his bedroom late Monday.Zach said he shot upright when he woke to the crash. He saw a figure the size of a grown man in his room. In the darkness and clamor, he struggled to make out what was near the foot of his bed. He watched it scratch at the walls and climb back through the window from which it entered before he could let out a scream and figure out what he had just witnessed — a bear crashing in and out of his garden-level bedroom. 

The boy ran so fast from his room that he slipped twice on his way upstairs. His parents, Alisa and Jon Landis, were asleep when their alarmed son woke them. 

"I said, 'Mom, Dad, there's a bear in my room,' " Zach recalled.

"My first reaction was, 'You must be having a bad dream,' " said his mother. The story seemed implausible.

Well in fact it was plausible, a black bear DID in fact perpetrate a home invasion into Zach's room.

Now there have been a few stories like this up here in Alaska over the years, though they are quite rare, but this one comes on the heels of two bear fatalities, and a number of attacks.

And this is especially concerning since the Landis family lives literally just up the road from my house, and guess who has a sliding glass door leading to the backyard from their bedroom. 

Now look I have started taking all of the appropriate precautions when hiking in the national park near my house.

I walk on open, well traveled trails only.

I make sure to hike with a partner.

I make lots of noise while hiking.

And I keep an eye out for any sign of bear activity near the trails.

However I am in no way prepared for a bear actually jumping through my window in the middle of the night.

I mean sure I do have a samurai sward near the bed, but somehow I do not feel that is adequate.

So I think we should establish some damn rules with our ursine neighbors.

I will not get between you and your cubs, or disturb you while you are eating a tourist, if you will stay the hell out of our bedrooms at night.

Seems fair, don't you think? 

First bear fatality of the year in Anchorage. Let's hope it's also the last.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

A 16-year-old runner in a Bird Ridge mountain race was killed by a black bear he apparently encountered while descending the trail Sunday, Alaska State Troopers and the race director said. 

A Chugach State Park ranger shot the bear in the face, but it ran away. Rangers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game were still looking for the animal Sunday night on the slopeduring overlooking Turnagain Arm southeast of Anchorage. 

The teenager, who has not been identified, was a participant in the juniors division of the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb, said race director Brad Precosky. The close-knit Alaska mountain running community is in shock at the fatal mauling, he said. 

"This is the worst thing that could happen," he said.

I feel so bad for this young man, that is a terrible way to go.

And I feel just as bad for his parents, this must have just devastated them.

As Alaskans we learn to coexist with our ursine neighbors, but we also learn to take great precautions to keep ourselves safe if ever we encounter one.

This young man was alone and unprepared which made him especially vulnerable.

I would urge all of my fellow Alaskans to walk the trails in groups, make plenty of noise, and perhaps even carry a can of bear spray just as a little added precaution.

Fortunately my handful of bear encounters have been relatively peaceful, but I still remember the feeling of spine tingling fear that accompanied each of them.

I have taken to hiking early in the morning up around Glen Alps, and though I have not seen a bear there in over twenty years, I am still constantly on alert.

I think now for my next hikes that will shift to high alert.

Alaska now has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Gee, lucky us.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

Alaska's unemployment rate is now the highest in the country. 

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May was 6.7 percent, according to preliminary numbers from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. 

That's up just slightly from April's 6.6 percent. Nationally, the unemployment rate last month was 4.3 percent, a 16-year low. 

Alaska came in at No. 51 after all other states and the District of Columbia, according to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Jesus we're not even just in 50th place, we are at 51st place after DC.

I imagine if we suddenly decided to make Puerto Rico a state that we would then slip to 52nd.

The article goes on to explain that due to the seasonal nature of much of the work up here, that our unemployment numbers are always high and hard to calculate, but I would argue that there is definitely something different happening up here right now.

My job is typically recession proof and pretty stable, but lately even I have had to deal with a lack of supports and services that I rely on to do my job effectively.

There is very little in the way of negotiating power for employees and all over the state folks are seeing overtime and benefits cut from businesses that have always been seen as great places to work.

This may in part be due to the oil money drying up, or simply due to too many years of Republican control, but right now things are getting tight.

In other words if you were thinking that now is the time to move to the Last Frontier, I would suggest you put those plans on the back burner.

In May eight people learned the hard way that Alaskan moose are dangerous.

Big nope right here.

Courtesy of ADN: 

A moose attack in an Eagle River neighborhood, which sent a woman to the hospital with serious injuries, was just one of eight run-ins with Anchorage's most visible urban animal resulting in injuries in May, officials said. 

The woman was either jogging with or walking her dogs in the Eaglewood subdivision on May 22 when she got too close to a cow moose and its two calves, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Dave Battle. 

"She didn't have time. … The moose attacked her, and came back twice, which is why she was injured so badly," said Eaglewood operations manager Mark McAllister. 

Anecdotally, eight moose encounters resulting in injuries is a lot, said Fish and Game public information officer Ken Marsh. There may have been more encounters, but many go unreported, as is often the case with wildlife incidents, Marsh said.

Eight does seem a little high, though aggressive moose encounters are certainly not rare in Anchorage. 

I have lived here for 57 years, and thankfully my few run ins with our giant ungulates have been relatively minor.

I was once chased back to my car after accidentally walking through an open gate which panicked the ungodly large bull moose chewing on leaves from a tree in back yard and sent it hurtling in my direction with antlers set on "skewer."

Another close call was during my paper route days when I accidentally hit a newborn calf with a carelessly tossed rolled up newspaper while distracted by its large and intimidating mother.

Fortunately she accepted my profuse apology which was delivered in hushed tones as I slowly backed away from the yard.

There have been a few others on bike trails, hiking trips, and once even on horseback, but they were less urine inducing, and not really worth mentioning.

However in Anchorage there have been some really unfortunate encounters, some quite fatal, which should serve to remind us all that just because they appear tame and even check both ways before crossing the highway, does NOT mean they are even remotely domesticated. 

The Republican health care bill would hurt Alaska more than any other state. Of course it would.

Courtesy of ADN:  

Rep. Don Young voted for a one-size-fits-all health care bill last week that would harm Alaska more than any other state. 

The bill contains much smaller tax credits than the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and makes no geographic allowance for high-cost states like Alaska. 

The increase in Alaska would be $12,599 for average out-of-pocket health care costs in the individual health care market, an analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said. 

"Alaska policymakers would likely see waiving protections for people with pre-existing conditions as their only option to stabilize Alaska's market, even though it would put coverage even further out of reach for Alaskans who have the most serious health needs, who could face premium surcharges of tens of thousands of dollars," wrote senior fellow Aviva Aron-Dine of the research institute.

Of course our one and only Congressman, Don Young, voted for the House bill.

However he assures his constituents that they should not worry because the Senate version will be much better. 

Which makes one wonder why, if he knew the House bill was so flawed, did he vote for it?

Young has already let it be known that he is running again in 2018 despite being older than dirt.

And there is, unfortunately, a strong chance that he will win again.

Because yes, Alaskans are indeed THAT stupid.

Donald Trump signs executive order to expand drilling in the Arctic. Because saving the planet is for pussies.

MOMENTS AGO: @POTUS signs executive order to review offshore oil and gas exploration locations. pic.twitter.com/VNPDEyL01K

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 28, 2017

Courtesy of ADN: 

Surrounded by members of Alaska's congressional delegation, President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that directs the Interior Department to rethink some of President Barack Obama's regulations and decrees that put large swaths of the Arctic Ocean off limits to oil drilling. 

The order requires Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review previously issued five-year development plans for offshore oil and natural gas leases and regulations governing oil, gas and renewable energy leasing in waters of the Arctic and Atlantic. 

The new move holds potentially big changes for Alaska: reopening the option of future Arctic Ocean drilling, a reversal of the Obama-era approach that sought to limit and eventually ban offshore drilling there. 

The executive order only outright rescinds one of Obama's orders, pertaining to the Bering Sea, issued on December 9, 2016. Actions related to the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas from 2015 and 2016 are modified, rather than rescinded, confirming status as a marine sanctuary, but not barring leasing and drilling. In all cases, the Interior Department will have to rework its five-year plan for oil and gas leasing — an effort that will take up to two years. The Interior Department will also review oil and gas regulations for offshore drilling, though the outcome is undetermined.

Oh I think the outcome is clearly determined and that we know the review is just a formality and that the Republicans will start raping the Alaska coastline just as soon as their drill bit Viagra kicks in.

Along with pen recipient Lisa Murkowski you can also see Rep. Don Young skulking in the background. 

I am not sure why Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan was not included, because if Alaska Republicans can agree on anything it is that drilling giant holes all over the state is job one.

I swear the more executive orders this tangerine colored shitgibbon signs that more desperately I miss President Obama.

Obama tried so very hard to protect us, this planet, and our future. And it seems with every stroke of the pen this POS brings us that much closer to disaster.

Woman sues due to injury suffered while filming fake reality scenes for Alaska reality show.

Courtesy of ADN:

Susan Aikens, who stars in the reality television show "Life Below Zero," has sued the series producers, alleging she was injured while being forced to film dangerous scenes for fictitious narratives. 

Aikens' grievances largely center on a producer who she alleges was verbally abusive and intimidated her and other crew members. 

The producer demanded Aikens drive her snowmachine into overflow, according to a civil complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. She was badly hurt in a crash and then made to wait for medical treatment so desirable footage could be captured, the complaint says. 

The 32-page lawsuit lists multiple defendants including the BBC and three of its subsidiaries, producer Aaron Mellman, and unnamed crew members. It alleges the defendants breached a contract, interfered with Aikens' business and intentionally caused her emotional distress.

Years ago my daughter, who worked on some of these shows, clued me into to just how fake they all are. 

In her words literally EVERYTHING that happens is scripted, including fights, love affairs, and yes dangerous incidents.

I think this lawsuit is great in that perhaps it will pull back the veil and allowing potential viewers see that it's all bullshit.

Having worked their magic in getting Lisa Murkowski to vote no against Trump's Education Secretary appointee, Alaskans turn their attention to Senator Dan Sullivan.

Courtesy of ADN:

Alaskans who spent weeks lobbying Sen. Lisa Murkowski to oppose Betsy Devos' nomination for U.S. education secretary are now turning their attention to the state's junior senator, Dan Sullivan.

But they'll have their work cut out for them. Sullivan, R-Alaska, has made it clear he intends to vote to confirm DeVos. 

Unless one more senator strays across the aisle in either direction, Vice President Mike Pence will be left to cast a tie-breaking vote. It is a situation without precedent. 

And so Alaskans who last week flooded Murkowski's phone lines and inboxes and who showed up at her offices are hoping they can talk Sullivan into switching his vote over the weekend.

I have to admit that I have become pretty jaded by Alaskan politics over the years, and would typically think that everybody was wasting their time in pressuring Sullivan to change his vote.

After all he sold his soul to the Koch brothers long ago. 

But that was before I saw thousands of Alaskan women protesting in the middle of a snowstorm and then inundating Lisa Murkowski's office with phone calls and e-mails until she yelled "no mas" and finally did the right thing.

Sullivan is definitely a harder sell, but if I have learned anything it is to NEVER underestimate the power of a bunch of female protesters wearing pussy hats.

Sullivan's contact number in Washington is (202)-224-3004.

The one in Anchorage is  (907) 271-5915.

And you can find several more by clicking here.

You can also e-mail him here.

Remember it is always better to have tried and failed, then to never have tried at all.

Alaska's tax revenues for Marijuana growers in December reaches $145,000. Up from $81,000 in November.

Courtesy of ADN: 

The second full month of marijuana tax revenue has entered the state treasury. 

In December, 13 marijuana cultivators paid $145,800 to the Alaska Department of Revenue's Tax Division, revenue audit supervisor Kelly Mazzei wrote Tuesday. 

Under Alaska law, growers pay the state's tax. Bud is taxed at $50 per ounce, and other parts of the plant, like the stems and leaves, are taxed at $15 per ounce. 

A total of 167 pounds of marijuana bud and 46 pounds of other parts were sold in December, Mazzei wrote.

You may remember that back in November I reported that Alaska had collected $81,100 in tax revenue from the growers.

So this is a significant increase and a real indication that the marijuana industry is likely to inject some serious money into the rapidly emptying Alaska state coffers.

As I have explained before there is no way it will replace the dwindling oil tax revenue, but at least it is something. 

Alaska collects its first pot tax.

Courtesy of ADN: 

The state of Alaska has received its batch of cannabis tax revenue from the first full month of retail marijuana sales. 

In November, seven marijuana cultivators paid $81,100 to the Alaska Department of Revenue's Tax Division, division director Ken Alper wrote in an email. 

About 98 pounds of marijuana bud and 10 pounds of trim — the leaves and stems — were sold wholesale, Alper wrote. Under Alaska law, cultivators pay the state's tax. Bud is taxed at $50 per ounce, and other parts of the plant, like the stems and leaves, are taxed at $15 per ounce. 

Most of the taxes were paid in cash, and a few were paid with check, Alper wrote.

$81,100 may seem like a fairly paltry sum at this point, but remember that is ONLY with five stores operating in the entire state, and not all of them were open the entire month of November.

There are now three more stores open, with one of them in Anchorage, so I would be willing to bet that the next time the state collects taxes it will be substantially larger. (Colorado brought in 70 million in one year alone.)

I of course don't think that marijuana will ever bring in the tax revenues provided by the oil companies, but at least it is a steady source of tax income that does not require ripping the shit out of the wilderness.

So there's that.

Among those who are hopeful about a Trump presidency, the folks behind the Pebble Mine.

Courtesy of ADN: 

The companies behind a decade-long effort to build a massive gold and copper mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region are hoping the new administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump will breath new life into their struggling efforts. 

Trump was adamant during his campaign that he would pull back government oversight for natural resource projects, limiting the scope of environmental regulations and slowdowns that stand in their way. His pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has been a staunch courtroom opponent of what he sees as federal overreach. 

So now, the company is "hopeful," said Mike Heatwole, vice president for public affairs with Pebble Limited Partnership, the company created to ferry the project through to its golden end.

I imagine this is how a lot of companies behind potentially environmentally hazardous projects.

The Pebble Mine, the Keystone Pipeline, drilling in ANWR, there is no telling the number of environmentally damaging programs the Trump administration might okay before they are replaced with a more intelligent and Eco-friendly administration.

In other words, a Democratic one.

A little good news for those of us living in Anchorage, it looks like our serial killer may have been neutralized.

On the left, sketch of the killer, on the right, James Earl Ritchie.

Courtesy of ADN: 

A gun used to shoot a police officer Saturday morning was the same weapon used in at least five homicides in the city so far this year, including two unsolved double homicides, Anchorage police said Tuesday. 

The Anchorage Police Department officer who was wounded, Arn Salao, was shot four times and underwent two surgeries after the confrontation, but was recovering and expected to survive. The suspect, 40-year-old James Dale Ritchie, was killed after Salao and Sgt. Marc Patzke — who arrived during the shootout — returned fire, police said. 

"We know from our investigation in the last 78 hours that the gun used to attempt to kill officer Salao was the same gun used in five other homicides here in Anchorage in 2016," APD Chief Chris Tolley said at a news conference Tuesday.

The police are not yet closing the investigation, as there are still a few threads to tie up, but it appears that Anchorage residents can relax a little. 

For now at least.