‘Setback’ for Alaska? Federal Court Blocks Logging in Largest National Forest

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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)

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Pro-Life Concerns About the Pending Expansion of Medicaid in Alaska [+video]

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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)

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Following in Obama’s Footsteps: Governor Using Exec Order to Impose Obamacare Expansion on Alaska

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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)

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Buoyed by Court Ruling Alaska Gay Rights Activists Turn to Schools

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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)

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Dad’s Flyover at Daughter’s Wedding Reception Ends in Tragedy

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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)

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Obama Plans Alaska Trip for Climate Change Conference

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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)

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Indian Country Coming to Alaska, May Reduce State Governance to Just 25% of Land Mass

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If Alaska’s governor Bill Walker refuses to challenge the recent U.S. District Court decision (Akiachak Native Community vs. DOI) to revoke the “Alaskan Exception” written into the Alaska Natives Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) would then be in a position to take back primary jurisdiction from the state on 40 million acres of Alaska Natives lands. This federal court decision could result in a direct loss of state sovereignty over 10% of Alaska. Add that to the 60%+ of the state already under federal DOI jurisdiction and the State would be reduced to primary jurisdiction on a checkerboard pattern of lands amounting to about 25%, a quarter of what was promised in the Alaska Statehood Act.

Settling aboriginal land claims in Alaska was suppose to be different from what happen in the continental U.S. during previous years of territorial expansion. If the judge’s decision in Akiachak Native Community vs. DOI is left to stand, it would gut ANCSA and create Indian country just like what is happening in the Western U.S. The court decision will allow Alaskan Native lands to be held in trust by the DOI.

Creating Indian Country in Alaska was not the intent of tribal leaders, leadership in the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), the Alaska State Administration, Alaska’s Congressional delegation, or the U.S. Congress when it passed ANCSA into law in 1971.

Changing fee title lands owned by tribes and individual natives into federal trust status could greatly compromise the State’s ability to manage and allocate its fish and game resources, protect the environment, tax, provide public services, ensure public safety, and enforce state alcoholic beverage control laws. Resource development on trust lands could be further complicated by federal regulations and tribes could control surface access to Native Regional corporation subsurface resources.

Alaskans’ ability to access public resources on federal public lands has been under attack by DOI land managers since the passage of the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act of 1980. Governor Bill Walker should not allow Alaska’s sovereign jurisdiction to be further diluted by a federal judge sitting in Washington, D.C. Why would Alaska’s governor not do everything he could to stop federal overreach onto 40 million acres of Alaska Native private lands? It’s clear that the DOI agenda is to preserve as much of Alaska in a wilderness status as it can get away with, and there are many examples of this over the last 35 years.

Alaska Native rights activists are causing imminent injury to Alaska by advocating for their own sovereign rights at the expense of the State’s jurisdiction to provide for the economic wellbeing of all Alaskans. Alaskans should say “enough is enough” and pressure Governor Bill Walker into defending Alaska’s jurisdiction by challenging the federal court’s decision to undermine federal law by allowing Indian Country to occur in Alaska.

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Alaska Seniors Squeezed to the Back of the Bus by Medicaid

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The University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) completed a study titled “Improving Health Care Access for Older Alaskans” in June 2010. This study was authored by Mark A. Foster and Rosyland Frazier. The report addresses the current status of access of Alaska seniors to health care and potential solutions to this access. It also describes the impact of Medicaid on Medicare seniors. This is especially important today due to the increased pressure on legislators to expand Medicaid to a new eligible population. Here is an excerpt to the report relevant to Medicaid (emphasis added):

“The Future”

The problem of limited access to primary care among older residents isn’t confined to Alaska, but it seems to be more acute for Alaskans, especially in the major metropolitan area of Anchorage (as we noted at the outset of this report). This issue is important in Alaska and nationwide not only for those already 65 or older but also for the many more who will be turning 65 as the huge generation of baby boomers ages into the Medicare system. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the number of Americans 65 and older will increase about 35% in the next decade, up from about 40 million to nearly 55 million. In Alaska, the growth is expected to be even more dramatic. The Alaska Department of Labor projects that the number of Alaskans over 65 will nearly double in just the next 10 years. And over time, the next generations of Alaskans and other Americans will also be reaching the age when they expect to use Medicare as their health insurance. Next we examine why access to primary care has become such a problem for so many Medicare beneficiaries . . .

Alaska primary-care doctors who decline to see new patients universally say Medicare doesn’t pay them enough; about two-thirds nationwide also cite inadequate payment. Many doctors in Alaska and elsewhere also cite the complexity of paperwork and fear of audits as important reasons for turning away new Medicare patients—but Alaska doctors are more likely to cite those reasons. And nearly half of primary-care doctors who don’t accept new Medicare patients in Alaska and elsewhere cite as another contributing reason the “high clinical burden” of older patients—that is, older patients tend to have multiple medical problems that are complex and time-consuming to treat. One sign that federal policymakers recognize Medicare may underpay for primary care is a provision in the new health-care reform law that offers a temporary (2011-2016) 10% bonus above standard Medicare rates to primary-care providers—doctors and others—who see Medicare patients.

Why is the Problem Worse in Alaska?

Why is the problem of primary-care doctors’ declining to see Medicare patients more common in Alaska, and particularly in Anchorage? Several things may contribute. All other major health insurers in Alaska pay doctors more for primary-care services than Medicare pays. That includes not only private insurance, but also Medicaid—the federal health insurance program for low-income Americans—and TRICARE, for military personnel and their families. If private insurance pays $1 for common office visits, Medicaid and TRICARE pay about 81 cents and Medicare pays 63 cents in 2009. The federal government sets Medicare payments, and Medicare pays the same nationwide, except for geographic cost differentials. Medicare has divided some states into more than one geographic area, but Alaska has only a single geographical differential statewide. Individual states have some discretion in setting payments for Medicaid because states pay part of the costs. Medicaid payments vary from state to state, depending on how much individual states are willing to spend. In Alaska, Medicaid pays doctors more than Medicare for primary care. In all other states except Wyoming, the opposite is true: Medicare currently pays better than Medicaid—at least as defined by the published reimbursement level for the same procedures.(32) Medicare pays twice as much in some states, and nationwide it pays on average 50% more than Medicaid for primary care (Figure 8). But that picture will change in the future: the new health-care reform law provides for increasing Medicaid payments for primary care to Medicare rates for 2013 and 2014, with the federal government funding the increases.

And although TRICARE payment rates for doctors are typically the same as Medicare rates, that’s not the case in Alaska in 2010. Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense has been paying Alaska doctors 35% more for treating TRICARE patients, in a temporary demonstration project to determine if the increase is enough to persuade more private doctors to see them. The demonstration project is currently set to run through early 2011(Read more from “Alaska Seniors Squeezed to the Back of the Bus by Medicaid” HERE)

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Watch: Kayaking Couple Have Extremely Close Encounter With Humpback Whales in Alaska

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This is the moment a couple encountered with a huge pod of humpback whales while kayaking in Alaska.

Dramatic headcam footage shows bubbles emerging in the water at Cape Resurrection as Jack Delaney, 22, and Kat Georgia, 27, are heard panicking off-camera.

Suddenly, a pod of humpback whales rises to the surface and Mr Delaney and Ms Georgia scream hysterically . . .

Speaking after their close encounter, Mr Delaney said: “At first I was excited and nervous. Then the bubbles started coming up more rapidly and I got scared and started freaking out. (Read more from “Kayaking Couple Have Extremely Close Encounter With Humpback Whales in Alaska” HERE)

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Plane in Deadly Alaska Crash Had Safety Technology, NTSB Says

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A sightseeing floatplane that crashed in a mountainous area in southeast Alaska, killing all nine people on board, was equipped with technology to provide detailed information about the terrain, according to a federal accident report released Tuesday.

The preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board also said the June 25 crash occurred in conditions of reduced visibility. However, it drew no conclusions about the cause of the crash.

The deHavilland DHC-3 Otter turboprop crashed on a steep cliff about 25 miles from Ketchikan, killing the pilot and eight cruise ship passengers. The excursion was sold through the cruise company Holland America and operated by Ketchikan-based Promech Air. (Read more from “Plane in Deadly Alaska Crash Had Safety Technology, NTSB Says” HERE)

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