Oceanographers are studying whether ‘climate change’ is contributing to an unprecedented bloom of toxic algae that spans the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada, raising health concerns and leading to multimillion-dollar income losses from closed fisheries.
The bloom, which emerged in May, stretches thousands of miles from the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and has surprised researchers by its size and composition.
“It’s just lurking there,” Vera Trainer, research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Washington state, told Reuters on Thursday. “It’s the longest lasting, highest toxicity and densest bloom that we’ve ever seen” . . .
The runaway bloom of pseudo-nitzschia algae is believed to have been spawned in part by unusually warm ocean water along the West Coast that scientists have dubbed “the blob” . . .
The algae bloom has produced a profusion of a chemical compound called domoic acid, which accumulates in shellfish, anchovies and sardines exposed to it, and acts as a neurotoxin on higher orders of marine life, such as sea lions and birds, that feed on them. (Read more from “Massive Toxic Algae Bloom Reaches From California to Alaska” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-07 03:40:392015-08-07 03:40:39Massive Toxic Algae Bloom Reaches From California to Alaska
The bear spray didn’t work to begin with and her ‘rescuers’ come back only armed with bear spray?! Get a gun. Seriously.
A terrified jogger was mauled by a grizzly bear after surprising it while out running with a co-worker near a popular beauty spot in Alaska.
Gabrielle Markel was pinned down by the adult brown bear which had stepped out of thick brush along a trail near Skilak Lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
The 20-year-old, an employee of a nearby backcountry lodge, tried to use pepper spray to ward the animal off – but suffered bites and scratches to her head, back and arm as the animal held her down.
Her friend, Kaitlyn Haley, 26, of California, escaped injury and ran for help.
(Read more from “CHEATING DEATH: Young Alaskan Jogger Barley Escapes Bear Attack After Fighting Back” HERE)
Last week, Alaska Governor Bill Walker announced that he will bypass the legislative process and implement Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion by executive fiat.
Walker’s announcement should be no surprise to Obamacare proponents – after all, President Obama has maltreated his executive authority dozens of times to amend his signature law. But expansion may come as a shock to Alaska’s legislative leadership, who last month brokered an informal arrangement with the governor to put Medicaid expansion on hold until 2016.
The press conference Walker held last week was heavy on promises, but light on specifics. To hear the Walker administration tell it, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion would be an economic elixir for a state budget hit hard by declining oil prices. It would help failing hospitals become whole again, a sentiment echoed by the long line of high-paid Alaska hospital CEOs brought in to praise the decision.
But Bill Walker is no magician and Medicaid expansion is far from magic.
Gov. Walker’s Obamacare Expansion Will Shrink Alaska’s Economy
Despite promises that Medicaid expansion will jumpstart the Alaskan economy, the governor’s Obamacare plan will actually discourage work and shrink the economy.
Much of the Walker administration’s rosy claims about Medicaid expansion and the economy come from an unyielding belief in the “multiplier effect.” In short, Walker believes that Medicaid expansion money is created out of thin air and every new dollar of government spending will create income for some people – in this case, hospitals and doctors who see Medicaid patients – and that income will be spent in local communities, generating jobs, sales tax revenue, and other economic activity.
But there is no magic pot of Obamacare money and the Walker administration is only looking at one side of the ledger. In fact, when the Congressional Budget Office looked at all aspects of Obamacare and its Medicaid expansion, it found that it would actually reduce economic growth.
Alaska’s Medicaid Expansion Will Discourage Work
Gov. Walker’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion will create a massive new tax cliff, where earning a single extra dollar means that Medicaid expansion enrollees could face hundreds or even thousands of dollars of extra costs if they try and move off the program.
That new welfare cliff is sure to depress employment. Peer-reviewed research of previous Medicaid expansions to able-bodied adults shows that expanding Medicaid will diminish work, dampen earnings, reduce labor-force participation and hurt the economy. Those conclusions are supported by the independent Congressional Budget Office, which confirms that Obamacare will cause millions of working-age adults to drop out of the labor force or reduce their hours, ultimately reducing economic output.
In Alaska, nearly 4,000 able-bodied adults could drop out of the labor force entirely, with many more reducing hours to avoid the welfare cliff.
Walker’s Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Will Cost More Than Promised
Alaska policymakers can also expect Gov. Walker’s Obamacare expansion to cost far more than projected.
First, the Walker administration appears to be greatly underestimating potential enrollment, masking the true cost to taxpayers. His administration is predicting just 20,000 able-bodied adults will sign up for Medicaid expansion next year, far below the 41,000 expected by the Lewin Group.
Worse yet, it’s even lower than enrollment projected by the Urban Institute, which has consistently underestimated Medicaid expansion enrollment in other states.
In Washington state, for example, actual enrollment was more than double what the Urban Institute projected.
On Sunday, the Associated Press released a damaging review of more than a dozen states that signed up for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. In those states, enrollment has surged way beyond projections and lawmakers warn that added costs could mean less money available for education, pensions and other critical services.
A separate analysis of 17 Medicaid expansion states found actual enrollment exceeded states’ official projections by an average of 91 percent in 2014.
Worse yet, enrollment also exceeded states’ maximum enrollment projections in all 17 states. In several states, enrollment even exceeded the entire projected eligible population. Given the assumptions in Gov. Walker’s cost estimates, Alaska budgeters can expect a similar fate.
Gov. Walker is also predicting far lower costs to actually cover able-bodied adults than other consultants or that experience would suggest reasonable. The Lewin Group, for example, predicted these adults would cost $9,708 to cover in 2016. But Gov. Walker is promising to cover them for just $7,250.
Walker’s estimates assume that the cost to cover childless adults under Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is similar to the cost of covering low-income parents currently in the Medicaid program. But just this month, the Obama Administration released a report showing that costs to cover these newly eligible adults are far more than expected.
This confirms earlier research commissioned by CMS, finding that childless adults under Medicaid expansion could cost up to 60 percent more than low-income parents in Medicaid today. Other Medicaid expansion states have underestimated coverage costs, and the results have proven disastrous.
Problem #1 for Walker: Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Is a New Program
Gov. Walker claims he can expand Medicaid under Obamacare because of a quirk in Alaska law. Walker claims that he can legally accept federal funds without legislative approval, but only if the federal funds are used for an existing program and if no additional state general funds are required.
In NFIB v. Sebelius, 26 states – including Alaska – argued that Obamacare was unduly coercive because it required states to either implement Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion or else lose all federal funding for the existing Medicaid program.
But, as the Supreme Court of the United States held in NFIB, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is not simply expansion of an existing program. It’s the creation of an entirely new program. The Court deliberately drew a bright line between the existing Medicaid program and the “new program” offered to the states under Obamacare. Unfortunately, Gov. Walker is ignoring this fact in his quest for unilateral Medicaid expansion.
Problem #2 for Walker: Alaska Will Likely Have to Spend More to Pay for Expansion
Gov. Walker claims that he won’t require general funds to expand Medicaid in 2016, because the federal government will cover the benefit costs of expansion and he can cover administrative costs by siphoning $1.6 million from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority.
But will $1.6 million really cover all of Alaska’s costs to administer Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion? It’s not likely.
Gov. Walker estimates that administrative costs will amount to just 2 percent of the total cost of Medicaid expansion, or roughly $158 per enrollee. Historically, administrative costs have averaged more than 8 percent in Alaska. According to Gov. Walker’s own Office of Management and Budget, taxpayers are spending $696 per enrollee on administrative costs for those on Medicaid today.
Gov. Walker appears to be deliberately underestimating Medicaid expansion enrollment, benefit costs, and administrative costs so he can bypass the legislature and unilaterally expand Medicaid.
There simply will not be enough money in Alaska’s Mental Health Trust Authority to pay for Medicaid expansion without going back to the legislature for more money.
Alaska’s Legislature Should Block Gov. Walker’s Unilateral Obamacare Expansion
State lawmakers already passed a budget that prohibited the governor from acting unilaterally. The legislature controls the power of the purse and legislators know that accepting Obamacare expansion today means spending cuts, higher taxes or even tapping into the Permanent Fund to pay for skyrocketing costs down the road.
The governor cannot and should not make this decision on his own. It’s time for lawmakers to remind Governor Walker that Alaska has more than one branch of government and stop him from abusing his executive authority with a unilateral Obamacare expansion.
Legislators were right to turn down Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Now they must prepare to do whatever it takes to block Gov. Walker from implementing a policy they rejected. (Re-posted with permission from the author, “Governor Bill Walker “Deliberately Lied” About Alaska’s Abortion-Funding Medicaid Expansion”, originally appeared HERE)
The Republican presidential candidate and celebrity plutocrat appeared Monday on The Palin Update, an actual all-Palin radio show that exists on something called Mama Grizzly Radio.
Host and apparent Palin obsessive Kevin Scholla asked the controversial future president whether he could see himself “picking up the phone, giving the governor [Palin] a call and picking her brain on some things, or perhaps having her along in some official capacity.”
Trump’s response: “I’d love that. Because she really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person, she’s really a special person and I think people know that.” (Read more from “Trump Would ‘Love’ Sarah Palin in His Cabinet and Here’s Why” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-03 02:38:112016-04-11 10:58:12Trump Would ‘Love’ Sarah Palin in His Cabinet and Here’s Why
A federal appeals court has locked down America’s largest national forest from logging, in a tight decision that reverses a Bush-era bid to open up the Alaska land and has state officials fuming.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in the 6-5 decision, on Wednesday lifted Tongass National Forest’s longstanding exemption from a 2001 federal mandate called the “Roadless Rule.” That rule prohibits road construction and timber harvesting across millions of acres of America’s national forests.
The George W. Bush administration gave a special exemption to the Tongass forest in 2003, but conservationists fought the move — and won.
Alaska officials, who had been hoping to use the land for limited timber harvesting and other projects, are weighing their options [but environmentalists are celebrating].
“Today’s decision is great news for the Tongass National Forest and for all of those who rely on its roadless areas,” Earthjustice official Tom Waldo in a statement. “The remaining wild and undeveloped parts of the Tongass are important fish and wildlife habitat and vital to residents and visitors alike for hunting, fishing, recreation, and tourism, the driving forces of the regional economy.” (Read more from “‘Setback’ for Alaska? Federal Court Blocks Logging in Largest National Forest” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-31 01:50:232016-04-11 10:58:18‘Setback’ for Alaska? Federal Court Blocks Logging in Largest National Forest
Last Thursday Alaska Governor Bill Walker announced that he would use his executive authority to expand Alaska’s state Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act. Walker’s proposal would extend Medicaid eligibility to all Alaskans earning less than 133 percent of the poverty line. Walker reported that he sent a letter to the Alaska legislature’s Budget and Audit Committee, giving legislators the required 45-day notice of his plan. The committee can make recommendations, but Walker said he has legal authority to move forward without the legislature’s approval.
This action by Governor Walker will likely prompt both a political and a legal battle. Earlier this summer, the Republican-controlled state legislature rejected Walker’s plan to expand Medicaid. They even included language in the state’s budget prohibiting any such move. However, opinions from both the Alaska Department of Law and from the legislature’s legal counsel declared that the effort to block Walker likely doesn’t adhere to the state’s constitution.
Additionally, Governor Walker has defended his decision. He stated that previous Alaska governors have used the same authority to accept money from sources outside the state’s general fund on seven prior occasions. Also, governors in other states, including Kentucky and Ohio, also have adopted the Medicaid expansion without new legislation.
Regardless, pro-lifers have strong grounds to oppose Medicaid expansion in Alaska. As I point out in a recently released Charlotte Lozier Institute policy analysis, Governor Walker’s proposal would place anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 women of childbearing age directly on to a Medicaid program which covers elective abortions. Alaska is one of 17 states that publicly fund abortions through their state Medicaid program. Additionally, over 40 percent of all abortions performed in Alaska are paid for by Medicaid. Putting more women of childbearing age onto a Medicaid plan which covers abortion – and funds a high percentage of abortion in Alaska — will almost certainly increase Alaska’s abortion rate.
Other implications of Medicaid expansion are of concern. Medicaid expansion would also induce some women who are on exchange plans which do not cover abortion to transfer to a Medicaid plan which does cover abortion. Finally, it would increase taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider and a provider of a significant number of abortions in Alaska. Overall, the Alaska state legislature should be commended for rejecting efforts to expand Medicaid this summer. Any efforts to delay or block Governor Walker’s proposal merits public support. (Published with permission from the author, “Pro-Life Concerns About the Pending Expansion of Medicaid in Alaska”, originally appeared HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-28 02:07:382016-04-11 10:58:26Pro-Life Concerns About the Pending Expansion of Medicaid in Alaska [+video]
Alaska is about to hop aboard the Obamacare expansion train even as it’s hurtling off the rails.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, has given 45 days’ notice to the Alaska Legislature that he will expand Medicaid under Obamacare with or without their support.
With Obamacare expansion enrollment far exceeding projections in other states, Alaska would be the 30th state to put working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities on Medicaid.
The program comes with a promise of new federal funding, but states will be on the hook for 5 percent of benefit costs by 2017 and 10 percent by 2020.
Obamacare expansion promotional materials from Walker’s administration emphasize the benefit of bringing new federal welfare dollars to the state. (Read more from “Alaska Governor Plans to Impose Obamacare Expansion on His State” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-25 03:53:352016-04-11 10:58:30Following in Obama’s Footsteps: Governor Using Exec Order to Impose Obamacare Expansion on Alaska
Fresh off the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring all states to issue same-sex marriage licenses, gay rights activists in Alaska and across the nation are pressuring legislators to pass measures mandating wider acceptance of the LGBTQ lifestyle and ideology in schools.
In a June 6 email to Alaskans, ACLU of Alaska Executive Director Joshua Decker praised the Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, but then noted that “the fight for full equality is not yet over.”
Decker claimed that due to harassment of homosexual and transgendered students, a nationwide law is needed to root out bullying in schools.
Decker encouraged Alaskans to write U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan urging them to vote in favor of the newly reintroduced Student Non-Discrimination ACT (SNDA) which mandates that schools recognize and affirm the “perceived sexual orientation” of students regardless of their biological sex. According to the law, students who feel that their perceived sexual orientation is not properly recognized and affirmed could request a judicial proceeding.
According to Decker, such a law is needed, in part, so that schools will allow students to use the restrooms of the sex they identify with regardless of their biology, and so that schools will let students take same-sex dates to prom.
“The battle for equality isn’t over yet, but we’re proud to fight for it with you,” Decker concluded his letter.
The growing push to impose legal penalties against individuals and groups that do not accept gender ideologies celebrating homosexual, bisexual and transgender expression has caught the attention of Pope Francis.
Earlier this year the pope lamented the growing use of tactics to force gender theory on individuals and governments that do not agree with homosexual and transgender theories of human sexuality.
Speaking in March on his voyage to Naples, Italy, Pope Francis spoke of the “ideological colonization” of families seen throughout Europe and the West.
Most recently, in his new encyclical teaching “Laudato si,” the pope noted: “The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.”
He added: “Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.” (Published with permission from the author, “Buoyed by Court Ruling Alaska Gay Rights Activists Turn to Schools”, originally appeared HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-24 03:07:202016-04-11 10:58:34Buoyed by Court Ruling Alaska Gay Rights Activists Turn to Schools
An Alaska man flying over his daughter’s weekend wedding reception died when the plane crashed after its landing gear struck trees, state police said.
The 54-year-old man’s Cessna 206 crashed on Sunday evening in Trapper Creek, about 120 miles north of Anchorage, the Troopers said in an incident report.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was en route to the crash site on Monday afternoon and had no further details, said regional supervisor Clint Johnson. (Read more from “Dad’s Flyover at Daughter’s Wedding Reception Ends in Tragedy” HERE)
The White House has confirmed that President Obama will travel to Alaska next month for a climate change meeting.
White House spokeswoman Hallie Ruvin in a statement says the president on Aug. 31 will visit Anchorage to address the State Department’s GLACIER conference.
She says foreign ministers from Arctic nations and key non-Arctic states will gather to discuss how climate change is reshaping the Arctic. (Read more from “Obama Plans Alaska Trip for Climate Change Conference” HERE)
Oceanographers are studying whether ‘climate change’ is contributing to an unprecedented bloom of toxic algae that spans the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada, raising health concerns and leading to multimillion-dollar income losses from closed fisheries.
