Video: Two Mature Bull Moose Fight it Out on Anchorage Urban Street

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After living, traveling, hunting and fishing in Alaska for over 18 years, I thought I’ve seen much of what the Last Frontier has to offer.

I’ve probably seen hundreds of moose near my home, in my yard and on the street, in Anchorage, Tok, and Fairbanks. And I hunt moose almost every year, hoping to provide my family with one of Alaska’s basic food groups. But I have never seen anything like this in town.

The following video, uploaded yesterday, shows two mature bull moose, fighting it out apparently on an Anchorage street. The video is amateur, but it does an excellent job in capturing the intensity of the fight.

Note the United States Postal Service vehicle waiting for the fight to end.

A Critical Interior Senate Race: Coghill vs. Thomas

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One of the most critical races in the state of Alaska is in Senate Seat A between incumbent Republican John Coghill, leader of the Senate Minority and incumbent Democrat Joe Thomas. What hangs in the balance is control of the state senate. Coghill has been an effective advocate for conservative social issues such as liberty, life, limited government, and school choice. In contrast, Joe Thomas has been an advocate of larger government (he voted for the creation of Senate Standing Committees last session), supported SB9 on compulsory public school attendance, has expressed his belief in government control from the cradle, and has consistently voted in a way that is adverse to virtually every issue important to real Alaskan conservatives.

This race is so important to the Bipartisan Working Group and the Democratic Party that Coghill is being outspent by negative ads. According to these, Joe Thomas claims to be the only “man with a plan.” The ads claim the bipartisan group is working and that we should stand up for these senators.

Curiously, Joe Thomas and the Bipartisan Working Group voted against the Amendment 1 sponsored by John Coghill. When the state senate finance committee cut funding for natural gas in the Interior from the state budget, Coghill came back with an additional amendment. Who fought the amendment for the Bipartisan Working Group? Sen. Joe Thomas led the fight, claiming that the Interior did not need the money. In the face of that, Sen. John Coghill pled for relief for the Interior. Nevertheless, Sen. Joe Thomas, Sen. Joe Paskvan, and the Bipartisan Working Group voted against the amendment.

The Bipartisan Working Group may be working for someone, but not the folks of House District 2. It is amazing that John Coghill, the state senator for North Pole and Valdez, appeals for residents in Fairbanks while the actual senators for Fairbanks oppose this legislation that would have led to accelerating the construction of a natural gas infrastructure and rate relief for Fairbanks residents.

Here are two videos that lay out stark differences between Coghill and Thomas, in their own words:

Opinion: Alaska Senate Coalition Responsible for Genocide

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Alaska’s lawmakers are getting ready to do it again. After every election, the House and Senate meet secretly behind closed doors and form an organization commonly referred to as the “Majority Coalition” or the “Bipartisan Working Group.” They meet privately despite the Open Meetings Act, a law written by these same legislators who apparently believe in following different rules while conveniently providing themselves an exemption to the law.

This coalition has power and influence over our legislature, an organization about which we should be deeply concerned. Once joining the group, our elected representatives no longer truly represents us. Instead, he or she is then subservient to the coalition, an unequal yoking contrary to biblical principles. They become compromised, which prevents them from following their convictions including being forced to support the state budget as a tool to fund abortion.

Legislators bound by the coalition are no longer free agents to end the atrocity of killing the unborn. And we as constituents are no longer represented by those we elect once they’ve become servants to their organization.

To those who claim they can resign the coalition anytime, I have two questions: First, why haven’t you? And second, if you truly are a free agent, what inspires you to vote for a budget that funds elective abortions, as ours has for the last decade, or that has been patently unsustainable for many years?

We need to hold those in office to task in adhering to the pro-life principles they campaign on. If we place power in the hands of our elected leaders who betray us by allowing innocent blood to be spilled through continued abortion funding, we’ve ignored God’s principles and we have blood on our hands. Ezekiel 23 discusses the sin of idolatry and how children were burned as sacrifices. I see no difference between children being sacrificed then and children dying today at the hands of abortionists.

If we as a people don’t stand up for unborn babies and demand that our legislators do the same, the abortion genocide will continue.

Alaska Supreme Court: State Government Workers Can Use Private Email Accounts

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Alaska state employees can use private email accounts for public business but the messages must be preserved under public-records laws, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled on Friday in a case stemming from ex-Governor Sarah Palin’s communications practices.

Palin is out of office but the ruling could affect her successor, Governor Sean Parnell, who is involved in his own controversy over public records. Critics have accused Parnell and his aides of using text messages rather than official emails to keep communications out of public view.

Electronic messages about state business are no different from paper communications under the Alaska Public Records Act, the Alaska Supreme Court said in its unanimous 16-page written decision that largely upheld a lower court ruling.

All paper or electronic messages regarding state business must be preserved and made available for public review, in accordance with state law, “and that duty cannot be extinguished by a public official’s unreviewable decision simply not to preserve them,” the court said.

A spokeswoman for Parnell said that his administration viewed the court’s ruling as “favorable.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaskan Files Suit Against Presidential Candidates, Cites Miller & Obama Senate Cases

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Photo credit: Mihai Bojin Citing case law in both California and Alaska, Anchorage Resident Thomas A. Lamb has filed suit in the Superior Court of Alaska for access to private records for both President Barack Obama and Republican Nominee Willard “Mitt” Romney.

Lamb believes that precedent created by a 2004 California case instigated by Obama insiders requiring Illinois US Senate candidate Jack Ryan’s divorce records to be made public, and a 2010 Alaska case requiring personnel files for Alaska US Senate Candidate Joe Miller to be released, constitute grounds for further public disclosure of private documents for both major party’s presidential candidates.

Alaska Dispatch columnist Craig Medred appears to share Lamb’s sentiment, stating in correspondence earlier this year that the ruling in the Miller case “set a meaningful legal precedent that hopefully will be uniformly applied to everyone from here on.” It is unclear why the Alaska Dispatch and other media outlets who relentlessly pursued confidential information in the Miller case lack a similar level of intellectual curiosity when it pertains to the President of the United States.

Judge Winston Burbank’s edict in the Fairbanks North Star Borough case that the there is a compelling public interest in the voters “right to know” will be used to test the limits of Alaska’s explicit Constitutional “right to privacy.” Lamb hopes to compel the disclosure of school records, personnel files, medical information, and tax returns.

The suit stems from a request submitted to both candidates for the information in question. To date, there is evidence that both campaigns received the records requests, but neither has been forthcoming with information.

The impetus behind the inquiry? Among other things, Lamb cites suggestions from Democrat US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Romney “manipulated” his tax returns, and the allegation that Barack Obama may have committed fraud by accessing financial assistance, purportedly as a foreign student. Sources for the claim against Obama include US and Indonesian law, the president’s own writings, and sworn affidavits.

If Lamb’s material claims are substantiated, it appears the president may have fraudulently received student aid from the federal government by making false claims about his legal status.

It is unlikely the case will get traction. But if it does, it is sure to draw national attention.

The Biggest Oil Industry Giveaway without a Guarantee

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Recent articles in local papers and community forums hosted by Alaska State Senators have promoted Great Bear Petroleum and their North Slope shale oil play as THE answer to stemming the decline in TAPS.

Beware. Great Bear, and the politicians who tout them as the silver bullet for declining production, are not telling the whole truth about Great Bear, their development plans and what it could cost the state of Alaska.

On February 28, 2011, Ed Duncan, President and CEO of Great Bear testified in a House Resources hearing in support of HB 110 – Governor Parnell’s bill to change ACES. Duncan repeatedly stated that in order for his shale oil play to be successful, a change in the tax structure was necessary. Duncan told legislators “Alaska has some fiscal terms that are suppressing the development of that great basin” and “Reduction of the production tax burden would improve Great Bear’s ultimate commercial outcome which would improve the probability of attracting critical capital investment to the state, to the plays and to the business.” In this same presentation, Duncan unveiled a development plan that called for 250 wells per year for 20 years, starting in 2013.

Fast forward to April 25th, 2012: Duncan came before the legislature again, this time the Senate Resources committee, to provide an update on Great Bear’s development plan. What a difference a year makes!

Duncan’s newest presentation called for UP TO 24 wells in 2013-2014 and projected UP TO 192 wells in 2015 and 2016. A far cry from the 250 wells per year for 20 years that was presented the year before.

In this presentation, Duncan also introduced a new strategy for making his project commercially viable – driving down the profits of local service companies and incentivizing people to move up from outside. Say what? The champions of local hire –Senators Paskvan, French and Wielechowski (who spent $150,000 on a study of Alaska Hiring practices on the North Slope) must have been shocked to hear such a strategy!

Apparently they weren’t listening- and continued to promote Great Bear’s development plan as the answer to declining production.

What Duncan and his supporters in the senate have failed to disclose is just how much money the state will give Great Bear for their exploration activities.

If Great Bear accomplishes what they have outlined in their development plans before the legislature- the state could pay them close to 1.2 billion dollars in tax credits. 1.2 billion dollars without a guarantee of production. 1.2 billion dollars pushed across the table with no production guarantee.

It appears that Senators like Paskvan, Wielechowski and French who advocate local hire, oppose HB 110 and demand guarantees in return for tax relief aren’t being intellectually honest.

It appears that Senators like Paskvan, Wielechowski and French are publicly opposing a “2 billion dollar giveaway with no guarantees” while quietly supporting and promoting a 1.2 billion dollar giveaway with no guarantees. A 1.2 billion dollar giveaway to a company who intends to drive down the profits of Alaskan companies and replace Alaskan workers with cheap outside labor. A 1.2 billion dollar giveaway to a company who reduces their development plan by 90% in one year.

A giveaway. No guarantee. No local hire. Beware.

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Jeff Landfield was a delegate to the 2008 Alaska Republican Convention and recently ran for office for the first time, running a close race against Senator McGuire in the 2012 Republican primary. He holds a BA in history with a minor in economics from the University of Alaska.

Alaska September Oil Output Jumps 30% as Maintenance Ends

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Alaska North Slope oil production rose 30 percent in September from the previous month as fields operated by BP Plc (BP/) and ConocoPhillips (COP) resumed production after annual maintenance ended.

Production averaged 516,296 barrels a day in September, up from 398,643 in August, the state’s tax division said on its website.

Production from Prudhoe Bay fields operated by BP rose to 271,444 barrels a day from 177,182 in August, when two fields, Milne Point and Northstar, and three Prudhoe Bay facilities were shut for maintenance during part of the month, said Dawn Patience, a BP spokeswoman in Anchorage.

“Operations are back to normal, and our maintenance season, which typically takes place in the summer because otherwise we are in arctic conditions, has wrapped up,” Patience said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaskan Scientist Galvanized ESA, Global Warming Movement to Polar Bear Drownings with Article that Used “Incomplete” and “Understated” Data

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Photo credit: USGS

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.

An Interior Department official said emails released by Charles Monnett were cited by a federal appeals court in decisions to vacate approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of an oil and gas company’s Arctic exploration plan.

The official, Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of BOEM, said in a memo that an inspector general’s investigation contained findings that Monnett had improperly disclosed internal government documents, which he said were later used against the agency in court. He also said the investigation made other findings in regards to Monnett’s conduct, but he wasn’t taking action on those. He would not specify those findings.

Cruickshank called Monnett’s “misconduct very serious,” and said any future misconduct may lead to more severe discipline, including removal from federal service.

Read more from this story, including the government’s conclusion that Monnett and his co-author had used an “incomplete database as their primary source of information to write the article, made conflicting statements to investigators regarding the writing and editing process and understated data in the manuscript,” HERE.

Alaskan Combat Military Veterans May No Longer Qualify For PFD, But Murkowski, Young & Begich Do

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In a unanimous decision yesterday, the Alaska Supreme Court determined that former-Alaska Attorney General Wayne Anthony Ross’s son, an Annapolis graduate and active-duty Marine, no longer qualifies for an Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. As a result, his minor children also lose their Permanent Fund Dividends.

This decision was reached even though there is no dispute that Lieutenant Colonel Brian Ross has been a life-long Alaskan resident. He was born and raised in Anchorage. After graduating from Service High School in Anchorage, he attended the United States Naval Academy.

Wayne Anthony Ross told Restoring Liberty that his son “graduated as the top Marine applicant of the Class of 1994. He served in Iraq three times. He always continued to maintain himself as an Alaskan resident, registering his cars, voting, keeping his Alaska driver’s license and hunting licenses here. He owns land and a lodge herein Alaska and has returned home almost every year. He intends to return home here after getting out of the Marine Corps.” Mr. Ross said that, in 2012, his son returned to Alaska three times.

Unfortunately for LTC Ross, who entered active duty in 1990, our ethically-challenged state legislature decided in 1998 that Alaskan residents who have been absent from the state for more than ten years should no longer qualify for an Alaska PFD. Exceptions were made for our royal congressional class (at the time Senator Murkowski, Senator Stevens, and Representative Young), their immediate families, and even their staff, but no exception was made for Alaskan military veterans deployed outside of the state.

Mr. Ross argued that this different approach for congressional members and their families was a violation of equal protection. Obviously, if the legislature is willing to permit Senators and our lone Representative to continue to collect the PFD even though their residences have been in the Beltway for far more than ten years, veterans deployed in the service of their country should have the same treatment.

The Alaska Supreme Court unanimously said “no.” This decision should come as no surprise given the fact that this same Supreme Court chose to ignore equal protection violations during the Miller-Murkowski senatorial race in 2010. There, our royal Senator received a hand count of her ballots while Mr. Miller’s vote result was established by a Diebold machine count even though it was an established fact that the Diebold machine count was inaccurate.

Our Supreme Court unanimously said that it did not matter that over 60% of all Alaskan votes (McAdams and Miller votes) were counted differently than Murkowski’s.

The Alaskan electorate needs to bring accountability to the Alaskan judiciary. And a tool to do that is available. It’s called the retention vote. Vote “No” this November.

Russia declares “ownership” of Arctic Ocean Region Adjacent to Alaska by Russian Orthodox Consecration

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Photo credit: NASA Goddard

Russia has taken a bizarre step to declare its “ownership” of the Arctic Ocean region by having a Russian Orthodox bishop “consecrate” the North Pole on behalf of the church.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a bishop named Iakov of the northern Naryan-Mar (which lies north of the Arctic Circle) placed a “holy memorial capsule” into the icy sea while aboard the Rossiya, a nuclear-powered icebreaker during a polar expedition arranged by Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

The capsule featured an inscription that read: “With the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the consecration of the North Pole marks 1,150 years of Russian Statehood.”

Moscow is keen to assert its domination of the Arctic, given the huge reserves of untapped oil and gas believed to reside in the region, and has also accelerated its remilitarization there. Reportedly, the Russian military’s MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft will be deployed in the Arctic region by the end of this year.

According to Bishop Iakov, the consecration is important to both the Orthodox Church and the Russian people for it “symbolizes the efforts of the state to recover the positions of Russia and confirmation of its achievements in the Arctic.”

Read more from this story HERE.